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Jason Yudoff just released his second studio album, Tragic Hero last Tuesday, May 13th. Apparently this album's been hitting the music industry rounds for a while now, because, despite just officially released to the general public, it's already been nominated in the 2008 Grammy Ballot in four categories: "Best New Artist", "Album of the Year", "Record of the Year" (for the song "Personal Addict") and "Producer of the Year" (Ron Thaler).
Since the song "Personal Addict" is nominated for "Record of the Year", I thought it that would best represent him: a little funk and jam. Even his funky voice on this song sounds a little like Jamiroquai, doesn't it?
I also really liked the frantic piano-driven song, "Locked in a Box", which really shows off Yudoff's piano-playing skill.
There's also a studio version of "Too Late Janie", which originally appeared on his live album, LIVE at The Cutting Room, which sounds a little more controlled. It even sounds better in the studio, but I did missed the improvised piano in the middle of the live version.
Tragic Hero is out now, you can find his music on amazon and itunes as well as cd baby. He's playing one show in New York at the Make Music at the Waterside Plaza on June 21st.
Links:
jasonyudoff.com
myspace.com/jasonyudoffandthenewhotness
Hooray! The California Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex marriage is legal in California!!!
Gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry in California, the state Supreme Court said today in a historic ruling that could be repudiated by the voters in November.
In a 4-3 decision, the justices said the state's ban on same-sex marriage violates the "fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship." The ruling is likely to flood county courthouses with applications from couples newly eligible to marry when the decision takes effect in 30 days.
Now the battle with bigotry moves on to the voters. As Kevin Drum notes:
The initiative to strike down their ruling has already gathered over a million signatures and is just waiting for verification from the Secretary of State before it goes on the November ballot. It's 14 words long, identical to the wording of Prop 22 back in 2000: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." This time, however, it's a constitutional initiative, not a statutory initiative, so if it passes it will be immune to court challenges.
Prop 22 passed overwhelmingly with 63% of the vote. Has 13% of the state decided to relax since then and allow gay couples to live in peace? We're about to find out.
 Hellapop Festival (May 24th) ♥ Bands: The Definite Articles, Teamawesome!, iji, Tinkture, Hey Three Eyes, The Creepy Crawlies, James Rabbit, Charlie Don’t Surf!, The Paper Orchestra, The Panduhs, Old Hack, Tippy the Vegan, Music from Anteria |
Okay, so I've never been an avid calendar user (too much work!), but lately I've been organizing myself with W♥M Calendar so I know which concert dates to attend and what CDs are being release when. Since I also use Outlook for calendaring, Google does offer Calendar Sync which seamlessly sync both outlook and W♥M calendar (so I can manage offline or online).
I believe the calendar is shared among all the weheartmusic.com users by default (but you can set it to private or "friends only"), so, anyroad, I know someone will be attending Hellapop Festival (May 24). This looks really fun, and I would be there too if I lived in California.
I thought I'd mention two bands doing this festival that I thought looked interesting.
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Tinkture looks like a group of very young ladies, into DIY punk, possibly Riot. I thought "Pyrotechnics" is a very fast and feels very garagey. The vocals has a southern sound to it too. I generally like these DIY punk, as you've probably figured from my various punk articles.
I couldn't help but think of Supergrass's "Alright" when I heard "Farther Away" by Shadow Puppet Theatre. These guys looks very hip and are snappy dressers on top of that. Plus, they seem like they would hang out at all night cafes. They are from Modesto, and consists of singer/guitarist, Adam Bishop, and upright bassist, Jessica Jones.
These are only two of the many, many bands that's attending the Hellapop Festival, so be sure to check them out. That Team Awesome sounds pretty fun, as well as Charlie Don't Surf (which may have stolen their title from Apocalypse Now, but they seem too young to actually have seen that movie - so I vote for Veronica Mars).
Links: myspace.com/popsongromance
www.tinkture.com
myspace.com/shadowpuppettheatre
Since joining Sellaband, she's been gaining "believers" (657 to be exact) and has raised enough money to record a full-length. Today marks the release of her debut album, It Might Like You, and is also Sellaband's first release by a Polish artist. As a promotion for the past month, she's been posting short teasers on Youtube that are quite... umm... uhh... well... just watch them. There are two versions of the album; the regular edition
There will be a listening session for the album on Sellaband starting at 8pm EST for Believers and 9pm EST for the rest of the world.
| Links: Official Webite | Album Website | Sellaband | MySpace | Youtube |
Grab your helmet, check the air in your tires, and hop on your bike because in many U.S. cities, May 12 - 16 is Bike to Work Week! Six Apart has a lot of biking enthusiasts, so we're very excited to support this event by encouraging all of our employees to bike to work this week. San Francisco's Bike to Work Day is tomorrow, Thursday, May 15th, and New York's is Friday, May 16th.
Six Apart is helping out its employees by providing maps (shaded according to steepness - a must in SF!) to help everyone plan out his/her route, as well as finding first-time riders buddies to commute with. We're also supporting ALL SF riders who pass the front of our office by handing out coffee, juice and snacks from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. If you're in our neighborhood, look for the sign that says "Six Apart Supports Bike to Work Day" and stop by to say hi and get energized!
