Month: September 2010

Now back from Musicfest NW, it’s time to catch up on some bands that we’ve been wanting to tell you about. Today we want to tell you about five bands that you indie die-hards probably already know about, but many others don’t. These are five bands that made noise in the beginning of the year, but seem to have faded a bit. They are Airwaves, Dazzle Ships, Dana Falconberry, The Strange Boys and Dinosaur Bones.

Air Waves – Brooklyn, NY

Just days after returning from their debut European tour, Air Waves hit the road on a double-bill with Seattle’s Past Lives (featuring ex-members of The Blood Brothers). Earlier this year, when Pitchfork’s Guest List asked Dan Deacon what his favorite new band was; he said Air Waves: “Nicole Schneit is an amazing songwriter. The music she writes is like a favorite blanket wrapped around you. Drummer Dave Ferraro complements her songs well. “Shine On” is my current favorite song by them.”

Already in a short time span, Air Waves have not only made a name for themselves in Brooklyn, but elsewhere by touring extensively and sharing the stage with such notable acts like Cat Power, and The Rapture to name a few.

“Shine One” – Air Waves from Airwaves

“Sweetness” – Air Waves from Airwaves

Dazzle Ships – Los Angeles

Playing a sold out show in LA and sharing a stage with Memory Tapes is a pretty big deal for an up and coming indie band that no one has heard of. In fact, it is a fairly impressive accomplishment in the saturated market of indie rock – which is more popular now then ever before.

That’s exactly what happened with Dazzle Ships, a musical duo consisting of Tyler Haran and Haiti De Leon. The pair set out to make music that celebrates the artists who influence them the most – David Bowie, Brian Eno, and Cocteau Twins, to name a few. Dazzle Ships make what they label “experimental pop music”; out of a phobia of doing the same song twice, they try to radically shift roles and techniques during their song writing process.

In March, the duo released their debut, Least Resistance seven-inch that was premiered on Stereogum.

“Least Resistance” – Dazzle Ships from7″ single

“Paradise” – Dazzle Ships

Dana Falconberry – Austin, Texas

Austin’s hometown girl turned respected musician Dana Falconberry has been called by The Austin Chronicle as one of the music city’s “most arresting female vocalists” and “most promising singer-songwriters” following the release of her LP,  Halletts, featuring a full band which she has toured with successfully this year, including five shows at South By Southwest.

“Nightingale” – Dana Falconberry from Halletts

The Strange Boys – Austin, TX

So, yes, Austin bands are a common thread in this post – but that’s because the home of SXSW and ACL, is full of great bands, like indie southern rock, R&B country band The Strange Boys. They’ve been on the radar since the early part of the past decade. Last year, however, the band underwent some line-up changes, including the addition of two former members of the disbanded group Mika Miko.

Earlier this year, the band released one of their best LPs, Be Brave.

“Be Brave” – The Strange Boys from Be Brave

“Night Might” – The Strange Boys from Be Brave

Dinosaur Bones – Toronto, Canada

The best for last: Dinosaur Bones are “Hawaiian” indie pop rock band from Toronto, Canada who have busted through in the past year to gain a fairly solid following. In 2008, the band released their debut, self-titled EP, and garnered critical acclaim from media outfits and blogs like Billboard, NOW magazine, CityTV, Chromewaves, HOUR Weekly and others.

In late 2009, Dinosaur Bones entered the studio with producer Jon Drew (F*cked Up, Tokyo Police Club, the Arkells) to lay down the foundation for their long-anticipated debut LP, which was released February 1, 2010 – consider it a preview of what is to come.

“Royalty” – Dinosaur Bones from s/t debut EP (2008)

“NYE” – Dinosaur Bones

Thursday night was the big kick-off for the 10th annual Musicfest NW festival in Portland, Oregon. Indie bands and artists like The Thermals, Ra Ra Riot, Red Fang, Rocky Votolato, A. A Bondy, Justin Townes Earle, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Phantogram, and dozens more artists opened the little-known, five-day music festival.

Officially, the fest opened Wednesday night with a sold out crowd at Crystal Ballroom to see Panda Bear. The set included some new material from the upcoming LP, Tomboy, from the musician otherwise known as Noah Lennox of Animal Collective. Lennox operated his keys and boxes in the dark with a guitar strapped on while a modern day version of psychedelic images flashed and oozed on a large screen behind the stage.

“Slow Motion” – Panda Bear

After a near sleep-inducing few opening songs, Lennox fired things up, and the packed crowd finally got going with “Comfy in Nautica” and his new single, “Slow Motion”. But we heard many people in attendance, especially the youngest among them, complain that the show was “slow” and “boring”; perhaps they were expecting more Animal Collective than Lennox wanted to give.

On Thursday, the real first full day of the fest, there were shows at nearly a dozen venues across the city. Some venues were too far from the center of downtown to make it worth the round trip, but, nonetheless, the official schedule sports an extensive, and diverse (but definitely indie heavy), line-up to fill up five days of shows at nearly two-dozen venues throughout the downtown Portland area. The venues range from schools to theaters, saloons to clubs, recording studios to coffee houses, and city squares to ballrooms.

