The Underrated Blog

Ra Ra Riot - Suspended In Gaffa | Shows

I am having an obsessive addiction to Ra Ra Riot's Kate Bush cover of "Suspended In Gaffa." I always loved the song like but when I downloaded their Daytrotter session last week, it seems like this song is all I want to listen to. First reaction? 100 times better than the original. This isn't the first Kate Bush cover, their popular "Hounds Of Love" cover is pretty fab as well, but for some reason every time I try and listen to some other artists, all I want to do is come back to "Gaffa." There's something about Wes' incredible falsettos and the oom-pah pah rhythm that makes me so happy. I've even resorted to writing emails just about the song.

In other Ra Ra Riot news, Pat and I will be driving down to Washington, D.C. to catch them and our other favorites, Jukebox The Ghost play at the Rock and Roll Hotel next next next Friday. And yes, I know that they are playing New York at Union Hall the next night, but why shouldn't I have a weekend full of two of my favorite bands? I'm sure Pat would like me to mention this was all my idea, but trust me—he's not complaining either. Tickets are still available for the Washington show (road trip!) but Union Hall is currently sold out. And even if you are going to both those shows, you should also make sure you take a trip to the John Pike Memorial Show featuring Vampire Weekend, Tokyo Police Club (and of course RRR) December 15 in Boston. More information on the show, or how to donate to the fund, can be found here.

And now, that tune that will make your Friday so much sweeter.

Ra Ra Riot - Suspended In Gaffa (via their Daytrotter Session)

Wakey!Wakey! | Apology Song

It has been a tough week (and it's only Wednesday) and I'm leaving New York tomorrow for a trip out to Chicago to deal with some family business. But it was nice to wake up this morning and feel that excitment again, this time in the form of a Decemberists cover by one of my favorites, Wakey!Wakey!. It's just superb—Mike totally nailed this one. Now I'm even more excited to see what covers we have yet to come...

This is all, of course, in preparation of their debut album release, which hopefully wont be too far from now. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to hear Silent As A Movie in all its glory.

Wakey!Wakey! - Apology Song (Decemberists Cover)

Indaba / Underrated / This Side Up Presents...CMJ

I've been working really hard with the wonderful people at Indaba Music and This Side Up to put together an amazing roster of day shows and a Saturday night party for this year's CMJ. Every day during the festival, you are invited to the Indaba Loft on Bowery and Houston to grab a free drink, learn about Indaba and listen to some of my favorite acts from across the country. I'm so incredibly excited to see everyone, so start planning your schedules and make sure the Indaba Loft is a stop on the way! (Did I mention free beer?!?)

[click to enlarge]

Indaba Music / Underrated Magazine / This Side Up Sounds PRESENTS...

TUESDAY Oct 16
2 - KRYSTLE WARREN
website
3 - QUINTIS
website
4 - ARIZONA
website| Some Kind Of Chill [mp3]
5 - CUT OFF YOUR HANDS!
website | You And I [mp3]
6 - SOME VELVET MORNING
website
7 - MATT SINGER
website | Outrageous [mp3]

WEDNESDAY Oct 17
2 – DIVISION DAY
website| Tigers [mp3]
3 – MIDDLE DISTANCE RUNNER
website | The Sun & The Earth [mp3]
4 – SETH KALLEN AND THE REACTION
website | Shiver [mp3]
5 – NATALIE PRASS
website | Never Satisfied [mp3]
6 – BEAT RADIO
website | Mexico [mp3]
7 - THE UNDISPUTED HEAVYWEIGHTS
website | Roll Your Windows Down [mp3]

THURSDAY Oct 18
2 – A BRIEF SMILE
website | Big Sky [mp3]
3 – LET'S GO SAILING
website | Icicles [mp3]
4 – TIM WILLIAMS
website | Novel [mp3]
5 – MASON PROPER
website | My My (Bad Fruit) [mp3]
6 – THE JAGUAR CLUB
website | The Sirens [mp3]
7 - MANCINO
website | Five Blades [mp3]

