Green River Festival Has a Smaller, Mini Version

As if the organizers of the Green River Festival weren't absurdly busy enough putting together one of the best line ups we've seen in years (Steve Earle! Lydia Loveless! J Mascis! Polaris!), they've announced a brand new one day mini-festival called Amourasaurus! Basically, they took a bunch of bands that they wanted for Green River but couldn't book, and booked them for August 30 instead. Amourasaurus will feature Lake Street Dive, JD McPherson, Parsonsfield, Winterpills, and And the Kids. It's perfect if you've already made plans for the weekend of July 10-12, or just want to keep the fun going. 

The inaugural Amourasaurus will take place August 30 at Pines Theater at Look Park, Florence, MA. You can get more details and tickets here. Today is also the final day for Early Bird tickets for this year's Green River Festival. You know you're going to want to go, so you should just suck it up and buy them now.

Sally Dige - "Hard to Please"

If you love the early 80s synth scene, you're in luck. Sally Dige is truly a disciple. She recently released the (fairly NSFW) new video for the title track of her upcoming album, Hard to Please. The song and clip would have fit right in with anything shown on the early days of MTV or 120 Minutes. It's a cross between bands like early Depeche Mode and Workforce with a hint of Madonna thrown in. Dige gives off the vibe of a true performance artist turned musician, and I mean that as a compliment. If she was around in the 80s, I'm sure she would have been named in The Dead Milkmen's "Instant Club Hit (You'll Dance to Anything)."

Sally Dige's new album, Hard to Please, is due out May 11 on Night School Records. It can be pre-ordered here. You can watch the video for "Hard to Please" below. Like Sally Dige on Facebook, and/or follow her on Twitter.

Clementine - Crooked Brain

Minneapolis's music scene is stuck in the very best parts of the 90s. It's pretty amazing that the scene keeps churning out bands that are heavily influenced by that decade but still sound modern. The latest is Clementine with their recently released album Crooked Brain. Their sound is reminiscent of bands like Spiritualized and Slint, but a little more poppy. "Blood Diamonds" borrows a lot from Spiderland, with it's spoken/shouted word parts. "Float" might be my favorite, reminding me quite a bit of Pablo Honey and The Bends era Radiohead. Basically, if you went to the 1998 Radiohead/Spiritualized tour, you'll be very happy with this album. "The Leaves Are Changing Brown" is one of the most unexpected and fantastic ballads I've heard in years. With the majority of the album packing a much stronger punch, this track is just nuanced enough to stand out.

Crooked Brain (the name is what seems to be an obvious homage to Pavement's Crooked Rain) is available now on Camaraderie Records. You can listen to it/order it on their Bandcamp. To follow the band, "like" their Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

First Listen: New Releases for April 14

Much better than last week, for sure, but the gap between the good and not so good is very vast this week.

Ava Luna - Infinite House: I shouldn't really trash this week's release slate and then come around with Ava Luna first, as the album is actually pretty decent if not a little/lot difficult. It reminds me as a good extension of their previous stuff, but it's still not entirely for me, if you get my gist. Worth a listen this week, though, you'll know very quickly if it's your cup of tea.

Kym Warner - Everything That Brought Me Here: One of the best releases of the week is the debut album by Greencards member Kym Warner, basically an instrumental bluegrass affair that is simply beautiful from start to finish. Balances the stark and the full sounds completely, and is just a really pretty record that is surprising to me in how high-quality it ended up being, especially as I tend to trend a little negative on instrumental stuff overall. It's not a classical or newgrass-style thing like recent Chris Thile efforts, but that shouldn't stop you from giving this one a spin. Just excellent.

Spirit Family Reunion - Hands Together: Release of the week, and early favorite for the year so far, is the new release from Spirit Family Reunion. I fell in love with them seeing their opening slot for David Wax Museum back in 2011, and they were definitely a more gritty and less together band then. This new album shows a significant increase in ability and maturity that is impressive from start to finish. Much like David Wax Museum, no one else sounds quite like them, whether they're doing folk standards or their own sort of rootsy folk interpretations of original songs. Simply an essential album for anyone who enjoys a lot of what we recommend on this blog, no question. Make some time for this one, and see them live if they're in your neighborhood. You won't be disappointed.

Calexico - Edge of the Sun: I first learned of Calexico around the time they opened for Wilco on one of their Yankee Hotel Foxtrot tours. I've always enjoyed their output, and this album is no difference, a great mix of Spanish/Mexican-influenced folk rock that just works for me on a lot of levels. This feels like it might have more of an edge to it than others on first listen, but still pretty solid. Give this one a shot.

Kathryn Calder - Kathryn Calder: Kathryn Calder's claim to fame is her work with the New Pornographers, and this is her third solo album. I don't know why I struggle to connect with her solo work, but this album in particular is a very quiet affair that just doesn't work for me in any way. Might just be for fans of hers or for real hardcore New Pornos fans.

