Of Montreal covers galore! And a new song from Montreal based Islands!

Stereogum posted a link to a goldmine of free Of Montreal covers the other day, so I figured I should share them with everyone here. You can find the great plethora of oM songs here on You Ain't No Picasa. To make the mass downloading a little easier, download this helpful Firefox extension. The collection includes covers ranging from more recent bands like The Apples in Stereo, The Shins, and The Fiery Furnaces to classic rock bands like The Beatles, The Who, and Velvet Undergound. Enjoy!

I'd also like to point out that Montreal-based indie band Islands has released a new song on their Myspace called "The Arm". Go and check it out. If you like what you hear, you should check out their roots (see: The Unicorns)

The Fiery Furnaces at The Space - 1/19

The Fiery Furnaces put on a great show at The Space. Before going on, Portland indie rock band Phantom Buffalo opened up, and it was an unexpected treat. I had been wanting to see Phantom Buffalo after I had to leave their Strange Maine show before they came on, so I'm glad to have finally catch them live.

Photo by Stephanie MacDonald

A few musical notes about Juno

Being a very independent and eccentric movie, Juno brought a lot of independent and eccentric music along with it. Included in the soundtrack are bands Belle & Sebsatian (a favorite of mine), Sonic Youth, The Kinks, and Velvet Underground.

Here's a little sample of Belle & Sebastian with their song "Jonathan David".

More about Juno music after the cut.

The Fiery Furnaces coming to The Space this Saturday!

Just a heads up for you weekend concert-goers out there! Psychedelic, electronic pop-duo The Fiery Furnaces will be heating up The Space in Portland this Saturday! Fiery takes musical influences from eclectic groups such as Os Mutantes and Captain Beefhart. Admission is $12 and doors open at 9PM.

And here's another sample of their music from their latest music video, "Duplexes of the Dead":

Hope to see you there!

Wicked Music Videos: Pt. 9

This edition of Wicked Music Videos features a band that is coming to The Space in Portland this coming Saturday. They are called The Fiery Furnaces, and they're a brother-sister duo that makes these crazy psychedelic and electronic sounds. I reckon there's nothing quite like them right now. They're notation and instrumentation is very unique. Big-time indie band Of Montreal has been known to cover Fiery's "Tropical Iceland" at many concerts (including the one I attended last March).

Well, anyways, here is their music video for "Ex-Guru". Enjoy!

The Cheese Grater Experience comes back with a new name and new songs!

My band, The Cheese Grater Experience, has reemerged as Tony Smokes and the Ladykillers, a four-piece alternative rock band straight out of South Portland! Well, I'm sure the part about us being from South Portland has been clarified before, but it just sounded cool.

With the change of our name, we are going into a more rock-oriented direction, but that is not to say we are leaving our original eccentricity behind! We also went separate ways with our beloved keyboardist, so we wish him the best in his musical endeavors.

The most important part about our band is that we have new songs, and we have a special preview of them prepared for you in the form of a Youtube concert titled "The Youtube Concert". Enjoy!

4 New Year's Resolutions for my blog!

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a great holiday and New Year's Celebration! I sure did!

I'm finally back to my blog, and I have made a few resolutions to make my blog better for my readers. So here they are!

Number 1: Make blog posts more of a conversation with my audience.

I've noticed that a lot of my posts are one sided conversations, so what I'm going to try to do from now on is ask you, the audience, how you feel about the subject. How do you feel about this artist? Who do you want to come to the Portland area? What is your favorite album from this artist? Do you want to find similar artists? These are only a few possibilities of ways for me to open up a conversation with the audience. I'm sure as I experiment, I will learn a lot and establish a new style.

Number 2: Create a greater focus on the local music scene.

In 2007, I discovered three local bands that stand out to me now more than ever before. These three bands are Satellite Lot, Fire on Fire and Gully, and they are all based out of the Portland area. They are really talented bands, and they deserve some good buzz, so I will do just that. I'll also make more of an effort into discovering other local acts.

Number 3: Review more CDs.

This is pretty self-explanatory. Every now and then, I splurge and buy a few CDs at Bullmoose Music (just did this on Saturday). I really, really like some of these albums that I buy, so I think I should tell you, the audience, about them.

Number 4: Write more often!

I'm really bad at putting the next big blog article out sometimes, so I'm really going to work hard at cranking them out more. I'm going to post a minimum of three articles a day, even if they're really small blurbs.

Number 5: More photography!

My girlfriend is an aspiring photographer, so she'll be coming along with me to some of the concerts to take really neat photos to accompany my reviews!

Well, that is all. I have some good stuff coming this way: reviews of new albums by local bands Gully and Satellite Lot; concert review of The Fiery Furnaces (coming to The Space in Portland on 1/18); and a special update about my band (The Cheese Grater Experience, now known as Tony Smokes and the Ladykillers).

If there is anything you would like to see on my blog, please drop by a comment! I would love to see them!