A shit-ton of new music
February 17, 2010
I couldn’t think of anything better to describe this post than “a shit-ton of new music.”
Seriously, check this out:
Probably my favorite producer/DJ/artist from the Ed Banger Records crew is Breakbot. I love his remixes and original material, but his new track “Baby I’m Yours” is easily his masterpiece, even if it is under 3 min. long. It’s on his latest EP of the same title, and you should go get it now at Beatport. Or wherever you can find it. I also love the Siriusmo remix… Look for one or the other to be a a featured track in my upcoming Spring 2010 Mixxxx.
So I’ve been talking a lot about the Morning Benders lately. Well, that’s because they’re smart and know just how to milk hype and anticipation for all it’s worth. They’ve been slowly releasing a steady trickle of tidbits- mp3’s, videos, interviews, etc…- and it’s working because they’re ALL OVER the blogosphere. But I honestly love them and thus I’m joining the parade. Today they released another free mp3- the full studio version of “Excuses,” the song played in the video clip I posted last week. Grab it at You Ain’t No Picasso. It can found a million other places as well, but I’m linking to YANP because that happens to be where I saw it first.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen any action from Brighton Beach, UK’s The Pipettes. This is probably because they’ve undergone about 3,278 lineup changes since their last US appearances. When I first discovered them I went totally crazy for the whole gimmick of cute girls, singing pretty harmonies, dressing up in polka-dots, doing coreographed stage moves, and bringing back the girl-group pop vibe of the Phil Spector era. I must say that initial excitement has long worn off, and they quickly fell to the far back of my mind. Now they’ve completely re-vamped their image and sound, as well as shrunk to apparently 2 frontwomen. Check out the funky spaced-out disco imagery at their website, where you can also download their new single “Our Love Was Saved by Spacemen.” Honestly, the sound matches the imagery, but I’m not sure I’m sold on the new sound. It’s catchy and fun without a doubt, but something just doesn’t quite click like the old lineup/sound/imagery did.
SXSW officially announced the schedule of showcases and I’m going to spend at least a good hour tonight looking over it, but at first glance a few things popped out to me:
Wed. night at Emo’s, Emo’s annex, and Emo’s Jr., the latter of which is the Rough Trade showcase culminating with the Morning Benders. Also on Wed. is the Next Big Nashville showcase at Maggie Mae’s featuring The Ettes and a few more Nashville acts, and the Girls Rock Austin showcase at Submerged, feature Those Darlins and The Coathangers.
Thur. night the Beauty Bar hosts the IHEARTCOMIX/Green Owl showcase, which features some great new electronic artists, but faces stiff competition for the electro crowd from the Dim Mak showcase at Elysium which features the Crystal Method and Steve Aoki. The Cedar Street Courtyard, though not any specific “showcase,” will feature She & Him. The Young Turks showcase at the Mohawk Patio looks awesome. Of course the biggest is Broken Social Scene at Stubb’s.
Fri. night Cedar Street Courtyard will host Nashville’s own American Bang. Club DeVille hosts Neon Indian and CLASSIXXX. The Bright Antenna showcase at the Ghost Room features Magic Wands, which are interestingly listed as a Nashville band… The Cool Kids and Miike Snow will be at the Mohawk Patio.
Sat. night the Austin Shores stage looks pretty rad with She & Him, Justin Townes Earle, Deer Tick, and many others. The Beauty Bar lineup would appear to be the Fool’s Gold showcase, though it’s not listed as such… The Chicken Ranch showcase at Headhunter’s looks good, with Nashville’s own The Clutters and We Were the States on the bill. The Mohawk Patio looks good yet again, with Turbo Fruits and Surfer Blood.
Frankly my head almost exploded just glancing over it. More SXSW to come. Holy shit I can’t wait.
Oh, and if that didn’t make your head explode, then celebrities upside-down will.
Skiing/weekend stuff
February 12, 2010
Megan and I are headed for my hometown of Kingsport this weekend to take advantage of this last snowstorm that dumped about 10 inches in the southern Appalachians. We’re going skiing at either Beech or Sugar mountain. Skiing in the southern Apps can be tricky due to the fickle winter weather around here… yes the mountains are always colder than other areas, but they still have to make most of their snow with machines, and sometimes they’ll have a long period of daytime highs in the 40s and nighttime lows in 20s, which means some of the snow melts in the day, then re-freezes at night, causing icy spots that are a huge thorn in any skiers side. But with this last snowstorm, and the fact that temps there haven’t gotten above freezing for several days, and won’t until sometime next week, the slopes should be pretty nice & powdery this weekend.
