It came as a surprise that Newcastle act Polarsets were headlining the first Vive La France night this year at The Hope. That is until after a little digging, the reason's became apparent. Legendary record label Kitsune Maison has of course snapped them up as another promising addition to their small but perfectly formed list of acclaimed indie-popsters. Home to Two Door Cinema Club and Is Tropical to name a few, Polarsets are in good company. And of course as a French music label, it provides ample enough reason for them to spearhead a festival dedicated to great French music. [...]
If 2011 wasn't quite Johnny Jewel's year, then 2012 will be. I can't think of a harder working person in the independent music industry. Johnny's "rejected" soundtrack for the sexiest film of 2011, DRIVE, is now released under the name Symmetry. Themes For An Imaginary Film bags up all evidence of pop elements and throws [...]
If 2011 wasn't quite Johnny Jewel's year, then 2012 will be. I can't think of a harder working person in the independent music industry. Johnny's "rejected" soundtrack for the sexiest film of 2011, DRIVE, is now released under the name Symmetry. Themes For An Imaginary Film bags up all evidence of pop elements and throws [...]
(aRCHIVE, 2009) There are a few artists whose work sits so powerfully in my subconscious that I will, seemingly at random, think of them, my mind urging me, insistently, to check on them, see what they've been up to and make sure that I haven't missed anything in the interim of days between now and the last time I thought of them, listened to them. It's a small group—say maybe a dozen artists—who get that kind of attention from me. The Goslings are one of those. It's been nearly four years now since their last [...]
Fun Fun Fun Fest Six photo coverage begins. There is a lot to go through; here is but a smattering. Day One features Cloud Nothings, people getting tattoed, The Gosling, dust, YACHT, The Thermals, The Oh Sees, more dust, Okkervill River, Four Tet, bandanas (wearing one right now) and a couple filler shots from the house. Head past the break for a couple of stories, the pics and a link to even more pics… Terence Malick was on hand for the second big [...]
I've been looking for this song in some format since Chromatics played with Glass Candy last month, and here it is, their next step. Chromatics have always been great in every incarnation we've seen. They've grown into a great pop band, as is evidenced by their (and several other Johnny Jewel projects) appearance in the [...]
(Sorry this is late. LiveJournal has been under major DDoS attack by pro-government Russian criminals for a few weeks, and last night I simply couldn't connect.) I really like The Goslings. Their no-frills, funereal noise rock hits all the right notes for me, and their 2008 album Occasion has been sitting on my mp3 player since it first came out. You can hear echoes of what once was blues riffing in their music, but it has since been transformed: transformed by noise, by distortion, by the very sound of amplification itself. [...]
Crave Online has premiered Duff McKagan's Loaded's new video, "Dead Skin," and in this case, "dead skin" seems to be a clever metaphor for "clothing." Because the best parts of this video have Mrs. Duff, the almost unfairly beautiful former model/current designer Susan Holmes, stripping away various articles of clothing. Not that I'm complaining - [...]
As if I could write about anything else for this week's installment of the Friday Top Ten list. It's Valentine's Day...again. And nothing says Valentine's Day like MONSTER TRUCK RALLY! Sorry, where was I? Oh, right I was starting to write an introduction to this week's top ten. Everyone has their own way of celebrating Valentine's Day. Some people, like me, enjoy pampering the person they're with. A nice romantic dinner and a little gift in the hopes of maybe getting lucky at the end of the night. Others like to act all smug and contrarian by doing [...]
It's Tuesday again, which for the next four months or so will be known as "LOSTday" to a community of television nerds to which I belong. Rather than make some bold predictions about what is going to happen on tonight's episode, or write a recap of last week's stellar season premiere, I'm going to write briefly about two conversations I had with friends this week. Each one led to a crazy revelation which - and I don't want to build us up to be geniuses or anything - I have never once read about on any LOST related-website. [...]
Last night Nic and I consumed what will inevitably go down as a top ten Los Angeles burger. The "Dry Age Burger" at Oaks Gourmet Market on the border of Hollywood and Los Feliz is quite good. Theirs is (obviously) dry-aged, topped with Taleggio cheese, smoked bacon and a sweet-tasting jalapeno-pineapple compote. I don't know if it will crack the top five, but it will be close. I still have at least three more hamburgers to taste that have won "Best of LA" honors on other blogs. Then I have to begin the process of re-eating most of the finalists [...]
