YES!!!!!

The Thorr's Hammer reunion is confirmed for the Supersonic fest in late July !!!!

http://www.capsule.org.uk/blog/2009/03/thorrs-hammer-the-accused-corrupted-at-supersonic-festival-09/

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/supersonic/2009/

Quarteto Em Cy

My Feb trip to Chicago was dotted by a pit stops to various record stores and I came across this LP at Dusty Groove. Complex yet light and airy - these sisters wow me. Springtime and 60's / 70's Brazilian vocal bossa stuff make for a lovely combo.

The LP is self titled and is their debut record.

Proud Mom Type Moment

Okay - so Meason Wiley (Dead Waiter) and I have been friends since my old Dahlia Seed days and he is the master behind the song Viking Funeral on my Ringfinger record. He sent me a link to something he has been working on that is too cool not to share. Since what he does is miles beyond my capability of describing it with ease, here is what is says on YouTube:

"The MLGI is a multi-laser gestural controller built and designed by Meason Wiley at California Institute of the Arts. The controller uses Dan Overholt's CUI interface along with an array of photocells and laser modules to send out control data, which can be converted to OSC or MIDI using various programming platforms such as ChucK and Processing. This video demonstrates the MLGI working with ChucK, which is sending OSC to a custom build live interface created using Native Instruments Reaktor Software. The controller is still in it's developmenet stages, but will be featured at the NIME conference at Carnegie Melon in June. Once all the kinks are worked out, they will be available for purchase. All of the code will be open source! Please notify me if you would be interested in either building one or having one built for you. Hopefully they will be available in the Fall of 2009. http://laserinterface.wordpress.com/"

Genius!

Butt Metal?

Thanks for the tip Mr. Little!

Interview

The fantastic blog The Scowl has an interview with me up today. If you have any interest in reading it ...I talk about the label Little Black Cloud as well as Ringfinger... you can check it out here.

Thank you Toby for the honor of being on your blog!

March 26th on Cause & Effect : Mates of State

Hello All,

In celebration of the April 2nd Mates of State show at the National in RVA, team Cause & Effect will be playing two hours of music from their catalog as well as bands that have influenced their sound and groups that fit into their peer group.

I dug deep into my vaults for this one so tonight from 7PM to 9PM you will hear some classic vocal melody heavy indie rock like Ida, Tsunami, Suddenly Tammy, Rainer Maria, Low, Butterglory, Quasi and lot's of other great tunage.

Cuddle core lives at 97.3 or www.wrir.org this evening. Join us!

Steamy - Hemlata "Na Na Na"

Upcoming Ringfinger Shows

Yo.

I gots me a few April tour dates (me = Ringfinger) besides the Cinemasophia record release party 4/3 in Richmond.

April 18 - Lancaster, PA - Stomping Grounds after-party w/Boyfriends, Snowing

April 19 - Wilmington, DE - The Spot w/Forensics, Golden City

Lot's more tour dates coming in May!


XOXO,
Lightning's Girl AKA Ringfinger

Cranes / Cranes

Did anyone else know that the classic spooky dream-pop band Cranes releases a brand new record late last year? I missed this completely!

Thanks for the tip SLP. If you don't know who this group is IE for you folks under the age of 30, Mum owes this band...well everything.

From their MySpace page:

We are very happy to let you know that the new Cranes album is available from today ! The album is called 'Cranes' and comes with a beautiful free poster when you order from us at Dadaphonic Mailorder
http://www.cranes-fan.com/mailorder/order.html

The artwork includes an 8 page booklet containing all the lyrics. We really hope you'll like it! It's our first album for four years! Orders can be placed from today and the Cd's will be dispatched on the album's UK release date of October 13th. The first 200 copies of the CD will be signed by the group, so if you would like your cd to be signed, please mention it in the comments box on your order form.

Thanks !

The tracklisting for the album is:
1. Diorama

2. Worlds

3. Feathers

4. Wires

5. Panorama

6. Wonderful Things

7. Collecting Stones

8. Invisible

9. Move Along1

0. Sleepwalking

11. High and Low

AMERICA - CD release in January

For those of you who still like a good old-fashioned CD in a beautiful sleeve with a lyric booklet, there will be a CD release for the album in USA in January 2009. It will be released by Forced Exposure records, so that you will be able to buy the CD in shops in America after that date .... More news about exact release date coming soon!

The Lemon Drops / In The Springtime!

I buy garage rock reissues a lot, I mean A LOT..for several reasons.

The first record store I ever worked at (late 80's to mid 90's) was owned by a guy who knew 60's music inside and out and his passion for fuzzy foot stomping anthems rubbed off on me and I have been obsessed with that primal garage rock sound ever since.

