By Jen, Guest BloggerHopefully Sick of Sarah's tour in support of their new album 2205 has gotten back on track. After an illness led to a few canceled shows, a plumbing problem at their venue in Kansas City resulted in the show I was going to attend being canceled. To say I was disappointed in not getting to attend a live show is an understatement.
read full post at www.whatstheruckus.com
Uh Huh Her has been busy recording, scheduling a tour, and sending out merch.
Camila Grey has been playing keyboard on Adam Lambert's tour playing but is now back working with Leisha Hailey on Uh Huh Her's second album.
I love the ethereal sound of Uh Huh Her and highly recommend both Common Reaction
Today you can get two free tracks from their upcoming release by signing up for the mailing list at their site and at Nylon magazine (click the down arrow on the right of the player to download).
Thanks to my local radio station KHOL 89.1 I was introduced to Eagle and Talon.
KHOL plays like a college radio station without any ads, only free community announcements. Most of the djs play indie music either I already love or music likely to get my attention. Eagle and Talon fall into the latter category.
When I heard the Tight Score while driving around Jackson, I was hooked on the female duo and their catchy riffs, Casio keyboards, and overall fun sound. I spent the next day or two trying to remember the name of the band (Talon something?) and promised myself I would look them up. It took me a couple days, but I was pleasantly surprised that Tight Score isn't the only track I like on their album Thracian.
Thracian can be downloaded for free or a donation for a limited time here.
Taking a look at my listening habits for the last week on a Monday. I love Last.fm.
The first single from Michelle Branch's new album was released last week, and it quickly became one of my most listened to tracks on Last.fm for the week. Sooner or Later is closer to The Wreckers' country sound than Branch's solo albums which is a bonus.
All tracks from Metric's new album, Fantasies, are still in heavy rotation with Gold Guns Girls my favorite. And Mel from American Indie turned me on to Noah and the Whale. I'm still trying to decide if just like 'em or love 'em. A few songs have hints of Broken Social Scene which doesn't fail to endear them to me.
Cage the Elephant were also new listens this week. Their performance on Letterman was intriguing enough for me to seek them out, and I have not been disappointed.
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness left an ominous message on their MySpace page a month ago:
Things are happening...
stay tuned
It has been two years since their last release, so I'm not sure what that means.
I've started listening to ILYBICD again. Or maybe for the first time. While I always liked Fear Is On Our Side, I listened to it once maybe twice, and it quickly got lost in the shuffle of my digital library. That's the good and bad of having a lot of music in various formats. I may forget about a band or an album, but I also get the fulfillment of rediscovering the sound all over again.
Finding the right album at the right time while performing some mundane task is really important for me since I work from the nearest wi-fi spot and not an office. The music helps to drown out my surroundings, draw in my focus. Music also has a way of making me feel less alone. The right music can keep the motivation going. I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness' moody tones sprinkled with '80s keyboards have been perfect sounds to fill the void lately. The long instrumental sessions hinting of Explosions in the Sky without becoming repetitive. ILYBICD is definitely not a replacement for Explosions in the Sky in my library, but Fear Is On Our Side lies somewhere between The Killers and Explosions in the Sky and was created by kids who listened to the same cds and tapes I did in the 80s.
Whatever is happening in Austin with I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, I'm looking forward to a second album.
The Chromewaves post on Kate Nash today spurned a recollection of my recent interest in her record Made of Bricks.
While in Paris and visiting the infamous haunt of Hemingway, Shakespeare & Co., the young girl behind the counter was trying to drown out the live pianist in the back with a track on the computer which instantly caught my ear. (I'm a sucker for a girl playing the piano.) After spending a few minutes looking at books I couldn't carry, I coughed up the nerve to ask the cashier who she was listening to. "Kate Nash" was the reply in an English accent.
I was a little surprised to learn it was Kate Nash. While I had heard of her, I had never been compelled to download the album. After downloading Made of Bricks, though, I wasn't necessarily jumping up and down at my new find, but as I had in the book store, I was enjoying some of the tracks. The piano melodies are good, but the lyrics result in an eye-roll or two when it feels like Nash is trying to hard.
If you too have yet to discover Kate Nash, give the tracks Frank uploaded at Chromewaves a listen and state your own opinion.
The Reason are a Canadian band that has been around for years. However, they have yet to really make a mark as their music fails to stand out from the other guy bands (The Killers, The Stills, Birdmonster, etc).
