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.
This video is actually a couple of weeks old, but I have a pretty valid excuse for not posting it: Laziness. Plus, I was late on the band and the album, too, so I’m actually staying pretty consistent. I reviewed their Dirtnap review over at Decoy and gave them all all sorts of acclaim. If you’re into Ramones inspired punk rock, these guys do it better than anybody sine The Queers. Watch below and then head over to SPIN to give them credit!
Let’s be honest. There are A LOT of new bands out there. And with the capabilities of MySpace, Pure Volume, Facebook, and Twitter, it’s easier than ever to get your music in front of a lot of people without ever hopping in a van and leaving your town. Add to that the thousands of music blogs (some more reputable than others) telling you who to listen to and why to listen to them, and you’re faced with a lot of crap shoved down your throat.
Naturally, this makes it pretty easy to let the good stuff pass you by. Hype is ignored. Reviews are glanced over. Free mp3s are listened to while scanning through work emails or updating your Twitter status.
In “Why Didn’t You Tell Me About?” we look at the bands that somehow passed us by despite a plethora of positive praise and stellar tunes. This week we look at Austin’s own The Strange Boys.
Earlier this week 20 different artists gathered at the legendary Carnegie Hall in Manhattan to play tribute to The Who.
I like (don’t love) The Who and briefly considered going to this, but the only artists I was at all remotely interested in seeing were The Gaslight Anthem, Bob Mould, and Nicole Atkins so I didn’t shell out the money. Thankfully, the nice folks at National Underground got a pretty decent shot at Gaslight doing The Who’s super mega hit “Baba O’Reilly.” Watch it here and then make sure to head over to National Underground to see what else they’ve got. Thanks to Punk News for pointing us towards this.
