Our Last Quarterstance

LOUD Music Dispatch #5: Proton Proton

2006-12-23T12:34:00.000-05:00

When contemplating my next LOUD Music Dispatch, one band came to mind... Proton Proton,
Purveyors of some of the finest post-punk in the Borough of Brooklyn. Some of their tracks are slow, some are fast... all are great LOUD. According to their bio page, they "began during long spontaneous sessions in a dark, carpet-lined room on the mediterranean coast." (Slight Ass-Kiss) I must admit that the chemical processes which occurred in that dark room produced something pretty amazing.

Proton Proton consist of:
Paul Fuster has a voice with hints of Johnny Lydon and a smidgen of Ozzy. He also plays both the toyagalactic piano and 4-string guitar. Jarrod Ruby pounds a drumset. Aron Sanchez plays some booming riffs on the gass (guitar+bass).
Altogether they produce some idiosyncratic music that, well... rocks. Some insight into their sound can be found in an interview from The Deli Magazine... here.

"Stephanie R. Myers (interviewer): How'd the toy pianos make their way into the CD? It's a good fit, I think.

Jarrod : Aron had one around his studio and I think him and Paul overdubbed it once as a joke but it sounded good, so it crept its way into the songs as an integral part instead of a novelty.

Aron: We were looking for some alternate melodic instrument that Paul could play that was interesting but could cut through everything else in a unique way. I play the Gass, which is a guitar/bass hybrid with its own unique sound and we wanted something else to compliment that. The toy piano just made the most sense to us.

Paul: Trial and error. Needing a sound that could cut it. Or something."

Download and listen and see for yourself whether the toy piano "cuts it":
"Aloha" (mp3)
"Plates" (mp3) (which some of you might recognize from... this.)
"Lock Picker" (mp3)
"Chinese Dancer" (mp3)

See them live: They're gonna be opening for Deerhoof at Irving Plaza on January 26, 2007. Tix are here.

Pictures!!! (from the evening of 9/9/06):

More about this particular night... here

Myspace page is here.

Artist's (Friend's) Angle: Lurch

2006-12-04T20:36:00.000-05:00

Today's Artist's Angle is a live review, written by Archie Alan, a friend of the London band Lurch, who have some excellent old school punk tracks up over at their myspace.

In a country hall just north of London an underage party is under way (i.e. there is no alcohol and everyone is under 18). A very nice band playing Razorlight and Killers covers have just finished and a large number of kids are dancing, as my young escort reliably informs me, to a Basement Jaxx song. Then suddenly the room plunges into darkness and the crowd surges to the front of the stage, expectant; waiting. At this point it becomes clear the something is afoot; someone shouts ‘shit my guitar’ and the room stays on blackness. Its about half nine in the evening at the hall has no windows – it’s completely pitch black. A strange tapping sound resonates from one of the guitars and random hits on the drums can be heard as a rising tide of some kind of synth consumes the pa; then the guitar into of ‘I Hate Bathtime’ cuts through the mess and suddenly white light in thrown up from the floor onto the band. Everyone is dressed in black, white and grey and the Lurch has covered himself in very black eye makeup. The synth player is dressed in white drainpipes a top hat and what I am later told is a Bedouin tribal robe. Lurch strides across the stage and screams the opening verse of ‘I Hate Bathtime’ into the mic before falling on the floor in mock spasm. A blur of indistinguishable noise follows, new track ‘Our Headmaster is a Vampire’ (think the Stranglers meet the riff from the Batman theme tune) goes down pretty well with the disorientated youngsters who are by now doing some kind of 1940’s waltz step. After what seems like about five minutes Lurch places his guitar down on stage, falls on the floor and gropes underneath the drum riser. He then proceeds to launch himself into the audience and start swiping at people’s faces, what emerges next is there is actually a large amount of what is hopefully fake blood on his hands. This goes all over anyone who is stupid enough to go near him. One of the older kids tries to push Lurch away who in response grabs his hand and gives him a firm, but mocking handshake which leaves blood all over him. Lurch’s band slow the track down into a kind of funk grove while the lead guitarist calmly throws his guitar off stage and proceeds to pick up a cowbell and starts to tap out seemingly random rhythms into the vocal mike. Lurch then disappears backstage leaving his band to make their exit as blackness once again consumes the shocked audience.

Lurch - Anymore (live)

This Was Cinerama

2006-12-04T08:12:00.000-05:00

"The boy Gedge has written some of the best love songs of the Rock 'n' Roll era. You may dispute this, but I'm right and you're wrong!"

The "Boy Gedge" referred to above is one David Gedge, the man behind The Wedding Present, one of the most underrated yet influential bands in the UK throughout the 80s and early 90s. That the above quote (courtesy of the site Talitres Records) comes from the legendary John Peel should come as no surprise; Peel was one of Gedge's biggest champions, and often found a home for anything he did in his annual best-of lists. The Wedding Present went on hiatus from 1997 to 2002, but Gedge certainly wasn't resting on his laurels during that time. As a matter of fact, it was the period from 1997 to 2002 that I feel Gedge really wrote his best love songs (and some of his best-loved, by me), all under the moniker Cinerama.

In order for you to understand, we need to set the stage for the initial split of The wedding present and Cinerama's birth. By 1997, The Wedding present were experiencing frustrations and annoyances with the music industry they worked so hard to undermine. That's when Gedge decided to put the band to rest and focus his attention on a duo project with his girlfriend, Sally Murrell, that eventually went on to become Cinerama.

Va Va Voom, Cinerama's debut, combined elements of epic film score songwriting with paeans of love and fidelity, filtered through Gedge's sharp wit and romantic inclining. Album opener "Maniac" features this unforgettable first verse:

And when I made that stupid oath/About how I was going to/Pay for someone to kill you both/It was just my way of showing you/That I wasn't playing/Oh yeah, you're right, I sounded like a maniac…

So you see, love, but love filtered through longing, lust, and lunacy.

Maniac

Va Va Voom featured the stellar singles "Kerry Kerry" and "Dance, Girl, Dance", which turned up on This Is Cinerama, a compilation of the band's first four singles: the previous two, along with "Pacific" and "Manhattan". Of the collected b-sides on This Is Cinerama, of particular note is the pounding and infectious "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" and the band's take on The Smiths' "London", another great song about love and longing and a desire to leave everything behind for a new start. Though a compilation, This Is Cinerama is a cohesive album and a great introduction to the Cinerama canon.

Kerry Kerry
Dance, Girl Dance
Pacific
Manhattan
kiss kiss bang bang
London

The line-up of Cinerama started to grow beyond the happy couple, so that by the time of their second album, the Steve Albini-produced Disco Volante, the band's sound was bigger, brasher, and thanks to Albini's production values, more abrasive and heart-breaking.

Superman
Your Charms

As the band headed into the final stretch, things started getting sexier, grittier, but always with a wonder-eyed sense of love at the core of the proceedings. The epic, and magnificent "Health & Efficiency" single captured the band at the height of their powers, and features some of Gedge's best lyrics. It's not fair to him to only offer a sample, so here's the whole thing:

And we ate peaches in this very place
The juice was running down your face
I poured coffee from a flask; it tasted funny
And then we tried to make love by this lake
I remember you began to shake
And I was far too scared to ask if you were coming
We bought 'H & E' because we thought it was dirty
It's strange just how innocent it all looks today
We tried to imagine ourselves naked at thirty
But that always seemed such a long way away
We looked for mountaintops to climb
Just because we needed things to fill our time
We were young and free, and boy, did we abuse it
But everything was so clear-cut
And this is such a cliché but
You don't appreciate the joy until you lose it
I was jealous and mean you were fragrant and flirty
It's strange just how innocent it all looks today
We tried to imagine being together at thirty
But that always seemed such a long way away

Health & Efficiency

Those paying attention could see/hear the first signs of the end of Gedge's and Murrell's relationship, and Torino, the next album, featured adulterous acts set to scathing Albini-sounding guitars. It was altogether darker and more foreboding than anything Cinerama had done earlier, and more akin to The Wedding Present (whose songs had started making their way into the Cinerama live set). It was the best critically received album Cinerama had released, and would ultimately be their last release of original material.

quick before it melts

The Cinerama line-up around Torino (which featured former Wedding Present guitarist Simon Cleave) would continue to play and tour through 2002, with the exception of Murrell who decided to retire from live performances; by 2002, her relationship with Gedge was over, and he moved Stateside, and decided that Cinerama would change names back to The Wedding Present and began the next stage of their recording career with Take Fountain, --an album of heart break, and the road to healing.

As great as it is to have The Wedding Present name on record shelves again, it's also a bit sad and disappointing that the initial vision and idea behind Cinerama is no more. Despite their acrimonious split, there was definitely something very special about Gedge and Murrell's work when they were together, and maybe I'm just a hopeless romantic, but I think I genuinely felt the love between this girl and our boy Gedge. You may dispute this, but I'd be right and you'd be wrong. Just listen and feel the love.

film

Retrospective: Jimi Hendrix

2006-11-29T16:52:00.000-05:00

Jimi Hendrix's birthday was on Monday of this week, did you celebrate it? If you did, then you're a fantastic person and I tip my hat to you. If you did not then I guess I can forgive you, but at least take the time now to listen to a few pieces of music that he left with us before his death in 1970 at the age of 27.

I spent Monday (Hendrix was born on November 27, 1942) listening to obvious choices Are You Experienced? and Electric Ladyland. Those two albums are pretty much standards for any Hendrix fan and lover of classic rock in general. After listening to those for a while I remembered that a friend of mine had given me a copy of a Jimi Hendrix blues record that I enjoyed upon first listen, and then I spent about an hour trying to locate it among my many (unorganized) stacks of albums. Upon finding Jimi Hendrix: Blues and listening to it a second time I was as happy as a gopher in soft dirt.

Blues (similar to other post humulous Hendrix releases) is a collection of rarities and studio outtakes, in fact 6 of the album's 11 tracks had never been released before when it went on sale in 1994. The album comes with extensive liner notes and pictures, and after reading them and listening to the album you see that these recordings are basically sections of tape where Hendrix was simply "messing about" in the studio. I think very few artists could choose a handful of songs on a whim and produce such listenable results, but that's just one of the many qualities that Jimi Hendrix possessed that made him a legend.

Below you'll find three tracks from Blues. The first is an acoustic version of Hendrix's own "Hear My Train a Comin'," the second is an original take on the blues standard "Mannish Boy" (Muddy Waters) weaved with "I'm a Man" (Bo Diddley), and the third is an extended and unfinished version of another Hendrix original, "Red House."

Dig it, cat.

Jimi Hendrix - Hear My Train A Comin' (Acoustic)
Jimi Hendrix - Mannish Boy
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Church Red House

Video: Jimi Hendrix - Hear My Train A Comin'

http://www.Jimi-Hendrix.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimi_Hendrix

Mr. Curiosity
Covert Curiosity
http://covertcuriosity.com

6°: Sebadoh

2006-11-28T16:01:00.000-05:00

The last time we saw 6°, we talked about New York’s Fiery Furnaces. The Fiery Furnaces are composed of Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger, but they enlist the likes of Jason Loewenstein, Sebadoh member, when they go on tour. Naturally, that makes today’s choice everyone’s favorite 90’s lo-fi folk act, Sebadoh.
Sebadoh started out as Dinosaur Jr. bassist Lou Barlow’s side project, but grew to three members with the addition of Eric Gaffney and Jason Loewenstein. After the infamous Mascis/Barlow split, Sebadoh became a full-time deal.

