Filed under: Issue 19 | Tags: Caution Children, Jabberwocky Cafe, Mouth’s Cradle, The Northbound Traveling Minstrel Jug Band
Slideshow from 20 Watts’ spectacular launch show, Thursday Oct 29th at Jabberwocky Cafe. Including performances by Caution Children, The Northbound Traveling Minstrel Jug Band and Mouth’s Cradle. Just incase you missed the most amazing evening of the semester, we bring you a small bit of musical goodness.
– Slideshow by Irina Dvalidze
– Photos by Isabel Alcantara
Filed under: Issue 19, Issue 19 Artists | Tags: Good News for People Who Love Bad News, Johnny Marr, Modest Mouse, No One's First and You're Next, The Moon & Antarctica, The Smiths, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
Modest Mouse is a featured artist in our latest issue
Known for their loaded lyrics and lengthy album titles, Modest Mouse have been at the forefront of the indie-rock movement since their 1996 debut, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About. Since then, the band has gradually progressed from tastefully engineered lo-fi to a more expensive, involved sound without losing their uniquely chaotic vocals, symphonic instrumentation and violently beautiful stage presence. Following the August 4 release of their latest EP, No One’s First and You’re Next, 20 Watts decided to take a look back at Modest Mouse’s impressive discography. (more…)
Filed under: Issue 19, Issue 19 Artists | Tags: pop rock, Syracuse, White Picket Fence
20 Watts’ Isabel Alcantara spent an evening with Syracuse’s best pop-rockers, traipsing around campus and attempting to corral them as they yelled at the Shack-a-Thon-ers on the quad. She put some of her best shots to music for this 20 Watts slideshow.
– Isabel Alcantara
Check our awesome 20 Watts exclusive photos and interview with Caution Children, one of the hottest bands coming out of Ithaca today. They played our launch show and now they’re playing on your screen! Photos by Max Jackson and interview by Caitlin Dewey.
– Interview by Caitlin Dewey
– Photos by Max Jackson
Filed under: Issue 19, Issue 19 Lofi | Tags: Jimi Hendrix, the Black Keys, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, The Beatles, Buddy Holly, Bruce Springsteen, Metallica, Bob Dylan, lo-fi, Syracuse University, Nebraska, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dinosaur Jr., Mouth's Cradle, Bears in America, beck, The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, Modest Mouse, Maroon 5, GarageBand, Devon Stewart, Ween, John Frusciante, Tascam Portastudio, The Basement Tapes, The Band, Logic Pro Studio, Devon James Stewart, Aux Records, Rascal Flatts
Devon Stewart rocks the Shaefer studios while working on his self-titled solo project
Lil Wayne. Kanye West. Maroon 5. Rascal Flatts. Music purists loathe them for at least one reason — Auto-Tune, a downloadable audio processor that corrects vocal and instrumental blunders in order to attain perfect pitch. By using this program, a producer can fill in a recorded performance’s holes, smooth its edges and polish its smudges. Everyone must use this to attain musical nirvana, right? Negatory. In fact, musicians that admire large holes, adore peculiar edges, and worship pesky smudges are alive, well and plentiful. They are lo-fi artists.
Lo-fi is a shortened form of “low-fidelity,” fidelity meaning the extent to which an electronic device such as a radio or television can accurately reproduce a sound or an image. Taken literally, lo-fi can be defined as low-quality sound. (more…)
Filed under: Interviews, Issue 19, Issue 19 Q&A | Tags: Joy Division, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, bowery ballroom, Kip Berman, Alex Naidus, My Bloody Valen, Pastels, Cake Shop, Skidmore College
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have captured ours and countless others
Alex Naidus and Kip Berman were cubicle-mates at a standard office job until Berman entered the office one day with a fully formed band plan in mind.
“I want to start this band called ‘The Pains of Being Pure at Heart,” Berman told his friend.
Several years later, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have become Generation Y’s answer to the saccharine dream pop of classics like My Bloody Valentine and The Pastels. Their self-titled debut, released last February, rode a wave of blogosphere hype to universal acclaim and several international tours. 20 Watts spoke to bassist Alex Naidus during the band’s recent stop in Los Angeles. (more…)
Filed under: Issue 19, Issue 19 Lofi | Tags: Alight of Night, Born Again Revisited, Christopher Owens, Crystal Stilts, Girls, lo-fi, Nathan Williams, No Age, Times New Viking, Wavves
Nathan Williams fronts the acclaimed lo-fi act Wavves
Lo-fi isn’t just a trend on campus — it’s also scoring airtime across the country. Here are some of our favorite lo-fi bands you owe it to yourself to check out:
Wavves
With ironic song titles like “Summer Goth” and fuzz bleeding from their amps, it’s hard not to love Wavves. Who cares if frontman Nathan Williams is practically a junkie? Despite public humiliation and broken wrists, Williams still played shows this summer.
No Age
With three EPs and a debut in 2007, another full-length last year and an EP just last month, No Age are one of the busiest bands currently making high-quality lo-fi. They’ve mastered the art of drowning infectious riffs and power chords in layers of distortion.
