@JenXMusic

Here I am in my brand new Smashing Pumpkins “concert shirt,” we just got them yesterday. Of course the show was almost two months ago, but when we arrived ready and excited to buy our concert tee’s we were all pretty disappointed at what was available, not to mention they cost $40.00. We decided at that point just make our own.

Our first choice was a fantastic image (second box, third row down) Shannon Palmer, author of “What Noisy Cats Are We” blog, created. (see all of her work here, it is fabulous!) She graciously said yes, we could use her design, and Tac’s brother who manages a print shop took it from there.

Basically my only real contribution to this project was the initial whining, Shannon created the art, and Tac took a lot of time from his hectic schedule to meet with his brother Jeremy who did a really nice job on the printing.

I will be rocking the Pumpkins all day, which is not much different from other days, only today I’m wearing my new shirt so its even better.

Popularity: 19% [?]

I have had South’s cd “With the Tides” almost 5 days, and I must have listened to it 25 times by now. South has been making music in the UK for 15 years, I wish I would have heard about them years ago!

A few things about them from their website, www.south.uk.net:

• Rock, dance, electronica, folksy acoustics, orchestral soundscapes, South have always been impossible to pin down.
• The London-based trio were first signed to James Lavelle’s Mowax label in 1999. After the joyous chaos of their first album, From Here on In, their sound became both both tighter and more lush on their follow-up With the Tides, produced by Dave Eringa (who has worked with the Manics and Ash) and released on Kinetic Records. They have also enjoyed a prestigious sideline scoring soundtracks for the Oscar-nominated film Sexy Beast and US TV dramas The OC and Six Feet Under.
• South – Joel Cadbury (lead vocals, bass and guitar), Jamie McDonald (lead guitar, vocals and drums) and Brett Shaw (drums and guitars) – are particularly proud that their track Keep Close was used to accompany goal montages in Premiership soccer TV round-up.

• Over the years they have been compared to artists as disparate as the Stone Roses, Elbow, Radiohead, Oasis, the Verve, Queen, Mercury Rev and the Small Faces. But they wear their myriad influences lightly to create a sound, a melodic melancholy, that is uniquely South.

I found out about South when I was playing on the computer last week. The trail went something like this: read the latest Mummers blog, lamented the fact that their album won’t be available for months, found myself on lastfm and decided to type in The Mummers, read other artists with a similar sound and saw South. Couldn’t listen to them there, but found them on Amazon in 30 second demos.

I was pretty sure I needed them, but its hard to know from a few sound clips. At this point I had not been able to find their website, I never found it until I saw the address on the back of the album. Tac is sweet to me though, and came home with a used copy of “With the Tides” that night.

You don’t have to do all that, there is a great A/V section on their website with tons of songs to listen to.   Happy listening! I think you are really going to enjoy.

Popularity: 16% [?]