Casper And The Cookies' "Modern Silence" Is A Modern Masterpiece

2009-05-18T20:28:00.010-06:00

I probably can't write a better review for Casper And The Cookies (myspace) new opus than I did with this drunken message board post (slightly edited), which was in response to Pitchfork's review of Modern Silence: "I was somewhat surprised to see the name Matthew Perpetua at the end of this review. Perpetua started/is Fluxblog, one of the first mp3 blogs and one I respect. He loves The Fiery Furnaces, so I can't begin to think what he was talking about with this album being "too long." This album is so full of perfect I don't even know where to begin. But to address Perpetua's main criticism, instead of viewing it as too long, view it as a vast musical wonderland - where you can drop in as you please. This CD has been in my truck for a while, mostly all shorter journeys to work, and every morning I get a little excited on deciding which song segment I will choose, whether I feel like the 'let's go, day' of "Little Kings" (and it's flowing follow up songs), the extra pick me up of "Sharp!" or the sharp-yet-fuzzy "Nagoya", the lyrically perfect 'let's have a relaxed day' of "Chocolate Cake And Coffee" or sweeter than aspartame "Sunshine Girl", or maybe weird the day out with the multi-dimensional "I Am Gone" which will keep playing probably through the lunch drive home and have the second half of my day start off having just listened to the most simple, sublime kazoo line with a hoedown behind it of all-time. The playing all sounds like perfect first takes - not too studied and overdubbed, a nice looseness but still nailing it, with just the right amount of accompanying colors and textures. Every sound and song is just too good without ever repeating itself - such rich, fully realized versions of songs that I just cannot get sick of listening to them. It's the most fantastic fucking thing I've heard in a long time, and if the CDs hole were a (quite) bit bigger I'd fuck it. Yeah. I'm a little drunk. "He didn't play a note, but man that note he didn't play - he never heard before."

Casper And The Cookies "Sharp!"

Modern Silence sees the Cookies stripped down to a three-piece - frontman Jason NeSmith (AKA Casper Fandango) mostly playing keys and singing, his wife Kay on bass, and Jim Hicks on guitar, and those are very loose roles - all members seem to play drums and keys and sing, etc., and there are a few more credited players on the lyrics page. NeSmith owns the Bel Air recording studio in Athens, GA, and the album credits simply says "produced and performed by the band", lists the three members, and then "assisted by Bill Doss" (Olivia Tremor Control, Sunshine Fix, Apples In Stereo), so I imagine many long unhurried late nights in the studio crafting this album, and it's a tribute to them how the performances still sound so fresh. And should Modern Silence not find the audience it so richly deserves, NeSmith will still no doubt be in even greater demand for his studio wizardry, because this album sounds flawless. This and the previous track are a couple of Modern Silence's more upbeat danceable tunes, "Nagoya" is I believe the only one sung by Jim Hicks:

Casper And The Cookies "Nagoya"

the last track on Modern Silence is a fifteen minute journey (actually about 21 since the two previous songs work as part of the suite) through pop psychedelia with a shitload of guest appearances - they're listed at the bottom of the lyrics page (you may want to bookmark this for future reference since these aren't on the album anywhere). This is just the last three and a half minutes of the last track, but even if it were the whole track it wouldn't be complete without the rest of the album building up to it. But just in this segment, you can hear the low rumbling spirit channeling of The Late BP Helium (of Montreal) at the beginning, a "melody and counterpoints" from Apples In Stereo frontman Robert Schneider in one of his non-Pythagorean scales, and others - I started to explore some of the artists I hadn't heard of before. Going to Gary Pig Gold's website I was treated to the actual version of the mini-song he contributed (heard below), in it's un-fucked-with purity (his bio sounds pretty interesting), and learned the violin player Cole Causey plays with the Athens Symphony. And a kazoo isn't credited, but what else can that catchy as all-fuck two-note melody be?:

Casper And The Cookies "I Am Gone" (edit)

Buy Modern Silence direct from the band for ten bucks - HHBTM also has deal going with bonus stuff for thirteen bucks. And I'm going to try to finally finish editing my second day of SXSW shows, and it starts off with none other than Casper And The Cookies. Don't miss Casper And The Cookies last Daytrotter session, featuring three tracks from Modern Silence, and they have another appearance scheduled for later this year, along with several tour dates (check their myspace) - do not miss them when they come to your town!

previously at FP: Casper And The Cookies delivered a jaw-dropping genre-hopping cover of of Montreal's "Penelope" for the of Montreal tribute album I put together.

Animal Collective - Animal Crack Box

2009-05-16T14:06:00.006-06:00

Don't know how I feel about a live boxset that's been talked about for years by AC fans getting this kind of treatment - a limited vinyl-only run of 1000 that sold out as soon as it went for sale. It was inevitable that people with possibly no interest in the band would be able to pick up on the hype and profit - one asshole already wants $1,100!!! - while people who are real fans are barely able to get a chance to purchase it, and the thing that gets me is that this fact was probably weighed in the decision to give it such a limited release, and considered good hype. Because we would eventually get a digital download somewhere, I guess I don't blame them for trying to generate more buzz for themselves (surely the band had as much decision as the label on what kind of release this was going to get). Especially since the music isn't what those new to AC may expect - in fact, I have no doubt it will alienate a few people who first got hooked on Merriweather Post Pavillion's catchiness (although veteran fans will delight in new songs and versions and parts unheard before). It is 3 LPs worth of live material from three of AC's first years, and it drones, shrieks, spooks, bubbles, explodes, wonders, and wanders, with hardly a hint of the polish and sampler-based locomotion that marks their last two albums.

Animal Collective "Iko Ovo"

Animal Collective "Pumpkin Gets a Snakebite"

New Deerhoof Session

2009-05-14T21:12:00.004-06:00

A top listening-while-procrastinating choice lately that I must shout from the rooftops about is the brand new live sessions from The Bay Bridged, which is a San Francisco-based indie blog, podcast, thrower of kickass SXSW parties, and now live session studio. To kick things off, their first session is San Fransisco's own beloved Deerhoof. And instead of playing something off "the new album", last year's Offend Maggie, they roar through a track from 1999's Holdypaws, two (!) from 2004's Milk Man, and a soundtrack cover from Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, who did the music for Zorba The Greek, Z, and Serpico. Here's that track:

Deerhoof "Let's Dance The Jet" (The Day The Fish Came Out soundtrack - Mikis Theodorakis)

... and head over to the Bay Bridged's New, Improved, LIVE page for the rest of the session in your classy choice of 160 or 320 kbps (Deerhoof likes it enough to make this session their sole music selections on their myspace.) I heard that Why? may be upcoming.

New Animal Collective Song: "Bleed"

2009-05-12T00:12:00.004-06:00

Basically this song has three continuous components: a soft electronic pulsating dirge, Panda and Avey doing dreamy call and response vocals that occasionally swirl back into each other and trail off, and the disconcertment of bottles breaking, maybe some chains falling, and the sad hypnotic sound of a bottle cap rolling in circles in the street. I love it, but it may not be everyone's cup of tea.

Animal Collective "Bleed" (2009-05-11 Washington DC)

btw, this isn't the same version found on GvB and elsewhere, I ripped this one and added a hint of EQ and limited/amplified for fuller sound, I'm too lazy to do the whole show though, (besides I've got a bunch of sxsw recordings sitting here screaming to be let go of.) The entire concert that this song came from (the second on Animal Collective's brand new tour) is available here, courtesy NPR.

Animal Collective's myspace has their tour dates, which I won't bother reposting since virtually every one is already sold out. If they're not sold out in your area, do not wait.

SXSW 2009 - Wednesday

2009-04-15T18:38:00.038-06:00

feat: The Shaky Hands, Max Tundra, Crocodiles, Wavves, Explode Into Colors, Pocahaunted, Pete And The Pirates, and Telepathe

Sorry (again) for tardiness, it took me longer than expected to process all of the music (on a crappy computer) and whatnot and other real-life things. I can't be bothered to lookup song titles, so if somebody wants to post any setlists or titles in the comments section (or any other comments) it will be appreciated. Eventually I'll get around to posting the two other days of SXSW I recorded, but until then - these recordings from the Wednesday SXSW kickoff are the result of a newly purchased Zoom H2 digital recorder. The results are varied, some sets you may want to keep on your computer, others not, and it was a good learning experience for me concerning microphone placement and other variables I will bore you with throughout this post. I do hope you keep the Pete and the Pirates set, it may be the best one I recorded the whole SXSW and is one I can't stop playing. And pretty much everything here is a highlight in it's own right - Max Tundra's SXSW debut, Wavves second SXSW show, some great songs from Shaky Hands, and a jaw-dropping set from Pocahaunted. I did record a few things over this SXSW I won't be posting, true to this blog's creed I'll only post things I really liked, and even though sets are usually only 20-30 minutes (some are partial sets I arrived to late or something) they add up and my server space is now precious.

SXSW - AUSTIN, TX

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2009

Click pictures for a larger version. You can also download all of the Wednesday mp3s in one zip file (275MB) HERE (click "Download for free with FileFactory Basic")

I had to work and miss at least one day of SXSW, and since The Shaky Hands weren't playing too many shows I went Wednesday (to see them) and Friday & Saturday and had to work Thursday. I'm too big of a Joggers fanatic to miss drummer Jake Morris playing with the established Portland band which he recently joined last year (since the Joggers take years to release an single 7"), just in time for their tour opening for the Meat Puppets. I talked to Jake before the show and he was apprehensive, and said they hadn't played in a while, had just driven in early that morning, and before that founding member/singer Nicholas Delffs had an even longer journey, having just arrived from India. But the worries were unfounded and The Shaky Hands made me a big fan, and disappointed in myself that I'd been missing out and hadn't gotten any of their stuff yet. It may not be as angular as the Joggers, but it's its own kind of rich textured rock. They just kicked off a nationwide tour, check them out fer sure if they're in your area. After a stint on the great UK indie label Memphis Industries, The Shaky Hands signed last year to Kill Rock Stars and opened the Kill Rock Stars Day party at Club Deville. Track 7 is especially nice and mellow and shows off Delffs' immediately likeable voice.

The Shaky Hands
2009-03-18 SXSW, early afternoon
Club Deville

2009-03-18 SXSW 01
2009-03-18 SXSW 02
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2009-03-18 SXSW 04
2009-03-18 SXSW 05
2009-03-18 SXSW 06
2009-03-18 SXSW 07
2009-03-18 SXSW 08

And from there we headed a block away to Red 7 to catch the SXSW premiere of British electronic-kitsch maestro Max Tundra at the Terrorbird/Force Field Day Party. It was probably the first time I've seen a book used as a prop during a music gig. Tundra's voice explores pitches like some modern avant-garde opera (or camp theater), playfully bouncing vocal melodies over the top of by his unique style of breakbeat techno with electronic flourishes and toys. I was back by the soundboard like I was for The Shaky Hands show, but Red 7 also had a concert going on outside just behind us, and during quieter passages you can hear it - I would imagine this is not something you really have to worry about normally when recording, but as can be heard here has to be a concern in the cramped downtown spaces of Austin during SXSW. But all in all not a bad recording and definitely a nice moment to capture (thanks to smileybone for the pic above/left)

Max Tundra
2009-03-18 SXSW, early afternoon
Red 7

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From there it was around the block again to Emo's and the Pat Possum party to see Wavves, and before that was two dudes called Crocodiles who most definitely know all of the Jesus and Mary Chain records by heart. With a drum machine and a guy singing over one noisy guitar, it was a bit more than the sum of its parts and rocked hard enough to justify the sunglasses. I recorded from the very back next to the soundboard, and added a touch of EQ to all the recordings, but realized I had to add more the further back I recorded. Crocodiles are currently on tour in support of Ladytron.

Crocodiles
2009-03-18 SXSW, afternoon
Emo's outside

2009-03-18 SXSW 01 - I Wanna Kill

And next was one the the most hyped acts of the year, Wavves from San Diego. Like Crocodiles it's just two dudes, but having somebody live drums helps fill out the live sound for Wavves, although the music is still much less expansive and the drumbeats for the most part just match the same pounding rhythm of the guitar and much of the noise and nuance of the albums is missing. Nathan from Wavves does play his straight-ahead rock chords live with a catchy urgency and has a way with vocal melodies, especially the switching to ooo-ing sweet beach melodies like on "To The Dregs", although by that song in this set (only their second of SXSW I believe) his voice is already showing signs of strain. By the end of the week things didn't get much better for him, almost losing his voice due to the huge number of shows they played over four days.

Wavves
2009-03-18 SXSW, afternoon
Emo's outside

2009-03-18 SXSW 01 - Intro
2009-03-18 SXSW 02
2009-03-18 SXSW 03
2009-03-18 SXSW 04
2009-03-18 SXSW 05
2009-03-18 SXSW 06
2009-03-18 SXSW 07
2009-03-18 SXSW 08
2009-03-18 SXSW 09 - To The Dregs
2009-03-18 SXSW 10 - Wavves

After that we headed to what's becoming a not-so-great secret about SXSW and my default place to go: the free day shows all week long put on by NYC promoter Todd P (teaming up with various labels and party-throwers) at Ms. Bea's. Ms. Bea's is on Sixth Street, on the east side of highway 35. The downtown club scene (and downtown itself) is generally west of I35, but the east-of-35 area, not too long ago mostly all lower-middle class, is slowly being gentrified. But Ms. Bea's is an old-timey Mexican ice-house, like others in the area, and it has a great patio and open area out back, and for SXSW it's configured with two stages that bands alternate between. The first stage is just a section of patio in front of a chain-link fence and the second is underneath a covered arbor. Thomas from Pete and The Pirates said it best on their blog, "This is how all gigs should be; played outside in people's yards on warm summer evenings."

For Wednesday day the party was "Todd P presents Music Made by Women"curated by Veronica of Finally Punk. We caught the end of the set from Portland's Explode Into Colors, and it was what SXSW is all about: discovering new bands. I hadn't heard them before, but was wholly impressed by the thick and swampy musical atmosphere created by this female three-piece, with expansive grooves and vocals that alternate from sweetness to seance - perfect I'd imagine for summer highway cruising. The slight crackling heard a bit here and even more during Telepathe is actually a result of the PA for the under the arbor stage and not the recorder

Explode Into Colors
2009-03-18 SXSW, late afternoon
Ms. Bea's

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And then one of my most anticipated shows: Pocahaunted. If Explode Into Colors sounds at times like a seance, Pocahaunted sounds like channeling Native American spirits from the underworld. Bethany from Pocahaunted didn't come with them and is on hiatus, but Amanda had more than able backup, including new arrival Diva Dompe from LA band Blackblack on bass and members of Robedoor (husband and Not Not Fun cofounder Britt Brown on guitar and trumpet) , Sun Araw, and Magic Lantern. I asked Amanda afterward about the set and she said it was all brand new material that they had just written together, with no real titles for the songs. The bass in this newest incarnation of Pocahaunted has a definite nod to dub reggae and Amanda has said that ahead is an even funkier sound, one that perhaps you can even dance to. In an interview with LA CityBeat she says "Right around the time we started recording Island Diamonds, I started listening to a lot of spacey dub and buying Soul Jazz box sets, trying to sink my teeth into that aspect of electronic music." Previous to this set I knew Pocahaunted's vocals mostly of course for their primal chanting, but didn't realize until I read that LA CityBeat interview that this was the first time they've used actual real words in the vocals. But that definitely doesn't take away from the other-worldliness. As the pictures show, I was right up front for this recording and it sounds great.

Pocahaunted
2009-03-18 SXSW, late afternoon
Ms. Bea's

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It's hard to pigeonhole Pete And The Pirates (or Thomas Sanders' other project Tap Tap). They are imaginative but not necessarily ground-breaking. It's hard to nail down references but you know they sound like somebody. Their greatness lies in the details - Sanders' quintessentially British vocal phrasings, the tightness of the band, and most of all the extremely catchy pop hooks. The songs here at Wednesday evening's NY Noise party are sung and played with contagious enthusiasm, and by track 4 "Come On Feet" things really start clicking. The next track, old favorite (recorded by both Tap Tap and Pete And The Pirates) "She Doesn't Belong To Me" brings some calmness for a bit but even it can barely be restrained despite the fact that this is their fifth set this day, and then three fantastic new songs after that. Pure indie pop goodness. Like Pocahaunted I was right up front for this one with nobody in front of me, and though I might have assumed this could be too close, the sound came out well-balanced and full, probably the best of all the recordings I got for the whole week., despite the fact that the kick drum sounds like it was "made of ceramics". Big thanks to Melissa Soltis (flickr) for sending me these pics (and the one above of Ms. Bea's).

Pete And The Pirates
2009-03-18 SXSW, evening
Ms. Bea's

2009-03-18 SXSW 01 - intro
2009-03-18 SXSW 02 - Jennifer
2009-03-18 SXSW 03 - Things That Go Bump
2009-03-18 SXSW 04 - Come On Feet
2009-03-18 SXSW 05 - She Doesn't Belong To Me
2009-03-18 SXSW 06 - Motorbike
2009-03-18 SXSW 07 - Selina
2009-03-18 SXSW 08 - Lost In The Woods
2009-03-18 SXSW 09 - Mr. Understanding

I actually enjoyed Telepathe's closing set enough to include it here, and that's kind of surprising. On the surface it's just electronic club music (which I'd normally probably hate), the vocal melodies seem kind of Top-40 inspired, and there's a futuristic New York hip-hop vibe, some desert tribalism, and a little Miami booty bass. But they pull it all together and "wing it" with a snare drum, keyboard and samplers (pretty much Animal Collective's live setup) and make it work, sounding original and modern. Thanks to lap0la for the pic!

Telepathe
2009-03-18 SXSW, evening
Ms. Bea's

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2009-03-18 SXSW 04

coming next (eventually): Friday, including Casper And The Cookies (who seriously have an album of the year contender hitting stores soon), Bearsuit, Fishboy, and the Not Not Fun label showcase.

Finally, Pavement (two shows +more)

2008-12-11T23:18:00.026-06:00

I've been lazy about posting, but it's about the two year anniversary for this little old blog, and the fourth in Pavement's line of reissues has just come out, so the (slacker) stars have aligned. I won't blabber on too much about Pavement or their music, but I will simply say this: they were the coolest, and I was lucky enough to be there to see a good deal of it - from seeing them open for Sonic Youth in '92 to following them on around for all four Texas shows on their last tour in '99 (that's my pic of Malkmus in Houston '99 below). The T-shirt pictured here is a super-rare one from the '97 Brighten the Corners tour, with a Westie-designed tour map on the back. I've met Stephen Malkmus several times, and I'll say unequivocally that he sometimes gets a rap for being an asshole for no good reason. There's a bit of aloofness to his cool, but he's just a plain nice guy (on top of being the coolest motherfucker on the planet). Add the enthusiasm of percussionist/keyboardist/shouter Bob Nastovich, the slack hip swagger of either drummer (Gary Young on the first record, Steve Westie/Westie after that), the aw-shucks manner of bassist Mark Ibold (who is also talented enough to play alongside Sonic Youth) and the always right-on second guitar work of Spiral Stairs (who wrote a handful of Pavement tunes which I must admit never measure up to Malkmus's), and you have one of my favorite bands (and obsessions) of all time. Does anybody remember the old Pavement-Powered website (with tons of music and shows to download)? That was me.

Brighten The Corners begins the polarizing point for many Pavement fans, what some consider the beginning of the downward ride to the end, coming right off the heels of the mercurial fan-favorite Wowee Zowee - but I really think the greatness of Pavement's first three albums are the only thing that overshadow the songs on the last two, especially compared with virtually everything else in indie rock of the time (and even today). I remember Rolling Stone reviewing it at the time and declaring Pavment had finally become a "proper" band. There is a real musical sophistication that begins with Brighten The Corners, and except for a few moments like the rocking single "Stereo" it's overall a much mellower affair than their previous work. The songs seem more deliberated and have more exploratory proggish melodies

Pavement "Old To Begin"

And like the rest of the Pavement reissues, this one's full of not only B-sides long cherished by hard-core fans, but plenty that even they haven't heard. For me, that gold nugget would be "Nigel". My friend Brian will instantly recognize it as the lick I play at least a third of the time I pick up a guitar (mine with Malkmus's sig is below). For years, I knew of only two live versions ever played, but something about that (C to Am to) F to G# progression was always just one of the coolest things I ever heard for some reason - I could never get over it. And finally, after nearly ten years of playing my version roughly based on a live version, I get to hear the definitive Pavement studio-recorded version, and it's brilliant:

Pavement "Nigel"

Pavement "Nigel" (live, circa 1997) (not on BTC reissue - Sorry about the bitrate)

Pavement "No Tan Lines" (originally on the Shady Lane single)

And there are 14 live radio tracks on the second disc of the expanded Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition (along with 6 completely unreleased songs, 62-page booklet, B-sides and other goodies), but unfortunately not a full concert like only the first Slanted and Enchanted reissue has had (a concert on vinyl had been available with some preorders which I'm kicking myself for missong out on). To remedy that, here is one of my absolute favorite Pavement concerts from this period. It is definitely one of the more laid-back Pavment shows I've heard, and ends with a hilarious great improv Malkmus wrote for a girl named Amanda. This was the first Pavement boot on cassette I ever received, and the first I painstakingly converted to digital in '00 when my friend Chris first got his ProTools setup. A couple years ago I found a digital version direct from the master, which was a lot clearer than my previous copies but still lacking some punch, so once again I did some limiting/EQing and whatnot. Please enjoy (don't forget you can use DownloadThemAll for ease if you're a Firefox user - see the right sidebar)

PAVEMENT
1997-04-21
Missoula, MT
Copper Commons

Passat Dream
Grave Architecture
Gold Soundz
Shady Lane
Heaven Is A Truck
Date With IKEA
The Hexx
Black Out
Stereo
Transport Is Arranged
Kennel District
Old To Begin
Westie Can Drum
Gangsters & Pranksters
Type Slowly
Summer Babe
Blue Hawaiian
Unfair
We Are Underused
Box Elder
Fin
Unknown / Amanda improv

Included in the Brighten the Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition is both songs Pavement performed on the cartoon Space Ghost: Coast To Coast on the Cartoon Network, without the Space Ghost interspersed in the music. Not included in the following video is Space Ghost introducing Pavement as "The Beatles", but the video really helps make it. Poor Goldie.

