The Confusions - I Won't Be Sober When This Is Over

I've been paying attention to The Confusions since they uploaded some tracks to my erstwhile meal ticket, pulverradio.com (may it rest in peace), circa 2004. Since then, they've been steadily but quietly (to the observer in New York, far from their native Sweden) putting out some really good songs, The best of which I've tried to post here when I've become aware of them.  I've never seen them live, or spoken with them, although I have done some emailing with lead singer Mikael Andersson-Knut. Anyway, this latest video, for "I Won't Be Sober When This Is Over," from the A Permanent Marker record, is pretty cool, in my expert opinion.

Shout Out Louds - Fall Harder (video)

Shout Out Louds - Fall Hard from Merge Records on Vimeo.


Shout Out Louds will be touring North America in May (dates below). They're also playing a one-off show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on March 1, but that shit is sold out, son.

As for the record, it's called Work, and it comes out in February. They're giving away another song, "Walls," on their website. And they're not even asking you to make up an email address to get it. Nice.

02 May - Washington, 9:30 Club
03 May - Philadelphia, First Unitarian Church
05 May - New York, Webster Hall
06 May - Boston, Paradise
07 May - Montreal, Cabaret Music Hall
08 May - Toronto, Mod Club
10 May - Chicago, Lincoln Hall
11 May - Minneapolis, Varsity Theater
14 May - Vancouver, Commodore Ballroom
15 May - Seattle, Neumos
16 May - Portland, Doug Fir
18 May - San Francisco, Great American Music Hall
20 May - San Diego, House of Blues
21 May - Los Angeles, El Rey

Drew & The Medicinal Pen - Paper Pockets

This video is a collection of clips from Drew & The Medicinal Pen's recent tour around the midwest, set to "Paper Pockets," which will be the band's coming-soon-and-you-must-buy-it record, Heavy Head.

A bunch more songs are currently playing on MySpace. From the sounds of it, Drew and co. managed to follow up one great record with another set of catchy, quirky, dreamy and fun songs to make you frustrated that more people haven't heard them. More on that once it's out, though. For now, enjoy the video.

New Say Anything: Hate Everyone

Say Anything - Hate Everyone

Yeah, that's about right. I love this band.

Drew & The Medicinal Pen looking for a new drummer

If you're a drummer, you may be interested in the opportunity to join an extremely cool band. If you're not (like I am not), let this video be the time you finally take my advice and listen to Drew & The Medicinal Pen for a little while. When you're done with the video, head to myspace.com/drewandthemedicinalpen and listen to "Hole in my Sail" and "Spotlight" and everything else and then tell everyone you know.

The Confusions are still at it.

My favorite Swedish band, The Confusions, are in line to play the last set at this year's Storsjöyran Festival in their native land, hitting the stage at 1:30 AM on 8/2/08. What? You've never heard of the Storsjöyran Festival? Well turn in your Cool Dude Card right now, Buster, because the lineup features some of the raddest groups around, from Drive-By Truckers to Justice to Kris Kristofferson to Blondie!

Ok, I had never heard of it either.

If you like the song in the video above (it's called "Thin"), an email from the band assures me that for a limited time, an mp3 will be available here, although at the time of this posting, it doesn't seem to be working yet.

[theconfusions.com]

Too Drunk To Buck

Video is full of NSFW language. Duh.
What you'll find above, if you hate yourself enough to watch and listen, is the result of last year's "Crazy Bitch" becoming a hit. This is what happens when you encourage this kind of behavior: amplification of the worst of it. When Buckcherry released "Lit Up" a million years ago, I thought it was a pretty OK song. This latest offering is ribald without a trace of the appeal that usually comes along with raunchy entertainment. It's excruciating.

If you've got the stomach to make it to the 2nd verse, see if you agree with me that the lyrics were chosen exclusively from dirty Google results.

Jesse Lacey and Kevin Devine to tour together this summer

Looks like Jesse Lacey's going to take a brief hiatus from band life to tour solo with longtime friend Kevin Devine this summer. Kevin has opened for Brand New at some high profile gigs, and Jesse has been known to show his face at Kevin's shows (and recordings) once in a while. They're not coming close to New York, so I'll have to settle for belated YouTube videos, but this promises to be a show worth seeing. If they're coming to your town, get your tickets here.

Tour Dates:
Jul 17: Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Jul 18: Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
Jul 21: Hollywood, CA @ The Roxy
Jul 22: San Diego, CA @ House of Blues - Delta Room
Jul 23: Phoenix, AZ @ Brickhouse Theater
Jul 25: Dallas, TX @ The Loft
Jul 26: Austin, TX @ Mohawk
Jul 27: Oklahoma City, OK @ The Conservatory
Jul 29: Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot Saloon
Jul 30: Omaha, NE @ Waiting Room
Jul 31: Iowa City, IA The Picador
Aug 4: Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre

The one unfortunate thing about this tour pairing is that Kevin probably won't break out his "Jesus Christ" cover.

Jaymay playing Conan: March 10, 2008

On the eve of her long-overdue official North American record release (Autumn Fallin' is out 3/11), personal favorite Jaymay will be performing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. I'll try to update this space with video when it's uploaded. Then I'll leave it up long after copyright claims have stripped the embedded code of its content, a hollow husk standing in silent testimony to the lawlessness of these times amen.

If'n you're in the NYC area, she's also playing the Mercury Lounge on 3/19. I understand there'll be a band behind her.

Previously: Jaymay interview.

UPDATE:


Or, you can go to nbc.com and watch it (watch Monday, 3/10). You can actually see it there.

Still Alive

I just found this video of Jonathan Coulton performing "Still Alive" here, and what the hell...I didn't do a single thing last month about the best whatevers of 2007, so I'm hereby naming "Still Alive" the song that brought me the most momentary joy all year long.

Enjoy.

Nobody Writes About: Shootyz Groove

Brilliant sticker placement in High Fidelity* reminded me last night of a band that I haven't spent much time thinking about since high school. Like pretty much everyone that went to high school in Connecticut in the mid-late 90's, I had a brief and ill-advised love affair with rap rock at that time: my beloved Rage Against the Machine provided a gateway into winding, seemingly never-ending couloirs stacked high with ill-advised guitar/emcee combinations. Still, not all of it was bad, and there are a few bands that I still remember fondly, when I have occasion to remember.

