Hellhole Ratrace

Just became aware of Girls (the band) from San Francisco. This song has been on repeat ever since. Looking forward to their full length when it comes out in Sept. Definitely worth checking out.

MP3: Girls - "Hellhole Ratrace"

Cat Power

Saw Cat Power at The Earl here in Atlanta last night. It was like night and day from the first time I saw her perform at The Earl years ago. It was a Thanksgiving day show in 2001. She was a mess. She set up her amp on the floor in the middle of the room and sat next to it on a chair. There was one other guitar player to accompany her on some of the songs. By the end of the night she was berating him badly for the way his guitar sounded and he eventually got up and left. She stopped and started songs, mumbled into the mic and barely looked up and faced the crowd all night. Her hair was intentionally long and covering her face the entire show. The room was half full and had emptied out considerably by the time she was done torturing herself. As much as I loved the covers record she had put out around that time, it was painful to watch.

Cut to last night and it's like watching a completely different person. She's still quirky when she sings, but she has taken her craft to a whole other level. Her vocals sounded amazing and the band she has backing her now is one of the tightest group of musicians I have ever seen perform live. It was like getting a crash course in the power of restraint. It's obvious those dudes can play their instruments along with the best of them, but the bulk of the night was just them looking at each other and grooving on simple tight flourishes of sound that were the perfect back drop for her vocals. The drummer in particular was playing so simple and quiet in some moments, mostly with brushes, then out of no where would come a loud crack of the snare as the band would amp up the sound. It was really powerful to watch. The sound in The Earl was flawless too. Every sound was in its right place. There were many great moments, but I was especially blown away by a very raw stripped down rendition of Fortunate Son by CCR. Overall, I came away with the feeling that I had just witnessed a performance by an artist who will most likely be looked back on years from now and be held in the same regard as singers like Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, etc. I was glad I got to witness it up close, and in such a small intimate setting as The Earl.

Sand Painting Amazingness

I'm pretty much blown away by this...

No Words No More

Over at the Snowden myspace page we're streaming the Love & Rockets cover we did for the upcoming tribute album I mentioned a couple posts down. The song is called No Words No More. Jordan basically just took the lyrics and made up a whole new song. Hope ya'll like it.

Snowden @ The Earl Friday

Snowden On Twitter

www.twitter.com/SnowdenMusic

Ya'll should twitter dat.

Love & Rockets Tribute Album

Snowden has a track on an upcoming Love & Rockets tribute album along side Frank Black, Flaming Lips, A Place To Bury Strangers, Dandy Warhols, Film School and others. Here's a snippet from the Pitchfork post today...

In the mid-80s, Love and Rockets rose from the ashes of goth overlords Bauhaus and put a stamp on their own brand of scuzzy alt rock that would go on to influence everyone from the Pixies to Stone Temple Pilots. And now some of those in debt are paying it back with a tribute album dedicated to their cult heroes, due July 28 digitally and August 18 physically via Arsenal Rock N Roll/Justice.

New Tales to Tell: A Tribute to Love and Rockets:

01 Black Francis: "All in My Mind"
02 Puscifer: "Holiday on the Moon"
03 War Tapes: "Love Me"
04 Blaqk Audio: "No New Tale to Tell"
05 Dubfire: "I Feel Speed"
06 The Dandy Warhols: "Inside the Outside"
07 The Flaming Lips: "Kundalini Express"
08 Sweethead: "Life in Laralay"
09 Film School: "An American Dream"
10 A Place to Bury Strangers: "The Light"
11 Monster Magnet vs Adrian Young: "Mirror People"
12 The Stone Foxes: "Fever"
13 Frankenstein 3000: "No Big Deal"
14 VEX: "It Could Be Sunshine"
15 Better Than Ezra: "So Alive"
16 Chantal Claret vs Adrian Young: "Lazy"
17 Ian Moore: "Sweet F.A."
18 Snowden: "No Words No More"

Stop Your Bleeding Typography Video

Here's another really well done fan video for Stop Your Bleeding. It's kinetic typography based around the lyrics. Very clever.

