Philadelphia local’s Dr. Dog is releasing a new album February 7^th entitled Be The Void via Anti Records.  This is their sixth album and combines the energetic feel they are known for live, with edgier guitar licks and a driving backbeat provided by new drummer Erik Slick.

What strikes me about Be The Void is the progression of Dr. Dog, as they build off their symphonic/psychodelic pop sound to create a meaner album that includes post punk and blues influences.  Kudos to Dr. Dog for pushing the envelope and not resting on their laurels.

Dr. Dog will be touring the U.S. this February and March.  Tour dates can be found here.  To get a taste of Be The Void you can listen to their recent Free At Noon performance at XPN where they performed all new songs off the album for a full house.  You can also watch a new music video of their new song “That Old Black Hold” below.

”ATTENTION ! To whom it may concern: AT THE DRIVE-IN will be breaking their 11 year silence THIS STATION IS …NOW…OPERATIONAL,” – Offical Tweet from At the Drive-In

That’s right boys and girls, our fantasies are becoming reality.  The boys from El Paso who introduced many of us to post hardcore are reuniting after a 11 year hiatus.  Get ready for some microphone swinging, body flailing, wild guitar rifts, and one of the most intense live performances you have ever experienced.

I particularly like At The Drive-In’s announcement of their comeback, with its reference to the lyrics of One Armed Scissor off their 2000 album Relationship In Command.  You can see At The Drive-In at this years Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival April 15 & 22nd.  As of now no further announcements have been made about new albums or touring, but you can check their website for new developments.

Below is footage of At The Drive-In performing on Letterman, and their cover of The Smith’s song This Night Has Opened My Eyes to get you in the mood.

   Dirty On Purpose was an indie rock outfit from NYC 2002 to 2008.  Their sound includes altering male and female vocals, lo-fi guitar reminiscent of Explosions In the Sky and tight, driving percussion.  During their tenure they played with such acts as Arcade Fire, Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah and performed their final tour with A Place To Bury Strangers (who as a side note will be touring with the Joy Formidable this spring).

Dirty On Purpose’s 2006 album Hallelujah Sirens is an absolute favorite of mine.  The songs run the gambit of emotions, from the soft vocals of Kill Our City to the piercing guitar intro on Car No Driver.  My favorite song on the record: Your Summer Dress.  Hallelujah Sirens was released on North Street Records and in 2007 was nominated for “The Best Indie Rock Album” at the PLUG Independent Music Awards .

Give a listen.  Click the album cover above of here to listen to the album on Spotify, or you can check out some singles off the album on the technology below.

Dirty on Purpose – Lake Effect by marytod

    It intrigues me how music heads compile their “best of” lists.  Some order their lists by the number of track plays of a particular album from that year, while others use staff or public polls.  My route: I sat down with a pen and made a list of albums released in 2011 that I thoroughly enjoyed.  Albums I’ll return to in 2012 from bands I will make a point to follow and see live.  Here’s my list of 54 albums in no particular order interspersed with some general overviews of last year.  Click on the names to listen to the albums on Spotify.

Blueprint – Adventures In Counter-Culture  -  Rhymesayers
The Antlers – Burst Apart  –  Frenchkiss                   
Los Campesinos! – Hello Sadness  –  Arts & Crafts   
Wye Oak – Civilian  -  Merge 
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake  -  Vargrant 
Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes  -  Warner 
St. Vincent – Strange Mercy  -  4AD 
Fucked Up – David Comes To Life -  Matador 
The Kills – Blood Pressures  -  Domino 
Kanye West & Jay Z – Watch The Throne  -  Def Jam / Roc-A-Fella
David Bazan – Strange Negotiations  -  Barsuk   

2011 was the year music went into the clouds.  Programs such as Spotify, Grooveshark, Rdio and MOG gave access to enormous music libraries allowing one to easily explore, listen to, and share albums on their computers and smartphone.  These programs extroverted the music listening experience, opening up new and social routes through which to discover music.  I especially like how these apps utilize Facebook’s “friend-pool”, allowing one to stay in touch with friends’ music tastes and also find something in common.  And then there’s Turntable.fm which gives listeners an interactive and human way to discover music with avatars and virtual dj rooms.

