"Finals Week with The Hard Lessons": Living Room Performance: The Hard Lessons - "I'm Board"

The Hard Lessons - "I'm Board"

St. Andrew's Hall

Detroit, Michigan

December 26th 2013



"Covering this song started off as a joke at a birthday party for our friend Adam who is part-owner of the Ottawa Tavern in Toledo. It ended up becoming the impetuous to recording our new album. We opened for the Stooges in 2007 and we covered "No Fun" at a gig the day after Ron Asheton died. There's a little Iggy in all of us."- The Hard Lessons

This week, we at BLS are going back to school with the rock powerhouse of Detroit band The Hard Lessons. A long time personal favorite of my own, it's an honor to have the band take over for the week. Not only does this band created some of the sweetest rock 'n' roll out there but their live performance is easily in my top 5 all time greatest shows and that's just from seeing them 2 or 3 time. So get your learning hats on and don't worry, all tests are open book.

Tuesday Double Feature: Monolo Panic 'Seasoned Noise" & Lost In Atlantis "Tek No"

From Star Wars to Tron I feel like I'm reliving the movie inspired fantasies of my childhood in this weeks Tuesday Double Feature. So join me and let your inner geek reign free.

Manolo Panic - "Seasoned Noise"


The broad styles of  Swiss indie-rock band Manolo Panic reveals the eclectic background of its members. From Candy sweet pop to deep blues folk, the diverse sound of their music is sure to hold something for everyone. The band will be playing some date here in the States come this spring in support of their debut LP Helpless & Strange. Unfortunately the closest the bad will be playing is LA, but that doesn't stop you from checking our their wonderfully danceable music and this Star Wars themed video. 


Lost In Atlantis - "Tek No"


The electro-pop of Arizona band Lost in Atlantis has a pulsing electric energy that's hard to denied. Hand picked for 2013's Vans Warped Tour, their stint on the national tour was cut short when the band was hit by a drunk driver in a near fatal car accident. Thankfully the band survived and now continue their push to stardom in support of their wildly energetic album Love Freak. For myself and a few others this video insights memories of the brilliant camp of the first Tron movie,which I myself saw as a double feature on a drive-in screen in a Southern California desert town.

Cure for the Mondays: American Authors - "Best Day of My Life"

American Authors - "Best Day of My Life"


When was the last time you played with your monsters.



It might not be too long before Brooklyn based American Authors could be a house hold name. Having been chosen as VH1's official "You Oughta Know" selection for February the band will have their music on TV, the web and incorporated into mobile and social platforms.If that wasn't enough, March should continue their momentum with the release of their debut album Oh, What A Life set for release on the 4th as well as appearances on some A-list talk shows. Not bad for a group of Music College dropouts.

Living Room Performance: Death - "Keep On Knocking"

Death - "Keep On Knocking"
 
Check Yo Ponytail 2

Echoplex

Los Angeles California.

October 28th, 2013



For the longest time the amazing music of Detroit band Death lingered lost in obscurity, but as time has proven good music will never die. Even if the name of your band is death. Years ahead of their time the proto-punk of this tiro of brothers, was the cultural significance of finding an M-16 in the battlefields of World War II. The story of the band and their long overdue rediscovery is recorded in the documentary A Band Called Death.
After hearing of this band they quickly gained a place on my rock 'n' roll bucket list to catch live. Though it's not the same, here's a chance to see the band at work. Hopefully it might just hold us over until they make it to our neck of the woods.  

"Cannibals Week" Wrap up

It's been an awesome week with the Summer Cannibals as they took BLS on the maiden voyage of band take over. Thanks goes out to the band for all their great additions.
Don't miss the chance to catch there amazing live show this Wednesday at Mississippi Studios for The Mercury's free Ear Candy show. Joining them is the spacey pop of fellow Portland band Grandhorse.

Here are the details:
Wednesday, February 5th
Mississippi Studios
3939 N. Mississippi
Doors: 8PM / Show: 9PM
Free Show
21 & Over

Here's another little taste of what you'll see.

"Cannibals Week" The List:Jessica Boudreaux’s Top 5 Influential albums

When your working with bands you never know what your going to get when you give them full freedom, but that's what The List is all about. The only thing I tell them is to keep it to 5 to 10 Items, that it has to have something to do with music (even if it's loosely), and to have fun with it.

So for this week with the Summer Cannibals, lead singer and founding member Jessica Boudreaux gave us a list of her Top 5 Influential Albums with corresponding links to hear them for yourselves.
"Cause it’s all bout me!" she says with a laugh and a smile.

1. Patti Smith – Horses

2. Iggy & The Stooges – Raw Power

3. Fugazi – Red Medicine

4. Tom Waits – Rain Dogs

5. The Fall – Grotesque

"Cannibals Week" From the Shelf: Summer Cannibals - Make You Better EP (2014)

Summer Cannibals
Make You Better EP
New Moss Records

With the powerful darkness of the opening track “Make You Better”, the Summer Cannibals’ have done it again. Ripe with raunchy guitars and a flesh pounding rhythmic beat their latest EP, Make You Better is, as I suspected, the first truly brilliant rock ‘n’ roll release of 2014.

Surrounded by the rich wail of breathless guitars and a groping rhythm that has all the needful aggression of teenagers in heat, the moody sensuality of Jessica Boudreaux’s vocals have all the power of a rock ‘n’ roll siren. A solid foursome, this band is just what’s needed to save rock music. Screw MTV and Rollingstone, we need the passion of “Sit Still” with its unbound desire and the pressing heat of it’s driving guitars rubbed raw against the thrusting beat an lusty bass groove. Jessica Boudreaux and Mark Swart might have started the Summer Cannibals but Lynnae Gryffin and Valerie Brogden have completed this band, cementing the bold sound with their flawless rhythmic frame work.

I have to admit, slipping the cassette copy of Make You Better into my Sony Sports Walkman, I haven’t been this excited since the great tape war of ’98.’ Short but sweet, this EP is a must have and a great way to start off a new year of music.