And for Brian, I'm sorry my blog neglect leaves you sad - here's a short set I came across recently from '92 which has some favorite old gems and which should soothe your hurt butt. Previous copies had "Loretta's Scars" as track 3, but clearly at the end of "She Believes" Malkmus announces "Loretta's Scars" coming, so I fixed that, and if you have this recording you'll notice the obviousness. Other songs and bits are clipped, however, this is just what was broadcast on French radio. Googling for info on this, I found a copy of it in somebody's boot collection with apparently twice as many songs, if anybody knows of anybody who has more of this, please email me - as well if anybody knows what the last song on the Missoula show above is, let me know. Gotta love Bob Nastovish's intro to "No Life Singed Her" on this one, even if you like your job:

PAVEMENT
Transmusicales Festival
1992-12-04
Rennes, France

No Life Singed Her
Greenlander
She Believes
Loretta's Scars
Baby Yeah
Kentucky Cocktail
Home

2008 has been a so-so year for new music, making the Brighten The Corners 2-CD reissue a perfect stocking stuffer for the musically discriminating person on your holiday list. Buy it direct from Matador Records for 14 bucks.

The Barcelona Scene - New Music from Coconot (Pablo Díaz-Reixa / El Guincho), DC/LuvLuv, And More

2008-09-23T18:24:00.039-06:00

I've been exploring new Barcelona music by way of El Guincho, the solo project of Barcelona-based Pablo Díaz-Reixa. While his first major (noticed) release was this year's Alegranza (drawing apt Animal Collective-meets tropicalia comparisons), his first LP Folías (more of a Panda Bear solo inspiration compared to AC) didn't draw much notice until after Alegranza had made waves, and especially after Gorilla Vs. Bear posted the album link. Folías was released on one of my new favorite labels, DC/LuvLuv (Discos Compulsivos), also from Barcelona and run by Cristian Subirà. I've been hard-up for some good new music (which seems to be in a lull right now) so I've been diving into this scene, and loving everything I've found. Cristian is also a part of Coconot, Pablo Díaz-Reixa's pre-El Guincho band, as well as other bands in the eclectic new Barcelona scene which seems to have a love of drone/avant garde/tropicalia/the best of modern indie/and some booty bass. Pablo Díaz-Reixa's cousin Alfredo Montes, who he started Coconot with, is no longer in the band, but Cristian is playing more instruments and the producer for their first album, Jens Neumaier, is now playing guitar and singing. Coconot have just finished recording a brand new album, and where their first major release, 2006's Novo Tropicalismo Errado, seemed to be Sun Ra-influenced modern-prog-yet-4onthefloor rock, on their newest Cosa Astral (judging at least from the one preview track on their myspace) they've definitely let things soak up some Mediterranean heat and coast-life flavor (and olive oil and wonderful anchovies and dried meats and papas bravas w/ garlic aioli and Gaudi and street sweepers late at night asking me for a light for their blunt amid a calm atmosphere that somehow still feels slightly charged so that it seems anything could happen but not usually in an overly dangerous way, oh man do I miss Barcelona). This first preview track definitely has me excited for the new album:

Coconot "Conservad El Rayo" (Cosa Astral)

Coconot "Argentina 2, Pablo 0" (Novo Tropicalismo Errado)

Coconot "We Travel - Eo - The Spaceways (Variaciones Sobre Un Tema De Sony'r Ra)" (Novo Tropicalismo Errado)

Coconot live a couple of years ago:

Cristian of DC/LuvLuv and Coconot also plays in other bands in Barcelona, and from what I've heard they are much more radical and experimental than anything Coconot (or El Guincho) have done, some really out-there ambient, noise, even Black Dice-type stuff. The release for the following LP states: "For some reasons I wont talk about right now Matt Ortega (Mir, Socio) moved from New Jersey to Barcelona on June 2008. There he met Cristian Subirà (Summer Recreation Camp, Coconot). They both became friends and music colaborators. The result of many jams and lofi recordings is ´Dead Geography´ a collage of sounds and rare ambients."

Summer Recreation Camp/Mir "Cielo Pancake"

Summer Recreation Camp/Mir "No Flash Over The Raritan"

Mir "No Bumps Or Bruises"

And Cristian is also a part of Barcelona's Gärgamel (not to be confused with the Norweigan progrock or Floridian funk metal bands of the same name), another side project definitely not in it for the money. They also, like a lot of these more experimental Barcelona bands, know both the role of repetition in creating musical altered states as well as the importance of exploring off those repetitions and constantly taking it some place new:

Gärgamel "Llet Fosca"

Gärgamel consists of Cristian Subirà and Aleix Clavera. I'm starting to see a trend here of Barcelona musicians playing in both "respectable" bands and avant-garde side projects, as Aleix Clavera (also in El Guincho's live band) plays bass in Barcelona's Evripidis and His Tragedies, who are on Barcelona label Touch Me Records (Spanish label of Castanets, Sufjan Stevens, Half-Handed Cloud), and in the UK on Rough Trade, and in the US on Darla. They're sure to appeal to fans of the crooning sounds of Jens Lekman and piano-pop of Ben Folds:

Evripidis And His Tragedies "Ru Ru, I'd Love You"

Evripidis And His Tragedies "Gregory"

And DC/LuvLuv isn't exclusively for Barcelona bands: ""Baltimore's Teeth Mountain combines driving polyrhythms with hypnotic drones to create a powerful and enigmatic sound. The instrumentation is unique: four drummers, musical saw, 'cello, microtuned keyboards and sampler. A similarly unique musical vision keeps the sound from descending into mere gimmickry, despite the novel instrumental grouping. Members of Teeth Mountain also run the Comfort Dome, a live-in show space which hosts a wide variety of experimental music. The band tours frequently in the United States, and has shared the stage with (among others) The Ex Models, Dan Deacon, WZT Hearts, the Death Set and  Marnie Stern, as well as members of Raccoo-oo-oon, Nautical Almanac and Destroy All Monsters. Teeth Mountain will be among the featured bands at Wham City's Whartscape festival this summer, and will be going on a Wham City tour this fall with many of the above-listed bands as well as Jana Hunter, Videohippos and other related groups. "" RIYL: a more tribal-ish Parts & Labor

Teeth Mountain "Black Jerusalem"

Teeth Mountain "Keinsein"

And 2/3's of this DC/Luv Luv band, from what I've read, hail from Deptford, South London, just down the road from where I lived for a year in New Cross Gate (but their myspace says Glasgow, which is grey enough to be a good stand in for my analogy if that's the case). I've read and heard about several bands from this area, which isn't necessarily the safest, it was previously a Caribbean enclave, the site of racial rioting in the past, and the scene of a few recent notable London crimes. But it's definitely cheaper than oh-so-hip Shoreditch to the north, and home to Goldsmith's College and many art students, and the Deptford Market where a main street and part of that neighborhood is transformed into what Americans call a flea market every weekend. This band were previously called On Fire and are now called Helhesten, and their music reflects the chaotic, gritty, south-of-the-Thames feel I remember coupled with an insane Boredoms-style anything-can-happen free-jazz attitude.

Helhesten "Birds"

Helhesten Vs. Michael J. Fox:

And a Borbetomagus/Metal Machine Music style freak jam from Helhesten at one of my favorite London spots, the tiny Windmill in Brixton, South London, just a couple of months ago. Not for the faint of heart:

And DC/Luv Luv apparently has a soft spot for a small touch of booty-bass mixed with their noise, as evidenced by music from Richmond, VA's bootilicious Shams and New York City's gritty Car Clutch, who both have upcoming releases on the label

Shams "Vicious Pop Digital"

Car Clutch "We Just Passed The Truth"

Car Clutch in london last year:

And while looking into Coconot/El Guincho/DCLuvLuv, I found this Barcelona band that I really like with the dare-to-be-googled name of Internet 2. They're on the quirky, playful side of experimentalism:

Internet 2 "Animals At Actors Studio"

Internet 2 video for "Dar Penita" (gather the kiddies)

And there's still lots of other connections to explore - for instance Jens Neumaier of Coconot is also a member of the established Barcleona prog-jazz outfit 12Twelve:

12 Twelve "Seiza"

El Guincho's Alegranza makes it's official (legal) stateside appearance October 21, order it from the link on his myspace- and El Guincho's Folías was DC/Luv Luv's first release, and it's now completely sold out, so don't waste any time in heading over there and picking up any of their other obscure eclectic releases that catch your ear before they're gone, too. Head to the DC/LuvLuv myspace for buy links, in the US they link to GoldenAge.

And to my three regular readers, sorry about the wait - if you want to keep up on this and other blogs that update sporadically get yourself an RSS reader and subscribe.

Brown And Purple Mix

2008-08-25T16:50:00.004-06:00

I've been working on this one for a bit. It's got a couple of newer tracks, several 80's tracks (I've been on a kick for finding lost 80's gems I haven't heard), a little "old-school rock-n-roll", and other stuff. It's not too long, about 40 minutes. You're already here, might as well download it - but wait until you can listen to the whole thing at once. And turn it up a little.

Download the Brown & Purple Mix

Is There Life On Mars?

2008-08-01T16:09:00.005-06:00

Yesterday NASA's Phoenix (official UofA page / NASA page) lander confirmed the existence of water on Mars. They were pretty sure it was there when they saw on camera what appeared to be chunks of ice disappearing, but yesterday the Phoenix was finally able to get a good scoop of soil inside itself, and the TEGA equipment analyzed the samples and "tasted" the water, and confirmed it. Scientists have long concluded where there's water there's life, so it may only be a short time before we have the evidence of the first lifeform discovered outside Earth. The Mars Science Laboratory (rover) will be launched in the Fall of 2009 to further study the composition of Mars.

DOWNLOAD "Water On Mars" minimix

A Mix

2008-07-30T06:22:00.007-06:00

I made a mix for some peeps and thought I might as well share it here, a few songs from previous FP posts, but who really notices... it's a nice 'un:

DOWNLOAD

Atlas Sound Live in Lisbon

2008-07-22T16:57:00.007-06:00

Say that you're Bradford Cox [myspace]. You've already released one of the albums in the year with solo project Atlas Sound's debut full-length Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, your band Deerhunter's newest Microcastle (another triumph) is in the can and now you're asked to open up for your musical heroes Animal Collective in Europe. So, what does the prolific frontman do? Take it easy and play the new Atlas Sound album with the new band he got together who are probably just now really gelling with the material? Nahhhh. He drops the solo band, packs up the sampler used by said heroes, and emulates them in the same venues they're about to play. Atlas Sound is more gentle and airy than Deerhunter, and Cox's sound had already drawn comparisons to Panda Bear and Animal Collective, but the aping that takes place (in this set at least) here is astounding for one reason: he makes it his own and makes it work. There are times in this set when his voice and guitar and sounds are whooshing through the Roland SP-404 sampler (I confirmed it w/ flickr pics, it's the glue to Animal Collective's sound) and assorted effects pedals, and if you didn't know better you couldn't be blamed for thinking it was a Panda Bear solo set. And this is no easy feat - I don't know how much Cox used a 404 before this tour, I know he's well used to samplers, but Panda Bear has talked about having to completely relearn how to write songs after getting one (it's also the lynchpin to El Guincho's AC-similar sound). To add an extra unknown to the musical equation, AC's Avey Tare wrote on the blog entry for his micromix: ""Bradford and i have been writing lines for each other to sing in the sets on this tour. Puts a little trickery into the improvized parts of our set ill say." And then, just as Panda Bear's Ma Fama session last year ended with an untitled song-of-the-year, Cox does it, too. And not just that one, but five of these seven songs are either brand new or improvisations that the Deerhunter forum hadn't even heard yet, clearly showing Cox's sheer determination to stretch himself as an artist, and leaving me wholly impressed. And as soon as this small tour was over, without a break he was on the road with Deerhunter promoting Microcastles.

HUGE thanks to the guy who recorded this show, Stutter at Dime. He also recorded the Animal Collective set afterwards, which can be found in its lossless flac entirety here at the Live Music Archive. I won't get into the mp3/flac debate, but he originally didn't want these sets shared in mp3, but was convinced otherwise by my persuasive writing. He's got DPA microphones which are small stereo mics, small enough to wear which may have been what he was doing. Occassionally you may hear like a panning phase/whoosh on the overall sound, that's probably small body movements, or the air conditioner at the venue he hated so much, (edit: confirmed it was the air conditioning in the venue - the AC mixing with the AC) but it's weird how perfectly it fits into the overall sound. They're about 400 bucks, but damn, I think these mics might be what I'm going to look into getting. As soon as the lottery hits. Thanks, Stutter, and to smur89 for the Bradford pic in Dublin from the same European tour.

And out of respect to Stutter's great recording and thanks that he's shared it, I'm including a flac download for this one. If you plan on burning this to CD and aren't familiar with flac, now's a good time to start. Flac is basically compressed CD quality, but without the audio lossage that comes with mp3. Download Trader's Little Helper to convert ("decode") flac into CD quality wav, or there are several free apps that play or convert flac (VLC is always good for playing anything on any platform), google it. And if you want more free live lossless music and don't know where to turn, look here. Thanks again, stutter.

Atlas Sound
2008-05-28
Lisbon, Portugal, Lux Fragil

DOWNLOAD FLACS

_______________________________________

mp3:

Atlas Sound
2008-05-28
Lisbon, Portugal, Lux Fragil

new song 1
new song 2
new song 3
Cold As Ice
On Guard
new song 4
new song 5

if you're not a fan and just curious, start with the last song.

Be sure the Deerhunter blog is in your bookmarks, it's everything you'd think a musician's blog should be: a few frank thoughts and lots of great music. LOTS of music, as in "here's a vocal sample I recorded I thought you'd like"... "here's a free EP"... "here's another free EP of things I miss at home while i'm on tour"... "here's a couple of my dad's favorite songs that I recorded for him"... Every track may not hit a bullseye, but enough do, and I have mothing but the upmost admiration for any artist so willing to share with fans the nooks and crannies of their exploration, warts and all, especially somebody who has a way with playful, primal melody like Bradford Cox does. And besides Avey's, don't miss Geo's and Panda's mixtapes done for the Deerhunter blog while they bused around Europe together (oh to be a fly on that bus, listening to vocal harmonies being traded back and forth), and all the other great music.

Buy Atlas Sound's debut Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel direct from the label, Kranky, on CD and 2xLP

Black Kids Cover Estelle

2008-07-09T18:59:00.003-06:00

While tearing through the UK, the Black Kids stopped by Jo Whiley's BBC radio show earlier today and performed this cover of English R&B star Estelle:

Black Kids "No Substitute Love" (Estelle)

New Animal Collective

2008-07-07T04:31:00.008-06:00

(The best quality version of) A new song, and an all-round excellent quality AC boot, courtesy Dime user stutter. Get an account at Dime (check white bittorrent how-to link on sidebar if you're unfamiliar with torrenting) to listen to this entire concert in its full flac lossless slendor - one of the nicest AC boots I've ever heard, thank you, stutter. And thanks to Redheadwalking for the Panda photo from May 19, 2008, in Dublin.

Animal Collective
May 28, 2008, Lisbon, Portugal

Animal Collective "Lion In A Coma"

Animal Collective "Chocolate Girl"

Animal Collective "Comfy In Nautica"

New Jonathan Richman

2008-06-28T01:50:00.004-06:00

Jonathan Richman has a new record out, Because Her Beauty Is Raw And Wild, and there's no other way to put it: he's grown up (and that's not a bad thing). I guess you can only keep playing "Ice Cream Man" for so long, and Richman clearly doesn't want to rest on his laurels or trademark bubblegum-folk sound. He hasn't lost his simplicity entirely, but his newer music is more sophisticated than even many long-time fans expected. There's a few deeper themes than he usually writes about here, especially the last track, "As My Mother Lay Lying", but his common themes of love, life, and dead artists ("No One Was Like Vermeer") are still present, and it's musically that he's really grown the most. His songs are still sweet and breezy and charming, but there's a certain element of European troubadour about them now. The songs wear a pencil-thin moustache and often strum and pick with a definite Spanish (classical guitar) style, there are lyrics in both French and Spanish, and the sparseness of the music (just him plus Tommy Larkins on drums, sometimes some bass) helps easily conjure the image of Jonathan leaning against a white-washed wall at sunset while playing and singing these songs. His guitar chords and scale exploration are as jazzy as they've ever been, but it's never too much, just enough to keep the songs interesting. There's even some distorted guitar lead over one of the Spanish-rhythm strummers, a repeat performance of "When We Refuse To Suffer", sounding like a dare which somehow, of course, works. Every song is a winner, this is the perfect summer album and without a doubt one of the tops of the year.

Jonathan Richman "Time Has Gone By So Fast"

Jonathan Richman "As My Mother Lay Lying"

The label Vapor Records simply links to Amazon for purchase, so head over there at once. The superb Jonathan fansite Jojoblog also has news of a Jonathan Richman multilingual album commissioned by the owner of a French fashion company who is a die-hard Richman fan, and just this month released solely through them: http://www.apc.fr. Jojoblog also links to a Jonathan Richman tribute due out soon. And thanks to Diamond Geyser for the photo at the top of Jonathan last month, there's several other good ones at the link, too.

Two New New York Post-Everything Albums

2008-06-27T02:45:00.011-06:00

Dan Friel, electronic twiddler extraordinaire of Parts & Labor, has a new solo record out. On his previous solo album there were some remnants of Parts & Labor, most noticeably the guitar, and though his usually high-pitched warble tweaking does have a recognizable sound found on everything he does, here he's clearly trying to stretch it out even further into his own realm of DIY futuristic explorations. And cognizant of the fact that not everything in a post-apocalyptic soundtrack should rock, he includes some slower numbers that paint an eeire Mad Max picture of slow swirling dust clouds vanishing into digital pixelation. Those tracks help push open new fields of more drone-y stuff for Friel, so that his trademark flickering-beat grooves (that sometimes sound like mouth harps) and swirling melodies don't get stuck in a rut. But as these two tracks show, the upbeat Friel electro-freakouts sound as fresh as ever.

Dan Friel "Desert Song"

Dan Friel "Buzzards"

And checking out Dan Friel's myspace, I noticed he was playing a gig with guitar-god Marc Ribot next month, a Ribot project I hadn't heard called Ceramic Dog. It's his new trio [with bassist Shahzad Ismaily (Laurie Anderson, Secret Chiefs 3) and drummer Ches Smith (Trevor Dunn's Trio Convulsant, Secret Chiefs 3, Xiu Xiu], what he calls his first rock band since high school, and as it turns out they have a brand new album out too, and I've got to say, even more than the Friel: "Holy shit." Like the Friel, there's a couple of slower numbers, but here they stretch out to epic proportions, including the spoken "When We Were Young And We Were Freaks" which sounds like it could be a Jad Fair song. There's more rollicking fun than introspection, but all the tracks have a sense of adventure musically, even when using gimmicks they are obviously trying to expand the boundaries of their art, using the familiar musical notions only as a springboard for their explorations. I hear the Sonny Sharrock influence when Ribot shreds, like on last year's release, in fact if Sonny Sharrock were alive this probably wouldn't be too far off what he would be doing. There are explosions of wailing, bursts of scales and squeals, Ribot bouncing his own melodic ideas off of one another (overdubs? I'd like to hear this live!), the whole band pumping furiously and jumping rhythms and excursions in genre-bending similar to Mr. Bungle, some fat electro-beats that could have come straight from a Trans Am album and other kitchy electro-funk Zappa-ish parts, and a Doors cover that has to be heard to be believed. It's a rare musical treat that simultaneously explores and boogies.

Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog "Break On Through"

Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog "Party Intellectuals"

Dan Friel's myspace says he's opening the early show at the Knitting Factory for the Ceramic Dog record release on July 25. The Ceramic Dog myspace, however, doesn't list that date, and in fact puts them in Amsterdam on July 24. So unless they're flying to NY and playing the same day, I don't know for sure.

Get Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog - Party Intellectual,straight from the label, Pi Recordings (with other mp3s) and Dan Friel's Ghost Town straight from Important Records (mp3/viynl/CD, several more free mp3s there, too) And both labels look like great places to explore for other artists, too.

White Denim On BBC, Kicking Off European Tour

2008-06-24T23:59:00.000-06:00

White Denim certainly don't need any hype from me - the British and European press are doing a pretty good job piling on the praise, if the review snippets on the Full Time Hobby (Hold Steady, Viva Voce) site are any measure, but I'll still wholeheartedly congratulate the local boys done good. According to this profile from Austin it-bookers Transmission Entertainment, White Denim's first proper US LP release, titled Exposion, should be out by the end of July 2008 (and it says a second album's worth of material has already been recorded!), just after they get back from this European jaunt, at which time they plan to enslave the human race and make every living man, woman, and child a dancing disciple of their junk/punk/funk. Their overseas excursion began yesterday with the following BBC set and an instore in London, and will see them hit several festivals (wtf - how long has there been a Mighty Boosh Festival???) including the storied Glastonbury Festival. Thanks to DimeADozen user paul_b35_uk, who shares an absolute ton of BBC 6 sets on Dime, for getting this set out so quickly, and to bakrsdzn for the pic. Also be sure you've downloaded White Denim's free EP here.

