iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 31st, 2006
Daniel Johnston - "Casper the Friendly Ghost" from Yip/Jump Music
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Sufjan Stevens - Songs for Christmas
Thanks to Asthmatic Kitty, you can now stream all 5 discs of the upcoming Sufjan Stevens release Songs for Christmas by clicking here. Additionally, if you end up purchasing the box set you'll not only get the 5 cd's but also stickers, short stories, an essay, a video, a comic strip, songbooks, and an Official Original Christmas Family Portrait of Santa Sufjan making it quite the little stocking stuffer!
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 30th, 2006
Annuals - "Complete or Completing" from Be He Me
Daytrotter Sessions - Of Montreal
Of Montreal is featured over at Daytrotter this week so be sure to check out the band's story and free songs.
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 27th, 2006
Bishop Allen - "Bellingham" from April - EP
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 26, 2006
The Walkmen - "Mucho Mungo/Mt. Elga" from Pussy Cats
Perpetual Peter and the Wolf
Red Hunter of Peter and the Wolf left his apartment six months ago to tour perpetually. He currently lives in his car on the road with a suitcase full of clothing, some CDs, a strange fiddle he picked up in New York's Chinatown, a blanket, and his broken, taped-up guitar. By giving away all his possessions we learn exactly what "lightness" he's alluding to with the title of his first official release due Oct. 31st from The Worker's Institute.
In the title track, which you can hear below, Red suggests the ways in which everyone can achieve this lightness if we, "carry only memories," and, "own nothing in the world."
- Peter and the Wolf - "Lightness" from Lightness (mp3)
Here is to safe travels for Red and his band as they carry on with their perpetual tour. Be sure to catch them on one of the dates below:
- Thu Oct 26: Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506 (w/ Swearing at Motorists, Hudson Bell)
- Fri Oct 27: Winston Salem, NC - The Garage
- Sat Oct 28: Charlottesville, VA - Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar
- Sun Oct 29: Baltimore, MD - Talking Head
- Mon Oct 30: Somerville, MA - PA’s Lounge
- Tue Oct 31: New York, NY - Knitting Factory Tap Bar (CMJ) 8pm
- Wed Nov 1: New York, NY - Pianos (CMJ) 11pm
- Fri Nov 3: Rochester, NY - Bullwinkles (w/ Josephine Foster)
- Sat Nov 4: Buffalo, NY - Mohawk Place (w/ Califone)
- Sun Nov 5: Pittsburgh, PA - Garfield Artworks (w/ Beach House, Over the Atlantic)
- Tue Nov 7: Bloomington, IN - Art Hospital
- Wed Nov 8: Detroit, MI - Lager House
- Thu Nov 9: Cincinnati, OH - Alchemize
- Tue Nov 21: Dallas, TX - Club Dada
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 25th, 2006
Clinic - "Harvest (Within You)" from Visitations
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 24th, 2006
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - "House Fire" from Broom
Favorite New Release of the Week - Oct. 24th, 2006
The Walkmen - Pussy Cats
Gone are the days when drug-hoarding musicians descended upon the Hollywood Hills home of the odd serial killer or strung-out heiress and spent months shooting up, breaking down, and sleeping with Anita Pallenberg.
But the Walkmen have set out to recreate if not the substance, then at least the sound of such experiences with Pussy Cats, a stony, song-for-song remake of Harry Nilsson's iconic 1974 record produced by John Lennon over the proverbial "lost weekend"—really '73-'75 when Lennon and personal assistant May Pang ran off to Los Angeles together at Yoko Ono's suggestion. Loading up on Friends Who Rock—Ian Svenonius (once of Nation of Ulysses fame) and, well, Rockwell—the Walkmen romp joyfully through Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" (Nilsson covered it, too) and a nearly off-the-rails version of the highly sing-along-able "Loop De Loop," that sounds like it was recorded at a drunken sailors' convention.
