Guys, guess what—the restaurant at the beautifully historic 1920’s hotel and celebrity hot spot, Chateau Marmont, is totally vegan friendly.

We stopped by for a quick lunch and some wine in the garden last Friday with our friend from Brooklyn, Suzanne, and had a really lovely time.

For those who don’t already know, the hotel (to the right) was built in 1927 by a prominent Los Angeles lawyer—Fred Horowitz—in an effort to bring a little European class to LA. From Chateau Marmont’s site:

“Hotels are the stuff of stories, of mini dramas, a world unto themselves – we leave our lives behind and become who we want to be. Arriving at Chateau Marmont you surrender yourself to a grandi-loquent environment, an infamous hideaway and the perfect getaway in the center of one of the world’s most exciting cities.

Modeled after an infamous royal residence in France’s Loire Valley, Chateau Marmont is a fantastical folly in the land of make believe. While in residence you become part of a highly discriminating, international clientele desiring an experience at once luxurious and unique.”

It’s like Wes Anderson himself wrote that up.

Clearly, you don’t have to be a guest to visit the restaurant or bar.

Marmont asks that you “refrain from taking photos and smoking.” Being the grammar contrarians we are, we thought it’d be fine to take a quick photo since we weren’t smoking at the time—above, their Chickpea Panisse with Kale, Quinoa, Walnuts, and Beets, which is honestly exquisite and highly recommended.

To the right, Katie + Suzanne in the garden looking classy.

One of our long-time staple recipes at home is our vegan chili recipe. We’ve written it up in this space many times now—first in early 2009, then again when I ALMOST made it onto the Today Show with the recipe—adjusting the particulars of the chili as our tastes changed and (we hope) became more refined.

These days, we cook the chili in largely the same way we always have, giving us the flavor we’ve loved over the years, but we now prepare it to be gluten-free and far more plant-based than it used to be, shooing seitan out of the spotlight and ushering in fresh shiitake mushrooms instead. Though we’re losing some protein, we’re veering closer to a whole foods diet with the meal and the mushrooms’ earthy flavor and meaty texture make for a natural star in this chili.

Besides that, we’ve made a few other changes, like subbing poblano peppers for green bells, adding a subtle Ethiopian flare with a dash of the delectable spice mixture berbere, upping the garliciness, omitting sweet Vidalias and bringing in more savory ones instead, and employing dry beans over canned ones to bring down the sodium content and give you a better firmness and overall robustness in the chili. Let’s go!

Smokey Jo’s Chili (Gluten-Free Version)
• 2 Large Yellow or Brown Onions, finely diced
• 2 Large Poblano Peppers, de-seeded + finely diced
• 9 Cloves of Garlic, smashed, peeled, and chopped into small chunks
• 4 tbsp Olive Oil
• 3-6 Chipotle Peppers, depending on how spicy you like things, chopped (these can be found canned in a lot of stores now and dried in specialty shops)
• 1 lb Fresh Shiitake Mushroom Caps + Stems, finely chopped
• 1 cup, Dry Red Kidney Beans (we like light, but dark are good too)
• 1/3 cup, Gluten-Free Soy Sauce (we like San-J’s low-sodium Tamari)
• 1 tbsp, Agave
• 28 oz can Crushed Tomatoes (we used to use Sclafani without exception, but those are harder to find on the Left Coast, so we now mainly just look for any high-quality brand that lists only tomatoes in their ingredients—no additives, salt, or sugar)
• 14.5 oz can Diced Tomatoes (you can go with whatevs, but we like using flame roasted ones)
• 3 tbsp Chili Powder
• 1 tbsp Natural Hickory Smoke Flavor
• 1 tbsp Ground Black Pepper
• 1 tbsp Smoked Paprika
• 2 tbsp Berbere (available at fine spice stores, Ethiopian specialty stores, and most Indian markets too)
• 2 Bay Leaves
• pinch Cinnamon (ideally freshly grated)
• Salt (to taste)

