The BS on 3/5 Will Melt Your Face

Yeah, just FYI I'm working on a sweet playlist because I've got the week off.

Expect to hear from Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, The Knife, and Darwin Deez.

Listen to it here, and I'll talk to you then!

Gorillaz Related

New Gorillaz track "Superfast Jellyfish."

Their new album, Plastic Beach, comes out 3/9 and a mostly lyric-less leak of it is circulating the internets.

Two Big Deals and One Little Deal

Hold on to your butts because the Gorillaz will play Coachella this April.
They also just released a single, Stylo, and announced the release date for their new album, Plastic Beach. Sweet.

Honus Honus of Man Man and that guy (Nick Thorburn) from Islands and The Unicorns start new porject known as Mister Heavenly.

Last thing: I'm on the air Friday!

The Get Well Soon EP

Pick up a copy of my new EP by clicking here!

It's pretty awesome, I must say. There's a lot of songs that people haven't heard before as well as a lot of songs that I'm pretty proud of.

Chris Ritchie plays guitar and mandolin. Aaron has some recording credits on one of the songs. I'll be more specific about this when I update the CD Baby website.

Support your local music scene! ;)

Breakfast Special

I'm making my playlist for tomorrow's show. Getting pumped!

If you're up between the hours of 6 and 9 tomorrow morning (Pacific Time) then click here to listen in.

Other stuff:
- Beach House @ Neumo's on 4/12
- Spoon and Deerhunter touring together. Whaaat?
- Billy Talent's newest album, III, is not that great. They came as close to selling out as they could while still being Billy Talent. You can tell the guys have been singing/yelling pretty hard, too.
- Olympia is raining too much.


Here's a thing from the interwebz.

Breakfast Special

As you may already know, GPM is in a bit of a transitional phase. Not unlike yourself when you were exploring your body for the first time. It's messy and embarassing-- but you know what? It's just part of life.

More to the point: My first show as an official operator (DJ) for KAOS is tomorrow morning from 6-9 AM. You can listen to it here.

Hi, How Are Ya?

Alright, alright, it's the new year, I get it, I get it. Shut up.

Yeah, also: it's been a while, huh? Shut up.

Now that all that is out of the way, let me explain something. GPM is no longer a one city site. In fact I'd say it's loosely affiliated with three: Austin, Olympia, and Seattle. I'll put up what I can when I can, which is pretty much the bloggers' creed anyway.

Let's talk concerts:

Seattle
1/22 - Fruit Bats @ The Vera Project
1/24 - White Denim, Brazos @ Neumo's
2/4 - St. Vincent, Wildbirds and Peacedrums, Fences @ Neumo's
2/13 - Vivian Girls, Best Coast @ High Dive
2/23 - Four Tet @ Chop Suey

Austin
2/6 - Dirty Dozen Brass Band @ Stubb's
2/13 - RJD2 @ Emo's
2/20 - Four Tet @ The Mohawk
4/10 - Vampire Weekend @ Stubb's

Vancouver
2/13 - Wilco @ David Lam Park <--- FREE SHOW!!!

And finally... Check out this sweet picture from The Daze's show at Ruta Maya

The Daze on Morning TV

The Daze have been pushin' hard to support their latest release, Straight Jacket Hymns, which is currently in the top three of Waterloo Records' sales. It's true!

Come see them at their CD release party this Thursday at Antone's!

Also, check out this sweet performance of theirs on morning TV. Look at those dimples!

* Mention this post and I'll buy you a drink at the show.

Austin's Music and How Bobby Bones is Ruining it for Everyone

A couple of days ago the group whose street team I manage (The Daze) got what we thought would be a great opportunity: an interview on morning radio and a chance to play live. Unfortunately, they got booked with Bobby Bones, a local radio diva. He cut up their interview, badmouthed them and refused to put the interview up on his podcast.

I was genuinely upset that a DJ would do that sort of thing. After all, DJ's are there to support and promote music aren't they? That's why they're called DJ's (disc jockeys).

