Archive for the ‘MusicGeek.org’ Category

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V-Tunes Music Festival returns for third year

Matthew Montgomery

Austin Joseph performs at V-Tunes 2009

V-Tunes Music Festival, which takes place outside Lake Powell in Big Water, Utah, will be returning for its third year running. Returning to the festival will be Cory Mon & the Starlight Gospel, who will be headlining the event, while Pat and Rosy Maloney, Steven Swift, Austin Joseph, and Easy Joseph will each return for the 2010 iteration of the festival. The one-day event will hit on June 5.

Announced Lineup

  • Cory Mon & the Starlight Gospel
  • Pat & Rosy Maloney
  • Matt Jennings
  • Dave McGraw & Crow Wing
  • Steven Swift
  • Easy Joseph
  • Sandy Stevens
  • Lindi & Company
  • Austin Joseph

March 19, 2010 Posted in News, Southern Utah No Comments »

Groovacious plans Harper, Beliss shows

Matthew Montgomery

Groovacious Records of Cedar City, Utah will be hosting a number of in-store shows in the coming month as they rev up for Groovefest 2010, which is just over three months away.

In a week, March 24, Australian rock-blues-soul-world musician Harper will feature at the store; tickets are $8 at the door. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.

Sister-duo Beliss, who performed in Cedar City during the 2009 southwest tour, will return on March 25. From Portland, Belinda and Melissa Underwood perform an eclectic blend of musical styles and aren’t to be missed. Tickets are available at the door, which opens at 7:30 p.m.

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March 18, 2010 Posted in News, Southern Utah No Comments »

PLAYLIST: Not all Irish groups are U2, you know

Matthew Montgomery

As it’s Saint Patrick’s Day — and as we’re all obviously Catholic, we celebrate this religious holiday(!) — and people’s attentions are going to be turned toward Ireland, I thought it might be nice to build a playlist with a few of my favorite bands from Ireland. Don’t worry, none of them are U2. Here are nine songs from three groups: The High Llamas, God is an Astronaut, and My Bloody Valentine.

Who are some of your favorite Irish musicians? Share them with us on Twitter or comment below.

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March 17, 2010 Tags:
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SomaFM powers discovery, bucks Web radio trends

Matthew Montgomery

For some years now, I’ve been listening off-and-on to SomaFM’s astounding radio station Indie Pop Rocks! and have, as a result, been introduced to some music that has stuck with me over years of listening, from Yo La Tengo and Pavement to Camera Obscura and The High Llamas.

SomaFM features a multitude of stations, and while most of its offerings are electronic in nature, some other notable stations with which I find interest include the recent Noise Pop Radio!, Covers — a station devoted to cover songs, and a dance rock station, PopTron! Across all its stations, SomaFM showcases artists from the obscure to the instantly recognizable.

Where something like last.fm or Pandora may offer some computer-generated discovery, the guided discovery of radio is where it can cull real power. Where most over-the-air radio has fallen into the mundaneness of the mainstream, SomaFM stands strong. For some, the variety may seem overwhelming — but with some time and patience, it transforms from something disparate and unrecognizable to the familiar.

March 16, 2010 Tags: , ,
Posted in Features No Comments »

Chiptunes For President

Belén Mata

"Dawn Metropolis" by Anamanaguchi

Last week, Jared featured an article spotlighting the music of “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.” I now feel it is my solemn duty to take MusicGeek.org’s Chiptune virginity.

According to Wikipedia, “A chiptune … is music written in sound formats where all the sounds are synthesized in real time by a computer or video game console sound chip.” Basically, Wikipedia really should have just said: “Chiptunes are awesome video game-type music happy go fun time. (Citation needed.)” Sweet, right?

Ratatat – “Lex” Classics (2006)
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Ratatat-Lex1.mp3]

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Posted in Features, MusicGeek.org No Comments »

Music Geek: Hunting for records an essential part of musical journey

Matthew Montgomery

See, I can look classy every now and again.

When I search for records, it’s not an easy process. I often find myself inundated with those pesky round things — be they CDs or vinyl — as I flip through album after album. It’s not always particularly easy to find exactly what you want, supposing, of course, there is something in particular you’re interested in finding. It’s often the case that I’ll search shelves with no specific end, only the means: Exploration and search.

I’m under the impression that this is an essential part of my “musical journey” — a nebulous term I’ll adapt for use under a number of different circumstances with varying success. Half the fun of getting a record is looking for it, flipping through racks and racks of music, and finding that one specific item you’re willing to drop your cash on — or that stack of records you really, really don’t need right now. (more…)

March 14, 2010 Posted in Music Geek by Matthew Montgomery, Record Stores at the Crossroads No Comments »

Wes Anderson flexes musical muscle in The Royal Tenenbaums

Matthew Montgomery

Wes Anderson, film director known best for emergent classics like The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore clearly knows what he’s doing with film — but can we say the same about the use of music in his films?

The Royal Tenenbaums proved definitive in capturing the feel of music in a Wes Anderson film; by now, it has become a trait of his cinematic auteur theory. The overarching style — especially as it’s exercised in the film — is most crisply defined by the Mutato Muzika Orchestra’s rendition of the Paul McCartney-penned classic, “Hey Jude.” Replete with harpsichord, the track defines the mood and feel of the film as a whole.

While we may be able to attribute much of the musical consistency across Anderson films to the use of the Mutato Muzika Orchestra — the Mark Mothersbaugh-helmed production company has also made at least some appearance on Anderson’s Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Life Aquatic — we can pinpoint some other important attributes of Anderson films that extend beyond Mutato Muzika.

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March 13, 2010 Posted in MovieGeek, Music and Film, MusicGeek.org, Playlists, Video No Comments »

Music Geek: Record stores at crossroads, but there’s time to recover

Matthew Montgomery

See, I can look classy every now and again.

While in Phoenix for a computer-assisted reporting conference — NICAR 2010, which has a name nearly as exciting as possible for this sort of this — I took a jaunt over to a couple record  stores, interested, of course, in seeing what sorts of wares were on offer. What I found was surprising and depressing, inspiring and enlightening.

My first stop, Circles Records & Tapes was one which I’d recently discovered was either closing or had already closed. To my delight, I found it to have not yet closed, and a large advert touting their 50-percent-off liquidation sale made the whole thing all the more tantalizing. It was, then, a bit unfortunate to discover that the store was very much into the process of closing its doors, and the merchandise being liquidated included a few miscellaneous albums on vinyl — nothing of real note, excepting one of the many Brian Eno collaboration projects — and a slew of very cheap, obscure, and low-quality CD releases. It was no real pain to walk from the store empty handed, as I’d already assumed it had closed for good, and my plans were primarily to visit a store a few blocks away, Revolver Records. Anything I would have picked up at a Circles would have been merely a happy accident.

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Posted in Music Geek by Matthew Montgomery, Record Stores at the Crossroads, Regional MusicGeek No Comments »

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