The Hippodrome

I Am Weary Download

After a week like the one I just dealt with, listening to Alison and The Mings is a welcome auditory experience. Thanks to a lovely previous band of mine that I can’t disclose due to my personal pact of Hippodrome non-self promotion, I’m a sucker for banjo-folk, and ATM satisfy that craving better than any I’ve heard in a long time.

ATM are from Edinburgh, Scotland, and play a sincere and beautiful brand of acoustic folk music. Alison Stephen is accompanied by David Ayre, Josiah Lockhart, Colin MacArthur, and Tom Merrit-Smith. I’m not quite sure if all of their EP, Bad Biro Drawings EP, is available on their Myspace, but two other songs besides “I Am Weary” are available there as well. There’s something so meditative and human about “I Am Weary” — from the occasionally misplaced banjo strum to the repetitive, soothing vocals, this is Bob Dylan meets Bonnie “Prince” Billy.

Ta-ta-ta-tour dates. The only one you don’t have an excuse to miss is Mildsparrow in Australia.

Japandi:

1.9.08 – Monterey, CA – Monterey Live
1.11.08 – San Francisco, CA – The Bike Kitchen

The Lisps:

1.5.08 – New York, NY – Joe’s Pub (CD Release)

Mildsparrow:

11.22.07 – Northcote, Victoria (Australia) – The After Dark

Miracles of Modern Science:

12.2.07 – New York, NY – The Lion’s Den

Sinister Turns:

11.26.07 – Somerville, MA – PA’s Lounge

The Last Time Download

Happy Black Friday! To celebrate this Friday’s utter shopping happiness, I present to you an equally and utterly happy band, The Sinister Turns. TST are composed of indie-pop heartbreakers Susan Putnins, Sophie Besl, Teddy Sherrill, Sam Franklin, Annemarie Munn, and Dan Thorn. If the fact that TST have opened up for Mates of State isn’t enough to rub your pop belly, than I don’t know what else to tell you. The Harvard based band recorded their debut EP Turn to the Left (clever, huh?) at Basement 247 in Allston, MA last year before rising all the way to the semi-finals of the infamous Emergenza Music Festival.

Although a quick listen may suggest that TST are just hoping to be the next New Pornographers (not a bad thing, by any means), Putnins is quick to explain that the upbeat music is a necessary opposition to the dark lyrics. “Most of the lyrics I write are very dark, but the music we create together is upbeat and often bubblegum,” Putnins says, and then adds “fun fact… our first few shows we dressed all in pink to accentuate this, but there were only so many times Peter could wear hot pink sweatsuit pants.”

Sweatsuits aside, it’s pretty weird that I haven’t run into these guys earlier. They’ve played the Boston circuit (Middle East, T.T. The Bear’s, Great Scott) which I consider myself pretty well versed in, if you’ll allow me to blow my own bugle. They’ve also utilized my favorite distribution method in the entire universe, Creative Commons, which usually gets the word out faster than a grandma giving away cookies. In any case, props to my main homie from Dayton, Ohio, Kyle Wallace, for sending these future scene stars my way. And if you’re in Boston, catch TST this Monday at P.A.’s lounge!

I hate to judge, but sometimes you don’t need to look any further than the background. SignHere Online’s stars and robot font discouraged me quite a bit from checking their list of unsigned “stars,” but even once I did, I found little to write home about.

So, in the unsigned spirit, I propose a challenge. Anyone that can find a band on SignHere Online’s catalog worthy of Hippodrome featurehood will also get a feature about his or herself written up by yours truly. Email me by this time next week with all submissions, and I’ll duly note them.

And if you’re starved for music that doesn’t suck, just wait until you see our upcoming features. Check out Yukon and Mitn if you’re the type of person that flips to the end of mystery books. In the meantime, get searching!

I bet you’re starting to enjoy bad quality videos of awesome quality bands. This is fellow Wesleyanite George Pritzker’s band, Japandi. I had the good fortune of seeing them perform last night, and was so mathed out afterwards I couldn’t even do my algebra homework.