It was the summer of 2007, and I would soon be turning 17. Like so many others that age, I was depressed and felt powerless. I had been listening to music voraciously for the past 20-21 months. My taste was very eclectic and not limited to one genre like most teens. My two favorite bands were Radiohead and Rage Against The Machine, but I was also a huge fan of Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Primus, Muse, Brand New, Coheed & Cambria, and Boys Night Out. My passion for listening to albums went beyond mere enjoyment. I felt lost inside my own body. I didn’t know who “I” was, so I searched for my identity in music.
It was during this period in my life I finally listened to Nevermind. I knew about the album since middle school, but the hipster in me hated popular things. High schoolers love few things more than Nirvana.
After spinning Nevermind for the first time, I wasn’t impressed. The songwriting was ridiculously simple. Certain tracks were so repetitive and catchy I had a hard time believing Cobain and not some label executive wrote them. I understood roughly 25% of the lyrics. I liked “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and that was it. So I took the album, threw it in a drawer, and forgot about it for a while.
I don’t remember exactly when, but sometime during my junior year I became obsessed with the song “Heart Shaped Box”. Because I was broke, instead of buying In Utero I decided to give Nevermind a second chance. Suddenly, I understood why so many teenagers loved this album and revered Cobain like a god. He was an incredibly beautiful man for starters, but it went beyond mere looks. He was a sloppy guitarist and vocalist, but made music anyway. No matter what problems life threw at him, he was apathetic. His development was arrested as a depressed teenager, so he understood the anger, pain, and confusion of growing up. Best of all, he wouldn't judge you. “Come as you are/As you were/As you always have been”.
Ben Collins’ three-song Ghost Stories EP is one of the best new things I’ve heard in recent memory. That is, the dashing young guitarist for RFC darlings Lightning Love and contributing impetus for Gun Lake (who is most regularly seen with The Hounds Below, fronted by former Von Bondie Jason Stollsteimer). In other words, dude is a bona fide champ.
In one of the more riskier moves of my lifetime, I’d decided to put “Black Stairs,” my favorite song from the album, to the Archie Powell-inspired 74-Play Challenge. It’s risky because, well, it stands to turn my affection for the tune into abject loathing. I hate to think it’s possible, but just the idea it could be makes me apprehensive about even doing this.
But I will, because I have faith that, even through ups and downs, greatness will prevail; the greatness that is Collins’ songwriting. If I didn’t have faith, I wouldn’t even put it to the test, because the last thing I want to do is hate this amazing piece of audible artwork. This isn’t really so much a test or a challenge so much as it is an exercise in proof that this song lives up to my hype.
Listen One: I chose this song because, as I told Collins himself, it’s one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. His voice is gorgeous, and it cracks a little here and there which just goes along beautifully with the acoustic guitar. It’s the melody, really, that gets me. He sings a pattern of notes that is unique and complementary. “So run run, run run, you’re a moving target, you’re easy and you’re fun. Hey hey, these days you’re a wreck.” Apparently it’s a ghost story, but it speaks to me in a different way that I can’t put my finger on. Maybe what it’s saying is, “Hey, that Collins is one hot piece, and feel free to objectify him as long as you also recognize his immense talent. But swoon away. Swoon swoon swoon like you’ve never swooned before.” Don’t mind if I do, ghost story. Don’t mind if I do.
(Editor's Note: Amber Valentine fully endorses the above swooning.)
Upwards of twenty five bucks seems like a lot to spent on a concert when you can head over to venues like Chicago's Empty Bottle or Cleveland's Beachland Tavern and see a night of solid entertainment on most any given day of the week for about six dollars. But when that twenty five plus bones you're shelling out is going for a good cause, it offers you some perspective.
If you don't know about the Pablove foundation, crib notes are as follows: When Dangerbird Records founder Jeff Castelaz lost his son, Pablo, to cancer, he started Pablove, a non-profit that uses all donations received to help find a cure for childhood cancer. One such of these fundraisers is finally hitting the Midwest on January 29th. Head on up to Milwaukee's Turner Hall Ballroom for a bill chalk full of Midwestern talent and Dangerbird alums such as Fitz & The Tantrums, Maritime, Goran (of The Gufs fame), Jaill, Cory Chisel, and more. The whole thing is headlined by an acoustic performance from Brian Aubert and Nikki Monninger of Silversun Pickups. Suddenly, $25 doesn't seem like such a dent in your pocket, does it?
