Following an incident at Toronto show this weekend, Jay Reatard has apparently quit making music. Yesterday the wild rocker posted a blog on his site that states:
"So after hundreds of message board post and and equal amount of blog post I have decided to quit music !!!! But fear not Stephen Pope is a god amongst men and will not let you dudes bring him down !! Solo gone solo ...."
If this is the case he will sorely be missed, but I expect to see his singles released by Matador as planned. Anyone know anything about this? Jay feel free to give me a call if this is true!
(Thanks Jersey Hipster)
UPDATE: Jay has squashed his own rumor with a comment on the blog in question! Phew! Guess I should read the comments before going all crazy like!
Jay Reatard - "Screaming Hand"
Movies:
Live Free or Die Hard; I have a confession to make - I am a huge fan of the summer blockbuster/action flick! I've seen practically every Will Smith film involving robots and aliens, I wait for sequels with joyous anticipation, I can discuss the nuances of comic book versus movie. It's just something I like and I know they aren't the most intelligent movies, but they are a shit load of fun. That said one of the great action trilogies of all-time had a fourth sequel added to its ranks last year and I wasn't sure about it. For years I have quoted Detective John McClaine, but something felt wrong about a fourth movie, especially once we learned the Mac kid would be starring along side Bruce Willis. But watching the movie on Saturday night I was blown away by what may have been the best of all the Die Hard sequels (the first is still the best). For special effects and action there is hardly anything that could have competed with this flick. Seriously, when was the last time you though a semi could take down a fighter jet let alone saw it happen on screen? Yeah, that's what I thought. Beyond the effects and action sequences though the movie had a well devised plot and was thankfully missing and German terrorists (the Cold War is still over!), but had a former government insider playing the villain instead. In this day of 9/11 conspiracies and hatred of the government it was the perfect villain, and it made for a compelling story line to go along with all the action. Some things were super predictable, like the fact that you knew his daughter would be taken hostage, but that's okay. We all understand that with movies like this there are going to be some formulaic plot twists and we expect them, wait for them and then see how they all play out. Any fan of action flicks will love this movie, it has everything that we look for and amazingly it did wonderful justice to the Die Hard name.
Creedance Clearwater Revival - "Fortunate Son"
Television:
The Office (Season 4, Episode 15); Since returning from the writer's strike The Office has been firing on all cylinders. It has had it's funny moments, it's completely awkward moments and it's endearing moments in each episode, continuing its reputation as one of the finest shows on television. This week was a bit of a lull though, but not much of one. Ryan returned to the office (note: I hate Ryan since he's becoming corporate) and Michael decides to go to New York to party with Ryan and try to meet a new suitorette. It was a pretty funny episode watching Ryan get all coked out in the clubs, watching Dwight hook up with a college basketball player (and a damn hot one), and watching Michael fail to grasp the whole club scene, but what was really hilarious were the folks back at the office putting in a hard night's work so they wouldn't have to come in on a Saturday and finding themselves locked inside the industrial park. It was amusing and had one of the funniest moments in Office history when Toby touches Pam's leg and gets caught. Instead of apologizing to Jim he announces that he's moving to Costa Rica and proceeds to jump the fence and run away. It was awkward, hysterical, and just down right amazing television. Lets hope they keep going in the right direction and that they never, ever bring back hour long episodes!
Wakey! Wakey! - "Cokehead"
30 Rock (Season 2, Episode 13); As good as The Office has been since the strike, 30 Rock has been even better. With each passing episode we are getting a look at the best show on TV right now. It is funnier then anything else out there, has better acting, is better written, it's just better then anything else on air right now. This week's episode was positively amazing, with everyone getting money hungry, and everyone failing at their attempted power grabs. Tracy is busy creating a porn video game (a brilliant idea if you ask me), while Jack and Liz are attempting to keep Geist going till he announces Jack as his successor. Between slaps and diabetic comas the duo fail in their power grab allowing GE to be turned over to Giest's practically retarded daughter while he tries to recover. It was hysterical and it provided one of the best quote in modern television history when Liz yells, "Suck it monkeys! I'm going corporate!". I'm still laughing every time I hear it, and I've already made it my myspace quote. Pure genius right there.
The Simpsons (Season 19, Episode 20); It's been a while since I caught one of the new episodes of The Simpsons but I'm pretty glad I caught this one. It wasn't mind blowing or Earth shattering, it was just a quality 30-minutes of television that I enjoyed thoroughly. Of course there were some fantastic lines, a few good shots of Ralph Wiggum and an amusing plot. All in all a solid Simpsons episode.
The Real World (Hollywood, Episodes 1 & 2); I will rail against reality television until I am blue in the face, yet for some reason I can still be drawn in to the original reality program the Real World. Now it's 900th season, the Real World started when I was a sucker and didn't know any better and a few too many weekends spent watching entire marathons of re-runs have led me to the point where if it's on I'll watch it. The new cast seems promising, and MTV has finally given up trying to hide the fact that these kids want to be stars by putting them in Hollywood. It all fits too well and should make for some compelling drama. My DVR is set for it and I'm sure I'll catch it from time to time, just don't judge me too harshly for this one.
Degrassi (Season 7, Episode 18); I've been bitching about the latest Degrassi episodes for a couple of weeks now and one of my chief complaints, the lack of original characters, was finally addressed this week. The episode centered around Emma (and her constatntly in turmoil family) and Tobey, who has practically been absent from the show this season. It was nice to have them back, but it was a little too forced and focused a little too squarely on the people surrounding them. Basically the halls of Degrassi have become too crowded for their own good and they need to start getting rid of this dead weight. I think some changes are coming down the pipeline (the news that the actress that plays Darcy has signed on for a 90210 spin off frightens me) and it all may start this week when Paige hooks up with their new-ish roommate. Should make for some "go there" moments which have been sorely missing for weeks.
Pink Floyd - "Another Brick in the Wall (Part I)"
Music Links:
- Get your free Coldplay download here. As if you didn't know that one already.
- Daytrotter did a session with some no name band called Death Cab for Cutie. Shitty name, way too long, they'll never get anywhere.
- Watch the GG Allin documentary on Pitchfork.tv, just be warned it is a vile piece of music history for sure.
- Old Pitchfork interviewed Boris (but haven't bestowed Best New Music on their awesome new album - yet.)
- Those Fork lovers also made Ruby Suns post a Guest List questionnaire on the internet Myspace style.
- NYCTapper announced a 1-year anniversary show featuring Pop Tart faves Bridges and Powerlines, The Lisps, and The Diggs.
- The Thermals did some Take Away Show, and all they got was a lousy t-shirt.
- L Magazine listed it's "8 NYC Bands You Need to Hear" and the list is headed by several of my favorite local acts including The Lisps, High Places, and Violens!
- The Fader went ahead and asked The Death Set some questions. No word on whether The Death Set asked for a lawyer to be present or not.
- Muzzle of Bees asked Cloud Cult five questions. Upon answering the band were allowed to cross the bridge and continue on their tour.
- Puddlegum pointed me towards the streaming of the new EP from The Twilight Sad. Check it out!
Sports:
- It looks like the Rangers season may be done in the second round of the playoffs for the second straight year. After a tremendous series dominating the Devils, the Rangers have been killed by the Penguins power play and terribly costly mistakes. If it is truly the end it's been a good year, but ultimately a disappointing one.
- How bad are the Yankees right now? Pretty bad.
Live Free or Die Hard; I have a confession to make - I am a huge fan of the summer blockbuster/action flick! I've seen practically every Will Smith film involving robots and aliens, I wait for sequels with joyous anticipation, I can discuss the nuances of comic book versus movie. It's just something I like and I know they aren't the most intelligent movies, but they are a shit load of fun. That said one of the great action trilogies of all-time had a fourth sequel added to its ranks last year and I wasn't sure about it. For years I have quoted Detective John McClaine, but something felt wrong about a fourth movie, especially once we learned the Mac kid would be starring along side Bruce Willis. But watching the movie on Saturday night I was blown away by what may have been the best of all the Die Hard sequels (the first is still the best). For special effects and action there is hardly anything that could have competed with this flick. Seriously, when was the last time you though a semi could take down a fighter jet let alone saw it happen on screen? Yeah, that's what I thought. Beyond the effects and action sequences though the movie had a well devised plot and was thankfully missing and German terrorists (the Cold War is still over!), but had a former government insider playing the villain instead. In this day of 9/11 conspiracies and hatred of the government it was the perfect villain, and it made for a compelling story line to go along with all the action. Some things were super predictable, like the fact that you knew his daughter would be taken hostage, but that's okay. We all understand that with movies like this there are going to be some formulaic plot twists and we expect them, wait for them and then see how they all play out. Any fan of action flicks will love this movie, it has everything that we look for and amazingly it did wonderful justice to the Die Hard name.Creedance Clearwater Revival - "Fortunate Son"
Television:
The Office (Season 4, Episode 15); Since returning from the writer's strike The Office has been firing on all cylinders. It has had it's funny moments, it's completely awkward moments and it's endearing moments in each episode, continuing its reputation as one of the finest shows on television. This week was a bit of a lull though, but not much of one. Ryan returned to the office (note: I hate Ryan since he's becoming corporate) and Michael decides to go to New York to party with Ryan and try to meet a new suitorette. It was a pretty funny episode watching Ryan get all coked out in the clubs, watching Dwight hook up with a college basketball player (and a damn hot one), and watching Michael fail to grasp the whole club scene, but what was really hilarious were the folks back at the office putting in a hard night's work so they wouldn't have to come in on a Saturday and finding themselves locked inside the industrial park. It was amusing and had one of the funniest moments in Office history when Toby touches Pam's leg and gets caught. Instead of apologizing to Jim he announces that he's moving to Costa Rica and proceeds to jump the fence and run away. It was awkward, hysterical, and just down right amazing television. Lets hope they keep going in the right direction and that they never, ever bring back hour long episodes!Wakey! Wakey! - "Cokehead"
30 Rock (Season 2, Episode 13); As good as The Office has been since the strike, 30 Rock has been even better. With each passing episode we are getting a look at the best show on TV right now. It is funnier then anything else out there, has better acting, is better written, it's just better then anything else on air right now. This week's episode was positively amazing, with everyone getting money hungry, and everyone failing at their attempted power grabs. Tracy is busy creating a porn video game (a brilliant idea if you ask me), while Jack and Liz are attempting to keep Geist going till he announces Jack as his successor. Between slaps and diabetic comas the duo fail in their power grab allowing GE to be turned over to Giest's practically retarded daughter while he tries to recover. It was hysterical and it provided one of the best quote in modern television history when Liz yells, "Suck it monkeys! I'm going corporate!". I'm still laughing every time I hear it, and I've already made it my myspace quote. Pure genius right there.
The Simpsons (Season 19, Episode 20); It's been a while since I caught one of the new episodes of The Simpsons but I'm pretty glad I caught this one. It wasn't mind blowing or Earth shattering, it was just a quality 30-minutes of television that I enjoyed thoroughly. Of course there were some fantastic lines, a few good shots of Ralph Wiggum and an amusing plot. All in all a solid Simpsons episode.
The Real World (Hollywood, Episodes 1 & 2); I will rail against reality television until I am blue in the face, yet for some reason I can still be drawn in to the original reality program the Real World. Now it's 900th season, the Real World started when I was a sucker and didn't know any better and a few too many weekends spent watching entire marathons of re-runs have led me to the point where if it's on I'll watch it. The new cast seems promising, and MTV has finally given up trying to hide the fact that these kids want to be stars by putting them in Hollywood. It all fits too well and should make for some compelling drama. My DVR is set for it and I'm sure I'll catch it from time to time, just don't judge me too harshly for this one.
Degrassi (Season 7, Episode 18); I've been bitching about the latest Degrassi episodes for a couple of weeks now and one of my chief complaints, the lack of original characters, was finally addressed this week. The episode centered around Emma (and her constatntly in turmoil family) and Tobey, who has practically been absent from the show this season. It was nice to have them back, but it was a little too forced and focused a little too squarely on the people surrounding them. Basically the halls of Degrassi have become too crowded for their own good and they need to start getting rid of this dead weight. I think some changes are coming down the pipeline (the news that the actress that plays Darcy has signed on for a 90210 spin off frightens me) and it all may start this week when Paige hooks up with their new-ish roommate. Should make for some "go there" moments which have been sorely missing for weeks.Pink Floyd - "Another Brick in the Wall (Part I)"
Music Links:
- Get your free Coldplay download here. As if you didn't know that one already.
- Daytrotter did a session with some no name band called Death Cab for Cutie. Shitty name, way too long, they'll never get anywhere.
- Watch the GG Allin documentary on Pitchfork.tv, just be warned it is a vile piece of music history for sure.
- Old Pitchfork interviewed Boris (but haven't bestowed Best New Music on their awesome new album - yet.)
- Those Fork lovers also made Ruby Suns post a Guest List questionnaire on the internet Myspace style.
- NYCTapper announced a 1-year anniversary show featuring Pop Tart faves Bridges and Powerlines, The Lisps, and The Diggs.
- The Thermals did some Take Away Show, and all they got was a lousy t-shirt.
- L Magazine listed it's "8 NYC Bands You Need to Hear" and the list is headed by several of my favorite local acts including The Lisps, High Places, and Violens!
- The Fader went ahead and asked The Death Set some questions. No word on whether The Death Set asked for a lawyer to be present or not.
- Muzzle of Bees asked Cloud Cult five questions. Upon answering the band were allowed to cross the bridge and continue on their tour.
- Puddlegum pointed me towards the streaming of the new EP from The Twilight Sad. Check it out!
Sports:
- It looks like the Rangers season may be done in the second round of the playoffs for the second straight year. After a tremendous series dominating the Devils, the Rangers have been killed by the Penguins power play and terribly costly mistakes. If it is truly the end it's been a good year, but ultimately a disappointing one.
- How bad are the Yankees right now? Pretty bad.
(Ed's Note: So I asked my girlfriend Rachael, the lovely author behind Underrated Magazine, to write a Blast from the Past for Pop Tarts and she has! Hope you enjoy!)
I was eleven years old when No Doubt released their third album Tragic Kingdom, that pivotal age where a young girl is trying to find her way in life, and looking to anyone and everyone for guidance. I remember turning on MTV one day and seeing a platinum blonde gal in a half shirt running back and forth from one room to the next, holding up her hand and singing "I've had it up to here." Sure, I was just entering my adolescence, but I mimicked Gwen, raising my own hand, because I, too, had had it up to here.
Today, my copy of Tragic Kingdom is almost destroyed. The CD was played on repeat for almost a year, and the insert torn apart from reading and performing the lyrics. Saturdays were spent with my door shut, the album blasting, and me pretending I could be the front woman of a cool band. The music felt different, upbeat but not poppy, rock but not scary. And for a young girl, it felt like I was entering a dangerous territory. In actuality, I was finding a true empowerment with seeing a woman taking control and standing up in front of a few boys. She was rocking out just as hard, if not harder, than them. I was in awe.
Listening to each song brings back such vivid memories. I remember my friends and I trying to figure out how we could change our parent's answering machine to have a recording of the chorus of "Spiderwebs." Or the time I came up with a music video for "Don't Speak" in which I held a picture of a boy and looked to the phone, hoping he'd call." I even made my mom listen to "Sunday Morning" as loud as she'd let me in the car so I could scream out the words along with Gwen.
Tragic Kingdom holds a great deal of sentimental value for me. It was the first album I really fell in love with, from start to finish. I grew up in the time of singles, and yet I wanted so badly to divulge as much music from a band as possible. No Doubt took some interesting turns as their career grew, but I still hold this album, and their previous efforts as an innovative creation of ska, new wave, pop and rock. They weren't afraid to wear their influences proudly, but broke into the mainstream with a sound, and especially a front person, that at that time, wasn't quite the norm. Given what kind of role models young girls have to look up to in our celebrity-driven world, I am sure glad that I had my gal Gwen to show me that being a girl was tough, but so were we.
No Doubt - "Excuse Me Mr."
No Doubt - "Just A Girl"
No Doubt - "Sixteen"
No Doubt - "Sunday Morning"
I was eleven years old when No Doubt released their third album Tragic Kingdom, that pivotal age where a young girl is trying to find her way in life, and looking to anyone and everyone for guidance. I remember turning on MTV one day and seeing a platinum blonde gal in a half shirt running back and forth from one room to the next, holding up her hand and singing "I've had it up to here." Sure, I was just entering my adolescence, but I mimicked Gwen, raising my own hand, because I, too, had had it up to here.Today, my copy of Tragic Kingdom is almost destroyed. The CD was played on repeat for almost a year, and the insert torn apart from reading and performing the lyrics. Saturdays were spent with my door shut, the album blasting, and me pretending I could be the front woman of a cool band. The music felt different, upbeat but not poppy, rock but not scary. And for a young girl, it felt like I was entering a dangerous territory. In actuality, I was finding a true empowerment with seeing a woman taking control and standing up in front of a few boys. She was rocking out just as hard, if not harder, than them. I was in awe.
Listening to each song brings back such vivid memories. I remember my friends and I trying to figure out how we could change our parent's answering machine to have a recording of the chorus of "Spiderwebs." Or the time I came up with a music video for "Don't Speak" in which I held a picture of a boy and looked to the phone, hoping he'd call." I even made my mom listen to "Sunday Morning" as loud as she'd let me in the car so I could scream out the words along with Gwen.
Tragic Kingdom holds a great deal of sentimental value for me. It was the first album I really fell in love with, from start to finish. I grew up in the time of singles, and yet I wanted so badly to divulge as much music from a band as possible. No Doubt took some interesting turns as their career grew, but I still hold this album, and their previous efforts as an innovative creation of ska, new wave, pop and rock. They weren't afraid to wear their influences proudly, but broke into the mainstream with a sound, and especially a front person, that at that time, wasn't quite the norm. Given what kind of role models young girls have to look up to in our celebrity-driven world, I am sure glad that I had my gal Gwen to show me that being a girl was tough, but so were we.
No Doubt - "Excuse Me Mr."
No Doubt - "Just A Girl"
No Doubt - "Sixteen"
No Doubt - "Sunday Morning"
Who: Tickley FeatherLocation: Philadelphia, PA
elbo.ws Ranking: ? (elbo.ws is down right now!)
Thoughts: When you're associated with Paw Tracks chances are good that you won't sound like a conventional music act. For the most part it has worked well for the Paw Tracks artists like Animal Collective, Black Dice and Ariel Pink, and the label seems like it's going to continue the winning streak with Tickley Feather. Based out of Philadelphia, Tickley Feather is a solo act that uses looped keyboard parts, drum machine beats and other synth sounds to create a really simple, lo-fi sound. It's like a female Panda Bear stripped down to the bare essentials. It's a cool sound though and when you add on Annie Sachs' lovely little voice it's even better. Sure there's nothing typical or conventional about it and it may scare away some listeners that don't like to experiment, but fans of any of the bands above should have no problem drifting away while listening Tickley Feather. Her self-titled debut is released today so head to your local record shop and pick yourself up a copy!
Verdict: Buzzworthy!!!
Listen: Tickley Feather - "Fancy Walking"
Tickley Feather - "Night Train"
It may seem like Boris' releases a new album every 12-seconds, but this is actually the first proper follow-up to the dynamic 2005 release Pink. Yeah I know. Since the release of Pink the band has been going non-stop with collaborations between them and Sunn O))), Merzbow, Michio Kurihara and practically anyone else in the Japanese metal arena. On top of that they've toured, released some 7", released some EP's and done a whole lot more I'm, but such is the way of life when you become the preeminent Japanese drone metal band in all the land! Now on the first studio full length in three years, Smile, Boris are making their music more accessible then ever before. But don't be confused and lulled into a false sense of calm, because Smile will still split ear drums in a second and make brains swim with the pounding metal of the trio. Throughout Smile the band take a small step away from the drone sound that has been their trademark for more then a decade. It's a big step, especially for fans of the band that have been listening carefully for so long. Instead of the consistent tide like waves of noise, Smile is a more straight forward, hard hitting metal album. It's furiously paced from the outset and it never pauses to take a breath. There's blistering metal riffs, insane drumming ripping like a machine gun throughout and, perhaps most surprising of all, vocals that you might be able to sing along with (so long as you know Japanese). It's nothing like they've ever done, yet it sounds like Boris in every way. Does that even make sense? If you listen I think it will in time.
As much as I've loved past Boris releases I'm really taking a liking to Smile. It's not as tough for a regular music lover to penetrate and it's not nearly as deafening. Sure it still hits hard the whole way through, but in more of a classic style.
Boris will never stop pushing the envelope and that's exactly what Smile manages to do. No it doesn't do it by expanding their already masterful use of drone sounds, it does it by throwing a total changeup at their fans. I think fans will respond by taking to the album really well, it may take a listen or two, but after that I see nothing standing in the way of falling for this album. Like I said before, it's like nothing they've ever done before, but it is totally Boris in every way.
Boris - "Message"
Boris - "Next Saturn"
Also Released Today:
Who: MudhoneyTitle: The Lucky Ones
Label: Sub Pop
Release Date: May 20th
Thoughts: Nearly 20-years since their self-titled debut, Mudhoney are still making noise their way and releasing it to welcoming ears. The music is still definitely grunge, but with this sudden garage rock revival we're going through it doesn't sound nearly as out of date as you might think it would be. There are some straight forward rocking riffs, some hard hitting drums, pretty much everything you'd expect from a grunge band except translated into the language of 2008. It's a bit odd to have these guys back with a new album, but considering it's a pretty damn good album I'm not gonna be complaining too much and I don't think you will either.
Listen: Mudhoney - "Next Time"
Mudhoney - "Running Out"
Who: Ellen AllienTitle: Sool
Label: Bpitch Control
Release Date: May 27th
Thoughts: With the true follow-up to her breakthrough Orchestra of Bubbles, Ellen Allien has completely changed her style and reverted to the bare bones minimalist artist she originally ame up as. There are still elements of the light and bouncy techno she gained momentum with, but Sool is a decidedly dark affair, with slow builds and quiet tempos that feel like blackness. It's an interesting change up from an artist that has been paving the way in techno for years, and maybe this change will lead to a wider change throughout the techno world - Lord knows she's had a hand in influencing the entire genre for years. I've only gone through the album a couple of times so far, so my opinions are still being formed, but I'm really enjoying the minimalist, dark approach found on Sool.
