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Every summer a little company by the name of Little Radio decides to host a series of shows every Sunday called Summer Camp throughout the summer. Along with good bands (for the most part) there’s a big blow up Slip ‘n Slide, badminten, a moon bounce, food, a pool, ping pong, and general drunken merriment.
June 21rst (the second one this summer, and one of the few on a Saturday) No Age and a few other bands such as The Deadly Syndrome and The Explorers Club battled the heat and put on some performances for us to enjoy. Below are some of the general shenanigans that took place.
On May 28th, everyone’s favorite purveyors of matrimony rock, Mates of State, played Hollywood’s Henry Fonda Theater. The happily wed duo of Kori Gardener and Jason Hammel were playing a few west coast shows in support of the recent release of their 5th album, Re-Arrange Us on Barsuk Records.
The Music:
![3131JYXJNEL._SS500_[1].jpg](http://www.indieschmarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/3131JYXJNEL._SS500_[1].jpg)
New Order: (the best of) New Order
New Order is one of those bands for me that has great songs for compilation cds. Yo La Tengo is another one of those bands. When bands like these release a best of album, then that’s pretty much all you can ask for. I still have yet to dive into the full New Order experience, but thus far this is my favorite as a whole from them. If you haven’t fully delved, this would be a good start, and if you have, then you most likely own this record and are silently judging me right now.
Hey everybody, see Mack Slevin from Flashing Red Lights play a new acoustic song at Westside Sessions here. He’s also playing a solo show June 5th at 11pm for free at Hyperion Tavern. Hyperion Tavern you ask? No one knows, but little do you realize that this works out to your advantage. Aside from a free show and good songs, it’s always an adventure seeing a show at a place you haven’t been to yet. So now you’ll have an adventure to look forward to June 5th at 11pm for free at Hyperion Tavern.
End Scene,
Dan Tana
PS, My Bloody Valentine will be opening.
The Raconteurs have announced that they will be playing the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles this Sunday May 18th. Tickets will be available tomorrow at 12 noon PST at the following link: http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/090040A998A047B7?brand=goldenvoice
If you haven’t heard it yet, their latest album Consolers of the Lonely is something you don’t want to miss live.
So it’s been 4 years now since everyone’s favorite dance/rock/nu-wave outfit The Faint released their fourth and most successful album Wet From Birth. In that time rumors and plans for their fourth have been leaked many times and yet we still had nothing…until now. Fasciinatiion will be released on August 5th via the group’s own label, blank.wav. This means the longtime Saddle Creek artists are going the way of Rilo Kiley so they can do things on their own. It is in that same vein that Fasciinatiion came together, it will be the group’s first album that was written, recorded, produced and released on their own.
We here at the Schmarm can’t wait. No new tracks are up on their site yet but I’d bet if you keep checking something will be going up soon. www.thefaint.com
I first got wind of San Francisco’s The Morning Benders when they played with friends and Indie Schmarm favorites, The Weather Underground back in January as part of Airborne Toxic Event’s January residency at Spaceland. The band was quite impressive upon first impression but part of me wishes I had this album at the time because I’m sure I would’ve tried finagling my way up closer to sing along with each and everyone of their indie-pop gems.
I’m a busy, busy man. Between honing my new “walk”, keeping up with the constant influx of Elvis Costello re-reissues and preparing for the zombie apocalypse, I don’t have a lot of time to hunker down and listen to music. I do, however, make it a point to set aside a few passing moments every so often to take a good look at music. Therefore, I now present you with a brief analysis of some choice album covers…
I have been anticipating the new Wolf Parade record for months and months now. Unless Spencer throws in a new Sunset Rubdown record in 2008, Wolf Parade’s next record will most likely be my record of the year. Earlier in the month, Pitchfork announced the next Wolf Parade LP, titled Kissing The Beehive (due out June 17th). They then proceeded to rip into it and clearly expressed their dislike for it. Aside from Pitchfork hardly ever liking a release following one of their “Best New Music” picks, there’s the other “we are better than thou” elitist intern rants that come into play more than half the time as well.
