The new season of ‘Flight of the Conchords’ begins January 18th, but you can watch the season premiere now on HBO.com.
Category Archives: Discoveries
Video: Blitzen Trapper – Furr
New Bay Area Music Venue: The Fox Theater Oakland
After closing its doors forty-three years ago, the Fox Theater in Oakland is scheduled to reopen in February 2009. $75 mm was poured into the renovation project which features a multi-use, state-of-the-art theater with flexible capacity from 1,500 to 2,800. (About double the capacity of The Fillmore.) The roof, quite sturdy have been looked over by an orlando roofer. The multiple seating configurations include general admission, cabaret style seating, and reserved seating.
The theater itself will serve as the flagship live music venue for Another Planet Entertainment, well known for bringing outstanding live entertainment to the Greek Theatre, The Independent, Paramount Theatre, Oracle Arena and other popular Bay Area venues. Another Planet Entertainment also produces both the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival and Treasure Island Music Festival.
A line up of artists have already been booked, most notably The Black Keys on April 18. A special ‘grand opening’ pre-sale for all confirmed acts will begin tomorrow morning at 10AM. Go get those Black Key tickets while they last!
My Favorite Music Gift
My friend Erin is an amazing artist but doesn’t know jack about music. She does know how to pick a book, however, and got me this amazing book for Christmas, Bands on the Road: The Tour Sketchbook. The book features doodles, scribbles and sketches from an impressive list of indie music artists like The Shins, We Are Scientists, Nada Surf, Dirty Pretty Things and more, giving a glimpse into the not so glamourous life of lives of bands on the road – on stage and off.
2009 | Keep Calm and Carry On
My friend Erin had this print of an old British poster in her house that struck me. It’s a reproduction of an old slogan used to allay public fear during the outbreak of World War 2. The original poster was held in reserve for use only in times of extreme crisis. Although thousands were produced, only a handful ever saw the light of day. (For a reproduction of the poster, go to Keep Calm Gallery.)
Some 60 years later, I couldn’t help but think how fitting it was in this day and age where fear and uncertainty has reached epidemic proportions. It seems as though the world is on the edge of its seat, waiting for life as we know it to end sometime in 2009. Just how bad will 2009 be? The speculation is endless and the anticipation exhausting. It’s only January 1 and I’m already tired of it. And like a bunch of rubberneckers at the scene of an accident, we seem compelled to slow down and look at the wreckage, clogging up everything behind us. Too scared to do anything else. While I’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions, I have decided to adopt this as my motto and modus operandi for 2009. I think we can all use a little more of that British ‘stiff upper lip’ right now.
So Happy New Year folks. Let’s all just keep calm and carry on. In honor of our wise British brethren, I’ve composed a mix of some of my favorite UK-based artists and songs. Enjoy. And let’s keep on rockin’ in the free world!
Keep Calm and Carry On Mixtape
- The Early Years, ‘High Times and Low Lives’
- Glasvegas, ‘Geraldine’
- Elbow, ‘Mirrorball’
- Radiohead, ‘House of Cards’
- School of Language, ‘Keep Your Water’
- The Duke Spirit, ‘Wooden Heart’
- Belle and Sebastian, ‘Stars of Track and Field’
- Jamie T, ‘Back in the Game’
- The Bees, ‘Better Days’
- Jim Noir, ‘Computer Song’
- Paul McCartney, ‘Oh Woman, Oh Why’
Get this album free via eMusic’s 50 Free MP3 Promo
Download BLK JKS Mystery EP Free on eMusic
Now through January 5, 2009, you can download a copy of BLK JKS Mystery EP on eMusic – for free!
Who are the BLK JKS, you say? Well, they are a South African psychedelic afro rock band that kind of has a TV on the Radio vibe. Discovered by Diplo while he was on tour in South Africa, they landed on the cover of Fader, received lots of media attention from the likes of the New York Times, Billboard and The Guardian and have been on the train to success since. They recorded their MYSTERY EP in New York’s famed Electric Lady studios and just signed with the label Secretly Canadian. Their EP is due out March 10, 2009. But why wait when you can get it for free now? Jump on it.
