with The Reunion Show’s Skully, Descendre’s T.J. Penzone and the aforementioned Brandon Reilly, while also spottable in the latest Brand New video…Maplewood, the 70’s Rock-inspired quartet led by Champale’s Mark Rozzo and with Nada Surf’s Ira Elliot on drums, currently has its debut album in the can and a showcase gig at SXSW forthcoming. Apologies for being outdated go out to Nada Surf, who it turns out not only finished three weeks of recording with Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla, but have a live CD and DVD coming out beyond a tour diary from vocalist/guitarist Matthew Caws in Magnet <strong>Magazine</strong>, and a song soon appearing in an episode of The O.C. …From The Ex’s With ¾ of the band coming from Errortype: 11 and the other ¼ having been the guitarist of Quicksand, it is with good reason that Instruction signed a deal with Geffen Records after less than a year of playing together. The band recorded its heavily-awaited debut with Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, KISS, Aerosmith) – and Instruction already has a rave review in NME to brag of…Further Seems Forever, a band mostly known because of its former singer forming Dashboard Confessional, has announced its break-up after the departure of replacement frontman Jason Gleason. It appears that FSF will be splitting into two separate groups…The Fire Theft is a powerful trio comprised of Sunny Day Real Estate founders Jeremy Enigk and William Goldsmith and Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel. The act’s worthwhile self-titled is now out on Rykodisc and will be out on an amazing-sounding tour with Grandaddy, Hey Mercedes and Saves The Day in the coming weeks. 18 • <strong>RAG</strong> MAGAZINE • <strong>MARCH</strong> <strong>2004</strong> …From The Stage Speaking of Hey Mercedes, I was fortunate enough to catch the quartet’s recent sold-out gig at The Mercury Lounge. Alternating between selections from their two Vagrant-released full-lengths, the band played with extreme intensity on “Quality Revenge At Last.” The songs slightly faster in a live setting, it constantly remained a wonder how drummer Damon Atkinson was able to keep up with the time-signature changes and sudden breaks of such poppy-yet-complex songs. While the overly-sweetness of co-headliner Wheat was a bit much for me to take, the eclectic openers known as The Honorary Title played sincere Indie-Rock that definitely blew more than a few spectators away – myself included…During the week-long trip to Tokyo, Japan that I was fortunate enough to take last month, I caught two diametrically-opposed shows at the same venue (Shibuya Kokkaido) on consecutive nights. First was Glasgow, Scotland’s Belle & Sebastian, who had a charismatic solo-acoustic warm-up performer in Eugene Kelly. Mixing up rarely-performed tracks and extended versions of favorites, there isn’t any possible way that an open-minded person could have walked away from the Belle show uninspired. With each of the core band members a multi-instrumentalist, auxiliary horns and strings being added to some songs and lead vocal duties being shared amongst three members, this was ethereal unpredictability. However, my personal highlight was a lively version of “You’re Just A Baby,” which was a duet between Sarah Martin and the aforementioned Kelly. On the contrary, David Lee Roth stuck to the hits, opting to play only one selection from his latest release, Diamond Dave. Peppering wall-to-wall classics – every Van Halen and solo favorite, minus “Janie’s Cryin’” — with the banter that makes DLR everyone’s favorite Rock personality, this was the sort of eventful concert experience that rarely exists anymore. Giving the crowd tunes from the first two VH albums that hadn’t been performed in many years, die-hards and casual listeners alike should have been pleased. While most of what Dave said probably went over the proverbial heads of most audience members – it’s a wonder that he didn’t use Japan-born rhythm guitarist Toshi Hiketa as a translator – especially at the point where he spoke “en Español,” we are talking about a man who still does all of the high-kicks and mid-song gymnastics that he was doing 30 years ago! And his four-piece backing band? Well, all the harmonies are there and “Lightning” Ray Luzier certainly works circles around Alex Van Halen. If you see that Diamond Dave is coming to your town, you must be there. …From The Stereo Sometimes the best music you can find comes to you for free, and recently such happened to me when I received a sampler CD from Jonny Polonsky. A former wunderkind discovered by Frank Black and praised by Jeff Buckley, before undergoing two troubling major-label situations, he’s been offering a free EP of new material to those who visit his website at www.jonnypolonsky.com. My favorite of the batch is “Even The Oxen,” which features Polonsky on all instruments, and just may be one of my favorite songs ever…After nearly a year of waiting, the latest album from The Cardigans — Long Gone Before Daylight – is due for a U.S. release in late May. For those who had shelled out for the import, re-buying it here means getting a bonus track and a DVD containing three songs from the Rosklide Festival and two music videos…Have you heard A Beautiful Extended EP from Clem Snide? Whether or not the band is usually up your alley, the lead-off track – a cover of Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” – is a pleasant surprise. Same goes for Grandaddy’s Sumday and Bagheera’s Twelves; two discs that are poppy yet experimental and wellproduced…As for a Rock singer-songwriter that’s destined for bigger and better things, there’s Charlie Mars. His fourth full-length overall, Mars is backed up by producer Rick Beato and Darren Dodd, both of whom you may recall from a should’ve-been-big band from Atlanta named Billionaire. And speaking of long-deserved due, Rocket From The Tombs – a band responsible for the formations of Pere Ubu and The Dead Boys — has finally released its first disc on Smog Veil Records, and it surely is interesting to hear early versions of “Sonic Reducer” and “Ain’t It Fun.” …From The Future For those who see musical-theater as to-be-avoided entertainment, perhaps they should reconsider what’s currently titled as Spamelot. Intended to be a Broadway version of Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Eric Idle – who recently put out his as-alter-ego Rutland Isles solo disc – has penned new songs for this forthcoming production, which looks as if it’ll be directed by Mike Nichols. However, it is not expected that any members from the Monty Python troupe will be involved onstage. If you have news to report for the next edition of Moving In Stereo, press releases and all other correspondence for Darren should be sent to DARREN.PALTROWITZ@<strong>RAG</strong>MAGAZINE.COM © <strong>2004</strong> – Column used with permission from Darren Paltrowitz. All right reserved.
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