The Merry Andrews Show

Seahorses EP Streaming NOW!

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:26:59 +0000

I have been anxiously waiting for new music from this cherub couple for too many months, and today they have given it to us! The EP “Musical Beds Vol 1″ from Seahorses is officially out November 24th, but Justin Huey and Emily Moore have temporarily made 2 of the songs availible for your listening pleasure on their myspace page. I have been hooked on “Tough Luck” since they sent the MP3 to us, featured in Episode 25. Once your thuroughly addicted to those tunes by next week, the pair will be throwing the rest of the EP at you as well.

Where they find the time to write, record AND produce is beyond me. Justin is a full time member of the band Steel Train, who it seems never stops moving. They are currently on a National “Use Your Sole Tour” with Hanson and HelloGoodbye supported by Toms Shoes. Each show is preceeded by a fundraising mile walk with proceeds earned benefiting poverty and AIDS in Africa. A few of the dates have placed fun. and Steel Train in the same city where Jack Antonoff gets to play double duty performing with both bands of which he is a core member. These nights also reunite Emily and Justin, as Emily is a touring member of fun. providing the female vocals, guitar and keys. Music is clearly this duo’s calling and it is so exciting to see their lives filled with it!

If you are a fan of any of the aformentioned bands, or any sweet sounding, toe tapping, stick in your head indie pop music, you will fall in love with Seahorses.

Enjoy Seahorses video for “Keeping Time” from their upcomming EP “Musical Beds Vol 1″, brought to you by monkeywhale.com.

The Gay Blades on Tour!

admin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:07:11 +0000

They played acoustic sets for us at taco restaurants and in our living room on demand. They kindly put Marc in a headlock and plucked his exposed nose hair. They have alter ego’s and pseudonyms. Their energy packed live performance will leave you lusting for more! Luckily for you they are hitting the road this month and comming to a town near you! They can’t wait to meet you and tickle your fancies!

Here’s is one of our fondest Merry Andrew memories with The Gay Blades, an exclusive set in front of Mema’s in Ybor City, Florida

Check out the bands our babes are touring with too:

Electri Six
Millions of Brazillians

TGB$N

Where The Hell Have We Been!?

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:34:28 +0000

An explaination from Ashley Renee:

We have missed you rascals more than you know and apologize profusely for failing to keep you informed and for our inadequacy to provide you with new episodes to tickle your brains. You see, I was kind of a jerk and abandoned Tampa and my best friends Aly and Marc to hang out in Brooklyn for an undecided amount of time. They, in turn, are over whelmed with their professional jobs. The dynamic of The Merry Andrews Show is fucked when we are not all three present, so we decided on a hiatus. It’s been six months and it is painful how much I pine for them and our Sundays, not to mention all that I have been experiencing here that only TMAS listeners could truly appreciate. Meeting Rachel Goodrich’s mom. Being one of the only two dancers at The Gay Blades show in this city that seems “too cool to shake their booty”. The mystery of TGB’s friend and Street Tag Artist “DickChicken“. Tally Hall live on a boat! The darling April Smith opening for them. The show took place aboard the Half Moon Cruise line and made a spin around the Statue of Liberty on the clear summer night of July 8th, 2009 (aka 7/8/9). Ross’ DJ sets around the city as “Mr.F“. Getting funky with Justin (Seahorses/Steel Train) watching Jon (Steel Train) perform with the talented local band Turkuaz. Hop Along in an exclusive performance art/living space. Her live performance was a spiritual experience. Accidental run-ins happen quite frequently in this musically advanced town too. Olivia Mancinni at Union Hall sends her love to you all. Jay May at the Cameo Gallery/Lovin’ Cup Bar (I hear Zach Galifinakus lives in the building behind this place and complains often about noise). Hate to say, but she was a bit of a bitch. Unsympathetically refusing to play “Grey or Blue” because the night was planned to expose new songs. She’s lucky her new stuff knocked me off my feet, cause even if I had tomatoes to throw, there’s no way her performance deserved it. Remember the show back in the day on Nickelodeon, Pete and Pete? Well Danny Tamberelli/little Pete has a band called Jounce. Plugging in my ipod at the restaurant I currently work at, Surf Bar, partially fills my need to introduce music to strangers. The place is cool. Sand on the floor, delicious seafood and potent Tiki Drinks. I have served Josh Hartnett, Randy Harrison from Queer As Folk and Andrew “The Butcher” Mrotek of The Academy Is…. Reconnecting with The Butcher was flattering as he had added some paisley tattoos to his hand inspired by mine which he admired at Warped Tour a year before. Nightly free shows at Spike Hill. Rooftop sing alongs to songs that don’t yet exist. Impromptu interpretive dancing on subway platforms at 4am that carry on into the subway car. I’m up to my ears in musical adventures here and I freaking love it!

