The Legend of Blogfoot: The Adventure Begins

Deep Cuts: Girl Garage

2014-11-07T09:47:00.001-05:00

La Luz is a Seattle act that performs a melodic range of retro influenced music. They're an all gal group made up of Shana Cleveland on guitar, Marian Li Pino on drums, Alice Sandahl on keyboard and Lena Simon anchoring on bass.

They have a long list of influences from Link Wray and The Ventures to Shannon and The Clams which is really refreshing to see a band claim. Especially, when next to no one seems to champion Shannon And The Clams - but everybody who has heard 'Sleep Talk' is pretty much blown away by it.

La Luz recently performed as part of KEXP's Icelandic expedition to the Iceland Airwaves music festival in Reykjavik.

Damp Face by La Luz

References:

Bandcamp, La Luz
Facebook, La Luz USA

Deep Cuts: Indie

2014-06-11T11:34:00.002-04:00

California's Shaun Fleming, the alter-ego for Dianne Coffee, has spent some important moments of his life in entertainment. At 15, he starred in the opening sequence of Jeepers Creepers II (2003) where he is quickly mauled by the title monster. In 2004, he worked as a voice actor on two animated films from Disney including The Lion King 1 1/2 (2004).

Moving to NYC in 2005, Shaun became a founding member of the 60's psychedelia and avant-garde band Foxygen with friends Sam France, Jonathan Rado and Justin Nijssen. The band gradually became a hit in clubs and college radio culminating with their album "We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic" released in January of 2013. However, the group's raucous, highly active performances contributed to singer Sam France breaking his leg at a gig at First Avenue in Minneapolis on July 29th 2013.

This freed up Dianne Coffee who was on the back burner for Fleming since December of 2012. Fleming's "My Friend Fish" was released by Western Viynl in October in 2013. It's a stand-out album, featured at SXSW, that blends elements from soul, Motown, classic R&B with 1960's acts like Donovan and The Beatles.

References:

Wikipedia, Dianne Coffee
IMDB, Shaun Fleming
Facebook, Dianne Coffee

Deep Cuts: Techno

2014-05-25T00:01:00.000-04:00

Tired of glowing reviews of great underground rock music? Yeah, me too sorta. Let's get to the real ugly stuff like - Techno.

Techno music was, and more than likely still is, not a genre.

Techno is largely an excuse. A reason for disaffected middle-class kids to drop some heavy acid and examine his or her navel for 4-6 hours at a time. The music at these shows showcase piss poor loops and ear shattering monotony. Only a crowd on over-whelming amounts of heavy drugs, clawing negativity and habitual shallow droning could possibly be pretending to listen to this stuff.

This is a sad fact testified to by anything recorded by Detroit's Docile Records. During it's 17 year journey into a jangled clash of boops and beeps - somehow the music never got better. Yet, this music seems like clear proof that even monotonous elevator music, minus substance, direction or style, has an audience somewhere.

That "somewhere" (outside of a group shuffling zombies) is mainly on one German distribution site that rates each of Docile's 24 records of mismatched beats (and counting) with one star of five.

All twenty-four records are long-form tedious loops that lead nowhere except for maybe the bargain bin in American record stores that still carry any form of "techno" music.

Here's a positive review: "Connecting to the random to pull out patterns that can be honed down to construct a logical but abstract funk."

Really? How incoherent is that? How much acid did this reviewer ingest to believe that this gibberish makes sense?

Here's another positive review from 2008: "B1 rocks clip-clop percussion with some skronky bass squirts and a riff that sounds vaguely like something from an Atari 2600." That's positive? When is listening to an Atari booping at 50+ decibels enjoyable?

When exactly do you throw in the towel when your records fail to improve after about 20 years and your music universally rates somewhere between a two telephones ringing, filling your ears with pepper spray and hearing a broken doorbell buzzing?

Below, to illustrate this point, is a clip from the 20th record released in 2011.

A. Garcia - Track 01

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References:

Facebook, Docile Records
Deejay.de, Docile Records

Deep Cuts: Instrumental

2014-05-23T00:05:00.000-04:00

Nothing is better to enjoy that a cleverly perpetrated hoax - once it's revealed. Famous horror writer Stephen King once wrote a series of books under a pen name that later became best-sellers. The Beatles themselves, prior to their 1970 break-up, fostered the idea that Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash in 1966 and replaced by a look-a-like. Radio DJ Russell Gibb announced his own Paul Is Dead Theory on Detroit radio adding to the mystique - taking us all for a ride so to speak.

In 1970, the legal wrangling for the Beatles material was in Britain's High Court. Paul McCartney and his wife Linda began working on three new albums. The first was a solo album simply entitled McCartney (1970), the second was with his first band after The Beatles - Ram (1971) which - let's face it - was poorly received. The last album? This last album is a gem. It was an orchestral themed, instrumental record that was put together with Richard Hewson who had also arranged "Let It Be".

