Destination “Rockville, CA”

Posted on | February 25, 2009 | 3 Comments

TV wunderkind Josh Schwartz, the mastermind behind “The O.C.“, “Chuck” and
“Gossip Girl” teamed up with Alexandra Patsavas, his music supervisor on
most of his series to create a new web series titled “Rockville, CA“.

the show in a nutshell:

A group of twentysomethings from diverse backgrounds gather regularly to
hear their favorite up-and-coming bands, blow off steam, fall in love with
the wrong people, and then talk about how they’ve fallen in love with the
wrong people. The series not only explores characters’ interactions with
one another, but also the way in which they relate to music And to Club
Rockville itself.

Now, I’m a sucker for TV series where music is it’s central theme.

You might remember such gems as 2001’s “Dead Last“, 2002’s “My Guide To
Becoming A Rock Star“, 2006’s “Love Monkey” and last year’s “Z Rock“.

You do know what all these series have in common? they all get shitcanned
after a season’s worth of episodes or they get canceled before even
finishing their runs.

For some reason, middle america doesn’t like watching twentysomethings get
their music on.

So, Josh wisely decided to move this project on the interweb. Some web series
have found success on the net. Most notably Marshall Herskovitz / Edward Zwick
series “Quarterlife” which is another show based on the lives of twentysomethings.

“Rockville, CA” will debut online March 17 on TheWB.com website. 20 episodes in all at a running length of 4 to 6 minutes each. A series based in a rock club (shot in the well known L.A. venue the Echoplex) would surely feature live performances and wouldn’t you know it, you’ll get to see one band perform live per episode.

Here’s the list:

Kaiser Chiefs, Phantom Planet, The Duke Spirit, Eagles Of Death Metal,
Earlimart, Frightened Rabbit, The Kooks, The Little Ones, Lykke Li,
Nic Stai, Passion Pit, White Lies, Anya Marina, Bishop Allen,
The Broken West, Cass McCombs, Lights, Oppenheimer,
The Republic Tigers and Travis.

Not a bad lineup.

Alot of those bands are signed to Alexandra’s own label Chop Shop Records.
Ahhhh … ain’t synergy a beautiful thing?

After an episode is posted online, you’ll be able to watch the band featured in said episode being interviewed and you’ll be able to watch their live “Rockville” set in it’s entirety.

From looking at the cast credits, the only 2 names I recognized are Ryan Hansen who
plays “The Douche” in the trailer who played Dick Casablancas on “Veronica Mars“,
that series douchebag. Don’t know what that says about the guy that he’s only able
to find roles playing assholes. Also Natalie Morales a.k.a. Wendy Watson (“Dub Dub”
to her friends) on last year’s ABC Family little seen but oh so awesome series
“The Middleman“.

This show is pretty much if “The O.C.” spent their entire waking moments in
“The Bait Shop”.

You’ll get all the pre-requisite character types that Schwartz is so fond of
in his productions. from the trailer alone, it does look a bit cheesy, the whole music business side of things happening at the club will merely be of use as the background for the inevitable will they or won’t they hook up scenario between the two leads … but the live performances alone may make me wanna log on.

Believe in the Schwartz.

That’s my mantra for this new show. He brought the goods with The O.C.’s first season
and currently with “Chuck“, who knows he might surprise us again.

Here’s the trailer:

The official website: www.rockvilleca.com

Sadly, us non-americans won’t be able to watch it as the WB.com site blocks
out foreigners but with the interweb being what it is, surely will be able
to find a way to catch it none the less.

And a few Schwartz interviews about the show:

L.A. Times
Paste Magazine
Premiumhollywood.com

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Category: TV
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2009 “Under The Snow” Music Festival

Posted on | February 24, 2009 | 1 Comment

One of my favorites (of the many) music festivals we have here in Montreal
is back for it’s 5th edition. I speak of “Under The Snow” which will be
in full effect for 4 glorious days starting March 11th and ending on the 14th.

This festival specializes in presenting the latest shoegaze, electro and post
rock bands outthere. International bands are showcased with our own local talent
to give you a taste of what’s new and poppin’ fresh.

Over the years, thanks to UTS, I got to see bands like Sianspheric,
A Northern Chorus, Dirty On Purpose and Aberdeen City do their thing.

