Upcoming concerts: R Stevie Moore, Milk Music, and Mind Cure Records anniversary sale

There are some interesting shows going on tomorrow night, as well as a fantastic music appreciation event going on during the day. I'm still trying to decide where to go in the evening, but for sure during the day you'll find me scouring the racks at Mind Cure Records in Polish Hill. This little gem on the third floor of a building on Dobson Street has been around for just about one whole year, and they've decided to celebrate that occasion by putting out a ton of used vinyl that usually wouldn't be for sale AND knocking 15% off all prices. Hot dog!

Mind Cure has really been expanding their new releases section over the months, their used selection is far larger than Paul's CDs and way more eclectic than Jerry's, and I've made some great finds in their 7" section in the past. I've got a few new releases in mind I'm hoping to pick up (The Coathangers, The Rosebuds, Woods, etc.) and I'm sure I'll stumble on something else that I'll just have to buy. If you've never been there, this would be the day to do it (15% off!) and if you have been, well, just go again anyway. Stop by Lili Coffee shop on the first floor, too, for some delicious caffeinated beverages and homemade quiche. And follow Mind Cure's blog to keep up with special announcements like this one. This Facebook event has more info. They'll be open 12-8pm.

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I was woefully unaware of R. Stevie Moore until last week when I got a promo email about his show in Pittsburgh tomorrow night. He is "known in some circles as the Godfather of Home Recording" and is going on his first tour ever. He's 59 and looks like a crazy Santa, in a good way. His back story is nothing short of fascinating—grew up in Tennessee, moved to NJ, moved back to Tennessee, along the way recorded about 400 (!) full-length albums of songs all by himself—and the list of musicians he has apparently influenced and/or inspired—Robert Schneider of Apples In Stereo (that got me interested, they're one of my faves), Ariel Pink, MGMT, and more—is impressive and noteworthy. In addition to having such a prolific career in his bedroom (not a sex joke), the styles of songs he has written and recorded run the gamut from weirdo indie rock to pop/punk to folk to Beatles-esque pop and back again. It's fucking impressive. He also has a bunch of self-recorded music videos and they're all over YouTube (see one for "I Like To Stay Home" below). The tour he's embarked upon came about earlier this year via a Kickstarter project, a documentary film about him in the works, and a fortuitous introduction to the fellows in Tropical Ooze, his backing band for the tour (he usually plays all of the instruments on his recordings). The Pgh City Paper ran an excellent interview feature on him earlier this week, so definitely check that out here for more information. The show is at ModernFormations Gallery, starts at 8:00, $12 at the door (or $10 in advance if you can find tickets somewhere around town, maybe at Calibans Books?) Also playing are Pgh's own Weird Paul (who no doubt was inspired by R. Stevie Moore himself and embodies a similar tendency for a prolific output of weirdo catchy rock tunes) and Hot Dog Forest (silly name!). This will be an interesting show, for sure.



R. Stevie Moore on the web: Website / Tour Blog / Wikipedia
Weird Paul on the web: Website / Facebook / Bandcamp

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Gooski's in Polish Hill will be the perfect spot for four noisy fuzz-rock bands to play on a Saturday night. I'm interested in seeing Milk Music after reading a brief blurb in the City Paper yesterday. Andy writes, "Expect lots of screaming guitars and probably some screaming people tonight at Gooski's when Olympia's early-Dino Jr.-worshipping Milk Music plays." Sounds awesome to me. I had some serious trouble finding any information about the band online (no website, Facebook, not even Myspace; how punk!) and stumbled upon at least two other bands with very similar names that sounded nothing like fuzzy garage rock. But eventually I found this interview with singer/guitarist Alex Coxen, and this blog post about their only official release, a 6-song, 21-minute LP entitled Beyond Living (download link in the post, shhh!). Also playing are Ohioans Puffy Areolas (beloved by Reading Rainbow, apparently!) who rocked the fuck out at Hozac Records' Blackout Fest just a few weeks ago, Brain Killer from MA, and locals Slices. I don't know much about any of these bands except that it will be a raucous and noisy night. Better bring my earplugs. Show is at 10:00, only $5.

Some old, some new: British Sea Power

Okay, the holiday season is wrapping up, students are getting back into the swing of classes, musicians are warming up and starting to tour again, and labels have awakened from the sleepy late-December doldrums and have started to release the first candidates for "Best Music of 2k11". And by that I mean there's going to be some good new stuff coming out in the near future, after a few (relatively) agonizing weeks of pretty much nothingness.

The first promising release of the year, I think, comes from British Sea Power. Maybe you've heard of them? Maybe not. I first got into them in college thanks to a couple of friends who were fans. The songs on Open Season and The Decline of British Sea Power were pretty quirky and fun to my uninitiated ears and I listened to those albums periodically over a year or so after hearing them. A couple years later, I went to visit a friend in D.C. and was lucky enough to catch BSP playing at the Black Cat club one night, and that was pretty sweet. I hadn't listened to them recently enough, and the only song I actually recall them playing is "Apologies To Insect Life", but that was also before they put out Do You Like Rock Music?, so I imagine they played a few songs from that. My answer to that question was a resounding yes, by the way; the album is totally bombastic and sagging with guitar solos, which led some folks to rag on it (the infamous U.2 rating!), but I thought it was perfectly fun and listenable, so fuck p4k. I have honestly yet to listen to Man of Aran, their 2009 release that doubles as a soundtrack to a 1934 documentary film, but it seems interesting enough that I'll go back and watch and listen (maybe simultaneously!) at some point.

In the fall of 2010 they put out the Zeus EP, a not-so-unexpected departure from the aforementioned "straightforward rock" of the-album-with-the-inquisitive-title. Its eight songs span 34 minutes, which is rather long for an EP, and the ideas contained therein are expansive, as well; feedback on the guitars, tinkly piano, reverb on the vocals, languishing drones, squealing synths, and some kinda strange digital/autotune effect on the final track. It's strange and fascinating. It's BSP trying to get back to what they did best way back when: fuck with the standard rock formula. And they're doing this after they "perfected" it enough to get Pitchfork to equate them with the most "modern rock band"-ish of all "modern rock bands", these days.

And now, there's Valhalla Dancehall, officially released today, January 11, 2010. I listened to it (streaming on the AV Club) once through and found it be an interesting hybrid of these two paradigms they've embodied thus far in their career: quirky, classic-rock-inspired yet decidedly new and modern, guitar-heavy but vocally-driven indie-pop songs and over-the-top, can-you-possibly-squeeze-any-more-anthemic-guitar-riffs-and-choruses-in-there rockers. I'm looking forward to buying it (somehow). Will it be my favorite record of 2011? Seems unlikely. Will it be in my Top 10? Maybe, but that's hard to say. Will I enjoy listening to it in the meantime? Of course. So give it a shot. Maybe it'll be your favorite!

Here's a song from the new album:

and for completeness' and interest's sakes, here are some of my fave songs from their older albums (that I've heard), chronologically backwards: