Happy Record Store Day!  Impose Magazine put together a great feature after asking people what their favorite record store is.  I put together this quick piece about my own favorite.

Hello!  It’s been seventh months, but New York Rockmarket is up and running once again.  Over the last half year, I’ve spent all my musical energy music supervising a new show on ABC called Final Witness.  It’s going to air in March, and I can’t wait to share everything I’ve been working on with you.  Some New York Rockmarket favorites will be featured on the show, like Thee Oh Sees, JEFF the Brotherhood, Kurt Vile, Widowspeak, Young Man, Tennis, Parenthetical Girls, and I’ve discovered a ton of new music I love now, like Sean Rowe, Family Band, BOBBY, Barn Owl, Toubab Krewe, Katie Kim, The Bony King of Nowhere, and J. Pinder just to name a few.  I anticipate you’ll hear from me about a lot of these bands.  I also want to say a huge thank you to everyone who wrote to me when I shut the blog down back in May.  It was so nice to hear from people who had been reading– thank you.

I’m still frustrated with the state of music in Brooklyn.  I’ve admittedly been a bit out of touch, but I don’t see the same energy and passion from young bands coming up that I think I saw three or four years ago.  So many DIY venues have shut down, and the community feels dry to me right now.  I don’t think that the shift towards one-man(woman)-electronic-bands helps foster a sense of local community.  And I still don’t care for most of that music.  Still, there have been inspiring things happening since I left off here.  Amy Klein’s amazing blog reminded me of what I was hoping this blog would be, but wasn’t ever able to quite put my finger on- longer, thoughtful pieces on the state of rock and roll’s place in our cultural world.  I didn’t know a blog could be like that AND find an audience.  Impose Magazine continues to be a force for good in the universe, and I continue to run the photo section of their page.  And many of my old favorites, like Real Estate, have gone on to release incredible, mature albums on big-deal labels.  We’ve all grown up a little, I guess.  Still, my favorite things about music are angst, and rebellion, and that feeling you get at shows when you know that you and a room full of strangers completely understand each other without having ever spoken a word.  I’m still very confused about how those feelings fit into today’s Internet-centric music world.

With that in mind, I won’t post here every day anymore.  I most likely won’t write show suggestions, or post every day.  I plan to write about bands I come across that I like.  I plan to publish longer, thoughtful pieces when I’m able.  I haven’t been taking as many photos lately, but when I do, I will post those, too.  In the ethos of this blog, to be 100% transparent, part of the reason I’m posting again is so that I have a place to show potential music-supervising clients the type of music I like.  Not very rock and roll, and a personal conflict I will hopefully address soon in more depth.  But most of all, I will always and forever love good music, and have a compulsion to share it with others.

In that case, I’m very excited for my first new MP3.  It’s from a former classmate of mine at Swarthmore, Dwight Smith.  I’ve known Dwight to be a multi-talented guy for years, but I was pretty damn impressed when I heard these new tracks from him.  The Neutral Milk Hotel/Sufjan influences are there, but Dwight’s voice is clearly special and unique, and blends perfectly with the DIY-folk production of this track.  Check it out below, and visit his Bandcamp to pay what you wish to download another track, too.

MP3: “Ruins” – Dwight Smith

Still, some crazy things have been happening to me job-wise and life-wise.  I need to take some time off from the blog to figure out if NYRM is still something I should do.  Right now I do a lot of things, and I do an ok job.  I hope to do a few things in the future, and do them extremely well.  One of those things might be this blog, one of them might not.

I love writing about music, and I believe that cultural criticism, especially when it relates to music, is an incredibly important task to undertake.  But I’ve figured out it’s pretty much impossible for someone my age to make a living off of writing excellent music criticism (let alone finding the opportunity to become excellent in the first place).  I don’t really want to have a successful blog.  I want to be a successful music writer.  I can’t for the life of me figure out how to make that happen without mooching off of my parents the rest of my life.

I thought the key was to get a related music-industry job and blog in my spare time.  That sort of works.  But I’m beginning to suspect that the only people this whole thing is a good deal for is the people in the bands, the people actually making the music.  I want to be creating something worthwhile and bringing people together through entertainment and excellent critical thought about that entertainment.  So, while I figure out how to do that in a life-plausible way, I’m going to take a blogging break.  It might be a week or two or a few months, and I might never start back up again.  Only time will tell.  And if you know how I can make money writing, well, you know how to get in touch.

