Mommy why is daddy insane? What is acid like? Who is Gibby and Timmy? Why are they playing in New Jersey at Asbury Lanes tonight? Can I go with Dadddy? What do the butthole surfers sounds like live circa 1988!? What's wrong with the brown acid? How come the other kids don't have tails like mine?
The 1970's through the lenses of Billy Filo's Hoboken and Brooklyn based Twilight Procession debut release on Moonlight Mile Recordings is out now and available through SnoCap. If you dig Costello, and simple rock jams that resemble Jesus of cool and some big hair rock duo solos you should go celebrate and drink beer out of keg with them tonight at the Studio's Record Release party. Lots of local rock stars and side burns sure to be present. Just do it. Later.
So the babe who is on the top of The List has put out a Tom Waits cover album? Scarlett Johansson has a tasty spoken voice as it is and it seem to translate to a sexy singing raspy voice in the music. A very strange and daring choice but not when you look at it from the perspective of a performer. She seems to interpret and pulls off some serious artistic integrity. She plugs myspace for musicians a little and seems full of sympathy for musicians who just want to create. Going to have to listen to this record. She is an actress who has the power to make things believable but singing is not something you can fake.
I am glad to report the basement scene is alive and well in the Hub City of New Brunswick, NJ APRIL 25, 26, & 27, 2008. When Jim Testa emailed a few weeks ago asking me to comment on basement life in the 90's and some memorable moments i wrote some down and forgot about it until he sent me link of his latest Jersey Beat podcast episode #54 that on listen really took me back. Features infamous bands like: Pleased Youth, P.E.D.,The Blisters and Deadguy among others. I then realized this was a part of something bigger and I got really excited to hear there were three days of weekend shows going on in alternative venues like a yoga studio! Man have times changed. Now, all the bands in his podcast are not playing but he really documented almost two decades worth of music. That is right New Brunswick has been a scene like any other that ebbs and flows in and out of clubs and basements and tail of the cast high-lights band who are playing The Screaming Females, Rapid Cities,full of fancy, and for science; all keeping the torch alive. The New Jersey suburban youth gets it and I can't wait to read the special edition of the Hub City Fanzine. I'm amazed somebody printed something and it is not a lazy web zine. Very cool. I may need somebody to hook me up with a copy or since it is Sunday I'll take baby girl on a little road trip this afternoon to curmudgeon records.Life goes on and remember to support your scene outside the scene.
You know this place as the beach town on TV One Tree Hill which is really Wilmington, North Carolina. What these two towns have in common is a love for music. One is made up and one is very real. One of the great cultural events is the W.E. Festival (short for Wilmington Exchange) which has been taking place since 1996! The do it yourself event was founded and enabled by Kenyata Sullivan who has imposed a couple new rules this time around and has alumni curating some of the bills. In the past decade there was a gauntlet review process for bands wanting to play, no sponsors and no major labels bands like at SXSW, CMJ, NEMO, etc. This year local or musician centric and relevant sponsors are being brought in because the playing field has changed in for the music industry significantly and secondly to help pay the bands who are traveling a great distance to perform (gas ain't cheap). Years past the pay was free beer and you'd find a place to stay on somebody's floor. Which is probably true this time around but I recommend one of the affordable hotels or even renting a beach-house for us older folks. Public admission is $1.00 American or 1/3 of a Euro. Which is dirt cheap for three floors of great Indie music from Thursday May 24th to the 28th over Memorial Day weekend. So if you dig music and want to take a rock n'roll vacation. There is no party like this anywhere so pack your vitamins because it is sort of like a sleep deprivation experiment where your ears will be tested. Years past bands like DPlan, Ex Models, Money Susuki and tons other bands from all over the US have played this fun filled fest so check out the schedule. Chances are you never heard of any of them unless they are from your hometown scene. Personally I've played (Aviso'Hara, The Slow Wire) and attended a half dozen times and made some incredible friendships, seen some amazing performances, drank a lot of beer to the point of sobriety and have obviously nothing bad to say other than don't be fool. Plan a road trip today to WeFest 2008.
