Show on the Road: The Aquadolls are touring the US this fall.

Uh, hi world.

I wrote about The Aquadolls four years ago when their LP Stoked on You wound up in my inbox.

Has it really been four years already?? Man, time flies when you're... in relationships and also doing a grad degree.

Anyway, they released another LP, the dream and the deception, late last year, and now three-woman mermaid rock band is hitting the road starting in September:

Dates include 10/22 at Baby's All Right in Brooklyn. Please go for me, because guess what, I'm not living in the US right now. 😢 (Why does this always happen??)

Here's their latest cut, "suck on this":

Stuck In My Head : Pony Pony Run Run, "Hey You" (Mondkopf remix)

I don't know why I don't read FluoKids more often, because every time I hop over there, I think, "I wish I was writing this blog." Or like, I would have found out that La Fleche was closing down way earlier than I did find out. (NOOOOOOOOOOOOO I cannot tell you how HEARTBROKEN I am over that. IF YOU MOVE IN NEXT TO A ROCK CLUB, IT'S GOING TO BE LOUD, OKAY? DEAL. putain de merde quoi.)

Anyway, in one of the two times a year I look at Hype Machine (my blog apparently isn't cool enough to be listed there so like, whatever), FluoKids' post of the Mondkopf remix of Pony Pony Run Run's "Hey You" (I posted the teaser over here) was at the top of the latest post lists. Okay, well, thanks hypem, I think.

Actually, thanks to FluoKids, 'cause I haven't even listened to the whole thing yet, and I love it already.

Pony Pony Run Run - "Hey You" (Mondkopf remix)

Actually, the original has been pretty stuck in my head, too, so, uh, here's the video:

PONY PONY RUN RUN - HEY YOU [OFFICIAL VIDEOCLIP]
by 3emebureau

You Need Pony Pony Run Run is out on 15th June.
Mondkopf just released a new LP, titled Galaxy of Nowhere.

Sounds Like... / MySpace It : The Go Find cover The Chills' "Pink Frost"

Are sounds sent on a journey they come back in echoes. This compilation is widely traveled - around half of the world and to another time. To the 1980ies when just in New Zealand the archetype of what was called Indie Pop later on was pressed on vinyl and soon defined a new way of how Indie pop has seen itself, concerning sound as well as attitude. "Flying Nun", "Xpressway", "IMD" or "Corpus Hermeticum" were the names of the labels, The Clean, The Chills or Tall Dwarfs the names of the bands. Pop songs or rather hits were born in garages and pressed on screen printed seven inches. A relevant music culture beyond a big and global music industry was thought and lived. Maybe just because it has not reached New Zealand before.

Yesterday, Berlin-based label Morr Music put released Not Given Lightly - A Tribute To the Giant Golden Book Of New Zealand's Alternative Music Scene, a concept compilation of Kiwi pop covers from Morr's roster.

The Go Find, who, as I mentioned a week ago, are in the studio working on album number three, contributed a cover of The Chills' "Pink Frost." (Funnily enough, "Pink Frost" is the only song to be covered twice on the 34-track comp, also being sung by Masha Qrella).



You can hear The Go Find's cover on their 'Space. (I'm having trouble tracking down / getting an mp3 to work, otherwise I'd toss that in for you.) Their version of "Pink Frost" is pretty and ethereal; the bits and bobs I've heard of the rest of the compilation (in between my computer deciding to shut itself down three times) sound gorgeous as well. Some of the other tracks are up for listening on Morr's site, although if you can get the links to work, please let me know how you did it.

The Go Find's next record is expected sometime early next year.

Nothing's On Telly : Deer Tick at SXSW '09, new track and new record soon.

UMass, Amherst, MA

So Deer Tick is this band (project? songwriter? I'm not sure what label to slap on this guy) that I sometimes really like and sometimes forget I really like. I remember having heard "Art Isn't Real (City of Sin)" over the summer of 2006 and liking it well enough, but not necessarily falling in love with it.

And then I saw him / them play at UMass in May of 2008 and was blown away at how lovely and fun the performance was and made a mental note to "listen to this band more."

Then recently, the track "Easy" off upcoming Born On Flag Day, due out on 23rd June, was released and I thought, "Okay, I like it but I don't think I'm in love with it," yet again. (Although now that I'm listening again, I'm immediately rethinking my initial opinion.)

Deer Tick - "Easy"

And then, I came across this acoustic performance of "Cake And Eggs" from this year's SXSW, courtesy of KEXP, and I'm enchanted again.



