Monthly Archives: September 2015

Graded on a Curve:
The Brokeoffs, “Brain Damage/Eclipse” b/w “House of the Rising Sun”

Some may know The Brokeoffs as the backing “band” co-credited on the recent records of veteran Brit singer-songwriter Holly Golightly. The quotation marks above relate to The Brokeoffs’ existence as one gent, namely Lawyer Dave, and he’s just getting around to releasing his first single. It sports two covers; one surprising and triumphant and the other an attempt to conquer a seeming ubiquity. A 10-inch picture disc, it’s out September 25 in an edition of 250 via the UK label Damaged Goods.

Up to this point The Brokeoffs’ name has been noted almost exclusively in connection with a geographical/stylistic turn in the career of Holly Golightly. In the midst of last decade the ex-member of The Headcoatees and prime solo exponent of the ‘90s garage scene moved to the States, cultivating a partnership with the Texas-bred multi-instrumentalist known as Lawyer Dave while taking a detour into the Americana field.

The duo’s eighth album Coulda Shoulda Woulda is out next month, denoting the relationship with Lawyer Dave as a fruitful one. It should be no shock to folks familiar with Golightly’s beginnings that her immersion in the rural musical richness of the USA preserved her grit and sass, but Lawyer Dave’s input more than backup; blending honky-tonk and back-porch blues, they could sometimes come off like Wanda Jackson hooking up with C&W-era Hasil Adkins in a wood-paneled dive bar in the hills of West Virginia, the duo intermittently possessed by the disembodied spirit of Joe Hill Louis.

Golightly recently visited the UK and the byproduct was Slowtown Now!, her first full-band album since 2004, so it only makes sense that Dave gets to do a little branching out as well. Serving as The Brokeoffs’ solo debut, the picture disc sports a photo substantially intensifying the aura of one-man band-ism as its grooves present a wrinkle; specifically, while Golightly and Dave were not averse to adapting tunes, they did generally focus on their own material.

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In rotation: 9/24/15

Vinyl fans rejoice: Discogs finally has a dedicated mobile app, “Currently, buying stuff will redirect you to the mobile website, but Discogs’ aim for this was to just get the application out as fast as possible and add more features later based on feedback. The site hopes to officially launch it early next year and is leaning pretty heavily on its community for feature requests and the like.”

Local List: Where to buy vinyl records: Three places to buy vinyl records in Illinois

Record label co-owner is credit to spirit of Lafayette: “Lucius A. Fontenot is a photographer, artist, co-owner/partner at Valcour Records. He is cool, generous about the talents of others and very creative.”

Get an old-school sound with AudioThing’s Vinyl Strip plugin: “Many producers spend hours trying to imbue their tracks with authentic old-school flavour, but AudioThing might just have simplified the process with the release of its Vinyl Strip plugin.

Like records? Here’s advice from a vinyl enthusiast: “When I worked at the Electric Fetus, it was a genuine pleasure to talk with people about vinyl and why it is so magical. I talked to people who had been collecting for years, but also to youngsters who were just starting out their collections. People were definitely passionate, whether it was because of nostalgia or claims that vinyl sounds better.”

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TVD Live Shots:
Foo Fighters and Gary Clark Jr. at Shoreline Amphitheatre, 9/16

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Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic was at a Foo Fighters show earlier this month and claimed via Twitter that Dave Grohl and company are “The Best Band In the World!” After seeing the show live for myself last week, I would easily support that claim.

The Foo Fighters have sold over 10 million albums in the United States alone and 30 million albums Worldwide. A combination of their 2oth anniversary and the continued support of their latest masterpiece Sonic Highways is the reason for this season. But, one slight misstep in Sweden almost ruined it all. But that’s not Grohl’s style.

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Instead the workingman’s rock ‘n’ roller rolled with the punches and renamed the tour the “Broken Leg Tour,” not missing a beat. But how does one translate such an energetic stage presence into a sit down performance? In a custom-built moving throne of course, which he claims to have designed himself while on painkillers in the hospital.

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Graded on a Curve:
Steely Dan, Aja

What do you do when a rock band you love with all your heart, because its songs are smarter than those by any other band in the universe, suddenly abandons rock for smoother than silk lounge jazz? With all the cool rough edges sanded off, leaving only the clever lyrics and lots of superslick playing by superslick smooth jazz studio hacks? This is the question that confronted me in 1977, when Steely Dan released Aja. And I’ll tell you what I did. I wrote them off as a bad bet, just another LA band that disappeared into pseudo-jazz hell, never to reemerge.

