Sound Machine Dream

For real, i did it, it's nearly finished, we have a new look, hurray. Drew and I are planning on focusing heavily on continuing this site, so look to the future... for it is now... and now it is gone.

peace

KB

So Counting Crows are finally putting out a new album. The new disc Saturday Nights/Sunday Mornings is the first addition of new songs to the Crows catalog since Shrek II. The band leaked two of their new singles from the album, 1492 and When I Dream of Michelangelo. and before I even listened to them I had grim thoughts..... they went like this: "this is your first album in FIVE YEARS, and the best song title you could come up with is "when i dream of michelangelo"??? you already used that line in a song about 10 years ago! are you that hard up for material?" the answer is yes. yes it seems they are. The subject matter is the same, the songs sound the same, the melodies are even similar. All this combined, and it seems the new counting crows album will sound very much like the other counting crows albums. Which, i don't mind. I only hope that they don't ask vanessa carlton to join them anymore. by the way, the song that they stole the michelangelo line from is angels of the silences... if anybody cares.....

I have been having an existential dilemma in regards to this website lately. I just cannot decide how to make this site worth the work. Perhaps I am just trying to do too much. With sites like pitchfork, indieworkshop, last.fm, elbows, ilike, etc. is there any more need for another music site? I think there is, at least for myself and my friends.

Perhaps that is the answer, just focus on my friends again, like i used to. I just need to listen to music, and write enough for my friends to also want to listen to it. Great! I guess that means I can cut back on the design and what not... well not the design, but the extraneous "other" stuff besides music and comments.

I may have solved this temporarily. Let us hope so. Talk and review more soon

KB

It seems to me that the next wave of great pop stars on american soil will actually be british. Have you heard any of the new(er) stuff from Lily Allen or Kate Nash? It is ridiculously good! Not only do they do great pop, but a plethora of djs and hip-hoppers have done remixes of their tunes, creating some great dance numbers as well. With MIA, The Streets, Lady Sovereign, Dizzee Rascal etc. coming at us as well (and reaching pretty high praise and popularity from critics) we are experiencing another british invasion. These artists all have in common a much smarter and interesting approach to their genres. Musical compositions are in more interesting, lyrics more intelligent, even when dealing with equally mundane subjects as any american artists. For 2008, look to the UK for hopefully much more interesting and exciting music.

So, I've let everything slide. New year, new plan, lets get to it. Coming soon, 2007 best of lists, mix tape, new layout, yeeha. Keep coming, keep reading, keep looking for more, and above all else, keep listening to great tunes.

Looking forward to 2008, talk soon

It's always scary when the venue is located on the second floor of an old theater, and that venue is sold out. When the sounds of Josh Ritter and crew sprung forth from the gigantic side speakers that are usually reserved for Booty Dancing on Tuesday Night, the joint was literaly jumping. The sold out crowd bounded up and down, and the floor reacted with a trampoline effect. Even if you were standing still, you would have still been bouncing. This reaction is partly due to the upbeat tempo of the new album, The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter .

When you listen to the album at home (if you can get past the ego of the album's title) you notice straight away that Josh has found how to use the eighth note. About 2/3 of the album is full of pounding eighth notes on both the piano and percussion. At times during the album, this can be a little much, and gets to be rather noisey. HOWEVER, after seening this show on friday, it was clear that these songs were orchestrated with the intension of playing them infront of a crowd. The pounding rythmns drive into your feet, and keep you taping along with the well written lyrics coming from the microphone.

The other factor that plays part in the incredible bousterous crowd, was the fact that the band was so together that night. From their enthusiastic entrance, to their esoteric apperances (he bassman had a waxed mustache! no joke!), these boys were ready to play. Aparrently all ego has been pushed aside as Josh lovingly shared the stage with all of his mates. At the end, the quintet shared a bow together, where it's frontman seemed to be meerly a vessel for which the music emerges from.

There's a line from one of his songs, " I'm singing for the love of it—have mercy on the man who sings to be adored" and this was no more true than on Friday. The show was fun from the boping honky tonk songs, to the focused ballads. And aside from the fear that the floor caving in, for almost two hours there were no worries.

We will be undergoing some short changes at SMD, please bear with us. Just know that your reading and reviewing experiences will be so much better as a result!

carry on

As soon as the wall of acoustic guitars smack you across the face in the first five seconds, you know it’s going to be good. By the time the strings, and the vocals fall in 3 seconds later, you know it’s going to be great!

