speaks for it’s self!

 

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This episode we interview someone on the other side of the Great Lakes, get our post-rock on, and gleefully see the newest thing out of Nashville, TN.

Songs played on this episode:

• F**k Buttons - Bright Tomorrow Buy F**k Buttons’ Music Here
• Decomposure - Hour 1 Buy Decomposure’s Music Here
• De Novo Dahl - Shout Buy De Novo Dahl’s Music Here
• Twin Tigers - If (out june 10th click here for myspace)

Have a great week, and don’t forget to send us an email!

I love Brian Jonestown Massacre. I hate this album. And that’s really hard, if not heart-breaking, for me to write.

Largely anachronistic in the latter half of a decade rife with the vestiges of grunge and the ubiquitous glut of nu metal, BJM emerged in the mid 90’s offering something unique, enthralling, sincere. Anton Newcombe has the heart of a street busker, ever eager to share with anyone who wants to listen. Most of the time you do. But something seems lost on My Bloody Underground. The album sounds tired, which is understandable considering the cacophonous history of BJM.

If Strung Out In Heaven is your favorite, this probably isn’t the album for you. Many of the tracks are droney noise washes draped over drum loops with unintelligible vocals just barely peeking out of the mix. And with track titles like “Just Like Kicking Jesus,” “We Are The Niggers Of The World,” and “Automatic Faggot For The People,” it left me wondering what the hell Newcombe was going for with this one. While there are a few rewarding moments, this effort largely comes off as amateur, inchoate, and beyond self-indulgent.

Brian Jonestown Massacre - Who Cares Why

Brian Jonestown Massacre - Darkwave Driver/ Big Car Drill

The first time I heard Danger’s track 11h30 I was like “whoa, when did Justice come out with this?!” Then I realized that this guy Danger was behind these glitchy beats and crunchy bass lines my ears were crooning over. All I knew was I couldn’t stop nodding and my head, and rocking out to the noise. From what I can gather, the French producer doesn’t like a whole lot of people knowing what he looks like, as he is another masked wonder of the DJ world. All of his tracks seem to symbolize some date or time, though it’s hard to tell. Cloaked in mystery, but rocking your head from the inside out, without hesitation. The boy knows what he’s doing, and is killing it with this Estelle remix of “American Boy.”

Danger - 11h30

Danger - 19h11 (original mix)

Estelle Featuring Kanye west - American Boy (Danger Remix)

By the way, if you like what you hear, make sure you hit up beatport or itunes.

So there is good news then ambiguous news then bad news.  The good news is that the newest Ladytron track has been released, the ambiguous news is that it’s vocally a departure from their last album “Witching Hour” the bad news is that they seem stuck on their Electro Darkwave kick.  I have to be honest that upon first listen the group sounds like newcomers even though they were one of the first groups to get any attention on the indie dance circut.

If you liked their previous motif but preferred the previous two records less pop ambitions than this may be the disc for you.  Unfortunately I am not of that opinion.  Here is the track none the less.  I hope you enjoy it.

Ladytron - Black Cat 

So My first experience with Andrew Bird was “Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire” and while I still prefer that Andrew I appreciate his new band much more. Not to say that the Bowl of Fire wasn’t great, but the new musicians he works with are a little more my taste. Thats why with great pleasure I present to you one of Andrew Birds Touring mates Dosh. His music fits right into 2008 and really does a lot to embody the credo of this website. If you don’t know dosh, you don’t know new music.

Lush orchestrations layered in with rhythms that exist outside of drum machines, this record is pretty exciting. The upcoming disc will also feature Andrew Bird himself as well as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and members of Fog. This is definately worth waiting for so check out this track and keep an ear out till May 3rd when the disc drops.

Dosh - If You Want To You Have To

Dosh’s Myspace 

Andrew Bird who put out last year’s stellar Armchair Apocrypha announced via his blog that he will be writing a series of articles for the New York Times on the process of songwriting. His first piece examines a song inspired by a terrified youngster on a flight from New York to Chicago called Oh No:

…it was looking to be the classic scenario of the child screaming bloody murder. However, I was struck by the mournfulness of this kid’s wail. He just kept crying “oh no” in a way that only someone who is certain of their demise could. Pure terror. Completely inconsolable. It was more moving than annoying.

So when I got home I picked up my guitar and tried to capture the slowly descending arc of that kid’s cry.

Bird’s tinpan alley nouveau has been a staple of the indie rock community for years now. It’s a pleasure to see those cheerful and otherworldly songs with their gears exposed. It’s a great move by the NY Times, and I can’t wait for the next article. Hopefully Andrew will write the articles before he’s told that Connor Oberst is a CIA spy.

