Submit a question to the Alternative Apparel Ask The Whigs & Win contest. The band will answer the best questions, and winners will also receive Whigs merchandise, an autographed shirt, and a $200 American Apparel gift card!
Widespread Panic on Jimmy Fallon
July 20, 2010 – 8:43 am
Last night, Widespread Panic performed “North” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Watch below and pick up their album Dirty Side Down from iTunes, Amazon MP3, or CD
Daytrotter: Love And Life, The Drawbacks And Conquests — Inseparable
July 8, 2010 – 12:14 pm
Dawes is back with another Daytrotter Session recorded on July 8th. The new session includes 3 unreleased songs while the article gives us a peak into Taylor’s songwriting and the band’s close relationship with Daytrotter. Click image below to listen
Sample This Shit
July 6, 2010 – 1:35 pm
tbd records offers up an awesome, FREE, 7-song Summer sampler! The free digital download includes tracks from:
22-20s
Henry Clay People
Autolux
Port O’Brien
White Rabbits
Hatcham Social
Other Lives
Download for FREE this week at Amazon MP3
Also, each album featured on the sampler is for sale through Amazon MP3.
“Buster Voodoo” now available for Rock Band
July 2, 2010 – 9:41 am
Buster Voodoo from RodGab’s latest album, “11:11″ is now available on Rock Band for XBox 360! Click the banner below to purchase the track. Dig it.
Carl Broemel
June 30, 2010 – 8:01 am
“It takes a lot of time to know your mind.” It’s a simple statement, yet earnest and profound in its offering. Sometimes it’s the spaces in between, the subtleties and ambiguities that provide us with the most meaning. All Birds Say (ATO Records) is an intimate collection of musings on life from My Morning Jacket guitarist, Carl Broemel. Broemel reflects on things as they are with Zen-like contentment, making no judgment on how they should be…he gives pause for introspection but stops short of preaching. The songs are firmly planted between past and present. It’s in these little fractured moments that the listener bears witness to thoughtful contemplation that give rise to epiphanies on larger themes.
Broemel could’ve taken the easy road and penned a lyrical triptych to the remarkable journey he’s experienced over the past several years, but instead All Birds Say is an incredibly honest and sincere insight into the artist’s inner-most thoughts as he attempts to reconcile his role in life. “Where do you start? Or where do you stop? And how do you reconcile the things you do versus the things you don’t? It’s something I’m constantly thinking about. I think there’s a lot of trying to be aware of what you’re doing now versus dwelling on things or worrying about what’s gonna happen later. A lot of the songs are really just me talking to myself, trying to make sense of things in my head.”
Deft in its presentation, the songs on the album unfold in a dream-like stream of consciousness with lush and elegant arrangements. The album’s brilliance is displayed in Broemel’s effortless delivery. It’s the perfect amalgamation of lazy sophistication…whimsical poise and grace. The instrumentation serves as the ideal complement to Broemel’s well crafted set of modern-folk standards; complete with pedal steel, dobro, strings, autoharp, clarinet, bassoon, vibraphone, and baritone sax, among others. Think Ron Sexsmith, Neko Case, Neal Casal, Andrew Bird, Mose Allison, and early Boz Scaggs singing an orchestrated chorus of breezy ballads and waltzes.
The guitar figure of the instrumental title track that opens the album serves as a natural introduction to “Life Leftover,” an introspective meditation on the importance of being more present in life that’s at the heart of All Birds Say. The album also afforded him the chance to collaborate with his own father, a former member of the Indianapolis Symphony who provides rich color and depth to the music with clarinet, baritone sax, and bassoon. “To me, making records is like alchemy. It’s something that no one can ever perfect, but you have an insatiable desire to keep doing it and get better at it. I really believe that everything we experience contributes to what we do next, so this album is really a result of all the records and tours I’ve done so far.“
The best records always seem to be the ones that slowly reveal themselves like a pleasant surprise and allow the listener to peel through deeper layers upon repeated listen…the kind of records that you grow with and can go back to months later and hear something then that resonates with you in a way that wouldn’t have otherwise. It’s an interactive process between the listener and the artist, and one to be thankful for. This is the kind of album that epitomizes the vinyl experience; an instant classic that is sure to stand the test of time.
