Crasymaker

Our new CD, Dirty Lowdown Adventure which came out a few weeks ago on Max Recordings is now available for purchase on iTunes.

If you’re interested in picking it up on iTunes, I would suggest just buying the entire album for $9.99 because it’s 21 songs long and at 99 cents each you couldn’t even get half the songs for that.

We worked on it for over 2 years so we’re pretty excited for it to finally see the light of day.

Click on this sentence to check it out on iTunes now or just search fo “The Good Fear” once you’re there.

For what it’s worth and if anyone’s interested, I’ve come across some good music lately.

I’ve gathered a few songs and created a mix using Muxtape (which rules, by the way) and you can have yourself a listen over at crasymaker.muxtape.com.

Some of this stuff is new and some is a year or two old. Most notably, I’ve been really into Bowerbirds, Matt Mays & El Torpedo and Sam Roberts. The other stuff is great, too.

Grab your headphones or turn up the volume and give it a listen. Enjoy.

Big show tonight, ya’ll. I know it’s a Sunday so if that’s a problem, no big deal. However, it’s gonna be a good one so keep that in mind.

We’re (The Good Fear) playing with American Princes and Catfish Haven at the Old Post Office building on the square here in Fayetteville. I believe it’s now called The Urban Table or something.

The American Princes are just about to put out a new record and it is simply incredible. There’s a brand new Artist Profile of them which includes an interview and a streaming new track over at The Fayetteville Flyer so check that out and then get pumped. Then come on out tonight.

Thanks to daylight savings, you’re already gonna have a hard time getting up for work tomorrow. Why not make the best of it?

I’m terrible at remembering to post our show dates on my blog. This time I will not let myself down. I remembered. Eat it.

This Friday (Feb 22) we’ll be playing at The White Water Tavern in Little Rock at about 10pm. It’s $5 to get in and we’re playing with a great band called Ghost Company.

We’ve got a couple of shows next month in Fayetteville. One’s with American Princes and Catfish Haven. The other’s with Dr. Dog. More information soon.

March=gonna be fun.

After the game tonight (or before), you should head over to George’s Majestic Lounge to catch Cory Branan and Chris Denny.

If for some reason you are still unfamiliar with either one of these dudes, be sure to check out their MySpace pages to hear some tunes. That should be all you need to realize that missing this show would be silly. Don’t be silly, ya’ll.

Here’s the part where I provide a link to Cory Branan’s MySpace page.

And here’s the part where I do the same for Chris Denny’s MySpace page.

Now you know. And here’s the part where I click “Publish”.

Good show tomorrow night at The Boom Boom Room in Fayetteville, ya’ll. The shows there start at around 10pm and tomorrow night’s lineup is gonna be super fun.

First off, The Good Fear will be playing some songs from the upcoming album on Max Recordings. Also, the new video produced by Deluxe36 has been added to YouTube. Check it out here.

More importantly, however, are The New Tragedies who are also playing and have recently released their new EP “Souveniers” on New Scratch Records. It’s good, ya’ll. Real good.

The Good Fear don’t play all that often and The New Tragedies are from Kansas City so don’t miss out on this one if you’ve been meaning to see either band.

A while back, I posted about some new Flickr sets which included some photos from The Good Fear’s video shoot we did this summer.

We’ve been patiently waiting to see what those badasses over at Deluxe 36 had in store and now the wait is over. Head on over to arktimes.com and watch for yourself. It’s about midway down the page. You’ll find it. If not, though, I believe this link should work…for a while, at least.

If not, I suggest you do. I’d been hearing about this “young classic country singer” guy from Little Rock for a couple of years when I finally caught him playing in a basement near the UA Campus. Somehow, instead of coming off like your average folk-singer-wannabe, Chris Denny was so sincere in his performance that I’m pretty sure my jaw was dropped the entire show.

His voice is definitely what grabs your attention first. My initial thought was of a young Roy Orbison but I’ve heard other comparisons including Jimmie Dale Gilmore (Localist) and even Slim Whitman (Pitchfork).

The Localist called him “the oldest twenty-two year old on the planet” and I think that sums it up pretty well. Everything from his music to his lyrics are straight outta the early 50s country music scene.

His debut album is out now and can be found on Amazon and iTunes. I would suggest at least giving it a listen via christopherdenny.com using the handy-dandy player in the top right. There’s also a video floating around that’s great. I found it on his MySpace page but I believe it’s somewhere on his website as well.

Check it out, ya’ll. If ya wanna.

Besides the free Spoon show this Sunday at the Greek Theater on the UA Campus (I still have to see it to believe it), The Good Fear will be playing a couple of times with a couple of excellent bands.

Friday night, we’ll be at Juanita’s in Little Rock and Saturday night we’ll be back in Fayetteville at George’s. Both nights, we’re sharing the stage with American Princes and J Roddy Walston and The Business.

If you’re not familiar with their music, you gotsta check it out. Their respective MySpace pages are here and here so turn up your speakers and mark your calendar. Or don’t.

