Frank Turner is the hands down the best of the ex-punk rockers turn folk singers (Love Ire & Song is a perfect record) and with “I Am Disappeared” Frank finds the perfect balance of adding a full backing band which sometimes fell flat on the past studio recordings. This track has us stoked on the forthcoming England Keep My Bones. You can check out the lyrics here.
Here are our photos of Cold War Kids recent show at Terminal 5 with No Age and Baths opening. The band ran through a high energy setlist that included tracks from all of their albums with a focus on new songs from their latest Mine Is Yours. Check out the photos below and photos of opener No Age here.
Check out a cut from the multi-talented Reggie Watts new 12″ Live From Third Man Records recorded as you may have guessed at Jack White’s Third Man Records in Nashville. Reggie’s shows are all so different we are just waiting for someone to start a fan site full of bootlegged lived shows. Get on that internet nerds.
You can pick up the record at Third Man’s website or one from one of Reggie’s 2 upcoming shows at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on March 30th.
Fucked Up‘s Town Comp is a limited edition 12″ for Record Store Day 2011 featuring 11 tracks not on the upcoming full length rock opera David Comes To Life featuring some snazzy retro cover art. (I already regret the use of “snazzy”) These songs create “a fictitious compilation album from a British town (where David Comes To Life is set) circa 1978-83, in the tradition of local punk, post-punk and DIY comps of the era”.
You can check out snotty British punk of Animal Man below.
The first single from Death Cab For Cutie‘s Codes and Keys has probably one of the biggest sounds the band has ever had production wise. Despite reports of a very keyboard heavy new album this song sound’s to have quite a bit of guitars though the keys are more prevalent then ever. Stream the song via soundcloud below.
New animated clip for the single “Not Enough” by Dinosaur Jr leader J Mascis who has made a fantastic folk album which shows us another side of his virtuoso guitar playing and brilliant songwriting.
No Age opened up for Cold War Kids in an oddly paired show that was moved from Radio City Music Hall to Terminal 5. No Age came out sans drums and played a set of experimental noise manipulated through keyboards, guitars and Randy Randall’s massive pedal board. The band played no songs from their catalog though maybe this was some sort of preview of new material. The band left the stage to boos and the typical “you suck” shouts from the Cold War Kids fans. Oddly enough the band also did have any merch with them just photocopied pieces of paper that said “Recognize Love <3 No Age” (pictured below) with the slogan also printed on a white bed sheet behind them on stage.
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Although Submarine, the movie, will not be released in the U.S. until June 3, the soundtrack is now available. Written and performed by the unbearably talented Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys, these songs capture the mood of what appears to be a film about two teen lovebirds living on the lonely British seaside. Including only six songs, the soundtrack exposes a paired down, slowed down version of the musician who is best known for loud, raucous songs with titles like “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor” and “Fluorescent Adolescent”. Most of it sounds like he’s trying to sing me into dreamland, except for the more upbeat “Piledriver Waltz”, in which he sings “I etched the face of a stopwatch on the back of a raindrop and did a swap for the sand in an hourglass. I heard an unhappy ending. It sort of sounds like you’re leaving. I heard the piledriver waltz. It woke me up this morning.” Turner’s sexy British drawl whispers other poetic lyrics, like “As long as you still keep pepper in the pill, you’ll find a way to spit it out again. And even when you know the way it’s gonna blow, it’s hard to get around the wind” on one of my favorites, the aptly titled “It’s Hard to Get Around the Wind”. And “Something in your magnetism must have pissed them off, forcing them to get an early night. I have been searching from the bottom to the top for such a sight as the one I caught when I saw your fingers dimming the lights like you’re used to being told that you’re trouble. And I spent all night stuck on a puzzle” in “Stuck on a Puzzle”. I could go on like this, but you’re better off listening to it yourself.
The songs are simple rotations of verse and chorus. In place of Turner’s signature dramatic build ups and sudden mid-song changes, we have subtle melodies dancing over his quiet, pouty vocals. It will likely be overshadowed by forthcoming Arctic Monkeys’ album “Suck It and See” due out in June, but hopefully the release of the movie around the same time will bring some much-deserved attention to this beautiful and mature effort from their frontman.
Stream: Alex Turner – Stuck On A Puzzle (clip)
Fucked Up continue to alienate hardcore punk purists with their latest offering “The Other Shoe” from the forthcoming David Comes To Life a rock opera about a guy who works at a light bulb factory. This song is amazing and as long as the rest of the record holds up it could possibly top the greatness that was The Chemistry of Common Life. Female vocals really sound nice against Damian’s rougher vocal style.
Record Store Day exclusive split release from Coliseum and Superchunk (who crafted two of our favorite records last year) featuring their covers of the Misfits which both surfaced last year around Halloween. Coliseum takes on “Bullet” and Superchunk covers “Horror Business”. This is one of our top pieces of vinyl we will be hunting for on RSD 2011.
Cattle Drums are a post-punk band with all the right influences, Fugazi, Dismemberment Plan and earlier At The Drive In all come to mind. The band is really able to capture a sense of urgency in their music which is refreshing. The band released the EP The Boy Kisser Sessions + 3 digitally in late February which combines their debut EP with 3 new jams recorded in late 2010, so go download via bandcamp.
Blitzen Trapper is RAINNING BLOOD in this new video where actor Rainn Wilson (donning a handlebar stache) assaults the band members one by one. Watch out for glass sandwiches.
Video By Rainn Wilson and Josh Homnick. Written by Rainn Wilson and Brian Adrian Koch. Starring Rainn Wilson and Blitzen Trapper.
Head over to NPR to hear “Benediction” the first taste of Thurston Moore‘s new solo record produced by Beck. Thurston turns down the feedback and crafts a really great pop song.
The Village Voice premiered the moody, synth-heavy track “No Answers” from Thursday‘s upcoming record No Devolución.
Pitchfork has posted 3 streams from the demo sessions that Nathan Williams of Wavves had in 2009 with Hella drummer Zach Hill, that were scrapped before making King of the Beach.
You can stream a few more tracks over on the Title Tracks blog.
Art Brut – Brilliant! Tragic! – Artwork by Jamie McKelvie
You can read a brief interview with Jaime about the artwork over at Comic’s Alliance. We look forward to hearing Eddie Argos wax poetic on songs like “Axel Rose” and “Sexy Sometimes”.
