Author Archives: Joel Oliphint

Video: Afghan Whigs and Marcy Mays – “My Curse” live at ATP

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Columbus’s very own Scrawl played ATP’s “I’ll Be Your Mirror USA” in NYC this weekend, and in a nice surprise that you may have seen coming, Greg Dulli invited Scrawl singer (and Ace of Cups owner) Marcy Mays onstage to reprise her role as lead vocalist for the Afghan Whigs tune “My Curse.” A fan captured it in this video.

To put it in context, here’s a similar video (with better audio/video quality) from the Reading Fest in 1994:
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Video: Aimee Mann – “Labrador”

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The new Aimee Mann video for “Labrador” was written & directed by Tom Scharpling and stars Jon Wurster and Jon Hamm (and, briefly, Ted Leo). It’s a good one.

Mann’s new album, Charmer, is out today. She’ll play the Capitol Theatre in Columbus on Nov. 8. Solo Ted Leo opens.

Two Cow Garage re-releasing The Wall Against Our Back, splitting ties with Suburban Home Records

MP3: Alphabet City
MP3: My Concern

Some big news in the land of Columbus-based road warriors Two Cow Garage. First, the band will be re-releasing The Wall Against Our Back, which came out in 2004 on Shelterhouse. The self-released, limited-edition (500) reissue will be pressed on red, 180-gram vinyl with re-packaged artwork, available in mid-November. You can now pre-order the album with packages that include T-shirts and posters. Download two tracks from the re-release — “My Concern” and “Alphabet City” above.

In a press release sent by TCG’s manager Steve McGann (who also manages Lydia Loveless, Tim Easton and Todd May), Shane Sweeney shared these thoughts about the record:

After two years of almost constant touring on our first record, Please Turn the Gas Back On, in 2004 we decided to seclude ourselves in the ranch land of north Texas and record the songs that we had been hammering on over that long stretch of touring. We had no idea what the reaction would be to Wall Against Our Back. It just all happened so fast, and we were all so focused on doing it, that we had little time to postulate on what anyone else’s thoughts would be about it. As it turns out, and lucky for us, people did care, more than we ever could have hoped for. As we continued to tour and record, The Wall Against Our Back became a distant blur in the rearview mirror of our catalogue of songs. And soon we let it fall by the wayside and go out of print. Yet, it’s a struggle to think of a show where there hasn’t been at least one person requesting us to play a song “Off of that red record . . .” And now we’re doing something about it. Through the years TCG has moved progressively away from Wall’s sound musically, but we are no less proud of The Wall Against Our Back. It’s nice to welcome this record back into the fold. Thanks for sticking with it, and us.

The release also noted that Two Cow Garage is no longer affiliated with Suburban Home Records, and it didn’t mince words about the reason why:

Although attempts were made by TCG to have an amicable split, SHR failed to live up to its responsibilities to the band. In short, the band wishes SHR well, but asks its fans to buy directly from TCG or TCG website. Any other purchases at this time will unfairly go to SHR and TCG will receive nothing from those sales.

TCG fall tour dates:
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Video: The Black Swans – “Mask from Memory”

On Friday American Songwriter premiered the video for the Black Swans song “Mask from Memory,” from the band’s excellent new album, Occasion for Song. I talked to singer Jerry DeCicca quite a bit about the record for an Other Paper story, particularly how DeCicca has been processing the death of his friend and former Black Swans violinist Noel Sayre, and how that grieving process made its way into Occasion for Song.

DeCicca delved into a bit more detail about “Mask from Memory,” in particular, when speaking to American Songwriter, saying, “The song is story of process and dreams… imagining yourself creating a mask of your friend that died to see things through his eyes. The mask is the memory you see the world through; the construction is the song’s metaphor for engaging your own thoughts and feelings in hopes of learning something about yourself.”

Times New Viking releasing new EP in October

Times New Viking recently, and rather quietly, announced an Oct. 16 release date for a new 12″ EP titled Over & Over — but not on Merge Records. For this release TNV is going back to Siltbreeze, the label that put out the band’s debut LP Dig Yourself and follow-up The Paisley Reich. According to a release, Over & Over is “the result of a recent creative (albeit, modest) outpouring of ideas…. The trio tempers the primal panic-punk of their salad days and fuses it with the sustained, keen pop skill found within their later catalog.”

