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| Posted: 31 Mar 2009 02:52 PM PDT Aceyalone Aceyalone & the Lonely Ones :: "The Way It Was" feat. Bionik Angel Taylor Love Travels Bow Wow New Jack City Pt. II John Scofield Piety Street :: stream "I'll Fly Away" Gomez A New Tide Great Lake Swimmers Lost Channels Illinois The Adventures of Kid Catastrophe Leonard Cohen Live In London Rosemary's Garden La Musique Du Jardin thenewno2 you are here (physical re-release) Most Commented PostsThis posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| One for the Team - Build a Garden Posted: 31 Mar 2009 12:26 PM PDT As spring is arriving, you may think now is the perfect time to build a garden. However, after a few hours in a hot sun getting covered in dirt may remind you that building a garden is not the easiest thing to do. Even with all your prep work, the seeds might not take root and you’ll run into a weed problem in a few days. It is kind of similar to the process of releasing an album. You may think anybody could do it, but after a few hours of work and sweat, you may end up with your songs but, like a garden, you have to watch out for those bad weeds. Minnesota indie pop group One for the Team knows firsthand the struggles after recording and mixing their own albums in their Minneapolis apartment. Their previous release Build It Up was a fun lo-fi gem, but the production quality, like a weed, seemed to choke out some of the life of the songs. Perhaps that is why on their latest release Build a Garden, they decided to pair four new songs with re-recordings of four songs from Build It Up. Of the re-recorded songs, “Questions and Panthers”, “Best Supporting Actor”, “Cry” and “Oh No”, they keep it lo-fi, but the recordings have significantly improved and not just in quality. It’s kind of ironic that the recording quality went up when some of the electronic elements from a song like “Questions and Panthers” was dropped. This song was already one of my favorites from their previous release, but they made it tighter both lyrically and instrumentally–a commonality for all the songs they reworked. While I have always loved “Questions and Panthers”, “Cry” had bored me before. Now that it has been tightened up with a nice guitar-line that keeps it moving, it is much more listenable. If Garden State weren’t already released, these would have been perfect additions to the soundtrack. Of the new songs, “Best Supporting Actress”, “Yard”, “Garden” and “Ha Ha”, though all delightfully charming, some were more stand out than others. I could have done without “Yard”, which sounded like the audio was recorded through a wall of jello, but fortunately they made up for the lack of quality in that song with the others. None stand out more than “Best Supporting Actress”. Grace Fiddler’s vocal harmonies with Ian Anderson stand out a bit more on this song and together, they sound a bit like the gang vocals of Tilly and the Wall. Instrumentally, the guitar riff in this song seems like it was lifted right out of a Rogue Wave song, which fits well with the vocal stylings. I could have listened to this song over and over. In conclusion, it’s simple, but sweet and you’ll shake your hips. Give One for the Team a listen. Build a Garden is available on Afternoon Records on March 31, 2009. Tracklisting: One for the Team: website | myspace  Related Posts |
| Chop Shop Showcase @ Brush Square Park: East Tent, SXSW, Austin TX Posted: 31 Mar 2009 10:15 AM PDT The coolest thing about SXSW credentials is that people have name tags. These are quite nifty and tell you not only the person’s name, but what they do. So when you’re chilling out watching a Chop Shop Records band like that label’s first signing, the Republic Tigers, it is quite handy to glance over and see the person who is dancing next to you happens to be Alexandra Patsavas, the creator of Chop Shop Records. Now of all the industry people at SXSW, Patsavas is my personal hero. She is living, what I consider to be, the dream. She is the music supervisor for shows praised for their great music. Perhaps, you’ve heard of The OC , Grey’s Anatomy or Gossip Girl? Well, now she has a new project with Josh Schwartz– a web series for the CW called Rockville, CA. The show follows a group of people around a rock club and it features performances by some of the hottest bands out there. Now for a taste of the “hottest bands” I checked out the Chop Shop Records showcase that was spotlighting some of the artists to be featured on this new show. I’ve seen the Republic Tigers many times, but there was something special about seeing them outside of Kansas City. Strangely enough, they seemed more relaxed in front of this crowd of strangers than in front of the hometown crowd. With the many drums they use and all the loops, I’ve seen them get a little off in songs, but this was one of their tightest sets yet. They played several Keep Color songs like “Buildings and Mountains” and “Fight Song” as well as a new song “Kingsley”. Following the Tigers was The Little Ones, a group often likened to The Shins. With their summery sounds and harmonization, I could see some comparison, but I think there are a lot of differences, too. They had some fun with a small pig figure [Popwreckoning's own "Gig Pig"] that was set near the stage moving it from amps to microphones. It is always nice to see a band that can have fun like that and not take themselves too seriously. After The Little Ones was the lovely Anya Marina, but I unfortunately had to settle with just listening to her, while I conducted interviews from behind the tent. I can say that from back there it sounded good and the crowd seemed quite pleased with it, so I’ll have to be sure to catch her some other time. After the interviews, I headed back in and heard some of Janelle Monae. She set the atmosphere with some fog machines before filling the venue with her soulful crooning. Chop Shop’s showcase was the place to be, assuming you were lucky enough to get on the list. If you couldn’t catch these bands lives, the next best thing would be to prepare for the webseries Rockville, CA to hear who should be on your radar. Related Posts |
