During the CMJ Music Marathon, Deirdre Bones checked out Stereoactive’s showcase for TheMusic.FM.

The Jaguar Club

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The Jaguar Club - Sleepwalking [MP3]

Although The Jaguar Club hails from Brooklyn (and lets’ face it, which indie band doesn’t these days) their sound is straight out of Manchester - a brilliant mix of The Cure and Joy Division with perhaps a pinch of Oasis thrown in there for good measure.

The Jaguar Club is made up of Will Popadic on vocals and guitar, Jeremiah Joyce on drums with Yoichiro Fujita on bass. They opened their set at the Delancey with ‘Sleepwalking,’ an upbeat, lively song designed to grab the attention of this audience, it worked well. This excellent opener demonstrated to this crowd what they are capable of.

Popadic’s voice contributes to The Jaguar Club’s Joy Division comparison, possessing as he does an almost Ian-Curtis-like voice. His voice has depth that sinks to almost a talking voice, then swings wildly to a high pitch. Bass player Yoichiro Fujita provided backing vocals in addition to what appeared to be almost intuitive bass playing as he was so in sync with the music, all driven by the flawless drumbeat of Jeremiah Joyce.

Popadic’s performance came complete with energetic dance moves as he demonstrated a pure joy for performance as danced his way through the set. The Jaguar Club provided a very energetic performance into which they poured their all. Highlights were ‘Future sounds’, ‘Out of the City’ and ‘Sleepwalking’.

My Teenage Stride

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My Teenage Stride - American Car [MP3]

My Teenage Stride provided a conveyor belt set of music to the audience at The Delancey for the Stereoactive showcase. They set up their equipment very quickly and rapidly announced that they had somewhere else that they needed to be and that they would sing us a few songs before they had to go. At this stage of the evening the sets were running a little behind schedule, but it appears that My Teenage Stride had double booked themselves – not a bad situation for a band to be in.

Nevertheless, despite their rushed demeanor, My Teenage Stride put on a decent show, if doing away with the niceties of interaction with the crowd. Their pop, upbeat sound was very popular with this audience who seemed happy to dance the night away with My Teenage Stride. Their rushed set did however provide a good sampling of their music. Their sound is reminiscent of The Smiths and 80s British rock. Highlights included the upbeat ‘Gallipoli Now’ which can’t fail to make a crowd dance and sing along and also ‘To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge’. I would definitely like to see them perform when they are not rushing off to another venue.

Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers

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Shilpa Ray and her Happy Hookers - Coward Cracked the Dawn (Radio Edit) [MP3]

Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers took over from My Teenage Stride taking quite a while to get their equipment set up, not least because their keyboard wouldn’t work. Fortunately another band came to the rescue and loaned them one for their set. Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers is made up of Jay Braun on guitar, Josh Fleischmann on drums, keyboardist Andrew Hoepfner, Nick Hundley on bass and, of course Shilpa Ray herself on vocals and the harmonium.

This act was one of the most popular of the evening if attendance was anything to go by. Sadly I missed the charm that seemed to appeal to others.
continue reading "CMJ Review, Photos, Music: The Jaguar Club, My Teenage Stride, Shilpa Ray"

TheMusic.FM recently had the chance to catch up with Zachary Scott Carothers of Portugal. The Man before the band’s sold out CMJ show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. The band has been blowing up thanks in part to the wonderful album The Satanic Satanist. So, settle down and enjoy.

So tell me a little about Portugal. The Man as a band.

Zachary Scott Carothers: Portugal started when the band that Johnny (John Baldwin Gourley) and I were in broke up about four or five years ago and pretty much we were playing together for awhile. So pretty much the day that ended, Johnny and I decided to started Portugal and went back to Wasilla, Alaska and rounded up a couple of other boys from there and started writing music I guess.

And from there you moved your headquarters to Portland, Oregon?

ZSC: Yeah, pretty much right after we started we knew there was no way we would be able to do anything in Alaska. It is so secluded and far away from everything else that it’s pretty impossible to get anything done. So, we moved pretty quickly down to Portland, playing shows and going out on tour right away.

Right now the big thing here is CMJ and you have a sold out show at the Bowery Ballroom on Friday. What has been your experience with these types of events?

ZSC: We played by South by Southwest but never CMJ but I hear it’s very cool but unfortunately we are going to be pretty busy those couple of days. Otherwise, I know there are a lot of good bands and cool stuff going that we would like to check out. But it’s pretty exciting, for sure.

Because you are in Philadelphia the day before (11/22) and have a show in England on the 25th, right?

ZSC: Yeah we get the day after the show off and have to fly out the next morning to the UK.

So no plans to catch any bands?

