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They are the operators of their laptop calculators

‘The songwriting trio of the UK’s Broadcast is lost – somewhere between being misunderstood geniuses and living out the childhood desire to bang, kick and press buttons that make noise for the sake of making noise. During experimental art pop points on their albums, they are like an Old Navy commercial – trying so hard to be hip. When they hit the nail on the head, they make Kraftwerk look like pussies.

The band is a contradiction in terms, left to be decided from that often-forgiving subjective point of view. There’s always a sympathizer somewhere. The problem is that it’s difficult at times to tell which side of the love/hate relationship you are on.

Trish Kennan, James (Jam) Cargill, and Tim Felton make ’60s electro-swingers Brit-pop music with quirky twists and turns of the pots-and-pans variety. They’re pretty damn good at what they do, but the question of why they do it remains.

Without trying to sound self-important, they do what they do because they feel a general dissatisfaction with the music around them. They want to create something different, something fresh and new. They want to transform traditional music, melding disparate elements into a wholly distinct sound that they are excited to put under the Broadcast moniker.

“There are records that we wanted to find that we just couldn’t find,” said Broadcast guitarist Tim Felton. “So, we wanted to make those records. We wanted to be that missing link, so to speak.”

Felton credits the “sound of (the band member’s) personalities” and their “motivation to fuse thrashing and contrasting things and make them work together” as what helps the band distinguish themselves from other groups.

Broadcast is based out of Birmingham, England, a scene they claim has improved drastically over the course of the past decade since new clubs and new bands have populated the area. It’s an area they are glad to align themselves with since, in London, garage rock has become the popular fad again. They cant’ be compared to the Strokes and the White Stripes – and that’s a compliment.

As a band, they have no set roles and do not let their egos get in the way. The members of the band fill in parts and trade instruments when and where it’s necessary. To them, the songs are more important than the roles they play in the band. Everything they do seems to be non-traditional, including the music that motivates them and how they come across it.

“We’re inspired by a crossover of folk, film music and weird things we find in record shops and pass between us,” said Felton. “Sometimes, we’ll be watching a movie and tape the soundtrack directly off the TV.”

The process of recording a soundtrack off of a television has become increasingly simple for the band, since they finished building their own studio at the Custard Factory. Having a personal home studio at a moment’s disposal has become a necessity for experimental bands. To accomplish these same tasks in a commercial studio would be too costly.

This studio made the writing and recording of “Ha Ha Sound,” the band’s second full-length album which is set for release in November, a much easier process than their freshman release, “The Noises Made By People.” The first record saw what Felton described as “many months of false starts.” Their drummer quit. They couldn’t keep a producer. The band also suffered the loss of Robert Mitchell, a close friend and the person responsible for signing them to Warp Records, who died of cancer.

“It was a really devastating loss, you know?” said Felton. “It really hit us all hard. It took us a while but eventually we got back on track and were able to pull ourselves back together.”

“Ha Ha Sound,” destined to be the band’s best effort to date, is dedicated to the memory of Mitchell. It bears the burden of his loss but proves that, even in death, there can be new life.

let’s get serious

‘The Panthers have followed the path of bands toning down their sound. It’s awfully reminiscent of the course taken by the Refused members, who went on to form the International Noise Conspiracy.

Panthers is primarily made up of members of ex-super-hardcore band Orchid, and also the highly touted instrumental outfit Turing Machine. Where Orchid was once tough as nails, Panthers now adds an artsy element to their sound. Their songs are a well-thought-out brand of New York post-punk that borders a little on garage, a little bit on bluesiness.

The band moves away from chords in favor of riffs. A couple of solo, heavily-distorted notes, a Moog synthesizer and high-mixed drums fill the void formerly filled by a wall of power chords. Singer Jason Green’s voice has even taken a step back – in both its forcefulness, and in the mix. It’s proof that less can truly be more. Aww, it’s punk rock all grown up.

This record, “Let’s Get Serious,” shows the deep impact of a collision between Orchid and Turing Machine. It has the hardcore, take-no-bullshit spirit of Orchid and the leave-not-even-the-most-nebulous-detail-to-chance philosophies of Turing Machine. Every note is intently formulated but, on the whole, the songs come off as spontaneous, improvisational. It’s calculated messiness.

