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Concert Preview: Mat Kearney

February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Mat Kearney returns to San Diego this Saturday for a show at the House of Blues

By Tom Roth

Mat Kearney
House of Blues
Saturday, February 25, 2012 

Revisting San Diego for the first time since his performance at the House of Blues in Dec. 2011, folk rocker Mat Kearney is set to turn heads. Coming off a successful run of nation-wide performances as part of his current winter tour, Kearney will be promoting his most recent full-length studio release, Young Love, particularly his singles “Hey Mama”, and “Ships in the Night” which currently sits at #34 on Billboard’s Adult Pop chart.

Kearney’s unique blend of genres, from rock to folk to rap, create a listening experience found only rarely. His numerous popular releases, which date back to 2005’s Nothing Left to Lose, combine with multiple sold-out shows on his current tour to forecast an entertaining live performance. Saturday night’s show, assisted by tour partner Robert Francis, promises to offer a night of quality music and fun the all-ages audience.

Tickets are still available at the House of Blues website. Look there for directions to the venue, parking information, and pre and post show entertainment in the historic Gaslamp neighborhood.

Filed Under: Concerts, Upcoming Shows, USD Radio Tagged With: , , ,

Interview: Purling Hiss

February 17, 2012 By 1 Comment

Purling Hiss's most recent album, Lounge Lizards

By Shaida Omid and Kayleen Fulton

The Belly Up was sold out before Dr. Dog had even arrived to San Diego. By the time I got there, the crowd was beginning to gravitate toward the stage in anticipation. The band’s new album Be The Void came out that very day and most of the crowd hadn’t heard their new songs yet.


Similar to Delta Spirit, Dr. Dog plays indie alternative rock, so the opening act, Purling Hiss, was something quite unexpected for most of the crowd. Mike Polizze came on and revved up the crowd by jamming harder tunes than most Dr. Dog fans were anticipating that night. The resolutely different genre of music that opened for Dr. Dog presented a precarious duo of Philadelphians, but it was very well-received by the crowd. Mike Polizze was generous enough to offer USDRadio an inside look at the lives that make up this lo-fi, psychedelic, garage rock.
Dr. Dog’s Eric “Teach” Slick, drummer, also joined in for a bit!

Mike Polizze: Purling Hiss’s guitar and vocals
Kiel Everett: Purling Hiss’s Bassist
Mike Sneeringer: Purling Hiss’s Guitarist

Eric “Teach” Slick: Dr. Dog’s drummer

 

Shaida Omid & Kayleen Fulton: How long have you guys been together?
Mike Polizze: A year and a half or so, almost two years.

SO&KF: What were you guys doing before?
MP: I have a band called Birds of Maya that I’ve been in for eight years, but we don’t tour. We’ve put out records on Holy Mountain.

SO&KF: Same kind of music?
MP: Sort of. It branches off. Mike’s been touring for 12 years.
Mike Sneeringer: I’ve been in a bunch of other different bands.

SO&KF: Are you currently in another band?
MS: Technically, I guess I’m in four. But this is, by a huge margin, my main band. Drummers get around. Sometimes it’s hard to find drummers that are willing to tour and can play different styles. I guess I’ve just fallen into knowing a bunch of people who needed drummers and so it’s worked to my advantage in a lot of ways because I’ve been able to continuously tour for a really long time.

SO&KF: How did you guys get together?
MP: It’s really cool that we were all friends first before we started the band. Basically how it started is that because I was in Birds of Maya for so long and they couldn’t tour – the main guy in that band has a wife and kids and a full-time job; music is his hobby. So, in my free time, I did my own thing and ended up just recording stuff and putting it out on small labels and Kurt Vile was the first guy to ask me, ‘Wanna go on tour with me? I’m gonna have a tour.” So Mike and Kiel were my friends and we had time to get a band together and rehearse and get ready for it and take the show on the road. So it’s kind of weird, it’s backwards. Most bands start, play songs, get your friends together, jam in the basement. But I made recordings and put out actual albums on small labels that got a little bit of attention and Kurt Vile, being a friend of mine, invited me on tour, and I got the band together, had time to rehearse and then we’ve been together ever since. And now we’re an exclusive unit, sort of.

SO&KF: So you knew Kurt Vile before?
MP: Yeah, we’re all buddies. KV & the Violators would play shows with Birds of Maya, my other band.

(Eric “Teach” Slick enters)

SO&KF: What cities have you been playing previous to Solana Beach?
MP: Cleveland, Columbus, Lawrence, Kansas.
MS: We didn’t get to play Boulder because it got cancelled cause of the snow.
MP: Yeah, so that got cancelled. It was a great night because we all went to a small town called Julesverg in the northern tip of Colorado and we all got to hang out with these guys and it was a good bonding, sort of, experience.
MS: middle of nowhere town, we, like, took over this dinky motel bar. the locals had no idea what to make of us. Like there were 12 or 15 of us. I guess it was 13 of us total. Rolled in there, into this bar that had had 3 people who all knew each other’s names. It was fun, though.

MP: So then we played Salt Lake City, then Phoenix. Then tomorrow, we’re off because Dr. Dog is playing Conan. Then Santa Ana, L.A. and all up the coast. It’ll be really awesome. Which is good because we’ve had some rough drives up here, we’re driving and Dr. Dog is on a tour bus.

SO&KF: What’s been your favorite city?

