Songs For Strippers; you read me right! This is probably also the first time you’ve read about this despite the album’s release in 2008. Whenever I receive a new record I always assume its newness in more ways than one. This makes sense since bands, artists, and labels typically don’t bother pimping out old material. Yet as I so often tell artist friends of mine – “just because it’s flippin old to you doesn’t mean it’s not brand new to anyone (everyone?) else.”
Here we have such a case. Who is/are Swallows? Had I not visited a couple of their haunts online I might never have been made aware of Songs for Strippers‘ release two years ago. In fact, a little googlebot indicated that this local band stood altogether unrewarded and unnoticed by local outlets when Songs for Strippers dropped. Hmm… that’s puzzling, considering this record is one of the best beginning-to-end creative efforts I’ve heard out of a local outfit in the last couple years. Did no one care? Was there no promotion? From out of nowhere – where did these guys come from!?
Now are the days of singles and five songs, where music might often be written as much for people’s attention spans as for their tastes. So perhaps now more than ever is the time to revisit some memories. Once upon a time singles reminded me of kisses, and albums reminded me of plans (alright, who caught that one?). The name Swallows might disincline your thinking of kisses (for obvious reasons), but Songs for Strippers should certainly incline you to make plans for swinging into the Fine Line Music Cafe Saturday night.
Rumor has it these guys are working hard in the studio on the follow-up to Songs for Strippers. Hot stuff, now swallow this!
Space Land and Time – those things we cross every day of our lives, and outside of an incidental episodic melt down, never seem to pay much attention to. You know what I mean, a mid-life crisis, a drive to nowhere, the throes of shock. Such unpleasant things, but without them we always seem to just take space land and time for granted!
Several days ago I was driving around the Twin Cities making errands here and there. Suddenly it hit me as a moment – my world had grown so much bigger. I was driving near Larpenteur Avenue in Roseville, and I recalled being 17 and getting lost trying to find a party near Hamline. I’m now aware of so much more space, have crossed so much land, and where had my time gone? Nowadays I can drive just about anywhere in Minnesota without getting lost, and often without directions.
As I drove by Gibbs Farm I listened to some Space Land and Time. The Big Star sounding “Playing With Disease,” the folky Midwestern “On Parole,” and the eastern sounding but puzzlingly named “Wade Boggs.” Space Land and Time are a band after my classic rock heart, and during a year that has experienced the passing of one of rock’s most underappreciated legends (here’s looking at you Alex Chilton), this new album is comfort food.
Some might think Minneapolis’ Space Land and Time are classic rock anachronists hellbent on attaining some sort of cosmic nostalgia (hence, their name). I just say they have strong memories of the good ole days when rock needed no parsing.
Pick up a copy of Space Land and Time. You might just have a moment too!
Disclaimer: anything I can or will say may be used against me in a court of law as I have a secret penchant for Synth Pop. I blame this largely on Information Society, the local act that went BANG! back when with “I Want To Know (What You’re Thinking)”. A Christmas 1990 gift, I had their album on cassette and listened to it so many times the tape snapped. Twenty years later, I couldn’t think of a better time to rediscover the genre, which has been given a helping hand by La Roux, who’s been working with one of the acts on the compilation. There are 25 songs in all and I wasn’t bored for a second (but please re-read
above disclaimer). Here’s why:
Local Electropunks POP INC kick it off with “Looking 4 The KLF”, given a “chill trance” treatment by German remix team Symphono. I’m pretty positive Bill Drummond and The KLF would approve. Next up is an Erasure-inspired number called “Sisters Of The Brotherhood” (by Sheffield, U.K.’s Chris Jay). The lyrics are puzzling, but infinitely catchy. Canadians Melody and Mezzo come in third with a Hi-NRG mix of “I Wanna Be Your Star”. Finding it familiar, a trip to Google turned up a version of the song on Dance Dance Revolution, which I had a wee bit too much fun playing at Convergence 2008. Yeah, I’m a geek.