This album is an ambitious detour for a New York five-piece that has established themselves as an indie band worth watching. They've packed ten short songs that once cost Nilsson his vocal cords—he ruptured them while recording his version—with plenty of honking and aural freak-outs. While this sort of anthemic, swaggering sound might not be made in the same way, it's good to see that it hasn't yet gone completely out of style.
- Adam Rathe, October 3, 2006 via Radar Online
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 23rd, 2006
Professor Murder - "Free Stress Test" from Professor Murder Rides the Subway - EP
Acoustic Cold War Kids
The Cold War Kids have posted 6 acoustic covers on their site that were performed at a breast cancer benefit on Sept. 24th. If you aren't Marc Hogan and would like to hear them, you can check them out here. I've included my favorites below:
- Cold War Kids - "Tonight, You Belong To Me" (mp3)
- Cold War Kids - "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" (mp3)
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 20th, 2006
White Flight - "The Condition" from White Flight
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 19th, 2006
Joy Division - "Dead Souls" from Still
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 18th, 2006
John Vanderslice - "Continuation" from Pixel Revolt
Voxtrot MP3 & Videos
Voxtrot's releasing a new EP on Nov. 7th entitled Your Biggest Fan in order to keep the raving masses happy until their full-length album is released. As a further sign of goodwill they're also giving one of the tracks away for free on their website. Check it out below:
- Voxtrot - "Trouble" from Your Biggest Fan (mp3)
Schedule Two has also posted 5 videos from Voxtrot's February 27th show in Minneapolis for your viewing pleasure.
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 17th, 2006
Damien Jurado - "Gas Station" from And Now That I'm In Your Shadow
New Release from Gary Lucas's Gods and Monsters
During my time at Indiana University I took several Rock History classes taught by Andy Hollinden. Professor Hollinden, in addition to being a very talented musician, could easily qualify as the coolest college professor ever. I would say it's pretty rare to walk into a classroom with the speakers blaring some great song you've never heard only to find it's material from the guy teaching the class. The topics ranged from the history of rock music through various decades, the music of Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Captain Beefheart, as well as the Residents. I still regret missing out on the Frank Zappa class! The class entitled "Beach Boys, Beefheart, & the Residents" was one of the most eye-opening of the classes. Anytime something newsworthy related to these bands comes my way, I like to pass it on to everyone.
One of the many revolving cast members of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band was Gary Lucas. He is best known for being a member of the final incarnation of the Magic Band during the era that produced Doc at the Radar Station and Ice Cream for Crow. He is also well known for his time spent recording with Jeff Buckley. That being said, with the newest Gods and Monsters album Coming Clean, he showcases why he's a star in his own right. The band, or should I say supergroup, includes Billy Ficca from Television, Jonathan Kane from Swans on drums, and Ernie Brooks from the Modern Lovers on bass. The album is already out in the UK with a US release currently pending. You can check out a few of the tracks from the album below including "One Man's Meat" featuring David Johansen of the New York Dolls on vocals.
- Gods and Monsters - "Fata Morgana" from Coming Clean (mp3)
- Gods and Monsters - "One Man's Meat" from Coming Clean (mp3)
- Gods and Monsters - "Spirit Moves" from Coming Clean (mp3)
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 16th, 2006
Arthur Russell - "See-Through" from World of Echo
Swearing At Motorists - Live at the Southgate House
One of my all-time favorite bands on Secretly Canadian's roster is Swearing at Motorists. While opening up for The Wrens on Saturday night at the Southgate House, Dave Doughman presented all the evidence you could need to realize he is, and always will be, one of the greatest frontmen to ever grace the stage.
The band is touring for a month or so before Dave heads back to Berlin to begin life as a father of what I'm sure will be one of the most rocking kids ever. With Joseph Siwinski on drums, the band showed that the world needs more Swearing at Motorists in our collective lives. One step in that direction is the new album Secretly Canadian is giving away while the band is on tour here in the States. Exile On Gipsstraße was recorded by Dave live in an underground train station in Berlin during the making of Last Night Becomes This Morning and is absolutely wonderful. You can download it here until Nov. 2nd.