Last Wednesday, England’s Duke Spirit hit The Echo to a completely sold out crowd. The 5 piece has been around for a couple years and recently is starting to get as much attention as they deserve with their recent album Neptune. Lead singer Leila Moss, who looks like a rock n roll version of a young Deborah Harry, is one of the most captivating performers in music today.
Hate them or love them (I got between both regularly), Pitchfork has undeniable power. This show was book ended by two acts that the ultra-schmarm website helped bring to notoriety. Portland’s Blitzen Trapper and Seattle’s Fleet Foxes. Both have enjoyed some time in their “best new music” section. The former for last year’s amazing Wild Mountain Nation and the latter’s flawless EP last month Sun Giant. Grand Archives were on the bill too with some guy who was in some band called Band of Horses or something like that. Oh and all three bands happen to be on Sub Pop records. No. Big. Deal.
I could do an intro on Casxio…how they are quickly getting noticed in the LA area…how they bring a dance party everywhere they go…how Lucas has more soul than JT…how I want to sleep with all the males in the band…or how this band gets better everytime I see them…but Lucas covered it all and then some in my little question and answer part I usually do for the “Get To Know” section. I decided to keep his answers worded exactly as was sent to me…well pretty much. Some protection is needed when someone says Edison was a President because they’re wasted naked and lonely in an apartment attempting to respond to an interview at 4:00am.
The Item:
Sirius Radio
All the cool kids are doing it. Do you want to be left out? So what if it costs hundreds to buy and set up, do you really want to miss out on 90’s rock music 24/7? I thought not. Plus all the cool blogs like Brooklyn Vegan and Aquarium Drunkard sometimes get to have little spots on the indie station Left of Center and play “hip” upcoming or already “arrived” bands such as My Morning Horses Band of Rogue Wave. The only draw back to this is some of the stations, like Left of Center, cycle whatever is popular over and over and hardly give you a good variety throughout the day. That’s ok though because by the 10th time you hear Black Lips you can really realize how they are the worst band in the last 10 years and have successfully tattooed their name on CMJ and Pitchfork’s boners. Their “look at us reinvent what’s been done a thousand times before” falls way short, and with songs like “O’ Katrina” they just shove their dicks hard in asses of failer with attempts to represent some sort of late 70’s punk rock. One of the options for Sirius Radio is it can come portable and record up to an hour’s worth of songs, and thus one has the option to be able to skip around and avoid bands like Black Kids…I mean Lips.
Warning warning stop and listen when red lights flash. This band is one that I believe everyone needs to hear so put your head up the liberty bell and give it a smack because these set of rockers will crack you skull with their rock. Yes, I did just use that analogy. This songwriter and singer for this band, Mack Slevin, writes for 2 other bands, Darci Cash and The Ghost Kings as well. He probably writes a couple songs a week, and is probably writing a song as I type this…which is actually no exaggeration. I’d say he is up there lyrically with Conor and other greats. Though to fully understand Mack’s songs lyrically you might need to get a knife for the onion you’ll have to peel. But that makes it all the more fun to dig in and get the hidden goods. The parts are well thought out and often crafted in a way that isn’t just your typical verse chorus too.
David Bazan has been one of my favorite artists over the last few years, and has been making solid records for years. He started back in the early 90’s playing drums in a band called The Guilty, later changed to Coolidge, and from there has had quite the career. Aside from Pedro the Lion, he also has played drums and sang back-up vocals for Seldom and has also played with Starflyer 59 and released the drum and synth project Headphones, including other solo material.
Dane Sundseth
The Parson Red Heads every Monday night in January at Spaceland
Our favorite Los Angeles band has the Monday night residency at our favorite Los Angeles venue Spaceland for all of January. There’s three more chances to catch them and if the first week was any indication, Monday night is going to be THE night of each week this month.
One of my favorite live bands, Two Gallants, made their US Television debut last week on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Here’s the video of them peforming the song “Despite What You’ve Been Told” off of their self-titled album that was released in the fall on Saddle Creek.
Denver Dalley is a man with many a finger in many a project. He’s one of those musicians who also continues to add to his catalog of accomplishments without slowing down. Some of the musical accomplishments already include, Statistics, Desaparecidos, Intramural, City Light, and he fit time to record an album with Leta Lucy from The Twilight Singers, among others.
