The Anchor Center

POMEGRANATES on SPIN.COM

2008-05-15T14:46:00.002-04:00

Cincinnati's Pomegranates are SPIN.com's artist of the day.

Check it out.

THE LITTLE ONES @ The Gypsy Hut

2008-04-30T10:45:00.008-04:00

THE LITTLE ONES
I just got this new Little Ones EP, Terry Tales & Fallen Gates. I didn't think it could be better than their first Sing Song EP and maybe it's not...but it might be just as good.

In fact, it's the first new CD in a long time that I left in my CD player for days at a time.

They are playing tonight at the Gypsy Hut. I am going.

And I just saw that Pomegranates are opening. This will be a good show.

PROJECTMILL/WOXY: Lightspeed Champion @ SXSW

2008-03-24T09:46:00.003-04:00

I went to SXSW this year with my newest venture called PROJECTMILL. Our first big project was with WOXY.com filming all of their in-studio Lounge Acts.

We got up-close and personal with over two dozen bands including: The Kills, Birdmonster, Sons & Daughters, Shout Out Louds, Peter Moren, and many more.

Here's the video we made of ex-Test Icicle, Lightspeed Champion. Cool dude.

WOXY.com presents: Lightspeed Champion from WOXY on Vimeo.

GORILLA VS. BOOZE 2008

2008-02-27T13:06:00.001-05:00

Chris at Gorilla vs Bear asked me to make him a promo for his unofficial SXSW day party, Gorilla vs. Booze. I sent him this...

Adam Green is famous in Germany

2008-01-24T14:05:00.001-05:00

He's as big as Britney Spears?!

From a talk show in Germany back in 2006, what an amazing example of cultural differences.

"Swell."

Music Video: Fiery Furnaces - Duplexes of the Dead

2008-01-03T13:39:00.001-05:00

My video for The Fiery Furnaces' "Duplexes of the Dead" is complete.

Big, special, warm thanks to Mandy (the cloak), Josh (the projector) and everybody else who helped. It was cold, wasn't it?

Sugar, Water, Purple

2007-12-03T15:08:00.000-05:00

ManBehindTheMask aka DJ Jesse Jamz aka Jesse from Louisville's The Photographic has turned Dave Chapelle's "Grape Drink" stand-up bit into an electro-blog-house anthem.

Jesse Jamz - Purple Drank

Why'd he think to do this? Probably because he knew it would be hilarious and awesome.

Broken Social Seen It

2007-11-30T16:52:00.001-05:00

Five years before You Forgot It In People there was Cornelius.

It's all there. The timid vocals, the electronic flourishes, the hyperactic drums, the female background singers, the guitar shredding, the layered production. The singing is in Japanese instead of Canadian, but it's basically the same things as "Almost Crimes" or "7/4 (Shorelines)."

Cornelius - New Music Machine

And this was released by one guy in 1997 instead of 10+ in 2002.

Bob Pollard Who?

2007-11-19T22:14:00.000-05:00

What with the O.C. and Grey's Anatomy and Outback Steakhouse, indie rock appearing in primetime is literally an everyday occurance but this one still caught me off guard.

I do not watch this show and I have no idea what it is about. Honestly. But when I heard the opening riff of I Am a Scientist coming from the other room, I quickly ran to see where it was coming from. Low and behold, Guided By Voices was playing in the background of "Samantha Who?"

It's become very obvious that the twenty and thirty-somethings that grew up listening to all this indie rock are now the music supervisors of today's network television shows. Weird to think that when this song was released, Christina Applegate was still Kelly Bundy.

Pomegranates

2007-11-19T13:46:00.000-05:00

FINALLY, Northwest indie-rock shows up in Southern Ohio. Pomegranates are the first Cincinnati band I've heard that HAS to be compared to early Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. Sounding like these bands is nothing new in the world of indie rock, but it is in Cincinnati.

This is my favorite Pomegranates song: The Children's Progress

And the band wears cool uniforms too!

Finally, Bad Veins have another good Cincinnati band to play with... (Other than Toy Band, of course!)

