photo via jennileetweets "...In the latest iteration of "Who's Zoo?," performed on [Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday] at the Whitney Museum of American Art, with professionals alongside nondancers, the biggest improvement is live music: Relaxed Muscle , a two-member band featuring Jarvis Cocker (of Pulp) and Jason Buckle , perform four of the show's six songs . With the addition of live music and a cult-of-personality approach -- not only by the spectacularly louche Mr. Cocker, but also by Mr. Clark, who has [...]
Relaxed Muscle es un dúo formado en el 2002 por Jarvis Cocker y Jason Buckle al poco tiempo de la separación de Pulp. La actividad más relevante de este proyecto fue en 2003, cuando lanzaron el álbum A Heavy Night With… A partir de ahí Relaxed Muscle se mantuvo en pausa y es hasta el día de hoy que tenemos noticias del dúo, ya que se estarán presentando junto con la compañía de danza de Michael Clark en el Whitney Museum de Nueva York. Esto [...]
Odd to think that it was almost 10 years ago now that Jarvis Cocker assumed the name 'Darren Spooner', donned a skeleton suit and started leaping around the stage as part of Relaxed Muscle. Their basic sound owed a huge amount to Cocker's hometown heroes Cabaret Voltaire and they were never going to win any literacy prizes for lyrics such as "I tell you one thing and I ain't lyin', I rule my woman with a rod of iron". Still love it though. Relaxed Muscle - Rod Of Iron
I'm no psychologist, but new bands seem to be suffering a collective existential crisis. Apparently, the skin-crawling realisation that they won't be around forever has just simultaneously pinged into their mental in-boxes. It's gratifying to note that, instead of the bottom dropping out of their worlds, the bands have initiated a surprisingly inventive work-around: to fool themselves - and everyone else - by creating band names that imply juvenility. Just look at the recent glut: the wonderful Youthless , the recently re-named Youth , Manchester's Young British Artists, and now, [...]
I saw Caribou last night in Manchester. The fact that I saw him at all was a minor triumph of extended haggling with the doorstaff, because the venue was packed sardine-tight with the usual array of haircuts, too-cool-for-schoolers and louts that populate 'buzz' gigs. Still, it was worth it: ANBAD alumni Gold Panda was supporting, noisily, and the audience was mesmerised by both his heavy, muddy beats and his woolly panda-hat. Caribou themselves were delicious - swirling and deft tunes with, [...]
It's finally here. The Day of 200 Songs held in honour of my 200th post, which happened way back in April of last year. A brief recap for those who don't know the whole story: to celebrate my 200th post, I decided to try a little community-building project. I wanted to get 200 people who read this blog (or perhaps those who even only read that 200th post) or friends they know to submit their favourite songs so that I could then compile them into 10 mixes for everyone to share. While I received several submissions, I didn't receive many, [...]
I recently read an article claiming that Paul " L'Oreal Chestnut Brown Tint For Men" McCartney wrote The Long And Winding Road for Tom Jones, who then turned it down. Doubtlessly he was too busy struggling in and out of his tight trousers and brushing his chest hair to contemplate hollering a song written by a mere Beatle . I find that just too hard to believe. OK, The Long And Winding Road is almost unbearably sentimental to listen to without spontaneously vomiting, but still, why would Tom say no? [...]
Have you ever watched a group of Spanish men cook? It's a carefully plotted exercise, which can be broken down as follows: 50% lounging, chatting and keeping generally relaxed to the point of muscle deterioration, 22% talking lecherously about women, 2% fussing with a knife and 1% cooking. I partook in this culinary ritual recently, and thoroughly enjoyed it - though it did alter any preconceptions I had of a 'quick snack', which is how it was advertised to me. I don't know what frame of mind one would be [...]
One of the most important, and thus one of the most difficult and enigmatic, jobs of any band is to grab the attention of everyone else. For ' everyone else ', read ' record buying public '. For 'record buying public ', read ' our tickets out of these drab desk jobs and into rock fantasy land '. Anyway - Today's New Band, She's Hit , achieved this feat through the most unlikely of sources - a comically mis-read URL. Their Myspace address is www.myspace.com/sheshitglasgow [...]
I woke up this morning with a sore head and a note with a code-number on it, written in my handwriting. I was in a room I didn't recognise and, looking out of the window, in a part of town I didn't know. As the memories of the previous night's celebration with some Spanish Barcelona-supporting friends slowly returned, I pulled on my clothes, realised the code was needed to get through the security gate out of the apartment block, and tried to figure out how to reach ANBAD Towers. [...]
Over the weekend I had a long, contorted conversation with a friend, discussing the relative merits of Steven Seagal's mighty body of work. We both expressed fond teen memories of the moment when a topless Erika Eleniak popped out of a giant cake in front of a bemused-looking Seagal in Under Seige , and then agreed that Segal always wears a look of mild bemusement, possibly in the belief that it makes him look like a wise Sensei. Our discussion also confirmed our fears that, with his string of [...]
Miss Black glides down the street to an internal Hammer Horror soundtrack , she stops to check her hair and make-up in the vast windows of Top Shop – a blood-curdling scream… there is no reflection… just a vacant day-glo mannequin gazing back… the Hammer Horror organ music spills out into the high street, and Miss Black takes flight… [...]
The blogger behind Under the Rock was kind enough to let us know about his $7.26 purchase of A Heavy Night With Relaxed Muscle --the 2003 full-length by Jarvis Cocker's electroclashy collaboration with Mercury Prize nominee Richard Hawley , Relaxed Muscle--at Tower's downtown Philadelphia outpost. Unfortunately, he's pretty sure that he got the last one in the store, but we figured this was just as good an excuse as any to post a couple of songs from the album, which, like the fine Jarvis , was never released Stateside. [...]
fuckin christ! thank god i don't live in maine - i don't care if this thing is or is not the androscoggin beast it's ugly as hell. from the seacoast online : Michelle O'Donnell of Turner spotted the animal near her yard about a week before it was killed. She called it a "hybrid mutant of something." "It was evil, evil looking. And it had a horrible stench I will never forget," [...]
i was cruising around kix and the city yesterday, and stumbled on a great interview with jeff st aple from back in may. jeff is the founder of staple design as well as disco-not-disco fave the reed space , and is responsible for such iconic nike collabs as the pigeon sb dunk . what really stands out in the interview, however, is his take on bape : The genius of BAPE and the genius behind Nigo is that he [...]
BrooklynVegan
noiselab
The Beat!
A New Band A Day!
Condemned to Rock 'N Roll
L'Amour Electronique
Idolator
disco-not-disco
Listen: Summer Camp – Always
Bobby Womack ft. Lana Del Rey – “Dayglo Reflection”
Bears
