Cold Cave

I listened to these today:

Insound's 20 Top ALTS! (plus awesome wolf site!)

The INSOUND 20!

Limited edition t-shirts, shirts and hoodies designed exclusively for Insound by Jason Munn of the Small Stakes. (Posters will sell out fast!) *Posters are signed and hand-numbered. Shirts and hoodies are printed on American Apparel products.

I definitely think this one is the most ALT!!!

CHECK THEM ALL OUT HERE!

As if this day couldn't get any better, I was looking for some cool wolf images to send to my friends at work and I came across this amazing wolf site! Check it out HERE!

Are coffeeshops going the way of the CD stores?

Starbucks is about to close 600 stores!

Starbucks is nowhere near as ALT as your local coffee shop, but looks like the coffee business is going the way of the music retail business.....

This leaves me with some important questions:
1.) Where are all those people on their computers fake "working" going to go?

2.)Where to go when you want to spend $2 on a small cup of coffee?

3.)Where are people going to go when they want to buy the 'Into The Wild' soundtrack?

4.)And most importantly, where am I going to be able to take an emergency piss after having had too many pops?

...this is messed up!

One Day As A Lion- who's more ALT than ZACH!

One Day As A Lion

One Day As A Lion is the creation of musical comrades Zack De La Rocha and Jon Theodore. This is music about space - the space between friends and collaborators where ideas from; the space in a song where the tensions builds waiting for the next wave of sound; the space in the corners of the recording studio (Sinatra's old room as Ocean Way) where the sound gathers to fade and die. One Day As A Lion worked hard to capture that space on tape, unadulterated, unmolested, from heard to hand to skins to mics to tape to speaker to ear. The result, someone said, sounds like Led Zep meets Dr. Dre

**Check out this amazing offer from Insound!** 

Pre-order 'One Day As A Lion' LP and you will receive the MP3s of the entire album on July 22nd!

Buy It At Insound

Searching For The Now 4- The Pains of Being Pure at Heart/Summer Cats

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

I got a copy of this 7" today and I knew that I had to run home and give it a listen immediately. "Come Saturday" is another solid track from the NYC foursome, this being the first time I'm hearing them on recording with a live drummer.  You can preview "Come Saturday" on the Pains Myspace page, linked up above.  Of the 2 tracks, this is definitely the highlight and if this is any indication of what's to come, their full length is going to be awesome!

Summer Cats

The other side of this 7" offers a track from Summer Cats called "Let's Go!". This track can also be previewed on the band's Myspace page. This is an alright track, very Stereolab-ish, but a little rawer sounding...but in all honesty, I would have rather there had been 2 Pains tracks on here.

But, if it's indie pop that you are looking for, then this 7" from Slumberland is just what you need. It comes on grey vinyl and is super limited, for all you collectors.

Buy It At Insound

re-ALT day 1!

I've been feeling that most bands these days are in the reALT process...the stage where they need to release 3 albums of garbage, so I'm going to reALT myself and only listen to classic ALT records...any suggestions?

Day One:

man this is some great stuff! listening to this didn't make me feel bad about losing my hair. I mean, I'm not as old as these guys.

this is an oldie but a goodie! listening to this didn't make me feel bad about my aching back. I'm definitely nowhere near as old as these guys!

a sure shot classic! I have been rocking this one since like 9th grade! god I was so cool then and had so much potential...starting to get depressed now.

I remember the first time hearing this one...I hadn't kissed a girl then, and...not much has changed.

that opening riff from 'Only Shallow' will blast the few remaining hairs right off the top of your head. jesus christ!

IT'S TIME FOR A RE-ALT!!

I'm not sure if I dropped some knowledge about this subject yet to you guys, so excuse me if you're heard this before....

Re-alt is a term that stands for, becoming alternative again. We have seen many instances where someone has re-alted themselves. But I think the best case study of this phenomenon is the band Nada Surf.



Case point #1: Nada Surf releases High/Low (1996). "Popular" becomes a mega hit, foreseeing the possibility of being a one-hit wonder! It's placed in the MTV buzz bin. INSTANTLY MAIN!

Case point #2: Now that they are MAIN, they are completely abandoned by the ALTS. And therefore totally not cool.

These guys are in serious need of a re-ALT! And this is how they did it...

Step 1: Realize that you're MAIN. Recognizing that there is a problem its the hardest yet most important part of a re-ALT.

Step 2: Release at least 3 albums of complete garbage. (IE, The Proximity Effect, Let Go, The Weight is a Gift)

Step 3: Put out a fresh new record on a respectable indie label. (IE, Barsuk)

Step 4: Relocate to an "ALT" neighborhood. (IE, Brooklyn) -I'm not sure of their original location, so I might be wrong about this, but there is nothing more ALT than Brooklyn.



And so now that the MAINS have completely forgotten about your one hit from 1996, you can re-emerge on the ALT scene. Because the fact that you were ALT-to-MAIN-back to ALT, is cool with ALTs. Great work guys!

Now the true test...is their new record good or just a feeble attempt at a re-ALT????

Are dreads the new crazy hair for White Indie-rock dudes????

...so many questions left unanswered, I feel like this is an episode of LOST!