Category Archives: general

general

Mt. Wilson Repeater (Jim Putnam of Radar Bros.)

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I’ve enjoyed Auditorium, the new record from the Radar Bros., so much, I’m just now hip to the news that frontman Jim Putnam is putting out a solo project on April 15 under the name Mt. Wilson Repeater.

From what I’ve read, Putnam played every instrument on the self-titled record, due out on Eastern Fiction.

Having streamed it a couple times at Eastern Fiction, the record is mostly instrumental with a little more leg room for experimentation than what you might find on a Radar Bros. record. (Read a quick Q&A at Paper Thin Walls, where Putnam discusses the creative process for the project.)

Though I’m not one for all-instrumental records (or even almost-all-instrumental records), there’s something positively hypnotizing about the way Putnam lulls you in. As a big fan of the Radar Bros., I’m probably biased in that assessment. A friend once offered his opinion of Radar Bros. to me as being “good, but kind of same-y.” Mt. Wilson Repeater definitely has strains of the Radar Bros. sound, but Putnam, who recorded the project himself, allows for some more unorthodox styling – surprising guitar tones and rhythm (Out Country Way) or the subtle inclusion of horns (Tether in the Haze … gorgeous).

  • Mt. Wilson Repeater | All Night Every Day
general

The National: A Skin, A Night (DVD)

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askinanight.jpgWhile I wait for an album to be released in 2008 that is as good as Boxer was in 2007, I’m excited about the news of the National documentary, A Skin, A Night, by Vincent Moon.

A friend and I were talking Sunday night about Boxer and how four months into 2008 no album has come close to it. I think Elbow’s The Seldom Seen Kid stands as the front-runner for me so far. Or it may just be that I’m forced to wait for every odd-numbered year for a National record (2005: Alligator; 2007: Boxer; 2009: ??).

A Skin, A Night is due out May 20 and comes with a 12-song CD called The Virginia EP.

The tracklisting for EP (via):
1) YOU’VE DONE IT AGAIN, VIRGINIA (previously unreleased)
2) SANTA CLARA (UK b-side)
3) BLANK SLATE (UK b-side)
4) TALL SAINT (demo)
5) WITHOUT PERMISSION (unreleased cover)
6) FOREVER AFTER DAYS (demo)
7) REST OF YEARS (demo)
8) SLOW SHOW (demo)
9) LUCKY YOU (daytrotter session)
10) MANSION ON THE HILL (live)
11) FAKE EMPIRE (live)
12) ABOUT TODAY (live)

You can watch the trailer for the film here. You can also see some Vincent Moon-directed National videos here.

Pre-order the DVD/EP at Insound.

Here’s the EP’s namesake (I’m assuming) performed last September on WOXY’s Lounge Acts.

  • The National | You’ve Done it Again, Virginia (live on WOXY’s Lounge Acts)
general

Devastations: Black Ice

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Beggars Banquet is offering up another free mp3 from the new album, Yes, U, by Devastations (previous post).

Check out singer Conrad Standish’s entry in the I Used to Love H.E.R. series, too.

HELP WANTED: Any WordPress experts out there? I’m having some issues at my other site, Circa 45. Every time I try to save or publish a post it just goes to a blank php page. Also, I’d like to update this site to the current version of WP. So if anyone can help, there’s probably some free music in it for you. Hit me up at any of the contact info over there on the right. Thanks.

arizona, general

Jimmy Eat World: Bleed American (deluxe edition)

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The NPR All Songs Considered blog brought up a good topic recently: What’s your comfort-food music? What’s an album you can listen to when nothing else seems to work at the moment? It took me about a day to think about, and then I turned on Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American, and I had my answer.

I’m not going to get into a long spiel and defend this to elitists. But having spent most of my life in Phoenix/Tempe, I got to see Jimmy Eat World rise from small clubs (who remembers the Green Room?) to huge arenas. And cynical as I am, not one bit of me resents the group’s popularity or mainstream cachet. Let’s not forget this was a band that beat The System – dropped from Capitol, self-released a record, made Bleed American and then took off.

Bleed American holds everything a comfort record should have, everything a good record should have – charming hooks, memorable lyrics and an unpretentious approach to rock. Ironically (or not?), that sentiment is summed up in the record’s second song, A Praise Chorus, when singer Jim Adkins sings: “All I need is just to hear a song I know.” Yeah, maybe it’s cheesy, but that’s also what makes it genuine.

Like Clarity and Static Prevails before it, Bleed American (originally released in 2001) now is getting the reissue treatment, and it’s not some half-assed attempt at double dipping into sales. It’s a two-disc set, the second of which contains 18 tracks worth of B-sides, rarities and bonus songs (track list below). The original album is remastered for the release, due April 29.

