Backseat Sandbar

We could not be more excited to announce this show!!!  Backseat has been around for over three years now and one of the best things about running the site has been meeting amazing people.  Owen Ashworth is one of those people.  He started using the moniker “Casiotone for the Painfully Alone” back in 1997 and five albums, countless EPs and 7″s, and years of relentless touring later, he’s decided to retire the moniker (and the songs) and move on to new things.  Before he does though, he is heading out on one final tour to give fans one last chance to hear their favorite CFTPA songs.  After playing Louisville in 2008 and 2009, local fans must have an impression on him because he made a special request to play here!!  We’ve locked down the Zanzabar for October 2, 2010 (doors at 8pm).  I know this is a while off, but I wanted to get this on your calendar now.  It is not to be missed.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone- Bobby Malone Moves Home

CFTPA is bringing an opener with him from Australia, Otouto (Picture the female side of the Dirty Projectors with stop-start arrangements of tin pan drums, warped key sounds, minimal jangly guitar and a twin vocal attack). I had never heard about them before Owen pointed me in their direction. I think I’m in love.

Otouto- Astronauts

If you really need another reason to go to the show, we’ve got another for you. Cincy-based (and lovingly adopted by Louisville), The Seedy Seeds will kick things off. They’ve stolen our hearts with their endless energy, catchy tunes and contagious positivity. They fit perfect in this line-up, so don’t miss out!

The Seedy Seeds- We Are Missing

The tour has already started and Brooklyn Vegan has a great account of his set.  Hopefully we can expect the some of the same.  Here a snip of what BV had to say:

Brooklyn Vegan:

Unlike a number of artists who rely on laptops to generate significant portions of their songs, Owen builds most of the layers on stage, by navigating through a mass of wires, knobs, and keys – his arms often crossing to get the job done. There are definitely perks to seeing an artist who has been creating music for the better part of thirteen years. Owen has an impressive body of songs to pull from, and constantly finds ways to rework them in a live setting. Casiotone songs often fall between the 2 and 3-minute mark, but Owen manages to pack a story into each song thanks to his creative, humorous, and candid lyrics. Owen makes music akin to the heartfelt and often painfully (but endearingly) awkward mumblecore films Mark Duplass and Andrew Bujalski make.

Then, about midway through his set, Owen dropped the bomb. “Thanks to Todd for making the show happen. This is my first time here [at Monster Island] and I’m going to be playing here again in October and that’s actually going to be the last Casiotone show in New York. I’m going to stop this in December… and I’ll do something else after that.”

After this big announcement, Owen began to take requests, and he was immediately met by an avalanche of song titles. “Cold White Christmas!” “Grandmother’s Pearls!” “We Have Mice!” “Parthenon!” “When You Were Mine, please!” After just a few seconds, Owen jumped back in. “Alright, alright. Those are good suggestions, thanks.” The crowd may have been relatively small, but there’s something to be said of fans who actually care enough about the music to have an arsenal full of requests to call out when prompted. “Grandmother’s Pearls,” ended up winning this time. After each song, audience members called out more and more requests, and Owen usually obliged – even with “Young Shields,” which he initially claimed was too bass-heavy to play. Owen closed out his set with “White Jetta” before stepping off stage and making his way through the crowd, receiving pats on the back as he went.

We’ll keep you updated on this one as it gets closer.

Backseat Sandbar Presents
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (Final Tour)
w/ Otouto and The Seedy Seeds
Zanzabar (2100 South Preston Street)
Saturday, October 2, 2010
8pm
$6

husband&wife- Dark Dark Woods

Haven’t Got a Friend

Rodrigo y Gabriella – 11:11

Atman

Wavvves – Wavvves

No Hope Kids

The Dead Weather – Horehound

I Cut Like a Buffalo

Holiday Shores – Columbus’d The Whim

Phones Don’t Feud

Morrissey – Years Of Refusal

Something is Squeezing My Skull

Crocodiles – Summer Of Hate

I Wanna Kill

Grizzly Bear- Veckatimist

Two Weeks

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone- Vs. Children

Natural Light

Bonnie “Prince” Billy & Cheyenne Mize- Among the Gold

Kiss Me Again

Mount Eerie- Wind’s Poem

Ancient Questions

Royal Bangs – Let it Beep

My Car is Haunted

Antlers – Hospice

Two

Passion Pit – Manners

Sleepy Head

Frank Schweikhardt- Life But No More

Twin Cities

Bad Veins- Bad Veins

Gold and Warm

Girls – Album

Hellhole Ratrace

Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

This Tornado Loves You

Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus

Fences

Avett Brothers – I and Love and You

Kick Drum Heart

Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer

Idiot Heart

Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms

Deadbeat Summer

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

In the Flowers

Clues -Clues

Remember the Severed Head

Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

Stillness is the Move

Here are videos from Casiotone for the Painfully Alone’s set last Saturday at Skull Alley. Re-live the entire show! And in HD too!
See our review, pics and more videos HERE.

