Other Landis news: in a match that seems blatantly obvious yet wonderfully apropos, Upright Citizens Brigade theater in L.A. is using Corey’s demo for See You Next Tuesday as the opening theme for their show of the same name. Go check out their great shows (some of which are FREE).

The song will be re-recorded for Corey’s next record, due “around the same time Christ the Lord returns.” He said it, we supplied the gratuitous link.

For now, check it out over at Corey’s site.

Today at 5 PM EST Bull City are going to be playing a full-on rock show live on the air on 88.7 FM WXDU Durham. Those of you outside of the Durham/Chapel Hill area can listen live on the WXDU.org website.

We realize that this notice is a little late (our bad!) but please tune in if you can! And thanks to host (and Triangle rock guru) Ross Grady for having both Bryk and Bull City on this summer.

Sunday, 8/26 @ 5 PM
WXDU Durham, 88.7 FM
http://www.wxdu.org/listen/index.html

Discount Store is finally available from the Bryk’s UM Shop, NotLame.com, a variety of online retailers and Triangle retail stores including Schoolkids Records (Raleigh and Chapel Hill), Offbeat Music (Durham) and CD Alley (Chapel Hill).

Bryk has two Triangle radio interviews booked this month: the first at The Triangle’s News and Information Station WPTF 680 (“the home of Rush Limbaugh in the Triangle”, no, really) this Saturday July 21 at 10pm, as a guest on the Bob Langford show. We’re chatting about the local music scene, etc… not politics! (Sorry, out-of-towners, no webcast, but we’ll try to tape it for posterity.)

He will also appear (and perform live) on Ross Grady‘s WXDU show, Sunday July 29th between 5 and 7. That show will be webcast.

Discount Store entered the WXDU chart at #24 this week, and was a new add last week at WXYC Chapel Hill. It’s currently in (and we quote) “heavy rotation” at WKNC.

Finally, here’s some early Discount Store bloggery:

songs:Illinois

Absolute Power Pop

STICK (we really have NO IDEA what that means.)


Dan Bryk

Well, THAT happened quick!

Intrepid reporter Ryan Teague Beckwith broke the story of our good-natured hoax on the FRONT FREAKING PAGE of yesterday’s Raleigh News & Observer. (Talk about a slow news day!) There’s even a Bryk pic!

Mr. Beckwith, who also writes the N&O’s “Under The Dome” state politics blog claims to have figured out Bryk/tha Commish’s dual identity by following his email IP like breadcrumbs… but we know that one of you gave us up 😉

Tha Commissioners have clocked over 2000 myspace hits since yesterday morning. Cherry Berry is not only free to play and download, but appears as a hidden bonus track on Bryk’s new EP Discount Store.

Read the whole story on the N&O website.

From The News & Observer’s Under the Dome Political Blog:

Who are Tha Commissioners?

Submitted by ryanteaguebeckwith on July 6, 2007 – 9:15am.
Tags: Cherie Berry | Under the Dome

The head of the music label for a song about Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry says he doesn’t know who recorded it.

Dan Bryk, who runs the Urban Myth Recording Collective, told Dome that he received a copy of the song Cherry Berry in an elaborately mysterious manner.

“We got that CD in an envelope wrapped in lead with plastic and a little foil,” he said. “They actually baked some cookies and had them in foil on top of the package. It was quite nice.”

Bryk gave a copy of the song to WKNC, the student radio station of N.C. State. He said it’s been on heavy rotation on the station and is even getting requests.

He called “Tha Commissioners” — the name for the unknown band — “a rock ‘n’ roll machine” and said that he’s glad to hear that Berry likes the song.

“I wish I had a way to tell them,” he said.

Link: Who are Tha Commissioners? (N&O Site) Continue reading

Dan Bryk is one of the subjects profiled in a Fourth of July-themed article in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill Independent Weekly. Writes Grayson Currin:

“Here—during this most paramount of American holidays—we profile two local musicians whose recent addition to the Triangle has added new questions, sounds and ideas, and another, whose progressive bent on an old form proves that molds are meant to be re-imagined…” Continue reading

We have received word that the Dan Bryk (and co-writer Erin K. McGinn) song Great Adventure (from Dan Bryk Christmas Record) has been first-draft nominated to the 2006 ECHO Songwriting Prize, presented by SOCAN. The ECHO Prize is “designed to identify what’s next and what’s best in current independent music.” Last year’s winner was Propaghandi (how cool is that?) and the runner-ups were Laura Barrett, Wolf Parade, Final Fantasy and the Stills. We’re talking dark horse precedent here. But Bryk still needs to make it to the public round, when Canada gets to vote on one of the five finalists. Try not to think of it as Canadian Indie Idol.

In other Bryk news, Discount Store has been “upgraded” at the last minute, with one new song, and a secret CD-only bonus track. The street date is now July 24th.

You can listen to it for free with the nifty Reverbnation Tunepak player.

Now we’re gonna dust off a stubby, hop on the couch with a bowl of hickory sticks and watch Souvenir of Canada. Happy Canada Day!

Dan Bryk will release a new 5-track EP Discount Store in partnership with Raleigh media collective Firefly Music.

