Putting my money where my mouth is
Yesterday, in a rare burst of e-consumerism, I decided to purchase several CDs by bands that I have featured, will be featuring, and hope to eventually feature on Random Signal. If I'm to be serious in my support of independent music, I figure it's high time I practice what I preach.
Here's the rundown:
1. The Man In a Blue Turban With a Face by Man Man
I saw this band from Philly last Sunday at Local 506 in Carrboro, NC, and I was totally blown away! Imagine that it's sometime in the 1970s and the inmates of an insane asylum decide to join the tennis team. Got that? OK. Now imagine that on the way to their first match, they decide to form a cacophonous carnival junk-band instead. Think Captain Beefheart plus Frank Zappa with a little bit of Tom Waits (particularly the parts that're growley, clanky, and have a propensity for toy instruments).
I purchased their new album, Six Demon Bag, at the concert (it features the addicting Van Helsing Boombox), but I soon realized I had to own their first album too - if for no other reason that is has the song 10 lb. Moustache. The video is one of my favorite things ever. Really.
After the show one of the band members, possibly Sergei Sogay or Les Mizzle (although I just thought of him as "The Druid"), gave me permission to podcast their music, and I'm going to play the song "Black Mission Goggles" (check it out over at the band's MySpace page) in the next episode of Random Signal.
2. Belaire EP by Belaire
Infectious indie-pop from Austin, TX. I first heard them (and Man Man too, for that matter) on the awesome WHYME podcast. I've been meaning to contact them about getting permission to podcast their music, but I wanted to have purchased some of it first. They have several songs on MySpace, of course, and you can even download their amazing cover of Kanye West's "Through the Wire." They also have a cool video for the song "Ces Mots." The good news is that they have a full-length album in the works. The bad news is that they might be disbanding afterward.
3. Danger at Sea by Bowerbirds
This duo (trio?) is from Raleigh, NC, and I saw them open for The Rosebuds earlier this year. Acoustic guitar with accordion, bass drum, and occasional violin - good stuff. I am particularly obsessed with the song "In Our Talons," and I have no idea why I didn't buy their CD at the show. Oddly, they rose out of the ashes of Ticonderoga, a band that I absolutely hated the one time I saw them.
4. and 5. Smoking Monkey and Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow by Jonathan Coulton
If you don't know who Jonathan Coulton is, well, you obviously haven't been listening to my podcast! Geek-indie-folk from Brooklyn. He often gets compared to They Might Be Giants, and with good reason. Check out Skullcrusher Mountain or IKEA and you'll see what I mean. Apart from these two CDs (a full-length album and an EP), Jonathan Coulton has his own podcast - Thing A Week - for which he writes a new song, you guessed it, every week. The podcast has had some of his best songs, like Code Monkey, RE Your Brians, Flickr, and, of course, his legendary cover of Baby Got Back. And, if all that weren't enough, he also did the music for John Hodgman's 700 Hobo Names.
Here's the rundown:
1. The Man In a Blue Turban With a Face by Man Man
I saw this band from Philly last Sunday at Local 506 in Carrboro, NC, and I was totally blown away! Imagine that it's sometime in the 1970s and the inmates of an insane asylum decide to join the tennis team. Got that? OK. Now imagine that on the way to their first match, they decide to form a cacophonous carnival junk-band instead. Think Captain Beefheart plus Frank Zappa with a little bit of Tom Waits (particularly the parts that're growley, clanky, and have a propensity for toy instruments).
I purchased their new album, Six Demon Bag, at the concert (it features the addicting Van Helsing Boombox), but I soon realized I had to own their first album too - if for no other reason that is has the song 10 lb. Moustache. The video is one of my favorite things ever. Really.
After the show one of the band members, possibly Sergei Sogay or Les Mizzle (although I just thought of him as "The Druid"), gave me permission to podcast their music, and I'm going to play the song "Black Mission Goggles" (check it out over at the band's MySpace page) in the next episode of Random Signal.
2. Belaire EP by Belaire
Infectious indie-pop from Austin, TX. I first heard them (and Man Man too, for that matter) on the awesome WHYME podcast. I've been meaning to contact them about getting permission to podcast their music, but I wanted to have purchased some of it first. They have several songs on MySpace, of course, and you can even download their amazing cover of Kanye West's "Through the Wire." They also have a cool video for the song "Ces Mots." The good news is that they have a full-length album in the works. The bad news is that they might be disbanding afterward.
3. Danger at Sea by Bowerbirds
This duo (trio?) is from Raleigh, NC, and I saw them open for The Rosebuds earlier this year. Acoustic guitar with accordion, bass drum, and occasional violin - good stuff. I am particularly obsessed with the song "In Our Talons," and I have no idea why I didn't buy their CD at the show. Oddly, they rose out of the ashes of Ticonderoga, a band that I absolutely hated the one time I saw them.
4. and 5. Smoking Monkey and Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow by Jonathan Coulton
If you don't know who Jonathan Coulton is, well, you obviously haven't been listening to my podcast! Geek-indie-folk from Brooklyn. He often gets compared to They Might Be Giants, and with good reason. Check out Skullcrusher Mountain or IKEA and you'll see what I mean. Apart from these two CDs (a full-length album and an EP), Jonathan Coulton has his own podcast - Thing A Week - for which he writes a new song, you guessed it, every week. The podcast has had some of his best songs, like Code Monkey, RE Your Brians, Flickr, and, of course, his legendary cover of Baby Got Back. And, if all that weren't enough, he also did the music for John Hodgman's 700 Hobo Names.