There is a cult of record collectors who insist on owning the original records by whatever artists fall into the genre they collect but I am not one of them. I am happy to buy a reissue, especially one with cleaned up masters on heavy vinyl. These reissues can be pricey but they aren't as expensive as the rare originals that can often go for $300 to $3000.

I also DJ a garage / mod / blah blah blah night every now and then and while it basically gives me a legit reason to keep buying records / feed my addiction for these psych rockers.

In turn this means these reissues fall into three categories to me. Ones I can DJ with (IE you can dance to them). Ones that are not dance floor friendly for my DJ night but are still worthy of holding onto. And then there are the records that I curse because I probably paid over $20 for it and it is so terrible that I don't want it touching any of my other records . IE it goes in my sell pile ASAP.

One thing that immediately drew me towards to Lemon Drops record is all the songs are originals. I get pretty tired of buying records that feature your usual string of Beatles and Stones covers so whenever I stumble across a 60's reissue by a band I don't know anything about, I tend to first look over the track listing to see the covers ratio. And I know a great title for a song doesn't promise a great song but it lures me in regardless. A good title does go a long way.

This 60's Chicago band was only around for a mere three years and never exploded to a national level of popularity outside and never earned themselves a major record deal. This LP contains 15 tracks all gussied up and mastered to perfection. Their material falls more on the paisley jangle pop side of things but there is no denying the power of their hit "I Live in the Springtime", a true rocker. Always brooding but never truly playing at you with the force of beast, I don't think I will DJ with this record much but it is a keep for sure. Besides the hit I am especially a fan of "Some Time Ago" which is a nice nod to The Seeds and "It Happens Everyday" which is a great fuzzy upbeat number.

My only complaint is that for the money ($23) some liner notes on the band with a few pictures and old flyers would have been cool.

Heavy Metal Monk

Heavy Metal Monk

Record Store Day 2009 Swag

And the list keeps growing!



Taken from : http://www.mbvmusic.com/list-of-exclusives-for-record-store-day-2009/6703



As you probably already know, Record Store Day ‘09 is coming up on 4/18. This is a great time to support your local record stores, and also to grab some great exclusive items. Somewhat maddeningly, there doesn’t seem to be any one list tracking all of the exclusives that are to be available for Record Store Day ‘09. Below is an attempt to rectify that. Please leave comments, additions, edits and clarifications in the comments, and we’ll do our best to whip this list into shape.


Akron/Family - 7″“Everyone Is Guilty” b/w “Total Destruction”
Blitzen Trapper - 7″
Leonard Cohen - 7″
Elvis Costello / Jenny Lewis split 7″
Graham Coxon - 10″ (Etched)“In The Morning” b/w Etched Side
Cursive/Ladyfinger(ne) split 10″
The Decemberists - 7″
Def Jam Records “History of Def Jam” 4xLP


Domino Records Blood on the Tracks compilation LPEugene McGuinness - “Fonz” / The Kills - “Night Train” / Franz Ferdinand - “Katherine Hit Me” (Blood Version) / Junior Boys - “Hazel” (Radio Edit) / Max Tundra - “Playboy” (Hot Chip) / John Hopkins - “The Wider Sun” / Juana Molina, Devendra Banhart & Vetiver - “Hay Que Ver Se Voy” / Benjy Ferree - “Grand Canyon” (Magnetic Fields) / Cass McCombs - “One Way To Go” / King Creosote - “Curtain Craft”


Bob Dylan - 7″
El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez – Cryptomnesia LP (not exclusive, but 3000 copies available for RSD in advance of 5/5 street date)
Flaming Lips / Black Keys split 7″
Flight Of The Conchords - 7″
Guided By Voices - Hold On Hope reissue + 3 bonus tracks
Iron & Wine - Live CD
Jane’s Addiction - 7″“Mountain Song” b/w “Standing In The Shower Thinking”
Jesus Lizard - 7″ Box Set
Booker T Jones - 7″“Warped Sister” b/w “Reunion Time”
Magnolia Electric Co. - 7″ (1000 copies)“It’s Made Me Cry Again/Rock of Ages” b/w “The Compass, The Candle,The Bell/Protection Spell”
MC5 - 7″“Kick Out The Jams” b/w “Motor City Is Burning”
Mastodon - Crack the Skye 180g vinyl + 7″
My Morning Jacket - Celebración De La Ciudad Natal (Live at Ear X-Tacy & Louisville Waterfront) 2×10″ / CDEvil Urges / Highly Suspicious / Gideon / Where To Begin / Librarian / Phone Went West / Dondante
New Order - 7″“Temptation” b/w “Hurt”


Numero Group This LP Crashes Hard Drives compilation LPLos Destellos - “Guajira Sicodelica” / PE Hewitt Jazz Ensemble - “Bad Que Bash” / Group Doueh - “Way Waya” / Noor Jehan - “I Am Very Sorry” / Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - “Marcus Garvey” / Pisces ft. Linda Brunner - “Sam” / The Monks - “Pretty Suzanne” / Myron & the Soul Investigators - “Cold Game” / John Heartsman & Circles - “Talking About My Baby” / Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens”


