When The Builders And The Butchers come to San Diego, they show up to play. The band’s Casbah performance last February was a fever dream of apocalyptic backwoods folk voodoo that had even the most uptight hipsters in the crowd unfolding their arms and busting a move. As if to prove that lightning can indeed strike the same place twice, the group will be returning to the Casbah on Saturday, January 16th. Continue reading
The Late Late Show‘s Craig Ferguson celebrated his 1000th episode on Tuesday night, and he did it in style. Save for the occasional scantily-clad backup dancer, the show consisted entirely of puppets. As if that weren’t cool enough, Ferguson also enlisted the aid of the always-game Jason Segel, who performed his “Dracula’s Lament” ballad from Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
In keeping with the puppet-only theme, Segel’s backing band was hidden, but if they hadn’t been you would’ve seen that they were Merge Records band The Broken West. The group fleshed out the song admirably, tweaking it with lush instrumentation and a rock and roll backbeat absent from the Marshall version. We’re not exactly sure how a band gets a gig playing backup for Jason Segel and a puppet vampire, but we do know we want their agent. Check out the festivities yourself—the song starts around the one-minute mark—in the clip above.
When Grandaddy broke up in 2006, it could have spelled the end for front man Jason Lytle‘s career. Fraught with tension and years past their prime, the group had already parted ways by the time their final album, Just Like The Fambly Cat, was released to faint fanfare. Lytle disappeared from the public eye, abandoning his hometown of Modesto, CA for the quietude of Montana.
But, in 2008, he quietly reemerged to sign a solo deal with ANTI- Records. The resulting album, Yours Truly, the Commuter, finally answered the question of exactly what Lytle had been doing with his time since the band split; he had been getting his groove back.
Yours Truly is an outstanding record, every bit as good as classic Grandaddy works Sumday and The Sophtware Slump. It maintains the moody longing fans have come to expect, but marries it with exquisite production and a transcendent atmosphere of hope. The album is easily one of this year’s best, and marks the first chapter in a creative renaissance for the songwriter. So, to celebrate his comeback year in style, Lytle has just released a surprise EP as a Christmas gift to his fans. Continue reading
Welcome to Iceland Appreciation Day at Owl&Bear—or “Owl och Björn†in Swedish, which we assume sounds pretty close to Icelandic—where we spotlight up-and-coming musicians from the subpolar island country. Incidentally, Iceland boasts a population of 320,000 and its popular dishes include liver sausage and cured ram scrotum. You heard me.
Okay, it’s not actually Iceland Appreciation Day, but we did just run a story on Seabear, so I figured I’d roll with it. Our next artist to be featured from the land of the great Strokkur geyser is LovÃsa ElÃsabet Sigrúnardóttir, better known as Lay Low.
The Patsy Cline-inspired singer/songwriter has already developed an immense following in her homeland, claiming the country’s top-selling original album last year with her debut, Please Don’t Hate Me. Lay Low will be turning her sights on the US with the release of her new album, Farewell Good Night’s Sleep, on March 9th, to be followed by an extensive tour. Continue reading
When The Paddle Boat first began to play shows in San Diego, no one knew quite what to make of them. Their hushed aesthetic tended to be too quiet for bars and their century-spanning influences too diverse for easy categorization, but the band nevertheless built a reputation as one of the city’s finest live acts. Seasoned performers though they might be, the band’s recorded output has until now been sparse, consisting of only the four songs from the self-titled EP they released earlier this year.
In its eleven brief minutes, the EP demonstrated that The Paddle Boat were able to flourish within the recorded idiom, utilizing savvy production to add dimension to their already rich sound. But it remained to be seen how the band would fare over the course of an entire album. Now, the group has released I Wonder if the Water Ever Tires of the Sea?, their full-length debut and the true test of whether The Paddle Boat can be as enthralling a recorded band as they are a live one. Continue reading