Improve your health, financial status, productivity, and happiness by joining thousands - maybe even millions - of commuters around the country who are hopping on their bikes to get to work. Visit the Bike to Work Week website to find out more about events in your area.
Support the two-wheeled way of life with the "Passing Left" theme found in "Photo-Based" in the Design Area. Planning on cycling to work this week? Let us know in the comments!
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So I got this announcement that Rob Dickinson is re-releasing Fresh Wine For Horses a second time. This version will include Nude EP as a bonus second disc.
Now, bands repackaging albums as deluxe or special editions are more commonplace, but they generally fall under a limited time frame, like perhaps an anniversary mark at five or ten years. Dickinson's original release for Fresh Wine For Horses was three years ago, a pretty odd number, but I guess he felt the time is right for another college try and planning on releasing the 2-disc set on June 10th.
The press release said that "End Of The World": "lifts shamelessly from the soundtrack to the British cult movie Withnail & I", a movie I have on Criterion DVD... Which I have to rewatch sometime. But listening to it, is it me, does the intro sounds a little bit like Laura Branigan's "Self Control"?
I have been meaning to do a write up on Catherine Wheel since W♥M started, but I felt that I'm not an expert when it comes to this band because I was so unfamiliar with their large body of work. I even had a massive Catherine Wheel fan make me compilation of their "best of" songs, but have failed to really get into it. I didn't dislike it, but I wasn't really into it, you know?
What I can tell you that I first came across this band with an edited version of "Black Metallic" from MTV's 120 Minutes. This was at a time when they were grouped (unfairly, I might add) with the shoegazing 4AD-type sound at the time.
After gaining a somewhat massive attention from the States with "Black Metallic" and "I Want to Touch You", I was fortunately enough to catch them on tour early in their career. The thing I remembered from this concert was the tiny elongated venue, the now-defunct Cadillac Club, in Fresno, California. They also made use of a smoke machine, which looked pretty awesome with lights. They also did an extra long 15 minute rendition of "Black Metallic", which I believe was the last song of the encore.
Although I wouldn't call myself a huge fan, I did like them enough to pick up Happy Days and Wishville on Yahoo Auction for about the cost of shipping, adding to my random collection of Catherine Wheel singles and promos.
Trivia: I just found out that Rob Dickinson's cousin is Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of Iron Maiden! Both Iron Maiden and Catherine Wheel are midevil torture devices.
Links:
myspace.com/robdickinson
I have a ton of news I need to get to, but obviously still playing catchup because of my illness from last week. As I have previously mentioned, many of these news items can be found on our press.weheartmusic.com website, so if you have music-related announcements, please let me know, maybe even twitter me?
First off, is Stereo Total return to the USA for one BBQ show!. This is for May 31st, in Brooklyn, NY. And if I lived in New York, I would be out all the time... especially because everyone seems to tour and/or are in New York. Plus, I love Stereo Total!
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I don't normally announce other people's contests, but I felt this one is too good to pass up: Win a Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus Terabyte Hard Drive. It is for a Terabyte drive from Maxtor. As you know, my HD is fast depleting, so I entered into this contest. Don't worry, I never win at these things anyway, so I thought perhaps you guys might have a better luck at it.
What makes his contest music-related is that it includes MP3s and videos (?) and music content from The Sickest Kids, Be Your Own Pet[W♥M], Between The Trees, Story of the Year[W♥M], Black Gold, etc.
Winners will be contacted the week of June 9th from www.thesyn.com/blog.
Jason is reviewing Samantha Crain's album, The Confiscation, so I thought you might want to check out Samantha Crain - "The Confiscation," a music novella, out July 22 on Ramseur Records.
Reading her mini biography, it seems that she's a Native American folk singer, so the obvious "earthy and spiritual" was used to describe her music.
It should be interesting to read the review and hear some of her music here.
She's also doing a ton of tour dates, so head over to her myspace for the latest information.
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Also, a few brief mentions: Grupo Fantasma Serves Up Sonidos Gold For June 17th Release and Bad Religion to Release New Maps of Hell (Deluxe Edition) on July 8th.
These titles are pretty self-explanatory. It seems like we just reviewed Grupo Fantasma's Comes Alive, but this new CD, Sonidos Gold, is a studio album with new material.
From my brief listen to this new album, it's really good, with a fusion of latin and dance/pop music.
Also, briefly, my favorite, Bad Religion is re-releasing New Maps of Hell, in a "deluxe edition". This is pretty cool, considering that this legendary punk band have never released any deluxe or repackaged their albums before.
I will assign someone to review their album, but in the meantime, read my previous article on Bad Religion.
Links:
weheartmusic.com
As we mentioned last week, we had to postpone the maintenance that was due to occur on Thursday, May 8th.
We have rescheduled the maintenance for tonight, Tuesday, May 13th, starting at 6:00 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time (that's 1:00 A.M. UTC/GMT). We'll be taking Vox offline for a bit in order to move the service to a brand new home in some bright, shiny new server racks. We don't expect to be offline for more than an hour or two, but we apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.
