• In Da News: New local supergroup alert! Keep an eye out for The Chauncers, a new collaborative project featuring Mike Lamping (Heartless Bastards), Bob Gayol (The Virgins, Moth), Billy Catfish, Kendall Davis (The Thirteens, Ditchweed), Lisa Walker (Wussy) and other local musicians and artists. A mix of organic, folksy sounds and keyboard-based Indie Rock and Pop (like Wilco and Pavement jammin' around), the group has self-recorded a handful of songs, which you can listen to on the Chauncers' MySpace page here. The band is making its official live debut on June 20 at the Southgate House in Newport. The band has been making video clips of the songs as they make them — here is the one for "Runaway Blues":
• Yet another Cincinnati-based group that can be deemed "super" is The Sundowners, which will make its debut April 19 at The Mad Hatter in Covington. The band came about when members of the local groups Spindle and Krinj got together for a jam session and discovered an immediate chemistry. Not long after that initial session, the band went to Tampa to record some demos with Mike Major, who has worked with At the Drive In and Sparta (a good indication of what the band sounds like). Give the demos a listen here. In an effort to scout out a possible record deal, the band has hooked up with HM Management and Concerts, which also works with bands signed to labels like Metal Blade and Victory (including Cincinnati's Victory Records reps, Beneath the Sky). The band's April 19 debut will also be a funeral of sorts for Krinj — the show is being billed as "The Death of Krinj," marking the end of the Northern Kentucky band's 13-year run.
• Popular Cincinnati-based straight-edge Hardcore band Suffocate Faster called it quits last year, but it didn't take long for a new project to emerge from the simmering ashes. Suicide Pact features three former Suffocate Faster members as well as drummer Dustin Dolerhie of Cincy Hardcore band Gladiator. Take a listen to the recordings on their MySpace site (here) and then see them live Thursday night at the Mad Hatter.
On This Day in 2007, the longest concert in the history of the world came to an end. No, it wasn't a Phish show — in Japan, a variety of musicians (from kids to oldsters) played for over 182 hours (taking turns, of course), breaking the old record, 181 hours, set in Canada in 2001.
Tonight: Jaw-dropping guitarist Scotty Anderson hosts an open jam tonight at Grandview Tavern and Grille in Ft. Mitchell, Ky. Anderson's versatile playing (he's a li'l Jazz, a li'l Roots and a lotta talent) has led to him being called one of the most underrated guitarists in the Midwest. Here's a nice clip of Anderson jamming in Macon, Ga. in 2006:
— Mike Breen
In Da News: You can find an endless stream of folks who act like cigarette smoking is akin to raping babies. And that's fine. But if you're a singer in a Rock band who is playing a Camel-sponsored show, you'd better rethink announcing the dangers of smoking from the stage. Reports are circulating that at the recent South By Southwest festival, Joel Cadbury — singer for huge U.K. band South (which has a much smaller following in the U.S.) — made a passing comment about the "filthy habit" during the band's performance. The reports say that, after spotting a woman with the Camel camel tattooed on her arm (I pray it was fake) during their Camel-sponsored show, Cadbury allegedly said "Don't smoke, it's bad for you." Making it even more innocuous is the fact that Cadbury apparently is also a smoker. Well, the Camel folks didn't think it was funny or educational — after the band's set, they were told that the fleeting comment just cost them their $20,000 performance fee. I don' t know what's worse -- that Camel is paying such a high fee for a relatively obscure band … or that they're not.
The "no advance copies" policy — which will likely become more common
in this era of early
leaks (though the fact that advances are sent out at all indicates that
the music biz still thinks reviews have value) — is actually very
common in the film world. But if a movie
doesn't have any advanced screenings for critics, it's usually a sign
that the film is prone to bad reviews (in other words, it sucks). In
many ways, Hollywood's approach is similar to Jack White and Co.'s in
that they want to control how you experience their product; the film
studios are basically saying, "We don't want critics to effect the way
someone views this movie." Though, ultimately, the movie business
usually knows they have a stinker that will only appeal to the lowest
common denominator and they don't want critics to point that out before
opening weekend. If they really cared about your "experience," they wouldn't make movies available to be viewed on iPods. For Hollywood, it's even more about the money than in the music biz.