WHITE DENIM
BBC Hub Session for George Lamb
BBC 6 Music Studio, London
June 23, 2008

Intro
All You Really Have To Do
Interview
Mess Your Hair Up
Outro

Upcoming Shows

Jun 23 2008

6:00P

In-Store Performance at Sister Ray

London, UK

Jun 25 2008

8:00P

Hove Festival

Arendal, Norway

Jun 27 2008

8:00P

Koko (Club NME night)

London, UK

Jun 28 2008

8:00P

Glastonbury Festival (Queens Head stage)

Pilton, UK

Jun 29 2008

8:00P

Glastonbury Festival (Park Stage)

Pilton, UK

Jun 30 2008

8:00P

Audio

Brighton, UK

Jul 1 2008

8:00P

Bar Academy

Birmingham, UK

Jul 2 2008

8:00P

Plug

Sheffield, UK

Jul 3 2008

8:00P

Cargo

London

Jul 5 2008

8:00P

The Mighty Boosh Festival

Kent, UK

Jul 6 2008

8:00P

Louisiana

Bristol, UK

Jul 7 2008

8:00P

Bodega Social Club

Nottingham, UK

Jul 9 2008

8:00P

The Roadhouse

Manchester, UK

Jul 10 2008

8:00P

Captains Rest

Glasgow, Scotland

Jul 11 2008

12:00P

Oxegen Festival

Kildare, Ireland

Sep 13 2008

8:00P

Monolith Festival at Red Rocks Amphitheatre

Morrison, Colorado

Sep 28 2008

5:00P

ACL Festival

Austin, Texas

Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, Tits

2008-06-23T20:29:00.008-06:00

"By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth. " -George Carlin

To everybody wishing George Carlin "rest in peace": go fuck yourself. Just today the BBC reported a new Pew poll which showed 92% of Americans still believe in the imaginary man in the sky Carlin made a career of mocking. Is it selective memory to forget how passionately he skewered your entire false belief system? "Religion is just mind control," he said. How can religious people listen to Carlin without feeling the slightest pang of truth to what he's saying? 75% of people in this enlightened age still believe in angels, "why not goblins?" Carlin asks. Before there was the Pastafarianism that gets religious people today so riled up, Carlin declared his Frisbeetarianism, where his soul just kind of sits on a roof after death. So since Carlin can't be here to say,"shove your 'rest-in-peace' up your ass", I will. Sorry if you mean well, but you just don't get it. Like the news organizations that are repeating to death his "Seven Dirty Words" bit without showing the least bit of understanding of what it was about. It wasn't just about the dirty words, it was how people use language and the constructs of society and religion to control people while shielding themselves from the knowledge of how fucked up their actions are. He once said his job was "thinking up goofy shit," and some people may wish to focus on the goofier side of his observations (who has ever contemplated the fart as thoughtfully as Carlin?), but more than anything he was trying to wake people up and shake the bullshit of religion and societal rules off of them and get them to not only see that the bullshit stunk, but that they were responsible for the sisyphean task of piling it non-stop on each other's heads. In an age when it seems the goal of every comedy act is to move on to sitcoms and movies, that was clearly never his intention. Sure, he did side work for things like Thomas the Tank Engine, but his own comedy was never designed for the big or small screen. Those formats just wouldn't have allowed him to do what he did best: base his laughs on the deep uncomfortable truths that are too common in this fucked-up world. So go ahead and wish that Carlin rests in peace. And then go fuck yourself.

"I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don't have as many people who believe it. " -George Carlin

Here is a good mix of George Carlin I just made, focusing mostly on death and religion (48MB)

Hilarious and relevant Carlin appearance on MadTV - "Touched By An Atheist":

"Standing ovations have become far too commonplace. What we need are ovations where the audience members all punch and kick one another. " -George Carlin

The Joggers - Interview and New Music

2008-06-22T23:20:00.001-06:00

So I've said, many times, my favorite group right now is The Joggers. And as I'm sure the rest of their tiny group of fans can attest, you can't listen to them for long without thinking, "Why the fuck aren't these guys more well-known?" When I bought my tickets to see them opening up for Stephen Malkmus a couple of months ago at Waterloo Records, THE independent music store in Austin, nobody there had heard of them. Yet in terms of sheer talent, there is not a more capable band in modern rock today. In terms of pushing what can be done with the standard guitar/bass/drums set-up, they are on the cutting edge few bands dare tread. The two guitars of the Joggers finger their way through chords and scales with such blazing technicality that it often sounds like several guitars playing at once. Their dissonant sound, based on a solid influence of progressive rock, was never going to sell a million records, but for them to be still virtually unheard of is a travesty. Hopefully opening up for fellow Portlander Malkmus will help spread the word.

I first heard of The Joggers on the old Pavement email list, around 2003, somebody mentioned their debut album Solid Guild. I found a mp3 of "Hot Autism", my jaw hit the floor (how could anyone's not?!?), I ordered Solid Guild from Startime, and I've been a disciple ever since. I finally got a chance to see them in 2005 when they played SXSW. I only saw the day show they did, but I'll never forget an absolutely smokin "Long Distance Runaround", and after their set I approached them, bought a replacement for the Solid Guild CD I had scratched to hell, out of the back of their van, and got them to do a radio drop for the station I was doing a radio show at at the time, and it was by far the best drop I ever got from a band:

Joggers - Radio drop

And then I saw them when they came through Austin opening up for Pretty Girls Make Graves. They are as cool and friendly as could be, and we hung out and bullshitted a while. And we did the same after their show opening up for Stephen Malkmus on April 20. They're good friends with the guys that were in Sound Team, and we hung out with Jordan from Sound Team at the show and then went back to the audio-playground-compound called Big Orange and there was another Austin friend of theirs there named Paul, who thought he was the Joggers #1 fan (I forgot to mention I made their wikipedia page, Paul, I win, haha). Dan Wilson's a pretty crazy guy - I had told them my story about the first time I smoked salvia and Dan was all, "did you bring any? I'll smoke that shit right now, I'm only mid-twenties, I don't give a fuck," but I don't know if making him like THIS would be what he had in mind. All the guys in the Joggers have zero ego, which I guess is one of the bonuses of not having a lot of success. Jake wears a fanny-pack with confidence, assuring me that "the girls love it," and I gotta admit, even with cargo shorts I sometimes don't have the room to hold all my crap and I sometimes wish I gave a fuck less enough to wear one. I'm not quite their yet, Jake, but I salute you.

And then I caught Ben and Darrell at the tail end of the night:

FP: So, opening for Stephen Malkmus is pretty cool, how many shows are you going to be opening for him?

Ben: 10, out of about a three week tour. We're taking a few days and playing some shows not with him in Lubbock, TX, and Arcata, CA, and we did some on the way down, too. But opening up for Stephen Malkmus is exciting, he was a big fixture in all of our musical education, or diseducation or whatever, so it's really cool.

FP: I've read a couple of interviews where Stephen Malkmus says he plays softball with guys from the Joggers and the Shins.

Darrell: Yeah, we're called Disjecta. Jake and I are on the team, and Stephen, and a few other guys.

FP: What position does Stephen Malkmus play?

Darrell: He's the second baseman.

FP: And you and Jake?

Darrell:: I play third base, Jake's an auxillary guy, he'll sometimes play catcher, sometimes the rover, or fourth outfielder.

FP: How did y'all's team do?

Darrell: We won the championship game!

FP: And what are you called again, Disjected?

Darrell: Disjecta. It's an art studio that our friend Brian runs. It's like an.. art space, that moves venues, and they have exhibits and put on shows and stuff like that. And the other big team in the league is the Portland Free Mercury, which is like the local free press... and they have like the most badass team. Greg Glover, who does Arena Rock Recording Company, he's a serious fucking softball dude, but I think he retired this year. But anyways, their team's always been really good, and for as long as I've been in the league, for about three years, the Mercury's always the best, they win it every time. But Disjecta beat 'em twice this year and won it, so now we're the hated squad in the league.

[note: On the Portland Free Mercury Press page reporting on Disjecta's triumph (with pic of the team), as the page was loading I noticed something funny: the text description tag for the pic, that is visible for a split second before the image starts loading, described the picture as "Disjerkta"]

FP: What's the news on your eagerly awaited third album?

Ben: Well, we parted ways with our record label.

FP: Startime?

Ben: Well, here's where it gets confusing. We were on Startime, but then Startime was sort of bought by Vagrant, which is a bit bigger label. But then they themselves were bought, as far as I understand it, by Universal. So we were on a label that was a subsidiary of a subsidiary, and it got kind of convoluted. The guy who signed us originally, Isacc Green, who's always been a good friend to us in innumerable ways, he seemed to be kind of in the process of leaving Startime, as they became a part of Vagrant, and we put out "A Cape And A Cane" with them, with the understanding that if Isaac wasn't around, that we weren't going to do it.

FP: Isaac WAS Startime, was he not?

Ben: He is, it was his label. But from what I understand, they weren't doing super great in terms of dollars, so he went off, and now Startime is sort of in stasis.

FP: He did have some marketable bands for a while, the Walkmen, the French Kicks...

Ben: They did have some marketable releases, but they also had a lot of stuff that didn't sell. Including us.

Darrell: And he did some weird shit like put out that Northern State CD, it was like this female rap group that was so terrible. He was trying to bring in some funds, you know?

Ben: Specific bands aside, it just seemed like the original idea that he had for the label was changing in a way we weren't very comfortable with. And also partnering up with Vagrant was not that cool, particularly because they were owned by Universal. I'm not saying we're puritans, it's just that we didn't feel any camaraderie or kindred spirit with a lot of the bands on Vagrant. I'm not trying to slag them, it just wasn't our scene. And they had the option to put out our third record, but we asked to leave, and they said fine, they didn't put up a fight. Isaac runs another label called Almost Gold, that's what he does now. I don't know how much of that is his or how much he's an employee or what. And so we're looking. We're terrible procrastinators, and we have a really hard time finishing songs and recording when there's not a really firm deadline that a relationship with a label can provide. Particularly if they put some money down for a studio, you have to give them something. Whereas if you're just recording the way we have been for the last year - the occasional weekend here and there, in a friend's basement, an ad-hoc computer setup, it's very, very, very convenient to put it off. And I'm a constant ditherer. So having those deadlines was really productive.

FP: You do have a lot of new songs, though, that I've heard live versions of, there must have been half a dozen new ones tonight, and new songs you've put up on Myspace...

Ben: Actually some of them are old songs that we've not played for a long time, some are brand new. And we're still writing....

Darrell: And we also have a few new songs, too, that we just decided we didn't want to perform, that we just weren't in love with, so we're still kind of going through everything and figuring out what we like and what we don't.

FP: How much does Ben write songs and how much is collaboration?

Darrell: It's more written like he writes a lot of the parts and then we arrange them. It's like he's has a riff, and we just play all of these riffs together. A hundred riffs, And then we'll be like well, 'what if we put that one with this one, does that work?', you know, it didn't really work, and then we just kind of arrange them as a group.

Ben: Yeah, I'll bring in a lot of riffs, and then we arrange them together, and then usually vocals last. I've been trying to do vocals first, but it's never happened.

FP: Your lyrics are often seem abstract, kind of cryptic like Stephen Malkmus's.

Ben: I think he's a great lyricist. I don't intentionally try to be cryptic. To me, personally, my lyrics makes sense on a level that connects with me. I know it's not "I wanna sex you up" or whatever, or who knows, maybe I should write that, I don't know. A lot of my favorite bands have lyrics that are perhaps more abstract, that's just what I connect with more often. I like bands that are very literal with their words, too, but... I think Malkmus is a great lyricist, I think his lyrical innovations were just as strong as his guitar innovations were. And I think that's a part of music that's not fully explored, what lyrics can do. It's interesting to me how some bands try to do everything under the sun with their bass, guitars, drums, same standard setup, which we consciously included because it works, it's a very efficient thing, you have rhythm, high-end, low, there's a reason why it's it's a popular configuration. But I also feel it's amazing that bands spend so much time of their instruments and so little time of what to me seem like tossed-off lyrics, that are so cliched, you know? And I guess my hope is that even if my lyrics aren't good, at least they're not cliched. But... maybe I do that too, I don't know, it's hard to say

FP: Is it a relief having music not be the day job, with no deadline, where you just have all the time you want to work on your songs?

Ben: I thought it would be, but for me personally, I'm such a terminally ambivalent person that's it's not terribly helpful. Having this tour was really cool, because we worked really hard this last month to finish stuff, so we could have new stuff on tour. But without a record company it's hard to stay on track. When you're indebted to someone financially, you work a lot harder, if they're paying your bills. I'm not saying that's an ideal situation or whatever... right now Darryl works as a tile guy, I was working as a copy editor for corporate spam, Jake's a pizza dude, Dan's a coffee guy. Those are the things that pay the bills, so that has to be the priority. It's tough. I mean I'm 30. I'm not 40 or 50, but I'm not 20, either. I don't want to peg things to age, because it is largely irrelevant, but at the same time when you're young you can go through the kind of constant upheaval to employment, and housing, that touring often creates with a lot of aplomb, or grace, or obliviousness or something. But yeah, it's tough, and it makes you long for some form of just being able to pay the rent. And there are ways to do it in music. I've heard of bands that just tour for 300 days out of the year no matter what, but that's tough, too. I had to quit my job to go on this tour, so I have that to deal with when we get back, it's tough.

Darrell: But we just need more deadlines, we're more productive when they're in place. Otherwise it never ends.

Ben: And that's what the experience has been for the last year and half, or longer. I have at least two hundred riffs on my computer. I remember a quote from Lou Barlow, he said, "The only talent I have is finishing songs," and I love that quote because I think there's a real truth to that. Anybody can come up with some cool stuff, but taking that little bit and kind of bringing it through, to complete things, is a real asset in music. But I take a lot of blame for being really slow about things.

Darrell: You're slow about a lot of stuff.

Ben: Yeah, I know.

Darrell: It's just the way you cruise. And that's cool.

Ben: Yeah, I think we are slackers in a way. We've been together for what, seven years? Yeah, and it's always just been productive when we're under the gun. in a way we want that situation again.

Darrell: Well I think, and I hope you don't mind me saying so, but I think that Murphy did bring a lot to the table when he was in the group.

Ben: He did.

Darrell: And we might have had more ideas then. Not that Dan doesn't bring a lot of ideas, but Murphy was just really serious about spending a lot of his time coming up with stuff and bringing it to us

Ben: Dan's very much a part of the band, and is committed, but I think he enjoys more the performance part of it. Murphy was definitely more focused on the big picture and writing material and finishing songs.

Darrell: He and Ben had a competitive thing going, on many different levels, but seriously, I don't know if you feel the same way, Ben, but... he wanted to compete with the riffs that Ben brought to the practices. And he worked really hard to try and bring worthy material, and he did. But like if Murphy went out and bought a sweet amplifier, Ben had to go out and buy one that was even sweeter, you know? But the competitive thing was beneficial for moving forward, bettering the group.

Ben: Yeah, he was really great about having us being productive, you know? And you know... Murphy's a really good guy... and... basically I said I didn't feel comfortable playing with him any more, because the chemistry between us, it's a really long story, but it was off in some way, you know. It was a personal chemistry thing. It was never about his guitar playing or his commitment to the band, because he was great in those regards, but it just, it wasn't working. And I've questioned myself, on whether I maybe made him a scapegoat... and perhaps I did. It's hard for me to say. I do love Dan, I don't regret having taken him on. It's just personal chemistry.

FP: How did y'all hook up with Dan?

Darrell: Our friend Charlie, who's in the band Panther. Charlie at the time played in a band called The Planet The, and Dan's college band opened for them one time. After Murphy left, we put the word out that we were looking for a guitar player, and Charlie came to us and was like "this band opened for me, this kid is great, like he can play."

FP: What were they called?

Ben: They were called Workout

Darrell: Yeah, Workout. And Charlie was like, "he can play whatever you guys do, he can play anything," and we thought "oh, that's interesting," and asked him to play. He never heard of us, we gave him a couple of CDs. He was like "yeah, this sounds OK"... he wasn't even like "yeah, I want to do this, you guys are great," he was like, "yeah, that sounds pretty cool... whatever... if you guys are going on tour I'll go with you,"

Ben: That's pretty much the way it's been for the last three years

Darrell: But I think he's grown to really like it, like the music.

FP: Do y'all still talk to Murphy:

Ben: Oh yeah.

FP: What is he doing?

Darrell: He's in enginering school. He started a band after us called Ghost Money, they played for a while, but then he got really thick into school, and he got married, and he's got about a year and a half left before he's an engineer, and he's pretty happy doing that. But it takes up most of his time. When I see him, he's like, "I can only have a beer or two, and then I gotta go do homework. He's busy, just doing homework all the time, and working full-time.

FP: How's married life treating you, Darrelll?

Darrell: It's great, as great as unmarried life.

FP: Is this your first tour since you've been married?

Darrell: Um, shit, I think it is, yeah.

FP: She's not worried about Joggers' groupies?

Ben: She knows they don't exist.

Darrell: I don't know, I was talking to her earlier and she asked, "Are there girls around?" and I'm like, "No, seriously, it's just like nerdy dudes at a recording studio hanging out." But I've been with her since the Joggers first started playing, so it's really no different. She's great.

FP: I noticed you didn't have much problem playing tonight, your hockey injury seemed to be healed.

Darrell: At first, right after the injury, it felt a bit weird, but lately I haven't felt it, it hasn't been a hindrance at all.

Ben: Do you feel it a little?

Darrell: I'll feel it a little bit, like when I need to hold a note in a specific place, it feels different, but it doesn't hurt or anything.

Ben: Do you have sensation it in totally?

Darrell: No, it's numb in parts.

FP: But when are you going to use it to finish up that third album?

Ben: Would you say we're hoping to find a label?

Darrell: We're hoping to find a label we're thrilled to be on. And if that doesn't happen, it seems at least to me, I'm comfortable just doing what we're doing

Ben: Yeah

Darrell: recording on our own, and putting things out when we can get them done.

FP: Hopefully this tour brings you some extra exposure, as well.

Darrell: We have opened up on medium-big tours before, when Solid Guild came out we opened up for Hot Hot Heat. And we were really young and excited about it, and we thought we'd get exposure and people would love it, it just didn't really didn't happen that way.

Ben: What's exciting about Stephen Malkmus is like I was saying before, he's a pretty big part of a lot of our musical upbringing. So to play with him is pretty sweet. It feels like an honor, you know?

Darrell: It's great. And when we first thought we were asked to do it, we were all like "wow".

Ben: I was like softball must be going great!

Darrell: Yeah, we were like "If that could happen, it would be awesome." And then we didn't hear from anybody for a while, and we weren't sure any more. And then Jake ran into Stephen Malkmus at a coffee shop, and he was like "you guys are opening up, right?" So here we are.

Ben: My hope I guess is that when we play with these different bands like Hot Hot Heat, and that tour was them us and the French Kicks, and we love the French Kicks, we're really good friends with those guys, so that was fun on a number of different levels. And then for Cape and A Cane we went on tour with Pretty Girls Make Graves, and that was a situation that I wouldn't say was forced upon us, but it wasn't something we felt totally comfortable about, but we did it anyways. And I guess we didn't feel a great connection between our music and their music. I hope people can see that we're excited to be playing with Stephen Malkmus, and that this isn't another tour that's just glued-on the way that a lot of tours are put together. The Pretty Girls Make Graves tour put us off touring for a while, it didn't feel good, you know? And this band doesn't make any money, so if you're not making any money why do something that doesn't make you feel good?

FP: Well, there is something dissonant about your music that will never allow you to be poppy in a Hot Hot Heat sense, but that last song you played tonight did seem to have somewhat of a steady, disco-ish dance-rock feel.

Darrell: That's actually an old song

Ben: We've thrown together a bunch of old and new ones, and that one is - I'm a huge Polvo fan, so that was... when I've been influenced by their tunings that was one I wrote like that. I mean it's no Polvo tune, but...

Darrell: rhythmically speaking, it does have that kind of disco groove, though.

Ben: Well, but that song's five years old. I guess maybe we're more comfortable playing with older ideas now, I don't know. It just seemed like we wanted to bring as much fun stuff as we could, and that seemed fun.

Darrell: We have never recorded that song, but we've had it for a long time, and we were trying to get a setlist down for this tour, and it worked.

Ben: We called it Open-C Fast for years, and now it's called "I'm Ready For My Bath". It's weird to see old material surface.

FP: So is there going to be a third album?

Ben: I really hope so. I hope so. I hope that our doubts don't overcome our enthusiasms, which is sometimes the case. I hope we find a situation that will let us finish stuff faster, instead of doing it over seasons. It's not like we're trying to write "Dark Side of The Moon" or anything, or in the studio all day long. We just have limited time to throw at it

Darrell: And the amount of time it takes to come with it is substantial, so if you don't have all day to throw at it, there's only so much you can do.

FP: Have y'all considered releasing any singles or EPs?

Darrell: yeah, but I guess it seems like we want to hold out and wait until we have enough for a record, you know?

Ben: I think that's the thing, that we're so slow as writers that do to an EP or something, while cool, it's like "why don't we just wait until we have enough to finish an album"

Darrell: It feels like a copout somehow.

FP: So there probably won't be an album this year, then?

Darrell: I can probably guarantee there won't be an album by the end of this year.

Ben: I hope we can find a connection, within ourselves or some other entity that will make it happen soon.

_______________________________________________

At the merchandise counter, the Joggers had the T-shirt pictured at the top (epic logo, btw guys) and a tour-only CD, featuring their first released material since 2005's With A Cape And A Cane. Each one was hand-made and featured a different collage of pasted cut-up pictures and stamps. I had to go for the one I affectionately think of as "Elliott Gould Orgy". These two are definitely among the mellower tracks I've ever heard from the joggers:

Joggers "Top O' The Cat"

Joggers "Plenty of Room"

And I've emailed with a guy who recorded both shows that night with a proper set-up, but I've so far been unable to get a hold of the recordings. Sorry for the delay in this post, I wanted to try to include the night's show in this post. I did bring a crappy personal recorder, so I'll share at least one song from the night, the closing track, again it's not a great quality recording, but since it may be the only live Joggers East Coast fans hear this year:

Joggers "I'm Ready For My Bath" (2008-4-20 Austin)

And if you don't own both of the Joggers' masterpieces, you can buy them direct from the band, and if you own them both, go get Solid Guild on vinyl (while you still can).

btw, thanks, Noah, for the heads up about the Cajun Gems. The indie-folk Joggers side project has, from comments on their site and myspace, apparently signed with NY's Partisan Records, who list Cajun Gems as one of their bands. The Partisan Records own site appears to be coming soon, and they write on their myspace blog: "The first 2 records on Partisan will be an expanded version of Holy Sons "Decline of the West" and the new Standard record "Swimmer"; both will be released in August." The Joggers as well as Cajun Gems are on the Partisan myspace page, so maybe Partisan is looking to sign the Joggers as well, but no word of a definite release by either of them at this point.

