Wednesday October 3rd, 2011

If you haven’t heard of Larry And His Flask you should do yourself a favor and give them a listen.  They played my favorite show of 2010 and they’ve only gotten bigger after the warped tour so this might be one of the last chances to catch them in this town.  Trust me you’ll like it. – Corey Rader

About Larry And His Flask:

Musical anthropologists interested in the study of just how fast a band can evolve need look no further than the six upright, upstanding men in Oregon’s Larry and His Flask.

Formed by brothers Jamin and Jesse Marshall in 2003, the Flask (as the band’s expanding army of fans calls them) spent its first half-decade stuck in a primordial, punk-rock goop, where a blood-sweat-and-beers live show took priority over things like notes and melodies. Don’t misunderstand: The band was (somewhat) skilled and an absolute joy to watch, but the goal was always the party over perfection.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Determined to make music for a living or die trying, the six brothers set out in a van, intent on playing for anyone, anywhere at any time. From coffee shops to dive bars and street corners to theater stages, the Flask honed their sound and show through experience, attacking each gig like buskers who must grab and hold the attention of passersby in hopes of collecting enough change to get to the next town.

By 2009, Larry and His Flask’s train began gaining steam. The band’s new songs are a blurry blend of lightning fast string-band picking, gorgeous nods to old-school country, and sublime multi-part harmonies, all presented through a prism of punk chaos. The boys have grown and changed, yes, but their shows are still gloriously physical displays of live music’s sheer power. In other words, keep your eyes peeled, or risk taking the heavy end of Jesse Marshall’s flailing, stand-up bass right between the eyes.

A slot supporting the Dropkick Murphys in the Flask’s hometown led to an invitation to open for the Celtic punk kingpins across the eastern half of the United States, as well as an opportunity to finally record their new, twangier sound. The result is Larry and His Flask’s three-song, self-titled 7″ record, pressed in a limited run that’s quickly being snapped up by the band’s new fans, who’ve been clamoring for a sip of aural hooch to call their own.

In mid-2010, the Flask is holed up in their crash pad in Central Oregon, working on songs for their first full-length, playing gigs here and there, and, in the words of Jesse Marshall, “fixing the van and all our broken shit” in anticipation of the next leg of a lifelong tour. Keep up with the band’s never-ending tour schedule at www.larryandhisflask.com

Friday September 2nd, 2011

About Hillbilly Casino:

In a town known more for generating pop country ‘hat acts’ and contemporary christian music, there is a storm brewing. small independent bands with no management, booking, record labels (or even local media support) are changing the way people think about Nashville Tennessee. One of the leaders of this movement is the Hillbilly Casino, the brain child of Nic Roulette, former singer for Indiana rockabilly powerhouse, ‘The Blue Moon Boys”.

