CMJ Japan Night: Interview with Ovum, Local Sound Style and Holidays of Seventeen, NYC 10-20-08

I caught up with the three bands playing the two-night CMJ Japan Night showcase on the afternoon before their first US show.

The three bands have an eclectic mix of styles as Ovum plays instrumental rock in the spirit of Pelican and Mono; Holidays of Seventeen play Weezer-inspired power-pop and Local Sound Style cites their influences as Oasis, Fountains of Wayne and The Get Up Kids.



The world gets more and more global by the day but, outside of English, I can speak remedial Spanish so the bands' tour manager ended up playing intermediary for a large portion of the interview.

All three bands released discs earlier this year:
- Ovum's latest disc, Microcosmos, is available from XTAL Records
- Holidays of Seventeen's new disc, Yeah, is available on Fabtone Records
- Local Sound Style's new disc, Doing It For The Kids, is also out on Fabtone Records

Links::
Ovum's MySpace Page
Local Sound Style's MySpace Page
Holidays of Seventeen's MySpace Page

Spread Eagle Announce December '08 Tour Dates

Spread Eagle have just announced a series of local-area shows which I think are the band's first since the 2006 "Back on the Bitch" tour.

Dec 5 2008 11:00PM, Cherrywood Rock Club, Clementon, New Jersey
Dec 10 2008 11:00PM, The Haunt, Yonkers, New York
Dec 11 2008 11:00PM, The Trash Bar, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York
Dec 13 2008 10:00PM, The Crazy Donkey w/ KIX, Farmingdale, Long Island, New York

Spread Eagle's debut CD was reissued by Lovember Records in 2006 and the disc is currently available through Amazon and other outlets.

Links:
Spread Eagle's MySpace page

Bruce Springsteen Posts New Halloween Song as a Free Download

Bruce Springsteen has posted a new blues song, "A Night with the Jersey Devil", as a free download on his website. There is also a video posted for the song where Bruce takes on the role of the Jersey Devil.

Springsteen posted the following message to his site yesterday:

To our friends and neighbors:

So as not to inconvenience you this Halloween, due to "catastrophic success" (read: too many visitors for the neighborhood to handle) and concern for the safety of kids and parents! we won't be having our usual Halloween display this year in Rumson.

We wish everyone a safe and Happy Halloween!

Thanks,
Bruce and Patti

In older news, Bruce and the band are playing the Superbowl Halftime Show on February 1st.

Links:
Bruce Springsteen

TapTap Revenge Releases Nine Inch Nails Version of Game (iPhone/iPod Touch)

TapTap Revenge, which is the iPhone/iPod Touch's equivalent of Guitar Hero, just released a Nine Inch Nails version of the game. The game soundtrack includes 13 tracks from NiN's last two releases The Slip and Ghosts I-IV.

Aside for being a highly addictive game, Tapulous is giving away floor tickets for every NIN show between 11/8 and 12/12. There is also a grand prize of a Les Paul guitar signed by Trent. To enter, you need to submit a score of over 150,000 points on any track in the game. (I haven't personally broken 100K yet).

The Nine Inch Nails version of TapTap Revenge is available through the iTunes App store for $4.99

Exit Stencil CMJ Showcase: Live Video from Mystery of Two, HotChaCha and The Dreadful Yawns

Cleveland-based record label Exit Stencil Recordings had a showcase at Spike Hill on the first night of CMJ. I missed Spanish Prisoners who opened the show but I was able to film some of Mystery of Two, HotChaCha and The Dreadful Yawns' live set.



All of the bands were great but Mystery of Two's updated take on 70's punk (sort of a Television meets the Talking Heads sound) was the highlight of the evening.

Check out Exit Stencil's website for vinyl and CD releases from all of these bands.

Most of the Exit Stencil bands aren't playing outside of the Cleveland area for the remainder of the year but HotChaCha will be back in NYC this month for a show at Annex on November 21st.

Links:
Mystery of Two
HotChaCha
The Dreadful Yawns

The Yelling - Debut EP Review (Los Angeles/Hollywood Punk)

A friend recently sent me the five track debut EP from the N. Hollywood blues/punk rockers The Yelling. When I first heard this disc, I was reminded how early Jane's Addiction was compared to Led Zeppelin and The Doors. These comparisons are defiantly appropriate for The Yelling's debut CD as well.

The Yelling's debut EP is intense take-no-prisoners blues-based garage rock. The disc starts with the hard driving "Fire and a Microphone" and goes from there into the Zeppelin-ish "Long Time My Love". There are all sorts of classic rock sounds on this disc and the band is able to expand on the psychedelic sounds of the 60's and 70's and combine them with a sort of Wolfmother vibe. All five tracks from the EP are streaming on the band's MySpace page (link below).

