Weekend shows & weather
April 23, 2010
This weekend is actually pretty good in terms of live music in Nashville. Here’s what’s on my radar:
The biggest story tonight and tomorrow is probably Rites of Spring at Vanderbilt, featuring the awesome one-two punch of Phoenix and Passion Pit. The full lineup is at the RoS website, but the only bands I’m even remotely interested in seeing are those two, and maybe Two Door Cinema Club. I will be there taking pics for the Scene as usual.
Friday: If outdoors festivals aren’t your thing, Chicken Ranch Records out of Austin, TX is doing a badass showcase at the Basement featuring The Clutters, We Were The States, Tiger Tiger, and Jimmy Duke & the Riot.
Saturday: If outdoor festivals aren’t your thing and afterparties are, you’ll want to head to 12th & Porter where the weekly Y2K DJs Coach and Hands off Sam will be joined by none other than members of Passion Pit, who will have (or not, depending on the weather) played Rites of Spring earlier that evening. DJ Potamus is also on the bill. I’ve heard nothing but good things about Passion Pit’s DJ sets- they did at least a few of them at SXSW this year.
Sunday: Peelander-Z w/ Tim Chad and Sherry & The Man Power at Exit/In. I saw Peelander-Z there a couple years ago and it was a blast. The bass player was literally hanging upside-down from the balcony. Just be prepared for some major crowd participation if you go.
Another big story this weekend is the weather. As you can see from the NWS severe weather outlook to the right, we’re in the “moderate risk” category for severe storms on saturday. The current thinking is that some storms will beigin to roll in very late tonight, sometime between 11pm and 3am, and hopefully not drenching tonight’s Rites of Spring festivities. Then the real action will start up saturday morning and basically be a threat all day long, into the evening. This is not just a few storms with a little hail and some wind, there is also a good possibility of tornadoes, and that’s why I have a strong feeling much of saturday’s Rites activities will end up getting canceled altogether. I can only hope for their sake that the threat passes by the evening AND that no damage is done to the stage/equipment so that the headliners can at least still play.
Important weather things to remember for saturday: The Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma issues severe weather watches. A watch is for a large area of land and means that conditions are favorable for severe weather to occur, but it is not an immediate threat. Our local National Weather Service office issues severe weather warnings. A warning is usually for a county or even just a city area and means that severe weather is actually occurring and will hit your area soon, so take cover. There’s always confusion on Vanderbilt’s campus regarding the on-campus vs. the downtown Nashville tornado sirens as well. Here’s how it works: the downtown Nashville siren goes off if there is a tornado warning issued for anywhere in Davidson County. The Vandy campus siren only goes off if a tornado warning is issued that specifically includes downtown Nashville. Thus, sometimes the downtown siren will go off and the Vandy campus one won’t (example: a warning issued for SE Davidson Co./LaVergne), and frankly it confuses the hell out of people on the Vandy campus. But that’s how it works.
Please be safe and heed all warnings this weekend!
Many congrats to Ms. Caitlin Rose on her victory at last night’s Road to Bonnaroo: part 3 at Mercy Lounge. She will join the Non-Commissioned Officers, How I Became the Bomb, and the winner of round 4 at Bonnaroo this summer. I was honestly a little bit surprised by the outcome, because anyone who’s attended these events before knows that flashy stage shows and crazy outfits often win the night, and both Dozen Dimes and Majestico had their fair share of stage flair. Mikky Ekko had some face paint but I call bullshit on that one- because it looks almost exactly like that of Man Man. However, Caitlin’s sheer talent and musicianship carried her to the top. Even more surprising was that she won the crowd vote, but came in 2nd in the judge vote. Usually the crowd is more easily swayed by the stage flair. It just goes to show the virtue of pure talent and musicianship. My pics from the event are on the Nashville Cream.
The main music tidbit today comes from De Novo Dahl. They spontaneously have decided to offer their new album Tigerlion for free download on their bandcamp today only. Get it while it’s hot!
Record Store Day/other Nashville music tidbits
April 16, 2010
Some other random tidbits I’ve come across:
Caitlin Rose was just confirmed for the End of the Road festival this Sept. in the UK. She also has a small UK tour scheduled for the spring/summer, and will be competing in the Road to Bonnaroo 8 off 8th this coming Monday at Mercy Lounge. (Via Hartley)
Natural Child got some blog love from Brooklyn Vegan. They’re playing a few shows in NYC this weekend, which is part of a bigger tour they’re currently on. They’ll also be hitting the road in June with labelmates JEFF the Brotherhood. You can also snag their track “Dogbite” from the post.
Makeup & Vanity Set released a new track called “Night Visions” to the masses via Bandcamp earlier this week. All you gotta do is give him your email address. I promise he won’t do anything bad with it.
