Art by Stallio Violent times call for violent measures. And Venetian Snares, with its free-form carnage and propulsive energy, certainly fits that bill. From Aaron Funk's new album title, Detrimentalist , to the genre he's a leading figure in, breakcore, the focus is firmly on destruction over deconstruction. In his crosshairs, furied electronics detonate the line between song and noise. His hyperactive beats batter around meanly and dizzily like punchdrunk moshers. Pushing further and faster than peers [...]
Photo by Damiao Santana Sit in a patch of wild grass and slip on your headphones. Throw back a slug of whiskey lemonade and watch the sun deflate like a punctured yolk. Think about your most private regrets and your most secret desires. Feel the pale wind slip in and out of your T-shirt sleeves. And most importantly, put on "Curs in the Weeds," the new track from Horse Feathers' upcoming House With No Home . It's an ideal accompaniment to summer's end, ripe with [...]
Photo by Christian Gates , from the Montréal Graffitis pool * It's time to GET YOUR WAR ON!!!!!!! [ 236 ] * I can't believe I haven't mentioned how good the new Ear Farm looks. Go check it out, but promise you won't compare it too much to this blue piece of shit, k? [ Ear Farm ] * Because I can't be everywhere this summer unfortunately. [ Flickr ] [...]
Photo by Tookie All that mopey, glacial, utterly transportive music? It turns out that Sigur Rós was kidding all along. They're really party boys at heart, trading in their hallucinogens for Xanax-and-Ecstasy cocktails. At least that's what "Inní mér syngur vitleysingur" suggests, their brightest and most gleeful departure to date. It's a spaz-out jamboree, with a Top 40 drumbeat and parade-route energy. Literally translating to "In me, a lunatic sings," it's a celebration of humanity's wild-eyed heights, all the shudders and shivers of visceral pleasure. [...]
1) "Southern Girl" - Erykah Badu ft. Rahzel from Make The Music 2000 [ Buy it ] 2) "They Say I'm Different" - Betty Davis from They Say I'm Different [ Buy it ] 3) "Fish In My Dish" - Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings from Naturally [ Buy it ] 4) "More Than A Woman" - Aaliyah [...]
"The Escapist" The Streets "Honey" Erykah Badu "In Step" (Unofficial) Girl Talk "A Cause Des Garçons" Yelle "Segertåget" Maskinen "Fragment" Max Richter
Art by bijijoo A few years ago, I was on a cruise as war between Lebanon and Israel broke out. Between greasy buffets and ports-of-call, I had to rely on nothing but CNN to keep up. The coverage was relentless but oddly uninformative--the biggest developments were the back-and-forth accusations between official spokesmen. Hard data ceded to soft-lit man-on-the-street interviews; each side tried their best to play the victim, and both seemed to believe it. With every passing day, the clash of media relations took precedence over [...]
Art by THANKS Welcome to snippet culture. With the click of a few buttons, you can get your news presliced, your art prechewed, and your opinions predigested. Follow a YouTube link of a talk show clip to an excerpt of a thinkpiece retort to a real-time message-board backlash. For better and/or worse, we're living on scraps, soundbites, and hype(r)links. We've forgone phone calls for four-words texts and newsfeeds for actual updates from friends. It's a zoo full of teal deers , where we're [...]
Photo by Byron Edwards * MP3: "The Escapist" - The Streets from Everything Is Borrowed [ Buy other Streets ] * MP3: "Sparrowfield" - Benoît Pioulard from Enge EP (Reissue) [ Buy it ] * MP3: "Big Belly Guns" - Tony Matterhorn from Top Ranking: A Diplo Dub [ Buy it ] Check out more photography by Byron Edwards here [...]
Photo by Laura Thorne The file you find below shouldn't be an MP3. No, if the costs weren't prohibitive, I'd send each and every one of you Ezra Carey's "Riverbed" on dusty, timeworn vinyl. That seems like the ideal way to appreciate a song that sounds so beautifully behind the times. It sounds like some forgotten treasure you'd salvage from your parents' record collection, excavated from an attic crate. And while the digital information insists it's from 2008, all I hear are '60s bonfires and communal nightswimming, dank [...]
Let's waste no time here: The Dreaming is some bizarre shit. If you're looking for tame, well-behaved pop, move on right along. This album is jagged and messy art-rock, and definitely not suited to everyone's taste. It's the sound of Kate Bush coming into her own, both figuratively (ratcheting up the artistic stakes skyward on her fourth work) and literally (self-producing her album for the first time). With no censor and new technology at her disposal, the twenty-four-year-old Bush could indulge any whim that struck her. She pretty much chose to cram them all in, creating a dense, [...]
Photo by Matt Handy Summer is for sequels. From Batman to Hellboy to The Mummy and even to Hamlet, everywhere you turn there's new chapters to old stories. Not to be outdone, Girl Talk is joining in the spirit of the season with a sequel all his own. Sure, Feed The Animals doesn't technically carry that designation, just like Amnesiac wasn't officially called Kid B , but [...]
Photo by Richard Holt Leave it to Hello Damascus to try dampening expectations. Their latest title, "Iterative At Best," sounds more like an apology or an excuse. Iterative--meaning repetitive or reiterating--is one of the last adjectives I'd apply to this sad, gorgeous song. But then, this Portland band has always trafficked in modesty and understatement. Their 2005 album, Harvest Dolls , was a slow-blooming wonder, full of soft-spoken melancholy and quiet grandeur. That album's lead-off track, "Randy," didn't just rend hearts; it was capable of performing quadruple bypasses. [...]
Photo from Josh Nunn Most years, it's somewhat of a struggle to compose a halfway-there albums list. There are always the far-and-away favorites, but rounding out the total with a worthy ten takes some extra work. Not this year. In fact, the greater challenge was culling the list to just an extended fifteen. And unlike the songs and singles bests-of, this one proved to be more well-rounded and multivariate. Dance and hip-hop works do make a deep dent, but there are also strong showings for folk, [...]
1) "Green Shirt" - Elvis Costello and the Attractions from Armed Forces [ Buy it ] 2) "Miracle Drug" - A.C. Newman from The Slow Wonder [ Buy it ] 3) "Old Old Fashioned" - Frightened Rabbit from The Midnight Organ Fight [ Buy it ] 4) "The Music Next Door" - The Lucksmiths from Warmer Corners [ Buy it ] 5) "I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms" - The Modern Lovers from The Modern Lovers [ Buy it ] [...]
Nerd Litter
the Weekender ::: New music from Catcall // the National // Summer Camp
KNIFE PARTY – RAGE VALLEY EP