I promise not to keep you in the dark any longer my much endeared appriciators of euphony. A brand new episode may still be far off, but you have over 30 hours of past episodes to luxurate in. In the mean time I will provide punctual repots of my exploits in Brooklyn/NYC. I have a couple impelling interviews lined up and CMJ is just around the corner!

Magic & Fur launch debut single.

admin — Fri, 22 May 2009 03:11:23 +0000

Magic & Fur is a London based band made up of Chris Wilde, Gary Legend, Gavin Ellis, Julian Simon, Artur Dyjecinski, and Dom Ryan. This week, they launched their debut single Christine and in the midst of the celebration madness, Chris found some time to talk with me about who in the heck Christine is, what is in store for the band in the future, Leonard Cohen and, of course, prescription drugs.

AC: Who is Christine? and how did you decide that Christine was going to be the first single?

CW: Christine is the big red car from the Stephen King Book, it’s also the name of the little girl who drowns at the start of the film Don’t Look Now. The song is about an old ex-girlfriend who was more than just a little bit confused, I didn’t want to use her real name, so I used a name with a few omens attached to it. (I don’t think there’s any Christine’s in the Omen though right? hmmmm) Its got a lot of energy so seemed like the obvious choice for a debut single.

AC: So now that you’ve released the single, will you be releasing a full length album or an EP anytime soon?

CW: We currently have all the songs to make an album but are constantly writing to try and better what we’ve got. It’s early days. All of us have been in bands before and know how important it is to keep pushing onward creatively while the vibe is good and we’re not clawing each others eyes out.

As far as forthcoming releases go, next up is a free download, sometime very soon. We’re currently clawing each others eyes out as to what that’s going to be.

AC: How would you describe your sound?

CW: Our main themes are love, lust and prescription drugs, we want it to sound like a soundtrack to all three.

AC: What do you want people to get out of listening to your music?

CW: Your main aim is to give people gooseflesh right? Cheesy as it sounds. I don’t really get any band who doesn’t set out to do that in some way. I’m not saying we achieve it every time but its always what Gary and me aspire to when we begin writing a song. Its a pretty solid starting point.

AC: Who/what are your biggest influences?

CW: It varies across the board, Scott Walker’s a big hero of mine,as is Lou Reed and P.J. Harvey. Gary’s pretty obsessed with Wire. I could bore the arse off you now with a massive list of obscurities, both living and dead, but it would probably lull the pair of us into a coma. We both like Leonard Cohen.

As if launching their single wasn’t exciting enough, Chris told me that his friends at Duckeye just made a video for Christine. He describes this generous gift from his film buddies as the bands best moment so far and says “I think its totally mind blowing. Psychedelic whirly weirdness man!”

Magic & Fur – Christine from Magic & Fur on Vimeo.

Album Review: The Silent Years.

admin — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:20:22 +0000

By RYAN SCHREIBER

Way back in the summer of 2008, with the release of their second full length The Globe on the proverbial horizon, The Silent Years, hailing from my current neck of the woods, hit the “studio” to pump out what would become an EP entitled Let Go. I use “studio” here loosely because, well, apparently they weren’t so much in the studio the whole time as they were pretty much everywhere around the Detroit area (or, The D as it is affectionately known by my friends from around here). From lead-singer Josh Epstien’s bedroom to an abandoned health department building, Let Go took shape.

Detroit is certainly not the most aspirational place on the planet right now. Surprisingly, the EP seems devoid of any negative influence from The D. Instead, Let Go has the feeling of a Michigan summer day, fun and beautifully lazy. FYI, if you’ve never experienced a summer in Michigan, you should book yourself a vacay around Lake Michigan.

