DOWNLOAD ALL via .zip from archive.org
Rob Hawkins – Guitars, vocals
Ian Aellio – Bass
Tim Jensen – DrumsCover photography by Jennifer Cuscino
Next Saturday, April 3, Mr. Furious Records will release The Golden Age’s self-titled album, Rob Hawkins’ follow-up to the incredible “Calla Lily” EP. We hope you’ll enjoy it, and we’re honored to be a small part of it.
From the press release:
“Songwriter Power Ranger was an acoustic concert series that started in spring 2009 and ran through the autumn of that same year. It was a beautiful partnership between two Lincoln music-scene veterans (Cory Kibler and Ember Schrag) and Box Awesome/The Bourbon Theatre. It was named so, because these gatherings of local songwriters resembled the coming together of the Power Rangers to create one enormous, crime-fighting robot, only with songs and drinks instead of karate-chopping and explosions.
“The series brought in many beloved regional acts (Sarah Benck, John Walker, Brad Hoshaw, Midwest Dilemma, Dereck Higgins, et al) as well as a few nationally known artists (Ali Harter, Jake Bellows). The shows were fun and lighthearted, and had a charming, earnest sense of music and community. Also, there were crazy drinks from zany bartenders.
“On Saturday, March 27th at the Bourbon Theatre (1415 “O” Street), Songwriter Power Ranger will make its glorious return for one night only, and the cover is a mere $6. There will also be a soup cook-off, and Bourbon gift-certificates will be awarded for those who place 1st, 2nd and 3rd: just bring a crockpot full of your soup, and let the crowd pick its favorites. The soup cook-off begin at 5 pm, and the music begins at 6 pm and ends at 9 pm. Consider this a Lincoln Music Event in line with the wildly successful “Under the Covers” event held at Duffy’s back in January.
Performing are Cleemann (Denmark), Rob Hawkins (former Golden Age), Das Hoboerotica, Ember Schrag, Cory Kibler (The Sleepover), and Chanty Stovall.
“Thank you very much for your time, and please let Ember (ember.schrag@gmail.com) or me (cory.kibler@gmail.com) know if you have any questions. We hope you’re able to post the press release/spread the word, and we’d (of course) love to see a story or five written about the event. We want to make it a huge success!
“Sincerely,
Cory Kibler”
I write this as a guy who thinks “Shake The Sheets” is a 5-star record, and got into Ted Leo’s older stuff because of it and to the extent that it points toward “Sheets;” “The Brutalist Bricks” is less than the sum of its parts.
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Leo & Co.’s inclusion of some fresh sounds – acoustic guitar, synthy noise – are welcome in theory, but make “Bricks” seem a bit too ProTooled. Song arrangements depart from verse/chorus/verse, which, again, seems good on paper but never gels. Wish I could say it did; my hopes were high, but this is a classic record that’s for fans only. If you don’t love TL+P already, “The Brutalist Bricks” won’t convert you.
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As impossible as it would seem to predict before hearing “Broken Bells,” this superduo’s debut – the Shins’ James Mercer and Danger Mouse (The Grey Album, Gnarls Barkley, Gorillaz’ “Demon Days” – sounds about like you’d expect. And it will probably deliver at about the level you anticipate.
I imagine it went down like this:
1) James demo’d some songs
2) DM took each element, chords, vocals, lead lines, etc., and treated them as sample sources for his own re-creations
3) Voila; “Broken Bells.”
I’m sure it was more collaborative than that, but that’s about what we hear. And it’s super-solid; no more, no less.
| MR|Review directs readers’ limited attention among works via ratings, and within works via prose, focusing on works where our opinion diverges from critical or popular consensus, or we have significant insight that compliments or challenges readers’ aesthetic experience. |
Mastering is tricky business; there are so many options, and such fine balances to weigh, that it’s never a straightforward proposition. That being so, the final dynamics of the music I work with is always my top concern. If the final master is too crushed, loud, and flat, or (on the other side of the spectrum) perceived as too soft relative to other music that listeners are likely to hear, nothing else I do is going to make up for it; it won’t be an enjoyable listen.
Toward that end, from the Production Advice blog:
Dynamic Range Day is March 20th, 2010
Join us in a day of protest against the CD “Loudness Wars” – more info below
- Show your support – check out the Facebook Event and RSVP to say you’ll “attend”
- It’s easy to take part – just SHOUT (type in all caps) ALL DAY, EVERYWHERE !
- And when people ask, tell them why you’re shouting
- Add a Dynamic Range Day Banner to your website or blog
- Use the Twitter hashtag #DYNAMICRANGEDAY
Read the full story here: Dynamic Range Day – The Idea
Latest News
- 05/03/10 Over 1200 guests confirmed to the Facebook already – and climbing
- 25/02/10 Dynamic Range Day Banners available for download
- 25/02/10 TurnMeUp.org adds a Dynamic Range Day banner to their front page…
What are the “Loudness Wars” ?
Music is getting louder, and sounding worse.
Engineers and artists are using modern technology to push the average level of recorded music up and up and up against the “brick wall” maximum level of the CD format.
This results in distortion, lack of punch and a flat, two-dimensional, lifeless sound …
This Wednesday, March 3, Mr. Furious Records and Brandon McKenzie will release Panda Face’s self-titled record.
Some of you know Brandon from Lincoln, NE indie band Strawberry Burns and his solo work as BLANE. To my ears, if you dig BLANE (or MFR’s own Bike) you’ll enjoy Panda Face.
If you don’t know, give it a shot on Wednesday! -h
My ’80s-ish pop band, Five Star Crush, will perform in Kansas City at the Riot Room (formerly the Hurricane) in Westport on Monday night, March 8. Hope to see you there! -h
As I finally got to answering the week’s email, I wrote the below to my friend J. who asked me what I thought of The Who at the Super Bowl last weekend. I know it’s kind of late in interwebs time to weigh in, but I think I captured my sentiments pretty clearly. -h
The Who – meh… #1) I love The Who and Pete Townshend, especially. #2) Likewise with grunge, it bums me out that my generation and younger know them through the credits to the NCIS franchise. #3) I know these guys have bills, but I have to say the Super Bowl performance eroded their legacy. They looked very human; those old records have become something more. #4) That said, I enjoyed the halftime show. #5) The NFL has *got* to loosen up its post-Janet’s-boob prudishness, and find an act under 40 with some fresh material to play the halftime. You know what I’d love to see? Marching bands! Have a nationwide marching band contest for high school bands, have them submit videos or whatever, send scouts out to see the top 20 and pick one, and give them an all-expenses paid trip to the Super Bowl. Great PR, exciting, safe, cheap halftime show… seems like a win all around.
DOWNLOAD ALL via .zip from archive.org
I Ain’t A Prophet – Ember SchragDear Friends + Family: the Sleepover record is finally finished (the title is yet to be determined), and we’re in the process of figuring out what will be done with the record. In the meantime, I would like to share with you four songs from the record, available for stream:
http://www.reverbnation.com/thesleepover
or
http://www.myspace.com/thesleepoverlincoln (scroll to the “Bio” section for the reverbnation widget. Myspace sucks and would NOT let me upload).
These songs were recorded/edited by Chris Steffen at Steffonic Recording, mixed/edited by Eric Medley at Medley Productions, and mastered by C. Howie Howard at Mr. Furious Records. We started recording in August, and have slowly been trying to make the best record that we could make. It is an understatement to say that this record was a team effort including the band + Eric, Chris and Howie.
If nothing else, please give these songs a shot. In my opinion, they sound great, and I happen to like the songs a lot, too, although I am biased, lulz. If you hate them, you’ll have only sacrificed 20 minutes, and now you’ll have something new to dislike, which can be fun.
If you like/love them, I strongly encourage you to pass them along to others who might be interested in hearing them. Post them to your blog/Facebook/myspace/website/whatever else. Send them to friends and family. Grab the music-player widget from either site and spread it around like a nasty rash.
As I said, we hope to release the record in the next few months, and it all hangs on if anyone is interested or if it’s self-released. Hopefully we’re able to find a small label who is interested in helping us with the pressing costs, but if not, we’re dedicated to making sure it comes out in a timely manner. Either way, it’ll be out soon. And then it will be full-quality .wav files instead of the 6 megabyte mp3s that these sites require, so that Eric/Chris/Howie’s expertise can fully shine.
Thanks in advance for listening! We’re really proud of this record, and we think we (everyone who was a part of this record) made something really special.
Love, Cory + The Sleepover.
“Transference” poignantly illustrates the difference between “catchy” and “poppy”; it’s the former, only.
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Songs on Spoon’s latest album seem to fall into two categories: arranged and de-arranged*. The arranged tunes are new Spoon classics, the kind of hooky, simmering jams the band has been cranking out since “Girls Can Tell” (“Written in Reverse,” “Trouble Comes Running,” “Out Go The Lights”). They’re so consistent, it would be easy to take them for granted if their consistency didn’t make your next favorite band sound like fakers. The arranged stuff gels as songs, with verses and choruses, and reminds me more of older Spoon than “Ga…” or “Gimme Fiction.”
The de-arrangements are stuffed full of memorable hooks that are assembled into less-recognizable sections that aren’t easily classified into traditional pop structure (“Before Destruction,” “Is Love Forever?” “Nobody Gets Me But You”). It’s tempting to call this the experimental stuff, but it isn’t for Spoon; this type of production has been part of their DNA for a long time, and they pull it off. I’m as likely to sing a catchy part from “Before Destruction” as “Who Makes Your Money?”
Of course the songs exist on a spectrum between the artificial poles of “arranged/de-arranged.” The record as a whole plays as a weirdo collection of super-catchy rocking-out bits.
Describing Spoon as minimalist never quite rang true to me. They’re economic; they don’t waste a note.
“Nobody Gets Me But You” is a great tune, but leaves the album feeling unfinished. It’s not a closer; I always think there’s one more song to come. Thinking about the psychotherapeutic record title, maybe that’s intentional.
Another way I describe the five-star “must-hear” rating is “revelatory.” While “Transference” is outstanding, it hasn’t yet shown me anything new about music, myself, or the world.
*Note; not “deranged.”
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Vampire Weekend’s debut seemed impossible to follow up; I could not imagine what this record would sound like. Somehow, almost magically, it is perfect. I didn’t let myself work up hopes that the band would both experiment and succeed wildly, but if I had they would have been fulfilled.
Beautiful earworm hooks, stellar lines like “Here comes a feeling you thought you’d forgotten” and “My ears are blown to bits / from all the rifle hits / but still I crave that sound…,” Afro-pop tones, meticulous performances – they’re all here. The arrangements are lightweight and underplayed, ending up being all the more meaningful for it.
Comparing this record to “Transference,” I’d give it the edge, which surprises me. I enjoyed “Vampire Weekend,” but never figured I’d become as passionate about the band as I have in the past two weeks.
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“Contra” and “Transference” have been almost universally lauded by critics. So has “xx” by The xx. The difference is there’s nothing special about “xx.” It’s completely serviceable, nondescript indie music.
Some of my usual haunts – AV Club, P4k, AllMusic – raved about “xx,” and it made a ton of year-end lists. If you’re hearing something I’m not, I invite you to comment and set me straight.
| MR|Review directs readers’ limited attention among works via ratings, and within works via prose, focusing on works where our opinion diverges from critical or popular consensus, or we have significant insight that compliments or challenges readers’ aesthetic experience. |