Thursday, January 17, 2013
Monday, July 19, 2010
My Latest Obsession
Yesterday started off as a bad day: I slept horribly and had bad dreams, and I was grumpy all morning. A trip to a random baby store in Korea Town didn't help either. I decided my pick-me-up would be Chicken Nachitos from La Grande Orange in Pasadena (perhaps the best nachos ever) and an iced coffee. Deciding to spur the ubiquitous StarBean or whatever is on every corner, I found Jones Coffee Roasters in Pasadena. In addition to picking up some much needed espresso for my morning brew, I ordered probably the best iced coffee I have ever had. Seriously. The best. Suddenly my afternoon of baby shopping wasn't so bad. You might say I actually enjoyed it. (note: we were shopping for stuff for our upcoming baby, not shopping for actual babies. I was confused too.)
The people at Jones cold-brew their iced coffee for 24 hours. I usually go 12-16 hours. But 24 was rich. For my home brew, I fill a French press about 1/4 way with coarsely ground coffee (usually as much as will fit in my grinder at one time), fill with filtered water and let sit overnight. The next morning I depress the plunger and pour the coffee concentrate into a container in the fridge. To serve, I pour about 1/3 of the concentrate into a glass, diluting slightly with some sweetened water (in which I dissolve about a half tablespoon to a tablespoon of sugar; it's not quite simple syrup) and a splash of skim milk.
Here are two great recipes for iced coffee, along with pictures that make me think it's just about time for an afternoon Iced Delish: GQ and SF Gate.
Friday, April 09, 2010
The Daily 5 - Weekly Edition!
Daily posting is still my ultimate goal, but until then I'm thinking of naming this feature The Weekly Five. Anyway, without further ado, here are five new songs that have been rolling through atmosphere around me this week.
1. "Hollywood" by Codeine Velvet Club: Besides an awesome band name, the Codeine Velvet Club has something else going for it: Jon Lawler (better known as Jon Fratelli from the Fratellis). While I don't actually know much about the Fratellis--I always avoided them because the name makes them sound like some gooey teenage pop--apparently Jon Lawler is awesome. And I've been into a ton of Scottish bands lately (Frightened Rabbit, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Camera Obscura). After listening to this CD three or four times, I'm beginning to agree about Lawler, plus I love the retro, 1960s big band sound.
2. "Terminally Chill" by Neon Indian: The first 10 seconds sound like Daft Punk and then the song breaks out into a nice 1980s synth-jam. This song makes me want to drive to Palm Springs and snort cocaine with Julian--but (SPOILER ALERT!) hopefully not die in the car ride back.
3. "Sun Hands" by Local Natives: Apparently this LA-area band killed at SXSW (according to my friend Jeremy from New York). I'm into almost any song with a catchy, sing-along section that you can clap to (see: "15 to 20" by the Phenomenal Handclap Band). Before you go overboard there with the clapping, I said "almost." Maybe I should dial that back to "some" before you drag me to a karaoke bar and force me to sing along with "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers. (And yes, I am now thinking about So I Married An Axe Murderer. And no, I don't think I digress too much.)
4. "Stranger" by Dr. Dog: I was a huge fan of Dr. Dog's last album, Fate--especially the Beatles-esque "Army of Ancients" and "The Beach"--and this follow up of the recently released album Shame, Shame continues along with the same, smooth sound. So far, this might be my early-summer anthem. I'm seeing Dr. Dog (along with Deer Tick) in a few weeks at the Fonda, and I'm excited.
5. "White Punks on Dope" by the Tubes: Inspired by my t-shirt today(which says "White Dopes on Punk"), here's an old track by the Tubes. You better know where you came from, son.
1. "Hollywood" by Codeine Velvet Club: Besides an awesome band name, the Codeine Velvet Club has something else going for it: Jon Lawler (better known as Jon Fratelli from the Fratellis). While I don't actually know much about the Fratellis--I always avoided them because the name makes them sound like some gooey teenage pop--apparently Jon Lawler is awesome. And I've been into a ton of Scottish bands lately (Frightened Rabbit, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Camera Obscura). After listening to this CD three or four times, I'm beginning to agree about Lawler, plus I love the retro, 1960s big band sound.
