N&UR Briefs: Shiloe, Tigers Can Bite You, Kid Mud, New Website

+ Shiloe paid a visit to ISGOODRADIO last week, and you can listen/download to that here. The podcast includes a rather thorough interview, alongside in-studio performances of some old favorites and new cuts! In other Shiloe news, the band received a rather glowing review for ...And Now The Screaming Starts in the latest issue of The Big Takeover. Pick it up on newsstands now and turn to page 150.

+ Tigers Can Bite You have a new EP coming in August entitled, Second Nature - the title track being the latest single from last year's Steve Ward Hears Voices. We will have EP details soon, but in the meantime, check out the "Second Nature" video...


+ Kid Mud released their debut full length, Now They Shut Us Down last month, and you should pick up a copy if you have not already. Here is a sampling of some of the fine press the album has received: The Bay Bridged, Online Rock, CBS Radio Street Date, Largehearted Boy, The OCMD, Snob's Music, Stranger Dance and Music Under Fire.

+ In case you did not know - New and Used Records has a newly designed website. We are continuing to add new things to the page but right now you can find detailed artist profiles, albums streaming in full, features on the music business, and more.

Death Cab For Fiver 7" on ebay

Back in 2000, our own Dave Woody of Tigers Can Bite You was leading a band called Fiver. That summer, Fiver embarked on a tour with a then unknown Death Cab For Cutie. "That was a blast," Woody remembers. "Two young bands, both out on their first US tours just driving across country and having fun. Some shows were great, some shows were terrible but it was all an adventure."

Woody continues, "When we got back to California we all stayed at our house in Modesto and decided to record the Death Cab for Fiver 7"."

Note that this was not a split 7" with each band contributing a track, but instead two collaborations between the two bands. Hence, the artist name becoming Death Cab For Fiver.

Woody adds, "We set up the Studio in my bedroom and recorded all night. It was summer in Modesto, and the house had no air conditioning. It must have been about 110 degrees in that room. Just awful, but we were all having such a great time that the heat just added to the delirium."

Limited to 500 copies, this release from Barsuk and Devil in the Woods is (I believe) about the rarest piece of Death Cab memorabilia you can find. There is currently one on ebay right now going for $98. If you've got a few to spare, this is a cool collector's item.

Note: Our own Sean Duncan of Kid Mud would later join Fiver after the recording of this 7". Though not present on the tracks, Duncan does inform us that he was playing a Star Wars game on Nintendo 64 in the other room while recording was taking place.

Death Cab For Cutie - "For What Reason" (mp3)
Death Cab For Cutie - "Champagne From a Paper Cup" (mp3)
Death Cab For Cutie - "Song For Kelly Huckaby" (mp3)
Fiver -"Let it All Fall Down" (mp3)
Fiver - "They Hardly Know" (mp3)
Tigers Can Bite You - "Hawks" (mp3)
Kid Mud - "Federated" (mp3)

New Video: Kid Mud - "Federated"

The first video from Kid Mud's Now They Shut Us Down is for "Federated" and was directed by Rick Dillwood. Dillwood, incidentally, also plays on the album.

Kid Mud - "Federated" (mp3)

If you would like to purchase a copy of Now They Shut Us Down, you can buy a cd here. If you prefer mp3s, we suggest buying the album from Bandcamp, but it is available at all major services including iTunes, Amazon and Emusic.

Please let us know what you think of the video.

Photos: Kid Mud @ El Rio 6/17/09

Photos by Melanie Eaton

Kid Mud - "Federated" (mp3)
Kid Mud - "This Way is Safe" (mp3)
Kid Mud - "Press It Out" (mp3)

Kid Mud's Now They Shut Us Down Out Today

N&UR is proud to announce the release of Kid Mud's debut full length, Now They Shut Us Down, available today.

Want to purchase a copy? Physical copies featuring cover art by Souther Salazar are shipping out for $11. You can buy it via https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6178293.

The album can also be downloaded at...iTunes
Amazon
Emusic
Rhapsody
You can stream the album in its entirety at Bandcamp.

