Get Out! :: 10.30.07

Get Out! is indierocket!'s occasional guide to getting down in the Soda City.
Murder by Death, Due East, Brave Horatius, ...for science! :: New Brookland Tavern :: 7 p.m.
The fact that this is a Murder by Death show should be enough to get your ass out to New Brookland tonight. If'n you don't know, let Wikipedia tell you: "The band plays an eclectic range of music, from eight minute ethereal instrumentals, to driving punk rock, to alt-country. Their earlier releases create an eerie southern gothic sound accented by keyboard and electric cello while their later releases, which still incorporated the cello, but less keyboard, become more guitar driven with a combination of edgy punk sneering and fantastical western woes." Got it? Good.

Due East are up-and-coming local alt-country shit-kickers. We love them dearly.

Brave Horatius is wonderfully somber indie folk. We love him dearly, too.

...for science! is a post-metal trio (think a cross between Mogwai and Pelican) comprised of members of Alaska the Tiger, Sein Zum Tode and The Heist and the Accomplice. This is its second show. Damage: $10.

Scene :: DJ Spooky :: Columbia Museum of Art [Columbia, S.C.; 10.26.07]

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New Noise/Tube :: Des Ark

Some of you might recall my absolute love of Aimee Argote (or simply remember that time she played the Art Garage or The Immaginarium), whose songs absolutely gut you like a fucking fish. So you'll understand I'm excited at the above clip, which not only shows Argote fleshing out Des Ark with a full band again, but playing a raucous new jam called, according to one poster, "FTW, Y'all." Damn yeah.

Get Out! :: 10.26.07

Get Out! is indierocket!'s occasional guide to gettin' down in the Soda City.

DJ Spooky :: Columbia Museum of Art :: 10 p.m.
It's the Halloweekend here in the Capital City — yours truly will be masquerading as Artie, the Strongest Man in the World — and in an odd bit of serendipity, DJ Spooky trots through on one of his many globe-trotting trips to spin the mix fantastic at the wonderful and wonderous Columbia Museum of Art. A true renaissance man with a wireless imagination — in addition to being a revolutionary DJ, Spooky's also a noted writer (appearing in such diverse publications as ArtForum and Raygun), scholar (his book, Rhythm Science deconstructs music theory using the DJ's template) and multimedia artist (his art's appeared at the Whitney Biennal and the Venice Biennial of Art) — Spooky treats the entire media culture as his buffet, celebrating globalization and digital media as an entropic force for the emerging global culture. His mixes are simultaneously intelligent and irreverent, mashing up breakbeats, ethnic instrumentation and pop hits that have been sliced, diced, pureed and pulverized beyond recognition. The live Spooky experience is a feast for all the senses. Go. Now. Damage: $15 ($12 for Museum members).

Sindoolah! :: The Whig :: 9 p.m.
The baddest of badass Columbia deejays, Sindoolah spins "Soul from Cambodia, Go-Go from Laos, Power Ballads from Morocco, Punk from Forrest Hills, Rock from Ann Arbor, Noise from Japan, Funk from Augusta Ga., Pop from France, HipHop from '89, Blues from Clarksdale, Hardcore from DC, showtunes from India, Electronic from NY, Jazz from Philly, Prog from Cologne, Country from Bakersfield, and Field Recordings from outside the Food Lion in 5 Points." Trust us: It's one hell of a time. If you needed any more indication of the hell-of-a-time it'll be, The Whig's throwing a Halloween costume party. With rollergirls. Rollergirls, dudes. Rollergirls. Damage: Free.

Tube :: Aphex Twin :: On

So here's a nice little surprise. The new Aphex Twin video is directed by none other than Pulp's Jarvis Cocker! It's a neat little stop-motion meets live-action video - Monty Python animation meets an amateur Stan Brakhage, if you will. Check out the cardboard cut-out of Richard D. James a la the Pulp video for 'Disco 2000.' According to Cocker's hilarious Uncyclopedia entry, Cocker 'has a nasty habit of turning whoever he shags into a cardboard cut-out, to keep up the facade he is a lonely wanker.' So does this mean that James could have been one of Cocker's conquests? 'Come to daddy,' indeed.

