11/30/2007 4:19:04 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Too carefree for sound quality?

In an attempt to keep up with the freeloading download-obsessed music fans of today, Universal has "leaked" Ashlee Simpson’s newest single, "Outta My Head," off her a- yet unnamed third studio album, which will come out sometime in March. "Outta My Head’s" official iTunes release is December 11; and apparently Universal thought they’d drum up some buzz (and hopefully erase that whole SNL thing from everyone’s memory) by "leaking" the song on AOL. We use quotes around "leaked" for two reasons. First, is it really leaking if the label goes ahead and gives the song to a major website? The second, most maddening reason is that, on a sound quality level, the song sounds kind of like someone was recording it in a basement with one of those handheld crappy digital recorders we use for interviews at Phoenix HQ. Or maybe it was our mom’s old Sony boom box, with the Cocktail soundtrack still in the tape deck. The volume inexplicably rises and falls, and the vocals sound fuzzy and crackly, and not in the experimental, Grizzly Bear-type way. We got about halfway through before we wanted to yank our sound-enhancing headphones off and throw them across the room. What. The. Fuck. We’re gonna go ahead and guess that it’s not that AOL and Universal couldn’t scrounge up the dough for a decent mastering of this track; rather, it seems the thinking here is that fans will endure the crappy version until December 11, then race to iTunes for the "high quality" version. This faulty logic exemplifies major label thinking as a whole, but beyond that, it’s an insult to the fans. Ok, maybe it’s not so far off from Radiohead’s grand, apparently not planned plan, but at least Radiohead gave us a steady volume level, minus any unintentional crackling, on the first version of In Rainbows. When will the major labels get it?

LISTEN: (If you can endure it) Ashlee Simpson, "Outta My Head"

UPDATE: The sound quality now seems slightly better. Maybe AOL tweaked it a bit and we should get off of our jump to conclusions mat?

11/30/2007 2:55:12 PM by Caitlin | Comments [2] |  

Paramore, "Crushcrushcrush" (Live in Boston, 11/24/2007)


Paramore, "Pressure" (Live in Boston, 11/24/2007)


Paramore, "Misery Business" (Live in Boston, 11/24/2007)

We were way late to the Paramore bandwagon, and only picked up on them a few weeks before Riot! hit stores this year, but for shit's sake, you knew we were gonna love this band: shamelessly pop, adorable teenage girl singer, and a hit song that bounds onto Top 40 radio despite being a) complicated, b) sung by a girl in a rock band who's not Avril Lavigne, and c) a song that casually smashes to smithereens a host of stereotypes about what nice girls are supposed to sing about. Emo's currency is misery, sure, but in "Misery Business" Hayley's selling pleasure: the guilty pleasure of stealing some douchebag's boyfriend, for one, but mainly it's about the sheer pleasure of singing for/about pleasure -- that "feeels soooooo gooooooooood" in the bridge might be 2007's most joyful moment on record.

We'd been lobbying our sister station WFNX to add "Misery Business" for months, never dreaming that they actually would -- in what we can only assume was a desperate bid to get OTD to quit badgering them about it already. Truth be told, we didn't care so much about hearing Paramore on the radio -- we just wanted to get them to come play one of FNX's secret shows and then film it. Which, unbelievably, is exactly what happened.

So: Everyone else in the office (except Mike Awesome, who pressed play on camera two) is embarassed by our love of this band. Fuck 'em. The kids are alright. One of the things we love about emo that everyone else seems to hate is that it keeps bringing better and better singers back to rock and roll from all the other places they can find work these days -- 20 years ago a girl with a voice like Hayley's wouldn't have been caught dead in a punk band, and 10 years ago she'd have been in, what, Dream or Sugababes or something. Don't get us wrong: this is a girl who can hold her own. She led singalongs like the all-ages-circuit pro she already is, took questions from the audience on the big topics (bananas or cheese? Michael Jackson or Mr. Rogers?), and from a few behind the scenes glimpses we're convinced that this girl is running her own shop: she's the one managing tempo problems and shushing the drummer, at least. Which is usually the boss's work, if we remember correctly.

WATCH: Paramore, Interview [video on YouTube or imeem]
DOWNLOAD: Paramore, CrushCrushCrush (Live in Boston 11/24/2007) [mp3]
DOWNLOAD: Paramore, Pressure (Live in Boston 11/24/2007) [mp3]
DOWNLOAD: Paramore, Misery Business (Live in Boston 11/24/2007) [mp3]

11/29/2007 6:09:56 PM by On the Download | Comments [1] |  

We still remember the innocent, pre-children days of 1997.

