November 08, 2004

The Teeth. Just say no to politics: Here are some local bands that have MP3s on the web, and that I think deserve more notice. Who are your local bands?

The first one is from The Teeth, an angular post-punk band. Lots of fun live, and their songs are brief. The second one is The Scars, whose singer used to be a 4AD chanteuse (notably on His Name Is Alive discs). They're thick and swampy shoegaze, with a tightly-coiled bass underbelly. The Versificators (named after music producing machines in 1984 play accoustic protest punk somewhere between Dead Kennedys and Violent Femmes. Nomo (click on "songs" link) are our very own Afrobeat orchestra, though they've got a little more in common with '70s ensemble jazz (Think "Africa Brass" and "Moto Grosso Feio") than Fela. The Avatars are a half-Detroit, half-Argentinean band that plays delightful New Wave rock and roll. Also check out their label, No Fun Records, for a dose of world-spanning garage and psych from bands like Thee Butchers Orchestra and Thee Coronados. There's also lo-fi fun from Animal, who's on Executive Bird on a Legislative Branch records. And click on the "Sounds" link for a sampler of We're Twins records, and here's some noise from Stop-eject. Something for everybody! (Except hip-hop, though I could always do another post on that)... So... You folks with local scenes, who are the best and the brightest? If you're in NY, try to limit your selections to your neighborhood. If you're in Montana, well, hell, feel free to namedrop everyone in Montana.