Shootyz Groove had one semi-national semi-hit in the summer of '99 (I remember this because it was played on at least 3 different radio stations as I made my way up the Taconic State Parkway to Woodstock '99, a shitshow if there ever was one), but I knew and loved them prior to their short-lived radio fame because of an opening slot they tore apart at the Webster Theater in Hartford before 2 Skinnee J's, a band I'll continue to defend as long as I shall live.

High Definition (purchased at the show) was...fine. Okay, at the time I thought it was amazing. Not all of it sounds good still, but the aforementioned hit (download it or watch the video below) still sounds as good as it ever did, the live cut "Faithful" continues to satisfy, and when album opener "Mad For It" fades in, I'm taken right back to driving around town in the first car I ever owned, playing music louder than I ever could anywhere else. What a feeling.

But Shootyz Groove was a better band to see live than their records let on. I've seen a lot of bands since then, but they still have a special place in my heart as one of the greatest opening acts I've ever seen. Ironically, on the day that I decided to write about them, I checked around the web for them (figuring they'd long since broken up) to find they were playing the Highline Ballroom AS I WAS TYPING ABOUT THEM. I'm buried too deeply in Brooklyn to have been able to make it, but believe me when I tell you that I would've jumped right on a train if I'd had a chance to catch them.

So not only are they still together and performing occasionally (spent the summer on the road with 311, hitting The Living Room in Providence soon), they're putting out a new record, One, this year. I'd be lying if I said I expected to be blown away based on what I've streamed at their site, but I'd also be lying if I said I wasn't still going to check it out anyway.

If there's even a shred of fondness for well-done rap rock left behind the hardened indie rock husk in which you currently dwell, check out what Shootyz Groove has been up to at shootyzgroove.com, or at myspace.com/shootyzgroove.

Shootyz Groove - L Train (video below)



* The "WHAT FUCKING IAN GUY!?!?" scene: Rob goes into his back office and closes the door behind him so Marie DeSalle (Lisa Bonet) doesn't hear him flip out, and there's a Shootyz Groove sticker behind him on the right. I used to have the same sticker on my first car.

Endless Mike and The Beagle Club interview posted at Amie Street

This interview has been in the can for weeks, and I've been dying to share it for just as long, but it was done with Amie Street in mind, and I've had to wait for a few things to fall into place to get it posted. Regardless, I'm extremely excited to point you to it now, because I think Mike really accomplishes something I've been woefully incapable of accomplishing myself: he spells out, rather concisely, some of the things that I love most about this band.

Excerpt below...full text over at Amie Street. While you're over there, why not sign up and download some music?

Amie Street: When you started this band, it was little more than a loose collection of friends. People played what they knew on whatever instrument they could, when their schedules permitted. From then to now, what's changed and what's stayed the same?

Mike Miller: it used to be easier to look at it like it was just one guy's band, meaning me. i guess i was the only one really "in" it at first. everyone else was only in the band while they were playing. now, it makes more sense to say that we're all in it, even when we're not all playing. there are close to 20 of us who do this these days. we don't all play the same show, of course. when we leave for tour on saturday, we'll be a seven piece. but that won't mean that the other thirteen people aren't in the band. they're just not there that night. i don't know exactly when or how that shift was made, but i know that it did, and i can't imagine thinking about it any other way now. but it's still somehow managed to keep it loose enough so that no one feels obligated. to us, it just seems unnatural to have to play in a band the same way you have to go to work or go to school - with a bunch of rules and times and all that stuff. a lot of bands can work that way, but i don't think i could ever do that.

AS: I've heard you say before that The Beagle Club's guiding principle was that anything "uncool" should be avoided at all costs. What effect does consciously avoiding uncool things have on life in a band? Shouldn't every band work the same way?

MM: most bands probably do work that way. but it gets tricky when you think about the fact that there is a difference between "not doing something because it's uncool" and "doing something because it IS cool," you know? and it's just our interpretation of what's "uncool" that we're going by. it's not about pandering or endearing ourselves to someone else's expectations. it's just about a set of principles that i noticed and related to and respected back when i first got into music that mattered to me, especially punk rock.

there's this really weird objective point of view that runs through this band for all of us. it's very strange. there are times when it feels like we're just a bunch of kids having a sing along, like when you'd go to a party and an impromtu "weezer cover band" would start up, just because everyone knows how to play those songs. so, it doesn't even have to be all that much of a conscious decision, honestly. i don't know quite how to say what's "uncool" and what isn't, but i guess it's sort of like the supreme court's definition of pornography: i know it when i see it. we're never ever ever trying to be cool to someone else, just not uncool to ourselves.

AS: Tell us a little bit about Johnstown, PA.

MM: johnstown, pa used to be a big steel city, like most of western PA. it was at one time on a nazi hit list of places to bomb in order to cripple american economy, so it used to be a very big deal in that regard. it's still a city. the mills are still here. they just kind of sit, though. my friend jacob koestler is working on what will be an amazing book of photography about the correlation between that sort of working-class, blue collar ethic that our parents instilled in us and how it still comes into the lives and methods of the artists who work here now. the city was still booming back in the late seventies/early eighties, but all we have to go on is stories we've heard and old run-down buildings. but it's beautiful to me, and to all of us, and it's my favorite place i've ever seen in this world. and good things are happening here as far as art and music goes. there's a new artspace/warehouse opening up, great new bands that truly sound like they're from here are starting to make some really great music, and a lot of the older "scene" kids who moved away for college are coming back now that they're done with school. we all keep joking about what we're calling the "johnstown renassiance," but in all honesty, i think we're all only kind of kidding. things feel good around here, even though it's starting to get cold at nights again.

AS: What are some of the less obvious difficulties of a DIY approach to rock and roll?

MM: i honestly believe that the DIY approach is the only way to do it. nothing else makes sense. the difficulties that come to mind right away are things like filling in every date of a tour, getting time off of work and still having enough money to do whatever you have to do, having a van that works, getting gas money for show to show transports, all stuff that wouldn't be difficult with a big label, or a big hype machine, or a booking agent. all that "uncool" stuff, really! but i love every part of it and i wouldn't want it any other way and i honestly don't think it's all that difficult. it just is what it is, i guess.

AS: What is the single most rewarding thing about being in THIS band?

