Monday Mash-Up

Sigur Ros had a teaser video rolling around the Internet last week:



Listen to a new CocoRosie song here.

The 2008 version of Ozzfest has them abandoning the touring festival format for a one day event in Dallas, TX with Metallica and Ozzy headlining. I guess that Ozzfest for free last year didn't work out so well.

Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg quit his keyboarding spot in Okkervil River to focus on Shearwater full time.

The Big Boi solo album is coming along nicely.

The Hold Steady will be at The 40 Watt in Athens, Ga August 9th, but is not coming to Atlanta.

Hot Chip will be at The Variety Playhouse on October 9th.

Death Cab For Cutie did the Black Cab sessions.

Only the finest videos for you:

Flight Of The Conchords "Ladies Of The World":



Pelican "Dead Between The Walls":



Bon Iver "Flume":



Ruby Suns "Tane Mahuta":

Live Videos: The Ruby Suns, Throw Me The Statue (4/14/2008) The Drunken Unicorn

The Ruby Suns

Monday night's sparsely attended show at the Drunken Unicorn was really sweet. I missed ATL's Chainstereo, but I hope to catch them soon, because they seem interesting. Throw Me The Statue, from Seattle and signed to Secretly Canadian, took a substantially long time to set up their equipment and seemed to suffer from various minor malfunctions throughout their set. But, for the pop-rock style of which I typically don't care much for, they played a thoroughly enjoyable show and seemed to be really nice dudes, volunteering more conversation with the audience before and after the show than most acts I see. Slightly after midnight, The Ruby Suns took stage. The 3-piece incarnation of Kevin McPhun's project did a respectable job of performing the music from an album that I would have figured to be very hard to reproduce live. I listened to Sea Lion again today and I love it so much. Here's some vids and pics:

Throw Me The Statue











The Ruby Suns

What Up 420 In The ATL?

Start today by watching Deerhunter cover Pylon's "Cool" at their New york show last Friday night where they performed their entire forthcoming album, Microcastle.



It is a mammoth week for music in the city. The biggest event of the week, 420, is being celebrated by two fests, Nophest and Sweetwater. Atlanta's Mice In Cars had this to say about the choice between the two on myspace:

Well, you have 2 options. You can go see some crappy bands that aren't in touch with the local music scene, pay A LOT of money for crappy beer from someone that rhymes with (and tastes like) Feetwater. Or you can come to the 3 day Festival featuring tons and tons of local musicians, artists, Djs and performers, watch movies, oh and did I mention FREE BEER. I don't know, you pick.

I couldn't agree more. Ohmpark is going to be at Nophest in full force all weekend for what looks to be a spectacular time. We'll have a full guide to Nophest 4 & 20 out tomorrow some time.

Before I go into all the other awesome shows going on here this week, I just want to say a few things about the shows I caught last weekend. Saturday night I went to see Big, the collaboration between Outkast's Big Boi and the Atlanta Ballet. It was a pretty interesting combination that I'm really glad I got to experience, although I didn't quite love everything about it. Seeing Big Rube do some spoken word was super cool. The most striking thing to me were the visual effects, which I think eclipsed the vast majority of big concerts I've seen. It doesn't make sense to me why bands with a big budget don't do more to utilize the technology in this realm that the Atlanta Ballet seems to be sporting. Also, last night I caught the Explosions In The Sky show at the Variety Playhouse. It was exactly as I anticipated, a serious assault of post-rock. Those guys are just so good.

Tonight I plan to catch The Ruby Suns at the Drunken Unicorn.



