by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Fuzz - This Time I Got a Reason (MP3)

Ty Segall @ The Well, September 2012 (more by Gabi Porter)

Not busy enough, apparently, releasing 800 records a year under his own name, Ty Segall has formed a new outfit, Fuzz, with Charlie Moonheart who has played in his live band for a while (they were also both in Epsilons). Here, Ty sings but is on drums and like their name implies, this is the kind of thick and heavy rock that descended straight from Hendrix.

The band's debut single came out, covertly, a couple weeks ago on Trouble in Mind (with no mention of the band members) and sold out its initial green vinyl pressing. Another pressing on black wax is due soon. You can download the A-side, "This Time I Got a Reason," at the top of this post and stream both sides below. You can also watch video of the band (which includes a third member on bass) doing "This Time I Got a Reason" at a recent show in L.A. Fuzz's only other upcoming dates are both in the Bay Area: February 28 at The Knockout in San Francisco and Go! Records in Oakland on March 1. Both shows are with Austin's OBN III's.

Meanwhile, In the Red is resissuing a couple hard-to-find Ty Segall records: the only release from his surf rock band The Traditional Fools, and Reverse Shark Attack, the 2009 LP he released with frequent colaborator (and bandmate) Mikal Cronin. Those will both be out January 22. Meanwhile, as discussed Ty is going on a tour which hits NYC on February 1 at Webster Hall. Tickets for that show are still available.

All Ty Segall live dates are listed below, along with Fuzz live video and streams.

Continue reading "Ty Segall forms new band, reissuing records (MP3, streams)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Jacco Gardner - The Ballad of Little Jane (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Maston - Young Hearts (MP3)

Jacco Gardner

We've posted about a lot of psych-related bands today, the from the mindblowing awesomeness of Swedish weirdos Goat to the more garagey drone of Price Rupert's Drops. Here's more, though in a more baroque, Alice in Wonderland style. Dutch musician Jacco Gardner released "Where Will You Go" on 7" this year via Trouble in Mind and, with it's rolling bassline, harpsichords and mellotrons, you're swept back in time to The Zombies, Billy Nichols and Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd. You can stream it below.

Both sides of that single will appear on Jacco's debut album, Cabinet Of Curiosities, which is out in February 12 on Trouble in Mind and is pretty terrific if you have any affection of this kind of music whatsoever. You can download another track from the album, "The Ballad of Little Jane," above or stream it below. Jacco Will be visiting North America next year to come to SXSW, so let's hope he makes time for some other cities as well.

In other Trouble in Mind news, the label will release Shadows, the debut album from Los Angeles' Maston who have a similar love of baroque pop, but with a distinctly West Coast vibe. You can download "Young Hearts" above and stream it below. Shadows is also out February 12.

Meanwhile, The Paperhead, who released one of my favorite singles of the year ("Pictures of Her Demise," also on Trouble in Mind, streamable below), are on tour and will play Death by Audio on December 19 with their TiM labelmates MMOSS (whose album Only Children came out earlier this year and is streamable below). All tour dates are below.

In related news, Merge Records has signed Mikal Cronin whose Trouble in Mind debut from last year was my #5 album of 2011. He's currently touring as part of Ty Segall's band, but will release his next album on the North Carolina label sometime next year.

And finally, if you want to play catchup with some of Trouble in Mind's many great recent release, the Chicago label is offering up a 16-track sampler, Trouble In Mind's Stax​-​O​-​Trax!, that features the likes of Mikal Cronin, The Paperhead, The Liminanas, Wax Museums, MMOSS and more. You can stream it below or download the whole thing on one American dollar. That's a good deal.

Paperhead tour dates are listed below, along with various streams from all bands mentioned above.

