Dinner With the Band

I get a lot of press emails about TV shows, web shows, DVDs, etc., and I usually disregard them and stick to mp3’s, but since I have been personally enjoying this one so much I figured I should share. Dinner With the Band is pretty much exactly what you would guess from its title … and it’s also totally awesome. A band comes in and teaches us poor, non-culinarily talented 18-25 year olds an awesome recipe and then plays music. You watch. What’s not to love?

They’ve already had some great guests such as hip-hoppers Pigeon John and EL-P, Brooklynites Matt and Kim, and recent Saddle Creek signees Tokyo Police Club. So this is where I give you a link and you watch: Dinner With the Band.

[mp3] Pigeon John – Weight of the World
[mp3] Tokyo Police Club – Citizens of Tommorow

Next Big Nashville Giveway!

So here’s the deal: Nashville is one of the most populated music scenes in the nation, and someone had the bright idea of putting together a festival to showcase the best ones for insiders and outsiders alike (good idea, someone!).

This is where you come in: I have two free wristbands to the festival to give away; a wristband gets you into anything free (think: tickets you wear on your arm) in addition to discounts at local retailers (such as Grimey’s: the best record store in the world), and shuttle service from venue to venue if you wanna go it on foot and not bother with parking (clearly the smart choice). So if you’d like to go and live in the Nashville area (or don’t but feel like a road-trip) and don’t wanna drop the money for wristbands simply do this:

Send me an email at calebpalma@gmail.com with “Next Big Nashville Giveaway” in the subject line and I will randomly pick a winner in the next 24 hours. Cool? I thought so.

Some details
Where? September 5 – September 9, in Venues across the downtown Nashville area.
Why? To see the best bands in Nashville, stupid.
Who? A few of the wonderful artists performing:

Eef Barzelay (Clem Snide)
Glossary
Turncoats
Sleeptalker
Aaron Robinson
Judd and Maggie
Cortney Tidwell
The Lonely Hearts
De Novo Dahl
Paper Rival
The Features
All We Seabees
Autovaughn
Gabe Dixon Band
Freedy Johnston
Hotpipes

Plus at least a gazillion more.

More info at the Next Big Nashville website.

Unfortunately Overlooked

I realized this morning there were some albums I had been forgetting to pick up, and decided to use my emusic downloads to do so. This turned out to be a wise decision, so here is a sampling of the spoils of my purchase.

[mp3] Aesop Rock – No City Buy at insound
One of those rappers I’m told you’re allowed to like … but seriously, this is a good record in spots, a great record in others, and still a not-so-great record in others. Buy selectively if you’re into that.

[mp3] Super Furry Animals – Show Your Hand Buy at insound
The best band of overly hairy animals in Wales. This song is one of the better of the summer, and the best of this record.

[mp3] Minus the Bear – Lotus Buy at insound
I have never paid any attention to Minus the Bear whatsoever. After enough recommendations from people I trust to try this one out, though, I did, and I gotta say I feel like an idiot for having ignored them so long. This is a crazy mix of Police-like choppy rhythms, descending guitar lines, tiny glockenspiels, and lots of echo and delay pedals run through vocal mics. The whole thing is wrapped up with a minute long noise jam that turns into a driving solo-filled Zeppelin-esque rock number. Seriously, this record is brilliant.

[mp3] Magnolia Electric Co. – Nashville Moon Buy at insound
I’m a sucker for just about anything Molina puts out under any name. It took me awhile to pick up the new Sojurner box-set (thing is expensive), but now that I have I am completely love-struck with the entire thing. This one is off the first disc and heavy on the folk and country influences. Jason and Co. (sort-of-pun intended) get a little more 70’s Dylan on you later in the box.

A Cheerfully Ominous Mix

Today on the way from class to work I experienced a very strange storm. When I left campus the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the clouds were nowhere to be seen; about a mile into the interstate portion of my commute, however, the sky immediately went gray save for one loophole the sun had found, and the rain began to pour in random and violent spurts. A mile of torrential downpour, a mile of sprinkling, a mile of the sun coming up again, and right back to the storm. I thought of some songs that I thought might lend themselves well to sound-tracking such a moment. I’m not sure why they do, but I think they do (and I hold the power of veto around here).

[mp3] Broken Social Scene – Guilty Cubicles
[mp3] Yo La Tengo – I Shot Andy Warhol
[mp3] Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal
[mp3] The One A.M. Radio – In the Time We’ve Got

Is There a Ghost?