So last week, amongst the last throttles of summer, a friend was kind enough to throw me her extra ticket to FIEST at McCarren Pool. This great brooklyn venure, was at one time the largest public swimming pool in North America. It is about the size of a parking lot for the standard Suburbian Mini Mega Center, but full of people and graffiti.



we arrived too late to catch Grizzly Bear and heard most of Broken Social Scene's set whilst standing in line for giant kielbasa's. Broken Social Scene seemed to be just working out a lot of their new tunes, as sheets of lyrics were passed around during the rough spots. But when Fiest took the stage, everything seemed to tightened up. Still backed by Grizzly Bear she packed a fun 90 minutes of playing. The mostly mellow music seemed to fit the summers night, and the twinge of country to her voice made it seem as though at times you were listening to a canadian version of Emmy Lou Harris.



While Handling most of the guitar parts herself, Fiest apptly made use of her voice, looping parts on top of each other, as the song progressed while in the background, members of Grizzly Bear could be seen switching instruments on and off.

sadly enough, at the end of a good show, I was told that this is the last year of McCarren Pool. That is at least as a venue. Next year the pool will be turned back into a pool, and although a little smaller in size, it will still be the size of a parking lot.

I have arrived in Baltimore and nearly everything is unpacked. Now that I have started to settle in (and my internet connection has been restablished) look forward to more reviews, a site revision, and hopefully some new writers will be hitting us up with even more music reviews and perhaps some film reviews.

Also remember that we continue to review old stuff as well as new, its whatever our contributors have been doing, watching, listening too that gets covered, not just whatever is the new stuff on the rack.

One more thing, now that I moved, I will have to update some of the buttons and shirts designs we were working on, but they are nearing completion. We will certainly have 1-inch buttons in the next few months, and stickers after that, and hopefully not too much farther down the road killer, kick-ass t-shirts to help you spread the word!

ACDC's back in black still sells 400,000 copies every year. wtf

keep it together, and remember, listen to something good

Last night I saw a show in the lower east side (LES to the natives) at Cake Shop, which was a nice little bakery/coffee shop, with a nice little venue in the basement. The band we were there to see is known as Capillary Action. The name sounds huge, doesn't it? And you're right. It is huge.

I hadn't seen nor heard of them before, and had only been told that it was in the realm of jazz. The band that was on stage when i got there was a little quintet playing some experimental jazz. Nice, I could chit chat during the set, but still enjoy.

So about 5 minutes before we go to hear Capillary Acion I'm told that they're not really jazz. but more of a Jazz/Metal infusion.

To begin to describe this band without the use of my hands is a hard task for me to accomplish... but here goes. Based out a Philly, these guys killed. The Drummer, Ricardo, stole the show with his insane hands, switching between grinding rythms. The Bass player looked semi trance like half the time, and the room was filled with the buzz fromtheir distortion pedals in between songs. Their timing was crisp, often times moving from complex melodies with a groove happening, to raging vocals, screaming fits, and vicious vicious licks. All of it completly controlled. Nothing felt faked, or phoney, all of it well rehearsed and every note necessary. A highlight was when the electric bass broke, so the upright was used for the remained of the set, and it was just beat upon.

Apparently they are just finishing up a little month tour of the midwest andeast coast. In which they had a stop at Kraftbraü in Kalamazoo. I could see them being very much, for that type of crowd. They should be touring again in the fall on a little nation wide thing, so keep an eye out. it's good.

www.capillaryaction.net

This album is great. period.

Sound Machine Dream is pleased to announce a new member to our fold - the legendary Peter Hogan! Peter will be writing music AND movie reviews for us. This means that not only are adding another writer, we're adding more content too! Now you can get your music fix, and find out about film. Twice the popular culture coverage.

Hopefully everyone else is excited as I am. Keep checking back for more and fabulous reviews.

Last week was a very busy week with two shows in one week. Both, although musically very different, were both similar in the fact that they were each unique.

SHOUT OUT LOUDS

Luna Lounge, Brooklyn, New York

It was interesting to go to a show where the crowd is full of hipsters. Luna Lounge, is in the heart and soul of the hipster captiol of the world, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. There are moments when I'm there with friends, and you can feel the judgement because you do work during the day, and you do wear a tie, once in a while, that doesn't have skulls on it. That aside, when The Shout Out Louds took the stage the room was filled with some great high energy swedish indie pop rock. The odd thing was, was that this hipster crowd was not moving with it. But the band played on, and soon their short hour long set was on their final song. It was at this point that someone attempted a stage dive, and the passive crowd did not catch him. Overall The Shout Out Louds did a grand job of translating the newer, more studio sounding pop tracks, into live little rock/pop songs. With their sophmore album already out in Europe, and coming out in september in the US, the set list was a good variety of songs that you should already know and own, and songs that are easily obtainable on the internet. Hats off to Bebban Stenborg the tiny keyboard player. Every song she was taking out a new instrument from her kit. At one point she had two synths, a xylophone, an accordian, and a tambourine going on.

