–

Adrian (me):
Adem - Loro (mp3) (pre-order)

I finally got to listen to Takes which I’ve been excited to hear. The album is a set of covers of Adem’s favorite songs.

When I got it I knew I had to listen to two covers of some of my favorite songs first: Pinback’s “Loro” and Low’s “Laser Beam”. I love both Adem versions, but “Loro” reminds me of the amazement I felt when I first heard the Pinback version. I had such a wide grin on my face listening to it for the first time in both cases. The grin stayed for the second time through…and the third…and the fourth…and….

–

Keith:
Brendan Benson - Insects Rule (mp3) (buy)

Before Brendan Benson released a handful of highly regarded indie records (or teamed with Jack White in the Raconteurs) he had his own shot at the brass ring with Virgin Records in 1996. The resulting record was an unfortunately ignored infectious celebration of power pop teamed with deft and daring songwriting such as this tune about an infestation.

–

Oz:
Black Diamond Heavies - Bidin’ My Time (mp3) (buy)

I’ve been spinning Black Diamond Heavies’ upcoming release, A Touch of Someone Else’s Class, for a few days now. This track channels Tom Waits and serves as a reprieve from the the band’s powerful, gritty blues style.

–

As I mentioned, the Botticellis (myspace) came down to KZSU last night to do an in-studio session. They played a great set of tunes off of their recently released album Old Home Movies (which came out Tuesday on Antenna Farm Records) as well as some new songs and a cover.

Here’s their setlist and some exclusive mp3s from the session:

• I Feel Betrayed
• Table by the Window
• Stay with my Brother
• Old Home Movies
• Lucy Lucia
• New Room
• When I Call
• Up Against the Glass
  the Botticellis - Up Against the Glass (live at KZSU) (mp3, exclusive)
  
• Flashlight
  the Botticellis - Flashlight (live at KZSU) (mp3, exclusive)
  
• Awaiting on You All
  the Botticellis - Awaiting on You All (live at KZSU) (mp3, exclusive)
  

I think the sound turned out really well, thanks to Smurph, KZSU’s live sound engineer, and Alexi and the Botticellis. I’ve heard a lot of live sets at KZSU and none of them have sounded quite like this. I think it turned out pretty well.

The new tunes sounded great, especially the lead off tune, “I Feel Betrayed”, which I’ll be looking forward to hearing a studio version of.

You can check out my photo album for a few more shots of the band.

Make sure you tune in next week’s live session with Two Sheds.

Where to get tickets: The Independent, Great American Music Hall, Slim’s, Fillmore, Warfield, and other Livenation venues. Another Planet booked venues like Greek Theatre @ Berkeley, Palace of Fine Arts, etc. Bimbo’s.

On sale now/ Thurs May 15:
6/11 Judy Mowatt @ Slim’s

Pre-sale Thursday May 15:
7/4 San Francisco Symphony @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
7/25 Toby Keith. Montgomery Gentry, Carter’s Chord, Mica Roberts, Trailer Choir @ Shoreline Amphitheatre

8/16 Rock The Bells w/ A Tribe Called Quest with Nas, The Pharcyde, Mos Def, Q-Tip, Rakim, Redman, Method Man, De La Soul, Raekwon, Spank Rock, Ghostface, Dead Prez, Wale @ Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain

On sale Friday May 16:
7/24 Jay Brannan, Annie Stela @ Bottom of the Hill

On sale Saturday May 17:
7/17 Boys Like Girls, Good Charlotte @ Berkeley Community Theatre

8/9 Slightly Stoopid, Pepper, Sly & Robbie, The Expendables @ The Greek Theatre

On sale Sunday May 18:
6/30 Prezident Brown & the Solid Foundation Band @ the Independent

7/6 Todd Rundgren @ Great American
7/8 Tilly and the Wall @ Great American
7/11, 7/12 The New Mastersounds @ the Independent
7/17 The Long Winters @ the Independent
7/17 Blue Highway @ Slim’s
7/18 Jimmy Eat World @ The Fillmore
7/19 The Grouch, The Bayliens @ Slim’s
7/20 Warrior King @ Slim’s
7/29 Chromeo @ The Fillmore

8/4 The Hush Sound, The Cab, The Morning Light @ Slim’s
8/4 The Faint @ The Fillmore
8/22 The Waybacks @ Great American
8/25 Extreme, Kings X @ The Fillmore

On sale Monday May 19:
7/7 Boston @ Mountain Winery
7/17 Tom Jones @ Mountain Winery

10/19 Tina Turner @ HP Pavilion

Double check all information as venues and promoters often change on-sale times and days up until the last minute.