2. "Terminally Chill" by Neon Indian: The first 10 seconds sound like Daft Punk and then the song breaks out into a nice 1980s synth-jam. This song makes me want to drive to Palm Springs and snort cocaine with Julian--but (SPOILER ALERT!) hopefully not die in the car ride back.
3. "Sun Hands" by Local Natives: Apparently this LA-area band killed at SXSW (according to my friend Jeremy from New York). I'm into almost any song with a catchy, sing-along section that you can clap to (see: "15 to 20" by the Phenomenal Handclap Band). Before you go overboard there with the clapping, I said "almost." Maybe I should dial that back to "some" before you drag me to a karaoke bar and force me to sing along with "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers. (And yes, I am now thinking about So I Married An Axe Murderer. And no, I don't think I digress too much.)
4. "Stranger" by Dr. Dog: I was a huge fan of Dr. Dog's last album, Fate--especially the Beatles-esque "Army of Ancients" and "The Beach"--and this follow up of the recently released album Shame, Shame continues along with the same, smooth sound. So far, this might be my early-summer anthem. I'm seeing Dr. Dog (along with Deer Tick) in a few weeks at the Fonda, and I'm excited.
5. "White Punks on Dope" by the Tubes: Inspired by my t-shirt today(which says "White Dopes on Punk"), here's an old track by the Tubes. You better know where you came from, son.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Evolution of Heartbeats
I had these songs running through my head last night and I thought I'd put them together in a playlist.
Though it's not in order of release (I know the Knife's version came first), I think this flow is better as it builds as the songs go on. José González starts it off with his cover of the Knife's 'Heartbeats,' which comes second. Finally I threw in the Get Busy Committee's new track, 'My Little Razorblade,' that builds off the Knife's version and adds some much needed attitude to the electronic rhythm. Also, I highly recommend the Get Busy Committee's album Uzi Does It, because who doesn't love koalas, machine guns, and good samples?
Ladies and gentleman, introducing the Evolution of Heartbeats:
Though it's not in order of release (I know the Knife's version came first), I think this flow is better as it builds as the songs go on. José González starts it off with his cover of the Knife's 'Heartbeats,' which comes second. Finally I threw in the Get Busy Committee's new track, 'My Little Razorblade,' that builds off the Knife's version and adds some much needed attitude to the electronic rhythm. Also, I highly recommend the Get Busy Committee's album Uzi Does It, because who doesn't love koalas, machine guns, and good samples?
Ladies and gentleman, introducing the Evolution of Heartbeats:
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The Perfect Space
Today's song of the day is "The Perfect Space" by the Avett Brothers.
This sounds like a sleepy piano ballad but there's a great tempo change about halfway through. The Avett Brothers are from Concord, NC, the same town as a few good friends of mine. My friend works at a school, and apparently the librarian or something was their early manager, but my friend never saw them. They are one of the many bands playing Coachella this year (a fact about which I continually remind my wife). Check out the rest of their album "I And Love And You" when you have some time to spend introspecting.
I want to have friends that I can trust, who love me for the man I've become not the man that I was.
This sounds like a sleepy piano ballad but there's a great tempo change about halfway through. The Avett Brothers are from Concord, NC, the same town as a few good friends of mine. My friend works at a school, and apparently the librarian or something was their early manager, but my friend never saw them. They are one of the many bands playing Coachella this year (a fact about which I continually remind my wife). Check out the rest of their album "I And Love And You" when you have some time to spend introspecting.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
The Daily Five Returns!
After a long hiatus, Diabolical H. Crazy is pleased to present the return of the Daily Five! But first, here's the Diabolical February iMix playlist. It should have been a little longer, but some of the songs didn't match up with iTunes. Anyway, on with the Daily Five!
Portugal. The Man. Here's a band I didn't know anything about until last week when I downloaded the "American Ghetto" album. I particularly like "The Dead Dog" and "1000 Years." I'm amazed such a rocking sound can come from Wasilla, AK ("The Home of the Palin Moose Burger!"). It must be the Portland in them. You can get "The Dead Dog" for free below:
I've been on a bit of a French pop kick lately (no, not the crappy French pop. The more soulful stuff by Carla Bruni, Autuor de Lucie, Josephine Baker, Valerie Leulliot, and others. Maybe I should do a French pop Daily 5?), which is how I found this song, in both English and French. Plus I'm a sucker for the Moody Blues. I remember walking down Broken Fence Way listening to "The Other Side of Life" on a boom box on my shoulder (updated review: it's a really, really, really bad album. But I thought I was cool).
