video: Against Me!--"Rapid Decompression"

Gainesville's Against Me! has announced the tracks for their upcoming release, White Crosses and also has thrown out this video for the first single (?) "Rapid Decompression."

White Crosses will be pre-empted with a digital ep release called I Was A Teenage Anarchist according to their website. The EP will come out on 4/20.

No real surprises--just gritty punkabilly on a major label. Good for them. And dates for the tour that totally skips Florida and track listings for both albums after the jump...



I Was A Teenage Anarchist
Release Date: 4/20/10

I Was A Teenage Anarchist
Rapid Decompression
One By One
Bitter Divisions

White Crosses
Release Date: June 2010

White Crosses
I Was A Teenage Anarchist
Because Of The Shame
Suffocation
We're Breaking Up
High Pressure Low
Ache With Me
Spanish Moss
Rapid Decompression
Bamboo

U.S. Tour Dates

04/16/10 Greenville, SC @ The Handlebar
04/17/10 Richmond, VA @ Alley Katz
04/18/10 Charlottesville, VA @ Jefferson Theater
04/20/10 Newport, KY @ The Historic Southgate House
04/21/10 Louisville, KY @ Headliners Music Hall
04/22/10 Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig
04/23/10 Toledo, OH @ Headliners
04/24/10 Buffalo, NY @ The Town Ballroom
04/25/10 South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
04/26/10 New Haven, CT @ Toad's Place
04/28/10 Portland, ME @ Port City Music Hall
04/29/10 Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony
04/30/10 Farmingdale, NY @ The Crazy Donkey
05/02/10 Pittsburgh, PA @ Diesel
05/04/10 Rock Island, IL @ Rock Island Brewing Company
05/05/10 Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
05/06/10 Colorado Springs, CO @ The Black Sheep
05/07/10 Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad
05/08/10 Henderson, NV @ Punk Rock Bowling at Sunset Station Hotel and Casino
05/10/10 Lubbock, TX @ Jake's
05/11/10 San Antonio, TX @ Scout Bar



More after the jump...

review: Look Mexico - To Bed To Battle

Look Mexico
To Bed To Battle
Suburban Home, 2010

Not bigger, not badder, but Tallahassee's Look Mexico is different. Gone are most of the pretenses of light math-rock and obvious instrumental dueling; in are clever modern rock ballads with even a few alt-country hints. What stays are the funny song names, like "They Offered Me A Deal (I Said No, Naturally) and "Take It Upstairs, Einstein."

Look Mexico "You Stay. I Go. No Following." from Look Mexico HD on Vimeo.

All of this made me think of the lighter aspects of an emo band like Braid or the near dead-on mainstream interpretation of This Town Needs Guns or perhaps the dirtier version of White Rabbits and Tapes and Tapes. Or maybe I just described The Weakerthans. I think I did.

After the Gasp Asp EP, I expected more straight-ahead pop-punk-rock, but Look Mexico doesn't deliver that, instead choosing thoughtfulness more than any classifiable genre.

Take that Einstein song. "Am I the witty update on your screen?" is a nice line poked into a ballad with a recognizable, repeatable melody that kowtows more to...what? It's a good and powerful song, it's not a Look Mexico song, more apt for a side project.

This is an unusual play for more fans, obviously their ambitions go more than any light punk ghetto-ization would allow. Problem is I like this album and I like Look Mexico. "I Live My Life a Quarter Mile At A Time" reels in moody modern rock with a punch to the familiar, "Until The Lights Burn Out?" has this space freak out moment, and "They Offered Me A Deal..." may be the best pop-rock song ever written. The opener, "You Stay. I Go. No Following." is a perfectly played song, it arches and glides and peaks and I even want to sing along on the chorus. The requisite components for SUCCESS are there.

So I accept these rock songs for all their foibles, most of them stand better as single listening experiences than they do as a whole. Guess that doesn't matter, our existence is fragmented anyway, right?

Though with this record, I can't help but think of Look Mexico as appealing chameleons--and I'm sure their move to Austin, TX will not sort things out, but only add more to the mix.

This is a stab by Look Mexico at something somewhere, I'm just not sure the target has been set, the parameters established. Anything and everything is game, which may mean nothing will work. Or that anything has to work.



More after the jump...

Friday Five: 5 Favorite Florida Bands

Did this once before with North Carolina bands, but Florida is deep and wide. So all of the bands have the qualifier of "right now." There is no blood from surfers, no people that I'm against! and all of this is subject to change if Further Seems Forever gets back together in the next 24 hours...

