Sounds of the Summer: 2010
It’s been a hot and itchy summer here in New York, luckily it’s almost over. The good thing about this summer is there’s been some great music to come out. Most of which has that summertime feeling. So here’s a list of songs and descriptions with links to download them. Do what you please with them. Make a playlist, stream them, play them while you’re having hot, sweaty, nasty sex in your Bushwick loft. Do whatever, just don’t send me a picture of the latter.
The first song is an upbeat feel good song from up and coming husband-wife duo Tennis called “Marathon” that by summers end I still might consider my favorite song of the summer. The vocal melody will be stuck in your head for days and if this song can’t make you feel good, then you might want to go see a shrink, because you got some serious problems bro. The song is the B-side off the 7″ released by Underwater Peoples. The A-side is a great track named “Baltimore”. You can download both of those songs via Right Hear Media by clicking the links below.
Tennis – Marathon
Tennis – Baltimore
Bethany Cosentino and Snacks
Crocodiles are back with a new LP coming out September 14th on Fat Possum. The title track “Sleep Forever” is a fuzzed out pop song with a few “La-La’s” and it’s a perfect summertime track. I wrote about it for Impose and that can be found here. Download courtesy of Impose.
This next song is so catchy it’ll stick to you like a dingleberry. Did I take that too far? Oh well, it’s fucking true! Philadelphia’s SLUTEVER is a pretty unknown band with some damn good songs. “So Prone” is off their EP Sorry I’m Not Sorry which can be downloaded for free right’chere! If you don’t want to hear the whole EP, check out this song with it’s “Ooo Ooo” yumminess.
Dude, this song right here is recorded on a cell phone. Actually the whole goddamn EP is. How hip is that?!? Hip as shit, but it really is an awesome lo-fi electro pop song. The name of the band rocks too! GAY BOIZ are a guy-girl duo who apparently like to get fucked up. At least that’s what their song “Disco Banger” tells me. It’s off their EP 429-2649. Get it, it’s a cell phone number. Ha! As with the song before, you can download the whole EP here. Or you can just download “Disco Banger” below.
Zola Jesus
Panda Bear is from Animal Collective, duh! He came out with a 7″ this summer, another duh! Here’s a good track off of it. Download via Stranger Dance
Zola Jesus is a hot broad from LA that makes weird, atmospheric, electronic pop that’s as beautiful as her. This song is probably her best effort. Peep this shit dawg!! Download courtesy of RCRD LBL.
Total Slacker is a band from Brooklyn made up of a boyfriend and girlfriend, they are super cute too! They make stoner garage pop with some great vocal harmonies. Like only a couple can do. They have a 7″ out right now on Impose Records and this is the A-Side. Tucker totally shreds live too, he goes ape shit dude, watch out when he takes off his glasses. Some crazy shit is going to go down when he does that! Download courtesy of Impose.
Total Slacker – Crystal Necklace
Prince Rama @ Indian Restaurant on 1st Ave
Prince Rama – Lightning Fossil
Magic Kids, obv...
Magic Kids – Summer
Magic Kids – Good To Be
Magic Kids – Hey Boy
Who is Hanoi Janes? That’s a good question, his label Captured Tracks doesn’t even want you to know. Apparently he’s some guy from Dresden, Germany who records on an 8-track. That’s cool and all, but who really cares. All I know is this is a great summertime track with a summertime title. Download courtesy of Seizure Chicken.
My friend told me he heard this next song at a Mellow Mushroom in Alabama, go figure. All I know is somehow Cults, a band who only has like 3 songs is fucking blowing up! This song is really good though, it has the catchiest glockenspiel/vocal melodies too. Props for bringin’ back the glockenspiel yo! I used to play a game where I would play it when I woke up and watch my roommate whistle it for the rest of the day. I think she hates me for that, but it was quite fun at the time.
