The Official Greatest Music Video Of All Time
February 25th, 2010 | Mp3 Posts | 0 Comments
My favorite part of this is the guy playing the keyboard by just wacking it with his hands. Beyond amazing.
Archive for February, 2010
The Groovetastic Zine
February 25th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments
I’ve always loved Zines and despite the fact that I’m not sure how to put one together, I’m just going to do it anyways. So suck it, logic!
Not only that, but it’ll be the best zine EVER and it’ll be available at all the coolest places (as determined by me).
It will feature artwork, writing, poetry and hopefully some comics by whoever wants to submit some. In return, they’ll be given FREE ENTRY TO ALL GROOVETASTIC SHOWS (+1) and ONE BEER PER PUBLISHED PIECE OF WORK.
Yeah.
How do you give me your work to publish?
Send it over to landsawy@hotmail.com, I’ll check it out and let you know if I’ll be publishing it and invite you to the next show at which you can grab your free beer.
The point of this? Spread great art, make great connections, put on better shows attended by cool, artistic people. That’s how I do business.
BOAT
February 22nd, 2010 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments
Revivalism. I feel like pre-2000 we didn’t have nearly the amount of revivalism that we have these days. If you’re a rock band that’s not using samplers, then there’s a good chance your reviving something, whether it’s the psych pop of the 60s, the soft rock of the 70s, the synth pop of the 80s, or the lo-fi scrappiness of the early 90s or any other myriad of genres solidly grounded in a decade that’s not the one we live in. This week’s band is all about the mid-90s with Pavement being the chief inspiration though there’s definitely some Built to Spill in there as well. The band of the week is…
BOAT!!!
Fuck, they’re even from Seattle, how 90s is that? Not really that much these days, actually, with Band of Horses and Fleet Foxes also calling the city home, but the band’s messy guitars and college slacker vocals (not to mention an opener track titled “Friends Since 1989″) leave no question as to what (and when) these guys are all about. Lyrically, sometime it seems like they’re actually singing about something (“We’ve been friends since 1989/You can’t believe it and neither can I”) and sometimes not so much (“Sit right down, right round the table/drink some down, drink what you’re able”).
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnYwU37mVwg]
Truth be told, a lot of revivalists seem to actually improve on the music they’re reviving. I mean, I’d choose Dungen any day over most of the obscure psych records they’re inspired by. She and Him manage to make the most out of 70s soft rock, most of which was ridiculously boring and overproduced. I like Neon Indian’s Psychic Chasms more than anything that ever came out of the 80s. It’s likely because years after the fact, once an a band and a sound can be looked upon removed from then-contemporary tastes and trends, its enduring qualities can be identified and exploited. BOAT do exactly that in reviving what they do. And though their last album, Setting The Paces, may not be as good Slanted and Enchanted or Keep It Like A Secret, but BOAT merges and pays homage beautifully to the sound those albums invented and/or perfected, and they do so with a wealth of charm, self-awareness and great hooks. And that’s more than good enough for me.
“Girl, I’ll make love to you like a (insert artist here) album!”
February 21st, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2Y62Io5dGs]
Picnicface member/comedian Mark Little had a great joke in one of his stand-ups about how in order to pick up girls in club’s he’d need to resort to unorthodox tactics. One of his lines was, “I’ll make love to you girl…I’ll make love to you like a Jethro Tull album…awkwardly! And with a flute!” (Unfortunately it’s not in the clip above, I can’t for the life of me find the one that has it).
I thought it was fucking hilarious and one time when I was at Dance Cave I used it on some chick and believe it or not, she started dancing with me. Which was also hilarious.
So while I was at work yesterday I thought up a bunch of other great ones and then proceeded to piss off (and creep out) a couple girls at Dance Cave last night with them, though most of the girls just thought they were funny.
Either way, it was very entertaining for me. Here are a bunch of them for your amusement.
“I’ll make love to you girl, I’ll make love to you like…”
A Postal Service album…tediously! And with my computer!
A Pink Floyd album…Contemplatively! And in time with the Wizard of Oz!
A Radiohead album…depressingly! And with a glockenspiel!
A King Crimson album…Epicly! And for eight minutes at a time!
A White Stripes album…In red, white and black! And with my sister/ex-wife!
A Fleetwood Mac album…Excessively! And while dangerously high on cocaine!
An ELO album…Enjoyably! And with an orchestra!
A Joy Division album…Morbidly! And while having a seizure!
A Cure album…Romantically! And while wearing more make up than you!
A Smiths album…Celibately! And while trying to convince you to become a vegetarian!
A Strokes album…Really well the first two times! Disappointingly the third!
Feel free to add your own in the comments 
Late Nights #1 EP
February 18th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments
So, I thought I’d try something different. Late at night, I’d create a bunch of beats with a stylo…beat thing and then just start playing acoustic guitar over it and singing. After a minute of getting something together, I’d improvise lyrics and new parts and stuff and record it on my iPhone, usually in one take. The results are interesting – not necessarily good. But whatevs, here it is if you’re curious as to what happens when someone starts improvising a song at 2 am.
(Note: the file is insanely small because they’re simple files, though the EP is 7 songs, most of which are over 2 minutes long)
Awesome Album Covers!