While you're waiting for the tracks to finish downloading you can check out some of the pictures I took during the bands set below if you like:
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iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 13th, 2006
Micah P. Hinson - "Letter to Huntsville" from Micah P. Hinson and the Opera Circuit
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 12th, 2006
Nikki Sudden - "Seven Miles" from The Truth Doesn't Matter
In Other Cold War Kids News...
Be sure to check out the new short film from the band called Oh, this life... which you can find below. The film is included in the band's e-card for Robbers & Cowards along with some other goodies. This is what they had to say about the retrospective qualities of the film:
This film was compiled by our friend Tim Cahill and watching it now is amazing to see all the traveling that we've done and all the people we've met. Let me narrate some personal highlights included in this feature.
There's the junior high Battle of the Bands, Jonnie's Birthday in New York when we were too poor to buy him a drink, BART rides, Lollapalooza, playing in the restaurant of our Oslo hotel for European TV, our beloved Detroit Bar, Gypsy 4th of July at Sam's, boat rides at Rose's, recording 'Robbers & Cowards" with Kevin, Brett dropping his bed out the Bayou porch, and lots more footage from our five trips round the country and short jaunts to Europe.
We put this film together to introduce ourselves to you, perhaps for the first time, and give you a glimpse of what we've been doing for the last two years; also to say thanks to those who have been with us since the beginning.
Delta Spirit
Monarchy Music's most recent addition to their family is Delta Spirit. My ever-present West Coast Correspondent Jake caught the band as they opened for the Cold War Kids last night at Spaceland and by all accounts they tore it up. Based on the songs emanating from their MySpace page I think I'm going to have to agree that they do, in fact, tear it up! You can also check out the video for their song "Motivation" below:
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 11th, 2006
Cold War Kids - "Hospital Beds" from Robbers & Cowards
Beirut - Live at the Southgate House
Beirut's performance last night at the Southgate House completely exceeded my expectations. There are generally two types of shows. There are those concerts where you feel the band is just going through the motions. They show up, they play their set, and that's it. Then there are those shows that make you feel as if you are witnessing something special. Once I saw various band members weaving in and out of the crowd playing their instruments along the way, coupled with the witty stage banter, it didn't take me long to realize this show was one of the latter.
After what sounded like less than an enjoyable experience at their previous tour stop in Cleveland, the band was clearly happy to receive such a warm welcome at the Southgate House. The warm reception was reciprocated by an exceptional performance which included an encore that was humorously played without the band ever leaving the stage. You can check out some of the pictures I snapped below:
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New Releases from Bill Baird
Bill Baird, who you all know and love as the bassist for SOUND Team, has released two new handmade c.d.'s entitled {{{ SUNSET }}} and Silence !. Bill says {{{ SUNSET }}} is, "more acoustic and sing-songs" while Silence ! is, "all instrumental, except for a little bit of chanting".
I stumbled across his website one day and have been a big fan of his solo stuff ever since. I've posted a few of my favorite tracks below but make sure you visit the site and check out the rest of his material because there are a lot of great songs available for your listening pleasure. Be sure to buy the new c.d.'s as well which you can do via his MySpace page or personal website!
- Bill Baird - Dear Friend, Failing Domino
- Bill Baird - Mr. Treadmill
- Bill Baird - Lovely Carol Anne
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 10th, 2006
Make Believe - "A Song About Camping" from Of Course
The Return of WOXY!
From the front page of WOXY:
We’re back!
And it feels fan-freakin-tastic. It was way too quiet around here for too long. To kick things off right, we have a ton of Lounge Act sessions lined up for the next few weeks and beyond.
So what's changing? Not a lot right away. All the good stuff you've come to expect is all right here... Mike and Shiv, the boards, live Lounge Acts and lots of great music. It's now completely free to listen, and we'll be jacking up the quality of our streams even higher within the next couple weeks.
