WGRE Music Blog

Junior Boys in Austin, TX

Fall break brought good things. A couple days on my own on ghost-campus, a few days in Austin, and a few days at my mom’s eating homemade chicken noodles. The Junior Boys were the perfect group to see, and Austin seemed to know that. The day was sunny, but windy, with the slightest edge of fall crispness. By evening, it was overtly autumnal. The Junior Boys’ chilled-out electro totally fit the bill. It’s danceable, but with an edge of sadness that worked well.
Even I, ADHD extraordinaire, didn’t get bored. We all commented at the end about how quickly their set (which was, albeit, only an hour long) seemed to go by. And of course, just when Michael and I started to exchange glances and comments hoping they’d play their best (in my opinion) song, they broke out with “In the Morning.”

And there was a girl dressed as a fly a few rows up. So good. Check out their newest (old) album, b-t-w: Begone Dull Care. We were playing it at the end of last school year, and it’s worth pulling out again for the end of the semester.

Mon, Oct. 26, 2009 – 7:00PM
Pete Yorn (w/ Alberta Cross)
Vogue Theatre (21 +)
Indianapolis, IN
$24

Mon, Oct. 26, 2009 – 8:00PM
Atlas Sound (w/ Broadcast, The Selmanaires)
Bottom Lounge
Chicago, IL
$15

Tues, Oct. 27, 2009 – 7:00PM
Silversun Pickups (w/ Cage the Elephant, An Horse)
Vogue Theatre (21 +)
Indianapolis, IN
$26

Tues, Oct. 27, 2009 – 8:00PM
Lindsay Mac, Kendall Ludwig, Tiff
Radio Radio (21+)
Indianapolis, IN
$5

Tues, Oct. 27, 2009 – 7:00PM
mae, Jenny Owens Young, Deas Veil, Leaking Africa
Off Broadway Nightclub
St. Louis, MO
$15

Wed, Oct. 28, 2009 – 7:00PM
Silversun Pickups (w/ Cage the Elephant, An Horse)
Exposition Gardens
Peoria, IL

Thurs, Oct. 29, 2009 – 10:00PM
Noah & The Whale, Robert Francis
Lakeshore Theatre
Chicago, IL
$15

Thurs, Oct. 29, 2009 – 8:00PM
Thao with The Get Down Stay Down
The Canopy Club
Urbana, IL
$10

Fri, Oct. 30, 2009 – 7:30PM
Still Flyin’
Off Broadway Nightclub
St. Louis, MO
$8

Fri, Oct. 30, 2009 – 8:00PM
Dan Deacon, Nuclear Power Pants
Logan Square Auditorium
Chicago, IL
$10

Fri, Oct. 30, 2009 – 10:00PM
Thao with The Get Down Stay Down
The Empty Bottle (21+)
Chicago, IL
$13

Sat, Oct. 31, 2009 – 10:00PM
Headlights (w/ Pomegranates, Common Loon)
The Iron Post
Urbana, IL

Sun, Nov. 1, 2009 – 2:00PM
DM Stith (w/ Osso, The BQE)
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Indianapolis, IN
$10

Sun, Nov. 1, 2009 – 8:00PM
Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers, Jeffrey Gaines
Radio Radio (21+)
Indianapolis, IN
$15

Mon, Nov. 2, 2009 – 7:30PM
Matisyahu (w/ Trevor Hall)
The Pageant
St. Louis, MO
$25

Mon, Nov. 2, 2009 – 7:30PM
The Whigs (w/ The Features, The Dead Trees)
Mad Hatter
Cincinnati, OH
$12

Tues, Nov. 3, 2009 – 7:30PM
Matisyahu (w/ Trevor Hall)
House of Blues
Chicago, IL

Wed, Nov. 4, 2009 – 7:00PM
The Whigs (w/ The Features, The Dead Trees)
Birdy’s Bar & Grill (21 +)
Indianapolis, IN
$10

Wed, Nov. 4, 2009 – 7:30PM
Landon Pigg (w/ A Fine Frenzy)
Park West
Chicago, IL

Wed, Nov. 4, 2009 – 7:30PM
Matisyahu (w/ Trevor Hall)
Foellinger Auditorium, Univ. of Illinois
Champaign, IL

Thurs, Nov. 5, 2009 – 7:00PM
Neko Case (w/ Sarah Harmer)
The Pageant
St. Louis, MO
$25

Thurs, Nov. 5, 2009 – 8:00PM
The Grates, Pravada
Radio Radio (21+)
Indianapolis, IN
$6 - $8

Thurs, Nov. 5, 2009 – 8:00PM
The Future of the Left (w/ Ume, Team Band)
Bottom Lounge
Chicago, IL
$15

Thurs, Nov. 5, 2009
The Curious Mystery
The Bishop
Bloomington, IN

Fri, Nov. 6, 2009 – 8:00PM
Neko Case
The Canopy Club
Urbana, IL
$22

Fri, Nov. 6, 2009
The Whigs (w/ The Features, The Dead Trees)
Bottom Lounge
Chicago, IL
$15

