these girls fall like dominoes

This is definitely one of my most-listened-to songs of the moment, all its crunchy dirty layers and blissed-out beats. The Big Pink first ricocheted sparklingly off my eardrums back in July via a mix CD of goodness from the California coast, with their shimmering, spacey, massive music that I am still not tired of aurally deconstructing. My bangs are getting really long, and music like this makes me want to grow them even longer and swoopy so they can hang over one eye and I can start wearing eyeliner more often, and borrow your ratty Smiths t-shirt from 1986.

Even though the story goes that they are named after The Band’s first album, The Big Pink is neck-and-neck in the running with Girl Talk for “Band Most Likely To Be Mistaken For A Slumber Party Game For 11-Year-Olds.” This duo from London (“two old friends in love with digital hardcore and the narcotic effects of blissed out electronic music”) are having a banner year. They were chosen by NME as a best new act in February, and have just been tapped to support Muse and play with the Pixies in the UK. Their album A Brief History Of Love is out this week on the superb 4AD label (Mountain Goats, The National, Department of Eagles). You can stream the full album via Spinner.

This song has been posted on everyone’s music blog it seems, including that girl from the art gallery, your aunt, that weird seventeen year-old kid down the street, and probably your boss — with good reason. I adore it. Not tired of it yet, not even close.

“As soon as I love her, it’s been too long,” as they say.

Dominoes – The Big Pink

(that video reminds me of the awesomeness of this one)

BIG PINK ON TOUR (UK/Europe dates here)
11-17 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
11-18 Los Angeles, CA – El Rey
11-20 Costa Mesa, CA – Detroit Bar
11-21 San Diego, CA – Casbah
11-23 Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
11-25 Minneapolis, MN – 7th St. Entry
11-27 Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
11-28 Detroit, MI – Magic Stick
11-29 Toronto, Ontario – Lee’s Palace
11-30 Montreal, Quebec – La Sala Rossa
12-01 Boston, MA – Paradise
12-03 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
12-04 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall Of Williamsburg
12-05 Washington, DC – Black Cat
12-06 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brendas

Til the good lord comes, and we all walk free

My friend sent this song out to a few of us music pals, saying that he heard tones of Paul Simon all over these vocals — and of course I am a complete and thorough sucker for any of these soul-churning, boot-stomping, country gospel church overtones.

Joshua James is bred in Nebraska and currently inhabiting the rugged Utah landscape, developing solidly as an artist through a handful of albums and EPs over the last few years. This is the first sample I’ve heard from the forthcoming Build Me This, out 9/22 through Intelligent Noise.

After the stressful day I had today, and the unrelenting rain that ushers in that undoubtable mercury-drop of autumn, this song makes me feel a rush of heat and a stirring of the soul.

Coal War – Joshua James

Stomp. Clap. Stomp. Clap.

Extensive fall tour dates listed here; some with Cory Chisel.
(Denver date is Sept 21st at the Walnut Room)

Know better and learn faster with Thao Nguyen

Two things that feel exceedingly good on a craaazy-hectic Friday afternoon at work are: 1) learning about music blogs run by your friends that you never even knew about — and finding that they duly kick ass, then 2) finding a brand new song from an artist you love on there today.

Thao Nguyen & The Get Down Stay Down put out one of my favorite albums of the last year with We Brave Bee Stings And All — fiesty, thoughtful, aurally-pleasing rock. This first sample from her new album Know Better, Learn Faster is a malleable exercise in introspection (with some of those strings, maybe from Portland), honey-coated by her rich alto voice, spiking into a theremin-laced whirlwind of sound by the end that reminds me of something that DeVotchKa would have dreamed up.

Know Better, Learn Faster – Thao Nguyen

When I sat down to interview her in May, Thao wowed me with one of those wonderfully thoughtful conversations about music that makes me truly glad to get to do what I do on this site. We talked about this upcoming album, of which she said:

The record is primarily a response to the end of a relationship, so a lot of it is pretty reactionary. It’s trying to be introspective, but there’s always got to be a little “fuck you” in there – or, sometimes there’s a lot. I am excited about the emotional content of it and how we tried to convey our live performance and that level of energy that we have now.

