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Show Preview: Matt Costa w/ Delta Spirit - Tue. June 3rd at The Parish 2008-06-02 15:41:46 Hot off signing to Rounder Records just last month, Delta
Spirit are swinging through Austin for, by my count, the third time in the past year. I saw them open for Dr. Dog last fall, and then again at SXSW somewhere amid another thousand bands. A certain folk soul drives the band, but it's dressed up in bin-loads of eclectic auxiliary percussion, lively piano and organ lines, and melancholy (and s Read more:Preview
, Parish
The Daily Dic: Sunny Day Sets Fire - “Brainless” 2008-06-02 11:48:51 Relax, it's not Emo music. I know the name Sunny
Day Sets Fire has a bit of a cheeseball-sentimentality ring to it, but trust me on this one, it's good. My friend John Laird (over at Side One Track One) mentioned these guys while he was guesting on KOOP's Ear Candy the other day. I'd seen the name floating around, but I always had the same misconceptions about their music based entirely on their n Read more:Daily
The Daily Dic / Show Preview: Shearwater - “Rooks” 2008-05-29 11:14:01 Rook is the record I've been listening to and enjoying, for a good while now. The album is the 5th from Shearwater, the band who I believe have finally shed their "Okkervil River Side Project" stigma. The band is headed up by Jonathan Meiburg (who I interviewed on Austin Sound earlier this week), who just left Okkervil River not too long ago, citing the increasing time commitments of Shearwater. N Read more:Preview
, Daily
Music Video: Thao - “Swimming Pools” 2008-05-28 13:03:08 Catchy and animated as ever, here's the video for "Swimming
Pools" by Thao with The Get Down Stay Down. If you missed these guys last time they came through Austin, they'll be back with Rilo Kiley on June 16th, this time at Stubb's. And do check out her album, We Brave Bee Stings and All, before you go.
Read more:Music
The Daily Dic: Silver Jews - “Strange Victory, Strange Defeat” 2008-05-28 11:12:09
It’s been a big couple of days for music news, what with the Sigur Ros mp3 and album announcement, the great shows coming up in Austin this weekend (Shearwater and Centro-matic/South San Gabriel) which I’ll talk about a little later this week, and then this: new music from the Silver
Jews’ upcoming LP Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea.
The first thing you’ll note are th Read more:Daily
, Strange
, Victory
The Daily Dic: Fleet Foxes - “White Winter Hymnal” 2008-05-27 10:39:37
It’s no secret that Fleet
Foxes have been jockeying for position against Vampire Weekend for “most blogged about in 2008.” While I’m starting to tire of reading about Vampire Weekend, I can’t really get enough of Fleet Foxes. They somehow feel more deserving of the constant praise. For those of you who don’t know much about The Fleet, I’ll give you the summary: Internet loved Read more:Daily
, White
Music Video: Weezer - “Pork & Beans” 2008-05-23 11:44:38
Alright, we all know Weezer
’s self-titled new album (”Red”) is about to drop, and I think we’re all equally apprehensive about its contents.
Well, now the single, “Pork & Beans
” (which yeah, isn’t that bad), has its own music video, featuring all those “YouTube Stars” you’ve seen floating around your internets. I think I need Read more:Music
Music Video: Band of Horses - “No One’s Gonna Love You” 2008-05-23 11:08:29
The Best Album Of All Time
I was skimming the internet for news today, and look at what I found: a new Band of Horses
music video. Hey-o! Then I was reading Stereogum, and in their post about the video, I came across this sentence: “No, we didn’t think Cease To Begin was the greatest album of all time, but it definitely has plenty of beauty tucked in that underwhelming shell[... Read more:Music
Show Preview: Ladyhawk at Emo’s (with Neva Dinova) 2008-05-23 01:03:03
Somewhere down the line, indie bands forgot how to use amplifiers. Bands like The Replacements and Sonic Youth made it fucking cool to be loud, fast, and messy, but lately, our musical world is dominated by glossy keyboard-pop and idyllic twee. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy these bands immensely, but sometimes I just want to get loose and cold-rock it.
Ladyhawk is playing at Emo’ Read more:Preview
Album Review: This Is Ivy League - This Is Ivy League 2008-05-22 05:01:18
Feel good albums are a tricky thing. Every time I put one on, I dig all over it for a couple of listens, and then I feel kind of dirty for listening to something so obviously happy. No matter what’s getting your goat-gears a-grindin’, I can assure you that This is Ivy League
will cheer you up, that’s a given. From the introductory cymbal roll of “The Richest Kids Read more:Album
, Album Review
The Daily Dic: The Gang - “Sea So” 2008-06-03 19:10:13 There were quite a few good releases today between Centro-matic, Shearwater and of course the new Weezer, which I picked up at Best Buy for 6 bucks. I figured, as long as I'm going to be buying something from Weezer, I may as well buy it at Best Buy for a ridiculously low price. It's appropriate, the price tag, given that a little less than half the album is good...
