Restless People are a pop group from Brooklyn, NY. They’re four friends who have been working together on different projects (Tanlines, Professor Murder, Family Edition) for years. When they get together they talk about the internet, jeans, shoes, car repair, jobs, barber shops, positivity, sports, seltzer, appropriation, beer, relationships, style, pretzels and reality. They talk about music using adjectives like punk, pop, adult contemporary, global, dance and emotional. They argue with each other and tell lots of jokes.
We love getting our ears on something new. Once we get it in our ears our mouths can’t stop talking about it. Coltrane Motion is what is going in our earboxes these days. We think that it should play around yours as well, so here is a free download of it. Enjoy!!
The latest and greatest MP3s in one download-able Zip File. Just click the link and hit play on your iTunes and you will be the owner of a butt load of new songs!
Bands and Songs featured this week:
Ane Brun – Spending Time With Morgan
Blitzen Trapper – Heaven and Earth
Braid – Grand Theft Autumn
Braid – I’m Afraid Of Everything
Braid – Hugs From Boys
Braid – Movie Clock Star
Dada Life – Love Vibrations
Deer Tick – 20 Miles
In Tall Buildings – Mosters Lair
Indian Jewelry – Oceans
Inlets – Robert
JARB – wahana psikadelia
Male Bonding – Years Not Long
No One Knows About Persian Cats – New Century
Right The Stars – We Got It All
Seinking Ships – You Didn’t Love Me
Teen Inc – Fountains
The Duke – You Were Right
The Middle East – Blood
The Radio Dept. – Never Follow Suit
Oh this song has got funky fresh oozing out of it’s every crevasse all right, and has some fat gold hair picks that your momma used to do herself up all nice with to boot. You can feel the song moving within you and then just when you thought it was gonna turn sexy, it turns breathy…. and sexy, as in the vocals and doesn’t ever stop from there.
Twin Sister was born in Brooklyn and features a big helping of talented players that will be spreading their love music down at SXSW this year. If you don’t catch them in Austin they might be headed your way with Xiu Xiu and the tUnE-YaRdS . But do yourself the favor right now and download this tune and see the magic happen.
03/17/10: Austin, TX (SXSW)
03/18/10: Austin, TX @ Creekside Lounge (SXSW)
03/19/10: Austin, TX (SXSW)
03/20/10: Austin, TX (SXSW)
03/21/10: Monterrey, Mexico (MtyMx Todd P. After Party)
03/23/10: Houston, TX @ The Mink
03/24/10: Denton, TX @ Hailey’s Club
03/25/10: Oxford, MS @ Proud Larry’s
03/26/10: Lexington, KY @ Al’s Bar
03/27/10: Indianapolis, IN @ Vollrath Theatre
03/28/10: Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop
03/29/10: Rock Island, IL @ Huckleberry’s Pizza
03/30/10: Chicago, IL @ Halfway Lounge
03/31/10: Cleveland, OH @ Case Western University
04/01/10: Brooklyn, NY @ Cameo
04/09/10: New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom # $
04/10/10: Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East (Downstairs) # $
04/13/10: Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church # $
04/14/10: Washington DC @ DC9
Josh Ottum is a funny and superb musician from Seattle. He is even better at answering questions. Learn more about him here.
1. Tell us about the band?
The band is me. I play solo or with really good friends.
2. Have you ever been fed up with playing music or with band members and why?
I’ve gotten stressed more than fed up. I guess if I got fed up I wouldn’t be doing it anymore. Its fun to play and I’m glad I’m still alive after that one show in that weird town in Germany.
3. What was your first concert experience? Do you remember how you felt once the concert was over?
The first concert I can remember was Jan and Dean and Sha Na Na at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. I slept for most of it and remember feeling extremely cranky when we got home. My dad carried me to bed and I was probably crying.
4. Did you grow up wanting to play music, or when did the whole making albums thing come about and how?
I started recording songs with words towards the end of college. Everyone in college liked pop music and I wanted to popular.
5. What qualifies you guys to be in a band?
All my connections with people with money and power who are cousins of cousins of famous people. Kidding.
6. Do you have a favorite song you have ever written? Why?
I like a song called fool in the night. It’ll be on my next record. Its to the point and fun to play guitar solos on.
With brand new, free MP3s from Red Sparrowes, Nada Surf, The Pack AD, and many more why wouldn’t you download this weeks Grab Bag straight to your desktop with one easy click?
Featuring new songs by these bands:
Dan Falconberry – Nightingale
Red Sparrowes – Giving Birth To Imagined Saviors
N.A.M.B – L.O.N
Nada Surf – Electrocution
Nick Jaina – Sleep Child
The Pack AD – Crazy
Velvet Davenport – Get Out
Hoquiam – Zombies of the Sea
Josiah Wolf – Master Cleanse
Linfinity – Martians Bloom
Why wait for the end of the year to find out who has made the best albums anyway?