Thanks,

Madalyn

MP3: “Answering Machine” – The Replacements

It’s been a slow show week (hence the lack of posting) but everything is coming back into full force with this show.  Sure, maybe you want to watch the Yankees, but this show is going to be really, truly, musically awesome.  Women put out an incredible, thoughtful, rockingly-introspective album out in 2008, and not a peep was heard from them again.  They have a brand new album coming out this month, Public Strain, and the hype has been ludicrously non-existant.  I have my hands on a copy of the album.  I’ve only listened to half of it, but from what I can tell it’s interesting, emotional experimental guitar wrapped up into little three to four minute love songs to you.  I’ve put my favorite song from the album so far at the end of this post.  You need to see get your hands on this album when it comes out.  And DD/MM/YYYY are an incredibly entertaining live act.  Where Women’s experimental guitar sounds are teasing and low, DD/MM/YYYY’s are spastic and blasting, and their live show certainly comes off that way as well.  This is most definitely a show you won’t want to miss.

MP3: “Heat Distraction” – Women

Mountain Man Fest is a brand new DIY festival slated to take place on Saturday, July 24th in upstate New York, right near Skidmore- about a three hour drive from the city.  Some of NYRM’s favorite bands will be on the bill including Islands, Real Estate, Woods, Pill Wonder, Family Portrait, Julian Lynch, Cults, and Eternal Summers.  It’s very exciting and innovative and just exactly the type of thing that makes me rethink this whole “little fish in a big pond” thing that New York City has going on.  Basically, these two guys graduated from college last year and got decent day jobs, but then decided that they wanted to put on a totally epic music festival.  They had big ideas, but no money.  So they decided to talk to a bunch of bands and Underwater Peoples to see if they would agree to play the festival without any upfront agreed-upon pay.  Instead, the bands would sign on to the fest and then they would raise the money through ticket sales and donations on Kickstarter.  They need $65,000 to pull the whole thing off.  An ambitious, exciting, and seemingly pretty good idea.

Unfortunately, they have eight days left and only $6,332 pledged so far.  While their love of music and DIY spirit is admirable, I think there’s a few flaws in the plan.  Mostly, that the fest is only one day long and three hours away from any city.  I would TOTALLY donate more than the ticket price to this cause, but I am extremely broke and I’m not sure I’ll be able to drive three hours to see these bands and then drive three hours home.  I’m leery to give my precious money to something that seems like it may or may not happen.  Still, if it DID happen, I probably would end up going.  And having a great time.

I see the impracticalities in my own donation hesitations, but I so desperately want this to happen.  It’s a really, really cool effort and I hope it inspires more genuine things in its wake.  I’m curious to see what will happen next week if they don’t manage to raise $59,000.  Hopefully, it will still go on.  Hopefully, a few people can swoop in and make it happen.  Either way, it’s very cool food for thought.  Check out the Kickstarter page, including a video explaining everything, right here.

MP3: “Disarming The Car Bomb” – Islands

This is a ridiculous show.  The entire line-up is full of my favorite up-and-coming bands.  What makes it even crazier is the Real Estate/Family Portrait/Liam the Younger/Big Troubles show happening simultaneously just down the street.  So why does this one get my pick?  Beachniks are unpracticed but cute.  Total Slacker’s Tucker is a rocking guitar player, busting out jazzy solos like he’s single-handedly going to save art rock.  Air Waves are one of my perennial favorites and one of the most genuine songwriters out there.  Beach Fossils keep getting better and better every time I see them, and it seems more and more like they’re going to break out into the national scene.  But most important, Eternal Summers.  They’re from Virginia, so you won’t get a chance to see them as often as all of these other Brooklyn bands (though they are playing on Saturday and Sunday, as well).  I’ve never seen them before and don’t know all that much about them, but I do know that the two tracks below are some of my absolute favorites I’ve heard this year.  Smart, economical songwriting- half catchy half fuzz.  I’m really excited about this band and definitely recommend making it out to at least one of their shows this weekend.

