Quantcast
My Old Kentucky Blog : Your lighthouse in the shitstorm of bad music since January 2005

Friday, May 16, 2008

Things You Should Do This Weekend...

First off, don't forget that tonight is My Old Kentucky Blog & The Monolith Music Fest present...

The Mary Onettes + Red Light Driver + The Broderick at Radio Radio for only $8.

The Mary Onettes - Lost
The Broderick - Seagulls
The Broderick - Bells

Tomorrow night you should come out for this...



Castanets - Westbound, Blue
Castanets - Sway

MOKB 2007 Holiday Interview Series : Ray Raposa of Castanets

This weekend is also The Broad Ripple Art Fair, which is always a great thing to do with friends and family. The Hives and Jack Oblivion also perform at The Vogue.

--------------------------------------------------------

Label Site | MySpace | More MP3s | eMusic | Subscribe To RSS Feed

Read the whole post...

Photo Recap : Josh Ritter at The Music Mill : 051508

Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josh Ritter performed at The Music Mill here in Indianapolis last night. Ritter actually rolls through Indianapolis with decent regularity, and many regular Ritter concert attendees claimed his live show has improved with each appearance. Last night, Ritter, as you can see in the photos, seemed to be filled to the brim with happiness. He smiled the entire show.

Ritter may not quite be indie enough for the average hipster. The musical space he occupies seems to border somewhere between that "credible" indie-pop world and the College-age/bad radio/Jack Johnson/DMB world, but I think it would be unfair for the average indie music enthusiast/snob/hipster kid to judge him, or worse yet, ignore him because the "priviledged sorority/fraternity/meathead crowd" or the "Billy Joel-loving moms of the world" find him equally entertaining. He's a talented singer, songwriter and musician, worthy of praise, so even if he seems to transcend those two at-odds universes, his gateway is one that unites the two in a fashion neither should be ashamed of. It's a truce and opportunity to find common ground.

Josh Ritter - Rumors (Off Broadway Remix by Jack Drag)

Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)



CONTINUE TO VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS...

Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josh Ritter - Girl In The War

Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josh Ritter - Thin Blue Flame

Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josn Ritter - Kathleen

Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


Josh Ritter in Indianapolis on 051508
(Show photos by Dave Evans)


--------------------------------------------------------

Official Site | MySpace | More MP3s | eMusic | Subscribe To RSS Feed

Read the whole post...

Pop Dee-Lite : NKOTB Reunion : Not the Right Stuff



Let me preface this by saying that I was 10 years old when New Kids on the Block released their debut album in 1986. I grew up during the height of New Kids on the Block popularity. While I never saw them in concert and didn't plaster my room with NKOTB posters or own the sheet and comforter set like some of my friends, I was a fan. I owned their tapes. So, you would think I might be excited about the NKOTB reunion.

But when news broke of their reunion and impending record release and tour, I was more skeptical than excited. Why is this necessary, I asked? Didn't they see Mission: Man Band on Vh1? That did not end well. Who would possibly want to watch a bunch of guys in their mid to late 30s singing bubblegum pop hits Hangin' Tough and The Right Stuff 20 years later?

This skepticism then turned to horror after watching the NKOTB performance on the Today Show this morning. I watched it out of sheer curiosity and to convince myself that this was really happening. It was like watching a train wreck – a train wreck surrounded by overweight 30-something women singing along to every word. They even used most of the same choreography from the olden days when they performed a medley of their hits, which now sound completely cheesy. That's not to say they weren't cheesy 20 years ago, but it was the 80s and I was 10. Even more disturbing was the new choreography, which attempted to resemble Justin Timberlake in an awkward I-have-to-look-at-my-feet-to-do-this sort of way. They also performed their new single, Summertime, which was obviously written to gain Top 40 airplay in the, uh, summertime. It's slick and polished with no-brainer lyrics about a summertime love. (I think about you in the summertime. And all of the good times we had, baby.) And it also sounds like something the Backstreet Boys did seven years ago.

What's even more perplexing to me is the fan response. I actually know someone who got tickets to go to the Chicago show, and my co-worker's friend hit her up to go to the Minneapolis show, after new tour dates were released today (all of these women are around my age). Why, I ask? Why??

I'm all for nostalgia, but this is one former fan who isn't ready to throw my support their way in the form of buying the album or getting concert tickets so that I can relive those awkward tween years and all of the crappy music associated with them. I suppose you could liken NKOTB's former popularity to that of today's Jonas Brothers. Tweens love the young, cute band and their infectious pop, just like I loved NKOTB at that age. Twenty years from now, they will probably reunite after the brothers go their separate ways, release failed solo efforts, appear on The Surreal Life, star in numerous TV shows, participate on Dancing with the Stars, and suffer a panic attack on Oprah.

