Formed by former members of We Were The States, Echo Group is a new band poised to take Nashville’s music scene by storm. I’ve listened to their free EP Chalktalk Record Collection several times and simply can’t get enough of it. (If you haven’t already, hit play on the player above. Go ahead- DO IT. Then download it for FREE at their website.) It’s perfectly produced with just the right percussive touches and liberal yet tasteful use of reverb to give everything a Spector-esque 60’s-throwback tinge. I simply can’t get enough of the triumphant horns on “Supra” and the sexy sax on “Don’t Don’t Don’t.” They’re also releasing a split 7″ via Right Nice Records with local noise rockers Mom & Dad which features the track “Work It.” Mom & Dad are already creating some good buzz around town, though I’ve yet to see them live. While I can appreciate the intent of the noised-out/heavily distorted production value of their recordings, it’s honestly a little too noisy and distorted for my taste. I’m quite positive I’m going to love these guys live, however, because they have some seriously awesome songs under all that fuzz.
They are celebrating the release of said split 7″ this Thursday at the brand new High Watt stage in Mercy Lounge. My band Scale Model opens the show, so of course I STRONGLY urge you to come and come early! The show will start promptly at 9pm and is only $5 to attend. We all have short sets and promise to get you home in time for bed on a weeknight. 🙂
RSVP here on Facebook.
A Few Good Shows: 4/6/12
April 6, 2012
A pretty impressive few days of music have shaped up this weekend in Nashville. Here’s what I think is worth checking out:
FRIDAY:
Memetic Society Showcase ft. Fly Golden Eagle, Faux Ferocious, Majestico, and Justin & The Cosmics @ The Basement. 9pm $5 21+
Evan P. Donohue, The Weeks, What Up, English?, and Orbit Funeral @ Exit/In. 9pm $7
Pontiak, Luke Roberts, Ascent of Everest @ The End. 9pm $10
Kansas Bible Company, Magnolia Sons, The Lonely H, and Peter Terry & the City Profits @ 12th & Porter. 9pm $5
SATURDAY:
The Ettes, Diarrhea Planet, Guntherdoug, and Couched @ Zombie Shop. 8pm $7
The Coathangers, White Mystery, Thelma & The Sleaze @ The End. 9pm $7
SUNDAY:
White Denim w/ Hundred Visions @ Mercy Lounge. 9pm $10 adv/$12 dos
That’s it- have a great weekend!
Two major things to mention (or re-iterate, since you may have already seen this):
Photographer/filmmaker Joey Ciccoline has been hard at work on a very cool-looking short film titled 88:88 and my pal Matt Pusti aka Makeup and Vanity Set did the soundtrack. Awesome in every possible way. Here’s the trailer:
You can also download the trailer and free mp3 of “The Cross” at the MAVS bandcamp. There will be a full soundtrack album released in the future as well.
Uncle Skeleton released another (the third and final) teaser single from their upcoming album All Too Human. “The Well-Tempered Albi” is available for free download on their bandcamp, along with remixes from DPAUL, Makeup and Vanity Set, and Shaboi, as well as 2 unreleased b-sides.
What a treat to have all of these great projects originating right here in Nashville. *warm fuzzies*
A Few Good Shows: 3/30/12
March 30, 2012
Obviously after yesterday’s post, the beer festival will be a large part of my weekend, but there are also plenty of good shows to be seen this weekend… here’s what seems cool to me:
FRIDAY:
Parachute Musical (final show), Winter Sounds, Baby Baby @ The 5 Spot. 9pm $5 21+
The Danberrys w/ Kelsey Waldon @ The Basement. 9pm $5 21+
SATURDAY:
By Lightning! w/ Wax Fang and Poly @ The Basement. 9pm $7 21+
Couched, Youth Camp, New Pleasure, Reid Magette @ The End. 9pm $5
Quintron & Miss Pussycat w/ Nashville’s Dead DJs @ Third Man Records. 7pm $7
SUNDAY:
Jesco White (The Dancing Outlaw), with Beitthemeans, Pick Up The Snake, and Roger Alan Wade. 9pm $15
On completely separate note, I wanted to direct you to a brand spankin’ new blog just created by my girlfriend- Old Red Boots. It’s centered around fashion and other girly things, and I’ll be taking most of the photos for it, so check it out.
Also, have a great weekend!
Belated East Nashville Beer Fest/Craft Beer Week post
March 29, 2012
Y’all. I’m slackin’ this week. I fail at blogging. So sue me. I should have mentioned on Monday or even over the weekend that this week is craft beer week in Nashville, and it all leads up to the 2nd annual East Nashville Beer Festival in East Park on Saturday. I went last year and got soused on some amazing beer, and I’m VERY much looking forward to it this year, mostly because I now live a couple blocks from the location and can casually stroll down to it with my girlfriend. They’ve expanded everything this year, and I’m very excited about some of the specialty brews- rare/limited run beers from well-known names that you’ll probably never see anywhere other than at beer festivals such as this. The festival tickets sold out in only 2 hours when they went onsale Feb. 10th, but I’ll be you can find some on craigslist if you try really hard.
While the ENBF is the main event, there have been other fun things going on around town this week as part of Nashville craft beer week. I stopped by the Brooklyn Brewery tasting session at Woodland Wine Merchant yesterday and had their Local #1, Local #2, East India Pale Ale, and Monster Ale Barleywine. All fantastic in their own way. Tonight from 5-7 they’ll be having a Green Flash free tasting session, and Friday New Belgium will be in the store for some free tasting. There are other tastings and events going on elsewhere, so check the schedule for today and tomorrow’s festivities.
I must also take this opportunity to mention how pleased I am that we have several new local breweries popping up here in Nashville. TN’s laws are literally some the WORST in the nation for small-scale craft breweries, but it’s very encouraging to see the huge success of Yazoo and the emerging breweries such as Fat Bottom, Black Abbey, Broacast, Nashvillion, Jackalope, and Jubilee. (All of which will have beers at the ENBF.) Bosco’s and Blackstone will be there as well, but they are in a class of their own in my head- they are restaurants with breweries inside them. Their beers are a force to be reckoned with, however small-scale they may be! And Blackstone has just recently expanded their brewing to a separate facility and are bottling/distributing regionally now. I highly recommend their Chaser Pale- a Kolsch-style ale which is very light and refreshing. You don’t see Kolsch as a flagship beer from many craftbrewers, so I applaud them for doing it!
Ok, off my beer soapbox. Hopefully you have tix to this awesome event- if not, get some to the much bigger Music City Brewer’s fest in July.
A Few Good Shows: 3/23/12
March 23, 2012
This weekend has some quality show offerings, especially of the local variety, so get your ass out there and see some good local bands!
FRIDAY:
Ponychase, Evan P. Donohue, Jasmin Kaset @ the 5 Spot. 9pm $5
Spongebath Night ft. Seth Timbs Thing, Jason Moore (of the Katies), The Hellens, Marc Scibilia, and Cory Chisel @ The Basement. 9pm $5 21+
Gardens & Villa, What Up, English?, and Hanzelle at the High Watt (in Mercy Lounge). 9pm $5
SATURDAY:
Red Bull Music Academy’s Nashville session ft. Eliot Lipp as guest speaker. 4-5pm @ 12th & Porter. FREE
Boom Bap ft. Rob Swift @ the 5 Spot. 9pm $10 Yes THAT Rob Swift.
Y2K ft. Kidsmeal, Coach, Hands off Sam, and Handi-Snacks @ the High Watt. 10pm $3(21+) $5(18+) Girls 21+ free till 11. The High Watt is the new home of DJ Coach’s immensely successful DJ night Y2K. Come out and help them celebrate the a new era!
Scale Model, King Arthur, Mize & The Drive @ Wall Street (in Murfreesboro). 9pm $5 Yea, this one’s down in the ‘Boro but my band is on it and I gotta shamelessly self-promote, dig?
SUNDAY:
Mind Spiders, Cy Barkley & The Way Outsiders, The Cannomen @ The End. 9pm $5
That’s it. Have a great weekend!
My pal Joseph over at Nashville Nights has been working with Red Bull to promote one of their awesome Red Bull Music Academy sessions, which is happening this Saturday at 12th & Porter from 4-5pm. It’s totally FREE, and the guest speaker is none other than Eliot Lipp. This is very unique treat to have here in Nashville, and I suggest checking it out. It’s free so what have you to lose? It’s to promote the 2012 Red Bull Music Academy, taking place in New York Sept. 30 – Nov. 2. If the full-on RBMA is something you’re interested in, and you’re from Nashville, then you simply must check this out. It’s a very cool idea: kudos to Joseph for getting involved.
Goldrush: Prabir Mehta’s new band
March 9, 2012
Remember Richmond, VA’s Prabir & The Substitutes? Or even farther back, The Rachel Nevadas? Those were some great bands that used to tour through middle TN quite a bit, and they were all fronted by Prabir Mehta. The Substitutes disbanded in 2009, (whoa has it really been that long?) and out of the ashes came Goldrush. They’re playing the Basement this sunday night along with a few other bands who are passing through town on their way to Austin for SXSW. So I recommend, along with the shows listed in today’s A Few Good Shows, checking out the show this Sunday night at the Basement. Lineup: Goldrush, The Amboys, Battle Ave, and Andrew Leahey & The Homestead. Cover is $5 and it’s 21+ as always!
A Few Good Shows: 3/9/12
March 9, 2012
This weekend’s show listings are clearly dominated by the Freakin’ Weekend, but there are some other very notable things going on if you’re not feelin’ freaky deaky. Check it:
FRIDAY:
Freakin’ Weekend: JEFF the Brotherhood, Cy Barkley & The Way Outsiders, D. Watusi, Useless Eaters, Fox Fun @ Exit/In. 9pm $10
Maps & Atlases, Casa Castile and Santah @ Mercy Lounge. 9pm $10
Heypenny, James Wallace & the Naked Light, Antennas Up @ The High Watt. 9pm $8 (The High Watt is the new side-stage in Mercy Lounge. For more on that check out the Cream’s coverage of the stage’s debut show.)
Magnolia Suns w/ Buffalo Clover, The Lonely H, and Kenzie Gregg @ The 5 Spot. 9pm $5
SATURDAY:
Freakin’ Weekend: The Traditional Fools, Mikal Cronin, Heavy Cream, The Men, Cannomen @ The End. 9pm
Neon Indian w/ Purity Ring @ Mercy Lounge. 9pm $15
Ri¢hie, Mystery Twins, Century Club, Ohio Knife @ The 5 Spot. 9pm $5
That’s all I got for ya. Have a great weekend!
The Freakin Weekend/New PUJOL song on Spin
March 7, 2012
For the third year in a row, local music blog Nashville’s Dead is hosting their Freakin’ Weekend festival. It all kicks off tonight at The End with a special all-ages show featuring Screaming Females, Titus Andronicus, Diarrhea Planet, and No Regrets Coyote. Thursday night things jump across the street to Exit/In for The Greenhornes, PUJOL, Ranch Ghost, Denny & The Jets, and Dirty Dreams. Friday night’s show stays at Exit/In for Jeff the Brotherhood, Cy Barkley & the Way Outsiders, D. Watusi, Useless Eaters, and Fox Fun. Then we jump back across Elliston Place to The End for the finale on Saturday: Traditional Fools, Mikal Cronin, The Men, Heavy Cream, and Cannomen.
Also, returning from last year’s Freakin’ Weekend is the pop-up shop at Local Honey! Not only can you grab limited releases, vinyl, tapes, etc… from labels like Infinity Cat, Nashville’s Dead, Turbo Time, Third Man, Cass, Sebastian Speaks and many more, but on Friday & Saturday you can also catch great free day shows in the back lot as well! Head over to Nashville’s Dead for the full lineup+details. Major props to Ben Todd & his crew for making such a cool string of shows happen. They’ve really upped the ante this year by nailing a few bigger-name headliners, most notably The Greenhornes, whose rhythm section shares duties with The Raconteurs.
Another very related tidbit: Spin.com just debuted the first single from PUJOL’s first official full-length on Saddle Creek, DIY2K, via a free download. If this track is any indication, this is gonna be one phenomenal album. It drops June 5th.
steve cross loves music and science 