RCRD LBL LNCH TDY

2007-11-15T10:25:00.000-05:00

RCRD LBL just launched today. It seems to be a new music website/label/blog/promotion/advertising/community machine.

Sooo, what is RCRD LBL?

"RCRD LBL is a network of ad supported online record labels and blogs offering completely free music and multimedia content from emerging and established artists." - RCRD LBL FAQ

What does that mean?

I'm not really sure.

What do you know?

They don't like vowels.

Songwriting 101

2007-11-09T10:32:00.001-05:00

Magnetic Fields maestro, Stephin Merritt, was a guest on NPR's All Songs Considered this week. He took part in "Project Song." It's a musical challenge where an artist is given a picture and a word as inspiration and has two days to write and record an original tune.

The picture:
The word: 1974

Go here to watch Mr. 69 Love Songs brainstorm, write, and record...

And here's the song he came up with - Stephin Merritt - A Man of a Million Faces

Proactiv Monkeys

2007-11-08T15:12:00.000-05:00

In their new video, Arctic Monkeys frontman, Alex Turner, shows off his adolescence. Somebody get this guy some Clearasil!

"Teddy Picker" Directed by Roman Coppola...

With friends like these, who needs friends...

2007-11-06T09:33:00.000-05:00

This was supposed to be the European tour where everything went right: her group had earned a prestigious support slot with The Decemberists, booked the flights and headed over the Atlantic. So what went wrong? Her eyes roll: “I dunno. Ask The Decemberists."

Student Direct's interview with Land of Talk's Lizzie Powell hit a chord with me. Call it rooting for the underdog, or taking pleasure in other's pain, but hearing her talk in such a straight-forward way about her experience with the Decemberists' makes me like her music more.

Especially this track - Land of Talk - All my Friends

After listening to "All my Friends", this YouTuber will be slightly amusing...

No walkie-talkies...

2007-10-31T12:34:00.000-04:00

Ace Norton just finished another amazing video. This one is for Aesop Rock's "Coffee" and it's Halloween themed. How perfect!

The video has a little bit of everything scary. Monsters, zombies, animated tongues. It's awesome.

YAHTZEE!

2007-10-28T21:31:00.000-04:00

I've never understood Black Dice's music. Somehow, this video makes it make sense.

All three members of Black Dice are visual artists. They directed their own video. Pretty cool, no?

Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

2007-10-26T11:53:00.000-04:00

WTF?

Harvey Keitel to Star As Jerry Springer

Jerry Springer is still alive and dancing. Why wouldn't he play himself? Also, why is there a Jerry Springer opera?!

I can't embed this but do you love Gwar as much as I do?
Gwar Live on Jerry Springer

www.guyinstripedshirttakingpictures.com

2007-10-25T15:46:00.000-04:00

If I'm not mistaken, my former boss Eric Harvey gave out his first "Recommended" declaration on Pitchfork today - a 7.8 for Yeasayer's debut. Not a bad score and the review is, of course, well-written. I'm counting the days until he tells me about some Best New Music! (edit: I was mistaken...)

Yeasayer's first single, "2080" definitely grabbed my attention. However, in this live performance via YouTube, I can't seem to get past that striped shirt!

I've been that guy (but with a video camera) so I'm not complaining. More than anything, I just wish the guy who took this video had more courage and got me a close up of the dude in the headband.

Which brings me to a novel idea for photogs. If you're planning on hogging the front row at a show, wear a sign on your back! Seriously! Put a graphic of where we can see those awesome pictures you're taking! You'll get loads of free publicity on YouTube!

Get Out of My Office

2007-10-24T10:56:00.000-04:00

Scranton, Pennsylvania is not a made up place. It's real and they're having an "Office Convention".

Scrantonian Michele Dempsey, who came up with the convention idea says "If people leave here saying, 'I had a blast in Scranton,' then we've achieved our goal."

Sounds like a Michael Scott quote to me...

And the party promises cast appearances! Will Michael show? Dwight? Jim & Pam? Hopefully not just Ryan...that would be a letdown...

