The Truth About Music

TAM’s Official 2012 SXSW Trailer

Harris — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:33:47 +0000

With SXSW 2012 just around the corner, we thought it was about time to get excited. Relive TAM’s coverage from the past two years at SXSW with this trailer featuring music by Sleeper Agent. You should be warned in advance, you might overexcite yourself. Please don’t watch this while driving!

SXSW Alphabet: 26 Bands We Can’t Wait To See At SXSW (A-D)

Harris — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:42:35 +0000

Each and every year, South by Southwest is a launching pad for new music. From John Mayer to Marina and the Diamonds, the festival has a knack for producing big name stars. As The Truth About Music prepares to cover the event for the third consecutive year, we’re excited to travel through the alphabet and pick 26 bands that we can’t wait to see at SXSW 2012.

A is for All The Young: From Great Britain come All The Young, a four piece, straight forward rock band with a knack for catchy hooks. What sold us about the band was their amazing music video for “The Horizon.” It’s a very creative video with a focus on the music. In the end, british accents just make music better.

B is for The Balconies: If you take a look around the music scene, a country that is often underrepresented is Canada. Maybe the tides are changing. In recent years, our neighbor to the north has given us Arcade Fire and Justin Beiber. Canada’s, The Balconies are looking to bring their punk rock style to SXSW. With a hard hitting attitude, this family affair is super catchy and comes in at letter “B” on our countdown.

C is for Cashier No. 9: Sometimes, just sometimes, a producer catches our eye. With a timpani drum roll kicking off their single “Goldstar,” it seemed as if there must be a man behind the curtain. That man is David Holmes, who has scored movie soundtracks from Oceans 11 to Analyze That. With a big name backer and a catchy indie rock sound, Cashier No. 9 sounds like a potential winner.

D is for Down With Webster: Are you ready for the next LMFAO? Not quite yet? What about if we add in some nerd roots and an old school LFO twist? This group fills your prescription for all of the above. At their heart, they are a rock meets rap group, performing all of their music live. Their music videos reveal a nerd, longing to fit into the boy band world. Sold.

Dot The One Unveils First Look At New ‘Supergroup’ First Class Collective

Kevin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:01:59 +0000

Up-and-coming rapper Dot The One seems to made some new friends. In this case the new companions come in the form of singers/lyricists/mult-instrumentalists Amjay and Justin Baron. The fledging group, which goes by the name First Class Collective, has been creating a buzz on the NYC music scene.

The band recently performed at Nuyoricans Poet Cafe back on January 21 to push their current project, Dot The One’s Above Ground Level mixtape . Visit their official site for any upcoming shows. But in the meantime watch two clips, one a montage of group traveling through subway trains and onstage shots, the other of the threesome in action, below.

Fishbone Documentary Released On iTunes In Honor of Black History Month

Kevin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:31:03 +0000

Fresh off a triumphant performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Fishbone’s documentary Everyday Sunshine is out today on iTunes.

The film is being distributed via digital and home video by Cinema Guild, which will present the film exclusively as part of the celebration of Black History Month, and via home video starting February 21^st.

Last week the documentary, which details the legendary band’s journey through their South Central roots, gaining notoriety in the Hollywood music scene, subsequent implosion and effort to reinvent themselves, as seen through the tumultuous relationship between lead singer Angelo Moore and bassist Norwood Fisher, was broadcast nationally as part of public television’s AfroPop documentary series.

Watch Fishbone’s Jimmy Kimmel performance below.

Contest: Pick The Winners at the 2012 Grammy Awards!!

Harris — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:17:58 +0000

In what has become a yearly tradition at The Truth About Music, our annual Grammy Awards contest is back. Pick your winners for the following 9 categories and you’ll be entered to win a selection of music, featuring during the 2012 Grammy Awards. Think you can pick the winners? Good luck!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.

Madonna Releases Preview of “Give Me All Your Luvin” Video

Kevin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:36:11 +0000

Madonna will unveil the video for her new song “Give Me All Your Luvin’” on this Thursday’s episode of American Idol.

The song, which features M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj, is the first single from the pop queen’s latest album MDNA, will be released exclusively as a digital single via iTunes the next day, and will be a part of the singer’s set at the Super Bowl on February 5. Judging from the short preview, the video will echo the song’s cheerleader theme.

MDNA, Madonna’s first release for her deal with Live Nation and Interscope, is slated to hit stores on March 26. Watch a bit of “Give Me All Your Luvin’” below.

Guns N’ Roses Announce U.S. Club Tour

Kevin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:35:34 +0000

After touring extensively throughout 2011, Guns N’ Roses seems to be starting off 2012 the same way, annoucning six club dates beginning in February.