5) Have Gun Will Travel





Part St. Pete bar band, part Americana innovators, Have Gun Will Travel's Postcards From A Friendly City was recently adopted by Suburban Home Records. No excuse not to find these guys.

4) Only Thieves





Greetings From Levy Park, the Only Thieves rocking debut is so good, but I originally thought they were from Jersey. Guess it was the album title. Have no fear, they rock it right in Tallahassee, snap!

3) Mouse Fire



Mouse Fire: "This Is How I throw My Slider"

I got Wooden Teeth when someone accidentally gave it to me. I soon realized how much Lujo Records and I see eye to eye. Word is, new album from Lakeland's Mouse Fire in May.

2) Look Mexico




Look Mexico: "You're Not Afraid of The Dark Are You?"

This kind of messes up my list, because according to this article most of the band is moving to Texas next week. Surprisingly, their old stuff is lighter and more mature than their new stuff, which is more straight ahead punkish-rock. Soon, indie rock kids at Florida State will say..."Look Mexico was so chill. We used to hang out with them all the time before they were on the radio..." Their new album comes out in March. See their tour dates here.

1) John Ralston



John Ralston: "Fragile"

I just discovered John Ralston in the last few months, but I knew John Ralston. A Legends of Rodeo song popped up on iTunes and I was like, "dang they are so legendary...what happened to them? To where have they RECESSed?"

Soon, I found the John Ralston MySpace page and hooked myself up with the album Sorry Vampire. It came out a few years ago, and he's had an EP since then...but expect more becaue my THEORY is that he's heating up again.

Honorable Mention: Holiday Shores, Greenland is Melting
More after the jump...

Swing South: Look Mexico

Look Mexico "You Stay. I Go. No Following." from Look Mexico HD on Vimeo.

Almost forgot. Look Mexico is going on a blast of a tour for their new album, To Bed To Battle in March from Suburban Home. Couple of shows in the FL will be album release parties before embarking on a longer tour. A few of those shows is with Tallahassee's Only Thieves, which I love as well. All signs point to this album as Look Mexico's "breakout" and "crossover." Rawk. Southern dates after the jump...


Feb 25 2010
8:00P
1982 (To Bed To Battle-CD Release Show) w/Only Thieves & Greenland Is Melting Gainesville,

Feb 26 2010
8:00P
Backbooth (To Bed To Battle-CD Release Show) w/Only Thieves Orlando, Florida

Feb 27 2010
6:00P
EARLY - The Porch (To Bed To Battle-CD Release Show) w/Only Thieves Brandon, Florida
Feb 27 2010
10:00P
LATE - New World Brewery (To Bed To Battle-CD Release Show) w/Only Thieves Tampa,

Feb 28 2010
8:00P
Doozer’s w/Only Thieves (ALL AGES) Jacksonville, Florida

Mar 2 2010
8:00P
Caledonia Lounge Athens, Georgia

Mar 3 2010
8:00P
New Brookland Tavern West Columbia, South Carolina

Mar 4 2010
8:00P
The Casbah at Tremont Music Hall Charlotte, North Carolina

Mar 5 2010
8:00P
Tir Na Nog Raleigh, North Carolina

Mar 6 2010
8:00P
Canal Club Richmond, Virginia

Mar 12 2010
8:00P
The Soapbox Wilmington, North Carolina

Mar 13 2010
8:00P
Harvest of Hope St. Augustine, Florida

Mar 14 2010
8:00P
Harvest of Hope St. Augustine, Florida

Mar 16 2010
8:00P
Vino’s Little Rock, Arkansas


More after the jump...

review: Holiday Shores---Columbus'd The Whim

Holiday Shores
Columbus'd The Whim
Two Syllable Records, 2009

Holiday Shores: "Phones Don't Feud"

Wanted to review the Holiday Shores album for a few reasons. #1 CMJ buzz. #2 The album's name is "Columbus'd The Whim." Nice verb action. #3 Tallahassee. #4 It's the holidays.

Columbus'd has some nautical feelings going on, as well as the word "Shores" so get ready for some laid-back sailor tales. But instead of hard-charging, hard-cussing metal, there's a lot of pseudo-Carribean playfulness punctuated with an Animal Collective high-pitched experimentation, which in the clash of buzz bands means: Vampire Weekend meets Animal Collective. For reals. Sickening, I know. The only prob with that is that Holiday Shores doesn't have either band's proclivity for melody or memorable experimentation, which means very few things stick. Maybe this is "lo-fi" too, and I'm a little conflicted about not only what that means, but what that sounds like in this digital age.