Remember that movie about that Jamaican bobsled team with John Candy. Well they made a song to raise money and you can view that on this page. Well apparently they have changed their style completely and lost the accents. Because their newest song is a brilliant little number by COOLRUNNINGS called “I Am You” and call me crazy, but I think it’s a little better than their song from the 90′s about bobsledding. See for yourself!
This one’s pretty good.
COOLRUNNINGS – I Am You (this one’s a bit better)
You know the old saying, “Women, can’t live with em’, can’t live without em’.” Well that’s just silly, Women are a great band and they have a new album coming out in September in America that you can’t live without. But you don’t have to wait till then to hear the first single off of it. Thanks to Impose you can hear it right now. Right here!
So if you’re a regular reader of this blog, which you probably aren’t because let’s be honest, who is? But if you are, you’ve read about Beach Fossils already, you’ve seen me go on and on about them, but what’s a summer list without them. Here’s one of the tracks of their debut LP, which is still in the running for best summertime album. Download courtesy of FADER.
Beach Fossils – Daydream
Dale Earnhardt Jr. might not be having the best season on the track.Off the track however it’s been a great year. He’s seen his song “Vocal Chords” get so much blog coverage it almost makes the whole part of losing his dad seem like not a big deal. Oops, too soon? My bad, but really this band has made a great summertime song and caused a lot of internet buzz.
Beat Connection
Dale Earnhardt Jr. – Vocal Chords
Starting off with the sweet sounds of the ocean and having a title like “In the Water”, how could I not include Beat Connection’s summer jam? High pitched voice, angelic “ahhhs” in the background, a nifty little drum beat, and steel drums makes this song a summer time banger. Plus that little synth solo in the middle is pretty nifty as well.
Beat Connection – In the Water
Lost Boy’s track “Fast Burn” is exactly what you’d expect from the title. Clocking in at 2 minutes and full of energy and noise. It starts off with the strum of one chord, gives some space, then kicks in to a fast paced rocker. This boy is apart of the New York garage scene and this song is one of the best songs to come out of that scene this year.
Mississippi’s own Dead Gaze released a great song this summer too. It’s hazy and fun, just like summer should be! This song is probably in my top 5 of summer releases though, so make sure you check it out. I saw these guys at SXSW before I had even heard of them and they were very impressive. If you get the chance to see them don’t pass it up. Download courtesy of Weekly Tape Deck
Dead Gaze – We All Belong To You
In case you were wondering, I would say I found out about at least 1/3 of these tracks from the blog Right Hear. In the past 5 months it has become my go to blog for new music. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend you do.
For all you computer illiterate readers out there, to download these tracks, right click on the link and click “Save Target As” and for all you hipsters who don’t know how to use a Mac but have one for some reason, you hold control and click on the track and click “Download Linked File As.” Hope you enjoy these 19 artists. I’m sure I left some out, but tough shit. For everyone wondering, Deezer where’s all the hip-hop? Well, that’s for another post, so keep waiting on that one.
Brooklyn I love you, but my heart’s in San Francisco
So it’s been a hot minute since my last post. Since then I have seen quite a few shows and the ones that stand out to me the most, other than the Spiritualized show mentioned in the post before this, have all been San Francisco artists. About a month ago Thee Oh Sees, who even before I ever saw them I considered to be one of my favorite current bands played 4 shows in 3 days in NYC. I caught 2 of the shows, the Vice Party at Party Central and the first ever Rock Yard Slip N’ Slide party. Both of them lived up to my high expectations even though the first one Brigid(synth/vocals) didn’t even show up and the 2nd one her synth wasn’t working properly. I still wasn’t let down at all. I might add that both venues are great and both shows were fuckin’ free, bitchin!!
