Sleepy Sun is a 5-piece psych-rock band from San Francisco, California. Before releasing their 2007 album Embrace on All Tomorrow’s Parties Recordings, they gave away the album for free—a reflection of the group’s carefree attitude. Sleepy Sun previously had two singers, Rachel Fannan and Bret Constantino, but Fannan left the group in 2010 to pursue a solo career. Their most recent release, Spine Hits, came out last week on The End Recordings.

For Chicago-area fans, Sleepy Sun will be performing at Subterranean this Friday, April 20 with Thrill Jockey’s White Hills and Soft Speaker. Be sure to tune into the Rock Show today around 4 PM for a chance to win a pair of tickets!

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Today’s Track of the Day comes from Brooklyn punk duo Japanther. Ian Vanek and Matt Reilly met as art students at Pratt Institute in 2001 and started Japanther as an art and music project. Their most famous non-musical endeavor was the Phone Booth Project in New York, where they recorded snippets of performance art and encouraged people to call a line in a phone booth to hear them. Accordingly, all of Japanther’s vocals are sung through phones glued to microphone stands. They have since collaborated with a wide range of artists, from Penny Rimbaud (of Crass), to Spank Rock, synchronized swimmers, and world-renowned puppeteers. “One Hundred Dollars” comes off their 2007 release Skuffed Up My Huffy, their fifth studio album; their newest album, Beets, Limes and Rice, saw release in October of 2011.

For Chicago-area fans, Japanther will be performing this Sunday, April 15, at Beat Kitchen. Make sure to listen to The Rock Show today for your chance to win free tickets!

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Today’s Track of the Day comes to us from Dead Meadow, a Washington, DC-based psychedelic stoner rock trio. “Sleepy Silver Door” is the first track off their eponymous 2000 debut, which was released on Joe Lally (of Fugazi)’s label Tolotta Records. Since then, Dead Meadow recorded a Peel Session in Fugazi’s home studio, added and dropped two members, had their music featured on HBO’s The Wire (created by singer/guitarist Jason Simon’s uncle, David Simon), and performed the soundtrack to their own full-length psychedelic film, Three Kings, with the film as a backdrop on their 2010 tour.

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Today’s Track of the Day comes from These Are Powers, who released four albums between 2007 and their break-up in 2010. The group’s members include Pat Noecker, bassist of Australian-via-Brooklyn post-punk group Liars; Brooklyn singer-guitarist Anna Barie of Knife Skills; and Chicago electronic producer Bill Salas, who records under the name Brenmar. While they were still performing together, These Are Powers often performed in collaboration with artists, dancers, and videographers to create performance-art style concerts that were themselves sometimes performed in art museums or galleries. Bassist Noecker’s unique sound comes from a wooden dowel rod placed under the instrument’s strings, meant to function as a third bridge. This even inspired a Dutch guitar-maker to create a custom-designed bass for Noecker, which he now uses for his solo project RAFT. In 2007, These Are Powers released “Silver Lung” as a 7” single on Elsye and Jack Recordings, b/w “Funeral Xylophone” and “Crows of Troy.”

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Death (not to be confused with the Florida metal band of the same name) is an all-black punk group from Detroit that formed in 1971. The group’s original lineup consisted of brothers Dannis, David, and Bobby Hackney, who started as an R&B band in their garage. Inspired by an Alice Cooper show, the Hackney brothers switched to a garage-influenced style of proto-punk and recorded seven songs with funding from Clive Davis and Columbia Records. After the band refused to change their name to something with more commercial appeal, Davis cut off their funding, and Death was only able to release one single, “Politicians in My Eyes” b/w “Keep on Knocking.” In 2009, Chicago’s Drag City Records released the seven-song session under the title …For The Whole World to See, and today a reformed Death continues to perform their groundbreaking punk rock.

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