powersynthpopkillmeifeeldirty

ever feel dirty?

really dirty? from music? like when you find yourself naked, doing the macarena, in public and loving every second of it? maybe not like that.

so i was perusing my favorite music site and saw they had a new listing under "indie rock" listed under hellogoodbye - "Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!" Sounds fucking excellent right? ZOMBIES!

well yeah.. first song: "well a little electronic sounding and kinda poppy and the lyrics are shite.. but it's not horrible" then i listened some more. wow. i hate it.

power synth pop is how wikipedia describes them and i couldn't do it better. except maybe if i was to say childish. hate hate hate

shit. i like it.

bop bop bop bop goes my head as i type to the rhythm of "stuck to You"... god i'm pathetic.
but yeah.. i'm digging this totally shallow electronic emo pop. go ahead. think less of me

http://www.hellogoodbye.net/ is their homepage.. apparently "down like 311" but you prolly can pick a track or two off of myspace:www.myspace.com/hellogoodbye

oh and don't go to
www.hellogoodbye.ca/
it involves dead babies

mustache march

For my birthday, my brother has promised me tickets to a show...whoever I'd like to see as long as it's cheap (he's sweet like that). I was unaware of the wonderful site pollstar.com, but m was kind enough to clue me in and I went to check out shows around Hawthorne...and by Hawthorne, I mean NYC.

I had been noticing some bands that I love would be back in the area in March, but I was overwhelmed! The Decemberists, Badly Drawn Boy, Ben Kweller, Virginia Coalition, Bright Eyes, Of Montreal and of course Joey Lawrence is performing with "Slim-Fast Presents Dancing With The Stars - The Tour"...okay, maybe I'll skip that last one. Anyway, that was just the beginning of the list of fun sounding shows in my area in the coming months...my question is--any suggestions for must see shows this winter? I know you're all not cool enough to live in the New Jersey area, but anyone fun doing some touring that might end up this way?

a lump of new stuff

Hey folks,

I have come across some new digs over the past week that I thought you might dig. None of it really goes together but before i forget i'd like to get it out there. Here it goes:

• Madeleine Peyroux - She has some videos on there. Very close to Billie Holiday with her voice. I like it. We don't really need another Norah Jones doing digestible jazz but she's worth a listen. Plus she plays guitar!!
• One of the coolest live footages of Count Basie and crew. This was such a cool jam session, Billie Holiday (there she is again) was there just hangin' out.
• Langhorne Slim - Some cool mod (mod?) folk out of NYC. They're comming to Chidigs and some other places. Cool shit.
• Last night on my bus ride home I came across a band i didn't realize was on my ipod. Black Lipstick. Super fun shit outa Texas.

Video Game Based Musics

so as i sit hear, wondering how i kept in touch with friends prior to instant messaging, i am listening to one of the most amazing albums i have ever heard and it is a soundtrack to a video game... THE video game:

Katamari Damacy.. if you have a ps2, buy it now.

it's got it all! electronica, a fugue, an overature, some scatting and japanese pop... i love it.. if you would like, i could definitly hook you up with some samples or at the website above, i belive you can get a bit...

Slightly related, mau and i recently downloaded Super Mario Brothers for the Wii and i forgot how much i loved the music from this game (and how deep it was in the recesses of my brain.. i can still tell you where every hidden 1up is)... god.. all those classics were amazing... what was your favorite? How about the theme to castlevania III or even the original megaman.. and now that i am talking about those original songs, tell me you've heard about the minibosses
Here is a band that based their entire existence around covering videogame themes with slayer like tapping and duel guitar butt-rock solos. They've got four songs currently on their homepage which i suggest you listen to for throwback orgasmic goodness.. and with that, i'm off!

Man Man TONIGHT!

as a short moment to brag, mau and i are goign to see man man tonight in philly... put on your dancing shoes everyone and work on your channeling, you can be there in spirit!

Joined-Up Writing?

