Poetic Memory: JBM (List)
Jesse B. Marchant, also known as JBM, is a singer/songwriter from Montreal. A classically trained guitarist, he only recently began to write lyrics, sing, and record. His debut album, Not Even in July, was written in Los Angeles but recorded in New York’s Adirondack mountains, and it proves that he’s capable of sitting with other indie favorites like Bon Iver and AA Bondy.
JBM will open for AA Bondy at the Casbah on September 1. His Poetic Memory is below.
Poetic Memory: Gun Runner (List)
After returning to San Diego from Berklee School of Music, Sean Davenport wanted to get a band together, so he got in touch with his old friend Diego Rojano. In late 2009, Davenport and Rojano recruited local songwriter Tommy Graf (guitar) and Carlos Ortiz (drums), and they formed Gun Runner.
Since then, they’ve drawn from a variety of influences — including Wilco, Pavement, and Sonic Youth — to create a unique sound. This year, they released the excellent EP Bad Neighbors, an interesting work that evokes the psychedelic blues of Bob Dylan’s 2007 masterpiece, Time out of Mind.
Davenport’s soulful voice isn’t much like Dylan’s though, and that’s a good thing. Tracks like “Zelda” find him repeating “I can make this all better for you,” as if he’s been telling it to a few beers. Meanwhile, the reverb-laden instrumentation frames his half-drunk delivery. On the nostalgic “2 out of 3,” where choral intro harmonies are juxtaposed against Rojano’s lilting bass and Davenport’s voice, Gun Runner creates a kind of zombie R&B. It’s well worth a few listens, and you can stream it on MySpace or purchase it on iTunes.
Gun Runner will open for Maren Parusel at the Belly Up Tavern on Tuesday, August 31. While you wait, check out their Poetic Memory (below).
O&B’s Guide to Bonnaroo 2010, Part 1: Survival
Since its inception in June 2002, Bonnaroo has become the premiere North American music festival. This year’s outing will be my third excursion to the farmlands of Manchester, Tennessee — I was there for Wilco and Bob Dylan in 2004, and I returned for Beck and Radiohead in 2006.
Each year challenges attendees to survive three days of camping, sweating, and drinking with 80,000 of your strangest friends. So, in part one of Owl and Bear’s Bonnaroo preview, we’ll let you in on a few secrets to surviving a sweltering — but inevitably fun-filled — weekend at Bonnaroo. Continue reading…
O&B Guestcast vol. 1 – dau-al-set
The inaugural installment of the Owl and Bear Guestcast was compiled by Italy’s dau-al-set.
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Poetic Memory: Red Wire Black Wire (List)
Red Wire Black Wire are originally from Connecticut but now call the hip streets of Brooklyn their home.
Drawing from a palette of new wave influences that includes Depeche Mode and The Human League, the six-piece use synth-heavy, melancholic rock songs to paint a surrealistic picture of life in the big city. The success of their first LP, Robots and Roses, has helped the band build up a solid fan base in New York. Red Wire Black Wire are currently preparing an as-yet-untitled EP of remixes and B-sides for release this year.
Lead singer Doug Walters recently gave us a peek at the music that has shaped his band’s sound. His Poetic Memory is below. Continue reading…
Review: Here We Go Magic; April 27, 2010; Mr. Smalls Theater, Pittsburgh
The lineup at Mr. Smalls on Tuesday night was a confusing one, with Here We Go Magic sandwiched between garage rockers Tokyo Police Club and grunge-punk band The Edukators. Here We Go Magic’s brand of psych rock was the stylistic opposite of the other two acts, and I was curious as to how they would handle their odd placement. Continue reading…
Coachella: An O&B How-To
As it does every year, the Coachella Music Festival is about to descend upon Indio, California. From April 16 – 18, the one-horse town will be transformed into an indie music mecca, with hipsters converging from far and wide to soak up the tunes and 115-degree heat.
Coachella can be a terrific time but also a taxing one, so you’ll want to get your mandatory three-day ticket’s worth. To help ensure that you don’t risk all that dehydration and sunstroke for nothing, your friendly neighborhood Owl and Bear have compiled a list of this year’s must-see bands. (more…)
Interview: Shapes of Future Frames
Shapes of Future Frames may be a new band, but their faces are familiar. Featuring members of local powerhouses Scarlet Symphony and the Old In Out, the band’s epic arrangements and space-age guitar effects have already earned them a reputation as one of San Diego’s most exciting and innovative live acts.