I missed seeing Local Natives during their last two LA Shows, and then their album got yanked from eMusic and re-released by another label. So I waited and waited to finally check it out (legally). I like what I hear. And though I missed their shows, you can find me clapping along to this song at home.
I'm taking the easy way out today and posting another Local Natives song. What, do you think I sit around and blog all day? NO! I gots to make money somehow.
Portugal. The Man. Here's a band I didn't know anything about until last week when I downloaded the "American Ghetto" album. I particularly like "The Dead Dog" and "1000 Years." I'm amazed such a rocking sound can come from Wasilla, AK ("The Home of the Palin Moose Burger!"). It must be the Portland in them. You can get "The Dead Dog" for free below:
I've been on a bit of a French pop kick lately (no, not the crappy French pop. The more soulful stuff by Carla Bruni, Autuor de Lucie, Josephine Baker, Valerie Leulliot, and others. Maybe I should do a French pop Daily 5?), which is how I found this song, in both English and French. Plus I'm a sucker for the Moody Blues. I remember walking down Broken Fence Way listening to "The Other Side of Life" on a boom box on my shoulder (updated review: it's a really, really, really bad album. But I thought I was cool).
I missed seeing Local Natives during their last two LA Shows, and then their album got yanked from eMusic and re-released by another label. So I waited and waited to finally check it out (legally). I like what I hear. And though I missed their shows, you can find me clapping along to this song at home.
I'm taking the easy way out today and posting another Local Natives song. What, do you think I sit around and blog all day? NO! I gots to make money somehow.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
What's Been Ringing In My Ears This Year
I'm a bit of a music junkee. Really. Anyway, I just spent so much time putting together the list below that I don't feel like writing a proper intro to this post. So let's just get into it: here are Diabolical H. Crazy's top 10 albums of 2009.
1. Dirty Projectors "Bitte Orca" -- As in, please, I'd like another whale of an album like this. While it seems that the rest of the music press penciled in Animal Collective as the year's best album in January, "Bitte Orca" came out in June and picked up steam throughout the summer. "Stillness Is The Move" is definitely the highlight track (I think I must have Shazamed this song about a dozen times before buying the album, plus there's the Solange Knowles cover. Any song that is still amazing when covered in another genre must be an amazing song). The album starts with "Cannibal Resource," one of my all time favorite, "is this music? what the hell is this? wait, this IS music!" album openers ever. The vibe continues through "Temecula Sunrise" and "No Intention." At moments, it sounds like a cacophonic experimental middle school band, and it others it is simply pure genius.
2. Phoenix "Wolfgang Amedeus Phoenix" -- At first I had it really low on this list. Then not as low. And then I listened to it again. And again. It's a damn catchy album, and I can't believe I am putting something this poppy so high, but that's just the thing--who expected a (mostly obscure) French band to make one of the best pop albums of the year and then name it after one of the best composers ever? Everyone knows "1901" (thanks, Cadillac. By the way, I know someone who should do your marketing) and "Lisztomania," but this album is steady all the way through--so solid that I had trouble picking which song I wanted to link to (I went with "Lasso," but make sure you check out "Love Like a Sunset, Pt. II"). Oh yeah, and thanks to my wife for turning me on to this band and buying me tickets to the show.
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs "It's Blitz" -- I liked "Show Your Bones." Having said that, it was definitely not the right album to follow their stellar debut "Fever to Tell." The YYYs could have retreated from "Show Your Bones," licked their wounds, and put out another indie-punk gem. Instead, they completely blew up their sound (seriously, Nick Zinner, keyboards? I had no clue.) and came out with one of the most backward-sounding, forward-reaching albums I have ever heard. It's hard to outshine Karen O, but in some cases on this album--like "Zero"--the music is at the forefront. Luckily Karen gives us "Heads Will Roll" and "Dull Life."
4. Girls "Album" -- "I wish I had a pizza and a bottle of wine." This line, from "Lust for Life," is so many perfect moments wrapped up into 11 little words. It's the first song on the album, and I completely skipped over it for a month, listening to "Laura," "Big Bad Mean Motherfucker," and "Hellhole Ratrace." And then one day, while walking the dog, I listened to "Lust for Life," over and over and over again. And then the rest of the album. It's at once retro and lo-fi, yet somehow modern and vulnerable. "So come on, come on, come on and laugh with me." And listen to this album.
