Dinosaur Bones // My Divider

It is less than a couple of days until Dinosaur Bones drop their latest album My Divider on March 8. This album was recorded and mixed by Canadian producer Jon Drew (Tokyo Police Club, Fucked Up), who also worked on their previous Birthright EP.

My Divider is a nice album to stick on your iPod for the occasionally listen. It doesn't have an offensive sound but not mind-blowing either.

The first track, Making Light, sets the tone on the sound you will hear for the rest of album. With little variation between songs, this 11-track album sounds like one continuous track of slow indie rock. The most potential does come from the fourth song, N.Y.E. and ninth song Royalty but still has the similarities of a heavy hi-hat drum beat.

It will be great to see this band mature and develop a defined, unique sound in upcoming albums. But for now the Toronto-based band fails to wow.

You can catch the band down in Austin, where they will be playing several gigs mid-march for SXSW.

MP3: Dinosaur Bones - Royalty

-Laura Sliva

Gig Alert: Netherfriends at Pause March 2nd

Earlier today I got a mini-email thread happening in the inbox, and all the back-and-forth revolved around Chicago's Netherfriends and their two most recent shows in town. Such phrases were thrown at as "Ridiculous," "[they] floored us...I'm not shitting you," "...one of the best bands you've never heard of," and "every single person there bought a record."

Needless to say my interest is a bit piqued. Fortunately we get a third opportunity to see the band live in the intimate confines of Pause in Grapevine before they head back north. The show happens next Wed. the 2nd. The only question left is whether to buy their record at the show or grab it early from their Bandcamp page.

MP3: Netherfriends - Friends With Lofts

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Oberhofer // Away FRM U Live From BreakThru Radio Studios

Avi from BreakThru Radio sent me this cool clip of Oberhofer and his bandmates performing "Away FRM U" live in their New York studios. It's a much more upbeat take on the track than the version that's been making the blog rounds the last six months. The full live band also provides a different twist on the album versions which as Mr. Oberhofer let us know were recorded all by himself. He also reiterates at the end of this clip that the full band are all chipping in on the upcoming record that's currently in the works. Sounds very promising indeed.

MP3: Oberhofer - Away FRM U (live at BreakThru Radio)

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The Many Moves of Thom Yorke

fig. 1: the shower head
fig. 2: the egyptian
fig. 3: the buffoon
fig. 4: the rag
fig. 5: the wall pocket
fig. 6: the karateka
fig. 7: the lotus
fig. 8: the acorn
fig. 9: the prayer
fig. 10: the fan

(Via: Plaisirs De Myope)

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Gig Alert: Soviet/County Lines/Sea Lion at Club Dada

Speaking of cool upcoming Club Dada shows...

We hope you can all make it out to Deep Ellum March 9th. Yes, even you are invited Mr. Chris, although, truth be told, you really wouldn't want to meet us.

Still though, feel free to come check out our favorite young lads Soviet who's live set is exponentially more ear-blistering than their early EP's, with not a hint of the "childishness" one might expect. Grapevine cow-punkers County Lines and Dallas' Sea Lion (which features members of Hats & Statues) are also some the best bands in town that strangely don't seem to get near the local media attention that they deserve.

MP3: Soviet - House of Lords
MP3: County Lines - 10 Miles, 10 Minutes
MP3: Hats & Statues - You Sir Have a Very Narrow Definition of Kolache

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Middle Brother: A Perfect Excuse To Rediscover Club Dada

I've probably been to Deep Ellum more frequently in the past 6 months than in the last few years combined. But I won't go on a lengthy rant about how the area is "coming back," because, let's face it, that's annoying as hell. Seriously though, more and more cool shows are going on down there, and especially as of late, at the newest version of Club Dada.

The new layout really opens the place up, and gets rid of that whole trying to watch a show in the corner from a booth across the room with a horseshoe-shaped bar between you thing they used to have going on. And whatever your opinion of his awkward stage presence/cougar-approved musical projects, John Mudd is, admittedly, a great sound guy. The sound at The Cavern was always on point, and with the upgraded accommodations at Dada Mudd should have no problem keeping that place as sonically pleasing as any club in town.

