Midwest prog that aims for the AOR ideal: one kick-ass sound after another. It's tempting, but possibly meaningless, to say that Cheer-Accident's gonzo synth-horn prog rock couldn't have happened anywhere but the Midwest. In one sense, sure -- they come from Chicago and its suburbs, and they've worked with a whole host of Chicago musicians, including Steve Albini and more than one Flying Luttenbacher. But in the musical sense? Well, maybe some coastal band would've eventually hit upon Cheer-Accident's blend of '70s AOR hooks, unfussy chops, stone-faced humor,...
Chicago avant-garde heroes Cheer-Accident's 17th recording.
To celebrate today's crop of releases, here are new mp3s from Afuche, CHEER-ACCIDENT, Flogging Molly, Leftover Cuties, Soema Montenegro, My Morning Jacket and Richard Pinhas & Merzbow. Also, vote for your favorite of today's new releases.
Last weekend the Bethesda Writer's Center hosted a fine-cut screening of a locally produced music documentary called Romantic Warriors: A Progressive Music Saga . Audience members got a first look at (and later a chance to critique) the year-long effort to document what the filmmakers suggest are the remaining few musicians of a genre with a questionable future. Progressive rock, which features long-form expression of a musical theme through various instruments, has a strong undercurrent of independent support among fans, especially in the Northeast, owing to the geographical make-up of the region and its high population density. [...]

Thursday, April 23rd Glassworks Rooftop www.louisvilleglassworks.com 815 W. Market St. Young Widows www.myspace.com/youngwidows Cheer-Accident www.cheer-accident.com Phantom Family Halo www.myspace.com/thephantomfami lyhalo **EARLY SHOW** Doors at 7 P.M. Show at 7:30 P.M. *The show will begin promptly at 7:30 P.M. and end before 11 P.M.* $7 - proceeds will benefit Ohio Valley Creative Energy www.ovceart.org All Ages (Cash Bar with I.D.) (If the weather [...]

Cheer Accident Genre: Progressive / Experimental / Indie From: Chicago, Illinois United States When I first came across Chicago's Cheer Accident (there are various, well ok two, theories about where the band's name come from which for those of you with a forensic mindset can be checked out here [...]

My dear friend Jet introduced me to Cheer-Accident in 2005 when I was visiting her during a road trip. She let me burn a bunch of CDs for the car, and Sever Roots, Tree Dies was the best of the lot - even beter than that weird homemade Frogs CD! From Wikipedia: Cheer-Accident is an indie rock ensemble headed by pianist Thymme Jones. Jones took the name of the band from a Hallmark card shopping display, and first formed the group in 1981 with singer Jim Drummond and drummer Mike Greenlees. Their first album, Life [...]
For those of you who missed some of the articles about Skin Graft roster (or those who don't feel like scrolling), here's an archive of all Skin Graft bands that were featured on this blog (it includes both bands that primarily released their material through the label, as well as those who put out only [...]
*drum roll* U.S. Maple are the winners of this year's Skin Graft label poll with 4 votes. Second place goes to Dazzling Killmen (3 votes). The rest of results look the following way: Denison-Kimball Trio (2 votes) Brise-Glace (2 votes) Shorty (2 votes) Arab On Radar (2 votes) Yowie (1 vote) Koenjihyakkei (1 vote) Flying Luttenbachers (1 vote) Lake of Dracula (1 vote) Flossie And [...]
You Fantastic! was a continuation of another band - Yona-Kit - minus K.K. Null and Jim O'Rourke. The band was formed in the late 90s when Darin Gray and Thymme Jones from Y-K teamed up with Tim Garrigan from Dazzling Killmen and together they recorded two EPs and one full-length for Skin Graft label. In [...]
Yona-Kit was a one-off collaboration between members of American band Brise-Glace (Jim O'Rourke, Darin Gray and Thymme Jones) and Japanese guitarist KK Null. They released one self-titled album, which came out on Skin Graft in 1995 and was produced by Steve Albini (Big Black, Rapeman, Shellac).They also contributed few compilation tracks to various albums and [...]
I've realized, over the last twelve months, that Saturdays and Sundays are pretty much useless as far as content is concerned, because my readership drops over 100 visitors per day on the weekends. That's what Saturdays are (and always will be unless something amazing happens following Friday's post) world news stories, and Sundays are (for now) going to remain Sunday Mix Tape day. If you want to curate a Mix Tape, all you have to do is put one together, archive the files (.zip or .rar) and use MediaFire to upload it to the Internet. Send me a link to [...]
In case you have been searching for another reason to mock CNN, here's a public interest story that's sure to help. It seems like every few weeks the media giant produces one of these unintentionally uproarious articles about the Baby Boomer generation, and how they don't have to worry about aging, because they're going to stay young and awesome forever -- not like their parents, who just got old and died. Those between the ages of 43 and 61 can continue believing in the existence of a real-life Peter Pan syndrome, where they don't have to accept reality, [...]

Well, it's finally done. Another year in the books. It's been a good one and I am extremely thankful for all the great music that came out this year. I am also extremely thankful for all the people that have commented and sent e-mails over the entire year showing their appreciation for BOAWS. It really means a lot. Anyway, enough of my babbling. Here it is, my 20 favorite albums from this year. I'll probably not be updating until after Christmas, so I hope everyone has a great holiday and a safe one [...]