general

Incoming: The New Pornographers, April 15

2 Comments

April 15 is Tax Day in the U.S., so what better way to celebrate than throwing your hard-earned return at a bunch of Canadians?

The New Pornographers are coming back to the Valley for the first time since … well, I can’t remember. I’ve had to go to Tucson – Neko Case’s former hometown – the past two times to see them.

But thanks to Coachella – The New Porns are playing there on April 16 – the Phoenix/Tempe market serves as a hub of show activity for bands going to/returning from the festival. Because of this, I’ve heard that Neko and Dan Bejar of Destroyer will both be on hand for the Marquee Theatre concert, a treat that may not be afforded to the rest of the band’s tour stops. (If you’ve never witnessed Bejar perform with New Porns, you’ll definitely want to see this.)

And as if it couldn’t get better, Menomena, also playing Coachella, is scheduled to open.

Tickets are $23 advance and $25 day of show.

In the meantime, The New Porns released a new video for Moves, the leadoff track from 2010’s Together. It’s a fictional look at “the rise and rise of The New Pornographers.” Funny stuff and lots of familiar faces, if you consider Ted Leo dressed as Kathryn Calder familiar.

RELATED:
The New Pornographers: Your Hands (Together) (video)
Menomena: Dirty Cartoons (video)

general, video

Phantogram: Mouthful of Diamonds (feat. ?uestlove)

2 Comments

How do you take a great song – one of my favorites of 2010 – and make it even better? Add a little ?uestlove, of course.

Electro-pop duo Phantogram made its TV debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday. And as with any musical guest on the show, the idea of pairing with the Roots – one of them, or all of them – makes for tantalizing possibilities. Here, ?uestlove proves that man can indeed be as efficient as machines.

Pick up Phantogram’s Eyelid Movies, released last year on Barsuk.

RELATED:
I Used to Love H.E.R.: Sarah Barthel (Phantogram)
Phantogram: Mouthful of Diamonds (live on KEXP)

general

New Low song: Try to Sleep

2 Comments

low

After spending much of 2010 indulging a rock catharsis with his other Sub Pop band, Retribution Gospel Choir, Alan Sparhawk is back to lead the minimal stylings of Low for the trio’s release of C’mon, the band’s first album since 2007’s Drums and Guns.

The 10-track album, recorded in Sacred Heart Studio (a former Catholic church), is due out April 12, and the band has unleashed the first song from it, Try to Sleep. Stream it below or cough up an e-mail address for a download.

Pre-order C’mon at Sub Pop.

1. Try to Sleep
2. You See Everything
3. Witches
4. Done
5. Especially Me
6. $20
7. Majesty/Magic
8. Nightingale
9. Nothing But Heart
10. Something’s Turning Over

general

Nocando: Mic Fights in Tucson (2007)

Leave a comment

nocando_micfights

Thanks to some digging in the forums at Arizona Beats, I fell into the seemingly endless YouTube rabbit hole that starts innocently with the search phrase “Nocando freestyle.” Set aside at least an hour if you’re gonna do that.

The forums turned up videos from 2007, when Nocando – who is appearing at our Hidden House extravaganza on Feb. 18 – came to Tucson and claimed the crown at Mic Fights in the 11th edition of the freestyle tourney. Battling has been Nocando’s calling card, and long before he started gaining well-deserved acclaim for his 2010 debut Jimmy the Lock, he was grinding on the freestyle circuit. It’s not so glorious, as you can tell from the videos of the final round at Mic Fight, held at some reggae shop called Twelve Tribes. But he’s a guy who has paid his dues and earned respect the hard way.

You’re also gonna want to check out his bouts during his victorious run at the 2007 Scribble Jam – if you have an hour or two to kill.

video

Elbow: Neat Little Rows (video)

1 Comment

Monday has been chock-full of good music news, from the release of a new Fleet Foxes song (and album/tour information) to NPR streaming the new Telekinesis album.

And thanks to Gigwise, we also get a new video for Elbow’s Neat Little Rows, a song that premiered a couple weeks ago on Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio 1 show and comes from the forthcoming build a rocket boys!, due for a UK release on March 7.

According to Gigwise, the video was shot by Soup Collective in the band’s Blueprint Studios, where the album was recorded.

Should be a big year for the band, which is confirmed to play Coachella after tearing through a run of UK arenas in March. And now singer Guy Garvey – someone I’d love to interview and/or drink beers with – has even ventured onto Twitter.

Someone should ask him about those matching black sportcoats in the video.

general, video

Apex Manor covers Careless Whisper

Leave a comment

Apex Manor’s The Year Of Magical Drinking was one of a handful of noteworthy albums released last week, a signal that 2011 is really starting to crank up.

Singer Ross Flournoy and Co. stopped by the Rolling Stone offices – where, apparently, a magazine of some sort is still published – to play a few acoustic versions of tracks off the album, including my favorite so far, the interminably catchy Under the Gun.

The guys also broke out a sincere and unironic cover of Careless Whisper by Wham! (exclamation point being part of the band’s name, of course, though I am pretty excited about this).

