Another Baker's Dozen Downloads...new Xiu Xiu, Pinback, Van She, Canada, and more.

When I posted the last "baker's dozen downloads" a couple weeks ago, I got crazy hits and lots of nice notes, so I'm gonna try to make it a bi-weekly thing. Here's a cd's worth of good stuff that's been making my ears smile lately:

Purrbot - "Hologram" mp3

Real Ones - "Orlando" mp3

Monster Movie - "Vanishing Act" mp3

Xiu Xiu - "Boy Soprano" mp3

Pinback - "Messenger" mp3

Team Band - "Bond" mp3

Huma - "Feels Like I'm Walking" mp3

The Morning Benders - "Grain of Salt" mp3

Two Ton Boa - "Cash Machine" mp3

Oakley Hall - "Lazy Susan" mp3

Breakup Breakdown - "Tonight" mp3

Canada - "Record Function" mp3

And finally, my favorite song of the Summer, a cool slice of poppunkfunkdancemagic from Australia's fantastical Van She:

Van She - "Kelly" mp3

Teddybears Album Out In U.S. Next Week

Yeah! The Teddybears album finally hits U.S. streets next week...

From their PR: "Stockholm-based collective Teddybears will release their U.S. debut, "Soft Machine", September 12th on Big Beat Recordings. The album, a mash up of styles touching on garage punk beats, Electro, Dancehall and Krautrock, features a diverse array of guest vocalists, including Iggy Pop. Neneh Cherry, Elephant Man, Annie, Ebbot Lundberg of Soundtrack of Our Lives and Mad Cobra.

While new to the U.S., Teddybears have put out a handful of albums in their native Sweden, beginning in the '90s as a hardcore punk band, citing as influences the Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains and NWA. Classmates Patrik and Jocke met at an art school in Stockholm where they decided to form a grindcore band named Skull. When Skull needed a guitar player, they invited Jocke's brother Klas and changed the band's name to Teddybears.

Bassist Jocke recalls, "After a while our drummer left the band to pursue a career as a sculptor, and so we learned that cheap drum machines, electric guitars and vocoders could be a deadly combination."

With the change of the music, though, we started to incorporate other kinds of vocals, and we have invited some very special friends as guest vocalists.

"Nowadays, there's not a lot of punk in our music anymore I guess," Jocke continues. "We get some outlet for that kind of frustration in other areas of our lives, like painting, skateboarding and Nietzsche-reading."

Teddybears - "Cobrastyle (ft. Mad Cobra)" mp3 buy

Teddybears - "Cobrastyle (Diplo Remix)" mp3

Teddybears - "Punkrocker (ft. Iggy Pop)" mp3

Teddybears - "Punkrocker (Squeek E Clean Remix)" mp3

Teddybears Montage Video:

Hypnotize Yourself with TRS-80

I'll be travelling this weekend, but wanted to make sure I posted this excellent track from TRS-80 before I split town:

From their PR:
"Since their initial conception in 1997 this Chicago born trio has been through a lot: changing members, putting out 5 albums, topping various charts and having their music featured in numerous ad campaigns. 2006 has brought us their sixth album, Mystery Crash, with influences ranging from hip-hop to ambient to rock and experimental free form comes a sound all their own seeming both unique and innovative. Named after an 80's Radio Shack computer TRS-80 are anything but outdated and slow as their namesake might imply. Their music lends itself both to listening to alone in your room while thinking about the intricacies of existence, and to enjoying at their energetic and compelling sold out live performances. Fans of Amon Tobin, DJ Shadow, Fisherspooner, The Orb, and N.E.R.D. take notice."





TRS-80 - "Julie's Story" mp3 buy

Bloc Party To Open For Panic! Tour, 2 Nights in NYC

"It might seem like an improbable pairing, but when emo-punks of the moment, Panic! At The Disco, tour this fall, they will bring along indie-dance favorite, Bloc Party, as the opening act." (groovevolt)

Wowie wow wow...

So I guess that means if you wanna catch BP this fall, you're gonna have to sit in the middle of those emo kids you usually make fun of standing in front of the 7-11 in your town.

Dates here:
November 7 – Sunrise, FL (Bank Atlantic Center)
November 8 – Orlando, FL (UCF Arena)
November 9 - Atlanta, GA (HiFi Buys Amphitheatre)
November 10 - Charlotte, NC (Cricket Arena)
November 11 - Fairfax, VA (Patriot Center)
November 13 - New York, NY (The Theatre at Madison Square Garden)
November 14 - New York, NY (The Theatre at Madison Square Garden)
November 16 - Toronto, ON (Ricoh Coliseum)
November 17 - Rochester, NY (Gordon Field House at R.I.T.)
November 18 - Lowell, MA (Paul E. Tsongas Arena)
November 19 - Philadelphia, PA (Wachovia Center)
November 21 - Detroit, MI (The Palace of Auburn Hills)
November 22 - Chicago, IL (UIC Pavilion)
November 24 - Minneapolis, MN (US Bank Theatre at Target Center)
November 25 - St. Louis, MO (St. Charles County Family Arena)
November 26 - Council Bluffs, IA (Mid America Center)
November 28 - Denver, CO (Magness Arena)
November 29 - West Valley City, UT (The E Center)
December 1 - Portland, OR (Memorial Coliseum)
December 2 - Vancouver, BC (Pacific Coliseum)
December 3 - Seattle, WA (Everett Events Center)
December 5 - San Jose, CA (HP Pavilion)
December 6 - Long Beach, CA (Long Beach Arena)
December 7 - Glendale, AZ (Glendale Arena)
December 8 - Las Vegas, NV (Orleans Theatre)
December 9 - San Diego, CA (ipayOne Center)

Those MSG dates are a scalper's dream.