ZSC: Ha-ha, no. We always have so much business to take care of in New York.  New York and L.A. are always very busy towns for us. We are running a million errands trying to get stuff ready, all the last minute stuff beforehand that we forgot to do before going to Europe. That always happens, but the day before we fly out tends to be pretty hectic.

Considering you are from Alaska and more recently Portland, how do big cities fit in to your personalities and sensibilities?

ZSC: It doesn’t mess with me too much at all; we are used being in a different town every night. There are obviously differences, like parking and stuff like that. The East coast tends to be a little more compact than the west, but we are used to it by now.

Do you have a go-to spot when you are in New York?

ZSC: We always go to Brooklyn if we can or have the night off or if we are going out after the show. We have a good friend of ours who lives over in Williamsburg. Generally we go over there and hit up the Union Pool, which is a really cool bar.

Let’s talk about the latest album, The Satanic Satanist. What was the mentality going in on this album?

ZSC: We knew we wanted to put more focus onto the song writing and structure; it definitely was a more focused album in general. We trimmed the fat on a lot of things. So the songs are shorter and straightforward as far as our back catalog is concerned, I guess. We had that vibe and we felt pretty prepared for this record.

It was the first time we were recording with someone we didn’t know personally that wasn’t a friend of ours. So normally we would go into the studio with no material or very little material and start writing it in the studio but going in with a big name (Paul Q. Kolderie who produced records for Radiohead and Lemonheads), we actually did some pre-production. We went with our buddies in Portland and kind of wrote a couple of songs and worked on them a little bit for a few weeks before going in and it was really very helpful.

More of the interview after the jump.
continue reading "Interview with Zachary Scott Carothers of Portugal. The Man"

One of the big winners coming out of this year’s CMJ Music Marathon last week is surely The XX, who played several packed rooms and saw tons of Twitter buzz.

Here’s a live version of their cover of Womack & Womack’s “Teardrops,” which also has a well known cover by Elton John and k.d. lang. The video was recorded at a FIXED event Saturday at the Tribeca Grand hotel by ‘Sup Mag.

And below, The XX’s studio-recorded version of the track.
continue reading "Video: The XX Cover Womack & Womack’s Teardrops at CMJ"

Image by Cesar Sebastian

Midnight Juggernauts’ first single of the year, “This New Technology,” now offers a set of remixes, all of which you can download and stream below, along with a second original track, the single’s B-side, “Fantastic Valleys.”

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Midnight Juggernauts - This New Technology (Original) [MP3]

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Midnight Juggernauts - This New Technology (Nile Delta Remix) [MP3]

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Midnight Juggernauts - This New Technology (Emperor Machine Remix) [MP3]

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Midnight Juggernauts - This New Technology (Memory Tapes Remix) [MP3]

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Midnight Juggernauts - This New Technology (The Juan Maclean Remix) [MP3]

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Midnight Juggernauts - Fantastic Valleys [MP3]

The Juggernauts are currently here in New York for a set of shows, with two happening today.

October 21 – Hype Machine CMJ Event at Santos Party House – 5 p.m.
October 21 - Bowery Ballroom – Midnight
October 24 - The Windish Agency CMJ Event at Santos Party House – 1 a.m.

Then, the Australian act will hit one more US date during this visit, on October 26 at The Roxy in LA.

Update: You can preorder the DVD at Insound.

Photo: Ed Banger Records’ Pedro Winter (Busy P) (left) and directors So Me, Roman Gavras at IFC Theatre NYC.

The same night as the Justice DJ set last Thursday, October 30 at Webster Hall, the duo’s new documentary made it’s North American debut at New York’s IFC Theater.

Who knew that in a documentary of their March ‘08 US tour, one or both of the duo would get arrested, get married in Vegas, or awkwardly serenade a major rock icon with one of his own songs? Who knew that the strangest, most enjoyable characters to meet would be their serious tour manager Bouchon, with his comical obsession with guns, and their bus driver Roger, a traditional heartland American with an uncommon ability to sing at extremely low frequencies?

While A Cross The Universe never takes itself too seriously, it appears that directors Roman Gavras, So Me and Justice themselves did attempt to weave in a few larger threads. First and foremost, as one New York fan says on camera, “these guys are the new rock ‘n roll.”

The film succeeded in depicting the French DJ/production duo of Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé as the new rock stars, at least. Contrasted with an elderly folk singer on a bleak street corner and a Vegas sign trumpeting that “UB-40 played here,” Justice, with their ability to make crowds go absolutely crazy during shows and attract young women afterward, look the part. Despite their traditional [cliche] drive down Hollywood Boulevard with the top of their convertible down, it seemed natural for the appropriate accompaniment to be the Planisphère suite, with its Metallica-like solos, rather than a guitar solo from one of the traditional American bands that may have inspired it.

