Month: July 2011

TiVo Party Tonight: Anna Calvi, Vanessa Carlton, Chris Young, They Might Be Giants, Lykke Li, Grace Potter, School Of Seven Bells, Funeral Party, Austin Brown

Post author By MAGNET Staff
Post date July 27, 2011

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

The Late Show With David Letterman (CBS): Anna Calvi
The English musician is promoting her self-titled debut album.

The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (NBC): Vanessa Carlton
Vanessa Carlton is celebrating this week’s release of Rabbits On The Run.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC): Chris Young
Tennessee country singer Chris Young is performing songs from third album NEON.

Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (NBC): They Might Be Giants
TMBG is plugging new LP Join Us.

Last Call With Carson Daly (NBC): Lykke Li, Grace Potter, School Of Seven Bells
Rerun from March 15. Lykke Li performed “Get Some,” Grace Potter was promoting her self-titled LP, and School Of Seven Bells was plugging new album Disconnect From Desire.

Conan (TBS): Funeral Party
Funeral Party is supporting debut LP The Golden Age Of Knowhere.

Lopez Tonight (TBS): Austin Brown
Singer, songwriter, dancer and member of the Jackson family tree (as in Michael and Janet) is performing new single “All I Need” from debut album 85.

GUEST EDITOR

From The Desk Of The Ladybug Transistor: The Bass Playing Of The Clientele’s James Hornsey

Post author By MAGNET Staff
Post date July 27, 2011

The Ladybug Transistor formed in Brooklyn in 1995, and frontman Gary Olson has been the band’s sole constant member. Clutching Stems (Merge) is the group’s seventh album and the first to be made following the 2007 asthma-related death of drummer San Fadyl. Since, the band’s lineup has solidified behind Olson, featuring Kyle Forester, Julia Rydholm, Mark Dzula, Eric Farber and Michael O’Neill. The Ladybug Transistor will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with Olson.

Julia Rydholm: It’s difficult to get away with melodic bass lines and not sound like you are a frustrated lead guitarist. James Hornsey of the Clientele completely gets away with this and then some. Hornsey authors elegant, labyrinthine parts that articulately wander through range, scale and phrasings without ever losing a tether to a gentle, yet substantial, rhythmic texture. His lines simultaneously lift and anchor the songs, weaving within the melodies while conversing with the drums, creating their own counter melodies and, ultimately, sewing seamlessly into the dreamy texture that defines the sound of the Clientele.

Video after the jump.

FREE MP3s

MP3 At 3PM: Guster

Post author By MAGNET Staff
Post date July 27, 2011

Guster fans, August 2 is a big day for you. Not only does the band kick off a month-long U.S. tour with Jack’s Mannequin, but it is also issuing On The Ocean. The six-song EP features the radio edit of the title track (originally on last year’s excellent Easy Wonderful) as well as previously unreleased songs, acoustic versions and a remix by Mitchell Spinach. Download “On The Ocean” below.

“On The Ocean” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/OnTheOcean.mp3

TAKE COVER!

Take Cover! Garbage Vs. The Ramones

Post author By MAGNET Staff
Post date July 27, 2011

When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week Garbage takes on the Ramones’ “I Just Want To Have Something To Do.” MAGNET’s Ryan Burleson pulls the pin. Take cover!

With its slowly churning, thick-with-ennui minor chords laid atop a simple 4/4 beat, “I Just Want To Have Something To Do” is a classic punk-rock love song. Coyness is key, declarations of affection only suitable for placement between lines that suggest anything would suffice for a good time, when the truth is some specific one, and time spent with him/her, is the true object of Joey’s affection. An evening spent with this nameless individual would certainly beat feeling sorry for himself somewhere on Second Avenue, staring into a plate of chicken vindaloo, as he begrudgingly suggests he’s doing at the top of the song.

Just as the Ramones profoundly influenced punk rock in a macro sense, they also had a huge hand in giving future rockers specific tools for revealing emotions without being campy—a trait that most of the band’s radio-rock contemporaries were seemingly incapable of doing in the late ’70s. The Ramones were the cool, almost detached antidote to the Journeys of the period, bands that, while undoubtedly talented, were getting rich pedaling a milquetoast image and sound that was safe for the whole family. Sure, these bands weren’t the Partridge Family, but in the continuum of rock history, they will surely go down as some of the most bland. (When’s the last time a budding musician told you he/she was inspired by Steve Perry?)

Mid-’90s heavyweights Garbage largely kept the Ramones’ original in tact, yet fattened it up considerably. Led by the seductive, distorted grit of Shirley Manson’s vocals, the producer-heavy band added layers and layers of rhythm guitar and a faster, more sophisticated beat, placing it squarely within an era dominated by sonically propulsive bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Green Day and the like. Something tells me Joey would’ve approved.

The Cover:

The Original:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPYGCxco56I

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GUEST EDITOR

From The Desk Of The Ladybug Transistor: Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers’ “Southern Accents” MTV Documentary

Post author By MAGNET Staff
Post date July 27, 2011

Kyle Forester: I’m really fascinated by people who punch walls in anger. A friend of mine who’s a drummer and a schoolteacher couldn’t play for months because he did that over frustration in school. Well, Tom Petty did that during the making of Southern Accents. He talks about it in this MTV special from 1986, now available on Vimeo. Also, the Heartbreakers do a Beatles-style impromtu roof-jam thing, but in St. Petersburg, Fla. Most of it takes place in Gainseville, where the Ladybug Transistor had a memorable stop on the Florida leg (five shows; it was great!) of our tour with Starlight Mints. I think Southern Accents is Petty’s Further Adventures Of Charles Westover, but I probably just think that because of “Don’t Come Around Here No More.”