a word to the wise, DO NOT WAIT FOR THE PROPER RELEASE OF PHRAZES FOR THE YOUNG. seriously, you'll hate yourself later. those amazon previews were SHIT SHIT SHIT. you cannot condense musical genius into thirty second snippets.
the band has recorded a cool acoustic session on KDHX (a St. Louis radio station) and you can snag the mp3s at Fuck yeah! Go team! or you can download them below.
additionally, they'll be playing Bottom of the Hill the day after their Cafe Du Nord show on the 20th. I'll be going to both shows, but I'm more excited about the one at BOTH, as it is my favourite venue ever. Nick even mentions it in one of The Strokes' interviews. every time I look at the calendars on the wall and see "The Strokes" in August of 2001, I cringe in envy.
I first heard about this band in SPIN, they did a little feature a few months back about bands that were named for places outside of their own home country. I listened to a couple of tracks online and was impressed but the band still hadn't released a full length album at that point, so I didn't pursue them any further.
little did I know then that their debut, I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose (released this July), is spellbinding. I've been listening to it non-stop since I bought it last Sunday.
produced by Jim Abbiss (of Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not fame), the album is filled with fuzz-y guitars that scream of My Bloody Valentine, but with a twist that will shake you to the core. I can only describe it as Joy Division meets early Pearl Jam, with the obvious advantage of modern production. it has that restless energy of The Gaslight Anthem wrapped in up in that weird sensation which occurs when things get so personal that they become detached.
it's just damn good music and it's scary how I can just picture their live shows. slightly awkward but redeemed by the brutal honesty of the music. I'm not talking about lyrics here. I mean the music itself. it's so personal, so anxious, it's like reading your journals from high school. observe:
I'm really glad that this band has combined the shoe-gaze goodness of MBV with more post-punk elements and a disheartened voice to match.
funnily enough, the American band The Pains of Being Pure At Heart have snagged all of the attention for bringing back MBV-type lo-fi, but they also sound a shit load like Belle and Sebastian. this places them on the other end of the happy spectrum (ie the cheery, upbeat side), as opposed to Bombay Bicycle Club, who a tad on the gloomier side.
you can hear lots of influences in their music, sure, but Bombay Bicycle Club sounds more like the whirlwind ups and downs of a hazy night on the town than anything else.
Connor was the one who recommended that I listen to this album. thank you, very much. really, really good call. visit the band on MYSPACE
in a slightly related note, I've been reading a lot of Hornby lately and it's made me realize that people in the UK look at Indian food like Americans look at Chinese. "let's go grab a curry" is such a great fucking expression.
not to be the bearer of bad news, but NME has a looksie at why Strokes IV is taking so long to shape up.
"It's weird with the band, a band is actually a great way to ruin a friendship." my heart stopped when I read that. I hope all of this is just a cover up for Albert (whom I sincerely hope is ok, but I think we can basically assume that he is indeed in rehab). since when have The Strokes been a democracy, anyways? I always thought that Jules was adamantly anal about his songwriting, with a few minor exceptions when he co-wrote songs on FIoE.
a while ago, I found this picture online, and it made me so happy (I'm the one grinning like a son-of-a-gun on the left, with the pale arms). I'm super bummed out that the band has broken up; they had three good records and one hell of a live show.
...and in the process, they also have deprived me of seeing Free Energy : (
here's what Free Energy's people had to say:
"a new country-wide tour is in the works for the early part of the new year, so it won't be long. Luckily, we have been able to hold on to the Boston date (which will now be a Free Energy show) and keep in the dates from Dallas-Philly in late November. There is a new NYC date announced as well below.
To sum it up:
The following dates (with the Rakes) have been cancelled:
10/31: Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy* 11/01: San Francisco, CA @ Slims* 11/03: Salt Lake City, UT @ The Urban Lounge* 11/04: Denver, CO @ The Bluebird* 11/06: Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock* 11/07: Chicago, IL @ Double Door* 11/09: Toronto, ON @ Mod Club* 11/10: Montreal, QC @ Petit Campus* 11/12: New York, NY @ Highline Ballroom*
The new Free Energy touring tinerary looks like this:
FREE ENERGY TOUR DATES:
10/24: London, UK @ Cargo (DFA Night) 10/26: London, UK @ Barfly 10/27: London, UK @ Rough Trade Records (Hoxton) In-Store (Early Show)/Waterats (Late Show) 10/28: London, UK @ Windmill 11/11: Boston, MA @ Great Scott 11/19: Dallas, TX @ The Cavern 11/20: Austin, TX @ The Mohawk 11/21: Baton Rouge, LA @ Spanish Moon 11/22: Atlanta, GA @ The Earl 11/23: Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506 11/24: Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar 11/25: Washington, DC @ DC9, set TBA 11/27: Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie 11/28: New York, NY @ Santos Party House"
Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK [mp3] I think this was my first Pistols song-- long before I became fascinated with Sid Vicious, punk music, and/or mohawks. haha no, I'm kidding, I never liked mohawks, although Robert De Niro looked pretty bitchin' when he sported one in Taxi Driver (especially in that ending scene, when there's blood everywhere and he does that gun thing to his own head...genius.) oh, and Joe Strummer looked good all of the time anyways.