The Yelling's EP is an impressive debut and it is available as a download on the band's MySpace page for $5.00.

The band is currently touring around Los Angeles and hopefully they will make it over to the East Coast in the near future. Here are their upcoming shows:

Nov 5 2008 9:00PM, Club Moscow @ Boardner’s, Los Angeles, CA
Nov 6 2008 8:00PM, Future Sounds presents THE RUMBLE @ 3 of Clubs, Los Angeles, CA
Nov 12 2008 9:00PM, Club Moscow @ Boardner’s, Los Angeles, CA
Nov 19 2008 8:00PM, The Echo w/ Night Horse, Los Angeles, CA
Nov 25 2008 8:00PM, Wildcat Lounge, Santa Barbara, CA

Bruce Springsteen/Suicide Split 10" Out on Blast First

The world is definitely getting stranger when one can mention Bruce Springsteen and Suicide (the band) in the same sentence.

Well...Blast First has released a limited edition split 10" with Bruce Springsteen covering Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream", a live performance of Suicide playing "Dream Baby Dream" on the Midnight Special, and a cover of "Mr. Ray" by (the recently defunct NYC band) Beat The Devil. This 10" is the first in a series of limited edition releases celebrating the 70th birthday of Suicide vocalist Alan Vega.

The vinyl edition is a limited pressing of 4,000 and available in most indie music shops (Vintage Vinyl is always a reliable source) and the mp3s are available for purchase from Blast First (click on the LP cover to go to the Blast First site).

Suicide are playing Club Europa in Greenpoint on December 11th.

Bugs in the Dark - Grand Avenue CD Review (Next show at Lit Lounge on Nov. 7th)

"Having a little fun is the secret to life" - Karen Rockower (Bugs in the Dark)

Brooklyn's Bugs in the Dark released their first full-length, Grand Avenue, earlier this year and I'm completely convinced that the band is going to break big next year.

Grand Avenue is a major step forward for the band as their songwriting has evolved from the Pylon/Hole-ish punk of their debut EP (Shake Shake) to something closer to X meets Sonic Youth.

The band clearly haven't given up their punk roots but there is more of a sense of melody and structure across this disc's six tracks. This time around, Karen Rockower sings of the four cuts and Zach Glass sings two. Karen's strong vocal performance ranges from the punky "Paranoia" to the Sleater-Kinneyish "Aaron". Zach's singing is a real treat as his voice sounds almost like a gothic John Doe (from X). Drummer, Julia Lomax keeps things moving with some great percussion work. Julia's drumming gives songs like "Gasoline" an almost tribal/Cramps-like feel and she mixes things up across the disc with shakers, tamborines, etc.

The new disc is available through the band's MySpace page (link below) and Bugs in the Dark are playing Lit Lounge on November 7th and The Delancey on December 13th.

Links:
Bugs in the Dark's MySpace Profile

WITNESS (Peter Gabriel's human rights organization) Is Holding a Fund Raiser at Santos Party House on Friday, Oct. 24th

Give it up for a good cause...

WITNESS uses video and online technologies open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. WITNESS was founded in 1992 by musician and activist Peter Gabriel and the Reebok Human Rights Foundation as a project of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First). In 1988, Peter was part of Amnesty International's Human Rights Now! Tour. He was struck by the stories he heard from survivors of human rights abuses and the lack of attention these stories received. Peter had brought along one of the first camcorder models and realized the potential of video as a tool against abuse; he noted that perpetrators of abuses were often brought to justice when photographic or video evidence of abuses existed.

Uncensored Interview is a music-oriented broadband video platform that willl be hosting the event with WITNESS and dedicating the evening to raising money for their cause.

The party on Friday is going to be held at Santos Party House- downstairs, on 100 Lafayette Street in New York City. The lineup includes sets by critically acclaimed Bhangra ambassador DJ Rekha, international DJ sensation Aaron LaCrate, hip hop scratch master DJ Boo and surprise guest DJs.

During the event, WITNESS staffers will be conducting video interviews with attendees to be uploaded to WITNESS' participatory media site, The Hub (http://hub.witness.org), in support of the 60th Anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10, 2008.

Links:
WITNESS
Uncensored Interview

Exit Stencil Showcase at Spike Hill's Tomorrow Night: My Pick for CMJ Day 1

I told myself that I wasn't going to do CMJ this year...Oh well, I guess some resolutions are meant to be broken. Tomorrow night, Exit Stencil Recordings is doing a showcase at Spike Hill in Williamsburg with some great bands from the Cleveland area.


