Doug, bassist for the Bratlanders and Carleton College Employee, provides us with this account of tonight's show:
Johnny Cash died in September, 2003. Two months later, Singer Matt Arthur and a backing band of siblings Doug, Don, and Bev Bratland held a tribute show at Northfield's Contented Cow where they performed 50 Cash covers they'd worked up in the previous 60 days. Six years later, the band has a few new members and dozens of original songs amid their four hour repertoire of rootsy, electrified Americana. The Bratlanders' first full-length, full-band recording, "How Time Passes," will be released in late 2009.
“Singer Matt Arthur has a whacked-out growl like something grown in a petri dish swabbed with cells stolen from the esophagus of Jim Morrison and Boxcar Willie.” - City Pages
Imagine an alternate universe where Patsy Cline met Johnny Cash at a truck stop, then gave birth to a daughter who one day met Journey's Steve Perry at a truck stop and later gave birth to a daughter who grew up to be Jennifer Markey.
Jennifer Markey and the Tennessee Snowpants are a Minneapolis-based five-piece roots country band who play original music, traditional songs, and an impressive number of countrified covers of some decidedly un-country tunes. Their new album "We're All Going To Hell!" will be released this winter.
Find more information about both bands and preview their music on MySpace:
Duck Hunt is one of the early 90s K records bands that have fallen through the cracks. While other bands from that period -- Beat Happening, Teenage Fanclub, etc. – are still in musical circulation, Duck Hunt is no where to be found. This 45 has that classic K Recs sound. It has been sitting in the record library for years just waiting to be played.
Part two of Cave Week has arrived. Tonight we are lucky enough to host the unforgettable live presence of lovable goofball Dan Deacon. For those of you expecting an experience similar to Tuesday's incredible Atlas Sound/Broadcast/Selmanaires show, you are sorely mistaken. Let me suggest you dress as you would for the gym. It's best to keep an open mind when going to a Dan Deacon show, but one thing is always a certainty: You will get sweaty. For a further description of a typical Dan Deacon experience, click here.
We are also extremely fortunate that Nuclear Power Pants are opening for Mr. Deacon. Their shows have been described as "absurdist carnival freakshows from the surreal and paranoid tail-end of an acid binge." NPP just released an LP last month, "Wicked Eats the Warrior" on Deacon's label, Wham City. Synth-driven songs with plenty of feedback? This band was made to play at the Cave.
Here's a video of one of their tracks, "Teeth of a Lion":
Anyway, doors open tonight at 9pm, NPP start playing (hopefully) at 9:30, and Mr. Deacon takes over at 10:30. It's cold and rainy outside, but it may be a wise idea to dress in a t-shirt and shorts; apparently at the last Dan Deacon show here two years ago it got so hot in the Cave that sweat literally condensed from the ceilings onto Deacon's equipment.
Words cannot describe how excited I am: Atlas Sound and Broadcast, international music heroes, will be at our tiny Midwestern college tonight. The Selmanaires will perform an opening set at 9, and they are also Atlas Sound's back-up band.
A policy announcement: we have limited capacity! This show has generated quite a buzz in the Cities. So, only members of the Carleton Community will allowed in from 8:30-9. After 9, the general public can enter until capacity, so if you're late you might (but hopefully not) have to wait outside. Come early: the first 20 people will get an Atlas Sound or Broadcast poster!
Music starts at 9, doors open at 8:30.
There has never been a better Tuesday night at the Cave, possibly ever.
Every week the Program Department features one outstanding show on KRLX. This week we're featuring the program that digs deepest into the KRLX treasure trove.
Alex Walker and Ryland Bowen-Johnson take radio back to its roots. Instead of plugging in i-pods and laptops, The Family Jewels is a virtually all analog show - digging deep into the KRLX record library and dusting off the best of our vinyl. In their second term with the show, Ry and Alex devote the first hour to rock, and the second hour to the vast collection of early 90s hip-hop found on the libe's west wall. Listeners get innovative mixes, the high fidelity of classic 33 1/3s, and two audiophiles at the helm.
If you want a loving dose of KRLX circa 1991, check these two out. It's format radio at its absolute best.
The Family Jewels: Thursdays to Fridays 11:30pm - 1:30 am. Check it out.
Bristol duo, Fuck Buttons, formed in 2004 and were signed to the rarefied All Tomorrow's Party label in 2007. In 2008 the group released "Street Horrrsing," a brilliant aural assault of a record that sounds like a noise rock group attempting to create a shoegaze album. I had the privilege of seeing the group perform at the 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival and with a Fisher Price cassette player in hand the duo played a raucous, volatile set at Union Park's tiniest stage, captivating the small but steadfast audience with their dynamic, inventive looping. ( Fuck Buttons will be appearing at the Cave in November and are not to be missed. )
This year Andrew Hung and John Benjamin Power (yes those are their real names) have released "Tarot Sport" which showcases the band's maturity and seemingly limitless depth of talent. The album is considerably more focused and less abrasive than "Street Horrrsing," and the record's opener "Surf Solar" sounds like the perfect musical accompaniment to a Dario Argento horror film (sorry Goblin). "Surf Solar" is undeniably spooky yet so remarkably ordered and composed, that it achieves a sort of sonic transcendence. The album's middle track "Olympians" is gorgeously textured and reminiscent of Brian Eno's "Another Green World" album. I thought I would grow tired of an hour long record of discordant noise, but I find myself continually revisiting "Tarot Sport" and upon each listen discovering a new dimension of the group's sophisticated, hypnotic sound.
The Carleton Scrapbook is KRLX's main Features show. We collect the stories of interesting people at and around Carleton - convocation speakers, extras on "Gossip Girl," and, of course, Carleton's very own celebrities.
Two weeks ago, Joe Concannon and I interviewed a young man easily recognizable for his unique fashion sense and his glistening, greasy hair. Listen to Andrew "James" Wilson's story here.
Some subjects discussed: swing, Elvis Presley, "the ladies," hair grease, having more books than friends, houses with white picket fences, rebellion, self-respect.
Listen to the Carleton Scrapbook at 2:00-3:00 pm CST to hear more.
It’s been quite a year for Alan Palomo. Back in February 2009, when everyone was still reeling from Animal Collective’s pop opus Merriweather Post Pavilion and had just begun anticipating Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimst, Palomo released two very different singles onto the internet , attaching his name to only one. The first, “No Reasons”, comes from his other project Vega. The track is clean, crisp, loud, and all there; or, in other words, everything that Neon Indian isn’t.
When we received “Deadbeat Summer”, all that came with it was a funky picture of two Native Americans walking along the plains: no names, no background, no nothing. But then something special happened: While “No Reasons” merged smoothly into the blogosphere alongside all of those 80’s revivalist projects, “Deadbeat Summer” started to gather more and more attention (with good reason). I remember my first listening to this track back in February; I imagine the puzzled expression on my face must have resembled the way a dog looks when it hears it’s master’s voice on the answering machine. The opening to ‘Deadbeat Summer’ starts out sounding like somebody took all the film out of a cassette, pulled it all out of order, and then placed the cassette back in the recorder. One can only use the word ‘warped’ to describe the result.
‘Deadbeat Summer’ samples Todd Rundgren’s “Izzat Love?”, but unlike the original track the sound loops all over the place in a way that anyone after playing enough innings of Rotblatt can identify with. The sound was completely new, and before the summer hit many other artists that had been making similar music also begin collecting a lot of buzz: Washed Out, Memory Tapes, Weird Tapes, Memory Cassette, JJ, etc. Palomo managed to hold onto his anonymity until Neon Indian simply became too big to handle. By the time it was revealed that the same guy behind Vega is also Neon Indian, it was safe to say that Palomo had created a new genre of music.
All sorts of names were tossed around, from “GorillaVsBearCore” to “Glo-Fi”, until Internet music sources eventually settled on “Chillwave” (if they've settled at all, but this doesn't matter). By this point in time, two other Neon Indian singles had been released: ‘Should Have Taken Acid With You’, and ‘Terminally Chill.’ One could easily argue that within this community, the summer of 2009 belonged to Neon Indian. Everyone was talking about this new genre, and the Psychic Chasms LP still had months to be released.
Izzat Electronic? Izzat Psychedelic? “Izzat Music?” Absolutely, and fucking good music at that. Neon Indian takes the music of the Reagan period, albeit to a lesser extent then Vega, and twists it into a format that resembles a slow fade into obscurity and absurdity. At many points, Palomo’s distinctive brand of “chillwave” seems downright silly; at others, painfully detached. Perhaps this is why so many confused hipsters that are struggling to find something to hold onto after the commercialization of Indie Rock can find common ground with an album that simply floats by for about thirty minutes. As to whether the floating is through space, personal crises or just another acid trip, Palomo leaves that up to the listener. But what will make this album outlast all of those newly established Chillwave copycats is that underneath all this chillness bordering a farcical extent, there is a tortured presence presiding deep – way, way, deep – down that simply refuses to come out…at least while the acid is still going strong.
Before his incredible DJ set at the Cave last Friday night, James Pants took time out of his - ahem - busy afternoon schedule in Northfield to talk to Helen, KRLX features director, and Nicole, KRLX music director. The result is a wildly funny interview. Go Listen....
KRLX-FM 88.1 * 507-222-4102 (office / record libe) * 507-222-4127 (request / live)
300 North College Street, Northfield, MN 55057-4000
KRLX is a service of Carleton College in Northfield, MN
Doug, bassist for the Bratlanders and Carleton College Employee, provides us with this account of tonight's show:
Before his incredible DJ set at the Cave last Friday night, James Pants took time out of his - ahem - busy afternoon schedule in Northfield to talk to Helen, KRLX features director, and Nicole, KRLX music director. The result is a wildly funny interview. Go Listen....
last dan deacon show i lost my shoe.