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ASMW – Les Savy Fav

This week’s entry is for a band known as Les Savy Fav. This New York band got its start at university in Rhode Island and has an interesting way with both instrumentation and lyrics that keeps me coming back to their tracks. Checking out their discography, I’ve noticed that they always seem to be looking to add more to their sound, but at the same time, never lose themselves. The current album, “Let’s Stay Friends,” has a few tracks with guest vocalists, specifically “Kiss Kiss is Getting Old” and “Comes and Goes”. The lyrics are well-rooted in academia and sometimes are twitch-muttered in syncopation and on other tracks are shout-blasted over grunge-fuzz and high-distortion guitar licks. I hope these guys come to Atlanta for a live show someday soon.
The track I’ve highlighted here, “Rage in the Plague Age” went all too well with my recent addiction to the Knighthood game on FaceBook, which I blame entirely on Tsani and Kimberly, and even includes a temporally-shifted call to rock-n’-roll arms:

Draw up the drawbridge, draw down the blinds / everyone inside is getting high tonight, waiting for the plague to move on/ nobody’s getting sober till the liquor’s gone!

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ASMW — Kintama

This week, I have discovered a Norwegian band called Kintama. This four-peice band is inspired by Kurosawa films, and their album “The Silencer” tells the tale of a fictional video game filled with underground Tokyo, samurai, ninjas, and mob lords.
The song I’m featuring here, “She Likes it Vindaloo” is track seven, after the initial character development, and into the action of the story.
Kintama has a sound like American hard alternative rock, like the Foo Fighters.

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ASMW – Odd Girl Out

Some of you who have been around for a while, or have been on road trips with me will see this selection and might wonder ‘whassupwiddat?’. I have three points on that, which I’ll get into after an overview for the less initiated.

While we all tend to be music snobs after years of drilling down into many bands and b-sides, exploring the dark inner circles of the old banged-up record store, and raiding estate sale closets for obscure genres that we’d never have found on our own, I have a well-voiced music snob pet peeve for remakes. This is the point where those who have heard my arguments on them have their eyes glaze over, so I’ll put the full arguments on parade in another post.

My reasons for choosing a cover song to be highlighted this week? First, it’s a true cover. The lyrics are blissfully un-messed-with, the notation remains, but the style has been conformed to the artist. When this is done correctly, it can often lend whole new meanings to the same song or arrangement. Second, It’s K’s birthday, and I felt that a girlband that rocks, and that breaks out with intense energy and a fresh outlook was just perfect to celebrate her big 7th. Third, The other song by Odd Girl Out that I was going to use really kicks in at about 27 seconds, so the demo clip you get here would not do it justice.

Odd Girl Out is a post-punk pop all-girl band from Baltimore who sound a lot like Joan Jett or Letters to Cleo. I got the cover of the Bangles’ Eternal Flame on spotlight here as a dedication for the people in our lives who can light up our whole day just by saying our name.

When you guys finish with your personal flashbacks to big hair, DeLoreans, and jokes about Regan’s memory lapses, Hit the “More From This Artist” button to hear clips of some of their other tracks, including a really kicking “Lost in Translation”, a playful nudge at home in “Smalltimore”, and even an ode to “MySpace”.

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taken for granite

In the past couple of years, my sister has suggested an activity that is becoming a staple in our family gatherings, especially when our relatives from out-of-state are here. The first time around, it was on Thanksgiving Day, and after we had filled up on the bounty, we packed all of the teens and kids into the car and went to hike Stone Mountain. This was a great activity, and here in GA, it’s really still rather mild in late November. This past weekend, we went for that hike again, the first where I have taken the girls. It’s a very different challenge during the summer, but is great excercise as well as a bonding experience for all of us.
I really wish I’d packed more water for the ascent this time, and think that they should consider making some water fountains available at the pavillion that sits halfway up the trail to the top.
I was looking at the Atlanta paper today, and there was an article about some local clubs that have been organized over the years who go and climb the mountain every day, which is marvellous if you have the time and means.
After our climb back down, we took some blankets to the lawn and saw the laser show (I used to go all the time, when we lived in the area during my younger years, but I hadn’t seen it in a long time). There is a new company in charge of the whole production, and they are using a lot more in the way of projections, pyrotechnics, and the like. It’s not a bad show at all. If you are visiting the Atlanta area, you should add it to the “see list” for one evening.

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Thanks, Amie Street!

A little while back, I got a comment from Zane over at AmieStreet.com which kicked off an email conversation about this whole Amie Street Music Wednesday meme. Apparently, The crew over at AmieStreet have been noticing a difference in sales and traffic from this bit of blogger activity, and wanted to show some love by sending a slick tee shirt. It is a gray American Apparel Tee with an awesome pinball table theme in pink featuring a bunch of terms used in the amie street community and on the site in general. I really dig it a lot!
Since a post like this is “nothing without pics,” I have a few shots here in my back pocket. (just ignore the pocket lint and empty gum wrapper):
Detail of Tee design with my library on I hear some 80's synth-pop coming up...extreme camera angles!

They were out of my size, so this one is really huge now. I’m hoping that it shrinks up a bit when I launder it the first time.
The meme was thought up by Mark over at Mouseclone after some discussions about all the new music we were finding regularly on the AmieStreet website. After putting together the original tracker, he was able to get in touch with some of the development team, who helped in providing the embedded player with the “skinning” options, and then Mark’s work on the WordPress plugin started to really take shape.

I’m glad to see the sites doing well, and have found amiestreet to be a great place as a music consumer to find new and interesting bands, and see it as a hot spot for independent artists to promote and sell their tracks, find new fans, and to connect with the community.

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ASMW – Simon Wilcox

I’ve been holding the cards long enough on Simon Wilcox, and really wanted to share her tracks with you. She’s a singer and songwriter, and *yes* she has a guy name. If any of you were fans of The Kooks, the voice will sound familiar. I really like the fresh intensity of the “Eyes On You” track, and find that this is a good collection of tracks to have for driving or to listen to while indulging the right-brain, whether that be drawing, painting, photoshop work, or creative writing.

Amie St. Music Wednesday

Why Amie St. Wednesday? Music is in everyones lives. It surrounds us even when we don.t it. This is a way to discover new artist, and share the artist that you enjoy listening to on AmieStreet.com. If you enjoy the music please support the artist. Amie St. Music Wednesday has no affiliation with AmieStreet.com and the opinion about the music and/or artist is the that of the postie.

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ASMW – Stella & The Doggs

This week, I was getting back into some electronica, but kept looking for something that was complex yet danceable. Then I stumbled onto this single by Stella & The Doggs. Stella is notable for her involvement in the Manchester band called Intastella in the early nineties, and refers to this new band and album as “Dark, electro pop”. This track, “Supersize” has interesting lyrics and a building beat that also makes it a good accompaniment to night driving. “Star, you know how gorgeous you are/you lost your mind in my car/star – it’s all too much. More money, more love, more money, more sex. Look what they’ve done/They supersized…” The guitars are prominent without taking the front seat, all while keeping the European feel.

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ASMW – 0N3S & Z3R0S

This week, I am talking about a band called “ones and zeroes”, or more exactly, 0N3S & Z3R0S. This three-peice is from Northern California, and has a unique sound, melding the sounds of electronica loops and effects with traditional instrumentation and alt-grunge vocals. After you sample “Mind Run Free”, Click on the “more by this artist” button and make sure to hit “Nothing Left” and “Rose” while you are checking out the 0N3S & Z3R0S.