Roky Erickson in Louisville

Haven't heard Roky's new album with Okkervil River yet (as a matter of fact, I've never heard Okkervil River), but you just can't pass the opportunity to see a legend. He played here live Friday night for Wild -n- Woolly Video's 13th anniversary party. It was quite a show.

Locals Bad Blood opened with some garage R & B (good set!), followed by local cassette underground star Montag. Phantom Family Halo psychedelicized the joint next, closing their set with a duet between Todd Brashear (Wild -n- Woolly's owner, bass player for Slint on Spiderland, and occasional Palace Brother) and Will Oldham.

Roky was not being backed by Okkervil River, as far as I could tell, but the band was very good. The sound was bad most of the night (why do Headliners soundmen hate guitar players?), and while they got Roky's band sounding good, Roky's vocals sounded like crap. Nonetheless, it was a great show, and Roky was in good form.

If Roky comes to your town, go see him. It's a strong show. And who knows? Maybe your soundman won't suck.

Die Antwoord

So, I've watched several of the videos of this... er... "band." I can't, for the life of me, figure out their appeal. It's really plainly awful music. I can't tell if it's supposed to be funny--needless to say, it's not to me. Is this my official geezer point? Where my psyche is so divorced from that of the youth popular culture that I can't even process stuff on the same level? Anyways, curious to hear other folks' opinion of them.

Know Your Conjurer

A quick pass along of a nice little blog, they're getting fewer and farther between these days. Checking out Vibracathedral Orchestra, who from a quick scan sound like Comets On Fire trying to be Seefeel.

Cosmogramma

Cool little video on the cover artowrk of latest Flying Lotus CD:



dc

weekend music wrap

So Kurt Vile, Union Pool, very cool to see him in such a small venue. I thought the dude was bigger than that, that he would get a big crowd at something like the Bowery Ballroom, but maybe I'm wrong. He played with his band, the Violaters, no bassist, but a harpist sitting in (I couldn't hear the harp once during the set, so that was kind of useless). The show was fun but it was mostly his more rocking stuff, like "Freak Train", and I dig that stuff but the material I really love is his weird, low-fi solo stuff. "God is saying this to you" is my favorite album, tracks like "My Sympathy" and "My Best Friends" are where it's at for me. He did a few solo songs, but not enough. His drummer rocked pretty hard.

I bailed on the Morning Benders and didn't make it out to that weird Glenn Branca harmonics guitar thing.

Yesterday's outdoor show in Williamsburg at the East River Park was great, awesome way to end the weekend. Got there around 6:30ish when the heat of the day was starting to subside and Karen Elson was on stage. I didn't know what to expect from her (model, Jack White's wife), but she played a really strong set of country music and closed with a great version of "Season of the Witch". I was impressed and pleasantly surprised. Grizzly Bear were great, the crowd was way into them being a local act, and I had heard some people say that Band of Horses should be opening for Grizzly Bear. Must have been an awesome experience for the bands to play looking out at the East River and then all of Manhattan behind that. Band of Horses took the stage as the sun set over the city and the lights in the skyscrapers came on, awesome site to turn around and see as they were playing. BofH were much better this time than when I saw them at Terminal 5 2 years ago. I think I posted about that show here, they fucked up a few times and actually stopped during one of the encore songs, and just weren't that tight. Last night's show was their final stop on a 3 month tour and they were really tight and had a great vibe, celebratory even, and very cool bantering with the crowd. Ben Bridwell, the lead singer, was rapping with this enthusiastic dude in the crowd named Andrew and it become this theme for the 2nd half of the set. Some people in the building behind the stage (the one in this pic) put out a banner that said ANDREW and they started putting his name into songs. It actually sounds kind of dumb as I'm writing this, but it had the effect of everyone in the crowd feeling like they were a part of an inside joke, just a really fun cool vibe. It's summer time, ya'll, have a good week.

Wild Nothing is playing BK tonight

Hey, all-
Because someone posted the excellent Wild Nothing album a few weeks back, I thought you'd be interested to know they are playing tonight:
(from Todd P)
Friday June 18th @ MONSTER ISLAND BASEMENT

:: Ducktails
:::: Wild Nothing
:::::: Velvet Davenport
:::::::: Woodsman

| MONSTER ISLAND BASEMENT |
128 River St @ Metropolitan Ave | Williamsburg, Brooklyn
L-Bedford, G-Metropolitan, JM-Marcy | 8pm | all ages | $9

| curated by http://chocolatebobka.blogspot.com & http://shdwplyrecords.com |

Glenn Branca

hahaha, look at this guitar.




