W♥M (Archive)

Rocktober: October 15, 2014

Read More Dinosaur Feathers Funny enough, I once reviewed Dinosaur Feathers in in 2009 and called their EP "pots & pans". There's still that odd wonky bass and experimental side, but they've become evolved into a jam band ....

Here are shows taking place in Minneapolis/St Paul on October 15, 2014.

DINOSAUR FEATHERS
at Hexagon Bar
Wednesday 10/15/14, 7pm
Free: hexagonbar.com

Brooklyn-based Dinosaur Feathers is back with a third album Control, which came out earlier this month via Ernest Jenning Record Company.

The record is described as "drum machines & lithe pulsing basslines meet shimmering synths, coked-out horns & soulful vocals"... and it would seem the duo is on tour on their way back to CMJ this year.

Tour dates:

10/14 – Grinnell, IA @ Grinnell College
10/15 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Hex
10/16 – Northfield, MN @ Carleton College
10/17 – Milwaukee, WI @ Linneman’s
10/18 – Chicago, IL @ The Burlington
10/19 – Bloomington, IL @ Come Together Space
10/23 – Brooklyn, NY @ Grand Victory

Read More The Gaslight Anthem Glenn Tilbrook will be returning to the States this fall for dates in support of his new acoustic solo album, Happy Ending. The tour kicks off on September 23 in Boston and will continue through the end of October, including two ...

GASLIGHT ANTHEM with Against Me!, Cory Branan
at First Avenue
Wednesday 10/15/14, 6pm
$32.50: first-avenue.com

New Jersey's The Gaslight Anthem is currently on tour in support of their latest album Get Hurt, out now on Island Records.

You may recall that when we talked to Matt Pinfield in 2012, he is quoted to say that the punk rock band's song "45" was his clear favorite at that time.

They've grown in terms of fanbase since their Fine Line Music Café days, and will be playing the main room at First Avenue this Wednesday.

The two openers are Against Me! (who I've often confused with Rise Against) and Cory Branan (who is described as "too punk for country, too country for punk").

Tour dates:

10/14 - Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theatre *
10/15 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue *
10/16 - Chicago, IL - Aragon Ballroom *
10/17 - Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE *

* = Against Me!

Read More The Preatures Sydney, Australia’s The Preatures have released a gorgeous new music video for their single, “Somebody’s Talking.” Directed by Gemma Lee, the video, which premiered today at Buzzfeed ....

THE PREATURES with Astronomique
at Triple Rock Social Club
Wednesday 10/15/14, 7:30pm
$12 / $15 (Door): triplerocksocialclub.com

Sydney's The Preatures are in the US touring, mostly thanks to Austin City Limits music festival in Texas (a lot of bands are touring in the Midwest because of ACL and CMJ in New York). The Australian band will likely play tracks from their latest album Blue Planet Eyes, which came out at the end of September on Harvest Records.

Billboard called them "pop-punk charmers", while Glide Magazine said singer Isabella Manfredi has "seductive vocals".

The band is stopping by the Triple Rock Social Club on Wednesday, with support from local Astronomique.

Tour dates:

10/14/14 Chicago, IL: Double Door
10/15/14 Minneapolis, MN: Triple Rock
10/16/14 Madison, WI: The Frequency
10/18/14 Denver, CO: Larimer Lounge
10/21/14 Seattle, WA: Tractor Tavern
10/22/14 Vancouver, BC: Electric Owl
10/23/14 Portland, OR: Lola's Room
10/25/14 Las Vegas, NV: Life Is Beautiful Festival
10/26/14 Santa Ana, CA: Constellation Room
10/27/14 San Diego, CA: Casbah
10/29/14 San Francisco, CA: Independent
10/30/14 Santa Cruz, CA: Catalyst Atrium

Read More Kina Grannis Kina Grannis is a Japanese/American singer/songwriter who won the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest in 2007. I mentioned her in February 2011. ....

KINA GRANNIS
at Varsity Theater
Wednesday 10/15/14, 6:30pm
$20 / $25 (Door): varsitytheater.org

Singer/songwriter Kina Grannis is touring in support of her sophomore album Elements. And guess where she is kicking it all off? At the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, of course. Grannis will be joined by her full band.

The deeply personal album Elements is a celebration of her one year anniversary of her marriage, "I’m definitely baring more of myself and my life with the new album, and sharing my wedding with ‘My Dear’ felt like a really special and important part of that process."

