FFEF Take 2 - Mutemath 'Odd Soul'

My main draw to Mutemath is the fact that they are so percussion driven and 'Odd Soul' stays true to that. They open the album with a raw, edgy, rock and roll sound(kind of their on take of the Black Keys), take a breather and relax in to something of a more laid back sound mixing in some vibraphone during 'Sun Ray.' Next they move into a Maroon 5ish sound with 'Allies,' using some distorted keytar, that's right they have a keytar. Mutemath makes another turn with 'Cavalries' and take us back to the seventies with some classic organ, seventies drum beats, heavy cow bell and bongos mixed throughout the song. The album settles in the 70s groove giving us funky bass lines, old school guitar riffs/solos, staccato piano, and spacey organ for the next few songs, but then the whole thing kinda fizzles out with the last three songs. This album is all over the map but it's still an okay listen.

http://music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds/spinner#/3

You might have to scroll back and fourth if the album moves up or down their rankings.

FFEF - Radiohead TKOL Remix

So if you're into dubstep and Radiohead this might be cool. The way I figure it is that these different remixers can't fuck the album up any worse than Radiohead did, but I don't want to speak too soon. It took me a couple of times to get the Play all to work, so you might have to refresh the page a couple of times. I might write a little more after I get farther than 30 seconds into listening. We shall see.

http://music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds/spinner#/1

You might also have to scroll back and forth at the top of the page to find the Radiohead album

I noticed the new Mute Math album was on the site as well. It could possibly be another solid album to check out considering they are playing workplay soon....only drawback is that they are playing the same night as Blind Pilot in different rooms. Mutemath is a definite 'must see live' band, but since I've seen them once I will personally be catching Blind Pilot.

UPDATE:

Okay there definitely is a way for these people to fuck up King of Limbs worse than Radiohead did. I couldn't make it halfway through the album. I'm currently sampling Mute Math's 'Odd Soul' and should have a review up later today.

Upcoming Concerts in Bham

Fleet Foxes - Oct 3 - Alabama Theater

G Love & special Sauce – Oct 7 – Workplay

Margot & the Nuclear So & Sos – Oct 12 – Bottletree

Pretty Lights, STS9, Big Gigantic - Oct 13 - Tusc Amp

Mutemath – Oct 20 - Workplay

Blind Pilot – Oct 20 – Workplay

Dead Confederate + Great Book of John – Oct 28 - Bottletree

Moon Taxi – Oct 29 – Workplay

Ra Ra Riot - Oct 30 - Bottletree

Perpetual Groove – Oct 31 - Workplay

Phantogram – Nov 12 - Workplay

moe - Nov 18 - Workplay

More New Music - Red Hot Chili Peppers

For those of you who didn't know, Red Hot Chili Peppers released a new album this week. I'm With You, the 10th studio album by the band, the first album since 2006's Stadium Arcadium, features yet another new guitarist replacing John Frusciante, who left the band in 2009, but trust me, this album is much better than the Dave Navarro, drug induced One Hot Minute.

The Chili Peppers keep with the familiar style of their more recent music, but with a noticeable new style in guitarist Josh Klinghoffer. The band even calls it out saying, "This is a new band, same name, but it's a new band."

The band credits the Rolling Stones as a big influence of the new material. I don't hear it really, but then again I don't listen to the Rolling Stones. The lengthy album (14 tracks) has gotten very favorable reviews, and I agree with most of them, though I might have chosen a different single to kick the album off with. But if you like the later works of RHCP, this album should fit nicely into your existing play lists.

You can stream the album right here, though I don't know how long it will be available. Let me know what you think.

NPR's First Listen: Blind Pilot 'We are the Tide'

The new album will be streaming now until it's release on September 13.

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/28/139912429/first-listen-blind-pilot-we-are-the-tide

They will be playing in Bham at Workplay on October 20. (And for you His Eminence, they will be playing in Mobile on Oct. 19 @ Soul Kitchen.)

The Great Book of John

Birmingham's The Great Book of John has released their second album. The self titled record can be streamed http://music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds/spinner#/20. The band carries 3 members from Wild Sweet Orange, and while this band is more laid back, folk rock you can still hear that pop that made WSO so famous. Frontman Taylor Hollingsworth sounds a lot like George Harrison in the way he scoops and dives his notes, almost like he's singing with a steel guitar effect. It's refreshingly different from most of whats going on out there right now. I might add some more after I've heard the whole album a couple of times.

Free Friday Ear Food - Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears

Black Joe Lewis has to be one of the more hilarious and entertaining musicians I have come across in quite some time, by way of a co-worker no less. The proof:



And my favorite song of theirs, my first introduction to the band, Bitch, I Love You!



Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears just released their 2nd full length album, Scandalous, since forming back in 2007. They are streaming their entire discography in full over at their website www.blackjoelewis.com. Click on Launch Jukebox. I must warn you though, it has crashed on me a few times. I think it has something to do with pausing the music for too long??? I don't know, it works most of the time and my computer is fine. I'm just saying, if you wake up with a Trojan Horse in your ass, don't blame me.

Free Friday Ear Food - Bon Iver

Usually when I hear that an artist is a singer/song writer I don’t get too excited, but there are some exceptions out there, Pete Yorn, Ray Lamontagne, Jacob Dylan, & Ingrid Michaelson all of which I have gone to see because their albums are usually pretty solid. However, none of these artists have ever put an album out that really just blew me away.

Bon Iver self titled his newest album and it will probably define him as an artist for the rest of his life. I’ve sampled him in the past, but I have been totally absorbed in his newest album for the past couple of days thanks to NPR’s First Listen (Everyone should really keep a close eye on this segment of NPR’s website, they are putting out a lot of good stuff).

This album is very delicate and is definitely one of those albums that is great for a rainy day. A lot of finesse going on, the percussion is the perfect amount of seasoning throughout the album and all kinds of extra sounds going on in the background that makes this album rich and constantly flowing and changing from start to finish. You must listen to this album from start to finish.

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/09/136855313/first-listen-bon-iver-bon-iver?ps=rs#playlist

Click on the “Hear ‘Bon Iver’ In Its Entirety” link

On a side note there are not too many albums that I love from start to finish. The few I can think of are

Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd

OK Computer – Radiohead

Astral Weeks – Van Morrison

Graceland – Paul Simon

And now Bon Iver – Bon Iver

Let me know what albums you enjoy from start to finish.

My Morning Jacket to Play Tuscaloosa!!!

My Morning Jacket will play the new Tuscaloosa Amphitheater on August 19th as a benefit show for Tornado relief. Announced on the website http://www.mymorningjacket.com/gogo/ I'm definitely going to this show, I just hope they don't sell tickets to students first and push all of the ordinary people to the back like they did with Avette Brothers.

Either way its gonna be a great show and tickets go on sale next Friday.

My Morning Jacket is a must see concert and I hope everyone can make it out. Neko Case, and Phosphorescent will also play the event. Neko Case is a singer song writer style that is a little overproduced, with a little country twang...nothing to write home about. Her music can be found here http://www.myspace.com/nekocase.

Phosphorescent is also a country twang singer song writer, the song "Reasons to Quit" reminds me of something the Phloid would sit around and listen to. His music can be found here http://www.myspace.com/phosphorescent, but I wouldn't spend too much time on either one of their websites and I think I'll be getting to this concert a little late. Anywho I'm stoked about MMJ.

Free Friday Ear Food - Little People

From the website, littlepeoplemusic.com:

Hello.
I am little people.
I make downtempo electronic music.
It's part beats, bleeps and snippets of other people's music.

EDIT: Removed stupid player. Go here if ya wanna listen: http://www.littlepeoplemusic.com/free-music

Summer Concert Series

This is the first time this summer that I don't currently have tickets to a future concert. So I started searching to find some tickets for one. I also figured I could ask for help on finding some good concerts. All I have found so far is that on

6-14 Phish in Atlanta (Tues)

6-15 Phish in Atlanta (Wed)

7-1 Florence and the Machine in Atlanta (Fri)

7-30 311 in Atlanta (Sat)

8-19 My Morning Jacket in Tuscaloosa (Fri)

8-20 Steely Dan is playing in Tuscaloosa (Sat)

8-20 Ben Folds is at the Alys Stephens Center (sp?) (Sat)

8-20 My Mourning Jacket is at Verizon in Atlanta. (Sat)

9-13 TV on the Radio at Tabernacle in ATL (Tues)

10-13 Pretty Lights @ Tuscaloosa (Thurs)

Any other Concerts out there?

On another note a few things to do this weekend are

The Brewfest http://magiccitybrewfest.com/

And The Good Doctor is playing at Marty's on Friday night http://www.myspace.com/thegooddoctormusic

Hangout Review

The Hangout was pretty solid, but I just don't think I'm cut out for festivals anymore.

I want to get all the negatives out of the way and then talk about the positive aspects of the fest.

1. It was hot.

2. There were almost 3 times as many people at this years festival as there was last year and they didn't expand the area enough.

3. The beach is too narrow to have a headliner play and for people to actually be able to move about. Instead of going out around when you had to go to the bathroom, you had to barrel straight back and try to get back to your spot afterwards. It was a constant battle of "lets try to get closer...okay looks like this is as close as we are gonna get, now lets guard our turf.

4. The were not enough cellphone towers to handle that amount of people, which made it really hard to meet up with people.

5. They didn't have enough headliner matchups to spread people out. At a good festival you are just going to have to miss some bands, but when it came to the later shows, there were never any solid matchups to spread the crowd out.

Positives.

1. The bus system. They had charter buses running at all times and it was only $20 to ride all weekend. We only road the buses twice, because we had rides, but I never had to drive to the festival and it was nice to not have to worry about driving.

2. The fact that you were on the beach really was awesome. Every single band I saw commented during their set on how awesome it was to play at the beach. The later shows with the cool breeze coming off the water was pretty solid.

3. The music was pretty solid. My favorites were
My Morning Jacket - Definitely want to see them again, but they are coming the same day Ben Folds is going to be in town and I already have Ben Folds Tix.

Flaming Lips - Brought their A game, like they always do.