Barlow’s past work with Dino Jr. hinted at where he would wind up with Sebadoh, most notably “Poledo” off of You’re Living All Over Me, which is about as lo-fi as you can get, and consists solely of Lou Barlow and an acoustic guitar (and a tape recorder).

Dinosaur Jr. – Poledo

After the split, the boys would go on to release a whole slew of records (how they wrote so much always amazed me), the most popular of which being their third album, appropriately titled III. The album consists of 23 songs, with about twelve written by Barlow, eight by Gaffney, and three by Loewenstein. Each of the songwriters have a specific style, with Barlow’s being the most singer/songwriter-y, Gaffney’s being the most psychedelic (and loud), and Loewenstein’s being the strangest.

Barlow: Truly Great Thing
Gaffney: As The World Dies The Eyes of God Grow Bigger
Loewenstein: Smoke a Bowl

Matt
Our Last Quarterstance
http://theblogtribunal.blogspot.com

LOUD Music Dispatch #4

2006-11-24T17:12:00.000-05:00

Kill Rock Stars has got to be one of my favorite indie labels. Brief history... Founded 1991 by
one Slim Moon. First release: a split 7-inch "wordcore" record with Kathleen Hanna and Slim Moon. Moon said they started "releasing music because Bikini Kill, Bratmobile and Unwound were too exciting to remain unsigned." Now they release: punk rock, indie rock, post-punk, indie-folk, noise, rock, other weird shit, and kick-ass compilations. Sister Label: 5RC.
Together KRS and 5RC have released albums by artists like... Elliott Smith, Sleater-Kinney, XBXRX, The Robot Ate Me, and Erase Errata.

From the KRS About page...
"Unlike all major labels and many indie labels, profit is not our primary motivation. Kill Rock Stars is dedicated to releasing high quality meaningful recordings in a manner that is fair and respectful to the artists. The system that makes rock stars wants us to believe that we have no choices except the handful they give us but they don't even bother to give us good choices, just lame ones (Editor's Note: preceding hyper-text link is not lame). KRS just wants to give you
some good stuff to listen to that actually means something to counteract the empty and boring stuff you see on TRL or whatever."

Sell-out #1: Reissuing the solo album of Linda Perry (of... ick... 4 Non Blondes fame). Clearly a pro-commercial move.

Sell-out #2: Last Month's Bombshell... Slim Moon (Mr. KRS) let it out that he's leaving to do A&R work for Nonesuch Records (part of Warner Music Group). Moon's defense: "If it wasn't Nonesuch, this would never happen. I wouldn't be running off to work at some other big company. Really, I just think they're such a great organization. I'm ready to take my lumps if someone wants to accuse me of being a sell-out, because I've got to do what I think is right." Slim's wife Portia Sabine is gonna step into his shoes as the head of Kill Rock Stars and 5RC.

Q: Do I really care about these sell-outs?
A: Not particularly.

Re Sell-out #1: Linda Perry is a feminist and shares many of the ideals of KRS, BUT Linda Perry has committed many crimes against music. Some Examples: (1) Her work with (a) Pink, (b) Kelly Osbourne, and (c) Christina Aguilera; (2) her promotion of James Blunt; (3) need I mentioned the song "What's Up?". However, if putting out a Linda Perry album means more Erase Errata for us... I think I can live with that. So long as, KRS realize they are on a slippery slope.

Re Sell-out #2: Moon should do whatever he wants, as long as a kindred spirit takes over at KRS. Plus, they're expanding. Kill Rock Stars is supposedly gonna open offices in NYC and Portland.

Here's a Kill Rock Stars Mix To Be Played, well... LOUD.

"Boy Soprano" (mp3) by Xiu Xiu
"Track2" (mp3) by XBXRX
"Liar" (mp3) by Wooden Wand
"Corpse Pose" (mp3) by Unwound
"Cash Machine" (mp3) by Two Ton Boa
"All Hands On The Bad One" (mp3) by Sleater-Kinney
"Say Hey" (mp3) by The Seconds
"Sweetback's Gonna Make It" (mp3) by John Wilkes Booze
"No Sleep" (mp3... WARNING: kind of annoying) by Huggybear
"Madonna Approaches R&B Blonde Wreckages" (mp3) by hella
"Standing In The Way Of Control" (mp3) by The Gossip
"Teenie Weenie Boppie" (mp3) by Free Kitten
"Tax Dollar" (mp3) by Erase Errata
"The Unhappy Song" (mp3) by The John Doe Thing
"Now That You've Gone" (mp3) by Delta 5
"Die" (mp3) by Bratmobile
"New Radio" (mp3) by Bikini Kill

More free mp3s are here.

Myspace page is here.
KRS timeline is here.
The Kill Rock Stars wikipedia page is here.
Emusic page is here.

Bob
GIMME TINNITUS
http://gimmetinnitus.blogspot.com

OLQ Not Dead

2006-11-21T09:41:00.000-05:00

Here are OLQ, we are getting back from a brief hiatus. Due to some personal dealings I, the editor, had to deal with, we took a break for the beginning of November. We will be back up and running starting tomorrow, and we will continue to bring you some excellent articles about the music scene.

This Is Why We Do It

2006-11-06T09:25:00.001-05:00

Cuts from the upcoming Jay-Z “comeback” album (how can I miss you if you never leave?) have leaked. Now, his label is calling for an FBI investigation. Every month brings more and more arrests, and more convictions (with jailtime!) for P2P users and bloggers alike. For those who cry foul, for those who wonder, “Why?”, take this little true/false test:

1. I link to the hype machine top 10 top 10 on my site.
2. I have seen a band top a search engine list, and then posted something by them.
3. I get excited when I get unexpected hits, or coverage in a newspaper.
4. I think the music industry owes me a little something, or at least owes a debt to my community, for hyping their artists.
5. I don’t think it’s a copyright violation to post live shows.
6. I was excited when I got blogrolled at _______ (fill in the blank with Tofuhut, MYOKB, Stereogum, etc.).
7. I’ve posted on a popular band I didn’t really like.
8. I’ve searched for material to post about a popular band I didn’t really like.
9. If I find something cool, I get mad when someone else posts on it right after me, especially if they get picked up by a tracker and I don’t.
10. Blogging feels like work.

If you answered “Yes” to more than two of these questions, you’re the reason the RIAA is coming after bloggers now. If you answered “Yes” to all ten, you’re me. And you’re honest, too. Because virtually all of us have done most of these things at some point. I started out doing it for the love, doing it because I thought it would be fun, and doing it because I thought I could do it better than other folks. Then, I got popular. Then, I got swag in the mail.

It was like a drug. I threw up more and bigger stuff. I flirted with posts on big-label bands just to show I could. I got rewarded with more and more stuff.

And a cease-and-desist notice.

Now, I get 10-20 CDs a week. I’m underwater and overwhelmed. And I don’t like it anymore.

Recently, though, came a blessing in disguise. EZ Archive went down and in the scramble I missed a half-a-week of posts. Y’know what happened? My 3,000 hits a day I was getting all but completely dried up. Suddenly, I’m down to 300-500 a day.

That tells me most of my traffic wasn’t readers, it was thieves. People who came by, snatched something, and left. They’re gone now, and my time-spent-on-page time is up. I have less of you out there, but those that are left are the ones who matter.

So what I guess I’m saying is, thank you for leaving me, because it reminded me of what this is all about. The philosophy of it. I’ll post what I like and who I like and if the swag goes away, so be it. Here’s hoping I can stay true to the game.

And here’s hoping it’s not too late.

Ekko
Berkeley Place
http://berkeleyplace.blogspot.com

6°: The Fiery Furnaces

2006-10-27T11:45:00.000-04:00

The Fiery Furnaces are an NYC-based expiermental rock band. In the studio, they consist of brother-sister duo Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger, but on the road they enlist the likes of Jason Loewenstein (of Sebadoh), amongst others. Matt usually takes on the songwriting duties, while Eleanor pretty much only sings.

They released their first album in 2003, Gallowsbird's Bark, on Rough Trade. It was met with critical succes (but not the acclaim they would later receive). It is perhaps their most straightforward album, but it is by no means highly accessible.

"Tropical Ice-Land"
Buy the album at Insound.

Less than a year later, the Furnaces threw a curveball with the release of Blueberry Boat. A highly polarizing album, many critics adored it while others were left scratching their heads at the hype. It demonstrated a movement toward more epic songs (it has three songs over nine minutes), and is, by some, seen as a concept album. I don't know if I agree with that, but I do think it's pretty awesome.

"Mason City"
Buy the album at Insound.

After that, our Fiery friends released a long EP, longer than half of the LPs in my collection. They took all of their songs with the most single potential and made them more single-ready. They stil kept their quirky aspects, though, and it was another excellent release.

"Single Again"
But the album at Insound.

After that came Rehearsing My Choir, which I really don't want to discuss. I wasn't too big a fan.

"Seven Silver Curses"
Buy the album at Insound.

Then came the true follow-up to Blueberry Boat: Bitter Tea, one of the best releases of 2006. Further exploring their more electronic sounds, it's absolutely nuts. Probably my favorite by them. On the first few listens, you'll probably get a headache, but once you can predict the melodic twists and turns you'll love the album.

"Black-Hearted Boy"
Buy the album at Insound.

Rarities:
"Tropical Ice-Land," acoustic version
"Police Sweater Blood Vow" (off of Bitter Tea), live

Matt
Still Kisses with Saliva
http://stillkisseswithsaliva.blogspot.com

6° is pretty well what it sounds like. We started with the randomly-picked Fiery Furnaces, and we'll make connections from there, hopefully going on until at least forever. At least.

Happy Birthday, Mr. iPod!

2006-10-24T19:27:00.000-04:00

Yesterday marked the fifth anniversary of the iPod, a creation in technology that truly allowed us to become the music geeks we are today. Sure, you could say there were people that were music geeks before. You had the obsessive vinyl collectors, people that think 8-track is still a worthy piece of equipment, and the people that were download happy long before mp3 players were ever thought up. Now, thanks to the iPod, everyone is a music geek. But is the change good for us? Its easier to listen to music now than it ever has been before, but at what cost?

A couple of weeks ago I was loading this or that new album onto my iPod when the unthinkable happened and I ran out of room on my Pod. I've had mine for about three years now so it's pretty much a dinosaur when compared to the newer ones. It only holds 20GB of music, now they make ones that hold freakin' 80GB of music! Its simply insane. Anyway, I had the daunting task in front of me of removing songs, little bits of the artists that made them, from my iPod so that more could fit. I was depressed in an instant and it only got worse from there.
I began the task at hand and started pulling pieces of albums off my pod, removing artists that I normally passed over when it came up on shuffle, and suddenly in the blink of an eye everything was gone! My entire iPod had been erased by some slip of my finger or some flaw in the new iTunes 7. I was berserk. I thought about putting my head in an oven. Extreme, sure it was, but it seemed completely reasonable at the time. I had poured hours into creating my iPod to reflect my taste, and to make me not look like a less than capable writer of music in the meantime. Now I was faced with the duty of replacing the files that were going to keep me company in all my alone times.

