What? Wonderful indie-pop from Canada that I’ve never heard of? What? Been cranking out albums since ’07? How the hell is that even possible??? Seriously? It’s amazing what gets under the radar, isn’t it? There are just so so so many bands. You know, if we had as many bands available to us as we did back in the 80s/90s, we’d have a need for maybe 2, 3 blogs tops.
Though, I think music blogs are becoming obsolete — I mean think about it. Why do you need blogs when you got your massive massive social network of twitterers, facebookers, tumblrerers (assuming they can actually keep tumblr running), plus your pandoras, iTunes, last.fmers, various boards & forums, etc, etc, etc, etc, telling you, yeah YOU what to listen to? Blogs are becoming white noise. — the one thing keeping us in business is the sheer volume of bands out there your social group just can’t get to, that we music geekeronis suck in & spit out like dirty rapid-fire spit balls.
The commoditization of music meets the white noise of blogs and suddenly I can’t remember what I was loving the fuck out of just last week. Sad, eh?
But then you come across a little simple & simply awesome pop gem like Islands Disappear filled with one nugget after another of indietastic crafted tunes that apparently came out waaaaay back in ought-niner by Said The Whale and all that other bullshit just fades away……..
Yeah, kinda hooked on their last album at the moment. Went to find a viddy and found a shit ton. And, my friends, that’s a lot of shit, eh? Good times…
It’s amazing anyone records in studios anymore, isn’t it? Last week, we went pretty deep into why you as a independent band, should delete your myspace page. The response has been overwhelming! Bloggers & band members joined up in a pretty united voice recognizing that diluting your band by spreading them all over the internet for the sake of being heard vs. focusing and directing your potential new fans to, at most, one site for news/tours/vids (like a blog) and one site to stream/embed/PURCHASE (like bandcamp).
The revolution is not over, we still have much work to do to get the word out. Do we start a facebook page (seems rather counter-revolutionary though)? A new blog? Just keep pointing people to our post that started it all? Keep an eye!
But, beyond that, this weekend I was listening to the new Modern Skirts album that found it’s way onto the intertubes of cyber love and I read somewhere that much (if not all) of the album was made via bedroom recordings.
If you hadn’t had told me, I’d never had known. As computers come, more and more as standard, with recording programs like Garage Band or with Audacity and what not free online, it’s amazing that anyone uses studios anymore. Don’t get my wrong, I’m grateful people do. Many many bands need to have that outside eye & ear at the helm, a professional system with professional people to help guide them along.
Sometimes we just don’t know when we suck.
But at the same time… not only has the demolition of the barriers to entry into the music world allowed for a seemingly infinite number of bands to try to make it, it’s also had to have made it so so so liberating for everyone, from your average schmo to your superbands to just plug in and go, upload & send, check done. A couple layers and you got a “full band” releasing a full song, never having to get out of your PJs. Pretty epic.
Seems to have done well for the Modern Skirts and their new album Gramahawk!
Apparently, after their last album, Modern Skirts felt the need to step back, do a little self-check action of sorts, then start tinkering around at home. The response seemed to be encouraging and before you know it, we got ourselves a full on gem!
The album is heavy on percussion and voice-play, which pulls them from the slightly more straight-forward pop we fell for on their last album. The mulit-leads still dominate (including the one guy who sounds like the guy from They Might Be Giants). But this time out, they are singing about their mad crush on Jane Child…
hot.
…break-ups, and, DUIs — which is also the name one of my favourite songs on the album, it’s almost like a military-carnival thing, pretty awesome-o! — hahahahahahhaha-EXCELLENT! To me, this is miminalist Modern Skirts kinda. Stark, rough, and really really fun.
01. Jane Child
02. Happy 81
03. Under Bridges and Overpasses
04. Bumper Car
05. DUI
06. Tape Deck
07. Glass of Water
08. American Gothic
09. Shipshape
10. Hitler on Wheels
11. To Be a Branch Davidian
Tour Dates:
1.21 – Charleston, SC – Tin Roof
2.11 – Raleigh, NC – Pour House
2.12 – Charlotte, NC – Snug Harbor
3.4 – Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club
3.5 – Atlanta, GA – Smith’s Olde Bar
3.11 – New Orleans, LA – Circle Bar
Now this is a release that I have been waiting for like fucking forever! Well actually the wait’s only been a little less than 3 years but it sure felt like forever to me, but finally FINALLY it’s here:
Cold War Kids – Mine Is Yours
And fuck what a disappointment this album was at first listen!
