Category: videos

In My Ear – Week of September 26

Here’s some things I listened to last week. Feel free to tell me what you listened to by leaving your list in the comment section below.

No Age
Saw these guys open for Pavement a few weeks back, can think of a few different ways to describe them:

1) “Like Times New Viking but with tuned instruments”
2) “Nirvana covering My Bloody Valentine”

Stream the new CD here.

Bad City
Love it when kids play homage to ’80s glam rock – sounds a bit like Sebastian Bach (Skid Row) fronting a heavy Winger. These guys have already toured with KISS, Slash, and The Smashing Pumpkins this year. I’m kind of hoping they don’t blow up and wind up playing in the hard rock/cover bar in the strip mall a few miles from my house sometime before the year is over.

Forgetters
My compatriot over at The Big Takeover, Matthew Berlyant, reviewed the Forgetters EP this week and thus turned me onto a band I didn’t even realize existed. How I missed this band, I’ll never know as it features Blake Schwarzenbach of Jawbreaker/Jets to Brazil fame.

LA Guns
A last minute LA Guns show was booked this week at the same club that I’m hoping Bad City will play 🙂 This version of LA Guns features founding member Tracii Guns (guitars) and Jizzy Pearl (ex-Love/Hate, Ratt). I pulled out the self-titled LA Guns debut to get in the mindset for the upcoming show (photos/review to come later this week).

Everest
Still one of my favorites of 2010. These guys are currently on tour with Guster so check ’em out if they’re coming to your town.

Who else wants the Promise Ring to reunite and tour?

If the Dismemberment Plan can do it, The Promise Ring can too. Davey and Dan have a new Maritime CD coming out this fall and they’ll spend the rest of the year promoting that but by next summer, the time should be right.

(A Promise Ring reunion tour doesn’t sound too encouraging based on some comments singer Davey von Bohlen made a few months ago, but who know?)

Introducing … Blood Red Shoes

I hereby am making it my mission to turn the U.S. onto the dark and paranoid sounds of Brighton, England’s Blood Red Shoes. Truthfully, I’m surprised that the tastemaking sites that I follow on a regular basis haven’t already latched onto this duo (Laura-Mary Carter on guitars/vocals and Steven Ansell on drums/vocals) and their Nirvana-by-way-of-the-Pixies blistering rock sound. (For the record, I’ve been listening to this band since 2008’s Box of Secrets.)

While it can be said of hundreds of bands, there is little doubt that Blood Red Shoes might not be where they are had it not been for Nirvana’s Nevermind and In Utero albums. Therefore, it stands to reason that the bash-and-rock songs on Blood Red Shoes sophomore release, Fire Like This, are reminiscent of another Nirvana-worshiping duo, Local H. Both bands eschew the use of bassist yet neither suffers from the lack of the four string.

Despite all the previously mentioned bands, the band I’m most reminded of when listening to Blood Red Shoes is another overlooked UK favorite of mine, The Subways, who had the male/female vocalist thing going but who tended to favor the male vocals. In Blood Red Shoes, Carter and Ansell alternate and often swap verses within the same song.

Fire Like This will be available in the U.S. on October 5 and Blood Red Shoes will be touring on this side of the pond (for the first time?) shortly thereafter.

Tour Dates
Oct 12 – Media Club / Vancouver
Oct 13 – Sunset Tavern / Seattle
Oct 15 – Rickshaw Stop / San Francisco
Oct 16 – Muddy Waters / Santa Barbara
Oct 18 – Bootleg Theatre / Los Angeles
Oct 19 – Casbah / San Diego
Oct 20-21 – CMJ / New York City
Oct 22 – Red Palace / Washington, DC
Oct 24 – Great Scott / Allston, MA
Oct 26 – Casa Del Popolo / Montreal
Oct 27 – Horseshoe Tavern / Toronto
Oct 28 – Grog Shop / Cleveland
Oct 29 – Subterranean / Chicago

In My Ear – Week of August 23

Here’s some things I listened to last week. Feel free to tell me what you listened to by leaving your list in the comment section below.

The Henry Clay People
Seems like an odd choice to be the opening act on the upcoming Drive-By Truckers tour but that’s what they are doing for most of September and October.

The Wildbirds
Found their 2007 CD Golden Daze in the dollar bin at Half-Price Books, definitely worth a buck (and more!). Kind of a rawer/bluesier Kings of Leon.

The Dollyrots
More to come on The Dollyrots show that I attended earlier this week but I’ve been playing their new CD, A Little Messed Up, non-stop around the house for the last week or two. My kids have caught The Dollyrots bug and my youngest knows more of the words to the songs than I do!

“Rock Control” by The Dollyrots, filmed at Skully’s in Columbus, Ohio on August 30, 2010. Intro by my 5-year-old, Piper.

Pantera
Can’t believe it’s been 20 years since Cowboys from Hell was released. The massively influential CD is getting the deluxe reissue treatment later this month with a 3-CD package that includes a bunch of live material and a disc full of demos (some of which are early versions of songs that would later be released). Seriously, how incredibly bad ass – even 20 years later – are songs like “Cowboys from Hell”, “Primal Concrete Sludge”, and “Domination”?

Bruce Springsteen – “I’m On Fire”
Not really sure why I had this song in my head all week but I love Springsteen when he’s a little bit darker/somber.