So Right & So Wrong

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. The blog might seem dead from time to time, but it will always come back to life at some point. Here's a post for all the recording geeks out there (probably disregard this if you're not one). For those unaware of Tape Op, it's an excellent magazine which features interviews with a wide range of producers and engineers discussing the various projects they've worked on, different recording techniques they use, how their studios are setup, etc. Tape Op is absolutely FREE to subscribe to. Just go to their website to register and soon enough each new issue will start showing up in your mailbox. Very cool. I recommend it highly.

Anyway, the current issue has a fascinating interview with Sufjan Stevens that has sparked an interesting dialog or two online. He describes how he used dated gear and cheap mics to produce his albums, such as recording Michigan and Illinois on an old digital eight track machine, setting it to a lower bit rate setting because he didn't know what the button was for, painstakingly overdubbing drum parts by eye, etc. Basically, he does everything opposite of how a seasoned producer would approach recording, but is able to produce very big / lush sounding records. It's a really great interview if you're into that sort of thing. Hopefully I won't get in trouble for posting this, but here it is for those interested. Enjoy. (click the images)

New Snowden Tour Video

I finally got around to editing down some home movie footage from our last tour into another silly little video clip. All this is from our east coast tour this past December with Twin Tigers from Athens. It's pretty random. The highlight for us was the stop we made in Jacksonville, FL at Chandler's Grandfather Ceylon's house. He had a large property with an eclectic array of stuff, and orange trees all over the place that he let us pick fruit from to load up our van with. He also showcased Foundation Hospital Train, one of the many songs he has recently penned. Did I mention he is in his 90's! For the soundtrack I sprinkled in some bits and pieces of unreleased Snowden demos that may (or may not) be on the next record. Ha. Enjoy.

Kittens Inspired By Kittens

Counterfeit Time Lapse Video

I just came across this video on vimeo that was posted a while back, but this is the first time it's come to my attention. Two brothers took a road trip from Chicago to Orlando and made a time lapse video out of over 9,500 pictures and set it to our song Counterfeit Rules. I have to say, this is probably cooler than any video we could have come up with on our own for this song. It's an awesome concept and I think the Snowden track complements it really well. Check it out...

Bella

Sorry things have been quiet on the blog front lately. The past few weeks of my life have been consumed by the adorable little one in the photos below. Her name is Bella and my girlfriend and I unexpectedly inherited her over the holidays. She's a handful, but she's already melted our hearts and become a big hit at the puppy park at Piedmont Park here in Atlanta (and anywhere else we take her).

In Snowden news, there's another new song Jordan just finished (really good one) and now we're about to start shopping some demos around. The whole album is basically written and now we're just looking for the right option in regards to releasing it. I know it's taking a long time to come out, but we didn't want to rush this one. The sound has evolved quite a bit with this batch of songs and I think people will dig it. Thanks to everyone for havining patience. New music from Snowden will definitely drop this year!

Photos From The Tour

So we made it back from our recent tour unscathed, except for a few parking tickets and one whopping speeding ticket that was completely bogus and only given to us because we had out of state plates. Don't believe me? Read about this little trap that we fell into and make sure you never drive this stretch of FL unless you have FL plates. Jordan is the most cautious driver of the whole band and he was following all the visible speed limit signs. This blatant abuse of authority is probably going to jack up his insurance rates, not to mention the ridiculous amount of money the ticket ended up being. A real bummer.

