Upcoming at the SGC

The Photo Atlas is composed of four very talented men. With an original sound, that i suppose could be compared to that of The Stiletto Formal, they will have you hooked right away. At least, that's how it was for me. And with songs like Handshake Heart Attack and Electric Shock how can you go wrong, really? So, if that's not enough to get you interested you should most definitely check them out at the cafe this Satuday (March 1, 2008) and I gaurantee a good time, but I guess you will just have to find out for yourself. :)
P&L

Keep an eye out

Teitur has just released a new album in Scandinavia called "The Singer", and it should be released in the U.S. sometime in March or April. If you don't know Teitur just go buy "sleeping with the lights on" now, you will not be disappointed. He came through Salt Lake a couple years ago, and it was awesome, sadly this time he's only stopping in Denver. Well... sad for you, cause I'll just so happen to be in Boulder when he comes through, so I'll let you know how it goes.

Pitchfork has this little treat from Tobias Froberg up on their site right now. I want to say that Tobias came through on the same tour with Teitur, although don't quote me on that, it was a few years ago.

Also, go get your Explosions in the Sky and Jose Gonzalez tickets before they disappear, they're both going to be great shows.

pedigree earned.

i'd been saving it. josh rosenthal had given me an early copy of his new cd, renaissance and i was headed out of town on a road trip and knew it would be a perfect chance to actually listen to a cd. so i saved it until i was driving home across the lonely plains of nevada at sunrise.

it was perfect.

until officer dunckhorst pulled me over for going 100 miles over the speed limit (which reminds me...) right in the middle of my listening party.

speeding ticket aside, renaissance is an on-target, honest delivery of josh's evolution as an artist. the ep has eight tracks, several of which are older tracks that have been essentially rewritten under the watchful eye of star-in-waiting kalai and nashville producer mitch dane (jars of clay, caedmon's call, bebo norman). house on highland, an old classic, arrives as a rustic, bluesy piece that stylistically is a good stretch for josh. something i didn't want features the harmonica of mickey raphael (who regularly is featured with: willie nelson, johny cash, emmylou harris, waylon jennings, and nanci griffith to name only a few). old fans of josh's will enjoy the newer versions. the new tracks though are the songs that drive the album and secure it's place in josh's discography as well as his arrival as a legitimate indie songwriter. not to say that josh was somehow illegitimate before now. there just seems to be a certain stigma for artists in their hometown that is hard to move past. to achieve josh's level of success without the help of local media outlets proves his legitimacy all the more. that he is recording in nashville and touring the country only further validates his arrival. one that hopefully his hometown crowd will take notice of.

catch josh's hometown cd release show on march 22nd at rose wagner theater in downtown salt lake city. tickets are available now through all arttix outlets.

and hopefully you won't get a speeding ticket upon your first listen of renaissance. if you do though let me know, i love conspiracies.

free music mondays...

this song's a few years old, but click here for a free download of vedera's the falling kind. their new album is almost done being mixed and mastered; look for a late spring/early summer release. while you're there, take a listen to a few rough mixes of some new songs from their forth-coming, epic records release.

go ahead: soothe your soul.

if you want an artist that makes you feel relaxed, calm, and soothed then choose goldfrapp. lovely-as-a-flower alison goldfrapp and will greggory started out in 1999 and along the way have made an excellent collection of beautiful songs. the music has been called many things: pop, electronica, ambient, glam rock, synth pop, dance, indie, downtempo, and more. call it what you will, but i say don't bother. just grab some headphones, turn this on, close your eyes, and let it take you away. also, be sure to pick up the newest goldfrapp album, seventh tree, that comes out tomorrow.

Who's in your Playlist

Working a job where you can listen to music of your choice is such a blessing. This also means when you are working 40 hours a week and 8 hours a day you end up getting bored of the same old music. Bands tend to blend together and or you just seem to get sick of certain styles. Then there are those bands and or musicians that transcend all expectations. Chad might hurt me for this because he isn't considered "indie" but i love Jeff Buckley, I am constantly coming back to his records. I recommend starting with the record Sketches for my Sweetheart the Drunk. I think Jeff Buckley has been great for the "indie" scene though, I have found many bands have tried to copy his magical voice. For a 90's singer he doesn't have a raw and abrasive voice, but a soothing and comforting style. Let me know if you enjoy him.

radiohead wednesday

spent the day in my office listening to all the main radiohead releases...i highly recommend it.

enigk's all i got...