That means I won’t be out & about seeing shows/partying/etc… this weekend, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be.
The big show tonight is Tortoise with Disappears at Exit/In. Also: Neil O’Neil and Max & the Wild Things at the 5 Spot.
Saturday- Oblio, Shoot the Mountain, Deleted Scenes, Steve LaBate at The Basement.
Also on Saturday, two things will be coming together that I honestly thought I’d never EVER say in the same sentence: Infinity Cat and Vanderbilt. Yes, according to Nashville’s Dead, Infinity Cat bands Natural Child and Daniel Pujol will be playing at Vandy’s McGill Hall (that’s a dorm), along with a band called Colossi. I have no idea if Colossi is associated with Infinity Cat. Pretty crazy huh? Although, being a Vandy employee, I do know that McGill Hall is definitely the extreme exception to the typical Vandy kid stereotype. It’s basically where most of the students who don’t fit into that Greek/trust-fund-kid stereotype live. So while Vanderbilt and Infinity Cat definitely have a bit of an oil & water vibe, McGill and Infinity Cat seem much more like peanut butter & jelly.
Have a great weekend!
Bonnaroo rant/BISB/Morning Benders
February 11, 2010
After some thinking, I have this to say about the Bonnaroo 2010 lineup: 1/2 good, 1/2 FAIL. Part of it is just my personal taste, but part of it is just plain WTF?
First the bad part: the headliners. The combination of Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, Kings of Leon, and Dave Matthews Band (the 1st 4 listed in the lineup, thus assumed to be headliners) is pretty weak compared to Phish/Springsteen, or Metallica/Pearl Jam, or The Police/Tool. As much as I hate Phish, they were a HUGE score for the festival last year, and IMO, they needed someone like the widely-rumored Paul Simon or Paul McCartney to really stand up the last few years. I don’t think Jay-Z, despite his legendary status in the hip hop world, can quite fill the shoes of past headliners. Stevie Wonder is awesome and I’m glad he’s playing but somehow I just don’t see him as quite headliner material. DMB has played Bonnaroo before, and of course will please the hippie crowd, but will also draw a considerable number of collar-poppin’ fratastic douchebags.
Now for the good part: the tent-playing (or maybe Which Stage-playing) mid-level indie acts. I’m more than elated to see She & Him, LCD Soundsystem, Phoenix, Flaming Lips, Miike Snow, They Might Be Giants, OK Go, The Melvins, Neon Indian, and many more of the “indie rock” acts on the bill. Let’s just say that if I go to cover it for the Scene again this year, I will no doubt be spending most of my time in the tents.
In other lineup news, Vanderbilt’s Rites of Spring lineup came right on the heels of the Bonnaroo announcements, and the list is not surprising, though Phoenix and Passion Pit together make the lineup a tad bit stronger than past years, IMO. Headliners Ben Harper & the Relentless 7 and Drake fit right into the typical RoS formula of putting an up-and-coming rap star on one night, and a frat-pleasing, jam-ish act on the other. But this broad, please-all formula has worked well for the festival in the past, so I can’t blame them for doing what works. This ain’t no Pitchfork afterall.
As most Nasvhillians who pay any amount of attention to the local electronic/DJ scene already know, Justin Kase has been on the road for several months as a the DJ in Ke$ha’s backing band. He also ran a pretty cool, though sparingly updated blog called Blogging Is Serious Business. Sadly, though, he’s putting that blog on indefinite hiatus:
Touring kept me from updating recently, but now i just don’t have any interest to continue this blog. Never say never, but don’t expect anything new for some time to come.
What’s utterly flattering, though, is that he mentioned my blog, along with the obvious Nashville Nights, as an alternative for “your Nashville dancing fix…” Therefore, expect me to attempt to live up to that plug by bringing in a little more coverage of the DJ/electronic/dance scene beside my usual plugs for gigs at which I’m DJing. Don’t expect many mp3’s though, because A) Joseph at Nashville Nights has that very well-covered, and B) I don’t have the time or energy to devote to climbing the HypeMachine charts and getting labels/producers to send me shit to post. I will however, post a link to my last mix, just in case you missed it back in Dec. (Spring 2010 Mixxxx is currently in production for release next month.)
