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VIVAINDIEROCK MYSPACE

Arliss Parker - Handsome Like A Lion

Usually I am not drawn in by all instrumental music, but there is something about the quiet beauty of Arliss Parker's Handome Like A Lion that speaks to me. This six song EP got it's start in 2006 when Chris Parker moved from Colorado to New York, converted an abandoned dark room into a recording studio, and started laying down tracks with his guitar. The tracks evolved into lovely, rich layers of toy pianos, synth sounds, and appropriately simple beats. I don't think I have the words to properly explain the contemplative tone of the music. Listen to the tracks "She Smiles While She Sleeps" and "Our Favorite Films" in the player below and see if you don't find yourself lost in thought, wondering how your life got so off track, why you aren't the person you always wanted to be, and what you can do to make your future better.

Arliss Parker Myspace

The Magnificents - Year of the Explorers

I must admit, I have an affinity for Scottish bands. The Magnificents make some of the most enjoyable, fun electro-pop I have heard in awhile. Year of the Explorers is the bands second full length release and is chock full of tales of stolen synthesizers, trans-Euro espressways, and left handed guitars. Some of my favorite tracks include "Get It Boy" and "Tiger Choir." Check out the videos below. The Magnificents certainly live up to their name.

The Magnificents


Ring Ring Oo Oo Video!
Get It Boy Live!

School of Seven Bells - Alpinisms

If you haven't discovered School of Seven Bells yet, Alpinisms is a great place to start! 12 great tracks comprise this album, some of which cover previous releases, so that people who haven't caught on yet can catch up! The band is comprised of Benjamin Curtis and twin sisters Claudia and Alejandra Deheza. Together, they make some of the most lovely, sophisticated, dreamy pop ever conceived. So far my favorite tracks on the album include "Half Asleep" and "Chain." Check these guys out soon!

SOSB MYSPACE

White Elephant Coat Live

We Are Hosting Our First Show!

Friday Nov. 21st @ The World Famous Milestone! in Charlotte, NC.

We are excited to host our very first show at one of the Nation's oldest and most revered venues. Their doors opened in 1969 and almost 40 years later they are still going strong. If you visit their site click on the History link for a list of all the amazing bands that have graced their stage over the last 4 decades.

We have gotten some great acts to play the show:
LA Tool & Die Charlotte NC
Casper & the Cookies Athens GA
Silver Hill Mine (debut show!) Greensboro NC
Justin Williams Charlotte NC

We will be filming the show and will post video footage, pics, and a recap of the show in the days following. Also, LA Tool & Die is giving away free 7"s and CDs to anyone who attends! It should be a great time! If you get the chance, please come out and be part of the fun!

Look Mexico - Gasp Asp 7"

Look Mexico is capping off a busy 2008 with a new vinyl release Gasp Asp. Fans have two great choices for obtaining this release. They can download the digital version which includes 4 songs released by Lujo Records. Or, they can get the special edition collectors vinyl 3 song 7" being put out in November on the Tiny Engines label. Personally, I'd take the vinyl almost every time! Check out the track "You're Not Afraid of the Dark, Are You?"

Look Mexico Myspace

Check out this great video for You Come Into My House, While I Sleep? off the album This is Animal Music.

Grampall Jookabox - Ropechain

Grampall Jookabox is a total nutjob...and I mean this as a compliment of the highest degree. The songs on his second release Ropechain are a chaotic delight. The sounds are infused with 60s garage, mid-90s skronk, 70s funk, and just some really amazing fucked up shit that I ain't never heard before. Take a second and play the "The Girl Ain't Preggers" video game, just try not to land on any babies! Highly entertaining stuff. Grampall Jookabox deserves a few moments of your time and attention.

JOOKABOX MYSPACE

Click the pic to play the video game!


The Girl Ain't Preggers Video!