Here are some details, videos, mp3s, etc. on the bands that are playing:

8pm - Spanish Prisoners: "...one of those squirrelly artists that runs le gamut from a weird freak folk (with spry banjo, dobro, accordion, Wurlitzer, Neil Young-ish harmonica, etc.) to an even more skewed inversion of rough-hewn, '70s influenced indie-rock. No wonder he once backed Daniel Johnston; they've both got a nice artistic screw loose." -
The Big Takeover

Spanish Prisoners backing Daniel Johnston @ Highline Ballroom, Feb '08



9pm - Mystery of Two: "Not quite post-punk, not quite New Wave, this
Cleveland trio nonetheless shares traits with both (angular guitar parts,
occasional synth bleeps), but adds other components Sonic Youth noise
and Feelies guitar drive to come up with something less derivative.
Occasionally the embers ignite into conflagration, which is when the band
rises above the rabble." - Creative Loafing

"Desolate" - Mystery of Two

10pm - HotChaCha: "This all-girl Cleveland foursome packs a helluva
punch, with loud, edgy pop/rock and no apologies. The tracks are huge and
in your face and frontwoman Jovana Batkovic¹s vocals are spot-on with any
other female lead in the business." - Slug Magazine

"J'accuse" - HotChaCha

11pm - The Dreadful Yawns: "Folk rock with a shade of psych, The Dreadful
Yawns swathe the genre with more boy-girl singing adorableness than the
Mommas & The Poppas on a Corey Haim-sized prescription drug binge."
-Verbicide Magazine

"Kill Me Now" - The Dreadful Yawns

12am - Home and Garden: Classic Cleveland avant-rock featuring a rare on
stage performance by both original Pere Ubu member's, Scott Krause and
Tony Maimone!

Matthew Sweet - Sunshine Lies CD Review (Shout Factory)

This is one of the best (and most consistent) releases from Matthew Sweet that I have heard in years.

Gone is the soft-rock of the last few discs and this guitar-driven disc is solidly rooted in 60's power-pop and psychedelia. Sweet's songwriting shows a clear vision and there isn't a bad track on the disc. The strong songwriting is complemented by crystal-clear production (which was done by Sweet in his home studio) which highlight the disc's hooks. The power-pop tracks have exquisite (Byrds/Beach Boys style) vocal harmonies and the psychedelic tracks have both "teeth" and snarl. While Sweet mines from a variety of genres, the disc sounds like a consistent body of work and has a warm feel. Sweet describes this disc as "very direct, but seen through the eyes of nature, or rather modeled on its beauty, chaos and freedom, something like a stab at sonic art nouveau."

There are a number of stand-out tracks on this disc which include "Daisychain", which features Hollies-style vocal harmonies, and "Sunshine Lies", which features glorious backing vocals from x-Bangle Susanna Hoffs. Two of the disc's psychedelic rockers, "Flying" and "Room to Rock" are streaming on Sweet's MySpace page.

Matthew Sweet is currently out on tour behind this new release and he is playing Webster Hall next Tuesday, October 28th.

Links:
Matthew Sweet's Website

Lacona is Headlining the Chicago Showcase at Arlene's Grocery on Thursday (CMJ)

"Camera" - Lacona
"(No Misgivings) Dendrochronology" - Lacona

Chicago alt/art-rockers Lacona are headlining the Chicago Showcase on Thursday night at Arlene's Grocery. The band released a great full length CD, Pantomime, early this year which the Chicago Reader described as having a "romantic-80's-pop sense of melody." The band's music is hard to classify into any one particular genre but one point of comparison would be the art-rock of Television meets Radiohead.

They band is trying out some new material on the road that will be on their next disc and some of the new tracks are posted above.

If you are like me and didn't bother with a badge this year, tickets for the show are $10. Lacona goes on at Midnight and the other bands on the bill are:

07:00 PM - Deanna Devore
08:00 PM - Bailiff
08:45 PM - Needers & Givers
09:30 PM - Joe Pug
10:15 PM - Brighton, MA
11:00 PM - Canasta

Links:
Lacona's MySpace Profile
Arlene's Grocery

Natalie Walker - "With You" CD Review

Natalie Walker's second solo CD, With You, is a logical progression back to her trip-hop roots. Natalie has a beautiful haunting voice and the atmospheric sound which made Urban Angel such a success is complemented on With You by tasteful new wave dance beats.

