Blog: (((withoutsound)))

I've heard it said that you should never to discuss politics or religion in public, but in my mind hearty debate is what makes life interesting. We may not respect each others' views, but we absolutely must respect each others' right to have them. The alternative is to resort to name-calling, or even worse, war, which is unfortunately where we find much of the world right now. Imagine a world without sound and you imagine a world where we can't share the music we love, we can't discuss political and cultural issues, and we can't express our [...]

The flowers are blooming, baby birdies are hatching, and the bees are buzzing. Is that love that I smell in the air? It just might be; it just might be. I definitely do smell spring in the air. It is that time again! You may not be able to depend on the weather quite yet, but the one thing you can depend on is that the whole Super Furry Animals catalog is back into rotation on my ipod. Welcome back old friends. This is my springtime ritual. They illustrate the pure essence of a new spring beginning perfectly [...]

S ome albums are so fucking awesome, they just don't sound as good out of order. But I'd wager that most albums sound better on shuffle. This isn't a slight on most bands, although maybe it is a slight on whoever organizes the tracks on an album (producer?). It's really just the way it is, and I think most of us are used to it. The nice thing about daps is that you can load multiple albums onto them and listen to an album in whole or as part of a huge random mix. Really this [...]

S ome albums are so fucking awesome, they just don't sound as good out of order. But I'd wager that most albums sound better on shuffle. This isn't a slight on most bands, although maybe it is a slight on whoever organizes the tracks on an album (producer?). It's really just the way it is, and I think most of us are used to it. The nice thing about daps is that you can load multiple albums onto them and listen to an album in whole or as part of a huge random mix. Really this [...]

Have you ever met someone who always has a smile on his face? Someone who you can't quite figure out what the hell he has to be happy about? But that smile... that smile never disappears and in the end it somehow makes you happy, too. Last night at the Southgate House in Newport, Kentucky, I met a man that fits that description. A man who, if you listen to what he has to say, sounds like he's rather pissed. Yet there Josh Ritter stood, grinning ear to ear from the moment he [...]

While NME and the rest of the British press have been crowing about the second coming taking the form of the Arctic Monkeys , the Monkeys may in fact turn out to be the Anti-Christ (if it hasn't already been revealed that Pete Doherty is). Don't get me wrong, the Arctic Monkeys are fine (hell, I wish I could go from getting a guitar one Christmas to having the #1 record in the UK the next), it's just that the British press can be a bit fickle and in my humble opinion the Guillemots [...]

David Lee Roth must be on one hell of a bender right now. Roth was hired to replace Howard Stern in 7 markets this past January when Stern signed a contract with Sirius satellite radio... but Diamond Dave was effectively fired from his radio gig yesterday and will be replaced by XM Satellite Radio hosts Opie & Anthony. Assuming he *is* drunk right now, I imagine it's probably going something like this: View This Video on You Tube [...]

Y ou may have noticed from our sidebar to the right that today, April 20, 2006, is National High Five Day . Created by Conor Lastowka over at San Diego Serenade with his friends Sam Miotke and Wynn Walent, NH5 Day doesn't have any subversive meaning other than spreading the joy of the high five. And maybe to recognize the inventor of the high five , former Murray State basketball star, Mont Sleets . The founders put out a call for high-five-themed original music a few months back and have the [...]

I have the tendency to find out about awesome albums years after they first come out, which happily isn't always my fault. I wasn't alive when Oar came out, I don't think I had any money when Marquee Moon was released. And I frankly hated how often light radio played Neil Diamond to realize how awesome he truly is. But I'm really only a year off from discovering a band that only has one album so far but will probably prove to be at least [...]

A fter reading Seamus’ article on Blood Feathers , I recalled my first encounter with their drummer Feather Q, aka Quentin Stoltzfus, last summer. It was at Club Congress in Tucson, where I was diligently pounding beers awaiting Rogue Wave to take the stage. But before that would occur, I would have to be subjected to an opening band that I had yet to hear. Q’s band, Mazarin , took the stage and promptly proceeded to kick out the jingly jangles, echoey vocals, and dreamy riffs that sparked fire to my ears. I looked [...]

S ay hello to Coca Cola's newest pitchman, Jack White of the White Stripes , selling drinks to bovine America. View This Video on You Tube Raconteur indeed. This brings to mind the late comedian Bill Hicks ' rant about Jay Leno shilling Doritos when he obviously didn't need the money. At one point in time Bill had considered [...]

In case you didn't know already, The Epsilon Rising is looking for a drummer . But not just any drummer. Apparently they require the Hindu god Vishnu to descend from the heavens, assume his human form, and take the sticks. All four of 'em. If a song requires an over dub of congas, finger cymbals, tympani, or, maracas, you would have this awareness and the sensibilities to apply them in a thought-provoking way. Consistently, when a person [...]

W ho's got the junk? Rattle off a list of cities with the best music scenes for me. Whaddya got? Austin? Seattle? Chicago? Athens, Georgia maybe? What about Philadelphia? I ask only because I care. And because the city of brotherly love would be near the top of mine. Over the past five or six years bands like Mazarin , Shellito , Need New Body , Dr. Dog , Espers , and even the Spinto Band have worked their way into my rotation and never really left. And [...]

C oincidentally perpetuating the current male/female duo theme , I have been currently listening to a good-sized dosage of Brightblack Morning Light . Brightblack consists of Nathan Shineywater and Rachel Hughes, childhood best friends who grew up in Alabama, and drummer Noah Wilson, whom they met upon moving to Humboldt. I am a late comer of sorts to their music considering their first full length, Ala.Cali.Tucky , was initially released two years ago next month. I first heard of Brightblack while attending Arthurfest last September, after which I proceeded to look [...]

S o I just returned from a 24-hour road trip to Saint Louis so I could attend the Cardinals' Opening Day and enjoy the festivities surrounding the opening of Busch Stadium III - Revenge of the Swill*. In keeping with their out-with-the-old-in-with-the-n ew theme, the first pitch ceremony featured last year's Cy Young and MVP, Chris Carpenter and Albert Pujols, simultaneously throwing out first pitches to past Cy Young and MVP, Bob Gibson and Willie McGee. It was like a big juicy baseball sandwich - a wonderful, spring afternoon filled with drinking overpriced beer out of wax cups [...]

B ecause yesterday I posted some tracks from Work Clothes , it got me thinking about some of the other husband and wife teams that I've been listening to lately: Mates of State, since their new album just came out a couple of weeks ago, and Bagheera, who are working on their 2nd LP. Seamus and I saw Mates of State perform a pretty rad concert in a tiny rec-room down at UC San Diego about 3 years ago when My Solo Project [...]

M aybe it's my mood, lately. Maybe it's aging. But I've been listening to quite a few bands lately who make soothing music. Music that's easy to listen to before drifting off to sleep, or the perfect panacea for the difficulties of the morning, or that which just goes well with digestion . And the dreamiest of CDs I've bought recently is the debut LP from Carrboro, North Carolina group Work Clothes . This isn't exactly the kind of dream-pop with wispy female vocals that get caught behind simple, pensive guitars; there's [...]