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Say Hi

March 10, 2009 – 9:28 pm by sleeper

Tour Dates
03/06/09 Neumos Seattle, Washington
03/12/09 Bottom Of The Hill San Francisco, CA
03/13/09 The Echo Los Angeles, CA
03/14/09 Beauty Bar (Neon Reverb Festival) Las Vegas, NV
03/15/09 Plush Tucson, Arizona
03/17/09 Longhorn Saloon Ft. Worth, TX
03/19/09 Room 710 (SXSW Day Party Show) Austin, TX
03/20/09 SXSW (Day Party Show TBA) Austin, TX
03/21/09 SXSW Daystage Austin, TX
03/21/09 The Parish (Barsuk & Merge SXSW Showcase) Austin, TX
03/22/09 Hi-Tone Cafe Memphis, TN
03/23/09 The End Nashville, TN
03/24/09 Drunken Unicorn Atlanta, GA
03/25/09 Plaza ’Duckpin’ Bowl Richmond, VA
03/26/09 The Black Cat Washington, Washington
03/27/09 Johnny Brenda’s Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
03/28/09 The Bell House Brooklyn, New York
03/29/09 Mercury Lounge New York, New York

03/30/09 The Middle East Upstairs Cambridge, Massachusetts
03/31/09 Garfield Artworks Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
04/02/09 Circus Columbus, Ohio

04/03/09 The Beat Kitchen Chicago, Illinois

04/04/09 7th Street Entry Minneapolis, Minnesota
04/05/09 The Slowdown Omaha, Nebraska
04/06/09 The Hi-Dive Denver, Colorado
04/07/09 Kilby Court Salt Lake City, Utah
04/08/09 Neurolux Boise, Idaho
04/09/09 Holocene Portland, Oregon
Discography

[2002] Discosadness
[2004] Numbers & Mumbles
[2005] Ferocious Mopes

[2006] Impeccable Blahs
[2007] The Wishes and the Glitch
[2009] Oohs & Aahs
Say Hi To Your Mom, or currently now known as simply Say Hi, is an lo-fi indie rock band from Seattle, Washington. They have been quietly and consistantly releasing their charming little music since 2002 with equally clever titles (and not to mention multiple syllables) and lo-fi cover artwork (all pastel colors with black and white drawings).

They’ve been pretty constant because the music and direction are from mostly one person: Eric Ellbogen. He writes and records his music, usually at home on his mac. Well their latest album is called Oohs & Aahs and it was just released last Tuesday, March 3rd, through Barsuk Records.

I managed to listen to the album three times, as I’m writing this, so it’s a really short, but sweet, album. Sweet songs includes organ-sounding “Audrey” and “The Stars Just Blink For Us”. Ellbogen’s vocals reminds me of lazy-man Strokes singer, Julian Casablancas, on these songs.

“November Was White, December Was Grey” was the lead single/song that they released in anticipation to this album, which had great a right-only speaker guitar playing, but forgettable. His singing on this one had a lot of breathing too, which I didn’t really enjoy. If you don’t believe me, you can download the song yourself via Spin.com. The only good news is that Winter is almost gone here… and yes, I’ll feel a lot better once Winter’s gone.

My favorite song on the album is quite upbeat. It’s called “One, Two … One” and it’s just one of those songs that I can just play over and over again. The low quality guitar and percussions makes it very simple to dance and groove to.

Plus clapping is always a bonus!

Overall, these songs are short pop songs, with analog/mono homemade sound quality - that’s endearing and personal. They are setting out on tour to promote this album for 2009, so be sure to check them out if they’re touring your area. I may try and catch them at SXSW, but since they’re returning to Minneapolis in April, it will be no big deal if I miss them in all the SXSW madness.

You can buy all of Say Hi’s records via our favorite record label or online at amazon.


  ♥ vu ()
♥ www.ilikesayhi.com ♥ myspace.com/sayhitoyourmom ♥ www.barsuk.com


Posted in Synth Pop, Vu, Indie Rock | No Comments »

The Dark Romantics

September 10, 2008 – 7:51 pm by Administrator

The Dark Romantics’s Heartbreaker was released yesterday, September 9th. The band took their name after a literary sub-genre of the 19th century (Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickinson were considered part of this genre), because apparently their sense of humor falls in line with death and darkness - as their music reflect such darkness.

From reading about their debut album, Some Midnight Kissin’, it would seem that the theme and sound from that album is geared for a dance nightclub. I don’t think they were trying to achieve that with Heartbreakers, because I felt these songs are kind of moody. Like a Gothic New Romantics, a little bit of a post-punk/new wave 80s vibe. In fact, the danciest song on here is probably “Never Been Loved”, with its “I want to love you like you’ve never been loved.” chorus at the end, but I wouldn’t call this album dance, underground or otherwise.

The theme to this album seems to fall into one of two categories: love or heartbreak, although you can argue some songs falls in both. I felt that the album kind of build up to their epic song “Heartbreaker”, because they had sprinkled bits and pieces of this song earlier in the album. By the time “Heartbreaker”, I was already familiar with this song.