Axl and the rest of the band will kick off the tour at the Roseland Ballroom in New York on February 10, and will play other NYC gigs at Terminal 5 and Webster Hall on February 12 and 15. The latter club will be rechristened in its old name The Ritz, in honor of the band’s 1998 performance there.

The band also unveiled an eight-date European tour slated to begin this summer. Fans may also get a chance to see the original GNR lineup in action when the group gets inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Drummer Steven Adler told Rolling Stone that “I personally just want to finish what I started with those jack-offs. We started off something, let’s end the career playing together, at least once. I’d love to do a whole tour of the world. I personally – and I know that Slash and Duff feel the same way – we owe it to the fans to do a tour around the world. We haven’t performed for over 20 years and they’ve stuck by us and believe in us.”

View the tour dates below.

2/10 Roseland Ballroom, New York
2/12 Terminal 5, New York
2/15 The Ritz (Webster Hall), New York
2/19 House of Blues, Chicago
2/23 The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD
2/24 House of Blues, Atlantic City, NJ

Q&A:Ticktockman

Kevin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:31:53 +0000

Seattle alt-rockers Ticktockman have been making waves in the indie scene since the release of 2010′s Periscope, a five song EP that combined the quintet’s love of sound effects, strange time signatures and intense lyricism with catchy melodies and grooves. Now with the upcoming Valentine’s Day release of their self-titled full length, the band is ready to carry out their mission to make fans forget about the current state of rock music. In a Q&A with Indies and The Underground, frontman Ryan Van Weiringen and guitarist Andy Lum talk about Ticktockman’s beginnings, their hometown’s musical legacy, the state of the music biz, and why they’ll stick to lasers and fog machines onstage.

How did the band come together?

Andy: Ryan and I got to know each other through playing in different projects with each other. We definitely bonded over our similar tastes in music, we sort of both balance an obsession with the loud/technical stuff and pop music. In 2009 we got together, me on drums and Ryan on guitar – we just jammed through a ton of individual ideas and it just clicked. All the instrumentation on the EP was by the two of us, with me handling most of the keys, drums, and percussion and Ryan most of the guitar work and vocals. Ryan and I still handle the songwriting, but we put together a great band for our upcoming full length. We’re starting to click live and it’s feeling really good. With Ryan, it’s so rewarding to write music with someone you don’t necessarily have to communicate with through words. We can kind of riff off of each other in that drum-guitar jam mode and write parts really effectively together.

RYAN: Andy and I were playing in a band together called Wild Orchid Children. I wanted to start a band where I could experiment a bit with the weird and sometimes chaotic sensations that tingled my brain. I talked to Andy about doing it with me and he was totally down. We didn’t really know what we had started, like if it would be a 2 man project where we play everything or what. Turns out we put a great band together out of friends and respected musicians we knew.

Were any of you in bands before Ticktockman? How different were they genre-wise?

Andy: We really started to get to know each other in Wild Orchid Children. Musically it’s just as loud and rewarding as a player, we just had another voice that we wanted to get out together. We also played in a band called Search/Rescue that put out a record in 2008, which was definitely more straight forward pop rock. I think we’ve found our voice through this band, we have a lot of songs left to write and we can go a lot of directions genre-wise in the future.

RYAN: Most of us were in bands before Ticktockman. I came from a band called Gatsbys American Dream. It was sort of technical pop punk. So it’s a little in the same vein with weird time signatures. Andy came from Surrounded by Lions which put out some great records. Phil is in another band called Ghost Town Riot from Seattle and Brock is in a hundred bands.

What are some of your earliest musical memories/influences?

Andy: My Mom played a lot of older pop whenever we’d be in the car together – The Carpenters, Carole King, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Peter Gabriel, James Taylor, records I came back to in college and really started to enjoy. When I got into middle school I used to only listen to rap. The really popular stuff came first like Notorious [B.I.G.] and 2Pac, and then I got into groups like Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. In 8th grade I bought RATM’s Battle of Los Angeles and that was pretty much the path I followed from then on. It bridged that gap between hip hop and rock in such a unique way, I think I just got addicted to how much energy and frustration in those songs.

RYAN: My earliest musical memories are watching my mom’s band rehearse. She was in a band with her 5 brothers and they played mostly Top 40 stuff. I couldn’t get enough of it. My dad listened to a ton of Beatles, War, Elton John which really helped shape my musical senses. I can’t thank him enough for that.

What about them stood out to you the most?

