This Is Book's Music

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.

As reported in January, The Woolen Men are now Woodsist artists, and with that signing comes a new album due out on March 5th that happens to be self-titled. In other words, the album is named after the band. The Pacific Northwest trio (two gents from Oregon, the other a Washingtonian) will be doing a show in Portland next week at Mississippi Studios before preparing to do some West Coast dates at the top of spring, taking a month off (because we here in the Pacific Northwest are bums like that) before heading to the East Coast in mid-May Here is where you’ll be able to see and hear them:

February 22… Portland, OR (Mississippi Studios)
March 21… Eugene, OR (The Wandering Goat)
March 22… Portland, OR (Mississippi Studios)
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)
May 19… Brooklyn, NY (Shea Stadium)
May 20… New Brunswick, NJ (Cooler Ranch)
May 21… Boston, MA (O’brian’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 (The White Water Tavern)
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)

You may now hear them with their song, “Head On The Ground”.

They are from Seattle. One of the members in this duo is wearing a Cheap Trick T-shirt. This duo call themselves Pony Time, and they will be sharing their nasty garage rock sound with an album called Go Find Your Own (Per Se). February 19th is when it will be released, but you don’t have to wait another month to hear music from it, as they’re putting it up as a free download. You can do that now or simply stream it.

Pony Time are Luke Beetham on bass, “baritone guitar” and vocals, and former Iowa resident Stacy Peck, the drummist. They will be heading to this year’s SXSW, and on their way will be doing some shows to rock out America. This is where they are scheduled to appear:
February 22… Seattle, WA (The Black Lodge) {Album Release Show}
March 6… Portland, OR (East End)
March 7… Eureka, CA (The Shanty)
March 8… San Francisco, CA (Hemlock Tavern)
March 9… Reno, NV (Holland Project)
March 10… Los Angeles, CA (TBA)
March 11… San Diego, CA (The Shakedown)
March 12… Phoenix, AZ (Select.Stateside Presents)
March 13… TX (TBA)
March 14… Austin, TX (SXSW)
March 15… Austin, TX (SXSW)
March 16… Austin, TX (SXSW)
March 19… Wichita, KS (Rock Island Live)
March 19… Denver, CO (Mouth House)
March 20… Salt Lake City, UT(@ TBA)
March 21… Boise, ID (Treefort Music Festival)
March 22… Portland, OR (The Know)

The Woolen Men are from the Pacific Northwest, one guy from Washington and the other two from Oregon below, and they now call PDX home. The band have been signed to Woodsist Records and will be releasing their self-titled debut on March 5th, and the first preview of it is through the song “Mayonnaise”, which you can listen to by streaming the Soundcloud player below.

The band combine early/traditional rock’n'roll with clashes of punk and garage to create something that sounds rough and crispy but can be considered accessible in the right frame of mind. To hear what they’re about, head to their official Bandcamp page.

KANPAI!

Soul/jazz/rock/garage singer Nick Waterhouse sounds like he was swinging on his own ding-a-ling back in the 1960′s, and these are fresh out of the Capitol or Columbia Records echo chambers, it’s what some would call a “juicer”.

In truth, no one would have called it a juicer back then, but the echo chambers: all true references. This is from Waterhouse’s brand new album, Time’s All Gone, released today, and like the name of his label, this music is very much about Innovative Leisure. KANPAI!

If you’re a fan of dingy, grungy, and dank rock with pinches of pop, garage, and even a bit of surf music thrown in, you’ll want to pick up the new 4-song 7″ by Sic Alps.

Pangea Globe (Drag City) is basically a tribute record to The Tronics, so if you are lucky enough to know who they are, you’ll get a kick out of this one. Sic Alps go in and cover “Squiddley Diddley”, “Spending Time”, “Shark Fucks”, and a song that doesn’t start with the letter “s”, “My Baby’s In A Coma”. The record would be a great find if it was some long lost record from 1964, or something you found in Mark Arm‘s record collection, or maybe a long lost artifact from the Sympathy For The Record Industry acetate archives, but this one comes courtesy of Drag City records, a plus.

(Pangea Globe, will be released on April 24th, and can be pre-ordered right now for $5 each directly from Drag City Records.)

Mike Wexler‘s second album is his first for the Mexican Summer label, and it’s called Disposession. He’s an artist who can create some Mudhoney or Green River-style garage/grunge one day, and then turn around and make music that sounds like a modern day “Careful With That Axe, Eugene”. Is Wexler the new T. Rex? Whatever way you choose to compare him, you’ll find him being a modern day Mike Wexler, and I can see that happening. Heavy and rugged at the right time, trippy and far-out another time, he’s definitely moving the singer/songwriter tag his way as a mean to reflect it on others.

“Pariah” is the opening track for the album, and you can listen to it below. Dispossession is available on vinyl, CD, and MP3, and you can order them directly from Mexican Summer or through the Amazon links below. The vinyl pressing will be released on March 27th.

Lil’ Daggers made one of the best albums of 2011, and they’re about to release a single on Smoky Carrot Records, a label out of the UK. The song is called “Stray Chank”, the title of which either sounds raunchy, smelly, hilarious, sarcastic, or none of them. Regardless of the title, it’s the music that sounds so you should listen to this.

The song can also be found on the new Smoky Carrot compilation, Smoky Times. Vol. 1, released earlier this week (February 27th), but you’ll also want to get the single for its B-side, “Snake Bird”, which you can hear by clicking here. Eh, get them all.

Lil’ Daggers will be doing a split 7″ with The Underground Youth, aiming for a June release.

There’s a point in this video where I have to ask myself: “the guitarist is singing but where is his microphone?” Stupid ass comment aside, this is a nice band with a great song and a cool looking video to go with it. Don’t believe me? Becoming not a Belieber, but a believer of The Fay Rays.

Lil Daggers-Dada Brown [Official Video] from Michael J. Ruiz-Unger on Vimeo.

Lil’ Daggers have made another music video, and it’s a nice one for the song “Dada Brown”. I’ve reviewed some of their records in the last year, including their debut album (you can read my review by clicking to Skyscraper Magazine), and if you haven’t heard it, may the video be a good reason to move you to show support and buy it.