Listen: Ellen Allien - "Caress"
Ellen Allien - "Its"
Monday: Calvin Harris @ Bowery ballroom 7:30pm $15
I sort of enjoyed last year's release from Calvin Harris, it didn't quite melt my mind though and based on everyone else I assumed it was going to. So I think it suffered from high expectations, but I think I may give it another shot and see what he does live.
Calvin Harris - "The Girls"
Tuesday: South @ Mercury Lounge 9pm $15
South has been blowing the fuck up, getting coverage from everywhere about their new album except right here. I might have mentioned it once or twice but I haven't given it much exposure. What do you say we see what these guys are actually like tonight?
South - "Loosen Your Hold"
Wednesday: Megafaun @ Knitting Factory 8pm $7
I've only listened to some of their songs off the internet so far, but that's enough to sell me on this band. It is well worth the $7 for this show! You will have mega fun! Haha!
Megafaun - "Find Your Mark"
Thursday: I'm from Barcelona @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple 7:30pm $10
I was actually at Maxwell's on Friday night to see this band, but didn't make it through the extremely long sound check (I understand that it's tough getting everything set for a 29-member band, I was just sleepy). I might try again tonight though because this band is a shit load of fun live.
I'm from Barcelona - "Oversleeping"
Friday: Pop Tarts Suck Toasted + AWE Present @ The Cup 8pm $5
A couple weeks ago I kicked off my new series with AWE and here's our second show, this time in Staten Island. It's all ages so bring your kid sister or little brother, and be prepared for some absolutely insane punk rock!
Screaming Females - "Fun"
The Delay - "Burnout"
Saturday: The Acorn + Ola Podrida @ Union Hall 9:30pm $10
Two good bands, one small intimate setting. It should sound awfully good in the basement on Saturday night!
The Acorn - "Dents"
Ola Podrida - "Jordanna"
Sunday: Pelican + The Austerity Program @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 8pm $15
I know Sunday's are normally a day of rest but this lineup might get my ass moving over to North 6th! Two awesome, loud bands together one ear shattering bill! This could hurt oh so good!
Pelican - "Winds with Hands"
The Austerity Program - "Song 17B"
I sort of enjoyed last year's release from Calvin Harris, it didn't quite melt my mind though and based on everyone else I assumed it was going to. So I think it suffered from high expectations, but I think I may give it another shot and see what he does live.
Calvin Harris - "The Girls"
Tuesday: South @ Mercury Lounge 9pm $15
South has been blowing the fuck up, getting coverage from everywhere about their new album except right here. I might have mentioned it once or twice but I haven't given it much exposure. What do you say we see what these guys are actually like tonight?
South - "Loosen Your Hold"
Wednesday: Megafaun @ Knitting Factory 8pm $7
I've only listened to some of their songs off the internet so far, but that's enough to sell me on this band. It is well worth the $7 for this show! You will have mega fun! Haha!
Megafaun - "Find Your Mark"
Thursday: I'm from Barcelona @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple 7:30pm $10
I was actually at Maxwell's on Friday night to see this band, but didn't make it through the extremely long sound check (I understand that it's tough getting everything set for a 29-member band, I was just sleepy). I might try again tonight though because this band is a shit load of fun live.
I'm from Barcelona - "Oversleeping"
Friday: Pop Tarts Suck Toasted + AWE Present @ The Cup 8pm $5
A couple weeks ago I kicked off my new series with AWE and here's our second show, this time in Staten Island. It's all ages so bring your kid sister or little brother, and be prepared for some absolutely insane punk rock!
Screaming Females - "Fun"
The Delay - "Burnout"
Saturday: The Acorn + Ola Podrida @ Union Hall 9:30pm $10
Two good bands, one small intimate setting. It should sound awfully good in the basement on Saturday night!
The Acorn - "Dents"
Ola Podrida - "Jordanna"
Sunday: Pelican + The Austerity Program @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 8pm $15
I know Sunday's are normally a day of rest but this lineup might get my ass moving over to North 6th! Two awesome, loud bands together one ear shattering bill! This could hurt oh so good!
Pelican - "Winds with Hands"
The Austerity Program - "Song 17B"
Free Shows:
Thursday May 1st: Robyn @ Virgin Megastore
Robyn - "With Every Heartbeat"
Sunday May 4th: The Acorn @ Sound Fix Records
The Acorn - "Dents"
Tuesday May 13th: Duffy @ Virgin Megastore
Duffy - "Mercy"
Saturday May 17th: New York Times @ Sound Fix Records
New York Times - "Burn"
Cheap Shows: ($10 or less)
Thursday May 1st: I'm from Barcelona @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple
I'm from Barcelona - "Britney"
Friday May 2nd: We Are the Seahorses, Screaming Females, The Delay @ The Cup
Screaming Females - "Fun"
The Delay - "Burnout"
Saturday May 3rd: The Acorn + Ola Podrida @ Union Hall
Old Podrida - "Jordanna"
Monday May5th: Fuck Buttons + Pattern Is Movement @ Mercury Lounge
Fuck Buttons - "Ribs Out"
Pattern Is Movement - "Enjoy"
Friday May 9th: Fucked Up @ Knitting Factory
Fucked Up - "Crusades"
Saturday May 10th: The XYZ Affair + Jukebox the Ghost @ Mercury Lounge
The XYZ Affair - "All My Friends"
Jukebox the Ghost - "Fire in the Sky"
Tuesday May 13th: Filter @ Mercury Lounge
Filter - "Hey Man, Nice Shot"
Friday May 16th: Plants and Animals @ Mercury Lounge
Plants and Animals - "New Kind of Love"
Sunday May 17th: Blood on the Wall @ Mercury Lounge
Blood on the Wall - "Lightning Song"
Thursday May 22nd: Bear Hands @ Mercury Lounge
Bear Hands - "Long Lean Queen"
Sunday May 25th: Apparat @ Knitting Factory
Apparat - "Limelight"
Monday May 26th: White Williams @ Knitting Factory
White Williams - "New Violence"
Sunday May 31st: Ponytail @ Knitting Factory
Ponytail - "Start a Corporation"
Not So Cheap: (less then $20)
Sunday May 4th: Pelican + The Austerity Program @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Pelican - "Winds with Hands"
The Austerity Program - "Song 17B"
Tuesday May 6th: No Age + High Places @ Bowery Ballroom
No Age - "Eraser"
High Places - "Canary"
Thursday May 8th: Foals + Ruby Suns @ Union Hall
Foals - "Two Steps, Twice"
Ruby Suns - "Kenya Dig Out"
Sunday May 11th: British Sea Power @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
British Sea Power - "Waving Flags"
Wednesday May 14th: Bonde Do Role + The Death Set @ Europa
Bonde Do Role - "James Bonde"
The Death Set - "Had A Bird"
Thursday May 15th: Los Campesinos! @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Los Campesinos! - "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives"
Sunday May 18th: Black Kids @ Bowery Ballroom
Black Kids - "Hit the Heartbreaks"
Monday May 19th: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - "1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound"
Friday May 23rd: Subtle + Black Moth Super Rainbow @ Knitting Factory
Subtle - "The Crow"
Black Moth Super Rainbow - "Forever Heavy"
Saturday May 24th: Islands @ Webster Hall
Islands - "The Arm"
Tuesday May 27th: Sea Wolf + The Jealous Girlfriends @ Mercury Lounge
Sea Wolf - "Sea Monuments"
The Jealous Girlfriends - "Roboxulla"
Wednesday May 28th: Dark Meat @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Dark Meat - "Freedom Ritual"
Thursday May 29th: Headlights @ Union Hall
Headlights - "Cherry Tulips"
Friday May 30th: Apes & Androids @ Bowery Ballroom
Apes & Androids - "Hot Kathy"
Mad Expensive: (everything over $20)
Monday May 12th: Tegan & Sara @ Terminal 5
Tegan & Sara - "Nineteen"
Tuesday May 20th: Devotchka + Basia Bulat @ Terminal 5
Devothcka - "Undone"
Basia Bulat - "In the Night"
Wednesday May 21st: Les Savy Fav @ Highline Ballroom
Les Savy Fav - "In These Woods"
Saturday May 30th: The Raconteurs + Black Lips @ Terminal 5
The Raconteurs - "Consoler of the Lonely"
Black Lips - "Cold Hands"
Sold Out: (No luck for you or for me!)
Wednesday May 7th: Flight of the Conchords @ Town Hall
Flight of the Conchords - "Boom"
Robyn - "With Every Heartbeat"
The Acorn - "Dents"
Duffy - "Mercy"
New York Times - "Burn"
Cheap Shows: ($10 or less)
I'm from Barcelona - "Britney"
Screaming Females - "Fun"
The Delay - "Burnout"
Old Podrida - "Jordanna"
Fuck Buttons - "Ribs Out"
Pattern Is Movement - "Enjoy"
Fucked Up - "Crusades"
The XYZ Affair - "All My Friends"
Jukebox the Ghost - "Fire in the Sky"
Filter - "Hey Man, Nice Shot"
Plants and Animals - "New Kind of Love"
Blood on the Wall - "Lightning Song"
Bear Hands - "Long Lean Queen"
Apparat - "Limelight"
White Williams - "New Violence"
Ponytail - "Start a Corporation"
Not So Cheap: (less then $20)
Pelican - "Winds with Hands"
The Austerity Program - "Song 17B"
No Age - "Eraser"
High Places - "Canary"
Foals - "Two Steps, Twice"
Ruby Suns - "Kenya Dig Out"
British Sea Power - "Waving Flags"
Bonde Do Role - "James Bonde"
The Death Set - "Had A Bird"
Los Campesinos! - "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives"
Black Kids - "Hit the Heartbreaks"
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - "1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound"
Subtle - "The Crow"
Black Moth Super Rainbow - "Forever Heavy"
Islands - "The Arm"
Sea Wolf - "Sea Monuments"
The Jealous Girlfriends - "Roboxulla"
Dark Meat - "Freedom Ritual"
Headlights - "Cherry Tulips"
Apes & Androids - "Hot Kathy"
Mad Expensive: (everything over $20)
Tegan & Sara - "Nineteen"
Devothcka - "Undone"
Basia Bulat - "In the Night"
Les Savy Fav - "In These Woods"
The Raconteurs - "Consoler of the Lonely"
Black Lips - "Cold Hands"
Sold Out: (No luck for you or for me!)
Flight of the Conchords - "Boom"
(Ed's Note: this is the first ever post on Pop Tarts Suck Toasted that was not written by me. I have gone out and added a friend of mine named Lenny to my stable of writers that is now at 2. He'll be adding some fun stuff to the blog here and there so please welcome him with open arms.)
Requiem For A Hipster by Lenny
I don't wanna go off on a rant here but...This week pitchfork.tv's one-week-only section features the collaboration between Baltimore weirdos Dan Deacon and Jimmy Joe Roche. I haven't completely gotten used to the fact that we've reached a place where a regurgitation of old material is critically revered, and even more unsettling, enjoyable. Deacon's end of this is one thing. That of course is original and deserving of standard praise, but how much credit am I supposed to give "video artist" Jimmy Joe Roche? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to completely discredit his craft. The visuals do hold your attention, but how much actual talent does this represent? It makes me wonder how long it'll be before collages of magazine clippings are hanging in The Smithsonian. Then again, Pitchfork isn't The Smithsonian, and maybe nowadays a video's novelty or bizarreness means more for its popularity as originality would have way back whenever.
Now that I've gotten my feelings on the idea of this video out of the way, I will say that I enjoyed it quite a bit and would recommend watching it if it's still up by the time I get this out (ed's note: it's not, but you can piece it together on YouTube). I'm sure you'll be able to get your hands on it regardless. It seems like it was made by guys you wouldn't let your kids go swimming with, but I suppose that is Deacon's appeal in the first place. Idiot savant, lovable weirdo, unlikely hero. This clip finally gave me a reason to listen to Deacon's music as I don't find it very entertaining on its own. I got a chance to see him in concert last year and was even more disappointed with the live show. I'm sure fans feel quite differently than I do. That's why they're called fans. There is a plot, albeit an extremely weird one, and it does indeed hold up for the duration of the disc which is somewhere in the neighborhood of forty minutes. The DVD, which can be purchased at your local internet, includes 6 chapters of varying strangeness including rampant psychedelics and eerie sequences from various Schwarzenegger movies. All of it is strung together almost enough to make sense and just enough to keep you entertained.
Requiem For A Hipster by Lenny
I don't wanna go off on a rant here but...This week pitchfork.tv's one-week-only section features the collaboration between Baltimore weirdos Dan Deacon and Jimmy Joe Roche. I haven't completely gotten used to the fact that we've reached a place where a regurgitation of old material is critically revered, and even more unsettling, enjoyable. Deacon's end of this is one thing. That of course is original and deserving of standard praise, but how much credit am I supposed to give "video artist" Jimmy Joe Roche? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to completely discredit his craft. The visuals do hold your attention, but how much actual talent does this represent? It makes me wonder how long it'll be before collages of magazine clippings are hanging in The Smithsonian. Then again, Pitchfork isn't The Smithsonian, and maybe nowadays a video's novelty or bizarreness means more for its popularity as originality would have way back whenever.Now that I've gotten my feelings on the idea of this video out of the way, I will say that I enjoyed it quite a bit and would recommend watching it if it's still up by the time I get this out (ed's note: it's not, but you can piece it together on YouTube). I'm sure you'll be able to get your hands on it regardless. It seems like it was made by guys you wouldn't let your kids go swimming with, but I suppose that is Deacon's appeal in the first place. Idiot savant, lovable weirdo, unlikely hero. This clip finally gave me a reason to listen to Deacon's music as I don't find it very entertaining on its own. I got a chance to see him in concert last year and was even more disappointed with the live show. I'm sure fans feel quite differently than I do. That's why they're called fans. There is a plot, albeit an extremely weird one, and it does indeed hold up for the duration of the disc which is somewhere in the neighborhood of forty minutes. The DVD, which can be purchased at your local internet, includes 6 chapters of varying strangeness including rampant psychedelics and eerie sequences from various Schwarzenegger movies. All of it is strung together almost enough to make sense and just enough to keep you entertained.
Who: Blood on the Wall
When: May 17th
Where: Mercury Lounge
More Dates
Listen: Blood on the Wall - "Lightning Song"
Thoughts: This band is awesome on record so I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that they are even awesomer in person. Actually, if you must know the truth, I have been told by many people that they are tremendous live. I'm hoping not to miss this one.
Who: These New Puritans
When: June 8th
Where: Music Hall of Williamsburg
More Dates
Listen: These New Puritans - "Swords of Truth"
Thoughts: With this being the first New York appearance of These New Puritans ever I assume this show is gonna be packed with bloggers and industry types. I plan on being one of those folks.
Who: Rock the Bells
When: July 27th
Where: ? Randall's Island?
More Dates
Listen: A Tribe Called Quest - "Vibes and Stuff"
Nas - "The World is Yours"
Ghostface Killah - "Marvel"
Cool Kids - "Oscar"
Thoughts: Hip-hop's answer to Ozzfest and Warped Tour is a lineup that mixes legends and up-and-coming acts beautifully. You get a reunion from A Tribe Called Quest mixed with the Cool Kids, some Nas and Santogold, and a shit load of other acts. This should be a fun day in the summer sun.
Who: Shearwater
When: June 19th
Where: Music Hall of Williamsburg
More Dates
Listen: Shearwater - "Rooks"
Thoughts: Shearwater are kind of boring. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
Who: Ellen Allien
When: May 10th
Where: Studio B
More Dates
Listen: Ellen Allien - "Sprung"
Thoughts: There's something about music like Ellen Allien's that just doesn't translate to the live setting, but having never seen her do it live I think I might take a flyer on it and hope she can pull off the move from record to stage.
When: May 17th
Where: Mercury Lounge
More Dates
Listen: Blood on the Wall - "Lightning Song"
Thoughts: This band is awesome on record so I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that they are even awesomer in person. Actually, if you must know the truth, I have been told by many people that they are tremendous live. I'm hoping not to miss this one.
Who: These New Puritans
When: June 8th
Where: Music Hall of Williamsburg
More Dates
Listen: These New Puritans - "Swords of Truth"
Thoughts: With this being the first New York appearance of These New Puritans ever I assume this show is gonna be packed with bloggers and industry types. I plan on being one of those folks.
Who: Rock the Bells
When: July 27th
Where: ? Randall's Island?
More Dates
Listen: A Tribe Called Quest - "Vibes and Stuff"
Nas - "The World is Yours"
Ghostface Killah - "Marvel"
Cool Kids - "Oscar"
Thoughts: Hip-hop's answer to Ozzfest and Warped Tour is a lineup that mixes legends and up-and-coming acts beautifully. You get a reunion from A Tribe Called Quest mixed with the Cool Kids, some Nas and Santogold, and a shit load of other acts. This should be a fun day in the summer sun.
Who: Shearwater
When: June 19th
Where: Music Hall of Williamsburg
More Dates
Listen: Shearwater - "Rooks"
Thoughts: Shearwater are kind of boring. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
Who: Ellen Allien
When: May 10th
Where: Studio B
More Dates
Listen: Ellen Allien - "Sprung"
Thoughts: There's something about music like Ellen Allien's that just doesn't translate to the live setting, but having never seen her do it live I think I might take a flyer on it and hope she can pull off the move from record to stage.
Its been years since we got a new album from The Postal Service, and it looks like we're gonna have to keep waiting for a lot longer. In the meantime there have been a slew of electronic pop acts that have tried to build on what the Postal Service left behind, but most of those were just fleeting projects that never really took off. Now we get a Belgian artist called Styrofoam and the similarities to the Postal Service are uncanny, twitchy synthetic sounds that are built up with emotionally charged songwriting. Hell the singer even sounds a bit like Ben Gibbard (though certainly not identical). On first listen I thought it would just be a novelty, something to fill the void for a little bit, but after listening to it over and over I'm beginning to realize that this is a damn fine album beyond all the easy comparisons to the Postal Service. All of the tunes here are pretty stellar pop tunes, and the way they sound is thoroughly soothing. I like it a lot and I think I'm gonna keep liking it! Styrofoam - "After Sunset"
Styrofoam - "Microscope"
I thought it was a bit odd when Spoon added a cover song to their last album, but it was so well done and fit so perfectly with the rest of the record that I didn't give it much thought after a listen or two. Now the band has released it as part of an EP that includes their version of the song, the original version by The Natural History, 6 different remixes of the song, and one brand new Spoon track. I don't know if that would be enough of a reason to buy the whole EP, but it's certainly worth downloading. Maybe not for the remixes which are pretty boring overall, but the new song is straight up rocking Spoon and if you've never heard The Natural History you've got your shot right here. So download and enjoy. Spoon - "All I Got Is Me"
The Natural History - "Don't You Ever"
Friday April 25th:
I'm from Barcelona - "Britney"
Wakey! Wakey! - "LGA"
Monotonix - "Summer and Autumns"
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth - "Lets All Get Fades"
Power Douglas - "Pangea"
Mahogany - "Springtime, Save Our Country"
Chairlift - "Cut the Leash"
Black Dice - "Roll Up"
Saturday April 26th:
De Novo Dahl - "Shout"
The Fiery Furnaces - "Blueberry Boat"
South - "Better Things"
Sunday April 27th:
Rings - "Mom Dance"
Tickley Feather - "Le Daylight"
Atmosphere - "Full Moon"
The Good:
The Instruments - "Ode to the Sea"; It's not often that we get to post news from Jeff Mangum, so when we get the chance we're gonna take it. Right here is a track that has backing vocals from the Neutral Milk Hotel legend, but surprisingly it's not Mangum's presence that makes this such a hauntingly beautiful track. Instead it's the rest of the Instruments, namely Heather McIntosh, who soar on this track. With a tidal flow from McIntosh's cello and her lovely voice creating harmonies with Mangum's this track truly has the ability to soar. It's a lovely melody and a song I can't get out of my head at the moment.
Monotonix - "Summers and Autumns"; Man is this a heavy aggressive song. Like old school metal, with just enough modern presence to make it fresh. It sort of just trudges along slowly, but with a vibrant anger. It's kind of cool to say the least.
James Pants - "We're Through"; I have a feeling that by the end of this year a lot of people are going to know the name James Pants. He's about to blow up when his album hits the streets, and this single is just the first example of why he's gonna be huge. A slowed down tempo to an electronic dance song always seems to grab my attention, but Pants takes it to the next level with a huge array of sounds that you just can't escape. I've been listening to this on repeat a lot lately so if you catch me slowly grooving out on the subway you'll know what I'm listening to.
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth - "Lets All Get Fades"; I gotta give a lot of credit to Gimme Tinnitus for this find (and a shit load of other ones), 'cause I am fucking loving this track! A mixture of some volatile metal and noise rock that's created by a seven piece band! There's so much going on in this song that I don't think I could ever get tired of it!
Atlas Sound - "No Longer"; Bradford just keeps cranking out the tunes, and this is the latest ethereal instrumental track from his Atlas Sound project. Pretty cool stuff right here.
The Bad:
The Game (feat. Keyshia Cole) - "Pain"; The streak continues. Since The Game released "Hate It or Love It" I have not enjoyed a single song from the L.A. rapper. Even sweet shout outs do nothing for me on this track.
Barenaked Ladies - "7 8 9"; So the first time I listened to this tune I kind of liked it. It makes all sorts of sports references and is pretty damn funny, but repeated listens may lead to sterility. Not to mention that it's based on one of the worst kiddie jokes in the history of humanity! Yeah, no real redeeming value to this tune, but I bet some kids will really like it a lot.
Video of the Week:
The Mae Shi - "Run To Your Grave"; All good videos begin with a great song, and this is one of my favorites so far this year. It helps that it's a pretty cool video too.