What can you expect for the future? We're working on opening up additional WOXY Live Lounge studios around the country in order to bring you more live Lounge Act sessions. Next month, you're going to be able to program your own radio station over at La La using tracks pulled from the massive WOXY.com music library. And that's just the beginning.
While you're listening to the sweet, sweet WOXY, make sure to head over to see our buddies at La La, register for an account and check out what they have going on. La La members are pretty crazy about their music, so we're all going to get along quite well.
Tune in, kick back and enjoy the music.
- Mike, Shiv and Bryan Jay
The fun kicked off again today at 10:10 a.m. and from the looks of things we won't have to worry about it stopping again! The Enquirer has a nice story today about WOXY's rise from the dead and some of the exciting things to come.
Favorite New Release(s) of the Week - Oct. 10th, 2006
Califone - Roots & Crowns
In the ninth chapter of Robertson Davies’ 1981 novel The Rebel Angels, a codger-philosopher named Parlabane is putting forth his theories on self-actualization to Maria Theotoky, a dedicated university student who has been attempting to distance herself from her part-Gypsy heritage by immersing herself in intellectual pursuits. Parlabane makes analogy to the root system of a tree, explaining the dependence of the tree’s crown on its inversion, the buried shadow reflection that sustains all growth and flourish. “But the root does not go back to those old stuffed shirts with white wigs whose portraits people display so proudly, but to our unseen depths -- which means the messy stuff of life from which the real creation and achievement takes its nourishment.” His concluding comment to Maria: “I think you are trying to suppress [your Gypsy blood] because it is the opposite of what you are trying to be -- the modern woman, the learned woman, the creature wholly of this age and this somewhat thin and sour civilization … You are trying to tear it out. But you can’t, you know. My advice to you, my dear, is to let your root feed your crown.” It’s another hundred pages before Maria pays heed, and in the end, it’s as if she never really had much of a choice, anyways. Califone, on the other hand, are a band founded on Parlabane’s proposition.
Tim Rutili, former Red Red Meat-er and Califone’s creative hub-mind, told the Chicago Reader what should be obvious to the CMG reader by now -- that the title for Califone’s fourth studio LP was taken from The Rebel Angels (which, by the way, is somewhat stilted, dialogue-heavy, and unapologetically academic in its setting, but also a work of great spirit, humor, and wisdom). A literary reference as such, Roots & Crowns functions not only as the perfect title for this record, but also as a signet for Califone’s entire modus operandi. The band’s modern reconstruction of “roots” music, the last-century folk basins that pool into Americana, had its prototype in the Red Red Meat albums, and knew itself as soon as Rutili established Califone, as soon as the world was hit with those EPs and Roomsound (2001). The root fed the crown through great release after great release of rustica maligned and re-aligned, electronics breeding in the canvas whites between fiddle and banjo and thumb piano and piece-meal percussion, and now with Roots & Crowns, Califone have a retroactive statement of purpose. Rutili still sings bound stems of images, but the music does more than uphold the point -- it encompasses and personifies it.
The root of Roots & Crowns needs little unearthing. At its base “Pink & Sour” is as plain as a chugging blues chord progression; “Sunday Noises,” “The Eye You Lost in the Crusades,” “Our Kitten Sees Ghosts” -- hell, half the tracks -- grow out of repetitive (albeit elegant) acoustic lines; “Alice Crawley” is half a minute of Grandpa Buck and Uncle Tom tapping their feet and chinning their strings before Ma rings the triangle. And Rutili sings with all the palpable emotion of his old forebears; it’s just that he sounds even, somehow, older. What his craw steals is the world-weariness that was by-product to the raging yowling of the blues men and the boxcar minstrels. To them, the tired cracks in their music were inescapable physical traits, resultant of harsh, Depressioned lives. Rutili’s voice comes from a position more educated and attended by amenity. His words are, at best, impressionistic. Perhaps his stream-of-consciousness verse reduces folk couplets to mere template for rhythmic vocal melody and transparent feeling; regardless, each isolated detail is evocative, and, strung together within the flow of Rutili’s singing, with its philosophical adherence to the exhaustion that comes after fervent struggle, they show an inlet towards the tree’s crown. It is but one inlet, though.