Setlist:
1. Ice Cream Truck
2. Optimist Vs. The Silent Alarm
3. Man O’ War
4. White Corolla
5. White On White
6. I Love Creedence
7. Traveling Salesman’s Young Wife Home Alone On Christmas In Montpelier, VT
8. Young Shields
9. Calloused Fingers Won’t Make You Strong, Edith Wong
10. Harsh The Herald Angels Sing
11. Love Connection
12. Scattered Pearls
13. White Jetta
14. Toby Take A Bow
15. New Year’s Kiss

Saturday’s show at Skull Alley was an amazing time.  As part of our goal in bringing incredible talent to Louisville, Backseat Sandbar brought you a lineup blending national act, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, established Louisville band, Chemic, and the new but extremely promising You’re My Density.  You’re My Density was playing its first show and a played to a packed room of eager fans.  While there may have been some nerves before the show, they absolutely rocked it.  You would have had no idea it was their first show.  The sound was tight and the crowd definitely got behind them.  I love thier CD, but their live show was equally, if not more, impressive.  While the cd demo consisted only of one member, the full band has since joined to create for a much more complete sound.  You will start seeing more and more of these guys around town, so I strongly encourage you to check them out.  YMD’s next show is a Forecastle After-Party at Derby City Espresso on July 10th with The Pass.  It’s $5 bucks and starts at 10pm.  Don’t miss it.

Chemic went on second and put on the best show I’ve seen them play.  There is a lot to say about growing as a band the more you play and Chemic is a perfect example.  They just got back from an extensive midwest tour and fine tuned their performance.  It was energized and almost impossible to stand still to.  The crowd started off with the standard head bob, but progressed down to their feet and incited dancing.  They are peaking at just the right time as they will be playing at the Forecastle Fest and the MidPoint Music Fest in Cincy.

The man of the hour(s), Owen Ashworth a/k/a Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, took stage last and gave the crowd exactly what they wanted.  He played a lot from his new album Vs. Children as well as a few from another recent single/unreleased collection, Advanced Base Battery Life, including my favorite “White Corolla.”  Owen in not only talented, but a truly great guy.  He was constantly interacting with the crowd as he does, and in the past he has even taken requests via email before a show.  He took a few requests at the show and he even brought a big fan of his on stage toward the end of his set and let her sing a song with him. It was one of the earlier shows on his extensive international tour, but he let us all know that this was “the best show of the tour.”   He stuck around after and signed some autographs.  I picked up Advanced Base Battery Life and got it signed!  It’s spinning right now.

Thanks to everyone who came out and to everyone who helped with the show.  We’ll do it again soon!

more pics and video below the break…

(more…)

We know you’ve been waiting all week for this one.  Tonight, 8pm, Skull Alley, it goes down.  ackseat Sandbar is pleased to present Casiotone for the Painfully Alone with Louisville’s Chemic and You’re My Density for a scant $5.

We know the economy’s tough and your softball team hasn’t been playing great, and, well let’s face it, the cat just ain’t eatin’ as much as you’re used to.  So you might as well celebrate the return to Louisville of CFTPA along with two great local acts.  Don’t forget your relatives and we’ll see you there.

In case you haven’t noticed, I have been touting just about everything that Julie Doiron puts her hands on lately.  Therefore, I could not be more excited that she is coming to town.  I think it would be safe to say that she is just about my favorite.  Not only am I totally in love with her, but I think she is a grittier, more tangible version of Feist.  Her songwriting is superb, and her voice is always just perfect.  She is a fan of spontaneous recording and her records somehow bridge the fine line between being recorded well and capturing the perfectly flawed one-takes.

It isn’t clear whether or not Freddie Squire will be behind the kit with her, but it is clear that this will be a great show as it will also feature the quintessential Louisville indie-rock band Second Story Man (who rumor has it will be putting a record out with Noise Pollution here in the fall).  Also opening is Egret, but I don’t much about them other than it is the project of auto-harpist Greta Smith.   The show happens at the venerable Skull Alley and is on Thursday June 25th.  I have a feeling it will be one of those shows where a criminally small number of people will attend, but please know that the last time Julie Doiron was in town it was with Mount Eerie on the ‘Lost Wisdom’ tour (which was my favorite release of 2008), and it was one of my favorite concert experiences of all time.

This show is certainly worth your money, just make sure you hit up the Casiotone for The Painfully Alone show that we here at Backseat Sandbar are throwing on the 27th (also at Skull Alley).

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We don’t put on a ton of shows, but we could not pass us the opportunity to bring these three bands together for one amazing Saturday night line-up.  Backseat Sandbar is pleased to present Casiotone for the Painfully Alone with Louisville’s Chemic and You’re My Density at  Skull Alley on Saturday, June 27th.  Each act is going to bring a separate and unique brand of entertainment to the stage for what will be sure to be an all-out party.  Tickets are just $5 bucks, so we want Skull Alley to be packed.  Skull Alley’s bar is open, so be sure to enjoy a cold brew with the tunes.  Doors are at 7:00 with the first band going on promptly at 8:00pm.