Live To Rock Another Day

2008-06-21T14:25:00.000-06:00

This video runs the gauntlet of emotions... from the longing pangs of nostalgia, to the excitement of the "world's first rock video game," to the shuddering horror of those shitty graphics, fist pump/leg kick, and overall gall of concept:

Happy Solstice

2008-06-20T19:25:00.004-06:00

Jonathan Richman "That Summer Feeling (Live '83)"

I got the above picture from BBC. I was going to tweak it a little, maybe darken it or something, but something weird happened when I pulled down the contrast - people appeared in the field:

Read about the solstices at wikipedia

Black Kids - Athens Popfest '07

2008-05-26T16:52:00.008-06:00

This year's Athens Popfest lineup has been announced (Roky Erickson headlining), which spurred the guy who taped a lot of last year's Popfest to get his recordings from it out to the public. Check out this thread for several recordings from Popfest 2007, including Daniel Johnston (backed by Casper and the Cookies) and Apples In Stereo frontman Robert Schneider's side project Marbles. Last year's Popfest proved to be the breakout performance for Jacksonville, Florida's Black Kids [myspace]. The strength of their infectous debut Wizard of Ahhhs EP and the buzz from their Popfest performance eventually saw them turn into US and British press darlings and signed to Columbia Records earlier this month, but it seems they are especially loved overseas, recording their debut LP in the UK while touring there. Starting in June they'll be headlining their own European tour, just played Coachella (pictured) and several festival slots in the UK, and going by those measures it's not hard to see a bright future for these guys, but it's well-deserved - those spoils are built upon a foundation of some solid music. Black Kids have a certain swagger - even at their most rocking there's an underlying laid-back disaffection, and it's a juxtaposition that works, a bit like it did for Pavement. Theirs seems to be a gentle rollicking soul overcome to bouts of dancing and tuneful yelping (and a few Isaac Brock-ish vocal phrasings). Not too hot, not too cold, juuust right, with breezy keyboards cooling the air throughout. So before their debut LP skyrockets their popularity to Vampire Weekend levels, now is a good time to go back and hear the performance that helped launch it all:

Black Kids
Athens Popfest 8/11/2007
Little Kings Shuffle Club, Athens, GA

intro
Listen to Your Body Tonight
I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You
I Wanna Be Your Limousine
Hurricane Jane
The Magnificent Seven (The Clash)
Look At Me When I Rock With You
I've Underestimated My Charm Again

Huge thanks to Lance [myspace] for recording and sharing this and all the other Popfest gems, and to Mick O for the Black Kids photo from Coachella last month. Below is last year's closing song, Daniel Johnston doing "Rock This Town". I don't think I'll be able to make it again to this year's Popfest, but someday I hope to go and see Athens, and one of the best underground festivals on the planet, and rock the town I've admired from afar for a while. Order tickets for this year's Popfest now if you have the means to go!

Daniel Johnston (w/ Casper & the Cookies, Elekibass) "Rock This Town" (Popfest '07)

I also love the coincidence that both the bands playing behind Daniel Jonston are the two main supporting backing bands of Keith John Adams. We need Adams and Johnston to get together for a duet to complete the cosmic musical triumvirate.

Tap Tap

2008-05-24T14:44:00.005-06:00

Tap Tap pretty much follows my M.O.: Hear one or two tracks from a band, absolutely love those tracks for a while, and take my damn sweet time finally getting around to check out the album. I think this blog's motto should simply be "better late than never". I'm pretty sure I picked up my Tap Tap tracks at Catbirdseat, I think the guy from Catbirdseat released Tap Tap's debut LP here in the US... about two years ago. I've finally I've gotten hold of Lanzafame, and it's superb. I'm not going to do justice to this music with words, that much is clear, most superlatives would be too over-the-top for the slightly understated music, but I don't want to downplay the gloriousness, either - and I just can't nail down the bands I want to compare them to, and even if I did, I think Tap Tap are probably better than the comparisons. They're definitely better than most of the new crap I hear today. Make up your own mind:

Tap Tap "She Doesn't Belong"

Tap Tap "To Our Continuing Friendship"

Tap Tap are from Reading, England, and fronted by one Thomas Sanders, who also is in Pete and the Pirates [myspace], who, judging from what I've heard, I like just about as much as Tap Tap, but apparently Pete and the Pirates are bigger (if Myspace comments are a measure), and have several big festival stops lined up this summer. Leave it to me to fall in love with a 2 year old side project that may never see the light of day again (Tap Tap had their own site at one time but the domain is now expired). Kind of reminds me of the Joggers offshoot Cajun Gems. BTW - I was trying to wait to get the Joggers live concert audio, to go with the interview, but whether it comes or not - Joggers interview THIS WEEK - that's a promise.

Ultimate 80's Midsummer's Day

2008-05-10T23:17:00.003-06:00

But, you may ask, what about the rest of us who are awake during daylight hours and need something more upbeat? Here you go, a companion to the previous mix... the best 80's daytime mix ever:

Listen to songs individually at muxtape.com

To download the whole mix, click below:

Ultimate 80's Midsummer's Day

I hope to get Joggers live audio to include, but even if I don't, I'll have a Joggers interview up this week

Ultimate 80's Midsummer's Night

2008-05-07T09:20:00.004-06:00

Most 80's mixes are crap. Even mixes with several or even mostly good bands often have stinkers included, or too obvious song choices. Here I've chosen mostly familiar bands, but tried not to pick the biggest hits (tracks 2&3 are arguably those bands' second biggest hits). The first few songs I chose had a kind of nighttime feel, so I stuck with that, and made sure they were songs I was already familiar with and hadn't gotten sick of, that would stand the test of even more time.

And I wasn't planning on doing a new mix right now, I had seen Muxtape, on Boing Boing and forgot about it, and then my friend Daniella clued the rest of us at the Townhall in, so once again I'm a day late but somehow catch up. Muxtape is great for what it is: a simple interface for creating and sharing mixtapes online. A batch upload feature would be nice, and to be honest, in the end if it's a mix I like I'd rather just download the songs and have them, mixtapes should in a way be free like that, but I see where Muxtapes is trying to stay afloat and not draw the labels' wrath, by linking to where you can purchase the mp3 online. But - since this is the greatest 80's mix of all time, I'm uploading it to Muxtape and providing it for download here, but if you want to give something back to the artist, buy the songs you love

To listen to the songs individually, go to muxtape.com

To download the whole mix, click below:

Ultimate 80's Midsummer's Night

Next post: Joggers interview and audio!

Polvo Reforming... Even More

2008-04-19T00:42:00.019-06:00

So you may have already heard... Explosions In The Sky is curating the upcoming All Tomorrow's Parties, to take place a month from now. They were asked who they wanted to be on their bill, and from what I've read it what almost an off-the-cuff joke when they suggested Polvo, who had been broken up for ten years and showed no signs of reunion. It's a shame Polvo's torch hasn't been carried nearly a tenth as brightly as their contemporaries The Pixies and Pavement, so who could blame the guys in EITSky for trying. Well, apparently that suggestion was all it took to get the ball rolling, Ash Bowie and most of the guys were up for it, and they were booked. What started as a couple of warm-up shows and the ATP gig itself has now expanded into a few more additional shows, and in Bowie's recent interview with Pitchfork, looks to be gearing up for maybe an album (full tour?). So if you see older music geeks giddy with excitement over the next few weeks, a big Polvo reformation may be why. I saw them once around '94, maybe '95, opening for Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 in Austin, I think at Liberty Lunch (RIP) if I'm not mistaken. You don't realize how monumental some of those memories will become when you're experiencing them. I'll never forget witnessing the sheer beautiful dissonant weirdness coming from Ash Bowie's guitar, and I'm giddy myself thinking about seeing it again. Please come play Austin again.

I've read a few reviews online of the following Polvo performance, it's probably their most essential live recording, if not concert. Not soundboard, but the content outweighs my other Polvo live recordings. It takes place in their Chapel Hill hometown area, at Merge Records' fifth anniversary party. I've seen it called a couple of things, especially Mergefest, but since I can't be sure I'll just call it the fifth anniversary party. Inspired covers and a couple of rare Polvo tracks mark this essential piece of indie rock history.

______________________

POLVO
______________________
7/30/94
Merge Records Fifth Anniversary Party
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro, N.C.
______________________

Intro
Fly Like an Eagle [Steve Miller]
Hummus [Erectus Monotone]
Fractured (Like Chandeliers)
Solitary Set
Teen Dream
Thermal Treasure
Thermal Cupid [with bits of "Shattered", "Rock Me Amadeus"]
Every Holy Shroud
What’s Going On [Husker Du]

______________________

If you don't have any Polvo, I would probably start with Exploded Drawing, then Today's Active Lifestyles. Most of Polvo's discography is available at Merge, often with the choice of mp3, flac, or CD.

And here are the confirmed upcoming Polvo shows:

May 9 Washington, DC - Black Cat
May 10 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
May 16-18 Minehead, England - Butlins Holiday Resort (Explosions in the Sky All Tomorrow's Parties)
May 29-31 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound Festival (ATP stage)
June 20 Cambridge, MA - Middle East
June 21 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
June 25 Chicago, IL - Subterranean

SXSW Audio - Breeders, Holy Fuck, MGMT

2008-04-16T17:17:00.008-06:00

I've finally got my hands on the two SXSW performances I saw which were broadcast by KEXP (Seattle) from the Austin City Limits studio - The Breeders and Holy Fuck, as well as a couple of songs broadcast in the UK of a MGMT set.

The Breeders
2008-3-14 SXSW @ACL studio, KEXP

Intro
Bang On
Walk It Off
Interview
Cannonball
Here No More

_________________________________________________

Holy Fuck
2008-3-14 SXSW @ACL studio, KEXP

Intro
Tone Bank Jungle
Frenchy's
Interview
Milkshake
false start
Lovely Allen
Royal Gregory

_________________________________________________

MGMT
2008-3-13 SXSW @ Rio, BBC

Intro
Electric Feel
Time To Pretend

Thanks to Dime user bpshell for recording and uploading the Breeders and Holy Fuck, and PontiacB for the MGMT. All three of these sets can still be found in high lossless quality at DimeADozen. And yes, I'm the dumbass who had to yell "Holy Fuck" and test the seven-second delay button. It worked.

Big Dipper Reunion

2008-04-15T17:52:00.002-06:00

Back in the late 80's I was getting most of my music from MTV's 120 Minutes (when it was good), recording each week two hours of videos not usually seen at any other time on MTV. Stuff that seems essential now like the Pixies and the Stone Roses could usually only be discovered for those two hours, most often on Sunday nights. One video and song that I always loved was "Faith Healer" from Big Dipper, I played that VHS video scores of times before finally hearing the LP. I remember scouring the new and used "cassette" stores (cuz that's what they were) trying to find a copy of Big Dipper's Heavens (Plus Boo Boo), which I later learned was an album called Heaven with the previous EP Boo Boo tacked on the end, which ended up kicking the ass of most everything else around at the time. It is pure 80's power-pop, and as I listen again its lack of gaudiness and pure inventive rock has let it age quite well. A cursory google search will show you Big Dipper is regarded often as one of the best bands of the 80's, and even more often as one of the "top 10 bands from Boston of all time". And they are reuniting for three shows in a couple of weeks:

04.24.2008 - Hoboken NJ @ Maxwell's
04.25.2008 - Brooklyn NY @ Southpaw
04.26.2008 - Cambridge MA @ Middle East Downstairs

Don't miss this rare chance to see real 80's legends, I wouldn't if I was on the East Coast. Big Dipper's Merge page also shows the track listing for the just-released Supercluster: The Big Dipper Anthology - 3 CD Set, available direct from Merge on mp3, flac, or CD.

Big Dipper "Faith Healer"

Big Dipper "Wrong In The Charts"

And Merge also has another track from Heavens (and the anthology) called "She's Fetching" for mp3 download at the BD Merge page, and other notes about the upcoming reunion. And here's the video for "Faith healer", too, kind of low sound, but something just great about it that still gets me even on what must be my 50th viewing of it:

Fashion and Suicide

2008-04-12T17:52:00.002-06:00

So somebody asked me to come up with three songs to use in a fashion show. I was told it was for "hip and contemporary" clothes. There was a committee that was doing the music, and they were having trouble coming up with music for this part of the show, and so this person took my three choices to them. My choices were all immediately and summarily dismissed. Eventually the first song was reconsidered and will be used, but I'm still a little taken back. Have I lost it? I thought for sure that each of these three songs would be perfect, what I would expect to hear at New York Fashion Week. I think they are, actually, and these people just didn't realize it. Or maybe they didn't want that. I don't even necessarily love MGMT, but I don't see how it wouldn't be perfect for this, how on first listen somebody wouldn't go "yeah, that's exactly the sound we're looking for." I think I'm right and these three songs would have been perfect:

MGMT "Kids"

Holy Fuck "Royal Gregory"

Suicide "Girl"

About that last song: When I saw Spectrum (Sonic Boom) do a one-man audio mind-melting at the Mohawk a couple months back, he opened with this song. I wasn't familiar with it, and after a long google and soulseek search found him doing it as Sonic Boom with a band called Fuxa. I also learned it was a cover from a band called Suicide. For me, another one of those names I've heard, and finally get around to listening to, and realize I've been wasting a lot of time not listening to them. They are like Can: you listen and can't believe this shit is coming from the 70's. You can immediately sense the influence to Spacemen 3 and Stereolab and other 80's and 90's electro-trance pioneers and a whole host of other bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and Primal Scream. When I read the Allmusic band overview, I realized the true unheralded weight of their genius. Two guys, basically a keyboard and a microphone, creating more dissonance than most punk bands of their era, out on their own making spooky electro music way before it was cool. Heather Phares' Allmusic review of their essential 1977 First Album says about the following song: "one of the most harrowing songs ever recorded. A ten-minute descent into the soul-crushing existence of a young factory worker."

Suicide "Frankie Teardrop"

And here is that cover of "Girl":

Füxa With Sonic Boom "Girl"

SXSW Recap + Giveaway

2008-03-22T19:11:00.060-06:00

This post is long, and overdue, but I wanted to be thorough and include all the bands I saw. I missed most of Wednesday due to work, but packed in enough free shows Thurs.-Sun. to more than make up for it, although I am getting kind of old and took it easy in the evenings for the most part. I've finally gone through hundreds of pics (click on pictures below for larger image), and will include mp3s from each band below and hopefully a link to some of their live SXSW sets, since they did almost all give me free shows that made this weekend one of my most enjoyable ever. As usual, a list of live recordings from this event can be found at Largeheartedboy.

All of the mp3s in this post can be downloaded in a zip file HERE

I kept it pretty safe and saw mostly bands I was somewhat familiar with, sometimes twice. I got to see the three original dudes from Upright Citizens Brigade twice, including my Wednesday night start at one of their ASSSCAT improv sets (the 10PM show) at the United States Art Authority, in which they did a sketch about a Hallmark card for me and my wife's sexual proclivities, which I openly divulged for free beer tickets. I don't have pics from that unfortunately, but they did announce an Asssscat show premiering later this month on Comedy Central, holy fucking fuck yeah! They have a new site which theyre touting, lots of videos, and which will no doubt be an invaluable waste of your future time:

WWW.UCBCOMEDY.COM

Upright Citizens Brigade - Live at Maxwells 2001-12-11 "Audience Q&A"

We started off Thursday at the Bay Area Takeover party at Beauty Bar, which was packed, and the Beauty Bar guys said it was their best SXSW day party yet (until they saw the line trying to get into Rachel Ray's Saturday day party there). But seriously, this many quality Bay Area bands (for free!) is already show of the week most regular weeks in Austin, and serves to start my SXSW week off on a high note, starting with the hits-just-the-right-spots indie of SF-based Scrabbel. And I've got three Bay Area Takeover sampler CDs I'll send to the first three people who send me an email with their address. And again, larger resolution images can be seen by clicking on the photo

Scrabbel

Scrabbel "Emily, I"

Film School

Film School "Like You Know"

Von Iva

Von Iva "Lala"

And in between those solid shows (and free beer and tamales) I snuck over to the Brooklyn Vegan party at Emo's to catch Parts And Labor, who were every bit as intense and kick-ass as I expected.

Parts & Labor

Parts & Labor "The Gold We're Digging"

After leaving Beauty Bar we went to try and get into the Fader's/Levi's thing at The Fort. I had planned and RSVP'ed for a wristband, but so did a lot of other people, and after waiting about 45 minutes just to get the wristbands there was another line of several hundred people with wristbands waiting to get in. After going back up front and finding out it was at capacity and realizing we'd never get in, we left down the back alley, only to happen to run into Caleb from Seventeen Evergreen, who told me he wasn't even playing at all, he was just here to check out the bands, which was cool. It's probably tough to actually check out a lot of other things when you're on a schedule and have to lug equipment around. And then up ahead further we found a back gate, and a kind bouncer who was nice enough to let me and my wifeand another pair of guys in, just in time to catch Yo La Tengo doing three Lou Reed songs, starting with "She's My Best Friend", a nice light song that plays into YLT's strentghs, and then two more where Ira started to shred a little more.

Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo "Oh Sweet Nuthin' (Lou Reed)"

Lou Reed "She's My Best Friend"

Streaming audio of YLT's show 3/13/08 from NPR

And then we started walking to Ms. Bea's, which is on 6th but on the other side of Highway 35... the other side of the tracks... where before recent gentrification efforts not many people strayed in the evening. My wife asked me twice:"on the other side of 35?" We spotted Jens Lekman and bothered him for a cheesy fan photo for which he graciously submitted. And then we found Ms. Bea's, just a couple blocks away, and which for an old south San Antonio boy like me felt a little like home, like a good ol' ice house, with people cooking meat out front and plenty of beers and soda on ice. Todd P Presents (a name I will look for in the future) put on parties here all weekend, and I genuinely felt as if I could have probably stayed there for my entire SXSW weekend and had a pretty damn good (and slightly less crowded) time.

First I saw Sunburned Hand of the Man, a smoking bluesy psychedelic electronic good time:

Sunburned Hand of the Man

Sunburned Hand of The Man "Eyelid"

And then a band I was sorely unfamiliar with beforehand, but whose name I had heard enough that I knew I needed to check them out: Athens, GA's Dark Meat. There must have been at least fifteen people playing in the band for this show. And as they set up and I scanned my eyes across the band, a face turned the lightbulb in my head on. It was The Late B.P. Helium (Bryan Poole) from of Montreal, playing backup guitar. But with the huge joyous cacophony of sound it was hard to pick him out mostly, what with three percussionists, a crapload of horns, violin, confetti-shooting lawn blower, etc. During the first song the power went out, and it happened twice, and each time the drummers and horn players kept the skeleton rhythm of the song going, and each time the power came back on and the electric instruments whooshed to life, it was a bit magical. I've heard the naysayers, and I will say appreciation for their album (soon to be re-released) is even easier after witnessing the spectacle of their live performance. Definitely catch them if you get the chance, ignore any naysayers, and maybe indulge your imbibements a bit more than normal, they get an extra pic for showmanship and including BP

Dark Meat

Dark Meat "Well Fuck You, Then"

And with that we called it an evening. Friday was just as brilliant. I had mapped and planned out what to do with military precision, including where to park to have the shortest distance to the car to run over to the HHBTM / PIAPTK showcase party later that day. My wife and were joined by my good friend and we started off at the Austin studios where they record Austin City Limits for PBS, on the campus of the University of Texas. KEXP Seattle has been taking over the studio for the last few SXSWs and broadcasting the shows, and it is by far one of the best things to do at SXSW: get a chance to see the legendary ACL studios, see top notch bands with a great sound setup, in air conditioning, and there has always been more than enough seating for the free general public. Friday started off with the Breeders. Actually, it started off with us waiting for the elevator to the sixth floor studios, only to have the doors open on our floor and the elevator full of Breeders. I waved and said "Hi" in my best Kim Deal-style innocent drawl before the doors closed and it was a good laugh. Even better was my first chance to finally see the Breeders, having been a big fan for a long, long time. In fact, the KEXP interviewer took us all back a bit I think when she announced that this year would be about twenty years for the Breeders. We old timers creaked back in our comfy chairs and cool AC and enjoyed a couple of the new Mountain Battles songs and "Cannonball":

The Breeders

"A-oooooooooo-gah"

The Breeders "Here No More"

edit: MP3S FOR THIS SET HERE If you go to the KEXP site, find the specific time the band played, you can enter it manually and listen to the strem from that time, unfortunately it appears they're not making it easier than that to listen to all the great SXSW sets they recorded. Then we headed over to try to catch Rogue Wave at the Noisepop showcase at Red eye Fly, but the line was too long. It always important to have a backup, and luckily at the time, the line across the street at the Mohawk for Friday's Hot Freaks III wasn't that long at all and quick, got in just in time to catch Austin's biggest current "it" band, White Denim, who kick so much fucking ass that just about any over-the-top superlatives wouldn't be enough to do them justice. Their live versions of songs are faster and more amped up, giving songs like "Let's Talk About It" even more thunder

White Denim

White Denim "Let's Talk About It"

And funnily enough upon leaving, the line to get in had grown much longer and wasn't moving so much, no doubt caused by White Denim's loud soulful ruckus. We hurried back across I35 to Ms. Bea's for another chance to catch Parts & Labor, who somehow were even more kickass than I remembered from the day before, and deserve an extra picture since they have so completely won me over.

