The Big Sleep & ATRINA @ BAR for FREE!

Psychedelic Post-Rockers The Big Sleep are coming to BAR this Wednesday, February 1st, and it ain't cost you ONE CENT. Opening for them is the visceral and always impressive ATRINA, one of CT's most skilled and loved bands.

Here is the info breakdown:

THE BIG SLEEP
Formed in 2003, the band's discography includes the self-released EP You Today, Me Tomorrow, the full-length Son Of The Tiger LP (released in late 2006), and the full-length album Sleep Forever (released in 2008). Having drawn comparisons to fellow New Yorkers Sonic Youth, The Big Sleep's sound deviates from that of more recently formed contemporaries. Often without vocals, The Big Sleep's songs are for the most part instrumentals leaning towards post-rock or shoegaze, however often with a psychedelic feel hearkening back to classic rock such as Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath.

In fall 2011, The Big Sleep performed at CMJ Music Marathon and released “Ace”, the single off of their new album Nature Experiments. Nature Experiments will be released on January 31, 2012.


ATRINA
I am a big fan of how Dan Barry of The Hartford Advocate explains ATRINA:
"...Atrina force you to meet them with openness and wonderment... the feel of their music is iconic... marked by turbulent riffs in angular time signatures... lyrics evacuate the voice... leaving us with just the sound itself, a husk of something communicated... chilling, morbid, and delicious"
- Dan Barry (Hartford Advocate)




February 1 2012 at 9pm
The Big Sleep
ATRINA
@ BAR
254 Crown St, New Haven
21+ FREE!

Yeah so it looks like the old "I'm broke" excuse isn't going to fly this time!!!

Review: The Willow & The Builder

The Willow & The Builder have a sound. It is a shrill sound, and a pounding sound. A drone, and a staccato.

Drums tuned low pound with tambourine accompaniment as guitars and pianos arpeggio whimsical progressions with virtuosic precision, all the while lithe vocals dance about the foreground of this sonic tapestry, describing in some detail, amongst other things, love, longing, and tea parties held precariously – and inadvisably – amidst the high branches of a tree.

If this sounds as if it resembles the soundtrack to an iPad commercial, it is because The Willow & The Builder would sound very much at home there, or perhaps even more so amongst the other artists the folks over at iTunes consider “Indie”. Acoustic guitars and pounding pianos, tambourine-topped tom toms, and wispy vocals, the eight songs of their self-titled album are very much reflective of what is stylishly indie these days, the kind of music you’d expect was recorded by candlelight in a barn on a warm summer’s night in rural New England.

It’s certainly catchy, but it may attract the derision of those who think of “indie” and “eclectic” as equivalent terms. If you are one of these people, you may find yourself wanting, for if there is such a thing as an “indie” mold, then The Willow & The Builder fits snugly therein. Theirs is the safe and tried path, and while they do what they do extremely well, they are not for the listener seeking Indie’s next big thing.

But, if you like the musings of, say, the Decemberists, Feist, or Ingrid Michaelson, you’ll like The Willow & The Builder, and with their songwriting expertise and professional production they won’t seem like a weak facsimile thereof, but a potent contender for airplay. With a “name your price” scheme attached to the sale of their album, there’s really excuse for not giving them a sincere listen.

Track: Snake Oil - I Have the Fury of my Own Momentum

Great track by Snake Oil.  "I Have the Fury of my Own Momentum," is off the band's newest release; a two track, self-titled 7" EP. Snake Oil is an instrumental band, and you'd probably guess, judging from their song title, that they sound a lot like Explosions in the sky... well, actually they sound nothing like Explosions in the Sky.  There is a slight Post-Rock undertone about the record; however, it seems that the band take more of their influence from groups such as Tortoise and Don Caballero.  And, quite possibly, Daybed--a Connecticut band circa 1998.

Buy Vinyl (free digital as well)

Snake Oil I HAVE THE FURY OF MY OWN MOMENTUM. by CTINDIE

Royal Baths w/ Jane Jane Pollock, and Jacques Le Coque @ BAR

Free show at BAR (254 Crown St, New Haven, CT 06511) 

January 11th @ 9pm 

* Royal Baths

* Jane Jane Pollock

* Jacques Le Coque 

Royal Baths
Jeremy Cox and Jigmae Baer started Royal Baths without a plan in mind but soon the foundation for their writing found inspiration from Cox's interest in the alternate and open tunings of delta blues, their shared fascination in the African rhythm of early Chicago blues, and Baer lyrically attempting to reflect with black humor and little judgment, and the thrills and troubles they stumble through.

