Daytrotter posted their Bon Iver session yesterday. The version of “Lump Sum” is magnificent. “Flume” and “Re: Stacks” are really good. And I’m going to pretend that version of “Creature Fear” doesn’t exist.

Gorilla vs Bear posted one of my more favorite hip hop tracks in a while: “The Prayer” by Cleveland-based Kid Cudi. It’s off of a mixtape and the sample he raps over is from those sometimes Walmart-loving Seattlites Band of Horses.

In case you missed it, John Vanderslice posted a teaser video of recording from his next album a couple weeks ago:

The Bay Bridged announced the Rock Make Music and Craft Street Festival they’re organizing with Whizbang Fabrics and Best Bay Area indie band Tartufi. The same day as the last day of Outside Lands, this will be DIY where that is corporate and free where that is really expensive.

Anyone’s Guess posted this really funny video called “Everyday Normal Guy Rap Song”. Watch out! Explicit lyrics! (Audio NSFW.) It’s got some pretty quotable lines: “I’m pretty good at making spaghetti sauce, motherfucker!”

Did you know there was such a thing as the Bay Area Indie Festival? Hard Rock Chick pointed to an SF Weekly article that accuses the promoter, 3 Udders, for being a disservice to the local scene for still not having paid bands from last year’s festival. The promoter says the article is not fair, but admits that he hasn’t paid bands. I don’t know, I think if you’re not paying bands then you’re not exactly helping things. (Also, I find it funny that he accuses the writer of having “very little knowledge about how the music industry works” and then complains that the SF Weekly ran the article while he dilly-dallied on getting them more info. Here’s how the print publication industry works: deadlines.) The promoter also cites this rebuttal if you want a different biased opinion.

Slate has an interesting piece about Jay-Z weaponizing Oasis’ “Wonderwall” when he covered it at Glastonbury (which was a response to the fracas that ensued when Noam Gallagher said that Glastonbury was for guitar-based music.) It also dives into all the subtle and not-so-subtle things people are saying with cross-genre covers. Is Ben Gibbard being serious, like he says, when he covers Avril Lavine’s “Complicated”? Read on.

A commenter pointed out that there was a similarity between Styrofoam’s remix of “the Postman” by American Analog Set (off of 2002’s Updates) and MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” (off of 2008’s Ocular Spectacular and 2005’s Time to Pretend EP). Not overly familiar with the latter song, I went to check it out. The opening sequence does bear a passing resemblance.

When I listened to the song and once the vocals came in, I heard a much strong resemblance to another song I knew. Harmonically, rhythmically and melodically, parts of it are much closer to Her Space Holiday’s “Sleepy California” (off of 2003’s The Young Machines). Granted the vocal line in quested is pretty is someone monotonous–heck, even HSH acknowledges his singing limitations (”Like that kid who asked me if I knew I couldn’t sing/ That’s like asking a blind man if he knows that he can’t see”)–but “Time to Pretend” made me immediately think of “Sleepy California”.

But you can decide for yourself:

MGMT - Time to Pretend (mp3, 2008, also came out on a 2005 EP)

American Analog Set - the Postman (Styrofoam remix) (mp3, 2002)

Her Space Holiday - Sleepy California (mp3, 2003)

I wrote about SF indie / power pop band the Mommyheads as a “lost gem” about a year ago. In the late 90s I listened to their self-titled final album so many times it was ridiculous. I’d sing along to it in the car and made mixtapes with songs from it on them.

I initially found out about them–like many bands that I liked at that time–about a week before they dissolved, so I never got to see them live and all new (to me) material was just their older albums.

Well according to their myspace, they’re are back! Wow!

After a 10 year hiatus, the Mommyheads are working on a new record which is slated to be out later this year. We’re back with the same lineup - Adam, Mike, Jeff, and Dan - and plan to play a few shows in early September. The album will include many previously unreleased tracks, a couple of new (and, we think, better) versions of songs from our Geffen Record, one or two remixed singles, and - yes - some new material.

the Mommyheads - Jaded (mp3)

the Mommyheads - I Started Breathing (mp3s)

They even have a gig scheduled at Cafe du Nord:

9/3 the Mommyheads @ Cafe du Nord, 9:30pm, $12, 21+

Snap up those tickets.