While Silversun Pickups' stripped down set might be the big draw here, I'm personally pumped to see Wisco's own Jaill hitting the stage for the benefit. Why? Well, Jaill's a scuzz rock band so masterfully crafter that it puts Pitchfork darlings Wavves to some serious shame. If you're not into Jaill yet, you might want to start taking note.
Remember, Milwaukee is just a hop-skip-and-a-jump from most Midwestern cities and everyone loves a road tip! Grab your tickets for the Pablove shebang here.
My first experience with Brilliant Pebbles was a startling one, but that’s not saying much. The weirdo glam-rockers are known around Chicago for their mesmerizing, over-the-top performances, and the first time I saw them howling, hurdling and gyrating onstage at the Empty Bottle a couple years back, it was probably just another night for them. I’ve seen Brilliant Pebbles many times since, and each time, leading lady Monika Bukowska is dressed in an even more dazzling getup – I’m talking glitter, tassels, leotards, tutus, and lots of neon spandex.
So it was no surprise when the act announced last year that, after losing a member and gaining two, they would overhaul their sound and dedicate themselves entirely to disco. Lately, they’ve been releasing this new disco music in increasing amounts, last month releasing four tracks on their Soundcloud page (also see their Bandcamp page). It’s some pretty strange stuff featuring heavy synth, dance beats, and Bukowska’s haunting vocals.
Brilliant Pebbles will be playing yet again at the Empty Bottle next month, Friday, February 11 with openers Windbreaker (the solo project of Nick Read from Lazer Crystal) and J+J+J. This event is $8 or FREE if you RSVP to rsvp@emptybottle.com with “Brilliant Pebbles” in the subject line. Until then, check out this new video for “World's Best Dancer” as remixed by Mark Okoh:
As you would expect from a guy who writes for a music blog for free when he has the time to spare, I listen to a ridiculous amount of music. Thanks to my tendency to live by the phrase “There’s no such thing as too much of a good thing” (hint: there is) I listen to more music than even the most obsessed. “Music is my life” is a common phase many people say without grasping its full meaning, but for me it truly is.
Ever since I was introduced to Bob Dylan the summer after my freshman year of college, he’s swallowed up my life to become my favorite artist. I think a more appropriate phrase would be “hero” or “idol”. Everybody has that one person they look up to and compare themselves against. For many, it’s their parents or a favorite teacher. For me, it’s Bob Dylan. I do just about everything short of waking up early to worship him every Sunday morning. No matter where my musical tastes may lie at any given moment, I constantly find myself coming back to binge on his discography again and again.
So for my first installment of Clay’s Countdown I’ve decided to make a list of Bob Dylan’s 10 greatest songs. I was tempted to list my ten favorite Dylan songs, but that would be a huge disservice to both Dylan and his art. I’ve done my absolute best to leave personal bias out of the equation. Instead I judged his songs based on lyrical content, vocal performance, instrumental arrangement, and cultural influence. It was a near impossible task boiling down one of the greatest discographies in music history to a mere ten songs, but I believe I’ve come as close as humanly possible to doing just that. So without further ado, let’s kick things off with number ten.
Despite Dylan being an artist humanity celebrates along the lines of Shakespeare and Picasso, only a very small, select group of my friends voluntarily listens to and appreciates his music. Usually when trying to introduce my friends to Dylan the first song I play for them is “Mr. Tambourine Man”. Sure it isn’t his best song, but Dylan’s vocals are easy on the ears. As far as anyone knows he could be singing about drugs, dreams, or the human imagination.
Although Dylan was the pastor that preached to the hippie congregation, he was notoriously anti-psychedelic. “Mr. Tambourine Man” is the closest Dylan has ever gotten to writing a psychedelic song. Reportedly about Dylan’s first LSD trip, according to sources it was actually inspired by a huge tambourine a friend of his had. Dylan, who’s a huge fan of surrealism, decided to write a surrealist piece of pop-folk worthy of Dali himself. It stands as a testament to “Mr. Tambourine Man”’s strength that when influential rock band The Byrds recorded a tighter, shorter cover it would go on to become their breakout hit.
Unlike most singer-songwriters, Bob Dylan isn’t very personal. Songwriting requires you to take your most painful moments and share them with your audience. Like what Anthony Burgess did with A Clockwork Orange, Dylan hides those troubled memories in his words. It’s so easy to get caught up in his impressive wordplay many times I forget he’s singing about something personal. This is doubly true for his love songs.
"Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right" is a bold exception to the Dylan status quo. His acoustic guitar lines are complex, while his lyrics paint such a vivid picture of the failed relationship they do everything except say who Dylan is kissing off. What solidifies "Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right" head and shoulders above his other break-up songs are the vocals. Dylan’s vocal delivery is usually glue sticky, sandpaper rough, and emotionally sparse. Instead Dylan sounds like he’s about to collaspse into a mess of tears. His vocals sound downright pretty and evoke nostalgia, longing, bitterness, and spite. Dylan’s trademark sloppy but passionate harmonica playing keeps everything feeling familar.
While "Blowin’ In The Wind" went on to become the breakout song on Freewheelin’, "Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right" reminded everyone after he became larger than life, behind the rock ‘n’ roll star facade he was just as vulnerable to emotional scarring as the rest of us.
During his induction into the rock and roll hall of fame, Bruce Springsteen described the opening of Highway 61 Revisited as “A snare shot that sounded like somebody had kicked open the door to your mind.” From there the album continues to astound with the ambitious “Ballad Of A Thin Man” and the fast paced title track. However, the most impressive track on Highway 61 Revisited is album closer “Desolation Row”.
While folk songs have been known to run six or seven minutes, very rarely do they run longer than ten. Besides its length, what makes “Desolation Row” so impressive is its lack of choruses. Through its ten verses and one harmonica break, “Desolation Row” takes you on a journey similar to a great short story or magazine article. Dylan uses his love of surrealism to paint a jarring metaphorical portrait of society. From sailors getting their nails done to Einstein huffing gasoline to cheery postcards depicting public executions.
For Dylan to end his loudest, fastest album with a prog-rock length acoustic song was a daring gambit on an album that was already pushing the envelope, but it paid off. To this day, none of Dylan’s other album closers have quite the same impact as “Desolation Row”.
It’s 8:17 P.M. on a Sunday as I write this. I’m just now emerging out of this weekend’s dreamlike haze that has consumed me for the past 48 hours. My beer-can castle is slowly being deconstructed. The sulfuric smell on my clothes from the firework residue is currently being washed away along with whatever spills remained on my clothes. Tomorrow I return back to being a make-believe productive member of society, where my empty husk will put on a week-long stage production of “Bill at work”. But, for the next 55 minutes, I will remain in my euphoric state with the help of Phantom Buffalo’s Cement Postcard With Owl Colours.
Phantom Buffalo (formerly The Ponys) has been one of Portland, Maine’s longest tenured indie-rock bands. Since 1998, the band has gone from playing basement shows and art schools, to being invited to SXSW and playing shows alongside the likes of Elf Power and theMicrophones. The band’s third full-length release, Cement Postcard With Owl Colours, is a vast release providing almost an hour of profound and comprehensive auditory experience. The opening two tracks, “Listen to the Leaves” and “Greenstar Botanical Airway”, blend seamlessly into one another. Lead singer Jonathan Balzano-Brookes’ voice has a trancelike, falsetto quality about them that reminds me a lot of Chad VanGaalen. His chanting melds perfectly with the chime-like guitar creating a surreal, illusory environment.
“Greenstar” is a slow burn that pays off at the end with reverberating guitar and whipping percussion, ending with Brookes singing “You are the furthest point from the darkest star; you are the black orchid photographer.” Many of Phantom Buffalo’s songs seem like they could be several songs, each with their best parts dissected out and then constructed into magnificent harmoniousness. Songs like “I Bring the Sun and the Nightmares” and “Frogman” could be broken down into four or five separate songs, but their beauty resides in the way the structures and melodies blend effortlessly into one another to create five minute anthems of a sunny, summer afternoon laying in the Eastern Promenade. There are numerous instruments thrown in throughout the album including synth, piano and even accordion which really help to add depth and power to an already tight arrangement of songs.
Deerhoof are a really special band. And this song, from their upcoming Deerhoof VS Evil, makes me feel way euphoric. It's super poppy and addictive, while singularly unpredictable and progressive. Like, it's a Deerhoof song!
