Hidden By The Grapes - Blowout

As I was working yesterday I was listening to Lehnen radio on last.fm when these guys came on with One Shot For The Leprechaun. What instantly stood out to me was the jazzy parts of the song. Now, I've heard bands introduce more of a fusion jazz to their music. But this was straight-up jazz. Of course, any band that can switch styles so drastically piques my interest.

Listening to their album, Noise-Operated Jazz I'm instantly transported back to the feelings I had when I loved (and was kind of limited to) alternative rock. But what really sets them apart from the typical alt-rock is that... well... they're not typical. Alt-rock, indie, noise, even jazz can all be heard from this album. I couldn't help but instantly fall in love with this band. If this is what Alternative could sound like, I might actually get back into Alternative Rock again.

Add one more to the list of musicians I would love to see live (or at least meet) on my next Europe trip!


[Last.fm] [Bandcamp] [Facebook] [Myspace] [JustAloud] [Merchandise]
(Albums are available on Bandcamp for free or whatever price you decide to pay.)

Gods And Queens - Untitled 15

I don't normally listen to Punk, as it isn't really among my favourite styles of music. However, I actually like the sounds of Gods and Queens. But this post is for more of a charitable reason than just featuring a newly discovered artist.

Tis the giving season, right? Well, these guys are in a predicament and need as much help as they can get. They're from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was in the middle of their Europe tour when they got into a bad wreck in on their way to Dresden, Germany from Graz, Austria that hospitalized a few of them. They're all alive, thankfully. However, now they have some massive medical bills.

Help them out by purchasing their albums on Bandcamp or a shirt.

The story of what happened (from their blog):

I´m going to try and make this as short as I can. After all these years of touring in unsafe vans, and doing stupid things, I guess I was over due for this… We had a serious van accident in route from our show in Graz, Austria to Dresden, Germany, somewhere along the highway in the Czech. I was asleep in the back of the van, so I’m unsure of what exactly happened. All I know is I felt the van skidding out and we started to slide and roll over. Not sure exactly how many times the van flipped but it was more than enough. I started screaming for everyone to tell me they were OK. Gertjan check, Ben check, Sara check, and I didnt hear Jeff.

Ben pulled me out through the windshield and I took off running, screaming for help with blood pouring down my face. I honestly though Jeff was dead. A car stopped and a slew of women started screaming at me and I was screaming at them. We were in the middle of no where and as I was running two things came to mind, I think Jeff is dead, and I hope I don´t get shot like Artimus Pyle. A woman pulled me into her house and her husband and son ran to the van crash site. I found Gertjan, and he said everyone is OK. The family started talking to me via Google Translation telling me everyone is safe and that an amublance is on the way.

The ambulance comes takes us to a hospital, we get taken care of…sort of. The police arrive on the scene and inform us that we aren´t leaving until the medical bills are paid in full. The were so kind enough to escort Sara and myself to an ATM machine to pay the entire lump of the bills in full on the spot. Even after we signed some strange papers saying we have 30 day with proof of citizenship, etc. What the fuck ever right? We asked where Gertjan was, and their respone was…prison. 300 phone calls and around €3,000 later we are out of the damned Czech and safe in Germany.

Long short, we are all somewhat OK. Jeff broke his collarbone, Ben got his hand jacked up, I am pretty alright, Gertjan is OK, as well as Sara. The van is destroyed. Booking these tours ourself really made me realize that we are 100% on our own. We had no one to call, no one to “rescue” us. I made 3 phone calles and the entire German punk scene came to our rescue. God damn thank you. Our new friends from Dresden Germany came to get us at the drop of a hat, no questions asked. Thank you.

So here it is, we are 3 grown adult males in our 30´s who play in a punk band. We are all stage hands at R5 Productions in Philly. That´s what we do to enable us to be here in Europe doing this. Never in our lives have we needed help like we do now. If you want to help us, please go to www.godsandqueens.bandcamp.com and purchas a record for $1.99. If you ever laughed at one of my awful jokes, or spend hours talking with us after a show, and you would like to help, please do. I always though our band would have too much pride to ask for help, but I am pretty sure we all agree that this time we need it. If you would like to help in any form please do jamiegetz(at)gmail.com is the paypal address if you are inclined to do so. We will also accept first class upgrades on US Air, Delta or Virgin.

Thanks.

(The first class upgrades bit is just a joke. Which, by the way, was a poor choice in airlines. All of those suck. They should have picked Lufthansa or Swiss. If Lufthansa's economy class is awesome, their first class must come with lap dances or something. Hah hah.)

