Category Archives: general

general

David Vandervelde reminds me of Davíd Garza

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davidvan7.jpg
Credit: Matthew Kanable

Please, forget for a moment that David Vandervelde has been given ink just about everywhere except, well, here.

I finally got around this past week to checking out his full-length debut on Secretly Canadian, The Moonstation House Band (available on eMusic). He’s drawn all sorts of comparisons to Marc Bolan of T. Rex and David Bowie. But one artist pops immediately to mind when I listen to Vandervelde: Davíd Garza. Something about the album’s first two tracks – Nothin’ No and Jacket – call to mind Garza’s classic rock-inspired yowls.

It’s entirely possible I’m way off base, but this was my gut reaction. And it also is another excuse to tell you to buy Garza’s 1998 classic This Euphoria.

general

New Baby Dayliner: You Push I’ll Go

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babydayliner_sing3.jpg

It’s been a long weekend of birthday parties and booze. This new Baby Dayliner track, You Push I’ll Go, seems an appropriate way to wrap up the festivities.

The low-end beat, wrapped in warm synths, seems both excited and weary, the highs and lows of working a weekend out. I’ve made no bones about being a huge Baby Dayliner fan, and this track is certainly making its way to the top of the list as one of my favorite tracks by him.

He’s offering a few more downloads at his MySpace and Web site.

  • Baby Dayliner | You Push I’ll Go
general

Bloc Party on VW Greenroom

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Cruising the blog roll yesterday when a post at Good Weather for Airstrikes stopped me. They had three acoustic tracks from Bloc Party hosted by VW Greenroom, which apparently is Volkswagen’s way of influencing impressionable hipsters and getting them into the driver’s seat of a Passat.

Honestly, I’ve never heard of this Greenroom and it’s possible everyone knows about it and I’m woefully behind the times. From a music standpoint, it’s fairly awesome. However, being half-Jewish – well, sorta more than that because my mom is Jewish – I can’t fully endorse supporting the German economy for obvious reasons. Though you’d likely see me in a VW before stepping foot in a Ford.

Anyway, I’m not here to argue history. Apparently, bands play some acoustic/intimate-type sets (sponsored by VW and FNX Radio) then mp3s are available for download and kids go test drive the new Rabbit with its handy auxiliary jack for their iPods on which they can rock out to said songs.

Here’s a link to bands that have performed, which include Bloc Party, Cold War Kids, Pete Yorn and Silversun Pickups. Not bad. I even downloaded the Bloc Party set to ensure quality audio (this is what I do for you) and, yes, 192 kbps.

Thanks again to the Good Weather guys.

  • Bloc Party | I Still Remember (acoustic, VW Greenroom)
  • Bloc Party | This Modern Love (acoustic, VW Greenroom)
  • Bloc Party | Sunday (acoustic, VW Greenroom)
general, live

The Broken West: Live at SXSW (mp3s)

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brokenwest.jpg

For those of us who weren’t fortunate enough to go to South By Southwest and shmooze and drink and eat breakfast tacos and drink and eat barbecue and drink more, well, we live vicariously through the hundreds of wrap-ups and roundups of the event.

Luckily, some kind folks even provide audio. Like WOXY, which hosted its “Everybody Needs a Nurse” party, featuring the Broken West, Aqueduct and more.

The Broken West’s I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On (on Merge and available at eMusic) is gaining steam as my Record of the Moment (behind only El-P’s I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead). So it was great to see WOXY make available an mp3 from the group’s set, especially because I missed the Broken West come through Phoenix last month.

But when people talk about short sets at SXSW, I had no idea. This one doesn’t even reach 18 minutes. Nevertheless, I almost feel like I’m there … you know, except without Lone Star beer.

For convenience, I split the original file into individual files. Download the uncut version here. (On a side note, WOXY has a new blog, The Futurist.)

The Broken West, live at SXSW, 3/16/07:

  • On the Bubble
  • Big City
  • Slow
  • So It Goes
  • Brass Ring
general, video

The Hold Steady in Phoenix on June 2

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The concert calendar is filling up, and this promises to be a good one. The Hold Steady hit the Brickhouse, where I saw them in support of Separation Sunday probably a little more than a year ago. The Brickhouse is a great spot for them, a venue that feels more like a bar that happens to have a stage than a place with a stage that happens to have a bar. If that makes sense.

Also read Craig Finn’s “music you should hear” at Amazon (via Largehearted Boy). Peep Ghostface at No. 1 and Clipse at No. 4. Fantastic.

Video for Stuck Between Stations:

general, vinyl

Roman Ruins

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grr001_cover_front_web.gifBig ups to Hunter at Macktronic, who introduced me to Roman Ruins, the one-man project otherwise known as Graham Hill to family and close friends. Hunter, who operates Gold Robot Records, was kind enough to hook me up with his label’s first two 7-inch releases (my favorite music medium) – one from Roman Ruins and the other from the inimitable Panther (holla!). Trust me, nothing beats getting vinyl in the mail. HANDLE WITH CARE!

My Roman Ruins 7-inch, numbered 472 of 500, has gotten serious rotation on the turntable. There’s something so wonderfully contrary to this – sampled electronic beats set to the pop and crackle of analog warmth. Hill takes the edge off electronic sampling. His is not cold, repetitive and barren; it’s incidental and inviting. The sampling isn’t the point of the music – it’s just another part of it.

Computer-based sampling and home recording makes everyone an artist, but Hill doesn’t abuse the privilege. There’s a responsible effort here to create songs, molding samples to shape his mood and emotion. (The subtly used loop of crashing waves on Familiar and Serene proves the point.)

