ALBUM REVIEW: I like my 90’s rock and love it when bands take slices and load squealing droning distorted guitars and paste them up in their songs in a melodic format. This is not your monotone indie rock-band and I wouldn’t dare call Free Electric State’s – Caress retro in the least but there are hints of undeniable dark influences like Sioux and the Banshees backed with the equal nod to pop sentiment of The Breeders; mixed in there when the band breaks it down and turns the fuzz-off, you get a blast of warm vocal air. Holistically it’s raw enough to please your shoe-geezer crowd and way better than most ironically groomed facial hair bands.
The dueling guitars are led by David Koslowski and Nick Williams which are complimented gracefully by the vocals of Shirlé Hale. Koslowski and Hale are North Carolina transplants who had played previously together in Baltimore’s Gerty! and Ex-Members. Koslowski foremerly fronted local grungesters Liquor Bike and made infamous Melody Lane their home. Needless to say these folks can be my DJ’s anytime and that is saying a lot.
Catch them live in 2010: May 20th CAT’S CRADLE w/ Silver CARRBORO, NC May 28 THE WINDUP SPACE w/ Hammer No More The Fingers BALTIMORE, MD May 29 The RED & The BLACK w/ Hammer No More The Fingers WASHINGTON, DC Jun 4 NEW FRENCH BAR w/ Hammer No More The Fingers ASHEVILLE, NC Jun 5 Annual Daniel Festival w/ Hammer No More The Fingers PULASKI, VA Jun 10 RESERVOIR CARRBORO, NC Jun 11 THE SOAPBOX WILMINGTON, NC Jun 12 Art Bar COLUMBIA, SC For more Free Electric State Shows go here | Fan them on Facebook
Just, yesterday I was walking down 10th Ave and I saw this chick wearing an old unknown pleasures T-shirt and I thought to myself. Nobody wears or makes cool band art anymore. This design is a simple classic illustration that you can almost hear. Created by the band that originally came in a textured sleeve with no track listing on the back cover to speak of. Just black and mysterious. Such an awesome place in time when you discover this record helps you creep inside into the impossible. Then you realize there is this guy Peter Hook who plays the bass as the lead instrument and your musical world explodes.
Side one “Outside”DisorderSide two “Inside”Shadowplay from Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division
I love vinyl records. In my basement that I just finished I made sure there was built in shelving to house my minuscule record collection which pales in comparison to the WFMU record library featured here in a video series by Michael Cumella for www.goldminemag.com.
The new video for Following the River was not on Taxile on Main Street bootleg listing but who knows this could have been recorded back then. Sure sounds nice and not the edgy bluesy stones present on Exile. The Stones typically recorded twice as many songs as they needed and then culled from there; over-dubbed and put an album together. For some Exile on Main Street is the best album The Rolling Stones ever released. I’m partial to Let It Bleed and my good friend Steve remembers buying this on 8track when he was 12. I can’t wait to hear the whole thing mastered end-to end which would make this not a double album but a double-double? Regardless looking forward to this release a lot.
Hey ironic mustaches! Can you focus on the music and less on your retro brown pants? I dig the tats but those will get saggy in due time. I dig openness but most of you will get conservative soon too but what will last is your attention to music and your legacy. Not going to directly slag your scene but this year yet again The Oldsters are kicking music’s punkless-asses all over Fulton Street like a sober pathetic drunk. It should be an all out knife fight with the jukebook but it mostly sounds like a tuneless teen idle worship. I’m begging for somebody to point me to some new dish. Seriously this is your last chance.