MP: Tonight was pretty fun.

MS: Tonight was definitely my favorite show.

SO&KF: Have you gotten to enjoy your stops much?

MS: We actually have a rare day off tomorrow. Like he was saying about the drives, this tour especially, it’s been literally: play, pack up, watch a bit of Dr. Dog and then we’re usually on the road to drive and in some cases, even a couple hours a night towards the next city, get a hotel, wake up, and drive the rest of the way. Even the nights that we’ve stayed in the city, we haven’t gone out. We haven’t even really hung out in the club. We usually, afterwards, we’ve been kinda like ‘okay we have to go get to bed, because tomorrow’s gonna be another long day.’ So tomorrow’s our first day off. Our first intentional day off, I guess. And then Santa Ana’s only an hour and fifteen minutes away. The next couple of days we have a ton of time.
MP: We went to Europe for two weeks and saw nothing.
Kiel Everett: I saw the tip of the Eiffel Tower from the highway.
MP: No! You weren’t there! My friend lives in Paris and we went to that cathedral, it was some cathedral.

MS: (jokingly) Kiel walked around with his eyes closed the whole time.
MP: I tried to get him to come, we kinda parted ways. I have a friend who lives in Paris and he took us to whatever cathedral and we could see the whole city. That was awesome.

SO&KF: So what are you going to see in San Diego?
MS: What did that guy just tell us? Some park, I wrote it down.
SO&KF: Balboa park?
MS: Yeah, that’s it.

SO&KF: (to Mike P.) Is the guitar the first instrument you started playing?

MP: Uh, no, piano was the first. I was young. I started taking lessons when I was 8, but I remember walking up to a piano and playing the beginning part to “Old Time Rock n Roll” by Bob Seger by ear. That’s my earliest memory of playing something by ear and then my parents put me in front of a piano and I played guitar after that, when I was 13. I took like two years of lessons, but I got bored of it. My uncle had an old Sears little practice amp from the 70s and a Kent electric guitar, a student model, I ended up breaking that somehow. And then I got an acoustic guitar, and then an electric. I love playing bass, drums… but the end goal was serving the song. Not being all for one instrument, but using each as a component to create this one, interweaving thing. I got into all the instruments that would make up a rock band. They’re all equally important to me is what I’m getting at. The guitar just ended up being my primary instrument.
MS: When I was in elementary school, in fifth grade, and the high school jazz band came to put on a performance for the elementary kids. You know, I was gonna be a cheerleader, but then I put down my pom-poms and picked up the drumsticks. The drummer of the jazz band was really good, did a solo, and I was like ‘That’s awesome, I wanna play drums.’ I convinced my parents get to me a snare drums, then convinced them to get me one more piece, one more piece, and I was in school band for a little bit then I got kicked out for disciplinary reasons and that’s when I started my first rock n roll band. I had a bad mouth when I was a child and I was shout or say things at inopportune moments… right when the music went quiet. They sent me to home ec. after that. Then I started a band with friends at shows… and that’s how I got started. THere’s a lot to learn when you start actually playing with other people in front of people.
KE: I started playing guitar when I was 15. THe first band that I was in, i played bass. I’m not a bass player. It’s kinda come full circle. I’m a very sloppy guitar/bass player… but it seems to work. I didn’t even own a bass when we started playing as Purling Hiss. Orginally I was supposed to play guitar, but the Kurt Vile tour was looming over us and we didn’t have a bass player.

SO&KF: (to “Teach”) Hey congratulations on your album coming out today.
TS: Yeah, it’s exciting, we’re number 2 on the alternative charts. But Lana Del Ray is number one. We’ve got to usurp her somehow…

SO&KF: Did you study music?
TS: I studied with a lot of different people, but I learned most of things about music from my family. My grandfather was a jazz musician. He played a lot of Billie Holliday, buddy rich, ella fitzgerald. I just learned a lot from him. My dad was a guitar collector, so I grew up around like 20 guitars in the house. There was constantly music happening in the house. I guess I kind of learned by listening and having my dad be like “Rock n Roll! You gotta save the kids!”
MS: I’m actually going to convince him on this tour to give me probably what is the closest thing i’ve had to drum lessons in a while. ‘Cause there are technique things that I never, ever learned.
SO&KF: How did you guys start touring together?
TS: I saw Purling Hiss play at Johnny Brenda’s, a really awesome venue in Philadelphia. They were headlining.

SO&KF: Do you generally choose who you’ll tour with?
TS: Not always. It really depends on what the tour is. So whenever we have a new album out, we have a tour to support it and we can pick whoever we want. As we tour more and more, we’re looking for interesting bills, so sometimes our booking agent will be like ‘Hey, you should take Deer Tick or Here We Go Magic.’ We’re constantly getting suggested these bands. Sometimes it’s beyong our control. But in a situation like this, I saw Purling Hiss play and I was like “Man, it was be so awesome if we could get them to go on tour with us, and all I did was ask our manager and he was like yeah, that’s an awesome idea. and everybody in the band was really psyched about it. It’s the only idea that I’ve ever had that was unanimously agreed on. I was like “Hey! Let’s have a tour where we have ice cream for three meals a day.” Everyone was like “Ehhhh, Eric shut up.”

