Archive | January, 2010

27 Songs from Barcelona- Day Two

28 Jan

After touring around the world with their two past releases “Let Me Introduce My Friends” (2006) and “Who Killed Harry Houdini” (2008) the members of I’m from Barcelona recently completed their latest release,“27 Songs from Barcelona”. The album, which is inspired by Kiss’ simultaneous release of four solo albums back in 1978, features one solo song from every member of I’m From Barcelona, and will be released as a triple vinyl, as well as for free online. Starting January 27th, one song per day will be available for download at imfrombarcelona.com

Today’s song:

Buy Hey Even Though Your Horses Went Away
Lyrics: Anna Fröderberg
Music: Anna Fröderberg + music maestro Rikard Ljung.
Performed by: Anna Fröderberg (vocals, “sock-shoe drum” and trumpet ), Rikard Ljung (vocals, omnichord, drums, guitar, random flute and maybe tambourine) and Johan Mårtensson (vocals)

Telegram Sam on Jstreet Radio

28 Jan

Reviewsic’s own Telegram Sam will be phoning in to her old stomping grounds tonight: Lake County’s Jstreet Radio has been kind enough to feature Reviewsic on their program to talk shop and play some music of Sam’s choice. Tune in to 98.3 FM in the North Chicago Suburbs, or steam online at www.wrlr.fm anywhere you may be tonight at 8pm. We’ll also be giving some details about the show happening this weekend at Subterranean, from which this week we’ve been featuring interviews of the performing bands.

Jstreet Radio Online:
Myspace
Jstreetzine.com
WRLR


Into it. Over it. - 7″ Split Release This Saturday at Subterranean

28 Jan

Sometimes you like things, sometimes you don’t. You could be in love with it one day, but the next, not so much. Inevitably, you’re Into it. Over it.
Started by Evan Weiss as a means to break free from a musical rut, Into it. Over it. is an acoustic project that has taken on a life of it’s own.

Already with an impressive roster of past bands and projects under his belt, as of this past year Weiss can now add the feather of calendar year music creator to his cap. From September 27th of 2007 to September 27th of 2008, Weiss wrote, recorded, and released one new song a week- that’s one year: 52 weeks, 52 songs. So aptly titled 52 Weeks, the album was released on two discs through No Sleep Records in June of 2009 with much praise. Into it. Over it. brings a sound that varies from the lighter indie to a more driven one, with it’s full band instrumentals dancing along the lines of 90′s Emo/Post-hardcore and blended nicely between songs of acoustic alone. With vocals that fall somewhere in a gap between Travis Shettel and Ace Enders, Weiss’ songs take on a quality that is uniquely comforting as well as rousing.

One might think that having released an album of such caliber might cause a musician to take a break, given that 52 songs is already more than some bands have in their entire discography, but Weiss does not seem able to be stopped. Into it. Over it. is wrapping up the writing/recording of a new 7”, Twelve Towns, putting together 20 songs for a 2xLP, and releasing a 7” split with Bob Nanna/Lauren Lo at Subterranean this Saturday.
Another new project is being taken on in 2010, this time one of collaboration, dubbed the Friends Songwriting Project- a month to month songwriting project that welcomes one and all to write on the ‘subject of the month’, record, and submit their songs by the last day of each month to be featured as a free downloadable mixtape online. Into it. Over it. can also be expected to tour and continue it’s extensive creativity in the coming year.

Into it. Over it. Online
No Sleep Records
Myspace
IntoitOverit.com

Click the flier for more information about Into it. Over it.’s 7″ split release show this Saturday

Though undoubtedly a busy man, Evan Weiss took some time out to answer a few questions with Telegram Sam about his musical past, the upcoming release for this weekend, and his comic book alter-ego.

Telegram Sam: How long have you been playing music?

Evan Weiss of Into it. Over it.: I’ve been playing music far too long. Since about the 5th grade. The members of The Progress and I all grew up together. We learned how to play our instruments together. Bands I’ve been a part of (that put out proper releases) are as follows: The Progress, Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A START, Damiera, Map The Growth, Hiroshima Mon’Amour, The Funeral Bird, Gunna Vahm, It’s A King Thing and Labour. I plan on putting a lot of these recordings online for free. Some of them have been lost completely.

