You’ll be hard-pressed to find another producer today who’s risen to such prolific heights as fast as Danger Mouse. Arguably the best thing to emerge from the mid-00s “mashup” fad, producer Brian Burton hit it big on The Grey Album, his deft fusion of the Beatles and Jay-Z, and has since become one of indie rock’s most sought-after producers.

Since 2005, Burton has been the yin to Cee-Lo Green’s yang in the psych-soul duo Gnarls Barkley, paved the way for the Black Keys’ rock superstardom with his production on their 2008 album Attack and Release, made sharply nuanced indie pop with the Shins’ James Mercer as Broken Bells, and gave Norah Jones a sexed-up makeover on her newest release Little Broken Hearts.

Most recently, Burton has bestowed his magic touch on LA indie poppers Electric Guest, whose Danger Mouse-produced debut album Mondo was released on April 24 on Downtown Records. Mondo fuses the group’s MGMT-esque indie pop with a healthy dose of R&B – to speak in Danger Mouse terms, imagine a Beck-helmed Broken Bells with some borrowed Gnarls Barkely soul. Frontman Asa Taccone‘s infectious falsetto is put to good use, coupling with enormous hooks and hip-swinging funk to create a retro-tinged sound that’s entirely listenable.

Electric Guest’s sunkissed grooves are not only dropping at the right time of year, but their debut release also coincides with the high-water mark for indie pop’s mainstream popularity. With singles by Fun. and Gotye reigning over the Billboard charts, Electric Guest’s fresh-faced strut is ripe with Hot-100 potential. Single “This Head I Hold” is an early contender for this year’s “Pumped Up Kicks” crossover summer jam, with the track’s irresistible Motown groove seemingly crafted for radio ubiquity.

We’re giving away a vinyl copy of Electric Guest’s Mondo, the perfect spin for a Memorial Day block party or a night of summertime revelry. To win a copy of Mondo, post below an artist or band who you’d love to see collaborate with Danger Mouse. My choice: the up-and-coming blues auteur Willis Earl Beal.

We’ll choose one winner on Wednesday, 5/23 with a North American mailing address!

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band performs this evening as part of the Wednesday at the Square concert series put on by the Young Leadership Council. Breton Sound is the opening act at 5 PM.

The Dirty Dozen have been innovators on the New Orleans brass band scene since the 1970s. Each album takes the band in a new direction including legendary collaborations like jazz stars Dizzy Gillespie and Danny Barker and pop sensations like Elvis Costello and Widespread Panic.

Their latest effort, Twenty Dozen, was highlighted in a recent New York Times “new releases” column. Seven of the eleven tunes are compelling original songs like the opener, “Tomorrow,” which has a energetic, modern feel complete with a call and response style chant. The compositions are split between the members of the group including a great rave up, “We Gon’ Roll” by the drummer Terence Higgins. It also features a chant-like vocal part, “We gon’ roll, we gon’ roll, down in New Orleans…” before guitarist Jake Eckert unleashes a wicked solo.

Despite the rock ‘n’ roll trappings of many of the songs, the band also shows off its traditional chops with a medley of three of the most well-known songs from the canon—“Paul Barbarin’s Second Line,” “E-Flat Blues,” and the chestnut of all chestnuts, “When the Saints Go Marching In.” All three cuts are distinguished with spirited ensemble work, great solos and strong vocals. Yet, as other writers have noted, the inclusion of the traditional material seems incongruous within the totality of the album.

Yet, this decision really can’t be faulted in this day and age. Artists rarely release albums that are meant to be listened to as one piece, in one sitting. Listeners pick and choose cuts and often buy individual songs to download rather than purchase the full release. So the inclusion of the three songs represents a conscious choice to go with the flow of how the music business functions for consumers today.

Grab all of the details about the releases and Thursday’s show at the Subterranean, below.

Chicago indie pop quintet Hollows released their debut in 2010, and have since crafted their ‘90s girl-group influence into an impressive sophomore effort. The record features some seriously gorgeous melodies backed by strings and horns on top of the traditional instrumentation.

Hollows is celebrating the release of their full length, Vulture. Released on Trouble in Mind Records, the first edition of 500 copies is pressed on 150g randomly mixed vinyl. If you can’t make it out to the show, you can pick up a copy of the Vulture LP for just $12 from Trouble in Mind, or at a number of Chicago record stores.