5. The Flaming Lips "Embryonic" -- Okay, Wayne and company, the album's called "Embryonic"; we really didn't need to see that birth scene in the video for "Watching the Planets." As you say so well on the album's first song, "that's the difference between us." But you did show us that and so much more. Starting with "Convinced of the Hex, this album feels like the birth and destruction of something, but what? The ego (as in "The Ego's Last Stand")? Yourself? Celebrity? What?
(bonus side note: Karen O offers some amazing animal vocals on "I Can Be A Frog." Some called this the year of Jack White. I call it the year of Karen O.)
6. Passion Pit "Manners" -- Of the year's electronic albums, I like this one the best. Maybe it's the way "Moth's Wings" builds up. Maybe its the way "Sleepyhead" reminds me of my wife. But most likely it's the singing, sometimes high pitched, sometimes a collection of voices, that adds depth to everything else. That, and it's fun. Whatever it is, I have the manners to say, "thank you, Passion Pit."
7. The Decemberists "The Hazards of Love" -- I really didn't want to like this album. I even took most of the songs off my iPod for a while to make room for some newer albums. But there's this one riff that's repeated in a number of songs that just makes me want more, and I started adding them back. In my opinion, the Decemberists have always engaged in a bit of puffery and fluffery in their songs, making them sound complex and grandiose. And some of their so-called period songs (like "Eli, the Barrow Boy") seem like a creative writing class gone wrong. But this album, "The Hazards of Love," though a concept album, never feels overblown. It might be that refrain that first appears in "A Bower Scene" or it might be the presence of My Brightest Diamond, but this compact (one hour!) musical is simply Ear Delicious.
8. Animal Collective "Merriweather Post Pavilion" -- So okay, here it is. I think it deserves the hype it got. The band finally makes sense to me. I have to mention, I was a little skeptical for the first few listens. But after a while, you peel through the layers (and occasionally something that sounds like a siren backwards) to listen to an amazing album. And my wife liked "My Girls," which counts for something. From the confusingly named "Lion in a Coma" with its didgeridoo, through the never-ending build-up of "My Girls," there's only one word that can describe this album: genius. Or swirling. Your pick. I'm going with swirling.
9. DJ Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse "Dark Night of the Soul" -- This is an eerie, alternate universe of an album, almost like what Edward Scissorhands would have on his iPod if he didn't keep cutting the cord on his earphones. No wonder it accompanies a series of David Lynch's photography. It starts out strong, with a slowly haunting collaboration with the Flaming Lip's Wayne Coyne (each song has a different vocal collaborist). This album really plays like an old double record, with four distinct sections. From a slowly psychedelic beginning, the album delves into punk, and then another psychedelic turn--this one working its way down to the haunting, final two songs, which feature church (death?) bells, the fuzz from an old record player, and some understated Vic Chesnutt vocals. Don't listen to this album alone in the dark.
Oh yeah, and this record was never released (officially). Start your search here.
10. The Drums "Summertime" -- Even though it didn't come out until almost Fall, this brief debut EP by the Drums perfectly encapsulates every summer from the last 60 years. Surf rock, hand claps, and the catchiest whistling this side of Peter, Bjorn and John almost make this album sound like a relic from the past--as do the album's repeating themes of schoolyard love, holding hands and old-fashioned dates. It's a simple, classic format, perfectly executed.
The next five albums just missed my Top Ten. They are the best of the rest. But I'm making some tough decisions by leaving Wilco, the Dead Weather, blakroc, Metric, Mos Def, Soulsavers, The Very Best, Bat for Lashes, and Beirut off this list.
11. The xx "xx"
12. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes "Up From Below"
13. Arctic Monkeys "Humbug"
14. Miike Snow "Miike Snow"
15. Neko Case "Middle Cyclone"
Notable Omissions:
The Antlers "Hospice" -- I'm sorry, but the slow-building church organ just didn't do it for me, especially after trying to make it through Grizzly Bear's "Veckatimest." Speaking of ...
