October 2005 Archive

SAY HI TO YOUR TOURMATES


This just arrived in the mailbox over the weekend and since we're both big fans we encourage you to check out both bands if they happen to come through your part of the universe. I for one hope to be at the Mercury Lounge show with Dios Malos. See you there! (Josh)

We are giddy with excitement to announce that beginning next week we'll be supporting Nada Surf on their first North American tour for The Weight Is A Gift, just released on Seattle' Barsuk records. Despite us being in close negotiations with Cirque du Soleil, as consultants for some technical aspect of our live show, we've decided it would be best if we just bring the rock. So the rock, indeed, is just what we'll be bringing (Say Hi to Your Mom)

10-04-05 @ The Black Cat -- Washington, DC; with Nada Surf
10-05-05 @ Theatre Of Living Arts -- Philadelphia, PA; with Nada Surf
10-06-05 @ The Bowery Ballroom -- NYC; with Nada Surf
10-08-05 @ Paradise Rock Club -- Boston, MA; with Nada Surf
10-09-05 @ Brass City Records -- Waterbury, CT; Free Instore (4pm)
10-10-05 @ Pearl Street -- Northampton, MA; with Nada Surf
10-11-05 @ La Sala Rossa -- Montreal, CAN; with Nada Surf
10-12-05 @ Lee's Palace -- Toronto, CAN ; with Nada Surf
10-13-05 @ The Beachland Ballroom -- Cleveland, OH; with Nada Surf
10-14-05 @ The Metro -- Chicago, IL; with Nada Surf
10-15-05 @ 400 Bar -- Minneapolis, MN; with Nada Surf
10-19-05 @ Neumos -- Seattle, WA; with Nada Surf
10-20-05 @ The Aladdin Theatre -- Portland, OR; with Nada Surf
10-21-05 @ Bimbo's 365 Club -- San Francisco, CA; with Nada Surf
10-22-05 @ The El Rey Theatre -- Los Angeles, CA; with Nada Surf
10-23-05 @ The Casbah -- San Diego, CA; with Nada Surf
10-24-05 @ Kilby Court -- Salt Lake City, UT
10-25-05 @ Benders Tavern -- Denver. CO
10-27-05 @ The Conservatory -- Oklahoma City, OK
10-28-05 @ The Cavern -- Dallas, TX
10-29-05 @ Emo's -- Austin, TX
10-31-05 @ Red Star Bar -- Baton Rouge, LA
11-01-05 @ Duke CoffeeHouse -- Durham, NC
11-02-05 @ Relative Theory Records -- Norfolk, VA
11-03-05 @ Live on WMUC -- College Park, MD; (4pm)
11-03-05 @ DC9 -- Washington, DC
11-04-05 @ The Mercury Lounge -- NYC; with Dios Malos
11-06-05 @ AS220 -- Providence, RI
11-07-05 @ Great Scott -- Allston, MA

Some more details about each show can be found here:
http://www.sayhitoyourmom.com

Posted: Mon - October 3, 2005 at 01:39 AM

STAGES AND STATES


i'm your classic big baby when it comes to being sick and so my first post-summer bug made for a fairly rotten weekend. being sick always seems like a good time to recognize the solitude that marks ones surroundings. and the next domino in that series is the ideal melancholic music. Bodies and Minds is the new album from toronto-based Greak Lake Swimmers and it suit these few days where past lovers were on the peripherals, strangely coinciding with the aforementioned mood. the songs sound like nostalgia and so i guess it's not unusual for them to take you there. much like on their previous album where i immediately latched onto one song ("Moving Pictures, Silent Films") i quickly found a song on the new album that just seems right and so i'm sharing. perhaps a trip to see the New Pornographers tonight will bring with it a sunnier disposition and i'll drop something upbeat on you for tomorrow's live track. (Jason)

Great Lake Swimmers - "Various Stages "
www.greatlakeswimmers.com

Posted: Mon - October 3, 2005 at 01:41 AM

LOOK INTO THE CAMERA


a year ago seems like forever ago. i spent a majority of last fall listening to Camera Obscura. they're currently in the studio recording a new album and recently relaunched a splendid looking website. they're recording in sweden and if i recall correctly the album is being produced by the same fella who did the Concretes record last year. i sorta cheated on the live track aspect today and am delivering you a crisp sounding Peel Session track. recording will wrap up soon and the group will be returning to glasgow to play a John Peel tribute gig on the 13th, the anniversary of the last broadcast of Radio 1's finest dj (who was a big fan of CO). (Jason)