Tracklisting:
V Is For Vulture
Strange Effect
Sunset Lullaby
Field Fire On Jordan Street
Oh Why
Golden Chain
Rather See Me Dead
Big Decisions (Country Song)
Shapeshifter
Bobby Blueheart
Up & Down
Ma Cat

The other vinyl release of the night comes from Chicago punk quartet Coffin Pricks. Made up of music scene veterans, the group got together in 2011, and is releasing their anticipated debut EP ahead of an extensive summer touring schedule. Across three tracks, Coffin Pricks re-imagine rock structure with a frantic edge.

Coffin Pricks is celebrating the release of their debut EP, Group Home Haircut, out on Stationary (Heart) Records. The three track EP was recorded at Phantom Manor Studios and is a limited edition of 300 copies. You can grab a copy at the show or via Stationary Heart for just $5.50.

Tracklisting:
A. Group Home Haircut
B. Right Kind of Loot
BB. Cielo Drive

The 17+ show kicks off at the Subterranean (2011 W North Ave) at 8:30 PM. Hollows and Coffin Pricks will be joined by Radar Eyes and Summer Girlfriends. Tickets are just $8, and are available in advance of the show through Ticketweb.

Hollows Official | Facebook
Coffin Pricks Official | Facebook | Twitter
Hollows Photo by Rob Karlic

Well, this is kind of like that if you swap out the adorable endangered creature with the Eastern Washington-based harmonic modern folk band Buffalo Death Beam.

For the last several years, Buffalo Death Beam has traveled the Pacific Northwest, playing consistently beautiful and complex sets while catching the attention of The Inlander and KEXP, releasing an EP and, more recently, the album Salvation for Ordinary People (which you can listen to hear [GET IT!?]).

Now, there could be a slight chance that your’s truly is social network friends with a couple of the band members because she may or may not have gone to college with nearly all of them and may or may not have helped vote on the band name over coffee and cigars at Bucer’s and may or may not have imbibed unintelligent amounts of gin with a certain Tiffany Harms, who she may or may not have had a hilarious morning radio show with once upon four-ish years ago.

Probably due to these possible-but-not-directly-admitted connections, the author came across the disturbing news that Buffalo Death Beam’s population is in decline (something about Texas eating their drummer) and will be playing their last show “for a while.”

Obviously, the scientific solution is to tranquilize the remaining band members and relocate them to a controlled environment groomed to resemble their natural habitat, where they can be encouraged to procreate themselves a new percussionist, but until the author’s Buffalo Death Beam conservation group is recognized as a non-profit, she can’t afford to rent a storage unit and decorate it like the rolling hills of the Palouse, let alone the bag of roofies needed for transporting the specimens.

In the meantime, newly inspired activists and long-time fans alike can hit up the Tractor Tavern in Ballard tonight at 9 p.m. to catch BDB, along with Yarn and Red Heart Alarm, to enjoy an inevitably fantastic performance and let the band know you hope it won’t be their last.

Bring some cash because it’s highly unlikely you’ll want to leave without a copy of Salvation for Ordinary People, which gracefully exhibits the band in all their seven-person Southwestern Gothic polyphonic glory, and because if enough of you buy the band drinks, roofies will no longer be necessary and conservation efforts (also known as kidnapping) can begin immediately.

When it first came to my attention that Keith Morris was going to be fronting a new band, my immediate impression was a mixture of sincere happiness for the guy and a complete disinterest in actually hearing the music. We’ll get to the happy part a few paragraphs down, but the apathetic aspect has been hashed out by quite a few others already; it has to do with both the age of Morris and his band members and the actual contemporary relevance of the whole hardcore punk shebang.

Methinks that hardcore is a perfectly fine genre to tackle in the here and now, but it is a form best served up by a band of fresh-faced upstarts like Trash Talk rather than promulgated by a bunch of certified oldsters. Unlike blues, jazz, and country & western, punk rock and hardcore in particular doesn’t ripen with age; it’s very much a young person’s game. Of course, plenty of old punks are still making high quality music. It’s just that very few are still working from within the confines of the style that originally spawned them.