7 Silly Questions with Pattern Is Movement

Unfailingly original, indie rock heroes Pattern Is Movement have deservedly climbed the rungs of the indie ladder and are resting, catching their breath, only few feet from the top. Based on the amazing energy given off during their live shows, it is clear that they will ultimately finish the climb and take their rightful place amongst the Built to Spills, Shellacs, and Galaxie 500s.

The two man wrecking crew of Andrew Thiboldeaux and Chris Ward have been on tour since September only to rest for a few days back in Philadelphia before playing several shows at this years CMJ Festival. Then, it’s back on the road again for a week or so in November.




We caught up with the fellows via the internet and persuaded them to answer some highly suspect questions!

Viva: Who smells the worst in the van on tour?
Chris Ward: My tshirts after drumming smell pretty pretty gross
Andrew Thiboldeaux: my beard is starting to nourish wildlife

Viva: Unicorns vs. Narwhals? Who would win?
Chris Ward: Unicorns would win - they can fly.
Andrew Thiboldeaux: yup

Viva: What's your funniest thing that has happened to you on the road?
Chris Ward: I got pregnant
Andrew Thiboldeaux: I got a dude pregnant

Viva: A wise man told me never to print anything the drummer says. Is this true?
Chris Ward: he said wha?
Andrew Thiboldeaux: word

Viva: Aside from your home city, where's your favorite place to play?
Chris Ward: Seattle
Andrew Thiboldeaux: Charlotte

Viva: Who's in heavy rotation on your iPod?
Chris Ward: Dan Savage's Podcast
Andrew Thiboldeaux: ah holly fam'ly

Viva: What was the worst fight over nothing that you got into with each other after being road weary and exhausted?
Chris Ward: dude, we don't fight on tour - it's not polite.
Andrew Thiboldeaux: I said good day sir!

Visit Pattern Is Movement’s Myspace page for their complete tour schedule including numerous performances at this years CMJ!

Pattern is Movement Myspace

Sound of Your Voice Live Video!


Trolley Friend Live Video!

Tags: Pattern is Movement

Max Tundra - Parallax Error Beheads You

By day mild-mannered British multi-instrumentalist Ben Jacobs quietly goes about his daily routine of tweezing his eyebrows and perfecting soup recipes. At night, his crazed alter-ego Max Tundra takes over and the indie rock scene gets a whole lot more interesting. Max is back with his third full-length release Parallax Error Beheads You (due out Nov 18th). Using a Commodore Amiga 500 and a $1 public domain software tracking program, some of the most unique and amusing songs ever recorded come to life at the hands of this musical genius. Check out the which song MP3 below. Also, watch the Max Tundra videos, they are pretty great!

Max Tundra Myspace



Max Tundra - Will Get Fooled Again

Max Tundra - Mermen

Lake - Oh, The Places We'll Go

Lake has everything that you could ask for from a pop band that steals, I mean borrows, it's album title from Dr. Suess. Oh, The Places We'll Go is full of group harmonies, playful horns, synthesizer goofyness, and cheeseball lyrics (in a good way). So far my favorite tracks are "Counting" and "Heaven." It's a cute and cuddly record. Even the homemade production adds charm to this record. Check these guys out!

LAKE MYSPACE

Here's a great live video of them performing When The Earth Was Flat.

Women - Women

From the frozen tundra of Calgary, Canada (do they have tundra in Alberta?), Women bring us an interesting and original approach to songwriting. According to the JagJaguwar site, this album was recorded on boom boxes and old tape decks over a period of 4 months in a basement! It certainly is lo-fi, but not in an annoying, poorly recorded way. Rather, it adds to the charm of the music. The songs steal bits from various genres, all of them well done. They vary widely from loud and cacophonous to mellow and melodic. Tracks that stand out for me thus far are "Cameras", "Shaking Hand", and "Upstairs." Women is certainly not going to be everyone's cup of tea. But, it is unique and entertaining, and it is worth a few minutes of your time.

WOMEN MYSPACE

Here's a live video of their song Black Rice.

