Hip To Be Square

I haven't been really paying too much attention to the L.A. scene that much. But I went and caught Two Gallants last night at the Middle East, who are from San Francisco. The opening band, Cold War Kids, is from just outside La La Land. The only other band I've really listened to recently from this area is Giant Drag. But I can tell you this, I have not only found my favorite band coming out of SoCal, but I have also found one of my favorite new bands, PERIOD.

The performance last night blew me away. Their energy on stage together really gets projected out to the crowd. Can't wait to catch them again on June 5th at the Tapes N' Tapes show at the Middle East downstairs. Who, by the way, just signed with XL Records and now get to hang with the beautiful M.I.A. and the whitty White Stripes along with other great acts.

Go give CWK a listen at their myspace page. Also, I will be reviewing their two EP's hopefully in the next few days. Of course I said I would review Ghostface and Dopo Yume about 2 weeks ago, but hey, nobodies perfect. Besides, there's really nothing I can say about FishScale that hasn't been said already.

I would, however, like to point out that the man has not only developed one of the best hip hop albums that we have scene in a long time, but he has also mastered the infamous "Skit". I say infamous because personally, I always use to skip skits. But on this album, they work perfectly. Especially when Ghost argues with what sounds like a 6 year old in the "Bad Mouth Kid" skit and then it flows right in to "Whip You With A Strap". Pure genius.

Buy FishScale, here
Buy Tapes N' Tapes debut album, Loon, here
Buy Two Gallants album, What the Toll Tells, here
Purchase two Cold War Kids EP's, here

Go give the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs new album, "Show Your Bones", a listen over at Inide Radio by clicking here.

Pitchfork Review = 6.8

You be the judge.


Download the song Mary Jane by those punks I talked about yesterday, The Royal Army Record Company. And by the way, with no thanks to their lack of response to my question, that is the same Kenny Tompkins from The Trend on Pro-Gravity Records. But it looks like he started a record company along with some friends and now that company has started their own band. They also just launched their own website - check it out here.

So I made it to the Jack Daniels Studio No. 7 concert last night for The New Pornographers - Thanks to Brad over at the Alamanac for the heads on the show (check out the JD site above to see if there is a free show being held in your town). I had seen them back in the fall when they were on tour for their Pitchfork hyped album, Twin Cinemas. Great album but I don't think it deserved as high a rating as it was given.

Not too much to report on but that they were missing one of their red haired musicians - Neko Case - who is currently on tour supporting her new album "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood" . I personally think that this is a huge hole in the band. They seemed like a band that was pulled out of their comfort zone and thrown in to a situation that they didn't really want to be in but ended up giving in to the man anyway because, hey, who really gives a crap - it's just Jack Daniels. I mean, I'd be hipocrit as well bashing them since as we speak-read, I am promoting them. But A.C. Newman first asked if everyone was getting free drinks. The crowd yelled back, "No!!", and A.C. responded by saying, "Oh, well, we are. I was hoping you would be drunk." Then later in the show he said, "Whose idea was it to come out here?". Whether that meant coming out of for an encore or coming out to Boston in general doesn't really matter. What matters is that the band sounded a little off. But towards the end they seemed to loosen up. During the encore they were taking requests from the few passionate Porno fans that were in the crowd so that was pretty cool. I don't consider myself a die hard fan but I respect their sound and think they are great band worth the praise they have been getting.

The only other thing to report on last night was the opening band, Frank Smith, which hales from the South Shore town of Scituate, MA. They've got the alternative country rock sound going and a singer that has a tendency to sound a bit cheasy. But when he goes in for the scream he envokes a Kurt Cobain sound. This band is up for a Best of 2006 award from the local Boston liberal journal, Phoenix. I enjoyed them but their songs were a bit inconsistent. Go check out their myspace here to give a couple tracks a listen. They will also be opening for the Two Gallants at the Middle East Upstairs on April 29th.

As for new albums. I've recently purchased the new Ghostface Killah album - "FishScale" - and a band from Brooklyn, Dopo Yume and their new album - "The Secret Show". I'll have reviews and mp3's from those albums in the next few days.

I guess I can agree to some extent with the other critics about the new Flaming Lips album. The songs do seem a bit eratic and jaunty. The beats are bit all over the place, not that other Lips albums don't have similar characterstics it's just that this one seemed a bit more so then others. But there are several moments on this album that I enjoy. For one, I think the first few songs really flow quite well. In fact, I can see these songs being amazin live. Especially "The Wizard Turns On..." and "It Overtakes Me/The Stars Are So Big, I Am So Small...Do I Stand A Chance?". The bass in "It Overtakes Me..." is phenomenal. I can just see the bass speakers on an amp vibrating a room apart.

But maybe that's my appeal to this album, I'm a live music freak.

Since I don't think you can really judge this new album with out listening to the whole thing, I'm kind of reluctant to post a song. But, well, what the heck, here's one of my favorites.

Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung

Read the reviews that didn't care as much for the album:

Stylus Magazine
Pitchfork
Pop Matters