BBQCHICKENROBOT

Delightful!

2010-01-20T13:55:00.000-08:00

Check out this neat video!

Music To Folk To! Festival in Portland

2010-01-10T11:09:00.000-08:00

Who ever said that Summer gets all the music festivals? January, despite its cold winds (or slightly cooler breezes if you're one of BBQ's So Cal followers), can warm you up the right way! The Portland just doesn't quit.

January 15-17 at The Parlour in Southeast Portlandtown comes Music to Folk! to Fest. A three day extravaganza of singer-songwriters, newcomers to the Pacific Northwest and indie icons alike! Twenty dollars for three days and almost twenty bands! If you're in the area next weekend, this is the place to be. You can also buy tickets at the door, but for so many bands, why not get the package deal?

Just a few things to look forward to:

For fans of Neutral Milk Hotel, amongst many, many other bands, comes Ross Beach (one of NMH's original members!) with his latest band, Ross & The Hellpets. Perfect indie pop that carries all the greatest elements of past decades without all the bad parts.

If Annie Clark had a kid sister from the Midwest, you'd have A. King. Guitar playing, violin charming, songstress fresh from a cross country trip from the East coast and fresh to Portland, Ashley King can sing and lays it down with some serious tunes. Accompanying her this time around are the Beirutesque musings of the Bootz Orchestra.

Sam Cooper (the banjo plucking behind Horse Feathers) joins the weekend on Sunday for a short & sweet set of acoustic goodness.

The lowdown:

Music to Folk to! Fest
January 15-17
$20, ALL AGES!
at The Parlour
2628 SE Powell Blvd
Portland, OR 97202

ross and the hellpets - its over
Ashley King - Never Going To Stop

YOUR PARTY WILL SUCK WITHOUT THIS MIX!

2009-12-13T09:29:00.000-08:00

WHAT'S UP! We have been hiatus-ish for over a month now! Holy Cow! Our visitors number is still consistent through so thank you for constantly checkin' back! We are revamping the site, training new writers, and gettin' connected with new stuff so stay tuned. All that in the NEW Year. 2010! But of course, I still gotta hit y'all with our annual Christmas mix. It is a bit late this year but I figure by now you are getting somewhat tired of the same old same old (don't get me wrong, classics are classics). I think we have the opportunity to beef up your holiday playlists to compliment the good old songs. We didn't add too much older stuff, but a whole lotta remixes. Check these songs out, your Party will suck without them! Make the coolest Christmas mix tape CD for someone after you download! DO IT!!!!!!! Happy Holidays, and whatever you celebrate, do it with good music!

Tracklist (Alphabetical tracks):
The Nat King Cole Trio - All I Want For Christmas (MJ Cole Remix)
Eux Autres - Another Christmas At Home
The Very Most - Away In A Manger
Louis Armstrong & Velma Middleton - Baby, It's Cold Outside (Mulato Beat Remix)
Patti Page - Christmas Bells (Northern Elektrix Remix)
Mel Torme - The Christmas Song (Jay Rodriguez & Rev Scott Remix)
Nancy Wilson - The Christmas Waltz (Away Team Remix)
Berlin Symph Orchestra - Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy (Red Baron Remix)
Bing Crosby - Happy Holiday (Beef Wellington Remix)
Diana Krall - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Rosemary Clooney - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (MNO Remix)
Charles Brown - I'll Be Home for Christmas (Ohmega Watts Remix)
The Drifters - I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas
Kay Starr - I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm (Stuhr Remix)
Ella Fitzgerald - Jingle Bells
Berlin Symph Orchestra - The Nutcracker Suite (Baz Kuts Breaks Mix)
Brenda Lee - Rock' Around The Christmas Tree
Ella Fitzgerald - Sleigh Ride (The Latin Project Remix)
Stevie Wonder - Soul Christmas
Funk Machine - Soul Santa
Bing Crosby - White Christmas (Kaskade Remix)
Paul Mc Cartney - Wonderful Christmas Time

DOWNLOAD IT NOW!

Kings Of Convenience: Soiree de Poche

2009-11-13T02:26:00.000-08:00

Exploding Color!

2009-11-05T09:23:00.000-08:00

Explode Into Colors may be one of the most aptly named bands, ever. Some sort of cross between indie/dance and riot grrl, tribal beat and ambient lo-fi, these three girls errupt on stage like a flash bang grenade filled with musical energy lava. If you stray up to the Northwest, find the vinyl bound goodness of Explode into Colors and dwell for a moment, if you dare.