Because “Pink & Sour” may be a blues stomp, but it’s also a deconstruction of blues stomp; a controlled demolition of the tabs into herky-jerky percussion, awkward electric guitar phrases, and synth runs that grind tonal implications out into brash, explicit oscillations. When the apparitions appear in “Our Kitten Sees Ghosts,” they set off ethereal spinning plates eating up the background until the guitar has nowhere left to stand (a goosebump effect on the heels of Rutili’s “it’s almost surgical / the way you shatter / when you hit the water”). And on closer “If You Would,” Califone finally claim a pretty high stake for their more amorphous side, an estimable spot somewhere between their work to date and the spacious transcendentalism of Mark Hollis after he got the new wave out of his system. Talk Talk, though, was a sparse and shrewdly implemented symphony. Aided by the increasingly adroit production of Brian Deck, Califone arrive at their cutting, bleeding-edge beauty through a little KFW-esque manipulation, and with them it’s not just manipulation of sound, but manipulation of by-gone genre.
This is where the band most brilliantly blurs just what exactly is root and what is crown. As Keith Fullerton did on the first half of Multiples (2005), Califone use modern equipment to rake up the primordial muck of their music, be it with the synthetic note-mockery of “Pink & Sour,” the carefully damaged fidelity and stretched beyond recognition tape of “Rose Petal Ear,” or the washes that permeate the fabric of “3 Legged Animals” and “If You Would” -- photographic blow-ups of the songs’ single cells, back-projected. Additionally, “sophisticated” musical approaches such as collage and noise evolve the roots here only insomuch as they also devolve them. “A Chinese Actor” runs its riff into squalls and distorted breakdowns, intermittent claps and a bright chorus doing what they can to keep things presentable. There’s a sing-along in “Black Metal Valentine” spit out the end of a boot-to-board beat given hip-hop emphasis; stereo-spanning fragments of instrumentation and experimentation scurry out and back in like a platoon in the process of forming a marching line. So that they can, in the end, march and sing along.
Even where it initially seems Califone are playing straight-faced convention, a few more listens expose the extent to which their root and crown have inextricably merged. The pretty picking of “Sunday Noises” is underpinned by sinking bass blurps, pointed percussive daps, and leaking air. In the middle of its strident strum “The Eye You Lost in the Crusades” foreshadows the gorgeous ruin that will eventually overtake it. Fiddles become atmosphere on “Burned by the Christians,” phantom warbles carrying fret echoes off into the smog. “Spider’s House” boasts of the band’s magnetic compositional talent, ordering into perfect pop mosaic a smattering of shiny bits, which are mortared by a horn arrangement that Jon Brion could only write in a dream. “The Orchids” sounds too wholly Califone to be a Psychic TV cover. Smack dab in the middle of all this distinguished synergy, the relatively quaint “Alice Crawley” becomes an uncomplicated, hearken-back reprieve between two sides full of utterly ingested anachronism and flux.
The album’s integrity has only one equal in 2006, and we dropped a 90% on that mind-blower last week. Whereas For Hero : For Fool pins its striking array of musical color to Dose’s text, Roots & Crowns offers music which is its own text. While Subtle are beginning to fulfill their potential in a way that’s fresh and exciting, Califone are continuing the progressive refinement of their roots, giving an assured argument for the possibilities ignored by folk musicians enslaved to tradition and a smart recall to all the forward-thinking others who have moved too completely and arrogantly on. In some ways, the two albums are both perfect counterparts and perfect counterpoints to each other. In every way, they are two of this year’s finest offerings. In the case of Roots & Crowns, we have a resounding ode to hereditary, cultural integration as contained within an exemplary how-to. And all Califone had to do was make the archetypal Califone album.