Local H - Hey, Killer: I'll come right out and say it - if the Spirit Family Reunion album hadn't come out this week, this would be a runaway favorite album for me, and it wouldn't even be close. A rock solid, heavy, grungy affair that feels new and fresh even when scratching that familiar itch from the mid-1990s. I don't even know how they came out with an album this solid, it's just that good. Is there anything as catchy as "Bound to the Floor?" No, but that's not the point, either. Just listen to it, it's great.

The Wombats - Glitterbug: Like everyone else, The Wombats hit my radar with the great "Let's Dance to Joy Division." The new album is a significant shift for them soundwise, feeling more like a mainstream act than ever before and it's just not a great fit for them. I hate constantly bemoaning bands that radically change their sound, but as you get to the end of this album and begin hearing songs that sound more like classic Wombats, you start to get the idea as to exactly why this doesn't work as a complete album. Give it a spin, you might like it, but you're probably more than likely to wish it was something else.




Also out this week:

* Beth Hart - Better Than Home

Peach Kelli Pop - "Princess Castle 1987"

Photo by Bekah Cope

With their new album, III, coming out April 21 on Burger Records, Peach Kelli Pop have just released a video for "Princess Castle 1987." The song clocks in at right around 1:30, and is a perfect slice of sugary pop punk that's very light on the punk. The video features all four members of the band dressed in Princess Toadstool dresses, running around Los Angeles looking for a castle (Spoiler alert: They find one!). If "Princess Castle 1987" and the previously discussed "Plastic Love" are any indication, III is going to be a fun as hell release next week.

III will be released April 21 on Burger Records. You can preorder it here, and check out Peach Kelli Pop's Bandcamp here. The video for "Princess Castle 1987" is posted below, along with their current tour dates. 

Peach Kelli Pop - Princess Castle 1987 from Eddie R on Vimeo.



Wed. April 15 - Toronto, ON @ Smiling Buddha

Fri. April 17 - Ottawa, ON @ Gabba Gabba Hey

Sat. April 18 - Montreal, QC @ l'Escogriffe Bar Spectacle

Sun. April 19 - Boston, MA @ TT Bears (Matinee show)

Sun. April 19 - Brooklyn, NY @ Palisades (Night show)

Tue. April 20 - Philadelphia, PA @ Golden Tea House

Wed. April 21 - Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery

Thu. April 22 - Asheville, NC @ Tiger Mountain

Fri. April 23 - Atlanta, GA @ 529

Sat. April 24 - New Orleans, LA @ Siberia

Sun. April 25 - Houston, TX @ House of Creeps

Mon. April 26 - Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas

Tue. April 27 - Dallas, TX @ Three Links

Wed. April 28 - El Paso, TX @ Monarch

Thu. April 29 - Las Vegas, NV @ Bunkhouse

The Sheila Divine - Fossils From the Future

The Sheila Divine have been fairly active in their reunion recently, releasing a few singles here and there on their Bandcamp. At the very end of March, they released an EP, Fossils From the Future, their first release since 2012's The Things That Once Were. It's starts off a little rocky, with "Weightless" falling into the Nada Surf-esque Adult Contemporary emo doldrums. It's not a bad song, just more of a personal preference kinda thing. The second track, "Indie Rock Ranger," starts to turn it around with a great middle ground of their late 90s scream heavy cuts and their more current, mature sound. This is middle aged alternative power pop at its finest."I Love You Yeah" is more of a power ballad, but goes more in the direction that I prefer The Sheila Divine to go in with their more mellow tracks. They are best when they have more of an edge to their melodic side, which this EP really shows off.

Fossils From the Fire is available now on The Sheila Divine's Bandcamp. They also have some tour dates coming up, and you can see those below.

April 25, Sportsmen's Tavern, Buffalo, NY
May 3, Harvard Square Mayfair, Cambridge, MA (free show!)
June 19, The Sinclair, Cambridge,MA

Book Review: Kim Gordon - Girl In a Band: A Memoir

Let's just get this out of the way: Kim Gordon's memoir deals with her divorce from husband and bandmate Thurston Moore quite extensively. It was a long, drawn out process, with issues dating way back further than any of us would have guessed or assumed. It would be easy to see someone criticizing this as harping on the divorce or bashing Thurston, but, as someone who has been through one of his own, it's nearly impossible to discuss without coming across as bitter and angry even if you have come to the point of understanding and acceptance. Plus, she was with him for the entire run of Sonic Youth, so it's pretty much impossible to not bring up. As someone who has always idolized Sonic Youth, it's a hard thing to accept any of your heroes as flawed, so I'll reserve judgment on the divorce, knowing there are always two sides and assume both were unhappy for a while. However, it is hard to ignore the most damning fact about Thurston: He remained friendly with Courtney Love even after she sucker punched Kathleen Hanna.

