Tommy Guerrero
From the Soil to the Soul 
Quannum Records

Tommy Guerrero spent the better part of his youth riding a skateboard as a member of the much-vaunted Bones Brigade (where Tony Hawk got his start), but a little known fact about him during those years was that he was a musician as well. Sure, he played in the hilarious punk band, Free Beer, but it still seemed to come out of nowhere a few years back when he came out with his first album of instrumental funk and soul. Continue Reading »

If you are one of the 7 people who visit this website (you probably are) then you already know about the sweet Birdman Records contest we are running right now.  Seriously, I know this is my own website and it’s easy to lie to you and pretend the stuff we do is cool, but I am actually telling the truth here- this giveaway is killer.

The contest ends October 15th, which is, like, soon, so fill out the form below and enter now.

Great oogly moogly, kids, do we have a special treat for you today.  We have a new Myspace Interview with none other than punk zine legend Barry Scatton.  If you were ever a casual reader of the punk rock website Punkrocks.net, the name may ring a bell.  If not, just know that good old Barry is the guy who wrote this.

Buckle up and get ready, boys.  This is going to be a bumpy ride. Continue Reading »

Much like John Vanderslice’s 2-track recordings of Pixel Revolt and Kind of Like Spitting’s Phil Ochs tribute, Swearing at Motorists’ Exile On Gipsstrasse is an album of familiar songs, recorded in a unique setting.  The cuts are raw, stripped down, and delivered to you with all their blemishes in tact.  There is no second take.  Only the record button and a guitar.

The purpose of these ‘live’ albums isn’t to change your mind about the songs- the songwriters can do that by entering the studio and recording new versions- it is to capture a time and place like only a session’s worth of self-recorded, stripped down songs can.  Vanderslice recorded Suddenly It Went Dark in a chicken coop in California, Kind of Like Spitting recorded his Ochs cover songs on Gene Autry’s two track machine, and, in the case of Exile On Gipsstrasse, songwriter Dave Doughman chose an underground train station in Berlin as his studio.

For the full story, you can read Doughman’s self-penned description.  It is a necessary listening guide to an album full of warm, lonely songs. 

Get them while they’re free.

[link]  Exile On Gipsstrasse full album download

The Meeting Places
Numbered Days
Words-On-Music

It is pretty much a given that any music a band puts together is really the sum total of their influences. Yet, what separates the carbon copy groups from those that are trying to expand and further a sound is something quite hard to understand and even harder to quantify. Usually, we just accept that we know it when we hear it. In that regard, the young men of The Meeting Places unfortunately fall in to the former category of a band that sounds essentially like a mirror image of those groups that they know and love. It’s hard to fault The Meeting Places for drawing on the gorgeous work of groups like Ride, Chapterhouse and My Bloody Valentine, but it is harder to listen to a group try with all of their might to sound just like those bands and falling well short of the mark. Continue Reading »

I’d like to introduce a new feature here at Invisible Limb called Myspace Interviews.  In a nut shell, what we do is take one lucky friend from our Invisible Limb Myspace page and interview them.  They don’t have to be famous or in a band, just a friend.  A Myspace friend.  Isn’t that that what really matters?

Our first Myspace interview is with an attractive young lady named Niki.  She’s 25, blonde, and according to her page she is going to have children someday.  Sounds like a winner to us! Continue Reading »

Cale Parks
Illuminated Manuscript
Polyvinyl Records

Solo albums, or even side projects, are a dime a dozen these days, and here is yet another one. What sets this apart from the rest? It is the debut solo offering of Aloha drummer extraordinaire Cale Parks, and drummers just don’t tend to do solo albums. And, as much as I hate to say it, maybe this is a good example of why they don’t. Continue Reading »

The title don’t lie, folks.  From now on Tuesday is Major Label Casualty Day! *Trumpets.wav*  I decided to incorporate this new weekly feature into our hectic posting schedule after discovering Orange County band Melee had posted 3 new songs on their Myspace.  Since I own their poppy debut album Everyday Behavior and found it to be somewhat refreshing for a SubCity Records release, I thought “What the doobie, I’ll peep my ears to these new music songs.”

Astonishingly, instead of the crisp melodies and warm vocals I was expecting, I found a lightweight, watered down shell of what used to be Melee.  Hold on though, Speed Racer.  The fact that these songs are from their Warner Brothers debut album has nothing to do with this.  I’m sure they’ve just ’matured’ since Everday Behavior was released in 2004 and that when they heard they were working with Major Label Producer A and Major Label Producer B they were thrilled to try out and explore some new sonic landscapes.  Right?  I bet that’s what really happened.

The result is ‘Frequently Baby’ which contains all the faux-yells and piano stomping one could ask for in a song.  You can tell the band had a lot of fun on that one, what with all the spontaneous shouting from lead singer Chris Cron.  And what about ‘Built to Last’?  This song reminds me of several tracks on their last record, minus all the scary loud guitar noises.  These first two tracks may be gold, but the third track, ‘Can’t Hold On’, is the best example of the band’s maturation.  Besides earning the distinction of being the slowest song they have ever written, the lyrics and vocal delivery on the track give James Blunt a run for his money.  I’m talking James “I was in the military” Blunt.  The words are just so strong and so honest, and I’m sure more than 1 fifteen year old girl will identify with them.  I know I did!

So there, you’ve heard my side of it.  Now go listen to these songs while I take a shower and clean myself of my jaded blogger smell.

http://www.myspace.com/meleerocks

P.S:  Before I let you go, here is the video for Melee’s ‘The War’, from their debut album Everyday Behavior.  I used to be all about this song back in the day.

[gv data="http://www.youtube.com/?v=FotmDNU_gO0"][/gv]

The crazy fools at Contrast Podcast are back again with a whole hour of political themed music.  Phil Ochs, Billy Bragg, Fugazi, Ted Leo- all of the usual suspects are here, ready to be streamed or downloaded to your liberal, non-religious computer hard drives.  So don’t sit complacent and let the world become ozone layered by big tobacco and oil companies!  Listen to this podcast and do your part!

Note:  Invisible Limb did not partake in this week’s podcast.  This has nothing to do with our beliefs, it is because we are lazy.

[link] Contrast Podcast #27:  Songs with a Political Message

I didn’t know Islands were a supergroup of sorts, but apparently they are.  MtvU says they are made up of members of Wolf Parade, Arcade Fire, Prince’s New Power Generation, Super Mario Bros. and Woody Guthrie’s grandson.  That is a pretty insane list if true, which I have no reason to doubt it is.  MtvU knows what they are talking about. 

They even have the world premiere of Island’s ‘Don’t Call Me Whitney, Bobby’ video on their site.  It’s animated and directed by some guy named Wyld File.  I haven’t even watched it yet, but I bet it’s awesome.  You can peep it at the link below.

[link] Whitney, Bobby video premiere at MtvU.com

P.S:  Don’t forget about our huge Birdman Records contest!  It ends October 15th so get your entry in.