I support this new model.  I know there’s concern that putting music into the clouds will kill the physical album, but I think there will always be a place and a need for owning an album that is important to you.  And what happens when the world ends, or your favorite music website goes belly up?  You’re going to need a hard copy to get you through the rough patch.  Ultimately I believe these new forms of listening and interacting with music expose people to more music, which is always a positive thing.

James Blake – James Blake -  A&M/Atlas 
The Features – Wilderness -  Bug Music / Serpents & Snakes 
The Rural Alberta Advantage – Departing -  Saddle Creek 
Handsome Furs  -  Sound Kapital  -  Sub Pop 
Little Scream  -  The Golden Record  -  Secretly Canadian 
Gorillaz  -  The Fall  -  EMI 
Little Dragon  -  Ritual Union  -  Peacefrog 
M83  -  Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming  -  Mute 
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.  -  It’s A Corporate World  -  Warner Bro. 
Sbtrkt – SBTRKT  -  Young Turks 
Active Child – You Are All I See  -  Vargrant 
Bon Iver – Bon Iver  -  Jagjaguwar
Cults – Cults  -  Sony Music
The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient -  Secretly Canadian

2011 was a banner year personally for going to shows.  I went to 27 shows and saw over 60 bands.  Philly is an amazing city to catch live music with lots of interesting venues, be it a sanctuary show at the Unitarian Church, jazz at The Rotunda or Tritone or crammed into Johnny Brendas.   This year’s Ear Trumpet “Hustle” award goes to R5 Productions for putting on over 1000 live-acts and opening up a new music venue, Union Transfer.  It’s a beautiful venue with great sound, stage site lines, and I even heard they have a Nintendo Wii on a big screen in the band’s waiting room.   Eleven live acts that stick out in my mind from 2011 are: Los Campesinos!, Phantogram, The Antlers, Titus Andronicus, The Joy Formidable, The War On Drugs, Cage The Elephant, Sharon Van Etten, The Black Angels and The Dismemberment Plan.  Honorable mention goes to Crystal Method who put on a great show at Identity until they were cut short due to a thunderstorm that engulfed the night.

Drive-By Truckers – Go-Go Boots  -  ATO
Wilco – The Whole Love -  dBpm
The Roots – Undun  -  Island Def Jam
Men – Talk About Body  -  IAMSOUND
Youth Lagoon – The Year Of Hibernation -  Fat Possum
Hail Mary Mallon – Are You Gonna Eat That?  -  Rhymesayers
HTRK – Work (work, work) -  Ghost International
Nerves Junior – As Bright As Your Night Light -  SonaBLAST
The Seedy Seeds – Count The Days  -  SonaBLAST
Wooden Shjips – West -  Thrill Jocky / Wooden Shjips ASCAP
The Black Keys  -  El Camino  -  Nonesuch
Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Unknown Mortal Orchestra  -  Fat Possum
Cut Copy – Zonoscope -  Modular
Laura Marling – A Creature I Don't Know - Ribbon Music

The Ear Trumpet award for best Music Festival of the Year goes to the Philadelphia Film & Music Festival Sunday BBQ.  The line up included performances by Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, The Head and the Heart, Jukebox the Ghost and Good Old War on a small stage in the backyard of the Ukie Club.  Tickets were $15 for 16 acts on 2 stages, with numerous delicious food-truck options and at the end of the festival they had a half-off drink special on the remaining supplies.  It was awesome.  Thank you Whitney for making me aware of this great festival.

Austra – Feel It Break  -  Domino / Paper Bag
Phantogram – Nightlife  -  Barsuk
Feist – Metals  -  Interscope / Polydor
The Ax Raccoons  -  Ax Rax Lp  -  Self Released
The Head And The Heart – The Head and the Heart  -  Heavenly Recordings / Sub Pop
Lindi Ortega – Little Red Boots  -  Last Gang
Ume – Phantoms -  Modern Outsider
Banjo Or Freakout – Banjo Or Freakout  -  Rare Bookroom
Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde  -  Fat Possum
The Black Angels – Phosgene Nightmare -  Blue Horizon Ventures
Braids – Native Speaker  -  Kanine
Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi – Rome  -  EMI
Middle Brother – Middle Brother -  Partisan