One of this year’s headliners, Caspian, are without a doubt, of my favorite post
rockers in the game today. So this is definitely a show not to be missed.

All this will go down at the Casa Del Popolo / La Sala Rossa venues
which are across the street from each other so you’ll be able to check
as many bands as possible with much ease.

For more information on how to obtain tickets and/or a festival pass, check out
their official website: www.underthesnow.ca

Here’s the full schedule (w/ MySpace links) to sample each performers on their
respective night.

Update:

Casa Del Popolo lost their liquor license so without their license, no live shows
can go on so all Popolo shows have either been moved to Il Motore or Le Divan
Orange.

For more info about Casa‘s lost liquor license situation, check out this Stillepost thread.

Le Divan Orange
4234 Boul. St-Laurent

La Sala Rossa
4848 Boul. St-Laurent

Il Motore
179 Jean-Talon West

03 / 11 / 2009

Angil & the Hiddentracks / Héliodrome ( TBA ) 9pm.

03 / 12 / 2009

Caspian / Thisquietarmy ( Le Divan Orange ) 9pm.
Human Highway / Noah’s Arkweld / The Magic ( La Sala Rossa ) 9pm.

03 / 13 / 2009

Kimika / Indian Ocean ( TBA ) 9pm.
The Furlongs / The Counselors ( La Sala Rossa ) 9pm.

03 / 14 / 2009

Yellow6 / Apillow ( Il Motore ) 9pm.

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Category: Festivals, Shoegaze, Under The Snow
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SXSW: 2009 ( Unofficial ) Music Torrent

Posted on | February 22, 2009 | 2 Comments

Only 24 days away!

That’s when the music portion of the festival kicks off.

They’ve already posted the full schedule:

http://sxsw.com/music/shows/schedule

And now, an enterprising young man by the name of “Ben” created
two giant torrents of all the artists mp3s featured on the SXSW site:


SXSW 2009 ( Unofficial ) Music Torrent

1053 mp3s at just over 5 Gigs worth of sweet music.

Might take a few days to download it all but very much worth the time.
Every year, I discover at least a dozen new bands trough this download
and it helps me to finalize my schedule for the week.

So, hop to it and for the love of god … SEED! once you’re done.
Not seeding for your fellow SXSW attendees will cause baby jesus
to weep uncontrollably.

Update ( 03.09.09 ) :

Part 3 of the torrent has just been posted.

That’s 214 more mp3s you get to download and listen at your leisure.

Torrent File

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Category: Festivals, SXSW
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Yeah Yeah Yeahs “It’s Blitz!” New Single – “Zero”

Posted on | February 18, 2009 | No Comments

Yeah Yeah Yeahs
It’s Blitz!
March 31, 2009
Interscope Records

Tracklist:

01. Zero
02. Heads Will Roll
03. Soft Shock
04. Skeletons
05. Dull Life
06. Shame and Fortune
07. Runaway
08. Dragon Queen
09. Hysteric
10. Little Shadow

Official Website
MySpace
Facebook

The New Yeah Yeah Yeahs album “It’s Blitz!” as been 3 years in the making.

Their last opus, 2006’s “Show Your Bone”, I like it but I didn’t love it.
I’m sure there’s a few YYYs fans outthere who felt the same way.

The new album is produced by TV On The Radio’s go-to guy David Sitek and
Nick Launay who worked on the last Supergrass and Nick Cave And The
Bad Seeds records.

“Zero” is the first single off the new album. A synth pop ditty with a
really hooky 90’s eurodance beat to it that just seeps into your brain
and won’t let go. It also as a New Wave / Gary Numan-esque feel to it.
That’s courtesy of guitarist Nick Zinner, who plays many a vintage
synths all over the album.

“Zero” comes out February 24th on iTunes and April 6 as a CD single.

The album and it’s egg smashingly great artwork comes out April 14.

While waiting for the new album, you should check out Karen O’s collaboration
with Big Baby Jesus a.k.a. ‘Ol Dirty Bastard and Fatlip (of Pharcyde fame)
on the track “Strange Enough” from N.A.S.A.‘s debut album “The Spirit Of Apollo”.

