News & Notes: Band Signings Edition

• Princeton signed to Kanine Records, [edit: former] home of Grizzly Bear.

• Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes signed to Chrysalis (a music publishing company, not a record label).

• Division Day (who have some good new songs up on their myspace) signed to Dangerbird Records, home of the Silversun Pickups.
  

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros at The Regent Theatre (5/7/2009)

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mindset or maybe The Regent Theatre isn't the best venue, or maybe I wasn't close enough to the stage, because a bunch of people were seriously into it: jumping up and down, clapping, etc. I'm guessing it was a combination of all three that hindered my appreciation.

It seems like The Zeros may be somewhat of a "cult" band. I don't mean this in a bad way at all; I just mean that if you like them and give yourselves over to them you're a lifer, but if you aren't feeling it you might be bored. I would similarly characterize The Polyphonic Spree: either you love(d) them or you didn't care for them. But with The Spree I was drawn in almost immediately at their amazing CMJ Music Marathon set in Brooklyn back in 2002 (it definitely helped that the Spree played in a great performance space with their choir singing behind illuminated stained glass above the rest of the band, but that show is still one of the best things I've ever seen).

So I'm still reserving judgment on Edward Sharpe; I didn't get drawn in on Thursday night, but hopefully I will in the future.

W2G2: May 4 - 9

Last week in a nutshell: saying goodbye to The Henry Clay People while saying a big hello to Castledoor and their great new album (review coming soon). Blogging is more fun when it coincides with wine drinking.

Away we go . . .

Monday: Girls night: Obi Best opens for Juliette Commagere's first residency show at the Echo.

• Obi Best is mellow, female-fronted indie rock from a former background singer of The Bird and the Bee. Good melodies. And Juliette Commagere sounds good and supposedly has a 13 piece backing band. This will be a fun change of pace show for me.
  

Tuesday: Cinco de Mayo. Two pretty good choices, but I'm probably going to sit this one out.

• Avi Buffalo's first residency show at the Echo. The Echo's page for this show says that there's four bands supporting this show on top of Avi Buffalo. I don't see how that's possible.

• Iglu & Hartley's record release show at The Roxy. Very very new wave.

Wednesday: I'd like to check out Gardening, Not Architecture at the Viper Room, one of the many projects of Sarah Saturday, but I'll probably be at the Dodger game instead.

Thursday: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros at Regent Theatre, the second of their three shows at the Regent (I wrote Edwin instead of Edward last week. Whoops). I am very excited for this. CER Show of the Week.

Friday: Local Natives return after a mini-west coast tour to play Spaceland. To my knowledge it's their first official Spaceland show; they've played Spaceland twice but only as last minute replacements for canceling bands.

Saturday: Iron & Wine at the Troubdour. (Sold out)