To give you some perspective, let me list some of their qualifications: The Daze have been playing together for several years in Austin, recorded their new album with Rick Del Castillo and Wayne Ceballos (of Austin's Del Castillo and formerly of Bay Area psych oufit, Aum), played at reputable venues (Antone's, Stubb's, the Continental,the Carousel Lounge and Emo's to name a few) with bands like Del Castillo, The Steps, and The Ugly Beats, played several house parties as well as free shows on the South Lamar pedestrian bridge with other young Austin bands (Blues Mafia, Joker, Willy & the Surroundings, etc.) and have an in-store show coming up at Waterloo Records on the 11th as well as a CD release party at Antone's on the twenty-seventh.
If anything, they are the quintessential talented young band in a whole network of young and talented bands poised to be the next generation of Austin's live music.

In short: they worked extremely hard to get to where they are now only to have a mediocre dj slap them in the face because they're "too young."

In my opinion, he's jealous of the success that these three enjoy because they're being genuine and not putting up a celebrity front. People like Bobby Bones should be scared. We're here. We're young, use vintage gear, write blogs and shoot 35mm. We're the next generation of the music industry and our independent bloggers, concert photog's, and home recording engineers are leveling the playing feild and putting big industry and big labels out of business.

Why? Because we're not out here for the money, we came to hear the sound.

Austin gets a lot of hype as a live music city and an incubator for new and innovative music, but when dj's like Bobby Bones start discouraging the efforts of younger local bands it becomes exactly that: a bunch of hype.

- MF

Heath Ledger & Modest Mouse

The new MM music video came out today. Heath Ledger directed it before he died in 2008.

It's pretty intense, as you can imagine.

Check it out.

Camera Obscura's My Maudlin Career

When I think of Scotland I think of rain over grassy hills. Red haired lunatics toasting with flagons of ale and a youngish barmaid reciting Robert Burns. A good time spent indoors, maybe, but nothing quite like the grand-charming string-pop on Camera Obscura's My Maudlin Career.

The LP version benefits from the cover artwork (attributed to Julie Annis) being gigantic and beautiful, as well as permission to go on about my new vinyl. Just thought I'd mention that.

The opening track, "French Navy", is extremely catchy and uplifting. Singer Tracyanne Campbell weaves in a quick tale about love-- a theme continued in the rest of the album. Lyrics like "relationships were something I used to do / convince me they are better for me and you" keep it from being too tacky, even if the subject of love is a little hackneyed.

One of my favorite comments on the record is on "Swans": you want to be a writer / fantastic idea. Campbell keeps the love fresh with a nice dose of cynicism. In truth, half the time I'm wondering whether or not she's actually serious.

"Other Towns & Cities" features Campbell at her best, a sense of control and decisiveness not found in the other tracks. In an album of love songs the lyrics strike an ominous tone-- a relative minor to mostly major tunes ("you mean nothing to me tonight). Maybe I'm just a pessimist, but I like this the best.

Tough luck if you're stateside. Camera Obscura has a slew of Euro gigs coming up soon, however. Get a good look at them here.

Not that it all has to be about bottom lines, by the way-- and I believe that music is something that will always evade the objective red and green-- I'll probably be trading this LP in for another Zombies record, pretty watercolors or not. Ha! There I go again...

Spoon's Got Nuffin EP - (100% Troof)

Spoon's new EP, Got Nuffin, came out just in time to spark some interest for the three days they've got booked at Stubb's this week. Oh yeah, they're only the last three Spoon shows of this decade...

I'd say that Got Nuffin reveals just enough to make me think that Britt Daniel and Jim Eno may have recovered some of the spunk they lost since before 2007's release of the (slightly) bloated Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.

The EP's namesake (Got Nuffin) is all about the metronome-esque rhythm section and poppy melodies, much like the Spoon we all know and love. Daniel's voice still has that same arresting quality, though it seems as if he's reaching for it more this time around. Stroke Their Brains is a pretty cool track, too, but what really gets me is Tweakers.

Actually, it's a track you can overlook pretty easily. That is until you find the secret take that features Britt Daniel freestyling... it's true check it out (something about Godzilla?).

All this EP nonesense aside, I'd really like to secure me a ticket to go see Spoon with Black Joe Lewis and the Honey Bears on Thursday night...