SO&KF: How often do you tour?
TS: We never stop. We are always on tour. We tour 150-170 days per year. But there are bands who do more than that, which is crazy. In Phish’s heyday, they were playing like 250 shows a year. The band Wye Oak just did 300 dates a year.
MS: Here We Go Magic plays a lot too. Literally, none of them have apartments. They live on tour. When they’re off tour, they have to get hotels or stay with friends for the week.

SO&KF: Were you guys avoiding drinking tonight to be fresh for Conan tomorrow?
TS: Oh, that’s a good question. I mean, I know Tobi drinks whiskey for his throat; it helps him sing. He bruised his trachea four years ago in a boating accident. It’s kind of amazing that he can sing. He almost completely destroyed his trachea. He was on a canoe with his wife and he was sitting under him and they hit a rock – he couldn’t sing for four months.

SO&KF: Have you found yourself being recognized on the street yet?
TS: I got recognized somewhere really funny recently, I’m trying to remember where it was. I don’t often get recognized on tour, but it’s been happening more and more in Philadelphia, in weird places like the bank or a sub shop.

SO&KF: How are the dynamics of the band working out since some members are newer than others?
TS: It’s really diplomatic with Dr Dog. We’re all great friends so when we’re working on something together, somebody has an idea, it always gets a shot. So if I’m like “hey, I want to have a screeching hyena on this track… or I want a real hyena and I’m gonna tickle it.” They’ll be like Sure, let’s get the budget, get a hyena. All kidding aside, that is how it works. If anybody has an idea, it get a shot. That’s really the best part about being in the band. We work as a creative unit. Scott or Tobi will write a song, but once it’s in the hands of the band, anything can happen.

Keep your eyes and ears open for some new recordings from Purling Hiss coming up in the next few months, and make sure to catch Dr. Dog’s performance on the Conan show if you haven’t already.  Cheers!

Filed Under: Interviews, USD Radio Tagged With: , , ,

Concert Preview: Le Castle Vania

February 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Le Castle Vania is playing at Voyeur on Feb. 18

Le Castle Vania
Voyeur
February 18, 2012

 

Dylan Eiland, aka Le Castle Vania, is an indie dance/electro DJ and producer hailing from Atlanta. He’s increasingly gaining recognition for both his skilled productions and riotous shows, and is able to create the raw energy of a punk rock concert within a DJ set. Le Castle Vania’s musical style is truly unique, fusing elements of rock music with electronic beats to create intense and aggressive, yet melodic and danceable, tunes. Constantly on tour, he has played at clubs all over the world and has performed at many major events including Escape from Wonderland, Electric Daisy Carnival, Ultra Music Festival, SXSW, and the Identity Festival tour.

 

With an album currently in progress, Le Castle Vania has already released an impressive set of productions and remixes, including the singles “Nobody Gets Out Alive,” “Awake,” and most recently “The Light.” He has also done a killer remix of Kaskade’s “Turn it Down,” and his remixes for Stereoheroes, La Roux and D.I.M. are simply epic.

 

Le Castle Vania is a must-see, whether you like electro, or rock, or both. He is playing Saturday night, Feb. 18, at Voyeur. Tickets are ages 21+. Be sure to check out his Soundcloud website, where he has uploaded all of his music including several free downloads of tracks and mixtapes.

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Coachella 2012: Line Up Highlights

February 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Sunset at Coachella 2011. Photo courtesy of Sarah Jorgensen

By Sarah Jorgensen

Southern California’s favorite festival, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, otherwise known simply as Coachella, dropped its line up a few weeks ago. A few days later, tickets for the festival sold out in only a few hours, even though the 2012 festival is spread over two weekends to accommodate its massive explosion in popularity over the past few years. What could have been so appealing about this line up that nearly 100,000 people (myself included) snapped up these tickets so quickly? A scan of the line up reveals some obvious superstars alongside hidden gems. If you were lucky enough to snag a ticket, here are the top eight artists whose sets you should be most excited to see this year’s Coachella:

 

  1. Bon Iver: Since the band’s self-titled sophomore effort last spring, Bon Iver has been selling out shows all over the country (I should know – I tried to get tickets for two different shows, in two different cities and failed). Justin Vernon’s soulful voice and lyrics will surely translate into a completely heartbreaking set. I know I’ll be in tears when he plays anything off of For Emma, Forever Ago, his debut album.
  2.  Justice: I do not fancy myself an electronic music expert by any means, but even I can tell you that Justice’s hit “D.A.N.C.E.” will definitely be fun to dance to in the Sahara tent at Coachella this year. I love this group’s energetic sound, and I can only picture how this music will translate in such a fantastic setting.
  3. The Head and the Heart: I’m a sucker for any band that prominently features a violin. After seeing this band play at San Diego’s House of Blues last fall, I have not been able to turn off their self-titled debut album. Check out their earnest, folksy tone on “Rivers and Roads,” my personal favorite track on the album, or on “Lost in My Mind,” the catchy, popular single.
  4. GIVERS: Although the days in the Indio desert are notoriously hot, I hope this band plays during the day. Their sunny, reggae-tinged sound is perfect for dancing and is pure fun. It’s not too overwrought with technical effects, so I have a feeling that the band will deliver on the promises the band’s new album In Lights delivers.
  5. Yuck: This band is far from what its name implies. Yuck’s highly distorted, hard-rocking sound is in the same vein as Coachella headliners the Black Keys, with a bit more grunge. Whether that is a good or a bad thing in your book is up to you to decide, but it should be one heck of a high-energy set.
  6. Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg: I’d venture to say that this pair is what sealed the deal for many people to purchase Coachella tickets.  Not only am I excited to hear them together on songs like “Kush,” but also I’m stoked to see each hopefully perform some solo songs. A rapping and producing legend, tracks from Dr. Dre’s long-rumored and anticipated album Detox could possibly be featured during the set. Guest appearances from some of Dre’s protégés, like Eminem, wouldn’t be out of the question. And, really, who doesn’t want to hear famed middle school dance jam “Drop It Like It’s Hot” live? In the haze of fantastic artists at Coachella, this duo stands to make some music history and close out the weekends in style.
  7. Beirut: I mentioned earlier that I love violins in bands – expand that to include accordions, too. Influenced by all sorts of interesting world music, there are few other bands making music as intriguing or unique as Beirut’s. This indie rock gem of a band definitely deserves high billing it received on this year’s line up.
  8. Radiohead: One band that has always made interesting and unique music is Radiohead. Honestly, this is the band that made me totally committed to going to Coachella this year. Tickets to Radiohead’s regular tours are highly elusive, so an opportunity to see them on a stage as grand as Coachella’s was not an experience I could miss. If you aren’t listening to this revolutionary group already, you should be.