Wanna know why? Lemme tell you why.
I saw Cold War Kids play live at the Amsterdam Paradiso somewhere in 2006, and they were the most intense act I had ever witnessed on stage. These guys were nothing less than possessed! The drummer was pounding away. The singer ripped his lungs out and the guitars seared with emotion drenched in blood, sweat and tears. They were in one word, amazing!
This is the kind of amazing that I’m talking about:
Imagine my surprise when the first song from Mine Is Yours that actually draw my attention was this one:
Don’t get me wrong here; I like this song. I actually like it a lot, but it sounds like something that George Michael could’ve released. And the sound of Ol’ Georgiakis Michaelopopopopoplis isn’t exactly what I had expected from these here guys.
Anyway the initial surprise eventually turned into utter disappointment. Disappointment made me stop listening to the album. Even more so, disappointment actually made me afraid to listen to the album any further. I was actually afraid of the fact that I might start to like this new direction that Cold War Kids had gone into.
In the end it was the sheer quality of Finally Begin managed to steer me to the dark light side and I decided to push on, and what I found surprised me.
Sure there were more songs in the same vein as Finally Begin (read: darn right cathcy/poppy) but not as much as one might expect. Four songs turned out to be ‘new style’. The other 7 could’ve fit in snugly with the band’s previous releases. Intense songs, firmly rooted in blue-collar American rock traditions. And I like ‘em!
All in all this turned out to be a wild ride for a devoted fan like me, but with a happy ending after all. I see this album spinning in my iTunes for quite some time to come. Go check it out!
Hey teamo! Got a special little treat for the day… The other day, the folks at Aloud.com asked if they could do a little guest post by Callie Morris on some awesome up & coming live acts of 2011. A) Being WOEFULLY ignorant on live shows (seriously, think I went to 2 concerts last year, not including the Sled Island music fest in Calgary which, by the way, is back again this year) & B) always love to have some fresh faces here on our own slice of the cyber intertubal love canals, I said “Sure! Bring it!”
Brunged it, they did. The metaphorical floor is all yours Callie!
***
Hello tsuruites! At the request of Tsuru himself I will tell you a little about me… I love music, (funnily enough!) gigs, new bands and then maybe a little bit of humming and foot tapping if it seems necessary. I sometimes go through phases where I listen to the same song on repeat for 3 days and then move on to the next one without a backwards glance. I thought I’d share with you guys the 5 bands I think will be tickling everyone’s fancy this year… Hope you like it!
The Top 5 Upcoming Bands of 2011
Well the Christmas decorations have all been taken down, and rooms just look like rooms again… Anyone got the January blues? Well with a whole lot of new music heading our way we have something to look forward to again. Callie Morris, web editor for ticketing website Aloud.com gives us her take on which will be the best live acts of 2011.
Funeral Party
Indie dance punk act Funeral Party began making a name for itself with the release of debut single ‘New York City Moves to the Sound of LA’ in mid-2010. They then went on to release equally popular ‘Finale’ in December, showing that they definitely aren’t going anywhere for a while.
With the release of a debut album Golden Age of Knowhere later this month, Funeral Party are about to explode onto the scene, time to get on that bandwagon now!
Their gigs are packed full of energy and enthusiasm, making them definite ones to go and see this year. Heading off on a UK tour in Bristol on 25th January, with visits to Scotland and Ireland thrown in, they will finally end with a performance at ‘Next Big Thing’ in London on 13th February.
With her powerful voice and emotional lyrics Clare Maguire is topping all the lists as one of 2011’s most significant rising stars. Her debut single ‘Ain’t Nobody’ has brought her to our attention, leaving us all waiting to see what she can come up with next.
Clare’s new album Light After Dark comes out in February and will secure her fortune for the upcoming year.
Live, her vocal talents are pretty impressive – well worth getting involved before everyone else does! Clare will be performing in London and Glasgow in the next couple of months, check out Aloud.com for more details.
