popwreckoning

Top 13 Acts of CMJ:

Ty Segall:

This San Francisco lo-fi rock band has become a new staple in the garage revival. The songs are short, and catchy. They hit you quick and hard with bursts of energy. Pushing a raw, dirty, reverb heavy sound, channeling the likes of Iggy Pop. Also, having a female bass player AND drummer gives the band some bonus points.

Panache Showcase Knitting Factory:

Turbo Fruits:

Straight outta “Music City” Nashville, Turbo Fruits are doing it their own way with a whole lot of swagger. Turbo fruits new songs give off 60s/70s bubblegum pop feel whilst still maintaining their raw garage sound they are known for. Their music brings back the nostalgic feeling of being young, drunk and not giving a fuck. Jonas Stein engages with the crowd more than most front men these days do. Be it crowd surfing, jumping into the crowd and playing, hanging from rafters or sitting on someone’s shoulder singing around in the crowd, you can always expect some sort of spontaneous act and the crowd eats it up. Turbo fruits lineup is the strongest it has ever been. With the addition of Kingsley Brock, their sound is much more explosive and fuller. Matthew Hearn keeps the band on point with his tight drumming and Dave McCowen brings it home with his killer bass lines, overall leaving little room for error. Turbo Fruits is definitely a band to keep on your radar for 2011. Not only with their own music but also with Stein’s latest venture Nashville based Turbo Time Records. Turbo Fruits latest single “Where The Stars Don’t Shine” was released on this label in limited edition white vinyl. Don’t miss out on these rambunctious fellows from Nashville. We should be hearing plenty more of them in the future.

Panache Showcase Knitting Factory:

PUJOL:

If Jack White says so, then we better listen, eh? Daniel Pujol is well on his way to being on the top of everyone’s radar. PUJOL writes energetic garage punk anthems channeling vibes of his fellow Nashville peers (i.e. JEFF the brotherhood, Turbo Fruits and Heavy Cream). His songs are infectious; you can’t help finding yourself nodding your head along to the songs. The lyrics are clever and the hooks are near perfection and you’ll find his songs sneaking into your consciousness.  If listening to PUJOL isn’t enough to convince you of their staying power, then their live shows should definitely seals the deal. Packed with energy, enthusiasm and leavings you wanting more.

Panache Showcase Knitting Factory:

Tôg:

Seeing Tôg at the garage heavy Panache showcase was quick a surprise. This seven-piece band from Norway plays electronic pop music that will get you on your feet and moving within seconds. Sure, you may not know what they are singing being that they stick to their native tongue whilst performing, but nonetheless you find yourself dancing to their insanely catchy songs. CMJ was Tôg’s first time performing outside of Norway. As they complete their first album, expect to hear more from them in 2011 as they will be returning to play SXSW.

Panache Showcase Knitting Factory:

Crocodiles:

Crocodiles have really grown since their debut album Summer of Hate. Although they still record as a two-piece, live they have three additional members joining them on stage filling out their sound. Crocodiles channel the likes Jesus and Mary Chain, Galaxy 500 and Echo and The Bunnymen. Dark droning riffs, lots of reverb, and distortion Crocodiles cover all the basic criteria of a shoegaze band. Yet, underneath all those layers of guitars there is a strong send of melody. A clear of example of this is off their new album “Sleep Forever” that was released by Fat Possum. The song “Stone to Death” shows how they have developed since Summer of Hate, melancholic lyrics, bass heavy, loud and plenty of reverb.

Bowery Ballroom:

Hunx And His Punx:

Hunx and His Punx are over the top, trashy, slightly uncomfortably sexual yet extremely entertaining live. Hunx and His Punx make swoony bubblegum-punk music, clearly influences by 60s girls groups such as The Shangri-Las. Although their strange presence may be outrageously tarty, their songs are surprisingly charming and innocent. Seth Bogart voice is a bit nasally but when executing rebellious youth with his lyrics, he is spot on.

