The Felice Brothers Sign with Fat Possum / Show at Maxwell's on March 27th

The Felice Brothers announced today that they have signed with Fat Possum Records, home of Andrew Bird, The Walkmen, and Wavves, among many others. The band will release their fifth full-length album and Fat Possum debut later this spring.

Last week, The Felice Brothers announced new headlining tour dates in the US, Australia, and New Zealand. Before heading out on the six-week international tour, the Palenville, NY-based band will perform during SXSW in Austin, TX, on March 19th at Auditorium Shores alongside Bright Eyes, Wavves, Man Man, and Middle Brother. The first leg of the US tour begins March 25th in Oneonta, NY, and wraps up April 16th at Coachella in Indio, CA, where The Felice Brothers will make their debut performance at the festival. The second half of the tour will begin April 28th in San Francisco, CA, and currently continues through May 6th in Chicago, IL. The band will also travel for the first time to Australia and New Zealand from April 20th through 24th.

The only local tour stop is at Maxwell's in Hoboken. The show on March 27th is sold out but a second show has been added for March 28th -- tickets are $20.

The Felice Brothers Tour Dates:

MARCH 19 -- AUSTIN, TX, AUDITORIUM SHORES (SXSW)
MARCH 25 -- ONEONTA, NY, ONEONTA THEATER*
MARCH 26 -- HUDSON, NY, HELSINKI ON THE HUDSON*
MARCH 27 -- HOBOKEN, NJ, MAXWELL'S* (SOLD OUT)
MARCH 28-- HOBOKEN, NJ, MAXWELL'S*
MARCH 30 -- PHILADELPHIA, PA, FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH*
MARCH 31 -- WASHINGTON, DC, ROCK AND ROLL HOTEL*
APRIL 01 -- HUNTINGTON, WV, V CLUB*
APRIL 02 -- LEXINGTON, KY, BUSTER'S BILLIARDS & BACKROOM*
APRIL 03 -- KNOXVILLE, TN, RHYTHM 'N BLOOMS (Dogwood Arts Festival)
APRIL 05 -- CHARLOTTE, NC, VISUALITE THEATER*
APRIL 06 -- ATHENS, GA, 40 WATT CLUB*
APRIL 07 -- NASHVILLE, TN, EXIT/IN*
APRIL 08 -- BIRMINGHAM, AL, THE BOTTLETREE*
APRIL 09 -- MEMPHIS, TN, HI-TONE CAFÉ*
APRIL 10 -- DALLAS, TX, THE LOFT*
APRIL 12 -- LUBBOCK, TX, BLUE LIGHT*
APRIL 13 -- SANTA FE, NM, CORAZON*
APRIL 16 -- INDIO, CA, COACHELLA
APRIL 20 -- SYDNEY, AUS, ANNANDALE HOTEL
APRIL 21 -- MELBOURNE, AUS, THE PRINCE
APRIL 22 -- MELBOURNE, AUS, BOOGIE FEST
APRIL 23 -- MEENYAN, AUS, TOWN HALL
APRIL 24 -- AUCKLAND, NZ, GRASSROOTS FESTIVAL
APRIL 28 -- SAN FRANCISCO, CA, GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HALL**
APRIL 29 -- PORTLAND, OR, MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS**
APRIL 30 -- SEATTLE, WA, TRACTOR TAVERN**
MAY 02 -- SALT LAKE CITY, UT, URBAN LOUNGE**
MAY 03 -- DENVER, CO, HI DIVE#
MAY 04 -- OMAHA, NE, THE WAITING ROOM#
MAY 06 -- CHICAGO, IL, LINCOLN HALL#

* Diamond Doves supporting
** You Are Plural supporting
# Shovels And Rope supporting

Links:
The Felice Brothers

The Church - "Heyday" CD Review (Second Motion Records)

DOWNLOAD: The Church - "Tantalized" (free download on Amazon.com)

Aside for the bad 80's mullets on the cover photo, Heyday is a major leap forward from Seance. This is the first disc that sounds like The Church were working as a cohesive unit and eight of the disc's original ten tracks were co-written by all four members of the band. As an interesting footnote, Steve Kilbey co-wrote one track, "Youth Worshiper", with then girlfriend Karin Jansson who later co-wrote "Under the Milky Way" on Starfish.

Peter Walsh (who helped Simple Minds and China Crisis break into the US market) produced the disc and gave the band a bright and energetic sound. Walsh layers strings, keyboards and horns into the mix but these accompaniments are tastefully integrated into the songs so none of the tracks have the dated feel of Seance. The disc is also helped along by what sounds to be "real" drumming (as opposed to the drum trigger sound of Seance) and Richard Ploog adds some innovative rhythms to songs like "Myrrh" and the Middle-Eastern flavored "Trance Ending".

There are some serious memorable melodies and hooks on this disc which are powered by the ringing guitar sounds of Willson-Piper and Koppes and a good starting point into this disc are the songs "Tantalized" and "Already Yesterday". The majority of the songs keep to this upbeat pace with the only exception being the moody instrumental "Happy Hunting Ground".





There are three bonus tracks this time around: "As You Will" (the b-side of "Already Yesterday" which is sung by Peter Koppes), "The View" (the b-side of "Tantalized" which is sung by Marty Willson-Piper) and "Trance Ending" (the b-side of "Columbus" which is noted in the liner notes as being one of Steve's favorite songs from the Heyday-era sessions).

While Starfish received the mass-media acclaim, Heyday is really the album that broke The Church into the US market.

Links:
The Church

The Church - "Seance" CD Review (Second Motion Records)

The Church's third disc, Seance, was released in May 1983 and, while there are some stand-out tracks, the overall sound of the disc is a step in the wrong direction.

This time out, Steve Kilbey wrote all of the tracks, aside for the glorious space-rock jam "Travel By Thought". The band self-produced the record and utilized engineer Nick Launay for the final mixes. While the band continues to move yet further toward the textured, neo-psychedelic sound of their later discs, the mixing left the disc sounding flat and the dated "80's" pre-programmed drum effects make less of the songs stand out than on the band's two previous discs.

While there are elements of some of the jangly power-pop sounds from the prior discs on Seance, prominent keyboard and strings push the disc closer to the "new romantic" camp of OMD and Lloyd Cole & the Commotions. The stronger cuts on the disc are the one's where the band's music is able to shimmer outside of the murky mixing. These include "Electric Lash" and "Travel By Thought" (both of which feature stream-of-conscious lyrics from Kilbey) and "Dropping Names" and the slow burning "Disappear?".



The two bonus tracks - "Someone Special" and "Autumn Soon" - were originally the b-sides of "It's No Reason" and "Electric Lash". "Someone Special" is pleasant but somewhat bland but "Autumn Soon" features some soaring guitar leads and what sounds to be a "real" drummer.

Links:
The Church

Cheers Elephant: Philly Psychedelic Rock Group Plays Spike Hill on March 4th

DOWNLOAD: Cheers Elephant - "Waster Time" (from The Key Studio Sessions 1/5/2011)



Philadelphia psychedelic rock group Cheers Elephant released their second LP, Man is Nature, to a sold out crowd at World Cafe Live Downstairs (400+) last month and the band is playing a show at Spike Hill on March 4th. The band is playing alongside Steel Phantoms, Gold Streets and I Love Monsters and Cheers Elephant takes the stage at 8PM.