This was a tough list to compile, since the line up this year is absolutely stacked. Honorable mentions include the Black Keys, St. Vincent, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Real Estate, Florence + the Machine and many, many more.  If you couldn’t snag a ticket to this year’s Coachella, have little fear – with the rate this year’s two weekend festival sold out, we could land up with a whole month of Coachella next year.

What do you think of this year’s line up? Leave your thoughts in the comments below! Check USDRadio again soon for more coverage leading up to Coachella 2012!

Filed Under: Concerts, Music Festivals, Upcoming Shows, USD Radio Tagged With: , ,

Interview: Lazerbeak of Doomtree

February 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Doomtree plays at Casbah on February 3

 

By Tom Roth

Recently, USD Radio’s Tom Roth spoke with Lazerbeak, DJ for seven-piece Minneapolis rap collective, Doomtree to discuss the group’s current super-tour and new album, No Kings.

Catch Doomtree on Friday, February 3 at San Diego’s Casbah. Tickets available here.

Tom Roth: At first glance, Doomtree can seem a bit dizzying. It’s not every day that a seven-some rap collective enjoys the same success as Doomtree. Did that group dynamic come about on purpose or was it more of a happy accident?
Lazerbeak: It was a little bit of both. We all kind of met up and joined forces a little but after high school and at that point, we are all kind of figuring everything out. The whole “strength in numbers” philosophy kicked in where if one rapper finagled his way into a show he could maybe pull along another one and they could share the 15-20 minute slot… things like that. We could pool resources, we could do jobs. I remember having a ledger and a little cash box and we made $40 from a show, I could go to Best Buy and buy CR-Rs so we could press up some CD’s to sell. It started there. We all knew that we were individual artists but it just made sense and seemed easier to forge a path together. As that continued and got bigger, slowly, it seemed like it never made any sense to stop. We’re fortunate. Now we’re here and we’re enjoying a little bit of success and working real hard and so we can enjoy that together. It’s pretty gratifying.

TR: How is the Doomtree of 2012 different from the Doomtree from back in the day? How’s the material different?
LB: [Laughs] the structure has changed. We’re all nearing 30 now – some of us have hit 30  – and so that’s a lot different than when we were 19-years-old…. Also, we’ve learned a lot. We’ve gotten the opportunity to do a lot of things and we’ve learned from all those things. We’ve tried to implement new ways of making us successful. A lot of that has brought some structure. Dessa and I end up doing a lot of the business stuff . Sims is really good at the merchandise stuff. Everyone has their own little role that they contribute to make this thing run as smoothly as it possibly can. Through experience and all that stuff we’ve been able to fine-tune it to work for us. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it for anyone else but for us, it works.

TR: With so many people contributing to Doomtree, who are the top three influences for the group?
LB: Ooh, ok, three outside artists? Oh man…we all have such different tastes… let me poll the room here [poses questions to the crew]. I’d say maybe Outkast. It’s very rare that all seven of us will agree that we like th same artist but I think Outkast is one of the few that we can always agree on. Outkast for sure. Steely Dan? I think we all like Steely Dan. I don’t know if that’s an influence or not but we all agree on Steely Dan, Outkast, and Kurt Vonnegut, the author. We all ended up reading a fair share of his books when we were younger. I know I did.

TR: Looking at the tour schedule for No Kings, the first thing to notice is that there are 40+ shows on just about as many stops. Got any tactics for keeping your sanity?
LB: [Laughs] I don’t know if we’ve figured that out quite yet. We’re really happy to be out on the west coast. We love it out here and we’ve been fortunate enough to do some shows here. This is some of our biggest markets in the country. For some reason, the west coast has always been really good to us. Starting the tour out and routing it that way, the drives are kind of a grind and we’ve packed it in so that even if we have a day off, its usually a driving day and we do an in-store that night. I think we’re feeling the fatigue a little bit up front since we’re on four or five hours of sleep per night, through the past week. But the longest drives are behind us. I think that’ll help. Honestly, the difference between waking up at 7 and getting in a van, and waking up at 9 and getting in a van is astronomical. We can sleep in a little. We’re trying to take it easy. We’ve been on enough of these now that we know you can’t go hard every night. Just trying to pace ourselves. Even though we’ve all done a lot of tours, this is probably one of the larger ones. Its almost like a three month tour with a week off in the middle. So far no one has gotten super sick. We’re all drinking our Emergen-C’s in the morning and hoping that we make it through. We’re looking forward to the shorter drives. I think tomorrow we have a three hour drive, which is awesome.