Go to Roman Ruins’ MySpace page for links to buy his recordings and to hear two new demos that, I think, were posted within the past week.

  • Roman Ruins | Your House
  • Roman Ruins | Familiar and Serene
arizona, general

Asleep in the Sea breaks up

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In a news blast that spoiled my day – and the immediate future – Owen Evans, keyboardist in Phoenix favorite Asleep in the Sea, announced the group has broken up.

This from a MySpace bulletin:

unfortunately, tom (guitarist) has decided to leave asleep in the sea

we will still be playing our two shows in april and that will be the last time we all play together so come see it i guess

if anyone would like to buy our shirts or cd’s, as it stands right now, we will continue to sell what we have left and everyone is highly encouraged to purchase

as far as the new album goes it will no longer be professionally released but discussion of some form of release is currently taking place

thanks to anyone who enjoyed our music, bought our music, booked us, let us sleep in their place, or helped us in any way

it’s unfortunate timing for us, and i can’t say i understand it fully, but it happened and i just wanted to make sure to say thanks

owen

I don’t know any of the other particulars, but this is upsetting news. Asleep in the Sea was among my favorites in what seems to be a suddenly promising local scene. The three guys – Evans, Tom Filardo (guitar/vocals) and Eli Kuner (drums) – never take themselves too seriously, at least from what I could gather when I saw them live. To wit: Kuner played one show I saw with a cracked cymbal. When I asked him about it months later, he said it was out of necessity (he was broke) rather than choice. Clearly, they weren’t in this for the glamour.

I shot an e-mail to Kuner, who responded in a somewhat downtrodden but hopeful/relieved manner, saying, “there’s no point in looking back now” – DJ, cue Boston’s Don’t Look Back now! I told Kuner some eulogy was in order; his response?: “Eulogize the fuck out of us! because on the internet … we’ll live forever.” And there you have it: the near-final words on the tombstone of Asleep in the Sea, indexed on Google for our future generations.

What makes this news all the harder to digest is the band had an album’s worth of songs ready for release, likely subsidized at least in part by a smallish label/backer. I weaseled my way into getting my hands on a digital copy of the album (titled Avenue), 16 songs of the irreverent, quirky rock that made the group such a welcome change of pace. The longest song checks in at 3:36, and every two- to two-and-a-half-minute burst pops with clever instrumental interplay and insightful writing that sometimes gets lost in the band’s catchy hooks.

Take Cancer and Bones, a track in which the sobering final chorus belies the bright attitude of the music: “Everyone is your best friend when … / everyone is your best friend when you die.” Then there’s Seashorshes, from the Yay! O.K. Yeah? EP, a playful harmonizing ditty that could almost pass as a nursery rhyme – save for its sincere theme of questioning – mocking? – the point of war. “Where have the nice men gone? / off to seashores / off to foreign seashores.”

What a drag. I planned on posting about this album, but I didn’t expect it to be a sign-off for the band. On the bright side, Asleep will play its final two shows: April 16 @ Modified with Deerhunter and the Ponys and April 27 @ the Trunk Space.

Pick up the great Yay! O.K. Yeah? EP at iTunes for the best $4.95 you’ll spend.

  • Asleep in the Sea | Dance On [from Yay! O.K. Yeah?]
  • Asleep in the Sea | Cancer and Bones [new]
  • Asleep in the Sea | The Hands [new; the best 48-second song I’ve heard]

IN OTHER NEWS: Look who’s back. Glad to see you again, Jennings.

general, video

New Travis video: Closer

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What do Travis and Ben Stiller have in common? Um, I have no idea. But Stiller makes a cameo as a grocery store manager in Travis’ video for its new single, Closer.

I’ve always loved Travis – just absolutely unabashed sentimental writing. It’s a little corny, but so what? They seem to pull it off without being sappy about it. Also, the bass player’s name is Dougie. DOUGIE. That is cool.

general

The National: Fake Empire + lyrics

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thenational_hh2.jpg
Credit: Heidi Hartwig

By now, Fake Empire, the first single off the National’s upcoming LP, Boxer, has traveled at warp speed through the series of tubes known as the Internet. I’m sure you’ll find this hard to believe, but I saw it first at Gorilla vs. Bear. Then at Wolf Notes. Then at Pitchfork. And, well, you get the idea.

Everyone’s doing it. So I will, too. (And, yeah, if they jumped off the Empire State Building, I might do it, too.) If you were with me almost two years ago (wow), you might remember Alligator topping out my favorite albums list of 2005 and Looking for Astronauts claiming the prestigious prize of my favorite song of 2005. So you might say I’m a little excited for this new album, due out May 22 on Beggars.

As such, I figured I’d sit with Fake Empire for a bit and try to transcribe the lyrics (this is the part where you say, “Don’t you have anything better to do with your time?” And then I say, “No.”).

I’m pretty sure I’ve nailed the whole damn thing, except for one line (denoted, cleverly, by question marks below). A friend, whom I’ve adamantly tried to convince of the group’s greatness, said he’s warming up to Matt Berninger’s understated delivery, a trait on full display here. His baritone voice is especially warm and calm on this track. For me, though, the snare drum work and horns really anchor this track.

Please feel free to fill in the unknown line or correct me if I’ve misheard a word or two.

stay out super late tonight
picking apples, making pie
put a little something in our lemonade
and take it with us

we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire

tip-toe through our shiny city
with our diamond slippers on
?????
bluebirds on our shoulders

we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire

turn the light out say goodnight
no thinking for a little while
let’s not try to figure out
everything at once
it’s hard to keep track of you
falling through the sky

we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire