Features “Thursday” Lake Fever Session/new De Novo Dahl
November 2, 2009
It’s been FOREVER since we heard any activity from Nashville’s art-core pop-gasm quintet De Novo Dahl, and for good reason. They were simply burned out from all the stressful touring and getting dropped from their unlikely label, Roadrunner. The loss of label support was no fault of theirs, however. From my understanding it was due to changes in personnel at the label, and the person who supported them/signed them was no longer there. No matter what happened then, I’m glad to see that Joel has kept the project alive and is bringing DND out of hibernation to release a new album in 2010 on Theory 8. Three new tracks have surfaced on their new Bandcamp page, and I suggest you go grab them now. The material is much more laid-back than anything they’ve done to date, and that’s not a bad thing. It will only cost you an email address.
In other new music news, Spoon has an album due out this coming January. It includes the track “Got Nuffin” which appeared on an EP earlier this year. Let’s hope they can keep with their record of churning out quality music album-after-album. (Via You Ain’t No Picasso)
I’ll leave you with this video gem from my good friends at Lake Fever Productions. This is the previously unreleased extra from the Lake Fever Session that The Features did a month or so ago, and features a gaggle of random fans and musicians from other Nashville bands. This is the classic Features show-closer and it will never, ever get old. Watch below and also visit Lake Fever Sessions to see the rest of the Features’ session.
I hope everyone enjoyed yesterday’s tomfoolery. Everyone seems to hate April Fool’s but I enjoy all the jokes. I always look forward to what kind of ridiculousness Google will cook up each year. Here’s the Wikipedia page with a history of their pranks.
Photo by Steve Cross
Shoot the Mountain have been getting a lot of buzz lately and playing a lot of shows, but everyone’s been wondering when their first release would happen. Well, it’s finally happening on May 16th on Theory 8 Records, and it’s an EP (presumably self-titled?). A release show will happen on that date at the Basement with Totally Snake (WTF?!?) opening. They’re also playing on April 9th at the End opening for Appleseed Cast.
The Features just released details of their upcoming tour with The Dexateens. They’ll be hitting clubs all over the southeast, northeast, and midwest later this month and into May. Oh, and they’ll also be featured in the July issue of Nylon Magazine.
More comprehensive local music news coverage can be found at We Own This Town and Out The Other.
Four Russian cosmonauts and two European astronauts volunteered to be locked up together in a simulation of a spacecraft for 105 days. This is part of an experiment to study the psychological and physical effects of being stuck with 5 other people for an extended period of time in cramped quarters. The experiment will help scientists and engineers plan for an eventual manned-mission to Mars. This will be very interesting to monitor.
I’ve been reading a few different posts and articles over the last week or so regarding a recent vote on science standards for the Texas Board of Education. The board held a vote on several standards for science education and it was mostly a travesty, the biggest of which was the deletion of the statement that the universe is “roughly 14 billion years old.” Sure, there are several different numbers out there that vary by a few million years, but everyone in the entire scientific community agrees that it’s pretty damn close to 14 billion years. A variance of a few million years is NIL when you look at the big picture, and is definitely covered by term “roughly.” There’s absolutely no evidence to suggest otherwise! One faint glimmer of hope is that the board voted down a proposed change that would allow the teaching of “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution. If this had passed, it would’ve been just one more way for Creationism to creep its ugly way into the scientific classroom. This article on the NewScientist blog sums it all up very well. I suggest reading it. I cannot get over the quote of board chairman Dr. Don McLeroy, who is quoted as saying, “I disagree with these experts. Someone has got to stand up to experts.” HA! Yea, you tell ’em Dr. McLeroy! Tell those experts that they don’t know what they’re talking about! Afterall, they’ve spent the majority of their lives studying REAL science, FACTS and EVIDENCE… how could they possibly know what they’re talking about? I find it amazing that this man (a dentist) was able to get through medical school with such anti-scientific beliefs. I sure as hell wouldn’t want someone that dumb working on my teeth.
Ok enough ire for one day. I’ll leave you with this hilarious video clip from a 50’s sci-fi movie. I really hope this is how they dance in the future.
steve cross loves music and science 