Shows this weekend
July 23, 2010
Not much time today, but here’s a quick rundown of some shows of interest this weekend in Nashville:
FRIDAY:
How I Became the Bomb/Honeymoon Thrillers/Downtown Handshake @ Exit/In. 9pm $5 (I think.)
Evan P. Donohue/Matt Campbell/Austin Manuel @ The End. 9pm $5
So basically, the rock block is rockin’ tonight.
SATURDAY:
The Ascent of Everest/Slowest Runner @ the 5 Spot. 9pm 21+ $5 (AOE hasn’t played out in a while, glad to see their back at it.)
The Zut Alors have recently taken a novel approach to releasing their new album Boy Girl Party, by not only doing a kickstarter campaign, but also throwing a keg party to fund the vinyl pressing. Said keg party is happening at 5107 Georgia Ave. this saturday night.
Not much happening sunday, but-
MONDAY:
Effin’ Paul McCartney is at Bridgestone! And I’m gonna be photographing it. But only for 2 songs, then I have to leave, which is a major bummer, but at least I can now say that I’ve photographed both remaining Beatles. (I photographed Ringo Starr at the Wildhorse a couple years back.)
This weekend: Brendan Benson/Sleigh Bells/etc…
July 9, 2010
This weekend has a lot going on show-wise. Here are a few highlights:
TONIGHT:
At the 5 Spot, The Whole Fantastic World will transform into their alter-ego “Friends of Lizzy: A Tribute to Thin Lizzy.” They’ll be joined by the awesome Heartbeater and Gentlemen Divers. 9pm, $5.
Or if you wanna get SMOOTH, check out Space Capone and Yacht Rock Revue at Mercy Lounge. It will be the SMOOTHEST thing you’ve ever seen. $10 advance, and … a little more at the door… doors at 8pm. And Drew will no doubt be sporting his Yacht Rock hat: 
Also, the Silver Seas are at the Basement. It’s their album release show- $7, 9pm.
SATURDAY:
Frontier Ruckus will be invading The End, along with the Kopecky Family Band. 9pm, $5.
I will most likely be attending the Brendan Benson show at the Basement. The tix are available at Grimey’s and are $12, but expected to sell out by Sat. afternoon or earlier. What can I say? I really dug his new album!
SUNDAY:
I will be taking pics at the Sleigh Bells show at The End. Nerve City and PO PO round out that bill. Apparently it’s already sold out… I really had no idea they were such a big deal. Cool?
Also, Happy Birthday Jack White.
Have a great weekend!
I’ve put together a little post-July 4th show for you tonight. The folks at Exit/In asked me to host another Rock the Block sometime this summer, and this is it. It’s FREE, and there’s nothing else going on, so come out for this awesome lineup. You partied hard over the weekend. You probably had yesterday off to recover. Now you’re ready to party again. This is not chillwave, this is rock and fucking roll.
National blow-shit-up weekend stuff/more WTF
July 2, 2010
The official national “blow shit up” holiday weekend is about to commence, and I’m sure you’ve already made plans of how/when/where you’re going to blow shit up. So here’s a list of good shows to attend when you’re not blowing shit up this weekend:
TONIGHT- I’ll be at the Comfies EP release show at the End, which also features Tristen and probably another band, but that band hasn’t been listed anywhere that I can find. Regardless, this will be a good show.
Also if you’re in Murfreesboro tonight, Chris Freeman is back in town for the summer and is playing a show at Liquid Smoke, while just down the block Henry Daggs is playing at Wallstreet. You could probably dash back & forth if you really wanted to…
SATURDAY- Break out your old flannel and ripped jeans from high school and wear them to My So-Called Band: the Ultimate 90’s Experience at Mercy Lounge. Or check out Henry Rollins at TPAC’s Jackson Hall. Or check out Dave Cloud, Diet Blood, Marj!, Square People, and Deluxin’ at Open Lot.
For the 4th, there’s really no excuse to not be at Mercy Lounge for the Nashville Cream/Vienna Beef sponsored “National Hot Dog Month Kickoff Party.” I’ll be doing a photobooth, you can watch the always-awesome downtown fireworks from Mercy’s kickass balcony, AND be treated to the sounds of Ghostfinger, Heartbeater, Alcohol Stuntband, and the Armed Forces, all MC-ed by Chris Crofton. And one more thing- everyone gets a free hot dog. All this for the patriotic price of $5. ($8 if you’re 18-20.) Doors open at 7pm so be sure to get there early, because everyone will be elbowing for a good spot to watch the fireworks from on the patio, and the fireworks generally start around 9 or 930pm. The bands will start immediately after the fireworks.