Today's NKOTB Performance:



NKOTB - Hangin' Tough video:



And now I must face the rest of my day with Hangin' Tough replaying over and over in my head. Thank you, NKOTB.


--------------------------------------------------------

Official Site | MySpace | More MP3s | eMusic | Subscribe To RSS Feed

Read the whole post...

Scarlett Johansson : AOL Session

Scarlett Johansson recorded 5 of her Tom Waits covers for AOL recently. Scarlett admits she only gets to do this because she's a badass celebutant, which I guess it is good she is self-aware of that fact. I want to not like her for it, but my man-crush on Ryan Reynolds doesn't allow it, and the songs sound good...if you like chicks that sound like dudes. So, I'll just cry myself to sleep on my huge pilla thinking about her...and him.



Falling Down | Anywhere I Lay My Head | Green Grass | Who Are You | Yesterday Is Almost Here

--------------------------------------------------------

More MP3s | eMusic | Subscribe To RSS Feed

Read the whole post...

Pop Dee-Lite : Interview with Blondfire



When I got the new Blondfire CD, My Someday, in the mail, it came with a handwritten note from the brother-sister duo. That's because Erica and Bruce Driscoll aren't paying someone to do the marketing and promotion of their debut full-length CD, now available on iTunes and CD Baby. I originally told you about the bright and airy Euro-pop prettiness of My Someday here. In fact, they wrote the songs themselves, recorded the songs themselves, produced the CD themselves and released the CD on their own label, Tender Tender Rush. You can't get more indie than that. This all comes after they were dropped from EMI in late 2007, after the label was bought out and went through many internal changes. But that didn't get them down. In fact, they feel like the time they spent working with the major label helped them hone in on what they really wanted in their new album, which was to essentially stay on the same musical path that won them so many fans with their Don't Whisper Lies EP. Now that the CD has been released, Bruce was nice enough to talk to me about where the duo has been and where they're heading.

Blondfire - Pretty Young Thing

Dee : What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of being in a band with your sister?

Bruce : Each of us knows what the other one likes. We also like similar bands, and harmonies come to us easier. I think our voices compliment each other. There really is no downside. We aren't much for drama.

CONTINUING READING POP DEE-LITE INTERVIEW OF BLONDFIRE...


Dee : Who are your musical influences?

Bruce : Pet Shop Boys, The Smiths, New Order, 80's new wave, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers - even film scores. We love the Beatles, too. Great melodies are important. We also have a lot of Brazilian influences because our mother is Brazilian and we've spent a fair amount of time there.

Dee : You initially started out as Astaire, but you've since changed your band name to Blondfire. Why?

Bruce : We chose Astaire because we liked it and didn't think it would be associated with Fred Astaire. We were on a tour with Ivy and Stars when our lawyer called and told us that Fred Astaire's estate called and we had to change our name. At the time, we were broke. We had invested every last cent into the tour and showing labels what we could do without actually being on a label. We were devastated for awhile. We didn't know what we were going to do. We decided to keep going and went through a list of thousands of band names. We chose Blondfire. The name is nonsensical, really. We decided if our fans like our music, it didn't really matter what we're called. We've gotten a great response so far to the new name.

Dee : The single L-L-Love from Don't Whisper Lies was a huge hit as a free download on iTunes, and led to Blondfire being the first unsigned band to record an iTunes Exclusive EP that landed at No. 1. It also ended up on several movie soundtracks. What was your reaction to that?

Bruce : Erica woke up one day and said she dreamed the phrase "L-L-Love." It took us three hours to write and record the song. We were so happily surprised that people were so into the song. We knew the song had potential, but we never expected that kind of response.

Dee : You were signed to EMI in 2006. What was it like going from no label to a major label?

Bruce : We recorded with EMI for about a year. We had enough songs to fill 20 albums. But EMI wanted us to go in a different direction - a direction they weren't even sure of. So we just kept writing and writing, when we knew in our hearts we had written enough songs. We did meet a lot of great people while we were there. But the label was bought out, and bands that hadn't started production were dropped. We were one of those bands. But when we got dropped, there was a sense of relief.

Dee : How so?

Bruce : We took the best songs we had written on our own and spent time mixing them at our parents' house in Michigan. It was the same thing we had done with our Don't Whisper Lies EP. We took it back to basics where we felt most comfortable.