And it’s not just the factor of youth. There is almost always a very finite window of opportunity from which to produce truly topflight junk before the situation just starts to break down. The number of bands that produced more than one great punk LP is infinitesimal compared to the sheer wealth of fleeting names that could only manage to squeak out one exceptional seven-inch or a single classic song before the wheels fell off the endeavor.

When someone tells me about a bunch of punk vets whose sound is “just like the old days,”my reaction is consistently that of utter dubiousness, understanding the general tendency of folks to misapprehend good intentions for actual sonic success and to elevate form over content in a desire to reconnect with past glories.

In the case of OFF! I was hearing it from people I thought would know better, and this did rouse my curiosity a bit. Still, I continued to avoid the band for a long while after learning of their existence, mainly due to my familiarity with the slowly diminishing quality of Morris’ past work; by the release of Wonderful in 1985, the Circle Jerks were essentially over and done with.

The four essential LPs of the Los Angeles HC-punk experience are in order of release (GI) by The Germs (released ‘79), Group Sex by Circle Jerks (released ’80), the self-titled debut from the Adolescents (released early 1981) and Damaged by Black Flag (released late 1981). Sure, there are some other high quality long-players in the Los Angeles hardcore canon along with scores of seven-inches, comps, and individual songs that help to really flesh out the city’s post-Dangerhouse Records scene, but these four albums easily encapsulate the growth of the straight-ahead HC-punk sound before the genre quickly started stagnating and became plagued with also-rans, violence, and noxious posers. In brief, these four LPs set the standard.

Indeed I was extremely happy to know Morris had a band and was kicking up some fervor and that his personal circumstances were looking up, for an acquaintance that had moved to the west coast had filled me in on just how awful he felt after ordering a pizza and finding one of his favorite musicians ringing his doorbell to deliver it. Simply put, hearing that news stung me, too. And on top of that the guy was diagnosed with diabetes back in 2000.

Now, past glories are no guarantee against the hard realities of life, but this was an unshakable drag of a situation, for Morris is one of true greats of Cali hardcore punk not only through his direct involvement with the Circle Jerks but also by serving as Black Flag’s first vocalist, appearing on the genre redefining and still blistering Nervous Breakdown seven-inch.

Instead of enthusing at length on the quality of Group Sex, I’ll just reference the words of the Angry Samoans’ Metal Mike Saunders when he called it a classic of “folk appropriation;” Morris and company grabbed from whatever was necessary and came up with a ragged and concise masterpiece. And it was the LP equivalent to a bolt of lightning, i.e. the kind of record that’s essentially impossible to follow up. But try they did, naturally and admirably, with two very interesting if problematic LPs, Wild in the Streets and Golden Shower of Hits. Then the situation started going to the dogs circa Wonderful. It was really quite predictable.

Well, against my better judgment I eventually caught up with the First Four EPs. And against the odds its contents were rather major. How’d that happen? For starters, Morris and ex-Burning Brides’ guitarist Dimitri Coats bailed on a reportedly subpar Circle Jerks’ incarnation and recruited drummer Mario Rubalcaba (Rocket from the Crypt/Hot Snakes) and Steven Shane McDonald (Red Kross) to serve as the rhythm section. This shaped them up as a sort of punk rock supergroup, meaning they were flirting with disaster of massive proportions. But in avoiding the worst of all outcomes they actually achieved an extremely impressive result.

For comparison purposes OFF! mostly resemble the primal throttle of early Black Flag (that’s pre-Rollins, don’tcha know), an obvious similarity reflected in the humor of the band’s name. The First Four EPs delivered a wallop that was very similar to the aural punch thrown by one of the first three sides of the Flag’s Everything Went Black or the entirety of The First Four Years. Like these examples, OFF!’s whole essence was “short:” short-tempered, short in song-length, short in overall running time. It was a resounding and unqualified success. The only question was how long would this good creative fortune last?

This follow-up, packaged as an LP, is slightly shorter in running time than the First Four EPs, and as such holds some surface resemblance to the maniacal brevity of Group Sex. The music however retains its love affair with the mauling, grim density, and velocity of early Flag, with a few slight and unfussy nods toward growth. For one example, Coats’ guitar has become more dynamic, though it’s as different from Greg Ginn string-bending work as it is similar.

