Foo Fighters Drop Their Trousers

If you've ever longed to see Dave Grohl's bare ass (or the rest of the Foo Fighters for that matter), your prayers have been answered. The band has posted a new music video this morning entitled "Hot Buns" in which the Foo's play truckstop truckers who proceed to wash off the road... Oh, just watch:

Hot Buns - Foo Fighters

The Trews - Hope & Ruin

The Trews
Hope & Ruin (2011)
(Bumstead Records)

There are a few running themes throughout The Trews’ fourth studio album, Hope & Ruin, such as redemption, heartbreak, crafty vocal arrangements, homage to CCR, roots rock, guitar distortion, familiarity, and when all neatly line up in a music row, they fair well as a soundtrack to gassing up and hitting the blacktop for an extended session of road-therapy.

Canadians Colin MacDonald, John-Angus MacDonald, Sean Dalton, and Jack Syperek find their musical strength in delivering sharp rockers with an edge of pop sense. From the onset of the kickstarter and blaring opening track, “Misery Loves Company”, Hope & Ruin is all rock anthemic, healthily touched with alt-country and blues. The Trews don’t stray far from where they’ve musically been and that’s not necessarily a bad thing; their sonic trajectory makes for a steady emotional montage of “seeing” the music as well as occasionally thrashing to it.

Some of the best moments on the album are polar opposites; see “People Of the Deer” (apparently based upon the Canadian book of the same name), possibly their noisiest song ever, and by ‘noisiest’ I mean their hardest twist of the dial towards a straight-edged rocker with prolific use of a wah-wah pedal, and the twang doesn’t diminish the vocal urgency of “Burned” especially when the guitar starts to peel off into Luther Dickinson territory.  I’m not mad at them because “One By One” is solid and a delicate rhyming scheme (aka poem) set to music and a good reminder of why lyrics do matter; they help when trying to tell a fucking story. “I hate myself for being miserable; a six-day binge is bound to do it, though” isn’t necessarily a pretty mental picture, but it is a knife of honest exploration.

Grand experimentation may have been kept to a minimum on Hope & Ruin, but then why mess with a good thing?

Go see The Trews tonight at The Viper Room.

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Share To Care: Music For Life

It's an exciting day in the High Voltage offices, we've just launched our first PledgeMusic campaign to put out a very special digital compilation to help save High Voltage. Why is the album so special? Because it features 20 b-sides, live, or yet-to-be-released tracks by some our favorite artists (we think you'll like them too). It's also special because a portion of the proceeds are going to the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF. You may remember our post earlier this month about the 40th Anniversary of the Concert for Bangladesh and if so you'll remember it's still the Month of Giving, so here's our gift to YOU! Who doesn't love awesome music? Especially when it's for a good cause.

The album tracklisting will slowly be revealed over the course of the 45 day PledgeMusic campaign and each announcement will come with some more exclusives from the artists (maybe revealing a new album cover, a story from the band about the recording process, etc). You'll have to pledge to receive the exclusive artist updates tho!

We've come out the gates with a track called "Before I'm Gone" by Hurricane Bells featuring Justin Furstenfeld of Blue October. You can hear it, view more details, and pledge here: http://bit.ly/pledge4HVM



In the immortal words of the movie Empire Records, "DAMN THE MAN - SAVE HIGH VOLTAGE!"

Big Black Delta: Debut Album BBDLP1 Out September 26th/September Residency @ The Satellite

"Big Black Delta’s maiden voyage (which will be out on Coming Home Records) is a triumph of man and machine, not to mention man over record-industry machinations. ” -  Buzzbands LA

"As a successor to the free debut EP BBDEP1, Los Angeles experimental pop project Big Black Delta’s debut LP BBDLP1 will be released on September 26^th on Coming Home Records. Citing “being out of tune” as a muse, the songs on the album are the spawn of multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Bates’ imagination and inspired musical exploration. It was recorded entirely on a laptop given to him by Alessandro Cortini (Nine Inch Nails, SONOIO) in and all over Los Angeles, from assorted apartments and friends’ houses to backyards across the city, often at all hours of the night. Guests on the album include Cortini, who played his buchla on “The Zebrah,” as well as Morgan Kibby (M83, White Sea) whose vocals are featured on “Dreary Moon.” Big supporter of the band, Los Angeles tastemaker Kevin Bronson premiered the track "Capsize" on Buzzbands.la yesterday.

Venezuelan-born Jonathan Bates, formerly of the Los Angeles band Mellowdrone, began his solo project Big Black Delta out of the desire to create a new kind of pop music. By purposefully doing everything slightly wrong in the studio, using any instrument available, and combining it with UFO folklore, the Big Black Delta project was born."

Now that’s press release-talk. Real speak as verifiable by the common ear says that Big Black Delta is a masterful punch of dynamic and celestial sounding electronica beneath a joyful halo of pop. In the true spirit of “I get by with a little help from my friends”, Jonathan Bates taps a variety of sources for inspiration and support in order to create this body of sonic atmosphere for the body to move to. Seriously, I’m listening to the album now and digging it. Yes, in the studio it’s all Bates, but when BBD comes to you live on stage it’s packing two side arms in the form of female drummers, Amy Wood and Mahsa Zargaran (Sabrosa Purr).

Come September, Big Black Delta sets up house in Los Angeles at The Satellite for a month-long, Monday night residency of groove. If you haven’t done so already, you can Soundcloud BBD tunes here, download the free debut EP BBDEP1 here, and residency dates are below.

9.05 Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite (Residency)

9.12 Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite (Residency)

9.19 Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite (Residency)

9.26 Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite (Residency)

Band of Horses Pick Up Where Kings of Leon Leave Off

As we all know, the Kings of Leon/Band of Horses tour has come to an indefinite halt until Kings of Leon’s internal band “issues” can be resolved; the High Voltage team wishes them the best as a band and as individuals.

In an effort to still reach as many fans affected by the tour cancellation as possible, Band of Horses has strung together a series of club shows. A statement from the band:

“Hey there Friends Of BoH! We're thrilled by all the support you're showing us, and have been working behind the scenes to do everything we can to come see you. Unfortunately, we won't be able to hit up all of the places we'd planned on visiting with Kings of Leon. BUT!!! We're happy to announce that we're going to play SOME SHOWS!!! Details are below. We are working on adding more, and will have another update very soon.

We would like to thank Kings Of Leon for the opportunity to play the shows we did, and wish them all the best.

Love, BoH”

Band of Horses is even asking their fans to help them pick the setlist for each show. Check the BoH Facebook page for details. The new club dates are as follows:

8/5/2011- The Fillmore, Charlotte, NC

Tickets on sale THURSDAY, AUGUST 4th at 10am EST here: Ticketmaster

8/9/2011- Theater of the Living Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Tickets on sale Thursday, August 4th at NOON EST here: Ticketmaster

8/10/2011 - Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY 
Tickets on sale Friday, August 5th at NOON EST here: Ticketmaster