Camera Obscura - "Before You Cry" (Peel Session)
http://www.camera-obscura.net/

Posted: Tue - October 4, 2005 at 12:22 AM

KATYDID


so the show i went to on monday was really good. the New Pornographers played the majority of their new album and two encores, with a friend of mine making the spot-on observation that Neko Case looked like she raided Stevie Nicks wardrobe. the opening act was victoria, bc trio Immaculate Machine, featuring Kathryn Calder, the newest face in the New Pornographers and apparently frontman A.C. Newman's long-lost niece. they were a great opening band in that of the three groups playing, they easily had the best interaction with the crowd. someone next to made the interesting suggestion they sounded like a canadian Modern English. they have an album named Ones and Zeroes on Mint records. (Jason)

Immaculate Machine - "Phone Number "
http://www.immaculatemachine.com/

Posted: Wed - October 5, 2005 at 01:09 AM

THIRTY-TWO SOFTLY FOCUSED, BRIGHTLY COLORED EYES



Ignore the fact that I (and my brother I'm sure) have had an indie rock crush on Petra Hayden since the early 90's- The Decemberists are one of the more enthralling live acts out on the road today. I just returned from what was the first of two shows here in New York City this week at Webster Hall. [A sidenote: Webster Hall is a really shitty venue in my opinion. I don't get it, it doesn't seem much bigger than the Bowery Ballroom and the sound sucks. The Decemberists could be selling out the Hammerstein Ballroom by now!]

I didn't decide to got to the show until last night (I had been protesting the high costs of shows of late) but upon hearing that Glasgowians Sons and Daughters would be opening, I ponied up my 31 dollars (after surcharges). They were wonderful to say the least. The little lady fronting the band could eat Karen O. for breakfast if she didn't scare her away first with the ferocious banshee yell she displayed tonight. The gentlemen lead, equally charming, was unfortunately faced with a crowd of quiet blank stares when asked if anyone liked the Ronettes! Shame on you kids! I demand you all to go home and download "Be My Baby"! Anyway, great set by S&D's. In case you haven't heard them yet, I'll throw a sample down below.

The Decemberists came on about 30 minutes later after treating the crowd to Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf narrated by David Bowie. They've done the same thing at previous shows I've attended and a friend of mine even managed to track down a copy for me. It's a bunch of fun. Colin, Chris, Jenny and the gang opened up with "California One Youth & Beauty Brigade" and continued with one wonderful song after another: I recall "July July", "Los Angeles I'm Yours", "16 Military Wives", "the Sporting Life", "Eli The Barrowboy", "Engine Driver", "Bus Mall", "The Legionnaire's Lament", "Myla Goldberg" and perhaps "From My Own True Love (Lost at Sea)" (there were more but yes it was rather Picaresque leaning). At one point Colin rested his crack team of musicians and brought out John Wesley Harding to sing a song about Mary and Joesph (I'm not kidding) and retained his services as a tambourine man (pun intended for you Bob Dylan fans) for the following song. They closed with a version of the Chimbley Sweep that had the whole audience collapsed on the ground at one point and encored with a participatory version of the Mariner's Revenge song that I'm sure sent everyone home in smiles.

I had a lot of fun. It would have been impossible in my mind to improve upon their performance at the Bowery Ballroom awhile back when they came out and encored with the entirety of "The Tain" but this was still a wonderful time. The night really proved to me that this band is really fucking huge now and I'll tell you that they wholly deserve it. Their music and stage banter is always humorous, whimsically theatrical and entertaining. Colin also seems to genuinely love his band's large audience of fans- several of them very attractive women who fawn and faint over him. Speaking of which, there was an odd threesome in front of me throughout the show- two guys a girl and she'd be kissing one while the other dude kept rubbing her ass while everyone around them just shook their heads. If anyone knows what was going on there, please fill me in. Also if anyone has any great live tracks of this or any show they'd like to share with us please let us know. (Josh)

Sons & Daughters- "Checked "
The Decemberists- "Human Behavior " (Bjork cover from some Japanese Album)

