A Good Read, a Good Listen, and a Good Drink: The Imperial Rooster

 

It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

One of the best perks about this music blogging gig is the like-minded friends you can make. I got to know Dusty Vinyl thanks to the appearance of everyone’s favorite porch-dwellers The Imperial Rooster at the inaugural Couch by Couchwest in the spring of 2011, and the … Continue reading

Support Your Friendly, Neighborhood Rooster

We love DIY bands to pieces here at NTSIB since we’re DIY ourselves. And like most DIY bands, we’re broke-ass broke, so we understand their plight. Our friends in the Imperial Rooster aren’t on a label, not even a little one, so while they have released their new album Decent People, it pretty much only consists of 1s and 0s at this point. So, they’ve gotten themselves up a Kickstarter campaign to help them release the new album on vinyl and CD.

And they have some exceptional prizes, from the rad Rooster T-shirt to test pressing vinyl to a show at your house to, my personal favorite, a personal music mix from drummer Dusty Vinyl (he’s got great taste in music, y’all). There are even more great incentives than I’ve listed here. And if you follow NTSIB and have seen our other posts about the Imperial Rooster, you know they’re a band worth backing. So, stop on over at the Rooster Kickstarter page and pledge what you can. Even if it’s only a dollar. They’ll love you for it, and so will we.

The Imperial Rooster @ Kickstarter

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Roosters on the Porch

The Imperial Rooster returns to the porch where we first found them during Couch By Couchwest. Well, clearly, they were on the porch while the rest of us were on the collective couch. But we were all drunk, and that’s what matters.

The Imperial Rooster is going to sing you into the weekend with a selection of songs from their new album, Decent People. When you’re left wanting more, you can click that Bandcamp link at the end of the post and get you more.

 

Anything Goes At A Rooster Show (Rooster Anthem)


Watch this video on YouTube

 

Korhn Sirup Sundae


Watch this video on YouTube

 

McGinty’s


Watch this video on YouTube

 

The Imperial Rooster @ Bandcamp

The Imperial Rooster @ Facebook

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The Imperial Rooster: Decent People

 

Booze, drugs, deer people, suicide, internet pornography, fire, brimstone, L. Ron Hubbard and domestic violence… that’s right, it’s time for a new album from the Imperial Rooster.

On Decent People, the Imperial Rooster once again mixes the sublime with the absurd to create the perfect soundtrack to your damnation. Check out my favorite track, “The Vintage.”

 

The Vintage by The Imperial Rooster

 

The band recently played Frogfest 6 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they rocked another new song, “DWI Marijuana Blues”.

 


Watch this video on YouTube

 

This Saturday, June 11, the Imperial Rooster will be playing the Thirsty Ear Festival alongside the Handsome Family, Calexico, the Cedric Burnside Project and others.

Decent People is available now via Bandcamp.

 

The Imperial Rooster @ Bandcamp

The Imperial Rooster @ Facebook

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Bits: Booker T. Jones, Buddy Holly, Willie Nelson’s Country Throwdown, The Kills, Strand of Oaks, The Imperial Rooster,

  • Booker T. Jones’ new album The Road from Memphis is out today. You can see and hear his recent Tiny Desk Concert for NPR here.
  • Fantasy Records will be putting out a Buddy Holly tribute album, Rave On Buddy Holly, on June 28, and the contributor list is wild. You can hear the Black Keys’ contribution, a cover of “Dearest”, here. And if you visit Liza Richardson’s May 7 KCRW show, you can hear Modest Mouse’s take on “That’ll Be the Day” (at the 6:00 mark) and Cee-Lo doing “(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care” (around 36:35).
  • A free 8-song sampler from artists on Willie Nelson’s Country Throwdown Tour, including Austin Lucas, is available from iTunes.
  • Take a trip over to Vinyl Hounds to see a cool mini documentary about the Kills.
  • KDHX has a live in-studio set from the always beautiful Strand of Oaks.
  • A reminder that our friends The Imperial Rooster will be playing at El Farol in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on May 10 at 6 PM MST and the set will be broadcast live on Radio Free Santa … Continue reading

Bits: The Imperial Rooster, Bang Bang Boogaloo, Modest Mouse & Big Boi, Craig Wedren, The Twilight Singers, Wolfgang’s Vault

  • The Imperial Rooster will be playing at El Farol in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on May 10 at 6 PM MST and the set will be broadcast live on Radio Free Santa Fe. Tune in locally at 98.1 or via the Radio Free Santa Fe website.
  • New York label Bang Bang Boogaloo has put together a killer compilation of unsigned New York bands called New York Rock & Roll 1. You can listen to and download it for free on their website.
  • Big Boi revealed, via Twitter, that he’s working on an album with Modest Mouse. “Been camped out in the Lab with Modest Mouse all week, workin on the new mouse LP, coolest cats ever. Long Live The Funk.” Cannot wait to hear the results of that collaboration.
  • Both Craig Wedren and the Twilight Singers are offering new songs for free download. Wedren’s “Cupid” is a Shudder to Think-era tune re-purposed for his upcoming solo album, WAND. The Twilight Singers’ “Don’t Call” is a non-album track, as well as being a Desire cover.
  • Wolfgang’s Vault has added a video section to their mammoth live … Continue reading

The Imperial Rooster: My Heart is Thawed

Couch by Couch West: it started out as a tongue-in-cheek backlash against the rising tide of babble that always inundates the online music community around South by South West time. But while the whole thing started out as a joke that masked the fact that many of us were envious of the people who were going out to Austin to take in some great live performances, CXCW turned into a viable entertainment option of its own, complete with exclusive performances from unknown and name acts alike (Neko Case didn’t play SXSW this year, but she and her dog Liza did serenade CXCWers). NTSIB found more than a couple of acts that made us sit up and say, “We’ve got to get them on the blog!”

One of those bands was the Imperial Rooster. Playing from a porch in Espanola, New Mexico, the Roosters showed up early and often at CXCW. Here they are in their CXCW performance of “The Ballad Of Lightning Bill Jasper”:

 


Watch this video on YouTube

 

Their first album, Old Good Crazy Poor Dead, spans the spectrum from raucous novelty … Continue reading