The ultimate test for an album, at least for me, is the car test. I need to listen to it in my car to really get a sense of how the album feels. After I downloaded the EP, I put it on my phone so that I could listen while I was studying. It made good background music for my mental struggles, but it was a while before I got it into the car. At first, I wasn’t really feeling it. There’s a saying around here about the weather, that if you don’t like it you should wait 10 minutes, and the same went for Let Go in a couple ways. A perfect example in the first instance is the track leading off, “Taking Drugs at an Amusement Park” (which I do not condone). The song (as does the whole EP) features a strong percussion element. In fact, “Taking Drugs” has an almost ominous feel to it before the Epstien’s voice shines through. At first, I did not like the juxtaposition; but, after I gave it time, it seemed brilliant. Like a storm rolling in, the sunshine will return shortly, and that’s the feel the album gave.

The other example that I noticed was, even though I wasn’t sure I liked the EP at first, I found myself unable to not sing-along during several parts. It gave it a fun feeling that was hard to shake. As the their presser says the EP is “unabashedly happy”. “I think it just summed up everything for me”, Epstien said of the album and it’s title. I think it does, too.

This is undoubtedly a summer album. Once the season finally rolled in, the tide started to change for it in my mind. During our unseasonably cold spring, I just wasn’t sure. A few days ago, though, the album started to make sense as the season finally changed and the perfection that is a Michigan summer decided to show up… finally . Come Fall, I will probably put Let Go on the shelf. For the Summer, though, it will be a staple in my car.

Let Go will be released on July 14th.

For a preview of what is going to be on Let Go, click here to listen to the single, Madame Shocking.

To purchase Let Go from iTunes click here.

To purchase it from Amazon click here.

*special thanks to SideCho Media for the Madame Shocking mp3.

an interview with the miserable rich.

admin — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:58:53 +0000

when we were in austin we had the honor of interviewing the miserable rich lead singer, james de malplaquet.

watch the video below to see the miserable rich perform and hear james talk about how the band came together, how he feels about musicians who tell their audience to “shhh” while they are performing, and how they came up with their band name.

The Miserable Rich at SXSW 2009. from aly carr on Vimeo.

episode 30. swedish penis pole.

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:23:15 +0000

What’s up all you peeking peepsters?! We have a very penile episode for you this week with a whopping TWO guest hosts: Jassi (from Sweden) and Farshad (Marc’s younger, but cooler brother). We’re told a delightful little story about Swedish penis poles of fertility, we hear a little ditty about three donkeys eating grass, and we give thanks to Aly’s boyfriends for finally doing something about all that junk in the trunk. Enjoy peeps!

MP3 File

here are the artists featured in this week’s show, in order of appearance (least myspace friends to most myspace friends) …

	emilia dahlin – black sheep MARC
	the peekers – be love ASHLEY
	beerjacket – violent ALY
	smokers die younger – telemark ASHLEY
	john gold – ghetto MARC
	christian kjellvander – poppies and peonies JASSI
	hoffmaestro & chraa – highwayman JASSI
	hollywood holt – hollywood MARC
	the whispertown 2000 – atlantis ASHLEY
	jolie holland – palmyra ALY
	locksley – for you ALY
	lykke li – dance, dance, dance JASSI

3 Out Of 5 Dental Hygienists Agree: Chewing This Column Will Probably Not Do Wonders For Your Teeth

admin — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:47:03 +0000

or, Regards, Dieon Sanders, but this is the real SHOWTIME.

By Ryan Schreiber

The World Is Mine

I have something to admit. One of my top five favorite movies on all time is “Scarface” (the 1983 version with Al Pacino, not the 1932 one with Paul Muni). With Miami as the backdrop, the movie opens in 1980 when Fidel Castro allowed thousands of Cubans to immigrate to the United States. Many of those who emigrated were ex-convicts. That part is true. It’s during this exodus that Tony Montana, the movie’s protagonist, comes to Miami. Himself a serious criminal, Tony finds his way into a life of crime in the US. A graphic tale of his meteoric rise to the top of the cocaine trade, “Scarface” uses all the tools of the proverbial trade: sex, drugs, murder, and mayhem. Of course, I am not the only one who reacts favorably to this movie. According to the movie’s Wikipedia page (which I totally trust), the film has been recognized as one of the greatest of all time.

