This Week (June 12th) at POP! at Eclipse

After two weeks in a row of insane bands, we figured it was time to take a rest. If you missed last weeks show with The Feeling of Love, you missed one of the loudest shows EVER at Eclipse. It was so ridiculously loud, I had to leave the building.

This week, instead of bands we'll be showering you with free stuff from the Lords of Britpop, Supergrass! Yes, it's true, they still are around and still cranking out some great tunes.

We'll be giving away copies of the new album, Diamond Hoo Ha Man all night long. I've got DVD's, CD's, and LP's to giveaway, so come out and get some free stuff, have a dance, have a drink and hang out with us. It's all night dance party with free stuff on top.

Until tomorrow night, check out some Supergrass...

Download: Diamond Hoo Ha Man
Download: Caught By The Fuzz

Ratatat!!!!

LP3 is the third studio album from Ratatat, the follow-up to 2006's Classics and 2004's self-titled debut. Since the release of Classics, Ratatat have toured relentlessly, headlining shows around the world. They were asked to open for Daft Punk at Los Angeles Sports Arena back in June 2007, before they jetted off to play shows in Hawaii and Japan. They have also added their unique sound to a recent remix of Bjork's 'Wanderlust' and released the second in their acclaimed 'Remixes' series, featuring bootleg remixes of Notorious BIG and Young Buck among others.

LP3 has a much broader palette of sounds than the band's previous albums. It's more dynamic with a leaning towards keyboards more so than guitars, and live percussion rather than programmed beats. It sounds like the album Ratatat have wanted to make for some time; equally stripped back and fuller sounding. LP3 is overflowing with ideas and with more pop and dancefloor moments mixed in with their unique take on atmospheric, instrumental rock. Ratatat, as per usual, will be touring and touring and touring and more than likely will be back in Florida!

Download: Mirando

Summer of Twee Continues!

Coke-and-Spiriters, the second album from New York’s Dream Bitches, is yet another record from the Summer of Twee! Packed with snarling pop anthems and hyper-literate acoustic ballads, this concise collection captures the Bitches at their most vibrant and volatile. Yoko Kikuchi and Ann Zakaluk, friends and collaborators since their New York City tween years, began the group as a duo in 2003, each fresh out of art school. By the time their first album, Sanfransisters, was released by Olive Juice Music in early 2005, Yoko and Ann had recruited a backing band that would become an integral part of their sound and style. A playful folk-pop affair, Sanfransisters boasted jangly guitars, catchy choruses, and wry lyrics in the wordy tradition of anti-folkies Kimya Dawson (K) and Jeffrey Lewis (Rough Trade).

Dream Bitches’ sophomore release finds the now five-piece band sporting songs with bigger hooks and biting, schizophrenic subject matter. Where Sanfransisters celebrated friendship, the relationships chronicled on Coke-and-Spiriters are beyond dysfunctional. Despite the misanthropic lyrics, the music is far from introverted. Dream Bitches’ sound has expanded tremendously since their last record – it’s bigger, brighter, and bolder than before, but still rather twee in that K Records/Up Records sort of way. Think of Little Red Car Wreck meets the Breeders.

Coke-and-Spiriters was recorded by Mark Ospovat at Emandee Studios (CocoRosie, Wooden Wand) in Brooklyn, NY, and produced by Casey Holford (Cheese on Bread, Daouets). The record is out now on New York’s Recommended If You Like Records and the band will play select dates throughout the United States soon, hopefully Florida is in their somewhat immediate future.

Download: Bad Luck Bill
Download: Mother's Day
Download: Me and the Major (B&S cover!!)

Summer of Twee!

The Fairline Parkway's Zachary Okun and Raj Gadhia met in a quiet summer of college unemployment. Raj recognized Zach as the guy in the back of the dusty university anthropology lab who diligently slept through monkey documentaries, waking from deep sleep only to angrily protest discernible differences in the skull specimens forced upon the class every week. In this manner things came to a head and they were graduated, just as they decided to have a good run at actually thinking. Reeling in denial, the two began recording together in 2002. They were promptly kidnapped by an enthusiastic fan and ushered into a studio. Shortly after, their self titled debut full-length emerged.