Unfettered hardcore is essentially a music of exhaustion; how long can I deal with this six-band show; how long can I play drums this way without losing the feeling in my arms; how long can this amazing band avoid descending into suckdom? Minor Threat, the pick of many (including myself) as the greatest hardcore band ever, only released three 7-inch records and one 12-inch EP (plus two compilation tracks) in their entire existence; the band’s whole discography fits onto one compact disc with time to spare.

If post-hardcore was a widespread phenomenon, it had a hard time catching on in Cali and in particular Los Angeles, likely because that’s where much of HC’s sound, concept and image was formulated, and it’s also where many bands had something resembling commercial success (and the requisite “fame” that came attached). Kids in DC, Chicago, Boston, Texas, Detroit, and other points on the North American map were initially reacting to cues from England and yes, indeed Los Angeles and later to each other; popularity was largely elusive outside of their own peer group and notoriety was essentially posthumous. When HC started running out of gas it was easy for bands in the Midwest or DC to integrate elements of post-punk, noise, or metal into the equation with differing levels of success.

In Los Angeles, three SST bands were the exception to the hardcore redundancy; Black Flag’s big grapple with a metal/hard-rock sound (what Joe Carducci dubbed “New Redneck”), Minutemen’s power-trio brilliance, and the far less heralded punk-psyche-art of Saccharine Trust. In comparison to these bold moves, OFF! is still taking baby steps.

But it’s early yet. This self-titled affair is their first LP after all. But it essentially puts them on a precipice; are big things going to happen, or is this the beginning of the seemingly inevitable downward spiral? It bears mentioning that Morris has never successfully navigated a move away from the punk norm. It would be a total gas if at this late date he accomplished just that.

Graded on a Curve: B+

Roger Waters performed The Wall to a sellout crowd at AT&T park on Friday night, and it was nothing short of spectacular. Having seen this show scaled down (for lack of a better term) inside of an arena, Waters took it above and beyond.

For the 8 stadiums scheduled on the tour, Waters has redesigned and scaled up The Wall significantly. The genius behind Pink Floyd’s finest work says, “The stadium show couldn’t have been done 40 years ago. We couldn’t have filled the space in a way that would have been emotionally, musically, and theatrically satisfying. Technology has changed. Now we can.”

The Wall is double the width of the indoor arena show, coming in at an enormous 500 feet wide and standing 40 feet from the floor. The 20,000 square foot wall is the largest projection surface ever toured in a live entertainment with over 1,000 bricks displaying hi-definition images from 41 state-of-the-art video projectors.

The set list was simply The Wall in its entirety played flawlessly. Robbie Wyckoff did a stellar job singing all of David Gilmour’s parts and ex Saturday Night Live axeman G.E. Smith made the guitar duties look effortless.

Bottom line: this is a once in a lifetime experience to see one of the greatest rock albums of all time come to life in front of your eyes. I have seen close to a thousand shows in my life and this is by far the most amazing. Seek out a tour date near you immediately.

Were you at the show in San Francisco? Have you see The Wall performed live? Please join the conversation in the comment section below.

Cardinal play Washington, DC’s Velvet Lounge tonight, 5/15.

The baroque, neo-psychedelia of Cardinal’s classic, self-titled debut album couldn’t have been more out of step with the indie rock world when it was released in 1994.

The album paired the prodigious talents of Australian songwriter Richard Davies, who had previously been a creative driving force in The Moles, with Eric Matthews, a bravura arranger and multi-instrumentalist who plays everything from harpsichord to trumpet and marimba.

Critically acclaimed upon its release, the record was both strangely anachronistic and remarkably prescient––it’s hard to ignore its influence on much of the chamber pop that followed (Belle and Sebastian and The Flaming Lips, in particular).

Despite the album’s unexpected success, Davies and Matthews went their separate ways shortly afterward to concentrate on vibrant solo careers and other collaborations.

Fast forward to 2012: Davies and Matthews surprise and delight music fans by announcing they have reformed Cardinal and are putting out a new album, Hymns, through Fire Records. To celebrate the album’s release, Cardinal is embarking on a short tour, which thankfully includes a stop at the Velvet Lounge tonight with Kuschty Rye Ergot and Cigarette.

To find out more about this most unexpected (and hugely welcome) reunion, I asked Davies and Matthews some questions via e-mail.

I’ll start with the obvious question: It’s been nearly 20 years since Cardinal released its debut album and you guys subsequently went your separate ways. What can you tell us about the circumstances surrounding your decision to start working together again? And why did it take so long for a second album to happen?

