Oh My Space

I didn’t realize how crucial myspace would become to musicians and friend seekers.  The whole concept just seemed too simple to take off the way it did.  Regardless, it’s the main band promoter these days and thanks to it I’ve made great new contacts.  If you haven’t already, be sure to become my friend (oh won’t you be mine?). 

From the mailbag:

We found a band in San Francisco called Trainwreck Riders that we’re in love with.  They’re really young (20 or so years old).  They play mainly Bart Stations, house parties and basements.  Their sound is a cool mix of traditional American music and Bay Area rock n roll.  Anyway, itís very early in the bandís days…but we wanted to bring this to you now.

The band just signed to Alive Records (the label that put out their best friendsí first record, Two Gallants, as well as Warlocks, Black Keys and Brian Jonestown Massacre).  They are in the studio recording the album now, and it will come out in August 2006.

Mp3’s
Trainwreck Riders : Delia
Trainwreck Riders : Lonely Road Revival

Video:
Train Wreck Riders : Bus Slo Mo

Here’s some funkish, Devo-like, poppy, electro punk Minneapolis-based band Avenpitch. They have a new album titled “Butterfly Radio” out now on Chicago’s Omega Point Records.  The mp3’s please:

Avenpitch : Butterfly Radio
Avenpitch : Dusseldorf
Avenpitch : Jack the Idiot Dance

And finally, another great band from our brothers above, Canada:

Think About Life builds a bridge from swiriling chaos to kindly pop, but the
bridge is a shaky beast that tends to collapse into the sea and capsize any
onlooking vessel. Shows can meltdown to oblivion or soar to ecstacy or implode
after one song with police intervention. The sounds range from manic to troubled
to tender to silly, exploding every emotion at once into a thousand pieces at
the bottom of a canyon. TAL reassembles this raw material into a worldview
rooted in thunder-storms, roller-coasters, clowns, sea-beasts, romance,
fireworks, massive sphinxes, basketball championships, chivalric knighthoods,
snowmen, children, videos, hamlets, sunglasses, and YOU.î



Think About Life is the lovechild of Graham Van Pelt,
a multi-instrumentalist, recording studio proprietor and co-director of
Montrealís adored all-ages alternative space, the Friendship Cove. The
bandís primary vocal organ is Martin Cesar, the genius of the Donkey
Heart quartet that squinty, pimply West Montreal kids swear by as ìthe
little band that couldÖî Matt Shane is the name of the bandís drum
machine.

Think About Life : Paul Cries

Noise Pop ‘06 : Two Gallants at Bimbo’s

These guys have become one of my favorite San Francisco bands and I have proof.  I’ve reviewed them more than any other SF band: February ‘05,  November ‘05.  Why am I so drawn to their music?  A free spot on their guest list?  Sure, but I could always opt out and play with my cats.  The real reason folks is this bands youthful, aggressive, passionate fury.  I got a fortune cookie the other day that read “Nothing can be accomplished without passion.”  It got me thinking, as fortune cookies do, that as I age I lose touch with my passion.  It’s there; I just need to ‘touch’ it more often. The Two Gallants are certainly in ‘tune’ with their passion.

Anyway, it was Noise Pop at Bimbo’s, the main stage event featuring Two Gallants along with a cast of others.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, was there to see just them.  They’ve amassed a huge following of SF high schoolers, frat boys and even 60 something white couples.  Odd you may think, but what these fans come to see is a highly literate, poetic group of young men steeped in the wisdom of James Joyce and critical of the apartheid of Jim Crow.  What better way to enjoy Cesar Chavez day but with a white, non-recent immigrant gathering of scholars?

One thing I can say with certainty about these scholars is that they have become truly settled in their sound and performance.  Adam Stephen’s voice, at the age of 25, has the scarring and raspy-ness of a well-aged rocker and drummer Tyson Vogel plays with the virtuosity and abandon of Damon Che (Don Caballero).  What I’m most struck by in the music is the poetry.  Check out these lines from what Stephen’s referred to as his controversial song called Long Summer Day where he takes on the persona of a black man living in the Jim Crow south:

ALL IíVE EVER KNOWN IS POOR. OWE
MY SKIN TO THE COUNTRY STORE. DONíT OWN MY WALLS, MY ROOF,
MY DOOR, AND HE TELLS ME IíM FREE. BUT WHY FIGHT THE WILL
TO LIVE. HELL MIGHT TAKE BUT HEAVEN GIVES, THEREíS ONLY ONE
SO IíLL FORGIVE.

Perhaps the controversy stems from a white man, Stephen’s, posing as a black man in the song, or for the use of that dreaded ‘n’ word, but if you pull away from the political correctness of it all you find an honest homage to the struggles of a ‘faithful’ god fearing man who has to “fight the will to live” just like many of us do.  And don’t we all owe our skin to the country store these days?  The store being a metaphorical Walmart or a ‘cruel’, money-grubbing record label?  Now, let’s be very clear, I’m not suggesting ANY real connection between the two experiences, just poetically.

Regardless,  there is no enslavement by label here.  They’re on Saddle Creek: the label run by the founding emo-core god, Bright Eyes.  The fit couldn’t be more perfect.  I’m waiting for the tour featuring both acts.  And what a lineup that would be!  A chance to see these new world sadly beatific gurus preaching their longing for lost love and the emancipation of the soul?  Priceless.

Two Gallants : Las Cruces Jail
Listen to more of their music here