[Last.fm] [Bandcamp] [Facebook] [Myspace] [Blog]

4 Days Of Night - Towards Nothing

For those that know me and/or visit my blog frequently, you may know that I'm fairly intrigued with the Pakistani music scene. So, whenever I'm introduced to new artists I get excited. Tipu (6LA8) sends me a lot of interesting stuff. Actually, Tipu and Talha Wynne are probably two of my major connections to the Pakistani scene.

Anyway, this is a brand new artist, and this is his first song as 4 Days Of Night and is absolutely beautiful.
Currently, there is no Bandcamp or Soundcloud (or even last.fm listing) as of yet, at least that I know of. He does have a Facebook page. Follow him!

[Facebook]

New Album Release: Blank Maps - Single 1

Oh man, I am excited about hearing some new stuff from these guys. Ever since I heard Double Rainbow I was an instant fan.

The new two-track album can be downloaded for free on Bandcamp or AmazingTunes. The prior album can be downloaded on AmazingTunes.

[Last.fm] [Bandcamp] [SoundCloud] [Facebook] [Myspace] [AmazingTunes]

Absinthe House - Awake

Tipu from 6LA8 has been sending me some fantastic stuff lately. These guys are much more experimental than the post-rock tag implies. But I had to use some kind of tag. What really caught me were some of the alternative rock bits in some of the songs. Surprisingly enough, I haven't heard a lot of experimental, fusion bands incorporate some of the alternative style.

[Last.fm] [SoundCloud] [ReverbNation] [Facebook] [Myspace]
(Album can be downloaded via SoundCloud [a couple tracks have reached their download limit] and ReverbNation.)

Kaddish - The Great Apart

Man, these guys are tough to find on the internet. There are two Kaddish, a Scottish and a Brazilian band. This is the Scottish band. It seems like the Last.fm page only recognizes the Brazilian band. And I haven't found a facebook page yet. Their LP can be obtained through Bandcamp. Send orders to autumnjams@hotmail.co.uk and they'll send you a download link where you can download from the bandcamp page.

[Last.fm] [Autumn Jams Bandcamp] [Myspace]

Meeting The Band: Half of Basheer & The Pied Pipers

So, I've hit 10,000 views on my blog. As a little celebration I'm writing another Meeting The Band entry!

Basheer & The Pied Pipers... 1/2

June 26th I made a blog entry featuring the Pakistani experimental ambient/electronic group Basheer & The Pied Pipers. Five days after the post I get a message on Facebook, "I'm one of the two guys from Basheer & the Pied Pipers. Are you going to be in Oklahoma July to August? I might be coming there for a few weeks." Soon after the initial excitement, confusion set in and my first question was, "why...?" Saad was visiting the US for a medical internship in pediatrics and was going to intern in three cities, OKC happened to be one of them. We were only able to meet once before my trip to Boston to see God Is An Astronaut at the beginning of August. I took Saad to a great gastropub, RePUBlic, for some amazing food and drinks and we talked for a while about various things such as his band and the Pakistani music scene, which really intrigues me.
I was hoping to hang out with him a bit more before he went to Los Angeles for more internship training, but I wasn't able to. I'd get texts and calls, "Hey maaaan, I'm so booooored!!!!" And felt bad that I was too busy to show him around. Oklahoma City just isn't exactly the most exciting of cities to visit, especially when you get a considerable layover in New York, enough to get a taste before flying out.

A couple weeks after my return from an amazing trip to Boston, there was a local music and arts festival I decided to attend. Midway through it hit me, "Saad is back in town! I should pick him up!" He had arrived back from Los Angeles earlier that day and was already bored when I had called him, hah hah. I hurried up to pick him up and as we drove back to the festival he shared some stories of his experiences, some good, some bad... and some amazing. He got to experience God Is An Astronaut on their last show of their US tour. He had some terrible experiences before then but that moment, seeing GIAA play, he hit his peak. I couldn't help but smile as he recalled his memories of the show.
We arrive at the festival to catch the last four bands, Sheree Chamberlain, Dead Sea Choir, The Pretty Black Chains, and Colourmusic. Dead Sea Choir wow'd the both of us. I had never heard of them before then and was blown away. Then when I looked over to Saad to see how he was reacting he'd be staring, agape, or closing his eyes and just absorbing the music. I don't often get to experience music with musicians, so experiencing how they take in live music is just too cool for me. I'm not huge into The Pretty Black Chains, but man, Saad was really getting into them. And Colourmusic rocked both of our heads off.