We have a pair of free downloads courtesy of RCRD LBL:

Here's some of the fine press Kid Mud has received so far:

"Kid Mud was Sean Duncan, an indie rock vet formerly of Fiver, but with the release of full length debut Now They Shut Us Down Kid Mud has seemingly morphed beyond 'one man band' status into something larger than the sum of its parts. Early Kid Mud recordings were solo efforts, with Duncan playing each and every instrument like some sort of YouTube rockstar. This latest effort, however, was also partly recorded at Mountain Ghost, allowing Duncan the ability to not only incorporate a richer, lusher sound with more varied instrumentation (both electronic and live), but a diverse range of artists including his own sister Shannon, who sings backup on several tracks." -Online Rock

"'Federated' is a particularly jumpy track off the album, which progresses in and out of Duncan’s pensive and astronomical hums.... Another of the noteworthy tracks, '909 Garden,' features vocals from Jim Ruiz; the faint repetition of acoustic guitar under the chorus rounds of this duet reminisces the ambient side of Grandaddy’s catalog." -The Bay Bridged

"San Francisco one-man-band makes brokenhearted indie-folk." -RCRD LBL

"For Now They Shut Us Down, he keeps his independent recording flair but takes it up a notch with a host of collaborators, backing vocals and full-fledged recording studio. The result is a set of richly layered, finely crafted indie rock songs. Sparklehorse fans this is right up your alley." -The OCMD

"Now They Shut Us Down is a collection of well-crafted indie pop nuggets." -Snob's Music.

"'Federated' provides a taste of more warm electro-indie from the one-man prolific band, with new fuzzy shades and ethereal layers. Live and alive." -Stranger Dance

New Music: Kid Mud - "Federated" / "Questions or Comments"

On Monday, we revealed the cover art and tracklist for Kid Mud's Now They Shut Us Down (available June 16 from New and Used Records). Today, we are happy to give you a pair of mp3s from the album...

Kid Mud - "Federated" (mp3)

Kid Mud - "Questions or Comments" (mp3 at RCRDLBL)

Kid Mud was featured in today's Demo Days column on RCRDLBL. Samuel Duke says, "San Francisco one-man-band makes brokenhearted indie-folk."

Kid Mud Cover Art and Tracklist

New and Used Records is proud to announce that Kid Mud's debut full length, Now They Shut Us Down will be released on Tuesday, June 16. Kid Mud is the brainchild of Sean Duncan, an indie rock vet who previously played in Fiver - a Modesto outfit that recorded with Jason Lytle and toured with Death Cab For Cutie. While his indie rock resume had taken him on tours all over the US and the UK, Duncan felt as though he'd hit rock bottom two years ago. He started writing songs at a furious pace, recording in a makeshift studio in his San Francisco apartment. Those recordings resulted in the 2008 EP, Birds Will Move In (NUR003), in which Duncan played ever instrument. For Now They Shut Us Down, Duncan split time between home and a recording studio, collaborating with a horde of musicians. Duncan has crafted a record that flows cohesively through 13 diverse songs, conveying a story of emptiness and ultimately redemption.

The cover art above is a painting by Souther Salazaar, who also did the artwork for Birds Will Move In.

Here is the tracklist, and we will have free downloads later this week:

01. Eviction
02. 1095
03. Not Far, New Far
04. Number 12 Looks Just Like You
05. Tempera
06. Numbers and Graphs
07. Federated
08. 909 Garden
09. Questions or Comments
10. The Salt Mine
11. Guidelines For Style
12. Shadowbox
13. The Godfather

Free Kid Mud EP: Track 5 -"Flatten as You Go Up" (Reworked by Kid Mud)

Kid Mud's new EP Birds Have Moved In: Reworkings and Remixes is out this week. Instead of doing a traditional release, we decided to give the whole thing away for free. We will be releasing a track-a-day all this week.

