http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ en-us aaron@etchouse.com 2010-01-31T10:47:09-06:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001720.html The Thermals / Now We Can See (Kill Rock Stars) The Thermals' prior record -- their third -- got all kinds of acclaim, but it sounded to me just like the first two. It was good, but it was sparse, the production was thin in a way that seemed affected and the songs lacked variation. Here they sound full and organic, with a rave-up tone from the moment the rhythm section kicks in on "When I Died." The tunes are still a little same-y, but the album demands repeated listening nonetheless and makes it hard to sit still while it's on. Superdrag / Industry Giants (Superdrag Sound Laboratories) I've recently come to realize that Superdrag is probably my favorite band of the past 15 years, even though they didn't release anything between 2002 and 2009, and I've never seen them live. Based on my iTunes ratings, their debut is my favorite album of all time, and their third record is pretty high as well. This one follows in the footsteps of those two, putting forth more terrifically catchy and aggressive power-pop, with a fuzzy sheen laid on top. I was concerned that John Davis' alcohol-fueled evangelical turn would make a Superdrag reunion impossible or intolerable, but the God stuff is sparing and reasonable here. Kid, You'll Move Mountains / Loomings (self-released) Even though for some reason it's taken almost a year, I'm glad to see that this record is finally getting a little recognition. This hardworking group from northeastern Illinois/southeastern Wisconsin has created an emotionally driven and atmospheric indie rock album that rewards repeated listens. It is not surprisingly reminiscent of the last Troubled Hubble album (KYMM contains two former Hubbles), but it's more strident and gets a lot of mileage out of the addition of keys and boy/girl harmonies. The Chicago rock press is finally waking up to these guys and hopefully everybody else will soon. The Prodigy / Invaders Must Die (Cooking Vinyl) Wait, what? Who saw this coming? The Prodigy all but disappeared after helping spur the brief late-90s wave of electronica break over America, with just one middling album between then and this one. But the break helped, I guess, and they've put together an incredible succession of catchy rave-ups on this record. The opening/title track in particular is a superb, driving anthem, and even the seemingly mediocre cuts stick with you after a couple plays. I suppose if this is what one good album every 12 years sounds like I can't really complain. Office / Mecca (self-released) I'm not sure if it says more about me or the industry that two of my top five records this year are self-released efforts from Chicago-area bands, but there you go. This one is a giveaway in the digital format (with a for-cash LP also available), and the KYMM album was available for free for a while as well. Where that one is a beginning, this one may be an end, as the members of Office are now scattered all over the place. The sad result is that hearing these lush pop tunes live is not in the offing for the near future, or maybe ever. These songs are catchy as swine flu, though, and you can't beat the price. Death Cab For Cutie / The Open Door EP (Atlantic) As hectic as my 2009 was, I never got around to writing up my top albums of 2008. If I had, Death Cab's Narrow Stairs would've been in at #4 and I would've had all kinds of things to say about how it was their best album ever and a surprise after their dull major-label debut. This EP is maybe even more of a surprise -- enough so that it's the first EP to ever make my year-end list -- in that it's not just tossed-off junk. These songs fit the tone and quality of Narrow Stairs quite well, but don't necessarily fit into the album's cycle; they all would make great singles. The only questionable bit is the inclusion of an unnecessary acoustic take on "Talking Bird," which is not a terribly memorable song to begin with. Fastball / Little White Lies (Megaforce) The Prodigy, Superdrag, now Fastball -- it's like 1998 all over again in this list, and it's going to get even sillier a couple spots down. I guess as a result of major-label drama these guys have been pretty much AWOL all decade, but while in hibernation they streamlined their sound and came out with one of the best simple power-pop records in recent years. I remember thinking that All the Pain Money Can Buy contained a lot of great songwriting way back when, and that some of it was maybe obscured by the radio-friendly production. This album strongly supports that notion, slotting nicely into the guitar-pop axis that runs through the Beatles and Cheap Trick. The Bird and the Bee / Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future (Blue Note) As so often happens when I love a debut album, this follow-up disappointed me at first, then grew on me, then quickly stopped growing on me, bringing me to the conclusion that I like it but that it's not that great. Sometimes, as here, one song has a lot to do with it -- "Diamond Dave" is incredibly stupid, but too catchy to give up on. Much of the rest is solidly enjoyable, but nothing hits the beautiful heights of the self-titled debut. Terrific musicianship and Inara George's incredible voice go a long way, though. 