• Blogroll


  • November 4th, 2009

    Seahorses EP Streaming NOW!

     Photo Credit - Patrick Emmons - www.patrickephotography.com

    I have been anxiously waiting for new music from this cherub couple for too many months, and today they have given it to us! The EP “Musical Beds Vol 1″ from Seahorses is officially out November 24th, but Justin Huey and Emily Moore have temporarily made 2 of the songs availible for your listening pleasure on their myspace page. I have been hooked on “Tough Luck” since they sent the MP3 to us, featured in Episode 25. Once your thuroughly addicted to those tunes by next week, the pair will be throwing the rest of the EP at you as well.

    Where they find the time to write, record AND produce is beyond me. Justin is a full time member of the band Steel Train, who it seems never stops moving. They are currently on a National “Use Your Sole Tour” with Hanson and HelloGoodbye supported by Toms Shoes. Each show is preceeded by a fundraising mile walk with proceeds earned benefiting poverty and AIDS in Africa. A few of the dates have placed fun. and Steel Train in the same city where Jack Antonoff gets to play double duty performing with both bands of which he is a core member. These nights also reunite Emily and Justin, as Emily is a touring member of fun. providing the female vocals, guitar and keys. Music is clearly this duo’s calling and it is so exciting to see their lives filled with it!

    If you are a fan of any of the aformentioned bands, or any sweet sounding, toe tapping, stick in your head indie pop music, you will fall in love with Seahorses.

    Enjoy Seahorses video for “Keeping Time” from their upcomming EP “Musical Beds Vol 1″, brought to you by monkeywhale.com.

    October 8th, 2009

    The Gay Blades on Tour!

    Photobucket

    They played acoustic sets for us at taco restaurants and in our living room on demand. They kindly put Marc in a headlock and plucked his exposed nose hair. They have alter ego’s and pseudonyms. Their energy packed live performance will leave you lusting for more! Luckily for you they are hitting the road this month and comming to a town near you! They can’t wait to meet you and tickle your fancies!

    Here’s is one of our fondest Merry Andrew memories with The Gay Blades, an exclusive set in front of Mema’s in Ybor City, Florida

    Check out the bands our babes are touring with too:

    Electri Six
    Millions of Brazillians

     

    TGB$N

    September 25th, 2009

    Where The Hell Have We Been!?

    An explaination from Ashley Renee:

         We have missed you rascals more than you know and apologize profusely for failing to keep you informed and for our inadequacy to provide you with new episodes to tickle your brains. You see, I was kind of a jerk and abandoned Tampa and my best friends Aly and Marc to hang out in Brooklyn for an undecided amount of time. They, in turn, are over whelmed with their professional jobs. The dynamic of The Merry Andrews Show is fucked when we are not all three present, so we decided on a hiatus. It’s been six months and it is painful how much I pine for them and our Sundays, not to mention all that I have been experiencing here that only TMAS listeners could truly appreciate. Meeting Rachel Goodrich’s mom. Being one of the only two dancers at The Gay Blades show in this city that seems “too cool to shake their booty”. The mystery of TGB’s friend and Street Tag Artist “DickChicken“. Tally Hall live on a boat! The darling April Smith opening for them. The show took place aboard the Half Moon Cruise line and made a spin around the Statue of Liberty on the clear summer night of July 8th, 2009 (aka 7/8/9). Ross’ DJ sets around the city as “Mr.F“. Getting funky with Justin (Seahorses/Steel Train) watching Jon (Steel Train) perform with the talented local band Turkuaz. Hop Along in an exclusive performance art/living space. Her live performance was a spiritual experience. Accidental run-ins happen quite frequently in this musically advanced town too. Olivia Mancinni at Union Hall sends her love to you all. Jay May at the Cameo Gallery/Lovin’ Cup Bar (I hear Zach Galifinakus lives in the building behind this place and complains often about noise). Hate to say, but she was a bit of a bitch. Unsympathetically refusing to play “Grey or Blue” because the night was planned to expose new songs. She’s lucky her new stuff knocked me off my feet, cause even if I had tomatoes to throw, there’s no way her performance deserved it. Remember the show back in the day on Nickelodeon, Pete and Pete? Well Danny Tamberelli/little Pete has a band called Jounce. Plugging in my ipod at the restaurant I currently work at, Surf Bar, partially fills my need to introduce music to strangers. The place is cool. Sand on the floor, delicious seafood and potent Tiki Drinks. I have served Josh Hartnett, Randy Harrison from Queer As Folk and Andrew “The Butcher” Mrotek of The Academy Is…. Reconnecting with The Butcher was flattering as he had added some paisley tattoos to his hand inspired by mine which he admired at Warped Tour a year before. Nightly free shows at Spike Hill. Rooftop sing alongs to songs that don’t yet exist. Impromptu interpretive dancing on subway platforms at 4am that carry on into the subway car. I’m up to my ears in musical adventures here and I freaking love it!

    I promise not to keep you in the dark any longer my much endeared appriciators of euphony. A brand new episode may still be far off, but you have over 30 hours of past episodes to luxurate in. In the mean time I will provide punctual repots of my exploits in Brooklyn/NYC.  I have a couple impelling interviews lined up and CMJ is just around the corner!

    May 21st, 2009

    Magic & Fur launch debut single.