The wind blew Zach west to Arizona, then Portland OR to work as a studio engineer. Raj found himself earning his stripes and making marks with Roofwalkers (formerly Pagoda) in Washington DC, Zach splitting his time between Antlerand (Sound Family), the Kingdom (Arena Rock), and the Minders (Future Farmer) in Portland. Meanwhile, someone left the mic on in the hall while old friends (Ben Licciardi), new neighbors (Krista & Elmer Sharp), and evening guests arrived at the door. Before they knew it, the parlor was full of sound, the tape ran out, and The Fairline Parkway's sophomore effort, A Memory of Open Spaces, delivered itself in 2007. The band made an appearance at SXSW and the buzz has begun. So put your ear to the glass and listen close.

Check out the video and single below which are so Twee it hurts. The tune itself reminds me of Beulah at their best and has summer single written all over it. If the album is half as good as this single we could have the indie pop album of the year on our hands!



Download: Westward Bound

This Week (June 5th) at POP! at Eclipse

Last week's show was something special. It was like Twin Peaks meets Of Montreal in a day-glo bike short factory. It almost seemed like it wouldn't be possible to top that. Then along comes The Feeling of Love! And they've come a LONG way, all the way from Strasbourg, France! As to what they're like, imagine French POP! in a bar fight with the Birthday Party hopped up on heroin and you kind of have an idea. Needless to say the show should be awesome.

Of course, after The Feeling of Love, I'll be DJing the rest of the night and we'll be giving away records and CD's from VHS or Beta and CD's and stuff from The Virgins (courtesy of our door guy Steve!).

So come out and hang out. It's super cheap to get in and we give you stuff, and hell there will be real live Frenchmen in our humble little club. Culture comes to Jacksonville!

Until tomorrow, check out some tunes from VHS or Beta and The Virgins

Download: VHS or Beta - Can't Believe A Single Word
Download: VHS or Beta - Burn It All Down
Download: The Virgins - Teen Lovers
Download: The Virgins - Rich Girls (Demo Version)

You Know People I Know People

Morning State signed to a label last fall and recorded You Know People I Know People. The band then headed to the CMJ Music Marathon for several performances, including a VIP late night party with hometown heroes Black Kids, and Peter and Bjorn (of PB & J, of course!). Shortly after returning home, the band learned that its label had collapsed and was seeking money for the master rights to the recordings. With this, the band quickly terminated its ties with the label and decided to re-record the album with close friend Asa Leffer (The Whigs, Dark Meat, The Pendletons) at DARC in Athens, GA. The album was re-recorded in about 11 days.

Several outlets have gotten behind the album in the past month including E! News but don't let that turn you away. Morning State are a really frickin' good band. You can check out the review I did on First Coast News.com HERE. (pardon the typos)

Following sets in packed out rooms in New York, Chicago, and throughout the southeast, the band is taking a short rest. More tour dates are expected to be added soon and hopefully Florida will be included. Then again, Atlanta isn't that far away and there's always Sweet Water beer to be had and Little Five Points!

Anyway, the band has released another song from the re-recorded album You Know People I Know People. Check it out below.

Download: That's Quite A Rash
Internet: Morning State

Happy Anarchy!

Happy Anarchy a band from Staten Island, NY, with a really really bad name, but with influences ranging from The Beatles and The Who, to Radiohead, to Modest Mouse and The Flaming Lips things can't be all the bad right? Thankfully, they aren't. Happy Anarchy's music is all about trading complex guitar lines akin to Built To Spill, majestic wall of sound production like Mercury Rev, and intelligent-beyond-their-years lyrics. Add to that, the fact that each song on their album Reset is different from the previous and you have a fun band.

Reset is littered with a whole host of trumpets, sax, violin, congas, group vocals and various guitar effects which makes the album sound something like an aural symphony conducted by Brian Wilson from his sandbox.

Originally an eight piece band they lost members on the road somewhere and briefly became a power trio. Within a short period of time, they were soon back to being a five piece with two new members and five former members still lost in middle America somewhere. The new grouping has been together now for over a year, and it was this lineup that redefined the sound and soul of Happy Anarchy. As for the missing members...they're probably all working at Waffle House somewhere.

Download: Is That Right
Download: In Reverse
Internet: Happy Anarchy