This Is Book's Music

The $100 Guitar Project (Bridge) is a very unique and cool project put together under one simple premise: pass the guitar from one musician to another, have them record something, then mail the guitar to someone else. The make and model of the guitar is almost unimportant, although you can see it on the cover and booklet. It’s about a celebration of music and the musician who puts work in playing the guitar to create a song. Some of the songs are fully realized compositions, while others are quick bursts of sound. The end result is a 69 song double CD that goes everywhere from sweet electric balladry to trippy doodling, and even with this many people involved in the project, it works out as innocently as a school project, or going back to the days of the pen pal when one had to go to a physical building to mail a piece of paper with a stamp on it.

The diversity on The $100 Guitar Project is amazing: Amy Denio, Nels Cline, Fred Frith, David Starobin, Alex Skolnick, Thomas Dimuzio, Henry Kaiser, Han-earl Park, Chris Murphy, James Moore, Del Rey, Ava Mendoza, and many others, who are either backed by a few musicians, themselves, or go at it solo. You may listen to them as mini-gems or brief masterpieces, or you may even consider wanting to sample bits of these songs for your own compositions (but with proper permission of course). The interesting about this album was that there were more contributions than the label could handle, so there could easily be one or two more volumes ready-made. Let’s hope so.

(NOTE: Royalties on every sale of The $100 Guitar Project will be paid directly to CARE, a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. For more information, go to Care.org.)

Every other article about Cool Ghouls will most likely mention the word “retro”, so I’m going to do the same but also venture forward to say that the sound of this band is mighty righteous, regardless of where they cite their influences. They will be releasing their self-titled debut on April 23rd via Empty Cellar Records, and I for one think it has mass appeal. Or at least, it should. The album will be available digitally or on vinyl, both of which you may pre-order through the Bandcamp player below (or this link if the player is not present.

His name is not Lenny, but Hanni El Khatib has a new track called “Lenny” that he’d like for you to check out and listen. The song is from his forthcoming Innovative Leisure album, Head In The Dirt but don’t have yours caught in the soil, especially when he hits the road in May with The Black Angels. Forget May sweeps, this is where you should be:

May 2… Baton Rouge, LA (Spanish Moon) Ω
May 3… Birmingham, AL (Work Play Theatre) Ω
May 4… Atlanta, GA (Shakey Knees Festival)
May 5… Nashville, TN (Mercy Lounge)Ω
May 7… Indianapolis, IN (The Vogue) Ω
May 8… St. Louis, MO (The Firebird) Ω
May 9… Kansas City, MO (Riot Room)
May 10… Boulder, CO (Boulder Theater) Ω
May 11… Salt Lake City, UT (The Depot) Ω
May 13… Seattle, WA (Neptune Theatre) Ω
May 14… Vancouver, BC (Commodore Ballroom) Ω
May 15… Portland, OR (Wonder Ballroom) Ω
May 17… San Francisco, CA (The Fillmore) Ω

Ω = w/ The Black Angels

March 24… Los Angeles, CA (Permanent Records)
March 25… San Diego, CA (Soda Bar) +
March 26… Santa Ana, CA (Unit B) ++
March 27… San Jose, CA (The Usuals) +++
March 28… San Francisco, CA (The Knockout) ~
March 29… Davis CA (Simi’s) !
March 30… Oakland CA (Long Haul Books) @
May 19… Brooklyn, NY (Shea Stadium) #/$
May 20… New Brunswick, NJ (Cooler Ranch) #/%
May 21… Boston, MA (O’brian’s) #/^
May 22… Philadelphia, PA (Johnny Brenda’s) #/*/=
May 23… Cleveland, OH (Now That’s Class) #
May 24… Chicago, IL (The Burlington) #
May 25… Bloomington, IN (The Realm) #
May 28… Little Rock, AK (House show) #
May 29… Austin, TX (Beerland) #/₤
June 1… Athens, GA (Farm 255) #
June 2… Charlotte, NC (Yauhaus) #
June 5… Baltimore, MD (Golden West) #
June 6… New York, NY (Cake Shop) #/¥
June 7… Brooklyn, NY (Silent Barn)