T.S: Tell us about what this release means to you

E.W: The split with Bob and Lauren? It’s my first release since 52 Weeks. It’s my first release for Twelve Towns. It’s my first release on Evil Weevil. It’s my first 7″. It means a lot to me. So many firsts. It’s exciting. Plus, everyone involved is a friend. It’s great.

T.S: If you were a comic book hero, what super powers would you have and who would be your arch nemesis?

E.W: My super power would be the ability to turn garbage into money. My arch nemesis would be “The Rent”.

T.S: What is the most memorable show you’ve ever played? Attended?

E.W: The Progress played a show in a basement in New Brunswick, NJ. All of the bands cancelled. One person showed up. He was one of the biggest fans we’d ever met. He called out songs and we played whatever he wanted.

The most memorable show I’d ever been to was Death Cab For Cutie, Bright Eyes and Pedro The Lion for $5 at the 4040 in Philadelphia sometime around 2000. Think about that show for a second.

T.S: How did you get your start in music?

E.W: Both of my parents are musicians so I was raised into it. I decided I wanted to play guitar when I was really young. I HATED it. I was taking lessons and the instructor was trying to get me to learn scales and sheet music. That wasn’t fun. I switched to bass to play music with the dudes that would eventually become The Progress. Then re-found the guitar around the time I turned 13 and taught myself how to play. Wrote non-stop after that.

T.S: Who are your top five musical influences?

E.W: My friends, My friends, My friends, My friends, My friends. In no particular order.

Soul Sensations, The Right Now: Now On Tour- Lincoln Hall Tonight

27 Jan

“The Right Now…gains distance from collegiate neo-hippie boogie through smartly charted horns, a gritty, Rufus-esque rhythm section, and a singer, Stefanie Berecz, who sounds uncannily like a de-glammed and de-glossed Joss Stone” - Riverfront Times



 The Right Now will be hitting the road this spring in support of their debut album, Carry Me Home which will be dropping March 3rd of this year. For now though, you can check out a few tracks via Soundclould.com

Lead singer, 24-year old Steganie Berecz makes it a family act by bringing her little girl Angelene along for the ride on tour, insuring that this baby already is living the life of the Almost Famous.“I wouldn’t have it any other way. This is a family affair and this band is a huge extension of my family.” Berecz’s voice is held in high esteem whenever and wherever she performs; her 2005 stint on P. Diddy’s television show “Making The Band” only helped boost her career, and the critical acclaim has been building ever since. The Reader has complimented her “big, fluid voice”; Time Out Chicago calls her soaring vocals “remarkable.” The record is a collaboration of a great musicians who are all facing the changes life throws their way head one. According to keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter Brendan O’Connell, “The title Carry Me Home refers to the lullaby I wrote for Angelene, but also to the idea that we’ve all been through a lot over the past few years. It’s been a struggle and we’ve finally made it home.”

The Right Now is a combination of well crafted song, rhythmic guitar and horns, and of course the soul stirring songbird Berecz, creating a sound “as comfortable as an Aretha record on a Sunday morning, pumping out the tightest, most dynamic brand of soul this side of Memphis.” (Paper Work Media) Having shared the stage with notable artists such as Jamie Lidell,Justin Townes Earle,and Dr. Dog,as well as other R&B, soul and pop greats, the band is ready to take the country by storm with with this tour and first album.


The Right Now will be appearing tonight at Chicago’s lovely Lincoln Hall- Show at 8pm, $12 at the door, and 18+

Check out The Right Now on Myspace


Upcoming tour dates:

Jan 27 – Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
Jan 28 – Urbana, IL - Canopy Club
Jan 29 – ALICE 97.7 – Studio A Sessions
Jan 29 – St. Louis, MO - Broadway Oyster Bar
Jan 30 – Springfield, IL – Bar None
Feb 5 - Terre Haute, IN - The Verve
Feb 6 – Madison, WI – The Brink Lounge
Feb 20 – Columbus, OH – Park Street Tavern
Feb 24 – Nashville, TN – The Basement
Mar 3 – Laundromatinee.com Taping
Mar 3 – Indy CD&Vinyl In-Store Appearance
Mar 3 – Indianapolis, IN – Jazz Kitchen
Mar 8 - Williamsport, PA - Bullfrog Brewery
Mar 10 – Doylestown, PA - Puck Live
Mar 11 – New York, NY - Groove
Mar 13 – Pittsburgh, PA – Shadow Lounge
Mar 19 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall CD RELEASE!
Mar 26 – Lemont, IL – This Must Be The Place
Apr 10 – St. Louis, MO – The Gramophone
April 16 – Iowa City, IA – Java Blend
April 30 – Springfield, IL – Marly’s Pub