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In 2004 Roulette moved to Nashville, where after about a year he eventually found a solid core of top notch players that were interested in really being a band. With bassist Geoff Firebaugh (BR5-49), guitarist Ronnie Crutcher (Tabasko Kat, Brian Setzer’s Nashvillians) and drummer Andrew Dickson (Brian Setzer’s Nashvillains) things really started to come together. What started as nothing more than a revved up rockabilly band playing for tips at Layla’s Bluegrass Inn, on Nashville’s famed Lower Broadway, has turned into a closet industry doing over 200 shows a year. Though you might still find the Casino playing at Layla’s when they’re home, they’ve taken their show on the road as well. Theatres, clubs, and backwater bars From Hollywood California to Bergen Norway have seen the boys roll in, set up, and lay waste to any and all in attendance. Whether they’re in some small club on their own, or supporting acts like the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Rancid, or The Reverend Horton Heat, These boys can play on any stage, in front of any audience, and own it. In December 2006, The Hillbilly Casino opened several dates for the Brian Setzer Orchestra, and every night this virtually unknown (at the time) band recieved standing ovations, and had new fans lining up to get their debut CD ‘Sucker Punched’. Now they’ve got three full length CD’s under their belt. ‘Sucker Punched’, (Dec.2006), ‘Three Step Windup’ (April,2008) and ‘Hang Your Stockings….. Say Your Prayers’ the band’s Christmas CD (Nov, 2008). Each one totally DIY, produced and engineered by Firebaugh and Dickson and recorded in Andrew Dickson’s garage, lovingly known as ‘Studio D’. Each CD blends elements of honkytonk, rockabilly, psychobilly, and straight up rock and roll. Every member of the Hillbilly Casino brings their own special flavor to the band, from Nic’s background in hip hop and rockabilly, to Geoff’s love of old school punk rock and ska, and you’ll find elements of all of this in every Hillbilly Casino record and show. 2008 also saw the release of ‘Buy-in’ a full length Documentary by Doug Farrar at Rockstep Creative. Doug followed the band around for over a year, attending dozens of shows, and collecting performance, and interview footage, which he compiled into a revealing look at a band just trying to make a living and have fun. While you’ll see alot of bands sitting around waiting to get ‘signed’, the Hillbilly Casino took a cue from bands like Black Flag, Fugazi, and Youth Brigade, booking their own tours, and producing and releasing their own CD’s and T-shirts, and spending hundreds of hours in their old grey econoline van getting the rock ‘n’ roll out to the people.

Click here to view the embedded video.

poster by Jake Sauer

Monday June 20th, 2011
Another F’n Promoter Presents:
PEELANDER-Z
Definitely Gary
10PM
$6

PEELANDER-Z, the Japanese Action Comic Punk Band based in NYC, was originally formed in 1998 by Peelander-Yellow, Peelander-Red, and Peelander-Blue, after meeting in New York City (although they’ll tell you they’re all from the Z area on the planet Peelander). Peelander-Green was welcomed in July 2008 after Blue left the band.

Peelander-Z has appeared at major music festivals including Bonnaroo, CMJ and SXSW, and played with artists such as Buckethead, Electric SIx, Particles, The Vibrators, and Guitar Wolf. Peelander-Z has also been featured on TV programs like VH1′s Best Week Ever, Comedy Central’s Upright Citizens Brigade, Spike TV’s MXC: Most Extreme Challenge, and Anime Network. They also often perform at Anime conventions and festivals all over the US, as well as at Kaiju Big Battel.

At their live show, you’ll see the band in colorful costumes reminiscent of Japanese Animation, though they describe their outfit as their skin. Their shows guarantee intense audience participation and chance to exercise with the band. “Do human bowling with us. Do limbo dancing with us. Do karaoke competition with us. Hit our cowbell with us,” says Yellow. ” Don’t be shy, give us your smile! We can beat your stress! See you at our show!”
One experience would capture you. Jsut pay attention to their coming activities.

Tuesday June 21st, 2011

About Scott H. Biram
Rock ‘n’ Roll ain’t pretty and neither is Scott H. Biram. The self proclaimed ‘Dirty Old One Man Band’ successfully, and sometimes violently, lashes together blues, hillbilly and country precariously to raucous punk and godless metal. ??Biram ain’t no dour ass singer/songwriter either, sweetly strumming songs about girls with big eyes and dusty highways. HELL NO!!! His singing, yodeling, growling, leering and brash preachin’ and hollerin’ is accompanied by sloppy riffs and licks from his 1959 Gibson guitar and pounding backbeat brought forth by his amplified left foot. The remainder of this one-man band consists of an unwieldy combination of beat-up amplifiers and old microphones strung together by a tangled mess of guitar cables.??

