False 45th Record Club | Last Chance

UPDATE:
We're closed for submissions. We have 20 people and 2 hours and 37 minutes of music from genres ranging from Chill-Techno to Dance to Indie Rock to World Beat to Soul to Folk to Latin to Punk and more. So, it should be a good night.

See you on Tuesday and, once again, anyone is welcome to come to The Black Door to hang out regardless of whether they submitted songs. It isn't a closed party crap thing.

ORIGINAL POST:
Sunday is the deadline for getting songs in for the record club. We need time to burn the CDs and print the tracklistings before Tuesday night.

If you miss the deadline or just want to come hang out, everybody is welcome regardless of whether they contributed songs or not.

Send songs to false45threcordclub@gmail.com

See you on Tuesday.

Skateboarding + Explosions: Fully Flared

Fully Flared

This is the world's best intro to the world's best skate video. Ever. Intro soundtrack thanks to M83, but the whole thing is nothing short of stellar. Thank you again Spike Jonze.

The whole video is available via Lakai.

The soundtrack:

1. Intro: M83 – Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun
   
2. Mike Mo Capaldi: Arcade Fire - No Cars Go
   
3. Anthony Pappalardo: Bad Brains - Don't Bother Me
   
4. Jesus Fernandez: Calexico - Alone Again Or
   
5. The Royal Family: The Charlatans - The Only One I Know
   
6. The French Connection #1: David Bowie - I Wish You Would
   
7. The French Connection #2: Mannie Fresh - Real Big
   
8. Cairo Foster: The Flaming Lips - The W.A.N.D.
   
9. Jeff Lenoce, Scott Johnston, Rob Welsh: The D.O.C. - Lend Me An Ear
   
10. Alex Olson stress: Hot Butter - Popcorn
    
11. Alex Olson: King Diamond - One Down Two To Go
    
12. Rick Howard: Echo & The Bunnymen - The Cutter
    
13. Mike Carroll #1: Judas Priest - Riding On The Wind
    
14. Mike Carroll #2: Three 6 Mafia - Triple Six Club House
    
15. Brandon Biebel: Young Jeezy - I Love It
    
16. Eric Koston #1: Public Enemy - Night Of The Living Baseheads
    
17. Eric Koston #2: Public Enemy - Harder Than You Think
    
18. Guy Mariano #1: Band Of Horses - The Funeral
    
19. Guy Mariano #2: Band Of Horses - Is There A Ghost
    
20. Marc Johnson #1: Q Lazzarus - Goodbye Horses
    
21. Marc Johnson #2: Fischerspooner - All We Are
    
22. Marc Johnson #3: She Wants Revenge - Us
    
23. Credits #1: Unkle - Heaven
    
24. Credits #2: Franz Ferdinand - All My Friends

Wye Oak is beautiful

Wye Oak 

1. If Children (Merge)
   
2. A 460 year old tree in Baltimore
   
3. earnest folk-influenced indie rock with touches of noise and dream-pop
   
4. vocal trade
   
5. a humble rollercoaster
6. the Byrds without acid or English shoegaze without the suggestion of French kissing
   
7. bulletproof innocence
   
8. grandeur
   
9. like a Merge incarnate birthed 10 years late: mixed-sex; Mid-Atlantic; pretty without sounding porcelain
   
10. Wye Oak + Pontiak | 6.8.08 | The Monkey House
    

Wye Oak | Warning | Buy

Wye Oak | Family Glue | Buy

Bonnie "Prince" Billy | in italiano

Did you wake up this morning and think to yourself, "You know what I'd like to hear? I want to hear Bonnie "Prince" Billy sing in Italian." Well, hell yeah. Me too.

And to answer our desires, Numero6 has released a five song EP as a free download from their website. The beauty of it is that everyone's favorite furry little freaky musician, Bonnie "Prince" Billy belts out one of the tracks in italiano. The cool thing is that it's a pretty good song too.

The rest of the songs on the EP (which don't feature Billy) are fair to middling at best and instantly deletable at worst.

Numero6 | Da piccolissimi pezzi (ft. Bonnie "Prince" Billy) | Get

Going Green

OK. "Going green" has officially jumped the shark.

Here's a calendar event from a recent issue of the Montpelier Bridge:

REMINDER | False 45th Record Club | One Week Away

Reminder: The False 45th Record Club is next Tuesday, June 3 at 8pm. If you are planning on coming along for the ride, be sure to send us your two songs by Sunday, June 1. We need some time to put together the CDs and track listing.

