The Current Music Blog: March 1, 2007 Archive

Live On Air Blogging 3/1/07

Posted at 9:01 AM on March 1, 2007 by Barb Abney (4 Comments)

You don't need me to tell you to drive safely this evening. If you're curious about what your route home will look like check it out here.

Tunes On The Telly Tonight:
Silversun Pickups on Carson Daly (Night 3 of 4)
Son Volt on Conan

My 3 Songs for Thursday March 1st 2007

Sara, a St. Paul native who now calls Brooklyn home says she found a set that could satisfy even the hardest to please musical hipsters every time.
T. Rex - Bang A Gong
Spoon - I Turn My Camera On
Beulah - A Good Man Is Easy To Kill

Make your My 3 Songs requests here.

Noon-ish
Could there be an Afghan Whigs novel? Check out the blog post from this site dated 2/15!

11:26
I just played a local tune from Omaur Bliss. Check out his upcoming dates and such here.

10:45am
Earlier I played a set of covers. Joya Landis' take on "Angel Of The Morning". New Mommy, Beth Orton coverring The 5 Stairsteps and DeVotchka's version of "Venus In Furs". Last week there was a lively discussion on our blog about cover tunes. If you missed it, take this opportunity to chime in!

10:13
Today on our Song Of The Day Podcast we're featuring The Arcade Fire's "Black Mirror" the first single from the forthcoming album Neon Bible. The new disk is finally going to be released on Tuesday! You've heard about them playing in churches. Last week they played SNL and sparked quite a conversation over here. They're selling out every date they announce, including Coachella. They are so hot that if you did a Google blog search you'd have enough reading to get you through the weekend. Find more info on their site/fansite or on the Myspace page.

9:22
The Last Town Chorus is releasing the Wire Waltz album next Tuesday. Learn more about the lady with the lap steel guitar and hear her version of "Modern Love" here.

9:05
Less than a month ago Evil Evil records released 200 copies of AWOO on 12" vinyl. - The sleeves are designed and hand silkscreened by Will Munro. Get yours here.

Comment on this post

Song of the Day: Arcade Fire's "Black Mirror"

Posted at 10:16 AM on March 1, 2007 by Christina Schmitt (9 Comments)

If you haven't downloaded today's Song of the Day free podcast, why not? You got something better to do?

Seriously, though, the new one from Arcade Fire is lovely darkness--with a string section. For some reason, it makes me feel like going swimming, gliding underwater until I'm out of breath. I don't think a song has ever made me want to go swimming before. Weird.

Comment on this post

Linnea Said "I'm Not Busy Enough"..

Posted at 1:54 PM on March 1, 2007 by Danny Sigelman

Ran into the incredibly talented Linnea Mohn at ye ol' coffee shoppe yesterday and got caught up on what she's been up to(not to mention a reccomendation for a particularily hot cinnamon roll!).

Aside from being a star and writer for the TV show, Nate on Drums, Linnea plays in great bands, Coach Said Not To(with her equally talented sister) and Skirt.

Because she just isn't busy enough, she'll also be starring in an upcoming theater production at the Bryant Lake Bowl.

In meantime there's a great opportunity to see CSNT at the upcoming "Talking Volumes" at the lovely, Fitzgerald Theater in a couple of weeks.

Coach Says check it out!!

Lazy and Lovely

Posted at 2:18 PM on March 1, 2007 by Steve Seel

Whatever you think of the music of the band Six Parts Seven, you might have an opinion on the idea of direct and unironic music that exists simply to "curl up inside your ear" and make you happy, as bandleader Al Karpinski said during their in-studio performance. Is there enough room in rock for music that is unabashedly pretty? Is pretty "uncool?" Personally, not only do I not think so, but I'm a bit tired of a particular prejudice I perceive against stuff that might be described as "lovely" or "elegant." Those aren't very rock 'n roll words, in a traditional sense. But I think rock is big enough for those adjectives.

If you listened to Six Parts Seven's in-studio today, I hope you enjoyed it. I thought it went quite nicely with the snow.

Sacred Love

Posted at 8:11 PM on March 1, 2007 by Tony Lopez (14 Comments)

Every now and then, I've wondered how it is that punk rock didn't become more of a vehicle for black artistic and personal self-expression. With punk's natural themes of alienation and isolation, it seems like we would have seen a lot more black punk bands during its birth. I saw a documentary recently that shed light on this subject, "Afro-Punk." I knew that bands like Fishbone, Suicidal Tendencies and Dead Kennedys were important in getting out, among other things, the fact that punk rock wasn't an exclusively "white" experience, despite all the punk rock and hardcore stereotypes. But I also knew there had to be more to it than that.

In "Afro-Punk," James Spooner chronicles the black experience in punk rock. He traveled all over America: east and west coasts, upper Midwest and deep South. We come to find, through interviews and concert footage, that black punks have been there from the very beginning and have dealt with a whole host of issues independent of the music itself: being alone in a sea of white faces at the clubs, harsh treatment at the hands of other blacks outside the punk scene, lack of family acceptance, and even misapprehension of punks by each other.

One scene was basically an exercise in cognitive dissonance. New York City's hardcore/metal band Cipher's frontman is a guy named Moe Mitchell. While a roomful of white hardcore punks slam, Moe shouts a song describing the cruelties of the Middle Passage and calling for reparations. The irony seemed lost on the audience but not to Moe and the rest of the band.

The interviews are sharp and compelling and Spooner never inserts himself into the film. He leaves it to the scenesters and musicians to tell the story of black punk. We get interviews with members of Fishbone, Orange 9mm and TV on the Radio.

And we get a friendly reminder that the greatest, nastiest and hardest hardcore punk band was black!

Comment on this post