First of all I was completely wrong. The set from Friday night wasn’t so much a testing ground for new music as I prophesied, but a killer, fan-friendly riot. The show was a short, but stellar. It started early, which is lame. I know it isn’t my business endeavor, but a band like Modest Mouse [...]
One of my favorite angry existentialist drunks will be in town tonight and tomorrow! Well, he’s probably not a drunk … anymore. Angst-y genius, Isaac Brock has a way with words. I’m drawn to his honest, raw, and mostly scathing insights about life, death and humanity. What makes them scathing is the unflinching honesty. Like [...]
I got an enewsletter from St. Vincent (customer retention!) with tour info. Of course Orlando dates were nowhere to be seen, but I did see a weekend date at The Tabernacle in Atlanta. On the mind-numbing drive up 75 (maybe not as bad as I-10 through the panhandle) I realize that this may be the [...]
The Saturday Giant will be performing at Natura Coffee & Tea, this Friday, July 26 at 9pm Who are you and where do you come from? I’m Philip Cogley, born in Mississippi, partially raised in northwestern Pennsylvania—but since the age of 8, I’ve been an Ohio boy. Mississippi!? OK, so I have to ask; name? [...]
Built to Spill‘s sound always reminded me of Dinosaur Jr. meets Modest Mouse with a propensity to use crushing guitar interspersed with jangly riffs and a drunken, sad humanist perspective. They also have the same northwestern vibe that MM does with a low-fi approach to live shows that puts an emphasis wholly on the musical [...]
You can call this post a filler if you want – I do – but it is actually interesting to see which videos of the hundreds I’ve captured have the most views. My videos are far from professionally shot. Most are done with a Canon Powershot from just about any vantage I could get. The [...]
Yuck caught my ear when I saw them open for the Smith Westerns at BackBooth where they summarily blew SW off the stage. They were a scraggly bunch with the Smashing Pumpkin / Sonic Youth girl bass player configuration. Like those bands they also wielded a crunching avalanche of sound with their embrace of squelching [...]
Hysterical, the new release from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah sounds anything but. The album is refined and mature. It is closer to Some Loud Thunder being heavier on more elaborate orchestral-type pop arrangements than the thundering disco beats and clean bass lines adorned with jangly duel guitars that made their debut album remind me [...]
Finally! A band named after a technology I could totally use! Modest Mouse frontman, Isaac Brock, discovered some serious talent in Portland via Kentucky’s Morning Teleportation and signed them to his new Glacial Pace record label. Brock also took production duties on the band’s debut album Expanding Anyway. Their sound is frantic and eclectic. They [...]
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah blew me away with their debut album. They were able to create fun, heartfelt rock with the rhythm of Talking Heads and jangly melancholy of Modest Mouse. Their second album, Some Loud Thunder, showed signs of growth, but failed to capture some of the magic of the first. Then they [...]