There were also positive moments in FL though. In Jacksonville we got to meet Chandler's 90 year old grandfather Ceylon! He gave us a grand tour of his estate and let us pick an assortment of fresh fruit right off the trees in his backyard. He also let us preview some of his own unique musical endeavors. I have a whole segment of video footage from our visit with Ceylon that will definitely be part of the next little tour video I'm putting together. Jordan's mom Isabel took us out for a wonderful lunch on the water somewhere near Tampa, and the folks at the Bottletree in Birmingham really know how to take care of bands. Many thanks to them. It was also great touring around and hanging out with Twin Tigers. They're a crazy crew but definitely a lot of fun. Once I have time to go through all the video footage I took I'll post another one of my little tour vids. It should be a good one. Bye for now.

Licorice EP

Although these tracks are a few years old now, I think they are still worth posting for the holidays. It's a Snowden twist on some classic Christmas songs of the past and one acoustic original. Feel free to post these all over the web and spread the gloomy cheer.

LICORICE EP DOWNLOAD:

1. White Christmas
2. Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
3. Christmas Time Is Here
4. China Light

Screening T's For The Road

We're technically already on the road now, but I took these pics last week of us being all "diy" and screening our own shirts to sell on the tour. The show Saturday night at The Earl was really great and it was cool to see so many familiar faces out. Thanks so much to everyone that came out. We're in DC tonight and NYC the next couple nights after that. Check the dates and come out if you wanna hear some of our new jams.

Snowden @ The Earl Saturday Night

This is most likely our final local show of the year and we plan on unleashing a lot of new material. If you're in town for the holidays and have nothing to do Saturday night come out to The Earl and hopefully we can make it worth your while. The openers should be good too. Abby Go Go sound great from what I've heard online. I'm looking forward to checking them out live. It should be a fun night all around. Hope ya'll can make it out.

Meteor Over Edmonton

Wow.

SwitchBurn Snowden Live Vids

This is pretty cool. A while back I made a post about some live videos the folks at SwitchBurn had put together from a show we played in Austin a while back. They have been kind enough to post five more videos from that show, including three new songs that we've been playing live recently. These all turned out really great and I can't say thanks enough to Shawn and the whole crew involved with SwitchBurn for making these available. Definitely check out their site when you have some time. Here are the links to the new Snowden vids:

Candy For Eveyone
Keep Quiet
So Red
Innocent Heathen
Filler Is Wasted

Cheeze

A Saturday in ATL

We played a show this past Saturday at the Atlanta Downhill Challenge soap box derby thing. Unfortunately, there was a bad accident during one of the races. More details here. Apparently the guy is going to fully recover. That's good to hear. A paypal donation page has been setup here. I didn't take many pics. Here are some good ones on flickr though. The show itself was a bit weird. We were last to play, way after the racing had ended, and we followed a band that dressed up as mummies and played funk songs. They also showed up in a full tour bus with a trailer in tow. Go figure.

Mini Hummer! He actually fit inside that thing. Coolest one all day in my book.

Jordan gets down to the mummy funk.

BMI interviews us in the mens restroom after the show.

photo via BMI

Chandler drives off into the night.

The Bookhouse Pub.

Yum.

Snowden Holiday Tour

Tis the season for us to tour around and stuff. We'll be doing a short east coast run in December with our Athens buds Twin Tigers. We'll be trying out some new material and visiting some cities we've never played before, so spread the word to your whole posse. Here are the dates...

Nov 29 - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl (w/ Abby Go Go | Carnivores)
Dec 1 - Raleigh, NC @ Duke University
Dec 2 - Washington, DC @ DC9
Dec 3 - New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
Dec 4 - Brooklyn, NY @ Southpaw
Dec 6 - Wilmington, NC @ Soapbox Laundro Lounge
Dec 8 - Jacksonville, FL @ Jack Rabbits
Dec 9 - Tampa, FL @ Crowbar
Dec 10 - Orlando, FL @ Back Booth
Dec 11 - West Palm Beach, FL @ Respectable Street
Dec 13 - Birmingham, AL @ Bottle Tree

(all dates w/ Twin Tigers except the first two)

History

Drowned In Sound

Jordan talks politics with UK's Drowned In Sound on election day. Read it here, and as if you haven't heard it enough already... go vote please.