He talks about using violin loops in the article, and I found that technique really useful in this song:

Andrew Bird - Fake Palindromes [buy other Andrew Bird mp3s]

It’s like the gumbo that you can’t quite figure out what the secret ingredient is, or the pattern of clothes thats so compelling but you just can’t figure out why, A Faulty Chromosome is a wonderful experiment in people that care a lot, about caring very little. To put the music in perspective just listen to the lyrics on one of the provided tracks Jackie O; “So we went to a party at Jackie Onassis’, if you’re so smart why don’t you wear glasses? So you can see what you’re doing to me” then again on the chorus “Preston Daddy get us backstage passes, you know that we love to dance! Preston Daddy get us backstage passes, with all his political power!” I think these guys are onto something…

A Faulty Chromosome - Jackie O

A Faulty Chromosome - Them Pleasures Of The Flesh

On March 14 with little warning a tornado struck Atlanta, cutting a 6-mile path of destruction through the city, my city. I’ve had a few days to think about the storm, and I think the reason it was so upsetting was that I had always believed tall skyscrapers disrupted wind in a way that would make tornadoes impossible. I felt safe. Then the sky moved and tore down the neighborhood next to mine.

Last night I went to East Atlanta a neighborhood that lost power during the storm and suffered heavy damage from downed trees. I went to a wind battered Earl as a way to insert some fantasy in my week. The opening acts played their sets, and three innocuous guys in sweaters and spectacles started dragging their equipment to the front of the stage.

I went to grab a drink. When I returned, I saw the band had stripped to t-shirts and managed to look pretty tough. Of course, I was still under the impression that this particular band, Die! Die! Die!, that had traveled all the way from New Zealand to play 10 shows in 3 days at SXSW and then driven all the way to Atlanta, were merely trying to look tough. I was so accustom to the idea that musicians try to seem like something they are not, I didn’t realize or see the true and very real passion, anger, and commitment in front of me.

The first tree-cracking blast of the bass jolted me as Andrew Wilson flung his body off the stage into the slim Monday crowd. Hipsters scattered to avoid the unpredictable singer who occasionally clipped an audience member with an elbow while falling to writhe on the ground. He was so enraptured in pushing out the words of the song that they came in convulsions and shutters.

While Michael Prain was chained to his kit, Lachlan Anderson brought his bass out to bump his favorite girls. After the bass’ neck came dangerously close to grazing a good piece of my face, I realized something. This was not safe! Die! Die! Die! was not pretending. They weren’t pretending to make music that cut a 6-mile path of destruction. They were just doing it while each well placed note was making their bodies seize involuntarily. I was mysteriously thrilled, maybe a little calm. Life isn’t safe! It never will be, and pretending that it’s anything else is idiotic and dangerous. A lot more dangerous than getting knocked in the head by a bass guitar.

Every song was an attack. Every note was a solid point. Finally, after the last note came from Andrew and he quietly put down his Jaguar that had its strap duck taped on both ends, the 40 or so people at the Earl that night cheered. We clapped because we saw something worth seeing. We cheered because it wasn’t hipsters jerking themselves off. We roared because we genuinely wanted the band back on stage but knew they weren’t coming out.

Ultimately the band is something of a force of faith. You either know the pain they’re channeling and redirecting or not, but from this new fans perspective all those people out their who “just don’t get it” can fucking Die! Die! Die!

The Entire Show Courtesy of The Earl

1. Promises Promises
2. Britomart Sunset
3. Maybe: Definitely
4. Sideways Here We Come
5. A.T.T.I.T.U.D.
6. Out Of The Blue
7. Blue Skies
8. Throw A Fit

Sometime last week I was up far too late into the morning, chaining my way around emusic and somehow I managed to land on their country/folk listings. Generally, I’m not a very big fan of either category (country especially, though definitely exceptions from both), and I was just about to start a new search when this caught my eye. And how couldn’t it, right? The title, the artwork, they implore, they demand your attention.

People Take Warning! is more than just a mere compilation of songs. What Tompkins Square has done is create an incomparable anthology of early twentieth-century folk songs both exceptionally expansive and utterly immersive. This collection blurs the line between homage and elegy, presenting the listener with a vibrant yet tragic collage evocative of a wholly unique era that saw unprecedented progress coupled with devastation.

With three discs and over 70 songs, People Take Warning! can be a bit daunting initially, but I think it’s incredibly easy to become captivated by the simplicity, the poignancy of the songs. No unnecessary embellishment blemishes any of the tracks; the emphasis is always on the voice, the words, the stories told. Far from the cut and paste, auto-tune, boundless compression Pro-Tools rig set-up of modern day studios, these tracks were all recorded in one take with real musicians, with real voices–characteristics largely absent today.

The three discs are simply titled Man vs. Machine, Man vs. Nature, and Man vs. Man, and I find this the most interesting attribute of the collection. The modern era was one in which humanity’s triumphs seemed to swell to god-like heights. The industrial age convinced us that nothing was impossible, that mankind could make anything yield to it, but as history and these songs clearly document we will never entirely master our own creations, most certainly not nature, and, all the more tragically, we will never master ourselves.

People Take Warning! will cost you around 50 American after tax. Sounds a little steep, but with three discs of material, a 48-page booklet of photographs, and an introduction by none other than Tom Waits himself, the package is well worth it. If you’re at all interested in this anthology, I’ll also recommend that you check out other depression-era groups like the Inkspots and the Mills Brothers.

Hi Henry Brown & Charlie Gordan- Titanic Blues

Earl Johnson - The Little Grave Down in Georgia

The Skillet Lickers - Wreck of the Old 97