Thursday, March 30, 2006 The 4 way split 2xLP planned between The Magic Lanterns, Foxhole, Questions in Dialect, and Soporus is still making progress. The Magic Lanterns have finished their side and the master is on its way. Foxhole are almost done. Questions in Dialect have a preview song posted on their myspace page. Matthew and Will have been pretty busy this season with Saxon Shore, but should be finding some time to work out their material soon. More exciting details soon... :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 11:45 PM CST Monday, March 27, 2006 Saxon Shore is listed on the cover of the April/May 2006 issue of Cookie Scene, Japan's premiere indie rock magazine. No details on what the article about Saxon Shore actually says, but maybe we'll get a translation along with the copies they're bringing back home with them. They have a song on the cd that comes with the magazine, as well. They played their first show last night with Tristeza and it seemed like the Tokyo shows had nearly sold out, so things seem to be going well. I saw The Drift (Temporary Residence) play on Saturday night and was impressed with the upright bass and really incredible trumpet and flugelhorn parts. Thanks to Adam for setting the show up. Last night, a bunch of us relived our old memories and got some sweet potato fries and bread pudding at Silk City. There are conflicting stories about its fate after closing, but it was one of the best places to go to get late night food on a Friday or Saturday night and it may just return after a slight facelift. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 02:18 PM CST Saturday, March 25, 2006 In the spirit of NCAA basketball, Decoy Music is having some sort of Post-Rock tournament. There are details here. Saxon Shore is the 6th seed for the US and Yndi Halda is the 5th seed for the UK. There's some kind of contest involved, so read away. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 04:23 PM CST Friday, March 24, 2006 I was up super super early to drive Saxon Shore to the airport. They'll be in Japan in a few hours, ready to rock. I've got their van for the week if any one wants to go out joyriding. Just shoot me an e-mail. Looks like Adam will be setting up a Half-Handed Cloud/Vollmar show in Philadelphia on 15 April for all of you locals. John is one of our heroes. Well, Adam is, too... They're closing Silk City. It's a tragedy... :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 07:54 PM CST Thursday, March 23, 2006 Matt and Matthew hauled the 'Shore van over to customs to get the repress of the Saxon Shore cds Four Months of Darkness, Be a Bright Blue, and Luck Will Not Save Us from a Jackpot of Nothing. I am getting up ultra early to drive Saxon Shore to the airport for their Japanese tour with Tristeza. Should be exciting for them. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 07:17 PM CST Wednesday, March 22, 2006 AM/FM are alive and well. Thanks to Philebrity for the stalker heads up. They were one of the original participants slated for the btv one-sided LP series and they've been quietly working on an ep for a while. Some tour dates are up for Yndi Halda for all of you British readers in Kent, UK. There's a video from the Bosque Brown set at SXSW in the comments section of their myspace page. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 11:37 AM CST Tuesday, March 21, 2006 Johnathon told me that there is going to be a children's ballet performance re-enacting the images from Unwed Sailor's The Marionette and the Music Box in Jackson, MS in April and May. I'll post more details as soon as I find them out. Jakob has sent the final audio and artwork for the Isolation Years one-sided LP. Saxon Shore are flying to Japan on Friday morning. I volunteered to drive them to the airport. Little did I know they'd need to be there at 6am. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 05:13 PM CST Monday, March 20, 2006 There is a nice feature in the Ft. Worth weekly about Bosque Brown. Mara and Ryan were good sports and got up super early to take me to the airport. I just got back from SXSW in Austin. I rode down from Ft. Worth with Ryan and Mara and stayed with my good pal Brian for the whole time. On Wednesday night, Ben snuck me backstage for the Serena Maneesh show at Emo's. Thursday, Brian and I made a pilgrimage to the Texas Chili Parlor and it was just like old times. I was off to see the film Jumping Off Bridges which had the Bosque Brown song "Fire Fight" on the soundtrack. We got to meet up with Daniel Gill after the film who helped coordinate the soundtrack for the movie, as well as Kat (Writer/Director/Co-Producer) and Stacey (Co-Producer) from the film. The film nearly sold out the 1200 seat Paramount Theater in downtown Austin after selling out