The Henry Clay People Free MP3 Download
June 16, 2010 – 2:34 pm
Spinner is offering a free download of ‘Your Famous Friend’ hot off The Henry Clay People’s latest album ‘Somewhere on the Gold Coast’. Grab it here for one day only!
Henry Clay People’s “Somewhere on the Golden Coast” Available on tbd Records
June 8, 2010 – 6:50 pm
tbd records just released Henry Clay People’s Somewhere On The Gold Coast. Hear the full album at the band’s site, and buy it at nice low prices in all your favorite formats. Each choice comes with the digital album instantly. Or buy it on iTunes here.
The band is heading out on the road this summer with Silversun Pickups.
More about the album: We know what you’re thinking: The Henry Clay People aren’t really from L.A., right? After all, their TBD debut, Somewhere on the Golden Coast, sounds like the riff-slinging byproduct of playing hard—and drinking even harder—in Midwestern bars that keep their jukeboxes stocked with old Pavement and Replacements records or whatever Robert Pollard released that week.
“While we don’t quite fit in with L.A.’s noise scene or the singer-songwriter crew that hangs out at the Hotel Cafe,” says vocalist/guitarist Joey Siara, “we’ve found a nice little niche for bands like us in L.A—just a bunch of friendly people who prefer to hang out, drink cheap beer, and listen to Big Star records on a Saturday night.”
Joey and his 23-year-old little brother Andy—also a singer/guitarist—formed The Henry Clay People in 2005. Since then the band has developed a reputation for spreading their unpretentious slacker guitar rock though out greater Los Angeles and beyond. ”I think we played close to 200 shows in 2007-2008 and most of those were just local to southern California. 2009 was nice though because we really got to hit the road for most of the year and see if the tunes held up outside our little bubble.”
Somewhere on the Golden Coast bottles that boundless live energy in 11 airtight tracks and 34 filler-free minutes. Listening closely, it’s easy to see how all of this started, how a revolving door of “crappy punk bands” led the Siara brothers to form The Henry Clay People in the first place. Two buzz-building albums (2006’s Blacklist the Kid With the Red Moustache and 2008’s For Cheap or For Free) and several lineup shifts later, they’re still keeping things simple. Recorded mostly at The Ship Studios in Eagle Rock, CA by Earlimart frontman Aaron Espinoza, he encouraged the band to ditch the headphones, take it easy on overdubs, drink more beer, and record live in the same room to tape. The idea was to get as close as possible to the essence of the live show.
Golden Coast pushes and pulls between the two brother’s influences. Joey’s zeal for jagged distorted guitars (“Nobody Taught us to Quit), gets smoothed out by Andy’s laid back “drive into the sunset” love of The Byrds, Jackson Browne, and Grandaddy. The influence of the latter—along with their dad’s considerable classic rock collection—creeps into a couple Golden Coast cuts, lending a nostalgic from-dusk-’til-dawn feel to “A Temporary Fix” and the album’s melancholic curtain-closer, “Two Lives At the End of the Night.” Both of which provide a nice contrast to such certified piano-spiked jams as “Working Part Time,” “Your Famous Friends,” and “End of an Empire.” And since this particular long player barely eclipses the 30-minute mark, you better believe The Henry Clay People never wear out their welcome. In fact, they may just leave you wanting more.
“We want our music to be accessible, but still mean something,” says Joey. “That’s the spirit of this band—nothing we’re doing is rocket science, but we’re playing the music we love. And if some people recognize that, great. Rock ’n’ roll is rock ’n’ roll.”
THE CORE :
JOEY- Voice and Guitar
ANDY- Voice and Guitar
MIKE- Drummer Boy
JONATHAN- Voice and Bass
JORDAN- Piano and Voice
For more info on the Henry Clay People and more tbd artists, head over to www.tbdrecords.com
ATO Blog
June 5, 2010 – 1:05 pm
Our interns and some staff members are trying their hands at blogging. Click the image below for office updates and commentary on the day’s most unimportant news.
Watch John Butler Trio Live at Red Rocks Ampitheater
June 4, 2010 – 10:47 am
John Butler Trio will be playing the legendary Red Rocks Ampitheater in Colorado tonight. What? You can’t make it? Yeah… We can’t either… Lucky for us they will be streaming the ENTIRE show online for free @ 9:00PM MT/ 11PM EST tonight! That’s right, watch the entire show from the comfort of your own home!