Vote!

America... Let's take a look back at some of the finer moments of the person you chose to run the country for the past eight years. As you're watching think to yourself which one of the current presidential candidates represents a new direction from this absurdity, which candidate has kept a clear and level head throughout their campaign, without making sporadic decisions or using negative ads that play into the fears of ignorance, which candidate carefully chose a qualified running mate for vice president, and would probably do the same when it comes time to fill cabinet positions? I could keep on going like this, but the choice already seems quite clear to me. I hope it does to you as well. Please go vote Tuesday, and lets make history... one that we can actually be proud of this time.

Boo!

It's been quiet on the blog front here lately. I'll try to post more soon. In Snowden news, we have a small east coast tour coming up in December with Twin Tigers. I'll post more about that when all the dates are finalized. Check the dates confirmed so far here.

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween! Here's the sound of a scream that's probably buried deep inside your subconscious mind and you don't even know it.

MP3: Evangelicals - The Halloween Song (via Ohmpark)

A Weekend In NYC

click here to see how she would use that experience

Snowden @ Atlanta Downhill Challenge

We're going to be performing Nov. 15 at the Starlight Drive-In as part of the annual Atlanta Downhill Challenge festivities. What is the Atlanta Downhill Challenge? It's a kick ass soapbox derby!! Yes. We're headlining the BMI stage, where a bunch of other bands will be performing throughout the day also. The whole thing goes from 12-6pm, and we go on around 5pm. Apparently last year drew over 3,000 people. It seems like a pretty cool way to spend a Saturday. For a great set of photos from last year check out this flickr set.

FAQ from the downhill myspace:

1) Are we making our own go karts with lawnmowers and shit/ renting them? going to a place? low-tech and crazy?
yes... you can use anything you want to build your cart but it just has to be built by your team. No Motor Vehicles.
2) Oooh oooh can we have like PIT CREW and stuff?
I want you to have a pit crew...if needed, cheerleaders and more.
3) Can we still race if we are over 250 lbs?
Yes, but the judges will take that to heart.
4) What time do I need to be there?
Please be there at 10:00am every year to check in your cart.

Photo via flickr

Free Album | Long Knives

Long Knives is one of my favorite undiscovered gems in the ocean of Atlanta bands. The man behind the music, Michael Kane, is celebrating his birthday today by giving away their record for free. If you're into stuff like Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes, Will Oldham, Elliott Smith, etc. you will probably really like this. In my opinion this guy is one of the best songwriters in this genre around Atlanta, and it's a crime that he isn't getting more attention. If you like what you hear spread the word.

DOWNLOAD: Long Knives - Long Knives

Monolith Recap

photo: Laurie Scavo

Our trip/show at the Monolith Festival at Red Rocks last weekend was a lot of fun. In the chaos of packing and moving things from one backpack to another at the last minute I forgot my camera though, which I didn't realize until we were at the airport. I had planned on taking a lot of pics and vids, so I was pretty bummed about that. If you want to see some photos though, the Denver Post's Reverb blog posted some great pics and coverage from both days. Check them out here: Day 1 & Day 2. No picture can really convey how breathtaking the view/scenery is around Red Rocks though. The amount of work that must have went into carving out an amazing open air music venue in the side of those mountains is quite impressive. Of all the outdoor concerts I've ever seen this is by far the best place I've ever been to see an outdoor show.

The festival organizers were really nice and made sure we were taken care of. They provided us with a driver who picked us up at the airport and shuttled us back and forth from our hotel to the festival. Although our show was on Sunday, we arrived on Saturday to enjoy the festival and hang out. When we got there mid afternoon we went to get our credentials and immediately run into some of our buds from Colour Revolt who had just played earlier in the day. It was great to see those guys. They haven't really stopped touring since we came off a tour with them back in May and they did look a bit worn down from the road. Once we got our artist laminents and wristbands we aquianted ourselves with the layout of the festival grounds and found the artists tent where they were providing free food and drinks all day long. It was a nice little tent with tables setup inside and out with some sofas scattered around too.

