MUSIC MONDAYS

THE BLOODSUGARS - Light At the End of the Tunnel

I didn’t like The Bloodsugars when I first heard them. I’m not sure why exactly, but it rubbed me the wrong way; like it was trying too hard to emulate its heroes. Eventually, I pulled my head out of my ass and succumbed the relentlessly hooky material on the band’s newest record, I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On.

The album opener, “Light At The End of the Tunnel,” is hands down one of the best pop songs I’ve heard in the last year, thanks mostly to its infectious vocal melody and the soft delivery of singer, Jason Rabinowitz. Despite my initial impressions, it now feels smart and original to me, while drawing lightly from artists like Peter Gabriel and Prince.

What’s that? You want to see some live video?

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Another phenomenal video from OK GO for their new single, “This Too Shall Pass.” Thanks to State Farm for picking up the slack for those dipshits over at EMI, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to post this. Why wouldn’t they want this video to be embeddable?

NEW MUSIC MONDAY

ROGUE WAVE - Good Morning

Chances are Rogue Wave is a band you’ve heard of. With a handful of releases on Sub Pop, and then Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records, the band has been recording and touring heavily for the better part of a decade. While the band has slowly morphed from lo-fi bedroom-born indie rock into a more lush sounding, high gloss act, they’ve still maintained their penchant for clever songwriting, as evidenced by “Good Morning,” the first single off of their upcoming record Permalight.

This is Rogue Wave at their most “studio.” Driving bass synths, drum machines, and a super produced finish leaves “Good Morning” sounding a bit like a guilty pleasure. However upon closer inspection, every little nuanced part of “Good Morning,” plays a specific, structured role. While the electronics are heavy, it’s not particularly reflective of the album as a whole. Permalight still maintains a more classic Rogue Wave sound as evidenced on the album opener “Solitary Gun,’ which you can download for free below.

DOWNLOAD “SOLITARY GUN”

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So there’s a handful of services out there that let you tweet about music; Twt.fm, Songtwit, Song.ly, etc. However, after some thorough testing, it’s become clear that for musicians, Twiturm is the way to go. Here’s the deal:

1) Log into Twiturm with your Twitter info to create your account.

2) Upload your track and include a brief message.

3) Tweet that shit out!

The tweet you send will include a link back to a landing page you’ve created:

Once you’re on this landing page you can:

Stream the song, download the song, share it, retweet it, grab a direct URL to the track and html code to embed it, and see the number of plays, unique plays, and downloads. You can even set your Twiturm account to automatically post your tracks to Facebook and Ping.fm, with more networks on the way.

There’s also a commenting system in place for users to discuss the song, artist, etc., and each comment will be sent as an @ reply to your Twitter, allowing you to keep track of who’s listening without having to visit your Twiturm page.

If you happened to find the track by browsing Twiturm, you can opt to follow the song poster on Twitter. You can also add the song to your “Favorites” on your Twiturm profile, and anyone can subscribe to that Twiturm user’s RSS feed, bringing every track they tweet directly to your inbox.

Lastly, if you’re an artist and you find your music on Twiturm but you didn’t authorize it, you can flag the track and have it removed from the site.

Alright bands, get sharing!

“Arthur Lee’s Lullaby” is the first single from the new Walter Schreifels album, An Open Letter to the Scene. While I’m no stranger Walter’s past works, none ever sounded as barebones and nerdy as this. I mean nerdy in a good way, like in a Ben Folds-with-an-acoustic-guitar kind of way. Or maybe like a Blake Schwarzenbach-playing-Jets-to-Brazil-songs-unplugged kind of way.

Walter’s not breaking any new ground here, but that’s ok because that’s not what this music is about. It’s personal sounding, it’s sunny, and the video is full of vibrant colors. I wouldn’t be surprised to see “Arthur Lee’s Lullaby” end up on a Wes Anderson soundtrack.

An Open Letter to the Scene is purported to come out on Academy Fight Song, though the site makes no mention of it. Additionally, links to purchase the album are nowhere to be found. Keep up to date on Walter and the record via WalterTown.com.

Oh and word is there’s a new Rival Schools record on the way. Sit tight for that one!

Download “Arthur Lee’s Lullaby” here.

Watch the video for “Arthur Lee’s Lullaby:”

Walter Schreifels — Arthur Lee’s Lullaby from The Town Pump on Vimeo.

I spent this past weekend hanging out and playing shows with House of Fools, who are some of the very best dudes around and an incredible band. Since I was traveling all weekend, I’ve got to delay my weekly Music Monday while I catch up on everything. This means more music posts, more mp3s, and more music industry tips and commentary. Thanks for your patience!

(Oh yeah and that pic up there is of Paulson and House of Fools at Greene Street in Greensboro, NC, and was taken by gentleman photog extraordinaire, Josh Hofer. Thanks Josh!)

LiveMusicMachine touts itself as the future of booking; yet another widgified concept, aimed at assisting artists. The concept is simple, LiveMusicMachine creates an embeddable widget based on your band’s specific requirements, and allows anyone to make a booking offer. When the transaction is completed, LiveMusicMachine takes $10 from you and $10 from the promoter. However, I’m left wondering if there’s any real need for or benefit from LiveMusicMachine.