The result: Percy "Thrills" Thrillington (1977). It wasn't until 1989 at Los Angeles press conference that Paul revealed that he was Mr. Thrillington. The album tripled in value and became a collector's item when Paul and Linda confirmed it in the Spring 1995 issue of Club Sandwich. This record is so oddly compelling that it merits more than a footnote in music history. Right off the bat, the lead track "Too Many People", echoes Sgt. Pepper but with a dreamier context. "3 Legs" is the soundtrack for a the bad side of town - on Mars. This album only gets better with a rather formal version of "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" anchoring the record.

Original 1977 pressings are exceedingly hard to find but album was re-issued in 2004 and 2012.

Percy Thrillington - Uncle Albert

References:

Wikipedia, Thrillington
Wikipedia, Wings
Good Day Sunshine Magazine, Thrillington

Deep Cuts: Rock

2014-05-20T23:35:00.000-04:00

Oakland, California based retro rock Shannon and The Clams are a three piece band that combines elements from garage, punk, classic R&B and Motown into their own brand of rock 'n roll. This group, made up of Shannon Shaw, Cody Blanchard
and Ian Amberson on drums, stand out due to the raw clarity of the band's influences and edgy subject matter.

For example, the first track from 2011 Sleep Talk, Baby Don't Do It, features a character running through the darkness with a machete that "glints by the light of the moon" that is sung with shades of The Ronettes with a sharp set of measured guitar chords ringing out with the tight precision of a rhythm section - or maybe a lovelorn serial killer.

In an interview with the blog Still In Rock from 2014, the group says they met in 2009 while attending the California College of the Arts.

"We had a class together and thought one another was lame until we saw each others videos in class. We realized we were the only cool freaks in the class and have basically been best friends ever since."

The group has three studio albums to date including: I Wanna Go Home (2009), Sleep Talk (2011) and Dreams in the Rat House (2013).

Shannon And The Clams - You Will Always Bring Me Flowers

References:

Official Site, Shannon And The Clams
Facebook, Shannon And The Clams
Still In Rock, Band Interview

Deep Cuts: Alt-Folk

2014-04-03T13:49:00.001-04:00

Quilt is a Boston, Massachusetts based alt-folk group featuring John Andrews on drums, Anna Rochinski on guitar and organ, Shane Butler on guitar and Keven Lareau on bass with all members contributing to the vocals.

Their 2011 self-titled album is a "complete" album with songs that are composed in a series of layers. Some come like gentle waves and other like tidal waves that are slowly built up refrain after refrain. Key tracks include Cowboys In The Void, Penobska Oakwalk and Milo.

In Kentucky in early March of 2014, while touring for their new album Held In Splendor, the band flipped their tour van after blowing a tire and totaled it. They walked away from the accident but could only do one more show in Austin, TX. Right now, they are on a sponsored European tour but they only have until the 25th of April to get a working van or bus ready for the spring leg of another US tour. They may have to cancel all US dates and there are many.

4-25 Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle (w/ Woods)
4-26 Washington, DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel (w/ Woods)
4-27 Richmond, VA @ Strange Matter (w/ Woods)
4-28 Asheville, NC @ The Mothlight (w/ Woods)
4-29 Athens, GA @ Masquerade (Purgatory Stage) (w/ Woods)
5-1 Houston, TX @ Mango’s (w/ Woods)
5-2 Austin, TX @ Austin Psych Fest
5-3 Dallas, TX @ Club Dada (w/ Woods)
5-4 Lawrence, KS @ Seed Co. Studios (w/ Woods, Blood on the Wall, Your Friend, Oils)
5-6 St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway (w/ Woods)
5-7 Chicago, IL @ Subterranean (w/ Woods)
5-9 Toronto, ON, Canada @ The Great Hall (w/ Woods)
5-10 Montreal, QC, Canada @ Cabaret Playhouse (w/ Woods)
5-11 South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground (w/ Woods)
5-13 Portland, ME @ SPACE Gallery (w/ Woods)
5-14 Boston, MA @ The Sinclair (w/ Woods)
5-15 Kingston, NY @ BSP Lounge (w/ Woods)

The band is asking for donations, both large and small, for help towards getting another vehicle for this tour. I think they deserve it. Please go to the official Quilt page for more information.

Quilt by Quilt

References:

Official Site, Quilt
Bandcamp, Quilt
Facebook, Quilt Music
Allston Pudding, Quilt & Happy Jawbone

Deep Cuts: Experimental

2014-03-31T13:22:00.000-04:00

Woods is an interesting three piece band based in Brooklyn, New York since 2005. Their instrumentals are complex and rollicking and Woods even go so far as to have a "tape player" G. Lucas Crane who acts as a DJ, soundman and back up vocalist on stage.

The group's leader, guitarist and vocalist Jeremy Earl uses one style of vocals, an eerie falsetto, that is so close to the female register that a listener could swear to it being female. While this is great, in the tradition of Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins, to have a unusual vocal style - Earle's same falsettto is over used on each song on each album. To make matters worse the emotional effect of hearing the same worried falsetto voice creates a sense of impending failure that becomes hard to hear repeatedly.

