Get Out, CLE! – Week Of December 14

Concerts and Other Alternative Cultural CLE-vents Happening This Week

Mon, Dec 14
Movie Monday @ Cedar Lee / all day
Cleveland Olde World Christmas Party @ Reinecker’s Catering and Bakery Center / 6:30 p
Josh Hoge @ Peabody’s / 7 p
30 Seconds to Mars @ House Of Blues / 7 p
Chucklefuck Holiday Showcase @ Bela Dubby / 8 p
Kate Voegele + Howie Day + Josh Radin @ House of Blues / 8 p
FREE show – Dry Spell + Sports Bras @ Now That’s Class / 9 p
True Value Vintage Art Show @ Pop Shop Gallery / 9 p

Tue, Dec 15
Free popcorn Tuesday @ Capitol Theatre / all day
Rice and Beans Latin Jazz @ Jazz 28 / 5 p
Marduck @ Pebody’s / 6 p
Lix and Kix Poetry and Music Extravaganza @ Bela Dubby / 7 p
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s @ House Of Blues / 7 p
Jesse Cook @ Nighttown / 7 p
Tremont Fibers Club @ Visible Voice Books / 7 p
Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art @ Beachland Ballroom / 8 p
Vegan Cheesesteaks + Mac n’ Cheese @ Now That’s Class / all night
The Hot Seats + The Amazing Rotini Bros @ Beachland Tavern / 8:30 p
True Value Vintage Art Show @ Pop Shop Gallery / 9 p

Wed, Dec 16
Alternative Energy Gala @ Great Lakes Science Center / 6 p
Meet Local Lakewood Author John H. Tidyman @ Bela Dubby / 7 p
Rock and Roll Night School: History of Holiday Records @ Rock Hall / 7 p
True Value Vintage Art Show @ Pop Shop Gallery / 9 p

Thu, Dec 17
Big Beer Night @ Rocky River Brewing Co. / all day
Movie Night: Gremlins @ Bela Dubby / 8 p
End Of The Year Party @ Now That’s Class / all night
Suede Brothers + Oxford Cotton @ Beachland Tavern / 8:30 p
True Value Vintage Art Show @ Pop Shop Gallery / 9 p

Fri, Dec 18
Fridays in the Garden @ The Holden Arboretum / 10 a
Free Sushi @ Touch Supper Club / 5 p
Astronomy Night @ Shaker High School / 5:30 p
Festival of Lights @ Cuyahoga Valley National Park / 6 p
The Promise Hero + Everything Zen + Hot Mess Electric @ The Grog Shop / 6 p
Festivus! Art Opening @ Wall Eye Gallery / 6 p
Mushroomhead @ Peabody’s / 7 p
The Wonder Of It All @ The Cleveland Museum Of Art / 7 p
Helen Welch @ Nighttown / 7 p
Iron Oxide + The Light Boys + Powerhead Kis @ Bela Dubby / 7:30 p
FREE show Random Stereo, Bethesda, Eclyptic, Joey P. and the Two Timers @ The Robin Hood / 8 p
The Woovs @ Beachland Ballroom / 8:30 p
Ugly Radio Rebellion @ The Winchester / 9 p
Mr. Gnome @ Beachland Tavern / 9 p
FREE show Loose Dudes + The Wooly Bullies + Neon Tongues @ Now That’s Class / 9 p
True Value Vintage Art Show @ Pop Shop Gallery / 9 p
The Macpodz @ The Grog Shop /10 p

Sat, Dec 19
Countryside Winter Farmers’ Market @ Happy Days Lodge / 9 a
Cleveland Handmade Market @ The Screw Factory / 10 a
Cleveland Pop Culture: The Book @ The Learned Owl Book Shop / 1 p
Ten Count Fall + Hey Victory + My Son The Cheerleader @ The Grog Shop / 6 p
BENEFIT SHOW: Adam Klopp + Superb Bird of Paradise + Richard Wehrenwolf + Jordan Castro (poetry) + Alexis Spanos (poetry) + Vegan Potluck @ 732 Coventry Rd Apt #1 / 6 p
Trans-Atlas + Sea of Bears + J Buckner @ Bela Dubby / 7:30 p
Waterband Canjam @ Kent State Stage / 8 p
The Hot Rails @ Beachland Ballroom / 8 p
7 Deadly Sins @ The Garage Bar / 9 p
Music Saves Holiday Get Down: Casual Encounters + Walkies +  Shiny Penny + Talons @ Beachland Tavern / 9 p
Joshua Jetsy @ The Winchester / 9 p
True Value Vintage Art Show @ Pop Shop Gallery / 9 p
Filmstrip + The Kyle Sowashes + All Dinosaurs @ Now That’s Class / 9 p