As we reported earlier, news from the best press release ever in our inbox this morning: Zac Hanson's having a baby! Zac (who's 22, the way) was the last childless member of the MMMBopping trio. Issac and Taylor have been popping them out since ye olden days of 2002. Shit, we're already 25, what have we been doing with ourselves? Time to get on the Hanson baby making train! From the press release:

"Zac Hanson, drummer for the rock group Hanson, and his wife Kate have announced they are expecting their first child in May. 'I am thrilled and excited at the thought of becoming a father.  I can’t wait to meet this person' said Zac.  While Kate added 'This is truly the most amazing and exciting time for us.  It’s the most romantic thing we’ve ever done.'
 
HANSON returns from Africa today immediately resuming their fall US tour on the 29th, where they will continue their efforts to support both TOMS shoes and HIVSA. Following the final 07 dates HANSON plan to resume touring in early 08.  Dates to be announced soon."

The Phoenix staff, of course, had some reactions to this monumental news - maybe the Hanson's press rep wants to throw 'em in the release? Here are a few:

"Disturbing."
-C. Carioli

"Wow, I thought you had to reach double digits before you could marry...."
-L. Gould

"I love their quotes, especially 'I can’t wait to meet this person.'”
-W. Spitz

"Yeah, the quotes are priceless. They’re just so... REAL."
-J. Parker

"Hey, where’s the love guys?"
-C. Curran

"They need a Disney Channel show."
-S. Steel

Cue witty response time in the comments section.

11/28/2007 2:36:10 PM by Caitlin | Comments [0] |  

1. Bad idea.

2. Disturbing.

3. There is a god.

11/28/2007 12:41:07 PM by On the Download | Comments [2] |  

If you're headed to M.I.A. at the Palladium tonight, get there early: Cool Kids have cancelled, but we're dying to see what C440R's monster party-rap duo have in store when they step in tonight as a last-minute opening act. Big Digits at the Palladium: who'da thunk it? For an idea of how much awesomeness is in store, check the video above to see what happened the last time someone offered TD and Mac Swell a nice big stage.

11/28/2007 12:06:17 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

DOWNLOAD: The Sprained Ankles, "Randy, The Rock and Roll Pizza Wolf" (mp3)

We can't tell you much about Randy that you couldn't glean from the song title: he loves AC/DC, he makes a really great pizza, and he turns into a werewolf when the moon is full. We can tell you even less about the Sprained Ankles, a recent and welcome addition to the pantheon of certifiably loony Boston garage-punk maniacs. They sound like a cross between monster-masher Bobby "Boris" Pickett and no-fi garage-rock pioneers the Mummies — i.e., big goofy voice, really shitty guitars, cheesy Farfisa-type organ, more fun per square inch than a happy-ending massage parlor. Grab the MP3 above, then make a beeline to the EP-release party for You Love the Sprained Ankles (Teenage Heart) on December 1 at (where else?) the Abbey Lounge.

11/27/2007 11:22:16 AM by On the Download | Comments [3] |  

Video: Yo La Tengo, "Fourth Time Around" (live at the MFA)

Yo La Tengo's collective amiability, good sense of humor, and lengthy catalog of songs made them a natural for a VH1 Storytellers-esque tour like "The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo," which the band brought to the MFA two Thursdays ago. The band played two different career-spanning sets of originals and covers, fielding questions from the audience in between songs about things ranging from celebrities who are surprising fans of the band (like Entourage's Adrian Greiner) to their oddest onstage moment (which involved a friend of theirs singing a song in the nude.) The only question they wouldn't answer was the one they claimed was the first one they had gotten asked at each previous stop on the tour - "What happened to the Mets?" This was at the early performance, anyway, we didn't stick around for part two. Above, video of their performance of their version of Agent Zimmerman's "Fourth Time Around," which appears on the soundtrack to I'm Not There. Two more videos, and discussion of their "strike-breaking" performance with the cast of Saturday Night Live after the jump:

- Ryan Stewart

11/26/2007 3:09:53 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

 
Come, "Hurricane" (Live at the Middle East, 11/10/2007)

