Inflight At Night

The Datsuns were one of those “The” bands lumped in and swept up in the retro rock craze of 2001 and 2002 that saw bands like The Hives, The White Stripes and The Strokes rocket to stardom. While gaining quite a bit attention in the U.K. and Australia (their largest neighboring continent), The Datsuns never really gained a strong foothold in the U.S., which would explain why their 2006 album, Smoke & Mirrors, (after craze had skidded to a halt) was never released stateside. A real shame actually, because Smoke & Mirrors is the band’s finest release to date.

Check out “System Overload” (mp3) from Smoke & Mirrors which though not released in the U.S., I bet you can pick up at Thursday night’s show.

So this what happens after week at southby, it does every year, totally slammed at work and fighting a nagging cold. Promise to be back next week, been soaking up lots of the new music that has been sent my way over the past couple weeks. Have a good weekend, go to L.A. Record Player #5 at Charlie O’s on Friday.

MAGIC LANTERN “AT​ THE​ MOU​NTA​INS​ OF MAD​NES​S” at ZER​​O POI​​NT​ 01/​​26​/​0​8

I actually bought Bon Iver’s (aka Justin Vernon) For Emma, Forever Ago after only hearing “Skinny Love” and reading what Duke had to say about it (I completely missed it the first time around when it leaked last year), and have found myself completely smitten with it.

Check out “Skinny Love” (mp3) from For Emma, Forever Ago out now on Jagjaguwar.

I meant to catch Bon Iver in Austin last week but alas it wasn’t in the cards, luckily for you and I, Bon Iver will be playing at The Echo with Phosphorescent and I just happen to have a pair of tickets to give away. I’m not sure if the show is sold out or if it is too late to purchase advance tickets (there are none available on Ticketweb), either way there’s a good bet that this show will sell out, so it would be wise to try to win ‘em here.

Torche at Red 7 - Originally uploaded by EAR FARM

Please excuse the dimmed lights around IfAN last week, both Scott and I happened to be down in Austin at SXSW for work, though you wouldn’t have known it, ’cause we didn’t take any pictures or even pull our laptops out of their cases.

Oh well.

Back to our irregularly scheduled posting.

Amazing Reverb Engine hail from the Pomona, my former adopted home for five years while in college, a once small and charming city of the 50’s tucked next to Claremont, that is now a smoggy bed of poverty and abandoned dreams. Okay, maybe it’s not that bad, but let’s just say the city has seen better days.

Amazing Reverb Engine are just a year old and as Dave Segal points out (you just knew Dave was going to write about A.R.E.) “wear their influences pretty obviously on their sleeves”, which for such a young band is common place. But A.R.E. are able to escape such trappings of other young bands that channel My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Sonic Youth, and Slowdrive, by staying true to the format and producing (so far) a scrappy bedroom recorded demo that’s reminiscent of the aforementioned bands early recordings in both sound and technical prowess.

Check out “Want To Tell You” (mp3) from Amazing Reverb Engine’s 3 song demo.

Amazing Reverb Engine play The Prospector (2400 E. Seventh St.) in Long Beach tonight with Sky Parade and Shields | 9pm | 21+ | $5

DukeSpirit6 Originally uploaded by JeremyRyan

Scott and I just barely made it in time to The Echo the other night to see The Duke Spirit who were kicking their set off with “I Do Believe” the hymn sounding intro to their new album Neptune, when we walked in the door. The Echo was completely stuffed for the Brits who were in town for a KCRW performance before heading to Austin for SXSW next week. It was shoulder-to-should with smelly east side hipsters, old men (must be a British thing or the KCRW appearance), and Noel and Liam Gallagher (Scott saw them near the bar, big surprise).

They played pretty much everything from Neptune, and completely nailed all of it. Epic set….’nuff said.

Check out “Lassoo” (mp3) via KEXP’s Song Of The Day archive.