Just posted a slideshow I put together late last night on the open source RecordPlug project. Basically, the idea is to improve music promotion efforts for everyone by making the process simple, effective and relevant. It's still in very early development, but this is the gist:
I have been neglecting this little corner of the internets for a while now. Something I hope to rectify. That's the problem with having multiple blogs... one or two ends up getting left behind. The biggest issue for this one is that I never really nailed down what this sucker's focus is. And I still don't know. I just like the community here and would like to get back into it without making it a mirror image of my mostly friends-only LJ blog, which I'm unable to abandon because of the affinity I have for folks over there.
So, anyway... I'm around again. Hope to contribute something decent soon!
Hey gang!
So, we have a show this Saturday at Park Grounds in Reynoldstown (off Moreland south of Little 5). It's a cool little intimate coffee house that allows bands to crank up and rattle the windows. We're playing with Single Channel System, which features Randy Garcia from The Nerd Parade on drums.
I'm not sure exactly when we go on, so probably a good idea to show up around 8PM (early show for Atlanta) [EDIT: Looks like we'll go on closer to 9PM or 9:30!]. $5 OPTIONAL DONATION and feel free to bring your own beer. It's a party yall. They have pretty good coffee too, and you know how I am about coffee! :)
This will likely be the last live show for The Ether Family Presents... for a long while. There's a lot of personal stuff coming up for several of us, and we want to focus on finishing up our records and recording a lot more new material over the coming months. So, hope you can make it out! We'll be playing a couple of tunes from the latest and vice versa record as well as many from our upcoming How To Get Lost Part 2 and 3 releases.
Hey all,
As part of the RPM Challenge (a world-wide call-to-arms to write, record, mix and master an album all in the month of February), The Ether Family Presents... have completed an 11-song album entitled and vice versa. In the spirit of the challenge, we are giving away, for a limited time, downloads of the record. You can download from this link:
and feel free to pass it along to anyone who might be interested!
All we ask is your feedback (positive or otherwise). Hope you enjoy!
And here is a preview of the album art by the incredible Rich Gonzales:
Hey all,
If you are in Atlanta this weekend (Dec. 7th, 8th and 9th) and looking for a good time, you simply must show up to the Nophest... a three-day festival of bands, DJs, a bike race, an indie craft fair, three feature length films and more than a hundred short films. It's in East Atlanta/Reynoldstown at Parkgrounds. Buy advance tickets and see the lineup here.
The Creative Loafing has it as a must-do this weekend. Also, there is a lovely write-up here:
Pine Magazine interview about Nophest.
And, if you are a fan of The Ether Family Presents and The Nerd Parade (two of Headphone Treats' flagship bands), then make sure you are there Saturday! Many of you are familiar with the reclusive nature of The Ether Family Presents... which hasn't played out live in well over a year. Well, we are pumped to hit the stage Saturday at 7:30PM! I can't say it'll be another year before we play live again, but then again, with us you never know. :)
Oh, those of you on facebook, please add The Ether Family Presents... to your favorite bands! Hell, even if it's not true! :)
I am completely in love with the new Wilco, Sky Blue Sky. Have been since the first spin, and haven't tired in over four-dozen plays. By now, the record has become an old friend. I realize there is a good bit of negative opinion over it, but those people are just flat-out wrong. It's probably their best album. No, I'll say it... it IS their best album. And it isn't too far removed from Being There while also being a natural progression from A Ghost Is Born. It brings the entire Tweedy/Wilco canon full circle.
It all begins with the sweet and beautiful "Either Way" which opens with the hopeful statement "Maybe the sun will shine today" and grows into a promise of support, devotion and understanding. "You Are My Face" gives us the first brilliant Tweedy line of the record, "Why is there no breeze? No currency of leaves?". It seems at first to continue track 1's pensive mood, but then we hit the first curve-ball of the album. Tweedy sings "I must have let you down too many times in the dirt and the dust", which is followed by a simple melodic guitar line quickly enveloped in the dark energy of a shuffle-groove replete with downtrodden sentiment. On the whole, probably one of the most viscerally impressionistic lyrical works I've heard from Tweedy.