References:

The Woods, Official Site
Wikipedia, Woods Band

Deep Cuts: Godzilla Rock

2014-02-11T11:31:00.003-05:00

No not Pink Floyd's The Wall or Yes's Tales from Topographic Oceans but concept rock with 500 foot tall monsters being battled by an elusive group of brave superheroes called Daikaiju (pronounced DIE-kai-joo).

Kaiju and specifically Daikaiju means giant monster and "godlike" giant monster respectively. The terms originate from the Japanese film genre where Godzilla and Power Rangers emerged from. Very appropriately too because the members of the band have discarded their actual identities and are known as Secret-man (guitar), Rock-man (guitar), Hands-man (drums) and Rumble-man (bass).

Self-described as a band that "creates divine psychic wind for your special defense!" the group is known for their national tours and transcendent live performances. Their sound comes from the best of surf and garage is like seeing to a Man Or Astroman? show with Dick Dale playing lead. Very little of the bands origins or current base of operations is known at this time.

Monsters Of Surf by Daikaiju

References:

Official Site, Daikaiju
Facebook, Daikaiju
Bandcamp, Monsters Of Surf

Deep Cuts: Psych-Pop

2014-01-14T23:45:00.000-05:00

Twins is the seventh studio album by San Francisco singer-songwriter Ty Segall. Twins is his third release of 2012, preceded by Slaughterhouse and Hair. From 2008 to today, Segall has released a total of eight albums - averaging one album every five months for the past six years.

Part of the reason for Segall's prolific output is because there are so many bands and artists that have been adopted by San Francisco. This has created strong self-supporting indie industries supported directly by fans, bars, clubs, shows for local folk and punk bands. Segall's music is a hybrid of folk and punk. It's a chimera created from the two polar opposites - psyche for the heads and distorted and raging riffs for the hardcore fans.

In these pockets of music, local indie musicians and artists have put their efforts together with collectives like Tim Presley's White Fence based in Los Angeles enough to be published nationally on labels like Warwick, New York based Woodsist and Chicago based Drag City.

Segall's Twins album features collaborations with Tim Presley (who also co-wrote many songs on Hair) and other San Francisco based musicians on tracks like "The Hill" with it's opening courtesy of Thee Oh Sees’ Brigid Dawson. In 2012, both White Fence and Thee Oh Sees joined Segall on his national tour. In 2014, Segall and White Fence have announced new tour dates for the early part of the year in southern California, Texas and New Mexico.

Ty Segall - Love Fuzz

Hosted by Kiwi6 file hosting. Download mp3 - Free Music Hosting.

References:

Official Site, Ty Segall
Wikipedia, Twins Album
Pitchfork, Ty Segall To Release Collaborative Album
Drag City, Ty Segall & White Fence

Deep Cuts: Indie Rock

2014-01-02T08:25:00.002-05:00

The Vaccines are an indie rock group formed in West London in 2010 by Justin Hayward-Young (lead vocals, guitar), Freddie Cowan (lead guitar, vocals), Árni Árnason (bass, vocals) and Pete Robertson (drums, vocals). The band has released three albums Melody Calling in 2013, Come Of Age in 2012 and their excellent debut from 2011 "What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?". "What Did You Expect..." features several key tracks including the anthem-esque "Wet Suit".

The Vaccines have earned a great deal of popular and critical success. They were named MTV's Best New Band and played at SXSW in 2011, they've opened for the Arctic Monkeys and count Debbie "Blondie" Harry as a fan. With just the right mix of uplifting performances and razor sharp lyrics grounded in strife and struggle - it appears that this band has arrived in top form.

The Vaccines - Wetsuit

References:

Official Site, The Vaccines
Wikipedia, The Vaccines

Deep Cuts: Neo Psyche

2013-12-27T14:25:00.002-05:00

The Mystic Braves are a neo-psychedelic band, original named Blackfeet Braves, that formed in Los Angeles in 2011. The bands' line-up is Julian Ducatenzeiler on guitar and vocals, Tony Malacara on bass, Shane Stotsenberg on rhythm guitar and Cameron Gartung on drums.

In October 2012, the group released their self-titled album with Lollipop Records. That album is now available both digitally and on vinyl from Bandcamp along with a follow up two track 7" titled "Please Let me Know". The group has managed to team up with another southern California retro/roots rock act, the brilliant Growlers, to open for them as they tour in support of their own first album.

Please Let Me Know / Dockweiler 7" by Mystic Braves

References:

Official Site, Mystic Braves
Bandcamp, Mystic Braves

Under Review: Sonic Youth

2013-12-01T19:00:00.000-05:00

Sonic Youth's classic line-up with Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Renaldo and Steve Shelley.

From the grimmest, grime-covered rock dives in NYC in 1981 up until long after punk and the genre waves punk had created had crashed in 2011 Sonic Youth stood alone as a musical force for three decades. They did so in an industry that doesn't reward "message bands" (Rage Against The Machine and Dead Kennedys) or create an atmosphere for longevity. The average "superstar" group has one hit record and is gone. Think about Kings of Leon, Papa Roach, Metallica, No Doubt or even Green Day.

