I was perusing Show List Austin as I normally do when, to my surprise, who should I see is playing tonight? It's the Foxboro Hot Tubs, tickets are $20 but they are only available at the door, and NO CAMERAS! In other words by the time I'm writing this (3.5hrs before the doors open) there are, most likely, tiny little people with make-up and tight jeans standing on Red River from Emo's front door to Beauty Bar's front door. For those of you who don't read a lot of crap about music all the time, the Foxboro Hot Tubs are Green Day +/- some other musicians. I don't really know a whole lot about it other than that, but you can preview/purchase songs from the band on their website. Or, if you live in Austin and you're feeling adventurous you may be able to catch members of Green Day at Emo's >---INSIDE<---
The latest release from the Raconteurs seemed to magically appear in the stores on a random Tuesday morning. The band managed to put the record together in a rather hush-hush fashion and released it with only a weeks notice.
Personally I didn't realize the album was even scheduled for release. I just happened upon it at End of an Ear back in late March. Consolers of the Lonely does not sound rushed to me. It sounds like another instant classic from some of the best working musicians of this generation of songwriters.
It's easy to notice "that guy" from the White Stripes but don't forget that shaggy haired, sandy-blonde gentlemen to Jack White's right. Brendan Benson has also written some amazing songs without the help of Mr. White. Check out The Alternative to Love or Lapalco if you don't believe me.
My favorite track from Consolers of the Lonely is the title track, but Salute your Solutions is the single so that's the easier track to post here. It's a good song too, don't get me wrong but if I were working A&R it wouldn't have been the first single. But hey, that's just me right?
I caught the Old 97's promoting their new record, Blame it on Gravity at Waterloo Records last Friday. They did a free in-store from about 5p-6p. The store was pretty crowded by the time the band took stage, so much so that the store had a "bouncer" doing 1 in-1 out.
I'm not a huge fan of the Old 97's but I like Ryan Adams, Wilco and Uncle Tupelo as well as free concerts. This is the first time I had seen a show at Waterloo records and although it was intimate the sound totally sucked. I was surprised because the soundsystem in store is pretty kick ass but the mix was no good. I could hear the sound of the guitar picks strumming, the vocals were buried too deeply in the mix, and the drummer should have just had hand percussion.
The performance itself was entertaining but certainly not life-changing/mind-blowing. It was just some pleasant adult-contemporary. My friend Tim wanted to know how the newest songs sounded compared to the old ones. Well I'm not THAT familiar but the new songs they played sounded a bit closer to pop than country. However, the closing track on the new album, The Onewas a real barn burner of a tune that the crowd really got into. As much as you can get into a performance standing in the aisles of a record store. Anywho, I found some clips of the performance on YouTube:
Have you heard the new Death Cab for Cutie "single"? I must say I am pre-disposed to like Death Cab since I have liked all of their material so far. But what the heck were they thinking making a single that is longer than 8 minutes?
Also, am I the only one who noticed that there are hardly any lyrics to the song? How many times does Ben Gibbard say "Gotta spend some time love, gotta spend some time with me."
With all that being said I Will Possess Your Heart has been in my head, pretty much since the first time I heard it on KGSR. Narrow Stairs is already in stores seems like it kind of appeared out of no where right? Perhaps DCFC was taking a page out of the Raconteurs book by dropping the record before promoting it, in an attempt to thwart downloaders getting a jump on the release date. DCFC - I Will Possess Your Heart
I saw this video on Vh1 at like 4am, 'cause that's when they show videos on Vh1. I really like it, but doesn't the whole winter thing seem a bit out of place with a May release. Damn I can't stop bitching about Death Cab, but I seriously like them in real life :-)
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