Eric: Really, it was a deck of cards that just sort of fell into place. Richard and I started talking again in 2004 in preparation for the reissue of the first record. We had legal stuff to work out and then work to do on the content. It was a pleasant enough experience for the both of us that a couple years later, Richard approached me with the idea of hiring me to write and record some orchestrations on a solo project he was working on. That project got put on hold but the work we did sounded pretty great so we started talking about making new Cardinal songs.

Richard: It took long because I was establishing my law practice and because we worked at our own pace. When we make music we do it how we want to, not dictated by fashion or the latest fad. We are both demanding and want to produce music that makes sense to us.

In listening to your new album Hymns, it’s obvious that the magic between you both is still there. As musicians and as individuals, has the chemistry between you changed much since the mid-90s?

Richard: I think chemistry is something that either happens or doesn’t. I think we worked in some different ways this time e.g. on the first album we did not have Eric writing a piece of music and me writing words and melody, but on this one we did “General Hospital” like that. I think we still have not worked in all the ways we are capable of in terms of exploring the chemistry.

Eric: Chemistry? I think Richard and I had good chemistry in our first year together. We were great friends and co-conspirators in the great goal of making some pretty music. We were young in 1992. But then I left Boston and so far, we are rarely within 3000 miles of each other. The “chemistry” is still there musically though. I love writing to Richard’s songs and we have a sound. I love that people hearing this record identify what is new in the music while noticing what is exactly the same.

The 1994 self-titled Cardinal debut album is rightly considered a classic by in-the-know pop music lovers. How much of a shadow did that record cast on you as you were writing songs for Hymns? Did you ever feel an unhealthy pressure?

Richard: No unhealthy pressure. If we felt pressure we would have desperately chugged out a follow up immediately. An 18 year gap infers a certain self-confidence and an approach that indicates a knowledge of what we are doing––we dictate how the music sounds, rather than to anyone else’s expectations.

Eric: Richard wrote the songs but I felt the pressure. The key for me was making sure that we had 10 songs that would meet the quality mark achieved on the debut. I can shine almost any song up but with Cardinal, because of the musical legacy and respect from the fans over the many years, I considered myself the guard dog. We went through many songs to get to what you have on Hymns. I think we found the proper mix to present.

The new album includes a lot of classic Cardinal touches, but also veers into edgier territory on a few numbers, like “Carbonic Smoke Ball” with its angular guitar attack and “Love Like Rain” with its shadowy, garage feel. What can you tell us about these tracks?

Eric: For me, as producer I chose to move those two songs in an edgy direction. The first record was very clean and pretty for the most part. Richard has a history of making some rough and tumble records, especially when he had The Moles. On “Love Like Rain,” I was referencing in my mind the stories about his New York period with The Moles. So I went with some crunchy guitars, thumping bass, and bashing drums. I am a classical guy but I can rock out a little. When Cardinal “rocks” it’s a gentleman’s kind of roll.

Richard: “Carbolic Smoke Ball” and “Love Like Rain” were more aggressive songs that came along early in the process. I was writing stuff for Bob Pollard and the Cosmos record and those two came out of that firmament.

Eric, can you talk about your philosophical approach to constructing arrangements? A track on the new album like “Surviving Paris” features trumpet, harpsichord, and timpani. How do you decide which instruments are appropriate and where to place them?

Eric: That’s a good question. I wrote “Surviving Paris” as a sort of musical poem set to an ensemble reminiscent of some of the chamber music that I was raised on. Harpsichord is the main instrument, like a piano but more sharp and chimey. I knew I wanted the primary melody to be carried by a combination of my trumpet solo and various woodwinds.

The end portion (the chords) is so brooding and dramatic that I cranked up the stakes by the way I bring in the low brass and timpani together. It’s the crescendo of the work and then, quietly, it calms down and whispers the end. The other consideration was the notion of paying homage to the instrumental on the first record. Some of this same instrumentation was used on “Public Melody #1.”

Richard, what is it like to have someone like Eric flesh out songs you’ve written with his arrangements? Has your way of working together changed much since the mid-90s?

Richard: Not much. I write lyrics, chords and melodies for the most part. Eric infers the emotional/aural touchpoints of the songs.

