i rock i roll

Friday, February 24, 2012

Yellow Ostrich announce new tour to support sophomore album 'Strange Land'

"The Mistress was a guy in a bedroom," says Yellow Ostrich lead singer Alex Schaaf, who grew up in Wisconsin and moved to New York in 2010. "Strange Land is a band. In a slightly bigger room."

Strange Land is out March 6th.

Tour Dates:
3/3 - Great Scott - Allston, MA #
3/4 - Mohawk Place - Buffalo, NY #
3/6 - Beachland Tavern - Cleveland, OH #
3/7 - The Pike Room at The Crofoot - Pontiac, MI #
3/8 - Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL #
3/9 - Der Rathskeller - Madison, WI &
3/10 - 7th St Entry - Minneapolis, MN #
3/11 - Cactus Club - Milwaukee, WI #
3/15-19 - SXSW - Austin, TX
3/19 - Solar Culture - Tucson, AZ
3/20 - Soda Bar - San Diego, CA
3/21 - Bootleg Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
3/23 - Bottom of the Hill - San Francisco, CA @
3/24 - The Depot at Humboldt State - Arcata, CA
3/26 - Mississippi Studios - Portland, OR %
3/27 - Media Club - Vancouver, Canada %
3/29 - Flying M Coffee - Nampa, ID %
3/30 - Kilby Court - Salt Lake City, UT %
3/31 - Hi Dive - Denver, CO %
4/2 - The Waiting Room - Omaha, NE %
4/10 - Johnny Brenda's - Philadelphia, PA ^
4/11 - Black Cat Backstage - Washington, DC ^
4/12 - Mercury Lounge - New York, NY ^
5/27 - Sasquatch Music Festival - George, WA

# = with 1,2,3
& = with 1,2,3 and Lower Dens
@ = with Lost in the Trees
% = with Howler
^ = with TEEN

posted by n. @ 2/24/2012 02:07:00 PM

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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Field Mouse

I had a pretty fun time DJing a semi-emo set last night at Union Hall for the latest Hilly Town Presents show. I say semi-emo because I was DJing with Chris from Battering Room and that's pretty much all he ever plays. My favorite part of the night, however, outside of that and rocking out with my best white girl dance moves to Shark? was getting to see dream-pop band Field Mouse for the first time. When I first saw them milling about, I made a point to mention to the boys how pretty their lead singer (Rachel) is and I suppose I am not alone in this assessment given the video below for track "Glass" is actually just a close-up of her face with bubbles and stuff flying all around. She's also very nice, btw, and complimented our DJ set (not sure if it was the emo or non-emo bits she preferred, however).

Their set was equally as appealing and enjoyable to watch and listen to as the video, so if you like what you see I would definitely check them out. Field Mouse have a few upcoming shows including two at SXSW aaaaaaand very very very pretty 7" out on Feb 28th via Small Plates Records.

posted by n. @ 2/23/2012 06:12:00 PM

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Hustle Roses (ex Oohlas) release debut EP

Confessional: I might be one of the biggest "secret" Oohla's fans of all time. Actually it's probably not that much of a secret, but I always felt for some reason that, back when they were quite popular with the bloggerati set a few years back, I could never accurately express how much I loved that band so I just never really talked about it outside of my friend Meg and I driving around in her car blasting 'TV Dinner' at maximum volumes. Perhaps it's because I never once got to see them perform live, which is certainly a huge regret, but honestly I have no idea why I was so mum on the fact that Best Stop Pop was in HEAVY rotation circa 2006-2007.

Since then I have waited impatiently for some sort of an update on the band who were working to get out of a major label deal (who isn't, really) and finally we have one - sort of - and I couldn't be more excited about this. Hustle Roses (aka Ollie Stone), the singer of the band, has gone off on her own and put together a solo act that is quite a departure from the Oohlas garage rock sound. It's bigger, dancier, and - dare I say - even awesomer.

The debut Hustle Roses EP, Tequila Mockingbird, is available now on Bandcamp and iTunes and hopefully SOON on Spotify. Pump up these jams right now and this time I promise not to be so hush hush.

posted by n. @ 2/21/2012 02:50:00 PM

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Video: Casey Shea "Let It Slide"

Oh Casey Shea, when will you stop being so dreamy? Hehe.

But seriously, I am loving this track off his 2011 album In Your Head - available now on Family Records. And I must admit, I was also excited to see that my friend Wes Verhoeve has made his directorial debut on the accompanying video. Mad props all around!

SONG:
Casey Shea - Let It Slide

posted by n. @ 2/14/2012 10:44:00 AM

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Friday, January 27, 2012

These Animals!!!

These Animals are a four piece band from Brooklyn who make lovely 60s inspired pop music. The four creators of this artful music met, appropriately enough, at art school and they have released two solid EPs in the last two years, including 2011's Souvenir Sessions. If you're in NYC, catch them Saturday night at Bowery Electric.

It's also worth mentioning that they offered me gift certificates to the Olive Garden in exchange for this blog post. While I am a HUGE fan of the Olive Garden, I wrote this strictly because I liked their music a lot (ok... well the gift certificates certainly didn't hurt either. Unlimited salad and breadsticks is a totally acceptable form of payola in my book and I admire their creativity).