Ah, the glory of well executed guitar distortion. I can smell the fumes from the hot tubes burning through the tweed of the amps. Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo's Lust Lust Lust pull the sheath off of pop music and juxtapose it against obvious surf rock formula pop songs. The Raveonettes craft alternative soundscapes for the blind and are able to give you that feeling you got when watching lost in translation. The electronic beats are Mo Tucker inspired; as we know all good things reference what is 4/4. I disagree with the pitchdorks review about the volume. If your stereo is shitty you may need to crank this music but on normal headphone volume this music this works. Obvious JMC haircut comparisons aside. This one blips and has that bubble mad scientist reverb sound at times and literally scratches the underside of a chrome jet blasting overhead (paraphrasing my dear old dead friend Ethan Stein's review of pyshocandy here). Listen to "You want the candy". For fast numbers "Dead Sound" and "Blitzed" should satisfy first listeners who have no idea who the Reid brothers are. Get free tracks from the mp3 bloggers of The Raveonettes via the Hype Machine. Get extra tracks for Lust Lust Lust on emusic.
Get your Radiohead stems and create your own remix of the tune, vote and create a widget of the single. Be the cool kid on the block. The Brits still do this single thing but you too can take part in the radio remix shenanigans. This is high fidelity in motion +
The Eastern Anchors have been planning this day for awhile, countless hours of drinking beer at practice, breaking strings, smoking breaks. Walter Verde even joined the Glass Trees for a week so he could go to SXSW; but like the good indie rock celebrity he is he took the time do an interview to promote the first show of the year for the Asbury Park press. Read the Eastern Anchors interview Making Some Noise. The article almost 100% accurate. Album is in the works but probably won't be out for at least a couple months and is as of yet untitled.
ROCK SHOW<br>
Eastern Anchors
w/ Bald Guy Black Suit (featuring morgan and brian) 10pm
Sat 3/29
Brighton Bar
long branch, nj the home of Jacko one of the oldest bearded punks with pirate breath. Also on the bill are The Thieves of Leviticus and Dose.
http://www.myspace.com/easternanchors
http://www.myspace.com/baldguyblacksuit
The SXSW Music festival conference is coming to Austin, Texas March 12-16 this year. If you want to go back in the way back machine to 2005 to now you can go and download GBs of music from heygills sxsw music torrent. Here is the schedule and I would be remis if i didn't point you the Hoboken label Maggadee records showcase Mar 13th featuring Glass Tress and others from the roster. i also have lots of friends going to the interactive part of SXSW. So there will be lots of music nerds and tech geeks in Texas.
To keep up with the youngin's i am now the proud owner of two tickets to the All Point West show with Radiohead headlining at Liberty State Park, NJ Sat Aug 10. The rules say Ages 2 & Under Free. Tickets went on sale today for general admission at 89 bucks plus the service charge. Jack Johnson is headlining the third night.
Damn the Admirals, Britsh Sea Power was my bewildered discovery on emusic this month. The secret service folks on the other side of the pond have known for years. This band has got all the qualities I enjoy from the past bands like Echo and The Bunnymen, The Wedding Present and yikes Blur. Their new Album asks the question Do You Like Rock Music? Which really is your basic marketing ploy, no frills promise from my pov, and they deliver without blinking. No illusions there. They are the real deal. They are dynamic like Echo, fast like Gedger, and are able to put their rock on like Blur could. Stand out tracks are "Atom" and "No Lucifer" which complete what seems to be their third full length album after a whole slew of 7"s and cd eps. I am thankful there is no Cheeky hit perse but I will probably take that comment back. I'll have to dig for that but in the meantime what makes this record awesome is their walls of sound that are like acid based dreams. The kind of music drug that has no hang-over and fuzzy like the flaming lips. I dig it gentlemen. No contest. Welcome to the club and don't forget to let me know when your visa clears. We will spin on the show soon.
Thanks, -djs
The art of the album where a band actually sits around in room for months on end and spends time refining a record from riff to mix, to mastering, passes most bullshit bands these days. 'Oh we can fix it in protools' problem can not cure the ability and paing that goes into composing a good song. The mature layers that make up all the leaves in the field of dreams are not lost on The Meadows. These guys got song virtuisity down to a science like a drunk is good at getting his budweiser on. They weave and wave to all sorts of icons along the way including: Oasis, the best bubblegum fanclubs, and more obscure bands like the Railway Children. The sing-song alternative harmony parts one loves from bands like Tom Petty, Peter Yorn and tried and tue brit pop like coldplay are here too. So here is this second release called First Nervous Breakdown from Mr. Kevin Houlihan and Todd Herfindal that if I had any grammy power this would be nominated. This is a Willbury-esque songwriting duo that is up there like all the best mentioned above. If they tour a little great --somebody put me on the guest list. If you are in LA and see them playing tell Kevin I said hello. Dig it man. Thanks.