(Thanks to Burt for the tip.)

SF Weekly’s All Shook Down blog reports that SF is getting another festival, this one a 3 day affair (August 22-24) in Golden Gate Park called Outside Lands Festival[1]. This one has Radiohead, apparently. Others are reporting Jack Johnson and Tom Petty will perform as well.

Apparently it’s another Another Planet Entertainment festival, Makes me wonder: will they also organize another Treasure Island Festival just a few weeks later in September? I also wonder if there’s any friction with Noise Pop who co-organized last year’s Treasure Island but appear to be absent from the organizers on Outside Lands with Superfly (of Bonnaroo, Vegoose) apparently in on it instead.

ANYWAY, go ahead and go into your excited squealing mode. It’s ok. I’ll wait.

I’m not squealing. I’m not a huge fan of the big outdoor festivals. I can see more bands I actually want to see for less money and with fewer other people in clubs, simple as that. (Case in point: last March I saw 11 bands for a total of $98. Three incredible shows, four great shows and four good shows. My outdoor festival experience hasn’t matched that and I don’t see reviews of outdoor festivals with that sort of hit rate.) Also, I like listening to Radiohead occasionally, but I’m not a die hard fan at all. They’re just not meaningful to me beyond making some nice-to-listen-to music.

I’ll post later today or tomorrow about the awesome experience I had last night seeing a couple small bands put on great sets in a nice club with a small audience. That’s the sort of stuff that gets me really excited about music.

[1] see also regarding the name

(from gtmcknight’s flickr)

There was this thing last week where the Hype Machine launched a new site. It’s good, works well and looks nice. I gladly tell people about Hype Machine and use it frequently myself. It’s basically an awesome resource. But they did this thing where they wouldn’t launch their new site until 10,000 people were looking at the front page at once (though that apparently failed and they launched anyway). I thought it was a pretty stupid thing on their part. Why would I want to keep that page open for a whole day waiting for 9999 other people to also be staring at that page? It seemed like a silly grab at attention and I didn’t tell people about it.

I saw a number of other sites mention it, though, and encourage other people to go there. I don’t mean to be a rabble rouser [1], but did you notice a number of the the sites that encouraged people to visit were sites that run ads? I’m not an idiot–I know what drives traffic to music blogs and the Hype Machine drives more traffic than even Google in many cases. If that’s down indefinitely due to a publicity stunt, your site views drop and if you’re running ads, your income drops. That’s not hard to figure out.

Maybe I’m just reading into things. Maybe all those people just thought that Hype Machine’s publicity stunt was cool.

[1] This is 1940s week at IPMN.

to keep 50 cent off the shelves.

Are you doing yours? Some people are.

[Note: yeah, I’m a Kanye fan and my hip hop catalog doesn’t extend to too many more releases. what can I say: Kanye picks good producers (Jon Brion) and doesn’t always rap about bitches and hos and getting high, though he does cover those topics as well.]

So I was walking through the Shilin Night Market in Taipei and I saw a Nada Surf shirt. I thought that was pretty cool, so I stopped. That’s when I saw that it was a shirt for a show at the Great American Music Hall during Noise Pop 2005! I went to a bunch of shows during Noise Pop 2005! (Though not that Nada show). It seemed awfully familiar. I ended up buying it; it was just too weird not to buy.

Anyone else recognize it? I’ll give you a hint:

Yeah, that’s right, it’s local poster designer Jason Munn aka The Small Stakes’ design! I’m a big Small Stakes fan (here’s my interview) so I remembered pretty quickly where I’d seen that heart-with-a-zipper before.

The only thing that’s different about the shirt is a “brand name” of Cabane de Tom (warning: crappy website). This whole situation seems very odd.

Newsweek slams you, as they do with James Blunt in their fall music preview section

Last & Least

James Blunt, ‘All the Lost Souls,’ 9/18: Just when it seemed safe to enter Starbucks again, this earnest singer-songwriter is back with a follow-up to one of the whiniest debuts ever made. Blunt claims his new CD “illuminates his growth as an artist and a person.” We’re not saying that breaking up with a supermodel (a.k.a. Petra Nemcova) wouldn’t offer much in the way of potential for growth, but we’re not saying it would, either.

Oh snap!

