The Hippodrome

The Jack and Jills could be described as a band in flux. Born from the ashes of previous ensembles, the band spends its time jockeying between New York and St. Louis, installing new members to replace those who will spend the summer elsewhere. Add to this the band’s animated on-stage bobbing and the reciprocal head nods and toe taps they elicit from their audience, and movement and variation are the name of the Jack and Jills’ game.

It’s easy to attribute the band’s animation to youthful innocence—the band is only four months old and several of its members are too young to gain admittance to any 21+ show that’s not their own—but their exuberance is tempered, or perhaps informed, by a surprising knowledge of what else is out there, name-checking Sunset Rubdown and Kurt Rosenwinkel with equal ease.

The band’s frontman, Erick Lee, credits his savvy in part to the breadth and depth of music now available online, saying, “My favorite thing going in the music industry right now is the expansion of consumer choice. The major labels are losing their influence to the internet and people are starting to hear a lot more stuff…The result is more people that really enjoy music and more exposure for lesser known bands.”

So perhaps it’s best to stave off temptation and skip the comparisons, and say simply that the Jack and Jills track Old Ears is available for download here, free of charge.

Audio: Old Ears

Double Dragons are a duo from Exeter, New Hampshire, composed of Peter James and Josh Picard, childhood neighbors. Starting as a crude Hella tribute band, DD has evolved into a noisy and technical (but still concise) band that hasn’t had alot of opportunity to play live due to its members being in different states.

But when they do play live, DD is wonderfully true to the recordings. “Four” is the most popular track, managing to still be catchy despite its machine gun flurry of scales and snare rolls. Most DD tracks manage this same feat, making the experience far more than a demonstration of virtuosity.

Tours and future plans are up in the air, but a strong childhood foundation makes a DD breakup unlikely. So write Marnie Stern an email now and tell her you got her next tour opener.

Audio: 4
Audio: 8
Audio: 5c

Hi friends,

I want to apologize for the lack of updates lately. For the first time in the ‘Drome’s history, it’s because I’m behind in writing, not behind in finding awesome bands to write up. The reasons for this, however, are good ones. I’m working hard to establish a sustainable promotions and consulting company with an associate who I met in my Calabash days, Erich Ludwig. For our first set of promotions, we have the honor of working for Boban Markovic, a Serbian master, who not only influenced Beruit to no end, but is playing at the Pitchfork Music Festival next month.

The other exciting thing in my online life is the launch of Snack You Silly, a snackfood review site that I co-founded along with Zvi Finklestein of Saving Progress and Kyle Wallace of TMT/Deez Peanuts/Smor.es We’ve gotten a great response so far, and I’d welcome any more feedback. I think the site stems from all of us being a bit fed up with the inanities of online media, and poking fun at all of it through something as non-elitist as possible… snacking. The humor’s already been lost on quite a few people (the SU rating on the McCain Snack Article was poor), but we’re confident in its appeal.

So that’s my bit, but musically, don’t despair. Later today I’ll have an exclusive feature from the two and only Double Dragons, one of the best math/hardcore duos I’ve heard in ages. See y’all soon!

Dinowalrus is a band that somehow lives up to its name. A three piece, their music finds freshness in its combination of 80s rock, punk, and drone, which is fairly astounding considering their locale, Brooklyn. To keep it even fresher, the band drastically mixes up instrumentation live.

DW uses all the fun new stuff (sampler, Theremin, etc.) in their tunes pretty convincingly, and reports their ownership of a “1983 Roland analogue synth named ‘Marc Bolan’”. The band has played with some underground hotshots; Titus Andronicus, Michael Jordan, and Ringo Deathstarr to name just a few.

They’ve also landed a show with Ponytail this Saturday at the Music Hall in Williamsburg, as a part of the After The Jump Festival.

Audio: Duke Nuke ‘Em
Audio: Bead

A federal court judge ruled on Friday that selling promotional CDs, even when they’re marked “not for resale” by the label, is legal. The judge rightly affirmed the fact that a company can’t throw a restriction on a product to prevent the first-sale doctrine; that is, that once one assumes ownership of a product, that person may do with it what they please.

Obviously a big victory for the consumer, it’s hard to ignore what this means for the future of the CD. Selling CDs has already become a joke… last year, Wired pointed out that to sell CDs in states like Florida and Utah, you now need to be fingerprinted and present your driver’s license. Why? Because the RIAA’s boiler is slowly exploding.

I’m curious to see how CD stores react to this. Everyone sees promos on ebay and used bins anyway, but can I really sell all these promos at the record store counter now? Is it even worth the gas money I spend driving there? I’m guessing that it’s probably not, but nonetheless, this is a good piece of news for the music industry.