Readers in the greater Los Angeles area should take note that Sara Lov’s residency at Spaceland starts today (Tuesday January 6th). I wanted to let each of you know that Sara is giving away free entrance to tonight’s show! If you’re interested in going, email your name and as many friends as you would like to join you to: charla@redbirdmanagement.com by 2pm. Subject header: “Sara Lov Guest List”
Residency Details:
Tuesday, January 6th, 13, 20, 27 2009
Spaceland
1717 Silverlake Blvd
Los Angeles, California 90027
11pm - SARA LOV
$10 in advance or $12 at the door
MP3: Sara Lov - “New York”
I’m pleased to report that our friends at Saddle Creek Records will be serving up their first release of the new year on February 3.
The sophomore effort from Omaha’s Ladyfinger (ne) is titled Dusk and I’m told it fuckin’ rocks. Well, I was actually told it rocks, but I thought I was long overdue to drop an “f bomb” on the site. The album is available for pre-order…order now, and you’ll receive it two weeks early on January 20th!
The album was once again recorded with Matt Bayles who’s worked with artists like Mastodon, Minus the Bear, and Isis. I haven’t heard the opus in its entirety, so I’ll have to rely on the press kit to pave the way: this is a more diverse and refined though no less intense collection of songs than their debut–witness Chris Machmuller’s confidence in his vocals grow exponentially and Pat Oakes’ powerhouse drums finding a firmer root to propel every snare hit and bass kick. An album clearly born of playing local dives and national tours over the last couple of years, Dusk is a statement of intent. The dynamics of each song and across the album are more evident, from the opening 1-2 punch of “Over and Over” and the bass growl of “ADD”, through the sharp riffs and aggressiveness of “Work Party”, the plaintive “Plans”–a subtle look at the band’s own past–and into the hit-in-the-making “Let’s Get Married”.
MP3: Ladyfinger (ne) - “Little Things”
Buffetlibre’s Marc Constantí might very well be one of the kindest people to regularly grace my inbox with his presence. He never pressures me to post what he sends, nor does he check in to see if I’ve checked listened to what was sent yet. I appreciate that kind of freedom more than you can imagine.
Marc checked in today with a new project that was right up my alley…a covers mix featuring songs from the 70s, 80s and 90s covered by Au Revoir Simone, Starfucker, Project Jenny Project Jan, Robbers On High Street, Sportsday Megaphone, Headlights, Heads We Dance, Freezepop, The Boat People, and many other artists.
From Marc: Welcome onboard this RWD2 flight to the sounds of yesteryear. On behalf of Captain Marc and the crew of Buffetlibre, it is our pleasure to accompany you today on this journey in space and time which will rewind you back to the sounds of your past. The cabin crew is here to ensure you have an enjoyable flight to your chosen destination, but before taking off, please pay attention to the safety procedures: For your comfort and safety, we ask all passengers to remain in dance position at all times, in case of unexpected beats. All portable electronic devices such as walkmans, ghetto-blasters, scientific calculators, Spectrum 48K and vibrators must be turned ON during take off and landing. Mobile telephones must not be used at any time- they didn’t exist in the eighties, remember? Passengers are reminded that this is a permissive flight, which means that smoking, alcoholic beverages, hyperglycemic candies, junk food and dressing to kill are permitted at all times anywhere in the aircraft (you may also download tracks at work, where the former may or may not be permitted- you choose). There are no seat-belts, no tables to be kept upright, no emergency exit and no oxygen masks. To fly high all you need is your mind and soul. But remember: a bad trip in the past is a brain less in the future! We hope you have a pleasant flight back to your childhood sounds. So fasten your trainers, grab your favourite toy and a slush-puppie, and prepare for take-off. This is Rewind2.
Click here to choose your travel destination. Here’s one I’ve chosen and highly recommend:
Original: The Style Council - “Shout To The Top!”
Cover: Robbers On High Street - “Shout To The Top!”
We’ve interviewed a significant amount of bands that I hold near and dear over the years. Our conversations with Bruce Foxton from The Jam and Ben Lurie from Jesus And Mary Chain are two of the interviews I cherish most since starting the site two years ago. Having the opportunity to ask Big Star’s Jody Stephens a few questions is definitely an event I’ll be adding to that list.
A photo of Jody I snapped at the Taste of St. Louis Festival
At what age did you start playing drums, Jody? What was the initial inspiration to pick up a pair of sticks (i.e. specific drummers, albums, etc.)?