In other news, they’re throwing their money behind Kanye in this 50 Cent-Kanye feud:

‘Graduation,’ Kanye West, 9/11: West’s third record drops the same day rival rapper 50 Cent releases his new CD. A showdown has ensued (naturally), and 50 has vowed to quit the rap game forever if West outsells him (country crooner Kenny Chesney has also thrown his Stetson in the ring, but no one seems to have noticed). Judging from the West songs we’ve heard, 50 should start checking the want ads.

Personally, I may buy Graduation just to help 50 Cent out of the business…or into an awkward situation where he has to explain he didn’t actually mean it.

The opener for Wednesday night’s MF Doom show at the Independent is saying that it wasn’t actually MF Doom:

The show started off just fine–I played, Pigeon John played, I did another half-hour or so after Pigeon John, everything went along smoothly–then Doom took the stage. Or rather, “Doom” took the stage. That dude with the mask and the mic was:
1) lip-synching
2) not actually MF Doom

The only thing that was actually live about the show was the hypeman’s mic. Everything else ran straight off a recording, and fake Doom pretended to rap and walked up and down the stage doing rapper hands. He faked his way through a set of about 20 minutes, walked off the stage, and jetted out the back door.

Was anyone there? What’d it sound/ look like from the audience?

(via largeheartedboy)

Billions is showing that John Vanderslice will be touring with bowerbirds (who we already knew JV likes) for the first eight or so dates and Bishop Allen for most dates after that. It may be the case where they are just not confirmed for the intervening dates.

I saw Bishop Allen just last night and they were good. I can’t believe what a good bill that’ll be: John Vanderslice/ Bishop Allen. They sold out the Independent last night (I think) and then they’ll be back there (not on Billions, but announced by the band during the show) supporting John Vanderslice. Totally sweet.

John Vanderslice tour dates with supporting acts, from the Billions page.
*=Bowerbirds supporting
^=Bishop Allen supporting

Thu 9/6/07 Los Angeles, CA Troubadour *
Fri 9/7/07 San Diego, CA Casbah *
Sat 9/8/07 Phoenix, AZ Modified *
Sun 9/9/07 Tucson, AZ Plush *
Tue 9/11/07 Austin, TX The Parish *
Wed 9/12/07 Norman, OK The Opolis *
Fri 9/14/07 Dallas, TX The Loft *
Sat 9/15/07 Baton Rouge, LA Spanish Moon *
Mon 9/17/07 Orlando, FL The Social ^
Tue 9/18/07 St Augustine, FL Café Eleven ^
Wed 9/19/07 Tallahassee, FL Club Downunder ^
Thu 9/20/07 Atlanta, GA The Earl ^
Fri 9/21/07 Durham, NC Duke Coffeehouse ^
Sat 9/22/07 Washington, DC Rock and Roll Hotel ^
Mon 9/24/07 Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda’s ^
Wed 9/26/07 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
Thu 9/27/07 Cambridge, MA Middle East Upstairs
Fri 9/28/07 Cambridge, MA Middle East Upstairs
Sat 9/29/07 Buffalo, NY Buffalo Icon ^
Mon 10/1/07 Toronto, ON Horseshoe Tavern
Tue 10/2/07 Ann Arbor, MI Blind Pig ^
Wed 10/3/07 Cleveland Heights, OH Grog Shop at Coventry Yard ^
Thu 10/4/07 Athens, OH Baker Theater ^
Fri 10/5/07 Bloomington, IN John Waldron Arts Center
Sat 10/6/07 Chicago, IL Empty Bottle
Mon 10/8/07 Minneapolis, MN 7th Street Entry ^
Tue 10/9/07 Omaha, NE The Waiting Room
Thu 10/11/07 Denver, CO Hi-Dive
Fri 10/12/07 Provo, UT Velour Live Music Gallery
Sat 10/13/07 Salt Lake City, UT Kilby Court
Mon 10/15/07 Vancouver, BC The Red Room ^
Thu 10/18/07 Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge
Sat 10/20/07 San Francisco, CA The Independent

“Maximum Occupancy: 249″ the sign said and it wasn’t even full. Maybe 150 kids there. Among those that did check out this show were members of the future Indie Rock Hall of Fame…

I love two band bills, especially when both bands are good. I came to see David Bazan (myspace) , even though I saw him a month ago at the Fillmore (with Ben Gibbard) but as the show approached, I kept hearing people talk about it in terms of the New Year. I hadn’t really heard of them, though I had heard of their previous band, Bedhead; I was excited to see what they had to offer.