But something you may have mi Read more:Daily
Album Review: Centro-Matic/South San Gabriel - Dual Hawks (Misra) 2008-06-03 13:46:02 After 12 years and 12(ish) albums, Centro
-matic/South
San Gabriel
remain mainstays of Texas music. In that time they've found acceptance beyond the Lone Star State – namely SSG in Europe – but they've always been very much a "Texas" band, having danced the "Denton-Austin-Houston Three Step" thousands of times, and never having strayed far away from home for long. With such feelings of familia Read more:Album Review
, Hawks
, Album
The Daily Dic: Bodies of Water - “Under The Pines” 2008-05-22 04:59:17 Bodies of Water are by far one of the most interesting bands I saw at SXSW this year. Even from two venues away, I could hear the shrill strains of their three and four part vocals pounding out “These are the eyes!” Nothing wakes you up at 1 am after 14 hours of music like [...] Read more:Daily
The Daily Dic: Ladyhawk- “S.T.H.D” 2008-05-21 05:01:27 There are a lot of things going for Canada. Hockey, socialized healthcare, Crown Royal, and Evangeline Lilly. Oh, it also exports some of the best indie bands around. One such band that may have slipped through your ear-fingers is Vancouver’s Ladyhawk. Their self-titled debut released in 2006 was well received, but in a year full [...] Read more:Daily
The Daily Dic: ((Sounder)) - “Those Days Were Good Days (As Days Sometimes Are)” 2008-05-20 04:50:18 ((Sounder)) is the musical venture of visual artist Mike Aho. Originally from Austin, and now located in Costa Mesa, CA, Aho has done design work for Volcom (who put out this album) as well as music videos, including one for Bonnie “Prince” Billy. As you might expect then, certain “art” elements creep into the music, [...] Read more:Sometimes
, Daily
The Daily Dic: Twin Tigers - “Red Fox Run” 2008-06-04 12:13:25 Twin Tigers
have been hunting me down, and I think they finally caught me. I saw their name mentioned somewhere on Yellow Stereo a couple of weeks ago, which I didn't read. Then I saw an NPR Second Stage podcast featuring the band, which I deleted. And then just a couple of days ago, a friend of mine actually mentioned them to me. Whoever's running their PR is doing a damn fine job of freaking me Read more:Daily
, Red Fox
The Daily Dic: Florence and the Machine - “Kiss with a Fist” 2008-06-05 23:40:52 I caught a few songs from Florence and the Machine
's set here at SXSW back in March, and while she was an artist I had always meant to check out, I never quite got around to it until now. She comes to us from England, the same label that brought us Sunny Day Sets Fire, I Am Sound Records. Their 7" debut single, featuring this song, "Kiss with a Fist," is out June 9th in the USA.
Florence is a bit Read more:Daily
The Daily Dic: David Vandervelde - “I Will Be Fine” 2008-06-09 23:35:23 One of the few labels I still trust as a "go-to" for good music is the Jagjaguwar/Secretly Canadian/Dead Oceans conglomerate. Aside from that, I find that what label a band is on hardly tells you much about the band, no less about how good they might sound (aside from "specialty" labels, like DFA for example). It's no surprise then, that David
Vandervelde's sophomore album, Waiting For The Sunrise Read more:Daily
The Daily Dic: Rocketship Park - “Birthday Death Wish” 2008-06-11 22:00:04 This band, Rocketship Park, were featured a while ago on NPR's Second Stage podcast, I place I often go to check in on good new music. I can't say enough good things about NPR, especially their musical efforts, which are some of the most noble in the entire profession. I've never seen a real company devote so much time to finding bands that are just plain good. From hot new singles, to bands that Read more:Daily
, Birthday
The Daily Dic: Sunset - “When Perfect Flames Expire” 2008-06-13 22:37:08 Not but a few months after the release of Bright Blue Dream, Sunset
are back in July with a new album called The Glowing City. According to the label (Autobus), the new album is...