The morning I watched this, I scoured the internet for a means by which to download the song (the MP3 is currently only available for streaming, and the video was only on pitchfork.tv) so I could loop and write to it. It was such a powerful, immediate reaction, the kind that we're always looking for when we choose to click on a random link or go to a show. Also, I really want her glitter. I know people say things like that and mean it as a joke, but soon enough you'll find out one way or another that I am not kidding in the least. Or at least my mom will.
Deerhoof VS Evil will be released worldwide January 25. Right now, the band is leaking the album track by track on a weekly basis so if you like/love what you heard hear you should maybe check that out!
Something bothers me about lo-fi. It took me a while to put a finger on it, but I did. You see, there was this time when musicians could not produce a quality recording with clear fidelity because they were priced out of it; the equipment, the mixers, the engineers. Producing a fine recording was a badge of honor for some, while others just wanted something more than a basement recording to accurately capture their live sound. Nowadays, lo-fi feels artificial to its high quality, now comparatively cheap recording bretheran (alas of Garageband). Now, how do you capture that core essence of a live performance in a recording? Do as The Builders and The Butchershave done on their upcoming album, Dead Reckoning.
Captured with calculated care in practically solely live takes, with singer Ryan Sollee isolated to keep clear vocals, the Portland folk rockers aligned their cannons, roped up their ship of aspirations and take their live show sound under seige this recording time. Adam Selzer (who helped The Decemberists) helped wittle their songs with a precision you heard more on Castaways and Cutouts than The Hazards of Love. Take a listen to "Lullaby," then mount the crow's nest in hopes to see The Builders and the Butchers on the horizon of Lake Michigan soon.
The guys from Color Card have been making music together for years, previously under the name Westerly. I’ve come across the experimental three-piece a few times now, opening for bands in various venues around Chicago; however, I was never able to bring their sounds home with me, because they’d yet to release an album. But this January, they’ll finally drop their first official release, Zegary.
Self-recorded and self-released, Zegary is a 5-song EP of dreamy, atmospheric experimental. "Tesseract," for example, opens with shaking maraca and a gentle synth melody, broken up by murmured vocals and calming mechanical hums and buzzes. And my favorite, “Champion,” features ethereal vocals and a delicate rhythm backed by choppy, off-kilter percussion and synth beats, ultimately ending in a mechanized clatter and an eerie quiet.
While the physical copy is set for release January 11, the digital version is available right now on Color Card’s Bandcamp. You can stream or download it for free, and if you like it, donate some cash and they’ll send you a physical copy.
A couple years back during my British and twee pop binge, I stumbled upon several bands from those isles that have since burst forth. One such did not come from England, but rather Sweden. Dominated by the likes of Peter, Bjorn and John, or Lykke Li, or Fever Ray, or Robyn, it is hard enough to break through that towering wall of talent. Those Dancing Days are just about to on the heels of their debut album. Less rock than "Run Run" off their debut, the next album's "I'll Be Yours" takes Britpop guitar and layers over some of the best female chorused vocals you'll find of any indie pop group. Think Eisley-quality harmonies over joyful ruckus indie pop. Or just listen to the track below. Sweden's Those Dancing Days will be hitting SXSW and America later this year.
I’ll be the first to admit, it took me awhile to get The Kinks.
Actually, let’s amend that: I always “got” The Kinks. They were one of those heady influence bands, the kind the musicians you really admire would namedrop or cover b-sides. They stood as pop-rock iconoclasts; smarter than the Stones, looser than the Beatles, less pretentious than the Who.
And they were innovators: “You Really Got Me,” with its distorted guitar riff apparently invented and mumbled, gruff vocals apparently invented heavy metal and punk. Village Green Preservation Society is of great pop importance. Wes Anderson uses them in his movies to great effect. That song with the Caribbean steel drum.
That is to say: I understood them from an intellectual perspective. I comprehended their importance and found no reason to argue with it.
Still, The Kinks have long eluded me as a band I really felt. I’ve listened to a far bit of ‘em and never particularly enjoyed much. Village Green has some fairly fun moments and those early singles are solid, but songs like “Lola,” “Plastic Man,” “Celluloid Heroes,” and the aforementioned “Come Dancing” blur the line between earnest rock and novelty songs. Not bad, per se, just a bit too silly for a stoic young man such as yours truly.