I’ve gathered a few of the bonus tracks here and there – the group’s covers of Game of Pricks and Last Christmas – but a majority of the bonus material looks new to me. I had never even heard of the Good to Go EP until Thursday. (Oddly, I have two JEW 7-inches with B-sides not included on the reissue: Your House (demo) and A Praise Chorus (Radio 1 Session).)

So, snobs be damned, here’s to one of my favorite records in my collection.

  • Jimmy Eat World | Game of Pricks (Guided By Voices cover, BBC Radio 1 session)

Tracklisting for Bleed American deluxe edition after the jump.

Continue reading Jimmy Eat World: Bleed American (deluxe edition) →

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Elbow: One Day Like This (video)

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We’ve already seen the Grounds for Divorce video from Elbow’s latest, The Seldom Seen Kid (due out in the U.S. on April 22), and now we have another one, this time for One Day Like This.

This video is pretty masterful in its simplicity. The visuals – a single-camera shot of a kid slowly, then triumphantly, spinning a condos-for-sale sign – complement the song instead of dominating it. At first, you sort of feel bad for this kid – working this menial task on a drab corner. But then by the end of the video you’re rooting for him because you can relate to him. And the song’s slow, hopeful build drops your guard.

Even a cynic like myself manages to get chills at Guy Garvey’s writing on this one:

“Someone tell me how I feel
It’s silly wrong but vivid right
Oh, kiss me like the final meal
Yeah, kiss me like we die tonight

Cause holy cow, I love your eyes
And only now I see the light”

I’d be shocked if this song – and album – don’t wind up among my favorites of the year. Seriously, this band keeps getting better.

(Apologies for the Yahoo! embed with short ad in beginning, but Universal annoyingly disables embedding on all its YouTube videos.)

general, video

The Panderers: Hotshot’s Boy

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When I saw DJ Z-Trip last August, he performed with a drummer I had to meet, if only because he was wearing a Public Enemy T-shirt.

Turns out that drummer, Pete McNeal, has played not only with Z-Trip but with Mike Doughty and the Breakestra, a couple acts that get a lot of rotation around here. He also spent time with Cake.

Now, McNeal is part of a four-piece called the Panderers, who are recording on Doughty’s Snack Bar microlabel. (The group’s bass player, Andrew “Scrap” Livingston, also performs with Doughty.) Not surprisingly, the Panderers are on tour with Doughty through April (no Arizona dates).

I just picked up the Panderers’ five-song EP, Hotshot’s Boy, on eMusic, and I defy anyone to not groove – you have to at least bob your head – to the soul-meets-blues hooks and rhythm.

  • The Panderers | Come On

Here’s one version of the video for Come On. There are a couple others – a bonus cut version and short version – at the Panderers’ YouTube page.

general

New Black Angels: Doves

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We made a late reversal on Friday night, opting to see Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the Black Angels at Martini Ranch instead of the Black Keys and Jay Reatard at Marquee Theatre. It’s a good thing, too, because I heard Reatard was sick and didn’t play.

From what I can tell, the Black Angels were a last-minute addition to the lineup for the show, which was sponsored by a cigarette company. (No, I didn’t give them any of my information, thank you.)

The contrast of the night was surreal. The Black Angels – full of reverb and psych-rock revival – playing at a venue in the heart of Scottsdale that also happened to be hosting “Juicy Ladies Night” at an upstairs room. Odd, to say the least.

I’m not sure most in attendance knew what to expect when the Black Angels covered the place like a blanket, a thick fog of reverb and distortion. Certainly anyone who stumbled in from “Juicy Ladies Night” knew right away they took a wrong turn. For those of us who didn’t grow up in the nascent days of psychedelia and punk in the ’60s and ’70s, we can be thankful a band like the Black Angels will show us the way.

The group is preparing to release its second full-length, Directions to See A Ghost (Light in the Attic Records) on May 13. You can pre-order the record a month prior to the release date and receive a bonus EP with four unreleased tracks (details here).

Check out the lead single, Doves, described in the record’s liner notes as “an interpretation of love.”

general

Incoming: Death Cab for Cutie, June 19

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At least one person didn’t like what I had to say about the first Death Cab single from the band’s forthcoming album Narrow Stairs.

Well, there’s more Death Cab news to announce: The group is scheduled to play Mesa Amphitheatre on June 19. No opening act has been announced for the show, another Stateside Presents production.

Tickets go on sale April 4 via Ticketmaster. How much, you ask? How about $32. They might have priced me right out of going to that concert.

[STREAM]: Death Cab For Cutie | I Will Possess Your Heart (Real | Windows Media)