It’s funny how these things work out. You host a band. they have a good time. They tell their friends to play your house show. That’s how MANNERS, a.k.a. Greg Beson, heard about BackForty sOOkr33m’s. His friends Peace, Loving, from the Whitehaus Collective in Boston, told him about the venue. As a result, MANNERS will be performing in Denver on August 28. [..]
Cabin have posted an official music video out for their new song Among the Rectangles. It’s entertaining. Definitely worth a watch. [..]
It’s been reported by Rolling Stone that Mark Linkous, frontman of Sparklehorse committed suicide. [..]
There’s a song by Jason Anderson called O’Jac that has been on my playlist for almost two years. When my GF and I went on a trip last year we played air guitar and air piano and air drums to the track almost daily. [..]
Josh Ritter will be releasing his new album, So Runs the World Away, in Ireland on April 23rd. It will be released everywhere else on May 4th. Josh will be touring Ireland and the USA to support the release, and to build anticipation, Mr. Ritter has released a free download of one of the new songs, Change in Time, on his website. Listen Below… [..]
I was scoping the music blogs today and I found out about Beck’s project, Record Club. I’ve never been a huge fan of Beck, but he definitely is passionate about quality, heart-felt music. I think Record Club further demonstrates that claim. [..]
TO A FRIEND:
Are you crazy? Willy Mason is in town and you’re going to miss it? Please don’t make me sad. I guarantee if you go to this show you’ll thank me. You’ll get on your knees and pray. You get on iTunes and download Willy album Where The Human Eat, and album that got me through a horrible breakup and hopefully will get you through the rest of the Winter. [..]
Damn. This really is a surprise and a loss to the music world. Jay Reatard was an undeniable force, with a reputation for being a total pain in the ass. His unique sound and immense talent was undoubtedly still evolving when, at only 29, he died in his sleep 0n Wednesday morning. Check out his blog here for updates. [..]
I once got made fun of on the Internet for making a sports video with Arcade Fire in the background. I believe the YouTube comment was,”this movie sucks and the indie shit music is ghay.” I felt proud of the harassment. I finally got someone to comment.
Ben Sisario of the New York Times declared the death of “indie rock” in his article today, When Indie-Rock Genres Outnumber the Bands. Ben’s argument is simple: As indie rock has expanded into hundreds of subgenres the term has grown to mean everything and nothing. When a friend asks “what type of music do you listen to?” you better be ready – “indie” doesn’t cut it anymore.
I agree with everything Ben says in his article – too many bands. The scene is too big tent. Kinda feels like the indie rock roller coaster has been climbing, ticking to the top of a very large drop, which isn’t far away. But I feel the end is coming for another reason.
Here’s a list of things that make me think the end is near:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwEupAQReCs]
So what’s next? Well, I see a return to the acoustic. A return to the hippie indie rock. Think Rusted Root, not Ryan Adams. Please, don’t take this too literally, but I think Animal Collective has proven in the last few years that an abstract ‘hippie jam band’ can fit into popular culture given the right touch.
Other than that, I think it will just be harder to discover talent. Most of the good stuff will be packaged and distributed to us via high cost concerts and simplistic advertising letting us know their company understands us.
Novels is a group comprised of Graham Wright from Tokyo Police Club, Luke Lalonde from Born Ruffians, Will Curie from Will Curie & The Country French, Dean Marino from Ex-po, and Jason Sadlowski from Jay Sad. Yes, it’s a Canadian power pop super group.
They have decided to release an album of 5 songs, which were recorded 24 hour recording marathon, and distribute through grassroots methods. They state on their website after free download:
Again thanks for downloading these songs!
Feel free to give the URL to your friends and have them download it too!
After you do that burn it to a CD!
Burn it to a few CDs. Give one to the girl that works at the coffee shop. Leave one in the library. Leave one on the bus seat. Put one in a random mailbox. Find a random address and mail it to them. We just want people to have this music and to share how much fun we have had with it.If you do end up burning some CDs take a photo and send it to us. We want to see where you have hidden the CD or the people you have given it to.
I’ve done my part by providing FREE downloads of all 5 songs on our Box file share widget (in the right column) for your enoyment. My favorite songs are No Hard Feelings by Graham Wright and Big Run by Luke Lalonde.
That’s not all. documentary film maker Wade Vroom put together a 35 minute documentary called, Novels The Movie. It will be showcased at many festivals, including Pop Montreal.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/6491930]