Continue reading "Jacco Gardner and Maston ready 2013 LPs (streams); Mikal Cronin signs to Merge; Paperhead & MMOSS touring (dates)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Title Tracks - All Tricks (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Pursesnatchers - Baseball on the Radio (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Paperhead - Back to Those Days (MP3)

The Paperhead

First up is The Paperhead who are in town for two shows: Tonight (7/2) at Death by Audio and Friday (7/22) at Bruar Falls. I caught The Paperhead at SXSW during the Trouble in Mind day party where the Nashville band stood out from than the rest of the bands on the bill (or the label). Instead of fuzzed-out garage rock, The Paperhead favor paisley-powered psych. Their Trouble in Mind debut is a nice cup of mushroom tea and the band (who also look the part) are pretty good live.

The Gytters

Tonight's show at DBA is with fellow Nashville residents and tourmates D Watusi, plus The Gytters, The Hairs and which is a pretty good bill all around. Get there early to check out openers The Gytters who I caught a couple weeks ago at Bruar Falls. The band is fronted by Scott Rosenthall who plays keyboards in Class Actress and has played with (and produced) The Beets. Sorta twangy new wave, you can download their song "Divebombers" from their bandcamp site. And The Hairs play this show too. Their 7" on Magic Marker is four songs of near-perfect snarky indiepop.

Friday's show at Bruar Falls is headlined by Conversion Party who manage to be anthemic without the pretense that often comes with it. D Watusi also play, plus Pennsylvania's Royal Shoals and Tank.

Pursesnatchers

You may remember Doug Marvin from mid-'00s band Dirty on Purpose where he played drums and also sang (and wrote) some of the neo-shoegazers' catchiest material. Since DoP went kaput, Doug has continued making music under the Pursesnatchers moniker. Originally a true solo project, Pursesnatchers have become a real band with Doug moving to guitar, for a lineup and that also includes his wife Annie Hart (one third of Au Revoir Simone, and they both play in Uninhabitable Mansions) who also takes lead vocals on a couple songs.

That band made Pursesnatchers' new album, A Pattern Language, which just came out this week. The sound is an extension of what Doug did in Dirty on Purpose: melodic, brittle songs that are bolstered by waves of guitar. It's a really nice record. You can download "Baseball on the Radio" at the top of this post.

The point of all this is that Pursenatchers are playing a record release party for the album Friday night (7/22) at Union Hall with The Thieves and Finding Fiction.

Title Tracks

John Davis' post-Georgie James group, Title Tracks, are also here this weekend, playing Cake Shop on Saturday (7/23) with Face Time, Steel Phantoms and Follower. There's been a little shifting in the Title Tracks camp who are now playing as a (power) trio. There's a new Title Tracks album too, In Blank, which is another platter of terrific power pop in the Nerves/Shoes/Nick Lowe tradition. You can download "All Tricks" at the top of this post. I haven't seen the new line-up but if it's anywhere near as good as previous incarnations, I heartily endorse seeing Title Tracks live.

Parlovr

And finally, Montreal trio Parlovr are in town for two shows: Friday night (7/22) at Glasslands and then Monday (7/25) at Mercury Lounge opening for Cloud Control. Parlovr make good use of their visa and play here fairly often but I really do think they're great live and are absolutely worth checking out. As I wrote before:

Singers Louis Jackson and Alex Cooper semi face each other from opposite sides of the stage rocking back and forth like manic Drinking Birds, flipping their '90s skate rat hair around, while mountain man drummer Jeremy MacCuish holds down the beat. They clearly enjoy playing, and it's a lot of fun to watch too.

Their new EP, Heaven/Hell/Big/Love, goes a long way to getting that live energy to a recording. You can download the title track, a live favorite of mine, at the top of this post.

That's it for this week. There are a few more day-by-day picks below.

THURSDAY, JULY 21

Dent May has been on tour with Real Estate but plays a smaller show with Real Estate's Alex Bleeker and (underwater) peep Julian Lynch, at Glasslands. Prince Rama will be your DJs for the evening. Dent ditches the ukulele for his great new single "Fun" which is almost a dance track with its groovy bassline, keyboards and electronic handclaps. It's available digitally now, and the 7" is out physically in September. You can stream it below.