TR: With that many shows, are you working in room for improvisation or are all the shows going to be pretty much the same in terms of their format?
LB: Honestly, for the first half of the tour it’ll be changing because it takes us a while to really get into the “perfect set” for that tour. With all the different material that we have, it’s not just the crew songs. Obviously, the set is heavily focused on No Kings but we have probably 30-some releases on Doomtree (Records) and we can play any of those songs so it’s a challenge to pick which ones and to see how the crowd will react to them. It takes some time. Once we get it locked in, we usually don’t stray too far from it because of how long it took us to get it to feel right. It’ll generally be around the same but we’re talking about close to two hours of music with all seven of us on stage every night. It’s a lot. You definitely get the overview of the whole last ten years.

TR: Two weeks ago, you were in Kansas. Now, you’re in Southern California. Have you been surprised by the fan response so far?
LB: I have. Every time you go out, you hope that it’s better than the last and that gives you an indicator that you’re doing something right; that things are growing. We were really hopeful putting this crew record out – really, the first all crew record that we wrote together from start to finish – that that would be reflected in the attendance. And it has. It has, man. I’ve been floored by people’s responses to the new material, how many people are singing along every night, selling out a couple of shows already, and doing an encore every night. It’s things that, when you start out, you don’t really think about or ever even expect. You just work hard. I always think of the tour right after you release the record as the reward for all the hard work you put into making it and promoting it and now, you get to see the positive effects of it. We’re all thrilled to get on stage every night and the response from the people who’ve been coming out has been really uplifting for us.

TR: While No Kings is Doomtree’s fourth release, it’s also your second studio album, a notable feat considering all contributing members are balancing solo/collaborations recordings and performances. With all that going on, what was the recording process like for the album?
LB: It was cool. It was different than I’ve ever done it before. We went to Sims’ wife’s family cabin because we knew there was no way – even though most of us live in the same city, our lives are so scattered – there’s no way you get all seven of us in a room even for two hours at a time anymore. We kind  of had to carve out this five day period where everyone said “Yep. We’re free. We’ll go up there. We’ll turn our phones off and we’ll just do work”. We’d gotten together with the producers before and stacked a lot of beats so we had a stockpile of music up there. I went up there with the rappers and we just holed up and five days later, we had eleven of the twelve songs demoed. At that point, we had no clue what was gonna… we just had these songs. We didn’t if they were really good yet or not. We knew they were different. They felt really weird to us at the time. Over the next couple months, we got to fine tune them, add stuff, and when it all was said and done, I looked back and was like “Wow… 90% of this happened in  those five days and we didn’t  really have any idea what we were getting into”. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to duplicate that process again… I’d heard stories of that working for other people but I figured there was no way in hell we’d ever get there. Somehow, we pulled it off with this one. I’m really happy about that because from the business side, I had set the release date before we had any songs because we knew we had to release an album in the fourth quarter so it was a very scary task to be like “Well, we gotta come up with something. I hope it rules”. We lucked out. I don’t think I’ll ever do that again, but we lucked out.

It speaks to how good these guys have gotten at working with one another because, like I said, that first crew record – the self-titled album – was compiled over a five year period. Those songs were written mostly by one person who then brought another person on board late or stuff like that. It just showed through all the touring and stuff we’ve been through that the rappers are at a place with each other where they can feed off each other so quickly. I was really impressed to see that.

TR: “Bangarang” makes mention of “rappers/beats/raps” that sound the same. Is that in any way related to the album’s title?
LB: Mike came up with that chorus and then those guys kind of filled in their verses. We didn’t set out like “We’re gonna call the record No Kings, we’re gonna write about this stuff”. It was interesting. We didn’t name the album until a couple of months later… it was interesting that everyone was on the same path of “all equals” and doing it together and all this kind of stuff. I feel like that chorus does sum up a lot of that stuff… we don’t want to be negative about this stuff at all but we want to say “we’re here to level the playing field and we want everyone to come with us”. It’s just kind of a statement that everyone can do this stuff. And everyone should. We shouldn’t have to worry about a hierarchy or anything.

TR: Whose idea was the iTunes flashmob?
LB: That was Dessa’s idea. She’s the creative one when it comes to brainstorming “how do we promote on these really small budgets? How do we become effective and get our name out there?” For us, those first-week sales are kind of our opportunity to get out there and compete a little bit. If we can mobilize our fan base within that first week to really support it, we have an opportunity to show up on those charts with the big guys…. We had seen a couple people get up on those charts and we knew that they [the charts] regenerate every 12 hours or 24 hours but if you can get a burst of sales, you have a shot sometimes,(if there isn’t a huge release out) of getting up there. So we gave it a shot. We sent a letter to our mailing list and we put it out there on our social networks and we said “Hey, if you were thinking about buying the album today, would you please consider buying it at this time from iTunes to see if we can’t do this together”. And sure enough, we cracked the top 10 hip-hop. We got the #9 for a day. Which is awesome.

