The Samples

The Samples were a band formed in Boulder, CO in early 1987. The band's name came from the members' early sustenance of food samples from the local King Soopers grocery store. The music has been described as "reggae influenced rock/pop" and a cross between The Police and the Grateful Dead. The founding members were Sean Kelly (guitar/vocals), Charles Hambleton (guitar), Andy Sheldon (bass/vocals), Jeep MacNichol (drums/vocals), and Al Laughlin (keys/vocals). Sean and Charles met in 1985 in Burlington, VT at an open mic night, leading to the formation of the band "Secret City" in 1986. After playing together in Burlington for a year, the pair moved to Boulder, CO and met up with Andy, a friend and member of a prior band with Kelly. Jeep joined the band as drummer after responding to an ad posted at the University of Colorado. After playing around the area, Al saw the group perform at a frat party and asked if the group needed a keyboardist, an offer the band accepted. I would strongly recommend giving this band a listen, you might find yourself hooked after just a few songs. This is Sean performing "Indiana" off their 1996 album Outpost.

www.thesamples.com

Smelly Dog

Trampled By Turtles

Trampled By Turtles (TBT) is a bluegrass quintet from Duluth, MN. Based on their instrumentation, the initial instinct is to view the band as a bluegrass or new-grass outfit, but spend more than a cursory moment with their music and it’s clear this tag doesn’t really fit. Trampled by Turtles exist beyond the box of categorization. For those who are simply fans of music, not bound by rules or forms, Trampled by Turtles take pieces of it all and just play from the heart. Call it alt-bluegrass, nontraditional string, indie-folk, rock-grass, punk-grass or anything else, they don’t care what name you put on it, just show up with an open mind and it won’t be long until you fall under their spell. The band consists of Dave Simonett (guitar/vocals), Tim Saxhaug (bass/vocals), Dave Carroll (banjo/vocals), Erik Berry (mandolin/vocals), and Ryan Young (fiddle). TBT came together in 2003 when several local bands fell apart around the same time. Dave began playing with Erik as an acoustic duo at which point they met Dave. Soon they picked up Tim and “just kind of started jamming in living rooms and playing for fun” explains Simonett. “It was kind of like a side project, and then eventually everybody else’s band split up so we started doing this one full-time.” The group is most famous for its high tempo, fast paced songs but also features Simonett's lyric writing abilities in slower ballads. Their high energy concerts have attracted an ever-growing, dedicated fan following.  This is "Never Again" off of their 2007 album Trouble.

www.trampledbyturtles.com

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Cotton Jones

Cotton Jones (formerly The Cotton Jones Basket Ride), is an indie folk-pop band based in Cumberland, MD and is currently signed to Suicide Squeeze Records. Cotton Jones materialized in 2007 as a solo vehicle for Maryland-based singer/songwriter Michael Nau after his popular indie rock outfit Page France decided to take a break. Michael is keeping with his mildly psychedelic indie pop as with his previous project, but with a decidedly more folky, experimental sound. His sidekick Whitney McGraw provides an angelic voice along with dashing key strokes and a little percussion here and there. He embarked on his first full scale tour under the new moniker back in 2008. This is "Blood Red Sentimental Blues" off of Paranoid Cocoon.

www.cottonjones.com

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The Pierces

The Pierces are a New York-based band. The principal members are sisters Catherine Pierce and Allison Pierce. The Pierce sisters were born two years apart in Birmingham, AL. They traveled frequently and received home-schooling from their self-described hippie parents. Their father played the guitar in various bands, while their mother was a painter. Exposed to music and arts at an early age, the Pierce sisters grew up listening to Joni Mitchell and Simon & Garfunkel. As kids, they were encouraged to explore their creative side and would perform at parties, weddings and churches. Allison started dancing at age three, and both sisters are accomplished ballerinas. It was while they attended Auburn University, that a friend sent a tape to a record company in Nashville. This eventually resulted in their debut album The Pierces released in 2000. It featured folk harmonies and adult alternative songs. In a 2004 interview, Allison Pierce commented that the album "sort of got lost in the shuffle". Allmusic attributes the poor reception to "no label support." This is "You'll Be Mine" off their You'll Be Mine EP released this past March.

