New Alan Cohen Experience “Obama” Music Video

Dear PopWreckoning friend Alan Cohen of the Alan Cohen Experience has created a new song/music video in commemoration of the final Presidential debate held last night at Hofstra University. The song features Cohen’s friends Ryan Pressman on the drums and AfroDZak on the trumpet. If nothing else (i.e.-you dig on that other Presidential wannabe duo). guaranteed laughs, especially within the first few seconds.

Jessica got the chance to chat with Alan for a while not too long ago, so check back for the interview to be posted!

“Obama” Lyrics:
Obama, he’s the candidate for me
Obama, he sets the right policy
Obama, he’ll manage things responsibly
Obama, he’s the candidate for me

He understands the nuances of issues that he’ll have to face
He won’t define them with how lobbyists present their case
From the get-go he knew the Iraq war was off base

He speaks with a clear and simple ideology
He doesn’t have a my way or the highway philosophy
He’s not a slave to the free market or fundamentalist theology

He has the right ideas of health care and education
He’ll invest in infrastructure for the future of the nation
He’s not gonna be another Bush administration

Alan Cohen Experience: website | myspace

Wallpaper Cell Phone Video

The new video for Wallpaper‘s “Txt Me Yr Love” was shot, appropriately enough, entirely on a cell phone. Novel. We’re all for novelty. The video chronicles a day in the life of playboy Ricky Reed. Check it out:

Those in the San Francisco can join the festivities for Wallpaper’s return to their hometown as they headline Popscene on Sept. 25th.

Wallpaper: myspace | watch “Txt Me Yr Love”

Emory Joseph – Fennario

As NYC singer/songwriter Emory Joseph prepares for the release of Fennario – Songs by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter out August 19 on Iris Records, which pays tribute to the songwriting team of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter (really?!), the principal songwriters for the Grateful Dead, he’s offering up a video for “Tennessee Jed”

At the time of Garcia’s passing, the Grateful Dead had been together for 30 years and were the highest-grossing touring act in the world. For Fennario, Joseph carefully selected and recorded material that had never been released on studio albums and re-interpreted some of the best-loved Garcia/Hunter material.

To produce the album, Joseph enlisted the core group of top-shelf multi-instrumentalists he’d used on his critically acclaimed debut album, Labor & Spirits: Tom “T-Bone” Wolk (Hall and Oates, The SNL Band), Duke Levine and Jon Carroll (Mary Chapin Carpenter), and vocalist Soozie Tyrell (The E-Street Band). The album’s other principles are Larry Campbell (who was coming off eight years touring with Bob Dylan and who now plays with the Dead’s Phil Lesh), and drummer Dennis McDermott (Marc Cohn).

Fennario’s twelve tracks were recorded in five “round-the-clock” days, at New York’s legendary Legacy Recording Studios. There are two guest performances, bassist Lincoln Schleiffer (on “Mission in the Rain”) and long-time Garcia associate, mandolinist David Grisman (on “Brown-Eyed Women”).

Whereas I had issues with that other guy’s cover album (it’s just so random), this is a nice tribute that I hope both Dead Heads and Joseph fans alike can enjoy.

Fennario is available now on iTunes and in stores on August 19th via Iris Records.

Tracklisting:
01. Sugaree
02. Ramble On Rose
03. Tennessee Jed watch
04. Black Peter
05. Mission in The Rain
06. It Must Have Been the Roses
07. Loose Lucy
08. New Speedway Boogie
09. Brown-Eyed Women
10. Loser
11. Bird Song
12. To Lay Me Down

Emory Joseph: website | myspace | watch “Tennessee Jed”

We Are Scientists @ Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia

We Are Scientists are not…scientists. They are, however, one of the most exciting bands to catch in concert. Keith Murray and Chris Cain, joined by Max Hart on keys and Adam Aaronson on drums, packed out Philadelphia’s Johnny Brenda’s and tore the place up.

Keith Murray

We Are Scientists, while great recorded, are far better live. An album simply cannot capture the band’s mighty energy, undeniable on-the-fly wit or just how good looking they really are. The quartet fully engaged the crowd — Keith become one with it — while blasting through a fiery set of songs from both With Love and Squalor and this year’s Brain Thrust Mastery (which we’re giving away below!). The latter will see the release of its third and final single, the “Impatience,” drop on September 8th.

Watch “Impatience”

Set List:
01. Nobody Move
02. Chick Lit
03. Scene Is Dead
04. Inaction
05. Impatience
06. Let’s See It
07. Cash Cow
08. Can’t Lose
09. Callbacks
10. That’s What Counts
11. After Hours (most famous song for a generation…that didn’t grow up with the first album)
12. Text Book
13. Tonight
14. Dinosaurs
15. It’s A Hit

Encore:
01. Lousy Reputation
02. Lethal
03. Great Escape

Chris Cain

Max Hart

Adam Aaronson

CONTEST!

