More records in the office today!

Felix Obelix – The Tick of the Clock, the Beat in the Chest
Baby Baby – Long Live the Swagmonsta
The Dig – Electric Toys
Blasfemea – Galaxia Tropicalia
The Shondes – My Dear One
Equaleyes – While I’m Alive
Hear Kitty Kitty – Tails from the Alley
Eryn Shewell – 4th & Broadway
Stereo Transmitted Disease – Generation Nothing
Beware! The Other Head of Science – Big American Godzilla Party
Valerie Janlois – No Drop of Love (Is Ever Wasted)
A Faulty Chromosome – Craving To Be Coddled so We Feel Fake-safe
This Moment in Black History – Public Square
Mama Lion – Gamble, Gamble, Die
Walter Jr – Standing on the Word
Linfinity – Martian’s Bloom
The Idaho Falls – The Spark
One High Five – Here, Hear!
Ashley Joelle Jordan – Simple Love
Kal Marks – Recovering After The Storm
Dirt Mall – Pacifuego
Mars – Embracing Imperfection

Look at All the Records We Got in the Office Today!

Big East: Condita

Tom Wise: In Love, At War

NeuHuman: NeHuman

Chris O’Brien: Little Red

Charlie Christos: Widow’s Gun

Ken Berman: Looking Forward

The Whole New Usuals: Every Whole New Usual Will Die

Nathan Leigh: Glitch EP

The Dirty Dishes: The Dirty Dishes

The Falcon Lords: Straight From the Center of their Volcano Air

Mattie McGrail: The Long Road of Doris Voxy

Quadron: Quadron

After Edmund: Spaceships and Submarines: The Lively Sessions

Jason and the Scorchers: Halcyon Times

Anomopoly: Anomopoly

Veil Veil Vanish: Change in the Neon Lights

Static People: Static People

Transient Songs: Cave Syndrome

Antioquia: My piano ate the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle

Hardly Art: Cracked Love & Other Drugs

Adrien and the Fine Print: Tennessee Swing

Thirty Second Pulse: Oil of the Whale

The One Smith: Just Because

Check out the stellar records we got in the office today!

Dave Ellis: drama per orgasm

Cobblestone Jazz: The Modern Deep Left Quartet

Christian Prommer: Drumlesson Zwei

Jeremy Haladyna: Selections from the Mayan Cycle

Denman Maroney: Music for Words, Perhaps

Chris Marsol: Butterflies, Lipstick, and Hand Grenades

Reagan Browne: Daydreams in Stereo

Fight the Quiet: Let Me In

Jen Olive: Warm Robot

Baylock: One Good to Be Told

Full Body Anchor: Full Body Anchor

The One Smith: The One Smith

K’Lonisky: Controversy

Naked on Rollerskates: Sugar

Check out what records we got in the office today

The Full-Time Dreamers – Too Loud at Any Volume

The Blessed Unrest – Ashes Time

The Ted Painter Band - Keepin’ It Real

Plants and Animals – La La Land

Monster Movie – Everyone is a Ghost

Marshan – The Jellyfish Will Succeed Where The Monkeys Have Failed

Modena – self-titled

Avi Buffalo – self-titled

April Smith and the Great Picture Show – Songs for a Sinking Ship

Jay Psaros – Tripping and Running

Animatronique – Stasis

Dosh – Tommy

Paul Dougherty – Grace Under Water

The Burning Hotels – Novels

Old Bricks – Farmers

Undo – self-titled

Andy Mason – Stories Told

Carrie Ferguson – Riding on the Back of the Wind

Die Among Heroes – self-titled

Confessions of a Corn Silo – Stretches of Concrete

MayFlys - A Life in a Day

Warning Light – Further On

Terminal Muse – Red

These New Puritans - Hidden

West Coast Shows

hey, friend us at our facebook for more of the goings on

Two excellent Performer Presents shows coming up this month for you West Coast fans!

