Submissions

SoundPeel is accepting submissions for reviews. If you wish to have your album reviewed, an event you would like covered, or any other news about your music, please contact soundpeel at the following email address:

soundpeel (at) newroadcalling (dot) com

Festival Junkie

Festival season is rapidly approaching and thus Sound Peel is launching it's new section, Festival Junkie! The initial festival guide portion is up for your viewing pleasure. As we get closer to summertime, and more information is announced about the festivals, the guide will include more detailed information, photos, etc. In addition, there will be more fun festival stuff than you can shake a stick at (for those of you stick shakers). Whether you are a regular festival-goer or a newbie to the scene, Festival Junkie will help you get on the road this summer.

Click here for the initial Festival Guide!


tags: news

Album Review: Polyphonic Spree The Fragile Army

The Polyphonic Spree is a Dallas, Texas based rock group with a unique twist. Most notably, they have twenty-three members! One listen to any of their albums, and you'll realize that this isn't the only unique thing about them. They mix a choral/instrumental sound with indie rock/pop. The result is both theatrical and cool. It's no wonder they are developing quite a following in the scene.

All of their albums, including their newest album, The Fragile Army have a very consistent sound. They even tie them all together to make one large chronology of sorts (this album contains 'Sections' 21-32, and starts off with a mellowed version of the last song from the previous album). The album then begins building a sort of twirling energy with Running Away. If this is your first listen to The Polyphonic Spree, you may be a little surprised at the overall sound. I'd attempt to describe it as sounding like some sort of odd christmas special from the late 70's crossed with good modern rock music. If you are a person who appreciates things that are kitchy, retro, or otherwise oddball, you'll have an instant attraction to the sound. If not, it's too catchy to resist; it will grow on you. Tim Delaughter's lead vocals show some similarity to The Flaming Lip's genius vocalist Wayne Coyne. You'll quickly absorb all of the feel-good messages as the band/choir illustrates them before you. I challenge anyone to be in a bad mood while listening to this. Just try.

The songs are carefully crafted and extremely well balanced. You'll move through the album almost seamlessly. The energy level of the album is high, but it's not disruptive or overly distracting. This makes it good listening for any activity requiring some thought, such as writing, conversing, or reflecting/meditating. This isn't to say that the lyrics are lost. Quite on the contrary, they will be encouraging you with beautiful, positive ideas all the while.

This album is a little punchier than the previous album (and my favorite), Together We're Heavy, so if you like what you hear but want something just a twinge more colorful, you should check that one out. I will note that for an indie band, they have a lot of odd little gadgets and promos scattered about on their site and myspace (particularly). They are a bit distracting, but it's all band related, and most of it is pretty cool stuff.

The Polyphonic Spree's website is here
http://www.thepolyphonicspree.com/

You can also find them on myspace here:
http://www.myspace.com/polyphonicspree

The Reel Peel: Air Guitar

So most of us at one time or another have had the sudden urge to commit some righteous air guitar, right? Don't deny it. But in a world where we are all so serious and pretty much trying to look too cool for everyone else, where does poor air guitar fit in? Whether you are rockin' out in your kitchen or strumming along in the illusionary privacy of your automobile, you may find yourself occasionally halted with the concern that air guitar is 'not cool'. But do not let this discourage you! Air guitar is free for all, and it can be especially fun if you actually know how to play the guitar (and inspiring if you don't). It can also be helpful. The best guitarists that I have been acquainted with would have no qualms about acting out a chord progression, lick, or riff, whether it was to something on the radio or something they were writing. Drummers drum on everything they can. Why should practicing/playing/dreaming be limited to moments when having a guitar (and an amp)? Besides, even if someone does harsh on you for your whimsy, they probably just wish they could cut loose too! You've got to just give 'em that look like 'yeah that's right,' and play straight at them like a boxer swinging into the air. You'll either shatter their facade and they'll laugh or they will give you even dirtier look (square). All those artists (including yourself, if you are already a musician) don't want people to sit idle with their hands on their laps in restraint while listening, so live a little and sing along while you are at it.

SXSW Lineup!

SXSW (South by Southwest) is a giant music and arts conference held in Austin, Texas. It's split into three different parts: music/media, interactive, and film. For each part, there are conferences for people to go to and a festival showcasing artists from all around the globe. The music festival is an excellent place to find bands who are right there on the forefront.

