It's nice to be able to accomplish three things at once. Here's what we're getting done here: 1.) Reminding you that home is where the tapes is and that charity is good. The nice people at Hometapes are offering a massive holiday album for free over at their Band Camp. It's one of those "pay what you want" dealies and they're throwing the proceeds at a charity, which is pretty sweet. It's 21 songs for free, but if you're super thoughtful on this first day of [...]
( Editor's note: (addressing "the reader," as an abstract concept) We've been together awhile, you and I. We get together less frequently than we used to, but we still catch up from time to time, pop in on each other, talk about our kids. You know what I like. I'm still working to understand what you like. I'm fairly positive that I've enumerated the argument central to today's post about a dozen times over the last three years. You're welcome to skim over it and dig into the tunes. They're good. We're [...]
( Editor's Note: (Shuffling through the grocery store, bathrobe half open, staring at the milk jugs, trying to find one with a late date, I see the Internet. We haven't seen each other since high school. It's awkward.) Me: Hey there, Internet. Been a minute. How you doing? How're the kids? Internet: Fuck yourself. Me: Great to catch up. [...]
Editor's Note: There are no pictures of Mangum's performance in this concert review, for two reasons. First, the helpful concert staff threatened confiscation of cell phones or cameras if any shots were taken. Secondly, as I'll hopefully assert in this review, pictures from this show would do an excellent job of watering down the overall experience, putting an inaccurate visual stamp on one of the best two hour spans of my life. A realist painter could not have stroked oil to canvas as beautifully [...]
Four songs into Megafaun's set at the Beachland last Tuesday, drummer Joe Westerlund climbed out from behind his kit, grabbed an acoustic guitar and stepped off the stage. The rest of Megafaun (now, with the addition of a full time bassist, a quartet) followed. They asked the crowd to get in a little closer; it was a weeknight and Tuneyards was next door, so the show was on the intimate side and folks were hanging on the edges a bit. Megafaun asked us to get closer to the stage and we did. Joe started strumming the [...]
I feel old . This video certainly doesn't help. We're going to see Megafaun at the Beachland next Tuesday. We're pretty sure that the next time they come to town, it will be to a superlarge ampitheater; this band is on the cusp of explosion. The new record is awesome. There will be a time in my life when I have the time to write a long form review of the record. That will be (approximately) in 2017. In the meantime, buy the thing. You'll thank me.
It has been a minute since we last spoke. School started up for Kevin and me, which has thrown a monkeywrench in our blogosphere involvement. I'm still pursuing an advanced degree and am still someone's parent. All those things are huge time suckers. To be perfectly honest, I've listened to this more in the last month than anything else. (Aside: parents in the readership understand my pain on that one. If you throw in the Tilly and the Wall ABC song and the wide array of Elmo related bullshit, it's a miracle [...]
Editor's Note: This is the first official guest post by blogger, music-writer pal, Joy Wagner. Her Brooklyn home-base provides a good perspective from our Eastern Citizen Dick Campus, as Citizen James has been MIA, illegally hunting rhinos in the Asian Steppe. I have been in the depths of another school-year onset, and have been MIA completely. Big thanks to Joy for heading out to catch this show. Elvis Perkins put out one of the best records in the last few years, and 'The Dearland' portion of that record is [...]
( Editor's note: I've been out of the loop for a good while. A primary reason is the recent (successful) defense of my dissertation proposal. That shit is a huge time sink. A secondary reason (although, in reality, it's of primary importance) is my continuing role as a parent. Both of these endeavors eat up free time (in largely delightful ways, by the way) and lead to a certain scatterbrainedness. This morning, I was cleaning. I put the green El Camino and red pickup truck someplace. I have no idea where. I [...]
Rose Polenzani has been floating around the interwebs for awhile now, producing two previous LPs from 2004 through 2008. Her forthcoming LP, The Rabbit, will hit the shelves on August 23, and you can pre-order it by going to her bandcamp page . All of the business aside, this track is absolutely gorgeous. Polenzani's sultry crooning is mesmerizing as she wraps listeners into her world of dark Americana. The first comparisons are obviously Alela Diane or Akron's own [...]
The White Space is a London duo that is a work in progress, according to their website. Their debut album, The Crescent Wave was written and recorded with the two founding members, Rob Vandeven and Dave Farrow; Farrow brought a backing track to Vandeven and that melting of the minds inspired this particular track, "Stay." The duo plans on growing this outfit into something larger, and from the jump, there is a lot of promise with this track. It's all about gentle strokes and hushed vocal deliveries, but with enough of a [...]