MM: for me, the most rewarding thing about it is just how naturally and easily it all comes together. we never practice, but we always sound perfect to me. and when we write songs, they come together pretty quickly, like it's just what it sounds like whenever this group of people make music, without even trying to make it sound like anything in particular. it works that way when i write the words, too, like it just comes easily at this point. it makes me feel like it's what i'm supposed to be doing as an artist, like i've finally found a voice and a place, and that's the most rewarding thing i can think of, period. sometimes it seems like everything in society is working against the people who have to live in it. like money and government and work and all that is doing everything it can to keep someone from finding their voice or finding their place. so it's pretty rewarding to have something that makes you feel like you beat the system in some small way. small to anyone else, that is. to us, it's the whole world. and that's what music was to me when i first started to get into it, and that's even more the case for me these days.

Endless Mike and the Beagle Club, Drew & the Medicinal Pen - Brooklyn Tea Party, 11/25/07

The Brooklyn Tea Party is located at 175 Stockholm St. in Bushwick, Brooklyn, in the Tea Factory Building. We are four people and one cat. All of the people make music. The cat is a cat. We do shows for our friends in the city and from out of town, fun get-togethers for people we love and respect. We can't make you famous, but we can share our warmth with you. All shows at our house cost $3-5 for touring bands and general upkeep. Here are some ground rules we'd like you to follow at shows:
1. Pay the Bands
2. Respect Chuck Noblitt
3. Don't drink what you didn't buy (w/o asking)
4. Smoke on the roof, drink in the house
5. Don't fuck up our stuff (materialist as it may seem, we like our house and we like having shows, and would hate to not have either).

[myspace.com/brooklynteaparty]

I wish I had more self control in metering out lavish praise. I wish I had the foresight to hold back and just say something is good, not always great. That way, I'd have a better arsenal of words with which to call your attention to something really special, when something special comes around. What I'm saying, I guess, is that I wish I had a bunker-buster to cut through the 30 feet of concrete bullshit you've already come across on the Internet today, and tell you (again and again) that if Endless Mike and the Beagle Club aren't on your radar, you need to turn in your Rad Club card immediately. I wish that you could have been where I was Sunday night. I wish you could have seen what I saw.

The Brooklyn Tea Party (as you've probably surmised) is a loft. People live in it. There are beds and a kitchen, and it smells sweat, beer, and hot soup. As is the nature of a loft, it has high ceilings. But the bedrooms have low ceilings, a few feet lower than the real ceiling, so guests can climb ladders to sit on the roofs of the bedrooms for better views of the permanently installed stage. It's super cool and you absolutely must check it out.

Endless Mike and the Beagle Club played 3 new songs that night, 2 of which I can remember the name of, all 3 of which were excellent. This is the part I was talking about above with the whole bunker-buster thing. There were lyrical moments in both "Oxygen Tank" and "56" that floored me. I wish that in describing them, I could pay that flooring forward. But I can't. So I'll just ask you to please remember that I told you so when you get your chance to hear this stuff next year. The other new song was much louder and the PA couldn't hang tough enough with the guitar amps, so I couldn't hear the words. It definitely rocked though.

God, this band is so good. They're so good that I can't even write intelligently about them. This is all blah, blah, blah. Oh, here's something! Johnstown, PA's My Idea Of Fun artist collective has a great recording of the endless Mike Miller playing all of The Husky Tenor solo with an acoustic guitar. It's a cool take on a great record, and you can download it for free here. It's called Endless Mike vs. The Beagle Club.

Anyway...

As has become the custom when The Beagle Club plays Brooklyn, Drew & the Medicinal Pen was on hand as well. With the exception of "Hole in my Sail," his set was entirely new to me. And not just because of the new songs, but because this show was only the 2nd show he played with his new band. Dream, Dream, Fail, Repeat hasn't left heavy rotation around here since I got my hands on it, but having now sampled some of what might comprise Drew & the Medicinal Pen's future recorded output, I'm already chomping at the bit for a follow-up.


Addendum: there's a girl named Kathleen who calls herself boy, who started playing right after I showed up at the loft. She made everyone stand up, pack around her real close in the center of the room, and proceeded to coax people into singing along to songs they'd (or at least I'd) never heard before. There's a video of her performing somewhere else for many less people embedded below, but it loses something in the not-being-there. Check out some more produced stuff on her myspace to get a better idea of what she's capable of. And check out the guest vocal on "Feathers."

Another Addendum: Brook Pridemore played as well that night, but because it was getting late and the crowd was staying noisy, he played on the roof. I opted out of the open air finale, mostly because I think I have pneumonia. I like his stuff too, though.

Movies about music

Saw two music biopics this weekend at the IFC Center, and left both with a sense of bemused surprise. Surprise that I liked (nay, loved) one more than I expected to, and surprise that the other left me fairly cold.

Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten is a 2-hour montage of interview clips, personal accounts, and distracting animations that, in the end, accomplishes little more than namedropping some of Joe's more impressive friends. It's nice to see John Cusack, Flea, and Bono around a campfire waxing rhapsodic about Joe's finer qualities, but the film fails to truly capture the essence of what Strummer and The Clash meant to rock and roll, or to penetrate the more interesting subtleties of Joe's character. Almost without fail, interesting bits (like the then-unknown Sex Pistols opening for Strummer's pre-Clash band The 101'ers) are glossed over, and what little narrative continuity the movie does have is constantly interrupted with barely relevant Big-Brother-is-watching-you clips and borderline unintelligible off-the-cuff testimonials.

It's not all bad: there are a few neat insights into some of Strummer's more opaque lyrics (wtf is "Rock the Casbah" about?), and some of the old clips of The Clash on stage are worth the price of admission alone. But when it was all over, I walked out of the theater lamenting the film's unevenness and wondering why Steve Buscemi got so much screen time.

Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (trailer above) was another story altogether. It might very well have been the best film I've seen yet this year, and is absolutely the first during which I have ever shed a tear (just one, but still). I don't expect this will ever see wide release, but if you can't get to a theater that's showing it, you owe it to yourself to save it on Netflix now so that you can put it in your queue when it becomes available.

Although there are occasionally awkward reminders of the unavoidable fluffiness of the film resulting from Seeger's own participation in its production, the film succeeds in telling the extraordinary story of a man so certain of the power of music to move people that for him, it actually does. With some really great testimonials sprinkled liberally in (Springsteen cautions that the blacklisting of an artist like Seeger is never too far off when the administration in power is given to personal attacks on its detractors) The Power of Song is all-at-once nostalgic, poignant, inspiring, and inspired. I'm not a film critic, but for what it's worth, I'm calling this an absolute must-see. For what else it's worth, the critics agree.

UNKLE - Hold My Hand video

For fear of giving UNKLE too much attention lately I was all set not to post this video. Until I watched it. Some bands just never miss with videos. UNKLE is one of them.