The Instruments - "Ode to the Sea"; It's not often that we get to post news from Jeff Mangum, so when we get the chance we're gonna take it. Right here is a track that has backing vocals from the Neutral Milk Hotel legend, but surprisingly it's not Mangum's presence that makes this such a hauntingly beautiful track. Instead it's the rest of the Instruments, namely Heather McIntosh, who soar on this track. With a tidal flow from McIntosh's cello and her lovely voice creating harmonies with Mangum's this track truly has the ability to soar. It's a lovely melody and a song I can't get out of my head at the moment.
Monotonix - "Summers and Autumns"; Man is this a heavy aggressive song. Like old school metal, with just enough modern presence to make it fresh. It sort of just trudges along slowly, but with a vibrant anger. It's kind of cool to say the least.
James Pants - "We're Through"; I have a feeling that by the end of this year a lot of people are going to know the name James Pants. He's about to blow up when his album hits the streets, and this single is just the first example of why he's gonna be huge. A slowed down tempo to an electronic dance song always seems to grab my attention, but Pants takes it to the next level with a huge array of sounds that you just can't escape. I've been listening to this on repeat a lot lately so if you catch me slowly grooving out on the subway you'll know what I'm listening to.
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth - "Lets All Get Fades"; I gotta give a lot of credit to Gimme Tinnitus for this find (and a shit load of other ones), 'cause I am fucking loving this track! A mixture of some volatile metal and noise rock that's created by a seven piece band! There's so much going on in this song that I don't think I could ever get tired of it!
Atlas Sound - "No Longer"; Bradford just keeps cranking out the tunes, and this is the latest ethereal instrumental track from his Atlas Sound project. Pretty cool stuff right here.
The Bad:
The Game (feat. Keyshia Cole) - "Pain"; The streak continues. Since The Game released "Hate It or Love It" I have not enjoyed a single song from the L.A. rapper. Even sweet shout outs do nothing for me on this track.
Barenaked Ladies - "7 8 9"; So the first time I listened to this tune I kind of liked it. It makes all sorts of sports references and is pretty damn funny, but repeated listens may lead to sterility. Not to mention that it's based on one of the worst kiddie jokes in the history of humanity! Yeah, no real redeeming value to this tune, but I bet some kids will really like it a lot.
Video of the Week:
The Mae Shi - "Run To Your Grave"; All good videos begin with a great song, and this is one of my favorites so far this year. It helps that it's a pretty cool video too.
Like I said when I announced the last one; there will be another and it will be on Staten Island! Well here it is and, please forgive my enthusiasm, it is an freakin' awesome lineup! Three wild and crazy bands, one low price, and All Ages to boot! Not too bad!!!! Here's the pertinent details...
Where: The Cup, 388 Van Duzer St., Staten Island, NY, 10304
When: Friday May 2nd, 8pm
Who:
We Are the Seahorses
Screaming Females
The Delay
DJ Tim Duffy
Cost: $5
All Ages
More to come soon, but save the date for now!!!
"Noise" rock seems to be coming in more and more different forms with each passing day. There's the whole drone scene, the lo-fi pop arena, and so many more that it would probably behoove me not to list them all. Strangely, it seems that there is a sudden uprising of noise bands that are only two members strong. Back in the day you had Suicide doing the two member thing, nowadays you have No Age, and you can add the Gluons to that list. With just a bass, a guitar and a drum machine the duo are cranking out some really cool tunes. Only three are posted over at their Myspace, and that's all I've heard so far, but it's enough to capture my immediate attention. On each of the three songs you have this really simple, really dirty garage rock sound. Hard riffs matched by the constant 4/4 beat of the drum machine are all loaded up with feedback and scuzz making it a noise fans wet dream. Lyrics are almost indecipherable and all the vocal work is dirtied up by the same noise going over everything else. At times the guitar and bass come through cleanly but there's always this overriding sense of fuzz that just cannot be ignored. It's awesome, it's the kind of thing I'd like to listen to in the basement of some small club with a hundred sweaty kids bouncing around.
Hailing from Dayton and using the whole noise element it is almost impossible to avoid comparisons to Times New Viking, but this has a completely different feel to it in my mind. Where Times New Viking seem to have structure within their chaos, the Gluons seem to just be making noise for noise's sake and that's kind of what I like about it. Give it a listen, see if you feel the same way!
The Gluons - "The Modern Late at Nights"
The Gluons - "Sweetheart"
The Gluons - "To the Beauty of You"
The Gluons on Myspace
A few months back I named Snake & Jet's Amazing Bullit Band one of my buzzworthy acts. Unfortunately, since then I have yet to make mention of the terrific band again and have really been regretting my negligence. So I'm gonna try and atone for all of it right now by offering you guys a chance to win an awesome vinyl copy of the band's album X Ray Spirit!!! That's the front and back of this awesome piece of vinyl up top, so you know it looks pretty cool, but it also sounds amazing! All you have to do to enter to win is send me an e-mail saying hi! My e-mails on the left sidebar, but in case you don't see it it's poptartssucktoasted@gmail.com! You have until Friday to enter to win and I'll picka winner at random on Monday! Good luck!!!Snake & Jet's Amazing Bullit Band - "X-Ray"
Snake & Jet's Amazing Bullit Band - "Doom City"
Movies:
Babel; Can anyone please explain what the point of this fucking movie was? For more then two hours I sat watching this movie waiting and hoping that something would happen, but nothing ever did. Instead it was a movie that really never had a point or if it did I just completely missed it. The acting was okay, but somehow the four intersecting plot lines never really met, they just ran parallel to each other with only the barest hints of correlating. Aside from the plots not meeting up with each other they were way too over the top! I mean seriously how ridiculous were each of these plots; naked, deaf Japanese girl, mother who killed her own child and is now dying in her angry husbands arms, illegal immigrant nanny loses the kids in her care in the desert, and some kid shoots a tourist from 3-kilometers away, get real or at least a little real. I had high hopes for this movie, but instead I left believing that the movie was attempting to be intelligent just for intelligences sake.
Television:
Torchwood (Season 2, Episode 13); The second season of Torchwood was nowhere near as powerful and captivating as the first season. It had several episodes that were boring and dull, mixed with a few stellar episodes. The uneven feel of the show forced it to suffer in the ratings, but I think the season finale atones for a lot of the problems the rest of the season had. For the final 50-minutes of the season the Torchwood gang were at the top of their game, the cast was brilliant, the writing outstanding, directing was perfect, everything just flowed seamlessly. And what an ending to it all. I'm not gonna go and do any spoilers for this one, but I was simply amazed by the final 10-minutes of the show! Nice job guys, and way to make sure I come back next season.
The Office (Season 3, Episode 14); Sorry but I am gonna spend the next few minutes gushing about Pam and Jim. I was so happy when Jim showed everyone the ring! Now I know this is TV and there's going to be some weird twist in here somwhere, but I cannot wait until Jim pops the big question. And now until they do finally pop the question we're all gonna wait on the edge of our seats for it to happen. I think some other things happened in this episode as well, but I don't think they were very noteworthy.
30 Rock (Season 2, Episode 11); I hate the actor that plays Dennis Duffy. Now I don't hate his ability as an actor, I just hate the characters he normally plays. I guess he's doing his job really well. On Rescue Me he played Dennis Leary's brother and I despised him, now he plays Liz's on and off boyfriend and I hate him for it. The character isn't necessarily as despicable as his character on Rescue Me, he's just irksome and sleeping with the loveable Liz Lemon and for that I hate him. I think it's enough, I really do.
South Park (Season 12, Episode 6); Wow, I can't believe I'm writing this again but boy did this week's episode of South Park suck balls! This is the second episode of the season that had a huge focus on the internet and it was never really funny. It was over the top sure and had a handful of humorous moments but it never reached any of the moments that it could have. I guess we're just gonna have to struggle through this current dry spell, but man do I hope they turn it around soon.
Degrassi (Season 7, Episode 16); I've started to realize that Degrassi has added way too many characters over the past season and a half, and I really don't care about them nearly as much as I do the original characters. I mean really Mia is a terribly boring character. Yes she has a child so she should be a bit compelling, but she's not at all. Could we please go back to focusing on the important characters? Apparently not after having read the synopsis of next week's episode. Sigh.
Taken By Trees - "Sweet Child O' Mine"
Music Links:
- My Bloody Valentine have announced a stateside gig in the form of ATP New York, which they are also curating. Tickets go on sale Friday and will set you back $225 before taxes and lodging, which is too rich for my blood. Sigh. (via Pitchfork)
- Pitchfork interviewed Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, also known as the indie duo She & Him.
-Also on Pitchfork this week is a Guest List spot with El Guincho.
- You may have heard that Grizzly Bear performed a new-ish song on Conan last night. Ear Farm (among others) has the video.
- The boys at Friction announced their awesome lineup for Cinco de Mayo featuring Fuck Buttons, Sightings and Pattern Is Movement! Make sure you get your tickets now!
- Gorilla vs. Bear lets us know that the next DJ-Kicks album will be pieced together by Burial, which just may be the best decision ever.
- Chairlift did a WOXY Lounge Act.
Babel; Can anyone please explain what the point of this fucking movie was? For more then two hours I sat watching this movie waiting and hoping that something would happen, but nothing ever did. Instead it was a movie that really never had a point or if it did I just completely missed it. The acting was okay, but somehow the four intersecting plot lines never really met, they just ran parallel to each other with only the barest hints of correlating. Aside from the plots not meeting up with each other they were way too over the top! I mean seriously how ridiculous were each of these plots; naked, deaf Japanese girl, mother who killed her own child and is now dying in her angry husbands arms, illegal immigrant nanny loses the kids in her care in the desert, and some kid shoots a tourist from 3-kilometers away, get real or at least a little real. I had high hopes for this movie, but instead I left believing that the movie was attempting to be intelligent just for intelligences sake.Television:
Torchwood (Season 2, Episode 13); The second season of Torchwood was nowhere near as powerful and captivating as the first season. It had several episodes that were boring and dull, mixed with a few stellar episodes. The uneven feel of the show forced it to suffer in the ratings, but I think the season finale atones for a lot of the problems the rest of the season had. For the final 50-minutes of the season the Torchwood gang were at the top of their game, the cast was brilliant, the writing outstanding, directing was perfect, everything just flowed seamlessly. And what an ending to it all. I'm not gonna go and do any spoilers for this one, but I was simply amazed by the final 10-minutes of the show! Nice job guys, and way to make sure I come back next season.
The Office (Season 3, Episode 14); Sorry but I am gonna spend the next few minutes gushing about Pam and Jim. I was so happy when Jim showed everyone the ring! Now I know this is TV and there's going to be some weird twist in here somwhere, but I cannot wait until Jim pops the big question. And now until they do finally pop the question we're all gonna wait on the edge of our seats for it to happen. I think some other things happened in this episode as well, but I don't think they were very noteworthy. 
30 Rock (Season 2, Episode 11); I hate the actor that plays Dennis Duffy. Now I don't hate his ability as an actor, I just hate the characters he normally plays. I guess he's doing his job really well. On Rescue Me he played Dennis Leary's brother and I despised him, now he plays Liz's on and off boyfriend and I hate him for it. The character isn't necessarily as despicable as his character on Rescue Me, he's just irksome and sleeping with the loveable Liz Lemon and for that I hate him. I think it's enough, I really do.
South Park (Season 12, Episode 6); Wow, I can't believe I'm writing this again but boy did this week's episode of South Park suck balls! This is the second episode of the season that had a huge focus on the internet and it was never really funny. It was over the top sure and had a handful of humorous moments but it never reached any of the moments that it could have. I guess we're just gonna have to struggle through this current dry spell, but man do I hope they turn it around soon.
Degrassi (Season 7, Episode 16); I've started to realize that Degrassi has added way too many characters over the past season and a half, and I really don't care about them nearly as much as I do the original characters. I mean really Mia is a terribly boring character. Yes she has a child so she should be a bit compelling, but she's not at all. Could we please go back to focusing on the important characters? Apparently not after having read the synopsis of next week's episode. Sigh.Taken By Trees - "Sweet Child O' Mine"
Music Links:
- My Bloody Valentine have announced a stateside gig in the form of ATP New York, which they are also curating. Tickets go on sale Friday and will set you back $225 before taxes and lodging, which is too rich for my blood. Sigh. (via Pitchfork)
- Pitchfork interviewed Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, also known as the indie duo She & Him.
-Also on Pitchfork this week is a Guest List spot with El Guincho.
- You may have heard that Grizzly Bear performed a new-ish song on Conan last night. Ear Farm (among others) has the video.
- The boys at Friction announced their awesome lineup for Cinco de Mayo featuring Fuck Buttons, Sightings and Pattern Is Movement! Make sure you get your tickets now!
- Gorilla vs. Bear lets us know that the next DJ-Kicks album will be pieced together by Burial, which just may be the best decision ever.
- Chairlift did a WOXY Lounge Act.
For more then a decade Nada Surf has been going strong, releasing albums that are full of terrific indie tunes loaded with emotion and feelings. Yet for some reason I can't think of the band for anything more then High/Low, I know it's unfair to the band, but for some reason that album still stands out in my mind. And it's not just because of "Popular" either, though it certainly plays it's part.Back in 1996 when High/Low was released I was listening to anything and everything that was similar to this. Weezer, old Cheap Trick, Sponge, anything that wasn't grunge. It had to have intelligence and a pop feel to it, and maybe not rock so hard but put a little more emphasis on melody. Nada Surf provided exactly that, and it all started with the video for "Popular" of course. A song that perfectly captures the most horrible parts of high school being heard by a teenager is a lethal combination, and considering the heights of popularity that song reached it can be assumed it was heard by a shit load of teenagers. Like most kids in the 90's I got a lot of my music from MTV and I loved the video for "Popular", it hooked me on the band, but a lot of people ignored the rest of the album opting to just listen to the single. I question those people's musical intelligence quite often.
No, High/Low is certainly way more than a one song album. Instead the album is loaded with tunes that exude intelligence and emotion, while also blistering a little bit harder then Weezer (who they kept getting compared to). It's a freakin' great album from top to bottom, and yeah I like "Popular" a lot but I also love "Deeper Well", "Stalemate", "Treehouse", and pretty much every other song on the album.
I'm sure if most of you popped this album in randomly you'd wind up skipping to "Popular" at some point, which is fine, but I have to beg you to listen to the album again. Listen to the whole thing, listen to the quiet/loud dichotomy of "Sleep", listen to the delicate lyrics of "Stalemate", listen to every note and tell me that you love this album as much as I do! No really, go do it!
Nada Surf - "Popular"
Nada Surf - "Stalemate"
Nada Surf - "Treehouse"
Nada Surf - "Hollywood"
Who: The Last Shadow PuppetsLocation: United Kingdom
elbo.ws Ranking: #2
Thoughts: I think it would be unfair of me to go forward talking about The Last Shadow Puppets without at least mentioning that I am not the biggest fan of Arctic Monkeys or The Rascals. In fact that is something of an understatement considering I believe I have labeled both bands as "sucking" in the past. Now there are songs by both bands that have stuck in my head for a few days and I was mostly just reacting to all the acclaim they have received and my general indifference towards British bands probably doesn't help the case. Somehow though the combined powers of the two bands's front men is doing a lot for me. I love the old school vibe of it, the way it feels like it could be the soundtrack to a Bond film or some Tarrantino flick. It just grabs me in a way that nothing by either band has grabbed me. The lead single from the duo, "The Age of the Understatement", is a thing of beauty lyrically and musically and everything else on the early leak of the album is just as good. I was pretty surprised by my immediate love of The Last Shadow Puppets, so much so that I actually went back and listened to both of their full-time bands. I still don't like those two bands very much, but I do love The Last Shadow Puppets!
Verdict: Surely Buzzworthy!
Listen: The Last Shadow Puppets - "The Age of the Understatement"
The Last Shadow Puppets - "In the Heat of the Morning"
Tonight the folks of Frauke (who still hate all of you) will be celebrating the release of their brand new record Dirtier Than Horses! I briefly mentioned the new album back in January and now it's finally coming out for all to hear! Supporting the band are Monster Eiffel Tower and Holy Moly! Should be a fun night for all so make sure you're in attendance. Oh, and don't blow this one off because I hear they might not be playing much for the next couple of months. You have been warned!
Frauke - "Canadian Girlfriend"
Frauke - "Parasite Fungus"
Frauke on Myspace
Cake Shop for details
Bands these have gotten a bit long winded. Albums are stretching on longer and longer, there are full tomes of remixes and bonus cuts, and pretty much everyone out there will take up as much space as possible to get their name out there further. Luckily there is Tokyo Police Club who have should never be labeled long winded in anything ever. On their debut EP the band introduced themselves to the masses in less then 20-minutes, packing everything into 2-minute long songs that exploded onto our ears. Now the band are releasing their debut LP and at only about ten minutes longer it is doing almost exactly the same thing.Songs don't take long to build when you're listening to Tokyo Police Club, and if you don't pay attention you may just find you've missed half the album before you know it. Not that you won't be paying attention though, their bombast and immediacy demands your attention. On these quick indie rock songs the band waste no time in instituting killer riffs and pulsating beats, accompanied by some solid, sing-a-long lyrics. It's the stuff that made pop-punk so radio friendly in the 90's and I'm sure Tokyo Police Club will have no problem getting their music out to the ADD addled masses.
Considering the length of the album I think it would be in my best interest to keep this pretty short as well, otherwise I might spoil all the excellent music before you even get a chance to listen. Just make sure you pick up the album and pop it on for your commute to work or a workout or wherever it is you find yourself needing something quick and solid to listen to.
Tokyo Police Club - "Juno"
Tokyo Police Club - "Your English Is Good"
For months people have been hyping the DC trio known as Jukebox the Ghost, lauding their similarities to bands like They Might Be Giants and Ben Folds, and now we finally have their album hitting stores today. Of course if you've seen them live there's a good chance you already picked up Let Live and Let Ghost, but for those that haven't please do yourself a favor and go get this today! I'm not gonna do much more writing then that (lord knows I've written about Jukebox plenty already!) but I implore you to pick it up! Just listen to the three part epic below and try to resist buying this album!Jukebox the Ghost - "Fire in the Sky"
Jukebox the Ghost - "Where Are All the Scientists Now"
Jukebox the Ghost - "A Matter of Time"
Who: My Morning JacketTitle: Evil Urges
Label: ATO Records
Release Date: June 10th
Thoughts: I have to admit that I am not 100% convinced that this leak is legitimate, and I'm really hoping that I'll find out it was a fake at some point today. The reason ikm hoping it's a fake is because if it's not it means that My Morning Jacket has followed Wilco into the world of adult contemporary rock. This is music our dad's would listen to. There is nothing here that pushes boundaries like Z did and there's nothing nearly as catchy either. Instead the songs are slow, long and overly drawn out making for quite a boring record. My biggest reason for believing this may be a fake leak is that at times it doesn't completely sound like Jim James. The voice is whinny and a bit feminine at times, which doesn't really fit what James has done in the past. My fingers are crossed that this is a fake, otherwise this may just be the final thing I'll listen to from My Morning Jacket.
Listen: My Morning Jacket - "Evil Urges"
My Morning Jacket - "Remnants"
Who: SantogoldTitle: Santogold
Label: Downtown/Lizard King
Release Date: April 29th
Thoughts: For some reason I was expecting more of a hip-hop feel from Santogold. I don't know why I had that pre-conceived notion, but I really thought the M.I.A. protege would follow a little more closely in her footsteps. Instead Santogold impresses with an intoxicating mix of electronic and pop music. It's fun, it's bouncy, and it's a hell of a lot brighter then her mentor normally is. Obviously coming from M.I.A.'s camp means she's gonna put an emphasis on beats and getting people to move their feet and she does that perfectly well here. Its kind of funny, but the sound reminds me a little more of a Lily Allen or a solo Gwen Stefani then M.I.A. but it works very well. This is a solid all around album that I think people are gonna eat up.
Listen: Santogold - "Shove It"
Santogold - "I'm A Lady"
In a few short months, it will be Summer and that means the second annual After the Jump Fest! Bigger, better with even more acts and surprise guests, this year the festival takes place along side the city wide music event, Make Music New York (which itself is a part of the worldwide music phenomenon that takes place in 300 cities in 108 countries) on the first day of Summer, June 21st.
After the Jump Fest is the effort of 20 New York City music bloggers whose goal is to help new artists gain exposure while raising money for struggling school music programs. This year, After the Jump is teaming up with The Music Hall of Williamsburg and Galapagos Art Space for a festival stretching from noon until last call. In the next few months, After the Jump blogs will be making more announcements about the festival including new artists and pre-parties. Stay tuned and in the mean time, check out AftertheJumpFest.com for information on our past events and mark your calendars! It's going to be a doozy.
After the Jump Fest is the effort of 20 New York City music bloggers whose goal is to help new artists gain exposure while raising money for struggling school music programs. This year, After the Jump is teaming up with The Music Hall of Williamsburg and Galapagos Art Space for a festival stretching from noon until last call. In the next few months, After the Jump blogs will be making more announcements about the festival including new artists and pre-parties. Stay tuned and in the mean time, check out AftertheJumpFest.com for information on our past events and mark your calendars! It's going to be a doozy.
AFTER THE JUMP IS ORGANIZED BY:
themusicslut . batteringroom . disconap . earfarm . ryspace . irockiroll . merryswankster . softcommunication . theunderratedblog . sitdownstandup . watercoolergossip . bumpershine . themodernage . productshopnyc . subinev . punkphoto . poptartssucktoasted . stereoactivenyc . jinners
themusicslut . batteringroom . disconap . earfarm . ryspace . irockiroll . merryswankster . softcommunication . theunderratedblog . sitdownstandup . watercoolergossip . bumpershine . themodernage . productshopnyc . subinev . punkphoto . poptartssucktoasted . stereoactivenyc . jinners
For press opportunities such as interviews with the organizers or bands, please contact publicity@afterthejumpfest.com
For sponsorship and all requests, contact producer Jennifer Kellas: jkellas@afterthejumpfest.com
For sponsorship and all requests, contact producer Jennifer Kellas: jkellas@afterthejumpfest.com
Monday: Jay Reatard @ Bowery Ballroom 7:30pm $12
I'm waiting till I head to Pitchfork to catch Jay Reatard but you guys would be crazy to miss him when he hits the city for a pair of shows! Tonight he's at Bowery, tomorrow Europa. Pick out the venue you like best and go rock the fuck out!