So, first, you need to soak the beans overnight, ideally. This makes cooking easier and gives them a better texture overall. If not possible, you can do a quick soak method, but we’d recommend the overnight soak. Oh, and don’t forget to first sort the beans—for real, they can sometimes have tiny rocks in them that have escaped the sorting process in production. But then simply drain after soaking, fill a large (8 quart or so) pot with new water, bring them to a boil, and then lower to a simmer and cover. They should be done in an hour or so, with times depending on bean size and your elevation. Science, man. It’s a good idea to just check them regularly, adding water as needed and removing from heat once the beans taste good and have a nice, slightly firmer than canned beans texture.

In the meantime, dice the onions into small, roughly 1/2-inch pieces or smaller and chop the peeled, smashed garlic into small chunks. Throw onions into a cast iron skillet with warmed olive oil and cook over medium-low heat until the onions start to become translucent and brown at the edges a little (about ten minutes). Don’t let them blacken though. Now throw your garlic in and cook for about five minutes, after which time it should be giving off a nice, pungent, savory smell.

For the mushrooms, we usually de-cap them, slicing the caps into small pieces and setting the stems aside to cut separately once we’re done with the caps. The two parts of the mushroom tend to have very different textures—the caps, being soft + spongy; the stems, tough + meaty. Both lend well to the texture of the finished chili, they’re just easier to first separate before chopping. Once ready, throw in with the cooking onions and garlic and sauté for ten minutes or so, allow the flavors to mingle and the mushroom to cook down and brown a bit. Add the hickory smoke, quickly stir and cover so the mixture absorbs the smoke taste, cooking for about five minutes. Uncover again and stir, scraping the mixture from the bottom of the pan if need. Cover and cook for another five minutes, again, allowing the mushroom to cook down and brown.

While that’s all going on, in a small bowl, whisk together with a fork the soy sauce and agave and then add to the mushroom-onion-garlic mixture along with your diced chipotle peppers. With the peppers, you can always add more later if you like, so maybe a good idea to add a fewer up front and then taste to test the heat of the mixture to try to gauge how that’ll affect the spiciness of the finished chili. Essentially, what you’re doing right now is creating the concentrated base for the chili, so flavors should be slightly more intense than what you’d want in the finished product, but not crazy-hot. Unless you like crazy-hot.

Simmer for another five minutes, covered, adding a bit of water or vegetable broth if the mixture starts to dry out or sticks too much. Add diced poblano peppers, again about 1/2-inch pieces or smaller, cooking covered for five minutes or until the peppers become deep green, but not too dark or too soft. It’s a good to test the raw poblanos after de-seeding and cutting them up. Depending on the size + age of the pepper and the season, they can vary greatly in spiciness. Again, maybe a good idea to add slowly and test the heat of the mixture as you go.

Once your beans are finished cooking in the large pot, gauge how much liquid is left. A little bean stock is a nice flavor enhancer for the finished chili, but you don’t want them to be too watery or you’ll spend a lot of time cooking off that extra liquid. Once you’re feeling good about it though, throw in your diced + crushed tomatoes.

Carefully toss your skillet mixture into the large pot with the beans and tomatoes, add your spices (chili powder, black pepper, smoked paprika, berbere, bay leaves, and cinnamon), gently stir, and cover, cooking over low heat.

A few quick notes on the spices: First, berbere, while a great flavor, isn’t 100% necessary if you can’t find it. It’s a wonderful mixture—giving you a sweet, smokey, exotic edge—but you can easily substitute it with a little more smoke paprika (which is actually an ingredient in some people’s versions of berbere). If you eat a lot of Ethiopian food, it’s that taste of that one red lentil dish that everyone loves, for reference. Then bay leaves—we recently discovered fresh bay leaves at the farmers’ market and some spice retailers selling bright green, relatively fresh ones in grocery stores for not much more that their older, run-of-the-mill, dried-out brown counterparts—highly recommended. It’s like another flavor altogether. Finally, if at all possible, we totally recommend buying a fine spice grater and hand-grating cinnamon in this recipe and any other. You’ll never look back.