Los Angeles @ Echo on February 12

Fitz & the Tantrums w/ Love Grenades

San Francisco @ Kimo's Penthouse Lounge on February 13

Paranoids w/ Tokyo Raid and Siddhartha

Check out what records we got in the office today

Sofia Rei Koutsovitis – Sube Azul
Dangermaker – self-titled
Stereo Freakout – If Wishes Were Fishes
Scraping for Change – Breaking the Silence EP
Mulatu Astatke – Mulatu Steps Ahead
Stygian – Fury Rising
Throwback Suburbia – self-titled
Michael Perry and the Long Beds – Tiny Pilot
Girlfriends – self-titled
Nite Nite – How To Touch the Moon
Ellis Paul – The Day After Everything Changed
Dana Wells – The Evergreen EP
Jay Matsueda – Eat Your Sad

February is Up

February content is now available Online!

News: Act now to prevent smoking bans outside bars in San Francisco

Like to light up at some of your favorite hot spots in San Francisco? Smokers should be aware of a non-smoking ordinance currently under review that will attempt to ban smoking on the patios of places such as the Hemlock Tavern, Bottom of the Hill, Thee Parkside, El Rio, Eagle SF, Lucky 13, Zeitgeist and many more.

Those interested voicing their opinion can speak out this Monday, Feb. 1, at city hall in room 263 at 2 p.m.

This movement of smoking bans is spreading across California, with Los Angeles smokers recently losing their ability to light up in outdoor cafes and food courts after a city council meeting on Jan. 20. Other locations that have already banned smoking in outdoor dining facilities include Burbank, Beverly Hills, Calabasas and Santa Monica.

The Hemlock Tavern is attempting to create a grandfather clause to exempt current smoking patios at bars. For more information on general smoking rights, visit www.smokinglobby.com.

Live Review: Love in Stockholm // The Phix // Re-Up // Joy Daniels

The Middle East Downstairs // Cambridge, MA // Jan. 21, 2010

Love in Stockholm - Music Video Premiere at the Middle East from Love in Stockholm on Vimeo.

Jazz and soul was alive and well this past Saturday as several bands took the stage to celebrate the release of Boston's own Love in Stockholm's brand new video “Ordinary Man.” Close friends (and media alike) joined the band right before the scheduled concert to get a peek at the vid for their latest single, which was shot over only a couple days. The video, which features the band pouring their hearts out in a performance under a stream of Christmas lights, was followed by a live acoustic performance of the same song – which was one of the most intimate moments of the evening (if not the only one).

Love in Stockholm

Opening up was the powerful Joy Daniels. Equipped with tight instrumentation and a stage presence comparable to quite frankly nothing else, Joy shook the audience with songs that were not only upbeat and melodic, but packed with a powerful message as well. Songs like “Crazy” and “Do You Know What It's Like” packed an off-the-wall (and considerably brief) set right before Re-Up hit the stage. Combining soul with their own eclectic view of hip-hop, the audience was completely consumed with their relaxed-but-passionate demeanor as they crooned songs like the bittersweet love ballad “Still” and the ultra-slick “Bad Motherfucker.”

Following them were the Phix and the energy completely shifted from that of a laid-back concert-goer to a wild dance party. The Phix are masters of taking genres and flipping them on their heads. Fusing hip-hop together with pop, a little bit of rock and adding a dash of auto-tune sounds like too many ingredients in the pot to actually produce something you can successfully consume, but somehow they pull it off flawlessly. Cruising through tunes like “Boomerang” and “Fell in Love (In the Club)” with endless amounts of energy, they provided an interesting contrast to the final act of the night, Love In Stockholm. 

The Phix

The last band of the evening was greeted to a packed room of true fans or intrigued  listeners, and rose to the occasion practically without breaking a sweat. Fusing soul and beats that can't help but make you move, the boys put their acoustic side away and kept up the high-paced energy anointed to them previously by the Phix. Playing songs like “Don't Be Fooled” and “The Collector” from last year's Too Much Love EP, LIS gave it their all and the audience were quite appreciative. Trumpets mixed with harmonicas mixed with guitars and soulful vocals perfectly channeled their core sound of R&B/jazz. Overall, the boys put on a show they could be proud of.

-Review and photos by Candace McDuffie

New Records in the Office Today!

Vaus – The Floating Celebration

Derek Frank- Let the Games Begin

Mass Solo Revolt- Bend in Time

The Besnard Lakes- Are the Roaring Night

jj- jj n° 3

The Hammond Group- Bailout!