Bazan was up first. I’ve seen him a ridiculous number of times; he tours a lot and I always enjoy seeing his sets. This was no different. Overall, he played a pretty similar set to that Fillmore gig. This time he started with, I think “Of Minor Prophets and Their Prostitute Wives” and then “The Devil is Beating his Wife”. He played a number of songs from “Achilles Heel” and his solo EP. Two songs he played that I haven’t heard in either a long time, or ever, were “Secret of the Easy Yoke” and “Options”. About “Secret” I heard him later say that he didn’t feel any spark during that song. We did, though, as evidenced by the kid a few feet to my left that said “thank you” after he played it. He closed the set with his Leonard Cohen cover, “Hallelujah”. It felt like a short set, but I’m not sure it was.

It was good to see Bazan back on the small stage. I like being able to see his quirky facial expressions and slouching. I like that he did his “Anyone have any questions?” thing again. These are the sorts of things that make him seem like a normal guy (that can write amazing songs).

It was during the latter half of Bazan’s set that I started noticing it. But more on that later. This is a music blog, after all, so I’ll cover the music first.

The New Year was up next. As I said, I hadn’t heard of them before this concert. They’re a five piece, I think: three guitars (one of which switches to keyboard sometimes), bass, drums. They sort of remind me of early Pedro the Lion and of Seam (who I just posted about.) Pedro the Lion for the interlocking lines from all the different instruments and Seam for some of the same, plus the quiet vocals, the sense of melody in the loud parts. The mix was good and the band put on an enjoyable set, even for someone that didn’t know any of their songs.

The New Year - Age of Conceit (mp3)

I don’t have a NYC-inferiority complex, but the NYC blogs are always talking about spotting sufjan or bowie at a show. Well…

So I knew John Vanderslice was going to be at the show because we’d talked about it beforehand. Before Bazan went on I saw a guy and a girl walking to the back section, with the billiard tables. They looked familiar; they were Jason and Kori aka The Mates of State. As Bazan went on I saw JV and he was with Ian Bjornstad, his keyboard player (and upstart solo artist). Dave Douglas (JV’s drummer) joined them shortly there after. During the middle of the set I saw someone walk toward the bar: Yup, Ben Gibbard. I started to think What’s with this night?.

After Bazan’s set I was chatting to JV and his bandmates (save Broecker, who was in Seattle) in the courtyard area and I saw Mark Kozelek poke his head out into that area. After the New Year went on, JV went back to near the back to watch the show. JV waved me over and introduced me to Chris. I said the “Hi. I’m Adrian” thing and then I realized: Oh, that’s Chris Walla. So I was standing there watching a show with what ended up being JV, Bjornstad, Walla, Gibbard, Bazan, and Kozelek.

Afterwards, Kozelek took off pretty quickly and I didn’t see the Mates after Bazan at all, but I chatted to Chris, Ben, JV, Bjornstad and Bazan. Overall a really nice set of people. I got the most nervous talking to Bazan, for whatever reason. There was a surreal situation where I was explaining some mechanical engineering principles behind a mechanism in a consumer product to Ben and JV. (I swear, they were asking about it. I’d cut myself short but Ben kept asking more questions.)

No less interesting to talk to, though a bit lower profile were:

• Matthrew Barnhart: the live sound guy for the New Year (and for a big chunk of the last JV tour).
• Burton from the Botticellis
• Elise from SomaFM

One piece of juicy gossip: Mates of State are recording right now at Tiny Telephone with (I believe) super producer Chris Walla at the helm. I’m excited to hear that.

You can buy Pedro the Lion, David Bazan, The New Year, and Bedhead stuff at insound.

It started last August. I’d met up with John Vanderslice (note: hilarious outcome if you go to jv.com instead, expecting some Vanderslice) outside the Great American Music Hall, before I went in to see Black Heart Procession[1], and we were chatting. We were going along and then he looked at me, “I should give you a tour of Tiny Telephone sometime! You’d love it!” I told him I think I would love that.

