calls for some great acoustic music doesn’t it? tomorrow night it’s supposed to rain/snow just in time for the great lake swimmers to play at the rathskeller. if you’re a fan of iron and wine, jose gonzalez, or horse feathers you should bundle up and head to the union. the show starts at 9:30 and it’s fo’ free (unforgivable #1 anybody?). here’s a video of “still”, a song off of their most recent album lost channels.
rock on folks,
margaret kaye
To be honest this song is just perfect.
Mocky (myspace)
Mocky w/ GZA – Birds of a Feather (Remix) (mp3)
Hope this makes the cold weather more bearable.
- matt forrest
sian alice group with jeremy messersmith and we all have hooks for hands at memorial union at 8:30. both groups are definitely worth checking out. sian alice group just released an album in august (troubled, shaken, etc.). below is a video of a song off of their 2008 album 59.59. it was filmed in dallas after sxsw in 2008.
we all have hooks for hands, a folk pop band out of south dakota, has a new album coming out this month. the shape of energy is set to be released october 23rd. this video is a live performance of the man trying to outfox us all.
plan on checking out the show? i definitely am.
rock on folks,
margaretkaye
So where have we come from several months ago when the Madison Hype Initiative was born? Where has the hype gone? What have we achieved?
Well there have been things. More gutter basement messes with the arrival of the Ghetto Division in Madison for the FMF ’09 secret afterparty scene. Oh and don’t worry, there will be more to come from them next weekend. We may have even spawned our own movement to keep the shit hype…if you know what I’m talking about.
We had some good times this summer too. Part III of Dan Deacon came through to beat the terrace up for a little while. More and more indie music seems to dominate the scene and the now infamous Matt and Kim hit the scene…since they are a big deal now. Church.
Our friends Nigel and M$M came through once again and even LA Riots made the trip to our borough in southern WI.
From La Ville Apartments to Bangerville.
From Asian Kitchen to Wongz Wok.
Moves have been made. Things have been done. More is to be done though. Let’s see your hype. We will bring it. And bring it hard next week. You do your part in the meantime.
church,
WUD Music
-matt forrest
I had the pleasure of seeing Women at SXSW this year at the Ground Control Party in an Urban Outfitters parking lot near the University of Texas campus. They were one of my must-see bands and I was highly anticipating their performance. We stumbled out of bed a little bleary-eyed and a little late and didn’t think we were going to make it for the beginning of their set, but luckily everyone else in Austin was in the same boat as us as Women took the stage 45 minutes late. Upon the first discordant noise from stage and the slam of a drum, the whole crowd moved forward, showcasing something a Madison crowd could aspire to. Many journalists and tastemakers have compared them to The Velvet Underground and I can see that a bit more after their live performance, although it is still a stretch. Most of the set was marked by transitions and contrasts from jangly guitar rock to noisy post-punk. The Terrace performance this Friday should be no different before they meet up with Tortoi
se in Milwaukee the next night. All in all, Women provided a great SXSW memory and hopefully will leave Madison with a pleasant taste in its mouth to cap off our spring schedule.
- Patrick Tilley
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one of the bands that i saw at SXSW with pat and truby of whom i actually enjoyed. their show is pretty apathetic, not some much as others i have seen, but their drummer keeps it pretty lively. my personal favorite was when he threw a tambourine on the snare and played that and made it sound good for about a full minute (which i think i referenced in my post from SXSW on this band). not a bad way to end the semester with a pretty relaxing band where you can stand and sway to the music in front of the stage without moving your feet. ahaaaaaa. can you tell i go to rap and djay shows? here is my favorite song of theirs none the less.
meet me after the show. i’ll be doing the westside percolator. maybe patrick will too.
- matt forrest
Im back, and this time it’s for good. I have recently been granted Leadership over the Blog for the upcoming academic year. Hurray! So strap on your party hats guys….
Ok, enough about me. Down to business. Let’s recap the super successful show I covered on Friday.
Seriously though, I’m speaking to the handful of you who actually recall the events of the past weekend, I know Saturday is still a bit blurry for the better part of Madison, but Elvis Perkins in Dearland and opener Other Lives played an awesome show at Der Rath Friday night. The show was pretty packed. Lots of familiar faces singing along. Unfortunately my camera has been on the fritz as of late so I do not have much to offer in terms of visuals, but I will say this….Elvis’s wardrobe was a spectacle in itself. A few socially curious members of Other Lives even graced us with their presence at a fellow Committee Member’s party later that evening.