Do you think the changes in the music industry that have taken place since the debut Cardinal album means you have a better chance to reach potential fans with Hymns?

Richard: Probably. I can take the records on the road more easily now. Also the fact that I’m established in America with my law practice actually makes it easier rather than harder to tour and then tour some more a few months later. They won’t be long tours, but short tours are fine and repeatable.

Eric: If there is any advantage to this new world of the way music is distributed it’s that the kind of people who are most likely to want this album, are the people who live on the internet. Our record is being well covered by most of the major taste-making websites who promote music. Getting people to part with 14 bucks is a nifty trick these days. I think we should hold a fundraising dinner at George Clooney’s house, $33 per plate and a signed CD. I don’t know what’s going on this century. I am busy looking at 70′s episodes of Frontline and reading old William F. Buckley transcripts. Rod Serling and the old information is all I am up to.

What can you tell us about the tour you are embarking on? My understanding is that Eric will not be there physically but his arrangements will be represented via modern technology. What can you tell us about the backing band?

Eric: You have your facts straight. I have asked the label to pony up for the Eric Matthews hologram but they said it was too expensive. Tony Lash and I are finishing up pre-production for the live mixes. It’s gonna be a scream.

Richard: I have a husband-wife from Brooklyn, David and Caroline Gould, a Berklee senior, Kate Atanian, Malcolm Travis drummer (Sugar), and Corin Ashley (the Pills) bass. The live band and the orchestrations are working superbly together. It is even better than I expected. It takes some players to get it done right, but that’s what we have.

On the subject of the setlist, will it be all Cardinals songs or will fans get to also hear some Richard Davies solo material as well as some Moles?

Richard: For the first couple of jaunts I’m going to focus on Cardinal stuff. As I go along I may add some other tunes from the catalog, but for now it is mainly Cardinal. It is a chance for people to see and hear the Cardinal songs as they were written, live.

What are your thoughts on a third Cardinal album? Any chance we won’t have to wait another 18 years to hear it?

Richard: If we do another one, it won’t be 18 years. We don’t know if we will or not but it would certainly be sooner than that!

Eric: If there’s another one, it will be in a timely manner. I think it depends on the success of this one. So far so good, so who knows…

Thanks very much guys!

Thursday night I got off the BART and found myself lost. A couple of blocks in the wrong direction and I’d passed the same two boys a couple of times – they were 16 and equally lost. Together we found our way to The New Parish for Hoodie Allen.

When I arrived to the SOLD OUT show, I was surprised to find that it wasn’t oversold. People, while crowding the stage, still had room to move, but specifically dance. There wasn’t anyone too cool in the crowd.

Thursday night’s crowd was full of people under 21, maybe even mostly under 18, but they raged harder than most crowds of drunken twenty-somethings. And unlike the drunken twenty-somethings, they probably have better memories than we do, though I’d be curious to know how many pick up on all of his early pop-culture references from the late nineties and early two-thousands.

For me, I couldn’t relate more to a current artist—I grew up watching Boy Meets World and listening to Blink 182, both of which he references in “Joy and Misery” and “Ain’t Gotta Work,” respectively.

Hoodie Allen took the stage to massive applause and blew into “Tighten Up,” a surprising opener off his mix-tape Leap Year. He didn’t stick to a particular order in mix-tape or EP—his set moved pretty evenly though everything he’s put out. Though, with “No Faith in Brooklyn” so early in his set he left me curious as to what his encore(s) would be.

“How many of you follow me on Twitter?” he asked with enthusiasm. Based on the volume that followed, it’s safe to say that everyone there did. He actively responds to each of his fans in some form all the time. He’s approaching the level of celebrity that other artists are notorious for within the realm of social media.

Being so approachable isn’t just something that he saves for the internet, he puts it all in his show, too. While admittedly an introvert when out of the public eye, he has such a commanding stage presence, that charisma, his charm, and some of his songs would lend one to believe that he’s a lady’s man, but he’s shy and focused.

The party continued when he covered Kanye West’s “Stronger.” Hearing that with a full band—something you don’t typically associate with a Hip-Hop act, was refreshing. So many people travel alone these days and leave it to their computers, but the band was an added bonus. Their chemistry onstage fueled the enthusiasm within the audience.

The Dancing. Did. Not. Stop.

