I figure since J.B. is still unsigned (I think), it may be more appropriate to let him describe himself. From the Brother Bird page @ Virb.com:
"Brother Bird is JB (Jonathan Brokaw) making music with help from his friends [Cody Coffey {Regal Standard}, Doby Watson {Boo Hiss}, Austin Swearengin {Parsen}, and Matthew Hoppock {Manipulator Alligator} ]. Brother Bird is beautiful music about beautiful things and not-so-beautiful things still being important and having their own quality of beauty. Brother Bird is music that reflects the foreshadowing of a dark future with the backdrop of hope slivering down the back of a 7 headed snake with the acid-drenched claws of a vegetarian falcon at it's side."
Thanks to Virb.com for bringing me such great music. It's clear from the YouTube video (below) that this kid is pretty young, but in no way does his age seem to dictate his talent. I get a lot of bullshit requests for Orphan via the Virb.com page: This kid was one of the first, and still remains one of the best. I'd say, top 3. Something big's gonna happen here, mark my words.
The Dodos are an acoustic duo that spawned from Dodo Bird, a solo act that used to be just this dude named Meric Long from San Francisco. He teamed up with drummer Logan Kroeber and the result is this creamy folk stuff that you'll be into if you like Sparrow House or Animal Collective, or anything they write about on daytrotter. They're pretty terrific.
The band has recently signed with Frenchkiss Records (home to the likes of Les Savy Fav and The Ex Models) and will release the album Visiters in March 2008. They're playing SXSW this year, and you'll probably be able to catch them soon at a shitty club or dive bar near you--
The Dodos Tour Dates:
Jan 28 9:00P Mercury Lounge/New York w/ Alberta Cross
Feb 2 11:00P Union Pool/Brooklyn NY w/ Phosphorescent Feb 15 10:00p The Blank Club/San Jose CA w/ The Mumlers, Two Sheds
Feb 28 11:00P Cafe du Nord/San Francisco NOISEPOP FESTIVAL w/ Or the Whale
March 8 9:00p The Smell/Los Angeles w/ the Ohsees
March 9 8:00P The Elephant Bar/San Diego w/ the Ohsees
March 12-16 2008 SXSW/Austin TX
March 19 9:00P Lola's/Ft. Worth, TX
March 22 The Ballroom/Marfa TX
March 22 9:00P Mink/Houston TX
April 5 9:00P Cafe 9/New Haven, CT
April 10 9:00P Bard College/Annandale on the Hudson NY
Something made me want to hate this band before I'd heard a single song--maybe it's the name, or the seriously over-produced website I found when I googled them--but the music these guys make just won't let that happen. The Silent Years is a 6 piece band from Detroit with a freaking kazoo, a chihuahua, and a couple songs about being naked and dead. How fucked up is that? Singer Josh Epstein has this voice that I swear I've heard from 20 other bands, but I can't figure out which ones, so for some reason, he ends up sounding pretty unique. I'll be honest--the songs are not particularly outstanding, the lyrics are a little hokey (hokey enough to make me say 'hokey'), and I still don't get the little cartoon animals they put all over everything--but for some reason I feel strangely compelled to listen to this song over and over and over again until it blends into every other sound and becomes indistinguishable on its own. Which I feel is a good thing. Is that weird?
NEW PORTISHEAD SONGS: 3 Tracks/1 Video from ATP 2007
So we weren't lying before, guys. Portishead really does have new stuff, and I'm totally stoked that I'm still on the URB mailing list, otherwise I wouldn't be able to throw it at you guys. That's right--see, my internet is down, like I've mentioned 20 times before, but for some reason I decided to check my email at the internet cafe (this post is costing me like 5 bucks) and found this GEM in my inbox.
To click or not to click? Well, here's the rundown on what you'll find there:
3 live Portishead tracks from All Tomorrow's Parties last weekend 1 live video and some wholly unuseful comments following each.
My Hard Drive Ate My Music Collection #3: Why I Love The 90's
Has anyone ever heard that song, 'I Hate the 90's'? Probably on Rodney on the ROQ, or on the soundtrack for The Mayor of the Sunset Strip. I couldn't find it anywhere to let you listen to it here, but thats ok cause it sucks anyway. It was by this very short lived "musical project" thrown together by Rodney Bingenheimer called Rodney and the Tube Tops, which included none other than Mr. Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and Hole's Eric Erlandson. If your record collection includes one of those 7"s it's probably amassed the value of a small oil field, but truth is--it fucking sucks. I'm serious. I mean, I hated the 90's when it was the 90's, too, but that song is worse than about 40 songs that I can come up with right now. So here are my 90's picks, which are probably yours too.
