Friday, April 24, 2009

This weeks for real montage song

Maybe I should do a blog about music used on TV shows - seems to be the only thing I'm doing these days with this thang.  Ha ha.

 "La Maree Haute" stands for "High Tide" and it comes from the lovely and talented Lhasa de Sela, a Mexican-American who sings in French and has a brand new spanking 3rd album out.  

It was featured on the off-montage from this weeks' RESCUE ME (episode "Wine").  I guess since the episode concerned a French journalist simultaneously trying to get into Denis Leary's character's pants and writing a book about 9/11, it was appropriate.  Why do women throw themselves at this character?

"La Maree Haute" - Lhasa de Sela


Little Itty Bitty Weekly Best TV Background Song Posting


It's not exactly a montage piece (for that I would have used the odd music behind the final scene of "Rescue Me") but this song plays in the background of the great mythos-building episode of this weeks "Supernatural"

"A Little Bitty Tear" - Burl Ives

This song is also great for Asian girlfriend cellphone montages - check out this awesome piece of found art:

And of course, what mention of Mr. Ives wouldn't be replete without a nod to the world's greatest EP.


Saturday, April 18, 2009

Monday, April 13, 2009

Eat Skull

Raven Sings the Blues has some new Eat Skull up.  You'd be foolish to ignore.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

this week's closing montage cut

"Fake Empire" - The National (Southland) - from The White Sessions recorded 5/7/07

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Bats for Lashing

Now that this band is getting huge, I should point out that I was the first blog to blog their bloggy goodness. Hype Machine doesn't go back this far but here's the posting for proof. Pats on my back or head accepted.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Bull Tongue Goes Online

Yeah, Sheesh, indeed. B. Coley and Thurston M.'s Arthur column is now an online thingie with links and everything.

Nice find of this month's Top 10 - The Renderers.

Sunday, April 05, 2009

We stay because we don't know where else to go


"Lonely Ghosts" - O+S - It's like Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby but with different chromosones. Its's like YLT but not Jewish or old.  It's like Aimee Mann but with less complex issues.

See also DOLLHOUSE - "Needs" ep.

Photo blatently ripped off for total non-commercial use from Love's oddball doll photo stream

MacRock Day 2 - the party's over


Friday's shows seemed so much better than Saturday for me.  Maybe it was the fatigue kicking in - ameliorated no doubt by the bad night's sleep at the Budget Inn motel or whatever it was called - stanky room, rough sheets, thin walls and I found a puddle in the bathroom from somewhere undefined.

I got back in time for Whatever Brains and Monument sets at Artful Dodger, an arty but servicable college bar right next to the Theater.  Neither of these bands turned out to be too memorable for me  - I had higher hopes for Whatever Brains and lower hopes for Monument and they were just okay.  I stuck for one song of Piroutte but that wasn't happening either.  There's just something so wrong about seeing a band in a bar when the sun is so high in the sky still.

On to Clementine where the initial novelty of Eternal Vacations got them through about one song for me but it quickly wore off.  The band is a two person outfit like White Stripes and do a Deerhoof-ish hard psyche.  It's a band worth watching I think - there's a spark of something there - just needs some feed and caring to get it out.  (Speaking of which -- lots of two-person bands this year).

Super Vacations totally turned me off.  It was like watching a bunch of apes except not as funny (think Lancelot Link's band).  They do some sort of pysche-garage schtick but I didn't think they did it very well.

I then went up to one of the odder venues -- a living room sized apartment above a wine bar where Pygmy Lush just blew me away with their "quiet" set.  It wasn't acoustic and the whole band was there - hard to believe this was the same band that played a Flipper Holish skater thrash set the previous night. 

Caught the end of Cinnamon Band's set and was impressed.  Another two man act with awesome sounding drums and interesting songs.  The demo they are selling is a disappointment- -underproduced but not in a good way and the studio they used must have been rotten  - but that's why they call it a demo.  They deserve some larger exposure as they are local to the area.

Cinemasophia - I hate to be brutal but the thought that kept on repeating in my mind was "why hasn't this band broke up?"  They don't seem to enjoy what they are doing, sound slightly under-rehearsed (just enough to be noticable). They do not play as a coterie of musicians should  --- their drummer is all but ignored and the lead guitarist/singer seems oblivious of his other guitarist.  I can kinda hear the Decemberists go garage vibe they are trying for but either they were having a bad day or they need to regroup.

Gifts From Enola - Answering the question as to whether we really need another Explosions in the Sky.  I say no but the audience enthusiasm suggests yes.