Even great bands like Black Flag, Nirvana or Alice In Chains live within a specific genre and are only widely known for a short period of time. Then, these bands split up in a vain search for the short-lived fame that took them years of collective effort to only temporarily receive. The only notable solo efforts are rare such as Neil Young and Dave Grohl's Foo Fighters.

Sonic Youth lasted for an incredible 30 years, releasing 16 albums to a worldwide fan base that remains loyal to the band today. The first nine of these albums we are going to review.

The most inventive and popular period of this band lasted from 1983 to 1995. This period began with Sonic Youth's first studio record "Confusion Is Sex" which covered Iggy Pop up until "Washing Machine" in 1995 that featured the opening anthem-esque track "Becuz" and closed with the 10 minute epic "Diamond Sea".

The albums that were released in this period were critically misinterpreted at the time as "thrash" and then finally re-classified "noise rock", even though there is no resemblance to anything approaching Suicidal Tendencies or Big Black. Yet, these albums remain incredible and important records for all of rock music for their creativity, brutal honesty and wide scope in the same way Jimi Hendrix or Black Flag are unavoidable influences.

In 1977, as The Ramones began to release their early albums, a gifted 19-year-old guitarist named Thurston Moore moved from Coral Gables, Florida to NYC. Moore went through a series of punk bands (Room Tone, The Coachmen) until he settled on a line-up with a twenty-something old Kim Gordon called Sonic Youth. They took the name from "Sonic" reportedly after MC5 frontman Fred "Sonic" Smith and "Youth" after famed Jamaican musician Manley "Big Youth" Buchanan.

Less than a year after the December 1980 Lennon assassination in NYC, Sonic Youth was formed with Moore on guitar/vocals, Gordon on bass/vocals and Richard Edson on drums. One of the band's first gigs was at New York's White Columns gallery and seen by future band member Lee Ranaldo who was also performing that night in another band.

In 1981, the band self-released the self-titled "Sonic Youth" album made up of five tracks recorded in New York's Radio City Music Hall and later released with nine more tracks recorded directly from soundboards at shows in the NYC area.

The material was released as a Sonic Youth mini-LP that, while largely ignored, was sent to a few key members of the US press, who gave it uniformly favorable reviews. After this first record, Edson quit the group for an acting career and was replaced by drummer Bob Bert.

In 1983, the group settled into an low tech, improvised sound studio in the basement of a Chelsea building to record "Confusion Is Sex". This album was engineered by Wharton Tiers who would later go on to engineer and produce albums by Helmet, Dinosaur Jr and White Zombie.

This album is nothing but experimental. It uses unusual recording techniques, alternate tunings - some of which made reviewers believe that guitars were really clocks, bells or harpsichords and raw emotion spawned by living in the colossal metropolitan rat trap that is New York City.

One year after their first proper record was released, Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon were married in 1984. "Confusion Is Sex" earned them European gigs that led them to punker Lydia Lunch who would collaborate with the band on their next two albums.

In 1985, the trio of Moore/Gordon/Renaldo, who had a great deal of trouble with keeping drummers recruited Steve Shelley. Shelley who would remain with the band until 2011. 1985's "Bad Moon Rising", Sonic Youth's second album, dealt with dark side of America, obsession and insanity, Charles Manson, heavy metal, Satanism and lurking subculture.

The album delved into more unorthodox recording techniques to simulate psychedelic experiences or to overlap and shape vocals and music as if they were coming from distant sources and through bad radio or television speakers - as heard in "Satan Is Boring" and "Justice Is Might".

The album's closing track, "Death Valley '69", was a huge hit with the college radio scene and widened their core audience from the NYC area that they had up until this point. The lyrics for this song read like a desperate note that was scrawled out by a desert kidnapping victim at Spahn Ranch.

Death Valley '69 by Sonic Youth Moore/Gordon/Ranaldo/Shelley with Lydia Lunch

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DEATH VALLEY '69
Coming down
Sadie I love it
Now now now
Death Valley '69
You're right
You're right
You're right
You're right [You were right]
I was on the wrong track
We're deep in the valley
How deep in the gulley
And now in the canyon
Way out in the yonder
She started to holler
She started to holler
I didn't wanna
I didn't wanna
I didn't wanna
I didn't wanna
But she started to holler
So I had to hit it
Hit it

Sonic Youth's third album "EVOL" was released the following year from SST Records by founder and founding member of Black Flag, Greg Ginn, in 1986. This record show a larger role for Kim Gordon and her point of view. And, let's face it: punk is largely a male dominated genre without much space left over for women as anything other than brutalized sex objects. Tell me I'm wrong even today.

I imagine that this prevailing chauvinist and superior attitude pissed off Kim Gordon and Lydia Lunch, both talented musicians and writers who had earned their places in the punk scene, quite a bit. Some of this frustration spilled over in this album's cover art and began to be more apparent in the lyrics and edgy instrumentals like "Death to Our Friends".

"EVOL" featured stand-out tracks that would become classic Sonic Youth songs such as "Tom Violence" which breaks from raging guitar chords long enough to announce "My violence is the number, Coming out of prayer" and the building eruption that is "Expressway To Yr. Skull".

Original lyric sheet for "Expressway To Yr. Skull". Photo courtesy of Sonic Youth.com.

