The Metal Injection sponsored PLANET CARAVAN Festival has announced the schedule for the two-day-stoner-rock-wet-dream. We have the full schedule after the jump. You can also download a handy PDF schedule at the official website of the tour. Single-day tickets have just been released Friday or Saturday are now available for $49.50, while two day passes are [...]
Indie darling, singer/songwriter Maria Taylor observes that her third solo effort (due March 31) is all about "personal growth and the change that comes with it." She should know. For Taylor personally, change has meant the end of a relationship, a move to L.A., a new label (Nettwerk) and, for the listener, a lyrical outlook that reflects both a melancholy for the loss of things past and the optimism of things to come. "This change in my life was so so needed," she says, "that, whereas lots of older songs have happy words but a sad undertone, these [...]

Δεν ξέρω αν και πως γιορτάζετε τα Χριστούγεννα.. Δεν ξέρω αν και πως θα γιορτάσετε αυτά τα δύσκολα φετινά Χριστούγεννα.. Δεν ξέρω αν έχετε κάποια οικογενειακή Χριστουγεννιάτι κη παράδοση.. Υπάρχει όμως μια παράδοση που δυστυχώς δεν πολυτηρούμε στη χώρα μας.. τα χριστουγεννιάτι κα τραγούδια. Δεκάδες είναι τα σχετικά τραγούδια που βρήκα στο διαδίκτυο αυτές τις μέρες, ηχογραφημένα από γνωστά και μή ονόματα, και διάλεξα κάποια ενδεικτικά. Ένα mix ιδανικό για το πρωινό πριν το Χριστουγεννιάτι κο τραπέζι, ή το απόγευμα πριν τη βραδυνή έξοδο.. Το τζάκι προαιρετικό.. 1. Saint Etienne & Tim Burgess [...]

From the Florida Trail Association In the early 1960s, Jim Kern, a Miami resident, visited the Appalachian Trail for a backpacking trip and came back to Florida with a burning desire to create a long-distance hiking trail in his own backyard. Founding the Florida Trail Association to pursue that goal, Kern rounded up like-minded Floridians and set to work. The Florida Trail's first blaze was painted in the Ocala National Forest near Clearwater Lake in October 1966. Today, Kern's original dream of a 500-mile long distance hiking [...]

Today we bring you two new supergroups that are both producing unexpected music, far from what one might expect by looking at their line ups. First up, theseseans has been raving about United Nations for a while now. Comprised of bands that aren't our normal material United Nations includes Geoff Rickly ( Thursday ) and Daryl Palumbo ( Glassjaw ); the band also features Ben Koller of Converge , and that dude can make anything sound awesome. The end result is fast grinding punk, and we would recommend them to anyone who loves [...]
Califone played Monday, 8.11.08, at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park in Chicago as part of the Audible Architecture Concert Series and Pitchfork's Nightclubs at Noon Series. I caught Califone back in November of '06 as they were pushin' Roots and Crowns . Though the show was good, it was held in an art space with little to no heat, the band seemed sorta bummed, and it certainly didn't hold any weight compared to what they brought Monday (and at lunchtime, no less). Perhaps it was just the [...]
Califone played Monday, 8.11.08, at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park in Chicago as part of the Audible Architecture Concert Series and Pitchfork's Nightclubs at Noon Series. I caught Califone back in November of '06 as they were pushin' Roots and Crowns . Though the show was good, it was held in an art space with little to no heat, the band seemed sorta bummed, and it certainly didn't hold any weight compared to what they brought Monday (and at lunchtime, no less). Perhaps it was just the [...]
Over now, on MySpace: Rare Victory , a musical tribute to Grant McLennan, featuring The Orchids, Trembling Blue Stars, Luke Haines and others; we've posted about this before, but it's worth mentioning again.

The view from 26F, AC 548, somewhere over Canada 3 May 2008. Dearest Friends, I didn't mean to skip out on you like that. No, really, I didn't. But things got hectic, time got slippery, and it all slid out of my hands like a greased eel... I'm in New York, you see, and will be for the rest of the week, helping Mother prepare for her move. I'm trying to keep my expectations simple. So I'm only asking for three things: Compassion to dilute anger. Calm in [...]
Well folks this is it. This is the end of the line. 80+ songs of tasty emo goodness. I know I missed a bunch of stuff so let me know what you would have included. If you missed any of the first three in this series, you can find them here: Part 1 , Part 2 , and Part 3 . For those of you new to the game, these 80+ songs should give you something to chew on for quite awhile and for all you jaded [...]