Dee : And how do you feel now that you have the finished product in your hand?

Bruce : The album release is therapeutic for us. We set out to be true to ourselves and our sound - to create something that sounds like us. We're not trying to be anything but who we are, a brother and sister who love making music, and we're proud that we captured that on My Someday.

Dee : What are your hopes and dreams for your own someday now that My Someday is complete? Where do you go from here?

Bruce : I think we'd both like to be able to really license the songs off this new album a lot. Get them in movies, TV shows, etc., and be able to reach new fans through that route. And hopefully we'll continue to do well in that area so we can continue to make more and more records. We're also looking to do a lot of touring. We're trying to put the word out that we're looking for a band to go out on the road with. We done a few tours in the past with Ivy, Stars and Robbers on High Street, and we really enjoy playing our music live.


--------------------------------------------------------

Official Site | MySpace | More MP3s | eMusic | Subscribe To RSS Feed

Read the whole post...

Thursday, May 15, 2008

My Old Kentucky Blog presents...this Friday and more

Tomorrow Night! - 5/16 - this Friday - My Old Kentucky Blog & The Monolith Music Fest present...

The Mary Onettes + Red Light Driver + The Broderick at Radio Radio for only $8.

Save time and buy your tickets now!

The Mary Onettes play rock-pop heavily influenced by the sounds of great bands like Joy Division, Echo & the Bunneymen, The Cure, and The Stone Roses. They aren't knock-offs though, their sound is fresh and modern. Although, Mary Onettes chief songwriter Philip Ekstrom said recently in NUVO, "Not many bands have consequence in the making of an album. They say they’re inspired by the '80s, but it sounds modern. I was determined to make an album that sounded "unmodern". It sounds like it was made in the '80s. That was important to me when I was doing the album."

The band is signed by the highly respected Labrador Records. Since the band debuted on Labrador the international buzz on the band has been growing steadily.

Pitchfork Media put the band's song Lost On Repeat and has described their sound as "bright, breezy, joyful retro". Pitchfork went on to say, "Lots of acts draw on the Cure for their spikiness, their spookiness, their goth; the Mary Onettes would rather compete with Just Like Heaven. You may have heard them and not even realized; the hit television program Grey's Anatomy has used Explosions and Lost in their episodes.

Red Light Driver's brand of "new wave-indie rock-avant-pop" will be the perfect lead-up to The Mary Onettes. The band recently completed their first full-length and plan to release it this Summer.

The Broderick were once called 806 Main St. and have been a long-time MOKB favorite up-and-comer. These young'uns aren't even old enough to drink at Radio Radio, but they'll come in and rock it's socks off to open the show.

The Mary Onettes - Lost
The Broderick - Seagulls
The Broderick - Bells

---------also---------


5/30 - My Old Kentucky Blog & The Monolith Music Fest & NUVO present...

Spinto Band + De Novo Dahl + Tally Hall + Carolina Liar at Radio Radio. $8 presale / $10 door. Doors at 7:30pm, Show at 8pm. Buy your tickets for less now!

Spinto Band - Oh Mandy
De Novo Dahl - Shout
Tally Hall - Good Day

---------also---------


6/4 - My Old Kentucky Blog & The Monolith Music Fest & NUVO present...

Earl Greyhound & The Parlor Mob : $10 : Buy your tickets now!

This is nice...Earl Greyhound will send you a previously unreleased song just for emailing them and saying hi.

EG also says they will then forward you information on how to spread the word about their upcoming tour, and in return you can receive free t-shirts, posters, and drum sticks signed by Ricc, just for helping them out a bit.

Earl Greyhound - S.O.S.

Earl Greyhound Tour Dates:

May 28 Baltimore, MD @ Fletcher's
May 29 Norfolk, VA @ Norva Theater
May 30 Charlotte, NC @ Visulite Theatre
May 31 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
Jun 03 Nashville, TN @ Exit / In
Jun 04 Indianapolis, IN @ Radio Radio
Jun 05 Chicago, IL @ Double Door
Jun 06 Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
Jun 07 Cleveland Heights, OH @ Grog Shop

---------plus!---------


7/11 - My Old Kentucky Blog & The Monolith Music Fest & NUVO present...Tift Merritt at Radio Radio - (support act to be announced soon)

7/31 - My Old Kentucky Blog & The Monolith Music Fest & NUVO present... Dr. Dog at Radio Radio - $10 presale / $12 door (support act to be announced soon)
Buy your tickets for less now!

