Tag: link

No comments

At Latl: You Were a Destroyer and I Was a Pontoon Boat

  By

It seems to happen so often that I have to ease into a band’s music, only having it click in after the 3rd or 4th spin, that I sometimes mistrust a band if I like them from the first listen. I enjoyed bands like the Black Keys and TV on the Radio for a couple of years before I decided they weren’t going to pull a fast one on me and finally bought their albums. I’m going to throw caution to the wind, though, and suggest you all listen to At Latl despite the fact that I liked their sound right away.

At Latl – currently a three-piece band consisting of D. Kent Watson, Dan Mahony and Kevin “KC” Christensen – hail from the impressive Milwaukee, Wisconsin, scene (that’s right: Milwaukee appears to have a scene – note Conrad Plymouth, Juniper Tar and the great blog Muzzle of Bees). What would you expect to hear from a band from Milwaukee? I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure At Latl’s sound is not it. Switching off songwriting duties between members, they attain an eclectic sound, one minute seeming about to verge off into folk territory, then electronica territory, then flat-out garage rock land, all with a thread of slightly off-kilter vocals, high, chiming guitars and rhythms that move you.

At Latl are getting ready to release a full-length album called Safe, Sound and Temporary (with a tentative date of June 6), and they’ve kindly allowed us to share some of those songs here. You can also download their EP Atlanta Atlanta for free.

At Latl – Trains Freighted
At Latl – Hired
At Latl – How Can I Get Out

At Latl Official Website
At Latl Facebook
At Latl MySpace

No comments

Bits: This Is Jim Jones, Sleigh Bells, Trent’s new joint, Liquid Swords II, Murder by Death & whiskey, litrock, Frank the Funkasaurus Rex wrecks ya

  By ,

If you have somehow missed the puppet dinosaur craze, please meet Frank the Funkasaurus Rex. Frank loves him some tits ‘n’ tubs, and we love Frank.

Addendum: So, that scroll across the bottom? Not a joke. TBK was seriously pissed about this video. Sorry, guys. Wish I had known before.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_PrT25o8Vs]

No comments

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Michael Runion

  By , ,

Jennifer the Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog is so excited about her featured artist today that she’s not even waiting until she has pictures to tell you all about him.

Michael Runion is an artist I discovered entirely due to Twitter. According to his MySpace, his genre is “Visual/Folk/Pop”. (Tangentially, I really do love MySpace genre descriptions; some of them are generic things like “rock/pop” and some of them are more interesting things like “2-step/experimental/country” and finding out who is accurate with their self-labeling is always a good time.) But getting back to the subject at hand: left to my own devices, I think I’d tell you that Runion specializes in beautiful, delicate melodies wrapped around razor-sharp lyrics. The result is songs that are good company for filing as well as long train rides to the beach. (I’ll let you know how they do with the car stereo test after this summer.) I’m particularly fond of Drunk as I’ve Ever Been and Don’t Let Her Hold You Down, the latter of which would be the perfect tune for dancing a barefoot two-step with a cowboy before sending him back out on the rodeo circuit. If that sounds like something you’d be into, you should check him out.

I don’t have any pictures of him (yet; I’m hoping if he tours this summer he’ll swing through New York), so I’m bringing some videos (that are not mine) to share instead. The first one is him singing The Daylight, with Z Berg of The Like (genreless, for now, but: ’60s glamour/fierce ladies/pop, their songs WILL get stuck in your head). There’s a whole story for this song written in her facial expressions and the set of her shoulders:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LqPBRXVrpA]

Next up: another duet/battle, this time doing Don’t Look Back with Dave Rawlings, who sang with Gillian Welch for many years but has recently reconfigured himself as the Dave Rawlings Machine (genre: alternative/acoustic/industrial)(?!) and struck out on his own:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm-jKdpGA7I]

And here he is by himself (kind of; the people lounging on the beanbag chair in the background are his friends) on public access tv, with Soft Hands:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUj96fXac8Y]

And then my favorite video, Our Time Will Come, which, fair warning, contains shirtlessness and shaving:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSwlOHnj1gc]

Michael Runion Official Website – WARNING: PLAYS MUSIC!
Michael Runion Twitter

No comments

Bits: Shel Silverstein songs, Alan Moore opera, No Depression fest, save 924 Gilman, produce a Juniper Tar doc, RSD is crafty

  By ,

  • Did you know that besides the poems that were so dear to many of us in our youth, Shel Silverstein was also responsible for songs like “A Boy Named Sue” and “The Cover of the Rolling Stone”? A cadre of folky and country artists have contributed to an album of Silverstein’s songs, called Twistable, Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to the Songs of Shel Silverstein, that will be released on June 8. Pitchfork has a couple of songs from contributors My Morning Jacket and Andrew Bird for you to listen to.