The EP shows the band has great potential, but it could easily fall prey to a lazy-man’s categorization of them as a Strokes rip-off. Nothing could be further from the truth, really. Rather, this should be filed among the set of bands that will soon dance their own rite of independent popularity. They should be grouped in with the likes of These Arms Are Snakes and Pretty Girls Make Graves.

Keep an eye out for Panthers. They are bound to be one of the next big indie bands.

http://www.celebritydeathbeeper.com

“I know, I know. It sounds morbid. Well, it is. Get over it.

Here’s the deal:

This past month or two have been riddled with noteworthy deaths. Some folks in the limelight have been hit with hard times recently. Oh well. They’ve all lived relatively long and successful lives.

Still, it’s sad to know that someone has died. Unless you’re a recently deceased century-old politician, most people are genuinely affected when death has come upon anyone, even a person of substantial recognition. Death is depressing, even if only out of respect.

That being said, death has, well, a morbid curiosity to it. People are always interested in hearing who has kicked the bucket. It’s a curious race of sorts since knowing a tidbit of knowledge prior to your companions or coworkers makes you seem more informed, like you read the newspaper. We all know that nobody reads the newspaper, though.

On the other hand, people rarely fail to check their email accounts and surf the Internet. That’s where Celebrity Death Beeper has decided to pitch in and lend their services. The Beeper can be that inside source that will help you keep on top of the most recent celebrity croakers. This can be done by either searching the site or adding your email address to their list of subscribers. That’s right, if Matthew Perry overdoses, they’ll let you know.

The shortcoming of this is that the site does not provide a good deal of biographical information on the death du jour. Youbettheirlife.com is right there to pick up the slack, though. So, there’s no need to fret. Once you’ve been informed of a celebrity’s passing, you can go to http://www.youbettheirlife.com/2003deathstodate.htm to find a more thorough entry on that person.

Yeah so this article was pretty grave. We at the office were all, like, totally bummed out when Strom uttered his last racist remark.”

More than a little bit special

‘”I don’t do a conventional comedy show,” admits singer/comedian Stephen Lynch. “There is comedy within the show but the gist of the show is just songs. That’s when I try to be funny.”

Lynch is focused, working hard to continue racking up numbers in his allegiance of fans. After attending Western Michigan University, near his hometown, he knew that his musical theater and acting experience would be a part of whatever he would do next.

“I’ve done music my whole life. In college, everyone I hung out with performed in one way or another. At parties, someone would break out a guitar and we’d try to make each other laugh. After college everyone else moved on and I just kept doing it.”

Continue to do it, he did. It did not take long for Stephen Lynch to become a stellar member of the small sect of musician/comedians.

“When I moved to New York I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I wanted to continue something in the acting field. At first, music was just a side thing I did on the weekends. Before I knew it, I was playing at Catch a Rising Star and then I started headlining my own tours.”

While he was growing accustomed to headlining tours, fame had even bigger plans for the self-proclaimed Dr. Stephen. Soon, he appeared on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend. After appearing on his second Comedy Central show, he was offered his own half-hour special. Alongside of this and being a favorite on syndicated radio shows like Opie and Anthony, the name Stephen Lynch became a household name to comedy lovers everywhere.

Enthusiasts know his name is synonymous with a hard-to-pull-off brand of comedy that borders on the edge of being over-the-top racy, but manages to escape crude or vulgar every time. For an apt comparison, he is close to the singer/songwriter version of Michael McKean and Christopher Guest. Think “Big Bottom” or “Bitch School” but prettier sounding and about the Special Olympics.

“Spinal Tap holds a place in my heart. They wrote songs that were musically interesting as well as funny. You don’t want to write a two-chord novelty song and then go out and have to sing that every night. If it was all that same goofiness day in and day out, it wouldn’t have much of an impact.”

This is a major difference that separates Lynch from the likes of Adam Sandler and Jimmy Fallon. Even if the humor wasn’t there, his enchanting voice and strong songwriting talents could easily carry the listener through his pleasurable melodies.

