Halloween is here and these Canadian artists want to help set you in just the right mood. With a wide variety of music and spooky videos, this playlist will do just that.
Happy Halloween!
“Monster Hospital”
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Monthly Archives: October 2012
TVD’s Fright Night
in Canada
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The Single Girl:
Jo Mango,
“The Black Sun”
(Olive Grove Records)
Scottish folk musician, Jo Mango has been around for a while. She’s collaborated with greats such as Adem, Vetiver, Devendra Banhart, and Vashti Bunyan but is now making a mark for herself on the eve of her second album release, Murmuration.
“The Black Sun” is the second single taken from the album and it’s a modern folk masterpiece. Mango manages to narrowly avoid being too twee by giving the song a melancholic, fairytale like edge as it feels as though she’s almost whispering each word into our ears, casting her spell.
It’s these enchanting lyrics that mark her for greatness above her peers as she begins with: “I fell in love with a starling, he died in my Mother’s arms…” Mango is not only a brilliant songwriter but a skilful story teller too.
As you near the end of Jo’s magical journey, there will definitely be a yearning for more; her music is wistful, wonderful, and tinged with sadness, joy and hope all at once. Not many songwriters can take you on such an emotional journey but Jo Mango executes this with grace; she is definitely one of the most exciting alt-folk artists to emerge from the scene in a long time.
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TVD Live: Friends at
The Fox Theater, 10/23
Last week in San Francisco I am 100% sure I saw the next big thing. The band is called Friends and they sound like a cross between My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult and Blondie with a touch of Rhianna. Imagine a live band that takes the best of post-disco, 60s girl groups, 80s one-hit wonder catchy-ness, and then adds a modern flare while turning it up to eleven. It’s rock, it’s soul, it’s trip hop, it’s disco, it’s fucking amazing.
Friends is a Brooklyn based retro-pop group named after Brian Wilson’s favorite Beach Boys album, and they have already been highlighted as the new band of the day by The Gaurdian UK. Their first single from the new album “Mind Control” was mixed by studio heavyweight Paul Epworth (Adele, Foster the People, Florence + the Machine) and named the “Hottest Record in the World” by BBC Radio One presenter Zane Lowe (and we all know that the UK are usually one step ahead of us on the buzz bands).
The show opens with Lesley Hann coming out in full on “I’m ready for my close up” garb to a groove that is rock n roll, laced with pure rhythmic, sassy funk-pop. Then the real fun begins. Lead vocalist Samantha Urbani graces the stage with curly locks covering her face resembling a child of the of 80s of sorts. She then takes that vibe up a notch adding her own persona which is somewhere between Lisa Lisa and early Madonna. It works brilliantly and adds to the versatility of the band; right when you think you have them figured out, they throw you a musical genre-bending curve-ball.
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TVD Recommends: Into It. Over It. at the Beat Kitchen, tonight, 10/31
Happy Halloween, Chicago. Truth be told, All Hallows’ Eve is my favorite holiday. There’s just something about the fall, horror movies, and gratuitous amounts of candy that really gets me going. If you’re looking for something to do after the mad rush of local kids looking for treats, head out to the Beat Kitchen for a show with Chicago’s own, Into It. Over It.
Led by Evan Weiss, tonight’s show marks the end of the indie-rock group’s first ever full band tour. Earlier this month, in anticipation of the tour, Into It. Over It. released a music video for the track “Embracing Facts” from their latest release, Proper.
Released on No Sleep Records in September of last year, Proper, like most of Weiss’ releases, is available on vinyl in white (500), clear (750), and gray (1000) pressings. Pick up a copy through No Sleep’s online store for just $12.
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Truth & Salvage Co.’s Scott Kinnebrew on returning to NOLA
This Friday, Truth & Salvage Co. headline Tipitina’s, and as a preview we invited the band’s lead singer and guitarist Scott Kinnebrew to share his thoughts on returning to New Orleans and a touring history which currently tallies 210,000 miles on the odometer.
“It’s always a good feeling when I return to New Orleans. From the day my family moved there when I was five, to the moment I graduated from Franklin and hopped on a Grateful Dead tour, New Orleans had me. I lived Uptown on Sycamore and Leonidas. The Roman Candy Man drove his cart down my street once a week. Our Charles Chips man was sax player Tom Fitzgerald. Charles Neville lived up the street. Davis Rogan was the older kid in the neighborhood. Inspired by the Renaissance Fair he’d beat the shit out of us in sword fights. Jeff Treffinger of the legendary Mermaid Lounge was my Boy Scout Leader.
I’m not trying to make my whole story about music and musicians, but for the most part it has been. As I grew older I’d sneak out nights to see all the best of New Orleans: Walter Wolfman, The Radiators, the regular Tuesday night Rebirth gigs at the Maple Leaf. I lived it up in New Orleans, I’ve got a buck moth caterpillar scar to prove it.