I cannot speak for the condition of your livers (or kidneys) post Mifflin festivities, but over all I’d say this weekend was a success.
SO to retiring Committee Director Patrick Tilley for surviving his 21st birthday.
Good luck with finals everyone, don’t get that Swine germ.
‘til September:
-S. Mintz
I want to sound cool and say that Blank Dogs performance at the Good Style Shop on East Washington yesterday was some what of a secret show…but it was publicized via the Good Style Shop’s Myspace. I saw a bulletin from the Good Style Shop late Tuesday night, reaffirming why I still have a Myspace account (my name is “For the Workforce, Drowning“). I put out a call to the Music Committee and newly selected Summer Coordinator Ryan “Beligeront” Vergeront heeded it. We ventured from the Union at 5:30pm down to the Good Style Shop. When we showed up the band was just setting up and no one was around yet. When things finally got going at 6:30pm, the alts and punks hanging on the street corner sneaking swigs of Pabst crammed into the very tiny vintage clothing store for the Blank Dogs mid-evening set. From the first few chords and grumbles into the reverb-soaked mic I knew the performance would be anti-climactic. Ryan remarked to me as we walked away from the shop about a song and a half in that he was skeptical of too many indie bands washing their vocals in reverb. It’s a valid remark. I think it comes down to how well it is used. Many Slumberland recording artists use it to their advantage. Some bands abuse it to make up for their lack of singing ability. I know I would too. Don’t write them off too soon as Blank Dogs are at least worth a cursory listen. Maybe a fitting soundtrack to a drunken binge or an overdose (not that I’d reccommend it).
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Teenage Cool Kids: Kind of sound like Pavement or Oxford Collapse (at times). Denton, TX knows how to rock.
Bad Sports: Sound like No Age without the pretense. Found them via Teenage Cook Kids’ myspace. Church.
-Patrick
Day 3 kicked off for me at the Pitchfork/Windish Agency Party. Well technically it kicked off at 5am with intense side cramps from sleeping on the floor but the part you cared about started at this really neat venue called Emo’s which basically looks like they found a pit, poured concrete in it, put up a fence and some shamble roofing, and when something breaks they take some 2×4 and plywood and slap that over it.
I waited through a lot of indie bands the only one of which was really memorable for me was the Dirty Projectors. Their guitar sounds are truly unique (sounds something like what you think indie music in the medieval era would be) and their three front women create some damn good harmony, I mean it is really beautiful (of which Truby is in love with the bassist).
But the main attraction for me was the duo performance of A-Trak and Diplo (who will be in Madison April 11th). What was really interesting about their split bill is that you really could tell the differences between their styles. Diplo started it off with his worldwide gutter shit (meaning sort of electro world type beats with a banger twist) and A-Trak who started off in hip-hop (and rose to the level of Kanye’s DJ) but then made the move to more of a hard electro style but as he showed us he still has that solid hip-hop base with some perfect beat jocking and the best scratching I have seen in a while…on some electronic shit (Abilities and him should square off). Hearing these two styles go back and forth was great and seeing the whole room dance unrestrained was something that doesn’t happen too often. Whats great is that they do what the like and have been before this got popular. That’s what makes it work for them.
Tilley, Truby, and I had some excellent dinner at the Ironworks BBQ which almost made us fall asleep but not enough to miss Hollywood Holt (before the side journey to the wrong venue for some Mexican punk band Pat wanted to check…turns out the venue was next door and the one we were in looked like something out of Blade II). Holt had apparently been crunkin and doing shows all day but that didn’t mean he didn’t give us a damn good 25 minutes of a show. He somehow always manages to give out a ton of energy and even crowd surf with the 30 or so people he packed into the front of the venue. He may be loud and obnoxious but once again in an age where hipster rappers are starting to come from everywhere he is legit and this is what he loves. Its hard to knock that. Plus his shows are just too much damn fun. From lessons in juking to “gold chains hanging low” its hard not to enjoy yourself when Nigel is on stage.
This also made me realize one of the shittier parts of the experience: that there is so much going on, so many of your favorite artists appearing that its impossible to catch every little thing that happens. From what was most likely a wild afterparty with Kid Cudi, to the secret Diplo shows, to Holt’s 5 other performances which weren’t listed that day
I then ventured off to see another one of the “Freshman 10 of Hip-Hop” Mickey Factz, but not before passing the big story of the festival thus far, Metalica‘s appearance at the Guitar Hero party. I guess people had been in line since 5am but with my magic badge I got to jump ahead of them just to catch a glimpse of these folks only to say that I was there…and I was. I couldn’t tell you what song they were playing nor do I care that much. Its just one of those things I can say I did. Church.
