Footage: State Champion's Blindingly Sublime "The Basement" and "No Magick"

Oh to be as drunk and free and blessed with musical genius as the cats in State Champion, who toss off lines like "Lord can't you take the back porch to the front of the house" and "I still smell her hair on the horizon sometimes..." like it's no big thing, like pulling Universal Truths out of your one good pocket, blowing the lint off of them and tossing them on the glass patio table littered with 49 sticky playing cards, empty packs of Winstons, spent spliffs and all the bottle caps up to but not including that one motherfucking bottle cap that chipped your tooth is just something everyone's doing. Watching this video may be the greatest moment in your life, so get comfy and really savor it.

Yeah. Right, State Champion, we wrote about them here two years ago. And we were in the middle of writing about them again this evening when we found the video embedded above and got our minds blown. Where were we, oh right... We like to think about State Champion's new release Deep Shit playing out in real time as a live set in an imaginary nightclub in front of a hundred people or so, and we like to think that the band is already half in the bag to the point of brilliance by the time they hit the stage, and select members of the audience are feeling particularly beautiful as well, and we like to think that when the band gets to the fifth song "No Magick" -- and particularly at the delivery of the fantastic lyric "I found out I was hollering the wrong word / and Jesus lives in the garage" -- that the entire audience achieves complete enlightenment at the same time. The ceiling cracks open and white light pours in like ocean water. The simple answer is the universal truth. You are in that audience, and you are so intoxicated you can't feel your face, but State Champion fronter Ryan Davis is fucking singing RIGHT TO YOU, INSIDE YOUR BRAIN, IT'S LIKE SILENT, BUT IT'S LIKE EVERYWHERE, YOU KNOW WHAT I AM SAYING. Oh man, I understand, I understand, I understand everything. Oh man. Check the Soundcloud embed below.

State Champion's "No Magick"

State Champion's Deep Shit, its second full-length and fifth release depending on how and if you count, was recorded live in an attic on the south side of Chicago at the close of the band's spring tour. The cracking set features both the often-augmented trio's "The Basement" and "No Magick" as well as five other fizzing and punked-up country-rock numbers the likes of which we don't hear often enough. The collection is available as a 12" LP Tuesday distributed by the good people of Drag City (meaning you might be able to walk into your local indie rock purveyor and actually find this). Mr. Davis' Sophomore Lounge label will have stock of the record Oct. 25 and you can buy it through the web site from that date, or, hell, they're taking pre-orders. And State Champion is on tour RIGHT NOW, and coming to play in Allston Rock City this Friday night at some place we never heard of. Full tour dates below. Get into it.

10.03 -- SOUNDLAB -- BUFFALO, NY
10.04 -- THE BUG JAR -- ROCHESTER, NY
10.06 -- THE MONKEY HOUSE -- WINOOSKI, VT
10.07 -- THE SMOKEY BEAR CAVE -- ALLSTON, MA
10.08 -- THE GUTTER -- BROOKLYN, NY
10.10 -- SILK CITY -- PHILADELPHIA, PA
10.11 -- BOHEMIAN -- BALTIMORE, MD
10.12 -- BACKSTREET PUB -- BEAUFORT, NC
10.13 -- THE PINHOOK -- DURHAM, NC
10.14 -- NIGHTLIGHT -- CHAPEL HILL, NC
10.15 -- ROCK BOTTOM HOUSE -- ATLANTA, GA
10.17 -- BURRO BAR -- JACKSONVILLE, FL
10.18 -- LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE -- MEMPHIS, TN
10.20 -- CLUB 21 -- LOUISVILLE, KY
10.22 -- MOVE-TASTIC PIG ROAST -- CHICAGO, IL

Today's Hotness: Little Gold, The Hush Now, Hold Your Horse Is

>> There are a number of bands right now forcing us to confront the fact that we do in fact like (some) rock music with horns. But we have to say most surprising of the lot is Little Gold's "Mike Swan." We've written previously about being overjoyed that one former member of Meneguar was doing something that excited us, that member being Brooklyn-based Little Gold's fronter Christian DeRoeck. Mr. DeRoeck's current rootsier rock act hews most closely to whatever we can refer to as a Meneguar legacy, although Meneguar certainly didn't have room for horns in its tense, two-guitars-and-no-bullshit indie punk plan. Hence the aforementioned surprise. Last August we wrote about Little Gold's "Completely Fucked!" single here. The act returns next month with a rollicking single on the scrappy Sophomore Lounge label, which you may recall is responsible for quality releases from State Champion. The new single -- limited to 300 vinyl copies on black vinyl (we eagerly await the shellac revival) -- touts the foot-stomper "Mike Swan" on the A and a cover of a James Jackson Toth composition, "Oh Dad," on the flip-flop. Said tunes were recorded by Mark Ospovat at Emandee Studioes in Bushwick, or so we just read here (where we also saw mentioned a split single we had no idea existed). A second LP titled Weird Freedom is planned, so keep your eyes peeled because we expect that will be a key beer-drinking record. Pre-order "Mike Swan" b/w "Oh Dad" from Sophomore Lounge right here.