MP3: “Able To” – Eternal Summers

MP3: “Fall Straight Back” – Eternal Summers

There’s so much going on at sxsw that it’s impossible to see even a sliver of what the week has to offer.  That’s why doing a top ten performances of the week list is sort of silly.  On the other hand, I saw some excellent new bands that I’d like to draw a little extra attention to.  For this list, I focused on bands that I might not have blogged as much about before SXSW.  Did I enjoy Real Estate’s and Japandroid’s sets at the conference?  Yes, very much so.  Was that a surprise?  Not at all, and rehashing my love for those bands isn’t very helpful for you, the reader, looking to find something new for your iTunes.  A few of these bands are already relatively popular, but I’ve blogged about them infrequently enough.  The rest are definitely up-and-comers that are worthy of being on your radar- after 57 bands, these ten stood out.   I won’t write too much about the bands, as I reviewed each of them in my previous posts.  So, without furher ado, my top ten favorite performances of SXSW 2010.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/10395772]

10) Vivian Girls at Ms. Bea’s. This stripped-down performance showed a tenderer side of the Vivian Girls, and threw the emphasis on their pleasantly flat harmonies.  It felt like a very special performance, with all of us sitting on the floor, and I enjoyed every single song.

9) Drink Up Buttercup at The Palm Door. I know that I’ve posted frequently about Drink Up Buttercup’s Beatlesesque/Waitsian operatic psych rock in the past, but it’s been awhile, and these guys have only gotten better with time.  The foursome puts so much energy into their performances; it’s rare to see a band this blissfully entertaining with such smart, excellent music.  Their new album, Born and Thrown On a Hook, is coming out any day now, and it’s high time to reacquaint yourself with this band.

8 ) Twin Sister at Micro-Pixel-Rites. I gave Twin Sister a mediocre review after their show at Webster Hall, but I saw a different side to them at this lovely outdoor bar-b-q/showcase.  Sure, they’ve got just a little bit too much of that 80s pop-synth vibe going on, but the songs are actually quite rich and complicated, with beautiful vocals and a cool stage presence that makes a lot more sense anywhere other than the Studio.  It’s only a matter of weeks before this group gets some really big attention.

7) Hunx & His Punx at Charlie’s. Gay bands in a gay bar.  This entire showcase had such a good, fun, welcoming vibe to it, and Hunx & His Punx were the apotheosis of that “everyone join in so long as you’re game” ethos.  Dressed up as felines (I saw photos from a subsequent show where there seemed to be a businessman theme), his backing band had the scuzzy punk thing down perfectly.  Hunx was a downright charming frontman, with the X factor coming out of his ears.  ”You Don’t Like Rock and Roll” is a great single, but they have four or five other, equally infectious tracks at least.  The woman pictured above, also in Shannon and the Clams, can really, really sing.  I can’t remember which band it was, but she sang a song called something like “Being Young Is Tough” and I absolutely loved it.  If anyone has an MP3 of that song they could send me…

6) Fang Island at Club Primos. Hi-fi guitar solos from a gang of recent art school grads?  Yes please. Fang Island is like Ponytail crossed with Free Energy.  Welcome to the lo-fi downswing.  How sweet it is.

5) Turbo Fruits at Lovejoy’s. We’ve been recycling garage rock since the 60s.  There’s not a whole lot of new territory to cover.  So what makes it good, then?  When you get just the right combination of musicians together, a good ‘ole fashioned garage band still never sounded so sweet. Turbo Fruits are just that kind of band.  They’re not covering any new ground, but their songs are very memorable and they play the crap out of their live shows.  As long as they’re this good, there will always be room for another Southern garage band in my heart.

4) Pill Wonder at Micro-Pixel-Rights. Pill Wonder was the only band I saw at SXSW to successfully bridge the gaps between rock, electronic, and lo-fi.  I was a bit shocked at how different they sounded from all of the songs I’d heard from various Underwater Peoples samplers, but the swells in these songs are so good that you can’t stop yourself from grinning.  Definitely an innovative band to watch out for and see live when they come to a town near you.

3) Mountain Man at Klub Krucial. When you first hear about Mountain Man, it sounds unbelievably gimmicky.  Three women singing mostly a cappella folk, with an occasional acoustic guitar thrown in.  There’s a quality to their performance that isn’t captured in that description, though, and probably can’t be captured in any description period.  They’re a very special group of musicians.  If you’re in any way a fan of Alela Diane, Joanna Newsom, or Spencer Krug, you should check this band out immediately.  If you are not in any way a fan of those artists, you should still check this band out immediately.