Crystal Stilts
Crystal Stilts factor fuzzy guitars and brooding post-punk into a formula all their own. Despite being together since 2003, the band only released their full-length debut Alight of Night last year.
Times New Viking
Formed in 2005, the raucous Times New Viking have dropped four acclaimed albums, including one this year. Born Again Revisited emphasizes accessible pop structures amidst fits of noise.
Girls
Girls’ frontman Christopher Owens grew up in a cult, lost his brother and watched his mom literally sell herself for the cause. His solution? Get high, start a band and sing about heartbreak with such remarkable optimism that even the critics were moved.
– 20 Watts Staff
Filed under: Issue 19, Issue 19 Artists | Tags: Billboard, Cat Power, Erica Scarano, Jenny Lewis, Kanye West, Neko Case, Taylor Swift, Thao Nguyen, The Avett Brothers
Taylor Swift shares a sound with plenty of indie artists out there
Taylor Swift may not have Kanye West’s approval, but the girl makes music people like. Swift was the first country artist to win an MTV Video Music Award, and her album Fearless has been wildly successful on the Billboard charts since its release last November. And, oh yeah, she’s just 19 years old — an age when most kids can barely do their own laundry, let alone front their own tour.
Despite her success, Swift seems to have managed to keep acting like a regular girl. In her video “Thug Story (w/ T-Pain)” she jokes about her love for her mom and the joys of baking cookies. On her Twitter page, she regularly discusses argyle socks, hanging with her friends and walking through Radio City Music Hall.
Basically if you like Taylor Swift, you’re probably drawn to her love-struck country ballads and cute-and-wholesome girl-next-door image. The only thing she’s missing is indie cred, which is why 20 Watts has compiled this list of similar indie artists — you’ll likely love them, too. (more…)
Filed under: Emerging Artists, Features, Issue 19, Issue 19 Artists | Tags: Clocks and Calendars, Sammy Awards, Square Studio, Syracuse New Times, White Picket Fence
White Picket Fence are a young band living life and doing what they do best
Take a minute and picture Varsity Pizza on a weeknight. The radio hums in the background. An employee behind the counter systematically wipes down pans. A couple sits quietly in the corner while cooks bustle around the kitchen, shouting light-hearted insults as they work.
And when the Camillus-based band White Picket Fence enter the room, everything somehow becomes brighter, warmer and more pleasant. Such is the charm of the gang of recent high school grads, who promptly pull together their shared pizza order, sit down together like a family and begin cheerfully recounting the story of how they became local legends.
For the women of the band, at least, that story goes back more than 10 years. Frontwoman Elise Miklich has been a vocalist since primary school, close with the band’s guitarist Kelly Clancy since the girls were in second grade. Drummer Garrett Koloski, bassist Ryan Chapman and guitarist Logan Messina joined the girls after they graduated from high school last June – a month that also saw WPF play their first show and release their debut album, Clocks and Calendars. They won a “Best Pop” nod at the Syracuse New Times’ Sammy Awards not long after. (more…)
Filed under: Features, Issue 19 | Tags: The Allman Brothers Band, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, jeff buckley, Caution Children, Tundra Toes, Dandy Little Lions, The Nines, Ithaca College, Cornell University, Johnny Dowd, The Burns Sisters, WICB, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Pete Panek and the Blue Cats, Junior Wells, Koko Taylor, Charlie Musselwhite, Bo Diddley, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Castaways, Felicia's Atmoic Lounge, The Shop, Haunt Bar and Grille, Texas Flood, Dark Star Orchestra, GrassRoots Festival, Donna the Buffalo, Lyle Lovett, Dread Zeppelin, Soul Asylum, Popcorn Youth, Ithaca Underground, Fanclub Collective, Sim Redmond Band, J-san & the Analogue Sons, John Brown's Body, Sixteen Sixteen, Radio the Ape, Kites in Space
Caution Children are one of the many bands that characterize Ithaca sound
Nestled in the foothills of the Finger Lakes, right in the heart of wine country, Ithaca is a community secluded from the rest of the world. There are no major interstates that cut an unsightly swath through its downtown; no passenger trains rumbling across the Cayuga Valley. One could easily assume that if it wasn’t for Cornell University and Ithaca College, Ithaca would have just been another Podunk upstate burg at the edges of the Rust Belt.
Yet this small college city, just over a one-hour drive from Syracuse and a little under five from New York City, is home to one of the country’s most eclectic, powerful, and thriving music scenes.
After all, the ever-elusive “Ithaca Sound” was created here, a fusion of familiar and ethnic music styles, fundamental to the popularity and acceptance of Roots. Acclaimed reggae group John Brown’s Body considers Ithaca home, as do country singer Johnny Dowd and folk singers The Burns Sisters. College-town venue The Nines has been hosting the Blue Monday jam session for over 29 years. And the local award-winning college radio station WICB carries such programming as “Home Brew,” a weekly show dedicated to local music, while graduates at the School of Music at nearby Ithaca College go on to play with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. (more…)