So far, the submissions have run the gamut from Brazilian jazz to 80's art-rock to New Orleans R&B to brand new stuff. It should result in some nice variety.

So, send over your tracks and I'll see you next Tuesday.


Original Post:

If someone came over your house tonight and asked you to turn them onto some good music, what would you play for them?

That's the guiding idea behind the False 45th Record Club.

In an attempt to have some fun and bring the social element back into enjoying music with friends, jds and I have decided to start the False 45th Record Club.

Here's how this is going to work:

Four times a year, we'll host the club in the upstairs bar at The Black Door in Montpelier. Anyone can participate. Readers, friends, friends of friends, etc. About a month before each meeting, we'll announce the date of the meeting and ask anyone joining us to send us two songs they'd like to share with everyone. We'll then compile all of those songs into one playlist. Then on the night of the meeting, we'll plug an iPod into the sound system at The Black Door and we'll enjoy some new tunes over beers. That's it. Very simple. We'll have tracklists available in the bar so folks can read what they're listening to and, at the end of the night, everyone will take home a CD with all the songs on it.

It should be a fun way to be turned onto some new music.

Here are the details:

When: Tuesday, June 3 @ 8pm

Where: The Black Door in Montpelier

Who: Anyone. If people don't want to submit songs but just want to hang out for the night, please do. Bring whoever your want.

What: Send us TWO songs.

Song Rules:

(1) Every genre and time period is fair game. You have some kick-ass polka you'd like to share? Let's play it.

(2) The two songs must be from different artists and different albums. The emphasis is on variety.

(3) The songs have to be eight minutes or less. We won't have enough time to get through everyone's songs if someone drops a twenty minute Godspeed You Black Emperor track on us.

(4) They can't be from your own band. We don't want people using this as an opportunity to just pimp their own bands.

(5) Send us your songs by June 1 so we have time to burn the CDs.

Suggestion: Keep in mind that your songs will be playing in a bar. Therefore, a quiet atmospheric piece may not be heard over the din of chatter and beer glasses. It'll need a little volume to be noticed.

Submissions: Send your songs to False45thRecordClub@gmail.com

See you in June.

Your Debut Album

Jay from Spitting Out Teeth has come up with a fun idea and posted it on Aether Everywhere. The idea is that you can use websites displaying random material to generate the name of your band, the title of your debut album and even the artwork. Obviously, no artist is ever going to use the results of this game for their actual album but it's a fun idea to play around with. Plus, it does a good job of poking fun at the mental energy placed on such trivial matters...and Jay's method does seem to generate some believable albums.

Here are Jay's instructions:

1 - Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Random quotations: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

If you want to do this again, you'll hit refresh to generate new quotes, because clicking the quotes link again will just give you the same quotes over and over again.

3 - Go to flickr's "explore the last seven days" http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

Put it all together, that's your debut album.

The image above is an album cover I put together based upon Jay's rules. It looks like an album full of midwestern powerpop that would spend the majority of its life in the used CD bin of your local store.

You can see a bunch more examples of such shenanigans in this thread on Aether Everywhere and in this thread on BigSoccer.

UPDATE: For shits and giggles, I did another one.


Apparently, I'm a heroin chic singer-songwriter from Nova Scotia. However, I'm sure I do a kick-ass cover of Eric's Trip's "Girlfriend".

The New Year | Album Teaser

Warning: The US Surgeon General warns that this teaser for The New Year's new album may cause seizures and fits. It's best to watch it with your fingers over your face like this.

Seriously, I was fortunate enough to get to listen to the new album twice recently. And as I've posted elsewhere, it's a hell of an album. In fact, the first four songs are the strongest opening to an album I've heard since The National dropped Boxer on us a year ago. There's more piano on the album and it doesn't get as loud as often as their earlier albums did but they still exhibit that classic Bedhead/New Year ability to slowly build a song such that you're rocking back and forth and hanging on each new beat and note. Plus, they do still get really loud on a few tracks including the closer which I fully plan on blowing out my car speakers on this September.

But we have to wait until September 8 for the goodness and loveliness of it all.

In the meantime though, Matt and Bubba Kadane of The New Year and Bedhead fame will be touring this summer with Bottomless Pit. Excellent double-bill. The tour will hit Boston on Saturday, July 12 and Montreal on Sunday, July 13. I'm not sure which I'm going to hit but it's easily my most anticipated show of the summer at this point.

