Monday, November 24, 2008

Blitzen Trapper - Hailey's in Denton , TX (November 25, 2008)


I have only recently dwelved into the world of Blitzen Trapper and from my limited time with these guys they sound like they would be an awesome band to see live. Conveniently enough the guys of Blizen Trapper will be making a stop at Hailey's in Denton, Texas, tomorrow night. I have been listening to a heavy dose of Wild Mountain Nation and Furr to gear up for this show. If you live in the DFW area and feel like seeing a good show I think this will definitely qualify as such.

11/25 - Denton, TX Hailey's (Doors open 9 p.m.)

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Handsome Furs' New Album Info - Face Control


I have been out of town for a week and I am just catching up with things. It looks like some cool releases are on the horizon including news of a new release from the duo of Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry which are better known as Handsome Furs. The new album titled Face Control will be released by Sub Pop on February 3, 2009. Handsome Furs' initial release Plague Park was a sound first offering that held the 6th spot in my Favorite Albums of 2007 list. I am really excited about the release of Face Control as Dan Boeckner has really matured as a song writer with his offerings on Wolf Parade's At Mount Zoomer. Keep an eye out for this album but meanwhile a taste of what to come can be found here.

Face Control - Track Listing:
  1. Legal Tender
  2. Evangeline
  3. Talking Hotel Arbat Blues
  4. (Passport Kontrol)
  5. All We Want, Baby, Is Everything
  6. I'm Confused
  7. (White City)
  8. Nyet Spasiba
  9. Officer of Hearts
  10. (It's Not Me, It's You)
  11. Thy Will Be Done
  12. Radio Kaliningrad

Fleet Foxes "Sun Giant & White Winter Hymnal" La Blogotheque's - A Take Away Show

This is awesome! I am still angry that I missed these guys in a small and intimate venue in Fort Worth, Texas, but hopefully I will catch Fleet Foxes on their next tour. Thank you to Carlos and Andy for pointing me to this.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Rock-afire Explosion - MGMT's "Electric Feel"

First it was Usher's "In the Club" but now there is more goodness with the Rocka-Fire Explosion performing MGMT's "Electric Feel." The Rock-afire explosion is known to most as the animitronic band that was common place in the 1980's in Showbiz Pizza establishments around the U.S. It is coming upon things like this that makes me love the internet more than I loathe it... but just barely.



But wait, there is more! The guy who is making these videos for YouTube has a documentary that details his obsession with these animitronic robots. Man I love the internet!

Friday, October 24, 2008

It Came from Youtube...

Ra Ra Riot - "Too Too Fast" (Live)

Destroyer - "My Favorite Year" (Live)

Frightened Rabbit - "My Backwards Walk" with a little of The National's "Fake Empire" for Good Measure

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Bon Iver - "Skinny Love" Live at Later With Jools Holland

I had never seen this performance of "Skinny Love" before tonight but all I can really say about it is if the emotion of this song does not move you than you than you must not be able to feel anything at all...


Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Sunset Rubdown - Granada Theater (Dallas, Texas) 9/29/2008


I need not write a review of the concert as you know I will say it was awesome. Spencer and the gang played several new songs as he put it that they needed to "warm up" to get these new songs ready to record. The highlight of the night for me was actually meeting Spencer and Camilla before the show. The venue was not very packed when I arrived and Spencer and Camilla were sitting at a table before the Hospital Ships set (which was great by the way). The two could not have been any nicer as they happily signed my copy of Random Spirit Lover and thanked me for coming to the show.




I was so star struck from meeting Spencer that both he and Camilla had to introduce themselves to me (as if I did not know their names). I asked if they were going to record a new record soon and Spencer said, "That's the plan." Thus, it looks as if Spencer is not going to rest on his laurels and his prolificness will continue.

