Open Mic Wednesdays At The STOOD

First of all, everybody be sure to come to SOUTHSIDE tonight around 7 for Part II of the Culture Shock Battle of the Bands and bring lots of animals and virgins to sacrifice to Jeff Levine so that Weird Korea at least makes it to the finals tomorrow night.  Here's tonight's lineup:

The Boomerangs
Bums and Drass
The City Strikes Back
Elemeno Pete
For Every Judas

Hey Hi Hello! (that might not really be the band but holy shit look at that guy)

In Tents
Major Potential
Olken
Silence the Feedback
Trails
Typhoon the Goon
Weird Korea
Wyldlife

Pretty awesome.

Myspace search really sucks. You're going to check out all of those links before tonight right? I did.

But more importantly, WEDNESDAY NIGHTS and the STOOD have transformed from quiet acoustic nights to well... quiet acoustic nights with INTERMITTENT BANDS! Thats right, now you and your fledgling band can come play at Whitson's under the tender care of Pete McAwesome and a new array of Stood gear, including a house drum set and amps and plenty of new mics.  Weird Korea has played the past two weeks in a row and if everyone would just forget how we sounded the first week we'd be totally comfortable making this a weekly thing and you should too.  The musixc starts around 9 on Wednesdays in Whitson's, so pick two songs and get there early to sign up if you're interested in playing.

See everybody tonight, come support SUNY PURCHASE!!! bands.

BONUS

We had a little extra time yesterday after making our videos so we decided to throw a little something together.

New Videos

With the help of my generous roommate Cam Kafura, we have created two new videos showing the individual music we make when we're not writing this blog.

Here's Matt's video, accurately portraying the dark, winding, reverberating staircase of his oedipus complex. For more, check out Weird Korea.

Also:

My video is essentially an ode to Take Away Shows, I played a one-shot take of one of my songs in the rain outside the music building. For more of my music, click here.

Weird Korea Tour Dates Posted!

In the name of shameless self promotion, check out Weird Korea at Whitson's on April 23rd. We'll also be playing a slot at the Culture Shock Battle of the Bands on April 9th, 10th, and 11th, so come sell your body to Jeff Levin in the name of our music.

More Honorable Mentions

This school is filled with awesome bands and really great music, so lumping everything into a list of 5 would do no justice to our community here.  Here are my honorable mentions, bands definitely worth checking out.

MOVING MOUNTAINS

These guys have such a huge, developed and carefully constructed sound.  They fill up rooms completely with both instrumental ambience and an army of an audience bobbing in unison from the hip.

MOKAAD AND THE FLEX POINTS

Funk isn't really my thing but this band is by far made up of some of the best musicians on campus and they really know what they're doing.  They definitely put on a good show and get people to come out, yet they are apparently too funky to be found anywhere at all on the internet.

ZONA MEXICANA

I remember the first time I saw these guys it was at a Crossroads open mic and they were the first math band I've ever witnessed.  Since then I've seen them numerous times and they grow on me more and more every time.  These guys are touring this July and currently have more shows on their myspace than any band I can think of.

ELEMENO PETE

Pete's one of my favorite guys in the music department and he's involved in a lot of different projects so that should be all the more incentive to check them all out.  Matt and I actually just saw Pete play earlier tonight at the Stood open mic with what I think was an entirely new band that was very loud and abrasive and great.  Check out Pete's BLOG for news and updates and videos and lots of great stuff.  Matt caught these guys last Saturday while I was setting up for my show a the CO-OP, so expect a more detailed post on their show sometime soon.

DATA DOG

First SUNY PURCHASE!!! band I ever heard.  Data Dog mixes elements of acoustic indie and synth-heavy electro pop with a top coat of layers harmonies and samples.  The cool thing about these guys is that they reproduce their sound very well in a live setting.  Come see for yourself on this Saturday, April 4th, (at what appears to be an undisclosed location on campus) for their first CD release. 

Bird Watching In America EP Release

So I come on here and Matt is taking shit over. Well, Daddy's home. I haven't posted anything in a while, true, and I haven't even been to a show in a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been keeping busy in the meantime.


This past week some friends of mine and I have been busting our asses to get some of my recordings together for everyone. So excuse my self promotion, but here are some of my songs.





We're selling these for $5, and if you're interested you can either ask me in person or send me a message on my myspace. If you just want the songs, you can head over to the Shack Attack Records website and download the tracks for free. By no means did I get this together on my own; my friends Josh Kirby and Spencer Alexander did a great job with the recording and the artwork, respectively. Also featured on this EP is Melissa Ahern on piano and vocals and Colin Mainella on trumpet. So please, feel free to spread that download link around and listen to some new music being made right here on campus... i'm awkward ;(

We Are Catamaran: 3P Revue

Callum Plews is a music production major here at SUNY Purchase!! and is also the throbbing brain-cock behind We Are Catamaran, a loose collective-type group of musicians. Well, the other day, dear Callum gave me a couple of rolled cigarettes and a sneak preview of We Are Catamaran's upcoming album, which will be entitled Baby Anne Is In The Fireplace Part One. We Are Catamaran seems to be Callum's pet project, as the performers on each track vary, with Callum as the only constant element. One of the performers featured on this album is Emma Tringali, who, once upon a time, was a SUNY Purchase!! student herself, but has since dropped out to focus on her own musical ambitions. Another dropout (lol) on this album is the utterly fantastic keyboard Wizard Albert Goold. Albert and the total asshole loser drummer Nicholas Shapiro play on "First Fire," which originated as a recording made in their shared dorm room before Callum came in and mic'd everything up. The few songs I heard from the aforementioned/unreleased album/EP/3P, sounded pretty good, though there were a few moments when the production was just too swampy to really discern what was going on. I mean, I LOVE reverb. We all LOVE it. But you can't just put it on everything. For the most part however, the production is pretty well done, at least on the instruments. The shutter drums on "Second Fire" sound vaguely reminiscient of Radiohead's "Videotape," and the whole song just starts off like a disney musical; and then Emma and Miles Roxas come in, and, don't get me wrong, they have great voices, but the sound is overproduced, in my opinion, and something is lost in the layering of effects and whatnot. At times there is a lot happening, and it's all sort of midrange stuff, which makes it hard to concentrate on the swirling shit going around. Overall, however, I definitely see a lot of potential; and the music isn't cliched or played out, it is, at least, strange. So that's good. Also, any musicians looking for a producer, I would reccomend seeking out Callum, or his production outfit, DLR Studios.