Giant Drag + the Submarines = FREE Sunday Concert @ Downtown LA

Little Radio is sponsoring another great Sunday afternoon BBQ downtown featuring Giant Drag and The Submarines ! Also on the bill are The Upside Down, and Restaurant. Little Radio's Summercamp BBQ has food $2 beers and $3 margarita specials. And the most amazing thing is .... the show is FREE. It's FREE!!! Seriously, we'll be anyone's indie rock prices or your concert is FREEEEEEEEEEEE! Come on down, jump in the Little Radio swimming pool and listen to some great music. 1218 LongBeach Ave LA, CA 90021 1:00-7:00pm. There's a rumor that the Subs may debut a super cool cover song this Sunday!!

LAist reviewed the Subs record release show with what I assume is the pinnacle for Rock Criticism:

"Everyone on dates got laid when they got home."

Actually Tony Pierce said more than that ... not only is it not too sweet, it's sorta the sweetest thing ever. The sad songs are sad. They both have a few of those. Only sometimes do they sing together. She looks at him. He looks at the ground. The crowd of youngins sighed and melted and were completely won over by Ms. Blake Hazard who sang beautifully and gently. At times the tunes sounded like adorable gen-x lullabyes." Then: "Everyone on dates got laid when they got home."


Check outLittle Radio for audio of the Submarines and Giant Drag sets!

Website: thesubmarines.com
Myspace: Submarines MySpace

Subs Audio Streams:
Peace and Hate
Brighter Discontent


Oh and did I say that everyone on dates will get laid?

The Submarines on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic

The Submarines are on KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic" show today. (The NY Times called the hugely influential show MBE "appointment radio" and it's host Nic Harcourt a "star maker". Make an appointment to check out the Subs set today and let's hope the star maker label is true!)

I work with the Subs at Nettwerk as their A&R guy. While that makes me biased, I suppose, "Declare a New State!" is one of my favorite albums of 2006. You can download download Declare a New State!.

On Wednesday, July 12, tune in at 11:15 am PDT to hear a live set: The Submarines on KCRW

Check out these two album tracks: Peace and Hate and Darkest Things

Click here for a great review from: Music for Robots

And here's a cool piece from Magnet:

4th of July Songs

Some songs to consider this 4th of July which ostensibly is about celebrating our independence and freedom. Freedom from what?

A Distorted Reality Is Now A Necessity To Be Free By Elliott Smith
Independence Day By Elliott Smith
Union Sundown by Bob Dylan
Spirit of America by the Beach Boys
America the Beautiful by Neil Young
When The Saints Go Marching In by Dr. John
Amazing Grace by Elvis Presley

Happy Holiday!

This weekend I'll be posting a bunch of fun songs to celebrate the 4th of July.

I've always loved this song by Doktor Kosmos who was (is?) the keyboardist in the Swedish band Komeda .

Listen to Doktor Kosmos' Holiday

13 new songs for$3.99

We have a new Nettwerk compilation up on iTunes. For ONLY $3.99 you can get 13 new songs from the Submarines, Josh Rouse, the Format, Jars of Clay, Pinker Tones, Nortec Collective, Weepies, Sara Valenzuela, Tresspassers William, State Radio, Venus Hum, MC Lars, Hem, Anathallo and Conjure One!

Download the Nettwerk Records Penny Candy sampler here!

Styrofoam and Ben Gibbard live in Amsterdam

On June 25 Styrofoam opened for Death Cab for Cutie in Amsterdam. Ben Gibbard joined my new friend Arne and his band for the first ever performance of "Couches in the Alley" which is one of my favorite songs. In the past few months, Arne and I have worked together on remixes for the Submarines, Leigh Nash and (possibly) Josh Rouse. (Of course Arne did all the remixing!) He's a great talent as a remixer, producer and musician. One of the undiscovered "new" artists to be sure.

Check out the video from the Styrofoam / Ben Gibbard performance

Buy the new live Styrofoam EP which is really good and moody.

Listen to the original "Couches in the Alley"

TMBG records NSA ringtone!

Oh my! How is this for fast!!!

The brilliant John Flansburgh and John Linnell of They Might Be Giants have recorded and posted 3 ring tones with a connection to phone calls -- and more importantly -- the NSA wiretapping scandal. My hunch is that these were written before the recent USA Today story that George Bush and his minions have been "data mining and trolling" (his words) through every phone call made since around September 11 by customers of AT&T, Verizon, Cingular, etc.

Listen to this great TMBG ringtone:
Call Connected Thru The NSA

Buy the rest here:
TMBG ringtones

RIP Grant McLennan

This news just broke at Billboard: Go-Betweens' Grant McLennan has died at 48. All Music Guide called the Go-Betweens "arguably Australia's greatest pop group ever."

AMG also described them thusly:
The Go-Betweens were perhaps the quintessential cult band of the '80s: they came from an exotic locale (Brisbane, Australia), moved to a major recording center (in their case, London) in a sustained bid to make a career out of music, released album after album of music seemingly tailor-made for the radio in spite of their having little use for contemporary Top 40 musical/lyrical formulas, and earned considerable critical praise and a small but fervent international fan base.

Listen to these great Go-Betweens tracks:
Go-Betweens: Streets of Your Town
Go-Betweens: Quiet Heart
Ivy's Go-Betweens cover: Streets of Your Town

Corinne Bailey Rae does The Editors

I predict sucess for Corinne Bailey Rae . She sounds like a cross between Norah Jones and Billie Holiday. She's a little funky, a little smooth. So check out one of her best album tracks and also her amazing cover of the Editors (from a BBC radio performance).

Listen to these great Corinne Bailey Rae tracks:
CBR covers the Editors' Munich
CBR's original Breathless