I first heard Statistics years ago and loved it right away. It was the kind of music that never left my CD player for weeks and weeks. Then the greatest rock band of all time came across my lap, Desaparecidos. Read Music/Speak Spanish by Desaparecidos, from beginning to end, just doesn’t dip or stop rocking and the lyrics on are as good easily as any work Conor has done in Bright Eyes. Recently I actually gave it a perfect rating. It is a perfect record for me. Intramural is a great idea for a project, which is Denver writing the music for songs and wrangling a bunch of singers such as Judah Nagler of The Velvet Teen, John Roderick of the Long Winters, Tricia Kanne of Minipop, Matt Friction of Pink Spiders and many more to contribute to them. I am excited to really delve into that and for future material released by Intramural.
And now, Strong Bad gives us the story of Christmas:
End Scene,
Dan Tana
Oh dear, thank you for this gift during the holiday season.
Every once in a while you’ll stumble across a small band that’s just getting started and you feel like you’ve struck gold because of how good they are and all the bragging rights that will soon come when they break through and you can say “I knew them when”, Francisco the Man! is that band.
Out of Orange County with members that barely earned the right to drink legally, this four piece studied at the church of Neil Young and Wilco and lead singer/guitarist Scotty Cantino’s vocals eerily recall Jim James while Joel Bond’s (guitar, keys) occasional lead and backing vocals harmonize with Cantino perfectly. The group is rounded out by Nestor Romero on bass and Abdeel Ortega on drums.
I’m a busy, busy man. Between Indie Schmarm staff meetings in our underground bunker, hosting my own cooking show on the Brazilian Food Network and maintaining my bonsai tree sculpture of Jack Bauer, I don’t have a lot of time to hunker down and listen to music. I do, however, make it a point to set aside a few passing moments every so often to take a good look at music. Therefore, I now present you with a brief analysis of some choice album covers…
The Movie:
Juno (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Thanks to the awards season and my wonderful roommate being a member of SAG, she has been receiving “screeners” in the mail lately and a good chunk of them have yet to be released on DVD and a few have yet to even make it to the theaters. One of these is the new movie Juno from director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody that had me a little more than excited to watch.
Here at Indie Schmarm, we try to do our best to spread good news about good artists. When I heard one of my favorite bands, The Locust, were victims of a massive robbery this weekend, I was crushed. They had played a show in St. Louis recently when their van was broken into and their personal belongings were stolen. Computers, iPods, clothes, cash, keys, passports, medications, toiletries, everything and anything was taken in the middle of the night.
This is a devastating blow to the band because they are mid-tour and it is very difficult for them to recover, particularly Justin Pearson (vocalist/bassist) who lost his laptop that was holding a great deal of financial data regarding his record label, Three One G.
When one thinks of Thanksgiving, one usually thinks of turkey, stuffing, gravy, and the works, but when you have some of The Parson Red Heads over for Thanksgiving, it’ll usually end up being something like a breakfast, a tofu scramble with pumpkin pie and other desserts, toped off with mimosas. As you all may or may not have noticed, I’ve been mentioning The Parson Red Heads a lot recently on Indie Schmarm. I honestly believe they are the next ones to get some serious attention from the “Silverlake scene” and actually already are. In the last year or two, Cold War Kids and Silversun Pickups came out of the “scene”, and the Red Heads are right on their tales. They’ve played shows with Cold War Kids and other bands such as Cursive, Maria Taylor, The Autumn Defense, The Mother Hips, and in August played The Sunset Junction.
Not too long after touring wrapped up for Broken Social Scene’s last album (the ridiculously beautiful mindfuck that is their self-titled record) reports came in that hinted at a hiatus. Hiatus. That word scared the ever-loving crap out of me. I stopped bathing. I started having conversations with myself in Hopelandic. I nearly shaved my entire body with a dry razor and dug a tunnel to the center of the earth. ‘Cause a hiatus is never a hiatus, it just means “don’t be surprised when we cash in for a reunion tour in 15 years.” Hiatuses are band cancer.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I don’t have anything to say except that, and to keep and eye out for a belated Thanksgiving treat sometime in the next week. In the mean time, is there anything cooler than an 80’s Billy Joel? I think not.
