Random musings
About a month ago I talked up San Francisco band Scissors For Lefty. I finally got my hands on a copy of their self-released album Bruno. Fabulous. Imagine if you will, some of those Brooklyn dance acts if they took themselves less seriously. The Unicorns if they weren't so out there. Grandaddy if they didn't sound so medicated. That starts getting at Scissors For Lefty, but it's really just the beginning. Buy the record and hear for yourself. Here's some incentive--probably the most straightforward rocker of the set:
Jump On It (mp3) - Scissors For Lefty
Get Bruno from CD Baby (I received mine three days after placing the order--and that's accounting for Chicago's impossible mail delivery) or at iTunes. Visit the band's Web site.
When I first heard Sam Champion, they annoyed the shit out of me. I mean, how much can you sound like Pavement before just admitting you're a Pavement tribute band. But this particular song has grown and grown on me. I think because it isn't slavishly imitative. For one thing, it has horns . . . er wait, they're not trying to sound like Neutral Milk Hotel, are they?
You Can't See The Stars In This Town (mp3) - Sam Champion
From Slow Rewind (US, UK).
And to prove a mid-90s indie rock revival is indeed afoot in New York, there's The Diggs. Hey, they cop to it on their MySpace page. So if I compared them to Seam or something, I think they'd be cool with it.
Before I forget, The House of Lime and Leaf has posted the most beautiful song I've heard this year (see October 17 post under White Foliage).
Jump On It (mp3) - Scissors For Lefty
Get Bruno from CD Baby (I received mine three days after placing the order--and that's accounting for Chicago's impossible mail delivery) or at iTunes. Visit the band's Web site.
When I first heard Sam Champion, they annoyed the shit out of me. I mean, how much can you sound like Pavement before just admitting you're a Pavement tribute band. But this particular song has grown and grown on me. I think because it isn't slavishly imitative. For one thing, it has horns . . . er wait, they're not trying to sound like Neutral Milk Hotel, are they?
You Can't See The Stars In This Town (mp3) - Sam Champion
From Slow Rewind (US, UK).
And to prove a mid-90s indie rock revival is indeed afoot in New York, there's The Diggs. Hey, they cop to it on their MySpace page. So if I compared them to Seam or something, I think they'd be cool with it.
Trouble Everyday (mp3) - The Diggs
Incidentally, The Diggs contacted us, which bands do from time to time. We don't promise we'll publicize or post anything, but if we like it and it hasn't already become a cause overkill among mp3 bloggers, we just might.
Tuesday night I went to a great author reading at the Hopleaf sponsored by Bookslut. If you live in Chicago or surrounding burbs, you've gotta put Bookslut events on your calendar. The brilliant minds behind that site lined up three authors--Beth Lisick, Paula Kamen and Peter Manseau--with wildly disparate but equally entertaining sounding memoirs. A good time was had by all, especially because the cozy reading room had its own bar. If you care about those sort of things (cough). Read more about it here.Before I forget, The House of Lime and Leaf has posted the most beautiful song I've heard this year (see October 17 post under White Foliage).
posted by Amy at 8:57 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Trivia: The album is named after a famous MIT prank. A bunch of students dropped a grand piano 6 stories from the roof of Baker House. A Bruno is a unit of measurement defined as the volume of the dent in the pavement made by aforementioned piano. It's approximately 1500 ccs.
Or it could be named after a sudden and uncanny confluence of people named Bruno in the band members' lives. See here (expand link). Your MIT prank story is good, though.
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