Yes, that's how the Brits refer to cursive handwriting. What does it have to do with anything? Well, not much. Except that I'd like to discuss the band Cursive for a moment. That is my idea of a transition; a segway [sp]. You know, like the personal transportation device featured on Arrested Development.

Hmm. If you get a chance, and you haven't yet already, check out Cursive. Their new album is pretty great. It's called Happy Hollow, a thinly veiled reference to American society today. Tim Kasher spends the album berating religion, and I've got his back on this one. It's albums like these that make me want to pack up my guitar and sell it to a pawn shop; everything has been said exactly the way I'd imagine that it should have been said. The music is daring and somehow simultaneously catchy and approachable. Can you believe they included a horn section? Believe it, fucker.

Come to think of it, check out the album The Ugly Organ. It's pretty great as well. 100% rock. Again, Kasher shreds. He manages to dive headlong into self-deprecating lyrics without sounding cliched or whiny; girlfriends and the artist's life, etc. And, what now? Is that some cello I hear? In an indie rock band? Believe it, fucker.

Bah, dig around. See what you like. I'd suggest working backward - present to past. If you're interested, try these links:
http://www.cursivearmy.com/03/home2.html (go to the download section)
http://www.myspace.com/cursive
http://www.saddle-creek.com/happyhollow/

NOTE: Posting links to new music seems like a good idea. Let's all do that, whenever possible. What better way to sample the goods without having to purchase the whole album..

Too Cool For What's Popular

Well I started writing a post about the Decemberists last week, got distracted and never finished. I promised I'd finish it up and post today, but decided I just did the "yay I love Man Man" post, so didn't really want to do the same thing for these guys (although I really only love half their stuff...the other half I usually just skip).

Anyway, the point is that instead of just saying why I love songs like "July, July" and "I was Meant for the Stage", I'd like to use the Decemberists as a reason to discuss that horrible feeling I get when a band I feel is all my own crosses the horrible line into mainstream popularity. I am afraid the Decemberists might be about to cross that line...that which once crossed allows you to walk into a CD store and see copies of their newest release, the Crane Wife, next to Justin Timberlake trying his best to bring sexy back.

Now, I'm all for the artists I love making money and not having to live in their parents' basement, but I'd really love to see Death Cab in the back of a bar in Hoboken with the 30 fans in the area that have loved them forever and know every song instead of sitting 100 rows away surrounded by 16 year old girls screaming at the top of their lungs and singing along only to the few songs that have made it to the radio (m and i actually had such a horrible experience last year, although death cab still puts on an amazing show)

The Decemberists have not been a little known band for quite some time now, but I knew I might really be in trouble when I first heard Steven Colbert mention them. Now, I'm a pretty big fan of the Colbert Report, so I was genuienly VERY excited when I heard Steven say that he was challenging the Decemberists to a guitar challenge. If you missed this, definitely check out the video on the show's website ASAP...especially the guy from 60 minutes doing the intro...completelly ridiculous.

Once the challenge had ended and I had fininshed telling everyone who would listen all about it, I started to hear about the Decemberists EVERYWHERE (I'm sure it was not entirely related, but that's about when it happened)....i started to have nightmares about them playing in football stadiums while young girls all dressed in pink Decemberists T-Shirts (which would replace their recently cast aside Death Cab Shirts) screamed "i love you" while trying to mumble along to the lyrics because they had never listened to a band that used so many words they didn't understand (okay maybe that's a little harsh...)

I'm pretty sure they'll never actually make it to Giants Stadium, but I'd still rather not hear them mixed in with Fergie and Jay-Z on anyone's playlist. I also must note that I am not opposed to listening to music from bands that are super popular...half of my favorite country singers are the same ones that every country fan will list, but the difference is that when I knew them, they were always pretty popular...I never was the first to know about them and never got to see them in some little bar with a few of my closest cowboy friends.

Anyway, the question is...how do you feel when a cool, little unknown band you really like hits it big...are you mature enough to be happy for them? Or are you selfish like me and try to wish them back into the time when you could see them for $10 and impress people with your knowledge of this amazing band no one had heard of? ...And of course, how ridiculous was the Colbert episode and what do you think about the Decemberists??