Jennie Arnau- Chasing Giants

The Organ Beats – Sleep When We Are Dead

Faith and the Muse- :ankoku butoh:

Three Day Threshold- Straight out of the Barrel

Joey Stuckley- So Far

Tokyo Rosenthal- Ghosts

Cagle and Nash- Soul Complete

Libby Johnson- The Perfect View

Trades- The Short Version

La Chansons- The King and Queen of the Dance Floor

Aloha- Home Acres

Joy Kills Sorrow- Darkness Sure Becomes This City

Check out what records we got in the office today

My Flea Circus – Flee Flaa Floo

DJ Rap – Synthesis

Rafter – Animal Feelings

Dave Daniels – Just Like Ghosts

Judgement Day – Peacocks/Pink Monsters

Okapi – Love Him

Chris Pureka – How I Learned To See In The Dark

Jennifer Leonhardt – Minstrel’s Daughter

Randal Bramblett – The Meantime

Çatarina dos Santos – No balanco do mar

The Villains – self-titled

Brendan Kelley – Music From the Motion Picture

7 Million Jigawatts – Taking Flight

The Strange Boys – Be Brave

Absinthe Rose – Diggin Ditches & Escaping Holes

Zamza – Manga Rock

Chris Laubis – Balance

Peggo – In Love

Melanie Mitrano – All Things Gold

Jes Perry – The Way That I Feel

Jamie McLean Band – Completely

Cinetrope – Once I Ruled The World

Jesse Liam – Father From A Man

Memphis 59 – Ragged But Right

Jonathan Badger – Unsung Stories From Lilly’s Days as a Solar Astronaut

Josiah Wolf – Jet Lag

The American Dollar – Atlas

Mr. Greg’s Musical Madness – Lots of Fun!

Blair – Die Young

Jimmy Landry – New Day

The Greening – (She’s So) Electric EP

Love In Stockholm Video Premiere

Boston's very own Love in Stockholm will premier their brand new music video, 'Ordinary Man', at the Middle East Downstairs this Saturday. A special acoustic performance of will also take place during the night!

Show starts at 7pm

New records in the office today

Birdsong at Morning – Vigil
Clogs – The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton
Slowearth – Vault
Umek – Responding to Dynamic
James Keyes – Ruminations
Jonka – Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Social Hero – The Famous
Thick Shakes – Ooh Mommy
Adrian and the Sickness – B.F.D.
Dum Dum Girls – I Will Be
The Ruby Suns – Fight Softly
Kathy Sanborn – Small Galaxy
Will Kimbrough – Wings
Pinsky – States/The Only Ones
Roy Davis – We Are a Lightning Bolt
Fleeting Trance – Self-titled
Shake It Like a Caveman – When You Smile I See Your Fangs
Trench Party – News
Trench Party – Untitled
Brother Joscephus and the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra – self-titled
Past Lives – Tapestry of Webs
AC Deathstrike – Last Picture Show
Madecipha – Word is Bond
Ben Thompson – Time Traveler
Glenton Davis – Are You Ready
The Mallard – The Quick, The Dirty
Tired Old Bones – Self-titled
The Scott Little Band – Barbed Wire and Engine Blocks
Ventid – Rain Dance For Your Wedding

Check out the records we got in the office today...

Mindset X - Thread
Brenda Xu - A Little Illusion
Dillon $ Paten Locke - Studies in Hunger
Merry Ellen Kirk - Invisible Wars
Greg Lato - Monday Morning Breakdown
Ken Will Morton - True Grit
Eclectic Dance Orchestra - Instruments of Change
Seven Saturdays - self-titled
Robert Valente - Alive
iLa Mawana - self-titled
LOAM - Nervous Grooming Gestures
Rachel McCartney - New Days Nightly (EP)
Eddie Japan - four by six
Saints of Ruin - Nightmare
Ernest Gonzales - Been Meaning To Tell you
CUBIST - shapes and sounds of time
Double Nines - self-titled
Hearts and Minutes - self-titled
ITtheverb - Happy Mediums
Kid Tested - Pop Era Laundry
Doug Spears - Welcome Home
Gooding - The Return
Adam Green - Minor Love
Our Own Ghosts - The House That Silence Built
John Shipe - Yellow House
Happy Birthday - self-titled
Shredding the Envelope - The Call of The Flames
The Souljazz Orchestra - Rising Sun
Nightmare River Band - Call the Cops!!
Mark Growden - Saint Judas
Anais Mitchell - Hadestown
John Stein - Raising the Roof
Kasey Anderson - Nowhere Nights
All Time Low - MTV Unplugged
Sister Grizzly - All Of This Is True
Adam Ezra Group - View From The Root
Galactic - ya-ka-may

Contest to win a brand new tube amp

Blackheart wants to hook up a guitarist with a new 100W tube amp. All you have to do to score this vintage-inspired head and cab is play some shows with it and write about it online. The more photos, videos and posts, the better.