Power Pill Fist - Oh, such wankery.  Video-game electronics are layered while an old silly movie from the 60's or 70's plays and another screen shows some random computer graphics circa 1981.  The movie choice was kind of funny -- it was about a guy who trolls for women in his helicopter and then takes him to his mansion where he feeds them to the cats.  He has a bald fat guy with a limp and wearing a servants robe helping him.  I was fuming though cuz it went on way too long and I wanted to hear the next act and not lose my seat.

Pattern is Movement - their new CD is of that genre that has yet to be named and probably never will - a sort of balance of Modern Classical, Show Tunes, Indie and Prog.  PiM fill the room that Swami Sufjan left as he dallies in sabbatical.  Yet they fill the room with impressionistic pieces where Sufjan is at heart a story teller and portrait artist.  

Live, they are more of an assault on the senses than their studio work suggests - the drums are incredibly defeaning and the keyboards aren't as varied as in the album (often reminding me of this guy I used to play with at the Holiday Inn near the airport).  

Lots of fat jokes between songs from Andrew Thiboldeaux - perhaps too many - but overall the best between song banter I heard all weekend.  Loved his riffs on going to a Ci-Ci's in West Virginia ("where they have to greet you with 'Ole!'").  Didn't so much love their R&B cover.  I know its a tribute to the R. Kelly / Timberlake axis of music and they do it well -- I just can't stand that music.

Final Jerry Springer thoughts:

- nice spacing between venues and huge variety of other restaurants and bars to chill out.  Harrisonburg is a great place for a small music festival.
- the label expo was kind of sorry.  Too band some of the labels that host the bands on the roster could'nt make it.  There were more "non-label" vendors there than labels.
- I'm in awe and inspired at almost all the drumming I saw all weekend.
- There should be more small regional festivals like this.  SXSW is the mother ship and its gotten way to big and way too much hype.  Really - Rachel Ray is now validating bands???


Saturday, April 04, 2009

MacRock Live Friday

Some quick impressions of the bands.

American Tourist - needed three songs to warm up and by the fourth song (which was very good) their set was over. They do suffer from a bit of sameness in song structure. Think Okkervil River - whisper to scream dynamics.

Josh Small - nice picking; too much singing.

Tideland - Tight enough hardcore - they could use a week or so more rehearsing.

Pygmy Lush - dronethrash with overtones of Flipper, Buttholes

Brainworms - incredible set of prog-core. Extremely tight and awesome sound/mix.

Antlers - I couldn't really dig this after Brainworms. Instrumentalcore, I think -- I left after two songs.

Extraordinaires - Decemberists meets Jam band but without the Jam and plus English glam/classical rock + reggae overtones. Nice songs - worth tracking - look for new record soon.

Des Ark - strutting and boiling rage on stage. I like her rocking songs - she's got some great musicians backing her and her stage prescense makes up for the lack of guitar prowess - but her acoustic stuff was hard to hear and I'm afraid if I could have I'd stamp it overly precious. That said, the rocking songs were some of the best I heard that night (Brainworms might have peaked over the top, though).

Medications - very tight, post-dischord era progpunk. Good to see them together again.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

May I draw your attention to...?

This being MacRock overdrive, might I point out this stellar posting from Bright Young Things (v. cool name) written by one of the organiziers of the festivale:

http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/music/macrock-preview/


Back to Team Fortress 2.

MacRock 8 - Canada Cream Corn Can Crease Crybabies Coronations


I'm kinda getting worn out with this burst of blogging but I can't NOT get by without noting the stellar HC/Punk line-up on Saturdaynight -- it has a hole bunch of good 'uns --highlights inclood reunited Spanish Bombs and the prolific End of Year ("Michael Larsen" court. DeathWish Inc.). Stick some doom and some 80's generic-core in a grinder and out came Black Teeth. DC's Police & Thieves hew to Faith/Void/Threat altar worship ("Exit Strategy" via Young Blood Recs). Had I ever heard the originals, I'd kinda get nostalgic it's that yeah. I politely fail to point out the whole "you were in diapers when this music was new" meme-thing. If I write anymore, my elbows will collapse and I'll pee in my pants. The rest o the lineup

Blue Nile

181 North Main St., Harrisonburg, VA, 22802

3:30pm - 3:50pm Nervous Habits
4:05pm - 4:25pm Constrictor
4:40pm - 5:00pm Just Die!
5:15pm - 5:35pm Shards
5:50pm - 6:10pm The Guilt
6:25pm - 6:45pm No Excuse
7:00pm - 7:30pm Police & Thieves
7:45pm - 8:15pm Kingshead
8:30pm - 9:00pm Balaclava
9:15pm - 9:45pm Savage Land
10:00pm - 10:30pm Black Teeth
10:45pm - 11:15pm Spanish Bombs
11:30pm - 12:00am End of a Year


