New Album Alert : Giant Peach

Giant Peach is an extra fuzzy treat for fans of early Dinosaur Jr. who love blazing guitars, layers of distortion, and somewhere buried in the layers of loud to louder, male/female vocal melodies riding atop the static surf.

Two years in the making New York band Giant Peach's Tarantula is out now on Don Giovanni.

You Know What Punk Is?

Punk isn't being 20 something and angry / willing to do wild things in the name of rebelling against society. Punk is being over 40, tied to the system with adult responsibility of raising a family and or buried by a career, and rather than buy into the stereotype that women of a certain age are supposed to be invisible, take to the stage all over again (or in some cases never stepping off the stage).

This 30 minute documentary shows us the the ladies who helped paved the way for punk (The Slits, The Raincoats, Siouxsie, Chrissie Hynde) the first time in the '70s are on the cutting edge again by showing the world that aging doesn't have to mean playing dead.

Heads up ladies, you think sexism sucks? Wait until that seamlessly blends with ageism too. #olderwomenvoices

2016 Favorite : Savages - Adore Life

The sophomore slump is real friends and it is a thing to fear. There is unimaginable pressure for a band when their debut album rockets out of the atmosphere into something close to stardom as it did for Savages and their 2013 release Silence Yourself.

Good news, Savages entered the studio and produced a fearless, nearly flawless new album. Adore Life is out today.

It is as if Patsy Cline has swaggered her way into a post-punk apocalypse with her heart exposed. The band's blood pumps fiercely like one body turning the sonic dirge of The Birthday Party into the kind of energetic siren heard on early Fugazi records.

I applaud a band that plays together as if it is having a meaningful conversation. They give each other space and yet there are swells where they come together to deliver a compact tidal wave of power. This is the kind of rare chemistry capable of delivering an atomic bouquet of blinding beauty.

The theme of the record often targets love but it isn't romance glorified; there is also angst and open concerns. When vocalist Jehnny Beth asks"Is it a demon or an angel?" on "When in Love", she is accidently describing the record at its core. It doesn't rest on safe middle ground. These 10 songs deliver the entire spectrum of darkness and light; bleak and dazzling all at once.

Throwback Thursday : Hop Along Reissues 2012 Debut Album

Coming early March (3/4/16) via Saddle Creek, Hop Along's jaw dropping roller coaster ride of a first album Get Disowned will be reissued. The formats include blue vinyl, CD, and cassette. You can pre-order them here.

Their most recent release Painted Shut won the hearts of many and earned them lots of new fans but this first record is hard to beat. Singer (also guitar player) Frances Quinlan's voice dive bombs and swoops as if a bird has been given the gift of flight for the first time. It is as if her throat has invented flight itself. Her lyrics are clever, personal, and ever surprising. You never know quite know what she is talking about, where she is going with her stories, and this all makes her poetry and attack of her words all the more captivating. Your ears will want to know what comes next because each turn is impossible to predict. These are not borrowed songs you have heard a hundred times before, Hop Along's distinct voice owns them outright. The band then acts as a tight bind to her magnificent songbook and together they make the musical version of a book you would file under modern American classics.

And the clincher? Withing the fingerprint that is wholly unique, there are sweeping choruses and melodies Weezer only wishes they had thought of first. If you liked Hop Along's newest release, you will LOVE this reissue.