Obviously the simple stuff was done almost instantly. I put everything I had left on my computer, a measly 3GB of music, straight onto my iPod. I thought about copying my brother's iPod song for song, but his is bigger and I didn't really want his countless comedy albums or ABBA collection to clog up space I needed for something else. I grabbed the CD's of every band I've seen live this year and put them on. If I liked Man Man and Art Brut enough to see them six times each this year I liked 'em enough to be on my pod. Then it started to get a bit more complicated, do I only put on songs by Bruce Springsteen or do I select a couple of the better albums and go with that? Is it really necessary to have one song from every band that has ever played the Warped Tour with me at all times? Do I even like every album the Pitchfork has named Best New Music over the past few years? Tough choices were made all through the night and after nearly 7 hours of replacing my music I felt I could rest a little better knowing I had something that resembled what I wanted.

Over the next couple of days I of course added more and more albums that came my way. I'm sure I'm not the only person that has gone through this type of thing, and it truly points out how obsessed the society is with this innovation. I don't have the faintest idea how many iPods Apple has sold since its creation (I think I heard something like 8 million were sold this year alone so far) but I know every time I board a train there's at least five people wearing the unmistakable white headphones in their ears. I'm not going to comment on what it means in society when strangers no longer interact due to some little music playing device. I'm not going to tell I don't love my iPod, because in all honesty if there were a fire in my house it would be the first thing I would save (other than people of course). What I wanted to do was just show just how much an iPod can affect a life. Please make sure that if this happens to you that you breathe and remember that it is only a form of entertainment. Enjoy the music folks, and Happy Birthday iPod!

My Overall Top 10 Artists Played on My iPod (according to Last.fm):
1. Sufjan Stevens – "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts"
2. The Hold Steady – "Chillout Tent"
3. The Flaming Lips – "Fight Test"
4. Cold War Kids – "Hospital Beds"
5. Annuals – "Father"
6. Yo La Tengo – "Pass the Hatchet"
7. Man Man – "Black Mission Goggles"
8. The Beatles – "Elanor Rigby"
9. Belle & Sebastian – "Song for Sunshine"
10. Jens Lekman – "Julie (Rmx)"

Pat
Pop Tarts Suck Toasted
http://poptartssucktoasted.blogspot.com/

LOUD Music Dispatch #3

2006-10-20T16:59:00.000-04:00

This time it's... John Reis!

OK, so about 99% of John Reis' projects R-O-C-K. His laconic wikipedia entry states he "is a singer/guitarist who was a member of Hot Snakes and Rocket From The Crypt among other bands". Plus, he also "hosts the Swami Sound System on radio station 94.9 KBZT in San Diego". Oh yeah, he also founded Swami Records (home of ick ick... this image).

Let's break this down...

(1) Rocket From The Crypt is probably the most well-known of all the John "Speedo" Reis projects. This might be due to the fact that they often performed in... yes... matching outfits, and/or were at one point in time a part of MTV's Buzz Bin.

Listen:
From Live From Camp X-Ray
"I'm Not Invisible" (mp3)
"Can You Hear It" (mp3)
From Scream Dracula Scream
"Out Of Control" (mp3)
"Heart Of A Rat" (mp3)

(2) Drive Like Jehu is some kick-ass feedback-laden post-hardcore.

Listen:
"Do You Compute?" (mp3)

(3) Hot Snakes is, well, garage rock that is a little more rock than garage. And, oh boy, does it rock.

Stream some live Hot Snakes on a Swami blastcard... here.

Watch:
"Plenty For All" (mov)

(4) Sultans is the inverse of Hot Snakes. They're garage rock that is a little more garage than rock.

Watch:
"The Toothpick Song" (mov)
"Put Up A Fight" (mpg)

(5) The Back Off Cupids is some solo Reis material which popmatters sez "sound a lot like a quieter, more contemplative Drive Like Jehu" (i.e. Kinda like Jehu on downers). Read more here.

Let's Go Youtubin':

Rocket From The Crypt - I'm Not Invisible (Live On Craig Killborn)

Rocket From The Crypt - I Can't Feel My Head

Drive Like Jehu - Golden Brown/Bullet Train to Vegas (Live With Shitty Sound!!)

Hot Snakes - Braintrust

Additional Linkage:
Rocket From The Crypt myspace fan page is here.
Rocket From The Crypt emusic page is here.
Rocket From The Crypt Swami page is here.
Drive Like Jehu myspage page is here.
Drive Like Jehu emusic page is here.
Drive Like Jehu Swami page is here.
Hot Snakes myspace page is here.
Hot Snakes emusic page is here.
Hot Snakes Swami page is here.
Sultans Swami page is here.
Back Off Cupids emusic page is here.

Bob
GIMME TINNITUS
http://gimmetinnitus.blogspot.com

Live in D.C.: The Blow, Vietnam, Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, TVotR

2006-10-18T15:47:00.000-04:00

So fall break fucking rocked. My girl and I trained it up to D.C. for a couple concerts Sunday, and wouldn’t you know it, it just happened to be the night that the 9:30 Club hosted two amazing concerts in one night. Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins graced the venue with an early show (doors opened at 5:30) and TV on the Radio tore the house down in a late show.

Liz and I grabbed my car from my parents’ house and drove into the city midday to check out the National Gallery of Art, which has a wonderful Rousseau exhibit right now, ate Chipotle for lunch, which I’ve been missing horribly seeing as we don’t have any in Williamsburg, and then made it to 9:30 just in time for Jenny Lewis’ first opening band – well, opening act – The Blow

The Blow, from Portland Oregon, is really just Khaela Maricich, whose electronic indie-quirk sound falls somewhere between The Postal Service and a 15 year old girl’s diary. That doesn’t really do the woman’s recordings justice, but it pretty well explains how her live performance comes off. She got up onstage wearing a white business outfit and started dancing oddly to her own electronic beats, while singing lyrics which sound more like stream of consciousness than poetic rhymes and talking to her imaginary bandmate/friend. The music is actually really good in its own way, but the performance felt like something you would see at a middle school talent show in a rural Idaho town. It was like the fat Asian chick doing Swan Lake in Donnie Darko. Weird.

But enough about Blow. After she got offstage, Vietnam came on and the room immediately smelled like pot. Ok, so maybe that’s a little extreme, but all five members of the band had long scraggly hair, long matty beards, and were all giggly and incoherent between songs. They looked like they’d come straight from Woodstock. Their music sounds like The Walkmen with Lou Reed playing blues-inspired high flyers. Entertaining.

It was 8 pm before Jenny Lewis finally came out, which sucked because my legs were already getting tired and the night had only just begun. Still, standing room only concerts do me justice – it’s the one clear reason that being tall is great. One clear reason being short is great? Jenny Lewis.

Goddamn she’s hot. Like, I always knew – I’d seen pictures and shit – but I didn’t know. For the record – redheads are naturally gorgeous and Jenny Lewis is a gift from God. She came out in this skimpy little black dress that made her breasts look like globes sent from heaven and her ass better than Liz’s. (It’s ok, Liz is cool with me preferring Jenny. Hell, she prefers Jenny too). Then she and the Watson Twins jumped offstage for a costume change, and she played the rest of the show in a bronze and gold sequined dress so short her legs were endless and if you were one of the lucky few in the front row there was nothing left to the imagination. Of course I wasn’t in the front row, but I suppose that’s for the best – I’m not sure I could have controlled myself and not thrown myself on the queen.

Enough about her looks though. Really the reason I’m writing is to make sure everyone understands how good Rabbit Fur Coat is. A lot of people wanted her solo album to just be another Rilo Kiley album, and who can blame them, but there’s something to be said for the soulful crooner that she released. The concert didn’t include one Rilo Kiley song, and that was fine. Liz said before the show that if Jenny didn’t play “Arms Outstretched” that she would be fucking pissed. Well, she didn’t play it, but Liz was still overjoyed. Thing is, Lewis’ solo songs are all really really good. Closing with the cover “Handle With Care” was just as powerful (if not moreso) as anything she could have played off Execution of All Things. When Lewis walked out for the encore by herself with an acoustic guitar and played “Rabbit Fur Coat” for us, it was amazing. Quirky and depressing and witty and biting, the simplicity of it sent shivers through me.

I guess it helps that her voice is amazing and she’s gorgeous as hell but her stage presence is such that it almost doesn’t matter what she’s playing to make you pay attention. It only helps that the music she plays is so completely worth an ear. Even two.

So Lewis made me cream my jeans, so when it ended our group left to find some food (and me to change said pants). By the way, just one 7-11 big bite hot dog is NEVER enough. Liz and I each got one under the 2 for $2 deal, but really if we’d just splurged another $2 we both woulda been so much happier. Also, the combination of low-class hot dogs and Starbucks Frappacinos was the best idea Liz has ever had.

By the time TV on the Radio started, I was already dead, so I really didn’t get as much out of the concert as I could have, and I still came away floored. I’m skipping talking about the opening act because Grizzly Bear cancelled at the last minute and their replacements, Celebration, were insultingly bad. TV on the Radio really deserve better.

Lead singer Tunde Adebimpe is amazing. He is one of the best performers I have ever seen. Every song sounds like a proclaimation to the heavens. Every word sounds immensely important. Every syllable a picture worth a thousand words. The contrast between Adebimpe’s bombastic style and the rest of the band’s rather laidback performance gave a nice dichotomy. David Andrew Sitek stood outside the club before the Jenny Lewis show speaking with a few friends, and it was everything I could do not to a) shake his hand and ask for an autograph and b) call him ?uestlove. I restrained myself purely because the guy looked so chill and so easygoing that I almost didn’t want to break some sort of constant meditation the man goes through. The two different styles between frontmen are great together.

The music sounds better live. A lot of the band’s album tracks are meticulously constructed and produced and are so intricate you wouldn’t imagine the ability for the band to recreate them live, but what comes out is different. The live sound is much more guitar heavy, but also a lot preachier, sounding like rock that you would hear in a sort of baptist church of indie rock. Truly amazing. I don’t even know the songs that well, and I was beaten from 12 straight hours of walking and standing by the end, but the show managed to keep me standing, dancing, bobbing, and stomping through and through.

So yes, Fall break was great. So great. My legs still hurt. Liz is still tired. My heart is still throbbing over Jenny, and my head is still shaking from Tunde. The world is good.

TV on the Radio – “Province”
Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins – “Handle With Care”
Vietnam – “Welcome to My Room”
The Blow – “Pile of Gold”

Conor McKay
One Part Team Extreme
onepart.blogspot.com

Artists' Angle: Chris Chinchilla

2006-10-16T19:42:00.000-04:00

It had been a tough few months, relationship break-ups, realisations that the ‘proper’ job I’d got stuck in, whilst well paid, was not for me and an increasing frustration with the UK and London, so I saved up, quit my job and decided to have a month away. The plan was to start in Germany (where I had a few gigs), work my way down through Austria and then into Italy to hang out with some friends and end up with a weeks job teaching English to Italian children I had landed.