311 / Uplifter (Volcano) So yes, this. Having this record here is a lot like having the last Foo Fighters record in my 2007 list -- it's a solid batch of unspectacular rock radio tunes, enjoyable but not life-changing. The main difference is that I've been a big Foo fan since the first album (hell, since the first "Dave Grohl has a new project" story on MTV News, more accurately) and have never really cared about 311 one way or the other. But there's a lot of great, stupid party rock on display here, none of which I'll remember in six months. Passion Pit / Manners (Frenchkiss) What a weird record this is for me. Amid a cresting wave of blog bands that combine elements of electronica, folk, psychedelia and children's choirs -- all others of which I've detested -- comes this bunch of bleep-bloopers with a sickeningly catchy debut full-length. There's not a lot of middle ground here, either. The songs that hit, hit hard; the ones that don't just kind of mark time. The first two tracks, in particular, make a great, high-energy couplet to kick the album off. Karmella's Game / You'll Be Sorry (Insubordination) The debut EP from Karmella's Game is the highest-rated record on my iPod. It's a bracing burst of snotty synth-pop that they can probably never live up to on a full-length record. Their debut LP didn't do it, and neither does this one. In fact, on first listen I was kind of disappointed, despite liking most of these songs when I heard them live in 2008. But it says a lot for how good the band's style is that the album continually grew on me throughout the year and eventually got some pretty heavy rotation. It's the mark of a band with a lot of long-term potential, I think, and hopefully they'll get enough recognition soon for that to be the case. White Rabbits / It's Frightening (TBD) I didn't see Fort Nightly coming a couple years ago, and I didn't see the changes on this album coming either. This is a band with six guys in it -- six! -- and you'd never know by listening to this Britt Daniel-ized record. Even on stage, the thinning out of the band's sound is clear when they switch from older to newer songs. It actually works fairly well (though not as well as their debut), especially on Spoon-y songs like "They Done Wrong / We Done Wrong," but it's hard not to feel like something's being lost when the big noise isn't being brought. On the other hand, all that space gives Stephen Patterson's yelps a lot more room to set the mood. Pearl Jam / Backspacer (Monkeywrench) It's kind of a sad commentary that this is Pearl Jam's best work in over ten years. After three mediocre and meandering releases, they seem to have taken a page out of the R.E.M. book and trimmed a lot of musical fat. This is a streamlined rock record that doesn't fixate too much on flourishes or hooks, or give any attention to history. While the band's self-titled 2006 release seemed to try to reconcile everything the band had done over the past 15 years without regard to the moment, this is an album that works right now. It's not their best by quite a ways, but it's solid and enjoyable, and it sets the band back on the right track. Jail / There's No Sky (Oh My My) (Decorated) The last Jail (er, Jaill) release before their upcoming Sub Pop debut is their best on every measure -- songwriting, musicianship, production. It also hit at the perfect time, as their local fan base was cresting and the market for punchy guitar-pop was on the way up. It's hard to judge this record the same way I'd do for most others, because I've heard these songs live a zillion times and in nascent forms with various instrumentations, but maybe because of that it's easier to see how they benefited from a process of refinement. Without being overly slick, the songs are clean and catchy, and sound like they're starting to outgrow Milwaukee. Anya Marina / Slow & Steady Seduction: Phase II (Chop Shop) It seems like maybe once a year or so I look into an unknown opening act from a show that's coming up, enjoy their material, enjoy their set, and walk away feeling like I've got some new, obscure thing to keep an eye on. Several weeks later, usually in comments posted on my YouTube uploads, I discover that this obscure act has a song on TV and is suddenly caught by the hype machine. This year it was Anya Marina, whose sweet and sultry basement-pop made an ill-fitting but very charming start to the Virgins show we saw last February. She got a song onto How I Met Your Mother, so hopefully she'll be able to ride that to bigger and better things in the near future. 