Shea Stadium:

Golden Triangle:

Golden Triangle seems to remain Brooklyn’s hidden gem. Their shows are known to be chaotic and fully of energy. By the end of the show, you’ll to be drenched in sweat and out of breathe. Their stage presence is what makes this group memorable. If The B-52’s and Joan Jett and The Blackhearts had a baby, Golden Triangle would be their love child. They are grungy with a bit of spastic dance flare.

Shea Stadium

Heavy Cream:

Here we have another band hailing from Nashville (must be something in the water).  A nearly all girl band, Heavy Cream’s sound is classic three chord Ramones, with a bit of The Runways thrown in. The songs are short and catchy. With simple surf-punk riffs and bare drums, Heavy Cream put on a solid show. Jessica is an energetic front woman moving all about the stage and engaging with the audience who are having the time of their lives rocking it out to this four-piece garage band from Nashville.

Panache Showcase Knitting Factory:

Check their latest video “Watusi” of their album “Danny” directed by JEFF the brotherhood’s Jamin Orrall.

\”Watusi\” – Heavy Cream

Marnie Stern:

Marnie Stern kept very busy during CMJ playing several shows during those five days. She shredded her way though as many songs as should could during Brooklyn Vegan’s Saturday day party. She played old favorites such as “Transformer” and then newer power songs like “Her Confidence.” Marnie hammered away at her fretboard, the bass player powered through heavy basslines and the drummer moulded his kit arm over arm causing the crowd to bang their heads in unison. Not only was the show full of energy and a crowd in awe of Marnie, we still have Marnie giving her banter. Now, what is Marnie Stern show without some vagina talk? Whilst soundchecking, Marnie couldn’t hear what the sound guy was saying, so in retort she says, “What did you just say? Did you just say you wanted to touch my vagina?” Classic Marnie. She is back in full force with a new band and a new album ready to shred her way into each and everyone’s heart (or vagina…)

Brooklyn Vegan Day Pary Public Assembly:

Last night, Hole played the second of two nights of sold out shows at Terminal 5 in New York City and PopWreckoning was there to check it out. The band is currently doing a short international tour in support of their new album, Nobody’s Daughter.

I’ve got to say, I was disappointed. Courtney Love is a little more put together (okay, I realize this isn’t saying too much) than I’d hoped for, and a little more subdued. I was expecting RAW and LOUD, and there was a glimmer here and there during gems like “Violet,” “Miss World” and “Celebrity Skin,” but it only really ever came out–and briefly, at that–during the encore when the band played “Doll Parts.” I can take or leave the new material, but can’t deny the greatness of “Skinny Little Bitch.” The set also included a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman,” and the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Play With Fire.” Regardless of any disappointment on my part, it was nice to [finally] see the band that colored my teenage angst, even if the show was way too short.

Check out some shots below.

Photos by Dese’Rae L. Stage.

There’s nothing like spending a Saturday night at your favorite venue checking out a pair of great bands.

Girls is this great, modern day surf rock band with a penchant for occasionally producing a wall of noise that makes you wish you had an extra pair of ear plugs. The stage was strewn with flowers, which occasionally got tossed out into the crowd, who would then offer them back to the band. “Ghost Mouth” was the set highlight for me. It really got the crowd going, a noteworthy difference from the usual stoic New York crowd. The combination of Christopher Owens‘ voice and that shimmy he does when he plays made me wish I was lounging on a beach somewhere watching the show, instead of in a dark bar in the big city, but it is what it is.

After resisting for quite awhile, I finally took a listen to Dum Dum Girls‘ I Will Be and found that I really enjoy their muffled garage rock cum-throwback to 50′s and 60′s girl groups vibe. They’ve been getting a lot of airtime both in my cubicle and at home, so I thought I’d check them out live. Sonically, their live show is true to the recordings. They sound great. The difference between Dee Dee‘s (aka Kristin Gundred) vocals in Grand Ole Party and Dum Dum Girls gives an idea of her range, but also makes the listener wonder which is genuine. Sadly, Dee Dee doesn’t really do stage banter, and for whatever reason, their set was extremely short. Both disappointing facts. It should also be noted that these ladies are visually stunning. As a photographer, I can’t wait until their next tour where, I’m hoping it’s safe to assume, their live performance will be even more dynamic.

