Month: April 2009

TiVo Party Tonight: Crystal Antlers

Post author By MAGNET Staff
Post date April 22, 2009

tivocrystal Ever wonder what will happen during the last five minutes of late-night TV talk shows? They let musicians onstage! Here are tonight’s notable performers:

Last Call With Carson Daly (NBC): Crystal Antlers
It’s the network television debut for what might be Touch And Go’s last band (we certainly hope not). Long Beach, Calif.’s Crystal Antlers bridge the divide between Nuggets psych-rock and Last Waltz soul mining—not exactly distant entities but we’re trying to paint a picture here, people. Listen to “Andrew” from the recently released Tentacles below and come up with your own stupid conclusions.

“Andrew” (download):

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From The Desk Of Mac McCaughan: Doug Sahm

Post author By MAGNET Staff
Post date April 22, 2009

mac_mccaughanlogo110bb Outdated reference point or not, the anti-apathy sentiment on Superchunk‘s sophomore single “Slack Motherfucker” still seems characteristic of Mac McCaughan 20 years after he wrote it. The recently dormant Superchunk is moving again, and McCaughan also fills his time with Portastatic and co-ownership of Merge Records. As if that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, McCaughan is guest editing magnetmagazine.com this week.

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McCaughan: Some of the records that get the most play on my Music Hall turntable are my Doug Sahm records, in particular his 1969 Sir Douglas Quintet album Mendocino, but also solo albums like 1973’s Texas Tornado and Doug Sahm And Band, which were recently reissued on CD in a great package by Rhino. Soulful and loose and real.

Read our definitive 2002 Doug Sahm feature.

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MP3 At 3PM: Sonic Youth

Post author By MAGNET Staff
Post date April 22, 2009

One of the more pointless music-dork exercises of the ’90s (and beyond) was to speculate where Sonic Youth would land after the band’s Geffen contract expired—or, what seemed likely at certain points, when SY would be dropped. It was all for nothing, of course: Sonic Youth went on making some of its most esoteric proper full-lengths for a major label in the Jim O’Rourke post-Y2K era, and the band even left Geffen with a parting gift in 2006’s compactly rocking Rather Ripped. Furthermore, what once would’ve been an indie-label bidding war for Thurston Moore and Co.’s services seemed to fold instead into a neat and perfectly logical matchup with Matador, which will release The Eternal on June 9. (Though we could’ve also seen SY signing with Nonesuch or Anti-.) So what’s to get excited about with The Eternal? Well, Pavement‘s Mark Ibold is on bass, Rather Ripped producer John Agnello is back as the band’s most attentive sonic nurse, and lead track “Sacred Trickster” has a “Silver Rocket”-like riff momentum.

“Sacred Trickster” (download):

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Q&A With Chicago Cubs Broadcaster Len Kasper

Post author By Magnet
Post date April 22, 2009
2 Comments on Q&A With Chicago Cubs Broadcaster Len Kasper

chicagocubs540b We mentioned this when we told you about his annual benefit concert, but it bears repeating that Chicago Cubs TV broadcaster Len Kasper (pictured with Tommy Keene) is not your typical baseball talking head. In fact, he’s probably the only one who’s ever heard of the Talking Heads. With the season at long last in full swing after yet another dreadful winter, we talked to Kasper about his musical tastes, how often he gets to see bands on road trips and if next year is finally here.

Your Indentured Servants’ “In The Loop” (download):

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From The Desk Of Mac McCaughan: Music Hall MMF 2.1 Turntable

Post author By MAGNET Staff
Post date April 22, 2009

McCaughan: I’ve got a lot of records, but for years, I kept buying pawn-shop turntables that looked cool and played records for crap. Motors died, belts broke, records skipped. Then I went out and got a brand new turntable after reading up a bit; I went with the bottom-rung Music Hall, and it rules. Even my most beat-up and warped records play great, and it’s a joy. It’s hard keeping the one-and-a-half-year-old away from the spinning black disc with the colorful paper in the middle, but I think he’s beginning to understand that it’s not a DJ turntable.