AUDIO: MARINA & SOKO - MUM

I haven't been posting in a while, working on a lot of other projects. So, for the weekend, here is a neat little track. Enjoy your weekend, I am off to Conetticut to hang with friends and hang out on the beach.

MP3 Marina & Soko - Mum

Operation Keger Almost Over

Smiley With a Knife's Operation Kegger is almost finished and it appears they are down to two videos. Take a look:


Which one's your favorite? I like the first one the best. The Lego thing is tired to me.

PHOTOS: Black Lips @ NYC Pool Parties

I am not sure if you know about these things in Brooklyn, but every summer this group called Jelly puts on pool parties in the Williamsburg/Greenpoint areas of Brooklyn that include games, food and awesome bands. Here are some pictures from yesterdays show. I didn't get the main act because I had to go to my real job. So, sorry to all the ...Trail of Dead fans.

Grupo Fantasma



Health



The Black Lips






Looked fun? Well, it was. Head to our recently upgraded to Pro account of Flickr to see a bunch more and also, be sure to check out our interview with the Black Lips. Also, if you live in the New York area, the Pool Parties have a bunch more great shows for free including Beach house with Grizzly Bear!

Get to know Bird Names

I finally got a minute to go through some demo CDs yesterday with my room mate while he painted and I worked on some other projects around the house. The first CD we chose to listen to was Bird Names out of Chicago. When I think of Chicago I think of Wilco and Kanye West and Common and amazing House Music like Derrick Carter. My room mate was affraid it would be an electronic jam band. We were both pleasently surprised.

Right off the bat, my room mate, Jack, yells out, "they sound like Ween." Not a bad way to start out an album at all. But the thing we enjoyed most about their album Sings the Browns was from song to song it kept changing up a little bit to keep it interesting, with parts of it sounding very Ariel Pink at times. It is also an incredibly interesting album while not being abrasive. Some talented musicians have a tendency of trying to be so different that they write abrasive music that makes it unlistenable. These Chicago natives have created a compelling album that I think will be on regular rotation here at our house, especially while we paint the walls at our house.

This is the last track on the album, and my favorite on the album.

MP3: Bird Names - Taxicabs and Bicycles

PHOTOS: Siren Music Fest

My second year at Siren and our first getting interviews. Me and the crew had a great time between the interviews, Pina Coladas with Micachu and the Shapes and the beach. Already slightly excited about next year.

GRAND DUCHY

BEAR HANDS


MICACHU & THE SHAPES


TINY MASTERS OF TODAY


THE BEACH


I have a few more picks on our Flickr Account.

Get to know Future of the Left

Well, it is one more day till our Siren Fest interviews and I have to say I am not ready. Future of the Left from England is the last band we will be interviewing. This band I don't know much about them, which scares me for my interview, but I do know that their name really makes me think. I wonder if their music is what the future of the political left will will be. A reactionary movement to the current left. I know this is vague and makes no sense but hear me out. Some of the band members are also in a Math Rock band, called Truckers of Husk, which is a reactionary movement to pop music. How does this all tie in, not sure yet, but hopefully I will know more by tomorrow.

MP3: Future of the Left - Amringeritrea

Get to know Micachu & the Shapes

When I told our associate producer, Bonnie, that we were interviewing Micachu and the Shapes out of England, she almost flipped out. This is usually a good sign that they are on the cusp. We have played two of their videos over the last 3 shows, and with good reason. Their sound is fun, catchy, and unique. They blend a lot of traditional pop making methods with modern sounds. I am really looking forward to seeing them this Saturday at Siren Music Fest and talking to them further about this and hopefully the future of dance music. Here is one of the songs that we played a video for. Short and sweet with catchy rhythms.

MP3: Micahcu & the Shapes - Lips

Static 314 now online

If you follow my every drunken tweet on that little known site, Twitter, then you already know that the latest episode of Static is now online. It is supposedly airing tonight as well on Cox 10 at 10, but you never know with them. This episode features interviews from New Orleans own Park the Van recording artist, Generationals, and from Touch and Go artist Crystal Antlers.

Static 314 from Static on Vimeo.

Videos are in order of appearance:
Tiny Masters of Today - Pop Chart
The Guggenheim Grotto - Her beautiful Ideas
Here We Go Magic - Fangela
Dinosaur Jr. - Over It
Micachu & the Shapes - Golden Phone
Generationals - Angry Charlie
God Help the Girl - Funny Little Frog
Broken Records - Until the Earth Begins to Part
Moby - Pale Horses
Peaches - More
LA Tool & Die - Don't Touch My Mustache
Crystal Antlers - Andrew
Sonic Youth - Sacred Trickster
White Denim - I Start to Run

For any questions about the show please email me @ info@statictelevision.com.

Get to know Bear Hands

I am very excited about this weekend. Siren Music Fest, my favorite outdoor festival, is this Saturday. I am going to do a few get to knows this week to talk about all the bands I am going to interview this weekend and to help me to prepare for the interviews. The first band is Bear Hands.

I have been asking myself a lot of questions as of late when it comes to art. Like when did we as media start caring so more about the story rather than just listening to the music? Was it the fans that demanded such things, or was it our need to always have content for you in this 24 hour news cycle? Appease the ad peaople (as you can tell that isn't a problem I face). I mostly work in television, and do this hole Static thing out of love. Like, do you honestly care that Bear Hands is from Brooklyn? Should their influences really matter? I mean, I am honestly influenced by things that I probably wouldn't even tell my own parents that I find inspiration in them. Shouldn't all we care about is that they make great rock music that is different, keeps my head moving and makes me want to stop making this blog and get up and dance. Here is a sample of them.

