REVIEW: El Madmo - El Madmo

6.5 out of 10

Find it here.

Multiple Grammy Award winning Norah Jones (daughter of famed sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar) spared her ivory ticklers and sultry persona for this project, donned a blond bob-style wig, strapped on a pair of torn fishnets and an electric guitar and recruited Andrew Borger and Daru Oda from Handsome Band to form this tongue-in-cheek punk band.

A few years back, El Madmo had the luxury of anonymously playing small hole-in-the-wall clubs without the risk of being ousted by the crowd, but with a voice like hers, that didn't last too long. On May 20th 2008, their debut record was officially released on Conor Oberst's Team Love Records.

This album will no doubt satisfy the sweet tooth of indie-punk fans as well as Norah Jones fans. One thing is certain, they had fun making this record. There are numerous catchy, well written gems here that will easily get stuck in your head without the uber-polished, over produced feel of Jones solo efforts. For a change, she didn't take herself too seriously here which can be a breath of fresh air. From songs on her solo albums with titles like "The Nearness Of You", "Those Sweet Words", "The Prettiest Thing" and "Be Here To Love Me"; to El Madmo's self-titled debut, with song titles like "Head In A Vice", "Vampire Guy" and "Rock Yer Balls Off".

This is one great example of a musician daring to dabble in another genre completely, and getting away with it!

Standout Tracks: Sweet Adrenaline, Nonny Goat Mon, Carlo!

EIC'S10Q'S w/Azeda Booth

This is EIC'S first official interview! I am X-tremely (yeah, no "E" at the beginning) excited to announce it's with:

Azeda Booth (#2 album of the year)
Calgary's "Best Kept Secret"

AZEDA BOOTH BIO:
There are no women in Azeda Booth. If you’re reading this before you’ve played their debut album "In Flesh Tones", you’re probably puzzled. Press play and come back. The band shares the same sublime androgynously-voiced space as Antony And The Johnsons, jazz great Little Jimmy Scott and Philly-soul angels The Stylistics. Musically, there are only sightlines, no touchstones. They twist and flutter, too skittish for space rock, too hot for IDM, too concise and charming for glitch-core. The Calgary, Alberta five-piece conjure up the sound of human travel. The arrivals and departures are hazy and blurred, the tone both tense and delicate, the fuel potent and clean, the direction most definitely UP. "In Flesh Tones", Azeda Booth’s debut full length is a benchmark album, a thing of dazzling beauty and fragile inspiration. It’s not so much a bomb in the mineshaft as it is an incandescent dove illuminating the way out.

Formed in the summer months of 2004, the group was originally comprised of only two members (Morgan Greenwood & Jordon Hossack), who were to remain a duo until the fall of 2006, when three other like-minded musical outcasts of the Calgary scene (Chris Reimer, Marc Rimmer & Mike Wallace) joined to form the group’s current incarnation. With the release of 2007’s "Mysterious Body" (which was recorded almost two years prior by Morgan & Jordon), the group marked the end of their days as a duo, and began writing and recording material for their forthcoming full length, "In Flesh Tones". Recorded with the same “musical chairs-esque” enthusiasm as featured in their live shows, In Flesh Tones is inspired and simple in its celebration of sound and movement. With the force of five to translate the material to a live setting, the group’s live shows have been the focal point of much of their recent attention. Always changing and growing, Azeda Booth’s live show is as much about exploring the facets of the energy shared by audience and artist as it is about creating a memorable musical experience.

Hello. How are you?
Faaaantastic. Fat from eating too much over the holidays and just preppin' for NYE tonight.

What are you currently listening to?
At this exact moment, "Pedrophilia" by Busy P (Ed Banger Records)

How long have you known each other?
I've known Morgan for about 8 years now, but have only been really good friends for about 4, and I met Jordon through Morgan when we first started really hanging out, so about 4 years as well. Jordon and Morgan met towards the end of their last year of highschool, 5 years ago.

Whats with the bands name?
I don't know? What's with the band's name? Jordon's been working on this new form of trepanation surgery, that is what he'd like to call it. Joking?

Who are your main influences?
Naturally the music that you listen to is going to influence you in someway -- Morgan listens to a lot of electronic music, I know he is really into Autechre, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, I would say those are his main inspirations, and a ton of smaller producers (that are all really great, too). Lately, or last time I checked, Jordon's been listening to Atlas Sound, Avey Tare + Kria Brekken, The Smiths -- and lately I've been rocking the Department of Eagles, Flying Lotus, and Django Reinhardt.