Sure, it was only two songs. (Turns out they had a third ready to go, but decided against it. What, the applause wasn't loud enough? "Exactly," said Chris Brokaw.) But since this was the first time Come have performed since their 2 1/2-hour farewell gig at the MidEast's downstairs room back in -- what, 1998? -- well, this was pretty fucking rad. Brokaw, on loan from Thurston Moore's band and a zillion other projects, hopped up after Thalia Zedek's band played a more-blistering-than-usual set, providing the pentultimate thrill on the occasion of the Middle East's 20th anniversary as a rock club, which is not coincidentally Billy Ruane's birthday, and is also coincidentally ME booker Kevin Hoskins's B-day. Whew. Yes, Hallelujah the Hills and Helms and IV Diffusion and Drug Rug were great, but dude: Come played a fucking reunion show. And since you weren't there, we brought back this clip. We've got the other song in a holding cell, waiting for an encore, along with some awesome footage of Hallelujah the Hills covering the Beatles, which we haven't asked them for permission to post yet. More anon, then. Many thanks to Leslie McCleave for additional footage.

11/25/2007 4:41:31 PM by On the Download | Comments [1] |  

VHS or Beta, "Can't Believe a Word" (Live at WFNX)

VHS or Beta stopped by the FNX studios last week to play a couple tracks from their neu new record Bring on the Comets. And you thought those guys would be lost without their sequencer.

11/22/2007 8:18:06 AM by On the Download | Comments [1] |  

Another blow was dealt to Boston's hip-hop reputation last week when Epitaph indie-rapper BUSDRIVER walked out on a Harpers Ferry gig after the club's soundman made a racist remark to one of Busdriver's crew members. Yesterday, the club released a formal apology to the rapper, stating that the club has a "zero tolerance" policy towards such remarks, that the soundman in question had been fired, and that the club is committed to further sensitivity training for its remaining employees. Matt Ashare runs down the full story, including an interview with Busdriver and the full text of the Harpers apology.

11/21/2007 1:21:25 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Tiger Saw + Cathy Cathodic, "Words Not Used In Books" (Live at PA's Lounge, November 8, 2007)


Tiger Saw, "Tigers on Fire" (Live at PA's Lounge, November 8, 2007)

Our old pals (and former PHX tourbloggers) Tigersaw are off again, this time to Europe (dates below for our Continental peoples), but they threw down at PA's Lounge before embarking, and trotted out a new song, "Words Not Used In Books," that'll be on their next album. It's in the heart-funk vein of Tigers On Fire, with one next-level twist: a verse from indie rapper (and new Tiger Saw member) Cathy Cathodic, who's been cutting up DIY shows in these parts for many years. "Hearts become like little drums/They beat in time/Bum-bum, bum-bum." Two thumbs up.

TIGER SAW EURPEAN TOUR DATES

NOVEMBER
Mon 19 -Karlsruhe, Germany w/ Alps of New South Wales
Wed 21 Cork, Ireland - Fred Zeppelin's 
Sat 24 Dublin, Ireland - The Boom Boom Room w/ SingSong, Carly
Sun 25 Dublin, Ireland - Anseo w/ Chequerboard, SingSong
Mon 26 Galway, Ireland - Roisin Dubh
Wed 28 Brighton, England @TBA w/ Picastro, Viking Moses
Thu 29 Nottingham, England @TBA w/ Picastro, Viking Moses
Fri 30 Newcastle, England @ TBA w/ Picastro, Viking Moses, Golden Ghost

DECEMBER
Sat 1 Edinburgh, Scotland @ TBA w/ Viking Moses, eagle owl, Golden Ghost
Sun 2 Manchester, England @ King's Arms w/ Viking Moses, Golden Ghost
Mon 3 London, England @ Luminaire w/ Viking Moses, Little Wings, Golden Ghost
Tue 4 Leiden, Netherlands - SUB071 w/ Pfaff
Wed 5 Utrecht, Netherlands - dB's w/ Pfaff
Sun 9 Munich, Germany - Kafe Kult (Kunst Fest)
Sat 15 Gotenburg, Sweden - Atalante Festival w/ Cake on Cake
Thu 20 Berlin, Germany - Schokoladen
Fri 21 Rotterdam, Netherlands - Living Room show

11/19/2007 11:17:48 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Dead Trees, "I Have I Want" (Live at Middlesex Lounge, 11/12/2007)


Viva Viva, "Heartbreak Sweepstakes" (Live at Middlesex Lounge, 11/12/2007)


Age Rings, "NYC" (Live at Middlesex Lounge, 11/12/2007)

We've watched those Dead Trees kids since they were but little pups playing far better Pavement knbockoffs than a bunch of 16-year-olds had any right to. So when we heard they were moving to Oregon, and throwing one last farewell bash with the best bands in town, we grabbed a couple of cameras and headed over to the Middlesex Lounge (a place where we haven't seen a live band since the Lot Six played the club's opening night . . . on a double bill with Hollertronix).