So I guess maybe what I'm trying to say is that this is a band that really needs to be witnessed live, the sort of thing that is lovely to listen to but makes me clutch my heart and smile like a fool in person.

Luckily, John & co. will be on the road all summer, affording you every opportunity to do the same. Dates include 24th July at Bowery Ballroom and 3rd October at Austin City Limits. All of their dates are listed here.

Out of the Studio: Oh, hey, Kasabian's made a new record? Where was I?

I started listening to Kasabian during my junior year of college when I got hooked on their sophomore effort, Empire - okay, that's not entirely true. I got hooked on the singles "Empire" and "Shoot The Runner" (still a great video), while the rest of it just became a vague jumble of Britrock in my mind. The mental association is so strong it still makes me think of running around rue Gay Lussac and trying to get my Sorbonne classes sorted.

So, I guess it took them a long time to get it together, but on 8th June, they'll be releasing their much-delayed third record, The West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum. First single, "Vlad the Impaler," was (until recently) available for free download via the band's site. Not that you should let that stop you from finding it, because it's...well. Watch the video :



I think "fucking good" was the adjective I was looking for. Also aptly describes that video cum mini-grindhouse horror flick. (And yes, that's Noel Fielding.) Says the band on WRPLA,

"The album was inspired by movies like (Alejandro Jodorowksy's) Holy Mountain," says Serge. "It's the soundtrack to an imaginary movie. We want to encourage people to listen to it as whole. At the moment people are being encouraged to pay seventy nine pence to download one song, and I think that really underestimates what genuine music fans want to listen to. We wanted to make an album which takes the listener on a journey."

Those are sentiments I can get behind.


The band also just unveiled the second single, "Fire," which you can hear over here.

New Song (and then some) : Rodeo Massacre, "The Big Smoke"

I wrote about Rodeo Massacre some time ago (read: a year ago), and a lot of stuff has happened in between then and now, including but not limited to losing a bassist and releasing a new 7" single released on 2nd March, "Same Old Story" / "Sundance Kid" (pictured above). You can hear both songs on their 'Space, but if you purchase a t-shirt from the band, you can get the mp3s for free, too.

The also just posted another new song, "The Big Smoke," which apparently has to do with illness and London, where the band is currently continuing work on their next record :

After a long sleep in yesterday I went to Zorba's house to finish the vocal takes of a new song called the Big Smoke that I wrote during the 2 weeks that I was knocked out in bed and sick after Christmas.
Because I was so terribly sick when we started to record the song almost all the vocal takes were made with me singing lying down on a sofa with Zorba leaning over me with the mic stand.
Pretty funny view!

After 3 cures of antibiotics this winter and a loss of 5 kg I suddenly found myself so week that I had to stay at Zorba's in order for him to take care of me and we both felt at that time that London is a very hard town to live in. At the Same moment Ulf calls up to tell us that he got beaten up in his neighborhood on his way home and we felt we had to write a song about all this.

The song is called "The Big Smoke" which is a way of calling London since the late 19th century and when I moved here I had a friend who would always call London the big smoke so it felt like a natural tittle of the song.

Hope you enjoy it.
Love
Izzy

Sounds like fun.


ETA : I would give you a download for "The Big Smoke" or "Same Old Story," but I can't seem to get them onto my machine. So you'll have to fend for yourselves this time.

Fangirls On The Road, Day Five : Toad's Place, New Haven, 3/10/09 + more new songs.

What a weird venue. For those who haven't gone to Toad's Place in New Haven before, the venue space is split in two by a barrier (complete with barrier guards), one side for the over-21s and the other for the unders. I suppose the whole idea is to prevent under-21s from drinking, but I heard that they had the same set up BEFORE they got shut down for a few years due to underage drinking. So I guess the moral of the story is that you really can't stop underage Yalies, after all. (We were also treated to witnessing an irrationally irate guy arguing that his under-21 girlfriend should be allowed to exit and reenter the venue so they could get "pizza." Clearly this kid doesn't go to too many shows, or he'd realise that not allowing underage kids to reenter is standard procedure pretty much everywhere nowadays.)

Anyway, notes on the show itself are pretty short - nothing new to report, other than the fact that I got a plum spot sitting on the edge of the stage, and thus didn't have to elbow people away from my spot.

So, let's look at the rest of those new songs, shall we?