There will be energizer stations (read: free snacks) around the City and the region. Download a bike map if you want to figure out the best route.

Oh No! Oh My! - Bike, Sir (mp3) (buy)

Lymbyc Systym - Fall Bicycle (mp3) (buy

Jaime & Becky - Rusty Bike (mp3) (buy)

This is not my current ride that I’ll be riding to work tomorrow, but this sweet ride was my trusty stead for many a month in Taiwan. The seat left bits of itself on my pants and the kickstand was so rusted out that it wouldn’t always stay up while I was riding, but it (usually) got me from A to B.

Update: Rocketing down the streets of SOMA, I had two questionable interactions with buses slamming to a halt or cutting over to make a stop. But I’m as of yet unscathed and I will live to see another post.

My radio show is on the air right now until 5pm PDT on KZSU, 90.1 FM in the Bay Area or online. Tune in!

You can play along at home with my playlist, updated as I go.

The Botticellis live at the Bottom of the Hill, August 2007

As you may remember, I have a string of four bands down at KZSU in five weeks on Wednesdays from 9-10pm PDT. This week’s band is the Botticellis. You can listen at 90.1FM in the Bay Area or online[1].

• April 30: Geographer
• May 14: the Botticellis
• May 21: Two Sheds
• May 28: the Ian Fays

If you want to read, hear or see more about the band, check out the Bay Bridged feature podcast, the Mercury News ‘Merc Session’, or the the Daytrotter session.

[1] The newish 192kps AAC+ stream sounds gorgeous, very clear, by the way. I’d recommend trying it out.

It’s a UK band called the Get Out Clause that apparently filmed their video with 80 of Britain’s CCTV cameras and then got copies by invoking the Data Protection Act. Edit it all together and–boom–done.

It wasn’t the first in the style, though. The Frames, which includes everyone’s current favorite indie wunderking Glen Hansard (of Once fame), also shot a video in this manner, but apparently just using the cameras at a friend’s workplace, a post office.

You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes (pdf)
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an m3u file)

(for the iTunes file, simply import all the songs to your library and then go to File->import and then select the song list (the txt file). you should now have the 2008march-april playlist in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).

If you want to read the liner notes before downloading the whole thing, they’re here. This one was a long one in coming. I’ve listened to it a lot of times and I like it. There’s a mix of local (the Dodos, the Botticellis, Speakers), national (Deer Tick, Unwed Sailor) and international (Adem, the Rational Academy) bands.

Adrian’s March-April 2008 mix tape (rapidshare link [1])

If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.

[1] If you’re having trouble with the rapidshare link, here’s what you do, step-by-step. 1) Click on the link. 2) scroll down and click “FREE” 3) wait till the counter gets to zero 4) enter the letters in their graphic into the box 5) click “download”

Edvard Grieg - Funeral March in Memory of Richard Nordraak (mp3)

I played this piece many years ago, when I was a budding trumpeter in a brass ensemble in school. It’s stuck with me because it was both so somber and so beautiful. There is a fittingly agonized tone to it. It had been tucked away far in the back reaches of my mind until it was jarred by these events.

Glass: A Portrait of Philip in 12 Parts (which I somehow missed in my music-related film overview, but I caught on thanks to the Deli SF) is obviously a film about modern composer Philip Glass.

I’d heard a reasonable amount of Glass’ stuff. I was always sort of more of a Reich person, at least among minimalist or repetitive phrasing composers, so I thought I might not like the film because I wasn’t a big fan of his music. As it turns out, that was turned out to be wrong.

It’s a very well put together film in 12 parts, each acting as somewhat of a vignette about a specific event or topic, but there are characters and themes that carry through many of them giving it an overall story arc instead of entirely an episodic feel.

Glass came across very interestingly. He appears down to earth and straight forward except he thinks and speaks on an entirely different level than everyone else. The editing is really fantastic. At times it appears they left in mistakes or things other directors would have cut, but these extra bits reveal Glass’ and other people in his life’s humanity.

