Swinging in for a free in-store performance at End of an Ear Records a little over an hour later than expected, Thao Nguyen and her backing backing band the Get Down Stay Down nonetheless managed to tear through a set of bluesy indie rock that kept the audience rapt with attention throughout short set. With intricate guitar-picking skills that nonetheless seems to flow from her fingertips like raindrops, and a voice that recalls a mix between a Southern
songstress croon and a riot grrrl yelp, Thao beat-boxed, strummed, wailed, and shredded her way through an abbreviated set in preview for her Emo’s performance tonight. However, the
intimacy of the record store maximized the poetic and heartfelt nature of her songs and while the downtown concert venue will no doubt attract a bigger crowd and ellicit a longer set, the experience of seeing Thao and the Get Down Stay Down in this tiny room stands out as one of the best live performances this year in Austin. We’ll definitely be keeping up with Thao as she
Balmorhea, the neo-classical sextet that wowed us with their unbelievable sophomore LP Rivers Arms are goin’ out west with Bexar Bexar in tow and meeting up with Tiny Vipers along the way. Touring violinist Aisha Burns has set up a blog called Stages, Stories, and Highway Signs to chronicle the bands’ adventures. You know we’ll be checking it out daily to see where this great band goes.
At the same time, Prey For Sleep, our favorite Austin crust-punk-meets-metal act, is heading up north to Ohio to record a six-song EP. Driving all the way, lead singer Hunter Townsend will be blogging about his adventures when the quintet gets a free second over at the band’s Myspace.
Here’s to both these groups, we’ll be checking in on your progress over the next month with great interest. Good luck you guys and you move across the country!
******************************************************************** WEEZER ANNOUNCE TOUR W/ AVA, TOKYO POLICE CLUB
Now that Weezer has returned to form musically, it’s about time they return to touring like a normal band as well. The Rivers Cuomo-fronted foursome will trek across America with Cannibal Cheerleader faves Angels and Airwaves and Tokyo Police Club in tow, landing at the Frank Erwin Center here in Austin on Oct. 20th. Get your tickets now because this show will sell out quick!
That’s right, our favorite art-electro band Ladytron have a new album floating around called Velocifero and it’s every bit as impressive as their last effort, the excellent the Witching Hour. Lead single “Ghosts” (already out officially on their Ghosts EP) is currently playing on repeat and it’s definitely one of our favorite songs of the year thus far. Check out this band if you haven’t yet and buy the album when it hits the streets! The band will also be at Stubb’s on June 6th and you know we’ll be there! ******************************************************************** WEEZER MOVE UP RELEASE DATE
Nerd-rockers rejoice, Weezer is pushing the volume to the Red sooner than expected. That’s according to the band’s website which states that because of the interest in first single “Pork and Beans” the band’s newest self-titled LP will be coming out a week earlier than planned. Can’t wait! ******************************************************************** DYNAMITE BOY ON JUNE 7TH
Dynamite Boy have announced another reunion show on June 7th at Red 7. Definitely go see them (dig the flyer!).
I spent much of this week looking for new and different bands, all the while considering putting them up on this site. Coming up empty I began to get discouraged. “Will anyone even read this post? Will people even care what new artist I put up? Does anyone read Cannibal Cheerleader?” I thought to myself. Through this depressing haze came the low, Pacific-Northwest strum of an old friend, Seattle’s long dead legends Carissa’s Wierd.
Carissa’s Wierd is a reminder of why I love music, why I love writing about music, and why I’m doing what I’m doing. When I was a lonely indie kid growing up in small town Texas poking around Limewire looking for friends to filter through the expensive headphones I bought to keep the world out I found the lonely keyboard clinks and male-female change-off vocals of Carissa’s Wierd. The perfect indie-rock group, with modernist, soulful leanings, obscure instrumentation, and heartfelt emotion to spare. Since their breakup members of the group have gone on to found great but lesser groups (Band of Horses, Jenn Ghetto’s solo project S) and their demise saddened many.
Last night I found the band’s Myspace, or not really the band’s per say, but a fan page featuring their songs created by “a Colorado boy with nothing better to do with his time”. The page itself is not unlike the band itself. A seemingly thrown-together, simplistic piece with nonetheless a great depth of emotion and caring for its subject manner. The picture up there is the guy’s choice for the profile picture on the Myspace and it seems fitting for their sound. Under the ‘Sounds Like” section the Colorado boy writes “Punk kids grown up and gone sad.” Nothing could be more apt. Check them out if you like this crazy thing we call music. Here’s a live video by them.
******************************************************************** TERROR THURSDAY – ZOMBIE CREEPING FLESH
To end the week off I’ll post about to of my favorite things: My Morning Jacket and Austin. Check out this Google video version of their Austin City Limits performance. See you next week and please comment if you like what you see!
