March 2012

In Your Eye

you gotta see this

Jordan Cook aka Reignwolf

Dead of Night

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DI really loves our readers. You’re the kinda folks that pick up on the vibe we’re laying down here AND then turn US onto cool new rock! Thanks to Steve Kennedy-Williams (who handled the quality sound on this video) for pointing us to this blazing clip of Jordan Cook aka Reignwolf. This is just the kind of sweaty, impolite, beautifully messy rock ‘n’ roll we live for…and live to share with others. Apparently, Reignwolf is working on a new single and there’s a 2010 album called Seven Deadly Sins we’ll be checking out pronto. Like his fellow Canadian DI fave Lions In The Street, Reignwolf is keeping things good ‘n’ gritty and we thank him for it and hope he gets around America a bit more in days ahead. However, folks in Seattle have a couple chances to see him in April (4/7 at the Comet Tavern and 4/21 at Easy Street Records).

Mix Tape

Poundings LXXX

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While our weekly mix series usually likes to dip heartily into the past and mingle it with the new, this installment is exclusively focused on fresh sounds that are making us kick up our heels. If DI hasn’t already, we’ll be spilling ink on all these artists soon. For now, here are some choice bits from the sonic onslaught out there.

Poundings LXXX from dirtyimpound on 8tracks.

If you experience playback problems, pop over to the 8tracks mix page and it should play fine.

track listing

We'll Do It Live

The Bridge Session

03.24.12 | San Rafael, CA

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Last weekend, Grateful Dead seasoned vet Bob Weir joined together with a handpicked group of young Brooklyn musicians in an East Coast/West Coast musical and political summit held at Weir’s Marin-based TRI Studios. The HeadCount organized event was put together around the theme of bridging differences and finding common ground. The night also included a roundtable discussion with political heavyweights Buddy Roemer, Mark McKinnon, Jessy Tolkan and John Perry Barlow, and you can read a full report on the happening over here.

The musicians playing with Weir at this Session were chosen by The National’s bass and drum playing brothers Scott and Bryan Devendorf and included The National’s Aaron Dessner (guitar, electric mandolin), Kyle Resnick (trumpet) and Thomas “Doveman” Bartlett (keys) with Yellowbirds’ Sam Cohen (guitar) and Josh Kaufman (guitar, lap steel), The Walkmen’s Walt Martin (keys), and Taka Taka’s Conrad Doucette (drums).

What transpired was inspirational and thought provoking, and against some expectations the musical union of Weir and the indie world players proved really satisfying and a fine fit. A happy surprise to be sure. Check out a few of the performances in the videos – including Weir doing a boffo job on The National’s “Daughters of the Soho Riots” – below this swell action-capturing gallery from DI chum Jay Blakesberg. And by all means pop over to HeadCount and get registered to vote and explore ways to get involved with real democracy!

Setlist

Set I: Help on the Way, Love Thine Enemy, Looks Like Rain, El Paso, Friend of the Devil, Cassidy, Daughters of the SoHo Riots, My Brother Esau

Set II: Me and My Uncle, Fake Empire, Most of the Time, Brown Eyed Women, The Other One, Standing on the Moon, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider

Encore: Ripple, Uncle John’s Band, Brokedown Palace

In Your Eye

you gotta see this

Beth Jeans Houghton

Atlas

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“Red wine and whiskey are no good for me.” Many of us have mumbled something along these lines the morning after a night of good-bad behavior. Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny concisely capture the euphoria and aftermath of such stretches in their new video off the curiously titled Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose (released February 28). The clip has the feel of a mad Monkees segment with a dented next morning undertow, and the music shimmies somewhere between Shocking Blue and early Throwing Muses. Much to snag one’s attentions here, not the least the comely Ms. Houghton and hooky chorus: “Dissecting the atlas for places we’ve been/Your list is longer but you’ve got more years on me.”

Dirty Impound Questionnaire

Pontiak

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Pontiak

Pontiak

Very few bands create more texture and sheer, tangible feel in as short a space as Pontiak, a trio of Virginia-born brothers who are inarguably one of the finest heavy guitar-bass-drums outfits currently kicking up a mighty dust, made all the more powerful for their flair for inspired brevity. While past works have cemented them as kin to Retribution Gospel Choir, Built To Spill and The Meat Puppets, Echo Ono (released February 21 on Thrill Jockey) moves beyond the beatifically befuzzed vibe and into sharply carved compositions that sacrifice nothing in volume and heft but gain bunches by the more upfront vocals, intriguing lyrics and general focus. Reportedly leaving behind the puzzle piece creative methods of earlier releases, Echo Ono moves along steadily and forcefully, holding the listener in its benevolent grip or tossing them skillfully into the expanding, color-flooded sky. Psychedelic is a word that fits (at times), but shorn of any hipster stink or cliché licks. With Pontiak the world just warbles with mercurial shine and flexibility, at times burning hot and at others calm and contemplatively smooth, but always in steady command of what they’re trying to get across. At nine tracks and a running time just over a half hour, this album is a richer, fuller experience than many compatriots could manage with double the time and band members, a release that confirms Pontiak’s place amongst the top tier of modern rock bands utilizing the same old tools to forge work of strange intimacy and sometimes-epic proportion, all touched by a winning cosmic elegance.

We fired off DI’s signature questionnaire to guitarist-singer Van Carney set to the band see what they had to say to our inquiries.

read on for gardening with Rob Halford

Dear Tour Diary

Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers

I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)

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We loves us some Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers at the Impound, particularly these endlessly charming Van Sessions. We also loves us some Hall & Oates, and this is as fine a version of this classic single as we’ve ever heard. Way to nail the keyboard hook, and the harmonies from the boys make us smile. Broadly. Though we’re not nearly as, uh, happy as one YouTube commenter who remarked, “KAZOO IS FUCKING AWESOME I JIZZED.” We seriously don’t know how to respond to that but it seems like a compliment.

And after you’re done watching you can check out DI’s chat with John Oates to really simmer in the feeling. And be sure to catch the hard touring Nick and the Gramblers as they travel around this great nation making music a good deal sweeter. Find dates and details here.

In Your Eye

you gotta see this

New Multitudes

Changing World and My Revolutionary Mind

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Anything that keeps Woody Guthrie alive and kicking against the pricks of this world is fine by us. Hence, our instant affection for New Multitudes, a super group of sorts with an eponymous album of lyrics from Guthrie’s unpublished works they’ve put to new music. The band is comprised of Will Johnson (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel), Jay Farrar (Son Volt), Anders Parker (Varnaline), and Yim Yames (My Morning Jacket). While the album is plenty nice, it seems the songs are really growing in the live setting, as witnessed by this video from Philadelphia’s Union Transfer shot earlier this month by DI super pal Jake Krolick. We love the freakout about three minutes in, especially when it shifts perfectly to slow-mo, image dancing with sound, a celebration of change instead of fear of it.