www.thepiercesmusic.com

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The Wood Brothers

The Wood Brothers, Oliver and Chris Wood grew up in Boulder, CO. Sons of a poet and a microbiologist, they both took up music. Oliver moved to Atlanta and became a southerner. Chris moved to New York City and became a Yankee. Now, after years of musical and geographical separation they have reunited. While in Atlanta, Oliver soaked up the roots of blues, the soul of the south, and found he had a talent for writing and singing songs. His band, King Johnson (named after Freddy King and Robert Johnson) toured mostly in the southern states. Meanwhile, Chris was living in Manhattan playing everything from free jazz to rock and roll. This is where he met his band mates to form Medeski Martin & Wood. Now The Wood Brothers have begun a collaboration that combines their shared childhood influences with everything they've learned since leaving home. Their music has a rootsy feel that blends blues, folk, and rock music in a guitar/bass duo. This is "Liza Jane" (Up Above My Head 2009), and "Chocolate on My Tongue" (Ways Not To Lose 2006).

www.thewoodbrothers.com

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The Blues Brothers

The Blues Brothers (The Blues Brothers’ Show Band and Revue) are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live. Belushi and Aykroyd, respectively in character as lead vocalist "Joliet" Jake Blues and harmonica player/vocalist Elwood Blues, along with a respected backing band.  The band made its debut as the musical guest on the April 22, 1978, episode of Saturday Night Live.  Have a great weekend everybody!

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Passion Pit

Passion Pit is an American electropop band from Cambridge, MA. The group, which formed in 2007, consists of Michael Angelakos (lead vocals/keyboards), Ian Hultquist (keyboards/guitar), Ayad Al Adhamy (synth/samples), Jeff Apruzzese (bass/synth bass) and Nate Donmoyer (drums). All of the band members, with the exception of Angelakos, attended Berklee College of Music. The first Passion Pit songs, which would later become the Chunk of Change EP, were written by Angelakos as a belated Valentine's Day gift to his then-girlfriend. At first, he wrote and performed all his material alone using a laptop. After one of his solo shows in the Boston area, Ian Hultquist, who was attending Berklee at the time, approached Angelakos and expressed interest in creating and playing music collaboratively. Togther they formed the band, but due to the unconventional nature of their formation, the band spent a considerable amount of time trying to flesh out a collaborative format and structure that would work best for them; practicing together for seven months before they played their first live show. The band takes their name from the Variety Slanguage Dictionary, a glossary of Variety's frequently-used slang, which was provided by the Hollywood-insider publication to help not-so-savvy readers decipher its content. The magazine used the term to refer to drive-in theatres, because of their privacy and romantic allure for teenagers. This is their song "Sleepyhead" off their 2008 debut EP Chunk of Change.

www.passionpitmusic.com

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High Highs

The High Highs are an ambient pop band based in Brooklyn, NY. The trio consists of Jack Milas (guitar), Oli Chang (keys), and Zachary Lipkins (drums).  Jack and Oli met up in Sydney and started mucking around in the studio together.  Jack was bringing the songs to the table while Oli was making the dance beats.  The two actually only did two shows in Sydney together before coming to New York for business.  The band is still unsigned and has only released 3 songs.  The band name High Highs is the title of a song by the band Viva Voce.  These guys have great potential so expect great things to come.  To learn more about the band, check out an interview with Jack at spinner.com.  This is their song entitled "Open Season."

www.highhighs.com

Smelly Dog

Austra

Austra is the Toronto trio of vocalist/pianist/etc Katie Stelmanis, drummer Maya Postepski, and bassist Dorian Wolf, but the bulk of the band’s promo photos feature the singer by her lonesome. The three-piece is mainly a vehicle for the fevered imagination of Katie Stelmanis, a classically trained musician with a tendency to use her mainly electronic compositions for neo-operatic flights of vocal fancy. She joined the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus aged 10; she learned viola and piano and studied opera privately for four years before jacking it all in a week before starting college because she didn't want to live in Montreal. Not a bad choice in most listener's eyes or should I say ears. Katie is also certainly outspoken about her sexuality and what it means in the context of her band, at least two of whom (she and Maya) are gay. "I am a musician first, and a lesbian second," she proclaims, adding, "[but] being gay is a huge part of who I am and definitely affects the music I make. I'd like to be recognized as someone who makes interesting, experimental music and also identifies as queer." This is the song "Lose It" off their debut album Feel It Break, that will be released in May.

