Representative of the Midwest: Bryan Scary & the Shredding Tears
Last Thursday I had the pleasure of catching Brooklyn’s Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears at the Subterranean in Chicago. I was not very familiar with the material going into it, but had heard of the band through a close friend who checks them out down South. Said friend played me their new Flight of the Knife (out April 4 on Black and Greene Records) earlier in the week, and a surprisingly large amount stuck after only one pre-show listen.
Flight of the Knife is a sprawling epic about The Knife, “the greatest flying machine to ever sail the skies” which no one had seen. The record follows Venus Ambassador on his quest to save the flying machine from the “furthest reaches of the world” where it teeters on a cloud. I don’t think I’ve listened enough to fully grasp the continuity of the plot (which I can only assume is there), but the songs themselves are delightfully poppy while remaining musically interesting and grounded in familiar sounds. They tumble and shift in erratic ways that end up making perfect sense, providing for an incredibly diverse listen.
On the whole, this record plays like Alice Cooper and Ziggy Startust arguing over McCartney melodies, while listening to Frank’s Freak Out having just finished some Gabriel-era Genesis and Beatles (you know, just as George was starting to become a forceful songwriter). Read on for more about this exciting new band…
Intermezzo: Jamtopia Unveils New Feature
If you’ve ever searched for a live concert DVD on Amazon you’ve probably noticed how unintuitive the interface has become. We’re glad that Amazon offers 28 billion products, but sometimes we just want to find the new Iron Maiden DVD quickly. Our friends at Jamtopia just unveiled a Live Concert DVD Finder that makes the […]
Crowded House Returns to North America
2007 was the year of the reunion, but only a few of the bands that reunited are still playing together in 2008. One of those bands is Crowded House, who are working on a new album and just announced a North American tour. Last year Neil Finn and the boys hit a number of large […]
Better Late Than Never: Green Apple Lineup
When the one month ’til Earth Day mark passed without a lineup announcement, we were starting to wonder if in fact the Green Apple Festival was really happening this year. Well we finally have a lineup announcement, and the news is better for some cities than it is for others.
Things look good on 4/20 in D.C. where The Roots (and friends), Gov’t Mule, Umphrey’s McGee and Toots head up the killer National Mall lineup. Yet NYCers draw the short end of the stick this time where Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Big Head Todd & The Monsters and Vusi Mahlasela will perform at Central Park.
Meanwhile Denver (The Nevilles, Rose Hill Drive and The Duo), San Francisco (Mickey Hart, YMSB and Brett Dennen), and Los Angeles (Ziggy Marley, Taj Mahal, Juliette and the Licks) all score fantastic lineups, while Miami gets a boy band (Menudo) and Mr. Wendell (Arrested Development).
But it’s not only about the music, it’s about the environment. The Green Apple Festival has quickly become the America’s Largest Earth Day Celebration, and has expanded to eight cities this year. Did we mention the best part of the Earth Day events on 4/20? They are all absolutely free.
Read on for a full list of performers, cities and more…
Briefly: Indie Rock Hotline
Lonely and looking for someone to chat with? Need some advice? Ran into some trouble and need to get bailed out of jail? Well look no further than psychedelic rockers The Black Lips who have started their own hotline to call for just such problems. Here’s some info straight from the band’s blog… we got […]
Cover Wars: Space Oddity Edition
The voting is still taking place (Actually, come to think of it, polls are still open for all of them) and turnout remains to be on the rise with Volume 5 of Cover Wars. Early on in the week it looked like Scarecrow Collection was going to pull it off, but Mr. Blotto is running away with it and Hidden Track can now project that Mr. Blotto will carry the 50 Ways edition of Cover Wars. Talks of a ‘Dream Ticket’ with both Mr. Blotto and SCC are being dismissed by both candidates.
Let us move onwards and upwards into this week’s edition where we’ll examine covers of David Bowie’s Space Oddity. You know this song, it’s called ‘Ground Control to Major Tom’, you can find it playing at happening college party sing-along’s with The Who’s ‘Teenage Wasteland’ and ‘Dirty Woman’ by Pink Floyd. This is a song that appears to be inspired both by the Apollo 11 moon landing and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bowie first recorded this song in 1969. Did you know that Rick Wakeman of Yes plays Mellotron/Keyboards on the original? I didn’t. I guess you learn something new everyday.
Assembly of Dust: Reid Genauer’s group used the tune as the countdown to ring in the year 2007. This is a good call when the song’s already got a countdown from 10 in it. Well played.
Read on for the full report on nine other versions of Space Oddity…
Blips: Four Under the Radar Bands
In our never-ending quest to dig up some great bands that cost less than a corned beef sandwich at Katz’s Deli, we bring you another round of Blips. Blips highlights some great bands that are largely still in their larvae stage, but will soon morph into their beautiful butterfly. In this edition, we have some really cool new music, so take a sec, poke around their various websites, and see what you think.
Renminbi
You what really turns me on? Chicks with huge balls. Renminbi is a power trio of badass ladies that hold nothing back in creating a flustering stampede of sound reminiscient of Billy Corgan meets Shpongle. These girls will not only impress you with their writing and playing, but they will also knock you flat on your ass. Remnimbi’s musical compositions are noticeably mature as they often teeter the line, but never fully cross, into harmonious resolves. Rather they perpetually build tension and give you a lot of mini-releases, but never succumb to the full release. Justin Lin Yifu, a well-known economist, stated at a recent conference with Chinese officials that, “Renminbi’s rise must be controlled.” To that, we say good luck. – Rupert
Read on for three more bands that have caught our attention…
Pullin’ ‘Tubes: Vampire Bands Rule
Move over “The” bands I’m declaring Vampire bands the new trend in band namely. Ok well I only actually know about two of them – Vampire Weekend, and new find Vampire Hands – but I feel like more are on there way, you’ll see it will become the hot new moniker. While we wait to […]
Marco and a Piano at the Rockwood Music Hall
Marco Benevento played with some of the best musicians in the scene during a January residency at Sullivan. For Marco’s next NYC gig at Rockwood Music Hall on April 3, it will just be the New Jersey native and his piano. But don’t fret, he’ll also be running all of his circuit bent toys and […]
Stormy Mondays: Ghosts of Jambands Past
A few months ago, Stormy Monday ran a first volume of the Ghosts of Jambands Past featuring a selection of scene staples from the turn of the century that are no longer with us, bands like Ominous Seapods and Percy Hill. This second installment focuses on the new groove/nu jazz/acid jazz revival movement.
The late 90’s and early 00’s was a golden era for the groove, when backbeats were thumping and the bass was funky, B-3 solos stretched for miles and lavish horn arrangements were the order of the day. Within that world, bands tended to fall into two loose categories- those that crushed the groove, and those that tended to push boundaries, drawing more from Miles Davis-style fusion than from Grant Green.
Addison Groove Project, Boston’s best and brightest, made a name for itself as the former, but in the later years, especially around the time bassist John Hall passed away from cancer, the band began to venture into more open-ended territory, increasingly relying on Rob Marscher’s exceptional keyboard work, as on the opening track, Neo-Geo. By contrast, critic’s choice Fat Mama used to bill itself as inspired by Miles Davis albums like Dark Magus, and their Blood Born Pathogens is a decidedly twisted take on a classic afrobeat idea. It starts out with heavy flourishes that might seem at home in The Budos Band, but it quickly becomes clear that something is very different is going on.
Read on for the rest of the track list…