Billy McMahon, our next-store-neighbor turned my brother Jimmy and me on to The Beatles in 1964. Like putting a Mento in a Coke, we both erupted with this new found connection to music and the world. Drumming on all sorts of things became a habit thanks to Ringo, so I picked up a pair of drumsticks and joined the Colonial Jr. High school band in the 7th grade. Not exactly the right kind of music, but I was playing drums…well a snare drum anyway.
Al Jackson, Charlie Watts, Keith Moon, BJ Wilson and John Bonham were other influences. They all had/have very distinctive styles.
Was the Ludwig kit you used for the recording of #1 Record the original set you started playing on?
Think I got my first drum kit in the 9th grade… a set of Ludwigs ($250) that included a wonderful hand-hammered K Zildjian. It had 2 mounted toms but no floor tom oddly enough. I added one a couple of years later. This was the kit I used for #1 Record.
More after the jump…
Read the rest of this entry »
Manchester lads The Courteeners have announced today that they will be supporting Morrissey for a string of dates on his US tour. Should be interesting: these two acts have some things in common; singing melancholy songs and general moaning!
The US Tour Dates are as follows:
March 19 - Buffalo NY - Univ of Buffalo
March 21 - New York NY - Bowery Ballroom
March 22 - Philadelphia PA - Academy of Music
March 25 - New York NY - Webster Hall
March 26 - New York NY - Carnegie Hall
March 29 - Boston MA - House of Blues
March 31 - Ann Arbor MI - Michigan Theatre
April 1 - Columbus OH - Palace Theatre
April 3 - Milwaukee WI - Eagles Ballroom
April 4 - Chicago IL - Aragon Ballroom
April 6 - Minneapolis MN - State Theater
April7 - Kansas City MO - Midland Theater
April 8 - Saint Louis MO - Pageant
April10 - Dallas TX - Palladium Ballroom
April11 - Houston TX - Jones Hall
April12 - Austin TX - Bass Concert Hall
April14 - El Paso TX - Abraham Chavez Theater
April 15 - Albuquerque NM - Sunshine Theater
UK Morrissey fans need not be disappointed, he has also announced live dates in the UK. Details of these dates can be found on his MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/morrissey
For those of you who don’t know The Amateurs, they are a four-piece from Birmingham UK who have supported the Kerrang Radio Unsigned Show over the past few years. They have played with the likes of The Guillemots and Robert plant and are hoping to edge their way towards commercial success.
Their debut single ‘Homesick’ will be released this month alongside a host of gigs in the UK and Prague. The band has been working with London producers The Animal Farm to create three pop-rock tracks polished to perfection. About their name the band state that “The word Amateur comes from French, and can be translated as ‘Lover Of’, reflecting in The Amateur’s motivation to work as a result of a love or passion for a particular activity”. Their passion is Music of course, and this group has told that they take their inspiration from classic pop rock such as The Beatles, Radiohead and Nirvana.
Please visit The Amateurs MySpace to hear their new tracks ‘Homesick’, ‘London Sky’ and ‘Mystery Thing’:
http://myspace.com//theamateursuk
I wish I was clever enough to put together some kind of a fun web scavenger hunt. I’m totally serious. There are evenings when one search leads to another that will eventually lead to another. This evening, I’m not sure where it started, but Control led to Anton Corbijn which eventually led to Richard Bell…who directed the video for Shocking Pinks‘ “Emily”. I’m not complaining, cos I completely adore this song and haven’t heard it since early 2008.
If anyone out there is a fan of Nick Hartke and co. and has a half-assed idea of what they’ve been up to, please let me know. Their self-titled 2007 release was a pretty solid effort and I sure as hell hope they haven’t called it a day and I didn’t get the memo. Those unfamiliar with the album can sample it here.
MP3: Shocking Pinks - “Emily”
Yannis shared a blog on Foals‘ Myspace I thought was worthy of reposting. It seems he may have let the bong get the best of him one night and created some late night loops. He’s an interesting dude and a damned good dancer, is he not? Heh.
It sounds like the band will have some down time to work on their sophomore effort before playing a few April gigs in London with Bloc Party.
We’re now well + truly rested. And have started work on The House of Supreme Mathematics a.k.a The Stables a.k.a H.O.M.E. we’ve been plastering walls, arguing over the best bedroom, carrying out rusty ovens and assembling an armoury the like of which has never been seen before..definitely not in Oxxxford. My brother gave me loads of old school hip hop for xmas so Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Dre have been the primary aural treat of the last few weeks.
