2 ladies and some dudes

Mirah - Small Sale EP

I'll have you know I listened to a two-disc Agoraphobic Nosebleed album yesterday.

I'm talking about this one since I've been listening to it all week and don't yet have a copy of her new album (which is called (A)spera). Deal with it! And if you see this 7" in a used record store, buy it and then sell it to me so I don't have to steal it from my girlfriend when she isn't looking.

I'll be brief: 3 incredible songs, 1 not as good song, and 1 awesome instrumental. Totally twee, cutesy stuff here but Mirah's voice is so undeniably pure that all is forgiven. "Lonestar" even made me consider NOT hating Texas as much as I truly and deeply do. Nice try.

And if some sensitive indie-rock loser puts "Birthday Present" on a mixtape for you on your birthday, he's trying way too hard and should really just be more vocal about his feelings towards you instead of letting a beautiful young lesbian woman speak for him.

Madeline Adams - White Flag

I've only heard this one all the way through once, while driving through quaint towns in Northern Louisiana on the way to a rather unfulfilling weekend on tour. It was actually a perfect day outside...not a cloud in the sky. Good thing I was stuck in the van.

Madeline is awesome. She played most of these songs at the show I did for her here in Baton Rouge, and a gaggle of mostly young college girls sat on the floor in the living room with big shiny smiles on their faces. This album is sort of a departure from her other, more Plan-it-X type stuff. She's got a full backing band behind her, and the songs have a little more twang in them. Excellent hooks all around...just really catchy, good, folk-y music.

She calls Athens home, but she was born here in Baton Rouge! See? We're not all that bad!


SFN - (s/t 7" on 625 Thrash)

The first time I saw these guys we were playing with them in this weird office space in Madison, WI and they tore the place to shreds. YOUNG kids, maybe 18 or 19 at the oldest just exploding with energy. The second time, my other band played with them in New Orleans and they all must've done a bunch of coke beforehand or something because they jumping off the stage and tackling people in the crowd while playing their already break-neck-paced set like the record player was on 78rpm or something. Again, they demolished the place.

Powerviolence is such an obscure and stupid sounding genre that I feel ridiculous even talking about it. As if grindcore wasn't already music for people with strange music tastes, powerviolence takes it a step further by adding TOTAL cookie-monster vocals, even shorter songs, lower-tuned guitars, more bass, and 5-second sludge parts. SFN manage to make all this sound pretty impressive, even if their name supposedly stands for Smoke Fucking Nugs. And as if they weren't already playing an obscure-enough genre, 625 only pressed 300 copies of this album. So basically, find it on Soulseek or whatever if you're one of the, like, 2 other people I know who have heard of powerviolence and not of this band, or if you just like extreme stuff. Then go back and listen to Apartment 213, Lack of Interest, and Man is the Bastard if you want to hear some of powerviolence's heavy hitters. Steal mp3s, buy records.