Tilly and the Wall making Houston a better place

I've never been to such a fun and energetic show! Tilly and the Wall aka Tillies decorated the stage with plastic flamingos and palm trees, leis and had balloons bounce up and down throughout the venue. There was a bag of confetti passed around during a song and everybody took some and threw it up in the air.

Also this was one of the hardest shows I've tried to take photos of. There was just so much movement and the light was really soft and dim. So most of my photos were blurry. I guess I'm just against using flash, especially night shots or someplace where it's dark. Flash washes out a lot of the color and makes photos flat. What I needed really was a softer flash, something like a softbox or actually you can make those out of the plastic milk jugs. But I was using my Canon Powershot S2 IS and it just has a built in flash, which you can't bounce or adjust really. Also there just a lot of really tall guys just blocked the whole front and center.

Tillies actually played a lot of their old material from their 2004 album, Wild Like Children. Such as songs "Bessa", "Fell Down the Stairs" and "Nights of the Living Dead" were absolute crowd favorites and everybody knew the words to them.

I loved how Jamie Williams tap-danced; she was just so graceful and still energetic at the same time. There was also this one part where Jamie, Neely and Kianna danced all sychronized!

I would asolutely recommend this show to anyone and get to know some of the songs before you see them. Singing along is always a fun part of a show.

They played with David Dondero and Now It's Overhead. Both pretty good, but Tillies just took over like wildfire.

Head over to Team Love's website and pop up the mix tape; turn off the crossfader, bottom right if it's on by default and listen to some Tillies.

Also head over to my flickr for more photos of this show&others.

Tour Dates:
07-01 Austin, TX - Emo's
07-03 Phoenix, AZ - Modified
07-04 La Jolla, CA - Che Cafe
07-06 West Hollywood, CA - Troubadour
07-07 Pomona, CA - The Glass House
07-08 San Francisco, CA - Cafe Du Nord
07-10 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
07-11 Seattle, WA - The Paradox
07-14 Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
07-15 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge
07-16 Lawrence, KS - The Bottleneck
07-17 St. Louis, MO -Creepy Crawl

