Tuesday, July 21, 2009

popwreckoning updates

popwreckoning updates

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N.A.S.A. “Whatchadoin” video

Posted: 21 Jul 2009 02:28 PM PDT

I wish I had words for this.

What do you think?

And a bonus video, “Gifted”, mostly because this song is awesome.

N.A.S.A.: website | myspace | The Spirit of Apollo review | @ emo’s annex, sxsw

Spirit of Apollo
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MP3 Minute: The Horse’s Ha

Posted: 21 Jul 2009 12:58 PM PDT

The Horse’s Ha, comprised of Freakwater and Eleventh Dream Day’s Janet Beveridge Bean and The Zincs‘ , will be playing the first of several mini-tours this summer in support of their genre-bending debut album, Of The Cathmawr Yards, out now on Hidden Agenda. Featuring stellar performers from Chicago’s rock and jazz communities, The Horse’s Ha blend an all-acoustic instrumentation with sweetly harmonizing vocals that belie the group’s darkly haunting songs.horses ha

The Horse’s Ha recorded a cover of ’s “Slow Moon’s Rose” when they were in the studio for Of The Cathmawr Yards. This track was not released on the album, but is available now as a free download.

The Horse’s Ha – “Slow Moon’s Rose” (Slapp Happy)

At the end of the month, The Horse’s Ha will pass through Philadelphia, stopping to perform cuts from the new record, Of The Cathmawr Yards, at Johnny Brenda’s. They will join and The Builder and the Butchers on stage at the Fishtown venue. Check out a couple tracks from Of The Cathmawr Yards.

The Horse’s Ha – “Asleep in a Waterfall”

“Asleep in a Waterfall” is an upbeat and mildly jazzy folk number Elkington’s deep, resonant voice intertwining beautifully with Bean’s soft, high vocals. Sinuous strings make for an eerie, mysterious and nuanced cut that is nothing short of beautiful. Be sure to catch the Horse’s Ha along their short East Coast trek, you’re in for a treat.

Tour Dates:
Jul 27 – Thunderbird Cafe / Pittsburgh
Jul 28 – IOTA / Arlington, Va.
*Jul 29 – Johnny Brenda’s / Philadelphia (w/ , The Builder and The Butcher)
Jul 30 – Bruar Falls / Brooklyn (w/ Hospitality_
Jul 31 – The Bell House / Brooklyn (w/ The Mekons)
Aug 01 – Mercury Lounge / New York City (w/ The Mekons)
Aug 02 – Beachland Tavern / Cleveland
Sep 19 – Pygmalion Festival / Champaign, IL

The Horse’s Ha: myspace

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Love Language kick off tour with Cursive this Saturday

Posted: 21 Jul 2009 12:19 PM PDT

lovelanguageSo we at Popwreckoning, or at least I at Popwreckoning, have been a teensy bit obsessed with Raleigh, North Carolina natives The Love Language, thanks in part to the facemelting awesomeness of “Lalita”, which you can listen to and download below! If not for the infectious, hooky guitar riffs and bouncy rhythms, then listen to it maybe for the garage rock distortion and the get-off-your-ass-and-dance demands of the cut.

The Love Language – “Lalita”

The Love Language is hitting the road with Cursive starting this Saturday, July 25th in Iowa and making their way along this side of the Mississippi. I’m excited to see how their self-titled debut album translates live in Philly next month, especially considering everything on the record was written, performed, recorded, and mixed by front man Stu McLamb. For a guaranteed good time, don’t miss these rising rock stars on the road. And buy the record. You won’t be disappointed.

The Love Language is available now on Bladen County Records.

Tour Dates:
Jul 25 – The Picador / Iowa City *
Jul 26 – Otto’s / Dekalb, Il. *
Jul 27 – Radio Radio / Indianapolis *
Jul 28 – The Pike Room at the Crofoot / Pontiac, Mi. *
Jul 29 – Grog Shop / Cleveland *
Jul 30 – Bug Jar / Rochester *
Jul 31 – The Tralf Music Hall / Buffalo *
Aug 01 – The Bellhouse / Brooklyn (w/ Noisettes)
Aug 03 – The Middle East Downstairs / Cambridge *
Aug 04 -  Daniel Street Club /Milfort, Ct.  *
Aug 05 – Mercury Lounge / New York City (w/ Portugal. the Man)
Aug 06 – Maxwell’s / Hoboken, NJ *
Aug 07 – First Unitarian Church / Philadelphia *
Aug 08 – Ottobar / Baltimore *
Aug 09 -  123 Pleasant Street / Morgantown, WV *
Aug 10 – Musica / Akron, Oh. *
Aug 11 -  The Dame / Lexington, Ky. *
Aug 20 – Locally Grown (at Wallace Plaza) / Chapel Hill, NC
Aug 29 – 40 Watt Club / Athens, Ga. (w/ Modern Skirts)