The best part of every episode is the opening...

And here's some office-themed music - Total Beutler - Who's the Boss?

Crap Band Names

2007-10-23T10:08:00.000-04:00

According to James Ford, "a guy called Final Fantasy who does a lot of the Arcade Fire strings" is doing some work on Alex Turner's new side project. (via NME)

Over a year ago, I interviewed a guy called Owen Pallett. Here's Part 1. But what's more topical is Part 2.

At 2:58 into this feature, he actually disses Alex Turner's main project. Who knows what would happen if his quote was taken out of context...

I hope Alex doesn't see this!!

If it's Sunday...

2007-10-22T09:25:00.001-04:00

...It's Meet the Press with Tim Russert! It's on at 10 AM every Sunday morning and whenever I find myself up that early, I like to watch it with a cup of coffee. This past Sunday was particularly entertaining. Fake News Political Pundit/Presidential Candidate Stephen Colbert was the guest. Russert does a great job of playing along. It made me laugh more than a couple times. And no, I didn't spill my coffee.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Apparently, there is extra interview footage at msnbc.com with the REAL Colbert speaking...but the MSN Video player won't load on my Powerbook. I hate Microsoft.

Lost in Translation?

2007-10-19T10:36:00.000-04:00

The Tough Alliance's album got an 8.6 and a "Best New Music" rating today on Pitchfork. Other blogs have posted about them, but I didn't pay attention. After reading the review, I decided to spend the next fifteen minutes of my morning looking into these guys. (On a side note, Marc Hogan has monopolized the Pitchfork coverage of this band. Every album, song, video and remix. Hmmm...)

First off, they have a very peculiar MySpace page.

From their MySpace: "Obviously we never wanted to see anyone we care about in this pop whorehouse begging you to enter their "space" and be their "friends"."

The account has zero friends and no pictures.

So, I went and listened to First Class Riot on a MySpace fan page and liked it. It's new wave Beach Boys with some weird Animal Collective yelps mixed in. Like mixing pretzels and Reese's.

However, the fan page also had some pictures, several of which moved the needles on my "uncool-o-meter."

The jackets? The tank tops? The lasers? I furthered my investigation on YouTube and that's where they really threw me for a loop. Here's the video for their song, "Holiday."

Is this dancing tongue-in-cheek? Is there something lost in translation from Sweden to America? TTA's music is obviously cooler, but I can't help but wonder if they are the LFO or O-Town of Sweden...

And it doesn't stop there! The video for First Class Riot feels right at home alongside Wham!

None of these points are meant to dissuade you from enjoying their music. I'm just a little confused as to what exactly this band is.

They Peed on My Drug Rug

2007-10-18T10:55:00.000-04:00

I want to say Mates of State. I want to say Dr. Dog. But I've said too much already. Cambridge, Massachussetts band, Drug Rug, is fun, sloppy, and melodic. If you like those three words together then listen to what would be their hit-single, if small indie rock bands had hit singles...

Drug Rug - Day I Die

It should also be noted that this band slept on the floor of my apartment after opening for the Fiery Furnaces at Southgate. They brought their own rugs.

Completely drug and rug related...

We ain't no band

2007-10-17T10:57:00.000-04:00

This self-described "worst interview in the history of electronic media" with Sigur Ros on NPR made the blog rounds last week. It's worth watching.

A commenter on the NPR blog mentioned "the classic Tom Snyder interview with Johnny Rotten." I had never seen this so I hopped on over to YouTube. Here's part one of two.

I wish this was from a mockumentary. It'd be hilarious.

But it's real and it's obnoxious... "It's a communications company." What the hell are they talking about?

Men's Needs

2007-10-16T17:08:00.000-04:00

The Cribs - Men's Needs (CSS Remix)

A friend slipped this song into his DJ set a month ago. I hadn't heard it before. Alex from Franz Ferdinand produced their album. CSS remixed their hit single. I love the way his voice strains on "MEEEN'S!" and "GREEEEEED!".

The video for the original is such a tease...