A Few Good Shows: 4/27/12
April 27, 2012
Busy weekend in store for Nashville- be sure to watch out for road closures this Saturday morning for the Country Music Marathon. Show-wise we have a good selection, as usual. Here are a few that I find worthy of mention.
FRIDAY:
Yacht Rock Revue @ Cannery Ballroom. 9:30pm $12 adv/$15 DoS
The Lumineers and Kopecky Family Band @ The Basement. 9pm $10 21+
SATURDAY:
Brendan Benson, Young Hines, and Howling Brothers @ Mercy Lounge. 9pm $15
Lightning 100 presents: The Apache Relay, Colorfeels, and Nikki Lane @ Exit/In. 9pm $10
Y2K at the High Watt ft. special guest Sammy Bananas. 10pm $3 for 21+, $5 for 18-20. Sammy Bananas is on A-Trak’s famed label Fool’s Gold and is also one half of electro pop duo Telephoned. Props to Coach for scoring this one!
Have a great weekend!
I can’t get over this rad new video for Punks Jump Up’s new smokin’ boogie-funk jam “Mr. Overtime” featuring vocals from Dave 1 of Chromeo. Slick, sexy, and artfully animated. Directed by Maxime Bruneel, it’s the perfect fit for the song’s 80s italo-disco influence- an 80’s throwback vibe involving sports cars driving fast on the highway at night. But the animation style has a much more current feel- a very successful juxtaposition. If this track is totally new to you, fix that by heading over to the Moda Records Soundcloud and checking out the single and all the many awesome remixes. It’s out officially on April 30th.
Credit: Google/NASA Meteor Watch
California and Nevada residents may have been terrified by the loud sonic boom that shook their houses Sunday morning, but now that we know what caused it, they should feel privileged to have experienced such a rare event. We now know that the cause was a fairly large meteor that entered our atmosphere with the energy equivalent to a 5-kiloton explosion. I’ve read other estimates for the energy, but that is the official number from NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office. That puts it entering our atmosphere at a blistering speed of over 33,000 mph. This meteor was about the size of a minivan, so it was easily visible during the daylight, and that fact that it caused a massive sonic boom means that it made it all the way down to the troposphere, the lowest level of atmosphere, or the level in which clouds and weather occur. Most meteors are much MUCH smaller, and even if they did cause a sonic boom, they burn up far too high in the atmosphere for us to hear it, not to mention that that the air up there is much thinner and doesn’t carry sound waves as well. Because of this meteor’s size and density there’s a decent chance that some fragments of it may have made it to the ground. Once they hit the ground they’re called meteorites, and there are people who make it their living to hunt for them. The rarity of this event is why I think the people who got to see it or hear it are very lucky. I’d give anything to witness something like that. Meteors of this size only occur about once a year, and the simple fact that earth is about 75% covered in water means that us land-dwellers only have a 25% chance of seeing one when they do hit. (Other sources: Universe Today and Discovery News)
A Few Good Shows: 4/20/12
April 20, 2012
Hey it’s 4/20! As I mentioned yesterday, this Saturday’s big deal is Record Store Day and the associated festivities. But if that’s just a slice of the action this weekend. Here are a few other things worth checking out:
FRIDAY:
Ranch Ghost, Dirty Dreams, T.Rust, Denny & The Jets @ The High Watt stage in Mercy Lounge. A benefit for Rob Wood and Paul Turek. $5 min. donation. 9pm
KDSML Review Vol. 5 featuring Sam & Tre, Peripheral, Ziggurat, Audeon, and Creative Control @ Exit/In. 9pm $5
Rwake, Look What I Did, Stallion, and Rintrah @ The End. 9pm $10 adv./$12 dos.
SATURDAY:
Anchor Thieves, Scale Model, Century Club, The GoldRoom @ The End. 9pm $5 Free RSD iPhone 4 cases and CD singles from Anchor Thieves.
Space Capone w/ special guest Alyssa Bonagura @ Mercy Lounge. 9pm $10 adv./$12 dos.