*w/ Cursive

The Love Language: website | myspace | Love Language review

The Love Language
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Interview with: Aaron Weiss of MewithoutYou

Posted: 21 Jul 2009 10:45 AM PDT

After talks of the amazingness of feta cheese and debating where to actually do this interview, Aaron Weiss of MewithoutYou and I finally settled into a cozy piece of gravel in between his bus and ’s tour bus. Weiss and I then talked about the latest album, the tour and what is happening next with rumors of a hiatus:

Bethany, PopWreckoning: So you guys are currently touring behind your fourth album, It's All Crazy, It’s All False, It's All a Dream, It's Alright, I feel like it is a bit more scaled back than some of your other albums. Why did you change and pull it back a little–at least instrumentally.
Aaron Weiss, MeWithoutYou: Scaled back like in the volume of it?
PW: Well this is more of the songwriter…
AW: More mellow. Yeah, sure. Yeah, I guess there were a few reasons for it. One of the reasons was that Chris [Kleinberg], our second guitar player went back to school, so he didn't help write the songs or record them. So I started playing guitar in his place, but I can't play guitar. I just know a few chords. That's my idea of playing guitar: B, C, D.
PW: They're important chords.
AW: They are very important chords and one of our songs is compiled of just those three chords. How it started was it was just those three on an acoustic guitar and the other guys just added instruments on top of it. But yeah, you understand. Since a lot of the guitar is based on what I can play on guitar, they're just basic guitars.
PW: So have you improved significantly as a guitar player now and learned a few more chords?
AW: Yes. A few more chords, but not the kind of playing that Chris does where it is guitar riffs and lines and effects and holds: the kind of soundscapes that he creates. We lost all that when he left. Mike [Weiss] is doing a great job, but that's one reason. The other reason is we are mostly approaching or into our 30s now, so getting older.
PW: Aw, you're not too old.
AW: Haha, no, but it is older than 20s. So your tastes change, you know? We don't want to keep making sort of this loud aggressive punk music for the rest of our lives.

PW: On this album you also worked with a classical composer, what was that like?
AW: You know, I couldn't tell you at all. I wasn't there. It was different for us because that was a connection who—one of our producers was named Daniel and the composer, Joshua, was a friend of his, and he said, "I could talk to Joshua about composing some things." We just told him which songs and gave him an idea saying, "This is what we're going for. This song, make it like 'Peter and the Wolf' and this other song make it like 'Fantasia' or something like that." It was like this is what we're going for: something really dramatic and moody or quirky and you know? He just did it and found the musicians to play for the most part. From my perspective, it was just showing up to the studio one day and there were all these classical instruments tracked already. I didn't even see most of it or wasn't even in the studio. It just happened.
PW: Did you like everything you heard or did you give some feedback saying, "No, I don't actually like the strings here"?
AW: There was one song where we didn't ask for anything, but he wrote some things. So we kept some of it, but we cut some of it. One of the songs we kept everything, another we kept most of it, but just dialed it back a little bit. IMG_0090

PW: This album is heavily based off of the teachings of . What struck you so much about those teachings and made you say that you were going to write a whole album about this?
AW: Well, I didn't. It's where we came from. My brother and I were both raised by parents who sat with Bawa.
PW: And Bawa lived in Phila, er, Pennsylvania.
AW: Yeah, Philadelphia. And that's where my parents met: listening to him. So we heard his stories growing up and that is who has been the biggest influence in our family's life. So it wasn't waking up one day and saying, "I want to write songs about this guy." It's just inseparable from my life.
PW: I did like how, I didn't have to look up all the stuff about Bawa and Sufism if I didn't want to because the album is so universal no matter what you know.
AW: Yeah.
PW: Especially with the more fable-like stories such as "The Fox, the Crow, the Cookie." You might have heard it through Bawa, you might have heard it through Aesop.
AW: Right. Same message whoever told it.

PW: I don't know about this, since I don't know about Bawa's teaching, but on the last verse of that song, it is a little different than the usual story. What's going on there?
AW: Yeah. The whole last verse?
PW: The part that starts like, "I got a walnut brownie brain."
AW: That. That was inspired by a cookbook my mother has. That was inspired by a bakery section where the crow realizes he has sort of been duped. He is humbled. There is a second chorus and he is really into himself and is like, "Everyone's really into me." And the fox is singing him praises. Then he realizes he has been tricked and is like, "Man, I guess I'm not so great." Realizing that, he sort of starts looking for what's next. It takes the fable a step further than where it ends. It's the redemption of the crow.
PW: Cool. So that is all your guys' idea? Not Bawa's teachings?
AW: Well, it's all, well it's not in the Bawa story of the Fox and the Crow, which is what's in Aesop's fable. So I don't think any of that is in there. It is just one direction it could go, but you write it any number of ways if you want to add your own ending to it. That's the one we came up with.
PW: I just really enjoyed that song because I was actually doing a final—I took a class on fables—and I was doing a final about when the album came out. So I was listening to the song, while studying for the final and had to read like 80 different versions of that one story.
AW: Ah, nice. Really?
PW: Yeah. It was really helpful and I sent it to my teacher and was like, "Give me an 'A.' Check out this song that I just found for you." Haha.
AW: Nice. That worked out well.

PW: I guess for the next question: what was it like narrating for someone else's album? You did the Forgive Durden musical.
AW: That was nice. It was nice to be able to ham it up and try to get into this character that wasn't, a lot of time with our songs, there is a sense of putting yourself on the line. I'm writing about personal things, what I believe and what I've experienced. So if someone doesn't like it, you might be hurt because you have more riding on it. With the Forgive Durden record, Thomas asked me to do it. We were on tour and a day off in Seattle. So I went and spent the night and the next day, he just gave me a list of words to read and I figured out what to do with them. When I was in high school, I used to be in theater and into acting. It brought me back to that where I got to act a little goofy and perform where I got to do it without really worrying about it on some level because it wasn't my thing. I was just trying to help out. It was nice. The best of both worlds because I got to do it, but without all the work and burden of hoping people would like it.

PW: I liked how it turned out a lot. So, is it true that your bus runs on veggie oil? Is that hard to convert to? Do you do other environmentally friendly things?
AW: It isn't such a help for the environment as people think. Especially nowadays, since so many people are doing it, it has become a commodity. People are growing soybeans to turn it into veggie oil to make biodiesel. It isn't this super noble to do. We try to do things to help the environment, but not like some people who are real in to living off the grid and really making a life out of it. For us, it is more like, mildly conscious of it, but mostly lazy and selfish. As for converting a bus, it may be easier than converting a car or a van because everything is so spread out. The grease tank is by this bay on the opposite side by the luggage bay. Then there is a filter on this side by this access panel opposite. There is a lot of open space around the engine, so it is relatively easy to install. For us, we don't know much about automobile vehicles, so for us it was difficult. Fortunately, when we were doing it, we were on the road with a band called Piebald. One of their members had a lot of experience with these conversions, so he was our…what's the word I'm looking for?
PW: Inspiration? Expert?
AW: No. It means go-to-guy. I'll come up with it later. I'm drawing a bland. We'll go with go-to-guy. Uh, now it's one of those things…He was our…

PW: You'll be in the middle of your set and all of sudden we'll hear you shout out, "Oh it was blank," and the rest of the crowd will be like, "What's he talking about? That's not the lyrics." So for the last question, is it true this is your last tour and then you're on hiatus?
AW: We'll see. None of us really know. A few of us are doing a tour in August, playing the songs in a quieter way.
PW: Still as MewithoutYou?
AW: I think it is being advertised as the Weiss Family from Mewithoutyou or the Weiss Family plays MewithoutYou. Something like that. It is me and my brother, who is in the band, and his wife, who plays some keyboards with us. Then we also plan to have a hand full of other folks out with us, too, but no one else from the band. That's why it is the Weiss Family.

PW: Is this just for a breather and recoup or to work on other projects?
AW: Other directions in life: going back to school or one of the fellows just wants to be more involved in his church back in Philadelphia. He leads a small, weekly church group that has to go on hold whenever he tours. He also does music for one of the worship services at the church. He has a hard time getting away and really likes to be in Philadelphia.
PW: Philadelphia is nice.
AW: You've been there.
PW: Yeah, my mom lives in Scranton. I'll be there next week.
AW: Cool.

