As you can tell from the above video (and our two most recent podcasts), Unknown Mortal Orchestra takes pride in its “Ffunny Ffrends.” The psych-rock band’s upcoming tour, however, is no laughing matter. Dozens of shows in the U.S. and Canada are on the schedule, often with multiple gigs in a single state (three in MO?!, four in TX?!!, eight in CA??!!). Ffunny or not, Unknown Mortal Orchestra must have a lot of ffrends. Continue reading…
On Saturday, Oakland’s Man/Miracle treated the Tin Can Alehouse to some rhythmic, Smiths-inspired rock. As it has done during every San Diego performance, the band dazzled the crowd with its kinetic arrangements and soaring vocals. Most of the material played was from 2010’s well-received The Shape of Things, and the songs sounded just as good live as on the record.
In case you missed it, here are some photos of the show. And if you want some sounds to go along with the sights, head on over to the group’s Bandcamp page and stream The Shape of Things. If you like it, they’ll even let you buy it. Continue reading…
On their LP, THE SHAPE OF THINGS, MAN/MIRACLE have done away with minuscule letters and churned out a solid thirty minutes of all-caps, genre-hopping power pop.
The first half of the album is catchy as hell. The lo-fi, major-key island hook and afrobeat of album opener “ABOVE THE SALON” sounds like Vampire Weekend playing inside a sealed U-Haul trailer.
“HOT SPRAWL” and “UP” maintain that energy, with toms like a locomotive driving hollering, energetic sing-alongs (provided you don’t mind making up words to approximate the mostly unintelligible lyrics). Continue reading…
Oakland rockers Man/Miracle have released a new 7-inch entitled “Pushing And Shoving/You’ve Got A Hold On Meâ€. The song “Pushing And Shoving†was previously included on the band’s supergood self-titled full-length album, and “You’ve Got A Hold On Me†is previously unreleased. You can listen to the A-Side at their MySpace, the B-Side here, and buy the record and other merch here.