Local Lixx returns from summer vacation to bring you some of the goodies that have been piling up on our desk. This week, we get a taste of three brand new artists in The Harlequins, Molly Sullivan and a collaboration between Ryan Mallot of 500 Miles To Memphis and Kelly Thomas. In addition, we take a look at a couple of your favorite local artists that made summer appearances in the WOXY lounge.
It’s an important week in the WOXY Lounge, maybe more important than others. This will be our final week for live performances in the studio here in Cincinnati before we begin to pack things up and head south to Austin, Texas and our new studios. At this point, I think we are at or over 400 live sessions in our Cincinnati Lounge, and there are loads of memories that we will leave behind. The great thing is, that the music that was made lives on forever, and our thick archive proves it. You can also relive them with images right here.
Before we start a new chapter of WOXY Lounge performances next month in Austin, we have two more for you this week here in Cincinnati. First off, this afternoon The Low Anthem will be visiting us while out on the road with Langhorne Slim. The band recently released an excellent album Oh My God, Charlie Darwin and we are excited to have them in for their first session with us.
Thursday marks our final session here, and we go out in style with our friends These United States. TUS are getting ready to release their third album and will also be making their third trip into our studios as well. Here are the previous two and you can grab a new song from the band (that they might just play for us) below as well. That session takes place Thursday afternoon, August 13.
So join us online and listen to a fond farewell to our Cincinnati Lounge Acts this week!
It has been a big ole Bad Veins party in the past couple weeks here at WOXY. The band came in to our studio for their third Lounge Act, they released their debut album and we even did a quick video interview with the boys as well. The following week, Ben and Sebastian dropped by one more time to to do a guest DJ set with Shiv. If you missed it, you can listen to the whole thing below. Enjoy!
Setlist:
“Never Had Nobody Like You” M. Ward
“Flame” Sebadoh
“Friends” Lightning Love
“23″ Blonde Redhead
“Revenge” Sparklehorse/Danger Mouse w/ Wayne Coyne
“Girl/Boy Song” Aphex Twin
“Fire Hydrant Floods” Black Iris
“Dear God” XTC
“The Light Before We Land” The Delgados
“New Drink For The Old Drunk” Crooked Fingers
“Song For A Sleeping Girl” Devics
“One Tree Hill” U2
When we first got wind of Bad Veins back in 2006, we were pretty excited about the possibilities for these guys. After all, they were immediate standouts here in the Cincinnati area with their unique and polished sound. We had Ben and Sebastian into our studios that December and then again in 2007 as new material from the guys began to make its way into their repertoire.
Since then, the band have had a roller-coaster of ups and downs while trying to get their full length out to the masses. Early this year, Dangerbird Records stepped up to the plate and offered to put the bands debut album out, and the guys, and all of their fans were ecstatic.
So, in a way, things have come full circle now for Bad Veins. From relative obscurity during our first session together to our third session together the day before the release of their debut album to a national audience. Ben and Sebastian treated us to an acoustic set this time around, and I think you will find that the selected songs really shine as a result.
Track Listing: Gold And Warm
Falling Tide - interview - Crosseyed
The Lie
Magnolia Electric Co. have been around for some time now, crooning heartfelt words in front of a wall of distinguished instrumentation. The band, which was formerly known as Songs : Ohia, but has always been the project of singer / songwriter Jason Molina, and for the most part has always called the midwest home.
Molina himself is a product of the midwest, spending formative years in our home state of Ohio but now resides in the UK, where he continues to be an incredibly prolific songwriter. In advance of the new album from Magnolia Electric Co., Josephine, the band stopped into the WOXY.com Lounge for a rare studio performance. In addition to the excellent tunes, Jason chats about recording the album with Steve Albini, the passing of former bass player Evan Farrell and his ability to schedule his songwriting opportunities, among other things.
Enjoy and share this beautiful performance from Magnolia Electric Co.
Track Listing: Trouble In Mind
Shenandoah -interview- Leave The City
Down The Wrong Road, Both Ways
This weekend in Chicago, the 4th annual Pitchfork Music Festival took over the Windy City’s Union Park for three days of great music. WOXY was on hand and chatted with a few bands we love. Have a look at this WOXY Wants To Know with The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart.
In addition, the band have a brand new EP that was just announced. The Higher Than The Stars EP will be getting a release September 22nd from Slumberland Records. And actually, one of the new songs on the EP was a tune the band played for us in Austin during SXSW earlier this year. You can download that below.
Sadly, I was unable to stick around Chicago for Day 3 of the Pitchfork Music Festival. I had to get back home and to the friendly confines of WOXY.com for my air shift on Monday. On the positive side though, our photographer for the weekend, Dave Evans, was able to stick around. He took another batch of great pictures that you can see in this post, or just hit up the entire photoset here.
We’ve been friends with Grant Widmer & Ted Joyner since their days in The Eames Era. Their new band, Generationals, has earned some great reviews for their debut album Con Law, which just hit stores this week. The guys have hit the road on a Park The Vantour across the west coast and will be making periodic updates from the road exclusively for The Futurist. Here’s their first update…
I’ll start off by saying this tour has been a blast so far. A tour of the West that starts in New Orleans is inherently going to include a ton of driving, but we’ve been squeezing a lot in to the few hours we don’t spend in the van. Here’s the rundown of the first quarter of the tour.