The powerfully personal nature direction that the band was taking became unmistakable. The album closes with intricate and seemingly improvised guitar score from Moore and Renaldo with Moore singing in a building state of euphoria: "We're gonna kill the California girls."

Next came the landmark album "Sister" in '87. If the band had previously taken their audience through personal chaos, psychic disturbance and euphoric transcendence - all musically - then "Sister" would carve out a seemingly physical place where all of these factors could meet and be combined into a unique force.

"Schizophrenia", the opening track begins impossibly simply. A lone drum eventually joined by a simple guitar melody. Moore's velvety voice approaches us from a halting distance to announce "Jesus had a twin who knew nothing about sin." before the tempo violently shifts, as if simulating a psychotic break, and the guitars shred every bit of the carefully constructed serenity that had came before.

Schizophrenia by Sonic Youth Moore/Gordon/Ranaldo/Shelley

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SCHIZOPHRENIA
I went away to see an old friend of mine
His sister came over
she was out of her mind
She said Jesus had a twin
who knew nothing about sin
She was laughing like crazy
at the trouble I'm in
Her light eyes were dancing
she is insane
Her brother says she's just a bitch
with a golden chain
She keeps coming closer saying
"I can feel it in my bones
Schizophrenia
is taking me home"

"Schizophrenia" is followed up by one powerful and important song after another. "Catholic Block" by Moore dealing institutionalized sexual frustration, "Stereo Sanctity" reveling in the transformative power of music, Ranaldo's bi-polar symphony "Pipeline/Kill Time", "Tuff Gnarl", Gordon's husky, dusky and dark "Pacific Coast Highway" and the pointed and feverish "White Kross".

Instead of being turned-off by these kinds of grinding shifts from one emotional extreme to another on "Sister" the audience related even more to the songs. The turbulence in the tone seemed to echo the upheavals in their own lives. Add to this that these songs more closely resembled classical music compositions rather than modern rock, and these two factors created thousands of Sonic Youth fans.

Remember most rock songs are simple and have more in common with Chuck Berry's Maybelline than Beethoven's 5th. Song structure is so formulaic in rock that a band like Sonic Youth stands out because it so consistently and consciously rejects the verse, chorus, verse formula on albums like "Sister".

In 1988, as punk was settling into it's grave and grunge wasn't even on the horizon, Sonic Youth released it's fifth album, Daydream Nation, as a double album. It included the key tracks "Teenage Riot" and the fiery "Silver Rocket". With this record the band was finally breaking through to both critical and popular success.

"Daydream Nation" made it to number 99 on the UK Album Charts and ranked as the #3 album of 1988 by Rolling Stone (Diesel And Dust by Midnight Oil was rated #1) but did not chart on Billboard in the USA. The band toured in the USSR, Japan and Australia in support of the record.

Will Hermes of Spin, in issue 100 from July of 2007, called the album was perhaps "the greatest art-punk statement ever."

"Goo" was the sixth studio album released on June 26th 1990, through record label DGC. The album was Sonic Youth's debut release on a major record label. The band signed to Geffen Records for $300,000 following the success of Daydream Nation.

The cover art is right out of a Roy Lichtenstein painting but features a beatnik couple and features the captions: "I stole my sisters boyfriend. It was all whirlwind, heat, flash. Within a week we killed my parents and hit the road." The album features Kim Gordon's unique mix of sexy righteousness with a larger emphasis on her bass work and writing.

Sonic Youth toured Europe and North America twice in 1990 following the mainstream breakthrough of alternative rock and grunge, the band toured Europe again in fall 1991 with Nirvana and Dinosaur Jr. The latter tour was chronicled on the documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke, directed by Dave Markey.

Once again, there were multiple key tracks starting, much like 1987's Schizophrenia did, with "Dirty Boots" in a slow boil quickly followed by "Mary-Christ", "Kool Thing" with Chuck D being cross-examined by Kim Gordon on women's rights, stand-out track "Mote" and the break through track "My Friend Goo".

Mote by Sonic Youth Moore/Gordon/Ranaldo/Shelley

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"Goo" is widely regarded as Sonic Youth's break through album, although "Sister" is clearly a much fuller and deeper record. In the UK it made #32 on the Albums Chart and finally broke into the US Billboard 200 at 96. Three singles and a music video on MTV were released from this album, creating a steadily growing audience.

"Dirty", released in July of 1992, was the band's seventh studio album and was released by DGC and produced by Butch Vig who had also produced The Smashing Pumpkins' Gish and Nirvana's Nevermind in 1991. Vig and Sonic Youth began a collaboration with Dirty that produced key tracks such as the sweat-drenched and hyper-sexualized "100%", "Wish Fulfillment" once again separated into the beautiful/ugly and serene/enraged paradigm by Ranaldo, "Sugar Kane" and "Youth Against Facism". The band also mixed in sound collage influenced demos they had previously recorded that became tracks like "Theresa's Sound World" and "Swimsuit Issue" as well as a cover of the Untouchables' one minute rager "Nic Fit".

