Inflight At Night

When Rogue Wave’s debut album, Descended Like Vultures, came out I’ll admit that I could never get past the single “Publish My Love”. It was one of those songs that ruins the rest of an album for me because it is the song that is easiest to like and I played it so much that it got worn out (watch out Sea Wolf, I can see this happening with your “You’re A Wolf” song) and I abandoned the whole album. Though my interest in the band had faded, the prospect of their new album, Asleep At Heaven’s Gate, being able to hold my attention from start to finish, renewed my interest enough for me to go back to Descended Like Vultures recently and give it another chance. This time the album worked a lot better, I am over my obsession of just that one track and found myself digging almost the entire album, with only exception of the misplaced track, “10:1″.

So on to Asleep At Heaven’s Gate, the band’s Brushfire Records debut which was produced by Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Sleater Kinney, Elvis Costello) with Zach Rogue and recorded in Forestville, CA. It came out yesterday and for those of you who live in the Long Beach area, you should grab a copy from Fingerprints so you can get a wristband to the band’s Friday instore there. I will be picking up the LP tonight, and will hopefully have some sort of review up later next week. Rogue Wave will also be at The El Rey on October 11th with Port O’Brien.

Download “Lake Michigan” (mp3) from Asleep At Heaven’s Gate, courtesy of Brushfire Records

Asleep At Heaven’s Gate is out now, get it from: Insound | Amazon | iTunes

Sunday, September 16th: Holy Fuck @ The Prospector
I missed Holy Fuck last time they played at The Prospector, and will miss them again tonight (I’m writing this from the airport in Orlando), but you shouldn’t. w/Free Moral Agents

Holy Fuck - Lovely Allen (mp3)

Monday, September 17th: Rademacher @ The Echo
I wrote about Rademacher a couple times before, they have an excellent new album coming out later this year that was produced by Aaron Espinoza of Earlimart. w/The Happy Hollows, Le Switch

Rademacher - If You Got Some Magic (mp3)

Tuesday, September 18th: Bolero @ The Silverlake Lounge
I have to thank You Set The Scene for the great find in Bolero. Bolero features Josh Schwartz of Beachwood Sparks and Further fame. w/Pink Nasty, Tif Sigrids, Happy Mayfield

Bolero - Everybody (mp3)

Wednesday, September 19th: New Pornographers @ Henry Fonda
We think The New Pornographers new album, Challengers is quite good, and these two back to back shows at The Fonda should be real fun.

The New Pornographers - My Rights Versus Yours (mp3)

Thursday, September 20th: Planes Mistaken For Stars @ Knitting Factory
This is Planes Mistaken For Stars farwell tour, a fairly underated band that just never make it onto peoples radars. w/Kingdom of Magic

Planes Mistaken For Stars - Belly Full Of Hell (mp3)

Friday, September 21st: Whalebones @ Spaceland
Whalebones is this really good band that I don’t think anyone outside of Seattle knows enough about, we’ve been doing our best to champion them here. See what all our fuss is about. w/Oakley Hall, Birdie

Whalebones - Don’t You Know? (mp3)

Saturday, September 22nd: The Moon Upstairs @ Spaceland
The Moon Upstairs’ Sharif Dumani did time on the road with Cody Chestnut and The Tyde before releasing The Moon Upstairs’ brillant new album, Guarding The Golden Apple. w/Silver Apples

The Moon Upstairs - People In The Trees (mp3)

Fresno’s Rademacher will be performing live on KXLU this Friday at 6pm doing some tunes from their new album, Stunts, which was recorded by Aaron Espinoza of Earlimart.

Then they’ll play Long Beach at Que Sera with The Monolators and Chase Frank on Saturday night (9/15) and at The Echo with The Happy Hollows on Monday (9/17).

Download “If You Got Some Magic” (mp3)

and “Last Letter Writer” (mp3) from their upcoming release, Stunts.

How do you rebuild the ground swell of hype around a release that has already passed around the interwebs many times over earlier this year. Well if you are Division Day and you made a great album, got it in a lot of bloggers and writers hands who championed your music, got a record deal, lost a record deal, and finally found the right home with Eenie Meenie to officially release your album - you start an eight week cover and remix project building up to the release (re-release for those of us who had the original diy release).

A pretty good idea, something similar to the Marie Digby strategy, just without the misleading guise. Their first week’s release was a cover of Sunny Day Real Estate’s “Every Shining Time You Arrive” and this week, the second week, Division Day released a remix of one of the two new Beartrap Island tracks, “Ricky”, done by Los Angeles 5-piece Tandemoro.

I’m not going to pretend that I’m a Sunny Day Real Estate fan, fact is I never have really listened to them, so I can’t really comment on the cover, but “Ricky” is probably my favorite track on Beartrap Island (it’s nice when one of the bonus tracks turns out like that) and this remix is pretty good, let it get going and it really takes off about half way through.

Download “Every Shining Time You Arrive” (mp3), originally by Sunny Day Real Estate, from their album How It Feels To Be Something On.

Download “Ricky” (mp3) remixed by Tandemoro.

For those of you wondering, this official version of Beartrap Island, out Oct. 2nd has been re-mastered by Brian Gardner, features new artwork by singer Rohner Segnitz, and two newly recorded previously unreleased songs, “Ricky” and “Reversible”. Also, the iTunes version of Beartrap Island which will be released 2 weeks earlier on September 18th, features yet another exclusive unreleased track.

To hear a remastered track from Beartrap Island, download “Tigers” (mp3).

Division Day play The Echo on Tuesday Oct. 2nd; 1822 W Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026

During my fifth listen to Pinback’s new album Autumn of the Seraphs, I finally realized its flaw – it’s too good, and for that matter Pinback (the immaculate offering of Rob Crow and Armistead Burwell Smith IV) is too damn good. I don’t mean this in the jocular ass-patting way that is used in sports - I’m serious!

Music adorationists (aka, nerds) such as myself have few opportunities to engage in discussions outside the realm of good and bad music. Typically it’s either “this is shit” or “this is great” and while both assertions provide satisfaction, a more fulfilling occurrence is the falter of an artist we love. More than once have I participated in late night (more than slightly intoxicated) debates about the relevance and genius of an artist such as Radiohead (basically Thom Yorke), taking the defensive position even though there have been songs and even whole albums I find many faults with. But that’s not the point. …continue reading »

Dark Meat originally uploaded by sandwich!

Recently I have been having a kind of crisis of faith. Not the religious kind, but rather a musical one, where I have been of been drained of any sort of enthuse over music. Thankfully Dark Meat had decided to go on a US tour just around this time and booked a show at the all ages diy venue, The Smell.

Dark Meat’s set last week at The Smell was completely revitalizing, belting through a 30 minute set that ranged from what could be best described as “a marching band on acid” or a “southern hippie tent revival”. I can’t even begin to imagine how the 11-piece group from Athens, GA does a full US tour where I bet they aren’t making more that $200 a night, and that’s probably a good night. But here they were playing Los Angeles to a small but extremely enthusiastic crowd that were just as happy as I was that they finally got see Dark Meat live.

For a taste of Dark Meat’s live set, goto Southern Shelter to download an entire one from a show at the 40 Watt earlier this year.

Download “Three Eyes Open” (mp3) from their excellent debut release, Universal Indians.

Universal Indians is out now, get it from: Insound | Amazon | iTunes | eMusic