Work is continuing on writing the next record. Which is sounding less and less surf the colder it gets. surprisingly. I’m willing to buy sunshine off any friendly mammals in the Southern Hemisphere…RSVP
Anyway I figured it’s time to embrace the transparency of the Modern World (TM) and expose some snippets of what we’ve been working on. I think Jimmy will start doing the same when he’s back from his Alpine Adventure Holiday. Most of this stuff is me messing round late at night lonely on a loop pedal. It’s for the most part formless and semi-instrumental. Figures i guess…..Anyway i thought it’s be exciting to open the process to y’all as it goes on… so expect lots more stuff popping up on here:
Late Night Loops:
“A Future Dub”
“A Future Dub Deux”
Early Morning Loops:
“XCFAVA”
Love
Yannis
x
From the album Antidotes: MP3: Foals - “Balloons”
Casador is Alessandro Raina and a few very special friends. I received an e-mail from him this morning that was more believable than most. While I realized it wasn’t specifically written to me, I could feel the passion of the words he chose to share. One of the most rewarding experiencing of maintaining this website is when a virtual unknown shares his art with you because he respects what you’re doing for independent artists like himself.
His first release came out out on December 15 and is titled The Puritans EP. If you like the song I’ve shared from it below, you can purchase a limited edition copy with a special inlay and bonus track.
My name’s Alessandro, I was born in Argentina in late 70’s but my parents eventually moved to Europe escaping political persecutions. I live in Italy, the glamorous land that (in a funk) is singing an aria of disappointment.
The first mini/ep is a modern view on the true story of the sword of Damocles…
basically I write songs where I admit that I might be wrong.
I hope you dig it.. these are my very first songs..I’ll post more stuff in early 2009.
all the best,
Alessandro / Casador
MP3: Casador - “The Puritans”
Like what you hear? Click here for more downloads.
Over the last year or so, I have become increasingly fond of the artists on the roster of One Little Indian Records. Shain from the label kindly took time out to give us a little insight and history of this fiercely independent label. Their list of artists are pretty diverse and eclectic. Personally, I love the work of Kelli Ali and Jesse Malin. I expect Offical Secrets Act to break into the mainstream this year in a big way (feature to follow this week ). In the meantime, here is what Shain had to say:
A brief bio of your label: Who started it? When? First band signed and/or first release?
The label began in the mid 80s, and it was founded by Derek Birkett, his wife Sue and another member of his band, Flux of Pink Indians. The label began as an outfit to release the band’s music, as an alternative to all the other more corporate options available at the time. Flux was an anarcho-punk band, and the label sort of emulated that ideology. The first release was indeed a Flux of Pink Indians release and one of the more prolific initial signings was The Sugarcubes, a band that Bjork fronted. Currently Derek is the sole owner of the label, with a staff of twelve handling everything in-house, including radio, press, marketing, international, digital, A&R and licensing.
Where does your label call home? Describe your headquarters.
We run our label and warehouse out of an old airplane parts garage in Tooting Bec, South London. The warehouse is on the ground floor and we work above it, on the first floor. We have a small kitchen and meeting room, as well as a few couches in the foyer for people to relax. We do our own international distribution and shipping, as well as in-house mail order, so it’s nice to have the stock downstairs for easy access. Our office is quite unassuming and because of an elongated driveway and abundance of tropical plants on it, it looks more like a garden centre. We share the block with some houses and a primary school.
Your name? What are your primary duties for the label?
My name is Shain and I am one half of the in-house press team, who handles all promotional campaigns for the artists on both One Little Indian and our sub-label, Tangled Up Recordings, and a label called FatCat Records based in Brighton. FatCat joined OLI in a joint venture deal in June, so we handle their press, marketing and other matters from London, while A&R remains in Brighton. I represent such acts as Frightened Rabbit, Nina Nastasia, Twilight Sad, Brakes, Rose Kemp, Kelli Ali, Hauschka and Max Richter.
Who are a few of the bands on your roster? Most recent signee?
Our two most exciting new signings are Offical Secrets Act from London and Kill It Kid from Bath. Both were signed over the summer and are hotly tipped for 2009. We are also in the midst of campaigns with Kelli Ali, formerly of the Sneaker Pimps and Shelleyan Orphan, who released their first album in sixteen years in October and are prepping a career-spanning box set for release in the summer. To me, they are one of the UK’s most criminally underrated folk bands. We also just put out a record from Paul McCartney’s project, The Fireman, in conjunction with MPL Entertainment. Go buy it if you don’t have it. It’s fantastic.
The latest artist to join the label is:
I’d say Kill It Kid. Awesome band and a very exciting prospect. Also, The Fireman is a recent signee for us.
MP3: Kelli Ali - “One Day At A Time”