The Goslings Grandeur of Hair (Archive Recordings, 2006) Listening to The Goslings' Grandeur of Hair is like eating chocolate laced with poison. It's a pretty bad comparison, but it is the best I can come up with right now. It's the idea of consuming something so sweet, yet utterly destructive (and no, in the context of this album, the calories just don't cut it for "danger"). Grandeur of Hair is sludgey pop-metal that is so good that I simply cannot keep from listening to it, but so loud [...]
How cool must it be to be Joakim? The French producer/bandleader's kitchen sink approach to music has made his albums increasingly difficult to classify, leaving his fans braced for whatever curve he might happen to throw at them next. A curve such as this mix, perhaps? No need to worry, the requisite dirty disco abounds (see Red Dragon Band's excellent Italo jam "Let Me Be Your Radio" or Joakim's own "Watermellon Bubblicious"). But mixing a Beatles outtake with Chicago Juke king DJ Deeon? The sludge fuzz double header of The Goslings and Acid Mothers Temple? [...]
I'm going to talk about two songs, two songs that are not as they seem. When alone, especially in headphones, I often think about the reasons why I listen to noise, or noise music. The reasons are both new and not-new (but not old); the first time I heard anything that could be really considered noise was in sixth form, and I was on my own at a computer. I often attribute many characteristics of my personality (insomnia, walking, writing, vocal inertia, (attraction to) the sea, (love of) solitary time, (connection to) loneliness, etc.,) to the fact that [...]
After a nice dinner last night at the new Michaelangelo's location in Silver Lake last night, I realized that I didn't have enough time to compile a mix tape and put together the White Hills review. White Hills gets preferential treatment over mix tapes, so that's why I'm posting the mix now, on Monday. I hope you won't mind the tardiness, I think this one's pretty far out there... RULES for uninitiated noobs : With roughly 100MB of webspace, I give birth to a weekly Mix Tape to be deposited on your iPods or [...]
Constellations. Plural. • A professor has penned a detailed article on the topics of aliens and time travel, and I guess the fact that he is a currently-employed professor lends some credence to the fact that he's talking about the existence of extra terrestrials and the possibility of time travel . I think it's fascinating that France opened up their UFO sightings vault, and that the government said 58% of the sightings could not be explained. Fat dudes wearing pointy ears and speed suits while living in their parents' basements are probably really excited about [...]
Yes, today is the day. Smash Bros. Brawl has arrived! It's sheer awesomeness cannot be described. That has nothing to do with the rest of this post. Just thought you should know what I'm doing all this week. ***** Some tracks I'm digging from some of my favourite music blogs: Style of Eye - The Prophet (via 24:hours ) Thank god there are still folks around like Sweden's Style of Eye that can write a proper dance track. The [...]
Image credit: NGC 2070, The Tarantula Nebula by Robert Gendler et al As much as I was looking forward to it, February 21, 2008 turned out to be a somewhat disappointing day. The evening before, the sky was crystal clear so I had my hopes up high to see the lunar eclipse in all its glory. I had my alarm clock set to 3:30 a.m. but where there was supposed to be a blood-red moon taking hold of the sky I saw nothing but clouds and mist. Definitely no [...]
Saying that the goslings revel in sludge is somewhat of an understatement; Max and Leslie Soren produce a brain altering static cesspool that threatens the very fabric of society within 3 meters of any performance of their work. Quite a few of their songs approximate what I imagine the lasting din that tears through your mind on the way out of the Black Hole sounds like. That said, it's somewhat hypnotically melodic too. Somehow this Floridian duo has woven the universes harshest elements into a beautiful darkness; smooth as a pebble on the outside and violently chaotic at its center. [...]
Song obsessions are those songs that we listen to on repeat. I noticed that my obsessions are often a week long. I also thought that other people might have similar obsessions. I've collected a panel of a few like-minded individuals and gotten their "song obsessions of the week." Quite often it's easy to explain why the song is good; it's much hard to explain why we're obsessed. Maybe you'll become obsessed with one of these. - Adrian ( me ): Two Sheds - It's Hard (mp3) ( [...]
Hey Man, Check My Band.
The Color Awesome!
Forest Gospel
Austin Town Hall
Doklands
MetalSucks
Swan Fungus
The Beat!
i got my photos back; a lot of them are blurry.
A.M. 180
motel de moka
Raven Sings The Blues
ipickmynose
Diplo x Usher: ‘Climax’
A-Trak - "Round of Applause" / "Where My Money At" (MP3 Download)
Skrillex Uses Satanic and Homosexual Influence to Win Grammys
SHOCKING NEWS: Ben Gibbard turns to pills in wake of Zooey Deschanel divorce