Fortunately, The Reason have maintained their friendship with a Canadian band that is on the rise, Tegan & Sara. Sara Quin lends her songwriting talent to a single track on The Reason's 2007 release Things Couldn't Be Better.
Unfortunately, the song featuring Sara is the only standout track on the album.
Listen to "We're So Beyond This" here, and you can check out the other tracks from the album on The Reason's website and MySpace page.
Another update: Tickets are not available at any Amoeba store. Only by listening to KFOG or on the day of the show at Café Du Nord.
UPDATE: According to the Spoon mailing list, tickets will be given away. Here are the details:
...we'll be at Café Du Nord in San Francisco. You can win tickets by listening to KFOG and/or buying Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga at Amoeba (Berkeley) on 7/10. There will also be a small stash of tix sold at the door (for cheap) on the day of show. No advance tickets for this one. Rogue Wave opens.
Although I am not very excited by what I have heard of Spoon's new album, my curiosity is peaked by a show that was just announced for a week from Saturday. Here's what we do know:
KFOG Presents: SPOON There will be NO ADVANCE TICKET SALES for this show. All tickets will be sold day of show. Please continue to watch our website for further updates/details. Thank you!
Thank you, too, for managing to do nothing other than make me want to know more.
I'm not even sure if the show is at Cafe du Nord or the Swedish American Hall, but with tickets not being sold in advance, it means waiting in line more than once. Hmm. Saturday is my day off, but normal people also have that day off. Am I going to be able to get in? If the show is at Cafe du Nord, it will be packed with sweaty hipsters, but at Swedish American Hall there is seating and more space. (I saw Britt Daniel solo at Swedish American Hall, and it was awesome. (Read about that show.)
Even a mediocre Spoon album is better than 99% of everything else being released, so you should purchase Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga on July 10th when it is released.
While the rest of the world goes on about their lives, I'll be refreshing cafedunord.com every hour to find out more.
What does it take to get my attention these days? The following sentence:
Centered around Megan Hickey's achingly plaintive voice and mournful lap steel, The Last Town Chorus trades in sad, slow-burn country vibes with enough spaciness to achieve low orbit.
That one line from a post at the always excellent Chromewaves sent me to eMusic where the debut album from The Last Town Chorus was available for download. As much as I love the look and feel (scratch-n-sniff) of an album, I thrive on the immediacy of downloading music: Change Your Mind (mp3)
From an article in Dusted Magazine online:
Megan Hickey may be the first person inspired to start a band in order to realize country’s affinity with polished ‘80s dream-pop. “Standing in my living room on 4th Avenue in Brooklyn,” Hickey recalls, “I had a sudden and certain feeling about a musical sound – the push of solid ethereal pop (a la Cocteau Twins’ Heaven or Las Vegas) and the pull of country songs, all doused in the feeling of life in New York City.”
It is not surprising that their cover of Culture Club's "Do you really wanna hurt me?" (mp3) is amazing.
Their new album Wire Waltz is only available overseas at the moment but is scheduled to be released in North America this March.
When I did I become someone who listens to country music? Maybe I just needed to find the right musician to spark my interest. I used to loathe country music. Of course, my music collection at this time consisted of mostly Madonna, Bobby Brown, and the rest is even more embarrassing. Now, I do not hesitate to listen music I would describe as country or alt-country. Lap steel. Twang. "Three chords and the truth." I love it.
Like most new bands, I rarely remember where I first heard about them. Usually, I listen to a track on a blog and notice that the cd is only $10 when purchased directly from the band site, and I order it. Two weeks later when it arrives in the mail, I look at the return address, shrug, and tell Mailbox Guy that I have no idea what this is. He replies, "Well, then it's like getting a present. It's your birthday and you didn't even know it!" (He's an overly chipper Mailbox Guy.)
With The New Tragedies, I probably first read "...from Kansas City..." and immediately went to their website hoping they didn't suck.
I feel as though I should know about all the bands from the Kansas City/Lawrence area since I'm from there. (Unless the band was a hit in the college bar scene in the late 90s, I'm probably not the first to know any more.)
And here a few tracks from their album VanityVanity. Think Ryan Adams with Jenny Lewis on backup vocals with a little bit more rock than pop stirred in with the country. It's good and slightly different than anything else I'm listening to right now.
Monday Morning Makeup (mp3) (Remind me to include this in a songs about Mondays post later.)
