Samantha here. I'm going to start this off by saying the T Bone Burnett is a mastermind. Anything he supports, you should be forming parades for. Burnett recently founded Electromagnetic Recordings through Barnett's Capitol. He then immediately collaborated with another subsidiary of the tower, Harvest, to bring the people (and my overly exuberant ears) The New Basement Tapes. But who was Burnett's first signing to this new imprint, you might ask?

They're called Mini Mansions, and I was lucky enough to see them for a sold-out show at the Troubadour on Wednesday night.

I'm gonna be uber-hipster here and let you know that I already knew all about them. I turned into a puddle of my own bodily fluids when I first heard their cover of "Heart of Glass." Three moody, broody men covering Blondie? I'm sold. When introducing the tune to an ears of a friend, I was told it was a bit "pretentious," to which I responded, "You must have loved it then, because so are you, you asshole." Honestly, though, they're not pretentious. People just get ridiculously defensive for absolutely no fucking reason when it comes to covers. Oh and back to how cool I am: I've already caught them opening for Domino's Arctic Monkeys in the past. So, :p


The thing is, they're not pretentious; their synthy psychedelic alt/pop sound is just smart. This band is a near-perfect concoction of intelligence, versatility, talent and "cool," if you will.

Mini Mansions consists of Zach Dawes, Tyler Parkford and Michael Shuman. You may have heard of the latter, considering he's also the bassist for Queens of the Stone Age. So, yeah, this is a side project, but the freedom of that aspect almost creates a euphoric release when performing. There's a lack of tension and an overload of musical fornication. At that's what happened on Wednesday at the Trouby. My ears were caressed and spanked like it was a chapter in Fifty Shades of Grey.

Michael Shuman by Samantha Hissong

So I reminded you that Shuman is in QOTSA. I told you they opened for Arctic Monkeys. Are you connecting the dots yet, or are you still too drunk from the other night? All roads lead to Homme. Josh Homme that is: the frontman of QOTSA, who's also a respected producer and who helped record Arctic Monkeys' 2009 Humbug and parts of 2013's ground-breaking sensation AM at his Joshua Tree studio, Rancho De La Luna. Get all that?

Alex Turner by Samantha Hissong

WELL GUESS WHAT?! (Pretend that was squealed like a giddy school girl). Alex Turner came on stage to perform a verse of "Vertigo" with the band, which he recently did at their show in London. As for the rest of the set, "Heart of Glass" was indeed played and I only cried a little, along with 2010's "Monk" (a favorite of mine), and recent releases "Death is a Girl" and "Any Emotions," the current single that stars actor Collin Hanks in its vid, among others.

The group will drop The Great Pretender, their first album since 2010's self-titled release, this year (and I will reiterate) with help of the brilliant T Bone Burnett.