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Stellar Corpses: The TVD First Date and Vinyl Giveaway
“My very first experience with vinyl records was when I was very young—maybe 3 or 4 years old, but I clearly remember my parents spinning the soundtrack to Purple Rain and also Sex Pistols records.
“I remember looking at the cover of Purple Rain and being very confused by the raw sexuality and attitude of the image of Prince on a motorcycle. It wasn’t, and still isn’t, appealing to me but nevertheless it was VIVID, which I have grown to appreciate.
Flash forward 20 years and I find myself enthralled by collecting records that are Misfits/Danzig related. Not only because I love the music, but because all the artwork looked so much cooler in vinyl’s size, compared to a small, meager CD case – ugh! Plus, Misfits would always do cool variants, like make colored vinyl or glow in the dark vinyl, which made it so much more special than the mirror-like image of a boring CD that could get scratched and easily ruined.
Posted in The TVD Storefront 5 Comments
Graded on a Curve:
Rites of Spring,
Six Song Demo
Washington, DC’s Rites of Spring is considered to be one of the most widely influential of the many short-lived groups to burst from the roster of Dischord Records, and their self-titled 1985 LP has also been offered up as a prime contender for the title of flat-out finest album to see release via that long-serving and well respected label. Yes, that’s a bold statement with names like Minor Threat, Faith, Void, Fugazi, Nation of Ulysses, and Lungfish in the mix, but it’s surely a valid proposition and a topic worthy of discussion. And as Dischord has just waxed-up the band’s oft-discussed (and bootlegged) Six Song Demo for post-hardcore fans both young and old(er), that conversation is also a timely one.
For some casual observers Rites of Spring, a four-piece comprised of Guy Picciotto on guitar and vocals, Mike Fellows on bass, Eddie Janney on guitar, and Brendan Canty on drums, are the big link between the initial waves of righteous American Hardcore as done in the distinctive style of Dischord Records and the later music of Fugazi, one of the most artistically successful (and probably the most well-known) post-hardcore bands on the planet.
This link is solidified most obviously by Picciotto’s and Canty’s membership in Fugazi, but it’s also deepened by the presence of Ian MacKaye, who figures in the connection through his roles in Minor Threat, Fugazi, and as the co-owner of Dischord and by extension co-producer of Rites of Spring’s small body of work.
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Vinyl Video: Leerone,
“Season of the Witch”
True story: years ago, Leerone was the very first working musician to guest write a piece at TVD, setting about a hallmark and a standard for many, many more to come.
Heck, it might be our brand at this point.
Taken from Leerone’s The Lost Records: Vol. 1, a collection of covers to accompany her brand new release, Heart Shaped Bullets (which arrives on November 13) is this particularly timely cover of Donovan’s “Season of the Witch,” with which we’ll send you off ’til Halloween.
(Boo!)
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TVD Live: Silversun Pickups at House of Blues, 10/21
Last week’s lineup was straight from a dream. There was some sort of voodoo involved, I’m sure, to bring such a talented group of people together on a tour, with a stop at Cleveland’s House of Blues along the way.
The combined aural experience of Silversun Pickups, Cloud Nothings, and Atlas Genius was amazing, as it seemed that each supporting band possessed a little bit of the magic that makes Silversun Pickups so enthralling. All three bands were phenomenal in their own right and are not to be missed when they come to a town near you.
Silversun Pickups enchanted the crowd the moment they took the stage. The lighting lent a gritty feel: unrefined and eerily industrial. Opening with “Skin Graph,” the band exploded live, lights bright behind them. Frontman Brian Aubert beckoned the audience in, a come hither twitch from his spindly fingers.
On this tour, the band has a substitute bassist with them since their regular bassist, Nikki Monniger, is home with twins to which she recently gave birth. Of the situation, frontman Brian Aubert joked, “Nikki got super, super fat. She knew she couldn’t face you guys because you’re judgmental, so she went to the fat farm in Costa Rica. We thought it was chicken quesadillas and pad thai. Turns out it was two baby girls.”
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TVD Vinyl Giveaway: The Paperhead, Focus in on the Looking Glass
All right, Nashville’s young pop-psych outfit The Paperhead is definitely one of my favorite new bands out there now. And this Focus in on the Looking Glass LP, originally recorded in 2009/10 and released on cassette on Infinity Cat when the lads were a mere 17/18 years old, is delightfully-far out ear and mind candy.
So what better time than Halloween season for us to hand out some of that candy to you? Thanks to the good folks at Ample Play, we have a copy for one lucky commenter.
So to be entered to win The Paperhead’s Focus in on the Looking Glass comment below with your favorite candy, psychedelic or otherwise.
