Nick Tolar and his Herzog boys crept up on all of us with a new album. The new album, Cartoon Violence, got its release to Cleveland last Wednesday at their record release show at the Happy Dog with Shoreway. Listen and download the fantastic power-pop opener, “Fuck This Year,” and try your hardest to not get those double guitar riffs stuck in your head. Tolar is already one of the best songwriters in Cleveland, and when you put a regular band behind him, things get really nice for us. Head over to fellow Cleveland blog I Rock Cleveland for their great review of Cartoon Violence and another MP3 from the record.
Cleveland pop heroes Cloud Nothings have their new album, Attack On Memory, coming out next January. Listen to the post-punk opening blast, “No Future/No Past,” from the new record. No hard to tell that Steve Albini had his hands on this one. And go see them on their two month US tour that starts next February, dates below.
01-26 New York, NY – Studio at Webster Hall
02-16 Chattanooga, TN – JJ’s Bohemia
02-17 Atlanta, GA – The Earl
02-18 Birmingham, AL – Bottletree
02-20 Orlando, FL – Backbooth
02-21 Tallahassee, FL – Club Downunder
02-23 Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s
02-24 San Antonio, TX – Ten Eleven
02-25 Austin, TX – Red 7
02-26 El Paso, TX – Lowbrow Palace
02-27 Tucson, AZ – Club Congress
02-28 Phoenix, AZ – The Crescent Ballroom
02-29 San Diego, CA – Soda Bar
03-01 Costa Mesa, CA – Detroit Bar
03-02 Los Angeles, CA – Echo
03-03 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill
03-05 Portland, OR – Holocene
03-06 Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
03-07 Vancouver, British Columbia – The Media Club
03-8 Boise, ID – Neurolux
03-9 Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
03-10 Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
03-12 Kansas City, MO – The Riot Room
03-17 McAllen, TX – Simon Sez
03-20 Nashville, TN – The End
03-21 Louisville, KY – Zanzabar
03-22 Cincinnati, OH – MOTR Pub
03-24 Montreal, Quebec – Casa del Popolo
03-25 Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
03-26 Providence, RI – Fete Lounge
03-30 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
03-31 Washington, DC – Red Palace
04-01 Baltimore, MD – Ottobar
04-02 Buffalo, NY – Ninth Ward @ Babeville
04-03 Pittsburgh, PA – Brillobox
04-04 Detroit, MI – Magic Stick Lounge
04-05 Cleveland Heights, OH – Grog Shop
04-06 Chicago, IL – Schubas Tavern
04-07 Columbus, OH – Outland Live
Consequence of Sound just posted about Cloud Nothings newest album, Attack on Memory, that’ll be coming to us on January24th from Carpark. The album was recorded last summer with famed producer Steve Albini. From an interview with Albini, he said that Baldi, “wanted to create arrangements that would allow for more improvisation and variability when played on the road.” You can hear a clip of the song “Wasted Days” in the video above.
Baldi and his crew stopped by my DIY space in West Lafayette, Jurassic Park, and played Attack on Memory in its entirety, and any Cloud Nothings fan there, including myself, could easier notice the darker and more mature sound. It’s definitely a step in the right directions. Check out the cool Polaroid from when they stopped and played.
Okay, so I owe all of my faithful readers an apology. I have not been keeping up on The Noise Is a tenth as much as I would like. Here come the excuses…but school has been extra tough with graduation in sight and I’ve been kept busy in the meantime with Jurassic Park! Which brings me to my next point, which is that my little basement venue, Jurassic Park, which I briefly discussed with y’all last year, is now flourishing! We’ve got upcoming shows with Cloud Nothings, Total Babes, Sleeping Bag, husband&wife, Big Troubles, and The Beets! It’s gonna be a crazy rest of the year but if any of you live in the state of Indiana, you should try to come to a show.
And lastly, I got way too happy when Charlie McArthur released the beautiful cover art and album name, Greater Lakes, for Bears’ third record
Big Troubles’ second full length, the brilliantly named Romantic Comedy, will be out next Tuesday (9/27) on Slumberland, but Stereogum just put up the entire record for streaming. Go here to listen to ten tracks of British-influenced sweet-and-salty power-pop from the New Jersey kids. I’ve only gone through it once, but my first impressions are that lovers of their first album, Worry, and the overall lo-fi aesthetic are not going to enjoy this album, much like people were disappointed with Smith Westerns’ Dye It Blonde. But for any lover of pop music, this album pretty much has it all. Production from Mitch Easter, who’s worked with Pavement and R.E.M. (RIP), has turned their drowned-out fuzz jams into bountiful tracks overflowing with additive riffs and huge moments. It’s evident that this is the album that the Big Troubles boys wanted to make from the beginning, and it’s something they should be proud of. Check out the silly video for first single “Sad Girls” below.
Here’s another phenomenal video from 19th State Productions (previously Sleeping Bag’s “Slime”), highlighting Bloomington psych band Tammar and their anthemic “The Last Line.” The massive song appears on their debut album Visits, released today on Suicide Squeeze. Get the ice pink vinyl and CD from the Suicide Squeeze Store, and check out this cool P4k review that went up today.
Here’s the newest video from Chicago art-poppers A Lull, showcasing the third track on their debut album, Confetti. Watch the lively video above and download/listen to another track, “Water & Beasts,” below.
