the blakes

Day Three Of The Hiccups

They started on Tuesday afternoon and haven’t really stopped yet. This happened last summer to me as well, lasted four days that time. Hope it doesn’t last this long.

I wouldn’t wish my enemies more than a days worth of them. Annoying, distracting, embarassing and eventually painful.

Anyone got a solution? I’ve tried the peanut butter trick, drinking from the other side of the glass and a handful of breathing (or lack of breathing) techniques.

Luckily, they don’t really affect my ability to type here, so here’s what I’m diggin:

The Rakes are releasing their third album next week called Klang and hitting the road starting on Halloween in LA. For fans of a British blend of garage-rock guitars and wailing vocals, try out ‘That’s The Reason‘. Look for them in Toronto at the Mod Club on Nov. 9th with DFA’s Free Energy.

Not to be confused with the Rakes (or the Brakes for that matter), we have The Blakes and their new long awaited followup to The Streets EP called Souvenir, streaming online at AOL’s Spinner. They are also on the road. Look out for an upcoming session with KEXP in the works as well. And for the lucky that are in NY for CMJ, they’ll be there. Add them to your schedule.

Headlights have a new video, currently playing at Spin Earth. Its called ‘Get Going’ and that’s what I’m just about to do. Like the above, tour on the go. Check here for dates with The Shaky Hands, Pomegranates and Anni Rossi.

The Sound Of Color

Ever wonder what a colour would sound like? The people at Sound of Color might have figured that out.They took five musicians/bands (Dntel, Marie Digby, Swizz Beatz, The Raveonettes, The Blakes) and had them record songs specifically on a certain colour. From there, five cutting edge directors were brought on board to create videos based on those songs. Check out the Blakes doing blue, a bittersweet loves song called Magic. Sounds like the Kinks, quite quieter from what I’m normally used to for these guys. Solid effort though. As well, The Raveonettes video is pretty cool.Head over to Sound of Color and download all five tracks.

New video for ‘Don’t Bother Me’ by The Blakes

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=QZ4WBue9bPU[/youtube]

Don’t Bother Me by The Blakes

Three guys in the band and none of them are are named Blake. Go figure.

Gillian, good work again. You’ve tipped me off to a great band and brought me to a solid show. That was the Blakes show at The Silver Dollar last night in Toronto. I had heard some of the band’s music previously and had made a note in the blog to go back and listen again when I had more time. But really, I was a blank slate walking into the bar.

Comprised of the Keim brothers (Garnet on guitar, Snow on Bass) and Bob Husak (drums), The Blakes capture raw sounds of 60s Brit rock, garage and the melodic side of punk. Many bands came to mind during their energetic set; one moment sounding like The Kinks or The Who and the other sounding like The Strokes of The Smiths.

The crowd was really quiet in between songs. Maybe we were shy? The band really noticed and tried to figure out how to engage us more. Eventually, fans were shouting out requests, including Gill who really wanted to hear Lintwalk. After denying her intially stating ‘they didn’t play that song anymore’, they worked it into their set. Here’s the video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPFcqvk5ty8[/youtube]

My favorite track I’ve heard so far is Commit, head to their myspace to stream it (Looks like they’ve got all their tracks up there). As well, Don’t Bother Me is a solid track, check the machine, its there. Download Two Times off their self-titled album below.

The Blakes
“Two Times” (mp3)
from “The Blakes”
(Light In The Attic)