Grizzly Bear "Veckatimist" -- I get it. Kind of. "The Knife" was great. As are moments of "Veckatimist," like "Two Weeks." The rest of it just feels empty. And not in the amazing Bon-Iver-there's-no-one-else-around empty, more like soulless empty.
"Dark Was the Night" -- great album, but it was a COMPILATION. Sorry, not valid in my book. Neither are soundtracks (unless all the music is original and new). Sorry, them's the rules.
And now, if you've made it this far: time to debate.
1. Dirty Projectors "Bitte Orca" -- As in, please, I'd like another whale of an album like this. While it seems that the rest of the music press penciled in Animal Collective as the year's best album in January, "Bitte Orca" came out in June and picked up steam throughout the summer. "Stillness Is The Move" is definitely the highlight track (I think I must have Shazamed this song about a dozen times before buying the album, plus there's the Solange Knowles cover. Any song that is still amazing when covered in another genre must be an amazing song). The album starts with "Cannibal Resource," one of my all time favorite, "is this music? what the hell is this? wait, this IS music!" album openers ever. The vibe continues through "Temecula Sunrise" and "No Intention." At moments, it sounds like a cacophonic experimental middle school band, and it others it is simply pure genius.
2. Phoenix "Wolfgang Amedeus Phoenix" -- At first I had it really low on this list. Then not as low. And then I listened to it again. And again. It's a damn catchy album, and I can't believe I am putting something this poppy so high, but that's just the thing--who expected a (mostly obscure) French band to make one of the best pop albums of the year and then name it after one of the best composers ever? Everyone knows "1901" (thanks, Cadillac. By the way, I know someone who should do your marketing) and "Lisztomania," but this album is steady all the way through--so solid that I had trouble picking which song I wanted to link to (I went with "Lasso," but make sure you check out "Love Like a Sunset, Pt. II"). Oh yeah, and thanks to my wife for turning me on to this band and buying me tickets to the show.
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs "It's Blitz" -- I liked "Show Your Bones." Having said that, it was definitely not the right album to follow their stellar debut "Fever to Tell." The YYYs could have retreated from "Show Your Bones," licked their wounds, and put out another indie-punk gem. Instead, they completely blew up their sound (seriously, Nick Zinner, keyboards? I had no clue.) and came out with one of the most backward-sounding, forward-reaching albums I have ever heard. It's hard to outshine Karen O, but in some cases on this album--like "Zero"--the music is at the forefront. Luckily Karen gives us "Heads Will Roll" and "Dull Life."
4. Girls "Album" -- "I wish I had a pizza and a bottle of wine." This line, from "Lust for Life," is so many perfect moments wrapped up into 11 little words. It's the first song on the album, and I completely skipped over it for a month, listening to "Laura," "Big Bad Mean Motherfucker," and "Hellhole Ratrace." And then one day, while walking the dog, I listened to "Lust for Life," over and over and over again. And then the rest of the album. It's at once retro and lo-fi, yet somehow modern and vulnerable. "So come on, come on, come on and laugh with me." And listen to this album.
5. The Flaming Lips "Embryonic" -- Okay, Wayne and company, the album's called "Embryonic"; we really didn't need to see that birth scene in the video for "Watching the Planets." As you say so well on the album's first song, "that's the difference between us." But you did show us that and so much more. Starting with "Convinced of the Hex, this album feels like the birth and destruction of something, but what? The ego (as in "The Ego's Last Stand")? Yourself? Celebrity? What?
(bonus side note: Karen O offers some amazing animal vocals on "I Can Be A Frog." Some called this the year of Jack White. I call it the year of Karen O.)
6. Passion Pit "Manners" -- Of the year's electronic albums, I like this one the best. Maybe it's the way "Moth's Wings" builds up. Maybe its the way "Sleepyhead" reminds me of my wife. But most likely it's the singing, sometimes high pitched, sometimes a collection of voices, that adds depth to everything else. That, and it's fun. Whatever it is, I have the manners to say, "thank you, Passion Pit."
7. The Decemberists "The Hazards of Love" -- I really didn't want to like this album. I even took most of the songs off my iPod for a while to make room for some newer albums. But there's this one riff that's repeated in a number of songs that just makes me want more, and I started adding them back. In my opinion, the Decemberists have always engaged in a bit of puffery and fluffery in their songs, making them sound complex and grandiose. And some of their so-called period songs (like "Eli, the Barrow Boy") seem like a creative writing class gone wrong. But this album, "The Hazards of Love," though a concept album, never feels overblown. It might be that refrain that first appears in "A Bower Scene" or it might be the presence of My Brightest Diamond, but this compact (one hour!) musical is simply Ear Delicious.
