Darlings: lo-fi, lazy indie pop at its best
August 28, 2012
Darlings. I’ve mentioned them on here before… albeit a long ass time ago. I’ve seen the term “slacker pop” thrown around 1,000 times about this band but it’s really the very best possible way to describe them. If you think about Pavement and The Rentals having a baby, you’d be on the right track. I just want to have a drunken college couch makeout session with every one of their songs. They’re cute and irresistible. Do yourself a favor and check out these New Yorkers’ latest single “Pet the Ghost” on their bandcamp. It’s even available for free download for the time being! Now, can somebody get these slackers to stop slacking and tour through Nashville? Please?
A Few Good Shows: 8/24/12
August 24, 2012
As usual, there’s not shortage of good music to see this weekend in Nashville. In fact, this weekend is completely insane. Here are my recommendations.
FRIDAY:
Oh My Me, Ponychase, and Ancient Warfare @ Exit/In. 9pm $7
Ezra Furman, No Regrets Coyote, and Reid Magette @ The End. 9pm $10
Fox Fun 7″ release party, with Dirty Dreams and Aboriginals @ 306 McCall St. 7pm, FREE, All Ages.
My So-Called Band @ Mercy Lounge. 9pm $10 adv/$12 DOS
SATURDAY:
Nashville Cream’s 6 year anniversary party ft. PUJOL, Natural Child, Nikki Lane, Sparkle City DJs, Wild Cub, Future Unlimited, Y2K @ Mercy Lounge and The High Watt. 9pm $8. (Mercy Lounge lineup: Natural Child, PUJOL, Nikki Lane, Sparkle City DJs. High Watt lineup: Future Unlimited, Wild Cub, Y2K afterparty.)
The B-52s w/ Brandon Jazz & His Armed Forces @ The Ryman.
SUNDAY:
Sunday School Presents: Scale Model EP release show w/ Magnolia Sons and Sound & Shape @ Exit/In. 7pm FREE
We’re going to Mars again in 2016/More Curiosity updates
August 23, 2012
NASA announced that it has selected the InSight Mars lander for its next Discovery mission. (Discovery missions are NASA’s lowest cost tier of science missions, such as Kepler, Dawn, Messenger, Mars Pathfinder, and more.) You may be thinking, “ANOTHER mission to Mars? What for?” Well, despite all the awesome science that Curiosity will do, it can’t tell us much about the deep interior of Mars, or what Mars’ seismic activity is like. The InSight lander will be a stationary robot much like the Phoenix lander. In addition to measuring seismic activity, it will deploy a probe that will drill deep below the surface to measure the flow of heat inside Mars. These measurements will help scientists understand how Mars formed and what happened in the past that changed the surface from one of flowing water (and possibly life) to the barren dry wasteland it is today. (Via Universe Today)
Click to enlarge. Credit: NASA/JPL
Curiosity completed its first set of driving maneuvers on Mars. This image was the first that showed the wheel tracks, confirming that the rover drove successfully. This was only a test of Curiosity’s driving systems, the first of several. Tests of every science instrument and every other system on the rover will continue for at least a month or so before they’ve established a solid baseline for how everything behaves now that it’s actually on Mars. Only then can the scientists begin run the real experiments the rover was designed to carry out. Science is sometimes very tedious and slow, but the results and knowledge gained is very much worth it.
My band Scale Model released our new self titled EP last week, so pardon the self-promotion for just a moment. We worked on this for most of the summer and Brian Carter at Paradox Productions did a fine job of recording, mixing, and mastering. I highly suggest him! Our friend Ryan Roberts took the cover photo, and I added typography and design. You can check it out below and purchase on bandcamp.
Also, if you’re in Nashville please come out to our EP release show this Sunday night (Aug. 26th) at Exit/In. It’s part of their new Sunday School series and it’s totally FREE. Joining us will be Magnolia Sons and Sound & Shape. Show starts nice and early at 8pm SHARP, rock o’clock schmock o’clock. This will be done by 1130 so you can go home and get some rest. This is gonna be one helluva weekend with the B52’s+Brandon Jazz & His Armed Forces @ The Ryman and the Cream Anniversary Party @ Mercy Lounge/High Watt, afterall!
A Few Good Shows: 8/17/12
August 17, 2012
Prepare to see some good shows this weekend- Nashville’s rock clubs are full of both local (East Nashville Underground!) and touring goodness. Here are some shows that piqued my interest.
FRIDAY:
Caitlin Rose, Andrew Combs, and Dirt Heavy @ The Basement. 9pm $10 21+
East Nashville Underground night 1 ft. Chancellor Warhol, Blackfoot Gypsies, Sex Bombs, Roots of a Rebellion, The Joy of Painting, and Kim Logan @ The East Room. This venue is new to me, but it appears to be in or near Matty’s Alley. Address is 2412 Gallatin Rd. $12 nightly wristbands/$20 full weekend wristbands which includes free drinks. More info on facebook.
QDP @ The 5 Spot. 9pm
SATURDAY:
Cio Cio San & The Half-Japanese Girls (my Weezer cover band), Foxcore (Sleater-Kinney covers), How Cozy! and Calicocat @ The End. 9pm $5
East Nashville Underground night 2 ft. Fly Golden Eagle, Oh No No, H-Beam, Hello Kelly, Mr. Jitters, and The Young International @ The East Room. $12 nightly wristbands/$20 full weekend wristbands which includes free drinks. More info on facebook. ENU also has a day party from 1-7pm- check that info here.
Archers of Loaf @ Mercy Lounge. 9pm $18
Ttotals, Dirty Dreams, and Gangly Youth @ Brick Factory. 9pm $5??
