Vocals are kinda buried, but you get the idea. Plus you get “The Great Gravitron Massacre” as a bonus after the new tune.

Also, the solo release from Micah Schnabel (that bespectacled guy singing up there), When the Stage Lights Go Dim, is out now, and you can stream the whole thing over at Spinner. SXSW info for Micah and Two Cow’s Saturday shows, along with Schnabel’s solo acoustic take on “Bastards & Bridesmaids,” after the jump. (more…)

MP3: Micah Schnabel – American Static

This record started out as something Micah pressed himself and sold out shows, but Suburban Home is giving When the Stage Lights Go Dim a proper release on March 9. And proper, it is — you can pre-order six different packages. There’s digital (mp3 and flac), CD, black vinyl, green-and-white vinyl, plus coozies, buttons, pint glasses, posters and so on.

I also got a pleasant surprise when I pulled the trigger on the green vinyl pre-order: The mp3 download for the record (which is e-mailed immediately) also included a digital album called “Two Cow Garage – Live @ 3 Kings,” which presumably is from one of the band’s shows at the 3 Kings Tavern in Denver. Nice!

After a cursory listen, the record is pretty much all I would want from a Micah Schnabel solo album — no frills, very few overdubs or collaborators (lil’ piano here, lil’ fiddle there). Just the man’s tobacco-stained voice and acoustic guitar. Not slick, not quite lo-fi. And I can’t imagine a more perfect song for him to cover than the Replacements’ “Can’t Hardly Wait.”

If you want to give it a test run before pulling the trigger yourself, you can grab that mp3 up there and stream the whole album here.

(Ghost Shirt with Micah Schnabel of Two Cow Garage)

MP3: Single #6 – Two Cow Garage

Branden: “It’s about what may be one of the greatest American rock bands ever… in our opinion :)”

“American Static” is on Schnabel’s solo release, When the Stage Lights Go Dim, which had a soft release this year and will supposedly be re-pressed with a bigger release in 2010.

Columbus boys Two Cow Garage just added some dates playing the support slot for The Hold Steady. Hopefully it’ll bring ‘em some much-deserved exposure. Info below. …This should also make for some interesting posts in that Two Cow Tour Journal we’ve been (intermittently) bringing you.

10/17 – St. Olaf College – Northfield, MN
10/18 ­ Fargo Theater – Fargo, ND
10/19 ­ The Railyard Ale House – Billings, MT
10/20 ­ The Filling Station – Bozeman, MT
10/21 ­ The Big Dipper – Spokane, WA

And before all that happens, you can catch Two Cow Garage at the Rumba Cafe this Thursday with the Cinema and Crudely Fashioned.

AUG 4th- JACKSON, MS
Earlier in July we received an invitation to take a guided tour of Ardent Studios in Memphis, and then a guided tour of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, by the founder of Ardent, John Fry. We of course took them up on this and had an amazing afternoon with Mr. Fry hearing some pretty crazy stories. They were also re-mastering “I Am The Cosmos” while we were there and the master tapes were just sitting in a chair, which was awesome/funny. All in all one of the best side trips we’ve ever done. If you’re ever in Memphis check out the Stax Museum, it’s worth it.

After our nice afternoon we headed out for a relatively leisurely drive to Jackson, Mississippi. Everyone is in good spirits. We’ve decided that East Bound and Down is the funniest thing of the year. The previous night Mike Hale introduced us to the miracle of physics that is spinning beer. Where was Don Herbert for this bit of practical science?

The speed limit is 70. I’m cruising at about 75 laughing at someone or something. Then the trailer breaks in half. Yep. Breaks. In. Half. The van becomes almost impossible to drive. Sparks are flying down the highway. We manage to pull over on the side of the road. The chassis of the trailer was rusted through and the tongue and body are now at a ninety degree angle. But everyone is safe. No one is hurt. That’s the important thing.