The Southern Movie Issue 2007 of the Oxford American will come with the first-ever DVD that’s “a visual mixtape of clips, scenes, and shorts that range from musical performances to dramas to archival footage that’s bound to move (and maybe disturb) you.”

What’s that got to do with The Good Fear? The trailer (produced by Chris Cranford and Paul Reyes), features one of our tunes, “We’ve Got It All” from our last record, “Keep in Touch.” Pretty nifty.

Head on over to the Oxford American and check it out for yourself. You can reserve a copy of the DVD or purchase tickets to the Montgomery, Alabama, screening of the OA DVD on April 26.

This year’s NAMA nominees have been announced and it’s time for ya’ll NW Arkansas folks to go vote, if ya wanna.

Although giving awards for musicians is pretty silly when you think about it, I still get ticked every year when some dopey band wins over a genuinely talented group. I guess I always have hope, though, that someday the actual good bands will win. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes they do, just not very often.

Anyway, head on over there and have your say. You don’t have to vote for every category (trust me, you won’t want to) and at the very least, you could just vote for Cory if you don’t have much time.

Matt Bradley has gone and done it again. He just released his fourth video and it’s a dandy for sure. This one is for Cory Branan’s “Tall Green Grass” and you can watch it at YouTube right now.

Matt’s style is very distinct and if you ask me, a real breath of fresh air when it comes to watching music videos. He uses lots of cheap animation, stick figure drawings and plenty of skulls-n-skeletons.

After checking out “Tall Green Grass”, you should definitely spend a few minutes watching Matt’s other videos:

• Lucero - “Just That Kind of Girl”
• American Princes - “Never Grow Old”
• The New Tragedies - “Talk to Me”
• Cory Branan - “Tall Green Grass”

Ever wonder what Roy does in his spare time? Well if you guessed that he sits in his room and makes weird noises all day, you’re right. No, seriously. Trust me, I spent plenty of afternoons banging on his door to see if he wanted to go to Kroger but he couldn’t hear me because of those freaky-ass noises he was making.

He has an electronic/experimental side project called Overjoid that he and Terance do off and on. They recently started a MySpace page that you can check out by clicking on their name above (or by clicking here).

There’s a few songs you can listen to. I’d start with “wherehouse unplugged” if I were you, though, because it features John Stubblefield (also of Lucero) on bass.

Dr. Dog - We All Belong

If you haven’t heard Dr. Dog yet, there’s three possible reasons why: 1) You’ve been meaning to but just haven’t gotten around to it yet, 2) You don’t know who they are at all, 3) You’ve heard of them but thought that “Dr. Dog” is a funny name and you’re just weird enough to refuse to listen to any of their music because of it. Oh yeah, the review…hmm…it’s Beatles-ish, yet refreshing and it’s catchy as hell. I highly suggest checking it out. Unless, of course, you’re weird.

David Vandervelde - The Moonstation House Band

When I think of David Vandervelde, I think of the word “shaggy”. Not because I think he’s shaggy or anything but because in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, he’s called “shaggy” two different times. The first time is when you see his picture on page 86 and next to it, the caption reads, “Vandervelde: Shaggy, groovy” and then in the review they say that the record is “…driven by Vandervelde’s shaggy vocals and guitar.” As for the review, it’s very Bolan/Bowie-ish and apparently, he’s playing all the instruments himself. It’s really, really good, ya’ll…and shaggy (?).

Southern Bitch - Thunderbolt

I almost started to review Southern Bitch’s newest album “Strong Medicine” but when I put my headphones on to listen to a few tracks from it so that I could say something cool about one of the songs, I realized that I’d much rather listen to their first album “Thunderbolt”. That’s about the time I decided to just review “Thunderbolt” instead. I have no idea how you’ll ever hear this record, though, because I just searched all over the internet for it and it seems to be sold out everywhere. Too bad for you. Review: This is the most honest rock music I’ve ever heard in my 30 years of existence.

Jason Molina - Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go

You’ve got a few choices if you wanna get into Jason Molina’s music. Some would suggest starting with Songs:Ohia and others might suggest starting with Magnolia Electric Co. I would suggest starting with the album “Magnolia Electric Co.” by Songs:Ohia. You see, Magnolia Electric Co. is the band that Molina formed after putting Songs:Ohia to rest with one final album entitled “Magonlia Electric Co.” Phew. Pretty confusing, eh? Review Time: Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go is quiet and kinda haunting which is very different from the usual Neil Young-inspired tunes I’m used to. It’s good but you gotta be in a quiet/scary mood.

Speaking of finding videos, somebody finally digitalvideoizered Cory’s David Letterman appearance from a few years ago.

I remember watching this live in Memphis at the Young Avenue Deli with nearly everyone else in the music scene. We were all pretty excited to see Cory on national television but none of us were prepared to see Paul Shaffer playing along (it’s near the end).

Check it out.