Thee Oh Sees @ The Rock Yard (photo by Andrew St. Clair)
Last week Ty Segall and Royal Baths(formerly The Baths) brought their amazing live shows to town and I was able to catch both shows. The first show was at Cake Shop and sadly I missed Royal Baths and everyone I talked to that night wouldn’t stop talking about how good it was. Ty Segall’s live set was a rowdy psych-infused set that had the crowd going wild and even included a sloppy Skynyrd cover which was brilliant. It was so good that I made sure to go to the show the next night at Death By Audio even though there were about 4 shows that night I wanted to see. That show was a mad house. It was sold-out and the most packed I’ve ever seen DBA. Royal Baths killed it with their psyched out guitar heavy set and definitely made a new fan with me. Ty Segall played an even better show than the night before and I might even be inclined to say that it was the best show I’ve seen since moving here(other than Spiritualized at Radio City, but that’s not even comparable).
Ty Segall @ Death By Audio (photo by Eric Rex)
These shows and the previous Fresh & Only’s show that I covered in an earlier post have made me realize that the garage scene in San Francisco might be the best music scene in the country right now. Don’t get me wrong, I love Brooklyn’s scene and think it’s one of the most important scenes of the past 15 years but there’s something going on in the Bay Area right now. What sets San Fran’s scene apart from other garage scenes in the country is the psychadelic element that most of these bands have. It’s not a surprise that the lo-fi psych capital is the Bay Area either. After all this is where the psychadelic scene originated way back in the 60′s. My friend tells me that the reason this is the case is because all these bands do when they’re home is take acid and play music. That’s fine with me, keep it up, just make sure you don’t “Syd Barrett” yourself. We all know how that ends. We also know what happens when good bands stop taking acid. Look at Pink Floyd post-Barrett. Those albums are some of the biggest steaming piles of shit I have ever heard. That’s why every douche bag you met in college had a Dark Side of the Moon poster in his dorm room.
Typical Dark Side of the Moon fan
Seriously though, no other bands outside the bay area have been able to recreate the psychadelic goodness that bands like Thee Oh Sees, Royal Baths, and Fresh & Only’s have made. To add to that, some of my favorite lo-fi garage pop acts are coming from the bay area. I would be tempted to say that Hunx and His Punx have released one of the best collections of pop songs to come out in the past 10 years with Gay Singles. Shannon, one of the “punkettes” in Hunx band has her own band Shannon and the Clams who blew me away when I saw them at SXSW. I had never even heard of them before I stumbled upon their show at a co-op with 15 others and it was easily one of the highlights of SXSW. Their album is amazing too.
My drunken tweet during one of the Ty Segall show pretty much sums up my feelings the best. “Only time I wish I didn’t live in BK is when San Fran comes to town. #tysegall #royalbaths.”
Below are some videos and links to songs of the bands I’ve mentioned. If you haven’t already checked out these bands I highly suggest you do.
If you click that colored text right here you can stream 3 songs off the OOP Royal Baths(when they were The Baths) debut cassette.
Here’s Shannon and the Clam’s latest video that was released this week for their song “Hunk Hunt”
Here’s a video for Ty Segall’s song “Lovely One” off his 2009 LP Lemons released on Goner Records.
Here’s a video of Thee Oh Sees at a house show at 2008′s SXSW
Here’s a video from Hunx and His Punx off of Gay Singles for the song “You Don’t Like Rock ‘n Roll”
Last but not least here’s a video for The Fresh & Only’s song “Invisible Forces” off their LP Grey Eyed Girls on Woodsist.
As always you can click on the colored band names and be linked to their myspace and hear more songs by each band I mention.
Spiritualized scheduled to perform all of their classic album Ladies and Gentlemen… @ Radio City
BrooklynVegan announced today that Spiritualized will be playing all of Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space at Radio City Music Hall on July 30th. This is pretty big news for this blog considering this blog is named after a Spacemen 3 song/album. More info on the performance and re-issue is here. Who knows, maybe Dr. John will come out and perform “Cop Shoot Cop” with them.
To hold you over until the show. Here’s a video some fanboy made for the title track with some photos and pan-outs. He also puts the really “deep” lyrics up in the video. So deep bro, so deep.