————————————————————————————————-
Fredrik – Trilogi
I’m not saying this is best album of January…. never mind, it is. Fredrik’s Trilogi is elegant in composition, very rich in harmonies and thick with layers, both organic and electronic. Fans of stargazing, fairy tales, and Salad Fingers rejoice, for you have a new alternative to your Sigur Ros library. I can’t believe you haven’t heard them yet. What you have? Then buy Trilogi already. Listen to Fredrik – Locked In The Basement
————————————————————————————————-
The Album Leaf – A Chorus Of Storytellers
Just when you thought The Album Leaf has mastered their sound they come out with a release as necessary as A Chorus Of Storytellers. The Album Leaf musically ventures along similar lines as Sweden’s Fredrik, but have been around for nearly a decade longer, hail from San Diego, and are led by the grand master of instrumental music Jimmy Lavalle. A Chorus Of Storytellers was fronted by Sub Pop and found Jimmy once again recording and mixing in Sigur Ros’ Iceland studio. He also plays la guitarra in Tristeza and The Locust – who would have ever thought? Have you heard The Locust? PS – this album came out January 2nd, but I already wrote this review for this post and didn’t want to wait until March to tell you about it. Listen to The Album Leaf – Falling From The Sun
This feels like a ska album, but it’s not. Perhaps a reggae surf-rock album ala Man Or Astro Man? Could be. Maybe Vampire Weekend is making songs for lullaby’s now? Perhaps. You especially hear this on “I Think UR A Contra”, a song that could have been written for Yo Gabba Gabba! it’s all shakers, hand drums, and tinny acoustic guitars. “California English” just about drives me nuts with its Weekend At Bernies vibe going on, but it’s lovable in the right mood. To keep this little review simple, you can’t pigeon-hole this little wonder of an album.Listen To Vampire Weekend – White Sky
Cabins, the woods, deer, guitars, are all favorites of Matt Pond PA. You can hear it in their glorious pop songs. The Starting EP is just the precursor from what sounds to be an album about “Starting” over and sweeping the cobwebs from our winter heads, a collection of songs that goes by the name of The Dark Leaves – my most anticipated album of 2010. The Starting EP is the 1st in a series of 3 EPs to be released by the band in the coming months.Listen to Matt Pond PA – Starting
So I’ve been writing this article non-stop to this point. Does it show yet? …….. on we go to Beach House, easily one of the most anticipated albums for IRR this year, as it should be for you. The recording production is impeccably in-tune with the band, from album opener “Zebra” to album ender “Take Care” the listener is taken away on clouds made of chords and harmonies. Wisely Sub Pop has filled in the gap between Band Of Horses releases with Teen Dream, which may not have as many “hits”, but it’s every bit as moving as anything the label has put out.Listen to Beach House – Norway
————————————————————————————————-
Spoon – Transference
I’ve never liked the band Spoon, and the hype surrounding the band has always left somewhat of an acrid taste in my mouth. But finally, like the bittersweet satisfaction of swallowing down acid reflux, I am willing to admit that their new album “Transference” is genius. I feel like an American convert to Christianity after being an atheist for most of my adult life, I’ve finally seen the light, or given into social norms. Whatever. – Barry Moore (read full review)
July Flames sounds like the moment after you die and you realize you are in heaven. It also feels like longing. You know, that feeling of memories bubbling up in the pit of your stomach when you see a portrait of your family when you were only a kid? Laura Veirs makes me feel like that. From her organic musical compositions to Laura’s mesmerizing vocals July Flames abounds in earthly delights. Visit Raven Marching Band, her label, to buy the album, or if you go to her website you can download a couple of tracks for free. RIYL – music.
It’s easy to like an album when you sound like the singer of the band, or at least that’s what I imagine I sound like. That is Stephen Merritt. Realism is pure magic, that is if you believe in such a thing. These songs could not be any more different from the bands last release of Distortion, I image that’s why Stephen had this to say about the album, – ‘“I thought of the two records as a pair,” Merritt reveals, “and I kind of wanted them to be called True and False. But I couldn’t decide which I wanted to be called True and which I wanted to be called False. They both have to do with the notions of truth and falsehood in recording and music—not particularly with the lyrics but with the production style.” Go ahead, have a listen, then buy the album.
When an album is allowed space to breathe as does Postdata, that’s when magic happens. It’s the kind of magic you hear late at night walking through the big city all by your lonesome. Everything seems so otherworldly as if you are an alien on some foreign planet. Or it simply sounds like sitting on a mountain top, looking down at the world below and realizing what peace really is. This is an album that lives by it’s simple bravery, thank goodness Paul Murphy and his guitar had the fortitude for such an album.