War Stories is out now. Download a megamix of the album for free (until the link expires) here.

Josh Pyke gets his ARIA

I'm very late on the news, so let's be clear about what's happening here: I'm only bothering to post this in order to gloat. Josh Pyke took home an ARIA Award for Best Adult Contemporary Album. I understand that's the Australian equivalent of winning a Grammy, so it's simultaneously a pretty big deal and completely meaningless. But I'd imagine that once one gets to the point in one's career that nominations for these things* start coming along, it's nice to win one. So congratulations, Josh.

The gloating: Back in may of 2005, before Josh's first EP Feeding the Wolves came out, and only just after he began playing under his own name and not his original moniker Night Hour, I was lucky enough to have Josh Pyke play in my studio at PulverRadio on his first visit to New York. 4 songs, interspersed with what seems to me now to be a fairly pedestrian interview on my end. But he was GREAT then, and he's only gotten better. It's no surprise he's finding the success he's found Down Under.

So the point is, I can pick 'em. It only took two and a half years for Josh to go from playing in my studio to playing on the red carpet outside an awards show that I understand Nicole Kidman attended. And then winning an award inside. So when I tell you to keep your eyes on Endless Mike and the Beagle Club or Jaymay, you should do it. It's only a matter of time.

* This wasn't Josh's first nomination, but last time he lost.

UNKLE - Webster Hall, 10/18/07

One of the eggs I most regret breaking to make the omelet of a real-life life is the lack of attention I've been able to devote to blogging lately. I didn't always work so much. Now I do. It happens, I guess.

A few weeks before I got hired into my new gig, I frantically and excitedly bought tickets to see UNKLE play their first ever show in New York City. Fast forward. The new job demands a lot of late nights, in a lot of remote places. Committed to working on Staten Island until 10pm last night, I was resignedly accepting of the fact that my tickets to UNKLE would go to waste. Still, I had them in my car, in case by some bizarre twist of fate some Staten Islander wanted to meet me in a parking lot and take them off my hands for the low price desperately floated over craigslist at the last minute.

Then a coworker with a CMJ Schedule told me something that in hindsight I absolutely should have checked for myself: UNKLE wasn't going on until 11pm. What followed was a pedal-to-the-metal 10:35 departure from Shaolin, culminating in being turned away from a filled-to-capacity parking lot on 12th street, only to find an open parking spot on 11th street, right in front of Webster Hall. FTW.

Christ, I just wrote 3 paragraphs without telling you a thing about the show or the band. I'll make it up to you.

I've often heard people shit on the sound system at Webster Hall, but for my money, there are few better systems for the kind of band that UNKLE is: heavy on the bass and the atmosphere, loud and proud. Sure, It sounded like James Lavelle had marbles in his mouth every time he came out from behind his console to address the crowd and I couldn't understand a word of it, but when the band was playing, I could FEEL the songs in a wonderful way. Every note seemed to vibrate my clothes, but not hurt my ears. Rad.

The band was content to play most of the show in darkness, the stage backlit by some better-than-most film clips that ranged from would-be-cool-if-i-was-stoned geometric gyrations to Max-Headroom-ish singing heads for the songs (Burn My Shadow featuring Ian Astbury, Mayday featuring Leila Moss) the band performed with prerecorded vocals.

They were good. A little rough around the edges ("It's my first gig!" one cries after starting the wrong song, necessitating a do-over), but with sufficient swagger and chops to pull off a decidedly cool stage show, regardless of the few prerecorded vox. They played mostly War Stories stuff, but mixed in enough Psyence Fiction to keep the "old school" among us happy.

The encore began with the Thom Yorke vehicle "Rabbit In Your Headlights," which should have been really rad, but which basically amounted to putting the video (below) on the screen and playing the record. If anyone in the band was doing anything at that point other than pressing play, I couldn't tell. Mercifully, they only played a verse or so before ripping through a noisy as hell rendition of "Eye for an Eye," also video accompanied (also below). I left entirely satisfied, and thoroughly worried that my car wouldn't be there when I got outside, because no way a spot as awesome as the one I parked in could be legal. But it totally was. Victory.

Oh yeah, this was cool: At the show they were handing out a CD. It's a "megamix" of the record my some dude named Psycho Pab. On the CD it says to "Rip it/Burn it/Share it" and I'm taking them at their word. Here's a Yousendit link for as long as it lasts: UNKLE - War Stories (Psycho Pab's Def-Mix).

Rabbit In Your Headlights


Eye for an Eye

No Man's Woman

It's been a good year for fans of covers of Kate Bush songs. First Placebo's not-new-but-new-to-many-OC-viewers cover of "Running Up That Hill" got great billing in a season-opening montage, and now Josh Pyke (one of our very favorites) has made "Wuthering Heights" his own.

The cover will appear on No Man's Woman, a record full of Australian male artists paying tribute to "women in voice." Not the kind of thing I usually gravitate towards, but I'll listen to anything once. Josh Pyke's Kate Bush cover is absolutely worth a listen, and is a nice bonethrow to fans who've worn the 1's and 0's of Memories & Dust down to nubs. Check it out at MySpace.

The Powderfinger/Portishead track is kinda fun, too.

* Bonus: check out this torturously horrible video to remind yourself what the original sounded like:

Endless Mike and The Beagle Club apologize for no reason, tease about new material

Mike Miller told me once that one of The Beagle Club's missions was to avoid doing "uncool" things. To try to always see the band, no matter how big or how small, as a fan might see it, and not to ever do anything a fan might perceive to be lame. He reiterates this conviction in a comment below this post, but he did in fact say the exact same thing to me years ago. I mention this because I consider it proof of his integrity: Mike's avoidance of the uncool was then and is now a defining aspect of his character, and I hold him in the highest regard.

A decision has been made to turn over the task of cranking out copies of The Husky Tenor (the contents of which I disected here) to the very-not-uncool Crafty Records. A record yet to be named will be released on the same label sometime in 2008(!!!). You can read Mike's whole post about the deal and the circumstances surrounding it here. While I really respect his unwavering desire to keep his fans informed and feeling good about the band, I'm sorta surprised at the apologetic tone. It's not like Rick Rubin is producing the new record.

Look at Crafty's site. Seriously, look at it. Does that smell like selling out to you?

WinterKids - Wonderland video

WinterKids - Wonderland


For all the press that they seem to be getting in the UK (according to their MySpace page, anyway), WinterKids don't get much attention in The States. I keep expecting it to change, but for the most part, I'm still not finding a lot of buzz about them. Just over 100 posts on elbo.ws? NOTHING on MOG? I'm flabbergasted.

