Lineup announcements
January 19, 2010
Today is a day of announcements.
If you’re a Nashvillian surely you know that Mercy Lounge is hosting a series of free shows this week featuring the best of Nashville’s local rock. It’s their 7-year anniversary bash. You may have seen that they had two “special secret guests” in addition to Friday’s already awesome lineup of the Non-Commissioned Officers, How I Became the Bomb, De Novo Dahl, and the Ettes. Today they announced the 1st of those two special guests: The Features. Apparently you’ll have to wait until friday to see the other one. I smell another Kings of Leon rumor mill/controversy on the horizon… keep checking their calendar for updates, or follow them on Twitter.
Rumors abound about possible Bonnaroo lineups/headliners. Here’s one blog that attempts to predict some of the artists. (Via Nashville Cream)
And of course, today was the official announcement of the 2010 Coachella lineup. This should allow you to hone your Bonnaroo predictions a bit, if you’re into that sort of thing. Here’s the lineup:
Tristen in Paste Magazine/New Polaroid Camera
January 14, 2010
Photo by Steve Cross, with editing by Jeremy Ferguson and Tristen
Nashville own indie singer/songwriter darling Tristen is featured today on Paste’s “Best of What’s Next.” Check it out here. Tristen has been doing quite a bit of touring recently as a solo act accompanied by cellist/vocalist Larissa Maestro. Her debut album will be out soon. She’s releasing it herself last I heard. Way to go Tristen!
The Polaroid film format & camera aren’t quite dead yet. As we all know, the film production was abandoned, but was recently revived again. Now a new line of re-designed cameras will be hitting the market later this year. Thank GOD. This will still be a niche market, but nostalgia is becoming more and more of a hot commodity, so I see no reason why this Polaroid resurgence won’t continue. (Via Gorilla vs Bear)
Also of photographic interest- American Pixels is a project wherein Joerg Colberg processes his photographs with a weird compression algorithm called ajpeg that doesn’t focus on preserving image quality, but on creating these rather surreal images. (Via Kottke.org)
Kings of Leon NOT opening for The Features/New Morning Benders
January 11, 2010
I don’t know where these rumors get started, but don’t get your hopes about Kings of Leon opening for The Features at Exit/In Feb. 5th. My inside sources say the rumor isn’t true, and that the probable openers will be Majestico and Cortney Tidwell. So chill out, people! It would be rather hilarious if it were true, as most Nashville rock scene purists have said for years that the roles of The Features and Kings of Leon should be swapped. Also if it were true, Elliston Place would be a total clusterfuck that night. Who knows, though, maybe a Followill or two will be hanging out backstage? Oddly enough, Hipster Runoff mentioned KOL in a weekend post about the future of Bro music and Bro fashion. He has a point.
Update: apparently the Nashville Cream did some digging at the exact same time I did, because just as I was about to hit “publish” they posted an update saying the same thing.
One of my favorite recent/new-ish bands for the past year or so has been The Morning Benders. I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend their full-length Talking Through Tin Cans from last year, and am happy to see them prepping a new LP for release this spring. It will be called Big Echo and will hit the market on March 9th. They were kind enough to release a new track from it called Promises and you can grab it for the price of your email address at their website, or just go grab it at You Ain’t No Picasso.
Meemaw reunion/Fitout/Soundgarden
January 5, 2010
You’ve probably already seen at least one of these music news items by now, but hopefully not all of them, if so, just ignore this post.
Local DJ hero Justin Kase has officially released a few of his remixes in full-form to the blogosphere via Nashville Nights. Go grab his remixes of Ke$ha’s Tik Tok, Little Boots’ Earthquake, Matt & Kim’s Good Ol’ Fashioned Nightmare, and his own original track Gil as reworked by another local electronic music icon (IMO) Makeup & Vanity Set.
Local scrap-punk purveyors MEEMAW are re-uniting for at least one show after a year of hiatus. More at Nashville Cream and Nashville’s Dead. I was starting to get tired of them toward the end, but now I’m ready for more MEEMAW. Gimme gimme gimme. This flyer is absolutely priceless:
Meanwhile, Brooklyn Vegan continues to blow their load over JEFF the Brotherhood. And the Soundgarden reunion. No, I’m not joking, Soundgarden is reuniting. I have to admit I was totally into them through most of high school, and because they were one of many bands that were an integral part of my formative years, I’d like to keep them a distinctively retrospective affair. They were just soooooo 90’s… how could they ever do anything good by reuniting now? I think they’re a band that should stay in the past.