“I took a couple stabs at writing songs that weren’t funny but something in me prevented me from finishing those songs. It always gets to a point in the song where I think, ‘God, I can make this funny if I just went this way.’ I don’t want to waste a good opportunity to be funny by being grave. Serious songs just aren’t important to me right now.”

Lynch’s songs have a tendency to follow drastic changes. The songs of his that have the strongest impact start off soft and sweet, a style of singing that suits his melodious voice well, then hit a wall in which all that is serious takes a dire turn for the impossibly and gut-wrenchingly jocular. He is well versed in misleading audiences and never bluntly proclaiming the punch line, giving only the subtlest implication of it.

It’s a talent that, after two records, numerous radio spots, and countless live performances, Lynch has sharpened to a fine point. All of that hard work has opened up new doors for him and has allowed him to experiment with his concerts. He has been playing the shows of his current tour in mostly concert venues – anyplace that is not a comedy club.

“I was doing a couple of shows outside of Chicago at Zany’s a couple of years ago. I did well for a few of the Friday shows. Then, for the Thursday night (show), things were kind of light. So, they booked a party. When I got on stage, I realized it was a retirement party for someone from the office next door. There were about 50 70-year-old people sitting in the audience listening to me sing about having sex with corpses and molesting altar boys. That’s precisely why I don’t do comedy clubs anymore. I don’t need people throwing things at me and wheeling themselves out in their wheelchairs.”

antenna

‘All right – it is generally unacceptable to write in the first person, as far as the world of journalism is concerned. Such neophyte amateurism is to be left for Kinko’s copied ‘zines.

I realize that, but I have a confession to make.

Although it is a blasphemous statement, I never liked Cave In. Their early hardcore material was decent but unimpressive. Songs like “Burning Down the Billboards” were novel but generic. Even “Jupiter,” the quintessential space rock album of the past few years, did little for me. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but the songs were too damned long. My attention span was way too short to take the anthem epics in.

So, what made Cave In so likeable all of the sudden?

Of course, the perks of signing to a major label may have helped to round out and refine the band’s sound. It does not stop there, though. They took the formula that made “Jupiter” such a hit and divided by two. The answer to this equation ended up being shorter songs with just as much impact. It’s the compact version of “Jupiter.” There may not be enough room to stretch your feet during songs, but the ride is so short that you find yourself doubling back and wanting to start all over again.

With the exception of “Seafrost,” the album’s halfway point that weighs in at a hefty 8:59, the average length of the songs is about four minutes, a much more handy length with which to attract listeners.

In spirit, this album is reminiscent of Hum and they have been headed in that direction since the release of their EP “Creative Eclipses.” A good deal of influence for the change in the band’s sound is credited to the delicately interwoven melodies of My Bloody Valentine guitarists Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher. Upon first listen, their guitar progressions seem like the superficial drones of bland indie rock progressions, but at heart they are well worked out and perfectly balanced symmetrical riffs. The influence from MBV has helped to completely alter the path that Cave In was on.

Although the band caught backlash from fans for putting out their first non-metal album, if this is what “selling out” to a major label did, more power to them. Next to the boisterous David Grohl endorsements, this was the best thing that could have happened to Cave In.

http://maddox.xmission.com

‘We’re going out on a limb here. This one is bound to piss off Boulderites.

So, let’s start off with a disclaimer. The process of ass-covering is a good policy. Here it goes:

If you find yourself easily offended, do not view this page. If you do not find sarcasm to be humorous, you will not laugh at this. If you use the word misogyny at least once a week, this is not the site for you. Plain and simple, if you think the page is going to bother you, don’t look at it. No one is forcing you.

For the thick-skinned and easily amused cynics, this is an ideal website.

Picture Dennis Miller’s rants. Now, picture Dennis Miller using words that people without doctorate degrees can understand. Throw in topics like the size of a man’s berries, an objective analysis of Bush vs. a box of Tic-Tacs, and tons of anti-vegetarian sentiments and you’ve got The Best Page in the Universe.

What makes this page worth visiting? If for nothing else, the man behind the page is a CU graduate. If that isn’t convincing, and it doesn’t convince some of us, some of the most attractive features of the site are the Photoshop drawings and their captions, and the excessive amount of hate mail and the responses to them. The main draw to the site, though, is the rants.

There are no holds barred for The Best Page. The site takes on everyone and everything from Christopher Reeve to hippies. For the most side-splittingly funny example, take a look at the links titled “I am better than your kids” and “More crappy children’s artwork.” It is The Best Page, at its best.

Keep in mind, people, these opinions expressed on this page do not belong to us. We are not responsible for what other people say. On the other hand, if it’s funny, you’d damn well better believe we’re going to laugh.

defenders of the universe

‘After a three year time span since their self titled debut, Dig rnis back with their sophomore release, Defenders of the Universe.  This twelve track album has been the first the first sign of life from the band since then, with the exception of their contribution to the Saturday Morning album.  This was three years that were very well spent.

Obviously, half of the band was putting more of an effort in rnfor this album than the rest of the band.  There core of these tracks are up to par or even better in comparison to rntheir last album, but it seems like the band lost it after that. The lead licks and solos were way too over produced with and “studio magic” to add anything but a high quality annoyance to the songs.  Well, at least this fit in perfectly with the vocals. Lead vocalist, Scott Hackwith, traded in his coarse voice for a high-pitched, unpolished, Billy Corgan live type voice… not even to mention the lyrics.  It seems like Hackwith made it rnup as hewent along, five minutes before recording them.  It seems like he randomly chose words that rhymed or fit a singing pattern for half of the songs.  On the other half, he wrote about his drugs of choice.

Dig, dig, was more of an album recorded for the music.  There rnwas not much studio production involved at all.  It was a rather rnstraightforward album that is still very well worth listening to.  The band clicked together on every track of this project and thereis a wide array of music on it to listen to.  Defenders of the Universe was produced because it could afford to be.  It is more of an experiment than an album in comparison to the last one.  The only two songs even remotely worth listening to on this rnalbum are “Wall Socket” and “Opus”.  This is because the band laid back on the effects and filling every space with any lyrics possible.  They let the music shine through because they respected the songs.  Hopefully, the band will learn from their mistakes for their next release.  Otherwise, these guys should have just given up after their cover of the “Fat Albert” rntheme song for the Saturday Morning cartoon album.

http://www.coversproject.com

‘Ever hear a new song that sounded awfully familiar, but you just couldn’t place it? How about a song that you know is not the original version, but you can’t remember who wrote it?

Enter the Covers Project.

This project is a comprehensive list of songs that have been covered as well as the bands that covered them and who originally wrote them. It is well designed and easy to navigate. You can search by either band or song to find out information. The site also provides chains that list degrees of separation between bands linked by other bands and songs.

The Covers Project is a useful resource for those of us with an insatiable curiosity for music coupled with horrible memories. It’s easy to navigate and filled with interesting facts. Some of these interesting facts include a chain linking 157 bands through covers from The Honeycombs’ “Have I the Right” to Sister Double Happiness’ cover of “Morphing in a Strangehold.” The most covered artist is the Beatles, covered 1221 times, and the most covered song is Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?” covered 145 times.

There is a search engine, an alphabetized catalogue of artists, and a thorough resource of band links within the site that provide numerous effective ways to search for your favorite song or favorite musician.

A good deal of obscure and hard-to-find bands are listed on this site and it is constantly expanding. With over 45,000 songs listed in the database, chances are you can always find what you are looking for. If not, the option to send in listings is always there too.

It’s not surprising just how many cover songs there are out there and the facts that they provide are intriguing. The one thing that would be interesting to see would be what band has covered the most songs. If not the most, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes may do them the best.

Another good resource in this vein would be the Knockoff Project, which can be located at http://www.plimsoul.com/knockoff_project/index.html. It focuses on album cover art rip-offs, though.

On the road again

‘”On the road, there’s always hightail porn and as much drugs as you can ingest,” began Ed Harcourt. “I’m only kidding – about the drugs.”