SUNDAY:
Shonen Knife, White Mystery, and Heavy Cream @ Exit/In. 9pm $10
Sunday School presents Honey Locust, the Hardin Draw, and Copper into Steel @ The End. 8pm FREE
Weezer and Sleater-Kinney tribute bands this Saturday at The End
August 16, 2012
Pardon me for the shameless self-promotion here, but there’s a great show this Saturday happening at The End and I’m proud to be part of it. My Weezer cover band, Cio Cio San & The Half-Japanese Girls, is playing, along with Foxcore (a Sleater-Kinney tribute ft. members of Heavy Cream and Take The Power Back), Calicocat, and How Cozy!. I believe Foxcore will also be covering some That Dog songs. CCS&THJG formed over a year ago as a one-off project to play a benefit show for Southern Girls Rock & Roll Camp, but it was much fun that we decided to keep doing it every now & then just for fun. I basically learned to play guitar by learning Weezer songs, so this is possibly one of the funnest things I’ve ever been a part of. We will play last, but please come early and support all the bands on the bill. And if you’re heading to the Archers of Loaf show at Mercy Lounge, why not pop on over to The End afterward and fuel the already burning 90s nostalgia buzz you’ll have going? The AOL show will no doubt be over by 1130ish, and we will probably go on around midnight, so come on over afterward and belt out El Scorcho with us!
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/394449223943974/
Mars Curiosity updates and images
August 15, 2012
The base of Mt. Sharp, Curiosity’s main destination. Credit: NASA/JPL
NASA’s Curiosity rover has been one resounding success after another, and every step of preparation and equipment testing has gone perfectly. The latest success was an upgrade to the rover’s software programming, changing its computer from landing mode to roving mode. The process took 4 days, but went swimmingly. For more details on that visit this Discovery News article.
There have been enough high resolution images made available from the rover that photographer Andrew Bodrov was able to create this absolutely STUNNING 360 rotating panorama of the rover’s surroundings. Seriously, this is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. Brodov used images from NASA’s other rovers Spirit and Opportunity for reference to add-in the sun and sky components. (Via Universe Today)
Keep your browser on NASA’s JPL website for the latest images from this amazing mission.
A Few Good Shows: 8/10/12
August 10, 2012
This weekend, especially tonight, is teeming with good shows to see. With a host of good touring acts and good local shows, you have no excuse to sit around on your bum.
FRIDAY:
The Black Angels, Nightbeats, The Paperhead @ Exit/In. 9pm $15
Glossary w/ Jasmin Kaset Band @ The High Watt. 9pm $7
Home Blitz, Fox Fun, Dirty Dreams, Mom & Dad @ Noa Noa. (This is a house show- look it up on facebook to find the address/info!)
Quiet Entertainer, The Fisticuffs, Hanzelle, and Spoken Nerd @ The 5 Spot. 9pm $5 21+
SATURDAY:
The Carter Administration w/ Ole Mossy Face @ The 5 Spot. 9pm $5 21+ (Did I just enter a timewarp back to 2006?)
Ranch Ghost, Clear Plastic Masks, Western Medicine, and Promised Land @ Mt. Swag. (This is another house show- look the deets up on facebook.)
Y2K’s Three Point Five Year party ft. Coach, Hands Off Sam, Wild Cub, Snickle Fritz, Cashatt, KP & Teen Gangz, Strooly, Tyler Quarles, and other special guests @ The High Watt and Mercy Lounge. 9pm FREE
SUNDAY:
Sunday School ft. Hanzelle, Today The Moon Tomorrow The Sun, Forget Cassettes, and Telecommunicators @ Exit/In. 7pm FREE
That’s it- have a great weekend and stay cool.
It’s a great day to be a human. We just, you know, built a nuclear powered 1-ton robot, sent it into space a huge rocket on a trip to another planet, and landed it there with a hovering jetpack skycrane. Oh, and the whole hovering jetpack skycrane thing was all automated. NO BIG DEAL.
Everything went absolutely perfectly. And we even got back images from the rover just minutes after touchdown. Not only that, but I’ve seen tweets that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was able to capture images of the capsule descending during its parachute phase. Those images should be out later today. In the meantime, here is the first image of the rover’s shadow. In the coming days we’ll have many amazing, full-color, high-resolution images of the surroundings.
UPDATE: The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter did in fact get the shot of the capsule and parachute! Just consider this a victory lap for NASA. Check it out:
A Few Good Shows: 8/3/12
August 3, 2012
As usual, there’s no shortage of good shows to see in Nashville this weekend, both local and non-local. Here’s what sounds good to me.
FRIDAY:
Ponychase w/ Deloreans and Echo Group @ the 5 Spot. 9pm $5 21+
Majestico, Magnolia Sons, and Jamie Kent & The Options @ 12th & Porter. 9pm $10
Quichenight album release w/ Fancytramp, T. Rust, and New Pleasure @ The End. 9pm $5
Diarrhea Planet, The Weeks, Grass Giraffes, Junior Astronomers, and No Regrets Coyote @ Mercy Lounge. 9pm $7
SATURDAY:
Poly album release w/ Cortney Tidwell and Natalie Prass @ Zombieshop. 8pm $7
Ill Communication: A Tribute to the Beastie Boys @ Exit/In. 9pm $8
P.S. In case you missed it yesterday, the official lineup for Soundland 2012 was released. The headliner is My Morning Jacket, with support from Divine Fits, Young the Giant, Johnny Corndawg, JD McPherson, The Weeks, Kopecky Family Band, Wild Cub, Night Beds, PUJOL, Nikki Lane, Mystery Twins, and Kansas Bible Company. A fine lineup featuring a good mix of established locals, up-and-coming locals, and THE go-to outdoor festival act MMJ. Good job Jason, Janet, and all others who work so hard on this event every year!
Have a great weekend!
steve cross loves music and science 