Hop Along National Tour Dates

# = Headlining

* = w/ Dr. Dog

1/24: Columbus, OH @ Double Happiness #

1/25: St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway #

1/26: Norman, OK @ The Opolis #

1/29: Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory *

1/30: Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater *

1/31: Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst *

2/2: Reno, NV @ Cargo @ Whitney Peak Hotel *

2/3: Bend, OR @ Midtown Ballroom *

2/4: Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom *

2/5: Seattle, WA @ Neptune *

2/6: Vancouver, BC @ Venue *

2/8: Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory *

2/9: Boise, ID @ Neurolux #

2/11: Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge #

2/12: Colorado Springs, CO @ The Black Sheep #

2/13: Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theater *

2/16: Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theater *

2/17: Flagstaff, AZ @ The Orpheum Theater *

2/19: Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern *

2/20: San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park *

2/23: Kansas City, MO @ The Riot Room #

2/24: Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop #

2/25: Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop #

3/17: Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore *

3/19: New York, NY @ Terminal 5 *

5/13-15: Atlanta, GA @ Shaky Knees Festival

5/27-30: George, WA @ Sasquatch! Music Festival

The Bitch Is Back, Kinda Sorta

Seattle, WA all girl band 7 Year Bitch called it quits around 1997 but this was after they spent the earlier part of the '90s delivering a more primal version of the Runaways with growling vocal muscle flexing out front. Powerful, tough, and always a good time live, the band is releasing its first record in 20 years. Recorded live in Seattle at Moe's in 1996, this recording captures the band in their prime.

On a personal note I worked with 7 Year Bitch for a few years when I lived in Seattle in 1994. I had just been hired by C/Z Records, the label that put out their first full length. My timing was strange. I moved to the city on the heels of two major losses to the music community there, Mia Zapata of The Gits (who was murdered) and the guitarist of 7 Year Bitch Stephanie Sargent (alcohol related).

The first two records I was acting as a sales rep for was Enter : The Conquering Chicken by the Gits and 7YB's Viva Zapata - both bands suffering from deep personal losses as these records saw their official release. As you can imagine, it was a tough time for the bands, the record label, and the local music community. I really could not have timed my move to the Northwest any more poorly as it would also be just a few months later that Kurt Cobain would be found dead.

A new release cycle is intense because when a band releases a new record, they are expected to play live as often as possible and build up press by completing interview after interview. The media often, and with good reason, always drifted towards the both band's losses in these interviews so the ghosts of their fallen members and friends felt ever present. I recall a photo shoot for The Gits where the remaining members posed with their arms spaced apart to leave room for Mia who was painfully missing from what should have been a joyous moment of a new release celebration. We wiped away tears at tables near by tossing back whiskey shots because none of us could escape the emotions attached to this tragedy and the final souvenir of Mia's voice.

The other memory that sticks with me comes from 7 Year Bitch shows. After the murder of Mia the women of Seattle were scared to walk home late at night. This was how we lost Mia and we feared the same horrific attack. Stemming from this panic, there were meetings to learn self defense and vent this rage of no longer feeling safe in the city we called home. From this group action came the organization Home Alive. After 7 Year Bitch shows, if you did not feel safe walking home, this group would help pay for your ride home. (Ironically all of this years before we learned that Mia's murdered was in fact a cab driver) Home Alive also helped cover the costs of self defense classes during this time period so I cannot stress how important their existence was during this time in my life.

Mia was strangled by her murderer with the strings from her hoodie and to this day my instinct is to remove them from my clothing in tribute to her. Twenty years later and this still weighs heavy on my heart.

We all know that so often music isn't just music. It represents bigger things like moments in our lives, and a community of people we call our second family. My time in Seattle from 1994 to 1996 has a very specific soundtrack. Just hearing 7 Year Bitch takes me back in time instantly and the memories come flooding back. I appreciate that this new record is not only a celebration of the power of their live performance and their songwriting skills but it is a reminder of friendship, courage, and survival too.

Mind the Gap

We hear the statement that women make less than men in the American workplace. The figure that gets tossed around is .77 per every dollar a man makes. It turns out that fact has a lot of grey area to it. Like all data, there are important variables that shape this result. The gender pay gap is also influenced by what women look for in a job, how we prioritize our lives, how we value money, our education level, the fields of work we gravitate towards, our roles within a family structure, our ability to bargain for pay increases, our fears of being judged harshly if we make stronger demands for higher pay, and the list goes on and on.

A recent Freakanomics Radio Podcast spoke to experts on the subject and they shed some light on just how gender economics works and importance of looking at the history of women working in America as well as behavioral dynamics that feed into this complex issue.

There is no one smoking gun. Think of this issue more like a low lying fog that is dense and nearly impossible to get through with ease. If you are interested in the understanding the truth behind the gender pay gap I highly recommended streaming this episode.

Stream the story here. 

Meet Nicole Blonder, VP of Marketing at Mute Records N. America

My goal is to post a different letter from a women within the music industry every few weeks in 2016. The idea is to show that there is no one correct way into the music industry and that there are endless routes to take once you find yourself in it. 