Sun, Dec 20
Rockin’ Brunch @ Beachland Ballroom / 11 a
19 Action News + Stella Park + Run Run Addington + The Stereo Riot @ The Grog Shop / 8 p
Sainthood Reps @ Beachland Tavern / 8:30 p
FREE show Gelatinous Cube + Fillmore Jive + SOFB + Summit Trip @ Now That’s Class / 9 p
True Value Vintage Art Show @ Pop Shop Gallery / 9 p

Mon, Dec 21
FREE show Rotten Reasons + Iron Minds + Setbacks + Disposal @ Now That’s Class / 9 p
True Value Vintage Art Show @ Pop Shop Gallery / 9 p

Music Calendar… Week of September 7

NC Shows:
9/7 – Circulatory System – Nightlight
9/8 – Chairlift – Local 506
9/10 – Fruit Bats – Local 506
9/11 – Owl City – Cats Cradle
9/12 – Schooner + Billy Sugarfix – Cats Cradle
9/13 – Son Volt – Cats Cradle
CLE Shows:
9/11 – DIT FEST – Kent, Ohio 
9/12 – DIT FEST – Kent, Ohio
Datarock – Grog Shop
Ramona Falls – Beachland Ballroom
Chris Castle – The Winchester
9/13 – Ra Ra Riot – Grog Shop
[Check out our full listings for NC and CLE shows]

Must See (NC): Chapel Hill’s D.I.Y alleyway venue, the Nightlight, is serving up a serious treat by bringing in Elephant Six royalty Circulatory Sytem tonight. Don’t miss the opportunity to see these indie hard-hitters in such an intimate setting as they play tracks off their highly anticipated release “Signal Morning”.
Must See (CLE): There’s not question where you should be this weekend, and that’s D.I.T fest at Kent State University. See local poets, acoustic folker’s, punkers, and everything in between. Support your local scene by coming out both Friday and Saturday night, and read more details here.
Must Hear: Could there be any more releases out this week? Aside from the entire remastered Beatles collection that we need to sift through, there’s a multiple must hear tie – including Health, Circulatory System, The Feelies, Yo La Tengo, and Taken by Trees. I can’t choose – so just go and buy them all, will ya?

Album Releases:
Anders Parker – Skyscraper Crow
Boys Like Girls – Love Drunk
The Beatles – Entire Collection Remastered
BLK JKS – After Robots
Bobby Conn – S/T
Circulatory System – Signal Morning
The Clean – Mister Pop
Damon and Naomi – The Sub Pop Years
Eddy Current Suppression Ring – S/T
The Feelies – Crazy Rhythms, The Good Earth
Forest Fire – Survival
Friendly Fires – S/T
The Gossip – Heavy Cross
Mayer Hawthorne – A Strange Arrangement
Health – Get Color
Jay Z – The Blueprint 3
Sondre Lerche – Heartbeat Radio
Magic Kids – Hey Boy (Digital Only)
Maserati – Passages
Monotonix – Where Were You When It Happened?
Noah and the Whale – The First Days of Spring
Nudge – As Good As Gone
Jim O’Rourke – The Visitor
Os Mutantes – Haih
Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson – Break Up
Phish – Joy
Polvo – In Prism
Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II
Shannon Stephens – The Breadwinner
The Stone Roses – S/T
Taken By Trees – East of Eden
J Tillman – Year In The Kingdom
Vivian Girls – Everything Goes Wrong
Wild Beasts – Two Dancers

Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs
[For a full-list and downloadable PDF of upcoming releases, click here]

Get Out, Cleveland! – D.I.T Fest

I’m not going to say it much better than they did on the blog for this great d.i.y  fest (well, I guess turn that “y” into a “t”), located a hop, skip, and a jump down the interstate from CLE in the infamous Kent, Ohio. Information and links follow. See you at the show!

DIT (Do It Together) Fest is a music (and more) festival in Kent, OH on September 11th-12th, 2009

DIT will feature acoustic and electric music from local, regional & national bands as well as poetry by local and regional area poets.