And here’s Under the Gun:

arizona, video

Jimmy Eat World on VEVO’s Area Codes

1 Comment

On the heels of the 2010 release Invented, Arizona’s own Jimmy Eat World was pegged by VEVO to conduct a ride-along through the Valley for the latest episode in the Area Codes feature.

The video was just released on Friday, but it looks like it was all filmed on Oct. 30, before the band played Marquee Theatre later that night. The Tempe venue served as the first stop on the tour for an intro in which frontman Jim Adkins calls the state “magical” and “God’s country.” (Hard to find anything magical about the Marquee, however.)

The title of the clip – “(480) Jimmy Eat World” – uses the area code that serves the East Valley (Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert, etc.), where Jimmy Eat World first came together. But the band does cruise to Phoenix’s 602 to hit fantastic record store Stinkweeds, where they conducted a pre-show autograph session.

The guys also stop at their studio and the old site of once-beloved music venue Nita’s Hideaway, which has since been developed as part of a commercial monstrosity in Tempe. Other stops include: Gold Bar Espresso and Los Dos Molinos (yum).

general, video

Cold War Kids perform on Jimmy Kimmel

Leave a comment

Predictably, the new album from the Cold War Kids, Mine Is Yours, took a sound beating by Pitchfork. That 3.9 shellacking notwithstanding, I’m casually enjoying the new album.

They’re definitely reaching for some mainstream appeal, untangling their twitchy soul-rock into something with a little more sheen to it. But better that than be a blog band afterthought?

Yes, Cold War Kids worked with Jacquire King, the same producer responsible for the past couple of Kings of Leon records (a point for which Pitchfork was quick to condemn). But King also worked with Modest Mouse on Good News For People Who Love Bad News, so let’s not write off Cold War Kids as “cheese-merchants” just yet. The shelf life of blog love is fleeting, so I can’t say I blame Cold War Kids for heading in a new direction.

Anyway, they were on Jimmy Kimmel’s show on Wednesday night, playing Royal Blue and Louder Than Ever:

hip-hop

Curly Castro: Eulogy to L

Leave a comment

eulogytol

I can’t recall exactly which cassette I owned first – L.L. Cool J’s Bigger and Deffer or Run-DMC’s Tougher Than Leather – but both played huge roles in turning me on to hip-hop as a wee 9-year-old.

Like Radio before it, Bigger and Deffer blasted big boasts and gut-thumping beats. Hell, this album was too cool to have sides named A and B. No, they were called the “Bigger Side” and “Deffer Side,” naturally. I played that tape constantly, fascinated at the cadence of the beats and L.L.’s rhymes. Try not to get amped when L.L. flies in on I’m Bad: “No rapper can rap quite like I can / I’ll take a muscle-bound man and put his face in the sand.”

But we all know the L.L. that graced that cover – Kangol and rope chain, the definition of B.A.D. – isn’t the L.L. we know now. Zilla Rocca sums it up precisely: “Since 1997′s Phenomenon to present day, LL burned the goodwill of a thousand Kangols with each shallow and trendy album.”

And so it is that Curly Castro gives a voice to what we’ve all been thinking on his new single Eulogy to L, which is exactly what the title claims it is. Here lies James Todd Smith’s career: Rest in peace. It’s a bold callout – delivered over Zilla’s breakdown of The Boomin’ System – but one that gives the nostalgic among us a sense of closure.

The track will appear on Castro’s new LP Winston’s Appeal, which will be released on Friday through RocktheDub.com and Three Dollar Pistol Music. Stream it below or download at 33jones.com.

Castro will be performing as part of 5 O’Clock Shadowboxers (with Zilla Rocca) on Friday, Feb. 18, at the Hidden House with Open Mike Eagle and Nocando in a show I’m sponsoring with the guys at Universatile Music. You might remember him from the last time Shadowboxers rolled through town.

RELATED:
5 O’Clock Shadowboxers: Bottomfeeders (Small Pro Remix) + No Resolution, live in PHX
Curly Castro and Zilla Rocca: Str8 Westcoastin’ Mix
I Used to Love H.E.R.: Curly Castro

general, video

Aloe Blacc: I Need a Dollar (on Conan)

2 Comments

No artist has inspired more positive feedback from the annual mix CD we gave as favors at our New Year’s Eve party this year than Aloe Blacc, whose uplifting soul on his 2010 album Good Things won me over (even though I came to it embarrassingly late).

I’ve heard from a few friends who bought the album on the strength of the one song on the mix: I Need a Dollar. The track not only is instantly catchy – my wife and I often sing out the “hey hey” call-and-response at random times during the day – it’s a soundtrack to our depressed economy from the view of a guy went through corporate hell firsthand.

True, not everyone can parlay getting laid off into a fruitful music career. But Blacc gives the everyman a voice (and an amazing one at that).

Watch him perform I Need a Dollar on Conan last week:

Blacc also offered a backstage version of I’m Beautiful from the 2006 album Shine Through. (via Complex):