...the only reason why Tool isn't on this list is because imeem only had 3o second previews of nearly every track, and I didn't want to harsh your mellow.
Until tomorrow, C4
Oh P.S. Here's to actually living in the 90's again, because my roommate forgot to pay our DSL bill so I don't have the internet. And my heater broke so I'm all about the candles and incense too. Kinda weird how that all happened at once--my room even smells like it did when I was 11 years old--but it's seriously getting fucking boring so please post some comments with some suggestions of shit that I should do. I forgot how to survive without the internet.
Launched last Friday, November 15th RCRDLBL.com is a collaborative effort between Modular Records, Dim Mak, Warp, Dirtybird, Turntable Lab, and others. It's a site that seems to have it all figured out: free and legal downloads, customizable widgets you can embed on your own site or profile, and it (kind of) functions like a social network. It's definitely missing SOMETHING, but since I can't quite put my finger on what that might be, I'll give them credit for giving it a shot (building widgets is a bitch), and I'll put one here so you can hear a remix of Battles - Leyendecker by DJ EMZ feat. Joel Ortiz. It rules. So listen, sign up, do some snooping for yourself, or don't--whatever. Don't forget to come back and tell Orphan what you think.
In the meantime, here's the rcrdlbl.com radio widget, if you're into that sort of thing:
Be sure to click the download link to score the free Grizzly Bear track--it's a terrific cover of an old Carol King/Phil Spector song.
I've practically been obsessing over it, I know, but better to freak out over things I can fix than to go ballistic over the fact that I invited a boy to Thanksgiving dinner and he cancelled on me 3 hours before we were scheduled to make our entrance. Considering the fact that this was the first boy who I had deemed worthy enough to subject to the wrath of my entire extended family in over 3 years, I'm pissed. And rightly so.
I stayed up all night, so sue me. At least I was productive. Here's what I have for you this time:
ContraStream.com--a new social music network with a Digg-like interface that actually has GOOD music on it. Users can submit indie albums to be "hyped" or "dropped" by other users, and can also discover new music through videos and audio tracks embedded on the site. In my first 10 minutes on the site I found the Crystal Castles/HEALTH record, Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog, Battles - Tonto, and this:
The band is called Black Kids, and the track is called 'I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You' off of their demo, Wizard of Ahhhs--which, according to Pitchfork, isn't available for purchase in stores but rather as a free download on their myspace page. I checked, and trust me, it isn't. All downloads on the Black Kids MySpace profile have been disabled, and as of November 14th they've been named one of Rolling Stone Magazine's Top 10 Artists to Watch.
Good news for you, though. You can download it here. Just right-click and select "Save Source As." Happy Black Friday.
My Hard Drive Ate My Music Collection: #1: Through The Wilderness, A Tribute To Madonna
With all of the "Radiohead-destroyed-the-music-industry" hype that's circling the net right now, you've doubtlessly heard that NIN & Madonna have (in their own way) followed suit. So I'm not gonna talk about that. I also feel like there's a more important issue at hand--this weekend something horrible happened: my external hard drive crashed and took with it my 100+ GB music library. As a result, I've freeloaded from the internet's countless mp3 blogs. This is post #1 in a series of what we can call, "Desperate Picks" or, "My Hard Drive Ate My Music Collection And These Are The Highlights Of What Was Available To Highlight."
I've heard some of this, and I must say--it's certainly not bad. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Lavender Diamond, Giant Drag, and Mountain Party are all great artists and I am definitely interested in hearing them do their best Madonna. If you're interested and would like to hear more, I've taken the liberty of directly linking to some available downloads (courtesy of stereogum). But please consider the fact that all proceeds benefit Raising Malawi, so buy it (even if you only buy one album for the next 6 months). Orphans with AIDS need the ten/twelve/however many dollars you know you'll only spend on cigarettes anyway (after you download the album from someone on soulseek).
Official Track List (Manimal Vinyl, 29 October 2007)
Jonathan Wilson "La Isla Bonita" Golden Animals "Beautiful Stranger (Blues)" Winter Flowers "Live To Tell" Mountain Party "Material Girl" Jeremy Jay "Into The Groove" Ariel Pink "Everybody" Giant Drag "Oh Father" The Tyde "Hung Up" Alexandra Hope "Lucky Star" The Chapin Sisters "Borderline" Apollo Heights "Dress You Up" The Bubonic Plague "Who's That Girl?" The Prayers "Cherish" Lion of Panjshir "Crazy for You" Lavender Diamond "Like A Prayer" Siddhartha "Holiday" (iTunes only) Pangaeans "Impressive Instant" (iTunes only)
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I figure since J.B. is still unsigned (I think), it may be more appropriate to let him describe himself. From the Brother Bird page @ Virb.com: 
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