That's bananas.

dc

live shows

Big couple of days for live music for me. I checked out Neon Indian at Music Hall of Williamsburg last night, tonight is Kurt Vile at Union Pool, Saturday night is the Morning Benders playing a free show on Governor's Island, and Sunday is Grizzly Bear and Band of Horses outside on the East River park. The only one I might not make is the Morning Benders as I hear getting out to Governor's Island via the water taxis when there is a free show is a nightmare, with huge lines. But I dig that band and the weather is supposed to be nice, so we'll see. I'll be blogging, twittering, facebooking and anything else meta and modern to share my urgent opinions on each show. No, I'm fucking around, I'm not going to do any of that, but maybe I'll post again about some of the shows. Actually I'm pretty damn hungover from partying at the Neon Indian show. I saw Here we Go Magic at the same venue for the album release party a few weeks ago and it was disappointing. I dig that band for the Peter Gabriel/Animal Collective/indie-world beat vibe, but they were WAY too loud and their new material sounds like too many other indie bands. Plus their bassist, in a tiny black micro-skirt, was hot to the point of distraction. Damn. But Neon Indian were the opposite. I thought it might be just the main guy, Alan Palomo, in front of a laptop as I thought I heard he recorded the whole thing himself, but he had a cool band with him and tons of rock-star stage presence and the crowd was way into it, really fun show. Writing this is taxing my brain and I gotta get back to work, but the Pitchfork link to their review of his album gives you all the info you need on the music, including labels like, chillwave, glo-fi, hypnagogic pop, and hipster-gogic pop. You'll also learn that the dude's father was a cheezy 80s Mexican pop star--how's that for hipster indie cred? I especially like the line about the music "capturing the glamor and bleary malaise of being young and horny". Yup. Okay, I'm gonna try to get me some coconut water.

Pharmacists and Sharing

Hi.  I haven't contributed in any way for quite awhile.  I wanted to, and I meant to, but there were a series of distractions that prevented it.  For instance, I went to Japan.  It was crazy.  Also, there were employment issues, and other really exciting stuff.  I'll spare you the details, and I'll try to post or at least comment more.

It's been so long, and I've listened to so much, but over the past few days I've listened to MGMT - Congratulations several times in the past few days.  I like it.  The first song reminds me of Velouria by the Pixies.  Because of all the keyboards and whimsy, it them reminds me of the Eric Drew Feldman produced stuff of the late Pixies and early Frank Black solo material - which I love.  The songs have good melodies, the band is precise, the changes are excellent.  The keyboards are awesome and I think I heard a flute on one track as well.  I know this has been posted about before, but I thought I'd throw in my .02.  

Other things I've been listening to the past few days include:

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks

Black Keys - Brothers

The newest Ted Leo is good.  His rock is clean and bright.  I haven't seen him perform in quite awhile, but I highly recommend the live show.  Some songs on most recent records can be a bit political, but the guy writes well, and he play what some may call "a mean guitar."  He gets down to business.  I saw him in 2000 at a strange benefit show in Boston just before the release of his AMAZING The Tyranny of Distance.  A friend of mine wanted to go because she went to school with his sister, and wanted to say hi.  I had never heard of him, but he was formerly in a band called Chisel.  Anyway, the live show was awesome.  Soon after that The Tyranny of Distance was released, and he toured the shit out of it.  The band was a power trio in that first show, but on the tour he added another guitar player.  I think I saw him 15 times on that tour, and every show was worth it.  If you aren't familiar with him, give him a try.  If you don't like the record, give the live show a shot.  If you don't like Brutalist Bricks, give The Tyranny of Distance a shot.

I have a suggestion for y'all.  It's a service called Dropbox.  Dropbox  is kind of like a combination of yousendit and a thumb drive that you can share with a friend.  I know that some of my previous posts regarding computer stuff have sent some to "the 5th dimension," but bear with me.  This is really easy.  The free service is 2gigs of server space on the Dropbox server. Then you install the Dropbox software on the computers you plan to use the service on.  Once you install the software, a folder appears on your computer.  This folder is attached to your Dropbox account, so anything you put in the folder is uploaded to the 2gigabyte server space.  Then if you right click on the the file in the folder you are given a download link that you can distribute to your chums, or you can leave it there for personal use on other computers.  

I have it installed on my computer and on my lady's laptop.  I've saved my resume and other files that I update frequently in my Dropbox.  This way, I know that i'm always working on the most recent version of those files.  If I happen to need those files while away from either of those computers, I can access Dropbox from the web.  I'm sort of smitten with the functionality of this service.  It's super simple, practical, and free.  

That brings me to why I'm posting it here.  

You can set up a folder within the Dropbox folder to share with another person or group of people.  So if you and a small group of people were interested in swapping photos or files of any sort, all you would have to do is drop them in the shared folder on your desktop (or home folder, or wherever you store your folders), and it would be accessible to the people you are sharing with.  pretty cool.  