The promoter of the show is an old friend, so we load what we can into our van and he drives the 60 or so miles up to get the rest of our stuff. We make the show.
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(Joel’s note: I’ll be posting these in sections as I get them, which is just now, so we’re starting at the first of the tour and we’ll work our way up to the present…)

JULY 31st – INDIANAPOLIS
Two Cow has been touring for seven years and not once in that time have we ever traveled with a trailer. We’ve debated it to the point of exhaustion and I personally have railed against it. Up until this point I have won out, maybe because I do most of the driving, or maybe because no one wanted to hear me bitch, but for whatever reason it just did not happen. Until now. The tour we are currently involved with is a package tour, a sort of revue of our record label Suburban Home Records. So, the Suburban Home Records Tour is to feature Two Cow Garage, Austin Lucas, Mike Hale, and a smattering of Jon Snodgrass. Six people all traveling in our van. I finally lost the trailer fight. I will say this, at the risk of sounding stubborn, there are pros and cons. That’s all.

So we start the tour in Indianapolis, where we are to meet Mike Hale and Austin Lucas. We’ve borrowed a trailer from a friend, and before it’s even completely loaded up we realize that the taillights are not working properly. After an hour in an Auto Zone parking lot, the decision is made that they are working “good enough” and that we should just head to Indianapolis and see how things shake out. The drive is fine and once we reach Indy we decide to spend the extra time on getting the taillights figured out, which, with the help of a nice O’Reilly’s employee, and another hour in a parking lot, we do. Or I should say Andy does, I have no fucking clue about that stuff. We meet up with Mike Hale (whom we’ve never really met), and Austin Lucas at the show, which was possibly the best show we’ve ever had in Indy. It has not been a very friendly town to us in the past. The next show of the tour is back in Columbus, which is also something we’ve never done before, played at home during a tour. We drive straight back home after the show.

AUG. 1ST – COLUMBUS
Turns out playing a show at home to kick off a tour is not a bad way to start. Even with the New Bomb Turks playing at another club we still had a great show. Austin is from Indiana but a lot of his family lives in the Ohio/Michigan/Indiana, tri-state area and he records with his father and family backing him. Several of them came out and played with him, which turned out to be pretty cool.

I don’t remember how I got home.
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mp3: Two Cow Garage – Bastards and Bridesmaids

Two Cow Garage’s newest record, Speaking in Cursive, was one of my favorite Columbus releases of last year. And I’m not the only one to show these dudes lots of love locally. Things seem to be snowballing for the band in 2009, with more positive press. Paste writer Andy Whitman had this to say recently on the magazine’s website:

Sounding either like Steve Earle fronting The Replacements or Paul Westerberg fronting Drive-By Truckers, take your pick, these four lads rock and lope, but mostly they bash the hell out of their instruments and sing their rough and ragged but literate tales of the lost and the losers, kids who were raised on Jesus and Disney movies and meth labs, bored and lethargic and intermittently, furiously committed to busting out of their dead-end farm towns… There are thirteen songs here and thirteen winners; raw, jagged slices of visceral rock ‘n roll that redefine both the words “poetry” and “slam.”

I’d agree with all that, and also add that Two Cow Garage is one of the best live bands you’ll see, period, no doubt thanks to the band’s nonstop touring. …So on that note, I’d like to introduce the Two Cow Garage Tour Diary, part one of which will be coming shortly, penned by Shane Sweeney (bass, vox). And if you’ve yet to see Two Cow live (shame on you!), there’s plenty of dates left on the second leg of the current tour:

9/09/09 – Off Broadway – St. Louis, MO
9/10/09 – The Bottleneck – Lawrence, KS
9/11/09 – Three Kings Tavern – Denver, CO
9/12/09 – Three Kings Tavern – Denver, CO
9/13/09 – Urban Lounge – Salt Lake City, UT
9/14/09 – The Badlander – Missoula, MT
9/15/09 – Tractor Tavern – Seattle, WA
9/17/09 – Sam Bond’s Garage – Eugene, OR
9/18/09 – Ash Street (MusicFEST NW) – Portland, OR
9/20/09 – Thee Parkside – San Francisco, CA
9/21/09 – Cranes Hollywood Tavern – Los Angeles, CA
9/23/09 – Yucca Tap Room – Tempe, AZ
9/25/09 – Take II – El Paso, TX
9/26/09 – Emo’s (indoors) – Austin, TX
9/27/09 – Double Wide – Dallas, TX

Buy: Speaking in Cursive at Amazon

Remember a few years ago when Dave Grohl wrote an insane metal album and invited all of his favorite singers to sing on it? Probot. A little outside (okay, a LOT outside) of what he was doing in the Foo Fighters, but it was the kid in him just letting loose and making the album he always REALLY wanted to make.