Fact of the Day: Austra is also a goddess of light in Latvian mythology

www.austramusic.com

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Hanni El Khatib

Hanni El Khatib grew up in San Franscisco, CA. The son of Palestinian and Filipino immigrants and the first American in his family, he became obsessed with classic Americana and pop culture of the 1950s and 60s. Influenced by pioneers of early rock and r&b (Johnny Burnette, Sam Cooke, Johnny Cash), El Khatib created a musical aesthetic to match his vision. The multi-instrumentalist serves as singer, songwriter & producer for his one-man band. Live he is joined by his drummer Nicky Fleming-Yaryan. He sound is a combination of blues, garage rock, soul, folk & doo whop. As the creative director for HUF (skateboard apparel) and lifelong skater, El Khatib professes to a love for well-crafted objects: classsic cars, cans of pomade and stiletto switchblades. This craftsmanship carries over into his music, where El Khatib is inspired and informed by the specificity of a guitar tone or the fuzziness of an amp sound . His background in DIY (Do-It-Yourself) and skate culture manifests as a desire to “keep mistakes in” and make things “as raw as possible.” Merging primitive rock sounds with punk aesthetics, El Khatib toes lines between all genres creating a style of his own.

http://www.hannielkhatib.com/

Smelly Dog

Taking A Break This Week

Horse Feathers Performing a Few of Their Songs on NPR. Enjoy Your Week Everyone!

http://www.horsefeatherstheband.com

Smelly Dog

Ear Pwr

EAR PWR is an experimental pop group from Asheville, NC who have been messing around since 2006. Ear Pwr is a project crafted around Devin Booze (instrumentation) and Sarah Reynolds (lyrics). Booze’s training at the Bob Moog founded Music Technology Program at UNC-Asheville lays the sonic groundwork upon which EAR PWR is ultimately realized. Utilizing a collection of analog synthesizers and miscellaneous live percussion; densely textured soundscapes are constructed in which the two explore and invent. Following a short-lived stint in Baltimore, EAR PWR returned to the mountains of their native North Carolina to get to work on their sophomore record with a more grounded and earnest approach than was seen on their off-the-cuff and dance-heavy Carpark (record label) debut. Booze’s handwritten musical compositions (compiled while touring Europe and the US with friends Future Islands and Toro Y Moi) are overlaid with Reynolds’ naturalistic allusion and everyday sentimentality, blossoming into ten diverse tracks of tactile electronica, spattered percussion, thematic depth and lyrical melody that attest to the transformation enacted by these two over the last year and a half. Emerging from this sea change is a unique creation brimming with joy, contemplation, and an energetic spirit harnessed in Booze and Reynolds’ collaborative commitment to one another in their maturing musical endeavor. In May of 2011 EAR PWR will have the honor of performing at the ATP Festival in England curated by Animal Collective. This is "Future Eyes" off their debut album Tre Faux.

www.earpwr.com

Smelly Dog

Family of the Year

Family of the Year is a folk pop band from Los Angeles, CA. There is some relevance to the band's name as it started as a project of brothers Joe Keefe (guitar/vocals) and Sebastian Keefe (drums/guitar), and Jamesy Buckey (guitar). The brothers, who grew up in Wales, first gained recognition on the local scene as part of the Martha’s Vineyard based raw rock ensemble Unbusted.  They expanded their ensemble with the addition of Vanessa Long (vocals), Christina Schroeter (keys), and Brent Freaney (bass). Family of the Year's original name was Bogie Ogreton, but with the urging of friends, family and their manager, they changed their name. The band's main influences range from The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Fleetwood Mac, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and Bob Dylan. In September 2009, conductor Keith Lockhart, and singer-songwriter Ben Folds, selected the LA folk pop band out of more than 650 applicants to open for Ben Folds’ performance with the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall in Boston. Mixing upbeat rhythms, sunny folk ballads, rich melodies, uplifting choruses, sweet pop harmonies, impressive story-telling, and even some dance beats, it's no wonder Family of the Year were chosen to open for Ben Folds and the Boston Pops.  This is "Psyche or like Scope" off their debut album Songbook.  I strongly recommend giving this album a listen, you won't regret one moment.

www.familyoftheyear.net

Smelly Dog

Toro Y Moi

Toro Y Moi is the stage name used by recording artist Chazwick Bundick. Bundick was born in November of 1986 in Columbia, SC, and attended Ridgeview High School where he formed well-known Columbia indie rock band The Heist and the Accomplice with three schoolmates. He is of Filipino descent from his mother and African-American descent from his father. Bundick graduated from the University of South Carolina in spring of 2009 with a bachelor's degree in graphic design. His music has taken on many forms since he began recording, but he is now identified with the chillwave movement of summer 2010. The stage name, "Toro Y Moi," can be roughly translated to "Bull and Me." Late in his school career, Bundick formed a close musical relationship with fellow chillwave luminary Ernest Greene who plays under the name Washed Out.

