Free Songs at the End Of The Basment...

For the last two years the lovely Ashly Harris has run a great radio show every Sunday night on The Blaze called The Basement where she played some of the best new music from Arizona. The last show with her as the host was last Sunday.

To celebrate the end of her run as host Ashly has put together a great compilation of songs recorded live over the last two years on her show from 20 something bands she had on air. And she is giving it away for free. In addition too the free songs she has uploaded some videos from a number of the interviews she has done. You can download each track at purevolume.com/THEBLAZE1260AM or to make life easier I have put all of the songs into one zipped file for your enjoyment here.

The compilation features songs from: Matthew Reveles, Austin Gibbs and the States, Dear and the Headlights, Colorstore, Poem, Sleepwalk, A Robot, Princess Ladyfriend, Skybox, Captain Squeeguee and the Soap Suds, Adam Lee and the Dead Horse Sound Company, JD Stooks, Zachary James Dodds, This Century, Micah Bentley, Source Victoria, Awake and Alert, What Laura Says Thinks and Feels.

I have just learned that next week Ashly will be leaving Arizona for a job in New York. I am going to miss her around here but am stoked for her. We all know she is going to kill it in NYC.


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Sounds From The Basement [FREE COMP]
Princess Ladyfriend - Lake Michigan [MP3]
Dear And The Headlights - Paper Bag [MP3]

This Time it is Just The Watson Twins

I have always thought that Jenny Lewis's first solo record with The Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat, was more interesting than any of her recordings with Rilo Kily. Then again while I enjoy Rilo Kily, I was never a huge fan. One of the main things that makes Rabbit Fur Coat stand out is the contributions of the by the Watson Twins.

The Watson Twins, Chandra and Leigh, are releasing their first full length Fire Songs under that name this June. At least two of the songs from the album have been making their way around the Internet recently. One is a lovely cover of The Cures "Just Like Heaven." While these are the only two songs I have heard and cannot really review the album yet, after hearing them I am really looking forward to hearing the rest of the record.


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The Watson Twins: Just Like Heave (The Cure cover) [MP3]
The Watson Twins: How Am I To Be [MP3]

If Only the Rise was as Inevitable

The new album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! by the musician, poet, actor, philosopher, activist, artist and all genius savant Saul Williams is deserving of far more praise than it has received, both for its bold new DIY distribution method as well as its bold genera-bending sounds, the first being dwarfed by the attention paid to In Rainbows.

On November 1st Saul Williams released Niggy Tardust only at his website NiggyTardust.com. Like the much-publicized Radiohead record Williams released it digitaly, DRM free, either for free or for a donation. For Williams this move was far bolder than for Radiohead, being far less well known in the media and without the legions of fans. Williams is an interesting experiment to see if this kind of model can work for the smaller artist.

The other, more abstract, story of Niggy Tardust is the music itself. The record was produced by NIN‘s Trent Reznor with Reznor writing much of the music. The sound to come out of this eccentric collaboration fuses industrial rock, electronic sounds, Hip Hop beats and punk aggression in a way completely distinct and independent from the rap rock craze of a few years ago. The sounds often compliment for Williams spoken word style. The mood set is perfect for the angry rhetoric.

It has been Williams’s lyrics and poetry that have attracted me to his music. Williams is truly a poet rather than a simple MC, having published four books of poetry and only three proper albums of recorded music. In fact much of Niggy Tardust was adapted from his previously released book of poems The Dead Emcee Scrolls: The Lost Teachings of Hip-Hop. Williams is as likely to tour universities lecturing as he is to tour clubs rapping, having degrees in both Philosophy and Acting.

This record is challenging to the listener, its intellectual and poetic side can obscure the heavy messages Williams drives at. The lyrics are anything but straightforward. Williams songs often deal with themes of race, religion, personal identity and Hip Hop culture, all with a depth few in Hip Hop could attain even if the ever chose to deal with topics this deep and complex. Hip hop in general has turned into little more than club music, shallow and empty of meaning, at least in the main stream. Williams may not have the club hit, but his songs have a soul and are filed with heart and a sharp intellect that makes them at least more relevant and interesting if not more important.