Melinda Ortner Halloween Show at the 511, Santa Ana

2009-10-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

What are you doing for Halloweeen? Nothing? Come to our dope show in Santa Ana! We've got several artists and special guests Leerone and Melinda Ortner! Yes we've been talking about this for weeks now. The doors are open at 6:00pm, You know the drilly! We posted Melinda's music video heartbeats but we're posting it again. $10 cover with costume, $15, without. Also we've got Club DDLV going down at 10pm. Yours truly will be MCin' all night!

Leerone's Halloween Show!

2009-10-29T13:54:00.000-07:00

This weekend our pal Leerone will be performing at the new 511 spot in Santa Ana!
It's only $10 at the door if you are wearing a costume. Seriously it's easy! It's $15 without but keep in mind this is a fundraiser! Come check her out and help us raise funds and awareness for Human Trafficking. Check out the show flyer. See y'all there!

Also check this new Leerone vid, it's crazy

HALLOWEEN SHOW
@the 511
Doors @6:00pm
$10 at the door
FREE Parking!

CLUB DDLV
10pm
DJs Spinning all night!
Costume Contest
Dance-Off

BBQCHICKENROBOT.com Presents DDLV HALLOWEEN SHOW!

2009-10-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

The CAUSE

If YOU are reading this, You are invited to our special special Halloween Party! First off, this is a benefit show for victims of Human Trafficking* and 100% of the proceeds will go towards the building, renovation, and operation costs for a victims shelter. Our goal is to raise $20,000! What?! That's a lot a money! But there's a huge need. So if you're coming, check your wallets and piggy banks and bring'em over!

The Line Up & CLUB DDLV

We are super lucky and blessed to have two super awesome singer/songwriters performing and hanging out with us on Halloween! Leerone and Melinda Ortner, are two of our new pals and you need to come see them perform live! In the next couple days I'll be rolling out their videos and MP3s for y'all to check out. There also will be performances from the local community like break dancing, spoken word, etc. CLUB DDLV will feature 4 DJs spinning all kinds of funk, breaks, soul, hip hop, indie and electro stuff. It's gonna be super awesome. Bring your friends and show us your moves...dead serious. Live Music? DJs and Dancing? Costume Contests?! But seriously, we will be super sad if you don't have a costume. We don't care how old you are. If you don't know what to be, just come as one of your friends, or watch Donnie Darko and check out those costumes. Don't be lazy! Be Creative to win that costume contest!

The DETAILS:

DDLV HALLOWEEN SHOW

Doors open at 6:30pm

Cost: $10 with costume, and $15 without.

Dancing Starts at 10pm

The 511 <---brand new venue!

511 E. Santa Ana Blvd.,

Santa Ana, 92701

map <--yea i googled it 4 u

*There are over 27 million slaves living in our world today. Seriously? Get the FACTS.

Siblings Frank + Anna Carey = The Ams

2009-10-17T01:25:00.000-07:00

Yay sibling music! What better band than the fam band?! Chicago's The Ams have just dropped their debut album, The Release of An American Soul, on their own label Shields Records. Whaaat?! I want my own label. These two both play keyboards & vocalize and by the sounds of Your Mere Presence, they sound like a very soft and soothing duo. But after hitting their myspace, I realized they are an indie pop band willing to try many things, and it's fun stuff d00d! Godspeed Your Safe Return sounds like a whole other indie pop band! Listen to Frank's song writing carefully, there's a lot of good stuff in there. Pick up their stuff here d00dz.

Your Mere Presence
Godspeed Your Safe Return

Martin Rivas Just Needs To Be Heard!

2009-10-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

My mailman said it's time for us to get a P.O. Box for our office but we're not gonna do it! Thanks to all the artists out there who are sending us your stuff, please keep it coming! If you need our address, just email us and wheel hand it over. One artist this week that I totally dig is Martin Rivas (not the soccer player, that guy kicks stuff). These days a singer/songwriter from New York is more like a beginning character description in a film, and yet there are dozens and dozens of musical gems out there yet to be heard. If you know of one, please point us in the right direction. Luckily this week I received some awesome songs from an artist named Martin Rivas.

Listening to his new album Sea of Clouds almost throws me off; it contains an excellent consistency and style of Rivas but exhibits a lot of elements like soft rock? 90s alternative? indie?...It's got feel-good lyrics, and reminds me of back home, and fun summers. Beyond it's poppy sing along vibes, I really feel like Rivas' album shows us how much fun he's having being who he is. Wow that was deep, but moreover, just simple. We like that. Nothings forced, and there's just a lot of heart and layers going on here. You definitely need to get his albums and hit that repeat. He's got a string of residency-type shows going on in NY, yes you're so lucky. If you get mixtapes from me, expect to hear more from Rivas.

Sleeping In The Shed
Heckuva Day
A New Word

Know Better, Learn Faster, Learn Faster, Learn Faster!!!

