Weekend Video Fix: Up Up Down Down, Drop Nineteens, Film School

>> Few things are more inspiring than the video recently posted to wildly under-rated indie rock outfit Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start's MySpace page. The track is called "Please Come To Me" and it is from the band's 2005 effort Perris, CA. Check the video out here [FYI the screen shot above is to the Quicksand video described at the bottom of this item]. The band has three dates lined up in April. We are currently wondering how unrealistic it is to think we'd drive all the way from Boston to Hartford for the show April 6, since we often lack the motivation to walk the 10 blocks to the popular rock clubs here in our town. But that is just how inspiring Up Up Down Down is. The band has a whole mess of music posted online, do yourself a favor and find some of it.

>> This afternoon, while inexplicably binging on Drop Nineteens singles, we stumbled onto the site for Paula Kelley, she formerly of the aforementioned and formerly amazing act. The band, for those not familiar, released a stellar shoegaze record on Caroline in 1992 called Delaware. The record was so good that we and WPRS and KFB drove directly to WXVU and got buzzed into the studio just to ask what the record was. Anyway, Kelley's site here has a couple videos and MP3s from Delaware, including a neat little clip for "Winona." The sound quality is pretty iffy, but it's nice to see a clip for the song all the same. And yes, the '90s really were all day-glo like that. Incidentally, Kelley has had a busy post-Drop Nineteens career, and she releases Some Sucker's Life, a collection of demos and so-called lost recordings, April 4.

>> Here's the video for the latest single from California shoegazers Film School. The track is called "11:11," and here's a link to the video. We're just turning onto this band and we like what we've heard from our first several listens to the band's self-titled set.

>> And finally few more videos culled from YouTube: Here's the dizzying and kinda sophomoric video for The Swirlies' very solid track "Bell," which was released on the classic 1993 record Blonder Tongue Audio Baton. The video looks very "Boston" to us. Archers of Loaf's "Web In Front" may be the best single ever released in the 1990s. The video is almost as inscrutable as that Swirlies joint. Finally, here's a video of New York hardcore dynamo Quicksand performing its signature cover of The Smiths' "How Soon Is Now." It takes a while to kick in as Walter fakes the crowd out with the verse of a different track at first, and generally it's not the best performance, but one well worth watching if only to remember what "the scene" was like back in "the day." It actually gives us goose bumps.

Coming To Your Local Bandstand: Voxtrot

For quite some time one hasn't been able to turn on one's computer without reading something about Austin, Texas-based indie pop act Voxtrot. The band has aggressively toured its eponymous EP over the last year and earned blogger-darling status with its Smiths-influenced sound. If you've sensed a recent surge in the indie rock Force of late its because Voxtrot's next EP, Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives, is hitting racks next week on the band's own Cult Hero imprint. You can download the title cut here -- right click and save as, por favor. The band has also contributed the track "Warmest Part of the Winter" to the latest installment of Darla Records' long-running compilation series Little Darla Has A Treat For You. Little Darla #24 is slated to be in stores May 15. But we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves, because Voxtrot launches still another volley of tour dates in Houston on Saturday. They're all posted below.

04/01 -- Houston, TX -- Walter's On Washington
04/03 -- Atlanta, GA -- Drunken Unicorn
04/04 -- Athens, GA -- Caledonia Lounge
04/05 -- Chapel Hill, NC -- Local 506
04/06 -- Norfolk, VA -- Relative Theory
04/07 -- Harrisonburg, VA -- MACRock
04/08 -- Washington, DC -- Georgetown University
04/09 -- New York, NY -- Mercury Lounge [SOLD OUT]
04/10 -- New York, NY -- Mercury Lounge [SOLD OUT]
04/11 -- Wellesley, MA -- Lulu Wang Center
04/12 -- Montreal, QC -- La Sala Rosa
04/13 -- Toronto, ONT -- Sneaky Dees
04/14 -- Detroit, MI -- Lager House
04/15 -- Chicago, IL -- Empty Bottle
04/17 -- Minneapolis, MN -- Triple Rock
04/18 -- Des Moines, IA -- Vaudville Mews
04/19 -- Lawrence, KS -- Jackpot Saloon
04/20 -- Norman, OK -- Opolis
04/21 -- Denton, TX -- Hailey's
04/22 -- Austin, TX -- Emo's

