Nashville's The Clutters "named themselves after a real–life Kansas family whose slaughter was detailed in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood". Their sound is drunken, old school, punkish rock and roll with a singer, Doug Lehmann, who has the nasal delivery of Cameo ("Word Up!"). It's a funny mix.

Chicago hip hop producer releaes his own disk with a few folks helping out: like KRS-One, members of Tortoise and others. This one with Truth Enola is a good one. And check that Truth link. It links directly to audio for his latest album. I dig it.

Panthers have a new album out: The Trick.

Panthers have a new album out: The Trick.

Crap this is great music. From Brazilian trio Bonde Do Role. Makes sense that they were discovered in the States by DJ Diplo - a fantastic dj - one of my favorites. The album With Lasers is set for release "June 4th or 5th."

I usually don't go for the singer/songwriter thing too often but I like the phatty, broken up bass underneath and the 'ohh's and 'ahh's of the backup vocals...

I don't know who James Jackson Toth is or his Wooden Wand band. Supposedly they have some history. I can guess he may have run around with the arty set a decade or more ago: This album was created, I'm told, with some Sonic Youth help: Lee Ronaldo produced and played a few things and Steve Shelley played some things as well.

Says a bio:

'I want it to be an un-weird record,' was Toth's plan. The road-weary songwriter had been spending a lot of time with old Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings records, and wanted to transcend the 'psychedelic' connotations he'd been pegged with since his days fronting Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice.

Ie, weird-o psychedlic ain't weird no more. Good choice Toth.

Indie music has progressively gotten more bombastic over the recent years. Remember when indie was an adjective to literally mean weepy, fragile "woa is me" tunes? That was great in small doses but... Look back a couple years at Hellthy archives and see me pleading for more grit... please. And ever so glacially, I've gotten my wish. Indie seems now to really have expanded it's meaning into crotch-stuffing swagger. I say, thankfully.

I like this track. But I get the sense that its center is as flimsy as its band name... it stands for nothing save its own goofiness. I'm generalizing greatly here but that seems to have been indie's curse with its recent going grit from day one: it thinks loudness is a goofy novelty that it should't truly believe in.

Remember Goblin Cock? I thought it was some great, fuzzed-out music from Pinback's Rob Crow. But the band couldn't trust 'that which they had wrought' could they? The har har band name, the ever cheeky bandmate monikers, the silly lyrics and that awful video... it all added up to say: "We don't really like what we are doing here."

I could be wrong about this track. Perhaps I'm just colored by the "aren't we so cheeky" band name (Meowskers [with a Metalica-style 'M' of course]) that sounds like part of a punchline from an episode of "Scrubs."

Screw it. It's a good track.

10 years after NYC legalizes tatoos (it was illegal?) a group is hosting its second annual NYC Tattoo Convention.

Can I vouch for the quality of this affair? No. I just recieved an unsolicited email - the type I usually ignore. But this one piqued my interest and I forward it to any New Yorkers who may care.

Tenth Annual New York City Tattoo Convention
Roseland Ballroom
239 West 52nd Street (Times Square)

Friday, May 18th from 4:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight
Saturday, May 19th from 12:00 noon to 12:00 midnight
Sunday, May 20th from 12:00 noon to 8:00 p.m.

Tickets are $50.00 for a 3-day, unlimited access pass and $18.00 for one-time, daily admission.

From the press release:

"The Convention hosts over eighty renowned tattoo artists from around the world, as well as body piercing professionals and a variety of other vendors.

"Last year’s Convention boasted a program that included amazing sideshows and competitions. Sideshows will include many intriguing, alternative acts that are guaranteed to keep spectators in awe. Numerous competitions are held daily and range from “Best Tribal” to “Best Color”. This year’s Convention promises to be even more exciting as we celebrate our ten year anniversary.

"Food and refreshments are available on site, provided by Creative Catering."

I like this band. They have the funked-out one which I'll play next and this melodic 70's sunshine number. Well made music.

And if you are a New Yorker reading this they are playing in a few days in Park Slope Brooklyn:

May 9th - Union Hall @ 10pm
702 Union Street, Brooklyn, New York - $7

Here is a video I made (with the band's label's permission of course) for the Favourite Son's Hang On Girl. I think it fits. What say you?

The source material came from an old police training video called "Sudden Birth" of a real, live birth in the back seat of a car. It was a real birth because it's intenion was to prepare State Troopers for when they may be presented with the real thing themselves. How this woman agreed to go through such an ordeal in the back of a car with actors and cameras and lights and all that... I don't know. One tough gal I suppose. The footage came from the great Internet Archive.

Warning! There is some blood and some lady parts shown in this video. If you like neither, do not watch.

Another tune in a long line of produced, Brooklyn-ish-sounding, disco-drums, Garage pop. Other tunes on the album, from what I can gather, however, are all over the place. Some get a little more emo and others are just plain uninspired, by-the-numbers tripe. I guess it's all "by the numbers." Ie: "This is the Garage tune." "This is the emo one." "This is the straight ahead rocker" etc...

I like the seemingly sincere, cheesie, 90's hair band, guitar-store employee solo on this one. I've heard this song  elsewhere I'm pretty sure. Sounds familiar - not sure where. I don't isten to over-the-air radio so don't heckle me that it's all over the radio waves or all over Mtv - because if it is I don't have any gauge for that garbage.

This is an older track from Har Mar Superstar from the great Kill Rock Stars label. Har Mar's Sean Tillmann (aka Sean Har Mar) has been devoting time to his other outlet "Sean Na Na" - a rather standard sounding indie pop outfit.

Says Sean on his site: "I'll be returning to the studio soon to work on new Har Mar jams to rock you with. Get ready."

 Cool. Bring it.

Indie funkee. God bless: some indie folks have fuel for the funk. Here is the video from Waverly Films. Here are versions for your iPod (mp4), for streaming through the Feed Player (flv), and for your cell phone (3gpp2 cdma).