Deli Magazine described Cheers Elephant's new disc as "reminiscent of all the best British Invasion folk rock, like some Byrds-meets-Yardbirds combo refined by time...Opener “Shark Attack” is inviting and should be considered a front runner for the first single, a piece of spontaneous power-pop that wouldn’t sound out of place on the current Polyvinyl Records roster. “My Bicycle Ride” has the vocal harmonies kicked into full gear and sports a soaring hook."



Links:
Cheers Elephant

Dad Rocks! - "Nothing Keeps Up" CD EP Review (Paper Garden Records)

DOWNLOAD: Dad Rocks! - "Nothing Keeps Up"
DOWNLOAD: Dad Rocks! - "Kids"

Dad Rocks! is the solo vehicle for Snævar Njáll Albertsson, singer/guitarist/trumpet-player in the Danish band Mimas. Albertsson's debut disc "Nothing Keeps Up" is a charmingly shambolic six-track EP that shares a kindred musical spirit with bands like The Annuals and an absurdist lyrical outlook along the lines of Frank Zappa and Captain Befheart.

The songs are all moderate tempos but deceivingly complex as multi-tracked vocals are layered on top of an acoustic guitar and various instruments and sounds come in and out of the mix, which include piano, horns and brass, xylophone, hand-claps along with gospel choir-like backing vocals. Albertsson's vocal style is winsome and uplifting and between his delivery and lyrics like "Six billion people on earth are changing the eco-system and clothes, and nothing keeps up. A bird that flies turns into a bird that dies, and all the flies want a slice of it, why? They try to keep up. My feet grace the grass of the past in the park, where the kids get cut, bitten and stung.", one can't help but smile when listening.

Dad Rocks! is in the midst of recording his debut-album to be released this Spring and he is planning a North American tour for later in the year.

Links:
Dad Rocks!

My Cousin, The Emperor Play The Rock Shop on Feb. 16th // New Disc, "The Subway EPs", Out March 29th

DOWNLOAD: My Cousin The Emperor - "Nothing Left for Us to Find"

Alt-country Brooklynites My Cousin, The Emperor release their single disc, double EP entitled, THE SUBWAY EPs on March 29, 2011. Next week, they begin a string of shows with Caitlin Cary and Matt Douglas as The Small Ponds. The two groups will head down to Austin, TX for SXSW and back, hitting Raleigh, Charlotte, Asheville, Knoxville, Little Rock and Houston before turning around to come back through Atlanta, with more dates to be added. Before they head out, both acts will be playing a kickoff show at The Rock Shop in Brooklyn on Wednesday, Feb 16th. Tickets are $10 and the show is 21+.

My Cousin, The Emperor’s SUBWAY EPs are separated into two volumes; Volume I being the acoustic PROSPECT PARK WEST and Volume II, the electric BROADWAY-LAFAYETTE, named after lead singer, guitarist and songwriter Jason Reischel’s two main stops between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Think of it as the mirrored counterpart to Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home.

The Small Ponds was born when veteran alt-songstress Caitlin Cary (Whiskeytown, Tres Chicas) asked pop-raconteur Matt Douglas (The Proclivities) to partner with her for Raleigh, NC’s longstanding post-Valentine’s day tradition The Love Hangover, for which they learned to sing each other’s favorite songs relevant to love and/or its lacking. Upon discovering a kindred sensibility on this subject and many others, and finding they sang well and laughed easily together, they decided they’d better make it a band.

As 2011 dawns, we find Matt and Caitlin preparing songs for their third Love Hangover, celebrating the release of their five-song EP (Last Chance Records), and building up a head of steam to power a full-band Small Ponds tour en route to an official showcase and a lot of hooplah in Austin at this year’s South by Southwest music festival.

Dubbing it "really sweet Americana," No Depression calls My Cousin, The Emperor’s upcoming release, "notably clean and well-imagined. This might be a good springtime roadtrip album. Good crisp air and sunshine music.”

The title track from their debut album A Long Way From Home won the Independent Music Award‘Best Alternative Country Song of the Year’ and the quartet grabbed the crown for Brooklyn in WNYC’s “Battle Of The Boroughs.” for

On the horizon in 2011, My Cousin, The Emperor is contributing music to the film Jeremy Fink & The Meaning Of Life, based on the book by Wendy Mass, due out this summer and starring Mira Sorvino and Joey Pantoliano. They’ve also recorded a rockabilly cover of "More Than Words" for Guilt By Association 3, set for release in April via Engine Room Recordings.

MY COUSIN, THE EMPEROR & THE SMALL PONDS TOUR DATES:
Wed, Feb 16 – Brooklyn, NY – The Rock Shop
Thurs, Feb 24 – New York, NY – LES Film Festival **
Tues, March 1 – Allentown, PA - VIP Elite Lounge @ Crocodile Rock **
Thurs, March 3 – New York, NY – The Living Room **
Tues, March 8 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fire **
Wed, March 9 – Raleigh, NC – The Pour House
Thurs, March 10 – Charlotte, NC – Evening Muse
Fri, March 11 – Asheville, NC – The Emerald Lounge
Sat, March 12 – Knoxville, TN – Patrick Sullivans
Sun, March 13 – Little Rock, AR – Whitewater Tavern
Mon, March 14 – Denton, TX – Dan’s Silver Leaf
Tues, March 15 – Houston, TX – Big Star Bar
Wed, March 16 – Austin, TX – The Ale House ##
Fri, March 18 – Austin, TX – Red Eyed Fly**
Fri, March 18 – Austin, TX – Maria’s Tacos ##
Sat, March 19 – Carrollton, GA – TBA
Sun, March 20 – Atlanta, GA – TBA

** - MCTE only
## - The Small Ponds only

Links:
My Cousin, The Emperor

Buffalo Tom Release Free Acoustic EP // Show at Bowery Ballroom on April 28th

DOWNLOAD: Buffalo Tom - "Bones" EP
(note: click-through and enter email address to download)

DOWNLOAD: Buffalo Tom - "Arise, Watch" (from Skins)

After taking a hiatus for the majority of the last decade, Buffalo Tom will be releasing their eighth disc, Skins, on March 8th.

The band surprised fans this week with Bones, a free acoustic EP released exclusively via their website. The short-player features four songs, including two Buffalo Tom favorites and a rendition of "Arise, Watch," the lead track from the band's forthcoming disc, Skins. The digital-only release also includes a rousing cover of New Order's "Age Of Consent."

Bones EP Tracklist:
01 Arise, Watch
02 C.C. & Callas
03 Treehouse
04 Age Of Consent (New Order Cover)

In addition to offering a free download, the band's website also features in-studio video performances from the Bones recording sessions at Q Division in Boston, and a live rendition of "Age Of Consent" from a recent performance at The Paradise. All video was shot by Michael Gill, and offers a unique and intimate glimpse at a seminal act in their element.

In other news, the band has recently announced a run of European and US tour dates. March finds the band touring across Europe before an April return to the States. The tour stops at Bowery Ballroom on April 28th and tickets are $20. Doors are at 8PM and the show starts at 9PM.