Queer Dance Party @ the 5 Spot. $5 (I think…) 21+
Bear In Heaven, Blouse, and Doldrums @ Exit/In. 9pm $10
That about does it. Have a great weekend and buy some records!
As you should know, this Satuday is National Record Store Day. Record stores (you know, the places you can actually walk into and touch a real album and buy it… imagine that) across the nation will be having huge special sales, and labels and artists across the nation have pressed limited edition vinyl releases, usually 45s, that will only be available at a record store, on Record Store Day. There are tons of awesome happenings here in Nashville, the biggest being Grimey’s “big ass outdoor sale.” They have a killer lineup of live music slated for the parking lot, and they always have tons of used records and CDs on sale for super cheap. Check out grimeys.com for the full lineup and schedule. East Nashville’s The Groove also has a killer lineup of bands playing on their backyard stage, and you can get most if not all of the official RSD exclusive releases there as well. Check their website for the full lineup and schedule. Those are the only two doing performances that I know of, but The Great Escape might be doing some sort of sale. There’s no mention of it on their website, however. Third Man Records will of course have lots going on in the way of sales and limited releases, etc… however they do not have live performances this year. (How can they possibly top Jerry Lee Lewis last year?)
Secondly, the flyer above is for a show that includes my band, thus a bit of shameless self promotion:
Come see Scale Model, Anchor Thieves, Century Club, and The Goldroom at The End Saturday night after all your RSD shopping/festivities! Anchor Thieves are releasing a free CD single, and Nashville’s own Griffin Technology will be giving away free RSD themed iPhone 4 cases. Find out more about Scale Model, the Goldroom, and Century Club (ex-Carter Administration) at their respective bandcamp pages. RSVP on Facebook here. Cover is only $5, show starts at 9:30pm, and the beer is cheap. Come party with us!
Absurdly awesome videos
April 19, 2012
Two videos which share a common theme of absurdity and awesomeness. Absurdly awesome? Awesomely absurd? You decide.
Exhibit A: Ridiculous/dumb/terrible things happening in super slo-mo. As in, 2500 frames per second slo-mo. It never ceases to amaze me how super slow motion can turn just about anything, no matter how gross or messy, into a captivating and beautiful spectacle. My favorite is the rocket-powered clothes drying rack. Why didn’t I ever think of that? Seriously though, this is one that simply MUST be seen in full HD, so set that shit on 1080p, pop it on fullscreen, and sit back. (Via Devour)
Exhibit B: The new video for Diarrhea Planet’s “Warm Ridin’.” This is a band that is not afraid of over-the-top absurdity or awesomeness, and this video is all of the above. Complete with rooftops, bare chests, flaming guitars, American flags, and jumping jacks. These dudes know how to party. If you haven’t checked out their debut album on Infinity Cat yet, go fix that right now. And if you can’t get around the name, you’re just missing the point altogether.
Burgers Spring 2012 Mixxxx
April 16, 2012
All I can say is- better late than never. I normally get my seasonal mixes out pretty close to the beginning of each season. My life has been pretty busy this spring and this is mostly a hobby for me, so things are running a little behind. I’ve been pretty obsessed with everything Gigamesh has touched lately, so of course he makes an appearance… I also was feeling a bit more housey than usual, so you’ll notice a few distinctly house-influenced tracks in there. And how could I not include Viceroy’s sun-drenched, poolside-ready remix of Mark Morrison’s 90s hit “Return of the Mack” ??? Enjoy/download:
A Few Good Shows: 4/13/12
April 13, 2012
This fine Friday the 13th weekend is shaping to be a good one for shows in Nashville. Take a gander at my picks:
FRIDAY:
Colour Revolt and Sleeping Bulls @ The 5 Spot. $8 9pm 21+
Diarrhea Planet, Couched, Guntherdoug, Linear Downfall @ The End. 9pm $5
RR Release party ft. D. Striker, Little Bandit, The Tendoor, and Roy Ira @ The Basement. 9pm $5 21+
SATURDAY:
Night Beats, D. Watusi, and Ranch Ghost @ The End. 9pm $5
Sparkle City DJs at the 5 Spot. 9pm $5 (Ft. Jonas Stein, David Bermudez, and some others… I think…)
Tour De Fun, Murfreesboro. This thing was totally kick ass last year, so I hear. Kinda wish I could go this year but I’m an old man. You ride your bike around Murfreesboro going from house show to house show, seeing a bunch of bands and drinking a lot of beer. Pretty cool idea! Bikes! Bands! Houses! Beer! FUN! Check out Lance Conzett’s critic’s pick on it in the Scene.