The group recently finished recording their debut EP, The Minds of Tomorrow, Gone Today, and we caught up with band members Jamie Pawloski and Gary Hankins to talk about the record, the importance of brevity, and what an acoustic Shapes might sound like. (more…)
Get Three Avett Brothers Albums for Five Bucks Each
Okay, so this is the part where I talk about how much we at Owl&Bear love the Avett Brothers and you, unimpressed by the witty and/or articulate manner in which we’ve elected to express our ardor this time around, roll your eyes and think something like, “Oh come on, you guys always write about how much you love the Avett Brothers and not only is it getting old but, quite frankly, I’m starting to question your sexuality.” So, rather than beat you over the proverbial head with declarations about how great the Avetts are, we’ll just cut to the chase. This time.
Starting today, you can download three Avett Brothers albums—Emotionalism, Four Thieves Gone, and Mignonette—on Amazon for the trifling pittance of five dollars apiece. While Four Thieves Gone and Mignonette are no slouches, the crown jewel of the bunch is surely 2007’s Emotionalism, which shines as a terrific introduction to the band and their greatest achievement to date.
The albums are on sale until Friday as part of Amazon’s Black Friday Deals Week, as are works by artists like Andrew Bird, Bon Iver, Matt & Kim, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Radiohead, Califone, Built to Spill, Okkervil River, the Decemberists, Islands, and Neko Case. And if you already own all those albums, then congratulations: you’re almost as cool as us, but still only half as cool as the Avett Brothers.
Charlotte Gainsbourg – “Heaven Can Wait” (Video)
It’s hard not to love Charlotte Gainsbourg. Even the film Antichrist, with its disturbing imagery, rampant misogyny, and charming genital mutilation couldn’t lessen our love for the lovely lady. She may not be the only indie musician/actress out there, but she is the only one who does both things well (take that, Deschanel). The ambidextrous Gainsbourg has once again put on her songwriter’s cap for her forthcoming album IRM. Her gorgeous debut, 5:55, was produced by none other than the great Nigel Godrich, but this time around Gainsbourg has enlisted Beck to produce and cowrite all the songs.
The star-crossed pairing has just yielded its first video, the Keith Schofield-directed “Heaven Can Wait”. Beck’s vocals feature strongly in the song, lending further weight to the idea that the record is a Gainsbourg solo album in name only. In the surreal clip, mundane interactions between people and bizarre creatures are interrupted by bizarre bouts of food fetishism and sudden acts of violence. IRM will be available stateside on January 26th via Elektra, and the smart money says it’ll be a good one.
Poetic Memory: The Moviegoers (List)
In the 1960s the average band enjoyed fame for a couple of months, if that, before people’s attention shifted to the next rising (and soon to be falling) stars. Being a one-hit wonder wasn’t a failure, it was the norm, and accomplishments by bands like The Beatles and The Kinks were rendered all the more impressive by the fact that any kind of longevity was exceptional, and enjoyed by only a small percentage of groups.
Not much has changed since then: nowadays most bands—particularly in the realm of indie rock—still amount to little more than passing fads, soaking up their proverbial fifteen minutes before succumbing to irrelevance. But one thing that has been accelerated by the internet is that entire genres seem to rise and fall in the space of a few months, leaving up-and-coming groups scrambling to tap into the next sound du jour and ride the Wavves waves of recognition before they fizzle out.
Then there are bands who are content to just create great music. Unfazed by meaningless trends, they place emphasis on great songwriting, captivating melodies, and a distinctive but inviting sound. They may not get drooled over by Pitchfork (and if they do, it’s only so long until P4K’s drool runs dry and the inevitable backlash begins), but they do create a body of work that speaks for itself, and will outlast the one-MP3 wonders that permeate the blogosphere. San Diego’s The Moviegoers are one of those bands, and though they may not auto-tune their vocals or mangle their guitars with lo-fi crunch, they do create moving, memorable songs accented by rich harmonies and understated confidence. And that never goes out of style. (more…)
Poetic Memory: Frank Turner (List)
English punk turned folk singer-songwriter Frank Turner just released Poetry of the Deed, his third solo record. To celebrate the occasion, he sat down with us to talk Poetic Memory.