Honestly, looking into more and more and understanding what these sales mean, it doesn’t mean that we sold 50,000 records or anything like that but for one 12-hour period, we were hanging. And this is the end of November, this is fourth quarter, this is when all the big rap albums come out like Drake and Yelawolf and all these guys and to see our album cover next to theirs even overnight. To wake up and it was still there was pretty awesome…. Huge shout goes to our fans. Everyone says “Oh, our fans are the best” but we’ve always tried to be as transparent as possible when it comes to this stuff, from the business to the music. I think that really worked to our benefit. We put it out there and told them what we were trying to do and they backed it. Pretty awesome.

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Album Review: The Moth and the Flame

January 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Moth and the Flame's self-titled debut album

 

The Moth and the Flame
The Moth and the Flame
Unsigned
November 11, 2011

If such a thing still exists, The Moth and the Flame (TMATF) is art rock. From the carefully crafted tracks on their six-track, self-titled, debut album to the 20-foot-tall anthropomorphic giants used in promoting their symbolic 11/11/11 album release, the Provo, Utah rockers demonstrate a keen eye and ear for aesthetics.

The album’s Radiohead-meets shoegazer sound comes courtesy of Brandon Robbins and Mark Garbett. “How We Woke Up” serves as a proper introduction to TMATF’s flavor. Breathy vocals periodically click and snap into life as Garbett’s keys crescendo before sliding back into oblivion. This recipe keeps the album’s continuity, each track blending effortlessly into the next.

A track not to be missed, “Dreamer” reaches higher than all the rest, boldly using reverb to emphasize its message. Pensive keys reminiscent of M83 develop the album’s atmospheric sound in a new way, meshing perfectly with “Dreamer”’s fellow tracks.

Consistent with TMATF’s artsy character, the high-production value of the “Lullaby II” video commits TMFTF to good art. Filmed on the frozen and precarious-looking surface of Utah Lake, Robbins and Garbett send a melancholy message into a all-too-fitting wilderness. Additionally, the group expresses a commitment to the album’s art on the frontpage of their website, claiming it is “not an afterthought but rather an integral part of the process”. It is for this reason, they say, that the album is only available in physical form.

In a word, TMATF is about feeling. From the emotions in their lyrics to the simple pleasure of receiving an album in the mail, Robbins and Garbett’s album offers a 45-minute reminder of how to appreciate life’s joys.

WEBSITE: http://howwewokeup.com/

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/themoththeflame

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Moth-the-Flame/192359697452716

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Interview: Rachel Platten

January 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Rachel Platten comes to San Diego's House of Blues on Jan. 13

By Tom Roth

USD Radio’s Tom Roth spoke with Boston pop artist Rachel Platten prior to her Jan. 13 show at San Diego’s House of Blues. From Homer’s Iliad to 100,000 screaming Caribbean fans, Platten shared her influences and even spilled the beans on why her friends make fun of her.

Tom Roth: Your music tends to be very upbeat. How do some of the more brooding artists you list as inspirations (like The Roots or Lauryn Hill) influence your music?
Rachel Platten: It’s funny because this record has a lot of the really uplifting, funny side of the stuff that I’ve been writing and that happens when I co-wrote. I’m kind of a joiner, I always have been. I love being a part of things. I love being a part of a community so going into a co-writing session is so fun and I’m instantly in this mood of “I love doing this and I wanna write something positive and happy”. When I write by myself, the stuff is… not dark, but maybe a little bit more… thoughtful and serious. That’s maybe where the artists that I listen to – like Lauryn Hill and the Roots – come in but I dunno if either of those artists are that dark. They’re talking about some serious subject matter but they’re not doing it in a brooding, miserable way. I think both of them address stuff that is painful but in a way that you can listen to it and feel like “OK, there’s hope”. And there’s a good beat [laughs] and there’s a melodic line….

TR: Another band you’ve said is influential is The Pixies. Is there a Boston connection going on there?
RP: No, because I didn’t learn about them when I was in Boston. Although now that I know that, I’m slowly getting more into them. But I didn’t find out about them until I moved to New York which is strange because I was 20 and my producer at the time, this guy Mark Turrigiano, who’s a big Pixies fan, introduced me to them along with some other artists that I love like Elliot Smith and Nada Surf and a lot of indie rock that I hadn’t been listening to but before we went in to make some songs together, he was like “Alright, girl. You need to completely absorb yourself in these artists”. And the Pixies were one of them that I fell in love with. So no, no Boston connection from the start but now that I know it, yeah. Huge fan.

TR: The title of you album (Be Here) implies a philosophy of living in the moment which fits with your words that in life “there will be pain, but there is always joy in it”. What events in your life and career led you to this mindset?
RP: I think maybe the search for, or the quest of following my dream led me to that. It has not been easy – there have been a lot of ups and downs. It’s funny because when you have success and stuff on the radio, people are like “Oh my God, it’s overnight and you’re the new artist!” but I’ve been working for a really long time and really hard and there’s definitely been a lot of “no’s” and a lot of people who didn’t believe in me. I think it was figuring out how to overcome that and not let the darker side of my mind (which we all have) win… telling it to be quiet. I know that if I stay positive and do the work – not only the work in songwriting, but the work in maintaining my happiness like yoga and meditating and all that stuff that my friends make fun of me for – that stuff keeps you on the light side of life, I think. I think the search for following my dreams has prompted the theme of wanting to stay in the moment and staying present because all we really have is right now. We can ruminate and get depressed about stuff that happened in the past but that doesn’t really exist. This is all we really have.