It’s been four long, sad years since we last had music from the experimental rockers in SNOWDEN. Finally, we have promise of a follow-up to Anti-Anti with the announcement of an upcoming album.

We’ll accept Snowden’s apology for their absence in the form of the  Slow Soft Syrup EP

The donation and digital-only five song teaser of the forthcoming album, Slow Soft Syrup opens with the slow-building 7 minute “No One In Control” and dovetails into a washed out sway with the EP’s first single “Don’t Really Know Me.” Following the 4 new original songs, the EP closes with a cover of Love and Rockets “No Words No More,” which was included on the L + R tribute record.

The EP is available for download in exchange of a valid email address at Snowden’s Web site and can be streamed in full at the MySpace.

Check out the single here:

.“Don’t Really Know Me”

PopWreckoning’s Dese’Rae Stage got the chance of a lifetime: an interview with the one and only Tori Amos, a longstanding hero. Tori is currently out doing press for her holiday album Midwinter Graces. Faced with a ten minute time limit and the daunting task of playing it cool, Dese’Rae dropped questions on topics ranging from fear, regret, pop music (then and now) and more. Check it, and some photos, out below.

Dese’Rae Stage, PopWreckoning: Hey, Tori.
Tori Amos: Hi there, Dese’Rae. How are you?
PW: Good, how are you?
TA: Very well.
PW: Awesome. Alright, we’ve got such a quick interview, I’ve just got a grab bag of questions here.
TA: Okay.

PW: Okay, so, you’ve got your new album, Midwinter Graces. I wanted to know what your favorite holiday tradition is or what one tradition you’ve created for your family is?
TA: Well, one of my favorites is Christmas dinner, and that’s my mother’s fried chicken: southern fried chicken.
PW: Mm, good stuff.
TA: Yeah, I’m not a turkey person. Once in a blue moon, y’know, but it’s not my thing usually. So, my mom makes that and my husband’s pretty wicked in the kitchen, so he helps my mother and we have Christmas at our beach house. My folks live about half an hour north, and we meet up with Tash’s cousins. My sister has five kids from 16-24, so we meet up with them usually every year. That’s a tradition we’ve created. Before Christmas, of course.

PW: Does Tash believe in Santa?
TA: Oh yeah.
PW: Really? That surprises me.
TA: Yeah, she does. She also believes in Kali.
[Laughter on both ends]
TA: She has all kinds of beliefs.

PW: I love it. So, I heard that this album doesn’t count toward your contract, and I was wondering what was next?
TA: Oh, um, well, I’m finishing writing this musical, The Light Princess, which is something that I’ve been developing with Samuel Adamson, the playwright, along with the producer Tim Levy, who’s out of New York now. He’s New York based, although he was with the British National Theatre for a long time. And so it’s a mixture of American and British, um, people together.
PW: Which will be nice. It’ll be opening in London, right?
TA: Well, we’ll see where it’s opening. It’ll be workshopped in the spring in London, and after the three week workshop, I think everybody will decide the best place for where it should open.

PW: Okay. I was wondering what your writing process looks like with regards to your music?
TA: Well, I like to write on the road, mainly because you have different sights and sounds and you don’t fall into the same routine that you can when you wake up in the same place day after day, night after night. And you can fall into a routine when you’re doing that, but as a writer, I don’t like to fall into a cliché pattern, so I push myself to travel. Touring is just part of my life, so it all works together that I travel while I’m touring.

