News With A "Z" - The Off Air Blog
See A Show, Why Not!
Here's what's happening at The Blue Lamp:
1400 Alhambra Blvd Sacramento, CA
www.bluelamp.com
Agent
Ribbons
Sacramento band started in 2006 by
Natalie Gordon and Lauren Hess,
who (according to their myspace
bio) met in a record store while Natalie was clearing away bat
carcasses - and their music is just as strange and romantic as
their first encounter.
See Them: Aug. 13th @
8PM w/ The Lovely Eggs & Sour Patch
Ganglians/Crocodiles
Both bands have already in their short careers received
a fair share of praise.
Stereogum has called the Crocodiles (San Diego) a "band to watch"
and the Ganglians'
(Sacramento) track "Valiant Brave" was given 8 out of 10 by
Pitchfork's track reviewers.
See Them: Aug. 25th @ 8PM w/ Pens &
Graffiti Island
Buy Early Get Now - Yo La
Tengo
As Far As I'm concerned Matador can't do this
enough!
If you haven't checked this out yet - do it!
Pre-order your album (which despite the release date)
will be available to stream almost immediately.
When the album does ship, it comes with not-so-little perks
like exclusive vinyl, posters and downloads.
It's more like Buy Early
Get WOW!
See . . . see what we did there?
Recommendin'
Records we currently love
here at Offices of Off Air
Nick:
The Fiery
Furnaces - I'm Going Away
I love this
band. They've consistently created weirdly catchy and
catchily
weird (catch-ily isn't a word even when you hyphenate it) music
over their career.
Admitedly I don't always have the patience for their outings (see
Rehearsing
My Choir)
but I can appreciate it nonetheless. The new album - I'm
Going Away - is great.
Really concise, memorable tunes. It feels like the
Friedberger siblings have come full
circle from Gallowsbird's Bark.
Yppah - They Know
What Ghost Know
It'd be easy to pin
the genre electonica on Yppah (pronounced "Yippah") but
irresponsible
and let's face it, we're adults. These tracks aren't mere
hooks waiting for a rapper to
find and spit hot rhymes all over; they're (and let me sound
pompous here) real thoughtful compositions. The instrumentals on
this record are so layered and engaging you forget there isn't a
singer. Lovely.
UUVVWWZ - UUVVWWZ
The band's name is pronounced Double U,
Double V, Double-Double U, Z.
What more do you want???? They're also have a fun, arty
sound. How's
that?
Meg:
The dø - a
mouthful:
What can I say? They're just . . .
adorable! Okay, aside from their amazing Euro-savvy
sense of style and their awesome accents, I like a
mouthful because it has all the elements
of some of my other favorites - the vocals are different, the
lyrics are off beat and at times
really quite moving. Indie pop at its best as far as I'm
concerned!
The Rural Alberta Advantage -
Hometowns
We get a lot of CDs coming through the
offices of Off Air - and normally I have a sort of
"formula"
by which I judge the album (okay, I just
look at the cover and make an instant uneducated
"guess"
about how I think it will sound). My first
judgment of this album was WAY off!
It's folksy, catchy, and great all the way
through.
bibio - ambivalence
avenue
This was a tough choice, because I also
quite enjoyed YACHT's recent album. However, what makes
the "dance-y-ness" of bibio's album better than YACHT's (and oh
boy, do I love me some dance-dance music) is that it is
unpredictable.
The rhythm and melody and even style of every track are
different.
I appreciate ambivalence avenue for its experimental
nature, but also
for the band's execution of the
experimental.