Back to the chili—bring everything to a low simmer and give it a careful taste (make sure it’s not too hot). Need more heat? Add spices as you see fit or reserved chopped chipotle peppers? Add salt to taste and then simmer covered on low for one hour, stirring every so often to make sure it’s circulating and the bottom isn’t burning at all. Serve and enjoy. Freeze leftovers for a nice, quick meal of chili boats, chili dogs, vegan chili cheese fries, or chili anything, really.

It’s that time of year again—when normal, relatively sane sports fans go…MAAAAAAAAAD.

For us—long-time not-basketball fans—it should mean missing out on all this fevered bracket work and yelling at the TV. But we very much dislike being left out. So what’s a graphic designer with little to no knowledge on this strange “hand-soccer” game to do? Find something else to scrutinize, obviously; namely, their logos.

We first brought you our Logo March Madness in 2011, when the Longhorns took it all (solid logo). Then, again, last year, when our very own alma mater and proud possessor of one of the worst logos of all time,  James Madison, made it into the playoffs for the briefest of moments.

So, for the third year, and just in the nick of time, we give you raven + crow studio’s MARCH MADNESS VISUAL BRANDING BRACKETS!!!  Click the brackets to the right to see a larger version.

As with years past, our judgments on visual branding and team logos have absolutely no bearing whatsoever on actual games…but we do wish the very best to teams choosing solid branding over, say, weird contorted animals and mid-century script fonts.

First off, we tip our hats to the many schools with newly redesign logos, first and foremost to VCU, who literally debuted a solid new mark days ago, incorporating their mascot (the ram) in a nice, subtle way in the V of the logotype. Also redesigned last year, UCONN’s logo which used to look very much like a dog our dog would like to hump (to the right)—such flowing locks; and that tongue! The San Diego State Aztecs ditched the old-school gold outline and went with a more up-to-date, flat design and a slightly more square layout—we highly approve the more useable logo. And the Creighton Blue Jays—awesome. That bird looks badass. And he used to look like an angry nerd.

So, in most cases, our take on sports logos is that they tend to be too sports logo—too much angry animal; too ‘shiny’; too EXTREME. Beyond that, our thoughts on what make a good sports brand mirror what we think makes for a good brand for anyone—keep it simple, don’t try to jam too many ideas or too much text in there, be unique, and be compelling. One exception that made it further than it likely should have—the extra-EXTREME New Mexico Lobos. They just kept going up against nearly equally bad logos.

So, after an initial bout with—what, an HP Lovecraft-esque rooster?—our winner, the University of Virginia, proves that a clean, simple  logo with both a refinement that points back to their scholarly origins and a sports-appropriate level of edginess is a perfect fit for a university athletic team. Well-done, UVA.

Let us know what you think on our Facebook page, where we’ve posted the brackets as well. And good luck, everyone!

Three or so years ago, we were lucky enough to be invited to a showcase set up by Barsuk Records at Mercury Lounge. The show was essentially a warm-up set before the excellent Mates of State set out on a gigantic tour, and the Mates were, of course, superb. To be expected.

Unexpectedly, though, then-recent label-mates, Yellow Ostrich also really impressed us at the time. Two albums and years later, they continue to do so today. With a new album—Cosmos—just out, a slew of just-played SXSW shows now behind them, and a US tour underway, we thought we’d catch up with frontman, Alex Schaaf (above, second from left), to talk about the band origins, how growing from a two- to a four-piece has changed their sound, and muuuuuuuuuuurder.

raven + crow: Alright, Alex, first off, thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. We’ve been fans ever since we randomly caught you opening for Mates of State at that Mercury Lounge Barsuk showcase a while back. 2011, maybe? Can you tell us how the band started—I read that you and Michael met when you opened as a solo act for his old band, Bishop Allen? We totally loved those guys.