Parts & Labor

Parts & Labor "New Crimes"

Parts & Labor "Camera Shy"

And then a couple of blocks away we caught Yo La Tengo again, this time at the free show on the lovely lawn and grounds of the French Legation Museum:

Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo "The Weakest Part"

And then headed to my car, triumphantly parked only about a block away, and sped uptown to the Weekend at Bernie's III Party sponsored by People In A Position To Know Records (Seattle) and Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records (Athens) and coproduced by Chris, AKA Lou2ser, who is definitely one of the top E6 collectors and historians. And let me throw a big shout out to some guys who really know how to throw a party: they were the only party I went to where the free booze truly flowed freely until the end. We caught a great set by the Besties, but were then saddened to here that THE band we most looked forward to seeing at all of SXSW had visa problems and most of the band were turned away about an hour away. It was to be Bearsuit's US premiere. I've seen them twice in the UK, including once opening for Hot Chip, and it was too funny when Iain admitted that at the time, he too had never heard of Hot Chip. But my wife had heard John Peel touting Bearsuit one night, and we've been in love with the band ever since, and, well, you can go to their myspace blog to hear them talk about it - but really. I am still really pissed about this. They were an official SXSW band, I can't believe the SXSW officials can't do a little more to work with immigration authorities to ensure the kind of major fuck up that happened to Bearsuit (and others) doesn't happen again, especially in Dallas, so close to finally getting here! and half the band is simply told to fuck off. I bet Lisa was wearing her fishnets. That was it, can't have dirty, sexy leg showing in our pure country, now can we? What did they prove?? Who did they protect??? What American was at risk of Bearsuit???? I know, maybe they were afraid Bearsuit would simply blow people's minds through metaphysical terroristic means! Agghhhhh!!!! Anyways, the Besties were great, wish I could have seen all the bands as this swell shindig

The Besties

The Besties "Western Song"

And Furniture Records happened to be having their party just a few houses down from this one, and Jason Forrest was playing/DJing, so we ran over there for a bit. During my last stint on the radio in 2005, we got in Jason Forrest's last CD. I was unfamiliar with him before that, or his career as Donna Summer, but soon became familiar as I heard his cut-and-paste techno freakouts and collages. In the backyard before the show I saw Dan Friel of Parts & Labor, he said they weren't playing there, he was just there to check out music, so we headed into the house to do just that. It's weird watching a guy play a laptop when you can't tell what he's doing, but there were a couple of trip-ups which showed it was live, and the beat never really stopped. In the cleared living room space Jason Forrest stood before his PA and laptop (which looked like a pulpit) with a glowing colored Virgin Mary wall plaque behind him that was property of the house owners but completed the presence. He casually walked over before beginning his set and introduced himself to me since I was first in the room, and I told him about how much I like his last CD, including the song I mistakenly called "101 Punk Songs". He was too kind to correct me then, but during the set he said the correct title, "My 36 Favorite Punk Songs", before dedicating it to his "radio friend" and playing what he told us was the song's premiere. It is simply 36 punk songs cut and pasted together. And because when he started off his set asking for nudity I was the only one who evened unbuttoned my shirt, he came right for me when he decided to start a moshpit right then and there at four in the afternoon in a sweaty living room. To me it seemed like the whole room was pulsating and shoving, but afterwards my wife assured me it was just me and him. Easily my best single SXSW 2008 memory.

Jason Forrest

Jason Forrest "My 36 Favorite Punk Rock Songs"

Jason Forrest "Spectacle To Refute All Judgments"

Then back to the Weekend At Bernies party in time to catch the Muggabears, who take a bits of Sonic Youth and Pavement and give it some new shimmer and polish

Muggabears

Muggabears "Nadia's Pair"

And ran into two of the members of Bearsuit who were able to make it, Iain and Jan, who were nice as could be but understandably disappointed. It will only make their US premiere later this year in New York that much more triumphant - don't miss that if you're in NY!

Bearsuit

Bearsuit "XXVVV XXVVV"

Bearsuit "Rodent Disco"

The party closed outside in front of the garage with Karl Blau, who was an excellent choice, nice and sublime and leaving the afternoon with a nice glow, or maybe that was the generously supplied rum and cokes. Regardless, thanks for one of the better parties of the season!

Karl Blau

Karl Blau "Into The Nada"

Then back over to the ACL studio to catch Holy Fuck's KEXP set. They had a different drummer than they had when they opened for Super Furry Animals a couple of months ago, the previous drummer also drums for Enon, but this drummer was just as on-target with the super-charged Trans-Am-style throwdown, with that solid bass and two electronic whizzes facing each other pulling out some damn brilliant harmonies. Definitely THE album excluded from my best of list last year, and I had heard it, too! Simply a horrible oversight, which will be corrected by listening to a lot of Holy Fuck from now on

Holy Fuck

Holy Fuck "Lovely Allen"

MP3 FROM THIS SET HERE

Holy Fuck 3/13/08 at the Emo's Annex, from Lullabye

And then home for dinner and decompression and a chance to meet up with my good friend Brian from the Boing Boing-approved Casbah Radio and his lovely lady. We then met up with good buddy Phillip (Good seeing you, Phillip, sorry you missed my road rage incident) and caught the showcase performance of Friends of Dean Martinez, one of the few shows I had to pay to see, and well worth it. Instead of long lines and possibly over-hyped new kids, I strolled in to a BBQ joint and spent the evening listening to extremely talented players lay down their Pink Floyd/desert/surf/pedal steel/organ/Americana goodness

Friends of Dean Martinez

Friends of Dean Martinez "Landfall"

Then we headed to the last performance of the UCB guys, a midnight showcase at the Alamo Drafthouse Lamar (dinner/beer/movie) called "Fucked Up And Illegal Videos", which featured just what the title suggests, interspersed with segments of improv based on audience members, including a great phone prank and especially when three audience members had to reenact the dance moves of the mentally-challenged. But I have now seen eels swim out of a woman's pussy, I have seen enough Robocock for this lifetime, and I have seen a boy straight out of Children of the Corn trying to make a real-life showreel for acting jobs by portraying Adolf Hitler in full operatic overdrive:

Upright Citizens Brigade

Upright Citizens Brigade - The Sound of Young America on PRI

Got a late start Saturday, and there was no way to make it into Beauty Bar for the Rachel Ray party including Raveonettes, so we headed across 7th to the Athens GA-based 40 Watt Club's party for a quick stop. Got to see a rock band with more talent than most of what's on the FM rock stations, and meet 40 Watt (owner?) Zach, who was giving out plenty of free PBRs and good will to start out the day.

Summerbirds In The Cellar

Summerbirds In The Cellar "Beware of False Prophets"

SITC /12/08 streaming from NPR

And then we decided the best bet for Saturday was the huge Mess With Texas II Party put on by The 857 Collective and Transmission Entertainment which featured three stages of great acts and not a lot of walking time in between them, but not nearly enough beer/food stands or porta-potties (work on that next year and you'll be a can't miss for next year, too, guys). It's in Waterloo Park, just a few blocks north of the Red River/6th St. action, close enough to give us a chance for a break where my friends hurried over to catch the Raveonettes at the ACL studio and me and my wife WERE going to see SFA member Gruff Rhys's band Neon Neon (who apparently canceled their Mess With Texas II gig) but ended up making a detour over to the Hot Freaks III party at Mohawk in time to catch the over-the-top Japanese musical extravaganza that is Peelander-Z.

Peelander Z

Peelander-Z "Mad Tiger"

But mostly Saturday it was a nice change of pace to see so many acts (so close together) at Waterloo Park:

White Denim

White Denim "Darksided Computer Mouth"

Kimya Dawson

Kimya Dawson "Loose Lips"

Brian Posehn apparently had laryngitis, and after attempting to do a few jokes, called out Eugene Mirman to recite his jokes for him. The funny part was that as Posehn "whispered" the joke to Mirman it was still clearly audible to the crowd, so there were double laughs as Mirman tried to put proper comedian emphasis on the joke we had just heard two seconds previously:

Brian Posehn and Eugene Mirman

Brian Posehn "Married Life/Sorry Fat Dudes"

And the rest of the day was also what you'd expect from a top-notch paid-entry festival, again for absolutely free. Bradford Cox's Atlas Sound had just the right musical elements to fill a festival crowd quite nicely, Black Mountain stomped and smoldered and were perhaps the perfect band to play in front of a sunset, and the Breeders didn't disappoint - Kim Deal still at times seems tickled on stage that old classics like "Divine Hammer", "Cannonball", and their cover of "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" elicit such strong responses from the crowd

Atlas Sound

Atlas Sound "Quarantined"

Black Mountain

Black Mountain "Bright Lights"

The Breeders

The Breeders "Night of Joy"

And then there's usually not much going on Sunday, which is good because by that point most people are drained. The best two free Sunday night parties were right across the street from each other, the Phono Records and Lucky Rabbit Films party at Habana Calle 6, and the final SXSW party at Emo's. All the bands at the Habana Calle gig were great, and not too hard on overworked ears, but closer Mrandmrsmays refused to let the weekend go out on a low note, cranking out their new wave goodness and picking everybody in the club up for one last time.

mrandmrsmays

mrandmrsmays "Freak On"

And then over to Emo's for the nightcap, where somehow dancing to Madonna and other crap just doesn't seem wrong, especially when it's being pumped out by Prince Klaussen and DJ Jester

DJ Jester

DJ Jester opening for of Montreal 1/21/07

"Alright, get the fuck out of Emo's and go home..."

I vow to get some proper portable recording gear by this time next year.

SXSW 2008 Preview

2008-03-11T22:06:00.010-06:00

It's a great time to live five minutes from downtown Austin. Like every time I've been to SXSW, I'm not buying a badge or wristband, because they are completely unnecessary to seeing a shitload of bands. They let you get into the official showcases at night, but if there's a showcase you really want to see, show up early and see what happens. But each band usually only plays one night showcase, so even with a wristband, scheduling conflicts could force you to join to hordes shuffling in and out of all the free day shows in order to catch that band you're dying to see. And SXSW this year seems to be getting going earlier than ever, I swear even just last year there were only a handful of shows and parties before the official Wednesday start, but this year they've been going strong since Monday night. So, most bands will play at least 2-3 day shows, usually more if they can, and one night show, so again the wristband (and the expense) are unnecessary to have a good time.

The free unofficial SXSW day show bible: showlistaustin.com

So for any SXSW naysayers: where and when else are you going to see all of these bands, for absolutely free?

There are enough shows listed at showlistaustin to keep me too busy just to see the bands that I already really like, but it's really not hard to find yourself hearing and seeing something great that you didn't expect. However, even though I've already seen a few of them, there are a few bands I'm really looking forward to seeing:

Breeders (finally)
Bearsuit (US premiere of one of my most beloved bands - artsy, twee, start-stop excitement)
Mr. and Mrs. Mays (big things in the future for this Austin band - punkish new-wavish YeahYeahYeahs-style excitement)
Black Angels (also from Austin, just saw them a few weeks ago opening for Spectrum, hadn't heard much of them, but on a headful of shrooms their authentic-but-contemporary swampy psych hit the spot)
Parts and Labor (fuck yeah)
Holy Fuck (holy fuck yeah)
Scrabbel (sweeeeet)
Raveonettes (finally)

And of course I hope to find a new band or two. Also, some free day shows/parties I definitely expect to hit are:

-At least one day of the Little Radio/Noisepop 2008 shows
-The Fader/Levi's Lou Reed Tribute w/ OhNo!OhMy!, Mark Kozelek, Yo La Tengo, and more (Thurs.)
- The Bay Area Takeover, bringing top bands from the San Fransisco/Oakland area (Thu.)
- The Hot Freaks III mega-blog-party (Thu. & Fri.)
- The Weekend At bernies house party put on by two of my favorite indie labels, PIAPTK and HHBTM (Fri.)
- The three-stage Mess With Texas Festival II in Waterloo Park, headlined by the Breeders (Sat.)

And the rest of this post is mostly just a note to myself that I can check on the phone of shows I would like to catch, and a big nyah-nyah to those of you not in Austin for the rest of this week:

UPDATED: I forgot to include the Above the Radar two-stage party at Trophy's on Thursday, hosted by a trio of Austin blogs far cooler than yours truly, I assure you. I wasn't that familiar with the bands, but after a cursory myspace music check-out, this show comes recommended. And isn't finding new bands supposed to be one of the goals of attending SXSW?

Also - My good friend Daniella at Like Two Deer Winning a Race highly recommends you check out Screaming Cyn Cyn and The Pons, Mar 13 8:00P Molotov Lounge, 719 W. 6th St. & also
Mar 16 3:00P the backyard, 4604 Kitty Ave

WEDNESDAY DAY:

Little Radio/Noisepop 2008 present
Octopus Project (5:30pm), Die! Die! Die! (4:50pm), White Denim (4:10pm), Restaurant (3:30pm), Two Gallants (2:50pm), Foreign Born (2:10pm), Brothers & Sisters (1:30pm), Tom Freund (12:50pm), The Explorer's Club (12:10pm), Brazos (11:40am) at the Red Eyed Fly (free, starts at 11am, 18+, free bloody marys and beer for 21+

Force Field PR & Terrorbird Media present
El Guincho (5:35pm), The Blow (5:05pm), WHY? (4:25pm), The Mae Shi (3:40pm), The Raveonettes (2:55pm), YACHT (2:10pm), These New Puritans (1:30pm), Evangelicals (12:45pm), These United States (noon) at Emo's (outside stage, free)
Hey Willpower (5:30pm), Panther (4:45pm), The Death Set (4pm), Let's Go To War (3:15pm), Bowerbirds (2:30pm), Headlights (1:45pm), Radar Bros. (1pm), Laura Barrett (12:15pm) at Emo's (inside stage, free)

Gorilla vs. Booze
The Cool Kids (Chicago, 4:45pm), Holy Fuck (Toronto, 4pm), Bodies Of Water (LA, 3:15pm), Ghosthustler (2:30pm), White Williams (1:45pm), White Denim (1pm), The Party DJs (Dallas) at the Peacock (free, free beer, 21+)

Business Deal Records day show, sponsored by KOOP 91.7FM
Fishboy, Count Dracula's Weed Smuggling Jam Engine, Pataphysics, Charles Potts Magic Windmill Band, Shapes Have Fangs at Lovejoys (noon-6pm, free, free beer)

Go Entertainment presents
Golden Bear (5:15pm), Brazos (3:45pm), Transfer (2:15pm), The Always Already (12:34pm), Noise Revival Orchestra (11:15am) at the Scoot Inn (stage 1)
Quiet Company (4:30pm), Pink Nasty (3pm), The Model UN (1:30pm), The Boxing Lesson (noon) at the Scoot Inn (stage 2)
Danny Malone (5pm), Frank Smith (4pm), Tom Schraeder (3pm), Matthew Ryan (2pm), Leatherbag (1pm), Curtis Evans (noon) at the Scoot Inn (stage 3)

GOOD, NRDC, and the Hotel San Jose present Choose Good Austin
Noisettes, Kimya Dawson, Lightspeed Champion, The Deadly Syndrome, Mason Jennings, The Exit, Langhorne Slim, Hello Stranger at the Hotel San Jose (1316 S. Congress Ave., noon-9pm)

WEDNESDAY NIGHT:

Todd P presents Midnight Unamplified Acoustic Party
Death Set, Ninjasonik, Best Fwends, Deer Tick, Vivian Girls, Finally Punk, Dan Deacon, Best Friends Forever, These Are Powers, The So So Glos, An Albatross, Gowns, Karl Blau, Video Hippos, Little Claw, Scary Mansion, Headlights, Dark Meat, dd/mm/yyyy, Meneguar, Muggabears, Woods, Jeremy Jay, Hawnay Troof, Hard Bop on the UT Austin Main Mall (middle of the six-pack buildings, starts at midnight, free, all ages, no open bottles or cans, all acts acoustic, 2 songs each, no particular order)

THURSDAY DAY:

Covert Curiosity, Sonic Itch Music and Cubik Musik Present: Above the Radar - a huge day party with two stages orchestrated by a trio of Austin-based music blogs.

Ume, Thee Emergency, Monahans, Land of Talk, The Shackeltons, Dead Confederate at Trophy's (inside stage)
Lady Pterodactyl, Transmography, The Death Set, Table Manners Crew, 1/2 Alive, Ghislain Poirier at Trophy's (outstage)

Birds Barbershop and PartyEnds.com present Birds Big Top Blowout
Sons & Daughters (6:15pm), Moth!Fight! (5:30pm), Dizzee Rascal(4:30pm), Dawn Landes (3:45pm), Hymns (3pm), Lykke Li (2:15pm), Zookeeper (1:30pm), Special guests (12:45pm), Hopewell (Noon), Oakland producer/DJ Amplive (between sets) at Birds Barbershop (2110 South Lamar, free, free drinks, parking limited, take #3 bus)

Little Radio/Noisepop 2008 present
The Black Angels (5:30pm), Spindrift (4:50pm), A Place to Bury Strangers (4:10pm), The Big Sleep (3:30pm), The Raveonettes (2:50pm), The Pity Party (2:10pm), Grand Archives (1:30pm), Minipop (12:50pm), Peel (12:10pm), Yellow Fever (11:40am) at the Red Eyed Fly (free, starts at 11am, 18+, free bloody marys and beer for 21+)

Paste and Stereogum present the Dell Lounge
Peter Moren (of Peter Bjorn & John, 5pm), Delta Spirit (4pm), Colour Revolt (3pm), Destroyer (2pm), Nada Surf (1pm), My Brightest Diamond (noon) at Volume Night Club (612 E. 6th St., free, RSVP here)

Brooklyn Vegan presents
Holy Fuck (5:20pm), Phosphorescent (4:30pm), Men (Le Tigre, DJ, 4pm), Lykke Li (3:30pm), Men (Le Tigre, DJ, 3pm), Why? (2:30pm), No Kids (1:45pm), Peter Moren (1pm), Dawn Landes (12:15pm), The Ting Tings (11:30am) at Emo's (annex)
Fleet Foxes (5:30pm), Clip'd Beaks (4:45pm), Genghis Tron (4:00pm), Parts & Labor (3:15pm), Team Robespierre (2:30pm), Eugene Mirman (2:15pm), Grand Ole Party (1:30pm), Muggabears (12:45pm), The Mae Shi (noon) at Emo's (lounge, free, free bloody marys)

All Roads Lead to Austin, Other Music 2008 Lawn Party
Times New Viking (6pm), Jay Reatard (5pm), Mika Miko (4pm), These New Puritans (3pm), J. Mascis (2pm), Bodies of Water (1pm) at the French Legation Museum (802 San Marcos St., noon-7pm)

NPR Music show and live broadcast
Vampire Weekend (4pm), Bon Iver (3:15pm), Yeasayer (2:30pm), AA Bondy (2pm), Jens Lekman (1:15pm), Shout Out Louds (12:30pm) at the Parish (Will be broadcast live on KUT, KEXP, The Current, WFUV, and WXPN)

The Current Live at SXSW
The Rascals (5:45pm), Cloud Cult (4:30pm), Jim Noir (3:30pm), DeVotchka (2:30pm), Sons & Daughters (1:15pm), Jesca Hoop (noon), The Raveonettes (11am) at the Free Yr Radio Broadcast Corner (7th and Red River, free, broadcast live on the Current)

Fader/Levi's present
N.E.R.D. (8pm), Tribute to Lou Reed with What Laura Says Thinks and Feels, Paper Route, Oh No! Oh My!, Ezra Furman & the Harpoons, Joseph Arthur, Dr. Dog, Mark Kozelek, Yo La Tengo, My Morning Jacket, Moby, Thurston Moore & the new Wave Bansdits (5:45-7:30pm), Saul Williams (5pm), Birdmonster (4:15pm), Grand Ole Party (3:30pm), Joe Lean & the Jing Jang Jong (2:45pm), The Ting Tings (2pm), Ben's Brother (1:30pm) with Queen Majesty, Tittsworth and Dave Nada, and the Fluo Kids at The Fort (204 E. 4th St., 1pm-8pm, 21+, invite-only, RSVP here)

The Bay Area Takeover
Two Gallants (5:30pm), Von Iva (4:45pm), The Black (4pm), 60 Watt Kid (3:15pm), Music for Animals (2:30pm), The Union Trade (1:45pm), Social Studies (1pm), Form and Fate (12:15pm) at the Beauty Bar (indoor stage)
Scissors for Lefty (5pm), Film School (4:15pm), Loquat (3:30pm), Scrabbel (2:15pm), Birds and Batteries (1:30pm), D.W. Holiday (12:45pm), Aim Low Kid (noon) at the Beauty Bar (outdoor stage, noon-6pm, free, free beer, coffee and food, rsvp here)

Schubas' 12th Annual SXSW Round-Up
Okkervil River, The Cool Kids, Peter Moren, Blitzen Trapper, The Spinto Band, The Builders & the Butchers, Black Joe Lewis, Ben Jelen, Aleks & the Drummer, DJ sets by The Hood Internet and Ohmega Watts at Yard Dog Gallery (1510 S. Congress Ave., noon-7pm, all ages, free)

THURSDAY NIGHT:

Todd P presents Bikes in the Kitchen party
Matt & Kim (between sets), Team Robespierre (10:30pm), Best Fwends (10pm), Ninjasonik (9:30pm), Vivian Girls (9pm), Juiceboxxx (8:30pm), The Death Set (8pm), Dark Meat (7:30pm), Sunburned Hand of the Man (7pm), World/Inferno Friendship Society (6:30pm) at Ms. Bea's (1104 E. 6th St., free)

KVRX-plosion!
Crime Novels, The Mae Shi, Mammoth Grinder, Mika Miko, Lucky Dragons, Indian Jewelry, Clipd Beaks, Knyfe Hyts, Best Fwends, Crystal Castles at the Austin Chidren's Museum (2nd and Colorado, 11pm-4am, free, RSVP here)

FRIDAY DAY:

Little Radio/Noisepop 2008 present
Autolux (5:30pm), Grand Ole Party (4:50pm), Helio Sequence (4:10pm), The Little Ones (3:30pm), Rogue Wave (2:50pm), David Dondero (2:10pm), Film School (1:30pm), Ed Harcourt (12:50pm), Li'l Cap'n Travis (12:10pm), Magic Bullets (11:40am) at the Red Eyed Fly (free, starts at 11am, 18+, free bloody marys and beer for 21+)