1720@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2010-01-31T10:47:09-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001683.html Pictures from Testa Rosa's Summerfest set. Archie Powell and Spoon videos to come! 1683@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2009-06-30T13:38:27-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001648.html The Spinto Band, Brown Boxes Karmella's Game, The End Northern Room, Black Light The Virgins, Rich Girls White Rabbits, Fox Hunting Bob Mould, See a Little Light The German Art Students, Damn the Digital Toadies, Tyler Vampire Weekend, A-Punk The Dials, Joe Lies National Beekeepers Society, Amputee Whatfor, I'm a Bummer Vancougar, Obvious The Heligoats, Been a Drill Testa Rosa, My Sin R.E.M., Electrolite 8889, It Takes All Kinds Jail, Always Wrong Evangelicals, Another Day Ra Ra Riot, Dying Is Fine Headlights, Towers The Bird and the Bee, I'm a Broken Heart Frightened Rabbit, The Modern Leper Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, Paper Kitten Nightmare The Dan Andreas Fault, Murder (Or a Heart Attack) The Whigs, Right Hand on My Heart The Bravery, This Is Not the End The Box Social, Having an Average Weekend The Gutter Twins, Circle the Fringes The Hold Steady, Slapped Actress 1648@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2009-01-06T12:56:06-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001647.html This may be the last year I do any of this year-end stuff. We're moving to Carbondale, IL, in August, and who knows what the music scene will be like down there. The podcast and DVD may be done as a result, and if so I imagine I'll just find something else to do with my time. Enjoy! Disc One: The Hold Steady, "Constructive Summer" The Presidents of the United States of America, "Sharpen Up Those Fangs" Tokyo Police Club, "Tessellate" My Morning Jacket, "I'm Amazed" The Gutter Twins, "Idle Hands" Firewater, "Some Kind of Kindness" Black Mountain, "Evil Ways" The Audition, "Basbhat" The Hush Sound, "The Boys Are Too Refined" The Mountain Goats, "Lovecraft in Brooklyn" R.E.M., "Man-Sized Wreath" Young Knives, "Up All Night" The Jealous Sound, "Got Friends (John McGinnis Remix)" Gnarls Barkley, "Surprise" The Dials, "18" Be Your Own Pet, "Heart Throb" Foals, "Cassius" Cruiserweight, "Balboa" Chris Walla, "The Score" Whatfor, "Call That Girl" Frightened Rabbit, "Keep Yourself Warm" The Heligoats, "Are You Saying Yes?" The Bird and the Bee, "Tonight You Belong to Me" Disc Two: Sleeping in the Aviary, "Write On" Nine Inch Nails, "1,000,000" La Scala, "Parallel Lives" Mason Proper, "Bone Men" Mystery Jets, "Veiled in Grey" The Whigs, "1000 Wives" The Black Keys, "Things Ain't Like They Used to Be" Pale Young Gentlemen, "The Crook of My Good Arm" Does It Offend You, Yeah?, "We Are Rockstars" We Are Scientists, "Let's See It" Mates of State, "Now" Juliana Hatfield, "Just Lust" Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, "Think I Wanna Die" Vampire Weekend, "Walcott" The Spinto Band, "The Black Flag" The German Art Students, "Pompeii" Ludo, "Go-Getter Greg" Zox, "Another Attack" Nada Surf, "I Like What You Say" Death Cab For Cutie, "Long Division" Vancougar, "Philadelphia" Feist, "Please Be Patient" Headlights, "Get Your Head Around It" 1647@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2009-01-03T19:35:14-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001644.html With the podcast in a lull and needing an occasional distraction from job applications and interviewing, I've decided to jump from a recent discussion at the Isthmus forum and figure out what my favorite song is. Naturally, I'm doing so in a series of head-to-head competitions that I will blog about. You can follow it (and read the longer explanation) here. 1644@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2008-12-01T13:11:16-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001571.html All right, so Muxtape is fixed, and here it is. This first one has got some of my favorites from 2008 releases. I'll probably not update it that frequently, certainly not more than once a month, but I'll be sure to post when I do. 1571@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2008-06-01T20:53:36-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001565.html A couple weeks ago I posted a set of some of my favorite tracks from the year to the growing-in-popularity Muxtape, then promptly forgot about it and never posted it here. And in the meantime, their site blew up, causing the stuff I'd uploaded to disappear. Oh well; I'll be putting a new one up this week and hopefully will remember to post it afterwards. 1565@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2008-05-26T11:25:40-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001564.html New album from the Hold Steady, Stay Positive, has leaked about two months in advance of its release date. I'm only two-thirds of the way through, but it sounds big and I can't wait to see them this summer. 1564@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2008-05-22T22:58:01-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001558.html One of the dudes from Awesome Car Funmaker dropped off a copy of their new record, E For Everyone, for me last week and I've been listening to it on and off since then. It's a step forward for them -- I'd have to go check the notes for their last record to see, but this one sounds like maybe a step up in how it was recorded and produced. It's also more focused musically. There's still a fair amount of the wild energy of their previous records on their live shows here -- how could there not be with a song called "Awesome Car Funmaker Safari"? -- but there are also some milder, more thoughtful numbers. Despite the increased variety, everything flows pretty well and it's a record with a lot to offer. If you want to check out the new material, the big CD release show is Thursday night at the High Noon. I'll be in New Orleans for a conference most of this week so I have to miss it, but everyone else should go and support the local scene -- along with ACF, Madison favorites the Selfish Gene will be playing. 