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Years of non-stop touring have honed his assault to a fine edge; his wide-eyed throw downs in the First Church of Ultimate Fanaticism routinely lead giddy followers to a fiery baptism.??Scott H. Biram wont die. On May 11th, 2003, one month after being hit head-on by an 18-wheeler at 75 MPH, he took the stage at The Continental Club in Austin, TX in a wheel chair – I.V. still dangling from his arm. With 2 broken legs, a broken foot, a broken arm and 1 foot less of his lower intestine, Biram unleashed his trademark musical wrath.??When Scott H. Biram took the stage at his 2004 SXSW festival showcase right after Kris Kristofferson he was quoted as growling “They said that was a hard act to follow….I’m a hard act to follow motherfuckers!!” The stunned crowd looked on.?

About The Dirt Daubers
Colonel JD Wilkes (The Legendary Shack Shakers) and his wife Jessica, along with “Slow” Layne Hendrickson, make up the hillbilly/hokum trio THE DIRT DAUBERS! Hailing from western Kentucky, these three caterwaulin’ hooligans sing loud and proud an ecclectic mix of Appalachian, ragtime, and hot jazz standards and original music.

With their first ever performance having taken place at London’s Raindance Film Festival, the DIRT DAUBERS are off to a rousing, rollicking start. Be sure to catch their special brand of jangling tomfoolery at a hootenanny near YOU!

Y’all come.

The Dirt Daubers, according to the Missoula (MT) Independent:

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Often I find that most new artists mining the tropes of ‘traditional’ or ‘Americana’ music—and they are legion—leave me cold and disinterested. Too often it sounds like a batch of wanky college kids turning an ironic wink-and-nudge at a historic art form, sans reverence. The Dirt Daubers are a notable exception. This eponymous debut is the most fun I’ve had with a new release in some time.

The band is comprised of Kentuckians Colonel JD Wilkes (The Legendary Shack Shakers), his wife Jessica and ‘Slow’ Layne Hendrickson. Over the course of 10 tracks, none of which cracks the three-minute barrier, their eclectic mix of what ultimately strips down as ‘hillbilly’ music sounds utterly authentic.

These musicians understand traditional music isn’t about virtuosity; at no point did I feel like I was listening to the Joe Satriani of the fiddle, for example. Instead I felt a perfectly captured vibe of what I like best about Americana: short songs that tell stories about simple life, with rousing sing-a-longs, played on instruments that can be easily toted to the front porch on a particularly humid summer night. All that’s missing are the cicadas, the kudzu and the aroma of tobacky.”

Monday June 6th, 2011

The Murder Junkies were the last backing band of notorious punk rock performer GG Allin. After Allin’s death, his brother and bassist Merle Allin, guitarist William Weber, and drummer Dino Sex decided to continue the band without GG. They recruited a new singer Mike Denied, and have released the album Feed My Sleaze. The band tours sporadically and has gone through several line up changes.

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The most comtemporary singer has been J.B. Beverley, a musician from the Washington DC area who fronts two other bands, The Little White Pills and The Wayward Drifters. Jeff Clayton of Anti-seen has also toured with the Murder Junkies during some of the 1990′s and during the 10th and 11th anniversary of GG’s death.

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poster by Jake Sauer

SOLD OUT

Saturday May 28th, 2011
The Queers
The Front
The Manges
Flamingo Nosebleed
Lurking Corpses
10PM
$8 tickets available on line and at the bar

The Queers are a pop punk band from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, formed in 1982. Singer/Guitarist/Songwriter Joe King has been the principal member of the group, with a vast number of musicians cycling in and out of the band over the years. Supposedly, the band name ‘Queers’ was used simply to poke fun at what he called the “Art Fag” community in NH. That same brand of humor and inanity has become a staple of The Queers music, who have produced songs such as “Can’t Stop Farting”, “Born to Do Dishes”, and “I Didn’t Get Invited To The Prom” in their own Ramones-esque style. While some punk rock bands attempt to use their music to impart a social or political message, King has made it clear that The Queers exist simply to play punk rock for the fun of it.

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The Queers play a Ramones style of pop punk with songs about girls and beer. King has often collaborated with Ben Weasel, from Screeching Weasel. The band begun with a notoriety primarily in their own backyard, but with the release of Love Songs for the Retarded, recorded by legendary punk producer Mass Giorgini, their following grew to international proportions. They have collaborated with Mass Giorgini several times since.

