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JEFF the Brotherhood, Spanish Prisoners (free EP), Turbo Fruits, The Kingsbury Manx & more in This Week in Indie

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Jaguar Club – Beat of My Heart (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Jaguar Club – Who Says We’re Last? (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Spanish Prisoners – Los Angeles Guitar Dream EP (Zip)

JEFF the Brotherhood @ Death By Audio (more by Leia Jospe)
JEFF the Brotherhood

Nashville’s JEFF the Brotherhood are back in town this weekend and if you missed Jake and Jamin’s four-show run at Death by Audio last month you should definitely try to make one of their three area shows: Cake Shop on Friday (5/22), Bruar Falls on Saturday (5/23) or Death by Audio on Tuesday (5/26). They are a serious amount of fun. JEFF just made a video for their song “Bone Jam” which you can watch below.

Along for the ride are their Nashville neighbors Turbo Fruits, fronted by Jonas Stein who was guitarist in Be Your Own Pet. Their self-titled album from 2007 on Ecstatic Peace is a fun slab of grungy, garagey party rock. Since BYOP’s dissolution, Turbo Fruits have gone through a couple lineup changes and have signed to Fat Possum, home of WAVVES, Crocodiles, and Andrew Bird. There’s a video for their song “Volcano” below.

Spanish Prisoners
Spanish Prisoners

Elsewhere this weekend, the Spicy Times party returns to Union Hall with New York locals Jaguar Club, Spanish Prisoners and ECHOecho (who replaced the Shackletons). Most of the press Jaguar Club have gotten make reference to new wave or new-new wave which I think must come from them listing Echo & the Bunnymen, The Smiths and Talking Heads as influences on their MySpace. Apart from the new romantic singing style of frontman Will Popadic, I don’t think there’s anything overtly retro about Jaguar Club’s sound. They’re doing their own thing.

Spanish Prisoners are a band I’ve been meaning to write about for a while, as I thought their debut, Songs to Forget, was one of the more underrated (and underheard) albums of last year. Part of that was they didn’t play all that much, the band kind of imploded with main Prisoner Leo Maymind rebuilding it this year into a new precision touring unit. The first fruits of this is a free download EP, Los Angeles Guitar Dream, which is a bit different than what they’ve done before but is pretty great, especially the ethereal-yet-dancey title track which you can check out at the top of this post. If you want to learn more about Spanish Prisoners and Jaguar Club, Maymind and Popadic recently interviewed each other and it’s a pretty entertaining read.

Kingsbury Manx
Kingsbury Manx

Another good Saturday option is this week’s Cake Shop 4th Anniversary Awesome Saturdays event. While not the 16-band spectacular that was last Saturday’s party, this week features Chapel Hill, NC’s The Kingsbury Manx who’ve been plugging away for nearly a decade now making good album after good album of gentle ’60s-ish folk pop, garnering good reviews but not much attention. I would like to think this might change with their new album, Ascenseur Ouvert!, which might be their best yet, with songcraft playing as big a part as mood this time. If you like the current roster of Sub Pop folk (Fleet Foxes, Grand Archives) seek this band out. Also on the Cake Shop bill: fellow Chapel Hill natives (and Odessa Records labelmates) Americans in France; two dreamy artists from Arizona (Stephen Steinbrink and Hell-Kite); NYC-via-NZ’s The Mad Scene which features Hamish Kilgour of the Clean, as well as Georgia Hubley of Yo La Tengo; and local post punks Fan-Tan.

Tour dates for most of the bands mentioned here, and videos after the jump…

Spicy Times

JEFF the Brotherhood – “Bone Jam”

JEFF the Brotherhood – 2009 Tour Dates
May 20 tinderbox (w/ turbofruits) richmond, Virginia
May 21 meat town u.s.a. (w/ turbo fruits) new brunswick, New Jersey
May 22 cakeshop (w/turbo fruits) New York, New York
May 23 bruar falls (w/ turbo fruits) Brooklyn, New York
May 24 the khyber (w/ turbo fruits) philladelphia, Pennsylvania
May 26 death by audio (w/ turbofruits) brooklyn, New York
Jun 4 Wizardz at springwater! nashville, Tennessee
Jun 8 little hamilton (w/ cave) Nashville, Tennessee
Jun 17 HI-Tone memphis, Tennessee
Jun 18 ciceros (w/ radical sons) st louis, Missouri

Turbo Fruits – “Volcano”

Turbo Fruits – 2009 Tour Dates
May 29 The END- Mama’s Mad 7″ Release Party Nashville, Tennessee
Jun 6 The Empty Bottle Street Festival Chicago, Illinois
Jun 20 Old Town Tavern w/Satan’s Youth Ministers Sheffield, Alabama
Jun 21 City Stages Festival Birmingham, Alabama
Jul 17 tba w/The Datsuns Boston, Massachusetts
Jul 18 Mercy Lounge w/the Datsuns Manhattan, New York
Jul 19 La Sala Rosa w/The Datsuns Montreal, Quebec
Jul 20 Horseshoe tavern w/the Datsuns Toronto, Ontario
Jul 21 Majestic Cafe w/the Datsuns Detroit, Michigan
Jul 22 Empty Bottle w/the Datsuns Chicago, Illinois
Jul 22 Empty Bottle w/the Datsuns Chicago, Illinois

Kingsbury Manx – 2009 Tour Dates
May 21 Richmond, Virginia
May 22 Baltimore, Maryland
May 23 Fords, New Jersey
May 23 NYC

Americans in France – 2009 Tour Dates
May 21 The Bridge Charlottesville, Virginia
May 22 Metro Gallery Baltimore, Maryland
May 23 Vintage Vinyl In-Store Fords, New Jersey
May 23 Cake Shop NYC, New York
May 24 Home Sweet Home NYC, New York
May 25 Live on WKDU (airs 5-27) Philedelphia, Pennsylvania
May 26 Velvet Lounge Washington DC, Washington DC
May 27 The Blue Nile Harrisonburg, Virginia
Jun 22 Cavern Tavern Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Stephen Steinbrink – 2009 Tour Dates
MAY 22 DEATH BY AUDIO BROOKLYN, NEW YORK*
MAY 23 CAKE SHOP NEW YORK, NEW YORK*
MAY 24 SYCAMORE BROOKLYN, NEW YORK*
MAY 25 70 DOWNING ST. WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS*
MAY 26 AS220 PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND*
MAY 27 LILY PAD BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS*
MAY 28 COPPERWORKS PITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS*
MAY 29 BELA DUBBY CLEVELAND, OHIO*
MAY 30 SUGAR CITY BUFFALO, NEW YORK*
JUN 1 171 COLLEGE OBERLIN, OHIO*
JUN 2 VOCAL HOUSE MANSFIELD, OHIO*
JUN 6 SKULL ALLEY LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY*
JUN 8 B414 LANSING, MICHIGAN*
JUN 9 1307 W. ALBION CHICAGO, ILLINOIS*
JUN 10 BALL HALL CHICAGO, ILLINOIS*
JUN 11 PROJECT LODGE MADISON, WISCONSIN*
JUN 13 AMES PROGRESSIVE AMES, IOWA*
JUN 16 RHINOCEROPOLIS DENVER, COLORADO*
JUN 18 KILBY COURT SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH*
JUN 27 HEALTHY TIMES FUN CLUB SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
JUL 3 THE OVEN SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
JUL 9 THE BOAT HOUSE SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
JUL 10 MODERN CULTURES YUMA, ARIZONA
JUL 11 THE HANGART TUCSON, ARIZONA

*w/ Hell-Kite