2) The Morning Benders at Emo’s.   The Morning Benders were certainly one of the most buzzed about bands of the week.  My feeling is that it was entirely deserved.  The poise, patience, and musicianship that has gone into their songwriting is worth the payoff you will receive if you invest even a little time into listening to this group.  The scary thing is, I don’t think they’ve even gotten good yet.

1) Alex Bleeker & The Freaks w/ Mountain Man at Ms. Bea’s. When Alex Bleeker and the rag-tag band he assembled burst into their first song, I really felt like I was transported back to another era, where rock and roll was still young and filled with endless energy.  A time before punk deconstructed the idea of guitar solos and grooving jams on sweet-sounding riffs.  I’d seen Bleeker just the day before and was only mildly impressed, but this particular time, the band burst into an absolutely air born version of “Animal Tracks” that made me feel as if I’d been lifted off the ground to watch the show from mid-air.  This band really sounds like The Band to me, and I think it’s been a long while since indie rock has been interested in emulating that type of music.  I’m hoping that this is a harbinger of things to come; this sound could get very interesting mixed in with certain other elements of sound that are en vogue today.  Or maybe that’s just the same old sound we already have.  Either way, this was a damn good performance put on by Mr. Bleeker, and it’s the one that stood out most for me at SXSW.

MP3: “Seasickness Pills” – Drink Up Buttercup

MP3: “All Around and Away We Go” – Twin Sister

MP3: “Animal Tracks” – Alex Bleeker & The Freaks

I know it’s Monday and that all of these performances happened on Saturday, but I never went to sleep that night, so it’s as if this post isn’t late.  Saturday brought freezing cold weather and drizzly rain to Austin, and it admittedly put a damper on everything.  After a miserable morning, I managed to obtain some extra clothes and rallied, for what was undoubtedly one of the craziest, most fun nights ever.

The day was supposed to start off with me checking out Smith Westerns and Let’s Wrestle at Mess With Texas, but their equipment was rained on and Gwar was taking a really long time to soundcheck, so everything was backed up.  Rather than wait around, I ran up to Red Eyed Fly to see Blair’s set.  (I saw a lot of bands I’d already seen Saturday, but all of them were just as good the second, third, or tenth time around, so I feel justified.  Plus, I was a bit burnt out on taking photos, so apologies if these are a tad sub-par.)  Buy Blair’s album Die Young right now.  Her pop-tinged tunes are going to take her places, and her set I caught at SX was even better than the one I’d seen at Pianos.  I only managed to see three songs, but they sounded very rocking, very tight, and were downright pleasant, which is something you don’t always get a lot of these days amongst all the lo-fi garage.

I went to Mess With Texas again, but still no luck.  I was worried about frostbite, so I escaped to Ms. Bea’s and happened upon a singer-songwriter, Cheyenne Mize.  I accidentally tried to steal one of her cds (I was absolutely mortified; it looked like they were giving them away!), but thought that she had a beautiful voice that went very well with her quiet, sad songs.  She plays with Ben Sollee and Daneil Martin Moore quite often and is on tour with them now.  If you’re a fan of quiet singer/songwriters I would definitely recommend her.  A lovely cold-morning surprise.

Back down to Mess With Texas for a very cold Smith Westerns set.  Jay Reatard’s ex-bassist was there watching, as evidenced by his hair in the photo below.  Smith Westerns are a wonderful young rock band.  The stage was a bit too big for them, but their swagger is reminiscent of bands that I didn’t think there were any of left, and I love that they just ooze sex appeal.  I’m not sure how we arrived at this point, but it’s actually refreshing to hear a band just singing about girls, wearing leather jackets, and tossing their hair back as they play scuzzy solos.  Their sound is simple, but well-honed, and I can’t wait to hear the new songs they played on record.  If Morning Benders are the young virtuosos, then Smith Westerns are their evil twin punks.  And I guess that makes Surfer Blood the brightly colored second cousins who I just don’t like quite as much.