Recent Sights & Sounds: Beach Fossils, Jay Electronica, Janelle Monae, and Kendall Johansson
This past Saturday I finally got to see Beach Fossils, a band I’ve been trying to see for quite a while. It was at the record release party that I wrote about in my last entry. I showed up at 4 which was the scheduled starting time for opener Teepee, but nobody was on. There weren’t many people there and the Co-op was a very small venue. Right away I made sure I bought my clear vinyl copy of the album that’s release was being celebrated. Teepee went on about 15 minutes after I got there and I really enjoyed his set. One dude with an acoustic guitar running through effects and a loop/sampler. The tone on the acoustic was great and he had some poppy chord progressions. I wouldn’t pay much money to see Teepee if he were the headliner but I feel like he was the perfect opener for this type of event. The crowd got much larger during Teepee’s set and I knew that it was going to be a tight fit for Beach Fossils. I also realized when the crowd got bigger that the show must have been unofficially sponsored by The Turkey’s Nest because every person that showed up was carrying the Turkey’s Nest signature Go-Cup. So my friends and I made our way to the front during the set break and while they were setting up. Beach Fossils realized they needed some drum sticks. Luckily my friend had a practice space right up the road so he ran there and got them some.
Right when he got back they started playing. They let the audience know that they’d be playing the album in its entirety. There was no set list they just had one of the co-op’s workers read off from the label on their record between songs. They ended up not playing 2 of the songs because they didn’t know them but they played an extra song at the end. The band sounded great and the venue was amazing. I encourage any of you to go by Co-op 87 during their hours of operation and check out what they have. The people there are great people and so are the guys in Beach Fossils. I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
Jay Electronica
Tonight there is a free Jay Electronica show at Red Hook Park in Brooklyn at 7. For those of you that don’t keep up with music. Jay is the next big thing in hip-hop. He’s from New Orleans and he’s been hyped by the likes of Jay-Z, Nas, and Diddy. He doesn’t have an album out but he’s got one of the best mixtapes that has come out in the past 2 years. You can get that courtesy of Datpiff right here.
Janelle Monae - ArchAndroid
Last week I had a musical experience that probably hasn’t happened to me since the first time I heard The Soft Bulletin or 69 Love Songs back in High School. I got obsessed with a newer release and listened to it non-stop. The album is the new release from Janelle Monae called The ArchAndroid. Every time a track would end and another would begin I felt like a kid on Christmas day opening presents and having no clue what to expect. Every song is a different genre and they’re all top notch. There’s been a lot written about this album considering it’s only been out 2 weeks and everything that has been written has been positive. The worst review it’s gotten was from Rolling Stone, but they haven’t been relevant since Reagan was in office. Her songs and her performances give me chills. Just watch this and see why I get chills. For some reason WordPress is not cooperating with embedding videos so just click here to see the video.
Kendal Johansson - Blue Moon (Big Star cover)
The last artist I’m going to talk about during this post is a Swedish singer on Sincerely Yours named Kendal Johansson. She has a new song/video out that is a cover of Big Star’s classic “Blue Moon” which is one of my favorite Big Star songs. It’s a minimalistic cover that I swear features the Windows 98 startup sound. The video and the song are both beautifully magnificent. I’m trying to fix the embedding problem but until then click here.
Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils
This show was just announced a few hours ago and is on Saturday(today) at Co-Op 87 in Greenpoint right off the Nassau Ave stop on the G train(Oh Fuck! The G train?). It’s to celebrate the release of Beach Fossils‘ debut album. Which is one of my favorite albums released this year. It also just got 7.8 from p4k. Making it only .2 points away from getting the beloved “Best New Music.” Which is pretty much a guarantee to becoming a buzzband. If you haven’t heard of them yet, well I’ll just say I’d hate to be THAT lame. They’re going on a nationwide tour starting July 7th but playing 5 shows in the Northeast before then. Two in NYC at the Mercury Lounge on June 19th and another at Bruar Falls on July 1st with Woven Bones. The Co-Op will be selling the hard to get Limited Edition press of the new Beach Fossils record on clear vinyl, hand numbered with silk screened sleeves. They are the only place in NYC that will be selling this. Get them while you can, but for God’s sake leave one copy for me. I would recommend riding a bike. It’ll be sunny, and nobody wants to ride the fucking G train.