| Bishop Allen @ First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia Posted: 31 Mar 2009 09:44 AM PDT During my tenure as a library desk attendant in college, I’d find a good deal of things returned by accident in rented overhead projectors. One major score was a mystery mix CD with a Bishop Allen track on it; “The Same Fire”, a historical tour of a love hooked my attention after one listen. Nothing else from that mix made it onto my iPod after the Great Mac Crash of 2008 except Bishop Allen– a good omen for the show at the First Unitarian Church. After a rough start with the first act, the show picked up momentum with an amazing showing from Seattle’s Mt. St. Helen’s Vietnam Band. Von Trapp Family Singers-style vests aside, their sound was great and made up for the incomprehensible slowness of the opener, Singsing and Marmar. “Who’s Asking” and “Anchors Dropped” stood out for me and played in my head over and over the next day at work without a shred of irritation. Shortly thereafter, Bishop Allen popped onstage and put on an adorably solid performance. I use the term “adorable” in the least snarky way possible– the evening was filled with dance-y songs that made me smile and melt more than a little on the inside. Justin Rice, Christian Rudder and “friends”, Darbie Nowatka, Michael Tapper, and Keith Poulson formed the incarnation of Bishop Allen for the night. The ensemble started out with a few selections from their March 10th release Grrr…, “Rooftop Brawl” and “The Ancient Commonsense of Things”. Bishop Allen is known for their catchy tunes that are rife with information; historical, literary or otherwise– a quality that drew me to them in the first place. The dancing and other stage antics continued through other songs and then the band switched gears a bit to play a few female voiced songs that can be described as nothing less than lovely. “Butterfly Nets”, a song from 2007’s Broken String was a highlight of an already delightful set list. The set ended with the popular, “Middle Management” from last year’s indie music teen rom-com Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist and got the room moving some more and begging for more. The band obliged and came back for a few more numbers. The positive energy set out by the band made the Thursday night show feel like a Friday night and made me forget in the nicest way possible that I had to wake up for work in the morning. I kept the love going on my headphones for the ride home and fell a little bit more in love with Bishop Allen. Tour Dates: Bishop Allen: website | myspace  Photo: Sebastian Mlynarski Related Posts |
| Airborne Toxic Event with Henry Clay People and Alberta Cross @ Black Cat, Washington D.C. Posted: 31 Mar 2009 09:15 AM PDT 2009 has been an eventful year for the East Los Angeles band The Airborne Toxic Event. In January, they played their 2008 U.S. and UK hit single "Sometime After Midnight" on the “Late Show with David Letterman” (Letterman and Paul Shaffer sang the band’s praises after the performance). They released their first album on local indie label Majordomo but revealed in early March that they had been courted successfully by larger label Island Records. Early dates on their much-anticipated North American tour were rescheduled when lead singer/guitarist Mikel Jollett came down with laryngitis. The band humorously and profusely apologized for the canceled gigs on a personalized video message to fans on their MySpace. After further cancellations in the Great White North, they came back to the good ol' USA and played several sold out shows in the upper Mid-Atlantic region before stopping by the nation's capital on March 12th. Opening acts always have the thankless and dubious task of playing for the masses eagerly awaiting the headline act. Though their first tune sounded tentative, brothers Joey and Andy Siara of the Henry Clay People soon made it clear that they planned to rock out – and rock out with us. Amazingly, Joey managed to successfully engage the audience in what I usually consider groan-worthy exercises of "audience participation" – particularly, to hold hands and sway to the music (during a tender song he dedicated to his mother who has been following part of the tour) and to put their fists up "like Bruce Springsteen, because rock is back!" Bottom line, these guys are bespectacled preppy guys who just want to have fun and play some rock 'n' roll, and the crowd appreciated their efforts. In their closing number, they got a little help from their friends – namely Steven Chen and Noah Harmon of the Airborne Toxic Event and keyboardist Alec Higgins of Alberta Cross – as Andy grabbed the mike with a swagger and they launched into a raucous cover of the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Woman".