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Along with his casual acquaintance Ben Weasel, Joe King has criticized the re-emergence of the street punk scene and what he sees as the glorification of violence and class warfare by certain bands.

About THE FRONT

“The-Front are a raucous street-punk unit led by feisty, whip-cracking singer Lauren Bayert. The tracks on their self-titled debut will fit perfectly after Joan Jett, but before GBH on your favorite mix tapes.”

Friday June 3rd, 2011

Biography

The Two Man Gentlemen Band’s original brand of raucous, retro vaudevillian swing is fast becoming an underground sensation.  Three short years ago, The Gentlemen were playing marathon sets for tips in New York City’s parks and subways.  These days, they traverse the country incessantly, playing hundreds of shows per year for legions of dedicated fans and even catching the attention of big-names like Bob Dylan & Willie Nelson, for whom The Gents opened a handful of shows last summer.

The Gentlemen’s memorable, pithy compositions combine the sounds of hot jazz, vintage rhythm & blues, and tin-pan alley with boundless energy and enthusiasm.  Andy Bean pounds out intricate, rapid-fire chord changes and melodies on an assortment of antique 4-string guitars and banjos.  Bassist Fuller Condon dances around the fingerboard with a punchy, driving style that renders a drummer unnecessary.  Their “keen vocal harmonies” (The New Yorker) recall 20s and 30s groups like the Mills Brothers and The Cats & The Fiddle while their lyrics are “so off the beaten path as to be virtually cliche free.” (Bluegrass Journal)  Few other songwriters so deftly address such a wide range of topics; from the familiar – love, fancy beer, reefer – to the utterly peculiar – William Howard Taft, mathematics, rabbit meat.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Two Man Gentlemen Band’s live show – honed by three years of barnstorming from coast to coast – is an absolute must-see.  Some reviews: “Terrifically entertaining!” (Mountain Xpress – Asheville, NC)  “An unparalleled experiment in controlled chaos!” (Seven Days – Burlington, VT)  “This kind of good time is rarely seen anymore!” (Valley Advocate – Northampton, MA).  “Romping, outstanding fun!” (About.com)

Consummate entertainers, The Gents match their instrumental prowess with enough charisma to woo even the most skeptical listener.  They very simply command your attention.  Their improvised banter, with each other and the audience, is as entertaining as the music.  And the stomping shout-alongs that pepper their shows whip crowds into a sort of frenzy not typically associated with acoustics duos.  Their showmanship and panache transcend whatever niche their musical style suggests.  “I don’t like much old-fashioned music,” The Gentlemen hear often from concertgoers, “but I love you guys!”

The Two Man Gentlemen Band has released four albums on New York City’s Serious Business Records.  Two more – a live recording and a studio release – will be available in early 2010.

Instrumentation
Andy Bean – Vocals, 4-string Guitars & Banjos
Fuller Condon – Vocals, Upright Bass

Discography
Live in NEW YORK (Available Feb 2010, Serious Business Records)
Drip Dryin’ (2009, Serious Business Records)
Heavy Petting (2008, Serious Business Records)
Great Calamities (2006, Serious Business Records)
Two Man Gentlemen Band (2005, Serious Business Records)

Press Quotes

“They’ve got charisma, energy, and kazoos, and they definitely have fun up there, with compositions that are little bit dorky and a little bit dirty.” – AM New York

“Think of them as a mix between Squirrel Nut Zippers and They Might be Giants. I played their new CD while cleaning the house last weekend, and it was spotless in record time.” – USA Today

“Smart and amiable, the music makes for a fun listen.” – Denver Post

“Creating a buzz… the vaudevillian, comic, banjo, and kazoo playing duo [is] not as innocent as it might seem.” – The Boston Globe

Click here to view the embedded video.

