Tonight is the mainstream music industry backslap known as The Grammies...
Old warhorses The Police will take the stage and play some stuff recorded and last played sometime in the last 20 - 30 years ...
None of the newer acts will be as eagerly anticipated or received...
Some new faces will of course be rewarded, and likely this will prove almost to be a curse...as most of those who win a Grammy early in their career never reclaim their spot in the public eye, many drifting aimlessly before disappearing off the charts forever...
I remember A Flock of Seagulls won a Grammy for their debut album, they soon lost their hair, and most original members, and were playing the same small town bars I was within 5 years...
The highlight a few years back was Bruce Springsteen, Little Steven, Dave Grohl and Elvis Costello all playing a Clash cover, even though the late Joe Strummer's work was never once mentioned when he was alive at the annual awards show.
Springsteen & 2003 Grammy All Stars - London Calling
The best bands don't need no stinking trophies anyway...
Music is not a competition...
The band I'm about to mention has lived on for 10 years now after their breakup not because they sold millions, but because their fans still feel the emotion of the tunes...Not because radio is still playing them every 25 minutes.
I was glad to hear that this act, still one of my fave bands, Jawbreaker (R.I.P) will be getting the official documentary treatment & overview. The producer's of the excellent Minutemen "We Jam Econo" flick released awhile back have started doing interviews with key figures in the band's history.
In fact I've lent a camera to the proceedings, which last I knew was being used to transfer old archival live footage into the digital realm via firewire.
They'll cover their scrappy formation in L.A, and tentative move to the Bay Area and acceptance into it's tight knit incestuous and fratricidal punk scene. Their quick rise followed by tour traumas including Blake's throat surgery, personal tensions and fan rejection leading to their inevitable implosion after their major label debut supposedly "bombed".
But the music somehow lives on & on, even as the creators have scattered & abandoned it...
When will the movie itself arrive?
Who knows.. these things take time... so in the meantime, here's some Jawbreaker cover tracks from a couple bands obviously influenced by 'em but that have made tons more dough than Jawbreaker ever managed themselves...
Foo Fighters - Kiss The Bottle
Fall Out Boy - Save Your Generation
One of the most anticipated records out this week in the music industry was Fall Out Boy's "Infinity On High"... the lead off track Thriller even features a guest cameo from their label boss Jay Z, so you know it's official. The band takes an affirmative leap away from pop punk roots with production on tracks by pop R&B craftsman Babyface, and the afforementioned Jay Z.In order to spead the hype, the band jet setted around & played live in three cities on the release day. MTV had the boys in NYC first for TRL, followed by a gig in their hometown of Chicago atop the House of Blues, and then one more to close out the day in LA.
Here's a cut off that new release with single potential showcasing the band's thick & slick pop production, that will definitely keep some lil girl's humming along.
Fall Out Boy - The (After) Life of the Party
You can't argue with success and apparently that's what the Klaxons have amounted to this week, although on a smaller scale than Fall Out Boy...
Even though they have but one album to their name , this raver scene influenced band out of London is making a dent on the international electronic dance scene. Their album "Myths Of The Near Future" was only released on January 29th, yet has rapidly spread like a deadly computer virus onto dancefloors and harddrives around this wicked whirled...
Here's a special remix from a recent single they released...
Klaxons - Atlantis To Interzone (Germlin Remix)
Coming next week...
new stuff will be out from from Lucinda Williams, Keak Da Sneak, Anton Barbeau and those on the scrolling list below:
One of the oddball buzz bands out of the Bay Area of the last few years, and particularly last month, at least around these interwebs I peruse seems to have been Deerhoof...
They are a group that's comprised of nice enough peoples, but were never on my most likely to succeed in a big way list. Kudos to them for grabbing a chunk of attention in a world starving from over exposure.
Apparently a DVD is in the works of a ballet performance done in North Haven Maine to the music from their 2004 release Milk Man. This next track I am posting from them is the lead track from Milk Man.
Deerhoof - Milk Man
They are touring up a storm, and packing some houses here and abroad...
Remaining Feb 2007 Dates
2-11 - Washington, DC - Black Cat (w/Harlem Shakes)
2-12 - Carrboro, NC - Cat‘s Cradle (w/Harlem Shakes)
2-13 - Asheville NC - Grey Eagle (w/Harlem Shakes)
2-14 - Charleston, SC - Cumberland‘s (w/Harlem Shakes)
2-15 - Columbia, SC - Headliners (w/Harlem Shakes)
2-16 - Jacksonville, FL - Jack Rabbits (w/Busdriver and Harlem Shakes)
2-17 - Miami, FL - Poplife (w/Busdriver and Harlem Shakes)
2-18 - Tampa, FL - Crowbar (w/Busdriver and Harlem Shakes)
2-19 - Orlando, FL - The Social (w/Busdriver and Harlem Shakes)
2-20 - Gainesville, FL - Common Grounds (w/Busdriver and Harlem Shakes)
2-21 - Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club (w/Busdriver and Harlem Shakes)
2-22 - Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge (w/Busdriver and Harlem Shakes)
2-23 - Winston-Salem, NC - The Warehouse (w/Busdriver and Harlem Shakes)
2-24 - Charlottesville, VA - Sattellite Ballroom (w/Harlem Shakes and Flying)
2-25 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar (w/Harlem Shakes and Flying)
MARCH
3-2 - San Diego, CA - The Epicentre (w/Macromantics and Experimental Dental School)
3-3 - Tucson, AZ - Club Congress (w/Macromantics and Experimental Dental School)
3-4 - Phoenix, AZ - Rhythm Room (w/Macromantics and Experimental Dental School)
3-7 - Oklahoma City, OK - Conservatory (w/Macromantics,Experimental Dental School and Star Death)
3-8 - Dallas, TX - Gypsy Tea Room (w/Macromantics and Experimental Dental School)
3-9 - Austin, TX - Emo‘s (w/Macromantics and Experimental Dental School)
3-10 - Houston, TX - Numbers (w/Macromantics and Experimental Dental School)
APRIL 2007
4-1 - Perth, Australia, The Rosemount,
4-3 - Sydney, Australia, The Annandale
4-4 - Brisbane, Australia, The Zoo
4-6 - Sydney, Australia, Great Escape Festival
4-7 - Melbourne, Australia, Corner Hotel
In honor of their emergence from semi-obscurity into indie icons du jour, here's something that they did awhile back as part of a tribute to another sincere but oddball indie band that had the odds stacked against them.
The Shaggs were a 70's gal group outta New England that has sorta captivated the same crowd that digs the Kids of Widney High scene, or maybe for a more modern mainstream reference, imagine if the sisters of William Hung & Daniel Johnston had a band.
Somehow it fits the Ono-esque art damage suall ala mode Deerhoof experience, uh, perfectly...
Deerhoof - My Pal Foot Foot
Download more at 
More On This Shaggs Tribute Album
Perhaps you clicked here because you are bedridden with flu like so many during this nasty rainy /snowy / flash floody / winter season...
or maybe you are in another hemisphere...where it's summer...
either way you are here, and we appreciate that... so take a look around eachg week, and in the archives and see if there's something you'd like...
feel free to grab a tune or two...or three even I suppose.
But don't forget to support yer fave musicians by buying their official releases whenever possible...
we love to be part of the discovery process... but do not condone rampant dispersion of each and every new track or the back catalog.
If it wasn't for our many musician friends and those souls slaving away in the background at record labels, we'd have very little to talk about or entertain ourselves with...
stay gold ponyboys & girls!!!
(even if ya don't win the gold...)
1 comment:
Totally exhilarated by the Klaxons. Their tour is going to be awesome.
http://www.myspace.com/klaxons
http://eightfiftyseven.com/
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