Dr. Dog - Heart It Races (Architechture In Helsinki cover)

--------------------------------------------------------

BUY TICKETS! | MySpace | More MP3s | eMusic | Subscribe To RSS Feed

Read the whole post...

Kneejerk RXN : Princeton : Bloomsbury



I'll get right to it. Princeton's forthcoming self-released EP, Bloomsbury, is the kind of treat that gets me up on my hind legs. This is a pop record of rare sophistication. In the wrong hands, it would be a trainwreck, but the clever young men in Princeton (twin brothers Jesse and Matt Kivel, along with and Ben Usen) pull it off. How's this for high-concept? Each of Bloomsbury's four tracks examines a single member of London's influential and controversial Bloomsbury Group. Leonard Woolf, Lytton Strachey, Virginia Woolf and John Maynard Keynes all get the deluxe treatment here, which naturally leads one to wonder what E.M. Forster did to piss off the lads.

Surprisingly, it all works, largely due to the fact that these fellows have good taste in spades, as well as songwriting and arranging chops that belie their tender ages. It's also worth noting that they never let the pretense of their concept overshadow the fact that they are making pop music. It's very obvious that the work of the immortal John Cale (particularly Paris 1919) has had a hand in the Princeton sound, but fans of The Divine Comedy, Belle & Sebastian and Ray Davies/The Kinks should also find much to like.

This is a band we should be talking about long after Vampire Weekend is clogging the cutout bins. My lone gripe with Bloomsbury is that it clocks in at a scant 13 minutes and is almost certain to leave you with the musical equivalent of blue balls. Rest assured, I'll have a lot more to say when I get my hands on a full-length Princeton release.

Princeton - The Waves

Related: Princeton : 100906

--------------------------------------------------------

Official Site | MySpace | More MP3s | eMusic | Subscribe To RSS Feed

Read the whole post...

MOKB Interviews The Botticellis: Exclusive Alternate Cut



San Francisco's The Botticellis released their debut album, Old Home Movies, this week - a short but oh so sweet set of songs that on the surface sound like classic California sunshine pop yet reveal a more serious, desolate side with further listens. Despite the fact that some songs will speak to you immediately, the album is mostly comprised of melodies that grow better with time, like a good wine. And, also like a good wine, the songs sound like they've been properly stored in some ancient spiderweb-filled cellar, just waiting to be uncorked. Here, have a sip...

The Botticellis - New Room

The band has kept busy lately, playing a Daytrotter session, working on side projects, and preparing the release of a 7" that features the George Harrison tune from said Daytrotter session, as well as a mesmerizing alternate recording of the album closer, Table By The Window. The gracious folks at Bellevue Records have allowed My Old Kentucky Blog its exclusive premiere...

The Botticellis - Table By The Window (Alternate Version)

Four of the five Botticellis, Alexi Glickman, Burton Li, Ian Nansen, and Blythe Foster were kind enough to take time away from their busy schedules to talk about recording their debut, why influences shouldn't be kept secret, and what's causing a stink in their gardens.

CONTINUE READING MOKB INTERVIEWS THE BOTTICELLIS

MOKB : First off, congrats on the release of the album. Any plans lined up in terms of celebrating?

Alexi : We actually had an early San Francisco album release show with Papercuts — it was super fun — Jason (Quever) helped us a lot with the record and it was a great way to send the album on it’s way...

Zack took off to Oahu to surf, Burton meditated by the beach in Big Sur and Ian went camping. We're excited to get out on the road for our tour, but til June we're writing for the next record and working on some of our side projects.

MOKB : How pleased are you with the record and the response to it thus far?

Burton: People seem to like it the more they listen to it, which is good. The records I love tend to be that way - they creep up on you. There's always new ways you'd want to approach something after you're done with it, but that's what recording new work is for. The next record is sounding much different.

Blythe : In some ways it was terrifying to leave the studio - this was the debut album, and I think in the back of our minds we had this idea that if we were doing it for real we should be in a studio. But when we left the studio, and went back to working from home – the songs really started to find each other. And I think that happened because it became about the band just being in the room together again, listening. It means a lot to me that the songs on the album feel like siblings.

MOKB : Is it true that you worked on this record for over four years? Why so long?

Burton : Well, the actual time of recording and mixing the record was around eight months, which maybe sounds a little more reasonable. But it's our debut, and we've been working on the songs for a long time. Blythe just started working with us in the past year and a half and a lot of vision we were grasping for has come together as a result. In those four years we've also all played and written for our other bands, so it wasn't like we just labored over these specific ten tracks for four years...that would be kind of disappointing. But I think the attention to vision and detail that we gave ourselves in taking that time really helped the record be successful at least in terms of feeling cohesive - something that probably wouldn't have been the case if we interrupted our process midstream and put it out, say, a year and a half ago.