Buffalo Tom Tour Dates:
03-05 Groningen, NL - Vera
03-06 Brussels, BE - AB
03-07 Amsterdam, NL - Melkweg
03-08 Cologne, DE - Luxor
03-10 London, UK - Dingwalls
03-11 Manchester, UK - Sound Control
03-12 Glasgow, UK - Oran Mor
04-08 Boston, MA - Paradise
04-28 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
04-29 Philadelphia, PA - M Room
04-30 Washington, DC - The Black Cat

Links:
Buffalo Tom

The Church - "The Blurred Crusade" CD Review (Second Motion Records)

The Church's second disc, The Blurred Crusade, was released in March 1982 and the songwriting seems more focused than on Of Skins and Heart. This is the first disc where other band members outside of Steve Kilbey contributed to the songwriting and that may have played a role as the band's music moves further toward the neo-psychedelic sound of their later discs.

Even as the band embraces more of an atmospheric melancholia across different track on this disc, they haven't fully given up the ringing Byrds-ish guitars or the psychedelic-tinged post/power-punk sounds of their previous disc. The disc starts out strong with two power-punk tracks - "Almost With You" and "When You Were Mine" - before heading into the atmospheric "Field of Mars", where Willson-Piper takes lead vocals and sings with a world-weary Bowie-ish voice. "An Interlude" and "You Took" were co-written by the four members of the band and both songs provide clear indication of the sound that The Church were chasing as a collective unit.

Similar to Of Skins and Heart, there are two b-sides added to The Blurred Crusade as bonus tracks. “Life Speeds Up”, the b-side to “Almost With You”, is a strong 7+ minute power-punk single that is equally as good as "Almost With You". “The Golden Dawn”, the b-side to “When You Were Mine”, is a pleasant but unremarkable instrumental.



The Church are playing two local shows next week on their "Future Past Perfect" electric tour. This unprecedented touring event continues their 30th Anniversary celebrations by performing three classic albums in their entirety in one night: Untitled #23 (2009), Priest=Aura (1992), and Starfish (1988).

"Future Past Perfect" Tour Dates
Feb 16 - New York, NY. - Highline Ballroom
Feb 17 - New York, NY. - B.B. King's

Tickets for the show at Highline Ballroom are $39.50 in advance and $45 (DOS). Doors are at 6PM and the show starts at 8PM. Ticket prices and door/show times are the same for the show at B.B. King's the following night.

Links:
The Church

Mohombi Readies Debut Album "Movemeant" for RedOne's 2101 Records

Some days, I feel like I know very little pop music. While I know who Lady Gaga is, my thirteen year old had to explain to me who RedOne is (co-writer of "Poker Face", among other things) and that he has formed his own record label, 2101 Records (which is distributed through Universal). RedOne's first signing was Mohombi (another name that meant nothing to me) so I looked at some of his YouTube videos and the views for these videos are ranging between 2M - 26M (for "Bumpy Road").

Mohombi has a fascinating backstory and an album coming out soon -- the details are below.

Raised the youngest of 15 siblings by his Swedish mother and Congolese-King father in Africa, Mohombi escaped war-torn Congo with his family to Stockholm where he and his older brother, Djo, formed the duo Avalon, became a huge dance club sensation and eventually sold over half a million albums in Europe and Africa. They also won the prestigious African Grammy in 2002.

Today, Mohombi is making his way into the US market as a solo artist with his upcoming debut album Movemeant, produced by Grammy-winning super-producer RedOne (Akon, Usher, Lady Gaga). The album is expected to be out in Spring or early Summer 2011 and features Nelly, Akon, T.I. and Nicole Scherzinger (from Pussycat Dolls). Mohombi’s first single from the album, “Bumpy Ride” has charted in 11 countries overseas - including impressive Top Five positions in The Netherlands, France, Slovakia and Poland.



Mohombi's most recent video, for the track "Dirty Situation", features Akon (who has worked with artists ranging from Michael Jackson to Lady Gaga).



Links:
Mohombi

Alexander Ebert (Edward Sharpe) Releases First Single "Truth" from Forthcoming Solo Album (Vagrant)

Truth by AlexanderEbert

A Million Years by AlexanderEbert

Alexander Ebert, lead singer of Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, will be releasing his debut solo album Alexander on March 1st via Community Music/Vagrant Records.

The album will include ten brand new songs that Alexander wrote and composed entirely himself. Up until last year, when he started crafting the songs for his album Alexander alone in his bedroom, all of his musical endeavors had been collaborative — including his ten-person band, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. “I’d make demos and sometimes we’d use elements in the demos, but it was never upon me to do the entire thing,” Alex says. “I wanted to be able to build an album basically with my hands, like building a house by myself. And, by the way, building a house is something I’d love to do as well – to just be out in the middle of it by myself and understand what it is to do that.”

During breaks from touring with the Zeroes over the past year, Alex would hole up in his Los Angeles bedroom, working with a bare minimum of recording gear beyond a microphone and simple M-Audio direct box. He had his guitar, a Lowery organ he picked up at a St. Vincent’s thrift store in Los Angeles for seventy bucks, a clarinet he used for the bridge on “Truth” and a violin he’d found somewhere in Tucson on tour. He had his own voice, his breath, his knees to slap, his fingers to snap and his toes to tap.

He explains that some of his inspirations for the “mouth sounds” heard throughout the album come from all-time favorites of his like the 1970 chart-topping ditty “In The Summertime,” by British band Mungo Jerry. “You can find me whistling or singing that song all the time,” says Ebert, who also cites children’s clapping games like Patty Cake and the Disney tune “Zip A Dee Do Da” as loose inspirations.

There isn’t a single sound on the ten-song album that Alexander didn’t perform himself. “I knew I wanted violin on the bridge of ‘Glimpses,’ but I had never played violin,” he says, by way of example. “I was just about to make the call to have a friend come play it, but I first asked myself why I wouldn’t try it myself. I suppose, a fear of sucking. So, as an experiment, I took a walk and filled myself with as much love and fearlessness as I could, just to see what my take on it would be then. Of course, in that state, the adventurer took over and said ‘Fuck, yes, let’s do it.’ After all, I had a violin just sitting in my living room. To me, it’s a very humble album with sky’s-the-limit sort of qualities, and so I didn’t really shy away from doing whatever I felt like doing.”

And though there is tremendous depth, beauty and poignancy to be found in songs such as “Truth,” “In The Twilight” and “A Million Years,” an impish track called “Awake My Body” seems to epitomize the album as a whole. “I was feeling exhausted and wanted to encourage myself and my body,” He says of the tune. “Not in the sense of body image, but more like an appreciation of the cells themselves. It’s about trying to be the physical representation of my spirit, whatever the hell that is, whatever the heaven that is. It’s about what it means to wake up and be really alive and embrace the three dimensional world.”

Alexander will play select shows in Los Angeles and at South By Southwest before returning to the studio to complete work on the upcoming second LP from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes.

Alexander track listing:

1. Let's Win
2. Awake My Body
3. Truth
4. In The Twilight
5. Bad Bad Love
6. Old Friend
7. A Million Years
8. Remember Our Heart
9. Glimpses
10. Let's Make A Deal To Not Make A Deal

Links:
Alexander Ebert

The Caulfield Sisters: Interview with Cindy Wheeler // Show at The Gutter in Williamsburg on Feb. 18th

DOWNLOAD: The Caulfield Sisters - Interview with Cindy Wheeler, Feb. '11

Last week, I had the pleasure of talking with Cindy Wheeler (vocals/guitar) from the indie-rock band The Caulfield Sisters. Cindy talked about her original band Pee Shy, the 'reactivated' Caulfield Sisters, the band's new single "Two Songs from Mohawk" and more.