~Anne

pre-order&get a frisbee, your dog will love you

Yeah this is big.
Yeah this is huge.
Yeah this is better than you playing Pacman all day.
~~~
The Format is a brilliant duo that has had a pretty rough time with their record labels. But now all that's over; we can focus on the good things that have come out of it. Namely their soon-to-be released album, Dog Problems and that will hit store shelves on July 11th. "The Compromise" and "She Doesn't Get It" are both up on their myspace for streaming&downloading.

Another neat thing is they're back on the road, hitting both coasts, the southern charms and all the fly-over&in-between. Anyways, if you pre-order the album, you recieve a free frisbee and a nifty $2 off of any tee shirt at their online merch store.

Also if you can't wait, you could digitally download the songs and enjoy them like cool lemonade under the summer sun.

so pre-order if you want your dog to love you.

I promise you, wherever you live; they're coming to play for you.
maybe not Alaska/Hawaii
Nevertheless, they'll be teaming up with Rainer Maria/Steel Train/Anathallo/Street to Nowhere, depending on the city.
AND...if you buy your ticket now, you'll get a smaller fee charge&help out charities.

All that linkage{in order of appearance}:
The Format's official myspace
The Format's merch store
Buy the album/certain songs digitally
Pre-order the album
Tour Dates
Buy your ticket now
What charities will be helped?

Postscript&heads up:
We'll have something neat for you {very} soon.
We promise.
And yes, being subtle is {very} fun.

~Anne

Feet upon the sand

Mystic Chords of Memory

“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
- Abraham Lincoln, from his First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

That's where the duo of Christopher Lee Gunst and Jennifer Lee Cohen got their name, Mystic Chords of Memory. According to Chris, he chose that name because, " it alluded to this idea that music is like a memory, a fantasy, or maybe something real".

This duo hailing from Santa Cruz, California collaborated with D.J Nobody a.k.a Elvin Estela thus giving way to the name Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory.

I've been wanting to feature this band for awhile but never got to it till now. Yeah we all know summer officially started today, and if you're like me, you try your best to avoid the beating sun and the gross 100 degree weather. I usually try to find a cool place around the house where i can sit and cool down, or jump into the pool when the sun's gone.

Okay, enough with my shenanigans, basically Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory's recent album Tree Colored See is like an ice cold bottle of Vitamin Water to your ears. The soft to the ear and upbeat rhythms makes listening to Tree Colored See really relaxing and puts me in a state where i could just lie there with my eyes closed and feel the light breeze upon my face.

Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory- Feet Upon the Sand

Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory- Broaden a New Sound

Support them on myspace-Mystic Chords of Memory


Buy Tree Colored See, for those of you who don't have a credit card, they accept money orders!! That's how i got my copy.
Mush Records

-Charlie Lumanlan

Chan Marshall, poppin and lockin it....

Last night on the late show with David Letterman, the beautiful and talented Chan Marhsall a.k.a Cat Power danced the late night show away by performing "Living Proof" a song from her recent album, The Greatest
and just a heads up, tonight, Regina Spektor will be on Conan and Neko Case will be on Letterman.

Cat Power-Lived in Bars




-Charlie Lumanlan

Trust me, this is not about James Blunt and/or his annoying song.

You are Beautiful Series

I was inspired to start a series like this after seeing a sticker on a trash can a couple of months ago in the streets of San Francisco. I decided to go for it not just because it was a good idea, but my portfolio was begging for a break from my usual land/night scapes fotos. I only have 5 fotos in this series right now, but look for it to expand in the future. As usual, comments, opinions, constructive criticism are deeply appreciated.
Click the link to the postcard gallery viewer i setted up to view the fotos.


Postcard Gallery Viewer

Use the spacebar and arrow keys to navigate through the fotos.

These fotos are also available as prints for those of you who wants to purchase some.
They're only available in 5x7.
Prices: 1 for $5.50
2 for $10.00
The whole set for $15.00
Free S&H.
To check out the prints for this series and as well as my other fotos go to
Charlie's flickr
If interested in purchasing a foto, just email me: cameracrowd@gmail.com or framebyframes@gmail.com

thank you.

-Charlie Lumanlan

five bajillion thumbs up for movie monster!

...a thrilling summer rollercoaster of lyrical brilliance

The album, Movie Monster from the five piece Austin band was released last Tuesday, June 06th. Sound Team has created a old-school synth layered beauty, with Matt Oliver's vocals more prominent compared to ST's earlier works. For a first-timer, one can mistake ST as an old gem and not as a band that's still alive&kickin'. They lay down the dance beats in "Your Eyes Are Liars" making it a foolproof crowd pleaser. "Movie Monster" has a toned down feel and not as much noise as the others, but a smooth melody and lyrics that sticks. "Afterglow Years" whispers and gives the listener a wash of electric ambience in its grand entrance. "Handful of Billions" emits the epic feel of an Arcade Fire song, a band which ST played with along with The Walkmen. So go along and sink into the fantastic album, Movie Monster, you won't regret it.

Tune in&purchase:

...from Movie Monster

Sound Team-Movie Monster

Tour dates:
06-13 Tuscon, AZ - Club Congress
06-14 San Diego, CA - Casbah
06-15 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
06-16 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
06-17 Sacremento, CA - The Blue Lamp
06-19 Vancover, BC - Red Room
06-20 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Cafe
