You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2010.
WEDNESDAY
Janka Nabay, Highlife, Ali Kamiya Dit Ba aka Ali Baba, Lichens, Cloudland Canyons at Shea Stadium, 8ish (w International Tapes Dj’s)
Frankie & The Outs, Light Asylum, MINKS, Mirror Mirror at Glasslands, 830
Screaming Females, Shellshag, Big Eyes at Knitting Factory, 9
THURSDAY
Aids Wolf, An Albatross, Forbes/Toung/Walter, Child Abuse at Cake Shop, 8ish
Those Darlins, Strange Boys, Gentleman Jesse at Bowery Ballroom, 8 (& Sat. at Brooklyn Bowl, 8ish)
Dan Friel, Dustin Wong, Black Actor, The Gamut at Shea Stadium, 8
FRIDAY
Crystal Stilts, Moon Duo at Knitting Factory, 9ish
Indian Jewelry, Oberhofer, Total Slacker, La Big Vic at Monster Island, 8ish
Radical Dads, Family Trees, Reading Rainbow at Cake Shop, 8ish
AIDS Wolf, An Albatross, Sightings, Vaz at Death by Audio, 8ish
Tooth Ache., Holy Spirits, Winks, Night Manager at Silent Barn, 8ish
SATURDAY
La Big Vic, No Demons Here, Liam the Younger at (info here), 8ish
Superchunk, Let’s Wrestle at Bowery Ballroom, 8
Javelin at Brooklyn Bowl, 11 (RSVP)
No Age, Small Black at Music Hall of Williamsburg, 8
SUNDAY
Cassie Ramone (of Vivian Girls), Mainland Fever, Webdating, The Shining Twins, Red Romans at Glasslands, 8
Superchunk, Wild Nothing, Todd Barry at Music Hall of Williamsburg, 8
Pavement, Jenny and Johnny (Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice) at Williamsburg Waterfront, 530
The Evan Dando/ Juliana Hatfield shows are shaping up to be the most exciting events in the coming weeks… talk about 90s nostalgia!! This is the real deal. There would be no Weezer were it not for Juliana and Evan. Maybe…
In celebration of the shows, Sept. 29 and 30 (SOLD OUT) at Mercury Lounge, a couple of tracks with exquisite harmonies have been made available… “Drug Buddy” (remastered), off 1992′s “It’s a Shame About Ray” is available below, and “Waiting for Heaven” off 2001′s “God Bless the Blake Babies,” here.
The Lemonheads: Drug Buddy (remastered)
Juliana shares ”In the past when I worked with Evan it was always in a strictly auxiliary capacity – backup singing, bass playing – but now that we will be on equal footing I think we could do a lot of damage. I’ve always thought that Evan was an underrated songwriter…..his good looks and antiestablishment attitude have overshadowed his skills.” And, Evan reminisces “Juliana and I first met and started playing music together when we were 19. Since then Juliana has only gotten better and better. Now it’s like playing with someone I’m a huge fan of and totally revere.”
Ok, maybe i’m cynical, but I see the message in the new Superchunk video (yes! it’s true!) to be something along the lines of, “Stay the fuck out of our 90s jams, poseurs!”
This is a great song- so elastic and poptastic that you may need to blow some bubbles.
This song is off the new album, Majesty Shredding, out tomorrow. More info on the video at Videogum.
I got wet at Todd P’s unamplified, acoustic “bbq” on Sunday. Check it out:
When two shirtless men playing bongos tell you to clap, you clap–even when the sky is pouring rain, even when you’re all the way out in Jamaica Bay, even when you’re one of only 25 or so people at the show.
Continue reading at Sound of the City.
Okay, so the song by Emeralds man Mark McGuire is called “Clouds Rolling In,” but the song really doesn’t feel like that. It feels like you yourself are the cloud, and sure it’s moving, but not because a storm is coming. I couldn’t feel any clearer after listening to this song three, four times. It’s like, psychedelic music is supposed to make you all introverted, they say. It’s thought provoking and complex, you “get lost in it,” etc. But for real, McGuire must be the master because listening to this pretty much spells out in the clearest english what i’ve been searching for for days now. GET UP AND AT EM. DON’T SLOW DOWN. STAY COMMITTED.