Fredrik - Na Na Ni

Hailing from Sweden, Fredrik makes dreamy pop music that just isn't being made in the U.S. Their first album Na Na Ni is due out October 28th and it is really, really wonderful. It's too hard to describe the exact sound without sounding foolish, so check out the MP3 and video below. If you have a chance to pick this album up, do so. It will transform your world view.

Fredrick Myspace




1986 Video from Na Na Ni

Lambchop - OH (ohio)

Kurt Wagner and his ensemble of musicians are back with OH (ohio), a wonderful collection of 11 beautifully crafted songs. Nothing much changes with Lambchop, the songs are still amazingly lush (or sparse...or so sparse in such a great way that they sound lush) slow to mid paced pop songs with traditional western instrumentation and old-time country flare. All the songs are great, but the first three tracks "Ohio", "Slipped Dissolved and Loosed", and "I'm Thinking of a Number" are really hard to top. "National Talk Like a Pirate Day" is pretty great too. Also great is the cover of the old Don Williams hit "I Believe in You."

LAMBCHOP MYSPACE

Here's a Great Interview With Kurt Wagner!

Of Great & Mortal Men: 43 Songs for 43 US Presidencies

I've not encountered anything quite as interesting, amusing, and befuddling as Of Great & Mortal Men: 43 Songs for 43 US Presedencies. Songwriters J. Matthew Gerken, Christian Kiefer, and Jefferson Pitcher worked together to write songs encompassing the lives and pitfalls all 43 US Presidents. It is a truly unique and revealing work of art. When the new president is elected in Nov 2008, they are going to release a 44th track available as a download.

Guest performers abound on this three disk set - Califone, Rosie Thomas, Bill Callahan (Smog), Alan Sparhawk (Low), Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon), Marla Hansen (Sufjan Stevens), Steve Dawson (Dolly Varden), Vince DiFiore (Cake), Monahans, James Jackson Toth (Wooden Wand), and Tom Carter (Charalambides). Of Great & Mortal Men is so amazing that I can't even begin to pull out favorite tracks to point you towards.

You can investigate more on your own by clicking these links:

Of Great & Mortal Men Blog

OFMM Myspace

George Washington (Washington Dreams of the Hippopotamus)

Bill Clinton (The Mighty Lion Will Not Roar Again)

Los Campesinos - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed!

It's only been a few months since Hold on Now Youngster exploded into the US, and already Los Campesinos are back with a new 10 track album We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed. Due out October 27th, this release is packed with great bonus material. WAB, WAD is accompanied by a self-made DVD documentary of the bands' weekend at Oya festival and SummerSonic in August of 2008. Also, the CD includes a 30+ page 'zine, including the record's lyrics and contributions by artists including Xiu Xiu, Grandaddy, Tender Forever, Menomena, Parenthetical Girls and Paul Heaton. If you haven't heard anything from Los Campesinos, check out the videos below or follow the links to their websites.

Los Campesinos Myspace

Los Campesinos Website

Here's a minute or so from the We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed DVD.

Death to Los Campesinos Video!

My Year in Lists Video!

The International Tweexcore Underground Video!

Folklore - Carpenter's Falls

Folklore is back with their second full length CD - Carpenter's Falls. Folklore is the delightfully ambitious project of Elf Power's Jimmy Hughes who spent quite a bit of time collecting stories of life in upstate New York. Carpenter's Falls is a companion piece to their first release The Ghost Of H.W. Beaverman. This time the stories range anywhere from the life and death of a river, to battles between two ghosts stuck in limbo, to corruption in the media. Thus far my favorite tracks include "The Corrections" and "Two Cousins' Camp Store." Check these guys out!

FOLKLORE

Folklore's Lake Boneparte Video!

Troika Music Festival Schedule Posted!

Hey!
The schedule for the Troika Music Festival in Durham is finally set and there are some great acts playing this year! Check it out, you will see The Rosebuds and Kimya Dawson as well as great Durham bands The Future Kings of Nowhere and Red Collar!

