- joiezabel in Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head it really is brilliant, scott. i hate you.
- hotshotrobot in Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head Goddammit, Borch, now how am i supposed to review this? I can’t top that!
- Borch in The Avett Brothers - House of Blues - May 14th Good Lord, that’s a beautiful song! The Avett Bros. were in Chicago? Why wasn’t I notified?!
This December, the Twin Cities’ Tapes ‘n Tapes (if you’ve never heard ‘em, you can download a few free mp3s here) will be leaving the frozen North to tour sunny Australia:
12.09.06 Meredith Music Festival
12.10.06 The Zoo, Brisbane
12.12.06 The Gaelic Club, Sydney
12.13.06 The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
12.14.06 Amplifier, Perth
For those of us stateside who don’t have the cash necessary to take an early Christmas vacation, T’nT will be playing the following North American tour dates:
09.30.06 Summit Big Brew, Harriet Island, St. Paul, MN
10.07.06 The Ukrainian Federation (POP Montreal Festival), Montreal, QC @
10.19.06 Mojo’s, Columbia, MO
10.21.06 Phoenix Hill Tavern, Louisville, KY
10.22.06 Bottletree, Birmingham, AL
10.24.06 Club Downunder, Tallahassee, FL
10.25.06 Common Grounds, Gainesville, FL
10.26.06 The Social, Orlando, FL
10.27.06 Cafe 11, St. Augustine, FL
10.28.06 Tasty World, Athens, GA
10.29.06 The Loft, Atlanta, GA
10.30.06 Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC
10.31.06 Black Cat, Washington, DC
For additional information on the band or the tour, visit tapesntapes.com.
(for band links, check out DJ’s Survival Guide)Â Â
Touch and Go Records, love it or hate it, has managed to exist twenty- five years. In that time it’s ushered in the standard bearers that would help define the soundtrack to a few eras of independent rock and roll. If you’re the type of punk puritan who sneers the word “indie†and thinks the only music listening to is Ramones Rehash ’06, you’ve probably always hated it. And, if that’s the case, it sucks to be you.
As any number of nobly like minded indies have come and fallen, Touch and Go has survived numerous financial, legal and personal setbacks, proving that yes, a handshake deal and fair treatment of your artists, all of whom are your friends, is a legitimate model of how business- at least the business of Rock and Roll- can and probably should be done.
In conjunction with the always locally anticipated Hideout Block Party, Touch and Go celebrated its twenty- fifth with a weekend of acts spanning its roster since its humble beginnings, in the eighties, as a label that might’ve disappeared with most of the rest (i.e. Boner, Alchemy, Mordam, notably SST, recently Lookout, etc. etc.) Like Ron Burgundy, it was kind of a big deal.
Having had the good fortune to volunteer all three days, I was there. However, volunteering meant I had to miss sets by The Ex, Killdozer, the Didjits, Negative Approach, Three Mile Pilot, Enon and the Black Heart Procession as well as short sets by Sally Timms, PW Long, Mekons sidebar Jon and Kat and Returnables, Silkworm memorium Tim and Andy. That’s just too fucking bad, but I saw Big Black, so there’s no complaining.
Anyway- a kinda brief recap of my weekend:
if you haven’t heard about girl talk yet, then you haven’t been keeping up with music news. gregg gillis (girl talk is really just gregg with his laptop) has been all over the place in terms of press, and he’s still gaining momentum. he released his third album, night ripper, on illegal art records in may, and it was my guilty pleasure all throughout the summer. not that it’s anything to feel guilty about - but indie snobbery must go out the window in order to appreciate the fun and humor of this mash-up album, and happily so, because it’s a blast.
the description of girl talk’s music on his myspace (i just dissolve helplessly into inadequate descriptions when i attempt it myself) runs as follows:
“[ night ripper]Â bangs as a continuous mix packed with wildly disparate Top 40 genres and eras. Current hip hop hits, soft rock radio standards, party classics, grunge masterpieces, R&B singles, glossy club-shakers, and rock anthems are all layered and pieced meticulously together into one non-stop celebration of pop and excess. This is easily the most comprehensive and exhaustive mix-type album ever made.”
even if this sounds like hell on earth to you, anyone that can seamlessly mix these genres together has my attention. all the fun and humor doesn’t have to be cast out of music in order for it to be awesome; sometimes, you just have to shake your ass. furthermore, mixing dirty south rap with beloved indie acts (neutral milk hotel! is this blasphemy?!) is just ballsy, and as i consider myself an authority on blasphemous musical mistakes, i have to say - this works. and with over 150 samples (10-20 per song), it is impossible to get bored, even if you’re cringing.