Egyptian Hip Hop
Genre spanners Egyptian Hip Hop mix together pop, punk, indie, alternative rock and electro to create music with so much enthusiasm and character we defy anyone to not get up and dance!
With the release of their first single ‘Wild Human Child/Heavenly’ in May last year they caught the attention of the Radio DJs and music critics. Just half a year later they have a huge fan base in the underground music scenes, and will undoubtedly be storming the mainstream in 2011.
They’ll be performing at the ‘New to Q Sessions’ on 27th January in London, for Egyptian Hip Hop tickets and more information go to Aloud.com.
Oh, they have funny tweets too. Usually about music… @egyptianhiphop
Yuck
Yuck is due to release its 2011 debut album in January, shaking off the old Cajun Dance Party roots of members Daniel and Max to create their own take on alternative rock with a very flippant edge… And a lot of distortion.
With Yuck you get two bands for the price of one – Their acoustic side project Yu(c)k is also making waves with music industry types and reeling in the crowds, these guys are definitely on my list of ones to watch out for!
They will be touring round the UK in February this year, including a performance at the NME Awards Show in London on 18th before ending in Manchester on 25th. For more details go to the Yuck tickets page at Aloud.com.
The Vaccines
After making their debut with the single ‘If You Wanna’ on YouTube, The Vaccines have started to cause a bit of hype – ranking up the support on various music blogs and tentatively entering into the mainstream.
Their first gig at the Flowerpot in Camden was a massive success, the packed out venue included audience members Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, Marcus Mumford, the Maccabees and White Lies. Not bad for a debut!
The Vaccines will be performing at the NME Awards Tour all over the UK in February and will be at the Isle of Wight Festival in June. For tickets and more details go to Aloud.com.
***
Thanks so much Callie!!! Sounds like you folks down in the UKs gonna have a busy ass 2011!
The weather outside is frightful indeed! Great day for some SNOWCLOCROSS!!! cycling, for realz (dog). What’s SNOWCLOCROSS!!! cycling, you ask? Ah, let me quickly e’splain. You take the cheapest cyclocross bike you can find, as sported by this rather interestingly spandexed individual…
Then, you rip off the knobby tires and throw on some surprisingly inexpensive (compared to road bike tires) studded tires from Peter White Cycles
Wrap yourself in enough layers that people mistake you for the little brother in A Christmas Story..
Find the nearest paths & fields covered in ice & snow and RIDE, BABY RIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Careful though, studded tires help, but it certainly doesn’t prevent you from falling, as demonstrated by my last second decision one ride to cut across a deep snowy soccer field, only to forget about the way these junior mobile soccer nets are kept upright, running over one of the metal bars hidden in the snow, SLIP, PLOP!
Left a lovely profile of a heavily layered snow angle on a bike. I was only able to get back on the back after about, oh, 10 minutes of laughing my ass off. Yeah, straight up LMAOing, as the kids text.
But, while the thought of riding around like an idiot on ice sounds amazing, for now, I’m stuck inside with a chilly feeling lodged in my brain. Fortunately, I’ve got Repitilians by Starfucker to keep me warm!
Yeah, yeah, dance isn’t normally in my wheelhouse, it’s true, but man there is something about this album. To me, it seems to go beyond superficial dance music, maybe just using the base of dance to build really fun, quirky, pop music!
Songs like “Born” sound right out of a Flaming Lips album — Her naaaame is Yoshimi….. She’s a black-belt in karate! Woo woo woo! — where “Julius” seems like some trippy 80s sci-fi soundtrack before dropping into some chillllaxing “Bury Us Alive” and so it goes through out the album.
Sure, some slip more into dance than others, but it has the depth and breadth and etc that gives it longevity and repeatability , but really….. it’s just really fun to listen to!!!
Enjoy!
1. Born 2. Julius
3. Bury Us Alive
4. Mystery Cloud
5. Death as a Fetish
6. Astoria
7. Reptilians
8. The White of Noon
9. Hungry Ghost
10. Mona Vegas
11. Millions
12. Quality Time
It’s time to pull the plug on your myspace page. To pull the plug on an ugly ad-infested site saddled with 66 million dead and or dying accounts (though, personally, I don’t know anyone who hangs out there). In the world of myspace, you are nothing but an unhatched fly egg on the giant mound of turds, larvae, flys, and god knows what else, i.e. not even a blip.