    Magic & Fur is a London based band made up of Chris Wilde, Gary Legend, Gavin Ellis, Julian Simon, Artur Dyjecinski, and Dom Ryan. This week, they launched their debut single Christine and in the midst of the celebration madness, Chris found some time to talk with me about who in the heck Christine is, what is in store for the band in the future, Leonard Cohen and, of course, prescription drugs.

    AC: Who is Christine? and how did you decide that Christine was going to be the first single?

    CW: Christine is the big red car from the Stephen King Book, it’s also the name of the little girl who drowns at the start of the film Don’t Look Now. The song is about an old ex-girlfriend who was more than just a little bit confused, I didn’t want to use her real name, so I used a name with a few omens attached to it. (I don’t think there’s any Christine’s in the Omen though right? hmmmm) Its got a lot of energy so seemed like the obvious choice for a debut single.

    AC: So now that you’ve released the single, will you be releasing a full length album or an EP anytime soon?
    CW: We currently have all the songs to make an album but are constantly writing to try and better what we’ve got. It’s early days. All of us have been in bands before and know how important it is to keep pushing onward creatively while the vibe is good and we’re not clawing each others eyes out.

    As far as forthcoming releases go, next up is a free download, sometime very soon. We’re currently clawing each others eyes out as to what that’s going to be.

    AC: How would you describe your sound?

    CW: Our main themes are love, lust and prescription drugs, we want it to sound like a soundtrack to all three.

    AC: What do you want people to get out of listening to your music?
    CW: Your main aim is to give people gooseflesh right? Cheesy as it sounds. I don’t really get any band who doesn’t set out to do that in some way. I’m not saying we achieve it every time but its always what Gary and me aspire to when we begin writing a song. Its a pretty solid starting point.
    AC: Who/what are your biggest influences?
    CW: It varies across the board, Scott Walker’s a big hero of mine,as is Lou Reed and P.J. Harvey. Gary’s pretty obsessed with Wire. I could bore the arse off you now with a massive list of obscurities, both living and dead, but it would probably lull the pair of us into a coma. We both like Leonard Cohen.

    As if launching their single wasn’t exciting enough, Chris told me that his friends at Duckeye just made a video for Christine. He describes this generous gift from his film buddies as the bands best moment so far and says “I think its totally mind blowing. Psychedelic whirly weirdness man!”

    Magic & Fur - Christine from Magic & Fur on Vimeo.

    May 21st, 2009

    Album Review: The Silent Years.

    By RYAN SCHREIBER

    Way back in the summer of 2008, with the release of their second full length The Globe on the proverbial horizon, The Silent Years, hailing from my current neck of the woods, hit the “studio” to pump out what would become an EP entitled Let Go.  I use “studio” here loosely because, well, apparently they weren’t so much in the studio the whole time as they were pretty much everywhere around the Detroit area (or, The D as it is affectionately known by my friends from around here). From lead-singer Josh Epstien’s bedroom to an abandoned health department building, Let Go took shape.

    Detroit is certainly not the most aspirational place on the planet right now. Surprisingly, the EP seems devoid of any negative influence from The D. Instead, Let Go has the feeling of a Michigan summer day, fun and beautifully lazy. FYI, if you’ve never experienced a summer in Michigan, you should book yourself a vacay around Lake Michigan.

    The ultimate test for an album, at least for me, is the car test.  I need to listen to it in my car to really get a sense of how the album feels. After I downloaded the EP, I put it on my phone so that I could listen while I was studying. It made good background music for my mental struggles, but it was a while before I got it into the car. At first, I wasn’t really feeling it. There’s a saying around here about the weather, that if you don’t like it you should wait 10 minutes, and the same went for Let Go in a couple ways. A perfect example in the first instance is the track leading off, “Taking Drugs at an Amusement Park” (which I do not condone).  The song (as does the whole EP) features a strong percussion element. In fact, “Taking Drugs” has an almost ominous feel to it before the Epstien’s voice shines through. At first, I did not like the juxtaposition; but, after I gave it time, it seemed brilliant. Like a storm rolling in, the sunshine will return shortly, and that’s the feel the album gave.

    The other example that I noticed was, even though I wasn’t sure I liked the EP at first, I found myself unable to not sing-along during several parts. It gave it a fun feeling that was hard to shake.  As the their presser says the EP is “unabashedly happy”. “I think it just summed up everything for me”, Epstien said of the album and it’s title. I think it does, too.

    This is undoubtedly a summer album. Once the season finally rolled in, the tide started to change for it in my mind. During our unseasonably cold spring, I just wasn’t sure. A few days ago, though, the album started to make sense as the season finally changed and the perfection that is a Michigan summer decided to show up… finally .   Come Fall, I will probably put Let Go on the shelf. For the Summer, though, it will be a staple in my car.

    Let Go will be released on July 14th.

    For a preview of what is going to be on Let Go, click here to listen to the single, Madame Shocking.

    To purchase Let Go from iTunes click here.

    To purchase it from Amazon click here.

    *special thanks to SideCho Media for the Madame Shocking mp3.

    May 19th, 2009

    an interview with the miserable rich.

    when we were in austin we had the honor of interviewing the miserable rich lead singer, james de malplaquet.

    watch the video below to see the miserable rich perform and hear james talk about how the band came together, how he feels about musicians who tell their audience to “shhh” while they are performing, and how they came up with their band name.

    The Miserable Rich at SXSW 2009. from aly carr on Vimeo.