Strolling through Memory Lanes

Funny the things you find on your own blog sometime. F'rinstance:


Circular free association fun: Antietam the band was formed in Louisville on Derby Day, 1984. A horse named Swale won the Derby that day. A swale is a "depression in the earth." Antietam was named after a Civil War Battle that occurred on September 17, 1892. The "Bloody Lane" is an 800-yard "sunken road" - or a "depression in the earth" is one of the more notorious sections of the Antietam battlefield. Music from Elba includes an anti-war song "War is (the health of the state)" Another song from Elba is called "The Haunting of Rocky Face Ridge" home of another Civil War Battle in Georgia. Georgia Hubley produced the third Antietam album, Burgoo, which is a traditional Kentucky stew served on Derby Day.
I wrote this? - how cool is that?

MacRock 7 - Pine on (Street)


Clementine Cafe

153 S. Main St., Harrisonburg, VA, 22801

4:50pm - 5:10pm Elephant Child
5:30pm - 5:50pm Facepaint
6:10pm - 6:30pm Eternal Summers
6:50pm - 7:20pm Super Vacations
7:40pm - 8:10pm Mas y Mas
8:30pm - 9:00pm Snack Truck
9:20pm - 9:50pm Ancient Sky
10:10pm - 10:40pm The Points
11:00pm - 11:50pm Obits

I'll politely not speak of the first two bands 'cept they seem a bit outta their league. Waaaait, that's not polite.

Eternal Summers is blog-love creature getting first SaithDuhWankerphone love and then GirrlVsBare luv and then even more Say-Yo-Gramma'sphone luv. WTF? A Roanoke band? Way coollllzzzz... See the saga unfolden here. VinylMine weights in heavily and saith the VinylMine: I kinda nice, a girl band version of The Warlocks (oh wait, we're supposed ta hate the Warlocks, nyah).

Super Vacations follows Eternal Summers, geddit? And I guess they can borrow their reverb boxes, too. One song on their bi-space page "10 Seconde Freakout" is as if Jesus and Mary Chain got faster, lo-fi and better sounding all at once. The others well kinda weird, kinda bad in a good I don't really know how to play my guitar but it makes cool sounds way....

Mas Y Mas - I thought they were a Los Lobos tribute group but turns out they're a concept band - currently flagging some sort of subgenius-style meme about Pepsi and China. The music has a World Music meets Jonny Richman feel to it. Their tryspace page calls it Chinese Pop but more like Chinese INDIE pop whatever that is. My mantra: I'm not opposed. I'm open to any and all possibilities that this might bring it on. Change is good, world music can be good. World music, ironic mash-ups and bearded men can be good, too.

Snack Truck - Uh, instrumental group. Not totally gone.

Ancient Sky - Brand-spanking four-man new group from Brooklyn. Farfisa organ and guitar seem to be the core of the sound. Like their fourth or fifth show and they got a decent spot in a "festival" if that's what this still. I think if you like Akron/Family, Iron Butterfly & Six Organs of Admittance, this might be your thing.

The Points - Sneering/party-grade mid-to-fast late 70's/early 80's punk rock, slightly updated, and from DC's Mud Memory lapel/label. KinDuh like "Feeling Sorry" and "No Girl" currently streaming on their blahspace page.

The Obits - Rough-hewn band makes a nice back-to-back with the Points.

"Pine On" - crtrsy Subpop

MacRock #6 - Saturday night's alright for drowsing

The line-up:

Court Square Theater

61 Graham St., Harrisonburg, VA, 22801

5:00pm - 5:20pm The Great Migrators
5:30pm - 5:50pm Wild Animal Party
6:10pm - 6:30pm Moon High
6:50pm - 7:20pm The Cinnamon Band
7:40pm - 8:10pm Cinemasophia
8:30pm - 9:00pm Gifts From Enola
9:20pm - 9:50pm Power Pill Fist
10:10pm - 10:50pm Pattern is Movement
11:10pm - 11:50pm Cast Spells (Dave of Maps and Atlases)


Great Migrators and Wild Animal Party are two local bands, interesting listens, unpolished indie pop-rock. They don't strike me as nothing special but then again they don't seem horrible or anything.

Moon High is an anamoly from Columbus, Oh - a folk collective from a town that usually produces more rockinger types.