Cynical and sneering, but with a soft side, Steely Dan had always employed the best studio musicians to produce its carefully crafted tunes. But they were ROCK tunes, and cool even when they were hot. “Kid Charlemagne,” “My Old School,” “Dr. Wu,” “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” “Any Major Dude Will Tell You,” “Reelin’ in the Years”—they put out song after great song, and were by anybody’s measure one of the best and most consistent bands of the seventies.

I don’t care that Aja got great reviews when it was released; I like rock and I like hard jazz, but if there’s one thing I can’t stomach is a lukewarm hybrid of the sort you’d expect from a recording session that included the likes of the Tom Scott contingent of LA’s jazz lite community. With Larry Carlton on guitar and Michael McDonald on backing vocals, to name just a few of the dozens of studio pros, Aja sacrificed the band’s former rock orientation for a sound as polished and edgeless as a brass egg.

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TVD Video Premiere: Daria & The Hip Drops, “Hole in Heart”

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We’re proud to present the exclusive world premiere of the first official video from Daria & The Hip Drops’ brand new album, Hipnotic.

The band is on a roll since the album dropped two weeks ago. They sold out the release party at Chickie Wah Wah and welcomed numerous special guests to the stage.

The video was shot in an old Coca-Cola factory in Quincy, Florida and was produced by Los Angeles group Chaos Labs, the same company that brought you the most recent Pepsi ads featuring David Beckham and Sophia Vergara.

Chaos Labs teamed up with the Hip Drops to create a “down the rabbit hole” theme featuring the band’s core members, songwriter and front woman Daria Dzurik and producer/bassist Graham Robinson.

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Shell Zenner Presents

Greater Manchester’s most in the know radio host Shell Zenner broadcasts the best new music every week on the UK’s Amazing Radio. You can also catch Shell’s broadcast here Wednesdays at TVD.

“I LOVE LAMP. There. I said it. So does Anchorman, and so do Haiku Salut who join me on today’s show to talk about their ‘lamp show,’ new album Etch And Etch Deep, and their new hyper real feminist horror movie video for new single ‘Hearts Not Parts.’ DROHNE are on the bandstand talking about a few bands that they’re digging at the moment, I’ll be spinning one on the show and of course, you can listen back to my interview with them on amazingradio.com too! Pete from RIP Records introduces us to a new artist as this week’s tipster.

New music? New Artists? Wedding, Pink Film, Amethysts, Gold Celeste, Indie Band Weekend, Slow Riot, Stereopol, The Big Moon, Freak Static, Intertwine, Dua Lipa, The Pacers and more!

Also new stuff from Chastity Belt, Tuff Love, Drenge, Waxatchee, The Invisible, Say Lou Lou, La Luz, Clean Cut Kid and Chet Faker.” —SZ

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Graded on a Curve: Golden Void, Berkana

Hailing from the Bay Area of sunny California, the fittingly named Golden Void specializes in hard rock of an early ‘70s vintage. Incorporating a druggy glow and emphasis on flowing cohesion, they’re neither too loose nor too tight, stomping up dust clouds while expanding outward on their sophomore effort. Listeners pining for a dose of old school organ-infused guitar-heavy thud should investigate Berkana; it’s available now on LP/CD/digital through Thrill Jockey.

Guitarist-vocalist Isaiah Mitchell (also of Earthless), keyboardist-vocalist Camilla Saufley-Mitchell (of Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound), bassist Aaron Morgan, and drummer Justin Pinkerton comprise Golden Void. A relatively new act on the scene, the band’s interpersonal musical connections span back to middle school days, with Morgan and Pinkerton playing together in both Roots of Orchis and Eyes.

As can be gathered by their surnames, the guitarist and keyboardist have formed a marriage bond, and all this familiarity is borne out in Golden Void’s well-practiced thrust. Unequivocally hard rocking, the results aren’t accurately summed-up as stoner inclined; biker rock is nearer to the gist, but they frankly don’t sound much like the Blue Cheer, nor do they strive for an overwrought debasement of the 12-bar template, though the blues-rock of yore is definitely a shaping influence.

A clue comes in the choice of moniker, which derives from a tune on Warrior on the Edge of Time, the 1975 release by space rock cornerstone Hawkwind. This places a few of Golden Void’s appendages into a psychedelic bag, but their general reality is closer to Black Sabbath and especially Deep Purple, with nods to Pentagram, Uriah Heep, and the numerous supergroups branching out from Cream, Jeff Beck Group, and Mountain.

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In rotation: 9/23/15

Gig venue record sales to be included in the charts: “Albums sold at gigs will soon count towards the UK Official Albums Chart as a result of a new initiative called Lightning Live which will allow venue-based record sales to be chart-returned for the first time. Which is good news for artists employing the “get em while they’re on a high, get em while they’re drunk” approach to shifting records.”