8. Animal Collective "Merriweather Post Pavilion" -- So okay, here it is. I think it deserves the hype it got. The band finally makes sense to me. I have to mention, I was a little skeptical for the first few listens. But after a while, you peel through the layers (and occasionally something that sounds like a siren backwards) to listen to an amazing album. And my wife liked "My Girls," which counts for something. From the confusingly named "Lion in a Coma" with its didgeridoo, through the never-ending build-up of "My Girls," there's only one word that can describe this album: genius. Or swirling. Your pick. I'm going with swirling.
9. DJ Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse "Dark Night of the Soul" -- This is an eerie, alternate universe of an album, almost like what Edward Scissorhands would have on his iPod if he didn't keep cutting the cord on his earphones. No wonder it accompanies a series of David Lynch's photography. It starts out strong, with a slowly haunting collaboration with the Flaming Lip's Wayne Coyne (each song has a different vocal collaborist). This album really plays like an old double record, with four distinct sections. From a slowly psychedelic beginning, the album delves into punk, and then another psychedelic turn--this one working its way down to the haunting, final two songs, which feature church (death?) bells, the fuzz from an old record player, and some understated Vic Chesnutt vocals. Don't listen to this album alone in the dark.
Oh yeah, and this record was never released (officially). Start your search here.
10. The Drums "Summertime" -- Even though it didn't come out until almost Fall, this brief debut EP by the Drums perfectly encapsulates every summer from the last 60 years. Surf rock, hand claps, and the catchiest whistling this side of Peter, Bjorn and John almost make this album sound like a relic from the past--as do the album's repeating themes of schoolyard love, holding hands and old-fashioned dates. It's a simple, classic format, perfectly executed.
The next five albums just missed my Top Ten. They are the best of the rest. But I'm making some tough decisions by leaving Wilco, the Dead Weather, blakroc, Metric, Mos Def, Soulsavers, The Very Best, Bat for Lashes, and Beirut off this list.
11. The xx "xx"
12. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes "Up From Below"
13. Arctic Monkeys "Humbug"
14. Miike Snow "Miike Snow"
15. Neko Case "Middle Cyclone"
Notable Omissions:
The Antlers "Hospice" -- I'm sorry, but the slow-building church organ just didn't do it for me, especially after trying to make it through Grizzly Bear's "Veckatimest." Speaking of ...
Grizzly Bear "Veckatimist" -- I get it. Kind of. "The Knife" was great. As are moments of "Veckatimist," like "Two Weeks." The rest of it just feels empty. And not in the amazing Bon-Iver-there's-no-one-else-around empty, more like soulless empty.
"Dark Was the Night" -- great album, but it was a COMPILATION. Sorry, not valid in my book. Neither are soundtracks (unless all the music is original and new). Sorry, them's the rules.
And now, if you've made it this far: time to debate.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Dirty Rock from the U.K
I woke up a little hazy today and have been moving slowly ever since. Not that the night before was epic or anything, but it included a stop at a bourbon bar, a creepy mustache, and a bartender so hot that my brother-in-law and I named her Zooey Fox. I think the mustache was probably the worst part of the night.
As I was beginning my afternoon slide into unproductivity (aided by the haze and the heat), I heard a song on Sirius XMU (still Left of Center to me) that was so great I had to listen to it again. Because I was streaming Sirius online and not listening through my radio, I couldn't check out who the artist was. I then tried the next-best solution, Shazam on my iPhone, only to learn that this song was unrecognizable. I ran to the other room to turn on my Sirius receiver (and wait for the antenna to find a signal) just in time to see who sang the song.
It still amazes me that some bands can be so strongly associated with a region, yet they come from somewhere else. My go-to example for this is Creedence Clearwater Revival, who sound like they are from the South but were actually from San Francisco. The band I heard today also captures this same phenomenon: The Heavy.