TR: The sounds of “You Don’t Have to Go” belie the – shall I say – sultry subject matter. Was this track written on a whim or was it more thought-out?
RP: [laughs] It was kind of a whim. I think how I wrote it was my ex-boyfriend and I, actually, he played the drums. We went to this rehearsal studio in New York and he was playing this groove but the groove you hear is changed a little bit. I started beatboxing on it… the original groove he had was this sexy, dirty… [beatboxes]. You can’t really write that, obviously [laughs]. It was just this soulful beat and I think that inspired it. It was like “Oh man, this beat is so hot” and I started playing those chords over it and it just came to life in that studio pretty quickly. It wasn’t like “Oh man, I gotta write a song about a girl having a one night stand. I gotta figure out how to do this”. So no, it was kind of on the spot. And the subject matter was funny. I kind of surprised myself with it. I hadn’t ever really written anything like that before.

TR: Commercially, “1,000 Ships” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r61LFkzKzQQ) has become your most successful song so far. Were the lyrics influenced by Homer’s Iliad? Is that an important story for you?
RP: I wouldn’t say its important any more than any other Greek mythology. I don’t really subscribe or follow Greek mythology much but I love to investigate it when I’m writing and I love to investigate scenes and stories. I like to even look in the encyclopedia for random ideas and things that I might not have known or thought of. I had reread The Iliad but kind of a shortened version several months before I went to Sweden just because I was fascinated with the story and Helen of Troy. I loved the idea that her beauty had all this power over men and I thought it was fascinating that we have that echoed in modern movies and TV shows and it’s so funny how much it comes from these old stories and how much of it replicates it. I read it and I think it crept into my consciousness. I haven’t really told this story before, but I did not think of Helen of Troy when I wrote that line, “I have sailed a thousand ships to you”. It wasn’t until afterwards that I was like “oh man, that’s what I was talking about!” It wasn’t conscious. I wrote those words at 3:00 in the morning in my hotel room in Sweden in a half-daze. I needed to have the words by the next day because I had one day to record the vocals before I left Sweden. They just kind of came out. I know people say this, but it really did just happen with that song. I don’t feel like I wrote it, I feel like I caught it, in a way. I feel like I put out this net and was able to catch it. It came so quickly and so easily.

TR: Critics say you seem comfortable on stage. Has that always been the case?
RP: Yeah, I think it always has been. I love it. I love performing and I’ve always loved performing…. I did musicals when I was younger and did plays when I was younger and I’ve always loved it. I felt this energy from the audience. I just feel electrified when I’m on stage. I think being on stage has always been the easiest part. It’s kind of like what I go back to when the other stuff gets hard and when I was having a hard time when I first started following this dream, that was always the thing – being on stage – that was the thing that restored my faith and my belief in myself. It was like “Wait a second, I can do this! This is all that it’s about. It’s about performing tonight and being in the moment onstage”. So yeah, that’s always been something I’ve been blessed to have come easily. It’s the other stuff that was harder that I had to work at.

TR: You note your performance in Trinidad at the Soca Monarch Final as a big performance in your career. Can you tell us a little more about that day?
RP: I had been singing backup with this soca band and they asked me to join them like a week before the Soca Monarch Finals so we didn’t really rehearse. I learned the songs maybe a week before, at the most and practiced them a couple times so I was so nervous. We got to the stadium – like an outdoor park with a hundred thousand people. It was incredible. Trinidad and Carnival is something that would take hours to try to explain. It’s nothing like what we have in America for concerts. It’s like this wild, crazy, thing that’s packed with emotion because Carnival is not only about the music, it’s about the culture and the music represents the culture. I don’t know how to explain it, really. Basically, there’s all this energy there that may not be in a normal performance… that day was amazing. I got backstage and there was just this crazy, crazy mesh of people running around in crazy costumes because they’re all wearing Carnival costumes. Getting onstage was amazing. I got out there and couldn’t even see anyone. I could see like the first 20 rows and behind that was that was just a sea of people, and sparklers, and flags flying, and I just felt this light jolt up my system that was like “this is EXACTLY what I’m supposed to be doing” and I’ve been trying to chase those 100,000 people ever since.

TR: Your upcoming tour kicks off on Jan. 13 at the House of Blues in San Diego. What can you tell us about this tour?
RP: I am beyond stoked to be opening for Andy Grammar. I’ve been a fan of his for a while, we did two shows in Ohio and he’s such a talented performer. This is our first time (for a lot of us) on a bus. We’re all gonna be on a bus together so that’ll be amazing. The San Diego show is the first stop on the tour so we’ll all be fresh, and clean, and showered. I’ll be playing with my drummer. We have a couple of new songs and we’re really excited to debut those. One of them is gonna be the song that I just wrote, the theme song for an ABC Family show called “Work of Art” and we’re gonna be playing that one live, so I’m excited to see how that goes over.

