I was trolling around on The Militia Group website looking for info about the new Brandtson but alas it has been delayed. Not that you would find that from the militia group page.
But being there reminded me of this band, Controlling The Famous, who put out a pretty smart punk album called “Automatic City” a few years ago. They broke up last year, but this song was on Fuel TV, an acoustic version of “the easy life” which may be some sort of ironic band lament.
Looks like Deadspintried to clear up the ongoing confusion about the role of blogs and journalism and sports access (what about blogs about journalism?). Bissinger still doesn’t seem to get it that commenters do not equate to a post, or are sanctioned by the actual site. They tried. And Deadspin is right about sports being taken too seriously.
On the indoor stage on thursday, July 3, Cincy’s All the Day Holiday lays down the rock, in the vein of Saxon Shore but with vocals–this is pretty intense. At first, I thought they were just like a melancholy Copeland, but this is a great video–and it’s over a year ago. Definitely will be tracking these guys.
ATL’s Ocean is Theory is playing Cornerstone at the New Band Showcase on Sat. I never saw them in Atlanta, as the surburban screamo bands never really hung with the urban indie/garage rockers, for whatever reason. But there’s a lot of energy and sincerity here, and they accomplish the new breed of screamo quite well.
Here’s “a city of water” at the Masquerade last fall.
I’ll look at a whole bunch of bands playing Cornerstone in the lead-up to the June 30-July 5 festival over the next two weeks, hopefully on a daily or semi-daily basis. Here’s info on the Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, Illinois.
Lakes is the new or kind of new band from Seth Roberts, the former impetus behind Tooth and Nail (and previously Bettie Rocket band–Freeto Boat anyone?) Watashi Wa. I always liked Roberts, I have one or two Watashi Wa albums, but his style really came through with Eager Seas. His voice is distinctive, and now his music goes beyond a simple punk-pop classification into alluring and upbeat modern rock. Earnest seems an apt description for Lakes, but also immensely talented.
Lakes plays Wednesday, July 2nd on the Gallery Stage.
The end of The American Dream From Utne–People are better educated, while wages remain stagnant.
The end of the value of a college education
From Atlantic Monthly–More people are trying to get college degrees, and living out American idealism, while watering down the product.
The end of short newspapers, or long newspapers, or the end of nothing at all From Slate–How the productivity of journalists should be measured by word counts, not content.
…at an old job, I was able to listen to music and wear headphones, and so I stormed through the backlog of This American Life episodes. And it’s true as a former Nashville resident, I greatly appreciate the perspectives that the Nashville Scene often brings.
Those two loves come together with a recent Ira Glass interview the paper did. The explanation of politics and media made the most sense to me, with Glass breaking his “objective” to explain his political viewpoint and craft a story out of it.
…Magazine Death Pool is calling the end to Mass Appeal, though nothing is up on their website and Death Pool doesn’t link to anything. The two comments to the post are interesting, however. Perhaps rumors to the mag’s demise are greatly exaggerated.
…Bells on the wrists of the guitar player and the random guy gyrating madly probably like I would. This is from a fest in MA, but it’s a small room with everyone sitting around. Intimate setting. Bicycles and Gravel convinced the crowd to get into it by the end however, as their typical indie rock reached a swell. Not a lot new here except for energy, which is saying a lot, I guess. “Let’s get back to what got us here.”