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Est. 2006
Monday, November 30, 2009
The Boston Screening of Here Come The Waves
Here Come The Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized, a collaboration between The Decemberists and four film makers: Guilherme Marcondes, Julia Pott,Peter Sluszka, and Santa Maria. The epic Hazards of Love on the big screen, sign me up. The band has trusted four gifted animators to bring their rock fairytale to the big screen and if the trailer is any indication we're in for a real treat. The film will be released exclusively via itunes tomorrow, but luckily Boston has been chosen as one of only two cities to get a theatrical screening tonight.
The film will screen tonight at 9:30 at The Brattle Theatre Tickets are just $5.00
With the his recent releases with Boston Spaceships and a solo album in Elephant Jokes that might just be one of the mans finest. Some might say Robert Pollard is on a run and I would have to agree. So while we wait for the next Spaceships album to drop sometime in the new year, you will find comfort in this Live document from Boston Spaceships' one and only tour.
Licking Stamps and Drinking Shitty Coffee is the just released double live album limited to 500 copies and issued on colored vinyl & CDR. One LP is orange, the other is one is black. The album was recorded in Atlanta on October 17, 2008 and based on the mp3 I just heard, it's a keeper. [MP3/Stream]Boston Spaceships - Dorothy's A Planet (Live)
Track Listing: Hard Running Rabbit Winston's Atomic Bird You Satisfy Me Headache Revolution Still In Rome The Original Heart Love Theory Brown Submarine Two Girl Area Rat Trap Catherine From Mid-October Little Green Onion Man Confessions Of A Teenage Jerkoff Andy Playboy North 11 A,M. Soggy Beavers Dorothy's A Planet Ate It Twice Blue Gil Ready To Pop Go For The Exit Wealth And Hell Being Crutch Came Slinking Sensational Gravity Boy Heavy Crown
I wrested with the idea of coming up with a list for the AGP's favorite releases of the last 10 years. After some serious back and forth, I made the decision that the last thing we need is another list. Instead we will feature some of the albums that have made a lasting impact on us. These are the albums that we told our friends to buy, annoyed our spouses with, and ultimately inspired us to launch this blog.
From now until the end of December The AGP will feature our favorite albums of the decade. Each week we will feature posts highlighting our favorite albums of the 00's. We will even have a few contributions from the AGP's extended family. We invite your comments, we want to know why you agree with us or perhaps why you think we're off our collective rockers.
We hope you'll join us as we take a look back at the albums that shaped the past 3,653 days our lives. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mclusky are dead, but from 1998-2005 they were responsible for some of the most vitriolic, spite ridden rock, these ear have ever heard, and I loved them for it. McClusky formed in Cardiff, Wales in 1998 and released their debut album My Pain and Sadness is More Sad and Painful Than Your in 2000 on Fuzzbox Records before hooking up with Too Pure for Mclusky Do Dallas in 2002 and The Difference Between Me and You is I'm not on Fire in 2004. Unfortunately in January of 2005 Andy Falkous issued a statement via the bands web site that Mclusky had broken up, and just like that it was over.
It was in the fall of 2002 that I was introduced to Mclusky through a fellow music obsessive, as I recall, the conversation went something like this: Him: have you heard Mclusky? Me: No who's Mclusky? Him: Go buy their new album Mcluslky Do Dallas, you're gonna shit man!
Of course I went out the next day and tracked down the album and you know what? My foul mouthed friend was right on with his prediction, if anything it was understated. Since then I've bought all of the bands records, but Do Dallas remains a favorite and frequent listen. From the opening notes of Lightsabre CockSucker Blues to To Hell With Good Intentions to Alan Is A Cowboy Killer, on Mclusky Do Dallas the welsh trio deliver viscous two minute buzz saw punk that I still can't get enough of. Mclusky laid down the majority of the tracks on the album with the assistance of sound engineer Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in the spring of 2001. Talk about a band custom made for Albini's recording approach, the results more than speak for themselves. Andy Falkous anchors the record with a notebook full of smart ass lyrics to match the 36 minute sonic assault that awaits you with, Mclusky Do Dallas. In the words of Falkous, Fuck This band.