PW: Here’s one—I think this is my favorite question—I wanted to know how you combat fear?
TA: Well, you have to confront the issue that’s causing you fear. You know that saying, “If it’s too loud, turn it up?” You have to go into that place of… if you’re being intimidated by an idea or thought, you have to hold your ground and look it right in the eye. And that’s tricky sometimes, because whatever you’re confronting might be more slippery than a—well, I don’t know—and that could just be information, crap your friends are telling you about something. You know, you don’t… sometimes. Fear comes because you don’t know what to believe.
PW: Right.
TA: What you’re facing, what fear you’re facing, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be getting the truth from it. And that’s scary, too.
PW: Definitely.
TA: So when you’re facing a fear, whether it’s in a relationship at work or personal, um, you know, you have to go back to instincts and making sure that they’re razor sharp and a place of neutrality is the most powerful place you can be to confront a fear. You have to be okay that things don’t work out the way you’re fantasizing.
PW: Right. Which is also hard.
TA: Which is also hard. But neutral is… when you’re facing a fear, I try and step into a place of neutrality, where everything doesn’t have to end okay. Everything doesn’t end with a hug.

PW: Okay. Um, here is kind of a—taking it back a little bit, but the last I heard, you never got a chance to meet Greg from “Pretty Good Year” and you never heard from him. Is that still the case?
TA: That’s still the case, yeah.
PW: That’s insane.
TA: Mmhmm.

PW: Do you have any quirks that are reserved solely for alone time?
TA: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. [Laughs] That’s okay. That’s why you marry who you marry and that’s why your kid is your kid and hopefully, they enjoy them.

PW: [laughs] Yes. Well, what are you listening to and/or reading right now?
TA: Listening to I keep pretty much to myself.
PW: Oh.
TA: Reading… we were just in Poland, and we got a lot of material on Auschwitz. We went there, and um, it was some pretty harrowing reading, as you can imagine. Just different accounts from all different viewpoints. Um, one thing that I found fascinating was… I went to Churchill’s war room, and I was reading a lot of—I had a few books on that whole time, that he was able to conduct the war, a lot of it, from underground in the war room when they were being bombed. And that his wife was there and she had a place. Underground. And they had a flat above where they were when the bombings weren’t occurring and they could go upstairs. I don’t think they enjoyed it down there, but just to see what they went through at that time. That was from both sides, so seeing how the people in the camps were, what their story was, and then seeing the story of the Allies who were fighting.

PW: That’s really interesting. Hm. I’m kind of interested in how you feel about this new guard of female pop stars who are kind of taking over lately, like Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, and whether or not their fame is valid.
TA: Well, of course their fame is valid. I think Lady Gaga is very entertaining.
PW: Me too.
TA: She’s very entertaining, and we need some entertainment about now. Taylor Swift seems to… she writes her songs, and there’s something to be said for the fact that both of them are musicians as well as performers. And what you might—well, not just you, but what one might think about those songs, whether they think they’re in the league of Lennon or McCartney, that’s a different conversation. But not everybody can be in the league of Lennon and McCartney. That doesn’t mean they’re not entertaining.
PW: True.
TA: But for those that are in the league of Lennon or McCartney, then that’s for you all to highlight as well. That’s not my job. And those who are will be known in ten, fifteen, twenty years’ time. And history will support that. It’s hard sometimes when it’s happening to be able to christen that.

PW: Okay, so I guess my last question is a pretty broad one and I wanted to know if you had any regrets?
TA: I think you always have some regrets. Sometimes they’re little. It’s how you handle certain situations. I go back to that thing, “Be smart, not right.” I find that when I have to be right over being smart, which can achieve the win that you’re wanting to achieve, that you usually look back and wish you were smart instead of needing to be right.
PW: Sage advice. Thank you, Tori.
TA: Lovely to speak with you. Happy holidays to you.
PW: And to you. Thanks so much.

Photos by Dese'Rae Stage from the 12/7/09 recording of the etown radio show at the Grand Ballroom in NYC, which will air on NPR on Christmas Eve.