The Caulfield Sisters just released “Two Songs From Mohawk”, an iTunes-exclusive digital single. These two tracks, “Caterwauling” and “I See Your Face”, are the first new songs from The Caulfield Sisters since their critically-acclaimed debut CD-EP “Say It With Fire” was released several years back. Both tracks were recorded and produced by The Caulfield Sisters at front-woman Cindy Wheeler’s house in the Catskills (New York). Mastering was done by Sean Glonek (Tanya Donelly, Kristin Hersh, Frank Black, OK Go) at SRG Studios in New Jersey.

The Caulfield Sisters are playing a show on Friday, February 18th at The Gutter (200 North 14th Street) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The Caulfield Sisters are taking the stage at 10PM.

Links:
The Caulfield Sisters

Cowboy Junkies: Photos and Video from City Winery, NYC 2-8-11

DOWNLOAD: Cowboy Junkies - Live at Koerner Hall, Toronto 11-19-10
Note: There was a guy sitting next to me at City Winery who said he was taping the show for Archive.Org but it doesn't appear he has posted it yet. As such, this is the latest date posted and the set list for this show isn't too radically different from the City Winery show.

Cowboy Junkies spent most of last week in NYC, playing two sold-out shows at City Winery, making an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and lastly playing the Neil Young Tribute Show at Carnegie Hall. The band just released the second volume of their four-part Nomad series entitled Demons Vol. 2, where the band presents a beautiful overview of Vic Chesnutt's catalog with eleven well-chosen cover tunes.



Sadly, it has been too long since I've bought a Cowboy Junkies CD or seen them play live so I couldn't even begin to put together a set list. There is a set list from the first night posted to the Cowboy Junkies forum which I would assume is close to what they played the following night (though "Powderfinger" was not played the second night).

Lay it Down
Misguided Angel
Wrong Piano
See You Around
Dreaming my Dreams with You
Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning
My Fall
Sit Sadly by Your Side
Common Disaster
Third Crusade
Black Eyed Man (mjm)
Supernatural (mjm)
Renmin Park (mjm)
Cicadas
Good Friday
Driving Wheel

Enc:
Powderfinger
Don't Let It Bring You Down

I was seated in the balcony for the show (my favorite location at City Winery) and noticed a guy on the left-side of the stage holding a camera over his head. It looked too small to be a video camera but this YouTube video is from the same angle where he was standing so he must have been filming.



Cowboy Junkies played "Wrong Piano" (from Demons) on Light Night with Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday.



Cowboy Junkies are off the road and are currently working on the third volume of their Nomad series - Sing In My Meadow, Vol. 3. The band has posted a couple of playback mixes to their website.

"Here’s a sampling of A Bride’s Price, which came about as we amused ourselves waiting for Margo to arrive and a version of Continental Drift, a song inspired by the Russell Banks book of the same name. These are playback-mixes, what you would hear if you were sitting in the studio with us listening to what we had just put down. It’s an album about Sex and Violence……."

Links:
Cowboy Junkies

PJ Harvey: Live Webcast from Paris Broadcast Monday, Feb. 14 at 3PM (EST)

PJ Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder by VagrantRecords

To mark the release of Let England Shake, PJ Harvey will debut her new album live in a one-off, special show from Paris on Monday February 14th. The show will be streamed live on Monday at 3pm EST / 12pm PST (8pm GMT) by the French music site Deezer and the cultural chanel ARTE. The webcast will also be available on the official PJ Harvey site.

PJ Harvey’s eighth album, Let England Shake, comes out on Tuesday, Feb. 15 and this new album was recorded in a 19th Century church in Dorset, on a cliff-top overlooking the sea. It was created with a cast of musicians including such long-standing allies as Flood, John Parish, and Mick Harvey.

What is remarkable about Let England Shake is bound up with its music, its abiding atmosphere – and in particular, its words. If Harvey’s past work might seem to draw on direct emotional experience, this new album is rather different. Its songs centre on both her home country, and events further afield in which it has embroiled itself. The lyrics return, time and again, to the matter of war, the fate of the people who must do the fighting, and events separated by whole ages, from Afghanistan to Gallipoli. The album they make up is not a work of protest, nor of strait-laced social or political comment. It brims with the mystery and magnetism in which she excels. But her lyric-writing in particular has arrived at a new, breathtaking place, in which the human aspects of history are pushed to the foreground. Put simply, not many people make records like this.



Links:
PJ Harvey

Reckless Sons: Live Video and Photos from Show @ John Varvatos' 'Thursday Night Live' Showcase 2/3/11

To help usher in Fashion Week, Reckless Sons played John Varvatos' "Thursday Night Live" showcase last week. It has been about two years since I last saw the Reckless Sons play and the band has gotten a couple of new members and their live show has gotten tighter. A few years back, I compared the band to the Dream Syndicate but the band's new material has them moving in a British blues-rocks direction, taking influences from early Rolling Stones and The Faces. The band's brand of high-energy rock-n-roll was amplified by a packed house and free beer and Moonshine whiskey.



This show also served as a de facto release party for the Reckless Sons' new 7-track EP (available as a free download from www.recklesssons.com) and the band touched on all seven songs during their eight song set.



In the spirit of keeping the whiskey flowing, Reckless Sons are playing a St. Patrick's Day show at Bowery Electric.

Links:
Reckless Sons

The Church - "Of Skins and Heart" CD Review (Second Motion Records)

To mark the 30th anniversary of the band, The Church started ambitious campaign last fall to reissue their back catalog (via Second Motion Records). All of the reissues come with bonus tracks and new liner notes from Marty Willson-Piper. As most of The Church's discs were previously out of print in the US, these reissues should strike a positive chord with both new and long-time fans and the digital remastering does a wonderful job of bringing out all the dimensions of the band's music.

Starting with the band's first disc, Of Skins and Heart was originally recorded in 1980 and released in 1981 in Australia. A resequenced disc, with some track swapped out for tracks from 1981's "Too Fast for You" double-single, was released in the US the following year. This new remaster contains the nine tracks from the original Australian release along with the bonus tracks "In a Heartbeat" (b-side of "She Never Said") and "Busdriver" (b-side of "The Unguarded Moment").

The early works from The Church are often lumped into to the post-punk genre but Of Skins and Heart has more in common with the bands from Los Angeles' "paisley underground". There is little of the atmospheric neo-psychedelia of the band's later releases as the music on this disc is much closer to the then budding new-wave scene. Steve Kilbey's vocals are clear and engaged and there are some rich vocal harmonies across the disc. All of this is complemented by the ringing Byrdsish sound of Marty Willson-Piper's Rickenbacker.

The Church touch on a variety of sounds from the original new-wave movement on different tracks which range from the aggressive, angular rocker "Fighter Pilot...Korean War" to the cool, Ric Ocasek-like detachment of "Heartbeat". The almost eight-minute hazy "Is This Where You Live" foreshadows the evolution of The Church's later-day neo-psychedelic sound. The first single from the disc was the quirky Gary Newman-ish "She Never Said" but the real gem on this disc is the band's second single "Unguarded Moment".



