On November 6th, Shalini’s 3rd album, The Surface And The Shine officially hits the street and Greensboro’s alt-weekly, Go Triad is featuring Shalini on the front cover.
Be sure to check www.gotriad.com on November 9th and pick up a copy if you live nearby.
SOUND AS LANGUAGE
www.soundaslanguage.com
Clock Hands Strangle are an impressive indie rock band from Melbourne, Florida. Redshift/Blueshift is the band’s debut full-length. Right from the beginning, I am reminded of another eclectic Florida band that I recently reviewed, Band Marino. Both bands have an incredible talent considering their youth. However, where Band Marino’s music runs a wide spectrum, Clock Hands Strangle have a more focused and uniform approach.
Clock Hands Strangle has an endearing wayward spirit that reveals itself slowly with each listen. The band’s influences sit rather firmly out in front. Modest Mouse, Built To Spill, Death Cab For Cutie and Iron & Wine are all touchstones that come to mind when listening to Redshift/Blueshift. The album is an interesting tale of two sides. The first (and stronger) half begins with opening track, “Redshift.” This half is more acoustically-based and lyrically tells tales of loss. The second half which ends with the closing track, “Blueshift,” consists of Clock Hands Strangle’s more rock-driven material and lyrically turns towards acceptance.
The vocal and lyrical style of vocalist/guitarist Todd Portnowitz bare a striking resemblance to Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse. Instrumentally speaking, Redshift/Blueshift is rich and abundant. Horns, violin, piano, and glockenspiel all make appearances here and add a dynamic quality to the band’s warm songwriting. The music creates a solid backdrop for the band’s poetic lyrical imagery. Once again, the influence of Isaac Brock and Modest Mouse is hard to ignore. Clock Hands Strangle’s lyrics seem to have that same morbid, but beautifully descriptive nature of Brock’s best material. Elements of birth, life and death litter the lyrical highway that Clock Hands Strangle travel. The album comes to end with “Blueshift,” an eight minute foot-stomper that encompasses all of Clock Hands Strangle’s many strengths. The songs between “Redshift” and “Blueshift” show a band with an incredible vision and the ability to transport the listener. Redshift/Blueshift is an album in the truest sense.
RIYL: Death Cab For Cutie, Modest Mouse, Built To Spill
….more reviews after the jump!
WHAT: Best of Fries on the Side - Comedy Sketch Show - www.friesontheside.com
WHEN: Saturday, October 20, 2007
Doors open at 9:00 pm
Show starts at 9:30 pm
WHERE: The
WHO: The Fries writing staff works to create a slate of over a dozen sketches each week.
Comedic Actors who perform these sketches designed for the public who comes for pure enjoyment
Special Guest - Brently Heilbron
LA’s most promising comedic voice at-large, Brently Heilbron is returning for his 2nd appearance at Fries. This summer has seen Brently record his 2nd live comedy album as well as travel the country performing his live stage play of R. Kelly’s popular “Trapped in the Closet (Ch 13-22)” epic video-novella. 2007 is shaping to be Brently’s best year to date and he’s pleased to be returning to Fries On The Side one last time before Mrs. Gould takes control of the White House in ‘08.
http://www.vaudevilleheartthrob.com/
Musical Guest - P!stol P!stol
We are the new generation of broken homes and shattered dreams, we are as real as it gets, young, poor, and influenced by this city… look out world were coming for ya…We are P!STOL P!STOL. Hear us roar.
http://www.myspace.com/pistolpistolmusic
WHY: To create a live sketch comedy show night that goes from package to plate in under two hours.
The secret is in the preparation.
DIRECTIONS: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=5124+Lankershim+Blvd..+north+hollywood,+ca+91601&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.671324,59.765625&ie=UTF8&ll=34.164393,-118.37393&spn=0.008842,0.014591&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1 <http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=5124+Lankershim+Blvd..+north+hollywood,+ca+91601&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.671324,59.765625&ie=UTF8&ll=34.164393,-118.37393&spn=0.008842,0.014591&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1>
PARKING: Street parking only
Unfortunately, the venue canceled the show at no fault of the performers. They had to move a private party from later in the month to the 4th and I guess they thought it was OK to put the other show out to pasture. Sorry! We’ll be rescheduling Libby’s show for a later date.