Burgers winter 09 mixxxx/Morning Benders album due in 2010
December 16, 2009
The official DJ Burgers Winter 09 Mixxxx is here! Download it now and get ready to party down with Fan Fiction & Me this Friday at the 4th installment of BFF at Mad Donna’s! (Mad Donna’s is at 1313 Woodland St. in East Nashville, just a block past 5 points and across from Lipstick Lounge.) There will FOG MACHINES. There will be CRAZY LIGHTS. And most importantly, there will be BEER SPECIALS UNTIL MIDNIGHT! (More on the beer specials soon…)
Tracklisting:
Bag Raiders- Shooting Stars (Shazam Dub mix)
Lindstrom & Christabelle- Baby Can’t Stop (Aeroplane RMX)
Yolanda Be Cool- Afro Nuts (DCUP RMX)
Little Boots- Earthquake (Treasure Fingers RMX)
Ke$ha- Tik Tok (Fred Falke Radio RMX)
A-Trak & Arman Van Helden present Duck Sauce- Anyway
Busta Rhymes Ft. T-Pain- Hustler’s Anthem (Bit Funk RMX)
Fukkk Offf- More Than Friends (Markus Lange & Stereofunk RMX)
The Cataracs- Club Love (Nick Catchdubs & Proper Villains RMX)
Dan the Automator-Rapper’s Delight (TEPR Remix)
Golden Bug- Assassin
Bloody Beetroots ft. Cool Kids- Awesome
Some other random tidbits for today:
Ridley Scott directed a remake of Robin Hood that’s due to hit theaters sometime next year. It stars Russel Crowe and Cate Blanchett…. and judging from the trailer I think I’ll end up preferring the Kevin Costner version… See it at Apple movie trailers. (Via Kottke)
One of the few “new” bands that I’ve been head-over-heels for is the Morning Benders. I LOVED their 2008 album Talking Through Tin Cans, and I just found via You Ain’t No Picasso that they’re prepping their next LP Big Echo for release on March 9, 2010 through Rough Trade. Next year is going to be FULL of good releases….
R.I.P. Flight of the Conchords/Private Dancer
December 14, 2009
Credit: John Behm via Private Dancer's myspace
Last friday night at the 5 Spot was the first Apollo Up! show in many years, and I showed up ready for some serious mid-aughts nostalgia. My enthusiasm was somewhat stifled by the first band which had a name too long to remember and sounded like Warped Tour circa 1999. Thank goodness Minneapolis’ Private Dancer was up next. As I enthusiastically told the band after their show, it’s been a LONG-ASS time since I’ve seen a band that I knew nothing about and was totally amazed. Try as I might, I find it very hard to describe exactly why I liked them so much… I just did. It’s true, their overall sound is pretty similar to a lot of garage-y 60’s and 70’s revivalists currently flooding the market, but something about them just really clicked with me. I strongly suggest checking them out. No, seriously… CHECK THESE GUYS OUT. To whet your appetite, here’s She’s A Company Man from their debut album Trouble Eyes.
Private Dancer-She’s A Company Man
Of course, Apollo Up! was awesome and Jay Leo Phillips’ guitar tone peeled my scalp as always. For a better review of the show, check out the Cream.
Some sad news came from Stereogum and Pitchfork today. Flight of the Conchords is officially dead. There will be no 3rd season. I’m quite sure we haven’t seen the last of Jemaine and Brett, however, and I look forward to seeing what they do next.
Lilith Fair is making a comeback next year and the lineup is rather interesting. It includes a few names that seem a little out-of-place at first glance: the Submarines, Metric, Janell Monae, Chairlift and Ke$ha…. yes, Ke$ha- the Nashville-L.A. transplant who has our own Justin Kase as her DJ. (Via Music Photographers forum)
Weekend stuff/DAAS/Turbo Fruits get p-forked/beer
December 11, 2009
The A.V. Club takes a look at some of 2009’s strangest/craziest/most ridiculous band names. Some of my favs- Bitches With Instruments, the Whore Moans, Pabst Smear, Gay for Johnny Depp, the Christopher Walk-Ins, OMG! Check it out.
