IFC.com - Indie Ear

Attend a Live Ting Tings Concert Right Now

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:59:20 -0500

If you've never seen or heard The Ting Tings live, you could do the latter right now. Their July 22nd performace at the 9:30 Club (Washington D.C.) was recorded live for NPR's All Songs Considered program.

(left: Katie White, one-half of The Ting Tings.)

To listen to the show, click HERE, then click on The Ting Tings Live In Concert under the headline: The Ting Tings Light It Up.

"Give It Up" for Corn Mo

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:38:16 -0500

Anytime I can support Corn Mo and his backing band .357 Lover on the Indie Ear blog, you better believe that I'm going to do it. If you've never seen Corn Mo live in action, just close your eyes and envision Meatload, Sam Kinison, Freddie Mercury, and your favorite "big rock" band from the 70/80's melted down into one musical act. Throw in a masterful rock-star falsetto, an accordion, and an affinity for old-school professional wrestling and you've got yourself Corn Mo.

(left: This is he, the one, the only: Corn Mo!)

Corn Mo is offering up a free download of his song "Give It Up" on his myspace page, and if you're in Danbry, CT this weekend attending Safe To Swim Weekend, you can catch him on the WXCI Stage at 6PM.

Can You Read Music?

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:13:15 -0500

San Francisco indie rock odd-balls, Deerhoof, are asking fans to contribute cover versions of their song "Fresh Born," which will be included on their forthcoming album, Offend Maggie (October 7).

The song hasn't officially been released yet, so unless you've heard it performed live, you probably have no idea what it sounds like. You may be asking yourself, "How can fans make a cover for a song they haven't heard?" Simple, Deerhoof has released sheet-music for the song right HERE.

Here are some current re-makes of "Fresh Born" (sheet music was passed out at a recent show in Brooklyn).

Bouncing Souls Mini-Tour, Yey!

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:54:42 -0500

Because punk rock bands never stop touring (even those that have earned their stripes and rest among the punk rock gods), The Boucning Souls kick off a mini-tour tonight in Mansfield, MA. The Jersey punk legends just finished doing a leg of the Warped Tour (God bless those fellas)!

(left to right: Bryan Kienlen, Michael McDermott, The Pete, Greg Attonito)

P.S. I'm super excited about the show in New York City (Sept. 19), the Souls will be sharing a bill with Sick Of It All!

07.23 - Mansfield, MA
07.24 - Darien Center, NY
07.25 - Camden, NJ
08.06 - Sturgis, SD
08.22 - Morrison, CO
09.06 - Portland, OR
09.19 - New York City, NY
09.20 - Asbury Park, NJ
09.21 - Philadelphia, PA

SUPER TUESDAY: New Album Releases (July 22)

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:39:57 -0500

CSS, Donkey (left)
The #11 Greatest Vowel-less Band on the planet is about to make a move up the list.

Dr. Dog, Fate
Philly's finest.

Black Kids, Partie Traumatic
When I get a chance (sort of inspired by a conversation with the Pesin sisters) I'm going to organize an all-out Battle Royal with "black" bands (Keys, Lips, Dice, Rebel Motorcycle Club, etc.).

Skillz, The Million Dollar Backpack
It's what's in the backpack that makes it so valuable.

Del McCoury's Moneyland

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:20:06 -0500

On this week's episode of Lunchbox, we chat with bluegrass legend, Del McCoury, who recently compiled an album entitled, Moneyland, to raise awareness for the many American working-class families losing their homes, jobs, and farms.

McCoury's website is also having a contest for young filmmakers, in which they can take a track from the Moneyland album and make a short film about it. All the details are HERE.

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Pitchfork 2008...Best of the Rest!

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:53:01 -0500

BIGGEST WASTE OF WATER AWARD

In the age of bottled-water, this may seem a little disgusting, but the Pitchfork Festival had some fountains cranking out some good 'ol Chicago tap water (which was mighty good). For some reason, this particular faucet wouldn't shut off. Because I'm down with a little water conservation every now and then, I tried my best to stop this fountain from running. The water fountain won.