I’ll leave you with this very…. homo-erotic… cover art from the new Scissor Sisters album Night Work, which comes out 6/29. Seriously though, would expect anything less from the Scissor Sisters?
Have a great weekend!
New Coach mixtape/some gadget musings
April 13, 2010
One of the most well-kown DJs in Nashville’s dance/electronic music scene right now is DJ Coach (aka Jeremy Todd). He formed the now huge weekly Sat. dance night “Coach Vs Kase” (now called Y2K) with Ke$ha live DJ Justin Kase at 12th and Porter, and has kept that going strong for over a year. He also spins regularly at Mai, Happy Valley, and Swag in Murfreesboro. He just released his summer mixtape “Take-Out Vol. 2” to the masses, and you should grab it now. It’s smooth and warm, just like a summer night…
Download: Coach- Take-Out Vol. 2
In my post yesterday about Treasure Fingers, I made the horrible mistake of forgetting to mention that he’ll be coming through Nashville on tour later this month. On Fri. April 30th he’ll be spinning at Mai, with Coach, Hands off Sam, and Potamus opening. Tickets can be purchased here. I may be mistaken, but I think the last time he played here was a Buddytown party at the Trace. My how things have changed…
While all the early-adopters are creaming over the iPad, Google is apparently prepping it’s own tablet PC, which could prove to be formidable rival for the iPad. It will likely run the Android OS but little else is know about it. (Via Gizmodo)
In other gadget news, Microsoft is about gain some ground in the battle against Apple… if their new Windows phone 7 and “Kin” phone are as awesome as they appear to be. The new Windows mobile platform is a total overhaul of their lame older versions, and is a VAST improvement. It’s expected to be out on mobile devices late this year. (More on Windows 7 phone at Engadget) The Kin phone is a version of Windows 7 phone that is centered specifically on social media. Basically it’s aimed directly at hipsters who have iPhones. Stealing hipsters away from Apple products seems like a futile endeavor, but it just might be possible. More on the Kin at Live Science)
New Treasure Fingers/De Novo Dahl artwork
April 12, 2010
I’m a little behind in blog-time on posting about this new Treasure Fingers track, but I have to mention it because it’s AWESOME and right up my alley style-wise. The track is called “What am I supposed to do?” and is stuffed with funky disco bass lines, cut up soulful vocals, and everything else that satisfies my appetite for disco-house. It originally popped up at the Fader blog on Friday afternoon, after I had already gone into my weekend mode of basically ignoring the internet, thus why I’m posting now. Joseph at Nashville Nights tweeted Mr. Fingers directly and got permission to post as well, so be sure to point your browser his way too, cuz he kinda needs the traffic more than those Fader folks do.
Also, be sure to check out Fool’s Gold’s recap of all their SXSW shenanigans (at least one of which Treasure Fingers was involved), most of which I unfortunately missed.
De Novo Dahl have been on the move again recently with an almost completely new lineup. The only original members are the husband/wife frontman/frontwoman duo of Joel J. Dahl and Serai Zaffiro. They are back on their old label Theory 8, and Mr. Hartley has done a fine job of leaking selected tracks and creating some hype about their next release Tigerlion. The artwork is now out, and the album hits shelves May 25th. You can stream the track “Love Is the Healer” at Hartley’s Tumblr. What’s ridiculous is that until recently, I went on thinking the album was called “Tigerloin” not “Tigerlion.” I have no idea…
Dozen Dimes album/Jane Dupree
April 6, 2010
Wow, that was fast. Seems like just a few months ago former Pink Spiders frontman Matt Friction was putting his solo project with the Cheap Shots on hiatus to make room for his new doo-wop project the Dozen Dimes. Last night at midnight marked the official release of their debut album, Get Real Gone with the Dozen Dimes. You can download it now on Bandcamp for $10. I remember asking Matt about the new project when I first heard about it and he said something like, “those are the kind of songs I’m good at, so that’s what I’m doing.” (FYI- that was very paraphrased.) I have to agree- I’m enjoying this material more than the few Cheap Shots songs I heard. They do put on an entertaining live show as well, complete with a blinding “DD” light sign and flashy 50’s style suits. I suggest both the album and live show. And for the record, Bandcamp is basically the greatest thing to happen to music in a long time.
A Nashville DJ that deserves some respect is DJ Jane Dupree. She has a pretty rad blog called Disco Terror Squad, full of mixtapes and individual tracks as well, mostly focusing on twitchy/housey material. She also gave my last mix a blog plug. Be sure to check out any of her “Smoke Break” mixes.
Now enjoy this smooth jazz version of “Enter Sandman” by Metallica:
(Via Kottke)
POWERBRRRD signs to Merge/tours with Superchunk
April 1, 2010
I’m happy to announce that my band POWERBRRRD has signed a deal with Merge Records. We will be releasing our debut album sometime this fall, followed by a tour of the US opening for Superchunk.
