Now, if you landed here expecting some new interesting tunes from these artists who seem to be involved in a project that you weren’t aware of, you are correct. But, the interesting part of this is that, the Groundwork Music Orchestra is a group that is making music for kids. Music for the little ones that you might have in your life. You might not have many or any in your life right now, but one day soon…And while you might not think about it much, some of these kids are going to be the future of rock-n-roll. They might be playing the songs that you might be listening to in the sooner than you think future. Best get them on the right track now.

The Groundwork Music Project is a project that provides free to low cost music education to children in the very early years of their life. A time in their life when learning music skills can benefit them in many ways with their development. And some of you out there that I know, probably could have benefited from a little more music early in life.

Ben Kweller, Guy Forsyth, and David Garza join Ground Work Music Project leader Neal Kassanoff to make an album for the kids. And they have made it available for FREE. Donations are accepted and encouraged of course.

Download it for free HERE.

Now, I would prefer that my kids grow up listening to the Beatles and Flaming Lips for inspiration, but not all folks would agree with that approach to music education.

Austin’s Frank Smith turned heads in the Austin music scene with their 2009 release Big Strike In Silver City. Being the band’s 5th release, it was the first release since relocating to Austin, the music city that can swallow up great music and not think twice about doing so. The band has been plugging away at the follow up, recording at the Bubble Studios with Alex Lyon, and if this track titled “Nineteen” is of any indication of what to expect…well, you tell me what you think.

The track is only available for stream on the band’s website or myspace.

No release date mentioned, but I’m guessing sometime in the Fall.

I was trying to avoid any more Dead Confederate posting for awhile, but they keep putting stuff out there, like this video for “Run From The Gun”.

via Huffington Post

Hardy Morris: “The song was inspired while thinking about our (The United States) mistreatment of Native Americans and it then kind of morphed into a song about other wars and volatile times throughout history. It occurred to me that it would have been beneficial to those people to go back in time and tell them to “run from the gun.” I really didn’t want the band to be in the video. I just wanted it to be real footage from real conflicts. History gets glamorized and even though the song sounds kind of light and upbeat, I wanted the imagery to be rather dark and, more importantly, real. Our friend Scott Carney of the Louisville, KY band Wax Fang did a great job of finding and editing the footage”

Deer Tick have too long been on my list of bands to check out, and this track from the band’s latest release The Black Dirt Sessions, “Piece By Piece, Frame By Frame” is the perfect motivation to do so. Whiskey soaked vocals over simple acoustic guitar saddled by some delicate sparse piano, soothe the stressed soul.

MP3> Deer Tick ‘Piece By Piece, Frame By Frame’

About The Black Dirt Sessions

Recorded late last year at Black Dirt Studios in upstate New York, The Black Dirt Sessions is a deeply personal record from Deer Tick and most especially from lead vocalist and songwriter John McCauley.  It is the sound of a band coming into its own, finding its voice and pouring its collective heart out.  The comparisons that have often been thrust upon McCauley by the press seem to fall away as his own voice comes through more clearly. On songs like “Goodbye, Dear Friend” and “Christ Jesus” which find McCauley alone at the piano, about as naked as you can possibly get on record. The Black Dirt version of “Christ Jesus,” which also appeared on War Elephant, manages to be even more devastating than the original.

And I almost forgot..Tour Dates for the band, which find them here in Austin @ Emo’s on Oct13th. Jump Read more

Blonde Redhead fans anticipating the release of the forthcoming Penny Sparkle out Sept 14th might be in for something a bit unexpected. The follow-up to the popular 23 is a wonderful lush, dreamy escape from it’s predecessor, but might challenge some lesser devoted fans.

Here’s a peak as to what to expect, in the form of a live 4AD Session on VEVO. “Here Sometimes” from Penny Sparkle

Some might argue that I don’t support the local bands enough here on the site, so here is a big plug for a slew of local acts bringing their local skills all over the course of one day in one place.

Makers Mark presents Red River On The Rocks @ Mohawk this Saturday 8.28 beginning at 2 p.m. and going all day until closing time 2 a.m. Bands, bands, and more bands playing both the inside stage and outside stage, offering up some of Austin’s finest in the genre of modern rock. DJ’s spinning (they don’t really spin anymore these days) tunes to keep you tapping your feet when taking a break from the head bobbin, fist pumping rock and roll. And it’s presented by Makers Mark, so you know what that means? The booze will be flowing. Some of it for FREE if you pay for VIP or pre-sale. Word is that there is going to be FREE pizza as well! Say isn’t isn’t so, sounds too damn good to be true! But that’s how we roll in the ATX when throwing down a party. And when we party, there’s always a photo booth available to capture these treasured moments of our lives, and Alison Narro does a fine job capturing beautifully. Nothing like showing your kids later in life hundreds of photos of you blasted out of your mind on free booze, night after night, after night, after night. Ooooh, the memories. Funny hats, sunglasses, toy guns, feather boas, what next?

And then there is the music..

Outside
3pm The Georgian Company
345pm Booher and the Turkeyz
430pm The Mercers
515pm The Noise Revival Orchestra
6pm Frank Smith
7pm The Eastern Sea
8pm FUTUREBIRDS
9pm Hacienda
10pm Dead Confederate

Inside
315pm Alkari
4pm My Education
445pm Young Girls
530pm Red Falcon
615pm The Boxing Lesson
7pm Melogrand
745pm STEREO IS A LIE
830pm The Pons
915 Built By Snow
BLOCK
1130pm Ume
1215am Fresh Millions
1am ZEALE

And of course, you  know I’m going to see the boys from Athens, Ga both Dead Confederate and FUTUREBIRDS. Dead Confederate will be celebrating the release of their 2nd full length Sugar, which is reason enough to pick up tickets now and get your Red River Rocks off!

TICKETS

Aside from the fact that there are legions of MGMT fans out there who might want to see this, myself not included in that group, there are two reasons I’m posting this video:

1. The band is one of the headliners for this year’s Fun Fun Fun Fest, and I’m always willing to do my part to promote what is one of the coolest music festivals in Austin, if not the entire universe.

2. I found the video on the Death + Taxes magazine’s website, and this is what I found to be awesome:

Now this is just weird, and kind of depressing. Those Brooklyn buzzers MGMT have released a video for “Congratulations” off of their mediocre album of the same name. In the video, we find the duo taking a stroll across the desert outside of Las Vegas with a weird creature that’s somewhere between Jim Henson, a duck and an acid trip.

They just called the album mediocre. Awesome. If you don’t subscribe to this Death + Taxes magazine or read their site, you, my friend, are missing out some goodness.

now the freak show called MGMT

The list is out, and here it is, in a weird looking format, sorry. But you get the necessary info, and for ticket info and purchases, go HERE.

The Strokes @ Stubbs, Sonic Youth @ La Zona Rosa, and much more…after the….jump Read more

Brick by brick, Austin’s Monahans are building their latest release 2010 Recordings by releasing a song a month on their website. The latest track from the band “I Break The Silence” surfaced today, and has a much different feel than anything you may have heard from them previously. Drums, almost tribal, dominate this track throughout with the guitars a bass playing support. Roberto Sanchez could be one of the more creative drummers you might see around town, as he doesn’t use a snare, and this track showcases his unique style.

On a side note, former Spoon bassist seems to be on staff with the band for a little while at least, playing on the recording, and recently in the live shows as well.

If you haven’t been collecting the tracks, which count at 6 now, head over to the bands website.

MP3> Monahans ‘I Break The Silence’

You know I love the ladies in Warpaint, and not just for the obvious reasons. Aside from making great music that walks the line of dreamy, psych-rock, that lends itself to the occasional jam on stage, they are pretty easy to look at as well.

Quickly working their way into the modern music consciousness with critic pleasing performances at last year’s CMJ Festival and this year’s SXSW, the band also managed to score a signing with Rough Trade with their EP Exquisite Corpse. And not wasting any time, the band is prepping the release of their debut LP The Fool which is to be released Oct 26th on Rough Trade.

If you are aching for a Warpaint fix until then, the band has recorded a version of David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes for the Bowie tribute album We Were So Turned On to be released sometime later this year.

MP3> Warpaint ‘Ashes To Ashes’ David Bowie cover

The band is on the road and heading this way for an appearance at ACL Festival (more on that later), and will begin a tour with The XX later in October.

Bear In Heaven make music that I wouldn’t typically spend too much time with, but there’s something about this band that is stirring up quite the buzz pot lately that keeps spinning my attention. At first listen, you could write them off as a band being thrust into the fallout stream of hipster hype created by bands like Animal Collective and Yeasayer, but there’s something a bit more unique about these guys that I appreciate a bit more. Bear In Heaven seem to posses this idea of futuristic exploration in their music that feels much like some of the music that some of the music pioneers, more specifically electronic music pioneers of the 80′s. Band’s like Gary Numan, Kraftwerk, New Order, Skinny Puppy,  just to name a few, that were making music that was experimental, a bit strange, but curiously good.  Bear In Heaven doesn’t sound like these bands, they just seem to embody the spirit of those bands around that time while still maintaining a progressive sound in today’s saturated venue. Read more

I remember, quite vividly, the first time I heard Black Sabbath’s Paranoid. It sounded like nothing I had ever heard before. It shook the childhood simplicity out of my mind and exposed a world that was dark and curious. I couldn’t help but stare at the cover art of the cassette as the sounds contained inside exposed the potential that music possessed to move me emotionally and work my imagination into theater where anything was possible. It shook and questioned the core of beliefs that I had up until that point. But I was only a child at the time, and what did I really believe in at such a young age? I believed in music, more than I understood at that time, and the realization was only to come later in life.

Athens Ga’s Dead Confederate have their sophomore full-length Sugar out legal 8.24, and while the chances of it to have the impact on rock music that Black Sabbath’s Paranoid has had in this current musical climate, I do feel that it’s potential to move new listener’s in a way that has a lasting impact, exists.

From the opening track “In The Dark” it’s evident that while still sounding much like the band that recorded Wrecking Ball, there’s tone and texture about the recording that feels a progressive step in the band’s music. Utilizing the talents of producer John Agnello may have had some impact on this progression in sound. The heavy guitars still present with the fist pounding drums of Jason Scarboro in full force, but a playful tune dancing through the song by keyboardist John Watkins, while Hardy Morris’s vocals a bit more reserved in angst that we have come to know in the past. An acoustic beginning to track 2 “Run From The Gun” begins the trade off in songwriting blows delivered by Morris and bassist Brantley Sean who own songwriting credits divided almost evenly across the entire album.

Read more

Quite the personality, that Ted Leo, and not a bad musician at that. Ted’s sense of humor shines in this second video for the track “Bottled In Cork” from the latest release The Brutalist Bricks.

You know I love em, and this is a really cool live shot video for what appears to be the latest single from A Place To Bury Strangers record Exploding Head. “I Lived My Life In The Shadow Of Your Heart” video was shot in Heaven in London, and directed by Sian Alice Group guitarist Ben Crook.

You need to turn it up really, really loud…

If there’s a Canadian band that should be receiving your attention currently, I would point you in the direction of Land Of Talk. I know that there’s some other group pulling at your musical heart strings currently, but these folks are the real deal. I posted the captivating live acoustic performance of this track “Quarry Hymns” off the upcoming release Cloak and Cipher and the album version of the track just surfaced, and as expected, sounds incredibly tempting.

If you haven’t seen Elizabeth Powell, the driving force for this band, well…she’s a treat to watch live.

Cloak and Cipher hits legal on Aug 24th on Saddle Creek, and locally you’ll have the rare opportunity to see this band at the Parish on Oct 15th.

MP3> Land Of Talk ‘Quarry Hymns’