Backseat Sandbar

Pretty Lights is coming back to Louisville’s Headliners on October 27th. Pretty Lights recently destroyed Louisville at Forecastle Festival 2009 with his official set on Friday and then Afterparty on the Belle of Louisville on Saturday. After seeing the Friday night performance, the Saturday night boat show was absolutely jam packed, to the point that just as many people were stuck outside wanting to get in as were actually inside.  It was simply insane, but it’s a direct result of the dance party that Pretty Lights brings.  At Forecastle, we described the show as “a non-stop party as soon as they hit the stage. I think they played over the hour that was allotted to them, but nobody cared, we were all too busy dancing” and JamBase has said “Pretty Lights, for many, seems to represent the future of electronic music.”

Of course that is exactly the reason he’s been getting so much work…Electric Daisy Carnival, Bonnaroo, High Sierra Music Festival, Rothbury Music Festival, Forecastle Festival, Camp Bisco, 10K Lakes Festival, and a show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre (to name a few).  This time around Pretty Lights is going to be joined by live drummer Cory Eberhard as well as the increasingly known and loved video and lighting rig.

Heard the name, but haven’t heard the sound?  Pretty Lights offers all his music for free download at PrettyLightsMusic.com or higher quality tracks on iTunes.

Pretty Lights – More Important than Michael Jordan
Pretty Lights – Hot Like Sauce

Full Tour Schedule below the break… (more…)

Lucky Pineapple is filming a new video for “A Moment in an Empty Street” with Andrew Vititoe of Vititoe Videos and they need 30 extras for the video! If you’re a fan of the band and you want to help them make their music video and get your 15 seconds of local fame, then be the first of 30 people to show up to the Cat House (747 South Preston Street, off Broadway) with a bright solid-colored shirt by 8pm on August 22nd (until who knows when). You are encouraged to eat before you come and to RSVP to Facebook HERE.  By RSVPing you are agreeing to:

• Being there and not making lame excuses the day of shooting for not being able to be there.
• Wearing a bright solid-colored shirt.
• Having a great time filming in a small-ish space with some potentially sweaty people.

DISCLAIMER: Lucky Pineapple reserves the right to turn you away if:

• Thirty people show up before you do and they don’t need anyone else for the shot
• You are wearing the wrong clothes (e.g., black, white, or something with a logo on it)
• You are generally acting like a jerk and haven’t been directed to do so.

For the people who show up and are capable of following instructions, it should be an awesome time.

Juffage, Tints, the-zero-element, & Karass are performing at Skull Alley on August 5th in celebration of Rahman’s birthday albeit 2 days belated, because, well,he’ll only turn 28 once. It’s hardly a secret that we love The Zero Element and while their instrumental dance rock may not do it for everyone, I find them to be one of the absolute best bands in the area. For me, VHS or Beta’s “Irreversible” is the finest moment on their Night on Fire album, and if they were to stick to the path created by that song, they would be The Zero Element.

Karass is the new side project of Greg Ward from the Zero Element, and you can grab a copy of the album HERE.

Juffage appears to be one of the hardest working bands coming out of Chicago with an exhaustive tour schedule reminiscent of These United States. Described as a one-man-band who loops everything he can fit into his car all the while changing the face of experimental music as we know it, Jeff T. Smith’s loops of “fuzzed-out bass line and tribal drums sound like a tape salvaged from humanity’s final days on Earth” – Andy Downing, Chicago Tribune

Tints is new to us, and we look forward to seeing what they’ve got.  From the sound of their MySpace page, they seem to conflict with the other fairly electro sounds of the other bands, but it could present a nice mix of talent and style.

And because it’s Rahman’s Birthday, Backseat Sandbar presents…an absurd video of Rahman…

The Glassworks Summer Rooftop Series continues on August 21st with You’re My Density and The Pass, two of Louisville’s most diverse indie pop bands. The new-wave pyschedelic sound of The Pass and the synthpop stylings of You’re My Density will create the perfect soundtrack for a summer night.  All for $7 (all ages).

Doors open @ 7:30 with a DJ set, and music going strong until midnight!

UPDATE: Apparently Heavy Hometown is on this bill as well.  Either they were omitted from the blast or added later, but regardless, it makes for another reason to be sure to hit the rooftop. Thanks Anne!

Girl Talk is coming to Lexington’s UK Grand Ballroom in the Student Center on 8/27. The show is incredibly cheap, at $10 tickets for people with a UK Student ID, $15 otherwise. We caught Girl Talk last November (and January 2008) (and again in NYC) and the show should be called the greatest party on earth. While the other Backseat Sandbar guys might think…so what, he’s a DJ at a computer…there is simply no one else alive (save for perhaps Z-Trip) who can do what Greg can do and the party that ensues is absurd.  The last time I saw him, we broke the stage!

My review for the last Girl Talk show was notably short on words, because Greg’s show is something best viewed in pics, so I highly encourage you to peek through the pictures if you’re considering going to your first Girl Talk show.