An Aquarium Drunkard, Daytrotter, Gorilla Vs Bear, Largehearted Boy, My Old Kentucky Blog and You Ain't No Picasso present Hot Freaks III
British Sea Power (5pm), Blitzen Trapper (4pm), White Denim (3pm), Cadence Weapon (2pm), The Dodos (1pm), Nicole Atkins & The Sea (noon) at the Mohawk (outside stage)
Jason Collett (4:30pm), Bowerbirds (3:30pm), Cameron McGill (2:30pm), Ola Podrida (1:30pm), Blair (12:30pm) at the Mohawk (inside stage)
Jens Lekman (4:30pm), Peter Moren (3:30pm), Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears (2:30pm), Blood on the Wall (1:30pm), Evangelicals (12:30pm) at Club Deville

Todd P presents
Fucked Up (4:30pm), Extreme Animals -----> Paper Rad (4pm), Parts and Labor (3:30pm), Meneguar (3pm), Clockcleaner (2:30pm), Yacht (2pm), Rah Dunes (1:30pm), Dynasty Handbag (1pm), Fiasco (12:30pm), Muggabears (noon) at Ms. Bea's (1104 E. 6th St., free)

Pitchfork/Windish Agency party
No Age (5:30pm), Yeasayer (4:30pm), Fleet Foxes (3:30pm), Bon Iver (2:30pm), Jay Reatard (1:30pm), Lykke Li (12:30pm) at Emo's (outside stage, free)
A Place to Bury Strangers (5pm), Times New Viking (4pm), Atlas Sound (3pm), Fuck Buttons (2pm), White Williams (1pm), High Places (12pm) at Emo's (inside stage, free)

Skyscraper Magazine and Peta2.com present
The Von Bondies (5:15pm), Make Believe (4:30pm), Old Time Relijun (3:45pm), Die! Die! Die! (3pm), Genghis Tron (2:15pm), By the End of Tonight (1:30pm), Panther (12:45pm), Mtn. High (noon), DJ List Christee (Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal) at Emo's Lounge (noon-6pm, free, all ages)

All Roads Lead to Austin, Other Music 2008 Lawn Party
Shearwater (6pm), Atlas Sound (5pm), Yo La Tengo (4pm), Portastatic (3pm), Grand Archives (2pm), Phosphorescent (1pm) at the French Legation Museum (802 San Marcos St., noon-7pm)

Furniture Records Party
Reykjavik (7pm), Awesome Cool Dudes (6:30pm), Thee Ohsees (6pm), Shooting Spires (5:30pm), GOWNS (5pm), Jason Forrest (4:30pm), Pterodactyl (4pm), Buffalo Stance (3:30pm), Modey Lemon (3pm), Los Llamarada (2pm) at the Furniture Residence (1009 E. 44th St., free, free beer, please be respectful of their neighbors)

Vice Saves Texas
1349 (7:15pm), Enslaved (6:30pm), Dark Meat (5:45pm), The Raveonettes (5pm), Jay Reatard (4:15pm), The Night Marchers (3:30pm), Fucked Up (2:45pm), Monotonix (2pm), Howlin Rain (1:15pm) at the Vice Outdoor Stage (1106 E. 11th St.)
Annihilation Time (7:30pm), Los Liamarada (6:45pm), Psychedelic Horseshit (6pm), Wooden Shjips (5:15pm), Tweak Bird (4:30pm), Fuck Buttons (3:45pm), Torche (3pm), Moonrats (2:15pm), The Nymphets (1:30pm), The Cops (12:45pm) at the Longbranch Inn (1133 E. 11th St.)
Matt & Kim (7pm), Mika Miko (6:15pm), The Death Set (5:30pm), The Mae Shi (4:45pm), The Strange Boys (4pm), Sebastian Grainger (3:15pm), Abe Vigoda (2:30pm), The Muslims (1:45pm), Coconut Coolouts (1pm) at Victory Grill (1104 E. 11th St.)

Waterloo Records presents
Kimya Dawson (6pm), Elf Power (5pm), Division Day (4pm), Sea Wolf (3pm), Shelby Lynne (2pm) at Waterloo Records (free, free beer)

Ever Loving presents
Akron/Family, Herman Dune, Biirdie, Megafaun, El Guincho, Walter Meego at Design Within Reach (200 W. 2nd St. at Colorado, 4-8pm, 21+, free with RSVP to info@everloving.com)

Urban Outfitters party
MGMT (4pm), Two Gallants (3pm), Bodies of Water (2pm), Le Loup (1pm), Port O'Brien (noon) at Urban Outfitters (2406 Guadalupe, free)

KEXP Live in Austin
Holy Fuck (7:30pm), Does It Offend You Yeah? (5:30pm), Handsome Furs (3:30pm), The Breeders (1:30pm), Devotchka (11:30am) at the KLRU Studios (Guadalupe and Dean Keeton, see map here, free)

Anavan (7:30pm), Nero's Day at Disneyland (7pm), Mistress (6:30pm), LIT (6pm), Friends Forever (5:30pm), Magic Johnson (5pm), Ima Gymnist (4:30pm), Devon Williams (4pm), Kevin Shields (3:30pm), Foot Village (3pm), Mika Miko (2:30pm), No Age (2pm), Lisa Cameron (12:30pm), Douglas Ferguson (noon) at the Opera House (2209 K South 1st St., behind End of an Ear)

The Early Tapes (12:30am), School Police (11:35pm), Bear Claw (10:45pm), Sugar & Gold (10pm), The Gay Blades (9:10pm), Airwaves (8:25pm), Woodhands (7:40pm), Til We're Blue or Destroy (6:55pm), The Mockery Birds (6:05pm), Masonic (5:20pm), The Botticellis (SF, 4:30pm), Honey Thief (3:45pm) at the Hole in the Wall

Scene Magazine party
And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, The Black Keys, Health, The Cribs, Soundtrack of our Lives at La Zona Rosa (noon-5pm)

PIAPTK Records and HHBTM Records present: Weekend at Bernie's 3
Karl Blau (6pm), Bearsuit (5:30pm), Laura Gibson (5pm), The Muggabears (4:30pm), The Poison Control Center (solo acoustic, 4pm), The Besties (3:30pm), Fishboy (3pm), Corn Mo (2:30pm), Folklore (2pm), Southerly (solo acoustic, 1:30pm), Golden Boots (1pm), Ryan Anderson (12:30pm), Birth Mother (noon) at 1024 East 44th St.

FRIDAY NIGHT:

Blender After Hours
Diplo, A-Trak, The Cool Kids, DJ Sets by Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal, The Bloids and Drive A at Action Figure, East Side Stages (3000 E. Cesar Chavez, midnight-4am, 21+)

Todd P presents Upset the Rhythm party
Death Sentence: Panda! (11:30pm), Knyfe Hyts (11pm), Josh Taylor's Friends Forever (10:30pm), Kevin Shields -vs- Foot Village (10pm), John Maus (9:30pm), Kimya Dawson (9pm), Angelo Spencer (8:45pm), Karl Blau (8:20pm), Lexie Mountain Boys (8pm), High Places (7:30pm), Telepathe (7pm), Lucky Dragons (6:30pm), Pit Er Pat (6pm), Hecuba (5:30pm), Icy Demons (5pm) at Ms. Bea's (1104 E. 6th St., free)

SXS&M
The Selmanaires (1am), Modern Skirts (midnight), Morning State (11pm), The Pendletons (10pm), Anna Kramer (9pm), Trances Arc (8pm), Peel (7pm), The Druggists (6pm), XYZ Affair (5pm), Jeremy Jay (4pm), Pillow Queens (3pm) at Chain Drive (504 Willow St., inside stage, free)
Apache Beat (12:30am), Twin Crystals (11:30pm), Alice Russell (10:30pm), Nicky Click (9:30pm), Scream Club (8:30pm), Thuis Life Electric (7:30pm), STNNNG (6:30pm) at Chain Drive (504 Willow St., outside stage, free)

Willie Nelson at the Backyard

SATURDAY DAY:

The 857 Collective and Transmission Entertainment present Mess With Texas 2
The Breeders (8:40pm), Islands (7:45pm), Black Mountain (6:50pm), Neon Neon (6:10pm), Atlas Sound (5:25pm), Two Gallants (4:45pm), Darker My Love (4:10pm), Grand Ol Party (3:35pm), White Denim (2:25pm), Shearwater (1:45pm), Aloha (1:15pm), Mellowdrone (12:45pm) at Waterloo Park (main stage, 1301 Trinity St., noon-10pm, free, all ages)
NOFX (8:50pm), Lucero (8:05pm), Dead to Me (7:25pm), Municipal Waste (6:45pm), Fucked Up + special guest (5:50pm), Jay Reatard (5:15pm), Pissed Jeans (4:40pm), The Night Marchers (featuring John Reis, 3:55pm), Howlin Rain (3:20pm), Wooden Shjips (2:40pm), Annihilation Time (2:05pm), Moonrats (1:30pm), The Selmanaries (1pm) at Waterloo Park (second stage, 1301 Trinity St., noon-10pm, free, all ages)
Simian Mobile Disco (8:45pm), Matt & Kim (7:55pm), No Age (7:10pm), Yeasayer (6:25pm), Gil Mantera's Party Dream (5:40pm), Brian Posehn (5:15pm), Human Giant (5pm), Leo Allen (4:50pm), Paul F Tompkins (4:35pm), Hard N Phirm (4:20pm), Eugene Mirman (4:05pm), Jon Benjamin & Jon Glaser (3:55pm), Reggie Watts (3:45pm), The Fun Bunch (3:30pm), Kimya Dawson (3pm), Janeane Garofalo (2:45pm), Jonah Ray (2:35pm), Earles & Jensen (2:25pm), Todd Barry (2:10pm), Matt Braunger (2pm), Panther (1:30pm), Monotonix (1pm), The Coathangers (12:15pm) at Waterloo Park (third stage, 1301 Trinity St., noon-10pm, free, all ages)

An Aquarium Drunkard, Daytrotter, Gorilla Vs Bear, Largehearted Boy, My Old Kentucky Blog and You Ain't No Picasso present Hot Freaks III
Islands (5pm), Peelander-Z (4pm), A Place to Bury Strangers (3pm), Film School (2pm), The Whigs (1pm), Bad Veins (noon) at the Mohawk (outside stage)
White Hinterland (4:30pm), David Bazan (3:30pm), The Acorn (2:30pm), Le Switch (1:30pm), Frankel (12:30pm) at the Mohawk (inside stage)
Lykke Li (4:30pm), White Rabbits (3:30pm), List Christee (Kevin Barnes DJ set, 3pm), Bodies of Water (2:30pm), The Jealous Girlfriends (1:30pm), Lyrics Born (12:30pm) at Club Deville

Todd P presents
Wizardzz (8pm), Health (7:30pm), Old Time Relijun (7pm), Mika Miko (6:30pm), Crime Novels -vs- Clipd Beaks (6pm), Tiny Masters of Today (5:30pm), Psychedelic Horseshit (5pm), White Mice (4:30pm), Little Claw (4pm), Teenage Moms (3:30pm), Northampton Wools featuring Thurston Moore (3pm), Greg Ashley (2:30pm), Pterodactyl (2pm), Shooting Spires (1:30pm), New Bloods (1pm), Finally Punk (12:30pm), Cheveau (noon) at Ms. Bea's (1104 E. 6th St., free)

Paste and Stereogum present the Dell Lounge
Kevin Barnes DJ set (5pm), HEALTH (4pm), No Age (3pm), Blitzen Trapper (2pm), High Places (1pm), Fuck Buttons (noon) at Volume Night Club (612 E. 6th St., free, RSVP here)

The Garden Party
Kimya Dawson (6:45pm), Okkervil River (6:05pm), She & Him (5:15pm), Thurston Moore and the New Wave Bandits (4:30pm), J Mascis (3:50pm), Sons And Daughters (3pm), Lightspeed Champion (2:20pm), Laura Marling (1:40pm), Noah And The Whale (12:50pm), Emmy The Great (noon) at the French Legation Museum (802 San Marcos St., noon-8pm, RSVP to events@pressherepresents.com)

Misc. Music Showcase
Half Japanesse (9pm), Aliens (8pm), Peelander-Z (7pm), S-T-B (6pm), Damage Pants/iKiLLCaRS (5pm), Sado-Massachusetts (4pm), Inverted Colors (3pm), Illinois Payson (2pm), No Mas Bodas (1pm) at Counter Cafe (626 N. Lamar at 6th St., free)

Cream Vintage presents
TBA (7pm), The Mercers (6pm), The Teeth (5pm), Mr. and Mrs. Mays (4pm), The Steps (3pm), The Hymns (2pm) at Cream Vintage (2532 Guadalupe, free)

Four on the Floor Party
De Nova Dahl (10pm), The Always Already (9:15pm), The Burning Hotels (8:30pm), The Show is the Rainbow (7:45pm), Astronautilis (7pm), Black Tie Dynasty (6:15pm), AM Syndicate (5:30pm), So Many Dynamos (4:45pm), The Vivian Girls (4pm), 33 Black Angles (3:15pm), The Nobility (2:30pm), David Israel (1:45pm), The Mediums (1pm), They Mean Us (12:15pm), Catalina Rose (11:45pm) behind Parts & Labour (1604 S. Congress Ave., free)

Vice Scion Electro Show
Chromeo (3:05pm), Digitalism (2:05pm), Mixhell (1:10pm), Black Moth Super Rainbow (12:30pm), Mixhell (noon) at Stubb's

Waterloo Records presents
Half Japanese (6pm), Carbon/Silicon (5pm), Ola Podrida (4pm), Times new Viking (3pm), Saviours (2pm) at Waterloo Records (free, free beer)

KVRX and Impose present: Seriously, Don't Mess With Texas
The Dodos (8:30pm), The Ohcees (8pm), The Apes (7:30pm), Panther (7pm), O'Death (6:30pm), Follow That Bird (6pm), Headlights (5:30pm), Ponytail (5pm), Cassettes Won't Listen (4:30pm), Brazos (4pm), Red Rocket (3:30pm), Tacks The Boy Disaster (3pm), Yellow Fever (2:30pm), Daniel Francis Doyle (2pm), Fiasco (1:30pm), {{{Sunset}}} (1pm), Bearsuit (12:30pm), Foot Patrol (noon) at the UT Communications Courtyard (2500 Whitis St.)

KEXP Live in Austin
Blitzen Trapper (8pm), The Raveonettes (6pm), Tapes N Tapes (4pm), These New Puritans (2pm), Positive Vibrations with Kid Hops (11am) at the KLRU Studios (Guadalupe and Dean Keeton, see map here, free)

Rachael Ray presents
Holy Fuck (5pm), The Stills (4pm), Scissors For Lefty (3pm), The Cringe (2pm), The Raveonettes (1pm), Autovaughn (noon), DJ Efren Ramirez at the Beauty Bar (noon-6pm)

Music by the Slice 2008
Joseph Arthur (6:45pm), Earlimart (6pm), The Submarines (5:15pm), Castledoor (4:30pm), The Spinto Band (3:45pm), The Watson Twins (3pm), The Morning Benders (2:15pm), Le Loup (1:30pm), Ola Podrida (12:45pm), Laura Gibson (noon), in between: Trainwreck Riders (early) Wiretree (late) at Home Slice Pizza (1415 South Congress, free)

The 40 Watt Club presents
The Dumps (5:30pm), Dead Confederate (5pm), All the Saints (4:30pm), Sleepy Horses (4pm), Def Judges (3:30pm), The Dexateens (3pm), Mouser (2:30pm), Dark Meat (2pm), Quiet Hooves (1:30pm), Summerbirds in teh Cellar (1pm), Leticia Wolf (12:30pm), King of Prussia (noon) at the Side Bar (602 E. 7th St., free food and drink)

SATURDAY NIGHT:

The Nail in the Coffin
Octopus Project (2am), DJ Gerard Cosloy (1am), DJ List Christee (Kevin Barnes from Of Montreal, midnight), Foreign Islands (11pm) at the Salvage Vanguard Theater (2803 Manor Rd., 10pm-4am, free, free beer)

Willie Nelson at the Backyard

2nd Annual Austin Tribute Band Marathon
The Lowelies (Nick Lowe, midnight), Big Mess (Devo, 11pm), The Eggmen (The Beatles (10pm), Ouch! (The Rutles, 9pm), Sticks N Stones (Rolling Stones, 8pm), Stone Free (Hendrix, 7pm), Pearl (Janis Joplin, 6pm), The Costellophones (Elvis Costello, 5pm), Airlane (Gary Numan, 4pm) at Ego's (510 S. Congress)

SUNDAY:

Make Austin Weirder Fest
Hit by a Car (9pm), T.J. Wade's tribute to the Ruins (8pm), Foot Patrol (7pm), Crapulence (6pm), This is My Condition (5pm), Megazilla (4pm), Obnosticon (3pm), Opposite Day (2pm), Jazzus Lizard at Room 710

Phono Records and Lucky Rabbit Films day show
Mr and Mrs Mays, Pompeii, Frank Smith, The Come Latelys, Ring Shout, Dead Trees, Viva Viva, Dedringers, Mike and the Moonpies, Ladyfingers (NYC) at Habana Calle 6 (709 E. 6th St., 8pm-midnight, free)

And, if you're still reading this - THE comedy geniuses of the past decade - The Upright Citizens Brigade (the three original guys, minus Amy Poehler), will perform two live shows Wednesday and Thursday (already sold out) and do a video presentation with other stuff Friday. Locations and showtimes and ticket links can be found at the bottom of this interview with Matt Besser from the Austinist.

Man, It's the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

2008-03-02T18:30:00.005-06:00

To the girl who done me wrong:
I'll call ya Tiffany, since that's ya real name. It wasn't like you done mean to treat me bad. It wasn't like ya screwed me over or nothing, it was the way you and your friend laughed like princesses when I mentioned Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. And you done saw him live, too! Oh, shit, man, how can I forget how you and that other little bitch cackled as you recalled how Jon Spencer would shout out "The Blues Explosion!". So even though you treated me good otherwise, you just cramped my style there in a way that couldn't be uncramped. A girl ain't gotta love the heavy, howling, fierce, Elvis on PCP channeling explosion of pure roots rock energy that is the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, but if you're gonna laugh in the face of all that is raw and pure and soulful about rock-n-roll, I'm afraid little honey that I'm gonna have to kick yo ass to the curb like a stray dog.

"Now is the time
To lose all self-control
Tell about all the garbage
In your brain hole" -JSBX

If you're a youngin' and maybe haven't laid witness to the awesomeness and are just curious, start with "Dang", and then the killer theremin of "World of Sex". Did anybody see Jon Spencer licking the theremin on the "What's Up Matador?" video?

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Sep. 18, 1994
Groningen, Holland
Club Vera

1. ...Bell Bottoms
2. Back Slider
3. Orange
4. Soul Type Cast/Very Rare
5. Brenda
6. Afro
7. Dang
8. Greyhound
9. Support-a-Man
10. Cowboy
11. Blues X-Man
12. Dissect
13. Feeling of Love
14. Sweat
15. Waterman/Get With IT
16. Vacuum of Loneliness
17. Instro-Mental
18. World of Sex
19. The Flavor
20. Ditch
21. 78 Style
22. Son of a Bitch
23. Wriggle and Move
24. Train
25. Exploder
26. Trash
27. Whaamajamma

This show was previously released as the bootleg "Don't Cramp My Style", and we can't have those bastards making anymore money now that the world has high-speed internet. This show is available lossless at Dime, if you don't know what I mean, read the white "BitTorrent howto" link on the right.

If you don't own any Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, I would start with the classic '93 album Extra Width. It's not available from the official site, but that site does have T-shirts and other music and stuff, check the buttons on the right side.

Thanks to flickr user seretuaccidente for the JSBX grafitti pic.

New Breeders (and some old)

2008-02-24T18:10:00.009-06:00

The Breeders' Mountain Battles comes out officially in April, about six years after their previous, the underappreciated Title TK. Whereas Title TK took the Breeders' hooks and made them sound in-your-face and had a first-take kind of feel, Mountain Battles for the most part goes in the opposite direction, layering overdubs and sounding more atmospheric than any of their previous releases. There are certain elements of Pod that I hear, mostly the moodiness, but also just the bit-more quirky and inventive chord changes. A couple of the more upbeat songs like "Bang On" and "German Studies" mostly work, but others like "Walk It Off", "No Way", and "It's The Love" don't do anything the Breeders haven't already done better, and sound obligatorily included. The strengths, however, far outweight the weaknesses. The swooning guitar and laid-back feel suit Kim Deal's raspy plaintive singing so well on this album. The simple country heart of "Here No More" is more real than anything you'll find on FM country stations. And they are obviously experimenting more than ever before, especially on tracks like "Istanbul" and the droning closer "Mountain Battles", the almost Go Team!-style beats on "Bang On", and a song in Spanish despite no ability to speak the language. I predict many of these songs, especially the ones where they take the time to let the music stretch out, won't age as much for me the way some of the older Breeders has. It sounds more designed for at-night bedroom listening, at least more than their previous work. It's really only a few mediocre tracks which will keep this from the upper echelon of albums of the year.

The Breeders "Night of Joy"

The Breeders "Regalame Esta Noche"

And here's a couple of live tracks from a bootleg called "Double Trouble", which compiled tracks from several Breeders shows in 1993:

The Breeders "Don't Call Home" (live '93)

The Breeders "Fortunately Gone" (live '93)

Be sure to check the Breeders' music page for lots of mp3 downloads, and preorder Mountain Battles now from Insound on CD or vinyl.

