I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering why legendary Mitch Easter was the opening act at Thursday's Local Band Local Beer night at Tir na Nog. And that's not a slam against Violet Vector & the Lovely Lovelies or The Catch Fire -- who had to cancel at the last minute because their guitarist is ill. It's just that given his musical output, and his key role producing some of the most influential records in American music, he shouldn't be opening for anyone. But at least that meant that the old timers like [...]
What comes to mind when you think of 67? The number of throws in judo? "Jailhouse Rock?" (Rolling Stone calls it the 67th greatest song of all time.) The 67 seconds it took Elliot Spitzer to announce he was resigning from office? Your local mathematician will tell you that 67 is what's known as a lazy caterer's number, meaning it's part of the so-called lazy caterer sequence, which has to do with the number of pieces of a round object—say, a pizza—that can be made with a specific number of straight cuts. For example, if you make three straight cuts [...]
I need to start out today by apologizing for leaving you all without a Hodge Podge to wake up to last week. I know how much many of you look forward to our time together on Friday mornings, and I feel terrible about leaving you hanging. The only excuse I have to offer is that I accidentally got drunk and passed out. Poor planning on my part, but I always say that if you're going to make excuses it's best that they revolve around alcohol. Better to be drunk than lazy, or something like that… [...]
Below is a second volume of Mitch Easter rare tracks . I'm very happy to say that these were gathered from (or suggested by) comments about the previous Mitch Easter Rare Track compilation posted in July. I had lots of suggestions about tracks I had missed. A number of readers posted their own compilations and now that some of these links are dead I have compiled them together. This group of tracks are primarily studio tracks and are the first of three posts. I'll post the other two compilations of live tracks [...]
So this is, I think, going to be the penultimate Summer Fridays mix for 2009. I know it's sad. Only one more. But on the bright side... still one more! A lot more new stuff this week, including such states as Florida, California, Indiana and Brooklyn. I'm pretty sure Brooklyn is a state, I live here. This week's cover is courtesy SB reader (and graphic designer/illustrator) Olivia Todd who delivered some swell mixed media. That's three excellent covers in a row. Here's where I would normally beg for submissions for art, but I've got the last one covered, [...]
Black Dice when they opened for Animal Collective ( more by Tim Griffin ) today in NYC * DANCE * Mitch Easter @ Maxwell's * N.A.S.A @ Bowery Ballroom * Wicked Awesomes @ Cake Shop * Kaki King @ Galapagos Art Space * Juana Molina, Lia Ices & Jetty Rae @ MHOW * Alasdair Roberts & Bert Jansch @ [...]
by Bill Pearis DOWNLOAD : Wicked Awesomes - Ghost Beach (MP3) DOWNLOAD : Impediments - You Want a Square (MP3) DOWNLOAD : Buzzers - Disco Kidz (MP3) DOWNLOAD : The Horrors - Sea Within a Sea (MP3) Wicked Awesomes Earlier in the week I highlighted a few bands including Mitch Easter who is at Maxwell's tonight [...]
by Bill Pearis DOWNLOAD : Blind Man Color - Heavy Cloud Hustle (JVG Remix) (MP3) DOWNLOAD: Beach Fossils - Vacation (MP3) DOWNLOAD : Mitch Easter - Sudden Crown Drop (MP3) DOWNLOAD: The Asteroid #4 - Flowers of Ours (MP3) Beach Fossils Hope everyone stayed cool this weekend. Before I get into picks for the first part of this [...]
Actually let's give Cherry Red a handclap for reissuing Moose ' s first album ...XYZ. It's no secret about this blog's love of the band Moose, but it is a little known (actually unknown) fact that I was this close to naming this blog Theme From Ace Conroy, a b-side to the Moose single Little Bird. I thought better of it, but only because the Finest Kiss has a better ring to it. A while back I did a short interview with Russel Yates where he mentioned a best of that was in the [...]
I've been listening to my treasured Let's Active records of late and marveling at how good those three albums were. Mitch Easter channeled influences such as Big Star and Television into a unique psychedelic stew, all flavored by the Athens Georgia, North Carolina sound from the early 1980s. All three Let's Active efforts are great and well worth picking up. I really liked Mitch's comeback effort "Dynamico" from a couple of years ago and I saw him touring with Don Dixon and wife Shalani. Very nice show. I was all set for new high output period. However [...]
B IRDS OF AVALON has spent the better part of the past two years on the road with the likes of The Racontuers, The Flaming Lips, Black Mountain, Ted Leo, Mudhoney, Monotonix and more. Never comfortable being stagnant, the band wrote and recorded almost two-dozen new songs during a six-month break from touring, half of which make up their their sophomore LP, Uncanny Valley, that is out today. Uncanny Valley is the second of two records that the band recorded in the last four months. In January, they wrapped up a [...]