Show: pure awesomeness, with great sets from Viva Viva, Mittens, Age Rings, Tulsa, and a singer-songwriterly gal whose name we didn't catch. (Drug Rug were a late scratch.)Our video, however, suffers from a lack of candlelight. Darkness shrouds the documentation, yo. It really was that dark, which isn't a problem in the real world, but our cameras huffed and puffed to pick up shadows. We also had our audio recorder set on "Guitar Wolf," so everyone sounds more garage-punk than they perhaps are -- except for Viva Viva, who really are exactly that fucking raw. The Age Rings tune above (full disclosure: that's the Phoenix's Will Spitz on guitar) is a new one, from what they're hoping will be a full-blown double-LP.

Dead Trees played a relatively short set for a band that was about to skip town, opting to leave everyone wanting more -- the song streaming above is a new one that certainly leaves us anticipating the next record. Also, as they admitted, they were really drunk by the end of the night. Apologies in advance for the shadowy-land-of-shadows cinematography; we're already lobbying for a do-over next time the Trees come through on tour, which -- if bands like Frank Smith are any indication -- won't be too long from now.

11/18/2007 3:32:35 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

The Rat's Last Stand: November 15, 1997

Any good scenester can tell you that November 15, 1997 was the date of the final gig ever played at Boston's legendary, notorious punk club, the Rat. The final band onstage was, appropriately enough, Gang Green, who probably drank (and sold!) more beers at that joint than anyone. Yes, the bathroom was as bad as everyone says it was. Yes, every ridiculous show was as ridiculously good as everyone says it was. Discuss.

But here's a bit of trivia for our punk-rock friends. Had the club stayed open for another two weekends, can you name the bands that were scheduled to appear during a hardcore-kid's dream weekend? OK, here's the ad that ran in the Phoenix the week the club closed:

11/15/2007 1:53:14 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Foreground: Yoni. Background: the national phallus.  

DOWNLOAD: Yoni Gordon and the Goods, "Buried in the Basement" [mp3]

Remember when Brett Rosenberg's first record came out and you thought he might be the next Ted Leo? Remember how wrong you were? Are you ready to play this game again? Because here comes Yoni Gordon, another cocky little prick with an album's worth of songs that're twice as smart as they need to be and catchier than the clap. "Buried in the Basement" sounds like someone welded the gilded cynicism/postgrad pop smarts of Elvis Costello to Jeff Mangum's bleeding heart, with a bonus crazed-dub outro. Download above, then catch the band November 19 at O'Brien's in Allston.

11/15/2007 1:25:13 PM by On the Download | Comments [2] |  

DJ Ms DD: Introducing The Trannysphere

>>DOWNLOAD: DJ Ms. DD, The Trannysphere #1 [mp3]

About once a week, for as long as we can remember, one of the Phoenix's most senior critics, Michael Freedberg, would come into the office to pick up his check, and then, on his way out, as a way of saying "hello," he'd stop by the arts desk and launch into a monologue, often aimed at no one in particular. It wasn't idle conversation: he was professoring. He has one of those lawyer's voices (he being, in fact, a lawyer): the iron-plated, stentorian tone you'd associate with someone who'd watched old Abe Lincoln biographs from the 1950s. He would talk about Led Zeppelin, about electro, or spend an hour hectoring us to listen to some new Mylene Farmer album, or a Prince b-side, or an Arabic dance band he'd found on some European offshoot of Amazon.com. Michael Freedberg is one of those Rushmore-sized visages of the legendary-rock-crit days: although he spends his fruitful hours doing legal work, and is happy discoursing about the Greek and Latin classics, and has for 25 years or so voted conservative Republican, he has also been one of the most insightful and unique chroniclers of African American dance music of our time. At some crucial point in the '70s he ignored punk, embraced disco with both arms and both lobes of his brain, and ever since his has been a singular, lone voice in the wilderness -- his canon is no one else's canon, and as such he has sometimes found it difficult to communicate with his editors (except for the Phoenix's Matt Ashsare and Jon Garelick, who have given him the most work in recent years, and former Village Voice editor Chuck Eddy, whom Michael adores and who understood him completely). In the '70s Freedberg covered the greats of R&B, and had his Almost Famous moment touring with P-Funk for a week for the long-lost music rag Gig. In 1981, he discovered (then Roxbury-based) electro godfathers the Jonzun Brothers, and even provided the title for that group's most well-remembered song: they'd wanted to name it "Pac Man," but it was Freedberg, who knew what kind of legal trouble would come with that title, who convinced the label to call it "Pac Jam."