“The Two Man Gentlemen Band is one of the best new groups coming out of the East Coast old timey scene. Heavy Petting is romping, outstanding fun. It plays like a party.” – About.com

“One of the funniest albums I’ve listened to in a long time. Andy Bean writes lyrics so off the beaten path, they are virtually cliche free. The Two Man Gentlemen Band should go down as the duo who made kazoo hip again.” – Bluegrass JournalBiography

Tuesday June 7th, 2011

In my short lived “pre-music” days I was a footballer. I played center for the Conshohocken Golden Bears. I weighed in at 68lbs and I sucked hard. Once we played “East Falls” on the frozen dirt field across the street from “Pat’s Steaks” in South Philadelphia. I’m guessing we lost. Mostly I remember “East Falls” hitting their thigh pads and clapping their hands to the Queen “We Will Rock You” beat and chanting “Put ‘em in the Graveyard ooh ah” over and over. It was terrifying.

In the past our band never played many new songs before records were “officially” released. We always felt new albums/new songs were best absorbed as complete thoughts…records had sequence and rhythm, each song made more sense propped up by its fellow jams, and as the final guitars or bagpipes rang out you could feel like you’d been on a kinda rock & roll journey. We still feel that way. But…

Considering it’s been such a long time since we shared a song and dance together we wanna put this out there for y’all…something new to enjoy and discuss while we wait for the other shoe to drop. We also promise that your $contribution will not be blown in some smoky pub but will aid us greatly in bringing a lot more “unreleased” Marah music into the world this year. Think of the mix tape possibilities.

“Put ‘em in the Graveyard” is not a “single” in the “Love is a Battlefield”, “Shock The Monkey” kinda way, but merely a new song we are quietly and independently “making available” now due to the timely Halloweenish connotation of its title. Get it?

In 2010 we are gonna play in Syracuse and Serbia. We will spill buckets of sweat on SXSW in Texas and The Basque Country and hopefully Green Bay too. We’re gonna need to work real hard but It’s exciting, we’re gonna do it. We’re still in.

Click here to view the embedded video.

poster by Ben Lyon

Sunday July 10th, 2011
Nobunny
The Hemingers
Good Time Fun Club
9:30
$6

About Nobunny:

“This is the new religion” – Plastique Pop

“Like Buddy Holly run through a blender” – SPIN

“Essentially a mindfuck multiplied by a clusterfuck” – Detroit Weekly

“like a high school version of Rock & Roll High School” – Rolling Stone

Click here to view the embedded video.

Saturday May 7th, 2011

About John Vanderslice (from allmusic.com)

Raised in Florida, Georgia, and Maryland, indie rock innovator John Vanderslice grew up listening to a mix of Led Zeppelin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Kinks, and Southern rock, which instilled an eclectic musical vocabulary that informed his own songwriting. Forced into piano lessons as a child, he eventually picked up the guitar in the eighth grade and formed several bands during his teen years. His songwriting added influences from David Bowie, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, King Crimson, XTC, and early Genesis, culminating in his five-year tenure with the much-heralded experimental pop band MK Ultra. Their collaboration produced three well-received albums and resulted in an opening spot on two Sunny Day Real Estate American tours.

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In July 2007, Barsuk Records released Emerald City, yet another highly conceptual endeavor hailed for its politically charged lyrics and subtle mix of electronics and acoustic guitars. Romanian Names followed in 2009. For his next release, Vanderslice collaborated with Minna Choi and her Magik*Magik Orchestra, as well as producer John Congleton. Together, the musicians recorded White Wilderness in three days, releasing it in early 2011 via the Dead Oceans label.

