Some of the best times I had while living in NYC were at Black Taxi shows. They were a promised party. I would show up solo knowing I would find friends at the venue.
Since performing at my debut CMJ showcase, they’ve ripened to damn near perfection and are now touring extensively—barraging new fans with hyper energy, consistently arresting choruses, and renowned danceability.
In 2010 I threw them on a bill for Foburg. Having never played New Orleans before, they owned it as if this was their backyard. Their sound and vigor grabbed the attention of passersby, so much so that we had to stop letting people in the door. It was a madhouse, and one I was happy to be in the middle of.
Pure White gold as usual, Jack White teases us with this tasty little track off his solo project, Blunderbuss, set for release on April 23.
“Love Interruption” intros with a Wurlitzer-like organ reminiscent of “Son of a Preacher Man” and goes into a harmonic resolution to get the upper hand on the villainous powers of love.
In a press release, Jack White states that Blunderbuss is “an album I couldn’t have released until now. I’ve put off making records under my own name for a long time but these songs feel like they could only be presented under my name. These songs were written from scratch, had nothing to do with anyone or anything else but my own expression, my own colors on my own canvas.”
“Love Interruption” will be available on 7” vinyl with a non-album B Side, “Machine Gun Silhoutette,” on February 7th, courtesy of Third Man Records. You can pre-order it now at he Third Man Record Store.
Imagine this: you’re in a band that’s doing fairly well, about to embark on tour when you decide to go to the doctor because you’re not feeling one hundred percent. What you thought was maybe just a cold turns out to be something more daunting: leukemia.
This is the news that Andrew McMahon, frontman of piano rock sensation Jack’s Mannequin, was given in 2005. Instead of losing hope and accepting a fate of being sick, McMahon fought hard to get well, and since has served as an inspiration for many young adults dealing with cancer.
His music is as powerful as his story. McMahon manages to capture the vigor of life in his songs, finding a way to move even the most stoic of listeners. TVD had the chance to catch up with McMahon before his performance at the House of Blues in Cleveland this past Sunday. Here’s the exclusive on the therapeutic powers of music, his view on love, and the Dear Jack Foundation.
Today marks the release of the The Lonely Forest’s 2011 release, Arrows on vinyl and we’ve invited the band to hang out with us this week in celebration of what we tend to call in these parts a “crowning achievement.”
It tuns out however that we’d be remiss if we didn’t give you guys an opportunity to get your hands on one of our favorite releases from last year, so we’re taking a break in this week’s proceedings to do just that.
Let us know in the comments to this post why the freshly pressed Arrows LP should find a home on your shelves and the most convincing and arm-twisting of the bunch will be awarded the record.
We’ll choose one winner with a North American mailing address a week from today, Tuesday, 2/7!
This evening, the Radiators’ guitarist returns to where it all began with another show at the Hi-Ho Lounge. Baudoin played his first show with his new band after the Radiators broke up last June at the St. Claude Avenue hot spot.
Though he hints at special guests in his Facebook post about tonight’s gig, his former bandmate, the bassist Reggie Scanlan, and the drummer Kevin O’Day are expected Friday night when the Living Rumors return to the same venue.
The Living Rumors feature David Doucet on acoustic guitar and Harry Hardin on fiddle. They play old-time country music with just a touch of the rock ‘n’ roll flair that Baudoin is known for. A particular favorite is a cover of “I’m Gonna Be A Wheel Someday,” which was made famous by Fats Domino.
“My first vinyl experience—wow—I traded comic books for the “I Wanna Be Your Man” single by the Rolling Stones. I didn’t even have a record player to play it.”
“To me, if was a celebration, a rite of passage…from kid to teenager. I got it home and hid it, as I didn’t want my parents to know that I bought into that whole “long hair” stuff. When they found out about the record, they totally surprised me by buying me my own record player from a place called Korvettes. The name of the place alone should tell you what it looked like—Mad Men!
They also bought me an LP…I had never really seen one before…Peter and Gordon’s A World Without Love.