Each person knew every word, every pause, every motion—he was holding them in the palm of his hand, and no one wanted to be let go. The energy just grew, the down tempo songs—”Can’t Hold Me,” “Joy and Misery”—were fit in at just the precise moments when we all needed to catch our breath, including Hoodie, who could barely speak afterwards. (He had to take a couple days off a couple weeks ago and reschedule some shows to give his voice a break.)

He closed his set with “Eighteen Cool,” both a jab at everyone who loved high school, and encouragement to those who hated it, or rather, everyone who currently loves or hates it.

His take on Marina and Diamonds’ “You Are Not a Robot” assaulted the restless crowd. His vocals served more as cues for the very few who didn’t know each word to sing along. The final song/sing-along of the night was his latest single, “No Interruption.” And sadly, with much protest, the party ended.

Set List:
Tighten Up
Song For An Actress
No Faith in Brooklyn
The Chase is On
Stronger
Can’t Hold Me
January Jones
Joy and Misery
White Girl Problems
Swimming With Sharks
James Franco
Top of the World
Small Town
18 Cool

Encore:
You Are Not a Robot
No Interruption

Photos: Evan Thompson

Cornershop’s new LP Urban Turban, out on their own Ample Play label, hits store shelves today, 5/15, and we’ve cornered the duo’s Ben Ayres to answer the question all this week—what are Cornershop’s Favourite Record Shops?

We’ll get the lowdown on the shops the band deems the best across the globe, get the skinny on the new release, give away some gorgeous vinyl, and toss a free, rare track your way.

It’s Cornershop’s Favourite Record Shops, all this week at TVD.

Amoeba Records, San Francisco | ”When Tjinder and I first went to Amoeba in San Francisco we were on tour and all we wanted to do was find the nearest record shop. In San Francisco, we first went to an incredible second hand only store where you literally had to dig through the boxes to get through the room. Fantastic place.

The other place we were advised to go to was Amoeba…the sheer size of Amoeba blew us away. We felt dizzy at the idea that there was no way anyone could have time to go through all the racks in a week, let alone a day.

So, we grabbed some used vinyl funk gems in the time we had and split down the road for a burrito, but it’s great to know it’s always there to dig a little deeper. It’s also right next to Golden Gate Park which makes it handy for a stroll afterwards where you can contemplate jazz and what the human be-in with Allen Ginsberg in that park must have been like in 1967.”

Other Music, New York | ”Other Music in New York has been a relevation to us since we started our own label as some of their staff, especially Mikey IQ, are avid Cornershop followers (a growing breed and very heartening).

Their championing of good music is something to behold. They are evangelical about it. They should be given medals and sent round the world (along with the RT Talbot road staff) showing people and training people about the possibilities record shops can be. The people of New York are lucky to have such a place.

I think if you’re really into music and consequently records, then the place you go to buy them and get turned onto new music is paramount. It’s good to know some of these places are still out there with totally dedicated staff who clearly recognise how music can affect and improve peoples lives.”
—Ben Ayres 

Cornershop Official | Facebook | Twitter
Cornershop photo: Alison Wonderland

This evening, a new concert series presented by the Friends of the Cabildo and the Ponderosa Stomp Foundation begins. The series will highlight the music scenes in New Orleans, Lafayette, and Shreveport.

Tonight’s performance features New Orleans R&B musician C.P. Love. It will be held in the wonderful new performance space at the Old U.S. Mint, which is located at 400 Esplanade Avenue.

The doors open at 5:30 PM. The concert includes a 75-minute performance and 30-minute interview and question period.

Vocalist C.P. Love might well be best known for a song he didn’t record rather than one he did. Love had been offered “Groove Me” by King Floyd but passed on the song, feeling Floyd deserved to record it and would do a better job with it. While he could have recorded a major hit, Love still managed to notch a couple of regional successes and assembled a compact but enjoyable resume of soul and R&B recordings.

Born Carleton Pierre Love in 1945, he was raised on the West Bank of New Orleans. At age 12, Love taught himself to play guitar and formed a four-piece band. He later switched to bass when he joined Little Benny and the Creoles, a group that sometimes featured Walter Washington. Originally, Love didn’t sing, but when the vocalist couldn’t learn new material, he began fronting the band on bass and vocals. Eventually, Love dropped the bass and concentrated on singing.