The band is here in Austin on Oct 15th @ the Parish. They don’t come around often, so you should check it..

Barely a week into their tour in support of their sophomore release Sugar, Dead Confederate rolled into Mohawk with fellow Athenians Futurebirds in tow to take part in the 23+ acts event @ Mohawk cleverly billed as Red River On The Rocks. Sponsored by Makers Mark no less. Futurebirds brought the anticipated smile of delight to my face while Dead Confederate blasted away at their catalog, spending as much time on older material as the newest. For the band’s encore, three -fifths of Dead Confederate was joined by three young members of local band Flock of Spiders, (Ben Redman, Deven Ivy, and Max Redman) for the first single from Sugar titled “Giving It All Away”. And they gave it all..all rock.

Catch Dead Confederate on the road09-01 Aspen, CO – Belly Up*
09-02 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge*
09-03 Boise, ID – Neurolux*
09-05 Seattle, WA – Hard Rock Café @
09-06 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge # *
09-08 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall #
09-09 Santa Barbara, CA – SoHo#
09-10 Costa Mesa, CA – Detroit Bar
09-11 Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour #
09-12 Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up # *
09-14 Tucson, AZ – Plush #*
09-15 Phoenix, AZ – Rhythm Room #*
09-17 Telluride, CO – Telluride Blues & Brews Festival #
09-18 Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge #
09-19 Boulder, CO – Fox Theatre #
09-21 St. Louis, MO – The Firebird #
09-22 Chicago, IL – Double Door #
09-23 Akron, OH – Musica !
09-24 Pittsburgh, PA – Rex Theater !
09-25 West Chester, PA – The Note #
09-26 Boston, MA – The Middle East #
09-28 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg !
09-29 Washington DC – Rock and Roll Hotel !
09-30 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle !
10-01 Charlotte, NC – Snug Harbor !
10-02 Charleston, SC – Patriot’s Point $
10-29 New Orleans, LA – Voodoo Festival

@ with Surfer Blood
# with Alberta Cross
* with Futurebirds
! with Mt St Helen’s Vietnam Band

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.

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

Wed-Oct-06    Chapel Hill, NC    Local 506
Thu-Oct-07    Athens, GA    40 Watt Club *#
Fri-Oct-08    Greenville, SC    Fall For Greenville *
Sat-Oct-09    Auburn, AL    Bourbon Street *
Sun-Oct-10    Birmingham, AL    Zydeco
Mon-Oct-11    New Orleans, LA    One Eyed Jacks
Tue-Oct-12    Houston, TX    The Bronze Peacock Room @ House of Blues
Wed-Oct-13    Austin, TX    Emo’s
Thu-Oct-14    Laredo, TX    Old No. 2
Sat-Oct-16    Tempe, AZ    Sail Inn
Sun-Oct-17    San Diego, CA    The Loft / UCSD
Tue-Oct-19    Los Angeles, CA    El Rey
Wed-Oct-20    San Francisco, CA    Regency Ballroom
Thu-Oct-21    Portland, OR    Crystal Ballroom
Fri-Oct-22    Vancouver, BC    Biltmore Cabaret %
Sat-Oct-23    Bellingham, WA    Wild Buffalo
Sun-Oct-24    Seattle, WA    Neumos
Tue-Oct-26    Salt Lake City, UT    Urban Lounge
Wed-Oct-27    Denver, CO    Larimer Lounge
Thu-Oct-28    Omaha, NE    TBD
Fri-Oct-29    Minneapolis, MN    Triple Rock Social Club
Sat-Oct-30    Chicago, IL    Bottom Lounge
Tue-Nov-02    Washington, DC    Black Cat
Wed-Nov-03    Philadelphia, PA    First Unitarian Church

* = w/ JASON ISBELL
# = w/ Blitzen Trapper, Malcomb Holcolmbe
% = w/ Phosphorescent

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

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

Oct 06

The Strokes

Venue:

Stubb’s

Outdoors

Doors open: 7:00PM

Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM

Oct 07

Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears

Venue:

Antone’s

Doors open: 10:00PM

Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM

All Ages

Oct 07

Paul Oakenfold

with:

Die Antwoord

Venue:

Austin Music Hall
Doors open: 9:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 07

Neon Indian and Prefuse 73

Venue:

La Zona Rosa
Doors open: 8:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 07

Spoon

with:

Elvis

Venue:

Mohawk
Doors open: 8:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 07

Pat Green

Venue:

Stubb’s
Outdoors
Doors open: 7:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 07

First Aid Kit

with:

Ferraby Lionheart

Venue:

Stubb’s
Indoors
Doors open: 10:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 08

Mayer Hawthorne and The County

with:

Kings Go Forth

Venue:

Antone’s
Doors open: 10:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 08

Deadmau5

with:

Calvin Harris DJ Set

Venue:

Austin Music Hall
Doors open: 9:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 08

Black Lips

with:

Those Darlins
The Ettes

Venue:

Emo’s
Outdoors
Doors open: 10:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 08

Givers

with:

Cults
TV Torso

Venue:

Emo’s
Indoors
Doors open: 10:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 08

Robert Earl Keen

with:

Lucero
Ruby Jane

Venue:

La Zona Rosa
Doors open: 10:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 08

Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses

Venue:

MoMo’s
Doors open: 9:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 08

The Black Keys

with:

Foals

Venue:

Stubb’s
Outdoors
Doors open: 8:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 08

Blind Pilot

with:

Cory Chisel

Venue:

Stubb’s
Indoors
Doors open: 11:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 09

GIRLS

with:

The Soft Pack

Venue:

Antone’s
Doors open: 10:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 09

Gayngs

with:

Bear in Heaven

Venue:

Emo’s
Outdoors
Doors open: 10:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 09

Dawes

with:

Lissie

Venue:

Emo’s
Indoors
Doors open: 10:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 09

Sonic Youth

Venue:

La Zona Rosa
Doors open: 10:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 09

Beats Antique

with:

Lance Herbstrong

Venue:

MoMo’s
Doors open: 10:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 09

Monsters of Folk

with:

Jimmie Dale Gilmore

Venue:

Stubb’s
Outdoors
Doors open: 7:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

Oct 09

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

Venue:

Stubb’s
Indoors
Doors open: 11:00PM
Public Onsale Date: Aug 27 10:00AM
All Ages

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.

Seemingly fairly fresh to the scene, the band’s history actually goes back to the early 2000′s, with band member Jon Philpot recording his music first as part of the duo Presocratics in 2001, then recording the first Bear In Heaven recording in 2003. Numerous appearances by various musicians on recordings as well as members that have come and gone, Bear In Heaven’s first full-length Red Bloom of The Boom surface in 2007, and the band’s most recent release Beast Rest Forth Mouth in 2009. Beast Rest Forth Mouth is the reason that people are talking about the band today, and a nod from Pitchfork as “Best New Music” sure doesn’t hurt the situation, if you pay attention to that stuff.

The band have been constantly on tour around the world since the release of Beast Rest Forth Mouth gaining fans, while remixing various artists like Crystal Castles, as well as being remixed. All this mixing makes me dizzy.

Bear In Heaven play the ZYNC Card Stage @ 1:30 on Saturday Oct 9th kicking off your afternoon with some breezy, danceable beats.

MP3> Bear In Heaven ‘You Do You’

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.

Track 3 “Father Figure” begins a series of songs that go into lyrical depths that dance with inner demons, in a beautiful succession of some of the most intense, sonic, rage driven music on the record, balanced with the dreamlike track “By Design” possessed by Watkin’s eerie keyboard work and some unexpected cello work. Sanity in question reaches it’s pinnacle during “Quiet Kid” when Morris, channeling Sean sings in fuzzed out distorted vocals “Pissing away pathetic lives/Take them away today I might..I’ll f****** kill everyone in sight..I was the quiet kid.”

While we’ve become accustom to Morris’s vocals leading us through Dead Confederate’s war fields either by leading the charge or exposing it’s nasty details, Sean makes the vocal appearance on “Semi -Thought” shifting the tone a bit. The following track and first single “Giving It All Away” featuring J. Mascis on guitar shows that band is more than capable of writing material that will soon enough make them more accessible to a larger audience than they have managed to mass so far in their career. A “pop” song by no means though.

The album’s closing track “Shocked to Realize” serves almost as a closing explanation for this twisting tale of darkness and insanity. It seems to realize that there is that side to all of us that exists that we might not want to admit to possessing, but within realizing, you can come to terms with it’s existence and move forward with understanding the beauty that balances it all out in the grand scheme of things. Or maybe that’s just my own interpretation based on my own reality.Check your own reality.

Run from the Gun cuz Fairies Wear Boots..you gotta believe me.

The latest track made available by Dead Confederate from Sugar.

MP3> Dead Confederate ‘Run From The Gun’

Dead Confederate play Mohawk in Austin 8.28 for the Red River on The Rocks event. Tickets.

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’

This isn’t going to be a full review of Colour Revolt’s latest offering The Cradle, as I really haven’t had enough time with the recording, and if you’ve spent any time with the band’s work, you understand that it’s work that requires a lengthy, patient listen that is more often than not, completely rewarding. It’s rich, layered, textural intensity both musically and lyrically, and The Cradle adheres to this equation while shedding some old skin in the process. After a dramatic shift in lineup, losing 3 of the members of the band to more stable realities in life, founding members Jesse Coppenbarger  and Sean Kirkpatrick forge on as the heart and soul of Colour Revolt. The resilience of these two shines well on the album, which still encompasses the complex energy of the past, while the sonic rages are reeled in and their energy dispersed much more dynamically and musically diverse.

I for one, am thrilled that Coppenbarger and Kirkpatrick weathered the storm and continue on as Colour Revolt, as these guys were made for making music. Great rock music to be specific. God knows we can always use more great rock music in our lives.

The Cradle is legal now. Go get yourself some.

MP3> Colour Revolt ‘Our Names’

The L.A. based Future Sounds has teamed up with some of Austin’s finest, including fellow bloggers Covert Curiosity and Austin Town Hall (I know, you’re not a blog site!) to bring you an eve of local music for the low, low, low price of FREE!

Going down Wednesday night 8.11 @ Beerland: The Sour Notes, Hollywood Gossip, and Literature bring you some of Austin’s finest future sounds for FREE!. Did I mention that it was FREE? How about FREE beer? not really.

Nice to see other folks squawking about this awesome band from Athens, GA.

Hear*Ya is a cool video blog site where you can check out the full session with Futurebirds along with some other great bands.

One of my favorite songs on the band’s latest release Hampton’s Lullaby “ATO”