On this release, Natalie is once again working with Brooklyn-based Stuhr Productions and they have really given her music a full and very accessible sound. The first two singles from the new disc, "Over And Under" and "Pink Neon", have strong beats and catchy hooks that hold up well against anything in the trip-hop genre. Fans of Portishead, Sneaker Pimps and Natalie's previous band, Daughter Darling, will really enjoy the (re)evolution of Natalie's sound. There are also a couple of cuts like "By and By" and "Only Love" which fit well alongside the tracks from Urban Angel so longtime fans should find enough to like as well.

Lyrically, With You seems very similar to Urban Angel as a number of tunes seem to be about love, loss and relationships. What makes this release more enjoyable than the previous is that it just doesn't seem as uber-serious. I found Urban Angel somewhat of a late-night, come-down record. Tracks like "Ordinary" have a sense of humor where Natalie pokes fun at her boyfriend who thinks he is a prince with his new haircut and new jeans.

Natalie has been touring a lot in support of the new disc (which was released in August on Dorado Records) and she is playing the Organic Entertainment/September Gurl CMJ Showcase at Club Midway on Thursday, October 23rd. The showcase starts at Noon with a DJ set and Natalie is scheduled to take the stage at 5PM.

Links:
Natalie Walker's Website
Natalie Walker's MySpace page

Nikki Shannon - Live Video from Show @ National Underground, NYC 10/10/08

Nikki Shannon played about an hour set at The National Underground last Friday night to an enthusiastic crowd and full room. I taped part of the show and clip below contains the songs "Had It With You" (non-LP cut; unsure that this is the 'real' title) and "Chocolate & Wine".



Nikki has been playing around town in support of her debut CD, Too Few, which was released earlier this year. The new disc is available through all of the major online digital music sites (itunes, Rhapsody, Napster, E-Music, and Amazon) and physical copies of the disc can be ordered through Nikki's MySpace page.

Steve Matteo (contributor for the New York Times, LA Times, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, Spin, and Details) described Too Few as "just the right touches of harmonies and subtle instrumental accentuations, may at first recall such great talents as Sheryl Crow, Stevie Nicks, Chrissie Hynde, and Joni Mitchell vocally and in her songwriting...yet in the end Nikki has a sound all her own." In addition to earning strong reviews from the critics, Nikki has had songs featured on "Six Degrees" (ABC TV) and she announced at last Friday's show that the song "Beauty Is Gone" will be featured on an upcoming episode of "The Hills".

Here are Nikki's upcoming shows:
Oct 22, 2008, 9:00PM, Mexacali Blues, Teaneck, New Jersey
Nov 2, 2008 8:00AM (time and place TBD), NYC MARATHON, NYC

Sunn O))) - Pictures from the Knitting Factory, NYC 10-15-08

The crowds at the local Sunn O))) shows seem to get bigger each tour. I got to the Knitting Factory around 10PM last night and the club was full to capacity.

The show was exactly as described - Greg and Stephen donned their robes just at 11PM and played The GrimmRobe Demos in its entirety. There were no breaks, no conversations - just 90 minutes of raw, uninhibited sounds.

The somewhat humerous exception to this was, toward the end of the set, somebody from the audience kept trying to climb onto the stage. SOMA pushed him back a few times and finally security came out. It was pretty amusing watching the security guard trying to glare at the guy who was at the front of the stage while Greg played on right beside him.

The last night of this brief mini-tour was tonight in Philadelphia but I've heard that there will be a new album and tour next year. In terms of tour merchandise (which might go up on the Southern Lord site), the band was selling:
- The Grimmrobe Demos 3x Picture LP for $40 (it may have been $45)
- Dømkirke for $20 (didn't look close enough to see if they were selling color vinyl copies)
- The Grimmrobe Demos - 2x CD on Inoxia for $25









Links:
Southern Lord

Black Cobra Announce Headlining Show at The Charleston in Williamsburg

Psychedelic sludge rockers, Black Cobra, are currently on the road with Genghis Tron and Yip Yip for about another week.

After this, the band is getting right back in the van and touring the clubs across the country. A wide range of bands are joining Black Cobra at some of their shows which include Weedeater, Greif, Sourvein, US Christmas and labelmates Dark Castle and Stinking Lizaveta.

The only area tour stop is at The Charleston in Williamsburg on October 26th. Check out the video for "Sugar Water" (which is from the 2007 release Bestial) and bring your earplugs to the show.



Links:
Black Cobra's MySpace Page
Black Cobra's Website

Matt Pryor - Confidence Man CD Review (Vagrant)

Matt Pryor's first solo CD is getting strong reviews from other music sites. Unfortunately, I am going to be the contrarian as I found this disc hard to get through.