"Last Leaf"

In my post about the kick-off show in Philly, I noted that this cache of songs seems overwhelmingly more emotional than last time around, and this song is a prime example of that. Witness Damian Kulash doing something he's never done before and singing a totally earnest love song on stage. On acoustic. All by himself. At the TLA show, in fact, he introduced this song by more or less pleading with the rest of the band to keep it on the new record. (We were later assured that it will be recorded, but I think it would fare better as a hidden track or a b-side, to be honest.) It was an endearing moment; it has to take a lot of guts to stand in front of a crowd and beseech the other guys onstage to keep a song because it means that much to you.

Unfortunately, Damian's introduction to the song changed from "Please? Guys?" to "I'm a sarcastic asshole blah blah here's me playing a song" pretty rapidly, which ruined the charm somewhat. It's an incredibly sweet, simple effort nonetheless. Oh, and here's an amusing video of him messing up about halfway through (around 1:20) at the Northampton show:




"This Too Shall Pass"

Rachel decided early on that this was her favourite of the new stuff (and while I like it a bunch, I'm pretty partial to the funk of "White Knuckles"). Recklessly joyful, it's the anthem for all those times you've second guessed yourself or let someone else get the best of your happiness. My band director always used to tell us, "This, too, shall pass," and that's all I can think of when I hear this song. Wise words, indeed.


"Skyscrapers"

Until it was pointed out to me as otherwise, I swore the first line of this song was "Stop screaming screaming screaming" (It's not. It's "Skyscrapers, please forgive me."), and I wanted to say, "Damian, please never take your own advice." (But I can't say that now, because that's not what the lyrics are. I am half-deaf in one ear, please be quiet.) The falsetto and accompanying screaming that kicks in about three-quarters of the way through the song harken back to the OK Go-before-they-were-OK Go tracks of Appendices and, most recently, their cover of the Pixies' "Gigantic." The whole old-influences-and-sounds-coming-full-circle thing is something I thoroughly enjoy and hope they continue to pursue. This song was one you really had to see in Philly; that night's performance (being the one in the video above) was the best. (Portland's was excellent but marred by the introduction of an echo, which did the song no favours. Drop the technology, boys, and let the vocals do all the work.)

ETA : Also. If you watch that video, start paying attention to the tubular bells right around 1:55. Suddenly, at 2:00, they'll be conspicuously missing and then suddenly reappear again five or ten seconds later. At that point, Andy Ross broke the gavel he was using while playing, which was hilarious, because he just stared at it like, "...what the fuck?" And then we laughed. Loudly.

A few more pictures from New Haven can be found here.

New song from Palomar, who are still in the studio.

Brooklyn-based Palomar are still working on their next record (well, actually, I believe they're at SXSW this week, but, details details), though the blog where they are (occasionally) chronicling their adventure has changed to this address.

A few weeks ago, they posted a new song, entitled "Crush Rica" (after a Facebook captcha phrase, apparently), and I'm thoroughly enjoying the bratty '80s feel to it. You can listen to it here.

New Song / MySpace It : De bonnes nouvelles from Pony Pony Run Run.

I once tried to see Pony Pony Run Run, hailing from France, live at the Fleche d'Or. This, however, was not to be as my ear decided, "Nope, too loud, headache, time to go home." And so I did. So I've been waiting for them to get around to releasing a record ever since.

Good news, then - according to the band, they've just finished recording and mixing their new record, recorded at Ferber Studio in Paris, and it should be out sometime in June.

While you wait, they've posted the first single of the album, "Out Of Control," a reworking of an older PPRR song, on their 'Space. And made a teaser video.

Pony Pony Run Run - Out of Control (teaser)
by 3emebureau

This whole "song teaser" thing seems to be big with French bands. I'm not sure I get it.

Fangirls On The Road, Day Two : OK Go at the Recher Theatre, Towson, 3/7/09 + some new songs, part one.

Credit to Rachel.




I don't like confetti.


Emily, your dad's here.*

OK Go's set (and Longwave's and Oppenheimer's as well) at the Recher Theatre ran pretty much as it had the night before in Philly, minus a lot of the silly mistakes the headliners had made on opening night. With the added bonuses of having an even younger audience than the night before AND having an INCREDIBLY drunk girl (along with her equally drunk boyfriend) in attendance who took it upon herself to yell "FUCK PHILADELPHIA, WELCOME TO TOWSON" at every opportunity that presented itself, much to the chagrin of everyone else in the room. Also, despite being a small place (and my Small Venue Snobbery is well documented**), the Recher Theatre kinda', well. Sucks. In a "this lighting isn't terribly good" and "you can't get a glass of water" extortionist sort of way.

That being said, the energy was way up during this show, and I think it was the best performance of the week, given the freshness of the material and the fact that the Touring Bug hadn't seem to settle it quite yet. After the show, frontman Damian admitted that the band had gotten all of their other influences out during their first two records, and all that was left was Prince, and that while OK Go was never really an angsty band, record number three (tentatively titled Help Is On The Way***) looks be even less so than the first two.

So, speaking of this new stuff I keep going on about, let's look at some of the new material.

"Shooting The Moon" - The perpetual opener featured Tim on a big bass drum, Damian on acoustic, and the band jamming away in a lovely outro which is unfortunately missing in this totally acoustic video (courtesy of "Intern Joe" at WMMR Philly). (Also, embedding is disabled, so you're just going to have to be unlazy and click the link yourself.)


"White Knuckles"
This might be my favourite of the new stuff. Honestly. After they played this at the TLA, Damian asked, "Can you tell we've been listening to Prince?" Yes, Damian.




"I Want U So Bad"
This song makes me weak in the knees. (And I thought I was past the weak-in-the-knees phase. Guess not.) The bridge pretty much does it. The second vid is of better quality, although, tragically, only a clip.


"Back From Katmandu"
We've gotten a taste of this song before; here it is in all its live glory. Also, cowbell + double-necked, double-stringed guitar with capo on seven? Interesting.

More new stuff in the next post, otherwise you wouldn't want to read them.

More photos (although a rather tiny amount) can be found here.


*Midway through OK Go's set, the venue made an announcement to the tune of, "Emily so-and-so, please report to the front of the venue." The entire band stopped and looked around, completely stunned, with Damian asking, "Did they just make that announcement in the middle of our set...? In case you didn't catch that, Emily, your dad's here."

**Actual conversation that occurred during the course of the week:
"Are you one of those girls who, as soon as a band gets big, you don't listen to them anymore?"
"No, I just don't see why I'd want to see a band with 4,999 other people when I can see you with 399 other people."

***Or so I've heard, but I can't for the life of me find the link...

In The Studio : Jordan's making a new record (eventually) and has a demo for you.

So I absolutely forgot that French group Jordan had released a record last year and had toured the US and I missed them and all that. My brain is made of Swiss cheese sometimes. (I almost wrote "parfois," but then I remembered that a lot of you probably don't speak fluent Franglais.)

So here's some new news from them:

FRESH NEWS!
Hey friends!

some fresh news:

*we are in the process of writing several new songs and are really excited about it!
*we gonna leave for a small tour in June (8th to 18th). it's in Europe and you can get in touch if you wanna set up a show or just have a free hug...
*after that it's summer break, shitty season for Jordan, but we have a new bigger tour in Fall, possibly far far away and its the time when we'll record the new shit for real!

stay tuned! i know you hate march but we can't wait to have fun with all of you very soon!

Take Care

Long story short, they're demoing, touring, taking a break, touring again in the fall, and making another record after that.

In the meantime, the demo for their new song "Tropics" is available on the À Decouvrir Absolument vol. 15 mixtape (it's difficult to translate "À decouvrir absolument" without sounding too literal, but it's pretty much "stuff you absolutely need to discover") along with a bunch of other acts. Jordan warns, "the version will probably change on a new recording but enjoy it!"

You can download ADA vol. 15 here. (Scroll down to "Télécharger ÀDA Volume 15," for you non-francophiles out there.)

New Song (plus a release date) : Phoenix, "1901"

Updating FAIL.

But in more recent news about that upcoming Phoenix album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, release date has been set as 25th May.

They're also giving away a new song from the record, "1901," which you can download from their website.

And that's all I've got for now.

New(ish) Single / New(ish) Tour Dates : Franz Ferdinand's record drops 26th January, too.

January is just one big ol' pile of exciting, isn't it? YES IT IS.

I'm a little late on the uptake on this one (sorry), but Franz's third record, Tonight, will be released on the 26th of January in the UK, the 27th in the US. And they've got a whole lot of dates lined up - in Europe and Australia. Grr! Fingers crossed for the summer.

29 Dec 2008- Rhythm & Vines Festival - Gisborne, NZ
30 Dec 2008 - Falls Festival - Marion Bay, AU
31 Dec 2008 - Falls Festival - Lorne, AU
3 Jan 2009 - Southbound Festival - Busselton, AU
5 Jan 2009 - Palace Theatre - Melbourne, AU *
6 Jan 2009 - Enmore Theatre - Sydney, AU *
8 Jan 2009 - Sunset Sounds Festival - Brisbane, AU
14 Jan 2009 - The Picture House - Edinburgh, UK
20 Jan 2009 - Heaven - London, UK ^
28 Jan 2009 - Dolans - Limerick, IR
01 Jan 2009 - Olympia - Dublin, IR
4 Mar 2009 - Barrowlands - Glasgow, UK
6 Mar 2009 - Academy - Manchester, UK
8 Mar 2009 - Academy - Birmingham, UK
9 Mar 2009 - Hammersmith Apollo - London, UK
12 Mar 2009 - AB Club - Brussels, BE
13 Mar 2009 - Paradiso - Amsterdam, NL
14 Mar 2009 - Palladium - Cologne, DE
16 Mar 2009 - Aeronef - Lille, FR
17 Mar 2009 - Olympia - Paris, FR
18 Mar 2009 - Olympia - Paris, FR
20 Mar 2009 - Vega - Copenhagen, DK
21 Mar 2009 - Circus - Stockholm, SE
22 Mar 2009 - Sentrum Scene - Oslo, NO
24 Mar 2009 - Docks - Hamburg, DE
25 Mar 2009 - Columbiahalle - Berlin, DE
26 Mar 2009 - Tonhalle - Munich, DE
28 Mar 2009 - Schiffbauhalle - Zurich, CH
29 Mar 2009 - Estragon - Bologna, IT
30 Mar 2009 - Alcatraz - Milan, IT
1 Apr 2009 - Le Phare - Toulouse, FR
2 Apr 2009 - Pabellón de la Casilla - Bilboa, ES
3 Apr 2009 - Palacio de Deportes - Madrid, ES
4 Apr 2009 - Coliseo Ciudad de Atarfe - Granada, ES
* with the Cribs
^ with Of Montreal

You all already know they've released their second single from Tonight, "Ulysses." Here's them in the studio playing it:



Franz Ferdinand - "Ulysses"

It's like I'm a sophomore again : OK Go announces March '09 east coast tour.

The Paradise, Boston, 1/06

Indulge my past fangirl sensibilities, please. OK Go has just gone and announced a handful of east coast tour dates for next March, which probably means a (series of) full-fledged tour(s) is also at hand sometime in the near future. And because they've been making a new record, that means they'll be playing new material as well, which is a relief, because their sets started sounding like CDs to me and that's never good.

Dates as follows:

6 March 2009 - Theatre of the Living Arts - Philadelphia, PA
7 March 2009 - Recher Theatre - Towson, MD
8 March 2009 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY
10 March 209 - Toad's Place - New Haven, CT
11 March 2009 - Pearl St. (upstairs, I'm assuming) - Northampton, MA
12 March 2009 - Paradise - Boston, MA

But I really just want to squee on about how they're playing Pearl St. again. I'm not at Smith anymore, but hell if I won't be there.

Here's a video of them playing some new stuff:

New Song / SHOW TONIGHT! : Secret Dakota Ring, "The Fade to Black"

I love Andy Ross' solo project, Secret Dakota Ring. Love love love. His debut LP, Do Not Leave Baggage All The Way is one of those records for me. One that I've been listening to, on and off, for what feels like ages, and yet I still find new layers and intricacies that I've never heard before each time I go back to it, and find that I appreciate it more and more as time goes on.

Mr. Ross has been working on a follow-up to Baggage for a while now, the nine-track Cantarell, and it'll be out sometime in October or November. Meanwhile, lead single "The Fade To Black," has finally been unveiled. I heard this song for the first time several months ago and it blew my mind. Really. It did. And now it's gone and lodged itself in my head and will not give up. It's a brilliant powerpop song that's peppy but not overly-so, joyful and joyous and loaded with tambourine and handclaps, but is never twee or saccharine. Pop songs like that, that make you want to dance but don't make you scrunch your nose at the silly lyrics that just don't work, can be a little hard to come by.

Oh, and Secret Dakota Ring (being Andy backed up by pals Josh, Travis, Kevin, and Eytan) is playing its first (and possibly last and only) show tomorrow night at Rehab. Details as follows (or you can just check out the poster):



September 24, 2008 @ Rehab
25 Ave. B New York, New York 10009
21+
$3

If you can make it, I strongly recommend you go. This may never, ever happen again.

I was going to write about this sometime last week, when "The Fade To Black" was first posted, in hopes that I'd get a downloadable mp3 version for y'all, but that hasn't happened yet. There are all sorts of shenanigans going down with this release (a contest, a video...okay, maybe that's it), so I'll be sure to post about this again. Whether you want to hear about it or not.