Andy: The louder bands I started to find like the Blood Brothers, At The Drive In, Deftones, etc. were just bands that took rock music and explored different sounds while making it. I just remember putting on those records and feeling like someone set my head on fire. The more I listened to them, and the more I started to play music myself, I started to pay attention to the time signatures, the sound effects, the vocal noises, all that stuff that we try and put into our records to deepen our songs.

RYAN: Hearing all of that 70′s music when I was so young gave me a broad sense of what music could be. You could have country grooves like the Eagles, you could write nonsense lyrics like Elton John, or structure your songs out of the typical pop structure like the Beatles and have it kick ass. It taught me to not limit myself when writing music.

You guys hail from Seattle, which has spawned a lot of influential alt-rock acts like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains etc. What do you think has made that sound so powerful and lasting?

Andy: We definitely have a rich musical history in this city. I think the atmosphere, the weather, the water, the mountains – it just breeds some powerful music. I think musicians and bands here are proud of Seattle’s musical resume and they want to continue down that path in whatever genre they may find themselves in.

RYAN: It’s a little of the cliche but it just happens to rain a lot in Seattle and we have nothing better to do than sit around and pound on instruments to take out some aggression. I think no matter where you live though you connect with that type of music, especially as a teenager. There is no doubt in my mind that Seattle is the best producer of music in the world. There’s a ton of versatility amongst the most popular artists that come from here. I think it has to do with the lyrics and how they speak to people. We don’t sing about hitting the beach and going surfing very often.

Many of the tracks on Ticktockman are technically complex but still manage to “rock” for lack of a better word. How do you guys maintain the balance of being musically challenging without becoming too intellectual about it?

Andy: We’re just trying to focus on groove I think. Sometimes the technically complex can turn into a very tiring listen, but I think we capture complexity with simplicity well. We’re still constantly challenging ourselves, I just think we tend to explore soundscapes and tones more than we do time signatures JUST to be complex. The whole “can you bop your head to this” idea is something we talk about a lot.

RYAN: Our songs aren’t contrived or written necessarily to be complex. That is just how they come out. I had a couple of great mentors when I was really starting to write songs which helped. We never want the music to be so mathy that it takes people out of the song or causes them to stop bobbing their heads. The best technical parts are so good you don’t even realize until the 5th time you listen to it that they are in a weird time signature or go out of the key for a moment.

Being the band places such importance on great musicianship, is it difficult to appreciate bands that take a simpler approach to music or make use of theatrics ?

Andy: I think great musicianship comes in many forms. Cobain was a great musician in a different way than say Freddie Mercury – it’s about the impact you make and the care you put into you records that matters most to me. People would say the pop music you hear on the radio today is a much simpler approach to music compared to what we do, but it’s just complexity in a different form. We write grooves in 5, but some radio singles have 40 people who just work on what the bass drum sounds like.

RYAN: There would be so many great songs we would’ve missed out on if we there were no simple songs. Early Green Day blew my mind. I still listen to their first 2 records and wonder how they write such great, powerful hooks. It’s important to have simplicity in songs. You just can’t go overboard with it like you’ll hear on the radio quite often. Theatrics can really heighten the experience of listening to music. Then again it can be used as a gimmick so you have to walk a really thin line there. We’ll stick to lasers and fog machines.

The name Ticktockman comes from the short story “Repent Harlequin Said The Ticktockman,” which describes a dictator that wants to regiment society and make everyone the same. How do you feel this mentality has impacted the music industry and more specifically, rock music?

Andy: The music industry is all about niche now. They are these wild fads that pop up and become popular. It creates a cookie cutter for young people to latch onto. Man, spend 5 minutes rolling down a YouTube wormhole and you’ll find 6,000 bands that are doing this yo-check-these-metal-breakdowns-but-oh-wait-we-also-have-a-poppy-chorus-sung-by-a-teenage-girl thing going on. It’s fucking mindblowing. It’s so hard to discover that “new shit” because what are people that sell records looking for? They’re looking for the next _____.

RYAN: The music industry is in such an odd place right now. It’s crazy how much things can change in a decade. 10 years ago our friends bands were getting $500k publishing deals. That just doesn’t happen anymore. The industry just wants whatever sells and right now if you have an electronic dance beat and auto-tune, you have a better shot than us. Maybe that is why rock bands that are on the radio right now are terrible. The main rock station here in Seattle still plays Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden all the time because it’s better than whatever other screamo band is hot right now. It’s sad, especially with the amount of good rock bands there are making music in the indie scene.

A lot of the lyrics seem to continue the Ticktockman theme, with subjects like paranoia, being under the control of big corporations and the idea the individual has no voice. Did you draw on any personal experiences when writing the album?

