Matt's Recs: Dodongo's Cavern

By: Matthew Bemer, PR Director

1. Count Your Lucky Stars Records might be my favorite current record label. Scratch that. It is. They recently signed Ann Arbor, MI-based emo/math outfit Brave Bird and released their 2010 EP Ready Or Not for free digital download. RIYL: This Town Needs Guns, Brand New and anything else that rocks. The first track, "Scared Enough", might be my favorite. It's a cathartic experience to say the least. 

2. The dude on campus who sells Buddhist books (or whatever practice they are) stopped me yesterday and asked for "help," which means that he wanted me to buy his books. "No thanks," I said. I thought to myself how weird it was that he phrased it as "help." Because buying books doesn't really help him. I mean, it can help him, but I don't know how it can help him. This musing is going nowhere. I was listening to John K. Samson's "Grace General" which appears on his latest release Provincial. Weird album for spring, but can there be a more brilliant singer/songwriter? I don't think so. And if we disagree, go listen to Left and Leaving. As I left Buddha Man, he mumbled, "You didn't look like the type that would help." Yeah, probably not. 

3. The past couple days have been a mix of good and bad for the LGBTQ community. Against Me!'s lead singer, formerly as Tom Gabel, revealed to the nation his decision to begin life as a woman. Obama and Biden have come out in support of equal rights for gays and North Carolina voted for the abolishment of gay marriage as well as civil unions. Regardless of how you stand on the issue, I think we can all agree that a human is a human and that hate-speech is unacceptable. Rise Against's lead singer Tim McIlrath recently wrote an essay on language and homophobia in the music community for Alternative Press. And even though they're now branded as a radio-rock band, I have to say, McIlrath is a pretty smart guy. They released a music video for "Make It Stop (September's Children)" a while back that echoes his essay's call to drop words like "gay" and "fag" from our language. It's by no means my favorite song by Rise Against, but it is a powerful video. 

4. I love Nervous Energies' sessions. I love Title Fight. As a wise Twitter celebrity by the name of @JADEDPUNKHULK said, "HULK JUST THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH MORE AWESOME TITLE FIGHT BE ONCE THEY GET OVER PUBERTY." I mean, yeah, that's kind of true. The more important point is that they're a.) young, b.) talented and c.) destined for greatness. They're like Lifetime's younger brother. Back to business. Nervous Energies is like the Daytrotter of emo/punk/pop-punk/math-rock music. Lifetime's singer/guitarist Jamie Rhoden played a couple songs acoustic for the session a few days ago. Check out this stripped-down version of "Shed."

5. I'll leave Right Away, Great Captain!'s newly released single to be covered by our Editorial Director Hannah Cook. She loves that dude. Instead, I'm going to plug my favorite Lobsterfest band and, in a way, unofficially announce that they will be playing Lobsterfest. If you're unaware, Lobsterfest is ACRN's annual music festival. Word has just gotten back to me that indie-punk act Reading Group from Louisville, KY has officially been booked for the festival. Check out the video for "Holy Kisser." There's a lot to love about the song. It's catchy. It's cute. It's fun. It's all around a good time even though it kind of makes people want to have a flashing light-induced seizure. Nonetheless, I can honestly say that I'm really excited to see Jamie Prott and company here in Athens for Lobsterfest. We should all get a drink together. 

Check out the other main headliners, too! Pujol and Xray Eyeballs. They are both extremely accomplished and extremely awesome. I say we all grab a drink. 

Bonus rec from ACRN's PR exec:

Beautiful?

Melissa's Recs: Acoustic Antics and a New Spin on T.I.

1. The Fest X

The Fest is an annual punk music fest held in Gainesville, Florida over Halloween weekend. I’ve always wanted to go, but having classes and it being in Florida, about 800 miles away, it’s never been a possibility.

This year, I’m hoping to change that.

It will be my senior year, and it can’t hurt to miss a day or two of class right? I’ll also be missing my last Athens’ Halloween, but I think it will be worth it to see some of my very favorite bands like Against Me!, Bomb the Music Industry!, Paul Baribeau, Bouncing Souls, Cheap Girls and many, many more all in one place!

2. Laura Stevenson and the Cans



I’m pretty sure I wrote about LS & the Cans in my last Exec Recs post, but they just released an album, Sit Resist, and “The Healthy One” is one of my favorite tracks off of it. This video was recorded for Nervous Energies, which is a series run by Ryan Russell featuring stripped down tracks from punk/ folk artists (much like Dave Garwacke’s Pink Couch series). Nervous Energies also features videos from Against Me!, Andy Hull, Kevin Devine, Cheap Girls and Lemuria. The Cans’ Nervous Energies session also includes songs “I See Dark” off Sit, Resist and “Baby Bones” off their first album A Record.

3. Pink Couch Sessions



Speaking of Pink Couch sessions, if you haven’t checked these out, you must. The concept is simple, like the Nervous Energy sessions, artists come in and play stripped down or acoustic versions of their songs on a pink couch. I’ve included a two of my favorites here, but there are so many others that are just as good—its hard for me to pick two!! The first is The Sidekicks “A Healthy Time.” The second is American War “Bricks” (make sure you watch until the end!). Both are funny videos and great songs.

4. Cheap Girls



Cheap Girls is awesome. I recently (and finally!) downloaded their album Find Me a Drink Home free from Quote Unquote Records and can’t believe it took me this long to do so! I saw them a few months ago with Laura Stevenson & the Cans and I wish I hadn’t left during their set. The above video is a Nervous Energies session of their song “Sleeping Weather” from their album My Roaring 20s. Funny how these recs are all connecting.

5. “Whatever You Like” - Anya Marina




I love this acoustic cover of T.I.’s “Whatever You Like” by Anya Marina. Even in spite of T.I.’s brilliant lyricism (“Brains so good coulda swore she went to college”), Marina transforms T.I.’s song into a creepy, sultry and danceable track. The track was also played in the background during a threesome featuring Hilary Duff on Gossip Girl. So that’s something…

--Melissa Burant, Public Relations Director