Boxcar Rebellion and/or The Katherine Moore Situation

So Friday night (last night), nattily attired (as usual) and smartly groomed (also as usual), I strolled downtown to the famous Blue Moon Tavern, where so many of my illustrious forebears have swapped tales, wisdom, and unnamed substances while enjoying the very best of Seattle's indie music.

Anticipating a great show from The Katherine Moore Situation, I walked up to the tavern's blue-neon-lit front door... only to be confronted by a sign: 21+ Only. Undaunted, I continued into the tavern - where I was promptly asked for ID. Having not yet walked this earth for 21 years, and not being among those who have acquired documents that claim (with whatever amount of prevarication) that they have, I took my leave, muttering various imprecations under my (as always) fresh breath.

Walking about Seattle's University District, sipping on a green tea latte and various balms for my slightly wounded ego, I took the opportunity to whip out (in a manner not unlike Cleavon Little) my mp3 player and listen to Boxcar Rebellion's new EP.

Boxcar Rebellion, it should be noted, is not The Katherine Moore Situation. But it's close! ...in that it shares some of the same musicians and some of the same songs. Two of those songs in common are embedded with this post, and the energetic, soul-fuelled blues that fills them is really cool to listen to. You can download the whole EP - six songs - from BoxcarRebellion.com for free, if you feel like it. I haven't been able to find any mp3s from The Katherine Moore Situation, but you can listen to a lot of their music on their Myspace. Good stuff.

Boxcar Rebellion - Hallelujah


Boxcar Rebellion - Kansas


In News From My Life... I've spent the last couple of days looking for apartments, and I've put in an application for a studio about a mile from the UW (that's the University of Washington, for all you proles out there). With luck, I'll have a place to live by the first of September. Seattle so far is a little bit overwhelming - it's a heckuva lot more crowded than Deland - but I've got a feeling that after I get settled, I'm going to love it.

Have a great Saturday afternoon, everyone! Enjoy the tunes!

I'm in Seattle! So... here's a band from the UK!

And by 'band' I mean it's one girl, Laura Groves. And she's awesome.

Groves, performing as 'Blue Roses', makes use of guitar, piano, and her spectacular voice - a pure, girlish soprano that, especially when layered as it is on 'Cover Your Tracks", the second song I'm embedding in this post, floats with magnificent innocence around the organic, almost minimalist accompaniment - to create some really, really amazing music. She says on her MySpace page that she likes "writing songs for instruments I can't play yet and making choirs out of my voice." She does it well. I've embedded the first two tracks from her self-titled debut album.

Blue Roses - Greatest Thoughts


Blue Roses - Cover Your Tracks


In an update from me... I flew out to Seattle today. It was a long trip, but went smoothly. Tomorrow, I'll be looking at apartments, trying to find a place to live for the upcoming year or more. Friday night, I'll (hopefully) be heading over to catch a show by The Katherine Moore Situation - I'll let y'all know how that goes.

Have a great night!

Fun times for the fun guys and gals

Hey guys, got a couple of songs to get you through your week. Up first is by a group my friend just introduced me, The Happy Bullets. If You Were Mine is a catchy, smart song from their album The Vice and Virtue Ministry. They also get bonus points for mentioning Kierkegaard in the song. Second is by Coconut Records, the solo project of Jason Schwartzman. Schwartzman is a really talented musician and actor, and his song Nighttiming is an excellent example of his musical prowess.

	Coconut Records - Nighttiming
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

And while we're talking about Schwartzman, get excited for the movie Fantastic Mr. Fox. The movie is based on Roald Dahl's book of the same name. (not sure what the plot is still, I'll try to find out). Wes Anderson's first animated movie includes his familiar vanguard: Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, and Owen Wilson. November 13th, 2009 is the release date, so everyone has plenty of time to wait impatiently. If you haven't seen any movies by Wes Anderson, check out Rushmore. You'll see why you should be excited.

Disco, Baby!

Got a couple of new bands for y'all to check out today, coming back strong after a great weekend!

First off: The Phenomenal Handclap Band

I dithered around for a little bit about whether to post this group, mostly because they've been getting a lot of hype - they were featured in Playboy's list of bands to watch for 2009, for example, and their Myspace page (linked to from the band name in the preceding paragraph) has gotten more than three hundred thousand views. So... they might be a little under the radar, but they're not exactly unknown. A few factors worked in their favor, though: (1) they have an amazing name (2) they have a great sound (as you'll hear from the track I've embedded, "15 to 20" (3) their label, Truth and Soul, isn't what you might call The Man (4) did I mention that they have an amazing name?

The Phenomenal Hand Clap Band - 15 to 20



Second: The Golden Silvers

Another band that's gotten a good deal of hype lately, except they haven't come across the pond yet and made themselves known in the US. The Golden Silvers have been doing their thing in London for a couple of years now, and their debut album, True Romance, came out in April (but is still listed as "unavailable in your country" on several websites I checked). Really fun stuff here, and very distinctly British (and as we all know: there's no music more fun than fun British music! wait... what?). Hard not to enjoy.

