I photographed So Many Dynamos for Redefine Magazine, they came through Austin last week and played at EMO’s. Bad name for a venue during these times, but it’s a rad place and the staff were cool guys. Much better than the dudes from Mr Smalls back in Pittsburgh, where if you brought in a camera and had a photo pass they tried to find reasons why you should leave.
So Many Dynamos were very nice guys who had a tight sound. They released their record The Loud Wars through Vagrant Records, give it a listen sometime.
My friend Chris Fafalios who plays bass in the band Punchline has a podcast called White Van Podcast and I definitely recommend giving it a listen. It has some good banter, interesting facts and good tunes. Chris and Tony Hartman (who was in The Interns) also have an animated show called Texas and Toast, which just had its premier episode today. I also recommend a viewing of that; Alex Vaughn drummer for My Mouth Is The Speaker was the animator on the show. There’s a lot of name dropping on this post. This blog should be called Is This Thing Going To Involve Name Dropping?
Two records that came out today that you need to hear and one that has been out for a long time that you also need to hear at some point in your life.
AlexisonfireOld Crows/Young Cardinals
This record is really impressive and also totally took me by surprise. I was really into this band when they released their self-titled record back in 02, but after that I didn’t care much for the rest of their discography. I thought Watch Out! was just ok and even though I think the follow up entitled Crisis was a much better effort it still felt just mediocre and I believed the band could do better. So with that said my expectations were not very high for their new record entitled Old Crows/ Young Cardinals, but they pulled a 180 on me and made an excellent record. I believe the idea of growing up plays a huge part in this record being so great. You can definitely tell that the maturity level went up on a few notches on this record, especially in the writing. They even state this in the opening song with the line “Now, we are not the kids we used to be stop wishing for yesterday.” My favorite track is a song called “The Northern,” I also think Dallas Green brought some City and Colour (his side project) style to this record. I believe we get the best of City and Colour meets the best of Black Lungs (guitarist Wade Macneil’s side project) with some hardcore elements to make one great record.
Recommended Tracks: The Northern, Young Cardinals, Old Crows
This album is on sale for $3.99 at the Amazon MP3 Store
Dinosaur Jr.Farm
I didn’t get into Dinosaur Jr. until my sophomore year of college, but I think that was the perfect time to discover this band. Had it been earlier in my life i don’t know if I would have cared for them all that much. If you don’t know who these guys are then you should definitely do some research. Dinosaur Jr. formed back in the mid 80’s and was a huge influence on 90’s bands that loved to include distortion and feedback on their records. Basically if they didn’t exist Nirvana would of sounded completely different, Cobain cited them as a huge influence on his music style. If you like the Silversun Pickups you can definitely see a Dinosaur Jr. influence on their new record. Old school fans will definitely appreciate that the band haven’t strayed to far from their roots. Everything you need and expect from the band is on this record, loud distortions and deafening guitar solos. They also have hilarious and fun music videos check out the video for the single “Over It.”
Recommended Tracks: Over It, I Want You To Know, See You
Back in my catholic middle school days my friend Jason Vogel would recommend records for me to listen to. I remember the day that he handed me this record and said get familiar with this band they’re amazing. I remember turning to the back of the record to see a photo of the band dressed as mexican outlaws and I was confused about what made these guys so amazing. Well once this record hit my cd player my life was officially changed. People will tell you where they were when they first heard Led Zeppelin, The Police or Nirvana. I’m not comparing Blink 182 to any of those bands, but to the people who grew up listening to this style of music they remember where they were when they first heard Dammit. I wanted to learn how to play the guitar after hearing When I Coe Around by green Day for the first time, I wanted to start writing songs after I heard Dude Ranch in it’s entirety. Dammit is the most memorable track,. But the song Josie was my favorite; also the video for the song is great. Who would of thought a band who played in a high school bathroom during the video shoot would go on to headline arenas? We all know if it wasn’t for this record some of your favorite bands might not be around such as Fall Out Boy, The Starting Line or Simple Plan..ok maybe we could without that last one. Travis Barker wasn’t even in the band yet, Scott Raynor was the current drummer and you even see him in the videos for Josie and Dammit. He was asked to leave or kicked out however you want to look at it after his drinking became a problem. Barker was in ska band called the Aqua Bats before joking Blink. Once Travis joined the rest was history and after going on hiatus back in 05 the band has put behind their differences and will be embarking on a full US summer tour.
Recommended Tracks: Dammit, Josie, A New Hope, Dick Lips
In this edition of The Matt Adams Seal of Approval we’re going to look at 3 great bands that hail from the country of England. I’ve never been there, but hope to make a trip in the near future. For those of us who haven’t been able to watch a football match live or share in a good story at the local pub, here’s some music you can live vicariously through.
Dave HouseIntersections
Dave House is a solo artist that hails from Kingston Upon Thames, he plays bass in a band called The Steal, but his solo work is what has gained him some followers. His new record Intersections was just released on June 1st and I recommend this record to anyone who carries a flag for Winnipeg’s own The Weakerthans. House’s style comes very close to that of John Samson of The Weakerthans, they both bring charm to their music and have the capability to write lyrics that strangely may resemble your situation in life. I got lost in this record before the last chord was even played on the first track entitled Lungs, a song that could become the anthem for pub dwellers looking for some answers at the bottom of their glasses. House isn’t some natural gifted singer, but his melody, hooks and story telling through song ability over look this set back. Others who have used this formula for success include Craig Finn of The Hold Steady and Frank Turner.
