The Hold Steady :: More Pix from Charleston, SC Show

All the pix I took at the Hold Steady show (minus the crappy ones) are up on Flickr right now. Follow this link.

Slacker's Do It When We Get To It

So, yeah. Been a bit behind on the blogging, but here's some photos I snapped from the Metavari/El Ten Eleven show at the Village Tavern three or four weeks ago. All photos are up on Flickr. A cool cat named Jason was there that night, too and took some pics that are way better than mine. (Cheers, Jason.) Check him out on Flickr.





Go and support both of these hard-workin' bands, buy a CD, t-shirt, etc. Your mother would be happy if you did.

Take More But Give Less

Ha Ha! Now I will make believers of you all. Here are some photos from The Helio Sequence/The Explorer's Club show at the Village Tavern last Friday night. All of these will be posted on Flickr this weekend, but enjoy these for the time being.

We're sweating our nads off here in Charleston: 105 degrees, full humidity.

mp3: Sigur Ros--"Gobbledigook" (follow the link and enter your email address for a free download)

What? They're from Iceland...where I wouldn't mind being right now.

When Yuppies Grow Up

Just discovered this today courtesy of my super-cool co-worker.

Here's my favorite one so far.

Sound Forged Like Spine

In addition to having one of the best titles for a song I've heard in a long time (re: the blog post title), The Winter Sounds are one of those bands that hold the coveted spot in my library of "repeat player." Seldom few albums make it to this spot and the ones that do are in good company--"Destroyer's Rubies" by Destroyer, "Fort Recovery" by Centro-matic, "Blue Screen Life" by Pinback, etc. The Winter Sounds' debut full length, "Porcelain Empire" has that brilliant quality of suiting every mood during any given week of the year. I'm not sure what a sound forged like (out of?) spine would sound like, but I bet The Winter Sounds' know exactly what it is. And they know how to recreate it from scratch every night.

I was fortunate enough to catch them at Charleston's latest (and so far divey-ist, in a good way) bar, The Tin Roof. For a Monday night, these guys and gal weren't phoning it in and I enjoyed every minute of it--from the $1.50 PBRs to the stage left exit at around midnight. I'll definitely be back...especially now that The Map Room has closed its doors. (Sniff.)

It would be easy to dismiss The Winter Sounds as just another pop band from Athens, GA but there is so much more to discover with this band. And you can almost rest assured they will come play a city near you.

Check out their MySpace page and listen to samples.
The Winter Sounds website.




More photos of the band at my Flickr site

Visit The Tin Roof's MySpace page to see upcoming shows.

Everything Old is New Again

Three is the magic number for items to read today:

1. The Village Voice reviews Kurt Vonnegut's posthumous collection, "Armageddon in Retrospect."Read it here.

2. Salon's music critic Kevin Berger manages to describe all the wanderings of Dan Bejar's band Destroyer in elegant detail. But what's up with calling him Daniel Bejar? Too pretentious for me.

3. Did you know the music industry is changing? Please tell me we're not going to give Jack White credit for it. Regardless, music critic Ann Powers of the LA Times seems self-aware of the fleeting role of critics in the digital age.

And what's this...Matt at You Ain't No Picasso thinks he can take better pictures of Man Man than me?! I challenge him to a Man Man picture-off!
But first, I should upload my own Man Man pictures at my Flickr account...

ABBA Is Everyone's Favorite Band

Eager to beat the dead horse that is the music industry down some more, The Raconteurs have decided to announced the release of their new album, Consolers of the Lonely, one full week before it comes out in a multitude of formats for all types of listeners (including vinyl). Their reasoning and the official press release is here via Stereogum. Nice idea, hopefully the music will live up to the hype. The last record was only just okay--and by okay I mean very derivative with a few nice tracks.

I have been posting a lot about Matt Pond PA...I mean The Dark Leaves. Yep. Apparently that will be MPPA's new moniker.

Sun Kil Moon is streaming their new album, April, at their MySpace page. Fantastic, so far. While you're biding your time waiting for the official release date of April on ummm...April 1, you should get The Retribution Gospel Choir.

Part 2 of the Wilco show at the Riveria is up for download at Sixeyes via this link. Have I mentioned just how much I love this blog? Well, I do. Subscribe to it here. You won't be sorry.

Here's interesting and (gasp!) well-written article from Medialoper. It's about The Clash. And music. That's cool, I guess. If you're into that sort of thing.

And finally, in reference to this post's title, this is just sad. Via con dios, Ola Brunkert. Via con dios, sir.

Some mp3 links:
Rilo Kiley--Let My Love Open the Door (Pete Townsend cover)
Thanks, You Ain't No Picasso.

Matador Intended Play sampler, 2008
Thanks, Matador Records.

Music for Video Games Vol. 1
Haven't heard this, yet. But Sufjan Steven's is on it, so what the hell.
Thanks, Asthmatic Kitty.

Man Man pics and a show review on Friday. Some pics from a Richard Buckner show from this past July at the Village Tavern are up on my Flickr site now. They're not very good but they get the job done. Here's one:

A Predicate Warning to the Sun

It took some time but I've finally uploaded about 20 images from the Matt Pond PA show at The Map Room on Flickr. Check them out here.

Make a comment and tell me what you think; I shot these on better equipment than I'm used to.

As for today, here's a link to a follow-up from Charleston City Paper's little music experiment with The Post and Courier's Preview pullout section in Sunday's paper. See Friday's post for the first part of the story.

As for the rest of the week, Destroyer's Trouble In Dreams comes out tomorrow. Stream it here, courtesy of Merge Records.
And other folks are talking about She & Him, Volume One--the new release from Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. Stream it here, courtesy of Merge Records, though I couldn't be less enthused about some indie starlet's foray into music. Remember this announcement? Stick to what you know kids, I don't care how hot you are onscreen.

A review of the new Destroyer will be up on Wednesday--that's right, I wait and buy my music the day it comes out like a good like capitalist.