NEWS FLASH: GUINEA PIG RESOLVES TO BE AWESOME

Welcome to the new year!

Maybe you made some resolutions, maybe you didn't. Either way, you should RESOLVE to head out to a couple of this month's AWESOME concerts...

To kick things off, Harlem is gonna be playing at The Mohawk on the third for their free week thing. Sort of lo-fi tape deck goodness. All that. Gonna be nuts. It's free if you're over twenty one, but if you're under it'll cost you $5 (I know, right?). Check for pictures of this one later this month.

Austin's own What Made Milwaukee Famous will play Emo's on the fourth. Kind of sorry, but I'm gonna miss this one. Let me know how it is if you go, okay?

Then comes another killer local act, The Daze, at La Zona Rosa on the ninth. They'll be playing with The Knights and The Bubbles. GO TO THIS! SEE THE DAZE! Seriously. Do it.

(Do it.)

And OH MY GOD I LOVE BRETT DENNEN SO MUCH OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. Not really, but if you do you should go catch him at La Zona Rosa at the end of the month.

And January's gonna wrap up with two more goodies: Tapes 'n Tapes on the twenty ninth and Los Campesinos on the thirtieth, both at The Parish.



1/3/09 - The Riverboat Gamblers, Alright Tonight, Harlem, Car Stereo Wars @ The Mohawk, doors at eight
1/3/09 - What Made Milwaukee Famous, Oh No! Oh My!, The Pons, The Mercers, The Georgian Company @ Emo's, doors at eight
1/4/09 - The Always Ready, Haunting Oboe Music, Prayer for Animals, J. Be @ Emo's Indoor, doors at eight
1/9/09 - The Knights, The Daze, The Bubbles @ La Zona Rosa, doors at eight
1/16/09 - The Last Gasp Cd Release Party, The Mercers, Paul Banks @ Emo's indoor, doors at eight
1/23/09 - Brett Dennen and Erin McCarley @ La Zona Rosa, doors at eight
1/29/09 - Tapes N Tapes and Wild Light @ The Parish, doors at eight
1/30/09 - Los Campesinos and Titus Andronicus @ The Parish, doors at eight

Chad VanGaalen : Soft Airplane

Chad VanGaalen’s third album, Soft Airplane, is an excellent new release from Calgary label Flemish Eye and Seattle’s ever-awesome Sub Pop. It’s impressive, and not just speaking sound here, because it represents a singular effort, at the head of which is (you guessed it) Chad VanGaalen.

The mood of Soft Airplane’s thirteen songs cross the realm of organic atavism to decaying, cold technologies, due partially to the handmade instruments, tape deck and JVC speakers that he used to create the album. It’s worth noting that, according to legend, Chad has recorded hundreds of songs this way and that Infiniheart (his first album) is more or less a compilation of them, which explains its slightly schizophrenic nature.

That being said, VanGaalen’s Soft Airplane is a sonically cohesive album whose main theme is a fascination with death, a detail that is slightly less morbid than it is innocent and explorative (take, for example, the lyric “no one knows where we go / when we’re dead or when we’re dreaming” from Rabid Bits of Time).

Willow Tree, the first song on the album, begins with the unlikely pairing of banjo and accordion. In this song Chad sings “when I die / I’ll hang my head beside the willow tree / when I’m dead / is when I’ll be free”, setting the tone for the rest of the album.

The following track, Bones of Man, indicates a shift in the mood of the album as his raw vocals are paired with a churning guitar that’s heavy on the low end. Not content to leave his exploration of the significance of death on the personal level, Chad expands his questions to include the rest of mankind while managing to tastefully insert a xylophone into the keyboard solo for the sake of aural ambiance. He changes up some of the instrumentation on Phantom Anthills and Poisonous Heads, paving the way for more ambient and digitally driven songs like TMNT Mask and Old Man + The Sea.

It feels wrong to talk about this album without mentioning the artwork that accompanies it. In addition to writing and recording the album himself, VanGaalen finds the time to both illustrate the cover AND create animations for a few of the songs (which I highly recommend you check out on YouTube). His artistic talent reflects his approach to music, too, as he uses his insularity to create singular reproductions of the world around him.

This is pretty much what attracted me to his music in the first place, so it now seems fitting to wrap it up with a story I call “Mike Buying Soft Airplane”:

I was in Waterloo when I heard Poisonous Heads come on over the speakers. I don’t even know how to describe what it was I heard. It reminded me of mood music you might hear in the background at a coffee shop but not pay much attention to. The only difference was it was so strange that I had to find an employee and ask who it was. When I asked he got all excited and we agreed that we had never heard anything like it (except maybe Neil Young, but to just say “Hey, he sounds like Neil Young” seems like it would be a major oversight).

That’s pretty much what happened.

I realize my tale wasn’t that captivating but the main thing you should take away from it is this: Soft Airplane is literally the only album I’ve heard thirty seconds of, loved, bought immediately after, and been listening to ever since.

Andrew Bird is Pretty Awesome.

