RSS/XML Subscribe
Archive for May 2006
7 PM Sharp Wednesday, May 31st
The Cutting Room
19 W. 24th St.
New York, 10010
(212) 691-1900
A group of music bloggers are invited each week to contribute songs to the wildly-popular Contrast Podcast (compiled by Tim from The Face Of Today). The theme for this week’s podcast was “local” (as suggested by Bethanne from Clever Titles Are So Last Summer) and features a bevvy of artists local to each of the bloggers asked to participate. For my selection, I chose the song “Coroner’s Report” by Augustine which comes from, as Memphis readers will no doubt be aware, Augustine’s album Broadcast. One of the best local albums of the year, Broadcast is a wildly original and fresh combination of dark psychedelic rock and political themes which break wildly from the current fertile ground of current Memphis bands. Augustine are hard at work in the studio on their follow-up album, and Loudersoft welcomes visitors from around the world who first heard Augustine via Contrast Podcast. Augustine’s album will get a national release this fall through their label Makeshift Music, but you can still order it direct from Makeshift’s website right now.
Listen To Augustine - Coroner’s Report
Listen to Augustine - Roll Commercial
The year was 2003, and The Futureheads were at the forefront of a huge wave of British guitar-driven rock and post-punk that was veering its way around the world. Their self-titled debut album has sold nearly 250,000 copies on it’s own, and with the release of News And Tributes, the doubters and nay-sayers can save it for someone else. That three years has proven a boon for bands like Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party and many others. But The Futureheads are still outpacing their contemporaries and delivering the goods. With not a single member over the age of 25, The Futureheads are brash, unbalanced, tight post-punk rock and roll. Every other blogger in the world has jumped their working-class train and with good reason. News And Tributes is a death-defying post-punk guitar rock orgy that will make even the quietest mouse leap off their swiss cheese round and spit the crumbs in the cat’s face. Take a listen to “Fallout” and tell me you don’t want to throw shit.
Listen To The Futureheads - Fallout
You Can Pre-Order The Futureheads News And Tributes by placing your mouse here and clicking.
I can’t really explain the effect of Brightblack Morning Light without transcribing their biography, direct from the Matador Records website:
Brightblack Morning Light is a color of the day when the truth of the universe is faded into a veil of blue sky. Its a time when spirits are allowed access. It’s a humble time that affects all Life. It’s a time to recognize and accept change, without the limitations of your own surroundings. That time offers a free ritual that needs no shrine.
The conspiracy of two homeless friends from rural Alabama whose “mixed blood holds some American Indian somewhere”, Nathan D. “Nabob” Shineywater and Rachael “Rabob” Hughes first emerged from obscurity on a split 7″ with Bonnie Prince Billy in 2002 under the name Rainywood. After signing with Matador, they embarked on the journey to create this first self-titled album, rife with unusual Shaft-like and Latin-influenced tribal percussions, horns, Fender Rhodes keyboard, and vocals that I could only describe as “the soundtrack to Death Valley ‘69″, the music could well be the soundtrack to some unfinished Vincent Gallo film.
The end result is a hypnotically strange mellow hybrid of folk and alternative which makes it one of the most original albums of 2006 that I’ve heard so far, bearing only minor resemblances to Air, Mogwai, some Jesus & Mary Chain and middle-1990’s Royal Trux recordings. While there are slices of influence everywhere, the album stands on its own groovy, soulful psychedelic feet leaving no footprints, only traces of memories. Observe the gestures of goodwill presented on their first single, “Everybody Daylight” and then get your hands on the album.
Listen to Brightblack Morning Light - Everybody Daylight
You can pre-order Brightblack Morning Light’s self-titled album by clicking here.
An English radio station said it has banned songs by British crooner James Blunt from its airwaves after listeners said they were fed up with hearing “You’re Beautiful” and “Goodbye My Lover”.
Chris Cotton, programme controller of local radio Essex FM in southern England, said: “We don’t have anything against James Blunt and we’re pleased he has been so successful, but we really need a break.”
The music industry exerts a lot of pressure on radio stations to play certain artists’ music over and over again, Cotton said.
“Often this can be out of step with the audience’s tastes, which results in songs being overplayed,” he said. “We’re happy to stand up to this pressure and follow the strong message listeners have given us. We encourage other radio stations to take the same step.”
Despite this minor setback, Blunt has enjoyed phenomenal success since his voice first emanated from radio stations across the world last year.
“You’re Beautiful” topped the charts in 25 countries.
In March, the former army officer became the first British artist to reach the number one slot in the US Billboard chart in nine years.
His album, Back To Bedlam has sold more than seven million copies worldwide.
Morrissey is so very good at being downright snarky. If you’re a fan of The Smiths or the Mozzer, you know what I mean — the songs can take feelings of angst or anger and turn them into sinister laughter within moments. This song, from his 1992 album Your Arsenal has always been just that kind of song for me. The album is really one of, if not, his best. It has other great tunes like “You’re Gonna Need Someone On Your Side” and the supposed love song written for someone who worked at Morrissey’s record label, entitled “You’re The One For Me, Fatty”.
As for this song, it’s a tune that I’ve been humming around in my head for a couple of days now because I’ve been feeling both fortunate and, perhaps, slightly wanting to rub it in the face of my detractors. By week’s end, I know someone will be singing it and thinking about me. In the past, I could hear myself humming it when I was feeling dejected or lost. But the laughter, dear friends, is all mine today. So sing and laugh with me! La ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha….
Listen To Morrissey - We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful
You Can Purchase Morrissey’s Your Arsenal at Amazon for $7.50 by clicking this spot.
