You know that wonderful feeling you get when you discover a new song to obsess over and share with the world? Yeah you do. Well, the most recent one for me is Skipping Girl Vinegar’s latest song “Dance Again.” It’s a little early to tell, but this may just be my song of the summer. The video reminds me that I better get a move on skydiving lessons, this way I can jump solo and be awesome/dance again in my golden years. Skipping Girl Vinegar plays music that will simply make you smile, I guess one can file that under the genre of indie pop. Their music is for fans of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., Of Monsters and Men, think Neon Trees meets American Authors and/or Walk the Moon. Take it or leave it, those are my thoughts.
I saw the video on EARMILK here last month and it’s been on every playlist I’ve created since. The band name is an ode to the oldest neon sign in Australia, in their hometown Melbourne. “Dance Again” is the lead single off their new album The Great Wave, which officially dropped on April 3rd and was produced by Brad Jones.
You may remember Skipping Girl Vinegar from CMJ 2012; the band took a hiatus afterwards. Reflecting on the events that led up to The Great Wave, singer/songwriter Mark Lang explains, “The last two years have seen us travel from the heights of radio and agents opening up for the band in the US, to the crashing heartbreak of my wife being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. We put the record and everything else on hold, went to ground and focused all our love and energy onto her, and thankfully – we are one of the fortunate ones. What I valued and prioritized previously had now shifted, affecting the very core of how I wanted to communicate through music”
I will say that The Herald Sun, ‘Album Of The Week’ said it perfectly: “‘Dance Again‘ is the sound of an ear-to-ear smile bursting out of your speakers.” Skipping Girl Vinegar plays music that will simply make you smile.
“All The Way” features the band being kidnapped and turned into a product of “the man.” Check it out above and keep an eye out for their self-titled debut album, recorded by Keith Armstrong (Rise Against, Bruce Springsteen).
Red Bull Records artists New Beat Fund are releasing their debut full length album Sponge Fingerz on June 16th. Sponge Fingerz, which was co-produced by Matt Wallace (Faith No More, Maroon 5) and mixed by Tony Hoffer (Foster the People, Beck) was recorded at LA’s legendary Sound City Studios.
New Beat Fund birthed when a piggy bank with the words “New Beat Fund” encrypted on it was catapulted into the facade of a corporate building. Jeff “Burnie Baker” Laliberte (guitar/vocals), his brother Paul “Snapz” Laliberte (bass), Shelby “Button” Archer (guitar) and Michael “Silky” Johnson (drums) came together a few years back, releasing an EP, Coinz, and touring across the country with artists like blink-182, 3OH!3, Aer and Pepper as well as at local frat parties and venues up and down the west coast. “Scare Me,” off Coinz was an early favorite on SiriusXM’s Alt Nation, it is also featured on Sponge Fingerz.
For their full-length debut, the Southern California four-piece combines sunny surf rock with elements of hip-hop, garage pop and west-coast punk, shoving it all in a blender to cook up a colorful mash-up called “G-Punk.” “It’s not just punk rock, or indie, or weird psychedelic art. We were all exposed to different things growing up, so we didn’t choose to only go in one direction,” says Shelby.“We don’t claim any certain scene,” adds Michael, “and that’s kind of what we represent as a band. We want people to be cool with being weird, and thinking about things differently. We wrote the record in Topanga Canyon—the freest place ever—we live in Southern California…that’s the whole vibe of our band. Just being weird and free.”
Sponge Fingerz includes songs like “Sikka Taking the Hard Way” with its funky dub breakdown and noodling electric guitars, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers-worthy chorus of “Halloween Birthdaze,” as well as “It’s Cool” which Kat Corbett recently premiered on her 106.7 FM KROQ radio show.