the first showing. I found some of the magic in going to SXSW when Mara, Ryan, Winston, and I were wandering through the streets and glanced up to see Matt from Anathallo. I was complaining that the btv fantasy baseball league draft was later that night and Brett from Anathallo came out to join the conversation. I had forgotten which guy from Anathallo was the "baseball guy", but it was Brett and he won the btv fantasy league last year. Weirdly enough, Brett's teamname is Satchel Paige France in the league and Page France was standing behind us on the street, so we made quick introductions. Completely bizarre. Later on, as I was waiting to draft my team, I looked up to see my Danish friend Jan walking down the street. He and his wife Sarah Hepburn were here for a small tour and a showcase at SXSW. It had been a few years since I last saw them and a great surprise. So, we chatted while I drafted away. (I'm resting on the Baseball Prospectus wizardry and hope that will work out.) Later on, Sarah, her friend Lori, and I went off to see the mighty Norwegians Hurra Torpedo as they pounded out their rock set using a refrigerator, several stoves, and a washing machine for percussion. Very strange and funny, but also amazing. (Ben Volta, you are jealous! ) This was also the only show that I had to pay for at SXSW since I was relying on my mooching and sneaking skills to make it without an official badge or wristband. Later on, we all met up for a late night Damien Jurado show. He played as a three piece with Eric Fisher on drums, mostly, with some keyboard and guitar parts, and Jenna Conrad as his cellist. It really sounded good that way. I met a bunch of Redeye distributed label owners on Friday. Hello to everyone from Friendly Fire, Stop, Pop, and Roll, Maggadee, Q Division, Eenie Meenie, and Kanine. I bowed out of SXSW to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with Brian, his girlfriend Liz, his brother Ken (that I hadn't seen in like 10 years), and all of Ken's friends. I made it over to see Sarah play with her full band and back as the St. Patrick's party was winding down. On Saturday, I became a member of the River City Bar-B-Q team at the competition that was held at the Rodeo. The Rodeo and SXSW are always held during the same week, apparently. Brian, Liz, and I formed Team Shrimp and had a lot of fun slicing and dicing and making it happen. It's a fund-raising even to raise money for an Austin-based scholarship fund and a nice chance to cook up some good barbeque. I made it down to SXSW in time to see Johnathon play a party with Ester Drang. Saturday night was the big Bosque Brown showcase at 0° (Zero Degrees). It was a nice club, but happened to have a sliding door leading to the club next door hosting a hip hop event and a bartender insisting that the door needed opened several times during the set. There was also a hardcore band playing in the back room with a door that also seemed to be opening often. The band stayed the course and sounded great in spite of all of the interruptions. I'm sure that there was even more that happened that I left out, but it was great running into people. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 02:30 PM CST Wednesday, March 15, 2006 I'm in Dallas/Ft. Worth area at Mara and Ryan's house. We're getting ready to go to SXSW soon. Bosque Brown is part of the soundtrack for a movie showing tomorrow called Jumping Off Bridges, so we'll be seeing that in the afternoon. Then, Damien Jurado is playing at 1am tomorrow night, so we're planning to be there. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 03:08 PM CST Monday, March 13, 2006 This is going to be a weird week where the btv fantasy baseball league draft, NCAA braket predictions, and SXSW all coincide in a bizarre cloud of confusion. See you in Austin, I'll have my Baseball Prospectus, laptop, and bracket in hand. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 04:20 PM CST Saturday, March 11, 2006 It was great to be in Brooklyn last night to see Saxon Shore. Keyes was in attendance and his brother's band The Gritty MIDI band opened. It was just their fourth show and they sounded good, a bit on the upbeat synth pop/Factory Records vibe. Jeff Price made the trip up, too, which is always awesome and Matthew and I convinced him to join the btv fantasy baseball league. Nicole and her Jersey crowd made it in time for the show. The room was filled for the set at Union Pool and the sound was good. The late night ride home was a little brutal, especially when Ben Volta failed me and fell asleep. I promised I would make him look bad here. I'm getting ready for my trip to SXSW this week. I'll be flying into Dallas, riding there with Bosque Brown, and staying with my friend Brian. I can't wait to go. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 03:15 PM CST Friday, March 10, 2006 Ben Sand is on American soil! Last night, I went to see Serena Maneesh and Ben is their tour manager for their first American tour. It was nice to see Ben on my home turf instead of Hong Kong or Taipei or Copenhagen. Unfortunately, Emil shaved off his strangely stylish and creepy mustache. Four bands on the weeknight bill is always a bad idea and the band went on at midnight. But plenty of time to get caught up with everyone. Matt, Willis, and Lauren joined Ben, Emil, Daniel, Elin, Ken, and I for some pre-rock Thai food. Witmer, where were you?! Ben's going to stay at my house in April for a week and we will destroy the city. Anyhow, Serena sounded great, you need to see them when they come to your area on this tour. They will be super famous rockstars and you will regret seeing them in smaller venues. TONIGHT! Brooklyn, Union Pool, Saxon Shore, the brothers Keyes with mommy and daddy, 8pm. Wow, it's a string of excitement. I will see you there. Ben (Volta), Lauren, and I are cruising up. There's a certain documentary premeire regarding a certain family of musicians that competes for some. However, as much as I/we love said band, there is going to be a bigger and better unveiling at the Philadelphia Film Festival and Ben Sand will attend with Ms. Jessica and the world famous Todd Brown, among others. If your name is Nicole and you live in the dreaded Jersey, your options should now be a singular one, no matter how much you decide to protest. I have the Unwed Sailor Circles cdeps now. They look and sound amazing! Jakob from Isolation Years has finalized the track list and picked a cover image for the one-sided LP. Their Inland Traveller album was re-issued in the US, but there are two remaining full-lengths that haven't been issued. The one-sided LP will be a good introduction to this amazing Swedish band if you haven't heard. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 09:44 AM CST Wednesday, March 8, 2006 There is a new band on the btv roster, you may have noticed some updated links on the other pages. Yndi Halda from Canterbury, Kent, UK will be on the roster for the US and on Big Scary Monsters in the UK. Their debut will be released in November 2006. You can view their website here or their myspace page here. I've updated a few of the release pages to include our Spring releases from Unwed Sailor, Bosque Brown, June Panic, and Efterklang. I haven't yet added the release to the online store for pre-order, but once the LPs are in production, I'll add them. Serena Maneesh are in Philadelphia on Thursday. Ben is on American soil again! I can't wait. See you at the show. Saxon Shore are at Union Pool in Brooklyn on Friday. I'll be up with a bunch of people, see you there. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 09:39 AM CST Monday, March 6, 2006 Congratulations to Wiili$ and Lauren who just got engaged this past weekend. I'm in Chicago now and it snowed all day. We stayed in and watched bootlegs of Veronica Mars season 2 to get up to speed. Somehow, we got the days confused and missed Everything Now on Saturday. Sorry Jared, but it wasn't my fault. Hott Doug's is closed for some extended vacation. How can this happen? It's a tragic shame. I'm excited because my neighbor's are moving, mostly because they have the world's scariest rotweiler who sticks his angry, snarling head over the fence when I go in my house. He doesn't just hate me, he wants to bite my leg off (photo courtesy of Jaret of Corpse On Pumpkin fame, the dog looks innocent, but he knocked down that missing board by jumping at the fence). And, Matt and Carrie might be my new housemates later this year. Or, live much closer to me at the very least. In label news, the pressing of Unwed Sailor's Circles cdep should be arriving from the factory this week. Represses of Saxon Shore's Four Months of Darkness, Be a Bright Blue, and Luck Will Not Save Us from a Jackpot of Nothing will be arriving from the factory, just in time for their dates in Japan at the end of the month. :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 12:52 AM CST Wednesday, March 1, 2006 Ethan and I have an Aspera etching concept underway and are waiting to find out about it's etchability. We're in new territory here and that requires new words. There are a couple of candidates for an efterklang etching. We're starting to reach some critical mass for late spring/early summer vinyl releases. It's an exciting time. Thanks to Mikael, there will be a gathering to see Lars Von Trier's Manderlay on Thursday. I've had this for almost a week and it's been hard not to watch it. What's up with this being out on DVD in Denmark and barely being in theaters in the U.S.? :::scott::: Posted by Scott @ 12:56 PM CST [ Archives ]