Last but not least, I must mention this “WTF” moment… since I posted a bunch “WTFs” yesterday. Here’s a video from Beck’s Record Club, featuring Beck, Thurston Moore, and Tortoise covering Yanni. YES, YANNI. Yanni’s Live at the Acropolis to be exact. I’m speechless. (Via You Ain’t No Picasso)
POWERBRRRD “Bottle Rocket” music video
June 28, 2010
We’ve been sitting on this one for several days now, but the time is finally here. I apologize for all the shameless self-promotion as of late, but fuck it. Here it is, the feel-good hit of the summer in two-thousand WIN, Bottle Rocket by Powerbrrrd. It’s available in full 1080p HD if you click on through to the youtube page.
Good job, Powerbrrrd.
TNTRC showcase Saturday at USN
June 25, 2010
So I did a little guest post over at Nashville Cream regarding my experience this week at the Tennessee Teens Rock & Roll Camp at USN. Check it out. That will suffice as my Friday post this week. Please do come to the showcase and support this amazing cause.
New Burgers and Powerbrrrd material/weekend stuff
June 18, 2010
Just a couple of quick self-promotional updates…
I’ve got some new material coming down the pipe from my DJ/Electronic music project Burgers. I just completed the “Burgers Summer 2010 Mixxxx” and it will hit this blog and everywhere else this coming sunday. I’ll dedicate a post to that sunday or monday. I’m also working on the first official Burgers remix. It’s the Armed Forces track “Vultures (You Never Shut Up),” and it’s really fun, but also a pain in the ass, as I haven’t used any electronic music software in a few years and I’m almost having to learn it all over again. I have no idea when I’ll be done with that, but hopefully sometime this summer…
My band Powerbrrrd has been working on some new recordings, and those should be release in one format or another sometime this summer. We’re also making a music video this weekend, which will end up on this blog sometime next week no doubt. We also have a show tomorrow night at Springwater… (more on that below).
Be sure to head over to Nashville Nights and check out part 1 of Joseph’s Bonnaroo review. Pretty good stuff if you ask me, and I’m looking forward to the rest.
Speaking of Bonnaroo, check out this Fader video interview with Chromeo: (Via Fool’s Gold)
Now for the weekend stuff:
Tonight there’s a pretty bizarre/interesting show happening at the End: Most Amazing Century of Science/Lazer Slut/Brown Swarm/Meth Dad/Cunningham. I have a feeling 4/4 time signatures will be hard to come by at this one…
Saturday the obvious choice is of course, Powerbrrrd, Look What I Did, Thelma & the Sleaze, and The Grayces @ Springwater. But if you’re totally crazy, you could also check out “The Queen is Risen: A Tribute to The Smiths feat. Mother/Father, Nite Nite, The Armed Forces & more at Mercy Lounge,” or De Novo Dahl, Majestico, Fly Golden Eagle, and The Mattoid @ Exit/In. That last one is a benefit for the return of the Bat Poet. More on that via Sean Maloney’s Critic’s Pick in the Scene.
That’s all I have time for right now. Have a great weekend!
Some good new releases/Bonnaroo quick recap
June 15, 2010
I thought I was going crazy for a while, but then A-Trak posted this blog last Thursday confirming that I’m not crazy. His project with Armand Van Helden Duck Sauce released their first single “aNYway” a few months ago basically everywhere but the US. A 128 kb version was relatively easy to find on some blogs, but the full-quality official version wasn’t available in the US… until now. Trizzy acknowledges this travesty in his comments, but I sincerely hope this doesn’t happen for future releases. Go grab this amazing track on beatport now!
The vinyl version of Uncle Skeleton’s new full-length Warm Under the Covers is now officially available via YK records. Go grab it at the Uncle Skeleton bandcamp, or just get the digital version for however much you want to pay. (Via Yewknee)
So as you well know from my last post, I went to Bonnaroo. I had an artist pass, and even though that grants one a much better experience than a regular patron (access to cleaner showers, a couple of air-conditioned tents, and free booze backstage), it was still FUCKING HOT. Aside from the heat, my mind was blown by two performances in particular: Daryl Hall + Chromeo and LCD Soundsystem.
