Sorry for my laziness this week but I was pretty lazy and did not want to be not lazy. I must also apologize for the absence of NFT's Got You Covered this week and hope to have one hot and ready for all y'all next week. If all goes well, that is.
A lot of my laziness came about due to the sweet day off from a snow day! And while I was all set to surprise you all with a link to one of the greatest Nickelodeon movies of all time (Drum roll, please),
Snow Day (2000)! A perfect movie to watch on such an accession that this year in Maine where I reside, seemed like was never going to happen (Believe it or not). I remembered that for one,
YOUTUBE does not like seeing copyrighted material on their site with such unprecedented awesomeness as
Snow Day and Megavideo, well, is associated with SOPA's bitch,
Megaupload. I'm not really a big fan of torrenting movies either and would rather complain about how much the MAN is bringing us down and keeping us from doing things we are going to do even though they do not want us doing them. Why? Because they are corrupt and we are broke ass individuals who, even if we had the money, definitely would not be giving it to them. So, that's why I didn't post a Snow Day post... Something no one was even looking forward to anyways because I did not even advertise it but rather hinted at an upcoming surprise on the first snow day of this winter season for my school district here in Southern Maine in a post way back when.
I still feel all bad inside of my tummy for lack of postage this week, maybe it is just that odd looking quesadilla I had for lunch today (was it full of chicken? Or was that steak?), but I'd like to believe it is guilt I'm feeling and to make up for all this and what have you, I present: Friday Streaming...
Every week I look for some of the best stuff that I can find for the Monday post (stuff I've already found usually gets its own post or is an exception/showcase or don't have to much to say about it). Usually at the end of the week, say friday, all I have left from or for the Monday post(s) are either things to be posted on Monday, things that are too much like other stuff already posted that week, or cool gems that I do not have DL links to and don't necessarily even want to find possession of... I just like listening to them and then put 'em away ("streaming" is what they call it in the blog business). All of which is what I've got for you today.
Check 'em out:
Grass is Green -
Ronson (2012)
Nitty gritty post punker noise makers from Mass, Grass is Green just released a new one for us the other day, yesterday actually! (Woah, NFT's on top of things for once... almost!) It's got all that splintering guitar work that we've heard from these guys from Yeddo and Chibimoon but this one seems to also have a bit of a more listener friendly sound that goes along with it as well. I don't mind it though and even if it lacks the angular down play of Chibimoon and the stoner math rock approach of Yeddo, Ronson still carries its weight and features a lot of variety. Variety examples would be the noisy Pavement jams like "Life of Mike", classic GiG loud basement tracks like "Three Little Chickens"and "Riff Sibling", super melodic tracks with baritone guitar like "Ruffleball", funky mclusky sounding stuff like "Jesse's Fashion Show" and "Downward Bound" and even some dance punk revival with the track name like "Dance Punk Revival School For Kids". This release could easily become by favorite of theres...
Only time will tell.
Soundcloud ("Riff Sibling" is currently free)
Last.fm
Our Daily Fix -
elephant. (2012)
This is a little something something I stumbled across after seeing that Cattle Drums had posted it on their
Facebook. Cattle Drums being one of those bands I found out after the fact that had come to Portland and could have possible had seen them (something that happens a bit too much in my life), I figured I check these guys out even if Cattle Drums are just shamelessly promoting their friends or something. I don't see anything wrong with that.
Our Daily Fix can be described as math rock with a saxophone. Now when I heard the word saxophone I thought of two things, 1. They sound like that band A Troop of Echoes who always advertise themselves on other math rock bands' Last.fm accounts with the question, what would (name of math rock band of your choosing here) sound like with a saxophone? it might sound like this: http://atroopofechoes.bandcamp.com/ or 2. a math rock band that used to play ska but now play math rock but kept their saxophone player.
The combination was a little something like A Troop of Echoes who I just advertised despite making fun of them for shameless advertisement (dammit!) and a band that may have also been a ska band at one time... but I think these guys are really in it for the math rock. While the beginning of the first track suggests that they might blare there horns and start skanking all over the place, that does not happen. What actually happens is the music stays very unpredictable, never breaking out into a ugly off-beat frenzy and instead takes a turn for a fusion sound almost. Eventually vox are introduced and we even get to hear the sax playing in unison with the guitars. It all sounds good to me.
Last.fm
Julie Christmas -
The Bad Wife (2010)
Julie Christmas is that emotional sounding lady in those songs by Made Out Of Babies, Battle of Mice, and Spylacopa. And I love it. This is Christmas's first debut album, The Bad Wife, and just as the artwork displays, this release is a delectable treat. As a buddy of mine once said when this first came out, "it's like Made Out Of babies except not as technical... but come on, it's Julie Christmas!" I'm not sure if Christmas is your thing but if you don't know, check her out! Oh yeah, check her out...
I always forget about her solo release and I just recently revisited it from beginning to end this week. I really don't want to forget it again next Christmas, so I'll just post it know. Here it is.
People other than Julie Christmas in this solo release include production by Andrew Scheinder (who's worked with Cave In, Unsane and The Blue Men Group if you can believe that), music written by fellow band mates from MOOB and Spylacopa, Mel Lederman of Victory at Sea and helping hands from Joe Tomino of Dub Trio, Oddity and Tony Maimone (who has also helped Pere Ubu and Tom Waits).
Last.fm
Have a nice weekend.