Vinyl Fantasy: How limited edition records are taking video game soundtracks to the next level: “Minecraft is so very far from the only video game soundtrack recently pressed to vinyl – this scene within a scene is experiencing boom times, as more and more labels, specialist and wider-scoped, realise that there’s opportunity in licensing what is, more often than not, amazing music that wholly warrants “freeing” from its parent medium.

Frankie Knuckles’s vinyl gets a permanent public home: “Theaster Gates’s Rebuild Foundation is about to open the Stony Island Arts Bank, whose collections will include 5,000 records the Godfather of House used in his world-changing mixes.

Vinyl’s comeback a boon to local record stores: “Something most of us ditched decades ago is making a comeback. We’re talking vinyl records, and they’re not just for hipsters and audiophiles.”

23 Times Empire Records Taught You It’s Cool To Be Weird: “It’s been exactly twenty years since “Empire Records,” a quirky film about a bunch of misfit record store employees, was released into the world. Though the film starring burgeoning stars like Liv Tyler, Renee Zellweger, and Robin Tunney may have flopped at the box office — can you believe that it grossed less than $300,000?! — it remains a beloved cult classic.

Music Junkies Trade, Buy Vinyl Records at Beat Swap: “Music junkies who love listening to their tunes the old school way came out to Club Da-Da Sunday for the traveling Record Swap Meet. People traded, sold and bought vinyl records ranging from Funk music to Heavy Metal.”

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TVD Live Shots: Langhorne Slim & The Law at Union Transfer, 9/16

We sent TVD’s Doug Seymour to the Langhorne Slim & The Law’s show at Union Transfer in Philadelphia on September 16th to shoot the band who are currently on the road promoting their brand new release, The Spirit Moves—available on CD and vinyl from Dualtone Records. 

Frankly, these guys put on one of the best live shows out there—miss them at your peril. Check out Seymour’s photos taken during sound check and the show. —Ed.

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TVD Live Shots: AC/DC at Wrigley Field, 9/15

Well, it wasn’t all night long, but AC/DC sure did shake up Wrigley Field last Tuesday.

While throngs of fans piled into the sold-out show, many wearing red blinking devil horns, crowds also gathered outside the ballpark. Arguably the hardest rock band to ever play Wrigley Field, AC/DC managed to dazzle not just those in the friendly confines, but the entire neighborhood around it. All of Wrigleyville was gifted with the sounds of heavy metal classics booming throughout the streets. And even if you claim to not be a fan of AC/DC, you know the chorus to at least three of their songs. Maybe the verses too. You know I’m right.

Fans inside the ballpark were treated to an incredibly well produced show—the stage design, lighting and pyrotechnics were truly magnificent. I was wowed. I’ve photographed a lot of concerts this year, but this was easily one of the most visually dazzling, not to mention fun.

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Ethav,
The TVD First Date

“I started collecting vinyl when I arrived in LA to study drama at the tender age of 17. Tired of being typecast into certain roles because of my ethnicity, I turned to music, because with music I could just be myself. I always wrote poetry and music was a perfect medium and outlet for my writing and lyrics. Still today I focus on my music as a source of pure and honest expression, rather than trying to be someone else.”

“As a student struggling with my expenses, a guilty pleasure would be always to stop at the huge Amoeba store on Sunset Boulevard and sift through the vinyl records for sale. On my tiny student budget I would spend hours in the clearance section sifting through hundreds of records, searching for forgotten treasures and exciting new artists. Without a listening post, it was a real process of discovery and learning new people’s stories, searching through genres, artwork, and names of unknown bands, often picking records based on the cover.

Real finds included “I Try” by the Montreal DJ duo Made By Monkeys on the Star 69 label with its bright yellow cover and a picture of a monkey wearing headphones with hands perched on top of his head. The track was remixed by Star 69’s owner Peter Rauhofer, founder of the label based in New York, providing a platform to release his own tracks. My favourite remix is Rauhofer’s Future mix, a relatively lesser-known gem that speaks to me in volumes. The lyrics are about unrequited love.

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Needle Drop: Ben Katzman’s DeGreaser, “Record Store Babe”

This is what you call playing to your audience. To wit, rocking one’s way through a mom and pop record store, rifling through the vinyl and making goo-goo eyes at the cute clerk.

In the case of the brand new video from Ben Katzman’s DeGreaser, “Record Store Babe,” that means name checking a few of the band’s favorite bands, Kiss prominent among them, as they try to get the eye of the suitably bored clerk, hidden deeply behind her shades.

Band members bring up a number of choice titles to the counter, from Van Halen, to the Ghostbusters soundtrack to Iron Maiden. “I want to know what your top 10 is,” Katzman says from behind his own shades and wearing his trademark porn ‘stache. He also inquires: “Do you like Kiss? Madonna too?” (She does not reply in Andrew GIbson’s video).

