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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Phil and the Osophers are a band I love for the simple reason that it took me a while to really “get” them but once their sound sunk in, I truly got it. I appreciate stuff I have to earn, you too? Well, this music isn’t all that hard to get for most people, it’s lazy-feeling, retro, incredibly catchy. Everything I’ve heard from them reminds me of 1950s Italian movie soundtracks (or American spoofs thereof) but in a good way. Phil’s vocals slide around the melodies in a characteristic manner – you immediately know it’s a Phil and the Osophers’ song. The instrumentation is deceptively off kilter. The percussion is insanely odd at times, perfectly sublime at others. The guitar work is just the way I like it: jangly, twangy, sharp and sweet, all at once. You can dance to it. Go ahead, I dare ya. This new single, “Ink On The Page” is a track that easily fits in with those on Parallelo (if you don’t own that, go get it now, it’s the perfect summer album.)
Phil tells me there’s new music coming down the pike, they’ve been working on a new album for a while now. I’ve had the pleasure of hearing two tracks that might make their way onto it. Both are fantabulous, this band continues to evolve leaving me comfortable knowing they will continue to produce music I love.
Well, first off, you need this. I was straightening up my t-shirt drawer yesterday and sadly caressing my beloved Women shirt, thinking to myself: “it’s so sad that they’ve given up on the band. What a fucking night that was!” … and then, I get this tweet tonight that links me to this juicy little single! Yay!!!
Tension. It always exists in a band, especially in a band with siblings in it. I hadn’t really followed the story of Women and their “meltdown” (thanks P4k, for the story/gossip) but I was truly saddened to hear that I might not get to hear or see them play again. Tension is such a key part of their sound, as a band. The way the vocals just sit there in disharmony to the chords played continues to blow my mind. It’s so defiant.
And, frankly that’s what’s been missing around here lately. I can’t keep up the bravado any longer, there’s not much defiance in me any more. No, this isn’t some sort of cry for help, just a statement of the facts. I give up. This divorce is beating me down. This job hunt is pummeling me. Thank fuck I’m still getting some editing work, online. It’s time I get my ass in gear and find some help out of the hole I’ve found myself in. So, maybe that will entail some writing on this here blog. I used to write about my life quite a lot. I kind of miss it, maybe you do too. With the frequency of posts here lately, I can’t pretend that there are many of you left who might mind much. Although if there would happen to be anyone who is a whiz at re-writing resumes, hey, give me a holler! xoxo
[edit: ooh result! Ethan, of Bandcamp.com has announced a slight alteration to the powerup plan, they're listening to us] There’s been an interesting discussion over at bandcamp.com on their new policy of limiting free downloads and instituting a “power up” plan to help cover costs. With big artists like Sufjan Stevens and Amanda Palmer using the service and so many smaller artists finding success there, it’s inevitable (I think) that changes would be afoot there. Some have taken great offense at having to pony up for the opportunity to offer their fans free downloads. Why pay to give something away? They hold personal convictions against paying for music or against charging for their art. Others have been waiting for such changes to occur, wondering what’s taken Band Camp so long? Many people have commented that it seems quite reasonable. Here’s the new policy:
Starting today, new accounts come with 200 free downloads, and all existing accounts are granted 500. (You can of course still stream and sell an unlimited amount of music using Bandcamp.) Each time a fan downloads a track or album for free, it counts as 1 against your balance (an album, regardless of how many tracks it contains, still only counts as 1 download). You can buy more downloads for a small fee from your Tools page. The pricing is the same as for download codes:
300 downloads for $9 USD (3¢ each)
1000 downloads for $20 USD (2¢ each)
5000 downloads for $75 USD (1.5¢ each)
But here’s the cool part: for every $500 USD you have in sales, we’ll give you another 1,000 free downloads.