MEAT LOAF

Madison Square Garden, New York City

I should say that MADISON SQUARE GARDEN is a bit misleading, it was actually at THE WaMu THEATER AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, which is about 30,000 seats less than MAD, SQ. Nevertheless, this show fullfilled my boyhood dream of rocking out with Meat Loaf. I had the Bat out of hell II tape and played it so much it broke. My parents weren't to keen on me attending the tour for that in 1993, so i was left meatless...Until last friday! Shirts were made for my friend Rachel and myself. Her's contained the word MEAT, where as mine said LOAF. Our seats were in the back section with many other interesting folks including, many blue collar New Jeseryians, a german couple who didn't speak or even look at each other the whole time, and a mother who was having a great time!

Meat Loaf opened in an explosion of sound with All Reved up and No Place to Go and proceeded to play for over 2 hours. The set list included many of the hits, including Paradise By The Dashboard Light, a song that went on for at least 25 minutes, with a costume change in there too. Meat did not address the crowd until a good 45 minutes into the performance, at which point his first words were "I've been sick since march, I think I'm going to throw up " and the crowd went crazy. As a show, the band seemed off, and Meat Loaf staggered around the stage often times looking like he was about to keel over. But let's not forget, he's been sick since march. BUT, as an experience: It was just so fucking great. The show might have been full of awkward pauses, but those are what make it such a great story to tell.

So, in four short weeks I am bound for baltimore. If anyone knows how the scene rocks out there, I would love to be informed. So far I have been told that music is not that happening in the old B'more, and my experiences with meeting and chatting up all the local Mpls acts, who have thirty plus venues they can play every weekend, are over and I must prepare myself for a musical desert.

Say it ain't so.

Another 2006 release from twin citizen Chris Koza, this one a simple EP, of which each was hand stencilled by Chris himself! Though Patterns was released only a few months earlier at the beginning of 2006, it appears that the twin cities music scene could not wait to hear even more from Chris and his band.

Have you ever been in a music store and listened to what they have on the speakers? And we’re not talking about the Barnes and Noble music section. We’re talking about the local shop with the stickers on the wall and the latest single is available either on CD or 12” vinyl. It was there, in that dank basement shop, that I was confronted with the latest from the Texan group, Explosions In The Sky.

All Of The Sudden I Miss Everyone, the latest opus from Explosions, starts off by smacking you in the face with a pile of bricks. The first track erupts in gigantic chords mixed with trembling guitars that arrive in two quick punches, and then delicately backs off giving way to it’s finer melodies. Through out the album, these punches come back again and again battering through the songs. They are carefully planted so that you have had enough recovery, before you are again rocketed with their dramatic stanzas. The album on the whole, is a seamless opus of rock tunes that mix reoccurring themes and melodies. Explosions, known for their lyric-less endeavors, create seek to focus on the excitement that can be created through just their own instruments.

Although the album itself is well planned out and enjoyable to listen to (though probably better to work to, I have spent many a late night with this over our office stereo) the real highlight from this album was the companion disc of remixes. The first release of the album included a bonus disc of each song remixed by some folks as the likes of Adem, Paper chase, and Four Tet. For me, it gets really interesting listening to the mixes and learning how they picked apart the original songs, and placed them back together again. Listening to both of these albums reminds me of watching and reading Fight Club. In many ways the movie expands on the book, but the book also gives you insight that cannot be shown in the movie. These albums are both stellar when played separate and the remixes seem to enhance certain tracks, but yet the remixes could not exist with out the originals.

I’m not sure if the remixes are still available in the stores, but I’m sure you can hunt them down on itunes or the web. Also, if you need a great introduction into Explosions In The Sky, there is a FREE album available on their website called The Rescue. www.explosionsinthesky.com

There I was, just watching Conan, when on came Feist. Her record has been getting a lot of coverage lately, so it is no wonder that she is making the late-night circuit as well. Strangely I found some members of her backing choir strangely familar. How could I recognize random backup singers when I have never before seen a group perform live? Then suddenly the answer hit me! It was Grizzly Bear, the members from Grizzly bear were part of Feist's backup singers - crazy! Frankly, the only reason I recognized them was that they re-aired an old Carson Daly episode last week where Grizzly Bear was the musical guest, so their faces were still fresh in my mind. So even the music scene in NYC is small, its not just the Twin Cities where all the bands are horribly (and wonderfully) interbred.

the end

One of my favorite itunes features is the ability to create your own genres for how to categorize your music. Some of my top inventions include, "high-powered acoustic folk rock," "almost reggae, but not quite" and "furry." But one of my all time favorite bands falls under the highly specialized category of "lo-fi country alternative."