2009-10-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

Last night I told a photographer friend of mine that I thought Thao Nguyen's new album is probably my favorite of the year, and he said "That's a lot coming from you, because you're a music snob"...and he meant well by it, but I've never heard that before. I think at BBQ we just think a lot of stuff sucks. haha. But we get to say whatever we want! yay! With that said, Know Better, Learn Faster is highly kick ass and all over the place. I find myself listening to the lyrics, trying to dig deeper into the meaning, but lose any built concentration from the pop and kick of these songs. Easy has like drum machine like thing going on, and they make that work so well. We could go on and on...Anyway get the album here, and check out the vid I found below. ILL!

Know Better, Learn Faster
Easy

New Norah Jones Goes Digital Tomorrow!

2009-10-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

I Don't Know Why anyone wouldn't like Norah Jones; Her albums are excellent, Wong Kar's My Blueberry Nights?, Wah Do Dem?, and performing for Steve Jobs and the Macletes? (Umm how rad is this?) She's back for more with her new 4th studio album appropriately titled The Fall. It strategically goes digital tomorrow, but you can check out the single Chasing Pirates below. It almost sounds like a soft 90's ballad, I think it's cause of that keyboard. Definitely a move from a more jazzier feel but of course I still dig it. I think you're gonna dig the rest of the album too! Get it tomorrow! Or get the CD after the mid of November.

Chasing Pirates

Random: This d00d made this really nice looking vid, and put Shoot the Moon on it. Does anyone want to become my film partner? btw btw btw

Rad Mr. Hudson Video: Forever Young

2009-10-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

Mr Hudson - Exclusive: Forever Young on MUZU.

Gooooood morning! Just found this rad little video of Mr. Hudson in my inbox this morning, thought I'd share it. I still think it's crazy that he's signed with Kanye, yes I'm a hater too. But I think it's rad he is on the Forever Young track on Jay-Z's new Blueprint 3. I don't particularly love the song, but I'm glad Mr. Hudson will be getting more recognition for his own music. Be sure to catch him on tour supporting Calvin Harris in the UK. Enjoy!

A Beautiful Day in Glasgow

2009-10-05T11:17:00.000-07:00

Lotsa people are sick here at the office...well actually they aren't here because of that reason. It's nice and quiet which makes listening so much more enjoyable. I currently got the new Ashes Grammar tracks from A Sunny Day in Glasgow replaying in my mac. I'd have to say this is there best stuff to date. It's like spacey-ambient sounds mixed with the instrumental symptoms of an indie band, dreamy vocals, and piles of layers often times reminding me of Takagi Masakatsu videos. You can get their new 22-track album here, and an hour of soundtrack for your day dreaming pleasure.

Evil, With Evil, Against Evil
Failure

Check out their labor of lovesss!

Good Morning! Good Night, States

2009-10-05T09:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday, woah we've been ultra busy here at the BBQ with films and events but just wanted to share some more music (duh!). Our Monday morning artist is a sweet indietronic band from Pittsburg, known as Good Night, States. They just graced us with a new EP last month called In The Impossible Tension, which is 7-tracks of synth heavy, folky, loopy and mellow indie rock. I already know you're gonna like it. Also they are innovators? Interesting! They'll be at CMJ later this month so you better go see them, seriously. Check out these tracks and pick up the EP here.

Arsonist's Blues
River In The Dry

BTW, check out the CMJ 09 Sampler...FREEEE
Have a great Monday!

Arcade Fire - Wake Up!

2009-10-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

This version is my favorite! Sound familiar?

Where The Wild Things Are Soundtrack!

2009-09-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

Yea, that beautiful soundtrack to the wonderful child hood story is out today! Where The Wild Things Are has been carefully crafted up by Yea Yea Yeahs front woman Karen OOOO! If I had an exboyfriend, I wouldn't mind being asked to score an amamamazing film. Karen O and The Kids have come up with 14 great songs for the soundtrack and you can get it today! So excited for this film. It looks crazy cool. Good job Spike!

Check out the video of Karen O explaining the whole Kids thing.
Where the Wild Things Are "Band" Teaser

You can get the album via iTunes here.
Where The Wild Things Are hits theaters nationwide October 16th.

Baaba Maal's New Television With Brazilian Girls!

2009-09-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

I love when artists use their talents and music to spread awareness, especially for those who can't call for help. Baaba Maal has a new album out called Television, heavy with West African tradition and his personal blend of down tempo sounds. He is such an awesome example of someone living out their music's message. He shows care towards the development of his whole continent with a huge focus on the children and their future. His music is a product of his mission for peace and concern for those who are less fortunate. Very inspiring and it just so happens that the Brazillian girls are in collabo all over this very chill album. How much doper can it get? Well we got the single for you, but the video is an artwork on it's own. Check both out below and be sure to check his tour dates in the US and Canadia!