Dan Friel of Parts & Labor

2008-02-19T02:04:00.007-06:00

I've been on an electronic kick lately, no doubt bolstered by Holy Fuck's blistering set (opening for Super Furry Animals) a couple of weeks ago. And not just any electronic music, but artists who are tinkering with and creating new equipment and sounds. People not just aping Kraftwerk and Devo and Autechre, but using their electronic tinkering as inspiration for their own unique circuit-bent beat-laden explorations. If you know of some great bands like this, by all means name-drop them in the comments section, because like all of you I'm still exploring and finding things I wish I would have found sooner. Like Dan Friel. I (finally) got turned onto his band Parts & Labor last year while listening to music I hadn't heard from people's year-end best-of lists. His myspace describes his sound as "shit broke", and he says: "If you have old toy keyboards, walkie talkies, or R/C car remotes that you don't want, get in touch. I'll trade you a cd for them." The difference between Parts & Labor and this Dan Friel solo EP Sunburn (2004) that I just found is that with Parts and Labor he seems more interested in getting the electronics to work with more of a guitar-driven sound, whereas solo he seems more willing to try more outlandish things that rely on more syncopated electronic beats, but no matter the name his music usually soars and exhilarates. It's not hard to imagine the arsenal of pedals and Casio keyboards with wires sticking out all over the place and home-built gizmos and joysticks while listening to this (there's some good live footage on his site), but he's clearly not willing to let the sounds go wild - he pulls these disparate sounds together and makes rhythms out of them, trying to make them cohesive. A couple of tracks like "Death" and "Seven Sisters" have driving anthemic guitars that would fit onto a Parts & labor album, and though he's the musical voice of both acts, this solo EP has that extra bit of experimenting that is just what I've been looking for: listenable avant-garde.

Dan Friel "Dead Batteries"

Dan Friel "Seven Sisters"

Parts & Labor "New Crimes" (from 2007's Mapmaker)

The cheapest I found Sunburn for was at Tonevendor - Buy it!

2 Hour Mix For The Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-16T23:44:00.007-06:00

There were two other recent total lunar eclipses, but this will be last the one for almost three years, and the U.S. is lined up to get the best views. This NASA eclipse page has some good info, including exact start times of the different phases of the eclipse. The total eclipse, where the moon is completely shadowed by the sun, will last for almost an hour, beginning right at 10:00PM EST (9:00PM CST), and this mix is designed to be started about half an hour beforehand. This is also a good time to brush up on some knowledge about our large moon - there was an excellent show on Discovery that just aired called "If We Had No Moon" (available on Youtube) that shed some light on just how much the moon affects us. Also, the origins of the moon have been fiercely debated for eons, but it has only been in the last couple of decades that we have come to realize how the moon formed: a giant collision. A giant planet-sized object collided with Earth early in its history, and its remnants plus the material blown off the Earth are what formed our moon. Enjoy the mix and the eclipse - if you don't want a 175MB two-hour mix (download link is next to flashing red arrow), a few of the tracks are below individually.

includes:

Derrick Morgan "Moon Hop"

Jack Kerouac "The Moon Her Majesty"

Dimension X-15 (1950 radio show) "The Man In The Moon (excerpt)"

My Bloody Valentine "Moon Song"

Pavement "Killing Moon"

...but hopefully at least a few of you will play the whole mix during the eclipse, there's also some good samples and bits in there - if one of you plays it on a boombox in the desert or woods with a body full of drugs or liquor, then all the time will have been worth it. The link for the whole mix is on sendspace, though, so it won't last too long.

Vampire Weekend

2008-02-05T16:02:00.001-06:00

This exchange in my 'best of 2007' post comments pretty much sums up this band:

Anonymous said...
"I'm really hating The Vampire Weekend. I don't understand what all of the hype is about."

funeralpudding said...
"I've read reviews that talk about how Vampire Weekend are a love em or hate em band, and in a way I can see why. It could be a bit too precious for some. I listen and I hear talent and catchy songs. Basically I don't know what else to say, this is one of the reasons I hate putting words to music. To me, it just clicks, it works, the hooks hit me and make me want to snap my fingers and sway my hips. To each his own."

Vampire Weekend
Amoeba Records, Hollywood, CA
Feb. 4, 2008

Mansard Roof
Campus
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
M79
Bryn/Boston
A-Punk
The Kids Don't Stand A Chance
Oxford Comma

Thanks to taper markp for sharing this on Dime so quickly, and to flickr user dazzling velours for the pic.

Buy the new self-titled debut from Vampire Weekend for 11 bucks, plus a 7" and other merchandise from Kung Fu Nation.

Keith John Adams

2008-01-31T14:13:00.001-06:00

The Keith John Adams [myspace] third full length Unclever is being released by Athens, GA-based super-indie label Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records. KJA's style is for the most part British power-pop, somewhat similar to Graham Coxon's (Blur) solo stuff, but more eccentric. I also hear a bit of Robyn Hitchcock, the jokey new-wave of Jilted John, and a bit of rockabilly. On tour he's been backed by both Casper & the Cookies and Tokyo's Elekibass. And KJA isn't afraid of some indie DIY experimenting with his songwriting - if you were one of the lucky people (and I was) who got one of the first 40 preorders of Unclever, you could submit a story of your own for KJA to write a song about. All 40 story-songs may be a bonus disk with Unclever, I'm not certain. There is some talk on the E6 board about putting out a vinyl edition of the 40 story-songs, possibly on People In A Position To Know Records. Mike from Olympia,WA-based (and soon to be Austin-based) PIAPTK was actually the impetus for the first song below, "Other Side of the Road", which features members of Casper and the Cookies as the backing band and which apparently KJA liked so much he's including it on Unclever. But originally this song appeared on a very limited 8" (along with a Casper & the Cookies original) which came out last year on PIAPTK, a clear lathe cut silkscreened vinyl with a hand-knitted album cover (pic & desc.), which I was lucky enough to grab. Mike wrote over at the E6 board: "Early one Sunday morning, Keith John Adams and Casper and the Cookies recorded a couple songs in my home studio in exchange for a place to sleep and some veggie pasta. One mic, in the middle of the room, no retakes/no overdubs."

The Keith John Adams (w/ Casper & the Cookies) "Other Side of the Road"

And, I was one of the lucky 40 who got to have KJA write their story into a song. Like a sap, I just told him the story of me going to marry my wife, the only story that really matters to me. Luckily he didn't make it all sappy, he turned it into a proper Brit-pop song, and of all these story-songs I've heard so far, this is my favorite, although I don't think I can truly be objective. In the email with the song, Keith wrote: "It has a mad toy instrument solo I'm rather proud of!"

The Keith John Adams "Marry Me In London"

Matt from You Ain't No Picasso has posted his song, and Mike from Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records has mp3s of five more up at the brand new HHBTM blog, "Sloppy Loppy" may actually be the best one I've heard yet.

Order KJA's Unclever, straight from HHBTM for only ten bucks, and look out for a short U.S. tour sometime this year.

Thanks to flickr user chasingfun for the KJA picture, from Athens Popfest 2006.

Stop!

2008-01-23T03:17:00.000-06:00

Supergrass Take On Both New Identity and Michael Jackson

2008-01-12T01:34:00.000-06:00

In September of last year, Supergrass [myspace] bassist Mick Quinn sleepwalked out of a first-story window and broke two vertebrae and a heel. This is as Supergrass are just finishing their sixth studio album, Diamond Hoo Haa, which will be released in March. The first single is "Diamond Hoo Ha Man", and until Mick recovers, the rest of the band (plus sometimes youngest Coombes brother Charlie on keyboard bass, which would make that a 3/4 Coombes-family band) are performing as the Diamond Hoo Ha Men, although the set below is presumably just Gaz and Danny. First, let me just gush like a fanboy about how long I've loved Supergrass, yada yada. But really, it's something that great bands like them and the Charlatans UK can barely make a dent commercially outside of the UK, suffer hardships and even deaths, but keep on churning out inventive music for well over a decade. That said, the new Supergrass that I've heard is a departure. Almost all of the quirkiness, at least musically in the three songs I've heard, is almost totally gone, replaced by a straight-ahead, fuzzed-up wall of soaring rock power. It seems the charming Brits with the mischievous grins who always seemed to have a bit of a chip on their shoulder finally want to really kick your ass. March's release will tell how much this is true for the whole album, but check out the tracks on the myspaces and these, recorded yesterday in London on XFM radio, part of their "Live in Leicester Square" series. While I lived in London, I loved XFM - always the best alternative station, bar a couple shows on the normally teen-pop oriented BBC Radio. And there's something else in this radio set that makes me smile, something that truly marks this as a broadcast on British radio (apart from the accents). It's the volume changes on the background music. Somebody audibly has their hand on the volume knob, but the changes often seem random, and exaggerated.This is even more true of pirate and low-frequency stations I'd come across, especially reggae and urban stations. Anyways, here's the Diamond Hoo Ha Men:

Supergrass
(just Gaz and Danny, AKA Duke Diamond and Randy
of the Diamond Hoo Ha Men)
Jan 11, 2008
XFM London

Intro
Diamond Hoo Ha Man
Chat
Lenny
Chat
Beat It (Michael Jackson)
Outro

Head over to the official site, complete with very nice shop, and keep an eye out for the Diamond Hoo Ha Man single (7") this Monday, Jan. 14, and the new album in March.

The Best of 2007

2008-01-01T20:15:00.000-06:00

The bad part about waiting to put this out is it gets lost in the sea of lists. The good part is that it's given me the time to look at a lot of lists and see a few things I hadn't heard, which to me is one of the real points of it all, to make sure you've heard the cream of the crop. I've listened to virtually everything on most best-of lists that I looked at, and have got to say, that at least to my ears - the National, M.I.A., and Arcade Fire couldn't match their previous efforts. I also just didn't feel Feist's or Burial's releases. And to head it off at the tracks, Writer's Block wasn't released in the US until this year, so... Also, if I listed live shows, it would be a 1-2 battle between my 1 and 2 album of the year artists, who both put on incredible shows with their new material. And if you like the artists you hear by all means head over to their sites and myspaces, and feel free to click on the album art to purchase the complete version of the audio goodness you are hearing, at the cheapest price I found at the time. So with no further ado, whether you agree or disagree with the choices or placement, here is what I think is the best of last year:

You can download all of the mp3s in this list HERE (next to red arrow, 245MB)

Hon. Mention: Black Kids Wizard of Ahhs (EP)

Florida band that broke out at this years Athens Popfest. Black Kids definately have a Modest Mouse vibe going on most of this EP, but it's their soulfulness, easy sophistication, and hooks that have me anticipating their debut LP. Don't forget to click on an album cover if you want to buy - in this case, this EP is available as a free download.

Black Kids "Hurricane Jane"

25. Akron/Family Love Is Simple

A hippy-ish collage of organic textures and sounds all humming along to the beat of love, without sounding like a hippy love album. I don't know much about Akron/Family [myspace], but I know they're growing on me. Love, love, love for everyone.

Akron/Family "Lake Song/New Ceremonial Music For Moms"

24. Parts And Labor Mapmaker

One of my surprise finds from reading year-end best-of lists. Brooklyn trio Parts And Labor [myspace] didn't get as much acclaim as Battles, but I really dig their own Built To Spill/GBV/Husker Du/contemporary-noise influenced take on modern prog rock.

Parts And Labor "New Crimes"

23. Oh No! Oh My! Between The Devil And The Sea (EP)

Clickety-clappity rolling balls of refreshing whimsy. Patiently awaiting the sophomore album from Oh No! Oh My! [myspace]

Oh No! Oh My! "Our Mouths Were Wet"

22. Patton Oswalt Werewolves And Lollipops

Since I've listened to this more than most of the music here, it's only fair to include it. Some people just have their finger on the pulse of the world. You know it's gold when you remember the jokes but the delivery is still funny every time. I met Patton Oswalt once and chatted for a few minutes, he's as cool as you would expect him to be. Purchase includes bonus DVD. Here's Jon Voight's ballsack...

Patton Oswalt "Alternate Earth"

Patton Oswalt "At Midnight I Will Kill George Lucas With A Shovel"

21. DJ Klock San

Japanese experimental turntablist who took his own life shortly after the US release of San in early 2007. Full of head-lulling kaleidoscopic beats and breaks - test out your new headphones with this. On sale now from Ropeadope, a very artist-friendly label [previous post]

DJ Klock "Dakota"

20. White Denim Let's Talk About It (EP)

Dirty, anthemic, stomp-on-the-floor electro-psych-rock jams from Austin's most-blogged about new band, White Denim... look out for them in 2008. Buy it straight from their myspace with Paypal.

White Denim "Darksided Computer Mouth"

19. Panda Bear Person Pitch

Angelic Animal Collective member does a solo album of optimistic, breezy, pastoral loops and chants. Around the top of several bets-of lists that I saw, and #1 on Pitchfork, Motel de Moka, and Tinymixtapes.

Panda Bear "Comfy In Nautica"

18. Battles Mirrored

Reviews centered on Battles' technological prowess and chops and the term "math rock" (and focused too much on just the song "Atlas"), without referring to it simply as what it is: the future of modern prog.

Battles "Rainbow"

17. of Montreal Icons, Abstract Thee (EP)

On top of one of the albums of the year, of Montreal dropped this gem of an EP. The songs (except maybe "No Conclusion") don't quite fit into Hissing Fauna's style, but were recorded during the same sessions.

of Montreal "Voltaic Crusher/Undrum To Muted Da"

16. Black Moth Super Rainbow Dandelion Gum

Black Moth Super Rainbow [myspace] lump vocoder, synths, whirring doo-dads and god-only-knows what else into their own peculiar blend of beat-laden psychedelic soup

Black Moth Super Rainbow "Melt Me"

15. Apples In Stereo New Magnetic Wonder

More anthemic bubblegum pop-rock from studio maestro Robert Schneider's Apples In Stereo [myspace], with a new musical scale thrown in for good measure.

Apples In Stereo "7 Stars"

14. Octopus Project Hello, Avalanche

On the surface, the Octopus Project can seem cold and detached, but stick with it and you'll hear the laid-back organic warmth spilling over.

Octopus Project "Vanishing Lessons"

13. Peter, Bjorn, and John Writer's Block

Look - it was released in the US in 2007. It's popular enough that I probably don't even have to say it's more than "Young Folks". And damn it, these are great songs and this is a great album. Period.

Peter, Bjorn, and John "The Chills"

12. Shugo Tokumaru Exit

After going through year-end lists and being disappointed time and time again when the music doesn't live up to the hype, finding Shugo Tokumaru feels like finding gold in the river. Exit shimmers and bounces, yet its acoustic guitars help keep it feel grounded. It sounds like Cornelius taking a vacation in the country. Out in the US in 2008.

Shugo Tokumaru "Parachute"

11. DJ Kicks - Hot Chip

Alright, so it's a compilation. And no, I don't have so much Hot Chip-love that I would include this just because it has their name on it. I'm including it because it is simply one of the most-played things in my household of everything released this year. A DJ set (and I usually don't like most dance music to be honest) that moves you and sounds effortless, including lots of lesser-known artists, drawing on everything from full-pumping techno to the more brainy side of 4/4 electronica to hiphop to Joe Jackson. This is a good sample below, it's tracks connected so you can hear the flow from one to the next.

Hot Chip - DJ Kicks sampler

10. Melt-Banana Bambi's Dilemma

There's a trend in this list of more established bands releasing albums which are the most focused of their careers, and this is a good example. The chaotic juggernaut of squealing squelching Japanese destruction known as Melt-Banana [myspace] have controlled their noise explosions just enough to almost qualify as rock, one song even almost as pop, but not by much. Expect to be thrilled and left on your head.

Melt-Banana "The Call of The Vague"

Melt-Banana "Lock The Head"

9. Tomahawk Anonymous

The concept album of the decade, and almost nobody noticed. So the story goes that guitarist Duane Denison, touring with Hank Williams III, visited American Indian reservations, and was nonplussed with the new-agey music he heard from the locals. He did the research, found authentic (anonymous) hundred year-old Native American songs, and he and (Battles drummer) John Stanier recorded their parts and sent the results cross-country to Mike Patton to add his vocals and weirdness. The result is not only admirable but listenable, and at times exhilarating, and definately a departure from the other Tomahawk releases.

Tomahawk "Antelope Ceremony"

Tomahawk "Mescal Rite I"

8. Vampire Weekend Blue CD-R

I guess this is what the Blue CD-R looks like. I, like virtually everyone, had to download it from a P2P after our ears were perked by the first couple shared tracks. There's more than the Afropop-style everyone talks about, I especially like the orchestral touches which don't sound forced at all, the plain-out Killer hooks and rhythms - everything just right - a bit of this, a bit of that, maybe a nice new haircut. The catchiest of catchy, a first half that is unstoppable, and this is just the demos, although I'm not sure the songs will change much on their debut, out in January. The proper album cover, an EP, and more tracks of course at their myspace.

Vampire Weekend "Mansard Roof"

Vampire Weekend "Boston"

7. Pedro You, Me, and Everyone

It was released early in 2007 on import, came out in November in the US, and I didn't hear it until I saw it on a single person's best-of list. But this is the kind of find that these lists are for. Before I searched for name and album on google, I came across half a dozen bands on Myspace with the exact same name of "Pedro". But this is one James Rutledge, working solo, apparently he's a "producer's producer" who's worked with some of the biggest names in alternative music, pioneered "folktronica", and this is his sophomore album. It's an off-kilter mix of electronica, free jazz, kitchen sink, etc. that in terms of pure excitement could be at the top of this list.

Pedro "I Am Keeping Up"

Pedro "Vitamins"

6. Caribou Andorra

I'll be honest, I don't have much to say about Caribou except for the obvious 60's comparisons and home-studio electronica talk. Maybe use the word "ethereal" or "psychedelic". Perhaps my biggest regret of any type over the whole of last year was missing Caribou in concert, seeing several people trying to play these songs live, but on this record it is one man alone. Dan Snaith is a wizard.

Caribou "Sandy"

Caribou "Eli"

5. Apostle of Hustle National Anthem of Nowhere

After seeing them at SXSW, Apostle of Hustle became an immediate favorite (I admittedly missed Folkloric Feel), and I was blown away by the sophistication of this album. Andrew Whiteman takes the best parts of Broken Social Scene with him and mixes it with waves of Cuban heat and killer riffs and comes up with something that sounds at once familiar yet fresh and exotic. "Chances Are" is by far the most poppy thing on this record, the smoldering Latin vibe is more predominate on the rest of the record. National Anthem of Nowhere is smoother and stronger than its predecessor, and I have a feeling it will be a bit like Shawshank Redemption - slow out of the gate, but slowly finding its way into a wider audience who will appreciate finding something very unique.

Apostle of Hustle "My Sword Hand's Anger"

Apostle of Hustle "Chances Are"

4. Deerhoof Friend Opportunity

If you put M.I.A. on your 2007 list and not this one, you didn't hear "Kidz Are So Small". Deerhoof [myspace] is one of the most distinctive bands in modern music: sprightly, fun, chaotic, challenging, and on this one they sound like they are incorporating more elements than ever before, even (like SFA) flirting with doo-wop on the intro to "Matchbook Seeks Maniac". Like the rest of this list, Deerhoof have managed to put out their poppiest record yet, but without losing their sense of musical exploration or identity.

Deerhoof "Kidz Are So Small"

Deerhoof "Matchbook Seeks Maniac"

3. Super Furry Animals Hey Venus!

Both album and band are criminally overlooked. This is SFA just having fun and creating indie standards in the process. A concise exercise in song writing and production from the masters.

Super Furry Animals "Into the Night"

Super Furry Animals "Carbon Dating"

Super Furry Animals "Aluminum Illuminati" ('Show Your Hand' B-side/Jap. bonus track)

2. of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

I've loved of Montreal for a while. Talented musicians who breeze life into one man's whimsical neo-psychedelia (though this and recent albums have been recorded solo). They've lost a few fans with this one, but not many, and the number they've gained faaaar outweighs that. If you look between the lines you'll see the quirky chord changes that mark Kevin Barne's style, only now he's fully replaced the Victorian parlor feel with modern electronics and a technicolor stage show, but without sacrificing song structure. And instead of love songs previous which brim with happiness and glee, the lyrics here document the chaotic and at times gloomy emotional journey of his recent family life.

of Montreal "A Sentence of Sorts In Kongsvinger"

of Montreal "Bunny (Ain't No Kind of Rider)"

1. Animal Collective Strawberry Jam

They just have it. Like all four veteran bands at the top this list, the inspired alchemy they've created over their careers has only become more focused and, well, catchy. Animal Collective mix primal (yet beautiful) vocalizations with sampled loops and effects and instead of sounding like meandering electro-hippies, what they create virtually always sparkles with unidentifiable magic. And on Strawberry Jam, it comes together as cohesively as it ever has.

Animal Collective "Fireworks"

Animal Collective "Derek"

If you like or already love any of these albums, please click on the album cover to purchase it. You will not only get the art, but let's face it: vinyl debates aside, CD always sounds better than mp3, otherwise you just won't get the full, rich sound these artists have created. Also, if I've given an Amazon link, note it was only because at least at the time of original review it was the cheapest. However, many artists have started selling their music straight from their websites - if this is available, it should always be the preferred option.

However you come about getting your hands on it, good luck to all of you on the search for new (and old) music in 2008.

btw, song on the year, from a solo radio session he did early in 2007: Panda Bear "Untitled"

I don't think that song will ever get old for me. It defies explanation how that looped beat of a guitar strumming two chords for eternity and plain lyrics about love and want can constantly provide the comforting warmth they do. It was so good, the rest of Animal Collective picked it up and turned it on it's head.

Looking forward to AC's 2008 release, and of course of Montreal's, and especially the new Joggers, as well debut LP's from Vampire Weekend and White Denim and new releases from Dressy Bessy, Avalanches, Supergrass, Blur(?), Tortoise, Dengue Fever, and the Breeders.