Tell us why you should be the test driver for the BH100H head and BH412SL cab. Send your entry to info@performermag.com (subject: Blackheart).

This Saturday: PseudoDiscord at Eyedrum featuring Stokeswood

-- A little bit about the bands at Eyedrum this Saturday --

Stokeswood is "An eclectic mix of percussion, strong vocals, story telling lyrics, powerful electric guitar and driving synths Stokeswood's sound is described as a "Cosmic Waltz."

Before The Solstice:"Melodic progressive rock with the ability to entrance, make you dance, or punch a hole in the wall! They call it Quantum Rock."

Damon Moon and The Whispering Drifters
"His simple acoustic guitar, with layered electrics, subtle keys of all kinds, dreamy bass lines, and drum sounds that roll in and out like the tide on the California coast, all perfectly set the stage for Damon's warm, gentle voice."

Naomi Lavender

News: Noise Pop now accepting applications from bands, badges on sale

San Francisco’s Noise Pop Festival, Feb. 23 through March 1, 2010, is now accepting submissions from artists who want to play. You can apply through Sonicbids. At least one band will be selected and receive $500 for performing.

The mini-conference at the fest, Industry Noise, will return this year on Saturday, Feb. 27, at the Swedish American Hall. The event will discuss independent music, technology and the changing industry. Attendees can meet industry pros, listen to influential speakers, advance their artistic and business ventures and learn more about current possibilities and opportunities. In addition to panels and speakers, there are small discussion groups and individual mentoring. Industry Noise Badges are on sale now for $65 or $50 along with the purchase of a full festival badge.

Festival badges are now on sale for $150. A limited number of badges include access to the Magnetic Fields show at the Fox Theater on Saturday, Feb. 27, or the Herbst Theater on Monday, March 1. Individual shows are also on sale now. Venues include Bottom of the Hill, Bimbo's and the Great American Music Hall.

Feature: The Fresh & Onlys

Side project enthusiasts are never at a loss for ideas

By Chelsea Werner-Jatzke; photos by Brian Pritchard

There’s something about red velvet curtains being pulled aside that lends an air of spectacle to anything behind them. While I’ve rarely seen a small venue lend that grandeur to the start of a band’s performance, it wasn’t the curtain opening at Portland’s Someday Lounge that made the Fresh & Onlys feel special. It was the way Shayde Sartin’s bass subtly led the songs along, the way Tim Cohen crooned over his keys, and the way he would nod at guitarist Wymond Miles to give him props for some spontaneous soloing.

At one point during their set a sweaty boy bumped into me and asked, “Do you like this?” I suppose he was wondering why I was standing up front, but not part of the undulating bop of bodies around me. I was too busy at the time, as I have been since then, trying to figure out just what it is that the Fresh & Onlys do that makes them stand out as a beacon of clever contemporary songwriting.

Upon a first listen to Grey-Eyed Girls, the Fresh & Onlys’ second full-length release of 2009, I immediately thought they were on K Records. They haven’t released anything on Calvin Johnson’s label, but the monotone vocal pacing and lyrical themes on a song like “What’s His Shadow Still Doing Here” reeks of Beat Happening’s “Cat Walk.” A closer listen conjures images of the Beach Boys contorted into a ‘50s Buddy Holly suit – if Buddy Holly had lived into the ‘60s and traded in his large spectacles for the metaphorical third eye of psychedelia.