DOWN FOR THE CAUSE AWARD

On a 90-degree day with the sun beating down on festival goers, this fan of Ghostface Killah & Raekwon braved it all and wore his black (100% cotton) Wu-Tang Clan shirt. You know how some shirts are worn until they become a light, sheer material? Well, this wasn't one of them. I'm getting sunburn just thinking about it.

Highlights From Pitchfork (Day #3)

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:26:21 -0500

No rain today, just a lot of hot summer sun to end this year's Pitchfork Festival. Here's a quick recap of Day #3:

The Apples In Stereo
Robert Schneider and crew treated everyone to a fun afternoon set. C'mon, how can you not have fun with the bubbly, positive, and upbeat Apples In Stereo? Schneider seemed to be a wee bit affected by the heat, guzzling down water after every few songs. At one point in the set he apologized to the fans, "Sorry I'm drinking so much water, but I'm sweating a lot and you can only sweat so much until you run out of it." Schneider's best piece of stage banter though came moments before playing "The Rainbow." Schneider told the audience, "Here's a true story for you, every time we've played this song at a festival a big rainbow has appeared in the sky--I keep my eyes closed--but yes, a rainbow appears every single time."

King Kahn and the Shrines
King Kahn's best piece of audience advice? "C'mon sing from your ovaries! Scream from your balls!"

Les Savy Fav
Let's just say LSF's frontman, Tim Harrington, made use of every second of his band's set. Going through various stage costumes (which also included a head-band with a special head-band-cam), Harrington body surfed in a garbage can, rolled around in the mud, made jokes about Prince being in attendance ("Hi little guy--you can't see him cause he's so short), and spit water onto the audience claiming it was "special dream making juice."

(right: Les Savy Fav's Tim Harrington all cleaned up after his mud-drenched performance.)

Ghostface Killah & Raekwon
So-so performance. I appreciated the fact they wore red color coordinated t-shirts (with matching white towels draped over their shoulders), but it's hard to turn the crowd into a full-on tizzy with only two-ninths of the Wu-Tang Clan.

Spiritualized
The band whose music sounded most like their band name today. No better way to describe it.

Dinosaur Jr.
I'm a little behind on my Dinosaur Jr. updates, but I didn't even realize Lou Barlow had reunited with J. Mascis. Good to see him back in the band. And good for Lou Barlow, gettin' double the payday at this year's Pitchfork (playing with Sebadoh a couple nights earlier).

(left: I was a little bummed that J. Mascis wasn't wearing his signature pair of black-rimmed eyeglasses, but he was back with Lou Barlow, so I guess I can't complain.)

Cut Copy
I was actually scheduled to interview Cut Copy today for an episode on Lunchbox until I got the following e-mail from their management:

I just found out that Cut Copy is dealing with ridiculous flight delays leaving San Francisco (do to amongst other things a broken air conditioning system on the plane--I kid you not).

We have to cancel the press they had scheduled before their set as they won't be landing in Chicago now until 6:30PM.

(right: Thousands of people waiting and waiting and waiting to see Cut Copy.)

At 8:35PM, when Cut Copy was scheduled to perform, they were still missing in action. In a rather odd twist of events, Deerhunter (in an out-of-character t-shirt and pair of blue jeans) came on stage and said that the band was still at the airport. King Kahn then joined him as they took part in an impromptu jam session.

More than half of the fans waiting to see Cut Copy made a mass exodus across the concert grounds to watch Spoon close out the festival. At approximately 9:38PM, Cut Copy rushed on stage, plugged in their keyboards, and played four songs before hitting the 10PM curfew. It was a glorious four songs, but alas, it was only four songs, which made me wonder if the Pitchfork organizers only had to pay Cut Copy for four songs-worth of material?

(left: No better way to take the edge off a 3-day music festival in the hot summer sun than sipping a frothy chocolate milkshake at Chicago's legendary Margie's, established in 1921! Gotta love that bonus cup too!)

Some Pitchfork Pics from Day 2...

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:17:34 -0500

Lots of rain which meant lots of mud, but hey, we got to hang with Jay Reatard and Vampire Weekend, so it wasn't all bad...