DIT is free and open to the everyone, though donations will be accepted for local, regional and global causes and to help traveling bands pay for gas.

DIT takes place at the Vineyard Community Church, located at 154 N. Depeyster St, Kent, OH 44240.

DIT  is interested in connecting various aspects of DIY culture together, duh.

DIT is a drug & alcohol free event.

There will be a surplus of coffee though, which technically is a drug, crap.

COME HANG OUT WITH US AND DO POSI THINGS AND HAVE FUN AND GET TO KNOW THE PEOPLE (AND STUFF) WHO (THAT) LIVE (S) AROUND YOU (!!!!)

blog
myspace 

fest line-up after the jump

Have You Met…Red Collar?

Refreshing. That’s the word that comes to mind when I think about one of my favorite local North Carolina bands, Red Collar. A fellow DJ from my WSOE days hooked me onto these Clash-esque, working class punkers, and I never looked back. Don’t let the word “punk” throw you off the Red Collar trail – it’s just rock n’ roll with an edge. And this edge says: we care about something. You can tell these guys have lived and they’ve got something to say. Not only are these four of the most down to earth, honest, and interesting people I’ve had the chance to speak to, they also know how to throw a rock song together.

With Jason on vocals and lyrics, you’re getting swagger and heart. This guy looks good, sounds good, and is good – and I’m guessing his wife, Beth (on bass), knows it. It’s hard to miss, with his guitar-slinging and cowboy boot janging antics on-stage and off. Of course, it’s really lead guitarist Mike who is the one to watch on stage. That guy can fucking play. Jon closes things off on the drums, and if you say this guy walking down the street this might be the last you’d expect him to be in (but I guess that’s how drummers work).

Red Collar launched their debut album, Pilgrim, and are playing sporatic dates up and down the South, East, and Midwest. Check ’em in a town near you, and sample track “Hands Up” below.

Have You Met…Madeline?

The best part of my long distance relationship is that my girlfriend lives in Athens, Georgia. Not only is Athens a hip town with one of my favorite restaurants and record stores but it happens to be a mecca of independent music (see: R.E.M , Elephant Six). If you’ve read a few of these posts (or seen the first installment of my weekly mix series) you might have guessed that my favorite combination of music is folk/punk + d.i.y ethics. Which is why when I found out about Athens own Madeline I knew it was love.

Actually, I met Madeline this summer when she was featured on a Plan-It-X comp with my good friends Delay, but due to being in charge of summer reviews for the station I didn’t take the time to investigate beyond her comp track. Eight months later I’ve found myself randomly visiting her site, downloading the free mp3’s she has posted, and planning on sending some money to plan-it-x ASAP (I need the Paul Baribeau 10 inch, anyhow).

Enough about me here’s what I know about Madeline. Her voice is adorable and sweet, her lyrics are simple and touching, and her recording has the minimalistic acoustic d.i.y sound that makes her seem like she lives in my living room.

My friend who DJ’s at WUOG Athens convinced me that she is a pretty big deal on the d.i.y Athens scene, which doesn’t surprise me. Plan-It-Xers have a tendency of doing that.

[Madeline – Sleeping Dogs]
[Madeline – Against the World And Losing The Battle]

One: A D.I.Y/Folk Punk Mix (A Dust Sleeve Series)

 

The First Installment of a Weekly Mix Series

Friday Favorite: Rancid – …And Out Came The Wolves

By posting on my favorite Souls record last week, I felt it was only fitting to follow it up with another important punk band from the same era. 

Hang around enough High School punkers for long enough and one of them is bound to wear the classic black Operation Ivy hoodie or tshirt. The interesting thing about Op Ivy is that they were only together for two short years (1987-89) and recorded two even shorter studio’s – one LP and one EP. Somehow over the years the band has been immortalized, and I have to imagine the cause of their infamy is the track “Journey to the End Of East Bay”.

Let’s back up. In 1991 Matt Freeman and Tim Armstrong, two ska enthusiasts from California’s own Operation Ivy decided it was high time they started making music again. This time combining their ska roots with a harder punk edge, together with Lars Fredrickson (see: Lars Fredrickson and the Bastards) and Branden Steineckert they created Rancid. 

After two album releases Rancid started gaining attention in the booming ’90’s punk scene, but it was their third release “…And Out Came The Wolves” (1995) which cemented them as a serious force of punk rock awesomeness.

At an astounding 19 tracks, AOCTW is still thought of as one of the most integral records in the  post-Ramones punk world. So rarely is there an album which flows effortlessly from cover to cover with not a single track worth skipping. The album demonstrates the three things Rancid does so well. The first is Armstrong’s unique scratchy vocals which simultaneously irritate and please – meaning he is enjoyable to listen to but you can’t forget that he’s fucking punk. The second is Freeman’s insane bass talent, which is blasted in your face right from the get go with the first four notes of album opener “Maxwell Murder”, a song  that boasts one of the most attempted bass solo’s in punk history. The opener of “Journey to the End of East Bay” may walk a slower pace but its prominence and catchiness reminds you that the bass demands listening to, as Freeman owns it. The third thing Rancid really embraces in this album are their ska/reggae roots, as songs like “Time Bomb” and “Old Friend” are the perfect punk/ska hybrid that make Rancid unique yet mass appealing.

What else do the kids love about Rancid? There’s an interesting dichotomy at play with this group. The name itself, the album covers,the way the members dress, and Armstrong’s spitting vocals are the epitome of fuck-you-punk-rock. But softer edged, melodic tracks like “The Wars End”, “Ruby Soho”, and “Daly City Train” show a soft underbelly that even the stiffest of punkers secretly crave.

The standouts on this album are a long list, but the obvious choices are “Ruby Soho” (soft verse and bullseye chorus), “Journey to the End of Easy Bay” (the story of Operation Ivy put to song), “Time Bomb” (lyric: “the secret to a good life? knowing when you’re through”), and “The Wars End” (melodic and sweet song of war).

Put it on your record player and slap on a sneer.

[Rancid – Journey To The End Of East Bay]

[Rancid – The Wars End]

Friday Favorite: The Bouncing Souls – How I Spent My Summer Vacation

It’s time for me to reveal my favorite album of all time, don’t you agree? It isn’t something most music bloggist would quote as memorable or musically important, but for me it holds more memories and meaning than a yearbook. My favorite all time album is How I Spent My Summer Vacation by punk rock four-piece, The Bouncing Souls.

The Bouncing Souls are celebrating 20 years of awesomeness this year, which I don’t really understand. The band formed in 1987, after all, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The Souls aren’t exactly the most musically talented lot on the block, but the idea of going to college wasn’t appealing to them so they figured being a band was a better option. Live for today, live the right way, seems to be the Souls mantra as they lived out of their beaten up punk vans driving across the country to play seedy bars for years. They lived in punk houses in Jersey then New York City filled with people and thrift store furniture and house parties like you wouldn’t believe. 

But then something happened. The started getting fans and their music, though simple, fast, three chord punk rock, grew tighter and catchier. What else to do but begin to take themselves seriously? Since 1987 the Souls have only released 7 studio albums, but they have a ton of EP’s and 7″ (which is much more punk, after all). 

The late 90’s is when some of the more important Souls records were released, but the one which touches my heart strings is 2001’s How I Spent My Summer Vacation. By this point the Souls have perfected their light-hearted but well-meaning punk rock. Album opener “That Song” is about spinning the tunes that matter to you, which boasts possibly their strongest lyric “If I want to change the world, it’s got to start with me”. “Private Radio” follows strongly with a similar call to follow your music, especially the music that matters to you. The most recognizable Souls song to outsiders is third, “True Believers”, which it should be. A strong song of friendship and being true to yourself and your friends. Tracks 5 and 6 both bleed nostalgia and have a sad edge, as you might imagine over a female.

“Lifetime” opens with an acoustic riff, which the Souls will throw in from time to time. Another song of love lost. Track 8 is another of the standout tracks on the album, “Manthem”, which is essentially the punk rock version of Bro’s Before Hoe’s. “Break up Song” and “Streetlight Serenade” keep the Souls catchiness but are still more “sorry you’re gone” tracks that are getting repetitive by now. “Late Bloomer”, another acoustic opener, is a damn good punk rock love song with emotion and edge to kill. “No Comply” is a short and sweet, upbeat track with the easiest chorus ever, “I feel great, how bout you?”. The four minute closer, “Gone” is excellent and traces lead singer Greg’s battle with depression. The song ends on a positive note, “My heart is real”.

Positive punk rock might seem like an oxymoron, but for the Souls it’s what they do best. Short, simple rhymes, easy chords, and a big heart. I guess that’s why they’re still around.

[Bouncing Souls – That Song]

[Bouncing Souls – True Believers]