Hey kids, wanna see a show? Then you’re in luck! Pittsburgh’s Code Orange, touring behind their latest album Forever, will be making their way to the Mod Club on June 26 and you can win a pair of tickets to the show (which also includes Nicole Dollanganger, Twitching Tongues, and Vein on the bill) courtesy of Live Nation.
To win, simply do one of the following:
1. Follow us on twitter and retweet the post
2. Send an email to panic@panicmanual.com with the subject “I want to see Grammy Award nominees Code Orange” in the subject and your name in the body
3. Comment on this on the Facebook post.
It is now warm and sunny outside, which pairs perfectly with a bottle of wine and also, the Trashcan Sinatras! The Scottish band reunited a few years ago and actually played a Toronto show, but it was at someone’s house, which was quite strange. However, this time around, they are playing a proper venue. On June 4th, they will be at the Horseshoe playing two of their most beloved records – 1990’s Cake and 1993’s I’ve Seen Everything.
“Obscurity Knocks,” the first ever single released by this group is still a song I have on my playlist to this day, it’s a catchy, jangly summery vibe always brings a smile to my face and it’s a good representation of their tracks so definitely check it out at the bottom of the post. Based on their music, you would never guess that the group comes from the rainy dredges of Scotland.
Anyways, we are here to give away a pair of tickets to the show! to enter, you can do one of many things.
1. Follow us on twitter and retweet the post
2. Send an email to panic@panicmanual.com with the subject “I want to go see Trashcan Sinatras” in the subject and your name in the body
3. Comment on this on the facebook post.
Winners will be chosen at random and alerted via carrier pigeon sometime before the show. In this economy, you can’t afford to not enter!
Your band doesn’t have to have a lead singer with a wiry build, beautiful features and a scrunchable head of jet black hair.
But it doesn’t hurt.
Let’s start with the opener though – GRMLN opened for Geographer Friday night at Schubas Tavern. The quartet out of California had only one band member over the age of 21, and they also had the most impressive collective set of haircuts I’d ever seen. Lead singer had a swoop cut that completely obscured his face but served as a perfect pinwheel when he started flailing, and the drummer had a head full of beautiful red ringlets. The band had a good sound to boot – a sort of grungy-punk-rock sound that was hazy as well as catchy.
Geographer rounded out the night with the perfect combination: an eclectic array of real instruments (guitar, sax, electric cello, drums) and a whole lotta synth. The trio brought an electric energy to the stage that transmitted to the excitable crowd at Schubas, and culminated in a bro dance/love fest at the front of the crowd. The crowd apparently self-describes their music as “soulful music from outer space” and I’d say that’s actually pretty much spot on. The highlight of the night for me was their cover of Arthur Russell – This Is How We Walk On the Moon. Give it a listen:
When I walked into Schubas on Thursday evening I was met with the sight of a man playing a glowing green “space banjo,” sporting a mountain-man beard, a white suit, and, as the crowd learned later although they were never made visible, green skivvies that matched the banjo. The man in question was Mike Savino, aka Tall Tall Trees, a one-man indie folk outfit from New York. If you’re unfamiliar with the space banjo as an instrument, it deserves its own introduction – the thing served Savino as a string section, a percussion section, and an echo chamber, and it was amazing to hear the range of noises he coaxed forth from it. Savino played mainly from his 2012 album Moment. Due to technical difficulties the crowd had the pleasure of hearing the lovely “Nothingless” one and a half times after the banjo cut out halfway through the first time. Nobody seemed to mind.
The theme of the night was fantastic hair and, not to be one-upped by a mountain-man beard, Jesse Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius came onstage with matching french twists that climbed all the way to their foreheads. The fivesome, also out of New York, are powered by the dynamic vocals of Wolfe and Laessig, backed by a double percussion section and a guitar. You could almost feel the crackle of electricity created onstage by Wolfe and Laessig – the duo created harmonies that filled the venue from front to back and could hardly be contained in the small space. The line of the night came from Wildewoman, which was dedicated to the ladies of Chicago, “Her eyes are light and clear/and fearless like Chicago winds in the winter times/her hair…is never quite in place.” Yes and yes. Every lady in Chicago can relate to those fearless Chicago winds and the havoc it wrecks on every woman’s coiff – give it a listen:
