Anais Mitchell or I'm reclaiming my street cred

It's really too bad I didn't write this post a couple months ago. If I had I could have alerted you to the fact that Anais Mitchell was about to head out for a European tour, and then tour for a few weeks across the states. As it stands now, it looks like she is just finishing her US tour with a few shows in the northeast, and then only popping up to play here and there afterwards. I'm always telling you guys that you can't live in the past though, we've got to move on with our lives. Right? Don't I always say that?

So, I'll just provide you with a link to a GREAT Anais MItchell song, and a link to her myspace, and highly recommend her to you. I was recently fortunate enough to catch her show in Austin, TX and it definitely left me wanting more. Her music is unique, passionate, and just downright really nice to listen to. She completely stole the show in Austin, and I really think that we'll see big things from her in the future. There is one little issue about working on a "folk opera", which I commend her for going after, but as soon as she gets that out of her system I'll look forward to another album to follow up 2007's "the brightness".

Anyway, as I always do, I'll leave you with a video... Watch it.

Utah Arts Festival opening night review

Last night I made it out to the arts festival and had a great time. I was only there for a couple hours, so by no means is this a review of the entire event, or even of the entire night seeing as I had to take off a little premature, but you'll take what I give you ;)

Artists:
I was incredibly impressed with local artists Iosua & Andrienne Taeoalii, coming from Murray, UT. They had some really great spray paint picture of various popular icons, both modern and historical. I'm certainly not an art critic, so forgive me if I sound green, but their stuff was really great. It really wasn't all that expensive, their pieces sold for $65, and if I had and extra $65 that I didn't have to spend on gas I totally would have picked up a spray painted picture of Che Gueverra.

Runner up, the guy that made this stuff. Sorry whoever you are, I forgot your name, but I remember your website to buy your stuff, so that has to count for something.

Music:
Usually when I'm watching a band and the 60's generation, who are now well in to their 50's, start doing there woodstock dancing I realize it's time to leave. Last night was different. Janiva Magness rocked my world. I know this is probably going to ruin my street cred completely, but I can't sit here and just lie to myself! I won't do it! She's a blues singer, and her band just did there thing last night. Everyone was dancing on the grass, kissing loved ones, drinking goats milk (I know weird right?), and just having a good time. By far the musical high light of the night.

I was really disappointed in Kid Madusa just cause I think Linsday Heath is awesome, and usually I really like the music that she makes. This time I didn't even want to stick around and finish listening to the set... sad.

yes i did always wonder what eminem and regina spektor sounded like together

go buy girl talk's feed the animal's tonight. it's real good. nice review.

sorry...it's a must have for anyone the likes flosstradamus and stuff like that. gregg gillis takes about 200 different samples and somehow mixes them all together into one seamless piece of music. and he's good at it, but he doesn't take himself too seriously. for example: he throw m.i.a. over the old cranberries song. he also throws in the likes of metallica, ac/dc, queen, dexys midnight runners, ll cool j, salt n pepa, of montreal, sting, beastie boys, and well, you get the idea. you'll catch yourself smiling as you listen to this cd because it's funny to hear eminem layered over regina spektor.

girltalk is doing a download it at your own price a la radiohead's in rainbows. i'll save you a google and tell you to click here. if you buy it for more than $5 you get some cool stuff and if you spend more than $10 you get even more stuff. i seriously think this is the new face of the music industry, but that's another post for another day (or month the way i've been posting!).

and as always, thanks to lindsay for the heads up.

How many of you subscribe to the interface?

It's a free video podcast that you can subscribe to on itunes. I have to give credit to my friend Kate for telling me about it a couple of months ago, and I have no excuse for only writing about it now. Sorry. If you don't want to go the itunes route you can also check out spinner.com to find it.

Anywho, their latest podcast was from Britain's own Jamie Lidell, and I loved it. Totally worth the free download, and minutes of my time... and I figured if there was ever a time for you bloggers to jump on the podcast bandwagon, now would be it.

They usually have great artists perform, I'd say about 90% of the time, and a new one comes out about every week. Go ahead and subscribe, cause it's free, and a no brainer, and you love to do things that I tell you to do... Don't lie to me, I know you do.

Here's a video...

alright, here is something you can dig

How many of you are all encompassingly getting down with this British soul revival thing going on? I know you are, or else Amy Winehouse wouldn't be in the news every single day of my life...

Eli "Paperboy" Reed is a new artist putting out some soul vibes, and of course I'm enjoying it, or I wouldn't be telling you about it. His myspace says he's from Massachetts, but looks he's taking advantage of the british thing as he's about to take off for a European tour. He just released an album in April, and with the help of modern technology and Al Gore, you can purchase it online!

He's got a style that reminds me of upbeat Otis Redding songs, although it would be unfair to compare the two any further. For those of you who enjoy listening to a more pure 50's and 60's soul sound you'll enjoy Reed, if you prefer the more modern stuff that people like Mark Ronson is doing to soul these days it might not necessarily be your thing. Give him a chance either way, it's easy to listen to, dance to, cry to, make eggs to, write blogs to, stare blankly at the wall because you didn't sleep very much to, create run on sentences to, and other things.

At the very least, here's a video:

Comments have been changed!