After a few unsuccessful attempts to organize a tour, seeing JV play twice, chatting with him at a few more shows and hanging out with him at his Stanford show last fall, we finally worked out this past Thursday as a time for a Tiny Telephone tour.

I arrived a little before the appointed time, found some parking and wandered down. The complex looked nothing like I’d imagined. It’s an industrial complex in the Outer Mission, but I thought it might be more of a warehouse or something. I eventually found the studio amongst the car repair places and around the corner from the silk screener.

Dave Douglas (drums/moog in both the John Vanderslice duo and quartet versions) arrived right on time. He didn’t have keys and no one was in the studio yet, so we just hung out outside and chatted. He’s a really nice guy and we talked about the relative merits of various baseball stadiums and about how to get a reasonable ticket to Fenway without paying exorbitant prices.

The rest of JV and the Suburban Kids w/ Biblical Names arrived shortly after. We had (with top secret nickname, position in the group): John Vanderslice (”JV” or “J Vers”; lead vocals, guitar, piano, wurlitzer, niceness), David Broecker (”Broecky”, bass), Ian Bjornstad (”I dog” (pronounced “ee dog”); Wurlitzer, moog, piano), Dave Douglas (”Dave”; drums, moog).

JV had to run back home to get his ear plugs and the band started setting up. I knew they were going to rehearse that day, but I didn’t know why. I soon found out: this weekend they’re playing all nine tracks from Emerald City, his next album, live, tracking it and videotaping it. They’re going to split up the nine songs into nine live videos and give one each to nine bloggers. While JV was home, I chatted with some of the guys, but mostly left them alone to set up their gear. I wondered around the studio a bit to check it out and to snap some photos.

When JV got back, he looked a bit preoccupied, probably because of this upcoming recording and his girlfriend finally getting into the country/ town the night before. I realized that I wasn’t going to get a proper Tiny Telephone tour and I was a little disappointed. But, in the next few minutes, when the band started getting set up for rehearsal, I realized they were going to let me sit through a rehearsal of the new album. (Mentally, I was jumping up and down, giggling and clapping, but I played it cool…)

(See the column on the left of the photo? I was sitting on the steps right there for most of the session, arms-length from Broecky and I-dog. I have long arms)

They started with “Kookaburra” which, I think, is going to be one of the standout tracks from the album. Just a great tune with a very singable chorus. It starts with guitar, keyboards, vocals and bass for quite a bit until this amazing Dave Douglas drum beat locks everything together. Another future favorite is, I think was called (they weren’t like “hey, Adrian, this song is called [blah]”) “The Party”, which I would have called “Be Calm” after words in the refrain. The refrain line is really nice and the harmonies were nice. “Time to Go” was another good one, but I can’t remember what it sounds like (they ran through it just once.) “Tablespoon of Codeine” is a dark and distorted song and has JV offering up some wild feedback, at least in this live version. All told, I think I heard six of the nine songs with “White Dove”, “the Minaret” and “Central Booking” being the ones I didn’t hear. I think this album’s something to look forward to, certainly.

Something else that I realized from this rehearsal: JV gathers pretty amazing musicians around him. Broecker plays the bass rock solidly and when they ask him to change his part, even to something more difficult, he gets it right without missing a beat. Ian plays some pretty complicated, syncopated and off-beat patterns on two keyboards at once while singing harmonies. Dave Douglas’ drum parts add a ton to the songs. After a run-through of a song, he would also say things like “I think the harmonies would sound better if they did [x] instead of what they’re currently doing.” I thought it was a bit odd at first, that a drummer (no offense drummers!) would say something like that, but I soon realized why he could get away with that: he was right almost every time.

All in all, it was pretty amazing to get to be a fly on the wall for this rehearsal of new songs. Thanks, JV! You rule.

See below for more photos.

View the full photo album.

Read the rest of this entry »

Friday I saw the Light Footwork (myspace) and the Bye Bye Blackbirds (myspace) play at the 750 Pub on Stanford’s campus.

