On a recent trip to San Francisco one of my friends discovered/became mildly obsessed with a malt liquor energy drink called Joose. It's like Sparks, but has a higher alcohol content and is flavored to taste kind of like, well, juice. When we returned we were directed by another friend to the Joose Website, and the wide variety of amazing theme songs that they have created. Naturally someone has turned all of those theme songs into a montage on YouTube:
The brilliant part is how they manage to work the alcohol content into the songs.
I apologize for my lack of blogging lately. I just haven't had much time to rummage through the internets for interesting new bands, or spend any significant length of time processing my feelings for old pop songs. Though I do have a new article posted on Web in Front. You can read it for yourself here, if you feel so inclined... It's actually more about the way people develop their relationships with pop songs. More musings about specific songs and bands will be forthcoming.
Oh, but Tullycraft did finally add their cover of "On Tape" to their Myspace page. Check it out here. Now if they would only plan a West Coast tour...
Both Tartans singles are officially for sale. Both are worth picking up due to the outstanding artwork, and the sound quality that can only be found when you listen to a song on vinyl. Order them here, and here please.
I should add, in the interest of full disclosure, that that is the last mention of how fantastic the Tartans are as a band around these parts. Through the course of booking so many shows for them (you know, cause they are so fantastic as a band) I've actually gotten to be pretty good friends with all of them. Therefore it seems kind of strange to go on about this amazing band that I'm hanging out with a lot. I think I was beginning to sound redundant at this point anyway. You can still count on me for updates though. Really, them and the entire YAY! roster are about 75 percent of what keeps me paying attention to new music, and somewhat relevant.
Though while I am on the subject of new music, I should note that you can STILL pick up a copy of the "Wild Eyes" 7" from Vivian Girls on Plays With Dolls Records. The easiest way to do so is via their Myspace page. The vinyl pressing of their debut full length were sold out before they even finished the tour that they were on at the time. It will be reissued by In the Red Records this fall. Have I mentioned how excited I get when it seems like a large percentage of the population is getting excited about a band that is so directly influenced by Black Tambourine?!? Well, I do.
AND last but not least, the reason for the majority of my lack of attention to blogging lately: We are finally starting a regular dance night!!!
Our very own indiepop and norther soul dance night called Hungry Beat! to be more specific. It will take place on the last Saturday of every month at Pehrspace starting on September 27. The good people of Club Substance are involved. All of them have pretty much the best record collections I've seen in real life. And Yvonne Sone (yes she of Tartans fame) did a fabulous job of making our page look pretty so please go there right now and make us your new friends! We're just slightly giddy about this...
Alright, that's all I have. Bye for now!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Well, given that the number of bands directly influenced by Black Tambourine THROUGHOUT HISTORY pretty much consists of... Henry's Dress, and... I guess you could make a case for Tiger Trap?
Oh, and presumably Velocity Girl. Should they count? Bright Coloured Lights? What?
I'll say this much -- the Vivian Girls are definitely more toward the Tiger Trap end of that spectrum (which, notwithstanding my love for the Henry's Dress EP, is most likely a good thing), if not quite as good as Tiger Trap themselves. (Of course.)
But given how much I love the general sound of the... genre? Is it a genre?... and the fact that NOBODY PLAYS THIS KIND OF MUSIC, I guess I'm obligated to love them. And fortunately, they don't exactly make it difficult.
It should be interesting to see what the next step is, though. It's baffling enough that there weren't a bunch of Black Tambourine-influenced bands in the early '90s, when their existence would've made sense. It seems odd that this sound would make a reappearance now, but does this suddenly become a thing now? And if so, is that good, or is it going to turn out like that time that a bunch of British people suddenly thought, "hey, why weren't there more bands that sounded like Josef K?"
I mean, I don't know -- if it is the latter, I might find something to enjoy in it anyway. I mean, I wasn't crazy about Josef K to begin with; they basically just sounded like a less fun Orange Juice, right? (That's J-single U-I-C-E.) Whereas I almost feel like anyone who would try to play Black Tambourine-esque music probably has a good idea of what music should sound like.
Anyway, sorry for rambling... please don't think I'm a crazy person. I just have Thoughts and Concerns about this Vivian Girls album, and don't happen to know anyone to talk about it with.
Ramble here any time!
I completely agree. I'm not as crazy about Vivian Girls as I am about Black Tambourine or any of the influenced/related projects that you mentioned. I suppose that you could also make a case for certain Aislers Set songs in that category as well. Funny how all of the related projects released music for Slumberland too.
I think we have a lot of the same troubles and concerns with the Vivian Girls record, I hadn't heard the entire record when I posted this. I suppose though, that there is so little new music that I can relate to, and enjoy when I hear something that does seem relate-able I have a knee jerk reaction, and want to geek out about it. The fact that so many people have picked up on this, and are enjoying it is still quite confusing, but kind of exciting. I listen to that Black Tambourine record all of the time and think, why don't more people get this? So the fact that people are getting behind a band that clearly has that band as an influence I suppose it's a good thing?
I worry about the similar sounding follow up bands that will likely ensue as well, if this does become a really popular sound. I'd like to assume the positive outlook that you presented. That anyone who starts a band like this will be smart enough to keep the music good. This could also be the time when musicians like Pam Berry, Rose Melberg, Amelia Fletcher, Liz Price, Alex Taylor, Annabel Wright, Katrina Mitchell, Johnny Johnson etc. will get the credit that they deserve in terms of their contributions to pop music.
I guess the biggest potential problem with follow up bands could be a similar one to the Josef K equation that you mentioned. Bands taking on the style, but failing to retain the substance.
It's already happening though, so I guess all we can do is watch how it all plays out...
Post a Comment