Seven months after the band released its debut album Goes Canoeing, D.C. new-old-emo act Monument is back at it with a new cassette, Sweatpants Fever.

via Monument Releases More New Old Emo – Arts Desk – Washington City Paper.

The new stuff from Monument rips.

Chicago-based emo troubadour Evan Thomas Weiss isn't the first person to record a song called “Washington, D.C.”

via Download: Into It. Over It.’s “Washington, D.C. – Arts Desk – Washington City Paper.

A behind-the-scenes look at Into It. Over It.’s “Washington, D.C.”

2010 has been fantastic for the new old emo: Plenty of bands released strong albums, EPs, singles, and demos—some of which might even rival the best in the genre’s history. Here’s the cream of the crop.

via The Best New Old Emo of 2010 – Arts Desk – Washington City Paper.

Another fun little list I put together to remember 2010. Take a preview listen to one of the bands below:

For a group of kids who spent the 90s in elementary school, Scranton PA’s Tigers Jaw understand the spirit and sonic sensibilities of that decade better than most bands today.

via TIGERS JAW | DigBoston.

Review!

Emo, as we’ve come to know it, gets fairly bad press. But Monument is one of a handful of bands across the country that is reimagining the sound by resurrecting something akin to the ’90s version of it. At gigs on the local house-show circuit, Monument can draw 50 or more kids, but sometimes just a handful. That may change soon: The band’s album, Goes Canoeing, has begun earning adulation on a host of punk-focused websites, blogs, and message boards.

via The New Old Emo: Meet D.C.’s Monument – Arts Desk – Washington City Paper.

I’ve been trying to write about this band for a solid year, and now that they’ve released their debut, I’ve finally done it.

Evan Thomas Weiss doesnt exactly have a lot of name recognition—the 26-year-old emo troubadour, who plays a mix of singer-songwriter ballads and heavy pop-punk tunes, does most of his recording as Into It. Over It., and that cant be helping.

via The Buddy System | Music Feature | Chicago Reader.

I met Evan while researching and reporting my first piece for the Chicago Reader. I’d known about his project, Into It. Over It., for a while and had finally gotten around to purchasing the first IIOI album sometime before I met him. It’s funny how it all sort of came together in my newest Reader piece. Read on.

When second-wave emo legends Cap’n Jazz reunited earlier this year, music critics and fans rejoiced. It all seemed a little unexpected: After years of Warped-Tour banishment, emo was being celebrated again.

via Tomorrow: Algernon Cadwallader, Standard-Bearers of the New New Emo – Arts Desk – Washington City Paper.

A preview for Algernon Cadwallader’s D.C. show. Enjoy.

Joking aside, Castevet’s success is a big deal. For a band that plays basement shows as often as Castevet, the opportunity to release an album on a foreign label like Japan’s Stiff Slack Records doesn’t happen every day. Castevet is doing something big. And that big thing is emo.

via The New Emo: It’s back, living underground and thriving in Chicago | Newcity Music.

I’ve been toying around with this article for close to a year. Yet, it didn’t come to fruition until a couple months back. A big thanks to Newcity for once again slapping one of my ideas on the cover. Also, a well-deserved thanks is due to Nick Wakim (Castevet), Anton Kropp (Monument), Patrick Delehanty (Joie De Vivre) and Keith Latinen (Empire! Empire!) for lending their voices to the piece. Read it here.

Image via Wikipedia

Popular indie music site Pitchfork announced it will launch Altered Zones, a sister site dedicated to DIY sounds so obscure not even those on staff at Pitchfork have heard of some of the bands or dreamt up cool new tags for the zany new tunes. Pitchfork has some lofty goals for the site, which will premier online July 7:

Uniting an international team of bloggers whose individual sites have proven among the most consistently rewarding outposts for unique and leftfield music, this new site will highlight the most notable and adventurous new artists, serving as a focal point for the flood of creativity coming from deep within the music underground.

Though I don’t doubt the positive intentions behind Pitchfork’s Altered Zones, and though the idea is certainly novel, I can’t imagine anything more detrimental to the idea of the blogosphere than Altered Zones.

