Retail Release Date: June 8th, 2009 (only available on mikasounds.com)
Leaky Faucet Acquisition Date: May 15h, 2009
Mika is a singer-songwriter from Lebanon via England. He released a record in 2007 called Life In Cartoon Motion, a glorious pop record that was equal parts Donna Summer, Queen, Rufus Wainwright, and Erasure. He also writes songs that tell stories so vividly that one could call him the Bruce Springsteen of disco.
On May 15th, he’s releasing an EP of acoustic songs to tide people over until his next full length record, due out next year. He also enlisted some of his favorite artists to make original works to help tell the stories on this EP. Continue reading “The Leaky Faucet: Mika — Songs For Sorrow”
M.Ward considers what exactly to do with the pieces of a broken heart. Might I suggest composting?
Dear M. Ward,
I went to your show this weekend at the Fox, and I have to be honest with you, I was a little apprehensive about seeing you again. The first time I saw you was in Brooklyn a few years ago (or at least long enough for me to forget the name of the venue). I had just started to listen to End of Amnesia after discovering Transistor Radio, and I was completely enamored of what I heard. There was no song that could do wrong on either album. I enjoyed the dark moodiness of your songs dispersed by charming tract about inanimate objects, and instrumentals. The show was equally compelling, especially when guest star Jim James came onstage to lend a hand.
It’s hard to top such an exciting show that manifested all my warm fuzzy feelings of the time.
Colin Meloy of The Decemberists about to leap from his amplifier
The Decemberists live in an exciting gray area between folk and rock, between pop and prog. How they keep playing to bigger and bigger audiences continues to amaze me. Perhaps it’s the indescribable that people like best? They came to the Fox in Oakland last night on their tour for The Hazards of Love, promising to play that new album in its entirety and then follow it up with a set of fan favorites. Continue reading “The Decemberists at The Fox Oakland, 5/20/09”
This photo from a different show pictures the agressive cellist. Thanks to http://www.flickr.com/photos/drop_dead_ed/ for the photo.
Dredg was nice enough to schedule two hometown shows on their tour with Torche and Judgement Day. Because of this, neither one sold out and I was able to go to the show at the Great American Music Hall. Hometown shows are usually great because the band will play longer and bring a lot more energy into it. So how did this one stack up? Continue reading “Dredg at Great American Music Hall, 5/19/09”
I hope Dredg aren't trying to say that they "mailed it in."
Retail Release Date: June 9, 2009
Leaky Faucet Acquisition Date: May 6, 2009
Dredg really never had a shot on the major labels. They’re a prog rock band, first and foremost. This is, of course, why I like them. For their last album, Catch Without Arms, they teamed up with a big name producer (Terry Date) and had songwriting help from Queensyche’s Chris Degarmo. That’s a high powered team, and the album that came out of it had a lot of polish and shine, but also lacked some of the musical innovation found on the band’s older releases. In a lot of ways, it made their earlier albums sound like demos.
So now Dredg is off of the major label, yet they’ve maintained the polished sound, but–and this is exciting–they’ve also thrown caution to the wind in a lot of ways. No longer worried about trying to sound like the band the majors want them to sound like, they go back to the more experimental sounds of their earlier albums, Lietmotif and El Cielo. And it’s almost a complete success. Continue reading “The Leaky Faucet: Dredg — The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion”
Every Monday, I am going to post a quick list of shows this week in the bay area that won’t be a waste of time. I won’t necessarily be at all of them, because I don’t have infinite wealth and time, but you can use this as a handy guide when looking for something to do!
Ponytail are a band from Maryland, and they are currently on tour. Guitarist Ken Seeno has offered to answer a few questions by e-mail from their travels, so here are his answers.
He wanted to make sure he won the Silliest Album Cover of the Year award
Retail Release Date: June 2, 2009 (digital only)
Leaky Faucet Acquision Date: May 3, 2009
I’ll start with the album cover. Patrick Wolf is posed here as an alien who’s landed in an oddly shaped spaceship tent, in some crazy cyberpunk outfit with a purple glow behind his hand, and some ancient instruments at his campsite. What is Patrick Wolf saying about this album before you even listen to it? He’s saying, “please don’t take me too seriously. I’m an utter goofball.” Continue reading “The Leaky Faucet: Patrick Wolf — The Bachelor”
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="207" caption="Jawbreaker in their natural environment: the Mission District."][/caption]There is no pain greater than that caused by a relationship’s dead future.
It is nearly unspeakable. All the best hopes and promises that a person could possibly have — dashed. Irretrievable. Yet the memories of sweetness linger and haunt, ever out of reach.
With “Sluttering (May 4th),” the band Jawbreaker ink around the outlines of what it is like to feel this specific pain and the particular interpersonal agonies that go along with it: the machinations that can occur, the sheer hurt, the recriminations, the kissoffs (both real and imagined), and where hope goes after all that.
Jawbreaker in their natural environment: the Mission District
There is no pain greater than that caused by a relationship’s dead future.
The agony is nearly unspeakable. All the best hopes and promises that a person could possibly have — dashed. Irretrievable. Yet the memories of sweetness linger and haunt, ever out of reach.
With “Sluttering (May 4th),” the band Jawbreaker ink around the outlines of what it is like to feel this specific pain and the particular interpersonal agonies that go along with it: the machinations that can occur, the sheer hurt, the recriminations, the kissoffs (both real and imagined), and where hope goes after all that.
Defined by the writer of the lyrics, Blake Schwarzenbach, the word itself means “pontification under duress and/or a kind of drunk muttering.”
And as the song’s chorus whipsaws in, Blake’s voice climbs meticulously across the syllables of what it sounds like to know that the person who was once with you is now with someone else:
slow dance alone with no one to the sound of four hands clapping / congratulations to you both I hope somewhere you’re happy / if there’s a moral to this story, then I wish you’d show me
Today is May 4. It is Sluttering Day. Listen to the song. And if you can help it, don’t break anyone’s heart.
Maria Taylor showing off her one eye hypnosis skills
Admitedly, I was a bit apprehensive about this show. I love Maria Taylor’s albums and singing along to her songs in the car. But her songs are slow and moody, so I was a worried the show would be boring. But Maria Taylor was hypnotic. She has that special charisma or ‘it factor’ where you really can’t take your eyes off her. Or really, it’s that you can’t look away from her eye: big, shining and soulful. It reminds me of love story where a man sees a woman sing and instantly falls in love. The voice, the eye, the giant left handed guitar, she is an indie dream woman.
[/caption]There is no pain greater than that caused by a relationship’s dead future.
