This is fine.
Johnathon Ford will be bringing his instrumental outfit Unwed Sailor to Emo’s Austin on Wednesday evening. Doors for the show are at 8 with music beginning around 10. Local Austin act, The Calm Blue Sea, will also be playing in support of the Oklahoma based act. Preview the show with recent single from Unwed Sailor “Copper Islands”.
Download: Unwed Sailor – Copper Islands [MP3]
One of my favorite discoveries of the year, Horse Feathers, just recorded a Woxy Lounge session and the nice folks at The Futurist have all the live songs available for download. The band plays 3 songs from their stellar 2008 album House With no Home and one from their 2006 release Words Are Dead. Here’s the live track from the 2006 album called “Mother’s Sick”. Beautiful.
Download: Horse Feathers – Mother’s Sick(live) [MP3]
Marnie Stern, the current master of finger-tapping guitar play, will be playing a couple times in Austin this week. First show comes this evening(11/18) at the Mohawk in Austin with tickets available now for only $8. Marnie is accompanied by local Austin band’s Ume and The Sour Notes. The following day, Mrs. Stern will be playing one of Waterloo Records weekly in stores at 5pm. Do I need to mention the free keg beer? If you haven’t heard any of Marnie’s insane guitar work, here’s a dandy called “Transformer”.
Download: Marnie Stern – Transformer [MP3]
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Local Austin band Frantic Clam originally joined forces while serving in the armed forces in Iraq. The two founding members, Zack and Joe, spent their spare time crafting simple tunes. Celebrity is the band’s first EP, but a full length album is scheduled for release this Winter.
Opening track “Mary Elizabeth Winstead” is definitely rooted in a Southern soul sort of vibe, as the guitar work is really gritty. The vocals are reminiscent of a Issac Brock being raised in the Deep South, with backing vocals added to fill in some the empty space in the song.
They wander off to “Everything is Perfect,” which is probably the best song on the album. The vocals at the beginning are really crisp, which packs a stronger punch than some of the fuzzier recording that comes along later. It’s a gentler approach to their songwriting; an attribute the band should consider employing full time.
“Richard Cory” is another mellow number at track 3. A slower pace allows the band to focus on the melodies here, and this ends up demonstrating the band’s abilities to intertwine hooks with their space infused Southern rock sound. Similarly, “Amnesty” is filled with space keyboards and lyrics battling the mundane world, along with mundane problems. It comes off like an old Grandaddy b-side.
They close the album with samples of Oz, as they finish with “The Emerald City.” It’s a song that exhibits a bit of funk, as if the band smashed into Stereolab all of a sudden. It is another sound that demonstrates the possibilities the future holds for this band. Keep an eye on this group, as I’m sure we’ll hear more of them in the future.
Speaking of hearing more, the band has a gig on December 12th at Hole in the Wall, so go check it out; keep it local.
You can also check out single from the album Richard Cory elsewhere on our site.
Of Montreal played to a packed house at Fiesta Gardens in east Austin last Thursday evening. The show had something for everyone with Kevin Barnes doing his best to carry the torch started by David Bowie oh so long ago. Follow the jump to read our full show review, check out some pictures, and see the full set list.
This just in, Broken Social Scene and Ghostland Observatory are playing dates at Bass Concert Hall in January. Ghostland tickets can be bought now and you can pick up some BSS tickets via pre-sale on their website. Ghostland is set for the 30th of January. BSS goes down the very next night. Dig out that old student ID, both are relatively cheap if you’re still a student
Those blood banks and their… needles. It’s time someone taught them a lesson!
The nice people at Joyful Noise Records have another end of the year sampler you can download for free. This is another free sampler from record labels as they hope to remind us all what great albums they put out in the last year. Can you say year end lists? Download the sampler now. We’ve also got highlight track “Suspended Air” from Indiana band, The Delicious.
Download: The Delicious – Suspended Air [MP3]
Danielson will be playing at Mohawk on Tuesday evening and you better go! Tickets for the show are only $8 and can be bought now from the transmission ticket website. Don’t forget you can still download the band’s new live album Danielson Alive from the emusic website.
Jim Ward’s project outside of Sparta, Sleepercar, will be showing up at Mohawk this dull Monday evening. Doors for the event are set for 8pm with no opening band yet announced. Preview the show with the band’s most recent single “A Broken Promise”.
Download: Sleepercar – A Broken Promise
