saturday

we mention and talk about the new frontiers quite a bit on this blog (unapologetically), but just wanted to say a few quick things today about them.

their album mending is out in stores today. it's been available through itunes and at shows for a few months and was out in independent stores for a month (graywhale was the only one in salt lake) and is finally out today in full distribution (what the militia group was attempting to do here is still a mystery, one that has seriously hurt their reputation and could possibly cost them a few bands from their roster).

what do you say about an album that many people already have or have heard that you don't already know? it's easily one of my top five albums of 2008 (colour revolt's being the other so far) and is getting noticed (paste, daytrotter, absolutepunk.net have all taken an interest) for it's high quality. add to that the number of free downloads the band has made available online and there really shouldn't be any questions about the new frontiers.


the second piece of news is that they'll be playing the cafe on saturday night with a seriously good bill. they're on tour with alive in wild paint (equal vision records), formerly goodbye tomorrow and are playing with emme packer, atherton and dan curtis. tickets are available now at www.24tix.com for $7 and at the door as well. doors as always are at 7 pm.

i think

i think i'm gonna catch colour revolt in vegas this friday at house of blues.

paul's back!

after six months traveling through australia, new zealand, china, singapore, cambodia and more, paul is back! maybe if you're lucky he'll be working at a show during the next month and if you're really lucky, he'll give you a high five.

clever title (minus the bear)

lawrence and i have been to quite a few shows since he moved out to our great city. tonight's minus the bear show sets the record for the number of times we looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, grinned like middle schoolers and said "wtf" to ourselves (31 if you're curious). to be fair, i know nothing of pedals, buttons, loops and the like, but lawrence really does and he still couldn't figure out all that was going on.


a few highlights:

seeing a lot of friends including matt nanes from swans of never and his quote (in reference to portugal the man's set): "i've never smoked marijuana, but if i did, i would smoke it to that!"

seeing that minus the bear still takes their job very seriously and despite strained vocals, completely delivering an hour long set worthy of their pedigree.

the lights. i'm old enough that i usually don't care anymore, but they had green lasers. put green lasers on your list if you want to make a show really pop.

their guitarist. i'm not sure what he was doing, but at one point he was making those patented, syncopated minus the bear sounds (you know the ones) using only his pedals.

a few lowlights:

skibums dancing like hippies.

seeing the over-zealous bouncers throw a kid out on his head (quite literally).

the guy who used my mouth as his ash tray for the better part of two hours.

do the D A N C E

here is one of my all-time favorite music videos.



justice is a french band who have been nominated for a grammy & they are the most successful group on ed banger records. if you like disco & you love to D.A.N.C.E. then i think you will love justice. they are the last act of coachella this year, playing right after chromeo so it's basically gonna be the dance party of my lifetime. so. excited.
p.s. check out chromeo's song mama's boy. it will make you laugh.

how to make famous.

for a delicious mix:

-toss in 1/8 panic at the disco

-stir around 1/8 cinematic sunrise

-add 3/4 saucy jazz and unrivaled style

end result: the lives of famous men.

the lives of famous men are starting to collect some attention and with their jazzy pop sound they’re hard to ignore. for a wonderful treat come see these fellas at the café this friday, april 25 - for just $7! and as always doors are at 7:00.

Ghettotech!

this is part 1 of who knows how many of my coachella anticipation & soon to be review of the actual event.
first up: architecture in helsinki. on their myspace they call themselves Melodramatic Popular Song / Ghettotech / Jungle. i call them crazy, fun, original. think what you want about architecture in helsinki, but if this video doesn't get you up & dancing then i don't know what will.



i can clearly remember the first time i heard them, because i had an absolute fit of joy. that is just what aih does to me & i hope to share this joy with you. here's that first song i ever heard. i still get all silly & happy when i hear it. this is not the song's official video, but this animation is quite similar to what i experience when i close my eyes & listen.
doodoodoo doodoodoo doo *clap*clap* doodledoodledoo (wandering eyes)

free music

click here to download four free downloads from the new frontiers and alive in wild paint. while you're at it, click here and BUY A TICKET TO THE SHOW! you know their may 3rd date at the cafe with atherton and emme packer should be one of the best shows in the month of may.

sorry to shout at you, i just know how dead broke the cafe is. and we'd really, really like to buy some new sound equipment. and if you're keeping track, this is now six free new frontiers downloads we've sent your way. thanks always to nathan (pictured) for always letting us know about free music from them.

ain't nothing but a g thing baby

let's all take a moment to revisit the early 90's and some really great rap.

...

