Monthly Archives: March 2009

Last year I was fortunate enough to see 302acid play at Artomatic (seriously, I love this city) last summer and was completely hypnotized by their sound. In fact, I feel almost inadequately equipped to describe what I hear and feel when their sound hits my tympanic membrane. Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said about obscene material “I know it when I see it,” that’s how I feel about music that I like – I know it when I hear it. So when my friend Ben told me he would be performing with them on Saturday night, it motivated me to share my enthusiasm for DC-based artists with all you out there in TVD land.

My older brother, as a frequenter of events such as Seattle’s Decibel Festival and DEMF could probably describe 302acid’s music more articulately than I can, but he doesn’t have a column on TVD, so you have to put up with my plebian description. The music is an experimental mix of electronic, samples, ambient noise, beats, and a ton of fantastic. Ben describes 302acid as “much more of a collective than a band so this is just another step in the evolution of the sound.”

The show this Saturday will feature live bass, turntables and electronics along with Optical Grooves and Monica on video projections. Their site has a ton of free music, and I’ll post a few of what I really enjoyed. This Saturday 302acid, along with Alexsei Borisov (the fact that he’s Russian is good enough incentive for me), Violet and a bunch of other musically superb groups will be performing at Pyramid Atlantic in Silver Spring.

DC puts out a ton of great music, and I think that anytime you can go support local artists, you should. Even if that means crossing the line into Maryland. I guarantee, kids, it’ll be totally worth it.

302acid – Transmission, Fire Dub (Mp3)
302acid – Quest & Future (Mp3)
302acid – Road Trip to Tokyo (Mp3)
Alexsei Borisov – Engineer Strepetovs Curve (Mp3)
Alexsei Borisov – Automated Management for the Seafood Industry (Mp3)

*thanks to Chester for the sweet artwork.

Well, is it me or do these vinyl giveaways just get bettern’ better? (Uh, nope. Not me.)

Promo copy #1!
For the first time with a set rhythm section, critically acclaimed Built To Spill has created its most accomplished and focused album yet. Possessing a collective unorthodox vision, the band’s second album, Keep It Like A Secret, builds on the success of 1997’s Perfect From Now On. Invoking less analysis and more volume, Doug Martsch, one of today’s most influential, independent-minded musicians, has crafted shorter, more direct songs that revel in a literate expressionism rarely heard in alt-rock and yet still rock with the same visceral impulses. Built To Spill may not be a secret much longer.

Promo copy #2!
Lamping — also known as spotlighting or shining — is a hunting method in which powerful floodlights are used to locate nocturnal animals in the middle of the night. The animals are either picked off or captured as they panic and flee for safety. It’s a brutal, terrifying practice, but Of Montreal have adopted the technique — albeit in a strictly metaphorical sense! — on their ninth album, Skeletal Lamping. Over the course of the record’s fifteen tracks, Kevin Barnes, the band’s singer and songwriter, shines a light on the deepest, darkest corners of his psyche. He uncovers his freakiest fantasies, revisits his past, and explores seemingly contradictory aspects of his personality. The music is both startling in its specificity and inviting in its universality: Taken as a whole, Skeletal Lamping simulates the labyrinthine complexity of the human consciousness.

Your copy!
You know the drill by now, right? Grab our attention in the comments (WITH your email address–important!) gushing over TVD’s Record Store Day Vinyl Giveaway Week #8 to set yourself up to win both of these indie gems. (Or, you can comment and forward your email address in an email to us. We’re not picky.) And remember – each entry into our vinyl contest is an automatic entry to win the Stanton T.90 USB turntable on Record Store Day 2009!

Just make it funny. Or make it smart. About record stores. Or Record Store Day. Or vinyl. About us or you. Or something else all together. Just make it before next Monday (3/23) when we’ll choose our winner. (AND launch giveaway #9 of 11–where does the time go…?)

A number of months back I mentioned here that there isn’t a time in memory for me (being of a certain age) that Paul McCartney hasn’t been around making music. You can have your opinions as to a specific Macca era and its merits, but nonetheless, he’s always been THERE.