05/25 -- San Diego, CA -- Epicentre
05/26 -- Los Angeles, CA -- Wiltern
05/27 -- San Francisco, CA -- Slim's
05/30 -- Portland, OR -- Berbati's Pan
05/31 -- Seattle, WA -- Neumo's

Today's Hotness: Nirvana, Mission of Burma, Interpol

>> Rolling Stone reports here that Courtney Love has indeed finally sold off a share of her rights to the Nirvana catalog. Love, whose stake in the enterprise includes 98% of Nirvana's publishing rights, sold off 25% of (presumably) the total publishing rights to former COO/GM of Virgin Records Larry Mestel, who now operates Primary Wave Music Publishing. The deal was apparently worth in excess of $50 million USD. In more curious news, apparently ex-Vatican Commando Moby is producing Love's next solo outing. Weird.

>> Word on the Matador message board here is the laser engraving on the Mission of Burma singles series vinyl records continues to hamstring their production. The manufacturer's latest estimate is shipment of product to Matador on Friday, and shipment on to subscribers could occur sometime next week. Keep watching your mailboxes, kiddies.

>> Interpol is not signed to Interscope, according to the Pfork. At least not yet. Coolfer sticks to his guns here. We think it's a sucker's bet to bet against Coolfer, dawgs. That guy is six different kinds of on the ball.

>> Johnny Marr says The Smiths have turned down as much as $10 million to reform, according to this NME article. We bet if there wasn't litigation among the members over financial whatnot, one of these offers would have been taken. What incentive would Moz have to reunite the quartet if he has to turn over his paycheck to Rourke or that other guy, which ever one has successfully sued him.

>> More Mats: Paul's Page posts the track list for the new Replacements best-of set and offers details on all the various irons in the fire. Here's the link.

>> MarathonPacks has a first look at the first Schneider TM record in four years here.

Built To Spill/Treepeople: Tour News And Gratuitous '90s Flashback

So the Built To Spill tour, recently delayed because a certain indie rock guitar hero suffered a detached retina in an unspecified incident, is now rescheduled. According to PunkNews.com, Doug Martsch and his cohorts in Built To Spill will hit the road to support the forthcoming release You In Reverse for six weeks beginning in the second week of June. A second leg of about equal length kicks off in the second week of September. Sandwiched inbetween is the act's appearance at Lollapalooza in Chicago August 5. Click here and check out all the dates at PunkNews, because we're going to move on to having a look at Martsch's past. Incidentally, You In Reverse streets April 11.

We wonder how many people know that Martsch used to play in the excellent indie rock outfit Treepeople (pictured here left). Treepeople recorded for the Seattle indie label C/Z from 1990-1994, around which time Martsch left to form Built To Spill back in his native Boise, Idaho. For our money the best Treepeople cut, and the best Martsch cut ever, is "Liquid Boy," the opening track on 1992's Something Vicious For Tomorrow (we presume since Martsch sings its his jam and not the work of other guitarist and songwriter Scott Schmaljohn). From the same record and perhaps more widely known because of a double split 7" [Sonic Bubblegum 16 from 1994, we found it for $.49 a couple years back] with Archers of Loaf is the track "Funnelhead." Thanks to the good folks at IODA, we're able to offer you that track for download below. As an added bonus we're also offering a cut from another one-time C/Z act Silkworm (again, not our favorite song from the amazing Silkworm record In The West, but it's still a damn good song). Download your little hearts out and relive the '90s glory.

Download Treepeople's "Funnelhead" (MP3, 192kbps)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic

Download Silkworm's "Dust My Broom" (MP3, 192kbps)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic

Coming To Your Local Bandstand: Dinosaur Jr.

We saw Dinosaur Jr.'s J. Mascis outside the club he was playing with his new (not nu, umlaut over the "u") metal act Witch Friday night talking on a cell phone of all things. There's really nothing as un-slack looking as a musician sitting outside a club on a cellie, and the sight caught us off guard. Remember all those articles in the early '90s dubbing Mascis the pontiff of the slack generation? Anyway, more recently we read somewhere (we think it was an interview of Lou Barlow) that Mascis' relatively active last year or so is due to his taking on new, more hands-on management. We don't care what's behind it, we're just glad to have seen the original lineup of Dinosaur rock the Middle East in December. Life affirming, it was. Anyway, Dinosaur has a few weeks' worth of dates slated before heading over to host a segment of the All Tomorrow's Parties thang in the U.K. in May. We've got the U.S. dates listed below in a handy chronological format. Do yourself a favor and show up for one of these.