Posted: Wed - October 5, 2005 at 02:06 AM

ABOUT A GIRL


Live It Out is the new record from Metric that was released this week. in 2003 the band had settled into LA (after leaving their native canada and a brief jaunt in NY where they were locally written off as the less spectacular roommates (literally) of the Yeah,Yeah, Yeahs) and released their debut album, one that would land them on just about every "bands to watch in 2004" list published. the year and the electro-pop scene they were lumped into came and went. in that time the group packed it up and moved back to were they started...toronto. soon after they began working on this new album which is worth your listening. i can see how some may skeptically write off the album as passé, new wave-influenced dance pop, but i'd argue that the albums sound is much heavier than anything that might have lit up indie clubs in the past few years. Emily Haines vocals first won me over in her contributions to Stars and Broken Social Scene (though she was ultimately overshadowed by the emergence of that groups other female vocalist, Feist). one of the all too obvious downsides of the music industry hype machine is we put time limits on our expectations for a band to break and as a result, bands like Metric, who deliver in talent, are quickly lost in the shuffle. this is one for us patient folks. (Jason)

Metric - "Poster of a A Girl "
http://www.ilovemetric.com

Posted: Thu - October 6, 2005 at 12:10 AM

HAIL TO THE KING BABY



Hey there. Another night, another show. This time around I went to see The King of France who were opening up for Robbers on High Street, both bands recommended to me by my brother. In my opinion Robbers sound a little too much like the Strokes but The King of France, there's something I really liked. Unlike the musically competent band to come on before the King (I can't recall their name), these guys have a good frontman who can sing. I especially liked their song about "the Man". Their sound is swanky and melodic and also as Jay said last month "charming". It's also the sound of potential. (Josh)

Click here to see Jay's previous post and MP3 along with some of their upcoming show dates again so YOU can check them out!

Posted: Thu - October 6, 2005 at 12:08 AM

ENGLISH TAILORED


this past summer saw the release of the Back Room by the uk's Editors, which finally collecting, among new tracks, the three singles that had the press and music blogs raving about the group earlier in the year. the birmingham quartet formed a few years back while attending school to study music technology at stafford. the group finally made it's stateside debut last month, curiously opening for Maximo Park and the Features in nashville, tn at a gig celebrating the 155th birthday of jack daniels. it may be awhile before you see them here again as the group is back home prepping for european tourdates with franz ferdinand. also, while admittedly silly, i will also nominate them as the best dressed band of 2005. it's not too often i shuffle through press photos and wonder where a band shops. (Jason)

the Editors - "Blood "

Posted: Fri - October 7, 2005 at 12:47 AM

ORANGE THE NEW BLUE?


New Comes and Goes is the new Oranger record, offering a new line-up and the groups first stab at not recording on their own. a lot of people may have forgotten about this san francisco-based band because after the excellent debut The Quiet Vibration Land, which had more of psych-pop slant, their next album was barely distributed and contained a bonus disc of thirty-something questionable experimental tracks that followed a sadly under-looked Graham Parsons-inflicted sound.

here's a group that was pre-pegged as something special when they opened for Pavement out of the gates and would be called by some the hopefuls in succeeding Beulah as the current sf kings of pop. that's some lofty critical praise for a band relegated to playing opening act on tour. regardless, the new album has me quite excited to the group live this week. it's the type of guitar pop you just know plays well live. they'll be opening for another group of critically worshipped pop stars that seemed to exist moreso in the writings and muses of critics and fellow muscians, namely the Poises (who i listened to like, uh, ten years ago). here is the first track off that new Oranger album. (Jason)

Oranger - "Crooked in the Weird of the Catacombs "
http://www.oranger.net/

Posted: Mon - October 10, 2005 at 01:45 AM

AN EXPLOSIVE LIVE SHOW


this week the Temporary Residence label is releasing an album from Explosions in the Sky that was originally distrubuted on cd-r prior to their breakout 2001 album (Those Who Tell the Thruth Shall Die...). thus the inspiration for me to break out some Explosions in the Sky for today's live track. this texas-based quartet built a following on the strength of their live show and hopefully the seemlessness of this recording will display at least the aural aspects behind that execution. (Jason)

Explosions in the Sky - "The Only Moment We Were Alone" (live)

Posted: Mon - October 10, 2005 at 11:29 PM

A SONG I WROTE


in the four months the website's been up i've been very good about not flooding each and every week with cover tunes. they are a guilty pleasure of both my brother and i and we have quite a collection. if you really want to win me over, you'll dig up covers of obscure one-hit wonders from the eighties. such is the inspiration for todays listing. i've already covered my fascination with scotland, land of half my all-time favorite bands. mid-eighties glasgow gave us Strawberry Switchblade and the hit "Since Yesterday." despite being part of a flourishing scene that gave birth to JAMC, Aztec Camera, Orange Juice, the Pastels and Primal Scream, Rose McDowall and Jill Bryson never really found an enduring niche for their mish mash of bubblegum pop and new wave. perhaps it was the strange (at least to me) day-glo goth look the band displayed live. anyway, in 1999 san francisco four-piece Wussom*Pow put their twee pop meets shoegaze spin on it and i played it repeatedly on my radio show. a few years back Boyracer also took on the same tune on their Girlracer ep. for good measure i have also included a link to the S.S. video for the single, which is apparently easy to find because the group, despite having one album, had a bit of a revival in japan during the nineties. one last bit of strange trivia for you...Rose would later go to perform with Nurse with Wound and Current 93. (Jason)