It’s almost the same for me with Mr. Jackson. Starting with his very first LP, I’ve gone along for the ride through each and every genre he’s investigated—and Joe’s hit ‘em all. I was going to suggest for a moment that he hasn’t written for the stage in any incarnation, but a visit to his website reveals that’s he’s hard at work on “Stoker,” which if memory serves me correctly, is a musical based loosely on the life of ‘Dracula’ author, Bram Stoker. Genres fully covered, it seems.

Twenty-two (diverse) LPs, one well-deserved victory lap…

Joe Jackson – One To One (Live) (Mp3)
Joe Jackson – Beat Crazy (Mp3)
Joe Jackson – I’m The Man (Mp3)
Joe Jackson – Mad At You (Mp3)
Joe Jackson – It’s Different For Girls (Mp3)
Joe Jackson – Happy Ending (Mp3)
Joe Jackson – Cancer (Live) (Mp3)
Joe Jackson – King Pleasure Time (Mp3)

I hear ya’. You’re saying to yourself, “TVD…TWO ‘First Dates’ in one day?” And we’re saying, “That’s right.” We’re obscenely attractive.

Butch Walker’s been on our radar for years now—first as vocalist for Marvelous 3, then as a solo artist, and later on as writer/producer behind the board for a host of diverse acts such as Avril Lavigne, Family Force 5, Bowling for Soup, Pink, Lit, Simple Plan, Sevendust, Injected, The Donnas, Hot Hot Heat, American Hi-Fi, Default, Puffy AmiYumi, Pete Yorn, Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, SR-71, and The Academy Is… In no small feat, Butch is currently sitting at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 with his new single “Here Comes The…”

We sat down with Butch who brings his Gang of Merry Musical Melodymakers to the 9:30 this very Saturday night (3/21) to wax poetic on well, wax…and learned a bit about how Butch was forced to reacquire his ENTIRE vinyl collection after ALL of his personal possessions were lost in a devastating house fire in 2007.

“I never thought I would find something come back around, twice in my lifetime, that would be as important, exciting, ageless and timeless as a vinyl record. Sure, there’s stupid fads and nostalgic trends that have come back around…. I dusted off my waistcoats and skinny ties from the 80’s for a quick redux in the last 3 yrs. I tried the ironic, single dangling earring in my left ear (or is it the right one?) for a little ironic hipster fashion. I put disco beats into a couple of songs in the past few years, when I know the first time I heard them in the 70’s and 80’ that it doesn’t REALLY need to come back again (along with the parachute pant, capezios, bell-bottoms, etc….. But they all did). But this one thing that came back, just in the nick of time… When the music business started to crumble, and the quality of the actual sound was reduced to a kid with a laptop and a shitty mp3 of someone’s art was all anyone cared about anymore. It’s like when jack horner in Boogie Nights tried saving the porn industry by hanging onto the art of FILM making, when everyone else was just switching to video TAPE, and not caring about the quality that they shot, but the quantity… Bad analogies aside, it mirrors the business I am in, where it’s more important for how many songs a kid has in his laptop, rather than 5 good ones. And forget about listening to a collective record all the through IN ONE SITTING. Most people follow a modern dj’s lead and only wanna hear maybe a chorus of a song, if that, before skipping to the next song with … Gasp… A SPACEBAR.

Thank you vinyl. I lost my entire record collection (that had been getting severely neglected because of my mp3 collection as well) to a fire that took everything I owned last year. The first thing I did was go out and buy a great turntable, amp and speakers, then hit the shops to re-collect the collection… I am very proud to say that when I put on anything from Blue Note records, a beat up copy of Blood on the Tracks, or even one of the Capitol remasters of The Bends or OK Computer, my face melts off while sitting on my little couch, listening to all of the quality and detail that went into the records, but most people forgot existed. The crisp hi end, the insane soothing lows. It doesn’t even compare to digital. It has given me practice in patience, focus and concentration again, because I have to listen to 20 minutes of music, sequenced the way it was intended to be heard, before getting up and walking across the room to FLIP THE RECORD OVER and continue. Try that sometime kids…And the album cover artwork actually is visible when it isn’t 3×3 inches. I am back. I am back with vinyl.”