The live footage is enjoyable, but it fails to offer a quality and perspective that would easily sway a Justice newcomer. However, too much footage could have alienated some, or bored those who have seen these shows in better venues than a theater or their home. Instead, the behind-the-scenes aspects of touring are the focus, and the audience is fortunate for it. There is time to view both the beauty of America’s landscapes and the crime and poverty in many of its cities. There is the chance to get to know Rosnay and Augé’s subdued sense of humor, marvel at the level of partial-to-total female nudity they constantly experience, and also hear their beautiful piano playing skills.

A Cross The Universe does not attempt to directly summarize the career of Justice and explain their rise to international fame. Instead, it simply shocks the newcomer into accepting the success of this new breed of electronic star while giving viewers the chance to get to know them and experience their very unusual professional life and the US alongside them.

You can buy A Cross The Universe as a preorder now from Insound.

Audio & Transcript: Ed Banger Records head Pedro Winter and directors So Me, Roman Gavras (photo above) introduce the film

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Pedro Winter: Welcome. My name is Pedro and I have a music label called Ed Banger records, for those who know. And I’m pleased to present you tonight the first ever DVD that we’re gonna release. It’s a documentary about Justice on tour in North America. We shot it in March 2008. Maybe some of you experienced the live shows. And we asked our firends Roman Garvas and So Me to direct this documentary.

[Silence]

Thank you very much for welcoming them [applause, laughter] with all this love and…

And it’s un-proposed that I decide to be on the right side and not front of you… just… [Two audience members walk into the theater entrance, past them.] Oh, popcorn! You missed the speech.

Audience member: Sorry! [Laughter]

Pedro: Eh, So Me and Roman Gavras, please introduce us to this little documentary, or show us some love, or something.

So Me: Hello! So basically this is a documentary dealing with a bunch of guys going on tour in the US for three weeks. And uh, well, I let you guys appreciate. And I’ll pass it over to Roman. Enjoy.

Roman Gavras: Hello. Good evening. It’s a documentary about love and understanding of the other. Of your fellow citizen. I hope you enjoy it and it’s a very nice film and we’re very happy.

Pedro: And, of course, this DVD and audio CD will be released end of November at the best retail sale price of 14 dollars, 99. Thanks to Ed Banger Records and Atlantic Records and [?] music, and our cousin(?) of Downtown Records–they are part of the package. Enjoy. Switch off the phone. Don’t eat too much popcorn. And … au revior

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Justice - Planisphère Part 1

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Justice - Planisphère Part 2

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Justice - Planisphère Part 3

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Justice - Planisphère Final

Thanks to Asian Dan and Buzz En Direkt for the Planisphère MP3s which are available for download here and here.

Photo: Holler, Wild Rose! playing Fontana’s, NYC for the 2008 CMJ Marathon

Holler, Wild Rose! is a six-member band from New Jersey that has been compared to Sigur Ros, My Bloody Valentine, and Radiohead. And the quiet yet wide-ranging, passionate vocals of lead singer and guitarist John Mosloskie have been rightly compared to those of Jeff Buckley and Thom Yorke.

The band played Fontana’s in New York at The Rebel Group’s CMJ showcase last week and just released a video for their great track, “Mary Lawn Hair.”

Video: Live at Fontana’s, NYC (2008 CMJ Marathon)




Music Video: Mary Lawn Hair

The band once wrote that the name “Holler, Wild Rose!”, taken from their song of the same name, is “an earnest declaration that we believe in joy and in promise.” And a very promising future this band has.

Don’t miss the tracks “Sun Vines” and “Holler, Wild Rose!” off the album Our Little Hymnal on the band’s Myspace page.

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Holler, Wild Rose! - Mary Lawn Hair [MP3]

Photo: The Dears at Maxwells, Hoboken, October 2008 by Charles P.

Review: Eulogies and The Dears at Maxwell’s during CMJ

Eulogies

The cold and windy Tuesday night outside provided a stark counterpoint to an optimistic and hopeful CMJ show by The Dears and Eulogies at Maxwell’s in Hoboken on Wednesday.

The Eulogies arrived to the stage at Maxwell’s at 9:20 p.m. They unceremoniously picked up their instruments and began their first song. A straight-forward, four-piece rock and roll act from Los Angeles, they played to the sparse crowd who awaited the Dears. The Eulogies seemed unaware of this fact and began their up-tempo opening song.

Photos: Eulogies at Maxwells, Hoboken, October 2008 by Charles P. More here.