One winner will be chosen on Monday, November 5th and we are able to accommodate European entries too, so fire away!
Posted in TVD New York City 12 Comments
Papa Grows Funk
makes final round of
Grammy voting
The New Orleans-based funk band’s latest album, Needle in the Groove, which was released nationally in January 2012, is in the running in the category “Best Regional Roots Album of the Year.”
Legendary New Orleanian Allen Toussaint and Tom Drummond of Better Than Ezra fame produced the album.
“We would like to thank the Recording Academy members for their consideration,” says John Gros, the Hammond B3 keyboardist and lead vocalist of Papa Grows Funk. “We love and admire the other bands in this category — Keith Frank, Rebirth Brass Band, Creole String Beans, and the Lost Bayou Ramblers – and this honor blows us away.”
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TVD Recommends: The New Trust at Township, tonight, 10/30
Northern California indie-punk outfit, The New Trust, will be in Chicago tonight playing Township on their fifth U.S. tour. Led by Josh Stapes of The Velvet Teen and Jealous Sound, this is the group’s first full tour since 2008 and the release of their Get Vulnerable LP.
The tour will be on hold after tonight’s show until next Monday, 11/5, as The New Trust will be sticking around Chicago to record their upcoming album, Keep Dreaming. The band will be recording with the legendary Steve Albini, who has worked with Nirvana, The Stooges, Pixies, and Cheap Trick.
The new album promises a progression from the band’s darker tones by finding it’s origins and inspirations in dreams. Staples promises that while not a concept album, “Many of the initial ideas of these new songs are from dreams I’ve been having, or music I’ve remembered upon waking.”
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TVD Premiere:
A Girl I Know,
“Bang, Bang, Bang”
(Dirty Dave Remix)
“My earliest record collection included classics such as Run DMC, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Village People, Hendrix, even the Godfather soundtrack—thanks to my oldest brother’s budding relationship with CDs.”
“But it was at (now defunct) Twelve Inch Dance Records in Dupont Circle and Yoshitoshi (now only a record label) in Georgetown that I remember how eager I was to mix Sasha’s “Be as One” with all of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Of all the material possessions I’ve ditched over the years, I still have these (and a box of old 45s I adopted) even though I haven’t owned a working record player in years!
—Carolina Hoyos
“My first job was at the long gone but not forgotten Tower Records in the Castro district of San Francisco.”
“I probably shouldn’t admit to this, but my music education began here when I stole a copy of Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions. Don’t ask me how I did it (there was a blind spot near the magazines) but I began to build a small collection of CDs (remember those) and vinyl, thanks to the good people at Tower Records.
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Philistines: The TVD First Date and Vinyl Giveaway
“When I bought Appetite for Destruction, it wasn’t to hear the cool pops and see that needle slowly slide across a circular piece of plastic. I was in eighth grade. I got that record because it looked cool! The artwork drew me in, hit me over the head, and made me spend all the money I had.”
“Over the years, my love of vinyl started to include more than just the artwork. Yeah, the cracks and pops are nice, but that’s not what makes vinyl the only way to properly listen to a recording.
Side A. Side B. Each has a introduction and conclusion with stories in between. There is no skipping songs to get to your favorite. Nah, sit back and enjoy the whole album.
Posted in The TVD Storefront 3 Comments
Graded on a Curve: Matthew Friedberger, Matricidal Sons of Bitches
Matthew Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces has a new 2LP out. It’s titled Matricidal Sons of Bitches and it’s as conceptual and voluminous as those familiar with the man might expect. And yet it’s substantially different in execution from what those with only a passing familiarity with his previous work might think. In fact it’s an oft-fascinating excursion into the folds of a unique if polarizing mind, and those drawn to the fringes might want to investigate its rewards.
If forced to sum up the work of Matthew Friedberger in a word, one of the final contenders would be sprawl. Taken individually, nearly all of Friedberger’s stuff released in tandem with his sister Eleanor in the divisive but enduring The Fiery Furnaces and issued more recently under his own name has tended toward the maximal; the records are reliably presented as being far more than a listener can effectively absorb in one or even a few sittings.
But we’re not talking here about the sort of albums that often get described as grower’s, or for that matter the kind of big statements, 2LPs typically, that turn up in the discographies of bands or solo artists to signify a temporary increase in ambition. No, the landscape of Matthew Friedberger’s music can be said to ooze ambitiousness, even from The Fiery Furnace’s earliest days.
For instance, their second and probably most widely appreciated album Blueberry Boat was far from universally accepted. To the contrary, many people couldn’t stand it, and The Fiery Furnaces came to present a polarity of opinion amongst the post-rock field; people tended to either love them or hate them, and as they continued to engage with the conceptual, many of those that once loved them decided to abandon ship.
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