This coming weekend, as many of us descend on Downtown New Orleans to witness, play and revel in the 72-hour brass and roots free-for-all that is French Quarter Festival, many of the Big Easy's rising stars in the underground rock community are (as symmetry would have it) blasting out of town for a cultural melee of their own. Although that means we have to resort to fantasizing about the glory of a Caddywhompus Woldenberg Park concert for yet another year, be assured that they - as well as their close contemporaries - will have no problem reaching such [...]
Merchandise + Kindest Lines + Heat Dust performing at United Bakery on April 4, 2012
04.05: Yonder Mountain String Band + Brown Bird - House of Blues 04.06: Happy Talk Band + Sam Doores, Alynda Lee & Friends + Tuba Skinny + Meschiya Lake + The Tintypes + Bunny and the Playboys + Jeff Treffinger & Greazy Waste - Siberia In any city worth her cultural salt, music and food share a charmed and interconnected existence. In New Orleans' case, one need look no further than Jazz Fest, an event that - at least for arguments' sake - draws locals and international [...]
ArchAnimals + Mission South + Gold and the Rush + Star & Micey performing at the Howlin' Wolf Den on March 31, 2012
Chicken Gyro + Sun Hotel + Boyfrndz + Caddywhompus performing at the Circle Bar on March 29, 2012.
All People + Safety + Bomb the Music Industry! performing at the Big Top on March 29, 2012.
Chris Rehm + Andrew Landry + Jack Donovan performing at Breezy's Spot on March 28, 2012
Hi-Fi Octopi, 2012 "Don't you think it might be a little too messy to actually enjoy?" asked a car ride acquaintance of mine recently after hearing Memory Hoarders , the newest release by New Orleans noise punk duo High In One Eye . I suppose on some level she was right to at least bring it up : Andrew Landry and Evan Cvitanovich aren't exactly in the business of pleasing ears, certainly not those of the casual listener; with unrecognizably muffled vocals and every guitar effect piped through a Line 6 amp, HIOE [...]
03.29: Bomb the Music Industry! + The Lollies + Safety + All People - The Big Top > Boyfrndz + Caddywhompus + Sun Hotel + Chicken Gyro - Circle Bar To be clear, Block Party is going to be the event of the year for the New Orleans punk rock underground, and it will be difficult for any single concert this year to top the twelve hours of non-stop music, records, food and fun that it's going to offer. But damned if tonight's double venue whatever-you-call-it doesn't come close. Teaming up for what [...]
It's a concept that has been applied many times throughout the past decade or so. The idea of "Sunday Matinees" - early evening, weekend ending concerts capable of catering to both the underaged-with-protective-pare nts crowd and the aging, late-night-avoidance crowd - has always been a well-intentioned, if not necessary, community-building exercise for New Orleans' underground punk rock scene. In the early days of Cypress Hall and the live music era of the Ark, it was commonplace for Brian Funck, the city's all-ages DIY curator, to occasionally institute that exact format of concert series. But whether by lack of galvanization or inoperativeness [...]
The Beams performing at The Rusty Nail on March 25, 2012
Easy Bake Oven + ArchAnimals + Cozy performing at Cafe Prytania on Saturday, March 24, 2012.
It has actually become part of Sun Hotel 's charm, that even in the short time lapse between tracking and the formal release of each recorded work, the band already appears to be waist deep in their next musical act. Without altogether abandoning or disowning past songs, they routinely tweak or tinker with arrangements in a live setting as if modern recording technology is an inherently outdated from of musical expression. But despite this kinetically creative work ethic, each new piece of Sun Hotel material is less of a re-invention than a magnification of their subtle evolution which, when [...]
Habitat + Donovan Wolfington performing at Ampersand on March 23, 2012
Hours before my fourth trip to South by Southwest Festival would take a decided turn for the Kerouackian, when I’d find myself sleeping among a sea of strangers thirty deep in what appeared to be a furniture-less detox safe house for strung-out teens with an elderly black man walking around smoking a cigarette preaching the Bible and talking from personal experience about the ills of intravenous heroin (but what was actually a Craigslist rental occupied by blog rappers and rock and roll bands on their last physical leg of energy), I was sitting in my car, in bumper-to-bumper traffic, in [...]
Sip Sip + The Tontons + Megafauna + Vox and the Hound + King Louie's Missing Monuments + The Wolf + Look Mexico + Sun Hotel performing in and around Austin, Texas on March 17, 2012 for South by Southwest Festival
03.22: Fort Wilson Riot + Pals + Glish - Circle Bar 03.23: Habitat + Donovan Wolfington - Ampersand Even the most avid New Orleans area concert-goer could be excused if he or she has never stepped foot inside Ampersand, the former Whitney Bank turned plush downtown discotheque. Sure, we've all heard of the place - home to the infamous Electronic Takeover pool parties, NeonGlow raves and many an all-night rager featuring the likes of Diplo or Paul Oakenfold reveling in the unbridled enthusiasm of this city's young beatnuts [...]
Hooray For Earth + Electric Flower Group + Bass Drum of Death + Santigold + Caddwhompus + The Eastern Sea + Marmalakes + Japanther + Ava Luna + Maps & Atlases performing in and around Austin, Texas on March 16, 2012 for South by Southwest Festival
Skrillex + Shanook + Big K.R.I.T. + SBTRKT + Porter Robinson + Big Gigantic + Purity Ring + A-Trak + G-Eazy + Gravity A performing at Mardi Gras World on March 18, 2012 for The Buku Music and Art Project
Candy Claws + Chrome Sparks w/ Stefaloo + Secret Mountains + Tops + You Won't + Sun Hotel + Hikes + The Artist Formerly Known as 2012 + Glish + Sun Hotel + Caddywhompus performing in and around Austin, Texas on March 15, 2012 for South by Southwest Festival
Barryfest
MP3: Daft Punk – “Horizons” (RAM Japanese Bonus Track)
Listen to producer Jacques Greene’s “On Your Side,” featuring How To Dress Well
Daft Punk – “Doin’ It Right” ft. Panda Bear