Jens Lekman Solo Radio Performance

2007-12-13T02:46:00.000-06:00

Is Jens Lekman too quirky to break into the mainstream? His smooth crooning can sooth even the most jaded listener, and it's easy to see how his romantic sounds could appeal to a wider, older, less "hip" audience. He has called himself (here in the interview below) the "indie Frank Sinatra", although I have two arguments against that: 1. Jens's swagger doesn't have the tough streak of Sinatra's 2. Sinatra would probably never, even if the technology were available at the time, sing over a loop of his own beat-boxing as Jens does here. His newest, Night Falls Over Kortedala, is appearing on many year-end best-of lists, and also sees him exploring where he can take "crooner" music, encorporating various styles and offbeat musical elements. The combination of quirkiness (especially with lyrics) with pure pleasantness has won over much of the indie community, and it won't be long before a more mainstream crowd knows his name.

Jens Lekman
KEXP Seattle Nov. 6, 2007

01 The Opposite of Hallelujah
02 Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig
03 Interview
04 Your Arms Around Me
05 Shirin
06 Interview

Night Falls Over Kortedala would be an excellent gift idea for someone you wouldn't think would normally listen to indie music, and the cheapest price I found was directly from the label Secretly Canadian, 11 bucks for CD or vinyl.

Thanks also to your friend laura for the great photo of Jens, taken at an in-store he played the same day as the set above and a full show later that night.

of Montreal Cover 2 More Prince Songs

2007-12-12T03:01:00.000-06:00

of Montreal are a band known for their great covers, both performance-wise and selection-wise, but I don't think before this year's tour that they ever covered more than one song from the same artist. First there was "Moonage Daydream" (*bows*), then came a slew of other David Bowie covers. Then earlier this year they covered "Raspberry Beret" and lately they started playing "Purple Rain" (which I saw in Austin), and have now gone even further into the Prince catalog. Both Bowie and Prince seem to be huge influences on the newer of Montreal sounds, so it's good to see Kevin Barnes acknowledging that fact outright and firmly by playing so many of their songs. The show these following tracks are from was in St. Louis on November 19, the second-to-last stop of this American leg on their massive tour, and were the opening two songs of the concert.

of Montreal "I Would Die 4 U" (Prince)

of Montreal "Baby I'm A Star" (Prince)

Buy from Polyvinyl's huge selection of of Montreal, perfect for stocking stuffers.

Don't miss all the of Montreal goodies for download at the Booty Patrol

Karlheinz Stockhausen

2007-12-08T20:11:00.001-06:00

Karlheinz Stockhausen died Wednesday (obit.). I had heard him mentioned several times as an electronic pioneer and an avant-garde composer who influenced popular music from the Beatles (he was on the Sgt. Pepper cover collage) to Sonic Youth, yet I admittedly (like most I presume) had heard little of his music. Like any kind of music, if you're interested in it, look to the pioneers and heavyweights, and if you missed their contributions while they were alive, a wake is an appropriate time to take a moment to examine somebody's work, so for the last couple days I've been diving in. I learned that Stockhausen (wiki) did much more than tinker with electronics, he was a quixotic visionary who (along with John Cage) pioneered the use of chance in music, even having musical scores which could be read by the performer upside down or begun at a random page. Stockhausen also experimented with atonal music, which even today sounds challenging, and probably much more so to audiences of the fifties and sixties. He was always looking for new possibilities in sound, and the music I've heard from him has very different styles, from noise to abstract choral arrangements to strange silence>note cluster collages. He is most influentially noted, though, for his electronic experiments, incorporating new musical equipment with his atonality and serialism experiments, like in his Kontakte, recorded from 1958-1960 in his studio in Cologne:

Karlheinz Stockhausen "Kontakte, StrukturXII"

Below is an intriguing later example (early 90's) of his exploratory composing enititled "Helikopter String Quartet" (part of his LICHT [light] cycle of operas), featuring four classical instrumentalists matching dizzying tremolos to the rotary sound of the four helicopters they are riding in while performing. Here is a more in-depth description.

Karlheinz Stockhausen "Helikopter String Quartet" (edit)

If you take the time to explore Karlheinz Stockhausen, you'll inevitably come upon many internet opinions regarding him as everything from " unparalleled genius" to "unlistenable". As with virtually any artist, there is talk about how the later stuff is not as good as the earlier stuff. As with any music that is new (to you), try to ignore all of the words and focus on the sounds. They can be difficult piece to listen through, but good or bad, it brings up a quote I saw in an interview with Stockhausen, where he said that all music and sound effects you. You are different after listening to anything. Certainly the "Helikopter String Quartet" will, at least unconsciously, make you more aware of the interplay between what you think of as music and what you think of as daily noise.

Don't miss the multimedia page at the official Stockhausen site for more audio.

Amazon has a wide selection of interesting-looking Stockhausen CDs

The Joggers Cover Deerhoof, Grateful Dead

2007-12-01T01:37:00.000-06:00

On The Joggers myspace page, they now link to a new Joggers blog. It's been going on for a month now, and has lots of info - I didn't realize Dan and Jake also play in a band called Pseudosix, which I will be checking out immediately, and Daryl the bassist is out for a while with a hockey injury. But the big news comes in the form of a link to PRA radio - Portland Radio Authority, which is a treasure-trove of Portland area recordings, including TWO shows from the Joggers, plus an interview, as well as a Damo Suzuki (Can) tribute featuring Dan and Jake from the Joggers. One of the Joggers' shows is the cover-laden set from NYE last year featuring the below songs, and, oh, Led Zeppelin. The links at PRA are working weirdly right now, though, to get to the Joggers shows you first have to go to the PRA homepage and then to the link for PODCAST - PRA Events. When I went to that link yesterday it showed me a page full of concerts including the above mentioned Joggers' sets, but now it seems to be directing to a Yahoo page to "add events to my Yahoo". It wouldn't be as fun if you didn't have to work to uncover it, would it?

The Joggers "Milkman" (Deerhoof)

The Joggers "St. Stephen" (Grateful Dead)

Casper And The Cookies' "Modern Silence" Is A Modern Masterpiece

Animal Collective - Animal Crack Box

New Deerhoof Session

New Animal Collective Song: "Bleed"

SXSW 2009 - Wednesday

Finally, Pavement (two shows +more)

The Barcelona Scene - New Music from Coconot (Pablo Díaz-Reixa / El Guincho), DC/LuvLuv, And More

Brown And Purple Mix

Is There Life On Mars?

A Mix

Atlas Sound Live in Lisbon

Black Kids Cover Estelle

New Animal Collective

New Jonathan Richman

Two New New York Post-Everything Albums

White Denim On BBC, Kicking Off European Tour

Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, Tits

The Joggers - Interview and New Music

Live To Rock Another Day

Happy Solstice

Black Kids - Athens Popfest '07

Tap Tap

Ultimate 80's Midsummer's Day

Ultimate 80's Midsummer's Night

Polvo Reforming... Even More

SXSW Audio - Breeders, Holy Fuck, MGMT

Big Dipper Reunion

Fashion and Suicide

SXSW Recap + Giveaway

SXSW 2008 Preview

Gorilla vs. Booze The Cool Kids (Chicago, 4:45pm), Holy Fuck (Toronto, 4pm), Bodies Of Water (LA, 3:15pm), Ghosthustler (2:30pm), White Williams (1:45pm), White Denim (1pm), The Party DJs (Dallas) at the Peacock (free, free beer, 21+)

Business Deal Records day show, sponsored by KOOP 91.7FM Fishboy, Count Dracula's Weed Smuggling Jam Engine, Pataphysics, Charles Potts Magic Windmill Band, Shapes Have Fangs at Lovejoys (noon-6pm, free, free beer)

GOOD, NRDC, and the Hotel San Jose present Choose Good Austin Noisettes, Kimya Dawson, Lightspeed Champion, The Deadly Syndrome, Mason Jennings, The Exit, Langhorne Slim, Hello Stranger at the Hotel San Jose (1316 S. Congress Ave., noon-9pm)

Ume, Thee Emergency, Monahans, Land of Talk, The Shackeltons, Dead Confederate at Trophy's (inside stage) Lady Pterodactyl, Transmography, The Death Set, Table Manners Crew, 1/2 Alive, Ghislain Poirier at Trophy's (outstage)

Paste and Stereogum present the Dell Lounge Peter Moren (of Peter Bjorn & John, 5pm), Delta Spirit (4pm), Colour Revolt (3pm), Destroyer (2pm), Nada Surf (1pm), My Brightest Diamond (noon) at Volume Night Club (612 E. 6th St., free, RSVP here)

All Roads Lead to Austin, Other Music 2008 Lawn Party Times New Viking (6pm), Jay Reatard (5pm), Mika Miko (4pm), These New Puritans (3pm), J. Mascis (2pm), Bodies of Water (1pm) at the French Legation Museum (802 San Marcos St., noon-7pm)

NPR Music show and live broadcast Vampire Weekend (4pm), Bon Iver (3:15pm), Yeasayer (2:30pm), AA Bondy (2pm), Jens Lekman (1:15pm), Shout Out Louds (12:30pm) at the Parish (Will be broadcast live on KUT, KEXP, The Current, WFUV, and WXPN)

The Current Live at SXSW The Rascals (5:45pm), Cloud Cult (4:30pm), Jim Noir (3:30pm), DeVotchka (2:30pm), Sons & Daughters (1:15pm), Jesca Hoop (noon), The Raveonettes (11am) at the Free Yr Radio Broadcast Corner (7th and Red River, free, broadcast live on the Current)

KVRX-plosion! Crime Novels, The Mae Shi, Mammoth Grinder, Mika Miko, Lucky Dragons, Indian Jewelry, Clipd Beaks, Knyfe Hyts, Best Fwends, Crystal Castles at the Austin Chidren's Museum (2nd and Colorado, 11pm-4am, free, RSVP here)

Todd P presents Fucked Up (4:30pm), Extreme Animals -----> Paper Rad (4pm), Parts and Labor (3:30pm), Meneguar (3pm), Clockcleaner (2:30pm), Yacht (2pm), Rah Dunes (1:30pm), Dynasty Handbag (1pm), Fiasco (12:30pm), Muggabears (noon) at Ms. Bea's (1104 E. 6th St., free)

All Roads Lead to Austin, Other Music 2008 Lawn Party Shearwater (6pm), Atlas Sound (5pm), Yo La Tengo (4pm), Portastatic (3pm), Grand Archives (2pm), Phosphorescent (1pm) at the French Legation Museum (802 San Marcos St., noon-7pm)

Waterloo Records presents Kimya Dawson (6pm), Elf Power (5pm), Division Day (4pm), Sea Wolf (3pm), Shelby Lynne (2pm) at Waterloo Records (free, free beer)

Ever Loving presents Akron/Family, Herman Dune, Biirdie, Megafaun, El Guincho, Walter Meego at Design Within Reach (200 W. 2nd St. at Colorado, 4-8pm, 21+, free with RSVP to info@everloving.com)

Urban Outfitters party MGMT (4pm), Two Gallants (3pm), Bodies of Water (2pm), Le Loup (1pm), Port O'Brien (noon) at Urban Outfitters (2406 Guadalupe, free)

KEXP Live in Austin Holy Fuck (7:30pm), Does It Offend You Yeah? (5:30pm), Handsome Furs (3:30pm), The Breeders (1:30pm), Devotchka (11:30am) at the KLRU Studios (Guadalupe and Dean Keeton, see map here, free)

Scene Magazine party And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, The Black Keys, Health, The Cribs, Soundtrack of our Lives at La Zona Rosa (noon-5pm)

Blender After Hours Diplo, A-Trak, The Cool Kids, DJ Sets by Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal, The Bloids and Drive A at Action Figure, East Side Stages (3000 E. Cesar Chavez, midnight-4am, 21+)

Willie Nelson at the Backyard

Paste and Stereogum present the Dell Lounge Kevin Barnes DJ set (5pm), HEALTH (4pm), No Age (3pm), Blitzen Trapper (2pm), High Places (1pm), Fuck Buttons (noon) at Volume Night Club (612 E. 6th St., free, RSVP here)

Misc. Music Showcase Half Japanesse (9pm), Aliens (8pm), Peelander-Z (7pm), S-T-B (6pm), Damage Pants/iKiLLCaRS (5pm), Sado-Massachusetts (4pm), Inverted Colors (3pm), Illinois Payson (2pm), No Mas Bodas (1pm) at Counter Cafe (626 N. Lamar at 6th St., free)

Cream Vintage presents TBA (7pm), The Mercers (6pm), The Teeth (5pm), Mr. and Mrs. Mays (4pm), The Steps (3pm), The Hymns (2pm) at Cream Vintage (2532 Guadalupe, free)

Vice Scion Electro Show Chromeo (3:05pm), Digitalism (2:05pm), Mixhell (1:10pm), Black Moth Super Rainbow (12:30pm), Mixhell (noon) at Stubb's

Waterloo Records presents Half Japanese (6pm), Carbon/Silicon (5pm), Ola Podrida (4pm), Times new Viking (3pm), Saviours (2pm) at Waterloo Records (free, free beer)

KEXP Live in Austin Blitzen Trapper (8pm), The Raveonettes (6pm), Tapes N Tapes (4pm), These New Puritans (2pm), Positive Vibrations with Kid Hops (11am) at the KLRU Studios (Guadalupe and Dean Keeton, see map here, free)

Rachael Ray presents Holy Fuck (5pm), The Stills (4pm), Scissors For Lefty (3pm), The Cringe (2pm), The Raveonettes (1pm), Autovaughn (noon), DJ Efren Ramirez at the Beauty Bar (noon-6pm)

The Nail in the Coffin Octopus Project (2am), DJ Gerard Cosloy (1am), DJ List Christee (Kevin Barnes from Of Montreal, midnight), Foreign Islands (11pm) at the Salvage Vanguard Theater (2803 Manor Rd., 10pm-4am, free, free beer)

Willie Nelson at the Backyard

Make Austin Weirder Fest Hit by a Car (9pm), T.J. Wade's tribute to the Ruins (8pm), Foot Patrol (7pm), Crapulence (6pm), This is My Condition (5pm), Megazilla (4pm), Obnosticon (3pm), Opposite Day (2pm), Jazzus Lizard at Room 710

Phono Records and Lucky Rabbit Films day show Mr and Mrs Mays, Pompeii, Frank Smith, The Come Latelys, Ring Shout, Dead Trees, Viva Viva, Dedringers, Mike and the Moonpies, Ladyfingers (NYC) at Habana Calle 6 (709 E. 6th St., 8pm-midnight, free)

Man, It's the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

New Breeders (and some old)

Dan Friel of Parts & Labor

2 Hour Mix For The Lunar Eclipse

Vampire Weekend

Keith John Adams

Stop!

Supergrass Take On Both New Identity and Michael Jackson

The Best of 2007

Jens Lekman Solo Radio Performance

of Montreal Cover 2 More Prince Songs

Karlheinz Stockhausen

The Joggers Cover Deerhoof, Grateful Dead

Gorilla vs. Booze
The Cool Kids (Chicago, 4:45pm), Holy Fuck (Toronto, 4pm), Bodies Of Water (LA, 3:15pm), Ghosthustler (2:30pm), White Williams (1:45pm), White Denim (1pm), The Party DJs (Dallas) at the Peacock (free, free beer, 21+)

Business Deal Records day show, sponsored by KOOP 91.7FM
Fishboy, Count Dracula's Weed Smuggling Jam Engine, Pataphysics, Charles Potts Magic Windmill Band, Shapes Have Fangs at Lovejoys (noon-6pm, free, free beer)

GOOD, NRDC, and the Hotel San Jose present Choose Good Austin
Noisettes, Kimya Dawson, Lightspeed Champion, The Deadly Syndrome, Mason Jennings, The Exit, Langhorne Slim, Hello Stranger at the Hotel San Jose (1316 S. Congress Ave., noon-9pm)

Ume, Thee Emergency, Monahans, Land of Talk, The Shackeltons, Dead Confederate at Trophy's (inside stage)
Lady Pterodactyl, Transmography, The Death Set, Table Manners Crew, 1/2 Alive, Ghislain Poirier at Trophy's (outstage)

Paste and Stereogum present the Dell Lounge
Peter Moren (of Peter Bjorn & John, 5pm), Delta Spirit (4pm), Colour Revolt (3pm), Destroyer (2pm), Nada Surf (1pm), My Brightest Diamond (noon) at Volume Night Club (612 E. 6th St., free, RSVP here)

All Roads Lead to Austin, Other Music 2008 Lawn Party
Times New Viking (6pm), Jay Reatard (5pm), Mika Miko (4pm), These New Puritans (3pm), J. Mascis (2pm), Bodies of Water (1pm) at the French Legation Museum (802 San Marcos St., noon-7pm)

NPR Music show and live broadcast
Vampire Weekend (4pm), Bon Iver (3:15pm), Yeasayer (2:30pm), AA Bondy (2pm), Jens Lekman (1:15pm), Shout Out Louds (12:30pm) at the Parish (Will be broadcast live on KUT, KEXP, The Current, WFUV, and WXPN)

The Current Live at SXSW
The Rascals (5:45pm), Cloud Cult (4:30pm), Jim Noir (3:30pm), DeVotchka (2:30pm), Sons & Daughters (1:15pm), Jesca Hoop (noon), The Raveonettes (11am) at the Free Yr Radio Broadcast Corner (7th and Red River, free, broadcast live on the Current)

KVRX-plosion!
Crime Novels, The Mae Shi, Mammoth Grinder, Mika Miko, Lucky Dragons, Indian Jewelry, Clipd Beaks, Knyfe Hyts, Best Fwends, Crystal Castles at the Austin Chidren's Museum (2nd and Colorado, 11pm-4am, free, RSVP here)

Todd P presents
Fucked Up (4:30pm), Extreme Animals -----> Paper Rad (4pm), Parts and Labor (3:30pm), Meneguar (3pm), Clockcleaner (2:30pm), Yacht (2pm), Rah Dunes (1:30pm), Dynasty Handbag (1pm), Fiasco (12:30pm), Muggabears (noon) at Ms. Bea's (1104 E. 6th St., free)

All Roads Lead to Austin, Other Music 2008 Lawn Party
Shearwater (6pm), Atlas Sound (5pm), Yo La Tengo (4pm), Portastatic (3pm), Grand Archives (2pm), Phosphorescent (1pm) at the French Legation Museum (802 San Marcos St., noon-7pm)

Waterloo Records presents
Kimya Dawson (6pm), Elf Power (5pm), Division Day (4pm), Sea Wolf (3pm), Shelby Lynne (2pm) at Waterloo Records (free, free beer)

Ever Loving presents
Akron/Family, Herman Dune, Biirdie, Megafaun, El Guincho, Walter Meego at Design Within Reach (200 W. 2nd St. at Colorado, 4-8pm, 21+, free with RSVP to info@everloving.com)

Urban Outfitters party
MGMT (4pm), Two Gallants (3pm), Bodies of Water (2pm), Le Loup (1pm), Port O'Brien (noon) at Urban Outfitters (2406 Guadalupe, free)

KEXP Live in Austin
Holy Fuck (7:30pm), Does It Offend You Yeah? (5:30pm), Handsome Furs (3:30pm), The Breeders (1:30pm), Devotchka (11:30am) at the KLRU Studios (Guadalupe and Dean Keeton, see map here, free)

Scene Magazine party
And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, The Black Keys, Health, The Cribs, Soundtrack of our Lives at La Zona Rosa (noon-5pm)

Blender After Hours
Diplo, A-Trak, The Cool Kids, DJ Sets by Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal, The Bloids and Drive A at Action Figure, East Side Stages (3000 E. Cesar Chavez, midnight-4am, 21+)

Paste and Stereogum present the Dell Lounge
Kevin Barnes DJ set (5pm), HEALTH (4pm), No Age (3pm), Blitzen Trapper (2pm), High Places (1pm), Fuck Buttons (noon) at Volume Night Club (612 E. 6th St., free, RSVP here)

Misc. Music Showcase
Half Japanesse (9pm), Aliens (8pm), Peelander-Z (7pm), S-T-B (6pm), Damage Pants/iKiLLCaRS (5pm), Sado-Massachusetts (4pm), Inverted Colors (3pm), Illinois Payson (2pm), No Mas Bodas (1pm) at Counter Cafe (626 N. Lamar at 6th St., free)

Cream Vintage presents
TBA (7pm), The Mercers (6pm), The Teeth (5pm), Mr. and Mrs. Mays (4pm), The Steps (3pm), The Hymns (2pm) at Cream Vintage (2532 Guadalupe, free)

Vice Scion Electro Show
Chromeo (3:05pm), Digitalism (2:05pm), Mixhell (1:10pm), Black Moth Super Rainbow (12:30pm), Mixhell (noon) at Stubb's

Waterloo Records presents
Half Japanese (6pm), Carbon/Silicon (5pm), Ola Podrida (4pm), Times new Viking (3pm), Saviours (2pm) at Waterloo Records (free, free beer)

KEXP Live in Austin
Blitzen Trapper (8pm), The Raveonettes (6pm), Tapes N Tapes (4pm), These New Puritans (2pm), Positive Vibrations with Kid Hops (11am) at the KLRU Studios (Guadalupe and Dean Keeton, see map here, free)

Rachael Ray presents
Holy Fuck (5pm), The Stills (4pm), Scissors For Lefty (3pm), The Cringe (2pm), The Raveonettes (1pm), Autovaughn (noon), DJ Efren Ramirez at the Beauty Bar (noon-6pm)

The Nail in the Coffin
Octopus Project (2am), DJ Gerard Cosloy (1am), DJ List Christee (Kevin Barnes from Of Montreal, midnight), Foreign Islands (11pm) at the Salvage Vanguard Theater (2803 Manor Rd., 10pm-4am, free, free beer)

Make Austin Weirder Fest
Hit by a Car (9pm), T.J. Wade's tribute to the Ruins (8pm), Foot Patrol (7pm), Crapulence (6pm), This is My Condition (5pm), Megazilla (4pm), Obnosticon (3pm), Opposite Day (2pm), Jazzus Lizard at Room 710

Phono Records and Lucky Rabbit Films day show
Mr and Mrs Mays, Pompeii, Frank Smith, The Come Latelys, Ring Shout, Dead Trees, Viva Viva, Dedringers, Mike and the Moonpies, Ladyfingers (NYC) at Habana Calle 6 (709 E. 6th St., 8pm-midnight, free)