We were a little surprised that The Portland Tribune didn’t mention that Georgia’s one man band and synth pop student, Ernest Greene, aka Washed Out, and Saratoga Springs, New York electronica, shoegaze duo Phantogram were opening for Ra Ra Riot’s show ;ast night at The Wonder Ballroom. The venue is quite a far distance from the downtown area, but worth the trip for some shows.  For example, on Friday, Male Bonding, Surfer Blood and Black Lips will perform at The Wonder Ballroom.

After Ra Ra Riot – the Syracuse, New York indie band who have had the number one song on IRC for the past two weeks (“Boy”)- we headed back to downtown proper, and returned to the Crystal Ballroom to catch Ted Leo and the Pharmacists who will be opening for Portland’s hometown post-punk/alternative rockers, The Thermals. We predict the show will be sold out.

“Boy” – Ra Ra Riot

“I Don’t Believe You” – The Thermals

Friday evening brings yet another maze of choices of bands and venues; we plan on catching as many shows as possible, including Male Bonding, Surfer Blood, Black Lips – all at The Wonder Ballroom, plus, Candy Claws, Astrology, Dan Mangan, Magic Kids, Okkervil River (or Man Man – hmmm, decisions…) Thee Oh Sees, and the late night/early morning show by The Builders & The Butchers at Berbati’s Pan, right up to 2.a.m.

“Swim” – Surfer Blood

“Sunbeam Show” – Candy Claws

“Superball” – Magic Kids

“Road Regrets” – Dan Mangan

On Saturday, September 11th, Portland’s famous Pioneer Courthouse Square will transform into one of the best venues of MusicfestNW’s five-day run. From 4pm to 9pm, the scheduled line up in order:  Weinland, Blue Giant, and Laura Veirs.   Closing out the night’s performances in the square will be Portland’s acclaimed native sons, The Decemberists.

“Wide Eyed, Legless” – Laura Veirs

“Oceanside” – The Decemberists

Afterwards, for the evening shows, we plan to catch The Globes, Unnatural Helpers, Akron/Family, Menomena, The Dodos and whatever else comes up; for example,
there was a last-minute show last night from Japanther.

“Five Little Rooms” – Menomena

“Sunshine/Pretty Girls”– Unnatural Helpers

“Fables” – The Dodos

Shows we won’t be able to see because we’re staying in the downtown area (we’ve seen all these bands before, anyways) include The Smashing Pumpkins (what’s left of them), Free Energy, Titus Andronicus, Suckers, Japandroids and so on. With the exception of the Smashing Pumpkins, we caught all of those bands at South by Southwest (lots of free MP3s) last March.

On Sunday, the last day of the fest, there are only four shows in Pioneer Square – Talkdemonic, The Helio Sequence, The Walkmen and The National. We’re hoping this weekend will bring some sunny, blue skies, but so far, Portland has been typically Pacific Northwest – overcast and mild.

“In The New Year” – The Walkmen

“Bloodbuzz Ohio” – The National

From the ‘blogger’ perspective, MusicfestNW has a charm that is all it’s own, and part of that is because MFNW is not besieged by mainstream press people and hundreds of bloggers, local press, TV, and so on, like the big time festivals.

It’s not entirely clear why MFNW goes largely unnoticed, but it’s safe to say that part of it must be due to the fact that the music press focuses on covering the bigger fests, and after a summer of  blockbuster festivals, and with even more festivals coming during the next seven weeks, including the amazing Austin City Limits (Oct. 8 -10); Voodoo Festival (Oct. 29 – 31), MFNW just doesn’t fit into most music press outlets’ schedules and budgets.

You can follow us on Twitter for lil’ msgs while we’re at the events themselves. Than back to regular programming next week.

Ah, yes, another Best New Releases of the week post as we chug on towards the autumn; yet another summer has zipped on by. While this week has some great new releases, it’s nothing compared to what’s coming up over the next few weeks. Armed with their new record, Everything Under the Sun, produced by Peter Katis (Interpol, The National, Fanfarlo) Jukebox The Ghost has perhaps our favorite new release of the week, followed by Interpol, The Thermals, Electric Sunset, Unicycle Loves You and so on. Enjoy.

“Empire” – Jukebox The Ghost from Everything Under The Sun

“Barricade” – Interpol from Interpol

“I Don’t Believe You” – The Thermals from Personal Life

“Soda” – Electric Sunset from Electric Sunset

“Moonlight” – Sunset from Loveshines But The Moon is Shining Too

“Like Like Like” – The Intelligence from Interpol

“Mirror, Mirror” – Unicycle Loves You from Unicycle Loves You

“The Skin Surf” – Tera Melos from Patagonian Rats

“White Light” – ARP from The Soft Wave

“Restoration” – The Acorn from No Ghost

“Another Time” – Fielded from Terrageist

“Jackie Come Lately” – The Young Heathens

“Quarters” – Truckasaurusfrom Quarters

“Noisemaker”– Two Hours Traffic from Territory

“Plastic Slides” – Winter Gloves from All Red