photos by Kyle Dean Reinford, woods by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: WAND - Arriving (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: James Jackson Toth - Nothing Hides (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: James Jackson Toth - Doreen (MP3)

Last year, the axman known as Wooden Wand (a.k.a. James Jackson Toth) shed his moniker for the Rykodisc-released Waiting in Vain. Also as James Jackson Toth, he played last year's CMJ, with a stop at the Brooklyn Vegan day party at Pianos (that's where the pictures in this post come from).

Now, in early '09, he's back with two albums under the name of WAND: the first, Born Bad, will be co-released by People In A Position To Know Records and Wand's Mad Monk label on March 31st, in limited-edition, LP-only style - "Only 500 copies, repress unlikley."

Then, Hard Knox or, "Are You Sure Hank Jr. Done it This Way?", a disc of demos and home recordings, will come out on Ecstatic Peace, May 26th, 2009.

And all signs point to Toth's next offering, a just-recorded group album, introducing another name to the mix: new band The Jescos (feat. "Timothy Bracy, formerly of The Mendoza Line along with members of alt-country faves Glossary and We Were The States"). Read about the band's recording adventures on his Toth Tells the Truth blog.

Toth remarked about his January 25th Daytrotter session on his Myspace blog:

"[The session's] exclusive covers of tunes by Baptist Generals, Aerosmith, Charlie Walker and Roy Buchanan were recorded in the midst of tour on the occasion of my 30th birthday, aka the worst day of my entire life (so far). Dig you the dispatch from oblivion. And the cute cartoon of me looking all lean and clean. While you're there, check out some other Daytrotter sessions. The TK Webb and Damien Jurado ones are especially terrific."

More BV CMJ pics, the WAND album track list, and a Wooden Wand video, below...

Continue reading "Wooden Wand aka WAND aka James Jackson Toth - new albums, CMJ pics & The Jescoes"

TheRumpus.net is having a launch party at Crash Mansion in NYC tonight (2/5). According to the ticket page, there will be "Music by Will Sheff of Okkervil River, Timothy Bracy of the Mendoza Line and Beth Wawerna of Bird Of Youth" and "Comedy by: Kristen Shaal of Flight of the Conchords, and
Michael Showalter from Comedy Central's Stella" and "Readings from authors: James Frey, Andrew Sean Greer, Jonathan Ames, and This American Life's Starlee Kine".

Also tonight, also comedy: Variety Shac @ UCB with recently added special guest Zach Galifianakis.

Also coming up at UCB: Klaus made a list.

Also comedy with special guests: three editions of Mike Birbiglia's Sleepwalk with Me this month.

Also a show that Kristen Schaal is playing: Flight of the Conchords at Radio City Music Hall (twice)

Also a show that Kristen Schaal is playing: Eugene Mirman's book release party

Also a show Will Sheff is playing: Coachella

Also starring Michael Showalter (and Todd Barry, Paul Rudd, David Wain, Eugene Mirman, Leo Allen, and Superbowl commercial star Jon Benjamin): "The Weekender" video below...

Continue reading "Will Sheff, Kristen Schaal & friends playng Crash Mansion, Zach Galifianakis at UCB & other stuff"

DOWNLOAD: AC Newman - There Are Maybe Ten or Twelve (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Okkervil River - Lost Coastlines (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Wrens - Surprise, Honeycomb (MP3)

Okkervil River (Will Sheff) @ Lollapalooza 2008 (more by Bao Nguyen)

Okkervil River's Will Sheff will be playing a solo show at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on December 11th. Joining him on the bill is another great indie rock frontman, Charles Bissell of the Wrens, and Bird of Youth who are a Brooklyn band whose debut album (not out yet) was produced by Will (also, according to Wikipedia, "In college, Sheff originally wanted to be a filmmaker. He is currently dating Beth Wawerna of Bird of Youth"). Tickets for the Brooklyn show are on sale (at noon).