( MP3 ) Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Zero”

( MP3 ) N.A.S.A. – “Strange Enough”

Update:

As it often happens in this digital world we live in, the new
album leaked out to the world last week.

So the YYYs moved the album’s CD release date to March 31st.
It will be released digitally on March 10th.

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Category: Albums, MP3s
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Superdrag Are “Industry Giants”

Posted on | February 17, 2009 | 2 Comments

Industry Giants
March 17, 2009
Superdrag Sound Laboratories / Thirty Tigers Records

Tracklist:

01. Slow To Anger
02. Live And Breathe
03. I Only Want A Place I Can Stay
04. Everything’ll Be Made Right
05. Cheap Poltergeists
06. Try
07. Ready To Go
08. Filthy & Afraid
09. You’re Alive
10. 5 Minutes Ahead Of The Chaos
11. Aspartame
12. Deathblow To Your Pride

Official Website
MySpace
Facebook

Merely a one-hit wonder to some (their 1996 single “Sucked Out”) but to others,
the best purveyors of power pop and rock n’ roll badassery in the last 15 years.

Guess which category I belong to?

I’m not afraid to admit that I have a big ❤ on for Superdrag.

The band called it quits back in 2003. Singer/songwriter/frontman
John Davis sobered up (the man loved his liquor), found the lord
and became a family man.

He still recorded music as a solo artist releasing in 2005 his
self-titled debut album which was of the Christian-rock persuasion
but don’t let the Jebus love fool you, it still rocked as hard.

What rocked even harder, was his second solo album 2007’s “Arigato!”
and my favorite album of 2007 (here be my review for Muchmusic.com).
Just balls to the wall rock n’ roll that just kicks in you right in the
gut. Think a cross between Hüsker Dü and the early days of Foo Fighters.
A massively overlooked album that should’ve gotten more recognition.
It will definitely have a top 10 spot in my favorite album lists of the 00’s.

The original Superdrag lineup (1996-98) which consists of Davis,
drummer Don Coffey Jr., guitarist Brandon Fisher and bassist Tom Pappas
got back together in October 2007 for 6 reunion shows. It all went
swimmingly and from that, in February 2008, they reconviened in the studio
and started work on the new album.

From a recent Magnet Magazine interview, John said of the new album that
“this might be the most focused the songwriting’s ever been.”

From the few songs I’ve had the chance to hear so far, looks like they haven’t
lost their step. The MP3 I’m featuring here titled “Everything’ll Be Made Alright”,
as a nice middle eastern flavor to it. Having a little sitar peppered in your songs is
never a bad thing.

The new album “Industry Giants” does comes out on St. Patty’s Day. You can now
pre-order the album on their Official Website.

Immediately following the release, touring will occur.

2 shows in their native Tennessee home (march 13 & 14) and then on to South By
Southwest, where it seems they will play on each day of the festival.

One being at the Unofficial House Party at ATJ Backyard on March 20th.
You best believe I will catch each and everyone of their shows while there.
They’ve been on my “bands I must see before I kick it” list for so long and now
that I get a chance to see them in all their live glory, I wouldn’t dare miss
any of their showcases.

East Coast Tourdates:

04.03.09 — Washington, D.C. ( 9:30 Club )
04.04.09 — Philadelphia ( Johnny Brenda’s )
04.09.09 — New York City ( Bowery Ballroom )
04.10.09 — Brooklyn, N.Y. ( Music Hall Of Williamsburg )
04.11.09 — Boston ( Paradise Rock Club )
04.25.09 — Chicago ( Metro )

Here’s the Superdrag / John Davis discography:

Regretfully Yours (1996)
Head Trip In Every Key (1998)
In The Valley Of Dying Stars (2000)
Last Call For Vitriol (2002)
Changin’ Tires On the Road To Ruin (2007) — > B-sides / rarities Compilation

John Davis (Solo Albums):

John Davis (2005)
Arigato! (2007)

If you’re new to the ‘drag, may I suggest my favorite album “In The Valley
Of Dying Stars” as your starting point. To me, it’s the album that
encapsulate what Superdrag is all about.

( MP3 ) Superdrag – “Everything’ll Be Made Right”

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Category: Albums, MP3s, Power Pop, Superdrag
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