Your myspace is, at best, a diversion of a few select streamable songs on a horrible music player that I can’t even embed and promote for you on my shitty blog, along with some vids and info, lost in a shuffle of ads, and, of course, the obligatory false-genre.
Myspace is a joke. Don’t believe? Hell, even the mainstream press makes fun of it (I think even Colbert was slamming it the other night). You cringed when your mom got on facebook, yet you cling to a network that even emo kids who haven’t converted to hipsters and goths are even leaving in mass.
Yet you linger?
Why?
Maybe you are successful on myspace — maybe you are some kind of death metal goth band? — then by all means, keep it. But for the rest of you, I can’t buy your albums or mp3s on myspace, all I can do is cringe when I click the link to your page, hope it’s not going to take over my computer, hope that the player isn’t set to auto-start, hope that everything loads nicely. The odds are against me.
Is myspace the first impression you want to give a potential new fan? Think about it, when people learn of your existence, they may google you. If myspace is the 2nd thing that pops up, there’s a good chance that’s what your average internet user will click. After wading through the shit fest, maybe you’ll get a stream or two and if they like it, who knows, they may go out to their favourite torrent and see if they can find the album.
Congrats.
Now, you may think it’s alright, what’s the harm, right? There’s so many users still there! It’s still the “standard” etc, etc.
I say fuck that.
It’s time to move on, move foward. You’d be better off spending your time & energy curating a sweet soundcloud page or youtube channel (how many phones & tablets come with a youtube app already installed?), and as awesome and powerful as those sites are, I think we got something better for you. It’s not new, it’s been around, but maybe you just weren’t ready to quit living in the days of myspace, so maybe it is new to you?
Bandcamp is awesome. I searched for a band on google, their 2nd link was their bandcamp page, there I was able to stream songs, full albums, etc, on a beautiful and clean page, I was able to share the album with you on my blog, my tumblr, my twitters, whatever, and then…
…here’s the kicker, so pay attention…
Their album was $5, so fuck it, I bought it. Done. 320kbps full zip file downloaded, opened, and on my iPod in minutes. The band got money, bandcamp got a little too, and I got the album I wanted never having to leave the site.
In. Your. Face. Myspace.
Think about this. Outside of clicking-through from a blog post or whatever, the normal flow of discover goes like this, right?
1. hear about band
2. search for the band on google
3. click something
You’ll have your official page, posts from blogs, maybe your label’s page, links to videos on youtube, and the myspace page is sitting right there, usually at the number 2 spot. But…. If there was no myspace page in the search results and instead there was your bandcamp page. I might click that instead. Ooo… I like what I hear, I can share the streams on my blog, share the album on twitters/etc, and, of course I can buy the album.
What? Can’t embed a youtube clip or put news up yet on Bandcamp? Then get a nice little free tumblr or blogspot to keep us updated on news & tours, and vids. You should be doing that already, anyway!
Bandcamp + Tumblr (which connects to your twitter & facebook already) = Successful modern band existence.
What if Pitchfork starts talking about you… Where do you want them to send these new potential fans? Wouldn’t it be nice if Pitchfork/stereogum/etc if they sent them somewhere where they could actually buy your album?
I know it’s not easy. Clicking delete is scary. But I’m here for you, as are many other bloggers like We Listen For You, and many more! So be brave, stand up, stand strong, and stop helping myspace/fox making money and let’s try to make a little money for you instead, for once!
Change is hard, but it’s also inevitable. Myspace IS dying. It’s time to get ready, it’s time to move on.
It’s just time.
Let’s start a list right here. You got a bandcamp page? Put it in the comments, share that comment on twitter (the disqus comments allow that), and I’ll update this post with your bandcamp link!
To the bloggers out there. Let’s stand up and support these artists, share this letter, write your own, but for fuck’s sake, let’s get these artists into some greener pastures!!!
It was evolution, but it’s time to start a revolution!!!
I think it was Andy who said it best, “get busy living… or get busy dying”.
Last night I had an unexpected dinner date which has left me kind of strapped for time. I certainly don’t have enough time to make a decent post (as if I’m able to do such thing at all) this Wednesday. So what’s a man to do? Well I do what I see people like Tsuru do when they haven’t got time to write: I whip up an article full of random youtubes found with the magical tool that is Google!