- Chet Betz, October 6, 2006 via Cokemachineglow
Cold War Kids - Robbers & Cowards
Reagan babies, missile fears, and international blues. Cold War Kids began in the fall of '04 with jangly guitar, handclaps, and a Harmony amp in a storage room atop a restaurant in Fullerton, CA. For the first sessions between four friends, having instruments was not as important as heavy stomping, chanting and laughter. Clanging on heat pipes, thumping on plywood walls. Hollering into tape recorders. Slipping and swaying into alleyways and juke joints. Dreaming the American dust bowl and British maritime. On the roof the sound and feeling was cultivated and burned, built and hallowed out, painted and stripped to the primer.
Using songs of Dylan, Billie Holiday, and the Velvet Underground as a road map, they listen to their tiny inner voice to manipulate and structure their style with honesty. In 2005/2006 Cold War Kids self-released 3 six song EP's ("Mulberry Street," "Up in Rags," and "With our Wallets Full".) And toured relentlessly, sometimes with compadres Tapes 'n Tapes and Two Gallants. It was these sweltering live shows and limited edition CDs that created the rapid word-of-mouth, giving birth to a burgeoning fan base, sold-out shows in cities across the country, glowing reviews in magazines like Rolling Stone & Blender. The band chose Downtown Records, the young Manhattan-based home to such talents as Gnarls Barkley and Eagles of Death Metal. A deal signed, the band regrouped to the studio and recorded their impressive and striking debut robbers & cowards in a matter of weeks. The result captures all of the raw power, smoldering energy and loose-limbed blues that make their live shows so invigorating.
Lyrically, Cold War Kids write stories about human experience in orchards, hotel rooms, laundromats & churches, seaports & school halls; characters that are funny and serious at the same time, like J.D. Salinger or "Peanuts." There is the man poaching bills from the collection plate during Sunday masses, and a little prodigy whose mother is poking him to admire the Grand Canyon out the station wagon window; these are everyday wretched people trying their damnedest to live well while teetering between despair, complacency and joy. Tracks like "Hang Me Up To Dry" and "Hospital Beds" are fast fan favorites, full of menacing basslines, atmopsheric piano and urgent vocals. There's a pretense of the ramshackle about these songs, but only in the way that Dylan and The Band managed the same. Listen closely; there's a rich intricacy beneath that raggle taggle delivery.
Much like Blue Note Artists of the '50's, the music of the group walks hand in hand with it's graphic design. Bass player Matt Maust is responsible for creating the visual aesthetic by constantly documenting the band, friends, strangers, and situations both on tour and at home. The design facet is implemented through gallery shows, artistic web design, and supplement design books coinciding with music releases. Ultimately, Cold War Kids' intent is to present themselves not just as four musicians, but as an expanding artistic community in which everyone is invited to take part.
- Jermy Leeuwis - September 7, 2006 via Music Remedy
Micah P. Hinson - Micah P. Hinson and the Opera Circuit
A wayward troubadour that has lived (narcotics, jail time and a bankruptcy to name but a few highlights) more than his tender age would suggest, Texan singer/songwriter Micah P. Hinson has always sounded like a weary old soul trapped in a young man's body. His earthy baritone and penchant for fantastical narrative making him the ungodly spawn of curmudgeonly brilliant tunesmiths Gordon Lightfoot and Will Oldham - tales of misfortune shot through with a dusty road elegance and sense of sweet betrayal.
