"And the words sound so good sung. 'We were drunk while we were married a week and we both had us a farmer's tan, I like rock songs, hey baby baby yeah' ('What Do'). God, that's good stuff." -heartonastick

There is a gaping hole in rock music between mindless dude rock and what gets foolishly called "literate" rock, and that murky in-between can be a pretty freeing ocean to swim through. Which is exactly what Vulture Whale does. This is a band that knows that the real spectacle of rock and roll is found in playing the music with all of its unruly sound and energy. When your songs are this good, and when they clatter along pushing against their tight and brilliant structures at every turn, well then you don't need light shows or pyrotechnics. You also don't need Pynchon references or 50-cent words. [Pop Matters]

Alabama's Vulture Whale will be coming to the NYC-area for two shows this weekend: Friday, August 21st at Maxwell's with Della Valle, Neil Nathan and Elisa Girlando, and Saturday August 22nd at Pianos (their Pianos set time is 8PM).

The above review is from the group's self-titled album which came out in early 2009 on Skybucket Records. It's one of two self-titled albums the band has released.

Two videos, "Teedy" and Sugar," both of which showcase the band's bar-rock chops, are posted below with all tour dates (and tour poster), and the new album cover, but first a note from John Darnielle...

"So it is that when I heard there's a band called Vulture Whale I said to myself "self-fulfilling prophecies be damned, a band called Vulture Whale has gotta kick ass." And indeed my brethren the shit is live. They sound like Silkworm. Then after a while they sound kind of like the 3Ds a little. Mainly though there is a heavy Silkworm injection here. That is 100% OK by me. There should be more bands who sound like Silkworm and less who sound like they think they have something original to contribute to the field of Rocking Dionysiac Abandon. That shit is straight played out, man. Vulture Whale is not played out. They groove like Silkworm and I, for one, will take it."

John has his own tour and NYC shows coming up as well. Vulture Whale stuff below...

Continue reading "Vulture Whale coming this weekend - tour dates & videos"

today in NYC & NJ
* ASSSSCAT 3000 @ UCB Theatre
* The Musical Box @ Nokia Theater
* The Bad Plus @ Village Vanguard
* Vivian Girls & Screaming Females @ Court Tavern in NJ
* Uninhabitable Mansions, Joe & the Flying Spoons, Purse Snatchers @ Cake Shop

Sound Fix is also hosting a mixtape exchange.

Bon Jovi is playing a benefit @ Town Hall to help Hillary Clinton get out of debt (not today).

Some people in the comments seem to think My Morning Jacket is like Bon Jovi.

Robert Christgau's writing can now be found on Barnes & Noble's website.

Sasha Frere-Jones gives Chris Dane Owens video of the year.

Heartonastick went to see Letters to Cleo at Bowery Ballroom.

Rainbow Room to close restaurant, citing economy.

Fire in Thailand Nightclub Kills at Least 59.

Jett Travolta, RIP

Skeletons played Death By Audio on January 2nd. Video from the show below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Sunday?"

I had a bad, last blog-week, and I think the week before sucked too - primarly due to all the BS that came with making this website better on the tech side of things. It's still not perfect, but it's way better. A lot of the blog roll in the right-side column disappeared for a bit (some people noticed and said something - sorry!), but luckily that's back. And so is my brain.

One of the many things I missed while I was gone: the launch of of the 2007 Music Blog Zeitgeist. Hype Machine decided to do some tech work of their own (and they're really good at it). They masochistically decided to take over what heartonastick started. They threw in a little Largehearted Boy, used the power of Hype Machine, connected some databases, entered a lot of data, and magically, they made a "zeitgeist".