Wussom*Pow - "Since Yesterday "
Boyracer - "Since Yesterday "

Strawberry Switchblade - Since Yesterday video

P.S. the title of todays post comes from the film the squid and the whale, which features it own unique "cover" (Josh)

Posted: Tue - October 11, 2005 at 12:03 AM

LET'S PRETEND WE'RE UNBUNNY


my favorite band that next to no one has seemingly heard of aside from a few friends is Unbunny. at one point i made the drive with a few of those friends to california just to see Jarid Del Deo play live. Del Deo has a disntictive, higher pitched delivery that may account for the minor fanship his group has found in the indiepop world, but his music tends to make me think back moreso to an On the Beach-era Neil Young. the top notch songwriting can be humerous, charming and a bit saddening all at once. Unbunny has a new limited edition EP, entitled the Typist, released last week. it's part of Important Record's "Arts & Crafts" series of homemade-packaged albums. i was able to get my hands on a cd-r of unreleased and rare tracks a few years back when i worked on one of the Unbunny records. thought i'd break out one of those tracks for today as well as my favorite Unbunny song ("Wonder Woman"), which was off of the debut Unbunny record. (Jason)

Unbunny - "I'm No Good "
"Wonder Woman "

www.unbunny.com

Posted: Thu - October 13, 2005 at 12:42 AM

BASEMENT TAPES


i was listening to somafm's indiepop rocks at work and this song came on and i quickly fell in love with it. it reminded me of Teenage Fanclub doing their best Byrds impersonation, which of course is a very good thing. i ran home and researched the band because i had never heard of them. all told, their wasn't much to uncover. it appears as if they're from minneapolis, have an ep (that was more computer-obsessed music than pop) and a full length entitled Transistor that came out last year and which contains this song. other than that, it appears they keep a low profile, led by Vince Caro and a mixture of line-ups that tend to play a lot of tribute shows in the twin cites area. (Jason)

Basement Apartment - "Into My World "
http://www.basementapartment.net

Posted: Fri - October 14, 2005 at 11:35 AM

POPULAR DEMAND


Nada Surf were quite primed to be your typical one-hit-wonder with the tune "Popular" considering the breaking alternative music landscape of the mid-nineties. unfortunately as trends changed the group was left for dead, like many, by their label after their second album. something that's been relatively unnoticed is that each of their albums since have been increasingly better. the group was rediscovered by barsuk records some five years after their hit tune and delivered Let Go, relocating the band to the gentler confines of the indie underground. The Weight Is A Gift is their latest album, once again on the Barsuk label and even produced by chris walla of Deathcab. the easily accessible alterna-pop that had this band snatched up by a major so early on is ironically even more so noticiable, then again that's sorta been the secret to the success of the aforementioned producer's band. in fact a number of similarities could be drawn, especially with the sheen of this type of pop likely having that either love it or hate it effect on folks.

Nada Surf - "What is Your Secret "

Posted: Mon - October 17, 2005 at 10:20 AM

"DON" JUAN MACLEAN


forsaking the live track this week for the band i saw live last night. i made the trek up to boulder yesterday, partly to see LCD Soundsystem and Juan Maclean, partly to catch up with an old radio friend who is on the tour. while old friends is certainly nostalgia, there was a bit of unplanned nostalgia as well. Juan Maclean started polishing his music chops years ago in Six Finger Satellite, which was "the" band in providence when i was growing up. following the culmination of the bands outlandish behavior and drug indulgences, Juan disappeared to NH to clean up. the DFA label brought him back into the music-making fold, with a surprisingly danceable version of the chaotic SFS. the little surprise from last night, probably even more so for Juan and feeding into that sense of nostalgia was that J. Adams from SFS showed up at the show and apparently lives out here in colorado now. i felt like a kiddish fan again as i stood by him during the LCD set and thinking i so remember you from like ten years ago.

the show as a whole suffered a bit from the sound at the Fox which has surprisingly dropped several notches. still the groups managed to get the front of the stage crowded with people willing to dance it up for a pair of hour long sets. i think a lot of people can familiar with LCD and were pleasantly surprised by the opener as The Juan Maclean is a no-brainer tour compliment to electronified punk-funk of James Murphy and friends.

