Lately, I have become obsessed with the largeheartedboy mp3 blog. The guy who runs it updates every day with musicand other interesting news, as well as daily downloads. He’s offered links for everything from Bright Eyes’ Coachella set to the mp3 page of Crypt Records (which, by the way, has a downloadable version of the Revelators’ amazing “Earthshaker, Yeah!”).
Do go and check it out. There’s a lot of good BitTorrent linkage going on, but it’s resulted in me also becoming acquainted with the Internet Live Music Archive. The site features full, lossless downloads of live concerts by bands that support live taping. Only problem is, this means LOTS of Grateful Dead. However, you can still find gems by bands like Mogwai, the Mountain Goats, and 2 Skinnee Js. All the site requires is WinAmp and a SHN player plug-in, and you’re good to go with plenty of free music.
Guided by the electric wire’s hum
by Jester on September 9, 2004 @ 5:20 pm
So, alt-country chanteuse and Playboy’s hottest woman in indie rock, Neko Case, will be coming out with a live record on November 9 on Anti-Records. This is both good and better.
A Neko Case live album will most likely surpass the already phenomenal output of her solo albums on Mint and Bloodshot Records, not to mention her work with the New Pornographers. What really makes this release, entitled The Tigers Have Spoken, special is the fact that it is almost all new material. Only two songs are old ones. The rest of the eleven tracks are new material and covers of artists as diverse as Catherine Irwin and the Shangri-Las.
According to the full press release over at Anti-‘s page, the album was “recorded over 7 nights and at 3 different venues in Chicago and Toronto” and “finds Neko backed by a full band featuring the Sadies and steel guitar whiz Jon Rauhouse and special guests Kelly Hogan, Carolyn Mark, Jim & Jennie and the Pinetops, Paul Morstad and Brian Connelly.”
Damn. Mark your calendars.
We ain’t got no place to go
by Jester on September 7, 2004 @ 5:33 pm
from the SideOne Dummy newsletter:
Ok, so we’re really excited about our Fall 2004 and early 2005 releases. In November, we will be releasing a DVD from MXPX. It will be a “Life on the Road” DVD called B-MOVIE. It will be filled with all kinds of cool stuff including a 5 song acoustic EP. Then the band will head to the studio to start work on their next full-length CD, which will be out sometime next year on SideOneDummy!
In the ealy part of 2005 we have alot of cool stuff coming out. First will be new releases from 7 Seconds and Kill Your Idols. Then we will have the third Atticus…dragging the lake CD and the new Punx Unite comp, which will feature bands from the up coming Punx Unite Tour with The Casualties and Lower Class Brats.
Not to be a snot, but I fixed some grammatical errors found within. Yeah, I do shit like that. Sue me.
CD Review: O’Phil – “Love Songs For Soccer Moms”
by Jester on September 5, 2004 @ 11:10 am
O’Phil is, quite simply stated, one of the veteran bands of the MidWest music scene. They’ve been playing music for ten years now, putting out three albums (two full-lengths and a live record), and incessantly playing shows throughout the region.
Love Songs For Soccer Moms, their fourth release, has been 8 years in the making. There’s a goodly amount of fans in the MidWest who’ve been waiting expectantly for this during the two years it to record.
And, thank fucking God, it sounds like two years’ worth of work went into it. The album starts off a little bit mellow with “Brink”, a song that sounds like typical ska as it starts but builds to some serious rock muscle. This makes for the perfect lead-in to “Sad Song”, which, despite its title, is probably one of the two heaviest hitting tracks on the whole record.
Really, I could go track-by-track on this thing and discuss the merits of each song, but the fact of the matter is that Love Songs For Soccer Moms succeeds perfectly at what O’Phil wanted to do. They state in the liner notes that they wanted to make a record that contains music they enjoy making.
And there’s nothing that sounds better than a band that enjoys what they’re doing. The horns are tight, but jazzy enough to break away from the typical ska band “high school marching band” approach. The guitar work of Shane Marler has plenty of fuzz and crunch, and the Gretsch sound gives the band another little bit that sets them aside from the run-of-the-mill. Rhythmically, Rob Miller and Jason Stockebrand take drum and bass work to a level that just evokes the band’s inherent, slightly evil sound.
There’s just something in O’Phil’s music that makes them sound evil. It could have something to do with the big dude Alex Thomas on stage waggling his tongue and flashing devil signs while he sings. That might be it. Whatever it is, it works. And well.
CD Review: the Break – “Handbook for the Hopelessâ€
by Jester on @ 10:52 am
It’s been a good long while since I’ve heard a band that I can’t categorically qualify. The Break definately hits that description, and I have to say, I find it refreshing. It’s rare that a musical act doesn’t fit neatly into a genre.
The Break, at least on Handbook for the Hopeless, can best be summed up as follows: the Bronx meets CKY in a dark alley and has a fistfight over a bunch of AFI and Cheap Trick records. They’ve got that propulsive rock and roll sound that Ferret labelmates the Bronx possess, but they occasionally hit the stoner-rock via effects processor sound that CKY does so well (especially on “’67 Avenged?”).
The thing is, however, they still manage to hit some poppy moments that sound like nothing but Cheap Trick intros. “Last Night In Manhattan” sounds like Rick Nielsen and Bun E. Carlos were called in to write the intro, then the song was handed back to the band, then passed off to Davey Havok for vocal rewrites.