We love both We Are Scientists and giving things away. So, we thought, why not give away We Are Scientists things? We’ve got 2 autographed CDs and 2 autographed vinyls of We Are Scientists’ Brain Thrust Mastery, out now on Astralwerks.

To win: email Jessica how the band came up with their name, We Are Scientists, along with your preference for CD or vinyl.

We Are Scientists: website | myspace | Brain Thrust Mastery review | watch “Impatience”

Supergrass Autographed CD Giveaway!

So the Pineapple Express soundtracks posters went like hotcakes. Never happy with not offering you darling readers free stuff, today we’ve got 4, count ‘em 4 autographed copies of Supergrass‘ latest offering Diamond Hoo Ha to give away!

Diamond Hoo Ha is the long time band’s sixth studio album and in conjunction, NME.com has released four exclusive clips from the Supergrass rockumentary Diamond Hoo Ha Men – Glange Fever. The rockumentary follows the Diamond Hoo Ha Men (a.k.a. front man Gaz Coombes and drummer Danny Goffey) through their live club tour last December.

You can check out a clip from Glange Fever here. The rockumentary was shown at the band’s album release party earlier this year and, due to high demand from the Supergrass fan base (including Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke), will be released on August 4th. The DVD contains the full 30 minute documentary PLUS over 1 hour of outtakes and extras (including 9 live tracks and the promo video for Diamond Hoo Ha Man).

To win an autographed copy of Diamond Hoo Ha, email Jessica with the answer to this question:
*What monikers do Coombes and Goffey use when they play as the Diamond Hoo Ha Men?CONTEST IS OVER

Watch “Diamond Hoo Ha Man”

Supergrass: website | myspace | nme | watch, preorder Gland Fever (live)

Chairlift

Brooklyn’s unassuming 80′s-influenced three-piece Chairlift (recommended to us months ago by Violens front man Jorge Elbrecht) is excited to announce the release of its forthcoming debut full-length, Does You Inspire You on Kanine Records on Oct. 28th. The band is currently in the midst of a US tour (dates below) with ever-endearing, psych-weirdo Ariel Pink in support of its new release-to-be.

Intent on making music for haunted houses, Caroline Polachek, Aaron Pfenning, and Patrick Wimberly formed Chairlift in the summer of 2006. Frequenting late-night jazz shows at the strange Broker Inn on the outskirts of Boulder, Co., Chairlift were mystified by its 1980′s faux-gothic architecture. The oak-cabinet aquariums, vacant dancefloors, fake trees, and muffled velveteen booths provided the ideal hypothetical setting for a new breed of pop music. With their backgrounds in fine arts, film and jazz, coupled with a move to Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 2007, the trio was in danger of succumbing to art-snobbery and pretension.

Watch “Planet Health”

Instead, they started playing shows with fun and thriving experimental pop magicians, like MGMT, Ponytail, Yeasayer and Mixel Pixel. Merging their Colorado roots with their new urban surroundings, Chairlift’s sound developed into a hypnotic, tongue-in-cheek yet uniquely compelling brand of synth-pop. After much trial and error of experimentation, their newest effort has resulted in something more akin to a John Hughes/80′s film soundtrack, though the band is surprisingly unfamiliar with several of the artists thought to be their very influences.

Tour Dates:
Jul 29 – TT The Bears / Boston
Jul 30 – Knitting Factory / New York City (w/ Mixel Pixel)
Jul 31 – People’s Center / New Haven, Ct.
Aug 01 - M Room / Philadelphia
Aug 02 – Sonar / Baltimore
Aug 03 – Nightlight / Chapel Hill, NC
Aug 04 – Eyedrum / Atlanta
Aug 05 – Ali Baba’s / Tallahassee, Fl.
Aug 06 – Spanish Moon / Baton Rouge, La.
Aug 07 – Walter’s On Washington / Houston
Aug 08 – Hailey’s / Denton, Tx.
Aug 09 – Mohawk / Austin
Aug 11 – Plush / Tucson, Az.
Aug 12 – The Echo / Los Angeles

all tour dates with Ariel Pink

Chairlift: website | myspace | watch “Planet Health”
Kanine Records: website

Algebra

Get ready to re-think Algebra. No longer does it mean high school math, but it is the sultry sounds of songstress Algebra Blessett.

The Georgian beauty, hailing from Atlanta, and neo-soulstress demonstrates stunning musical prowess with depth, heart and a style all her own. Bucking the mainstream trend towards focusing on one’s image, Algebra insists that she can only be discovered aurally. Her debut album Purpose released late last month has breathed life back into the R&B genre.