The Appleseed Cast: now with 40% less emo

So no one has posted today yet and my will to live is shriveling into a more pathetic ball of puffinstuff ever second I sit here and do more work so I thought I would mention what still seems to be a relatively unknown band…

Checkout The Appleseed Cast. I actually can do little to describe them better than the wiki seems to so i'll throw in my little perspective and allow you guys to checkout the wiki and their homepage and what for the real facts and not just reality as it is filtered through my sensory system...

Sometime in the late nineties i had this napster methodology that got me a lot of my new music. I'd search for a band i liked and when i found a user with a respectable library, i would then download everything else on their computer. I believe i was searching for "Mineral" (vintage emo) and i ended up getting the song "Moment # 2" and "Marigolds and Patchwork" from their album "The End of the Ring Wars". I absolutely loved these songs but between my maturing of taste away from that classic "Stabby Rip Stab Stab" emo sound and my burgeoning alcoholism i never followed up on them very much. Well after a few band members left and a few came and they hopped between a few labels the release a new album in early 2006 called "Peregrine".

I absolutely love it. The wiki labels it pure "post-rock" which i guess i can agree with but i have heard a lot of post rock that i don't like.. i like this. Very layered sound, a surprising amount of synth and the buildups that made me love mogwai in the first place. Unlike their early emo stuff, the lyrics haven't been my main draw to these songs but maybe when i just get over how beautiful the whole sound of this album is, maybe i'll start noticing them...

Checkout the tracks "Mountain Halo" and "Woodland Hunter (part 1)".. they will make you grin for hours...

Hate the vocals

You're gonna hate the vocals. I just know it. I kind of hate it too but I think I could like this band...especially live. I was sitting here on a Saturday morning flipping through The Reader looking for upcoming shows when a Baltimore band called Ponytail had a small feature about an upcoming show (as it turns out they are playing with The Great Sea Serpents I talked about below. Total coincidence). The write up was pretty interesting so I decided to check them out (mentions of Zeppelin II, Yes, dogs barking, cats dying, and punk). The lead singer is obviously doing some experimental junk in the style Deerhoof...sort of. I love the guitar, especially on the song Lion Down. I really think they will be fun live. It at least started my saturday morning out right.

hate -> luv

i was thinking about this a bit earlier but suddenly it's the end of the day so i'll leave it short so i can go home...

i was listening to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and rocking out to "black tongue" when i had a sudden flashback to the first time i heard them.

god i hated her voice and didn't see anything special about they lyrics... now, as i've found today, i really really like these guys (at least this album)... what bands did you absolutely hate initially and now find yourself loving?

Other notable ones:
Cursive
Good Life
Kings of Leon
Bright Eyes
The Dears
Neutral Milk Hotel

Yay "local" bands!

Well some people might say that i've grown up in "one of the worst places (they) have ever lived for local music", so to help deal with that, I've come to consider anyone within a 2-3 hour radius a local band and won't think twice of driving that far for a show (back in my big country music days, I expanded to a much larger radius and drove 10 hours to Ohio for some shows out there one summer). Aaaaanyway, with that said, my favorite "local" band is Man Man. They have been mentioned a bit already, but I must officially tell all how wonderful they are. I first saw them at the Siren Music Festival on Coney Island this summer. m and I were quite far away when we got there and I wasn't paying too much attention at first...then I realized the guys up on stage were CRAZY. They were screaming and banging and singing and it was...well, it was wonderful. I've tried to explain their amazing sound to many people since that first show, but most people just look at me like I'm crazy. The solution? GO SEE THEM! They're playing in NYC this weekend and Philly on the 12th (think I'll be hitting up the Philly show, yay!!) I guarantee any time you see them anywhere, it will be an amazing, amazing show.

