The Deathray Davies

The Deathray Davies are a criminally unknown indie pop band from Dallas, Texas, that have been consistently putting out hook-heavy, high energy rock albums for seven years. Last year’s The Kick and the Snare was one of the best of the year and one that critics and bloggers raved about, but, for reasons unknown to me, went under the general population’s radar. The album, along with 1999’s Drink With the Grown-Ups and Listen to the Jazz, 2000’s The Return of the Drunken Ventriloquist, 2002’s The Day of the Ray, and 2004’s Midnight at teh Black Nail Polish Factory, should have put the band in the same ranks as The Shins, Foutains of Wayne, and The New Pornographers. The band draws equally from Guided by Voices and The Kinks. They haven’t played in St. Louis in three and a half years (they played at the Hi-Pointe with Centro-matic), but here’s to hoping they come back soon.

Here are two songs - “The Fall Fashions” (gotta love the horns!) and “Plan to Stay Awake” (new-wave rave up).

The Deathray Davies - The Fall Fashions
The Deathray Davies - Plan To Stay Awake

Bishop Allen Redux

I know I know - I just posted about Bishop Allen’s January EP, but they have just started selling their next EP, called, not surprisingly, February. They are providing a song, “Vain”, available for download.

Bishop Allen - Vain

Team Tomato

Team Tomato is from St. Louis. They play straight ahead rock’n'roll. Their third album, Lie Down With Dogs was released in 2005, after winning the 2005 DIY Album of the Year award for their 2004 album Words and Skin and Bone. I had them in the studio two years ago and I can tell you they’re super nice guys. Check out their music for yourself:

Team Tomato - King’s Diamonds
Samples:
Team Tomato - June the Loon
Team Tomato - Grey Has Silver
Team Tomato - Newlywed Deception

Team Tomato is playing on Friday March 3rd, at the Red Sea, so check them out, buy a lot of beer, and buy yourself a CD. Check out their myspace page here and be their friend.

Mardi Gras

So, I spent a good six or seven hours yesterday at the Soulard Mardi Gras celebration or, as I like to call it, Hoosier Fest ‘06. The weather was relatively nice, in the 40’s and mostly sunny, but with some pretty intense wind gusts cooling everyone down. The crowd was HUGE, but relatively well-behaved, and the boobs flowed like wine. I was fortunate in that I had two apartments to use as home bases, providing reprieve from the wind and a clean bathroom. You can see all my pictures from the day here.

Of Montreal

I saw Of Montreal last night… It was great - it was a sellout at the Gargoyle, and despite the fact there was no drinking, the crowd was really good (maybe the drugs they had to consume before showing up?)…. Anyway, the band is all high energy, sugar-rush-psychedelic-pop-goodness. Until I saw them live, I didn’t realize they perform several of the songs live with a drum machine… Also, Kevin Barnes, the singer, had about 10 costume changes over the course of the night. When I showed up (I walked in in the middle of the first song) my first thought was, “I didn’t realize Of Montreal consisted of the cast of Zoolander.” I had no idea what their normal stage “costumes” were like, but it was all eye glitter and sequined trendy shirts, in a very pre-meditated way. Kind of like a disco cover band would dress. They threw out some sweet covers, too, including Prince’s “Take Me With U”, the Kinks “Tired of Waiting for You” and The Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hanging On”, not to mention a version of Europe’s “Final Countdown”, which they played up until the vocals were to kick in and segued into one of their own songs.

I missed opener The Maxtone Four’s set, but singer Brian McClelland assurede me it was “their best set ever” and I’m inclined to believe him. All in all, a good time.

Bishop Allen

Bishop Allen has a new EP out, called January. They plan on releasing a new EP on the last day of every month this year (I like the way the math works out on that - 48 or so new BA tracks this year!). You can only get the EP by ordering it from their website. They only pressed 1000 and over half of them have sold already. The coolest thing about the EP is the packaging and artwork - one side of the CD sleeve is your address, which has been handwritten by one of the band members. One of the most unique bits of album artwork I have seen. There are four tracks, three of which are fairly subdued, acoustic ballads. I am loving all the DFW references in “The Bullet & Big D”… Here is one song from the new EP (”Corazon”) and another from their first album, Charm School (”Things Are What You Make Of Them”).

Bishop Allen - Corazon
Bishop Allen - Things Are What You Make of Them

I first discovered Bishop Allen three years ago, when I randomly grabbed their debut CD, Charm School, off the shelf at the radio station to write the blurb that we put on the CDs so other DJs know what any given CD sounds like. I grabbed it solely because the artwork seemed fairly DYI (despite the dreamy indie pose pictures…). I was blown away. Then they came through St. Louis and played at The Rocket Bar and I, of course, grabbed a bunch friends and made them come with me. Everyone was blown away. They threw out a solid cover of “Psycho Killer”. I can only hope to see them in St. Louis again this spring or fall…

2/20/06 Playlist

Here is the playlist for Dividing By Zero Will Get You Nowhere on Monday, February 20, 2006. I traded with Jason Green again this week, as I had another conflict. I only had an hour, so a shorter playlist (and a nine minute Built to Spill song). I will be back on Tuesday next week…

• Bishop Allen - Corazon - January
• Bishop Allen - The Bullet & Big D - January
• Built to Spill - Goin’ Against Your Mind - You In Reverse
• Tight Pants Syndrome - Your Love Is Hot - Demo
• dios (malos) - Later Skater - s/t
• The Flaming Lips - Free Radicals - At War With the Mystics
• Sure Juror - The Drive Will Do You Good - Sure Juror
• The Pixies - Dig for Fire - Bossanova
• The Secret Machines - Faded LInes - Ten Silver Drops
• Sigur Ros - Hoppipolla - Takk

Tight Pants Syndrome

Tight Pants Syndrome play gloriously catchy rock’n'roll of the powerpop variety, a la Sloan, The New Pornographers, Cheap Trick, and, uh, ABBA. Seriously. I hear ABBA vocal harmonies in there. ANYWAY, they are from St. Louis and have an 8 track demo out that they self released. On CD. Not on 8-Track. I’m not sure if they have any shows coming up (although they did just play some recently) but, I do know that they are in the process of tracking songs for an album as we speak. Check out their website here and their MySpace page here. “Your Buzz Is Safe With Me” is one of the catchiest songs you’ll hear all year. Hell, they all are.

Tight Pants Syndrome - Your Buzz Is Safe With Me
Tight Pants Syndrome - Your Love Is Hot
Tight Pants Syndrome - Seducer

Another Switcheroo

This week I will, once again, be trading shows with Jason Green, as I will be seeing Sigur Ros Tuesday night. So, I will be sitting in for him on Monday night, from 7-8 pm and he will be sitting in on my show on Tuesday night, from 8-10pm.

Ten Silver Drops

I am listeing to the new Secret Machines record, Ten Silver Drops, and it is just incredible. It should be huge for them when it comes out. I can only hope and assume they will be coming through St. Louis in support of it. Some Velvet Blog has the first single, “Alone, Jealous, and Stoned” available for download.

I LOVE this album, but on “Alone, Jealous, and Stoned”, tell me you can’t help but sing your best Steve Perry during the intro piano…

“Just a small town girl living in a lonely world
She took the midnight train going anywhere
Just a city boy born and raised in south Detroit
He took the midnight train going anywhere

A singer in a smoky room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on…”