Alex Schaaf: Bishop Allen came to my school (in WI) to play a show, and I convinced the booking committee (of which i was a member) to let me open the show as Yellow Ostrich—it was the first YO show i ever played. It was just me and a floor tom and looping pedals. I think i played “WHALE” and four other songs. I met Michael there, and then I moved to NY a few months later and got in touch with him again.

Some of my favorite bands back in the nineties were guitar-drum two-pieces—The Spinanes, Kicking Giant…. Did you all make a conscious decision to grow the band beyond a two-piece at any point or was it more natural?

We played for a couple of months as a two piece, but it was a relatively quick decision to expand to three people — it was just way too much work to do everything we wanted to do with two people. A two-piece is great if the music you want to make fits two people, but the music we wanted to make was much bigger, so we needed more people to make it happen.

And we hear Jon (bass, horns) has moved on and you now play as a four-piece, correct?

Yes we have two new guys, Jared and Zach, who joined over a year ago, before we started working on Cosmos.

How has that changed your live show, besides making it…louder?

It feels much bigger and looser—with four people it’s easier to expand the sound and create different things than you can with three. And with four people we don’t need to loop things as much, so we’re barely looping at all now, which is pretty exciting. It’s more rewarding right now to just play the songs and react to each other live, rather than laying down a loop that’s rigid and unchanging, which you have to try and stay on top of throughout the song. It’s really fun now to be able to play everything without having to loop it, just a natural progression.

Yeah, I totally think that every time I see someone doing the looping live thing—it must be so constrictive some times. So, as with the veering away from looping, how else do you see the band and song-writing growing or evolving with the new album?

With this one it was a very collaborative process, and with four people there’s always going to be different ideas and influences swirling around, so it’s exciting to see what comes out in the end. I feel like the band is taking steps towards a sound that’s more intuitive and pulsing, something you feel in your chest instead of hear in your head.

That’s really exciting. And totally something I think you can track and hear in the work chronologically. Now, you all have a history of odd, slightly creepy, photo-based album art. Can you break down the cover for Cosmos for us? Is that a pre-existing photo or something that was made for the album?

It’s a still from a video by Bas Jan Ader, a Dutch artist from the 60s-70s. He did a series of short films where he claimed his artistic medium was ‘gravity’—they are all just people falling down, but not in a Jackass way, in a way that makes the act of falling seem profound somehow. So the cover art is a still from one of those videos, captured mid-fall obviously.

Oh, that’s cool. We’ll totally have to look into his work. Speaking of videos, I think the first one I saw of your’s was for “WHALE”—one of my favorites from The Mistress. Was that you jumping from the cliff or was that a stunt double?

Oh that’s me. I had to overcome several phobias to do that shoot—a fear of heights and a fear of swimming. And we had to do 7-8 takes of that, each of which was progressively more terrifying somehow.

Good god. Well the final product seems worth it…though I can say that since it wasn’t me being terrified. Where was that? Looked like Saugerties or thereabouts….

Yeah, it was somewhere in upstate NY.

True or made-up Wikipedia thing—Michael won Beard of the Year Award from MTV two years running?

Made-up Wikipedia thing!

I fuckin’ knew it! Speaking of Michael, every time we’ve seen you guys live, he’s had so much going on. He’s not your everyday rock drummer with a standard trap set. I assume he’s keeping that musical eccentricity up?

He’s really found his own sound and style with the kit. At this point, it seems so natural that I don’t even think about it being ‘different’ or eccentric, it’s just a different way of approaching the drums. It’s definitely very impressive how he can play both regular kit (which he does with the other bands he’s played with), and this set-up, without blinking an eye.