I know I said ‘random’, but in all honesty I do have some sort of theme to this article: POP!
If the word ‘pop’ is enough for you to look further without watching the vids, I do strongly encourage you to pay attention anyway. ‘Cause there ain’t nuttin’ wrong with pop. As long as it’s quality pop, and I do believe I have found a selection of just that for you. If you still don’t like pop after playing these songs, then there is something seriously wrong with you. Enjoy!
What a fun weekend! For those of you not following along on the intertubals of love (i.e. me twitters & me facebooks, ARR!), this weekend, I played jet-setter, hopping on a plane down to Arizon-I-A to see my baby cranes, swooping them up and driving up to Sedona & then to the Grand Canyon! Our first times! Wow, what can I say, Sedona is absolutely beautiful…
Our approach..
Wandering around..
View from our hotel’s property..
Sunset…
It was stunning. We went hiking around and exploring before hopping in the car for 2 hours to get to the Grand mother fucking Canyon!
Oh god.
Okay… I need to be honest with you. I have a thing about heights. It’s not that I’m afraid of heights, per se, I can ride on planes and shit all day, though put me on top of the Empire State building and I get a bit jacked-up. But, the bigger fear is the “hey, look at how high we ar-” *poof, dead* that things like the Grand Canyon shoved into my brain, down my spinal cords, and made me shudder with fear.
Yeah. I was terrified. For myself, for my girls. It was intense. I mean, for fuck’s sake, they don’t have barriers on some parts! One little trip up and POOF, gone! Then I read about how once or twice a year, sure enough, someone falls. Last year it was some 4 year old, just there one second, gone the next. There’s no ifs about it, it’s a straight drop to nothing. It should be renamed The Ridiculously More Massive Than You Could Imagine Canyon. It’s that big.
Woo.
You may note that all the photos are from my phone. I had my camera and shot photos & film, but what I didn’t have, a first for me, was a computer. Yep. Computer-free on a trip for the first time ever. Smartphones (I have an Evo) are great, but they are really just crippled substitutes for a computer. I had a hard time staying in touch with some projects, and writing a real email was a challenge, but for the most part, not too shabby! Getting there technology… getting there.
Conversely, oh man, on the plane back last night… A woman in a seat near me had, are you ready for this, an iPod, iPhone, iPad, AND a Mac! 3 of which she was actually using at once at one point on the flight. Quite possibly the most idiotic thing I saw all trip. Didn’t help she was a loud bitchy person.
Anywhosals.
The trip required a quite a bit of driving, 2 hours to Sedona, 2 to Grand Canyon, 2 back, and 2 back to the airport. So, as you can imagine, music was key. Sountracking our trip was new Cake, new Decemberists, new Iron & Wine (more on that in a sec), some mixtapes (of course), and eventually my first official introduction to Lady Gaga.
I’m sorry, but I don’t get it. Woefully generic music. Oh well. Oddly, when it was just her & a piano playing live or some raw version of one of her songs, it was 10x better, but man, the official released songs? I don’t know. Just don’t get it. Oh wells.
But, one thing that got stuck on repeat, not only on the long plane ride down, but during a couple hours of the drivin’ was Kiss Each Other Clean by Iron & Wine!
I’ve always liked Iron & Wine, not loved, just a song here and there, though I really did like his last album. Beyond that, his whispery folk was really not my cup o’ tea. But then I heard “Biting My Tail” and my mild enjoyment went to a weird mix of wtf, worry, and enjoyment. Like fellow acoustic aficionado, Sufjan, Sam gone ee-lectronical! After the initial shock, I liked the song, but I had no idea how far he’d take it on the album proper. Was it going to be filled with silly autotuned vocals & blips & bleeps & lasers like the aforementioned sensitive bear?
The answer was, thankfully, no.
I read somewhere he as going for this AM radio thing, and I certainly hear that (see: “Walking Far From Home” & “Tree By The River”) in some of the tracks. At other times, he drops into tribal “Rabbits Will Run” or funk (see: “Big Burned Hand” or just something otherwordly beautiful (see: “Godless Brother In Love”). It’s an amazing progression of sound, bold, and sure to piss off old time fans. But, all I can say is wow. Amazing. My only complaint? ”Biting My Tail” (so much fun) & “Summer In Savannah” (a jazzy awesome tune) should’ve both been included. Fortuntely, due to the iPod world we live in, mine “copy” does now.
