Although life can be busy, I still try to make time to
breathe and take a load off. Relaxing,
to me, is reading a compelling article or captivating novel, listening to good
music, and watching bad television. I'll file it under "What I'm Reading/Watching/Listening To. Hopefully I’ll be more apt to take these little breaks now that I’m
committed to making an entry once a week.
I guess I’ll start off with my favorite bands on this post.
Shovels + Rope
- The first time I saw this band was when I was a freshman
in college, opening up for Deer Tick, (who you’ll read about further down this
list) at Zydeco of all (trashy) places, and I was instantly hooked. Since then, I’ve seen them so many times,
from The Nick, to Bottletree (for my 20th birthday!!), to Workplay,
and various festivals in between.
Deer Tick
- I’ve loved Deer Tick since I was sixteen years old, I
believe War Elephant had just been released, and I heard Dirty Dishes for the
first time (it still holds a tearful, special place in my heart). I’ve travelled a few different places to see
them, as well as their various side projects (all on Partisan Records <3),
Middle Brother (Dawes + Deer Tick + Jonny [Corndawg] Fritz [who also played for
my 20th birthday]) and The Diamond Rugs (Dead Confederate + Deer
Tick + Los Lobos + The Black Lips + Six Finger Satellite), where I met John
McCauley on Halloween two years ago at Workplay, one of the greatest moments of
my life.
The Pine Hill Haints
- As far as local bands go, the Haints are a cut above the
rest. I hate using cliché phrases in
writing, but it’s just too true. Even in
comparison to my favorite bands of all time, they’re still pretty high on the
totem pole. They’re smart enough to play
Birmingham sparingly, so every time I get to see them, it’s really special. Unique and home-grown, the Haints are in a
genre all their own, with components that can appeal to any music-lover.
Quilt
- I’m a sucker for neo-psych. Especially the stuff coming
out of Austin for the past few years.
However, Quilt, brings a different kind of psychedelic revival from
Massachusetts, less heavy, heady art rock and more tranquil, harmonic tunes, a
la The Mamas & The Papas. They’ve
only played Bottletree twice, once opening for the Fresh & Onlys probably
two years ago, and once opening for Olivia Tremor Control a year before
that. I thought their debut album was
literally perfect, but they just released a stellar sophomore album that I’ve
fallen in love with. They’re definitely
my favorite new band right now. I will hopefully be seeing them in
Nashville on August 29.
I actually interviewed them for a newspaper I interned with
when I was in college, and it was so refreshing to meet extremely talented,
down-to-earth musicians that were actually my age. Not to bring down my blog with heavy emotion,
but I summed up their style by looking back on the anti-war protests coupled
with the music from the sixties and comparing it to the war in the Middle East
that we are living with today, since we were little kids, except we’re
expressing ourselves digitally, and in social media, but we’re still harboring
the same confused and heart-wrenched feelings that our grandparents had.
The Black Angels
Same new-sych, but a lot darker, less thoughtful, more
acid-trippy. However, I promise you don’t have to do drugs to enjoy this
band. They’re one of my absolute
favorites, probably because they remind me so much of The Doors, which are in
their own category of life-changing influences that have shaped my entire
being, but that’s a different story. The
Black Angels always have the BEST unkown-ish openers, like Hanni El Khatib,
Spindrift, and the Night Beats, and they always the best live shows: heady,
loud, raw. One time a guy in a group of
swingers doing ecstasy punched me at the Masquerade (home of all scene band
shows) in Atlanta, but it was worth it.
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