Saturday, February 21, 2009

millions of dudes


indie kids, frat boys and gay dudes

hooligans, brazilians, same difference

tonight i went to the ep release party of a local band from detroit auspiciously named MILLIONS OF BRAZILIANS http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=233520437

a band (obviously) destined for greatness, because behind their impressive band name they have tunes that will make you dance until your legs break, buy their latest ep seriously

i drove to the crofoot in pontiac with my close friend alex erwin (the sometimes/most of the time/live bass player for my band the kodaks) to see the show in the pike room (upstairs of the crofoot) the ep mobs (even the abbreviation is cool) is called half horse/half horse, yes, there is cleverness everywhere

the night started with this band called silverghost, http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=226704158

silverghost consists of a girl playing dirty, mean guitar and singing in perfect harmony with a guy playing bass and regular keyboards. the duo played over drum machines, but these were no regular drum machines, the frontman of silverghost arranged the drums to play to a key, only high hat at some parts, on bass drum at some parts, bassically down to a science, it was impressive to say the least, they were kind of a like a cooler version of mat & kim or mates of state

then deastro played. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=22290061

for anyone who doesn't know deastro first let me say they are phenomenal. deastro started as the project of a detroit man named randolph, recording indie electro pop rock by himself and releasing it online. deastro (pronounce day-stro) has blossomed into a full band with four people including randy with tracks being released through urban outfitters for free online. yeah, intense shit. go download lstn #3 from urbanoutfitters.com to listen to one of my favorite deastro tracks "shaded forest"

deastro's live performance literally blew me away, the drummer played on about a 10 piece kit including a splash cymbal and double bass pedals. the drummers name is jeff and he is the nicest drummer you well ever meet in your life. and he has got to be the only guy to incorporate double bass pedals and make it sound amazing and not screaming metal (listen to the double tom and double bass pedal action on "parellelogram")

overall i would give deastro's live perfomance about a 3000 out of 10 and alex agrees they were just straight up amazing and nice too. after they were done playing alex and i both helped them carry some gear offstage because we know how much of a pain in the ass it is to try and get a 10 piece plus drum kit off the stage so another can play two seconds after you. for helping them randolph said he would mail me a free copy of their album "keepers" which i am really excited about. pre performance i also let their guitarist use a pick i had in my pocket. very cool very nice dudes and an amazing show




now onto millions of brazilians.

i have seen the brazilians before, i saw them open up for french kicks a couple months ago, which was funny because french kicks have this real chill groovy pop vibe while mobs has a very dirty rock sound, still great though. seeing as how it was their ep release party they were selling a deal of one shirt, one cd and one vinyle for 12 dollars- UNBEATABLE

balloons were inflated and drinks were passed around to everyone (except me, the only under age fucker in the bar) but it didn't matter i was drunk off adrenaline. because millions of brazilians have an incredible live show, i danced, i jumped up and down, i fist pumped, i threw things. needless to say i lost my shit

but you can't help it, the brazilians are good, they are way cool dudes, and just amazing live. incredible dance drum beats and then two dueling guitars that both switch from guitar riffs to thick thick thick bass via pedals and howling falsetto vocals which will also turn into yells of excitement

one of the most entertaining parts of millions (you can call them mobs, millions, brazilians, it's just a great name) is not just their live show but their interaction with the crowd during live shows. especially since they live in detroit it was like they were playing to 100 of their closest friends going nuts

i don't know if someone or all of the band were in fraternities during college but their seems to be a lot of frat esque dudes at their shows, i am pretty sure they are all just close and maybe it is because millions just have such rocking music but it is really interesting to see these huge (tall and fat) dudes with trim haircuts, skanky chains and open collared shirts fist pumping.