But the bookings are really what is going to make or break a place like Club Dada. So far they've got several good things lined up, including several Spune shows as well as Parade of Flesh's absolutely massive Bro Fest. On the other hand quality talent only goes so with no promotion, and puzzlingly I haven't come across a decent web site for the venue, or a concise location to check out all their upcoming performances. Ya most of them are on Dada's Facebook page, but (and this is going to make me feel like such a curmudgeon to point out) there are ton's of folks who have never signed up for the site --or at least stopped checking their pages long ago.

On that note I'd also like to point out another of upcoming Dada show of note to all the FB-protesting Eduardo Saverin types in the Metroplex. Coming March 17th would be Middle Brother (a Monsters of Folk-esque super group consisting of members of Deer Tick, Dawes, and Delta Spirit), joined predictably in a triple bill by Dawes, and, get this, Deer Tick as well. If you've yet to check out all the good things they're doing out there it would provide as good an excuse as any.

MP3: Middle Brother - Me Me Me

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Giveaway: Tickets and Poster to Marnie Stern/Tera Melos

Later this week the co-headlining tour with Marnie Stern and Tera Melos that we mentioned last Friday will be making a stop in Dallas at the lovely Sons of Hermann Hall. Tera Melos features UNT grad and Texas native, John Clardy who sometimes drums for Marnie Stern, and has drummed for Man Factory in the past. We got to ask him a few questions last time they were in town, which you can revisit here.

But more importantly you also have the opportunity to catch this week's show courtesy of Parade of Flesh. Oh yeah, and a free poster to boot, featuring the artwork (seen above) by Joe Barela of Seribellum Press in Las Cruces, NM.

Want the tickets/poster package? Email us with the phrase 'I Want To Party With Gina' as the subject. As per usual winners will be selected at random Monday night.

MP3: Tera Melos - Manar The Magic

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Hares On The Mountain CD Release Show at Dan’s Silverleaf

Football season is over. So what the hell are we gonna do with our Sunday evenings now? Here’s an idea. This Sunday night, Feb. 20th, the greatness of Ryan Thomas Becker of RTB2 and George Neal of The Slow Burners will be having their CD release show at Dan’s Silverleaf in Denton for their new project called Hares On The Mountain. This project includes a wide array of traditional folk songs as well as some collaborated originals. It’s a really easy, enjoyable listen with beautiful melodies and well-versed lyrics. The show starts at 5:00 p.m. and is free to the public. So come join me at Dan’s in what should be a packed house for a great Sunday evening in Denton.

On a different but similar note, The Slow Burners are planning on releasing their sophomore LP later in 2011, and RTB2 will be recording a new record at the end of this month. Keep your ears open for both!

MP3: Hares On The Mountain - Suckerpunch

-Cory P. Coleman [c]

Video: Tera Melos // Manar The Magic

Next Tuesday, Sacramento's Tera Melos are releasing the Zoo Weather EP, the follow-up to last year's full-length Patagonian Rats. The above clip is from "Manar The Magic" which will be found on that record. More importantly, the trio kick off their current tour with Marnie Stern today, which will eventually bring them back to town, performing at Sons of Hermann Hall next Thurs.

Zoo Weather will be available on February 22nd, 2011 on cassette and digital download. The EP features 3 new songs and 3 remixed tracks (including a remix by Japanese noise legends Melt Banana).

MP3: Tera Melos - Manar The Magic (feat. Mike Watt)

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Guards // Cover Songs 7"

Richie James Follin plays guitar in Cults. More recently he also recorded some tunes with his friends (Caroline Polachek of Chairlift, James Richardson of MGMT, Loren Shane Humphrey of Willowz) and family (Madeline Follin of Cults) under the name Guards. Keep an eye out for their upcoming 7" in which the band are all over the map with some pretty twisted/highly-engaging takes on some Metallica, Vampire Weekend, and M.I.A. tracks.

Hit up Guards' Bandcamp page to grab the tunes and pre-order the limited edition record.

MP3: Guards - Taxi Cab (Vampire Weekend cover)

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Giveaway: Tickets to Oberhofer at The Loft

A few weeks back I had the pleasure of chatting with Tacoma wunderkind Brad Oberhofer, which can be found over at My Dallas Music this week. Needless to say, even before I had this pleasure I was completely stoked to find out Mr. Oberhofer was coming to town this weekend, opening for Tapes 'N Tapes no less.

The awesome dudes over at Loft have even given us a couple of pairs of tickets to pass along to some lucky SubEx readers too! Just email us with the phrase "I Could Go (Please)" and we'll pick winners Tuesday night at random.

MP3: Oberhofer - oO0OoO0Oo

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Saigon // Greatest Story Never Told

We have lots of things in common with Lady Gaga around these parts, which is precisely why we only blog while high. It should probably also be noted we're currently covered in meat and reeking of blood and semen.

No wonder it is so hard for us to hold down jobs in the 3D world you call 'the outside'.

So while most of you guys have known about Brooklyn emcee Saigon since he first was 'discovered' and briefly managed by Turtle on HBO's Entourage. In the time since you've also, no doubt, realized he's a real rapper, and a pretty darn good one to boot.

Ourselves though? We can't afford cable on a lowly blogger's salary, hence, we are only just now catching up with Vinny Chase and the boys 6 irrelevant years later via late night free TV reruns. It's cool though, because somehow Saigon is only just now getting around to releasing his debut.

Check out this fresh Just Blaze-produced number of the much anticipated disc. It's a real noteworthy sumbitch too.

MP3: Saigon - Greatest Story Never Told

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Video: Weezer Returns To Form With, Of All Things, A Statefarm Jingle

With Weezer's cover of Barry Manilow's classic Statefarm anthem hitting the YouTube's yesterday, expect talk today to revolve around their band's 'Advancement' or lackthereof. After Hurley--an album which was funded by the clothing brand of the same name, then disguised to look like an innoccuos Hugo Reyes tribute--anything the band does in the world of corporate branding/selling-out would have to be considered massively overt, no?

What's not up for debate, though, is that somehow this song, which by all accounts should represent the epitome of soulless corporate whoredom, somehow manages to sound incredibly more heartfelt than anything the band has released in the last eight years. In other words, this latest move won't do anything to quash the Rivers Cuomo advancement debate.

Just for grins, here's a sampling of the comments posted to the video thus far:

Xavygravy – “this is pinkerton quality… lol…”
eatmyorangemarmalade – “It almost sounds as though Rivers remembered what sadness is.”
reversereverie – “Weezer, you trollin.”
lazrpo – “If Weezer sounds like this wen they’re sponsored by Statefarm, then for the love of god, Statefarm, sponsor their next album.”
zakB121 – “Didn’t know Weezer recorded the statefarm song in 1996”
tonygotmoxie – “I’m gonna repost this video in lieu of a suicide note”
Zombeetle – “That rocked so much harder than anything on their last four albums”
sammo21 – “It’s annoying that this is so much better than their real music”
AGGuzim – “Musically, this blows anything that’s on Raditude and Hurley out of the water.”
metallicameron – “Weezer just made more money.”

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SubEx Presents: Now There You Have It Mixcast

Well, there you have it, our latest foray into the world of the mixcast. Consider it a followup, of sorts, to last summer's Come and Take It mix. Stream or download the full mix below.

MP3: SubEx Presents: Now There You Have It Mixcast vol. 1.5

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About Last Night: The Smith Westerns & Yuck at The Loft

The most important part of any live show is always the stage presence; even if you have terrible music but put on an amazing show that’s what gets remembered (hell Gwar and Kiss have done it for what 20 years?).

Unfortunately, the Smith Westerns are not one of those bands.

What we got was the lethargic "I don’t want to be here drummer" and the “I think I have cool things to say on stage but my hair keeps getting in my face” lead singer show. I’m pretty sure he spent more time playing with his hair on stage than playing an actual instrument; it’s as exciting as it sounds. By the way, as a side note/rant is there a worse trend than skinny jeans? Answer, yes the Black Eyed Peas. But in all honesty you probably shouldn’t go commando in those bad boys (lead guitarist.)

Now on to the actual music, the Beach Boys wait scratch that Smith Westerns played about a dozen songs that sounded about the same and the only one that stuck out in my mind was the 4th song. I made a mental note of it when I heard it, a crazy good riff intro and a heavy bass line but other than that felt very standard 60's pop rock. Although, my favorite lyric of the night was “the stars in your eyes” mainly because the past week I actually heard someone use the pick-up line “was your father a thief? Because he stole all the stars and put them in your eyes.”

Yes that last sentence was as hard to write as it was to read --painful.

I would like to say their opening act Yuck all the way from jolly England wasn't bad at all, the lyrics left a lot to be desired but they put on a good showing. Plus it's always fun to hear British people talk with their proper English and all.

In the end the Smith Westerns were unable to crack my top three favorite things about Chicago, the list still stands as 1. Pizza 2. The Sears Tower (I know it was renamed but no one cares) and 3. Jay Cutler’s MCL.

-Nick Payne

*Editor's note: For a completely different take on last night's show go here.

Hood Internet // Go Hahahaha (Das Racist vs Cults)

Girltalk aside, Hood Internet are pretty much the top mashup artists going. We've been hyping them the last few years, so it's always cool when they mash bands we're especially high on, like Das Racist, with more obscure stuff. In this case they're paired with big blog duo Cults, whom may be remembered as one of the early 7-inches released by local blog-owned label Forest Family Records. Not the greatest hook in mashup history, but we respect the effort and (somewhat) local nod nonetheless.

MP3: Hood Internet - Go Hahahaha (Das Racist vs Cults)

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Video: Toro y Moi // New Beat

Hey look, it's a new Toro y Moi video. "New Beat" is from their upcoming Carpark Records LP Underneath the Pine. As of now Urban Outfitters has a stream of the album up over on their site.

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Superbowl Halftime Show at Dan's Silverleaf

For any of those out there that didn't really care about the actual halftime show last night, what with Fergie's gyrations and Usher's vocoded lip-syncing, Dan's Silverleaf had a special surprise. A performance from some of the best musicians out of Denton, Texas all came together to perform their own halftime show for all the patrons gathered together for the big game. RTB2, Aaron White of Old Snack and Spitfire Tumbleweeds performed a five-song set of Superbowl halftime hits from over the past years including The Who, Tom Petty, Cheap Trick, Bruce Springsteen and The Rolling Stones. It was the best halftime show I have ever seen, and it was a privilege to be a part of this one-time special event with good friends, good music and a cold beer.

-Cory P. Coleman [c]

Fishboy Streams Side 'A' of His Upcoming Record

This is cool. Fishboy began streaming songs from his upcoming Classic Creeps record on his bandcamp page, and I find this album interesting for several reasons. First it involves a neat concept where every track on the album is about a character whose name begins with the letter 'A'. Eric describes the concept best on his site:

The group's forthcoming album, Classic Creeps is the first in an ongoing series of Fishboy records featuring characters whose lives interconnect to form a bigger story. Eric Michener (singer, songwriter) took inspiration for the album from the profile songs of the early British Invasion (The Kinks, The Who, The Zombies, etc.) after years of making personal mixes of his favorite "songs about fake people." Pushing forward from the concept introduced in 2007's Albatross: How We Tried and Failed to Save the State of Texas with the Power of Rock and Roll, the songs in Classic Creeps each profile a specific character while also introducing a connection to the subject/character of the next song. Michener also placed the characters' songs in alphabetical order, despite the fact that each character's name begins with the letter A. Although the album features Fishboy's characteristic upbeat sound, the songs to reveal the flaws and insecurities of each character while unraveling hidden connections and pieces of the larger plot.

The songs which began streaming today were said to comprise the 'A' side of the record, and the release date is set for April, the next month that begins with the letter 'A'. Coincidences?

But on a more personal level I am interested to see how a certain song ended up in recorded form. Back in March of last year when Eric previewed some of the Classic Creeps tracks for an intimate crowd at The Schoolhouse in Denton, an interesting thing occurred. During one of the songs a brave chick in the attic began improvising a call-and-response thing during one of the new songs. Before the song ended the entire attic full of kids were singing the newly minted lines. It was one of those really cool/special moments that sometimes happens at shows and become instantly unforgettable, and it would be fascinating and oddly gratifying if the amended chorus actually ended up on record.

Stream some of the new tracks below as we wait with bated breath until April.



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Agent A & Omae // Breathing 2007

It's no secret that my (Cory G's) personal taste in music leans towards the brutal, aggressive, fast paced ilk. It's not that I don't have a softer, gentler side, it is just that finding something laid back that is not overly (and needlessly) spacey/atmospheric or at the very least overwhelmingly somber or even downright depressing. Anyhoo it's always nice to find some relaxing snow day jam that is comforting-yet-groovy.

The second full-length by Austin CPU-based duo Agent A & Omae was thrust upon the world earlier this year and offers a few of just this type of gem. Every once in awhile pianos and laptops apparently do make for fine company. If, like me, you're preparing for a second straight snow day off from work tomorrow, you have more than enough time to check out Blue Jay Days which as of now is being offered as a free download on the duo's bandcamp page.

MP3: Agent A & Omae - Breathing 2007

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