MP3: Bear Hands - What A Drag

Park the Van Needs your help!

I got an email about this yesterday, and had an internal debate about weather or not to post anything. They just Twittered it so I feel it is appropriate to try and get the word out there and try to help my loved ones. I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. This is from Park the Van's website:

We’re in this for the long haul. It’s times like these where we take stock in what we’re proud of and of why we do this. We’ve had some incredible new records come out in 2009 already, and some more incredible ones set to come still. The times we’ve had here in New Orleans to see our bands play live and stop through town have been some of our best events to date. Not to mention all of the reports from festivals to dive bars all over the country, the current generation of Park The Van artists out there are making incredible records and playing all over the country like crazy. We can’t begin to explain how lucky we are to be surrounded by the artists and fans we've met since we started putting the orange cone up.

Unfortunately though, we’re living in the same economy as everyone else. And it’s really really hard to sell the amount of stuff it takes to keep our business up and running the way we need to in order to keep putting out records and keep supporting our bands. So, we’re looking for your help to pay our bills through some really rough patches right now. We’re not begging for donations here. We hope that you see that we’re offering some great value to you in exchange for some of your hard earned dough to get us through the roughness. We’re assembling super limited edition handmade items, packages to help you dig deep into discovering all sorts of PTV classics, and prices that we hope you see as generous and ultimately worth it.

It’s tough to put ourselves out there like this and ask for your “help” in running our business. We know that everyone has their own sets of problems, and we get that. But the feedback we get from you is that you love what we’re doing here, and that people can see the vision we share for creating label that is based on support and family and more importantly these wonderful artists the important records that make us feel alive. So, here we are and we’re asking for your help. It never gets old getting to work for your favorite bands and artists. Sometimes you just have to try new things.

Thanks for anything you can do to give us a hand here, and hopefully you like the stuff we’re offering! If you feel like it, please help spread the word. This won’t work if we don’t have a hand from you in letting people know that this is available. And, there’s always the idea of doing this as a gift too! Please let us know if your order is a gift for someone!

Thanks for supporting this thing.

Chris, Zach, Kevin, Matt, Corey, Jeff & the entire PTV team.

This is particularly sad to me because of the close relationship I have built with these guys over the years, and I have already donated and you should too! Expecting art for free comes at a price. This is one of them; the risk of losing one of the most sincere record labels to start up in the past 5 years, and the greatest rock label to possibly EVER come out of New Orleans. So, if any of their artists have ever touched you in any way, please make a donation and help them in whatever way you can to get them through these tough times we are all feeling. Do so by clicking HERE.

VIDEO: Floating Action - Dont stop( loving me now)

I think I have a man crush on them!


VIDEO: Floating Action Interview
VIDEO: Floating Action - "To Connect"

Get to know Los Amigos Invisibles

Two Get to Knows in a week! What a treat. I think it took me to live in my neighborhood here in Williamsburg to start to really appreciate Latin music. Though, Los Amigos Invisibles is definitely a different breed than what I am used to blaring out of car windows down Grand Street. This is a band I would love to hear at both Jazz Fest and in the club. Here are some quick facts about them. Los Amigos Invisibles has been to over 60 countries, 2 Grammy nominations + 2 Latin Grammy nominations, 6 studio albums, 1 live DVD+2CD, 1 record label, 18 years in the music business. Not too bad of a resume. Below is their fabulous single, Mentiras, off their equally as good Commercial album

7/10: Brooklyn, NY @ Prospect Park (LAMC/Celebrate Brooklyn)
7/12: Philadelphia, PA @ World Café Live
8/5: Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
8/6: San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
8/7: Los Angeles, CA @ House Of Blues Sunset Strip
8/8: San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
10/2: Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Festival

MP3: Los Amigos Invisibles - Mentiras

Get to know UME

Not sure how it's pronounced, "U ME" or "oo ME." Reguardless UME are worth checking out, especially if you are a Sonic Youth fan. I was fortunate enough to check them out not too long ago and boy can this girl play a guitar. These Houston born, Austin based musicians have a simple method. Play straight forward drums and bass and let the lead singer/guitarist go to town on her God given talents. It is hard to take your eyes off stage between the way she plays, and her All American good looks. Enjoy this song off their latest EP and try and catch them at their upcoming tour date.

Aug 9 - Free Press Summerfest! - Houston, TX

MP3: UME - Pendulum

Dinner with Trach Tonight

This image alone makes me want to go!

America: The Party

Hey NOLA friends,

Looking for a way to celebrate the birth of the greatest nation on earth? May I suggest you head over to the Rusty Nail on Saturday. I hear there are going to be some sweet jams and some grade "A" beer sold on the premises. That "A" stands for America, in case you were wondering.

Your friend in Christ and a lover of America,
Wesley

Indian Jewelry and Caddywhompus tonight in ATX

Hey Austin, I know there are a few of you reading this blog, head tonight to Mohawk for this free show! Also added since the making of this sweet flyer: Daughters of the Sun. Shapes Have Fangs, and Motel Aviv. Have some tacos and Lone Star on me guys!

VIDEO: Crystal Antlers Interview

This is the final interview that will be in our new show next week. I am just waiting on the high res version of the new Generationals video for Angry Charlie. Here is the interview we did with the Crystal Antlers up here in Brooklyn at the Bell House.