Things started well, my first gig in Munich was incredible and in a beautiful town, full of a wide variety of nationalities, strange hybrid old / new buildings (due to allied bombings), great pubs and clubs and a lot of beer… I ended up staying for two nights with a South African and his wife who turned out to be something of a Pop Star from his native lands, having had 4 number one singles and sold over 10,000 albums (a lot for South Africa) this was all confirmed when I returned to the UK and mentioned his name to another South African and was greeted by a ‘wowed’ expression. Munich appears to have a fairly vibrant music scene, with every venue in healthy competition with the towns most famous venue, “Atomic Cafe” the promoter I worked with would mention it’s name through gritted teeth like it was a curse word.

After Munich I set off on Germany’s highly efficient railway system bound for Hagen, halfway through I boarded the wrong train, fortunately there was another within an hour which took me on a different route through some picturesque countryside on the banks of the Rhine, scenes that looked like picture postcard Germany, white wooden houses with black beams and small castles nestled on hill sides. Arriving in Hagen I was greeted by my ‘friend’ Georg who had seen me playing in Bath whilst on a Job interview and then asked me to come and play his hometown. I was playing the towns regular small festival, “Hamecke Open Air” which I gather means “Open Air rubbish tip” as it takes place on a grassed over ex council rubbish dump. This sums up Hagen well, a slightly grotty old industrial town that much like similar English towns, makes half arsed attempts to have an arts / music scene, and it’s only thanks to one or two individuals (in this case the local community centre) that anything happens. The Festival had an odd line up, a bunch of kiddie-metal bands, some middle age Punk bands, jugglers and me… Standards were not particularly high, I played a good set, though got cut short due to everything running late and ended on a really down beat song instead of the intended upbeat one and was generally greeted by slightly confused faces. Other ‘highlights’ included the UK Punk band that sounded like a tribute to all 77 Punk bands but had the drummer from ‘Totenhosen’ (a very popular German act) playing with them; I’m not entirely sure whom everyone was there for. After the novelty of watching the ridiculously young children present drinking copious amounts of alcohol wore off, we headed of to a party in the woods, a new experience to me but brilliant fun.

I’m going to gloss over the next 10 days after Hagen as after a disastrous trip to Cologne where I suddenly panicked over money, loneliness and lack of plans, I caught a coach back to my Dad’s house in the north of England…

So to Italy, one of my favourite country’s in the world, have some great friends there and I love the attitude and way of life, it’s just a shame I can’t speak the bloody language! I started by visiting my half Italian, half Swedish friend, Enrique (check out his band www.myspace.com/thepinkrays) at his Thesis writing retreat in Perugia. A small hilltop medieval town popular with Italians as a holiday destination, with small winding cobbled streets, beautiful views of the surrounding countryside and a lot old Churches. I spent a few days touring the town’s attractions and hanging out with Enrique in the evenings and after my trip to Rome I returned to DJ at a party with a swimming pool in the middle of a Sunflower field. Never been to any country parties in my life and now two in a month, and being the guest DJ at one!

I’d been to Rome before but it was a very brief visit whilst on tour and I was looking forward to having a proper look round this time, I stayed with someone I befriended on my last visit, and despite the initial awkwardness of meeting as I couldn’t remember what she looked like and wasn’t sure if we’d still get on, we spent several nights talking into the wee hours about Politics, Religion and music… I think Rome has to be one of my favourite cities, I find it more romantic than Paris and historically more interesting than London, I can’t vouch for its nightlife as during August everything shuts down. I spent several days doing intensive tours of all the major and minor attractions (View my photos at www.chinchilla-music.co.uk/chinchpics) and find everything so breathtaking, from the ostentatious opulence of the Vatican, the incredibly well preserved ancient Roman remains throughout the city and the remnants of it’s tumultuous medieval history. Particular highlights were the Vatican and Capitoline museums (worth the journey alone), the Roman Forum, Coluseum and Augustus’s Mausoleum, if only for the strange items of ‘Art Brut’ outside left by homeless people. However, Rome is a very dusty city and after several days lengthy walking in the summer heat I was ready to move on.

After the aforementioned brief return to Perugia it was on to Ancona to meet the project organiser and other 3 assistants of the ‘English Island Project’, I had a disastrous train journey as on Sundays the Italian train network seems to run incredibly irregularly and unreliably, arriving 3 hours late, but no one seemed to care and we made the lengthy journey into the middle of nowhere that was to be our home and work place for the next week. All my worries over the project were not met, we had hardly any work to do apart from arrange activities, got paid and fed well and got to spend time in some beautiful surroundings. I guess everyone’s happy with the arrangements, the parents with getting rid of their children for a week, the children for being away from their parents for a week, the organiser as he makes a fair amount from the parents, and of course us. During the week we ran music, arts, drama, sports activities and a final performance of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, went on an all day mountain climb up a phenomenal mountain range (again, see the link above for photos) and the rest of the time hung about.

After the project had finished I spent a few days in the port town of Ancona before my flight departed, not the most interesting of towns and 3 days into September, the tourist season was long over! I did the usual things you do in small medieval Italian towns, wandered about looking at old churches, museums and eating well, I also took a bus journey down the beautiful Adriatic coast, stopping at several beautiful coastal towns along the way.

So that was my month out of it all, not entirely successful, but after a minor hiccup most enjoyable and had the desired effect of clearing my head, heartily recommended to all, and to be perfectly honest these days not particularly expensive to do, over 3 weeks (including travel, accommodation and eating quite well) I spent €300, though it helped having gigs and work over the weeks as most of this wasn’t even money I took with me. I was looking forward to returning to London, ready to face the world again, start things anew and generally give my life and the world a big kick up the backside.

Current Top 5 Songs (Not in any particular order):

Humanzi - Diet Pills and Magazines (.m4a)

Scully - Who's a Terrorist Now

Blah Blah Blah - Death to the Indie Disco (.m4a)

Findlay Brown - I Will (.m4a)

Billy Ruffian - Death of a Band (.m4a)

Chris Chinchilla
www.chinchilla-music.co.uk

Digsy's Diner: The Gospel According to Luke

2006-10-14T13:26:00.000-04:00

Best of… Most of… but where are they now? It never ceases to amaze me how obsessive music writers and their consumers are about classifying, categorizing and compartmentalizing albums, songs and artists; and just how quickly the lists they generate can change.

I remember a Toronto radio station's survey of the Top 1002 songs of the 1980s that ranked "How Soon Is Now?" in the top spot. Where was the song on a similar list a few years later, when a rehashed, renamed list came out? Far below "Smells Like Teen Spirit" which was the new number one, and fighting a losing battle with Beck for some relevance in a new decade. Whether they are pointless and opinionated or not, these list do serve a historical purpose—to remind us of the "ones that got away", the lost records that have fallen from relevance, but not lost their stature as great recordings.

In 1992 the battle of Britain (and the nascent Britpop scene) came down to two bands staking their claim for the top spot. Suede and The Autuers both released their debut albums that year (Suede and New Wave, respectively), and both were instantly hailed as saviours of British music. Led by Bernard Butler's guitar work and music and Brett Anderson's lyrics and falsetto, Suede were sexed up, revved up glamour pusses purring their way into the hearts of style-starved British boys who longed for the excuse to get in touch with their feminine side. Luke Haines and the Autuers were no more grunge than Suede, but their appeal was in their articulate, whip-smart pop that didn't pander to the lowest common denominator but didn't exclude it from the party. They were classic, retro-pop purveyors, just as Suede were second-generation glam gods.

Both bands debuts were hailed as landmark releases, and called the best British debuts since The Smiths (how soon The Stone Roses were forgotten) and set up a rivalry that never really materialized the way Blur vs. Oasis would do in four year's time. Suede and The Auteurs were as different from each other as polyester and parchment. Difference abounded on their respective debuts alone, but by the time of their sophomore releases (Suede's opus Dog Man Star and The Auteurs Now I'm A Cowboy) it was clear each band had its own trajectory to follow: Suede glamorized the seedy underbelly and make-shift world of working-class London whereas Luke Haines had his sites set squarely on subversion via classic pop hooks like the ones on "Lenny Valentino".

Once Suede lost founding member Bernard Butler, they embraced their pop side, making their most accessible and commercially successful album, "Coming Up". By that time The Autuers had already pulled away from the Britpop fray. They released their third (and most anti-Britpop album ever) album, After Murder Park), Haines released material under the name Baader-Meinhof, and was already establishing himself as one of Britain's most overlooked songwriters. With Black Box Recorder, Haines and partners John Moore and Sarah Nixey would go on to create some of the slickest and most direct material of his career, and also the most successful. There would be more Auteurs material to follow (How I Learned To Love The Boot Boys) and solo work under his own name, but it I always felt that Luke Haines was one of the best-kept secrets in pop music.

In a recent slew of Best Of all time lists in the British music journals, The Auteurs (and all other Haines projects) were sadly overlooked. I put no weight into the importance of these constantly shifting measures of taste, but surely there's a place for "Show Girl", "Lenny Valentino", and "How I Learned To Love The Boot Boys" in some historical account of the 1990s. Once you've heard Sarah Nixey purr the lyrics on Black Box Recorder's "The Facts Of Life" you'll never forget it.

"When boys are just eleven
They begin to grow in height at a fast rate than they have done before
They develop curiosity and start to fantasize
About the things they have never thought of doing before
These dreams are no more harmful than
The usual thoughts that boys have of becoming football stars or millionaires
As long as the distinction between fantasy and fiction remains
It's just a nature walk
It's just the facts of life."

The fact of the matter is, you'll forever be changed after taking a listen to the world according to Luke (Haines, that is). Do yourself a favour and check out his back catalogue before his new album, Off My Rocker at the Art School Bop, is released later this month.

The Auteurs
"Show Girl" (from New Wave)
"Lenny Valentino" (from Now I'm A Cowboy)
"The Rubettes" (from How I Learned To Love The Boot Boys)
"How I Learned To Love The Boot Boys" (from How I Learned To Love The Boot Boys)

Black Box Recorder
"The Facts Of Life" (from The Facts Of Life)

Jim
Quick, Before It Melts
http://www.qbim.blogspot.com/

Retrospective: Phosphorescent's Aw Come Aw Wry

2006-10-12T15:46:00.000-04:00

Every so often I will find an album that almost exactly expresses the way I currently feel, or more precisely it's that the subject matter of the album deals with what I'm going through in life at that very moment. When this occurs it's as if the songs were written just for you, or at least you know that whoever wrote the songs has gone through something similar to what's going on in your life. It gives you hope and inspiration in knowing that there is someone out there that has gone through a similar experience, especially if this experience is not a pleasant one. This doesn't necessarily mean that this certain album will become one of your favorites, or that it makes you want to own the artist's entire catalog or anything like that, in fact sometimes it will have the opposite effect. If you lose a loved one, or end a relationship, or go through other rough times that happen in life and find an album that vividly expresses those thoughts and feelings, you might avoid listening to it later once you've overcome those tough times because to do so would bring all of those thoughts and feelings that you had at the time rushing back into your mind. Going through particular tough times once is usually enough, and you'd rather not relive them through song.