Jay Reatard - "Screaming Hand"
Tuesday: Destroyer @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 8pm $15
For some reason Destroyer's Trouble In Dreams has been put on my back shelf lately. It's not that I don' t like it, I really like it in all honesty, I think I've just been wrapped up in a few other albums. Hopefully I'll correct that this week and get it the listens it deserves, and maybe I'll be able to head out to see him live.
Destroyer - "Libby's First Sunrise"
Wednesday: Tokyo Police Club @ Sound Fix Records 8pm FREE
Tokyo Police Club will have already played three different, sold out shows in New York and a free in-store at the Virgin Megastore by the time this intimate affair rolls around; so, hopefully that means most everyone will have seen them already leaving some room for you and me to see them here. I'd still suggest getting there really freakin' early for this one.
Tokyo Police Club - "In A Cave"
Thursday: Foals @ Bowery Ballroom 8pm $15
Last time I saw Foals they had Pianos sweating up a storm during CMJ. It was one of the most fun shows of that week, and I'm sure tonight's show won't be much different from that. Heads out to see this band, they are much better live then on record (though I think they're pretty good on record too).
Foals - "Two Steps, Twice"
Friday: Japanther, Videohippos, caUSE co-MOTION, Tickley Feather, Megafun, Les Sans Cullottes, + More @ Bernard College (Lehman Lawn) 12pm FREE
Hope you guys all have a sick day to go bask in the Spring sun for this one. It's gonna be a lot fun, and I think it's open to everyone not just students.
Japanther - "Challenge"
Videohippos - "Bear Fight"
caUSE co-MOTION - "Who's Gonna Care"
Tickley Feather - "Tonight is the Night"
Saturday: The Fiery Furnaces @ Southpaw 7pm $15
The Fiery Furnaces play here so often that we probably take it for granted, but when you consider how good they are live and how wonderful their music is maybe we shouldn't keep taking them for granted. I haven't seen them in a while, but I just may on Saturday night.
The Fiery Furnaces - "Blueberry Boat"
Sunday: Atmosphere @ Webster Hall 7pm $20
I have to be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of Atmosphere, but I can at least tolerate the music. Which is more then I can say for most of the bands playing on Sunday.
Atmosphere - "Full Moon"
I'm waiting till I head to Pitchfork to catch Jay Reatard but you guys would be crazy to miss him when he hits the city for a pair of shows! Tonight he's at Bowery, tomorrow Europa. Pick out the venue you like best and go rock the fuck out!
Jay Reatard - "Screaming Hand"
Tuesday: Destroyer @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 8pm $15
For some reason Destroyer's Trouble In Dreams has been put on my back shelf lately. It's not that I don' t like it, I really like it in all honesty, I think I've just been wrapped up in a few other albums. Hopefully I'll correct that this week and get it the listens it deserves, and maybe I'll be able to head out to see him live.
Destroyer - "Libby's First Sunrise"
Wednesday: Tokyo Police Club @ Sound Fix Records 8pm FREE
Tokyo Police Club will have already played three different, sold out shows in New York and a free in-store at the Virgin Megastore by the time this intimate affair rolls around; so, hopefully that means most everyone will have seen them already leaving some room for you and me to see them here. I'd still suggest getting there really freakin' early for this one.
Tokyo Police Club - "In A Cave"
Thursday: Foals @ Bowery Ballroom 8pm $15
Last time I saw Foals they had Pianos sweating up a storm during CMJ. It was one of the most fun shows of that week, and I'm sure tonight's show won't be much different from that. Heads out to see this band, they are much better live then on record (though I think they're pretty good on record too).
Foals - "Two Steps, Twice"
Friday: Japanther, Videohippos, caUSE co-MOTION, Tickley Feather, Megafun, Les Sans Cullottes, + More @ Bernard College (Lehman Lawn) 12pm FREE
Hope you guys all have a sick day to go bask in the Spring sun for this one. It's gonna be a lot fun, and I think it's open to everyone not just students.
Japanther - "Challenge"
Videohippos - "Bear Fight"
caUSE co-MOTION - "Who's Gonna Care"
Tickley Feather - "Tonight is the Night"
Saturday: The Fiery Furnaces @ Southpaw 7pm $15
The Fiery Furnaces play here so often that we probably take it for granted, but when you consider how good they are live and how wonderful their music is maybe we shouldn't keep taking them for granted. I haven't seen them in a while, but I just may on Saturday night.
The Fiery Furnaces - "Blueberry Boat"
Sunday: Atmosphere @ Webster Hall 7pm $20
I have to be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of Atmosphere, but I can at least tolerate the music. Which is more then I can say for most of the bands playing on Sunday.
Atmosphere - "Full Moon"
Labels:
destroyer,
fiery furnaces,
foals,
free shows,
jay reatard,
live shows,
mp3's,
tokyo police club
It always feels good when a show you're putting on goes off without too much of a problem, and Saturday night Ben Johnson from AWE and myself were able to do just that. With only a couple of equipment issues and a really hot and sweaty backroom, I think we managed to provide people with a damn fun night and I'm sure we kept some people out way passed their bedtimes.The night kicked off with out improv group, Mancrush (above), during their thing before each band. It was my first time seeing my brother's comedy project and I have to say I was pretty impressed by it. Sure, the whole Hannity and Combs thing may have gone just a few minutes too long, but they spent the rest of the night insulting hipster Williamsburg in the heart of Williamsburg and making an impression on the people that were there. Thanks for handling all the introductions too guys, you were great!
The first band of the night was The Heavenly Tenants, a Staten Island four piece that absolutely sparkled despite being the first band to tackle the heat of the back room. No matter how hot it was in the back, The Heavenly Tenants were hotter, pounding out a 30-minute set that seemed way too short. The music is excellent as it blends melodic pop with some aspects of the noisier alternative world. It's a perfect medley, especially with their adorable front couple handling the harmonies. I don't say this much about Staten Island bands, because let's face it I'm biased and most aren't refined enough just yet, but I really think this band could make quite a splash on the indie scene in the very near future. I'm sure I'll have more on them in the future, but keep checking their site for the stage they'll be playing next and check them out!
Next up was the dueling Connecticut bands of Fatal Film and Conversion Party, and boy did they represent Connecticut well. My co-promoting partner Ben got on stage with his band Conversion Party first and they promptly showed what Connecticut is all about. Now, going into the night I had only heard a handful of tunes off the band's myspace site but I still thought I had a good idea what the band would be all about. Instead they got on stage and blew away all of my expectations, rocking every person in the crowd and certainly winning over some new Brooklyn based fans. It was a terrific set that pretty much floored me from start to finish. 
Fatal Film followed up their Connecticut brethren with a blistering set of punk tunes that pretty much floored me. With their bassist shirt less, and the rest of the band sweating through their black shirts and ties, the band had everyone in attendance set to get down if only it weren't so damn hot! Yeah, there wasn't enough movement from the crowd but I can't say I really blame them considering the humidity inside the club. Instead they stood their watching the band with rapt attention. It was an awesome set from a band I had only heard a handful of songs from, but they definitely won me over on Saturday night!
The undeniable highlight of the evening was The Antlers. For over a year I have followed every move that Peter and company has made, booking them several times in the meantime, and each time I see them on stage they take over my soul with their music. The set kicked off with a brand new song, my first time hearing it, and I have to say I have never been as excited about an album as I am for their next one! It's gonna be awesome! But they followed that new song up with a set of the best from what they already have, in other words songs that I could sing every word too and I did just that. It was a rocking time and I'm pretty sure whoever wasn't completely dehydrated from the back room rocked out through the whole thing.It was an awesome night of fun the whole way around and I'm glad to be able to announce that we'll be doing it again on Friday May 2nd, on Staten Island this time around! If you missed Saturday's fun make sure you head out to the forgotten borough for the next one, we'll have more details in a couple of days so keep the date open!
Thanks to everyone who came out last night, to all the band who were awesome, to Mancrush for making us laugh, to DJ Paul Bruno for spinning some fine tunes all night (and for driving my drunk ass home!), and to all the bartenders, bouncers, sound guy, and staff at Galapagos!
More Pics on Flickr
(Photo of Mancrush by Rachael Darmanin)
The Antlers; I've had The Antlers play so many of my shows at this point that it's getting a little bit ridiculous. From my very first show to celebrate my birthday on Staten Island, to Rachael's birthday show, my Christmas bash, and a couple in between, so hopefully at this point you guys are starting to understand how much I like these guys. On Saturday they will be headlining for the first time, a huge slot improvement since the first time around, and a well deserved slot. Since adding a band Peter and the rest of The Antlers have really grown as a band, moving more in the direction of their actual influences like My Bloody Valentine and away from all those pesky Jeff Buckley comparisons. Be there for this band!
The Antlers - "The Universe Is Going to Catch You"
The Antlers - "On the Roof"
Fatal Film; It seems these days that the garage band sound is back in once again, and just like a few years ago when we became inundated by them we are getting swarmed by them again. Luckily there are some really good ones out there and Fatal Film are one of them. There are muddy vocals, serious guitar licks, and a thumping rhythm section. I have a feeling they're gonna be cranking up the speakers on Saturday night so be prepared for that. Oh, and this is one of the two bands that I'll be seeing for the first time Saturday night so I'm really excited for that.
Fatal Film - "Sea of Shitheads"
Fatal Film - "Sick as a Dog"
Conversion Party; The other band that I've never seen before is Conversion Party, a band that defies labels by playing so many different styles that it is literally impossible to place them in one place. From melodic to noisy they do pretty much everything and they sound good doing it. I'm not sure how it will work in forming a flowing album, but I'm sure live it will be a pretty awesome spectacle to behold.
The Heavenly Tenants; Last I saw of The Heavenly Tenants they were absolutely rocking me out during the birthday show my lovely girlfriend Rachael organized for me. This band has everything; they're tight, melodic, good songwriters, they have it going on, and I am sure that they will be playing much bigger places then the back room of Galapagos very, very soon. But for now we're happy to have them representing Staten Island at the show.
DJ Paul Bruno; After the bands are done tomorrow night you'll be hearing tunes played by DJ Paul Bruno, and hopefully you'll all be starting one massive dance party! No matter what your sound is you're bound to hear it when Bruno's behind the decks as he has one huge collection of tunes and is willing to throw on anything at anytime!
Mancrush; I'ts kind of becoming routine to see a comedy act with your live music, so we went out and got one of the best Staten Island improv groups to come along in years. They'll be doing the hosting duties and keeping you amused between bands, so make sure you grab your beers quick 'cause you might just miss something funny if you don't!
Who: Brian Wilson
When: May 8th + July 11th
Where: Carnegie Hall + Hammerstein Ballroom
More Dates
Listen: Brian Wilson - "Love and Mercy"
Thoughts: At this point it seems that there are fewer and fewer chances to see a true legend live and in the flesh. Sure there are reunion tours everywhere, but lets face it most of those guys have been passed their primes for decades. But with Brian Wilson you know you're gonna get the legend no matter what. These shows are gonna be super expensive but it may just be worth it to see him now.
Who: Wilco
When: August 7th
Where: McCarren Park Pool
More Dates
Listen: Wilco - "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart"
Thoughts: Its been quite some time since Wilco last stopped by New York so it'll be great to see them again, especially in the awesome outdoor space of McCarren Park. Sure it's not one of the free shows, but that only dampens my excitement a little bit.
Who: A Sunny Day in Glasgow
When: July 13th
Where: Whitney Museum
More Dates
Listen: A Sunny Day in Glasgow - "Summerlong Silences"
Thoughts: Awesome band, awesome venue and I believe it's all for free. Do you need more of an incentive then that?
Who: Half-Handed Cloud
When: May 6th
Where: Cake Shop
More Dates
Listen: Half-Handed Cloud - "Feed Your Sheep A Burning Lamp"
Thoughts: This is a cool up-and-coming band that you should get to know right now before they are the next big thing. No really, go listen to them now, get familiar and go see them at this show!
Who: Matmos
When: July 18th + July 19th
Where: LPR (?, anyone know what that is?)
More Dates
Listen: Matmos - "Rainbow Flag"
Thoughts: I don't know if I'd really pay to go see Matmos, I just don't have that much of a desire to see them. The new album is pretty solid though so maybe I'll change my mind as it gets closer.
Who: The Jealous Girlfriends + Sea Wolf
When: May 27th + May 28th
Where: Mercury Lounge
More Dates
Listen: The Jealous Girlfriends - "Roboxulla"
Sea Wolf - "Sea Monuments"
Thoughts: Two bands that are on the rise playing two dates together. Sounds sweet to me and there's probably a good chance I'll be at one of them.
Who: Les Savy Fav
When: May 21st
Where: Highline Ballroom
More Dates
Listen: Les Savy Fav - "In These Woods"
Thoughts: I'll be seeing them rock in Chicago when I head to the Pitchfork Music Fest, but those not going should check 'em here.
When: May 8th + July 11th
Where: Carnegie Hall + Hammerstein Ballroom
More Dates
Listen: Brian Wilson - "Love and Mercy"
Thoughts: At this point it seems that there are fewer and fewer chances to see a true legend live and in the flesh. Sure there are reunion tours everywhere, but lets face it most of those guys have been passed their primes for decades. But with Brian Wilson you know you're gonna get the legend no matter what. These shows are gonna be super expensive but it may just be worth it to see him now.
Who: Wilco
When: August 7th
Where: McCarren Park Pool
More Dates
Listen: Wilco - "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart"
Thoughts: Its been quite some time since Wilco last stopped by New York so it'll be great to see them again, especially in the awesome outdoor space of McCarren Park. Sure it's not one of the free shows, but that only dampens my excitement a little bit.
Who: A Sunny Day in Glasgow
When: July 13th
Where: Whitney Museum
More Dates
Listen: A Sunny Day in Glasgow - "Summerlong Silences"
Thoughts: Awesome band, awesome venue and I believe it's all for free. Do you need more of an incentive then that?
Who: Half-Handed Cloud
When: May 6th
Where: Cake Shop
More Dates
Listen: Half-Handed Cloud - "Feed Your Sheep A Burning Lamp"
Thoughts: This is a cool up-and-coming band that you should get to know right now before they are the next big thing. No really, go listen to them now, get familiar and go see them at this show!
Who: Matmos
When: July 18th + July 19th
Where: LPR (?, anyone know what that is?)
More Dates
Listen: Matmos - "Rainbow Flag"
Thoughts: I don't know if I'd really pay to go see Matmos, I just don't have that much of a desire to see them. The new album is pretty solid though so maybe I'll change my mind as it gets closer.
Who: The Jealous Girlfriends + Sea Wolf
When: May 27th + May 28th
Where: Mercury Lounge
More Dates
Listen: The Jealous Girlfriends - "Roboxulla"
Sea Wolf - "Sea Monuments"
Thoughts: Two bands that are on the rise playing two dates together. Sounds sweet to me and there's probably a good chance I'll be at one of them.
Who: Les Savy Fav
When: May 21st
Where: Highline Ballroom
More Dates
Listen: Les Savy Fav - "In These Woods"
Thoughts: I'll be seeing them rock in Chicago when I head to the Pitchfork Music Fest, but those not going should check 'em here.
Labels:
brian wilson,
free shows,
les savy fav,
live shows,
mp3's,
sea wolf,
the jealous girlfriends,
tour news,
wilco
Last year No Age made quite the impression with their debut Weirdo Rippers, and instead of standing pat for a year or so the band spent the year touring and recording a new album. It's impressive, but it's also important in this day and age where buzz bands disappear faster then Fox sitcoms. Weirdo Rippers may have blown our collective minds with its fast paced, non-stop assault on our ears, but on Nouns the band is adding melody and slowing things down just a bit. There's a little more soul on this record instead of just an unrelenting attack. Don't be fooled the attack is still there, they just learned to put a different touch on top of it to smooth it all out. It's a freakin' awesome record, immediately one of my favorites of the year and something I know I'll be listening to a lot for the rest of 2008!No Age - "Eraser"
No Age - "Cappo"
No Age - "Ripped Knees"
I will listen to anything Thurston Moore releases. Whether it's an album with Sonic Youth, something off his record label or one of his solo albums, I will be nothing but open ears to Thurston. He's earned it with his decades of brilliant music that have done nothing but melt my brain and take away a solid amount of my hearing. On his "short" follow-up to last year's Trees Outside the Academy, Thurston has returned to the noisy world of feedback he normally tends to roam around in. There are only three songs on this "EP", but it still clocks in at over 50-minutes. That's because there is a 4-minute long song bookended by two songs over 20-minutes long. I won't lie, this is not for everyone and it can be daunting even to the most die hard of fans, but it is definitely worth a number of listens when you are in the mood for something noisy and mildly distressing to the ears. Thurston Moore - "Lethal"
On Monday Pitchfork granted Cut Copy its Best New Music for their new album In Ghost Colours. Now it's not normally in a bloggers best interest to say they were influenced by a review from Pitchfork, but I had completely neglected the album until I saw the review on Monday. After that I put it on and I proceeded to bob my head through my entire morning commute as their electro pop songs pulsed into my ears. It's good stuff and I'm glad Pitchfork reminded me about the band on Monday. Thanks Pitchfork. [Read their review here]Cut Copy - "Feel the Love"
Cut Copy - "Time Stands Still"
Friday April 18th:
The Music Slut presents Alan Astor @ Club 205 [info]
Cloud Cult, Illinois, The Forms @ Bowery Ballroom [tix]
Cloud Cult - "The Will of a Volcano"
Illinois - "Headphones"
The Forms - "Bones"
Telepathe @ Knitting Factory [tix]
Telepathe - "I Can't Stand It"
High Places + Ecstatic Sunshine @ Market Hotel [info]
High Places - "Canary"
Ecstatic Sunshine - "Little Big Dipper"
Exit Clov @ Pete's Candy Store [FREE]
Exit Clov - "Working Class Hero"
Tapes n' Tapes + White Denim @ Irving Plaza [tix]
Tapes n' Tapes - "Headshock"
White Denim - "Mess Your Hair Up"
The Misfits @ Warsaw [tix]
The Misfits - "She"
Saturday April 19th:
Pop Tarts Show @ Galapagos [info]
The Antlers - "Stairs to the Attic"
Fatal Film - "Sick as a Dog"
Mission of Burma @ Solar One [info]
Regina Spektor @ Sound Fix Records [FREE]
Regina Spektor - "Better"
Constantines @ Southpaw [tix]
Constantines - "On to You"
Palomar @ Union Hall [tix]
Palomar - "Bury Me Closer"
Sunday April 20th:
Tokyo Police Club + Smoosh @ Bowery Ballroom [tix]
Tokyo Police Club - "In A Cave"
Smoosh - "Find A Way"
Dark Meat @ Cake Shop [info]
Dark Meat - "Freedom Ritual"
The Good:
Weezer - "Pork and Beans"; To be completely honest with you I was set to pan the new Weezer song before I even heard it. For years I have stood behind Weezer, through hiatuses and "breakups" and refusing to play songs off their best album (Pinkerton) live. Then they released Make Believe and I was pretty sure I was done with the band, but I at least owed it to them to listen to the new tune at least once. Well, it's a pretty awesome return to form for the band and it even takes time to name check Timbaland. Not sure about all the lyrics yet, but the hooks are irresistible.
Scarlett Johannson - "Anywhere I Lay My Head"; I am finding myself absolutely torn with the new Scarlett Johannson song. For years I've been outspoken against celebrities crossing over into music, yet somehow Scarlett is finding her way into my ears. Is here beauty, the fact that she's covering Tom Waits, the beautiful production from Dave Sitek? It could be any of those, but in reality it's probably more a combination of those things. Her voice is intriguing, not overly powerful, but certainly not weak, and the production by Sitek is pretty amazing throughout the track. I guess it's a good introduction to the nascent singer and it certainly gets me at least a little excited to hear the whole album.
Jay Reatard - "Screaming Hand"; Ahhhh the Jay Reatard singles series. I wish Matador would allow us to sign-up for a monthly mailing of these, but I suppose they are just going to be limited editions that I won't be able to get my hands on and I'll be forced to settle for the mp3's. I suppose I'll be okay with that, especially if they're as good as this tune is.
The Subways - "Girls and Boys"; It's been a real long time since we've heard anything from The Subways so I was a bit surprised to see that they had released a new single through their website. What was not a surprise was the fact that the song was absolutely rocking! With some heavy riffage and a bit of a metal vibe to it, it's definitely a song that crosses into an area where few indie bands tend to go. Could be a cool sound to go through a whole album and I'm definitely looking forward to hearing the album after hearing this.
Wolf Parade - "Call It A Ritual"; On first listen I was a bit disappointed by the new Wolf Parade song. Perhaps the waiting had me expecting more then a full-on Spencer Krug tune, but after a few listens the song has really grown on me. It's full of everything we've come to expect from Wolf Parade; bits of choreographed chaos, extensive use of sounds and percussion, and lovely song writing. This is a really good tune and hopefully it's also a true indicator of what we're in for on the new album.
The Cool Kids - "Oscar"; What can be said about the Cool Kids that hasn't already been said? We know they exude a level of hipness that transcends genres. We know they make cool, retro sounding songs. So, is it any surprise that "Oscar" is a hot track, with a crazy vibe to it? I don't think so. Just listen 'cause you know it's the shit.
Lil' Wayne - "Lisa Marie"; With each passing Lil' Wayne release I become more and more accepting of his declaration as "the best rapper alive". I'm not fully in the camp just yet (I tend to like Ghostface, Jay-Z, and Kanye more), but if he continues to release tracks like this I'm gonna be fully sold before long. This is a sweet track from top to bottom.
