This is an online music fan zine. Please support music and musicians by going to shows, purchasing CDs, buying a damn T-shirt!
All mp3s are posted here with permission from the artists/labels/PR folks, and for a very brief time. If you have any issues with content on this zine please email me; atartytart@gmail.com I'm addicted to my Iphone, darlins'... I'll get back to you.
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Shilpa Ray is back, with a new album coming out in January and I couldn’t be more pleased to tell you about it! Did you catch her at CMJ this year? Remember when she came to Chicago in April, ’09? We were thrilled to hear her. We were enthralled with her energy, her sort of devil-may-care, think-what-you-will way she performs (that’s a harmonium, a free-standing accordion-like instrument, like a reed-organ.) Her band was completely professional and yet really fun. But Shilpa herself was barely contained, a bit wild, a bit on the verge of well, you just weren’t quite sure what. And that was what was so compelling about her. You hear it in her voice when you listen to the recordings, but when you see her live, it hits you smack in the face – that hint of unpredictability. These two new songs, from Teenage and Torture, give a feel of what I’m trying to describe here. “Heaven in Stereo,” with the way that verse is just belted out, belies the real effort that Shilpa puts into her art and especially into her live show, while “Venus Shaver” takes us down a more familiar melodic path, one that her voice is equally suited to and that proves just how versatile a songwriter she truly is. Do not miss Shipla Ray and her Happy Hookers when they come play by you, their music is poignant and memorable. I eagerly look forward to this album, this artist is only beginning to show us her chops.
Upcoming Tour Dates: *= w/ Acid Mothers Temple
JANUARY
21 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl (Record Release w/ Hooray For Earth, Soft Black)
22 – Buffalo, NY – Mohawk Place
MARCH
23 – Los Angeles, CA – Spaceland*
24 – San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill*
26 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge*
27 – Bellingham, WA – The Wild Buffalo*
28 – Seattle, WA – Chop Suey*
29 – Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret*
31 – Calgary, AB – Broken City*
APRIL
01 – Missoula, MT – The Badlander*
02 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge*
03 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge*
04 – Lincoln, NE – Bourbon Theatre*
05 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry*
06 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle*
07 – Kalamazoo, MI – The Strutt*
08 – Toronto, ON – El Mocambo*
09 – Montreal, QC – Il Motore*
10 – Allston, MA – Great Scott*
11 – Milford, CT – Daniel Street*
13 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brendas*
14 – Washington, DC – Red Palace*
15 – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar*
16 – Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506*
17 – Knoxville, TN – Pilot Light*
18 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl*
19 – New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jacks*
20 – Houston, TX – Fitzgeralds*
21 – Dallas, TX – The Loft*
22 – Austin, TX – Red 7*
I have heard these song for ages (well, one since August ’09) and when “Elephants & Little Girls” popped into my inbox last week with the announcement that Loch Lomond has signed to Portland label, Tender Loving Empire, I was very thrilled to hear the news! This past Spring, Matthew, over at Song, by Toad, put out a split 12″ (with the Builders and the Butchers) and an EP, Night Bats by just them on his own label.
What you see below is video of Loch Lomond performing “Elephants & Little Girls” in Matthew’s living room, with Neil and Chris of Meursault singing backup. I think it’s very special and illuminates the song in a particularly personal way for anyone who might think this kind of music is staged or stilted. I hate the term “chamber pop.”
And for you Portlanders, from the Press Release: “To celebrate their signing of the band, the label is throwing the Tender Loving Empire Winter Formal, featuring Ritchie Young of Loch Lomond with the Loch Lomond Chamber Orchestra, Pancake Breakfast, and Aan on December 2nd at the Woods in Portland, OR. The show is $15 but all during November, Tender Loving Empire will be GIVING away FREE TICKETS to this show just by doing some holiday shopping at the Tender Loving Empire Store (SW 10th & Stark in Portland, Oregon). So basically, buy somebody a holiday gift at the store, get a free ticket to the show.”
Fences, a.k.a Christopher Manfield, who’s debut album came out Sept. 28, has toured and continues to travel the Northwest and beyond. If you’ve heard him, sound in and tell me what it’s like. This single spoke to me. The video has some interesting imagery and you Tegan and Sara fans will be interested to know that Sara Quinn produced this record. Buy his album here.