For the past decade, Freedberg's passion has been house music -- a genre universally discredited and ignored and reviled by mainstream music editors, but which he has written about insightfully, tirelessly, and beautifully. Freedberg also adores French variete, though not the kind that usually gets written about in indie-rock magazines. Long before the blogs turned "rockism" into a dirty word, Freedberg was railing against the tunnel vision of what he called "the SPIN crowd," by which he referred to the magazine but meant to indict, by association, not just all of American rock and roll but most of what passes for youth culture. (Because he spends so much time listening to music his own way, he sometimes has odd blind spots in his repertoire: one day in 1997 he came into the office raving, at high volume, about a new song he'd just heard on the radio, and was ready to canonize its creators as the best new artist of the year -- except that he didn't know what the record was or who'd made it. After some vigorous searching, it became apparent that the song was Nine Inch Nails's "Head Like a Hole," which had then been out for about eight or nine years.) He maintains that the French do rock and roll far better than Americans. In 1991, while everyone else was writing about grunge, he published a definitive guide to the best 800 disco records ever, almost all of which he owns on vinyl. Michael finds most contemporary American top-40 music insipid, weak, poorly produced, dumb, talentless, and offensive. He is often dismissive of hip-hop, but has been -- for far longer than you -- a great champion of R. Kelly, whom he had elevated to the pantheon of the greats (Otis Redding, Prince, Robert Plant) way before indie kids discovered "Trapped in the Closet."

But sometime around the time "Trapped in the Closet" came out, maybe before, we found out that Michael, himself, had been trapped in the closet. We'd approached him about doing a podcast, with the intention simply of commiting some of his best rants to tape -- many was the time we kicked ourselves for not having hit "record" the minute he walked through the doors. There's a Led Zeppelin rant that he's never written but deserves to be in the hall of fame; we still hope to coax it out of him again someday. But instead Michael proposed something completely different: a podcast that would be hosted by his cross-dressing alter-ego, DJ Ms. DD. The existence of such an alter-ego briefly turned our brains into scrambled eggs. Then, thinking about it for a few minutes, we found that the emergence of Ms. DD explained quite a bit about what we knew of Michael Freedberg. After an aborted attempt to bring Ms. DD to the airwaves last year -- aborted not for lack of effort or enthusiasm, but merely by OTD's lack of technical ability -- we have two episodes of "The Trannysphere" (title courtesy of Ms DD) in the can, as well as the above video trailer. Our production values, we hope, will improve with practice. And we hope to coax Michael into the studio as a special guest, so that we can share with you some portion of the wit and wisdom that he's brought to these halls.

>>DOWNLOAD: DJ Ms. DD, The Trannysphere #1 [mp3]

11/15/2007 7:57:48 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Isis, "Not In Rivers, But In Drops (Live at the Middle East, 11/4/2007)"

Hard to believe it's been ten years since Aaron Turner started Isis -- and eight years since we wrote this. Back then, Aaron was still at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, his LP sleeves were redefining the aesthetics of metal, Isis had released all of one EP (on Escape Artist, a label then-Relapse publicist Gordon Conrad had formed specifically to put out the Isis demo), and Hydrahead was home to Cave In and Converge.

He pretty much made good on all of it: shape-shifting his label, and his band, from niche-market bosses to breakthrough flag-bearers. Isis stands as the gold standard of undie-metal greatness, and they're in large part the reason that metal became the new indie rock. You could hear it on both nights that Isis played the Middle East last week, performing a career-retrospective set (we didn't keep a list, but they seemed to be playing about two songs off each album) that spanned horror-movie soundtrack; psychedelic doom-metal howl; and Slinty, lost-at-sea post-rock, often within the same song.

Above: a special treat from the second night of Isis's 10th Anniversary homestand at the Middle East on November 3/4, with footage from what may eventually become another live DVD. Extra-special thanks to Leah Xylona, Ned Hinkle, Ivy Moylan, and Kenneth Thomas for the shoot; in case you hadn't noticed, it's way better than anything we shoot, so it's a pleasure to host it.