I’ve argued that this seems reasonable and fair and that we need to continue to support new music by helping musicians get that extra $20 if they need it. It doesn’t seem too difficult to do. Hell, I’ve been known to secretly sneak a few bucks in someone’s pocket if I think they’re pretty awesome, they’re on the road, and they need some gas to get to Milwaukee. There’s always the option of putting a guitarist or two up on your sofa (or your bed, whatever ) and making them a meal, buying them a beer. That’s all money they’d have spent, believe me! People who make music for a living and need to get it heard also need to take from us sometimes. It only seems right to me.
But what do you think? Go read the comments and the policy there. Will this be the end of what was a great music site? Will new bands have to go back to MySpace (eeek!) or worse?
Captain Polariod from Birmingham, UK hit me up with this little EP today. He makes this nice, jangly, dreamy, crunchy bedroom pop. He’s made a five-part monthly series of EPs entitled “Beat Nostalgia” which I think is just the sweetest play on words. Pop over to his site to download everything he’s recorded for free. He’s just that kind of guy. Beat Nostalgia EP4 by Captain Polaroid
Garth Steel Klippert came at me via someone who signed their email “d+” with the subject line: “Field Hymns does not want their cocks cut off” Hahahaha! If you don’t know what that’s in reference to, just look up at the top of this page and click on the link.
I try to feature this type of ambient, experimental, avant garde music at least a few times a month. It’s what I really enjoy finding and listening to, especially in a live setting. These types of people are horribly interesting. And I like music that makes me think. I don’t care if that’s what they intend, it’s what I use it for. This guy does some really cool music collage and layers bits of recorded voice. I have to include the label’s description for you:
This album was recorded over the course of three years by a cab driver living in a San Francisco office building. Rife with audio collage, dirty saxophone, cheap organ and a dash of lunacy, Music For Taxicabs is truly a lost legend.
Now in Portland, Oregon Klippert has since gone on to record and tour with Kelly Stoltz, Sonny Smith, Jolie Holland, Beulah, Miles Kurosky and Old Light. Ten years after its completion, Field Hymns is proud to release Music for Taxicabs this summer.
I really don’t want to spoil Bobby and Elise by posting this the same day they gave it to me, but I can’t keep this video under wraps because it’s just too good to keep from you, darling readers! You know how I often tell you to just click the video on and then go to another page and just listen to the song? DON’T DO THAT NOW. You have to see this one, ok? Love of Everything is a duo out of Chicago that’s played with bands like No Age, Dutchess and the Duke, Chain and the Gang, Kurt Vile and These Are Powers. Bobby, of Joan of Arc, and his wife Elise are lo-fi, fuzzed out guitar playing, minimal drumming musicians,… almost what I’d call “post-indie” rockers. Their music is ironic without trying that hard, ya know? The melodies are catchy, the songs are pretty short but most of all the sensibility behind it all is severely infectious sincerity. That’s as close as what I can get to putting into words what Love of Everything is because the name of the band pretty much says it all. Their new album, Best In Tensions is out on Bobby’s own label, Record Label and Polyvinyl Records, buy it there. xoxo
Tour Dates
May 21 Omaha NE @ Barley Street Tavern w/ Our Fox
May 22 Lawrence KS @ Replay Lounge
May 23 @ Wichita KS @ Rock Island Live w/ The Chime Owls and Low Oriole
May 24 Des Moines IA @ Vaudeville Mews (5pm All Ages Show)
I stumbled into the Empty Bottle last Monday night to catch one of my favorite dastardly duos, My Gold Mask and I just got there early enough to catch this wonderful little band from Cleveland. I have to tell you, right from the first beat, I was completely mesmerized by their drummer. This guy’s sticks were a blur but not because he drums so incredibly fast… his arms are just so fluid; I’ve rarely seen anyone so loose and yet not sloppy. His skills perfectly match the sound Dylan Baldi crafted on his debut albumTuring On. Dylan, if you read this, consider my advice: hang on to that drummer if at all possible.