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myspace: www.myspace.com/saulwilliams

Saul WIlliams - Sunday Blody Sunday (U2 cover) [MP3]
Saul WIlliams - Scared Money [MP3]
The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! [FREE ALBUM]

Back to Updates, and not just Leavin’ In The Morning

There has been a lack of updates from me as off late. The last few weeks have been rather busy for me personally and getting back to a blog has seemed like a daunting task despite having plenty to talk about. Since I last posted I traveled to New York from CMJ, I intended to post about this and never did, traveled to DC to visit my brother, never intended to blog about this and so didn’t, had my boys in DeSole at my place for a few days, and a tone of way less interesting events come up. But now back to music.

Here is a video I filmed the other day at a Chad Price show. Chad Price was the singer in All and until recently sang in Drag The River, my favorite punks gone country band. He is currently playing Bass for another favorite of mine Rocky Votolato. After his show last week with Votolato in Anaheim I drove him down to The Gypsy Lounge in Lake Forest for a solo show.

This is video of him playing the Drag The River song “Leavin’ In The Morning” of their last record It’s Crazy.



Drag The River: Leavin' In The Morning [MP3]

What more can you want from Limbeck? Rad residency & Free downloads

Last week I went to the first night of the acoustic Limbeck residency at Hotel Café. Rob and Patrick played a neat set including a few songs they don’t often play live. I got up and planed to write about it today in honor of tonight’s show and found that they have even more neat stuff planed for their residency.

They are planning to play every song from their last three albums and all the b-sides at least once over the residency. But the best part is that they are recording all four shows and will be giving away 10-20 songs from those recordings as downloads to anyone who goes to one of these shows.

How sweet is that.



Read about it here.

Hotel Cafe is at 1623 1/2 Cahuenga Blvd. / Los Angeles, CA 90028

Limbeck: Trouble – Live and Acoustic in Dallas [MP3]

I Want a Robt Monkey

So Rolling Stone did their best 25 songs about work. Kind of an odd list. Don't quite get the point but whatever. But they missed my favorite, Piebald's "The Monkey Versus The Robot."

We got a job to do and this is it.

We have the best job ever. Yeah we really got lucky.
We're nobody's robot. We're nobody's monkey.
We have the best job ever. Yeah we really got lucky.
We're nobody's robot. We're nobody's monkey.

Maybe they thought a song about liking your job (after all Piebald are "rock stars" and who wouldn't like that job) is just to hard for most people to relate to.

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Piebald - The Monkey Versus The Robot [mp3]
Rolling Stone: The Twenty-Five Greatest Songs About Work [article]

A Less Troubled Good Life

The Good Life - Help Wanted Nights

I have mixed feelings about this album. I think its charm is a little too subtle. I have always preferred The Good Life to Tim Kasher's primary employer Cursive mainly because The Good Life seemed more like a release for Tim. His albums have always been deeply personal and showed a troubled sole in a way that was never cheesy or contrived. I feel Album Of The Year was a master piece that played the way High Fidelity reads.

Help Wanted Nights seems to be lacking something. It is missing most if not all of the personal torment and struggle that defined his previous works. It may be that Tim is just in a good place in his life right now, and I hope that is the case, but it didn't lead to a great record this time. The record is more upbeat, but it doesn't work as well for them. I hope giving this record some more time will reveal more depth to me, be cause I know Tim has it in him.

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Help Wanted Nights [Full Album Streem]
You Don't Feel Like Home To Me [mp3]

Smart Politics, Heart, Passion and the Street Dogs

Street Dogs - Final Transmission

I do not really listen to punk rock anymore. Like many I discovered underground music and culture through punk. It is where I learned that what was on MTV and the Radio wasn’t the best of what was out there. Back in high school I started throwing “punk rock shows” and was the start to the path to where I am now. One of the first punk bands I discovered on my own was The Dropkick Murphy’s. While I no longer listen to them often I still think their first record Do Or Die is one of the best punk rock records I own.

A few months ago I was hired to be the tour manger an unheard of punk band from Sweden on the Flogging Molly Green 17 tour. The third band on the bill was Street Dogs. I had only ever heard their name, seen it one line-ups, but knew nothing about them. Turns out Street Dogs is the newest project by Mike McColgan the original singer of the Murphy’s and main songwriter on Do Or Die. So when I was 15 I discovered underground music threw one of Mike’s records and now at 24 through a weird act of fate I was on tour with him and his new band for seven weeks.

Even though I do not listen to much punk these days I can say Street Dogs are not just another punk rock band, they are simply a great band. Their show last night in LA was nothing if not confirmation of that fact. Unlike many of their contemporaries singing empty or stupid political songs about rebellion by yuppie rich kids playing squatter, Street Dogs have something very real to say. Mike’s songs serve to provide a voice for those torn between their hatred of this cursed war and a deep sense of patriotism and civil responsibility.