Song: Souvenir

Song: Four to the Floor

posted by n. @ 1/27/2012 04:37:00 PM

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

You Won't

Let's break it down. It's 2012. Apparently mainstream music has made an amazing "comeback" - however that is possible for something that is "mainstream" I find questionable - and the music blog? Dead. RIP. But then along comes a band like Cambridge Massachusett's natives You Won't to reassure me that there are still musicians out there for us bloggers to embrace. Bands that are keeping things simple while still challenging us and who don't need David Guetta to make an impact (not that I have anything against David Guetta, his stuff is mad catchy). With their full-length debut, "Skeptic Goodbye," out Feb 14th on Old Flame Records (home of local faves Dinowalrus and Cloud Nothings), high school friends Josh Arnoudse and Raky Sastri have set out to do just that.

Stemming from home-recording and cross-country tape sharing collaborations, there's a little (and sometimes a lot) of twang on knee-slapping sing-along tracks like "Television" and just as much gentle melody and creative twists and turns on single "Ten Years Old." Overall, there is definitely a message of a simplistic innocence and childhood nostalgia to their music that as a listener you can easily get lost in, and that this industry has, in some ways, either forgotten or lost some appreciation for. Is the blog dead? Has mainstream won out? I'd be a skeptic to say goodbye at this point too.

Upcoming shows:
2/15/2012 - Portland, ME - 131 Washington (w/Artie Appleseed, Mango Floss, Heavy on the Juice) - 8pm
2/16/2012 - Cambridge, MA - TT The Bear’s Place (w/Friendly People, Slowdim, The Suitcase Junket) - 8pm
2/17/2012 - New Haven, CT - Underbrook Coffeehouse at Yale University (w/Laurelin Kruse) - 8pm
2/18/2012 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall (w/Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Lucius, Julia Read) - 8pm

Song: Ten Years Old

Song: Television

(But you probably will)

posted by n. @ 1/18/2012 11:22:00 AM

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

I Rock I Roll's FAVORITE Albums of 2011: #1-10!!! WOO HOO.

Just when you thought maybe - just maybe - I would just post a top 25-11 favorite albums and come back to this in February or maybe never - HERE IT IS YOU GUYS.

Also this blog has now been around for close to 9 years. HOW CRAZY IS THAT? How old AM I (ahem not that old)? Thanks to the five people or so who still read this, and to the great bands and awesome publicists who email me even though I don't always (ever) write most of you back. My gmail still reaches maximum capacity every month so it's good that you're kicking ass at your jobs and fighting the good fight for the attention you/your artists deserve.

Some people say music blogs are dead or dying and maybe that's true to some degree, but as long as I'm still listening to and falling in love with music and having fun doing so I'll still be here sharing/rambling in some form or another.. until I get really old and have to turn this into a mommy blog.

Just kidding.

1. We Are Augustines - Rise Ye Sunken Ships

SONG: Chapel Song

2. The Horrors - Skying

SONG: Still Life

3. The Antlers - Burst Apart

SONG: Parentheses

4. Caveman - Coco Beware

SONG: Thankful

5. Tally Hall - Good & Evil

SONG: You & Me

6. Youth Lagoon - The Year Of Hibernation

SONG: Cannons

7. Cold Cave - Cherish The Light Years

SONG: Villians Of The Moon

8. The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar

SONG: Austere

9. Milagres - Glowing Mouth

SONG: Gentle Beast

10. Bon Iver - Bon Iver

SONG: Holocene

Also, if you have Spotify (and if you don't, you should!) you can listen to all of the albums #1-25 on this list in full. Hooray and thanks for reading!

posted by n. @ 12/29/2011 02:26:00 PM

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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

I Rock I Roll's FAVORITE Albums of 2011: #15-11

Getting close to the top 10 here:

11. Hooray For Earth - True Loves

SONG: No Love

12. James Blake - James Blake

SONG: Limit To Your Love

13. The Rapture - In The Grace Of Your Love

SONG: Children

14. Oh Land - Oh Land

SONG: Wolf & I

15. Holy Ghost - Holy Ghost

SONG: Wait and See

posted by n. @ 12/20/2011 08:05:00 PM

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Thursday, December 15, 2011

I Rock I Roll's FAVORITE Albums of 2011: #16-20

16. The Dodos - No Color

SONG: When Will You Go Home

17. Das Racist - Relax

SONG: Girl

18. Boy & Bear - Moonfire

SONG: Feeding Line

19. Tom Vek - Leizure Seizure

SONG: Someone Loves You

20. Generationals - Actor-Caster

SONG: Greenleaf

posted by n. @ 12/15/2011 10:56:00 AM

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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

I Rock I Roll's FAVORITE Albums of 2011: #21-25

Seriously, it's weird, but this list was in some ways harder to build for me than any other year.

Was it that there was so much amazing new music this year? I'm going to say.. kind of but not really. You'll see a lot of my top 10 list is going to be made up of personal favorites and everything else was pretty DARN GOOD. Not mind blowing. Not 'meh' inducing. What I'm saying is: it was a year of good music and these are my favorite albums.

Please note I'm not a paid music critic and I have a personal life so I have not actually listened from beginning to end to every album that came out this year. And I bet you haven't either (unless you are a paid music critic and in that case... how is that going for you?). These are the albums that are my favorites and maybe will become your favorites too. Here we go with 21-25!

21. Yuck - Yuck