As we discovered last last year all truly great garage rock sounds, for the most part anyway, largely indistinguishable in when and/or where it was made. If we had been told that the 60s Japanese group sound bands we wore out in December were current we'd never have been the wiser, and had it not been for thick Asian accents we'd have been clueless on those bands' origins. Recently upstart Oakland label Guitars and Bongos issued their first release in Charlie Megira & The Modern Dance Club's double LP Love [...]
Perhaps it might have something to do with my own history of playing in a band that historically relied almost entirely on acoustic instruments that first endeared me to the band BRAINSTORM. There's something about the rogue nature of being able to set up anywhere at any time and perform an impromptu set that seems so spontaneous and pure. My absolute favorite moment from last year's 35(fill-in-the-blank) festival in Denton was BRAINSTORM's set in the middle of the street that delayed Big Boi's start time. I'm not sure if it was the sheer amount of noise those two [...]
Austin lo-fi outfit The Zoltars may have doubled in size since they first came onto our radar, but as previews of their upcoming debut full-length Should I Try Once More? reveal they haven't strayed far from their earlier no-frills offerings. The official drop date is April 10th via Sundae Records, but a few of the tracks are already up for grabs at the Zoltars' BandCamp page . Per the band: The 10 song album will be available on vinyl, digitally on Itunes and Bandcamp, as well as a small run of [...]
As bad a wrap as the jazz-influenced smooth rockers get from the hipster generation, as witnessed by the portrayal of Donald Fagen as a mush-mouthed buffoon on the popular Yacht Rock shorts . Under the high-gloss sheen of studio innovator Roger "The Immortal" Nichols, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker assembled intricate progressions interlaced with brilliant lyrical moments of dark witticism, in the process achieving a level of perfectionism that may never again be matched. That being said, the task of covering one of their tunes is in itself one of the most daunting undertakings a band [...]
Why does everything sound so much more charming when filtered through the magic known as the female British accent? For instance why was it so adorable last weekend when The Staves were wandering around my flat asking who had just shat? In the same way why are semi-standard folk tunes with smatterings of Tom Waits-inspired horns somehow so much more enchanting when UK songstress Liz Green sings them? Her album O, Devotion is out now via Piccadilly Records . MP3: Liz Green - Hey Joe =w=
Last week I was able to catch local punk trio Hormones (no 'the') playing an in-store at Good Records celebrating their latest EP To The 9s. Their set began with the band powering through their previous effort, an erratic and heavier spin on sounds pioneered by bands like The Minutemen -- complete with singer/drummer Jordan Williams' D. Boone-esque vocals -- before moving on to their newer, markedly more melodic release. When it works it really works but other times it makes one appreciate the way the sporadic playing of their three distinctive parts would meld together in a [...]
If you haven't already done so sign up for the mailing list over at sofarsounds.com . Those folks put on super exclusive and hyper-intimate house shows (you know the kind where people sit Indian-style on the floor and you can hear even the faintest breaths of the person watching beside you) where the locations and acts are disseminated at the last minute. Had you been on it before you might have experienced the otherworldly charm and radiance of The Staves, a trio of English birds who were kind enough to hang around after the show to sip whiskey and [...]
To further drive home yesterday's point concerning Ben Kweller's life-long struggle to experience hardship and career-long failure at genuine angst I give you the raddest 8-year-old Aussie lass who has more pure soul/animosity in the nail of her pinky finger than Kweller ever will. When she screams out the bit about her pet fish smelling foul you better bet they must really fucking stink. And just for the record I would gladly shell out the cash if Juliette ever releases My First Hadrcore Album . Not even joking. =w=
A decade ago Ben Kweller was undoubtedly one of my favorite things going. But then a funny thing happened; I grew up. Like Wooderson might say, I get older and BK's music stays the same. When I was last able to speak with Ben about his upcoming album Go Fly A Kite! I let myself be suckered into the belief that this time would be different. Finally he had written his bigger, louder 'Fuck Off and Die' album. Finally he'd learn to be mean --or at least learned to be real. But alas as [...]
Local boys LehtMoJoe, GalleryCat, and Jaeson Green appear on this track by Norwegian electro duo Kontaktor, you know, for all you suckers who just couldn't wait to get back to your classes today. Also worth noting is a nice little electro-blues EP Leht just put out featuring a trio of original tracks composed as the score to this short little motorcycle advert/film that's approaching 5 million hits on the YouTubes, and (humble brag alert) features yours truly murdering some mouth organ in there somewhere too. <a href=" http://lehtmojoe.bandcamp.com/ album/ride-on"> Ride On by [...]
