Category: videos

SXSW preview: Magnolia Summer

Showcase info: Magnolia Summer performs at 10 p.m. on Thursday, March 19 @ Habana Calle 6 Patio (707 E.6th St)
Other appearances: Twangfest Day Party, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, March 21@ Jovita’s (1619 South First St.)

I’ll refer you back to my “Favorites of 2008” list where I said of Magnolia Summer’s Lines from the Frame, “continues on in the Magnolia Summer tradition of sounding like the perfect soundtrack to a riverfront summer concert, a cooler full of Anheuser-Busch products parked next to the lawn chair. Putting that into a musical equivalent – Magnolia Summer falls somewhere between the spawn of Uncle Tupelo – Son Volt and Wilco.”

Chris not only fronts Magnolia Summer, he also works for a really great record label – Undertow Records – that is putting on a great SXSW showcase on Thursday, March 19 at the Habana Calle and featuring artists like Steve Dawson, Ohtis, Theodore, Glossary, The Monahans, and Via Audio.

DOWNLOAD: Interview with Chris Grabau of Magnolia Summer (right-click link and “Save as …”)
DOWNLOAD: “Diminished Returns” (RAC Remix)

Magnolia Summer was kind enough to record a live performance of “To Better Days” in their studio and give it to me as an exclusive video. And, while this isn’t the live version, you can download the studio version of the song here.


An AtomicNed.com exclusive

Contrast Podcast: Live versions

Guess the title of this week’s Contrast Podcast pretty much sums up what it’s all about. My entry – The Swell Season’s cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” – can be heard at the 43 minute and 54 second mark.

DOWNLOAD: Contrast Podcast – Live versions

And here’s a video of the song being performed live in Columbus, Ohio on Sept. 22, 2008.

Hair metal in 2009

There are a number of blogs and sites dedicated to ’80s hair metal that I regularly check out as much for news about the bands I grew up listening to (and still occupy a healthy amount of space on my iPod) as for the introduction to current bands carrying on in the tradition of the likes of Motley Crue, Faster Pussycat, LA Guns, and Kix. I’m sure there are a lot of bands that I’m missing here but if we could Rikki Rachtman to host a special 2009 edition of Headbanger’s Ball (featuring hair metal bands, not the hardcore bands that the show features these days), here are the videos I’d love to see on the playlist.

Vains of Jenna – “Noone’s Gonna Do it For You”

Dirty Penny – “Scream and Shout”

Continue reading “Hair metal in 2009”

Old news travels fast – Faith No More to reunite

Saturday afternoon the wife calls and says a friend has invited us over for a Thanksgiving dinner in February. Crazy talk, even crazy considering that while I was out running errands I was going to stop by the grocery store and pick up a turkey and mashed potatoes. Coincidence? I don’t know.

Then, last night, I dropped Faith No More’s Album of the Year onto my iPod, a CD that I haven’t listened to in years but had a hankerin’ to hear. Woke up this morning to see my Google Reader filled with links to sites announcing that Faith No More (no word on the line-up) is reuniting to play some summer shows in Europe. No word on U.S. dates. I wonder what size venues they could play? I’m thinking the same 1,500 – 3,000 seaters they were playing when they broke up 10 years ago.

“Stripsearch” was the song I had in my head which inspired me to put Album of the Year on my iPod. Kind of a different sound for the band but great nevertheless.

Swervedriver reissues

When I was a college newspaper reporter, I remember how we received probably half a dozen copies of Swervedriver’s Raise on cassette from either the label or the publicist. I have no idea if they were scheduled to play a show in town but all of the Arts reporters for the paper ended up with a copy of the cassette. Mine sat unopened … Swervedriver wasn’t a grunge or hair metal band so why would I have any interest in listening to Raise?

Years later, I fell in love with Jawbreaker’s Dear You CD and though I had never listened to any band that was tagged with the “shoegazer” label, I thought that this CD certainly would fall into what I thought the “shoegazer” sound was. Shortly thereafter I picked up a used copy of Swervedriver’s Mezcal Head which, to this day, remains one of my favorite CDs ever. Now THAT CD definitely is a shoegazer classic – walls of guitars and reverb, catchy hooks, and dreamy British vocals.

It’s not terribly difficult to find a used copy of Mezcal Head these days but you have to do some looking. However, you might want to wait to pluck it from a used bin as Hi-Speed Soul (in conjunction with Second Motion) is going to be re-releasing both Raise and Mezcal Head, remastered with bonus tracks and expanded booklets.

If you pre-order the CDs ($15.99 each), you get some goodies tossed in and you’ll get the CD in the mail before or at the same time you can buy the CDs at stores (Jan.20).

In other Swervedriver related news, lead singer Adam Franklin will be releasing his second solo album, Spent Bullets, on March 31. Second Motion will start taking pre-orders on Feb.15 and I believe that if you do the pre-order, they’ll send you the digital files and a PDF booklet before the street date (don’t quote me on that).

Crummy quality (poor lighting + bad sound), but here’s a live video I shot of “Seize the Day” when Franklin played in Columbus in October 2007.