Totally agree. It lends a great, unique sound to an already unique-sounding band—we love the fact that you all aren’t content with just being your standard catchy indie band. But how does your song-writing work? Most songs seem like yours, so to speak, and I’m assuming they get built out in practice. Is that way off?

I tend to write the main framework of the songs, like the chords and melodies, and then I send them to the other guys and they get fleshed out in terms of arrangements and textures. Like, I’ll start out with a simple beat on a demo, and by the time Michael’s done with it, it’s much more expansive and nuanced.

That’s awesome. I bet there are a lot of bands out there that’s like a ‘mail order’ system kinda like that. “Dude, make this song I wrote even more awesome, thank you.”

You’ve been at this a while now—what would you say makes for compelling performances, musical or otherwise?

I think a compelling live performance happens when you feel like the artist is really taking a risk and putting themselves out there. In terms of performance, I like when the band feels right on the brink of “total genius” and “this could fall apart at any minute”. Sometimes when things are too polished and practiced it can feel a little stale.

One hundred percent. The inevitable influences question—who would you say feeds into your work creatively?

We all have such different tastes and influences that it’s hard to name one or two artists. Somewhere near the crossing point of Jimi Hendrix and Leonard Cohen.

That’s oddly fitting. Favorite thing about Brooklyn?

The fact that right now I could be at 6 different record stores within a 5-minute walk from my house.

I assume you live in Williamsburg then. And LA? Favorite thing?

The ocean.

Band you can’t stop listening to of late?

Lately I’ve been non-stop listening to Kendrick Lamar. Also Jai Paul.

No shit! Man, we wrote Jai Paul up in 2010 because that dude’s song “BTSTU” blew us away so much. His music is nuts.

Okay, finally, if you’d be so kind as to indulge us—tell us one crazy thing about you or the band that you always wish would come up in an interview but never does. Totally having you do my job for me….

Michael once killed a man. But he wasn’t caught, so that’s why we don’t talk about it in interviews. Oh……shit….where’s the delete button….does ‘send’ mean delete?….lemme try that…..

Aaaaaaaand scene.

You can buy Yellow Ostrich’s excellent new full-length, Cosmos, online and at fine record stores everywhere—walk to your nearest one now and pick it up; you’ll be glad you did. LA—hopefully you caught the band at the Echo last night; the rest of the country can see them live with (the also excellent) Pattern is Movement as they make their way back to New York for a homecoming show at the Bowery April 4. Full list of tour dates on the band’s site.

Last year, we got an out-of-the-blue email from a group we’d never heard of called This Good World. Most of the time, those emails hold links to low-cost Canadian pharmaceuticals, Nigerian prices in need of financial help, or ways to “please my lady in the bedroom” (hey-O!).

Luckily, This Good World wasn’t interested in any of that. No, they were actually in the midst of their initial membership building for their new Web service which aims to become a sort of craigslist or Angie’s List for customers who like their consumerism to have a benevolent edge.

We wanted to find out more about the idea behind TGW, so we talked with founders, Gavin Thomas + Lisa Kribs-LaPierre (above).

raven + crow: So, first off, for anyone who doesn’t already know, tell us what This Good World is.

Gavin Thomas + Lisa Kribs-LaPierre: This Good World is a platform that connects and supports good businesses so individuals can more easily discovery and support them, too.

Succinct; I like it. So how did it start—what made you all think of this in the first place?

It really started as a “scratch our own itch” project. We always had a tough time finding businesses that share the same values as us. We like supporting businesses and organizations that do really great things…it was just too hard to find them.

Makes sense. So how did you find the businesses that were involved up front? Like, how did you find us?

We spent a lot of time researching companies of all different shapes, sizes, industries and structures in our initial target cities. We identified a good mix of different types of companies doing different types of good and reached out to them directly. It was really important to us to not only highlight different types of business members right out of the gate, but also bring in businesses and organizations that could offer unique specialties and resources when the time comes for them to collaborate with one another to bring more good to the world.