Sadly, there was a fairly small crowd as I can only hope it was because the show was on a Monday night. Spencer had mentioned to me that it was their first show in Dallas but I hope it will not be their last due to the putrid turnout. To make matters worse some idiot near the stage kept clapping off beat and yelling loudly which obviously bothered the band. At one point Spencer acknowledged this idiot by saying, "That's cool but could you do it to the beat?" To further irritate the band the same idiot yelled requests for songs that had already been played which may have been a worse offense than a girl who yelled a request for a Wolf Parade song.

I enjoyed the concert overall on a personal level because I got to see my favorite band front row center and meet my musical hero (Spencer Krug). Meeting Camilla was very cool in its own right as if you have ever seen the band live (and know what to listen to on the records) she really does bring great personality to the songs. Let's hope the band makes it back to Dallas and that the area learns to love the musical theatre that is Sunset Rubdown.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Cool Indie Drum Songs Starring The New Pornographers


I am musician (using the term loosely here) and used to listen carefully to the instrumentation of songs, but I have found that lately I just listen to songs as a whole. The idea for this post came during my morning commute when the New Pornographer's "Bleeding Heart Show" popped up during a shuffle sequence. Now I know this song is the star of a University of Phoenix commercial but let's not hold that against it. Kurt Dahle absolutely rocks the drums at the end of the song. Some guy in a Chevy Tahoe gave me a funny look as my arms flailed about during my tribute of air drums. Floored by Dahle's amazing pounding of the 'skins' I pressed on to try and remember more great indie percussion. Immediately my mind went to another New Pornographer's song "Use It" (talk about percussion driving a song) that happens to be on the same album Twin Cinema. Anyways, here are some other songs that the drums and percussion truly drive the song and make me look like a fool on my morning commute.

Please feel free to leave comments and list other such songs where drums are king...

New Pornagraphers - "Bleeding Heart Show"
New Pornagraphers - "Use It"
Sunset Rubdown - "The Taming of the Hands that Cam Back to Life"
Broken Social Scene - "7/4 Shoreline"

Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line


I know this album has been out for a while but I legally procurred it and I have a job so get off my back.

Wikipedia defines a Rhumb Line as:
In navigation, a rhumb line (or loxodrome) is a line crossing all meridians at the same angle, i.e. a path of constant bearing. Unlike a great circle route (for which bearing is not constant), following a rhumb line requires turning the vehicle more and more sharply while approaching the poles. At lower latitudes, however, a loxodrome may be easier to follow than a great circle. The effect of following a rhumb line course on the surface of a globe was first discussed by the Portuguese mathematician Pedro Nunes in the 1530s, with further mathematical development by Thomas Harriot in the 1590s.
Ok, now that I have my junior high opening to the essay (or review for our purposes) we will move on to the substance of the album because I don't know what the $#*@ a Rhumb Line is after reading the definition over and over.

Ra Ra Riot's The Rhumb Line is the kind of album that I never thought I would like. After the first couple listens of the album my initial impression was that these guys were trying to be Vampire Weekend. If you are unfamiliar with my opinion of Vampire Weekend it can basically be summed up as music that is trying too hard. In fact, the first words I came across regarding Ra Ra Riot was in a forum in which some poster wrote, "They (Ra Ra Riot) are like Vampire Weekend but boring." It was with this quote I knew I was going to love these guys and decided to give the album a couple more spins before prematurely retiring it. I'm glad as "boring" to me has equated to sincere and good music. Now I have to admit that when I listen to this album I still picture northeastern preps/hipsters but I like these yanks much better than those previously mentioned. I'm going to go get my turtleneck out of the mothballs and give this album another go... -(7.5/10)

Ra Ra Riot - "Each Year"
Ra Ra Riot - "Too Too Fast"
Ra Ra Riot - "Can You Tell"

Thursday, September 11, 2008

High Places - High Places


I haven't listened to the rest of the new High Places' self titled album coming out on September 23rd but this song is fantastic. I'll let it speak for itself...

High Places - From Stardust to Sentience