FRIDAY Oct 19
2 - THE SISTER LOVERS
website
3 - THE LATE GREATS
website | He's Not It [mp3]
4 - PRINCETON
website | Blackbeard [mp3]
5 - PEASANT
website
6 - EAGLE*SEAGULL
website | Your Beauty Is A Knife I Turn On My Throat [mp3]
7 - WAKEY!WAKEY!
website | Fallin' Apart [mp3]

SATURDAY NIGHT Oct 20
7 – SURE JUROR
website | The Once-Great Gender Debate [mp3]
8 – THE DIGGS
website | Careen [mp3]
9 – NOUS NON PLUS
website | Allo Allo [mp3]
10 – JUKEBOX THE GHOST
website | Hold It In [mp3]
11 – TBA

See you there!

oh did the fortune teller say...

Like Laura Burhenn of Georgie James says, "it's been a long week."

I'm always happy to see a Friday, and probably because my little Jukeboxers (my new name for Jukebox The Ghost) have been occupying Pianos for the past three weeks. It's been a fun run, but sadly all good things must come to an end, so come celebrate tonight with me. I'm so proud of these boys, they really have perfected their live show and every one feels it in that cramped room. It's a joy to watch them each week, and I'll be sad to see them leave New York. Sigh. They'll be back for CMJ though.

I tried to come up with something creative for this blog, but of course I'm left sitting here scrambling my brain. Perhaps I've wiped out all creativity, or perhaps so many other bloggers are doing bigger and better things and it's almost not worth the try. Or maybe writing all day has taken its toll. Or perhaps there's just not any music that is making me ga-ga these days. All the artists I'm usually listening to, I've been listening to for a long time. It's been a while since a band has really taken me over. I await patiently. Please?

But like always, I'll find some fun indie pop to keep me occupied until some cute band of boys comes my way. I've been really digging Georgie James and Kate Nash lately, so much so that I've made it a new priority of mine to learn each word to each of their songs so late at night I can pretend I'm them. Or maybe for karaoke. Take your choice. I'm really excited to see Kate Nash next week at Joe's Pub. Her album isn't perfection, but I like her spunk. It's a bit too cheesy for my liking (imagine that), but I think she's got more in her. The Lily Allen comparison may be lazy, sure, I think she's more a British Regina Spektor, on her way. Plus, I like the dresses she wears.

The first Georgie James song I heard was "Long Week," the inspiration of this post. I was convinced it was a cover, because I immediately knew the words but can't seem to find anything online proving that fact. So then I found the rest of the album and was in completely heaven - a flawless album that’s both insightful and inviting, and jeez, I can't gush enough.

Happy Friday everyone. Tomorrow I'm off to avoid being squashed at Les Savy Fav while my boyfriend is sure to go crazy. And oddly, I'm pretty excited.

Oh yeah, I'm also obsessed with Kanye West. More on that another time though.

Georgie James - Long Week

Kate Nash - Foundations

no more lies.

Now that I'm moved in and finally settled, I feel as though I can breathe, and by breathe I mean write about something other than my daily music news daytime job. See, I've sort of half-heartedly decided that this blog is going to be of an output of daily (er, weekly) thoughts, and then have music play a part in there somehow. Frankly, I guess most of my thoughts have something to do with music anyways. It's a large part of my life, and even if it isn't the forefront of my mind, it's always a soundtrack in the back.

I heard from an acquaintance last week that I hadn't heard from in some time. When I first started this whole adventure, there was a handful of bands that I really latched on to, thinking most, if not all, would make it and I'd be able to be there with them along the way. I had all these hopes of Almost Famous like experience--a chick on the road with a crazy rock band, living the life and learning about life along the way. Anyways, this band and I saw differences about what "success" was, and as time went on, we both went our separate ways. There was no bad blood, of course. I can't keep those sorts of things on my conscious.

So turns out this band had some good news, and yet when I heard the news I wasn't surprised nor pleased. Partly, it came at a time where I was still juggling a million things at work, but also because so much time had gone and so many things had changed. I had changed. I've seen a number of bands I know go on to bigger and better things, and not to disservice those bands by any means, it's just sort of happened. And this band changed, and unfortunately not for the better in my opinion. There are still a number of bands left in New York that are still going after an image these days. I'm learning more and more each day how this industry works. There's a dark side. And I'm trying my best not to be part of it.