That in mind, the one song by the Kinks I remember my father playing for me as a kid which I have a fondness for to this day is “Strangers.” Figures it’d be a Dave Davies song (as opposed to his more prolific brother Ray), but the emotion in it simply slays me. You listen to it and you can’t help but ache when he yowls, “If I live too long, I’m afraid I’ll die.” Its simple and mournful, yet oddly optimistic: the idea that you go through life mostly alone and the people walking beside are as strangers to you, but really, you’re never alone since you’re walking it together. It’s a “Footsteps in the Sand” type sentiment, but subtly and expertly done.
Thus, when I saw that Wye Oak, a band I was vaguely aware of but wasn’t terribly familiar with was doing a cover of it for the AV Club’s Undercover series (a font of great bands doing wonderful covers), I was intrigued to say the least. They seemed to have all the right elements to perk my interest: comely female guitar player/singer, drummer who plays keyboards while drumming, rootsy + noise feel.
This… I legitimately wasn’t prepared for this. Honestly. Jenn Wasner’s voice just enthralls me. By the end of the first chorus, she’s got me drafting marriage proposals on the back of cocktail napkins. By the time she launches in to a freewheeling, shambling guitar solo, I’ve named our children Mortimer and Bettina and have started a college fund. The harmonies, the simplicity of that noisy shimmering guitar, it’s the sound of absolute conviction and a band performing to their strengths. Listen to it, I feel blissfully buzzed, one and a half Long Island Iced Teas in (as opposed my usual 3) and just feeling the sway.
Check it out and feel momentarily hopeful you wont die alone and unloved.
Editor's note: Hey! Wye Oak will be at The Riv with The Decemberists on February 4th! That's neat! Maybe you should go!
In the early ’90s, well-known rapper Ice-T made a foray into hard-driving rock music with his band Body Count. While this move never overshadowed his rap career (though arguably his stab at acting sort of has) it did stir up a lot of controversy that nobody's ever really forgotten. "Cop Killer" was originally part of the band's self-titled debut album but rapidly became the target of many a protest for its violent sentiments, the "Mortal Kombat" of the music industry.
The lyrics are a first-person account of a character enraged by police brutality who's hellbent on getting even, though some thought it incriminated Ice-T as homicidal. People were offended by lines such as "Tonight'll be your night/ I got this long-ass knife/ and your neck looks just right," and boycotted the song for being hostile towards law enforcment. As referenced on Wikipedia, T defended the track with the statement, "If you believe that I'm a cop killer, you believe David Bowie is an astronaut."
He was so upset by the attacks, that the song was later removed from the album in its 1992 re-release. But if history tells us anything, it's those things that cause controversy that stand the test of time. Haters and supporters alike give it more attention to counter one another and it can grow legs that surpass entire bodies of work. Even people who don't care to know the song know the song.
With a Marc Bianchi sweetness to his voice, Rosenblatt sings "Die, Die, Die Pig, Die," and throws in a chipper whistle after the first chorus that almost makes you forget you're listening to a song about vengeful murder.
In 2008 Scooter Braun was surfing YouTube when he stumbled across then unknown Justin Bieber. Braun recognized this kid was a potential goldmine and quickly became his manager. Within a few weeks, Braun scheduled a meeting between Bieber and legendary R&B artist Usher. Bieber showed Usher his chops and Usher, who also realized this kid could make him some serious bank, helped Bieber get signed to Island Records.
Bieber’s first album My World was released on November 17th, 2009. Within a few months it went Platinum and Bieber became the first artist to have seven singles from a debut album peak on the Billboard Hot 100. On March 23, 2010 Bieber released an updated version of My World, the creatively named My World 2.0, which went on to achieve the same success as its predecessor.
Let’s get something straight, Justin Bieber’s music sucks harder than a Dyson vacuum. He’s yet another attractive, talented singer who isn’t so much an artist as he is a product that was created by his label. His lyrics are so banal I wouldn’t be surprised if he wrote them himself.
Normally I wouldn’t take time out of my life to write an article about an “artist” like Bieber, but something strange has happened in the wake of his success. Justin Bieber has amassed the largest hatedom I can think of in recent memory. Mere mention of his name on late night talk shows is enough for the crowd to erupt in a sea of boos. Endless Internet articles and TV shows make jokes about how he hasn’t hit puberty yet, his questionable sexuality, and why he deserves to die a slow, painful death. It’s a bit extreme, and it scares and intrigues me a little.
Here’s the thing, in the music world, Justin Bieber is nothing new. Throughout music history there have been countless attractive vocalists who become products of their label, have other people write their songs for them, and amass unprecedented amounts of success. Because to most people music is background noise. Rick Astley, Brittney Spears, any 90s boy band that wasn’t N*SYNC, “artists” like these have been so frequent throughout music history that I’m surprised people bat an eyelash at Bieber. Let alone get so worked up they start spouting death threats.
For the love of common sense, he’s just a kid. What the hell did he ever do to you? Nobody is forcing you to listen to his shitty music. I have never heard a single Justin Bieber song, and don’t plan on starting unless Amber forces me to. Why get so worked up? It makes no sense. It’s not that hard to ignore him.
What annoys me is at the most basic level, Bieber is at least talented. Call him a flaming-homo-faggot-lesbian all you want, but the kid has got a golden voice. While on the other end of the spectrum, RFC writers whose taste and writing I respect put KeSha’s Animal on their top albums of 2010 list. Ke$ha is ugly, she autotunes every song, and her lyrics are somehow (impossibly) more banal and repetitive than Bieber’s. I’ve been unfortunate enough to hear “Tik Tok” at parties, viral videos, and even a Simpsons episode. Her music is so bad it makes me resent the fact I have ear drums and a brain to transpose vibrations into sound. Unlike Bieber, who at the very least has talent, she’s has absolutely zero redeeming qualities. Yet, when I ask my friends about her I get the response “she’s good party music” and absolutely zero death threats.
You do realize all this hate is only making Bieber richer right? In the music business, infamy is every bit as valuable as good press. For every death threat and viral video of him getting smacked in the face with a water bottle, yet another schmuck discovers his crappy music and becomes a fan. By all means continue to imagine you’re hurting his reputation while Bieber, Braun, and Island records drown in Olympic swimming pools of hundred dollar bills. If you really hate Bieber, here’s what you should do. Ignore him. Never mention him again. Pretend like he doesn’t exist. Then make Radio Free Chicago your homepage, read every article, download every MP3 we host, and tell all your friends about us. It’s our job to have good taste in music and spread it around. The artists we review on this site are toiling away in obscurity because they love what they do more than eating and having nice things. Put your love to good use and hit Bieber where it really hurts, his wallet.
I’m sure this article has pissed some of you off because I suggested that maybe Justin Bieber doesn’t deserve to rot in hell for making shitty music. Now, as a music blog I’m obligated to leave you with a free MP3. I don’t own any of Justin Bieber’s music nor would I be caught dead recommending it to you, so instead I’ll leave you with the opening track off Bad Brains debut album Bad Brains. They’re the best hardcore punk band to ever exist and really indie to this day. Consider it a reward for making it this far.
Over the many months of delving into bands from the Midwest, I learned to take note of one man’s name above all else; Ann Arbor’s Jim Roll. I’m sure many of you are familiar with this wonderful man. He is not only a member of Drunken Barn Dance, but has also recorded some of the Midwest’s best including RFC favorites Chris Bathgate, Frontier Ruckus and Breathe Owl Breathe. One of his latest recording efforts was with Ann Arbor’s ownLight In August (Though now based out of LA, but we know where lead man Alex Wand's roots are!) The sophomore effort Sweater Weather may run just around half an hour, but every minute is used to bring an understated richness from the album's nine tracks.
The opening track “Muse (Part I)” is a wonderful example of the type of album that Sweater Weather is. It takes an abundant blend of instruments; Rachel Woolf’s charming flute, Dan Piccolo’s tabla, front-man Alex Wand’s sitar and more; and sets the table for what is just an incredibly temperate and inviting album. This leads into “The First of May”, who’s muted strumming and gentle whistling combines with the lyrics to paint a picture of spring in full bloom. All the while Scott Brown’s upright bass walks us through fields of blossoming magnolias.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting at my apartment in Portland, Maine. I was in the living room, the sun soaked floor casting glow back onto all corners of the room as I thumbed through the pages of the Portland Phoenix. The cool fall air filtered in through the window, filling my lungs with it’s refreshing aroma. That’s when the call came. It’s something I couldn’t have expected, something no one ever expects. My maroon 1989 Chevy Lumina Euro Edition, which was residing peacefully back in New Hampshire, had turned it’s engines over for the last time. There’d be no more late night 7-11 runs. No more Guns N’ Roses sing-alongs while the summer warmth stung our faces.