Image credit: Dr. Phil Plait/Bad Astronomy Blog
Rant warning: I’m about to go on a major rant. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
There’s simply no way else to put it, science classrooms in Tennessee’s public schools are fucked. It’s clear that our Republican Governor Bill Haslam didn’t actually like the so-called “monkey bill” that will allow teachers in TN public schools to teach creationism and climate change denialism under the guise of “scientific weaknesses,” but unfortunately he proved to be a coward by finding the political equivalent of “having your cake and eating it too”- allowing it to pass without his signature. The bill is nothing more than Bible-thumping socially conservative legislators trying to create a seemingly politically correct path for religious-based ideas to be taught alongside thoroughly proven scientific principles in our public schools. Honestly the state Board of Education is who should be making decisions like this, not state lawmakers. The separation of church and state is made crystal clear by the US Constitution, and teaching pseudoscience that is solely based on religion- creationism and intelligent design- should never EVER be allowed in public schools. Climate change denialism, while not religiously motivated per se, is very politically motivated and not supported by scientific evidence. Both evolution and climate change are overwhelmingly supported by rock-solid scientific evidence. Both are large and complex topics, the minor details of which are constantly going to be debated/improved/clarified, but the overall facts of both are very certain. They are not “scientifically controversial,” they are only politically controversial. It’s times like these that I’m quite ashamed of my home state. Dr. Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy Blog has much better and more professional commentary on this than I, so I suggest reading his blog post about it.
However, things like this Elon Musk interview from last night’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart bring me right back up when I’m down. Watch part 1 here and part 2 here, because you can’t embed Comedy Central videos on a wordpress hosted blog. 😦 It’s awesome and inspirational to see people like him be successful. People who have both the money and the vision to do great things and push the boundaries of mankind’s knowledge and capabilities. Elon Musk is one of many who are pushing the human race forward. The religious right pandering morons in the TN legislature and our coward of a Governor are among those pulling the human race backward.
End of rant.
Formed by former members of We Were The States, Echo Group is a new band poised to take Nashville’s music scene by storm. I’ve listened to their free EP Chalktalk Record Collection several times and simply can’t get enough of it. (If you haven’t already, hit play on the player above. Go ahead- DO IT. Then download it for FREE at their website.) It’s perfectly produced with just the right percussive touches and liberal yet tasteful use of reverb to give everything a Spector-esque 60’s-throwback tinge. I simply can’t get enough of the triumphant horns on “Supra” and the sexy sax on “Don’t Don’t Don’t.” They’re also releasing a split 7″ via Right Nice Records with local noise rockers Mom & Dad which features the track “Work It.” Mom & Dad are already creating some good buzz around town, though I’ve yet to see them live. While I can appreciate the intent of the noised-out/heavily distorted production value of their recordings, it’s honestly a little too noisy and distorted for my taste. I’m quite positive I’m going to love these guys live, however, because they have some seriously awesome songs under all that fuzz.
They are celebrating the release of said split 7″ this Thursday at the brand new High Watt stage in Mercy Lounge. My band Scale Model opens the show, so of course I STRONGLY urge you to come and come early! The show will start promptly at 9pm and is only $5 to attend. We all have short sets and promise to get you home in time for bed on a weeknight. 🙂
RSVP here on Facebook.
steve cross loves music and science 