Longtime Columbus drummer Paul Abbott (Woosley Band, Karma Farmers) has put together his own little Probot-like project that he’s named Pocketful of Sunshine and the players on the album (Target Audience of One) are a veritable Who’s Who of the Columbus music scene.

Just check out this list of singers who appear: Two Cow Garage’s Micah Schnabel (“Ultimate Mixtape”), Celebrity Pilots’ Chris Sheehan (“Are You Still Lovely?”), Earwig’s Lizard McGee (“My Favorite Star”), The Sun’s Chris Burney (“I Am the One”), The Spikedrivers’ Jesse Henry (“Get With You”), Big Back Forty’s Sean Beal (“Season of Giving”), Chris McCoy (“Undone”), Happy Chichester (“Easy Does It”), Ugly Stick’s Dave Holm (“Same Train”), Tim Easton (“Next to You”), and Megan Palmer (“Tumbleweed Rover”). Seriously … SEAN BEAL???? CHRIS McCOY???? When was the last time either of these guys sang on a record?
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Click here to see all of Cassie’s photos from the night.

Also, if some random dude took your photo, chances are you can find it here. There were a lot of good looking people at this show (present company excluded).

This is going to be fun, assuming the modern ice age hasn’t overtaken.

Get to know your bands with these MP3s:
Envelope: Straight Up (featuring Hugs and Kisses)
Two Cow Garage: Your Humble Narrator
Moon High: Gathering Song
Adulture: Selfish Minimix 2

Feel good about yourself and RSVP on Facebook. (Poster by Reno of course)

(Florence and the Machine)

While looking back at 2008’s year in music, I decided that for the first time I didn’t want to make a list of just albums. Now that most of the money I spend on music is either via vinyl or mp3s, it didn’t make sense to keep it that limited. So far that reason, I’ve mixed up albums, singles and live performances into one list. Equal ranking, no handicaps.

Another first in this list is the addition of a lot of Columbus music to my overall picks. Previous years there might have been one or two locals that made appearances, but this time around there’s a total of 5 Columbus hits out of 13. I was never was good at math but I think that’s like 123.b3%. It’s a great time to be a fan of music and living in Columbus.

With each entry you’ll find buy/video/mp3 and stream links. Give ‘em a click and maybe you’ll find a new favorite too.

1. Florence and the Machine, Live @ SXSW & Kiss With a Fist (single)
It’s been nine months since SXSW, and Florence and the Machine’s performance still echoes in my brain. It was a demonstration of fire and energy, of putting all of your soul out there and giving the audience something to remember. Click here to see a video of the show.

Kiss With a Fist is a perfect song of rage and revenge without apology. Florence’s voice reminds me Dorothy Love filtered through Karen O’s artistis sensibility and goddamn if this song isn’t catchy as hell. I think I read on the BBC website that in parts of London you can actually not be charged with assault if you tell the police that you were inspired by this song.

While other albums that came out this year certainly were amazing, nothing could beat this single song as my top choice of the year.
Buy Vinyl on Amazon | Buy from Label

Kiss With a Fist Video

2. The Dodos, Visiter (album)
Visiter is such a rich album to listen to, it’s hard for me to do anything else while playing it on my headphones. It’s rare that I actually notice the drums or banjo or backup vocals in beautiful detail, and that’s what helps makes this album such a standout.
MP3: Red and Purple | Buy on Amazon

