New Music: Crocodiles

You aren't going to hear anything about San Diego band Crocodiles without hearing comparisons to Velvet Underground and The Jesus & Mary Chain. I might as well echo those sentiments. Upon first listen to Crocodiles fuzzed-out, distorted lo-fi rock it's impossible not to hear J&MC and that's certainly not a bad thing. Crocodiles are also going to get lumped in with "noise" bands like No Age, Wavves and the like, but Crocodiles bring a lot more to the table in terms of songwriting and melody.

Crocodiles debut LP, Summer Of Hate, came out yesterday on Fat Possum records. I've spun it about a half dozen times now, including at least four times today at work (it's okay...it's short) and I've come to the conclusion that this is a really solid album. I'm usually really hesitant to enjoy a lot of music like this, but Crocodiles have already proved that they may be worthy of the hype they are (or will) receive. They also earn bonus points for having one of the best songs of the year so far, 'I Wanna Kill' on the album. They are currently on tour with Holy Fuck, which would be a fantastic show, but they aren't coming near KC or Lawrence.


Here is a video from the album...the song is called 'Refuse Angels':



-Matt

Concert Announcements: Sonic Youth, The Yeah Yeah Yeah's & more...

Although many great bands seem to be skipping this area on their summer tours, there are a few bands that will be hitting Kansas City soon. Sonic Youth will be at the Uptown Theater on July 18th. They'll be touring in support of their new album, The Eternal, which is out June 9th on Matador.

The Yeah Yeah Yeah's will be at newly remodeled Beaumont Club on June 3rd. Their new album isn't worth a damn, but they're fun live.

A few others of note:

• 06/04 Japandroids @ The Replay, Lawrence
• 06/19 The Church/Adam Franklin @ Voodoo Lounge, N. KC
• 06/28 Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band @ The Beaumont Club, KC
• 08/18 Blondie @ The Crossroads, KC

-Matt

New Music & Upcoming Show: Junior Boys

I first heard about Canadian duo Junior Boys in 2004 when their debut album, Last Exit, came out. They first caught my ear because I heard them get compared to the Postal Service and I was consuming all things electro-pop. Beyond the light-electro beat of the Junior Boys debut album and the Postal Service, there aren't many similarities. Where the Postal Service album is cute, Junior Boys debut is sexy. That's just how they roll.

Junior Boys are bringing their sultry beats to the Record Bar this Friday night. Their new album, Begone Dull Care, lacks the cohesiveness of Last Exit and doesn't have a track on it that hits the highs of 'In The Morning' off 2006's So This Is Goodbye, but still manages to be better than most of the albums out so far this year. I haven't seen them live before but I'm hoping they put on a good show. Plus, I've heard some interesting things about the opener Max Tundra. Join me out there for a great Friday night show kicking off a busy music weekend in the Lawrence/KC area.





Junior Boys Myspace

-Matt

Live Videos: Blitzen Trapper, Doves, The Tallest Man on Earth

I've been neglecting the blog recently but I promise to try and get more stuff up here. I've been spinning plenty of new music recently and I've definitely run across plenty of stuff worth checking out. More to come on that this weekend. Until then, I found a few really cool live performances from three solid artists that were big fans of here. First off is JoC favorite, Blitzen Trapper, who performed a few tracks for Pitchfork TV that you can watch all of HERE. Here is them doing my favorite track, 'Wild Mountain Nation' from their 2007 album of the same name.




The Tallest Man on Earth is another new favorite of mine. In fact he made my top 10 albums of the year last year (see the full list here and here). Here he is doing 'The Gardener' from one of my favorite music sites, La Blogotheque.




The last video is from another favorite music site of mine, Black Cab Sessions. Doves new album Kingdom Of Rust is a solid album, but the title track is already one of my favorite songs of the year...enjoy:




-Matt

Concert Announcements: Metric, Gogol Bordell,Man Man, Jenny Lewis & More...

The spring concert calendar is beginning to fill out quite nicely. It seems the usual stops from bands on their way through to and from SXSW, Lollapalooza and ACL are starting to pop up, although previous years seemed to garnish more names than this year. I'm hoping it's just still early since Lolla and ACL are both in the late summer/early fall. A couple of ones of note are the appearance of Jenny Lewis and Emily Haines (from Metric, pictured above) on the same stage at the Granada in Lawrence in the same week. Also, what might be the best whiskey drinking show all summer when the Reverend Horton Heat, Lucero and Split Lip Rayfield play the Crossroads in KC. Here are the recent announcements that I'm most excited about, and as always, check out the full concert calendar HERE.

• 04/26 Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek (Reflection Eternal) @ The Granada, Lawrence
• 05/05 Elvis Perkins @ The Jackpot, Lawrence
• 05/07 Thao w/ The Get Down Stay Down @ The Jackpot, Lawrence
• 05/09 Ha Ha Tonka/Antennas Up @ The Record Bar, KC
• 05/19 Horsefeathers @ The Bottleneck, Lawrence
• 05/29 Gogol Bordello/Man Man @ The Beaumont Club, KC
• 06/06 Langhorne Slim @ The Jackpot, Lawrence
• 06/12 Metric @ The Granada, Lawrence
• 06/15 Jenny Lewis/Deer Tick @ The Granada, Lawrence
• 07/24 Reverend Horton Heat/Lucero/Split Lip Rayfield @ The Crossroads, KC
• 08/15 The Avett Brothers/Railroad Earth @ The Crossroads, KC

-Matt

Random Stuff

It's been a while since I've put anything up here. Part of my excuse is not having a proper Internet connection at my house for the last month. Either way I plan on getting plenty of posts up here in the next few days concerning a few worthwhile concerts coming through town as well as a bunch of great new music that is out or will be coming out soon. Kevin already mentioned the new Grizzly Bear album, Veckatimest, which is worth every bit of hype and is already heads and shoulders above any other album out so far this year. There are a few other albums that are worth listening to as well so we'll make sure we mention as many of them as we can...sometimes is hard to keep up. Anyway I've got a couple of things for tonight, first off is a video for (what I still think is) one of the best songs of 2008, Department of Eagles 'No One Does It Like You':



Finally, this is relatively amusing...I chuckled at least.



-Matt