Get Out! :: 10.19.07

Get Out! is indierocket!'s occasional guide to getting down in the Soda City.
Vinyl Are My Pants, Bullship :: Hunter-Gatherer :: 11 p.m.
Pictures don't lie: There are but two people in Vinyl Are My Pants. As a huge fan of duos (see: Black Keys, White Stripes, Blinded by Underpants), Jack and Marty Dunn have already scored points by trimming off the collective fat that is a bass player and sloughing the useless fuck that is a lead guitarist (bunch of wankers they are). What scores more points, however, is the fact that VAMP's sound is as thick and attractive as any more-membered combos. Recalling Versus' tougher moments (or perhaps Blonde Redhead, except not sissies), tunes the likes of "Gibbowr," "Ca Plane Moi (Avec Fries)" and "Cold" assault your eardrums with post-modern themes,angular chord progressions and thunderstruck drums. (There's also a heaping helping of glam-rock strut; be sure to request "Queen Bitch.") Your indierocketeers are especially fond of "For the Wire."
Minimalist, camera-shy Charlotte trio Bullship actually recalls Jack and Marty's former band, Slurr, with its penchant for pitch-perfect (or perhaps purposefully pitch-imperfect) no-fi anti-pop anthems. Think of it as math-rock if you must, but Bullship's tangents are so sloped, you might need an degree in hyperbolic geometry to picture the patterns. Damage: $3.

Vinyl Are My Pants — "Cold"; "Your GPS is Broken"
Bullship — "La Cinco"; "Narrow Medicine"

Get Out! :: The Placemats @ Art Bar :: 10.20.07

So you might have noticed a lack of posts from me lately, and well, here's the main reason why...


Yep, my Replacements tribute band The Placemats is playing for the first time tomorrow night at Art Bar. I'm pretty damn excited, and I think other people are too. Here's what the Free Times had to say about us...

The story of The Replacements is as much about the songs of Paul Westerberg as it is their self-destructive behavior, which was designed to keep them at an arm’s length of greater spoils. Along the way, songs such as “Can’t Hardly Wait,” “Bastards of Young,” “Alex Chilton,” “Left of the Dial” and “Color Me Impressed” typified the band’s knack for making some of the best racket of the 1980s. This show marks the public debut of a Replacements tribute band comprised of five of the most popular guys in Columbia: Bassist David Adedokun (of Courage Riley and Daylight Hours); lead guitarist Mike Schaming (Hot Lava Monster); drummer Mike McCormick (Hungry Models); rhythm guitarist Kenley Young (How to Vanish); and vocalist Tug Baker (Columbia’s answer to Dionysus). Also on the bill are tributes to The Misfits and The Doors. K. Foster

So that's the end of my shameless self-promotion. See you there!

New(ish) Noise :: Cake: B-Sides & Rarities

Blogging means never having to say you're sorry. Perhaps I'm mixing my metaphors, but my point is that I tell you, dear reader, without any trace of shame that I think Cake is pretty fucking awesome. I think it's unfortunate that the band's sometimes-wistful, sometimes-humorous, always-entertaining twang-pop never really and truly caught on with the American music-listening public — bunch of slack-eared retards that they are — despite two top-five Billboard singles ("Never There" and "The Distance") and two platinum records (not surprisingly 1996's Fashion Nugget and 1998's Prolonging the Magic, which spawned the band's hit singles). The most despicable part is that Cake's existence seems to be relegated, at least among my peer group, to the "Oh, ha ha, remember this band from when we were in middle school?" plane of existence — again, mostly by the slack-eared retards of the yada yada yada. If there have been any constants during Cake's popular — and, yes, I'm using the term loosely — years, one has been John McCrea's deadpan delivery and penchant for snappy wordplay and the other's been cover songs — sometimes sincere (see "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps"), sometimes ironic (see "I Will Survive"), but, again, always entertaining.