LIVE: Dizzee Rascal (Pitchfork '08)

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:33:59 -0500

Amazingly, Dizzee Rascal churned out one of the most crowd-friendly sets of the day--also one of the funniest.

(left: Dizzee Rascal, maybe the only artist at this year's Pitchfork Festival who will publicly admonish the soundman.)

It's been a few years since I've seen Dizzee perform live, but in those few years he's grown as both a performer and entertainer. Anyone familiar with his quick-fire rhyme flow knows that he's spittin' hundreds of words per minute, and somehow, he never runs out of breath--the kryptonite of many stateside MC's. He does have a hypeman, Scope, but for the most part Dizzee carries most of the rhymeload on his own.

LIVE: Jay Reatard (Pitchfork '08)

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:19:23 -0500

Today was the first time I witnessed Jay Reatard live in action. Some of you Indie Ear bloggers may recognize him as the man that took out #2 seed Mars Volta in this year's Indie Ear Madness tournament. I told you then and I'm telling you now, the kid is a prime time player, baby!

(left: Hell yes! A flying-V bass and a flying-V guitar!)

Though early afternoon festival performances are sometimes a snooze, Jay Reatard and crew (Billy Hayes and Buzz Melvin look-a-like, Stephen Pope) brought their bouncy-garage-punk to Chicago and even managed to whip up a little mosh pit--the first I've seen at Pitchfork this weekend.

LIVE: Public Enemy (Pitchfork '08)

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 04:27:08 -0500

Because I grew up on Public Enemy, and because It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back is one of my favorite hip-hop albums of all-time, I was both thrilled out of my mind and scared to death to see P.E. perform it in its entirety.

(left: Nothing like taking pictures of Chuck D on the jumbo-tron when the lighting gets bad.)

On one hand, if done correctly, by letting the Bomb Squad's instrumentals breath freely on the turntables and hoping that Chuck D and Flavor Flav could co-exist in perfect harmony, this performance could be downright legendary. On the other hand, if Public Enemy's backing band decided to overpower the turntable mix--and if Flavor Flav was given too much free time to self-promote on the microphone--this performance could be a car wreck. Why such cynicism? Well, let's just say I saw a TV show once where Bridgette Nielson joined Public Enemy on stage and it almost made me weep.

LIVE: Sebadoh (Pitchfork '08)

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:20:42 -0500

Having Sebadoh play their Bubble and Scrape album in its entirety sounds good on paper, but executing it live is a different story.

Let me explain:

When Sebadoh was actually playing their distorted little gems from their 1993 album, they sounded great, sounded relevant, sounded like they should be touring the world today. But here's the problem--and I'm sure when the band recorded Bubble and Scrape they never realized that they'd be playing the album from beginning to end some 15 years later--the three members of Sebadoh share lead singing duties on the album's 17 tracks. Not only that, but between every couple songs, there would be a minute-and-a-half stop-down as Lou Barlow, Eric Gaffney, and Jason Loewenstein swapped instruments (any momentum they built up with the previous song was gone before they began each new tune).

(left to right: Eric Gaffney, Lou Barlow, and Jason Loewenstein)

LIVE: Mission Of Burma (Pitchfork '08)

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 01:41:31 -0500

Mission of Burma kicked off this year's Pitchfork Festival by performing their landmark album, Vs., from start to finish. No diss on early 80's recording techniques or even the re-mastered version of Vs. that was later released, but Mission of Burma sounded better live than on disc. Just like a good bowl of porridge, the bass was warm, and the drums and guitar sounded crisp, or as the bear in Goldilocks would say, "just right."

(left to right: Peter Prescott, Roger Miller, Clint Conley)

See You at The Pitchfork Festival This Weekend!

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:09:48 -0500

These are my nieces. They will not be at the Pitchfork Festival this weekend (although come Saturday afternoon I'm sure I'll be wishing they were there shooting me with their water guns).

But guess who will be going? Yes, yours truly. I'll be blogging all weekend long, so if you can't make it to Chicago, check back here daily for all the happenings, and if you are at Pitchfork, feel free to say hey.

Slop on the sunscreen and let the fun begin!