No Age - "Eraser"; This is the best song I've heard all week, and probably all month. It's noise rock, mellowed. If you've listened to No Age's debut at all you probably have an idea of what they sound like, but this only vaguely sounds like what you know. It's as if someone took No Age and added an Animal Collective on top of it. It's freakin' awesome. No, really. This is an amazing song.
Power Douglas (feat. Tunde Adebimpe) - "Pangea"; This is a crazy song. Yes, it is crazy good, but it's also completely insane. Crazy distorted vocals, trippy music, and ending with a moan and a telephone ring, this a really odd track. But sometimes odd is a good thing and this happens to be one of those cases.
The Bad:
Tristan Prettyman - "New Soul"; I got this song in a press release the other day and I after only one listen I had it stuck inside my head for hours. No matter how loud I blasted something else, no matter how many times I bashed my head against the wall, regardless of what I did it would not come out! I am so sick of this song at this point! It is too damn catchy, no matter who's singing it! Yes, this girl has a very lovely voice, but this song is grating itself against my soul at this point! If I hear too many more times I'll be left with a nub for a soul and some sort of brain damage!
Joseph Arthur - "Nothin 2 Hide";
I'm not understanding what everyone is hearing in Joesph Arthur's music. It's a bit bland and definitely way too similar to a lot of acts out there. I also don't like the number replacing the word "to", but that's not as important as my inability to comprehend people's enjoyment of this music.
Video of the Week:
New Bloods - "Doubles"
Weezer - "Pork and Beans"; To be completely honest with you I was set to pan the new Weezer song before I even heard it. For years I have stood behind Weezer, through hiatuses and "breakups" and refusing to play songs off their best album (Pinkerton) live. Then they released Make Believe and I was pretty sure I was done with the band, but I at least owed it to them to listen to the new tune at least once. Well, it's a pretty awesome return to form for the band and it even takes time to name check Timbaland. Not sure about all the lyrics yet, but the hooks are irresistible.
Scarlett Johannson - "Anywhere I Lay My Head"; I am finding myself absolutely torn with the new Scarlett Johannson song. For years I've been outspoken against celebrities crossing over into music, yet somehow Scarlett is finding her way into my ears. Is here beauty, the fact that she's covering Tom Waits, the beautiful production from Dave Sitek? It could be any of those, but in reality it's probably more a combination of those things. Her voice is intriguing, not overly powerful, but certainly not weak, and the production by Sitek is pretty amazing throughout the track. I guess it's a good introduction to the nascent singer and it certainly gets me at least a little excited to hear the whole album.
Jay Reatard - "Screaming Hand"; Ahhhh the Jay Reatard singles series. I wish Matador would allow us to sign-up for a monthly mailing of these, but I suppose they are just going to be limited editions that I won't be able to get my hands on and I'll be forced to settle for the mp3's. I suppose I'll be okay with that, especially if they're as good as this tune is.
The Subways - "Girls and Boys"; It's been a real long time since we've heard anything from The Subways so I was a bit surprised to see that they had released a new single through their website. What was not a surprise was the fact that the song was absolutely rocking! With some heavy riffage and a bit of a metal vibe to it, it's definitely a song that crosses into an area where few indie bands tend to go. Could be a cool sound to go through a whole album and I'm definitely looking forward to hearing the album after hearing this.
Wolf Parade - "Call It A Ritual"; On first listen I was a bit disappointed by the new Wolf Parade song. Perhaps the waiting had me expecting more then a full-on Spencer Krug tune, but after a few listens the song has really grown on me. It's full of everything we've come to expect from Wolf Parade; bits of choreographed chaos, extensive use of sounds and percussion, and lovely song writing. This is a really good tune and hopefully it's also a true indicator of what we're in for on the new album.
The Cool Kids - "Oscar"; What can be said about the Cool Kids that hasn't already been said? We know they exude a level of hipness that transcends genres. We know they make cool, retro sounding songs. So, is it any surprise that "Oscar" is a hot track, with a crazy vibe to it? I don't think so. Just listen 'cause you know it's the shit.
Lil' Wayne - "Lisa Marie"; With each passing Lil' Wayne release I become more and more accepting of his declaration as "the best rapper alive". I'm not fully in the camp just yet (I tend to like Ghostface, Jay-Z, and Kanye more), but if he continues to release tracks like this I'm gonna be fully sold before long. This is a sweet track from top to bottom.
No Age - "Eraser"; This is the best song I've heard all week, and probably all month. It's noise rock, mellowed. If you've listened to No Age's debut at all you probably have an idea of what they sound like, but this only vaguely sounds like what you know. It's as if someone took No Age and added an Animal Collective on top of it. It's freakin' awesome. No, really. This is an amazing song.
Power Douglas (feat. Tunde Adebimpe) - "Pangea"; This is a crazy song. Yes, it is crazy good, but it's also completely insane. Crazy distorted vocals, trippy music, and ending with a moan and a telephone ring, this a really odd track. But sometimes odd is a good thing and this happens to be one of those cases.
The Bad:
Tristan Prettyman - "New Soul"; I got this song in a press release the other day and I after only one listen I had it stuck inside my head for hours. No matter how loud I blasted something else, no matter how many times I bashed my head against the wall, regardless of what I did it would not come out! I am so sick of this song at this point! It is too damn catchy, no matter who's singing it! Yes, this girl has a very lovely voice, but this song is grating itself against my soul at this point! If I hear too many more times I'll be left with a nub for a soul and some sort of brain damage!
Joseph Arthur - "Nothin 2 Hide";
I'm not understanding what everyone is hearing in Joesph Arthur's music. It's a bit bland and definitely way too similar to a lot of acts out there. I also don't like the number replacing the word "to", but that's not as important as my inability to comprehend people's enjoyment of this music.
Video of the Week:
New Bloods - "Doubles"
I've been doing my band of the week piece for quite a while now and have profiled a ton of bands in doing it, but it isn't very often that I know nothing of a band's history when I write about them but that's the case with Foxboro Hot Tubs. I have no idea where this brand new band came from, all I know is that their album landed on my lap this week and I just can't stop listening to. There's something to be said about doing a retro sound well, and the Foxboro Hot Tubs do just that. With tunes that sound like they are ripped from the garage band era of the 50's and 60's, Foxboro might just be bringing the sound back from the dead. There are points on their debut album, Stop, Drop, and Roll!!! that remind me so much of some of the punk bands from the mid-90's, but it still gives off and older vibe for the most part. Their's elements of garage, surf rock, punk, and pop music all over the album, which is leading me to believe that the band is from California but I can't confirm or deny that. There are times where I swear the singer has the exact same snarl as Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, but then they change up it just enough to make me think that it's not him.
Regardless of where this band is from or what they've done in the past, this is a damn fine album with some seriously catchy songs. If you haven't listened to it yet make sure you grab it off of iTunes ASAP, and if you have info on this band please feel free to send it along!
Foxboro Hot Tubs - "Stop, Drop, and Roll!!!"
Foxboro Hot Tubs - "Red Tide"
Foxboro Hot Tubs - "Sally"
"After the Jump is proud to be sponsoring The Music Slut’s party this coming Friday, the 18th, at 205 Club. The party is a part of their Straight on till Morning series- parties without pretension, totally relaxed, totally fun. Our After the Jump pals will be giving out goodie bags and free pairs of tickets to see The Cave Singers, Adam Green, The Long Blondes and The Teenagers at the show, easily worth more than the $5 admission fee.
Performing is After the Jump favorite Alan Astor, underage phenoms Marxwall and the increasingly legendary Brad Walsh djing. Come early for the free loot, stay late for the shenanigans."
Movies:
300; Since I first saw the preview for 300 I have been yearning to see it. Sure I wasn't yearning enough to out to the theaters and see or to go out and buy it on DVD when it first came out, but I finally got it on my Netflix and I'm really glad I did. The movies is visually stunning, exciting, and a total man movie as was proven by Rachael's complete indifference to the film (she spent most of it on the computer, while I was totally wrapped up in it). It's obviously not the smartest movie or deserving of any Oscars (save for special effects of course, which were awesome) but it was an exciting 2-hours of movie watching and I'd probably watch it again and again if given the chance. I could see 300 becoming the type of movie that if it's on TV on a Saturday afternoon I won't be able to tear myself away. It's that type of movie.
Bottle Rocket; So I have a semi-embarrassing confession to make - I have never seen Wes Anderson's directorial debut Bottle Rocket. Well that is I hadn't seen it until Saturday night. It was a huge gap in my movie watching history, especially since I became a huge Wes Anderson fan when he released Rushmore. But at last I have filled in the gap, and I have to say this is a damn good move. You have the brother's Wilson, Owen honing his trademarked character and Luke given probably his best performance outside of Old School, you have James Caan always a good things, and you have a soundtrack scored by Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh. Aside from those things it's a damn funny movie, mildly romantic (not a romantic comedy though, at least I don't think it is), and a wildly imaginative plot. It's a good film that reminded me a lot of Raising Arizona but didn't tread too closely to that classic's story. I really liked it, and if you haven't seen I'd suggest you fill in the gap in your own movie watching.
Mark Mothersbaugh - "Snowflake Music"
Television:
The Office (Season 4, Episode 13); Welcome back Michael, Dwight, Jan, Jim, Pam, and everyone else at The Office! We've missed you dearly in the time you've been away, even though your hour long episodes at the beginning of this season kind of sucked balls. Anyway, you've returned and you returned with the same awkward humor that we've adored for so long! This week's episode was beautifully awkward, making me wince several times over, and almost making me feel guilty for watching such crazy, intimate moments. (Spoilers Ahead!!!) My absolute favorite parts were Michael lying on "his bed" and Angela slapping the ice cream on Andy's car after he kissed her on the cheek! Hilarious stuff!!! Can't wait to see what you have in store for us this week!
The Scrantones - "The Office Theme"
30 Rock (Season 2, Episode 11); Not only has The Office returned, but 30 Rock is back and boy is it back in form immediately. Centered around a fictional reality show called "MILF Island" the episode played like a reality show, with Liz Lemon portraying the contestant and Jack holding all the cards tight to his vest. Witty, ireverant, and absolutely hysterical, this episode had it all and a guest appearance by Human Giant's Rob Huebel. Excellent welcome back to the show right here!
Torchwood (Season 2, Episode 12); On the penultimate episode of the season, Torchwood finally hit the stride it consistently hit in the first season. An episode with a limited amount of action, but a huge amount of revealing information on each of the characters. We got see how Jack got recruited to Torchwood, that Owen was once engaged, Tosh's espionage past, and Ianto's determination to join the gang. It was a cool episode and it was nice to get to know our characters a little better, but the key to the episode (Spoiler Alert!!!) was the setup to next week's season finale. Apparently John Hart (aka James Marsters) placed the bombs that setup their flash backs and is determined to wreak havoc next week! Should make for an excellent season finale!
South Park (Season 12, Episode 5); Not bad guys, not bad. After a few down weeks it looks as if South Park may finally be getting its groove back. The episode centered around main characters, had some funny moments, some pop culture references, and certainly made me laugh far more then any other episode this season, but it's still not quite back to midseason form yet. It's getting there though and that's definitely a good sign and hopefully they'll be able to build on it tonight. Also, nice to have Mr. Garrison as a true man again.
Music Links this Week:
- Pitchfork interviewed Spoon on Monday.
- Deerhunter played a secret show this passed weekend, playing their entire new album for their fans to hear and a cover of Pylon's "Cool". Merry Swankster has a video of the cover!
- The Village Voice interviewed David Berman, the brains behind The Silver Jews.
- Peter Moren, ye of Peter Bjorn and John fame, recorded a Daytrotter session for us.
- Largehearted Boy lists the new releases being streamed this week.
- Man Man rocked the Brooklyn Masonic Temple on Friday, and You Ain't No Picasso had a chance to sit down with their front man Honus Honus.
- John Darnielle's 33 1/3 book on Black Sabbath's Master of Reality was released yesterday!
- Gothamist interviewed Pop Tart's faves Jukebox the Ghost.
- The Onion's AV Club reveals the 20 respectable rock and rap acts that peaked too soon. (Awesome list!)
300; Since I first saw the preview for 300 I have been yearning to see it. Sure I wasn't yearning enough to out to the theaters and see or to go out and buy it on DVD when it first came out, but I finally got it on my Netflix and I'm really glad I did. The movies is visually stunning, exciting, and a total man movie as was proven by Rachael's complete indifference to the film (she spent most of it on the computer, while I was totally wrapped up in it). It's obviously not the smartest movie or deserving of any Oscars (save for special effects of course, which were awesome) but it was an exciting 2-hours of movie watching and I'd probably watch it again and again if given the chance. I could see 300 becoming the type of movie that if it's on TV on a Saturday afternoon I won't be able to tear myself away. It's that type of movie. 
Bottle Rocket; So I have a semi-embarrassing confession to make - I have never seen Wes Anderson's directorial debut Bottle Rocket. Well that is I hadn't seen it until Saturday night. It was a huge gap in my movie watching history, especially since I became a huge Wes Anderson fan when he released Rushmore. But at last I have filled in the gap, and I have to say this is a damn good move. You have the brother's Wilson, Owen honing his trademarked character and Luke given probably his best performance outside of Old School, you have James Caan always a good things, and you have a soundtrack scored by Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh. Aside from those things it's a damn funny movie, mildly romantic (not a romantic comedy though, at least I don't think it is), and a wildly imaginative plot. It's a good film that reminded me a lot of Raising Arizona but didn't tread too closely to that classic's story. I really liked it, and if you haven't seen I'd suggest you fill in the gap in your own movie watching. Mark Mothersbaugh - "Snowflake Music"
Television:
The Office (Season 4, Episode 13); Welcome back Michael, Dwight, Jan, Jim, Pam, and everyone else at The Office! We've missed you dearly in the time you've been away, even though your hour long episodes at the beginning of this season kind of sucked balls. Anyway, you've returned and you returned with the same awkward humor that we've adored for so long! This week's episode was beautifully awkward, making me wince several times over, and almost making me feel guilty for watching such crazy, intimate moments. (Spoilers Ahead!!!) My absolute favorite parts were Michael lying on "his bed" and Angela slapping the ice cream on Andy's car after he kissed her on the cheek! Hilarious stuff!!! Can't wait to see what you have in store for us this week! The Scrantones - "The Office Theme"
30 Rock (Season 2, Episode 11); Not only has The Office returned, but 30 Rock is back and boy is it back in form immediately. Centered around a fictional reality show called "MILF Island" the episode played like a reality show, with Liz Lemon portraying the contestant and Jack holding all the cards tight to his vest. Witty, ireverant, and absolutely hysterical, this episode had it all and a guest appearance by Human Giant's Rob Huebel. Excellent welcome back to the show right here!
Torchwood (Season 2, Episode 12); On the penultimate episode of the season, Torchwood finally hit the stride it consistently hit in the first season. An episode with a limited amount of action, but a huge amount of revealing information on each of the characters. We got see how Jack got recruited to Torchwood, that Owen was once engaged, Tosh's espionage past, and Ianto's determination to join the gang. It was a cool episode and it was nice to get to know our characters a little better, but the key to the episode (Spoiler Alert!!!) was the setup to next week's season finale. Apparently John Hart (aka James Marsters) placed the bombs that setup their flash backs and is determined to wreak havoc next week! Should make for an excellent season finale!
South Park (Season 12, Episode 5); Not bad guys, not bad. After a few down weeks it looks as if South Park may finally be getting its groove back. The episode centered around main characters, had some funny moments, some pop culture references, and certainly made me laugh far more then any other episode this season, but it's still not quite back to midseason form yet. It's getting there though and that's definitely a good sign and hopefully they'll be able to build on it tonight. Also, nice to have Mr. Garrison as a true man again. Music Links this Week:
- Pitchfork interviewed Spoon on Monday.
- Deerhunter played a secret show this passed weekend, playing their entire new album for their fans to hear and a cover of Pylon's "Cool". Merry Swankster has a video of the cover!
- The Village Voice interviewed David Berman, the brains behind The Silver Jews.
- Peter Moren, ye of Peter Bjorn and John fame, recorded a Daytrotter session for us.
- Largehearted Boy lists the new releases being streamed this week.
- Man Man rocked the Brooklyn Masonic Temple on Friday, and You Ain't No Picasso had a chance to sit down with their front man Honus Honus.
- John Darnielle's 33 1/3 book on Black Sabbath's Master of Reality was released yesterday!
- Gothamist interviewed Pop Tart's faves Jukebox the Ghost.
- The Onion's AV Club reveals the 20 respectable rock and rap acts that peaked too soon. (Awesome list!)
Going to punk shows during the mid to late 90's it was a common occurance to have your "punkness" questioned. People would routinely come up to you and berate you for liking the band you were both in attendance to see and then ask you what other punk bands you were into. Looking back on it now makes it seem like the most inane bullshit I've ever come across in my show going life and I have no idea how I put up with it back then. Luckily for me though I had a back pocket full of answers ranging from the terribly obvious like The Ramones and The Clash to the "correct" answers like Husker Du, Black Flag, and The Descendents. They were the classics, just underground enough to be cool. It's strange to me though that the first time I heard a song from the Descendents was when Sublime covered "Hope" on 40oz. to Freedom. Yeah, that was my first exposure to the band, but it didn't take much for me to become an addict of the nerdy hardcore band.Only a couple of years after hearing that cover the Descendents released Everything Sucks, the first album I actually owned from the Descendents. That album blew my freakin' mind at the time. Barely any songs clocked in at over 2-minutes long, with everything on it being propelled by furious drumming and angry vocals. It helped that lead singer Milo Aukerman was a bit of a nerd, kind of like I was, and he truly rocked it out. As much as I liked Everything Sucks it didn't hold a candle to the earlier stuff.
After tracing my steps back I started listening to the older Descendents records like All, I Don't Wanna Grow Up, and of course the absolute classic of their discography Milo Goes to College. It seemed with each step I took back the band got better, more in your face, and a lot more aggressive, and Milo Goes to College is the apex of all those things in the entire Descendents catalog. Milo is on the top of his form blending his adolescent angst with his brains, throwing the finger to everyone and anything at once, while the rest of the band bashes and thrashes on their instruments. It's an awesome blend, and even better when you're in your teenage years listening to it. Just picture how pissed off you were when you were 16 and 17-years old, then put this record on and see how well they go together. It's uncanny.
I guess the only redeeming quality of the "how punk are you really" question is the fact that it may have helped open doors to bands like the Descendents that had all but disappeared before your time. It allowed you to find out where all this music came from, and I guess that may have been it's ultimate point as well. It's still a stupid sentiment, but at least I have albums like Milo Goes to College because of it!
The Descendents - "Myage"
The Descendents - "Parents"
The Descendents - "M-16"
The Descendents - "I'm Not A Punk"
The Descendents - "Bikeage"
Who: The Black AngelsLocation: Austin, TX
elbo.ws Rank: #37
Thoughts: I've really been trying to get into The Black Angels. People have been talking them up and the word of mouth led me to believe that it would be something I'd enjoy, but each time I put the album on I find myself drifting away, completely bored with it, and searching for something else to listens to. That's not to say the album doesn't have its upsides though. There's impressive musicianship all over it, but to me it sounds similar and too balnd to hang around very long. I'm sure there are folks that would enjoy this immensely, I'm just not one of those people I suppose.
Verdict: Not Buzzworthy
Listen: The Black Angels - "You On the Run"
The Black Angels - "You In Color"
For some reason the land of Scotland makes some beautifully passonate musicians. Last year we were introduced to a pair of bands from Scotland that released beautiufl, passionate music that absolutely captured our hearts. The Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit both burst onto the scene and made immediate impacts with their impassioned cries and mournful brogues. Frightened Rabbit are already following up their beautiful introduction with another amazing album, loaded with passionate lyrics and sorrowful music. Unlike The Twilight Sad, Frightened Rabbit do things with a little less noise, but its no less powerful.On The Midnight Organ Fight the Scotish trio are once again creating sounds that impose themselves within your soul. Its dark, its impassioned, and its perfectly melodic. Without a bass player the drums maintain frantic rhtyhms throughout the album, keeping the pace for the words to be heard. Its an amazing piece of work for the Frightened Rabbit's drummer as he shows off some amazing beat skills without ever overpowering the rest of the music. Everything else seems to build from the sound of the drums, swirling guitars, sorrowful singing, it all stems from the steady beats and it all works together to create a sound that is emotional and catchy at once.
I don't know what's in the water in Scotland, but for some reason it seems every bit of pop music that comes from there has a dark cloud laying over it and The Midnight Organ Fight certainly doesn't change that appearance. But as sad as the words can be the music is always terribly catchy giving it a bit of a dischordant feel, yet it works together somehow. This is an excellent sophomore release and its something you should pickup and listen to immediately!
Frightened Rabbit - "The Modern Leper"
Frightened Rabbit - "Keep Yourself Warm"
This is it folks, the announcement for a brand new monthly series curated by yours truly and Ben Johnson, music editor for the AWE section of the Staten Island Advance. Now I know you are grimacing at the thought of another monthly music series but ours is a bit different so please bear with me. Basically we will be throwing a monthly show, but shifting between Brooklyn and Staten Island from month to month. We're looking to expand the scene in Staten Island and bring some of our beloved Staten Island bands to slightly bigger audience in Brooklyn. And we're hoping you guys will like it!
So anyway here's what we got on tap for our first installment. We should probably come up with a name, but we are only music writers so we'll leave the creative stuff to creative people. Here's the details...
When: April 19th 2008, 9pm
Where: Galapagos, 70 North 6th, Brooklyn, NY
Cost: $6
Who's Playing:
The Antlers
The Heavenly Tenants
Conversion Party
Fatal Film
Plus: DJ sets by Paul Bruno (after the bands till mad late!)
Comedy between bands from Mancrush
Phew, that's a mouthful. I'll have more on this all week so be prepared to be inundated by information about this show. Oh and just so you know, the first Staten Island show will be held May 2nd with details to follow so mark your calendars now!!!