Cool. Now, this is a broad one, but how do you define ‘good’?

Our short answer: This Good World never wants to be the judge of who or what is “good” or “not good enough” (passes/fails, wins/loses, etc.). The step up to that pedestal is too high for us, so we’d rather not try to go there.

Long version: Most importantly, we recognize and celebrate that we (as individuals) probably each define good differently on some level. That set the stage for our approach to the purposeful lack of definition or judgement of what’s good and what’s not. Through This Good World, each business gets to highlight what they think is “good,” while each individual who visits the site gets to decide who they want to support based on their individual interpretation of good. There are a lot of certification agencies and orgs out there that set out to define good by a list or test and tell others what ‘good’ is. We really admire and support these organizations. However, we just happen to believe ‘good’ should be left up to everyone individually. We also believe good of all sizes deserves to be highlighted, celebrated and supported on an equal playing field. While the so-called “impact scale” of varying types of good may differ, the importance of each bit of good is equally great.

Yeah, I imagine you’d never do anything but deliberate if you got caught up in the whole “good enough” debate on individual members. Do you feel like you all are re-creating something that used to exist maybe more naturally in smaller, less…connected societies? Like town hall meetings?

Funny you should mention this.

Our approach and collaborative mission is based on the recognition of “how it used to be.” Businesses, especially in small towns, seemed to come together in one room to talk about problems, challenges, objectives, events…the list goes on…all centered around ways they could use their business or organization resources to make their town a better place. Individuals in that town knew which businesses were making these extra efforts and, more often than not, those were the ones they supported. Given the hyperconnection and technologies we have today, why can’t we do this on a much larger scale? We think we can.

Yeah, it’s funny, when you think about it—and I’m sure much more agile minds than mine have tackled this concept with more depth + success—but the internet may give us the ability for the first time ever to be a large, yet still healthy, peaceful society via more effective communication. I don’t want to come across as a doe-eyed dreamer, but I’ve always thought that, for the most part, if you set any two people down for long enough, no matter how different they are, they’ll get along eventually because they’ll grow closer and closer to understanding each other. And the further a group gets from that initial concept and the more a society grows, the harder communication gets. But now we have the means to communicate instantly and so effectively. Was that something you all were trying to tap into somewhat…or am I just rambling at this point?

Love your way of thinking on the background of this question. We definitely agree. Today’s technology has a funny way of making the world feel smaller. Targeted discussion around one particular goal (in this case, doing more good) can lead to real action…and real action at scale.

Nice. So you all launched in, what, mid-January? How’s it going so far?

Things are great! We’re loving reading the stories of all these amazing brands and organizations who are doing good. It’s really, truly inspirational for us and makes what we’re doing fun. 

Awesome. Post-launch, do you all have a new phase of work you’re in now? Are you focusing on finding more businesses to bring in or…something else?

We have a ton going on post launch, but really have three main focuses right now:
First, we’re definitely focused on growing our membership and user/visitor community.
Second, we’re actively starting to push out content and the stories about our current members and the good they are doing. We’ve gotten a ton of positive response from this content and are super pumped that it’s providing a good amount of support to our members. We’ve had a surprising amount of “we went there because of what we saw/read” or “one of our customers mentioned This Good World,” which is really exciting for us this early in the game. We’re going to do as much sharing and storytelling as possible.
Third, we’re really focusing on the collaboration piece—both building the on-site tools our members can use to talk to one another and making direct introductions between current members that we think can do really great things together.

From a technical/design sense, one good problem I could see you all having with the map interface is getting too many participants making it really hard to find what you’re searching for. Any plans to add a filter-by-service/-product kind of filter or anything?

We’ll be rolling out some cool filters for the map soon…stay tuned.

Nice. As of now, it looks like you all are covering stateside and then a company in Manchester—any plans to pull in companies from other countries?

