From the back woods of Sparta, Tennessee come eclectic indie-rockers the Features. Their latest release, Some Kind of Salvation, was recorded without the help of a major label, and boasts a hodgepodge of songs with inventive lyrics and infectious melodies. Opening track “The Drawing Board” sets the tone of the record with a barrage of funky horns, and “The Temporary Blues” makes a statement about that shit job you just can’t stand but really can’t live without. Other standouts on the record include “GMF” – about zombie vegetables that take their non-conformist farmer hostage – and “Wooden Heart,” a post-break up/rebound anthem about putting the shine back on that tarnished but most important blood-pumping organ. On the whole, the record is full of energy. It’s relevant yet different, with audible influences like the Kinks and Elvis Costello. Some King of Salvation is a bit of a departure from the wild psychedelic rock you may expect from the Features, but “Off Track” or not – this foursome is poised to make a bold statement in the world of rock music. (Loose Tooth 2009)
As someone who once had a significant portion of his junior year of college ruined by a gentleman cranking “A Country Boy Can Survive” at all hours of the day and night, I’ve never been a big fan of Hank Williams, Jr., but when you grow up in the South, you learn to accept Bocephus as part of your life whether you actually like him or not. Plus, over the years, I’ve become a fan of his father (Hank, Sr.) and of his son (Hank III), so I feel like I ought to cut the good ol’ boy a little bit of slack.
Junior’s new album, 127 Rose Avenue, is due for release on June 16th, and although the first single – “Red, White, and Pink-Slip Blues” – is tailor-made for the old-school country audiences, you have to admit that it does indeed speak to the current economic climate, not just of the South but of the entire United States. Of course, given that this comes from a man who turned up at Republican rallies in Virginia Beach, VA, and crooned an excruciating little ditty called “McCain Palin Tradition,” you can imagine that most of the comments over on YouTube for this video involve assurances that the events discussed the song are all the fault of Barack Obama.
Whatever. All I know is that I like the dark twang of this track. Maybe you will, too.
Mega promoter Live Nation announced today that they will waive service fees for lawn seats at Live Nation-sponsored concert ampitheaters on all tickets purchased this Wednesday, with plans to offer similar deals on Wednesdays throughout the summer:
“We know the fan has been frustrated by the series of successive fees in the purchase process,” Live Nation Ticketing CEO Nathan Hubbard tells Billboard.biz. “There is attrition in the sales flow once you see your third page with some additional fees. The fan told us they just want to know up front how much the cost of the experience is going to be. We didn’t address that problem completely, but the first step was moving from fans paying a service fee — you might pay a shipping and handling fee, maybe a print-at-home fee, delivery fee, etc. — to consolidating it into a single up-front fee that is there as you cart your inventory.”
A noble gesture on the surface, but not quite as magnanimous as it might appear. After all, as you can see in the quote above, this is the company that has the nerve to make ticket buyers pay for the privilege of printing their own tickets. Let’s examine this supposed treat for the fans a little more closely, shall we?
Live Nation is running this promotion on Wednesdays. Most concert tickets go on sale Saturday morning, and if there is any chance of a same-day sellout (take Green Day’s upcoming tour, for example), no fan is going to wait another five days in order to save ten bucks. No one, of course, knows this better than Live Nation.
The only service fees being waived are lawn seats. This means that the diehard fans of an artist or band, who will naturally want to be as close to the stage as possible, will continue to get boned at the usual rate, while the casual fans of that artist – who are presumably on the fence about attending the show, otherwise they would have bought their tickets the day they went on sale – will benefit. While it would stand to reason that the diehards are the ones that deserve to be rewarded, in fairness to Live Nation, this is right in line with record labels’ tendency to market their wares to the people who are least likely to buy them.
Curiously, no one has discussed helping out the cash-strapped music fan by lowering the price of concert tickets. We suspect that the person who brought that up at the company meeting was tossed out the window like the guy in this Bud Light ad. Because that’s just crazy talk, son.
We were admittedly late to the Metric party, but after hearing the band’s fantastic new album Fantasies, we are officially smitten. And how cool is this: they just made a video for “Sick Muse,” the song we’ve been putting on mix discs since the album’s release.
The clip itself is simple one: the camera stays still while the band members play, or dance, or sing, or whatever they feel like doing. And if Emily Haines doesn’t have the cutest dance ever, we don’t know who does. Swoon. And as a bonus, this player – which defaults to auto-play, grrrr – contains videos for “Gimme Sympathy” and “Help I’m Alive” as well, along with audio streams of the entire Fantasies album. Sweeeeeeet.
Anyone seriously jonesing for new Scissor Sisters material would be wise to check out Litter to Society, the new EP from SS guitarist Del Marquis. Sporting five new tracks and “shadow” versions (think dub mixes) of three of those songs, Marquis unleashes his inner Shriekback – or is it Underneath the Radar-era Underworld? – on the title track, which merges a lyric not far removed from Diana Ross’ “Upside Down” with a bubbly but sinister electro beat. Fans of Marquis’ day job, meanwhile, will gobble up the day-glo “Any Kind of Love,” which could pass for a lost Belouis Some track. Shriekback? Belouis Some? Those are some seriously dated and specific ’80s references, yes, but it’s hard to argue with where Marquis finds his muse when the results are this entertaining. (self-released 2009)
