Showing posts with label Smiley with a Knife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Smiley with a Knife. Show all posts

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Veterans stick together, one introduces a new class

For those of you in Lafayette, be sure to make your way over to Caffe Cottage tomorrow night (Friday, April 3rd). Three seasoned spices will blend together for a cajun brew in southwest Louisiana as Lafayette's Magic Legs hosts Smiley with a Knife and A Living Soundtrack - both from New Orleans.

This triple-header instrumental show will be a feast for the eardrums. The show starts at 10pm. A flyer for this show is pictured right

This show begins a string of dates that Smiley with a Knife and A Living Soundtrack are playing together throughout April. Listen to Smiley with a Knife's music here and A Living Soundtrack's music here. More information about their regional dates can be found at both locations.

Magic Legs is slated to play another all-instrumental show the following weekend (April 10th) in New Orleans. Joining them on this bill will be 3 relative new-comers to the New Orleans instrumental scene.


This lovely flyer to your left here is for that very Magic Legs show. Those of us over here at Southern Soundscape who are putting this show on next weekend highly recommend that you go - April 10th at the Dragon's Den. Southern Soundscape loves hearing new bands. Southern Soundscape loves helping new bands. This is exciting.

NeckBeard, while broken-in, is still fairly new. Let's take this opportunity to introduce you to them and two other new acts to the instrumental scene:

NeckBeard is a two-drummer adrenaline rush that has a strangely spiritual side to it. These guys really love animals - their name comes from a dance that a reptilian visitor did for them during one of their early practices. After seeing this lizard dance for them while exposing its "NeckBeard," they were convinced that they could make animals dance. I don't blame them for thinking this, 'cause they rock pretty damn hard. Their obsession with nature is sure to lead them to great heights. You can find them here and here. Southern Soundscape gives the song that made their lizard friend dance - aptly named "The Frog and the Serpent" - our highest seal of approval. We haven't decided what our seal of approval IS over here yet because we just started this blog a week and a half ago. But whenever we get that pulled together, NeckBeard will get one.

Dangerous Sea Creatures features One Man Machine. They sound like an instrumental Meadow Flow, if you're from New Orleans and know who that is. If you're not from New Orleans or don't know who that is, follow the link. As tends to be case with the truly creative, they're going to sound crazy to people who aren't into super art-rock or instrumental ambience. But just like Tom Waits and John Coltrane, eventually people see the genius that comes out of One Man Machine and love him for it. We're excited to see how this goes.

Auia - can somebody pronounce that for us? They told us at the New Orleans Instrumental Fest not too long ago, but the way they actually spell it has accent marks all over it. Either way, don't let their vowel-only name scare you away. They feature members and former members of Good Day for an Air Strike. They're a good solution for fans of Godspeed You Black Emperor who think that half-hour long songs are kinda ridiculous.

So that's the scoop with those two shows and all the new guys we've got running around. If you have any information about any instrumental bands or instrumental related events, Jared from Smiley with a Knife would love to hear all about it. Send him an email at Jmmarcell@gmail.com, and he'll try to fit you in.

Not from the South? That's okay... if you're rolling through the South, let us know. We love touring bands. Anything that happens between Austin and Athens, we want to know about.
As we get more organized over here, it'll be much easier to get in touch with us. Trust...

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Unwed Sailor @ Dragon's Den - 3/31/09

Instrumental touring greats Unwed Sailor are making their way back to New Orleans. They'll be playing Tuesday, March 31st, at the Dragon's Den with New Orleans instrumental bands Smiley with a Knife and NeckBeard.

Unwed Sailor was formed by Johnathan Ford (pictured with top hat) in 1998 in Seattle. His first several recordings with Unwed Sailor featured David Bazan of Pedro the Lion on drums and Casey Wescott of Fleet Foxes on Guitar. Pretty heavy, huh?

Unwed Sailor is a nomadic, collaborative effort with no real hometown. Current touring drummer Nathan Price (pictured left, looking handsome and very much like New Orleans' own Leo DeJesus of the City Life, MNIJM, BRCM, etc.) hails from Tulsa, Oklahoma, while current touring guitarist Andy Haldeman comes to us from an unknown world where moustaches reign supreme. This band is definitely a gateway drug into good instrumental.
Their sound is hook-oriented and rhythmic - a breath of fresh air to pop-lovers everywhere.

Other relative dates to check out on this tour if you're not from New Orleans:
April 1st - Birmingham, AL - The Bottletree
April 7th - Athens, GA - The Caledonia Lounge