Nashville's Dead

White Fence

Without a doubt in our mind we can say that White Fence’s Is Growing Faith was the most underrated album of the 2011 year. It’s spent more time on our tables than just about any other record that’s come out recently and if you haven’t picked it up yet — now is the time. Tim Presley has a lot on his plate this year as White Fence is releasing a new 2xLP this year via Woodsist and doing a collaborative LP with Mr. Ty Segall. The 2xLP, Family Perfume, will be released separately in two volumes during the year. The first of which, Vol. 1, comes out on April 3rd and you can check out the single from it below. We’re sold. We’re gonna go ahead and post a live video of the guys playing at Cake Shop too because — well — it’s awesome. Not sure if we’re allowed to announce it just yet… but don’t worry about having to travel far to catch Tim and co a little later this Spring…

CMJ 2011: White Fence performs “The Pool” at the NYC Taper Day Party at Cakeshop, NYC from BlearyEyedBrooklyn.com on Vimeo.

White Fence – It Will Never Be (edit) [mp3]

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The Men

With their third LP, Open Your Heart, about to drop early this March from Sacred Bones — The Men are showing that they’re much more capable of growth than one might think after listening to their first releases. Don’t get us wrong, we totally dug last year’s Leave Home and all it’s darkness – but after hearing the title-track off the new LP, it’s pretty safe to say that the guys are delving into a new sound that’s sure to push their growth even more. You can check out “Open Your Heart” at the bottom of the post. The album comes out via Sacred Bones on March 6th and us Nashvillians might be able to catch the guys in town right around then. We might be able to get sorta freaky with them, if you know what I’m saying. I’m talking about the FREAKIN’ WEEKEND.

Normals - Vacation to Nowhere

We got our kicks last year when Last Laugh issued the KBD classic Vacation to Nowhere from New Orleans’ best band – The Normals, and it’s looking like they’re about to supply the kicks again this year. They’ve recently unveiled a new CD-DVD combo that features the entire Vacation to Nowhere album along with the Almost Ready 7″ and a DVD of a complete live set from 1980 that has been professionally dubbed and printed. Looks pretty awesome to us. The Normals recorded Vacation to Nowhere in Memphis, TN in 1979 but never really broke big at any point. The album’s packed with 12 no-bullshit songs and we highly suggest picking it up. Last Laugh also reissued the Almost Ready 7″ and even printed up some Normals t-shirts. Get your fill on their site. Check out the artwork for the new CD+DVD after the click and hop on it.

The Normals – Almost Ready [mp3]

Continue reading

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Photo by Bekah Cope

So far this year, Oops Baby Records has been totally dishing out the jams. They just released that new Personal & The Pizzas single [Diet, Crime, and Delinquency] which is already sold out [but! We did see one copy of it down at Grimey's the other day and a repress is on the way] And now they’re about to unload a brand new Davila 666 single for us. Who can say no to a new Davila 7″? Not us. They did a pre-order for a limited edition copy of the single yesterday that was on Puerto Rican Flag vinyl. Click down there to check it out, it’s pretty pretty. That one’s already sold out too. The classic black copy of the single will be released in early February and features two new tracks from our overseas brothers: “Pa Que Vives” and “Sera Sera” — both are sick. Hopefully they’ll be bringing their game stateside again soonly. Until then, go ahead and snag this one when it drops and get high hopes.

Continue reading

Photo by Bekah Cope

Just what JEFF the Brotherhood was doing all that time when they were in the Hawaii, here’s a brand new video for the track “Bummer” off of We Are The Champions that’ll show you just what the Bogus Bros were up to. Makes us totes jelly. We wanna go down to the tropical island and go fishing and hang on the beach and find lizards and not be stuck in these dreary-grey-winter days. But I guess that’s kind of the catch – you gotta make sick jams first. JTB just hit the road with The Kills and are probably coming somewhere near you [if you're an East Coaster] You can check out all the tour dates right here. They also just unleashed The Brotherhood of Light LP which features different interludes from past releases, old versions of previously released tracks, and some stuff that’s never been released on wax before. Definitely worth the scoop…. and for all the JEFF-heads in the Nashy area — the bros will be back soon enough.

The Memetic Society

So the other day when we were making a quick stop by Grimey’s we noticed a couple handfuls of brand new sick looking 45s featuring bands from all over Tennessee that were released by Memetic Records. That then sparked the question, “Who is Memetic Records? They just unloaded a bunch of sick singles out of nowhere and they’re all pretty gnarly.” So we went back home and did a little research [thanks Google] and found that this is a new project called Tennesthesia brought about by the Memetic Society. Culling artists from within the great Tennessee country – from Nashville to Memphis to Chattanooga to Knoxville – they’ve put out singles for Square People, Faux Ferocious, Nite Nite, Fly Golden Eagle, Burning Itch, The Distribution and more. Each single is packaged in a hand-printed sleeve and they all look pretty sick. You can order individual singles from the site right here, or you can order the whole bundle of Tennesthesia singles. For more information about the Memetic Society, visit their site and read up. You can also pick up copies of the aforementioned singles at Grimey’s and The Groove.

Memetic Society is a record label founded in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Our goal is the propagation and proliferation of musical memes. Each idea, each MEME, is an indelible source of inspiration, and a crucial junction in the formation of an autonomous culture.