1. This Way is Safe
2. You Don't Belong (Sticky Situation Remix)
3. 1401 South Grand Street (Reworked by Kid Mud)
4. Press It Out (Guilty Bystander Remix)
5. Flatten As You Go Up (Reworked by Kid Mud)
Concluding Kid Mud's free EP is Sean's reworking of "Flatten As You Go Up," one of the first Kid Mud songs I ever heard and one that struck me immediately. This reworking turns it into quite the glitchy affair. "I just thought i would take it and jack it up as much as possible while still having it feel like a song," he says. "I wasn't really sure what to do but I had just got some new programs so I thought I would use work them to their full advantage."

You can purchase Kid Mud's Birds Will Move In at iTunes, Emusic and Amazon. Kid Mud plays the Hotel Utah in San Francisco on Saturday, March 14 with Great Northern and O+S.

Free Kid Mud EP: Track 4 - "Press It Out" (Guilty Bystander Remix)

Kid Mud's new EP Birds Have Moved In: Reworkings and Remixes is out this week. Instead of doing a traditional release, we decided to give the whole thing away for free. We will be releasing a track-a-day all this week.

1. This Way is Safe
2. You Don't Belong (Sticky Situation Remix)
3. 1401 South Grand Street (Reworked by Kid Mud)
4. Press It Out (Guilty Bystander Remix)
Sean turned to his friend Guilty Bystander - the electronic alter ego of Solar Powered People guitarist/singer Tony Pennington - for a remix of "Press It Out." Kid Mud had done a remix for SPP a year earlier, and Pennington was returning the favor. "I have always loved Kid's melodies since the beginning," he says. "He's my boy! We have different styles but once I heard 'Press it Out,' it was immediately branded into my brain. He had asked me to try a remix of this and I loved the idea. Press it Out is a great song and I wanted to give it a more of a experimental glitch electronic groove. Nothing over the top just simple and sweet." To compare the two, you can download the original "Press It Out."

You can purchase Kid Mud's Birds Will Move In at iTunes, Emusic and Amazon. Kid Mud plays the Hotel Utah in San Francisco on Saturday, March 14 with Great Northern and O+S.

Free Kid Mud EP: Track 3 - "1401 South Grand Street" (Reworked by Kid Mud)

Kid Mud's new EP Birds Have Moved In: Reworkings and Remixes is out this week. Instead of doing a traditional release, we decided to give the whole thing away for free. We will be releasing a track-a-day all this week.

1. This Way is Safe
2. You Don't Belong (Sticky Situation Remix)
3. 1401 South Grand Street (Reworked by Kid Mud)
Sean Duncan decide to rework two of his songs for this EP, the first being "1401 South Grand Street." The original has much more of an acoustic, singer/songwriter feel, and this reworking really changes it up. "What I tried to do was not hear the original version in my head," Duncan says, "because I wanted to record it in a new way. All I took was the vocals and worked with that. I also wanted to give it more of a calming, sedated feel just like the song actually means to me. No matter how many times I have played that song it still gives me that weird eeriness that seems to bring me back to that time from when I was writing it."

You can purchase Kid Mud's Birds Will Move In at iTunes, Emusic and Amazon. Kid Mud plays the Hotel Utah in San Francisco on Saturday, March 14 with Great Northern and O+S.

Free Kid Mud EP: Track 2 - "You Don't Belong" (Sticky Situation Remix)

Kid Mud's new EP Birds Have Moved In: Reworkings and Remixes is out this week. Instead of doing a traditional release, we decided to give the whole thing away for free. We will be releasing a track-a-day all this week.

1. This Way is Safe
2. You Don't Belong (Sticky Situation Remix)
For "You Don't Belong," Kid Mud handed over the reins to cut-and-paste artist The Sticky Situation. "That guy is a genius and I totally wanted that 8 bit sound," Kid Mud's Sean Duncan says of recruiting Sticky Situation for the EP. "I love how the chorus of that song totally turned into the training scene of Mike Tyson's Punch Out." If you're interested in hearing more Sticky Situation, he's made virtually all his songs available for download in a .zip file.

You can purchase Kid Mud's Birds Will Move In at iTunes, Emusic and Amazon. Kid Mud plays the Hotel Utah in San Francisco on Saturday, March 14 with Great Northern and O+S.