Bird of Youth also have another Brooklyn show coming up even sooner, with, ANOTHER indie rock frontman gone solo, The New Pornographers' AC Newman. That one is, as previously annnounced, at the Bell House on November 15th. Bird of Youth posted the info that, "rounding out the b.o.y. line-up for this show is: beth wawerna, clinton newman, johnny north, ira elliot and timothy bracy." Continuing with the frontman theme, you may recognize the name Timothy Bracy. He was the man behind the vocals in The Mendoza Line. And is Clinton Newman related to Carl (AC)?

The AC MP3 above is from AC's new album, Get Guilty, out January 20th on Matador.

There are two videos below. The first is Clinton, Timothy and Beth (aka a trio version of Bird of Youth) performing Okkervil River's "Pop Lie". The second is Will and AC performing Okkervil's "Lost Coastlines" (MP3 for the same song above too). Okkervil and everyone's tour dates down there too..

Continue reading "Will Sheff, Charles Bissell, Bird of Youth, Timothy Bracy, AC Newman & Clinton Newman - shows & videos"

Erik Friedlander

Erik Friedlander's bow grates across the strings of his cello, wrenching notes into a stunted, disdainful exclamation. Imagine Friedlander-- now one of the world's top cellists with a Rolodex of collaborators from John Zorn and Laurie Anderson to John Darnielle and Courtney Love-- as a boy from New York's hinterlands, maybe 14 or 15 years old, out West in an RV sitting atop a 1966 Chevrolet pick-up truck. His mother, father, sister, and dog are along for the ride, as the truck barrels down an interstate. Suddenly, an Airstream trailer-- "sleek, silver...throwing our reflection back at us"-- zips past the Friedlander summer home. More than three decades later, this is how Erik Friedlander remembers his family losing a piece of their pride. [Pitchfork]

Erik Friedlander is playing the free BrooklynVegan party at Pianos today (Oct 20, 2007) - upstairs @ 6:15pm - NOT 4:45pm like the flyer says. Tim Bracy will instead play at 4:45pm. They switched.

Listen & watch Erik Friedlander on Virb.com. And come by and see him today, and get there early for Dave Godowsky and the King Left. Then after Erik get dinner before dancing with us at the afterparty. c u there.

DOWNLOAD: Since I Came (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Thirty Year Low (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Aspect of an Old Maid (alt. take) (MP3)

....Over the years, The Mendoza Line has featured not one but several songwriters; the band's original musical cornerstone was the songs of founding members Timothy Bracy and Peter Hoffman. Other members included Lori Carrier, Margaret Maurice, Paul Deppler and Andres Galdames. In 2000, Shannon McArdle joined the outfit, and became a major contributor to the songwriting, beginning with that year's We're All In This Alone. 2002's Lost In Revelry continued the string of favorably reviewed, but poor-selling albums. After 2004's Fortune, Hoffman took a hiatus from the band, while Bracy and McArdle were married in 2005. That year the couple released an album, the more electronica-dappled The View From The Floor, as a duo under the name Slow Dazzle. Entertainment Weekly declared that 2005's Full of Light And Full of Fire contained "the prettiest protest songs imaginable." In a turn of events that recalls the story of their songwriting heroes Richard and Linda Thompson, Bracy and McArdle announced their divorce in 2007. The band will issue a final recording called 30 Year Low, along with a bonus disc combining covers, live tracks and rarities in August of 2007. [Wikipedia]

Though a bit out of date, that Wikipedia entry sums up the sad story that is the Mendoza Line. The three MP3s (above) are all from that last album. Even more MP3's at their website.

In happier news, Timothy is still making music. His new band is called "Timothy Bracys Collection Agency", and you can catch him for free at my party upstairs at Pianos with Doveman and Craig Wedren on Saturday October 20th (6:15 pm). Tim's other CMJ show is a Yep Roc party on October 18th at the-soon-to-be-closed Mo Pitkins. Details on all of Yep Roc's CMJ happenings, below....

Continue reading "Timothy Bracy - formerly of Mendoza Line + Yep Roc @ CMJ"