Foo Fighters - Rocked everyones faces

Black Keys - they did their thing and it was pretty sweet but I was busy guarding my territory and I didn't know too many of their songs.

Unfortunately Paul Simon really took a digger at this festival. Not only did he fail to play "Graceland" in its entirety, but he also forgot backup singers. Simon was set up to play a finesse/singer songwriter show, but we needed him to crank it up to eleven and bring the wind pipes. Simon is old, and so is his voice. Once he was on stage he realized that he was going to have to sing louder, and he definitely cracked a good bit. On top of that he only played one song I knew in the first 7 songs and I my ride wanted to leave so I really couldn't talk him into staying longer.

I really wanted to see Pretty Lights and Girl Talk but I missed both shows because they played "The Boom Boom Room" which was basically a tent with the sides closed in so it gave you the club atmosphere once you were in there, but it did not have AC like the club does. This 100 yrd by 50 yrd tent was overflowing with smelly hippies and I just couldn't bring myself to trying to get in there.

Other positives where that I never had to wait too long on a beer.

THE MEGADROP - 130 ft straight up and then 0-65-0 in 5 seconds and it was only $5

The cops really didn't mess with too many people until the last night that I saw.

It was overall a really cool experience and it was great to see so many of my friends that I don't get to see on a usual basis.

more music for your ear hole

New beastie boys album is molten lava. Stream for free cha: soundcloud.com/beastieboys right heyuh.

 Latest tracks by Beastie Boys

slap ya mamma good music

The Brothers of Chico Dusty (Big Boi vs. The Black Keys) by Wick-it the Instigator

Phantogram

Phantogram is described as an "electronic rock duo" but that really isn't fair. The electronic element is certainly prevalent in their music but they make excellent use of all types of instruments. Keyboardist Sarah Barthel and guitarist Josh Carter, both of Sarasota Springs, New York make beats and split vocal duties equally and the result is a very unique sound. It is hard to describe what they sound like but for some reason I am reminded of TV on the Radio and Postal Service.

Actually, the comparison to Postal Service might be lazy since it is mainly based on both groups being an electronic duo. But I think Phantogram has better musicality and the vocals definitely aren't as whiny.

Here is their only album, Eyelid Movies, on Groove Shark, and here is a live performance of their song "You Are The Ocean." Start this one at the 0:45 mark.

Lastly, here is what is probably their most popular song right now, "Mouthful of Diamonds."

By the way, I first heard of them by watching this live performance of Cosmic Love by Florence + the Machine and Mouthful of Diamonds was on the right margin.

Enjoy.

UPDATE: Embedding now available thanks to Mr. Orange.

Free Friday Ear Food (Thursday Edition) - My King of Limbs

With the release of two new Radiohead tracks for Record Store Day (Supercollier and The Butcher), I felt that I should do something to recognize them. And seeing as how so many folks were upset with the length (and over all quality) of recent album The King of Limbs (see Hitler below) I decided to beef the album up a bit with new songs, including two other singles released between In Rainbows and King of Limbs.

I spent the better part of 3 hours listening and rearranging the track list (though not messing with the original list, just squeezing in the 4 new songs), and what came out was a 12 track, 1 hour album that I really believe enhances the listening experience of the entire album. For example, listening to Feral when the album was only 37 minutes long was rather annoying in my opinion, and added nothing to the experience, but when played as part of longer album it becomes more bearable, somewhat like Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors, though ultimately it would be skipped my most casual listeners anyway.

Another thing that was hard to pick up on was the transition of the original album. The first half was more up beat and electronic where the last half seemed very toned down and calm. The new songs I think help make this more noticeable, as you have more time to get into the 'feel' of the album.

Finally, the closing track on my edition is the only song that I think sounds forced, and honestly it is. It doesn't really fit the sound of the album. From the Kid A / Amnesiac albums I absolutely loved the closing tracks, and I felt Harry Patch would have been a great album closer, and it fits the overall calmness of the second half of the album, but there just wasn't a good transition into it.

In the end, I think have proved that had Radiohead put at least two or three more songs into the album, the overall listening experience would increase tenfold. Or they could have just said 'Hey guys, here's a new 8-track EP' and I think people would have liked it better. The expectations were just to high. Maybe next time.

Enjoy!


P.S. Doing this gave me a great idea for Radiohead's next album. If you remember there was a concert that they played were they had several cameras set up, and allowed online viewers to watch the concert and control which cameras to watch from and record their own personal concert. I think it would be pretty cool if they released a bunch tracks (and Stanley Donwood artwork?) and said go make your own album. Maybe make a contest of it. If only  I were Thom Yorke.

Fight For Your Right: Revisited

I have no idea what is going on here...but I like it.

Radiohead Playing in Birmingham

No, not Birmingham, UK, the HAM, the Magic City, B'ham, Alabama!

Over at Dead Air Space, Radiohead released their summer US tour dates earlier this week, and they are playing at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater! HOLY SHIAT! I'm excited I don't have to drive to Hotlanta to see them this time around. Tickets go on sale April 15th.

Blast From the Past

HDL, Get Ready to @#$% Yourself