Television

In his own words..."I think the musician’s role is to give advice, to warn people, and to make them aware of what they might not have thought of themselves. We use melodies and harmonies to make songs enter your mind."

London's Stricken City November Debut

2009-09-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

I'm always game for art-pop that drenches in 90s alternative influence, especially with Stricken City vocalist Rebekah Raa. I think her voice alone commands the time-piece and style of my past playlists from when I was younger...definitely striking chords. I dig the huge wave of indie pop bands from the UK, but I dig Stricken City's slower approach to their sound. In early November, Kora Recs will be rollin' out their US debut, Songs About People I Know, with 2 bonus tracks! Check their myspace often for pre-order. In the meantime enjoy this track!

Pull The House Down

Also could this video possibly be any radder?

Atlas Sound on Tour!!!

2009-09-22T09:45:00.000-07:00

I have no idea what is going on in the pictuer above but it looked interesting. Earlier this summer I stumbled upon the deep ambient pop noises of the Atlas Sound but definitely did not get around to sharing it. Bradford Cox, frontman for Deerhunter, is the soloist on his new album 'Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel' which is chuck full of the layered electronic soundscapes that step on the lines between pop and atmospheric rock-ish. Brad's on tour right now, check these dates.

Cold As Ice
Walkabout

The Red River Floweth

2009-09-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

We're in the age of the folk orchestra, and The Red River is the wild crest crashing against the West coast, brass, strings, keys and choir. Their sing-along style strikes a note against typical Southern California groove, growing out of the closecracks in the sidewalk in Long Beach. The sincere vocals of lead man Bill Roberts echo long drives in the midwest, whistling with the road and rivers sewing songs to the horizon. To see them live is to see notes drawn on the air with the pen and ink of dancing tambourines and smiling French horns, not forgetting a rabble of drunken guitar strings battering against the Aztec Choir. Their newest doings can be found on Brave Records, a delicious four-way split featuring The Old Believers, Lake, and Congratulations!

Riverbeds (opening scene) from Mike Turner on Vimeo.

Can You Feel The Magic Johnson?

2009-09-11T09:48:00.000-07:00

We're not talking about Earvin Jr., but there's definitely enough energy coming from these two Portland via LA kids to survive HIV and make a decent basketball comeback. Musically speaking. There have been tons of two-piece bands since there have been bands, and for reasons abound (couldn't find a bassist, didn't want a drummer, guitarist was lame, who needs vocals anyway...), but it seems magic combo for Magic Johnson is drums and guitar, blistering with the enthusiasm of a fight between LA's smog and its signature sunshine. They don't need the rest of the band. Mando and Ana have it covered with old fashioned, simple, loud, punk music that'll give the needle on your turntable a workout. Their 7" release on OlFactory/LA is Wax Paper, Telenovelas, is a vocal tag team of screams into guitar pick-ups and drum heads bursting like cannon fire. If there were more than two of them it might just be plain scary.

Magic Johnson from Mark Greshowak on Vimeo.

Sufjan Stevens and The BQE

2009-08-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

Sufjan Stevens will once again hit the road this October with an array of neon glowing hula hooping mistresses and a flowering orchestra back lit by his newest project, a film revolving around the BQE (or, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway). Less of a film and more of a musical barrage of images and vibrant colours, the BQE follows in the vein of Stevens' album themes based around states and their landmarks. The film comes with an accompanying album and a 40 page booklet! Sufjan starts touring this Fall so keep your eyes open to catch this amazing show!

Sean Bones' New Album, New Film, New Video

2009-08-25T14:27:00.000-07:00

I was reading this interview with Sean Bones and I could not believe or even halfly understand how he plays Reggae, is in a indie flick with Norah Jones, and he has a kick ass album coming out. Well I guess that's just how it happens--it just happens. Bones' took the lead role for Wah Do Dem which won the Target Award for “Best Narrative Feature”...not bad for your first time...and without an audition? So sweet. What else? Oh he's got his debut album out called Ring which is filled with various stylings and sounds of Reggae. It's definitely different and we totally dig it. Check out the song Turn Them ft. Norah Jones and Easy Street. Also there's a performance vid with one of his band mates Merida Rose.

Turn Them
Easy Street

Co. fee's new Badu Remix (get this right meow!)

2009-08-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

Real Quick: My friend and yours, Co.Fee, who's part of the My Hollow Drum crew, just sent us a suh-weet remix of an Erykah Badu song called Soldier. You can check out their spinnin' nights and sessions here. Lastly get the Wu Tang remixes project for free here.

Soldier (Co.Fee Remix)