Teri Mumm and the team at Bombshell are aptly named. A focused approach, laser-guided tactics, and delivering results with big impact! They approached our project and integrated with our team with intelligence, humor, talent, and tireless commitment. Looking forward to the next time.
Jeffrey Berke, General Partner, Corporate Staging
To some like myself this Saturday, April 16 is more than just another way to battle the emotional roller coaster Utah spring weather graces us with. It’s a day unlike any other for a music lover. It’s Record Store Day, a day to avoid the internet download and the megastore and move your pasty, sun-deprived legs down to your local music store and celebrate the fact that, well, celebrate that you still have a local music store to go to. We all have horror stories of music havens and basement shops lost along the way. Thankfully, Salt Lake City has a selection of independent businesses that embrace and cultivate the spirit of music appreciation and the innate need to keep that community thriving.
There are plenty of reasons to drop by Randy’s or Slowtrain or Graywhale or Uprok (just make sure the SLC Marathon does not frustrate your journey) but most important is to actually attend the festivities these local businesses present. Among its many meanings, ‘living locally’ also means showing a bit of audio solidarity with your local small business owner struggling to sell just enough hot jams and indie experimentalism to eek out a living. I don’t want to inflate the overall importance of buying an obscure punk 7” or for stopping and nodding your head at an in-store live set on Saturday, but the physical presence of a community that more and more lives in a faceless online culture should not be ignored especially by its audience in residence.
In short, find a reason, any reason to show up. The reason you start with will not be the one you leave with. For most this will not be hard, but in case you need any coaxing a concise list of Saturday’s goings on across downtown can be found here. I am sure to see you there. Somewhere.
TV On The Radio – Nine Types of Light
TV On The Radio’s fourth studio release, Nine Types of Light, (out this Tuesday, April 12) keeps the quintets essential sonic & vocal layering while hitting with a far more positive overall tone, pace and vibe. The first single ‘Will Do’ and the album’s first track ‘Second Song’ introduce the album as far brighter, and overall it stays that way.
Sure they revisit dark brooding sounds, but this take the form of R&B missions to Mars on such cuts as ‘You’ and ‘New Cannonball Blues.’ Heavily distorted vocal and instrumental bass rumble through otherwise simple rhythm and blues songs, producing what TVOTR does very very well - soulful space jams for the elevators of the 23rd century.
There’s a lot to choose from during Record Store Week, but make sure to pick up Nine Types of Light. Tunde and Kyp’s vocals, a bit of a new approach to horn arrangements and that signature atmospheric tonal fuzzy funk may be just the spring current that you need to lean back into and float on for a time. Anytime’ll do.
With w h o k i l l (due on next week, April 19) it is evident that tUnE-yArDs (the brainchild of the sonically resourceful Merrill Garbus) has taken great pains not to lose the awkward brilliance displayed in her first release, BiRd-BrAiNs, as well as in her live performances.
Looped percussion progressions and background vocals, all Garbus’ own, lay down a bed of quirky danceable rhythm that gives her freedom to experiment further with each track.
If Sleater Kinney were the house band for Nina Simone and Beck with the Supremes (sans Diana) singing back-up mixed through a Speak & Spell you might get close to the auditory chaos that flows through Garbus. Yet, in all its cacophony it works. The catchy hooks and elusive beats take hold, fall apart and then are rebuilt upon themselves.
Check out gems such as ‘My Country,’ ‘Killa, ‘ and the masterfully odd ‘Gangsta.’
tUnE-yArDs bring the oddball beauty to the Urban Lounge May 3rd.
Also, from w h o k i l l s is this engaging video for the track 'Bizness':
Beastie Boys - ‘Make Some Noise’
The first single, ‘Make Some Noise,’ jumps on ya’ with a whiny, nasally bass line and heavily distorted vocals reminiscent of the early 90’s circa Check Your Head. Hype men extraordinaire, this live track whets the appetite for a few more weeks.
It’s premature of course, but with May 3rd release of Hot Sauce Committee, Part 2 as well as the Sundance short film and soon to be viral hit, Fight For Your Right – Revisited, its nice to see the trio is still kickin’. As midlife encroaches on these ‘Boys with grey hairs, kids and serious health issues (MCA is said to be doing well), its great to see they’re still having fun and bringing more energy that anyone in the game.