1558@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2008-05-11T16:03:14-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001542.html I assume we ought to be seeing some sort of genre-focused Rock Band off-shoot at some point, in the spirit of Guitar Hero: Rock the 80's and the upcoming Aerosmith version of GH. I would like to suggest an indie rock set. Imagine rocking through these with two or three of your hipster friends: Minneapolis: The Hold Steady, "Stuck Between Stations" Motion City Soundtrack, "The Future Freaks Me Out" Liz Phair, "Supernova" The White Stripes, "Fell in Love With a Girl" The Violent Femmes, "Blister in the Sun" Montreal: Broken Social Scene, "7/4 (Shoreline)" Death From Above 1979, "Romantic Rights" Hot Hot Heat, "Bandages" The Arcade Fire, "Keep the Car Running" Tokyo Police Club, "Your English Is Good" Washington, DC: The Dismemberment Plan, "The Ice of Boston" Ted Leo/Pharmacists, "Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead" Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth" Interpol, "Evil" We Are Scientists, "Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt" Austin: Spoon, "Sister Jack" Cake, "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" Death Cab For Cutie, "The New Year" The Get Up Kids, "Action and Action" Rilo Kiley, "Portions For Foxes" It would be the awesomest thing ever, I suspect. 1542@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2008-04-10T16:49:00-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001520.html For the first couple years of the podcast, I got maybe three requests from publicity people to do this or that, and I think only one of them involved going to a live show. The others were essentially cold e-mail requests to review or talk about some record I'd never heard of, interview some band I'd never heard of, etc. This is not what I do, clearly; I post videos from live shows and, to a lesser extent, talk about local music. In addition to that, my interests fit into a pretty identifiable set of genres -- in other words, I am not interested in interviewing the Fresno bluegrass band that you represent. Somehow, these requests have suddenly spiked in the last few months. Perhaps somebody's compiled a new list of "music bloggers" to seek out and they've got me on it; whatever it is, most of the requests are the same old thing and I've ignored them. But I've also gotten some requests from people who seemed to have paid attention to my format and my interests, and those I've taken up. The upshot of this is that some bands are now keeping me up to date about their Madison-related tour plans, and others are sending me free stuff. Indeed, I got put on the list for the German Art Students/Wrong Ways show I'm posting about this week (thanks, Kirk!). I say all this by way of getting to Northern Room, a Milwaukee band who sent me a copy of their album, Last Embrace. First of all, it doesn't sound like Milwaukee. The scene there is kind of dirty and ramshackle, living in basements and divey venues like the Cactus Club; these guys are shiny, which might explain why they're on a Japanese label. This was the route taken by their fellow non-dirty Milwaukeeans in Maritime with their second record, so they're in good company to be sure. Nonetheless, the only simple way for Americans to get the album is to get it from the band themselves. It's got a strongly anthemic sound and it's worth checking out, or at least checking the band out live. They remind me more of Mute Math than anybody else, but there's also a clear mid-period Coldplay or Joshua Tree vibe in there. Opener "We're on Fire" and "Dutch Radio" probably embody this amalgamation most clearly, though the influences are clear throughout the tapestry of bright tones that makes up the album. It's not life-changing and I don't think I'd travel just to see them, but I'll probably give them a look the next time they play Madison. I think they could fit well here given the recent local development of bands like Paris, Texas and System and Station, and the tendency for the Madison scene to go for melodic pop. I'd love to see more Madison-Milwaukee crossover anyway, so hopefully they'll be stopping over soon. 1520@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2008-03-04T12:24:25-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001496.html 1496@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2008-01-21T16:13:49-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001483.html Instead of actually producing CD's this year, I did my best-of mix as a set of MP3's included on my year-end DVD. But despite the fact that this could have allowed me to just include as many tracks as I wanted, for whatever reason I still restricted it to two CD's worth of time, mixed it out, etc. In a nice show of what's happened to the music industry in the past few years, all but one of these 44 tracks are available via the iTunes store -- the missing one is from a now-defunct local band, though the other now-defunct local band managed to get their stuff online. When compiling the links for the songs, I was surprised to find how many of them also had videos available at the store -- this year's version may, be sheer coincidence, have more actual