Girl Talk murdered Louisville last night. The mash-up mastermind had a sold-out Headliners attendance to work with & he put on the party of the year. Encircled by sweaty dancing beautiful people on both the dance floor AND the stage, Greg leaned over his plastic-covered laptop and put together some of the most intriguing and inspiring mixes such as Nine Inch Nails, Kelly Clarkson, Rich Boy, Blackstreet, Weezer, AC/DC, Souja Boy, Elton John, Journey, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rick Springfield, Daft Punk, Tag Team, DJ Kool, and seemingly every other hip hop and heavy rock combination you can think of.

Thanks to @UKSAB and @mattpicasso for point this out.

Invaders, D. Rider (Members of U.S. Maple), Buffalo Bill and Ben Purdom are performing on August 7th @ the Glassworks Rooftop. As I’m sure we’ve made clear, we love parties on the Glassworks Rooftop, and hearing good music tops it off perfectly. For $7 you get not only great music, but great atmosphere with a great view of the city.  Below is a little press…

“Invaders live near rock music but probably won’t be understood by the AC/DC fan next door. Fans of the Sun City Girls and early Butthole Surfers will be pleased, however, to find a new psychedelic, grainy mindblast of a band.” -Velocity

“…D. Rider is expanding the boundaries of what a rock band can sound like while maintaining it’s credibility. The hypnotic continuity of their debut work [Mother of Curses] is unexpected and requires the listener to think newly upon what they expect from independent music these days.” -CMJ

The Decibel Tolls turned us onto an upcoming show by The Black Angels . The group, whose name is derived from an old Velvet Underground track (and even their logo is an inverted image of Nico), plays a heavy kind of psych revival and have received comparisons to Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized mastermind Jason Pierce as well as The Warlocks and Black Mountain, invoking dirges reminiscent of both The Velvet Underground and the 13th Floor Elevators.

UPDATE: Thanks to Saraya Brewer at Smiley Pete for the bad news…unfortunately it seems The Black Angels have canceled their show.

$12 gets you in the door…

The Black Angels – Dee Ree Shee
[audio=http://thedecibeltolls.com/mp3/The_Black_Angels_-_Dee_Ree_Shee.mp3]

Teenage Angela, Bad Mouth, and Cincinnati’s Till Plains and The Read are bringing their house party antics to Skull Alley on Sunday, August 9th where they can open it up while still maintaining that house party vibe.  The show goes on at 7:30 for $5, but don’t try the fashionably late thing…it’s over by 10:30ish.

Teenage Angele 7:30ish, Till Plains 8:15ish, The Read 9ish, Bad Mouth 9:45ish

Call me crazy, but I am excited for this show. The Killers are coming to the Horseshoe Casino in Southern Indiana on August 8th as part of the Summer Concert Series they have in their big, outdoor amphitheater. I was a huge Killers fan after Hot Fuss. Then came Sam’s Town, and I didn’t fall in love with the album, but I could appreciate it for what it was – - a follow-up to a fantastic album. I eagerly awaited the release of their third album, Day & Age, only to be disappointed (“are we human or are we dancer?”). That said, I still find time to listen to Hot Fuss now and then, and have yet to see them live. They played at The Palace back in September 2007, but I missed it. The Horseshoe as a venue is fantastic. They have a great set-up that looks huge, but feels small when you are there. The sound is great and the backdrop is pretty cool too. I’ve seen a couple shows there and have not been disappointed yet. Bring a few extra bucks for brew and pocketful more if you want to stick around to gamble (although you won’t have a problem finding an ATM). We’ve given away tix to shows at the Horseshoe before, so we will see what we can do for you for this one. In the meantime, I’ll be dusting off Sam’s Town and Day & Age and give them another chance (Sawdust will stay on the shelf).

WE ARE GIVING AWAY FIVE PAIRS OF TICKETS TO THIS SHOW. COMMENT BELOW WITH THE NAME OF YOUR FAVORITE “GUILTY PLEASURE” BAND/ARTIST/GROUP. GUILTY PLEASURE SONGS WILL ALSO BE ACCEPTED. I WILL ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS ON AUGUST 4TH. GOOD LUCK.

You can get Tickets HERE . They will run you $35 bucks.

The Killers- Human [audio=http://www.selective-service.net/downloads/2008/best/Human.mp3]

Via the Horshoe Casino page:

The Killers will join us on Saturday, August 8, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. as part of our Outdoor Summer Concert Series.

The Killers are touring in support of the band’s latest opus, Day & Age, which surfaced last fall. The Las Vegas-based group worked with Scottish electronic-music whiz Stuart Price (Madonna, Missy Elliot) on Day & Age, its third album and follow-up to 2006’s Sam’s Town (the band released Sawdust, a collection of studio outtakes and b-sides last year). Released in September, the album peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200 chart, and has sold almost a half-million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. Worldwide, the set has sold 1.6 million copies.

The Pass, a relatively new band hitting the Louisville scene in a big way., has  a new feature spot on video-blog This Man is Not My Father.  The Pass recently performed with another BS favorite, You’re My Density, and they’ve got another show coming up this Saturday, August 1st at the Pour Haus to put out their debut album “Colors”.  The Pass are described as “music [that] is a beautifully composed combination of rock and electronic guaranteed to make you dance.”