If you can't make it to a show in the near future, these guys surprisingly sound pretty decent recorded as well. I was so impressed at Coney Island that I picked up their 2006 release Six Demon Bag right there...definitely check out Engwish Bwudd...I won't even try to explain it...their website has an animated crazy video of the song worth a look. There's also some good stuff to download and their myspace page to take a listen.

tribal beats in my hood

my hood is actually one of the worst places i have ever lived for local music... then again living in this densely populated part of the armpit has completely changed my perception of ‘local.’ When I lived in syracuse, ny, ‘local’ was anything in 58 miles… now its more like eight. The only local bands I can think of are Chump and Tiny Masters of Today.

Let’s start with Chump.

One of the WORST cover bands I’ve ever seen… aging and expanding men who seem to embody everything that is wrong with the genre of rock… what more, they are a cover band. A bad one… if you go to their website (links to come), you can download a few minute sample that has snippets of their many masterpieces. I kinda want to get a whole bunch of people to start following the band with me in denim cutoffs and winger shirts… when I saw them I believe we may have been the only people in the venue who didn’t go to school with them all those years ago…

Now Tiny Masters of Today:

Pretty kick ass if only in theory. They are a brother and sister duo playing pixie-esc rock with rather high voices… saw them open for Man Man (one of my new all-time-favorite bands that I will race mau to post about) in Hoboken… their drummer just happens to formerly be the drummer for (get this) JOHN SPENCER’S BLUES EXPLOSION!!! thus, at the show I got to meet him, be in awe and thank him for shaping my malleable musical mind as a child…
Oh yeah.. the brother and sister are like eleven and thirteen and to see them rocking out is quite a treat. Gives me hope for the future and all.

So check out both of these bands… and if anything else comes to mind or to the Haw in the near future I’ll let you know

Local Yocal

I thought one of the cool things we could do is post about bands about in our respective areas. I'm not talking about a "my city is better than your city" or "dude, you think you know Cheap Trick. Well I eat pizza at Richard Nielsen's pizza place and I really know him." type of post. No, I mean something where you might be able to share a under promoted young band(s) that anyone outside of your town would have zero chance of hearing without your help.

So here I go I guess. I have thought about 3 bands today from Chicago that I think I would like to share. One band i know very well and am good friends with the members, one I don't know too well but are friends of friends and one that is completely new to me as of an hour ago.

First off is the Notes and Scratches. I happened to be a member a little art/music/whatever collective here in Chicago called Tense Forms. One of the things we do is act sort of, but not really, like a record label. Basically we help friends put their albums out by doing PR, funding the production and all the DIY stuff involved in getting their music out there. I am very honored to work with my friend Joshua Dumas who happens to be the lead singer. These cats are incredibly fun to see live and I really love their tunes regardless if they are friends or not. You can either check them out on their website above, on My Space or on Tense Radio. If you tune into Tense Radio be sure to check out the other bands and music projects we have helped in the past. Lots of really great stuff there.

Secondly, the band 1900s are super cool and fun. Sadly I have never seen them live or own any of their music. This is one of the things i wish to cure this new year. What I have heard I love and they come highly recommended from a lot of talented folks.

Thirdly is a band called The Great Sea Serpents. They were featured in the Chicago Tribune the morning and after checking them out I dig it so far. Their influences include Built To Spill and Archers of Loaf. I can dig on that. The recording is pretty shitty but you get the point. I may go check them out on Tuesday. If so, i'll report back.

so what's new in your hood? That's it for chicago...for now...

Oh gOD!

I recently started to pay attention to some of the
many podcasts, blogs and such that I'm supposed to be paying attention to regarding music. On top of this, I recently participated in one of those mix CD swaps and it actually panned out with some pretty good stuff. I have to say, one was so bad (modern country, sad teenage crap with generic power chords) that I took it into my coworkers office and smashed it with the heel of my shoe. God it felt good. High School is fucking over. You CAN get your music outside of Target and Walmart...and guess what, it's good!!

Ok, sorry. My point being is I have come across quite a few good/great bands that are very new to me in the past couple of weeks. As I've told M before, I don't know shit about new bands even though i get tagged as a hipster and music snob often. I really don't. I just get things thrown at me occasionally and this time it poured.