Lyrically I think the new album is a lot more straightforward than We Brave, because on that album I just danced around a lot of things, it wasn’t a total confrontation. But this new record was very intense and emotional to write and it all came out very quickly, in a month or so. I think the album is a lot more intense and energetic and straightforward.

On this record, we’ve got a female choir, a lot more organ, more horns, a lot of trumpet, slide guitar. There’s one song that’s only handclaps and stomping, it’s a very short song, and we’re calling it “The Clap.” That’s the title – and I’m not changing it.

She also says of the title, “The album is named ‘Know Better Learn Faster‘ because you can’t. By the time you realize you should, it’s too late. And I enjoy the predicament and the totally devastating, unfunny humor of that.” It’s out October 13th on Kill Rock Stars.

After hearing this sample of her new stuff, I’m even more excited to see her this weekend at Monolith. Speaking of which…is it almost quitting time yet? After the day I’ve had putting out fires all over the globe, I srsly need a drink.

Ryan Adams resurrects record label, paints, requests worship (you jerk)

The rarely-resting Ryan Adams announced today that he was bringing his PAX AM (Pax Americana) label back to life, to release digital singles of his music one at a time. The label last spit out some fine 7″s in 2004, and will return tomorrow with a single of “Lost and Found” (originally on 2006′s Sad Dracula/Fasterpiece sessions) and a new song “Go Ahead And Rain” as the b-side.

Lost And Found (Sad Dracula demo version) – Ryan Adams

You can buy the cleaned-up version and new song for $1.49 on his site.


Ryan issued the following statement regarding the debut of the Pax Am label:

Thanks for making Pax Am the number one Ryan Adams merch site online. We would hunt anyone else down though.

Did you have a rad summer? Good. If you said no, never worry, Pax Am is here. We are gonna fill your fall and winter up with vinyl, digital singles, and t shirts you don’t need.

Stay tuned for videos, free tracks, and our digi-singles. Subscribers get first dibs on rare vinyl.

Remember, purchasing the buck 49 singles is a way to keep FOGGY TV on the air, but it is not necessary to view the weekly content.

This is my label and my internet disco dream.

Make it real you jerks.

Worship me.

He’s also going to have an exhibit later this month at the Morrison Hotel Gallery‘s Bowery space, debuting “a new collection of his original paintings and mixed media collages.” He’s also going to be the gallery’s first artist in residence. The man doesn’t sleep.

Win tickets to Sunday’s Monolith from The Grates

Why is lead singer Patience (yes, that’s her real name) of Australian band The Grates so excited up there? It could be because she has 2 tickets to Sunday’s Monolith Festival to giveaway to YOU, as well as a copy of their new album Teeth Lost, Hearts Won.

Email me a story about a time when patience was important to you, or why we need Patience, or something rad about Australia (other than that my little brother is moving there, omg news of the family last night)! I will pick a winner at noon tomorrow, that’s 12pm Mountain Standard Time, Friday. Include your full name with your email entry, k?

The Grates play the Monolith kickoff party tomorrow night, and at the festival Sunday at 2pm. I saw them at SXSW (which is actually what that picture up top is from) and they were a blast.

Burn Bridges – The Grates

Teeth Lost, Hearts Won is out Tuesday, Sept 15th. It was produced by Peter Katis (Frightened Rabbit, The National) and features guest appearances by Kori Gardner of Mates of State (vocals on “Milk Eyes“) and Tim Fite (vocals on “Not Today”).

Monolith is this weekend!

The third annual Monolith Festival takes over the dramatically scenic crags of Red Rocks this weekend, with more music than you can shake a stick at or, say, run up and down a gazillion stairs for. You wouldn’t think it possible, but the organizers manage to fit five separate stages within the historic park, taking full advantage of the gorgeous views of Denver in the distance and the rosy rocks all around.