singles on it than any other edition. Disc One: White Rabbits, "The Plot" Modest Mouse, "Dashboard" The Noisettes, "Scratch Your Name" The Box Social, "kcmo" Rooney, "I Should Have Been After You" Kaiser Chiefs, "Ruby" Robbers on High Street, "Across Your Knee" Eisley, "Taking Control" Motion City Soundtrack, "It Had to Be You" Idlewild, "No Emotion" Immaculate Machine, "Nothing Ever Happens" Locksley, "Don't Make Me Wait" Testa Rosa, "Ollie & Delilah" The Bird and the Bee, "La La La" The Icicles, "Chasing Fireflies" The Apples in Stereo, "Sunndal Song" The Super Eights, "If You're From Illinois" Pale Young Gentlemen, "Clap Your Hands" Dinosaur Jr., "This Is All I Came to Do" Maritime, "Pearl" Bloc Party, "Song For Clay (Disappear Here)" Nine Inch Nails, "The Great Destroyer" Disc Two: Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer, "I'm a Rock and Roll Mess" Dethklok, "Better Metal Snake" Yourcodenameis:Milo, "Understand" Foo Fighters, "Long Road to Ruin" Baby Teeth, "Taste the Wine" The New Pornographers, "Mutiny, I Promise You" The Rentals, "Little Bit of You in Everything" The Brunettes, "If You Were Alien" Bishop Allen, "Corazon" The National, "Slow Show" Minipop, "Ask Me a Question" The Eames Era, "Dear Gabby" Of Montreal, "Gronlandic Edit" Dolores O'Riordan, "In the Garden" 1997, "Garden of Evil" The Cacti Hi-Fi, "Texas" Arctic Monkeys, "Fluorescent Adolescent" Spoon, "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb" Sleeping in the Aviary, "Pop Song" Kristin Hersh, "In Shock" Kaddisfly, "Campfire" Piebald, "We Cannot Read Poetry" 1483@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2007-12-29T01:38:32-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001482.html Cake, Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle Baby Teeth, Intolerable The Hush Sound, Lions Roar The Brunettes, Brunettes Against Bubblegum Youth Matt and Kim, Yea Yeah Sleeping in the Aviary, No Socks Kid, You'll Move Mountains, Old Trust in Young Youth The Apples in Stereo, 7 Stars The Villains of Verona, Debut Pale Young Gentlemen, Me & Nikolai Eisley, Go Away Minipop, Like I Do Heligoats, Movieguns Stars of Track and Field, Exit the Recital Testa Rosa, Weather Underground The Long Winters, The Commander Thinks Aloud The German Art Students, Civil War Reenactor OK Go, Don't Bring Me Down System and Station, Honesty Bound Stems, Refuse the Refuse The Box Social, Pay Attention The Hold Steady, Chillout Tent White Rabbits, Sea of Rum Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer, Can't Stand It Apparently Nothing, Reason For Leaving Maritime, Hours That You Keep Locksley, Why Not Me Jail, New Noise Robbers on High Street, Love Underground The Flaming Lips, Ta Da / Race For the Prize 1482@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2007-12-22T19:25:45-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001480.html A couple of friends' new band, the Dan Andreas Fault, will play their first show next Tuesday at the King Club. They're opening for the Attack Ponies, showtime is at 10:00. They're supposedly kind of Wilco-ish, though obviously I haven't heard them yet. Still, I'll be there and you should too. 1480@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Around Madison 2007-12-10T12:52:00-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001478.html At Muzzle of Bees, Ryan is talking about R.E.M.'s New Adventures in Hi-Fi, and it's got me thinking about the sudden and precipitous crash of "alternative rock" wave in 1996. It's one of many releases from that year to portend doom and disappearance for major bands of the era and the sounds they represented. Hi-Fi was the last R.E.M. record with Bill Berry, and by 1998 they'd moved onto the lusher, more mature, extra-boring sound of their current style. Weezer released Pinkerton, the critical reaction to which put Rivers Cuomo off being in a band for years. Soundgarden put out their most accessible pop record, and promptly broke up. Alice in Chains and Nirvana put out their (so far) last non-compilation releases, both live records. Presidents of the United States of America released a too-polished follow-up to their quirky debut and found themselves thinking being a full-time band was no longer worth it. Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots both, for the first time, released records that got ignored. I absolutely didn't see it at the time, but the upheaval that went on in my musical world that year was astonishing. Also, I'd like to note that OK Go's cover of "Gigantic" on the latest Pixies tribute album is oddly fascinating. It's not "good," per se, but there is a quality to it. Maybe I just can't not love that song. Please, come back to us, Kim Deal. 1478@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2007-11-30T21:25:30-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001475.html So we went to see what was billed as a live Dethklok show on Wednesday, but didn't really have any idea what it would actually be -- the promotion was unclear, and various claims found online all differed on key points. Still, the show was free, ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead were opening, so what's not to like? Well, the Majestic Theatre, for one thing. This was my first show there -- I'd been there for a dance club night years ago -- and I was really