Like many current bands, Afghan-American singer Zohra Atash’s project Religious to Damn is inspired by the sound of the 70’s and 80’s. However, the influences on this record are far from typical. Religious to Damn’s music doesn’t have anything to do with those dancey Motown tunes, glam rock, or electro-pop. Instead, their album "Glass Prayer" references dark and sophisticated artists like Japan, David Sylvian, Siouxsie & The Banshees and (in the poppier choruses) queens of cool Blondie and Kate Bush. The best songs on the album are "Drifter", a track built on a super simple bass line that develops quite surprisingly towards celestial openings and the title track "Glass Prayer" (in the video), which alternates a verse that’s almost a tribute to late Japan with a chorus as beautiful and voluptuous as Kate Bush’s best songs. Infused with exotic sounds and atmospheres, the record features a good number of ballads and mid tempo numbers, but things seems to get more interesting whenever the BPM go up, as evidenced by the Morriconian "The Wait", and the tense and apocalyptic "Let The Fires Burn". (This CD was submitted through our digital CD submission system).
Hollows on Daytrotter
Hollows appeared on Daytrotter over the weekend and performed four tracks including my favorite Hollows song "Shadows In The Dark".
Chiddy Bang Announce New Album Title and Major Headlining Tour!
This Week’s Menu: The Deli Portland’s Show Picks March 22-28
Portland’s live scene is unbearably sopping with variety. House shows, the big venues, tiny clubs, secret bar shows — any night of the week could potentially have a handful of shows that you want to go to, but you only have so much time to bike to all of them. We’ve got touring bands looking for a good time and the cornucopia of local talent lighting up stages around town! The Deli Portland can only hope to help by telling you what’s on our plate for This Week’s Menu. Here are the writers picks for what’s on the menu for March 22-28:
Tuesday – KPSU Presents a night of indie friovolity: Music For Animals, The Foreign Resort and Wax Fingers @ Holocene $5, 21+
Wednesday – Cooing folky orchestral genius from What Hearts, Ah Holly Fam’ly, The Clampit Family Band @ Doug Fir $7, 21+
Thursday – Soft Tags, Autopilot is for Lovers, Shenandoah Davis, Benoit Pioulard @ Ella St. Social Club $6, 21+
Friday – Pop perfection and a lineup to make you lose it: Cloud Nothings, Toro Y Moi, and Braids @ Doug Fir $12, 21+
Saturday – Throwback, indie, and psychedelic awesome: Monarques, Yours, Hosannas @ Slabtown $6, 21+
Sunday – Garage goodness: The Hugs, Rocky & The Proms, Charts @ Rontoms FREE, 21+
Otis Heat+ Caldecott + The Diamond Light @ Hotel Utah
After tomorrow night, Hotel Utah will be walking funny. With the uptown funky style of Otis Heat, southern country swagger of Caldecott, and gritty unforgiving sounds of The Diamond Light, San Francisco is in for a treat. All bands play clean, well rounded rock music that will knock your boots off and clear all the whiskey bottles off of the bar shelves. Hotel Utah, built in 1908, has a history for bringing in bandits, goldseekers and charlatans…a perfect venue for some good ol’ Wednesday night fun and debauchery!
–Jenna Putnam
Best of NYC #102: Mary Halvorson – touring Europe in April
We keep going through the 107 local artists that made our latest Best of NYC Emerging Artist Poll, here’s on of the 3 that tied on 102nd position:
Many bands are about being brash, about sending a message with a single power chord – Mary Halvorson and her Trio (and occasionally Quintet) have chosen a much more subtle approach. There are no lyrics, long works and dramatic pauses. There are titles with numbers after them that seem to signify deep thoughts. Halvorson and her team leap across generic definitions, a baroque piece here, more experimental jazz there, and something that sounds like it came from 1930s radio off in the distance. What ties it together is superb control of the instruments and a deep trust in your fellow musician. And it works. – The band will be touring Europe for most of April. – allison levin
From the NYC open blog: Jay Kill & The Hustle Standard’s video
The two boys of Jay Kill & The Hustle Standard (Jake Hill and Charley Hustle) are at it again. This time collaborating with filmmaker and creative force Robert Bailey (Rogue Wild Productions) in their latest music video, featuring the song "I Don’t Share"; the third track on JK&HS’s first EP New Men Old Boys. The EP is available for free on the group’s website.- (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here).
Walking Sleep “Tarp Sessions” EP + April residency
Interlacing boy/girl vocals with upbeat 60’s psych pop style, Walking Sleep has a lot in store for us this season. Compared to Belle and Sebastian and The Zombies, the 6 piece has released the first of three EPs leading up to their April residency at The Satellite. To escape the monotony of recording in a studio, the "Tarp Sessions" EPs were recorded out in the open air of Los Angeles, under a self-made musical fort made out of tarps. "Tarp Sessions: Volume 1" is currently streaming and ready to download free of charge. Wether you’re in your room dancing around in your underwear, or out under the sun with a picnic blanket and a boombox, the fun, positive beats of Walking Sleep will put you in the springtime groove.