End Scene,
Dan Tana
I’m a busy, busy man. Between golf appointments at the country club, box seats for every local cock fight and charity beer-pong tournaments, I don’t have a lot of time to hunker down and listen to music. I do, however, make it a point to set aside a few passing moments every so often to take a good look at music. Therefore, I now present you with a brief analysis of some choice album covers. In today’s post we shall take a walk through the fertile fields of hard rock…
I was browsing around looking for something else on the Tube as one does, and I ran across these videos of a huge marching band (Pride of Arizona) doing Radiohead songs, fully orchestrated with line formations and flag waving. Whoever put this together and did this with their marching band deserves a Grammy. The amount of work and time to do this is mind blowing. Then they go and do not just one song, but 6 songs (well close to half of each). I might be way behind the times on finding this, and if so, let me still have my glory and excitement.
The first time I saw The Monolators was at the Silverlake Lounge. I was there because The Ghost Kings were gracing us with some rock that night, and The Monolators were playing after them. I was told they were great and to stick around, so I did and was then graced with rock from The Monolators. Since that show I’ve seen them a few times, including their record release show which I wrote about here. I then saw them on Halloween, and although they went on close to 1:00am, the lights were coming on because the bowling ally they were playing at didn’t know they were last, half the band had different members, they still gave 100% and sounded great.
While doing my usual weekly perusing of KCRW playlists, I realized that I completely missed Ryan Adams and the Cardinals performance on Morning Becomes Eclectic this past Friday, November 9th. Luckily, the KCRW peeps document the performances and make them available to listen and even watch at their website. Click here for the Ryan Adams session.
On October 31st Stylus Magazine, one of the most unique and innovative “webzine” publications around, stopped the presses for good.
Since 2001 Stylus has been a place where some of today’s best music and film journalists (for my money anyway, of which there is little) have been given free reign to publish their most passionate and idiosyncratic missives. In a time when thousands upon thousands of websites devoted themselves to publishing up-to-the-second information 24 hours a day, Stylus completely ignored the news (for the most part) and played chronological Twister like a Chuck Palahniuk novel.
While new record and film reviews were supplied daily, 5 days a week, the site’s bread and butter was their columns. “On First Listen” featured staff writers giving their first impressions of classic bands they by all means should have been familiar with but which had somehow eluded them. The “Bluffer’s Guide” series aimed to get the reader well-versed in obscure musical sub-genres (such as “hiplife“, a West African blend of hip-hop, Christian hymns and big band jazz), obscure film icons (1940’s English filmmaking team Powell & Pressburger) and…Reese Witherspoon. They even had a column (Tape Hiss) devoted to covering cassette-only releases.
Kevin Drew is my hero. If this were ever more true, it is after seeing him with Broken Social Scene backing him (pretty much the same thing) live at The Orpheum Tuesday the 30th of October. “Kevi” as his peers call him, keeps getting more mystical and more attractive the more I see him and hear his music. As I’ve mentioned before, my most listened to record of all time is Broken Social Scene’s self titled record, and this new release Spirit If… falls nothing short of amazing. The whole atmosphere and the way the show was put together really added to the magic of the night too. It really dawned on me further the other night seeing this show how much better a band is live when the show is loud. This show was nice and loud and the mix was amazing to boot. Whenever the horn players blared in with their respective parts, it was even louder than the rest of the music, which I was more than ok with. Kevin’s banter was really good too and he (and the rest of the band) had a sort of relaxed comfortable attitude about the whole show which made it more entertaining and made the audience comfortable. It’s pretty much the same thing as having tea and cuddling with them for a few hours. Kevin was also a touch sick, yet really pulled it all off, and I didn’t hear a missed note the whole time…well nothing more than is the usual Kevin voice crackle.
On Monday November 5, Tank Farm Future Sounds Tour rolls through LA at The Henry Fonda Theater with Sweden’s Shout Out Louds, Johnossi and locals Nico Vega.
Indie Schmarm is giving away a package that includes a t-shirt from the tour and Tank Farm’s latest compilation which features cuts from Shout Out Louds, Johnossi and Indie Schmarm favorites, Castledoor, to the first person who e-mails dane.sundseth@gmail.com with “tank farm” in the subject line, be sure to include full name and address.