1. Tell us about the band?
The band was started in the winter of 2007. We played our first show and recorded our debut EP Curious Faces/Violet Future that December. The two founding members Matthew rain (myself) and Aimee Morris are still in the band. We have gone through a slew of members but now have a solid lineup completed by Forrest Hall and Doug Crump.
The band has toured 40 of the 50 US states and has played shows with Deerhunter, minus the bear, the antlers, a place to bury strangers, black lips, Dan Deacon, Jay Reatard and Les Savy Fav. We recorded a new album last year that will be released via old flame records in March. It’s called Gray Waves.
2. Have you ever been fed up with playing music or with band members, why?
We are a four-piece band that has had nine members. We have a low threshold for slacker bitches.
3. What was your first concert experience? Do you remember how you felt once the concert was over?
I saw that band the Toadies when I was 13. I wasn’t a big fan at the time I just went with some friends. I loved it though. It was in Dallas where they are from so it was actually a huge show. I remember wanting to go home and practice guitar.
4. Did you grow up wanting to play music, or when did the whole making albums thing come about and how?
I played music starting at age 11. At that time I played drums because that was all they offered in band at school. I got my first guitar on my 13th birthday. I made my first record with my high school band when I was 16.
5. What qualifies you guys to be in a band?
What qualifies anyone? You don’t have to qualify for it. If there was some sort of standard there might be less terrible music.
6. Do you have a favorite song you have ever written? Why? Passive Idol, It just feels right all the way through.
7. What is your greatness weakness as a band?
Our love for the California treats.
8. What qualities should a successful label or manager have?
Good taste, reason with money but not a fear to spend it and a genuine love for the band and their music.
9. What’s the scariest thing that has ever happened to you in your life?
I was once in a car that flipped three times in a car accident. I didn’t even really get hurt that bad but it was terrifying at the time.
10. What’s the first thing you do when the band arrives in a new town while on tour?
Stake out the venue.
11. Have you ever had an audience member give you the willies because they kept looking at you all weird?
Worse than that, we had a guy in Montgomery stare Aimee and me down the whole set. He came up to us after the show and told us that he was going home to masturbate to the idea of us. When I tried to politely brush him off he told me that if I didn’t come home with him no one would ever see him again.
12. Have you ever cried while listening to music? If so what were you listening too?
Yes, Neil Young – After the Goldrush. Heartbreak city.
13. If you could re-record, or re-write any song of yours what would that song be?
Well we re-recorded red fox run for the album so I’ll just stay with that.
14. What’s the worst place you have ever played a show at, and why?
We played a Mexican restaurant in Austin at south by southwest last year. There were about three people there to see bands and about sixty innocent people who were just here to eat Mexican food. We’re a pretty loud band and we were just gonna back out but the promoter begged us to play. It felt like something out of a bad dream.
15. In a perfect world how many albums would you have to sell to be happy?
In a perfect world music would be free.
16. What do you guys have planned for the future?
We will be touring hardcore from now till the end of the year. After that we will begin working on a follow up to gray waves.
17. What music do you listen to when you are having a bad day?
Beach house.
18. If you had your life to live over again, what one thing would you change?
I wouldn’t change anything. Life is like a row of dominoes. If you take one out it might not all fall into place?
Its really been years since I’ve heard anything news worthy about Emo-Rock/Power Pop band Motion City Soundtrack. There was a time when I was vaguely aware of what was going on in the Warped Tour scene, and I would, given the chance, take a read through AP Magazine. Although, with their newest full length release “My Dinosaur Life”, I was actually surprised with what I heard.
Standing out in the AP Magazine world seems to be a chore of titanic proportions these days. It’s an industry of the cookie cutter band, and stars rise and fall like characters in a Lost episode. Lets be honest, post Fall Out Boy, it becomes harder and harder to differentiate which band of 25-year-old guys sporting straightened hair and jeans is the hot new thing. In fact, I’m not even sure if the fans know. But knowing where Motion City Soundtrack has come from, I would easily say they have taken some steps forward, and backwards, musically with “My Dinosaur Life”.
The opener to an album is always important, and I think considering, “Worker Bee” was a good choice. Easy and accessible, it’s a fair portrayal of what you’re in for when listening to this album. In the head-bobbing beat, I hear a little bit of My Chemical Romance, mixed with a Happy Days marathon. Not a bad tune if you ask me.