...but then there's this. we can sigh, we can laugh or we can choose to turn our heads and concentrate on the bassline in "NYC Cops", "Juicebox", or "Is This It". yeah, I think I know which one I'm doing.
I don't feel like I really need to talk about the Sex Pistols, I mean, come on, they're the fucking SEX PISTOLS. in short, they were a great UK punk band with one really great LP to their name (it actually was in the first pile of vinyl that I bought when I first started collecting...I had heard the album before, of course). for the Pistols, like all great bands, I feel like the music speaks for itself. listening to Never Mind the Bollocks really serves as a forceful reminder of what an insanelyexplosiveyear formusic1977 was. the Sex Pistols will always be the greatest "fuck you" band. no pun intended.
I tried posting yesterday but blogger was being a biatch. so it's not my fault, blame the internet for the lack of posts yesterday. here I go play catch up.
of course we know which indie bassist said that XD
I love love LOVE that The Strokes and/or Jules are popping up all over the media. I just got my issue of SPIN and there's a fantastic interview with Jules in it. Katie (Katzen) was nice enough to email me the scans, but I wanted to wait (I have no idea why)
here are the scans if you're not subscribed to SPIN (which you should be)
http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/xx116/kmkane23/sc003ba253.jpg http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/xx116/kmkane23/setsfysf.jpg http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/xx116/kmkane23/gfutryurtyu.jpg (I love that picture on the couch...for some reason it now reminds me of Tobias Funke saying to his wife Lindsey "there's the woman I'm sexually attracted to!") http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/xx116/kmkane23/dgydtyetuy.jpg (the wiped out bit says "do you have to grow up in a ghetto RoboCop war zone to make rock music?")
by the way, Katie, was it you whom I convinced of SPIN's greatness? or did you get the magazine all along?
ok, so I'm a shameless, bloody liar. I promised to stop posting every little Jules thing I came across but I JUST CAN'T HELP MYSELF. 7/8 of this website has become devoted to the damn solo album and I am very comfortable with that.
I love it when people make mockeries of highly-sensitive works of art. so when I watched this video, the band's rendition of my favourite song from Humbug (and definitely its most heartfelt), I convulsed with laughter. seriously, genius. my favourite bit was 1:14. well done, Alex. this is the band that I fell in love with. I completely forgive him for his subpar energy at this year's concert.
I know I usually do belated posts, but in the spirit of keeping things fresh, I'm going the opposite route and posting tomorrow's post today. take THAT, predictability.
I just realized that I never scrambled to find an mp3 of "River of Brakelights" and then I realized that I hadn't checked my RSS feed (or the included subscription to hype machine either) or NME or anything else since Friday. so here is me being a responsible music blogger: Julian Casablancas - River of Brakelights [mp3](SOURCE) I can't believe that I didn't like this when I first heard it. it must have been the fact that it was morning, I was tired and listening through on my brother's computer with his shitty speakers. I love the countdown thing he has on his website.
I like the photo, though, it's my new desktop background
I've been listening to "River of Brakelights" on repeat, and I'm getting a tad addicted to it
I'm kind of ticked off because I just NOW realized that the tattoo artist who did my second baby on Sunday fucked up and I now have a grammatically incorrect tattoo. it's supposed to be ";" then "," then "." that's how it was in Shelley's original manuscript, and that's how the obsessive English major/grammar freak in me wanted it. semi colons are my favourite punctuation marks, and now my tattoo makes me look like a daft person who can't use them properly. oh well. I guess that's what I get for trusting tattoo shops that reek of cannabis.
I only realized it because I took a photo of the thing for a friend of mine. if I were more vane and spent more time in front of mirrors, maybe it wouldn't have taken me 2 days to figure out. oh well, I still think that it looks badass.
it's interesting, I'll give him that. I liked 11th dimension a lot more but I'm happy just to hear him sing. it's almost like Nickel Eye meets Muse. what do you think?
this post is dedicated to Mr. Shakespeare, and his fabulous play Much Ado About Nothing, which I watched tonight. at this point, I am more or less acquainted with 80% of his plays, but I've still gotta tackle those histories.
I was surprised at how many songs turned up in my itunes search for "nothing" (tells you a lot about the optimism of musicians, eh?), so I limited the ones I posted to contemporary songs that I really liked.
Winston Audio - Nothing To Hide [mp3] strange coincidence: when I went to see Winston Audio, they were opening for Audrye Sessions, a local band with a "nothing" song in their discography which I've posted above.