Checkout the video for “Sunday Funday”:
New Beat Fund will be out on the Vans Warped Tour all summer and they recently played the tour’s kick-off party at Nokia Theater in LA. Full tour dates are below. 5/01/15 – Lido Live – Newport Beach, CA (with Nikka Costa) 5/09/15 – Saturdazed Sonoma County Music and Arts Festival – Rohnert Park, CA (with Shwayze) 6/19/15 – Pomona Fairplex – Pomona, CA 6/20/15 – Shoreline Amphitheatre – Mountain View, CA 6/21/15 – Seaside Park – Ventura, CA 6/23/15 – Quail Run Park – Mesa, AZ 6/24/15 – Isleta Amphitheater – Albuquerque, NM 6/25/15 – Remington Park – Oklahoma City, OK 6/26/15 – NRG Park Main St. Yellow Lot – Houston, TX 6/27/15 – Gexa Energy Pavilion – Dallas, TX 6/28/15 – AT&T Center – San Antonio, TX 7/01/15 – Tennessee State Fairgrounds – Nashville, TN 7/02/15 – Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood – Atlanta, GA 7/03/15 – Vinoy Park – St. Petersburg, FL 7/04/15 – Cruzan Amphitheatre – West Palm Beach, FL 7/05/15 – Tinker Field – Orlando, FL 7/06/16 – Morocco Shrine Auditorium and Grounds – Jacksonville, FL 7/07/15 – PNC Music Pavilion – Charlotte, NC 7/08/15 – Farm Bureau Live – Virginia Beach, VA 7/09/15 – First Niagara Pavilion – Pittsburgh, PA 7/10/15 – Susquehanna Bank Center – Camden, NJ 7/11/15 – Nikon at Jones Beach Amphitheatre – Wantagh, NY 7/12/15 – Xfinity Theatre – Hartford, CT 7/14/15 – Xfinity Theatre – Mansfield, MA 7/15/15 – Darien Lake PAC – Darien Center, NY 7/16/15 – Riverbend Music Center – Cincinnati, OH 7/17/15 – Molson Canadian Amphitheatre – Toronto, CA 7/18/15 – Merriweather Post Pavilion – Columbia, MD 7/19/15 – PNC Bank Arts Center – Holmdel, NJ – NVMP will be here! 7/21/15 – The Pavilion at Montage Mountain – Scranton, PA 7/23/15 – Blossom Music Center – Cuyahoga Falls, OH 7/24/15 – The Palace of Auburn Hills Parking Lot – Detroit, MI 7/25/15 – First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre – Chicago, IL 7/26/15 – Canterbury Park – Shakopee, MN 7/27/15 – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre – Maryland Heights, MO 7/28/15 – Marcus Amphitheatre – Milwaukee, WI 7/29/15 – Klipsch Music Center – Noblesville, IN 7/30/15 – Cricket Wireless Amphitheater – Bonner Springs, KS 8/01/15 – Utah State Fairpark – Salt Lake City, UT 8/02/15 – Pepsi Center Parking Lot – Denver, CO 8/05/15 – Qualcomm Stadium Parking Lot – San Diego, CA 8/07/15 – Portland Expo Center – Portland, OR 8/08/15 – White River Amphitheater – Auburn, WA
“Daenerys Targaryen is such an amazing character to me. She’s a boss,” says nerdcore rapper MC LARS about the subject of his brand new song and video “DRAGON BLOOD”. Based on HBO‘s massively popular series GAME OF THRONES, the song is a paean to the regal character Daenarys (played by actress Emilia Clarke) who is adamant in establishing her reign via the help of her small cluster of dragons (“It’s the mother of dragons, with my gigantic army / We be marching to Meereen but, no, we didn’t come to party“). “I’m excited to partner with Nerdist to premiere this video,” Lars says. “I have been a fan of Chris Hardwick’s empire for years; they are always on top of the coolest things happening on the underground but also nerd culture stuff in the mainstream.”
“We live in an age of changing spheres of power and Daenarys reflects this for sure,” he explains. “This is my first song ever written from an entirely female voice and I wanted to channel someone with whom people can identify, so I rewatched all of the episodes to date and went deep into any online Thrones resources I could find. I made spreadsheets of all of Martin’s rhyming terminology, spending a whole week looking for words that would sound good together and matching them in Excel (‘Tyrion / High Valyrian’ for example). I never thought I could reference Cersei Lannister, Migos, Kanye West and Rage Against the Machine all in the same song, but I guess crazier things have happened in hip-hop!
Books have been made into movies, well, since movies really came into the limelight (pun intended). Gone With The Wind comes immediately to mind. But some of them, well let’s be real, the vast majority of them, are way worse than the book. Some are better, some are just as good. Here’s my list, agree or disagree – and I’m purposefully omitting the page turners like Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code, tween sensations like Harry Potter books, and of course, the bane of all things literature, the Twilight series. As good as the book (save for a part here or there)
Mystic River – the book and screen adaptations are pretty close, save for Laurence Fishburne’s character who is a grizzled Irish cop in the book. Other than that – it’s pretty true to the text.