The album tracked in the musical charts in Sweden, Germany, Australia, England and made it to #83 on the US Billboard 200. Four singles, "100%", "Youth Against Fascism", "Sugar Kane" and "Drunken Butterfly" were released from 1993-94.

Their next album, Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, released 1994, was also a collaboration with Butch Vig. At this time Sonic Youth has traveled the world several times over. The original creative spark that was ignited in punk dives, crumbling art galleries and new romances that had been burning bright for 12 years began to fade.

This album showcases much less of the innovation and energy that appeared on "Sister" or "EVOL" in as heard in acoustic tracks like "Winner's Blues" yet still has several important tracks such as "Bull in the Heather", the experimental "Starfield Road" with Moore warning "Jesus is screaming your name!", Kim Gordon taking us "down to the bottom" with her near solo performance of "Skink" and returning to proper form with "Screaming Skull".

In 1994, the "Bull in the Heather" single made it to #13 on the US Modern Rock Tracks Chart and and #24 on the UK Singles Chart. The album was their most commercially successful and reached #34 on the US Billboard 200 and even tracked up to #34 in New Zealand.

Sonic Youth's ninth album, and the final one we will look at it in the 1981-1995 period, is "Washing Machine" from 1995. Washing Machine was released when music had seen unknown niche and practically unknown genre bands like Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Sound Garden, Dinosaur Jr. and Jane's Addiction rise to super stardom.

After headlining the 1995 Lollapalooza music festival Sonic Youth recorded more stand-out material including "Becuz" and "Junkie's Promise" that opens with the cynical screed: "$100 dollars used to be more than enough, And now 100 times a day isn't enough." seemingly alluding to prostitution and heroin that is epidemic in NYC and the metropolises that the band constantly toured through.

Kim Gordon has her own Diamond Sea epic in the eponymous 10 minute track "Washing Machine" that once again is laid out in classically arranged sections within one song. She also addresses female identity issues and attitudes surrounding her own sexuality in the surprising and Motown influenced "Little Trouble Girl". Gordon and Moore also further experiment with song structure with "No Queen Blues".

Six more albums were released by the band from 1998 to 2009 including A Thousand Leaves (1998), NYC Ghosts & Flowers (2000), Murray Street (2002), Sonic Nurse (2004), Rather Ripped (2006) and The Eternal (2009). The band broke up in October of 2011 when founding members Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon divorced after 30 years of marriage and a long and unprecedented career in music.

References:

Official Site, Sonicyouth.com
Wikipedia, Sonic Youth
Wikipedia, Thurston Moore
Wikipedia, Kim Gordon

Deep Cuts: Folk

2013-11-02T00:55:00.003-04:00

Alex Ebert and Jade Castrinos lead a group of ensemble musicians with roots in new American literature, social consciousness, 1960's communal culture and believe it or not the late 90's electronic rock scene in LA as Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes.

After taking a leave of absence as front man for from the highly successful Ima Robot (1998-2008), a dance/electronic rock act in 2008 due many factors including drugs and an increasing personal distance from the clubs and crowds involved with the band, Alex Ebert began writing a novel about a modern saint. In Ebert's words Sharpe was: "sent down to Earth to kinda heal and save mankind, but he kept getting distracted by girls and falling in love."

Ebert, with singer Jade Castrinos, recruited a group of highly trained musicians in Southern California some coming from an art and music collective called The Masses. The group's first full length album "Up From Below" was released in July 2009 and is Edward Sharpe's debut in a musical sense.

The band's current line-up is a 10 piece consisting of:

Alex Ebert – vocals, guitar, percussion, piano
Jade Castrinos – vocals, guitar
Stewart Cole – trumpet, percussion, keyboards, tenor ukulele, vocals
Josh Collazo – drums, percussion, saxophone, vocals
Orpheo McCord – drums, percussion, marimba, vocals
Nora Kirkpatrick – accordion, vocals
Christian Letts – guitar, vocals
Seth Ford-Young – bass, vocals
Mark Noseworthy – guitar, vocals
Christopher "Crash" Richard– vocals, percussion

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros released their second full-length album, "Here", in May of 2012. Their third album, the self-titled "Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros", was released on July 23rd 2013 a week after their performance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee.

Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes - Janglin

References:

Official Site, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes
Wikipedia, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes

Deep Cuts: Metal

2013-10-09T22:17:00.003-04:00

Death is an American metal band founded in 1983 by Chuck Schuldiner in Orlando, FL. Death released seven definitive albums including "Scream Gore Death" and "Spiritual Healing". Their best albums have been re-released in 2011 and have quickly found another generation of fans that have grown tired of slick, over-produced pop masquerading as metal or "hard rock" including Avenged Sevenfold, Incubus, Linkin Park and many other modern "rock" bands.

Death's first album in 1987, Scream Bloody Gore, flushes synth pop, sample based loops, drum machines and the vapid glitter of modern music directly down the maggot hole with biting tracks and a no nonsense approach to recording that reflects the best of the genre. Sadly, the band ceased to exist after Schuldiner died of brain cancer in 2001.