Get with it people. This band is good. Blog about them.

Don't You Evah

This video for Spoon's "Don't You Evah" is totally awesome. That's all there is to it.

Monty Are I - Between the Sheets video

I first heard this song over 3 years ago in concert. This was back when I still lived in Providence and Monty Are I were still hustling for a record deal. Over three YEARS after penning the tune, the boys from Cranston have released a video. But this is what a record label's promotional budget is capable of: great looking performance footage, a stylist, and of course the requisite hot chick. Worth the wait? You bet.

You can view the video in a larger frame here.

Lead the way, and we'll all go home

There was once a band named Curbside Service. They put out a record called I Packed My Bags a Year in Advance with a few great songs on it (notably the title track) which I stumbled upon one day whilst poking about the Internet. One day they emailed their mailing list announcing a name change and a move from Alabama to California. I've had my eye on The Snake The Cross The Crown ever since.

The band's first EP, Like a Moth Before a Flame, got them signed to Equal Vision Records with a decidedly emo sound. It was the logical progression from the band's Curbside Service days, and if you're into that kind of thing (as I definitely was and still sometimes am) you'd probably like it. TSTCTC's first full-length was called Mander Salis, and it just felt uneven; it showcased a band with serious chops but an even more serious identity crisis. Did they want to be folk rock, emo, psychedelic? All of the above?

I wasn't surprised when the band announced a hiatus after a shortened tour supporting Mander Salis. The record telegraphed individual differences between the members. I expected it to turn into a permanent breakup, and I prematurely mourned the loss of a potentially great band.

I was wrong. The Snake The Cross The Crown are back (sorta) with the decidedly folky Cotton Teeth, and they've been slowly putting themselves back out there (minus bass player Carl Marshall, probably the emo guy) in recent months. Back in March I went to see a performance at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn that had been billed as a performance by the full band, but which ended up being a short set by singer Kevin Jones, who occasionally summoned keyboardist William Sammons and drummer Mark Fate to the stage to help him with songs (pictured above). William's brother Franklin was nowhere to be seen. It was at the same time extremely cool (it kinda felt like a booze-fueled singalong in a college dorm room) and disappointing.

**Update: One of the other 15 or so people at that show took a bit of grainy video. The sound quality is pretty ok. Check it out:

Truthfully, I'm ambivalent about the band's most recent work. Some of their stuff is Great with a capital G, and some of it is...ok. It's the name thing, really. How many folky sounding names can you squeeze into a song? You'd still sound folky without all the names, guys. Not every song needs to mention a Jack or a Jim or a Sue or a Margaret.

Regardless, the band recently did a session for the legendary Daytrotter that's worth checking out. One note: although the Daytrotter site says all the songs are from Cotton Teeth, "A Brief Intermission" is in fact found on Mander Salis.

AT&T censored Pearl Jam at Lollapalooza

When you hear people talking about Net Neutrality and how important it is, this is what they are talking about:


We don't need no thought control.

AT&T leave my tubes alone.

Eddie Vedder released a statement about this:

Most telecommunications companies oppose "net neutrality" and argue that the public can trust them not to censor..

Even the ex-head of AT&T, CEO Edward Whitacre, whose company sponsored our troubled webcast, stated just last March that fears his company and other big network providers would block traffic on their networks are overblown..

"Any provider that blocks access to content is inviting customers to find another provider." (Marguerite Reardon, Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: March 21, 2006, 2:23 PM PST).

But what if there is only one provider from which to choose?

If a company that is controlling a webcast is cutting out bits of our performance -not based on laws, but on their own preferences and interpretations - fans have little choice but to watch the censored version.

What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it's about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band.

[Save The Internet]

OAR covers The Downeaster 'Alexa'

You know, it's funny. They love him on Long Island (boy, howdy.), but I'm not much of a Billy Joel fan. And I'm not a huge OAR fan, either.

But when free tickets for a show on a beautiful summer night at Jones Beach become available, I can't say no. And when this happened near the end of the show, I was really glad that I was there to witness it.

Sure wish the video caught the whole song. I guess if I ever find one that does, I'll update the post.

Jesse Malin - Broken Radio video

I'm not going to lie to you. I'm posting this because it features Bruce Springsteen, and not because I'm a huge Jesse Malin fan. I've spent more time in the photo booth at the bar he owns than I have listening to his music. This song is pretty ok though.

[As seen on Stereogum]

Can I Get Get Get

Watch this and try not to smile. Junior Senior will release HEY HEY MY MY YO YO in about a week and a half.

Who doesn't like Stars?

Canadian group Stars sparked a conflagration of blog entries when they put their new record In Our Bedroom After the War up for sale online 4 days after its completion, despite a September 25 release date for the physical disc. It was an if-you-can't-beat-'em... sort of move, but for my money it was the right one. I bought it on eMusic and I think it's quite good. "Personal" gives me chills.

Anyway, they just posted this EPK, giving me an excuse to weigh in on a story that I was too busy to write about the first time around. The video doesn't look too hot, but is an interesting watch for superfans that crave a little access to the people behind the music. Especially dig the explanation of the album title choice at the end.

[In Our Bedroom After the War on eMusic, iTunes]

Interview: The Confusions

Many moons ago, when I was first figuring out what PulverRadio was going to sound like, I spent hours and hours in contact with great indie bands, finding places for them in playlists, trying to help them out any way I could. One of my favorites from that time was a Swedish band called The Confusions.

Lately I've been back in touch with Mikael Andersson-Knut, singer, songwriter, and guitarist for The Confusions. I asked him if he'd do an interview with me over email, and after a few letters back and forth, I think we've put together a decent introduction to the band, who have enjoyed a number of European successes over the years.

The interview follows after this video for "The Pilot."

Mike McClenathan: Easy stuff out of the way first: who's in the band, what do they play, and how long have The Confusions been making music together?

Mikael Andersson-Knut: Mikael Andersson-Knut, songwriter, singer and guitarist
Zarah Edström, keyboards and vocals
Mattias Löfström, drums and percussion
Henrik Svensson, guitars
Magnus Thorsell, bass

The Confusions started up in the early 90's and we released our first record (a split single) back in 1993. Our first ep "Forever" 1994 and our first album "Being Young" 1995. But the line-up of the band was a bit different back then, the new guys :-) in the band are Henrik who joined the band in 1998 (after being our guitar tech.) and Magnus who joined us during the summer 1999.