Fight Club – almost a shot for shot remake, my only qualm is how he met Tyler in the book is not the same as the movie. Admittedly, the scene in the book is almost unfilmable without giving away the end.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – maybe it’s because Johnny Depp and Hunter S Thompson were buddies, but he nailed his role in this movie. He virtually became Gonzo himself, and if you read the book as watched the movie – it follows almost exactly the same; hallucinations and suitcase-full-o-drugs included.
The Ruins – this novel by Scott Smith was pretty good, not great, but not horrible. The movie was the same. Suspenseful, edgy, and well thought out, but not the best. This author also wrote A Simple Plan – another book that made it to the big screen starring Billy Bob Thornton and Bill Paxton.
Factotum – This movie, like the above, was about as good as the Bukowski novel it was adapted from. Nothing spectacular, but the movie was true to the text, and I think Matt Dillon was a great choice for the protagonist. Likeable, but kind of a dick.
Life of Pi – this one is a wash, they both had their merits. The book was very well written, the movie was exceptionally well made with great effects.
I Am Legend – although it was based on a short story, this one is a wash too. I like the humanistic story of the movie more than the one told in the book, but I like the narrator’s voice in the book more: he’s more broken, more cynical, the way one would be after an apocalypse. And the short story makes the title make sense, the movie kind of glosses over it.
The book was better (said in your best condescending hipster voice)
Requiem For A Dream – Hubert Selby Jr’s gritty novel about drug addicts in New York, the book had so many more layers to it than the movie. Don’t get me wrong, Darren Aronofsky made an awesome flick – but the book was much more complex and deeper. Also, the characters in the book you start to loathe, as they become thieves and liars, and find yourself muttering “…junkies” – when in the movie, I think the director wanted you to connect and empathize with them more.
Lone Survivor – Great movie, but the book, save for the whole “Texas, God & Country” spiel in the exposition, was fantastic. Written by the actual SEAL that went through the harrowing tale, Marcus Luttrell delves into not only the training he underwent and the ordeal itself, but gives the reader some background on Pashtunwali – a code of honor the people of the Afghan mountain regions abide by, and have done so for thousands of years. A full, well composed text all around.
The Beach – The book by Alex Garland, (who also wrote the screenplay for 28 Days Later in case the name looks familiar) was not only darker and more intricate, you really got to know the characters, and the main character Richard’s (played by DiCaprio) descent into Lord-Of-The-Flies-esque madness, was delineated much better in the book. It was close, until you got to the end. The end in the book was dark. I mean dark.
Shutter Island – Being a huge Scorsese fan, I was pumped for this movie. In fact, I read the book a couple of days before it came out, because I’m kind of a dork like that. The book was fantastic – a crime thriller – which really isn’t my cup of tea, so to speak. An intricate thread pervaded the entire text, weaving this amazingly crafted story, so complex that it blew my mind at the end. Despite being a media steeped 20-something, I didn’t see the end coming. And even when I got to it, I expected another twist. The whole time I watched the movie, in the theater, I was wondering how they were going to weave all the pieces together. They didn’t, they only got a fraction of them, which is why I say the book is better. Admittedly, the book would have taken 5 hours to film shot for shot.
The Movie Was Better
Odd Thomas – A Dean Koontz serial, the movie blew me away. I found it on Netflix, and randomly watched it with my girlfriend, and was so enamored with the characters and the story that I barely moved; I was “riveted to my seat” as the old-school movie critics liked to say. The story was so out there and complex, I knew it had to be based on a book. Low and behold, we get to the end, and there it was – “Based on the novel by Dean Koontz.” I had to read it. And I was disappointed. The book version had a lot of holes in it, and was not nearly as believable as the movie – and even that’s a stretch since it was a supernatural thriller.
The Mothman Prophecies – The Richard Gere movie, although not at all an adaptation of the book by John Keel, was much better, in my opinion. It was unnerving and spooky, and the book, while it evoked the same qualities, was more of a chronology and compilation of encounters with the Mothman, Beelzebub, or whatever nomenclature you want to use.
Jarhead – the movie was a great tale of what Gulf War Marines went through, and in that respect, the scales tip toward the movie; simply because the story and plot was better. However, the book lets you into the psyche and thinking of a fighting Marine – their brawling attitude, the machismo. The book is much more complex, but the movie is more entertaining; both are equally insightful.