The New Year | Age of Conceit | Buy

Bedhead | Liferaft | Buy

Bottomless Pit | Dogtag | Buy

The Deli burlington | Launch Party

A few weeks ago, I posted about the new Burlington music site The Deli burlington. Well, this Friday, they are having their launch party at Monkey House in Winooski with Silent Mind, Dirtwar, Cherry Cassette, The Parts and Villanelles all playing. I can just imagine all of the equipment piling up in the back room now.

The smörgåsbord of bands kicks off at 8pm and keeps going until the launching is complete. Then it's off to an undisclosed after-party...so Brooklyn hipster. It should be a good night of music and scenstering.

One of these days, we need to get around to having a F45 launch party.

Overheard at Epcot

I recently had to go to Epcot for the first time and, while wandering around the dizzying array of faux crap, I got to overhear these choice snippets of conversations.

1st Conversation

Mom: "Hey kids! Look! There's our Canada!"

Son: [after staring at "Canada" for a few seconds] "Dad, why are there totem poles there?"

Dad: "Uhhhhh, I don't know. I guess Walt Disney thinks there are totem poles in Canada."

2nd Conversation

Young Daughter: "Come on, Mom. Let's run!"

Mom: "No. You know I can't run without my iPod."

3rd Conversation

Wife, with foreign accent, to her husband: "Honey, quick! Get your camera! It's another one of those squirrels."

Contrast Podcast | Cities

The latest Contrast Podcast has the theme of cities. So, I submitted the song "Every Fucking City" by Paul Kelly. Why limit yourself to just one city?

You can listen to the entire podcast here and subscribe to Contrast Podcast via iTunes here.

Paul Kelly | Every Fucking City | Buy

Frightened Rabbit

Sometimes I annoy myself when I fall for a band like Frightened Rabbit. Come on. Does the world need another folk-based indie pop band? Is the art form being progressed in any measurable manner? Am I challenging myself in any way when I listen to them?

Nope.
No.
Nada.

So, what is it that draws me to Frightened Rabbit? Well, it's like chocolate chip cookies. I've eaten a million of them in my lifetime but when they are done well, I'll pick them over a fancy chef-designed desert any day. Frightened Rabbit is that kick-ass chocolate chip cookie that's warm and gooey on the inside but slightly crisp on the outside. So good.

Lead singer Scott Hutchison's nasal Scottish vocals fall right into my wheelhouse of singers who can't sing but still deliver the necessary passion while the music is driven by an undercurrent of a jangly acoustic guitar and propulsive beat. Their song "The Modern Leper" off their new album The Midnight Organ Fight is one of the catchiest songs of the year. And "Old Fashioned" isn't far behind. In fact, the whole album is an easy-to-enjoy romp through your ear drums. I'll probably hate it by the end of the summer but for right now, it's a good cookie.

By the way, they'll be playing at Great Scott in Boston on Memorial Day.

Frightened Rabbit | The Modern Leper | Buy

Frightened Rabbit | Old Old Fashioned | Buy

Ram Jam - Black Betty

This is by far the best version of the classic Black Betty, popularized by Lead Belly. Sorry Tom Jones and Spiderbait, nothing touches this 1977 masterpiece.

Very Funny | UPDATED

Watch it before Bill O'Reilly's lawyers get it pulled.

UPDATE: The original got pulled so I replaced the video above with the crazy remix.

Thanks to cj for the tip.

Thee Silver Mt. Zion | First Unitarian Church | May 16

I couldn't make it to the show last night since I was flying back from Florida but Sam Dixon of ego, ego, ego was there. Thankfully, he was kind enough to send over these shots today.

Thee Silver Mt. Zion | Coming to Burlington | May 16

From Tick Tick's site:

Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band
with OAK and GREG DAVIS
@
first unitarian church
152 pearl street
burlington, vt
doors @ 730p
Advance Tickets: $13 Will Call
or $12 at local outlets after April 1
$15 day of show
all ages

Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band have gained an international reputation for their blend of chamber music and avant rock, uncompromising politics, and dynamic live shows. Featuring members on drums, bass, cello, two guitars, and two violins; the group articulates their many influences in free jazz, American folk music, minimalism, and punk rock, anchored by Efrim Menuck's incisive, politically-charged lyrics. Live, they are known for their expertly crafted, orchestral crescendos, and dire power. Formed in 1998 in Montreal, CA, by three members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, they have released six expansive and experimental albums on Constellation Records to critical acclaim. This spring, they tour North America after the March 2008 release of their latest album, 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons, hailed as a "devastating and original protest record."

