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
Labels: News + Links, The Radio Dept. Comments
Zooey Deschanel won’t be able to trade in on her charm and beauty forever. But for now, she continues to make the most of it: with the video for “In The Sun’s” hula hoops, winks and choreographed high school dance routines, the singer-actress nods to the ’50s, Glee and as many adorability signifiers as she can squeeze into one clip. I’m still smitten over here, though I can’t say the same about my feelings for the song itself: the best of She and Him’s Volume 1 had a lot more early-rock/girl group punch than this track, which seems to have spent a little too much time catching California rays. Also: M. Ward wants to be Robert Downey Jr. so, so badly.
Labels: Videos, Zooey Deschanel Comments
Miles Kurosky, thank God, remains incapable of writing a bad song and staggeringly capable of writing great ones. The former Beulah frontman spent the seven (!) years following Beulah’s 2003 swansong, Yoko, in and out of the hospital and slowly piecing together his solo debut, The Desert of Shallow Effects — a long wait, and one that couldn’t help but come with expectations. But Desert is a stellar record, as good and weird and unaffectedly catchy an indie-pop effort as the genre’s seen in recent years. Read the rest of this entry »
All photos by David Greenwald
The first two times I saw the Clientele, they were plagued by technical difficulties and the injustice of opening for Peter Bjorn and John to a crowd more interesting in taking iPhone photos of themselves, respectively. Respect wasn’t the name of the game for some surprisingly rowdy drunks (at a Clientele show!) at the band’s Spaceland gig on Friday, but they sounded triumphant nevertheless. After opening with a cover of Big Star’s “Nighttime” and dropping song-of-the-2000s contender “Since K Got Over Me,” the band launched into a career-spanning setlist both beautiful and forceful. Frontman Alasdair MacLean referred to an early run of Bonfires on the Heath tracks as “my new songs,” but the band — which features rock’s most undersung rhythm section — took ownership of their catalog. Bassist James Hornsey, in particular, isn’t a showman, but after Wilco’s John Stirratt (and Sir Paul McCartney), he’s the most fluidly melodic player working, and his talents were in full affect on “Here Comes the Phantom” and “I Wonder Who We Are.” The show’s only failing was not extending the magic longer — after a too-brief hour, encore included, the band called it a night. More photos after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Labels: Concert Photos, The Clientele Comments
A sun-faded clip from chillwave’s most intriguing artist. Toro Y Moi’s excellent Causers of This is out now; looking forward to seeing dude in Austin. Update: after the jump, a twilight fan-created video for the track with footage from the streets of Paris in 1978. Read the rest of this entry »
Ryan Adams may love Fleetwood Macaroni and Cheese, but Sticks and Stones Clay Oven — from Ryan’s home state of North Carolina — has named all of its menu items after songs by the Southern-bred singer. A shame they don’t serve “Strawberry Wine!” (via Pitchfork)
More: Ryan Adams Posts
Labels: News + Links, Ryan Adams Comments
Rawkblog banner, circa 2005
After five years of daily blogging as of last week, Rawkblog is ready for kindergarten, which is great because I need a nap. To celebrate our half-decade of existence, we have a brand-new theme song courtesy of Wrapping Paper, who wrote this wonderful track back when we were still The Rawking Refuses To Stop! and had an accompanying photoblog (now a Rawkblog column).
Wrapping Paper – “Rawkblog Theme”: mp3
And for a trip down memory lane, a few of our greatest hits/favorite posts:
The Top 100 Albums of the 2000s
Critical Backlash: The Case for Ryan Adams
A Word About This Owl City Bullshit
Critical Backlash: The “Death” Of The Album
Critical Backlash: Why We Need OiNK
Elliott Smith: The Complete Live Covers (50+ songs including the Beatles, Big Star, etc.)
Elliott Smith: Complete Live Unreleased Songs
Live: Thom Yorke at the Orpheum
Blogosphere, if you’d like to buy me a birthday drink, I’ll be at SXSW wearing a party hat. Ordinarily around this time of year, I’d do a pledge drive, but I’m going to take 2010 off because 1) my ads are actually making money for once 2) You should spend that cheddar on the Pepper Rabbit EPs. Deal? Hugs!
Coachella 2006 / All photos by David Greenwald
A girl called me a sell-out on Facebook over the weekend for buying a Coachella ticket. Said girl has joined a Facebook group (what else?) devoted to petitioning the April festival until it releases single-day passes for this year’s dates. Was she joking? Isn’t selling out ironic now? I have no idea. But it did get me thinking about festivals – and why Los Angeles and Southern California don’t have the options they used to. Read the rest of this entry »
Labels: Coachella, Critical Backlash Comments