Making Pink Champagne With Venus Hum

I've totally been digging the new Venus Hum album, The Colors In The Wheel , and when I found out I'd be spending the weekend in Nashville, immediately checked to see if I'd be able to see them in their hometown. And sonofagun if they aren't playing the night before my arrival instead!

In the meantime, I'll make due with this trio of of YouTubers and a download that the band has posted:

the excellent Pink Champagne Music Video:



An interview with artist Mark Sloniker about how he created the album's cool artwork:



and finally, Annette from Venus Hum explaining how to actually make Pink Champagne!:



Venus Hum - "Fighting For Love" mp3 buy

Apes & Androids, Foundry Field Recordings, Cassettes Won't Listen tonight @ Sin-e

The good guys from Crackers United and our friends at KEXP have a righteous shindig going down tonight at Sin-e:



Apes and Androids - ”Radio” mp3

The Foundry Field Recordings - ”Warning Raids Over Kiev” mp3
The Foundry Field Recordings - "Spain Never Made It" mp3

Cassettes Won’t Listen - ”Cutting Balloons” mp3

gig review: X/Rollins Band/Riverboat Gamblers @ Starland Ballroom, 17 August 06

Was able to catch the X/Rollins Band/Riverboat Gamblers show Thursday night at Starland Ballroom in Sayreville...For the zillions of shows I've seen in my time, I've never been able to catch either X or Rollins on their way through town.

Rollins was every bit as intense and crushing as I'd been lead to believe. As a fan of his books & diaries, I've read thousands of his words describing his touring regimen, his pre-show workouts, and his occasional fist-to-noggin interaction with knuckleheads at the lip of the stage. To say that he's focused and zoned during his set is an understatement, and the scary look in his eyes between songs, as he nervously paced until his crack band kicked into the next song's intro, hinted at temporary psychosis. Loud and awesome.




Remarkably, about a third of the crowd left after Rollins' set, and X launched into their set to a half-empty hall. Suffering monitor problems for the first couple songs, the band looked a bit out of synch for a bit but recovered quickly to play a smoldering set of classics. Sure, they looked like old guys in a legion hall rockabilly band, but if you closed your eyes, you could easily imagine you were at City Gardens in Trenton in 1981.




The surprise bonus of the night for me was the supercharged set from The Riverboat Gamblers...Denton, Texas' finest rock combo just absolutely tore-up the place with their brand of Southern punk. Singer Mike Wiebe literally traversed every corner of the stage AND the floor in front of the stage, hitting every spot in the building his Joe "King" Carrasco-length mic cord would let him reach. He was nearly impossible to catch a photo of, since he was in constant motion for the entire set:





Check out the leap Wiebe took off the top of a cabinet toward the end of the set:



I know Rollins prides himself on smoking any other band on a bill that his band is on, but he sure got a run for his money from the Gamblers at that show.

Here are the rest of the dates of the tour:
Tue 08/22/06 Norfolk, VA The NorVa
Wed 08/23/06 Charlotte, NC Tremont Music Hall
Thu 08/24/06 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle
Fri 08/25/06 Saint Petersburg, FL Jannus Landing
Sat 08/26/06 Orlando, FL Hard Rock Live
Mon 08/28/06 Houston, TX Meridian
Tue 08/29/06 Dallas, TX Gypsy Tea Room / Ballroom
Wed 08/30/06 Austin, TX Stubb's Barbeque

Riverboat Gamblers - "Pretty Dress" mp3 buy

Rock Sex Scandals and The New York Dolls For Free.

Back from Boston...still unpacking, but for now allow me to share something that helped me kill time in Logan Airport while watching people complain to TSA employees about not knowing that liquids could not be carried on board flights A FULL WEEK after that very fact was the lead news story on every newscast, newspaper, and news website for THREE CONSECUTIVE DAYS...

Blender Magazine's "The A - Z of Rock & Roll Sex Scandals"



Also, don't forget the free New York Dolls show at the Seaport tonight.

If you go, look for me. I'll be the guy with glasses with the girl.

The Cure Remasters Review & Contest

Last week, Rhino released three volumes of remastered albums from The Cure (The Top, The Head On The Door, and Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me) and Robert Smith & Steve Severin’s project The Glove's Blue Sunshine. These 2-CD sets include the original album in remastered form, and a full second disc of demos and live tracks.

Usually when a band releases demos to the public, they are studio demos not terribly dissimilar to the final product. In the case of these sets, in addition to the studio demos are the original home demos that Smith recorded himself. These spartan tracks really show the origins of songs like “Inbetween Days”, “Push”, and “The Kiss”, all songs that started very acoustically in Smith's home studio, but all ended up with that patented huge Cure sound by the time they hit vinyl.