Thee Silver Mount Zion | The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes | Buy

The Sixth Great Lake | Border Crossing Festival | Oct 27 2001

Michael Barrett, of Guppyboy/The Sixth Great Lake/Essex Green fame, has posted the mp3 files from a show that The Sixth Great Lake did in Amsterdam in 2001. The tracks are on Barrett's blog, Tup Keewah Recordings.

The lineup for this show was:

Zach Ward
Chris Ziter
Mike Barrett
Neil Cleary
Brendan Skwire

According to Barrett's post, Chris was under-the-weather during the show and you can hear it in some of his vocals but the general sound quality of the recording is very good.

By the way, the show was in support of their album Up the Country which is available via emusic and iTunes. A nice pick-up for any fan of the E6 scene and Vermont music.

Montpelier Naked Bike Ride | June 7

I'm way too much of a prude to participate in this but, it's for a good cause. So, for the folks that are willing to ride around town naked for a while, circle June 7 on your calendar.

The Montpelier Naked Bike Ride will roll around town "an oil-consumption protest and a body-positive event". According to their site, being naked in town isn't illegal; only the act of disrobing in public is illegal. Plus, it looks like they worked with the police department to layout the bike route. Therefore, I'm guessing the police department is on-board with it.

Here's a good tip from their website:

If you elect to ride completely naked, keep in mind that there might be some articles of clothing or equipment that you do need to wear (e.g., shoes, a helmet, etc.). The weather is still unpredictable in June, so be prepared for anything. It is also a good idea to carry on your person or on your bike some light articles of clothing that you can jump right into if you need to. Accidents, flat tires, and thrown chains do happen, and it's never fun to have to remedy these problems in the nude.

Here's another one:

It is very difficult to prevent people who watch this event from snapping photos and taking video. These people may be members of the press or they may not. They may be people known to you, or they may not. Images of you could end up anywhere, from the newspaper, to television, to the Internet (including this Web site and others), to someone's "private collection." If you have any concerns about this, please carefully consider your participation in the WNBR.

Like having your ass hanging out on False 45th.

Bon Iver | La Blogotheque

Back On Stages #2 Bon Iver - Skinny Love
Uploaded by lablogotheque

Here's the La Blogotheque video the False 45th recent love Bon Iver did for his tune "Skinny Love".

The New Year | End's Not Near

Judging from the movement of the sun in this video, it took less than fifteen minutes to shoot this video. However, it then took about another two years to finish the video for unknown reasons. Regardless, it's sweet to have a new video from The New Year.

Due to the local residence of the band's bass player, Mike Donofrio, Vermont has at least a partial claim to The New Year. Hey, VT isn't Brooklyn. We'll take partial claims to top shelf bands.

The New Year has a new self-titled album due in September with long tours of the US and Europe to follow. It has a bit more piano on it but still has their classic progressive building tunes and gets really friggin' loud at parts. New Year fans will love it.

The New Year | End's Not Near | Buy

Empire State Troopers @ Radio Bean Recap

The Empire State Troopers blew the wee Radio Bean away. So loud, so engaging (sounded surprisingly well in the brick, glass, and tin room). In addition to the dozen or so inside, 30 plus people congregated on the sidewalk, cheering and clapping at the end of the songs. This is truly an exciting live band.

The Deli burlington

A little more than a year ago, I was in NYC seeing a show at The Annex featuring Apollo Sunshine and some other bands I no longer remember. Entering the club was some guy from The Deli collecting email addresses to send their weekly updates about their online NYC music magazine. Since then, I've been receiving regular updates about what the cool kids in the city are loving each week.

Well, today's email update was about Burlington. Not something in the East Village but Burlington. Apparently, Adena Harford recently relocated from NYC to Vermont and decided to bring a slice of the Big Apple with her in the form of the brand spanking new The Deli burlington. If she keeps it updated, it looks like it's going to be a great site with tons of info on bands and what's happening in the Queen City.

Very cool and welcome to the VT blogosphere.

Empire State Troopers | This Friday | Burlington

Albany 4 piece hard rock group Empire State Troopers are blessing Burlington with their presence this Friday.

Empire State Troopers + Che Guevara T-Shirt | May 9th | 10 PM | Radio Bean

A few months back I wrote plenty about EST's recent EP, Upstate Again, recorded by Jason Loewenstein of Sebadoh fame. Here's a quick quote from that post: One of the most obvious elements to EST is the powerful chick singing of Kelly Murphy. A force to be reckoned with, Murphy seems to be on a tear in every song. If the band is a '71 Challenger, she's the bottle of Super 104 Octane Boost.