Free Kid Mud EP: Track 1 - "This Way is Safe"

Kid Mud's new EP Birds Have Moved In: Reworkings and Remixes is out this week. Instead of doing a traditional release, we decided to give the whole thing away for free. We will be releasing a track-a-day all this week.

1. This Way is Safe
"This Way is Safe" is the only new song included on the EP. This song was recorded in the same sessions that produced Birds Will Move In, and it totally captures the same mood. Even though it didn't make it onto the EP, it still struck me as something special and we planned on using it at some point. So many of those songs Sean Duncan (the one-man mastermind behind Kid Mud) gave me to listen to deal with transition and coming back from your lowest point. This one was no different and I could certainly relate. "I was really freaking out when I wrote this," Duncan says. "I wasn't really sue what I was doing or what was the point. Thats about it."

You can purchase Kid Mud's Birds Will Move In at iTunes, Emusic and Amazon. Kid Mud plays the Hotel Utah in San Francisco on Saturday, March 14 with Great Northern and O+S.

Cute Cat Pictures (from Kid Mud)

It is Thursday which means it is time again for more cute pictures of cats. Today's pictures come to us courtesy of Kid Mud. Meet Spatula...

MP3 - "Press It Out" - Kid Mud

You can purchase Kid Mud's Birds Will Move In from our store.

Kid Mud Played Hotel Utah Last Night

Last night, I got to see Kid Mud live for the first time as he opened for Tom McRae and Steve Reynolds at the Hotel Utah in San Francisco. With just an acoustic guitar and his sister Shannon adding harmonies, the songs may not have sounded quite the same as their recorded counterparts - which tend to mix live instruments and computer beats. Still, the songs sounded great. Such personal lyrics were well complimented by Kid's guitar strums and the intimate atmosphere of the venue. Kid Mud mastermind Sean Duncan commented on Tim Lincecum winning the National League Cy Young award and unfortunately the crowd did not seem aware of the significance. I realize that I left my boy hanging and should have yelled "Hell yeah" at this moment. Sorry, Sean.

Also significant about this show was getting to see London-based singer/songwriter Tom McRae. I first discovered Tom McRae in 2003 - when his album Just Like Blood was priced rather low at Rhino Records with an "As Heard on KCRW" sticker." I took a chance and picked it up and the rather melancholy album has been a favorite ever since. McRae distinguishes himself from your average coffee shop troubadour with his lush arrangements, intelligent lyrics, and confident-yet-self-deprecating humor.

McRae joked that while he's happy Obama won the presidency, he has been benefiting from the misery of the past 8 years. He then added that he will be retiring until 2016 when he returns after the election of Sarah Palin. N&UR does not profit from any Tom McRae sales, but his music is well worth checking out.

Kid Mud has two more shows scheduled for this year, where he will be playing with a full band. Kid Mud plays the Deva Cafe in Modesto on December 5, and the Echo Curio in LA on December 12. You can download Kid Mud's new EP Birds Will Move In at iTunes, Emusic, and Amazon.

Kid Mud on Sports: The Best Season of the Year

So basketball season has started and i turned into a little boy again last tuesday for opening night.  The Sacramento Kings are looking just like last years kings starting off with 0 wins and 3 losses.  I will still watch every single game no matter how bad they are since they have been my team since i was young.  The Warriors, despite KRON 4 news saying it's going to be a long season after losing their first two games look good.  They are now the youngest team beating Portland by an average of i think two months.  I also got the NBA League pass through comcast since Kings games aren't on tv here which was a pretty penny but got it half off since they lied to me and told me i would get some games in HD but when i called back they told me they dont have any HD games so i rasied my voice a little, used some terrible analogies,  and got 85 bucks off.  So come watch some games with me.  GO VOTE TOMORROW!!!!!

Game to watch this week 11/16  Kings vs. Warriors 6:00pm

Random Notes

-I flew Virgin America to and from LA and it remains my favorite airline ever. One downside is that it is located in the International terminal, which means a longer wait at security check points.

-Kevin Bronson reviewed Steve Ward Hears Voices on his Buzz Bands blog.