Airacuda is an NJ based alternative rock band tearing it up all over Massachusetts. Having met at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, the group formed in 2011 and released their first self-titled album produced and mixed by Dom Morley in December of 2012. It is available for purchase and streaming here: https://airacuda.bandcamp.com/album/airacuda.
Airacuda is composed of members Eddie Takumi Ruddick on bass, backing vocals, keyboards & violin, Matt Fernicola on guitar, Matt Menges doing vocals, rhythm guitar & keyboards, Roland Greco holding down the back line on drums and Phil Marphlak on guitar& bass.
A light and airy rhythm dignified by a simple melody with lots of momentum, it’s easy to listen to and even harder to turn off. Overall, the guitar work is fantastic; complex like the work of a seasoned musician but without being overly technical. The opening track is “Cannonball,” and being a fan of ska the introduction of the saxophone hooked me. It’s a clean sound and a great introduction into the rest of the album. Menges invites us to jump in all-together lyrically, and metaphorically speaking the track does just that as the listener delves seamlessly into the next track “Exit Left (Drive to You)”. There are harmonies on this track that are crisp and well placed to bolster the overall sound into a true listening experience. The third track “Can I Get By” swings right from the first moment you put it on and continues right through to the ending guitar riffs. Maybe I’m just a huge fan of the horns, but it adds a nice element that engages the ever-popular head bob in me, the listener. The music makes me want to move, so I imagine this song is a lot of fun to dance to at a live show. It almost has a Beatles-like quality, reminiscent of “With A Little Help From My Friends.” “Lies” feels distinctly more chaotic with more of an edgier rock vibe. A flurry of rhythmic chaos hits us in the opening few seconds only to lead into a steady beat with ominous energy behind it. The addition of a female vocalist on this number is a refreshing change of pace and compliments the tone while meshing voices to create a robust harmony for audible delights. The rest of the album is rounded out nicely by the sultry melody and saxophone on tracks like “Winter Blues” and “Nightlife.” Even when contemplating the mundane suburban existence in “Pulses” the music never fails to get the listener grooving with its uplifted tonality. The album ends with the relaxed sounds of “Summer Sun” and “Who Are You.”
Airacuda’s sound gels really nicely without being messy and overcomplicated. It has the steady roll that defines rock n’ roll while the music is rounded out with the bands own touch of alternative spice. I appreciate the level of musicianship coming together in this band because they do not need much adornment or technical help to create an engaging and enjoyable sound. It reminds me of something that may be categorized as easy listening, but with much more backbone and style. The players are solid and the lead vocal melodies are defined by colorful tones. I look forward to seeing the evolution of their sound and what direction the music takes.
After eight years quietly producing other Australian acts and working behind the scenes in the music industry, Daniel Johns has finally reemerged with the beginnings of an upcoming solo album. With the acclaimed Silverchair on indefinite hiatus, Johns has collaborated with Joel Little and Eleven: A Music Company to create an EP sampling the highly anticipated full album release in March 2015. Not to be confused as a standalone single, “Aerial Love” serves as the appetizer of what promises to be a musical feast. Once compared to Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Johns has hit our anticipating ears with a soulful and sultry piece of pop music. Described as ‘synthetic yet sensual’ in its press release, it’s definitely not what I was expecting from the rock star I have come to know and love. At first listen, a steady eighth note beat leads us right into the velvet of his voice proclaiming, “Oh I’m ready.” That steady one, two, three, four wraps itself up cozily into your pulse to keep your head bobbing the entire ride. The lyrics themselves were simpler and more straightforward than anything else I was used to from earlier work. Devoid of cryptic messages, “Aerial Love” is an honest, simple tune with repetitive stanzas and rhythms that don’t stagnate. It’s a bare-bones track with little instrumentation featuring vocal harmonies that make the song feel thick with charisma and romance. I’ve always appreciated Johns voice and his willingness to create outside of what he’s previously done and this is no exception. At face value, it’s a love song featuring dynamic use of falsetto, a steady beat and touches of pop synthetics to create the kind of song I’d turn the lights down and unwind to.
The music video seeks to capture the essence of the song using drone technology to tell the story of desert wandering lovers from a truly aerial perspective. Directed by Lorin Askill (Flume & Chet Faker, Phoenix, Sia’s Chandelier [editor]), the video replicates the song’s weightless, timeless, slyly carnal feel.
Well did it ever get so bad?