PW: Yeah, I like it there. Better scenery to drive through than here.
AW: Haha.
PW: Yeah, you drive through Missouri and Kansas and it is just flat.
AW: At the same time, we were just in the Rocky mountains and driving through in what was probably one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, or at least, up there, but if you don't have peace in your heart, you don't have peace in your heart. No matter how pretty it is, or on the flipside, no matter how bland and plain those corn fields might be, if you are content, you are content. I wouldn't worry too much about being here in Kansas. It is a beautiful place. It is as beautiful as anywhere. I didn't feel any better yesterday up in the Colorado Rockies than I do with you guys here in an ugly alley. It doesn't get much uglier than this with broken beer bottle glass and a tore up 1976 MC8 rusting out.
PW: Nah, your bus is sweet.
AW: It's cool, but…
PW: It has more character than other busses.
Andrew: It has a dog. Do you get to take dogs on tour often?
AW: This time. We try and find a place for here that's not too hot. We've tried and failed. Well, it's not too hot.

PW: Well, thanks for doing an interview with us.
AW: Sure. Sorry about that last bit about peace in your heart. It's just a weird time and do interviews and step out of my life into this world with the band. Sometimes, I can't keep my mouth shut and throw in some kind of…
PW: It's fine. No one expects you to be 100 percent happy all the time.
AW: Yeah. That's exactly it.
PW: And you'd be a boring musician if that was the case and basically sang "kumbyah" all the time. You need variety.
AW: I know. It seems like that's something to be said for knowing the experiences in the whole gambit, but it is hard sometimes because we have to just get up and do this and play our songs again and do interviews like this where sometimes, I don't feel I have anything to say. I don't know what to say. I don't have anything good to say, so I try and do my best and oblige because my manager told me to. You guys seem really nice and I am sorry if I wasn't really interesting or whatever.
PW: No, you had great answers.
AW: Cool. Thanks for the tip about the pizza place.
PW: Yeah, it is really affordable to.
AW: Yeah, I'll probably have it after the show. I eat pizza every day, but it never gets old.
PW: Well, get pizza before the show, but when the show gets out you go to Pita Pit because it is open until 3 a.m.

AW: That sounds good. I'm going to get back to sanding my bus. The other side looked like this about two days ago, but without the bulldog, so we have to sand it down and prime it so it is just flat and grey.
PW: Will you repaint the bulldogs?
AW: Oh no. We're done with the bulldogs. Good riddance. I'm not sure. Something more colorful and prettier than bulldogs.
PW: Kansas countryside.
AW: There you go. On the other side I'll do Colorado Rockies. That will be happy.
PW: Haha, then on the back you can have this alley.
AW: It can all mush together.
PW: Cool. Thanks so much.

MewithoutYou: website | myspace | @ the Granada

It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All a Dream! It’s Alright
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MP3 Minute: Owen “Good Friends, Bad Habits”

Posted: 21 Jul 2009 09:30 AM PDT

On September 22nd, Chicago modern indie rock legend Mike Kinsella (American Football, Joan of Arc, Cap’n Jazz) will release his fifth album under solo moniker this fall. As he began writing this album, Kinsella became a husband and a father. For a musician who has never been afraid to address deeply personal topics in his songs, it would be impossible for such life altering changes not to affect the music he creates. owenAs a result, New Leaves boasts a feeling of growth and evolution that can only be achieved with time. This notion is encapsulated within the album’s closing track, “Curtain Call”. In many ways, this song serves as Kinsella’s final goodbye to a world he’s known all his life. In the final moments, Kinsella perfectly sums up his thoughts on this passage into maturity by singing, “From now on it’s do’s and don’ts, to a room of antique maps and ghosts, where I have been, and where I will go.”

On New Leaves, the arrangements are more elaborate, the song structures more complex, and the lyrics more refined. “Being a lot more settled has freed up space in my mind that was once occupied by frivolous romantic social interactions to be used for thinking critically about broad social interactions and issues,” says Kinsella. “I’ve been feeling the weight of having an entire other human to consider throughout every moment of every day,” which is a new sense of responsibility reflected in songs that now focus on learning from past mistakes and living in the present.