You may not have a clue what I'm talking about here, so I'll just give you a short synopsis. Boy falls in love with girl, boy and girl live happily, things change, boy falls out of love with girl, boy continues to live unhappily with girl, boy eventually leaves girl and abandones love to try and find happiness, boy moves far away and lives very unhappily for a while and then gradually finds happiness over time while starting a new life.

At some point while all of this was going on I discovered the album Aw Come Aw Wry by Phosphorescent, and it was like musical therapy for all that I was going through. I decided to write about it not just because of that, but also because it is a great piece of work that I feel deserves recognition. I found this disc on the back wall at Austin's great Waterloo Records. "The back wall" is where you can find albums that have been recommended by the staff and each of the CDs has a small sheet of paper next to them that describes the music and has other useful information about the artist and album. For Aw Come Aw Wry I remember the note saying something along the lines of "lyrics that you will find yourself shouting along with, not unlike many songs from Neutral Milk Hotel." Being a big NMH fan I picked up the disc just based on that descriptor alone. Once I listened to the song "Joe Tex, These Taming Blues" I realized what they were saying. Each verse of the song gradually builds up toward the end and then flows into the great chorus line:

"Don't plant no more feet love, in that garden of blame
don't break me no more love, I'm already tame"

mp3 "Joe Tex, These Taming Blues"

Aw Come Aw Wry is a very intimate work full of personal, introspective song writing, and is held together by three variations of the title track; the horn and steel guitar-filled Aw Come Aw Wry #5, the jangly, percussion-focused Aw Come Aw Wry #6, and the mournful Aw Come Aw Wry #3. It isn't all melancholy and sappy however. The track "I Am A Full Grown Man" is more uptempo and has a theme of not caring about anything in general.

mp3 "I Am A Full Grown Man"

You can read various reviews of Aw Come Aw Wry through Phosphorescent 's MySpace page and read a short bio and purchase the album at MisraRecords.com.

Mr. Curiosity
Covert Curiosity
covertcuriosity.com

How I Learned to Start Worrying But Love Ryan Anyway

2006-10-11T22:00:00.000-04:00

Recently making the rounds is a rap by alt-country’s (arguably) biggest star, Ryan Adams. It sat in my in-box for weeks before I could bring myself to listen to it. Why? Glad you asked.

On March 9 of this year, Robert Thomas of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Jared Bowser of Jacksonville, Florida, were indicted on federal charges for posting unreleased music by Ryan Adams & The Cardinals (from the “Jacksonville City Nights” album, if you’re curious). It was the first criminal case to be prosecuted by The Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Section (CHIPS) of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Middle Tennessee. (Previously, in February 2006, four convictions were obtained in other parts of the country, but not by CHIPS).

Jim Vines, the U.S. Attorney in charge of the new office promised: “The plan here is to really get energized in this area. We anticipate, with the intensity of the industry activity in Nashville, we’ll have a fairly intense docket of intellectual property theft cases.” Thomas and Bowser are charged with knowingly violating federal copyright law by pre-releasing songs without permission — a crime that carries a prison term of up to 11 years.

I have been, and continue to be, of a mind that the sought-after punishment in this case exceeds the crime. I have frequently, vociferously, and sometimes belligerently chided my fellow bloggers for failing to collectively voice outrage. I’ve called for a boycott of both the label (Lost Highway) and the artist--the former has actively backed the lawsuit and the latter has never come out against it, despite his “bad boy” D.I.Y. public persona and despite the fact that several label press-releases state clearly that the charges were filed to “protect the artist.”

Don’t misunderstand. What the two kids did was wrong. I wouldn’t do it. And I think they should pay. The operative word here is “pay.” As in, cash. As in money damages. As in dough, moolah. Not as in the-rest-of-your-life-is-ruined. Also, I support the RIAA’s attempts to stop people from uploading into P2P systems, which is just encouraging outright theft. I haven’t decided how I feel about blogs (self-interest being a factor), but I suspect we’ll all be changing the way we do business in the next few years.

So don’t misunderstand. The problem I have is that in this case, two kids leaked two songs. Granted, I don’t know all the facts, but I get the math: Two songs=11 Years In Prison. I could do a run down of what people typically get for crimes like rape, murder, armed robbery, child molestation . . . But trust me, the typical sentence ain’t 11 years. Not even close.

Maybe blogging isn’t art. Maybe we’re not really writers. Maybe, or maybe not. They said Mapplethorpe was an agitator, not an artist. The Human Fly, who shut down Manhattan for an entire morning, didn’t get sentenced to anywhere near 11 years. So, Ryan, where are you? No artist I know, no true artist, would support this kind of prosecution, and I continue to believe that Ryan Adams should be ashamed of himself for not standing on principle and at least publicly distancing himself from it all. For the longest time, just hearing him made my stomach turn.

Which brings me back to his new rap song.

I like it.

[Editor's note - if you haven't heard it, download it here]

That’s the rub. I’ve admired RA since his days with Whiskeytown, and I have lots of rare stuff and live stuff (but not leaked stuff, I promise!) that I’d love to post. I’m torn between my philosophical proclivity towards Gandhi and Thoreau—boycott all who do, or participate in the doing of, injustice—and my blogger proclivity towards sharing great music in the hopes of making a small star big or, in Ryan’s case, a medium star even bigger. For a long time I’ve been spared this moral dilemma because Ryan released back-to-back weak-to-horrible albums. (Isn’t it ironic? Those two poor saps face jailtime for leaking cuts off the worst album in RA’s career.) But now he’s back to being the playful, ironic, aggressive and interesting Ryan.
He’s even covering Dead songs.

What to do, what to do?

Well, I’m announcing here today that Berkeley Place will feature Ryan Adams again. Not soon, but it will happen. Probably. I’ve taken the boycott info off the sidebar, so it’s just a matter of time for the bad taste to leave my mouth.

I believe Ryan has a duty to his fans and the public to speak out against the Federal prosecution. I still think that we, as a community, need to band together. And we need to tell him what we think, every chance we get. But maybe, just maybe, that doesn’t mean
boycotting him entirely. Or maybe I’m just a sell-out. Or maybe he’s just so scary talented that I can’t resist his tunes. If that’s true, then I guess the old saying is true, too, that “Talent will out.”

Another old adage is that, “All is forgiven in due time.” I suppose that’s true, too. Unless you’re Robert Thomas or Jared Bowser.

Ekko
Berkeley Place
http://berkeleyplace.blogspot.com

The State of the Staten Island Music Scene

2006-10-10T15:43:00.000-04:00

I live in Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City, most famous for being home to one of two man made objects you can see from space – our garbage dump. Staten Island has never been known for its music scene having produced only a handful of successful acts, and living in the shadows of Manhattan and Brooklyn. David Johansen, White Lion, and the Wu Tang Clan are our claims to fame and if you asked any Islander what the big musical draw on the island is it would be the horrible cover bands that play at most of the bars on the island. It’s a sad state when people would rather see bands covering Creed and Godsmack instead of original and talented bands, but that’s what has happened to the place where I live. Luckily, I know better than most of the other residents on the island and I have been able to search out some really good bands on the island playing at places like Martini Red and the Cargo Café. I’m going to share some of these bands with all of you now and hopefully you’ll enjoy them!

Dead Rabbit: Formed sometime last year, Dead Rabbit has quickly built a terrific following on Staten Island, recorded an EP, and started venturing off the island to play shows in places like the Mercury Lounge and the Knitting Factory. Featuring a sound that’s equal parts Flaming Lips, Cat Power, and Pavement, Dead Rabbit are the real deal and could break into the bigger New York scene. Lead singer and guitarist Adam writes the songs which are well crafted indie-rock tunes that are sure to get you singing along. The rhythm section is top notch too with some beats that will get your feet moving from the time the first notes hit your ears to the very last symbol crash. Your next chance to catch the band is the annual Halloween Party at Martini Red on October 28^th which will also feature a couple of the other bands I’ll be talking about here. So why not take a trip to the island to catch these guys? It’ll be worth the ferry ride!

Dead Rabbit's Myspace Page

Out of Our Heads
Mechanical Animals

Murray: Murray is an all girl band that plays some really rocking music. Taking their cues from bands like The Replacements, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Erase Errata, Murray has been playing steadily for a couple of years on and off the island. Their shows are some of the most fun, intense rock shows I have ever seen. Marissa and Marisa handle most of the vocals, often blending together for some pretty awesome harmonies. They’ll be playing the Knitting Factory on Friday October 13^th, and then the Halloween Party at Martini on the 28^th!

Murray’s Myspace

Paragraph: A little more funky than Dead Rabbit and Murray, Paragraph likes to mix different genres to create their unique sound. Sometimes dancy, sometimes rock, they really like to go all over the place to bring the most out of their emotional lyrics. The band has played all over New York and are in the midst of recording an EP to get the music out to more and more people. D. Lane handles the vocals for the band using a unique nasal voice to get his lyrics heard by the masses. It’s really fun music to see live, but be warned you should bring dancing shoes with you. You can catch them at 169 Bar on November 4^th.

Paragraph's Myspace Page
Right Together
Glad You're Green

Pablo: Having been featured on KEXP and opened for big bands like KT Tunstall and Matt Pond PA, Pablo is probably the Staten Island band most poised to blow up right now. Paul Schalda is the focal point in the band with his haunting voice and beautiful lyrics. The music is reminiscent of any of those singer songwriters you’ve ever heard, but is original thanks to Paul’s voice. Pablo has gotten around more than the rest of the bands on this list, touring much of the East Coast and has just recorded an LP on 230 Records that is scheduled to be released in May. Pablo will be playing Red Bank Rocks in Jersey on October 21’s and Rockwood Music Hall as part of CMJ on November 4^th!