  • A favorite of NTSIB, writer Alan Moore is working with Damon Albarn and Gorillaz to produce an opera about magician/mathematician John Dee (if you are familiar with Moore, you know this is completely unsurprising), and Pitchfork has some info on that, too.

  • Another favorite of NTSIB is the venerable magazine-now-community-website No Depression, and they have announced the line-up for their always impressive festival. This year’s festival will include Swell Season, Lucinda Williams, Cave Singers, Punch Brothers, Alejandro Escovedo, Chuck Prophet and Sera Cahoone.

  • Respected punk venue 924 Gilman is in danger of closing down due to a ridiculous rent increase. Here’s what you can do to help keep it going.

  • High Frequency Media is planning a Juniper Tar tour documentary, and you can become a producer.

  • There’s a nice write-up of the Record Store Day activities in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood from a crafter’s perspective at the Jo-Ann Fabrics blog.

Yours Truly shares this video from SXSW of Nathaniel Rateliff playing “Boil & Fight”, but we’re particularly enamored of his rendition of Roger Miller’s “Oo-De-Lally” at the beginning.
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=11039579&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=b32bed&fullscreen=1

Nathaniel Rateliff “Boil & Fight” from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

No comments

The Helper T-Cells: I Live in an Unstable

  By ,

You know it, I know it: Mondays are shit. We can’t even abolish them because then Tuesday would just become the new Monday. But you know what we can do? We can listen to the Helper T-Cells.

Who are the Helper T-Cells? Got me. All I know is I ended up with their EP More Odd-Toe Ungulates & Nose Rubbin’ Shrubs in my Record Store Day goodie bag from Music Saves and find it delightful. I’m not even certain this band is still together as their MySpace page has not been updated since August of last year, though I did discover that key band member Ray Scott is also a member of the very fine traditional string band One Dollar Hat (who, like the Helper T-Cells, have an extremely limited web presence).

Anyway, here, have some sunshine. Good for adults, good for children, and especially good for adult children.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3218158&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=f09c00&fullscreen=1

The Helper T-Cells Music Video “Sprout Springer” from zak long on Vimeo.

The Helper T-Cells MySpace

No comments

Bits: Mike Watt photo exhibit & I Need That Record free viewing extended

  By ,

  • Mike Watt’s photo exhibit, Eye-gifts from Pedro, at the Track 16 Gallery has been extended to May 16th and the Watt from Pedro Show will be a live remote broadcast from the gallery on the 16th.

  • I Need That Record! will be featured on Pitchfork for another week. It’s a must-watch documentary for anyone who cares at all about music.

No comments

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: The Gin Blossoms

  By , ,

For this week’s installment of Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog, Jennifer shoots a band who might send you on a nostalgia trip.

One of the upsides of getting old is when the bands that were dear to your teenage heart put out new records and tour on them, you are finally able to see them play live.

For example: The Gin Blossoms and Soul Asylum, who were featured heavily on my high school and college mix-tapes, are both working on new music AND touring together this summer. They’re stopping through New Jersey in July, and I am SO EXCITED.

I have seen both bands before, though separately, and only relatively recently: Soul Asylum in 2008, when they opened for Everclear (!) at Webster Hall (also on the bill: Cracker, though I missed them due to class), and the Gin Blossoms just this past January, at the Outpost in the ‘Burbs, in Montclair, New Jersey. I didn’t take any pictures at the Webster Hall show, but I did get a few in Montclair:

IMG_5537
Jesse Valenzuela, Robin Wilson, and Bill Leen

The show was in a church and we were sitting in the pews, so I was a lot further from the stage than I usually am when I’m taking pictures. It was also really cold that night, even inside, which is why they’re all bundled up. Nonetheless, Robin Wilson’s voice was as sweet and clear as ever, and he was rocking that tambourine. They were all rocking, actually; Bill Leen even broke a string!

IMG_5539
Bill Leen and Scott Johnson

The whole “sitting in pews” thing was kind of awkward and strange, actually, not least because it made it difficult to get up and dance without feeling like I was being rude and blocking someone’s view. But really that didn’t matter. I was just happy to be able to be there to hear a room full of people glide through the chorus of Mrs. Rita.

And, too, Jon Bon Jovi once commented that Living on a Prayer means a lot more when you’ve actually done it; the same can be said for Found Out About You and Allison Road. They did play some of their newer stuff, too, which I quite liked. I’m looking forward to hearing more of it this summer.