This will be the first time UM and Firefly have formally collaborated, although Bryk sang two lines on The Tourist‘s Firefly debut CD “Not Now, Nor Ever” (a flavour the ever-guileless Tourist returned by guesting on Discount Store’s second track “Normal”).

After “hooking up”, Bryk and the Firefly music principals were impressed by their thoroughly complimentary skillz and tendencies to Mac fetishism.

The EP’s five tracks include two versions of “Discount Store”, one of which will appear on Bryk’s forthcoming long-player Pop Psychology and three new tracks that will not appear elsewhere, including a cover of the Furniture’s 1985 lost classic “I Miss You”.

Discount Store (the EP) was recorded in about eight different studios and living rooms between Toronto and the Triangle, Discount Store (the song) was mixed by Greg Wells at his Rocket Carousel Studio in LA, while everything else was mixed at Bryk’s Raleigh studio Flabby Road.

The EP features long-time collaborators (guitarist Swinghammer, vocalist Kathryn Rose, Supers/Sarah Harmer bassist Maury Lafoy) some new folks (Australian singer-songwriter Greta Gertler, English guitarist Tim Carless, Jason Collett/Feist drummer Josh Hicks) and a veritable support group of UM artists including Chris Warren, Chris Staig, Down By Avalon’s Alan Martin, and Bull City’s Jim Brantley.)

Discount Store cover and tracklisting: Continue reading

Bull City’s debut Guns & Butter entered the WXDU (Duke) charts this week at #5. The album is also getting steady play on WXYC (UNC Chapel Hill), WKNC Raleigh (thanks for the Urban Myth props Stevo!) and unexpectedly yet gratifyingly, local commercial rock station 96 ROCK (WBBB), who apparently really do put their money where their mouth is when it comes to playing local rock bands.

Thanks to everyone playing the record!

Bryan Reed of the Daily Tar Heel writes:

“It’s been said (too much probably) that you can never really go home. But cliched and pessimistic proverbs don’t stand in the way of Bull City’s effort to craft a record that harks back to country-bred classic rock.

The result of that effort is the seven-track EP Guns & Butter. At times, the relatively new band lays the twang on a bit too heavy (”Ford Ranger All American”), but when the band hits its groove with a rootsy, retro, and most importantly, rocking variety of Americana rock ‘n’ roll, as on the guitar fueled “Game” or the poppy, jangly “Easy.”

Though relatively new as a band, Bull City is built on the talents of music veterans from acts including Dillon Fence and My Dear Ella. And flanked with additional support from the likes of Dan Bryk, Schooner’s Kathryn Johnson and Megan Culton, and Mark Paulson of Ticonderoga and Bowerbirds, Guns & Butter is a debut album from a seasoned band, one that generally knows what works. So when Bull City tries on a little rockabilly with “Sally,” it doesn’t feel forced, just unexpected.

The EP proves Bull City to be a band fully capable of producing solid rock music, one that is welcome into Durham’s increasingly relevant music community.

David Menconi of the Raleigh News & Observer suggests:

“This weekend has a trio of album-release shows from some of the area’s finest bands. Jim Brantley’s Bull City unveils “Guns & Butter” (Urban Myth Recordings), an album featuring veritable truckloads of killer guitars, tonight at Durham’s 305 South.”

Rich Ivey of the Independent opines:

“Like the sonically similar Wilco, Durham’s Bull City melds the pop cognizance of Alex Chilton, the face-peeling passion of Neil Young and the empirical studio slight-handedness of Jim O’Rourke. And while Ex-Ashley Stove and Bull City guitarist/vocalist Jim Brantley certainly wanders the same hook-laden turf as Jeff Tweedy, he isn’t emulating. Instead, Bull City’s first EP (barring an early CD-R), Guns & Butter, is a stunning execution of how rewarding Southern music can be when next-generation indie rockers gaze at the Archers and Allmans with equal admiration.

Over seven tracks, Guns & Butter tastefully twists styles through Brantley’s cultured songwriting and penchant for harmonies and licks. The band ebbs between swaggering hard rock, country-fried pop and delicately orchestrated arrangements, only falling short for five of the EP’s 30 minutes. Goofy saloon stomp ballad “Sally” breaks its forming momentum, but upbeat tracks like “Game,” “Everything Falls Apart” and “Knock It Down” soar with fine hooks and standout instrumentation. Bandmates Lance Westerlund, John Kurtz and Scott Carle prove essential. Slower tracks “Easy” and “Runnin'” are both lyrically and musically mature, offering some of the EP’s strongest and most dynamic moments. Ass-kicking opener “Ford Ranger All American” includes the line “I’ve got a double-barrel in my doublewide/ It ain’t about livin’ on cinderblocks, it’s ’bout American pride.” Is there a Grammy for kicking ass?

Guns & Butter is too good not to transform Bull City from another local ex-member band into a crucial part of the Triangle’s music scene. It’s not a stellar local debut. It’s a stellar release.”

Bull City plays their CD release tomorrow, Friday, May 18, at 9 p.m. at 305 South, with a solo set by The Old Ceremony’s Django Haskins and Charlotte’s The Sammies

More Bull City shows: Continue reading