Throughout the day I just walked around and checked out some bands and took in the scenery. It was a lot of fun. The first band I saw was Cut Copy, who really had the crowd bouncing. They ended their last song abruptly though after being told they were out of time by the stage crew. They seemed pretty pissed, as did the crowd. Ouch. Next up I saw A Place To Bury Strangers, who were playing at one of the underground indoor stages. They were fun, but loud. During the last song an extra wave of feedback was unleashed on the unsuspecting crowd and quickly cleared half the room, myself included. I caught some of Vampire Weekend's set. I can't really hate on them, which seems to be the hip thing to do lately. Their tunes were an ok way to take in the sun setting around the mountains. Watched a bit of Del The Funky Homosapien, who was sitting next to us and Colour Revolt in the artist tent for a while wearing headphones and banging out some beats on his laptop. Seemed like a cool dude. Walked in and out of some sets by other bands that I didn't know. Some good, some not. It started getting cold and rainy that night and of course we didn't pack accordingly. We ended up heading back to the hotel with Colour Revolt who crashed on our floor and watched the ridiculous Bear Grylls eat all sorts of insane things before crashing out.

We woke up early and enjoyed a La Quinta breakfast with Colour Revolt, who had to drive out early for a show that night in Witchita. Around noon our driver picked us up and we got to the festival to load in the little gear that we brought with us. Luckily they had a great backline with nice amps and stuff. It was weird being there that early. People were just starting to show up. Our show wasn't until a little later that day, so we just enjoyed some food and drinks in the artists tent until we played. The show went great. We just had a 30 minute set, so we banged out all the hits and a new song too. The crowd was great and we ended up selling a bunch of Snowden merch and signing autographs and stuff. Saw a bunch of bands throughout the rest of the day. Tilly And The Wall were a lot of fun. The Whigs had a huge crowd going nuts at one of the indoor stages. The Kills bad mouthed the stage crew and generally came across like they were pissed off about having to be there. Handsome Furs were supposed to play after us, but apparently couldn't get across the Canadian border. There was talk thoughout the day that TV On The Radio's bus broke down in Salt Lake City, but they rented cars and made it just in time for their set that night. It was great seeing them at Red Rocks. Last time I saw them was years ago at the old Lenny's on a Thanksgiving night after their first EP came out. There was maybe 30 people tops at that show. This show had a slightly larger crowd. :)

Even though they were plauged with some technical problems, the one act that seemed to sound the biggest at the whole festival was Justice. They closed out the festival Sunday night and were the only act that seemed to make full use of the mammoth soundsystem on the main stage. Throughout the festival when I was towards the back of the amphitheater watching bands on the main stage the sound would tend to get muffled and muddy, as is the case with many large outdoor concerts, but towards the back when Justice was on the sound was crystal clear. They seem to have mastered the art of making those huge soundsytems work to their advantage.

We actually got to share a van ride back to the airport with Justice the next morning, as our flights were both leaving around the same time. They are by far the nicest people we met all weekend. Xavier in particular was very chatty and talked to us about differences in NYC and Paris, diffrent recording software he uses, a big name artist they produced but later backed out on and other random bits of small talk. Throughout the festival in the artists tent we hung out in there were many bands hanging out that I didn't even know who they were but were acting like they were the coolest thing on the planet, and then there's Justice, the actual biggest act of the whole festival, and they turn out to be the most down to earth people we meet all weekend. After we got out of the van at the airport I thought they had already walked off as I was unloading our stuff from the back, but then I turn around and Xavier was just standing there waiting for me to finish so he could shake my hand and say bye before going off to catch their plane. What a cool dude, and how refreshing to see a band at their level who haven't let it all go to their heads. It was a nice ending to a great weekend at Red Rocks.