The Church are playing two local shows next week on their "Future Past Perfect" electric tour. This unprecedented touring event continues their 30th Anniversary celebrations by performing three classic albums in their entirety in one night: Untitled #23 (2009), Priest=Aura (1992), and Starfish (1988).

"Future Past Perfect" Tour Dates
Feb 16 - New York, NY. - Highline Ballroom
Feb 17 - New York, NY. - B.B. King's

Tickets for the show at Highline Ballroom are $39.50 in advance and $45 (DOS). Doors are at 6PM and the show starts at 8PM. Ticket prices and door/show times are the same for the show at B.B. King's the following night.

Links:
The Church

James Vincent McMorrow Will Be Playing a Small Run of US Shows Around His SXSW Appearance

DOWNLOAD: James Vincent McMorrow - "This Old Dark Machine"

James Vincent McMorrowʼs full-length debut, Early In The Morning, landed the #1 spot on iTunes when the disc was released in Ireland last year and Vagrant released the disc in the US last month. From start to finish, Early In The Morning is a ten-song recollection of one manʼs journey through a time of change and transition.

James will be playing a string of US shows surrounding his SXSW performance in March, including five new dates just announced supporting The Rural Alberta Advantage.

James Vincent McMorrow Tour Dates:
Mar 22 – Ames, IA at The Maintenance Shop at ISU
Mar 23 – Milwaukee, WI at Mad Planet
Mar 24 – Madison, WI at High Noon Saloon
Mar 25 – Minneapolis, MN at First Avenue
Mar 26 – Chicago, IL at Lincoln Hall
All dates supporting The Rural Alberta Advantage



Links:
James Vincent McMorrow

The HOTcakes Are Playing an Acoustic Valentine's Day Show at Shang Lounge (@ Thompson LES)

Blondie is probably a good reference point as to what The HOTcakes sound like as one can clearly hear the new-wave influences in their music -- though one could just as easily make the comparison to Kim Wilde. Vocalist Erin Marsz sings with a raw passion (as opposed to Debbie's cool detachment) and the band has some huge dance-oriented pop hooks. The band released their latest EP "Gonna Go Out" late last year which is a followup to their 2008 self-titled EP.

The band is playing a very special Valentine's Day acoustic show, this Monday, February 14th, 9pm at Shang at the Thompson LES (2nd floor). After reading (and laughing a bit over) the recent Village Voice Valentine's-themed story entitled "Dear Single Women of NYC: It's Not Them, It's You", this show should be a great way to spend Valentine's Day and it will be a lot of fun to hear stripped-down versions of The HOTcakes' high-energy songs.

Links:
The HOTcakes

Detroit Garage Rockers The Sights Play Shows at Maxwells (Feb. 15th) and The Bell House (Feb. 18th) Next Week

DOWNLOAD: The Sights - "How Do You Sleep?"
DOWNLOAD: The Sights - "Guilty"

(photo: Doug Coombe)
Now that the White Stripes have called it a day, The Sights are now the uncontested champions of Detroit blues-rock. The band is touring behind their fourth LP, Most of What Follows Is True (Alive Records), which was recorded at Jim Diamond’s (White Stripes, Electric Six, Dirtbombs) Ghetto Recorders in Detroit and released late last year.

“Most of What Follows is rooted in the tough, straightforward, R&B-based rock that's the Sights' bread and butter, though the pedal steel on "I Left My Muse" suggests they've also been listening to some classic country sides, and "Maria" is spot-on pure pop. The album is long on great tunes and rock & roll swagger, but Baranek and his latest edition of The Sights (Dave Lawson on bass, Gordon Smith on keys, and Skip Denomme on drums) never sound arrogant or gimmicky -- what comes through most strongly on Most of What Follows is the sound of four guys playing rock & roll because they love it, and even when the music takes a dark detour on "Take & Take" or slips into the blues on "Back to You," there's an honest joy and enthusiasm that infuses the music at every turn. Baranek sings with an unaffected passion and force that's truly impressive while he and his bandmates play with lots of heart and soul and no false moves; this is strong, rootsy, meat-and-potatoes rock & roll played with gravity, skill, and the enthusiasm of true fans.” – ALL MUSIC GUIDE

For the show at Maxwell's on Feb. 15th, The Sights are playing with The Godfathers and Frosting. Tickets are $15 in advance and $17 DOS.

For the show at The Bell House on Feb. 18th, The Sights are playing with Reigning Sound and Guitar Lightnin'. Tickets are $13 in advance and $15 DOS.

Links:
The Sights

Switzerland's We Loyal Wind Up Five Nights in NYC with Shows at Fontanas on Feb. 10 and Cameo Gallery on Feb. 15

Vice by We Loyal

Schliemspur by We Loyal

Switzerland's We Loyal made their US debut earlier this week with a show at Trash Bar and the band is currently in the middle of a series of five local shows.

The final two shows are Thursday, Feb. 10th at Fontans and Tuesday, Feb. 15th at Cameo Gallery. At Thursday's show, We Loyal are playing with Beneficial Tomatoes and Secret Country and cover is $7.

For the show next Tuesday at Cameo Gallery, We Loyal are playing with Chica Vas, Nihiti and Hard Nips.

We Loyal was founded mid 2008 and the band is made up of Ben Kuster (Bass, Synths, Vocals), Sandro Simon (Vocals, Guitar, Synths) and Fabian Trümpy (Drums, Synths, Vocals). Last year, the band released their debut EP “Obstacles” which was produced by David Berger (Balloons a.o / Liverpool) and Manuel Bürkli (Mañana / Basel). All the songs are influenced by various settings and places of origin, playfully combining analog synthesizers with striving beats and dark vocals. Bands such as TV on the Radio, Joy Division and Foals leave their traces in this play of light and shadow.

The EP reaches open ears and hearts – it gets critically acclaimed by blogs and radios all over Switzerland and Germany and in the following months We Loyal will play over 30 Clubshows and Openairs with bands such as Foals, Wolf Parade, Rain Machine, Wild Beasts, These New Puritans a.o. and release remixes for several swiss artists, which again are reviewed with enthusiasm.

“As we got in touch with the DIY scene in Liverpool we started to realise, that interesting music starts in your head, through your commitment, experimenting in a critical way and your decision to go your way”, says Sandro Simon. And with these words We Loyal take their fate into their own hands, from recording and mixing to artwork and merchandise.

Links:
We Loyal

PJ Harvey Releases "Let England Shake" on Feb. 15 // Show at Terminal 5 on April 20th

Written On The Forehead by pjharvey

PJ Harvey's eighth disc Let England Shake comes out next Tuesday (Feb. 15th) on Vagrant Records and she is playing a limited run of headlining shows in April.

PJ Harvey’s new album was recorded in a 19th Century church in Dorset, on a cliff-top overlooking the sea. It was created with a cast of musicians including such long-standing allies as Flood, John Parish, and Mick Harvey.