i looked forward to his houston show date for a month, and when it finally came last saturday (september 23), i was not disappointed. the room was packed, inebriation was in full effect, and all music snobbery was thrown out the window (briefly, mind you!) for one simple reason - to dance. and note: all those “indie” kids? they knew the words to every rap song, all the early 90’s pop hits, and beyond. don’t let them fool you. even snobs have to let go sometimes.
girl talk was also gracious enough to grant me an interview, and here it is, for your enjoyment. Read more »
A look at the sendoff album and the artists who thankfully denied us an encore:
Smart is the aging, wizened rocker who knows when to call it a day and surrender those glorious things of youth. After all, even the best of them can only take their initial inspiration and motivation- usually unrequited lust- so far before there’s not much to do but embarrass themselves, and their fans, by trying to squeeze their middle age into the rock n’ roll costume du jour. Or, worse, they could keep churning through their old hits, recycling hooks, revisiting all those shining nuggets of former glory and being a one- note revival of themself. Either way, you’re another casualty in the mess of misguided comebacks and painfully protracted careers, all clogging up that cult of youth we call Rock N’ Roll. Sometimes, old man, you don’t have sense enough to die on your own and we’re just itching to pull the plug on you. Granted, we know that if we did it wouldn’t shut you up. You’d go acoustic.
The following bands, for whatever reason- be it creative differences, money issues or the inadvertently shared girlfriend- said their piece and left. They may have left us wanting more, and wondering what could’ve been, but it’s probably to our benefit that we never know.
Government Issue- Crash
This album marked the end of a storied near- decade long career (and, in the eighties, almost ten years was a long time to be a hardcore band.)Their preceding album, You, was much better, but that in itself makes Crash a near perfect goodbye, the sound of a band stepping down after reaching their pinnacle. Read more »
well, i am right this minute listening to sam’s town by the killers for the 3rd time and though i wish i could say i didn’t like it, i must admit that i am quite enjoying it. i say this despite (or maybe because of) the fact that rolling stone and pitchfork! at the disco scoffed at it for attempting to channel bruce springsteen’s brand of anthem americana rock but come on - who honestly hoped for this to be anything but more of the same dancy, punky, glam n roll kind of thing that their first album hot fuss was? and anyway, we should be all about encouraging attempts at innovation with bands we like. let the crazy rockstar kids experiment and try new stuff - why should we care as long as it is as good or better than their previous work, right?
and i honestly think this is better, taken apart from the plethora of annoyingly cliche lyrics. to me it sounds as if the music is much more influenced by meatloaf than springsteen, although i may be the only person on this planet who means that as a compliment. yeah, it’s a bit overwrought, a little wanna-be-jaded, a tad overly sincere perhaps…they are definitely playing with the epic rock genre here, but the record has that same nouveau-romantic twist that made you love or hate the killers in the first place. stream “when you were young,” the first single from sam’s town, and see what i mean about the meatloaf thing…can’t wait to hear them cover “paradise by the dashboard light.”Â
there are catchier, less ”80’s-anthem” songs on here as well, like the 5th track, called “for reasons unknown.” it starts slow and ballad-y but has those little hooks in the chorus that make you want to listen to it again as soon as it finishes. it’s like the spoiled bastard child of morrissey and freddy mercury, in a good way. and my current favourite, ”read my mind,” manages to make synthesizers sound angsty and that’s the kind of thing that makes joie happy.
i personally cannot wait for the revisionist history that will surely come about in a year or two when this album has been startingly successful and suddenly all the elitist music publications “remember” that they did indeed love it when it first came out. in the meantime, i will be listening to it and enjoying myself and perhaps dancing a bit, all the while laughing on the inside. and when it officially comes out next week, you should do the same.
well, guess what i just found out? all of us who have been salivating for jeff mangum, the genius behind neutral milk hotel, to do something…anything…can take a drooling break this february. why february, you ask? because that’s when denver-based indie-pop darlings apples in stereo are releasing their new album new magnetic sound, featuring none other than jeff on “drums, cow object (?), backing vocals, handclaps.”
robert schneider, the apples in stereo singer, was a founding member of the elephant 6 collective, which i will always love for giving the world some pretty amazing bands like beulah (please get back together…i’ll do anything!), the gerbils and the essex green. this upcoming album, however, will come out on the brand new simian records (owned by hipster hobbit elijah wood, oddly enough). not sure of the reasons behind this but the record itself promises to be interesting…and this is despite the fact that it was just announced that drummer hilarie sidney is amicably leaving the band - since robert schneider produced nmh’s chillingly brilliant in the aeroplane over the sea i tend to trust anything and everything he touches but maybe that’s just me.
nothing has been been released (read:leaked) from it yet but some great old apples in stereo songs are on their myspace…maybe they will tide us over until we can check out this new double album early next year.Â
