Music Tuesday Newsday: New Releases by Comet Gain, Blake Shelton, Memory Tapes, Alkaline Trio, MellowHype, Incubus

July 12, 2011 - 3:40 pm

Alkaline Trio - Damnesia

The big recommendation this week is Memory Tapes’ lo-fi gem Piano Player…in other news, Incubus is still rocking out, this week with If Not Now, Then When?…Alkaline Trio returns with an all-acoustic set of songs called Damnesia…MellowHype is back with BlackenedWhite, what is supposedly the 2nd in a 3-album release in 2 short years…

Comet Gain – Howl of the Lonely Crowd

Blake Shelton – Red River Blue

Incubus - If Not Now, Then When?

Teddybears - Devil’s Music

Alkaline Trio - Damnesia

Jackie-O Motherfucker – Earth Sound System

Memory Tapes – Piano Player

MellowHype – BlackenedWhite

Kasey Chamber – Little Bird

Colbie Caillat – All of You

Eleanor Friedberger - Last Summer

SebastiAn – Total

Digitalism - I Love You, Dude

Zomby – Dedication

Music Memory Tapes: An Analog Kid in a Digital World

August 20, 2010 - 10:38 am

Dayve from The Memory Tapes. IS The Memory Tapes.

For whatever reason, The Memory Tapes is one of those groups a bunch of us at ChinaShop all sort of stumbled upon separately and just decided that we loved. And for whatever reason Dayve Hawke’s mad and eclectic genius has garnered the attention of a lot of famous players, including Britney Spears and Phoenix — and he’s ended up doing quite a bit of remix work for all of them, so whatever he’s doing, I guess it’s working. I can’t point out exactly what it was about their first single, ‘Bicycle’, that had me so hooked, but I guess that’s what a great musician does — manages to tap that mainstream pulse and get your blood boiling for some indiscernible reason. On this particular episode of Fireside Chat, Hawke sorts through some of his main sources of inspiration: Aphex Twin, and Lindesfarne, Black Sabbath, and lo and behold — The friggin’ Cocteau Twins is his favorite band of all time? If anything, Hawke proves that he’s got an eclectic mix of genres that influenced him — many of them from the days of vinyl and cassette, which he presents on this episode remastered and re-formatted for a new era. In this case, it’s downright confusing, perhaps adding to the mystery heaped upon him by the indie media (not helped by the fact that his wikipedia page says Hawke is “known to be a recluse and is hesitant on touring, due to a fear of airplanes”). Go figure. You can get a peak inside his warped mind now at Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

Bars/Clubs Gallery Thanks for the Memory Tapes

March 26, 2010 - 12:40 am

Ah, Emo’s on an Austin afternoon. The conglomeration of hipsters, the ridiculous name and the sort of street bazaar layout of the place always make me feel a little trepidatious. However, the mood on Friday was instantly put into perspective when I came across a group of maybe nine guys all posing for a photo together with several people snapping shots of them – was this some kind of fraternal organization? Maybe they were semi-famous? As it turned out, they were total strangers who all happened to be wearing plaid shirts. “Badass shirt, dude!” I heard one joke to another. They laughed and bantered to each other, “You’re a stylish motherfucker too!”

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Event Gallery Memory Tapes Want to Record Over You

March 1, 2010 - 5:56 pm

The final act of Saturday’s Noise Pop Festival edition, Memory Tapes mustered enough interest and energy to bring out the irritable side of the crowd, even at close to 1 in the morning — and one that was the angriest we’ve seen so far at the festival. Which was great for a change, because there’s nothing worse then a bunch of half-asleep festival-goers and drugged-up hipsters nodding off to the latest in experimental music. And with the eccentricities behind “Swimming Field” and “Green Knight,” The Tapes showed that even some of the most peaceful and soothing music doesn’t make for much of a peaceful crowd.

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