IMG_5545
Bill Leen

Afterwards I walked back out into the frigid night and made my way to the train station, picking my way carefully through shoals of college students. At least one of the girls was literally wearing nothing but a t-shirt, pantyhouse, boots, and a smile. When I stopped to inquire about the occasion, it emerged there was a Jersey Shore full-cast appearance going on in a nearby club, which, I discovered later, ended in a near-riot. And then I passed by this, located outside a bakery, which has nothing to with music at all, but I am nonetheless sharing because it was just so awesome:

IMG_5554

Gin Blossoms’ MySpace
Gin Blossoms’ webpage
Gin Blossoms on Twitter

No comments

Bits: R.I.P. Guru, Kings Go Forth debut, Ketch Secor deejays, Arcadia re-issue, Hip Hop Alley mixtape

  By ,

  • After having survived a heart attack last month, Gang Starr MC Guru has died of cancer at the age of 43.

  • Kings Go Forth release their debut album, The Outsiders Are Back today. Good, classic stuff.

  • From Old Crow Medicine Show: “You can now listen to archives of “The Old Time Hour with Ketch Secor” at the WSM website. Go to the WSM archives, click the arrow in upper right hand corner of the player, scroll right and click ‘Guest Hosts’. Then scroll down to find Ketch’s shows – and stay tuned for next’s month’s show.”

  • Who remembers the Duran Duran one-off side-project Arcadia? NTSIB remembers it fondly and has discovered that the album, So Red the Rose, is being re-issued. You can take a listen at Spinner.

  • Pigeons & Planes and the Music Ninja bring you a pretty sweet mixtape called The Hip Hop Alley, featuring Big Boi, Mos Def and Damian Marley & Nas, among others.

  • I’m just going to say London, Pixies, and drop this here.

If you haven’t already, it’s high time you introduced your face to the Dirtbombs.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-53uojoesME]

No comments

Fight for Your Right: I Need That Record

  By ,

Woohoo, rekkids!

Record Store Day was a great success for all involved, it seems. It certainly was for NTSIB, and the store where we celebrated, Music Saves in Cleveland, broke their record from last year. It really did feel like a Christmas for music geeks, and I was in high spirits all day as I spun my new vinyl.

For the curious, I picked up: the Black Keys “Tighten Up”/”Howlin’ for You” 12″ – which was obtained without bloodshed – the TV on the Radio Dear Science LP, the Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros “Global A Go-Go” LP and the I Need That Record! DVD. I almost didn’t pick up I Need That Record!, but after watching it, I was very glad that I did.

I Need That Record! is a documentary by Brendan Toller on, as the subtitle states, “the death (and possible survival) of the indpendent record store”. If you are a music geek, you know that record stores do still exist. If you’ve been reading NTSIB, you know they still exist. But some people don’t even realize there are still actual, physical stores out there that do indeed sell vinyl, as well as CDs, etc. Even some of the people interviewed for this doc, like legendary noise-composer Glenn Branca, were unsure of the continued existence of record stores, illustrating the very problem this doc investigates.

For many people who follow music – or even for those who follow the plight of independent businesses in general – much of the ground covered in Record will not be news, but there will still be pieces of information that will surprise the viewer. And the treatment of the subject is fairly even-handed, spreading the responsibility among major labels, big box stores, internet downloads and consumers. But the big draw of this doc is the passion of the people involved with independent record stores, from the music makers to the shop owners to, most importantly, the music buyers. The stand-out moment of Record is when a loyal customer of Trash American Style, who gives his name as “John the Bomb”, goes on an impassioned rant about what music and the record store mean to him.

I was choked up by it, anyway.

If you’re less of an emotional twit than I am, you might be lured by the appearance of a number of serious names, such as Branca, Ian Mackaye, Thurston Moore, Legs McNeil, the legendary Noam Chomsky, the fascinating Lenny Kaye or the great Mike Watt. For readers in Cleveland, there is a special thrill in seeing Melanie and Kevin from Music Saves show up.

I am very happy to have this great work in my hand in tangible form (because I’m one of those tactile junkies who loves vinyl as much for the ability to hold the cover in my hands and pore over the liner notes as I listen to the record as much as for the sound quality), but for those solely interested in the content, Pitchfork is streaming the entire documentary in their One Week Only spotlight. So there’s no reason not to watch this genuinely moving and, I’ll just say it, important documentary.

Please watch it.

I’ll be your best friend forever.

Pitchfork One Week Only: I Need That Record!

I Need That Record! Official Site

No comments

Record Store Day! The best Christmas ever!

  By

Just a reminder, tomorrow is Record Store Day (actually, it’s already Record Store Day in some parts of the world… oops, sorry if you missed it), and your local independent record store will have all kinds of fantastic limited-edition vinyl, as well as nifty CDs and DVDs.

For the big details, check out the official Record Store Day website, and for finer details for Clevelanders, make sure to check out Music Saves… but keep your mitts off my copy of the Black Keys 12″.

Record Store Day Site
Music Saves Site