Butch Walker – The Weight of Her (Mp3)

Have I mentioned my criteria for the ‘First Dates’ feature for year ’09? Mantra: just the good shit.

Which is a tough bar to hurl one’s self or band over. Self-consciously I actually did without the feature for a few weeks when the crops had thinned. (Get those EPK’s to me, kids.)

So, Lemonwilde! For your moody, Muse-y, late nights of dark brooding merriment. (Or, as house band for your wrap party, liiike at Sarah Michelle Gellar’s wrap party in the penthouse at The Hotel Rivington in Manhattan. Y’ know, whichever comes first.)

“The sight of a vinyl recording still causes a sensation in most music lovers. Vinyl was the way some of us were introduced to music, along with our little portable record players. We’d buy our favorite records, and then always flip the record to the “B” side. There was just something so tangible about buying a new album, or even a 45. An album cover was a carefully planned part of any recording, a treasured casing, lyrics and additional information often printed on the inside sleeve as well. A vinyl record demanded a different kind of attention—you had to stay in the vicinity and physically tend to the record. For some reason, we respected all of the songs on an album, listening to it over and over, considering it one work of art. With digital music, it’s so easy to pluck the “hits” out of a CD and put them into our collection, never really getting to know the other songs.”

Lemonwilde – Just This Ashtray (Mp3)
Lemonwilde – Inspired Painter (Mp3)
Lemonwilde – Danse (Mp3)

If you’re a regular or semi-frequent visitor to TVD, Harry Nilsson for a victory lap ain’t gonna surprise nor spill that morning cup o’ joe steaming on your desk. We’re quite Harry-centric.

As we vanquish Winter this week and open the windows to invite in Spring, these six pitch-perfect gems may just be a quite sound soundtrack. And if Harry’s new to you, we REALLY need to talk…

Harry Nilsson – Miss Butter’s Lament (Mp3)
Harry Nilsson – Girlfriend (Mp3)
Harry Nilsson – Wasting My Time (Mp3)
Harry Nilsson – Open Your Window (Mp3)
Harry Nilsson – Maybe (Mp3)
Harry Nilsson – The Moonbeam Song (Mp3)

Is anyone surprised to learn that Jane’s Addiction’s first LP ‘Nothing’s Shocking’ was released in 1987? I mean, when the term ‘80’s band’ is mentioned, Jane’s never comes to mind. Ever.

I hear ‘80’s band’ and I think Culture Club, ABC, Yazoo, Echo, Flock of Seagulls, Modern English, well…you get the point. Yet, the BEST 80’s band? The Vapors.

This tepid overview via Trouser Press: “One of the first in a breed of fresh-faced bands who fit neatly into the UK pop charts and accompanying teenybopper trappings while retaining vague new wave credibility, the Vapors started at the top and quickly sank from view. Their first single, “Turning Japanese,” was a coy paean to masturbation and an enormous international hit; the inability to match it made both of the Vapors’ subsequent albums big disappointments. They weren’t that bad, though.

‘New Clear Days’ follows in the veddy British vein originated by Ray Davies and carried on by Paul Weller and Madness. Some of singer David Fenton’s songs show a talented, mature tunesmith at work; unfortunately, they all suffer in light of the awesomely catchy jingle that dominates the record, overshadowing the subtler, more thoughtful material.

‘Magnets’ also lacks a peer for “Turning Japanese,” although “Jimmie Jones” (about Jonestown) nearly meets the challenge. Unfortunately, Fenton’s greater aspirations and budding political conscience are severely out of step with the band’s unbreakably commercial image. Had they not been doomed by their own devices from day one, the Vapors might have proven well worth following.”

That luke warm enthusiasm aside, both LP’s are TVD classics, perhaps just because they were THERE, in my hands and head at the time. But given distance and time, still hold up quite, quite well, thankyouverymuch.

