Tag Archives: two cow garage

Thursday: AM Taxi @ The Newport

Most of this modern-day pop-punk, Warped Tour stuff doesn’t do much for me but AM Taxi stands out amongst the crowd. While a band like The Gaslight Anthem has taken Springsteen’s sound and molded it into something entirely new, AM Taxi draws influence from Midwest bands like The Replacements and infuses it with a Clash-style punk rock rhythm. Adam Krier’s hoarse vocals bring to mind Two Cow Garage’s Micah Schnabel and while you’re not likely to confuse AM Taxi for Two Cow Garage, give a listen to the first single from AM Taxi’s debut, We Don’t Stand a Chance, to hear the similarities.


Fed Up

AM Taxi | MySpace Music Videos

AM Taxi’s Virgin Records debut won’t be in stores until June, however iTunes has picked it as part of their “Next Big Thing” series and you can download it (as of today) on iTunes, just in time for the band’s show in Columbus.

Because of the ticket demand, The Spill Canvas, Tyler Hilton, AM Taxi, and New Politics show originally booked at The Basement was moved a few weeks ago to The Newport. You can catch all 4 bands Thursday night. Doors open at 6pm and tickets are $15.

Video: New Two Cow Garage

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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. Continue reading

Pre-order/stream Micah Schnabel (Two Cow Garage) solo album

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: Single #6

shirts and micah
(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 :)”

Video: Micah Schnabel of Two Cow Garage – “American Static”

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“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.

Two Cow Garage added to leg of The Hold Steady’s tour

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.

Two Cow Garage Tour Diary: Part II

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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Two Cow Garage Tour Diary: Part 1

(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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Two Cow Garage Tour Diary on Donewaiting.com

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

Pocketful of Sunshine @ Rumba Cafe (Friday night)

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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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