For the last two years, Monolith has packed in a sizable number of good artists, both well-known and fledgling newbies. This year is no different, with dozens of folks I want to see at what still feels like a boutique festival, in a very good way. You can get thisclose to the bands and get from stage to stage fairly easily (while toning your glutes — did I mention the stairs?). I plan to make the very most of my weekend this weekend — tickets are still available, and I think you should come too.

This year, Fuel/Friends contributor-pal Dainon is coming to the fest with me, to help cover all the goodness that is rarin’ to occur. We’ve each picked a handful of bands we are putting down as “can’t miss” on our Gigbot schedules. Who would you add? And why aren’t you coming? Oh, you are? Okay, good.



HEATHER & DAINON DO MONOLITH: 2009 EDITION

HB: Simply from the band name Cymbals Eat Guitars, this Staten Island band had me at hello, before I even experienced their massively sweeping, shimmering music that alternates between chaotic lo-fi punk and the most enormous moments of Explosions In The Sky. There’s a lot of buzz behind this group after only a self-released album (it grew wings when Pitchfork named it Best New Music]. It’s like Chocolate Eats Guacamole, or Using Your Turn Signal Eats Long Hot Showers. I mean, if good eats good, you end up with something even more amazing, methinks. Let’s go see.

And The Hazy Sea – Cymbals Eat Guitars
[Saturday 5:40pm, WOXY.com stage]

DM: There’s a reason why I saw Thao with The Get Down Stay Down three times in a row, three concerts in a row, three days in a row earlier this year (something I refer to as my own personal Three Thao Tour) … and it has to do with the honesty that accompanies a Thao Nguyen performance. She loses herself in her craft every single time she plays: the eyes shut and the guitar is wielded like a battle axe. Now that she’s got a new album on the horizon, with lots more shiny new songs to show off, this is an unequivocal no-brainer.

Bag of Hammers – Thao Nguyen
[Saturday 2:30pm, main stage]

HB: I apparently like having my insides pulled out of me in devastating fashion. This makes me a good candidate for sorority girl in a slasher film or, since we’re actually talking in metaphors here, attending a Frightened Rabbit show. Fronted by a pair of literate brothers from Selkirk, Scotland, Frightened Rabbit released one of my favorite albums in 2007 and puts on a powerfully visceral, poundingly jangly, truly honest show. I will not miss this one.

The Modern Leper – Frightened Rabbit
[Saturday 3:30pm, main stage]

DM: I hesitate to say I want to see Cotton Jones, only because it doesn’t seem like they’ve a rabid following, not that I can tell. I’d kinda sorta like to keep it that way, too. Liked ‘em when they were Page France but, with the organ in the mix, listening to their album is akin to filling my mouth with candy jawbreakers and not wanting to share. If you decide to show, just try and keep it down, yeah?

Blood Red Sentimental Blues – Cotton Jones
[Saturday 7:00pm, WOXY.com stage]

HB: Yes, OK Go does that genius dance in their backyard. Four years ago when that video came out, we didn’t have the luxury that we do now of sitting at a bar with friends watching it on an iPhone, as I did a couple of weeks ago. And guess what? It’s still marvelous. And I’ve always truly dug the sexy, driving pop sound of their music and its roots in semiotic intelligentsia (frontman Damian Kulash majored in it, and loves to create word images and twist a lyric so it rolls off the tongue just right). Dancing or no, this will be a really fun set to see.

You’re So Damn Hot – OK Go
[Saturday 4:45pm, main stage]

DM: It seems like Fancy Footwork has been around forever now, right? Do you know Chromeo? Do you know they could prolly work you into a dancier, sweatier mess than Girl Talk? Did you know they lucked themselves straight into a time machine, picked up some sounds from both Hall and Oates in 1978 and polished them off for the rest of us to benefit from? Well, if you didn’t … you do now.

Fancy Footwork – Chromeo
[Sunday 8:45pm, Southern Comfort stage, also DJing the VIP/Opening party Friday night]

HB: Nothing about a band called Deer Tick can be mistaken for enchanted twee pop, or, as their MySpace page says, they are “0% indie rock. Believe it, butt-head.” There’s a good helping of rustic twang here, but not that this is a whistlin’ Dixie mullet-hunting way to spend an hour of your Sunday at Monolith. Think the old-time radio sounds of M. Ward (also on the bill this weekend) meets the rowdiest of The Felice Brothers but with a piercingly ragged, whiskey-soaked howl, and you’ll be on the right track.