Critically-acclaimed solo performer and frequent collaborator Mark Lanegan will join the Twilight Singers tour on June 7 in New Orleans. The show at One Eyed Jack’s will also feature Ani DiFranco and will be filmed by Rio Hackford (son of Taylor) for a DVD release. Don’t miss this once in a blue moon experience.
Lanegan, whom you hopefully know as a member of Screaming Trees and Queens Of The Stone Age, will accompany the band thru the final 2 weeks of their tour.
It’s always a total fucking shame when a great young band full of potential breaks up before they have achieved what they desire most: any bit of notoriety or success. Such is the story of This Is Goodbye who, in their wake, left behind a document of their time together so powerful as to bring them back together again.
The saga of This Is Goodbye is one that begins with the endings of several great Memphis bands — among them Dora, U.S. Sunday, Square State, and Fireworks Over London. At the intersection of all these breakups, changes in plans and what not came This Is Goodbye, a band whose influence at the hands of Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, U2, and Sigur Ros is worn proudly in the life of the songs on their EP Shapes & Numbers. After playing around our fair city to alternatingly huge and small crowds, the band entered into a production deal and began work on these recordings. This Is Goodbye, through time and circumstance, recorded much of the EP hidden away at Memphis Records/Young Avenue Sound, but internal conflicts and business issues brought production of the recordings to a screeching halt. Inevitably, the band went the way it seemed destined to go based on the history of its members and they disbanded in 2005.
Cut to 2006, where an independently-produced film called Act One is released to critical acclaim, winning the Indie Memphis Film Festival , attracting the attention of the Hollywood community and garnering a powerful following among filmmakers and movie goers. The soundtrack to the film was shaped by two of This Is Goodbye’s primary members, Landon Moore and Wil Deshazo. The music from the This Is Goodbye sessions feature prominently in the movie, adding immense depth and texture to the film’s soul-searching premise.
The success of the film and, ultimately, recognizing (through the urging of friends and loved ones often) what they had walked away from have brought the members back together, though for how long no one is sure. One thing, however, is certain: the music made by This Is Goodbye proves potent and phenomenal, a complete lack of fear that came from complete concentration. There is a certain raw undercurrent of emotion in the voice of lead singer Seth Hendricks, a desperation that at times seems both saddening and empowering. At times, he’s Thom Yorke. At times, he’s Jeff Buckley. At times, he even resembles Kele Okereke of Bloc Party. But regardless of the influence, the end product is completely its own. This Is Goodbye have captured a sound on Shapes & Numbers that I need to hear in order to feel like I’m alive, an inspired symphony of heartbreak and hope that casts no shadows and takes no prisoners.
If you’re in Memphis tonight, you can catch Seth Hendricks and Chris Faulkner performing an early show at The Vault on Highland (around 9pm), then head over to The Hi-Tone straight afterwards. This is probably a chance to see them at what may well be one of their only live shows for the time being, appearing alongside another fantastic up-and-coming band The United at The Hi-Tone. Come see the heartbreak and the hope and be one of the fortunate few.
Listen to This Is Goodbye - Italy
You can purchase the EP Shapes & Numbers from the band’s MySpace Page by clicking here. They perform May 27th at The Hi-Tone in Memphis With The United and Square State @ 10pm.
I will never forget the dark Saturday on which Mr. Lemons died, I was with the members of the now-defunct and delightful Memphis power pop band Crash Into June doing a bit of singing. I was providing backing vocals and harmonies for a track that appears on the What A Concept!: Tribute To Teenage Fanclub album. Neilson Hubbard, our friend and producer, received the phone call from his wife which led to great distress over the loss of his dear pet. The death of Mr. Lemons sent a pallor and wave of gloom over the gathered friends and associates.
It brought a sad, wry smile to my face to see that some three years later, Mr. Lemons appears as the title of the newest Glen Phillips CD. Whitewashed with the gorgeous harmonies and pop glory for which both producer Neilson Hubbard and performer Glen Phillips (former lead singer of Toad The Wet Sprocket, duhh) are known, Mr. Lemons is both a warming tribute to our lost comrade in the fight for kittendom and a refreshing return from the seemingly lost freedom in Mr. Phillips’s previous solo efforts. The arrangements are not nearly as complex as his previous efforts, allowing Mr. Phillips’ gorgeous, soaring harmonies to leave their mark on the listener. It seems to me that there lives something quite personal here, an innate darkness of overtone to the record, but a gloominess to which the listener wrestling with their own demons can attach themselves. This is the solo record I have been waiting to hear from Glen Phillips, an album that represents the best of what he does: truly great, not overly-produced pop music filled with warmth and depth. It is music on a par with and exceeding the best of contemporaries such as Aimee Mann, Jon Brion, Michael Penn, and Jason Falkner. The influence of Elvis Costello can be heard all throughout this record, and it is a likeness and a love which is replicated with diginity and beauty. It cannot wait to be heard by you if you love any or all of the aforementioned.
Though Mr. Lemons has left us and gone to kitty heaven, Mr. Lemons lives on in tribute to its producer, its author, and to the kitten himself. This is Glen Phillips’ finest solo effort I have heard to date and, hopefully, the marker by which his future musical endeavors will be gauged.
When you are attend a Glen Phillips shows, you can purchase an exclusive EP entitled Unlucky 7 which, to my ears, is as good or better than the best songs on Mr. Lemons itself. This is not available on the web or in stores to the best of my knowledge. Here’s a cut from that EP, and I encourage you to please go see Glen Phillips perform live when he plays in a town or locality near you.
Listen To Glen Phillips - Revelator
You can purchase Glen Phillips’ Mr. Lemons from Amazon by clicking this here spot.
You can purchase Mr. Lemons from iTunes by clicking ye olde button. –> 