Algebra taught herself to play guitar and performed regularly at open mics after having sung backup for other artists previously. This pivotal point in her career afforded her the time to develop her writing and performance skills even further without the harness of a prescribed format. “Soon you learn not to care what others think, you learn to perform for you. I would come back week after week and I learned to perform for balance and for freedom. I was becoming alive.”

This organic approach permeates her music. Collaborating with award-winning songwriter and producer Brian Michael Cox on “What Happened” quickly proved to be a true showcase of her brilliance. This soulful ballad is delivered so honestly and with such vulnerability that it sounds like it could be her autobiography.

As the first artist to be released on the revamped Kedar Entertainment Group, Algebra enters the contemporary soul music landscape following legacies created by artists like D’Angelo, Erykah Badu and India.Arie, yet her sound is unique. Algebra at first is unassuming, but it takes mere moments for you to recognize that she is not just a tempest in a teapot but more like the catalyst of a paradigm shift.

When asked the question, what does Purpose mean to her and this project that she has waited so long to share with the world; Algebra replied, “The defining moment of purpose is when you realize all that you have is worth less than nothing and still, life is worth living.”

With there being only two universal languages in this world – Math and Music; fate would have it that Algebra represents both.

Algebra: myspace | stream, watch “Run & Hide”
Kedar Entertainment: website

Albert Hammond, Jr. video for “GfC”

Albert Hammond, Jr. recently released a video the first single “GfC” (download) from his just released sophomore album ¿Cómo Te Llama?

Most of Albert Hammond, Jr.’s upcoming tour dates are overseas, but New Yorkers can catch him play at McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn on August 15th.

Tour Dates:
Jul 30 – Prince Bandroom / Melbourne, Victoria
Aug 01 – The Gaelic Theatre / Sydney, New South Wales
Aug 02 – The Zoo / Brisbane, Queensland
Aug 09 – Summer Sonic Festival / Tokyo
Aug 10 – Summer Sonic Festival / Osaka
Aug 11 - Club Quattro / Osaka
Aug 12 – Club Quattro / Tokyo
Aug 15 – McCarren Park Pool / Brooklyn

Albert Hammond, Jr.: website | myspace | ¿Cómo Te Llama? review | download “GfC”

New Driver F video for “Temple of Doom”

Check out the new video for Driver F’s “Temple of Doom”

Catch them live this summer!

Tour Dates:
Jul 19 – Fearless Radio Show Interview / Chicago, Illinois
Jul 20 – Harmony Cafe / Green Bay, Wisconsin
Jul 21 – Showcase Skatepark / Rogers, Minnesota
Jul 22 – Blinks / Ames, Iowa
Jul 23 – The Haunted Basement / Des Moines, IA
Jul 24 – Box Awesome / Lincoln, Nebraska
Jul 26 – Sparrows / Springfield, Missouri
Jul 29 – Davey’s Uptown / Kansas City, Missouri **POPWRECKONING SHOWCASE**
Aug 01 – Defcon 7 / Tulsa, Oklahoma
Aug 02 – Lava Rock Lounge / Montgomery, Texas
Aug 22 – Northgate Music Festival / College Station, Texas
Aug 23 – Javajazz / Houston, Texas

Driver F: website | myspace | Chase The White Whale review | interview with

Violens Summer/Fall Tour, Video

Following their sold-out mercury lounge show in June, Violens adds more summer tour dates (see below) with indie rock faves Grizzly Bear, and 2008 break out band MGMT. Following the release of singer/producer Jorge Elbrecht‘s remix of their single “Time to Pretend”, MGMT asked Violens to join them on dates between a busy schedule of summer festivals. The band will then join Grizzly Bear as sole support on their shows between dates with Radiohead.

Until you can catch the guys live, check out their new video for “Trance-Like Turn” and download the mp3!

Tour Dates:
Jul 23 – Paradise Rock Club / Boston, MA *
Jul 24 – Paradise Rock Club / Boston, MA *
Jul 25 – Starlight Ballroom / Philadelphia, PA *
Jul 28 – 9:30 Club / Washington, DC *
Jul 29 – The National / Richmond, VA *
Jul 31 – Schubas / Chicago, IL
Aug 01 – Hideout / Chicago, IL
Aug 02 – 930 Listening Room / Louisville, KY ^
Aug 11 – Sixth & I Historic Synagogue / Washington, DC ^
Aug 14 - Museum of Fine Arts / Boston, MA ^

* w/MGMT
^ w/Grizzly Bear

Violens: myspace | watch “Trace-Like Turn” | Green Owl comp | live review | interview with