The Paper Tongues are the real deal – a perfect blend of attitude, melody, love of show, and love of fan. Seeing them on June 19 was a sort of breath of fresh air after seeing Montreal’s Wolf Parade the night before at First Avenue. Wolf Parade is one of my favorite bands of the last five or so years, but I laid my disappointments to bear in an article a week and a half ago.
What was it about Paper Tongues then that caused such sweet refreshment? In short, it was all about the show; the energy, the messages, the air of genuineness, and the mutual satisfaction that occurred between a band and its fans. Paper Tongues may have only drawn 100 – 150 fans out to the Triple Rock, but every one of those fans were fist pumping, jazz handing, vocal projecting believers in a young band whose flirting with stardom only began several months ago. Perhaps part of the reason for this belief resides in the hopeful messages of their songs like “Trinity,” a remarkable pop tune that ought to be heard synched left and right in the upcoming Fall season of network television. It’s one of the few songs I’ve heard in quite some time that truly seems to own a little something for everyone!
But here’s the real personal factor that reveals the power of this band to storm the future with an unrelenting potential. The Paper Tongues made me want to step forward and be part of their adoring crowd that evening, but perhaps for too long I’ve been too enmeshed in that indie crowd so described at the Wolf Parade show. My resolution ought to be to step forward and return to a decade ago when I still valued that place against the railing front and center of stage. I think I could do that at a Paper Tongues show and feel at home, and not in the least feel out of place. Sure, most fans there that night were 5 – 10 years younger than me, but like I said, this band, like the song below, has a little something for everyone – and that includes you (and me)!
Having enjoyed the success of their debut album, “Novels”, the impressive new band The Burning Hotels recently took the stage at Sauce. The dark-clad, masculine foursome proved true to the nature of their name with the intensity of their set.
Band members Chance Morgan, Matt Mooty, Marley Whistler, Wyatt Adams may indeed be All-American Texas boys, but their musical style indicates influences from far and distant places. With their heavy bass guitar and epic powerful vocals they struck the audience with a post-punk meets 1970′s enthusiasm, that literally left the crowd transfixed. Chance Morgan’s scratching and haunting vocals brings to mind memories of Muse’s early successes, with a wistfulness easily associated with Coldplay.
Their solid, hard rock sound is chillingly reminiscent to that of Interpol, and the overall experience of The Burning Hotels can be compared to a complex combination between a hard metallic edge and a soft core. The band presented a dynamic interplay between opposing music styles, alongside two guitarists sharing vocals. This is the kind of band we want to continually see in Minnesota, but rarely do. Definitely worth checking out.
Editors Note – Back on May 24 Borangutan photographer Chuck Pittman had the opportunity to shoot the Dark Horse Tour at the Target Center, featuring Sick Puppies, Shinedown, Breaking Benjamin, and you might have guessed it, Nickelback. Things became a little lost in the shuffle, but we even a couple months later we think the images captured are worthy of the following reflection. In case you were wondering, Nickelback said “denied”!
Opening for Nickelback’s Dark Horse Tour 2010 were Sick Puppies, Shinedown, and Breaking Benjamin. Sick Puppies got the show started with the first song on their newest CD, Tri Polar, “Street Fighter (War)”. Switching gears they followed it with “Pitiful”, the most well known song off their first album, Dressed up as Life. Bassist Emma Anzai was amazing and drummer Mark Goodwin rocked! Lead singer, Shimon Moore really showed his style when he dedicated the next song, “All The Same”, to all the ladies in the audience.
Disclaimer: anything I can or will say may be used against me in a court of law as I have a secret penchant for Synth Pop. I blame this largely on 
The Paper Tongues are the real deal – a perfect blend of attitude, melody, love of show, and love of fan. Seeing them on June 19 was a sort of breath of fresh air after seeing Montreal’s 
Having enjoyed the success of their debut album, “Novels”, the impressive new band The Burning Hotels recently took the stage at Sauce. The dark-clad, masculine foursome proved true to the nature of their name with the intensity of their set.
Recent Comments