RIYL: The Jesus Lizard, Blue Oyster Cult, Queens of the Stone Age, Black Sabbath.
Complicated Shirt was originally on the bill, but they totaled their van earlier in the week. In their stead is one of the best named bands in all of rock, Che Guevara T-Shirt. Che is indie where EST are boastful, but just as f'n forceful. I highly recommend this show for all who like it loud.

Empire State Troopers | Ode to Stengel | Buy

Empire State Troopers | Upstate Again | Buy

Cady's Falls Nursery

Now that it's back to gardening season, here's a quick tip for buying perennials. The best nursery in the area is Cady's Falls Nursery in Morrisville. The variety of plants they sell is fantastic (as you can see from the photos on their site and their catalog) and everything is field grown which means it's proven to be hardy enough for your yard. Planting stuff born in greenhouses can be tricky since you aren't sure if it'll winter very well up here. However, I've never had a problem with anything I've bought from Cady's Falls.

The other nice part of Cady's Falls are their gardens. When they're in bloom, it's a great place to wander around. Plus, the garden gives you a chance to see the plants they are setting in a real environment. You can pick up a lot of ideas about what to plant where just by wandering down their paths.

Don't bring credit cards. They don't take them. I've made that mistake myself. However, the husband and wife who own the place are incredibly kind. In fact, when I screwed up and didn't bring any cash or a check with me, they let me take the plants and just asked that I send them a check later. Now, that's service.

The one downside to Cady's Falls is finding it. Be sure to call for directions before going. It isn't marked very well and can be tricky to find. Their phone number is 802-888-5559.

Parts & Labor | Coming to Vermont | May 9 & 10 | UPDATE

UPDATE: The Bennington show has been canceled. However, the band says that the Dartmouth show is open to the public. So, see you there on Friday.

Original Post:
Want to put your ear plugs to the test? Well, you have two chances next weekend when Parts & Labor roll into the region. The loud-as-hell Brooklyn trio will bring their electronic revival of Husker Du's fuzz punk to Dartmouth's Fuel Rocket Club on Friday, May 9 and Bennington College on Saturday, May 10.

According to the folks that run the Fuel Rocket Club, non-students aren't welcome at the club. However, I don't know what how closely they check. However, the folks at Bennington are much more welcoming. The show there is free and open to the public. It'll be held in the Deane Carriage Barn at 8pm. I have no friggin' idea where the barn is on their campus. I guess you can just ask around once you're on campus.

By the way, Parts & Labor are inviting people to send in their "snippets of noises, field recordings, found sounds, drones, speaking, etc." for use on their upcoming album. So, if you feel like sending in a clip of your cat scratching itself, get the details here.

Parts & Labor | Vision of Repair | Buy

Parts & Labor | The Gold We're Digging | Buy

Great Ad

For the soccer goobers out there, here's the new Nike ad by Guy Ritchie.

Eagles of Death Metal | Don't Speak (I Came to Make a BANG!) | Buy

Delta Spirit | Daytrotter Session

One of my recent faves, Delta Spirit, stopped by the Daytrotter studio in Illinois to record another five songs for the "Peel Sessions of the Midwest". They initially did a four song session a year ago that generated my favorite track of 2008; their remake of their song "French Quarter" (which is still available as a free download on Daytrotter's site). However, they came back a second time and dropped five tracks including a cover of "I'm Waiting" by Bill Bush.

Free tracks and post here.

Transmissionary Six

If you like the Cowboy Junkies, you'll dig sultry alt-country stylings of Transmissionary Six. Their new album, Cosmonautical, is a bit hit and miss but there are a few songs like "Zero Gravity" that stand out.

By the way, if anyone can figure out what the hell you're supposed to click-on on their website, let me know. I can't figure it out. I hate websites that make you feel like a friggin' idiot.

Transmissionary Six | Zero Gravity | Buy

Bicycle Lift

Oh, this bicycle lift in Norway looks outstanding.

The Waybacks with John Cowan | Covering Led Zeppelin II

Normally, I don't post much about bands from San Francisco that are chock full of mandolins, violins and acoustic guitars. However, when they cover the entire Led Zeppelin II album, I start typing.

The Waybacks were joined by, former New Grass Revival lead singer, John Cowan at MerleFest last week and performed the entire classic Zeppelin album straight through. The performance isn't entirely acoustic though; someone in there wails on an electric guitar at key parts. And I have to give credit to Cowan for doing a fine job with Robert Plant's vocals. Overall, it's a fun show to listen to.