His self-titled bow with the Opera Circuit is a supernaturally ebbing collection of woe and wonderment that sounds at once ancient and modern. He shares a gift for river dredged vocal harrumph and melodious antiquities with fellow tunesmith William Elliot Whitmore, but whereas Whitmore tends to look six feet below for his inspiration,
Hinson is a perpetual stargazer that seeks to find answers in the smog-stained constellations that shift overhead. Even as he sings like someone's craked his heart in half on "Drift Off to Sleep" and "Seems Almost Impossible" there's a sense of naive rejuvenation that's unerringly beautiful, and that seems totally at odds with the bum lot the kid's been dealt. Elsewhere, he stakes a claim as Jeff Mangum's worthy successor ("It's Been So Long") and the dustbowl bastard son Tom Waits ("Letter to Huntsville") doesn't remember conceiving.
Life has taken some pretty tough shots at Hinson, and while he hasn't exactly escaped unscathed, there is a victorious spirit that runs throughout Micah P. Hinson and the Opera Circuit that not only proves him to be one of the scrappiest songwriters around, but seems to go a long way towards proving the old adage that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
- Jason Jackowiak, September 27, 2006 via The Daily Copper
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 9th, 2006
Instruments of Science and Technology - "INST" from Instruments of Science and Technology
Okonokos Screenings
If you're a My Morning Jacket fan, and I'm not sure why you wouldn't be, you'll have a chance to watch the band's new concert film Okonokos, in 5.1 Surround Sound, in the following cities on Mischief Night, Monday, October 30th. Be sure to check out the trailer for the film, which you can find below, and go here for more information about the event and participating theatres.
- BOSTON - Kendall Square Cinema
- SEATTLE - Metro Cinemas
- AUSTIN - Galaxy Highlands Theatre
- SAN DIEGO - UltraStar Mission Valley
- PHILADELPHIA - TBD
- CHICAGO - Classic Cinemas Lake Park
- SAN FRANCISCO - Embarcadero Center Cinema
- WILMINGTON, NC - The Lumina Theater/UNC Campus
- DENVER - Chez Artiste Theatre
- NASHVILLE - Belcourt Theatre
- ATLANTA - Midtown Art Cinema
- LOS ANGELES - Westside Pavilion
- ST. LOUIS - Moolah Theatre
- LOUISVILLE - Cinema De Lux 20
- NEW YORK - TBD
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 6th, 2006
DeVotchKa - "How It Ends" from How It Ends
New Swearing At Motorists Album Released For Free
To celebrate Swearing at Motorists' current US tour, Secretly Canadian is giving away a
10 song collection of unreleased
songs Dave Doughman recorded live in an
underground train station in Berlin. The album is called Exile On Gipsstraße and is available for download here.
Be sure to download it while the band is on tour (tour dates below) because once the tour ends on Nov. 2nd, so does the free download offer. Dave had the following to say about how this record came about:
It was late February 2005, and I had just moved from Philadelphia to Berlin. I was in the process of mixing the album Last Night Becomes This Morning (released February 2006 on Secretly Canadian). To keep myself from going insane spending all my time at the mixing console (and to make a little money instead of only spending it), I started taking my guitar to the Ubahnhof - an underground train station - at the end of my street to busk. The first night I didn't make much money, but was floored by the huge sound created in the tube by my unamplified acoustic guitar and voice. So the next night I returned with my tape machine and 2 microphones, set them up, got good levels, and just let the tape roll as I busked. I made a little more money that night, but upon returning home and giving the tape a listen, realized that the trains and passengers were too distracting from the overall recording. So I started going to the station later, near closing time (12:30 am), when there are less passengers and 15 minute pauses between trains. After a few days of this, I was so excited about the sound I was getting, but losing patience with trying to get as much done as possible in 15 minutes, hoping that passengers coming and going would be quiet. By this time, I was playing facing the wall with no hat out, to discourage people from stopping to listen or give me money. I was obsessed with replacing the studio versions of 3 songs on the album, with versions recorded in the Ubahnhof, as I felt they better fit into my concept of the record as a film soundtrack. One night I finally got the courage to wait until the station closed, then climbed over the entrance gate and hurried down into the tube. I got about an hour of uninterrupted recording in before the Polizei politely informed me I had to leave. I ended up getting the versions of "This Is Not How Forever Begins", "Lost Your Wig", and "Ten Dollars" I needed for the album, and was thrilled at how well they worked in the context of the record. Since Last Night Becomes This Morning was released, many folks have commented about how much they love the sound of those 3 songs. That got me thinking it would be interesting to hear how a whole record culled from all those sessions would sound. I like it and I hope you do, too.