Fri, Nov. 6, 2009
Tara Jane ONeil, Mount Eerie, No Kids
Banneker Community Center
Bloomington, IN

Sat, Nov. 7, 2009
Dashboard Confessional
Whitney Hall
Louisville, KY

Sun, Nov. 8, 2009 – 8:00PM
OK GO
Southgate House
Newport, KY
$10

Tues, Nov. 10, 2009 – 8PM
Jeremy Jay, Half-Handed Cloud, Vollmar
The Bishop
Bloomington, IN
$6

Tues, Nov. 10, 2009 – 8:00PM
Jeremy Jay (w/ DJ Mikey Apples, Heaven, Black Umbrella)
The Empty Bottle (21+)
Chicago, IL

Weds, Nov. 11, 2009 – 8:00PM
OK GO
The Canopy Club
Urbana, IL

Weds, Nov. 11, 2009 – 8:00PM
Jookabox
Vollrath
Indianapolis, IN

Thurs, Nov. 12, 2009 – 9:00PM
Girls (w/ Real Estate)
The Empty Bottle (21+)
Chicago, IL

Fri, Nov. 13, 2009 – 8:00PM
Dirty Projectors (w/ Tune-Yards)
Bottom Lounge
Chicago, IL
$15

Fri, Nov. 13, 2009 – 9:00PM
Girls (w/ Smith Westerns)
The Empty Bottle (21+)
Chicago, IL

Sun, Nov. 15, 2009
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
Reggie’s
Chicago, IL

Sat, Nov. 16, 2009 – 7:30PM
Matisyahu (w/ Trevor Hall)
Buster’s Billiards and Backrooms
Lexington, KY

Thurs, Nov. 19, 2009 – 8:00PM
Jupiter One (w/ Regina Spektor)
Louisville Palace Theatre
Louisville, KY
$35

Fri, Nov. 20, 2009 – 9:00PM
Japandroids
Billiken Club
St. Louis, MO

Fri, Nov. 20, 2009
Pixies (w/ No Age)
Aragon Ballroom
Chicago, IL

Sat, Nov. 21, 2009 – 7:30PM
Headlights (w/ The Pomegranates)
Firebird
St. Louis, MO
$10 / $13

Sat, Nov. 21, 2009
Pixies (w/ Jay Reatard)
Aragon Ballroom
Chicago, IL

Sat, Nov. 21, 2009
Julian Plenti
Metro
Chicago, IL

Tues, Nov. 24, 2009
Blind Pilot, Laura Veirs
Radio Radio (21+)
Indianapolis, IN
$10

Sat, Nov. 28, 2009 – 7:00PM
Trevor Hall (w/ Andrew Bean, The Lady Apollo, Lovely Houses)
Birdy’s Bar & Grill (21 +)
Indianapolis, IN
$10

Tues, Dec. 1, 2009 – 8:00PM
Camera Obscura
Off Broadway Nightclub
St. Louis, MO

Thurs, Dec. 3, 2009
Hidden Cameras, Gentleman Reg
The Empty Bottle (21+)
Chicago, IL

Thurs, Dec. 10, 2009 – 8:00PM
Headlights (w/ Maritime)
Lincoln Hall
Chicago, IL

Fri, Dec. 11, 2009
Dashboard Confessional
Aragon Ballroom
Chicago, IL

Sat, Dec. 12, 2009 – 8:00PM
Land of Talk
The Empty Bottle (21+)
Chicago, IL

so, i hope you all caught the GvB-wave this summer with memory tapes, neon indian, best coast, washed out, and all those other lo-fi experimental beachy/summery sounding groups. but, as we wave farewell to the warm and lazy days of summer and herald the arrival of barren trees and falling flurries, i don’t want to jump off that wave.

thank god for chromatic flights.

still lo-fi, still instrumental, but warmer and softer than even best coast. this is great study music. try it out. their EP, Favorite Cat is available for free download HERE:

 http://www.mono211.com/content/releases/…

Asobi Seksu is Japanese slang for “casual sex.” Asobi Seksu is also an indie-rock band (with shoegaze tendencies) hailing from New York. The band consists of Yuki Chikudate (vocals, keyboards) and James Hanna (guitar, vocals). They came out with their self-titled debut in 2004, and released “Citrus” in 2006. This year, they released “Hush” — which, if the title says anything, is a soothing, melancholy rock record with fuzzy melodies.

Upcoming shows:

Mar 5 2009 8:00P
Empty Bottle Chicago, IL
Mar 6 2009 8:00P
Illinois Wesleyan U.-Young Bloomington, IL

Official website

MP3: Familiar Light

Our favorite Indianapolis band, Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos, is making the rounds again, and they’re stopping at the Emerson Theatre in Indy on Friday, February 27th. Tickets can be found here or at Indy CD and Vinyl in Broad Ripple.

If you’re unfamiliar with this 8-piece power orchestra, check out “A Children’s Crusade on Acid”

Official website here

The cold winter got the best of us and Hannah and I have been in blogosphere hibernation for quite some time. But now that the snow has thawed, we’ve warmed up our fingers and are ready to write about all the great new music we have in the station. So here we go….