Death - Zombie Ritual

References:

Death/Control Denied, Official Site
Wikipedia, Death
Bandcamp, Death

Deep Cuts: Alt Rock

2013-10-05T11:00:00.000-04:00

Explode Into Colors were a three-piece band made up of Claudia Meza on vocals/bass with Lisa Schonberg and Heather Treadway. The trio gained a large following from 2008-2010 in Portland, Oregon by bringing their raucous and energetic sound to upscale venues like the Portland Museum in January of 2010 and at SXSW in 2009.

It wasn't until the band's breakup in July of 2010 that an "official" release, courtesy of Kill Rock Stars, came out. This six track album contains some of their strongest work including "Sharpen The Knife" which mixes rock and analog dub into an act of controlled chaos.

Quilts by Explode Into Colors

References:

Bandcamp, EIC
Facebook, Explode Into Colors

Deep Cuts: Psychedelic

2013-09-30T11:40:00.001-04:00

The Sizlacks, presumably named after Moe Sizlack from The Simpsons or the reptilian Sleestaks from Land of the Lost, are a talented and unsigned retro rock act from Perth, Australia.

The Sizlacks are made up of Tyson Meaney, Sam Johnson and Jeremy Robinson. They are a self-described "psychedelic blues rock" three piece who are influenced by 60's icons Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin and the Doors as well as modern acts such as Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Black Keys.

The Sizlacks Demos by The Sizlacks

References:

Bandcamp, The Sizlacks
Facebook, Meet The Sizlacks

Deep Cuts: Garage

2013-08-31T08:18:00.002-04:00

Finland's The Mutants are an impressive ensemble band, currently made up of six performers, who fit into a rare category of instrumental music that only a handful of other acts, such as Man Or Astro Man, Goblin and Kreftwerk, have managed to create for themselves.

Formed in 1998 in Helsinki, this group has describes their own sound as "punk/surf/garage based stuff smashed through Parliament/Funkadelic filter." The Mutants consistently showcase their wide range of influences including surf, garage, 70's underground rock, psychedelia, porn funk, mambo, and even late night television programming. Put these together with a deep musical skill set and you have one amazing act.

The Mutants ”Mutacalypso Now!” album will be released on Friday Sep 13th 2013.

References:

The Mutants, Official Site
Facebook, Jymp Records

Deep Cuts: American Gothic

2013-06-15T00:00:00.000-04:00

The Handsome Family are an alternative-country duo formed in 1993 by husband-and-wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks. The two live in Albuquerque, New Mexico and have released 10 studio albums including their new one Wilderness released in 2013 from Top Carrot Records.

For much of their work Brett writes the music while Rennie, who also is also an author, writes the lyrics. The duo's lyrics have a close connection to the literary genre "American Gothic" and these elements are also found in early country and folk songs. These themes, much like the blues, revolve around death, doom, gloom and unavoidable self-destruction.

Handsome Family - Weightless Again

References:

Wikipedia, The Handsome Family
Handsome Family, Official Site
Last FM, Handsome Family

Deep Cuts: Psyche Rock

2013-06-07T13:14:00.000-04:00

The Make-Up formed in 1995 in Washington D.C. and played their own version of garage rock and soul until 2000 releasing four studio records, two live albums and a compilation CD of singles and B-sides.

All of these albums were originally released on independent record labels such as Dischord Records (Minor Threat also a DC band), K Records (Beck's first record label), and Southern Records (Crass).

The band recorded with a number of artists including Fugazi's Guy Picciotto and Ian MacKaye while touring extensively with many groups like Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Ted Leo and Blonde Redhead.

The Make-Up reformed in Spring of 2012 to perform at I'll Be Your Mirror a music festival in Camber Sands, East Sussex, England.

The Make-Up - Pentagon

References:

Wikipedia, The Make Up
Dischord Records, Make Up

Deep Cuts: Garage Grunge

2013-06-02T15:53:00.000-04:00

This two piece from Minneapolis is made up and Dustin McChesney(guitar/lead vocals) and Jared (drums/vocals) and named after a small, cave-dwelling vesper bat found in western Canada, Mexico, and the western United States.

Their 2012 album "Skate Is Surf" shows the duo's awareness of their own musical influences such as Stephen Malkmus of Pavement, Sonic Youth's inventive chord and song structure and even features the track "Henry Rollins" named in honor the long-time frontman for Black Flag.

The group has a show coming up June 11th at Medusa at 1154 Hennepin in North Minneapolis with Hanusa and Twilight + Terror. Medusa is a new rock venue located south of the Warehouse District and north of Loring Park at Hennepin and North 12th Street.

HENRY ROLLINS by MYOTIS

References:

Bandcamp, Myotis
Facebook, Official Page

Deep Cuts: Americana

2013-05-14T02:43:00.002-04:00

The Felice Brothers are a folk/alt-country group formed in Upstate New York and are rumored to have been founded at performances in the NYC subways in 2006. They've released nine albums to date including their fifth album from 2008 the eponymous "The Felice Brothers". This record features two out-standing tracks: "Whiskey in my Whiskey" and "Frankies Gun".