Anyways I got to the AM Only party which was at the worst run venue I have been at thus far the Beauty Bar. It took everyone about two minutes just to get into the seemingly half full venue. I made my way to the patio to see Mickey. Not impressed. No Supras performance. He spent the set yelling over electro beats and Daft Punk, bringing girls on stage to dance, telling one to “crawl on the ground like a mouse gurrrrl”, and more yelling. I know he has some legitimate music but its hard to be impressed when you see that shit show.
I was hoping this show would redeem itself with some Tittsworth but despite him putting all his energy into it the awkward ass crowd was just too much to overcome. His set was more electro based than I expected it to be based of the hard B-More club stuff I have come to know but I will hopefully see that live another day.
All in all this was the downer party I went to this week. Terribly organized by both promoter and venue and strange performances from otherwise great artists. Epic fail.
I wandered back to where I was originally to catch the end of Amanda Blank‘s set who I was quite impressed with. Her music isn’t too hardly rooted in hipster electro like the rest of the artists that night like Thunderheist who set was good but had no up’s and downs and never drew me in. Blank is a talented singer and above all a really good emcee. This girl can rap. She varies her lyrical style with speed and precision and its something unique in the emerging realm of hipster-hop. She is definitely an artist to keep an eye on and I’m bummed I wasn’t able to see more.
The next up was Lady Sovereign from dA UK who was quite loud and in your face. Not bad but maybe just a little much. She performed he main song Love Me or Hate Me (Fuck You) to a sea full of middle fingers. Other than that it was an up-tempo electro British rap set to a crowd of drunk UT kids, old brosephs looking to slang, the occasionally hype beast, and chubby hipsters. Yay. Church.
Asher Roth was up next and I will say this: he has come a ways from rapping over Milli beats which tons of kids do in their dorm rooms anyways. He came down hoping to start a revolution of some sort, which ended in him roaming the streets looking for pizza at the end of the night. As stated in the previous article he did perform some new songs and is starting to gain a more legitimate sound and in my mind some actual credit for his raps not just someone who I think I could battle over an old Beastie Boys beat because he is too high. Of course he performed his hit I Love College but the highlight was his new stuff which should produce a semi-decent album. You can tell the industry has gotten a hold of him though since he got on stage with no acknowledgment of his gracious host Hollywood Holt and was backed by a drummer, some dude as his hypeman/pusher, and a djay to throw in some scratches all in the set of a pretty planned out set. He is good and he does what he like I am not here to knock that, but the fact that he is so packaged up does two things: one it makes him loose some of his very connective (to the 20 something masses) nostalgia that got him to where he is anyways, and two once his niche closes he is going to be chewed up and spit out…he will just be the first white boy to have it happen. Hopefully he can keep pulling something together like Soulja Boy has.
Kid Sister was the final performer of the evening and was accompanied by her boys Flosstradamus. Her set was live. Her set was short. All was well. She always puts on a very interactive and hype show but this one was just a little too short. Its hard not to get into it when she hits you with Damn Girl then Switchboard followed by Pro Nails and then ends with a Flossy-D Act A Fool live performance. Shit is banging. Also got to end the night with a little duo tag team djay set of Hollywood Holt and Autobot. Juke dem hoes.
One finaly big ups to Holt for hosting the entire night and doing a smash up job djaying. Gotta love some new Orleans bounce followed by Dunn Dunn by Shawty Lo not once but tree times just to get into it long enough so the crowd could got “Got Damn! Must be Two SIDE!”. See why:
Off to the Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish. And my deadly 7:00am flight. FML.
- Matt
And the second day in Austin has come to an end with some excitements, more hiking near the Hook em Horns campus and late night surprises (aka Pat Tilley CREEEEEPPPIN! not.)
We started the day where all self-entitling hipsters should, at the back alley of an Urban Outfitters with our BFF from the Ill Mill at a PBRty. Yippee.
The first band I saw and the only one I feel like mentioning from this venture was the band Women from Canada. From my limited experience with Indie bands all I can say is that I did really enjoy their drummer. He carries the melody of the group quite well and has several creative approaches to his rhythms including placing the tambourine on the snare and making some strange yet well produced noise.