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About Damien Jurado

Urban folk singer/songwriter Damien Jurado quietly built up one of the strongest catalogs on the indie scene, earning high critical praise yet somehow never quite getting his proper due. Nick Drake had a definite impact on much of his work, but Jurado modeled his career on more idiosyncratic, unpredictable figures like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, or Randy Newman — songwriters who followed their own muse wherever it took them, whether fans and critics agreed or not. His independent-mindedness was born at least in part from the influence of punk, and one of the results was a concern for emotional authenticity that led him to delve into other people’s lives instead of his own. Many of Jurado’s best songs spun concise, literate tales of quiet everyday despair, which often earned him comparisons to short story writer Raymond Carver. But his storytelling bent — not to mention his ambivalence toward confessional material — arose from a stronger grounding in traditional folk than spiritual compatriots like Elliott Smith or Cat Power. And with detours into pop, roots rock, full-fledged electric indie rock, and even found-sound experiments, Jurado ensured that his body of work was impossible to completely pin down.

A lifelong native of Seattle, Jurado started playing in a succession of local punk bands in 1989. One of them, the Christian-tinged Coolidge, also featured future Pedro the Lion mastermind David Bazan, and eventually had a track featured on the Tooth & Nail label’s Christian punk/emo compilation I’m Your Biggest Fan, Vol. 1. Meanwhile, Jurado began to explore the solo route during the mid-’90s, writing simple folk-based tunes and releasing them on his own cassette-only label, Casa Recordings. Leaded, Trailer Park Radio, and Gasoline all helped create a local cult following for Jurado, and he found an influential fan in fellow Christian and Sunny Day Real Estate singer Jeremy Enigk, who brought him to the attention of Sub Pop. After two 7″ releases on Sub Pop, “Motorbike” and “Trampoline,” Jurado issued his proper debut album, Waters Ave S., in 1997, and followed it with a spare, home-recorded EP for Made in Mexico, Gathered in Song, a year later.

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Jurado’s sophomore effort was also his breakthrough; released in 1999, the excellent Rehearsals for Departure established him as a singer/songwriter of tremendous subtlety and skill, and won near-universal critical acclaim. Jurado’s rootsy, minimalist folk-pop and fragile vocals pulled listeners in close, and his knack for a memorable hook kept them there. For his next move, Jurado confounded fans and critics alike with 2000′s Postcards and Audio Letters, a compilation of conversation fragments found on the audio cassettes that Jurado collected obsessively (from sources like thrift-store boom boxes and answering machines) and often used for songwriting inspiration.

The proper follow-up to Rehearsals for Departure was Ghost of David, issued on Sub Pop later in 2000. While it hewed mostly to the style of Rehearsals, it also dabbled in some of the found-sound collage aspects of Postcards, and wound up somewhat darker and more alien. Jurado next turned to the Burnt Toast label to issue the one-off EP Four Songs in 2001, then formed a full band dubbed Gathered in Song for a change of pace from his typically mellow style. Featuring guitarist Eric Fisher, bassist Josh Golden, and drummer Andy Myers (all of whom played more than one instrument), Gathered in Song debuted on Jurado’s next album, 2002′s fully electrified I Break Chairs. Audiences expecting another moody, late-night urban folk outing were thrown for a loop; some critics felt that Jurado was better off sticking to what he did best, while others found the transition not only convincing, but surprisingly varied and well-crafted.

Jurado subsequently parted ways with Sub Pop, looking to scale back his recording and touring activities in order to spend more time with his family and, to a lesser degree, his day job as a preschool teacher. He landed on the Indiana-based Secretly Canadian label, for whom he debuted in 2003 with Where Shall You Take Me?, a return to his trademark low-key folk-ballad style. In typical fashion, he followed it with an EP for a smaller label (Acuarela), titled Holding His Breath. A year later, he returned to Secretly Canadian for another EP, Just in Time for Something; early in 2005 his next full-length, On My Way to Absence, arrived. Jurado continued to keep busy with And Now That I’m in Your Shadow, a spare, hushed collection of songs that arrived late in 2006; early the following year, Gathered in Song was reissued with bonus tracks. His eighth full-length, Caught in the Trees, arrived in 2008, followed by the Richard Swift-produced Saint Bartlett in 2010.

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