The Golden Silvers - Arrows of Eros

Show Time

     Hey everyone, Jack here. I wanted to weigh in for a second and remind all the central Floridians that on Friday, the 21st (as in 2 days), My Dayglo Rehab and Two Piece Chicken Dinner will be playing at The Abbey in Deland, Florida. I ran into these guys here downtown a few days ago at the Remembering Woodstock festival and they're pumped. This should prove to be a good show! (Trust me, they always entertain). I've got no music to showcase just yet as I've been way preoccupied preparing for this semester, but Mike is holding us down and Tyce has some on the way. I promise soon I'll have some baller music to jam out to, but for now, check out the My Dayglo Rehab and Two Piece Chicken Dinner Myspace pages for some sweet tunes.
Two Piece Chicken Dinner
My Dayglo Rehab

...And Now, For Something Completely Different.

Lest I become known as "The AAH Guy Who Only Blogs About Slow Music", I present to you: The Paper Chase.

Or, possibly, the pAper chAse. Or something. I'm not exactly sure how to capitalize this band's name... which is never a good sign that their music will be of high quality (other signs that a band might be of doubtful quality: random exclamation points, tight pants, fauxhawks).

The Paper Chase, though, are an exception - because, to put it bluntly, they rock.

Not in quite the way you might expect. Huge guitar riffs are at a premium. There's not a whole lot that's, to use a familiar term, 'pretty'. Pitchfork Mag said in their review of The Paper Chase's newest album, "Someday This Could All Be Yours (Part 1)", that "The songs here are composed of nasty little things-- tingling bits of piano wire, piercing guitar squawk, flatted thirds, minor seconds."

The Paper Chase, however, are weirdly addictive. The YouTube video I've embedded here is the song "Said The Spider To The Fly", which was on their 2004 album "God Bless Your Black Heart", and it's a perfect example of what I'm talking about.



These two songs are from their new album -

The Laying Of Hands, The Speaking In Tongues (The Mass Hysteria)


What Should We Do With Your Body? (The Lightning)

Horse Feathers! Are Awesome!

So this band I'm talking about today, Horse Feathers, they haven't gotten a lot of hype or airplay... but they really should.

Why?

They're freakin' awesome, that's why. They produce intricate melodic arrangements anchored firmly within the folk and jazz traditions they're clearly working from, making use of fresh, surprising harmonies and instruments, and all tied together by lead singer Justin Ringle's throaty, soulful musings, and occasionally enlivened by bright bursts of violin and cello - check out the sudden arrival of the violin at about the 1:00 mark of "Honest Doubters" - it's really quality stuff, and, to me, about as good as you're likely to find anywhere.

So - check out Horse Feathers. I've loaded two of the songs from their "Words are Dead" album... hope you enjoy them!

Hardwood Pews:


Honest Doubters:


In News From My Life (TM), I'm off to Seattle in about a week and a half... time to get ready, start packing, and (hopefully) find an apartment! I'll also be turning 21 shortly after my arrival there... we'll see how that goes. I'm for sure looking forward to experiencing that culture (given that I've lived in the Southeast most of my life) and continuing to find awesome new music!

Have a great day, everyone!

Thursday Night Spotlight

     Well fresh off the cutting board here it is, your Thursday Night Spotlight. Are you partying tonight? Just hanging out? Well let us give you some music to jump around to! (This Fall Out Boy remix is insane)

Flo Rida/Katy Perry Mashup - I Kissed Right Round A Girl
Fall Out Boy - I Don't Care (Tommie Sunshine & Mightyfools Remix)
King of Leon VS Chew Fu - Use Somebody (Chew Fu Festival Mix)
Jet - Genius (Jaimie Fanatic Remix)

     In other news, I just received an email from My Dayglo Rehab saying that on August 21st they will be playing at The Abbey in Deland, Florida along with Two Piece Chicken Dinner. Both of these bands sound awesome. I'll be there, I recommend that you do the same. I'll remind you all again next week just for good measure, But for now, go get your party on!

Update Time

     Well hello everyone! Firstly, I'd like to say welcome to our newest writer, Mike. Mike's moving out to Seattle pretty soon, so we'll be sure to be getting complete country coverage..not bad right? Anyway, I've been busy, busy moving into my new place and painting it bright yellow so I haven't paid total attention to AAH, but I have been listening to a ton of music while doing all the work in here so I guess I'll post of some of the songs.