Radio stations I listened to most this year were WKDU in Philadelphia, KGBA in Missoula, LU Radio in Thunder Bay Ontario and KEXP in Seattle.  2011 also marked the year one of internet radio’s founding fathers, WOXY, had its website taken down.  Luckily the WOXY DJ’s are still addicted to music and share their musical tastes online.  Mike Taylor runs The Big Beat, Joe Long still curates Each Note Secure and Shivvy is on Twitter and Tumblr.  Other blogs I followed in 2011 included NPR, The Line Of Best Fit, PitchFork, The Recommender, The Burning Ear and Clicky Clicky.  I used my I-Phone to listen to a lot of music, especially after a wave soaked my i-pod at the beach. Some music apps I highly recommend are Soundcloud, Turntable, 8tracks, Hypem, Daytrotter and Spotify.

I hope you all enjoyed this round up of 2011 and I wish you an adventurous, productive and Happy New Year.

Tea Towels by Philly artist Sara Selepouchin

   This playcast is a bit different.  It has a theme: Heart.  It explores the functions, emotions, metaphors and sounds that artists associate with the word ‘heart’.  There are tracks from Architecture In Helsinki, Bowie and Cut Copy, all the way to Wilco and The XX.

There’s no sappy, gushy bull shit.  Just a rock and roll definition.  Enjoy.

Click Here to listen to Playcast #11

Playlist

A Place To Bury Strangers – In Your Heart
Japandroids – Heart Sweats
Wilco – I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
Blackbird Blackbird – Heartbeat
Frontier Folk Nebraska – Restless Hearts
Heartless Bastards – Sway
The xx – Heart Skipped A Beat
The Tallest Man On Earth – A Lion’s Heart
Sleigh Bells – Run The Heart
The Black Keys – Give Your Heart Away
The Postal Service – Be Still My Heart
Otis Redding – Pain In My Heart
David Bowie – Fill Your Heart
City and Colour – Sensible Heart
TV On The Radio – Keep Your Heart
Basia Bulat – Heart Of My Own
Feist – Secret Heart
Metronomy – My Heart Rate Rapid
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – Listen To Her Heart
Architecture In Helsinki – Heart It Races
NOFX – Bleeding Heart Disease
Warpaint – Lissie’s Heart Murmur
Caged Animals – Teflon Heart
Mother Mother – O My Heart
The Kills – Heart Is A Beating Drum
The Raveonettes – Heart Of Stone
The Blood Arm – Don’t Let Him Break Your Heart
Thao with The Get Down Stay Down – Beat (Health, Life, and Fire)
Cut Copy – Hanging Onto Every Heartbeat
Braids – Plath Heart
Radiohead – We Suck Young Blood
The One AM Radio – Ticking Heart
The Magnetic Fields – I Think I Need A New Heart
Raphael Saadiq – Heart Attack
Jessica Lea Mayfield – Somewhere In Your Heart
Tracey Thorn – Sister Winter (Sufjan Stevens Cover)
Harry Nilsson – You’re Breakin’ My Heart
Wilco – Whole Love
Metronomy – Heartbreaker

]]> http://iheartrumpets.com/2011/12/28/playcast-11/feed/ 0 huntmf HeartTowels Play Button http://iheartrumpets.com/2011/12/13/ear-trumpet-2011-holiday-mixer/ http://iheartrumpets.com/2011/12/13/ear-trumpet-2011-holiday-mixer/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 03:10:37 +0000 huntmf http://iheartrumpets.com/?p=604 ]]>

     The elves have been hard at work putting together the 2011 Ear Trumpet Holiday Mixer.  This unique collection of seasonal tunes is filled with tracks from your favorite modern rockers performing holiday classics, as well as some original tracks to get you in the festive spirit and a handful of surprises.

There are also vintage favorites from the likes of James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Chuck Berry to round out the mix and bring bring that festive cheer.  I hope you enjoy the Ear Trumpet Holiday Mixer and wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Click here to listen the Ear Trumpet Holiday Mixer on Spotify

Click here to listen to the Ear Trumpet Holiday Mixer on Grooveshark

It will be available on Spotify (which if you’re smart, you’re on by now).  Each volume will be released on the first of each month.