May 29
Teepee – 4:00 pm
Beach Fossils – 4:45 pm
BYOB (don’t drink on the sidewalk though)
Co-Op 87 @ 87 Guernsey St. Brooklyn, NY
Free
Hoodstock in Bed-Stuy: 5/22/10
Hoodstock
This past Saturday I was with a group of friends off the Morgan stop walking to the train to go to a typical WillyB rooftop party when we were stopped by a frantic man on a single speed with a gnarly grill. He was full of energy and trying to get to Willoughby St. in Bed-Stuy and my friend gladly helped him get there. Out of random luck he says “Thanks, it’s a New Orleans Bounce show, y’all should come.” That’s when my friend points back at me and says “talk to this guy.” This is also when I started freaking out and frantically asking questions myself. He informed me that there was a bounce show going on until at least 5 am in Bed-Stuy featuring Big Freedia and Rusty Lazer. Needless to say at this point I knew what I was going to be doing that night. I just had to find someone to go with me.
Once I got to the rooftop party I asked a few of the people I knew there if they wanted to go, even people from Baton Rouge. For some reason they wanted to stay at a cliche rooftop party instead of see a type of music that is just now getting out of New Orleans. In a fucking Bed-Stuy basement at that. I can’t hate though, the party was pretty legit. Most of the time I was there was spent looking up information about Hoodstock which I found out was at a secret location that was only announced the night before. I spent the rest of the time texting people I knew that I thought would want to go. After a half hour of this I finally met up with someone and we were off to Hoodstock.
photo by: Deezer's iphone
Getting out of the cab it was obvious where this party was at. There were gobs of people outside and music blaring. I had read on my phone that it was 10 dollars to get in, but it was 1:30 maybe even closer to 2 am. At this point and there was no sign of any door guys. It was semi-controlled chaos when we showed up. The room was full of cigarette smoke and kush and to quote George Jones, “It was hotter than a 2 dollar pistol” in there. The sissy’s had their shirts off, girls were removing items of clothing. There was a rope swing for anyone to swing in. Within the first minute of being there I knew I had stumbled onto something right up my alley.
photo by: Deezer's iphone
Sadly we showed up too late to catch all the acts including Japanther, Big Freedia, and others. Luckily the party was still poppin’. The DJ’s were playing a good mix of southern rap, some bounce, and I remember the crowd going ape shit when Human League came on. I knew this party was pretty crunk but it was made blatantly obvious to me at one point. I was looking for the bathroom and I tried to open the only door that was in this basement and it was locked. I turn around to the guy behind me and ask him “is there a bathroom in this bitch?” He replied by pointing at the puddle I was standing in. Then he pointed into the large sized room next to me where 3 guys were posted up in each corner relieving themselves. At that point I just enthusiastically said “Holy shit, a fuckin’ PISS ROOM, AWESOME!!!!” Then I posted up in the corner and joined the party.
I left the party around 5 am and it was still going strong. The crowd was definitely smaller than when I got there, but it still didn’t look like it was ending any time soon. Village Voice was there taking photos. You can view those here.
Lee Hazlewood - Love and Other Crimes
It’s been a few days since my last post, and I still don’t have a job. So to make me feel a little less worthless I’ve decided to make a post about some of the music I’ve been listening to lately. The first of these is Pussy Galore’s version of Exile on Main Street that is a limited edition(550) cassette only release from 1986. I stumbled upon this the other day when I was trying to find the re-issue of Exile on mediafire and the first thing that popped up was this. Pussy Galore is a band I respect highly and I don’t think I need to say any more about Exile. Three days ago the LA Times posted a blog entry about this album that explains it well, and I don’t feel like rewording their article so you can just view that here.
