Along with the release of their sophomore album, ‘La La Land’, Plants and Animals will be broadcasting a live performance from Toronto’s, Horseshoe Tavern (I think it’s a free gig). Dose.ca will be streaming video of the show via LiveStream tonight…the set time is 10:40 p.m. EST.
You can also stream the album, ‘La La Land’, in its entirety over at Secret City Records.
This past weekend I had the pleasure of checking out Sunbears! at one of my favorite locations in Tampa, New World Brewery. The Sunbears! rolled through town from Jacksonville for their vinyl release party. The vinyl is actually a split four track record with MRENC.
I became a fan of Sunbears’ sugar topped tunes by way of their most recent EP, ‘Dream Happy Dreams’, and figured the show would be a breezy affair, which it was. The duo’s sense of humor was the first thing I noticed as the projector screen behind them spiraled out large images of their heads. For the majority of their set Jonathan sat behind his keys singing (at times picking up a guitar) while Jared banged away on his drums, but the show was definitely not stagnant. It took me a few songs to notice that their music was in sync with the video clips behind them, but once I realized this, I couldn’t look away. It was pretty cool, and something I had never seen before.
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As far as the setlist goes, the duo played most of their Dreams EP and I believe a couple songs from their debut EP, ‘For Everyone.’ They also played a cover of New Order’s, “Thieves Like Us”, although the guy in front of me was chanting for an MJ cover. To be quite honest, I was surprised at how good they sounded…I saw a few live videos floating around the internet prior to the show that did not do them justice. It was a fun, colorful show and I look forward to seeing Sunbears! again.
After the show I had the opportunity to chat with the friendly bears! and ask them a few questions.
I noticed that your new 7″ was released via New Granada Records, does this mean you’re signed with a label now?
Keith, who is the president of New Granada Records, approached us about doing this split 7″ with MRENC (Eric, who is a good friend of ours) and we thought, awesome, let’s do it. But no, we are not signed to a label.
Both of your EPs were independently produced, so do you prefer the DIY method or would you be open to a label?
So far it’s been working, but if bigger and better opportunities come along we would certainly be interested…but we can’t complain about how things have been going so far. The cool thing about what we’ve been doing is that none of it feels bigger than what we can handle.
Yeah, the production quality on the EPs, especially Dream Happy Dreams isn’t too shabby.
We had a friend help us out with it. He believes in our music so he took it, mixed it, and made it sound pretty sweet. But we recorded the majority of it ourselves, probably 90%. We recorded most of it in Jacksonville and some in California (vocals) and Atlanta (drums).
Have you played at any festivals ( or showcases) like SXSW or Austin City Limits?
We haven’t yet but hopefully next year we can get on that bandwagon. Maybe we procrastinated a bit (smirking), and didn’t make the deadline, but it’s a lot of work to make that happen, with two guys. But next year.
Do you have any plans for a full-length?
We have aspirations, yes (laugh). We’re trying to write songs and get everything set up at home. Our soft goal is to have it done by the end of the year.
Oh, and as for their ability to play music in sync with the projections behind them, they use a metronome.
Drive-By-Truckers’ eighth full-length album, ‘The Big To Do’, is out today via ATO. The band has also made the track, “Birthday Boy”, available as a free download. “Birthday Boy”, which should be a huge hit in Vegas, is about a hooker/call girl, “workin for the money like ya got eight hands, flat on your back under a mean old man.”
Take A Listen: Birthday Boy from DBT
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Download: Birthday Boy (Right click on link and select “Save Target As” in IE or “Save Link As” in Firefox)
Drive-By-Truckers: Website
More details regarding Band Of Horses‘ forthcoming album, ‘Infinite Arms’, have surfaced, along with some tour dates. It seems as if Band Of Horses will be releasing their third album via Brown Records/Fat Possum/Columbia on May 18th. Yeah, no more Sub Pop for BOH, weird.
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03-15 Boulder, CO – Fox Theater |
4-28 Miami, FL – The Fillmore 4-29 Orlando, FL – House of Blues 5-01 New Orleans, LA – Jazzfest 5-02 Memphis, TN – Beale Street Music Festival 5-03 Kansas City, MO – Sprint Center 5-04 St. Louis, MO – Scottrade Center 5-06 Columbus, OH – Nationwide Arena 5-07 Noblesville, IN – Verizon Wireless Music Center 5-09 Cleveland, OH – Quicken Loans Arena 5-10 Buffalo, NY – HSBC Arena 5-13 Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live 5-15 Hartford, CT – XL Center 5-17 Boston, MA – TD Garden 5-21 New York, NY – Madison Square Garden 5-30 Bend, OR – Les Schwab Amphitheater 5-31 George, WA – Sasquatch |
Apparently competitive eaters, like Kobayashi, eat small amounts of food prior to their huge pig-out session in order to stretch their stomach muscles. It’s no secret that SXSW is right around the corner, but did you know about the two festivals taking place this coming weekend (start tomorrow)?
There is the second annual fundraiser, ‘Harvest of Hope Foundation Music and Arts Festival’, which takes place on March 12-14th and located at the St. Johns County Fairgrounds in St. Augustine, Florida. The line-up includes bands such as: Freelance Whales, Bear in Heaven, Dr. Dog, Broken Social Scene, The Mountain Goats, Rogue Wave, Anti-Flag, Sea Wolf, Delta Spirit, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Dead Confederate, A Wilhelm Scream, Portugal. the Man…and more. Check out the lineup here.
Than there is ‘Foburg’, the music festival organized by The New Orleans Indie Rock Collective that takes place on March 12-14th at Frenchmen St in New Orleans. The line-up includes bands such as: Caddywhompus, My Name Is John Michael, Sun Hotel, The Pharmacy, The Bears of Blue River, The Blue Party, Silent Cinema, Brass Bed…and more. Check out the lineup here.
So if you’re heading to SXSW maybe you can stretch your belly with one of these festivals, and if you’re not descending upon the city of Austin on the 17th, perhaps you can fulfill your appetite with either Foburg or Harvest of Hope.
As previously mentioned, today is cholk-full of quality album releases, all of which I cannot wait to become better acquainted with. However, I won’t play coy, I am harboring feelings of favoritism towards one album in particular….’The Winter Of Mixed Drinks’ by Frightened Rabbit.
I’m so happy that Pitchfork posted all of these links in one place, I mean someone had to. With new music coming out from Broken Bells, The Besnard Lakes, Titus Andronicus and The Morning Benders (to name a few), next week’s ‘New Release Tuesday’ is going to be a doozy!
- Broken Bells: Broken Bells
- Gorillaz: Plastic Beach
- Titus Andronicus: The Monitor
- Liars: Sisterworld
- Frightened Rabbit: The Winter of Mixed Drinks
- Free Energy: Stuck on Nothing
- The Morning Benders: Big Echo
- The Besnard Lakes: The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night
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