last week was a good run of shows at the cafe. on friday night, swans of never played and added local songwriter emme packer. not quite sure how to say this or be clever about it, but emme's music is amazing. her vocals are haunting and she's really good at guitar. just thought you'd want to know since that's the whole point of this blog. it seems she also loves jeremy enigk which means she can always play the cafe (she even has a song about him which begs the question: why aren't there more artists writing songs about sunny day real estate's main man?)

emme released joy, the machine on her own blue siren records in january of last year. the quality is great, the album art is incredible. catch her at the cafe on march 20th with bradley hathaway.

what's in a name?

at 1:30 am on tuesday morning, i left chico, ca and began the 10-hour drive home to salt lake because i had to work the cafe for the weatherbox/jet lag gemini show. they brought along a songwriter that travels by the name of snuffaluffagus. stop: we agree, a suspect name, but portland-based songwriter chris braciszewski makes up for it as soon as he begins singing. it's one of those deals where the music is so good it doesn't matter what you call it.

snuffiq is in the vein of beirut, devendra banhart or castanets: soulful lyrics sung with original style. some of you may be deterred by those comparisons, but snuffiq's delivery is on pitch without compromising on the creativity.

unfortunately, the blizzard of wednesday night destroyed the show. all the bands were good sports to still play the the meager crowd (and cheers to the crowd that still came out and lent support).

the music

atherton is amazing. review and photos from tonight's atherton, the new frontiers, this is anfield, travis van hoff show soon...

the week of music...

monday: hung out in the studio with brighten (who work with jeff schneeweis of number one gun) and listened to them work on their new ep.
tuesday: surrogate show (magic, magic).
wednesday: weatherbox and jet lag gemini at the cafe.
thursday: the new frontiers and atherton at the cafe (you are dumb if you miss this show).
friday: swans of never and emme packer show at the cafe.

if you like music, that's a good week.

i was all set...

i was all set to up and move to chico...until jay and silent bob showed up at the surrogate show tuesday night at the coda cafe in chico. but even these two annoying guys couldn't wreck my enthusiasm to see chris keane and his band. if you read the blog you know that surrogate's love is for the rich was one of my favorite albums of 2007. even after a full year of listening to that cd, seeing it performed live is still completely enjoyable, and well worth a drive to chico (i actually was in san fran so the drive to chico was a no-brainer). the entire set came from love is for the rich even though chris is currently writing material for a new album that he tentatively plans to record this summer.

seriously i think the last 36 hours of my life here in chico have been near-perfect. it's too bad jay and silent bob showed up and helped me decide to stay in salt lake. and for the record, peter (tour manager for the maine) is definitively the funniest man i've ever known.

thanks to lawrence for snapping these photos, now we're off to drive home for 10 hours because weatherbox and jet lag gemini are playing the cafe wednesday night.

Travel Travel Travel

Chad, Tate (the lionelle), and i all loaded up in a rental car and drove to California on Sunday night. We realized that northern California has such beautiful weather this time of year, and has made us not want to come back to the 12 feet of snow in Salt Lake. In our wonderful road trip we got to stay and hang out with Brighten, while they were in the studio recording their upcoming ep. We had the pleasure to see them lay down some vocal and guitar tracks. be excited for this, i know we are.

party like a rockstar.