With over 70 participating venues, the list of performers is quite long and inclusive. I thought I'd share just a few favorites performing:

Afrobots
Aloha (from Cleveland)
Arp
Be Your Own Pet
The Black Keys (from Akron)
Black Moth Super Rainbow
The Chocolate Horse
Flowers Forever
FM BELFAST
Grand Ole Party
The Heavy Pets
The Kills
Sonya Kitchell
Telepathe
Tokyo Police Club
White Rabbits

If (like me) you are not fortunate enough to make it down to Austin, be on the lookout for some of these artists to be touring past, or perhaps keep them in mind when snooping around for a new album.

The full list can be found at sxsw's website:
http://2008.sxsw.com/music/showcases/alpha/0.html

Tags: news sxsw festivals

Album Review: Artvandalay Fat Accomplice

This Knoxville, TN progressive jam band put out their debut album, Fat Accomplice in 2006, immediately winning them a spot in Bonnaroo's Troo Music Lounge. With a clever name (George Costanza's alter-identity used in various mischief), the six produce a stunning auditory experience.

The album starts off loose, with a floating asynchronus chorus of sounds, instrumentals, and vocals in That's A Good Question Pt1. The sounds quickly converge into a driving beat with riffs that pull you along into mad, expeditious guitar solos in That's A Good Question Pt2. Well projected vocals also give way to the multi-layered rapid spoken rant atop this instrumental mountaintop:
"... the wiseman says the EYE is the best of artists, however, my eye has painted a picture of the (lurching?) of the american political digression..."

Delerium, Carefree Tastetest, Minus; The lyrics are as catchy as the riffs and witty as hell. The dynamics are well used and will carry you up, down, and most certainly all around.

As you move through the album, among the sweeping transitions you will find a musical story being told. Artvandalay expresses through this album their esoteric philosophies about the world and the self in a psychotropic chorus whose grooves match its intellect.

This is a wonderful album to drive to, mellow out to, or dance to.

You can find them on myspace here:
http://www.myspace.com/artvandalaymusic

Intro To Festivals

Any music enthusiast who hasn't already checked out the festival scene, I'm urging strongly to do so this year. Make it a post scriptum to your new years resolutions. Music Festivals are not just for hippies, they are where all the music is happening today. And unlike the amphitheatre venues, the rules are relaxed and you can usually camp out under the stars knowing that a cop/bum won't be waking you up at 4AM.

Music festivals have quickly become a haven for independent artists to showcase their music, and so they are also the place to experience what is going on right now. There are often a few pretty well known headliners at each festival, many of whom are also independant artists also (unbeknownst to you). A few good examples of this are STS9, Keller Williams, Perpetual Groove, or Xavier Rudd.

Anyhow, over the next few months, as festival season approaches, we'll occasionally give a look at what's going on this year.

Tags: news festivals

Columbus: Gallery Hop, Feb 2nd

Going to the gallery hop in February? Sounds good if you can stand the cold. Those who aren't too afraid of the frostbite are in for a chill when they pass by the empty remains of the once art-lined Coffee Table. Hey, where did they go? To this day, I can't walk past the site of local-music-institution and scene cornerstone Little Brothers without getting all squinty and using the word 'bastard'. There are a lot of trendy clubs and condos popping up all around, but everyone: DON'T PANIC! The real music and art scene is not disappearing, as it may seem. It's merely hiding from the exploiters! Head on down and take a good look past all of the valets and you might find the scene hiding in some holes in the wall. While you are there, check out local group The Yogi Poets. They'll be playing most uncoventionally at Norka Futon. There will be food, art, and ample couch-like seating while you enjoy the grooves of the evening. Additionally, there'll be a really good show at High Five that night- for after the galleries have run out of wine, locked the doors, and kicked you out.

Album Review: STS9 Re:Generation Live 07.2007

Sound Tribe Sector 9 is certainly not under the radar, but this festival-scene-favorite is independent in all that they do. They create tasty genre-melt music, run their own independent label called 1320 records, perform live very frequently, and involve themselves with benefit shows. Having caught them at Bonnaroo in 2005 and 2007, this live album caught my eye. Re:Generation was a concept festival that the band put together in Deerfield, North Carolina 7/6-7/7 in 2007. The festival was a chance for people to connect with each other, nature, and the visual art and music being hosted.

The live album captures the spirit of the performance, sending the listener on an astral-type journey through the weekend. You get to feel the festival jam with mixed in electro-beat-psychedelia. Dance, hip-hop, hippie-jam, electronic, blues, improv, psyche, beat, drums&bass; they skillfully combine all this, and the best part is, you don't even have to dig any of these genres to get into the music. They're just that good.

