It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for Nick Courtright’s weekly
first glance at music discovered in the last seven days, whether it be
just-released, just-leaked, or some long-lost gem that has remained
under the radar. Click here for
other recent editions of Hot Off the Press, featuring acts such as
Deerhunter, TV on the Radio, Deerhoof, Juana Molina, Crystal Stilts,
White Denim, and Grizzly Bear.
Dent May – The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele
to be released February 3rd on Paw Tracks
Report Card: A-
Okay, there’s definitely an element of the terrible here. I mean, look at that album cover. Just look at it. Seriously.
But once you get past that, and listen to the album a dozen times or
so, bigger issues start coming up: this Dent May, this
straight-from-Mississippi scoundrel, just how serious is he? How much
irony is there to his lounge-lizardly, microphone-hanging, bad suit
wearing persona? Is all his crooning like an inebriated and
discernibly less talented Jens Lekman, all his singing about a
formidable cast of losers ranging from college town hangers-on to the
unimpeachably woman-rejected to the despondently intoxicated, just part
of a master plan to make people smile when listening to music, rather
than wallow in the effluvious well of their own bourbonized misery?
Once again, we team up with our friends at Gillmore and Associates for another great downtown event, the Old Bank District Holiday Block Party. This time, we celebrate the holidays by shutting down Main St (between 4th & 5th) and Spring St (between main & spring). Little Radio will have a stage at the intersection of 4th and Main with live performances from The Like, Whispertown 2000, Restavrant, Rumspringa, Dawes and others. The event is free to all and all ages. There will be food, a beer garden, a Jazz stage and cocktail bar in an adjacent alley and plenty more. See below for links, videos and free mp3 downloads for all bands performing.
The Like
Video for The Like's "June Gloom" from their LP Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking? (Geffen)
Whispertown 2000
Restavrant
Rumspringa
Video for Rumspringa's "Goldmine" from The Rumspringa EP out now on Cantora Records, directed by Evan Romoff.
Dawes
Directed by Austin Peters
Video for Dawes' "Love Is All I Am" filmed in North Hills, CA.
Local live footage for Til We're Blue Or Destroy's "Don't Ever Let the Bastards Win" off the record This Train.
Til We're Blue Or Destroy are playing Mohawk on Tuesday, December 9. Tickets will be available at the door.
Pontiak
RIYL: The Black Angels, Dead Meadow, Brightblack Morning Light
Performing: December 2 @ Mohawk
Pontiak
are three brothers from Virginia, who play “post-stoner,” psychedelic
sludge rock that’s been compared to a Sabbath, the Doors, Floyd and
Harvey Milk. Their latest full-length, Sun on Sun was recorded
in a log cabin in their Blue Ridge home state in four days and later
released on Thrill Jockey Records (home to free jazz icon Fred Anderson
and post-rock pioneers Tortoise and The Sea and Cake).
“Sun on Sun” is like a nightmarish reimagining of Cooder’s Paris, Texas soundtrack, a hellish trek through a psilocybin desert where the heat
makes you hallucinate. Largely instrumental, the track unfolds with
workman like precision, Van Carney’s vocals disaffected and
uninterested. Churning bass tones, acid rock organs and reverb heavy
guitars fill out the rest of Sun on Sun.
Shot by Miguel Delgado
Live performance of Whispertown 2000's "Old Times" from their Swim LP filmed live at the Epiphany Theater in Chicago, Il on Sept 19th, 2008.
Music video for Pontiak's "White Hands" off the album Sun On Sun. Released in 2008 by Thrill Jockey Records.
See Pontiak play Mohawk on Tuesday, December 2. Get your tickets at the door.
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