Optical Atlas

Slate has an article up on Jeff Mangum, calling him “the J.D. Salinger of indie rock.” I’m not sure that this article is 100% accurate.  As Rogersbrowne notes when he posted the link on the Townhall, “it takes speculatory information and passes it off as fact.”  Yep. 

While a few dates/venues are still to be announced, here’s the current schedule for Elf Power’s latest cross-country tour, this time in support of In a Cave (due out on Rykodisc March 25). Also note their SXSW dates.

March 10, 2008 – Hattiesburg, MS – Thirsty Hippo
March 12, 2008 – Austin, TX – Spiro’s SXSW Orange Twin Night
March 13, 2008 – Austin, TX – SXSW Athens Music Austin Show Bourbon Rocks
March 13, 2008 – Austin, TX – SXSW Under the Radar/Team Clermont Day PartyFlamingo Cantina
March 14, 2008 – Austin, TX – SXSW Waterloo Records In-Store
March 15, 2008 – Baton Rouge, LA – Spanish Moon
March 29, 2008 – Athens, GA – 40 Watt (CD RELEASE SHOW)
April 2, 2008 – Charleston , SC – The Map Room
April 3, 2008 – Durham , NC – Duke Coffeehouse
April 4, 2008 – Harrisonburg , VA – Court Square Theater (MacRock)
April 5, 2008 – Philadelphia , PA – Johnny Brenda’s
April 6, 2008 – Boston , MA – Great Scott
April 7, 2008 – New York , NY – Mercury Lounge
April 8, 2008 – Brooklyn , NY – Union Hall
April 9, 2008 – Oswego , NY – SUNY Oswego
April 10, 2008 – Cleveland , OH – Grog Shop
April 11, 2008 – Chicago, IL – Subterranean
April 12, 2008 – Minneapolis , MN – 400 Bar
April 14, 2008 – Missoula , MT – TBA
April 15, 2008 – Seattle , WA – High Dive
April 16, 2008 – Portland , OR – Towne Lounge
April 17, 2008 – TBA
April 18, 2008 – San Francisco, CA – Bottom Of The Hill
April 19, 2008 – Los Angeles , CA – Spaceland
April 20, 2008 – TBA
April 21, 2008 – San Diego , CA – Casbah
April 22, 2008 – Tucson , AZ – Solar Culture Gallery
April 24, 2008 – Fort Worth , TX – 8.0
April 25, 2008 – Austin , TX – Mohawk
April 26, 2008 – Hosuton , TX – The Mink

I’ve just uploaded the latest installment of WGSU’s The Elephant 6 Show – download it here.

 

Hungry Holler is the country & western side-project of The Minders‘ Rebecca Cole (we mentioned them waaaay back), and quite unexpectedly a glowing concert review has surfaced through the Guided By Voices mailing list.  Thanks to Chris for bringing this to our attention:

Closing the show was a country band called Hungry Holler featuring Rebecca Cole from the Minders (was she married to Martin?) [Yes! -Editor] and they did mostly cool covers like “Lukenbach Texas” and Jimmie Rodgers —she has a great country voice and was doin’ Loretta Lynn and everything else. Couple guys in her band sang some too but she was the star—guitar guy was doin’ some Sonic Youth leads that really only worked on one song for me–if he’d play it straight they could work the redneck bar circuit that lies just outside hipsterville. A Shins-ey indie band played in the middle and they were decent (the Wherewithals) –paul_c

You can find Hungry Holler on MySpace here, with a couple of tunes currently available. 

Head’s up to all that Pacific Nature Recording has released a split CD featuring three artists, Flatsound, iamb, and Kingsauce, which you can purchase now for $7 via the label’s MySpace page.  Each artist contributes four tracks to the comp.  Flatsound makes music recorded inside a bathroom somewhere in California, or so I’m told, but the young singer/songwriter behind the mic makes lovely fragile little tunes on the themes of break-ups and get-togethers.  Iamb is along similar lines, so lo-fi it crackles, and they’re strongest on “Summer in a Sleeping Bag,” whose melody evokes the title quite perfectly.  But if you’re reading Optical Atlas you’re most familiar with Kingsauce, the New Jersey-based novelty pop of Richie Chodes (also with Vince Mole & His Calcium Orchestra).  His tracks are older, dating back to the first Happy Happy Birthday to Me singles club as well as an excellent split with Plastic Mastery.  It’s nice to have them on CD–firstly because the vinyl originals had gone out of print, but also because the songs rank among his most fun.  “Ode to Lobo,” “I Ate a Box of Twinkies,” and “My Treehouse,” from the singles club entry, are just as low-fi as the other contributions to this compilation, but are more Randy Newman or Ray Davies than Elliot Smith.  “Wendy” has a Paul McCartneyesque simplicity, although the sardonic lyrics undercut the melody’s sentimentality.  If you’re new to Kingsauce, this Pacific Nature sampler is a fine introduction.

And you can hear one of those tracks, “My Treehouse,” in the Optical Atlas streaming jukebox, now updated with this and 9 other tracks, including rarities from Casper & the Cookies, Pipes You See, Pipes You Don’t, and The Ladybug Transistor’s Gary Olson.  Put on your headphones and click here.

Although Black Swan Network were on the bill at last weekend’s AUX 2 event in Athens, what audiences got was something unexpected.  Here’s a report from Chris Yetter:

They didn’t play as BSN instead they played as “The Flash Card Orchestra.” Bill Doss conducted a group of 15-20 people including Andrew Rieger, Pete Erchick, BP Helium, Eric Harris, John Fernandes, Heather McIntosh, Davey Wrathgaber, David Specht, and a bunch of Dark Meat folks. Other people in the room at the time who might have been on stage include Derek Almstead, Scott Spillane, Dottie Alexander, and Jamey Huggins. Four people who were in the room but were definitely not on stage were Jeff Mangum, Jimmy Hughes, JoeJustJoe and myself.

The idea was Bill would show a flashcard to the band and they would act out whatever the flashcard said. There were different sections of the band, so they would start and stop at different times. For example, one of the flashcards said something along the lines of insects buzzing in the springtime and everyone would act that out for 30 seconds or so.

I know Sloan taped it and Heather is in possession of a video. Hopefully both those and some other artifacts will see the light of day.

List Christee (DJ Kevin Barnes from of Montreal) will be appearing at SXSW this year on Friday, March 14. You can catch him at Club DeVille at 3pm at the Hot Freaks! day party hosted by the elite of the blogger community: You Ain’t No Picasso, Aquarium Drunkard, Daytrotter, Gorilla vs. Bear, Chromewaves, Largehearted Boy, and My Old Kentucky Blog. (Go here for more info.) And at 10:30pm he will be at Habana Calle 6. There’s a lot more at SXSW this year too, including (as we previously mentioned) Elf Power, Icy Demons, and Dark Meat, and for a full lineup or artists visit the SXSW website.

And I mentioned it at the of Montreal blog but not here–but of Montreal has been added to the lineup for this summer’s Rothbury Fest in Rothbury, MI (July 3-6).  Tickets go on sale next Wednesday.