Finally, I was excited to this nicely-done video of the Morning Benders performing/recording the track “Excuses” for Yours Truly with about 50 of their best musician friends crammed into the studio, Phil Spector-style. In fact, as the singer Chris Chu talks about in the interview segment, the song is a bit of a tribute to Spector and his “Wall of Sound” recording method. They even wrote a cute little letter to him which you can read at Yours Truly. Here’s the video. (All of this via Gorilla vs. Bear and Pitchfork)
Some cool/cute videos
February 9, 2010
You’re no doubt going to be spending a lot of your internet time today following the “great unveiling” of the Bonnaroo 2010 lineup, and I have little interest in competing with that. Furthermore, I don’t have time to cover such a long, drawn-out process in the first place because this blog happens during small breaks, luls, and at lunch during my “real” job. According to the main Bonnaroo website, the place to keep up with the lineup unveiling (which is entirely up to the artists themselves this year) is Bonnaroo’s myspace page. They will start keeping tabs of the announcements at noon EST today. As of 10am the only artists I’ve seen are Weezer, Flaming Lips, Phoenix (weird because Bonnaroo doesn’t normally book acts 2 years in a row), John Fogerty, Jeff Beck, and Blues Traveler. That last one gave me a major flashback to watching Woodstock ’94 coverage when I was 13….
So, instead of focusing on the Bonnaroo craziness, I will simply post some interesting cute videos thanks to Yewknee’d:
Very cool time-lapse video of the snowfall in Washington, D.C. this past weekend:
A dog reacting to the Law & Order theme song: (Many many more here.)
Features afterpary @ La Paz/Majestico tracks
February 5, 2010
The big story today is also an act of shameless self-promotion. Tonight is the sold-out Features/Majestico/Cortney Tidwell show at Exit/In, and I’m DJing the official afterparty at La Paz along with Fan Fiction. La Paz is literally only 3 doors down Elliston from Exit/In, and given the fact that A) there’s NO COVER and B) well drinks/margaritas/wine are all $3 and PBR cans are $2, you’d be CRAZY not to come over after the show (if you’re going). Since the show sold out in one day due the rumor of Kings of Leon opening (which proved to be false), you may not have a ticket. In that case, I suggest simply coming straight to La Paz, because we kick things off around 9-10pm and you know the party will really get hoppin’ later on anyway. In case you hadn’t realized- this is the new incarnation of BFF. It’s simply whenever/wherever Fan Fiction and I DJ together. And trust me, we’re bringin’ the bangers. The resident La Paz DJ for whom we’re covering, Potamus, will be hitting the decks down in M’boro at SWAG, so if you’re in that neck of the woods and wanna dance, 527 Main St. is the place to be.
Speaking of Majestico, they’ve got 2 brand new tracks up on their bandcamp for free (unless you give your email address monetary value). Together they comprise the Bright White Lady single. What the hell are you waiting for? Go get them now. Oh, and there’s another great track called “I Like You” on there as well. These dudes might just be my favorite “new” Nashville band. (Via a star to sail her by, AKA the new blog from Andrew J. Smithson)
D. Patrick Rodgers of Nashville Cream did an interesting interveiw with Daniel Pujol as a part of this week’s Scene cover story “10 Artists to Watch in 2010.” Pujol’s answers are rather hilarious and quite cryptic at times, but that’s the main reason it’s a good read… You can also grab 2 free mp3s of Pujol’s solo work, which are hard to come by since most of his solo material has been released on cassette tape.
Other stuff this weekend:
Saturday is a major dilemma for sure:
Of Montreal/James Husband @ Cannery Ballroom vs. Girls/Magic Kids/Smith Westerns @ Exit/In…
Personally, I’ve seen Of Montreal 4 times and much prefer their mid-career material (Coquelicot through Sunlandic Twins). That, combined with my Scene photographic assignment will likely land me at Exit/In, because I haven’t seen any of those bands, and want to see all of them, especially Magic Kids.
On Sunday the party doesn’t stop, because Tristen will be at the 5 Spot, along with Murfreesboro’s The Only Sons, and Action!.
Have a great weekend!
