I wear glitter Toms here and there

I wear Toms shoes everywhere

Because when I buy myself a pair,

one is given to a child who needs care.

taken by moi

Last few months I am in some strange mood and the music that is so near to my heart is something between punk and blues…street punk…

Brian Fallon of Gaslight Anthem performs “Here’s Lookin’ at You Kid” live on Crash Test Radio

Continuing my interview with the second half of Cheyenne based The Smart Set. (Click here to see part One)
These are my questions as responded by the second half. Some answers may be similar as they both answered them individually.
If you would like to listen to The Smart Set please visit their Myspace page here. http://www.myspace.com/thesmartset

A few questions with Dillon Petrillo from The Smart Set

What are your names and what do you do?
My name is Dillon Petrillo – guitar/vocals
How did you guys meet?
We met in junior high and started hanging out in high school when we were both in an improv group at our high school. Near the latter of our high school time, we were both heavily involved in the local music scene. We’ve been close friends ever since.
How did you guys come about forming the band?
This summer both of us were forced to move back to cheyenne and live with our parents. We had been discussing starting a band for a long time, but Cade was living in Laramie and I was in Fort Collins. When we both moved back to Cheyenne, we thought “what the hell. let’s start something up so we both don’t go insane.” and so it became.

Style

What style of music do you play?
I would say that our style is post-punk, pop. We draw a lot of influence from older groups such as the Pixies and the Talking Heads, as well as newer indie acts.
What do you do that makes you …well you?
I think what makes us “us” is a combination of our individual inspirations as well as our joint inspirations. Cade brings a dancy, modern indie, aesthetic to the songs which I think compliments my grungy, formulaic, pop style.

Name origin

Where did the name The Smart Set come from?
The name the smart set came from an episode of This American Life, where a girl was talking about a club she had as child with her stuffed animal collection. The name of the club was “The Smart Set”
Why are guys only a two-piece band?
We are only a two person band because … I think that’s all you need. I don’t know. I really like both ends of the spectrum. I like stripped down, minimalist groups and solo acts, and large orchestral groups. I think it was after we saw Liam Finn perform at Monolith that we decided that we could do it and still sound good.

Working away

I noticed you guys have played Laramie County Community College a bit this semester, how did that come about?
We were invited to play the battle of the bands and I guess the people involved with the student activities committee liked us and asked us to come back.
Do you have any releases that are are available?
We have a five song E.P. called “Tito Loves E.P.” that is available. However, you can currently only get it from us personally.

Playing Soon

Do you have any upcoming shows?
On the 10th of December, we are playing a set with our good friends The Photo Atlas at Surfside 7 in Denver. We don’t have anything lined up before or after that, but hopefully we can get something soon.
What is in The Smart Set’s future?
Come January, we will be relocating to San Francisco, where we hope to expand the Smart Set word and hopefully go on a tour in the spring or summer.

taken by moi

Ben Stiller rarely motivates me into seeing a movie.  Even though he is in my favorite movie (guess what that is) and he did quite good in Tropic Thunder, I still don’t feel the need to see any of the movies that he makes.  This is an exception.  He looks quite good in this movie, although he looks like he’s lost a huge amount of weight.

This movie was written and directed by Noah Baumbach, who is insisting that he is a good director.  He’s probably right, but it does seem quite forced sometimes.  He did write The Life Aquatic, and he had something to do with the Fantastic Mr. Fox.  He seems to excell at depicting lost 30 year olds (that seems to be a big theme in movie and TV these days).  Anywho, this is another movie with that same situation.

Click the (very small) poster to watch the trailer.

From Apple.

One of my favourite point and click adventures of all time has to be the completely brilliant The Day of the Tentacle from Lucas Arts. I cannot count the number of times I have played through this fantastic game.

As most people know, Day of the Tentacle was a sequal to the very first SCUMM adventure worked on by none other than the famous Ron Gilbert, first and foremost known for the Monkey Island games. Tim Schafer was also involved in both projects, and I am talking of course about none other than Maniac Mansion.

Some illuminated heads over at the AGS community has made it their task to remake Maniac Mansion in the style of the fabilous Day of the Tentacle. Maniac Mansion has been remade before, but not in the hilarious graphical style of its sequal.

From what has been released of the material, it looks like a crispy, yet classic looking version of the beloved masterpiece. The developers are wished the best of luck.

This ought to be good new for any nostalgic fan of the old school adventures. The developers are German, but they promise to create an English version once the production is finished. I, for one, can’t wait to play Maniac Mansion DOTT-style.