Drummer/singer Adam Elliott has lately been behind the kit for Connections, the band fronted by brother Kevin (84 Nash). Despite Adam’s new gig and TNV co-singer Beth Murphy’s Columbus exodus, the release says to “look for tour dates later this year.” Let’s hope so.

Over & Over track listing:
1. Sleep-In
2. Telephone Wires
3. Y2K2
4. Future with Girls
5. Middle Class Drags
6. At the Bars

Video: The Lost Revival – “Two Minus One Equals One”

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I’ve never seen a bad Lost Revival show, and this new video for “Two Minus One Equals One” from the band’s latest release, The Greatest Scam Ever Pulled, does a good job of showing why. There’s nothing particularly special about the slow-mo footage (shot by Monolithic Cloud Parade’s Corey Fry) in the video: just some good camera work of the Lost Revival onstage and some brief moments captured off-stage rehearsing, loading, etc. But those onstage moments reveal a lot; when it’s slowed down, you can see just how much Kevin Collins squeezes out of every performance. He’s a showman to the core.

Related: Independents’ Day is this week, and, as usual, it boasts a strong lineup of Columbus bands. You can catch The Lost Revival at the Gay & Third stage @ 4:40 on Saturday. Full schedule here.

Divine Fits perform “Would That Not Be Nice” on Jimmy Fallon

Indians sign to 4AD

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In the past few months, Adriana and I posted a couple freebie tracks from a Copenhagen musician named Søren Løkke Juul, who records as “Indians.” Welp, 4AD digs ’em, too, and just signed the band. To give you more in-depth introduction of Indians — and to finally see Søren with his full band play “Magic Kids,” “I am Haunted” and “New” — check out the above 4AD Session, which the label describes this way:

Filmed over the course of one day on Osea Island – a little-known, privately owned island in the estuary of the Blackwater in Essex – the starting point for the performance was embracing the challenge of playing, recording and filming outside, placing the music into a vast open space, under sky and near water.With the intention to capture the sense of air and atmosphere in the music, each track was recorded in a different location, moving the band and cameras in order to introduce a new element that reflected the change in song. This was further complimented by the shift in light: the session begins with ‘I Am Haunted’ filmed just after high tide in the early afternoon, is followed by ‘Magic Kids’ just as the sun had set, ending with ‘New’ filmed in the small hours of the morning. While still flecked with the surreal ambiance of Søren’s air-tight compositions, the full-band performance adds a foreboding sense of wonder that provides a fitting introduction into Indians’ very own natural world.

Indians will make their Columbus debut Dec. 4 at the Basement with Other Lives. Look for the band’s first full-length in early 2013.

Listen: Field Report’s debut album

The Bon Iver bud‘s self-titled debut is out Tuesday on Partisan Records and streamable from Soundcloud.

Columbus concert calendar: September

A new month, a new calendar.

There are always other shows happening that I’ve missed, and probably some relevant openers, too, so please add to this list in the comments. And don’t forget the Touring Bands coming to Ohio and Hype threads in the Friendship Farm. And head to the Columbus DIY Messageboard for info on lots of DIY shows coming up.

SEPTEMBER
Sat, 9/1:
Shovels & Rope @ Stuart’s
Old Hundred album release w/ Saintseneca, Human Cannonball @ Kobo
Heatwave @ Ace of Cups
Get Right @ Skully’s
Attack Cat, My Beloved Tragedy, The Slang @ Rumba
BB and the Timelords @ Tree Bar
Polar Records Showcase (J. Rawls, Middle Child, Copywrite, Liquid Crystal Project, P. Blackk, etc.) @ 83 Gallery

Sun, 9/2:
avacado, sick thrills, down fi, hookers made out of cocaine @ Carabar
Toxie, To Kill a Monster, The Castros @ Kafe Kerouac
Rumba 6-Year Anniversary Show w/ Tony Monaco Trio 8pm, Hoo Doo Soul Band 10pm
Freedy Johnston @ Woodlands
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