03/29 -- Dallas, TX -- Gypsy Tea Room
03/30 -- Austin, TX -- Stubb's
03/31 -- Houston, TX -- Warehouse Live
04/01 -- New Orleans, LA -- House Of Blues
04/02 -- Tallahassee, FL -- The Moon
04/03 -- Jacksonville, FL -- Freebird Cafe
04/04 -- Myrtle Beach, NC -- House Of Blues
04/05 -- Washington, DC -- 9:30 Club
04/06 -- Carrboro, NC -- Cat's Cradle
04/07 -- Asheville, NC -- Orange Peel
04/08 -- Atlanta, GA -- Variety Playhouse
04/09 -- Nashville, TN -- City Hall
04/10 -- Memphis, TN -- Young Ave Deli
04/11 -- Indianapolis, IN -- The Vogue
04/12 -- Columbia, MO -- Blue Note
04/13 -- Lawrence, KS -- Liberty Hall
04/14 -- Boulder, CO -- Fox Theatre
04/15 -- Boulder, CO -- Fox Theatre
04/16 -- Salt Lake City, UT -- The Depot
04/18 -- Eugene, OR -- WOW Hall
04/19 -- San Francisco, CA -- Great American Music Hall
04/20 -- Los Angeles, CA -- The Troubador
04/21 -- Los Angeles, CA -- The Troubador

Today's Hotness: Replacements, TV On The Radio, Logh

>> The extreme rabble-rousers at Buddyhead are finally back with a gossip update, but be careful when you scroll through because those pictures of the guy from My Thursday Charlotte Romance's johnson are in there. Most importantly, the 'Head reports a Replacements lineup that included Josh Freese on drums recorded some new tracks for the forthcoming Mats box set we reported on last week. Check out a picture of the line-up and the rest of the gossip right here. For those of you with ADD, here are the bullet points of the rest of the might-or-might-not-be-true, completely unsourced gum flappin': Weezer fronter Rivers Cuomo is/is getting married; Velvet Revolver has disbanded; a new Primal Scream record is around the corner; and David Bowie sings on a TV On The Radio track on the band's Interscope debut. Make sure to click through and read Aaron's review of the new Troy Van Leeuween-model Yamaha guitar, too. Way funny.

>> Swedish indie rock act Logh is working on its fourth record, according to this month-old post at the band's web site. Watch words for the new set include "Springsteen," "Nino Rota" and "Casio." The first and last of these excites us, "Nino Rota" we're going to have to research. There's also a video for the track "The Smoke Will Lead You Home" here [Real], and a brief trip around the rest of the Bad Taste Records site suggests a couple of the band's earlier titles have been reissued. Logh's A Sunset Panorama was one of our favorite records of 2005.

>> PaidContent points to news that Google is holding a high-level music roundtable soon, and hypothesizes a bit about what might go into a Google music service. Strong money goes to the inclusion of variable pricing. Here's the link.

Free Range Music: Maritime's "Tearing Up The Oxygen"

We've already given Maritime some love elsewhere, but the act's second album is almost nigh and we've gotten our hands on another track from the set that we can share with you (incidentally our promo disc finally arrived at clicky clicky HQ just prior to press time; this track is provided by the fine folks at IODA/PromoNet). "Tearing Up The Oxygen" is track two on the forthcoming set and it introduces some pleasant bleeps and more prominent harmonies into the formula that fueled the excellent lead-off track "Calm." The former song, which we're offering for download below, is a typically mid-tempo yearner that also touts great vocals and gently persistent guitars. Another reason we dig the track is because it employs the band's name in the lyrics, a genius move under-appreciated indie rock act Haywood pulled in the '90s on its track "Take An Inventory." But we digress. Maritime is led by former The Promise Ring fronter Davey Von Bohlen, and until recently included a cat from The Dismemberment Plan, although said cat has left the group. Maritime's sophomore release We, The Vehicles streets April 4 on Flameshovel. You're gonna want this one.

Maritime -- "Tearing Up the Oxygen" (MP3, 192kbps)
[We don't think this is the kind of link you wanna right-click]

Buy the album at iTunes Music Store