Saad and I hung out a couple times more before he continued his trip to Atlanta, hitting up a great burger shack (S&B Burgers) and spontaneously attending Oktoberfest where he got to dance with the locals and eat some bratwursts and knackwursts.

Hanging out with this guy was cool, everything was like a new experience for him. Everywhere I took him it was like taking a kid to a candy store.
Occasionally he'd call, or I'd call him, to follow up on his experiences in Atlanta. Apparently the internships have been pretty intense there, but hearing the concert experiences was fun. When he saw Opeth, "THAT WAS THE BEST SHOW EVER!!!!" When he saw Battles, "HOLY CRAP, THAT WAS THE BEST SHOW EVER!!!"

Now that I think about it, though, I never did delve much into his influences or other Basheer related topics after our first meet. Actually, a lot of the time when we weren't talking about the Pakistani music scene I forgot he was a musician. I feel like many of us have this preconceived notion that musicians are these certain types of people. And to be honest, the many musicians I've met and got to hang out with do have this certain subtle air about them that I've only been able to sense from other musicians. They're all fairly normal, but I can still sense that musician aspect from time to time. Saad is probably just about as normal as one can get, hah hah. He doesn't really exude that musician persona or appearance, or even have much of this subtle "air." But then I listen to Basheer & The Pied Pipers I think, "Wow, that really is Saad in here..." For this reason, Basheer & The Pied Pipers is at the top of the list of bands I really want to see play live. I want to see this seemingly inconspicuous, normal, young physician that did the chicken dance bunch of locals and would occasionally text me how bored he was up on stage playing music and expressing this passionate side. I think that would probably be one of the coolest things to see.

Now I have to meet the other half of Basheer & The Pied Pipers, Salman! In due time... in due time.


[Last.fm] [Bandcamp] [SoundCloud] [Facebook] [YouTube]
(EP available for free download on BandCamp.)

Abeer Sheikh & The Wonderband - Stray

Wait a second... this is... Pakistani? IT SHO IZ!
Tipu from 6LA8 showed me this one. I was very surprised to hear this kind of sound come from a Pakistani band. It's very different from the other Pakistani Indie artists, it has a very American folky sound.

I'm not sure if they have any downloadable content yet. There isn't even a last.fm listing. So, I assume they're a fairly new band. Follow their Soundcloud and Facebook for more releases!


[Soundcloud] [Facebook]

Álfheimr - Predatory Nature

I have a tendency to feature a lot of artists from other parts of the world but not many American artists. I'm not sure why. Anyway, this is a band from Oregon that my friend had asked me to feature a couple weeks ago. I checked them out and wow! I'm going to have to be more aware of my own music scene here, hah hah. Álfheimr, Glorie... there are some amazing American stuff!

Álfheimr's new album, Predatory Nature, became available last week. Check it out on their bandcamp page.
They will also be setting up a KickStarter page for their upcoming album for tangible audio medium releases (they're currently debating on CD or Vinyl). Follow their Facebook page for more updates.

Thanks John for showing me this artist!

[Last.fm] [Bandcamp] [Facebook] [Myspace]
(Albums are available for free or whatever you decide to donate on Bandcamp.)

New Album Release: 6LA8 - In The Land Of Dreams

The Pakistani group, 6LA8, had releasted a new album last month. They have a tendency to release massive albums, this is no exception. There are some post-rock, some ambient, some electronic, some more abstract experimentalism in this album.

Man, some of the new stuff coming out of Pakistan has been pretty mind-blowing to me.


Download the new album for free here.


[Last.fm] [SoundCloud] [Facebook] [YouTube] [Website]

Possimiste - The Flight Of Lulu

I am really exctied about this one. This artist is just 18 years old, and wow... what a sound. It was difficult to choose what I wanted to feature today. She has no specific music style. This particular song is very ambient, very The American Dollar-like, while others are indie, and one I wouldn't be able to define in a genre (she put it as post modernism on soundcloud, I'm not going to pretend to know what that is, hah hah, it's just good). It always amazes me when someone so young can produce such amazing sounds. This brings me back to my discovery of These Portraits Never Spoke (20 now, but 19 when he wrote his last songs).

Hah hah, you kids are making me feel old!


[Last.fm] [Soundcloud] [Facebook] [Myspace] [Twitter] [Blog] [Facebook]
(Her music are all available for free on last.fm)