Despite expecting that the film may not be for me, I found it interesting and compelling, even at it’s 125 minute length.

If you aren’t able to catch the film and want to know more about Glass, I recommend checking out this great feature in the Guardian from a few years ago.

Medicine for Melancholy starts out with a familiar plot: ill-thought-out one-night-stand threatens to turn into something more. That’s what you have on the surface. Below that there is a lot of racial tension and discussion between the two African-American-but-that’s-all-that’s-similar leads. One sees her raceas one part of their life and the other sees it as the primary part. I liked the movie a lot, in the end. It was endearing and engrossing. There was a nice balance between the two sides of this film: the discussion of race and the romance.

Medicine was filmed in and around San Francisco in a style that was one of desaturated color–sort of like halfway between color and black and white. It was a cool style and seeing recognizable landmarks from your town gave the audience a further connection to the characters. On the #38 bus the other day, I realized I was passing one of the main characters’ apartment, which was across the street from the Angel Deli and Cafe on Geary.

The movie isn’t about music, really, but it does have a great soundtrack. The use of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone’s “New Years Kiss” in the moments after the initial post-one-night rejection is just perfect. Further along in the movie, there’s a wonderful moments with Octopus Project, Oh No! Oh My! and other indie favs.

The other somewhat-music-related point of the movie is the brief discussion of race in the indie scene, about how, essentially, indie music is primarily a white pursuit. I think there could be further discussion on this topic.

Though they’re entirely different, I’d recommend both of these films.

Other SFIFF ‘08 coverage:

• Black Francis to accompany silent film
• overview of music related films
• Fados
• Cachao Una Mas
• Faubourg Treme

See you next year, SFIFF!

–

Adrian (me):
Joe Pug - Hymn 101 (mp3) (free at the artist’s site)

I heard this over at hearya. Immediately I felt the same way the first time I heard Dylan’s “When the Ship Comes In”. Similarly, it has a certain timeless melody and lyrics that one can tell, even before one start processing the lyrics, that they have some well of depth that they’re drawing from.

–

Keith:
the Katydids - Always (mp3) (buy)

This week on my favorites of the 90’s list @ #90 is the 2nd album from American singer/British pop-band hybrid Katydids. This particular cut is masterfully produced by pop auteur Ian Broudie, just listen to the sumptuous interlocking backing vocals in the chorus. This album was pure obsession for me in 1991, pretty vocals and glistening guitars were an irresistible combination.

–

Oz:
Joe Pug - Hymn 101 (mp3) (free at the artist’s site)

I think I’ve listened to “Hymn 101″ about 101 times in the past week. Joe Pug is a relative newcomer to the Chicago music scene and a shockingly good lyricist for a songwriter in his early twenties. Listen to this song and you’ll see what I mean. It still gives me chills on my 102nd listen - “The more I buy, the more I’m bought. And the more I’m bought, the less I cost.”

His debut EP, Nation of Heat, is incredible from start to finish.

–

Rob:
David Bowie - Sense of Doubt (mp3) (buy)

For the last few weeks basically every time I’ve found myself wondering what to listen to next I’ve been putting in “Heroes”. As has no doubt been noted before, the whole album is stellar and I had a
tough time picking one of the tracks. I thought about “Blackout” due to the slight edge that my mishearing the lyrics gave it (he’s under the Japanese influence of his mother’s estate?) but settled on “Sense of Doubt” for the sheer I’ve-never-heard-anything-else-quite-like-it factor; this song more than almost any other instrumental I’ve ever heard paints a definite picture in my mind, and it is at once more hopeful and more desparate than any song I can think of off the top of my head that tries deliberately to be one or the other. Really wonderful.

–

Andy:
Kepler - Loose Ground (mp3) (buy)

Kepler was the best quiet band you’ve never heard. Beautifully clean guitars, half-whispered vocals, nicely reserved brushed drumming, and the piano from your parents’ living room hiding just below the surface. I first found Fuck Fight Fail while working in college radio- it immediately became one of my favorites. “Loose Ground” is one of my favorites from the record, along with the 9-minute “Upper Canada Fight Song”.

Since their breakup, Samir Kahn (who I believe sings on “Loose Ground”) has gone on to form Tusks, who are excellent as well.