In other news:
1. Pithchfork gave MGMT’s new album Congratulations a perfect 10.0, as reported by Hipster Runoff.
2. The Rolling Stones played a secret show last night at the End, as reported by Nashville Cream.
Bekah Cope: photographer/iPhone rumors
March 31, 2010
The blog Nashville’s Dead has been kicking ass overall lately, as chronicled by the Scene in their People Issue from a few weeks back. I want to take a moment, however, to specifically point out the photography work of their main shuttergirl Bekah Cope. The photo to the left is of Turbo Fruits on Saturday night of SXSW at the Mohawk Patio. Not only was it an insane performance, as evidenced by the fact that Jonas is hanging upside-down from the rafters, but it’s the perfect shot to capture the essence of that particular show. Bekah shoots all shows with film and a simple on-camera flash in a way that most professionals try to avoid at all costs. But she fearlessly challenges the norm and as a result, her work has an entirely different aesthetic than what the more seasoned professionals go for. It’s good in a completely different way. Her perspective and style is refreshing and fits perfectly with DIY feel of Nashville’s Dead and the music they cover (a good majority of it is house shows). At times some of her photos almost hit the same spot on my visual palate as William Eggleston’s work does. Check out her SXSW photos at Nashville’s Dead and more of her stuff on her flickr.
I’ll take just a moment to express my opinions about the recent rumors of a Verizon/Sprint/T-Mobile iPhone coming soon. A Wall Street Journal article earlier this week mentioned that the iPhone will likely be opened up to other carriers as early as this summer. While has long been a matter of “when,” not “if,” I’m certainly excited that this is finally happening. I’m very skeptical, however, that a Verizon version of the phone will be on the market before 2011 or even later. Currently there are two main protocols for 3G (3rd generation) wireless networks: GSM and CDMA. I won’t get into the technical details, but basically T-Mobile and AT&T both use the GSM standard, while Sprint and Verizon use the CDMA standard. Obviously the iPhone is a GSM device since it’s currently only on AT&T, thus it would be relatively easy to make one for T-Mobile since they’re GSM as well. Building an iPhone for Verizon and Sprint, however, is a different ballgame because many of the components have to be different. This is why I think it may be a little longer before we see a CDMA iPhone. Though the report did mention that some companies are already building the components for CDMA iPhone, there’s a lot more to it than just building the device. Verizon is known to be cranky about the content delivered through their network, and while I have no idea what they have up their sleeve in regards to iPhone content, I have to say it’ll probably be different than it is on the AT&T network. I hope I’m wrong about that though. Furthermore, Verizon is supposedly going to unveil their new 4G network sometime next year, which will use the new LTE standard, which will supposedly become the universal standard for all wireless networks. So why are they building a CDMA phone in the first place when it’ll just be replaced in a couple of years? The reason this matters to me is that I’m one of the people who would love to have an iPhone, but refuse to switch to AT&T. This is because I constantly see people on AT&T having signal coverage issues. Case in point: the entire floor on which I work which is just slightly below street level is a total dead zone for ALL other carriers except Verizon. If I didn’t have Verizon, I would have no phone service ALL DAY LONG. I’ve seen the same thing happen in other buildings as well. Not to mention Verizon is way ahead of the rest of the pack in customer service ratings. Sorry for the rant.
Burgers official Spring 2010 MIXXXX
March 26, 2010
I spent some time on this one, maybe too much time. But here it is: the DJ Burgers Spring 2010 Mixxxx. Sorry about the mildly ridiculous artwork. I’m still not sure if it’s terrifying or hilarious.
Tracklisting:
Breakbot-Baby I’m Yours (Ft. Irfane)
Gorillaz-Stylo (Alex Metric RMX)
WebQueary-Searching (Mam RMX)
Nighty Max-Treehouse
Yeasayer-O.N.E. (XXXChange RMX)
Classixx-I’ll Get You (Treasure Fingers RMX)
GMGN-On My Mind
In Flagranti-Exexex (Golden Bug RMX)
Oh Shit!/Night Drugs-Everybody Needs (Night Drugs Re-edit)
Cassian-Friday Night
Makeup & Vanity Set-Falcon Force
Major Lazer-Call Mi (Dave Kelley’s Hold the Line RMX)
Timbaland ft. SoShy-Mornin After Dark (Wolfgang Gartner RMX)
A-Trak/Drake/Birdman-Loonies to Blow
Yeah Yeah Yeah’s-Heads Will Roll (A-Trak RMX)
Fake Blood-I Think I Like It
There are hot newbies in there as well as some “older” tracks. (A year is officially old in the world of bloghouse…) Spread the word if you dig, don’t if you don’t. Book me to spin at your party. I haven’t played out in a while. And thanks to Joseph/Fan Fiction of Nashville Nights (which is currently down because Blogger sucks) for posting so many awesome tracks.
steve cross loves music and science 