Author Archives: Adriana Mundy

Tonight in Columbus: Phantogram with EXITMUSIC and Petit Mal @ Outland Live

Posted on October 21, 2011 | 1 comment
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Saratoga Springs-based electro-rockers Phantogram have been slowly building quite an impressive profile throughout the last year. Since their first headlining show at The Treehouse (RIP) in Columbus over a year and a half ago, they’ve toured with The Antlers, Metric, Beach House, Caribou, The xx, Zero 7, Yeasayer (the list goes on), appeared on Jimmy Fallon (where Questlove filled in on drums AND Jimmy called them “One of his favorite new bands”) and I’ve recently even heard them on the BBC’s indie radio station with Lauren Laverne.

They’ve contributed particularly to our Donewaiting family by being the first band to do a Donewaiting Live at Electraplay video, which you can see in its entirety here. Tonight they’ll play their fourth proper show in Columbus in promotion of their new EP, Nightlife, that will be released next month.

Joining the Outland Live bill tonight will be the eerily ethereal EXITMUSIC and Columbus natives Petit Mal. EXITMUSIC has been described as “dark, emotive, electronic music washed with icy guitars and husky yet angelic vocals”. Watch their creepy video for “The Sea” that’ll definitely get you in the mood for next week’s Halloween festivities here. Locals Petit Mal are emerging from the dying embers of Wing & Tusk (RIP) and are not to be missed. Doors open at 7pm with the first band on by 8.

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Tonight at the Wex: Brent Green’s Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then + Band

Posted on September 30, 2011 | Comments Off on Tonight at the Wex: Brent Green’s Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then + Band

If the name Brent Green and the Wex sound familiar in the same sentence, it’s because you probably followed my advice and went to see “Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then” last August.

This charmingly awkward and ominously tragic film is based on the life of Leonard Wood, a Louisville hardware store clerk who renovates his house into what he believes to be a “healing machine” to keep his terminally ill wife alive. It is Green’s first venture into the full-length feature world (an impressive one at that) AND he built a full-sized replica of this crazy house in his Pennsylvanian farmyard (which is amazing).

The actual house that was later sadly demolished was used as episode #4 of Green and Brendan Canty’s (of Fugazi) collaborative series, Burn to Shine. The project documents the life of a house by movie projections, narration and live music before it’s leveled. The Louisville show was curated by William Benton and contributing bands included Dead Child, Ultra Pulverize, Will Oldham, Magik Markers, Lords, Verktum, Commonwealth, Shipping News, Liberation Prophecy, Parlour, and Lucky Pineapple.

Tonight’s show ups the ante from last year’s screening as you will also be able to catch an accompanying live performance from a band made up of Todd Chandler of Dark, Dark, Dark; Brendan Canty of Fugazi; Michael McGinley and Alan Scalpone of the Bitter Tears; and Drew Henkels of Drew and the Medicinal Pen. Tickets are still available for tonight and the event starts at 8pm.

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Wednesday at Wild Goose: Saintseneca album release show

Posted on August 30, 2011 | 1 comment

MP3: Saintseneca – Acid Rain

While there have been plenty of bands under the umbrella of folk doing well on the global level as of late, there seems to be one recurring problem I have with many of them: a lack of sincerity. Any band can stomp rhythmically on the ground, throw some forlorn rhetoric into their lyrics or integrate a menagerie of instrumentation into an album, but few can do it with the sincere gusto of Saintseneca.

Though the four-piece have been playing house shows for four years, they only just released their first full-length album, ironically entitled Last, on August 16th. Since the first listen, Last has definitely been played more than anything in my iTunes library. Some tracks proved to be particularly nostalgic for me in missing the lovely aspects of Ohio (“Last,” “Shipwrecked,” “Missing Dogs”), while others illuminate the faith I’ve always had in Columbus’s local music scene (“Acid Rain,” “Beasts,” “The Worst Days”).
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Jack Cooper of Mazes writing songs for £10

Posted on August 1, 2011 | Comments Off on Jack Cooper of Mazes writing songs for £10