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE is a New York City band with a taste for the ineffable and the experimental. They consist of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Deakin (Josh Dibb), and Geologist (Brian Weitz), some of which occasionally release solo CDs of similar avante-garde tendencies. Animal Collective’s newest album, (their 9th) is Merriweather Post Pavilion, an ethereal album about summertime clothes and young love, seen through dreamy soundscapes. The album has already reached critical acclaim, and received a 9.6 from Pitchfork (in case you aren’t familiar with Pitchfork, this rating is extremely high and unexpected).

Unfortunately, the band won’t be coming to Indy any time soon, but check out these other tour dates and see if you can catch ‘em live:

05.11 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
05.12 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
05.13 New York, NY - Terminal 5
05.14 Boston, MA - House of Blues
05.15 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis
05.16 Toronto, Ontario - Sound Academy
05.18 Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Hall
05.19 Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall Ballroom
05.20 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
05.24 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom
05.25 Portland, OR - Roseland Theater
05.26 Oakland, CA - Fox Theatre
05.27 Big Sur, CA - Henry Miller Memorial Library
05.29 Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern
05.30 Las Vegas, NV - House of Blues
05.31 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theater

06.01 Albuquerque, MN - Sunshine Theater
06.02 Boulder, CO - Boulder Theatre
06.04 Dallas, TX - House of Blues
06.05 Austin, TX - Stubbs
06.06 Oxford, MS - The Library
06.08 St. Petersburg, FL - State Theatre
06.09 Fort Lauderdale, FL - Culture Room
06.10 Orlando, FL - Club Firestone

09.12 Monticello, NY - All Tomorrow’s Parties

Animal Collective official website: animalcollective.org

WGRE has been nominated for an MTVu Woodie Award!

Voting is open all this week, so click the link above and leave us some love!

Brooklyn-based TV on the Radio recently released their third full-length album (fourth, if you include self-released OK Calculator), and as we’ve come to expect from these masters of experimental rock, Dear Science is a new spin on their well-developed style.  The album manages to retain TVOTR’s distinct core sound and haunting undertones while bringing more joyful elements to the table.

TVOTR’s music spans a number of genres, including post-punk, jazz fusion, doo-wop, electronica, and hip-hop, so it is difficult to draw any comparisons between them and other artists.  It’s known for being sprawling, but not disjointed; cerebral, but not pretentious; heavy, but not abrasive.

The album kicks off with “Halfway Home,” a strangely theme-song-like track featuring hand claps, upbeat backing vocals, and a nonchalant melody uncharacteristic of TVOTR.  Front man Tunde’s eerie falsetto doesn’t make an appearance until the two-minute mark, and for most of Dear Science, his usually heavy and desperate tone is replaced by something calmer and less urgent.

Tracks like “Crying,” “Stork and Owl” and “Love Dog” showcase this subdued TVOTR, and even the single “Golden Age,” which is stylistically similar to past albums, seems more exuberant somehow.  Maybe that is the distinguishing factor with Dear Science—it’s certainly happier and poppier than anything else TVOTR has done, which the spastic rap verses of “Dancing Choose” and bright choral style of “Golden Age” handily show.

Their trademark sound is not lost in all this, of course.  When I say that Dear Science is happier than former TVOTR albums, I don’t mean that it’s happy.  It’s still riddled with references to death and cynical descriptions of past lovers and acquaintances.  And despite its jaunts into pop song structure and less mournful melodies, the dark and cathartic style of TVOTR is alive and well in tracks like “Red Dress” and “DLZ,” which would be at home on former albums Young Liars and Return to Cookie Mountain.

Although Dear Science is less complex and lighter than TVOTR’s past albums, it doesn’t compromise their unmistakable commitment to experimentation.  Instead, Dear Science seems to be more accessible to—and maybe the best starting point for—the unfamiliar listener.

For TV on the Radio fans or those curious about their live show, they’ll be playing at the Vogue in Indianapolis on October 19^th.  Their live act has been described as “transcendent,” so don’t miss it if you’re in the area over fall break.

Links:

TV on the Radio Official Site

Pitchfork Review of Dear Science

MP3:  TV on the Radio - Golden Age

Hercules and Love Affair is a disco-dance outfit hailing from New York City. The group includes DJ Andy Butler and Antony from Antony and the Johnsons, among others. They’re signed to DFA records, and like the rest of the DFA clan, they know how to rock. This album blew up on the blogs this summer, and it’s no reason why — this music just makes you feel good!

Official Website

Myspace

DJ Solly (or Ben Solomon) is a DePauw student who hails from the land of St. Louis, MO but is currently mixing and rocking in Jerusalem, Israel where he writes for the Jerusalem Post. Solly’s mixes are some of the danciest and most upbeat tunes being put out today — if these beats don’t make you sweat, nothing will.

Unless you’re traveling to the Middle East sometime this year, you won’t be able to dance to Solly live — but just wait ’til he comes back in the spring for some fine dance party extravaganzas.

Myspace