Little Gold's "Mike Swan"

>> Social media stalkers may have already caught on, but those who don't shadow every move of Boston-based dream-pop goliaths The Hush Now may be interested to know that the quintet just tracked 13 new songs at Allston's Mad Oak Studios. Not certain of when we might see or hear the new recordings, but we've chatted with the band about some other interesting stuff they have going on that you'll read about here eventually.

>> UK-based indie rock aggressors Hold Your Horse Is are offering a pay-what-you-like live set titled Like, Live And Stuff. The sound is a touch boxy, but fans of Therapy? and Helmet will appreciate the band's forceful delivery of its punishing yet melodic tunes; grab Like, Live And Stuff at Bandcamp right here. The six-song collection was recorded Feb. 15 at London's Camden Purple Turtle and includes one previously unreleased jam, "Absurd." Hold Your Horse Is intends to use the proceeds from the sale of Like, Live And Stuff to fund the recording of a proposed full-length debut; "Absurd" is slated for the new record, so get your teaser now. The trio's EP Rammin' It Home -- released last August on Big Scary Monsters -- sold out last month. While some recent shows had to be scrapped for various reasons, the threesome will tour with Alcopop!'s Ute in June and has a number of festival dates booked -- see full dates here.

Today's Hotness: Varsity Drag, State Champion, Screaming Maldini

>> Christmas has come early for fans of Cambridge, Mass.'s superlative pop-punk trio Varsity Drag, which has posted for free a recent radio session recorded on the heels of an October jaunt across the pond. The band, fronted by Ben Deily, is offering via Bandcamp free downloads of 13 tunes committed to tape (well, probably not tape) Oct. 28 at Tufts University's WMFO. As the band had just come off the road (and had recently kicked some nasty colds), the performances are particularly tight and confident. With the energy and gusto on display here, the live performances of tracks from The Drag's new album Night Owls give many of the recorded versions a serious run for their money. This is particularly the case with "Richard's Gone" and "Night Owls." We're offering the latter track as an MP3 below, head over to the Bandcamp site via the link supra and grab the rest of the set, you will be glad you did. C'mon, c'mon, let's stay up all night.

Varsity Drag -- "Night Owls" -- Live Owls: Varsity Drag Live on WMFO
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[buy Varsity Drag music from the band right here]

>> We've received an unusual amount (meaning "some") very good unsolicited pitches of late. How about we tell you about one? There is a newish combo out of Louisville, KY (birthplace of Slint, among many others) called State Champion that will put out next month a full-length called Stale Champagne, the title of which is as best as we can tell a play on the band's name. The eight-song set -- State Champion's fourth if you count a bunch of demos collections and small-run releases that have preceded it -- will be released on vinyl only by the Sophomore Lounge label, which we've also never heard of. But all of that information is secondary to the following: Stale Champagne is a gritty collection of zealously delivered and countrified indie rock tunes that will remind listeners of Palace Brothers and Okkervil River (incidentally, Stale Champagne was produced by Palace sideman Paul Oldham). And Deer Tick. It's really good stuff, although we have not yet fully digested it. Fronter Ryan Davis kindly is allowing us to share up a track, so we're posting the rollicking set-closer "The Years" below. Stale Champagne is out Jan. 26.

State Champion -- "The Years" -- Stale Champagne
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[buy earlier State Champion recordings via Sophomore Lounge right here]

>> Word from futurepop savants Screaming Maldini, who we've curiously not mentioned in ten months, is that the Sheffield, England-based sextet has signed with Oxford-based Alcopop! records. Alcopop! will release in February an EP of Screaming Maldini tracks including some of the demos we were treated to early this year, as well as some new tracks. According to band member Nick, Screaming Maldini hopes to record a full length by the end of 2010, and the sextet has amassed scads of tracks that the band is eager to get out there. Incidentally, the band is giving away a secret Christmas present at its Facebook page right now, so you should head over there and see what you can score. We first wrote about Screaming Maldini here in February.