According to this Pitchfork article, that picture up there featuring a mustaschioed Rivers Cuomo might just be the official cover of Weezer’s Red Album. Seeing as all the press photos we’ve been seeing of our favorite antithetical rock frontman lately have had him sporting a strange hairdo (see this soccer photo), it’s only fitting that he be as strange on his latest album cover. The tracklist was also posted:
The Red Album Troublemaker’ ‘The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)’ ‘Pork and Beans’ ‘Heart Songs’ ‘Everybody Get Dangerous’ ‘Dreamin’’ ‘Thought I Knew’ ‘Cold Dark World’ ‘Automatic’ ‘The Angel and the One’
Bonus Disc for US Release
‘Miss Sweeney’, ‘Pig’, ‘The Spider’ and ‘King’
Ten songs, classic Weezer action. This album seems to be making the ‘return to rock’ a reality for the Weez machine, especially given the sound of their first single “Pork and Beans“. Also, it looks like fan favorite “Pig” was relegated to b-side status, which is fair enough as everyone has heard it more than enough since it leaked a few years ago. Of course if you haven’t heard it yet, here’s what it sounds like!
Can’t wait for this album! ******************************************************************** SALLY SHAPIRO – REMIX ROMANCE VOL. 2
If you’re like me you’ve been spinning Sally Shapiro’s Remix Vol. 1 constantly since it came out last week. The tracks maintain a dancey edge reminiscent of old-style disco tracks without ever becoming to campy or ridiculous, meaning normally hardcore rock and roll fans (cough cough) can hide in their rooms and listen to it on their headphones, bobbing their heads to the beat approvingly in private. The techno infiltration of the likes of Holy Fuck and Junior Boys on Vol. 1 makes the original tracks interesting in new ways and Vol. 2, with remixes by the likes of Dtnel, promises to be no different. Here’s the first track from this album which will be released in June, and go pick up Vol. 1 soon!
******************************************************************** SCARLETT JOHANSSON – NEW TOM WAITS COVER SONG
Last week I posted what I felt was a ‘bait and switch’ when I told everyone that a new Scarlett Johansson track from her upcoming Tom Waits’ covers album (entitled Anywhere I Lay My Head) had been posted online, though it had already been taken down by the time I wrote the post so no one got to hear it. Well, thanks to “>Falling Down” from Big Time, and like the last track, it’s shoegazey wonder and completely different from the source material. Still, as a big fan of female vocalists, shoegaze, and Tom Waits, I can’t help but to enjoy myself when I listen to it. Definitely will be picking up this record. ******************************************************************** CRYSTAL CASTLES’ PITCHFORK ARTICLE
While most people read Pitchfork probably for the overwrought album reviews, people should know they have articles down in the lower right hand corner. And while the weekly Puritan Blister isn’t as good a series as say Poptimist, it’s always good to read a piece like today’s PB article where the author explains in detail his absolute obsession with Crystal Castles. Read it to find out what I’ve been going through for over a year myself! I especially like the part about trying to figure out the lyrics, finding out they’re about suicide, violence, and death and thinking they’re all the cooler for it. Check it out if you don’t mind relatively pompous and way too self-referential music journalism. ******************************************************************** COOL SHOWS IN AUSTIN THIS WEEK
Converge tomorrow at Red 7! There will be blood@! There will be pictures! Dynamite Boy reunion this Saturday! Cruiserweight show this Saturday! Fun times to be had by all enjoyers of rock music this week.
That’s it for this update – comment away folks, it makes me uber happy!
So now the new Weezer track is actually streaming on their website. Definitely reeks of older Weezer goodness, so give this shit a listen, it’ll brighten up your upcoming weekend. ******************************************************************** LILY ALLEN POSTS NEW TRACKS And apparently she’s blonde now too! Check out Lily Allen’s two new songs on her Myspace, they reek of the same sly humor as her old stuff but definitely capture a synth-poppy goodness heretofore unseen in her work. ******************************************************************** TERROR THURSDAY -THE CAR
Here at Cannibal Cheerleader we’re huge fans of the free shows they put on at the Alamo Drafthouse downtown every week, including Music Mondays and Weird Wednesdays. However, our definite fave has to be TERROR THURSDAYS because, as you might have guessed, it features a completely free, awesome as hell horror movie every Thursday at midnight and we here at CC are dedicated to going and seeing every one of them from here on out. Last night’s feature was The Car, a tale about a car possessed by Satan with a vendetta against all mankind apparently. There’s some rad gore, some side-splitting (probably unintentional) hilarity, and some genuine freakiness/spookiness that genuinely made this a pretty damn good horror film. Four out of five bloody pon-poms. ******************************************************************** PREY FOR SLEEP – ONE MORE VIDEO
Here’s the last video for a while guys, but it’s rad. It’s a cut from Prey For Sleep’s CD release party and it’s called “This is How People Die”. Check it out!
That With the Get Down Stay Down – “Beat (Health, Life, and Fired)