Thankss to Bill Koucky for recording it off of WMVY's broadcast and sending it over.

The Waybacks with John Cowan | Introduction

The Waybacks with John Cowan | Whole Lotta Love

The Waybacks with John Cowan | What Is and What Should Never Be

The Waybacks with John Cowan | The Lemon Song

The Waybacks with John Cowan | Thank You

The Waybacks with John Cowan | Heartbreaker

The Waybacks with John Cowan | Living Loving Maid

The Waybacks with John Cowan | Ramble On

The Waybacks with John Cowan | Moby Dick

The Waybacks with John Cowan | Bring It Home


photo courtesy of 4dogsmom

Todd Barry | Coming to Burlington | May 10

Next Saturday, comedian Todd Barry will be making, I think, his third appearance at Higher Ground over the last few years. The folks at Higher Ground must treat him well when he's in town to keep him coming back. And I'm glad they do so because he's a hilarious comic.

He's out supporting his new album, From Heaven. He stills focuses on topics such as music and the internet but he fleshes out ideas a bit more on this album than on previous CDs. Plus, the tracks combine multiple subjects so the full album is now on just 16 tracks as opposed to the 50+ tracks on his last album, Medium Energy. The key is that it now makes it worth downloading from eMusic rather than iTunes. [Note: I just checked and Medium Energy has now been consolidated to 14 tracks on eMusic. Much better.]

There are two show times at Higher Ground on Saturday. 6:30pm and 9:30pm

Todd Barry | Selling CDs, Springsteen at Bar, Moore at Party, Gawker | Buy

Todd Barry | MySpace, Unbelievable Questions, Guy Who Reads Email, UF | Buy


photo courtesy of photophonic

The Ruby Suns & Menomena Photos

Sam Dixon, of ego, ego, ego, hit the Capstan Shafts, Ruby Suns and Menomena show last night at Middlebury College has kindly sent over some photos of the show. jds and I will have our post up on the show in a day or so but these are some sweet shots so I thought I'd throw them up right away. Unfortunately, Sam got to the show after The Capstan Shafts set but jds got some nice shots of Dean Wells at work.

Many thanks to Sam for sending these over. You can check out more of Sam's photos over on BIOMUSICOSOPHY.

Note: If any reader gets good shots at a show, please send them over and we'll gladly post them. Thanks.

The Ruby Suns





Menomena

The War on Drugs

Looking for a new catchy song? Well, you can always count on Secretly Canadian to dig up another fine band. This week's "it-band" is The War on Drugs.

I'm not sure which is dumber...the actual war on drugs in this country or taking the slogan for the name of your band in the internet age where you'll be permanently buried on the Google search pages. Whatever. Perhaps the Philly five-piece will become bigger than the war on drugs and claim their rightful place on the search engines.

The band's debut full-length, Wagonwheel Blues, hits the streets on June 17 but in the meantime they have three songs up on their myspace page with one foot-tapping tune available as a free download. Here's my best attempt at describing their sound...the lead singer sounds like Tom Petty fronting Arcade Fire but the production has a mid-80's Jesus & Mary Chain quality to it with cracking drum beats, echoing guitars and a layer of intentional fuzz. if the rest of the album holds up to these three songs, it'll be a fun summer album.

They also have an EP available for free on eMusic. However, except for the one overlapping tune, those tunes haven't gotten me excited as much as the tunes from Wagonwheel Blues.

Lastly, they'll be playing with Bishop Allen at the Iron Horse in Northampton on May 14.

The War on Drugs | Taking the Farm | Check Out More Songs

Big Heavy World Survey

Big Heavy World, the Burlington non-profit that promotes VT music, is conducting a short survey of musicians, fans, club owners and BHW members. The purpose is to gauge the impact of live music in VT and ask for suggestions to help the scene.

So, if you have a few minutes, go fill out their survey.

My suggestion was to allow Vermont musicians to not pay any state taxes on the first $60,000 in income that they earn from copyright royalties and live performances. Canada has that law in their tax code and it's hard to argue with the thriving music scene north of the border.

The Montpelier Bridge | Now Online

Things are a little behind the times here in Vermont. But we're slowly getting there.

One small bit of progress is that Montpelier's weekly paper The Bridge is now available online. It's just images of the paper copy you find around town but at least it's something.

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy | No Bad News | Buy

REMINDER: Montpelier Farmer's Market | Starts May 3

The Montpelier farmer's market kicks off another summer season this Saturday (and every subsequent Saturday until the end of October) from 9am to 1pm. Same location. See you there.