06-21 Portland, OR - Berbati's Pan
06-23 Salt Lake City, UT - Kayo Gallery
06-24 Denver, CO - Hi-Dive
06-26 Minneapolis, MS - 400 Bar
06-27 Chicago, IL - Schuba's
06-28 St. Louis, MO - Hi-Pointe
06-29 Springfield, MO - Outland Ballroom
06-30 Dallas, TX - The Cavern
07-01 Houston, TX - Walter's on Washington
08-04 Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza

Connect:
>>>Sound Team's Official Site
>>>Sound Team's Myspace

-Anne Lai

Major Ownage At The Dancefloor

...Arctic Monkeys w/We Are Scientists @ Houston, TX

I went to Warehouse Live last night to catch We Are Scientists and Arctic Monkeys whipping up a frenzy on the dancefloor. I swear we were pretty much going cult-crazy for both bands! Houston was their last stop of the tour for Texas before tackling the east coast.

We Are Scientists opened and ripped open the can of dance-i-liciousness for the night with songs off debut album, With Love And Squalor, "This Scene Is Dead", "Cash Cow", "The Great Escape" and of course their first single, "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt".

Keith Murray, WAS's lead singer/guitarist was energetic throughout the set and was all over the stage while donning those ever-present smirks of his. WAS updates their fans with a tour diary, pictures and videos of their travels with an imeem account. Fans can post their own photos and interact in the forums!

Alex Turner, the lead singer/guitarist from Arctic Monkeys guested during a WAS song, sort of funny he popped his collar. It took awhile to set up for the AM, but when they did come out I think it was absolute chaos! They opened with "Riot Van" and it was just fantastic. Their setlist included, "I bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor", "Dancing Shoes", "Still Take You Home", "Fake Tales of San Francisco", "Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But..." and also a song,"Cigarette Smoker Fiona" from EP, Who the Fuck Are the Arctic Monkeys.

Both bands had vinyls out on the merch table for sale along with the regular merch items, shirts and pins. WAS had the full vinyl version of their debut album and AM had a 7" featuring "When the Sun Goes Down" and b-side "Settle For a Draw". Shirts for both bands were $20 a piece, with the exception of AM's skinny version for women selling like hotcakes even at $25 each.

For more photos from the show head over to cameracrowd's fotix!

Rest of the tour dates for the this killer team of two...

06-10 Atlanta, GA - Roxy
06-11 Norfolk, VA - Norva
06-12 Baltimore, MD - Sonar
06-14 New York, NY - Roseland
06-15 Boston, MA - Avalon
06-16 Montreal, Quebec - Le Medley
06-17 Toronto, Ontario - Kool Haus

Tune in&purchase:

...from With Love And Squalor

We Are Scientists-It's A Hit
We Are Scientists-Worth the Wait

...from Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

Arctic Monkeys-Riot Van

-Anne Lai

shine like a new pin

Camera Obscura summer tour dates. oh my, i've been waiting for this. They usually hang around U.K and Texas, last time they had North American tour was 2004. Finally this indie sextet from Glasgow, Scotland has some west coast dates. It's just in time for their new release "Let's get out of this country" which hits record stores today!

Here are a couple of my favorite tracks from two of their old albums.
Camera Obscura-Happy New Year
A track of their 2001 album Biggest bluest hi-fi

Camera Obscura-Suspended from Class
First track of 2003 album Underachievers please try harder

07-04 Toronto, Ontario - Horseshoe Tavern
07-05 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa
07-06 Allston, MA - Great Scott
07-07 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
07-08 Philadelphia, PA - North Star Bar
07-09 Washington, DC - Black Cat
07-11 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
07-12 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
07-13 Memphis, TN - Hi Tone
07-14 Dallas, TX - Gypsy Tea Room
07-15 Austin, TX - Emo's
07-17 Tucson, TN - Plush
07-18 San Diego, CA - The Casbah
07-19 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
07-20 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
07-22 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
07-23 Seattle, WA - Neumo's
07-24 Vancouver, British Columbia - Plaza Club
07-27 Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theatre
07-28 Chicago, IL - Logan Square Auditorium
07-29 Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop
07-30 Newport, KY - Southgate House


-Charlie.

all things go

We're back!
To the old followers, many of you know that enteraction totally went off the radar when summer ended. So here it is, old school and new school kids, we now have a camera in the crowd, different name, same idea. This won't be your little school girl's summer fling, we plan to have this running hopefully for a couple of years or so. Throughout the months to come, we'll be allowing other photographers to apply for posting priviliges, where they can post samples of their portfolio or post songs from up and coming indie bands. And of course, your ticket to get in is your portfolio, we'll have a couple of people review it, so make sure to limit those flower and doorknob shots of yours. If you're dying to know more, just hit the link to our profile on the right.

Let's kick it off shall we?

It's summer, it's hot, it's time to lay out in the sun and increase the risk of you getting malignant melanoma. But before you splatter a handful of that sun tan lotion, make sure these tracks are playing in your ears.

Kashmir-Surfing the warm industry
This track from the Danish ensamble makes you wish you were ripping the waves of California instead of lying in the sun and hearing your back sizzle like bacon.

Sufjan Stevens-Chicago
Grab your camera and go on a road trip.

Land of Talk-All my friends
Needs no explanation. Another good band hailing from good ol' Montreal, seriously where would we be without that city, i mean no Arcade Fire, no Lovely Feathers, no Wolf Parade, i can damn go on and on. You can catch Land of Talk this summer with Metric, on the Dog Day Afternoon tour.

Until then...

-Charlie.