Infinity Cat rules Elliston tonight/LOST timeline, etc…
February 2, 2010
First of all, if you’re a LOST fan as I am, of course you know that the final season premiers tonight. To go along with that, I give you two links of interest:
The New York Times’ timeline of a few significant events. This is pretty helpful in remembering the time scale we’re talking about here…
The real physics involved with the time travel of LOST. As an avid science lover/advocate, I have of course been pleased with the fact that the time travel involved with LOST is at least somewhat based on real-world physics.
Image via Nashville's Dead
Unfortunately there’s a great show that I’m going to miss out on due to LOST tonight, and that is the Infinity Cat Rock the Block at Exit/In. In case you’ve been under a rock the past couple of months, Ryan Bruce has revived Exit/In’s free tuesday night weekly series Rock the Block. It’s similar to the 8 off 8th series at Mercy Lounge in that it’s hosted by a rotating cast of local musicians/scenemakers/bloggers/radio show hosts/etc…. It differs in that the number of bands is entirely up to the host, however most of the ones so far have been in the 7-9 band range. Tonight’s is hosted by Infinity Cat records and has a killer lineup. So if you’re not going to be glued to ABC for 3 hours, Exit/In should be your destination, because it’s free.
Speaking of 8 off 8th… Mercy Lounge released the actual lineups for each of the 4 Road To Bonnaroo series today. See the full lineups at Nashville Cream. This is going to get interesting.
For your daily dose of eye-candy, checkout local vintage clothier Carmen Jaudon’s official spring 2010 lookbook. Photography was done by Bradley Spitzer and of course the styling was by Carmen. A good pairing of photographer/stylist indeed.
Speaking of lookbooks… I present to you Hipsters Have to Pee. Must be all those PBRs and soy lattes… (Via Hipster Runoff)
Happy LOST day!
Magic Kids get signed/Monotonix singer injured
January 29, 2010
At a party in Murfreesboro several weeks ago I ran into an old acquaintance from college- Alice Buchanan. She’s from Memphis and had been in a band called Scandaliz Vandalistz which may or may not still exist… but when I talked to her she told me of this new band she’s involved with called Magic Kids that had just formed and were already gearing up for a tour with Girls. I was astounded at the speed of their ascent to label-signed status. As gorilla vs bear, Nashville’s Dead, and the Matador Records blog all report, they just signed to True Panther. Their quick emergence is not unfounded, though, as it’s literally impossible to deny the warm-fuzzy-feel-goodness of “Hey Boy.” It’s very summery, fun, and has the ability to turn even the dreariest winter day into a breezy summer afternoon. The first two bands that come to mind when I hear these songs are the Beach Boys and I’m From Barcelona. Grab two mp3s at Nashville’s Dead. Then just try to keep from putting them on repeat. I dare you. They’ll be playing at the Exit/In on Feb. 6th with Girls, and also hitting up SXSW in March. I’m sure they’ll be on my “must-see” list.
Monotonix singer Ami Shalev’s luck finally ran out at a show in Florida Wed. night. Though Brooklyn Vegan’s headline says he broke his leg, the statement from the band doesn’t quite make it that clear. Seriously dude, you should’ve expected this to happen sooner or later. You just can’t do crazy shit like that at shows without getting hurt eventually. Hopefully they’ll be able to resume melting faces soon enough.
As for this weekend, I’ll be attempting to get to the super-exclusive Clipse show at Phatkaps, but the snow/ice-gasm 2k10 may prevent it. The roads should be clear by tomorrow night, though, for the Wax Fang/How I Became the Bomb/Non-Commissioned Officers show at Exit/In.
And, given my post yesterday about the Mars rover Spirit, I must share this adorable comic from xkcd:
Weekend craziness/Meemaw/meteorites
January 22, 2010
Combined science/music post today. Not much time….
A meteorite about the size of a fist crashed through the roof of a doctor’s office in Virginia on monday. Reports say that it was traveling about 220 MPH when it hit the roof. There’s a common misconception that all meteorites hit the ground as a fireball and cause a crater. The truth is only the really big ones, about car-size and up, actually have enough inertia to keep up those kinds of speeds all the way to the ground. The smaller ones that reach the ground have long since been slowed by the friction of the atmosphere, and usually hit at speeds anywhere from 100 to 300 mph, depending on the size and weight. I don’t want to spend much time on this so go here or here for more info.