Stay tuned for volumes 2 and 3 of "Tarp Sessions", leading up to their Monday night April residency at The Satellite.
–Jenna Putnam
Nite Nite Benefit Show @ Mercy Lounge, 3/23/11
A benefit show will be held at Mercy Lounge tomorrow night for dark dream-pop/rockers Nite Nite. The band has had some equipment stolen, and The Lonely H, Bad Cop, Diarrhea Planet, Majestico and Chrome Pony are set to play, with additional special guest performances. Bring a minimum of $5 to donate and help the band out in exchange for a great show. – Jessica Pace
The Grownup Noise CD Release 3/26 at Middle East! With Kingsley Flood, Spouse, Joe Fletcher & the Wrong Reasons.
Boston’s multi-instrumentalist avant-folk quartet, The Grownup Noise, return this spring with their sophomore record, This Time With Feeling. Their CD release for which is this Saturday, March 26 at The Middle East downstairs.
All five members of The Grownup Noise (Paul Hansen – vocals, guitar, keys; Adam Sankowski – bass, keys, vocals; Katie Franich – cello, keys, vocals; and Aine Fujioka – drums, vocals), Todd Marsten (Accordion, Keys) are multi-instrumentalists and equal contributors to Feeling’s umbrella of styles. The quartet came together in 2005 at the Berklee College of Music, when Paul and Adam first met.
The Grownup Noise have spent much of the past three-plus years since their last record, nurturing their skills and crossing the country on five national tours, traveling in a van that ran on recycled vegetable oil and was converted by members of fellow touring mates Piebald.
With a true love for song, influences range from the Beatles’ and Velvet Underground’s classic experimental songwriting to the modern arrangement and sonic diversity of Stars and Ra Ra Riot. On This Time With Feeling, the band’s musicianship and songcraft continues to evolve with a collection of sophisticated and honest work.
This Time With Feeling was recorded throughout Boston and New England recording studios, a cabin in Maine, and even vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Paul Hansen’s bathroom,, where the band laid down some final vocal takes.
The line-up for Saturday is as follows:
Joe Fletcher & The Wrong Reasons
Spouse
Kingsley Flood
The Grownup Noise (CD Release)
18 +, $10, 8pm
Middle East, 472 Mass. Ave, Cambridge
–Chrissy Prisco
New Releases from Punk Rock Payroll’s Dangerous Ponies and The Extraordinaires!
I Only Wear My Favorite Clothes at Home by Dangerous Ponies
The Big Show by The Extraordinaires
Local Music Spotlight — Albums we’re digging right now.
Moga
Album: Jamboree
Released: August 2010
From: Providence, RI
Rhode Island’s Moga bring a homey, rootsy take to psychedelia on Jamboree. They add banjos and piano to straightforward American rock and end up with something that sounds like music played in the parlor with family and friends. Songs like "Wakey Wakey" stretch into jam-band territory and would be right at home opening for Ratdog or Further. When their shades of The Band mix occasionally with electronic effects the result is something entirely new — "ambient Americana," a sound that the boys from Moga should explore in more depth.
Big White Clouds
Album: small white clouds
Released: December 2010
From: North Andover, MA
The folksy, acoustic music of Joe Solof comes to life with the full-band treatment in Big White Clouds. Solof enlists the help of mates Mike Moschetto, Mike Wolfeden, and Amory Siverston to create pretty folk indie-pop in the vein of early Bright Eyes. Solof’s quavering vocals only bolster the comparison, sounding like a less dramatic version of Conor Oberst.
No Evil Star
Album: Beach Reading
Released: February 2011
From: Boston, MA
No Evil Star hails from the mind of Adam Quane. Beach Reading is an odd amalgamation of downbeat folk, glitchy electronica, and lo-fi indie rock. The genre jumping that takes place from track to track may give you the jitters, but if you stick with them you’ll be rewarded with a truly interesting listen. For those who find bands like Animal Collective challenging, you may find a safe harbor in No Evil Star’s more traditional song structures.
Y69
Album: We’ve Got Problems
Released: March 2010
From: Burlington, VT
Whenever a 10-track record clocks in at under 25 minutes you know you’re in for a full-on punk rock assault. Y69‘s We’ve Got Problems doesn’t disappoint in that department. The dual vocals of Chris and Glenn help keep things interesting — one sounding like The Meatmen‘s Tesco Vee, the other like Rancid‘s Tim Armstrong — both touchstones that would make any self-respecting punk proud.
–George Dow