Actually, I guess it’s not that surprising that I like “Scarface” after all. You’re probably wondering where I’m going with this, right?

Okay, I have something else to admit. I’m white, middle-class, and was raised in suburbia but I LOVE hip-hop. I don’t mean pop-hop (if you will), I mean real true hip-hop. Also, you should know, I totally thought I made that term up until I googled it and found out that I did not, in fact, make it up.

I’m willing to bet it’s not terribly surprising to you that I love hip-hop, but that you are left with a strange feeling about it. That it’s just not “right” for someone like me to really and truly love hip-hop. When I started listening to hip-hop, it was more surprising for me to like it than it is now. Even so, the sentiment still persists that there is just something amiss when someone of a pale persuasion is genuinely interested in hip-hop as a genre.

When MC Hammer started to reach a broader appeal, he became too “white” to rap “purists”. I will be honest – I have never understood why hip-hop has been “off-limits” to large portions of the population. I never wasted too much time thinking about it, though, until a few days ago.

The wheels began to turn a little a few months ago when I went to see “Notorious” (on opening day and the earliest showing I could find in my area). I was supremely excited for a movie that I thought was so overdue; so much so that I went alone because no one else wanted to go at 10:30 in the morning. Of course, I enjoyed the film (despite some of its major flaws). As in real life, Christopher Wallace is killed. As in real life, I cried a little. After the funeral back in Brooklyn, his mother, Voletta Wallace, is in the back of a limousine driving down some of the same streets where she and her son lived most of their lives. She finds the streets full of people. She finds people hanging out the windows to get a glimpse of her and her son as they process through the streets. Instead of an outpouring of mourning, Voletta finds a celebration. She rolls her window down and hears the city exalting the memory and talent of her son. That’s when Voletta said what really struck me: Biggie touched the lives of all these people because he was a great storyteller.

Christopher Wallace’s rise to fame as The Notorious B.I.G. was meteoric. In a few short years he went from crack dealer to multi-platinum multi-millionaire. His vehicle to the top was an ability to rhyme like no one before (or since, in my opinion). He transformed “the game” by his ability as a storyteller. His stories featured all the tools of the proverbial trade: sex, drugs, murder, and mayhem.

I recognize that there are differences between movies and music. Of course, Christopher Wallace was both artist and subject. His work was, in some ways, a self portrait. Obviously the same is not true for a movie like “Scarface”. I understand why urban culture would relate to hip-hop, that is not my point. My point is that, like a movie such as “Scarface” (or even one like “Transformers”), hip-hop depicts a reality. If they depict that reality well, the subject matter becomes accessible to the audience.

In other types of artistic expression we exalt the ability of the artist to depict the “everyman”. Someone who is simultaneously nothing like us, but embodies the things that we all see in ourselves. Not everything in every Biggie song happened to him, or even to someone else, but The Notorious B.I.G. as a narrator was unparalleled. The Notorious B.I.G. was a character whose story included some truth, and some fantasy. The Notorious B.I.G. as a narrator guided (and guides) us through the story like Homer guided his listeners through the journey of Odysseus in the Odyssey, or like Al Pacino and Brian De Palma guided us through the rise and fall of Tony Montana. Just because some of us cannot relate to the particular struggle, he embodies many of the everyman characteristics we relate to in Scarface, or Odysseus.

This is true for all of hip-hop. The artists, like artists of other form, either depict a reality that is relatable or not. I recognize that there is more truth in their expression than in many others, but that should not take it away from me. I should still be able to love it openly and freely without judgment….. haters.

This column has been brought to you by the letter C as in “Colleen Jakey” (and has been inspired by the same).

SXSW 09.

admin — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:23:34 +0000

Below is a compilation video of some of the highlights from our trip to Austin. And just when you think it can’t get any better, we tell you that there are individual performances and interviews coming soon. Can you handle all of this?

SXSW 2009. from aly carr on Vimeo.

episode 29. christopher kevin.

admin — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:22:53 +0000

Yay! Another Merry Andrews Session! This time we bring you, all the way from Phoenix, Arizona, Christopher Kevin and his sexy music. Enjoy!