Company of Thieves: "In Passing" (live) Annuals: "Brother" This Chicago band is mostly hitting up midwest dates on tour with Raleigh, NC-native band Annuals. Both bands have sweet pop down pretty well with glint of jazzy classic rock. Company of Thieves is kind of like Silversun Pickups and Regina Spektor with a backing band. Worth checking into, but I figure most people won't have super strong opinions about them either way. But vocalist Genevieve Schatz can flat-out sing, so that's a plus. The album from Company of Thieves, [...]
Wired Masters is a mastering house in London that works with a massive range of material - everything from Black Sabbath to Ibiza Annuals, from Tectonic Plates to Bjork... and The Body Snatchers album, which is where I met their main man, Kevin , and proceeded to drive him mad with requests like 'make it loud... but not too loud' and 'this one needs to sound epic, but in an intimate manner' and 'have you got [...]

Nada Surf (member) @ MHOW last night ( more by Paul Birman ) today in NYC * comedy in Brooklyn * comedy in Manhattan * The Long Count @ BAM * Hawksley Workman @ City Winery * The Answering Machine @ Coco66 * Boy Crisis, Gordon Voidwell, Spanish Prisoners @ Pianos * Emilie Simon, White Cats (Tara Angell) @ Knitting Factory [...]

Recommended Show: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2009 THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS @ MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG 66th North 6th Street Brooklyn, NY 11211 $25, 8PM Looking at the listing for this show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg 's website, I'm not sure exactly what time TMBG will take to the stage...or even what order the order of the bands will be. It is pretty clear that the other acts on the bill include Charles Bissell (of The Wrens) and Nada Surf. It's also pretty clear that the show is a benefit for The Northside Town [...]

Even though Cave In are back together, it's not stopping Stephen Brodsky's solo efforts. Before his tour with the reunited Cave In, Brodsky will be hitting up some solo dates on the east coast with Annuals and The Dear Hunter. The New York show will take place at the Bowery Ballroom on this Wednesday, November 28. Check out all the dates after the jump. Stephen Brodsky tour dates: 10/27 - Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar 10/28 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom 10/29 - Philadelphia, PA @ First [...]

I don't know what's happening, but it seems like minor disasters have been popping up all week, culminating in a daylong free-for-all of confusion on Friday. I was one of the organizers of Friday's New Raleigh showcase at the Berkeley Cafe. After the Infamous Sugar got sick and had to drop out, we agreed to let Grayson, Brad from Megafaun and Jenks from Horseback play a "secret" set with their project, Man Blossom. I was already a little worried that the Mars Volta show would [...]
Headlining shows (with Annuals): Sun 10/25 Vienna, VA Jammin' Java Tue 10/27 Baltimore, MD [...]

If it's mid-October in New York City, then it's CMJ Music Marathon time... five days and nights of music, film, informative panels, and parties that guarantee a good time, if your idea of a good time involves nonstop live shows from up-and-coming musicians from a variety of genres. Thing is, since you're reading EAR FARM, we're going to go ahead and assume that CMJ 2009 is your idea of a good time. Ours too. And it just so turns out that fourteen of our previously featured Bands of the Week are playing the festival [...]

At this point in the evolution of music there may no longer be any truly unique sounds or ideas left to mine. Instead artists are forced to manipulate the sounds and structures laid out before them into new wonderful sounds. A lot of times this leaves bands to sound a lot like their influences which can be a really good thing or it can be downright awful. Greensboro, North Carolina's Israel Darling are a band that fall into the good category, able to sound perilously close to Modest Mouse and similar indie rock bands while also using their Southern influences [...]
McSweeney's publishes Miles Davis's Container Gardening Tips by Ryan Abbott: In my experience, annuals tend to appreciate the complexity of classical piano concertos, like those by Ravel or Rachmaninoff. I play records by those two over and over again, my...