February 18th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments
Definitely not how you’re supposed to do that.
In Blog We Trust: Why The Blogosphere is Saving Music and Seriously Cool (Part 1)
February 17th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments
Part 1: Introduction to the Blogosphere
In case you don’t already know (though since you’re reading a blog, you probably do), the blogosphere is a big thing these days, especially in music. Thousands of music geeks each day are online writing about bands they like or find interesting, posting videos and mp3s, and it is drastically changing the way we listen to music and the way the industry works and will work in years to come.
Bands that never would have gone anywhere or would only have gained a following after years and years can become internet sensations overnight. A great example of this would be the success of San Francisco band Girls.
Pre-blogosphere I doubt there’s any way a strange, idiosyncratic (albeit endearing) band like Girls could have risen to the level of indie prominence or gained the kind of adoration they have in such a short period of time, let alone ever. 20 years ago – even with indie labels, MTV specials, cassette culture, zines, whatever – a band like Girls would either have gained fans slowly or would never have gone far at all because they’d be too weird for commercial appeal, but not weird enough to have the broad outsider, novelty or goofball appeal acts/artists like Daniel Johnston, Jad Fair or the B-52′s had.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDZy6-fMCw4]
With the blogosphere though, it doesn’t need either of the above. One music geek with a blog can hear “Lust For Life”, love it, then spread it on to exactly the kind of people who might like that kind of music, i.e. the readership who trust and share the blogger’s taste. Say a couple of his readers like it and pass it on to others who in turn pass it on to more people. The music is now being heard by the exact demographic it was intended for, without any money being spent along the way by any party. It’s the difference between bombing an entire village vs. sniping the couple baddies you came for. Faster, better, cheaper and more efficient.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuoTjYYqe4c]
Radio may as well go fuck itself. Mainstream appeal is not at all important. You want to hit up a niche market, and you can do that now. You don’t need a label. You don’t need money. You don’t need a publicist or a lawyer or anything. With some cheap software and a good song, any band/artist can have one of these internet “hit single”s if it’s good or interesting enough and gets to the right bloggers’ ears. A cool music video can also go a long way. (See below)
[dailymotion id=x1cgp9]
Next thing you know they’re signed to a major label, managed by a big company, touring the world and in the studio with a big name producer. (See below)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOV6I4fYnvQ]
It took years for people to recognize bands like The Velvet Underground, The MC5 and Big Star as legendary, but people talked, and writers wrote, and eventually it happened. The blogosphere isn’t infallible and doesn’t necessarily recognize talent all the time, but what took decades back when for those bands would’ve taken months or a couple years with the blogosphere. Especially since it takes a lot less convincing to get a person to click “play” for an embedded mp3 than to get a person to shell out money for an album or a single. And this is one of the biggest reasons why I like the blogosphere and why it is saving music, because it has the power to make good music and good musicians very popular very fast.
Admittedly though, it also has the power to make very bad musicians very popular very fast (cough! Wavves, cough!).
Check back soon for Part 2, in which I explore how the existence of the blogosphere is changing the way we make and think about music.
The Morning Benders
February 15th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments
This week’s band of the week is just really cool. They’ve got an album called Big Echo co-produced by Chris Taylor (of Grizzly Bear) that’ll be out March 9th on Rough Trade. And it’s probably gonna kick ass. This week’s band of the week is…
THE MORNING BENDERS!!!
Yeah, this San Fran/New York crew’s been quietly releasing kick-ass albums for a while but now that they’re on Rough Trade I think we’re all gonna start hearing about them. Their old sound was kind of charming, well arranged indie rock that I was damn sure had to come out of Brooklyn. Now that their sound (which already sounded a bit like a Grizzly Bear that wasn’t interested in folk) has been given the producer’s touch of an actual Grizzly Bear member, it is a) way, way stronger, better and more distinctive, b) way, way, way more like Grizzly Bear, but still without the folkiness. Though the song below, “Excuses”, doesn’t. It’s just really good.
http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=102915018,t=1,mt=video
The main difference is the kind of funky fracturing of the arrangements which Veckatimest distinctly called its own. Their pre-Big Echo stuff sounded very strummy, you could hear that rhythm guitar holding it all together underneath everything. Now on songs like “Promises” it’s all cut up and held together by the drums.
Honestly, as great Veckatimest is (and I own a vinyl copy of it, so, yeah, its good), there’s a chance I might actually find Big Echo more enjoyable because the Benders come at everything from a more youthful, less labored standpoint. So we’ll see…we’ll see…in the meantime, I’d get acquainted with them if I were you.
(Photo credit: Brooke Sheridan)
Valentine’s Day Playlist
February 14th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
So, it’s Valentine’s Day today. Here’s a playlist of 10 kickass love songs to get you in the spirit courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Grubtunes.
1. Joel Alme – The Queen’s Corner
2. Stars – Ageless Beauty
3. Passion Pit – Smile Upon Me
4. Jonathan Richman – My Baby Love Love Loves Me
5. Twin Sister – I Want A House
6. Pains of Being Pure At Heart – This Love Is Fucking Right
7. The Go-Betweens – Love Is A Sign
8. The Thrills – This Year
9. Prince – Slow Love
10. John Lennon – Love
