Brooklyn - New Jersey Mix Tape Swap

We exchanged mix tapes with CoolDad Music, a NJ based indie rock blog. I'll let Jim take it from here:

Dentist kicks off Jim's playlist.

It's been one of my goals since starting CoolDad Music to bridge some of the too-wide gaps that exist between the Jerseys North and South, between New Jersey and New York, between Asbury Park and Brooklyn. I love seeing and hearing new bands, and I love the idea of bands expanding their sphere of influence beyond their neighborhood and their circle of friends. That was all kind of my motivation for this little "mixtape swap" with Hearts Bleed Radio. I want my readers to hear some of the great bands that Stephen has been championing at his site, and I want to give some great New Jersey bands wider exposure. Even if it's just in a small way. 

This is a compilation that includes Asbury Park bands like surf poppy Dentist, hardcore Hot Blood, party rocking The Battery Electric, modern rocking Smalltalk, and the early aughts indie influenced Prehistoric Forest. It includes New Brunswick bands like poppy basement dwellers ROMP, prolific indie song machine Sink Tapes. Roy Orbitron bring their unconventional song structures from Trenton. Grand Mariner do the surf / garage / punk thing in Howell. The Off White are dirty and gritty all the way down in LBI. Paper Streets are half-Brooklyn / half-Jackson, NJ disciples of all things jangly and classically indie. Almost all of these bands are my friends, and they all deserve to be heard far and wide. 

I hope you like it. Lots of these bands make the occasional incursion into Brooklyn, so keep your eyes peeled. Hey. Come on over to CoolDad Music, and I'll be sure to keep you posted. Thanks for listening. 

-Jim
 CoolDad Music

Check out the mix below! (and check out my mix on CoolDad Music, here)

Summer/Fall Roundup! Music for your ear-brain-heart mechanism to digest.

  Hey everyone, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! It's been a strange couple of weeks for me, but I've managed to have some Halloween fun, watch my beloved Red Sox win the World Series, and possibly have secured a new job. Needless to say, I've been swamped with shit to do, and really haven't been able to get around to writing about everything that has been sent my way. Unfortunately, some things slip through the cracks. Here are some albums that came out over the last couple of months that deserve a listen. It's an eclectic group of mostly friends/local artists, and there ought to be something for everyone in here somewhere.

The HBR new music research team. Our employees are our greatest asset.

In order of release date:

Dead Leaf Echo - Thought & Language

  DLE is a really rich, almost symphonic, shoegaze meets kinda pop-goth band. I don't even know what this stuff is called anymore really, but there's a lot of attention paid to detail and if you give it a deep listen, you'll be rewarded. "Memorytraces" is my favorite track on this album, give it a listen... Oh, and they are playing three shows on the East Coast this month. I highly recommend catching them if you can.




American Darlings - With Love, In Retrospect

  When I first saw these guys, at Legion, like, in the spring... I thought they were a super loud, indie guitar death, kinda overpowering huge Jazzmaster squeal tsunami wave murder squad. But I guess that's just how bands come off in loud small rooms, after everyone has had a couple. On With Love, In Retrospect you can tell that these guys really put songwriting first, and it's almost surprising how poppy they really are. American Darlings are that mix of catchiness, rawness, attitude and sweetness that really makes indie rock special. "No Clue" is the opening track on the album, and is one of the strongest tracks, right off the bat.

My Teenage Stride: Salt water up your nose and CMJ on your brain.

Hello world. CMJ is underway here in New York City (where they make a certain kind of picante sauce that is most definitely NOT Pace brand picante sauce) and I've already seen some killer bands. Our buddies Crazy Pills and Sharkmuffin rocked Legion last night, along with The Brooklyn What (playing our showcase on 10/19) and Hippy (a great garage/indie pop act, who I'd never seen before) and Sideasideb (their first show ever!). It was are really good start to a week that is always parts fun, annoying, surprising, and exhausting. We have two festival showcases this year, HBR CMJ #1 at Legion on 10/17, and HBR CMJ #2 at Matchless on 10/19. My Teenage Stride is closing out the night on Saturday. As far as I'm concerned, they are really closing out the entire official festival (though there's a sweet unofficial show at Spike Hill on Sunday), because after they play, I'm going straight home to pass the F out. I had a little Gchat with the main man behind My Teenage Stride, Jed Smith.