I love it when you're seeing a band you like and they clearly are having fun playing onstage. It's even better when the band treats you like a friend, someone they'll let into their little world, even if it's only for a set. That's how I felt seeing the Airborne Toxic Event. Mikel Jollett introduced the first song, "Wishing Well", as "based on real life" and later explained that the new song "Echo Beach" was named after a park in East Los Angeles. Lyrically, Jollett's songs are intellectual – not surprising given that he names Leonard Cohen and Morrissey as two of his heroes – yet with a rock band behind them, it doesn't just work, it works really well. You might think a viola would be out of place at a rock concert, but Anna Bulbrook plays hers like nobody's business; she also plays keyboards and provides those angelic notes in "This is Nowhere" that you couldn't quite place when you first heard it on the album. For me, the standouts from the set were "Gasoline", written about a high school girlfriend of Jollett's; "Happiness is Overrated", beginning somberly enough with a quiet vocal from Jollett but it was soon drowned out by an overzealous crowd who wanted to sing along with him, and he chuckled and good-naturedly let us; and their big hit, "Sometime Around Midnight", the ultimate "I had her once but I lost her" song that had everyone singing along, building and building to the song's ending crescendo. The appreciative crowd was jumping and bopping to the infectious riffs during the entire set. Who knew angsty rock was so great to dance to? What's next for the Event? They played this year’s South By Southwest before heading back to British soil, where they already have sold out dates. Further down the road, the band is slated to perform on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno”, at Coachella, and at the Sasquatch Music Festival – amid even more live gigs. I just hope somewhere along the way, they can stop long enough to enjoy their success.              Set List: The Airborne Toxic Event: website | myspace  Related Posts |
| Sterling Witt’s Making of Shadows and Secrets Posted: 31 Mar 2009 08:45 AM PDT |
| Manchester Orchestra @ Radio Room Patio, SXSW, Austin TX Posted: 31 Mar 2009 07:20 AM PDT Due to a one in one out policy for the packed tent that Radio Room had set up, not all of PopWreckoning made it in for the Manchester Orchestra performance. I had anticipated a full house with all the buzz these guys are getting for their new album Mean Everything to Nothing. “I’ve Got Friends” is only played every other second on my hometown radio station and it seems like every magazine and website (ours included) is calling this album the best 2009 release. With all this praise for the recording, I had to see if the live show could match up to those standards. To be honest, I was incredibly doubtful. I had actually heard many rumors that they could be kind of boring live. So quite nervously, I waited for this show to start. “Alright. Our name is Animal Collective,” lead singer Andy Hull joked as he took to the mic and jumped into their first number where he claims, “I want to be 50 cent.” I could breathe a sigh of relief–they were quite entertaining and funny. After the second number, Hull humorously clued the audience in to the struggles of tuning. “I want everybody to know that I am a dumbass,” said Hull. “When you try to tune a guitar that’s not plugged in–you can’t hear it.” Once that problem was taken care of, the band started “Blackman”. Chris Freeman showed off his skills by playing most of this number with his shirt over his face. To round out the set, the band finished with several new numbers: “My Friend Marcus”, “Shake It Out” complete with humorous air guitar from Freeman, “I’ve Got Friends” and “Everything to Nothing”. The increasingly popular “I’ve Got Friends” lacked the harmonies found on the recorded version and was cut a little short, but it still had the emotional rawness that the song oozes with every time it plays on the radio. Confident in the performance of four new songs to end the set, Hull said, “We forgot how to play all our old songs. It’s the damnedest thing. Time to make it more metal.” This led into the not-so-metal “Everything to Nothing”; I don’t think anybody was disappointed. In fact, the audience was so pleased with Manchester, this was one of the few groups that got to do an encore. In a fun twist, they covered “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” set to the melody of a Kevin Devine song.    Manchester Orchestra: website | myspace  Mean Everything To Nothing (LP with Bonus CD) Price: USD 18.98 1 used & new available from USD 18.98 Related Posts |
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