LiveMusicMachine is supposed to help bridge the artist-fan gap, and strengthen that relationship by allowing your fans to book you directly. If one fan can’t afford your guarantee, multiple fans can chip in to cover the cost, a novel idea, but providing for the cringeworthy prospect of dealing with a handful of difficult and potentially shadypromoters rather than one.

As a side note, the widget doesn’t offer the ability to price your band according to location, so your listed guarantee remains the same regardless of whether or not the show is in a town where you draw 50 kids or a town where you draw 500.

Additionally, fans don’t always make for the best promoters. As someone who’s played hundreds of DIY shows, I’ve heard every excuse in the book as to why no one showed up, or they can’t follow through with the contract, or a myriad of other ways that this promoter failed at their job. While there are great DIY promoters out there, thoroughly discussing an event directly with them is the best way to filter out who has their shit together and who doesn’t. I find the idea of a tool to expedite and mechanize the booking process to be rather off-putting.

I suppose the bottom line here is that booking is not something that can be responsibly done on a whim. LiveMusicMachine seems to have its heart in the right place, they offer the ability to process payments through a third party (GigPay), the widget is able to be slapped on the major social pages (Myspace, Facebook, and YouTube), and $10 a show isn’t really that significant of a price-tag, but the entire concept somewhat irresponsible. Furthermore everything that can be handled by LiveMusicMachine can be handled with a quick email, which leaves me wondering what the point is.

If you’ve used LiveMusicMachine, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Or if there’s some benefit that I’m overlooking, let me know! Anybody?

NEW MUSIC MONDAY

HOLY GHOST TENT REVIVAL - Needing You

My affinity for rollicking, rootsy, southern folkiness is no secret, so imagine my delight when I was introduced to Holy Ghost Tent Revival last year.  On a weekend trip to Greensboro, NC to visit my friends in House of Fools, I watched in awe as members of HGTR laid down tracks at the Fools home studio. It was an explosion of ragtime, jazz, blues, country, and rock. Brassy and encompassing, fast paced and melodic; I was surprised that something this loud and impassioned hadn’t yet reached my ears.

Holy Ghost Tent Revival maintains a hefty tour schedule, and their buzz is growing as the band regularly packs houses along the mid-atlantic. Be sure to catch one of their high energy shows when they’re in your area. Probably at your local speakeasy.

TOUR DATES:

2/17 - Ferrum, VA @ Ferrum College
2/18 - Asheville, NC @ UNCA (The Grotto)
2/19 - Greenville, SC @ Gottrocks
2/20 - Chattanooga, TN @ JJ’s Bohemia
2/24 - Frederick, MD @ Cafe Nola
2/25 - New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
2/26 - Scranton, PA @ Backyard Ale House
3/11 - Decatur, GA @ Twain’s Billiards
3/12 - Augusta, GA @ Stillwater Taproom
7/23 - Floyd, VA @ Floyd Fest
7/24 - Floyda, VA @ Floyd Fest
9/11 - Carlisle, MA @ Union Hall Coffee House

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KILLED BY THE BULL - Anthem For The Dying

It seems like the once vibrant New Jersey music scene has dwindled over the last few years. Venues continue to close, booking is centralized by a few well-established talent buyers, and if you asked me to name the big local bands that play every weekend, I wouldn’t even know where to start. In an effort to do my part, I’m going to start featuring NJ area bands as regularly as I can. And here we go…

Killed By The Bull reminds me of my youth. It was a simpler time where I only cared about skateboarding and dubbing punk CDs onto cassettes (hey mp3s were new technology back then!) from my friends and their older siblings. “Anthem for the Dying,” from KBTB’s latest Failing Is Fun, conjures up the wiry, tremolo guitars of East Bay Ray, and the snotty vocal delivery of Johnny Rotten and Jello Biafra.

Killed By The Bull is fast, dirty, fun, and melodic in the ways of California punk in the 1980s. Think T.S.O.L., Dead Kennedy’s, and a little bit of early AFI. We may be older these days and have more responsibilities, but sometimes it’s nice to kick back and throw on a record that reminds you of when you just didn’t give a shit about anything.

Killed By The Bull Tour Dates:

2/17 - Norfolk, VA @ House Show w/ Folk The System
2/18 - Baltimore, MD @ The Sidebar w/ Deep Sleep
2/23 - Ask The Band, NJ @ The Torrid Zone w/ Zhenia Golov, Holy Shit!
2/26 - New Brunswick, NJ @ The Court Tavern w/ Chambers, Bayonet
3/4 - Goshen, NY @ Sound Asylum
3/20 -  Fairfield, NJ @ The Party Zone w/ Hoover Flags, Man vs. Wild

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NEW MUSIC MONDAY

RADIOHEAD - Lotus Flowers

This was recorded at the band’s Haiti benefit last week. It’s a new Radiohead song. What could you possibly want me to say about it?

Revivl is linking to this site, which contains a full download of the band’s set from that night. Enjoy!