After a healthy hike back to the downtown area from the UT campus (about 23 blocks more or less) we made it back to the main downtown stretch where I broke off from the main group to help promote the Rhymesayers showcase that eve. The main promo was done at a day party with radio djays where some interesting events took place. Mainly the never to be seen again freestyle on the street collaboration between the Yay Arena’s Mistah Fab and the South MPLS emcee Eyedea of E&A. I shit you not. I wish I had video. This never to be seen again unless a parallel universe opens between the ghost riding king and the long winded fast rapper may be one of the strangest and more epic events I have seen thus far.
The evening show for RSE started at the Havana club with Toki Wright who has just been signed to the label under what appears to be a ‘Showcase Series’ of artists from maybe just the Twin Cities or all over. Or maybe he is just on the label. Well have to see. He played a lot of new tracks which didn’t really differ stylistically from his previous work but still sounds like it will make up a good album.
I Self Devine was the next artist up also playing material off the new album to come “Sounds of Lower Class Amerika”, and also similarly sounding to the previous release “Self Destruction”. He continues to be one of the under-represented artists by the label since every time you catch one of his shows it is one of the livest and most memorable performances you will see.
E&A were up next and performed a few new songs and some of the classics like Now and Birth of a Fish. And of course one of my favorite parts of the whole experience is to see Abilities do a scratch set. Shit is bananas and always something new. This time it was the Mr. Me Too beat and scratching “Yeah…I’m Back” for about 5 minutes straight.
I ran over to the Back Alley Social about 10 blocks away to catch Pac Div the F.A.T. Boys from sunny LA. The 20 minute set was highlighted by 5 minutes of the Mayor dance in the half full venue and only about one verse of their hit F.A.T. Boys. This wasn’t the greatest show but you caught enough of the idea of what they are trying to do so it all works out. And in the end what they are trying to do is somewhere between the Cool Kids and U-N-I. Not quite just hipster rap but pretty close.
I caught the beginning of the POS show back at Rhymesayers before heading off. It was pretty much the same set except a curtailed version as in Madison so you can just read all about that.
Finally it was off to Ace’s Lounge for the final act I was going to try and catch that night, Kid Cudi. But it appears the dreams of the room were to be slashed as the rapper appeared to be a no show. The venue manager from SXSW came out to announce the news and was quickly greeted by a beer bottle being thrown on stage and hit back with a very stern look and mean pointer finger at the culprit. Then the actual owner of the venue came out to try and calm folks down but was also greeted in a similar fashion and a stream of people leaving.
About two minutes into his speech however a flood of people came back into the venue and 30 seconds later Kid Cudi jumps on stage, a sigh of relief passes over the club owner, and Cudi yells out “Sorry Ya’ll we flew into Houston!” After a brief sound check the show started which can apparently be seen on Carson Daly’s Late Night programming.
The show itself was quite good. Whenever a new rapper following in the Cool Kids steps (more or less but you know what I mean…hipster rap) comes out its always hard to tell if the can rap or not. Cudi appears to be one of those individuals who actually can. He may not rap fast or show you ten different styles in a night but lyrically he can tell a story and that is more than the Cool Kids can say save the Basement Party track. He broke up the set with short “smoke” breaks on stage and bringing his party girls on stage. And he of course closed with the “popular” radio station hit Day & Nite and then throw on the Crookers remix of the same song to “keep the party going”. And the party did keep on going. More girls came on stage, Million $ Mano started dancing around, and guests from Rhymesayers who I was surprised to see there (Brother Ali, Jake One, Freeway, Siddiq, and others) and the guys from Pac Div showed up even after the main sound was turned off and the monitors were the only music going.
So yeah that show was interesting. We apologize for the lack of photos since our internet is terrible in the hotel. They will be up when we get back. Stay tuned for updates from Day 3 (Hollywood Holt, Diplo + A-Trak, Mickey Factz, Tittsworth, Amanda Blank, Asher Roth, and Kid Sister) and from what should be a good Day 4 (Cool Kids and MSTRKRFT).
- Matt
So exactly what kind of music are the kids listening to these days? With so many awesome genres like folktronica, black metal, and jazz fusion, it’s hard to keep on top of all the latest releases. One genre that seems to have been getting considerable attention lately is noise pop. Last.fm defines noise pop as “a subgenre of alternative/indie rock, noise pop is just what it says — pop music wrapped in barbed-wire kisses of feedback, dissonance, and abrasion.” Some of the bands in this genre that are currently “in” include Women, No Age, Abe Vigoda, and Wavves. In all honesty, I’m a rather newcomer to the noise pop scene and only know some of the bigger names. Additionally, I feel like noise pop is not necessarily the most accessible genre as some bands who fit this category are just flat out awful (cough Times New Viking cough), but can grown on a person over time.