 

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/rachelplattenmusic
WEBSITE: http://www.rachelplatten.com/
TICKETS TO SHOW: http://www.livenation.com/event/0A004769FA944455?brand=hob

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Album Review: Senioritis by Dylan Owen

January 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Dylan Owen's album, "Senioritis"

By Tom Roth

Senioritis
Dylan Owen
Independent/unsigned
2010

In the entertainment business, the only thing more valuable than cold, hard cash are LKP’s. Not everyone earns them and LKP’s typically expire sometime between 13 and 19 but sometimes last longer for athletes. Some entertainers are adept at making the most of their LKP’s (Shaun White) while others (McCauley Culkin) squander theirs, relieving themselves of one of the industry’s few career boosters. With LKP’s, average work is made above average and above average work is made exceptional.

If you’re still unclear what LKP’s are, they are Little Kid Points. Unique to young entertainers, LKP’s are nicely summed up by the phrase “that’s pretty good… for a kid.” Thus, surprise is a legitimate reaction to 19 year old New York rapper Dylan Owen’s debut album, Senioritis.

Having just graduated from high school at the time of Senioritis’ release, it’s easy to think that Owen would be hard-pressed to find enough relevant topics to address but he makes up for his lack of life experience with mature lyrics. “Old Armor” takes a couple of listens to fully appreciate but Owen’s words of back-home nostalgia come through, relating his familiarity with the place he grew up. Claiming “I wear my past on my sleeve and my heart like a crown” and that “I don’t need a map to know my way around”, Owen makes good use of something common to all listeners.

Arguably the most important track on the album, Owen’s opening joint “The Book Report” sets the tone for Senioritis. According to Owen, the track is “inspired by countless nights on Suicide Hill with my friends, and by the endless feeling of longing for childhood that comes with age” and Owen’s imaginative lyrics of “September, the summer-killing month” and “cigarette kisses” belie his age.

Collaborator, Nico Marchese produces the lion’s-share of Senioritis’ better tracks including “The Book Report”, “Postcards”, “Old Armor”, “Garden of the Gods”, and “Spirit Week”. On the latter, Marchese’s enticing beats redeem otherwise pedantic lyrics about Bud Lime, taking shots, flip cup, and sluts. Strangely though, “Spirit Week” fits nicely into Senioritis’ larger theme. As a school term, the album’s September track, “The Book Report” leads to mid-year’s “Spirit Week”, coming full circle with June’s “I’m Still Spinning”, which Owen claims to have first titled “The Graduation Song”. The continuity makes Senioritis digestible.

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Concert Preview: STS9

January 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

STS9 is touring the Midwest this month.

By Mackenzie Gilchrist

STS9
Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium 1/13 & 1/14
Chicago, IL @ Congress Theater 1/20 & 1/21

We have all heard about the hype surrounding the supposed cataclysmic changes coming for the planet in 2012. Some have predicted an apocalypse and others simply a new era for humanity.  No matter what you believe however, world famous “jamtronica” group STS9 has given us a great way to celebrate these changes by providing a musical spectacle like never before! On January 13 and 14 the group will be kicking off their “Great Cycle Spectacles” series in Denver, CO at the famous Fillmore Auditorium.
This exciting series of performances will start with the two nights in Denver next weekend, then jump to Chicago, IL at the Congress Theater for another two nights January 20 and 21. They will then travel down to Mayan Riviera, Mexico for a four night run January 26-30. The group will continue through a limited number of locations in 2012 promising a series of “one of a kind performances celebrating the end and beginning of the Mayan calendar cycle as well as a spectacle of music, art and imagination.”
Despite all of the crazy theories surrounding the 2012 phenomenon, there is no doubt that this series will help fans welcome the new “cycle” with enthusiasm…and of course a whole LOT of dancing. Any “average” STS9 show is filled with mind-blowing music, astonishing light shows and an energy that is truly unique—one can only imagine what is in store for this upcoming series of “one of a kind” performances.
To no surprise both nights in Denver are already sold out, however tickets are still available for both nights in Chicago at the Congress Theater.  To those of you hanging around the Midwest for winter break, this could be the perfect way to end it, and to those of you lucky enough to already have your tickets for the shows in Denver—start preparing to dance your way into this new cycle in the presence of some truly remarkable musical spectacles.
Tickets for the shows at the Congress Theater in Chicago January 20 & 21 can be found here. Be sure to get them while you still can!

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Concert Preview: The DA

December 8, 2011 By 1 Comment

The DA has two upcoming shows in San Diego

By Sean Sales

The DA
Kava Lounge
December 17, 2011

Tin Can Ale House
December 18, 2011

This indie new-wave band coming from the deserts of west Texas call themselves The DA. The five-piece band just released their debut album, You Kids! – a fun and danceable album with a mix of sounds that create a cleaver swirl of music that captures all attention. My personal favorites from the album include “Pastels” and “Big Women.” This band does a unique job of mixing sounds from a wide array of instruments including trumpets and electric keyboards. Recorded at the famous Sonic Ranch Studio, this album is loaded with captivating hooks, and energetic lyrics. Songs like “Big Women” creates this funky jam that will defiantly get your head bopping. Though the album has hints of Modest Mouse and Mars Volta, The DA has created their own unique sound.

The DA will be playing in San Diego two nights this month – one on Dec. 17 at the Kava Lounge and the second on Dec. 18 at the Tin Can Ale House. Their live shows are energetic and get you moving, and is definitely not a show to miss. Based on the rave reviews for their SXSW performance in 2010, The DA is not a band to miss. If you’re looking for great indie music, I suggest you pick up their album, which they will be selling at both shows.

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