So I've sort of grown up, I guess you can say. I was 19 when I started this whole magazine/blogging adventure and now I'm making a living reporting about a scene that I hardly knew existed a few years before that. I learn a lot. I make a lot of mistakes. But somewhere in all of that there are these few surprises that help remind you that it's worth it, there's still something good out there.

The point of all this is that there is a band that I heard at the very beginning of it all, that I still believe in. And so it goes...

A Brief Smile has, I guess, grown up alongside me. Not much younger than I am, and still sticking with it, this band has been a constant for me, I can't even count how many times I've seen them live. Their latest effort, Now We All Have Horns in a way exemplifies every thing I've said above. This band has, for a lack of a better word, matured. They've found their sound. It's almost hard to put into words what that sounds like, but if you could put to music a certain "comfort" or "acknowledgment" Now We All Have Horns is it.

The band wrote, played, recorded, and produced every aspect of the album. Listening to it now is one of those a-ha moments, knowing all along they had this in them. Songs like "Vicious" and "Big Sky" had become live favorites for some time now, but hearing "Ladies And Gentlemen," "Tairs In The Cloth" or the instrumental noisiness of "red Giant 1406" and "Blue Star 2587" shows just how far both of us have come. I am a pop-music baby, a former teenybopper, who would not "get" this music, let alone listen to it on repeat. But I can find the talent and the heart in this. It's them. The long instrumental introductions, the wailing guitars, the cold-shoulder lyrics, and those grand ideas. And me? Well, after learning what "shoegaze" music actually meant, I've become quite fond of it.

And with that, the evolution of a band is heard through tiny speakers in a half-empty apartment. I listen to Now We All Have Horns with a certain sigh of relief. There's hope yet. And so much more time for even more discovery.

Check out their new website at www.abriefsmile.com. Upcoming shows include a slot during Jukebox The Ghost's residency at Pianos on September 14, followed by their record release party at Midway on October 4.

With that said, here's some exclusive premieres of tracks off A Brief Smile's new album Now We All Have Horns.

A Brief Smile - Never Have The Time

A Brief Smile - Ladies And Gentlemen

A Brief Smile - Vicious

i woke up today

I'm moving...again. I promised myself I would stay in one spot for longer than a year, but it just didn't work out that way. All is good, I'm moving to a much nicer apartment that will give me a new area to explore. And with that moving comes the inevitable packing sessions, which I loathe, but can't really do anything about. Luckily it has forced me to start going through those piles and piles of cds I have hanging around, and one of those that I recently discovered is an album named The Wind And The Swell by Port O'Brien.

Once in a while you come across a debut album that just fits. I'd been looking for an album that could be an escape for a little while, with not too much thought, but much more enjoyment. The Wind And The Swell feels like a late night drinking binge with people who know you like the back of their hands. Its lo-fi production makes it feel like a one-take effort in all its imperfections. It's exactly what a love: sing-along songs with a wailing banjo to keep you up late.

The album is actually a combination of their favorite tunes from previously self-released EPs. Not too much is going on with the band at this moment, well except that half of them are in Alaska, according to their blog. Crazy! I'd totally make the trip to see them play. Who's with me?

Port O'Brien - I Woke Up Today

Editors vs. Interpol

I understand the comparison, sure. They do sound similar. Both Editors and Interpol go with that moody rock a la Joy Division and run with it. Both are coming out with albums this summer. But that is where I shall stop the comparisons now and forever. Done and done. Because while I am a fan of both bands, I always side with my homeboys the Brits. (Oh, Happy 4th of July!)

You see, I quite like the Interpol album. Our Love To Admire is better than I thought it would be, although I may have fallen asleep during the first half before it finally picked up. And it's funny, because that's what kind happens when I see them live too. In all honesty? They bore me. Love their songs, think they are cool, but are far from a good live show. I find myself watching the light show the entire time, although something tells me if I see them again I'll be more transfixed by Carlos D's moustache. Or something.