Contrary to popular belief, Sides of Chaz is not a Toro Y Moi demo, but a collection of Bundick's experimental "stream of consciousness" recordings under his side project "Sides of Chaz." In addition to this, Chaz also feels as though he has moved beyond the "chillwave" genre, and that "chillwave" was a point where many similar artists started off. He said in an interview At The Sinema that "all that stuff is really good music, like Ernest Green (Washed Out) and Neon Indian. I’m a big fan of all of that, but I think [chillwave] was just a small little period where we all were, coincidentally making similar music." Chaz is also a multi-instrumentalist.  I can't seem to find any information on his 3 band members.  This is "New Beat" off his second release Underneath the Pine.

http://www.toroymoi.blogspot.com

Smelly Dog

Evan Voytas

Evan Voytas is an LA-based singer/multi-instrumentalist. Hailing from rural Pennsylvania, Evan grew up listening to cassettes of ‘60s and ‘70s pop.  Throughout his high school years he traveled to Philadelphia to study with Acid Jazz luminaries Steve Giordano and Pat Martino.  He continued his studies when he moved to New York at age 18, becoming interested in classical theory and atonalism.  His interest in jazz diminished as he became more reclusive, immersing himself in various religious texts and 70’s new age paperbacks.  Disappearing in New Mexico for a time, he reemerged in New York and was recruited to play lead guitar for big name pop acts, touring the world playing arenas and the television circuit.

Three years later, Voytas returned to his roots and moved to a farmhouse on a dirt road in Pennsylvania where the solitude inspired him to start recording his debut EP.  His music then led him to Los Angeles, where he currently resides. With influences ranging from T. Rex to Daft Punk, Evan’s music evolved into a new sound. Reverting to a spare, minimal pop format, Voytas writes an instantly familiar tune, but frames it with a sonic landscape that simultaneously references ’70s pop and ’90s rap. Evan has recently played guitar in the live bands of Gonjasufi and Flying Lotus and continues to tour with his own backing band.  This is his song "I Run with You Spirit Animal."

http://www.evanvoytas.com

Smelly Dog

Fences

Fences is a four piece indie rock band from Seattle, WA based around singer/songwriter Christopher Mansfield. The other three members of the band are Sean Lane (drums/percussion), Jonathan Warman (electric guitar/keys), and Terry Mattson (electric bass/keys). Mansfield is a native of Seattle and a graduate of the Berklee College of Music. Fences is not merely the recording alias of the Seattle songwriter, it is the distillation of Mansfield's entire aesthetic. "I've tried to take everything in the world that I love, and turn it into this thing that's Fences." Fences starts with Mansfield's life experience to date, and ends… well, when he says so. Hopefully not for a long time. Because right now, Fences is just coming into its own, with the release of a stunning debut album, entitled, naturally, Fences. This song is entitled "My Girl The Horse" off of their debut album which was released in September 2010.

http://www.sadcastle.com/

Smelly Dog

Happy Birthday Mom

Billy Joe Royal and his hit "Down in the Boondocks." This man shares his birthday with you Mom! Happy Birthday! Hope it's the greatest one yet!

Love,
Smelly Dog

Farewell LCD Soundsystem!

LCD Soundsystem played their final show this evening at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was streamed live on Pitchfork.com and it was Epic! Thanks for all the great beats James Murphy! Your talent will be missed by all. This is the song that ended the show.

Set 1:

Dance Yrself Clean

Drunk Girls

I Can Change

Time To Get Away

Get Innocuous!

Daft Punk Is Playing At My House

Too Much Love

All My Friends

Tired

Set 2:

45:33 Part I

45:33 Part II

Sound of Silver

45:33 Part IV

45:33 Part V

45:33 Part VI

Freak Out/Starry Eyes

Set 3:

Us v Them

North American Scum

Bye Bye Bayou

You Wanted A Hit

Tribulations

Movement

Yeah (Crass Version)

Encore I:

Someone Great

Losing My Edge

Home

Encore II:

All I Want

Jump Into the Fire

New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down

http://www.lcdsoundsystem.com/

Smelly Dog

The Hundred in the Hands

The Hundred in the Hands is an electropop duo, formed in 2008 in Brooklyn, NY. The duo consists of Eleanore Everdell (vocals/synths) and Jason Friedman (guitars/programming). These two were once members of the indie band the Boggs, who found themselves in the studio recording collaborative tracks without the band. The band name refers to the phrase the Lakota Nation gave to the Fetterman Battle/Massacre of 1866 in Wyoming, in which Crazy Horse led his warriors to a victory that resulted in the death of 100 white soldiers. The Hundred in the Hands fuses synth pop with post-punk and dream pop elements, making for a sound that’s equally danceable and dreamy. The pair played some gigs in London that caught the attention of Warp Records, who signed them and released their debut single "Undressed in Dresden" in April 2010. An EP, This Desert, followed in May, and their full-length self-titled debut album was released in September 2010. This is "Commotion" off their full length album.

www.myspace.com/thehundredinthehands

Smelly Dog