MM: And where are you from?

MAK: We're all from Sundsvall, Sweden. A town at the east coast, exactly in the middle of the country, about 400 km north of Stockholm.

MM: I spent a week in Stockholm a few years ago and couldn't find anything I liked on the radio. Every station seemed to be an amalgamation of American pop songs I was already sick of and Swedish pop songs that I didn't think were very good. The Confusions are one of many examples of great music being produced in Sweden. Can you comment on the state of music radio and television in Sweden, and on the ways Swedish artists that don't fit that mold are getting their music out there?

MAK: Most of the commercial radio stations have only made the situation worse when it regards playing "good" music on the air. What happened during the last couple of years is that you get this feeling that the public service stations are trying to beat the commercial stations playing the same crap music... which is horrible! The public service stations should be all about special programs and people trying to find out about new and interesting stuff. There are some shows that are good on P3 (public service) and on their Internet channels...but we need more.

There's so much great stuff around here in Sweden, we should be allowed to hear it!

MM: Can you name some other great Swedish artists being ignored by radio?

MAK: There's a lot of them, hard for me to pick out a special one. But I can tell you that there is some weird thing about discovering the "new" band and dropping the old ones. I get a feeling that is different in the US. Maybe because of your live situation is better, you can go on playing live gigs and creating more fans that way in the US.

I think a great older band like The Wannadies [link] are considered in Sweden as "has been" which is awful because they´re just a great band.

A young band like Eskju Divine [link] released their second album in the fall 2006 and got totally ignored in Sweden (it seemed to me anyway)... but they've got things going in Japan etc.

MM: Despite the difficulty of getting traditional airplay, you've had some success with MTV Europe. Is it easier to get on TV than radio?

MAK: We've been lucky with this in a way, being close friends with great young video directors that like to work with us.

We've done great videos with small budgets, it's often all about ideas and locations. So yes, in a way it's been easier for us to get on TV with videos than on the larger radio stations.

MM: Clearly you're promoting yourselves heavily on the Internet, or we wouldn't be having this conversation. What sites/communities have you found to be receptive to what The Confusions are all about?

MAK: Myspace, YouTube, PulverRadio [RIP -ed.], IndieMusic.com some smaller sites...there are a lot of great sites for sure, that's the thing now, the net.

MM: What does the future hold for The Confusions? Are there new releases in the near future? Can we have a sneak preview?

MAK: We released a new acoustic album in May (you'll find it on iTunes [link]) called "It Sure Looks Like The Confusions But It Sounds More Acoustic" in a limited edition of a 1000 copies. This record is only sold at shows and at Internet shops.

But at the same time we're working on a new studio album which will be released in the fall, maybe in October. We have been recording in our own studio Yellow and have been mixing 9 tracks so far in different studios. We're really excited about this new record because we're producing it ourselves... which means freedom and you´ll find different sides of the band on these songs.

A sneak preview could be the video clip Henrik put up on You Tube a few days ago, where we´re mixing a new song called "There Ain´t No Easy Way Out Of Here", check it out. [Video is below -ed.]

You can also download some acoustic (and other songs as well) songs for free at
www.theconfusions.com



Bonus mp3: The Confusions - Artificial

Nobody Writes About: Third Eye Blind

It should be noted before I even get started that after I decided to write this piece, someone at Blender did in fact write about 3eb (disappointing knee-jerk backlash here). So I figured I'd wait a few days, and then have a go at it anyway.


Maybe it's just because I was on the downhill side of high school and had a car for the first time in my life. But I consider the summer of 1997, when "Semi-Charmed Life" hit the radio, to be the high water mark of the 1990's oft-bemoaned brand of pop-friendly rock and roll.

The music business was good in 1997. People still listened to the radio. CDs were still selling (Third Eye Blind's self-titled debut has sold 6 million records worldwide). Although the mp3 was already beginning to rear its shadowy head, an iron grip on distribution would continue to make insane amounts of money for the majors for years to come.

Third Eye Blind was able to sign to a major label (Elektra, now defunct) and maintain more than a modicum of artistic freedom: "Semi-Charmed Life," of course, is quite explicitly about meth and blowjobs. That dirty, dirty, disgusting, dirty little song (as Stephan Jenkins has introduced it in the past) blew the doors open for 5 top-notch singles from the band's debut to soundtrack the summer of '97.

4 more singles would be released from 3eb's follow-up Blue, to no shortage of toe-tapping (especially to "Never Let You Go") but to slumping album sales. Many hardcore fans (and the band had many) were alienated at the very ugly dismissal of lead guitarist (and prominent second songwriter) Kevin Cadogan almost immediately after the record release. In all fairness, 2 million (which Blue sold) is hardly a small number, and almost any band that sold 6 million units of its debut will resignedly tell you it's all downhill from there.

The song "Slow Motion" appeared on the record only as an instrumental; apparently "artistic freedom" has its bounds and songs about gunshot wounds and heroin cross a line songs about blowjobs and meth do not.

(Here's a completely random video of Panic! at the Disco performing a cover of "Slow Motion" (lyrics intact) to an audience that's was probably in diapers when Blue was released. Watch it if you aren't familiar with the lyrics that accompanied the instrumental version that ended up on the album.)


Elektra was imploding by the time Stephan Jenkins & Co. began work on Out of the Vein. 2 singles were released, and I'll not-so-guiltily admit I think "Blinded" is among the best 3eb's ever done. In fact, although I remember being unimpressed at the time, listening to that record now is a good reminder of how far pop-friendly rock has fallen: 3eb's least-liked effort blows contemporary counterpart pop-chart rockers out of the water (I'm looking at you, Linkin Park). Regardless, hardly any promotion was done, practically nobody bought the record, and although they continue to tour to this day, 3eb has all but disappeared from the public's eye.

That hasn't stopped them from working on new material, and an album tentatively titled The Hideous Strength may be released this year:

"I think this album is going to be more political, but there's nothing worse than a political song," Jenkins says. "Over the last few years, I realized I've been personally so oppressed by government and the way so many people in our country have been silenced and duped. It's had a personal effect on me and I had to write about it."

In 2003 to promote a Third Eye Blind concert WBRU was holding and the impending release of Out of the Vein, I interviewed Stephan Jenkins on air 3 times. Some things I remember:

• The man is huge. In person he looks a lot more like a Heisman Trophy candidate than a musician.
  
• He came into the studio for our first meeting with a few records he was into at the time that he wanted to play. I can't remember all of them, but they included the first record from The Streets, and a Cat Power record. Another DJ who happened to wander into the studio saw the Cat Power CD in his hand and asked him "Are you in Cat Power?" He was gracious about it.
• Towards the end of the first interview, a girl called the station saying that she was the hugest fan and asking if he would wait for her to get there so he could get a picture with him. He seemed a bit put off, but obliged.
• Being a big fan myself, I insisted on playing "Tattoo of the Sun," the b-side to "Semi-Charmed Life." He told the story of a meeting in which he was trying to get signed by his first manager. He played "Tattoo of the Sun" acoustically, and the guy started crying. That story may have been embellished.
• There was nothing remarkable about the 2nd interview. It happened on the phone and I don't remember any of it, other than that he asked me to play a song from his record other than the single, and I didn't have anything but the single.
  
• The third interview happened in the band's hospitality trailer behind the stage for the outdoor concert. That remains the only time I've ever been into one of those trailers and I remember the decor in the kitchen was a little outdated.
• The best way I can explain the dynamic shift was that now I was on his turf, backstage before his show, but it wasn't anywhere close to as warm and personal an interview as the first one. Maybe we'd just run out of things to say to each other. I couldn't wait for it to be over because I couldn't shake the feeling that I was wasting his time.
  
• He told me in that interview that 3eb was only playing the show because they liked us, and that there was no way our station could really afford to pay them their going rate. That happened on air and at the time it felt a bit dickish. Other people at the station were much angrier than I was about it.
• The show was, unsurprisingly, pretty good.
  

[myspace.com/thirdeyeblind]
[Third Eye Blind @ Wikipedia]

Nobody Writes About: Saves the Day

I've been thinking a lot lately about the vast landscape of bands that remains largely uncharted by the music blahgosphere. I've been thinking that something should be done. And so I humbly introduce to you a new feature on wealsoran.com. "Nobody Writes About:" will cover bands that...nobody seems to write about. It will be updated only as regularly as I feel like updating it, and the entries will be sparsely researched and fueled almost entirely by arrogant conjecture. Hope you like.


The evolution of a cultural phenomenon is a funny thing. Emo, like a snowball rolling down the side of a scowling, guyliner'd mountain, has ballooned into much more than a musical genre. It's an exclamation, it's the butt of jokes, it's an identity. The way things are going, by this time next year it may evolve into an election-year stump issue. But it started with the music.

If you've ever wondered how we got from the relative obscurity of Rites of Spring* to the ubiquity of Fall Out Boy and cautionary news segments, part of the answer is Princeton, NJ's Saves the Day. And the pinnacle of Saves the Day's output to date is unquestionably their 2001 release Stay What You Are, recorded not long after the band members had graduated high school.

As far as emo goes, Stay What You Are has it all. I'll-gloat-when-you-die songs, I-am-powerless-against-you songs, fast songs, slow songs, bloody metaphors, whiny vocals. Not to mention the fact that "At Your Funeral" might be the greatest opening track to ever appear on an pop-punk-emo record:


Taken out of historical context, Stay What You Are plays like a more enjoyable version of the same old same old. But the context here matters. In 2001, everyone wasn't doing this yet. Saves the Day paved the road down which countless emo copycats would carry the torch. And whether you think that's a blessing or a blight on the world of music, you gotta admit it's worth mentioning.

[savestheday.com]
[myspace.com/savestheday] (Download "At Your Funeral" there.)

Note: The only constant member of Saves the Day throughout their career (which is now approaching a decade long) is singer Chris Conley. The picture at the top is the current lineup, not the lineup responsible for Stay What You Are.


* Probably not an official site

Cobra Starship - Send My Love to the Dance Floor video

You may remember Cobra Starship as the band that did the song that got swept up in the hype about Snakes On A Plane. Well, I don't think it would be correct to say that Gabe Saporta (formerly of Midtown) wants you to take him and his band seriously, but he'll gladly have you know that they are in fact a real band with other real songs, and not just a one-and-done Hollywood soundtrack concoction*. The video above, for "Send My Love to the Dance Floor," is a video depiction of their myth of origin. Some of its events may be exaggerated.

Cameos are fun.

[Cobra Starship @ MySpace]

* Remember Class of '99?

New Smashing Pumpkins bassist Ginger Reyes

...as you've never seen her before. After departing from the Halo Friendlies, Ginger Reyes (a.k.a. Ginger Sling) embarked on a solo career before being snatched up by Billy Corgan as the latest in his line of bass players of the finer sex.

More information than you could ever possibly want available at the YouTube page for this video. Information like this:

Ginger Sling's own music is powerful, melodic and full of pop and rock sensibilities. Her main influences are the Beatles, Elvis Costello, Superdrag and Elliott Smith. Ginger Sling, named after a lyric in the Beatles' song "Savoy Truffle," is backed by a rocking band with herself on bass. Ginger loves to write songs but also loves to play live. She performs regularly around Southern California and has performed on the Vans Warped Tour. Keep an eye out for when she comes to your town. You won't want to miss it.

Ginger is sponsored by Fender USA, Dunlop Manufacturing, Hurley Clothing, Paul Frank and Vestal apparel.

Learn more about Ginger at gingersling.net.

So, I was originally planning on just posting video of the Pumpkins rather lackluster versions of "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" and "Today" from Live Earth (though to their credit they breathed some real life into "Tarantula") but then this seemed like more fun.

New Silverchair video: Straight Lines

Well, the video looks like something I'd expect from The Spice Girls or Cher, but I liked the song "Straight Lines" a while back when Tankboy posted it, and I think I like it more now. At the time he referred to Silverchair as "the poor man's Nirvana (even poorer than Bush, if you can believe that)" but I think a Coldplay/Keane comparison is more proper now. Our boys're all growns up. Do yourself a favor and don't give up on the track before the 3 minute mark.

The new Silverchair record Young Modern comes out July 24 in the US.

**Update** There's a much higher quality video available for streaming here, but it was crashing some browsers.

UNKLE - Burn My Shadow video

I haven't been paying much attention to U.N.K.L.E. for a while. Pretty much since Psyence Fiction, actually. So long, in fact, that it appears they've dropped the periods right out of the name without me knowing -- It's just UNKLE now. But this video is completely awesome. Consider me interested again.
Burn My Shadow

Add to My Profile | More Videos

That's Goran Visnjic in the video, of ER fame. Ian Astbury of The Cult fame on vox. UNKLE's War Stories is out in the US July 24.