Band of Horses, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina’s finest indie-folk band, have released a new single, and it is fantastic. The sound is a bit different: there is a hint of the rustic, backwoods tormenting that one experiences when living in the rural South until the whole thing explodes into a shimmering rock song around the one minute mark.

The Horsies are gearing up to play some shows with Dinosaur Jr. (Holy ####!) and their new record can be pre-ordered now on CD or LP via Insound.

[mp3] Band of Horses – Is There a Ghost?
[mp3] Band of Horses- I Go to the Barn

Melody Day

It’s been a good week for Caribou: preparing for opening dates with The Go! Team, and Architecture in Helsinki which will be followed by a massive tour of their own, and getting love from p4k … then there was also the release of the fantastic new album, Andorra, which has been getting a lot of (digitalized) spin over here at HTFAF.

There is so much going on in this record: so many knobs, so much noise, so much wash-out, so much frantic nature to the songs, so many layers, and somehow the songs themselves manage to avoid getting washed out by the über-thick sound of things. Amidst all the reverb-soaked sleigh bells, the popping synths, and the swirling nature of things there is a song, and for he who finds it lies a great reward, dear friends.

[mp3] Caribou – Melody Day

In other news, our horrible attorney general stepped down this morning.

[mp3] David Bazan – Hallelujah (Cohen)
[mp3] Feist – Now At Last

Centro-matic – The Mercy Lounge: Nashville, TN 8.24.07

Johnson executes his signature one-leg rotating kick in St. Louis

I go to a lot of shows. I have seen a lot of bands play music together on stage. But I have never seen a band operate in as much unity without putting forth any effort at all as Centro-matic did Friday night. They played one of the tightest sets I have ever seen, and did so without ever looking at each other (or their instruments) during a song.

Will Johnson has a voice that seeps into the fibers of a venue and lingers in your ears, and despite all the talk of ghosts, silence, daggers, and steroid-taking bat-swingers, the sound is far too pleasing not to smile at.

After a brief line check, the band launched into a set full of whiskey-soaked American rock full of Will Johnson’s haunting voice, violins, huge guitars, and some of the tightest rhythms these ears have ever witnessed. There were also: toaster dances, pop songs, one-legged guitar solos, and instrument switches. There are mp3’s below, but you should really see them live. It will change things in your head regarding music. Perhaps the annoyingly friendly drunk who was standing to my right said it best when he said, ” … Holy shit, these guys kick ass, I mean they are like … whatever man, they kick ass!” Indeed they do my friend, indeed they do.

[mp3] Centro-matic – Daggers Sharp Enough
[mp3] Centro-Matic – Triggers & Trash Heaps
[mp3] Centro-matic – Calling Thermatico

Ah, Mary

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals are a band I have heard a lot about but somehow avoided paying too much attention to. The lovely blend of Patty Griffin Americana and folk-rock is appealing to the same part of the brain that appreciates Over the Rhine and Kathleen Edwards, but Potter’s voice manages to claim a plot all its own in the sub-concious, leaving lingering melodies and lived-in refrains. Highly Recommended.

[mp3] Grace Potter & The Nocturnals – Ah Mary

You Always End Up In the City

I am not going to pretend to be able to review Challengers yet because I haven’t had enough time to spend with it, but I will post a track from it, and one from the older Twin Cinema, that are stuck on repeat around these parts right now.

Myriad Harbour is a Bejar-led joint (my preference) that is just way too well done not to love. One of the strongest, most memorable, and most original melodies I have heard all year for sure, and man if I don’t love some auxiliary percussion (Dan does too apparently). As much as I hate the horrid heat, the sunshine is my friend and I have a feeling if the sunshine made Indie Rock it would sound like this.

[mp3] The New Pornographers – Myriad Harbour
[mp3] The New Pornographers – Sing me Spanish Techno

Buy New Pornographers records at insound.

Oh Feist, How We Adore Thee

Do you know what there is not enough of in the Indie Rock world? Incredibly good-looking and talented women who make ridiculously good music and write you notes on legal pads in cute bubble letters apologizing for her site being down and explaining how it just didn’t feel right because “She didn’t see herself in it.”

I would just like to re-iterate that Broken Social Scene are my favorite bunch of people, maybe ever. God bless Canadadians.

[mp3] Feist – Past in Present
[mp3] Feist – Intuition

Head over to Feist’s site to read the note.

Also, buy Feist’s records at insound.