"Impossible Germany" could have been pulled right out of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot... with its choppy, playful lyrical structure and "Jesus, Etc." feel. Now, I'm seldom one for guitar solos. They rarely serve any purpose other than a placeholder or song extension. And it seems many fans are sorta getting down Nels Cline's work on Sky Blue Sky for this very reason. If he were at fault anywhere on the album, it would be on "Impossible Germany". That said, I actually love what he does to the song.
The title track is as beautiful a song as Tweedy has recorded. Later in the album, songs like "Please Be Patient With Me" and "Leave Me (Like You Found Me)" are equally lovely ballads, and of the ballads, the latter is probably the most moving. "Leave Me" may even be ranking close to "Rhythm", my personal favorite Wilco ballad, which sadly never made it to a proper album.
Without question, "Side With The Seeds" is the best song on the album and probably my new all-time favorite Wilco song. Niles Cline is just brilliant here. Where Tweedy's guitar solos on A Ghost Is Born were a conglomeration of noise (which I grew to appreciate), Cline now introduces a nearly prog-rock Robert Fripp intensity. His playing reminds me a lot of Fripp's playing on the Peter Gabriel and Daryl Hall releases of his MOR trilogy. Every stroke has great purpose and propulsion akin to Live at Leeds Pete Townsend. Cline is joined by a John Paul Jones style keyboard line and Tweedy and Cline unite into Allman Brothers double guitar. I don't think I've ever heard so many different loving rock tributes so seamlessly melded together in a single song.
As on A Ghost Is Born, the piano plays a vastly important role on almost every track of the record. It's hard not to hear the influence of late period Beatles in the ivories, while the organ work seems to draw more from early Steely Dan. "Shake It Off" is a perfect example of Wilco doing Dan. Even Cline sounds a hell of a lot like Skunk Baxter. This track is a bit of a silly throw-away from a lyrical standpoint, but it's still a lot of fun. I imagine it to be a real highlight of the next tour.
On the subject of keyboards, I'm a sucker for slightly distorted Wurlitzer electric piano. I think Whirlies are largely to blame for both my early-period Hall and Oates obsession and my need to listen to 10CC's "I'm Not In Love" on a nearly daily basis. "Hate It Here" satisfies my Whirly cravings and also unfairly preys upon my late-period Beatles fanaticism. Drummer Glenn Kotche is able to get his rocks off a bit with the very Abbey Road sounding blues riffs on "Hate It Here". Overall the material on Sky Blue Sky doesn't allow Glenn to shine as bright as he did on the recent Loose Fur record, but he still provides a wonderfully crucial loose framework to the songs.
"Walken" made my jaw drop when they played it live on the last tour. Not only was it the exact kind of song I longed to hear the band devise for the new record, it was also eerily similar to the material I'm working on with The Ether Family Presents... for our third album in the How To Get Lost series. Take this song, replace Tweedy's vocals with the O'Jays and you have largely what I'm after on that record. But I digress. I just adore this song and have to listen to it over and over. So awesome.
"What Light" could have easily been on one of the Mermaid Avenue records. It's a nice Woody Guthrie influenced song that does a good job of winding the record down after the peak of "Walken". It also again brings the Being There sound full circle.
Tweedy's vocals throughout the album have a present intimacy. They sound just beautiful. The final track of the album, "On and on and on" just makes me ache. It contains the most poignant line of the album "Please don't cry/We're designed to die". It's one of those final album tracks that forces you to start the album over again, because it's just not enough to satisfy. Brilliant.
A nearly perfect record.
Pre-order or purchase the retail version on the 15th!
--
Jimmy Ether is a record producer/engineer and runs Atlanta's indie pop/indie rock label Headphone Treats.
As usual, the planets have aligned in such a way to make things difficult/interesting. Turns out there are TWO shows for bands on my little indie rock/indie pop label Headphone Treats this Saturday (the 24th) in Atlanta:
The IPO show featuring Adam as well as my drummers other band (er... one of many actually) The Arts and Sciences.
AND
New Roster mates The Nerd Parade playing down the road a piece.