I just changed the settings on our comments. Now you won't have to wait until we approve the comment after you write one, we've given in to the American need for instant gratification (I'll also not be bothered with an e-mail every time one of you leaves a message anymore, which makes me incredibly happy).



See.

Also, just to make this post more relevant, I've been listening to Spiritualized a lot lately. They just released a new album on May 27th. Check it out.

just bought my sigur ros tickets

who else is going?

an explanation

the cafe is taking july and august off. thankfully we have the freedom to do so and we're not in this for the money (cause there is none!). there are several good reasons, here goes:

1. all of you are spending your money on big festivals and tours. and who can blame you? salt lake is fortunate to get some great summer concerts.

2. we're an all ages venue and kids are out for the summer. we didn't do well last summer on shows (i think the showbread show was the only one we broke even on). we rely heavily on word of mouth and without kids in high school and college in session, there is no word of mouth.

3. it's hot. last summer we had two swamp coolers and fans and the heat of the cafe was almost unbearable. this year the swamp coolers have been torn out (they pooped out) so it will only be warmer.

4. there isn't a high quality of touring bands coming through. no offense to any touring band we've turned down, but it just is a lull in the concert season in salt lake (spring and fall are great though).

so there you go. add to that lawrence and i will be in africa and the middle east for about two weeks in the middle of july and august and we wouldn't be able to do any shows during that time or the week before and after. we don't do shows to make money so it's okay by our goals to take a breather from it.

one thing i'm really excited about is coming back in september with a full roster of shows with all the great local bands we love working with (we're hoping for more atherton shows in the fall!). with no one playing the cafe over the summer, we hope that everyone will be excited to get back onto our humble stage.

have a great summer, catch us tomorrow or next friday at our last two shows and always feel free to myspace us. we'll keep up the blog as much as we can.

and as long as i'm at it, sorry we don't serve drinks. i promise it's not just to make you angry. the espresso machine doesn't work (it's pricey to replace it) and all of those supplies are remnants from when the cafe was in full swing. and yes, i know, we could be making money by doing so!

who is the tallest man on earth?

If you said that guy from Asia, technically you're correct. However, there is a new 'correct' answer to that question now.

The tallest man on earth is also a singer songwriter from Sweden who has taken over my ipod for most of this past month. Simply put, it's unique, but still very ear friendly. I love it. He sounds a lot like Dylan, which I know is a bold statement, but true. It's great summer "let's go camping" music.



You can listen to the whole album, titled shallow grave, on his website. Check it out.

faster than myspace

yeah hate to say it, but this blog's been talking about kate nash since last fall. today she's one of the featured artists on myspace. so there you go: read our blog and every once in a while we'll give you a heads up from across the pond. i think tim gets full credit for this one.

i was gonna put in a kate nash picture, but myspace has had an unknown error. that's hilarious and well timed.

the whitest boy alive's favorite band

i'm not sure how i came across rubies' myspace page, but it's been about 5 days & i still haven't closed the browser window or stopped listening to the tracks over & over. the fact that it is the whitest boy alive's self proclaimed favorite band (they are on tour together) says a lot about their music. it is mellow, danceable, disco folk & it's pure goodness. rubies is lead by Simone Rubi & Terri Loewenthal & you can read more about their story here. here's the video for "i feel electric" i don't love it but the music is good.

tax dollars

it's rare when i feel like my taxes went to something that actually affects me. today though, i saw my tax dollars hard at work. these are the cd's i checked out from the sandy library:

architecture in helsinki - places like this
bright eyes - cassadaga
mos def - true magic
ladytron - witching hour
talib kweli - reflection eternal
sea wolf - get it to the river before it runs too low
lyric's born - every where at once
deerhoof - the runner's four
black mountain - in the future
t bone burnett - tooth of crime

my tax dollars hard at work. and someone sent me the new showbread cd. so that's a bonus.

BSS

Get ready for a new Broken Social Scene album due this summer. They just can't be stopped.

This go around will be the second in the "Broken Social Scene Presents" concept, this time Brendan Canning is taking the wheel. It'll make their appearance at the summer twilight series that much better.

I will sleep now.

"you and me we're not so different..."

paper rival's full length dialog is out now, but itunes is still the best place to get it. like too many good indie bands, their cd is hard to find (slowtrain: do you have it?). their myspace says that some best buy stores have it (i don't understand what wea distribution means if you still have to call around to best buys to find out if they have it).

at this point i should go ahead and dive full length into the label problem. photo finish excitedly signed pr several years ago, eager to put money into their music. since then, they've signed non-indie bands 3oh!3 (white boy gansta rap from colorado), envy on the coast and danger radio. this type of scattered signing doesn't help a band like paper rival. they've already missed out on some opportunities from legitimate indie media simply because it was assumed they were pop-passe.

also since their signing, paper rival has written and recorded a brilliantly overcast and gloomy indie record that still has momentum, hooks and strong vocals (no whiny emo vocals here). evocative songs like bluebird and the family ghost haunt the listener without losing their marketplace appeal.


i know it's only half way through the year, but right now i'm putting dialog in my top 5 for 2008 (sorry foxboro hot tubs). i know you're likely as broke as i am, but this is an album worth $9.99. think of it this way: that's only two gallons of gas!