Who: IslandsTitle: Arm's Way
Label: Anti-
Release Date: May 20th
Thoughts: The second Islands' album, Arm's Way, finds the band once again in the middle of some pretty significant changes. On their debut album, the band was of course morphing from being Unicorns to Islands, and they did a pretty fantastic job making the transition on Return to the Sea. This time around the band finds themselves moving into a world without Jamie Thompson and to a new, larger sound. The changes between Return to the Sea and Arm's Way are no less usccessful though, as the band is proving they are a force to be reckoned with. Arm's Way is a sprwaling masterpiece of music, larger in scope then anything the band has done, but no less rooted in pop music then they have been in the past. The songs are still singable and catchy, but behind the lyrics there is a massive orchestral sound that is bigger then anything Nick Thorburn or the rest of the group have done before. On Return to the Sea, Islands spent most of the album exploring varying sounds, but here on Arm's Way the band has a very defined, progressive sound that might be a little disconcerting at first. After repeated exposure to the music though you may find yourself attaching yourself more to this thanks to the consistency found throughout the album. It's a damn fine record and something I'm gonna be spinning a lot for the next few weeks.
Listen: Islands - "The Arm"
Islands - "Abominable Snow"
Who: Flight of the ConchordsTitle: Flight of the Conchords
Label: Sub Pop
Release Date: April 22nd
Thoughts: I'm kind of surprised by the tracks chosen for Flight of the Conchords self-titled debut. All but one of the songs has already been featured on the show, making it immediately familiar, but lacking the initial impact those songs had on us. The lone hold-out is the last track a song called "Au Revoir", which is a total of 22-seconds long. Not exactly sparking the newness factor most albums have. Still, the draw of Flight of the Conchords, and the strength and humor found in these songs make this one of the strongest musical comedy albums in ages. If you've been following the show you'll probably be singing along on the first run through, but even if you haven't it won't take you long to fall in love with Bret and Jemaine like so many other people have already. It's a damn good album, and I challenge you to find any other music that makes you laugh this much.
Listen: Flight of the Conchords (feat. Rhys Darby) - "Leggy Blonde"
Flight of the Conchords - "Boom"
Monday: Jukebox the Ghost @ Southpaw 7:30pm $12
Even though they aren't officially residents of New York I think a case can be made that we are officially stealing Jukebox the Ghost from D.C.. The band plays here seemingly all the time and gets huge crowds to show up for them. Of course they're not actually headlining this show, some other band that Rachael love is, but they are the big draw in my eyes!
Jukebox the Ghost - "Victoria"
Tuesday: Casiotone for the Painfully Alone @ Knitting Factory 8pm $8
Not enough people are talking about Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. This is one of the best acts out there right now and somehow they've managed to fly under the radar for quite some time. Hopefully, things will start to change and people will finally start paying attention, beginning with your attendance of this show!
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - "Half Ghost"
Wednesday: Yacht + Parts & Labor @ Studio B 8pm $10
Two bands that can make you sweaty hit the stage at Studio B just as the weather is getting warmer. If you are type that likes wearing shorts I would suggest you break them out for this show, unless of course the temperature drops back down again which is certainly possible.
Yacht - "See A Penny (Pick It Up)"
Parts & Labor - "Camera Shy"
Thursday: Dan Deacon @ Ridgewood Temple 8pm $tba
I have no idea where Ridgewood Temple is, but I think I might be checking HopStop to get some directions since the always awesome Dan Deacon will be stopping by there. After this Dan doesn't have any other New York shows listed so make sure you get there or you may have to wait a month or two before you can see him again!
Dan Deacon - "Woody Woodpecker"
Friday: High Places + Ecstatic Sunshine @ Market Hotel 9:30pm $8
Two excellent bands, one small venue. I'm probably gonna pass 'cause I've seen High Places a shit load of times already, but if you haven't get your asses there!
High Places - "Canary"
Ecstatic Sunshine - "Little Big Dipper"
Saturday: Pop Tarts Suck Toasted + AWE Present @ Galapagos 9pm $6
You may have heard that I'm co-presenting a show this Friday! We have some awesome bands, we have a great DJ that will be spinning classics till late, we have an improv group between bands, we have pretty much everything you need to have a great time on a Saturday night. All we need is you $6 so we can pay all these fantastic people! I'll see you there!!!!
The Antlers - "Stairs to the Attic"
...before that Regina Spektor @ Sound Fix Records 12:30pm FREE
Today is Record Store Day, a celebration that probably should be decades old but is only in its first year of existence. No matter, record stores around the country will be making up for lost time with a ton of different unique performances. Other Music has a bunch of acts DJing in the store all day including members of Interpol, but I think Sound Fix trumps them with an in-cafe performance from Regina Spektor. I have a feeling this is going be beyond anything we've seen at Sound Fix before, which is really saying something. Make sure you get there early, but not earlier then me!!!
Regina Spektor - "Better"
Sunday: Tokyo Police Club + Smoosh @ Bowery Ballroom 8pm $17
It seems like it's taken forever but Tokyo Police Club are finally releasing their full length debut! To support that release the band is doing a bunch of dates including three here in New York. This is the first and with support from the teenage girls of Smoosh it's sure to be a good one. Get your tickets ASAP!
Tokyo Police Club - "In A Cave"
Smoosh - "Find A Way"
Even though they aren't officially residents of New York I think a case can be made that we are officially stealing Jukebox the Ghost from D.C.. The band plays here seemingly all the time and gets huge crowds to show up for them. Of course they're not actually headlining this show, some other band that Rachael love is, but they are the big draw in my eyes!
Jukebox the Ghost - "Victoria"
Tuesday: Casiotone for the Painfully Alone @ Knitting Factory 8pm $8
Not enough people are talking about Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. This is one of the best acts out there right now and somehow they've managed to fly under the radar for quite some time. Hopefully, things will start to change and people will finally start paying attention, beginning with your attendance of this show!
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - "Half Ghost"
Wednesday: Yacht + Parts & Labor @ Studio B 8pm $10
Two bands that can make you sweaty hit the stage at Studio B just as the weather is getting warmer. If you are type that likes wearing shorts I would suggest you break them out for this show, unless of course the temperature drops back down again which is certainly possible.
Yacht - "See A Penny (Pick It Up)"
Parts & Labor - "Camera Shy"
Thursday: Dan Deacon @ Ridgewood Temple 8pm $tba
I have no idea where Ridgewood Temple is, but I think I might be checking HopStop to get some directions since the always awesome Dan Deacon will be stopping by there. After this Dan doesn't have any other New York shows listed so make sure you get there or you may have to wait a month or two before you can see him again!
Dan Deacon - "Woody Woodpecker"
Friday: High Places + Ecstatic Sunshine @ Market Hotel 9:30pm $8
Two excellent bands, one small venue. I'm probably gonna pass 'cause I've seen High Places a shit load of times already, but if you haven't get your asses there!
High Places - "Canary"
Ecstatic Sunshine - "Little Big Dipper"
Saturday: Pop Tarts Suck Toasted + AWE Present @ Galapagos 9pm $6
You may have heard that I'm co-presenting a show this Friday! We have some awesome bands, we have a great DJ that will be spinning classics till late, we have an improv group between bands, we have pretty much everything you need to have a great time on a Saturday night. All we need is you $6 so we can pay all these fantastic people! I'll see you there!!!!
The Antlers - "Stairs to the Attic"
...before that Regina Spektor @ Sound Fix Records 12:30pm FREE
Today is Record Store Day, a celebration that probably should be decades old but is only in its first year of existence. No matter, record stores around the country will be making up for lost time with a ton of different unique performances. Other Music has a bunch of acts DJing in the store all day including members of Interpol, but I think Sound Fix trumps them with an in-cafe performance from Regina Spektor. I have a feeling this is going be beyond anything we've seen at Sound Fix before, which is really saying something. Make sure you get there early, but not earlier then me!!!
Regina Spektor - "Better"
Sunday: Tokyo Police Club + Smoosh @ Bowery Ballroom 8pm $17
It seems like it's taken forever but Tokyo Police Club are finally releasing their full length debut! To support that release the band is doing a bunch of dates including three here in New York. This is the first and with support from the teenage girls of Smoosh it's sure to be a good one. Get your tickets ASAP!
Tokyo Police Club - "In A Cave"
Smoosh - "Find A Way"
The first time I ever saw Man Man play they were opening for The Fiery Furnaces at Webster Hall. I was there primarily to see the Furnaces perform material off of whatever album they were promoting at the time, and I have barely even heard of Man Man. Yet there was a crowd there just to see Man Man perform, and their explosvie performance that night made me a fan for life. Not only did they make me a fan for life, but the completely blew The Fiery Furnaces out of the water, something I didn't think was possible before that night. Since that night Man Man has been blowing bigger headliners off the stages everywhere they go. Their set is just so dynamic, so full of energy, that it's impossible not to get wrapped up into it, so it's a good thing for other acts that Man Man has finally graduated to headlining because it's an impossible act to follow.
Friday night at Brooklyn's Masonic Temple Man Man kicked off a tour with Yeasayer and once again proved themselves to be one of the best live bands on the planet. While I didn't care much for Brooklyn's Yeasayer, the band did seem to get the crowd warmed up nicely for the main attraction. I spent most of that time outside, but not every band will be my cup of tea. When Yeasayer finally stopped the mood shifted a bit as The Beach Boys' "Kokomo" began playing over the loud speaker. It would play half a dozen times before switching to Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy", which played for a dozen times itself. As this aural torutre was going on Man Man were setting up in their familiar, tight knit fashion. Each time the opening whistle was belted out of the speakers the crowd would groan, while the members of Man Man chcukled to themselves. It was funny and it showed another way in which Man Man will be topping other bands through their aural torment before they give you the tunes you actually want to hear.
When McFarrin had finally sung his last note the band took the stage in their off-white outfits and proceeded to blow minds. People down on the floor went nuts jumping and singing along with every word that was sung and note that was played. The band tore through a set of new and old tunes that seemed to appease every fan in attendance. There were notbale omissions from the new set list, but anytime a beloved song had been removed it had been replaced by a new and equally invigorating song. The band bounced from instrument to instrument as they usually do, creating their strange sounds, and making the fans go crazy throughout.It was another great performance from a band that has become my favorite live act in recent years. It's difficult to top something like this, when the whole crowd is moving as one, when the fans are having as much fun as the band, when everyone is leaving the hall not caring about the rain that's falling but wishing there were more songs to dance along to. The one draw back of the venue is that it has a curfew. By midnight the music was done playing after a one song encore. It was the only down moment of a fantastic Friday night.
Who: !!!
When: July 27th
Where: Music Hall of Williamsburg
More Dates
Listen: !!! - "All My Heroes Are Weirdos"
Thoughts: I don't believe I've ever heard a negative word spoken about a !!! performance, and more times then not all I hear are raves. Maybe that should be enough motivation for me to finally check out this band live.
Who: Flight of the Conchords
When: May 6th + May 7th
Where: Town Hall
More Dates
Listen: Flight of the Conchords - "I'm Not Crying"
Thoughts: New Zeland's fourth most poular folk duo are hitting our shores again. Of course over here they are one of the few things most of us know about New Zealand, and they are awesome. I really hope I can get myself a ticket for one of these shows!
Who: The Ting Tings
When: June 18th + June 20th
Where: Bowery Ballroom + Southpaw
More Dates
Listen: The Ting Tings - "That's Not My Name"
Thoughts: Okay so I'm gonna go ahead and judge a book by it's cover here since I know nothing about The Ting Tings. It seems to me this group is all hype, and because of that I'm pretty much avoiding everything about them. Sure I may be missing out, and I may learn not to judge a band before hearing them, but I'm holding out a bit longer.
Who: Blondie
When: June 20th
Where: Nokia Theater
More Dates
Listen: Blondie - "Heart of Glass"
Thoughts: Blondie will be heading on tour to celebrate their 30th Anniversary. No word on if this is the whole band, or just Deborah Harry and so no name folks.
Who: The Eagles
When: May 28th + May 30th
Where: Madison Square Garden
More Dates
Listen: The Eagles - "My Man"
Thoughts: "Welcome to the Hotel California...", yeah that's all I have to say about that.
Who: Rock Central Plaza + Plants and Animals
When: May 17th
Where: Union Hall
More Dates
Listen: Rock Central Plaza - "My Children, Be Joyful"
Plants and Animals - "New Kind of Love"
Thoughts: I'm kind of surprised that these bands are playing Union Hall together, but I'll take it! Two very solid bands in one small venue should make for a good time. I have seen Rock Plaza Central and they were a little on the boring side, but something tells me that was due to it being at the Seaport and not because of the band. Though I could be wrong about that.
When: July 27th
Where: Music Hall of Williamsburg
More Dates
Listen: !!! - "All My Heroes Are Weirdos"
Thoughts: I don't believe I've ever heard a negative word spoken about a !!! performance, and more times then not all I hear are raves. Maybe that should be enough motivation for me to finally check out this band live.
Who: Flight of the Conchords
When: May 6th + May 7th
Where: Town Hall
More Dates
Listen: Flight of the Conchords - "I'm Not Crying"
Thoughts: New Zeland's fourth most poular folk duo are hitting our shores again. Of course over here they are one of the few things most of us know about New Zealand, and they are awesome. I really hope I can get myself a ticket for one of these shows!
Who: The Ting Tings
When: June 18th + June 20th
Where: Bowery Ballroom + Southpaw
More Dates
Listen: The Ting Tings - "That's Not My Name"
Thoughts: Okay so I'm gonna go ahead and judge a book by it's cover here since I know nothing about The Ting Tings. It seems to me this group is all hype, and because of that I'm pretty much avoiding everything about them. Sure I may be missing out, and I may learn not to judge a band before hearing them, but I'm holding out a bit longer.
Who: Blondie
When: June 20th
Where: Nokia Theater
More Dates
Listen: Blondie - "Heart of Glass"
Thoughts: Blondie will be heading on tour to celebrate their 30th Anniversary. No word on if this is the whole band, or just Deborah Harry and so no name folks.
Who: The Eagles
When: May 28th + May 30th
Where: Madison Square Garden
More Dates
Listen: The Eagles - "My Man"
Thoughts: "Welcome to the Hotel California...", yeah that's all I have to say about that.
Who: Rock Central Plaza + Plants and Animals
When: May 17th
Where: Union Hall
More Dates
Listen: Rock Central Plaza - "My Children, Be Joyful"
Plants and Animals - "New Kind of Love"
Thoughts: I'm kind of surprised that these bands are playing Union Hall together, but I'll take it! Two very solid bands in one small venue should make for a good time. I have seen Rock Plaza Central and they were a little on the boring side, but something tells me that was due to it being at the Seaport and not because of the band. Though I could be wrong about that.
A few years ago I missed out on all the reunion shows from the Pixies. I was bummed, it seemed my last chance to see the band had come and gone, and Kim Deal's repeated remarks against Black Francis have done nothing to rebut my fears. So I think I'm listening to the new album from Deal's other band, The Breeders, with a bit of hatred and resentment. It's kind of like my brain is going, "Wow, a new Breeders album. That's cool. Where's a new freakin' Pixies album Ms. Deal!" How else can I explain everyone else's love of Mountain Battles and my complete indifference towards it. Sure there are some sweet spots to the album, but mostly I find myself drifting away and paying less and less attention to the music each time I put it on. Maybe someday I'll get over my anger about not seeing the Pixies, and maybe then I'll be able to truly appreciate this album, but until then I think this is gonna be collecting a lot of dust on the shelf.The Breeders - "Overglazed"
The Breeders - "Bang On"
A few months ago I got to catch Peter Moren doing one of his earlier solo shows. It was a bit of an odd evening, with Peter stumbling through his songs occasionally but somehow pushing through. The same is true with his debut solo album The Last Tycoon, which is littered with cute folk moments, but falls over itself once in a while. Throughout the songs here Moren stumbled over some weak rhymes, struggles to hit notes, and proves that he might have been better off doing something with Bjorn and John, but while he's making all these mistakes there's also something redeeming about all of it and that is the earnesty that's found in what should be considered a vanity project. Moren sings every line on this album, no matter how poorly written, with a passion that few singers could match. Never mind that his voice isn't the strongest out there, it's stretched to it's max here as he swims in the emotion of his songs. That alone merits a few listens, and though it'll never be as enjoyable to me as Writer's Block, it certainly has a place in my heart.Peter Moren - "Reel to Real"
Peter Moren - "Social Competence"
Friday April 11th:
Man Man - "Top Drawer"
Yeasayer - "2080"
Pissed Jeans - "People Person"
AIDS Wolf - "We Multiply"
The Weakerthans - "Aside"
Deerhunter - "Spring Hall Convert"
Nada Surf - "Popular"
These United States - "Burn This Bridge"
Saturday April 12th:
Flying - "Falling Leaves"
Hot Chip - "Ready for the Floor"
Free Blood - "The Royal Family"
Thurshes - "The Hardest Part"
Wye Oak - "I Don't Feel Young"
Deer Tick - "Diamond Rings"
Sunday April 12th:
Deer Tick - "These Old Shoes"
Castanets - "Mental Revenge"
Titus Andronicus - "No Future"
The Good:
King Khan and the Shrines - "Torture"; This song has been around for a while, but since the album is being re-released on a shiny new label we get to listen to it like it were brand new all over again! Oh, and it still freaking rocks!
Matmos - "Rainbow Flag"; The lead single from Matmos' brand new album is about everything you would expect from Matmos. Trance like beats, crazy sounds, all funneled together to give you a complete aural experience. It's pretty good, and if it's a sign of how the album is gonna be, well get excited now.
Neva Dinova - "Clouds"; I wouldn't normally expect myself to enjoy something like this. It's a little too Americana for my normal tastes, yet for some reason it's dark enough for me to really enjoy. Plus I like those little bits of guitar between each of the verses.
Dark Meat - "Freedom Ritual"; In my circle of music critic friends, Dark Meat is all the rage right now and rightfully so. The band apparently put on a kick ass live show, but on this track they show off some serious musical abilities. The opening solo is pretty sick, but then it kicks into a complete psychadelic trip that's even better.
The Bad:
Stars Like Fleas - "I Was Only Dancing"; I was pretty much done with this song about 30-seconds in but I made myself stick with it and surprise surprise it never got any better. Whiny vocals and sleepy music just don't do much for me these days.
Kites - "Easy Now"; There's nothing sleepy about this song from Kites, but that doesn't make it any more enjoyable. It sounds like a really bad Killers cover band. Ouch, I think I've said enough.
Morning State - "Never So Strange"; Is someone manufacturing an indie music for dummies book that I don't know about? Because it seems that about every three seconds there comes a band that follow the exact same structure as everyone else and sounds just like everyone else doing it. Morning State are this week's version of that band.
El Perro del Mar - "Glory to the World"; El Perro del Mar really impressed me with her full length debut, but so far everything I've heard off the sophomore effort has been a real disappointment. Perhaps it's the high hopes I held for her, but the song writing on this track and the other I've heard is really boring. Even her voice is tempered a little bit more and that just doesn't her justice. I really wish I had some nice things to say about it, but I just can't.
Video of the Week:
Los Campesinos! - "My Year in Lists"; I know it's a pretty straight forward video, but it's been a pretty slow week video wise and it's a really good song.
King Khan and the Shrines - "Torture"; This song has been around for a while, but since the album is being re-released on a shiny new label we get to listen to it like it were brand new all over again! Oh, and it still freaking rocks!
Matmos - "Rainbow Flag"; The lead single from Matmos' brand new album is about everything you would expect from Matmos. Trance like beats, crazy sounds, all funneled together to give you a complete aural experience. It's pretty good, and if it's a sign of how the album is gonna be, well get excited now.
Neva Dinova - "Clouds"; I wouldn't normally expect myself to enjoy something like this. It's a little too Americana for my normal tastes, yet for some reason it's dark enough for me to really enjoy. Plus I like those little bits of guitar between each of the verses.
Dark Meat - "Freedom Ritual"; In my circle of music critic friends, Dark Meat is all the rage right now and rightfully so. The band apparently put on a kick ass live show, but on this track they show off some serious musical abilities. The opening solo is pretty sick, but then it kicks into a complete psychadelic trip that's even better.
The Bad:
Stars Like Fleas - "I Was Only Dancing"; I was pretty much done with this song about 30-seconds in but I made myself stick with it and surprise surprise it never got any better. Whiny vocals and sleepy music just don't do much for me these days.
Kites - "Easy Now"; There's nothing sleepy about this song from Kites, but that doesn't make it any more enjoyable. It sounds like a really bad Killers cover band. Ouch, I think I've said enough.
Morning State - "Never So Strange"; Is someone manufacturing an indie music for dummies book that I don't know about? Because it seems that about every three seconds there comes a band that follow the exact same structure as everyone else and sounds just like everyone else doing it. Morning State are this week's version of that band.
El Perro del Mar - "Glory to the World"; El Perro del Mar really impressed me with her full length debut, but so far everything I've heard off the sophomore effort has been a real disappointment. Perhaps it's the high hopes I held for her, but the song writing on this track and the other I've heard is really boring. Even her voice is tempered a little bit more and that just doesn't her justice. I really wish I had some nice things to say about it, but I just can't.
Video of the Week:
Los Campesinos! - "My Year in Lists"; I know it's a pretty straight forward video, but it's been a pretty slow week video wise and it's a really good song.
There's a good chance that if you're a New Yorker and you're reading this now you've already heard about The Jealous Girlfriends. The Booklyn based quartet has been picking up steam by playing shows and building buzz throughout the city so you've probably heard the name if you're a local. The surprising thing is that even if you're not from New York there's a good chance you've heard the band's music. Having been featured on shows such as CSI: Miami and Grey's Anatomy you may have been listening to the band without even knowing it. Now the band is set to release their self-titled debut LP and even more people are about to hear what The Jealous Girlfriends are all about.The first thing you notice on The Jealous Girlfriends is the the voice of Holly Ramos. The sweet lilt, the power behind it, and the words coming out are all intoxicating. Beyond that the music is reminiscent of a slew of bands, too many to name here, while maintinaing a sense of originality that most bands just don't have these days. There are elements of the controlld chaos of Sonic Youth, there's bits of pop that will have you thinkiing you're listening to Blonde Redhead, but as you realize these things you'll notice that you're also hearing something completely new that just blends these elements together nicely. It's a beautiful mix that not many bands can pull off, but The Jealous Girlfriends have the musical chops to get the job done.