What is remarkable about Let England Shake is bound up with its music, its abiding atmosphere – and in particular, its words. If Harvey’s past work might seem to draw on direct emotional experience, this new album is rather different. Its songs centre on both her home country, and events further afield in which it has embroiled itself. The lyrics return, time and again, to the matter of war, the fate of the people who must do the fighting, and events separated by whole ages, from Afghanistan to Gallipoli. The album they make up is not a work of protest, nor of strait-laced social or political comment. It brims with the mystery and magnetism in which she excels. But her lyric-writing in particular has arrived at a new, breathtaking place, in which the human aspects of history are pushed to the foreground. Put simply, not many people make records like this.

“I was looking outwards a lot more,” she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr, when she appeared on his programme back in May. “I think a lot of my work has often been about the interior, the emotional, what happens inside oneself. And this time I’ve been just looking out, so it’s not only to do with taking a look at England but taking a look at the world and what happening in current world affairs. But always trying to come from the human point of view, because I don’t feel qualified to sing from a political standpoint… I sing as a human being affected by the politics, and that for me is a more successful way … because I so often feel that with a lot of protest music, I’m being preached to, and I don’t want that”.

The show at Terminal 5 is sold out but I'd watch for last minute (DOS) to go on-sale.

Links:
PJ Harvey

Lucky Ghost (aka Seth Berkowitz) Releases "Sex Griddle" as a Free Download

DOWNLOAD: Lucky Ghost - "Love With a Ghost"
DOWNLOAD: Lucky Ghost - Sex Griddle (full-length disc)

Cold war anxiety, video game theme songs and the ever-elusive mysteries of human connection all come to bear on the ten infectiously quirky and occasionally melancholic tracks of Sex Griddle, the latest LP from Lucky Ghost.

Cultivating the distinctive voice that emerged on the 2008 LP Network Stars, Lucky Ghost (the bedroom brain-child of multi-instrumentalist, Seth Berkowitz) delivers an incredible amalgamation of 70s prog-rock, the sparkling sadness of 80s pop, chugging guitar rock and the lyrical aplomb of British singer-songwriters.

From the shimmering and crunchy synths of "Made in America" to the male-female vocal-interplay on the whimsical "Love with a Ghost" - the latter was recently featured in a commercial for Helzberg Diamonds - Sex Griddle acts as the spoonful of sugar to help the dystopian malaise go down. Even when Berkowitz sings of impending nuclear winter on "The Republic," it's as if there's a Saturday morning cartoon playing in the background - cradling his fears in innocence and a bowl of Frosted Flakes.



Links:
Lucky Ghost

King Crimson - Live Stream from Robert's NYC Soundscape Show // Free Download from The Vicar

I really dropped the ball by not seeing Robert Fripp perform at World Financial Center this past December as I think this clip (hosted by WNYC) from his live show is brilliant. If you go over to WNYC's site, there are some audio interviews with Robert on being sampled by Kanye for "Power" and on finding the original master for In The Court of the Crimson King.

DOWNLOAD: The Vicar - "Show Reel"

This week's free download from DGMLive.com is from The Vicar. I've been a fan of King Crimson for over 25 years and I have absolutely no idea how The Vicar fits within the whole Crimso family but...give it a spin and see if you can figure it out.

This is Stormy's fast ride through the world of The Vicar, Song Book No.1. Encompassing the many moods of this wonderful album in less than ten minutes!

Links:
Robert Fripp
King Crimson

Gang of Four Play David Letterman Show and Webster Hall Tomorrow Night (Feb. 8th)

2/11: Updated to include Letterman video

Gang of Four played their first US show since 2005's reunion tour on Feb. 4th at Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia. The band is making an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman tomorrow night to play "Never Pay for the Farm" prior to their headlining show at Webster Hall. There are still tickets available for the Webster Hall show which are $37 (DOS). Hollerado is opening the show and doors are at 7PM.

Below is the setlist from Saturday night's show in Philadelphia:
- Never Pay for the Farm
- Not Great Men
- Ether
- I Parade Myself
- Paralyzed
- A Fruitfly in the Beehive
- Anthrax
- What We All Want
- I Party All the Time
- Why Theory?
- You Don't Have to be Mad
- We Live as We Dream, Alone
- To Hell With Poverty
- Do As I Say

Encore:
- Return the Gift
- I Love a Man in a Uniform
- Damaged Goods

Encore 2:
- Natural's Not in It



Links:
Gang of Four

Those Dancing Days Release Video for "I'll Be Yours" from Forthcoming Disc // Early Show at Mercury Lounge on March 22nd

Those Dancing Days - "I'll Be Yours"

(Photo: Gavin Watson)
Sweden's Those Dancing Days have released the first video, "I'll Be Yours" (directed by Andreas Öhman), off their upcoming sophomore album Daydreams and Nightmares, which will be released in the US 3/1 on Wichita Recordings. The video was filmed both in Sweden and during the band's UK tour in Dec.

The band is playing a set of US shows next month when they are over for SXSW which include a stop at Mercury Lounge on March 22nd. The Mercury Lounge show is an early show (6:30PM doors) and Bloc Party's Gordon Moakes' latest project Young Legionnaire opens the show. Tickets are $10.



From the very first notes of Those Dancing Days’ impressive sophomore album Daydreams and Nightmares, it’s clear that the charming indie pop band from suburban Stockholm, Sweden has evolved. What’s emerged from the past two years of touring – traveling to all corners of the world (including Russia, South America, Japan, China and the United States) – is a captivating and confident young band. In expanding their sound, the five women of Those Dancing Days have at once maintained the evocative vivacity of their 2008 debut In Our Space Hero Suits, while also adding a nuanced hand at songcraft, giving the songs broadened dynamics and a piquant edge.

“We didn’t go into the studio and say: ‘Let’s change our sound.’ It happened naturally, almost unconsciously. I think it is because we have gone through so much together the last few years. We have grown up, simple as that,” says drummer Cissi Efraimsson.

Daydreams and Nightmares was recorded in Stockholm over the spring, summer and early fall of 2010 with Patrik Berger, the fast rising young producer known for his recent work with Robyn. Many of the songs are about, above all, the power of imagination: future hopes and wishes, and – of course – all kinds of dreams. “If you didn’t have dreams, if you couldn’t imagine, how would you be able to write songs?” asks guitarist Rebecca Rolfart. Filled with soaring choruses led by singer Linnea Jönsson’s sweetly sultry vocals, the tracks range from the blissful pure pop of “I’ll Be Yours” to the defiant, hard charging anthem “Fuckarias,” and from the New Wave-tinged, starry-eyed “Dream About Me” to the wistful, reluctant build of “When We Fade Away.” The album is book-ended by the angular guitars and thundering drums of the pummeling opener “Reaching Forward” and the winsome closer “One Day Forever,” a duet with The Maccabees’ Orlando Weeks. The lushly vibrant “Can’t Find Entrance” was produced by Max Martin (Kelis, The Veronicas, Katy Perry), who approached the band about working together after hearing their debut.

Links:
Those Dancing Days

Master: Death Metal Veterans Announce March Show at Club Europa with Lightning Swords of Death

DOWNLOAD: Master - "In Control" (from Slaves of Society)

"Dragging its venomous oldschool intent like a caveman with his club, MASTER are proudly living up to their name and taking their place among death metal's founding fathers." - Terrorizer

Death metal legends Master are proud to announce their 2011 U.S. headlining tour. Scheduled to take place next month, the debauchery will commence on March 1 in Fredrick, Maryland and run through over a month's worth of dates before coming to a close on April 3 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The band will be joined by Los Angeles black metal collective Lightning Swords Of Death and Ohio thrashers Mobile Deathcamp.

The local show is at Club Europa in Brooklyn on Friday, March 4th. Master is playing with Lightning Swords of Death and Strong Intention. Ticket and door information hasn't yet been posted.

Said Master mainman Paul Speckmann of the trek: "Looking forward to bringing Master Metal back to the USA and sharing a few new tracks from The Human Machine as well as playing the classics once again for you! Master guitarist Alex Nejezchleba and Peter Bajci from the Czech Republic will be joining me on the American trek. Master your own Destiny."

Master released their tenth studio album, The Human Machine, last May via Singapore's Pulverised Records. Said Blabbermouth in a review of the record: "Master albums have always boasted riffing defined by density, nastiness, and slight contortions that make them memorable." Commended Metal Maniacs: "The Human Machine is a monster here to restore the idea that the world’s most grotesque and horrifying subject matter has a place to unfurl itself and those of us who indulge can do so without worrying if a hair’s out of place."

MASTER U.S. Tour 2011

MASTER Only
3/1/2011 Krug's - Frederick, MD w/ Strong Intention
3/2/2011 O'Brien's - Boston, MA
3/3/2011 Sonar - Baltimore, MD w/ Strong Intention

LIGHTNING SWORDS OF DEATH Joins Tour
3/04/2011 Europa - Brooklyn, NY w/ Strong Intention
3/05/2011 Diablo - Buffalo, NY w/ Strong Intention
3/05/2011 Montage Music Hall - Rochester, NY (late show) w/ Strong Intention
3/06/2011 Popeye's - Peekskill, NY w/ Strong Intention

MOBILE DEATHCAMP Joins Tour
3/07/2011 Now That's Class - Cleveland, OH
3/08/2011 The Summit - Columbus, OH
3/09/2011 Macs - Lansing, MI
3/10/2011 Vollrath Tavern - Indianapolis, IN
3/11/2011 Reggie's - Chicago, IL
3/12/2011 Fubar - St Louis, MO

MASTER/LIGHTNING SWORDS OF DEATH Only
3/13/2011 The Bourbon Theater - Lincoln, NE
3/14/2011 The Marquis - Denver, CO
3/15/2011 Club Vegas - Ogden, UT
3/16/2011 El Corazon - Seattle, WA
3/17/2011 Branx - Portland, OR
3/18/2011 Thee Parkside - San Francisco, CA
3/19/2011 The Metaphor - Escondido, CA
3/20/2011 The Blvd. - Hollywood, CA
3/21/2011 Ub's - Mesa, AZ
3/23/2011 Emo's - Austin, TX

MASTER/LIGHTNING SWORDS OF DEATH/MOBILE DEATHCAMP
3/24/2011 The Rail Club - Ft Worth, TX
3/25/2011 007 Rock Bar - San Antonio, TX
3/26/2011 Walter's - Houston, TX
3/27/2011 Rouge - Fayetteville, AR
3/28/2011 The Muse - Nashville, TN
3/29/2011 Hideaway - Johnson City, TN
3/30/2011 Volume 11 - Raleigh, NC
3/31/2011 Tremont Music - Charlotte, NC
4/01/2011 Club 306 - Roanoke, VA
4/02/2011 Mojo 13 - Wilmington, DE
4/03/2011 31 Street Pub - Pittsburgh, PA

Links:
Master

Woods of Ypres - "Woods IV: The Green Album" CD Review (Earache Records)

At the end of last year, Earache Records announced the signing of Canadian black metal act Woods of Ypres. The band has been around since 2002 and Earache will reissue the band’s fourth full-length, Woods IV: The Green Album, which was originally independently released in 2009, on March 22nd.

The Green Album clocks in just shy of eighty minutes and the organic sound, clean vocals and delicate instrumental interludes hide a pronounced sense of self-loathing and loss found within the lyrics. The band frequently garners comparisons to Type O Negative which is likely due to singer David Gold’s clean baritone vocals but there only seems to be a touch of Type O's style of goth-metal in the Woods of Ypres' music. The majority of the songs are slow burning, brooding doom (a la Candlemass) but the music doesn't fall into this bass-heavy genre. Rather, clear production brings out Gold's upfront vocals along with prominent guitars which range from metallic chugging and thrash riffs to delicate acoustical work. Adding to the mix, some tracks have soft interludes that use piano, violin, oboe and other 'non-traditional' instruments.

Lyrically, The Green Album focuses on the breakup of a relationship and the disc starts with "Shards of Love", where Gold is narrating both sides of a dialogue with his former girlfriend as she is packing to go as he is "pouring my heart to you trying to get you to stay". From here, Gold seems to resign himself to his fate and delivers the self-recriminating "Everything I Touch Turns To Gold (Then To Coal)" where Gold's vocals are complemented by additional harsh vocals. The gloom and doom lyrical themes lead into a wicked sense of 'tongue-in-cheek' irony as the disc progresses into "By The Time You Read This (I Will Already Be Dead" (with the lyrics "By the time you read / I will already be gone / Do not reply to this") and "Wet Leather", which Gold says "should obviously not be taken seriously, but instead as a song about a negative frame of mind that comes and goes ― when everything seems hopeless, pointless, "life is just pain and piss, everything is a scam," akin to something off of Sentenced's Cold White Light album." (quote from an Exclaim.ca interview with David Gold).

While Gold takes the listener into his downward spiral for the better part of the disc, the disc ends on a note of closure and rebuilding with the songs "To Long Life In The 'Limbo Union'" and the somewhat smarmy "Move On! (The Woman Will Always Leave the Man)".

One of the strongest cuts on the disc is the stellar "I Was Buried In Mount Pleasant Cemetery".



Woods of Ypres are playing a 10-date CD release tour next month that stops at The Bowery Electric on Wed., March 16th.

Links:
Woods of Ypres

Wormrot Releases "Erased Existence" from Forthcoming Disc "Dirge" // "Abuse" CD Review (Earache Records)

Singapore's grindcore band Wormrot have released another new track, "Erased Existence", from their forthcoming album, Dirge.



The band is kicking off their Dirge Across America tour next month in San Diego and the band will be touring cross-country through March and April. Tour dates are below and presumably a NYC date will be slotted sometime in early April.