John Berry & the Outliers and Chickens and Pigs are performing at Seidenfadens on August 1st for $5.  In my invitation to the show, it simply read:

Requirements: Dancing shoes, Bourbon, and a Cab ride home. You won’t be leaving on your own.

Those requirements seem about right, although being 21+ and having $5 would be additional minimum requirements.  John Berry is known for the kind of fun honky tonk music that moves crowds, even those without the disposition towards honky tonk, so long as they’ll open themselves to having fun.

Check out the press on John…

We have lived through and era of low- rent honky tonk revival, and all the caricature which sometimes goes with that. Johnny Berry’s songs are well-rooted but strikingly timeless. Not affected, but effective. Concious, but not self-concious.
-Grant Alden-NoDepression.net-Grant’s Rants – 3/2007

Fegenbush Farm would have gone gold 30 years ago.Johnny Berry will have to settle for the knowledge that he creates some of the best traditional country music of his generation
-Chuck Norton-Performer Magazine Southeast – 8/2006

Fegenbush Farm is a bit of a triumph, addled with gentle and dark humor, the songs are addictive, and hearing Johnny Berry’s voice is the audio equivalant of eating a very rich, delicious bar of dark velvety chocolate.
-Sian Claire Owen-Americana UK.com – 7/2006

The Late Seating at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville has put together a great lineup for Friday, August 7th for after the August Gallery Hop, running from 8:30-11.

The Late Seating at Actors is a late night series at Actors Theatre of Louisville that features an electric mixture of new work by local Louisville artists in performance, music and visual art.

The night’s performances feature The Deloreans, Cougar Express and Scott Carney of Wax Fang. The Deloreans have seemingly been everywhere lately, and Scott Carney seems to have been rather absent (Writing in studio?), so if you haven’t gotten to see The Deloreans, now is your chance, and since you haven’t gotten to see Scott in a while, now is your chance.

If you’re on MySpace, you can RSVP HERE.

Deer Meet, Spirit & Dust, The Parade Schedule & The Olympia Three are performing at Skull Alley tonight, July 28th.  Philly’s Spirit & Dust, the moniker of Kristen Sylvester, have just released their debut “Delight” which is available at the show and they describe the sound as “a warm [feeling] in your ears while on the stay or on the go. It is and mask for storytelling. It is our personal mystical fist in the nose of capitalism, fascism, injustice and fear. It is one of the tools we have discovered for connecting with the world.”  Supported by three very solid local bands, this should be  a great show and priced just right to give you no excuse but to attend.

One of our absolute favorite local bands, The Instruction, will be performing on 91.9 WFPK’s Live Lunch on July 31st at noon.  The Instruction have been having a deservedly good year, having been signed by local record label sonaBLAST! Records for the release of their debut Failure to Launch, as well as performing at this year’s Forecastle Music Festival, getting airtime on 91.9 WFPK and now getting a Live Lunch spot.  Expect to hear some incredible talent and if you’ve not heard these guys yet, expect to be ashamed of yourself.

If you’re stuck in-doors, you can listen to the show on 91.9 WFPK, or you can stream the show HERE. Otherwise, 70 people people can get in to catch the performance with the doors opening at 11:30.  WFPK members can reserve their spots and potentially get free lunch by calling (502) 814-6565

The Instruction -Mayday [audio=http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/2/19/2329172/04%20Mayday.m4a]
The Instruction – Hello Darlin’ [audio=http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/2/19/2329172/03%20Hello%20Darlin%27.m4a]
The Instruction – Into the Tomorrow [audio=http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/2/19/2329172/06%20Into%20the%20Tomorrow.m4a]

Below is a press release for the debut album.  Look out for their official album release party tentatively scheduled for Glassworks.

(more…)

Mike Doughty, once of Soul Coughing, is coming back to Louisville thanks to the crew over at Production Simple. The show is a part of his resurrected tour series referred to as “The Question Jar Show” wherein Doughty is playing an acoustic set as a duo with cellist Andrew “Scrap” Livingston and will be playing requests yelled from the audience and answer questions fans drop into a jar. No question will be considered too weird and no topic taboo, so I guess they’re telling you to run with it…it’s 21+ so that eliminates the need to censor yourself for the sake of children.

We caught Doughty at Lebowski Fest ‘08 where he dominated the festival with an incredibly good set and his loyal fanbase in full effect.  Check out Dr. Matt Satterly’s review of the performance HERE.

Tickets are $15 & go on sale for the 21+ers on August 7th at 10a at Ticketweb and ear X-tacy. Additionally, if the appeal of this show isn’t enough on its own, it’s worth checking out the new upcoming Zanzabar (2100 S Preston St) as a venue.  It’s only just reopened and already it’s bringing in some of the best shows to the Louisville area including an upcoming show with Iran, Fruit Bats and Kevin Barker (although to those interested in this show…Joanna Newsom will not be there, but it’s nevertheless going to be an incredible show).