I came across Portland, OR’s Eskimo and Sons in a very organic and accidental manner, in fact I had heard their name about a thousand times before I actually heard their music. One of my dearest friends while living in Eugene, OR for 4 years was Kirsten Himes and just about the time I was moving to LA she was moving into a house in Portland with her younger brother Thomas and some of his band mates in Eskimo and Sons. Kirsten of course raved about them continuously and after a couple myspace listens was impressed myself and this summer when I was up visiting Portland she handed me their terrific new EP How Does if Feel to be Crushed by One Man With the Strength of a Million? which was released on the artsy co-op label of Boy Gorilla Records. Led by the vocals of Danielle Sullivan who takes equal quest from Jenny Lewis and Joanna Newsom and combined with the songwriting of guitarist Dhani Rosa, Eskimo and Sons sound like one of those Portland spring days when the rain stops long enough for some rare beams of sunshine to break through the dark clouds.
Danielle, Dhani and drummer Dylan Reed filled Indie Schmarm in on the group’s history, their label and what lies ahead.
If you remember a few years back, or now quite a few years back, Radiohead, mainly Thom Yorke, was known for being pretty bad at being interviewed. You can see evidence of this on the documentary Meeting People Is Easy. It seems it’s time for another band to take their place in the land of one word answers, awkward pauses, and general annoyance. Here we have an interview done by Bryant Park with Sigur Ros on NPR earlier in the month. It seems from comments that his interviewing skills were sub-par and I quote from one comment “Who the fuck would want to answer questions like this for a living?” Jonsi near the end does little out burst about Hopelandic crushing all our little fagile hopeful dreams about elves and fairies.
If you haven’t at least heard the name The Parson Red Heads while living in LA and going out to shows, being a hipster and eating at Bright Spot (who got rid of the roaches and are now are rated an A), then something didn’t go right for you at birth. Only a few months after moving from Oregon to LA, they signed with Yukon Records and in August released their first official full length King Giraffe. Since before that release they had already played with Maria Taylor, Cursive, Mother Hips, The Autumn Defense, Earlimart, and played in the Sunset Junction just this past August, and now are currently on a 3 week tour up the West Coast. They are on the brink of explosion and it’s literally any day now before “it happens” for them. They are already getting played on raio stations and getting talked about on blogs and other music sites alike. To top all that off, they are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.
Here at Indie Schmarm we often will sit around and rate records on our own for hours going over what a perfect record is and what that means to us so on and so forth. Some perfect records that have been included in these conversations have been In The Aeroplane Over The Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, Kid A by Radiohead, Highway 61 by Bob Dylan, Lifted by Bright Eyes, Velvet Underground and Nico, Broken Social Scene’s self titled, Perfect From Now On by Built to Spill, Moon and Antarctica by Modest Mouse, Ys by Joanna Newsom, Astral Weeks by Van Morrison, and you get the idea. Not too long ago I decided to make In Reverie by Saves The Day a perfect record. I still sometimes feel I might have rushed that decision, but I’m sticking to it as of now. It’s one of my favorite produced records as well as having really really solid songs. The influential factor though hasn’t been as high as other past records, so it can be debatable. The old ground zero fans of Saves The Day will tell you that nothing is hardly worth listening to after Through Being Cool and later fans will claim In Reverie is the best record they’ve made and Sound The Alarm is a dip (I am one of those later people, though I still really like Sound The Alarm). Stay What You Are seems to be a good middle ground everyone can agree on for the most part.
The Happy Hollows are one of those bands that you see when you’re at a friend’s show and they open or close the night and you don’t know who they are, but as soon as they start playing you want to stay and see the whole set. The lead singer and guitar player Sarah Negahdari is one of the spunkiest people you’ll ever meet, and it really comes through in the music. She’ll roll around on the floor, flail her head around, and even does finger tapping. She does get a break from singing sometimes and bassist Charlie Mahoney takes the mic for a song or three. They have a fast borderline punk sound similar to that of The Pixies, and Sarah sounds a tiny bit like Kim Gordon if she were excited, except Kim is scary and stares at you from the edge of your bed while you sleep at night.