Miss Geo is a new singer/songwriter from Rhode Island over there in the States. When I first heard some of the tracks off her debut long player The Story, I could’ve sworn she was a local. You listen to her music and tell me you’re not reminded of Frente! (For those that aren’t Aussie or don’t know who Frente! are, they were a massive Australian pop band that were big here about 15 years ago or so. Produced really great pop music).

Miss Geo’s real name is Abby Gutierrez, and calls her music a mix of indie pop, new wave, and electro with a few “cunning lyrics” put in for good measure. She plans on touring sometime in 2010, presumably in the states. For any other info, check out her website, or her MySpace. This is one to watch out for, and I definitely recommend checking out her album.

Anyway, this is probably a standout off the album. It’s called Broken Wrists and this is the track that reminded me of Frente! the most.

Miss Geo – Broken Wrists

(iTunes, BigCartel)

K. That’ll do the ramble for now.

There seems to be two trends with Indie Bands lately.  NSFW Videos and making their own shoes.   The Pixies are the latest band to come out with their own shoe.  They are made by vans and are available in slip-on and high top styles.  Get your Pixies shoes here.

Animal Collectives at it again…

After I saw the first Twilight movie, and yes, I’m admitting to actually seeing it, but anyway, as I as walking out of the theatre, yeah I paid to see it in the theatre, I was thinking that this movie is so bad that there is no way that this fad could infect more of my life. I was wrong. Somehow this romance novel for teens has spread it’s influence beyond the throngs of single women and infected the music industry, more specifically the indie music scene.

The last person I want to be is the hipster music fan who thinks that the more popular a band gets, the worse they become musically. I think radiohead and the white stripes have already proved that wrong. But what is startling to me is that millions of pre-teens and adults with terrible taste in most things artistic (I base this assumption off the fact that they are obsessed with Twilight and I don’t feel bad about it at all) are suddenly listening to Grizzly Bear, Thom Yorke, Death Cab, Lykke Li, and Bon Iver to name a few of the amazing artists featured on the soundtrack. Will the lure of Edward’s pasty skin be enough to get people to stop filling their ears with fast food music like Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert, and 3 Doors Down and start consuming heartier music?

If this soundtrack is able to spread amongst the hive mind of the preteens out there today then pop music will be changed forever. This could be a great thing, I mean, just look at places like London where the radio plays great music all day, instead of playing Kid Cudi on repeat like here in America. But there is still that empty feeling in your gut, like when your parents hear the Cake song playing during the tv show Chuck’s intro and they say, “I love this song!” and something dies inside of you. I wish I didn’t get that feeling like people are copying me but I’m not gonna lie, I do, and I think most “indie” fans out there do the exact same thing.

If New Moon launches these indie artists into mainstream, it’s only a matter of time before all of indie music does the same thing. Who am I kidding? It’s already been on the verge of that anyway even before new moon came out. It’s about the equivalent of some of the “independent” movie studios which are making 150 million dollar “indie” films.

The point of all this ranting is that we need to be prepared to say goodbye to indie music as we know it, accept the fact that our parents and 12 year old cousins are gonna be looking on pitchfork to see what albums to download, and that in spite of how much it hurts, this is a good thing. I would much rather have talented musicians on MTV than an over produced bimbo who couldn’t play “Mary had a little lamb” on the piano. It’s about time america’s musical tastes improved, it just means that us indie people will have to find some new unpopular genre to overhype. How about mariachi?

holly miranda – forest green, oh forest green.mp3

The Bravery es una banda Estado Unidense que a ganado bastante fama por su 2 discos que tiene hasta el momentos,y por sus continuas peleas y discusiones con sus compatriotas The Killers, que cave destacar que tienen un sonido que siempre se ha dicho que son similares, ahora “The Bravery” luego de un descanso bastante largo a decidido lanzar su tercer álbum que tendrá de nombre “Stir The Blood” y saldrá a la venta el próximo 1 de diciembre, y según el cantante de la banda, si bien las letras tienen un toque mas oscuro su música sigue siendo bastante optimista, y por eso hoy les dejo el disco para que ustedes mismos, lo juzguen, a mi personalmente me parece que tienen un toque mas electrónico, y les queda muy bien, no son una maravilla pero, para pasar el tiempo, están muy bien…

Tracklist:
01.Adored
02. Song For Jacob
03.Slow Poison
04.Hatefuck
05.I Am Your Skin
06.She’s So Bendable
07.The Spectator
08.I Have Seen The Future
09.Red Hands And White Knuckles
10.Jack-O-Lantern Man
11.Sugar Pill

THE BRAVERY – STIR THE BLOOD(2009)

COMENTAR NO CUESTA NADA MAS QUE TIEMPO!!!COMENTEN!!!