Turbo Fruits’ latest album Echo Kid got a 6.4 on Pitchfork today. I’m a little surprised at how late they reviewed this record considering that it’s a Be Your Own Pet-related project, and that Pitchfork lost their shit over both BYOP and the first Turbo Fruits record… (Echo Kid has been out for at least a few months now…) It’s a damn good record though, and I suggest it.
One of my favorite electronic music artists is actually from right here in Nashville- Makeup & Vanity Set, aka Matt Pusti. He’s recently started a side project called DAAS, and the debut album RASLP is available on Bandcamp for free. Go grab it for a blippy, experimental, atmospheric good time. My bandmate and friend Seth Graves has been doing some fantastic video production work recently, and since the two share some influences Pusti asked Seth to do a video for a song from RASLP. The result is a 4 1/2 miutes of data-moshing AWESOMENESS:
That holiday porter I was telling you about a few posts back is now officially ready for consumption. I tried it for the first time last night and while the spices didn’t come through quite as much as I wanted, it’s still by far the best batch of beer I’ve made thus far. You can buy a 6-pack for 6 bucks, just email/facebook/call/come up to me at a show and I’ll hook you up.
As for this weekend, I’m really stoked to be seeing Apollo Up! tonight at the 5 Spot for the first time in several years. They took a hiatus back around 2007 and I’ve missed their awesome live shows ever since. So that’s where we’ll be tonight.
Saturday we’ll be in Murfreesboro to check out the big YEAH benefit show featuring Those Darlins, Six Gun Lullaby, and special VIP storyteller performance from Caitlin Rose. YEAH is pretty much the best thing to happen to youth in middle TN. EVER. So they are more than worth your monetary support, therefore I highly suggest going.
Sunday night I’ll be taking pics and having a total nerd-gasm at the Star Wars interactive/orchestral event Star Wars: In Concert, which is at the Sommet Center (soon-to-be-Nashville Arena).
Other shows of interest:
Friday- La Paz Late Night w/ DJs Potamus and Hippo @ La Paz. Shoot the Mountain, Hands Down Eugene, & Hammertorch @ The End.
Saturday- Brendan Benson & Cory Chisel @ Exit/In (I wish this were on a different night so I could go!).
Have a great weekend!
Prabir & the Substitutes breakup/WRVU sticks to its guns
December 9, 2009
Prabir & The Substitutes at Grand Palace in Murfreesboro, TN circa 2007
I’ve been a fan of most everything Prabir Mehta has done since his band the Rachel Nevadas were around in the early/mid aughts. Sometime in 06 they disbanded, and he subsequently formed Prabir & The Substitutes. I enjoyed them every bit as much as the Rachel Nevadas, but now I’m sad to say that the Substitutes are no more. When I found a Facebook invite to an event in their hometown of Richmond, VA titled something like “Ghost of Pop 5- Prabir & The Substitutes’ last show!” I decided to shoot him an email and get some clarification on exactly what was going down. Here’s what he had to say-
There are many reasons for the break up …many many but know were all good friends and are all looking forward to the break and will continue to work w. one another no matter what.
1- the record “We Are The Funeral” is going to be scrapped but also turned into a collection of songs we WERE tryin to finish and what not….will see the light of day in a few months
2- new project…yes… www.myspace.com/prabirgoldrush …i’m working w. classically trained musicians and working on this stuff for now. again, its sad to not have chris, charlie, robbie, and shawn backing up this project but it was just time for us to try playing w. other musicians. these two musicians (matthew and treesa gold) are fantastic and love the Beatles and Beethoven. They have a great set of ears and understand the places my songs come from. So, working with them has been fantastic. I hope the group will make its way to Nashville at some point but for now we’re still working on songs and getting our act together at home.