Here’s 7 of my Top 10 Music List of 2010 (so far): Teenage Fanclub – Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty Seconds: A Short Cut T Damn talk about a pop-tart vocal triumph. Try this T on for size “Ain’t That Enough” mp3 The Fall – The Future of Clutter Wow on first listen its like peeling the wax out of my ears with pretty distorted things like solvent is to glue is to the desperate need of fresh air in this lame new music landscape. Taste this download “Hot Cake” – mp3 The New Pornographers – Together Has already made billboard waves. It’s going to be huge this year no denying the songster genius. Kick down the clutch and download “If You Can’t See My Mirrors” – mp3 The Hold Steady – Heaven Is Whenever Ironically mustacheless with one man down there is no stopping Craig Finn and this band. Toping their last release it gives a big fat lip to Aerosmith greatest hits like it was nothing. Have a drink my fellows and sample “The Weekenders” mp3 Sweetapple – Love & Desperation Dude you like kiss and big monster drug rock guitars with solos? If Witch, Cobra Verde and J Mascis started a band they would sound like this… oh wait. You can’t be metaphor to yourself or can you? Chomp on this one geeks (Hint: sounds nothin’ like Country Life but the cover sure is nice)”Flying Up A Mountain” m4a Male Bonding – Nothing Hurts You know your local record store dorks have made this record just for you when think it just flows naturally after listening to all the bands listed above no matter the track. They cut out the schwagg and just give you the raw parts. Sort of like Obits meets Crystal Stilts. It’s raw like the smell of a hot plastic cassette mix in the summer which you bank on upping you chances of getting some(From London so Brooklyn you just had your teeth given to you neatly wrapped in under 29 minutes and 34 seconds. Try “Year’s Not Long” mp3 Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – The Brutalist Bricks Jersey always performs well with Bloomfield local with this one being Ted’s 9th release. This batch of songs is up there with The Tyranny of Distance in my humble opinion. It’s raw in all the right places and never trying to be something he’s not so super huge amount of respect to this brand of punkrock. Dig “Gimme The Wire” mp3
I was digging in the archives a few months ago looking up video footage to lend to the Cruel but Fair movie [CBF on Facebook] and i cam across half a set by Ex Models from a Aviso’Hara Record release show for Made From Scratch. Anyway. The banter is funny and if you dig these guys you should enjoy these live nuggets which are not available anywhere else.
It’s that time of year right before you pay the tax man where WFMU needs your dough so they can entertain you for another 50 weeks of year. Qaulity free form radio entertainment. For her and his pleasure.
Get some free nuggets: mp3 19th Nervous Breakdown by Shockabilly from Cherry Blossom Clinque premium cd from the 2009 Marathon. Bounce by Bo Diddly from a J.R. Williams comp get the whole shaker set on the site.
I was in the mood for some funky sheet and it all found me today so sharing it with you. Lefties Soul Connection’s record Skim skimming The Skum is the real deal. Meters dig it and so should you. Recorded live to 8 track. Plus some other nuggets.
Paul Newman [Mp3] by Lefties Soul Connection Hey Ya(cover) [Mp3] by Booker T from the new album Potato Hole. Featuring Neil Young and Drive By Truckers I Thank you [Mp3] by Sam & Dave
Found a interesting song writers podcast through my facebook aquintances called Radio Free Song Club and the only one I’ve ever heard of is Freedy Johnston and Laura Cantrell and Dave Schramm to name a few. Alright lots of song writers in the immediate NY/NJ area with a outlet to share their newest and coolest demos. The number one issue as they are calling it (need to work on your podcast vernacular guys) has a some live music and narrator reads out writers notes and stuff. Really under the hood kind of stuff. If you are passionate about the art of song writing you might really enjoy this fireside chat style podcast. I did. subscribe. Hosted by Nicholas Hill.
You gotta dig the effort in put into mash-up by individuals like FanFarOff who figure out how to featuring the Beatles, LCD Sound System and the kinks all in one tasty aural music pizza! There are a couple other dancy ones with Nirvana and Dead or Alive that are cool but damn does Dave Grohl put down a mean dance beat not unlike the super famous “Amen Break”. Yes, indeed the documentary monotone piece below by Mobius32 is like listening to paint dry but even the little bit of discography history in it is dang cool. Who knew that 6 seconds of a performance could lead to the concept of mash-ups? Where these rebels post stuff for free on the internet. Must drive the execs nuts. If you are wondering if anybody is making money on video mash-ups? Well duh g**gle figured it as reported by Business week out as long the labels don’t shut it down. The 80’s were cool when the new sampling art form was started. Gave rise to all sorts of creative from De la Sol to NWA. Then quickly dismantled by the record industry itself because of their shitty artist royalty trickle down economy that only works if they have a stake in it. My 10,000 foot pov here but whatever. Enjoy it while it lasts.
In particular i love this mash-up by FanFarOff with James Brown. Such a great use of melody and beats that creates this feet shuffling audioscape. Crazy.
Recent Comments