North American Tour Dates:

10/15 Varsity Theatre in Minneapolis, MN
10/16 Turner Hall in Milwaukee, WI
10/18 Thalia Hall in Chicago, IL
10/19 Bling Pig in Ann Arbor, MI
10/21 Cabaret Du Mile End in Montreal, QC
10/22 Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, ON
10/23 Altar Bar in Pittsburgh, PA
10/25 Howard Theatre in Washington, DC
10/26 Trocadero in Philadelphia, PA
10/27 Paradise Rock Club in Boston, MA
10/30 Stage 48 in New York, NY
12/07 The Venue in Vancouver, BC
12/08 The Crocodile in Seattle, WA
12/09 Star Theatre in Portland, OR
12/11 Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, CA
12/12 Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, CA

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Margot and the Nuclear So & So’s/Dinosaur Feathers/Whispertown at Triple Rock, Minneapolis (05/11/12)

Tour Dates 05/12/12 Des Moines, IA Wooly’s * 05/13/12 Omaha, NE The Waiting Room* 05/15/12 Denver, CO Larimer Lounge * 05/16/12 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge * 05/17/12 Boise, ID Neurolux * 05/18/12 Seattle, WA The Crocodile * 05/19/12 Vancouver, BC Media Club * 05/20/12 Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge * 05/22/12 San Francisco, CA Great American* 05/23/12 Los Angeles, CA Bootleg Theater * 05/24/12 Santa Ana, CA Constellation Room * 05/25/12 San Diego, CA The Casbah * 05/26/12 Phoenix, AZ Crescent Ballroom * 05/27/12 Albequerque, NM Launchpad * 05/29/12 Austin, TX Mohawk * 05/30/12 Dallas, TX Trees * 05/31/12 Oklahoma City, OK Opolis* 06/01/12 St. Louis, MO Firebird * 06/02/12 Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall* * w/ Margot and the Nuclear So & So’s Read More Whispertown Whispertown is on tour. New to them? Check out this Getting To Know Morgan Nagler.

Margot & The Nuclear So and So's with Dinosaur Feathers and Whispertown stopped by Minneapolis at the Triple Rock Social Club last night, May 11th. This is an interesting teamup, bands from Indiana, Massachusetts, and California. There's a joke to be had in there somewhere.

Dinosaur Feathers

Funny enough, I once reviewed Dinosaur Feathers in in 2009 and called their EP "pots & pans". There's still that odd wonky bass and experimental side, but they've become evolved into a jam band. Someone in the audience said they reminded them of Vampire Weekender. They seem to be having a good time on stage. They ended their set with "Surprise".

Margot & the Nuclear So and So's

As for Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, I didn't know what to expect. Actually, I was expecting a woman singer, a woman, perhaps named Margot? Nope, this alt-rock (they sound like a band that Alternative Press magazine would love) is a rather big band. The big band is reduced to keys and acoustic for two songs, "A Journalist Falls in Love with Deathrow Inmate..." and "Broadripple Is Burning" (which I think might I prefer when they're more low-key because you can hear singer Richard Edwards' vocals more clearly).

So again, there was no Margot in the band.

I was there to cover Whispertown, aka Whispertown2000, so I took notes on the band. The band is traveling light, reducing them to just Morgan Nagler and her guitarist (sorry, she never introduced him). They did a standard opening short thirty minute set, consisting of seven songs.

I didn't know them well enough to tell you all the songs, but what I can tell you is that they started off with two songs from Parallel ("Open The Other Eye" and "Time Will Welcome Anything"), followed by 'old' songs, "Erase The Lines", "Restless". They ended their set with "The Everybody".

Banter was kept to a minimum; they said they were last in Minneapolis with Margot at the same venue, Triple Rock. They also, apparently, hit a deer, driving up here. I guess they're not used to deer on the roads in California.

This was the second stop in their month-long tour schedule, so check them out if they're coming to your town. Whispertown's Parallel is out now via Acony Records.

Whispertown at Triple Rock, Minneapolis (05/11/12)

vu () ♥ whispertown.com ♥ dinosaurfeathersmusic.blogspot.com ♥ margotandthenuclearsoandsos.net

Earth and Sky, oh my

I am back from vacation, with minimal clumsiness (my ankle's recovering though). I have a ton of music that I'm very excited to get to work on this week. But first is a themed-post, inspired by the Boundary Waters, nature, trees, and wilderness, here are some mostly-free EPs that has found themselves on my iTunes.

LYNHURST
lynhurstmusic.com ♥ myspace.com ♥ twitter.com ♥ myspace.com/theabdomen

Lynhurst - Exactly

Remember last week, when I said I have never heard of Lynhurst? As it turns out, I actually do know who they are. Driving north, I was fumbling through some CDs I was going to listen for review when I came back home, and I pulled out Lynhurst. Immediately, everyone in the car was saying, "That's Abdomen!".

I thought that was really funny, because I have actually seen The Abdomen play before, when they had their dad in the band. So, basically, when Mari joined the band, displacing their father, they changed their name to Lynhurst. Although I think their name change is good to reflect a different band and direction, I'm not quite sure why their biography doesn't list the fact that the were The Abdomen (are the embarrassed that they used to be called The Abdomen?).

