21 posts tagged “california”
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Here's a quicky, just because there are some news & notes. Since, you may have noticed, I like doing these theme posts, this theme are one-song submissions.
They are very easy to write about (hey, it's just three minutes of your life!) but because they're based on one song, there's really not much I can write about.
First up, if you have a need to get all the latest music news, check out our announcement page. It's updated nearly every few hours, so news junkies will love this.
Some interesting news to note: watch DIG for free, Skybombers Announces new US Tour Dates, download Jeff Hanson music, and if you're in New York - you guys are so lucky. You could be attending Spiegelworld Festival!
That's just a few items from the nearly 100 post I've made since its birth a few days ago!
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LOQUAT
loquatmusic.com ♥ myspace.com
I actually really love San Francisco's Loquat, so imagine my surprise to find that I have an advance copy of their brand new album, Secrets of the Sea - which is not out until the third quarter of this year. I'm probably not even supposed to talk about it until October, but what I can tell you is that it's very, very good. Just keep your eyes here, or site.w♥m for the latest news. Since I can't unveil any music from the new album, I will tell you that I first discovered her a few years ago when Loquat covered The Smiths' classic "There is a Light That Never Goes Out". Since I was already a huge Morrissey/Smiths fan, it's easy to fall in love with her version... which is a safe and very faithful cover. You can download the song from their flash official website.
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THERESA ANDERSSON
theresaandersson.com ♥ myspace.com
Since I am in love with all-things Swedish, here's a handsome girl called Theresa Andersson. Looking over her press release about her tour dates and the dazzling 700k youtube views. The weird thing is that the press release doesn't indicate any link to the actual video, but if you were curious, it is her playing in her kitchen (in New Orleans?). I was given one of her song, "Birds Fly Away", from her upcoming album Hummingbird, Go! (is that a nod to Thunderbirds Are Go!?) on September 2nd, and I thought it was very 60s pop girl-sounding, but with weird percussion instruments. I was happy to see that Mr Tobias Fröberg is producing her album.
Trust me, this is a girl worth keeping an eye on. |
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THE DARES
thedares.com ♥ myspace.com
Speaking of keeping an eye... Here's The Dares, an up-and-coming power pop trio from California, by the way of Vermont. Maybe I'm just old, but usually this kind of high-energy, on the verge of punk, type of music really isn't my cup of tea. However, I would have to admit this "Love Me When I Leave" is pretty catchy. It's very short, I had to re-play it a few more time to hear how well produced it is. They're currently signed to Zomba Recordings, which is a division of Sony/BMG, so expect a push from them on popular radio this Summer. Even if they don't do much this year, youth is on their side, I'm sure you'll hear from them next year. |
THE SPACE BETWEEN THINGS
myspace.com/thespacebetweenthings
After three version of his "Towels" song, Chris Hobson, aka The Space Between Things finally settled for his perfect version of "Towels". The irony would be if I f-ed up and uploaded the wrong version :/ I'm not given a whole lot to work with here, just one song and no biography. Instead, he directs me to an interview he did at Daydream Generation, which showcase the awesomely snowy Toronto (which means, shock, he's Canadian). Daydream must really like him, as he's also on their Daydream Generation 5 free compilation (over 300mb of music!) So happy downloading and let me know what you think of his song? |
Links:
weheartmusic.com
So the two albums out of the pile I want to talk about today are the prog albums! Hence, the name of this article! Vu sent me The Atomized Dream by Statesboro, Georgia's Canvas Solaris (the way less metal one) and Dark Deceiver by Pleasanton, California's Zero Hour (the way more metal one) to cover. Both have really different sounds, but both kind of fall into a “prog” sort of thing, although in totally different ways. So hey! Even though they'll definitely appeal to different kinds of music fans, I figure that's enough excuse to just talk about both bands in one post!