It sounds like a total mishmash fuckup, but it’s goddamn good. It’s certainly something that grows on you, listen after listen. The more it finds its way into my stereo, the more I want to keep listening. I thought this would be a one-go disc, then off to the used record store, but I’ve gone back to Handbook for the Hopeless more times than I can count.
Never make it home
by Jester on September 3, 2004 @ 4:45 pm
Ladies and gentlemen, the speed metal merchants of bluegrass, Wichita’s own Split Lip Rayfield, have finally launched their very first website.
Why does this matter? Because, goddammit, now the entire damn Internet-connected world can get their hot little hands on some Split Lip music. Granted, yes… you’ve been able to order their albums from Bloodshot Records this entire time, but that’s not the point.
The point is this… Split Lip Rayfield is bluegrass played at the speed of metal. With a one-string upright bass made out of a truck gas tank and strung with weed-whacker line. Three albums of this. New record out September 28 on Bloodshot. It’s called Should Have Seen It Coming.
And, as with everything in life, this is about the free shit. They have mp3s. Mp3s from the new album. Which you should listen to, so you’re expanding your musical horizons and listening to something other than the crap corporate radio shoves down your throat. It’s earthy, it’s rocking, it’s fast, it’s the sort of music you swear you hate, but will grow to love. Take a listen below.
Split Lip Rayfield – Hundred Dollar Bill
Split Lip Rayfeld – In the Ground (live)
Split Lip Rayfield – Tiger In My Tank
Split Lip Rayfield – Day the Train Jumped the Tracks
Split Lip Rayfield – Drink Lotsa Whiskey
Split Lip Rayfield – Never Make It Home
Take a short walk off a long pier
by Jester on September 1, 2004 @ 6:19 pm
Macy Gray needs to shut the fuck up. Every goddamn time I see that Sony Walkman commercial where’s she’s doing her cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way”, I become filled with rage and hatred. Seriously, was there a need for her Janis-Joplin-copying self to remake a song that’s already been more famously covered? Hell, there are quite a few songs that I’d like to hear covered that nobody’s ever touched. A punk rock cover of John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Authority Song” is high on my wish list of things that I believe would be absolutely cool.
Really, after a major artist such as Run-DMC covers a song and that version becomes amazingly famous, what the fuck is the point of anyone else ever covering that song? All that’s going to happen is that your version will inevitably be compared to both the original and the famous cover.
And in this case, the comparison has been made, and Ms. Gray has been found lacking. Seriously, Macy, go back and see if they’ll let you have a little guest cameo in the next Spider-Man movie. Your new version is about as necessary as the recent Sammy Hagar best-of cd. Nobody wants to hear it, yet we’re still subjected to it every day on tv by people who, for some reason, think we as viewers can’t live without it.
The first song off our new album
by Jester on August 30, 2004 @ 3:33 pm
The Loved Ones are the newest signings to Jade Tree Records. The Jade Tree newsletter has the following to say about the band:
Featuring members of The Curse, Kid Dynamite and Trial by Fire, the three piece has been around since May and already have played with the best and brightest in the scene including The Bouncing Souls, Hot Water Music, Alkaline Trio, The Explosion and None More Black. The band is an explosive mix of punk sensibilities, rock riffs, and raspy vocals. Brian Mcternan (Thrice, Hot Water Music, Strike Anywhere) is slated to produce their CD EP for an early 2005 release.
Seriously, the mp3 below is fucking good. Nice and raspy vocals, sing-along chorus, and very fucking catchy. It’s good and punk, but just a little poppy. Kinda like Kid Dynamite, kinda like the Explosion, kinda like a band I really want to hear more from.
CD Review: Flogging Molly – “Within A Mile of Home”
by Jester on August 27, 2004 @ 4:19 pm
When a band has put out several quality releases, their subsequent musical efforts will unfortunately be judged against those releases, rather than on their own merits. And, as much as I love Flogging Molly, their new cd just isn’t up to par with their previous offerings.
To be honest, Within A Mile of Home is good and it fits into the band’s ouevre quite well. However, when put up alongside Swagger and Drunken Lullabies, the cd suffers a bit. While there are a few standout tracks, such as “Seven Deadly Sins” and “To Youth”, nothing really hits you right between the ears like “Rebels of the Sacred Heart” or “The Likes of You Again.” The only song on Within A Mile of Home that even comes close is “Factory Girls”, and while the harmonies with guest singer Lucinda Williams are fantastic, the song sounds more akin to something off of Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road than it does a Flogging Molly original.
The sad fact of the matter is mostly that the whole cd sounds like outtakes from the two previous Flogging Molly albums- certainly, it hits all the right pennywhistle notes and Pogues-worthy points. This why the material, while passable, never really hits a strong stride- it’s more of a “Celtic-by-numbers” album than something really nifty. It’s definitely worthwhile for new fans of the Irish sound to pick up, but longtime Flogging Molly fans may feel a bit cheated.
Things that make you go “ugh”
by Jester on @ 2:59 pm
So, whilst Irish rockers Ash were playing “Kung Fu” at the Reading Festival yesterday, singer Har Mar Superstar jumped the stage and proceeded to do a striptease.
Looking at that picture, I can think of less sexy things. But aside from having my scrotum massaged with sandpaper, nothing makes me shudder with revulsion quite so much. Well, maybe actually having to listen to a Har Mar Superstar album. With a bunch of hipsters. Hipsters who think it’s clever to be ironic.
Goddamn… I’m never going to be able to listen to 1977 ever again without feeling a need to scrub my eyes with Comet and steel wool. Fuck. I really love that record, too.