Useless Clatter...First Cuts/Demos- Tennis, Cults, The Brian Jonestown Massacre

      Like a writer's rough draft, a song goes through countless edits and re-edits as demos before the finished product finds itself on an album.  Sometimes big changes are made once a band is settled into the recording studio and begin to play. The Rolling Stones originally wanted "Start Me Up" to have a more reggae feel to it, until four years in the recording studio turned it into the song we know and love today.  In most cases though, it's just a tweak or two that comes by way of the producer or sound engineer meant to "clean up" a song and give it a crisp finish.  These demo tracks, or first cuts as they are sometimes called, often get tossed out and forgotten once the band discovers the perfect sound, records it and calls it a day.  

      In some cases, bands save their demos and first cuts to be released as promotional material for a forthcoming album.  The songs are let free into the realms of the internet and find their way onto various music blogs, tabloids and websites taken as evidence for what to expect next from the band.  We sit and listen to these first cuts as the band heads back to the studio to work the final nooks and crannies for another, better release.

[Personally I enjoy the Tennis demo versions better than the actual album tracks]

TENNIS
demo/first Cut                                                                          released on CAPE DORY  [2011]

demo/first Cut                                                                           released on CAPE DORY  [2011]

                                

CULTS
demo/first Cut                                                                         released on CULTS  [2011]

                               

THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE
released on TAKE IT FROM THE MAN  [1996]                         re-released on STRUNG OUT IN HEAVEN  [1998]
                               

Hear This...Stream Demos/First Cuts by Blackfeet Braves

Fresh off the latest post dealing with the staggering differences between a band's initial rough first cuts and the remastered album songs, we here at TUNEclatter (hah, there's only one person here) dug up a goldmine of rough cuts from a relatively unknown outfit located deep in the valleys of southern California by the name of Blackfeet Braves. 

Who Are They?

As far as any background info goes on these guys, I know just about as much as you all do.  This could be one guy or it could be an eighteen person hippie-colony along the lines of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.  Who knows. Few details are given concerning who they are.  However, I see that they do have a variety of shows coming up in California so I'm pretty sure they are real.  But their name bearing resemblance to a real group of Native American tribes of northern America could lead to another theory.  For all I know, this could really be a pack of wild Indians sitting in a tee-pee making psychedelic riff-raff as they smoke piece pipes.  Just sayin'...

Free Music Fridays...#3

+I've made a bit of a change to these Free Music Fridays worth pointing out: The link next to DWNLD is no longer a download link, (assuming you could all decode DWNLD to mean "download").  Instead, I embedded the download link into the word DWNLD, so clicking on the word will lead you to the link to grab your free song.  Now the URL to the right of that is a link to the artist's website/band page if anyone has the immediate desire to learn more about the band.

1. "Chasing My Mind" Holograms
With a bit of revved up 90s arcade-like techno thrown into the mix, this song steers back to the nostalgic days of Nintendo when punk rock was fast, messy and unbearably raw.

DWNLD | http://capturedtracks.com/artists/holograms/

2. "Flesh Dance" Gothic Tropic
Vibrant little piece of psych-pop with perfect impromptu-sounding guitars and smooth bass line.  The words take a bit a backseat here and allow everything to mesh together perfectly- not a single piece commanding the other.
DWNLD | http://gothictropic.bandcamp.com/

3. "If You Want It" TV Girl
Fresh and delightfully cheery song about the harmonizing "upsides" of one-night stands.  Sleigh bells always make things more pleasant.  

DWNLD | http://tvgirl.bandcamp.com/

4. "Henrietta" Yeasayer
A vibrant, swirling mix of fanning strings, beats and bops with a T.Pain auto-tune tossed in at the end to break it down.  This time, it actually sounds good.

DWNLD | http://www.myspace.com/yeasayer

Hear This...Stream Gothic Tropic's Awesome Problems EP

      
"They have the summer songs that blow 'Pumped Up Kicks' out of the California Pacific..." [Straight from their own bio page]  I'm not totally sure who or what designates a song to be a summer song, though it has always been the whistling in 'Pumped Up Kicks' that did it for me. 

      But this Cali trio goes way beyond whistling. Sure they don’t stand a chance overtaking Foster The People with the catchiest song ever written because frankly no one does, not even Lady Gaga. 