Earlier today via Facebook and the band’s website, entrepreneur Jack Cooper of London-based Mazes (Fat Cat) posted a public ad for personalized songwriting. It reads:

Haven’t got much on for the next week or so and I’ve had this idea for a while. Art is cheap… people make millions and trillions of pounds out of a brain cell firing successfully. it’s crazy. I’ll write you a song for £10… send me a song title and your email address and I’ll be in touch… a song title or anything, guitar part, drum beat…whatever. I’m feeling inspired. Jack – mazesmazesmazes@gmail.com

As any smart musician knows, extra work here and there is nice, but this stroke of brilliance has got to be a refreshing change from flyering and bar work. Not sure if this deal works internationally, but it’s worth a try if his plate isn’t already full.

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Interview: Let’s Wrestle

Posted on June 27, 2011 | 1 comment
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MP3: Let’s Wrestle – Dear John

While the indie/DIY scene continues to over saturate itself day after day with “really cool bands”, I can’t help but feel that most of these bands are missing the point. These days you can be hard pressed to find artists putting more effort into the quality of their music than their general aesthetic.

Thankfully, gems like London-based Let’s Wrestle (vocalist/guitarist Wesley Patrick Gonzalez, bassist Sam Pillay and drummer Darkus Bishop) shine through all the flimflammery and leave you with charming, unpretentious rock.

Upping the ante since their first full-length in 2009, In the Court of the Wrestling Let’s, the trio recorded their sophomore album with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio. Nursing Home was released last month on Merge.

I caught up with Wes last week to find out more about the band and their experience with Albini.

Wikipedia tells me (and genuine sources confirm) critics have compared you to The Fall and early Wedding Present. While I’m sure it’s partially because they must be influences of yours, how do you feel about comparisons like this when you read about bands?

I think these are reviews of early singles or something before the 1st album. People haven’t really said this much recently. I will analyze each reference way too much. For instance, with those two Mark Smith can’t sing. I think I can. the guitar sounds on early Fall records are really cool but I don’t think my guitar playing is like that and they also may be talking about the last Fall album which would be horrible. As for being compared to The Wedding Present, I don’t like them I think they are lacking songs. I don’t give a shit about how we sound. I mainly want people to acknowledge that it is pop music.
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Vincent Moon/Efterklang collaboration “An Island” now available as a “Pay What You Want”

Posted on May 23, 2011 | 1 comment
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Despite some public controversy and a bad taste left in his mouth from previous artists, Les Concerts à Emporter creator/well-known independent filmmaker Vincent Moon has continued collaborative efforts with some truly inspirational subjects.

His most recent co-release, “An Island”, was made with Danish band Efterklang and was filmed over four days with an 8-piece band on the island of Als. This lush, 124 sq. ft peninsula off the coast of Denmark served as a childhood home to members of the band.

The film was previewed before each date of the band’s European tour this past winter, and also shown at over 1,200 public-private screenings across the world during February and March.

Due to an overwhelming response to the project, “An Island” is now available to the public as a “Pay What You Want” digital download or you can pre-order the deluxe DVD. (A limited 5,000 custom-made, eco-friendly, numbered, letterpress printed deluxe covers with a DVD disc full of
bonus material.)

Both options are only available on “An Island’s” official website here.

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Interview: Tony Allman and Mat Bisaro on tour with Dan Melchior und Das Menace

Posted on May 20, 2011 | 1 comment

Wednesday night I hit up East London to catch the brilliant Dan Melchior perform songs from his latest record, Assemblage Blues (released by Siltbreeze). Aside from a keen interest in hearing his live show, I was proud to witness it feature two musicians well-known to the Columbus scene. Mat Bisaro (Guinea Worms, Necropolis) and Tony Allman (El Jesus de Magico) were chosen by Melchior for this ten date European tour through five countries.

I caught up with Mat and Tony for a bit after the show to chat about the tour and playing with Melchior.

DW: Did either of you work on Assemblage Blues?