27 Songs from Barcelona- Day One

27 Jan

After touring around the world with their two past releases “Let Me Introduce My Friends” (2006) and “Who Killed Harry Houdini” (2008) the members of I’m from Barcelona recently completed their latest release,“27 Songs from Barcelona”. The album, which is inspired by Kiss’ simultaneous release of four solo albums back in 1978, features one solo song from every member of I’m From Barcelona, and will be released as a triple vinyl, as well as for free online. Starting today, January 27th, one song per day will be available for download at imfrombarcelona.com


Today’s Song:

Lower My Head

Lyrics: Daniel Lindlöf
Music: Daniel Lindlöf

Performed by: Daniel Lindlöf (vocals, ac guitar, synth, drums) Mattias Johansson (electric guitar, backup vocals), David Ljung (bass), Martin Alfredsson (synth), Johan Mårtensson (backup vocals), Jacob Sollenberg (backup vocals).

Henrik Skanfors- Carcass and the Flies

27 Jan

With influences like Bjork, Damien Rice, and Sufjan Stevens, one can assume a musician’s melodies will go one of two ways: either one of great depth or one of great pretention. Undoubtedly, Swedish musician Henrik Skanfors is a member of the former group, creating an acoustic sound that is vulnerable, intricate, and all around arresting.

For the past two years Skanfors has been hard at work finishing his latest album, Carcass and the Flies, following up 2007’s The Last Gash. The 2009 release was done entirely in house- literally; these songs were put together in his apartment. From the music, to the production, to the cover art and distribution, Skanfors has manned every inch of this record. “I have no interest in paper work, but just enough craving for control over the entire process not to let it go. So it’s a slow process for me. Really slow. But it’s my work, all mine. That means a lot for me, and I guess even more in the future when looking back.” (Henrik Skanfors)

Incidentally, this Carcass and the Flies is a creation he should be proud to call his own, whether he had made it from scratch or not. Ten tracks that are not only about solitude, but emit and so perfectly emote it, Carcass and the Flies is one of those sadly beautiful creations in the same vein as Jeff Buckley and Elliott Smith. Vocally we have a hard time pegging Skanfors voice-to us it falls somewhere under the umbrella of Chris Martin and Rufus Wainwright, but somehow there’s just more to it. There is a ragged but entirely polished quality to his voice that makes it feel raw, but the sound coming from his well trained vocal chords is entirely too lovely to be categorized as only that.

Never raucous in his expression of angst, most of these tracks take on a subdued, ethereal quality, equipped with solemn piano and hushed acoustic guitar. Some tracks, like ‘Walls’, implement simplicity, featuring one note of guitar coupled with vocals, while others such as ‘Unguardead Words’ and ‘Poetry to Me’ exhibit more aggression, though still maintaining the same familiarly peaceful tempo behind it’s confrontation.

‘Lonely are the Brave’ shows a glimmer of happiness in the form of tinkling piano, an opening of sleepy guitar and casual “mm mm oh oh’s”, while ‘296’ is entirely quivering in sadness. One of the things we love about Skanfors as a singer is the fact that he can show emotional breaking vocally without coming across whiny- he truly has control over voice and how he emotes through it. Each of these songs is composed thoughtfully, and while the musician has called the process behind this record a long one, upon listening to it we honestly would have expected much more than two years to go into creating such deliberately delicate piece of work. From its opening track ‘Winter Skin’, one that carefully builds guitar upon it’s rhythmic single drum track, crooning “They call me bubble boy, science keeps me whole. It’s time to let me go”- to its melodic and whispering ending with ‘Sincere Regrets’, this album is clearly one made with purpose.