The Juan Maclean - "Give Me Every Little Thing "

Posted: Tue - October 18, 2005 at 02:14 PM

THE MORNING AFTER


Last night I attended the sold-out My Morning Jacket show at Webster Hall in NYC. Along for the ride was Mr. Adam Dorn, AKA MOCEAN WORKER , the 13th person I asked if they wanted to go. No offense to Mr. Dorn but I started with a long list of single women who obviously don't consider me dating material.

I certainly wouldn't mind a date with opener Kathleen Edwards. She and her excellent backing band of crack Canadian musicians delivered a twangy high energy performance while ever so modestly preparing us for the Jacket. I look forward to their promise to all grow mustaches.

My Morning Jacket came on just after 10pm. I must be honest that I've never heard much more than a song or two from the band. I had read in several publications that the previously "rock out till our instruments fall apart" band was now experimenting with samplers and other effects to sound more dynamic and that this may have been the result of losing a basketball game to VHS or BETA. The result in my opinion reminds me of The Who's It's Hard and specifically the song Eminence Front where Pete Townshend's musical ambitions bore an army of mostly undistinguished layers of synth. This is all not so surprising as they worked on the album with producer John Leckie (Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Radiohead).

The band opened up with three or four of the tracks off new album Z before falling into a long rocking jam session that featured unintelligible lyrics and a few out of tune instruments. Strangely, I didn't mind it too much. The drummer, an acquaintance of Adam's who by-the-way was sweet talking John Mayer (strangely not surrounded by an army of 16 year old girls and their mothers), is an awesome force of hair and drumming. They've certainly earned their cult-like following.

Finally, many thanks to Brian Hughes who set us up with tickets to the show tonight when he had his wisdom teeth pulled. Send him all your drugs....care of me.

MMJ tours throughout the end of the year and will be opening up for The Black Crowes at Madison Square Garden on New Years Eve. (Josh)


Posted: Wed - October 19, 2005 at 01:22 PM

NOTES TO MUSIC BLOGGERS


1. Fiery Furnaces suck.
2. Enough about your adolescent obsession with Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, etc...
3. ...and your near-pedophilic fixation of Lindsey Lohan
4. Posting totally obscure, nearly unlistenable bands no one would listen to in their right mind does not make you cool!
5. Stop copying me!

Posted: Wed - October 19, 2005 at 01:29 PM

I WANT YOU TO DOWNLOAD ME


listening to california's the Arrogants is like following the path of several recent eras of u.k. pop music. at the foundation is an ethereal pop sound that harkens back to the early eighties and the dream-pop of the Cocteau Twins. pushing a few years ahead, one of the more obvious influences is that of the Sarah records twee pop. you can wrap up the sound with a touch of the guitar pop that happened when bands like Lush transmuted the shoegaze scene into something a bit more catchy, but still with airy layers. it's quite a comparison, but i'm fairly certain if you give it a listen you'll in fact find traces of all of it. the group has a new album out entitled You've Always Known When Best To Say Goodbye, containing a rather grandiose 23 tracks and available through www.tweekitten.com. i'd also recommending looking for the groups phenomenal debut ep, Your Simple Beauty, on Shelflife records, which was one of many records that shaped my pop-loving, post-college, post-break-up year that was 2000. (Jason)

additional mp3 are available on the bands website.

the Arrogants - "I Want You "
http://www.arrogants.com

Posted: Thu - October 20, 2005 at 01:41 AM

REMEMBER


how does the music world just cease to remember a band like Satisfact amidst a climate that has embraced, for three years or so going now, anything that sounds remotely eighties? especially with the popularity of Modest Mouse, you'd expect to hear more about drummer Jeremiah Green's other old band or something. frontman Matt Steinke was also in the criminally under-looked Mocket, so perhaps he was destined for obscurity. the Unwanted Sounds of Satisfact was released in 1996 on the then up and coming Up Records. it recommendable top to bottom. it contains the synth-heavy sound of agitated androids making post-punk music. you could have this band open for Interpol and the crowd would go apeshit i bet. two albums followed after the debut, though neither touched what i think is one of the more underrated albums of 1996. whether you're going dancing this weekend or blowing off some steam from the work week, this should help you get started.

Satisfact - "Dysfunction "

Posted: Fri - October 21, 2005 at 01:52 AM