Asides

Listen: Electric Flower (Imaad Wasif, Josh Garza)

New discovery, for me anyway, is Electric Flower, a trippy, sun-drenched psychedelic duo comprised of solo artist (and sometime Yeah Yeah Yeahs member) Imaad Wasif and drummer Josh Garza who YOU might recognize from The Secret Machines but who I’LL always refer to as “the drummer from the best Texas Brit-rock/shoegaze-inspired band you’ve never heard of, Comet“.

The duo’s self-titled EP, which you can listen to below, is available on iTunes and on Amazon (and probably a bunch of other places – pretty much wherever you buy digital music from). The EP opens with the bombast of Garza’s drums though, having seen him play live many, many years ago, I can promise you that as loud as the recorded drums are, they are nothing compared to the Bonham-like punishment Garza inflicts on his instrument! The track, “Four”, is a pretty spooky, desert-flavored rocker with cult-ish like lyrics and vocals (like something the Manson family may have had in rotation as they plotted evil).

ELECTRIC FLOWER EP by Electric Flower

Here’s my guess … Electric Flower will play some of the festivals (SXSW, Coachella, Pitchfork, etc.) that lead to thousands of blog posts by writers such as myself saying, “You’ve GOT to hear this stuff, it’s amazing!”

Introducing: Countless Thousands

A month or so ago, Danger Van Gorder (singer/guitarist) of southern California band Countless Thousands hit me up with a flattering email, telling me how much he enjoyed the content he read on Atomic Ned and how he thought that I might like his band. He was wondering if I might give We’re Just Really Excited to Be Here a listen and, if I liked it, maybe write a few words about it.

While listening to the – I hate to call it “pop-punk” because that conjures up all sorts of bands from the early ’90s that I’ve chosen to forget about – album, I thought, “This deserves more than me just throwing out a sentence or two saying, ‘Kick-ass, energetic rawk music by a trio that falls somewhere between Green Day and Jimmy Eat World with some early Foo Fighters influence and mid-90s math rock sprinkled in.'”

So, looking over the arsenal of Atomic Ned features, I decided to throw a bunch of them at Danger. If you’re a regular reader (or even a part-time reader), you’ll see Band(camp) of the Week, Track 3, and Soundtrack of My Life as well as a short interview.

Who says flattery won’t get you anywhere? Read it all after the jump.

Continue reading “Introducing: Countless Thousands”

Abandon Jalopy sneak preview

Blind Melon bassist Brad Smith will release his second album, Death & Joy, under the name Abandon Jalopy in February. The sophomore release comes more than 10 years after Smith released Mercy and it features guest appearances by fellow Melon members Rogers Stevens and Christopher Thorn as well as Chris Shinn, who sang in Unified Theory, a band featuring Smith and Thorn. Shannon Hoon’s daughter, Nico, also makes an appearance on the forthcoming release (watch Nico sing “Change” with Blind Melon).

Smith says that Death & Joy will get a vinyl release first (vinyl purchase will come with a download code) followed by a digital and CD release. You can get a sneak preview of the music in this video that Smith posted to YouTube.

2012 tour: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

Gotta admit that the debut solo album by ex-Oasis singer Noel Gallagher is one of my favorite releases of 2012. It completely caught me off guard, mainly because I wrote off Oasis years ago due to overplay on radio. Liam’s Beady Eye was pretty good but it didn’t grab me the way I was hoping it would so I kind of figured Noel’s stuff would go in one ear and out the other. I’m an Ohio guy who complains that tours tend to skip the Buckeye state (whenever this happens, I say that artists are on the “NOHio Tour”) but somehow Columbus managed to score a date this go around!

March 28 Washington,DC @ Warner Theatre
March 29 Columbus, OH @ LC Pavillion
March 31 Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
April 1 Chicago, IL @ The Riviera
April 3 Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theater
April 4 Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room
April 6 Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle