April 20 at The Frequency
Just saw a poster at the Frequency that the Laarks will be coming back to town next month. Highly recommend you see this show. They were amazing at the Project Lodge!!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
My Gold Mask
Headlining Lakeshorepalooza
Friday, April 30 at Union Terrace
I first heard this band from my friend Joe in Chicago. He put something up on his facebook of My Gold Mask doing a cover of Bette Davis Eyes and I seriously listened to the song 5 times consecutively. It was amazing. And I didn't even know it was a cover until later, but it isn't just the lyrics. The vocals hit my pleasure sensors just right.
Gretta Rochelle has that female voice that I love. When you hear her voice, you are just waiting for it to explode into the air. It's full of power and full of beauty. And I love that she is using for this type of music.
Jack Armondo is labeled on their Myspace as being only on guitars but there is much more to the music then a guitar. By the picture above it actually looks like Gretta also does the percussion in their songs. Something about front singing women singing and beating on something at the same time wows me. Anyway, this is a GREAT headlining act for this small music fest and with the venue of the Terrace, it should create an awesome night.
Video
Sleigh Bells
April 28 at Majestic Theater
w/ Yeasayer
Have you ever been to one of those shows where you know the headlining act and you are super excited to check them out. You show up early, try to scout out a good location that is close to the bar but also close to the stage. Then all of a sudden the opening act comes on and you think "Whoa...what the fuck? Who is this awesome band?".
Yeah, if you know about Yeasayer and you are going to this show, be prepared to have that reaction to the opener, Sleigh Bells. What seems like an unlikely union of music turns out to be one of the best sounding things out there right now. Derek Miller was on a quest to find a female singer for a new project of his. He was known for performing in hardcore bands previously. Luckily, a persistent mother in a restaurant recommended her daughter. Alexis met Derek and they hit it off. Alexis was used to performing in girl pop groups, so Derek's hard edge presented an interesting diversion. As Derek put it, why not extend a great hardcore riff for an entire song and have some beautiful female vocals over it. And that is how Sleigh Bells came about. And that is how this amazing band, without an album and only a few songs, became well known and performing in Madison.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
R.I.P. Mark Linkous from Sparklehorse :(
I learned about Sparklehorse through Danger Mouse's collaboration with them for the album, Dark Night of the Soul. It's always really sad when a talented singer takes his own life. Here's the Pitchfork article on it.
Laarks
Thursday, March 11 at Project Lodge
Hey look! It's an Eau Claire band! It's always great to get a hold of some good music that is from Wisconsin. Hell, I didn't hear about Bon Iver until after the rest of the world had. You're in my state, Bon Iver. At least play a few shows before you explode into fame. With that said, I'm glad that the Project Lodge is providing a space for these guys. Cause if they are going to blow up to Bon Iver status, I can at least say I saw them before they got big.
Laarks reminded me of Ben Folds with some of their playful sounding lyrics sung by Ian Jacoby. But thankfully, there isn't a piano central to their sound. No offense to pianos, but I already have enough bands in my repertoire that bang on that instrument. Their music sounds more what you would expect from other Indie Rock bands. Drums, guitars with slight distortion, vocals with slight echo. The thing is that with this band, you won't keep saying to yourself, "eh, they are alright, but they just aren't there yet". No, I think this band is nailing a solid sound pretty well and finding a great balance between vocals and music. My biggest peeve is people who can't figure out that vocals should go with the music, not against it. Ian's voice is great. The music is great.If I wasn't working, I would totally check them out. And hey, so should you.
An Exaltation of Larks (2009)
Monday, March 8, 2010
New Music Overload!!
Fight Softly - The Ruby Suns
Reminds me a little bit of Animal Collective. Trippy and danceable with multiple layers of sounds and rhythms. Like a hippy dance party if hippies used more electronic instruments.
The Besnard Lakes are The Roaring Night -
Besnard Lakes
Also slightly trippy. This album is filled with instrumental rock reminiscent of Pink Floyd. So expect some more trippy sounds with mellow and interesting rock undertones and some falsetto male and exquisite female vocals.
Black Light - Groove Armada
Paper Romance
Plastic Beach - Gorillaz
The only sad thing about this release is that it wasn't produced by Dangermouse. And sometimes you can tell within the album.
Hidden - These New Puritans
These guys have shot up the UK charts and I hope they get equal amount of love here in the States. Definitely an art rock type of group, there is more experimentation that occurs then your basic guitar/drum combo. Sometimes dark, sometimes electronic, but always with a rock groove to it.
Synchronize EP - Solid Gold
Minneapolis favorites, they are diverging just slightly on their new EP going from the more simple danceable songs to some great electronic sounding indie rock.
Total Life Forever - Foals (Coming May 2010)
Friday, March 5, 2010
Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now!!
May 5 at the Frequency
So I usually write something here about the band and yadda yadda yadda. But I need to go to work, so I'm just going to fill this in later. But I was happy to see True Endeavors is bringing this duo to Madison. Happy enough to want to post it even before had anything to write about them. Ok, maybe that isn't the reason but instead an excuse for my laziness. Anyway, mark your calendars.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Har Mar Superstar
April 2nd at Annex
Awww.... Har Mar Superstar. What wonderfulness can you bring to our fair city? This beautiful man with an angelic voice was introduce to me by my coworker along the same time I was introduced to Leslie and the Lys. When I first heard him, I couldn't figure out how he wasn't bigger then he was. He has a great voice. His music is catchy and danceable. Then I actually sawpictures of him and saw how sleazy some of his antics were on stage. Although that actually gives him more credit with what I like to call the Peaches crowd, I can see how mainstream music wouldn't care for it too much.
Har Mar Superstar is the essence of Pop. I would go so far as to say that he takes all of the great things that describe pop and masters them into his songs. It's all usually about shagging or trying to get this or that person to fall for you. He will throw in some great background female vocalists to oooh and ahhh him just enough to have the audience member picture Har Mar covered in beautiful women. I mean, if you actually want to visualize that.
His newest single from his new album Dark Touches, Tallboy is a great song that should definitely get more airplay then it has. When I spoke to him during his last visit, I mentioned how many of the people in the audience for his show were gay men and how he felt that his performance and songs seems to be appreciated more by them. He admitted this was true, and I feel that his song Tallboy was an ode to his gays. Should you see him live? Yes. Though I recommend if you are a female in the college age range that you don't stand too close to the stage or you may get a face full of sweaty underwear or worse, a Har Mar Superstar who wants to make out with you.
Dark Touches (2009)
The Handler (2004)
Monday, March 1, 2010
The Big Pink
March 19th at Turner Hall Ballroom
w/ A Place to Bury Strangers
The Big Pink is composed of Robbie Furzo and Milo Cordell. Both had worked on a music label called Hate Channel and Milo had his own record label called Merok Records. Merok had released some songs that would fit in the "noise rock" genre which you can hear in some of the songs on the Big Pink's debut album, A Brief History of Love. When interviewed, Robbie and Milo said that the entire album was made up of love songs. But love isn't always something that is easy, light and jubilant. Sometimes it's rough and dark, full of longing and misunderstandings. I like this concept and even more so, I like how The Big Pink was able to create this album where the songs all sound different and unique while expressing these different phases of love.
The Big Pink are originally from Britian. Thinking of electro dance bands from the U.K., Hot Chip may come to mind. But I'd more put their style to 80's dark electro, a beat that is a little harder and rough added with a great lead male crooning voice. Guitar distortions, voice distortions and some slightly industrial sounding music all play apart in this album.
A Brief History of Love
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