After getting my hands on their first full-length album, I picked up on strains of the New York Dolls during a song like “Fog Machine.” No more than three tracks spanning disparate parts of the ‘70s later, “Peacock and Wing” bridges the album into the ‘80s. These guys are all over the decades, but what makes them identifiable is the way that no one song actually fits into the categories they are combining. When harmonica comes into the driving and prophetic “Nuclear Disaster,” or the drawn-out doom of clashing guitars ends the upbeat “The Delusion of Man,” the comparisons one would jump to make are no longer valid.

While interviewing Cohen and Miles about how they feel their band fits into the Bay Area scene they come from, they were reluctant to settle on a definition. This makes sense. Despite Cohen’s impressive beard and regardless of Wymond’s long hair, reminiscent of a brother Gibb, they are far from the “beard rock” of folky mountain bands or the disco-days of the Bee Gees. Their reticence towards labeling their sound in terms of their scene most probably derives from the fact that between each member’s side projects, they seem to have something to do with a lot of the great bands coming out of San Francisco.

Singer and songwriter Cohen is like the Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt: popping out great side projects everywhere he goes. Starting under the moniker Feller Quentin, Cohen has been involved with bands of all genres, including not one, but two hip-hop groups. His last band, Black Fiction, was darker and experimental, showing more of Cohen’s vocal range. Overlapping band members and an unabated creative energy led to the Window Twins, a group that highlights a pared-down lo-fi sound, one of many dimensions the Fresh and Onlys are tapped into. Amocoma, Cohen’s black metal alias, isn’t a heavy influence on the warped-pop underbelly of the Fresh and Onlys, but his drumming for 3 Leafs, a band created by Damo Suzuki of CAN, definitely is. 3 Leafs also includes the talents of Fresh & Onlys bassist Shayde Sartin and backup vocalist Heidi Alexander.

Alexander and second backup vocalist Grace Cooper are also founding members of the Sandwitches, an achingly honest and haunting freak-folk group. And Sartin has played with San Francisco’s Papercuts and Sky Green Leopards. All these projects point the listener towards the influence of ‘60s flower rock in Fresh & Onlys tunes like “Summer of Love,” played live at the Scion Festival and slated for the next record.



This aspect of their sound could have something to do with the enigma/relic of ‘60s psychedelia, Rodriguez’s reason for having the band back him live on his recent tour dates. Despite all this activity, all members agree the Fresh & Onlys are their main concern. Even though Cohen recently released his first solo album under his own name, you can find the evidence of this commitment in the sheer volume of material the band has made available. In the year since forming out of some Tascam 388 eight-track recordings, they’ve released two albums, two EPs and two cassettes on their own No-Foot Boogie Tapes label. As Cohen puts it, the Fresh & Onlys’ recording process is to record everything – even if beer spills on the eight-track, making it a four-track. “It’s a quantity over quality philosophy that I’ve embraced,” he says. “Whenever you have an idea, just record it. We all espouse the philosophy that if you have an idea, just get it down. Don’t be too precious or delicate with it.”

Perhaps it’s this philosophy that keeps their releases, despite their closeness in time, from stagnation. With so many different musical leanings and outlets, a song that gets put into the Fresh & Onlys’ catalog is defined by its amalgamous sound. “It’s unusual to have so many ideas indulged,” is the way Miles sees it. “It’s not just that we record all the time. It’s that there’s this support system both creatively and in how we record things. It’s kind of rare.”

Never a dull moment, the Fresh & Onlys aren’t slowing down any time soon. If Miles was right when he said you don’t want to see Cohen when he’s not writing a song, we can be prepared for their third album to be even more comprehensive than the last two. Cohen feels their upcoming release for early 2010 on In The Red is the closest the band has come to having the idea of making an album in mind while recording. Freely citing Country Joe and the Fish, the 13th Floor Elevators and others as influences worn proudly, it seems safe to say this band will deliver another album that lets the mind roam through genres and surprising combinations.

The Fresh & Onlys are distinctly current in a music world so full of throwbacks to experimental rock bands. Combining such a myriad of musical inspirations and creating something upbeat and introspective – something that isn’t just a mashup of songs listened to on shag carpeting in a basement – is a feat. Whether it’s a dog’s bark, a layer of organ or some heavy distortion, the Fresh & Onlys sound is like the form a ghost takes to approach a human – seemingly familiar and yet unexpected.

www.myspace.com/thefreshonlys

Live Review: Lowell and Behold: Volume 2 Record Release Parties

Gemstones & 119 Gallery // Lowell, MA // Dec. 11 & Dec. 12, 2009

Beneath the Sheets

The beginning of December always marks a special time for the city of Lowell. Residents, students and artists alike have reason to come together and bear the brunt of the gnarly winter winds in celebration of warmer sentiments – the hope that Lowell’s future will bring more music and more art into its communities.
Although it seems a cliché predilection, it may be that this year’s Lowell and Behold fundraiser has given the city yet another reason to expect their dreams will soon find themselves realized.