Another artist I have been listening to a good bit lately is Lee Hazlewood. If you didn’t know he is the producer that showed Phil Spector the ropes. When I found that out I knew I had to hear everything he ever touched. I discovered him by accident by fooling around with “Moods” links on allmusic and clicking on psychadelic. It told me to check out Nancy & Lee his album with Nancy Sinatra. Within one listen I fell in love with his baritone voice and magnificent production values. Lately I’ve been listening to his whiskey soaked concept country album called Trouble is a Lonesome Town and his classic album Love and Other Crimes.
The last artist I’m going to mention is a garage act out of Nashville by the name of Natural Child. Generally I don’t like listening to most garage rock unless the sun is down and the booze is out. There are always exceptions, like a few Black Lips albums, anything by John Dwyer, and a few others, but Natural Child is now on this list. They only have a 7″ out with 4 songs and some other songs on their myspace, all of which will stick you with all their hooks. They have songs about being forced to fuck a chick, and smoking crack with friends. Both of which most readers(and this writer) of this blog can really relate to. On August 2nd they will board the Rocks Off Boat with those crazy kids from Atlanta the Black Lips to play their only New York show that is listed on myspace.
Click on the read more link at the end of this paragraph to get to the downloads. You didn’t think I’d put those on the front page did you? If you enjoy what you hear don’t be a fucking lame ass and go buy the record, or shirt, or give them blowjobs. At the very least go to their shows. If you own the rights to these songs and would like them taken down, let me know. None of these were uploaded by me. Read more…
The Rolling Stones: Exile on Main Street
The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
This year marks the 40th anniversary of what some people claim to be the best rock album ever made, Exile on Main Street. I would never make a claim for any record to be called the best rock album ever made, but I will say that other than Pet Sounds this is the album that I have listened to the most in my life. It’s the album that made me stop seeing The Rolling Stones as paw-paw rock, and start seeing them for the genius that they are.
Today is the release date for the newly re-mastered and re-issued 2 disc version of Exile, with 10 bonus tracks and more outtakes. Normally I don’t give two shits about release dates and re-issues but this is a big deal to me. It might be because NPR and Jimmy Fallon made it such a big deal, but regardless I’m very happy about this, and happy that these media outlets are making it seem like such a big deal. NPR has the bonus tracks streaming until the end of May and they also have interviews with Keith, Mick, and their current producer Don Was that I will post links to at the end of the article.
Last week, unbeknownst to me, Jimmy Fallon spent the whole week celebrating Exile’s re-release. Every performer that week performed a song from Exile, which included ass clowns like Green Day, old burnt out hippies like Phish, guilty pleasure of mine Sheryl Crow, and an Australian country singer with highlights in his hair named Keith Urban. I don’t care about missing any of these cheeseballs. What I was upset about missing is the limited commercial premier of the documentary Stones in Exile. The story behind Exile is just as good as the music on Exile. I don’t feel like explaining it here because it’s been written about so many times by so many people and if you listen to the NPR interviews they talk a good bit about it.
Below are links to the NPR interviews/articles and a link to some torrents for the Stones in Exile documentary. I haven’t tried the torrent links so I don’t know if they’re legit or not but they seem to be. If you don’t like torrents there are also 3 HOT FILE links to download the documentary. Also, if this is your first time hearing about Exile on Main Street or you haven’t ever heard the album before. Do yourself a favor and stop being a twat and put down the new Band of Horses record and go pick up some real Rock ‘n’ Roll. Also if you click on the Green Day link you can see their terrible performance of “Rip This Joint”, I couldn’t find any other performances from that week but from the looks of it that’s probably not a bad thing.
