Hailing from San Diego, the fresh sound of this up-and-coming band, which resembles a blend of Kings of Leon and Cold War Kids, is sure to explode through your speakers and light a spark that’s impossible to put out. “You Ain’t That Special,” deadpans vocalist Tom Pritchard, in the bittersweet original track of the same name by his band, Dynamite Walls. It’s an accusatory sentiment that encapsulates the swagger and candor of a band that clearly is special. Pritchard and his cohorts specialize in smart, insinuating tunes that capture both the hopes and disillusionment of contemporary American life. Indeed, in an age of sledgehammer rhythms and infantile lyrics, Dynamite Walls’ original songs are so triumphantly nuanced, they restore one’s faith in intelligent pop-rock song craft. They played the Give Some Love Showcase at SXSW this year with Bedouin SoundClash and After Midnight Project.

Check them out at their myspace: www.myspace.com/dynamitewalls

This is one musical explosion you don’t want to miss!

Featured on Luxury Wafers Live Sessions blog:

Dynamite Walls - Mystery - Luxury Wafers Sessions from Luxury Wafers on Vimeo.

I spent last weekend at a music festival in Whitecliffs, the legendary valley farm 100 km outside of Christchurch, New Zealand. I~Nation’s line up featured the best kiwi talent in Jungle, Funk, Soul & Breaks, and Dubstep. Tiki Live was the mind blowing headliner, but I was struck most by Ladi6, one of Aotearoa’s premier hip-hop artists. Ladi6 (Karoline Tamati) is one of the most casually stunning and rhythmic performers I’ve ever seen on stage. Her smooth deep vocals keep your mind in a trance and your body moving with a spicy beat.
After much anticipation, on October 27th 2008 Ladi6 released her debut solo album “Time Is Not Much.” In wake of the successful album release tour, Ladi6 has earned herself the title of New Zealand’s leading “soulstress and our Queen of hip-hop,” (nzmusic.com/forum). Pay your respects at www.ladi6.com.

Peace and Love,

Trojan abroad

I had a chance to see Dan Deacon in December when he opened for Girl Talk in Las Veags, and let me tell you, I had never been to a show like his before. Performing on the ground floor with hundreds of sweaty, energetic, crazy fans crowding around him, Deacon performed like now other. His new album entitled Bromst just came out, and I cannot stop listening to it. I had the pleasure of seeing a documentary on the making of this album and it definitely upped my level of respect for this man. 

Expect a full review soon, I just wanted to get this out there as soon as possible incase anyone hasn’t had a chance to hear it yet. 

He is also playing at the Troubador on the 22 of April, and I encourage all who read this to go…and enjoy.

Bromst Album Review

-L. Nub

After Day 3…

65 total.

Tim Kasher is like a sailor. As such he mans a couple different vessels, with Cursive being his main craft. As the Captain of Cursive, he’s voyaged throughout the seas of musical genres, early on progressing through the rocky crags of punk, braving the stormy seas of indie rock and sailing swiftly through the Bermuda Triangle of emo, where so many bands were (tragically?) lost. Their latest journey though has produced a new album, Mama, I’m Swollen, which isn’t so much a new departure for their musical stylings but rather a synthesis of all the various sounds they’ve explored in the past

Musically, this is undoubtedly a more rock oriented album. Lacking the horn sections of their previous album, Happy Hollow, or the masterful cello work of Gretta Cohn from The Ugly Organ, Mama, I’m Swollen is an album that seldom feels stripped down. The production quality is markedly more polished than their early works like Domestica or the Storms of Early Summer, albums which both relied on a raw lo-fi sound. Subtle woodwinds appear throughout the album, with a marvelous flute part on track 3, ‘I Couldn’t Love You’. At least I think it’s an flute. I might be wrong.

Lyrically, Kasher seems to have come to terms with the religion he so maligned on Happy Hollow. Instead of questioning the purported existence of one, God, Kasher seems to simply not care. On track 6, ‘We’re Going to Hell’ he implores the listener to let their conscience go because, well, we’re going to hell. Instead on this album, the philosophical contemplation falls on the issue of civilization. Though certainly far less of a conceptual album than Happy Hollow, the question of whether we’d be better off as base animals recurs intermittently. Themes of guilt and remorse also pervade the oft misinterpreted supertext of the lyrics. This album is not about relationships, as many would so quickly assume.

One issue I’d note with the lyrical intergrity of this album is that Kasher’s writing seems to have lost some of the bite it once had. The shockingly crude and oftentimes ugly lyrics that so characterized Cursive are now replaced with some brash PG-13 metaphors. This album is unfortunately safe to play for your parents, perhaps not your grandparents though.

Overall, this album is not a progression for Cursive so much as a summation. Being a bit shorter than their previous full lengths (ten songs), part of me dares to think that this might mark an ending for Cursive. If I know anything about those industrious Omaha artists though, it’s that they’ll keep making records. That is if they can stay sober long enough to find their guitars. Now here is where I would end this album review with a clever reference to that sailing metaphor I made before. If only I were clever.

If you’re as much of a music-lover as I am, the rare occasions in your life in which you can feel good about the amount of money you spend on iTunes are well, rare. Whenever I hear about a benefit album, I am presented with a dilemma because on the one hand; the humanitarian side of me wants to help the world… but the selfish, and lover-of-good-music side of me really can’t spend anymore money on music that doesn’t satisfy.

This new War Child: Heroes album is anything but unsatisfactory. The War Child charity works with protecting children in war-torn areas of the world including Congo, Iraq and Uganda. Incorporating a revolutionary idea, this charity asked legendary icons such as Sir Paul McCartney and David Bowie to choose the up-and-coming artists that they wanted to create a new twist on some of their classics; putting faith in the next generation of musicians. This album is such a great listen that each song reminisces of the original tracks and artist while still drawing upon our the sound of our generation’s new message of hope. Some highlights of this phenomonal collaborative effort include the covers of The Ramones “Sheena is a Punk-rocker” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and The Hold Steady’s take on Brice Springsteen’s classic “Atlantic City”. This album is a must-buy for anyone who loves music and well, the world.

To find out more about the cause check out their website: http://www.warchild.org.uk/heroes

…that’s what she said!

Entering into serious music journalist mode, though, there’s been quite a flurry of news in Animal Collective land since my last Bandwidth installment detailing my then-upcoming trip to New York City to hear the band’s upcoming release Merriweather Post Pavilion at an exclusive listening party. (The fine people at Stories in High Fidelity have published my review, and it’s a very exciting read, if I do say so myself.)

To catch everyone up, the blogosphere exploded on November 17th when UK-based Fact Magazine posted two short clips of the tracks “Bluish” and “Also Frightened” on their website. Although the files were quickly removed, other bloggers and fans quickly began to spread the clips around the Internet Super Highway. That evening, things escalated further when an unknown French podcast leaked the album’s closing track “Brother Sport” in its entirety—save the last 20 seconds, which featured an enthusiastic French DJ singing the praises of the song in his native tongue.

Naturally, Animal Collective’s label, Domino Records, scrambled to remove all links to the tracks from the internet. Even I became victim of Domino’s ruthless ways when, on the morning of November 18th, I received an angry email from the “WEB SHERIFF” on behalf of Domino, demanding I remove the files from streaming links on my own music website.

In the wake of this ‘catastrophe,’ two more listening parties have been scheduled in the UK, and word on the street is that Domino is preparing to make an important announcement regarding Merriweather within the next 24 hours.

But, for the time being, Animal Collective fans must simply wait with their fragmented mp3 teasers to hold them out until January. It’s hard, I know…But resist the temptation to text them. They’ll call you when they’re ready.

So I got to thinking about the Boy Least Likely To again because it occurred to me that their second album was supposed to have come out this summer, and I must own my own copy of “A Balloon On A Broken String” an example them at their very best, all sweet glockenspiel-synth pop and adorable heartfelt lyrics. Unfortunately, that bit about the album coming out this summer was apparently all a lie. I can’t find any evidence of it anywhere. However, rumor has it that their soon to be iconic cartoon characters, which adorn all their albums, will take three dimensional form as knit stuffed animals.

 I could not be more pleased about this.  A pointless bit of trivia to some, I can’t help but be fascinated by album art and other forms of packaging/merchandising of bands. And this is so cool; the charming, childish and somewhat creepy creatures drawn for the band by Jof Owen’s brother, Tim. And the reason this is so perfect is because their music has been described by those who ought to know (Rolling Stone) as sounding as if, “all your childhood stuffed animals got together and started a band.” And soon they will be! So check ‘em out. If you like adorable critter country pop, they’re pretty much the only band working that genre right now.

http://www.myspace.com/theboyleastlikelytouk