Seriously. Here’s some video of his performance from Thursday at M Bar. He did the new chapters (13-22) and will continue doing it live with upcoming performances in NYC at the People’s Improve Theater (PIT) from Oct 12-14.
This is the finale: Chapter 22 (spoiler alert!) How the heck does he remember this stuff???
Just wanted to let everyone know that Libby Lavella will be performing live with her amazing band on October 4th at Tangier. Following her performance of songs from her upcoming album, Sometime In Morning will be Jonny Rodgers from New Haven, CT’s Mighty Purple. Jonny will be playing material from his solo albums, as well as some classic tunes that I’ll be requesting as I’ve known Jonny for 10 years and can attest that Libby and Jon will be two of the most talented vocalists/musicians playing in Los Angeles this Thursday.
Canada’s original troubadour, Bob Wiseman (of Blue Rodeo, Hidden Cameras fame) is currently touring the European continent with none other than fellow Canadian, Fiest! After his stint with Feist ends, Bob will continue to travel the foreign soils on his own, in search of supreme enlightenment and concession stand profits!
Bob Wiseman Tour Dates:
September 2007
Berlin - Sunday 30th @ Admiral’s palast with FEIST
Bristol - Friday 28th @ Trinity Arts Centre with FEIST
Glasgow - Wednesday 26th @ Oran Mor with FEIST
Dublin - Tuesday 25th @ Tripod with FEIST
London - Monday 24th @ Shepards Bush Empire> with FEIST
Nottingham - Sunday 23rd @ Social with FEIST
Amsterdam - Saturday 21st @ milkweg with FEIST
Windsor - Saturday 1st @ the phog lounge solo
October 2007
Copenhagen - Monday 1st @ Vega with FEIST
Stokholm - Tuesday 2nd @ Cirkus with FEIST
Hamburg - Thursday 4th @ CCH Saal 2 with FEIST
Cologne - Friday 5th @ E-Werk with FEIST
Munich - Saturday 6th @ Georg-Elser Halle with FEIST
Bari - Monday 8th @ tba solo
Barletta - Tuesday 9th @ tba solo
Cosenza - Wednesday 10th @ tba solo
Frosinone - Thursday 11th @ cantina mediterraneo solo
Arezzo - Friday 12th @ tba solo
Udine - Saturday 13th @ zoo solo
Ferrara - Sunday 14th @ zuni solo
Bologna - Monday 15th @ tba solo
Geneva - Tuesday 16th @ Grand Casino with FEIST
Vienna - Thursday 18th @ sesto senso solo
Innsbruck - Friday 19th @ tba solo
If you head on over to Amplifier Magazine and click on their Amp3 player, you’re going to find that Motion Turns It On are featured on the Select Playlist with their song, “Rima” off the EP Rima. This is quite an accomplishment for the band. That’s not all, though! MTIO will also be taking over Pseudosix’s position as Amplifier’s Amplified feature artist in just a few days, so keep posted. They’ll be featuring downloads, photos, a CD review and feature story on the band.
Fred Mills / Harp Magazine
September 5, 2007
With her new studio album The Surface and the Shine set to drop in October, Shalini (a/k/a Shalini Chatteree) will also be doing a string of concert dates with her band. The record will be released by Electric Devil/125 Records, which also brought us the recent Dynamico by Mitch Easter—who, not so coincidentally, is also Shalini’s husband, producer and bandmember.
Shalini’s last album, 2004’s Metal Corner, notched solid critical commentary, ranging from “a power-pop platter deluxe” (HARP) to “hooks bigger than the Strokes’ egos” (Aversion) to “a coy yet impressively sweet vocalist, a mix of the deadpan and the Spectoresque girlie” (Mojo). Meanwhile, in the upcoming issue of HARP we single out TSATS’s “winsome femme vocals and soaring harmonies to the mélange of brash, crashing chords to the pulse-quickening rhythmic surges and luminous keyboard flourishes,” and you know we wouldn’t steer you wrong.
Shalini’s been around since the early ‘90s when she fronted San Francisco’s Vinyl Devotion. After meeting Easter, who was producing a record for the band, she eventually moved to North Carolina and married the legendary producer/Let’s Active alumnus, and the two have been recording and touring together ever since. On the new album, in addition to her hubby she’s joined by Eric Marshall (Let’s Active), Paul Chastain (Velvet Crush) and Jane Francis (Velvet), but it’s still her show all the way.