Damn, man. Where have you been until now???
Mark McGuire: Clouds Rolling In
Song is off Living With Yourself, out Oct. 12 on Editions Mego.
Wild Animal Kingdom. WAKR! Olympia, Washington! Only you could have had a dream like “I love Guided by Voices. I love my friends’ bands. I’m going to make a collection of covers and distribute it!” What’s in the water out there? Acid dreams turn into reality in the PAC NW it seems…
Guided by Guided by Voices is an extremely limited collection, so if you like the band, or those 16 doing the covering, (so far we’ve got Pill Wonder, Bleeker and Brody and Martin Courtney IV), then you should get on this compilation ASAP.
Sam Franklin, AKA Fluffy Lumbers, takes on the melancholy “Club Molluska,” and gives it the hard-nosed treatment we all have come to love/appreciate. He employs the power of echoes and darkly draped guitar tones and then wails all over it.
“It’s just a runaway wooooorld.”
Fluffy Lumbers: Club Molluska
by David Chiu
There’s a good chance Don Draper and his Mad Men cronies may have stumbled upon a band with a sound like that of Chicago-indie band Distractions at one of their hip New York nightclubs. The band’s surf/lounge music evokes the sounds of the early ‘60s; but also possesses the spirit of underground pop/rock acts. A contemporary reference might be the Boston-based Morphine.
Co-founded by by singer Tom Owens, Distractions have gone through various line-up changes–the current band consists of Owens, Justin Fernandez, Robert Kenagy, Karl Ostby, Joseph Murphy, Jake Acosta, and Matt Fields. The group released their self-titled debut on cassette and recently signed to Infinite Best Recordings. Distractions play at Bruar Falls with Twin Sister on Sept. 10 and Glasslands with Twin Shadow on Sept. 11. (SO MANY TWINS!)
MME recently spoke with Owens about the group’s history and music and the highlights of an ascending career.
How did Distractions form?
Well, we’ve actually been together in some form for two years, But originally, it’s like me and this other one drummer who’s no longer [with the band]. He’s a guy that I’ve been in a band with in high school. Me and him were looking to start a band again because we’re just kind of reconnecting as friends. I think my Dad came up with the band name “Distractions”. So it’s just me and him for a little bit. I mean there’s so many people [chuckle] in the band it’s at this point that I can tell you the story if you want.
I moved to Chicago after I graduated college in 2007 and I moved into a big loft space, and the idea was we can rehearse there and I wanted to throw concerts there. So it’s like a DIY music space…and then we called it The Halfway Lounge. That was what tied us all together. Now it kind of varies right now anywhere from five to seven people in the group.
Was there a certain type of sound that you had envisioned for the band from the beginning, or was it sort of like something that developed over time as you guys played more?
I think I’d say it developed over time. Our sound was definitely a lot less developed when we started. It just kind of happened, a combination of the influences I guess. I usually write most of the songs, at least just like a rough skeleton of them and then bring them to the band, and then everyone else contributes. It’s a pretty… I mean it’s usually pretty free.
Your music to me certainly evokes the feeling of the ‘60′s. What is it about those sounds that appeal to you?
I like bands that create masterpieces of albums. And then I was exposed to a lot of like the newer indie stuff and sort of listened to that for a little while and then decided to go back to mostly old music. Yes, most of it does sound ‘60′s. I feel like, I went through a heavy, let’s say more ‘70′s phase.I was really into David Bowie albums from the 70′s and, Brian Eno’s work, got really into that. And then along the line I got into Beach Boys.
I was really into like Drag City Records for a while and basically whatever I could hear, whatever I checked out from them I usually liked. Specifically I got really into Jim O’Rourke, all his productions and his solo, more of his like, solo pop albums, and that stuff I would say is pretty lounge-y. I know he even covered some Burt Bacharach on one of his albums. I guess maybe what creates the lounge sound too is I definitely come from a jazz background, having studied it.