+ w/ Oh and the Whats, Dream Buddies
++ w/ NASA Space Universe
+++ w/ Plantain
~ w/ Swiftumz
! w/ Kevin Greenspoon
@ w/ Permanent Collection
# w/ Lame Drivers
$ w/ Hippy and Shark
% w/ Trash Ride
^ w/ Bent Shapes
* w/ Pet Milk
= w/ Literature
₤ w/ Simple Circuits
¥ w/ Darlings

What you see above are tour dates for The Woolen Men, who are currently on the road with a number of groups joining them. I told you about the tour last month, but a few new dates have been added since then, indicated by being in bold. Oh, you want to see what The Woolen Men look like, so that you can be sure you had seen my brief article about them? Sure, here they are:

Since the release of their debut album on Woodsist a few weeks ago, the men in The…Men have created a video for the song “Hold It Up”. If you need a bit of motivation to buy the album or see them in concert, here is what you may need.

The Woolen Men — Hold It Up from jeffrey kriksciun on Vimeo.

From their Island Universe album on the Innovative Leisure label comes “Big Mother”, the brand new video by Feeding People. If the music moves you (and it very well might), you’ll have two immediate chances to see them in the coming month, give or take a few days:

March 22… Santa Ana, CA (The Observatory (Burgerama II))
April 20… Mecca, CA (Desert Daze Moon Block Party)

If the evil entity known as grunge had mutated into something else, I say it would lie in the hands of the Seattle duo Pony Time.

With an album a few seconds over the length limit of an EP, Go Find Your Own definitely has the sound of music played by two people, in this case Stacy Peck and Luke Beetham. Beethham’s vocals resides on the thin line between swagger and flamboyant, and the rock is so raw and rugged, someone might think it was ripped off from The Stooges. It is not, but it definitely has the mean punch of pop with aggressive pop power, as if each song was ready made for the charts if more people in the world were rockers. None of the songs go over three minutes, so it seems this group has an agenda to get into their songs and leave without dwelling in its sensitivity or irritability. Don’t expect a lot of carefully crafted metaphors either, a song like “First Thing In the Morning, You and Me (Hard and Heavy)” states what it has to say: wake up, clean your room, get out of the house, go somewhere, and hope you return back home by the evening. Maybe go to the store and buy some food, because you’re out of cereal or snacks. That’s it. Next song is on its way.

I like what they do because it’s just there, out in the world and in your face, loud and fucked up. That’s very Seattle, but it’s also some damn good music made by two people who simply want to play and sing until their set list reaches the bottom. Rock on.

There is a phrase that goes something like “I can’t believe you have the audacity…”, which generally will lead to an argument on how pompous someone is. Maybe the Audacity are indeed pompous, or maybe they save those types of emotions for their music but as of now, this quartet from Fullerton, California are ready to release a new single in April. This one will be a part of Suicide Squeeze Records‘ Singles Club, and it will be published on April 2nd. Here’s a look at the picture sleeve, and a player for you to listen to its A-side:

Audacity will beading to SXSW this month, so jump on the bandwagon early:

March 7… Los Angeles CA (The Echo) $
March 8… Phoenix AZ (Sail Inn (Rampage Festival))
March 10… Denton TX (35 Denton Festival)
March 11… McAllen TX (Galax Z Fair II @ Thirsty Monkey)
March 12… Austin TX (SXSW)
March 13… Austin TX (SXSW – SSR Official Showcase @ Holy Mountain 10pm)
March 14… Austin TX (SXSW)
March 15… Austin TX (SSR/Hardly Art Day Party @ North Door 3pm)
March 16… Austin TX (SXSW)
March 17… Austin TX (SXSW)
March 18… El Paso TX (So Sick Fest)
March 20… Tucson AZ (Topaz Tundra) !
March 21… Las Vegas NV (Double Down Saloon) !
March 22… Santa Ana CA (The Observatory) !
March 23… Oakland CA (Sugar Mountain) !
March 24… Reno NV (Debauchareno – Holland Project) !

