OWR: Everyone Says I Love You
77: Adorable
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Monday, April 21, 2008
Heard These Guys Yet? -- April 08 Edition
With so much wide open space on the internet, and so many worthwhile undiscovered bands around the world, we're putting our collective heads together to bring you a new feature. A coalition of the willing 'round these parts have submitted the goods on up and coming bands they think you'd want to know about. Think of this as the employee recommendation shelf at your local video store. Except nobody's getting paid. We'll do this once a month until we've uncovered every worthy act on the planet. Have a band we should include? Let us know in the comments section. On with the rock and/or roll!
Recommender: Biz
Band: Working for a Nuclear Free City
Blurb: Although the name is a mouthful to say, WFANC is a pleasure for the ears. I discovered some tracks that had mysteriously appeared on my hard drive about a year ago from their Rocket EP, and they were all great. This made me excited to hear more, and when their full-length album, Businessmen & Ghosts became available, I had to obtain it by any means possible. So I went to the record store and bought it, of course. This band has an interesting and somewhat schizophrenic range of material, from straight-ahead rockers to instrumental shoegazer and layered electronic grooves. Considering the diverse styles, it all fits together surprisingly well. Another band from the musical Vortex that is Manchester. Their myspace says that the slogan "Working For a Nuclear Free City" used to appear on signs when driving into Manchester.
Reminds me of: Spiritualized meets Beta Band with some Chemical Brothers sprinkled on top.
File Under: Iconic Breeze
But don't take my word for it: WFANFC at Myspace
Recommender: PMaz
Band: Jim Noir
Blurb:Ever listen to an album because you liked the cover? The cover of Jim Noir's self-titled album resembles children's art, so I was expecting something like They Might Be Giants. The goofy lyrics are definitely there, plus there are plenty of electronic beats. And like TMBG, Noir seems to be having a great time with the arrangements, which have a 60's pop influence. But Noir's sound is a bit more melancholy ("Ships and Clouds") and electronic than anything TMBG has ever done. I was impressed with the spacey sounding "All Right" and hooked from there on out with the toe-tapping "What U Gonna Do". This is Noir's 2nd album and from what I understand is a bit of a retread of the first. But if a formula works, why change it?
Reminds me of: The Beta Band, Beck, Badly Drawn Boy, probably some other artist starting witht the letter "B".
File Under: Mirthy Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap
But don't take my word for it: Jim at Myspace
Recommender: Jonas
Band: Boards Of Canada
Blurb: I first heard BoC on a webstream from KEXP.org in Seattle . I was at work and stopped what I was doing to really process what I was hearing. It was 2002 and I was hearing “Dawn Chorus” from the “Geogaddi” album, their best album to date. Now, I have been a fan of electronic music since the mid-80’s when… with the exception of Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, Severed Heads, The Tear Garden, Meat Beat Manifesto, etc. most of it was sucky dance beats with no soul. That is not to say that BoC is anything like those bands, not at all. But I had always followed electronica as it matured and wondered what the ultimate outcome would be, and BoC shows the us what electronic music truly can be. This is amazing stuff folks. One of their songs is Music Is Math, and that is a very accurate description of the band. Get “Geogaddi” (NOW!), then “Music Has The Right To Children”, then “The Campfire Headphase”, then… start on the EPs…
Reminds me of: Dropping acid while doing calculus and watching a fractal visualization on Winamp.
File Under: Don't Fear the Deeper
But don't take my word for it: BoC at Myspace
Recommender: Kyle
Band: Black Kids
Blurb: These kids from Jacksonville, FL are becoming blog darlings and even booked a Lollapalooza 2008 appearance all based upon a 4 song EP and a live show reputation. Ladies, while the Black Kids are "Not Gonna Teach You Boyfriend To Dance With You," they will help you get your boyfriend to dance at all as people have hard time not getting their groove on to them. With their infectious dance rock getting recognition from everything from Pitchfork to Rolling Stone, you'll have as much fun listening as they appear to have had playing.
Reminds me of: The Go! Team if they were dressed like these guys
File Under: Shiny Happy Pictures Of You
But don't take my word for it: BKs at Myspace
Recommender: Reed
Band: Black Mountain
Blurb: It would be tempting to claim that Black Mountain has much in common with fellow Vancouver heavy fuzz acts Ladyhawk and Wolf Parade. But the far more apt comparison would be to bands of eras gone by. Their self-indulgent monster guitars and thumping drums evoke the best of the mid-70s power rock. Like if Wolfmother took themselves seriously. Their new album, the perhaps ironically titled "In The Future," has a 16-minute song! So why am I recommending a band that, in all honesty isn't doing anything new? Because they play the kind of music that only works when it's too loud. And I like too loud! Crank your speakers up to eleven and check out "Stormy High" or "Triad," but watch out for the coda. You might think you've become the lizard queen.