Pablo's Myspace Page
Wall Street
Get Around

Pat
Pop Tarts Suck Toasted
poptartssucktoasted.blogspot.com

Save a Horse, Ride a Virgin: Virgin Fest ‘06

2006-10-07T23:17:00.000-04:00

This year, Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore, MD (‘save a horse, ride a virgin,’ get it?) held the first ever Virgin Festival the US has ever had. Virgin Festivals have been all over Europe, so to have a festival this big in Baltimore of all places was quite an excitement for us city kids.
Seventy-two thousand tickets were sold to this event. I guess everyone was all about seeing the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Killers, and The Who. Personally? You couldn’t pay for me to buy a ticket for 100 dollars to see any of those bands, so naturally, I didn’t pay for a ticket, but I did however work a lovely soda cart at the concert and made way more than I would have spent to go to the show.
Unfortunately, the soda cart I worked was right in front of main stage, so I had to sit through a series of really shitty bands. Kasabian was the first band of the day on the main stage to perform and they were on stage around noon. The gates had only been open for, oh, I’d say an hour if that, and everyone there was already nearly drunk. Kasabian’s set was fairly entertaining. I mean, as they were the first band to perform, they didn’t have a huge crowd, but they did keep the audience pumped and the choice of songs was well displayed.
The thing about Virgin Fest, was that the theme was a ‘Freak Show,’ which therefore means everyone was rather… freakish. There were circus characters walking around and girls dressed as bushes, which were the best costumes at the event. They all conspired at the Freak Show Tent, where there were hundreds of inflatable chairs, which, by the second performance of the day were all taken out of the Freak Show Tent and brought to the lawn in front of the main stage.
A few crappy bands later… Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was on at the “indie” stage. I got off to see a good portion of their set, and it was quite good. I thought maybe hearing Clap Your Hands Say Yeah would be annoying, considering at times their album could sort of get to me, but to my surprise I really had a great time admiring them. Their set seemed short, like it was over before it started, but they definitely put on a show worth seeing.
A few more crappy bands later… The Who came on, and come on… you can’t hate the Who.
I was done working after the Who, when we ran out of soda to sell, so I didn’t have to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers (thank god). I got off just in time to see The Flaming Lips live though!!!! Talk about amazing! They were really the only act that actually put on a show. They were in odd costumes and some one was in a bubble. It was strange, but I can sum up how wonderful their set was, with what my co-worker Natan said about The Flaming Lip’s set: “I found religion.” Enough said.

Kasabian - Test Transmission
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth

Samantha
Where is Helsinki?
http://whereishelsinki.blogspot.com
All Things Go
http://all-things-go.blogspot.com

LOUD Music Dispatch #2

2006-10-06T17:50:00.000-04:00

Yes, Yes, it's time again for the LOUD Music Dispatch. This week: Melvins, Melvins, Melvins... When you want to talk about heavy music, you gots to mention the Melvins. Both slow and sludgy, AND fast and crunching, the Melvins r-o-c-k. Well known all over the world (by their cultish fans) for their Black Sabbath (read: HEAVY) on quaaludes (read: SLOW) approach to music, Buzz Osborne/King Buzzo (guitar and vocals) and Dale Crover (drummer) are the core of the group, and they have gone through bass players with an almost Spinal Tap-ian passion. The Melvins are not destined for fame, they're just a bit to weird. If you need some proof of this, check out the Melvins, nay the Snivlem website... here (flash required).

They started out indie. Being from Aberdeen, Wa. they were involved in the Nirvana mythos. Among other Nirvana connections, Crover hit the drums for Nirvana for three tracks on Bleach. (Quick Aside: well, you know how Cobain said that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was Nirvana trying to sound like the Pixies, well listen to "Paper Cuts" again... it's Nirvana trying to sound like the Melvins). During the Grunge Years Signing Wars, the Melvins got plucked up by a major, but eventually got dropped by the same major (surprise!). After developing a relationship with Amphetamine Reptile, Buzzo and crew have been quite busy at their recent home, Mike
Patton's Ipecac Records. A much more complete history can be found here.

Holy Crap!!! Videos...

Boris (Live)

Queen (Not, I repeat.. NOT Quicksand's "Thorn In My Side")

Revolve

Hooch

DISCLAIMER... if listened to at high enough volume, the mp3s in this post may:
(a) cause your ears to bleed,
(b) drive you insane,
(c) [insert alternate woe here], or
(d) rock
(e) all of the above

Downloadables courtesy of Southern Records:
"Easy As It Was" (mp3) from 26 Songs
"Heaviness Of The Load" (mp3) from Gluey Porch Treatments
"The Brain Center At Mr Whipples" (mp3) from Hostile Ambient Takeover
"Blockbuster (w/David Yow)" (mp3) from The Crybaby

Ipecac page is here.
Myspace page is here.
Emusic page is here.

Bob Reich
GIMME TINNITUS
gimmetinnitus.blogspot.com

Sparklehorse Come Back After Five Year Hiatus

2006-10-05T19:14:00.000-04:00

With the release of Beck’s Information and The Decemberists’ The Crane Wife this week, it’s awfully tempting to jump on their band wagons, widening those already gaping eyes to see their lights. But that’s boring. While both albums excite me immensely, they excite everyone else too. The more exciting release from the last week is the new Sparklehorse album.
Sparklehorse, Mark Linkous’ brainchild, has never been a huge indie band, but they’ve always filled a certain niche in many listeners’ collections. Falling somewhere between Neutral Milk Hotel and Spoon, Linkous’ brand of lo-fi tinkling pianos, crunchy freak-folk guitars, trippy guitars and synths, and hushed vocals code for beautifully awkward indie music that rings pleasantly unique – that goal which every indie band strives towards.
The new album, Dreamt For Light Years In the Belly of a Mountain, arrives a full five years since 2001’s It’s a Wonderful Life, but in no way has the time off slowed Linkous’ creative genius. The new album certainly explores stronger, larger sounds than we find on most of It’s a Wonderful Life, with songs like “Knives of Summertime,” which would fit right in on Dark Side of the Moon, and the poppy, fuzzed-out “Ghost in the Sky,” sounding more reminiscent of Yo La Tengo. Also exciting are the collaborations with Danger Mouse and one of my all-time favorite artists, Tom Waits. Waits’ piano on “Morning Hollow” fits right in and makes me cream.
“It’s a Wonderful Life” remains one of my favorite songs. I’ll be honest, I never heard of Sparklehorse before the title track to their 2001 release was featured in the movie trailer for the 2004 remake of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. And yet, isn’t that just where you love to find out about bands like this? Yes, I do watch zombie movies and goddamnit I enjoy them. I saw Dawn of the Dead the day it came out and I still can’t get Sarah Polley out of my head, nor the extremely slow paced, stripped down piano lament that graced the soundtrack.

It's a Wonderful Life
Go

On a separate note, I’m presently orgasming over the recently leaked Elliott Smith Basement Recordings. I never will have enough.

Get them here.

Conor
One Part Team Extreme
onepart.blogspot.com

NYC's Latest Collective (pt. III of III)

2006-10-03T16:56:00.000-04:00

I found out about Takka Takka because they were (still are) opening for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Architecture in Helsinki, a show I will be attending this Saturday. At Takka’s site, they had a handful of bands listed in the sidebar that I checked out – I always love a good indie band. It turned out that some of these bands were related, and I was quite stoked. Not only do they all share members, but they also share a respect for classic, lo-fi indie music. Here’s my look at the last of three excellent bands in this small NYC collective:

Takka Takka

Takka Takka is the main hub for these artists, consisting of J.P. from Wood Is Good (previously posted about here) Damion and Conrad from Nuh Uh (previously posted about here), and Gabe Levine heading it all. J.P. handles the bass duties, Damion the guitar, Gabe the guitar and keyboards, and Conrad the drums.
While Takka Takka does have a love for the lo-fi sound, they are, out of all the band in the collective, the least influenced by the lo-fi scene of the early 90s. While Nuh Uh can easily attribute their sound to Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. (and some Yes, but that's another story), and Wood Is Good can name-drop Pavement, Takka Takka cannot really name-drop anyone but chill twee pop-sters. They sound somewhat like Yo La Tengo at their poppiest ("Autumn Sweater" - mp3), after listening to some Wilco records.
While they are so chillaxed on record, their live sound is rather different. They allow Damion, the excellent guitarist (who showed his stuff in Nuh Uh), to go off on some solos, and lead singer Gabe Levine really gets into it now and again (see the live cut below).
Recommended if you like good pop tunes:

Coco on the Corner
We Feel Safer at Night
They Built You Up Too Fast (off of the tour-only live EP)

Other bands in this collective:
Nuh Uh
Wood Is Good

Matt
Still Kisses with Saliva
stillkisseswithsaliva.blogspot.com

The Saga Beings: A Brief History of Elephant 6

2006-09-30T13:07:00.000-04:00

Jeff Mangum chases Robert Schneider with a wiffleball bat because he wants to play with this little South African immigrant and instantly a friendship is formed. They grow up playing music and listening to the most eclectic mixes because of the local university that their dads taught at, and acquired a unique taste in music which heavily influences the music they will grow up to make. They play in small noise bands and bedroom recording projects through the years and eventually they meet Will Hart and Bill Doss through bands, music shops, guitar lessons, and friends' bands. Competition between the boys leads then to write better and better songs (with Robert at the lead) and eventually we have: Fat Planet. Real band, real music opening for national acts that stopped off between Texas and Mississippi/Georgia. Eventually Jeff adopted a name for his softer side and "pretty" songs under the name: Milk. Along with Milk, Jeff is also involved in the Cranberry Lifecycle, where the gang writes and records some of their supposed best material (we will find out, supposedly these tapes are being mastered to be released) and this mutates into the Synthetic Flying Machine and when Jeff drops from the lineup they finally mutate into The Olivia Tremor Control. At this same time Jeff Mangum finds out that another band already has the name Milk and changes his band name to Neutral Milk Hotel! The Elephant 6 label begins with the release of EP's and 7 Inches by The Apples, an earlier version of The Apples in Stereo with Chris Parafitt who later forms Vince Mole and the Calcium Orchestra. Officially the first Elephant 6 release is Tidal Wave 7" in 1993 by the Apples in Stereo, followed by releases from the Olivia Tremor Control, Secret Square and The Minders. The Elephant Six Collective, still mostly based in Athens, Georgia, blossoms into a cult phenomena, and bands to this day ask relative labels like Orange Twin and Cloud Recordings how to be released on Elephant 6.

Alex
Great Body of Water
http://greatbodyofwater.blogspot.com/

THE SURVIVOR RACE CHALLENGE

2006-09-29T09:18:00.000-04:00

They’re calling it a stunt. They’re calling it a desperate attempt to lift sagging ratings. Worse, they’re calling it racist, the worst idea ever, offensive . . . I’m talking about CBS’ plan to make the next Survivor a show with four teams divided by race: Blacks vs. Whites vs. Latinos vs. Asians.

Okay, let’s put to one side that it may be offensive to define race by skin color. The Japanese and Chinese cultures are quite dissimilar, and those countries have frequently been at war. Puerto Rico and Spain have widely disparate cultures. White Americans and white Russians don’t speak the same language. And as for “blacks,” compare Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to Idi Amin. Etcetera, etcetera. The show answered this complaints in the first episode, by allowing the cast-members themselves to address cultural differences (particularly within the Asian-American tribe).

The real problem here is that everyone seems to be complaining not so much about the way that Survivor defined race, but rather that Survivor did so at all. As if seeing skin color is somehow offensive in its own right. Stephen Colbert does a hilariously funny spoof of this phobia on his program, where he always has to ask folks if they are black because, “I don’t see color.” His point is a good one. America was created with the express purpose of tolerance (although many will argue that we haven’t met our goal, it remains a founding, aspirational principle).

So, to all who say that throwing four racially divided groups on a show to compete is inherently racist, I say: That’s ridiculous.

I grew up on hard and dirty Brooklyn streets. There was a bullethole in our door and I saw two kids die before I was eight. When we played touch football, it was the Niggas against the Crackas, the Spooks vs. the Spics, and Jewboy (me) kept score. The only problem we had was figuring out what teams would get Seung and Sunil. Was that racist?