Bye Bye Blackbird’s start was delayed by the end of the Warrior’s game (which they won—as the lead singer of Bye Bye Blackbirds said “thanks to the Warriors to warming up the crowd for us.”) The sound was iffy throughout their and the Light Footwork’s set—with feedback being the main issue. But they put on a nice set. Their sound is rock which hearkens back to the 60s, both early 60s harmony-centric groups like the Every Brothers (who they covered) and later 60s harmony-centric psych rock bands like the Byrds. You can check out a couple songs at their myspace page and their mp3 page, including In Every Season (mp3).

The Light Footwork was up next and besides the previously mentioned problems with the sound, they had a nice set of their sunshiney indie pop rock. I’ve seen these guys a few times and I always enjoy their set.

Jay, the singer/ guitarist, also mentioned getting me some mixes of their Tiny Telephone-recorded material from March. I’m pretty excited to hear it. Other gossip is that this was Kristina (drummer)’s last show with the band. I talked to Gautam (bass) and he still loves the band, though!

I have a few more photos here.

At the risk of alienating all twelve people who read this blog, am I the only one that just doesn’t care for Bjork? All the music blogs are posting about her SNL appearance and whatnot. I fast-forwarded through it [thanks to the DVR]. I wouldn’t listen to her music if it was given to me as a present (actually happened).

I hate to be negative or sound ornery, but am I the only one not taking crazy pills?

Scott Solter’s remixes of John Vanderslice’s great 2005 album Pixel Revolt. They’re here (zip files of all the 224 kps vbr mp3s and uncompressed files).

If you know John Vanderslice at all, you know he’s a complete analog junky and so is Solter. What’s complete astounding about these songs is that the result could come from the source without any digital help, no computer manipulation. Just cutting, splicing and messing around in analog.

Check it out:

John Vanderslice - Trance Manual (Scott Solter Remix) (mp3) (original mp3)

John Vanderslice - Exodus Damage (Scott Solter Remix) (mp3) (original mp3)

I put the “Trance” remix among my favorites. It’s light and airy and interesting.

JV is also on tour starting Friday. No SF date on this one:
April 6 | PORTLAND, OR Doug Fir Lounge | 21+
April 7 | SEATTLE, WA Triple Door | all-ages
April 9 | SALT LAKE CITY, UT Kilby Court | all ages
April 10 | DENVER, CO High Dive | all ages
April 12 | AMES, IA Maintenance Shop | 18+
April 13 | CHICAGO, IL Lakeshore Theatre | all ages
April 14 | GRAND RAPIDS, MI Ladies Literary Club | 18+
April 15 | ATHENS, OH Ohio University / The Union | 18+
April 17 | PHILADELPHIA, PA Johnny Brenda’s | 21+
April 18 | HOBOKEN, NJ Maxwell’s | all ages
April 19 | NEW YORK, NY Mercury Lounge | 21+
April 20 | CAMBRIDGE, MA Middle East | 18+
April 21 | HAMDEN, CT The Space | all ages
April 24 | BALTIMORE, MD Sonar | all ages
April 25 | WASHINGTON, DC Rock and Roll Hotel | all ages
April 26 | CARRBORO, NC Local 506 | 18+
April 28 | CHARLESTON, SC Map Room | 21+
April 29 | COLUMBIA, SC Art Garage | all ages
April 30 | ATHENS, GA 40 Watt | 18+
May 1 | BIRMINGHAM, AL Bottle Tree | all ages
May 2 | ST. LOUIS, MO Billiken Club | all ages
May 3 | SPRINGFIELD, MO Randy Bacon Gallery | 18+
May 5 | DENTON, TX Dan’s Silverleaf | 18 +
May 6 | AUSTIN, TX Emo’s | all ages
May 8 | PHOENIX, AZ Modified | all-ages
May 9 | SAN DIEGO, CA Casbah | 21+
May 10 | LOS ANGELES, CA Largo | all ages

The tour is presented by brooklynvegan and JV will be turning in a tour journal weekly over there.

And for those of you who stuck around till the end of this here post, I have a couple treats.

bonus mp3
John Vanderslice - Keep the Dream Alive (Live at KZSU 8/25/05) (mp3, solo acoustic, from when JV played my show)

Gossip Gossip 1: A reliable source tells me the next JV album will be coming out August 7. Gossip 2: JV’s working on a 7″ that will be released by largeheartedboy. But you didn’t hear these things from me…