I have a friend who’s pretty much not a person and doesn’t hold back expressing his feelings about it and other things. He’s cynical, he’s oppenly annoyed at morons, and most importantly it’s what Indie Schmarm needs on a friday morning with no sleep. This is an old post he blogged somewhere and I took it from him because it really identifies with today’s youth and gives a smart and educational look at the values of the current generation. Just think of applying this to pretty much any song you hear that really shouldn’t be being listened to really by anyone, but with a little extra sprinkle of hate (and yes, She Wants Revenge IS the worst band of all time):
This edition of “Get To Know” your local/underground up and coming artists brings us Castledoor. The briefest history in the world about a band goes as follows: Two of the forming members originally came from Northern California, but grouped together in Los Angeles and started to battle the musical world. In 2006 they put out a self released EP titled Follow The Dove and are currently working on a new record to be released by next year. I could ramble on and on about the history and all that, but let’s be honest, all you care about is if you like the music anyway. So go listen.
For next few months we are going to be doing a few pieces for our new “Get to Know” segments on up and coming bands that we think you all should check out and/or at the very least, keep and eye out on so you can be cool and say you heard about them first. We want to focus mostly on local LA bands, but this isn’t always going to be the case as is with this first band Brothers and Sisters. Though the band is currently residing in Texas, I was fortunate enough to see them live a few times here in California. The most memorable was in Costa Mesa at the Detroit Bar where the The Parson Red Heads accompanied them for a great night of music.
Brothers and Sisters are one of those live bands that just get your attention. They aren’t theatrical and aren’t trying to be anything or anybody else, but simply grab your attention by being good musicians and playing good music. They are solid and genuinely look like they are having a lot of fun on stage, which I’ve been saying for years is one of the key factors to a great live show.
On 2004’s Album of the Year, Tim Kasher detailed the various highs and lows of a year long relationship and made it a break out success for The Good Life, gaining praise from critics and fans alike. Having spent the last two years recording and touring behind his other band, Cursive, Kasher is back with Good Life accomplices Ryan Fox (guitar, keys), Stephanie Drootin (bass) and Roger Lewis (drums) to release Help Wanted Nights.
Kasher’s recent move to Los Angeles from Omaha was partly due to his interest in writing screenplays and Help Wanted Nights is meant to serve as the musical backing to his first script of the same name. Meant to take place in a small town bar over the course of a week, it follows the perspectives of different struggling relationships that like his past lyrics, focus on the bar room fueled variety, “so pour me a drink and don’t pour it too weak and grab it from the top shelf ” (“Picket Fence”) and “I love your suffering, like gravity loves a stumbling drunk” (“Keely Aimee”). While lyrically the new album doesn’t mark much change for Kasher and his touches of clever word play, musically, this latest offering is a much simpler affair than any of the group’s previous work, stripped down numbers that rarely feature more than guitar, keys, bass and drums.
There are those few in the music industry that really work for it, regardless of not being taken that seriously at times. I refer to the gentleman in Wolf Parade. Dan has been nearly as busy as Spencer in other musical endeavors, Spencer however having the edge with Swan Lake, Sunset Rubdown and the occasional Frog Eyes. It’s rare one dedicates himself to do the amount of work Spencer does, following in similar foot steps to musicians like Ben Gibbard and the entirety of the Arts and Crafts crew, and I love every bit of it.
Broken Social Scene’s resident scruffy dream hunk, Kevin Drew, has posted a new b-side from his upcoming solo album Spirit If… up on his Ye Olde MySpace Profile. The song carries the quintessentially Drewish title of “Cocaine Skin” (it may be no “Gang Bang Suicide” but I’ll take it.) Personally, the tune puts me in mind of drifting down the Mississippi in a canoe, circa 1920, lying on my back, gazing up at a dreamlike canopy of stars that gradually morphs into a game of Asteroids, all while my Cajun man-servant, Pickle Joe, cooks up a mean cabbage soup on a little stove at the other end of the canoe (it’s a very long canoe.)
Spirit If… drops like a lysergic water balloon on September 18th via Arts & Crafts.