Each set contains extensive liner notes, and in the booklet for The Head On The Door, Smith explains that the home sessions that produced “Inbetween Days” finally convinced him that the acoustic guitar was not a “hippie instrument”, and could certainly be used in the realm of alt-rock the way The Cure was forming it back then.

Unlike most rarities discs, these work well on their own all the way through, tracked carefully to be fully enjoyable all the way through as sort of a full alternate version to the original. Highly recommended to old-school Cure fans and neophytes alike. Muss your hair straight out, put on an oversized black jumper, make fun of Lol Tolhurst, and throw these discs on to fully replicate the full Cure experience.

In celebration of the re-release of these classics, extrawack! will give one reader their choice of a copy of The Head On The Door or Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. To win, simply submit a Cure-related haiku to extrawack@gmail.com by Midnight, 20 August 2006. Our favorite wins the prize. Contest open to residents of USA only. Good luck!

The Cure - "Just Like Heaven" mp3 buy

Link courtesy Gigarock.

In Boston With Yeah Yeah Yeah's, TV On The Radio, The New Year, and Nina Nastasia

I'm in Boston for a while for work, and have managed to already catch a couple of amazing shows while I'm here...

Thursday night was a free Yeah Yeah Yeah's/TV On The Radio show at City Hall. Incredibly fun, great sound, and a very cool crowd of about 12,000 people with no problems at all.

Great review, photos, and video at Ryan's Smashing Life!.

Review and photos at sponsor Boston Phoenix's site.

Last night I caught The New Year and Nina Nastasia at The Middle East. Nina is a remarkable storyteller and sweet guitar player, whose four minute songs feel like mini-movies full of situations and emotions that make you anxious to see how each vignette ends. It's no wonder she was a favorite of the late John Peel. Her new Albini-produced album is out in September on Fat Cat.

The couple songs I was able to see by The New Year (before I had to split to catch the last T train back to the hotel...) were fantastic slow throbbers that made me want to kick myself that I couldn't stay for the whole set. Met up with Murf from False 45th who drove three hours from his stately Vermont compound to catch the show. I questioned his sanity for making that kind of drive before the show, but even after hearing only a portion of The New Year's set, I totally get it.

The New Year - "Disease" mp3
The New Year - "Chinese Handcuffs" mp3

The extrawack! Mix - A Baker's Dozen Downloads Of August Hotness.

Burn 'em to a disc, put it on in the car, turn it up, thank me later.

Cold War Kids - "Tell Me In The Morning" mp3
Aberdeen City - "Sixty Lives" mp3
Nikki Sudden - "Seven Miles" mp3
Bel Auburn - "Blind Ward" mp3
Spencer Dickinson - "That's A Drag" mp3
Radio Birdman - "We've Come So Far (To Be Here Today)" mp3
For Those Who Know - "Night at the Danceclub" mp3
Favourite Sons - "Hang on, Girl" mp3
My Brightest Diamond - "Disappear" mp3
The Oohlas - "Small Parts" mp3
Bright Light Fever - "Broken Hands" mp3
Ladyhawk - "War" mp3
The Hourly Radio - "Crime Does Pay" mp3

Thanks to the bands, labels, and marketing peeps for providing these to us and you gratis.

That's Right, I Said it...Hellogoodbye is total fun.

Back from my Warped weekend...I have to admit that though most of those bands are pretty wack, the kids at those shows are mostly great, smart, and fun...

And the best part of working at Warped? You get to see Helmet play a set every single day. One of the older guys on the tour, Page Hamilton told a story at the Jersey gig about the last time he was in the Old Bridge area, explaining that he was once a limo driver and had to drive David Cassidy to a gig at the infamous (and long closed) Club Bene in Sayreville. Yikes.

Other observations:

The Sounds put on a great show, and are so much better live than on record. The same goes for The Pink Spiders.

Monster Energy Drink, the official drink of Warped, is a nasty, sticky concoction I wouldn't wish on my enemies. It tastes like a bad gastank syphoning accident, and even for free and on ice, it's not worth a sip.

Joan Jett is still awesome, and her longtime drummer Thommy Price is still amazing.

Bull Frog Sunblock rules.

The most fun place to be all day long was the Shiragirl stage.

Hellogoodbye is total fun and I'm not ashamed to admit it.




The Pink Spiders - "Modern Swinger" mp3 buy

Punk-Pop & Beer @ Montage Mountain In Scranton

It sure is pretty up there...

extrawack! at Warped with Vaux.

I'm wrapping up this week by working at a couple Warped dates on behalf of Oxfam America's Make Trade Fair campaign...If you find yourself at the Scranton show on Friday, or the Englishtown, New Jersey show on Sunday, look me up at the Make Trade Fair booth (I'll be one of the four guys at the concert without a goofy emo haircut) and say howdy, and we can watch Joan Jett and Helmet together...deal?

One of the better bands at Warped this year is Denver's Vaux. Here's the video for their "Are You With Me":



Vaux's MySpace.