I need to try and nail down everyone's set times, 'cause I'm going to try and catch them all. That may mean a lot of driving back and forth, but hey... let's have a rock caravan! I can fit 7 in my gas guzzler... if you want a ride, lemeno! It'll be crazy-fun!
Please buy tickets for the Nerd Parade show in advance now. You also get a LIMITED EDITION EP with the deal! It includes a few songs from the upcoming April release, a live track, and some unreleased material. Cool eh? To purchase, check out the band's MySpace Profile and click the "Buy Now" button.
And tickets for Vinyl will be $8 at the door.
Man, either I have started to lose my pretty little mind or the cosmos is really f*cking with me lately. Let me preface this by saying that things are going really well and I'm generally thrilled with life right now. There are just a few things going on with me physically and mentally that have me scratching my head and saying "huh... that's... odd."
Saturday night I was going to see Cassavetes at the new Lenny's in Atlanta, which has moved. Now, I pretty much spent my college years around Decatur/Avondale/Midtown/Cabbagetown area, and I know it all like the back of my hand. Or so I thought. I spent a good hour and a half driving around looking for this place and never found it. First, I for some absent-minded reason headed in the wrong direction on Dekalb Avenue toward Avondale almost getting to Decatur before snapping out of some trance of thought I was in. Force of habit I suppose since that was my usual route to work at the studios. So, turned around and headed back the other way to Lenny's.
(let's break into present tense mental monologue just for kicks)
Okay... here comes Boulevard up ahead.
It's supposed to be around here somewhere.
Huh. I see nothing that remotely looks like a club.
Damn, there's the marta station.
*turns car around*
umm... wait, still nothing. Now there's Krog! WTF!!?
*turn around and repeat 20 times*
(enough of that... resuming previous tenseness)
Lenny's, apparently, existed in a parallel dimension to me Saturday night. I have no other explanation. I came home in a slight huff, pulled up Google maps and looked at the satellite image... G0D D@MN!T... I can see it RIGHT THERE! Oh lord that was fun to explain to the band. There's nothing like thinking your label guy is totally out of his mind... or completely clueless!
Missing the show made me feel even worse about missing The Nerd Parade show at The EARL last week. That time I was dealing with a four-day log migraine headache that would not go away. So, now I have two shows to make up for missing.
There is something about the beginning of every year (or maybe it's just winter in general) that causes my mind and body to go haywire for no good reason. For fun, let's review...
- got tendinitis in both knees forcing me to use a cane for about 3 weeks (all better now btw)
- debilitating migraines, which I haven't really had this bad in years!
- stomach flu and a continuous 5 week cold that WILL NOT DIE DIE DIE
- slammed my head into the car door a few weeks ago... that was fun
- oh yeah, and I did my yearly falling down the stairs routine this morning, luckily catching myself
In previous years it was passing out in the shower and knocking most of my front teeth out, breaking toes, and of course falling down the stairs... again. Sometimes weekly.
I can't figure out if I'm a comical klutz in the Charlie Chaplain vein, or just a slow, giant lummox. Maybe an opinion poll is in order.
I'm finally over my bout with stomach flu it seems, which lasted a prolonged period of time. My daughter was over it in about a day. Val never even got all that sick. Me? A week. Tonight was the first time I've even considered food a viable option. What's worse? NO COFFEE! I've been off the juice until this evening (well, not true... had a cup late yesterday, but it was some nasty Caribou stuff that I couldn't drink half of). I'm bouncing off the walls so hard it isn't even a little bit funny. I've been productive though!
It's funny how your brain almost shuts completely down when you are sick, so when you finally recuperate it's like an awakening. I've had too many ideas for songs, articles, designs, code, etc. to reign in today. Now I'm actually getting exhausted from it all. I think I'll watch a movie.
Recent Comments
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Jon said:
I think you convinced me I am going to have to pre-order... read more
on Wilco's Sky Blue Sky -
jimmyether said:
[this is good]Awesome. I think I'm gonna have to go for that gatefold LP myself. :) read more
on Wilco's Sky Blue Sky -
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jimmyether said:
Thanks for the comment Jane! It actually isn't out until May 15th, but Wilcoworld.net is offering preorders for a good... read more
on Wilco's Sky Blue Sky
on Wilco's Sky Blue Sky