Category Archives: music

The Warlocks play the Magic City!

Warlocks band photo by Rob Johannes

FYI: From now on, I’ll be channeling the days of LiveJournal yore by including a “Song of the Moment” or “sotm” tag at the end of my posts here on Timetable; just an injection of new music into your workday.

MOVING ON…

From the first moment I heard their band name leave the lips of my idol (Interpol frontman Paul Banks), I knew I was in love. After listening to them for what seems like the better part of my college life, the Warlocks are playing BIRMINGHAM! Wow, I can almost hear all two of us freaking out over here on the North Side at the mere idea. For those of you unfamiliar with them, The Warlocks are proclaimed as “relentless, hypnotic wall of sound that suggested a collision between classic psychedelia, Krautrock and Velvet Underground style rock and roll.” That doesn’t seem a fair enough description given the depth that a band with two drummers and four guitarists has. Although confusingly listed on The Bottletree’s site under Black Angels’ billing description, they are WORTH EVERY PENNY. This is a rare opportunity for Birmingham.

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Quasi-Friday music roundup

Hello, hello.

I was inspired by people stalking the beach outside of my window with flashlights to come up with a midweek playlist that would make a long car trip almost worth it and could double as an awesome backdrop to all of Alabama’s “Fourth festivities”. Hey, if you want to the Thunder on the Mountain to chronicle your fireworks soundtrack, that’s all you.

For the rest of us:

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Zydeco gets all West Coast with it

When you’re all fireworks’d and grilled out Friday, you might want to check out the remixes and West Coast rap/hip-hop hitting Birmingham via California:

The Glitch Mob / Freqnasty at Zydeco. Starts at 9p. Tix are $13.

Just hearing “California Love” within 3 seconds of checking out TGM’s myspace is worth ticket price. Also, Freqnasty has remixed Santogold (a la M.I.A., CSS, Lady Sovereign) before… so take this chance to dance (that one’s free, folks) to GOOD music instead of requesting something the club DJ can’t find on his iPod.

mewithoutYou play Birmingham tonight

If you’re bored in the Ham on this fine Tuesday night, one of my favorite bands circa high school is playing Bottletree tonight around 8pm: mewithoutYou. Adjectives such as “post-punk” and sounds of distortion come to mind when I think of this band, so I encourage all fans of spoken melodic stuff, the Tooth&Nail/SolidState labels and atmospheric guitar not to miss this. In a strange stroke of irony, I’m old enough to see the show but I’m out of town (Sorry kids, it’s 18+).

Here’s some streaming audio of their new album and more.

Local kids do Letterman

For all 3 of you who haven’t heard…

As we posted earlier, Wild Sweet Orange is playing The Late Show with Dave Letterman tonight (CBS 42 at 10:30 p.m., CST). If you want to brush up on your Preston, Chip, Taylor and Garrett fix, head on over to the official website or stream it from their MySpace.

Whitney’s Weekend Music Fodder

Since it’s Friday, it’s as good excuse as any to write about “music news” in a very general sense.

Really though, it’s going to be a lot of me typing “OMG! Guess what _______ just ____ on _________?!”.

Hang in there, it might pay off by adding to your anti-boredom arsenal.

First talking/blogging/reading/paying attention point: RELEASES (or at least the talk surrounding them).  Oasis, Franz Ferdinand and U2 have all been working on new material in the form of LPs. October, January, and “later this year” respectively is when we can expect to sample the goods.  In U2’s case however, a reissue of their 3 first full-length albums are in order as well, to be released on July 22. Anyone else reminiscing about the Birmingham U2 tour stop for Zooropa? Okay, yes I was 9 and that was more like my parents leaving me at home while they got to see it… but still! Joshua Tree carpool music for life! Also, I heard Franz got picked up for the Madden ’09 soundtrack. That’d be a nice accent to the hours of video-game related obsession I’ll have to endure from my boyfriend; a soundtrack to my boredom, if you will.

In “everyone feel sad for me” news, Ratatat is touring for their new release, LP3, and guess what Birmingham, Alabama city they’re not playing in? I KNOW, RIGHT?! Check out their music here. Also, Pitchfork posted the MP3/video for their single “Mirando“. Fans of Cut Copy, Of Montreal, MGMT and LCD Soundsystem will enjoy it.

Finally, Stars has posted a video on Myspace from their album “In Our Bedroom After the War” featuring their single “Bitches in Tokyo“. There is so much hipster vernacular before the performance even begins in this video that I do believe Birmingham just gained some scene points. Or ten thousand. They’re Canadian and are full of Lou Reed/New York Dolls references, so that’s even better. I loved this album. Though it’s not in high rotation right now, I was OBSESSED for a good month or two and this video is just another reason to draw more people into my affinity for the band Stars.

Hopefully this enhanced 1 or 2 iPods/hard drives in the metro area long enough to make it through another scalding hot end to the workweek.  So, I’m going to play Rock Band and you’re going to check out the Timetable for what your social calendar looks like this weekend. I know, I know… you’re welcome! 

r3vrb destinations 5.15 – 5.17

Back on the horse and better than ever, that’s me. How’s your dead end? At least music can lift you up from the gutter for an instant or two and give you a glimpse of the golden. Here’s your fix for the short term:

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Whitney Duncan shoots video at Sloss

Whitney Duncan at Sloss - Bob Farley/f8Photo

Bob Farley/f8photo

Whitney Duncan, a country singer and former contestant on television show Nashville Star produced music videos for three songs – “Right Road Now,” “Open Road” and “When I Said I Would” – in Birmingham this past week. Wednesday night the Bessemer-based production company Erwin Brothers, shot scenes at Sloss Furnaces. About 200 extras were on hand to play adoring fans and concert goers for the video accompanying her song “When I Said I Would.”

Click on the image above to view images from the video shoot last night. In one scene Duncan signs autographs for a crush of her fans. In the other she and her band perform on the Sloss stage. The single and video for “When I Said I Would” is due out this summer. Duncan records on the Warner Bros. label.

Josh Ritter’s near death experience

Yes, Josh Ritter was in town last night and he performed. No, we actually thought that he was kidding (at least a little)…

But according to Josh’s post today on his Huffington Post blog, it sounds like it was just that (though it sounds like he definitely enjoyed his time at The Bottletree last night – great pics too). And he did live to write about it…

We also figured we’d use this space to announce that there will be a concert benefiting The Terminal on Saturday, July 26 @ said Bottletree. More information will be following soon…

r3vrb destinations 5.1 – 5.3

This is another great weekend for local bands. I’ve never picked a show at Speakeasy before, but they’ve got a great one this weekend for y’all, and that ain’t the half of it:

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