The first band I want to talk about is Canvas Solaris. These guys remind me of The Fucking Champs, but more technical and less jokey. Apparently at some point in time, these guys were a death metal band. Now they're just strange and awesome prog rock without vocals. The first track, “The Binaural Beat,” focuses on sort of Mega Man-esque electronics with guitars providing a nice flourish to them. The musicianship is awesome, but with an excellent sense of restraint. The second track, “Reflections Carried to the Mirror” has more of a metal vibe to it, but in that really “prog” sort of way, where it sounds like the background music to an awesome 80's video game played through the best sound card money can buy. I love this sort of thing. The breakdown has a really cool vibe to it that I can't quite describe. “Chromatic Dusk” has cool, syncopated percussion and an almost-dance guitar riff going on. The keyboard tone reminds me a little bit of early Boards of Canada. “Patterns Spiral Into Swarm” starts out just sounding like a Fucking Champs song, but then breaks down repeatedly with weird synth parts played over a combination of what sounds like both live and programmed drums. “Heat Distortion Manifest,” on the other hand, just throws ambient synth parts right out there from nearly the beginning with the guitar breaking them up. Eventually it builds up into an awesome divebombing guitar thing. Then halfway through, it breaks down again into ambient territory before not even bothering to really build up, so much as just instantly switch gears in that cool way that only a really tight band can pull off. “Photovoltaic” is one of the longer songs on the album. It starts off with a kinda chilled out acoustic guitar/piano/drums thing and then almost dead on, halfway through the song, the distortion kicks in and it gets louder. The flanger effect is pretty cool, as is that cool fast bass riff in there. The last couple minutes are more straightforward, with plenty of weird rhythms, but also a lot of that “I'm playing Mega Man!” vibe. The next track, “Solar Droid,” is all about the glitchy rhythms and crazy guitar work, sort of in the vein of early Dillinger Escape Plan, in that there's not a lot of obvious repetition. The last track is the longest. “The Unknowable and Defeating Glow” starts off with what sounds like hand drums and an electric guitar playing a repetitive lead bit while the synth builds up under it. This track is pretty much what the rest of the album seems to have been building up to. It's epic as hell, with lots of cool synth effects, glitchy rhythms, and progressively louder and longer chaotic bits breaking them up. This track is awesome.
Unfortunately,
it doesn't look like these guys are on tour. But I would definitely
recommend checking them out if you're into things like Dillinger
Escape Plan, The Fucking Champs, Mr. Bungle, or things along those
lines. You can also go check out the samples on their MySpace page.
Secondly, Dark Deceiver. Based on the cover art, I didn't really think I'd be into this at all, and even though it's really not the kind of thing I'm really into, I have to give these guys props for the sheer technicality of this thing. This is a good thing. This is on the heavier end of prog-metal, with lots of distortion, thrashy but complex riffing, and a vocalist that reminds me a lot of Dio when he lets it fly. This guy's range is actually pretty awesome. The drumming is really heavy on double bass. Really, half or more of this album probably has fast double-bass going under it. The first track, “Power to Believe,” alone has more time changes and guitar solos than some entire albums. But, of course, it's prog-metal, so that just kind of comes with the territory. The title track, “Dark Deceiver” has some really “prog” vocals going on. Most listeners will either find them hilarious, or be able to at least appreciate the technicality of them. I don't know how much in-between there is for something like this. The guitar on this song is just insane shred. These guys definitely have their technical skills down, and this album seems to be all about them. The next track, “Inner Spirit” takes a good two minutes for the vocals to come in, but it's a twelve minute song, so that's kind of excusable. It kind of has a De-Loused in the Comatorium vibe in a few places. After that are a couple shorter tracks. A welcome breather. This album is pretty well sequenced. “Resurrection” is a kind of slowed down track. It's still pretty damn fast, but for this album, it's a “slow” track. The guitar riffs are cool, and kind of snake around each other in an oddly enthralling way. “Tendonitis” is also pretty short, and I'd assume named after the consequences of recording this thing. It's also got a silly-ass little sample at the beginning and end that makes me thankful these guys aren't taking themselves too seriously. “The Temple Within,” at this point, is the longest track left on the album. It's full of strange tempos that would probably make most bands' heads spin. Kind of like the whole album, really, but they're particularly strange here. “Lies is a shorter track. It's more straightforward than most of the other stuff here. Definitely not one of the album's stronger tracks. “The Passion of Words” makes up for it, though, with more of that rhythmic complexity that makes this band so cool. The last track, “Severed Angel,” opens with a quiet ambient noise bit that builds up with blast beats getting progressively louder before everything else comes in and just kinda starts playing along with it. It's the second shortest track on the album, and to be honest, it doesn't really go anywhere. It just keeps doing that for two and a half minutes, before going into something that sounds like an intro, and then back into blastbeats. An odd ending for the album, for sure.