On my block, white kids sang along to Parlaiment’s Chocoloate City and my buddy Wayne, a black kid with mad tagging skills, knew all the words to Monty Python’s Dead Parrot sketch. A Cambodian buddy of mine had every single Billy Joel album.

Then, somewhere along the way, grown ups got involved. They started thinking that it was better to assimilate than accept. “Black is Beautiful” got replaced by Jesse’s Rainbow Coalition. Affirmative Action gave way to Hands Across America. We started losing our ethnicity. Where the ‘60s and ‘70s brought celebrations of difference in the form of musicals like Hair, the 1980s brought We Are The World. Play That Funky Music White Boy gave way to a homogenous culture where differences were to be extinguished. And that’s a shame. I’m not saying we shouldn’t accept difference, I’m saying we shouldn’t eradicate it.

Who do you think is the bigger racist, an unhooded Klansman who professes racial superiority or a powerful filmmaker who raves over-the-top anti-semitism only when he’s drunk? The radical Islamist who seeks to destroy all white people, or a company that refuses to promote individuals who wear head coverings? (Notice: I didn’t ask who was more dangerous, only who was more racist.) I submit that all these players are equally racist, but the latter are more guilty. Because they find a reason to support their bigotry. That means they know it’s wrong. And that they’re wrong. And yet they do it anyway.

I guess that’s why I look forward to this year’s Survivor. And to the new film, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” in which Sacha Baron Cohen (“Da Ali G Show”) impersonates a Kazakh citizen who participates in his village’s annual ritual, “The Running of the Jews,” where giant Jew puppets are beated with clubs. Racially conscious? Yes. But racist? Not by a long shot.

Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor - Dead Honky

The Legendary K.O. - Closet Racist

Far - Feed The World (Do They Know It’s Christmas?) (Band Aid cover)

The Ramones - The KKK Took My Baby Away

Outkast - Rosa Parks

Ekko
Berkeley Place
http://berkeleyplace.blogspot.com/

NYC's Latest Collective (pt. II of III)

2006-09-28T09:19:00.000-04:00

So, something that has always interested me is musicians who balance a whole lot acts (Johan Angergård from the Acid House Kings, Club 8, and The Legends, Spencer Krug – even if I’m tired of his voice, &c.). This interest/fascination may have to do with my ineptitude as a musician, so I figure anybody who can have more than one band when I can’t even have one must be awesome. Regardless, when I stumbled upon this little collective from NYC, I must say that I was interested.
I found out about Takka Takka because they were (still are) opening for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Architecture in Helsinki, a show I will be attending this Saturday. At Takka’s site, they had a handful of bands listed in the sidebar that I checked out – I always love a good indie band. It turned out that some of these bands were related, and I was quite stoked. Not only do they all share members, but they also share a respect for classic, lo-fi indie music. Here’s my look at the second of three excellent bands in this small NYC collective:

Nuh Uh

Nuh Uh consists of Damion Jurrens and Conrad Doucette, both of Takka Takka. As Damion told me, “Nuh Uh is Takka Takka minus two plus my voice in terms of its lineup,” with him playing guitar and Conrad on the kit. Nuh Uh’s website dares you to call them an “indie-prog” band. One listen and you can clearly see why. Hell, you don’t even need to listen (but I advise you do), just look at their recently released debut – three songs, thirty minutes long.

While they are obviously influenced by prog, with songs that epic and feature a ton of solos, they (much like the rest of the collective), owe a whole lot to the early 90s lo-fi scene. “The songs owe greater debt to Guided by Voices than Yes” they say, and they’re completely right. You may like it if you like Yes, but you’re bound to like it if you like GbV. I, personally, like both, so it’s quite a treat for me.

The vocals work out excellently, just as I mentioned about Wood Is Good. Damion can’t croon like Scott Walker (like those guys from Hoboken ), but his voice just works out very well in the song. A large departure from the other types in the this collective is that this stuff really rocks. Like Wood Is Good may be more rockin’ than Takka Takka, but they really aren’t genuinely rockin’. Nuh Uh could be officially described as rockin’.

Check out this stuff if you’re into things really good:

This Is Embarassing

Other bands in this collective:
Takka Takka
Wood Is Good

Matt
Still Kisses with Saliva
stillkisseswithsaliva.blogspot.com

Retrospective: Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn

2006-09-27T18:13:00.000-04:00

Soon after Syd Barrett's death on July 7, 2006 there was a period of retrospective appreciation of the music that he created. There was not however much discussion on Pink Floyd's debut ablum The Piper at the Gates of Dawn as a whole. Instead people chose to focus on various singles like "See Emily Play" and content from his solo releases The Madcap Laughs and Barrett.

During Pink Floyd's formative years as a band Syd Barrett was the primary musician and songwriter. In fact each of the tracks on Piper with the exception of "Pow R Toc H", "Take up thy Stethoscope and Walk", and "Interstellar Overdrive" were written solely by Barrett. He even coined the name Pink Floyd, "which he derived by juxtaposing the first names of Pink Anderson and Floyd Council he had read about in a sleeve note by Paul Oliver for a 1962 Blind Boy Fuller LP (Philips BBL-7512): "Curley Weaver and Fred McMullen, (...) Pink Anderson or Floyd Council -- these were a few amongst the many blues singers that were to be heard in the rolling hills of the Piedmont, or meandering with the streams through the wooded valleys." (link)

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, recorded at Abbey Road Studios at the same time The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, was the only Pink Floyd album made under Syd Barrett's leadership. It was released on August 5, 1967, and by December of 1967 Barrett had already become destroyed by the amounts of psychedelic drugs that he was taking, and the rest of the band members called on David Gilmour. Says June Child in the book "Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd" written by drummer Nick Mason, "Syd took a lot of acid. Lots of people can take some acid and cope with it in their lives, but if you take three or four trips a day, and you do that every day..."

The recording of Piper was relatively easy for the band, as they were basically recording the same live set they would play at gigs around the same time frame, only with shorter, more radio-friendly solos. The seventh track on the album titled "Interstellar Overdrive," which was one of the very first psychedelic instrumental improvisations recorded by a rock band, was a staple of their live set at the time. On the album this song clocks in at just under ten minutes, while played live would sometimes exceed twenty minutes. Electronic effect machines had not yet been invented in 1967, but the studio did provide bell pianos, Hammond organs, clavinets, tympani, gongs, triangles, Chinese blocks, temple bells and wind machines, which can be heard throughout Piper. The music did however reflect newer technologies in electronics through its prominent use of stereo panning, which makes a quality pair of headphones essential for listening to this album.

Below you'll find an mp3 of the second track on Piper, titled "Lucifer Sam."
(Wiki)
"Coming directly after the (literally) spacy "Astronomy Domine" as the second song on Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the harder-rocking "Lucifer Sam" reaffirms Pink Floyd's increasingly tenuous connection to the rock & roll mainstream. The driving chord progression — which bears a striking resemblance to Neal Hefti's "Batman" theme, in much the same way that "Interstellar Overdrive" owes an obvious debt to Love's "My Little Red Book" — anchors the song in fairly standard garage band territory. At heart, it doesn't sound much different from something the Who might have done around the same time, and it should be noted that "Lucifer Sam" is one of Pink Floyd's most-covered songs for that reason. The song is literally about a cat, so Rick Wright's organ resembles meows, the bass line reminds one of a cat sneaking around, and whip-like sounds and special effects further the feline theme. Barrett's then-girlfriend, Jenny Spires, is mentioned in the song, being referred to as "Jennifer Gentle".

Listen: "Lucifer Sam"

Another of my favorite tracks off of this album is the last song on the disk, simply titled "Bike." I believe that I first heard this song on the 2001 release Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.
(Wiki)
"In the song, Syd Barrett shows a girl his bike (which isn't his), a cloak, a homeless mouse that he calls Gerald, and a clan of gingerbread men - because she "fits in with my world". Towards the end of the song, he offers to take her into a "room of musical tunes".

"The final verse is followed by an instrumental section that can be referred to as a piece of musique concrete: a noisy collage of oscillators, clocks, gongs, bells, maniacal laughing, and other strange sounds edited with tape techniques, apparently the "other room" spoken of in the song."

Listen: "Bike"

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn has been regarded as one of the most influential LPs ever made, being a tremendous influence on the psychedelic rock scene of the time, and much of what followed. It is now viewed as one of the better debut albums by many critics. The album was a hit in the UK where it peaked at #6, but did not get much attention in North America, reaching #131 in the U.S. Rolling Stone magazine placed it at #347 in its' ranking of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Purchase The Piper at the Gates of Dawn at Amazon.com

For the enthusiast, purchase the 30th Anniversary EMI re-mastered, limited-run mono mix version in a hefty digipak with 3-D box art from Amazon UK.

Visit PinkFloyd.com

Mr. Curiosity
Covert Curiosity
http://covertcuriosity.com

NYC's Latest Collective (pt. I of III)

2006-09-26T16:36:00.000-04:00

So, something that has always interested me is musicians who balance a whole lot acts (Johan Angergård from the Acid House Kings, Club 8, and The Legends, Spencer Krug – even if I’m tired of his voice, &c.). This interest/fascination may have to do with my ineptitude as a musician, so I figure anybody who can have more than one band when I can’t even have one must be awesome. Regardless, when I stumbled upon this little collective from NYC, I must say that I was interested.
I found out about Takka Takka because they were (still are) opening for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Architecture in Helsinki, a show I will be attending this Saturday. At Takka’s site, they had a handful of bands listed in the sidebar that I checked out – I always love a good indie band. It turned out that some of these bands were related, and I was quite stoked. Not only do they all share members, but they also share a respect for classic, lo-fi indie music. Here’s my look at the first of three excellent bands in this small NYC collective:

Wood Is Good

The only Wood Is Good member to be in another band in this collective is J.P. Jones, Takka Takka's bassist. While Takka is more interested in the poppier side of things (more on that in the final piece, after I’ve seen them live), Wood Is Good is more interested in the rockier side of things. That’s not to say that Bob will be doing any pieces on them in the future, that’s just to say that comparatively they’re less twee. They seem to have a healthy respect for Wowee Zowee-era Pavement as well, something that no band can have enough of in my opinion. Speaking of Wowee Zowee, is anyone else upset about the lack of “Preston School of Industry” on the re-issue? Regardless, I am diggin’ love Pavement has been getting lately by these indie bands. Collapsing Opposites is doing some excellent Pavement-esque stuff, too.
As well as the Pavement-isms, Wood Is Good also knows how to deliver their vocals. Sure, this isn’t Antony Hegarty here, but the vocalist knows exactly the delivery necessary for the music that’s backing him up. That’s a recurring theme with this whole collective. One thing that's present in the tunes of Wood Is Good is a psychedelic element, something that is not a recurring theme in this collective. So, while they're similar to Takka and Nuh Uh, they've got their own sound that makes them an excellent band in their own right.
Anyways, check out this stuff if you're into Pavement, R.E.M., or chill lo-fi rock:

Salivating Season
Hard Line

Other bands in this collective:
Nuh Uh
Takka Takka

Matt
Still Kisses with Saliva
stillkisseswithsaliva.blogspot.com

LOUD Music Dispatch

2006-09-23T13:59:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the first LOUD Music Dispatch. If you read my blog, GIMME TINNITUS, you know that I put a large value on brevity, so if you find my rambling stream of consciousness style annoying, I just wanted to say... Sorry, mmm-kay.