This is the pain I can only imagine the members of RFC favorite Frontier Ruckus also felt. Recently Dessie, their 15-passenger Ford Super Club Wagon, was sent into, as the band put it, “worn-out, early retirement”. The past year of the band’s extensive touring has taken it’s toll on Dessie, but Frontier Ruckus is determined to continue to spread their music throughout the country with the purchase of a new touring vehicle. And hopefully with your help, this goal can come to fruition sooner rather than later! You see, the guys are currently holding a “Dessie’s Retirement FUNraiser” to help gather the money needed to purchase a suitable vehicle. This is where YOU, the faithful RFC reader (and obvious Frontier Ruckus fan) can help!
The band is offering up rare Frontier Ruckus treats with SEVEN different donation packages. No matter how much you are able to donate, you’re getting a
Bundle 0 -$10 - Trinity Thaw demos (the recordings that led to Deadmalls & Nightfalls)
Bundle 1 - $20 - Trinity Thaw demos and two rare, live recordings (at Noordbroek and Eddie's Attic)
Bundle 2 - $40 - Trinity Thaw demos, the two live recordings, two tickets to an upcoming show AND dinner with the band! (One could only assume this includes delightful dinner banter! What a deal!)
Bundle 3 -$75 - Trinity Thaw demos, the two live recordings, two tickets to an upcoming show AND a live 30 minute live set on Skype where YOU get to choose the setlist! (It’s your chance to play God!)
Bundle 4 - $150 - Trinity Thaw demos, the two live recordings, two tickets to an upcoming show, a digital download of Deadmalls & Nightfalls and The Orion Songbook, The Orion Songbook vinyl (2xLP DROOL!), a Frontier Ruckus t-shirt, a personalized song written by Matt Milia with hand-written lyrics for the personalized song! (Seriously, that is a total steal at 150 bucks)
Bundle 5 - $300 - Trinity Thaw demos, the two live recordings, two tickets to an upcoming show, a digital download of Deadmalls & Nightfalls and The Orion Songbook, a limited edition I Am The Water You Are Pumping EP, The Orion Songbook vinyl (2xLP, still drooling…), a live 30 minute live set on Skype, a Frontier Ruckus t-shirt, a personalized song written by Matt Milia with hand-written lyrics for the song and, on top of that, your choice of banjo or saw lessons (Take it from me guys, chicks dig a dude who plays the banjo and saw).
Bundle 6 - $1000 - Trinity Thaw demos, the two live recordings, two tickets to an upcoming show, a digital download of Deadmalls & Nightfalls and The Orion Songbook, a limited edition I Am The Water You Are Pumping EP, The Orion Songbook vinyl (2xLP, still drooling…), a live 30 minute live set on Skype, a Frontier Ruckus t-shirt, a personalized song written by Matt Milia with hand-written lyrics for the song AND a house concert for you and your friends!
Think about it folks, there isn’t a bad deal in that whole list of options. Plus, it’s all win-win. Not only do you get to swipe some totally remarkable and rare Frontier Ruckus goods, you get to help them towards getting a new touring vehicle that will hopefully land in YOUR town sometime soon! Have a group of Frontier Ruckus fans? Pool your money and go in on a package together! At the very least, grab the Trinity Thaw demos. It’s a perfect addition to your music library. The band has made almost $1,500 so far, and there’s still a few weeks left to donate. Let’s honor Dessie in the best way we can, by ensuring the remarkable music of Frontier Ruckus can continue to make it’s way across the country in the years to come!
Brilliant Pebbles Release Funky New Disco Music
So it was no surprise when the act announced last year that, after losing a member and gaining two, they would overhaul their sound and dedicate themselves entirely to disco. Lately, they’ve been releasing this new disco music in increasing amounts, last month releasing four tracks on their Soundcloud page (also see their Bandcamp page). It’s some pretty strange stuff featuring heavy synth, dance beats, and Bukowska’s haunting vocals.
Brilliant Pebbles - Why (Bronski Beat Cover)
Brilliant Pebbles will be playing yet again at the Empty Bottle next month, Friday, February 11 with openers Windbreaker (the solo project of Nick Read from Lazer Crystal) and J+J+J. This event is $8 or FREE if you RSVP to rsvp@emptybottle.com with “Brilliant Pebbles” in the subject line. Until then, check out this new video for “World's Best Dancer” as remixed by Mark Okoh:
Jan 19, 2011 6:01:00 AM | Commentary, Downloads