Anyway, the album is out now, and these guys have a couple live shows coming up. On July 12th, they're playing the South Texas Metal Fest. Then in October, they're heading to Baarlo, Netherlands for Prog Power Europe on the 4th, and they're playing shows on October 31st and November 1st in Copenhagen at the Rock for Prog Power Scandinavia. If you like your music fast, heavy, and technical, these guys might be up your alley. And, of course, they have a MySpace page you can check out.
-Soup
 Hellapop Festival (May 24th) ♥ Bands: The Definite Articles, Teamawesome!, iji, Tinkture, Hey Three Eyes, The Creepy Crawlies, James Rabbit, Charlie Don’t Surf!, The Paper Orchestra, The Panduhs, Old Hack, Tippy the Vegan, Music from Anteria |
Okay, so I've never been an avid calendar user (too much work!), but lately I've been organizing myself with W♥M Calendar so I know which concert dates to attend and what CDs are being release when. Since I also use Outlook for calendaring, Google does offer Calendar Sync which seamlessly sync both outlook and W♥M calendar (so I can manage offline or online).
I believe the calendar is shared among all the weheartmusic.com users by default (but you can set it to private or "friends only"), so, anyroad, I know someone will be attending Hellapop Festival (May 24). This looks really fun, and I would be there too if I lived in California.
I thought I'd mention two bands doing this festival that I thought looked interesting.
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Tinkture looks like a group of very young ladies, into DIY punk, possibly Riot. I thought "Pyrotechnics" is a very fast and feels very garagey. The vocals has a southern sound to it too. I generally like these DIY punk, as you've probably figured from my various punk articles.
I couldn't help but think of Supergrass's "Alright" when I heard "Farther Away" by Shadow Puppet Theatre. These guys looks very hip and are snappy dressers on top of that. Plus, they seem like they would hang out at all night cafes. They are from Modesto, and consists of singer/guitarist, Adam Bishop, and upright bassist, Jessica Jones.
These are only two of the many, many bands that's attending the Hellapop Festival, so be sure to check them out. That Team Awesome sounds pretty fun, as well as Charlie Don't Surf (which may have stolen their title from Apocalypse Now, but they seem too young to actually have seen that movie - so I vote for Veronica Mars).
Links: myspace.com/popsongromance
www.tinkture.com
myspace.com/shadowpuppettheatre
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So I got this announcement that Rob Dickinson is re-releasing Fresh Wine For Horses a second time. This version will include Nude EP as a bonus second disc.
Now, bands repackaging albums as deluxe or special editions are more commonplace, but they generally fall under a limited time frame, like perhaps an anniversary mark at five or ten years. Dickinson's original release for Fresh Wine For Horses was three years ago, a pretty odd number, but I guess he felt the time is right for another college try and planning on releasing the 2-disc set on June 10th.
The press release said that "End Of The World": "lifts shamelessly from the soundtrack to the British cult movie Withnail & I", a movie I have on Criterion DVD... Which I have to rewatch sometime. But listening to it, is it me, does the intro sounds a little bit like Laura Branigan's "Self Control"?