While I have been listening to The Sword... A LOT, I am going to start this off by talking about something older, something from way back. So, I was watching VH1 Classics redux/stroke-fest of the first 24 hours of MTV, and something struck me... Early Iron Maiden ROCKS!

A quick note on early MTV: Unlike many mp3 bloggers these days, I actually was alive when MTV launched, and I even vaguely recall it. However, I didn't have MTV until the late 80s, so back in August 1981 I just remember the ads for MTV, not the actual videos. Oh yeah, and starting in 1983, I got my all music videos from Friday Night Videos... that shit was horrible.

Back To Maiden!

I had always thought of Iron Maiden as fronted by Bruce Dickinson. I must admit my ignorance about early Maiden... I didn't know about Paul Di'Anno until quite recently. The dude had a much more of a punk attitude than a metal attitude. Unfortunately, Di'Anno figured out that what he really liked was cocaine, just as the band was beginning to make it big in America. By the end of 1981, Di'Anno was replaced with Bruce Dickinson.

When my "metal phase" began (somewhere around 1988) I went straight to the hardest shit... Slayer, Metallica, and Anthrax, and I rejected a lot of earlier metal, as... well... pussy. My mistake. I can admit that now. So don't make the same mistake I did and rock out to some early Maiden... NOW.

And Now... Videos:

Phantom Of The Opera

Charlotte The Harlot

Sanctuary

Official Iron Madien page is here.
Myspace page is here.

Epilogue: If you are wondering, "but what does Iron Maiden sound like now?" you can stream some new Maiden... here, if you really want to.

Bob Reich
GIMME TINNITUS
gimmetinnitus.blogspot.com

Great Music in Your Backyard

2006-09-22T09:48:00.000-04:00

If there was one thing I learned this summer it was that I had an especially great quality of spending more money on concerts and festivals that I didn’t go to, than that I spent on concerts I did go to. That essentially made my actual concert viewing dependent upon Friday nights spent in coffee shops in my general area and anything free. If you consider the fact I live between DC and Baltimore, it’s a bit depressing to know that, but I would actually disagree.

This summer was a wonderful season for shows and festivals (and it isn’t over). Pitchfork was apparently an amazing festival (didn’t go, still have my Pitchfork ticket in my wallet) and an infinite number of bands toured, like Division Day, Architecture in Helsinki, and Belle & Sebastian. I’m fortunate enough to have the opportunity of working for a catering business that caters to a concert venue in Columbia, MD, Merriweather Post Pavilion, where none other than Belle & Sebastian performed alongside Broken Social Scene and Ted Leo. Nice trio, eh? I most certainly went to that show! It would’ve been perfect, except for the fact that Ted Leo got shafted with an insanely short set and Broken Social Scene bored the crowd to tears. You can bet though, that Belle & Sebastian were right on, because they were.

The point though, is that performances like Belle & Sebastian’s don’t have to be found at huge concert venues or clubs, but in coffee houses and free festivals all over the place. Every weekend, I could be found at some coffee house in my area just enjoying myself. Just imagine an environment purely devoted to music lovers. These are people just like you, who eat, sleep, and breathe music. You grab a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, and chill out with these people and watch one-man bands get up and play, and that’s where things get fun.

For the most part, though there are a few exceptions, everything anyone played was a cover. Not crappy covers, like nothing Madonna or anything of that nature, but quality band covers. For example, Justin, who is simply a guy who solely plays at coffee houses, performs every Friday at Mad City Coffee House, and always does Microphones covers. For three minutes, it’s impossible to hear yourself think, let alone speak, and everything in the fairly small sized coffee house will vibrate. Considering the lack of quality equipment, every strum comes through as being rusty, and every word sung sounds remotely similar to the last word said, as they will all string together. But don’t worry, you’re still hopelessly humming though “I Felt Your Shape” right along with him. A song will end and everyone, everyone being fifteen people, will clap, and then there is this silence. Some might find this silence awkward because we don’t know how to handle silences, but I find it to be the most beautiful thing. There was just a loud song that sounded considerably similar to noise and you couldn’t even speak to the person next to you, though you wanted to, and now that you finally have the opportunity to, you simply sit in silence.

Naturally, I have seen a lot of other performers and a variety of covers. For the most part covers are limited to Microphones, Mountain Goats, and Neutral Milk Hotel. Occasionally, you will get a random current “it” band cover, like Sufjan Stevens or an (attempted) Animal Collective cover. However, no matter how often you see these bands, it’s entertaining to watch them sit up on a chair and mess around for a while. There are the infamous moments of screwing up a song, by forgetting lyrics and having them randomly insert some line nonchalantly, or having a completely wrong guitar part, which for the most part you can’t tell.

To claim that entertainment is limited solely to music would be a lie. There are magicians that perform and do awesome tricks between sets at coffee houses (though quite frankly, they deserve their own segment). Then, there are the festivals like Artscape in Baltimore, where big name bands play, such as The Secret Machines, Citizen Cope and Brazilian Girls, and we get to watch for free. These bands were overshadowed by other things going on at that festival though, like breakdancing, street vendors, and strange performances.

You don’t need to go great lengths to see awesome music and talented performers. Believe me, they are in your backyard, you just have to find out about your area’s culture. To go along with this post, I have a mix of songs that I have heard performed at coffee houses, so enjoy! I’m working/going to Virgin Festival on Saturday at Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore, so next time you hear from me it will be on the bands worth watching there, which will be Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and New Pornographers, for sure.

Jason Anderson - Thanksgiving (Feat. Phil of the Microphones)
Belle & Sebastian - I'm a Cuckoo
Neutral Milk Hotel - Communist Daughter
David Thomas Broughton - Walking Over You
Microphones - I Felt Your Shape
Ray Lamontagne - Be Here Now
Microphones - Badd Drum Dream

Samantha

All Things Go
all-things-go.blogspot.com
Where is Helsinki?
whereishelsinki.blogspot.com

Welcome

2006-09-21T09:09:00.000-04:00

So, welcome to Our Last Quarterstance: The Blog Tribunal. What is OLQ, you ask? Well, it’s a lot of excellent bloggers in one place. At the same time. Well, mostly different times, so you could call it the Broken Social Scene of blogs, as opposed to the Polyphonic Spree.

Anyway, a little bit back, I realized that every music blog (including my own) focuses on one thing, mainly: breaking new bands. Two things are especially overlooked: classic music and features. So I began to wonder what I could do to change this, and decided that I couldn’t do it alone. I got in touch with some of my favorite bloggers to see if they would be willing to contribute to a feature-based blog on a regular basis. The response was much better than I could have imagined, and I am pleased to start OLQ with a line-up of seven stellar bloggers, and myself.

The topics that the writers will discuss vary from classic albums, to commentaries on pop culture, to overlooked albums, overpraised albums, where exactly loud music has gone, histories of record labels, and, yes, the occasional discussion of an exciting new band. But you must forgive us for that, because sometimes we just want to see a great band make it big. But not so big, ‘cause no one likes music on the radio. Unless it’s Pandora.

Regardless, I hope that you take something from OLQ. We’ll do our best to enlighten you of the most rockin’ bands (in an indie culture where “rockin” is becoming a taboo) or some classics that you may not have listened to. Just do your best to tune in on a daily basis for entertaining articles written by some of the finest bloggers in the ‘sphere.

The writers:

Alex – A Great Body of Water

Bob – Gimme Tinnitus

Conor – One Part Team Extreme

Digsy – Quick, Before It Melts

Ekko – Berkeley Place

Matt – Still Kisses with Saliva

Mr. Curiosity – Covert Curiosity

Samantha – So…Where Is Helsinki?

And a handful of songs that we're really into right now:

Animal Collective - Chocolate Girl

Hoboken - Beauty Queen

Proton Proton - Plates (One contributor summed this track up rather well: "It friggin' RAWKS!")

The Society Islands - The Mill

The Whigs - Give 'Em All a Big Fat Lip

Matt, Editor

Still Kisses with Saliva

stillkisseswithsaliva.blogspot.com

Roman Candle Return from Anonymity

2006-09-20T09:04:00.000-04:00

The other day I was perusing Pitchfork’s recent reviews, and I stumbled on the review of Roman Candle’s The Wee Hours Revue. Roman Candle, an indie/alt-country band from Chapel Hill, NC, were nobodies five years ago, but their intriguing story inspired me to relate it to you all (since Pitchfork didn’t take the time to bother). These guys were discovered in 2000 on GarageBand.com – a website where nobodies from across the country submit their demos into free contests trying to hit the big time – and it may have taken them six years, but they’re finally here, and they’re definitely worth an ear.
These guys remind me of Wilco with odd, quirky, but still poignant lyrics which cut strong, while the soundscapes they create have the same Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Americanized-Radiohead feel that Wilco perfected. Now, clearly they don’t equal Wilco in prowess, but they’re still a fledgling band with a lot of room to grow, and considering brothers Skip and Logan Matheny’s song-writing talent and their capable five-piece band, the band should strengthen with time.
On November 24, 2000, their song “I’ve Got a Reason” was the Track of the Day on GarageBand.com, which is how NFL defensive end Trevor Pryce (then a Denver Bronco, now a Baltimore Raven) heard about them. It just so happened that Pryce was looking to begin a record label at the time, so he contacted the band and in 2002 their debut album Says Pop was released on Outlook Music. Too bad Trevor Pryce’s label sucked, and the cd ne’er made a store, much less anyone’s stereo. So they put a couple more demos up on GarageBand.com “Baby’s Got It in the Genes” and “Something Left to Say,” and waited again. In May 2003, it was big GarageBand.com news when Roman Candle became the 13^th band discovered on the site to be signed to a major label, as Hollywood Records picked up the band.
So they finally got a major label contract in 2003 with interviews in Rolling Stone and Gear Magazine, only to fall off the face of the earth for the last 3 years. Thing is, I discovered them in 2003 on GarageBand.com myself, and was excited to hear more from them (since their Says Pop was such a scarce commodity it might as well not have existed). So where the hell did they go?! Well, apparently, they went to a different label, since their major debut is on V2, not Hollywood.
Now, I think their new album, which is made up of the same songs as Says Pop, rerecorded with shinier, green-backed production, is just a worse version of their debut, but that’s because the production on Pop is much more raw and lo-fi, filled with squeaking feedback and misplaced samples to make a sound barrage in the way that YHF does. Check out the band’s homepage (http://romancandlemusic.com) to stream The Wee Hours Revue. For those of you who want it in mp3 form, here are a couple killer tracks the band has released on GarageBand.com (these recordings are from Says Pop, not from The Wee Hours Revue). If you like it, go out and buy the fucking album and support indie music.

Roman Candle – “Baby’s Got It In the Genes”

Roman Candle – “Something Left to Say”

Roman Candle – “I’ve Got a Reason"

Conor McKay
One Part Team Extreme
Onepart.blogspot.com