Brothers in Arms
In 2004, I had moved back to Chicago from the west coast and was, among other things, working as a contributing editor for the online events weekly Flavorpill. We launched Flavorpill in September of that year with about 20 writers, but the initial enthusiasm generated from a kickoff at Metro’s Smart Bar quickly fizzled. By early October a good chunk of the listings were being written by myself and Patrick Sisson, the other contributing editor, with the support of the New York editorial staff.
Flavorpill/Chicago, now lead by Annette Ferrara (of TENbyTEN magazine), is doing great and has a full stable of capable writers, but in the early days getting each issue out was a bit of a struggle . One of the guys in NYC who pulled a lot of weight and helped out tremendously was Todd Goldstein. I didn’t meet Todd in person until last summer’s Intonation Festival, but just from email and phone conversations, I knew he was a solid guy. A guy who had your back.
I’m a firm believer that the more you have on your plate, the more likely you are get something done. So it’s no wonder that, in addition to his stellar work at Flavorpill, Todd is the lead singer and guitarist for the indie pop band, Arms, and chips in on guitar for garage-rock revivalists The Harlem Shakes. About a month ago I found out that Todd and the rest of the guys in Arms (Brian Betancourt and Sam Lipschultz) had just finished a new “mini-album” and I was anxious to hear if the stuff on their MySpace site was a fluke or not.
I’m happy to report that the release, Shitty Little Disco, is neither shitty nor disco. It is in fact sweet, melancholy and clever pop and it is no fluke. It is like Todd, solid stuff.
I’ve posted some tracks below, but you can email your mailing address to the band for a free copy or listen to/download more at their MySpace site.
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Looking for a Band Name? Try Spam. Bill’s Going to Show You a Thing or Two (without)soundtrack The Kriegsmann Files On a Mission from God Go Junior, Go Senior Pineapple Guitars and Volcanic Bong Hits Brothers in Arms Yellow-legged Moonwalker… Meow
Looking for a Band Name? Try Spam. Bill’s Going to Show You a Thing or Two (without)soundtrack The Kriegsmann Files On a Mission from God Go Junior, Go Senior Pineapple Guitars and Volcanic Bong Hits Brothers in Arms Yellow-legged Moonwalker… Meow
Both of these tracks are great – the kind of tracks that get better after a few listens – but I may even like the Harlem Shakes stuff better. Perhaps it’s just my current mood, but check out Josh Studies at The Harlem Shakes website.
[…] Pineapple Guitars and Volcanic Bong Hits […]
[…] Currently in the 6 disc : 1) Get Him Eat Him – Geography Cones 2) Wolf Parade – Apologies to the Queen Mary 3) Get Him Eat Him – Do As I Tell You EP 4) mutual smeared_mascara makeouts mix cd 5) Arms – Shitty Little Disco 6) Dusty’s New Year Mix Disc 2 Arms’ new one, Shitty Little Disco is pretty good. Can’t get it outta my cd player either. […]