One of the strongest songs right off the bat is the sassy “Her Words”. Saves the Day and Weezer influenced guitars strut a cocky walk down this musical street. Catchy and simple, it has some sass to it, which seems to be strength of MCS. The lyrics are quirky, and a bit clever in fact. With lines like “Got a Job at a Common Grounds/I finally shaved off that Beard/Sold my Xbox to Jimmy, down the street/ I even quit smoking weed/I’m taking it all in one course/I’m learning to speak Japanese”, I hear a distinct Rivers Cuomo riff, which I don’t think does MCS wrong.
“Disappear”, has strong echoes of poetic Emo-Rock band Say Anything, which really think does this band a great disservice. Finding inspiration in a band is all fine and dandy, but emulating a band that has been around nearly as long as you, and not to mention, been around playing a very similar vein of music, and playing the same scene, does very little to credit you as creative. If you don’t have any Say Anything on your I-tunes, I’d stick with a couple listens to this song.
Moving on into the album, I do find some more gems. The machine gun lyrical form of “Delirium”, and the guilty, goofy pleasure that is “Pulp Fiction” leave me with two more songs that I find some interest in.
In the end though the downfall of this album, is its ability to push forward. There seems to be a reserved fear floating in the undercurrent. Motion City Soundtrack starts many songs with solid, and if anything, interesting ideas. But they quickly fall back into what seems to me, to be old habits. Verses with fresh aesthetic flow down into power-chord mashing Warped Tour choruses. This isn’t a Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, but there are pop sensibilities here, and some solid song writing in the mix. For what Motion City Soundtrack is, they do it well. At the end of the day though, nothing blatantly striking or original rises to surface in what has been a continued effort in the Emo-Rock tradition.
Dear Companion is a collaboration between three Kentucky musicians: the songs are written and performed by Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore, produced by and featuring Yim Yames of My Morning Jacket and Monsters of Folk. Recorded in the first half of 2009 in their home state, Dear Companion explores their ties to the place they love and aims to draw attention to the problem of mountaintop removal coal mining and its impact on the people and heritage of central Appalachia.
A portion of the proceeds from Dear Companion will benefit Appalachian Voices, an organization devoted to ending mountaintop removal and finding a better way forward. Learn more at: www.ilovemountains.org or www.subpop.com
Upcoming Tour Dates:
Feb 16 IN-STORE Ear X-tacy, Louisville, KY
Feb 17 IN-STORE CD Central, Lexington, KY
Feb 19 Northside Tavern, Cincinnati, OH
Feb 19 IN-STORE Shake It Records, Cincinnati, OH
Feb 20 Radio Radio, Indianapolis, IN
Feb 25 IN-STORE Grimeys, Nashville, TN
Feb 25 Mercy Lounge, Nashville, TN
Feb 26 Brown Theatre (KY), Louisville, KY
Feb 27 Orange Peel, Asheville, NC
Mar 01 Boone Saloon (NC), Boone, NC
Mar 02 Carrboro Arts Center, Carrboro, NC
Mar 04 World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA
Mar 05 Joe’s Pub (NY), New York, NY
Mar 06 Joe’s Pub (NY), New York, NY
Mar 11 Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH
Mar 12 SPACE (IL), Evanston, IL
Mar 13 Schubas, Chicago, IL
Mar 15 CSPS (IA), Cedar Rapids, IA
Mar 16 Old Rock House (MO), ST. LOUIS, MO
Mar 17 SXSW, Austin, TX
Mar 18 Central Presbyterian Church (TX), Austin, TX
Mar 19 SXSW, Austin, TX
Mar 20 SXSW, Austin, TX
Mar 26 McCabe’s (CA), Santa Monica, CA
Mar 27 Swedish American Hall (SF), San Francisco, CA
Mar 29 Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR
Apr 02 Cedar Cultural Centre, Minneapolis, MN
Apr 03 Majestic Theater, Madison, WI
Drew Danburry is a regular here on IRR. Many of you have probably never heard of the man, yet he has played in almost every State in the US and even a few Backpacking tours in Europe. The man loves to play music, especially when it is done in a live, quaint setting like your living room or coffee shop.
Yesterday he released his latest musical venture titled Goodnight Gary. 10 tracks that are not done justice until seen live. This record may not be his finest piece of work but musically seems his most daring. Using simple but multiple layers of Instruments, Vocals, Answering Machines and various ambient Sounds to create tunes that seem his most heartfelt and most heart aching.
I enjoy the sing along, ukulele driven cheerful tunes of his past albums but they seem to not be on this first of a two part album release. Look for Goodnight Dannii later this year. Still if you love to support and get to know Musicians who exemplify what it means to be D.i.Y. then look no farther than Mr. Danburry and go grab this release and some of his others. I bet if you do and you let him know you did, he will gladly return the favor by coming and playing in your living room.
If you are young, have nothing better to do, like bad music, but like to criticize bands you know nothing about then send an email to info @ indierockreviews.com