Yours,
Torquil Crossingham
So, a few years ago, I saw this band from Portland, OR play a small shitty bar in Eugene, OR with my friends The Parson Red Heads and now they’re getting rave reviews in Pitchfork and touring with the likes of The Hold Steady and David Vandervelde. Not bad for a band that self released their latest effort Wild Mountain Nation.
Wednesday, June 20th, Dave Bazan graced us with a few songs acoustically at Spaceland. He recently got off tour with Ben Gibbard, coming through LA at UCLA’s Royce Hall, and now a few months later here he was again, but with 1/4th the crowd and 1/10th the great headliner. He opened up with “Cold Beer and Cigarettes” followed Immediately by the Headphone’s song “Hot Girls”. From there he played a cover of which I didn’t know (unlike any good schmarm who should) followed by “Shit Talker”, “I Do”, “Selling Advertistments”, another cover “L’ Amour Stories” by Deerhoof, “Fewer Broken Pieces”, “Priests and Paramedics” and closed with “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen. It’s acoustic and Dave Bazan, always a good time. If you haven’t seen him yet, I recommend you do the next time he rolls out with any project.
Kevin Drew is my hero. This is why (sizzle). September 18th, Kevin Drew will deliver his first solo record to us…probably adorned with porn and pot made ribbon. Since the release of Broken Social Scene’s self titled, he has been touring with his circus of band members and doing who knows what with what and who. As reported earlier, he also had been working on his solo record over the last few years, and recently it seems has completed it or is near done. The first track released is titled “Tbtf” appropriately meaning “Too Beautiful To Fuck”, and was given to us recently for our listening . I love Kevin Drew and his lyrics, but he does push the boundaries even for me sometimes. “When I was a kid, you fucked me in the ass” is about the extent I can handle, but “you’re too beautiful to fuck” might even bring it over the edge. Looking at the track titles:
Last week I was able to catch New Zealand’s The Phoenix Foundation when they played a packed Spaceland on 06/04 with LA’s Deadly Syndrome and the less than full Echo on 06/05 with Austin, TX’s Brothers and Sisters. The six piece band was also in town for the screening of the new movie “Eagle Vs. Shark” that they perform on the soundtrack for.
We here at Indie Schmarm feel it is our duty to not only report the news, but now to also give a weekly recommendation of things that we feel are deemed worthy of our attention. We’ve decided to bring out the big guns and encompass multiple categories such as books, film, T.V., food, sites, culture, activities and of course music.
This last week’s Indie Schmarm recommendations:
The Music:
Joanna Newsom - Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band EP
Ys is the best record of 2006. It just is. There’s not much say in that matter. Sorry Sundseth, it’s just how the universe works. Right after finishing a tour with such said “Ys Street Band” she went in the studio and in 3 days recorded this EP using her touring band. She recorded a previously unreleased song called “Colleen”, and 2 others, “Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie” off The Milk-Eyed Mender and “Cosmia” off Ys. The musicians used, if you didn’t get a chance to see the live show, made her songs a bit on the blue grass sounding side complete with saw and banjo. The reconstruction of the songs was well put together and the band members themselves added their own parts to compliment each song well. I’m sure it was a tough challenge considering the awesome insanity Van Dyke Parks brought to the table for Ys.
We here at Indie Schmarm feel it is our duty to not only report the news, but now to also give a weekly recommendation of things that we feel are deemed worthy of our attention. We’ve decided to bring out the big guns and encompass multiple categories such as books, film, T.V., food, sites, culture, activities and of course music.
This last week’s Indie Schmarm recommendations:
The Places:
Not going to Tijuana, Mexico
We here at Indie Schmarm feel it is our duty to not only report the news, but now to also give a weekly recommendation of things that we feel are deemed worthy of our attention. We’ve decided to bring out the big guns and encompass multiple categories such as books, film, T.V., food, sites, culture, activities and of course music.
This last week’s Indie Schmarm recommendations:
The Music:
Maria Taylor - Lynn Teeter Flower
It’s time again for concert news given to those who are out of the loop and where life has them by the sack. It is our duty we feel to help the less fortunate. So get the pen and paper out and go nuts. This particular segment is mostly dedicated to our European followers.