-Jon at My Crazy Music Blog reviewed Birds Will Move In.

-"Press It Out" by Kid Mud can be heard on the latest "Monthly Mix" from our pals, The Bay Bridged.

-Guilty Bystander has produced a pretty stellar remix of "Press It Out" which can be streamed on Kid Mud's MySpace.

Kid Mud on Sports:ALCS Game 2

So last night's extra inning game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Boston Red Sox was Very Intense to the end with Upton's short sac fly to bring home the winning run for the rays.  With Seven home runs between both teams tying the postseason record and pretty much seeing every pitcher from each teams dugout it was no Sleeper.  But with all that excitement I think there is one stat that really caught my eye.  Terry Francona (the manager for the Red Sox)  Started the game with a bucket of Double Bubble that had 72 pieces in it.  By the top of the Eight Inning He had all ready devoured every piece.  That is eight pieces each inning on average.  I can totally understand because double bubble gets hard and loses it's already shitty flavor in like 2 seconds but why double bubble.  It's not like its good.  You think the Red Sox could afford a little more upper class gum such as Tidal Wave or Freshen-Up.

My Fantasy Football Scores So far
Me: 68.00
Zach: 33.00

The Kid Mud Cover Art

Perhaps you have been listening to the new EP from Kid Mud, Birds Will Move In, which came out on N&UR earlier this week. Perhaps you've noticed the lovely cover art.

The cover was designed by Souther Salazar, an LA based artist whose work has been shown in New York and Los Angeles, while being featured in Giant Robot.

Kid Mud mastermind Sean Duncan knew he wanted his friend Salazar to design the cover, which was chosen from a selection of paintings. "The title [Birds Will Move In] came from me waiting for him to get home from the gym," Duncan says. "I was sitting in my car and writing down just lines from what I heard on the radio. when he got there i had a list to pick from and that one went best with the artwork. it was almost called Hands on a Hot Oven but it didn't work with the artwork."

For more on Salazar, check out this interview at Fecal Face. Also, check out the animated video - Stop Looking at Me - done in a series for Above the Influence.

Kid Mud Covers Justin Timberlake

Kid Mud has posted another cover on his MySpace for free download. This time he takes on Justin Timberlake's "My Love." Kid tells us that he has wanted to cover this song for a long time, initially just "so I could do it at karaoke and the ladies would love me." Like his other songs released thus far, "My Love" was recorded on his Mac in that studio he calls home. He describes the process:

When I recorded it, I just dumped the song into my studio so I could get the structure and the backbone of the song down. I cut up the main keyboard by recording one of the sounds and the matching it to the swells in the wav of the actual song. I didn't use the real song at all - just as a guide. I really wanted to use a vocoder for Timbaland's part, but I couldn't find one so I used the mac voice instead. There is huge rap at the end and I'm terrible at rapping so I just added a couple lines and did a fantasy keyboard solo instead.

Between the Covers

With Kid Mud's new EP out this week, we asked the singer/songwriter/producer/remixer to blog about how he's going to stay busy. For more about Kid Mud, visit his MySpace, and also check out his remixes.

So now that the EP is Out i am recording the Album to come in an actual studio (mountain ghost studios)  I find i need to fill my recording time with something.  I have been working on two covers to bide my time.  I recently got a new interface that can also work as a crossfade so hell maybe i will put together a Dj Set and hit the clubs also.  

Album of the Week: You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into / Does It Offend You, Yeah?
I have been recently listening to the Does it offend you yeah? album and really like how diverse it is.  You have something that sounds like a more tron style Death from Above right into an 80's subway dance off overdosing on Bit Crush.  It's right up my alley.  

Music Video of the Week: "DVNO" / Justice
I also keep coming back to the DVNO Video by Justice.  It is just a huge nostalgic piece.  There is that one part that is just like the old HBO intro before a movie.  The first time i saw it it totally remind me of when i stayed up this one time to watch Risky Business with my dad.  When i say stay up i mean it was dark outside.  It could of been the winter and 6pm but it was rated R so it made it later.