From the January-February 1988 issue of Nintendo Power comes this token effort toward music journalism... (Click to be like Wham! and MAKE IT BIG!) It's written in the same hyperbolic hard-sell tone employed by the periodical to foist such quality gamepaks such as Ghost Lion and the California Raisins game onto the impressionable youth of late 1980's America, which is quite disconcerting considering the choice of artists featured. Of the three, only Debbie Gibson was an [...]

Saturday's Theme Mix is ready, and what a mix! There are so many songs about Saturdays and Sundays, so for the next two days, I will not make personal notes on every song. I'll make my notes on most of them, probably, and add a link to the band's website. Commenting all these songs will take too much of my time. This mix includes a lot of my favourites, and I hope you will enjoy it too. Comment if you like it, hate it or miss something here. The songs will be online [...]

It's the mysterious floral avenger, Black Orchid! First introduced in Adventure Comics #428 (July-August, 1973), the Black Orchid combined a standard set of superpowers (flight, super-strength, imperviousness to bullets) with a heavy aura of mystery. No secret identity or origin for the character was given in her three issue Adventure run or in her brief stint as a back-up feature in Phantom Stranger , and nearly all of the stories made use that mysteriousness to set up plot points revolving around wrong assumptions about her true identity. "Wait, if you're not the Black Orchid, [...]

Calling at Duke Street (An Anti-Fascist POP compilation LP) is a swell record, released on Germany's A Turntable Friend in 1993. It single-handedly wiped out fascism, thankfully. Glasgow band The Orchid's "Avignon" operates like a Necker cube for me. Some days I love it. Some days not so much. But on balance, 4 stars. Certainly a different fish from the post on top of this one. Oranges, Orchids, and Orifices. Rank the songs, then the referents. Discuss. Side A - The Orchids - Avignon [4 stars mp3]

the orchids I need you to believe in me 2007 Paleo's diary : one song, each day it (française version) Me souviens de leur dernier album. C'était il y a treize ans. Me souviens de tous leurs disques. La première écoute n'entraînait jamais de crises d'enthousiasme délirant mais elle comptait. Et les milliards qui suivaient faisaient de [...]
On "Good To Be A Stranger," Glasgow's The Orchids remind me a great deal of Austin's Voxtrot , and it's not just because the song shares the same hard-to-place yet easy-to-place array of smooth 60s pop influences-it's the way James Hacket sings: Every available moment in every available verse is utilized for vocal melody. (This is merely a comparison for comparison's sake, though, and not an accusation-these five have been at it since Ramesh Srivastava was in diapers.) "Good To Be A Stranger" [MP3] [...]

The Orchids : Good to be a Stranger ( Siesta ) The Orchids are a special case in the Sarah Records family. Starting at the end of the 80s with a series of singles and 2 albums (Lyceum 1989+ Unholy Soul 1991) featuring the finest Felt/Weather Prophets/Postcard influenced pop, they finished with an almost progressive-dance album Striving for the lazy Perfection in 1994 which, despite some summits, didnt quite fit with the initial Orchids spirit. Their career ended with the 28/08/95 Sarah Farewell Party gig
and a certain feeling of incompleteness
[...]

OMG polar bears! As noted in the title of this post, today is indeed the start of spring semester. I don't have much time today, so in honor of this most wonderful of occasions, I present you polar bears and two old songs that are really sad ! Sweet! [MP3]: The Orchids :: Blue Light [MP3]: Another Sunny Day :: Rio [...]
![Twee-Pop Mix [DAN 002]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/309503_lg.jpg)
I've had a soft spot for twee for years, even when I didn't really know what it was. Belle & Sebastian, Camera Obscura - both have been long-time favourites, especially B&S. But a whole genre of sensitive, introspective, and beautiful guitar-pop? Yes, indeed! So I liked (no, loved) Belle & Sebastian, what next? Following the somewhat eccentric path of musical exploration (allmusic, acclaimed music, pitchfork, and a bazillion other sites), I was eventually lead to find the Twee As Fuck: The Joy of Kittenhood compilation. Having listened to the tracks ad nauseum, I started taking [...]
I need to invent some kind of impenetrable bubble to listen to Califone in. Even with the earmuff-like headphones that have become part of my daily outfit, the city won’t keep out. I’m walking down the street, trying to be overwhelmed by all the placid wonders of their “Orchids†cover. Meanwhile, tires are screeching, people are squawking into cellphones, and the wind is muttering like a deranged dog. Not exactly ideal circumstances to take in something so delicate and subtle. Because Roots and Crowns belongs to a class of great albums that require your total attention [...]