Daryl Hall and Chromeo are the perfect match of old and new stylistically. Daryl Hall had a huge fan blowing his snowy mane into an utterly God-like immensity, P-Thugg’s vocoder leads were spot-on, and the overall silky smoothness of the affair was beyond words. I was there with Drew Mischke from Mercy Lounge and Jon Burr of How I Became the Bomb (and a few others), and if you know anything about either of those individuals, you can imagine how giddy they both were at this spectacle. It was kind of endearing.
LCD Soundsystem was about an hour after the above show, and having not seen them before, a 2:30am set complete with the largest and brightest disco ball I’ve ever seen was enough to blow my mind yet again. I watched most of the set from sidestage, but the sound was good enough that I could sense how awesomely tight James Murphy’s backing band is. I was literally running on fumes by that point, but the energy of their performance kept me going right till the end.
I also learned more than I ever wanted to know about bros and the phenomenon of getting ICED and/or ICING someone else.
That’s really all I have to say, and if you haven’t checked out the numerous blog posts (most of which are a bit belated thanks to the press wi-fi meltdown that occurred) from the Nashville Cream, please do so for further, more in-depth coverage and some great photos by Lance Conzett and Eric England.
Tonight Murfreesboro/Nashville will get a rare musical treat. sElf frontman/genius Matt Mahaffey is in town and will be joining his long-time friend Seth Timbs (of Fluid Ounces and Hot New Singles) on the stage of The Boro Bar & Grill in Murfreesboro. This week is the Boro’s 25th Anniversary celebration, and this is one helluva way to cap it off. From Seth Timbs’ Facebook:
Tomorrow night at the Boro Matt Mahaffey and myself will be performing our songs in a manner befitting the venue and it’s[sic] proud history on it’s[sic] anniversary.
While I’m not as big of a fan of the Boro as I used to be (how can they take a cut of the door money from a band when they don’t even have a PA system or house sound guy?), that place will always hold a special place in my heart as it’s where I was introduced to the local music scene when I first came to MTSU 10 years ago. If a bar/venue can hold its own for 25 years, they must be doing something right. As for Matt, I’ve also confirmed via a few Facebook comments that he’s indeed planning to move back to TN soon (yea yea I know, they’ve been saying that for years, but this time they’re looking at houses!).
Sorry to any other shows happening tonight, but in my eyes seeing Matt and Seth together on the same stage pretty much trumps EVERYTHING.
As for the rest of the weekend, here’s a little rundown:
Saturday night Jesco White “The Dancing Outlaw” invades Mercy Lounge, along with Les Honky More Tonkies and Pick Up The Snake. If that’s not your bag, check out Imogen Heap at the Ryman, or The Alcohol Stuntband at the 5 Spot.
Sunday has a couple of good options as well- Twilight Sad/Mono at the Exit/In, and Shellshag/Pujol/Deluxin’ at the End.
Have a great weekend!
The Comfies Present: Benjamin A. Harper’s Fantôme
June 2, 2010
After a long, liver-abusing Memorial Day weekend, I’m back.
Last year Benjamin A. Harper (not that Ben Harper) of the Comfies released The Comfies Present: Benjamin A. Harper in This Ship Is Going Down. It was the first of a planned 3-EP series, and he’s just released the second of that series, The Comfies Present: Benjamin A. Harper’s Fantôme. As all smart artists do, he’s using Bandcamp to distribute his music, so go grab the new EP there. It’s on the name-your-own-price plan, so it can be free if you want it to be. The EP has a full range of song tempo and mood. From the toe-tapping straightforward power pop of “Shake It Like You Mean It” to the soft instrumental melancholy of “Christmas Eve Eve,” this EP covers a lot of ground in 6 short tracks. Harper is at his best in the higher-energy tracks of the collection, but one that is quickly growing on me is “Chemicals,” which features some very nice string arrangements. Ben actually played almost every instrument on these recordings, which is probably the main reason for the 10-month lag between releases. Or maybe I just had it my head that the releases were all set for a quick-succession release schedule for some reason… either way, I hope the next and final one comes soon!
The official EP release show is July 2nd at the End with Tristen. Be there.
steve cross loves music and science 