trackoday

Sorry for all the ranting lately. I chose this trackoday in order to lighten the mood.

Slightly.

Yes, I know that Modest Mouse is now everyone’s favorite indie-rock band, but where were you all when they were grinding out their earlier, shall we say, more experimental material? ‘Cos you know, their old stuff is so much better.

Just kidding. I didn’t really discover MM until some time after Everywhere And His Nasty Parlour Tricks in 2001 and have slowly filled out their earlier catalog. I wouldn’t say their older stuff is better, but I would say that it was, expectedly, less polished. Yet it still retains at least the germ of the sound they’ve solidified over their last two band-defining releases.

Amazon | iTunes

Missed The Boat by Modest Mouse from We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

Another reason I chose this particular track is that there are a ton of free videos online for this song. All part of a contest where fans made their own videos and the best won some cool crap. But you know who really won? The band. All of the videos are obviously crafted by people who love the song and the band and probably do so even more after spending time being creative at a distance with them (the band provided video of themselves playing in front of blue screen). The result, a few really good MTV-quality videos and a lot more videos that prove something I’ve always suspected, that it’s easy to direct music videos. With a good soundtrack, almost any imagery is watchable for 5 minutes (as long as the edit cuts happen on the beat).

Last week I mentioned in a trackoday post that The Poster Children were one of my favorite bands. Well, they are and have been for a very long time.

I was introduced to them in 1995 by an acquaintance (his name escapes me now) who had picked up a floppy disk that the band was handing out at a concert. Since he didn’t own a computer, he left the disk at my house. Eventually, curiosity got the better of me and I popped it into my Power Macintosh 7100 and double-clicked the little multi-media application (I think it was made with Adobe Director). I was blown away by what I heard and saw. Turns out that the Poster Children are DIY computer geeks and had done all the programming, graphics, and design themselves.

I’ve been following the band closely ever since, including a mind-blowing show at The 7th Street Entry where they opened for Archers Of Loaf.

Best… show… ever.

Amazon

Junior Citizen by Poster Children from Junior Citizen

If you prefer that your artists have a DIY streak rather than relying on a big-evil label, check out the Poster Children. They’ve been doing it themselves from the get go.

The Round 13 Records trackoday week continues with the band Droids Attack.

Round 13 Records

The John Oates Mustache Ride by Droids Attack from Fatal/Error

I love the title of this song (and the album for that matter). It brought me back to my early teens, watching Hall and Oates on The Tonight Show. Of course, I would have been completely clueless to the implied meaning of the song title in those days.

Interesting bit of Droids Attack trivia. The band’s first release (All Your Chicks Are Belong To Us) was recorded by none other than Rick Valentin of The Poster Children, one of my all time favorite bands. Who knows, if I play my cards right, maybe I can leverage this reduction in degrees of separation into a “chance” meeting with Rick and Rose. A boy can dream, right?

Round 13 Records week continues here at the Gumption Blog trackoday with The Ugly Fat Kids.

Round 13 Records

Guys Named Geoff by The Ugly Fat Kids from Earth: The Most Dangerous Planet In The World

Like most of the Round 13 bands (maybe all, but I haven’t listened to the whole catalog yet), The Ugly Fat Kids fall into the far-too-broad category of punk. But also like their other label mates, their music is infused with Quality that only comes from believing in and loving what you’re doing. They also put on a remarkably, ahem, energetic live show, so you know they understand the punk (or is it post-punk?) ethos.

I’m officially working on version 2.0 of the Round 13 Records website. Round 13 is a very cool local label “run” by a couple of very cool cats. In their own words:

The concept was simple…put a collective of bands together that play music they believe in and were willing to help promote Round 13 Records.

In honor of Tonnage, the founders of Round 13, they get the first trackoday of the new week.

Round 13

Luddite by Tonnage from The Panzram Session

I don’t have a lot of this hard-driving, hook-crunch rock in my collection, but you know what? There’s Quality in Tonnage’s music. I’ve been listening to the EP all day and it’s definitely been good for my gumption. Grrrrrr… I’m gonna kick me some bug butt!