Tony: He sent me stuff a long time ago, probably over a year ago now and some of it he’s gonna record hopefully with us at some point for and LP on Columbus Discount. One of the songs we played on was one of those. But normally he records everything himself.. the guitar, the vocals, the drums, the bass. So eventually we’re gonna try to do live recordings in Columbus.

DW: How did the two of you get hooked up with him to do this tour?

Mat: He put out two records with Adam and BJ on CDR and ended up being in town for their barbeque last year. Continue reading →

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Video: Mazes – “Most Days”

Posted on April 6, 2011 | Comments Off on Video: Mazes – “Most Days”
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If you’ve ever wondered how Spongebob Squarepants and co. would look on land surrounded by skate punks, the new Mazes video might be as close as you can get. While the animation’s a bit fuzzier, it’s brimming with shredding, cool camera angles and ganja. Either way, this song is hella catchy and clinches my anticipation in finally catching these guys at their album release next week.

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Interview: Mazes

Posted on March 7, 2011 | 2 comments

MP3:Mazes – Vampire Jive (live)

Many apologies for my absence from Donewaiting in the past few months. Now that I’m comfortably settling into English life in this massive city, the time has arrived to continue contributing my two cents…

London-based Mazes have been generating quite a buzz. Between being signed to Fat Cat Records in November (making them label mates with recent Fat Cat addition Psychedelic Horseshit of Columbus), getting some badass BBC Radio 1 airplay and prepping for their new record (releasing on April 11th), they’re well on their way to having a busy and exciting year.

Coming from a tight-knit network of musicians and ambitious youngsters, they are just the kind of band a city like Columbus can really get behind. (And much to our glee they cite Guided by Voices as a major influence; just listen to the song in the video.) I recently caught up with vocalist/guitarist Jack Cooper who told me a little more about the band and their role in the London DIY scene.

DW: So Mazes has been going for a couple of years. How has it evolved since the beginning?

Cooper: In the beginning it was just Jarin and I. I suppose the Adam and Eve of Mazes. The analogy stops there but we did give birth to a lot of good stuff and some bad stuff as well. We found Conan and Neil along the way and so much the better. It’s better having four of us, but y’know, more stuff can go wrong now.

DW: You come from a strong DIY scene. How has it nurtured bands like yours?

Cooper: The people, labels and bands that we’ve been involved with from the start are incredibly supportive and helpful. If we have some sort of problem, someone else has always been there to offer advice. It’s nice and comforting having friends with similar hopes and goals maybe…but saying that, people are usually friends with dudes who have similar interests. Continue reading →

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Adriana Mundy’s Favorite Albums of 2010

Posted on December 27, 2010 | 3 comments

It is indeed that time of year. Well, yes, it is late December aka Christmas/New Years time. However, when most people are trimming trees, dusting off their John Denver and the Muppets Christmas albums and throwing back some egg nog, music addicts/geeks alike are perusing every “Best of 2010” list they can find on the world wide web. That being said…

Two-thousand and ten was quite a whirlwind year for me. I became part of this brilliant music blog, had a crash course in promoting shows and met some pretty special people along the way. It’s safe to say the music released this year all served as an applicable soundtrack as it felt like new albums came out faster than I could digest them.

If you’ve read most of my posts, it’s apparent that I enjoy reporting on international acts that I feel deserve American attention (and also since the rest of the Donewaiting staff do such a stellar job of keeping up on everything).

On top of national and international releases, Columbus’s scene has also kept quite busy this year. Without further ado, here’s my 2010 list:


1. Efterklang, Magic Chairs
Watch: Modern Drift

Reasons why Denmark rules: 1. Efterklang 2.Christiania 3. Legoland


2. Finders Keepers Compilation – Pomegranates
MP3:Zia: “Helelyos”

Who can resist some 60’s Persian Pop/Funk/Psych?


3. Cate Le Bon, Me Oh My
Watch: Shoeing the Bones

Honestly didn’t know much about Cate before interviewing her earlier this year, now I can’t stop listening to her. (Oh, and this video is really wonderfully weird.) Continue reading →

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