Smith Hill – Deer Tick
[Sunday 7:00pm, WOXY.com stage]

DM: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros are the new freak-folky Devendra Banharts of the festival. If their Dave Letterman network television debut taught us anything, it’s that all we need is love. And beards. And an absolute bare minimum of four tambourines.

40 Day Dream – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes
[Saturday 3:00pm, Southern Comfort stage]

[my pic up top from last year’s fest, poster by Mile44.com]

you could be my guiding light, shining on the vinyl bright

The Features are a little band from Sparta, Tennessee who deserve more attention than they get, and ever since I first heard their fresh and off-kilter pop in 2005, I’ve been wanting to see them live. Finally, that’s happening this weekend at the Monolith Festival (1:30pm Sunday on the mainstage), where I’ll also get to dance around and doot-doot-doo to songs from their new sophomore album.

Some Kind of Salvation came out this summer on the brand-new Kings of Leon imprint of Bug Music, the first signing by KoL. I think I’ve always thought of The Features more as quirky multi-instrumental indie-pop — maybe in the same breath as The Format, since I first heard both on the same shiny mix CD from a prescient friend in 2005. But listening to their development on this album I definitely hear a tinge of what we might call anthemic Southern howl that attracted the Followills to their doorstep.

Lions – The Features

(watch a few more new songs on their Lake Fever Session from last month)

There’s a bright and bold awkwardness to their music, and I mean that in a completely wonderful way. They’ve been playing together since junior high (they’re my age now, so that’s a long time) and have hoed a long row to get to the place where their sophomore album is garnering some well-deserved buzz. After their 2004 debut release, they were dropped by Universal Records, allegedly for not agreeing to cover a Beatles song for a commercial. Their current sophomore album was first self-released last year, before Kings of Leon met them, toured with them, and got behind their latest efforts.

But still and forever, I think this song from their 2004 album Exhibit A might be one of my favorite songs to put on a mixtape ever; it captures that jittery bliss of music so perfectly for me.

Blow it Out – The Features

Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down
other times I’m probably found
somewhere between a pair of huge
speakers pushed by vacuum tubes

Let it down, watch it go round & round
here I’ve found that I’m alright

If you’re happy and you know it
turn the volume up and blow it out
Blow it out

You could be my guiding light
shining on the vinyl bright
To help me find a place that’s best
where I can lay my arm to rest…

In addition to Monolith, The Features are touring a ton this fall, including many dates with those Kings of Leon.

A song-filled myth about the beginning of time

(click to watch trailer)

Bryce and Aaron Dessner of The National along with Matt Berninger, Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, Kim and Kelley Deal from The Breeders, and a 12-piece orchestra — combining with visual art of Matthew Ritchie and attempting to depict the beginning of time?

Count me in? I spent Halloween in NYC once, I would totally do it again.

The Long Count: Part of the 2009 Next Wave Festival, Oct 28-31, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)

take care of all the things still living in your dreams (new Swimmers!)

The Swimmers first swam across the backyard pools of suburbia in 2007 to win my heart with their loose musical interpretation of the 1964 surreal short story “The Swimmer” (by John Cheever), about a disenchanted man who decides to swim home from a cocktail party through the teal pools in his subdivision. Fighting Trees was a bright and dreamy pop album with solid literary underpinnings, full of float-away songs about drowning, diving, and other ways of getting wet. It was one of my favorites of the year.

To my great joy The Swimmers are back after two years, and the first song I’ve heard off their sophomore release People Are Soft (out November 3) is decidedly crunchier, louder, and somehow even more delightful. This song starts like a gloriously iridescent Nada Surf b-side, before combusting near the one-minute mark with fuzzy-staticky electronic beats that made me think of that one song from Starfucker that I can’t get enough of.

In short – this song has charm in droves and I’ve been listening to it on repeat, maybe 25 times this weekend, no lie.