Above all, the beautiful thing about this record is the intricacy Skanfors has managed to hide under the guise of simplicity. Artists who truly know how to make use of negative space are far and few between, but in nearly all of his tracks Henrik has managed to use the silence and murmurs between notes to express his songs just as fully as what’s written on the staff. A truly well composed compilation of songs, Carcass and the Flies is an album we can’t stop playing, particularly as we live through the unforgiving nature of winter. The album is available for streaming on Henrik’s website, henrikskanfors.com, and up for sale on a variety of online sources, a list of which you can view here.

Henrik Skanfors Carcass and the Flies is available on:
Amazon

iTunes

CDON


Henrik Skanfors Online:

Myspace

Henrik Skanfors.com


Reviewsic got the chance to talk with the man behind the music himself - about his new record, music he loves, and the best show he’s ever played.

Reviewsic: What are your favorite venues to play?

Henrik Skanfors: Of course I wouldn’t mind to do the great venues with a crowd of 40.000, but for me a lot has to do with the team around the stage; the sound guy, the host that greets you on arrival etc. The people you actually MEET. Sometimes you hang with a crew the whole day during sound check, gig and the mandatory beer afterwards, and I’ve met so many wonderful people on the road. On bigger concerts as well as small cafes. If I have to say something I guess it would be anytime, anywhere as the opening-act for Radiohead.

Reviewsic: Tell us the story behind your full length, Carcass and the Flies

Henrik Skanfors: Carcass and the Flies is a ten track singer/songwriter album about solitude. That is a keyword: solitude. And alienation. People in lack of love or the ability to receive it. And I guess the last thing is much worse. Having people around you that would give their lives for your sake with out a blink of an eye, while you would never come to think of doing the same for them given all the time in the world. All the tracks are recorded and mixed by myself in my apartment. Once again, it would probably be a faster process to work in a studio with a sound engineer, but I love to create the sound myself. For me it’s sort of the 3rd stage of writing a song, not just the lyrics and music.

Reviewsic: Who are your top five musical influences?

Henrik Skanfors:

So many, can’t be ranked… I like:

Radiohead

Jeff Buckley

Stina Nordenstam

Kathleen Edwards

Sufjan Stevens

Reviewsic: How did your music come to be what it is today?

Henrik Skanfors: A lot of things can happen if you just allow yourself to be alone for awhile, “unentertained”. I think many people have a strong fear of the feelings and thoughts we keep down with a constant movement and distractions. It’s painful to stop and listen to the real voices, your own and other’s. I started writing to handle it.

Reviewsic: What’s in store for your music in the next year?

Henrik Skanfors: We’ll see. I just hope it will affect someone in some positive way.

Reviewsic: Most memorable show you have played to date?

Henrik Skanfors: Last winter Rachael Yamagata asked me to be her opening-act when she visited Sweden on her tour in Europe. Big honor for me as I love her work.

Reviewsic: Henrik Skanfors: I was the lead singer in a band called Kamprads. We released one album and toured in California in 2006.

Reviewsic: If you were to sum up your music in 3 words, what would they be?

Henrik Skanfors: Solitude, alienation, agony

New Release: Pianos Become The Teeth-Old Pride

26 Jan

Topshelf Records (Defeater, My Heart To Joy) has officially released Pianos Become The Teeth‘s sophomore album, Old Pride, into the world today. Met with much acclaim, the full-length is now available to the public in all its glory from Top Shelf or digitally from Amazon and iTunes.

Additionally, you can now stream the entire record at Punknews.org.

Old Pride‘s first track, “Filial” is still available for free download as well.

“Screamo is dead. Or at least that is what some people say. However, Pianos Become The Teeth begs to differ. The band turns the oversaturated and overproduced genre upside down with an album so powerful and so brave it can only be compared to the legends that preceded it. Mixing elements of hardcore, post rock and screamo, Old Pride breathes new life into a once decaying scene. Pianos Become The Teeth has a melodic yet uncompromising sound that showcases a diverse set of influences. Brimming with sincerity and brandishing an experimental ambiance, the band is pushing beyond the boundaries of a stale genre with poetic lyrics and an impassioned delivery. Screamo is dead? The skeptics might want to listen to Old Pride before making such bold proclamations.” (Beartrap PR)

“Euphoric, exhilarating and utterly discordant … the kind of band that allows you to feel young, nervous and excited about music again. Powerful, majestic, important and truly fantastic from start to finish.” - Rock Sound