The album is split into three separate cds, including one short afternoon and two long evening sets. The afternoon set is from the second day, and is a little more passive and relaxing. The two evening sets are more engaging and powerful. Many of the songs exceed ten minutes, and it's pretty easy to get lost in the middle of it all, which is good, because that's how it was intended. Personally, I find the sounds from these shows excellent to create visual artwork to.

The album is available on STS9's label site, here:
http://1320records.com/store/s2/artistHome.jsp?ah=35231
The album is listed as three separate (and reasonably priced) sets. You can download the mp3s right there and be listening in less time than it takes to make toast and coffee (probably).

To learn more about the Re:Generation festival you can visit it's official site:
http://www.sts9regeneration.com/

Last, but not least, you can check out STS9's website and myspace:
http://www.sts9.com/
http://www.myspace.com/sts9

If you get the chance to see Sound Tribe live, it's well worth a drive across a few state lines. They are scheduled to play at Langerado this spring.

The Reel Peel: Indie Promoting

The Reel Peel is sort of an editorial/rant column, not an advice column. Normally I would editorialize some minute fraction of the music scene. However, this week my rant is an aimed
response to all of the local and indie musicians out there just trying to be heard.

When your promo budget is multi-dollar instead of multi-million, you've got to actually do some work to get the word out about your wares. So, if we were to think about some of the reasons why the corporate giants are so effective, I'm sure we'd find them to be the same reasons as to why they are so dastardly and evil. It is worth it to mention that those well paid marketing experts are often manipulative enough to make their plugs at least seem tasteful. The conundrum is that an indie artist must self-promote, and do it as much as possible, but all-the-while without compromising the indie values. To begin with, no plug sounds quite as good coming literally from the band. It's easier to swallow boasting when someone else seems to be saying it about the band; like a commercial or a poster. Unfortunately, indie musicians are probably always going to have to say good things about themselves, but without sounding like they are tooting their own horns. Remember that alienated indie fans may be much less forgiving than fans of pop music. There are probably millions of places to look to find good techniques for promoting your music. Likewise, it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a couple good original ideas. There is not, however, much advice on what not to do; when you may have crossed those imaginary boundaries. I have compiled a short top 5 list of bad self promoting techniques so that some (ahem) local/indie musicians can stop being poor imitations of worthless pop-performers, and start acting like what they are: Bad-ass bands living on the edge of art forms that won't trickle out into that mainstream market for years. Also, with all the red flags exposed, perhaps listeners and music enthusiasts can better recognize a gross oversell when they see one.

The Reel Peel: Top 5 Indie Promoting Mistakes

5. Placing ads or pop ups on your website. You're really pretty lucky to get someone there. Even if you've got a nifty pop up to remind someone they can buy a ringtone of your song or a tee shirt with your name on it, it's annoying. Just... don't.

4. Flooding myspace with shameless bulletins. It's great to send out bulletins to let people know what you are doing (especially if you are actually doing something), but sending out 10 meaningless plugs a day will probably just get you deleted from someone's friend list. Maybe you feel that this is okay because you have 30 thousand other friends, because you spend 4 hours a day requesting new people. No. Probably the first people who will delete you for spamming are the people who were paying attention and/or checking their profile. They may have even been the only ones who read your stuff or had a mild interest in your music. Remember, people mostly use social networks like myspace for either talking to their friends or promoting themselves, but hardly anyone just wants to be promoted to. Getting your band even just 50 local friends and taking a more personal, honest approach will get more people listening and attending your gigs than 30 thousand who don't know you, don't care, and are probably just looking to promote themselves to you!

3. Creating a ficticious entity (label/productions) to make yourself sound more professional or impressive. Don't get me wrong here, because anyone who really wishes to have an indie label or production company should totally do so. However, inventing a false entity simply to make your band look more professional is bad practice for a number of reasons. First and foremost, you will fool no one! Doing so is insulting to potential fans, and may actually cost you a potential gig! Club/bar owners don't want a poser, and they can immediately distinguish fluff from substance. Believe me. You'll only impress yourself. Even if you are considering starting your own label or productions, but have really only gotten as far as the name, consider leaving the entity 'name drop' off of your promo materials until it means a little something more.