All that came out bad. Real bad.

Holiday Shores - Errand of Tongue from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

But then "Dens" makes me like this band, with its quiet distorted, hollowed creeping, and I like the "steel-ness" on "Phones Don't Feud." I like the round of "oh-oh-ohs" on"Errand of Tongue," which is like a lava lamp haphazardly place on a keyboard. "Bradley Bear" is that minimalist beach song that the hippies play for the tourists in Ft. Lauderdale and "I'll Spend Money I Don't Have" is experimental audio at its honest best, again the echo chamber, again the wandering keys. Founder and key member Nathan Pemberton is like any promising musician--thinking, wondering, wishing, creating.

Another winner--"Edge of Our Lives." This is a key track, it has some funky breakdowns in it, adheres to a tighter structure, maximizes its keyboard parts, has the requisite hip fuzziness, encapsulates all of Holiday Shores' unique sounds, but packages it in concisely. I like this song a lot. "Experiencer" is another like that, as the chorus intones "I don't know things I don't know..." and on and on and on, with Pemberton's warble and newly fashioned surf rock, it holds together well, is "experimental" without too many key changes and ups and downs to be typically deemed as "experimental." This isn't of course Animal Collective or Vampire Weekend, but Holiday Shores--an entity in their own right.

All that came out well. Real well.
More after the jump...

review: Greetings From Levy Park, T.L.H Only Thieves

Only Thieves
Greetings From Levy Park, T.L.H
Self-released, 2009




There's something instantly likable about Only Thieves--a je ne sais quoi that makes them instantly memorable. Can't put my finger on it. On the tip of my tongue. That same quality that made Hey Mercedes, Nada Surf and The Promise Ring bands to admire. An unimpeachable optimism that shines through even when singing about horrible badness. An ability to transmit bounciness while sitting still. Don't know what it is---the charisma, the ineffable "knack"--but Only Thieves has it.

It's appropriate to review this EP this time of the year, the first song is titled "Hammered for the Holidays," a tongue-in-cheek song about a treacherous drunken trip down the interstate and late for Christmas. This is a punk band in the loosest sense, a crowded bar rock band-type that is capable of playing the hits while making their own shine through. "Hammered" will be added to the canon of ironic holiday songs, the tradition laid by "Grandma Got Ran Over By Reindeer" and that Adam Sandler has maximized.

The third song, "Watertower Scars" is perfectly suburban, perfectly real and again perfectly bouncy, making rock better for being pop. "Ghosts In Your Bedroom" and "I Got Left Behind" kind of makes me want to clap or at least slap someone repeatedly on the back--the repetitive intros sets the pacing up perfect for making the chorus stick so well, two simple numbers done well.

All of this is wrapped nicely by "Does This Bus Stop at 8th Avenue?" an inquiring screed about familial love transmitted through transportation. Again with The Promise Ring, it's something right off of Nothing Feels Good and there's nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all, though the Thieves tone their distortion down. A solid 5-song EP that I've already returned to repeatedly. Only Thieves will be stealing our joy if they don't have a full-length hit soon.
More after the jump...

review: Our Hearts Are Gold, Our Grass is Blue by Greenland is Melting

Our Hearts Are Gold, Our Grass is Blue
Greenland is Melting
Self-released, 2009

Don't know what to make of the folk-punk movement. The Avett Brothers are they folk-punk? What about Against Me!? But with Gainesville's Greenland is Melting, these songs could be punk, could be folk, but are great. Another thing--a good name is half the battle for listening, I don't care, if your name sucks, it says something about your aesthetic, you know like a book with a cool cover.

"No More Sorry Songs" is that heartbreaking, but catchy narrative song about locked up letters, and then Kyle or Will or Shaun or whoever the vocalist is, yells "This is life, this is life, this is life" and it is and we know it is, and "it's the form of a song that no one should ever hear" but we've heard it and we're better for it.





"The Kitchen Song" is self-deprecating, relaxed, no songs for the radio, but songs for the kitchens and basements of friends. Pull up a bucket, a bar stool, a plastic fold out chair and sit down and sit and sit. That feels good.

"Hotel Floors" brings the harmonica, the harmonica is under used. Everyone needs a harmonica. Everyone needs Woody Guthrie, too. The details, the details--"I changed my socks three times today," everything is wet, everything is pouring, I hate peeling off wet socks too. The details, the details.

There are more songs here for sure, but the details, the details makes Greenland is Melting a band to watch. Oh yeah...listen to "Blood on the Banjo" too--that's a good one.

More after the jump...