BOSTONPHOENIX: "Homegrown Drone," Isis interview and mp3

ISIS 10th ANNIVERSARY TOURDATES:

Nov 15: Richards on Richards - 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW w/ These Arms Are Snakes & 27 Vancouver, British Columbia

Nov 16: Hawthorne Theater - 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW w/ Wolves In The Throne Room & 27 Portland, Oregon

Nov 18: Slim’s - 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW w/ Big Business & 27 San Francisco, California

Nov 19: Downtown Brew - 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW w/ Big Business & 27 San Luis Obispo

Nov 20: The Troubadour - 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW w/ Big Business & 27 Los Angeles, California

11/14/2007 10:27:08 PM by On the Download | Comments [2] |  

Spouse

It’s unclear, from this vantage point at least, precisely to whom the proper noun in the band Spottiswoode & His Enemies refers.

Is it Roger Spottiswoode, the director of Turner and Hooch and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot? Or is it 17th century Scottish Archbishop John Spottiswoode, or 19th century English mathematician/physicist William Spottiswoode, or perhaps Victoria Cross-winner William Spottiswoode Trevor, a major in the Bengal Engineers who fought valorously during the 1864-1865 Bhutan War, vanquishing 200 barricaded enemy soldiers all while greatly outmatched?

Occam’s razor would suggest it’s probably the band's leader, Jonathan Spottiswoode, an English expat poet living in New York who’s been making music of soulful, shambling grandeur for a decade.

Spottiswoode’s is a moony, crooning voice (not unlike Damon Albarn’s), dripping with wasted elegance. His lyrics are witty and well-turned, dwelling on life and love and sun and rain and occasionally — witness the captivating “Sailing To Byzantium (Passchendaele 1917, A Dying Soldier's Dream)” — on rococo pseudo-history.

He’s aided and abetted by his purported enemies, a supple and subtle ensemble band that flits easily between jazz, soul, folk, and rock. With trumpets and tricky time signatures, with accordions and Wurlitzers and glockenspiels, they recall at various times the smoke-cured continental suavity of Serge Gainsbourg, the latter-day ethno-eclecticism of the Pogues, the turbid moodiness of the Bad Seeds, and the besotted, be-suited croak of a guy like Tom Waits.

With their solid discography and a dynamic stage show, this is one band that should be listened to more than they are. You’ll get your chance on Wednesday night at TT the Bear’s Place, as they celebrate their tenth anniversary and the release of their forthcoming Salvation (New Warsaw).

Joining them will be their friends Spouse, the excellent Northampton indie band, who’ve been churning out infectious, angular guitar hooks since 1995 (when this writer got to know them up at Bowdoin College). Frontman and chief songwriter José Ayerve — who some might recognize from occasional guest stints with the Pernice Brothers — is the linchpin of a lineup that’s been shifting every so often over the past several years, but the band’s punchy, plangent Pixies/Pavement power pop has remained nonpareil, even as they’ve been dipping lately into a more expansive sonic palate.

DOWNLOAD: Spottiswoode and His Enemies, Sailing To Byzantium (Passchendaele 1917, A Dying Soldier's Dream) [mp3]

DOWNLOAD: Spouse, It = Love [mp3]

11/13/2007 5:17:39 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Joshua Glenn: "5 Favorite 'Bop' Songs"

1_Gene Vincent, "Be-Bop-A-Lula"

2_Ramones, "Blitzkrieg Bop"

3_Parliament, "Bop Gun (Endangered Species)"

4_Akon, "Gangsta Bop"

5_Hanson, "MMMBop"

Joshua Glenn writes "Brainiac," a blog and column for the Boston Globe’s "Ideas" section, and is co-editor of Taking Things Seriously: 75 Objects with Unexpected Significance.

11/13/2007 1:54:00 PM by Will | Comments [0] |  

We never knew Noah was so flexible.

Every time a Boston band moves away (one of the good ones, anyway) one of the Pixies drops dead. Or something like that. From the Dead Trees’ MySpace:

"Although we've had some good times here, The Dead Trees will be moving to Portland, OR, sometime in the coming months. Come out and party at the Middlesex Nov. 12th, as our friends Drug Rug, Tulsa, Age Rings, Mittens, Kelsey Bennett, and Viva Viva will be playing! That's right, party on a Monday. It would be great to see all of our friends before we leave.

