take a look / listen
WALLPAPER.
MCB has a copy of VANDAVEER's latest called"Divide & Conquer" and playing Detroit very soon.
1st emailer gets it - motorcityblog@earthlink.net
Vandaveer is Mark Charles Heidinger (whose name might sound familiar if you know These United States) and will be joined by vocalist Rose Guerin.
Thu 9/03 Detroit, MI – PJ’s Lager House
Vandaveer is the alt-folk song singing/record making/globetrotting project penned and put forth by DC-by-way-of-Kentucky tunesmith Mark Charles Heidinger. The son of a preacher, whose father was a gambler, whose father was both judge and US Congressman, Heidinger one day found himself in possession of a golden pocket watch owned, wound, and regularly counseled by each in this paternal line. On the backside of the watch was a family name engraved, passed down for more than a century likes the timepiece that followed. That name was Vandaveer.Released in 2007, Vandaveer’s debut album, Grace & Speed, was a stark, intimate, stripped down affair. The press responded heartily, with The Washington Post saying Vandaveer “revives the earnestness of the pre-psychedelic 60’s,” and XM Cafe describing him as “this generation’s Nick Drake.”
Touring continually and building fanbases on both sides of the Atlantic ever since, Vandaveer has played 250+ shows, sharing stages with a host of humbling artists including Bon Iver, Vetiver, Alela Diane, Alejandro Escovedo, Vashti Bunyan, Bill Callahan, Fleet Foxes, Evan Dando, Scout Niblett, and the like. Mark Charles Heidinger is also known to fraternize and conspire with other music-making hooligans, primarily as a bassist for fellow DCers These United States. Vandaveer’s sophomore effort, Divide & Conquer, touches upon similar themes found in Grace & Speed, winding timeworn themes of love & death, malice & goodwill, despair & perseverance into (mostly) four-minute vignettes.
To see D&C through, Vandaveer enlisted the assistance of longtime collaborator and producer Duane Lundy, These United States bandmates Robby Cosenza and Justin Craig, and most notably, his fair sister Rose Guerin, supplying the loveliest harmonies this side of Eden. A decidedly more produced venture, D&C offers up a flourishing chamber folk companion to Vandaveer’s bedroomy lo-fi folk/pop debut.
Released in France in April 2009 on Alter-K Records/Discograph, Divide & Conquer was hailed by the French Rolling Stone as “jarring new folk.” Rock and Folk Magazine added, “It is impossible not to be touched by the beauty of these haunting pieces.”
The Danvilles’ EP “Number One” Check out The Danvilles DVD EP here:
http://thedanvilles.blip.tv/
When you mix together two parts surf-rock, one part 60s pop, a dash of Brit-rock, and a large helping of good ole Rock ‘N Roll, the result is The Danvilles, a combination of layered harmonies with strong guitar riffs and driving rhythms, The Danvilles, debut EP, "Number One" is a seven-track exploration of simple rock and roll.
Comprised of Michael Hindert (vocals and guitar), Brian Dexter (drums and backing vocals) and Gary Schaff (bass and backing vocals), this Northern Virginia based trio have ventured out to create rock music infused with influences from artists of yesteryear.
Epitomizing the DIY (do it yourself) movement, The Danvilles have self-produced a DVD EP that features a video for each track on the EP. Maintaining an unconventional, artistic approach in the creation of their art, the DVD is The Danvilles visual interpretation of their songs, creating a multi-sensory experience that combines their music with creative, artistic images that stimulate both the ears and eyes.
More about The Danvilles:
Inspired by 1960s pop and surf guitars the Virginia based trio, The Danvilles, have taken their love for music of yesterday, combined it with rock ‘n roll, and developed a sound all their own.The creation of The Danvilles was long in the making. Drummer/backing vocalist, Brian Dexter (aka Dex), and lead singer/guitarist Michael Hindert have known each other since the first grade and have played together in many different lineups, but it wasn’t until they joined forces with their high school friend, Gary Schaff (bass/backing vocals), that The Danvilles took its current form. From its original conception about two years ago, The Danvilles began collaborating whenever they could, a feat that proved difficult with Dex and Gary on opposite coasts of the country and Michael, the eternal nomad, seldom near either coast. But thanks to the miracle of modern technology the trio was able to share ideas via email, until back in Virginia, a friend's parents went away for the weekend, where they made camp and recorded their debut EP, “Number One.”The EP, which is the second release on Merrifield Records, inspired The Danvilles first video ep. Which consists of avant garde, edgar allen poe inspired, self-produced mini films...The members of The Danvilles play in many other bands; The Dustys, No Lover, Death By Sexy, Nikki and the Weeps and Cobra Collective to name a few...
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thedanvilles
Land of Talk release Fun and Laughter EP;
US Tour dates begin October 27.
Land of Talk have announced a west coast tour beginning October 27th in San Diego, and running through November 7th in Vancouver B.C.. To complement to tour, the band will be releasing an EP with 4 new songs and 3 videos, entitled 'Fun and Laughter'. After having been sidelined for much of the year with a vocal ailment, front woman Elizabeth Powell is now gearing up for a busy fall.