Mike McColgan served in the Army in Iraq during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield. Many of his songs grow from that experience. Many of their songs are very political, anti-war but also pro-soldier and extremely personal. What set these songs apart from other political bands are Mike’s perspectives, his passion, and his unquestionable sense of patriotism and civil responsibility (between The Murphy’s and Street Dogs Mike worked as a fire fighter in Boston).

In “Final Transmission,” a song calling for the troops to be brought home, Mike sings about a fictional 19-year-old soldier killed by an IED outside of Baghdad and his “Final Transmission,” a note to his parents hidden under his helmet. Although it is a fictional it could be about anyone serving, and draws from Mike’s days in Iraq when he kept just such a note under is own Helmet.

Almost ever day on tour in addition to the gutter punk kids in their “not my president” shirts Mike would have soldiers come up to him and talk to him about their time in Iraq or Afghanistan and thank him for his song. Often they would tell him about how his words helped them get through their time in the war. Often these exchanges would be deeply emotional and were always personal.

Last night at the The Troubadour in addition to dedicating this song the troops as he does ever night on stage, Mike also led the crowd in chants of “Johnny comes marching home again, Hurrah! Hurrah!” during the song.

It is hard to find any singer in any genre with more heart and passion than Mike McColgan.

The Format Matured to be a First Rate Live Act

The Format - Inches And Failing from Dog Problems

The Format has always been a solid band, always a crowed pleaser. Years ago I was one of their first people to hear “the First Single,” when I was working for Sam’s old production company. I saw Sam and Nate’s first show playing Format songs on a couch in the Nile Basement in Mesa as part of what used to be Sam’s traditional yearly 420 show. I saw their first show as “The Format.” I think I even saw the first 5 or 6 shows they played. They were good back then. They were band with undeniable potential. At that first show they had 5 or 6 labels (I don’t remember the exact number) fly to Phoenix to see the show at the old Nita’s Hideaway in Tempe.

But Wednesdays show at the Avalon in LA was undeniable in another way. It was brilliant. It was what live music should be. They have reached that potential we all new was there years ago. The show was pact to capacity if it was not sold out. They crowed was eating ever second of the show. They played songs of both albums and the snails EP as well as a new song. On stage the band had a string section, a horns section and at times during the set members of Steel Train, Honorary Title, Limbeck and Rubens Accomplice all played with them. For the encore the band came out with members of all the 5 bands on the show for a 15-18 person jam. Mike Schey was on Saxophone, Rob from Limbeck on Trumpet. It was reminiscent of something The Band would do, and was at the quality of the E Street Band. And my words of praise here does not do the show justice.

In 2001 I put out a small EP of a Phoenix band called The Solo Project. Mike Schey who is now in the Format was the lead guitarist (he was also on the cover of that EP). When I got the 1,000 CDs I had pressed in the mail Mike came over to my dorm room to get a few copies. He dumped the box CDs on the floor and started rolling in them scaring my roommate. Back then it seemed like the biggest deal to both of us to have a “real” CD with our names in it. At the time Mike was one of the most talented guitarists I had ever seen, and still is. I knew he was destined for huge things, and when the Solo Project broke up shortly after I would tell Mike that he was going to go one to do great things. Watching him from the side of the stage in front of a sold out crowed 400 miles away from that dorm room in a historic Hollywood Theatre was the fruition of my predictions.

“Night Windows” look at new Weakerthans record

The Weakerthans - "Night Windows"

Stereogum.com has posted a new Weakerthans song and the cover image of their new record.

I cannot wait for this record. This is a band that have always done their own thing and never tried to fit into any particular scene. I have always found that there is something timeless about this band just because of that.

Small Drag, Reunions far from me.

Small Brown Bike and Superdrag are both playing again. Two bands I used to love have announced reunions this fall that I will not get to see since they are only doing East Coast or Midwest dates.


Small Brown Bike - The Cannons And Tanks

Small Brown Bike is playing two shows to benefit a friend battling Leukemia, a very noble reason for a reunion. Also rad to see it isn’t any sort of cash in, not that they were really ever big enough for that.