Stones in Exile Part 1 HOT FILE
Stones in Exile Part 2 HOT FILE
Stones in Exile Part 3 HOT FILE
NPR Morning Edition interview w/ Mick Jagger
NPR Morning Edition interview w/ Keith Richards
NPR All Songs Considered interview with Don Was
NPR’s list of musician’s favorite Exile tracks featuring Britt Daniel, Liz Phair, and others.
The Fresh & Onlys, Golden Triangle, The Babies, and Coasting @ Monster Island Basement 5/14/10
Golden Triangle @ Monster Island Basement
Last night Golden Triangle headlined a show at a semi-packed house at Monster Island with The Fresh & Onlys a band that I’ve heard many great things about live and a band whose few songs I’ve heard while being around friends I’ve really enjoyed. I was confused as to why Golden Triangle was headlining and not The Fresh & Onlys but just after their first song it was apparent to me why.
Coasting took the stage around 9:30, they’re a 2 person band with a chick on guitar and another on drums. Both of them sing, trading off on lead vocals. The drummer was on point and the drums sounded great, better than any of the drums that came after them actually. The guitar had a surf tone on it but was turned down a bit too much. The vocals were poppy and relied on a lot of “ooos and ahhhhs” which I usually like but it seemed like those were the catchiest aspects of this band. The guitar for the most part was boring and repetitive. They have a song called “Snoozefest” which best described the first part of the set. I did enjoy the last few songs which included “Snoozefest” though.
The Babies came on next and for all of y’all who don’t know, this band has one of the dudes from Woods and one of the broads from Vivian Girls. I had never heard anything from The Babies but I really fancy Vivian Girls and Woods. The Babies are a 5 piece happy, poppy garage band that sing about breaking the law and other fun things. I enjoyed them much more than Coasting but it still wasn’t my bag some would say. As is the case with Coasting(and most bands) it seems their best songs are on their myspace. Some of the songs were really fun and I liked how their last song was only a minute and a half so that the dude-bro who pushed his way to the front for the last song only had 30 seconds to let loose. I also liked the Cassie from Vivian Girls‘ cat tattoo, super jealous of that.
Up next was the band everyone was there to see The Fresh & Onlys. They are a psych-garage band from the Bay Area which in my opinion has the best music scene right now. Forget Brooklyn, forget Memphis, fuck Austin, Portland can eat shit. The Bay Area hands down has the best scene, but that’s another post, that to be honest will probably never get written. Everything sounded great during this set. The bass was ball tickling, guitar was psychedelic and screeching and the vocals weren’t too high in the mix. The bass lines were hypnotically grooving but still had hooks. The guitars were up front and unapologetic and the songs were great. I had pretty high expectations for this band and I was worrying that this show was going south but they brought my hopes up and met my expectations. If you get the chance to see this band you’d have to be a jerk-off to miss it. Even if you’re broke, get your hands on some sudafed and a season of Breaking Bad and cook up a batch of meth so you can get some money to make it to their show.
The place cleared out a bit for Golden Triangle the last band on the bill, and I’m glad they were. This gave them plenty of time to get rip-roaring drunk to prepare for the madness that ensued. They are a 6 piece with 3 guys and 3 gals that seem to like to party. The 2 singers are full of energy and apparently went to the Joel Gion school of tambourine. Every single part of this band is catchy, the vocal melodies, bass lines, lead guitar parts will all stick around with you for a while. They play loud and sloppy, the way rock was meant to be played. At one point during the show one of the guitarist climbed from the stage monitor onto the window sill and outside the window and finished the song out there. He tried once again at the end of the show and ended up falling on his ass. Grade A entertainment. I had heard great things about this band’s live shows and I was thoroughly entertained and am waiting for my next chance to see them again, which lucky for me is regularly. Oh, almost forgot, two of the girls are totally boneable.
If you missed this show you still have another night to catch The Fresh & Onlys. They’re playing tonight at Cake Shop on Ludlow with Liquor Store, Darlings, Girls At Dawn, X-Ray Eyeballs.
