RJD2 came out of hiding today with a pretty massive update on his doings, the highlight of which is the creation of his own label, RJ’s Electrical Connections.
In the process, RJ says he’s acquired his first three releases – Deadringer, Since We Last Spoke, The Horror EP – for the label and just this week he digitally released three albums of B-sides/rarities he previously put out on the Bustown Pride label. Your Face or Your Kneecaps, In Rare Form and Things Go Better: Instrumentals are now yours for the taking at eMusic, etc.
Also, RJ says he’s going to release a box set in October “commemorating close to 10 years in the game” and that he’s finished his new album.
Really, it’s a lot to digest. But the good folks at The Orchard offered me a track from Your Face or Your Kneecaps to share while you sort out all the good news.
While I’d heard of Throw Me the Statue, I really had no plans on hunting down the Seattle band’s new album Creaturesque – until I caught wind of Hi-Fi Goon. Now it’s about the only thing I’m listening to of late.
Something in Hi-Fi Goon just struck me right away. It is only one second short of that magical 2:42 mark. More likely, though, it’s the song’s flawless hooks and splendid pacing. Strains of Built to Spill’s perfectly messy melodies are readily apparent – another plus in my book – but that’s probably not a surprise considering longtime BtS producer Phil Ek oversaw Creaturesque, too. You’ll have a difficult time getting this one out of your head.
As luck would have it, Throw Me the Statue is playing Modified in Phoenix on Sept. 14 with the Brunettes and Nurses. Tickets are $10.
We all have our favorite summer songs, but if there was such a thing as a perfect video for summer, this new one for Mayer Hawthorne’s Maybe So, Maybe No is probably it. The Mayer strolls around the streets of Los Angeles, digging record crates and chillin’ with skaters and street performers (Rob Dyrdek makes a cameo).
Hawthorne’s A Strange Arrangement comes out Sept. 8 and he’s coming to town on Oct. 14.
I’m still not sure if I enjoy the Julian Plenti album Julian Plenti Is … Skyscraper on its own merits or because (and I’m guessing I’m not alone here) it simply pulls on my Interpol heartstrings. For as much as I’ve listened to Interpol frontman Paul Banks’ solo album the past couple of weeks, I’ve been equally drawn back to the Interpol catalog (well, Antics, mostly … oh, how I love C’mere).
By my feeble way of thinking, it’s difficult to hear Banks’ unique voice and think anything other than Interpol. Pitchfork seemed to sum it up rather plainly and directly: “While Julian Plenti Is… Skyscraper is not as strong or as exciting as Interpol’s first two records, it is certainly a step up from their third, and makes a good case for Banks’ individual strengths within and without the band.”
The video for Games for Days, featuring Metric’s Emily Haines, is below:
The track is At the Cut – the first song released was Beach House – and it’s one of the (many) highlights off an album that didn’t take very long to impress me. At the Cut is a pulsating stomper that infuses the band’s bearded folk with burning blues-style heat.
The Seattle trio is coming to Modified on Sept. 29 (the same night as the Bon Iver show in Mesa). Check the Matablog for full Cave Singers tour dates.
Already a bit of a cult hero in his native England, Frank Turner has a chance to make inroads in the U.S. when he releases new album, Poetry of the Deed, on Sept. 8 on Epitaph. Hey, don’t blame me – I tried telling you before.
Turner, who will be opening for The Gaslight Anthem on a fall tour, is a folk-punk hellraiser, a dangerous man with an acoustic guitar. His candid and honest observations inspire spirited (sometimes drunken) singalongs: “I’m bored of this town, I’m bored of this scene, I’m bored of these fuckers, yeah” (This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the One of Me).
On The Road, the first single from Poetry of the Deed, Turner finds strange comfort in a life on the run – “Driven by the irony that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free.”
That said, Turner will be in Tempe at the Sets on Nov. 10 as part of the Revival Tour, featuring Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Jim Ward (Sparta) and Joey Cape (Lagwagon). Tickets ($15) for the show – a Psyko Steve production – will be available at TicketWeb on Saturday.
If I was smart, I would have kept the information about Sea Wolf coming to Modified on Oct. 30 from my wife, who has developed what you might call a little crush on Alex Brown Church. And I might hate the guy for it, if, well, I didn’t interview him last fall and find him to be quite pleasant – never mind his talents as a songwriter. Damn you, Alex Brown Church!
And though my wife’s obsession with his debut LP Leaves in the River has not waned, Church is releasing a new album, White Water, White Bloom, on Sept. 22 (Dangerbird Records). The record can be pre-ordered here, and while you’re there, you can listen to and download a bonus track, Stanislaus, for the small cost of your e-mail address.
Stones Throw soul revivalist, Mayer Hawthorne, is coming to Chaser’s in Scottsdale on Oct. 14 – the second-to-last date on his first U.S. tour.
The tour will come on the heels of his debut release, A Strange Arrangement (due out Sept. 8). A limited-edition CD/LP package comes bundled with a 4-inch vinyl single containing two non-album tracks.
On Sunday, we returned from Los Angeles, where we saw Elbow perform at the Wiltern on Wednesday night in what I don’t hesitate to call the best show I’ve seen this year. (It’s just a shame we had to leave Phoenix to do it.)
Besides dodging an equipment nightmare – singer Guy Garvey informed the crowd that the band’s gear never made it from England, forcing the crew to scramble in L.A. – Elbow showed the poise and polish of a band willing to embrace the recognition it deserves, starting with last year’s Mercury Prize victory. There are fewer frontmen more endearing and genuine than Garvey, whose Storytellers-like chatter between songs engages fans, bringing a man of immense talent down to our size – he’s just a guy you want to have a drink with.
Though the set obviously leaned heavily on the Mercury-winning The Seldom Seen Kid – I have a newfound appreciation for Weather to Fly and The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver – the band plucked some choice gems from the back catalog: Newborn and Mexican Standoff among them (a setlist is posted here).
But as isolated moments go, I’m not ashamed to admit to a serious case of chills during the pre-encore finale of One Day Like This, a song whose overpowering positivity won even me over in 2008. Garvey outdid himself at the Wiltern, pulling two youngsters on stage to help him sing and conduct the feel-good singalong, draping his arms over their shoulders like they were old pals. Nobody would have complained if the song’s enduring chorus – Throw those curtains wide / one day like this a year would see me right – rode out for another hour.
Here’s some great video of the moment:
The next day, Elbow went on KCRW to perform a session for Morning Becomes Eclectic, repeating a few tracks from the Wiltern but adding some new ones (Fugitive Motel!).
KCRW set list: 1. Mirrorball; 2. Great Expectations; 3. Grounds for Divorce; 4. Fugitive Motel; 5. Scattered Black and Whites; 6. Puncture Repair; 7. One Day Like This.
Well, so much for seeing the Cave Singers on Sept. 29. Much as I wanted to see them – their forthcoming album, Welcome Joy, is tremendous – it’s going to be too hard to pass on the opportunity to see Bon Iver at Mesa Arts Center. Who knows when/if Justin Vernon will come back.
Tickets ($20) go on sale Friday. I’m guessing they’ll be gone fairly quickly, too.
– until I caught wind of Hi-Fi Goon. Now it’s about the only thing I’m listening to of late. 