Does that make sense?  To simplify it even further, you put files in a folder on your computer and they are automatically uploaded to a free 2gb space.  You have the option of sharing a portion of that space with other people.  You can also send people public links to files in your dropbox.  When you delete the files from the folder, they are deleted from the server.  It's free FTP made easy, and it works on mac os, windows, or linux.    

Here is a link.  If you click this link we both get an extra 250mb of space.  >>>  https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTc0NTA2MDc5 

okay then.  until next time.  

Loop - Heaven's End

Been meaning to check out these dudes for ages, finally chanced upon a double disc reissue (what else, you know me). The vocals and production occasionally place it in the late eighties, but otherwise I'd say time has been pretty kind to these guys. Wooden Shjips or BMRC aren't really doing anything better than these dudes were 20 odd years ago. There's even a little Suicide vibe for good measure. Found it here, download with my entertainment guarantee...

Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers

Hey folks, long time no post. I've been mostly playing the lurk role. Anyways...

Here's an interesting find. At first glance you may think of the Grey Album. Don't do that just yet. Classic era Wu-Tang rhymes over....Funky Beatles Covers! Well the ! was a little much. This a pretty entertaining listen. They've got audio of Ol' Dirty Bastard singing Love Me Do and, and you'll just have to check it.

http://lucidmedia.blogspot.com/2010/01/wu-tang-vs-beatles.html

Devo and Ass

My buddy and I were discussing Devo today, and an interesting question came up. Do you think Devo got a lot of ass back in the day? Please discuss...

Just some stupid bullshit

I got this off Facebook, but it is music related so screw it, I'll post it here. Check it out, hahaha x infinity. I like that little move he has going at about 1:49.



Also, i was saving this for a Scoobie Brothers video, but it's too good to not share with the world. Once Lou Reed comes on it gets wack, but just check the first minute or so intro to this jam... Check out the pure unadulterated moustached power of this band! Paris, 1974, How much cocaine residue is stored up in those 'staches?



Ok, later on.

dc

Some Buddies from Chicago

As connoisseurs (pronounced "kunnoizers") of good sounds and members of the mutual benefit society that is the this rock'osphere, I thought some of you all might enjoy some of my friends' bands from Chicago.

This is Mayor for Life meticulously loud and playing last year at the currently defunct Union Rockyards.



This is the bassist/vocalist in that band's other band, Bearclaw. These guys are recording now at Electrical Audio and should have a new record out soon. Every time I watch this clip chills march up and down my arms.

The British Expeditionary Force - Where you at?

The BEF is one of the best things that ever happened to me. I wish they'd follow up their 2008 EP Chapter 1: A Long Way from Home the way Mark Sandman wished there was a cure for pain.

Konstellation Neu - The British Expeditionary Force from James Lockey Film on Vimeo.

Wild Nothing - Gemini

Totally subjective endorsement of this, I just can't figure out why someone would so slavishly reproduce my dorm room make-out music 25 years after the fact. Nonetheless it is enjoyable and extremely well crafted. A little more era specific than say, Papercuts, a little more 4AD than The Pains of Being Pure of Heart.

Shameless Self Promotion

This is my new band.

http://www.myspace.com/allyoursisters

local natives, LA electronic music, etc.

Local Natives debut album "Gorilla Manor" has been on the headphones quite a bit lately. I've read that people are calling them the "west coast Grizzly Bear", but I hear the Fleet Foxes a lot more clearly, some early Police, maybe a bit of their fellow Californians Pinback as well.

The new Tobacco, "Maniac Meat" is about as dope as you'd expect. I did ultimately score the new Band of Horses for free (take that We%b Sheriff!). It's cool, but like their other albums a little inconsistent, and the places that aren't that great are worse than their misses on previous albums. Can't decide if I was influenced by the review I read on Pitchfork before I ultimately got my hands on it.

Check out this story on the LA electronic music/DJ/hip hop scene. I love the way the music is defying categories and blowing minds, and I also dig how Flying Lotus is talked about as the Jimi Hendrix of electronic music.

Listened to Richard Strauss' "Four Last Songs: Death and Transfiguration" this morning, heavy but beautiful.

Metal Adams

Aren't one of you guys hot for this dude or is that just something DC teases you about? Anyway, even though I love Metal I'm pretty sure I'm going to hate this. Of course I'll still have to download to check it out.

R.B.S.

Another new Scoobies joint. Hopefully will put you in a contemplative mood. Also includes rare look into what goes on in the SB Studios.

Enjoy! Happy weekend everybody.

dc

Tame Impala - InnerSpeaker

A little Dungen. A little Beatles. Fuck yeah.

DC - I'm still game to sew up some new clothes for the site. I just haven't gotten there. I suck. I know.