Now this is full-on Major Label now (still can’t believe the dude signed with Warner Bros, dropping, I think, Subpop… oh well, no accounting for taste). Because of that, we are not sharing shit, but we do have the promo viddy:
And… the full album stream via a live performance on NPR that we previously shared and are more than happy to link again here!
*WARNING* The following post contains tons of aural awesomeness, visual naughtiness, & some serious self-pimping. So, you know, you’ve been warned.
Alright my friends… a happy Friday to you and shit! I gots something a little special for you today to wrap up the week that was, make that doubly, no, triply special, no, wait, QUADRUPLY SPECIAL!!! WOOT!
What is TSURUFOTO NUDIEZINE? We essentially took the idea of a classic playboy (photosets combined with articles) and the old punk zines, mixed them together, tsuru-style and this time, built a 20-page (including the cover) 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 closed, black & white photocopied zine!
In our 2nd issue we included…
Letters To Tsuru
T&A (Tweet & Answer)
Photography: White Winter Hymnal with Nina
TsuruBride Present… Craft Corner
A Naughty Wordsearch
Photography & Centerfold: A Walk In The Woods with Isabella Misery
Cookin’ w/Tsuru with Accompany Mixtape
Interview: Katie Pierce of Jack In The Pocket
Photography: Tabs & Tiffany Play Hide-n-Seek
Calendar: Oiseaux retros for February
ALL for only $4 in real live paper form or $1.99 in e-form!
Now, what’s that got to do with today? Well… that brings us to number 2!
Number 2: We gots a big ass mammer-jammer double mother-fucking mixtape for you today inspired by one of the photo sets! Yep, in the zine we had a set with Tabs & Tiffany playing naked Hide-n-Seek in the very very very very cold woods — see mixtape cover photo down below! It’s a mix of old and new and funny and fun, but that brings us to number 3.
Number 3: When we shot the set, we also made a brand spanking new TSURUFOTO Presents short film to accompany the mixtape set to a song IN the mixtape by Cub where some of the lyrics became the name of the mixtape! Very fun & very NSFW & very tsururific!
Ah.. but we ain’t done! There’s a twist!
Number 4: The mixtape is a blind mixtape!
Wait.. What? Why blind?
Well, I just found that listening to a mixtape, completely blind, changes the way you listen to it. Here, I’ll give you an example. One of my favourite moments on a blind mixtape is when you’ll be listening to some song, maybe one you’ve never heard before, grooving along, enjoying it, no clue who it is, then suddenly BLAMO! the first few notes kick in on the next song and it’s immediate enjoyment, excitement, & sheer giddiness as “dude! this is one of my favourite jams!” It’s like a wonderful surprise!
Where otherwise, you might scan and judge a tracklisting, happy to see some songs you like, then decide to give some or all of it a go….. not quite the same thing. Last time we did this as one giant mp3, this time we kept it broke up and don’t worry, I left the ID tags in place so if you grab it, your iPod player of choice can figure it all out & shit, but more fun is to just push play on track no. 1 and let the next couple of hours be filled with music & fun & nekkidness! Doesn’t that just sound grand? Oh, and for all you who just hate surprises or for those who just can’t figure out what some of the songs are… there’s a little spoiler link down there for ya.
So that’s it! Quadruple awesome good times on a stick!
Have a wonderful weekend everyone. I’m about to head out on a long weekend to Arizona to see my Baby Birds, sedona, and the grand canyon, & try to snap a few cool pics for ya (I’ve never gone before)…
So while I’m away, I you all have lots of fun, ride yer bikes, go get nekkid, take pictures, and report back here. But, until then, enjoy as…
Yeah, this was yesterday’s thing, but we don’t have cable so I just saw it.
Here’s the skinny, my friends…
Colbert expresses love for & touching of Beiber & has a sell-out off between Vampire Weekend & Black Keys… Is there anything else you need to know? When our music & comedy worlds collide, we all win!