OK, real quick. Adem is putting out an album of covers called Takes coming out on May 12th. I can tell you now that it's going to be pretty incredible. This is Adems third solo album, and if you don't have the other two then you should definitely stop reading now and go buy them.



click here to watch a video of him playing one of the songs from his new album called Hotel lounge.

this is good

thanks to nathan from the new frontiers for the heads up on brooke waggoner. definitely one of the lamest videos i've ever seen, but let the audio run and check your email or something because the music's worth it.

you really got a hold of me

i'm not sure what indie-country-pop is, but i'm betting we'll see more of it coming out of the ultra chic, nighttime scene of la in the coming months. i can't say whether it will catch on nationwide, but anytime a hollywood type starts a band and puts out an album it will get noticed (see jason schwatrzman's coconut records).

she & him is the latest project from indie ingenue zooey deschanel and the enigmatic m. ward. already the star of indie films like all the real girls, the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford and others (or elf and bridge to terebithia if you don't watch indie flicks), deschanel has made the leap to music. it's not a huge stretch because she's always kind of had that june carter cash thing going for her. and she & him is definitely country music. but it's more fun than that really. it has a throwback feel to it where if you heard it on an old truckers am radio, you would assume it was from 30 years ago (back when country music was actually good). each song features simple melodies and uncluttered arrangements which is what gives it that older sound. and it compliments her style well because the songwriting is solid enough that it doesn't need excessive production to prop it up. you could very easily picture her touring just by herself with a guitar, telling stories between songs (i'd buy that ticket). so far though, she's just done south by and sold out shows in new york and la.

zooey deschanel's debut cd is called volume one and as always, i recommend buying it at slowtrain on broadway.

Remember Disney's Tarzan?

If you had said to me two months ago "hey Tim, wouldn't it be awesome if Phil Collins made an album based on an African sound?". I probably would have just laughed. I mean, I love Phil as much as the next guy, truly, Sussudio? Genius...

But to me...

Phil+Africa = Tarzan.


Maybe that's why Esau Mwamwaya took the headliner off of his myspace that proudly stated he was "the African Phil Collins", or maybe Phil got pissed and made him take it off, either way it doesn't have a whole lot to do with his music, just a way to fill up some space on this blog...

I don't think Esau will be huge, I don't even know how many people will like his music, but I can't stop listening to his song Chalo. It's awesome. Makes me want to jog, or lift some weights during a montage, or something like that.

yes, the kids are taking over.

as previously stated, it seems the kids are the future of rock. or pop-punk. or pop-rock. you know. all that catchy, dancy jazz. sing it loud is a band that falls into this category. they're good: not amazing-drop-everything-right-now-and-listen-or-else, but good. and for sil that's good enough for me. approached last night by bassist nate flynn we were asked if we wanted to buy an ep for just $3 to help them out. sam gave in and i didn't mind because i'm all for helping bands out and supporting music, but i didn't think i'd really be listening to the album much to be honest. sam and i tested it out this morning on our drive to school and decided it's not like we wasted money. frontman pat brown has a voice that you'll enjoy listening to - a nice little break from all the whiney poppy boys out there at the moment. the ep reminded me of a mixture of motion city soundtrack (ironic because it was produced by mcs's josh cain) and mayday parade/all time low...or at least something along the lines of the last two, which isn't hard to find nowadays. they're fun to dance and sing along to. plus, i can say i'd listen to "i've got a feeling" over and over.

I have failed you bloggers

I can't believe I'm just now getting to this album... I'd like to blame it on school, or whatever else I like to blame things on, but this time I just dropped the ball, I should have owned and informed you of this album months ago. (As an aside, I've got a list of artists, and some ideas in my head for the near future, but it really is the last two weeks of school, and I don't have time for this!)

Thao Nguyen. She's awesome.

I could stop this post right there. One of my favorite memories is seeing Thao open for Laura Veirs in Berlin, Germany. It was just one of those things that sticks in your brain. I loved it, maybe I was happy to hear english speaking musicians, or music that was not rock-rap (the song butterfly by that awful band whose name I can't even think of was still being played on MTV in 2006!), either way I dug. So I'm totally biased, but...

In January Thao released a new album (with a full band) called "We Brave Bee Stings and All". For those of you who are already fans, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised and pleased with the new album, it's pretty much exactly what I would have guessed Thao with a full band would sound like. Happy, yet laid back, but sometimes totally upbeat music that just makes me want to eat straw, black, ras, blue, or some kind of berry and sit in the sun. Eat me!

OK, I may be losing my mind.