Every once in a while an old band from our past creeps up with a solid new offering, takes us by surprise, and reminds us why we became fans in the 1st place. The Sea Navy's new album Memory Matches certainly qualifies as such a release. The Sea Navy is fronted by Jay Cox, former Bostonian and member of the gone but not forgotten, Ivory Coast. From 1998 to 2003 The Ivory Coast were responsible for some of Boston's finest homespun tunes. The band released two fine records during their time together, 2000's The Rush of Oncoming Traffic (Big Wheel Recreation) and 2001's Clouds (Polyvinyl). Sadly The Ivory Coast called it a day in 2003.
Since then Cox has been writing and recording with The Sea Navy in Seattle. The current line up is rounded out by bassist Stuart Fletcher and Drummer Jordan Cummings. Memory Matches is the bands great new LP. The album was recorded at The Tank in Black Diamond, WA with a true DIY ethic at work, with band recording, mixing, and self releasing the record. Memory Matches consists of 10 songs in 24 minutes for a concise and staggering pop record. On What Curse? Cox sings, "as Chicago knows and Boston did, Seattle only hopes", with the excellence of Memory Matches it shouldn't be long before all 50 of our states our familiar with pop goodness of The Sea Navy.
The rumor mill: In a recent interview with Ear Candy Jay mentions that he's has eight new songs written and there's a possibility of an east coast tour next spring. Here's hoping that comes to fruition, if so we'll be front, center, and accounted for.
Closing Out The Decade:Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy (2005)
I wrested with the idea of coming up with a list for the AGP's favorite releases of the last 10 years. After some serious back and forth, I made the decision that the last thing we need is another list. Instead we will feature some of the albums that have made a lasting impact on us. These are the albums that we told our friends to buy, annoyed our spouses with, and ultimately inspired us to launch this blog.
From now until the end of December The AGP will feature our favorite albums of the decade. Each week we will feature posts highlighting our favorite albums of the 00's. We will even have a few contributions from the AGP's extended family. We invite your comments, we want to know why you agree with us or perhaps why you think we're off our collective rockers.
We hope you'll join us as we take a look back at the albums that shaped the past 3,653 days our lives. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first time I heard Okkervil River was shortly after the release of 2003's Down The River of Golden Dreams, the bands excellent second LP. It was one of those rare eureka moments, when a band makes you perk up and pay attention. I had no idea what it was, but I knew I had to have it immediately. I owe my local Newbury Comics a debt of gratitude for the impromptu introduction. Since then I have followed the literary song writing of Will Sheff and his Austin, TX band mates closely. I've also collected everything the band has committed to tape so far and I can hardly wait for the bands next release. Maybe that rumored collaboration with Rocky Erickson or the follow up to The Stand Ins will materialize in the new year.
Although the band officially formed in Austin, TX in 1998, the bands nucleus came together several years earlier in Meriden, NH when Sheff, as well as fellow founding members Zach Thomas and Seth Warren were high school friends. After college the three would leave The Granite State for Austin's burgeoning music scene, hook up with Johnathan Meiberg as well as Okkervil River's currents line up, and eventually ink a recording contract with the Indiana based indie power house Jagjaguwar.
On April 5th, 2005 Okkervil River released Black Sheep Boy, the bands third and most ambitious album to date. The album leads off with the title track, a Tim Hardin cover, not only is it a great opener it sets the tone and theme for this semi-conceptual record. In 2005 I was still getting my head around being a father of two and functioning on very little sleep and Black Sheep Boy came along as the perfect remedy. I can't think of a commute that year, that didn't include Black Sheep Boy in it's entirety. The complex and poetic storytelling, the superb instrumentation, and the fact that you can listen to this record at least 100 times and still discover something new, powerful, and exciting is a testament to this record. Even my excitement for the bands earlier work did not prepare me for the gigantic step forward Okkervil River took on this Americana folk rock masterpiece.