–

This is the first time two people have had the same song obsession in the same week. It’s kind of like two friends having a crush on the same girl. It’s pretty awkward. Not really–music’s not a zero-sum game like that. But if it were, Oz would have “dibs” as he found the song first.

On Tuesday I saw the Morning Benders play an in-store Virgin Megastore. They put on a solid set as always including many from their new album. People even danced (after a little encouragement from Chris).

Where to get tickets: The Independent, Great American Music Hall, Slim’s, Fillmore, Warfield, and other Livenation venues. Another Planet booked venues like Greek Theatre @ Berkeley, Palace of Fine Arts, etc. Bimbo’s.

Pre-sale Thurs May 8:
8/16 George Benson, Boney James, Ramsey Lewis, Norman Brown’s Summer Storm featuring Chante Moore, Paul Taylor & Alex Bugnon @ Sleep Train Pavilion

On sale Sunday May 11:
6/3 The Cool Kids@ the Independent
6/7 The Dan Band @ the Fillmore
6/12 Vopli Vidoplyassova, Russian Solution @ the Independent
6/18 The Fratellis @ the Fillmore
6/22 Morgan Heritage @ the Independent
6/26 Billy Idol @ the Fillmore

7/3 the everybodyfields, Jim Bianco @ the Independent
7/5 Th’ Legendary Shack*Shakers @ the Independent
7/6 We Are Scientists @ the Independent

7/9 Israel Vibration @ the Independent
7/11 James Hunter @ Bimbo’s
7/18, 7/19 Lettuce, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue @ the Independent
7/26 Cute Is What We Aim For, Ace Enders, Danger Radio, Powerspace @ Slim’s
7/28 No Age, Mika Miko, Abe Vigoda @ Great American
7/31 Cavalera Conspiracy, Dillinger Escape Plan, Throw Down, Bury Your Dead, Incite @ The Fillmore

9/12 Nightwish with Sonata Arctica @ The Fillmore
9/13 Dr. John & The Lower 911 with Shannon McNally @ The Fillmore

9/22, 9/23 Spoon @ The Fillmore

On sale Monday May 12:
6/26, 6/27, 6/28 Butch Whacks & The Glass Packs @ Bimbo’s

7/5 Stevie Wonder @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
7/8 Stevie Wonder @ Sleep Train Pavilion

8/14 Alan Jackson @ HP Pavilion

Double check all information as venues and promoters often change on-sale times and days up until the last minute.

Last night I went over to the the Bottom of the Hill to see Laura Veirs (myspace) and Liam Finn (myspace).

I’d seen Liam before, at the same venue, in fact. The set was quite similar, as was my reaction: I liked some of his loop-heavy songs and disliked others and many of my favorites were his more straight-forward songs.

One notable new happening: he ended one song with a solo on an odd instrument. After the song he announced his new “toy”, a Stylophone. To a fan’s cry for “more Stylophone!”, he said “ok”. His next song, his last of the night, was completely improvised and built around various loops of Stylophone along with drums and vocals. It was pretty impressive.

Veirs came out with just her guitar. It was just her, that guitar and looping pedals all night (with one exception, see below). She started with “Pink Light”, one of my favorites of hers. After that first song, the appreciation from the crowd was obvious–this was a very receptive crowd. She even noted it: “Wow, it’s nice to hear that, especially on a Monday night”.

The talented Ms. Veirs continued the entire evening, playing a great selection of songs from her “five good albums” (the last one is “bad”) skillfully. Additionally, she played two traditional songs that influenced her greatly, like Mississippi John Hurt’s “Spike Driver’s Blues”

She brought out the banjo for one song, Cluck Old Hen. She played it deftly in clawhammer style. Here’s a teaching version of that song, first slow and then full speed.

Laura Veirs - Cluck Old Hen (mp3, via stereogum)

Wait, so you’re putting the most perfectly distorted band ever in a large and long metal box? I recommend against going to shows there anyway, but this one just takes the cake. That place will offer absolutely zero definition in sound[1] and I really doubt that the majority of people who end up going will be happy.

[1] Yes, this is a bad thing. I call them the most “perfectly” distorted because it’s a wall of sound but you can still distinguish the sound clearly. If you add in thousands of echoes, it’ll probably be just muddy and noisy sounding.