Again, thank you for your patience as we continue to invest in Vox's infrastructure!
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Tour Dates
05/30/08 Electric Weekend Madrid
05/31/08 Siesta Festivalen Hässleholm 06/13/08 Skabazac Festival Rodez 06/14/08 Greenfield Festival Interlaken 06/15/08 Mix Up Festival Verneuil/Paris 06/21/08 Hurricane Festival Germany 06/22/08 Southside Festival Neuhausen 06/26/08 Frihamnen Göteborg 06/27/08 Peace & Love Festival Borlänge 07/03/08 Sundsvalls Gatufest Sundsvall 07/05/08 Ruis Rock Turku 09/05/08 Gröna Lund Stockholm |
Punk rock Swedes Millencolin has been around forever it seems. I've been listening to them since 2001, and they were already established with several CDs. My absolutely favorite disc by these guys is Pennybridge Pioneers. It loud, fast punk but not thrown together. It's smart, and displays their talents wonderfully. That's why I was surprised when I popped Machine 15 into my Macbook because it doesn't even sound like the same band!
You can definitely recognize Nikola Sarcevic's gritty vocals, but they are prettier, and more melodic. They whole album has taken a straight rock, dare I say, emo/indie rock turn. Songs like "Brand New Game" and "Saved by Hell" sound like they should be played with Taking Back Sunday, instead of at a Bad Religion show. The closest they come to their old stuff is with the song "Route One".
They are great songs, but I'm still shocked at how different it is in comparison to their late 90s-early 2000s stuff. I was actually most impressed with their opening track Machine 15, which has a slight euro-rock feel, ala their Swedish friends The Hives (and personally one of my favorite bands). I wish there was more of that influence on the entire album, but hey, who knew these guys could pull off power pop too?
They are touring in Europe all summer, but be sure to check back in the fall.
Links:
www.millencolin.com
myspace.com/millencolin
epitaph.com//Millencolin
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05/14/08 First Ave Minneapolis, MN
05/30/08 Upfront & Company Marquette, MI 05/31/08 Upfront & Company Marquette, MI 06/07/08 Fine Line Music Minneapolis, MN 06/14/08 UW Terrace Madison, WI 06/28/08 Triple Rock Minneapolis, MN 07/05/08 Summerfest Milwaukee, WI 07/12/08 St. John Center Rochester, MN |
Just two weeks short of 13 years since I'd first seen Polara, I visited Minneapolis' Varsity Theater to see if they were still the band I remembered so fondly.
Their first opener, Mercurial Rage, performed an entertaining, if not amazing, electro-rock set. Being the fashionably late sort, I actually missed most of it, so it wouldn't be fair to judge them entirely, but I did see some potential there and certainly didn't dislike what I saw. The Faint meets INXS, perhaps. They seemed a bit like a work in progress. I'll definitely have to check them out again down the line.
Thoroughly exploiting my weakness for co-ed punk were the Mood Swings. The Mood Swings are what I would call no-scream girl-punk. Sometimes I forget that female-vocalized punk can still have an edge and an energy without being angry or harsh (Though in all honesty: the good stuff is often both). This narrow-mindedness is no doubt due to stubborn attachment to my Bikini Kill, Babes in Toyland and Muffs collections. But anyway The Mood Swings were lovely. Check out myspace.com/themoodswings and listen to No Limit, my personal favorite. I think you'll find "Lovely" is an apt descriptor).
Polara chose not to play last, instead allowing the Alarmists to take that spot, saying they would be able to more enjoy their release show that way. It had been over two years since their last live show, and I was impressed at how effortlessly they hit the stage running. No sign of rust whatsoever. Lead singer/guitarist Ed Ackerson took to the stage looking - with his disheveled hair and trademark clunky glasses - less like a rock star and more like someone at the IT desk who would help you reset your password. As a whole, the band looked both very natural on stage and very much as if they enjoyed themselves, soaking in the attention with humble professionalism. And why not? There were enough photographers darting back and forth in front of the stage to make me wonder when Posh Spice would make her appearance. It was a good set, actually even better than I remembered them and certainly well worth the hype.
Then, at exactly midnight, it was time for my first glimpse of the Alarmists. I soon became aware that, like Cinderellas in reverse, dozens of 18 to 25-year old women had appeared as if from nowhere to join the ball, flooding forward in order to gaze in rapt attention at the poster-ready boys who took the stage. I thought their set was good, indie, post-punk hard rock - not typically conducive to legions of screaming girls, on the face of it - but as I attempted to peer over the impenetrable wall of Scandinavian female flesh, I could only arrive at one conclusion: these boys must be dreamy hot. The highlight of their set - the highlight for me anyway, and likely also for the male hipsters who had largely by this point retreated to a safe distance - was when they called Ed Ackerson back to the stage in an old(er) meets young(er) set evoking Neil Young with Pearl Jam. Don't roll your eyes at me. The song was Cinnamon Girl, OK? Alright then.
 The Mood Swings ♥ photo by andrew |
 Polara ♥ photo by andrew |
 The Alarmists ♥ photo by andrew |