With new music to look forward to from the likes of The Gaslight Anthem, The Hold Steady, The Menzingers, Against Me!, and Fake Problems, you’d think there hadn’t been much I loved already this year. Not true. We’ve already had some great new music from Ted Leo, The Strange Boys, and Titus Andronicus.
Today’s video comes from New Jersey’s Titus Andronicus. “A More Perfect Union” is the first track of of their stellar new record, The Monitor, out now via XL Recordings. You can watch the video below.
I recently reviewed No Use for a Name frontman Tony Sly’s debut solo full-length 12 Song Program for Decoy Music. I didn’t like it very much. I wish I had. Head over to the link above to check it out.
The other day I was looking at Okay Player for the firs time in a long time; sometimes you’re just in the mood for hip hop. Anyways, I came across this post and thought it was pretty fun. It’s a new widget/technology called MXP4 that I guess allows you to do karaoke, remixes, watch video and a bunch of other cool stuff. They’ve got a bunch of artists that I don’t really care about, but I had a lot of fun with this Grouch & Eligh track which was one of my favorite hip hop tracks from last year (Pigeon John does the chorus and he’s the best).
Play around with it. Head over to the site and there’s more as well.
In their early days a lot of people lazily compared The Gaslight Anthem to Against Me! If I remember it correctly, the guy who runs XoXo records, the label that released The Gaslight Anthem’s debut, Sink or Swim, was also Against Me!’s tour manager. Or something along those lines. This lead to a couple of The Gaslight Anthem’s first bigger tours (with AM!) and it’s entirely possible that this lead to that comparison.
Personally, I never really heard the connection. Early on each band had developed unique (if not entirely original) sounds that proudly displayed their influences (both musically and geographically) on their sleeves. Against Me!’s political rough cut punk rock was routed in folk and tinged with a swampy Florida swing. Meanwhile, The Gaslight Anthem’s anthemic, working class pop punk screamed New Jersey. Bruce Springsteen was the obvious (and overused) comparison, but if you didn’t hear the Bouncing Souls in their music then you weren’t paying enough attention.
Now – upon the much anticipated upcoming releases for both bands, they are starting to sound a lot more like each other. Gone are Against Me!’s swampy rhythms and The Gaslight Anthem’s basement jams. Each band has stepped into their own with a fuller sound and more professional recordings. Granted – this could be a good thing or a bad thing. Only time (or actually hearing each album) will tell. For right now we’ve got a teaser track from each band to help us get excited. And they do just that. I can’t wait to hear what’s in store from both of them.
I recently interviewed Flogging Molly bassist Nathen Maxwell about the band’s brand new live dvd Live at the Greek Theatre for the awesome dudes at Punknews. You can watch a live video from the DVD below and then make sure to head RIGHT HERE to read the whole thing.
This is where we’re at. This is what we’re about. In a way it gives us a chance to look at it and go, “OK. What’s next? Are we going to keep doing the same thing? Or are we going to change it up a bit to be free and have fun with our music and our career?”
Keeping it fairly simple. Songs about boozing. A few are obvious (Irish) and a few are not. If you’re looking to add to the mood, then enjoy this music tonight. Be safe and have fun, kiddies.
To answer your questions, friends: No, I won’t be going to SxSw this year. No, I won’t be seeing you in Austin next week. I won’t be able to attend your awesome party with 11 bands I’ve never heard of, 2 that are awesome, and free beer for two hours. Thanks, though!
That being said, I figured that’s what people are talking about this week, so I might as well put a little guide together. I’m not even going to do a write up about these bands - just a super quick write up with an mp3 to match.
If you do happen to make it, check these bands out – it will be totally worth it. And yes, I skipped out on a ton of great bands. If you’re there you’ll see hundreds of ‘em, these are just 10 that I would make sure to see if I were there.