I've been trying to sort through why I am so down on this disc. It may be that my only exposure to Matt Pryor is through The Get Up Kids and, on this disc, Matt plays very mellow, slightly country-folk tinged acoustic tunes. This isn't to say that this is a bad disc -- it just didn't hold my attention. My biggest complaint is that many of the songs sound similar and this makes this 15-track CD start to drag after a few songs.

There are some standout tracks on this disc, which include the title track, "Confidence Man", which has a Dylanish feel and an upbeat swing and "A Totally New Year" which has Byrds-like feel to the song. "Still, There's A Light" is another strong track that has an Appalachian feel and great backing vocals from an uncredited female singer. On the reverse side, tracks like "I'm Sorry Stephen" and "We'll Be Fine" are really grating. The songs in the middle sort of fall into coffee-shop fodder and there just wasn't enough 'spark' to this disc to hold my interest.

Six of the disc's 15 tracks are streaming on Matt Pryor's MySpace page so check out the music and make up your own mind.

Worst Case Ontario are Playing Crash Mansion on Thursday, October 16th

While the band's name still puzzles me, NYC-based Worst Case Ontario play laid-back, melodic garage/alt-rock that sounds like a return to the music of the post-grunge late 90's.

The band released their debut CD last year, Burning Politely, which Deli Magazine describes as "New York rock after it learns to ditch the pretense...one of the better '90s-inspired indie outfits of late."

Give a listen to the leadoff track, "You're Glib", from the Burning Politely, you'll get a good feel for the band's music. There are a couple of additional tracks from this disc streaming on the band's MySpace page.

This should be a fun show and tickets are only $8.00.

The Residents - Pictures from The Bunny Boy Tour, Blender Theater, NYC 10/11/08

Last night, I caught the last of The Residents' three night run at the Blender Theater. The band is touring behind their latest CD, The Bunny Boy.

The Bunny Boy follows a story line of a "unabomber" type loner searching for his missing brother Harvey. The live show follows the sequence of the CD as the narrator deals with obsession, insanity and the coming Apocalypse. Like most releases from The Residents, this is pretty wild stuff.

The production on this tour was a bit smaller scale than the last time that The Residents came through (DDA tour stopped at the Warsaw in 2002). The Bunny Boy tour is the equivalent of a one-room play where the narrator is the only live actor. The narrator takes the audience through the Bunny Boy story through narrative, songs and showing videos on the projection screen.

Here is an audience video from the tour premiere in Santa Cruz which will give you a sense for the stage set up:


The show was split into two parts and the pictures that follow are from the second act. The narrator performed the second act in a bunny costume (you have to see the show or buy the disc to understand the background for this). and these pictures show the narrator in his "secret room" slowing recognizing his madness.






This was an amazing show so, if you get the chance to catch one of the remaining US tour dates (below), you should go.

Oct 14 USA Detroit Royal Oak Theater
Oct 15 USA Chicago Lakeshore
Oct 16 USA Chicago Lakeshore
Oct 17 USA Chicago Lakeshore

Links:
Ralph America (The Residents' Record Label)
The Residents YouTube Channel
The Residents Website

Jean on Jean CD Review (Molly Schnick, ex-Out Hud)

Jean on Jean is the intriguing solo debut from x-Out Hud cellist Molly Schnick. While this is a solo disc, Molly utilizes a "Phil Spector-ish" wall-of-sound approach to its production which makes this sound like a full band effort. Across the disc's nine tracks, there are layers of strings, vocals, guitars, and organs which give this release a warm and rich sound.

The majority of this disc falls somewhere between the chamber pop (a la Joanna Newsom) and dream pop genres but the songs are diverse enough not to be pigeonholed into one specific genre. The disc opener, Tonight, starts with a 60's girl group swing before branching off into more of a chamber pop direction. Molly's cello is an integral part of most songs but it is complemented by guitar, keys, handclaps, etc. Molly's voice also plays an integral part of the music and her voice has a innocent, whispy quality that fits well with the music. The innocence of the music reminds me of Mo Tucker's songs with the Velvet Underground but, like the Velvets, the sweetness of the music hides some dark lyrical themes.

Jean on Jean played their first show at the Cake Shop a few weeks ago (there are pictures from the show on the CMJ blog) and a full US tour is supposed to follow later this year.

Jane on Jean is currently available as an exclusive digital download on eMusic. The full release of the disc (retail and all digital outlets) is scheduled for November 11th on Kanine Records.

Links:
Jean on Jean's MySpace Profile