In the mean time, check out "The Fade To Black" via this little imeem thinger below:





PS: Sorry for the lack of updates that aren't like, "Go check out something from the same ten bands I always mention!" My computer, which has most of my music and my list of stuff I need to post about, has decided to wig out on me and I've been working off my mom's desktop for the past few weeks. Plus life is crazy right now. Hopefully I'll post some other stuff in the near future. (I always say that, don't I? sigh.)

There is no nation of you, there is no nation of me : Franz Ferdinand, the Olympics, and a short trip down Memory Lane.

This is an essay I wrote a few weeks ago, before, during, and after my vacation to Florida. You know, the one that got ruined by Tropical Storm Fay. Considering the material, I'm a little late in posting it, but I wasn't quite sure how I liked it to begin with and needed some time to tweak it a bit. I'm still not 100% sure on how I feel about it, but if I don't put it out there then, well. I never will. So enjoy.

.....


What does this guy have to do with Franz Ferdinand? Not much, actually, and yet everything. Keep reading...

Ask me who my favourite band is, and odds are, I'll give you the following response : It's a tie between Franz Ferdinand, OK Go, and Scamper, in no particular order.

It feels a little weird admitting that because, firstly, let's be honest here – these days, you ask any given music blogger who their absolute favourite band is, you're probably expecting Radiohead, right? Right. Though if you haven't already figured out that I'm a sucker for the powerpop-dancerock thing, then either you're new here or you haven't been paying too much attention. (I called this thing "That One Pop Gem" for a reason.) I'll readily admit that none them are the singularly most original, musically ground-breaking bands ever. But then again, very few bands are.

Secondly, given that this has been my standard response for about two and a half years or so, I've started to wonder if those three are still my favourites, or if I've just started to say that out of habit. I mean, I’ve found and fallen in love with a lot of new stuff as of late and, frankly, I just don't listen to OK Go or Franz as much as I used to. (Scamper is the glaring exception to this, but that’s largely because they split up and I went through a long denial phase wherein I listened to their stuff relentlessly.)

Then again, I think we all recognise that the "favourite band" thing goes a little beyond just liking (or even loving) the music, to a much more emotional spot. Take OK Go, who, for all intents and purposes, changed my life. It was (mainly) because of them that I (re)realised, hey, I like going to rock shows and seeing new bands and buying records and talking to other people and writing about music. I'm not exaggerating when I say I wouldn't know half the people I do without them. Cliché? Yes, but entirely true.

Then there's Scamper, who probably hold a nearer and dearer spot in my little powerpop-adoring heart. Brendan once said to me, "We don't have 'fans,' we have 'friends'", and I suppose that's innately true of a band that's popular on such a small, local scale. But when you're nineteen and stuck in perpetual "fangirl" mode and the guys from one of your favourite bands actually take the time to respond to you, it kind of goes down as "awesome."

And frankly, I could gush on and on about these two, and say nary a word on Franz Ferdinand. To be fair, I've never been a hardcore member of the Franz fanbase, they've barely toured my area in the past few years, and I certainly don't spend time chatting with Nick, Paul, and Bob. The much more, um, intimate connection (for lack of a better phrase) just doesn't exist here.

And yet, Franz Ferdinand has probably been just as influential as the other two, and I really do love them. I often forget to take note of that.

So why am I taking note of it now?

It's because of the Olympics.

Yeah, I know, that doesn't make much sense. Hear me out on this.

Franz, to this day, remains the only band I've discovered via MTV. I took a sick day during my senior year of high school, circa April 2004, and turned on MTV just for kicks when the video for "Take Me Out" came on. I thought the video and song were great, so I tried to find it (ie, searched for it on KaZaa), but came up short, because Franz Ferdinand really hadn't arrived in the US yet.

A few months later, on the annual family vacation to Orlando, we went to Downtown Disney and wandered into the Virgin Megastore. Franz Ferdinand's self-titled debut was sitting in the one of the listening booths and, remembering how much I liked "Take Me Out," I decided to buy it on a whim. (It was actually that or another terrible record that I will not name, which I actually did wind up buying later, but thank God I purchased Franz Ferdinand when I did and not the other record because my life would be so different now thank you thank you thank you.)

I remember sitting in the back of the rental car, listening to "Dark of the Matinée" for the first time. The whole record was like nothing I'd ever listened to before. I wasn't even sure if I liked it. Remember that whole "rerealising 'I like music'" thing? That only happened a few years ago, and didn't come into full swing until the latter half of my first year of college. Up to that point, I'd only really ever listened to the crap on Top 40 radio. This sort of indie dancerock thing was completely foreign to me, as embarrassing as it is to admit that.