Here is the transcript:

Hearts Bleed Radio: Who exactly is in My Teenage Stride these days?

Jed: Live My Teenage Stride is myself, Jedediah Smith, on guitar and vocals, John Grewell on drums and backing vocals, and Ed Chittenden on bass and backing vocals, although recorded My Teenage Stride is largely myself on all instruments and vocals.

HBR: Do you ever write a song from the drum kit? Or with a bass guitar? Or do you usually form those parts around the guitar/vocal melody?

Jed: Generally I just work it all out in my head and then record it, I find that picking up an actual instrument and trying to write like that doesn't really produce results, I don't know why. Although, if I were to start a song with an instrument, it would be drums. But generally something pops into my head and I arrange it "internally." That's not to say I've never ripped something off...

Jed with an artist's representation of the two cats that live in his head and write music all day.

HBR: I call that like, the internal iPod. Do you listen to songs in your head sometimes and it's just as good as if you were listening to it? I do that on the walk to work a lot.

Jed: Yeah definitely, music largely is a mental rather than physical thing for me, although it's hard to say that without sounding pretentious. Everybody works differently though and that fascinates me.

Whiskey and (Fuzz) Tonic... Check out The Mad Doctors.

  Brooklyn's The Mad Doctors are like, kinda crazy. Not the kind of crazy that comes from mental illness in the traditional sense, more like the kind of insanity that becomes surf rockers who are forced to survive for years in a post-apocalyptic, highly irradiated, desert wasteland. There's a ghoulish, undead, skeleton/zombie overtone to their new EP, Fuzz Tonic. It's almost like three random Reavers picked up instruments and started a band. Overdriven everything rules this recording; you can almost feel the heat coming off the budget preamps as they struggle to maintain the signal over flow and not shit out.

The guys rock the LES.

  Fuzz Tonic borders on punk and surf (Black Magic and Alive and Well are pretty damn surfy), but I would consider their overall sound to be highly aggressive garage rock. They have a Iggy-esque devil-may-care attitude, and back it up squarely with a powerful rhythm section and bluesy guitar riffs that are interesting, but never get too cute.

 This a good album to pre-game with. I'd get a pint of Evan Williams, sit down with a friend, crank Fuzz Tonic, make sure the bottle is empty by the end of the EP, and then roll out to the bars and wreak havoc.

Give it a listen.



Like The Mad Doctors on Facebook ---> here.

Like Hearts Bleed Radio on Facebook --- here.

Sharkmuffin's big splash... Mermaid Sex Slave

Some music critics (who get paid a lot more than me), say that rock music is dead, or dying... But that's bullshit. If you're reading Hearts Bleed Radio, you probably know that's bullshit. However, if you still need proof that indie rock still rocks (and hasn't totally become yupster adult contemporary), just listen to Sharkmuffin. They are the antidote to the Bon Iver-ization of indie...

I don't look nearly as good in a black dress and heels...

"Mermaid Sex Slave" is the single off their new EP, She-Gods of Champagne Valley, and it's the kinda punch-you-in-the-face-and-don't-say-sorry rocker that we LOVE here at HBR. The song starts off with a watery two note lick that drifts into the verse, and sets the tone for the poseidosexual barrage of Tarra Thiessen's vocals. The full force of the guitar comes in with the chorus and pulls the song from a wet spacey undersea lair, into the tightness of a small rock club. This is where the song really shines, Thiessen riffs perfectly over the tightness of Natalie Kirch's bass, and the sharp, syncopated beat of drummer Sarah Peterson.  It's a great track, check it out below.