I'm so fucking lame

Well I've finally purchased a CD this year. Apologies to all the starving, worthy Indie bands out there who can't even afford a beard trimmer. Regrets to all the struggling record stores in the world. Yours truly got the new "Exile On Main Street" re-master at Target. I was actually hoping to save another couple bucks by getting it at Costco, but they seem to be phasing out music. What's their problem? Anyway, just doing my part so Mick can afford his hair dye and Keith has enough man-bangles to last him another century or two.

It sounds beautiful, awesome. The re-mastering is a revelation, almost to the point of distraction. Though I'm sure there are folk who simply don't dig it, few would deny the quality of their work during this period. And I don't know about all of you, but I had a really shitty record player when I was a kid, so re-masters from this era are always a treat (that's also the reason I just can't cotton to the vinyl over CD thing).

NIce read in the NYT if you're a fan, little disappointed to discover that some of the bonus tracks are reconstituted with new vocals, but they're actually pretty good and it's interesting to discover they've been doing that for years. Here's a quote from Don Was about the alt. take of "Loving Cup" and I think their groove in general:

“There’s a sound that’s identified with ‘Exile’ that’s become part of the vocabulary for every rock ‘n’ roll musician subsequently,” he said. “And this is the ultimate track of the style that characterizes ‘Exile.’ It’s not sloppiness; it’s width, in terms of where everyone feels the beat. You’ve got five individuals feeling the beat in a different place. At some point, the centrifugal force of the rhythm no longer holds the band together. That ‘Loving Cup’ is about the widest area you can have without the song falling apart.”

Compare that to the Ramones, for example, who(bless their heart but) I'm pretty sure all felt the beat in the exact same place.

Alright, thanks for reading, back to the esoteric shit.

Real Estate, Revisited

Back in November, Bill Zink had a pretty scathing post about how wack the somewhat acclaimed (by Pitchfork) Real Estate album was. He had said there is "more depth and texture to white noise".

At the time i gave it a quick listen and wrote it off as indie bullshit, but since then i have listened to it a lot and it has actually become a fave. The songwriting has hooks and nuance, its not like technically they don't have chops, and it is just a good mellow record to throw on and enjoy without thinking too much. Whatever, maybe give it another chance.

Anywho, the Monastics had a gig in Williamsburg on Friday and i had some time to kill so i cruised by Academy Records and got some cool stuff, one of which is this Real Estate EP on Mexican Summer. It doesn't come with a download... but it does come with a cassette copy! That's pretty esoteric, granted, but i was able to listen to it in my car on the way home.



Also noteworthy, I got this Alice Coltrane record at a Garage Sale for $1.00:



Lastly, anyone want to volunteer to pimp the site with new layout/color scheme?

dc

Alison Goldfrapp is just the best.

Band of Horses--Infinite Arms

Anyone have the new Band of Horses album, "Infinite Arms"? I've gone 6 or 7 pages deep on captaincrawl and I can't find it; no luck also on soulseek as well. The damn record companies and web sheriff have done a pretty good job putting on the kabosh on the blog scene, any new album by a bigger band is now tough to get. I've paid to see BofH twice and I just spent $80 on tickets to see them and Grizzly Bear by the waterfront here in Williamsburg, I shouldn't have to pay for their album too, damnit.

This was kind of interesting

Flying Lotus - Interview Apollo Magazine from alex deforce on Vimeo.

New on the interwebs: Kurt Vile's Square Shells EP

I haven't listened to it yet, but since there has been discernable interest in Kurt Vile expressed on this here blog, I thought it fitting to mention that there seems to be a new EP floating around the tubes for intrepid souls to stumble onto.

BSS "Forgiveness Rock Record"

Just got it off emusic. It's more of the same from them--and that's, if you ask me, a good thing. This band has a great sense of melody and arrangements. Not to sound patronizing, but they're "mature" if you know what I mean. The chorus in the single "Forced to Love" has a change that is just fucking gorgeous. They have the ability to mix in electronic instruments (synths, drums) in a way that doesn't sound wankily trendy. Generally, they're ambitious within a pop context; and that's something I appreciate.

Some bands incite those of us who are musicians to get crackin' on the music making. BSS is one of those for me. They kind of toss down a friendly challenge. Sufjan Stevens, Sparklehorse, Lambchop, Dosh are other examples of those kinds of artists. On the other hand, some bands I just like/love. Radiohead, for example, don't inspire me that way (perhaps because I recognize I don't have a hope in hell in going down their path, either due to my lack of skill or my lack of sheer artistic talent!).

Anyways, lame post, but I want to start contributing a bit more to this blog.

Kevin Shea

From time to time Rootless refers to drummer Kevin Shea. Here he is:



dc

New Scoobie Brothers Video

OH DAMN! Just in time for the weekend.

dc