The Eulogies come across as a throwback, sticking to a traditional verse/harmonized chorus/verse. At times breezy, the songs are full of hooks and are straightforward tales of living a modern life. This everyman vibe of The Eulogies allowed the band to avoid seeming like a mere placeholder for those waiting for the main act.

The Eulogies are competent and complement each other musically on stage, engaging as four friends rather than four professionals. The band played a thirty-minute and ended it with a bang, playing some of their most energetic music with a driving bass line.

The Dears

The room at Maxwell’s began to fill up at 10. The stage was crowded, too, with equipment. Two keyboards, one speaker, a rack of guitars, various pedals, two guitar stands, one bass, one set of drums, one set of maracas and one keytar. As the seven members filed onto the small stage, there is not one inch to spare.

The Dears, hailing from Montreal, began their set with “Disclaimer” from their latest album Missiles. Flanked by two keyboards, Murray Lightburn’s distinct baritone filled the room. Weaving a dense arrangement of harmony, each member of the Dears engages the other, creating a great soundscape. The mix at Maxwell’s was good and true. Nothing dominated nor did anything sound muddy. Lightburn’s voice soars through the venue and the audience can do nothing but be swept up in the emotion.

Their latest single, “Money Babies” followed. It is gripping with a compelling hook. Lightburn’s voice is evocative and captures the great beauty in the lilting melody. “Crisis 1 & 2” provided the first chance for Natalia Yanchak to take lead. Her silky and carefree style juxtaposed beautifully against Lightbourne’s baritone. The youthful compliment to the world weary traveler; it is ethereal.

Photos: The Dears at Maxwells, Hoboken, October 2008 by Charles P. More here.

The Dears deftly alternate between tempos and rhythms, providing a great sense of urgency. The band provides flourishes from 70’s style guitar solos as well as crash and bang outros. Lightburn does the heavy lifting, passionately singing each lyric, ebbing and flowing. The Maxwell’s crowd was thoroughly engaged, swaying, and singing back to Lightburn, and roared their approval at the opening chords to “22: The Death of All Romance”. Yanchak and Lightburn traded lead vocals, lamenting on the end of a youthful romance.

As the song ended, Lightburn voiced his sincere gratitude to the crowd. He segued into singing “Happy Birthday” to their lead guitarist Jason, and the crowd obliged, singing through the laughter in the room. The band closed with “Meltdown in a Major”. At first this song may have seemed out of place, following the fan favorite “22” and the lighthearted banter, but it fit beautifully with Lightburn’s message. A constant chant of “Most people think you’re wrong but I think you are onto something” provided a glimpse of the hope and optimism the Dears find in humanity as they closed this intimate show.

SET LIST:
Disclaimer / Money Babies / Berlin Heart / Crisis 1 & 2 / Lost in the Plot
Bandwagoneers / Lights Off / Demons / Dream Job / Whites Only Party
22: The Death of All Romance / Meltdown in a Major

Jon Pareles of the New York Times visits CMJ events curated by The Music Slut, Pop Tarts Suck Toasted, BrooklynVegan and Stereogum and discusses them in a piece titled “This Is The Music Of The Blogs.”

Sometime in the mid-2000s, the words indie-rock and blog became inseparable. The two were made for each other. Both are the province of self-starters, innovators, collectors, early adopters, volunteers and cranks. Blogs are marvelously efficient at making music known, if not necessarily profitable to musicians; they’re likely to provide free MP3s promoting the bands they tout. Both blogs and indie-rock are part of the “long tail,” the countless choices beyond blockbusters that are now infinitely more visible thanks to the Internet. And both are proud to be clever and self-conscious.

It was just announced that the price of tickets for the Insiders Music Series (10/24 at Webster Hall NYC) has been temporarily reduced to just $30 in what organizers are calling the Hipster Bailout. Get your discount tickets here at tinyurl.com/insiderstickets!

Once the limited number of $30 tickets has been sold, a second set will be made available for $40. Tickets will return to normal pricing once these allotments are sold or on the day prior to the event, whichever comes first.

We also have set times:

Doors: 7 p.m.
Soulwax’s ‘Part Of The Weekend Never Dies’ Screening: 8:00-9:00
Rob Da Bank: 9:00-10:00
The Whip: 10:00-10:30
Rob Da Bank: 10:30-11:00
Luciano: 11:00-12:00
Late Of The Pier: 12:00-12:30
James Lavelle: 12:30-1:30
Soulwax: 1:30-2:30
Pete Tong: 2:30-3:30
2manydjs: 3:30-close

BBC Radio 1’s “Essential Mix” program will record the entire event for broadcast.

[MP3] MGMT - Kids (Soulwax Remix) [320kbps MP3 via Mediafire]