It’s a blink of an anthem—less than a minute and a half total—but they get the riffs out and make a few purchases as well. Shot at Fort Lauderdale’s Radio-Active Records, it name checks a store closer to their home, Feeding Tube Records in Florence, Mass.

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UK Artist of the Week: Beach Fatigue

This week’s UK Artist of The Week hails from Wales. Previously named Heavy Petting Zoo (which if you follow the UK press, is remarkably appropriate given their Prime Minister’s alleged University proclivities), they decided to shake things up a bit and rename themselves Beach Fatigue—which we’re sure has warmed the cockles of their poor old mothers’ hearts.

Their forthcoming single “Drunken Grrrls” is a no holds barred, grimy slice of psychobilly with one foot firmly in the realm of The Cramps, while the other dances coyly around the likes of Bikini Kill and L7.

This is the first single of their debut album which promises more fuzzed up surf rock, and if you want to get your hands on it, you’ll have to wait the end of October. In the meantime, kickback and enjoy the dark tones of the 4-piece (and their dancer) who may just knock Dylan Thomas off the map as their school’s most celebrated export. Well, that may be a bit too far. All you need to know is they rock.

“Drunken Grrrls” is out on October 30th via Kool Girl Records.

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Graded on a Curve: Marian McLaughlin, Spirit House

Based in Washington, DC, Marian McLaughlin is a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter specializing in progressively inclined indie/chamber folk; well-versed in string technique and keen on boundary-pushing collaboration, her music is a multifaceted pleasure. Possessing a slim discography detailing a growing relationship with double bassist-arranger Ethan Foote, McLaughlin’s second full-length Spirit House arrives on CD September 23rd. Due to the frustrations of mobility certain to occur during this week’s papal visit to the Nation’s Capital, her record release show at the Logan Fringe Arts Space has been moved to November 21st.

Marian McLaughlin’s acumen on guitar is considerable. One need only listen to understand, but her background of master classes with Larry Snitzler, a pupil and friend to cornerstone of the classical axe Andrés Segovia, is worthy of note. Additionally, McLaughlin was one of six chosen by the Bethesda, MD arts center Strathmore for their 2014-15 Artist in Residence program.

Live performance figures prominently in her approach; running the gamut from house shows to events in larger venues, she’s warmed up the room for Ryley Walker, Daniel Bachman, Marissa Nadler, Arborea, Six Organs of Admittance, and others, but her largest audience surely came via NPR’s online shindig Tiny Desk Concert in June of 2014.

In his introduction to the 3-song set, Tiny Desk producer/host Bob Boilen praises her as a unique musician, though he does provide context by citing similarities to Joanna Newsom and Diane Cluck. These are apt comparisons; as said, McLaughlin impacts the ear as a direct descendant/exponent of last decade’s blossoming of indie folk, and with special emphasis on the side of the scene promoted by periodicals such as Arthur and Galactic Zoo Dossier.

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In rotation: 9/22/15

Discogs announces official app for iOS and Android: “As the Vinyl Factory reports, the app will be based on MilkCrate, an existing third-party app for browsing the site’s huge library of new and second-hand records. It also features the ability to catalogue collections, view prices on the marketplace, add to wantlists and search the database for music.”

Time for vinyl to get back in its groove after pressing times: “Located in Milwaukie, Oregon, which borders Portland to the south, Cascade is a labor of love between three partners: CEO Rainey, mastering engineer Adam Gonsalves and certified public accountant Steve Lanning. As music fans and vinyl aficionados, the trio knew they were tapping into a growing demand.

St. Mark’s Place Is Losing The Last Of Its Record Shops: “When news of their demise was first announced last year, the WSJ reported, ‘Sounds, the last of once-many record shops on the strip, recently limited its business days to Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays… [the] space went on the rental market this month, with its first showings this week.'”

Ormskirk Nostalgia: An Ormskirk Record, “Frederick B. Rudd of 16 and 28 Derby Street West had one of the first businesses in Ormskirk to sell gramophones and gramophone records. Formerly a musical instrument dealer in the early 1900s, the post WWI boom in the sale of the gramophone and 78rpm records meant Rudd’s little shop at No 28 must have been packed with a vast range of recordings.

VINYL 101: Originals vs Reissues- A Guide to Buying Records, “’Originals vs. Reissues’ is a recurrent topic among vinyl junkies. A quality reissue can offer a great alternative to owning a scratchy original, or spending big money on something scarce. That said, many factors help determine whether you’ve purchased a good or bad pressing of a record. This article hopes to outline a few points which can help you along in your crate digging adventures.

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  • SUPPORTING YOUR LOCAL INDIE SHOPS SINCE 2007


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