Don’t miss this band if you like mysterious dark pop, they are about to set on a long tour:
09/12/08 Murray Hill Theatre *all ages Jacksonville, Florida
09/18/08Camp Fire USA *CD RELEASE SHOW* all ages - house party show! Lakeland, Florida
09/19/08 Backbooth *CD RELEASE SHOW ages 18+ Orlando, Florida
09/20/08 New World Brewery *CD RELEASE SHOW ages 21+ Ybor City, Florida
09/25/08 Sluggos w/ DIGNAN & MOUSE FIRE Pensacola, Florida
09/26/08 Blue Wisp - Midpoint Music Festival Cincinnati, Ohio
09/27/08 Brick House/Noize Collective w/ DIGNAN & MOUSE FIRE Loiusville, Kentucky
09/28/08 The Drunken Unicorn w/ DIGNAN & MOUSE FIRE Atlanta, Georgia
10/16/08 Tin Roof Charleston, South Carolina
10/17/08 New French Bar w/ LOOK MEXICO Asheville, North Carolina
10/18/08 Lunch Box Records w/ LOOK MEXICO Charlotte, North Carolina
10/29/08 The Vagabond **GEN ART presents REVERB** Miami, Florida
10/30/08 Respectable Street Cafe w/ TV CLUB & MOUSE FIRE West Palm Beach, Florida
11/06/08 Swayze’s w/ THE WINTER SOUNDS *all ages* Marietta, Georgia
11/07/08 Flicker Theatre w/ THE WINTER SOUNDS Athens, Georgia
11/08/08 Soho w/ THE WINTER SOUNDS Columbus, Georgia

Links: www.thedarkromantics.com myspace.com/thedarkromantics www.lujorecords.com


Posted in Synth Pop | No Comments »

Regurgitator - Love and Paranoia

September 3, 2008 – 1:38 pm by Administrator

Tour Dates
09/07/08 KING TUTS, Glasgow, Scotland
09/08/08 ACADEMY 3, Manchester
09/09/08 ULU, London
09/11/08 Warehouse party, Hong Kong, Kowloon City
Discography

[May 1996] tu-plang
[Nov 1997] Unit
[Oct 1998] Unit Re-Booted

[Aug 1999] …art
[Jul 2001] Eduardo and Rodriguez Wage War on T-Wrecks
[Nov 2002] Jingles: The Best Of

[Nov 2004] Mish Mash!
[Sep 2007] Love and Paranoia

I was going to have Australian Sally take up writing Regurgitator’s triumph return to music with their sixth album, Love and Paranoia - but I just found out that it’s released today, September 2nd (out in the UK yesterday), because they are doing a mini-tour of the UK. I am assuming if things are successful, they will eventually tour the US to promote the album.


Regurgitator - !

Regurgitator - I Suck a Lot of Cock to Get Where I am

Regurgitator - Everyday Formula

Regurgitator - Magnetic

I previously have mentioned the ‘Gurge before, regarding their most famous album, Unit. The album won ARIA Award for Album of the Year that the record company (Warner Music Australia) went back and re-released it as Unit Reboot.

The band is fairly well known in Brisbane, Australia, down to their “secret origin” of the original three band members (Quan Yeomans, Ben Ely, and Martin Lee) meeting on a public bus in Brisbane, Australia.

The band was never popular in the US, despite their previous domestic efforts with Sub Pop’s difficult title “I Suck a Lot of C*** to Get Where I Am” or on Reprise Records.

I obviously haven’t kept up with Regurgitor, they had change so much from their beginning. With Love and Paranoia recorded in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in the Summer of 2007.

Starting off the album with “Blood and Spunk”, which is very 80s-sounding (think Kraftwerk or Devo). I can see why this single got them a ton of airplay on Australia’s Triple J, especially with its catchy “just let yourself go go go go go go” chorus. The song is a perfect three-minute pop dance song, that’s all there is to it.

I can see Regurgitator’s oh-so-ironic humor on songs like “Drinking Beer Is Awesome!”, “Destroy This Town”, and “Romance of the Damned”. Speaking of “Romance of the Damned”, this is the new single, and features new fourth keyboardist girl Seja Vogel on vocals. It’s pretty catchy and humorous. I love the “google” reference in the song, too nerdy!

Old fans might not like the addition of Vogel on vocals (she also sings on “Magnetic”), but I think she’s actually pretty good! She has a very Humans League quality to her voice.

The last song on this album is a weird Yeomans vocals on “Armageddon Premonition”. The vocals is obviously manipulated to sound like a robot with synth. I did enjoy this little experiment and the song left me wanting more.

If you love 80s synth and pop, you need to check out Love and Paranoia, it comes highly recommended by me. The album is available now (amazon is listing a ridiciously expensive price for a domestic version) and if you’re lucky enough to be in the UK, be sure to check them out on a few tour dates.

Links: regurgitator.net myspace.com/regurgitators valverecords.com.au


Posted in Australia, Synth Pop, Vu | 1 Comment »

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