Anyways, this week’s seal of approval is going to the album “Wavvves” by the group Wavves. The main reason I chose this album was due to the fact that after downloading it purely due to the hype it was getting, I found it to be an enjoyable and accessible (as far as noise pop goes) record.
Wavves is made up of Nathan Williams (guitar/vocals) and touring member Ryan Ulsh (drums I think). The group is from San Diego and has had two releases to date entitled “Wavves” and “Wavvves.” They are currently on a rather extensive tour in Europe and will be touring the US when they return.
On to the review. “Wavvves” was released on Tuesday February 10 on iTunes only. It will be released on CD and vinyl on March 17. Overall, the album has a rather lo-fi sound and is comprised solely of what seems to be guitar, drums, and vocals. Many of the melodies are often quite minimal and almost every song features heavy distortion. Other common themes of the album include frequent “oohs,” “aahs,” and “naahs” in addition to alternating low and high voice vocals (in a call and response type manner).
The album begins with the “Rainbow Everywhere” which is a seemingly experimental track without any vocals that would fit well in a scene taking place in outer space in a movie. Immediately following this, the album picks up when a single distorted guitar and drums lead you into “Beach Demon.” This song (one of the best on the album in my opinion) is rather up-beat and has a catchy melody/chorus (“Going nowhere, going nowhere, going nowhere”). The muffled vocals are kind of hard to understand at parts, but you don’t really need to understand them too much to get the sense of urgency being expressed. “To the Dregs” follows and is another catchy number with a simple melody and simplistic lyrics. After “To the Dregs”, the album changes directions temporarily and slows down a bit with “Sun Opens My Eyes”. This song features some nice harmonies and has some cool drum-work throughout it, chiefly in the intro. About half way through the song, there is a rather haphazard noise solo that is kind of cool, which leads into the remaining half of the song. This part has no vocals and ends very abruptly with two hits of the drum. “Gun In the Sun” is a bit more up-tempo than the previous one, but is still kind of mellow. It also features some nice harmonies and very simple, playful lyrics (“I’m just a guy with nothin’ to say, I’m just a guy with somthin’ to do”). The melody for this song seems kind of surf-rock-esque explaining why Wavves is also classified under the beach punk genre.
“So Bored” begins with the up-tempo pounding of a drum and launches into a vocal pattern of Nathan’s voice singing some lyrics, followed by higher-pitched “aaahs.” This pattern is laid over distorted guitars and complemented nicely by muffled drums in the background. The chorus of this song is also kind of catchy (“I’m so bored, yeah I’m so bored”) and leads nicely into the simple, yet surprisingly clear sounding guitar solo that ends the song quite well. “Goth Girls” has an electronic-sounding intro and is solely made up of droning guitars (no vocals here). It is kind of spacey and one of the albums weirder points, all though I suppose it serves as an alright transition into “No Hope Kids”. This song pretty much follows the same formula as “So Bored” and is also a decent song. Nathan proceeds to slow things down after this song with “Weed Demon”. This may be my favorite song on the album. The guitars are still slightly distorted, but they sound much cleaner than in other songs. The vocals are also really clear and there is no percussion in this song.
The next song “California Goths” begins with an in your face drum part and some ridiculous lyrics (“I’m getting high, to pass the time, no reason why, was my reply”). The drums are much more prominent in this song with frequent use of the crash symbol. The vocals and guitars also are much more distorted than before it seems. “Summer Goth” returns to the surf rock theme mentioned above. About half way through, the drums come in for the first time underneath a surf-rock solo guitar that is layered on top of some noisy guitar work. The remaining few songs return to the lo-fi roots of the album, are somewhat droning, and feature very minimal drum work, with the exception of Wavves (the iTunes bonus track). This upbeat song is super loud and has some of the noisiest guitar work on the album making it a great way to conclude the record.
Although “Wavvves,” may have some weird/experimental/droning songs that are not too interesting and absolutely ludicrous song titles, the majority of the album is pretty solid. It is definitely worth listening and does have some lasting value value. If you like what you hear, come check out Wavves at the Project Lodge on April 4 for a free WUD Music show!
Some songs you may enjoy:
