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Invisible Children Teams Up With La Blogotheque

Local peace enthusiasts Invisible Children and music tastemakers La Blogotheque are teaming up to take The Polyphonic Spree, Yeasayer, and another band to Gulu, Uganda, where a rebel leader has been terrorizing people and kidnapping children for over twenty years.  The team of musicians, activists, and filmmakers will travel throughout the Gulu district to get acquainted with the stories of war-affected Ugandans and see Invisible Children's programs in action.  The bands will be performing their songs for locals along the way and, lucky for us, La Blogotheque will be there to capture it.  The end product will be a beautiful Take Away Show-style documentary, to be sold with proceeds funding IC's continuing work in Uganda.

Unfortunately, plane tickets to Uganda don't grow on trees, so IC has provided an opportunity to help out at the fundraising website Kickstarter.  If you sacrifice a couple of burritos this week, you can help get this film underway, and if you can give beyond that, there's some good loot being offered for contributing.  Invisible Children is trying to rally up $20K of the needed funds by March 10, so visit the IC Kickstarter page soon for more info

Belly Up Contest : Midlake (03.02)

After a few years off, Midlake has returned with a new record and will again grace the stage of the Belly Up.  The 5 piece from Denton, Texas have a tough task in following up their critically acclaimed record from 2006, The Trials of Van Occupanther.  Their latest release, The Courage of Others, seems a bit darker on first listen yet still retains the layered vocals and 70's influence that drew me to their sophomore release.

The Belly Up has granted us two pairs of tickets to giveaway for the March 2nd show, and to get your hands on these you'll have to demonstrate some artistic skills.  We're interested to see what you think an occupanther would look like... feel free to create your interpretation via photoshop or paper and pen.

Midlake - 'Young Bride'

UPDATE: Contest Winners Announced

1. Randall Christopher "The Trials of Van Occupanther"

2. Andrew Broschart "Poverty Sucks"

MVM : Lemonade

I have been sick with some sort of cold thing for over a week now and this weather we are having isn't helping me much at all. I am patiently counting down the days until daylight savings time (March 14th) and more importantly Spring. Lemonade's video for "Lifted" has me daydreaming of warmer weather and being somewhere besides this office desk. If you can get past the looping bubble noise and fake laugh, this song isn't half bad. 

MVM : Lo-Fi-Fnk

I have been on a movie rental binge for the last week and finished the last one of my batch over the weekend. From the previews, I had a feeling this last dvd was going to be a serious one but until I saw it I had no clue how much it would affect me. The Cove, an Academy Award Nominee, is an incredible eye opening documentary about a hidden cove in Japan with a brutal secret. In this very cove, 23,000 dolphins are slaughtered every year by the fishermen of Taiji. If you have ever watched Flipper as a kid, or have been to Sea World or even like dolphins a little bit, I think this is something you need to see for yourself. I am seriously disturbed after watching it, but it’s just one of those things that needs exposure so that we can stop it. OK I’m going to step off my soap box and let go of my tree embrace to meditate on this new music video now. Lo-Fi-Fnk’s video for “Marchin’ In” just makes sense.

The Soft Pack Debut LP, Pack Tower Bar

The Soft Pack had a whirlwind 2009.  From name changes to European tours to opening for Phoenix, the vintage punk rock four piece had only one thing not checked off their list.  Release their debut LP, which they did yesterday via Kemado Records.  You can pick up your copy of the self titled release here, if you couldn't find the merch table at the packed Tower Bar last night.

The Soft Pack - 'Answer To Yourself'

The Soft Pack - 'Fences' (Phoenix Cover)