One of the many rewarding aspects of music blogging is the conversation that occurs among countless bloggers delving into little niches. It’s created a gorgeous kaleidoscope of perspectives on everything from American pop to Angolan hip-hop, and it’s fostered a dialogue wherein individuals are both experts on a specific sounds and newbies eager to learn about other genres.

Pitchfork, by and large, has stayed out of this conversation. The site will give credit where credit is due, linking to blogs that find the latest radio rip of a new LCD Soundsystem song or ones that post a new Animal Collective video from a European performance. But, the buck stops when it comes to the critical analysis of music. They are the authority on all things music, so why would a reader want another opinion? That authoritative voice is even a part of their editorial voice:

Launched in 1996, Pitchfork is the essential guide to independent music and beyond, and is widely regarded as the music world’s primary tastemaker.

Prior to Tuesday’s announcement, it was easy to find practically any independent blog “at war” with Pitchfork. The site is, to many, the exemplar of “the man.” And they certainly act the part. Though music is, and always has been, an individual choice, many blogs (and music writers for that matter) drew lines in the sand with specific bands.

The blogs boosted bands like Cold War Kids and Sound Team to heights previously unimagined by some dude with a domain name and love for music, and Pitchfork decimated those bands with a couple swift negative reviews. Yes, taste is in the eye of the beholder, but it wasn’t beyond some skeptical individuals to ponder the question of whether or not Pitchfork handed down these negative reviews as if to show the burgeoning blogs who’s in control.

It’s with Altered Zones that Pitchfork appears to be hijacking the conversation occurring on the music blogosphere. Pitchfork’s attitude of absolute authority in deeming certain sounds as credible has been extended to the still-unwieldy world of the blogs, and somehow the folks at Pitchfork believe they can trade some popular web space for a real, authentic blog voice with 14 popular blogging sites.

Thank goodness, the benevolent Pitchfork has arrived to pull some of our blogging brethren from the depths of this cruel CSS-fueled community! Right?

Wrong. Though I don’t doubt Pitchfork’s attempts to get the best coverage of the ever-growing music world, their ideal to provide a closed forum with their 14 favorite blogs on tap is hardly any improvement over what they are currently engaged in.

A better choice could have been a universal forum, where bloggers can submit content that a select few editors could sift through and find the best content. Even though some system like that would merely continue to validate Pitchfork’s supremacy in the modern musical conversation, it’s certainly more appealing than Pitchfork’s ill-minded presentation of the blogosphere. There are hundreds of thousands of music blogs covering valid musical content: To say only 14 blogs, no matter how popular and well-conceived they are, is an absolute fallacy.

Then again, this could be a good thing for music. Not in terms of the music being covered by Altered Zones, although I’m sure there will be artists with great voices that receive some well-deserved exposure on the site. It could be a good thing for the evolution of alternative and independent music not being covered by Altered Zones.

The history of alternative music has been one of an underground culture ignored by the critical elite, allowed to fester and grow in the corners of basements and find audiences in zines. Those zines are now the countless blogs waiting to be discovered, those basements are filled by bands simply not covered by Pitchfork’s all-knowing hand. And 14 hand-picked blogs can’t be expected to cover everything, especially when Pitchfork’s editorial voice has made an effort to ignore certain aspects of modern music.

Sure, if I want the latest Wavves sound-alike or a Wu-Tang Clan solo project, I’ll go to Gorilla vs. Bear. But, if I want a spec of info on current world electronic and hip-hop, I’ll go to wayne&wax. If I want anything metal-related, I’ll see what former Pitchfork-writer Brandon Stosuy is up to. Experimental and noise? Anti-Gravity Bunny. Emo? Certainly not Pitchfork, or any of the Altered Zones-related blogs for that matter. And I’ll take Algernon Cadwallader over Real Estate any day of the week.

So, what’s the fear? Well, Pitchfork does have pull. And the idea that they can claim to present the only reputable voices on the blogosphere is less dangerous for bloggers than music listeners. Technology has made instant gratification not only easy to achieve, but a desired goal. By aggregating a select number of blogs into a single site and using their significant pull in the music world, Pitchfork’s Altered Zones could cut music listeners’ web browsing down to size. With everything supposedly worth listening to available on a single site, why would you want to even think of exploring elsewhere? Sure, online searches are easy, but visiting a single site is even easier.