SBB was one of the first truly underground bands I got into on my own. A friend’s band in high school opened for them at some basement show in 98 or 99 and I decided to stay and see them, for no real reason. Wow. I was blown away. They were too aggressive to be emo (back when emo meant Jimmy Eat World or Promise Ring and not the crap generic teen rage it means now) and they were too melodic and tight to be punk. At that point all the small bands I had seen had a reason they were still small. But SBB was a fucking great band. At the time I did not anyone who was into them and that didn’t matter. They were a key band in that turning point when I realized that how hip a band was or how many people knew who they were had nothing to do with how good they were.


Superdrag - Keep It Close To Me

Superdrag is doing a short reunion tour with their original line up. Unfortunately I think it was a later line up that did the bands best work.

I saw Superdrag for the first time around that same time. I actually latter spent my 17th birthday at a show of theirs. A friend was a fan and dragged me to one of their shows, either right before “In the Valley of Dying Stars” or right after. They were amazing, just a great pop rock band. They are one of those bands that are just a little too interesting to really work at radio and not arty enough to work with indie hipsters.

They are a sad case of a band doing their best work after their “big hit” and the majority of people dismissed it without ever even hearing it despite the fact that they would like it if they could look at it with an open mind. Kind of like Nada Surf only with Nada Surf people have noticed the quality of what they are doing now.

These two bands played a huge role in me discovering underground music and to me they were my bands. I may not get to see either of them this time around but I am happy to see them still going.

Of Michigan not Canada

Canada - Beige Stationwagon

On Monday I went with my downstairs neighbor Jack to Spaceland to see the last residency of Deadly Syndrome. The highlight and surprise of the night was a band from Michigan named simply Canada. I wish they had a better name, if only to find them on google (do bands not think about search engines when naming their band?). Apart from the name, which I did not know while I watched them, they were an interesting and pleasant group that intrigued me.

Canada is a seven piece, in their best songs two members play cello and they just about all sing. Between songs they all switch up instruments playing all sorts of instruments and percussion, and I am unsure if they ever use the same arrangement for more than one song. They reminded me of a less energetic Architecture in Helsinki or a less intense Arcade Fire. The music in this song reminds me of Elliott Smith on Figure 8, but not the vocals or lyrics. They were fun and cute, and I mean that in a good way. While they have been around for a little while they still seem quite new and have room to grow. I am really interested to see where they go from here musically, I could see them doing something great.

Riverboat Gamblers on a half pipe

The Riverboat Gamblers - Save You.

Last night I saw one of the best shows I have seen since I have lived in LA. The Riverboat Gamblers played at 6th street wherehouse in down town LA.

The show was packed, the band played on a half pipe and it was only $6. What more can you ask for? I think I will always have affection for DIY venues like this one. There is just something real about a room with little more than a PA and people who are actually there to see a band they like. You really don’t need more.

If you have never heard Riverboat their music is a cross between the MC5, the Bad Brains, and American Steel all on speed. They are one of the liveliest and energetic bands around and playing on a half pipe only gave them more room to run around. I don’t think they played a song in which the singer didn’t see both ends of the half pipe 6 times. They are one of the few new punk bands today that I think are doing anything interesting.

Chuck Regan does sing like no one is listening

Chuck Ragan - "Do You Pray"

Those who know me know that Hot Water Music was on of my favorite bands. While I am still sad they are no longer playing together at least their demise has set Chuck Ragan free to move on to something far new and great. While his solo work is reminiscent of Hot Water in substance the style is far from it.

This week I had the pleasure of seeing Ragan twice, once at the Troubadour (on of my favorite venues to hear music) and The Alley in Fullerton. He just released a live record “Los Feliz” that was recorded last February at the Tangiers in Los Feliz of all places. I also had the pleasure of being present at that recording. The record captures the passion of his live performances perfectly.

Chuck Ragan’s solo work is music is raw and earthy. The lack of any electric instruments or even drums is a departure from the distorted guitars of his past work. While the base of all of his songs are just him an acoustic guitar the addition of fiddle, accordion, banjo, mandolin, and even some harmonica add a fullness to the songs that could not be gained merely by adding distortion or volume. The music has an element of folk, or old backwater country blues but yet is really neither. The rawness of his voice and the passion in his words are what make these songs, as what drew me to Hot Water years ago.

Today to many songwriters have no substance and even less to say; Ragan is nothing if not substance. He may not be as hip as many indie rockers moving into the world of country and folk or even into Los Feliz, being more likely to ware worn out hiking boots and be seen fishing than designer jeans at a dance night, but he has more to say and more passion than almost everyone else today.