unimpressed. The acoustics are horrible. The only place in the balcony where you can see the stage is right on the railing. The fucking house lights were on throughout the Trail of Dead set and partially during the Dethklok set, despite the stunning lack of stage lights. From my perspective it's the worst venue in Madison, and it's not even close. The show itself was much different than the other sponsored free shows we've gone to lately. There wasn't much brand-pushing from the stage -- just a Guitar Hero III contest-winner thing at the intermission -- but there was a screen hanging down at the front of the stage with ads playing on it. This was fine, I thought -- totally ignorable, not a big deal, except they kept the screen in place during the Trail of Dead set, obscuring most of what little view we had from the balcony. It wasn't running ads, just cycling through Trail of Dead album art. That, plus the awful lighting, plus the muddy acoustics, plus the huge security presence, meant it made little sense to try to record anything. However, Trail of Dead were really great. I saw them two years ago on a frigid Party in the Park afternoon and they were really bad; it must have just been the weather, because they put on a tight, fun set and reminded me of why I liked Worlds Apart so much. So then, Dethklok. The music was played by Brendon Small and a live band, with an ongoing story -- essentially a new episode interspersed with music videos -- playing on the screen above them. It was pretty good stuff, and I'd expect it will get released on DVD at some point (there was a notice indicating as much when we walked in the door). The bit for "Murmaider" was probably the best of what we saw -- three gorey, hand-to-hand murderfests between mermaids and some other undersea creatures -- but we left probably halfway through because it was a touch repetitious and we were a touch tired. As much fun as the show is, even in DVD marathon form, it doesn't have the kind of stories that hold up for more than 10 minutes or so. 1475@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2007-11-18T17:12:46-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001471.html Since I'm still not going to have any videos to post for another week, and I can't quite get my brain around the boneheaded moves happening in the Obama campaign, I thought I'd finally get around to posting some Vancouver trip round-up. Instead of flying into Vancouver, we were able to save some money by flying to Seattle and renting a car to drive up. Neither of us had ever been to Washington before, so we spent the afternoon of our arrival poking around the campus area and visiting an indie craft store that Emily wanted to check out. The thing that really struck me about Seattle was how much more foreign it seemed than every other big city visited recently. To a certain extent, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, New York, Boston, San Francisco, etc., all have a very similar feel to me, where the only variable is magnitude. The woody and mountainous geography around Puget Sound really made me feel like we'd gone somewhere new, as did the kind of odd traffic idiosyncrasies. 1471@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2007-11-01T12:09:31-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000711.html We just got back from seeing Karmella's Game at the Annex, and I unfortunately won't have any footage of it to post next week. Despite the fact that I seemed to have fully charged my camera this afternoon, it wouldn't turn on when we got there, but was fine when I put it back on the charger at home; it now claims to be charging again, but we'll see. I hope it will be fine for the SoCo™ Music™ Experience™ next weekend. The last time I saw Karmella's Game I also couldn't record them, coincidentally, because it was in the darkened Corral Room and my old camera couldn't handle the low light. At that show the room was packed, which was not quite the case tonight. As far as I could tell, Emily and I were the only civilians there. Del Monte Carlo of Mad Trucker Gone Mad was there with his ladyfriend, and during the set a few other people went in and out, but I think they may also have been from other bands on the bill. Supposedly the word had gone out that the show started at 10:00, not 9:30, although 9:30 was all I'd heard. When we walked in at about ten after 9:00, all the house lights were on and there was nobody at the door. For about fifteen minutes, we sat in the fully lit main room of the Annex wondering if we were secretly an hour early. Their set was pretty hot, especially considering they were playing for four people and I was the only one who knew their material. Most of what they played was new, apart from one of my favorites from their debut LP and maybe one of the tracks I skip on the album. The new stuff sounded excellent, and I hope they're on track to release it soon. In other tech trouble news, some crazy shenanigans happened while recording the German Art Students last week, and I only have complete audio for one of the three songs I recorded. These are the hazards of shooting without a monitor, extra batteries and the other comforts of legitimate recording, I guess. 