About this time last year, I let y’all know of DIY basement venue I was running called Jurassic Park in West Lafayette, IN. Well after a series of unfortunate events, I had to call things off for the rest of the year due to noise violations and neighbors problems. Well I started it up back in January with a different format and it has fit perfectly since. Over the span of four months, I had Reading Rainbow, Cast Spells (Dave from Maps & Atlases), husband&wife, The Modern Electric, Secret Colours, and a whole bunch more. I’ve started it back up after the summer and my friend Chris Loudenslager has come along for the ride to take great photos and high quality videos of some performances. I had Bloomington shoegaze duo Stagnant Pools come play last weekend, who I posted about last month, and they played a couple songs from their forthcoming album.
At the top of the list of my most anticipated albums for the rest of 2011 is New York power-pop quartet Big Troubles’ second album Romantic Comedy. “Sad Girls,” the ultra-catchy lead single from the record (with the best key change of 2011), now has a silly video to go with it. Watch the super ‘dorky’ video above and pick up the MP3 too. A light green/dark green 7″ is out now for “Sad Girls” from Slumberland, and Romantic Comedy will be out on September 27th.
Cleveland’s own Total Babes’ debut album Swimming Through Sunlight hit stores yesterday, and to celebrate, huge climax “Without Your Heart” is now available for download! Pick up the album digitally in webstores, and the CD and vinyl through Old Flame’s Store. And listen/download the first two tracks from the album below.
I meant to post this song a long time ago, but I didn’t. Basically, Gauntlet Hair rocks, this song rocks, and the album this song’s gonna be on is gonna rock. Gauntlet Hair will be out October 18 on Dead Oceans.
Stagnant Pools is the brother duo of Bryan and Doug Enas out of Bloomington, IN, who I got word of last year from the great blog Stratosphering (RIP). The shoegaze/punk duo self-recorded and released their debut album, Real Lies, early of last year, which you can get from their Bandcamp for free. Now the bros have moved on to a full studio at Russian Recording in Bloomington to record their second effort named Temporary Room. Get Off The Coast premiered “Dead Sailor” and “Consistency” a couple weeks ago, and the guys just an audio video of another track from the record, “Solitude.” The only word on a release date is maybe fall, but the brothers are looking for a label to release this piece of art first, which shouldn’t be too hard based on these tracks. In the meantime, grab the MP3s above and if you’re in Indiana, catch these guy at Jurassic Park in West Lafayette early next month.
A couple weeks ago, I posted about the second track, “A Vague Year,” from Cleveland’s own Radio People’s album Hazel out on Mexican Summer. Now you can head over to Self-Titled Mag and stream the entire album and read about Sam Goldberg’s thoughts behind each track. Hazel is availalbe digitally and on vinyl from Mexican Summer’s Shop.
Cleveland pop heroes Bears just released an update on their Kickstarter saying that they’re 75% of the way to accomplishing their goal, and that they got the masters back for the album adding that they’re the best songs they’ve ever recorded. So they put together a quick preview of five songs from the album, listen to them in the video above. Also, they still need a little over a thousand bucks to hit the goal in their Kickstarter, so go help them out!
The indie rock boys out of Bloomington recently released one of my favorite videos of this year. Watch the video above and grab the MP3 below. The guys are about halfway through a tour of the Midwest and East Coast, remaining dates are below.
August
19th – Baltimore, MA – TBA
20th – Washington, DC – Pool Party http://www.facebook.com/ev?ent.php?eid=22547086415749?5&ref=notif¬if_t=event_?invite
21st – Charlotte, NC – House Show
22nd – Savannah, GA – The Sentient Bean
23rd – Athens, GA – farm255 w/ The Goons
24th – Atlanta, GA – The Music Room (DMA @ Nophest Kick-Off Party) http://nophest.com/schedul?e
25th – Knoxville, TN – The Pilot Light
26th – Indianapolis, IN – The White Rabbit (Sleeping Bag release show w/ Everything, Now!)
27th – Bloomington, IN – The Bishop (Sleeping Bag release show w/ Circuit Des Yeux)
So next week, my summer in Cleveland will be over and I will head back to Indiana for my last year of school. But before I leave, I’ll have my last Cleveland hurrah at the Happy Dog this Saturday. I’ll be DJing from 6pm to 9pm and I’ll be spinning a ton of the new LPs I’ve gotten over the past couple months! So it’d be cool if y’all came out and say hey (or cya) and ate some hot dogs while I play Megachurch or John Maus or something else cool.
Under The Radar recently premiered “Beside” from Bloomington, IN pop trio Sleeping Bag. This instantly-lovable pop jam appears on Sleeping Bag’s self-titled debut, which actually just released last Tuesday. Based on this and their earlier single “Slime,” which you can listen to below, the album is really shaping up to be one of the most enjoyable of the year. Stream the entire album on their Bandcamp, or go to Joyful Noise, where it’s available for order on blue and black vinyl, as well as the special official Sleeping Bag sleeping bag.
Listen to a new track and big 50′s bopper “Lampshade Talker” from Chicago lo-fi kids BIGCOLOUR, that’ll be making an appearance on their debut album. No date or title on the album yet, but keep an eye out as it’ll hopefully be out by the end of the year.