So there you have it. I have no doubt that I’ll enjoy his new project as much as I’ve enjoyed his other projects, and I’d almost be willing to bet there will be a Substitutes reunion somewhere down the road… eventually. Here’s “How Can We Make This Ghost Happy” from their first official EP Annabelle, I’m Coming Home Tonight, along with a song called “Easy” which was recorded live on my former radio show Fascination Street on 88.3 WMTS. To my knowledge “Easy” was never released or recorded, and for some odd reason I never even saw them play it live… *Easy will show up in iTunes with “Fascination Street” as the artist*
Prabir & The Substitutes- How Can We Make This Ghost Happy
Prabir & The Substitutes- Easy (recorded live on Fascination Street, 88.3 WMTS Murfreesboro)
WRVU’s board of directors stuck to their guns regarding the extremely controversial cap on the # of community/non-affiliated DJs. More on that can be found here. Yesterday they released the list of community DJs who would get to keep their shows, and those not on the list are SOL. That list can be found at the Nashville Cream. Though I didn’t get to see the details of the alternative proposal developed by a group of community, student, and staff DJs, from what I understand it would’ve been a lot better that a strict 25 community DJ limit. Ultimately I think (and hope) that the board will realize there needs to be some flexibility in regards to the summer (when most of the student DJs aren’t present) and that a limit on the number community DJ’ed shows makes much more sense than limiting the number of DJs themselves. Lets just wait till next fall and see what happens when they re-evaluate the policy.
Nashville band Paper Route has been getting some blog attention recently thanks to being on tour with Paramore, and also getting remixed by none other than Nick Catchdubs. Grab the remix at RCRD LBL.
And just for the hell of it, here’s a video of David Bowie and Bing Crosby singing Christmas songs together…. wait WHAT?
Via Clusterflock
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First and foremost, for my Nashville readers, I must plug my DJ gig tonight at the new La Paz location on Elliston. It’s where Ombi Bar used to be. My friend DJ Potamus is going to be hosting a weekly friday night dance party there, and he’ll be having different guest DJ’s each week. This debut week, it’s me (Burgers). So come out and DANCE BETCHES! Seriously, if not for the hot jamz, come for the drink specials! (FYI- the next BFF is going to be Friday Dec. 18th in case you were wondering…)
It’s been a minute since I mentioned Hipster Runoff. In case you don’t follow Carles on a regular basis, he recently “retired” (aka wrote under the faux names of mike and becca and inevitably made some gullible people think he’d actually retired). But he’s back. Because he was ‘born 2 blog‘.
This has already circulated widely by now but it’s worth mentioning because it’s kinda cute and endearing… David Bowie’s giddy response to his first American fan-letter in 1967. (Via Flux-Rad)
Pitchfork has a pretty interesting reader’s poll going on right now. My favorite part is the “trend you wish would go away” category:
- 90s revivalism (No Age, Japandroids, Cymbals Eat Guitars)
- Afropop indie (Dirty Projectors, Fool’s Gold, Abe Vigoda)
- Animal Collective acolytes (Blind Man’s Colour, Our Brother the Native, USF)
- Balearic (jj, John Talabot, Windsurf/Hatchback)
- Chillwave/glo-fi (Washed Out, Neon Indian, Nite Jewel)
- Dubstep and its offshoots (wonky, funky, bassline)
- Post-Lily Allen UK pop (La Roux, Little Boots, Florence and the Machine)
- Prim, buttoned-up indie (Grizzly Bear, Andrew Bird, St. Vincent)
- Shitgaze/lo-fi aesthetics (Times New Viking, Wavves, Vivian Girls)
I had a pretty hard time with that one… as most of them are actually trends I wish would go away. Except for the 90’s revivalism one… but that’s mostly just me being a) nostalgic and b) in a band doing just that… kinda. (List via Brooklyn Vegan)
Speaking of 90’s nostalgia… My So-Called Band returns to the stage this Saturday at the Exit/In. I may or may not be DJing some 90’s jock jams in between/after sets…
See you tonight at La Paz!
Twighlight Heroin/SXSW lineup
November 25, 2009
I’m not making this up. SXSW is already announcing an initial batch of bands for the 2010 festival. Unbelievable. I mean, I must admit that I’ve been thinking about it some, but it’s still about 4 months away! Regardless, some highlights that I noticed: Deer Tick, The Brunettes, The Coathangers, Robyn Hitchcock, We Are Scientists. Decent list, I guess. I’m pretty sure it will improve drastically when the full lineup finally comes out. SXSW ’09 was literally one of the best trips of my life, so one way or another, I’m going back next year! Check out the full list here. (Via Pitchfork)
Twilight has officially gotten out of control. It’s already sad enough that New Moon had the most successful opening weekend in history… but now we have people biting other people in the theaters? And to top it all, Twilight-themed heroin was confiscated in Florida! See for yourself at io9. WTF?!?!?
So this will probably be my last post till next Monday. Have a great Thanksgiving weekend!
steve cross loves music and science 