Now for the music.
I mentioned a while back that beloved Nashville scrap-punkers Meemaw decided to end their hiatus. Well, the time has come! It all goes down tonight at The End, along with Marj!, So Jazzy, and JEFF the Brotherhood. I don’t really know if you can quite call it an interview, but please do check out this gem of a video segment of them talking/playing a new song/goofing off over at Nashville’s Dead. Good times.
Unfortunately this had to happen the same night as a ton of other good stuff in town.
One of the aforementioned other things is the special edition of Happy Valley at the Cannery Ballroom, where I will be running the Generation Domination photobooth. It’s part of Mercy Lounge’s 7-year anniversary party, but unlike the other show upstairs, it will cost a meager $5 to get into. The FREE show upstairs will consist of The Non-commissioned Officers, The Ettes, De Novo Dahl, Apollo Up, and the two secret guests have now been revealed- The Features and Turbo Fruits. That has to be the most amazing lineup of local rock I’ve seen in a long time.
On Saturday Mercy is once again the place to be, as the last day of their week of free shows consists of Space Capone, How I Became the Bomb, Heypenny, Madi Diaz, Tallest Trees, and Armed Forces. This amazing lineup will be followed by the return of BFF, featuring yours truly and Fan Fiction of Nashville Nights on the decks, and we promise to keep your butt on the dancefloor till the wee hours.
In case you missed the memo, BFF was a weekly dance party held by me (Burgers) and Joseph (Fan Fiction) at Mad Donna’s in east Nashville. That location turned out to be not quite right for what we were trying to do, so instead of keeping BFF as a monthly staple, we decided to just let it be the branding we use whenever/wherever we spin together. There are two upcoming BFF-related events, the first of which I just mentioned, and the other is Feb. 5th at La Paz. More details are in the pipeline about that, but I’ll say now that it’s probably going to be the official afterparty for the Features’/Cortney Tidwell/Majestico show which just a block away at Exit/In. It’s gonna be a blast y’all.
Have a great weekend!
Wes Anderson/weekend stuff
January 15, 2010
First, you must watch this delightful stop-motion award acceptance speech from Wes Anderson. It will improve your day drastically:
(Via Clusterflock)
Now, for what’s going down this weekend….
TONIGHT: I will be at the End taking pics of Jemina Pearl/The Ettes/Daniel Pujol. Also of interest- FREE Glam Rock cover night at Mercy Lounge, featuring members of Superdrag, the Shazam, Matt Friction, Dave Paulson, and more. Also- Natural Child cassette release show @ Springwater, with Diarrhea Planet, Daniel Pujol (guess he’s playing 2 shows tonight?), State Champion, and Giving Up.
SATURDAY: My So-Called Band, Guilty Pleasures, Long Players, Weekend Jimmy & the Easy Party @ Mercy Lounge, FREE. It’s the kickoff to Mercy’s 7-year anniversary bash, featuring 7 FREE shows. (But since the Glam rock night is free too… I guess they’re technically having 8 free shows in a row.) More on that in future posts.
Last but not least, two awesome local independent businesses, Halcyon Bike Shop and Grimey’s New & Preloved Music, have been nominated for the “To Love a Local Business” competition at Intuit, the company that markets QuickBooks. It’s a competition for a series of $5,000 grants and one $35,000 grant. I’d be more than happy to see either of these businesses get the grant(s). Vote for Halcyon or vote for Grimey’s. I don’t care which you vote for, just VOTE.
Also of note, according Nashville Cream’s post on this same topic, HP Witchcraft is former Wooden Wand frontman James Jackson Toth’s new project with Bingham Barnes of Glossary and Tyler Coppage of We Were The States.
Check out this unreleased demo track from The Whole Fantastic World:
The Whole Fantastic World-Colussus
According to Stereogum, Pavement will be headlining the Pitchfork music festival this coming July. I can’t imagine that they’d be willing to do that and then pass up on opportunities such as Coachella and Bonnaroo. Of course I sincerely hope the latter becomes reality. Unless something drastic changes between now and then, I’ll probably be there again this year covering for the Scene, and since I’ve never seen the band live, I really hope they end up at Bonnaroo. An actual Nashville appearance wouldn’t hurt, either.
steve cross loves music and science 