In “Do You Pray” he belts out the lines “I wanna dance like nobody's watching, and sing like nobody cares. Climb to the top of those mountains we see, to find peace, and die up there.” Ragan is not playing for anyone but himself; he is writing what he needs to write for him self. In “California Burritos” he sings, “I can’t stand feeling nothing, I can’t stand feeling old. I can’t stand standing for nothing when stand is all I know.” In these recordings you can hear the sincerity of these words and know they come from deep within his soul.

Ragan does sing like no one is listening and he does not just stand for nothing. I think that is why it connects so personally to those that are.

Coalesce is harder to kill than a Zombie

Coalesce - Grain Of Sand

PunkNews.org is reporting that Coalesce is doing a short eastcoast/midwest tour with Daughters and releasing a 7 inch. I am stocked and saddened by this. Sad only because they will not be coming anywhere near the west coast, stocked that they are still alive. I can live with them not being the most active band ever as long as they don’t give up completely. They are with out a doubt one of the most underrated hardcore bands in the last 15 years.

Several years ago I was one of the promoters for the Tucson show of their “reunion” tour. It was one of the best and worst shows I have ever been a part of and definitely the most memorable. Due to bad management at the venue and despite a contract with us they shut the show down only two songs into the set, Coalesce did one more song with no power to the PA, Sean just screaming louder.

Outside the band decided that they needed to play somewhere since they had driven to Tucson. My friend Kate offered up he living room which turned out to be the smallest living room known to man and some 16 year old kids donated there bands crappy PA. Buy the time the band was set up there were two or three time as many people at Kate’s little duplex than were at the show to begin with. Seems every hardcore kid in Tucson had gotten the memo and knew they could not miss this historic party. We warned the band that at 11:30 at night on a Tuesday they had to know the cops were likely to make this show as short as the earlier one, thankfully they were not concerned.

With well over a hundred people in a room that could comfortably fit 6 the show was so packed that no one could even move. The band managed to play for most of an hour if not a little more with not a sound form the fuzz. It was hands down the most intense hose shows I have ever seen, and for that matter one of the most intense shows period.

After the band finally finished some kid had a taser and the kids took turns taseing people. James DeWees tased some kid who wanted to get tased, probably due to a chemical imbalance in his head, or simply because he was a hardcore kid and none of them think completely straight in the first place. The incident hit the world wide web which is know for preserving the truth in all things leading The Get Up Kids to get asked for years why James tased a kid at a show.

I wish that account could do justice to how utterly insane that night was for all involved.

In short go see Coalesce, if you have the chance.
8/15/07 The Palladium Upstairs, Worcester, MA
8/16/07 First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA
8/17/07 Knitting Factory, NYC, NY
8/18/07 Otto Bar, Baltimore, MD
8/19/07 Alley Katz, Richmond, VA
8/20/07 Lawrenceville Moose, Pittsburgh, PA
8/21/07 Magic Stick, Detroit, MI
8/22/07 TBA / Chicago
8/23/07 Picador, Iowa City, IA
8/24/07 Sokol Underground, Omaha, NE
8/25/07 Bottleneck, Lawrence, KS

Dan Deacon shows reviewed

Dan Deacon - The Crystal Cat.

I saw Dan Deacon twice last weekend. The first was at Check Yo Ponytail at the Echo Plex. I had heard a bout this night a few times from a few different people and figured why not.

What struck me about the show was the crowed interaction. The Echo Plex is a huge venue and was far from sold out but there was a large crowed in front of the stage and on it, Deacon set up on the dance for instead of the stage and asked people in the crowd to dance on stage. The crowed was electric and explosive. Something about it was fare more punk than dance and that was what drew me into it. Lots of dance bands / DJs can be hard to distinguish form an Ipod shuffle to me. Not Deacon. The whole shows was crowd interaction, constantly involving the crowd. For his last song he past out lyrics so the crowed could sing a long, and sing they did.

I don’t really know how to best describe Deacons music. He uses keyboards, pedals and Ipod Nano and a range of other electronics I couldn’t see for the crowed to make noisy dance music. DJ is certainly the wrong word but it almost has that vib.

The second show was at Pehrspace on Monday. I went to mainly because of how moving the show was on Saturday. Not quite as moving. The setting was much better, being a small art gallery with no stage but crowed was not as involved, probably being late on Monday as opposed to Saturday night (the lack of a bar might have factored in too). Still a great show by Deacon.

The music isn’t the best out there; I don’t know how often I will listen to it. But the show is something to see. Actually see is the wrong word, you really have to participate in it.