Nicole Blonder and I crossed paths somewhere in the early 2000s. I was just beginning my career as a sales rep at an indie music distributor called Caroline. We worked alongside many remarkable record label and Mute was one of them. Nicole would work with sales reps like myself on many levels. She was educating us about each new release by sharing the new music and background on the artist before we began trying to sell it to our account base. We would then work together to plan our best course of action when selling the record. There were sales goals, target markets, and as a team we would focus on getting these new releases into the marketplace. On top of these new release cycles there were also annual conferences she presented to us at, shows we attended together, and then the occasional joint visits a key account if we felt that her representing the label and artist might help increase our chances of a store not only carrying the record but also in a quantity we felt was appropropriate. We would also unsure there was a marketing plan in place with that store or distributor to help sell through their purchase. We timed things not just around the street date of a new release but around artist tours as well. Needless to say we spent a lot of time together for the 10 plus years I worked at Caroline and she at Mute.

We all know how rare it is for any company in the music industry to last the test of time (Mute has been around since 1978!) and it is even rarer that an employee stays in one place for 15 + years. I respect Nicole so much for the work she has accomplished and consider her to be not just an expert in music sales and marketing but also one of the genuinely kind people I have ever had the honor of working with. I give you Nicole Blonder.

Nicole (left) and I (right) on an industry boat ride back in the day.

    **************************************************************************

It all began for me, like a lot of us, through a pure passion for and connection to music. By the time I got to high school I was fully submerged and super excited about discovering good music - new and old. Started buying CDs, borrowing my dad's 60s/70s records, and going to concerts when I could.  Pivotal radio stations for me were WDRE in Long Island and WHTG in NJ (when I could get the signal!). I was definitely a 90s Alternative radio girl. At some point I started paying attention to the labels associated with my favorite bands, which opened up even more avenues of discovery.  I was also guided by a few magazines and catalogs I'd see at the bookstore - CMJ in particular, came with a CD which I thought was brilliant, and Sassy of course.  I grew up in super deep Brooklyn and hadn't yet discovered the cool record shops of Manhattan.

At some point during my senior year of high school a friend invited me to write a few CD reviews for a small magazine she got involved with, which lead to us attending a small music conference at NYU. A few local labels had tables set up there, selling music & merch. One of them was Go-Kart Records. They had cool shirts, even if I hadn't heard of their bands before and I picked up some free stickers and I think they had a zine I also grabbed.

As I was graduating high school (Midwood, in Brooklyn) another friend and I thought it might be fun to intern for a label the summer before starting college, so I contacted Go-Kart, thinking it would be a total long shot because all labels were big and fancy and didn't need high school kids hanging around. Greg Ross, the guy who ran the label, contacted me, and my best friend Daena and I got jobs as summer interns for Go-Kart in the summer of '95. I went back as an intern the subsequent two summers home from college. It was a super scrappy outfit, run out of Greg's old 2 bedroom apartment near NYU. There was one real employee, and me, so I was exposed to a lot, and learned a ton pretty quickly. My main job there eventually was calling record stores to check stock, assembling packages, bringing things to the post office and other menial tasks. It was down and dirty but I loved it.

I started Binghamton University in Fall '95, and luckily one of the first friends I met in my dorm was a sophomore who loved all the same music as me and had a radio show. He invited me to be his apprentice and I felt like I won the lottery. I was on the air at WHRW every semester from then through to my last. It was a total blast and one of my very favorite things about college. A super musical education too, WHRW's record library was a treasure trove and I spent a lot of time digging around, finding random things and just listening to music. I was also amazed at how much everyone there knew about music I had never even heard of! Students and community members both. Jr & Sr years I served as music director, and all the label radio promotions folks would call, as they do, to talk records. My final college summer, I found two internships with Sire (who actually paid!) and Matador. I'm still friendly with folks I worked for then. I graduated in '99 and not knowing what I really wanted to do, figured I'd send my resume to everyone I'd met in music so far because it seemed like fun and I did not want a un-fun job. I got a call from Mute, and started working there the day after labor day 1999 as Retail Coordinator, mostly thanks to the experience I had at Go-Kart.

The rest, as they say, is history.....I