The current international members actually reached out to us, which was great. We stress inclusion and openness with this platform, so we definitely didn’t want to turn them away. We’re focusing our outreach on the US right now, but definitely plan to move beyond that geographically when it makes sense.

Want to give a quick shout-out to any awesome and/or interestingly quirky This Good World businesses that people might like to hear about?

There’s a really great creative agency called raven + crow out in LA that we really dig!

Oh, stop.

Beyond that, we can honestly say that each member has their own really awesome story, so it’s genuinely hard to give a shout out to individual ones. That said, we are telling some individual stories through our site and social channels, so we recommend checking those out!

Not to make this into a crummy commercial, but, for any business-owners reading this who might want to get involved, what’s the best way to do so?

Really simple – just head to thisgoodworld.com/join to see the different options of membership and select the one that makes the most sense.

And say someone doesn’t own a business, per se, but wants to get involved—anything they can do?

On an individual level, we threw together a page that details some ways to get involved, but, mainly, just checking out the site and supporting our members either with their wallets or voices, and following us on twitter/facebook where we spread the good word and invite everyone else to, too.

Superb!

You can find out more about This Good World on their site and/or the group’s Facebook page. And, if you haven’t already, feel free to check out their spotlight piece on us from a little while back.

KCRW’s got a full album stream going on The War on Drugs‘ new full-length, Lost in the Dream—in stores and available for purchase online tomorrow.

We were big fans of their sophomore record, Slave Ambient, and critics are already calling this follow-up one of the best albums of the year so far. An aural locomotive train that undulates between straight-forward, foot-tapping, rock-yelp-filled songs and slow, chugging, emotional ones, the album showcases frontman Adam Granduciel’s song-writing and strikes us being suffused with the energy of a live show.

You can hear the lead single form the album, “Red Eyes”, below. You’ll like it, so follow up with a click-through to KCRW’s stream and start the album off with its proper opener—the nine-minute-long “Under The Pressure”.

The War on Drugs’ shows in NYC, LA, SF, and their home town of Philly are all sold out, but the rest of you still have a shot.

Photo by Graham Tolbert.

One day, in 1995, my good friend and inevitable band-mate, Meredith, stopped me in the college dining hall, handed me his headphones, and told me I needed to listen to something immediately.

That something was Illinois band Hum’s song “Stars” and, being the obliging emo kid I was—Sunny Day, Braid, Split Lip early 90s emo; not Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance aughts mall emo—I stood in the corner of the dining hall and gently rocked to the awesomeness that was that song, clutching my backpack straps all the while.

Listening to current day Philadelphia band Nothing, I’m immediately transported back to that dining hall in all its fuzzy, distorted, shoe-gazey glory. Nothing’s not 100% derivative of 90s noise pop, but it’s clearly taking its cues from that era, and I unabashedly love it, original or not.

Turns out, the band and its sound is a sort of catharsis for its founder, Domenic Palermo, who formed Nothing after a particularly violent part of his life that ended in him stabbing another man and serving a two-year sentence in jail. “Saying I wrote a lot in there would be a huge understatement,” Palermo told the Deli magazine. ” I have always felt like I was covered by a wet blanket of isolation, but prison really heightened that for me. It’s the kind of thing that stays with you throughout life I think. The alone in a crowd type of thing, drifting thoughts during other people’s meaningless conversations. It’s a sad place. It comes through in the songwriting.”

Listen to Nothing’s…aptly named debut full-length, Guilty of Everything, below. You can buy it in physical form from their label, long-time metal outfit, Relapse, and digitally via iTunes. If you like to support stabbers!!!

I kid. Nothing plays Beerland this afternoon and the Fader Fort tomorrow.

And since we opted out of giving you a pick yesterday, today’s a twofer!

Taking a sudden, sharp, sunny corner musically, we’re also calling out a long-time favorite of ours, pop singer-songwriter, Madi Diaz.