This review goes way back in the bins to pull out the first major release from Clem Snide. Your favorite music is as about as mellow as your lo-fi country alternative rock album can get without falling into category of folk (actually Emmylou Harris's wrecking ball is pretty close too, but that gets pretty loud in spots). Clem Snide's front man, Eef Barzely (yes, eef) is a master craftsman at weaving together lyrics that are packed with illusions and imagery that is both serious and hilarious at the same time. The songs with lyrics that demand a close listening, as their subtle humor and clever quips, are lost on a large room. "The joke is there's one beer left/so the punch line is all we have to drink," sings Barzley in a soft slightly nasal voice that fits perfectly into the slack yelpings of the loose-jawed country singer. Yet it's not just the lyrics that make the group so appealing, but rather it's the ensemble of the band and it's words. At not one point on the album does an instrument seem to overpower the voice, or vice versa. This harmonious blend keeps the tracks concise as the finger picking droning out of the acoustic guitar.

When I first moved to New York, I saw Clem Snide play to a sold out crowd down in the East Village. The band took the stage and the crowd went dead silent. For the first five minutes of the show, we were all in dead silence as Barzely did an off the cuff accapela introduction into one of their newer tunes. As he incorporated events from the opening acts into his rhymes, we stood there entranced. Then, suddenly, the band came in together on the downbeat of their set. That same captivation that I held as an audience member is the same attention that I find myself giving this lo-fi country alternative rock album every time I listen to it.

Wilco's three year hiatus from the studio seems to have produced a somewhat older sounds for the group. The songs seem tighter, with each of the tunes not spilling over 6 minute mark, as well as taking on a more "bare-bones" sound. Areas on the two pervious albums(Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Ghost Is Born) that were filled with guitar distortion and loops, have given way to delectable solos and surprising clean licks.

From start to finish “Sky Blue Sky” provides a mellow groove that’s good for a summer road trip, or baking muffins on a Saturday Morning. My favourite track “Hate it Here” provides a great blues-scape for Tweedy’s always about to crack voice, where as the Title track "Sky-Blue Sky" elludes to the bands former roots in country music. All in all, album glides along with a nice carefree attitude.

I have just arrived home after spending my late-evening at the Triple Rock Social club. I am still too pumped from my bike ride home to just jump into bed, so I write this instead, listening to Stevie Wonder, hoping to settle down.

Though I have not been to a show in a while, I was able to remember that the triple rock is both a) late to start, and b) really loud. Therefore I left my apartment at about 10:15pm with earplugs in pocket. A half hour bike ride later I arrived at the triple rock. The first act of three had only just begun at 10:45 and I was able to have a short conversation with John Hermanson and Heath Henjum of the Hopefuls before Mouthful of Bees took the stage.

I have heard many exciting things about Mouthful of Bees, and have given their EP a few listens. However, I have not caught the same sense of excitement that seems to be (no pun intended) buzzing about this group. Their EP sounds hastily conceived, and semi-professionally recorded. In a live setting the band plays very well together, but it appears that they are still getting the hang of together a live stage show. Apparently only friends of the band were available on a thursday night to fill out the bar; silly banter that seemed to revolve around inside jokes between the lead singer the few audience members made up the majority of the Bees non-musical presence. The female drummer of the group put on the best performance in my mind. She solidly played her parts, kept a good groove, and did not seem to falter the few times songs fell apart due to technical difficulties and guitar playing errors. Also, there were some really great fills played, as well as some cool cymbal grabs for dramatic (and song orchestration) effect!

The Hopefuls are a band that I have known and listened to for some time. Last summer the group went through a line-up change that took one of the two front men out of action (along with his songs). This is unfortunate for a myriad of reasons. Erik appelwick was an integral part of the band. Seeing the Hopefuls without him is not bad, in fact their stage presence and general "rock" factor was off the charts, however I prefer the erik appelwick incarnation for a list of reasons:

1. i like erik appelwick
2. his songs were my favorite
3. my fond memories of the initial lineup and initial release while I was interning for their label
4. his harmonies were amusing
5. i like erik appelwick

I'm sure other, better reasons are available, and if i had spent more than 23 seconds writing that list they would have become apparent. The point is that The Hopefuls are still good, great even, but they have sort of become a caracature of their former glory. Now they are sort of a hybrid for what was once Alva Star and what was once The Olympic Hopefuls... (oh yeah the hopefuls used to be called the olympic hopefuls, but were threatened with a lawsuit by the U.S. Olympic commitee if they did not change their name... apparently the Olympics did not want to sponsor a rock band). The show they put on was really great, the crowd really got into it, and they played some really great Alva Star songs in addition to the Hopeful songs courtesy of Darren Jackson.

So, Mouthful of Bees will hopefully learn to live up to their buzz, and though I am dissapointed that Erik Appelwick is no longer in the hopefuls, they still put on an entertaining show.

So I have been hard at work for sometime at a new job, I neglected the work I had meant to be doing on the new site design, upkeep and such. That time has past, and I am getting my shit together - hurray!

New reviews should now be common place, and the old content should be reasonably easy to get to as well. I have been putting the old entries into the new site as complete entries, and where appropriate, individual reviews.