Ian : I think it’s natural that one song should have multiple incarnations.

MOKB : Your songs have a nostalgic and sunny appeal to them, very much like the picture on the album cover. Was it named Old Home Movies to describe that feeling and was this the type of sound you were aiming for?

Blythe : The songs are memories that became songs because they didn’t leave us alone and we couldn’t leave them alone. Not all sunny ones. I find the album warm, but there’s loss and regret in there too. People are sometimes asking us in interviews if we were going for a vintage or nostalgic feel...I guess it’s not so much that we were trying to find some feeling from The Past - capital P - and hold onto it - as if something or some sound has value just cause it’s from the past, just because it’s old, cause it’s vintage. We’re calling the album Old Home Movies cause the songs are like the experience of trying to untangle something you’ve been holding onto, maybe too tightly. Maybe it’s something you should let go of. Yeah, get young, try to get back to where you come from. You know, it’s maybe a little sarcastic too.

MOKB : Your lyrics provoke some pretty interesting themes and imagery. Would you mind explaining what influenced them, particularly in the song New Room?

Alexi : Melodically it’s probably my favorite song on the record — but before Blythe got involved I had these really literal/downer lyrics that just depressed me too much to ever sing it — I think it’s so cool how she was able to keep some of the images and make it singable for me again...

Blythe : I want to get inside words the way I want to get inside feelings - the sounds of them. I like the way small words and phrases can evoke complicated emotions. A couple weeks ago, I performed in a reading of a Gertrude Stein play. She brilliantly uses tiny words, slight shifts in the turn of a phrase to get the audience to hear these playful observations about language and also some big questions about being alive and being dead. I think New Room lives in a house of big questions and big feelings. Before I started writing the lyrics, Alexi described a real image that was haunting him: a tiny, object in this house, a blue square holding what was once the body of a loved one. This is the song that came out of that image.

MOKB : There have been several comparisons between your music and George Harrison's and you recently performed a song of his during a Daytrotter session. Did you play the song in response to the comparisons or is he an inspiration you don't mind wearing on your sleeve a bit?

Alexi : A lot of the time we spent on the album was me obsessing about things — mostly harmonic stuff — trying to get at those emotions that are generated by pretty chord changes or a well-crafted vocal melody - the things that a lot of songwriters used to be really interested in — and I guess the things that I love most about good pop music. But somehow Awaiting On You All has this sort of inner beauty that can’t really be attributed to anything about its structure - he’s basically just jamming through all the chords in the key in order - but the beauty is just sort of there - shining out of the speakers. We like the song so much we're also putting it out on a 7" with Bellevue Records soon...

Blythe : I guess there’s this idea that you’re supposed to be secretive about your influences or like talk about a few and hide the real ones. We were just listening to George a lot during some of the harder moments in mixing. There’s a real hopeful, spiritual vibe in his music that meant a lot to us then and still does. It just makes us feel good to play Awaiting On You All. People can know that.

MOKB : Blythe, how do you feel about being in a band with four guys?

Blythe : Sometimes it’s like, I’m the girl with the guys, the east coaster with the west coasters, the actor and writer with the musicians. And sometimes, it’s like, Burton cooks dinner for me. It’s all about the art we’re making together and the community we give each other. But maybe you should ask the guys how they feel about there being one girl in the band who doesn’t cook dinner!

MOKB : What can you tell me about Kuma/Koshka aside from the fact that there's a lovely version of the Old Home Movies track Flashlight sung by Blythe on the bands MySpace page?

Alexi : I love the Kuma/Koshka version of Flashlight — we recorded it a couple summers ago when we were obsessed with Twin Peaks — we wanted it to sound like something you would hear at the roadhouse. Jason (Papercuts) heard it and convinced me to record a version for the Botticellis album. It’s pretty fun to let our songs run around so freely... I guess we should be careful because Kuma/Koshka songs have a tendency to become Botticellis songs and Cotillion songs - but Blythe and I just started recording our album and I’m trying to convince her that Flashlight can be on both records. We’ll see how that goes...

Kuma/Koshka - Flashlight

MOKB : Aside from touring, do you have any other big musical plans for 2008?

Ian : While playing/writing/recording music, sometimes you can't help imagine it going along with a film narrative. It would be fun to see how something like that turned out.