Everyone has a vice. Besides the porn, Harcourt’s true addiction is his music. Throughout his relatively short career, he has stacked up an impressive catalogue of songs which, at last count, registered at over 300.

“You live such a regular life as a musician that, in the daytime, you don’t really know what you do,” said Harcourt. “So, you write songs. It’s my favorite thing to do. It’s my drive.”

He claims that the process of songwriting is more than a job. It’s just how he lives his life. All things considered, that’s not a bad way to spend your free time.

He writes songs, releases them, garners fame, and tours to support his efforts. That’s the way it’s supposed to work in theory and the way it works in practice for Harcourt. It’s a combination of talent and public appeal that gets the job done. That doesn’t mean his two years of virtually non-stop performances is something to which he’s accustomed.

“Touring is always going to be weird and it’s something I don’t ever want to get used to,” said Harcourt. “I don’t want to be a traveling man.”

He admits that he’ll probably die touring. That ominous prospect is not something most people want but it does have its perks. This Sunday, Harcourt will open up for the seminal rock band R.E.M. on their second consecutive date at Red Rock.

“I am pretty much shitting myself about meeting R.E.M. I’m a massive fan of ‘Automatic for the People’ and all of their earlier stuff,” he said. “It’s going to be great to play with them.”

The future wasn’t always so star-studded for Harcourt. Before his music career took off, he worked as a cook in a French restaurant back in his hometown of East Sussex. He worked some shifts that lasted from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. in the grueling kitchen heat. In addition to cooking and preparing both appetizers and desserts, he did the grunt work. This is a fate he’s glad to no longer be a part of, although it is in his blood.

“My great aunt was Elizabeth David,” he said. So, I name-dropped at a few restaurants and ended up with a cooking job. Just don’t ask if cooking a meal is the same as writing a song. I’ll go insane.”

Who would ask such a question?

Harcourt’s great aunt, Elizabeth David, was a famed Sussex author. She wrote two well-received cookbooks, “Summer Cooking” and “A Book of Mediterranean Food.”

His music career began with Snug, a short-lived pop-punk outfit.

“That was ages ago. Snug was a band I did when I was in school. We self-released two albums. Some of it sounded like soft Buzzcocks stuff, some like Weezer, some like the Cars. It was all over the place.”

From there, he took is prolific songwriting in new directions as he set out on his own. Harcourt soon began work on his full-length debut “Here Be Monsters.” This intoxicating freshman effort won him international notoriety, and MTV and VH1 even picked up on the buzz.

Earlier this year, “From Every Sphere” was released to similar acclaim. Harcourt admits that this record was “too much of a grower,” though that second records are hit-or-miss if they depart from what fans are accustomed to. As he stated, “It’s just a second album.”

“With the next album, we’ll probably take it back to the basics. I want to make it more intense in direct to slap people in the faces. They’ll never get tired of being slapped in the face. It’ll be a sadomasochistic album, where I’m the sadist.”

midnight at the black nailpolish factory

‘Take apart the name. Come on, it isn’t hard now.

This band’s name is a proverbial tilting of the hat to the legendary front man of the Kinks, Ray Davies. (Perhaps a previous full-length, “Return of the Drunk Ventriloquist,” is also named in homage of Davies’ first solo album, “Return to Waterloo,” but that may be a bit of a stretch.)

Musically, this is a mod rewrite of the British Invasion, done Texas style. It’s a little slower and a bit more passive, but not to be messed with. The 60’s garage rock feel comes in waves over this album, though, washing out the Britpop feel at some points, and complementing it perfectly at others.

When the band started, it was a totalitarian regime of creativity, at first with John Dufilho, the one mere member, and later moving on to a group of yes-men style backing instrumentalists. Around the time of the creation of “Midnight,” the band lineup solidified and the governmental switch was made to socialism, where each member contributes carries his or her own weight.

The result is noticeable. The songs are a bit slower, the mix is more consistent, the synthesized sounds are more functional, and on the whole, the music is tighter. DRD did not sacrifice any quality, tongue-in-cheek wit, or accessibility by making this switch, though.

In a few words, “Midnight” is less rock and more quality than before.