Reminds me of: Pink Floyd trying their absolute hardest to be Black Sabbath, even if they had to take a Jefferson Airplane to get there
File Under: We're Loud, We're Proud, Headbang with it
But don't take my word for it: BM at Myspace
Friday, April 18, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Unyielding Commissioning Lazily Links
It could be yours - Maybe. Guns N Roses have finally delivered Chinese Democracy to Geffen Records. You might even get a free can of Dr. Pepper out of it.
What about Kenny Rogers? - Seriously, no "Lady"? Anyhoo, check out a list of eight songs inspired by real women. Pretty good list, though you could easily extend it to 100. My personal favorite song inspired by a real woman: "Head Like a Hole"
I never tire of this - Eric's Top Ten Movies You Can Watch Over and Over Again
This may prove less funny in about six years, but for now, have a larf:
Monday, April 14, 2008
Tapes 'n Tapes w/ White Denim @ Metro
It’s official. The new Tapes ‘n Tapes album sucks. It’s great, but it sucks. Their other album kinda sucks, too. It’s also great. I’ll explain.
Arriving just in time for the start of White Denim’s set, I was surprised to see so few fans in attendance. The room filled as they played, but those who showed up late missed something special. The Austin, TX trio poured on the pace, wailing, riffing and generally pushing their instruments to the breaking point. With an energy reminiscent of an in-his-prime James Brown (if only the Night Train were careening off its tracks), their songs were comprised of frenzied riffs. Even drummer Josh Block thumped more riffs then rhythms. The display of frenetic dexterity all fit together perfectly. By the end of their set, they had the (now substantially larger) crowd with them. If you’re not smiling and bopping along to White Denim, you’re not alive. They gave all you could ask of an opener. Many bands go on tour and make sure to get an opening act that has no chance of showing them up. It’s clear that Tapes ‘n Tapes has no such fears.
Tapes ‘n Tapes is still not big enough to have roadies doing their grunt work. The band did all their own equipment setup. After ten minutes, they returned to the stage, and with a threatening rumble, opened their set with “Jakov’s Theme.” The song had been their closer over recent tours, and worked quite well in that capacity. It’s an even better opener. From there, they ran through seven straight songs off their new release. Played live, the songs have a throbbing intensity that simply doesn’t show up on the recordings. They are great songs, but their performance indicated that the album was not recorded correctly. Perhaps it may not help with radio play, but somehow capturing the potency on display at Metro would have been a good thing.
But the songs themselves are excellent. “Le Ruse” had every head in the packed house bobbing to the beat. “Blunt” kept people moving. By the time we got to “Hang Them All”, it was clear that everyone was digging the new stuff. Wearing a shirt emblazoned with, “Ski Germany,” frontman Josh Grier is perhaps more than ever the band’s centerpiece. Aside from a few sparse comments back and forth (and one fool in the audience who kept yelling “The Twins suck!”), there was little crowd/band interaction. However, that didn’t matter. Everyone in the band was so busy rocking hard, you didn’t need faux eye contact anyway.
With the older (i.e. more familiar) tunes in the second half of the set, the crowd participation and energy picked up. For “Omaha”, even the bouncer sang along. The set closed with “Insistor” and “Demon Apple,” the best songs on each of their albums. Seriously, as long as they're a band, they're never going to play a show that doesn't include "Insistor". It would be a crime. Pulling a Costanza, they went out on top, leaving the crowd wanting more. I wondered, “What’s left? They’ve played nearly everything.” Sure enough, there was no encore. Thankfully, nobody booed this time. In four shows over the last two years, Tapes ‘n Tapes has pretty much kicked ass every time. I’m starting to believe that they’re not capable of a flat performance. For a band with few gimmicks, that says a lot. Definitely the best show I’ve seen in a while, if these two acts come to your town (tour info here), don’t miss out.
NOTE: Metro is apparently cracking down on the taking of photos. A very large bouncer was going out into the crowd to stop any picture-taking. Since he was standing right in front of me, I didn’t want to risk getting the boot. However, Noah Levine of URB magazine was in the house and took some good ones. Check ‘em out here.
Tapes ‘n Tapes Setlist:
Jakov’s Theme
George Michael
Headshock
Le Ruse
Time Of Songs
Conquest
Blunt
Ten Gallon Ascot
Just Drums
Cowbell
Sing Back Something
In Houston
Omaha
Hang Them All
The Dirty Dirty
Insistor
Demon Apple
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
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