Brett Netson is a name that should be familiar to anyone who grew up during and survived the alternative nation explosion of the ’90s. The Boise, Idaho native has, since 1993, played guitar with the long-running rock dynamo that is Built To Spill and has spent time backing up folks like Mark Lanegan and former Dinosaur Jr. bassist Mike Johnson. As well, Netson crafted over a half dozen amazing albums with his own art damaged, high desert blues/metal outfit, Caustic Resin.
For someone as prolific and creative as Netson, it’s amazing to think that he’s never released any material under his own name before. But that is all about to change with the buzz starting to build around his new album Simple Work, released via The New Black Records.
Simple Work is the culmination of Netson spending the past 15 years or so absorbing the varying styles and sounds that he has been involved with and having them finally bearing fruit in one urgent explosion of original material.
Despite the name of their brand new record label, Tommy Siegel and Ryan Little are anything but bad friends. Two pals that have known each other since their middle school days in the suburbs of Richmond, VA, Siegel and Little have begun their own record label after realizing their lack of options when it came to putting out their own bands’ releases.
A DC resident and a writer for the Washington City Paper, I spoke to Little about his origins, his band, his record collection, and these, the early stages of Bad Friend Records.
How did you first meet Tommy? When did you begin to collaborate musically?
We went to the same neighborhood pool when we were kids. His sister and I were both on the swim team, so I guess that was the first time we ever really hung out, at the pool. And, he was a year younger than me, but we also went to the same school. In high school we ate lunch together and maybe played music together once or twice.
We didn’t really keep in touch through college very much, but at the very end of college, or after college, my band Tereu Tereu played a show with his band Jukebox The Ghost on one of their very first tours, and then after that, we just started talking more on Gchat about releases. Jukebox The Ghost and Tereu Tereu each wanted to put out a record on our own, and neither of us found labels for either of those projects that worked for us, so we thought, well, why don’t we just start our own? And there is also a long-standing project that Tommy and I are working on, involving a banjo, so, one day the banjo pop record will come out. I don’t know when, he’s touring all the damn time, but we’ve recorded two songs for it, so someday!
Lots of show options this week! Here are some of our top picks:
Tonight, January 30th – He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister at The Basement – 9PM
If it’s just to find out exactly what “Flamboyant Folk, Glam-a-billy, Circus Rock, Vaudeville Pop, Cabaret Blues” is, head down to The Basement tonight for He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister. This eclectic group made up of accomplished musicians, thespians, and performers blends 60’s pop, Folk, and accents of strings, Mariachi, and whatever else they feel like. Many of the members have extensive theatrical backgrounds, so you’re bound to get a great stage show. A tap-dancer as percussion? Yes, please.
They had one of our favorite releases last year in Arrows, toured incessantly in 2011 including outings with Death Cab For Cutie, The Joy Formidable, Two Door Cinema Club, and Minus the Bear, and are set to hit the road again supporting Portugal. The Man this coming Spring.
But that’s not what brings Washington state’s The Lonely Forest to TVD for a full week this week.
Tuesday, 1/31 marks the release of the band’s Arrows on vinyl and we’ve invited the band to hang out with us this week in celebration of what we tend to call in these parts a “crowning achievement.”
We’ll be talking records all week with the guys in The Lonely Forest, we’ll have a chance for one of you to get your hands on a copy of Arrows on vinyl, and we’ll debut an exclusive performance right here at TVD. First however, the band tips us to their favorite neighborhood indie record store.
The Lonely Forest: The TVD Week, begins – right now.
“The Business right here in Anacortes, WA has always been my favorite record store. I hung out there every day after (or during) school from age 11 on. Bret Lunsford of Beat Happening owned it for all of my childhood and teen years.
He was usually my guide to picking out new music from the vast used bins. I mean, it was the ’90s so people traded in a lot more music than they do now it seems. Currently, the shop is owned by a good friend, Nick Rennis, who has mostly turned it into a vinyl-only store. I make 80% of my music purchases there still.”
—Tony Ruland, Guitarist
16 Over 48: The International Blues Challenge Sessions is a series of 2 hour recording sessions over a period of 48 hours at Ardent Studios. The hope is to be able to give musicians attending the International Blues Challenge the tools to bring out their inner recording artists on state-of-the-art gear at a fraction of the normal cost.