but that is just the thing, it is millions of brazilians, it is just them, more power to them if they can get frat type guys to come to a hipster club on a saturday night in pontiac to rock, it is just awesome and a really really awesome environment

needless to say the whole audience was rocking out, myself included, i was dancing pretty crazily in abouts the third row so when some front rowers saw this they literally grabbed me and pulled me up front, i am pretty sure the guy or guys that actually physically tugged my arm up were 100% gay but that is fine i am not homophobic and it was just more entertaining to see indie kids, frat boys and gay guys all rocking out jumping up and down in unison

oh what barriers that millions of brazilians break

not to mention there were some EXTREMELY good looking girls in the audience as well, there were seriously like, smokin hot ladies, all dressed in skinny jeans and illustrious tops with beautiful hair and more beautiful faces, AND almost every single hot girl i saw was kissing on a member of each band

it makes me proud, all these awesome bands i am writing about are FROM DETROIT which is the city i will be located at in a couple of months and not only are these bands awesome but they attract said forms of men and even better, attractive women

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

turbo amazing


jonas, wez and zack are the latest lineup for turbo fruits, a band that i really respect from nashville. anyone who has read my blog before probably knows of my love for them, see my post "tennessee baby" with the links that don't work.

anyways, turbo fruits played detroit on monday night at the lager house in detroit, my friend adam "robert law" laidlaw and i went and saw them and it was just an awesome show.

this ridiculous band "kommie kilpatrick" opened and unfortunately they weren't half as amazing as their name. the decks played second and they seriously tore it up. i am friends with hank who plays bass and i was just so happy to see a band my age, from detroit, tearing it up, i bought their record "breath and bone" which will be my next weeks downtime article for NOISE.

then turbo fruits played, and all i can say is they are amazing. they totally nailed nailed, jonas is really awesome at guitar, anyone who listened to anything be your own pet knows that. but what people may not know is wez traylor (also from meemaw and kintaro) is a killer musician and played amazing bass, and zack attack played the drums like his life depended on it. great show. over all i would definitely say i like turbo fruits new line up even better then their last, their newest record is gonna be insane

as my friend adam can attest to, i pretty much lost my shit. i was rocking out hardcore, me and the lead singer for the decks, alex, we front row just going ape shit, it was real fun. turbo fruits only played one or two songs from their previous record, one being the incredible stoner ballad "volcano". but most noteable are their newest tracks- "lotta lotta laides" is my favorite, "sadie" is fucking great and "mama's mad cause i friend my brain" has a great hook, like i said, i am super pumped for their newest record, you can listen to most of those songs at their myspace ( www.myspace.com/turbofruits )

this other detroit band called the beekeepers played after them and from what i heard they were really good, adam paid more attention and he loved them. i was in the other side of the lager house talking to a new acquaintance, named cy. cy was touring with the fruits and him and i got into big conversations about music and about be your own pet's break up and his record label and all sorts of shit, it was great talks. i hope next time i go to nashville cy and i get to hang out soon.

besides hanging out with cy i got to talk to the turbo fruits, a lot, i got interview them for my (lame) senior project on music therapy, but adam recorded the interview for me and it is definitely a keeper, a brilliant entertainment twist on music therapy, hopefully it will be easily located on youtube soon.

it was a great night, adam is also deeply in love with the lead guitarist for the decks now, her name is molly and she is a wicked guitar player, the whole night was a massive success. i am liking detroit more and more each day, i hope i like it half this much when i love there

this weekend i am going to the pike room to see deastro and millions of Brazilians for the ep release party, brazilians have been really nice guys to me, and so has randolph from deastro, they both have listened to my latest demo which for the most part people seem to like, which gets me really excited. you can listen to that at www.myspace.com/thekodaksband

Sunday, February 15, 2009

primitive demos


alright

my band, my project, called the kodaks, just recorded. i just recorded. i did a demo with one of my friends named jeff yateman. jeff is the drummer for past the pacific. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=47738014

jeff and i have been friends since middle school and for a couple years now he has been in pop punk bands and i have been in indie pop bands and our bands always play together. the moral of the story is jeff is a really nice guy, amazing fucking musician and (as i now know) a very tech savy man. he records his rap group nig nog with garageband on his mac, that is how we first got talking about the possibilities of recording, but i love nig nog, they are really really really good actually www.myspace.com/nignograp

anyways, i went over to jeff's and over a span of two days i finished one song (that i will go back to PROPERLY finish tomorrow) and that song is called mouth kiss. you can listen to it on my bands myspace www.myspace.com/thekodaksband