The Morning Benders, talking through tin cans; photo by Adrian Bischoff

The Morning Benders (myspace) release their debut album, Talking Through Tin Cans today on Plus One Records. They’ve got a pretty kickin’ deal going that if you buy their digital album, you get it, plus some b-sides, and a ticket to their CD release show either in SF or LA. The LA release show is at the Echo on Thursday (May 8th) and the SF show is at 330 Ritch on Friday (May 9th). More about the deal here. You can also get more info about the shows here.

You can also check out a free in-store at Virgin Megastore downtown (2 Stockton St) tomorrow evening at 7pm. Be sure to get there early so you can get a spot close.

All the songs I’ve heard from Talking are really good. I’m pretty excited to hear the whole thing.

the Morning Benders - Crosseyed (mp3)

the Morning Benders - Boarded Doors (mp3)

I sat down at a recording studio and music offices in the Mission with Chris Chu, the Morning Benders’ songwriter, singer and guitarist, last week to catch up and ask him a few questions as the album release approached.

–

Adrian Bischoff of ipickmynose: Are you excited that the album’s finally coming out?

Chris Chu of the Morning Benders: Quite. Quite.

A: It’s been a while since you recorded it, right?

C: Yeah, it’s been a while. I think that’s sort of what happens.

A: It’s been … eight months or something… last August.

C: Yeah. August. So it’s been a while.

A: Have your opinions of the album changed since then? Or the songs?

C: Um, yeah, definitely. I guess I haven’t listened to it in a while. That’s what happens, you know. You obsess over it for so long, you don’t want to ever listen to it again. You get over that after a while and you can put it on again and be more objective about it. It’s cool. I mean, everything we’ve gone through is a learning process. I’m the sort of person who’ll look back and think about all the things I would do differently or want to change for the next time and that sort of thing…

A: Is that what happened with the EPs? Because you recorded some of those songs again.

C: Yeah, the EPs were definitely a learning process because I was recording them and that was my first time ever recording, so I was just learning that for the first time. I sort of knew going into them that those weren’t going to be what I had intended them to be because we were really limited. We were really limited, obviously. What we had was just whatever was around my house.

When we got into the studio that was what was so cool about it. We got to flesh out the songs how I wanted in the first place.

A: I read somewhere that one of the EPs–I forget which song–but the second song you ever recorded was on one of the EPs.

C: The first song I ever recorded was “Grain of Salt”. And it took me like three times. I have a bunch of versions of it. We’ve actually been talking about–because that song’s not on the record, but we still like to play it. So we’re thinking about putting out an EP of just “Grain of Salt” recordings because there are so many different versions of it.

A: That’d be awesome. You should get some other bands to cover it as well.

C: Yeah. That’d be cool. I didn’t think of that. That’s a good idea.

A: I’ll expect a royalty check.

C: [laughing] Yeah…

I recorded acoustic demos but that was just like putting a mic up and hitting record. But the first time I tried to record a band or a song was “Grain of Salt” and I did it piece-by-piece.

A: I mean, historically, that’s not, like, how bands work. People sit in their basements for 10 years and record on a four-track and then finally release an album. Do you feel like you’re–I don’t know–bursting onto the scene quickly?

C: I don’t really think about it that way. I think try to not think about it too much or deliberate too much and just let it happen like it needs to happen. I don’t feel you need to be tinkering away on songs for years and years before you put them out. Because it takes away a lot– I think, some of the spontaneity, some of the early creative hit or whatever–or energy.

So I kind of like the spirit of recording things haphazardly and putting them out. I started writing songs a few years ago, so that was sort of a new thing. Most of these songs are some of the first songs I’ve ever written.

A: Do you think that–obviously it’s a lot easier to record a song and get it out there [now] with the internet, so do you think ten years ago that you’d have been releasing songs as quickly?

C: That’s a good question. I think we probably would. We would have found some way to do it. People have been recording things for themselves for a good amount of time, like you were saying, on a four track. We probably would have done that or whatever was cheaper. It just so happens that recording on your computer or something is the cheapest way, because you don’t have to really buy anything else. Yeah, the internet is obviously a good tool for getting your music out there. That would have been a lot harder or a lot different.

(Find the rest of the interview, a new video and the flyer after the jump.)

A: You got a lot of blog press right off the bat. How’d that come about and was that surprising at all?