So The Thermals, check 'em out. Out of Portland and I dig it. After listening to their latest album about the Bible (don't worry, i'm not proselytizing here and either are they) I found it pretty fuckin' rockin' for a concept album and I can tell they would pretty great live. In fact, they are coming to Chicago in February and I'm dragging Miso with me to check 'em out. If you like it too, come visit for a spell...

My favorite track so far is Returning to the Fold.

I won't put every band i've found these past 2 weeks in one long post. I'll let it stretch itself out for a while and ferment.

Enjoy!

onelinedrawing: Jonah Matranga

Later than I expected, here comes the first “Check-the-Shit-Out-of-this-Band” post...

Although I know a couple of you already know about him and some have even seen him with me before, I'd like to do this first post about my favorite artist of all time:

onelinedrawing

Amazing, amazing artist. He started as the front man of Far, a no-cal based alternative rock band in the mid-late nineties that actually produced some different and memorable stuff and was one of the magical three (hum, far, weezer) that started me on my long downward path into my current musical state. well, anyway, far was rock, pure unadulterated rock with everything from throat tearing screams to tandem overdriven guitars. they were wonderful.

then they were gone... 1998... but i was going to college and the psuedo-yuppie began my ska education.. but i digress...

years later... through some unknown means i found out the lead singer from Far had started a solo project called onelinedrawing.

shit, i'll check it out.

in this hay-day of napster i was able to get both Sketchy EP 1 and Sketchy EP 2 as well as a buttload of live stuff... and i was in love. this guy had range... from tear your heart out sadness with a single guitar (number one defender) to techno beebop german love fest (Always New – March)... the more and more i listened to him the more i liked it... you know what it was? the lyrics... fucking amazing... and the vocals... everynow and again i'll see if i can play one of his songs.. and well, i can.. but shit.. the guitar doesn't make the song.. his vocals are like another couple instruments that really make the song...

There are a few you can listen to on his myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/jonahmatranga and if you want i can get you some samples of my favorites...


I think Sketchy EP 1 is the most approachable album of the bunch and thoroughly enjoyable followed closely by Sketchy EP 2. Jonah (did i mention he is now recording under his name (Jonah Matranga) rather than onelinedrawing?) did create two full lengths with Jade Tree in the last few years and they contain some really amazing songs but i would save off their full purchase until after you have been acquainted with onelinedrawing... (if you must iTunes individual songs from these albums, check out Ghost, Oh Boys and Bitte Ein Kuss (with these three you'll see a bit of variation too))...

This is getting a bit long so i'll wrap up... while you are downloading and buying this stuff, make sure to check out New End Original... it was a single CD side project with jonah and the guys from texas is the reason... this album (Thriller) had some great lyrics but was basically onelinedrawing songs with a full rock band in the back... the composition was quite different so it is worth listening to them to compare to onelinedrawing...

finally, if you have a chance... see him live... i've been to half a dozen of his shows or so and
they often are in real intimate venues with people that are truly fans... the last few sets i've seen him do have been real cool, he'd play five or six songs that he wanted to and then spend the rest of the time just playing whatever the audience asks him to... he did a amazing cover of the sinead o'conner song once... oh.. and although he recently been traveling with an iBook for all his backup he used to have a drum machine welded inside an R2D2 that would provide all his beats.. if you listen to his live stuff you'll hear R2 whining all the while... well all.. thanks for reading and please check out this guy.. i promise you'll love him...

Let's see how this goes

I'm still not sure how to best share our music suggestions with each other so feel free to post whatever you want at whatever frequency... I think I'll just start posting little paragraphs on bands that i love/loved/may love soon and if anyone has any thoughts on it post some comments.. or better yet... check 'em out and throw in your six cents...

Anyone have any ideas? maybe rotating weekly (or bi-daily) posts? some way to have actual conversations about the music above and beyond the couple comments that will come out from those that have also heard of the band?

yeah.. comment away here and maybe we'll come up with something semi-intelligent