Obits - 7″
Pavement - “Live in Cologne 1997″ LP (2500 copies)
Radiohead - “Series of vinyl EPs”
Russian Circles / These Arms Are Snakes Split 12” (1000 copies)“Camera Shy” / “Trix” b/w “Philios”


Sargent House compilation CDBygones – “Click On That, Smash The Plastic Death” / RX Bandits – No Chorizo - (Live From Glasshouse) / Red Fang – “Good To Die” / These Arms Are Snakes – “Camera Shy” / Cast Spells – “Glamorous Glowing” / This Town Needs Guns – “Rabbit” / Good Old War – “Window” (Live Acoustic) / Native – “What Are You Dylan In My House?” / Tera Melos - “Last Smile For Jaron” / Maps & Atlases -“Ted Zancha” / Love You Moon – “Screams In A Vacuum” (Live From Fingerprints) / Red Sparowes – “The Fear Is Excruiating, But Therein Lies the Answer”


The Smiths - 7″“The Headmaster’s Ritual” b/w “Oscillate Wildly”
Sonic Youth / Beck split 7″ (2500 copies)“Pay No Mind” (SY covering Beck) b/w “Green Light” (Beck Covering SY)
Sonic Youth / Jay Reatard split 7″ (2500 copies)“Hang Them All” (JR) b/w “No Garage” (SY)
Bruce Springsteen - 7″
The Stooges - 7″“1969″ b/w “Real Cool Time”
The Thermals / Thao split 7″ (1000 copies)“When I Died” (Demo) / “You Dissolve” (Demo) b/w “Cool Yourself You Are Flush Red” / “Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind” (Lovin’ Spoonful)


Thrill Jockey Records Toreism compilation LP (900 copies)Mountains - “Windows” / Tortoise - “High Class Stim Came Floating In” / Double Dagger - “Stagger Lee” / White Hills - “Eye To Eye” / Trans Am - “Wounded Monkey”


Tom Waits / Lucinda Williams split 7″“Ain’t Goin’ Down To The Well” (Live) b/w “Bottom Of The World” (Live)
Vetiver - 7″
Wilco - Ashes of American Flags DVD (non-exclusive; just 2 weeks earlier than mass release)
Wooden Shjips - Mix CD + New LP (LP is none-exclusive; just 2 weeks earlier than mass release)


Other artists mentioned but with no specific release details:

Black Kids

Rivers Cuomo

Metric

Modest Mouse

Slayer

March 19, 2009 : Cause & Effect : SXSW Spotlight

Don't feel bad if you couldn't make it to Texas this year for SXSW because I will be playing two hours of music by bands playing showcases there. The good news is you don't need to shell out big bucks for a plane ticket and pass to listen to my SXSW show. Plus won't have to sit in some crappy bar and suffer through hours of bad music to see the one band you were hoping to check out.

This is a slight departure from the usual theme of Cause & Effect but my better DJ half is out this week so in turn it didn't feel right to do a normal show without him. For yet another change of pace I will have a second DJ on air with me tonight, Derek Sunshine will be sitting in with me and spilling forth his wonderful knowledge on all the bands in the cue for tonight.

I opted to stray away from some of the more obvious big bands tonight so in their place will be a list of mostly lesser known bands that I have been super excited about as of late. This list includes: The Manhattan Love Suicides, Wavves, Marching Band, Theoretical Girl, Indian Jewelry, Maps & Atlases and for a special treat - a brand new never played on air anywhere track by The Cloud Room which is from their new record. You won't hear this song anywhere else in the country so how is that for a special treat?

DJ Alex - come back soon and and a big thanks to Mr. Sunshine!


Women



Indian Jewelry



Friendly Fires



We Were Promised Jetpacks

Tax Tips for Musicians

You can thank me for this later....

Kutimans YouTube Adventure

Even for those people already in the know about Kutiman and his multi-instrumentalist compositions, this new album is inspirational. Kutiman normally graces us with jazz, funk and afro-beat purposefully written on live instruments. For his latest project however, he has chosen a very different medium. All of the songs on Kutimans new record were created using nothing but clips from YouTube. He skillfully chose, sampled and dissected choice videos from the vast collection of random unrelated material that the internet delivers. The result is awe inspiring and extremely pleasing to the ear. The added bonus of using YouTube clips is that there is built in video to accompany each track.
All songs on the album are viewable on his website - http://thru-you.com/ .

Enjoy.

Count Grishnackh

In metal news - Varg Vikernes of Burzum is soon to be a free man after serving more than 15 years in prison for the murder of Mayhem's guitarist Euronymous and for setting fire to three churches in Norway.

