SOME STUFFS: Olde Growth to tour the East Coast in January 2011

They only consist of drums and bass, but these two men from Boston sound like they could kill millions. They are called Olde Growth, whom I heard about by doing a Bandcamp search last year and falling in love with their music. A few weeks later, word had it that they were signed to Meteor City. Their limited edition CD did its damage and will have a nicer release in the new year.

Speaking of the new year, they will start a new tour the day after New Year’s Day in the northeast part of the U.S. before making it slowly but surely to Georgia and Florida. Barring any winter storms, Olde Growth will be taking their brand of music to people who are willing to brave the cold temperatures and while I have not seen them live yet, their album makes me believe that they are definitely worth it. Here are the confirmed tour dates:

Jan 2 – The Cookie Jar, New Haven, CT
w/ Edhochuli (PA), Worn Out Tiger (PA) + World’s Strongest Man (FL)

Jan 3 – AS220, 115 Empire St, Providence, RI
w/ Thrillhouse, Mout + Mouth of Flowers

Jan 5 – The Archeron, 57 Waterbury St. Brooklyn, NY
w/ Bad Dream + Lost Coves

Jan 7 – The Meatlocker, 8 Park St. Montclaire, NJ
w/ Lorba Linda, Stone Titan, Gowl + more

Jan 8 – House Party, Philadelphia, PA
w/ Bubonic Bear + more

Jan 9 – Hole in the Sky, 2110 5th St. NE, Washington, DC
w/ Ilsa + more

Jan 10 – Strange Matter, 929 West Grace Street, Richmond, VA
w/ Time Warp Trio

Jan 11 – TBA, Charlotte, NC

Jan 12 – The Drunken Unicorn, 736 Ponce De Leon Avenue Northeast, Atlanta, GA
w/ Beeravore + Sadistic Ritual

Jan 13 – Will’s Pub, 1040 North Mills Ave, Orlando FL
w/ Druid Lord, Putrescent Secretancy + Sterile Prophet

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You can stream the full album by clicking to their Bandcamp page, where you are able to buy T-shirts from them, or simply click the handy player below.
http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3312738355/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=c5c889//

PODCAST OF INTEREST: “Crap From The Past” episode focuses on the good and bad of the radio industry

Crap From The Past is one of my favorite radio shows broadcasted from Minneapolis, Minnesota, a state I’ve never visited. But the wonders of the internet and streaming audio, and documented podcasts, make it possible to listen and appreciate from afar. The show, on KFAI.org, is hosted by Ron “Boogiemonster” Gerber, and as the title suggests, the show is focused on playing pop music “crap”, which in this case means rarities, obscurities, one- and no-hit wonders. It goes back to a time when radio was more open into playing anything and everything, which coincidentally declined with the rise of MTV. Boogiemonster is also influenced by those rarities MTV’s used to present, and it’s great to hear this, mixed in with knowledge about the music, and realize there’s someone who is still making shows like this. I’ve been a fan of the show for a few years, but has been in existence since 1992, so I highly recommend it.

I’m shining the spotlight on a show that was done on July 16, 2010 when a radio industry convention was being held in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Boogiemonster brought in some of his radio friends to speak about the greatness of the airwaves, featuring a lot of inside information that will make you go “aaah, so that’s why they do that.” They also touch on the cliches of radio, but the one thing I found of interest is that as they share inside info, they reveal why the current state of radio is at the place it’s at, which isn’t exactly good. The means of wanting to make money by intense research and marketing lead to “careful programming” and “qualified restrictions”, and that unfortunately has taken away the integrity that was perceived years ago. While the show normally is a music show, this one is primarily talk and is very informative.

If you love “the spirit of radio” but find it difficult to find a quality radio show anywhere, listen to this episode of Crap From The Past. You can download the show in or stream it by clicking to Archive.org.

SOME STUFFS: Hip-hop under the scope as Ford applies new safety measure with MyKey system to prevent drivers from listening to “offensive” audio content

According to an article on Radio-Info.com, the Ford company will be applying “”MyKey” for cars with Sirius Satellite Radio. The use of it is to prevent young children and teens from listening to such offensive things as hip-hop music, along with The Howard Stern Show, and shows on The Playboy Channel.

Why an issue? Apparently parents are either buying new Ford vehicles for their children or allowing them to drive, and the fear is that offensive sounds like hip-hop music and Howard Stern will… well, it doesn’t matter what the fear is. The MyKey is a chance for parents to have parental control over what their kids should listen to. According to Ford’s safety planning and strategy manager Andy Sarkisian, “Mom and Dad still have their own key and can listen to Howard”, but the kids… no.

MyKey was created as a way to keep young drivers safe, and initially had nothing to do with the audio coming from satellite radio. Instead, as part of the car’s computer system, MyKey would make it possible to monitor the speed of the car so that it doesn’t go over certain speed limits, keep the radio at a “controlled volume”, and also insure that the key going in the ignition is the correct key, preventing theft. The MyKey feature became standard for some Ford model cars at the end of summer this year, and now the added “radio censorship” feature is sure to please people as much as it will cause disgust.

According to the Radio-Info.com article, Sirius already offer a chance for drivers to control what stations are heard and not heard, so now it’s double the control for the safety of the ears of children.

Nevermind the fact that if the audio system has an input option, they can run their iPod or other digital player through it and play anything and everything. For those few children that aren’t that smart, the new MyKey feature/option may be a good one.

(Sourced from a report heard on this morning’s episode of the Suck It™ show on Cascadia.fm.)

FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD: King Megatrip’s “A Year In The Soul Society December 2010”

It’s a sad time, but in truth not really. King Megatrip has completed the last installment of his series, A Year In The Soul Society, by offering the December 2010 mix. Every month this year, a new mix with a great collection of music. This is the last. You can download the mix by clicking here and if you missed out on previous mixes this year, you’ll be able to access it through the link as well.

SOME STUFFS: NPR looks at “The Best Cassettes Of 2010”

The first question you might have asked after reading the headline above is “audio cassettes?” The short answer to that is one word and one word only: “yes”.

Even though mainstream record labels stopped making cassettes as a regular part of music distribution, you are able to actually find some Black Eyed Peas tapes out there. Sounds odd to say doesn’t it: “Black Eyed Peas tapes”? It’s a format that has been kicked around for decades, figuratively and literally, from what was considered a very cheap knock-off for audiophile-quality open reel tapes to becoming the format of choice not only for music fans in the late 1970’s and most of the 1980’s, but for some genres. As the industry pushed to put vinyl records to rest, there was a time when you could not find certain titles on vinyl. However, if you walked into any record store, supermarket, or truck stop, you could find cassette pressings of all of your favorite artists and albums. They may not have been from the country of your origin, and sometimes the graphics had nothing to do with the music (and sometimes vice versa) but a lot of us of a certain age have fond memories from those tapes. For years it was not an uncommon sight to drive on a street or highway and see an unwound cassette on the side, perhaps getting stuck in the car deck or a music fan not happy with hearing Air Supply and tossing it out forever.

We may be ten years into the 21st century and everyone is living their own digital lifestyles, but the audio cassette format is far from over. Many independent artists and labels continue to press up cassettes of their latest projects, and they’re selling it to music fans who have found no reason to sell their decks or Walkman’s. Believe it or not, they still sell portable cassette players at Walgreen’s and professional cassette decks at some stores, but the durability of older cassette players makes it possible to play these new tapes without damage.

Who’s making tapes? Rock, stoner metal, sludge metal, indie folk, and even the heart-attack inducing heads at Stones Throw have released hip-hop on cassette in the last few years. On one hand, going “back” to vinyl and cassette may be nostalgic for some, but many are taking advantage of the novelty of a dead format and realizing that the medium, as great as it can be to fetishize about, is less important. It’s merely a vehicle for the music contained within. A cassette in your pocket obviously can’t hold up to 32gb of content that a digital player does, but some are saying “I don’t need 32,000,000,000 bytes of anything, I’m happy with my 60 minute album right here. NPR‘s Lars Gotrich looks at what he feels were The Best Cassettes of 2010.

BLOG OF INTEREST: MusicNerdery.com revamped for 1.1.11

If you’ve looked around on my site or check my Twitter and Facebook pages, you will have seen links to a very cool music blog called MusicNerdery.com. The website is the brainchild of Ericka Simone, whose love of music is expressed in the people she works with/for and the content on her website. However, not content with the things as is, she and MusicNerdery.com are about to take things to the next level beginning on the 1st of January, 2011.

If the URL isn’t a hint, allow me to explain. Ericka loves music, she geeks out in the same way Anthony Bourdain geeks out about finding a prime cut of his favorite meat. She gets nerdy because there’s a confidence in her work that comes from an understanding of the music she listens to, a willingness to listen to not only what’s there, but what may be hidden. Music Nerdery represents the music nerd in you and all of us, and she welcomes any and all to pay a visit. The website is active now, so head there, browse, and make it a part of your daily web surfing routine. Then follow her on Twitter at @MusicNerdery or @EmpressEricka.

PODCAST OF INTEREST: Casamena Radio Hour – December 28, 2010

Carlos Mena has been incredibly busy this year with his music, and he plans on upping his game even more in the year to come. His Casamena Radio Hour continues and he just posted the latest installment with some great music to listen to.

You can check the track listing and the download link by clicking here. Have you clicked the link? Do so now. Now, I say.

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=thisbosmu-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=B0014ESXLO

PODCAST OF INTEREST: Dub-Stracter’s “Yukutoshi kurutoshi ((((( welcome to 2011 )))))”

http://www.mixcloud.com/media/swf/player/mixcloudLoader.swf?v=20

Yukutoshi Kurutoshi ((((( Welcome To 2011 ))))) by Dub-Stracter on Mixcloud

Dub-Stracter‘s mixes have been moving people for awhile, and now he presents a new mix for the new year. Take a listen to this and if you want to hear more, check his Mixcloud.com page.

VIDEO: David Wax Museum’s “Born With A Broken Heart”

Did you like David Wax Museum a few days ago when I posted a link to their song “Born With A Broken Heart“? Loved it? Now you can see a video counterpart to it, and it’s very nice.

The song is from their forthcoming Everything is Saved album, scheduled for release on February 8, 2011.

VIDEO: Latimore Platz featuring E.C. Vol’s “10 Stone”

In the closing line of the track “Time To Unravel”, it was Blueprint who said “I’m still cinematic like Jet Li“, but now he’s taking that into reality. The Ohio MC/producer has directed his first music video for Latimore Platz in a song he did with E.C. Vol called “10 Stone”. The track is from Latimore Platz’s EP, Smokey Part 2. True to the nature of the EP, part of the video was shot in Motor City (for the uninformed, that’s Detroit, Michigan) while other footage is from their native Columbus, Ohio locale.

Blueprint posted a blog entry about the technical side of the video, which you can read by heading to his blog. Let’s hope Printmatic gets even more cinematic in 2011.