![[mp3] Introducing // Royal Bangs (NxNE preview)](http://blaremagazine.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/royal-bangs-flux-outside.jpg?w=400&h=400 "[mp3] Introducing // Royal Bangs (NxNE preview)")
Referrals are a big deal in the music industry. Trust is also a big deal if these referrals are to be of high quality. You hear your friend say she enjoys a band, and since you trust her taste in music, you decide to give them a listen. Voila! You have a new band to add to your collection.
That’s kind of how I came across Knoxville’s Royal Bangs. The difference being that this referral didn’t come from a friend. Patrick Carney (drummer for the Black Keys) used to run his own record label, Audio Eagle Records, and originally signed the band to release their debut album, We Breed Champions, in 2008. Based on reading that tidbit about the band, I decided to give their music a spin and found what I heard to be a raucous and immensely enjoyable experience.
On the band’s most recent album, 2011′s Flux Outside, the trio of Chris Rusk (drums), Ryan Schaefer (singer, keyboard, guitar), and Sam Stratton (guitars) blend catchy pop sensibilities with lo-fi fuzz that results in an upbeat sound that never gets to the point where it’s ever too bubbly. The synths complement the guitar hooks perfectly without ever leading the listener astray to synth-pop.
Fortunate for us that this band will be making an appearance at NxNE for a 10 p.m. show on Thursday, June 16 at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern. They’re starting to make a name for themselves, having played Bonnaroo and Lollapallooza in 2010 and also having just made an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman back in April. If you’re not attending NxNE, but you still want to try and catch Royal Bangs live, and you happen to live in the South, then check out their tour page because they have a slew of shows going on in July.
Connect with Royal Bangs // web | Facebook | Twitter | MySpace
Royal Bangs // My Car Is Haunted [mp3] from Let It Beep![[mp3] Introducing // Royal Bangs (NxNE preview)](http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=tympanogram-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002JFCOCQ&camp=217153&creative=399701 "[mp3] Introducing // Royal Bangs (NxNE preview)")
It’s here. It’s today. By the time you read this, I’ll probably already be out of the house, waiting for my favorite record store to open up their doors. If you haven’t been planning already, or are just a casual observer, check out the full list of vinyl that is being released specifically for Record Store Day. It’s lengthy, and awesome, and a lot of it is extremely limited – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. I have a list of 10 things I want, and have ordered them according to what I want most so I know where to focus my energy.
Your local indie record shop should be holding something. The ones around here are having sales, having bands, and then there’s a party at a local bar later on tonight. Get yourself to someplace close to you and support independent record stores. You’ll miss them should they ever go away.
Here are a couple of tracks from bands that have releases today. They aren’t specifically from today’s releases, but hopefully they get you out to the stores. Have an excellent day. We’ll report back on what we end up with – and you should too.
The Black Keys – I’m Glad (mp3)
Beach House – Zebra (mp3) from Teen Dream
Modest Mouse – 3rd Planet (mp3) from The Moon & Antarctica
If you’ve pre-ordered tickets to The Black Keys summer tour – but apparently not the one they are playing here in Rochester (probably because it’s technically a date for The Flaming Lips) – you’ve already received your two tracks from their forthcoming album Brothers (which will be released on May 18 via Nonesuch Records). We’ve already talked about one of the tracks the other day (“Tighten Up“), but here’s the second one the band has made available – a vintage sounding Keys track entitled “Next Girl.”
It’s scuffed-up, raw blues, dripping with the type of soul for which The Keys are famous. In addition to receiving the two tracks now, if you buy tickets, you also get a copy of the album when it’s released, which is a pretty cool thing for the band to do. AND, the band is putting out a 12″ for the coming Record Store Day featuring “Tighten Up” and “Howlin’ For You.” (Check that link for all the current vinyl Record Store Day releases.)
Pre-order your tickets here. And if you don’t need tickets, pre-order the album here.
The Black Keys – Next Girl (mp3) from the forthcoming Brothers
The Black Keys’ new album – entitled Brothers – will be released on May 18. There’s not much that they do that I think is wrong, and this new track from the album is no exception to that. ”Tighten Up” was produced by Danger Mouse, who was at the helm for Attack & Release as well. And while there’s not a big departure here from the normal Keys fare, it’s still a solid song. I particularly enjoy when it sounds like everything goes into an audio drain, although that could be because this is a web rip. You can listen to the track on the band’s MySpace for any differences.
This past weekend I purchased tickets to The Flaming Lips show at a venue close to Rochester, where it’s being reported that The Black Keys will be the opening act. I can’t find this information on their website however, so I’ll keep hope alive until I see some kind of confirmation.
The Black Keys – Tighten Up (mp3) from the forthcoming Brothers
Written on
September 8, 2009 by
Andy in
Music
Welcome to the unofficial start of fall. My hours at work are extended by an hour starting today, so I’ll use that as a reason to keep the introduction to the latest installment of my 1000 Minutes project short. Let’s get into it:
61. The Tragically Hip – Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin’ Man (mp3) from Phantom Power (4:23) [Time Remaining: 700:21]
Now sixty songs in, I’m going to repeat a couple of my favorite bands – starting with the grossly under-appreciated Tragically Hip. Perhaps it’s that this album came out over a decade ago now, during my late teens when my world was much less in order that the music remains so intriguing to me. Musically haunting and lyrically vague, “Escape Is At Hand for the Travellin’ Man” tells the story of a missed connection – a cosmic “What if?” Eleven years later, the song’s taken on new meanings – not ones that are nearly so sad, but ultimately hopeful, thankful. And aren’t those songs – the ones that grow with us – the best ones anyway?
62. The Black Keys – Meet Me In the City (mp3) from the Chulahoma EP (3:38) [Time Remaining: 696:43]
As a recent convert to The Black Keys, I’ve been making my way through their back catalogue since discovering them with last year’s Attack & Release. Their Chulahoma EP – a collection of 6 Junior Kimbrough covers – is simply spectacular. It showcases the band’s blues influence in a different form than the straight-ahead rock that they most often employ. “Meet Me In the City” is a song that hearkens back to something simpler while The Black Keys make it undoubtedly modern in their take on it. It’s easy, comfortable – a testament to the song’s creator that it is still as fresh today as it would have been to the song’s intended target.