Even though the video quality is bad there is no denying the epicness of this collaboration. This stemmed from their appearance on Jimmy Fallon. Hopefully there will be more of these to come.

Here is a trailer for a movie that doesn’t look that great oh and something sounds familiar. At 50secs a clear rip off of the beginning of Oxford Comma starts which is followed by a guitar riff similar to A-Punk. Coincidence? Comment below

PROS: fan-serving | full-band parts not overdone | heart-felt songs

CONS: not memorable as a whole

If you have heard the name Allison Weiss before, then you probably already know her story.  When she was fifteen, she began playing guitar to impress a boy in her creative writing class.  Several years, a profile on every social networking site you could imagine and eighty-some YouTube videos later, Allison Weiss continues to build an ever-increasing fanbase.  Unfortunately, any fan of hers can tell you that Allison Weiss is most certainly underappreciated.  There is no lack of dedication, talent or heart in the sounds Allison Weiss creates, and it seems as though she just needs a little something to push her over the top.  Her newest release, …Was Right All Along, is a step in the right direction.

Any Allison Weiss fan will have seen a number – if not all – of her solo acoustic YouTube videos, featuring originals and covers.  If you are hoping for a studio-quality album of these solo pieces, you will probably be disappointed.  Instead, we are treated to full band, fleshed out versions of some really great songs.  Whether this is what an Allison Weiss fan really wants or not, it is hard to complain about the quality of the individual tracks on …Was Right All Along.  To fund the album, Allison Weiss used the crowd-sourcing pledge site Kickstarter.com, raising nearly eight thousand dollars – almost 400% her original goal.  And you can hear every penny in the tracks.  With …Was Right All Along, Allison Weiss’ sound has changed from that of a hobbyist to that of a professional musician.

There are a few places on the album where one could nitpick (for example: the ebow on “Ghost Stories” just sounds off for some reason), but a number of the tracks reward the listener for each additional play.  “You + Me + Alcohol”, “Fingers Crossed” and “Let’s Leave” steal the show in this department.  “You + Me + Alcohol” may not be the most poetic of Allison Weiss’ large repertoire of songs, but it is just so damn fun to listen to and sing along.

The album features an extended band for most tracks, but it certainly does not entirely ignore the solo acoustic pieces that captivated most fans in the first place.  “I Was An Island” (a personal favorite of mine) eases the listener in by slowly building on Allison Weiss’ solo acoustic guitar.  It serves as a fitting transition, taking the listener from behind a webcam and into the studio.  The second track on the album, “Fingers Crossed”, shows exactly how far Allison Weiss’ sound has come, even in just the last few years.

Perhaps the most satisfying track on the album is “July 25, 2007”. It is Allison Weiss at her core.  A simple guitar, a catchy melody and chorus, and heartbreak – everything we have come to expect from this Athens, Georgia songwriter.  The only thing that could possibly improve the piece would be light harmonies, but the song is flawless as-is.

Though the individual tracks are often spot on, it seems for some reason that the entire album is lacking something.  It is certainly fan-serving and full of great songs, but the album as a whole is not as memorable as it could be.  Long-time fans will most definitely listen to this album on repeat (as I have several times in writing this review), but new listeners might want to skip around to the best bits first.  The album could probably do without “From You To Me”, “Try To Understand”, “Why Bother” and/or “Yer Going Down”.  They are, of course, good songs, but they just do not stick in your mind like many of the other tracks on the album.  It leaves me to believe that this album could have been better at EP length (as originally planned), or with a slightly different selection of tunes from Allison Weiss’ long line of webcam performances.

All-in-all, …Was Right All Along is a great album, but it certainly serves fans more than anything.  While not a bad thing, this might not be the release that rockets Allison Weiss into complete stardom, as her fans would love to see.  The full band parts are rewarding, rather than overdone as some artists are wont to do, and this album is definitely a step in the right direction for Allison Weiss.  It would be hard to imagine her next release being anything less than stellar after this entry into her discography.

…Was Right All Along is out now anywhere mp3s are sold (this girl is all over the net).  Years For Beards recommends visiting the official Allison Weiss shop to buy the physical CD or the mp3s (which come with an exclusive bonus track when purchased directly from the artist).

(4 out of 5 beards)

Track Listing:

01. I Was An Island
02. Fingers Crossed
03. From You To Me
04. July 25, 2007
05. You + Me + Alcohol
06. Try To Understand
07. Why Bother
08. Yer Going Down
09. Ghost Stories
10. Let’s Leave

As part of my Holiday Gift Guide 2009,
here are some suggestions for wrapping your gifts pretty this season!

