Finding new music

About a month ago, I signed up for a weekly e-mail alert on spooonful.com. Every Tuesday, it sends you an e-mail featuring a certain band. It lists the band's bio, along with what other bands it sounds like, and provides links to where you can listen to a few songs.

I like it. The e-mails don't get annoying, as they're sent only once a week. And so far I've been pretty pleased with the bands they've suggested. They've been a good mix of bands I'm quite familiar with, somewhat familiar with, and some I've never heard of.

This week's e-mail featured the Handsome Furs (a side project of one of the members of Wolf Parade). It pretty much sealed the fact that I'm going to check them out. I have a personal policy in which if I hear a recommendation for a band or album from three separate sources, I check it out. It almost always ends up working out. The spooonful e-mail was the third recommendation of the band that I've seen.

So if you're looking for a way to find new bands without having to do much work, sign up at spooonful.com. It doesn't take long at all.

Lollapalooza announces 2009 lineup

After a somewhat weak list of headliners, Lollapalooza redeemed itself by announcing a number of quality midlevel bands that will play at this year's festival. Check out the lineup here.

Here's who I'm looking forward to (in order of how they appear on the Lolla site):

Tool
Beastie Boys
Kings of Leon (kind of)
Andrew Bird
TV on the Radio
The Decemberists
Animal Collective (glad they got the chance to make up for their Metro show)
Band of Horses
Of Montreal
Fleet Foxes
Kaiser Chiefs
Deerhunter
Gomez
Ra Ra Riot

Here's my guess for how the headliners will match up:

Friday: Beastie Boys and the Killers
Saturday: Tool and Kings of Leon
Sunday: Depeche Mode and Jane's Addiction

You’re Here to See Who?

It doesn’t make sense, I have found some of my favorite bands by accidentally going to shows early, and on the rare occasion I go shows solely to see the opener I feel a sense of superiority, “You’re here to see who? What time are they playing?” Damn kettle’s can’t say nothing about this pot. The opener(s) is my favorite way to come across new, or at least new to me, music, but…

I repeatedly find ways to miss them when going to shows. I often treat them like a waste, some one trying to play over my obviously much more important conversation, or taking up time that could be better used trying to liquor up on much cheaper store bought spirits.

However the bands you come across in this way also play the best, and often cheapest, shows at the smallest venues, finally I come to the point of this post. Two Lolla’s ago, is that an official unit of time, I decided an entire day of music wasn’t good enough. So I went to meet a few friends at the House of Blues for what I thought was going to be an STS9 show. It turned out that show was sold out and we were going to see Anathallo, a fine band in their own right but not my focus right now, on the Back Porch at the House of Blues. The first band, the opener for the opener, was Manchester Orchestra.

Manchester Orchestra is a 5 piece band from Atlanta, Georgia. They have one full length album, I’m Like A Virgin Losing a Child, and will be releasing their second, Mean Everything to Nothing, on April 21^st. The entire new album is now streaming on their MySpace site and they will be playing a show at the Subterranean on the 8^th of May for the recession friendly price of $13. I don’t want to say too much about the band for fear of overcompensating, I will only say they remind me at times of both Bright Eyes and Death Cab, and at the very least check out I’ve Got Friends, I Can Feel a Hot One, and I Was a Lid on their new album.

Anyone want to post on bands they've come across while going to see someone else?

Dr. Dog at the Double Door

Last Friday I was invited to go see Dr. Dog play at the Double Door. I had never heard them before, but the ticket was free, so I thought I'd check them out.

Before the band came out, there was a song playing over the PA system that sounded like the sample song from a cheap Casio keyboard -- the kind that uses every sound available. I thought it set the tone for the show nicely: it would be fun, and not too serious.

The five-piece band made its way out -- each member sporting a different trendy hat -- and started rocking. Dueling guitars, keys, bass, and drums -- nothing out of the ordinary.

I enjoyed the set. Dr. Dog had a nice mix of jumping around having fun, and busting out some intense grooves. They didn't do anything shocking. Simple, but enjoyable songs. I found myself wanting more, though, at times. The two guitar players would reach a really cool groove with harmonies, and instead of sticking with it, they'd either end the song or start singing. I think they could have gotten people going crazy if they just held on to those moments for a little longer.

The vocals were OK. I had a hard time hearing the backing vocals; I'm not sure if this was a Double Door problem or not. Listening to some of their recorded music, they have a lot of pretty cool vocal harmonies that I wish could have come through during their live performance.

I also would have liked to hear more keys. Aside from a few instances where the keyboard started off a song without anyone else playing, I barely noticed they had a keyboard player.

But overall, I liked the show. They reminded me of a raw version of Wilco. The songs were catchy and there were definitely some intense moments. I'll probably check out more of their recordings and possibly go see them live again.

Finally, Some New Shatty Logo(s)

Okay I finally put something together, nothing earthshattering but I think it's at least a start, I wanted to come up with a few more rough ideas before I posted anything but it's come to the point where I feel I have procrastinated long enough. I included a closeup of the domain name logo and an alternate logo, I guess. Like I said it may be a start and I'll keep on working. I editted the C in claptrapped I can change it some more but I think this is a little better.

I also wanted everybody's thoughts on a preliminary T for Lolla and various other fests this year. I've just incorporated the two logos onto a dark colored shirt, I'm looking for a catch phrase to put on top if anyone has suggestions, the one on the shirt is just a filler, or is it? Let me know what you think, and if you have any phrase ideas, like "it's not an STD" or "music opinions, for the love of music", as you can see those are no good so I need better suggestions. Sweet.

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