Golden Triangle have a few upcoming shows. The 2 I’m most excited about are the June 11th show with New Orleans’ own Quintron and Miss Pussycat and Nashville’s Jeff THE Brotherhood at Death By Audio, and the free Thee Oh Sees show on July 16th at South Street Seaport.
Photo by Jessica Amaya
Even though I had no ticket and the show was sold out I decided to make the 15 minute walk to Ridgewood Temple yesterday to try to find a way into the show. I showed up at about 10 till 8 and I walked up to a line of about 20 people, a quarter of which were in the same boat as me. Right when the doors opened we were told that if you didn’t have a ticket you weren’t going to get in “THIS SHOW IS SOLD OUT!” Needless to say I didn’t let this bother me. It was a Tuesday night and I had no where else to be. For a while there was quite a crowd outside and everyone was making new friends. Some of us tried conning our way in by claiming we were DJ’s or with the band, however they weren’t having any of that. For the first hour there was about the same number of people inside the temple as outside.
Then at 9:30 they announce that they are letting a few people that have been waiting for a while to get in for $20, for an $8 show. I don’t know whether this money went to the Illuminati or a money hungry promoter. Either way after waiting an hour and a half in the cold I was willing to pay it. Two weeks ago I would have scoffed at the idea of being unemployed and paying $20 to see Sleigh Bells, a band I had only heard a few songs of. One of those songs being a straight Funkadelic rip off that I still like even though the original is better. So I payed the $20 and decided I would try an experiment, being stone cold sober at a show. I had already spent my allotted money and at 8 pm I was still nursing a cosmo/jello shot hangover from hell. That’s another story all in itself.
I got into the venue in time to catch a few tracks from Sundelles. It wasn’t bad for an opening band but nothing stood out. It just seemed like run of the mill surf inspired guitar pop/rock. If this sounds up your alley you should check them out though.
Cults were up next and for their 3rd show ever it sure didn’t seem like it. Cults have a girl-group sound that I love and a singer with a voice and look to match the sound. Their songs are catchy but it seems like the catchiest parts are the vocal melodies that were usually accompanied with a glockenspiel. The vocals and bass were high in the mix which I usually like the latter and not the former, but it was opposite for this band. The bass lines for this band are way too jammy/groove oriented. At one point in my life that would be fine, but at this point I’m not scarfing down goo balls in a tie-dye shirt. I’ll just listen to old Stax B-sides if I want some grooves, I don’t need a white kid from Williamsburg feeding me them. Regardless of the bass lines they put on a great show and have me interested in hearing more from them.
It was finally time for Sleigh Bells, the place was full of young fan boys/girls and industry people being that it was an all ages CD release party for a major label release. Average age up front couldn’t have been over 20 and these kids could not handle their alcohol. While waiting for the band to come out, an elf like couple in front of me took the 20 minutes to stage a myspace profile photo shoot. I knew these kids would be a problem, and they were. During the show the male fell down at least 8 times that I saw and his girlfriend insisted on dancing/moshing like a deaf epileptic at a rave. The crowd was going crazy with beach balls and a giant inflatable shark flying everywhere. The sound quality was good at the venue but the PA didn’t seem capable of getting as loud as it should have and their were quite a few technical difficulties. The speaker on the crowds right hand side went out for a song, the monitors didn’t seem to be working, Derek Miller’s amp head went out and had to be replaced. M.I.A. was supposed to show but canceled last minute due to illness. Despite all this I still had a blast and definitely feel like it was 20 dollars well spent. I can’t think of a single reason for this band not to blow up. They have a major label backing them and they can rock a large size crowd, even if it is just a guitar, backing track, and a singer. They know how to perform and their album has been the only thing on blogs/twitter since it started streaming on NPR.
Setlist: (Metal Intro) / Tell ‘Em / Infinity Guitars / A/B Machines / Kids / Riot Rhythm / Treats / Straight A’s / Holly / Crown On The Ground // Rill Rill
More photos @ BrooklynVegan with a special appearance by me in the line outside the door.