But Editors need no crazy light show or pornstache to keep me entertained. They prove the intensity of their songs with a passionate performance. I've gotten chills, shed tears and god dammit I've danced at the many Editors shows I've attended. And from the many repeat listenings of their sophomore album An End Has A Start I've officially named them mainstays in my musical world. It's more of what they did last time around but better, and bigger, and Tom has let his vocals go to all ranges putting comparisons aside once and for all. It's a beautiful album -- when quiet, you can hear the restraint, and when loud, there's no holding back. Ladies and gentlemen, this is just the beginning.

If you've never seen Editors live, you have no idea what I'm talking about. And what do I say every time someone tells me they sound just like Interpol? I say: go see them live. Then you'll understand. And hey! They are touring with Ra Ra Riot. Awesome!

Editors - Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors

Interpol - Heinrich Maneuver

Under My Umbrella...ella-ella-a-a

I'm not ashamed to admit that my "jam of the summer" as those morning DJs call it is Rihanna's "Umbrella." I actually hated the song when I first heard it and then it was stuck in my head all day and I found myself actually singing it in my head while bouncing down the street. Now, I get really really excited each time I hear it (which is a lot, as I'm sure you know). I think it might be the whole "ela ela a a" part that really catches me. Who knows.

I found a cover via the other guilty pleasure of mine, Perez Hilton by a guy named Scott Simon. It's not fantastic, but kinda cool. Very Postal Service wanna-be and could be a contender for a Guilt By Association Volume 2. Any reason to listen to this song over and over and over again is fine by me.

Rihanna - Umbrella

Scott Simon - Umbrella

You! Me! Dancing!

It's been a while since I've really latched on to a new band. I blame the fact I've been working so much, sick a lot, and have since said goodbye to my trusty iPod (r.i.p., I'll miss you buddy). I've turned to comforting favorites when I do get the chance to listen to music, and haven't been to a show where I am left feeling star struck. Or maybe it's just because I don't have time to blog very much these days...we'll never be quite sure.

And yet recently I was assigned a review by a band I didn't know. I supposed they understand now the type of music I enjoy, because they keep assigning me really happy go lucky indie pop or anything British. This time? They hit two birds with one stone in the musical form of Los Campesinos!. At only six songs, their debut is by far one of the strongest, energetic, and hands-down enjoyable albums I've heard in a long time. I think I told my co-worker that it was as if the Boy Least Likely To and Matt & Kim had a little teenage love child. It's equal parts innocent and spunky, with the always added favorites of glockenspiels and hand claps.

Basically, I was in heaven.

I guess it also helps that they are youngsters since I'm always impressed by how talented kids can be these days. There are almost too many floppy haired boys in this band to choose from, but I imagine there's something for everyone, musically that is, in this promising band. Catch them on tour (dates on their MySpace page). And make sure you pick up their debut Sticking Fingers Into Sockets when it comes out on Arts & Crafts next week.

Los Campesinos! - You! Me! Dancing

Los Campesinos! - We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives

in one ear and out the other

I'm very tired today which could be a combination of a lot of things. I stayed at Pianos past 10 PM last night which never used to  be a problem but has become one and so I woke up late and didn't go to get my allergy shots this morning. It could also be the fact that my apartment feels like the 6th circle of hell with the heat it emotes and that plans to put my air conditioner back into the window were carefully thought out out at about 3:30 this morning. It could be the excitement for Holly Dolly (see below) or it could be the fact that I was just sent Linkin Park's new CD. Zzzz. Who knows.

I was surprised to see Fujiya & Miyagi's video for "Ankle Injuries" at #2 on YouTube today. Not that I don't think its a fantastic song or a great video, but I just wasn't aware that they were that popular. Regardless, if I had to make a top 10 albums of 2007 list right now, I'd definitely put their album Transparent Things up at the top. Seeing them live basically sealed the deal. If you have yet to hear the album, go do so immediately. It'll make you want to dance down the street like Peter Parker in Spiderman 3. And I've done it too...just before my 10 PM bedtime.

While I love "Ankle Injuries" (video below), my favorite track is definitely "Collarbone." I kept on hearing the song while I was down in Austin and couldn't pinpoint who it was. Definitely a track born for the dance floor.

• Fujiya & Miyagi - Collarbone (live in DC, thanks to livemusicblog)