Ah… foursquare! The epic games I played as a wee-lad back in the 70s and 80s, that I brought back to teach my own girls and various neighborhood kids in the late 90s! Those were good times. Pitty-pats, bustops, volleys, and I had the most viscous spin known to all 80s humankind.
Yeah. Suck it.
Well, our good friends over at We Listen For You got together with The Pass and built a brand spankin’ new viddy for their song “Walk Away” and just as you come to expect from their collabos, this is some tight-ass foursquare goodness!
Though… I do question the use of dress shoes and slams. Slams were never fair…. Knives, on the other hand, were up to whoever was in A.
Oh and look, the Pass is getting around! Though, what they have against Columbus, OH… I have no idea.
Jan 27th St. Louis Old Rock House
Jan 28th Memphis Poplar Lounge
Feb 1st Los Angeles The Satellite (Spaceland) *w/ Marvelous Toy
Feb 2nd Santa Barbara TBA *w/ Marvelous Toy
Feb 3rd San Francisco Milk Bar *w/ Marvelous Toy
Feb 6th San Diego Soda Bar *w/ Marvelous Toy
Feb 9th Austin TBA
Feb 10th Dallas City Tavern
Feb11th Fayetteville Smoke and Barrel
Not sure how, some one said some phrase (can’t even remember what it was) and BLAMO! This song was in my head. Man, how about that sweet guitar work, eh? Pre-90s… some really good times going on back then. Yeah, I smell a mixtape coming on!
Yeah, back in ’88, totally had a crush on her. Good album, all the way through if I remember right. Will have to dig that one out of the archives tonight!
Fortunately, to help take us out for the week, we got another staple in the tsuru bin of awesome bands of since forever in a new Social Distortion album!!!
HOORAY!
It’s interesting… it’s the same conversation we had the other day about Cake’s new album, only to be reinforced in my noggin’ today. What is it about some bands, like Cake & Social Distortion, that they basically can have a formula for pretty much every single one of their songs, make album after album of, essentially, barring any little blips & bleeps here, the same album over and over again, and it be completely okay?
I mean, think about some of your favourite bands. We expect “evolutions of sound”, where they are going next, we love or hate it as this band goes more electronic, more dance, more acoustic, more psychedelic, more whatever, but just cranking out the same shit is uh-uh, no way.
Except… I hear a Social Distortion or Cake album is coming out and I know, pretty much, exactly what I’m going to get and you know what? I still get as giddy as a school boy about to get a blowjob!
I mean, is Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes the exact same album as Mommy’s Little Monster? Of course not, the greys have definitely mellowed Mike out a curmudgeon and this time out, there seems to be a few ladies singing back-up here and there, but, listen to “Alone & Forsaken” and it’s the same guitar technique we know and love by Ness and the crew.
And you know what? It’s such a good thing.
Call it comfort food. Call it white gravy!
Mmm… white gravy, biscuits, fried chicken… Mmm.
But it’s delicious. There’s a reason why Bob Evans is still in business. And that Cracker Country Barrel whatever too! You know what you are going to get and it’s going to be delicious, filling, and oh so satisfying!
Makes you wonder… What other bands could’ve done this and made you happy? Me? Well, you know I love most weezer up to a certain point, but I wonder if, just what if, they did nothing but crank out one “blue album” after another?
Would we really complain? Sure, some people, some music crickets, would dismiss them, but man, what if they just did their one thing and did it well and did it over and over again? Would that really had been so bad? Certainly better than this:
Amirite?
So I say to Mike Ness & the rest of Social Distortion, to Cake and to any other comfort bands you and I may have. Brothers & sisters, don’t stop. Just keep doing what your doing. You seem to enjoy it, I sure as fuck do too. So keep on keepin’ on!!!
1. “Road Zombie” 2. “California (Hustle And Flow)”
3. “Gimme The Sweet And Lowdown”
4. “Diamond In The Rough”
5. “Machine Gun Blues”
6. “Bakersfield”
7. “Far Side Of Nowhere”
8. “Alone And Forsaken”
9. “Writing On The Wall”
10. “Can’t Take It With You”
11. “Still Alive”
tsururadio. The musical obsessions, meanderings, and field observations of Aaron Tsuru most often presented in mixtape format, the way the good lard intended!
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Yeah, this was yesterday’s thing, but we don’t have cable so I just saw it.