Also, The Cribs have cancelled their US tour due to 'scheduling conflicts.' I mean, they knew they were going to be touring, what else could they possibly have to do? So, if you were going to come to The Paradise, come out to The Middlesex instead."

Well, there you have it. We’ll call Frank Black and make sure he’s okay. Bummer that we're losing another one, but at least the trade-off is a show bursting with Boston band awesomeness. We saw a similar line-up at a packed PA’s a few Fridays ago, and the show was incendiary enough to make the Black Lips’ gig at the Middle East that same night seem positively tepid. Get there early, kids, we think this one’s gonna sell out.

In case you missed it: The Dead Trees did a Daytrotter session.

Listen:
Drug Rug
Tulsa
Age Rings
Mittens
Kelsey Bennett
Viva Viva

11/12/2007 3:37:09 PM by Caitlin | Comments [0] |  

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Friday night @ the Middle East Downstairs.
All photos by Caitlin E. Curran.

Check the paper on Thursday for Will Spitz's review. Snap judgement: Sharon Jones rocks with the Dap-Kings 29384724 times harder than that "Rehab" chick.

11/12/2007 1:37:39 PM by Caitlin | Comments [0] |  

Y'know, with all the blabbity blab about blogs and breaking new bands, we still have a real, real strong affection for college radio. Especially WMBR. Every time we get sick of the internet echo chamber chorusing about some pretentiously named new discovery, we flip to the left of the FM dial. Inevitably, we find that not only have college radio DJs not drunk the bloggity kool-aid, but that they've got better kung-fu. To wit: pretty much every time we turn on 'MBR, we find a new indie-rock band to obsess about.

So it was a couple of months ago with the Blank Tapes.

We've staunchly avoided over-Googling the Tapes, because quite frankly, what we don't know we don't care to. The songs are the kind of songs you want to make up your own shit about, imagine people and places around them, like people used to do before Trouser Press and AllMusic. And the songs are plenty: homemade but not particularly lo-fi, fully-formed not half-baked, bereft of the indecision that plagues so much of what passes for indie these days. Aesthetically, we get the sense he might be one of those post-Elephant 6 hippies -- but like Neutral Milk Hotel, he gets around by triangulating between far more conventional songwriting signposts. You don't have to be into far-out shit to get sucked into his melodies or his lyrics. It's just kinda classic great songwriting on a more intimate scale.  

What little we know: Blank Tapes is basically one dude, from the West Coast, with several albums under his belt. Also, he's coming to PA's Lounge tonight.

So the one that caught our ear was a fantastic bummer of a breakup song, "We're Better Not Together," which we'd recommend against ingesting if you're on anti-depressants. From the same album, this year's Daydreams, comes also "Smoke and Mirrors," which sports exactly the kind of smoking guitar riff that people who write fantastic-bummer-breakup-songs are not supposed to be able to pull off convincingly. Pure awesomeness.

DOWNLOAD: The Blank Tapes, "We're Better Not Together" [mp3]
DOWNLOAD: The Blank Tapes, "Smoke and Mirrors" [mp3]
FRIEND: The Blank Tapes at MySpace [link]

11/8/2007 11:43:39 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

DOWNLOAD: A.K.A.C.O.D., "Spanish Fly" [mp3]

The comparisons of A.K.A.C.O.D with Morphine are obvious: the "low rock" groove of sax, slide bass, and drums, the presence of Morphine saxman Dana Colley as player, producer, and songwriter. But that would discount singer/bassist Monique Ortiz's own distinctive songwriting chops, macho-woman deep alto vocals, and frank sexuality. With Larry Dersch on drums, A.K.A.C.O.D. ("also known as Colley/Ortiz/Dersch") are working their new Happiness, which mixes Morphine sexbeat and Sabbathy distorted stomps. "Spanish Fly" snaps heads with its insinuating bari-bass-tubs groove and out-of-the-gate rhyme on the word "masturbate." Grab the mp3 above, then catch the band November 24 at Atwood's; or December 6 at Church.

11/8/2007 1:19:53 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Jimmy Eat World

Viva Voce

Jimmy Eat World
with Viva Voce
November 7 at the Orpheum Theater
ALL PHOTOS: Carina Mastrocola

11/8/2007 12:59:22 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

They're baaaaaaa-aaaaaack . . .