3. Times New Viking, Rip it Off (album)
The first time I saw Times New Viking was when they opened up for The Arcade Fire in Columbus. (To put it in perspective, the show wasn’t even halfway sold out of a 400 capacity venue). My initial impressions were “okay i don’t get it.” Everything started to make much more sense as time passed and I was able to see them live more. Songs are fuzzy and distorted and recorded on equipment that might have been recovered from a basement flood, but they have enough kick in them to fill an arena. These damaged pop songs make up one of the most important albums in recent Columbus history. I can’t wait to hear what they do next.
MP3: Drop Out | Buy on Amazon | Donewaiting.com Interview

4. Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple (album)
It would have been easy for Gnarls Barkley to try and recreate the success of “Crazy”, but instead they took an artistic and far more interesting turn. I love the slow burn of this noiry lounge album. Cee Lo’s voice still goes down nice and smooth and Danger Mouse knows how to assemble the right beats and instruments to wrap around it. Don Draper approves.



Buy on Amazon | Youtube

5. Los Campesinos!, Hold On Now, Youngster and We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed (albums)
It’s not fair to other bands when one band comes around and puts out two amazing records in the same year. The nerve! Anyway, both are a logical extension of the modern Belle and Sebastian discography but with more distortion and just slightly more energy. See…. music can be fun and challenging at the same time.
MP3: Don’t Tell Me to Do The Math(s) | Buy on Amazon

6. Columbus Discount Records, The Columbus Discount Singles Club Year 1
You’ve got to have a lot of confidence (and a twinge of insanity) to be a small label and decide to commit to a year-long vinyl singles club (run of 250 each). The gamble paid off both financially (the club sold out within weeks) and musically, with bands like El Jesus de Magico releasing some of their finest work. Still to come in the series: The Unholy Two, Psychedelic Horseshit, Mike Rep and many more. Forget trying to create bullshit slogans like “Indie Art Capital of the World,” Columbus Discount Records should be looked upon as a true banner of inspiration to the entire arts community in Columbus.
Message Board Discussion | Buy Online — sold out!!

7. Langhorne Slim, Langhorne Slim (album)
When I was relistening to this album as a primer for the list writing, I finally realized that most of the songs on this album hover around the 2 and 3 minutes mark. It struck me as interesting because in each short song an incredibly detailed picture is painted with Slim’s lyrics. Call it hit and run songwriting maybe. This album is a great example of a band living in the Americana genre but not sounding completely cliche.
MP3: Hello Sunshine | Buy on Amazon | On Letterman

8. Alina Simone, Everyone is Crying Out to Me, Beware (album)
I can just imagine Alina’s pitch… “Okay, here’s my idea… I am going to do an album of all covers. And they’re songs written by a Russian musician. And yeah, I am going to sing all the songs completely in Russian…. Oh and I am going to put her photo on the cover and not mine.” While this album may be sung completely in Russian, it only enhances the impact. Desperation and longing and hope pour out of Alina’s voice with each song, making it one of the most emotional albums released this year.
MP3: Half My Kingdom | Buy on Amazon

9. Two Cow Garage, Speaking in Cursive (album)
On Two Cow Garage’s fourth album, they’ve finally hit their side. You can hear the confidence in their songwriting and singing. Always on the road, in both Europe and the US of A, chances are Two Cow Garage is playing your home town this weekend. People need to throw away their Kings of Leon albums and listen to this instead.
MP3: Your Humble Narrator | Donewaiting.com Interview | Buy on Amazon

10. Envelope, Shark Bolt (album)
Blueprint reigns supreme over the Columbus hip hop scene, but Envelope has quietly slid into the #2 spot. With the release of his second album, this blue collar rapper has shown he’s got what it takes to mix it up in the big leagues. The national press are starting to take notice and things are coming up Envelope in 2009.
MP3: Straight Up (featuring Hugs and Kisses) | Buy on Amazon

11. Vivian Girls, Vivian Girls (album)
This album makes me want to go drag racing and get tattoos and road trip to Austin TX and find those vampires from that one Tarantino movie and stab them in their undead, vampire hearts. While all the locals thank me for taking care of their vampire problem, the Vivian Girls will be blairing out of my vintage Mustang.