“Pianos Become The Teeth skillfully works elegant, lush instrumentation while pushing and pulling between ebullient, manic intensity that shrieks and screams with conviction and emotive uproaring.” - Go211.com

“An eight song powerhouse of unabashed hardcore and screamo intertwined with building crescendos and post-rock interludes … unique as it is impressively devastating.” - Bedwetting Cosmonaut

“Pianos Become the Teeth excel at constructing artfully elegant and resplendent instrumental passages, before decimating them with torturously emotional screamed catharsis.” - Strange Glue

Castevet- The Echo & the Light Release This Saturday at Sub-T

26 Jan

Beginning to formulate back in August of 2007, Castevet started as a few songs written by members Nick Wakim and Will McEvilly, the months following added drummer Josh Snader and bassist Ron Petzke to complete the quartet. Previously each of the musicians had been part of other bands, such as Guaime, Oceans, and Tower of Rome, and currently Petzke, and McEvilly are doing double duty, simultaneously playing in Castevet, as well as Bongripper and Leroy Tidd respectively.
Castevet in this incarnation began playing the music scene around 2008, and since then has released their well received record Summer Fences in 2009. The band is on the cusp of releasing their second album, The Echo & the Light and for the moment will be releasing a self-pressed cd version of the EP this coming Saturday, with an official label release TBA.“With this record, we wanted to take everything that we were happy with in regards to summer fences and concentrate it. Echo & the Light is more upbeat than summer fences, and also treads a bit into some heavier territory while still retaining a lot of the elements that comprise our sound.” (Nick Wakim)


Citing influences such as Appleseed Cast, American Football, and Braid, it’s not wonder that Castevet so perfectly embodies the slightly gritty sound of 90’s Emo/Indie. Their loose and grated vocals are balanced by more effervescent instrumentals, putting their rasping shouts shoulder to shoulder with a genre they wouldn’t fall into on their own. Listeners can look forward to more of this contrast in The Echo & the Light, as the band states that, “This record has more vocals than Summer Fences, and the passages are mostly shorter. We even got to experiment with some ambient interludes and are very pleased with how those turned out.” (Nick Wakim)
The album is due out at the end of the month, with a corresponding record release show at Subterranean alongside Native, Bob Nanna/Lauren Lo, and Into it. Over it.- of which the latter two will be celebrating the release of their Split 7”.

Castevet online:
Count Your Lucky Stars
Myspace

Tune into Jstreet Radio 98.3fm FM this Thursday, January 28th to hear a song from Castevet alongside the station’s interview with Telegram Sam. Listen online at www.wrlr.fm



Check out Castevet at Subterranean this Saturday, January 30th
 NATIVE
BOB NANNA & LAUREN LO
INTO IT. OVER IT.
Doors at 9:30/Show at 10pm 17+
$8 Advanced/$10 at the door


Castevet’s Nick Wakim took some time out to talk to us about the band’s music, plans post-release, and what is sure to be a blockbuster hit- Castevet: The Movie.


Reviewsic: Who are your top three musical influences?

Nick of Castevet: Personally, I would say Small Brown Bike, American Football, and Envy.

Reviewsic: What will 2010 bring for Castevet?

Nick of Castevet: We’re planning to play a bunch around Chicago, do weekends around the Midwest, 6 days from June 29 - July 4th, a couple of splits, and start writing for our second full length. We will also be meticulously maintaining our beards throughout the year.

Reviewsic: Comparing yourselves as musicians at the release of your first album to yourselves at the release of this one, what do you think has changed?

Nick of Castevet: We’ve become much better at working together to achieve a complete song, rather than everyone kind of tossing their parts into the ring and seeing what comes out. As such, our more recent output is more unified and cohesive than our early tracks.

Reviewsic: What is the most memorable show you’ve ever played?

Nick of Castevet: The most memorable show we’ve played was the release show for Lautrec’s split 7″ with Ghost Towns. It was at the Phrat Pharm in Chicago, and everything was just so rad. Everyone was having so much fun, all the bands were awesome, and it was a perfect reminder that bands are meant to play music in basements surrounded by their friends.

Reviewsic: If Hollywood ever made a movie of your band, who would you cast and what would the plot be?