2. Being dishonest about your experience. You would just be setting yourself up to be compared with more experienced bands instead of ones that are closer to your level. Besides, why create an expectation that you are not sure you can meet? And although a high estimate is usually okay, don't over exaggerate crowd draws to venues. If you can't live up to the hype, they may not want you back.

1. Trying to be all things for all people. This is a tough one, because I think it is nice to have music (and an image) that anyone can feel a connection to, but you need to be yourself, and you need to leave yourself artist freedom. Don't let others define your music for you! They will trap you into a more generic version of your music that is only fun for them. A ballsy and accurate show poster may put a few people off, but maybe that is the same feature that draws in the ones that count. Any artwork should be a good visual interpretation of your sound. Anything written should be a an accurate literary reflection of your sound. Your sound should be an accurate representation of you! When famous musicians break this guideline, it is often for money (and some would call it selling out). They make money, they lose their edge, they lose their fans, and they lose their integrity. Mind you, I wouldn't call it selling out when it isn't for large sums of money. I would call it a timid compromise amidst the pursuit of a better musical day. And this is exactly what makes it so scary. You don't have to be an asshole to do this. And this is the only one that transcends all levels of musical experience equally. Depending on the situation, the compromises and rewards change, but the result is always the same: You've given up control of how your art is communicated, and it will effect your music.

Live Review: The Crayons at Bernies 1.15.08

You've probably seen the stickers around Columbus. You know, the round black one with the white crayon-like text on the inside that says 'The Crayons'. The local group is a conspicuous favorite in the city's rock / metal scene.

I went to Bernies on Tuesday night to catch their show, and found the usual casual weeknight campus-bar atmosphere. There were perhaps seven old flittering television sets stacked on crates on and around the stage. Each one was displaying something different, random, and more importantly odd; looped and somewhat eerie vintage footage, video from a VCR with maladjusted tracking, etc. After some seemingly shy banter with some friends in the audience, the band readied to open the set. The lead singer gave what looked like a nervous nod. Two seconds later, however, she upped the attitude and threw pretty much any object that wasn't nailed down to the back wall with her opening vocal in 'WWth33'. The band stayed in groove with a rich, full sound throughout the set and it was obvious that they genuinely enjoyed the music they were playing. Good job guys, keep rollin' the good music out.

The Crayons have a show coming up at The Basement on February 8th. It's actually the cd release party marking the release of Human Incineration's new full length album. The event will include 10 other bands spread across two stages (The Basement and House of Crave). If you are in to metal at all (or even if you aren't and want to try something new), put away your Guitar Hero and your Rock Band for just one night, get out of the house, and go see how it's done.

You can find The Crayons on myspace here:
http://www.myspace.com/theothercrayonssuck

The Reel Peel: Taking Aim

Sound Peel will be exploring different realms of music, with a heavy focus on music as art instead of as product. Unfortunately, society generally tells us that there are only two positions for a musician (or an artist for that matter) to find themselves in: famous or failure (Oh no!). In reality, pursuing art or music as a career, or more importantly as a life choice, is really no different than choosing any other path for your life. You have to start somewhere, sometime, and you may put a lot of time and money in to it before you are satisfied (just like an engineer, doctor, or farmer). A local musician's work is no less valuable than what you may hear on any mainstream radio station. In fact, it can be better in many ways: for instance, by NOT being jaded from conforming to a marketable image all-the-while struggling with the balance of creating product versus creating true art... (Whew! I was just dying to get that all out).

Seriously, though, let's take a look at what's going on in our own local scenes, others' local scenes, and in regional, (and yes) national scenes. Let's look at musicians the way that any artists should look at each other, and I think we can find hope yet. Perhaps we will find that there is more out there than what Clear-Channel tells us, than what Wal-Mart sells us, and maybe... just maybe, we will find a little i n s p i r a t i o n.

About The Contributor

Rich Karsmizki is a conceptual artist / musician currently living in Columbus, OH. He is studying at Ohio State University, and doing local freelance photography, artwork, and design, mostly relating to music.

He also has probably been called a hippie more than a few times.

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Welcome to Sound Peel!

Sound Peel is somewhat like a garden of fresh fruits and veggies: maybe not quite ripe yet, maybe a little green, but never rotten and always completely unjaded by the sweeping radar of the mainstream music industry ;) If you are not sure what I'm talking about, that's all the more reason to return frequently and read up. Oh, and the rest of you should probably do the same. Well that pretty much covers it. Remember to eat your veggies.