Produced within the four walls of a former DDR radio station in East Berlin, The Rakes are set to release their third album, ‘Klang’, digitally on October 20th in the US. The album has been available as a UK import since March. It’s been over two years from their previous album, ‘Ten New Messages’ (2007), and a debut, ‘Capture/Release’ (2005), that was compared to the fame of The Libertines, While the past two years have witnessed a series of transformations in the UK, where no one smokes in pubs anymore, everyone’s on Twitter, and those 22 grand jobs in the city are definitely NOT alright, musically speaking, most bands who emerged alongside these post-punk/new-wave Londoners have ceased to exist. The Rakes have managed to stay strong through this period of great change and have witnessed some new changes of their own – reinventing their sound, and creating their freshest, most innovative album to date.Reuniting with a fresh new perspective, The Rakes confronted the processes necessary in completing this album with careful composure. For starters, the song selection process was much more stringent and selective, with the overall sound focused around rawness and energy. “The second album was all about trying to expand the sound,” guitarist Matthew Swinnerton admits. “Working with producers like Brendan Lynch and Jim Abbiss. This one was in the opposite direction. That very, simple direct thing. Doing it in two weeks, a song a day, not embellishing things at all and just capturing ‘a performance.”But perhaps the most captivating change for The Rakes that truly defines Klang is relocating to a fresh environment to record and produce the album in a Bauhaus designed ex-Soviet radio station in Berlin that was converted into a studio. Berlin, a scene filled with musical triumphs and countless musical rebirths allowed the band to write what they deem to be “their strongest songs to date.” "The London music scene is so dull right now - it's like wading through a swamp of shit. We just wanted to be somewhere more inspiring," said Rakes singer Alan Donohoe. "Someone suggested Berlin. It didn't take long for everyone to agree, we packed our bags and moved here just like that. We love it.” The band spent much of the year darting back and forth between their home city and this fresh, seductive new location taking the four lads on an adventure that ignited a sense of gang mentality among the band, living in an apartment on Karl Marx Allee and seeking out new thrills together in a seemingly lawless, unique environment proffered by the German capital.
HOPEWELL RELEASES "STRANGER"PERFORMS "THE DESPERATION SUITE" AT ATP NEW YORK
DOWNLOAD "STRANGER" (MP3 LINK)
Staying true to their 90's space rock roots, Hopewell releases the track "Stranger", the second single off their newest album, Good Good Desperation (2009 Tee Pee Records). A swirling, aggressive, hazy waltz in the tradition of Loop, Flying Saucer Attack, Ride and early Mercury Rev, sound is treated more as sculpture, becoming a sonic canvas for whispered vocals, heavy phase and polyrhythms as layers of feedback and fuzz wash through the speakers.The term space rock, originally describing bands in the late 60's like The Pink Floyd or albums like Bowie's Space Oddity, gave way to a 90's version that was decidedly more shoegaze oriented.
Hopewell, being part of that original Detroit Space Rock revival on Burnt Hair Records are now getting louder and hazier than ever, combining the best of both the 60's and the 90's movements.
Hopewell will perform a version of the single "Stranger", along with several other tracks from Good Good Desperation at this year's All Tomorrow's Parties Festival in Monticello, NY. Asked by The Flaming Lips to do something "out of the norm" for their set, Hopewell's performance will include a medley of song variations both old and new, topped off with a Jane's Addiction cover. Dubbing it "The Desperation Suite", the 45 minute piece will also include the addition of a female choir as well as the the avant-garde sax player Mark Marinoff.
CAPGUN COUP TO RELEASE MAUDLIN
NOVEMBER 3, 2009 ON TEAM LOVE
Omaha, NE-based Capgun Coup will release their sophomore album,
While Capgun Coup's 2007 debut, Brought To You By Nebraskafish, was a wonderfully motley snapshot collection of their evolution as a band, Maudlin is focused and lyrically personal. The new album is often a satiric commentary on the state of contemporary life, from the futility of sadness, self-pity, and ennui ("Sitting On The Sidewalk", "Now That I'm Home") to economic and social inequities ("Got Alot Of Gull", "Only The Times Are Changing") to the anesthetizing effects of technology ("Computer Screens And TVs"). With dishwater-colored and cracked glasses, Capgun Coup are almost modern, Midwestern Holden Caulfields - howling with restless dissatisfaction in anguished, dissonant vocals and armed with guitars.
Maudlin is in many ways a sonic homage to Capgun Coup's renowned energetic performances at house parties and Hotel Frank. The famed and notorious Hotel Frank in Omaha has served as a refuge for, and breeding ground of, young musicians and artists since the late '80s. It's also where the band used to live with 23 friends and where the new album was born. The album radiates with youthful, impish verve, from songs like the raw "Bad Bands" to the languid, loudly murmuring "Farnam Street" to the surf-rocking, whirlwind tempest "When I'm Gone". Exploring the ups and downs of a culture of carousing, frontman Sam Martin delivers clever, lyrical turns of phrase. Capgun Coup recorded Maudlin live, all together in one room, with the help of AJ Mogis, who captured their live sound and highlighted the innate pop sensibility that threads through their vibrant cacophony of alternately angular and loosely jangling guitars and rattling drums.
Capgun Coup is: Sam Martin (vocals, guitar), Greg Elsasser (guitar, vocals), Eric Ohlsson (drums), Jess McKelvey (guitar), and Roadie (bass).