Cinnamon Band is another local act - two men, one guitar, one drum set - Songs:Ohia, Great Lakes Swimmers type stuff.

Richmond gives us Cinemasophia, a new group (if by new you mean two years old and about ready to drop their first full-length), that has an interesting lush, fuzzy quality to them - like a big old blanket - the layered vocals, crispy but wet drum sound and jews harp guitar wants to wraps around your ears. I think the kids call it shoegaze or something. I'm most interested in hearing more here. Jay Breitling, (( whomever HE is but I understand he likes it when you say his name)), has listened to their recent album with great intensity - here.

Gifts From Enola do the cinematic orchestral instrumental Crack the Explosions on the Saxon Shore thing, I guess, I do. Not my cup of ale but Dog bless 'em anyway as I'm sure they bring light into someone's world.

Power Pill Fist are: electrical powertool kitchysink chunky-sized hypnohouse industromeat improv(able) videogling gamertong bleatreatbliptrip stuff. They live to own YOU. Not me. YOU.

Pattern is Movement - I'd like these guys more if they grew longer beards and got balder and fatter. This is what I love about them, fuck the music. No seriously, I saw them in 2005 and I was blown away and that's not usually the case with highly choreographed prog-math type duo (trio?) (to be fair, I think their band was larger when I saw them last). I think its just that I respect the hell out of their hearing ability, the ability to keep all in tune, melody, rhythm and make it look like they're eating lunch or taking the dog for a walk.

First time, I saw a drummer roll his brushes on his snare like he was kneading dough and it made such an asskicking sound that I've never been able to reproduce. No really seriously, fatter and balder, please. I need company at these shows.

"Right Away" - courtesy Home Tapes

Cast Spells has that sort of laid back American Analog Set vibe going. Or is it just that they use vibraphone that I'm drawing the comparison. Interesting, never heard of them before but they're from Chicago and list Pattern is Movement as a friend on their whyspace page.







Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Macrock #5 - one of these things is not like the others



Whatever Brains - This is the band to see at 2:35. Dude, I hear this band, I hear 100 million tormented children screaming at once with 500 billion guitars chiming along and 11, 000 trillion drummers stomping. And lo it was good. And low, it sounds so much better than one child screaming. Does this have beast have legs? What kind of legs and do they have multiple joints, retract up to the side, are hairy, splotted or splayed. Earplugs will be stomped into the ground.



Here's the rest of the Saturday Artful Dodger line-up. I'm sure they are all very well-spoken, over-rehearsed, cute in that regretful sort of way and oh-so indie-rock nice. I'll be sure to pinch their cheeks.

Artful Dodger

47 Court Sq., Harrisonburg, VA, 22802

2:00pm - 2:20pm Invisible Hand
2:35pm - 2:55pm Whatever Brains
3:10pm - 3:35pm Monument
3:50pm - 4:10pm Pirouette
4:25pm - 5:00pm Algernon Cadwallader
5:20pm - 6:00pm Slingshot Dakota

MacRock #4 - the golden ticket says pass


who do you think you are, edie sedgewick?
pict courtesy wikipedia


Gar... what have I gotten myself into. Let's make this short - here's the line-up of the next group o' bands:

Clementine Cafe

153 S. Main St., Harrisonburg, VA, 22801

4:50pm - 5:10pm Rapid Cities
5:30pm - 5:50pm Title Tracks (ex Q and Not U)
6:10pm - 6:30pm The House Floor
6:50pm - 7:20pm New Rock Church of Fire
7:40pm - 8:10pm The Fordists
8:30pm - 9:00pm Edie Sedgwick
9:20pm - 9:50pm Liquid Limbs
10:10pm - 10:50pm Fin Fang Foom
11:10pm - 12:00pm Medications


This is sort of the obligatory Mac-Rock Dischord-lovein line-up full of "good guy bands" - mostly soul-less and over-saturated with influence and too smothered in their earnestness to really stick out in a crowd. Doon't get me wrongga... They're all technically competent and perhaps talented but they seem to lack any sort of meaningful life experience beyond seeing Fugazi play live. And that ain't enuf.

Out of this group, Edie Sedgewick is an original and pretty funny if you follow his campy set-up - ironically, though, its an act which, if it had come out of outsider land, it would have never gotten the acceptance it has received. That said, it's just a bit too thought out to truly be a wonderful outsider act. Is he still doing his music backup with an iPod I wonder?

I'm happy to see Medications are back together - they had some good songs back in 2005 but then lost steam when their drummer moved on... if there's no other conflicts, I would try to check them out, see where they're heads are at.

"Twine Time" - dl ctsty: Medications