Whats the music scene like in Calgary?
Totally awesome. It's a weird city, but the music scene is great. The more well known acts, Chad VanGaalen and Women, are fantastic, and there are a ton of local bedroom-records and artists that are super great as well. It's a really small, tight-knit scene... lots of support from your peers.

When can we expect a US tour?
We'll be in the US in March for SXSW, but a tour will happen hopefully in April/May.

Best tour story?
We had vehicle problems and were stuck for 2 days and 2 nights in the shyte-hole of Canada (Wawa, ON)... most depressing place ever. We finally got our vehicle fixed and had 10.5 hours to make the 10 hour drive to Toronto, ON for our next show. We were making good time and then our tire exploded (like, EXPLODED... severe wheel carnage), and basically screwed us. It was 4:50 on a Sunday, we were 20 minutes from the nearest town, and everything was closed. Somehow (miracle?) we managed to get a new tire and we sped like hell through a storm to get to our show with about 2 minutes to spare.

Whats next for Azeda Booth?
We're going to be doing a bunch of touring in the New Year, and then we're going to start recording our next record.

Are you living your dream?
That's a strange question, 'cause your dreams and goals always change as you set new ones... but we definitely love what we're doing, it's awesome!

Thanks a bunch!
~Marc, Morgan & Jordon

No, THANK YOU Azeda Booth!

Azeda Booth are currently planning a 2009 European tour. As well as new music for 2009.

Atlas Sound LIVE New Years Eve Drunken Unicorn Album

A FREE LIVE ATLAS SOUND ALBUM CAN BE FOUND HERE.

Get this album, it's FREE and it's AWESOME!

Some of the tracks on here are unreleased.

Oh, man, what a day..

Thank You Southern Shelter!!

REVIEW: Soo, I went to an Animal Collective Listening Party..!

Late last year I posted a blog in reference to Animal Collective having listening parties for their newest opus "Merriweather Post Pavillion". My city, was not on this list:( Enter Monday afternoon. I was surfing da net and spotted a new Animal Collective bulletin; "Merriweather Post Pavilion release parties". Of course I had to check, you know, just in-case my city was on it....it was:) I quickly picked up my phone and called some of my Animal Collective buddies. After setting the times we were ready.

Monday, January 5th

The Slowdown

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion Listening Party (1st US listen party)

The night was going swell. That's right, "swell". Draws were half off all night. Board games were a plenty to keep you visually entertained. And, surprisingly, an empty house?? Making it a very cozy environment. Seriously, I couldn't believe there were only about 20-30 people there! But if they get the bulletin as late as I did theirs a chance they didn't even know about it. This really was last minute planning, I can't stress that enough. I just discovered there was one in my city only 5 hours before the event.

But who am I to say "no" to no cover, half-price draws, board games, and even FREE animal collective schwag(thank you Domino/Animal Collective:)?


I decided while I was listening to the album over the bars slightly muffled, but loud enough, speaker system I would right down notes so I could give the album a "pre-headphone" review. Below are descriptive words of sounds/noises I heard in each individual track. I also placed a "mini-review" next to each track indicating which tracks were the standouts.

Ready, with slightly broken pen in hand...
Pheew....
Breathe in..
Breath out...

Let's start this mofo..
9:24PM - Merriweather Time
Once again, these are just small descriptive words for each track,
NOT a full fledged review.

1. In The Flowers
under water ambience, twangy reverb, folksy rant, hand claps, bird sounds, loud accordion-steel drum, dark/deep synths, distant piano....7.5


2. My Girls
windy, twinkly-star synth sprinkles, arrepgeiated, hollow sounding vocals/backing vocals, tribal stomps, more steel drum, very spacey, hand claps, almost reminiscent of Tough Alliance....8.75(One of my favs)

3. Also Frightened
more bird samples/water noises, tropical rain forest-y, held organ note? harmonizing, constant bass/kick, guitar saturations, great vocal harmonies....6.75

4. Summertime Clothes
more water noises?, machine-like crunchy loop, 4-count kick and bass, 80's synth?? great bass line, high note on keys, hand claps, snare, tambourine, CATCHY....8.75 (So far my fav)

5. Daily Routine
weird, non-sensical, accordion-keybored, weird loop, reverberated vocals, catchy drumming, industrial "NIN" style loops? more ringing?, slows down, into a different song, relaxing....7.75

6. Bluish
thunder noises, guitar strumming, flanger, wah, kazoo, piano, acid trip through an old western, shoegazey guitar....5.5

7. Guys Eyes
Beach Boys harmonizing, throbbing guitar/bass, a lil' repetitive, loud tuba, rain stick, airplane sound??....5.25 (My least fav:()

8. Taste
tropical, claps, steel drum again, good rhythm, pulsing bass, synth arpeggy....6.0

9. Lion In A Coma
mouth-harp, tom drum, stick hitting, dijerdoo, steel drum-again....5.75

10. No More Runnin
reverberated steel drum, ambient whoosh, good headphone track....8.25 (Great track)

11. Brother Sport
leaked single, Beach Boys-y, more tropical, synthy space-lasers shooting, loud spacey fun ride, sonar bloops....7.5

FIRST LISTEN 7 out of 10

Find it here.

Overall, great vibe. But, like all Animal Collective albums, I gotta hear it a few more times before I can make my "real" decision.

Can't wait to get my copy:))))))



P.S. Here's the free schwag I got:



Yeah, I know.
Awesome.

REVIEW: Main - Firmament

6 out of 10

Find it here.

Main is Robert Hampson, former guitarist of Stoner-rock band "Loop". This album should have been called "alien soundtracks". It's ambient, with very organic textures. It all sounds like a dark cold alien planet. They should slap a sticker on it stating "Guaranteed to give you a bummer trip..".

It's short for what it is, (twenty two minutes) but considering it's just a couple of loops, I guess that's long enough. Not going to blow you away, but it'd make a great soundtrack for Halloween. I'd be interested in checking out more stuff by them, but I wouldn't be shelling out any hardcore cash for it.

Bottom Line: Dark, ambient, and spooky. This is one of those records you throw on, because it's been so long you forgot what it sounds like.

Standout Tracks: N/A

REVIEW: Seven Percent Solution - Gabriel's Waltz

8 out of 10

Find it here.

I think the first time I ever heard Seven Percent Solution was when I was surfing Yahoo's Lauchcast Radio. This was years ago when I actually had a computer it would run on. I don't know what song it played, or what album it was off of, but I was totally blown away. I spent the next two years looking for it. The bands website hadn't been updated in forever, and as far as I know they broke up along time ago. I ended up buying it off Amazon for like thirty bucks. By that point I had no idea what it sounded like, but I was determined to track it down. Totally worth it.

"Gabriel's Waltz" came out in 1999, and defiantly has a Space-rock rock feel to it. The melody's are slow, lush, pieces of melancholy. The third track, "Carousel", could easily be a Mogwai song. They don't have the pull and build of great epic post rock song, but that's okay for these guys. I think they were just trying to be as mellow as possible. When there are vocals, they're almost whispered. Rarely the focus of the song. and Occasionally the band throws in a sample with religious connotations in between songs (much like Godspeed...). If you ever come across an album by one of these guys I would defiantly pick it up.

Bottom Line: Great Space-rock.

Standout Tracks: Dear Anne, Lullaby, Carousel, Dust And Ashes

REVIEW: Miles Davis - On The corner

7.5 out of 10

Find it here.

It seems like just about everyone loves Miles Davis. Why wouldn't you? That cat can really blow. Guinness book of work records lists him as "The Most Critically Claimed Musician". Take that Beethoven! Well the critics loved almost everything Miles did, with the exception of this record. In 1972 Miles Davis started listening to Sly Stone and Karl Stockhausen and with that decided to make an avant-garde funk album, that totally pissed off every jazz purist everywhere. Some of them are still bitching about it.

All and all though it's a pretty great record, that in retrospect, might have been a little ahead of it's time. The first thing I thought when I heard this album, was "Man this sounds like Can." This album has a great affinity with Krautrock, that's pretty astonishing. There is a running use of poly-rhythmic drums through out the album, along with a bumping bass line that everything is built off of. If you just leave it playing in the background, you pretty much only get a sense of the drums. There is tons and tons of stuff happening in the background, all improvised. It's cut and paste methods of production, was way ahead of it's time. It really goes all over the place, and I could see how a lot of people would dislike this sound. Most people think this is "self-indulgent" drug dribble. That could be true, but I like to think it as a work of righteous chaotic funk. . When the title track actually falls into place, it's almost has pop potential. Two of the four tracks are twenty minutes or longer, and it can lag at times. The major sin really is that it does kind of seem like one really long song, they don't have enough diversity in the rhythm. You really have to tune in to pick up the cool weird sound being produced by Miles Davis's "electronic" trumpet.

People either love it or hate it, but I'm a lover and I think more people should check this out. It's incredibly unlike another Davis record.

Bottom Line: It's a mess really, but a glorious one. A closer look shows a gem of funk and experimentation.

Standout Tracks: The whole album bleeds and melts together. It's easier to talk about parts, than songs.