Dirge Across America Tour Dates
Mar 03 - San Diego, CA - The Ruby Room
Mar 04 - Los Angeles, CA - The Blvd.
Mar 05 - Pomona, CA - The Glass House (Scion Rock Fest)
Mar 06 - Oakland, Ca - Hazmat Warehouse
Mar 07 - Sacramento, CA - On The Y
Mar 08 - Reno, NV - Ground Zero (House Show)
Mar 10 - Portland, OR - Red Room
Mar 11 - Seattle, WA - The Morgue
Mar 12 - Boise, ID - The Shredder
Mar 13 - Salt Lake City, UT - Raunch Records
Mar 14 - Cheyenne, WY - Ernie November (In-store)
Mar 15 - Denver, CO - Blast-O-Mat
Mar 17 - Austin, TX - Lipps Lounge
Mar 18 - Austin, TX - Lovejoys

w/TOMBS
Mar 22 - New Orleans, LA - Siberia
Mar 23 - Panama City, FL - C-Level
Mar 24 - Tampa, FL - Ransitions Art Gallery
Mar 25 - Miami, FL - Churchill's Pub
Mar 26 - Orlando, FL - Will's Pub
Mar 27 - Atlanta, GA - Archive Gallery
Mar 28 - Charlotte, NC - The Milestone
Mar 29 - Richmond, VA - Gallery 5
Mar 30 - Washington, DC - The Red Door
Mar 31 - Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie
Apr 01 - Worcester, MA - Club Oasis
Apr 02 - Brockton, MA - O'Brien's Pub
-----------------------
Apr 05 - Peeksill, NY - Popeye's
Apr 07 - Cleveland, OH - Now That's Class
Apr 08 - Lansing, MI - Mac's Bar
Apr 09 - Chicago, IL - Memories
Apr 10 - Milwaukee, WI - Mad planet
Apr 12 - Columbia, MO - Sideshow
Apr 13 - Oklahoma City, OK - The Conservatory

The three members of Wormrot are Rasyid (guitar), Fitri (drums) and Arif (vocals) and the band’s debut CD Abuse came out last summer on Earache Records. Arif mixed and mastered the disc and (surprisingly, given the genre) gave the band a clean and balanced sound. The original 23-track disc has now been supplemented with a 34-track bonus disc entitled Extra Abuse which contains the band’s 2007 demo tracks, an Insect Warefare cover, the band’s two EPs from 2008 (“Dead” and the Wormrot tracks from a split with Diseptic along with a handful of previously unreleased tracks from 2009.

I’ve never been a huge grindcore fan as most artists in the genre seem to be going for aggressive power over song structure. I’m over-generalizing with this next comment but after listening to a ‘run of the mill’ grindcore disc with 15-20 one minute songs, I generally feel pummeled by the intensity but none of the songs ever seem to stick with me. What I mean by this is that when replaying the disc, I have no reason to drop on any individual tracks. Singapore-based grindcore trio Wormrot add some extra elements to the standard grindcore formula which makes this disc (and a number of songs within) stand out from the pack.

Where Wormrot breaks from the grindcore pack is that the band has more of a song-orientation that focuses on the guitar and vocal work. Rasyid breaks from the d-beat sound to play some thrash, groove and (almost) alt-rock riffs on various tracks. Arif’s vocals range from shout-along slogans to the cookie-monster growls and black metal screams and both he and Rasyid mix up their styles which keeps the disc sounding fresh and the tracks distinctive. Fitri predominately pounds the drums with a high-velocity blast beat but he too mixes things up with some offbeat fills and polyrhythmic beats. Fitri plays so hard that the band had to stop their show last year at Bowery Electric to fix the drum kit.



While the band has a political bent (the disc opens with the spoken word snippet "Here's your Patriot Act! Here's your fucking abuse of power!" from student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, after being repeatedly tasered in the UCLA library ), they also have a wicked sense of humor. This humor comes out on tracks like the melodic “Fuck…I’m Drunk”, the groove-oriented “Overgrown Asshole” and a complete deconstruction of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s “Rich” (where the band lops three minutes off the original song).

Links:
Wormrot

Make-Out with Violence - DVD Review (Factory 25)

Make-Out with Violence is the first full-length film by the Nashville director-duo the Deagol Brothers (aka Andy Duensing and Chris Doyle). The film is a low-fi ‘coming of age’ story that follows two twin brothers, Carol and Patrick Darling, and their young brother Beetle during the twins’ summer after high school graduation. The story starts at a memorial service for Patrick and Carol’s missing classmate Wendy Hearst and, shortly thereafter, the three brothers finding Wendy’s re-animated corpse. The off-beat storyline is both tragic and charming and comes across like a John Hughes film filtered through lens of Sofia Coppola's “The Virgin Suicides”.

The film premiered at SXSW and a number of other film festivals in 2009. In an interview with ReviewsFromtheCouch, the Deagol Brothers described the backdrop for the film as:

DB: We all went to high school together and have always been interested in making films, music, painting and art in general. We started to conceive of the film in the early 2000s. We wanted to make a film about our shared experiences in high school and we thought that making a high school movie also made sense from the stand point of working on a small budget with our high school and college aged friends as our talent. It was not originally conceived of as a horror film but we saw the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and wanted to try the horror genre. We are not huge horror fans but we liked the idea of exploring the genre from a very sincere John Hughes angle. The idea of the teenage boy consumed by unrequited love also made sense to us in the context of a girl who is very physically present but may not be who or what you think she is.



The brothers decide to take Wendy’s re-animated corpse to their friend Rody’s house, which they are house-sitting for the summer, as they hope to restore her back to health. The movie focuses on the brothers’ attempts which are complicated by many crossed-threads of unrequited love. Most importantly, Patrick’s love for Wendy grows as he takes care of her living corpse and this out-of-control crush-turned-obsession prevents him from noticing that Wendy’s friend Anne Harran is interested in him. Adding to the drama, Carol pines for Wendy’s best friend Addy who is interested in Wendy’s boyfriend Brian. All of this sounds complicated but so was high school.

The brothers tie Wendy in Rody’s bathtub as her re-animated corpse moves around with a slow, purposeful, spasmodic creepiness. One of the brothers’ initial concerns is making sure Wendy has something to eat but the food they try to feed her dribbles out of her mouth as she lays still in the tub. The brothers realize that Wendy, now a zombie, may need live food and I had to look away as Wendy bit the head off a live rat that the brothers purchased for her.

Over the next few months, Wendy’s corpse continues to decompose which seems to increase Patrick’s urgency for a relationship of any kind. He bathes and clips her nails and, as the obsession/madness takes complete hold, dresses her up for her birthday and even gets her a cake. If this were a true story, one would wonder if necrophilia isn’t going on outside of the camera’s lens. Patrick’s relationship isn’t the only one that changes over the summer – the love triangles continue to evolve and there is even some sibling rivalry thrown in on the side (with gruesome consequences).

There is an element of sadness and melancholy throughout the film and all parties are changed by the end of the Summer, regardless of whether they were able to let go out of their past. I’ll stop here as going further would turn this review into a spoiler.

The soundtrack has been getting some recognition and is available separately on CD and limited edition LP. The Eno-influenced, keyboard-driven pop songs were predominately written by the The Non-Commissioned Officers (aka Jordan (Rody) and Eric Lehning (Patrick)) and Nashville artists The Glib, Tristen, Leah High, Vicki Mead, The Ostrich Boys, and Amanda Crawford.

DVD Extras:

- Deleted and extended scenes,

- Deleted score (from the band How I Became the Bomb),

- Cast & crew commentary,

- “The Fugitive Brain” - behind the scenes 30+ minute featurette of the formation of Limerent Pictures including screen tests and auditions,

- “Saturday is Now Ruined “- a look at the process of designing the film’s poster by graphic designer Ed O'Brien

- Eric Lehning's radio spots advertising the film and raising money for its completion,

- Interview and videos by The Non-Commissioned Officers,

- Essays by filmmaker Craig Zobel & journalist James Rocchi

Links:
Make-Out With Violence