That you just had to laugh while the whole world crashes down
Well if it’s so bad
Gotta forget the past
I’m loving every minute right now
Cause there’s only one life
I’ma live it tonight
I’ll be laughing it off while you still try to fight too
Yeah, I just got too laugh while the whole world crashes down.
I don’t know if you see me the way I see you
But you held my neck and you said some shit
So I’ve been hoping you do
Spill all your secrets in confidence
Well I’m filing that as evidence
To stall the burn and calm my nerves after I’ve had a few You’re turning my insides you’re making me sick But you’re such a god damned pro never really know if you’re faking it You’re turning my insides you’re making me wish That I was a better girl, with a steady hand that you wanted to be with
But even if the cops come calling
Said even if the cops come calling
I’ll never talk
Even if you wreck me, even if you waste the youth I’ve got
Baby if the cops come calling
I’ll never talk
When it’s easy for you then there’s always room for me But when you got some plans, a place to be I’m a throw out ad in a magazine You could do wrong you could do wrong like hundred times But I’ll always search the scene for ways to rationalize
You’re making my will weak, you fuck with my head
Say you wanted me but you never wanted me, you wanted my hunger instead
You’re making my will weak, this pit in my chest
Told me all about her then you swallowed those words and snuck in my bed
But even if the cops come calling
Said even if the cops come calling
I’ll never talk Even if you wreck me, even if you waste the youth I’ve got Baby if the cops come calling I’ll never talk
Irrepressible literary shock-jock, Chuck Palahniuk, is back at it again with his latest release via Doubleday – Beautiful You.
The plot bullet points are simple: Penny – your plain-Jane type – is introduced to us toiling in a thankless corporate environment where she is as nondescript as a yellow legal pad in the law firm she works for. That is until billionaire lady-killer C. Linus Maxwell – referred to affectionately as Climax Well – takes a liking to her. From there, the story takes off into a sexually charged journey, bouncing from New York’s Madison Ave to the mountains of Nepal. I’ll leave it there – I think if I go into it, I’ll give too much away, and like most novels, it’s all about the suspense, build-up and surprise.
Now, the analysis: This piece is obviously a tip-of-the-hat to the 50 Shades books that have been so popular in the recent past. Or rather, a punch in the face. It’s obviously allegorical, and it’s plain to see that it’s not homage in the slightest, more like a subversive literary assault. That, however, is where this rabid Chuck fan trails off with praise. Overall, the first 50 pages or so dragged on, and it took a while for the narrator to get to the brunt of the story. However, even though this book is not particularly my cup of tea, I must admit that Mr. Palahniuk did a stellar job of weaving a story together with threads that are outlandish, yes, but also reside upon the same loom that reality is woven from. For example, he talks briefly about advertising and how the target demographic for the vast majority of products is women ages twenty-five to fifty-four. This, as anybody that works in advertising will tell you, is the golden demographic. Without revealing the story, let’s just say that there’s a consumer conspiracy that makes vertical integration look like child’s play. In that regard, bravo – the plot was definitely well thought out, in my humble opinion.
I did find the ending, and even a bit of the falling action, to be rather rushed, with the “resolution” seemingly coming out of nowhere. Like unsuspecting fauna on a dark, country back road, you’re just plodding along the pages, then whap – the ending hits. Additionally, I found the narrator, much like the narrator in the Doomed/Damned (also reviewed here) books of late – perhaps due to the criticism that a lot of his writing is too centered to be not only slightly annoying, but a rather contrived character. It seems Palahniuk has utilized the voice of the disillusioned and angry male with most of his books dripping with testosterone and rage.
Maybe. But to that I say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” In my opinion, his best books, were those with borderline unlikable and often unreliable male narrators, save for Diary which was absolutely brilliant and narrated by a middle-aged woman. This could be my own prejudice, but I find his recent releases narrated by a naïve Kansan girl with big city dreams or a 13-year-old rich girl a little hard to relate to. Be that as it may, the plot for Beautiful You is still equally complex and outlandish, with the dark little observations of human nature and society that we all came to expect from the author that brought us Fight Club.
Is this book my favorite? Not by a long shot. Is it horrid? No, not at all. Would I read it again? Maybe. But since every year I fiend for a new release from Chuck Palahniuk, this was, admittedly, kind of a letdown.
I still recommend you read it, especially if you loathed the onslaught of women reading 50 Shades of Grey on the train every day on your commute. It comes out next month, October 2014, via Doubleday.
Red Bull Records artists 
Nevermind The Posers 