But, Cloud Nothings has more going for it than just that. Baldi’s delivery hovers in the apex of lo-fi, garage rock stardom if such an oxymoron could exist. With his guitar worn high on his lean, lanky frame, this front man belts it out into the mic, leaning back between words to seemingly shake off any semblance of normalcy that singing required of him with the full body spasms that indie punk pop demands. All the while his fellow guitarists back him up with equal fervor. Color me wildly entranced by the entire set.
The album opens with this killer pop track, continues with more finely crafted tunes. The title track, “Turning On” is slightly repetitive at first listen, but after hearing it live, I cannot listen to it the same way again. It is beautiful evolving into FUN; just a total let loose affair. Baldi has the knack for writing lyrics as well as memorable melodies. Time was well spent in recording good, solid harmonies and layers that don’t muck up the not-quite-finished-yet sound that I love about lo-fi. It’s not as raw as Phil and the Osophers, not as rowdy as anything approaching noise, there’s a very clear melodic quality to everything and a real pop appreciation to where Baldi is going here. Thankfully it’s not as slick as Surfer Blood, it’s frankly right in the spot where I thought some bands who got a lot of press last year were going to be and just weren’t. Sure, there’s room to move forward, it’s a debut album and this is a new, new, new project. It shows immense promise. (Do I really need to tell you that Dylan Baldi is 18 years old?) More than one to watch, Cloud Nothings is one you’d best focus on my darlings, xoxo
I’ve been following this little group from Edinburgh for quite some time now and yet I’ve not written about them here yet. (Unfortunately, that’s a sentence you’re going to read a few times this season before the new year!) But here goes! You all know how I troll over at Matthew’s blog, Song, by Toad and it’s there that I’ve met some really amazing musician friends. One such person is Bart Owl who has become forevermore cemented in my mind as local “bandwhore” because it really does seem that he’s in just about every indie band in that damn town!
The group that perhaps is closest to his heart (correct me if I’m wrong here, Bart) is eagleowl.
And this wonderful, lo-fi, folk band has just this month released a 7″ single… well, they’re launching it in December but we’ve all heard it by now. It’s perfectly, exactly, wondrously, what eagleowl is all about: stepping back, taking one’s time, having a breather, listening to what’s going on in a quiet room with those you really do wish to hear. It’s full of rich contrabass (which I always mistake for a cello), violin, guitar, mandolin, melodica and all the layers of sad-drawn out vocals that draw me to Scottish music. eagleowl is not some mamby-pamby, reedy thin, excuse for not being able to rock out, however. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that they play this thoughtful kind of music because they lack the talent to do something you think of as “loud.” On the contrary, eagleowl’s version of folk has a real backbone to it; it stands up tall and respectfully grants you it’s time. Clarissa’s vocals are clear and solid, to match the instrumentation, not to hide behind it. And the harmonies she makes with Bart’s brooding voice are more than beautiful. I’m simply smitten.
How apropos that this single is about winter? I crack a smile just typing that out because it’s all so bleak and at the same time so warm and poignant. You know that feeling you get when you’re inside next to a warm fire and looking out the window over the bare fields? I grew up in the country, I remember that well. Yes, I love this single, I’m aching to hear the new LP. And if you didn’t get a copy of their debut For The Thoughts You Never Had, shame on you! They sold out. It’s gone! (I bet you can still get mp3s tho.) Here’s all the details you need:
The “Sleep The Winter” 7” single will be launched with a show at The Bowery
(2 Roxburgh Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9SU) on Friday, December 11th. Doors open at
7.30, entry is £5, and early arrival is strongly advised, so’s not to miss the amazing
special guests.
From December 14th the single will be available from select independent record
stores, and to order via eagleowl’s website and via Kilterschmilter
“Sleep The Winter” is the first release from brand new musical operation Kilter – a new
project for long-time live music propagators Tracer Trails.
The single is due to be followed in the new year by eagleowl’s second EP.