Two LPs–one victory lap!

The Vapors – Spring Collection (Mp3)
The Vapors – Live At The Marquee (Mp3)
The Vapors – News At Ten (Mp3)
The Vapors – Lenina (Mp3)
The Vapors – Silver Machines (Mp3)
The Vapors – Waiting For The Weekend (Mp3)
The Vapors – Letter From Hiro (Mp3)
The Vapors – Galleries For Guns (Mp3)

‘In February 1975 (10cc) announced they had signed with Mercury Records for US$1 million. The catalyst for the deal was one song – “I’m Not in Love”. Eric Stewart recalled: “At that point in time we were still on Jonathan King’s label, but struggling. We were absolutely skint, the lot of us, we were really struggling seriously, and Philips Phonogram wanted to do a deal with us. They wanted to buy Jonathan King’s contract. I rang them. I said come and have a listen to what we’ve done, come and have a listen to this track. And they came up and they freaked, and they said “This is a masterpiece. How much money, what do you want? What sort of a contract do you want? We’ll do anything, we’ll sign it”. On the strength of that one song, we did a five-year deal with them for five albums and they paid us a serious amount of money.’

TVD Victory Lap, Week 2 kicks off with five from 10cc:

10cc – Silly Love (Mp3)
10cc – I’m Not In Love (Mp3)
10cc – I’m Mandy Fly Me (Mp3)
10cc – The Things We Do For Love (Mp3)
10cc – For You And I (Mp3)

From the ‘Who Loves Ya/TVD Does’ category comes not one but TWO giveaways for Week 7 of TVD’s Eleven Weeks of Record Store Day Vinyl Giveaways–and up first is hometown girl and Arlington, VA native, Rachael Yamagata’s ‘Elephants.’

Yamagata explains that “(‘Elephants’…) is about being willing to take a risk even if it’s not going to end up well” which should be more than enough for you reading this to chime in and risk it all for this gorgeous LP.

Grab our attention in the comments WITH your email address (important!) so we can contact you about your triumphant win. (Or, you can comment and forward your email address in an email to us. We’re not picky.) And remember – each entry into our vinyl contest is an automatic entry to win the Stanton T.90 USB turntable on Record Store Day 2009!

Just make it funny. Or make it smart. About record stores. Or Record Store Day. Or vinyl. About us or you. Or something else all together. Just make it before next Monday (3/16) when we’ll choose our winner. (AND launch giveaway #8…)

Blabbermouth has the scoop on the LP for Week 7 of TVD’s Eleven Weeks of Record Store Day Vinyl Giveaways: THIN LIZZY’s seminal double live album “Live & Dangerous” is consistently featured in polls as one of the greatest live albums of all time. Yet it is not really a live record at all as it features overdubs and post-production across the album. March 2, 2009 sees the release of the “Still Dangerous”, the real “Live & Dangerous”!

“Still Dangerous” is the raw, unadulterated, untouched sound of THIN LIZZY at the absolute height of its powers. Recorded on the band’s sold-out 1977 “Bad Reputation” tour, “Still Dangerous” captures the classic quartet of Lynott, Downey, Gorham and Robertson on fire at the celebrated Tower Theatre in Philadelphia.

The album features tracks that never made the “Live & Dangerous” release and all cuts are previously unreleased. The album was mixed by the legendary Glyn Johns (THE ROLLING STONES, THE WHO, THE EAGLES, LED ZEPPELIN), with contributions from Scott Gorham and Brian Downey.

“Still Dangerous” is the definitive live statement from one of rock’s most revered and enduring groups. The recordings that make up “Still Dangerous” were discovered by accident in an overlooked band lockup — a happy accident for THIN LIZZY fans and music fans in general as it is set to become an essential addition to the legacy of one of rocks greatest ever acts. The album is fully endorsed by Phil Lynott’s estate and the band.

Update: Our pal Jeff over at AM, Then FM has a review (and an Mp3!) of the LP right here. Thanks Jeff!

