Category: news

New music from The Swell Season

Admit it, you fell in love with Glen and Marketa after seeing the unexpected indie film hit Once in 2006. And you got goosebumps when they won an Academy Award for the song “Falling Slowly”. Maybe you even went back and explored The Frames catalog after discovering that Glen has been fronting that band for nearly 20 years. It’s okay if you shed a tear when you heard the news that Glen and Marketa – whose relationship moved to new levels while filming Once – had broken up. But, fear not, even though the two are no longer romantically linked, they are still making beautiful music together and are prepping the second Swell Season album – Strict Joy – for release this fall (Oct.27).

Glen and Marketa recently stopped by the NPR offices to perform a handful of new songs in as part of a Tiny Desk concert.

Strict Joy track listing:

1. Low Rising
2. Feeling the Pull
3. In These Arms
4. The Rain
5. Fantasy Man
6. Paper Cup
7. High Horses
8. The Verb
9. I Have Loved You Wrong
10. Love That Conquers
11. Two Tongues
12. Back Broke

Death Cab for Son Volt

This pairing sounds interesting – Jay Farrar (Son Volt) and Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie) have teamed up on album of songs dedicated to author Jack Kerouac. The album, One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur, will also serve as the soundtrack to a documentary by the same name.  The two singers share vocals on the 12 tracks and are backed by Brad Sarno (pedal steel), Aaron Espinoza (bass) and Mark Spencer (multiple instruments).

The album will be available in multiple combos/formats (CD, CD+DVD, CD+DVD+book) on October 20.

Here’s Jay Farrar performing “San Francisco” from the album.

(Thanks Tim for the link to a story about the Farrar/Gibbard pairing)

Wishful thinking: Blind Allman

(Please note this is my poor attempt at doctoring a photo)

A few years ago the guys from Pantera (minus Phil) made an album with outlaw country bad boy David Allen Coe. They called the project Rebel Meets Rebel and the CD was actually really good.

I just read the Gregg Allman article in Rolling Stone and shamefully admit that while my CD collection is well over 1,000 and my MP3 albums probably double that, I’ve NEVER listened to an entire Allman Brothers album. In fact, I only barely know the “hits”. But, I checked out CD from the library this week and I was listening to it, I kept thinking, “How cool would it be if the guys in Blind Melon collaborated on an album with Gregg Allman?”

To work, it would have to be a collaborative effort. It couldn’t be Gregg singing Blind Melon songs nor could it be a rehash of the Allman Brothers greatest hits as played by Blind Melon.

I think it would be an awesome way to keep the energy alive while still looking for a new singer. Maybe a “mini” album – 7 or 8 songs – and a small handful of dates.

Whaddya think? I don’t really know that much about Gregg other than the article I just read and have no idea if it’s something he’d consider or if the Melon guys would consider. But, a guy can dream, right?

And the name BLIND ALLMAN would be perfect (at least I think so).

RIOT Fest (Chicago) adds reunited Rights of the Accused, Wax

RIOT Fest is celebrating it’s fifth year with shows in Chicago (Oct.7-11) and L.A. (Nov.12-14) featuring the likes of Screeching Weasel, Naked Raygun, Dead Milkmen, Butthole Surfers, NOFX, Alkaline Trio, Murder City Devils, Pegboy and many, many others. All great punk rock bands, no doubt about it, but this fest didn’t hold much interest to me until I saw two recent additions to the Chicago (and, more specifically, the Oct.9 Naked Raygun show at The Metro) lineup … Rights of the Accused and Wax. Both bands have been inactive for many, many years and to see them both on the same bill would be pretty amazing.

Rights of the Accused was a teen punk band with both political and comical lyrics but my main interest in them is this was the band that started the music careers of Wes Kidd (Triple Fast Action), Brian St. Clair (Triple Fast Action, Local H) and Jay Yuenger (White Zombie). I emailed Wes this morning to see if he was going to be part of the reunion and he said “yes”. (I’m assuming Brian will be too but I wouldn’t hold my breath for Jay). When asked if this might lead to a Triple Fast Action reunion, Wes said, “Never say never but …. never.”

LOVE this video for Rights of the Accused’s “Give It All You Got” featuring a long-haired Wes Kidd on guitar.

Wax was always a favorite though their career only yielded two pop-punk releases in the mid-90s. Singer Joe Sib went on to form 22 Jacks and Side One/Dummy Records, guitarist Soda Gardocki has a solo career, bassist Dave Georgeff is a member of Sign of the Fox and drummer Loomis has often been seen hanging with MTV’s Jackass crew.

If anybody out there is interested in “sponsoring” my trip to Chicago for this show, let me know 🙂 I just need a plane ticket (Columbus to Chicago and back is only about $100).

The Twilight Sad single, video, tour dates

The video is a bit fleshy and there are perhaps some mildly NSFW moments in the video for The Twilight Sad’s new single, “I Became a Prostitue” from the Scottish band’s upcoming album, Forget the Night Ahead, due in stores sometime this fall. There are conflicting reports about the release date – though it’s looking like sometime late September or early October.

I was turned onto these guys a few years ago, just prior to attending SXSW where I had the opportunity to have my ear drums pounded by them … twice. Their 2007 release, Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, was my third favorite release of that year and I described it as sounding like Snow Patrol “if Snow Patrol had started just a few years ago and was influenced by Mogwai, Aereogramme, My Bloody Valentine, and Dinosaur Jr.”

You can currently stream “I Became a Prostitute” and the b-side, “In the Blackout”, on the FatCat Records site.

Some U.S. tour dates (with Frightened Rabbit and We Were Promised Jetpacks) were released this week. If you don’t see a city near you, I’ve been informed that there are other Twilight Sad dates being worked on for October so stay tuned.

September 14 – Salt Lake City, Utah @ Urban Lounge
September 15 – Boise, Idaho @ Neurolux
September 16 – Seattle, Wash. @ Neumo’s
September 17 – Portland, Ore. @ Dante’s (Musicfest NW)
September 18 – San Francisco, Calif. @ The Independent
September 20 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Knitting Factory
September 22 – Tucson, Ariz. @ Plush
September 24 – Austin, Texas @ Mohawk
September 26 – Birmingham, Ala. @ Bottletree
September 27 – Atlanta, Ga. @ The Masquerade
September 28 – Tallahassee, Fla. @ Club Downunder
September 29 – Orlando, Fla. @ The Social