If you’re a normal Buzzgrinderer, it’s probably not breaking news that May 15 marks the release of mewithoutYou’s first independent full-length, Ten Stories. That said, you can get a lot more information on the album and the circumstances surrounding its creation in this new video clip.
And as the late Billy Mays would say — wait, there’s more. The band recently premiered a new song from the record, February, 1878. Based on comments from members of mewithoutYou, 1878 is a pretty accurate representation of what Ten Stories entails. It’s got some Foxes-style edge and a little freak-folkiness of It’s All Crazy. So in a sense, it inhabits roughly the same territory as Brother, Sister.
:: I remember talking about the questionable legality of siphoning used vegetable oil out of receptacles with Aaron Weiss back when mewithoutYou was one of the few bands that used the stuff to power their van. Well, it looks like Off! found out how questionable the legality was. The punk rock supergroup got arrested for taking oil from behind a restaurant in Arizona.
:: If you can’t get behind the mic because of stage fright, you might want to check out these books.
:: Gwen Stefani is finally doing something good after ruing ska all those years ago (just kidding, ska was ruined at least a decade before that). She’s donating $1 million to aid the relief efforts in Japan.
This is the first Old and Jaded, but let’s not make a big thing about. So there will be no paragraphs-long explanation about what this will consist of week in and week out. It’s freeform. Or as freeform as a weekly column on a snarky, indie music website can be.
You know, when described as such, Buzzgrinder could easily be mistaken for Pitchfork. I guess the amount of elitism (read: none) is what separates the two and makes the ol’ BG a website I’ve been visiting for damn near seven years and Pitchfork a website I can’t tolerate for more than seven minutes.
Unless it’s their Kanye West review. Sorry Sean, but the new Yeezy is insanely good.
I know this guy. He is a hipster. I called him a hipster. Hipsters do not like that. So, in response, I get a link to this fucking five-page hipster dissertation from the New York Times. Mental note: Never call anyone a hipster again.
But it got me to thinking. I used to be on the inside track of music. Right around the turn of the century, 2001 or 2002. The usual stuff around that timeframe: listening to Death Cab for Cutie before The OC broke them, absorbing anything on Vagrant records like kids a decade before absorbed Sub Pop and a decade before that absorbed SST and Dischord.
I know it’s already 2011, so this is a little less timely, but I figured we’d start off the new year lightly before getting back into the full swing of things. It’s looking like 2011 will include some potentially awesome (read: potentially awful) projects from us, and we’ll try to celebrate our 10th birthday in style.
All that said, here’s what 2010 looked like on my end. I hope it was as good a year for you, too. I was asked to do this year in review alongside some other music folks in Louisville for Peter Berkowitz of the Velocity, a local alt-weekly. I’m lazily re-printing it here for you:
I think 2010 for me — and for many others — was marked by the concerts I saw. And not just any concerts, mind you. I’m talking about bands I never thought I’d get to see: Guided By Voices, Descendents, Cap’n Jazz (both their first and last reunion shows), Devo, Snapcase and maybe a couple others I’m forgetting because of the sheer number of shows I’ve seen. It was certainly a whirlwind 2010 in that regard.
But it wasn’t all teary-eyed reunions and boxing matches with Ted Leo. In 2010, Buzzgrinder hosted its first SXSW party with over 20 bands, celebrated nine years of ruining music for everyone, broke some news stories, had a hand in bringing some killer bands to town (Titus Andronicus, High on Fire, Torche, mewithoutYou, Murder By Death to name a few), made some people mad and helped Glenn Danzig prolong his memeness on the nets.
All that said, I think the best part of 2010 for me was turning online relationships I’d forged through Buzzgrinder into real-world friendships. Sometimes when you do something day in and day out for years — regardless of your resolve — you wonder, “Why? What purpose does this even serve?”
Then you actually spend time with awesome people who share a similar outlook on life and have found a genuine camaraderie with you and other folks because of a dumb website that probably sucks. That’s why you do it. That’s what it’s all about.
And here are my top albums of the year. Not in any particular order, and no specific number. They’re pretty much just the handful of records I listened to this year that I still remember:
– Titus Andronicus — The Monitor
– Coliseum — House With a Curse
– J. Roddy Walston and the Business — J. Roddy Walston and the Business
– Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore — Dear Companion
– Ted Leo and the Pharmacists — The Brutalist Bricks
– The Seedy Seeds — Roll Deep
:: Conan O’Brien has announced the lineup for the band that will back him on Conan. Thankfully both LaBamba and Jimmy Vivino (who will be the new bandleader) are members of the Basic Cable Band.