This album easily earns our collective forgiveness for touring with the Dave Mathhews Band in 2010 with these incredibly effective approaches to song structure and story-telling through songs. This last part is important due to the fact that today a song is seen as a formula to connect to the shallowest and most uniformed portion of the music buying public. The importance of oral history is less emphasized and more lost each time a Rhianna, a Timberland, a Bieber, or the newest incarnation of New Kids On The Block releases an album full of meaningless garbage.

It's important to note that even substantial and culturally significant groups like the Beatles have sold less albums than Rhianna while groups like The Felice Brothers have barely cracked the Billboard 200.

The Felice Brothers - Frankie's Gun

References:

Felice Brothers, Official Site
Wikipedia, The Felice Brothers

Deep Cuts: Alt-Rock

2013-03-23T18:00:00.000-04:00

There many descriptions of southern California's The Growlers. They enjoy a large audience on national college radio which, God bless it, calls the group everything from folk to psyche rock. The truth seems to be that they incorporate everything in between these two musical polar opposites and make these influences into their own sound.

The Growlers formed in 2006 and are based Orange County, California. The band consists of Brooks Nielsen (vocals), Matt Taylor (lead guitar), Scott Montoya (drums, formerly bass) Anthony Braun Perry (bass) and Kyle Straka (keyboards, guitar). Since playing SXSW in 2010 the group has steadily been growing in popularity.

The band's third album, Hung at Heart, was released on January 22nd 2013.

The Growlers - One Million Lovers

References:

The Growlers, Official Site
Wikipedia, The Growlers
Facebook, The Growlers

Deep Cuts: Americana

2013-03-20T00:00:00.000-04:00

The unusually gifted and soulful work of Jamie N. Commons has been prominently featured in TV's runaway smash hit show The Walking Dead on the AMC network. His track "Lead Me Home" seems like the work of a much older blues troubadour, singing to a dusty, mostly empty Mississippi roadhouse, opening up for a grumbling Nick Cave. But, this work is in fact from a 20-something musician from England.

Commons' debut album Rumble And Sway was released March 5th 2013 and performed live at SXSW in Austin, Texas on March 14th. It features even more brilliant song-writing from the dry, harsh places in America. There are tales of greedy priests and a failing search for a connection to God in the middle of stinking corruption. It's all told in Commons' unmistakable vocal style and frantically intricate guitar picking.

Jamie N. Commons - Lead Me Home

References:

Jamie N. Commons, Official Site
The Guardian, Interview

Deep Cuts: Americana

2013-03-15T11:28:00.001-04:00

Blogfoot heard something in the woods. Sounded like alt-country meets John Cougar Mellencamp with influences from Walking Dead soundtrack artists like Jamie Commons. Turns out it was Canadian singer/song-writer Ryan Van Sickle who makes his home in New York City today.

Usually, artists with perfectly crafted images do not appeal to Blogfoot. After a few listens to Van Sickle's album "Ghosts Of The Brokenhearted" released in March 2011, me was very skeptical. His new EP, "Somewhere In America", changed Blogfoot's mind about him. Sickle's work has become much more emotionally raw and musically complex by distancing itself from the pop sound on his previous album. This development comes just in time to soften the blow of lyrics like "Somewhere in America the brave are growing old, fire is slowly dying, hearts are turning cold ... and all the seeds have blown away".

In this long economic Depression in America, it's refreshing to hear an artist confronting the reality of the situation rather than pretending that "things are swell" as so many modern top 40 artists do with their perfect, flavorless bubble-gum musical contributions to blissful ignorance.

Somewhere In America by Ryan Van Sickle

References:

Ryan Van Sickle.com, Official Site
Bandcamp, Ryan Van Sickle

Shows: They Might Be Giants

2013-02-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

TMBG@The Vogue 05/30/2013

They Might Be Giants will be playing The Vogue in Indianapolis on May 30th 2013.

After two kids albums, They Might Be Giants return to making music intended for gorps with their new album Nanobots released just this year. "They" are John Flansburgh and John Linnell and formed in Lincoln, Massachusetts in 1982. Their 15 studio albums have sold four million copies - not bad for an alternative band whose large following wasn't made on Top 40 radio and MTV. The bands name comes from a chapter in Don Quixote where the hero mistakenly believed that windmills were actually evil giants.

The band broke out of brainy obscurity in 1988 with the album Lincoln and their first hit song "Ana Ng". Their next album, Flood released in 1992, featured two hits. "Particle Man" and "Build A Birdhouse In Your Soul" both were featured in children's programming and commercial broadcasts due to the innate humor and unflinching good nature of the melodies that didn't wander into saccharine meaninglessness but instead created a kind of uplifting release from the repetitive and the mundane. This last bit was something that both kids and adults could enjoy.

After winning two Grammy Awards for scoring and song-writing for television, the band released a fresh and vastly entertaining double album reviewed here at Blog Foot called The Else. Today they are embarking on a new world tour in support of their new album Nanobots. They will also be appearing at the beautiful Madison Theatre in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 3rd 2013.

References:

They Might Be Giants , Official Site
Wikipedia, TMBG
The Vogue, They Might Be Giants Tickets
Rolling Stone, Nanobots