Unsubstantiated Ramblings: May 18th, 2009

-Sunshower Orphans have rereleased their first EP, Thing We're Supposed To Forget, as a free download. You can get it HERE. It's a bit different from their more recent output but still pretty solid stuff.

-The new Sonic Youth album, The Eternal, is pretty good. It took me a while to get to it but I'm glad I did.

-I saw The Soloist last night. I was told it was awful. I thought it was okay. I wasn't feeling all the long classical music over birds flying or random colors scenes though.

-I saw Japanther on Saturday. They played for an hour and a half. I'm pretty sure I heard "Not A War" about three times. But I did get to hear a bunch of songs for the first time and THEY COVERED MY FAVORITE RAMONES SONG!

Local Bands To Love: The Touch Yourselves

I saw the Touch Yourselves last week in a kitchen in New Paltz. Their set was illuminated by an open microwave and camera flashes. Maniac drumming, catchy guitar hooks and Johnny Cash covers make them a lot like a Lightning Bolt with discernible lyrics. It is easy to see the Zach Hill/Brian Chippendale influence on drummer Devin Brown but it's nice to see that put together with something less abrasive than huge walls of noise. Devin's brother Chris can shred. 'Nuff said.

mpFREEs
The Touch Yourselves - "We Are The Bees"
The Touch Yourselves - "(Burning) Ring of Fire"

Local Bands To Love: Sunshower Orphans

In the interest of full disclosure, Sunshower Orphans are my friends. Mike and I were in an awful band in high school that he was smart enough to get out of. Then at some point after the demise of the first incarnation of the Sunshower Orphans, he decided to quit music forever and sold all of his equipment which was a damn shame because they were responsible for one of my favorite songs of all time, "Polly Ana."

Anyway, Sunshower Orphans is back in all their 90s slacker, shoegaze-y glory (although still rounding out the live lineup) and Holiday Records is releasing a FREE digital single featuring two fantastic tracks, "Lies in Sepia" and "Manic Flaneur." Two masterpiece pop songs. Seriously. Just as good if not better than the EP they released last year.

Sunshower Orphans and Holiday Records. Doing good things.

mpFREEs
Sunshower Orphans - Lies in Sepia Digital Single
Sunshower Orphans - "Polly Ana"

Local Bands To Love: Sharks Roar

Keys to making me like a band:
1. Write good songs.
2. Don't sing. Yell.
3. Lots of electric guitar.



Sharks Roar fulfills all three. They are a punk power trio in the vein of Jawbreaker with a little Modest Mouse thrown in for good measure. They only have a bunch of demos on their MySpace right now but honestly the quality of the songs FAR exceeds the quality of the recordings. The lyrics of "Yellow Piracy" ooze with the bark of a bittersweet lover: "I'd be happiest taking everything down with the ship. I'd be happiest taking everything down." and the music is loud and fast. My favorite is "Books" but that's just because I think that "Write a book about it!" is a great refrain. They should have their album finished and out sometime this summer. Stop listening to me. Start listening to them.

mpFREEs
Sharks Roar - "Books (Demo)"
Sharks Roar - "Yellow Piracy (Demo)"

Alien Lanes

We finished our own lives. Now we finished off the wine. Now we're used to staying up all night. Two hearts beating OH YEAH! OH YEAH! Japandroid's "Young Hearts Spark Fire"

It's almost raining today.

My little brother's school was the one that had the Swine Flu outbreak. I think the whole Swine Flu thing is a bit silly. Diseases are dangerous but this one is dangerous to Mexico and babies only. If you start feeling sick, go to the doctor. This super flu is treatable. Everyone stop freaking out.

The semester is winding down. Ghost Mall has been going pretty well. We have our seventh show tomorrow. We still have only 4 songs but hopefully that'll change soon. I guess 7 shows isn't that big a deal either but considering Hidden Power had only 8 in 6 months, 7 in 1 is pretty good. The plan is to write a few more, record them and shop them around to a couple of labels. Maybe put out a 7"

Oh check out this band, Sharks Roar. Killer dudes. Killer tunes. Like a more melodic, less abrasive Jawbreaker.

My external hard drive decided to delete all of my Pavement. Bummer.

Summer is almost upon us. So time to break out the summer records. Here's a list of favorite summer records of mine.

Desaparecidos - "Read Music/ Speak Spanish"
Japandroids - "Post-Nothing"
Guided By Voices - "Alien Lanes"
Japanther - "Skuffed Up My Huffy"
Pavement - "Slanted and Enchanted"
UGK - Any and everything.

That's the short list. I'm really digging that Japandroids record and Guided By Voices lately.

Just about time for band practice. Playing with Terror Pigeon tomorrow!

What are you doing?