No matter what you're level of exposure to The Jealouos Girlfriends, I have no doubt that you will find yourself humming along to the tunes on this band's debut. It's an excellent introduction to a new band, and it certainly sets a very high bar for the band from here on it. It's always nice to see hometown folks making it good, no matter how jaded we may be here in New York, and The Jealous Girlfriends definitely deserve all the recognition their starting to get.
The Jealous Girlfriends - "Secret Identity"
The Jealous Girlfriends - "Roboxulla"
The Jealous Girlfriends - "Something in the Water"
The Jealous Girlfriends on Myspace
Movies:
Into the Wild; Wow, this was one hell of a movie. It's not often that a book translates this beautifully to the big screen, but the makers of Into the Wild did one hell of a job with this one. Obviously it's a long movie, but I wasn't bored for a second as the time was spent truly grasping the life of Christopher McCandless. It's wonderfully told, beautifully filmed, and perfectly acted, basically doing everything that you would look for in a movie. Having read the book already I have to give a thumbs up to the interpretation done here. This is an excellent movie and if you haven't seen it yet add it to your Netflix queue now!!
Eddie Vedder - "Hard Sun"
Television:
Torchwood (Season 2, Episode 11); Finally, an episode of Torchwood that I really enjoyed. It's been a few weeks since we got one of these, but this one was well thought out and well written. It gave us Jack as being mysterious once again, something that had vanished a bit recently. It focused on a different aspect of the time rift that was interesting and fairly plausible if the whole concept of a time rift is plausible to begin with. And it also showed some of the best acting on the series to date. Well done Torchwood, a few more of these and you may work your way out of my dog house!
Crystal Castles - "Vanished"
South Park (Season 12, Episode 4); Four episodes into the new season and I find myself truly disturbed by the lack of effort being put into the new episodes of South Park. Are Trey and Matt off doing another movie or something? I mean come on guys, everything in this episode was lazy and cheap. Just like the last four episodes! Now I don't expect every episode to be a non-stop laugh machine, but you haven't reached the point where you can just mail it in from here on out. At some point the fans will stop watching if you don't pull it together, though I haven't quite reached that point yet.
Tay Zonday - "Chocolate Rain"
Degrassi (Season 7, Episodes 13 + 14); What a tease! For weeks The N has been hyping up the "Degrassi Spring Break Movie" in hopes to bolster some ratings I suppose. What was supposed to be a grand event turned out to be a disappointing two part episode that focused on very little, provoked very little drama, and did almost nothing to progress this season's story archs. Sure we got see Craig perform for about 30-seconds, and it looks like Darcy may be on the road to recovery, but couldn't you have packed a little more drama into an hour long episode? Come on guys, hit the gas and pick it up!!!
Sports:
New York Rangers; the chase for the Stanley Cup begins tonight in Newark as the Devils will be hosting the New York Rangers! The Rangers swept the season series winning all 8 games, but a couple of those were in OT's or shootouts, and of course the shootout is not in effect during the playoffs. Still I think the Rangers have enough to pull off the series victory 4 games to 1.
Here's what I predict in the other series:
Canadiens vs. Bruins; Canadiens in 4
Penguins vs. Senators; Senators in 7
Capitals vs. Flyers; Flyers in 6
Red Wings vs. Predators; Red Wings in 4
Sharks vs. Flames; Sharks in 6
Wild vs. Avalanche; Avalanche in 7
Ducks vs. Stars; Stars in 7
New York Yankees; The Yanks have gotten off to a bit of a slow start, but I think that was to be expected. Consider for a second how young the rotation is and the fact that they have a new manager and there you have your excuses. But the young rotation has been okay so far, it's the bats that have been surprisingly quiet. I'm sure things will heat up but for now I think patience is needed for every Yankee fan. And no I can't believe I just said that either.
Into the Wild; Wow, this was one hell of a movie. It's not often that a book translates this beautifully to the big screen, but the makers of Into the Wild did one hell of a job with this one. Obviously it's a long movie, but I wasn't bored for a second as the time was spent truly grasping the life of Christopher McCandless. It's wonderfully told, beautifully filmed, and perfectly acted, basically doing everything that you would look for in a movie. Having read the book already I have to give a thumbs up to the interpretation done here. This is an excellent movie and if you haven't seen it yet add it to your Netflix queue now!!Eddie Vedder - "Hard Sun"
Television:
Torchwood (Season 2, Episode 11); Finally, an episode of Torchwood that I really enjoyed. It's been a few weeks since we got one of these, but this one was well thought out and well written. It gave us Jack as being mysterious once again, something that had vanished a bit recently. It focused on a different aspect of the time rift that was interesting and fairly plausible if the whole concept of a time rift is plausible to begin with. And it also showed some of the best acting on the series to date. Well done Torchwood, a few more of these and you may work your way out of my dog house!Crystal Castles - "Vanished"
South Park (Season 12, Episode 4); Four episodes into the new season and I find myself truly disturbed by the lack of effort being put into the new episodes of South Park. Are Trey and Matt off doing another movie or something? I mean come on guys, everything in this episode was lazy and cheap. Just like the last four episodes! Now I don't expect every episode to be a non-stop laugh machine, but you haven't reached the point where you can just mail it in from here on out. At some point the fans will stop watching if you don't pull it together, though I haven't quite reached that point yet. Tay Zonday - "Chocolate Rain"
Degrassi (Season 7, Episodes 13 + 14); What a tease! For weeks The N has been hyping up the "Degrassi Spring Break Movie" in hopes to bolster some ratings I suppose. What was supposed to be a grand event turned out to be a disappointing two part episode that focused on very little, provoked very little drama, and did almost nothing to progress this season's story archs. Sure we got see Craig perform for about 30-seconds, and it looks like Darcy may be on the road to recovery, but couldn't you have packed a little more drama into an hour long episode? Come on guys, hit the gas and pick it up!!!Sports:
New York Rangers; the chase for the Stanley Cup begins tonight in Newark as the Devils will be hosting the New York Rangers! The Rangers swept the season series winning all 8 games, but a couple of those were in OT's or shootouts, and of course the shootout is not in effect during the playoffs. Still I think the Rangers have enough to pull off the series victory 4 games to 1. Here's what I predict in the other series:
New York Yankees; The Yanks have gotten off to a bit of a slow start, but I think that was to be expected. Consider for a second how young the rotation is and the fact that they have a new manager and there you have your excuses. But the young rotation has been okay so far, it's the bats that have been surprisingly quiet. I'm sure things will heat up but for now I think patience is needed for every Yankee fan. And no I can't believe I just said that either.
Nobody will ever mistake a motion picture soundtrack for a great album. With very few exceptions, the motion picture soundtrack serves merely as an extra money making tool for Hollywood execs. Most are loaded with only one good song, which gets played over and over on the radio and driven deeper and deeper into your brain until you are standing on line at the local Best Buy with a copy of the Batman Forever soundtrack in your hand. Yeah, it's frustrating I know, but every once in a while a motion picture soundtrack creeps up out of nowhere and actually makes you listen. It happened last year with the soundtrack to I'm Not There and it's happened in the past too.More then a decade ago I was standing in a Sam Goody looking for an album to buy. I couldn't pick between one artist or another so I decided to try my luck with the Clerks soundtrack, mostly because it had more bands on it, but also because it had lines from the beloved movie between tracks. I thought it'd be something I could at least listen to a couple of times and amazingly I was right. Kicking off with "Dante's Lament", the soundtrack goes through metal anthems, stoner rock songs, and blistering punk tunes, while being split up by words of wisdom from Dante and Randal.
I don't think I would have been so accepting of the songs if I weren't already a fan of the movie, but you never really know. The songs here aren't necessarily the type of stuff I would normally listen to, but such is the beauty of it. I got to hear bands like Love Among Freaks and Seaweed while also discovering bands like The Jesus Lizard and Bad Religion who would stick with me for years! It was an incredible listening experience then, and I still throw the album on for a bit of nostalgia or to hear some really good songs like "Chewbacca" or "Berserker".
At some point the internet will probably kill the motion picture soundtrack, which is probably a good thing, but we will certainly be mourning the loss of soundtracks like the one for Clerks.
Love Among Freaks - "Clerks"
Dante & Randal "A Bunch of Muppets"
Supernova - "Chewbacca"
Love Among Freaks - "Berserker"
Dante & Randal "Social Event of the Season"
Soul Asylum - "Can't Even Tell"
Who: Titus AndronicusLocation: Glen Rock ,New Jersey
elbo.ws Rank: N/A
Thoughts: Titus Andronicus have been on the New York radar for about 2-years now, and have only just started to gain the momentum that seems to push every other buzz band from internet darling to the musical guest on SNL. The band are about to release a glorious debut LP, play to rave reviews throughout the city, and have gotten notice from the likes of Pitchfork, Brooklyn Vegan, and Said the Gramophone, so maybe the word is about to spread past the Jersey borders they live in and hit America the way they should be. Personally, I've been listening to every drip and drop of music the band has done for some time now, but it hasn't been that much until this full-length, so it was a bit frustrating liking something so much but not having enough of it. Now, thanks to The Airing of Grievances I have over 45-minutes of wonderful punk like music to keep me content for the time being. It's fantastic music, sometimes howling full force like an old school punk, occasionally softening the mood with a near folk tune, but always keeping your attention with hard hitting lyrics and haunting beats. The album is awesome, but anyone paying attention before now would have been able to tell you that it was gonna rock, now we wanna make sure that everyone else is paying attention too so send some tunes to your friends far west and tell them how great this band is! It's about time the world learned what we already knew.
Verdict: Buzzworthy twice over!!!
Listen: Titus Andronicus - "My Time Outside the Womb"
Titus Andronicus - "Albert Camus"
In this modern day of music I find myself at a lot of shows waiting to be impressed by bands. They have enticed me with their recorded music, gotten me to pay the $15 to see their show, and then they just stand there, and play it exactly as it sounds on the album. Call me a cynic, but I want a little something more for my $15! Dance around, make fun of yourselves, do a 20-minute tambourine solo, whatever, just have some sort of personality! Luckily, not all bands are like this, some of them could even be considered true "live bands", you know the kind that sound awful when they're over produced on a record but put 'em on a stage and watch the magic happen. Man Man fall somewhere in between the two types, perfectly able on their records and utterly wonderful on stage. Their last two albums couldn't be ignored, but if you've missed 'em live, then you've truly missed them.This time out Man Man give us another beautifully concocted vat of wonderfulness in the form of Rabbit Habits, a 48-minute long juxtapostion of gypsy music and carnival sounds that somehow makes room for the oddly romantic anthem. Fans of Man Man should be prepared for what they are about to hear on Rabbit Habits as they don't drift too far from the style that brought us The Man in a Blue Turban With a Face and Six Demon Bag. The over the top percussion, the strange found sounds, the cacophony of noise, the sing-a-long if you can understand the words choruses, there all back on this record, but the band also makes some room for new things - like songwriting! Yep, that's right the Philly quintet have found a pen and some stories and they actually share them occasionally on Rabbit Habits . It's a bit odd at first hearing these odes to love and such, but they are of course surrounded by typical Man Man vagueness and obliterated by the swirling noise they are paired with.
Track by track this may just be the strongest Man Man record to date. The Man in a Blue Turban... had some fantastic moments and Six Demon Bag pieced it together to create more of an album, but this takes the strengths of the first two and expands on both of them. There are individual songs like "Top Drawer" and "Hurly Burly" that would have no problem going solo, but when listened together with the rest of the album they stand stronger as does the whole album.
It's an excellent album, something they should really be proud of, but I haven't heard all these songs in person yet so I just know that there's something missing in my own personal listens that I'll only get when I see them with a sweaty, packed in, rabid crowd! They are just that type of band, the albums sound great but they sound even better live!
Man Man - "Hurly Burly"
Man Man - "Big Trouble"
Man Man - "Top Drawer"
If you're like me, you probably are starting to believe that punk music is dead and gone for good. Everything being labeled as punk these days sounds exactly the same and could only be compared to punk because it's something you could buy at the local Hot Topic. But old schoolers all know this idea of punk is bullshit, instead punk should be angry, it should be something that challenges conventional thought, and it should never sound exactly the same as the band that came before it. Luckily there are still bands like New Bloods around, a punk trio hailing from Portland that have a truly different sound and a message to boot.Led by the wailing, occasionally harmonic voices of their three members and by the violin, drums, and bass that they play, New Bloods is a completely unconventional band. First off, where the fuck is the guitar? No where to be found on this record, replaced completely by a violin that is plucked and strum in so many different ways that it may just make you dizzy. Pretty much everything about The Secret Life is unconventional, not just the absence of guitars. No, the up and down tempos of the album are completely against the normal fast paced punk ethos, the three part harmonies are rarely seen in punk, and of course having three women in a band is certainly not something you see every day. Yet despite all its differences, or maybe because of it, The Secret Life comes out sounding punk as fuck!
I know there are going to be a ton of choices for you at the record store today, but if you enjoy things that are slightly different you should really keep New Bloods in mind. Their music is just tremendous and my writing certainly isn't doing them any justice. Take a listen to the tracks below and take with you the knowledge that the rest of the album is just as great as that.
New Bloods - "Oh, Deadly Nightshade!"
Also Released Today:
Who: The FutureheadsTitle: This Is Not the World
Label: Nul Records
Release Date: May 2008
Thoughts: On past albums The Futureheads have more or less kept their distance from the standard British NME bands that all share the same sound. I've enjouyed that about the albums, the way they can blend similar influences without sounding like everybody else. This time around the band takes a step closer to sounding the same though, and I have to say its not leaving the best of tastes in my mouth. There are still some standout songs, songs that I'd listen to no matter what, but the album places the band more into the category of your standard NME bands which is a place I don't visit very often.
Listen:
The Futureheads - "Sleet"
Monday: Elf Power @ Mercury Lounge 7pm $10
For some reason I have completely neglected Elf Power on this site. The band has been building a ton of buzz so far this year and I've only just begun paying attention, but I think I'm gonna have to give them a bit more now. Tonight they hit Mercury Lounge and I might be popping in to see what they're all about, or to see if the buzz does them justice. See you there?
Elf Power - "An Old Familiar Scene"
Tuesday: Hot Chip @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 8pm $35
At this point you all know what Hot Chip is about, but you may question whether they're really worth $35 or not. Well they are. Shell it out. Put on the dancing shoes. Get to the Music Hall!!!
Hot Chip - "Hold On"
Wednesday: Dirty Projectors, No Kids, + Deer Tick @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 8pm $15
This is a three tiered lineup! Not just one band that I'd pay to see but three that all take the stage with gusto and really give music fans some bang for their buck. If you hit one show all week this might be the one you want to hit.
Dirty Projectors - "Hyperballad"
No Kids - "Bluster in the Air"
Deer Tick - "Diamond Rings"
Thursday: Man Man + These Are Powers @ Bowery Ballroom 8pm $15
Man Man's new album drops tomorrow and it's fantastic, plus their live show is already incredible, so this show is pretty much a no brainer just for those reasons. I've heard good things about These Are Powers but have yet to witness it for myself.
Man Man - "Hurly Burly"
These Are Powers - "Cracks in the Lifeline"
Friday: Pissed Jeans + AIDS Wolf @ Knitting Factory 7pm $10
I thought Pissed Jeans would be bigger then this by now, but at least I get to see them in a much smaller venue then they should be playing at this point in their career!
Pissed Jeans - "People Person"
AIDS Wolf - "We Mulitply"
Saturday: Wye Oak + Deer Tick @ Union Hall 8pm $10
Lots of buzz about Wye Oak, but I don't know if I'm truly buying it yet. Deer Tick on the other hand is a truly solid band, so much so that this is their second of three mentions in the same freakin' post!
Wye Oak - "I Don't Feel Young"
Deer Tick - "These Old Shoes"
Sunday: Deer Tick, Castanets, + Titus Andronicus @ Knitting Factory 8pm $8
And here's the third mention of Deer Tick, another three headed attack from three excellent bands. I firmly believe Titus Andronicus is gonna blow the fuck up with their next album and I loved Castanets last offering. All this for $8, sweet!!!
Deer Tick - "Dirty Dishes"
Castanets - "This Is the Early Game"
Titus Andronicus - "No Future"
For some reason I have completely neglected Elf Power on this site. The band has been building a ton of buzz so far this year and I've only just begun paying attention, but I think I'm gonna have to give them a bit more now. Tonight they hit Mercury Lounge and I might be popping in to see what they're all about, or to see if the buzz does them justice. See you there?
Elf Power - "An Old Familiar Scene"
Tuesday: Hot Chip @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 8pm $35
At this point you all know what Hot Chip is about, but you may question whether they're really worth $35 or not. Well they are. Shell it out. Put on the dancing shoes. Get to the Music Hall!!!
Hot Chip - "Hold On"
Wednesday: Dirty Projectors, No Kids, + Deer Tick @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 8pm $15
This is a three tiered lineup! Not just one band that I'd pay to see but three that all take the stage with gusto and really give music fans some bang for their buck. If you hit one show all week this might be the one you want to hit.
Dirty Projectors - "Hyperballad"
No Kids - "Bluster in the Air"
Deer Tick - "Diamond Rings"
Thursday: Man Man + These Are Powers @ Bowery Ballroom 8pm $15
Man Man's new album drops tomorrow and it's fantastic, plus their live show is already incredible, so this show is pretty much a no brainer just for those reasons. I've heard good things about These Are Powers but have yet to witness it for myself.
Man Man - "Hurly Burly"
These Are Powers - "Cracks in the Lifeline"
Friday: Pissed Jeans + AIDS Wolf @ Knitting Factory 7pm $10
I thought Pissed Jeans would be bigger then this by now, but at least I get to see them in a much smaller venue then they should be playing at this point in their career!
Pissed Jeans - "People Person"
AIDS Wolf - "We Mulitply"
Saturday: Wye Oak + Deer Tick @ Union Hall 8pm $10
Lots of buzz about Wye Oak, but I don't know if I'm truly buying it yet. Deer Tick on the other hand is a truly solid band, so much so that this is their second of three mentions in the same freakin' post!
Wye Oak - "I Don't Feel Young"
Deer Tick - "These Old Shoes"
Sunday: Deer Tick, Castanets, + Titus Andronicus @ Knitting Factory 8pm $8
And here's the third mention of Deer Tick, another three headed attack from three excellent bands. I firmly believe Titus Andronicus is gonna blow the fuck up with their next album and I loved Castanets last offering. All this for $8, sweet!!!
Deer Tick - "Dirty Dishes"
Castanets - "This Is the Early Game"
Titus Andronicus - "No Future"
Who: Rancid
When: August 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, + 17th
Where: Irving Plaza
More Dates
Listen: Rancid - "Ruby Soho"
Thoughts: Rancid puts on one hell of a live performance, at least that was true about four years ago when last I saw them live. I'm assuming they still rock, it's the kind of thing that just doesn't leave the blood, so there's no excuse for you punks to not get out to one of these 5 shows!
Who: Elbow
When: April 26th
Where: Webster Hall
More Date
Listen: Elbow - "Hotel Istanbul"
Thoughts: Cool band, not my favorite venue, I think that equates to a maybe.
Who: The Raconteurs + Black Lips
When: May 30th
Where: Terminal 5
More Date
Listen: The Raconteurs - "Consoler of the Lonely"
Black Lips - "Cold Hands"
Thoughts: I'm shocked by how much I'm actually enjoying the new Raconteurs album. Their last album did virtually nothing for me, but I'm rocking out to this! I also love Black Lips so this is certainly on my radar.
Who: Death Cab for Cutie
When: June 10th
Where: McCarren Park Pool
More Date
Listen: Death Cab for Cutie - "I Will Possess Your Heart"
Thoughts: Death Cab are on the most boring live bands I have ever seen. Which is a shame 'cause I do like their music and would want to see it live. Outdoors under the summer sky would probably be the best way to do so if you were going to do it though.
When: August 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, + 17th
Where: Irving Plaza
More Dates
Listen: Rancid - "Ruby Soho"
Thoughts: Rancid puts on one hell of a live performance, at least that was true about four years ago when last I saw them live. I'm assuming they still rock, it's the kind of thing that just doesn't leave the blood, so there's no excuse for you punks to not get out to one of these 5 shows!
Who: Elbow
When: April 26th
Where: Webster Hall
More Date
Listen: Elbow - "Hotel Istanbul"
Thoughts: Cool band, not my favorite venue, I think that equates to a maybe.
Who: The Raconteurs + Black Lips
When: May 30th
Where: Terminal 5
More Date
Listen: The Raconteurs - "Consoler of the Lonely"
Black Lips - "Cold Hands"
Thoughts: I'm shocked by how much I'm actually enjoying the new Raconteurs album. Their last album did virtually nothing for me, but I'm rocking out to this! I also love Black Lips so this is certainly on my radar.
Who: Death Cab for Cutie
When: June 10th
Where: McCarren Park Pool
More Date
Listen: Death Cab for Cutie - "I Will Possess Your Heart"
Thoughts: Death Cab are on the most boring live bands I have ever seen. Which is a shame 'cause I do like their music and would want to see it live. Outdoors under the summer sky would probably be the best way to do so if you were going to do it though.
