The Young (Matador Records): Win Tickets to Tomorrow Night's Show at Glassland

Austin, TX’s The Young has made a solid album that is, simply stated – high quality, straight up rock and roll. While Chrome Cactus is a little darker in it’s lyrical and musical content than their past efforts, it’s still an album that reinforces everything great about American Rock music currently. The rhythm section of drummer Ryan Maloney and bassist Lucas Wedow lay down a heavy (though nimble where they need to be) foundation for the already formidable guitar interplay of Hans Zimmerman and Kyle Edwards. While their last two albums were produced by Zimmerman himself, this time they brought in fellow sonic assassin Tim Green (Nation of Ulysses, The Fucking Champs, Thee Evolution Revolution etc.) who also played on the record.

The Young’s members have all spent many collective years exploring musical interests previous to and in addition to their time in the band. Hans is a recording engineer, and he produces records out of his home. In addition to the first to albums by his own band, he’s recorded Spray Paint, Criaturas, Destruction Unit, Total Abuse, Institute and more. Kyle builds his own guitar pedals.. Lucas previously played bass for the notorious band Women In Prison in which Hans was also the drummer. Ryan was previously the drummer in Deskonocidos. Ensconced in their scene in Austin, these guys have given it their all. No shtick, no drama, just four friends playing music together. Chrome Cactus has been called the “highway record of the summer”. If you need bells and whistles and shtick, you probably won’t like this album. If you like straight up rock, sans gimmick, then this one’s for you. “...if you’re in the market for a summer guitar record - nothing that asks you to think deeply or emote, just sun-dazed guitars that coat your soul in industrial-strength reverb dust.” - Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone



At tomorrow night's show, The Young are playing with Fly Golden Eagle and local swamp-rockers Degreaser.

To win tickets - send along your full name to Mike.BrooklynRocks at Gmail Dot Com at winner will be chosen at random.

Links:
The Young

Guided By Voices Post "The Unsinkable Fats Domino" from Forthcoming 7" as Free Download

DOWNLOAD: Guided By Voices - "The Unsinkable Fats Domino" (out Nov. 22nd on Matador Records)

Guided By Voices - Doughnut For A Snowman by FIRE RECORDS
(out Nov. 28th w/ 4 non-LP B-sides)

After a fifteen year hiatus, the "classic line up" of Guided By Voices finished off its year-long reunion tour by recording an album of 21 new songs, making a deliberate effort to return to what bandleader Robert Pollard calls the "semi-collegial" approach of iconic GBV albums like Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes. Let's Go Eat The Factory is some kind of return to form: sprawling, variegated, and yet still recognizably and coherently Guided By Voices in both its literal and mythic senses.

Choosing to eschew the recording studio, Let's Go Eat The Factory was instead manufactured in the living rooms, basements, and garages of various long-time bandmembers.

Some tracks were recorded more-or-less live at Mitch Mitchell's garage, where the band would often practice back in the early- and mid-90s. These sessions comprised Mitch, Bob, and Jimmy Pollard, Bob's brother and long-time collaborator, who, though never a part of the touring ensemble, always played a crucial role on the classic-era releases. Some tracks were improvised over acoustic jam sessions at Greg Demos' house. Many were recorded at Tobin Sprout's place in Wherever, Michigan, and later lovingly fucked with in order to achieve the proper level of weirdness. Band members switched instruments (e.g. Bob plays drums; Mitch plays drums; Jimmy Pollard plays bass; Greg plays lead guitar; Toby plays pretty much everything; etc.) and Bob gladly accepted input from the rest of the band. Tobin Sprout wrote or co-wrote and sings on six out of the 21 songs.

The aesthetic is very much in keeping with Guided By Voices, but in some unexpected ways (more prevalent use of keyboards and samples, for one thing) the 21st century can’t help but poke its nose into the resulting music. Devoted fans of Bee Thousand will not be disappointed in, for instance, the demonically tuneful "Chocolate Boy," or the relentless chug of "We Won't Apologize For The Human Race," which Tobin Sprout describes as "Peter Gabriel singing 'I Am The Walrus.'" Other standouts include "Doughnut For A Snowman," which Pollard calls "the goofiest, twinkliest song I’ve ever written," or "Spider Fighter," a Tobin Sprout number that was in fact the first song title conceived for the new album, and which features a piano coda that Pollard likens to "a Pete Townshend demo for Lifehouse."

