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| The Inevitable Backlash - My Two Brookes Posted: 07 Jan 2009 08:45 AM CST With a glance at the LA band The Inevitable Backlash’s tracklisting for their follow-up to 2007’s Sex For Safety EP, “pimp” not “punk” maybe the first word to come to mind when noticing songs titled for an Abby, a Joanna, a Liz and two Brookes. However, when “My Two Brookes” kicks on and the opening guitar riff sounds, this album is undeniably punk. 2007’s Sex For Safety got this band compared to acts like The Replacements, but on this full-length, a wider variety of influences can be heard. At times, the instruments delve into a Green Day style like on “Philenbus” and on “My Two Brookes”, vocalist John Renton sounds surprisingly like My Chemical Romance’s singer Gerard Way (surprising because this sound isn’t really echoed again on the album). Even more surprising is when the group gets a little bluesy on the bass heavy “Silence Comes”. More often than not, the band departs from punk for a more experimental sound like the ending section of “Diego Rivera” which, fittingly, has an artsy end for a song named for an artist. Aside from those few style surprises punk is always the band’s base. Despite many line-up changes since the band’s inception, the current members seem solid on their instruments, which can be heard perhaps a little too well as they are mixed slightly overbearingly and at times overpower the vocals. Although, at times the loud instrumental mixing is preferable to hearing Renton’s poorly enunciated vocals. While the bizarre and vague lyrics work for him, what doesn’t work is the actual haziness of his voice resulting in unclear words and an overall overdone sound that isn’t a result of mixing. The Inevitable Backlash’s My Two Brookes hits stores March 3, 2009, so in the mean time test drive your taste for this band with their Sex for Safety EP. Tracklisting: Inevitable Backlash: website  Written by: Bethany Related Posts |
| Posted: 06 Jan 2009 04:15 PM CST Alice Russell Pot of Gold :: download “Got The Hunger” Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion Glasvegas - Glasvegas Glasvegas A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss) (physical) :: buy digital The Gourds - Heymakers! Erin McCarley - Love, Save the Empty Select Start - <3 The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Communion Throwing Color - The Static Sea Related Posts This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Antony & the Johnsons Presale, Tour Dates Posted: 06 Jan 2009 02:50 PM CST Antony and the Johnsons will be offering an instant digital download of their forthcoming album The Crying Light and a bonus track, "My Lord, My Love", for fans who pre-order the album from the band’s website starting today. This gives fans a chance to hear the album before the release date as they will be able to download it and the bonus track as soon as they pre-order. The Crying Light is the band's follow up to the Mercury prize winning I Am a Bird Now. The album will be released in the UK and Europe on January 19th through Rough Trade and on January 20th in America through Secretly Canadian with a world tour following the release. The American leg of the tour goes through the end of February, including stops at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville as well as the historic Vic Theatre in Chicago and the Berklee College of Music in Boston. “Another World” (download) Tour Dates: Antony and the Johnsons: website | myspace Related Posts This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Interview with: Steve Schiltz of Longwave Posted: 06 Jan 2009 01:15 PM CST The November 11, 2008 release of Secrets are Sinister marks the end of a bittersweet three-year hiatus for Brooklyn's own Longwave and the beginning of a somewhat new start for the band. In a phone interview from the road in Portland, Oregon, lead singer Steve Schiltz, answered my questions about life on the road, the making of Secrets are Sinister, and the one thing every fan needs to know about this band. Toying with mainstream success for sometime now, working with mega-producers Dave Friedman and Peter Katis, casually referring to The Strokes as "friends," and calling the hip but hard streets of Bushwick Brooklyn home, I imagined my conversation with Longwave front man Steve Schiltz to be affected to some extent. But I admit, he was anything but. Rather, I found him to be sincere, albeit a bit restrained. His responses were without ornamentation or snare, as if perhaps the challenges that the band has encountered over the past three years have had a grounding effect. He answered the phone and greeted me like an old friend. "Hi Steve? It's Reni, from Popwreckoning. How are you?" His response, "Good, how are you? What are you up to tonight?" My awkward response, I realize now, was strangely similar to the one I recently received from a seven-year-old girl when I asked her the same question, "talking to you." "Aside from that?" he was reaching with what I imagine was an arched brow and a fear of what the next fifteen minutes of awkwardness might bring. I responded with a proper shout out to a friend's band, "shooting my friends, Two Seconds To Midnight in the studio," hoping this might redeem a bit of my journalistic cred. Thankfully, after that, our conversation was far less cringe-worthy, and Schiltz left me with the impression of a band that seemed content to be making music that inspires them in the present tense, to be on the road again, playing for friends and family, and generally not all that concerned with what the future holds. A recurring theme throughout many of the reviews of Secrets are Sinister is what journalists have referred to or described as Longwave's "newly expanded sound." I mean sure, the guitars on Secrets are Sinister are monstrous and the reverb, decidedly super-sized, but "newly expanded sound" is somewhat of a bold statement. For a band that has been on a three-year hiatus, Secrets are Sinister could be seen as new starting point. When I asked Schiltz to comment on this, he admitted to being disconnected from any sort of media-imposed labels that the new album has been given, and revealed without hesitation that he rarely reads reviews unless his label sends them or looks at the band's website. In fact, he had no idea that this was even being said about the album. "I'm really bad about that," he professed. I took it upon myself to give him a short survey of what people have been saying about the new album. Basically, that everyone loves the album, (including me!) and that there is this general impression that Secrets are Sinister is bigger in some sense than the albums they have made in the past. "We don't tend to compare ourselves to the last record we made, how we sound right now is how we sound on Secrets are Sinister," responded Schiltz. He explained that while he did play more guitar on the new album, "We didn't make a conscious choice to expand our sound or anything like that." When asked about comparisons to heavy hitters such as Radiohead, U2, or Coldplay, Schiltz gladly took the compliment, saying, "those are great bands and when doing a review there need to be touchstones to compare to."