C: Yeah, it was. I hadn’t really heard about the music blogs that much. I sort of knew about it vaguely: the idea of these things popping up and stuff. I started searching around and found this huge network of them. It’s pretty cool when you first come across that because there’s so much music and so many different people’s tastes and stuff. It’s kind of a crazy world.

But, uh, the music, we wanted to put stuff up for free from the beginning. That was kind of the idea behind it. We had two or three mp3s that we just put up and I sent them to some of the blogs that we liked. Blogs just find [the mp3s] when you put them [online] and it just goes from there.

It was kind of a mysterious thing. We didn’t know a lot of it. I mean, people were telling us, check out this blog that posted something about you and we didn’t see it for a while.

A: Yeah, “viral” is the word everyone’s using these days.

C: [whispering] Viral.

A: With this new album there are all sorts of things that you’re doing, like the ticket giveaway. If you buy the album you get a ticket to the release show and the b-sides and things like that. It seems like you’re embracing this new business model where you don’t just assume that people will buy your records.

C: Yeah.

A: Is that–

C: Well, yes, since we’re talking about the internet. People are buying music less and less since you can get it for free. Or, they get bored of music because there’s so much music that they don’t want to invest the time in an album or a band. They just put together mixtapes of a couple mp3s here and there.

So, yeah, that’s what we wanted to do with Plus One which was so great, which was to try to get–well, first of all have CDs that are nice and collectible. We obviously put a lot of time into the idea of a record being cohesive. We like the idea of it having two sides, like vinyl. Not just a bunch of songs thrown together. Something that’s sort of cohesive. We want people to take it as such and enjoy it as a full album.

Things like the giveaway that encourage people to buy the album–it’s good. That’s what we’re trying to do.

A: Is this going to get a vinyl release?

C: Yeah, hopefully. The first thing we did was the 7″ from the beginning with a couple new songs. And that’s really cool. We still have some of those. But yeah, we want to do it on vinyl. It’s just really expensive.

A: I don’t know if people make any money off of vinyl.

C: Or 7″s. That’s even worse.

A: I got one…but then again you gave it to me. You didn’t make any money off of me on that one.

Does songwriting come naturally to you?

C: Um, yeah, I think so. I haven’t really thought about it, so yeah probably, [laughing] because it does come naturally…

Yeah, I write songs a lot. I’ve actually been doing these demos recently for the next album. I refused to do demos for a long time because–like I was talking about–I wanted to do them in the studio for the first time and make them as spontaneous as possible but everyone keeps nagging me for them so I’ve been starting doing them. I’ve been doing one a day to get them done–this back catalog of songs–and now I just keep writing one a day because–

A: You were recording one a day and–

C: I was recording one everyday so I got the juices flowing or something so now I’m writing them and now I can’t catch up to myself. I’ve been trying to finish them but I keep writing a new one and recording it that day, putting myself behind.

A: Wow.

C: Yeah, I’ve been writing a lot.

A: I mean, sort of the romantic ideal of a songwriter is someone who can just sit down and write a song [at will]. Paul McCartney was like that but not many other people. I think you’ve got a skill there.

Another thing is that you guys are pretty young and pretty much every article mentions this. Do you find it weird that there’s this fascination with your age?

C: It’s kind of strange at this point of the game. You’d think people would be kind of passed it. The funny thing is people are older now than they were in the sixties when they were coming up. The Beatles were getting–George Harrison was 25 or something when the Beatles broke up , so he was like 15 or 16 when they were starting out. That’s super young.

A: Yeah, all those girl groups were–

C: Exactly. It’s kind of strange that now, 40 or 50 years later, people are still harping on it. I guess it’s interesting for some reason.

A: I think rock n roll is still a young man’s game but you see all these established acts now that are 35 or…

C: And the industry seems to have gotten slower, which is something we’re trying to fight against.

[laughing]

Yeah, that’s probably part of it. It probably takes longer to put out records so when you see a young band doing it seems to be interesting for some reason.

A: You’ve opened for a lot of big acts. What’s your favorite of those? What’s your favorite show among those?

C: There’s a few probably. I really like White Rabbits. Do you know them?

A: I don’t think so.

C: You’d like them.

A: I should check them out.

C: They’re from Brooklyn or something. We were touring and we got offered a show with them and I saw them for the first time and thought they were just so great, which is rare [when] seeing a band for the first time. It’s awesome They have two drummers. It’s a really cool live set up. That was probably the most surprising one.