Recording on whatever cheap four or single-track cassette recorder they could find, they eventually borrowed a Tascam 388 to make their first 7". The unexpected encouragement of the 7" drove Cox and Baer to perform their first show in a basement in San Francisco's Chinatown. Six months later they began work on Litanies, their debut full length released on Woodsist.

The band began touring before the album was released, opening for bands the first two of which Baer had previously been a member: first with Thee Oh Sees, next Ty Segall, the Fresh and Onlys, and Wild Flag. The Royal Baths went on their first headlining tour after that, where they found inspiration to write their second full-length record, to be completed this time in a studio on higher quality 2" analog tape. They declared the recording process complete only when their meager bank accounts were drained and they had borrowed too much money. Although the Royal Baths developed amidst the encouragement of friends in San Francisco's garage scene they felt stifled by comparisons to a movement where their sound didn't belong to, so they upped and moved to New York to assert their sound. The album Better Luck Next Life is set to be released by Kanine Records on February 7, 2012.
Kanine Records
Mp3s: http://www.myspace.com/baths 

Royal Baths - Darling Divine by mexicanrobots

Jane Jane Pollock
Jane Jane Pollock is an experimental-pop quintet that formed in Northern Florida and Southern Georgia. We border hop for our slumber party practices in a comfy trailer hidden in the woods of Thomasville, GA. The sound of our music ranges from a haunted carnival to a hyper moldy children's toy marching band. Pots and Pans, glockenspiel, mandolin, space echo, Wandering Genie organ, Wurlitzer electric piano, jangly guitars, drum machines, 2 female vocals and 1 male crooner comprise our sound. The rest is a mystery.
Mp3s: http://janejanepollock.bandcamp.com/

Jacques Le Coque
Born out of a 60's nuggets and Velvet Underground open mic cover band, four young Connecticut lads quickly transformed into the raw, dirty, garage punkers they were meant to be, Jacques Le Coque. Two years and a hundred shows later, the band now thrives as a two piece, calling to mind Cramps/Ty Segall style surf grit with fuzzed out melodic burners and Back From the Grave era vigor. Garage Punque. Jacques Le Coque.
Mp3s: http://www.myspace.com/jacqueslecoque

2 TON BUG = WTF?!?! = X-D

2 Ton Bug is heady! It's a combination of VERY different sounds, in an amalgam of VERY different moods and teetering the line of silly and serious. When I first listened to their LP "Wedding of the Century" it sorta left me scratching my head. I couldn't seem to make heads nor tails of it because it conjured a bunch of different flavors of memories and influences. It was just straight up unusual. Then once I got past MY issues with the combination, the pop set in. This is easily one of the catchiest LP's out in CT last year! It has something for everybody: strong dancability, blues riffage (and other southwestern bits), noisy feedback and other sonic landscapes for people of different musical backgrounds and tastes.

The opening track is called "Time Trabblin'" and is a barn burner, taking place inside a burning barn! A mad riff breakdown takes this track to the next level near the halfway point. "Tank Wipe" has immense intensity for busting out your speakers. All songs stand out specifically as party songs but for some reason I feel "Follow the 2 Ton Bug" stands out as a super hit. Allie belts out the shouty awesomeness as the song chugs along like a freight train. "Meth Mouth" is like an old punk rock song set through the 2 Ton Bug filter. "Upgraded" it would seem.

Here is a brief and appropriate Q/A with the band via email:

how do you write your songs?
My grandpa taught us all the songs on Wedding of the Century at a pool party, except for "Follow the 2 Ton Bug" which is just a direct musical transcription of some sick Egyptian hieroglyphics.

what are your recording techniques?
We try to do all our recording in Mike's mobile mixing unit, at various checkpoints on I-84.

do you have any more recordings coming out in the near future?
We will have a fresh new LP coming out for 2012 once we find out from the record company how much it will cost to get 9 songs pressed to a gigantic cookie AND whether we wanna call the record "Tummy Troubles", "The Computer Chronicles" or "ASS WARD"

when is the very next time we can see you play live??!?!?!
I think we're playing at the Flywheel in Easthampton on January 5th, BUT you can always see 2 Ton Bug within the laughter and bonding of families all across Connecticut.


There you have it. Get on board and follow the 2 Ton Bug

2 Ton Bug - Wedding of the Century - 05 Follow the 2 Ton Bug by CTINDIE