Links:
Guided By Voices

Interpol Posts Two Free Downloads from New Self-Titled CD // Show at United Palace Theater on Nov. 5th

DOWNLOAD: Interpol - "Lights" & "Barricade" (requires email registration)

This following note was posted The Pixies' mailing list last night:

Hola.

We're in Mexico City tonight, sharing a festival stage with Interpol. They've posted a couple of tracks for you to download.

La La Love You,
PIXIES

I haven't heard Interpol's new disc but, as it was released over a month ago, posting free downloads now would seem to indicate that it isn't selling too well. In looking on Wikipedia and Amazon, a number of reviewers have found the disc hit-or-miss with the biggest complaint being that the disc is atmospheric and ungrounded.

Interpol is out on tour through the end of the year and Brandon Curtis (from The Secret Machines) has signed on as part of the band's touring lineup. The local tour stop is at United Palace Theater on November 5th and tickets for this show are $40 (and TicketMaster fees add on an additional $10.45).

Links:
Interpol

Eula Wins Opens for Mission of Burma on Sunday in Boston (free show)

DOWNLOAD: Eula - "Simple Machine" ('Up In Arms' Demo)

New Haven art-punk band Eula has been select by Mission of Burma (through Matador's 'Battle for Burma' competition) to open for MOB at a free show this Sunday at M.I.T. Major congrats to Eula and hopefully this will lead to bigger things (signing to Matador?).

This sounds kind of crazy but Boston’s City Council have declared October 4, 2009 as “Mission Of Burma Day” and Mission of Burma are playing a free show at MIT's East Campus Courtyard (map). The show kicks off at 2:30 with Eula who will then be followed by Boston's Big Bear.

Eula released a great 6-song EP entitled "Language of Threat" earlier this year and it looks like the video for "Fight Riff" is what won the band the 'Burma Battle'.



For anyone who isn't able to make it to Boston on Sunday, Eula returns to NYC on October 24th for a show at Shea Stadium.

Links:
Eula

Lou Reed - Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse CD Review (Matador Records)

Lester Bangs' review of the original 1973 release of Berlin was "What ["Berlin"] really reminds me of, though, is the bastard progeny of a drunken flaccid tumble between Tennessee Williams and Hubert (Last Exit from Brooklyn) Selby, Jr. It brings all of Lou’s perennial themes - emasculation, sadistic misogyny, drug erosion, twisted emotionalism of numb detachment from ‘normal’ emotions - to pinnacle. It is also very funny – there’s at least one laugh in every song - but as in ‘Transformer,’ you have to doubt if the humor’s intentional."

Time has been kind to Lou's uber-dark rock opera about Jim and Caroline and their collective decent into adultery, addiction, abuse and suicide. It is interesting to hear Lou and his band play Berlin through from start to finish as I don't believe that he played any more than half the songs from this disc during his 1973 "Berlin" tour (and these were interspersed between Transformer and Velvet Underground songs). Listening to the story unfold from start to finish gives the material the consistency that it needs.

What is missing though in this live performance is the creepy, claustrophobic ambiance and the over-the-top (Pink Floydish) production of the original studio recording. The studio recording of Berlin was mesmerizing because you came away from it with the unclean feeling that you just wallowed in someone else's filth.

This live recording has an openness and warmth that somewhat de-emphasizes the darkness and power of the songs. Guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original Berlin recording, returns to the fold for this live recording and his electric solos bring more of a rock vibe to the performance. Some of the other special guests include Sharon Jones, who sings with Lou on "Oh Jim" and Antony sings with Lou on "Caroline Says, pt. II". Neither of these performances make-or-break either of these songs and the delivery is, again, a bit more upbeat than the subject matter of the songs would suggest. I did though enjoy hearing the songs that include the Brooklyn Youth Chorus as they add a nice flourish.