From the inbox:

The Dresden Dolls
At the Orpheum Theatre
Saturday, December 29, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $25.00
On-sale Saturday, November 10 at noon

Also, here's a video of Amanda singing one of her new solo songs while surrounded by zombies . . .

11/7/2007 4:29:41 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

What are YOU looking at?

And speaking of Magnetic Fields, the crew behind NPR’s All Songs Considered, which tops our list of favorite web listening tidbits (the term podcast feels so inaccurate), and should probably be mandatory for music enthusiasts everywhere, has come up with an ingenious new video concept called Project Song, and they’ve tapped Stephin Merritt to take on the first challenge. Here’s what he had to do: peruse a group of six photos and six words, pick one of each, and then write a song based on those things - in 48 hours, with the ASC crew watching. From NPR’s website:

"Merritt does most of his writing sitting in a bar, with throbbing music in the background. 'Some recording artists write in the studio,' he tells All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen. 'I think they're crazy.' So for the first installment of a new multimedia experiment called Project Song, All Songs Considered set up a bar for Merritt in NPR's Studio 4A, an expansive wood-floored room with plenty of space for a creative artist to spread out and experiment. We supplied him with a grand piano, an assortment of other keyboards (including a '70s MOOG synthesizer), drums and guitars — even a sampler, from which Merritt extracted the sound of a vintage Mellotron."

Merritt chose the word "1974," and the creepiest photo ever - some bald dude covered in millions of assorted baby doll parts (Maybe it's OTD "Name That Caption" contest time?). The result is a 10-minute video that makes the viewer a fly on the wall to Merritt’s thoughtful songwriting process. Watch out for ASC host Bob Boilen gushing with gratitude over Merritt’s decision to participate in the show’s inaugural episode, and his resulting tune, "Man of a Million Faces." Boilen’s disbelief and amazement over musical concepts (he sounded near tears while discussing The Clash’s “London Calling,” when Lily Allen guest DJed the show a while back) is sometimes endearing, sometimes hilarious, sometimes annoying mainstay on the show, and it’s even more entertaining to see via video.

WATCH: Stephin Merritt on Project Song
LISTEN: Stephin Merritt, "Man of a Million Faces" (via Hype Machine)

11/6/2007 3:35:28 PM by Caitlin | Comments [0] |  

From KinoDV's awesome archive of punk- and postpunk-era vids -- captured by MIT geeks with some of the first portable video equipment at a slew of long-lost Boston rockdives -- comes this month's treasure: Mission of Burma performing "Manic Incarnation" live at the Underground in 1980. If you ever wondered where Shellac and Big Black got their guitar sound, now you know. Indie rock starts here.

UPDATE: Jan Crocker corrects our description of how these vids were shot: "I am not a geek and it wasn't portable video equipment. Portable video equipment wasn't even on the market when I shot this stuff. Yes I had geeks filming...but they were very cool geeks!!"

11/6/2007 1:44:42 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

How Stephin's been paying the bills since the last MagFields tour

Magnetic Fields
February 14-15, 2008
Somerville Theatre
Tickets available via presale here

It's the kind of show that makes you wish you weren't in love. Because listening to songs like "The Cactus Where Your Heart Used To Be" just aren't the same if you can't actively chug the black, bitter incense that follows Stephin Merritt around like an ever-present cloud of clove-cigarette smoke. If you're really really real, you'll break up with your significant other and then drag them to this, so the two of you can stew in perfect dis-harmony.

Yes, Magnetic Fields' first shows since 2004 are hitting only a half-dozen metros, with pride of place going to the Somerville Theater: the two shows there mark the return of the gravest (with a v) love-song composer of his generation to one of the few places where MagFields performed "69 Love Songs" in its entirety. By the time they show up, there will also be a new Magnetic Fields album, Distortion, out on Nonesuch. And supposedly a new Volvo commercial as well, this one bearing a new Merritt solo tune called "I'm In a Lonely Way," a massive understatement that is already available on iTunes. While "I'm In a Lonely Way" jives with Merritt's well-established weakness for country music, it does so in a way that brings to mind, of all things, Elvis Presley. SF/J wins? [wink, wink]

Magnetic Fields Tour Dates:

Mon & Tues
FEBRUARY 11-12
Iron Horse Music Hall
Northampton, MA

Thursday & Friday
FEBRUARY 14-15 ***
Somerville Theater
Somerville, MA

Friday & Saturday
FEBRUARY 22-23 ***
Town Hall Theatre
New York, NY

Thursd