Though the sound’s a world away, Diaz does share with Nothing roots in Philly, where she attended the Paul Green School of Rock, which actually resulted in being featured in the popular documentary, Rock School. Having survived that, Diaz went on to attend the slightly more conventional Berklee College of Music before moving to Nashville and, eventually, settling here in Los Angeles recently.

She currently lists her interests as “writing music that even our friends might like (ie not just our immidiate families), ponies, shiny objects” on her Facebook page and her influences as “pine trees. mountains. you.” Aw.

See if you can hear the pine trees below. If you like these tracks, we highly recommend purchasing her 2012 full-length, Plastic Moon.

For the thriftier individuals out there, head over to NoiseTrade, where you can download a three-song sampler of the album for whatever amount of money you see fit. At the very least, make sure you download the track “Let’s Go”—it’s seriously one of my favorite songs ever.

It looks like Madi’s done with official SXSW showcases—she “killed it” at Buffalo Billiards Tuesday, accordingly—so keep an eye on her Facebook page for coming shows to support her sophomore full-length, due out this year.

Our hearts are with you in Austin today.

Just that.

Next on our SXSW dance card, Syracuse band Perfect Pussy.

First off, insider’s tip—if you happen to write for a Web site that covers music and plan to write about the band, I advise that you search “perfect pussy band” when looking for photos and/or information. Just an FYI.

So, the name.

For the many that immediately recoil, there’s an explanation. According to Katie Presley at NPR—”Singer Meredith Graves describes it as a projection of self-esteem; a sort of heading off at the gate for potential detractors. Even the harshest, most personal critiques aimed at Graves, her body, her story or the band have to include an aggressively pro-female signifier.”

Who can’t get behind that?

A lot of people, I’m sure, but I’m into. For me, Perfect Pussy harkens back to my love of bands like Huggy Bear + Bikini Kill, both in sound and in principle. They’re not fucking around, and that’s apparent in the name of the band and in the impact of the songs. If you want to listen to Perfect Pussy, if you want to be in the audience—virtually or physically—you have to say the name; you have to listen to the lyrics that are being thrown into your face. Perfect Pussy doesn’t do background music.

Check out their live performance of “III” below + check out their brand new track, “Driver”, to see what I’m talking about. If it’s your thing, you can buy their EP, I Have Lost All Desire for Feeling, via their Bandcamp page. Better yet, NPR’s got a First Listen of their full-length, Say Yes To Love. And it’s excellent.

The kinda crazy/awesome box set of the album—pictured to the right—is sold out already…as is, the first pressing, which had Graves’ actual blood mixed in with the vinyl; but you can order the standard, bloodless edition CD or LP (out next week) via Captured Tracks.

LA—PP’s playing the Bootleg next Wednesday. Get tickets while they’re still available.

I feel like this should end with a dick joke, but I’ve got nothing. Listen/watch below + enjoy.

Now that the South by Southwest Music Festival has officially started—no, seriously, it just started today…it’s getting to be like Christmas; next thing you know, we’ll start seeing “pre-SXSW” shows in January. Anyway, now that it’s officially started, we thought we’d begin sharing our picks for bands that, were we there this year, we’d want to see.

We’ll skip the long-time favorites playing the fest, like Magic Man, Wild Cub, or Oberhofer (AKA Broberhofer), who have perhaps graced these pages often as is and go straight to our new obsessions of late.

First up—NYC’s Big Ups, a band that, if you’re anything like me, will suddenly make want to relive your early high school moshing days. Check out their video for “Goes Black” below to see what I mean. You’ll also find an album stream for their debut full-length, Eighteen Hours of Static, down there.

Big Ups play Hotel Vegas Friday.

Also, what the fuck, South by? Coldplay? 50 Cent? Seriously?

We’ll keep up the SXSW posting for the rest of the week. Stay tuned!

Band photo: Dylan Johnson