It seems that not a week goes by that we don't get some fantastic new piece of pop music from Sweden. The nation has been filling our indie airwaves with their lush pop music for what seems like years now, and last week we got the latest from them in the form of The LK vs. the Snow, and album from a Swedish two-piece known as The LK. It's a solid debut album with that trademarked Swedish sound of solid beats, catchy vocals, and synth sounds that tie it all together. For only two guys, there's a lot going on here but it all works well with some truly fantastic tunes. Songs like "Private Life Of A Cat", "Tamagotchi Freestyle", and "Stop Being Perfect" are absolute gems, and though other songs on the album don't sparkle quite as brightly they are certainly worthy of your listening. I'm digging, but then I'm digging just about everything coming from Sweden these days so maybe I'm biased. Or brainwashed by the Swedish pop machine!!!The LK - "Stop Being Perfect"
The LK - "The Love of Little Things"
Two years ago the Annuals burst onto the scene with their breakthrough hit "Brother" and an album of solid, emotionally charged tunes called Be He Me. The album was a hit with practically everyone that came in contact with the album loving everything they heard on it. Now the band have to follow all that up with a new album, but before that the band decided to release a schizophrenic split EP with a band called Sunfold, which is actually just Annuals re-arranged. The five song EP isn't exactly the strongest thing we've heard from the band, with most of the songs dragging on despite being of average pop song length. It's a little scary knowing this is the first new piece of music the band has released since Be He Me and not exactly something that inspires confidence in the follow-up. I've only given it a few listens since getting it late last week, so maybe it's a grower, but so far I'm not feeling too enthusiastic about it. Annuals - "Around Your Neck"
Sunfold - "Between the Worlds"
Friday April 4th:
Murder By Death - "Rum Brave"
O'Death - "All the World"
Cassettes Won't Listen - "Paper Float"
A Brief Smile - "Never Have the Time"
Oxford Collapse - "Lady Lawyers"
ca-USE co-MOTION - "Who's Gonna Care"
Kimya Dawson - "Loose Lips"
Mahogany - "Springtime, Save Our Country"
Shooting Spires - "Silent Alarms"
War Canoes - "Every Now and Then"
Meowskers - "Colors That Lie"
Saturday April 5th:
Wolf Eyes - "Stabbed in the Face"
The Lisps - "Heaven"
Teenage Prayers - "Dreams of the South"
Tall Firs - "So Messed Up"
Telepathe - "I Can't Stand It"
Jens Lekman - "The Opposite of Hallelujah"
Sunday April 6th:
Handsome Furs - "Hearts of Iron"
Violens - "Astronaut"
The Dodos - "Park Song"
Soft Circle - "Ascend"
Kimya Dawson - "Tire Swing"
The Good:
Islands - "Creeper"; Nick Thornburn has already proven his ability to pen addictively catchy pop songs with The Unicorns and on the first Islands album, but with "Creeper" he may have outdone himself. This song is syrupy smooth, a song of a broken heart with a dance beat and just enough rock licks to appease even the most jaded of music snobs. Its a killer song that gives me super high hopes for the new album.
Girls - "Lust for Life"; This is not an Iggy Pop cover. Its something you must know going in cause it has absolutely no resemblance to Iggy in any way. Instead this is a song of wanting and desires with a simple, catchy beat and sing-a-long lyrics that you won't be able to shake from your head. It's a delicious song for sure.
Pattern Is Movement - "Enjoy" (Bjork cover); I'm not the worlds biggest Bjork song by any means, but I love seeing what different bands bring to the table on these Stereogum cover albums and I love Pattern Is Movement. This tune shows off every positive attribute Pattern has, their off-kilter beats, their operatic singing, and their dischordant melodies, and it maintains a sense of the original song while imbuing it with a taste of fresh originality.
The Lovely Sparrows - "Department of Foreseeable Outcomes"; The melodies are the key to this lovely song from The Lovely Sparrows. The acoustic guitar and simple beat get pushed to the background as vocal harmonies shine front and center. It's a good song made better by excellent pop singing.
Heloise & the Savoir Faire - "Downtown"; Funky dance beats, New York name drops, immediate hipster appeal, this song will be playing in clubs all over town all summer long. Or it should be.
The Bad:
Head of Femur - "Isn't It A Shame"; I can't figure out what Head of Femur are going for on this track at all. It's some bastardized version of 60's pop and New Wave that doesn't seem to flow at all. It comes off as a very awkward track.
Devastations - "Black Ice"; I really thought I would like this song but I don't remember why I originally thought that. Instead, after a few listens I've realized that its way too slow paced with not enough actual darkness to get me going in anyway. I could see some peole really enjoying this but it doesn't quite have the vibe I'd enjoy.
The Ugly:
Robert Forster - "Pandanus"; Country music that lacks soul is a terrifying thing, and this track is absolutely terrifying to me. Lame lyrics mixed with mediocre singing and strumming does not a good song make.
Video of the Week:
Kanye West - "Homecoming"; for such a simple video this is pretty awesome and it looks amazing. I think the MTV Video Awards should come up with a category just for Kanye at this point.
Islands - "Creeper"; Nick Thornburn has already proven his ability to pen addictively catchy pop songs with The Unicorns and on the first Islands album, but with "Creeper" he may have outdone himself. This song is syrupy smooth, a song of a broken heart with a dance beat and just enough rock licks to appease even the most jaded of music snobs. Its a killer song that gives me super high hopes for the new album.
Girls - "Lust for Life"; This is not an Iggy Pop cover. Its something you must know going in cause it has absolutely no resemblance to Iggy in any way. Instead this is a song of wanting and desires with a simple, catchy beat and sing-a-long lyrics that you won't be able to shake from your head. It's a delicious song for sure.
Pattern Is Movement - "Enjoy" (Bjork cover); I'm not the worlds biggest Bjork song by any means, but I love seeing what different bands bring to the table on these Stereogum cover albums and I love Pattern Is Movement. This tune shows off every positive attribute Pattern has, their off-kilter beats, their operatic singing, and their dischordant melodies, and it maintains a sense of the original song while imbuing it with a taste of fresh originality.
The Lovely Sparrows - "Department of Foreseeable Outcomes"; The melodies are the key to this lovely song from The Lovely Sparrows. The acoustic guitar and simple beat get pushed to the background as vocal harmonies shine front and center. It's a good song made better by excellent pop singing.
Heloise & the Savoir Faire - "Downtown"; Funky dance beats, New York name drops, immediate hipster appeal, this song will be playing in clubs all over town all summer long. Or it should be.
The Bad:
Head of Femur - "Isn't It A Shame"; I can't figure out what Head of Femur are going for on this track at all. It's some bastardized version of 60's pop and New Wave that doesn't seem to flow at all. It comes off as a very awkward track.
Devastations - "Black Ice"; I really thought I would like this song but I don't remember why I originally thought that. Instead, after a few listens I've realized that its way too slow paced with not enough actual darkness to get me going in anyway. I could see some peole really enjoying this but it doesn't quite have the vibe I'd enjoy.
The Ugly:
Robert Forster - "Pandanus"; Country music that lacks soul is a terrifying thing, and this track is absolutely terrifying to me. Lame lyrics mixed with mediocre singing and strumming does not a good song make.
Video of the Week:
Kanye West - "Homecoming"; for such a simple video this is pretty awesome and it looks amazing. I think the MTV Video Awards should come up with a category just for Kanye at this point.
The other night I was talking to my buddy Bryan from Subinev when he told me about Alex and the Horribles. They're a high school band with a chip on their shoulder and a pretty damn good record collection and it shows throughout their debut Horribles!!! which they are self releasing. Forget the music for just a moment and take moment to process the DIY effort of a bunch of high schoolers! They are self relasing a freakin' album! When I was in high school I could barely motivate myself to leave the TV! Okay, that's enough raving about their efforts, let's start talking about their music.The first thing you notice when you put on Horribles!!! is how Pavement like the first song is. Now I can hear your collective groan at that last line, because like you I am sick of hearing about bands being compared to Pavement, but its unavoidable here. The likeness continues throughout the album but it doesn't just stay on Pavement. Influences ranging from The Pixies and Nirvana to Weezer and The Ramones shine through at various moments on the album, showing a solid knowledge of music and a decent ability to float from genre to genre. There are elements of punk, elements of folk, and elements of alternative all over this album, yet it never sounds schizophrenic or jumbled together.
As far as debuts go this is pretty stellar stuff, and when you add in the band's young age you can't help being impressed by it. Its the kind of band I always dreamed of forming in high school, and thanks to this album I am dreaming of doing it all over again. Not sure when the album will actually be out, but a post on their myspace assures us it will be soon. For now take a listen below and get to know Alex and the Horribles, you'll be hearing about them a lot very soon.
Alex and the Horribles - "Don't Look Back"
Alex and the Horribles - "Eskimo Girl"
Alex and the Horribles - "It's Gonna Be Okay"
Alex and the Horribles on Myspace
Movies:
Run Fatboy Run; In the lead up to seeing this movie I learned a few things about it that I didn't know. I had thought that the movie was another Simon Pegg film in the vein of Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, but it turned out that the movie was directed by David Schwimmer and written by Michael Ian Black. It changed my perception of the film which is certainly a good thing because if I had gone in looking for a Simon Pegg movie I would have been sorely disappointed. Instead what we got was a mildly unconventional romantic comedy that had it's high points, amused just enough, and was generally enjoyable. It wasn't great by any stretch of the imagination but it provided a nice evening at the movies. See it if you've got a date or nothing else to do, otherwise just wait for the DVD.
The Rumble Strips - "Girls and Boys in Love"
American Gangster; I kind of regretted not seeing American Gangster in theaters, but I knew I would get over it when I finally saw it. And watching it on DVD I did just that. It's a cool movie, but they try to cram a bit too much information into it and the result is a bit of a jumpy movie. There are parts where it just seems out of synch, but the acting performances by Russel Crowe and Denzel Washington are superb and carry this movie into the "good" area I expected it to fall into. Definitely check it out if you haven't yet.
Jay-Z (feat. Pharrell) - "Blue Magic"
Television:
Torchwood (Season 2, Episode 10); As I've been watching Torchwood I've been following the ratings the show posts on it's Wikipedia episode guide. And all season long the ratings have dropped lower and lower and I think it's completely justified. This show has just gotten really crappy lately. This week's episode barely held my attention and really was a waste of the 47 minutes I devoted to it. Get rid of the campiness Torchwood and get back to the way season one was!!!
Bishop Allen - "Have You Ever Seen the Rain"
Southpark (Season 12, Episode 2); For the first time in 12-season I failed to laugh during an entire episode of South Park. Everything in this episode yelled "jumping the shark" and I'm terrified that South Park may have just done it. It was too over the top, to pertinent, and way to insane for my own taste and I think that's a sentiment being echoed by a lot of South Park fans. Sure, it painted a picture of the over coverage of Britney Spears but it failed to address it with it's normal sense of humor and I think it left a lot on the table. Hopefully the show will recover from here.
Britney Spears - "Stronger"
South Park (Season 12, Episode 3); I did laugh during this episode, though not that much. It wasn't great, but it certainly wasn't as bad as the previous week's. Still I have to wonder how much more Trey and Matt have in the tank? Have they finally hit the wall? Is this the beginning of the end? Or will they recover in time to save themselves and right the ship? I suppose we'll all have to tune in to find out, and I know I'll be crossing my fingers hoping they re-discover their stride.
Sammy Hagar - "Heavy Metal"
Sports:
The Yankees were supposed to kick off their final season at Yankee Stadium on Monday, but rain pulled the plug on that and so the game was pushed to Tuesday night. Last night the Bombers played a great game against the Blue Jays and took their opener 3-2 with Chien Ming Wang working his way through a tough game and Melky Cabrera absolutely taking over the game with a homer and a pair of sparkling defensive plays. A-Rod got his first RBI of the year, Mariano Rivera picked up the save, and Joba was awesome in his first work of the year. Things look pretty good and as I say every year, one down, 161 more to go!
Music Linkages:
- Pitchfork.tv premieres next week, and yesterday the site revealed it's initial schedule. It actually looks pretty cool, and it might just be something I'll watch.
- Kim Deal of The Breeders is talking shit about everyone in Time Out New York!
- Don't know if you guys have noticed but the folks over at WOXY.com have been posting a shit load of Lounge Acts with some of your favorite artists! If you're not listening, maybe it's time you should.
- The A.V. Club interviews the head of the current Swedish pop invasion, Mr. Jens Lekman.
- The Moral Imperative have posted their first Take-Away Show featuring What Made Milwaukee Famous on a bus!
Run Fatboy Run; In the lead up to seeing this movie I learned a few things about it that I didn't know. I had thought that the movie was another Simon Pegg film in the vein of Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, but it turned out that the movie was directed by David Schwimmer and written by Michael Ian Black. It changed my perception of the film which is certainly a good thing because if I had gone in looking for a Simon Pegg movie I would have been sorely disappointed. Instead what we got was a mildly unconventional romantic comedy that had it's high points, amused just enough, and was generally enjoyable. It wasn't great by any stretch of the imagination but it provided a nice evening at the movies. See it if you've got a date or nothing else to do, otherwise just wait for the DVD.The Rumble Strips - "Girls and Boys in Love"
American Gangster; I kind of regretted not seeing American Gangster in theaters, but I knew I would get over it when I finally saw it. And watching it on DVD I did just that. It's a cool movie, but they try to cram a bit too much information into it and the result is a bit of a jumpy movie. There are parts where it just seems out of synch, but the acting performances by Russel Crowe and Denzel Washington are superb and carry this movie into the "good" area I expected it to fall into. Definitely check it out if you haven't yet.Jay-Z (feat. Pharrell) - "Blue Magic"
Television:
Torchwood (Season 2, Episode 10); As I've been watching Torchwood I've been following the ratings the show posts on it's Wikipedia episode guide. And all season long the ratings have dropped lower and lower and I think it's completely justified. This show has just gotten really crappy lately. This week's episode barely held my attention and really was a waste of the 47 minutes I devoted to it. Get rid of the campiness Torchwood and get back to the way season one was!!!Bishop Allen - "Have You Ever Seen the Rain"
Southpark (Season 12, Episode 2); For the first time in 12-season I failed to laugh during an entire episode of South Park. Everything in this episode yelled "jumping the shark" and I'm terrified that South Park may have just done it. It was too over the top, to pertinent, and way to insane for my own taste and I think that's a sentiment being echoed by a lot of South Park fans. Sure, it painted a picture of the over coverage of Britney Spears but it failed to address it with it's normal sense of humor and I think it left a lot on the table. Hopefully the show will recover from here.Britney Spears - "Stronger"
South Park (Season 12, Episode 3); I did laugh during this episode, though not that much. It wasn't great, but it certainly wasn't as bad as the previous week's. Still I have to wonder how much more Trey and Matt have in the tank? Have they finally hit the wall? Is this the beginning of the end? Or will they recover in time to save themselves and right the ship? I suppose we'll all have to tune in to find out, and I know I'll be crossing my fingers hoping they re-discover their stride.Sammy Hagar - "Heavy Metal"
Sports:
The Yankees were supposed to kick off their final season at Yankee Stadium on Monday, but rain pulled the plug on that and so the game was pushed to Tuesday night. Last night the Bombers played a great game against the Blue Jays and took their opener 3-2 with Chien Ming Wang working his way through a tough game and Melky Cabrera absolutely taking over the game with a homer and a pair of sparkling defensive plays. A-Rod got his first RBI of the year, Mariano Rivera picked up the save, and Joba was awesome in his first work of the year. Things look pretty good and as I say every year, one down, 161 more to go!Music Linkages:
- Pitchfork.tv premieres next week, and yesterday the site revealed it's initial schedule. It actually looks pretty cool, and it might just be something I'll watch.
- Kim Deal of The Breeders is talking shit about everyone in Time Out New York!
- Don't know if you guys have noticed but the folks over at WOXY.com have been posting a shit load of Lounge Acts with some of your favorite artists! If you're not listening, maybe it's time you should.
- The A.V. Club interviews the head of the current Swedish pop invasion, Mr. Jens Lekman.
- The Moral Imperative have posted their first Take-Away Show featuring What Made Milwaukee Famous on a bus!
Recently Club Midway became Rehab, with a new booking agent and a revived attitude in the Lower East Side. Their first monthly residency features on of my favorite New York bands, The Antlers for three consecutive Wednesdays. Beginning tonight and for the next three weeks you'll be able to catch the band live down stairs and see all the other minor changes made to the venue as well. Oh and to further entice you into coming The Antlers have promised that some they will be premiering some of the songs off of their upcoming album Hospice!And while I'm talking about The Antlers let me point towards The Deli Magazine where the band is up for Band of the Month! They're up against some stiff competition so head on over and vote away!!!
Now listen to some covers The Antlers have recorded...
The Antlers - "When You Sleep" (My Bloody Valentine cover)
The Antlers - "Apple Orchard" (Beach House cover)
The Antlers - "Tears in the Typing Pool" (Broadcast cover)
The day I bought my first CD I actually wound up buying two, and they were both shared with my brother. That day we picked up Green Day's Dookie which I've mentioned a couple of times, and The Offspring's Smash which I don't think I've ever really written about. Until now that is.I forget the first time I heard a song off this album, I don't remember my first listen to it, and I have no idea what it meant to my teenage self. What I do know is that I can still sing-a-long with every word on the album, I still listen to it all the way through, and it still brings a smile to my face every time I listen to it. Well, more of a menacing grin then a smile I suppose. The music is obviously some straight forward California-style punk rock, it blends a shit load of genres together into catchy songs, and you guys all know this already. I'm sure you've heard "Self Esteem" more then your fair share of times, but for some reason I felt like writing about this album even though I don't really have anything new to bring to the table.
Oh well, I guess sometimes music should speak for itself, which I know is a shocking statement coming from a blogger. Smash is an excellent album, you should listen to it again, and I'm done for now. Maybe I'll go back to actually writing about older albums next week.
The Offspring - "Bad Habit"
The Offspring - "Gotta Get Away"
The Offspring - "Self Esteem"
The Offspring - "Smash"
The problem with Monday shows is that they take place on Monday, and after working all day I am rarely in the mood to go out. I psyched myself up for the show tonight though and actually made it to the venue which I was impressed by, and actually hung around for the first two bands. Sadly it was only two out of four, but it was a good two and I'm sure I'll have more chances to catch Genghis Tron and Health in the future. For now let's focus on what I did see.
Telepathe opened up the show, and though I have heard the name bandied about I had yet to hear anything from the group. Well the trio of ladies (I later learned that the fourth had fallen down stairs and broken his leg) put on quite a show with a blend of hip-hop and electronica that was pretty cool. Using synths, percussion, and vocals, the trio shredded the audience with their sounds. The crowd was into it and that's always a good sign, but the ladies on stage seemed really into it. Their bassist pranced around the stage, the drummer occasionally got up to do a verse or two on the mike, and the front person did everything she could to pose as a rock star. It was a good show and definitely something that will lead me to their music.
After them were High Places, a band I have written about so many times that it may seem like I'm obsessed. Truth be told I am obsessed, their music is freakin' awesome, loaded with enough beat to make some of the girls dance like crazy, and toned down enough to keep the two left feet firmly planted to the floor. Last night the duo played almost nothing that they've released so far, opting to give the crowd a bunch of new goodies that left me foaming at the mouth for a new record from them. It was cool to see all these new tunes, but I wish I could have seen songs like "Head Spins" or "Canary" even though I've seen them a bunch of times already. 
These two bands were down by 10pm, but my commute back to Staten Island was just too daunting for me to stay for the last two bands. I wanted to, but being old has it's physical limitations though I'm sure older people then me stayed and loved the whole thing. It was fun though and nice to be out on a Monday night, but from now on can we start earlier on Mondays and maybe keep it to a three band limit? Thanks, I'd appreciate it. Listen:
Telepathe - "I Can't Stand It"
Telepathe - "The March"
High Places - "Shared Islands"
High Places - "Canary"
CMJ.com saw Health and Genghis Tron
GJK has some pics
Last night's in-store by The Dodos was a bit surprising for a number of reasons. First was the fact that the cafe wasn't serving any beverages thanks to some sort of violation from some city agency that should have something better to do then rain on our parade. Secondly, I have seen Sound Fix shows way more packed then that, and considering The Dodos new status as a Best New Music darling of Pitchfork I expected the place to be swarmed by hipsters and bloggers alike. But it wasn't! I guess that's better for the folks in attendance who were comfortable throughout the band's 6-song set, and what a set it was.The three piece San Franciscan band absolutely tore through their tunes, belting out track after track from their new album Visiter and killing each of them. The band has pretty precision, wonderful percussion, and some great harmonies, and I knew that from the album but live it came off even better! And that's through the sound system at Sound Fix with zero sightlines!
It was excellent and it has me wanting more so I'm really considering skipping the Handsome Furs show on Sunday to see them at Mercury Lounge.! I'm torn though so I probably won't make that decision until about 9-minutes to show time. You should see this band ASAP though! For realz.
Listen:
The Dodos - "Park Song"
The Dodos - "Winter"
Better Pictures @ Vegan
Video:
(Notes: The Dodos are barely pictured in this, but it sounds pretty damn good, then it cuts off about 45-seconds early. It sucks I know, but it's a sampling of how good they are live.)
It's rare these days that a band releases a hyped up EP and vanishes into nothingness. With the internet hype engine working over time it seems that every half decent EP is snatched up and quickly followed by some sort of let down just to cash in on the buzz. Colour Revolt didn't take this approach to their full length debut though. After releasing their self-titled EP to wonderful, if sparse, acclaim the band took their time putting together the follow-up and the effort really shows on Plunder, Beg, and Curse.Their EP only introduced us to the blusey form of indie-rock, and everything on Plunder, Beg, and Curse expands on what they did their. Over the course of the 10-songs here Colour Revolt let it all hang out, cranking out some killer riffs and slowing it down on a whim to show off a bit of something else. The album comes out firing with the hard hitting "Naked and Red" and "A Siren", two songs that blast through speakers and should be listened to loudly. "Elegant View" instantly shifts the landscape of the album though. After the powerful two song intro you wouldn't be wrong to assume it's what is waiting for you throughout the album, but the somber, slow paced "Elegant View" tweaks that image and shifts the listeners ears forcing you to be ready for anything that comes at you.
The album has many sides to it, but it always maintains a level of rocking that is simply not seen much these days. While most bands a twidling with knobs or tapping on synths, Colour Revolt keep it simple going straight at you with the normal band setup and they know what their doing on their instruments too. It's an excellent album, something a bit off the beaten path, and something I think you guys will like a lot.
Colour Revolt - "A Siren"
Colour Revolt - "Ageless Everytime"
Also Released Today:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
