Results tagged “cd”

Skateboarding, BMX, and punk rock have gone hand in hand for quite a few decades now. The most interesting project that is Iglomat isn’t exactly the rock we normally associate with ramps and the like but the act’s down-tempo instrumentals and moments of post-rock bliss have inspired, and in turn found home in quite a few projects in that culture. The brainchild of David Jack (from Portabello, Scotland), Iglomat the record had been in the works for many moons from what we gather. Scott MacDonald (also in Portabello) and Austin-based Sandy Carson complete the Iglomat line-up, and this cross-Atlantic trio worked together for a good amount of time, assembling songs “via satellite till the tune is finished” per Carson. Carson and MacDonald contribute the guitar tracks while Jack is the mastermind behind the beats and bass, and also handles the mixing responsibilities.

So the time is ripe for the 2008 SXSW Music Festival and what better way to lead into that madness than with a host of quality bands at Emo’s to kick off this weekend. Friday marks the CD Release show for local outfit What Made Milwaukee Famous. Officially released on March 4th, What Doesn’t Kill Us will be available for purchase during the show; the album finds the band maturing into a polished rock act while maintaining their keen ear for pop melodies, their expert arrangements of well-crafted tracks, and their penchant for catchy guitar hooks. Check out the video for “Sultan” off the new album via YouTube here.

Mess With Texas during SXSW last year was a huge hit in the cozy confines of Red 7 and MWT2 promises to be an even bigger bash with a wide variety of musical acts and comedians on tap. Waterloo Park is the host this year and this year’s free, all ages show kicks off at noon on Saturday the 15th. But of course there are so many other day shows, parties, and what not going on in the town that the sponsors (including Forcefield PR, Record Store Day, JetBlue Entertainment, Fuel TV, SuperDeluxe.com, and Garnier Fructis) want to give you V.I.P. treatment if you can write a witty piece of prose. As has been the case with other stellar Waterloo Park shows, local entity Transmission Entertainment has helped organize this brouhaha.

He’s a master of sampling and an early proponent of turntablism, but you won’t find Carl Stone working with Kanye any time soon. Instead, throughout his musical career, minimalist pioneer Stone has taken experimented with electronics and sound in a way that recalls his hero John Cage and other irrepressible avant-garde musicians of his ilk.

They Might Be Giants have been making music as a band since 1982. Their odd but endearing mix of accordian, saxophone, and guitars coupled with witty lyrics earned them a huge college radio following from the mid-80's on. Songs like "Don't Let's Start" and "Birdhouse In Your Soul" even became hits, and the duo toured and recorded ad infinitum. A second chapter of their story is quite unusual: TMBG are now famous in children's circles. In 2002, the group released "No!", a kids record they had recorded years earlier for fun. The record was a surprise smash, leading to deals with both Disney for a series of children's music CD's and Simon and Schuster for the CD + book Bed, Bed, Bed (which also features a pre-Juno Kimya Dawson). Having conquered the grownups and the kids, They Might Be Giants have also become in-demand composers for TV, doing the themes for "Malcolm In The Middle", "The Daily Show", and even some Dunkin' Donuts ads. We're unsure when the group sleeps, because they seem to be awfully prolific.

Texas boys Best Fwends are back at SXSW this year, bringing their video game-centric melodies and hurried electronic downbeats to old fans and new ones. Call them out on their tongue-in-cheek approach to music making if you must, but these cats know exactly what they're doing, and manage to make three-dimensional songs that also know how to get down. Does Antony know how to get down? No, he really doesn't. Via email, Best Fwends Anthony and Dustin talk with us about their storied history, SXSW, and Daryl "Fucking" Hall.

Local noise brokers Horse + Donkey dropped their eponymous full-length recently and this Saturday, The Hole In The Wall hosts an official CD release show to celebrate this fine collection of droning post-rock. Opener “At A Station” along with standouts “Dot Dot” and “Riddle” will be familiar to the band’s loyal fans from their live performances; the tracks blend surf rock and psychedelic guitars with wonderfully dark and echoing vocals to create a dreary haze of dissonance. It is often impossible to decipher the lyrics on Horse + Donkey but that only adds to the mystique of it all. “Things” seems to be about some impending doom, “Shoal Heirs” and “Amorous Mare” tell tales we’d love to hear with clarity, and good luck decoding the words and howls in “S.F. S.A.” or “Big End.”

It's always great catching a band at their CD Release show, because you know they're going to be fired up and ready to bring it. And such is the state of this Thursday at The Parish Room, where Austin-proud The Boxing Lesson will be dropping their new disc, Wild Streaks & Windy Days, an unabashedly Pink Floyd-esque collection of psychedelic rock. With songs like "Muerta" and "Back from the Dead," they establish an eerily sinister tone that's ably coupled with songs nodding to their forebears, such as "Dark Side of the Moog."

Kick off this weekend early on Thursday at Antone’s with music from Black Joe Lewis, Bankrupt and the Borrowers, and The Best Love In Town on the special occasion of The Versatile Syndicate’s “Launch Party.” The entity is now open for business, and their agenda is to aid any artist in pursuing their dreams and professional development via booking/tour management, consulting, live production, and so on. This event is a part of the Austin Music Foundation’s Love Austin Music Month and cover for AMF members is $5. The rest of us mere mortals can get in for $10. The shindig also marks AMF's 6th Birthday; free cake and food (courtesy of Whole Foods Market) and free 2008 She Rocks Calendars while the goodies last.

The Black and White Years are not merely a group of affable gents - as Austinist discovered in a recent interview - they're also way into creating compelling pop morsels that eschew immediate categorization and confound otherwise severely judgmental blog-journalists.

The Mohawk presents a solid double bill of local pop this evening. The Lemurs have been writing new material over the last few months and a handful of those songs will be included in their set tonight. The band enjoyed a stellar 2007 -- highlights included licensing their music to NBC show Las Vegas (as well as an Australian indie flick called Newcastle) and touring with Canadian act Stars. This past Sunday, ME Television telecast a 2nd ME Live! featuring The Lemurs' shimmering melodies in concert at a recent La Zona Rosa gig.

Austin's Balmorhea released River's Arms last week, and kicked off their tour here in town. Their tour to support the record will follow the east coast, and land them back here in time for some SXSW gigs. Sample some of the instrumental band's lulling, hypnotic tunes c/o Western Vinyl, and check back here for a full-length review very soon.

Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco’s two albums are anomalies on the rap racks: winding, wordy projects with few A-list cameos, recognizable producers, or sure-fire singles. That he’s managed to build himself into a successful international brand is not a little bit attributable to a unique set of circumstances. There’s the trap-hop backlash, a dirge in the straight-up New York sound resulting from Atlanta’s ascent, the Kanye Effect, the Jay-Z Effect, that music blogging thing...

Robert Harrison’s forte has always been melodious pop music and his current outfit Future Clouds and Radar is no anomaly. The act’s stellar self-titled album (out now on Star Apple Kingdom) contains boundless hooks and plenty of Beatles-esque psychedelia, and has garnered rave reviews from a plethora of publications such as HARP, Paste, Pop Culture Press, and No Depression. Check out the video for “Dr. No.” here.

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