after talking during along night with jeff and ryan (also from ptp) about the new song we came to the conclusion that i should upload the song to my myspace, but delete all the other songs, to show off the quality of mouth kiss better

either way, it doesn't matter, because now i am "releasing" all the songs anyways. i am giving away the songs in a free download, the download has a lot of songs i recorded very primitively, many through my laptop. but anyways, if you want you can download all the songs, songs i did by myself, with other musicians, including the live demos i just did with alexalex. here are the songs that are included, in no order

yeah i guess this could be considered the official official release of the adam winter 08 ep, enjoy

live demos-
-little miss vixen ft. alexalex
-get flowers ft. alexalex
-nature of the experiment (tokyo police club cover) ft. alexalex

really old live demos-
-dark room (done with previous members of the kodaks)
-choose (done with hair lab)

my demos
-little miss vixen
-library
-dress shopping
-mouth kiss
-memories
-nothing will exist anymore ft. adam "robert law" laidlaw
-dark room
-tennis star
-my pearl

Saturday, February 07, 2009

band updates

for anyone who doesn't know, my band is called the kodaks (myspace.com/thekodaksband

i say band, but what i really mean is me, because there is no real band, all there really is is me, i record demos and shit all by myself, i write all the songs, i make up all the parts, and i will record demos by myself with drum machines then i go and record all my stuff with other musicians i know. guys that i used to be in bands with or guys that are in bands i know, basically just friends. i record with whoever whenever

a couple of weeks ago i did some live demos with my friends alex and alex. alex erwin played bass mainly, he was in a really early version of the kodaks, he was also in room service with me and my first band the devons. alex castillo played drums like a crazy awesome mother fucker, he was also in my first band the devons. we recorded three live demos, little miss vixen, get flowers and a cover of tokyo police club's nature of the experiment. it is hard to hear any of my vocals in any of the demos, so that sucks but i recorded vocals later for the cover. over all i do like the demos

now that i am down here in nashville i have been handing out some demos and stuff, i handed out demos with those three songs and another demo i did a long time ago by myself. that demo is for a song called the library, and it means a lot to me so it is kind of one of my more hidden songs

only one song from my demo i give out is on my bands myspace (myspace.com/thekodaksband) so check out what you one on my myspace, there are some really old demos, like dark room and then really really fuckin old like choose which was done when i was in a band called hair lab

anyways, the real update here is that i am recording some more songs next week with my friend jeff, he is in this band that i am really good friends with and that we (i) have been playing live with for years now. right now his band is called past the pacific, so check them out, they are recording in a studio right now. but anyways, i am recording some demos with my friend jeff using a better recording program so the vocals can actually be heard hopefully. anyways, if you want the live demos i did a while ago email me or message me and i can mail them do you or something

keep your ear to the ground, i will try and let anyone who cares know what is up

tennessee, baby!


nashville to be more specific

alright so any one who reads my blog probably reads my sisters blog (emily at iusedtogetpaidforthis.blogspot.com) and if you don't read her blog you damn well should because although it is less informative than mine she at least makes the effort at capitalization and hers is funny as shit

anyways, what i am getting at is that if you have read iusedtogetpaidforthis.blogspot.com then you know emily, her husband matt (the blogosphere only know him as mc) and i, adam, have traveled to beautiful nashville, tennessee

the reason we traveled to the volunteer state (yeah, michigan has great lakes and tennessee has volunteers? that doesn't seem fair) is because emily has a writing conference on blogging set up at the hotel preston just outside of downtown nashville. at this conference she will learn how to possibly turn her blog into a book and also possibly meet her favorite auther/blogger; jen lancaster.

but what emily is really finding out is how much she hates "mommy bloggers" and how impatient she is with men, babies, long car rides, and rock bands.

matt and i drove from lapeer, michigan, leaving at around 6 o clock michigan time, driving through indiana stopping in kentucy at a quality inn a couple blocks away from a trucker hive, and then continuing our drive to tennessee in the morning. we drove through a timezone, we had no idea.