Lo-fi, lo-fi, lo-fi, lo-fi, lo-fi, lo-fi, lo-fi…. That’s what greets you when you hit Maxwell Panther’s MySpace page. And unlike many (if not most) of the new music that gets labeled as lo-fi, his stuff really is lo-fi. It’s just his guitar and him. Sometimes he turns the reverb up a bit, sometimes the distortion effect comes on a teensy bit to echo out his vocals. But ya know, it’s all really very simple. And the split second I heard Maxwell sing and play, I fell for it. I mean, I loved it.
It’s not always completely melodic, it’s not always what your ear expects. The words are always interesting though. And when he makes his Danelectro guitar squeal a little, I think that’s very sweet. I’ve been listening to his demos and snippets of songs and watching things evolve with his music for months and months now. And we’ve been chatting on twitter and MySpace and facebook about his music and where it’s going and where it’s been. It’s a small joy to crawl inside these musician’s heads for me.
This EP, Sound Is A Place, is perhaps the best thing he’s done, to my ears. He showed me once, a picture of all the cassette tapes he had collected over the years of his recordings, of songs he had written, either finished or unfinished. Along with this giant, unruly, colorful pile of plastic were various notebooks, scribbled in with lyrics. All of it was contained in a suitcase or valise or something with a handle. The man is just completely mental, constantly creating. I don’t know how he sorts out what to stick with and what to abandon. But with this EP he’s chosen the right ones. I’ve heard three or so versions of “Nippy in The Shade” and I love this finished one the most (it’s very much like this demo I’ve posted above… exactly the same, Maxwell? I can’t tell at this hour! 4 a.m. here, damnit!). I hope you enjoy this lo-fi morning, ease into your Monday, darlings… it’s gonna be a rough as fuck week ahead. I’ve got gigs galore, loads of work to do, and not nearly as much time as I want to do it all in. Happy Monday, bring us a coffee, will you? xoxo
While looking for the date when Tapes ‘n Tapes are playing here in Chicago, I was surprised to find that there is this really cool festival, Chicago Green Music Fest, next weekend and I thought I’d better tell you about it! Not only are they playing but so are some other really cool bands, as you can see from the cool graphic I stole borrowed from their site.
Nope, I’m not gonna lie and say I’ve been a huge Tapes ‘n Tapes fan from way back. But having stumbled onto them this year I can’t imagine why not. So here, have these two oldies but goodies off of their first EP (they’re on the band’s official site, so don’t get your panties all in a twist now) and understand a little of why I love me some lo-fi goodness.
“Icedbergs”
“50′s Parking”
Nope, I’m not gonna lie and say I’ve been a huge Tapes ‘n Tapes fan from way back. But having stumbled onto them this year I can’t imagine why not. So here, have these two oldies but goodies off of their first EP (they’re on the band’s official site, so don’t get all excited now) and understand a little why I do love me some lo-fi goodness.
<a href=”http://www.loveshackbaby.net/wp-content/uploads/music/2009/08/TapesNTapes_icedbergs.mp3″>Icedbergs</a>
<a href=”http://www.loveshackbaby.net/wp-content/uploads/music/2009/08/TapesNTapes_parking.mp3″>50′s Parking</a>
Ladies and Gentlemen, take a seat because this cover of Love Shack will probably bowl you right the fuck over! Yes, darlings, Tart has found her theme song. You all thought I named my blog after that B-52′s song, didn’t ya? Well… I did, until this popped up in my mailbox last night. I think it’s the anti-love shackin up Love Shack song, like the song you sing cause maybe you stopped on the way to the Love Shack and had a few beers too many? Honey, you ain’t never getting to that shack tonight….