You can read about the full story here.

March 12, 2009 : Cause & Effect on WRIR : Chad VanGaalen

We have another extra special show for you tonight as we are featuring the Canadian Sub Pop artist Chad VanGaalen with a track listing that was added to by his first record label Flemish Eye and Mr. VanGaalen himself!

Yeah, I am pretty darn excited about that too.

Chad's influences run deep so our set list tonight includes not only a large selection of material from the artist himself but also Glenn Branca, John Cage, Coltrane, A Tribe Called Quest, Thurston Moore, and Sun Ra just to name a few.

I really love how each show is shaping up to be so incredibly different than the one that came before it. We have so much fun learning about each artist's musical reference points so we hope that translates to an interesting and great listen.

Tonight from 7PM to 9PM East Coast time - WRIR: 97.3 on the dial in RVA and WWW.WRIR.ORG on line.


Now that the show is over you can see our full track listing on wrir.org....as well as all of our older set lists from previous shows.

Tonight's show was a terrific time and I am so thrilled to say that we beat our record for the number of listener's tuned in on line. Thanks to everyone for tuning in!

Lay Low

Icelandic country music. Yes!



She has a record coming in May and if this older song is any hint of what is to come, I can't wait.

Cinemasophia Record Release Show and Ringfinger's First Show Ever

What: Cinemasophia Fits & Cycles Record Release Party + Performance

What else: Ringfinger (AKA me with maybe a special guest or two) performance with set design by Chris Milk (my favorite local artist)

What else else: VCU Kinetic Imaging Department Group Show

Where: Sound Of Music Recording Studio / 321 W Broad St / RVA

When: April 3rd. / Art 7PM -

10PM / Performances : Ringfinger 10PM / Cinemasophia 10:30 : First Friday Event

Cost: FREE

Bonus: Cinemasophia will have their new record for sale at this event

Bonus #2: WRIR will have a table at the event - the local community indie radio station I have a show on.

Basically this show means the world to me. It features all of my passions in one place:

* The first band I signed to the label I have with friends called Little Black Cloud Records : I LOVE CINEMASOPHIA

* It is the first performance of mine for the Decimal record as well as my first solo ever

* This show is a test run for the Cinemasophia / Ringfinger East Coast / Mid Atlantic tour in May

* The set design by Chris will be a representation of my living room (the birthplace of my record) so I sorta get to play my songs in the comfort of my own home (the best place in earth)

* The location for the show is in the studio where some of my songs were recorded and is where Cinemasophia recorded Fits & Cycles

* WRIR will be in the house and they are my home away from home these days since I have a weekly radio show there

* And last but not least good friends are traveling a far distance to attend this very special show and nothing makes me happier than being surrounded by friends while hearing music that makes my grin from ear to ear.

The Future of Music and Other Odds and Ends

An interesting read.



And this one too.




**********************************************************************************

The New Pornographers and Immaculate Machine have come together to create a great charity shirt for ALS Society of BC.

Nightline Special on Vinyl

Even cooler - they feature Crooked Beat - one of my favorite DC record shops.

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7011708

What can I say....

I like a good group sing-a-long and old school bathing trunks.

Port O'Brien - I Woke Up Today

March 5th, 2009 Cause & Effect on WRIR : M Ward

M Ward has been on the road to support his new release "Hold Time" so we thought it would be most appropriate to dedicate a whole two hours to the man.


Tonight on WRIR from 7pm to 9pm we will be playing songs from M Ward's catalog as well as tracing his musical roots as well as talking about / playing songs from his lengthy pedigree of collaborations with other super talented artists.



I can also promise you this is perhaps the most eclectic set we have put together to date and you can expect to hear: John Fahey, Chet Atkins, Buddy Holly, Bobby Lewis, Lucinda Williams, She & Him, Ryan Adams, and Giant Sand just to name a few.

WRIR: 97.3 on the dial in RVA and WWW.WRIR.ORG on line.

Mayor of the Sunset Strip

Maybe it is just me being sensitive but I have found this documentary on Rodney Roq ultimately depressing...something the trailer doesn't hint at in the slightest.

Out Today : Angus & Julia Stone "A Book Like This"

Angus and Julia Stone are an Australian brother / sister duo who make lovely folk music. I hate to focus on just the girl side of the duo but Julia Stone's voice is a must listen to for those of you with a fetish for voices like Karen Dalton or Joanna Newsom.

Come to think of it - if you dig Joanna when she performs with Vetiver, I imagine you will fancy much of A Book Like This. This isn't my favorite song off the record ("Wasted" and a "Book Like This" are) but "Mango Tree" is a treat to the ears regardless.

Do the Blues

This clip cracks me up and I like M Ward's version of Bowie's Let's Dance here as well. This is from the NZ film Eagle Vs Shark.