Speaking of Frank Turner his record Love Ire & Song has become a must play when I’m on the road. Turner use to be in the punk band Million Dead, but has since become a solo artist who just recently signed a US deal with Epitaph Records. Geez, that label has been making all the right moves as of late with the additions of Thursday, New Found Glory, Ste Your Goals and now Frank Turner this might just be my favorite label. On Love Ire & Song Turner reaches out to those who plan on giving up because of their age or are afraid of what society might think of them. Turner admits in the song Photosynthesis that he doesn’t understand the lingo the kids are using these days and that he may have out grown out of his punk ideals, but he doesn’t plan on just sitting out on life. I discovered Turner’s music at a needed point in my life, I don’t understand half of these up and coming bands who are 16 or 17 singing about alcoholic parties and sleeping around. Feels good to know there’s a guy out there singing about how he doesn’t get it either.
Recommended Tracks: Reasons Not To Be An Idiot, Photosynthesis, Love Ire & Song, Jet Lag
Another band that was once signed to Epitaph, but have recently made the jump to Warner Brothers. I have not seen them live yet sadly, but have watched many youtube videos and I’m really impressed at the energy that these dudes bring to the table. Gallows first release Orchestra of Wolves was a huge hit and Grey Britain is a top contender for making it into my top 5 albums of the year list. Hardcore/Punk/Metal fans will definitely take a liking to these guys who mix thrashing guitars with take no prisoners attitudes. Their vocalist Frank Carter grabs listeners by the front of their shirts and simply explains that they’ll have to listen to every word that he has to say and by simply explains I mean in a voice of man making his last 911 call. I’ve heard this band described as brutal or insane, but those words might be too modest for these dudes.
Recommended Tracks: London is The Reason, Graves, I Dread The Night
The title of this blog post comes from the film This Is England in which a viewing of is highly recommended. You can see it as a netflix instant watch and I recommend that you do this now, or whenever you’ve got the free time. The last shot at the end of the film is still burned into my brain.
I’ve decided that every Monday I’m going to list a few records/movies/whatever that will get my seal of approval. These are things that I recommend you hear or see as soon as possible. I’m calling it Matt Adams Seal of Approval…here is Vol 1. Be sure to collect the whole series when it’s released on Criterion.
PavementTerror Twilight
Today marks the 10-year anniversary of the release of Pavement’s final record Terror Twilight. Although I didn’t get into this band until I was 16 and their music didn’t make much sense to me until I was 19 you can’t really deny them a place among influential 90’s indie acts. Before recording even started tensions were already high within the band, the blame could fall on Stephen Malkmus relationship with guitarist Scott Kannberg beginning to go south or the fact that they though they wouldn’t need a producer to keep things together. At the time half of the band wanted to play scrabble instead of record, what can ya say that’s one addicting board game. Kannberg wrote some songs for the record, but Malkmus refused to include any of them. Nigel Godrich who had worked with REM and Radiohead was brought in to help produce and finish the record. He may have only made things worse though by putting all of his attention on Malkmus and making the rest of the members feel left out. You see the Gwen Stefani jealously idea works both ways. Terror Twilight ends up being the swan song for this band, but it’s not a bad song at all. Spit on a Stranger is probably the best track, but it’s definitely not a bad record to go out on. The band played their last gig near the end of 1999 and then decided to call it quits, well Malkmus said he was done but the rest of the band wasn’t really informed about the end since he only told Kannberg. Drummer Steve West found out about the break up via the Internet. Can’t really blame Malkmus there, it was 1999 we didn’t have twitter or facebook back then!
Recommended Tracks: Spit on a Stranger, Major Leagues, Ann Don’t Cry
Speaking of the 90’s…break out those studded belts and vest cause Tim Armstrong and the rest of those guys in his band are back. I’m just kidding; I know who Matt Freeman, Lars Frederiksen and Branden Steineckert (he use to be in The Used) are although I do wonder if high school kids these days know too much about Rancid? I guess they do, just that back in 02 you’d see Rancid shirts all over the place, but since their hiatus not much talk from the younger crowd. I have to recommend this record because listening to it brings me back to my high school days and all about nostalgia sometimes. I’m not much of a fan boy for Armstrong and his crew, but I can deal with them from time to time. Besides we all remember where we were when we first heard “Ruby Soho” and we all turned up the volume to 10. If you hated Rancid before this record you’ll continue feeling the same way and if you thought these dudes were punk as whatever you’re defintinely of punk is then you’ll probably really hate this record. I never really looked at this band like some stuck up punk kids who didn’t even want to hang around their own friends because they were accepted by them. Rancid image differs from their sound, their photos say look at this tough bay area dudes! While their music says hey it doesn’t matter who you are we can all get along in this world.
Recommended Tracks: East Bay Night, Last One to Die, You Want it You Got It
I actually discovered this band after illustrator Rob Dobi gave them two thumbs up and after listening to them I can not say enough good things about these dudes that hail from Purchase, NY. Word of mouth is really helping these guys out, also it helps that they have a killer sound. Looking forward to them making their way down to the Lone Star state, as I have heard that their live show is very tight. I recommend you check them out if you dig Thrice, Circa Survive and I believe there is a touch of Gatsby’s American Dream thrown in there.
Recommended Tracks: There are only four songs and they’re all recommended.