We’ll have TWO winners for this limited edition vinyl release (just 1,000 pressed) of “Still Dangerous” which happens to also include a surprise 7″ inside…

So, still in love with Lynott and the boys? Grab our attention in the comments WITH your email address (important!) so we can contact you about your triumphant win. (Or, you can comment and forward your email address in an email to us. We’re not picky.) And remember – each entry into our vinyl contest is an automatic entry to win the Stanton T.90 USB turntable on Record Store Day 2009!

Just make it funny. Or make it smart. About record stores. Or Record Store Day. Or vinyl. About us or you. Or something else all together. Just make it before next Monday (3/16) when we’ll choose our winner. (AND launch giveaway #8…)

If there’s one guy who may have undermined his own victory lap, it’s Chet. Smooth as silk, West Coast ace of face, made a career of self-destruction and self-immolation. Yet, the tone his recordings evoke are peerless–and just perfect for your coming weekend’s very hazy late nights…

Chet Baker – Easy Living (Mp3)
Chet Baker – Tenderly (Mp3)
Chet Baker – Everything Depends On You (Mp3)
Chet Baker – These Foolish Things (Remind Me Of You) (Mp3)
Chet Baker – Everything Happens To Me (Mp3)

Although you think I’m sleeping as you get set to leave
I can see your shadow packing from underneath my sleeve
I swore I’d never live without your constant company
Tomorrow’s empty bedroom would be the death of me

Times you tried to tell me, today was not our day
Would see me in a fury, or begging you to stay
When you told me there was someone else, self pity filled my mind
Mocking my assurance and leaving sense behind

I’ll keep the changes to myself, no chance that you’ll respond
So clear was my reflection, I couldn’t see beyond
And now you’ll go and maybe so, I’ll always be the same
Well thanks for looking in on me, I’m really glad you came

Now there’s both sets of keys on the dresser and only one pair of shoes on the floor
Of the cases on top of the cupboard – there’s two where there used to be four
Some sizable gaps in the bathroom and your presence is felt all the more

Although you think I’m sleeping as you get ready to leave
I can see your shadow packing from underneath my sleeve
And there you go and yes I know, I’ll always be the same
Well thanks for looking in on me – I’m really glad you came
‘Cos it was good, wasn’t it?

Ian Dury & The Blockheads – Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick (Mp3)
Ian Dury & The Blockheads – Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (Mp3)
Ian Dury & The Blockheads – I’m Partial To Your Abracadabra (Mp3)
Ian Dury – Spasticus (Autisticus) [Version] (Mp3)
Ian Dury & The Blockheads – Reasons To Be Cheerful, Pt. 3 (Mp3)

Washington, DC (by way of Mexico City, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, Cuba, and Venezuela) experimental/indie, singer/songwriter Peter Maybarduk releases his second CD “No Hay Pueblo Vencido” this month with a CD release party March 19 at Dahlak. Joining Maybarduk that night is an eclectic pool of talent culled from his travels both here in the States and abroad.

Yet, it seems that throughout his varied global excursions, one thing has remained a constant—his appreciation for…well, why not have him tell you?

“Music reconstructed the life inside my mind around the time I turned fourteen. In our town, those of us whose complete attention could not be held by school, religion or athletics were left to shuffle in the adolescent wilderness in a vague directionless search for meaning. We were considered, after all, too young to be entrusted with any real responsibilities. Music became the medium connecting my unquiet mind to the world around me, lending stability to and communicating with my creative and erratic thoughts.

Independent record stores were among the most tangible expressions of this world of ideas. They gave me a place to go to; a place to interact with music with all my senses. I could see artists’ visual interpretations of music on album covers and posters, I could talk with knowledgeable fans who worked in the shops and invariably played in local bands, I could smell vinyl and cardboard and leather and hair dye, and I could hold a disc or a record in my hand, bearing the art and music of a great band, and touch the otherwise intangible sounds that were coming to define me.