We kicked the tour off with a hometown show in New Orleans at the All Ways Lounge on St. Claude Avenue in the Faubourg Marigny. The All Ways is typically a theatrical venue and has a rep as one of the rowdier gay clubs in New Orleans. It did not disappoint. Lots of our friends and family and fans showed up to see us off. The show was great. Keep an ear peeled for Giant Cloud, a great band from Ruston, La., who have just moved their band to New Orleans. They’re fantastic. They opened the show and impressed everyone.
Friday night was in Indianapolis. We had a sweet opening slot for Megafaun and Bowerbirds at Vollrath so it was worth driving all night after the New Orleans show to get up there. We also met Nathaniel Rateliff, a folk singer from Denver who opened the show. He was also excellent. Nathaniel had just struck a deal with a new booking agent so he was in celebration mode. Our set was fun. Megafaun and Bowerbirds did not disappoint. Those guys are awesome. (more…)
This weekend in Chicago, the 4th annual Pitchfork Music Festival took over the Windy City’s Union Park for three days of great music. WOXY was on hand and chatted with a few bands we love. Have a look at this WOXY Wants To Know with The Antlers.
In addition, check out the session The Antlers did with us earlier this year…
Weather can play a big role when it comes to how much you enjoy a music festival. Just ask the concert goers who attended the Pitchfork Music Festival a couple years ago, when temperatures in the Chicago area rose above 95 degrees for most of the weekend. So, as someone who prefers NOT to have to deal with that much heat, I was pretty happy to see that the forecast for this year’s festival, was much more welcoming. They had been calling for temps topping out in the mid 70s, but when I arrived in Union Park off of the L train, a light rain and cold breeze made me feel like I needed a sweatshirt rather than sunscreen.
(The Jesus Lizard)
This is my first Pitchfork Fest, and after attending Bonnarooo, Lollapalooza and SXSW, I can appreciate the smaller feel that P4K resonates. Union Park after all is really a sports park, with baseball fields and basketball courts and tennis courts that get covered with hipsters one weekend a year. The first evening of the festival also allows you to ease into things, since there are just 4 bands playing and none of them are competing with another stage. Tortoise kicked off the festival and was just a few songs into their set when I arrived. Plenty of new tunes from Beacons of Ancestorship were present, but I felt that at times these guys had very little to offer visually and strode off before the set ended to check out the remainder of the festival grounds.
(Yo La Tengo)
One of the best things about the festival is the merchandise area, which is an independent aritist’s dream. Covering what is usually the tennis courts is a full-on art fair, complete with t-shirts, jewelry, clothing and tons of vinyl records. Indie stalwarths like Sub Pop Records are represented, as well as plenty of local indie labels pushing their artists as well. This is the anti-mall. This is the anti-corporate paradise, where there are just as many handmade items as shoppers. After perusing the area and finding some cheap sunglasses that fit me better than anything at a gas station could, but not costing any more, I moved back to the music and got a nice spot in front to the stage for Yo La Tengo.
The New York trio are really some of the more unassuming musicians I have seen despite their indie rock god status. They, like many of the other bands playing Friday night, had put out a ballot of sorts allowing fans to vote on their setlist for this performance and so it was obvious we would be getting some of their most well known tunes. Among the hits was “Autumn Sweater”, “Tom Courtenay”, “Cherry Chapstick” and “Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House.” But I really got a kick out of a new song, “Periodically Double Or Triple”, which Ira dedicated to former Chicago Cub legend and broadcaster Ron Santo “wherever he is.” It made me even more excited for the brand new album, due out this fall. YLT are able to not only perform a delicate ballad as easy as a guitar shredding 8 minute jam, as evidenced by fan favorite and set closer “Sugarcube”, which left me reeling.
(The Jesus Lizard)
After YLT, it was time for The Jesus Lizard, a band that I have to say, I have never really been a huge fan of. That being said, I can totally respect and appreciate the fact that they are indie legends and this set would be important. After all, this was the first performance from the band in nearly 10 years! As soon as frontman David Yow hit the stage, the energy within a a wide portion of his epicenter turned from a cool summer evening into a drunken sloppy mess, complete with indistiguishable lyrics, thick pulsating guitars and a stage dive during set opener “Puss” that lasted for the entire song and at times had folks wondering if and when Yow would emerge from the pit to finish the show. It was hard to deny the energy the Lizard was dishing out, and I would say that for fans of the band, this set would be a highlight difficult to top for the whole weekend.
(Built To Spill)
Built To Spill were the final act of the night, and I was more than ready to hear yet another indie rock legend dish out their hits. Doug and company have just about the opposite energy level that the Jesus Lizard employ however and opened up things with “Liar” to the biggest group of people all night long. Here is the thing about Built To Spill, they are an amazing band on record, some of their songs, as evidenced by the setlist for the night, belong in the canon of indie fame forever. My only complaint is that the guys just don’t make me want to stick around and watch anything. They sound great, but there is something about a live performance that makes me yearn for stage banter, energetic band members pushing the energy out and letting the crowd push it right back, and sorry to say this, but Built To Spill do not do that.
That being said, I am really happy I got the opportunity to see them do their thing live this weekend, and despite my objections, “Goin’ Against Your Mind” was brilliant live, as were many of the other tunes in the set. I left the festival on day 1 and jumped back on the L headed toward my hotel. The waterside view from the pink line is hard to top, and so was the fun that I encountered on the first day of the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival.
(Yo La Tengo)
Lots more photos after the jump of Tortoise, The Jesus Lizard, Yo La Tengo and Built To Spill. (more…)