Alexi : Making the Kuma/Koshka album and the Cotillion album.

Cotillion - Eyes Of The Falcon

MOKB : You're currently in the midst of planning a full U.S. tour, correct? Is touring something you tend to get excited about and are there any cities you're particularly looking forward to playing in?

Burton : Portland and Seattle we've played in quite a bit and it'll be great to see our friends there. And I'm excited to get out to Rock Island, Illinois to see the Daytrotter guys again.

MOKB : Any records, new or old, you've been impressed by lately?

Ian : We're getting a lot of inspiration from Michael York's reading of A Brave New World. Really crazy stuff.

MOKB : What else is on your mind lately, besides music?

Alexi : Some friends of ours started an amazing community farm in SF called Alemany. Even though I can’t volunteer as much as I want to, it makes me feel a little better that there are folks like Jessie and Antonio getting the word out about sustainable agriculture and locally grown, organic food.

Blythe : Lady Macbeth. Grad school debt.

Burton : There's a lot going on in the world to be concerned about. The Democrats fighting amongst themselves while the Republicans snicker and say the North Pole isn't melting is frustrating. Our military being in Iraq is frustrating. I've been mostly thinking about how to keep the neighborhood feral cats from crapping in my garden.

Old Home Movies is out now on Antenna Farm Records. The aforementioned 7" will be released on 7/08/08 on Bellevue Records.

Want more? Check out the following:

The Botticellis Daytrotter Session


The Botticellis performing live for The San Jose Mercury News


Kuma/Koshka (A sideproject fronted by Blythe Foster - Be sure to check out the band's version of Flashlight, which wouldn't sound out of place on a Beach House record.)

Cotillion (Another side project - imagine a more proggy Botticellis.)

The Botticellis tour dates:

May 16 - Rasputin (In-Store) - Berkeley, California
May 16 - Starry Plough - Berkeley, California
May 17 - Dimple (In-Store) - Sacremento, California
May 17 - Sophia's - Davis, California
May 22 - Independent - San Francisco, California (w/ Cave Singers)
May 24 - Streetlight Records (In-Store) - Santa Cruz, California
May 24 - Crepe Place - Santa Cruz, California
June 3 - Sunset Tavern - Seattle, Washington (w/ Frog Eyes)
June 4 - Backspace - Portland, Oregon (w/ Frog Eyes)
June 5 - TBA - Olympia, Washington
June 10 - Hi-Dive - Denver, Colorado
June 11 - TBA - Omaha, Nebraska
June 12 - Vaudeville Mews - Des Moines, Iowa
June 13 - Huckleberry's - Davenport, Iowa
June 14 - TBA - Chicago, Illinois


--------------------------------------------------------

Official Site | MySpace | More MP3s | eMusic | Subscribe To RSS Feed

Read the whole post...

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Stream New Mates of State : Re-arrange Us



One of my more anticipated album releases in upcoming months is the new long-player from Mates of State, Re-Arrange Us. Well, luckily for me and everyone else, they've posted the entire album on their MySpace page for preview.

Stream Re-Arrange Us here: www.myspace.com/matesofstate

Mates Of State - My Only Offer

Mates Of State : New Video for Get Better:



--------------------------------------------------------

Official Site | MySpace | More MP3s | eMusic | Subscribe To RSS Feed

Read the whole post...

New Music from The Blakes : Basket



You probably know that we love the gritty, garage rock of The Blakes. We've put on shows for them and had them in to record with us to prove it. They recently put out an iTunes only live session EP which they recorded while on tour, passing through San Francisco, this past January. There are two other tracks, from the EP, you can get over at iTunes. The band is currently on tour with The Wombats, in England, but will return home to the States for the Sasquatch Music Fest. They'll then set out on a pretty massive tour with The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

The Blakes - Basket



See Also: The Blakes : Live on MOKB SIRIUS Blog Radio

The Blakes - Commit (Live on MOKB SIRIUS Blog Radio)
The Blakes - Pistol Grip (Live on MOKB SIRIUS Blog Radio)
The Blakes - Modern Man (Live on MOKB SIRIUS Blog Radio)
The Blakes - Lintwalk (Live on MOKB SIRIUS Blog Radio)

Photo Recap : The Blakes + America Owns The Moon + Rooms at Radio Radio
The Blakes : Live @ LUNA Music Midtown
New Blakes song : Magic

--------------------------------------------------------

MySpace | More MP3s | eMusic | Subscribe To RSS Feed

Read the whole post...