After waiting around slightly too long for Let’s Wrestle, I gave up and headed back to Ms. Bea’s.  Bobby Birdman was just setting up, then proceeded to sing karaoke with a live drummer.  Actually, sometime he was just dancing along to pre-recorded vocals.  The man has a very charming way about him, but there’s so little to the live performance that it’s really rather dull.  I was relieved to see that Vivian Girls were setting up next, specially for a quiet, stripped-down set.  I’ve never felt all that positively about Viv Girls, though never that negatively either, but this was a heart-grabbing performance.  Asking everyone to sit on the floor, they quietly played through a few of their tunes, with an emphasis on vocals.  They sounded raw and stunning.  It gave me a better handle on where they’re coming from songwriting-wise, and was actually one of the most enjoyable sets I saw all week.  I waited around for Tyvek, excited to hear their hard-rocking tunes, but was disappointed.  Just a loud, hard band that was not particularly memorable.

I hadn’t been to Fader Fort at all yet, and wasn’t too stoked about the thought of standing outside at Ms. Bea’s, so I headed down to Fader Fort with my friend.  I saw Dum Dum Girls, Washed Out with Small Black (again), Real Estate, and Sleigh Bells.  Not the best lineup of new music for me to write about on this blog, nor was I in the best position to take photos, but I was having fun.  Fader fort is cool and infuriating at the same time, a good place to relax with mostly good bands, but irritating in the indie-cool vibe they are clearly trying so hard to project.  Dum Dum Girls were exactly the same as they were at Mercury Lounge, but they filled the festival atmosphere and huge stage surprisingly well.  Washed Out is fun to dance to, but still not my cup of tea.  Real Estate were as dreamily relaxed as ever, and looked much more comfortable, if not a bit tired, in front of a large audience than they did at Brooklyn Bowl.  Sleigh Bells, also fun to dance to, sometimes have interesting melodic lines and a nice, heavy guitar sound, but also left me feeling electronically unsatisfied.

I intended to wait around for Fader’s special Saturday night guest, but after Twitter rumors seemed to indicate that no one not already on the schedule was going to show up, I high-tailed it over to local dive bar, Club Primos.  I walked into a very heavy set from a metal band, and waited for recent Best New Music recipients Fang Island.  I’d meant to post about them after hearing them on I Guess I’m Floating, but I procrastinated on it and now I’m kicking myself.  Especially because their live show is so fun.  Huge, intricate guitar solos and fast tempos paired with a few great hooks and memorable lyrics makes this RISD band stand out from the crowd.  Did non-lo-fi make a comeback at this SXSW?  That’s definitely not a useful framework for looking at music, but if we’re going to talk that way, yes, yes it did.

We stuck around and hung out for a bit and watched another metal band.  Club Primos was great- a refreshing break from all the beaten-path SXSW venues.  It was only $2 for a tallboy of PBR, and you got the impression that the confused looking locals slumped at the end of the bar were irritated that they had jacked up the prices just for SXSW.  I felt a bit bad for invading their bar, but it looked like both SXSWers and locals were having a good, amused time together for the most part.

Then, we were whisked away further into East Austin in my friend’s friend car to a house party.  Apparently, this is a house that puts on shows once every two months or so, but does as much as they can during SXSW.  We were there to see Eastern Sea, who turned out to be one of the great surprises of the whole week.  Lots of guitars, and brass, and keyboard, playing in this magical little East Austin house, they were full of good-band-who-hasn’t-broken-yet energy with surprisingly tight arrangements.  The band floats along with a familiar, home is where the heart is energy, that’s supported by down-to-Earth vocals.  They don’t sound like Conor Oberst or Bright Eyes, but they have that same sort of “we’re from the middle of the country and this is the kind of music we’re playing whether or not it’s popular” vibe to them that I really like.  They sound like they fall in love a lot.  Hopefully they’ll tour to NYC soon.

Ending SXSW at a house party watching a great local band was probably the best night a girl could ask for.  I saw 57 different bands in Austin, some of them more than once, many of them very, very good. I have a lot more photos and videos to share, though I’m not quite sure how I’ll do that yet.  I’ll probably put up more content from SXSW for the rest of the week, hopefully in a way that best lets you discover some new music.  In the meantime, more photos and MP3s below.

Blair:

Cheyenne Mize:

Smith Westerns (and Stephen Pope’s hair):

Bobby Birdman:

Vivian Girls:

Tyvek:

Dum Dum Girls:

Small Black/Washed Out:

Real Estate:

Sleigh Bells:

Fang Island:

Eastern Sea:

MP3: “Daisy” – Fang Island

MP3: “Hearts” – Blair

MP3: “Where Do You Run To” – Vivian Girls