If you don't already have your ticket to Andrew Bird... well. That sucks for you, because we literally got the last five tickets to the Paramount. Crazy.

But if you need a reason to hunt Craigslist for Andrew Bird tickets, here it is.

His newest release, Noble Beast, comes out January twentieth.

Here Comes Christmasy Goodness...

A couple shows I neglected to inform you about happening next week:

12/11/08 - The Ting Tings w/ Black Kids, Eagles of Death Metal, Airborne Toxic Event, and Black and White Years @ Emo's outside, doors at eight (101X Independent Workforce X-Mas Show)
12/11/08 - Ringo Deathstarr, Low Line Caller, and Shapes Have Fangs @ Emo's inside, doors at eight (101X Homegrown Live)
12/12/08 - The Sounds and Black and White Years @ La Zona Rosa, show at eight

Also, a sweet vid for you to enjoy.

Deerhunter, Times New Viking, Nite Jewel, Bad Scanning.

Moses of Deerhunter

When Bradford Cox took the stage with Deerhunter, the concert turned into a trance of solid bass and drums surrounded by ambient music.

"I've never understood ambient music," said Cox, "I can't figure out if I play it, or if it plays me."

Josh Fauver

Deerhunter was a sound that could get in bed with both the lo-fi-keep-it-simple-ists and the psychadelian-ambient-adorned-rococo of the pedal endowed upper class.

Bradford Cox

They returned for an encore of two songs, after a short bathroom/feedback break, to the joy of fans and promoters of Rock Star Energy Drinks.

Adam Elliot of Times New Viking

Aerosol cans do to the o-zone layer what Times New Viking did to my ears.
In a good way.

Not a lot of people can do that.

They also blew the head off the guy in front of me.

Beth Murphy

They opened with Adam playing the drums standing up and Beth playing keys on top of Whitney from Deerhunter, who doubled for the keyboard stand.

Nite Jewel

Nite Jewel exorcised a surprisingly large amount of imagination from those machines.

Some Stuff from the Vault.

Man Man performing an encore (Van Helsing Boombox) at the Bluebird Theater in Denver, Colorado.

No way! It's cold outside!

Hey there, audiophiles and company! Welcome to the glorious month of December: a magical land where there isn't really that much school, you get to wear the 3 jackets and seven scarves you own that are presently collecting dust in your closet, and getting shit-housed with your grandmother is considered socially acceptable. It truly is a time for celebrating! And, if you so desire, you can put some of your Christmas cash towards getting tickets for Tapes 'n Tapes in January or Andrew Bird in February.

So, moving on, here are some upcoming concerts that I'm putting on my wishlist. If you feel like you want to buy me a ticket to one of them, please feel free to hit up my email.

Times New Viking and Deerhunter are opening for Nite Jewel.

Scratch, that. Reverse it. Nite Jewel is opening for TNV and Deerhunter. This one's going to be really weird. I want to go, not because I love their music (which is not to say that it's not good), but because I just want to see what the hell these guys do with a live show. Just listen to some of their music and you'll know what I mean. But beware: the distorted, crazy, cracked out audio quality of TNV's recordings can be a little caustic if you aren't prepared for it.

Umm...Crystal Method will be playing at some club. Don't know Crystal Method? Did you listen to music in the nineties? Ok, better question... Did you like music in the nineties? Cool... enough said.

White Ghost Shivers at Stubb's. One of the two bands from Austin I've always liked, but never ever seen live. They're pretty much like turning on a radio back when people listened to the radio... only they sing about ghosts and are kind of locally famous for a crazy Halloween party (another thing I've always wanted to go to).

Haunting Oboe Music is the second band from Austin I like but haven't seen. Their name pretty much gives you an idea of their weird factor. So in lieu of any half assed description of their style I'll just tell you a story. I used to go to this Starbuck's (lame I know) and some guy that worked there was in a band called Prom Nite (I actually really liked them... but haven't heard from them in a while) and HE played with HOM at some point and so then I checked out their myspace and blahblahblah....

Sorry about that... I've had too much caffeine. Lame? Ehhh.... I mean, I'm already blogging.

12/2 - Nite Jewel, Deerhunter and Times New Viking @ Emo's, doors at nine
12/5 - Crystal Method @ Spin Nightclub (formerly Sky Lounge), doors at nine
12/13 - White Ghost Shivers, Mice and Rifles, and The Georgian Company @ Stubb's, doors at nine
12/17 - Haunting Oboe Music, Peel, Wine and Revolution, and The Fever Dreams @ Emo's, doors at eight

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Other news:

The Daze have just about completed their album. I'll have some photos to put up of them in the studio soon (maybe).
My album is just about completed, too. Should come out sometime before the end of this month.
GNR's new album, Chinese Democracy, is a total fucking emberassment even after seventeen years of planning. Big surprise.
Some albums that are awesome and everyone should own: James Brown Live at the Appolo, Let It Be, Rubber Soul, The Black Angels' Directions To See A Ghost, and Skeletal Lamping.

And that's all I've got for you right now.

Peace.