Last time I checked a calendar, it said the year was 2011. Funny though, this new release by The Woozies sounds like a “Summer of Love” relic from 1967 and could easily be mistaken for something by Jefferson Airplane.
This is one of those “name your price” Bandcamp releases and while you could choose to download for free, why not throw The Woozies a couple of bucks so they can continue to put out quality material such as this?
I feel like this week’s featured band is sort of cheating in a way. Most of the bands that I’ll be featuring are probably not very well known outside of their hometowns and are using Bandcamp.com as a way to reach an audience that they normally wouldn’t be able to. But, when I heard that J. Robbins of Jawbox, Burning Airlines, etc. fame had a new band and that he was making that band’s first 7″ single available digitally on Bandcamp, well, I had to toss my rules aside.
I don’t think J. Robbins fans are going to be at all surprised when they hear Office of Future Plans – the angular post-punk riffage and Robbins’ unmistakable vocals are right in line with what he’s been doing for the last 20 years.
For $2, you can grab “Harden Your Heart” and the b-side, a cover of The Stranglers’ “Everybody Loves You When You’re Dead”.
Maybe a lesson to be learned here. The last two Band(camp) of the Week artists I’ve discovered have been because of Blind Melon, or, rather, I should say because I’ve plugged “Blind Melon” in my Google Alerts. This week’s artist is The Bear Romantic, which is really the solo/acoustic project of Jesse Clasen, who fronts another band called Harvard.
In a review on the Creative Loafing website, the writer said that, “Clasen has a unique, nearly-falsetto vocal style that often reminds me of the late Blind Melon singer Shannon Hoon.” And that’s what caused a link to the article to show up in my Google Alerts.
I’m not sure I’d agree that Clasen sounds like Hoon – more like Jeremy Enigk (Sunny Day Real Estate) or Aaron Sprinkle (Fair) in my opinion. Interestingly enough, both of those guys have had success in “rock”-type bands but have made beautiful solo albums as well.
The Bear Romantic’s “Firewood” is available digitally for $4. I really can’t get enough of the CD, it’s been on constant rotation late in the evenings around Atomic Ned headquarters.
Did a little web-searching on Chicago-by-way-of-Sweden’s Love in October and found previous comparisons to a bunch of bands that I’m too old to enjoy (The Plain White T’s, Motion City Soundtrack, blink-182). This made me a bit leery of checking out LiO’s newest EP, Love in October II. But considering the lack of investment (the EP is available to download for free through Feb. 8), I’m glad I checked it out.
While the band’s earlier influences have been Alternative Press cover boys in the last 10 years, it’s as if Erik and Kent Widman – the brothers and principal songwriters for LiO – decided to order some archived issues of AP from the mid-90s and create a sound more akin to bands like Pavement (“Paper Heart” reminds me of “Shady Lane”), The Dismemberment Plan and Modest Mouse (“Desperate”).
Recommended for fans of: Pavement, Modest Mouse, Weezer, Shout-Out Louds
My favorite Rolling Stones songs are the country-influenced ones. I’m guessing the guys in Atlanta’s The District Attorneys feel the same way as their debut EP is filled with some great beer drinking rock n’ roll accentuated by harmonica and pedal steel guitar playing. But the Stones influence isn’t the only one, in fact, the Orders From … EP is a mixed bag where you’ll also catch melodies/guitar riffs/etc. that’ll remind you of the Beach Boys, The Replacements, The Jesus & Mary Chain and Modest Mouse.
Drew Beskin, The District Attorneys’ songwriter/singer/guitarist, answers 3 questions about track 3, “Splitsville”, from the Orders From … EP.
Is track 3 representative of the whole CD?
Track 3 or “Splitsville” as we like to call it is the song that we started the band on. I wrote the tune before our first band practice and everything sort of came from there. It def has a lot of wild energy and it’s kind of who we were at the time we started, it represents a side of the band. We like to think we have a lot of different hats to wear but this one is so natural for us.
What’s the story behind the song – from the lyrical content to the way it was written and recorded?
“Splitsville” came from listening to a lot of Motown and the Stones album Exile on Mainstreet. I usually write on guitar or piano but I was messing around with the drums and started playing this beat and singing along and the rest of the song followed. The lyrics pretty much sum up the lesson learned when you push to find out the reasons why in life and how the information gathered is sometimes better left unknown. It’s also about celebrating the worst of times.
Was there a particular reason you placed this song in the #3 spot on the tracklisting?
While the number 3 is the raddest number of all time and the best things usually have 3 involved (Rocky III, Return of the King, Bat out of Hell III, Ninja Turtles III) we picked it because we thought it was the best pacing of the EP. We think the 7 songs on the EP are all very different and they all have their own mood. The third track seemed to be where the party song needed to be.
Download The District Attorneys 7-song EP, Orders From … for FREE!