There are some other really sweet shows going on tonight as well:

Center Stage: Spoon, The Walkmen, White Rabbits
The Earl: VHS Or Beta, Tigercity
Variety Playhouse: Iron & Wine, Califone (SOLD OUT)

Thursday night there are two really interesting shows:

The Earl: Ski Club (former Kill Gordon, Sovus Radio, Variac), Josh Roberts and The Hinges, Passer By (Reunion show!!!)
Star Bar: Dead Confederate, The Constellations, Hands Down Eugene (Free)

Friday night I'll be hitting Nophest, but there are some other cool shows going on worth mentioning:

Masquerade Music Park: Feist
Lenny's: The Selmanaires, Coathangers, Sleep Therapy

Saturday is National Record Store Day and Criminal Records is having a ton of bands performing at the store for free. Here's the schedule:

BAND SCHEDULE (subject to change)
Outdoor stage:
1:00 PM - The Bridges
2:00 PM - Ocha La Rocha
3:00 PM - Bobby and the Soft Spots
4:00 PM - Suitcases
5:00 PM - Judi Chicago
6:00 PM - The Coathangers
7:00 PM - Anna Kramer and the Lost Cause
8:00 PM - Noot d'Noot

Indoor stage:
2:30 PM - Single Malt Solution
3:30 PM - Trances Arc
4:30 PM - Club Awesome
5:30 PM - Dead Confederate
6:30 PM - Andy Hull (Manchester Orchestra)
7:30 PM - Hope for agoldensummer
8:30 PM - Janelle Monae

Saturday night there are some more great shows to see:

The Earl: The Liverhearts (CD Release Show), Lay Down Mains, Rizzudo
Star Bar: The Jupiter Watts, Long Knives, Spy For Hire

Some non-420-fest things going down Sunday include:

The Earl: Cassavettes (Dunch 1pm-3pm)
Masquerade Music Park: "Gigantour" Megadeath, Job For A Cowboy, High On Fire, In Flames, Children Of Bodom

See you at the shows!

What The Hell Am I Listening to?!?

Ok, this episode of "What The Hell" is gonna be large on tunes. There seems to be so many worthwhile albums dropping right now, it is hard to keep up. A great problem to have. Here are the many bands I'm crushing on right now like a little music slut:

Russian Spy Camera (Athens, Ga)



I know Ichuda already did a review of this album, but I've really gotten into this one hard, so I'm going to continue to hype it. Let me stress that you can download their entire album for free from their website. If you like good music, you will be wronging yourself if you do not go pick that up.

Cryptology


Cults


Download Mutiny In The Kitchen With Knives here!!!

Russian Spy Camera Myspace


The Raveonettes (Copenhagen, Denmark)



One major trend from bands this year is albums produced with heavy distortion a la The Jesus And Mary Chain. Bands like The Magnetic Fields and Times New Viking are great examples. So far, though, I think The Raveonettes' new album Lust Lust Lust is my favourite to employ those sorts of techniques.

Dead Sound


Blush


Buy Lust Lust Lust here

Raveonettes Myspace


The Ruby Suns (Auckland, New Zealand)



The other popular trend in music this year is the Animal Collective influence. I'm surprised it took this long for AC to become so influential to new artists, but it was certainly inevitable. While The Dodos and El Guincho are fine acts, something about them feels like they are stealing the Collective's sound a little too much. Sort of like when I listen to Black Mountain or The Sword and their absorption of the '70s sounds. Sure they are fun and enjoyable to listen to, but I could never get totally obsessed with someone who is bascially copy-catting someone else. But, The Ruby Suns' new album, Sea Lion, seems to me to be the perfect blend of AC love and originality. They will be at The Drunken Unicorn Monday night.

There Are Birds


Kenya Dig It?


Buy Sea Lion here

The Ruby Suns Myspace


Hot Chip (London, UK)



The new Hot Chip joint didn't seem to get its fair fill of the Internet hype, but I've really been enjoying it. There are certainly some songs that are better than others, but the many great ones are really incredible. If you like dance music with a soul like I do, check this one:

Ready For The Floor


One Pure Thought


Buy Made In The Dark here

Hot Chip Myspace


Destroyer (Vancouver, BC, Canada)



Mostly because of Daniel Bejar's vocal style, Destroyer seems to be an act that you either love or can't really get into. Being on the love side of it myself, I'll make my plea to those who listened to it and thought "This sounds just like the last album". On the surface, sure, but if you dig into it, you'll find a much more epic experience and I think this may be his best yet. Destroyer will be in Atlanta later this month.

My Favourite Year


Shooting Rockets (From The Deck Of Night's Ape)


Buy Trouble In Dreams here

Destroyer Myspace