Regardless, we now have someone in the car to review the album later.

VENICE IS SINKING veniceissinking.net ♥ myspace Venice is Sinking - Compass Venice Is Sinking is from REM-hometown Athens, Georgia. They've been enjoying some great press, by the likes of NPR, Paste, and Under the Radar. So when they offered me tracks from their forthcoming digital EP called Okay (out September 22th), I did give it a chance. The EP includes two cover songs, "Compass" and "Give Up", but despite being a cover lover, I'm not as hip to know that those songs were originally by a band called Okay (which I am assuming they named their song and EP as tribute to the band). One of those cover songs was made available early as a free download via Some Velvet Blog. Here's some touring information: 09/19/09 Kindercore Records & Owl  Athens, GA 10/03/09 Lawrence University Appleton, WI 10/29/09 New Brookland Tavern Columbia, SC 10/30/09 Union Hall Brooklyn, New York 11/01/09 Snug Harbor Charlotte, NC If you can't wait until September 22nd, you can get the EP early for $3.99 at download punk. Incidentally, I did read that their press company record label/comic book company is One Percent Press, which is based in Minneapolis. I snooped around their website, they look quite fanziney, which is cool.		THE CO-OP co-opsounds.com ♥ myspace Lisa Piccirillo, Patrick Thomas - Night Time Is The Right Time (To Be With The One You Love) The Co-Op Spring 09 Sampler is a free 4-track sampler that you can download from the community of musicians called coopsounds.com. I did check the sampler, which went down quite easy and smoothly. My instant favorite is this 30-ish cover song called "Night Time Is The Right Time (To Be With The One You Love)" by Lisa Piccirillo and Patrick Thomas. Thomas does great bluesy vocals, while Piccirillo pour out the soulful portion of the song. Seems Thomas is offering a a free song every month. Piccirillo is doing a few dates in the Northeastern area: 09/16/09 Caffe Lena Saratoga Springs, NY 09/17/09 Perks Coffehouse Norwood, MA 10/09/09 Pioneer Arts Center Of Easthampton, MA 10/10/09 River Arts Morrisville, VT Off Central was also keen on having me check out the free Upswing EP from Syd (one of the founding member of Co-Op). Syd sounds like an acoustic singer/songfolker, which I will confess that we get too many acoustic singer/songwriter. You can also follow Syd on twitter or in real life: 09/15/09 University of Rutgers - Camden, NJ 09/16/09 University of Delaware Newark, DE 09/18/09 IOTA Club & Cafe Arlington, VA 09/19/09 World Cafe Live (Upstairs) Philadelphia, PA 09/27/09 The Monkey House Winooski, VT 09/29/09 University of Maine-Augusta Augusta, ME 09/30/09 University of Maine - Bangor Bangor, ME
DINOSAUR FEATHERS dinosaurfeathers.com ♥ myspace Dinosaur Feathers - Parallel July Even if I'm wrong about assuming that Dinosaur Feathers is a brand new band, based out of New York, just their name "dinosaur" alone makes me think they've been around for ages. Their free EP Early Morning Risers is available for download on their official website. It's a mixture of experimental warps, pots & pans, and gurgling vocal effects, which I can't say is to my liking - but there are legion of fans out there that loves this sort of sound. Where Feathers is good is when they have some melody harmony - as found on the singing and guitar parts of "Parallel July". I feel that the music sounds like Caribbean or World music, which is interesting for a US-based band... but not too surprising considering that singer Greg spent some time in Africa. Looks like the band will be taking over CMJ this year: 10/08/09 The Studio NY 10/10/09 State Capital Records Release Brooklyn 10/20/09 Cross Pollination CMJ Showcase 10/20/09-10/24/09 CMJ 2009 New York		JENNY GILLESPIE jenny-gillespie.com ♥ myspace.com/jennygillespie Jenny Gillespie - Vanishing Point Jenny Gillespie is a young singer/songwriter from Chicago, Illinois. Her debut album Light Year was released earlier this year (2009). Well, I would hardly call 8 tracks an album (more like a really extra long EP), but it does clock about 40 minutes, so technically it is an LP. Like the cover artwork indicate, this is a mellow, easy-to-listen to record. Gillespie's voice is usually the main focus, although the occasional pianos ("Hydra") or violas ("Vanishing Point") does take the spotlight sometimes. I thought "Vanishing Point" is a great introductory song to Gillespie - you can head over to the official website for a free download of the song. If you like this, you should definitely give her debut 2004 EP, Love and Ammunition a try. It's free on archive.org. Light Years can be purchased via MP3 at amazon or iTunes. Also, she'll be playing at Uncommon Ground on Devon on October 8th.

 09/15/2009 17:01:10 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com