We just played with MGMT who we’ve been listening to a lot. I don’t know. There’s a bunch.

A: Would it be bad to ask if you have a favorite Bay Area band? Would you make too many enemies?

C: My favorite one which I’ve said in every interview–they should be paying me! We’ve given them so much press [laughing]–is the Mumlers. Do you know them?

A: Yeah, yeah. They’re good.

C: They are. They’ve just put out a record which is really good. They’re may favorite band around.

…

A: What’s the plan for the next album after this? Is that on the books or are you just–?

C: It’s vaguely on the books. [talking louder] We’d like it to be on the books as much as possible.

Steve from Plus One [whose been working in the same room]: Thanks for that.

[laughing]

C: We’re thinking about it obviously. That’s one of the things we’d like to do: keep putting out music a lot–as much as we can–and keep making new music. So I think we’ll record, if we’re lucky, this year and maybe put out a record again next year if possible.

We also have a bunch of stuff that we haven’t put out yet from these last sessions. Hopefully we’ll have new stuff every month or two.

A: Cool.

C: We did a bunch of covers which you’ll like.

A: Oh sweet.

C: We’re thinking how to put those out.

A: You did a bunch of them on your blog.

C: Yeah.

A: So is there a new set [of covers] beyond that?

C: Yeah. Four or five that I did that we’ll put out somehow. We want to do that “Grain of Salt” thing and we have the b-sides.

A: Did you purposefully show your influences with the covers? Because it seems like they [show] obvious influences like Roy Orbison and all those people.

C: I mean, those are–it’s really hard to pick cover songs. And usually I feel like new songs shouldn’t be covered that much so it’s sort of necessary to go back into the older stuff. Some of the songs we picked for the newer ones perhaps aren’t as direct or obvious influences. But all of the songs we picked are just songs we really liked. So they are influences in one way or another.

A: That makes sense.

Do you worry about hearing your influences too much in your music?

C: Um…Not really. We’re never–when we’re making music or when I’m writing a song we’re never thinking about an exact song or an exact band that we’re thinking, let’s emulate this–let’s do a feel like this song. We never do that. I feel like we can–so long as we’re not being so cerebral about it in that fashion, it’ll be synthesized with our own take on it. I guess we just trust ourselves in that regard.

A: Do you find that having studied music–you have a degree, right?

C: uh huh

A: –that you’re ever cerebral about it? Or do you try to avoid that?

C: The main thing was, when I was studying music–I was actually afraid of that when I was getting into it. So I was really conscious of that fact and trying not to get too caught up in the rules. Because that’s what you pretty much study when you study composition. You just study the rules over and over. The rules of different eras. But the interesting thing you find is that they get broken every different movement. These rules that are the holiest of the holy, they’re bending them and then later they’re not even following them at all. If you think of it like that, you have a kind of cool–you can recognize the different elements but you don’t have to stick to any kind of form or any kind of harmony or anything like that, you know?

A: Yeah.

C: Yeah, I feel like it’s not too cerebral. If I ever am feeling like I’m feeling too cerebral I just try to put something down and stop. It’s better to just do it impulsively.

A: Cool. Thanks.

–

If you’re still hungry for Morning Benders action, SF Bay Guardian and SF Weekly also have profiles.

The band released a new video yesterday for “Boarded Doors”. It just demonstrates what we already know: ladies love Chris Chu.

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Bar Pink Elephant has that classy-old-school vibe to it, like it might have been the place to go in the 50s. From when I got there it rapidly filled with a crowd of people, most of whom just seemed to be there just to be at a bar, not for the band. The stage area was off in one corner, a scant 6″ rise above the rest of the floor. They ran the drums and amps un-miced, with only the vocals (and the vibes, in the case of the opener) mic-ed. One of the speaker out in the crowd was pointed back toward the stage slightly and I guess that was the monitor too. Despite the limitations, the sound was pretty decent.

The opener started out alright, but with each further song, I felt the word “emo” was more apt a description–and not in the sort of warm-feeling college nostalgia way.

Two Sheds went on just before midnight. They put on a good set with solid versions of “Mama” and “Undertow” in there. They played “It’s Hard” after I’d shouted it out during one of their on-stage band conferences. After their set ended there were shouts for “one more song” so they decided to play one, to the awkward realization that their drummer had gone to the restroom.