After the band finishes all of the material from Berlin, there is a three song encore at the end of the disc that closes out the show - "Candy Says" (where Lou duets with Antony), "Rock Minuet" and "Sweet Jane".

While this disc doesn't replace the need to have Berlin, it is a worthy companion piece (and it is better than a lot of Lou's recent studio recordings).

Links:
Lou Reed's Website

Cat Power - Dark End of the Street EP Review (Matador)

2008 was an interesting year for Cat Power as Chan Marshall bookended the year with albums of cover tunes. Jukebox was released in January of 2008 and it featured 10 covers songs, which were predominately made up of classic folk and country tunes. Some of the artists covered on Jukebox include Bob Dylan, Hank Williams and Joni Mitchell.

Dark End of the Street was recorded during the sessions for Jukebox but, this time, Chan covers some classic Muscle Shoals style soul. The six-song EP is bookended by a pair of tunes originally made popular by Aretha Franklin ("Dark End of the Street" and "It Ain't Fair") and the disc also includes an Otis Redding cover ("I've Been Loving You Too Long"). All of the songs are recorded with the Dirty Delta Blues band who give these songs a swirling soul sound. Chan's vocal delivery is very similar to that on Jukebox - while her vocals don't rise and fall with the build in the music, Chan's world-weary bluesy singing present a unique reinterpretation of many of these songs.

One of the more interesting reinterpretations is CCR's "Fortunate Son". While this version doesn't have John Fogerty's driving guitar lines, Chan's passionate vocals drive the song through what could be mistaken for a Velvet Underground backing track.

Here is a live performance of "It Ain't Fair":


On Matador Records blog, Gerald Cosloy posted: "Chan has not retired from writing or recording her own material. We’re pretty confident her next full length album wllll either be all originals or about 90% in that direction…"

Cat Power is playing two nights at the Apollo Theater next month. The shows are February 6th and 7th and tickets are $36.00.

Links:
Cat Power

Pavement - Brighten The Corners (Nicene Credence Edition) CD Review (Matador)

Matador's reissue of Pavement's fourth CD, Brighten The Corners, allows you to really get a different perspective on the original CD.

The original twelve track CD seemed pretty focused and mellow after its sprawling predecessor, Wowee Zowee. The deluxe edition of Brighten the Corners adds thirty-two bonus tracks that includes outtakes, b-sides, live material and radio sessions. There are reinterpretations of material from Brighten the Corners and early versions of songs that would ultimately make it onto Terror Twilight and the Major Leagues EP. These bonus tracks give this disc the open and loose sound of its predecessors and add a bit of extra life and context to the original twelve tracks.

Brighten The Corners has aged well and the original singles from this release, “Stereo” and “Shady Lane”, still sound fresh. Giving a fresh listen to this CD, Spiral Stairs' songs, "Date w/ IKEA" and "Passat Dream", should have also been hits and both seemed to miss their time. "Date w/IKEA" has that California pysch-pop feel that Matthew Sweet has been mining over his last few releases and "Passat Dream" sounds like something that could have come from The Strokes or one of the other current day indie-rock bands.

I can't think of any word to describe the thirty-two bonus tracks other than "eclectic". The bonus tracks include two extra versions of "Type Slowly" - a countrified up-tempo version renamed "Slowly Type" and a live version from the Tibet Freedom Festival. There are two versions of an early version of "The Hexx" (then named "And Then") - an extended studio version and a live Peel Session. There are covers of The Fall's "The Classical" and Echo and the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" (both songs were later re-recorded for the band's final EP - Major Leagues) along with a cover of the Clean. Pavement fans will likely wonder why "Harness Your Hopes" (which is included as both a b-side and a Peel Session recording) got regulated to b-side status as the music and Stephen Malkmus' lyrical wordplay seems to hold up well against the disc's original twelve tracks. Fittingly, this set ends on a shambolic note with two takes on the Space Ghost Theme, both of which were recorded in Boston's WFNX Studios on February 12, 1997.

Going back to 1997, here is the Spike Jonze directed video for "Shady Lane":