Available for download from New Leaves is second track “Good Friends, Bad Habits,” a track that uses swirling synthesizers to twist and turn familiar elements into a completely new sound. In this cut, Kinsella waxes on about picking friends with bad habits, “just petty thieves or addicts/ they don’t hurt anyone.” This realization of questionably behaved friends but later justification is a natural thought progression for a new husband and father; he’s thinking of his family’s safety, but knows it’s not necessarily at risk. Layered with beautiful strings and a twinkling melody, “Good Friends, Bad Habits” promises good things for New Leaves.

Owen – “Good Friends, Bad Habits”

Polyvinyl will release New Leaves nationally September 22nd.

Tracklisting:
01. New Leaves
02. Good Friends, Bad Habits
03. A Trenchant Critique
04. Never Been Born
05. Amnesia and Me
06. Brown Hair in a Bird’s Nest
07. Too Scared to Move
08. The Only Child of Aergia
09. Ugly on the Inside
10. Curtain Call

Tour Dates:
Sept 16 – Canopy Club (Pygmalion Festival) / Urbana, IL
Sept 18 – Beat Kitchen / Chicago (w/ Bob Nanna – early show, all ages)
Sept 18 – Beat Kitchen / Chicago (w/ Davey von Bolen – late show, 21+)

: website | myspace | pre-order New Leaves

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Mercury Prize Nominations Announced

Posted: 21 Jul 2009 08:18 AM PDT

mprizeThe nominations for the 2009 Barclaycard Mercury Prize – for the best album from the United Kingdom and Ireland – were announced today, July 21, at a special ceremony in London by BBC 6music radio host Lauren Laverne. Receiving a Mercury Prize nomination (and/or winning it) generally leads to increased album sales and increased celebrity profile for a band. Manchester band Elbow received the honor in 2008.

Here are the 12 nominees for this year’s Mercury Prize:

Florence and the Machine – Lungs

Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

Bat for Lashes – Two Suns

–

Glasvegas – Glasvegas

– Speech Therapy

Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires

The Horrors – Primary Colours

Lisa Hannigan – Sea Sew

The Invisible – The Invisible

Led Bib – Sensible Shoes

– Twice Born Men

The 2009 Barclaycard Mercury Prize will be awarded on September 8.

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The Republic Tigers @ Power and Light, Kansas City

Posted: 21 Jul 2009 07:58 AM PDT

Kansas City’s Power and Light has a weekly free concert rock series and considering the clientele, the 90s bands like Eve 6 have been the groups to bring in the largest crowds. So when I saw local act the Republic Tigers would be playing, I wasn’t quite sure what draw they would have, even as one of the most popular local bands in the city. I shouldn’t have doubted their pull because the boys ended up drawing a sizable crowd even without the support of an opener. DSC_0289

The Tigers started their 17 song set with “Stranger to the Eyes of a Child-Man”, which I found a bit surprising when most bands usually start with a current or old single. From here they jumped into a very sounding tune which wound down before hitting a big reprise. With the audience pushing its way to beer booths, I had a hard time focusing on the Tigers until they began “Made Concrete”, a song for which they had just released a video. Thinking it couldn’t get much better, they Tigers impressed yet again with a brilliant and fun cover of “Elenore” by the . I’m not sure how much of the young crowd was actually familiar with the tune, but the modern electronic elements of the Tigers combined with the more classic guitar riffs and vocals, made this a great choice of a cover.

The opening boop boop boops of “Sinkin Annie” got me excited to hear the older EP tune, but this number ended up being a disappointment in the set. I think adding older songs is great, but this one needs a bit more practice so it doesn’t sound so off in the future.

The rest of the set picked up from there and was solid. The band bantered with a crowd member before departing for the encore. The encore featured four songs including the popular radio hit “Buildings and Mountains” and some new songs that make me really excited to hear a new album from these guys soon.

The Tigers got the audience dancing with the percussion heavy “Fight Song” that ended the set and a night full of free and fun entertainment.

I’m drawing a few blanks on the set list, but here is what I remember:

Set List:
Stranger to the Eyes of a Child-Man
Golden Sand
Made Concrete
Elenore by the cover
The Nerve
Sinkin' Annie Down, Down, Down….
Give Arm to Its Socket
Contortionists
Air Guitar
Cast On, Cast Off?
Weatherbeaten
Feeling the Future
//
Buildings and Mountains
Kingsley
Fight Song

The Republic Tigers: myspace | interview with |  @ chop shop showcase, sxsw

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at 6:36 PM