     The first band is maybe a little bit more 'mainstream' than we usually talk about, but then again, you may not have ever heard them. I keep hearing people say that New Orleans based MUTEMATH is going to be the next big thing, or that they're going to blow up soon..and it never seems to come true(it seems). Which is weird, because these guys rock so hard. MUTEMATH's song Typical dropped with an awesome video in 2007 on Youtube that caused a lot of 'How'd that happen!?' (check out that link). MUTEMATH's newer release, Spotlight, also has a pretty neat video. It was filmed in a moving van all in one take and took twelve minutes of constant driving and filming to create. Low budget and awesome. Spotlight was the feature track for that movie..ya know, the one all about teen age vampires..or something like that..Twilight. Ugh. Anyway I know this isn't a totally revolutionary post, but these guys deserve it. Check out this video.

     The next guy is someone you may have heard before in a different band. The singer from Interpol, Paul Banks, has recorded a solo album under the name Julian Plenti. It's definitely a little bit 'edgier' than some of the Interpol sound. I think I like it. His Album Skyscraper dropped on the 4th of August. Go pick it up would ya?

     Lastly I leave you with Friendly Fire's single, Paris which is a song I just enjoy and hopefully you will too.

Julian Plenti - Fun That We Have (Directly Linked from Matablog)
Friendly Fires - Paris

(P.S. I'm not going to say much but we may have an exclusive with an AWESOME band coming up. Look forward to it)

Greetings from the New Guy

So - hi there! I'm Mike, and I'm the newest member of the AAH family.

About me: 6'4", 190 lbs, brown hair, gray eyes, straight-up all-American dreamboat... what? That's not what you're looking for?

I'll try this, then: the music I go for tends (in the broadest, least specific sense of the word) to be somewhat contemplative; I find myself listening to a lot of chilled-out, acoustic, pseudo-philosophical (or, on a good day, philosophical) music... mostly, I suppose, of the indie variety; I don't keep track of Billboard, and have curious gaps in my musical knowledge.

If you made it through that teal deer (no relation to Deer Tick), you deserve music!

Joon is a band from Lakeland, Florida that's been doing some really neat things lately. They've picked up reviews from the St. Petersburg Times and the Orlando Weekly, among others, and a couple of months ago did a show (with somewhat disastrous results, unfortunately, due to plural snafus by the facility's sound guy) at the Florida Music Festival.

More importantly, though, they've got a really cool sound - one they on their site describe as "Pink Floyd doing the nasty with Kraftwerk while listening to Timbaland", but I'd call a sweet, multilayered, homegrown electronic stew.

This track, from their album The Uncanny Valley, is available for free (along with a handful of other songs) on their LastFM site - give it a try:



Have a great evening, everyone! Hopefully, this will be the first post of many.

Civic Duty Update

     Yes, as the header reads, I served the beginning of my three day civic duty yesterday, had the glory of being selected as an esteemed juror and privileged with a two day case. Which means no day off before going back to work! But hey, I get to meet some new people, I guess.
Anyway, I do have some new music that's been stuck in my head; so let's get that out shall we?

     The other day I moved from where I was living this summer to where I'll be for the next year and this band provided me with a soundtrack. And oh what a soundtrack! Attack! Attack! may break the normal sound we post here but I'm eating it up, I love this sound and these guys hit the nail on the head. The music makes me feel like a Fall Out Boy meets Academy Is... sound but I could be totally off base. Anyway, what I do know is that they rock. Attack! Attack! and their self titled album is pretty great. My only worry with this new pop punk sound is that sometimes the albums get jaded quickly. Let's hope not this one. I couldn't find this image without the VOTE on it, but this is an amazing poster, seriously some Primal Rage going on there. Love it. As usual I'll have a song at the end of this for you to hear. (There are some songs that sound even better on the album, but this is the single).

     Alright, so you know The Matches I'm guessing? Well they've all been busy doing things in different parts of the globe preparing to record their new stuff. But two of them (Jake and Shawn) created a band called Maniac who's goal is to take the Billboard top artist of every week and write a cover of it. Here's their rendition of I Gotta Feeling .


     Ok, so also on the burner today is a free Weezer 8-bit album. Yes, 8-bit, so all the songs sound like a Gameboy from when we were all kids. I don't really know the use for it, but it's sure entertaining. Check out the song below, and get the album FREE from Pterodactyl Squad HERE
Also, because I don't feel like this is a very quality update, I've got another band that's currently beginning to blow up all of the sudden..I'm just not sure how I feel about it yet.
Owl City is a guy named Adam Young who people are saying sounds a lot like Death Cab for Cutie, and I partially agree, but it reminds me a lot of Jack's Mannequin also. I am actually kind of diggin' this sound though. Check it out

Attack! Attack! - Honesty
Weezer - Buddy Holly (8-bit)
Owl City - Fireflies

On another note, I think if you gave me a salary for it, I would definitely have jury duty as my job. Though, I'd like a little more legroom. It's pretty cool to work with a group of strangers who have good senses of humor, and this group does. Pretty neat.