W♥M Updates (July 2009): Sydney Wayser, Nebraska Pop Fest, Buraka Som Sistema

The Beat Coffee House ♥ flyer Sydney Wayser - Place De La Bastille Sydney Wayser 1 comment

I went to bed with a headache, and woke up in a worst state. There's no doubt about it, I am old.

My pending list is growing larger, it seriously does not matter how many I review, 10 more will always show up to replace the one album I review. While I will just add music to the list if we get it sent to us, for those inquiring about an address, I will politely discourage them from sending music in. I'm not trying to brag, it is just the state of things: too many bands, too little time.

So to take it easy, I've compiled a few newsworthy items:

SYDNEY WAYSER IN MINNEAPOLIS
I will be attending the Beat Coffee House, this Thursday. I've been to the Beat before, this is quite a tiny cafe and the sit-down atmosphere will guarantee a quiet evening.

Here are is the lineup:

Thursday July 16th @ The Beat Coffee House (All Ages) $7
5:30-6:00 Aria Souder
6:15-7:00 The Dirty Darlings
7:00-7:45 Holly Newsom (Zoo Animal)
8:00-8:45 Sydney Wayser (NYC)
9:00-10pm Bella Koshka

We've mentioned Sydney Wayser before, she just released a second album called The Colorful and will also be performing at The Music Box Theater on Friday, July 17^th.

Nebraska Pop Festival ♥ flyer Mammoth Life - Convoluted I Mammoth Life

THE NEBRASKA POP FESTIVAL The Nebraska Pop Festival is happening August 27^th to 30^th, all proceeds (tickets are reasonably priced, ranges from $5 to $10, or $25 for all four days) will benefit the University of Nebraska college radio station Mavradio. Looking at the indiepop bands on their lineup, they seem really hardcore indie. It's so indie that I honestly haven't heard of any of these bands. And that may be the problem, I feel like I'm not hip enough to attend (also the fact that I don't live near Nebraska). Well for about $1 per band (24 total bands), that is not a bad price to check them out. And who knows? Maybe you'll discover something new.

Here is the lineup:

Thursday August 27th @ Barley Street Tavern

Start time 7:00PM with end time at 1:00AM (This show is 5 USD at the door)

1. The Argyle Wishlist (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) 
2. The Sleepover (Lincoln, Nebraska) 
3. Magic Crayon (United Kingdom)
4. Honey and Darling (Omaha, Nebraska)
5. The Tinycakes (Chicago, Illinois)
6. Pennyhawk (Ames, Iowa) 


Friday August 28th @ The Waiting Room.

Start time 7:00PM with end time at 1:00AM (ALL AGES SHOW)

1. Spiders For Love (Omaha, Nebraska) 
2. Transmittens (Lawrence, Kansas)

3. Mr. and Mrs. Muffins (Jakarta Indonesia & Seattle, Washington)

4. Talking Mountain (Omaha, Nebraska)
5. Poland (Seattle, Washington)
6. Strega (NYC, New York)

Saturday August 29th @ The Waiting Room.

Start time 7:00PM with end time at 1:00AM (ALL AGES SHOW)

1. Electric Needle Room (Omaha, Nebraska)
2. Jam on Bread (Manchester, United Kingdom)

3. Labrador w/ special guest Dereck Higgins on bass(Copenhagen, Denmark)
4. Mammoth Life (Lawrence Kansas)
5. Thunder Power (Omaha, Nebraska)
6. Cleemann w/ special guest Dereck Higgins on bass (Copenhagen, Denmark)


Sunday August 30th @ The Waiting Room.

Start time 7:00PM with end time at 1:00AM (ALL AGES SHOW)

1. Sweet Pea (Omaha, Nebraska)
2. Probably My Son (Dallas, Texas)
3. Cowboy Indian Bear (Lawrence, Kansas)
4. At Land (Omaha, Nebraska)
5. The Mother Z's (Chicago, Illinois)
6. Darren Keen (Omaha, Nebraska)

Thankfully, I did listen to the mixtape that Matt Beat sent me, and the bands seems to lean towards sugary sweet indiepop. The few bands that I liked right away are Labrador, Transmittens, and Mammoth Life. For more information, you can email NebraskaPopFestival.at.gmail or myspace.

FREE BLOOD DIAMOND MIXTAPE
I got a chance to listen to the nicely clubby Blood Diamond Mixtape from Buraka Som Sistema (available as a free download on July 13^th via buraka.tv). The album was conceived and mixed by J-WOW.

I only listened to it once, but it's very thumpy. There's a lot of movie dialogue mixed in the songs, I'm not sure which movies they were taken from, but I think some may have came from the "Blood Diamond" movie that the album's name is taken from. Lots of Afrikana/world music with dance beats, but I was a little surprise to see Lykke Li being thrown in the mix "Dance Dance Dance (BSS Mix)".

Good stuff - and it's free. This is a great promotional for their debut LP, Black Diamond (available on Fabric records in April 2009). So check it out.

Special thanks to World's Fair.

NEWSBRIEFS
Mill City Live is a series of "rock the museum" every Thursday in July and August. Prices are reasonable (the cost of getting into the museum at $5 for none members - members automatically get in for free) and there's catering. The bands on the music series ranges from shoegazing (Gospel Gossip), to bluegrass (Caroline Smith), to salsa orchestra (Charanga Tropical), to "neo-psychedelic" ( First Communion Afterparty), to blues (Butanes).

Since it's museum, expect the atmosphere to be low-key and quiet.... less the paintings starts falling off from the reverb. More details at Mill City Museum.

Put it On is a brand new website catering to fashion designers, artists, musicians, and filmmakers. I quickly look over the music section and it just looks like a mess. I suppose I just need some direction, you know? What bands are good ? I didn't recognize any of the bands on there, so don't bother searching for Lilly Allen or whoever is hot right now.

I randomly found a Spanish band from the Dominican Republic called Xtrema Causa and downloaded one of their song as a test: it was free and it was very quick. Unfortunately, the brief biography and lack of additional links, videos, and (large) pictures, kind of made the website useless for me. I ended up looking up their myspace for more info.

Well, the website is new, so there's potential, if you think I'm being harsh, check out the website for yourself: putiton.com.

Playboy begins their Uncovered series. As a cover lover, I will be checking in from time to time to see Nina "Cardigans" Persson's A Camp doing "Pyscho" (Leon Payne), Murray "Dears" Lightburn doing "Doctor Blind" (Emily Haines), and Patterson "Drive-by Truckers" Hood doing "Range War" (Todd Rundgren). The series appears on playboy every second Tuesday of each month and limited to just 10 months. Kicking it all off is Dinosaur Jr doing the Cure's "Just Like Heaven".

Their version is acoustic and J Mascis seems to know all the words by heart. The band just released their 9^th album Farm, check out their cover at playboy.com/uncovered.

So, if someone asks you why you read playboy, you can tell them it's for the articles and the music.