After a couple minute break they went into an off-the-cuff version of “Psycho Killer” (which you can hear if you buy their album) accompanied by Caitlin saying “I don’t remember the chords”, (figuring them out,) and “I got it now!”. The band had obviously not rehearsed it and it teetered on the edge of falling apart, but they kept it together and the spontaneity was refreshing. They went into slow breakdown near the end led by their drummer that was pure improvisation (and pure brilliance). It just put a smile on my face.

Two Sheds has an iTunes EP out tomorrow May 6. I’m going to snap that bad boy up in record time. Also, be sure to tune in at 9pm on May 21st when I host the band on the air.

The line up includes:

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss featuring T Bone Burnett
Loudon Wainwright III
Gogol Bordello
Hazel Dickens
Bonnie Prince Billy
Asleep at the Wheel
Mike Farris & the Roseland Rhythm Revue
The Del McCoury Band
Bad Livers
Robert Earl Keen
Iris DeMent
Jerry Jeff Walker
The Desert Rose Band
Earl Scruggs
Greg Brown

I have no idea why a legend like Earl Scruggs is billed that low.

If you can handle the ridiculous crowds and pricey concessions, HSB is a pretty amazing festival.

–

Adrian (me):
the Botticellis - Awaiting on You All (mp3) (unreleased, artist’s website)

This George Harrison cover has been a slow burner for weeks. It’s got a unique and great sound that gives me pause every time I come across it.

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Keith:
Toulouse - Know Better (mp3) (buy)

I made the mistake of casually namedropping a Red House Painters record as “one of my top 100 of the 90’s” to a musically erudite friend, who subsequently challenged me to come up with the rest of the list. So after an afternoon’s worth of research on favorites both past and present I impulsively formed the list. At #97 is their debut album The Way The City Stretches by Boston/Chicago shoegazer group Toulouse, whose first record was a swath of blissfully meaty noise. They put out one final lp on Grimsey which is also very fine, though more in a French pop vein.

–

Oz:
Justin Townes Earle - Lone Pine Hill (mp3) (buy original, hear live session)

I try my best not to submit anything from our live sessions for Song Obsessions, but sometimes you just get blown away by hearing the raw talent in someone. Justin Townes Earle released The Good Life on Bloodshot Records in March and he not only has the pedigree (his dad is Steve Earle), but he has mastered his craft. It’s hard to call it alt-country. It’s straight on country music, but it’s a throwback sound that reminds me of Hank Williams.

–

Natalie:
My Morning Jacket - Wordless Chorus (mp3) (buy)

I was late catching on to these guys, but if there was any doubt in my mind about how good they are, their set on Sunday at Coachella dispelled it. They were amazing live, especially this song. I am almost convinced that Jim James is not human - no human can have a voice like that. Seeing them on play on the main stage on the last day of Coachella while the sun was setting was just one of those perfect moments in time.

–

Scott:
Mount Eerie - Domesticated Dog (mp3) (buy)

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Dave:
American Analog Set - She’s Half (mp3) (buy)

Only AmAnSet could make four chords and minimal words interesting for over four minutes.

–

As predicted Geographer brought their lush pop down to KZSU last night.

It was the third time I’d seen them live and it looks like the last two times weren’t just getting lucky. They’re consistently good.

Here’s their set list:

• Rushing In, Rushing Out
• Each Other’s Ghost
• Asleep
• Can’t You Wait
• Sad-eyed Casio
• Wonderful
• Native Son
• Heaven Waits

Most of those tracks come off of their forth-coming album, save “Sad-eyed Casio”. Studio versions of “Rushing In, Rushing Out” and “Can’t You Wait” have been released as a free CD single and I believe you can also grab them at the band’s myspace.

I know what you’re saying: I don’t want to read what they played. I want to hear it! Well, just this once I will bend to your wishes and offer you up some exclusive mp3s of the in-studio:

Geographer - Each Other’s Ghost (Live on KZSU) (mp3, exclusive)

Geographer - Native Son (Live on KZSU) (mp3, exclusive)

Geographer - Wonderful (Live on KZSU) (mp3, exclusive)

Thanks as always go to KZSU’s awesome live engineer, Smurph, for making things sound great.