Listen to ‘Lakeview‘
Then check out the latest documentary from Digforfire.tv about the band.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
AmieStreet Download for Charity: Titus Andronicus & SF’s Lemonade
I love AmieStreet. It’s become one of my new favorite music sites and latest obsessions. They have great music and a very cool, community-driven concept that makes it really cheap to get music. But you have to be on top of your music game. It works like this:
All songs on Amie Street are priced from free to 98 cents. Instead of the arbitrary $0.99 per song, on Amie Street the community determines the price of music. Every song starts free, or very cheap, and increases in price, up to 98 cents, as more and more people purchase it.
This variable pricing system ensures that you get music at a fair, community-driven price point, and makes it easy for you to find the type of music you want. Then you’re encouraged to talk about the music you like by putting money in your account for more downloads when you recommend songs that continue to rise in price. All the music is DRM-free! Go get an account if you don’t have one already.
And make sure you take advantage of these great album deals…
Titus Andronicus – The Airing of Grievances
Listen to ‘Titus Andronicus‘:
Taking their name from a minor Shakespearean tragedy, this New Jersey punk rock band is making waves and getting compared to the likes of The Kinks, The Pogues, Bruce Springsteen, and even Arcade Fire. They’ve built a reputation for their rowdy live performances. If you’re in San Francisco, you can see them tonight at The Rickshaw Stop opening for No Age.
Buy it at AmieStreet for $4.74!
Lemonade – Lemonade
Listen to ‘Sunchips‘:
This San Francisco-based trio has already built a following around town with their energetic live performances of avant-electronic music that fuses psych heavy synths and spacey delays. They’ve toured and opened for the likes of Black Moth Super Rainbow, Modeselektor and Crystal Castles. Their self-titled debut is out now and you can get it at Amie Street right now for $1.32. Drink it up!
Rafter – Sweaty Magic Videos
I loooove Rafter. Mostly because he’s a bona fide freak who makes really compelling, interesting and fresh music. Fast on the heels of ‘Sex Death Cassette‘ (one of my favorite albums) comes his new EP called ‘Sweaty Magic’. A distinct shift from his prior work, this album is quite bootylicious. As his label, Asthmatic Kitty, so aptly put it:
“Sweaty Magic is Rafter center stage in a gold Speedo (American Apparel banned at the door), firing lasers of love from his eyes. If you’re not shaking your booty by the second track, you might want to look behind you to make sure it’s still there.”
Asthmatic Kitty recently held a video contest and here are the winners to two of my favorite ‘Sweaty Magic’ tracks. Go ahead and ‘put a little salt in it!’
Juicy Video
Salt Video
Get this album free via eMusic’s 50 Free MP3 Promo
From the Basement: White Denim
From the Basement is a UK-based music TV show that has launched a series of live performances from an impeccable collection of indie artists – like Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes, The Kills, Andrew Bird, Beck and lots, lots more. The program is featured on the Sky Arts channel in the UK, Rave in the US and, starting in January 2009, the IFC channel.
Until then, you can catch sneak previews of some performances. Like this one from my current obsession White Denim. Click here to check out this blistering rendition of ‘All You Really Have to Do/ Mess Up Your Hair’. Oh yeah, these guys rock! Well worth the jump, I promise.
Get this album free via eMusic’s 50 Free MP3 Promo
Introducing MBV – The First Blog Conglomerate?
No friends, this is not a My Bloody Valentine blog, though that was where my mind first went as well. This appears to be perhaps the first indie music blog conglomerate, so to speak. MBV is a new website bringing together five great indie music blogs: Said the Gramophone, Fluxblog, Large Hearted Boy, Catbirdseat and Chromewaves. All of their sites will be syndicated here and will include additional content as well.
An interesting concept and possibly an emerging trend? Let’s watch and see.
the OCMD 