I've come to realize I bitch about the quality of contemporary songwriting in this space quite often. Perhaps it's the ABSENCE of songwriting that drives me nuts and the layer upon layer of effects and artificial beats and processing that smothers even the kernel of something hummable. Or memorable. A few weeks back I was sent Amy Speace's track, 'The Killer In Me' which is the title track of her new Mitch Easter produced LP. 'The Killer In Me' actually features Ian Hunter on vocals as well, which is a refreshing note unto itself. [...]
From Madrid, Spain comes Insanity Wave. They've been an indie fixture since 1991 across the pond, but now are making more of an attempt to reach fans here in the USA. Produced by Mitch Easter, the band plays muscular guitar rock that's similar to Wilco with a touch of Teenage Fanclub pop mixed in. They have also appeared at International Pop Overthrow at Liverpool at 2006. Late Night Shift opens with"Secluded Heart," a catchy composition with a solid melody and steady guitar work. "This Girl" has echoes of Tom Petty, and "Please Drive Carefully" could have fallen off [...]
As you might expect from a Mitch Easter-produced outfit from Raleigh, N.C., Birds Of Avalon betray a hint of the Byrds' eight-mile-high vocals and even some Polvo-style Tarheel guitar tricks. Which doesn't at all explain why "Your Down Time Is Up" (whose lyrics are not related to your high-speed Internet outages) feels like being trapped [...]
The new 7" from Brooklyn's Boy Genius is finally available, and after giving it some listens, I can definitely recommend it. Two brilliant and catchy pop songs with irresistible choruses, and the usual jangly guitars. I especially like the A-side, "blame love", but it's in fact the b-side "The backyard" that stays in my ears after I have turned the music off. "The backyard" is a cover version of Miracle Legion, and although it's not as immediate as "Blame love" it's a really good song. Jason K.'s vocals are of the ugly/beautiful kind, – [...]
The weekend I was in the Twin Cities for the Umphrey's McGee concert at First Avenue, I had the opportunity to hit Cheapo Discs in Fridley, MN. While not as "hip" or "cool" a location as the Uptown locale, they have a surprisingly decent selection of CD's and LP's and would recommend it. I had a gift certificate for Cheapo from my birthday in October that was burning a hole in my pocket. I had started by perusing the CD's there and had amassed a decent pile, but ended up putting it all away after I started flipping [...]
R.E.M.'S CLASSIC SECOND ALBUM, RECKONING, TO BE REISSUED JUNE 23, AS TWO-CD 25th ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION WITH BONUS DISC OF PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED 1984 CHICAGO CONCERT Reckoning "confirms R.E.M. as one of the most beautifully exciting groups on the planet." wrote NME in 1984. R.E.M.'s second full-length album also prompted The Washington Post to proclaim that "there isn't an American band worth following more than R.E.M." Twenty-five years later, Reckoning remains a fan favorite for capturing R.E.M. during the youthful freshness of a new, fiercely independent American music scene. The two-CD Reckoning - Deluxe Edition (I.R.S./A&M/UMe), set [...]
My favourite Atlanta music festival is coming soon, and they have announced some information including a few acts on the lineup. Straight from the corndog myspace : CORN-DOG-O-RAMA MUSIC FESTIVAL 2009: YES, WE CORN! We're back! A Homecoming to East Atlanta It's true ! This year brings what Atlanta has asked for, their very own music festival, block party carnival, county fair freak show with amazing food + refreshments to delight even the grumpiest, most sarcastic and knowledgeable indie-rocker. Hipsters welcome! We've returned to our 2- All day [...]
So yesterday I was talking about connecting the dots from band to band or from band to producer, etc. I had followed Mitch Easter from producing R.E.M. to having his own band, Let's Active. Years later (after the Internet made dot-connecting and information-gathering a ton easier), I was tracking down Let's Active mp3s and having a good old nostalgia session when I started wondering "what the h-e-double-c-k is that dude Mitch doing these days?" Turned out he was still working up a storm producing, and had produced the latest Helium album, [...]
If you were an obsessed young rock fan in the pre-Internet days, you scrounged for information on new bands any way you could. Magazines, The Trouser Press Guide To New Wave Records , opening acts at shows - all potential links to the next epiphany. Another way to look for bands was to connect the dots: so if you were an R.E.M. fan, you found out about the Replacements because Peter Buck played the solo on "I Will Dare," and found out about Pylon or the dB's because R.E.M. covered them. I got turned on [...]
WKND PLYLST!! This has nothing to do with NEW MOON!
‘09 Been Kind
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
Bobby B's Top 50 Albums Of The Decade (#25-21)
HOT CHIP TAKE another crack at IT and I’m IN