Now that’s not to disrespect this band Sloan Automatic! They are absolutely brilliant in pulling this thing off. I think it’s really, truly perfect. I mean a cover song needs to be taken in and made your own. And this “Experimental / Regional Mexican / Roots Music” band takes in that song, …well, yeah it’s all theirs! Pop on over to their MySpace, listen to a few more of what they got going on there. “Stand Next To You” has a nice anti-surf feel to it, “From What I Hear” has some cool pops and vocals that take me back to the Violent Femmes in a very nice way. But I think my favorite song on their page is “Uncomfortable” simply because it makes me smile, like I want to know this guy who sings or writes this song, like he’s somehow like me. That’s what a good pop song should do for you. This is low-fi goodness and if that’s your bag (it’s mine, in case you didn’t get that vibe already), you’re gonna enjoy this little band from Ft. Worth. I dig their sense of humor too, that’s never a bad thing in the music business is it?
Here’s what they sent me:
We are from a very sad little music scene in a town called Fort Worth, TX.
Mostly its meth parties, racist jokes, strip malls, massive churches,
and playing sports bars while they leave the game on.
Here is a cover of Love Shack, for your reviewing pleasure.
Now how could I turn that down? (don’t spam me with how Texans aren’t all racists, druggies, christians or sports fans,…. I know, I know… it’s a fucking joke, ok? Nobody can argue with the strip malls tho!)
The night World Inferno Friendship Society hit Chicago was a four band, insane night of music! I missed the first one on the bill, Jewsus but I heard from everyone that they were pretty awesome! Ska/funk/punk goodness was the general description and I dig that, so them being a Chicago band, I’ll have to check it out and get back to you.
The second one up just happens to be Chicago Twitter friends of mine, Post Honeymoon. It’s a husband/wife duo and even though we’ve been tweeting for what seems like ages, we’d never met. They have this wonderful gothic pop sound that really rocks. Rachel looks like this little sweet thing but don’t be fooled, she may sing sweetly, sadly for a bit but watch out – the kitty has claws! I loved every minute of their short show, Nick bounced back and forth between drums (which he whaled on!) and guitar (searing, piercing and harsh!). Their songs lull you into feeling sorry for them at first but by the end you’re just as pissed off as they are. Post Honeymoon has a sound all their own, they’ve got a tour coming up to support their new LP, Post Honeymoon, coming out June 9 and I’m telling you now; this band is going to GO somewhere soon! Their promo describes them as “think Siouxsie Sioux meets The Motels, meets Love & Rockets (without the guitars).” Need I add that Rachel’s voice is just gorgeous?
May 14 2009 9:00P
The Empty Bottle w. Baby Teeth and My Dear Disco Chicago
Jun 2 2009 8:00P
The Bluebird w/ Push-Pull – The Coke Dares & Prizzy Prizzy Please Bloomington, Indiana
Jun 4 2009 8:00P
Sky House Nashville, Tennessee
Jun 5 2009 8:00P
The Buccaneer w/Red Mollies Memphis, Tennessee
Jun 6 2009 8:00P
Greencup Books Birmingham, Alabama
Jun 9 2009 8:00P
The Wormhole Savannah, Georgia
Jun 12 2009 8:00P
Pianos New York, New York
Jun 13 2009 8:00P
The Shank Brooklyn / Greenpoint
Jun 16 2009 8:00P
Mohawk Place Buffalo, New York
Jun 17 2009 8:00P
Lager House Detroit, Michigan
Jun 28 2009 8:00P
Ruby Room Pheonix, Arizona
I need to mention Easy Action as well, they’re traveling for a few shows, with World Inferno. Based in Detroit, they rocked, and I mean, good, old-fashioned, punk scream-fest rock. Nick and I watched them play and we were overjoyed at the intensity of the show. Their drummer was simply amazing, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Lead singer John Brannon was one big, angry dude! You might have caught them at SXSW, I hear they gave a great show. While not exactly my favorite kind of punk, it was damn good to hear a hard, ear-splitting, cock-rock band rile up the crowd that night. I need that once in a while, ya know?
) and making them a meal, buying them a beer. That’s all money they’d have spent, believe me! People who make music for a living and need to get it heard also need to take from us sometimes. It only seems right to me.
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