We brought Casiotone to town last Halloween with No Kids and Pomegranates for what Leo Magazine called “one of 2008’s better indie lineups.”  Since Owen was last in Louisville, he has been incredibly busy, having put together a “songs from the road” style album of b-sides and rarities called “Advance Base Battery Life” (review) featuring Nick from No Kids on a few of those tracks as well as a full length LP “Vs. Children” (review) which focuses less on the lo-fi keys of earlier work and instead moving towards live instrumentation.

CFTPA- Optimist vs. The Silent Alarm [audio=http://www.teamclermont.com/mp3/cftpa_optimist.mp3]

You’re My Density is a very new synth-pop band from Louisville, who you can tell take inspiration from Casiotone, except that they trade Owen’s lofi for a little more hifi sound.  They sent us their CD in the mail and after a single listen, we knew we wanted them on this bill!  We see great things for this band, as they are highly talented, have a great sound that can appeal to a wide array of audiences, and have a unique personality that is characterized by the green underwear on their album art [we have no clue what the meaning is, but appreciate the bold call].

Chemic is also a Louisville based band that is coming into its own.  The just finished an exhaustive mid-west tour, they are set to play at this year’s Forecastle Festival and Mid-Point Music Festival and they were recently featured on My Old Kentucky Blog’s Launtromatinee (See video below).  A great addition to this bill, we will get to see them in the up-close and personal environment of Skull Alley.

Chemic- Ice Floor [audio=http://www.buzzgrinder.com/media/chemic_boatsong.mp3]

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/4047415]

Chemic – Nothing Worth Keeping

Tour info, CD reviews and more band info below the break…

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Owen Ashworth of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone is taking requests for his Fall tour starting later this week, which includes the Halloween show at the Pour Haus with No Kids & Pomegranates. To make the request, send an email HERE with “Louisville” & the name of the song you’d like to hear in the subject line.  Sorry, but requests are limited to CFTPA songs, so no requesting “Freebird” please…Ashworth says it will give him the chance to practice the song a couple of times first so he doesn’t forget the words or anything.  Who knew the artists who inspire us to sing along doesn’t always know the words themselves…

Not that he won’t play it, but to be sure…I know what I’m requesting…

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Young Shields
[audio=http://www.cftpa.org/Young%20Shields.mp3]

Backseat Sandbar is bringing you the sickest place to be for Halloween night.  We’ve got Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, No Kids & Pomegranates all performing at Pour Haus on one night & it only costs $8 to get in the door.  Indie bands at this level rarely put Louisville on their list of places to visit, but that’s all changing.  This show is going to be incredible…

In case you don’t already know, CFTPA is the moniker of Owen Ashworth whose music is characterized by electronically produced beats, cheap keyboards, and slow, frank lyrics, while the appearance is that of an explosion of improbably hooked up keyboards, pedals and an array of other instruments, but…and this is hugely refreshing…no computer in sight. Many comparisons were made to the Postal Service after the release of 2006′s Etiquette, but with a little more feeling behind it. Every song tells a story of human emotion and often, human frailty. Listen up & you’ll begin to understand why people that like CFTPA absolutely love CFTPA…and you might just fall in love as well.

No Kids are supporting CFTPA for the tour. Nick Krgovich, formerly of P:ano, crafts a hybrid of indie pop, electro and R&B. Like CFTPA, No Kids are known for their storytelling as well, and their Come Into My House tells the story the elaborate and decadent lives of New Englanders so if you dig the stories told by Vampire Weekend or F. Scott Fitzgerald, then you’re going to love these guys. Make sure you show up by 10 o’clock to catch them, as they’ll be going on first.

Lastly, the Pomegranates who recently performed at Forecastle 2008 & put on an incredible show for one of the larger crowds of the daytime shows will be closing out the night. Pomegranates play a perfect blend of summer indie pop that is likely to warm up the room despite the chilling fall air. The Pomegranates have hit the scene in a big way in the last year with the release of Everything is Alive, which has been praised by seemingly every music blogger out there, as well as being Spin’s Artist of the Day, playing multiple festivals including Monolith, and recording a Daytrotter session. Rumor has it that the material for their next release is already written and that it has been slipping into a few sets.

No Kids kick the evening off around 10, followed by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone at 11 and Pomegranates at midnight.  Admission is only $8, so I expect a packed house…

Also, we hope everyone comes in costume, but don’t worry – it’s the same price either way…

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Seattle Wash
No Kids – The Beaches All Closed
Pomegranates – Thunder Meadow

For Valentine’s Day, the Mobius Band has given all of us a wonderful gift by releasing a FREE FOR DOWNLOAD EP of some great cover songs.

The Tracklisting:

Razor Love (Neil Young)
Baby We’ll Be Fine (The National)
True Love Will Find You In The End (Daniel Johnston)
Mobius Band In A Green Cotton Sweater (Casiotone For The Painfully Alone)
I’ll Keep It With Mine (Bob Dylan)
Digital Love (Daft Punk)

Mobius Band – Baby We’ll Be Fine (The National)

Thanks to our friends over at Each Secure Note for turning us on to this one.