Wilco:
We here at Indie Schmarm feel it is our duty to not only report the news, but now to also give a weekly recommendation of things that we feel are deemed worthy of our attention. We’ve decided to bring out the big guns and encompass multiple categories such as books, film, T.V., food, sites, culture, activities and of course music.
This last week’s Indie Schmarm recommendations:
The Music:
The Little Ones - Sing Song EP
She has it. She nails it. She sticks it. She wins the gold. The crowd goes crazy. This girl knows how to make a video, let alone be one of the best singers of our generation, that’s right, I said generation. Some new videos are on the prowl from her upcoming album called The Reminder. The videos are for the songs “1234″ and “My Moon My Man”. I threw a surprise in there for those who haven’t seen it.
When an artist passes away, especially early on in the career, labels go crazy trying to scramble everything they ever did for years to come. Soon to be released, hear Bradly Knoll taking a shit! Due out this summer! When one is obsessed with an artist, it isn’t so bad and you can always appreciate the attempt.
Kevin Drew is so pretty. I mean just look at him. According to not so deep inside sources, he was recently reported saying his solo record will come out in August! Off first thought, one would think that this will be just some pleasant acoustic record, but apprently it’s rather full and has some of the normal stars from Broken Social Scene (no pun intended). He of course did have full control over all songs, as BSS is more like a party with people Kevin himself probably not knowing contributing to the songs. Word on the street is that it still pretty much sounds like a BSS record, but you know, all Kevin. I will say though now that I will never get tired of hearing Feist’s lovely angelic voice on anything.
We here at Indie Schmarm feel it is our duty to not only report the news, but now to also give a weekly recommendation of things that we feel are deemed worthy of our attention. We’ve decided to bring out the big guns and encompass multiple categories such as books, film, T.V., food, sites, culture, activities and of course music.
This last week’s Indie Schmarm recommendations:
The Music:
The Parson Red Heads - King Giraffe
Hurray for Myspace and the internet. Now we can all become one with porn and dating site spam! The one good thing Myspace has ever done aside from bands being able to promote for free and allowing love to spawn from profiles is Artist on Artist. For those completely out of the loop, it’s a site dedicated to videos where artists interview each other. Interview/dick around that is. Some are pretty good and there’s a wide variety. There’s Tenacious D and Dave Gorhl (aka the funniest man alive), Jason Schwartzman and Mike Einzinger (Incubus). There’s even one with Weird Al and Seth Green. The one to really give attention to is Jeff Tweedy and Fred Armisen because who doesn’t want to see an interview with Jeff Tweedy and a dude who used to be in Blue Man Group? Enjoy this mindless entertainment for about 30 minutes then move on with your computer lonely life.
End Scene,
Dan Tana
Hey dudes and what not. Jonathan Davis and Meg White are gonna release another record! HEY! Zing! I will run this lame joke into the ground. Ok, Jack White will be releasing another record with Meg White on June 19th. Who’s excited!? Not us so much, but there will be some good songs and in theory we’re all extremely pumped.
We here at Indie Schmarm feel it is our duty to not only report the news, but now to also give a weekly recommendation of things that we feel are deemed worthy of our attention. We’ve decided to bring out the big guns and encompass multiple categories such as books, film, T.V., food, sites, culture, activities and of course music.
This last week’s Indie Schmarm recommendations:
The Music:
Jackson Browne - For Everyman
We here at Indie Schmarm feel it is our duty to not only report the news, but now to also give a weekly recommendation of things that we feel are deemed worthy of our attention. We’ve decided to bring out the big guns and encompass multiple categories such as books, film, T.V., food, sites, culture, activities and of course music.
This last week’s Indie Schmarm recommendations:
The Music:
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
We did a post recently where we gave some concert dates for those who are out of the loop and where life has them by the sack. It is our duty we feel to help the less fortunate. So get the pen and paper out and go nuts.
Yo La Tengo:
4/5 New Orleans LA, Tipitina’s
4/6 Houston TX, Warehouse Live
4/7 Austin TX, Stubb’s
4/8 Dallas TX, Granada
4/10 Tulsa OK, Cain’s
4/11 Lawrence, KS Granada
4/13 Indianapolis IN, Vogue
4/14 Madison WI,