posted by js 20 years ago
  • fighting gravity (mp3s under discography section.) carbon leaf (media -> discography) I am sorry the developers of both sites made stupid design decisions to make your life more difficult.
  • Both from Richmond? Carbon Leaf played here last month. I'll reserve judgement, as people already seem to think me an ass. Richmond's a pretty big place though, isn't it?
  • Paik - Thick drone rock with shoegaze elements and puts on the best live show I've ever seen.
  • JS, thanks for the links. I've been looking for more local bands to check out.
  • We don't have many good bands here in Wales, there are a couple of good ones. Melys are a really good little indie-pop band, with a female singer who has an excellent voice. They sing in both English and Welsh. There's another band called Zabrinski too, but they don't seem to have much of a presence on the web, which is a shame. They sound a little bit like the Super Furry Animals, ie completely barking mad psychadelic pop craziness.
  • AFX- Come now, those aren't the only bands in Wales! What about Gorky's? (Thanks for the link). Shawnj- Maybe you should read the Current (I'm not gonna link to the website, as it's atrocious). I try to do a good job with the rock coverage (though I'm just a columnist, and not the editor). And I'll check out Paik.
  • [Paik's giving me odd Flash errors right now... Maybe when I'm on a better computer...]
  • The charmingly noisy Rockethouse, formerly Alien Love Feed or Aerial Love Field or some other variation that I could never remember. As it happens, playing at Pianos in NYC tonight.
  • Wales used to have loads of good bands. Just sayin'. My local band - The Gin Palace (mp3s of live set on Resonance FM, the astoundingly good London art station). One of the guys works in the cool little arthouse video store about three minutes from me. That's local as in 'just down the road' - if you broaden it out to 'roughly the same part of the city', then, well, East London's not doing badly right now... I'm sure you know about The Libertines, but maybe you've not heard Babyshambles - Pete "I was in The Libertines until they kicked me out because of my crippling heroin and crack addiction" Doherty's new band. They're pretty great. The Others are fellow-travellers with the Libs, very raw (video there, couldn't find decent mp3s). Yeah, and Wiley (Dizzee Rascal's mate) is good fun - go to the A/V section, check out "What Do U Call It?". I need to get into Grime a bit more. Patrick Wolf is a genius, and certainly used to be a very nice young man. Don't know if he still is a very nice young man, but he might well be. Haven't seen him in ages. Video again, sorry. Also, The Vichy Government are the best band in the world, bar none. There's no mp3s there, or any media at all, but I'm telling you about them because they're excellent. They write wonky, angry, minimalist electronic ironopop, they're reputedly one of Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe's favourite bands, and I'm mentioned in one of their songs. It doesn't get any better than that.
  • Oh, and Bloc Party. Some music journalists seem to have decided that they're going to be this year's Franz Ferdinand. Hmmm. I'm a bit sceptical. Here's an mp3, though, and here's another one. I dunno. Maybe they'll grow on me.
  • and I'm mentioned in one of their songs Good to know you have no conflict of interest in your review :) Actually, I love promoting people I know, though it never gets me any direct benefit. It's just the fun of helping people I like, and sharing what I know is great with others.
  • Toronto: Danko Jones The Constantines Cuff the Duke The Deadly Snakes Shotmaker (defunct) Bob Wiseman [mp3] Shikasta Lullabye Arkestra [mp3] Do Make Say Think Herschel Savage and the American Flag Jon-Rae Fletcher and the River Pony Da Look Slutarded I Am Robot and Proud Controller.Controller Death From Above 1979 C'mon Polmo Polpo [mp3] Rockets Red Glare (defunct) [mp3] Pretty much anyone on Three Gut Records
  • Dobbs: I know Jones, Constantines, Snakes, Lullabye, Do Make and DFA1979 (well, to be fair, knew them as DFA before NY hipsters fought back). But thanks for the heads up on the rest. Thanks for the Redcoats, Flashboy. How big is East London?
  • js: I'm a big fan of Gorky's, but I thought they were a little too established and well-known to plug in a thread about "local bands".
  • A few of my favorite hometown (Houston) bands and players that nobody's ever heard of: The Buddhacrush Jiggernaut (appears to be down right now) The Flying Fish Sailors E.J. Jones (also of the late, lamented Clandestine) The Lager Rhythms My husband and I ran in Celtic music circles, so the bands I know bias strongly that way. The Houston Chronicle has a web page devoted to local bands with MP3s, which is a Good Thing in my opinion.
  • Dallas has some good bands, but when I go to concerts, they're usually in Denton, a very concert-friendly town half an hour north of here that's been graced by fun southern bands like Rilo Kiley many times before. Denton seems to be the Iceland of indie rock, disproportionately churning out great music here and there, but maybe that's just my imagination. Denton's Heaven is a Hotel is probably the best band out there that hasn't actually created anything artistically original yet still sounds great (they've got fun web design to boot). Check them out if you're bored, at least. Midlake on the other hand are simply incredible, one of my fave bands ever, just because their sound is unbelievably original. A mashup of Flaming Lips, Radiohead circa The Bends, and Bright Eyes might be a good start, but even that really doesn't come close. If there's one band here that you try out, let it be this; I didn't even know they were a local band until a few months after I bought their CD, but it was already a favorite of my collection. I had a song of theirs on my MoFi Swap mix, and will probably have another on the next one. I highly recommend them. Tree Wave is from Dallas. They're lots of fun if you're looking for something electronic sounding without being too soulless. They use old equipment like Commodore 64s and Ataris to make their music, and you'd never guess just by listening to it. The results are surprisingly much more organic than you'd probably expect, drawing more from guitar rock then electronica or dance. The Polyphonic Spree (warning: obnoxious Flash usage) is from Dallas, I think. If not, they spend an extremely disproportionate amount of time here. Midlake, Tree Wave, and The Spree (as my posse and I call them) all have have close ties (I don't know the technicalities of eacb) to Good Records, a CD store-cum-record label thingumy which I visit often. You should too if you're ever in the area; they're the central nexus of all independent music in the Dallas/Fort Worth/Denton area.
  • MFB- I see your Heaven is a Hotel, call with The Fuzz. (The Fuzz are semi-local, the Detachment Kit are not). Enjoyed both of the above, already knew of the Spree, haven't had a chance to listen to the Tree Wave yet.
  • Oops, fuckered the comment. See your Heaven is a Hotel, call with The Detachment Kit, and reply to your MidLake with The Fuzz. If you like Midlake, buy Noise Destroyer today. It's great (if a little too Lipsish)...
  • Shawnj and AFX- Man, both Paik and Melys only have, like, 30 second samples. That pisses me off, no matter how good the band is. I'm not gonna be able to see one of their shows (well, with Paik I will) and buy the disc there, and I want to get a good feeling for them. 30 seconds or a minute is just too damn brief unless they're speed metal.
  • Menomena (Mp3) Their website may give you seizures. Just a warning.
  • Sorry about that. I was going to warn you that the samples on the site really don't do them justice (And the album that the samples are from isn't their best work). I could send you a CD if you're interested.
  • Thanks for the tip about Good Records, Mfpb 2 21. My inlaws are in Dallas, and I will be due to visit sometime next year, so I'll have to check it out.
  • not a problem, immlass... ask for Paul and tell him Martin sent you.
  • js - Paik at the Detroit Art Space on Dec 3rd.