711@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Around Madison 2007-08-31T23:42:23-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000701.html Well, Rilo Kiley fuckin' grew up. Under the Blacklight is mature, progressive and boring. Alas. If the new Zolof record is also lacking in juvenilia I shall be in quite a mood, let me tell you. 701@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2007-08-17T22:37:49-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000681.html Friday of next week, a Boston band called The Campaign For Real-Time will be playing a show at the Middle East, which I would like to go to (I may be otherwise engaged, but for the purposes of this quandry, let's assume I'm going). A while back, I downloaded one of their songs from the Boston Phoenix website, and subsequently downloaded their whole album via BitTorrent. It was good, but not great -- enough so that I'd want to see them, but probably not enough so that I'd want to buy it, particularly in a world where I check out tons and tons of new records. However, I saw a copy of the album in a used record shop yesterday for $3 and thought about buying it. While I didn't like it enough to pay, say, $12 or whatever the retail price might be, I did like it a quarter of that much. But if I pay $3 to this used record store, the band gets nothing, which sort of defeats the moral purpose of upgrading my unauthorized download to a "legitimate" CD. So would it make more sense to go to the show and pay (probably) $10 directly to the band for a new copy of the CD, thereby fulfilling the moral aspect of supporting the band (which I care about) as well as the legal aspect of owning the CD (which I don't), even though I'm apparently paying three times what I think the album is worth to me? I suspect the better choice on the merits is buying it from the band. But. This leads me to actually feel generally supported in my usual method of downloading records and going to a lot of live shows, the reason being that if supporting the band is really the point, going to shows is a better, more direct way of doing it than buying records in most cases (with the exceptions being sometimes that buying records from merch tables gets more money into the band's hands, and that self-released albums don't involve shady record industry people). But in the case of records that are just good -- the band's worth seeing live, but the record's not worth paying $10-15 for -- there's more moral worth in paying a cover than in giving them maybe 10-15% of the cost of the CD. 681@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2007-07-20T10:17:53-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000664.html The Long WintersPutting the Days to BedBarsuk The Hold SteadyBoys and Girls in AmericaVagrant I'm a compulsive list-maker by nature, and a strict one when it comes to these end of the year lists. So deciding to name co-#1's took a lot of going back and forth between these two albums. Ultimately it was realizing their surprising similarities and one big difference that led me to list them this way. The Long Winters made my favorite power-pop record of a crowded 2003 with When I Pretend to Fall, and they take it a step further on this one. I was a little worried when I heard the stop-gap Ultimatum EP because it was all acoustic and slowed-down, but the title track appears on this album as one of several rollicking barnstormers late in the set. "Ultimatum," "Rich Wife" and "(It's a) Departure" all push farther into the territory of straight-up guitar rock than any of their previous material has. Earlier in the album, they run over a wide swath of the power-pop genre, with tracks such as "Pushover," the opener; "Honest," a paean to the attractiveness of the fake connection between a singer and an audience; and particularly "Sky Is Open," a bright piece of key and guitar pop that rivals any of the upbeat material produced by the likes of former labelmates Death Cab For Cutie. I noted recently the crazy money I'd be willing to pay to see these guys live, and the reality of it turned out to be at least $13. But for as great as this record is, I'm skeptical about what kind of staying power it's going to have. It is a pop record, first and foremost, and pop is nothing if not disposable. The reason I ultimately had to give the Hold Steady the #1A slot instead of #2 is that I think Boys and Girls in America is going to be around for a while. This is not to say that it's not also a pop record -- in some ways its tunnelvisionary's focus on parties, drugs, girls and adolescent loss make it even more pop than Putting the Days to Bed. But along with its essential pop nature, this is a genre watershed album. The Hold Steady's last album was an unlikely success -- Springsteenian and Mellencampy bar rock seems an odd appeal for the 2005 indie scene that feted Andrew Bird, Sufjan Stevens and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah -- that could have set them up to crash this time out. They moved to a big name indie label with a major label distribution deal, they started playing more theaters and fewer clubs and they played on network TV before midnight on the east coast. And the material was not just enough to support those changes, it demanded them. There are a million reasons why this comparison is not strictly apt, but it's an album that reminds me a lot of Nirvana's Nevermind -- a much-loved indie