Cambridge's Pants Yell! will release their fifth album, Received Punctuation tomorrow courtesy of Slumberland Records. Based on my first few listens, it's another solid batch of jangle pop with that understated charm, that we've come to expect from Pants Yell!. If you've had the fortune to catch the band live over the past few months you've undoubtedly been treated to the strong material featured on Received Punctuation.
As for what the future holds for Pants Yell!, that is a little unclear. Singer/Guitarist Andrew Churchman was recently quoted in the Swedish magazine, Devotion that this will be the final Pants Yell! album. Let's hope something was lost in translation.
The band will celebrate the release of their new long player on Monday November 16th with a Hometown LP Release Party at ZuZu. Tickets are only $3.00, so grab them now.
I wrested with the idea of coming up with a list for the AGP's favorite releases of the last 10 years. After some serious back and forth, I made the decision that the last thing we need is another list. Instead we will feature some of the albums that have made a lasting impact on us. These are the albums that we told our friends to buy, annoyed our spouses with, and ultimately inspired us to launch this blog.
From now until the end of December The AGP will feature our favorite albums of the decade. Each week we will feature posts highlighting our favorite albums of the 00's. We will even have a few contributions from the AGP's extended family. We invite your comments, we want to know why you agree with us or perhaps why you think we're off our collective rockers.
We hope you'll join us as we take a look back at the albums that shaped the past 3,653 days our lives. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Formed in Leeds, England in the winter of 1990. Hood have released 9 records on a variety of different labels, including Domino, Aesthetics, and Mispalced Music. The band has been on a long term hiatus since just after the release of Outside Closer in 2005. While band members have been actively releasing music with their own bands including but not limited to founding members Richard and Chris Adams projects The Declining Winter and Bracken respectively. Hood's absence over the past four and half years has been a hard pill to swallow. A band that defies categorization by blending styles and instrumentation from track to track. From IDM to Post-Rock to Shoegaze to Experimental. The band at one-time described themselves as lo-fidelity avant pop. Regardless of classification, Hood's recorded work from the early limited vinyl singles to their (at this point) final record, is nothing short of impressive.
In November of 2001 Hood hit what I would call their high water mark with the release of Cold House. An album of excellent songs, beautiful arrangements, and flourishes of glitchy electronics for one of the most innovative releases of the past decade. It also features the brilliant collaboration between Hood and MC's Why? and Dose One from San Francisco's Anticon Collective and Clouddead. I flipped out as soon as I heard this record. It was like nothing I had ever heard before or since for that matter. For example take the opening track They Removed All Trace That Anything Had Ever Happened Here, with it's big beats, violins, acoustic guitars and Chris Adams fragile vocals, it's pretty close to perfection and that's just the albums jumping off point. In 2001 Hood seemed destined to be one of the biggest bands in the world. Alas that was not to be but what they did do is cement themselves as one of the most creative and exciting bands I'd ever heard and I anxiously await their return.
Almost nine years later and Cold House still sounds as inspired as it did that fall afternoon I drove home from the record store with my jaw on the floor. A truly stunning album.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Regurgitated Video White Rabbits killed on last nights Jimmy Kimmel. They even got a little help from Spoon's Britt Daniel. check it out.
Here Come The Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized, a collaboration between The Decemberists and four film makers: Guilherme Marcondes, Julia Pott,Peter Sluszka, and Santa Maria. The epic Hazards of Love on the big screen, sign me up. The band has trusted four gifted animators to bring their rock fairytale to the big screen and if the trailer is any indication we're in for a real treat. The film will be released exclusively via itunes tomorrow, but luckily Boston has been chosen as one of only two cities to get a theatrical screening tonight.
