Screaming Females cover "If It Makes You Happy" at Lorem Ipsum Books

At this point, Pellytwins Dot Blogspot Dot Com is basically a Don Giovanni Records fanzine, and we're pretty okay with that. (Though we swear a relaunch with more expansive posts and a print-zine counterpart are actually, in fact, in the works. #Official.)

Here is a video I snapped last night of Screaming Females covering Sheryl Crowe's epic jam, "If It Makes You Happy." Screamales also covered this at the annual Don Giovanni showcase this past weekend in Brooklyn -- an inspired event as always.

This video was shot at Lorem Ipsum Books, one of my favorite places in the Boston area these days. Lorem Ipsum is a true gem in Boston. Above-ground DIY show spaces are rare in this town and I feel very lucky to be helping put shows on there. I put on this show with the Dreamhouse show-booking collective, a new group that I am organizing shows with in Boston. We have a decidedly minimal (read: non-existent) Internet presence but if you are interested in booking a show with us try emailing dreamhousecollective at gmail.

I am excited to rip the audio and play it on my radio show at WZBC. OOh speaking of which -- my show there is called Echoes/Ephemera and it airs Thursdays 6-7pm. I play only demos, home recordings, and other lo-fi/rarities/self-releases/field recordings/etc. #selfpromo

This was the second night of a tour the Screamales are on now of all free shows in record shops. I guess they made an exception for Boston. Modern Hut and Parasol played too and they were great. Screaming Females continue their record shop tour tonight at Feeding Tube Records in Northampton. Check out all of the dates here.

See you whenever xx

Guest Mix: Don Giovanni

Note: This is one of the best things we have posted on this blog ever.

Earlier this summer I wrote an article for Billboard on the "50 Best Indie Labels in America," and naturally included Jersey punk label Don Giovanni, who I first learned about in 2008, when I wrote about Screaming Females for Rolling Stone. I will never forget the moment in that interview when the drummer, Jared, told me that Joe, from Don Giovanni, once threatened to kill himself if he could not release the band's records. That sort of enthusiasm is always intriguing. Don Giovanni has since become one of my favorite indie labels operating anywhere in America, due in no small part to their releases for bands like the Females and Shellshag, whose energy is I think unparalleled by any other pocket of contemporary DIY music. Here's what I wrote about them for Billboard:

Don Giovanni isn’t a household name, but when founders Joe Steinhardt and Zach Gajewski launched the label as students at Boston University in 2004, that was hardly their intention—they set out to document the New Brunswick basement punk scene, and have become recognized throughout the underground DIY punk community for indie rock and punk releases from the likes of Shellshag, The Ergs!, and the critically-acclaimed Screaming Females.

We have probably spent more time talking about DG on this blog than any other label or band, and this guest mix by Joe is the first in a series of mixes that we will be posting as we "relaunch" our blog this fall. Many of these tracks have never existed before in MP3 format. Check out what Joe had to say about the mix, as well as the tracklisting, below. Screaming Females and Shellshag play Bowery Ballroom with Hilly Eye, tonight.

mix: Don Giovanni Guest Mix 4 Pellytwins Blog

When the Pelly twins asked me to put a mix together for their site I was stoked, especially when they said they wanted me to do all current bands not on the label. I've heard over and over again that there aren't as many good bands around as there used to be, or that all the great bands broke up, etc. This mix represents just a small part of a class of bands that are not just the best around right now, but who are sure to be considered classic in the future. With I think just two exceptions of bands that recently broke up, all of these bands are active:

01 Tacocat - Party Trap
02 Masshysteri - Dom kan inte hora musiken
03 Tropical Punk - To Hearts
04 The Men - Think
05 House Boat - Real Life As a Metaphor for Real Life
06 Blasting Concept - Age of the Rat
07 Avon Ladies - Power Failure
08 The Two Funerals - Boy's Club
09 Tenement - Stupid World
10 Lemuria - Wise People
11 The Gift - Corpse Reviver
12 Emily's Army - Strictly For The Birds
13 Lecherous Gaze - Phaze
14 P.S. Eliot - Sadie
15 Omegas - Peasant Dance
16 Grabass Charlestons - Dale
17 Dead Mechanical - Sidewalks
18 Vacation - Cop Knock
19 Night Birds - Paranoid Times

Previously:
-- Q&A with Don Giovanni Records
-- Premiere: Modern Hut's debut single, "Wrong"
-- mp3: Big Eyes - "Why Can't I"
-- Shellshag Played the New Afternoon Show
-- Big in 2k10: Byrds of Paradise

Premiere: Modern Hut's debut single, "Wrong"

Pellytwins’ Weblog is stoked to unveil the very first studio recordings from New Jersey’s Modern Hut — the indie rock project of Joe Steinhardt, founder of New Brunswick punk label Don Giovanni. And it sounds just like that. Joe seems to draw influence from our favorite chapters of Our Band Could Be Your Life: big, Mascis-like guitars with a distinct and monotone drawl that endearingly recalls Calvin Johnson, all with the honest, catchy thoughtfulness that pervades his own label’s catalog. Stream his first single, “Wrong,” above.

Also stream its B-side, “Life,” which features guest vocals from Screaming Females’ throaty front-shredder Marissa Paternoster. Marissa produced the tracks at NJ’s Hunt Studio, where Screaming Females recorded their past two records; she plays drums, while Fid from The Measure (SA) holds it down on bass. Whereas “Wrong” is unequivocally rooted in Joe’s pop-punk unbrining — he played in NJ band For Science until 2008 — “Life” shows Modern Hut’s affinity for honest, straightforward lyricism that captures life’s candid moments, reflecting on life, death, and boredom, while maintaining a sense of humor about it all.

“A lot of songs are very whimsical and carefree. They’re all about surfing and hanging out and partying, and all of these things that life really isn’t, ” Joe told us. “I’m just trying to write songs about the things you actually do in life.”

Three years in the works, Modern Hut’s debut release, for which Joe is seeking a label, is out later this year.

Follow Joe via twitter.com/dongiovannirecs.

Words by Jenn & Liz.

mp3: BIG EYES - "Why Can't I" (from Don Giovanni)

mp3: Big Eyes - "Why Can't I"

I first learned about Big Eyes this summer, after Screaming Females tore down Goodbye Blue Monday and the crowd had taken to the Bushwick sidewalk to recuperate. A pretty prime setting to be tipped off to new band like Big Eyes — a year old pop-punk trio from New Brunswick and Brooklyn, and a recent addition to the Don Giovanni roster — and since then, the band's "I Prefer to Be Alone" demo (download here) has gotten ample airplay on our radio shows. "Why Can't I" is the latest from Big Eyes — blaring, hooky power pop with a crunchy lead riff, specked with snarly love-rhymes from singer/guitarist Kate Eldridge, formerly of CHEEKY. The group played at Gainsville, FL's nine-year old DIY punk convention "The Fest" in October, and says they're most influenced by The Ramones, Cheap Trick, The Nerves, and Black Flag. RIYL: every band mentioned in this post.

The "Why Can't I" b/w "Your Lies" seven-inch is out 1/18 on Don Giovanni. They play 1/1 at Party Expo and 1/6 at Union Pool with German Measles.