Mike Doughty gets his rock ganked

A MySpace bulletin from the unspeakably good Mike Doughty:

Subject:	French lady ganks my rock!
Body:	Listener Sigz, in France, hipped me to this. A French singer/songwriter named Maidi Roth has done, uh, I spose you could say a very faithful homage to "I Hear the Bells." Check out this extremely ballsy song called "Aprés Toi". Most of all, I have to say, I'm happy that somebody in France is listening. Thanks Sigz!

In this day and age, you have to be out of your goddamn mind to lift a song that was on Grey's Anatomy of all shows (even my Mom knows this song) and not think anyone will notice. But Maidi Roth truly seems to have done exactly that.

Listen to "I Hear The Bells" at Mike Doughty's MySpace.

Then listen to "Aprés Toi" here.

Come on.

**UPDATE** So the song has now been disabled on Maidi Roth's MySpace page, but if you still haven't heard the ripoff, here's a YouTube video for it that will also probably be disabled soon:

Drew & The Medicinal Pen - Hole in my Sail video

Back in March, Drew threw a record release party for the Dream, Dream, Fail, Repeat (which I can't recommend highly enough). Turns out there were a few cameras on hand.

So now, set to the EP's opening song "Hole in my Sail," you can see what you (and I, unfortunately) missed: a pretty awesome time.

You can pick up Drew & The Medicinal Pen's EP, preview a few songs, and watch more videos at Drew's MySpace. You can also buy the Dream, Dream, Fail, Repeat at iTunes.

Mucca Pazza: Astounding Circus Punk Marching Band

And that tagline (lifted straight from mucca-pazza.org) pretty much says it all. Mucca Pazza is a sizable group of around 30 Chicago musicians (and cheerleaders, it would seem) that throw the kind of parties nerds have wet dreams about, but that anyone with a pulse should be able to enjoy. From their MySpace page:

Mucca Pazza -
File under: Punk Circus Marching Band
Or: Nerd-Core (Nerd Corps?)

See slide trombones, marching drums, accordions and other romantic icons wielded by musicians with the purpose of making music, instigating spontaneous dancing, loss of bladder control, and horn honking. You may find it sexy if you like uniforms or anything dork-ass.

They're going on a short tour later this summer culminating in a show at NYC's Highline Ballroom August 9th. Hopefully they'll make good on their promise of lost bladder control.

Against Me! - White People for Peace video

I'm not really sure what Against Me! is trying to get at with this song and this video. Something about cheerleaders I think. And who doesn't like cheerleaders?!

New Wave comes out in July.

Ash done making albums, not done making records.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Irish band Ash have been hit makers (not so much in America, but definitely in their corner of the globe) for a long time. Since 1995, in fact, they've had 17 top 40 hits in the UK. So it's not insignificant that today the band announced that Twilight of the Innocents will be their last album.

From here on out, Ash is in the singles business. From ash-official.com:

London, June 12th 2007 – International rock band Ash, have announced bold new plans to cease releasing future albums in the traditional way.

On the eve of what will become their final album, ‘Twilight Of The Innocents’, the band have taken the decision to only release singles in the future.

Known for consistently writing hit singles since the early 90’s (17 top 40 hits, an Ivor Novello award and five Top 10 albums), the band feel it is time to make a stand in the future digital arena by only releasing singles. Periodically, the band will release compilation cd’s featuring the aforementioned singles.

Famously known for their pro-active stance on the internet (the band were the first to cultivate a huge loyal following using their online message board, were the first to use the internet via a fledgling nme.com, to get fans to vote for which tour towns they should play and had the first ever number one single in the download charts), the band feel it is now time to fully embrace the digital future of the music industry.

Owning their own recording studio means that the band will be able to write, record and release their music almost instantly, their fans will then benefit from not having to wait the usual ‘years’ between albums.

At a time when the music industry is in flux and with record sales at an all-time low, marketing music in the traditional sense is becoming increasingly less financially viable. The band hope that by harnessing the power of the internet and by being more creative in the way their singles are marketed, the record company can maximise sales, increase profits and enhance their already impressive 13 year career.

Tim Wheeler from the band:

"The way people listen to music has changed, with the advent of the download the emphasis has reverted to single tracks. It hasn't helped that most people have forgotten how to make a decent album. I'm constantly disappointed with records I buy.
I believe our new album is the pinnacle of everything we've done thus far, and I'm proud that this will be remembered as our last album. The future lies elsewhere and we can have a lot of fun by changing things up. It's like the Wild West at the moment, a time to take chances and try out new ideas.

When you're tied to the album format, you find yourself waiting six months between finishing a record and releasing it. By leaving this behind we can enter a new phase of spontaneity and creativity. We have our own studio in New York, we can record a track and release it the next day if we feel like it, give it to people while it's fresh. We're the first band to do this , but I very much doubt we'll be the last.

We've been one of the best singles bands of the last two decades and we're still younger than a lot of bands on the current scene. I’m excited to push this claim further by dedicating ourselves wholly to the art of the single for the digital age."

Some clarification is in order (still from ash-official.com):

But to avoid confusion, this does not signal the end of physical releases. Things are just gonna be different and we're gonna have a lot of fun with formats and you the fans will get more content a lot quicker... it also does not state anywhere that we're going independant.

I don't know if Ash was really the first to do all those things and they're certainly not the first band to be rethinking the way music is released. But this is a good move for them. Ash has never been a band prone to concept albums; their records have always been collections of songs that stand alone, some songs better than others.

As long as kids in high school are still experimenting with drugs and listening to Pink Floyd records, there will always be bands that aspire to make statements that require an album's length to make. But for bands like Ash that simply write catchy songs, releasing them without the fluff makes a whole lot of sense.

[myspace.com/ash]

ZOX is taking the summer off from touring (mostly)

Tireless touring machines ZOX are taking a rare break from the road this summer to work on their new record. Although their most recent record, The Wait, was released on Side One Dummy Records, it was a re-release, and had been originally produced for Armo Records prior to the Side One Dummy deal.

I haven't confirmed this (what am I, a journalist?) but I have to assume that being on a bigger label means having a bigger production budget. Can "one of the hardest working bands in America" top an amazing record like The Wait with the extra funds? The same kind of funds that pay for sweet music videos?

If you'd like to catch ZOX live this summer, you'd do best to be in one of these three places:
08/05: River Dog Music Festival, Chester, CT
08/11: Garden Grove Festival, Webster, MA
08/26: Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA


[zoxband.com]
[myspace.com/zox]