Published by Scott July 2nd, 2007
in Random.
Good news! After three years of legal battles, Kindercore Records is back. You can read today’s official announcement here. The Athens-centric label put out some great albums by the likes of Japancakes, Dressy Bessy, Of Montreal, and Masters of the Hemisphere, as well as a few killer compilations. Kindercore Records Christmas, Vol. 2 is a perennial favorite in my house.
Ryan Lewis, who co-founded Kindercore with Dan Gellar, says in that release, “Our priority is to help progressive artists - be they musicians, illustrators, animators, film makers, fashion designers or writers - to create and deliver their inventions directly to the people, providing a place for people to come together and dig on art, music, science, fashion, politics and life in general.” Apparently they are branching out a bit.
I’m of course in it for the tunes and their first original release of that nature will be by King of Prussia, whose song “Campaign Kids” on their MySpace page is pretty cool. They will also put out an EP by Ruby Isles, featuring Gellar and Mark Mallman. David wrote about Mallman’s Between the Devil and Middle C here last year.
I see iTunes icons on the bands’ profile pages at the Kindercore site, but no mention of eMusic. As of this moment the old releases are still available. Let’s hope the new stuff makes its way to our favorite download service too.
Published by Scott June 27th, 2007
in Free Tracks, Album and 2007.
I saw a review for the new Minus Story album, My Ion Truss, at Pitchfork this morning and immediately checked over at eMusic to see if it was available. I like those guys and had downloaded their other stuff through that service. Sure enough they had it. I guess I somehow overlooked it while checking through the daily batches of new releases last week because that’s when it was added to their catalog.
I also noticed something called A Minus Story Compendium with the triple listing of “new,” “eMusic Only,” and “Free Track.” Turns out it’s a nine track free sampler taken from the other available albums and EP. How cool! I already had all the songs after grabbing the new one but I think it’s a great idea as far as giving others a free introduction to the band is concerned. It’s a great little compilation too. I haven’t listened to My Ion Truss yet, but the other songs selected are the same ones I would have chosen using my new myopic selection standards. Included are my two favorite songs by them, “Little Wet Head” and “You Were On My Side.”
I’m not sure how to describe the band’s music. I see Flaming Lips mentioned a lot but I don’t think they sound like them at all. Still, their brand of mellow neo-psychedelic-indie-folk-pop-rock is in the same ballpark. If you’re intrigued but not an eMusic subscriber, there are a bunch of freebies available at both the Minus Story and Jagjaguwar sites.
Published by Scott June 25th, 2007
in Concert.
I checked out Drive-By Truckers last night at Athfest. They closed out the festival on the free outdoor stage. I went in barely knowing the band and left quite impressed. They put on a really good show.
Seriously, I had had hardly any exposure to their work although I was aware of their reputation. I know David is a fan and wrote about a string of their shows last fall. They’re one in a long list of bands I’ve been meaning to check out but never have. So I wasn’t going in completely cold, I solicited some friends to put together a DBT crash course for me and listened to it the way to the show.
There apparently have been several personnel changes in the DBT lineup over the years. A major one occurred recently when Jason Isbell left the band. So last night John Neff and legendary Muscle Shoals organist Spooner Oldham joined core members Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, Brad Morgan, and Shonna Tucker. Oldham was in town to record with the band in the studio this week. Neff is now an official member, although he has recorded and played with them extending back as far as their first album. I think he may have some of those Elephant Sixers beat as far as being associated with multiple bands is concerned- Star Room Boys, Japancakes, and Jack Logan to name a few.
At first Oldham’s keyboards didn’t quite mesh with the rest of the band. They were too loud in the mix and kind of distracting. They eventually worked things out on the board though and everything sounded great after that. I was of course drawn most to the rockers but they played a nice variety of material.
Patterson Hood is an engaging, charismatic performer. He told several stories to introduce songs and I was fascinated by what he had to say. Funny too. He listed a long string of bands he saw play with Kansas over the years before they launched into “Let There Be Rock” and ended by saying he hated that band. It was a you-had-to-be-there kind of moment but the point is he’s a personable storyteller with great timing, no less effective than a comedian leading up to and delivering a punchline. I found it curious that none of the band members said anything, especially since Mike Cooley sang every other song.
The highlights for me were “Women Without Whiskey,” which I had heard driving to the show (thanks Christian!), and “The Living Bubba.” Hood gave a very touching introduction to one, telling how it was inspired by a songwriter named Gregory Dean Smalley who continued to perform to the end of his days even though he was slowly dying from AIDS. The real showstopper though was “Let There Be Rock.” They were absolutely locked in and scorching. The band took a short break after that and came back for a couple of more songs, but neither of them matched the power and energy of “Rock.” That’s not a complaint. I developed an instant appreciation for Drive-By Truckers based on this strong performance and realize what I suspected was true- I’ve been missing out.