As a fellow New Yorker, I couldn't help but to comment on how a lot of the great NYC venues such as CBGBs, Brownie's, and Coney Island High, have closed over the years and I was curious to know where Longwave felt most at home on stage. Schiltz countered me saying, "the Bowery is a great venue." And as for CBGBs, "if they couldn't pull in the bands they needed to stay open, then it's time to go…Brownie's was a great place, but at some point you have to let it go. New York is about turnover, you have to move on with life." Fitting words I suppose for a band that appears to be taking their return to the music industry, after an extended break, at nothing more than face value. Perhaps this is a result of the past three years, which Schiltz admits was a tough time for the band after a label merger and subsequently being dropped by RCA. "It's hard to compress it all…we didn't decide to take time off…there was a lot of bad stuff going on behind the scenes with the label, we were doing a lot of shows to make money but eventually fell into a lot of debt." Despite a tough past, Schiltz seemed at peace with the band's second coming of sorts, "as we were making the album I definitely thought it was our best…I'm happy people are excited about it." The band recorded Secrets are Sinister mostly on their own, setting up camp in their Brooklyn basement digs, with Peter Katis putting the finishing touches on things. While Schiltz confessed that his dream collaboration would be likely to involve Brian Eno or Steve Albini, he also cops to wanting to record an album in a "remote way," describing a house in the woods and the band moving in there for a period of time and recording. We then shared a laugh about how recording in a Brooklyn basement wasn't really that far off in concept. It also seems that life on the road has changed this time around for the boys of Longwave. Schiltz said that their friends Little Joy were playing across the street that night and that after their gig they were going to head over there and hangout back stage, maybe drink a few beers. What? No rock star antics? "We're smart enough now that seeing old friends on the road is the highlight for us," Schiltz admitted, "we're happy to be seeing people again." "So what's the one thing you think every fan should know about you guys, that they don't?" the girlish, borderline band stalker in me couldn't help but ask. Schiltz chuckled and then responded with a deadpan delivery, "Jason [Molina] is the handsomest drummer we've ever had." Longwave: website | myspace | Secrets Are Sinister review  Written by: Reni Papananias Related Posts |
| MTV & Gallic Wars: Luis Vuitton & Prada Mixtape - Free Download Posted: 06 Jan 2009 12:23 PM CST
Download the mixtape for free now, here or here. Tracklisting: Gallic Wars: website Related Posts |
| The Cotton Jones Basket Ride - Paranoid Cocoon Posted: 06 Jan 2009 08:45 AM CST Mike Nau (of Page France) began The Cotton Jones Basket Ride as a side project a while back but since his old band broke up it's been the object of his full-time attention. At his new day job, Nau writes songs that groove with a cool, soulful feel, though it never actually sounds like soul or R’n'B, even with the borrowed Motown template in which emphasis is placed on bass grooves supported by organ and occasional horns and strings. The shady, effortless cool of the songs make Paranoid Cocoon's first five or so a beautifully smooth listen, but after a certain point it makes the album feel longer than it actually is. This point is driven home further by the album's lack of tempo and instrumental variation. Though the arrangements don't vary greatly from song to song, the small touches of detail like the lush guitar interplay on "Photo Summerlove" and "Some Strange Rain" do attract some attention – but not much. This lack of variation might hurt the overall listening experience, but the album manages to overcome it with its consistently solid songwriting. Nau manages to endow each track with a breezy melancholic charm found somewhere in-between alt-country and syrupy Motown. The album's closer "I Am The Changer" is the obvious standout. Its lazy tempo is hardly any different from any of the other songs, but its lyrics and melody are incredible. Over a sighing staccato guitar riff, Nau gently coos, "You know I'm a changer / the rearranger / I'm always a stranger." The song leads the album out perfectly, with the tidal rhythm slowly rolling it into the black. Despite the album's flaws, its assets are strong enough to make Paranoid Cocoon an album worth getting wrapped up in. Paranoid Cocoon will be available on January 27 from Suicide Squeeze Records. Tracklisting: The Cotton Jones Basket Ride: myspace  Written by: Marc Z. Grub Related Posts |
When we spoke, Longwave had at that point been on the road promoting Secrets are Sinister for about two weeks. From LA they moved on to Petaluma, California. Schiltz remarked that their show at The Phoenix the night before in Petaluma was by far "the best stop so far on the trip." The band's guitarist Shannon Ferguson is from the area originally and used to play there as a kid. According to Schiltz, the venue is an old theater turned multi-dimensional performance/community space. Apparently there is even a skate ramp inside. "It was a really good show, a lot of our friends and family were there and it meant a lot to Shannon…Primus and Green Day used to play there," remarked Schiltz.
It’s a meeting of the power players as entertainment giants MTV team up with mixtape masteros Gallic Wars to present Luis Vuitton & Prada, hosted by reality TV stars Nick Brown (MTV’s “Real World: Hollywood”) and model Symmone. You are in good hands as this hot tape features over an hour of fresh joints from Jay-Z, Britney Spears,Trey Songz, Royce Da 5′9″, Maino, Lloyd Banks, Cassidy and many more.
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