Spectre Folk is a name i’ve heard buzzing around, but for whatever reason I didn’t investigate until yesterday. Sound of the City interviewed Nolan and posted a song, “Burning Bridge,” which I now can’t stop listening to. The track is off his latest record, Compass, Blanket, Lantern, Mojo, out on his label Arbitrary Signs.
Magik Markers was one of my favorite bands on 2006. I went to a Halloween show they played with Orca Age, then JP05, at Cambridge’s All Asia club. I was dressed like Cleopatra and Elisa Ambrogio told me I looked great when we ran into each other in the bathroom. As much as Elisa is the center of that band, Nolan, as drummer, was the beating heart. Without him, her squealing squalls would be untempered.
Nolan’s work at Spectre Folk is a different beast altogether. In Nolan’s words:
Nolan says he wrote the track to deal with his feelings of isolation, desperation, and sleep deprivation after becoming a new parent. He explains, “In this altered state of consciousness I interpreted my daughter’s cries–being as she was, a total newcomer to the planet earth, incapable of putting personal attachment to her thoughts and feelings–as the pure sound of the universal consciousness heralding both her entry into the world and my passage into the next level of the game. That’s the idea anyway. Can you dig it?”
Nolan’s slight slacker strum and nasal voice are literally, utterly, charming. Sing this to me, i’ll definitely fall asleep…
Spectre Folk: Burning Bridge
TONIGHT
Happy Birthday at Brooklyn Bowl, 9
Altar (Sunn O))) and Boris), Sunn O))), Boris, BXI (Boris & Ian Astbury), The Sweet Hearafter at Masonic Temple, 7ish
Liquor Store, Heavy Cream, Grooms, Hunters at Death by Audio, 8ish
La Big Vic, Devin, Gary & Ross, Burning Star Core at Shea Stadium, 8ish
WEDNESDAY
Golden Triangle, Wizzard Sleeve, Daily Void, Pop. 1280 at Monster Island Basement, 8
Fucked Up, Cloud Nothings at Maxwell’s, 8ish
THURSDAY
Balmorhea, Noveller, Julianna Barwick at Littlefield, 8ish
Total Slacker, Christmas, Diehard, Dutch Treat, Widowspeak at Shea Stadium, 8ish
FRIDAY
Twin Sister, Holiday Shores, Distractions, Ava Luna at Bruar Falls, 8ish
The Soft Pack, Beach Fossils, Sundelles at Bowery Ballroom, 8ish (and Saturday with Oberhofer and Sundelles)
Thomas Function, PC Worship, Knight School, Sweet Bulbs at Monster Island Basement, 8
SATURDAY
Dirty Projectors at Terminal 5, 8ish
Excepter, Zs, Justice Yeldham, Solypis, Rust Worship at Silent Barn, 8ish
SUNDAY
Todd P’s Unamplified, Acoustic “BBQ” at Beach 169 (Jacob Riis Park) featuring Frankie and the Outs, Alex Bleeker and the Freaks, Cassie Ramone, La Big Vic, Run DMT, Dream Diary, Aa, Tom van Buskirk from Javelin and more! NOON.
Roberta’s Block Party in Bushwick, featuring Team Robespierre, Electric Tickle Machine, Dinowalrus, Shark?, Phone Tag, Sweet Bulbs, The Netherlands, Hunters, 10 AM
Penguin Prison, Gobble Gobble, Elite Gymnastics, Gold Zebra at Glasslands, 8:30ish
MONDAY
Deakin (of Animal Collective), Prince Rama, Silk Flowers, Amen Dunes at Glasslands, 8:30
By David Torch.
I met up with Marnie Stern a few weeks ago and interviewed her for IMPOSE. Check out the interview.
TASTE
When I was coming up, I always just wanted to be good at something, I never thought of it as masculine and I never thought of it as feminine, I thought of it as cool. If I saw musicians who were doing something interesting I would just think oh they’re really good, I would never think that’s a girl who’s really good I would just be really jealous. And if they were really bad, it was the same embarrassment.
Here’s the single off her new album, Marnie Stern.
Marnie Stern: For Ash