I hope you enjoy and hear something new!

Click here to listen to Ear Trumpet Monthly Vol. 11/11

11/11 Playlist

M83 – Intro
Sissy & The Blisters – Let Her Go
Josh Ritter – Change Of Time
Los Campesinos! – Hello Sadness
Pallers – Come Rain, Come Sunshine
Future Islands – Long Flight
Small Black – Camouflage
Chasing Kings – Empathy
Q And Not U – Wonderful People
Kosheen – Damage
French Films – Golden Sea
Pavement – Grounded (Remastered)
Danger Mouse – Two Against One (feat. Jack White)
Phantogram – Make A Fist
Liam Lynch – United States of Whatever
The Faint – Your Retro Career Melted
The Vines – Outtathaway
The Black Keys – Lonely Boy
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Date With The Night
Little Foot Long Foot – Kickface
Vandaveer – Before The Great War
Broken Social Scene – Superconnected
Freelance Whales – Ghosting
Brown Bird – Bilgewater
The Mountain Goats – This Year
Typhoon – The Honest Truth
Gauntlet Hair – Out, Don’t
Carter Tanton – Murderous Joy
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Beat The Devil’s Tattoo
Oregon Bike Trails – High School Lover
Phantom Planet – Dropped
The Jezabels – Endless Summer
Peggy Sue – Funeral Beat
Hooverphonic – 2 Wicky
Miracle Fortress – Everything Works
Living Legends – Never Fallin’
Digitalism – 2 Hearts
Portugal. The Man – The Bottom
M. Ward – Helicopter
Snowmine – Let Me In
Radiohead – Morning Mr Magpie
PJ Harvey – The Words That Maketh Murder
The Postal Service – Be Still My Heart
The Postal Service – Be Still My Heart
Earl King – Mama & Papa
Clem Snide – Fill Me With Your Light
She & Him – Black Hole
The Dead Weather – Treat Me Like Your Mother [Diplo Remix]
The Helio Sequence – Keep Your Eyes Ahead
Bon Iver – Wash.
Hugo – 99 Problems
Kill It Kid – Pray On Me
Yellow Ostrich – Hate Me Soon
The Caulfield Sisters – Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
Clem Snide – I Love The Unknown
Alpine – Villages
Aqueduct – Hardcore Days & Softcore Nights
St. Vincent – Cruel

Click Here to listen to a compiled Playlist on Spotify, or click the cover art below to listen to that album on Grooveshark.

Hope everyone has a festive holiday and stuff themselves silly.

Click the image to listen to the Playlist

I just read news that the WOXY.com home page will be taken offline in a few days.  No more sleuthing through the Lounge Act collection for musical gems, such as this recording of Band Of Skulls playing a striped down set for WOXY in 2009.

I suggest taking a moment and pouring through the WOXY Lounge Acts and downloading some of the live sets before they are gone. On the websites message board the former owners, Future Sounds posted this message:

They could have really hit the nail on the head by signing off with this:

To say farewell to WOXY.com I put together a playlist comprised of an entire day of WOXY programming from 10/31/09.  Tracks from the likes of The Temper Trap, Band Of Horses, Sea Wolf, The Hives, The Smiths, The Flaming Lips, Dinosaur Jr., The Antlers and Generationals, to name a few.

WOXY is near and dear to me, as it introduced a college kid in Cincinnati to a world of modern music.  I have gone to countless shows from hearing bands on WOXY and it saddens me that it’s now officially gone.  Life moves on and it’s not healthy to fixate on something dead, but I still miss knowing that I was always just one click away from the future of rock and roll.

For those interested, former WOXY Program Director and morning DJ Mike Taylor now runs a music blog entitled The Big Beat and evening DJ and Futurist Editor Joe Long still runs Each Note Secure. Both are great resources for new music.

I wish Shiv, Mike, Joe, Brian M. and Brian N. all the best.  Thanks for filling my days with quality music.

Click the boombox to listen to the haunting Playlist of WOXY 10/31/09