For a taste of Turner, check out this MP3 of “Front Crawl“. He’s also currently on tour, traveling everywhere from the midwest to the southwest. Dates are at the end of this post.
Poetic Memory is a regular Owl and Bear feature in which musicians disclose their influences—whether it’s albums, songs, artists, or something random. If you’re interested in being featured here, send us an email. (more…)
Review: Dirty Projectors – July 17, 2009 at The Earl; Atlanta
I headed from my friend Andi’s pleasant apartment in East Atlanta to Flat Shoals for Thai before the show on a beautiful and surprisingly cool (for Atlanta) summer evening, so we walked around as long as possible, or so we thought. After they let us in, there was a long delay, which turned out to be because the The Dirty Projectors were still en route from Baton Rouge. Finally, Altas Sound opened the show with a five song set that surprised mainly because angel-voiced Bradford Cox (Deerhunter) added a band (three Selmanaires) two days before and they managed to crunch out a fine country-laced set, departing from Bradford’s more electronic Atlas Sound peregrinations. Listen to their set here. We both liked the effort, which I likened to country Radiohead and she compared to early Travis, if that tells you anything. These are definitely worth downloading, even if the band isn’t as polished as it will be by the time they tour in support of the forthcoming Logos EP. Bradford played with the confidence and panache of a salsa champion and the band couldn’t help but follow his lead, even if there was a misstep here and there. (more…)
The Dead Weather Get It On with Your Mother on Cinemax
That’s right: The Dead Weather are set to get it on with your mother on everybody’s favorite childhood soft-focus porn channel. But before you pour lye in your eyes, let me clarify: the band will be debuting their new short film Treat Me Like Your Mother on Cinemax on July 11th. Wordplay!
Directed by Jonathan Glazer, whose credits include Sexy Beast, Birth, and the amazing videos for Radiohead’s “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” and UNKLE’s “Rabbit in Your Headlights”, the film stars band mates Jack White and Alison Mosshart in what promises to be a dirty, dirty experience.
Says White, “It was overwhelmingly electric working with Jonathan Glazer on this project, which feels more short film than video. I’ve never felt an intensity like I did on the set of this shoot. Absolutely violent, explosive, and poetic.”
The video premieres promptly at 9:55pm, just days before the release of The Dead Weather’s highly anticipated debut album Horehound. You can watch a trailer for the short film here, and we’ve got the afore-mentioned Glazer-directed music videos after the jump. (more…)
How to Hug Your Independent Record Store
“Indie record stores,” says Chrys Hansen of Modern Music, the Caribbean’s most visited record store, “are where you go when you first realize there’s a whole new world of music for you to explore.” The Internet notwithstanding as perhaps one’s first stop when searching out what the world has to offer musically, Hansen’s words ring sentimental and otherwise true.
Independent record stores, unlike the CD sections of Wal-Mart and Best Buy, often feature carefully procured selections of good popular music and local and alternative groups that are either too vulgar or not Hoobastank-y enough for other outlets. The quality of independent record stores is only enhanced by the personal touch offered by the staff.
Owl and Bear’s Top 20 Albums of 2007
Owl and Bear writers’ favorite albums of 2007.
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Radiohead – In Rainbows
2007, Self-Released, TBD Records, XL Recordings
Alright, so the dust has finally cleared from the hype surrounding In Rainbows, Radiohead‘s groundbreaking new album.
Although it was more than excellent that the innovative release method used by the (at the time unsigned) band dealt the first of (hopefully) many blows to the (hopefully) dying record industry, the unorthodox method pretty much overshadowed In Rainbows‘ actual music, and will probably do the same for future generations. If you’re reading this site, chances are you’re already aware of what exactly Radiohead did differently with the release of this album, so we’ll focus on the music.
Various Artists – Jonny Greenwood Is the Controller
2007, Sanctuary Trojan US
Despite the diverse track selection, Jonny Greenwood Is the Controller has a very cohesive feel, and is perfect accompaniment to, uh, chilling.