The tour dates for Swearing at Motorists are as follows:
- 10/07/06 Dayton, OH - Gilley's
- 10/10/06 Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop w/ Paper Cranes
- 10/11/06 Grand Rapids, MI - The Intersection w/ Paper Cranes
- 10/12/06 Chicago, IL - Schuba's w/ Paper Cranes
- 10/13/06 Columbus, OH - Little Brothers w/ The Wrens
- 10/14/06 Newport, KY - Southgate House w/ The Wrens
- 10/15/06 Bloomington, IN - Landlocked Music
- 10/16/06 Chattanooga, TN - LaMar's
- 10/18/06 Tampa, FL - New World Brewery w/ New Roman Times
- 10/19/06 Gainesville, FL - Common Grounds w/ Holopaw
- 10/20/06 Orlando, FL - AKA Lounge
- 10/21/06 St. Augustine, FL - Cafe Eleven w/ Holopaw
- 10/22/06 Mt. Pleasant, SC - Village Tavern
- 10/24/06 Nashville, TN - Exit / In
- 10/26/06 Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506 w/ Hudson Bell + Dodo Bird
- 10/27/06 Philadelphia, PA - North Star Bar
- 10/28/06 Allston, MA - Great Scott
- 10/29/06 Providence, RI - The Century
- 11/01/06 New York, NY - Fotana's w/ Fields of Gaffney
- 11/02/06 Dayton, OH - Pearl Nite Club
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 5th, 2006
Beck - "New Round" from The Information
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 4th, 2006
Buffalino - "To Be Sure" from The Thunder Cracks Above
iTunes Song Suggestion of the Day - Oct. 3rd, 2006
Captain Beefheart - "Bat Chain Puller" from Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)
Favorite New Release of the Week - Oct. 3rd, 2006
Beck - The Information
The jokey videos Beck includes on a DVD with his new album, “The Information,” can’t conceal how apocalyptically glum he is this time around. Amid his savvy samples and hip-hop beats, Beck has never been the most cheerful lyricist. But he used to be flippant or oblique. Now everywhere he looks he sees decline, loss, religious hypocrisy and war.
In the video for “Elevator Music,” the album’s first song, Beck plays air guitar on a rifle while rapping and singing about music as a last-ditch distraction: “You’re doing it to death like it’s the end of the world/Now there’s everybody sweatin,’ forgetting what’s on their minds.” Even thoughts of romance take on military overtones: “I carry my heart like a soldier with a hand grenade,” he sings in “Movie Theme.”
“The Information” is produced by Nigel Godrich, Radiohead’s longtime collaborator and Beck’s producer for albums in midterm election years: “Mutations” in 1998 and “Sea Change” in 2002. Mr. Godrich builds tracks that are opulent and ominous, finding dark hollows behind reverberant sounds. Electronics seep and buzz between the funky beats of “We Dance Alone” and “The Information,” while “1000BPM” is a dizzying, staccato avant-hip-hop production.
With Mr. Godrich, Beck can get downright psychedelic. There’s a lot of the 1960’s on this album, from the Beatles chord changes of “Think I’m in Love” to the beat of the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” echoing through “Cellphone’s Dead,” “Nausea” and “Strange Apparition.” The acoustic fingerpicking and reversed instrumental sounds of “New Round” make it Beck’s answer to the freak-folk movement.
Of course on a Beck album no era is revived intact. Pop associations mesh or collide at his whim. His musical allusions once sounded like amused memories, something to toy with for fun. Now, on this darkly intelligent album, they sound like something to hold on to as everything else crumbles.
- Jon Pareles, October 2, 2006 via The New York Times