it is true, women everywhere are hitting on matt (mc, don't forget, same person) everywhere we go, matt and i are officially two of seven men in this entire hotel.

the main points i have to talk about in nashville is that after wandering around while emily was learning, matt and i met this guy named johnny with blond hair and a sleeve tattoo that worked at an apple store (apperently the only one in nashville) and he told us some cool places to go but really i kinda felt he was stuck on himself. he was nice and helpful but kind of no it all. but either way he told us about the mercy lounge () where i saw that one of my favorite nashville bands where playing.

there is a certain nashville that i would love someday to be a part of because it is all an older kind of rock with a modern twist and all kids my age playing fucking amazing music. there are multiple bands that i am obsessed with from the area and it bassically all started with

BE YOUR OWN PET () ()

the four original members of be your own pet were jemina, jonas, nathan and jamin, after their first record jamin left the band and john came in to play drums. while recording their second album with john, byop's jonas and john formed another band with a very close friend of the band named max, they formed

TURBO FRUITS

after meeting jonas last summer when byop played the nylon tour with the virgins and switches (this was right before the byop break up) i got into turbo fruits and bought their record and maintained contact with jonas online. eventually though, things must have got fucked up because john and max left jonas and turbo fruits. later it would become known that both john and max left jonas for the old singer of byop, jemina pearl, to join her on her solo project. john, max and jemina left nashville completely to go to new york to do jemina's solo stuff, seemingly betraying the nashville group, but no one will say anything band, this is what they are doing now

JEMINA PEARL

now that jonas was left alone he had to recruit other musicians to do turbo fruits with him, which was only a three piece and seeing how he has many friends in the tightly knit network of nashville, he found friends very quickly. he enlisted his friend wez that is another band that may or may not be broken up now, but either way i messaged them and they are way nice and i bought their record, they are called

MEEMAW

anyways, i am getting away from my point. through all my researching and record buying of nashville bands i found jamin, one of the original four members of be your own pet. jamin is still very good friends with jonas and nathan and also might have lived with some of the members of meemaw. it turns out that jamin original left the band to work on his two piece band with his brother jake, they are called

JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD

this is the band i saw last night, they are fucking amazing, that just needs to be said, i highly recommend going to their myspace and listening to their song "screaming banshee" and then buying as many of their records as possible, including their upcoming 7" single "bone jam". they played "bone jam" last night at the mercy lounge where they opened up for this band called the features. like i said, i recommend buying a JEFF record but that will not compare close to how amazing they are live. jamin (pronounced jame in) is one of the tightest drummers i have seen live and jake plays on a danelectro guitar with only three strings on it. this is not a joke. jeff the brotherhood fucking rules

you can buy almost all these records at this amazing local label in nashville that i really hope releases some of my records some day very very soon called

INFINITY CAT

but anyways, jeff rules, they rule so much that i got to meet them today. this is because last night after they played they peaced out because no one locally buys their records anymore. they didn't know i was there. i messaged them and they promptly messaged me bac, giving me the address of his work so i could stop buy and get their records and give them my demo. jamin works at a local bike shop in nashville called Halycon ()

matt and i talked to jamin for a while, he was way nice and way cool and gave me the lowdown on nashville, telling me about an underground show for this band called marj tonight and he told us to go eat at this bbq restaruant called hog heaven.

after metting jamin matt and i left and hit up this amazing vintage clothing store called hip zipper () where i got some really sweet clothes. after that matt and i went to a bar right next to hip zipper called the red door saloon. i can't really describe how awesome this bar was, all i can say is they don't exactly card (i never do anything illegal, ever) and they had kind of a voodoo theme AND many other patrons had sleeve tattoos. matt and i were only there for a minute while he drank some sweet yazoo pale ale and then we left.

after that we went a small music store that was really just 60 year old nashvillians (maybe?) playing mandolins but matt and i got some glass guitar slides, which we are really ancy to use. we are sitting in our hotel room right now waiting for emily to return from her free drinks. we both wish we had out guitars but all in all we can't do anything but be greatful for an amazing day in an amazing town

nashville has been good to me