Nick of Castevet: Will would be played by Bill Murray, Ron played by Shaq, I would be played by Zach Galifianakis, and Josh would be played by Henry Rollins. The plot would be about how we must face off against a scumbag villain (played by Nicolas Cage) who is trying to sabotage our pursuit of snacks while on tour. The final showdown occurs when we cross paths at the Tastykake factory in Philadelphia. Castevet is successful in our snack quest as we defeat the villain by pushing him into an industrial sized flour mixer using the sound waves from several dozen full stacks.

Real Rock and Roll: Bicycle Music

26 Jan

Few things go together as well as bicycles and music. (As if you didn’t already know that) And here are a few of the people who can prove it to you. Our only question is: Why are none of these bands called “The Spokes”?

The Cycologists

Linsey Pollack has a one-man show on Cycology, the art of playing the bicycle. As Professor Squealy Deetbum, he demonstrates the sound of a clarinet made from a bicycle seat stem, bike frame percussion, a gear cable cello, tuned wheel spokes, a handlebar harmonic flute, and other various bicycle parts turned instrument. He is also a member of the Cycologists, a three piece band consisting of Pollak, Ric Halstead, and Brendan Hook, all playing bicycle parts.

Frank Zappa

Pollack is far from the first cycologist. A spritely 22-year-old Frank Zappa appeared on the Steve Allen Show in 63′ as a “musical bicyclist”, playin two bicycles as instruments. Zappa enlisted the help of Allen and the studio band to produce spontaneous noises and poetry for this performance.

While we’re on the subject, here’s another example of music made with bicycle parts. These acts literally making music through their bikes are rare finds, but there are other ways bands combine their love of music and their love of bicycles.

Dutch Cyclist Music Corps

The Dutch Cyclist Music Corps (translated here) formed in 1927 by Dutch army conscripts. With armrests welded to their bicycle handlebars they could play while riding in formation. Another group of Northern European descent is the Crescendo Cycling Brass Band who have been riding bikes and playing pop music since 1973. They were just a regular marching band from Opende in the Netherlands, when one fateful day they decided to spice up their act with bicycles. The bicycle routine became so popular they’ve been asked to perform all over Europe and as far away as Japan.

bicycle

The band bicycle (with a lower case b) embarked on a bicycle tour across America in 1995, stopping in small towns along the way, making new fans, and selling records. They did it again, and again, and drew more publicity and even sponsorships from bike companies. Then finally they were offered a record contract! The band still plays together occasionally. You can keep up with bicycle through their MySpace page.

The Ginger Ninjas

The Ginger Ninjas are taking the relationship between bicycling and music a step further by using their bikes as a green energy source, for both transportation and stage power.

“In 2007, the Ginger Ninjas became the first band in the history of rock and roll to tour by bicycle, unsupported by automobile. On a 5,000 mile [8,000 km] odyssey from their home in Northern California to the pyramids of southern Mexico, they promoted transportation cycling while also exploring the frontiers of pedal-generated electricity, using their own bikes to power a hyper-efficient sound system.”

Even if you aren’t part of a band, you can participate in bicycle music by attending a bicycle music festival.


Or you could get some friends together to perform a piece written just for bicycles.


Or watch for your opportunity to join a public performance of bicycle music.

A Good Friend Will Always Have You Covered

25 Jan

Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra recently pulled a two-song switcheroo, covering one anothers music. The bundle includes Devine’s ‘I Could Be With Anyone’ done by Hull, and Kevin doing justice to Manchester Orchestra’s ‘The Only One’.
“It’s definitely one of the coolest,” the Brooklyn musician recently said about the song in an interview with Spinner.com “The charge of it, the way it explodes out at you. The lyric, the circularity of the bridge, the way the phrases fold over each other.” Divine takes a more mellow approach in his version, but the energy of the song comes out none the less. Andy Hull also took on a more demure sound for his rendition of Devine’s upbeat pop song. “I recorded my cover last winter,” Hull mentioned to Spinner. “I was feeling drained and had just finished ‘Mean Everything to Nothing,’ and all of a sudden I heard an incredibly real and painfully-depressing song. I’ve loved this tune since the moment I heard it.”

Check out the songs via the links below

Manchester Orchestra- ‘I Could Be With Anyone’

Kevin Devine- ‘The Only One’

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.