Buy on Amazon

12. The Hold Steady, Stay Positive (album)
Craig Finn’s cast of characters are back in more episodes of discouragement, dead ends and hopeful dreams. I’ve totally bought into the world he’s created. I want to know everything about the people he sings about and would pay at least $20 for a companion book that expanded upon the songs. And man, there’s so many lyrics casually tossed off that just stick around my thoughts for a real long time.


Buy on Amazon

13. Moon High, Moon High (album)
If you didn’t know that Moon High was from Ohio, you might think they make their music somewhere on a secluded California beach, dividing time between recording and exploring the rock formations in the ocean. There’s a casual beauty that sweeps the entire record that feels warm and breezy. A perfect album to get us through the winter.
MP3: Gathering Song | Buy Album

No use in reinventing the wheel. Two Cow Garage has gotten as much love on Donewaiting as just about any band short of Miranda Sound or Ted Leo so I’m not going to waste my time with a historical background or even a song-by-song analysis of the new record, Speaking in Cursive, the band’s first for what has quickly become one of my favorite labels, Suburban Home. What I will say – in way of an intro – is that just as with previous Two Cow CDs, it took me a few listens to really get into the songs, probably (no, not probably, DEFINITELY) because I have yet to hear these songs played live.  But after a few spins, the CD has really, really grown on me.

The Two Cow live experience – all the blood, sweat and tears – is as fine better than 99.9% of the other bands out there trying to make it by relentless touring. Even despite some potential line-up setbacks (read Deville’s cover story in the Alive), Two Cow soldiers on without letting it effect what they give back to the audience, regardless of size, hundreds of nights a year.

MP3: Brass Ring
MP3: Your Humble Narrator

Having just wrapped up a few weeks of tour dates, Two Cow Garage returns home for Saturday night’s Skully’s 7th Anniversary blowout where they’ll hit the stage at 9:20 (this show also serves as an official CD release party for Speaking in Cursive). Somewhere between Austin, Texas and Columbus, the fellas (Micah Schnabel, Shane Sweeney, Chris Flint, Andy Schell, and Cody Smith) answered questions I sent them via email about life on the road.

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MP3: Your Humble Narrator

We’ve always been in love with Two Cow Garage, and every time they put out a new album we know it’s gonna be good as hell. My first spin with the new one and I can say the boys are better than ever.

Upcoming tour:

9/11/08 – Auntie Mae’s Parlor – Manhattan, KS
9/12/08 – 3 Kings Tavern – Denver, CO
9/13/08 – Triple Nickel Tavern – Colorado Springs, CO
9/14/08 – Surfside Seven – Fort Collins, CO
10/04/08 – Valentine’s – Albany, NY
10/10/08 – Bone Island Grill – Jackson, MI
10/11/08 – Bottom Lounge – Chicago, IL
10/31/08 – Will’s Pub – Orlando, FL
11/01/08 – Cafe Bohemia – St. Petersburg, FL
11/02/08 – The Fest @ Common Grounds – Gainesville, FL
11/08/08 – Off Broadway (CD RELEASE SHOW) w/ Glossary – St. Louis, MO

The new album, “Speaking in Cursive,” comes out September 23. I’ve heard some vinyl rumors but can’t confirm yet.

Previously: Two Cow Garage Donewaiting.com European Tour Diary

On the evening of May 15, Rachel Widomski was seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver outside of Haiku restaurant. Rachel’s severe spinal cord injuries will leave her paralyzed for life. Please join us in a city-wide fundraising effort to help support Rachel and her family during her long road to recovery.

Benefit Concert
Saturday, June 7 5:30pm – 11:00pm
Corner of North High St. & Hubbard St. (next to Haiku)
Round out your Gallery Hop evening with a free outdoor concert featuring local music acts. Volunteers will be on hand to accept donations to Rachel’s fund.

5:30 pm – DJ True Skills
6:00 pm – Bob Ray Starker
7:00 pm – Megan Palmer
8:00 pm – Karate Coyote
9:00 pm – Paper Airplane
10:00 pm – Two Cow Garage

Click here for complete details.