"...equal parts seamless song cycle and singles collection. Songs about reflection, failure, exhaustion of life and circumstance, join with pop sensibilities in a beautifully tragicomic fashion. Essentially two albums Read more:Daily
, Perfect
, Flames
The Daily Dic: Megapuss- “Crop Circle Jerk ‘94” 2008-06-16 19:21:05 You might see the name of the band and the title of the song and think that we’re pulling a fast one on you. I promise, this isn’t my friend’s band from sophomore year. Although we’re seriously posting the song, it’s possible that Devendra Banhart and Priestbird’s Greg Rogove are just messing with you. Technically, these two members haven’t been officially confirmed, nor has the natu Read more:Daily
, Circle
Music Video: Mates of State - “My Only Offer” 2008-06-18 01:59:23 Pitchfork may have poo-poo-ed all over the new Mates of State
album Re-arrange Us, but here at Big Diction, we think it's pretty good. Actually, I didn't consult anyone at Big Diction before employing that "we", so perhaps I should say: I think it's pretty good. But trust me/us, it is.
The single, "My Only Offer
," aside from being extremely catchy, also makes for a great video. Set in what appear Read more:Music
Show Preview: Aimee Mann with David Ford (Jun 17, 2008 at La Zona Rosa) 2008-06-17 11:00:40 Normally we wouldn't mention "Grammy Award Winning" when describing the kind of artists we like, but it looks like for once the Grammy's got it right when they handed one to Aimee
Mann. She'll be in town tonight at The Parish, supporting her new album @#%&*! Smilers, which might win our award for best album title of all time (we hate optimism here at Big Diction).
The album is interesting, a Read more:Preview
, David
Album Review: Wye Oak - If Children (Merge) 2008-06-19 09:59:35 Wye Oak are playing tonight (Jun 19, 2008) at Emo's
I think everyone has a system for navigating through the staggering amount of new music and new bands. I’ve developed a sort of “mental Netflix” that helps me to keep track of everything. If I read about a band I’ve never heard three or four times on my internet machine, I add them to the “queue.” A band has the ability to move up in Read more:Album
, Children
, Album Review
The Daily Dic: The Lord Dog Bird - “The Gift Of Song In The Lion’s Den” 2008-06-18 13:37:58 There's something cathartic about this new track from The Lord Dog Bird, the side-project of Colin McCann (guitarist for Baltimore's Wilderness), which may or may not have to do with the low-fi recording ethic. Either way, it's got me extremely excited about his self-titled release, coming up in August on Jagjaguwar.
Now, it might be because I've listened to the new Shearwater album about 100 tim Read more:Daily
Video: “Afterlife” (featuring music from Balmorhea) 2008-07-02 14:07:57 In case you didn't know, Balmorhea are playing tonight at the Mohawk here in Austin with Fleet Foxes, The Duchess & The Duke and The Lovely Sparrows. The show is sold out, so I hope you bought tickets already, because it's probably the best lineup in months.
Now, I've never seen Balmorhea live, but I loved their album Rivers Arms, which came out on Western Vinyl earlier this year. The all-in Read more:featuring
Shameless Self Promotion: Austin Sound 2008-06-30 19:51:05 If you didn't already know, in addition to these here ramblings, I also write for a local Austin
website called Austin Sound
, which we hype as being the "independent music source for Austin."
Recently, we put a good deal of effort into redesigning the entire site to make it more, as they say, "user friendly." That means you should go check it out, read a little bit about what's going down with Au Read more:Shameless
The Daily Dic: Kid Dakota - “Stars” 2008-06-26 15:50:18 While we're waiting (well, legally waiting) on Stay Positive from our favorite Twin Cities rockers, The Hold Steady, I've got some other Minneapolis based music for you to check out: Kid Dakota
. Their new album A Winner’s Shadow came out way back in March, so this song isn't quite "new music," but what can you do...
Kid Dakota are a guitar/drum duo consisting of Darren Jackson and Ian Prince. F Read more:Daily
Music Video: Brightblack Morning Light - “Hologram Buffalo” 2008-06-25 12:11:45 It's been far too long since we've heard anything from Brightblack Morning
Light, who's 2006 self-titled album sent shivers up our spine with dreamy Rhodes sounds and a whole lot of 'verb. Their new album is FINALLY coming out this September on Matador. Check out the video for the new song, "Hologram Buffalo
" after the jump. Read more:Music
The Daily Dic: Nagisa Ni Te - “Premonition” 2008-06-25 01:52:46 Nagisa Ni Te (aka: 'On The Beach'), my go-to duo for Japanese psych-folk music, will releasing their latest album, Yosuga, here in the states on Jagjaguwar. The album is the follow up to 2005's Dream Sounds and the seventh total for the band. As Dream Sounds was less Album and more EP, given that none of songs were actual "new" releases, this album marks the first true LP from the band since Jagja Read more:Daily
, Premonition
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