I have been meaning to do a write up on Catherine Wheel since W♥M started, but I felt that I'm not an expert when it comes to this band because I was so unfamiliar with their large body of work. I even had a massive Catherine Wheel fan make me compilation of their "best of" songs, but have failed to really get into it. I didn't dislike it, but I wasn't really into it, you know?
What I can tell you that I first came across this band with an edited version of "Black Metallic" from MTV's 120 Minutes. This was at a time when they were grouped (unfairly, I might add) with the shoegazing 4AD-type sound at the time.
After gaining a somewhat massive attention from the States with "Black Metallic" and "I Want to Touch You", I was fortunately enough to catch them on tour early in their career. The thing I remembered from this concert was the tiny elongated venue, the now-defunct Cadillac Club, in Fresno, California. They also made use of a smoke machine, which looked pretty awesome with lights. They also did an extra long 15 minute rendition of "Black Metallic", which I believe was the last song of the encore.
Although I wouldn't call myself a huge fan, I did like them enough to pick up Happy Days and Wishville on Yahoo Auction for about the cost of shipping, adding to my random collection of Catherine Wheel singles and promos.
Trivia: I just found out that Rob Dickinson's cousin is Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of Iron Maiden! Both Iron Maiden and Catherine Wheel are medieval torture devices.
Links:
myspace.com/robdickinson
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I was once watching Henry Rollins talk about meeting William Shatner for the recording of “I Can't Get Behind That” from his album, Has Been. In the story, he recalls the Shat asking him, “Henry, do you hear a guitar?”
His reply: “No, but I hear a high pitched whine in my right ear since 1982.”
This quote kept replaying itself in my head as I watched The Sword and Slough Feg destroy the Neurolux in a way that would make Slayer proud, and now I'm hearing it loud and clear despite the high-pitched whine in my own right ear. While Children dropping off the bill was rather disappointing, it gave the other bands much longer sets to work with, making the $10 cover more than worth it. Both bands played for roughly an hour, and didn't let up for a second.
San Franciso's Slough Feg (formerly The Lord Weird Slough Feg) is a band that started life in 1990 in Pennsylvania. Their sound is a more traditional, hard rock style of metal with a doomy edge. Vocalist/guitarist Mike Scalzi spent as much time standing on the floor monitors as he did standing on the stage and the band ripped through their set with more energy than most bands half their age. Between songs, Mike asked trivia questions and threw records to the people who answered them correctly. He also seemed to be all about posing for pictures whenever he saw a camera. The band sounded tight, and were a lot of fun. Definitely worth catching on their own.
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But the crowd didn't really start going nuts until The Sword went on. The Sword is a much younger band, formed in Austin, Texas in 2003. Their sound is more on the “thrash” end of doom metal, with riffing reminiscent of early Metallica, guitar solos worthy of the same, and enough sludgy breakdowns to keep any doom junkie nice and happy. They didn't have quite the stage presence of Slough Feg, but they made up for it with sheer intensity and speed. The band was in excellent form, with top notch guitar heroics taking the center stage. The drunken crowd ate it up. I ate it up sober. My neck is still sore from headbanging. These guys are one of the most important touring metal bands right now, and it's easy to see why. They can work a crowd effortlessly, and there are few bands at the same level of technical skill playing this kind of music right now. This band is going to be huge by the end of the year.
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Both
of these bands are still on tour. Unfortunately, Slough Feg will only
be playing with The Sword for two more shows, in Salt Lake and
Denver. The Sword is touring through July, including an east coast
tour with Torche and Stinking Lizaveta, and then a European tour with
Metallica! I can't emphasize enough that this band is about to be inconceivably huge,
so catch them in a tiny club while you still can!
