a friend of mine recently turned me on to unbunny, who are a three-piece generally consisting of bassist james ess and drummer steve haruch backing up main non-bunny jarid del deo. the band originally started out in washington state, then moved to the champagne-urbana illinois area, and now del deo has moved back to his native new hampshire. they’ve got a nice, interactive site and are gracious enough to host a few mp3s from their last few releases:

unbunny - x (from the 2005 typist ep)

unbunny - i leave stones unturned (from the 2004 snow tires album)

unbunny - pink lemonade (also from snow tires)

unbunny - in a way (from 2002’s black strawberries album)

i’ve also become a huge fan of bands that host their own videos on their site, and unbunny has one for their song “casserole” from snow tires. the video pretty much has everything this band is about: a slow motion pan across unironic aviator sunglasses, cigarette flicking, taking cups outside and leaving them out there, a stringy haired blonde on a trampoline, wasting water out of a garden hose - all set in front of a trailer park. an urban trailer park.

it’s this kinda stuff that (almost) makes me miss missouri. actually, i don’t have the legs to be miss missouri . . . although one year’s winner was actually from my small hometown.

i’m not sure whether it’s cool or not to be cool or not anymore in indie circles, but harry and the potters are actually a lot of fun.

well, according to their site, they’ll be playing pittsburgh on march 14th at artist upstairs - tickets are $7, doors at 7, and it’s an all ages show.

april 1st brings harry and the potters to one of THE best venues in all of kansas city, the fifth floor helzeberg auditorium of the downtown central branch of the kansas city public library (that’s right, former home of the free martial arts film festival, hosted by yours truly) — this is a saturday afternoon show that starts at 2pm, and is free free FREE! and as both the guys in harry and the potters and the flyers for said film festival note, street parking around the library is free as well on the weekend.

yes, all the songs are about the harry potter series — not JUST about harry potter though.

and because this is a music blog, you know i gotta give you some free tracks to check out — these courtesy of their myspace:

harry & the potters - meet me under the mistletoe (from the recent holiday album)

harry & the potters - save ginny weasley

harry & the potters - wizard chess

harry & the potters - the human hosepipe

harry & the potters - the godfather

harry & the potters - the godfather pt 2

and for the collectors, one unreleased track on their site:

harry & the potters - the wrath of hermione

this is a pretty good idea of what to expect:

not enough to convince you? check out this live video:

harry & the potters — the troll song (live at the emily fowler library)

seriously, what’s more indie and diy than doing a nation-wide tour of free library shows? hint hint nudge nudge all bands everywhere.

pleasant grove is one of the bands i find myself continually turning to when i’m in the mood for dark, dour folk-country-rock - the kind of stuff that makes me want to board up the windows, nail the doors shut, and see who wins in a race between me and the world to see who can forget about the other first.

the band has most recently released on badman recordings (2004’s the art of leaving) as well as german americana label glitterhouse for 2002’s auscultation of the heart. early recordings as well as partial u.s. distributorship are done via dallas, texas’ last beat records.

their take on dusty, forlorn country-rock is built around the dual vocals of bret egner and marcus striplin, whose tales of woe and loss float above light drums, soft guitars, and gently flowing bass, as well as the usual add-ons of violin, pedal steel, and piano. the sound is big, but it’s the silences that make it dense - like a cold winter night hanging over the texas plains.

granted, most people who are not fans of this real “new country” could dismiss pleasant grove as just another bunch of mopey guys with acoustic guitars, but this is a must-have for anyone interested in honest, sincere, grassroots music made with pure feeling and emotion.

last beat is kind enough to host the following tracks, although it looks like they’ve got an error on their id3 tag for solid system, as it lists out on elbo.ws as being darlington - jodie foster — it’s the pleasant grove song though, just fyi:

pleasant grove - solid system

pleasant grove - ghost

and badman recordings provides these:

pleasant grove - elaborate son

pleasant grove - impossible

additionally, the badman recordings site has a large selection of tracks from their artists here, including a (sadly edited) version of the red house painters covering the classic genesis track “follow you, follow me” . . .

looks like this odds and ends will end up being a regular weekend thing . . . and since i slacked last weekend with the move and everything, this one’s gonna be kinda big.

first and foremost is pittsburgh net radio. brian cosgrove’s got a great thing going over there, and it’s good to see the local print publications in pittsburgh like the City Paper including his top 10’s in their pages.

on a similar note, getting my shoutcast station back up has not been as easy as it should be, thanks to the overbearing security features on our dsl service. hopefully i’ll get it straightened out soon.

i mentioned the drift previously and am happy to see that they will be in pittsburgh march 31st at the mr roboto project, with the sea, like lead. temporary residence has a a new track up, as well as the means to buy their newest album:

the drift - streets (from the “streets”/”nozomi” 12″ ep)

opening act the sea, like lead will have a cd release party in pittsburgh february 4th. here’s a really nice soft/loud track from them:

the sea, like lead - as the last vestiges of rust are swept away

they’ll be playing the cd release party with a few friends, including belegost:

belegost - azaghal (pt 2)

the belegost site has a link to a divx video of their set opening for mono at the infamous first unitarian church in philadelphia.

the mr roboto project is located at 722 wood st, wilkinsburg pa 15221. i’m new to the area ok — gotta post the full thing more for my own benefit than anything else. thankfully it’s only about 10 minutes away.

i’d mentioned previously as well that lex/ninja tune artists fog were possibly scheduled to play at the record bar at the end of march. well, checking the site for the opening act, small sails (the record bar site has it listed as small snails), confirms that it is indeed the same. small sails was until just recently going by the name adelaide, but has changed names with a bit of a change in musical direction. urban honking provided the nudge towards this mp3, so thanks goes to matt over there:

small sails - aftershocks and afterthoughts

coming in second is a small label based in boise, idaho that i found while looking up information on a band called the very most. i’m pretty sure i found out about them via their microphones and smiths covers being posted on hype machine or elbo.ws. the label’s site has a nice selection of mp3s in their audio section, and everything i’ve heard on here so far has actually been a lot of fun. i know that might be an odd description, but it fits. check out the following, and there’s lots more on the site:

the very most - i can’t believe you actually died (microphones cover)

the very most - cemetary gates (smiths cover)

the very most - sweet job

central boise library - saddest thing

the yukon and you - truth tree love

the unicorn feather - turn up the love

pajama party in a haunted hive - elevation map

and of course there’s no way i can post a band called pajama party in a haunted hive without posting the original beat happening song of the same title. my brother picked up the subpop 200 comp so many years ago, right when we were converting over from being metal heads who were listening to helloween and other stuff with skeletons on the cover to the sounds of the northwest, albeit still within the safe confines of say, soundgarden, tad, and mudhoney. hearing this song back then was, to say the least, a trip, and demonstrated to us that we needed to be careful, because not all of this grunge stuff was going to be loud-ass guitars and screaming and flannel. although i’m not sure i’ve ever really found the same fascination with other beat happening stuff, it’s still a good fun time:

beat happening - pajama party in a haunted hive

my wife says i make these too long, so here’s this and since there’s still 12 hours left in the weekend, i’ll try to get some more up later.