[Video] Blastoids: “Show Me Around”

Murfreesboro, Tennessee’s Blastoids are one of my favourite under-the-radar bands in the southeast, so I was overjoyed to find them releasing a new EP called Since Forever. Watch the music video of the first single above, and then stream the record below:

Free Download: New Blastoids Album

frontcover

One of my favourite Tennessee bands, Blastoids, are giving away their new album on their myspace page. I picked up a copy of the 14 track, nearly hour long record when they came through Atlanta earlier this summer and have been absolutely loving it. The Animal Collective starting point is very obvious, but this stuff is so unbelievably good that their piggybacking seems inconsequential. Each and every track is a unique experience in itself. There is so much dynamics to the record, and when the energy really picks up, it packs a serious punch. There is a very good chance this album will end up in my top 10 of the year, so you would be a fool not to grab it right now. Also, make sure to give this one a good headphones listen. Here’s the first two tracks of it to preview, but really, you just need to go get it and hear the entire thing:

Blastoids : Morning Light

Blastoids : Kids And Candy

Go to Blastoids myspace to download album for free!

On The Road: Tennessee

Right now I’m hanging out at a weird cafe in Memphis, Tennessee where This Piano Plays Itself will be playing later tonight. Getting on the road with a band and sharing the experience really helps put perspective on things for me, and if you ever have the chance to do the same, I can’t recommend it enough. Each day and night is a new mysterious adventure for a mostly unknown touring band, wrought with obstacles to be overcome. It is a long, arduous road to travel, booking shows in cities where no one has heard of you, financing the gas and food, finding places to crash each night, there is so much to take on. Of course, there are plenty of upsides to the experience as well.

The first show of this tour in an “anarchist bookstore” in Birmingham, Alabama Monday night ended up getting canceled due to almost nobody showing up. But the band set up their gear anyways and played a set comprised of instrumental jams I’ve never heard them perform before to a couple of friends who came up from Atlanta, myself and the bookstore staff. It was a fun kickoff party and a truly special set, and luckily I caught most of it on video that I’m saving to post up here one rainy day in the future. Last night they ended up playing their first real show in Chattanooga to a decent crowd and then most of us stayed up until dawn talking about silly stuff.

Since I’m in Tennessee, I figured I would talk about a few of my favourite Tennessee bands. Knoxville’s Royal Bangs are getting closer to finishing up a new album to follow up last year’s We Breed Champions (my #17 album of 2008). I was on the fence about the new material when I caught them playing in Atlanta a few months ago, but the recorded versions sound great. Here is one of them that has just hit the blogosphere:

Royal Bangs : My Car Is Haunted
Royal Bangs myspace
Royal Bangs will be at The Earl July 18th and October 16th.

At one of the final shows at the 1084 House last summer, we hosted Nashville’s Jeff The Brotherhood to a packed out crowd on a Monday night. I know the guitar/drummer duo thing is a bit overused at this point, but it is hard for me to recall anybody pull it off better live than these guys. Here’s a track to preview:

Jeff The Brotherhood : I Don’t Nee Your Tas-T
Jeff The Brotherhood myspace
Jeff The Brotherhood will be at The Earl November 12th

My biggest Tennessee crush band right now is Murfreesboro’s Blastoids. Since I’ve been talking about them plenty lately, I’m just going to drop a live video on you:

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Videos: Living Rooms, Blastoids @ I Can Fly 2 (6/28/09)

After leaving Corndogorama Sunday night a little early, I headed over to the new I Can Fly house. The DIY venue used to be located in my old neighborhood of Home Park, but when I moved to Reynoldstown, it moved over here too. This was my first time at the new one, and was very impressed with the crowd they drew for a Sunday night party with no beer. The venue space inside was pretty small, so it was really too packed out for me to go in and hear The Sunglasses or Siddhartha, but both sounded great from outside. I then went in up front to catch Blastoids and Living Rooms and both of them were incredible. The Blastoids‘ drummer is something else. I picked up their album for sale, which I can’t even determine what it is called, but it is really, really good. This was my first time catching Living Rooms and I’m definitely now a fan. I shot a video of each, but it was so dark in there there is very little to see, so they serve more as an audio sampling.

Siddhartha:

Blastoids:

Living Rooms:

Sunday Night In The A: Dead Confederate, Mice In Cars, Living Rooms, Blastoids

It is a great day for checking out local music in Atlanta. Corndogorama closes out tonight with Dead Confederate and they just did a Laundro Matinee session that you can check out here. After that, there are two great options for the afterparty. Mice In Cars are playing The Earl right down the street. I’ve been listening to their newest album, 53 Bicycles and a Dead Man, and have been enjoying it more and more with each listen. It is very raw and the vocalist is definitely an acquired taste, but the record is a great combination of sweet instrumental jams and post-punk intensity. The other afterparty option tonight sees one of my favourite DIY venues return in a new location in Reynoldstown with a great lineup. I Can Fly House part duex showcases Living Rooms, Siddhartha, and Ohmpark favourite Murfreesboro, Tennessee’s Blastoids. One of Blastoids‘ members, Shit Wolf, did a remix of a Living Rooms song that I posted below. Get directions to that show here. Go see some bands!

Blastoids : Morning Light
Living Rooms : How We Do It (Shit Wolf remix)
Mice In Cars : Doors Do Not Rebound Or Spring Back
Dead Confederate : It Was A Rose (Laundro Matinee Session)

Dead Confederate myspace
Video and Audio of Laundro Matinee Session
Mice in Cars myspace
Buy 53 Bicycles And A Dead Man
Living Rooms myspace
Blastoids myspace
Shit Wolf myspace

A Random Mp3 Trilogy: Dan Deacon/Shit Wolf, BLK JKS, North Elementary


Dan Deacon @ Eyedrum (1/7/08)

I finally got around to listening to Dan Deacon‘s new album, Bromst, and it delivers everything a fan could want. When it comes to dance music, it doesn’t get much better. I recently got sent a remixed track of one of the Bromst tunes called “Red F”. The artist who reworked the track, Shit Wolf, is a member of Murfreesboro Tennessee’s Blastoids, a fantastic band I really dig. Check it out:

Dan Deacon : Red F (Shit Wolf Edit)

Shit Wolf myspace

Dan Deacon Myspace

Buy Bromst





BLK JKS @ SXSW 2009

South Africa’s BLK JKS have debuted themselves to the world with a 4 track EP called Mystery, although they have been a band since the year 2000.The album is produced by Secret Machines‘ Brandon Curtis and it is a truly epic 20 minutes of music that sounds sort of like TV On The Radio, but way more psychedelic. The acid-dub jams’ mind altering intentions are bolstered by the strangeness of their music being loosely rooted in traditional African music. It is an extraordinary and wholly successful fusion of very different musical aesthetics.

BLK JKS : Mystery

BLK JKS myspace

Buy Mystery




North Elementary are a band based around Chapel Hill, North Carolina singer/songwriter John Harrison. He has put out a bunch of material over the years under different banners, but this is my first introduction to the musician. The sound is a beam of indie rock shining through an alt-country prism, reminiscent of bands like Sparklehorse, Cracker, and middle period Wilco. In fact, the album is produced by Alan Weatherhead who has worked with both Sparklehorse and Camper Van Beethoven, so if you are into music like that, as I am, you will enjoy this album.

North Elementary : Golden Tigers

North Elementary myspace

Buy Not For Everyone, Just For You

Photos: The Goldest, Cassavetes, Blastoids!, Chanticleer Fox (2/13/09) @ WonderRoot

Chanticleer Fox:

More Chanticleer Fox photos here

Blastoids:


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A Covers Mp3 Trilogy: Elliott Smith, Blastoids, Phosphorescent

An album’s worth of Elliott Smith outtakes and unfinished recordings from From A Basement On The Hill seems to be making its way around the series of tubes. I haven’t exactly dived into it yet because so many noteworthy albums dropped this week, but I have listened to the following Beatles cover and it is very nice. I have been a huge Elliott Smith fan for a long time, but I never realized how many cover songs he had done until doing a little investigation after hearing this.

Elliott Smith : I’ll Be Back (Beatles cover)




One of the southeast’s hottest bands right now, Murfreesboro Tennessee’s Blastoids!, hit up WonderRoot last Friday night. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it, but our new badass photographer got some sweet images we’ll post later this week. Of the many, many students of the school of Animal Collective coming out of the wood work right now, there is something special about these guys that set them apart from the rest. They just posted a very faithful cover of one of my all-time favourite AnCo tunes, giving ode to the masters. It is sure as hell better than the bajiliion terrible “My Girls” remixes floating around right now. Check it out:

Blastoids : Kids On Holiday (Animal Collective cover)

Blastoids myspace





Phosphorescent @ SXSW 2008

Phosphorescent‘s latest release, an album comprised of nothing but Willie Nelson covers, is a difficult album for me to assess. I think Willie Nelson is cool and all, but I would rarely listen to him, and I am extremely unfamiliar with his vast catalog. So I just have to take the record on face value, and while it sounds nice, I’m having what I call “The Cat Power Dilemma”. I love original Phosphorescent songs much more than I enjoy who he is covering, so it is very hard for me to get into this. But I seriously doubt he will abandon his original material like Chan Marshall has, so I’ll just defer to his artistic vision for now. Either way, To Willie is certainly worth checking out.

Phosphorescent : Can I Sleep In Your Arms (Willie Nelson cover)

Buy To Willie

Phosphorescent myspace

I Heart Blastoids!

When I went on tour with This Piano Plays itself and Kebert Xela earlier this summer, they played with an incredible band in Murfreesborro, Tennessee called Blastoids. At times they wear their Animal Collective influence on their sleeves a bit too much, but they have quite a range of psychedelic deliciousness that sound great even in the songs where they steer far away from that sound. Hopefully they’ll come down to Atlanta and play a show soon, but until then, they just released some new music videos for a couple of their songs, so check those out, and a few mp3s to get acquainted with an elite southeastern band:

Blastoids! : Kids And Candy

Blastoids! : Space Mountain

Blastoids! myspace

“Cowboy”:

“Trout Dick”:

On The Road With TPPI/KX Day 4 & 5: (Saturday, Sunday, & Wrap-Up): The Harder You Cry, The Sooner It Will Be Over

Saturday was the only day of tour that the bands had no show, so we headed to a movie theater to catch The Dark Knight as soon as we woke up. It was alright, but that Keith Ledger guy is a terrible actor isn’t he? Just kidding. Seriously though, I was pretty sick of the hype already but I doubt anyone could come out of seeing that movie thinking it was bad, so jump on the bandwagon.

We headed out of Lynchburg late in the afternoon and traveled about halfway to our Sunday night destination, crashing for the night at a cheap hotel in the middle-of-nowhere Tennessee. We hung out in the room and watched TV and got a little wasted. The next morning we jumped back on the road and made our way Murfreesboro, Tennessee.


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