On first listen, they also have a dirty, southern sound. And the first video I watched ("Sixteen") had the familiar backdrop of "Shoot the Freak" and Coney Island. But they're not from the South or from Brooklyn. After looking around for a release date on their upcoming album ("The House that Dirt Built" drops in the U.S. on October 13, according to Amazon), I found that this album was released in the U.K.--their home base--two days ago. We Americans need to wait another three weeks.
Not being very patient, I tracked down two songs today: the soulful "How You Like Me Know" and the bluesy "Sixteen." The Heavy channels a little Screamin' Jay Hawkins on "Sixteen," which is always acceptable to me. Let me know what you think (about the songs, not the mustache).
As I was beginning my afternoon slide into unproductivity (aided by the haze and the heat), I heard a song on Sirius XMU (still Left of Center to me) that was so great I had to listen to it again. Because I was streaming Sirius online and not listening through my radio, I couldn't check out who the artist was. I then tried the next-best solution, Shazam on my iPhone, only to learn that this song was unrecognizable. I ran to the other room to turn on my Sirius receiver (and wait for the antenna to find a signal) just in time to see who sang the song.
It still amazes me that some bands can be so strongly associated with a region, yet they come from somewhere else. My go-to example for this is Creedence Clearwater Revival, who sound like they are from the South but were actually from San Francisco. The band I heard today also captures this same phenomenon: The Heavy.
On first listen, they also have a dirty, southern sound. And the first video I watched ("Sixteen") had the familiar backdrop of "Shoot the Freak" and Coney Island. But they're not from the South or from Brooklyn. After looking around for a release date on their upcoming album ("The House that Dirt Built" drops in the U.S. on October 13, according to Amazon), I found that this album was released in the U.K.--their home base--two days ago. We Americans need to wait another three weeks.
Not being very patient, I tracked down two songs today: the soulful "How You Like Me Know" and the bluesy "Sixteen." The Heavy channels a little Screamin' Jay Hawkins on "Sixteen," which is always acceptable to me. Let me know what you think (about the songs, not the mustache).
Monday, September 14, 2009
Carcass Rock?
Usually I'm skeptical of the whole "super group" concept--Jack White's projects exempt. Exhibit 1 of bad super group ideas: the reality show Supergroup.
But this snippet of a song by Them Crooked Vultures--who have been written about and blogged about continuously--has me excited. Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl returns to the drums. Josh Homme, from Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, and Screaming Trees, plays guitar. And John Paul Jones--whose middle name would surely be "Fucking" had he not used "Paul"--from Led Zeppelin is on the bass and the keys.
Look for the album sometime in October (I think).
But this snippet of a song by Them Crooked Vultures--who have been written about and blogged about continuously--has me excited. Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl returns to the drums. Josh Homme, from Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, and Screaming Trees, plays guitar. And John Paul Jones--whose middle name would surely be "Fucking" had he not used "Paul"--from Led Zeppelin is on the bass and the keys.
Look for the album sometime in October (I think).
Friday, September 11, 2009
New Music
I love finding out about new music, and the last few months have been especially fruitful for me as I have started to tip-toe into the L.A. music scene (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, The Henry Clay People, Foreign Born).*
Last night I went to see the Soulsavers at the Troubadour. Red Ghost opened (check out covers of The Widow and A Memory) and sings on a few Soulsavers songs.
But I was really impressed by Jonneine Zapata. Turns out, she's from L.A. and is playing a bunch of shows at the Silverlake Lounge in October. I might have to venture over and check her out again.
Anyone else have any L.A. music tips, along the lines of the bands listed above?
*As a side note, I still find myself listening to way more Brooklyn-based bands, from the Dirty Projectors to Matt & Kim to Grizzly Bear. I think the highest concentration of my music comes from Brooklyn. My current Brooklyn obsession is The Drums.
Last night I went to see the Soulsavers at the Troubadour. Red Ghost opened (check out covers of The Widow and A Memory) and sings on a few Soulsavers songs.
But I was really impressed by Jonneine Zapata. Turns out, she's from L.A. and is playing a bunch of shows at the Silverlake Lounge in October. I might have to venture over and check her out again.
Anyone else have any L.A. music tips, along the lines of the bands listed above?
*As a side note, I still find myself listening to way more Brooklyn-based bands, from the Dirty Projectors to Matt & Kim to Grizzly Bear. I think the highest concentration of my music comes from Brooklyn. My current Brooklyn obsession is The Drums.
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