Merok Records is releasing the debut, four-song EP Youth II by Deptford Goth on October 17th. "No Man" is the free offering, and it's going to rock your world. Deptford Goth is the work of solo Londoner Daniel Woolhouse, and the name is appropriate - imagine traditional British stylings given a gothic, off-kilter makeover and that halfway fits the description. "No Man" is a blank canvas with light brush strokes of sound, minimalist in one swing, and entirely expansive in the next. Simple drum machines [...]
Titusville act, Flashlights , is set to hit the ground running with their debut album, I'm Not Alone , which will be released in September through Norse Korea Tapes , the concert promotion group-turned small label. "Choking" is a loud and frenzied candy-apple red power pop jam that hit my email inbox blazing with swagger. Seriously. This stuff sounds like a lovechild of Japandroids and the earliest Thermals material - in all of the best possible ways. Fuzzy grime and belted vocals will get [...]
Continuing in my tardiness and late-to-the-game postings, I am finally getting to the Bondy track. Actually, this hit the interwebs just before I left for vacation, and I wore the proverbial grooves off the digital file with repeat plays. A.A. Bondy , perhaps, is one of our country's 1) best lyrical songwriters, and 2) most underrated lyrical songwriters. A shift in the right direction seems to be upon the music world, as Bondy's upcoming Fat Possum release is hitting the blogosphere like a buzzsaw. This [...]
"Diving Bell" is my new favorite song. I say this monthly, of course, but I'm full throttle on this one. An opus-like recording process sits behind Gold Beach's upcoming release, Habibti, which hits the shelves officially on September 6th. The boon for you, friends, is that this track has enough ear nutrition to fill you up whilst you wait on the full length. The track is gorgeously crafted, first of all, with impeccable production quality and indie aesthetic. Acoustic guitar chords soothingly blend into organ-styled keys, lofty [...]
Leaving no stone unturned, I'm a day late in getting this new Megafaun track up on the blog. We've got fifteen RSS feeds all tied into everything Megafaun related. Phil has a kid. We hear about it. Brad gets a new throwback Laker's jersey, we're on it. That's a tad creepy really, and not at all true. However, we'll shake baby cats if we have to in order to get everyone's attention onto this record. "State/Meant" is a sultry and expansive tune, perfectly complimentary to "These Words," [...]
Give me a little leeway as I go backwards and net all the butterflies from last week. These three tracks have been fueling my yard work and cleaning duties this morning. First is Dan Alcala's remix of M83's behemoth track, "Midnight City." This version hushes things down a bit and turns down the blasting synth loop, allowing it to rise in intensity throughout the track, until wicked noise pop infuses with the M83 version. I think I actually like this spin better than the original. [...]
This isn't super music related, except for the fact that I'll post three ghost-related tracks at the bottom of this intriguing nugget of visual creepiness. While in NYC, the girlfriend and I hopped on the subway over to Chelsea to check out the High Line on the west side. It's a gorgeous park, really, with plant-lined walkways above the street (on an old abandoned, elevated train track in the meat packing district). We absolutely loved the leisurely stroll we took that day. I snapped lots of photographs on the old iPhone that afternoon. I also [...]
In one of the more unexpected and spur-of-the-moment excursions of my ten days in NYC was getting the opportunity to stop into Bowery Ballroom to catch Jones Street Station , who's all set to release their fourth LP to, hopefully, the NYC masses and beyond. As I mentioned in a previous post, the band has hybridized their bluegrass roots into a more mainstream, palatable combination of plugged in folk, and the opening set the band put on at the Bowery was fantastic. In fact, I'd argue that [...]
I know next to nothing about Sofa City Sweetheart , except that there is an incredibly strong John Lennon vibe parading around the tracks up at their website. I also received a twitter message from Cleveland Rock Photographer extraordinaire, Mara Robinson , about their show tonight at Wilbert's . This is one y'all should roll out to see if you've got nothing cooking after the maelstrom here in Cleveland last night. Here is a tiny list of things I do know about [...]
Citizen Dick
Lana Del Rey - Without You (Kill Paris Remix) [Dubstep]
Download: James Blake Live Album (Unofficial)
Miike Snow - “Paddling Out” Jacques Lu Cont Remix (MP3 Stream)
Iron & Wine and Patty Griffin
New single from Gemini Club