Though it's disheartening that Cake's first proper release since 2004 is a covers and B-sides records, it does play well to the band's strengths — that is to say, tuneful, toneful and terribly terrific laconically voiced off-kilter country-fried-jazz-infused-funk-inflected-quasi-indie rock. You can order the cleverly titled B-Sides and Rarities on Cake's official website, where you can also hear clips of the tunes. Among the choice cuts: A cover of "War Pigs" that comes off surprisingly well; and a version of "Mahna Mahna," one of this indierocketeer's favorite songs of all-time. (Not surprisingly, Cake knocks that one out of the park.) There's also a swell version of Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night."

Cake — "Mahna Mahna"
Cake — "War Pigs"

Scene :: Free Times Music Crawl [Columbia, S.C.; 10.06.07]

If you weren't at the Free Times Music Crawl last Saturday, then you missed out big time. It was the probably the best line-up I've ever seen at the Crawl and the most fun I've had at one. I stayed at Art Bar for the most part to catch some of that indie goodness that Columbia has to offer. Here's some pictures I snapped of some of the incredible acts. Apologies to the bands not covered here. It was my first time using this camera for shooting shows, so some of them didn't come out so hot. We'll get you next time around, guys.


Magnetic Flowers
For the Free Times Crawl preview, I wrote this about Magnetic Flowers:

Magnetic Flowers’ last appearance at Art Bar was a revelation. It was one of those shows where afterwards everyone kept saying, “Where did these guys come from?” Well, they’ve been here a while now, but during that show, Magnetic Flowers truly came into their own as one of the best acts Columbia has to offer. The addition of new bass player Albert Knuckley freed up Adam Cullum to play keys throughout the entire set, adding a fullness and vehemence that was missing before. Their subtle blend of indie rock and Americana makes for an energetic yet poignant experience that shouldn’t be missed.

Ah, it's good to be right.


The Gadgets
This was probably my favorite show of the whole night. It was my first time seeing The Gadgets after listening to their MySpace tracks incessantly, so I was glad to finally be able to rock out up front and sing along to a few songs. It's pure pop bliss but done 80s hardcore style... if that makes sense. Anyways, I can't wait for them to play again.


The Heist And The Accomplice
Why aren't these guys on a label yet? Well, I suppose if Chaz's solo project keeps getting this kind of attention, then it's only a matter of time. Their set was the same bouncy, dance-y goodness that we've all come to expect from them. The new songs from their upcoming album sound incredible as well. Can't wait for that one.


Death Becomes Even The Maiden
As usual, DBETM came on the stage, rocked the hell out of the audience, then got off the stage, leaving everyone wanting more. Luckily, you'll be able to get more soon, when their new EP The Arragement comes out. Word is that it'll be sooner than you think. We here at IndieRocket will definitely keep you posted.

More of my crappy photos of amazing bands after the jump if you want to check them out.

Read on, IndieRocketeer...

More Magnetic Flowers...

The Gadgets...

The Heist And The Accomplice

Death Becomes Even The Maiden

New Noise :: The 4am :: A New Podcast by Warren Ellis

On Monday, British comic scribe, novelist, and Internet Jesus Warren Ellis started a new podcast. Warren's turned me on to lots of good music in the past (including some great Finnish freak folk stuff), and this is no exception. For this particular podcast, he just called for artists to email him a mp3 through his website, and then he picked out his favorites. As he put it, 'I'm podcasting new music by new bands and musicians, because that's what I love.' It's an ongoing series, so if your band wants to submit something to him, just email him at warrenellis@gmail.com (he wants the files at least 128kbps). Some standouts on this first podcast are the ambient pop of Newcastle's Lanterns on the Lake and Albuquerque's Yoda's House who sound something like Godspeed! You Black Emperor doing psychedelic folk. I highly recommend it.

To get the podcast, go here.