Blk Jks Play Spaceland On Thursday Nights like Thursday are just a cruel joke to live music fans. It's another insane week of shows - old legends, new legends, 90's heroes and current Pitchfork darlings. I caught Polvo last Saturday. The problems I had with their set list a few months back at the Echoplex were corrected. Great set. They played everything I wanted to hear. Monday 10/12/09 [Pick of the Night] Light FM [...]
(Annuals by Autumn de Wilde) Gogoraleigh says Annuals are scheduled to play First Night. The Indy is streaming the new IWTDI CD. It's definitely worth a listen. Tony Plutonium has opened an Etsy shop for his photos (or rather just one for now). Maybe he'll include the photos he shot at the Carrboro Music Festival. Triangle Music says the Triangle is represented in Uncut's Top 150 Albums of the 2000s. More accurately, Merge, Ryan Adams and Justin Vernon (who live here that [...]

DOWNLOAD: Old Canes - "Little Bird Courage" On October 20th, Saddle Creek is releasing Feral Harmony which is sophomore album from Old Canes. Old Canes is the side project of The Applecast Cast singer/guitarist Chris Crisci and this disc follows 2004's Early Morning Hymns (Second Nature Recordings). Crisci plays the majority of instruments on this disc (guitar, cello, mandolin, banjo, toy piano, bells, etc.) and he is joined by an eclectic assortment of Kansas musicians from bands such as White Whale, [...]

[mp3] Nirvana: "Scoff" How often does a blogger these days get to post on something new about Nirvana ? While this un-released live mp3 for the song "Scoff" is sure to be all over the web today, who are we to not share it with our readers? It's hard not to get caught up in the legend of Nirvana and Cobain when listening to their music, but hearing Nirvana now reminds us of what a visceral raw emotional force this band was. They were real. They were passionate. It's these characteristics that [...]
Sorry to disappoint everyone, but just because I go off on a singular word "rant" on Twitter doesn't mean I'm going to elaborate here. Sometimes my misery (such as it is) is my own. I love how I got tweets looking forward to elaboration on this. Sorry. Not gonna happen. Bitches, man. Arcadia The Flame (Extended Remix) The Flame (Yo Homeboy Mix) The Promise (Extended Remix) I never fully "got" the point of Arcadia. They're 3/5ths of Duran [...]
In case you haven't noticed, change is afoot here at EAR FARM; nothing colossally huge, not enough to make you feel lost and longing for the tried and true EF of yesteryear (or yesterweek as the case may be), but just enough to make this whole distant experience of browsing the internet more intuitive and pleasant. Look, we want you to like what you see when you're here, to feel at home and know where to find exactly what you're looking for, and now we also want to help you kill a few more of your valuable [...]

The blisteringly lo-fi rock trio is back with their fourth full-length in four years, and while it might not be the best one to start with for a newcomer (that would probably be Rip It Off ), Born Again Revisited is a quality addition to Times New Viking's growing catalog. Sticking to their usual instruments (drums, guitar, keyboard, double vocals) and signature ultimate-garage sound, Born Again is another complete work from a band that, in short, knows what they're doing. It's a widespread album, but not in the sense that it has a [...]
September 11, 2009 #341 A Place To Bury Strangers – Exploding Head (Exploding Head) 2009 *Drops 10/6* Wavves – Cool Jumper Dinosaur Feathers – Don't Fear The Vagabonds (Early Morning Risers EP) 2009 *Station Break* Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Black Tongue (Fever To Tell) 2003 Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Mystery Girl (Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP) 2002 Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Warrior (Show Your Bones) 2006 The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – Young Adult Friction (The Pains of Being Pure At Heart) 2009 Cymbals Eat Guitars – [...]
Hear Here: The Triangle WKNC and Terpsikhore Records and Flying Tiger Sound Various North Carolina Artists, 2009 Compilations are always a weird beast to review, because well, they are disjointed by their very nature. There is not supposed to be continuity, only fresh revelations. It's hell to listen to, because I have to keep referring to the tracklisting just to see which song is going. But none of that is the fault of Hear Here because [...]

If you have been reading this blog on a regular basis then you should already be aware of the Local Natives, my great white hope for 2009. With their debut album 'Gorilla Manor' already in the bag and a Glasgow date forthcoming in October, I was luck enough to get Taylor from the band to do a wee Q&A for me. Would you care to introduce yourselves? Of course. My name is Matt [...]