I actually owned the book for weeks before I could even try reading it. I felt that I almost shouldn't start it, as if reading it would violate Kim Gordon's privacy. For any Sonic Youth fan, it is beyond a must read. You find out so much about her childhood, growing up with an unstable brother, her past loves (she dated Danny Elfman!), and her involvement in arts, dance, and music. One of the reviews on the cover stated that she writes like she plays, which made me roll my eyes. But it's true. The text is blunt, matter of fact, and somehow poetic at the same time. It doesn't really follow a completely linear path from event to event in perfect order. It is more written almost like a series of essays set up in an almost linear path, but with some bleeding over, repetition, and going back in time. For example, her daughter Coco gets mentioned during Gordon's telling of her X-Girl clothing line. It's brief, so you assume her daughter is almost off limits, until she is brought up in greater detail in a later chapter. 

Girl In a Band is an amazing, intimate look at the life and career or true indie rock royalty. If you think you might want to read it, you'll need to. You can order it on Amazon. Also, she recently did a fantastic episode of Marc Maron's WTF podcast. The two work amazingly together. As always, keep on eye on sonicyouth.com to keep up to date on what all former SY members are up to.

Brown Bird - "Adolescence"

Every time we get a new track from Brown Bird, I have such mixed emotions. I love having these new songs, but there are a finite number left. There is a sense of sadness with every one, and with "Adolescence" it's really apparent. It's a song about loss and aging, with lyrics like "Lay me down on sacramental ground," which is even more powerful since Dave Lamb, the man singing the lyrics, is gone. Listening to the song at work was a bad move last week, as it's not quite acceptable for a man in his late 30s to be tearing up at work to a song. But it's such a touching and powerful song. It has Brown Bird's trademark Eastern European tinged folk, but it also showcases their hard rock influences much more strongly than anything else they've done. 

Axis Mundi, the final Brown Bird album, is due out April 28 on Supply and Demand Music. You can listen to "Adolescence" below. For more information, and to pre-order the album, head over to their website.

Murder Shoes - "Maybe You Can"

Photo credit: Aaron Fenster

Murder Shoes are described as "surf" in their profile. Maybe this is what surfing sounds like in their hometown of Minneapolis, MN, because this sounds nothing like any surf I've ever heard before. That's a good thing. While they might have a slight surf rock base, they also bring in elements of 60s French pop, indie rock, gothic rockabilly, and just a hint of the shoegaze trend that's been taking over Minnesota lately. "Maybe You Can" showcases Tess Weinberg's haunting vocals being surrounded by this out of control, swirling rock track. It's a bunch of stuff we've all heard before, but never put together like this. It's both familiar and strikingly unique.

Murder Shoes' debut self-titled EP is due out May 1 on Land Ski Records. You can find out more information on their website. You can listen to "Maybe You Can" below, and check out their Bandcamp to pre-order.

Live Shows: Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton, MA 4/9/15

If you were at the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion show at the Iron Horse Music Hall Wednesday night, you would have forgotten that you were in a tiny, half filled club. That's not meant to be a knock on the band at all. When you're a band that appeals mostly to the 30+ crowd, and you're playing a college town on a Wednesday night that just happens to be the last snowy/icy night of an already shit show of a winter, getting anyone to come out is a feat. A JSBX show starts of like any ordinary show does: The band gets up, starts playing a few songs in the way they do off their albums, and that's a show, right? Something starts to happen during any JSBX show. About halfway through, the band hits this insane groove where the entire audience gets completely swept up in what's happening. Jon Spencer turns from rock frontman to blues revival preacher. You would start to wonder if the band was using some of the tricks you hear youth pastors use to work kids in religious frenzies if you weren't already wrapped in one yourself. 

The setlist drew largely from their fantastic new album, Freedom Tower - No Wave Dance Party 2015. They broke out a couple covers, the Beastie Boys' "She's On It" and Dead Boys' "What Love Is" (sung by drummer Judah Bauer), and played some shortened versions of classics like "Sweat" and "2 Kindsa Love." No one cared that the classics were shortened, since at the religious fervor section of the show, not even the biggest die hards could tell if they were playing actual songs or just punked up blues jams. The night wasn't dedicated to all new material, and the encore (which was almost as long as the entire first set) featured their punk anthem "Identify" and the Russell Simins sung "Fuck Shit Up." If this is how tight and wild the first night of their tour was, the rest of the country may not survive. Or will at least have a mini baby boom.

To find out when the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion is coming to your town, check out their website. You can also download a live medley that includes "What Love Is" on their Bandcamp.