Fences Tour Dates
November 6, Seattle, WA @ Showbox at The Market (w/ Stars)
November 8, Reno, NV @ The Alley Sparks (w/ Greg Laswell)
November 9, Sacramento, CA @ Blue Lamp (w/ Greg Laswell)
November 10, San Francisco, CA @ The Independent (w/ Greg Laswell)
November 12, Salt Lake City, UT @ The Avalon (w/ Greg Laswell)
November 30, Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
December 2, Sacramento, CA @ Luigi’s
December 3, Los Angeles, CA @ The Bootleg
December 7, Bellingham, WA @ The Wild Buffalo
December 9, Seattle, WA @The Showbox at the Market (w/ Neon Trees)
Two cool things happened this week: I got a job (well, two jobs really) and this little blog got recognized by some really cool people in the music blogging world. Well, this was a really lovely surprise! Love Shack, Baby has been made SoundCloud’s Blog of the Week over on their Tumblr. I had exchanged a few emails with Michelle, describing how I used the free service and how bands had reached out to me with their music using SoundCloud. Little did I know that I was in the running for their Blog of the Week feature! Hop on over there to read me blathering on about my blogging history and why I chose the type of music I do and how I think artists should promote themselves. I talk a little about the following: my special internet friends, one to whom I owe the very origins of this blog (Puppet Show), some Scottish bloggers who I didn’t mention by name either, but should have, The Waiting Room (source of all good music), some tunes I’m currently listening to from abroad, and a few Chicago bands I love. Not all of my submitted SoundCloud links made it to their blog (I’m sure they were limited by space, my damn answers were long enough!) So I’ve included them all here for you And thank you, SoundCloud people, that’s a lovely honor to be included! xoxo
(The kind folks at SoundCloud were also kind enough to upgrade me for a bit to test out their cool widgety players, what do you think of them? Oh and scroll all the way down to that last player, I didn’t include this track in my email to Michelle, but I so should have! This one is for you, Colin! xo)
(edit: oops, the track I pick has been removed! sorry! well, it was tUnE-yArDs’ “Sunlight” from her 2009 LP Bird-Brains. buy it here.)
(all photos courtesy of the always wonderful, Will Rice)
Drink Up Buttercup (by Will Rice)
The pride of Philadelphia, Drink Up Buttercup passed though Chicago’s Subterranean Lounge, and Love Shack, Baby was there…last month. Yup, last month. Unlike good wine and U.S. Treasury bonds, concert reviews don’t generally improve with the passage of time, but there are two critical reasons that every Windy City music junkie needs this belated review all up in their grill. First, the band you already knew rocked, Drink Up Buttercup, will be coming back to town in January as part of Tomorrow Never Knows, a toasty little treat of a festival now in it’s seventh year that will warm up the winter months and scare away any post-Festivus blues. Second, the band you didn’t know rocked, opener North Highlands, simply can’t pass without mention.
Headliner, Drink Up Buttercup is one of those rare acts that combines diamond-cut precision with a certain air of slop. Most of the setlist issued from their stellar album Born and Thrown on a Hook. In fourteen tracks, the grizzly foursome takes the listener on a magical mystery tour through the gates and archways of a puzzle-piece musical landscape that delivers with both heart and soul.
Drink Up Buttercup (by Will Rice)
There’s a homespun quality to this band that allows them to take polished melodies and serve them up with the sweet smell of a small town bakery. Homey kitsch and pop hooks are Drink Up Buttercup’s bread and butter. The kitsch was in full force at Subterranean. The stage was strewn with the cultural detritus of fondly remembered childhoods: a plastic duck, antlers, pink kazoos, and, of course, the accessory that has become nearly synonymous with a Drink Up Buttercup set: the garbage pail percussion.
Drink Up Buttercup (by Will Rice)
Notable standouts included the raucous, rumptious “Sosey and Dosey”, and the always endearing “Lovers Play Dead”. Catch this act when they roll back into town- right now it looks like they’ll be hitting Schubas with Generationals, Pet, and an “unannounced guest.”
Drink Up Buttercup (by Will Rice)
Mystery band be damned, that’s a fine bill right there, on January 12th, so you’ll have had plenty of time to work off that New Year’s hangover.
Finally, the last opener, North Highlands, has been turning some heads, and (rumor has it) just recently got slotted as the opener for Ra Ra Riot’s upcoming tour. That’s sounds like kind of a big leap for a band that was just another Brooklyn band not so long ago, but when you hear the music and see them live, you understand.
Drink Up Buttercup (by Will Rice)
A solid, quirky quintet that has a good grasp of long form American songwriting with shades of Arcade Fire, Ra Ra Riot, Twin Sister, and more living legends.
Drink Up Buttercup (by Will Rice)
Add to that an uber-talented lead songstress, who dresses like your unmarried aunt and is quickly growing into both her voice and starring role, and you’ve got a band to get real excited about. North Highlands fired up a lot of musicheads at CMJ, don’t sleep on this band.
And thank you, SoundCloud people, that’s a lovely honor to be included! xoxo
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