Go see my post from 2007 on Gift Wrap for some eco-friendly suggestions that won’t cost you much!

Take the Handmade Pledge this Holiday season!

** Please note that the sellers suggested are NOT sponsors!
These are MY suggestions! **

———-

Check out more Gift Guides posts!

———-

Mini paper wraps, by Kamal.

Lacey letterpress gift tags, by SarahParrott825.

Letterpress Holiday hedgehogs note set, by LuckyBeePress.

Mosaic pillow boxes, by FieldAndSea.

Cocoa/cream daffodils, by TheGildedBee.

Linen hand-printed furoshikis, by Jodii. { How to use }

Rudolf card, by WitAndWhistle.

Hand-stamped poppies on vintage crepe paper, by TackledAndShackled.

Snowflake screenpritned fabric, by ShowPony.

Gift wrap sheet (50% recycled fibers (25% PCW) and soy-based inks), by ErinRuth.

Pine tree card, by Essimar.

RaiDrop Split Pea screenprinted fabric, by SwankySwell.

Hemp/Organic cotton block printed furoshiki, by PersimmonAndPine. { How to use }

Here’s The Peak for this week:

1.  Brian Wilson – Our Prayer / Gee (Peter)

2.  Mos Def – Auditorium (feat. Slick Rick) (Terry)

3.  Animal Collective – Penny Dreadfuls (Terry)

4.  Big Sean – Hollywood (feat. Earlly MacMillion) (Terry)

5.  Neon Indian – Terminally Chill (Peter)

6.  Real Estate – Green River (Peter)

Download HERE

fol chen – the longer u wait.mp3

I’m going to be compiling a list of mainstream and indie songs for a workout play-list that’ll get you sweating and motivated. Keep an eye out for it sometime this week or next.

The title of the new record by Rock Plaza Central says a lot about the album itself.  It is an epic journey full of music so creative and compelling, it makes me remember why artists are so intriguing. If you look at a painting, film, or anything artistic from the heart, you can look at it a thousand different ways and discover something new every time.  Singer and guitarist Chris Eaton has an amazing knack for writing lyrics like a novel and portraying them in a unique and amusing way.  I say to anyone checking out RPC for the first time to allow Eaton’s voice to grow on you like Destroyer, Joanna Newsom, or even Jeff Mangum and you will get the reason I find it so charming and haunting.  The album feels like a journey in which battles exist and travel is hard on everyone.  It has a loose narrative from Faulkner’s Light of August, but it doesn’t shine through too much in the music.  I just love the instrumentation and storytelling Eaton presents in front of us.  I would best describe this album as music for artists.  I myself as a musician feel this album hits home in many ways and I strongly believe RPC is one of the best indie rock bands out there today.  I was lucky enough to see them about 2 years ago and their live show is as amazing and energetic as all of their albums.

Standout Tracks: “(The World Is) Good Enough”, “(Don’t You Believe the Words Of) Handsome Men”

For Fans Of: Neutral Milk Hotel, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Phosphorescent, Califone, Rural Alberta Advantage, O’Death, Ola Podrida, Mount Eerie (The Microphones)

Myspace / Buy

-Steve

the xx – heart skipped a beat.mp3

My Morning Jacket’s Jim James puts his pants one leg at a time, just like you and I. Except he first does a back handspring into one leg of the pants, which are delivered to him by two winged monkeys. I’ve never seen this feat in person, but since last Sunday’s episode of American Dad was so kind as to animate the sequence for us, it must be fact.

In all seriousness, I’m not a MMJ freak, by any stretch. I have a few friends who are and I applaud their ability to lose themselves in mid-tempo reverb-drowned southern crooning. Dad’s Stan Smith becomes one of these freaks in the episode, only one of the best musician-cameo’d sitcom/cartoon episodes of all time.  In addition to the aforementioned tomfoolery, six of James’ tracks are featured prominently, which I’m sure will result in gobs of new fans plucking up MMJ music. The tracks chosen are, in my opinion, most of the band’s best…which means it’s kind of downhill from there. That tiny nugget aside, I can still get lost in “Golden” on my own time and revel in the last two minutes of “Wordless Chorus”, much like Stan. Oh Jim, you know me so well.

Listen:
Golden
[from It Still Moves|buy]
Wordless Chords
[from Z|buy]

[get the whole soundtrack to "My Morning Straightjacket" on iTunes]