Published by Scott June 13th, 2007
in Random.
James has been holding down the fort for months but Yancey’s post at the “unofficial” eMusic blog 17 dots has spurred me back into action. I have of course been listening to music all this time, just not writing about it.
One not so little project I’ve been working on lately is selecting choice tracks from the albums on my mp3 player and jettisoning the rest. That probably sounds like the obvious thing to do but for me it’s been a radical shift in thinking. I’ve been in full album listening mode for so long it took a conscious effort to break from that self-imposed constraint. I only recently came to the realization that, duh, there’s simply never going to be enough time to relisten to most of the thousands of albums I have. Might as well pick out the highlights.
I just finished whittling 3,900 tracks to about 800 and have moved on to the albums stored on my computer. From there I’ll comb through the couple of hundred backup mp3 discs I have plus my cd collection. It almost sounds like work but it’s been a lot of fun. The coolest part is hitting random and rocking out. Every song that comes on is my favorite! Can you imagine?
Yes, I am sort of an idiot and probably should have been doing this all along. I always thought of albums as complete works though, like novels. You don’t just read random chapters in a book, you take it as a sequential whole. But that analogy doesn’t even make sense since there have always been singles.
Then again, it’s not like I’m completely ditching albums. My approach will be to listen to new stuff until I get a feel for it, pick out my favorite songs to transfer, and then move on. I can always go back and listen to the whole thing if I get the urge, but in most cases the select few songs will probably be satisfying enough.
Published by Scott February 11th, 2007
in Album and Review.
Kentucky’s Ideal Free Distribution have been kicking around for almost a decade but are only now releasing their recorded debut. With some help from Elephant Six-ers Robert Schnieder (Apples in Stereo) and Jason Nesmith (an early Of Montreal member, currently of Casper and the Cookies), they’ve unleashed an album of 60’s influenced pop rock perfection. With catchy vocal hooks and lush arrangements tempered by occasional flashes of psychedelia and fuzzed out garage guitar, it’s truly a joy from start to finish. The only problem is the band lacks a distinct identity. Certain songs recall particular artists, like “Saturday Drive” (The Shins), “The American Myth” (XTC), and “Mr. Wilson” (duh, The Beach Boys), but there’s not an overall defining sound. If I heard a random track by them and didn’t immediately recall who it was, I doubt they’d be the first band to come to mind. Still, this doesn’t mar the listening experience in the slightest. Ideal Free Distribution have crafted a fine first album.
Mixtape tracks- Saturday Drive, Mr. Wilson
Freebies- None, but you can stream three songs from their MySpace page.
Published by Scott February 4th, 2007
in Random.
I just gave my home audio playback capabilities a major overhaul and I am thrilled with the results. The setup before was that I had my stereo in the living room hooked up to a pair of speakers there and in the kitchen. A Radio Shack “High Power Stereo Speaker Control Center” allowed me to switch playback back and forth from these locations. The problem was that I download a lot of music and it was getting to be a pain loading up the mp3 player with a new album just to rock out on that stereo. Maybe I’m lazy and/or impatient but what I really wanted to be able to do was grab something from emusic or wherever and then play it right away through my main stereo. Listening to stuff on the computer was always an option but not nearly as satisfying as the crunch of my Infinitys. I also didn’t want to be limited to that one room.
So for the price of a foot long drill bit plus an afternoon of crawling around in my creepy crawlspace, I now have a wicked cool home stereo setup. Basically all I did was move my amplifier back to the computer room and connect it to the computer using the line-out jack on the sound card. Then I got up the nerve to drill some holes in our wood floors so that I could run the speaker wire under the house to the living room and kitchen. As a bonus I hooked up an extra pair of bookshelf speakers that were in storage to take the place of the far inferior computer speakers in the computer room. Now all of my music output sources are in one location and I’ve eliminated the extra step of having to transfer files to my Nomad Zen. I also like being able to see the playlist on a monitor instead of a roughly 1.25″ x 2.75″ screen. With three sets of speakers hooked up, I can pretty much be anywhere in the house and still clearly hear whatever is playing. And did I mention it sounds great? Rawk!
Published by Scott January 29th, 2007
in Random.
Terry Gross interviewed Colin Meloy of The Decemberists on Fresh Air today. I’ve read some good interviews with him before and think he’s an interesting guy but he wasn’t very engaging on the show. Gross’ best interviews are when her guests’ answers lead to other avenues of discussion. With Meloy it seemed like she’d toss him a question and he’d dutifully answer it, but in such a way that it closed the topic. Next question, please. Not that he came across as aloof or anything. He just wasn’t a very good conversationalist. The interview also felt really padded with song samples and an extended clip from The Colbert Report (in reference to the recent “Rock and Awe: Countdown to Guitarmageddon” episode.)
You can listen to the interview here.