I think perhaps this is what a purely digital music world has trouble supplanting. The tactile. I can see album art on screens, but it’s far less satisfying – hard on the eyes, small, transient and set in just two dimensions. An online search is not the same memorable adventure as a trip to the record store, and our soul knows we have not equally earned the pleasure of music we discover online as we might have if we’d traveled to an independent shop and walked its aisles. Even for someone who might not appreciate vinyl’s unique sound, purely digital music cannot satisfy the other senses. And the senses do not work in pure isolation. Our experiences are deeper, richer, more rewarding, more informative, when they involve sound, sight, touch, conversation, physical exertion, memory. These experiences deepen our investment in music, and inevitably, lead us to give more back to the art in turn.

Similarly, there is, by definition, little creative interaction in the chain store. That’s not to criticize the individuals working in each store. And there is creativity somewhere in each chain’s corporate design template. But that creative process may have occurred hundreds of miles away and years in the past; there is likely no daily unique remaking of the individual store in which you’re standing. No personal creative link between the listener, the store, and the world of music, each remaking themselves with every day, considering music not only as commercial product, but as a very personal identity and art, that needs interaction to retain its meaning. This is what the independent stores offer. Each interacts with music on its own terms, through constant evolution, and hence, is a living part of the development of the art.

The musicians, the shows, the labels, the fans, the scenes, the zines, the shops, all interacting to make a rich world of ideas. That’s where I found meaning and bridged the unsteady period between childhood and adulthood. As music and technology evolve to offer new possibilities, and we make choices as listeners that will influence their course, let’s keep in mind the complete context – the creative and sensory experiences that have combined to help make music so powerful for us thus far.”

Peter Maybarduk – Darker Days (Mp3)
Peter Maybarduk – Siddhartha on His Raft (Mp3)
Peter Maybarduk – Hey Washington (Mp3)

Before we begin this morning, a few words to 99% of the audience at last night’s Fleetwood Mac concert at the Verizon Center:

Please. Just. Stop.
(Thank you.)

…Steel Pulse!

“In the mid-’70s, this young British sextet from Birmingham — inspired into existence by Bob Marley’s Catch a Fire — found an affinity with the righteous rebellion of white new wavers and built its early reputation largely by touring punk venues (as documented on live anthology records from Manchester’s Electric Circus and London’s Hope and Anchor). Steel Pulse’s crossover appeal derives in large part from its young, modern thoughtfulness, but even more so from the group’s incredible strength as one of the world’s very best self-contained reggae units.

Steel Pulse’s virtues include a gorgeous, multi-textured musical palette (especially on the first album and much of Caught You), intelligent lyrics (most notably on Handsworth Revolution, but also on Tribute to the Martyrs), a wondrous, sinuously propulsive beat and sweet lead vocals by (David Hinds), who also has a nice quasi-scat style.”

Couldn’t have said it any better than the Trouser Press quotes above. Oh, wait—maybe I can: outside of The (original) Wailers — best reggae band …ever?

Steel Pulse – Soldiers (Mp3)
Steel Pulse – Sound System (Mp3)
Steel Pulse – Babylon Makes the Rules (Mp3)
Steel Pulse – Ku Klux Klan (Mp3)
Steel Pulse – Your House (Mp3)

Here’s an easy excuse to hit the record store tonight—a free show! The Points are doing an in-store at Crooked Beat Records. As soon as I think about The Points I see trails, police dogs are barking at me and my shoes are stuck to the floor from all the spilled (and thrown) beer cans.

They’re back home after another tour and probably will have a few good stories to share. It’s early so check it out if you can. First person to tap me on the shoulder and mention TVD will win a prize. (NOTE: Prize may cause dizziness, nausea, and an insatiable desire to eat human brains)

From Crooked Beat’s website: “Tuesday, 3/10: The Points
DC-based loudfastandreckless basement punk band The Points will be playing some songs from their self-titled album debut. Released last fall, the album has been one of our top selling Dc area artists over the last few months.

Performances usually start 7-7:30, and are FREE and ALL AGES.”