Apr 26 : Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater w/ Slough Feg & Children
Apr 28 : Wichita, KS - BarleyCorns w/ Children & Black Gasoline
Apr 29 : Oklahoma City, OK - The Conservatory w/ Children & Those Peabody's
May 09 : Fort Worth, TX - Lola's w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 10 : Memphis, TN - Hi-tone w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 11 : Nashville, TN - Exit/In w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 12 : Covington, KY - The Mad Hatter w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 13 : Detroit, MI - The Magic Stick w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 14 : Columbus, OH - Ravari Room w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 15 : Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 16 : Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 17 : Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 18 : Boston, MA - Middle East Downstairs w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 20 : Raleigh, NC - Lincoln Theatre w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 21 : Savannah, GA - The Jinx w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 22 : Tallahassee, FL - The Beta Bar w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 23 : St. Petersburg, FL - State Theatre w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 24 : Orlando, FL - The Social w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 25 : Gainsville, FL - Common Grounds w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 26 : Atlanta, GA - Lenny's w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 27 : Birmingham, AL - The Bottle Tree w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 28 : Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
May 29 : Houston, TX - Rudyard's w/ Torche, Stinking Lizaveta
Jun 12 : Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Music Festival w/ Metallica & many more...
Jul 16 : Bergen, Norway - City of Bergen Festival w/ Metallica
Jul 18 : St. Petersburg, Russia - SKK Hall w/ Metallica
Jul 20 : Riga, Latvia - Skonto Stadium w/ Metallica
Jul 22 : Bologna, Italy - Parco Nord w/ Metallica
Jul 23 : Bucharest, Romania - Cotroceni Football Stadium w/ Metallica
Jul 25 : Sofia, Bulgaria - Levski Stadium w/ Metallica
Jul 27 : Istanbul, Turkey - Inonu Stadium w/ Metallica
More info:
-Soup
Here are some random album artwork that's sexually suggestive. We're not talking explicit or anything, just some eye-catching covers that I've noticed.
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The first album here is the 2005 self-titled debut album from French singer, Pauline Croze (paulinecroze.com). The cover shows (what looks like) a naked Croze, looking innocent with her doll-like eyes. She was twenty-five when they took that picture for her debut album, but the truth is she started writing and playing music when she was fourteen.
Last year, she released Un Bruit Qui Court, and seems to be more popular than ever.
Neon Neon (myspace.com/neonx2) has a rather suggestive and rude cover for his EP, Raquel. I don't really know much about him, apparently he's currently residing in Los Angeles, by the way of Wales?
This song, "Raquel", reminds me of early 80s new wave dance music, which I like... and apparently other people like him too as he's featured on the cover of last month's BPM Magazine.
Look closely at the cover to 2008's We're In the Music Biz by Robots In Disguise (robotsindisguise.co.uk) and you might be surprised. They're actually naked, with body paint. I guess they're more than meets the eye, huh?
If you got that joke, that's because they stole their name from Transformers[W♥M].
These two English girls reminds me of DIY punk DJs mixing some electronic music (but they also sing). They sound really fun, don't they?
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Speaking of looking closer, does the map of Make it Happen by Nizlopi (nizlopi.com) remind you of something else?
I think the cover is pretty clever actually, nothing too sexual, and at a quick glance, you wouldn't notice the woman's body.
Apparently there's only two members in this band: Luke Concannon and John Parker, two dudes from Leamington Spa in the UK. They got their name (Nizlopi) from Concannon's crush on a Hungarian girl.
While I Walk You Home features what looks like two people about to do the horizontal tango, but with the sunlight through the window, I would have to guess this is the morning after.
Despite the somewhat sleazy cover art (at least I think so), the music of Norway's Dylan Mondegreen (dylanmondegreen.com) is actually quite nice and folky.
Finally, we have a blatant booby cover of What's Wrong With You from New York's The Crayons (thecrayonsmusic.com).
I hope the tanned gorgeous babe on the cover sell some CDs, and as easy-on-the-eye as the cover, they're actually easy-on-the-ear as well.
Check out this song "God Hates Me".
So, this ends the first part on "Sex Sells". I hope to have a collection of "unintentional porn" in my next article. (Please send me some suggestions).
04/15/2008 00:05:20
vu
my♥posts
weheartmusic.com