Cass McCombs, Lower Dens should make for a lovely evening of mellow music at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

The Monkees play for free at Coney Island at the Cyclones Stadium. While a lot of people just remember them for "Daydream Believer" they made a lot of great music, actually, and hopefully they'll play some deep cuts like "Randy Scouse Git" and "Forget That Girl." Hopefully they won't play that Davy Jones song from the Brady Bunch. Actually that songs pretty good.

continued below...

Continue reading "The Paperhead, Pursesnatchers, Title Tracks, Parlovr, Dent May, The Monkees & more in This Week in Indie"

by Bill Pearis

Wounded Lion @ Shangri La

After Wednedsay and Thursday... I spent most of Friday afternoon -- the hottest day of the fest, well into the '80s --at Sailor Jerry-sponsored East Side dive Shangri La where Chicago label Trouble in Mind was throwing a party in the back yard. Their party at Scoot Inn the year before was one of my favorites of SXSW2010 and I'd have to say the same the same of 2011. The label, run by husband and wife Bill & Lisa Roe (who are also in CoCoComa), is mostly a 7" label, releasing great singles from some of the best garage-pop artists around. Many of whom were there at Shangri La.

I got there as Seattle trio Night Beats were just starting. Never heard them before, but really dug their psych-garage sounds, and they definitely looked the part. They ended their set with a cover of The Count Five's classic "Psychotic Reaction," giving their version a little swing which made it their own. Look for Night Beats debut LP out on Trouble in Mind this summer.

While Cheap Time were playing, I noticed Lars Finberg milling about the yard...what was he doing here? The Intelligence were definitely not here, was his side-project Puberty playing and I didn't know it? No, he told me he was playing drums for L.A.'s Wounded Lion for their Austin shows. I was already looking forward to seeing WL, now even moreso.

I was getting a little antsy and decided to walk around the East Side a bit, stopping by Cheer Up Charlies where I caught a few songs by Norway's Tôg (who are in NYC as we speak) before heading back to the Trouble in Mind party to catch Nashville's The Paperhead. Looking a bit like Red Kross, the band -- all about 19 I think -- are trippier than anyone else on the bill. Their debut just came out on TiM.

Next up Wounded Lion, whose self-titled debut was one of last year's more underrated records. I think seeing them live would change naysayers opinion, they were one of the rockin'est, most fun shows of the week. Two singers: main man Brad Eberhard does the heavy lifting and guitar playing, while singer/percussionist Raffi Kalenderian is more in the Bob Nastanovich of the band, going apeshit with the tambourine and generally keeping things entertaining. There is much switching of instruments. They also let Lars Finberg take lead vocals for the Intelligence's "Turned to Puke." I really thought they'd do "Pony People," a Wounded Lion song that The Intelligence covered on Fake Surfers, but no. Great, great set.

I then Sprinted over to the BrooklynVegan party at Swan Dive for John Grant. Friday was hot and Swan Dive didn't seem to have AC or even ceiling fans and it was an oven in there, but it didn't matter. Another of my favorite shows of the week. I'd seen him play solo at Mercury Lounge, but this show was with Midlake, his backing band on last year's amazing Queen of Denmark. With the band, Grant's late-'70s leaning epics came to lush life. The drums sounded gigantic. So did Grant's voice. All that was missing was sequined clothing and glasses that made points of light look like starbursts. Highlights for me: power-ballad "Mars" and "Chicken Bones" which is some kind of sonic collision of Gordon Lightfoot and Harry Nilsson.

John Grant @ Swan Dive

continued below...

Continue reading "Bill's Week in Austin (Day 3 - Wounded Lion, John Grant, PS I Love You, TSOOL, WhoMadeWho, Wye Oak, Versus & more)"