"So, yeah," you're saying, "that's great and all, but I still don't see what this has to do with the Olympics." I should point out that all of this went down during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, back when Michael Phelps was making his first bid at walking out of there with nothing but gold. We all know that he didn't succeed that time around, but it was kind of amazing to watch regardless. My family would go back to the condo at the end of the day and watch the games before calling it a night.

In the meantime, I was utterly caught up with "Take Me Out." I listened to it incessantly, every night before I went to bed that week, after having watched Phelps swim. Good God, I was obsessed with that song : the minute-long intro, the way the tempo slowed into something that makes you want to strut, the searing guitars, the "Come onnnnnnnn……take me out!" in the middle of the song, the general sass of it all. I wanted to do nothing but hear that song on repeat again and again. And thus began my love for the New Scottish Gentry whilst everybody else had their sights fixed on Athens.

Franz Ferdinand went on to soundtrack most of my first year of college (indeed, "Michael" still makes me think of stretching out at the gym. Weird but true.), but it wasn't until October 2005, with the release of their second LP, You Could Have It So Much Better, that I got to see them live. It was a seminal moment for me, I think : it was my first concert at Madison Square Garden (at The Theatre, of course, not the arena) and the first time I'd gone into the city on my own to see a show. (Actually, that's not entirely true – my little brother came with me as well.) Possibly more importantly than that, though, is that a mere ten days later, I also saw this other little band that I really liked, OK Go, play in Boston. Oh, and this other little band that I'd never ever heard of before, Scamper, happened to open for them.

I mean, what are the odds of something like that happening ever again?

And I think that's when Franz Ferdinand truly became one of my favourites. I think I'd listed them off as my favourite band prior to that moment, but that was because I was listening to very little else so there wasn't much competition. I didn't get to see Franz play again until April '06, when I skipped a day or two of class to catch them in New York with Death Cab for Cutie and The Cribs (whom I really liked and ventured out to see at Siren '06). And I remember thinking, "Fuck, I really love this band!" I had been so caught up with my fangirling over other groups (*cough*) that I'd forgotten how much I really, truly love Franz Ferdinand's music. Hearing them play "L. Wells" for the first time, live, sort of changed my life. (Also, I got to meet Alex and he was a total sweetheart.)

And so here we are, at the end of the summer of 2008. The Olympics have come and gone; Phelps has gone and got his record-breaking eight medals, and I haven't seen Franz Ferdinand play in over two years. Watching the opening ceremonies and tracking golds on vacation made me remember life from four years ago - fresh out of high school and moving on and rocking out to my CD player (I know, right?) at night. I guess much hasn't change - my family still vacations in Florida (and still invariably has run-ins with hurricanes), I still rock out at night when nobody's watching. I just happen to have graduated from college this time around.

The good news on the Franz front is that they're busy finishing up their third record, which will hopefully drop next year and include lots and lots of tour dates. Until then, they've dropped a new song, "Lucid Dreams," on our heads, which sounds enough like tracks from Franz Ferdinand to remind me why I fell in love with their sassy dancerock in the first place but new enough that I don't get bored.

Franz Ferdinand - "Lucid Dreams"

And really, that's all I could want from them. Four years on, and they're still making me dance. Hopefully I'll be saying the same things about them come London 2012.

New Song / Release : Malibu Stacy, "Ladies Can't Drive" (from Marathon)

Happy Labour Day to all. I'd really love to be vegging out down the shore right now, but seeing as I have to be in the city and professionally dressed for class at 6 pm, that really wasn't an option. Maybe tomorrow, when everybody has gone home.

In other news, here's a new song for you : Malibu Stacy, whom I've mentioned before, are dropping a new record, Marathon, come the 19th. (Um. How is it September already...? WHERE'D MY SUMMER GO??) The lead single, "Ladies Can't Drive," is out now. It's the sort of thing that reminds me of the stuff I was listening to between junior and senior year of high school that makes me want to drive to my (non-existant) boyfriend's house, blasting the music with the windows down. August driving music.