band takes the next step up and manages to deliver an amazingly catchy record with mainstream appeal, but without toning themselves down at all. As I said previously, the first three tracks of this album could sell a million records if only the general public got to hear them. Anyone who ever grew up switching between Springsteen and the Replacements, all the kids that grew up in Chicago and Detroit and the Twin Cities in the last 20 years, and scores of others who just know what it's like. Everybody who's ever walked through a winter day with a headful of static, waiting for the massive night to come. Everybody who's ever stuck with a dirty scene to make him like you. Everybody who's ever partied and settled and run away and wanted a fake kiss to be real. We'll all be feeling this one for a long time to come. 664@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2007-06-12T17:40:14-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000642.html The first segment of my documentary of the Box Social's first LP recording process is now up on YouTube: Three more parts to come. The whole thing can be seen throughout May on WYOU (cable channel 4 in Madison) at 10:30pm on Saturdays and 3:30am on Mondays. 642@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2007-05-02T23:42:18-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000621.html I'll have video of last night's Long Winters show going up next week, but I just want to note in the immediate aftermath of it that it was the most awesome show we've seen in ages, and I imagine it'll wind up being the highlight of the year. Could I have an undisputed favorite band for the first time since Everclear went to shit? Maybe. In other news, I'm shocked to find that the solo debut from Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries seems to be really good. The last two Cranberries albums were awful, but give her a few decent songs and her amazing voice does the rest of the work. 621@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2007-03-23T13:05:25-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000614.html We went to see a free OK Go event at the High Noon last night, put on by Jack Daniel's. This is the second or third such event they've put on in Madison -- they did one with the New Pornographers last year, and there was a Spoon show in 2005 that might've been them too. It was a good show, but I'll have more to say on that when the videos go up next week. What really intrigues me is this: How can this possibly be a profitable marketing strategy for Jack Daniel's? Allow me to describe the extravagance of the evening. The High Noon holds 400 people -- including staff and roughly 100 VIPs, Jack Daniel's and Isthmus, the local sponsor, had 250 tickets to give away by random drawing. We won two sets of two, but that's probably not a good indicator of how many people's contact info they got for future spamming. We also opted out of future spam, as I imagine most entrants would have. In exchange for gathering these e-mail addresses, Jack Daniel's paid (in whole or in part) for: rental of the High Noon with full staff and with only Jack drinks available at the bar (and only Jack bottles on display), two free drink tickets for everybody in the building, OK Go to play a show with no gate and only a tiny merch area, local act Cats Not Dogs to open, a Peavey guitar as a door prize, an assload of t-shirts with all the dates on the Jack Daniel's tour on the back (about 30, with ours listed as "Madison, IN"), a smaller pile of t-shirts with "Madison" and "March 13" specifically on them, a huge pile of hors d'oeurves, tons of Jack-branded 1" buttons (some with "Madison" on), tons of Jack-branded guitar picks, many sets of Jack-branded drumsticks, Jack-branded regular pens, Jack-branded light-up pens, a searchlight and air-compressor-powered inflatable Jack bottle outside, and the loathsome "Jack Daniel's girls." Probably also some other giveaway trinkets that I'm forgetting. Also, custom Polaroid film, such as that seen above, which I imagine is the only way Polaroid can sell film anymore. The Jack Daniel's marketing team I'm sure has a good explanation for all of this: They're trying to cement brand loyalty among young consumers and become the liquor of choice among, if not hipsters, than at least yupsters. They also have a couple new malt beverages to push (which, FYI, are horrible), so putting some freebies in the hands of the cool kids might be a good idea, assuming they have confidence in their product. Looking around the room, though, you'd be hard pressed to find the kind of people they wanted. If there's a market out there looking to get hooked on the PBR of whiskeys, it's not going to show up at an OK Go show at the High Noon Saloon. More likely, the real reason this event happened (and why it will happen again, presumably) is that the marketing industry is a house of cards, which everyone's actions dependent on nothing so much as their perceptions of their competitor's actions. They may not actually gain anything in terms of sales or market share following this spending spree, but sweet Christ, think of what might've happened if they hadn't done this! Maker's Mark would be eating them alive! 614@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:45:14 -06:00 Music 2007-03-14T13:57:06-06:00