:: During a Runaway screening, Kanye West admitted that he’s considered suicide in the past. Just because I’m going to refrain from saying something mean right now doesn’t mean you have to.
:: Maybe if Victory Records didn’t spend so much getting Gilbert Gottfried to talk about lemonade, they wouldn’t have to worry about losing as much money due to illegal downloading. Then again, what’s an extra $10?
:: Guns N’ Roses could be in some trouble after starting 90 minutes late in Manchester — and playing two hours after the venue’s curfew.
:: On a related note, Dave Navarro admitted that his heroin addiction kept him from joinging GNR when Axl came a-callin’ after Izzy left.
:: When Lil Jon isn’t busy getting crunk while drinking CRUNK!!! out of his crunk cup, he apparently likes to stand on street corners and sell pizzas with Gary Busey. You know, the great American pastime.
:: Geology just released the five-song Three Birds EP. The band includes Greg Jehanian from mewithoutYou, so of course Buzzgrinderers will enjoy it.
On Aug. 8, mewithoutYou, Murder By Death and Buried Beds will play Headliners Music Hall here in Louisville, and we’re giving you the chance to win some tickets and a poster for the show.
Two winners will each get a pair of tickets and a copy of the screen printed poster shown above (which will also be for sale shortly). If the winner can’t be at the show, we’ll ship the poster, so you don’t have to be in Louisville to enter — but why would you want to miss mewithoutYou and Murder By Death together?
mewithoutYou
With special guests Murder By Death & Buried Beds
Sunday, August 8
Headliners Music Hall $14 advance/$16 day of
To enter the contest, send an email to contest@buzzgrinder.com with MEWITHOUTYOU in the subject line and NO if you don’t want to receive our newsletter. Deadline to enter is Aug. 5 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Open to U.S. residents only.
Tonight, David Bazan and mewithoutYou will be lighting up Exit/In here in my new home of Nashville for one of the first shows in what I assume will be one of the better tours of the summer.
Opener Rubik is new to me, but I’m sure they’ll be great as well.
I’m sure many a Buzzgrinderer would be interested in such a lineup, what with our richhistory with both artists.
Coincidentally enough, former Bazan bandmate Damien Jurado is playing tonight as well at The End, a smaller venue right across the street from Exit/In. I smell a conspiracy.
Unfortunately, it’s a very brief run, so if you don’t get them in your town, make sure to keep your eye open for other dates, as both Bazan and mewithoutYou are touring off and on all summer.
I don’t think anyone is surprised to find mewithoutYou in the number one spot. If you are, you probably haven’t been around these parts too long. It’s okay. You’ll catch on someday.
If A–>B Life was mewithoutYou’s introduction to the world, Catch for Us the Foxes was their coming-of-age masterpiece. With a Fugazi-esque punk rock ethic and a poetic, art-rock streak, the Weiss brothers and their merry men gave the Tooth and Nail crowd something much deeper than the faith-based pop punk and metalcore the label was pushing heavily in 2004.
The album’s brutal honesty shook us to the core and set it apart from the pack. Themes of faith, failure and doubt reflected through a multi-dimensional spiritual foundation clearly struck a chord with many of us who had questions and concerns that traditional venues of faith were not addressing.
While it’s rare for us at Buzzgrinder to take things too seriously, many of us share a background of faith in some form that has branched out in many directions, and we value that in our community here. mewithoutYou’s work has been essential in our little world of punk, hardcore and emo kids who were seeking “something more,” and you, loyal readers, have made that clear by voting Catch for Us the Foxes the best album of the decade.
:: That Johnny Marr, he’s always full of surprises. First he goes and joins every band that’s been formed since The Smiths broke up, and now he’s scoring films.
:: When a tribute album includes Avenged Sevenfold — like the upcoming collection of songs paying homage to the late Dimebag Darrell — it becomes a tribute to how lame you can make a tribute album.
:: I know I said it before, but it really looks like this year’s M Is for Montreal was a fest you should be at. Especially if you like snooty French-speaking people that hate Canada — even though they’re Canadian.
Artist: 
Photos: Obits at the Black Cat
Photos: The Promise Ring at The Metro
Photos: Monotonix at Fun Fun Fun Fest
Photos: Valient Thorr at Fun Fun Fun Fest
Photos: Danielson, Welcome Wagon at The 930 Listening Room