Malibu Stacy - "Ladies Can't Drive"

Here are their upcoming dates, in case you're actually living in Europe :

13 September - Bucolique Ferrières Festival - Ferrières, BE
19 September - Emporium Galorium - Rouen, FR
26 September - Cirque Royal - Brussels, BE
8 October - Arsenal - Namur, BE
13 November - Ferme du Biereau - Louvain-la-Neuve, BE
26 November - Vooruit - Ghent, BE
27 November - Het Depot - Leuven, BE
29 November - Coliseum - Charleroi, BE
5 December - Salle des Fetes de Droixhe - Liège, BE
6 December - Petrol - Antwerp, BE
9 December - Botanique - Brussels, BE
13 December - La Chapelle - Mons, BE

No, seriously, how is it September?

MySpace It : New NoY stuff.

Blender Theatre, NYC


We have been hesitant to post demos and had to discuss the risks of plaguing you with demoitis. When these songs get recorded for real in an actual recording studio with the proper gear and instruments and production tricks we want to hear it is inevitable that we will see the "I liked the demo version better" all over the place because you kids are too cool for school and heard it before everyone else. Well good for you. We don't care anymore. The song "I Think I'm Getting Older" was recorded in my small brooklyn bedroom (along with 6 others so far) with the exception of the drums which we tracked down the street. I have very minimal gear and even less recording/mixing skills so it is what it is. Like I said, if we are still feeling good about these songs when the time comes we plan to record them properly. For now you are going to have to settle for the demo just don't get too comfy. Let us know what you think. If this seems like a good idea perhaps we'll put a new one up each week. No promises. We have about 6-7 more demos just about finished and about another half dozen songs almost ready to record. For those of you in NYC who are 21+ or have a solid fake ID we'll see you Thursday.

Emphasis mine. They have a point. And I like that they're frank about it.

You can hear "I Think I'm Getting Older" on their 'Space.

Nightmare of You will be playing Rehab (formerly Club Midway) on Thursday, 24th July, with Saints and Lovers.

New songs/MySpace It: The Red Romance and Looker

Both Looker and The Red Romance have posted brand-spanking new songs on their respective 'Spaces today.

Looker's "Gates of the Old City" and "Help Me Roada" come from their upcoming "Gates of the Old City" single, out on Serious Business on 4 March. "Roada" feels like the sort of summery pop song that belongs floating through your car speakers as you drive nowhere on the interstate, while I really adore the harmonies on the second and third refrains in "Gates". They don't incite the same emotional attachment for me as the "After My Divorce" single did, but then again, that's a very particular case, and these are two very lovely tracks. (Also, a live version of "Spit For Your Shine" live from BBC Radio 1 is up as well.)

Meanwhile, the Red Romance is offering up three cuts from their upcoming self-titled debut LP, due out this year sometime. You know me, I'm a sucker for that '80s throwback feel, and while I don't particularly care for the "oh-whoa-whoa" bit in "Kinda Feels Right," I'm really taken by "Hesitate."

Both bands are playing the Mercury Lounge (with The Orion Experience) tomorrow, 31 January, and again at TCNJ on 1 February and Luna Lounge on 7 March. I would be heading out to see them this weekend, but I've got some other business to which I must attend*, so I'll have to hold out for this bill at a more convenient point.


(*Speaking of which, Nate has been writing some really nice things about his soon-to-be former fellow bandmates, so any of you who are actually reading** this are totally encouraged to go read said posts. Also, I know I said I'd do some updates last week, but, ya' know, life, so don't hold out for anything until I get back from Boston this weekend, 'kay? 'Kay.)

(**I like how I pretend I have readership. :P)

New Song/MySpace it/New Tour Dates: Nightmare of You in the northeast again FINALLY.

I just moved into my new room at school this morning, and classes don't start 'til Monday, so you can probably expect some updates over the next few days as I wile away the last of my eight-month vacation from school.

But while we're still on that only-posting-about-the-same-three-bands-I-always-post-about kick, Nightmare of You announced that they're going to announce "a handful of shows for late February and early March in the Northeast." The only confirmed date so far is 13/3 at The Crazy Donkey on Long Island, which doesn't help me out much, but insider-y sources (ie, Rachel messaging Brandon Reilly) have unconfirmed reports of a Philly show the day before that and another possible show in Framingham, MA. (Though they could always play in NoHo and save me the three-hour bus ride. Please? Guys?)

More details when...well, when I have more details, I suppose.

Also, they have a new cover of Cheap Trick's "On Top of the World" up on their 'Space with which I'm not 100% taken, but yay for new stuff and yay for Cheap Trick.


(I also want to share with you that, midway through this post, I decided to go make a cup of tea 'cause man, is my throat sore, and then I found a dead ant in my tea kettle. Yech. Yeah, it's been a while since I was living as a full-on college student...)