A large percentage of times I shop for records I like to look for those things that didn't make the cut when labels were deciding which albums they were going to reprint their catalog on cassettes and then again on compact discs. As a result I've ended up discovering a lot of jazz, world music, and novelty records that time has otherwise forgotten, and in turn some of my current musical tastes have been swayed as well. No I did not discover Luiz Rocha - Espiga in a dusty record bin -- it was actually through a few [...]
Ever hear a song so bad that it's kinda good? As much as you claim to detest Rebecca Black's "Friday" I'd be willing to bet my badly-abused liver that you have more of the lyrics engrained in your skull than you'd ever admit publicly. But the phenomenon can't really be blamed on how easily the internets and the YouTubes have made it for the ARK music factories of the world (or even the bedroom Bo Burnham's for that matter) to quickly and effortlessly disseminate their underlying genius to the masses, I mean, just look at people like Wesley Willis or [...]
Back in the fall I got to temporarily transcend the confines of the written word with my 60-minute jaunt into the medium of radio when local station IndieVerse was gracious enough to allow me to take part in their Guest DJ Hour series. In between my bouts of verbal diarrhea I also got to play some of my favorite jams of 2011, including the creamy smooth harmonies of "I Only Know" by Los Angeles band Warm Weather , which I am admittedly a sucker for. Later this month the band is set to [...]
Despite some semi-racist undertones, and the overtly misogynistic line "I use ace of club to keep my babe in place," this old school soul number by O.V. Wright has still been our jam as of late. Sure this level of overused extended metaphor generally has an easier time inducing rimshots than pelvic thrusts but at just over two minutes in length it is also easy to overlook. Wu-Tangers like Ghostface Killah have sampled Wright's tracks before, but we still think it is fair to say his catalog has been severely overlooked by the hip-hop community in that regard. [...]
After seeing those annoying freecreditscorereport.com commercials for the zillionth time it occurred to me the lead singer looked an awful lot like Daniel Zott from Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. ( whom I also had the pleasure of interviewing not all that long ago ). A quick perusal of the freecreditscorereport.com website reveals the fake band from the spots is actually anything but. Detroit band The American Secrets apparently won some sort of contest to become the company's official spokesband. According to the band's site their frontman is indeed one Mr. Daniel Zott also of Dale Jr. Jr. [...]
border="0" / A couple weeks back a batch of no-frills Swedes put out their Nomethod debut, Knox Harrington, a '90s indie-rock throwback that benefits from heady arrangement; mediocre Sonic Youthian melodies are alternated with tension building ascents that grow more head-rattling as the song progresses, and benefiting portions of the song with the juxtaposition. MP3: Tennis Bafra - Knox Harrington =w=
It always comes as a shock when a band calls it quits. The latest announcement came from Los Angeles indie outfit Pepper Rabbit, a band we covered at SubEx excited about their potential success . Pepper Rabbit's frontman Xander Singh made the announcement via Facebook : "In summation, it doesn't matter why Pepper Rabbit had to end, that will stay within the people involved. But I have to say that everyone who ever bought a record, illegally downloaded a record, came to or snuck in to one of our shows, I thank you dearly from [...]
We're not typically in the habit of reviewing 45-year-old albums here--especially not ones as well-known and widely heralded as The Zombies' Odessey & Oracle-- but it really is the perfect record with which to wipe clean the slate and start the year anew. Amongst the densely-layered harmonies this is a record that runs the full gamut of human emotion from elated, to in-love, heart-broken, creeped out, etc. but with a uniquely hopeful slant throughout it all. Despite the fact there's not a single rose left for Emily's grave she manages to keep her pride somehow. And of [...]
Another Christmas gone and with it another bit of happy sentiment and good cheer the holiday used to bring. Commercialism and mass consumerism have always been around, sure, but somehow despite the economy's downward spiral they both continue to grow. Sadly a big part of those participating in the holiday's true spirit are the same misguided bunch complaining about lines at WalMart with just as much passion as they do when bitching about how everyone is trying to take the word Christ out of Christmas. Pretty sure Jesus was about as anti-materialism and pro-charity as they come, or as one [...]
Subservient Experiment
Miike Snow – Paddling Out (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
Lana Del Rey covers Lovecat magazine!
