New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
From the opening explosion of the debut album, Roger, from the Evanston band The Canoes on the track "We’ll Meet in Minnesota" I knew I was hearing something special. The band has such a full sound, that borrows from some of the best bands of the early ’90’s like Cracker and Dinosaur Jr. It so refreshing to hear that straightforward fuzzed out roar of the guitar again, and that sound carries through out the album.
Thematically the album deals heavily with what it means to live in the Midwest and specifically Chicago (see, "Illinois, Chicago"). You can tell this is a home recording and at times the vocals get a bit washed out, but this is solid debut from a band with a lot potential and an approach that more bands should embrace. You can download Roger for free from the band’s bandcamp page.
The Canoes are performing on July 28th at Abbey Pub with The Singleman Affair and Jesse W. Johnson.
What do you get when you mix the hot track "Pump Up Kicks" by LA’s Foster The People and local emcee Hollywood Holt? A great new summer-ready remix from The Hood Internet!
Radical Dads was founded in 2008 along the banks of the (famously polluted) Gowanus Canal. Lindsay Baker sings and plays the guitar. Robbie Guertin (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) sings and plays the drums. Chris Diken plays the guitar and does not sing. The band released its self-titled EP in May 2009 and the Recklessness 7-inch in December 2010. Their first full-length album, "Mega Rama", was released today by Uninhabitable Mansions, an art collective and record label based in Brooklyn, NY. Radical Dads’ interests include disaster, piracy, land use, feedback, distortion, and feedback-laced distortion, and probably even doing silly things – which is the main theme in their latest video below. – Read Mike Levine’s interview with the band here.
It is always exciting when a group of talented local musicians come together to form a band. One of the newer such groups in town is called Young Coconut. With handmade eps in hand they will be performing at Panchos on July 9th with Truman & His Trophy and Megagiant. Listen to their track "Ain’t That a Shame" below, and you can find more here.
At 23 years old, Michigan born Alex Winston has already been featured in a Hyundai commercial, toured the world and released a couple of critically acclaimed recordings (she’s currently on an extended European tour). With this year’s beat-driven EP "Sister Wife" (which was Deli CD of the Month in February), Winston is exploring very different territory from her past two releases. With New York producers The Knocks taking the helm this time around, coupling their beat-making genius with Winston’s operatic soprano, Alex sounds like we might see her tour with Janelle Monae in a couple years. Whereas, just last year on her Basement Covers album we got a Jon Brion-inspired EP filled with her imaginative takes on classics from The Rolling Stones’ "Play with Fire" to Mumford & Sons’ "Cave." She’s come a long way in a short time, and it’ll be fun to keep an ear to this artist and see what happens next. – Read Mike Levine’s interview with Alex here.
Remember the Vuvuzelas? Their constant trumpety drone made them (in)famous in South Africa during the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Well, it looks like since then somebody has been working in the dark to clear their name… Saturday night at 285 Kent, BKLYN from 8pm till PARTY is the "Viva La Vuvuzela!" Music Fest, bringing out "an explosion of eclectic sounds from Brooklyn to Bangalore." The lineup features a spread of Afro-influenced music, including Nomsa Mazwai (winner of South African Music Awards), international world music collective Osekre & the Lucky Bastards (picture above), and Shinobi Ninja (video below), whose power-reggae will surely make you bang your head in a metal-inspired rasta sort of way. The event is nine acts long, fully charged, and gives attendees first pick at a few free downloads. See you at VIVA! – Caitlin Clive
The Janks are somewhat of a deceiving band. After listening to a couple of the band’s gritty rock songs, a listener might think that the band members are three Nashville-bred men. Then, after moving on to another track and hearing the characteristics that made a band like Queen so likable, a listener might think that the band members are well over 40. However, none of that is true. In reality, the Janks is from Los Angeles and the band members are young and just well-versed in classic rock. The band is made up of brothers Zack and Dylan Zmed and friend Garth Herberg, and is gearing up to release a debut full-length entitled "Hands of Time" on September 27.
Other than recalling Queen with their emotional wails and ostentatious precense, the members keep it fresh with harmonies, akin to folk contemporaries Fleet Foxes, and guitar work comparable to My Morning Jacket and the White Stripes. The album will contain 14 songs, which were recorded in 2010 and narrowed down from an astonishing batch of 30. The themes range from folky campfire songs to booming orchestrated theatrics. The vocals become elongated and dramatic on the latter. It is a bit surprising at first, but not enough to make the album seem disjointed. Before releasing the album, the band will play a few shows around town, including July 14 at Open Borders in Thousand Oaks and July 15 at the Satellite. The shows will be followed by a full U.S. tour in the fall. – Karla Hernández
It’s been a bazaar journey watching Hair Rocket evolve from a song to a warped artistic movement to a band. But it has certainly been an enjoyable one. Multi-instrumentalist, pyrotechnician and mastermind Chris Blassucci surprised listeners and the local media with his impressive debut EP Novelty, and now he’s back with his new Kickstarter-funded LP Punishment Cookie which is full of tasty morsels of power pop goodness. You can watch Hair Rocket leave it all on stage tomorrow night at Bookspace, but hopefully they won’t burn the whole place down. We had a chance to catch up with the always unpredictable Blasucci to find out what the hell is a punishment cookie, why he dropped out of Berklee, what is like going to the bathroom in your pants, and much more HERE.