Tori Amos: website | myspace

The Watson Twins just finished up a brief tour with Josh Radin, giving fans a preview of their forthcoming Vanguard release Talking to You, Talking to Me, due out on February 9, 2010. The album is a departure from previous releases Fire Songs and Southern Manners, giving us less of a Route 66 campfire feel and much more of a full-body groove, backed up by the same brilliant harmonies we know and love. It was a risky move, but we’re pretty sure it’ll pay off. Besides, the twins are some pretty charming ladies and they assure us they’ve got some tricks up their sleeves come next tour cycle in February. Check out some photos below.

The Watson Twins: website | myspace | @ manhattan center grand ballroom | interview with pt. I | interview with pt. II | @ homers

Words & photos by Dese’Rae Stage.

Tegan and Sara christened the birth of their 6th labor of love, Sainthood, at New York City’s historic Town Hall on October 30th and 31st, an event that Tegan confessed had been a dream of Sara’s since they began their career ten years ago.  The twins played two sold out shows debuting the new album in its entirety on both nights as well as beloved fan favorites such as “The Con,” “I Bet It Stung,” “Knife Going In,” and “Where Does the Good Go,” among other classic T&S gems.  Having been a certified fan of the girls upon seeing their show last year at Terminal Five in New York, I was anxious to relive the infectious way in which they engage with their audience and the awe-inspiring way the band beasts through a two-hour set with muscularity and prowess.

After losing yourself in the angsty wrench of “Nineteen,” it’s easy to resurface and doltishly think, She’s singing that to me, right? While revisiting the hits was definitely a priority, fans were feverish for a live peek at new tracks from Sainthood, screaming loudest for Sara’s slinky ode to 80s synth-pop, “Alligator.”  The new material, which the girls recorded with a live band in the studio, translated seamlessly to the stage and proved the oft-overshadowed fact that T&S are a masterful live band.

In addition to the epic set list, the girls entertained adoring fans with their ever-endearing, self-deprecating, twin-teasing banter.  Sara treated us to a ten minute monologue on Friday night, in response to Tegan’s taunting admission that “Sara has the asthma,” sharing her thoughts on Armageddon, survival of the fittest, and concluding with an offering of her body to Tegan for food and clothing should the end of the world, in fact, come.  Sara says she’s not going to fight it if it happens.  It’s just this kind of dark, antagonistic banter between the twins that their fans have come to cherish, that keeps them connected, and that sets them apart from other artists.  In this sense, T&S are pioneers, “tweeting” from the stage before the Internet even existed.

Other highlights included a dedication on Halloween night to Sainthood producer Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie), who was in the audience Saturday and rumored to be dressed as “Kenny The Page” from 30 Rock as well as a gushing thank you from Tegan on behalf of both twins, for continuing to support the band after so many years, turning the raucous encore applause around on the fans, house lights up, urging us to applaud ourselves for a job well done. Despite a restless nod to unrequited love inherent in many T&S songs, the sentiment bouncing around in the theatre this weekend definitely found a welcome place to rest.

Tegan and Sara: website | myspace | interview with: Tegan pt. 1, pt. 2 | @ terminal 5 | Sainthood review

Written by Reni Papananias.
Photos by Dese’Rae L. Stage.

Phoenix: website | myspace | @ monolith | @ record bar

Perhaps you are one of the lucky few to catch a Sunny Day Real Estate 2009 reunion show. If you’re unfortunate enough to live in a city skipped by the 90s emo frontrunners, don’t worry. We’ve got your back. Our photographer Dese’Rae L. Stage is kind enough to let you experience the show through her photographs taken at Terminal 5 in NYC on Sept. 27, 2009. Enjoy:

Photos by Dese’Rae L. Stage.

Sunny Day Real Estate: website | myspace

Though “Snakes on a Plane” is long in the past, The Sounds are still a current sensation.

Photographer Dese’Rae L. Stage caught the Swedish New Wave group at New York’s Roseland Ballroom.

Check out her photo experience below:

The Sounds: website | myspace