$ = w/ Nü Sensae, White Lung, Broncho
! = w/ Nü Sensae

The look of this video is straight out of a drive-in theater classic from the late 60′s or early 70′s but it’s very much in the now. Hanni El Khatib has done it again by creating this fantastic clip for the song “Family”, which will appear on his forthcoming album, Head In The Dirt. As for you: out of the dirt and into the fire.

Director Lana Kim shot the new video for Bleached called “Next Stop” as a means to promote their forthcoming album on Dead Oceans called Ride Your Heart. The song is one of those “haul ass”-ers that will make you not think twice about going down a road so you can go down on it. The road, that is.

If you like what you hear and see, you will be able to witness them in a live setting as they head towards this year’s SWSW shenanigans. Have a look at their tour stops:

March 9… El Paso, TX (Lowbrow Palace) $
March 11… McAllen, TX (Cine El Rey, Galax Z Fair II) *
March 14… Austin, TX (SXSW)
March 15… Austin, TX (SXSW)
March 16… Austin, TX (SXSW)
March 17… Austin, TX (SXSW)
March 22… Santa Ana, CA (The Observatory) **
April 12… Austin, TX (Red 7) !
April 13… Dallas, TX (Club Dada) !
April 14… New Orleans, LA (Circle Bar) !
April 15… Birmingham, AL (The Bottletree) !
April 16… Atlanta, GA (The Earl) !
April 17… Durham, NC (The Pinhook) !
April 18… Washington, DC (DC9) !
April 19… Gambier, OH (Kenyon College) !
April 20… Philadelphia, PA (Haverford College) !
April 20… Philadelphia, PA (The Fire) !
April 21… Cambridge, MA (TT & the Bear’s) !
April 23… New York, NY (Bowery Ballroom) !
April 24… Montreal, QC (Il Motore) !
April 25… Toronto, ON (The Silver Dollar) !
April 26… Detroit, MI (Metro Times Festival)
April 27… Chicago, IL (Subterranean) #
April 28… St. Paul, MN (Turf Club) ^
April 30… Missoula, MT (Ole Beck VFW Post 209) ^
May 1… Seattle, WA (Chop Suey) ^
May 2… Vancouver, BC (Fortune Sound Club) ^
May 3… Portland, OR (Star Theatre) ^
May 4… San Jose, CA (Blank Club) ^
May 5… San Francisco, CA (Independent) ^
May 7… San Diego, CA (Casbah) ^
May 8… Los Angeles, CA (Troubadour) ^

$ with White Lung
* with Cloud Nothings
** with Black Lips, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti and more
! w/ Hunters
# w/ Hunters & Ex-cops
^ w/ Ex-cops

Surf music? Surf rock… in 2013? Yes indeed, and it comes from The Growlers out of Southern California, and their Hung At Heart album (Everloving) is reminiscent of those days when nothing mattered but surf, sand, shorts, bathing suits, and… well, surf.

If you wish, you can listen to this album as a bit of our innocence lost. Many of us, including myself, weren’t around when surf music was the rage, where everyone had to rock out for two minutes and 30 seconds or less at a time, but these guys have that sound down right. It’s not just the music that moves them, but the lyrics that are about love found, love lost, and love wished for, much of which was influenced by early R&B and country, genres where they cut the crap and just gave you what you should hear so you could wiggle on the floor, and move on to the next story.

The entire album isn’t like that, for tracks like “One Million Lovers” and “Pet Shop Eyes” are knee deep in garage rock richness, while “Living In A Memory” sounds ready made for a hoedown. Some of this may sound like the works of The Mummies, The Phantom Surfers, Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet, or the many projects of Billy Childish, but that innocence also had to do with being punk as fuck because you wanted to buy a guitar or farfisa organ and just enjoy yourself. Hung At Heart is an album of joy, although if we are to get technical for a moment, at 15 songs, this would be considered a double album in the late 50′s/early 60′s, perhaps way too much to rock out to but not enough for modern tastes. By the end of the album, the surf vibe still shines strong and even if you’ve never been anywhere close to a beach or sand, Hung At Heart shows that when it comes to good ol’ rock’n'roll, you can still use your mind to imagine its cool factor.