RYAN: The themes in our album are more of just a reflection on the current times and what could be in the near future. We still work day jobs so we draw on the experiences we have every day. I’ve heard every generation goes through these types of paranoia but the earth just seems fucked right now. Whenever I write something that feels futuristic and doomsday material, I always try to put a positive spin on it. Like we still have a chance to turn this fucking thing around. You gotta have a little hope.

What can fans expect next from you?

Andy: We’re stoked on the EP we’re about to record. It’s 4 songs that really explore our new direction. They’re longer, more dynamic, and way weirder. We’re also touring down the west coast this year Spring. We want to be that band that gives you something different every time around, so stay tuned.

Avan Lava Offer Preview of ‘Flex Fantasy’ EP

Kevin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:33:45 +0000

Indie dance pop trio Avan Lava are giving fans a sneak peak of their Flex Fantasy EP, slated for release February 21st.

Avan Lava, made up of singer TC and producers/musicians Le Chev and Ian Pai, have served as producers, composers and mixers for albums and live performances with bands like Cold Cave, Fischerspooner, CSS, Frankie Rose,SSION, Lemonade, Lia Ices and the prestigious The New York Philharmonic, and have created remixes for R.E.M., Passion Pit and New Villager.

This experience shows in the group’s sound, typified by cuts like “It’s Never Over,” a maddeningly catchy track driven by smooth vocals, sunny synths and a bass line destined to yank listeners onto the dancefloor with the all of the subtlety of a grappling hook. The group will play a pair of shows at Glasslands in New York City, once on February 11 and again February 25 for a record release Listen to “It’s Never Over” and get a short preview of the EP below.

It’s Never Over by AVAN LAVA

Flex Fantasy EP Minimix by AVAN LAVA

Review: “The Artist” Trying To Go Where Only One Film Has Gone Before

Harris — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:38:11 +0000

We can see it now. “The Oscar for Best Picture goes to….(drum roll please)…”The Artist.” The crowd at the Academy Awards goes crazy while this reaction is shared in front of millions of television screens across the country: “What the hell is ‘The Artist? Have you seen it? No, have you? No. Isn’t it that silent movie? Who would want to watch a silent movie?” This reaction isn’t without reason and while we’re not ready to call this the Best Picture winner, it isn’t hard to fathom.

Fresh ideas are few and far between these days in Hollywood. Directors like Michael Bay and actors like Johnny Depp and Nicholas Cage continue to recycle the old and somehow try to make it look shiny and new. Fortunately for them, the movie going public hasn’t noticed yet. Still, they are doing nothing to forward the movie industry as a whole. Here’s a fresh thought. What better way to forward the world of film, than to reinvent a style that was last seen in the first half of the 20th Century?

“The Artist” is 2011′s take on a movie style that became obsolete during the 1930′s with the move into the “sound era” of film. Popular from the final years of the 19th Century, silent films featured actors acting without the use of words. There was music, often provided by a live orchestra, but the story itself was told through the actors movements, subtle lip reading and cuts to more lengthy passages of written words. Unless you are currently more than 80-years-old, you have probably never seen a silent movie. In theateres that is.

Now, in 2011, two Frenchmen and a beautiful girl from Argentina are paying homage to films original form. “The Artist” is genuine in every way. If you didn’t know it was created in 2011, you would think you were watching something straight out of 1927. Brought to life by French director Michel Hazanavicius, the movie is a screwball. It’s not a film that most American’s will see, and those that do will likely have mixed feelings. Furthermore, the story, easy to follow as it is, isn’t dictated by narrative from the friendly voice of George Clooney (see “The Descendants”). Instead, the audience is on their own. All of this will make this a tough sell at the theaters.

Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo Steal The Show in "The Artist"

The two takeaways from this movie are French actor Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, who stems from Argentina. These two actors are simply brilliant. Having never seen a silent film, there was a level of skepticism. Within a few moments, that skepticism flew the coupe. Bringing you right into the story, there isn’t a moment that the two actors don’t string you along. Their performances are captivating as they tell their story without the use of words. Both are nominated for Academy Awards and will be big underdogs because of stiff competition.

It’s tough for us to tell you to see this movie. Being silent, it relies on an amazing original score by Ludovic Bource, another man of French descent. If you love the medium of film as a way to tell a story then you’ll love “The Artist.” If you fancy yourself a big fan of 3-D and explosions then you’re probably better off in a different theater.

The Golden Globes have already recognized it as the top Motion Picture in the Comedy or Musical category and it is one of nine movies that has been nominated for Best Picture at the upcoming Oscars. Time will tell what type of reaction mass audiences will have for a silent film as it looks to become just the second of its kind to take home Best Picture at the Oscars. For our money, this might have been the best movie of the past year.