Just go check out Thao Nguyen and the Get Down Stay Down.

more kids blowing up...

so there's a kid in my guest bedroom...goes by the name of a rocket to the moon. pretty good solo project stuff. it's more evidence that the kids are taking over (see: the maine, brighten, sing it loud etc.). which isn't a bad thing, it just seems to be happening SO fast. i sort of thought that the cute is what we aim for thing would die off relatively fast, but they seem to have created a demand for indie-pop that is spreading instead of dying off.

which begs the question: just how long until we see radio and tv scoop up this new sub-genre? sure you'll catch the occasional video late at night on fuse, but does indie-pop have enough momentum (or label support really) to create such a demand and then fill it? seems like the labels are working hard to secure their indie-pop artists (sing it loud just signed to epitaph and the maine to fearless). which begs the even juicier question: when will brighten sign with someone?

i'm pretty much rambling here, but it's been a week since any of us have posted and i'm kinda embarrassed.

either way, a rocket to the moon plays the songs you want to hear at the cafe on thursday with brighten, sing it loud, allred, this is anfield and jackie campbell. tickets are still available online at www.24tix.com ($7) or at the door ($10).

the future of rock???

so first off, i like the maine's music. it's undeniably catchy and almost too good at it. they even played the cafe last fall.

but: how are they blowing up SO fast? are they that much better than bands that are at their same level? as i'm writing this, it's 10:30 in the morning and they already have 3,387 plays today on their myspace (true, 15 of them are me...TOO catchy!). will their rise continue or will they fade out by the end of warped tour? are they 2008's version of cute is what we aim for?

leave some comments and you tell me. honestly this one's a mystery to me.

(insert clever comment here about how young and silly this photo is).

bands from nashville that are actually good

paper rival played the cafe wednesday night. i'm not going to charm you with fancy words and write a proper review, i'm just going to say that if you're a fan of anything in the ballpark of as tall as lions, colour revolt, brand new or the new frontiers then you should check paper rival out. their ep is solid, their live show is great and they have a full length due out in june.

so there you go, i'll save you the absolutely ridiculous similes (this blog is as stylistically weak as a 7th grader climbing the rope in gym class) and just throw you the heads up: paper rival is for real and they're going to be a household name (a really artsy household that likes music).

and in case you're not convinced by my sub-par blogging, i'll just mention that they were formerly known as keating and sold quite a few records as such and they're also one of ap's top someone's of 2008 (okay seriously, every ap i see has a list of a hundred someone's that will do something sometime soon). so yeah, paper rival is one of those.

catch paper rival at the cafe on sunday, may 25th with nightmare of you, the graduate and edison glass.

we're so funny.

the 2008 ap tour stopped by in salt lake last night at the avalon and brought a diverse show with it. starting off the show was forever the sickest kids but, we were less than impressed. they were nothing we haven't heard before. the whole performance looked so planned and came off as a band that is trying too hard: frontman jonathan cook swinging his mic (as if we haven't seen this before) and keyboardist kent garrison doing some half handstands on his keyboard followed by sexual stares into the crowd (not so sexy). we were happy when they finished. up next was former from first to last frontman sonny - say that ten times fast. there's definitely no denying he's talented and can a hold a note. we feel that he was better in fftl but, we applaud the chance sonny has taken with this solo project. we also decided that everyone playing on that stage with sonny was very talented but, when it was all put together something was off. despite that they all had very good stage presence and sonny, especially, looked like he was having a lot of fun - which we like. also, sonny is a wizard and can get from the stage to the middle of the crowd in about .2 seconds...without anybody seeing, or at least me and keni. third up was our first big excitment for the night.....the matches. to put it simply they kicked ass and the only problem we had during their set was the kids next to us. they walked on stage stylish and ready to rock. they were full of energy and sounded as fantastic as ever. to have a voice like frontman shawn harris' and sound as pulled together as they did is a really big deal. their music is a mixture of dance and punk beats and "they brought it. the end. kiss my biast ass. love sam. just kidding. but seriously," sam verbalizes. "so moving on," utters keni. all time low took the stage next and they began with a humorous PSA about the vulgarity of the language that might be included in their set. this proved to be somewhat true but their dirty mouths also produced some good songs such as "coffee shop soundtrack" and "six feet under the stars". all in all they know how to entertain ;). finally, after 5,000 hours, the rocket summer was up. bryce avary came out with much vivacity and a smile already on that seemed to set the upbeat mood of the rest of the night. starting off with "break it out" and ending with "colors" there was no room for disappointment.

love,
sami and keni.