3.15.2010

SXSW 2010: 50 Bands To Watch

Boat Beam
Boat Beam

SXSW is supposed to be a new music festival, but frankly, if you’ve savvy enough to be reading this blog post, you’ve been listening to the best “new” acts playing the Austin festival for the last year. I can say this definitively because I’ve just listened to every single one of the 1038 songs available on the free, legal SXSW 2010 torrent, a fascinating experience I recommend to everybody. It also proved that, despite the indie roar echoing through the blogosphere right now, SXSW isn’t an indie fest at all — not by half! At least not as genres are concerned. Judging by the torrent, the most prominent sounds in Austin this week, in declining order, will be hip-hop (yes, really!), Spanish-language world music, terrible ’90s-style pop-punk, terrible The Fray-style modern rock, would-be Neko Case alt-country, terrible heavy metal and then, finally, indie rock. That tiny chunk is then further splintered into terrible dance-y Hype Machine-ready remixes, terrible post-rock, terrible anthem-rock in the vein of the Arcade Fire, Bloc Party or both at the same time, and then — then! — a handful of interesting bands. Luckily for you, dear reader, I’ve picked out 50 songs/bands that struck me the most from the thousand available for your listening enjoyment — both at home on your iPod and this week in Austin, should you be in town. (Say hi!) Grab the .zip after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

3.15.2010

Old Music: The Middle East – “The Recordings of the Middle East” (2008)

The Middle East - Recordings of the Middle EastI wonder if it ever dawned on Andy Warhol that someday, everyone would have their 15 minute of fame… simultaneously. Indie rock’s greatest problem at the moment, whether one’s in a band trying to signal through the noise or a listener trying to sort through the muck, is the sheer glut of material: in any given day, Pitchfork (just for instance) reviews five albums, three tracks and drops another half-dozen MP3s on Forkcast. And they’re supposed to be the filter! No wonder Best New Music bands become such lightning rods for sales and attention: it’s too much fucking work to listen to the rest. Read the rest of this entry »

3.14.2010

Guys, the Wall Street Journal did an article about chillwave. And reported that Hipster Runoff invented it! Feeling proud/embarrassed/fearing the apocalypse.

3.14.2010

The Week In Rawk, 3.14.10: Electrosnake

News: Rawkblog has a new Facebook page; Ryan Adams has a new (metal!) album; The Radio Dept. to tour, finally; thoughts on Coachella, single-day tickets and the L.A. festival scene.

Live: The Clientele at Spaceland.

Jams: Miles Kurosky’s The Desert of Shallow Effects; Rawkblog gets a theme song!

Video: She & Him’s “In The Sun“; two clips for Toro Y Moi’s “Talamak.”

Camera Obscurist: A trip to Portland (pictured: Voodoo Donuts; photo by David Greenwald)

3.13.2010

Rawkblog On Facebook

Rawkbloglogo2010-v2Pals, if you’d like to follow/fan Rawkblog on Facebook, you can now do so here. (Inexplicably, I couldn’t figure out how to edit the name of the previous “Rawking Refuses To Stop!” fan page.) In advance of next week’s SXSW festivities, you may also want to flood your social networking feeds with what’s sure to be a Twitter shitstorm at @daverawkblog and @cmgzine. And, of course, you can add Rawkblog’s RSS feed to your Google Reader, etc., and our concert recommendations to your Google Calendar. Web 3.0, holler!

3.12.2010

Ryan Adams’ Next Album: “Orion”

Ryan Adams - OrionHe’s back! Ryan Adams has just announced Orion, his “most legit METAL record,” and his first full-length since 2008’s Cardinology. Vinyl starts pressing next week; more info on Ryanad.ms.

3.12.2010

Camera Obscurist: Portland, OR, February 27 – March 2, 2010

Portland
All photos by David Greenwald

Elliott Smith – “Rose Parade” (live, 4.17.98): mp3

More after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

3.11.2010

The Radio Dept. To Tour U.S. This Fall

I’m hearing that fuzz-loving Swedish sad bastards The Radio Dept. will tour the U.S. this fall (finally!) in support of the release of their album-of-the-year-caliber Clinging to a Scheme, due from Labrador on April 21. And yes, that means an L.A. date! Fingers crossed it’s the Troubadour, but dudes are welcome anywhere and everywhere.

The Radio Dept. – “Heaven’s On Fire”: mp3

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