Dusted Magazine has run an interview I did with the Seattle band A Frames. Their three albums are three of the best released in this decade. They've come up with a variation on post-punk that is heavier and more witty than most of the bands messing with the Fall/Wire/Gang of Four sound. "Hostage Crisis", from the debut, is one of my favorite songs ever. And as Blackstrap has been getting off listening to the A Frames, the influence crept into songs of ours like "Home Security."
Here's some official mp3s to get you started:
A Frames - Galena
A Frames - Experiment
A Frames - Transgenic
Fluxblog has posted another one off the latest album.
And check out Erin's other band, Dipers:
Dipers - Space
Dipers - It"S Not Pretty
More A Frames and related bands on their label's website, an even some videos from the Sup Pop album Black Forest.
http://www.dragnetrecords.com/songs.htm
They seem to regularly change the sample songs up here, so it's worth checking back.
posted by bendy @ 7/12/2005 12:55:00 PM [permanent link]
Blackstrap is a rockpunk band that was formed in 2002 by several
disgruntled music fans. Some had played in bands for years, some had
never been involved in music. All of us were upset with the
direction the USA was moving. As you can tell, our impact on all that
has been overwhelming.
We broke up in 2004, just before releasing a debut EP. We still feel
bad about messing up 307 Knox Records
like that. We got back together in
2005. We might drive each other crazy again, so no promises.
We're a band that doesn't have many options as far as
money and time and touring and all those other thing that could make a
band be your life. The web is the main way we promote
ourselves. We figured out we should share what meager knowledge we have
obtained.
Websites are a lot of work to figure out, and don't work any magic
on their own. Most people who view your website are already going to know you exist.
Just having a website doesn't mean anyone is going to visit. So don't
worry about securing an Internet domain right away. Stick some
music on MySpace,
and then participate in sites that might actually drive interested
listeners to your music. Blackstrap gets more hits from our link
on ncpunkonline.com than from
higher-profile sites where we get lost in the shuffle.
There are advantages to having your own custom built website and
domain name, but it's only as useful to the extent that it gets linked to.
Here are some sites that are important and help to get noticed. They aren't all music sites, specifically. Alot of them require participation. But hey, you wanted to be on stage, right?