New Blog for local show reviews

Missed a local band recently, or did you go but wonder what somebody else may have thought of the show? A couple of local music fans have started a blog that’s promising to focus on reviewing live shows from local bands in the Columbia area, and so far they’re off to a good start. Here’s the link, which I’ll also put over there —->
in the links section for future reference.

http://www.splatteredinc.blogspot.com

With little to no space devoted in local print to post-show reviews of the local rock scene, a new outlet like this one is a welcome addition to the mixture of media coverage on local music. Now, get out there and support your local musicians!

Animal Collective’s 80’s Revisionism

The new Animal Collective album Merriweather Post Pavilion may be a critical favorite, but count me as one who just doesn’t get it, sorry. The music is rehashed 80’s synth grooves at best, without the catchy tunefulness of, say, A-Ha or Ultravox or even Haircut 100 to back it up. Case in point, the band’s new video for the song “My Girls,” which is five minutes of music in search of a song:

The Musical Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

While listening to the umpteenth version of U2’s “Pride (In the Name of Love)” this MLK day, take a moment to hear another, more nuanced version of the same issue. “Legacy” by Pierce Pettis doesn’t mention Martin Luther King, Jr. or even the civil rights struggle. Rather, it comes from the perspective of living in the south, and the predjudices we pass down to our own children and grandchildren, unknowingly or on purpose. This clip features Pettis not only playing the song, but stopping to explain it a bit, too…

Random Music Video: Tha Acorn, “Crooked Legs”

The Canadian band Tha Acorn has built a solid discography of understated indie pop/folk, including 2007’s Glory Hope Mountain and 2008’s outtakes and oddities set Heron Act, both on Paper Bag Records. The song “Crooked Legs,” which you can see/hear in the video below, is on both of those discs. The song and the accompanying visuals are equally hypnotic.

Grand Theft Audio: Stealing Vegas Lifts Classic Pop Sounds

stealing vegas

The neat thing about how connected we all are with the myriad of blogs, websites, and social networks out there is that occasionally I will get contacted by people I have not thought of in years, or musicians who I have not heard from in a while.

The latter situation came up recently when Chris Brackett got in touch about his new project, Stealing Vegas. Brackett may be familiar to South Carolina audiences from his semi-acoustic duo Different Daniel, and to fans of his previous outfit, Suburban Love Junkies, that called Alabama home.

Stealing Vegas is more along the Junkies line, with a contemporary, buzzing pop-rock sound that hearkens back to the popular alt-rock of the late 1990s without indulging in the post-grunge dead end of Stone Temple Pilots or Candlebox. Instead, Brackett tackles the more song-form oriented style of Tonic, or his most obvious influence, Treadmill Trackstar (The Stealing Vegas tune “3″ could be a lost outtake from Treadmill’s major label days, it’s so close to their sound).

So far, Brackett has been content to play a few shows and put up some great new songs on the band’s Myspace page (Check out the song “Letters”, the best of the bunch on the playlist); hopefully there will be more to come from the group, and a proper album release, soon.

Favorite Local Music of 2008

Just as in the national releases, the local musicians here in Columbia, SC had a banner year for new music. The biggest trend, from my perspective, was the increasingly professional quality of the CDs from local artists–not just the few with some form of label support, but even the self-released product was of extremely high quality.
The other trend for me was the inclusion of almost all new artists on the list. There were a few ‘veteran’ acts, like American Gun, and solo projects from locals more commonly associated with full bands, but the overwhelming majority of the year’s best music came from rookies like punk upstarts You, Me, and Us. That’s a great sign for the overall health of the local scene, and hopefully it’s a trend that will continue to grow.

Top Local Releases of 2008

Nick Pagliari, Please and Thank You (PalagreenO)
A newcomer to Columbia, Pagliari’s prior experience shows on this tight package of alt-country and power pop tunes.

Hannah Miller, Into The Black (self-released)
The first full length release from this local songwriter combines her spiritual songwriting with some serious pop grooves courtesy of a pro Nashville production.

You, Me, and Us, Beer Can Rebellion (self-released): Punk rock the way it was meant to be—loud, proud, loose, and fast .

The Private Life Of David Reed, Misteps and Miscommunications (Chamberlain)
Former Closer front man’s first solo release, it tones down the band’s pop-rock formula and draws out the emotional core of Reed’s songwriting.

American Gun, The Means and the Machine
The best set of tunes yet from the pens of Donald Merckle and Todd Mathis, Columbia’s best one-two songwriting punch in a single band.

Toro Y Moi, My Touch (Fork and Spoon): One of three separate projects from Heist & the Accomplice member Chaz Bundick in 2008, it’s the loudest and spaciest, drawing Daft Punk comparisons with some funky, unpredictable electronic grooves.

Daylight Hours, How To Make a Mess of Things (self-released): Former Courage Riley front man David Adedokun covers a lot of emotional ground in this first ‘solo’ album; his tender vocals belie real hurt and pain in songs like “The Truth About Girls.”

Marry A Thief, I Am Dying To Outlive You (self-released)
Eric Skelton has an uncanny gift for marrying melody to lyrics that results in the kind of memorable songs on this too-short set.

Daniel Machado, Themes In American Friction (Self-released): Hands down one of the most ambitious rock albums to come out of Columbia in years, and it works beautifully.

Friendly Confines, Remember When ( self-released): I remember a year or so ago when I heard Rob Lindsey was looking for a full band to play with—this is what he found, a sympathetic, rootsy complement to his own unique songs.

Favorite Albums of 2008

It was a good year for music in 2008 despite all the doom-and-gloom music industry stories. Personally, I listened to far more music online than on CDs this year, perhaps a function of how much time I spend in front of a computer but still a shift from the past for me. Several of my overall top ten, then, are acts I discovered online somehow–the Spring Standards, Warm In the Wake, The Raveonettes. Other picks are from artists whose prior work has also shown up on my top ten lists in years past–The Avett Brothers, Drive-By Truckers, Teddy Thompson, and Anthony David.

Top Ten Albums of 2008

1.Spring Standards No One Will Know (self-released)
If you’ve seen this band play, their unorthodox percussion (spread out between several members) immediately catches the eyes. The ears, however, are more captivated by the vocal harmonies and counterpoints atop some irrepressibly bouncy acoustic pop tunes.

2. Avett Brothers, Second Gleam (Ramseur)
A second quiet acoustic collection from the North Carolina alt-whatever darlings, is it wrong to say I prefer this to their louder, more raucous club show fare?

3. Raveonettes, Lust Lust Lust (Vice Records)
Postmodern disco rock, or is it post-disco modern rock? Either way it’s cooler than you are and the best goth-punk-disco band since My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult.

4. Jamie Lidell, Jim (Warp)
Classic soul sounds from a contemporary upstart with an ear for the genre’s masters and the ability to translate that into something both timeless and timely.

5. Teddy Thompson, A Piece of What You Need (Verve Forecast)
A smoother songwriter than dad (Richard Thompson, who shows up on a couple songs here), this is more pop even than his previous efforts, and better for it.

6. The Hold Steady, Stay Positive (Vagrant)
The boys from Jersey may be the best mainstream rock band in the country that the mainstream of the country hasn’t really heard of—too bad for them.

7. Drive By Truckers, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark (New West)
The title says it all in this case—bright sunny rockers next to detailed, depressing story-songs, nobody out there today does contemporary southern rock as well, with as much conviction, or with as much spiritual or emotional depth.

8. Danielle Sansone, Two Flowers (self-released)
Children’s music isn’t just for kids, as this family-friendly release proves. Sansone strikes a good balance between flights of imaginative fancy and the solid underpinnings of sophisticated melody on a batch of songs for her youngest fans that shimmer and shine as brightly as anything from Sarah McLachlan or Jenny Lewis.

9. Warm In The Wake, Speak Plainly (self-released)
Jangle-pop from Georgia that doesn’t wear its REM influences on its proverbial sleeve.

10. Anthony David, Acey Deucy (Universal Republic)
Forget that this is a more produced combination of the raw material from his two indie albums and just listen to the man’s voice, a classic R&B concoction that can be smooth as Luther Vandross yet as cutting as Bill Withers. “Words”, the song featuring India Irie, earned a Grammy nomination, and no less than Michelle Obama has David’s songs on her iPod playlist.