You can hear the rest of She-Gods of Champagne Valley ---> here.

Like Sharkmuffin on Facebook ---> here.

We're happy to announce Sharkmuffin will be playing HBR Showcase #5, at Fort Useless on 7/13! To stay in the loop, Like HBR on Facebook ---> here.

We'll be interviewing Sharkmuffin before that show, so if any of you have any questions for them, email me, or leave them in the "comments" section below.

Check out our Northside Showcase ---> here.

Thanks for reading. I'll catch you at a show.

Crazy Pills: Cats, Gear, Gigs, and Alternate Reality Country Music Super-stardom

Hey there dear readers... The Northside Festival is just around the corner, and here at HBR we are so excited about our showcase that we can't even sleep or eat, or really do anything other that drink beer and count down the days. Last year, one of my bands, The Planes, shared a bill with Crazy Pills, at The Whatever Blog showcase (and it was incredible), and we're lucky to have them on the Hearts Bleed Radio Showcase this year. Crazy Pills (Amanda on Guitar/Vox, Eddie on Bass, and Jim on drums) are a high energy three-piece, and kinda sounds like that point where rockabilly, garage rock, punk, and pop, all intersect. I sat down with Amanda and discussed her two main passions; music and cats.

Hearts Bleed Radio: I have to start with the most important question first. How are your cats getting along?

Amanda: They are not! Ha. Apparently, they're trying to ascertain which is "alpha". I think they'll settle down. Apparently the small sassy female is going for the win. You know how that's gonna go. I'm pretty proud of Binky - he's being very tentative and careful around Snuggles. She's being alternately too cute for words and hissy... KITTENS.

HBR: I heard that it can take a while for them to kinda smell the same, and that's when they finally accept each other. Snuggles? I thought it was Miyu.

Clockwise from top left: Amanda's cats, Miyu /"Snuggles", Binky, my cat Baron, and my roommates cat, Storm
NOW YOU KNOW

Amanda: IT IS SNUGGLES. Eddie was like, "She's a little girl, she needs a pretty dignified name" or some nonsense like that. Since Binky's full name is Bibingka, which is this purple yam based, Filipino sweet, he thought it should be a girl's name in Japanese or whatever. So I went with Miyu, which is a girls' name in Japan which means "pretty [something, I forget]". But she is Snuggles to me... I LOVE CATS. Please, let it be known. 

HBR: Yeah, Baron is either "Bear," "Bearcat," or "Bearmuffin" to me. He's only called "Baron" when he's in trouble. So aside from cats... You also play guitar and sing in Crazy Pills. I would describe your sound as "garage rock 2.0". A lot of influence from 60's garage, but like, you obviously lived through the last couple of decades and take inspiration from that. Where are you coming from musically? What are you main influences?

 
Amanda: Hmm - good question! I guess that as with our tunes being thematically disparate from song to song - one song is inspired by cults, one is inspired by moving out of NYC, one is a good ol' "he done me wrong, mama" - so are our influences! Obviously, each player brings his respective influence to the table so...I can only speak for myself. I love the Stones. I draw a lot of that rock and roll swagger from my childhood dream of being the next, I dunno, Elvis? Who knows. I love the rockabilly from the 50s and 60s (and country, of course - I grew up in an Indiana town with...wait that's a Tom Petty song - I grew up in a blue collar town with tons of country music radio stations, I can sing along to any Trisha Yearwood or Dwight Yoakam song, dude), obviously, the garage and pop from the 60s through the 70s, post-punk or whatever you call it from the 80s... man... 

  Of course there's 90s college rock that I think gave me the guts to go electric - thank god for The Breeders, BELLY, all those rad female fronted bands for having freaky amazing songwriters fronting rock bands. I could go on and on... Also - my guitar playing is influenced by separate factors beyond the songwriters and bands I'm influenced by so it's... not quite a conflict but it does take the tunes different directions than they start out heading.