      Gothic Tropic took the handbook on “How to Make a Catchy Song Remain No. 1 on iTunes All Summer” and threw it out the window.  They take the atypical and often overused jangly guitar sound and add some zing to it. In their songs “Monkey Bars” and “Kill Lloyd Opus,” they throw in the occasional bongos, maracas, hand claps and distorted guitar riffs wherever they deem necessary. It’s an almost organic approach to music where a little Do-It-Yourself and impromptu touch ups are welcomed and encouraged. The end result actually sounds quite organized. Whether or not they blow out “Pumped Up Kicks” is debatable but no doubt, if I had the suitable conditions I would certainly add Gothic Tropic to my “Late Night Summer Barbecue on the Beach” playlist.

+ Gothic Tropic is offering a free download of the last song on the EP "Flesh Dance."  It will be added as a part of Free Music Fridays which I will post tomorrow.  [LINK]

Useless Clatter...2012 Album Releases [June]

Here's a general list of the albums I am most excited to hear when they release in June.  Its a good mix of new bands with debuts (Friends, solo Glen Hansard) as well as some veteran rockers breaking a sleepy hiatus (Smashing Pumpkins, Neil Young + Crazy Horse).  I even threw DMX up on the list too for some good fun, despite the fact that his music is still angry as hell.  It's all fun and anyways even without DMX,  June looks to be a terrific month for music.

June 5
Crocodiles – Endless Flowers

Friends – Manifest!

Hear This...Stream Foxygen's New EP "Take The Kids Off Broadway"

      From the same label that brought you the San Fran rock band Girls, Jagjaguwar Records moves across the country to grab a group of up and coming rockers hailing from the Empire State.  They call themselves Foxygen and these guys have generously decided to stream their second EP "Take The Kids Off Broadway" for free via their Bandcamp site.

      Describing Foxygen is no small task.  It took me a while.  Sure they're indie rock, but to pinpoint that sound is something else.  I hear something like a mix of MGMT psychedlia fused with the loose, jangly texture of The Strokes. A little Mick Jagger doesn't fail to show up either, especially on "Waitin' 4 You."

Here's the full track list-

1. Abandon My Toys  6:04

2. Make It Known  4:51

3. Take The Kids Off Broadway  3:14

4. Waitin' 4 You  4:07

5. Teenage Alien Blues  10:05

6. Why Did I Get Married  4:03 

7. Middle School Dance Song (For Richard Swift)  3:58

Five Songs From...The Black Keys

If Brothers was their breakout album in 2009, then the Black Key's seventh album El Camino, released last December and debuting at number 2 on the Billboard 200, was certainly their most widely heard, appreciated, Googled, etc.  It only took seven albums for everyone to realize how talented and widely appealing they could be.  Even in their earliest days as two college drop outs playing music in a small town in Ohio, their sound, performance style and energy all pointed towards something great.  Nonetheless, they sat patiently without a care for fame and produced a stellar array of rock n' roll worth revisiting.

Formed back in 2001 and consisting of singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, the Black Keys were formed at a time when rock 'n roll had slowly seceded its monopoly hold of American ears in favor of the fast emerging hip-hop and R & B scenes.  Rock still had its big hitters in Pearl Jam, The Foo Fighters and Green Day, but at the time, it seemed no one could outsell Eminem, 'N sync or The Backstreet Boys.  As a result, the Black Keys came along during a time where rock formed itself on "revival" acts.  Post-punk revival was headed by acts like The Strokes and Interpol, while garage revival came back with The White Stripes and The Black Keys.  The revival of the latter genre meant a return to the raw sound and sheer simplicity formed by early blues rock 'n roll.  Recorded in Carney's basement, their debut album The Big Come Up did just that.  Stripped down guitars, drums and that's basically it.  

Met with some small, initial success, Auerbach and Carney remained a relatively unknown and mainly an "underground" act until the release of 2010's Brothers which earned them three Grammys including Best Alternative Music Album.  With this and the release of their latest album El Camino, the Black Keys have established themselves as something far greater than just two guys "reviving" old tunes.  Selling out their first stadium concert late last year, it's obvious they've done just that.