Here’s how it works: Over a 48 hour period, the 16 IBC acts booked need only bring instruments and voices to cut in a ready-to-go environment at Ardent. Participants will record in their newly renovated Studio C, with very little setup required. They’ll have everything you need to make a professionally produced recording, including a backline of drums, guitar and bass amps, piano and organ—all setup and ready to track through their new SSL Duality console with Spectra Sonic preamps.
Keep in mind that instruments cannot be provided, just the amplification – so don’t forget the harp! They’ll have a set of cymbals and a kick pedal, but drummers are encouraged to bring their own in order to get the best out of their time here.
It’s our weekly Twitter #MusicMonday recap of the brand new tracks from last week that the folks in the press offices want you to be hearing. We post, you download.
Canadian garage punk duo, The Pack a.d. (Becky Black guitar/vocals; Maya Miller/drums) unleashed their fourth full release Unpersons in the Autumn of 2011. Leaving behind some of their earlier, more bluesy sound, their new record is much faster and murkier than their previous material.
Changing tack on this album, the previous three had been self produced, the Vancouver pair decided to bring in famed Detroit producer Jim Diamond (The Dirtbombs, Paul Collins Beat, The White Stripes) to helm the controls. The result is a more gutsy, defined, and focused sound. A sound that is more to be copied and less a copy of…
With this powerful record tucked tightly under arm, The Pack a.d. are hitting the road in the US and Canada, playing alongside Elliott Brood. Here’s hoping they can get some time soon to skip over the pond and play the UK.
In the meantime, check out their hard-hitting new video for last year’s riff, “Sirens”:
In 1973, when I was twelve years old, my best friend and I came to England for summer holiday camp. Yesterday, walking down an east London street I had a flashback to one of the many “teen dances” we attended that summer. At the time I remember thinking “Brit kids” were a queer bunch of fairies, dancing to such music. I had never heard of Bowie, Slade, Gary Glitter, or T-Rex.
Then one night, over many shanties and cigarettes, an older kid name Collin “sorted me out” on proper British rock ‘n roll. I came to know that Bowie and Bolan were cool – and Pink Floyd were not (who I would childishly refer to as “homos.”)
From that summer on I have been fully engaged and obsessed with British rock ‘n roll. Later in my teens when broke, I would stay up all night playing 45s, dreaming about making the UK scene. Now, almost 35 years later, I’m at a club in London with friends—yes, many cool friends, watching the latest wave of British guitar kids having their go.
This week’s show coming from London is dedicated to a rock ‘n roll dream. Anyone’s really. Yes, the set features some of the coolest new UK acts mixed with a jet-lagged infused selection of “oldies.”
Here’s my Idelic UK Innovation.
The Idelic Hit of the Week:
Toy – Left Myself Behind
We’ve been in this racket long enough to know that it’s not every day a band or artist attains the lofty ambition of releasing their first single on vinyl, not to mention it arriving in tandem with said artist’s first full EP. Washington, DC’s Jessica Louise Dye, or Lightfoot, is the exception to that rule.
Lightfoot’s 7″ single and EP, Scarlet Sails is available this week, and as such, DC’s Black Cat is hosting a release party this Friday night, January 27th. Joining Jess on the bill are Loose Lips, Ugly Purple Sweater, and Paperhaus—all of whom we’ve cornered this week for a chat about records in anticipation of Friday night’s event.
If you missed our initial installments, we chatted with Loose Lips on Tuesday, Paperhaus on Wednesday, and Ugly Purple Sweater yesterday. Today’s the lovely Ms. Dye joins us along with the rest of Lightfoot. Go out and see ’em tonight, ok?
What was the first vinyl record you ever listened to?
Jess: I can’t remember the precise record but I have an image of this tango album my granny used to play when I was 4. She used to play all sorts of great records by Sinatra, Crosby, and Gershwin. We would foxtrot in the living room together. It’s actually what got me into ballroom dancing. Ron:Tommy by The Who Adam:Thriller by Michael Jackson Peter:Revolver by The Beatles
Some of the best times I had while living in NYC were at Black Taxi shows. They were a promised party. I would show up solo knowing I would find friends at the venue. 