last night the avalon was jam-packed with awesomeness. cry of the afflicted, pierce the veil, as cities burn, mayday parade, and emery played, overall, one hell of a show. i didn't get to see cry of the afflicted play, but from what i've heard off their myspace they are a sweet solid state band with a sound similar to story of the year. you'll definitely want to check them out and snag "take this day"; available to download on their purevolume: here. i got there when pierce the veil started. it took me a minute to decide whether or not i liked them, but after they played their version of michael jackson's "beat it" i was sold. ptv is a band that's all about having fun and rockin' out. frontman vic fuentes has a unique voice that gets their party going. the band as a whole had really good energy while playing and the crowd enjoyed their rock/metal/party sound; as did i. also, feel free to download a couple of songs for you listening pleasure at their myspace: here. to my surprise as cities burn was next. but, even still, they did an absolutely amazing job with their disappointingly short set. they played some of my favorite songs including, but not limited to (ha), "our world is grey" and "bloodsucker pt. II". even without former member, tj bonette's screams it was still a very good performance. i have a lot of respect for acb moving forward and using the talent they still have instead of calling it quits. so all in all it bummed me out that they couldn't play all night. the majority of the kids at this show seemed to be there for the next band up: mayday parade. since the release of their newest album, "a lesson in romantics", word has been spreading of this pop-punk band. frontman derek sanders got into his groove with a mic swinging and hair flipping routine that reminded me of adam lazarra. they were fun to say the least. their dance-a-ble beats were only lacking the unique and powerful vocals of former member, jason lancaster (now frontman for go radio). without him the performance seemed to faulter on certain songs such as "when i get home you're so dead"; deeming the last time i saw them live to be much better. and last, but definitely not least, emery. even the fading size of the crowd after mayday didn't stop emery from putting on one of the best performances i've seen. the way i can best describe the overall feel to this set is chaotic harmony. each band member was doing their own thing, but it all somehow fit together. and with josh head (who was at one point in the crowd being held; standing straight on top of 20-or-so hands), devin shelton, and toby morrel all switching up on the vocals a unique energy pulled the crowd in. and it was this energetic performance that made me quite glad i had attended and also wonder why the new album, "i'm only a man", wasn't getting such great reviews. i figure it's because whoever doesn't enjoy it hasn't seen an emery performance quite like last night. so to sum it all up: there was fun, dancing, singing, screaming, mic-swinging, crowd...standing, and lots of partying rockstars. touché.

sxiw (south by intermountain west)

the released the "official" SXSW list yesterday (whatever that means)...it's huge and there are bands from all over the world. like most of you, we're not traveling to the lone start state in march, so here's the next best thing: the cafe is bringing SXSW bands to you next week.

wednesday, february 13th: jet lag gemini. jlg just released fire the cannons, their debut cd on doghouse records. i'm not quite sure how pop-punk gets onto the SXSW bill, but jet lag gemini are good at it. you can easily see a crowd of kids bobbing their heads to jlg. whether that will happen remains to be seen. they play the cafe with weatherbox (doghouse) and locals larusso and the trademark.

thursday, february 14th: the new frontiers. if you read the blog you know we're trying to date the new frontiers. they're quite incredible at music-making and niceness too. their debut cd mending is sort of released (you can buy it on itunes) and is easily the best cd of 2008 thus far. catch them thursday with local alt-country darlings atherton (who we'd try to date too, but we're classy and don't want to double time anyone). atherton should be playing SXSW also to be really honest. they are the type of band i think of when i think about SXSW. also on the bill are this is anfield, dan cutrtis and travis van hoff.

friday, february 15th: swans of never. matt nane's is not going to SXSW. he's not playing it. we like him quite a bit though. his rugged artistic style represents a passion for his art that attracts an audience. matt openly bares his soul for anyone willing to listen, like a voice in the wilderness. he's leaving on tour (as guitarist for bradley hathaway). he'll feature a full band for the first time at the cafe (featuring guys from the almost).

so join us next week at the cafe for SXSW week on wednesday, thursday and friday. or book a flight to austin. if you do, let us know so we can hire you to write some articles for the ship. you'll of course get paid as much as we all do!

yeah but can they hold off the snow?

moving mountain's pneuma might be the most inventive album i've heard in the last few months and certainly catchy. they deliver the aesthetics of something like the appleseed cast while moving through genre's, fluidly mixing in the occasional trumpet, some screaming and a host of other clever musical ideas. they deftly give a nod to bands like american football (not just because of the trumpet) while moving forward in a direction that is completely their own. moving mountains need some type of record label (so you can find their cd somewhere in the western half of the u.s.) and are currently recording an ep. if they tour, we'll be sure and let you know!

you hate to hear this...

here's the latest (and last) from the format, straight from their myspace blog...

IMPORTANT

We have just put out word that we will not be making a new Format album. Please understand this was a tough decision and we're both upset about it. While we accept there will be false speculation as to why, understand that Sam and I remain extremely close and in fact are still passing the twin peaks box set back and forth in an attempt to figure out who REALLY killed laura
palmer. We also want to thank everyone with and within the Format, particularly Mike, Don, and Marko, whom without, none of this would have ever even been fully realized. We both suggest you support their musical talents and whatever they decide to do. And lastly we want to thank the fans who made this the best 5 years of our lives.

clever monday blog title

there's a new la blogotheque take away show featuring animal collective, but i didn't think that was so amazing. so rather than post that one, i decided to post this older one from beirut. is it just me, or is this one of the best la blogotheque take away shows so far? it's a few months old, but it's really good.

#64.1 - Beirut - Nantes
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