Get Out! :: Free Times Music Crawl :: 10.06.07

Tomorrow is the Free Times Music Crawl, featuring 24 of Columbia's best acts for only five bucks. You can read all about the individual acts and get showtimes and locations here. I'm pretty much going to be at the Art Bar stage all day, except for a quick jaunt to see my roomie at the Blue Marlin stage. Art Bar seems to be where all the IndieRocket-esque bands are playing, including Brave Horatius, Magnetic Flowers, Black Swan, The Gadgets, The Heist and The Accomplice, and Death Becomes Even The Maiden (and a few I'm sure I'm forgetting). If you're into a more modern rock thing, head to the Headliners stage, and if country, bluegrass, and the like is your basket of biscuits, then Flying Saucer's where you need to be. Either way, great acts are at all the venues, and it looks to be pretty fun. Hope to see you there!

Tube :: Couldn't You Wait?

In many ways, I was quite the late bloomer. A painfully shy, lilywhite, chubby suburban kid (which, in many regards, I still am today) who put in time on the school's debate team and newspaper staff (versus football and student council), I experienced many of life's firsts past the median age for such things, id est first birthday parties, first growth spurts, first dates, first kisses, first handjobs, etc. It carried into my later high school years (by which time I'm remarkably relieved to tell you that my major firsts — yes, Mom, handjobs both included and surpassed), when I was developing a taste for underground music, indie rock in particular. By the time my senior year of high school rolled around, Pavement had split up, Archers of Loaf were on the verge of splitting (albeit amicably) and Sonic Youth had long since given up any aspirations of playing this Southern shithole.

It's no surprise, then, that it took me at least another year or so, when I was firmly entrenched in the world of college radio, before I'd even hear the name Silkworm bandied about. Perhaps indicative of its criminal underrating, it wasn't even at the radio station where I'd heard of Silkworm — indeed, it was on a short-lived WB-generated-Adult-Swim-aired cartoon series that I heard "Couldn't You Wait?", a poignant and scathingly poetic ditty that hooked me into Silkworm's angularly attractive tunes.



It's fitting, then, that the name for the upcoming Silkworm documentary is entitled Couldn't You Wait? The true definition of a cult band — most especially in the indie rock world — Couldn't You Wait? chronicles Silkworm's eighteen-year existence, from 1987 to the tragic death of drummer Michael Dahlquist in 2005, and features interviews from a damnably large number of indie rock illuminati — Stephen Malkmus makes an appearance, as do Steve Albini, Jason Molina and members of Seam, The New Year and Bush. (Remember: Andy Cohen once toured with Bush. Strange but true.) Filmmakers Seth Pomeroy and Shawn Girvan still have more than two dozen interviews left to do, so go help them in making this needs-to-be-made documentary by visiting the film's MySpace site.

New Noise :: Toro y Moi + Brave Horatius

Ah, covers... When they're good, they're good. And when they're bad, they're horrendous. Fortunately, I have two really amazing ones for you today, and they're both local Columbia acts. First up is Toro y Moi, the solo project of The Heist and The Accomplice frontman Chaz Bundick. His take on Beach House's 'Master of None' retains the whimsical vocals of the original while throwing in a danceable beat, fuzzed out bass, and wavy keyboards, making the laid back song an indie dance track. Good stuff, that. Check Toro y Moi out at the Savant Guard label release party at Matchless during CMJ.

[Ed.'s note: Check out our boy getting some Pitchfork love. Just remember: You heard it here first, readers. -p.]

Toro y Moi Master of None (Beach House cover)

An admission first: fellow IndieRocketeer Pat played guitar on this track. But don't worry, he did good. I've talked about Brave Horatius before, but when he was stalling for time before his (now) former band Alaska the Tiger's last show, and he started playing Rihanna's summer jam 'Umbrella,' I knew that a match in cover heaven had been made. While there have been quite a few covers of 'Umbrella,' this one slows everything down to the sad, sweet truth that makes it a hit. It's one of those great covers that takes what seems to be a silly pop song and unearths the beauty underneath. There's no sexy beat implying that the song is about a lover (while I suppose it could be), but just a friend who you would do anything for. Look for it on Brave Horatius's new split with Toronto's Free Kisses during their upcoming tour together (dates here).

Brave Horatius Umbrella (Rihanna cover)