Three Dub Mice

For two years in a row, college students and local musicians Seth Bailin (Nice Bass Productions) and Nicholas Congelosi (Audio Park Productions) have successfully produced and promoted a fundraiser that provides a Lowell high school senior with the opportunity to pursue music education in college. Last year’s CD and two-night benefit release party raised and awarded $1,750 in the direction of this goal.

Sinbusters

This year, Bailin and Congelosi partnered up with the rest of Audio Park Productions to create a more established team with a scope that aspired to reach out to all corners of the city. Lowell and Behold: Volume 2 is a two-disc compilation, one electric and one acoustic, featuring 30 Lowell bands. The release parties shared the theme, plugging in on Friday night at the downtown club, Gemstones, and mellowing out on Saturday at Lowell’s 119 Gallery. Both releases were a huge success and the atmosphere was thick with spirit, a tangible community mentality of young and old Lowellites all out for the same cause – more music and more opportunities for the kids.

Joshua Beetler

The first night was an eclectic clash of spacey electro-jazz, punk infused alt-rock outfits, progressive power metal and classical guitar-led thrashcore. Bands like Manifest, Hetfield & Hetfield, Three Dub Mice, and Sinbusters provided the audience with a powerful array of Lowell’s musical offerings.

The second night was no different in terms of variety. An interesting hodgepodge of singer-songwriters and their respective bands showcased a multifarious release of talent. Guitarist Joshua Beetler erupted in a land of his own with the cranky, diabolical soloing of a virtuoso. He led us through the walls of his mind with soft, sweet, weird and angry inflections from fingerpicking to pedal play.
Other musicians Brandon Downs, Clara Berry and Arielle Natale surprised audiences with their talent and growth as artists. They played their sets backed by abstract art, with kids and adults lining the walls cross-legged and contemplative.

This year, Lowell and Behold has already covered their expenses and raised over $900 for the second-annual scholarship fund.

-Amanda Macchia; photos by Ali Lipman

News: Tree Sound Studios hosts Georgia’s largest green music event

Paul and Sunshine Diaz, owners of Tree Sound Studios in front of the artists' ensemble.

On Nov. 21, the legendary Tree Sound Studios hosted more than 300 guests and musicians as various artists recorded a “Mother Earth” anthem as the theme for the 2010 Pack the Park movement. The goal of Pack the Park is to provide, refurbish or build green-wise parks in various communities.

A proclamation was read from Gov. Sunny Perdue to kickoff the festivities to officially mark the event as a historic and authentic moment in GA music history. The Pack the Park organization gathered the who’s who of the GA music industry for the event. Members and representatives of the Grammys, Art Institute of Atlanta, Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and Georgia Music Hall of Fame all attended this momentous event.

Award winning musicians, producers and composers including Chuck Leavell from the Rolling Stones and the Allman Brothers, Ed Roland of Collective Soul, Drivin N Cryin, Caroline Aiken, Tina and Toya from BBT and Lil Mama all participated in some facet of the experience.

Additionally, the extravaganza was catered by more than 20 local and regionally based organic farms, and the song and studio was powered for the night by solar, wind and biodiesel-based energy systems.
“We are thrilled to be a part of this historic moment,” said Paul Diaz, owner of Tree Sound Studios, “I have been dedicated to bringing the message of unity and preservation to the world, through music, for over 20 years. It’s an amazing thing to see it all come together here at Tree Sound.”

Tree Sound Studios already has a reputation of being the country’s largest green recording and production facility. Policies include rainwater systems, organic gardens, onsite waste composting and recycling, solar hot water, solar power, carbon offsets and biodiesel. In conjunction with Pack the Park, the event didn’t even leave a carbon footprint.

-Albert Opraseuth; photo by Nick Leng