Although many blogs won’t get the Pitchfork seal-of-approval, I’ve got my fingers crossed that they will carry on without a second thought. Music bloggers have dedicated weeks, months and years to their beloved sites. Pitchfork’s sudden “validation” of a “lucky” few sites shouldn’t change things. Frankly, it shouldn’t even matter.

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Image via Wikipedia

Scott Pilgrim is like my Harry Potter, Twilight or any other popular book series today. I realize I’m hardly alone in that sentiment: There’s something powerful about Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series that’s irresistible. Though I’ve seen some negative chatter about the first “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” trailer, mostly relating to its glorified imagining of indie culture, the book series has real heart.

With Edgar Wright (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz,” “Spaced”) behind the film version of Scott Pilgrim, I’m confident that the movie will be entertaining. Just as O’Malley packed the Scott Pilgrim series with little nuggets of video game, comic book and music nerd trivia that seep into the texture of the story without distracting readers, Wright has done the same in his film and TV work. O’Malley tossed a Microphones reference into his books, Wright playful re-did a line from “Night of the Living Dead” in “Shaun of the Dead”: They seem to be a pair made for each other.

Of course, we won’t find out what the movie is like until the end credits roll, but the pedigree for the film is strong. My only reservation, aside from Michael Cera playing Scott Pilgrim, is the soundtrack [via Edgar Wright's blog/Pitchfork]:

01 SEX BOB-OMB (Beck): “We Are SEX BOB-OMB”
02 Plumtree: “Scott Pilgrim”
03 Frank Black: “I Heard Ramona Sing”
04 Beachwood Sparks: “By Your Side”
05 Black Lips: “O Katrina!”
06 Crash and the Boys (Broken Social Scene): “I’m So Sad, So Very, Very Sad”
07 Crash and the Boys (Broken Social Scene): “We Hate You Please Die”
08 SEX BOB-OMB (Beck): “Garbage Truck”
09 T. Rex: “Teenage Dream”
10 The Bluetones: “Sleazy Bed Track”
11 Blood Red Shoes: “It’s Getting Boring by the Sea”
12 Metric: “Black Sheep”
13 SEX BOB-OMB (Beck): “Threshold”
14 Broken Social Scene: “Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl”
15 The Rolling Stones: “Under My Thumb”
16 Beck: “Ramona (Acoustic)”
17 Beck: “Ramona”
18 SEX BOB-OMB (Beck): “Summertime”
19 Brian LeBarton: “Threshold 8 Bit”

Yes, the soundtrack is strong, mixing old hits with indie favorites. But I can’t help but question the artists selected to perform as two of the fictional bands from Scott Pilgrim. That being, Beck as SEX BOB-OMB and Broken Social Scene as Crash and the Boys.

In the graphic novel series, SEX BOB-OMB is a slightly-inept punk trio, while Crash and the Boys is a noise trio best known for having an extremely young drummer with ADD. For some reason, Beck’s diverse discography doesn’t really match with the book’s concept of SEX BOB-OMB. And the army-of-musicians known as Broken Social Scene doesn’t seem like a good fight for Crash and the Boys.

So, what bands would provide better fits?

Well, perhaps one of the many pop-laced new emo bands springing up around the country would be a good stand in for SEX BOB-OMB. Though most of these acts have skilled musicians to pull of their sounds, the tunes many of the bands produce have a playful and punk nature to them. And with albums that are as short as the one SEX BOB-OMB produced in the Scott Pilgrim series, a band like BEST FRIENDS! would work quite well as a SEX BOB-OMB stand in.

How about Crash and the Boys? L.A. noiseniks HEALTH would fit the bill nicely. With blasts of noise that knock people on their ass, a drummer that certainly maintains aural authority, and a flair for electronic and dance music, HEALTH’s sound would be a great match for Crash and the Boys, especially with the fictional band’s narrative evolution.

Of course, the music decisions have been made, the songs synched up to the film, etc. Although I’m interested to see what Beck’s SEX BOB-OMB and Broken Social Scene’s Crash and the Boys will sound like, it’ll be hard to not imagine HEALTH every time I open a Scott Pilgrim book and see an image of Crash and the Boys.

“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” international trailer:

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Health – “Die Slow”:

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