What This World Is Coming To – The Swimmers

Also notable about this release is the fact that it’s coming out on MAD Dragon Records, the student-run label of Philadelphia’s Drexel University. I just sat in my office Friday on a college campus, chatting with a student about potential for cool music initiatives on campus, and this is one school I am jealous of.

the things that help us feel alive.

British author Nick Hornby wrote a fascinating piece in today’s Guardian about what he’s found in mp3 blogs, and the changing ways we seek out and share and find connection with music and other music lovers. In the piece (entitled, “The Thrill Of It All“), Hornby muses:

“Keeping in touch with the things that help us feel alive – music, books, movies, even the theatre, if, mysteriously, you are that way inclined – becomes a battle, and one that many of us lose, as we get older; I don’t think enough of our cultural pundits, people who write about that stuff for a living, fully understand this.”

When I got to that sentence this morning, I stopped, and immediately re-read it three times, then set down my cup of coffee and thought about it for a good while there in my kitchen. I kinda wanted to make that first part the tagline on my blog, or script it out in flashing pink letters down the left sidebar of the site (my designers would not like this), because it simply summed up what I hope this blog would always be about to me, to you, to everyone that stops by. How do we keep in touch with the things that make us feel alive as we get older, with so many things that jockey for position and jostle to the head of the line to be attended to in the limited hours before we collapse from exhaustion at midnight, one a.m., later?

Lately I’ve really felt the weight of expectation (mine and others) in regards to my writing here, and struggled to frame and define it in a way that I can embrace moving forward. Since the inception of music blogs, and the year 2005 when many of us moderately-oldtimers started our sites, things have diverged in a dozen different directions. As with any new medium, the rules are written as we go along, and with music blogs, they’ve been written by each of us simply taking the tack that feels right to us. What I want this site to be — nay, what it really has to be for me to want to continue to be invested in it — is a place for me to keep in touch with some of the tangible, artsy-type things that help me feel alive (so thanks, Nick, for phrasing that in a way that makes it seem so clear and simple).

When I write about music, I don’t do it with an eye to the stats or an ear to the ground to bring you the hottest news out there. I figure there are dozens of sites that do the news thing far better than I do, mostly because it’s their full-time job, and this for me is something I do “in addition to.” I started writing Fuel/Friends to share my voice, and the things that poked me somewhere in the deep red of my heart, or the analytical, word-loving part of my brain. If a revised tack of increasing balance means that I post less often in this season, but I only post things that spark a genuine reaction in me, then that to me is far preferable for where I’m at in my life these days. One thing I’ve learned is that people will absolutely take as much as you will give, and more. On the one hand, it is flattering. On the other hand, it will wear me to a tiny nub of dessicated exhaustion if I don’t set hedges in place.

Ultimately, many things in the life I lead help me to feel alive. I try every day to balance the ones I don’t blog much about (namely, my marvelous little boy, my deeply rewarding job, and all my interpersonal relationships that take time and watering and love to grow) with the things that I do sit down to tippety-type about: the songs, the albums, the movies, the books, the art exhibits, the poetry that sends a jolt down my spine and lights me up inside. Lately I’ve been struggling quite a bit with folks’ comments about what they expect to find here, versus what I see this site as being and doing in my little corner of the internet. If you would like to pop in every now and again to share what I’m connecting with, please do. I love having you here. But I hope you don’t expect me to meet your news and coolness needs (and comment negatively when I don’t) because I promise you, I will let you down.

I feel extraordinarily lucky every day that I get to engage this stream of new music and culture that comes pouring through my mailbox, my inbox, my network of friends. There is so much good stuff out there that I can’t envision a time when it will ever dry up, and that feels like a miraculous thing. There was a time when I graduated college and got so wrapped up in grown-up responsibilities that I handily cut most new music out from entering my life, simply from lack of time to find it. Music blogs have meant as much to me as they might mean to you, in that they have singlehandedly revived my excitement about all the new sounds.

Now. Come, let’s carry on. There’s new music being recorded right now, new sprigs of vibrancy popping up all over the place.

I, for one, can’t wait to hear it.

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