I have this terrible habit of comparing a band very few people have heard of to another band equally as obscure. Montreal based Land of Talk, for example, reminds me of Controller.Controller and Sarah Slean. Now, the Sarah Slean reference is a little obscure, but Elizabeth Powell's vocals occasionally resemble Slean or Chan Marshall. What is important to know is that Powell's voice is sexy and she has a band behind her playing rock music I want to listen to on repeat (which is what I did this afternoon).
Land of Talk's Applause, Cheer, Boo, Hiss was released in April by Dependent music and is a necessary addition to any indie rock fan's collection.
The highlights:
Speak to me bones (mp3)
Summer Special (mp3)
Imagine if Sleater-Kinney and the White Stripes mated and produced a spinoff band. The teenaged "Sleater-Stripes" venture would resemble the Bay Area band, Two Seconds.
With drums and a guitar, Sierra Frost and Lily Faden put together thirteen songs on To Pass The Time from Popsmear Records. Call 'em pop bursts since all but two of the tracks clock in at under 2 minutes and are littered with lyrics overheard at the skating rink or lemonade stand. Nothing resembling Colin Meloy here, but it is fun and catchy and that's all that matters with a pop song.
Give these tracks a listen (a little higher quality than what you'll hear on their MySpace page) and look out for what happens on their next record.
During Noise Pop this year, I managed to catch the Submarines opening for Jason Collett at Cafe du Nord. A duo bursting with pop energy. They were ecstatic at the show--very appreciative even though the audience was chatting through the entire set.
The music on their first album, Declare a New State!, is full of dreamy, pop songs with sometimes political, sometimes cute. Reminds me a lot of Rilo Kiley pre-More Adventurous with occasional hints of Weezer and the Rentals (especially when John Dragonetti takes over lead
vocals).
The track I linked to a month ago, Peace & Hate, is the song that makes me think of the Rentals.
Speaking of the Rentals...Matt Sharp wrote a lengthy piece on their website about stalking Sara Quin:
I asked him if there was a way to obtain Sara’s e-mail and phone number. Access to the former was granted, but to the latter denied...Did I have the nerve to play Sara’s pretty song in that fake, sandpapery, child molester-ish voice of mine?
I met Mr. Sharp. He seems like he'd make a good stalker. The Rentals remix of Tegan & Sara's "Walking with a Ghost" is available on their website too.
Matson Jones is all about the dueling cellos and the sometimes distorted female vocals, and they recently released a new EP called the albatross mates for life, but only after a lengthy courtship that can take up to four years. on Sympathy for the Record Industry.
From SPIN.com:
Cellos have never sounded quite so badass as they do accompanying the wounded vocals of Anna Mascorella and Martina Grbac in the Denver-based art-punk quartet Matson Jones.
The band’s name comes from a pseudonym that modernist painters Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg used when doing commercial work for department store windows in the ‘50s and ‘60s.
From the 7" single a little bit of arson never hurt anyone, yet another confirmation that the b-side is always better:
New York City Fuck Off (live) (mp3)
Recorded at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, Kansas on 01 January 2005. (Even though the recording is low quality, Liberty Hall is a great little theatre venue in the only Kansas town worth visiting.)
*If you like cellos that rock, visit the band's website for a half dozen tracks to download.
Last time Will Sheff stood behind the mic at Cafe du Nord, he had a sore throat but still ended up playing for almost an hour and a half with all of Okkervil River backing him up.
On Wednesday, a healthy Will stood alone on the tiny stage with an acoustic guitar, a set of harmonicas, and a keyboard. He kept thanking us for being there and seemed surprised by our applause, looking for our approval after each new song.
Although he played a lot of new songs which sounded great, the highlights were "No Key, No Plan" and a piano only version of "For Real" which was still as powerful as the album track.
He also played a few songs from the other band he plays a small part in, Shearwater.
Moving from the guitar to the keyboard, he was uncertain what song to play, changing is mind more than once. Deciding on a song, he stopped himself to warn us that the theme of the set was moving away from an "anti-Valentine's Day" feel to songs about decay.
The leader of a large band can sometimes flounder in the spotlight of the solo show, but Will Sheff embraced it and brought an enigmatic presence to the stage that was impossible not to watch.
If you haven't already, I highly recommend picking up Black Sheep Boy Appendix. Even though it is only an EP, the album contains some of the best songs from last year.
Continue reading "Will Sheff at Cafe du Nord on 08 Feb 2006" »
It has been awhile since I've blogged about a band. I hate to write about what I'm listening to when I'm not listening to anything new. I've been trying to spend less and curb any urge to purchase new cds or vinyl which means less new music. However, I have been listening to the Space Mtn disc a drawing of a memory of a photograph of you a lot lately.
It's dark and moody with Dina Waxman's beautiful voice pulling you in like a blackhole.
The two songs being flung around the blogs are far from the best songs on the album. Hell, I even skip 'em. So here are my two favorite tracks. Try not to tap your foot or bob your head along with the piano on "Oh" and you will fail.
Space Mtn is from LA, so I don't have any right to complain about the weather up north, but it is hot today and I have ants in my kitchen. Yeah, ants. I've had a pigeon in my kitchen before but not ants. There was only one pigeon and he left once I opened the window wider. There are a gazillion ants. It's like having my own little ant farm on the kitchen wall. While washing dishes, I watched two ants carrying something the size of six ants vertically up the wall. Other ants would come and try to help them, but it only took two ants. You try walking vertically up a wall carrying something six times your size and see how well you manage. And after typing that, I've realized that I need to leave my house more often.
Broken Social Scene has updated their Arts & Crafts website with one those annoying flash sites. (I think it was flash before too. Grr.) The site has no new information except for the "Ibi Dreams of Pavement" video.
It has been determined that Charon is half the size of Pluto. The size was determined by measurements taken when Pluto's moon blocked light of a distant star, the technique called stellar occultation. Astronomers also discovered that Charon had little to no atmosphere supporting the theory that "Charon was formed in a collision between two objects early in the formation of the solar system."
Grey's Anatomy now has 3 TypePad blogs for the show. Two are boring and fictitious: written by Joe, the bartender, and an unidentified nurse at Seattle Grace Hospital. The third blog, however, is updated after a new show airs by the episode's writer and is actually interesting. It's full of behind the scenes details and information about how the episode was written.
And if you want to learn something from television, check out the Did You Know section which includes education tidbits from each episode like these:
Living organ donation has become more and more common in recent years. It is possible to donate ½ a liver, one kidney or the lobe of one lung to a relative, loved one or person in need.
GCS stands for Glasgow Coma Scale. It measures three components of consciousness - eye movement, verbal response and motor response.
Why does watching porn help my Aunt Sally cope with her pain? Because porn releases endorphins. It releases endorphins. Vague enough for you? The truth is - we don't know why it works. But, if it does, no doctor will knock it.
A recent obsession with violins and cellos has led me to the music of The Physics Of Meaning.
After adding the band as a friend on MySpace, I got a message from Daniel Hart telling me that he spent some of his childhood in Emporia, Kansas, which was the nearest college town to where I went to high school.
Emporia is home to a meat packing plant and the 18+ bars my friends and I would visit my senior year of high school. Daniel wrote a song about the town, "small towns and invisible people", which you can download from their website. I'm amazed that anyone could write such a beautiful song about a place that smells like meat.
You can also listen to three other songs from the self-titled album on their website and MySpace page. I highly recommend "Manhattan is an island" which combines a multi-layered drum machine beat with a string arrangement that is unlike anything I've heard recently.
The amount of reading I've been doing lately has greatly increased in relation to the decrease in my working hours. I'm sure it also has something to do with the fact that I've been reading mass market paperbacks. Such easy reading of cookie-cutter tales by mediocre writers. (Alas, I aspire to be a mediocre writer with straight to paperback novels but nevermind that.)
After finishing Crichton's State of Fear, I craved more science in my fiction. A new television show I've enjoyed this year, Bones, is based on the novels written by an actual forensic anthropologist, Kathy Reichs, so I picked up Grave Secrets at a used bookstore. In the television show, the title character, Bones, works with a team of quirky smarties and an FBI agent to solve crimes based on what little remains of the corpse--usually just bones. The books are less restricted in that the central characters travel all over the world identifying human remains; however, the characters remain two-dimensional on the page. Even the stereotypical nerds on the tv show are presented with more depth than their counterparts in the books. Although I cringe at Reichs' writing every other page, the forensic mysteries are interesting, and I will probably work my way through the books quickly especially with the frequent rain keeping me inside for most of the day.
The Dust Of Retreat arrived in my mailbox yesterday, and I've listened to it in its entirety (including the marching band drum solo) at least a dozen times. Sometimes emo. Sometimes rock. Margot & the Nuclear So & So's are a brilliant pop ensemble.
The lyrics are omnifarious. The music is packed with sound--the aforementioned drums, jazz trumpets, cellos, piano...
Occasionally, the acoustic guitar takes over, as in "Jen Is Bringing The Drugs", and we are treated to a folk song.
Or a round of meows!
RIYL: Okkervil River. Chin Up Chin Up. Colin Meloy.
The mp3s are of lower quality than those on the album and are provided as a sample of the music on The Dust Of Retreat. Please buy the record! It's only $9 and you'll love it!
Again it starts raining at one o'clock in the afternoon. Two things in my tiny environment to set my clock by: the rain starts at 1PM and the light in the parking lot outside my apartment goes off at 2:15AM.
Something else I can count on: When Voxtrot's "Raised By Wolves" plays on my stereo, I think, "What Belle & Sebastian song is this?"
Ramesh's recent weblog post details the evolution of Voxtrot including the influences of Belle & Sebastian and The Smiths, so it's okay if I describe Voxtrot as "Belle & Sebastian with a little less twee."
If you haven't heard about the group from Austin, Texas, you will. The next ep, Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives, isn't scheduled to be released until the spring. They don't even have a full-length on the horizon yet.
Now, you can check out tracks on their MySpace page and download "The Start of Something" from their website.
To get an idea of what I'm talking about, here is "Raised By Wolves" from Voxtrot's current s/t ep you can order from here.
And to compare: Belle & Sebastian's "Expectations".
Kristin Hersh, formerly of Throwing Muses, has been writing frequently in her blog about the trials of a being a career musician without the support of a large record label. Her current band, 50FootWave is offering up their latest recording as a free download. Aptly titled, Free Music, the ep includes 5 tracks from an October recording session.
From 19 September 2005, Kristin writes:
...after many years as a signed artist, with large advances at my disposal, way more people heard of my band without ever hearing the actual music. That band is dead now. My new band is finding it harder and harder to find the small audience we require to sustain ourselves. I find it hard to care about file-sharing when all I ever really wanted was for people to hear, not buy my music.
Even if you aren't a Throwing Muses/Kristin Hersh/50FootWave fan, if you are a music fan you should reading Kristen's blog. She writes unabashedly and intelligently about music, family, and the relationship of the two.
And while you are at download Free Music!
One of the few (few) things I miss about the Midwest is thunder and lightning. After this weekend in San Francisco, I think I'll be able to go another year without witnessing a storm as strong as the one I'm currently watching outside my windows. If my lightning math is still good, the strikes are more than 5 miles away with distance increasing rapidly.
A great way to spend a stormy weekend is reading. After the initial lull of the first fifty pages, Micheal Crichton's State of Fear has hooked me in. It's all about global warming. Global warming can be intriguing and suspenseful! I'm a little surprised.
In local music news, Finest Dearest is a San Francisco band who just happens to be playing down the street from me at the Elbo Room tomorrow night. Pretty keyboard tinkling and cello make the sound a little dreary (great for the current weather) but Finest Dearest are indie pop reminiscent of That Dog or a female fronted K Records band. Visit their MySpace page for two tracks from the Pacemaker EP and two demo songs. I highly recommend "Idaho".
In my high school physics lab, we made holograms, played with magnets, and occasionally set things on fire with the chemistry Bunsen burners. I didn't learn anything, and my grades in physics lab at university proved it. The new album from Lab Partners, Wicked Branches, would have been a nice soundtrack[1] to our goofing off though.
Lab Partners are a four piece from Dayton, Ohio and produce brilliant space rock. Recently, they signed to Reverb Records and you can head over to the Reverb site to download two tracks from the album.
First heard on the WOXY.com Lounge Acts Podcast, I enjoyed Lab Partners' songs so much I converted the podcast into individual tracks. I highly recommend the first three songs.
WOXY.com Lounge Acts Podcast from 02 December 2005
01 Intro
02 Sold Your Soul
03 Blood Moon
04 Snow Cover Leaves
05 Interview
06 Love Don't Care
07 Sensations
08 It's How You Feel
09 Outro
And if anyone recognizes the songs without titles, please let me know in the comments. [update: discovered WOXY archives their playlists so I was able to fill in the blanks]
[1] My high school physics teacher was more of a classic rock fan with CCR and Eagles being our warm up music until the bell rang.