Thursday, 6 November
Durham Central Park, Foster Street
8:30PM Future Kings of Nowhere
7:45PM Lost in the Trees
7:00PM Paleface
6:15PM All Your Science
5:30PM Angelo Spencer

Duke Coffeehouse, Crowell Building, East Campus, Duke University
11:15PM Red Collar
10:15PM Sorry About Dresden
9:30PM Le Weekend
8:45PM Sequoya
8:00PM Pink Flag

The Pinhook, 117 West Main Street
11:15PM Future Islands
10:30PM Screaming Females
9:45PM Juan Huevos
9:00PM Dylan Gilbert
N/A Alex Kotch (DJ)

The Marvell Event Center, 119 West Main Street
10:45PM Midnight Gladness Band
10:00PM Doly Toro
9:15PM Oso Optimo
8:30PM Sawteeth McTweedy

Alivia's, 900 West Main Street
9:00PM Brett Harris
8:15PM Bob Funck
7:30PM Matthew Boles

James Joyce, 912 West Main Street
10:15PM Jews and Catholics
9:30PM Simple
8:45PM Sugar in the Dirt
8:00PM Fujiyama Roll

Broad Street Café, 1116 Broad Street
11:30PM Puritan Rodeo
10:45PM Fontana
10:00PM Shakermaker

Friday, 7 November
Carolina Theatre, 309 West Morgan Street
10:45PM The Rosebuds
9:30PM Kimya Dawson
8:30PM The Old Ceremony
7:30PM Bellafea
5:00PM Girls Rock NC Program

Bull McCabe's, 427 West Main Street
12:45AM Ex-Monkeys
11:55PM Wigg Report

Saturday, 8 November
Broad Street Café, 1116 Broad Street
12:15AM Hammer No More The Fingers
11:30PM The Dry Heathens
10:45PM The Scott Waite Debacle
10:00PM Death to the Details

The Pinhook, 117 West Main Street
11:00PM I Was Totally Destroying It
10:15PM The Travesties
9:30PM The Pneurotics
8:45PM Resist Not

Duke Coffeehouse, Crowell Building, East Campus, Duke University
11:35PM Tooth
10:45PM Midtown Dickens
10:00PM The Curtains of Night
9:15PM Cantwell, Gomez, and Jordan
8:35PM The Gates of Beauty
8:00PM Clawform

James Joyce, 912 West Main Street
10:15PM Velvet
9:30PM *SONS
8:45PM The Heist and the Accomplice
8:00PM Sea Cow

The Sirens Lounge, 1803 West Markham Blvd.
11:00PM Schooner
10:15PM Nathan Oliver
9:15PM The Proclivities
8:30PM Rat Jackson

The Marvell Event Center, 119 West Main Street
10:30PM A Rooster for the Masses
9:45PM Dr. Powerful
9:00PM Veronique Diabolique
8:15PM The Virgo 9

Alivia's, 900 West Main Street
9:30PM Spencer Scholes
8:45PM Tea & Tempests
8:00PM Clayton Sabine

Absentee - Victory Shorts

London band Absentee has created some of the best modernized 80s pop I have ever heard. Their new album Victory Shorts is due out on Nov. 4th on Memphis Industries (the same label that has brought us The Go! Team and Ruby Suns). Rather than try to explain the sound to you, here are two videos from the album that will say wayyyy more than I ever could. Enjoy!

ABSENTEE

Bitchstealer Video!


Boy, Did She Teach You Nothing Video!

The Rosebuds - Life Like

Life Like, the 4th full length release from The Rosebuds is a really, really fun and entertaining venture into feel-good pop! Both bouncy and beautiful, every track on Life Like is a treat. I particularly love the line from the title track "Life Like" that says "...consider my life, I'm wild but I'm not free." Thus far, my favorite tracks are "Cape Fear", "Bow to the Middle", and "Hello Darling." This might just be The Rosebuds most complete, well rounded effort yet. Check it out.

THE ROSEBUDS

Here is a great promotional video that has a few seconds from each song!