When we meditated on Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally's gorgeous sophomore album Devotion we had the following to say: [Y]ou can't fall back on Mazzy Star or Galaxie 500 references because they've pushed themselves into their own, unique solar system. Victoria's voice and woozy after-hours organ tones are more assured, Alex has lost the beard but gained more inventive, atmospheric guitar lines. For just one instance, listen to "You Came To Me," the way each part of it builds. We don't think they could've wrote that song a year ago. Throughout Devotion, they've pushed [...]
This dude's the latest signing to Australia's Modular label, landing with a tidy package of promotional offerings: a catchy, moistly breezy indie-pop debut single that couldn't be better titled for a meet-the-artist track; a subtly arresting/marginally tricked-out video; and a slightly more ambient take-away remix by long-time post-rocker the Album Leaf. Here's to good starts. We're told Boulet is 21 and a Sydney skate rat. Which means skate rat music in Sydney is a far cry from the shit-encrusted lo-fi tracks coming from skaters on our own west coast, or Boulet is an outlier wielding his board with a softer [...]
When we first heard onetime BTW Pablo Díaz-Reixa, aka El Guincho, we were drawn in by "Antillas," a song we described as "a five-minute bundle of clattering loops and sunny harmonies." It was from the self-released Alegranza! , before he'd signed to XL, who reissued the collection. Almost two years after being hooked we have an "Antillas" remix by XXXchange . It shows up on one of two double 12"s that feature remixes of the track by the likes of Architecture In Helsinki, Prins Thomas, Banana Clipz, etc. (Mad Decent's releasing one, Young Turks the other.) [...]
According to Consequence Of Sound , a previously reliable source pins Muse to the coming year's desert fest headlining slot. Glenn Beck just bought a ticket. The dates are April 16-18. Oh and these Coachella headliner rumors? Needs more Pavement.
From hardcore to heavy metal to gangsta rap, local TV news teams have long warned parents about the terrifying new sounds rotting teenage brains. This week it's San Fran's KPIX on the horrorcore scene . Not all juggalos are murderers, dad! Probably.
Watch well-recorded videos of NMH doing "Two-Headed Boy" and "April 8th" at the old Knitting Factory on March 7, 1998 via Merge , the label that just released On Avery Island and In the Aeroplane Over The Sea on 180 gram vinyl.
The little-documentary-that-could The Story Of Anvil , about the band that was like a "real life Spinal Tap" right down to having a drummer named Robb Reiner, stole everyone's heart this past year. Except for people whose hearts are made of stone. Or metal. Well if your heart was made of \m/ metal then it probably stole your heart, too. But if your heart is made of Oscar-material precious metal, then it didn't steal your heart, it made your heart snub it from its rightful place on the 15-film Best Documentary Academy Award shortlist (via [...]
Over Labor Day weekend (9/3-9/5) Iggy and his Stooges do Raw Power , Sleep climb Holy Mountain (!), and you'll spot Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff at good ol' Kutsher's. More at ATP .
Oscar-winning ex-lovers Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová invited the actor to perform a very "personal song" with them in LA. Some might say TOO personal! It included his phone number. Watch here and let's agree not to call.
A fan yelled "fuck you" while Moz was telling a joke onstage, and the recently beleaguered singer had him removed from the venue while adding " and you can fuck yourself ." The irony? Next he sang "Ask." Guess shyness really is nice, sometimes.
After Solange covered Dirty Projectors , a band on Domino, it's only fair the Londoners who sing " Dominos " have a go at a song by Knowles' sister. Fitting into A Brief History Of Love 's romantic aesthetic, they put their mark on Beyoncé's " Sweet Dreams ." It was recorded on Radio 1. As mentioned, Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell easily move between clattering post-Suicide, icy synth balladry, and radio-friendly electro-anthems (often with Jesus & Mary Chain and Happy Mondays echoes). So, which Big Pink do you get here? The moody, stripped-down result actually goes better [...]
When MTV's college-obsessed little sister station mtvU announced the nominations for this year's Woodie Awards, we had some fun trying to make sense of the logic underlying the way in which they had grouped together bands and pit them against one another. The logic being: their demographic is college, and college is the time when our tastes change! This is the time to experiment with our sexuality, or at least with the contents of our iPods. The apparent Viacom dictate, then, is to be all things to all people, and so the awards followed suit. Your winners: [...]
The Fiery Furnace is indeed fiery in his "Unedited Blog Post" and "Imaginary Response!" to Beck's "Harry Partch." Note: The sentence "That was written in a style I associate with a certain sort of Zappa fan" appears in one of them. Grab your decoder ring .
We're already well aware that Crayola wants your kids to listen to hip music while they do their coloring. So far we've seen Animal Collective take us down a sweet road to vibrant color, pre-sciatica Dan Deacon brandish his Glow Station, and Unicorns offering up "I Was Born A Unicorn" for Color Explosion 3-D. This time? Micachu and her shape-shifting Shapes appropriately tell us that melting and molding your own crayons is fun. (Thanks for the tip, Michael.) It's sorta how she composes songs, really. It's also good for recycling: "worn crayons" become "new [...]
Not that Dirty Projectors' set of four shows at Bowery Ballroom and Music Hall Of Williamsburg this week needed any help selling out -- that was handily accomplished simply by releasing one of this year's best (and most misunderstood ) albums -- but after NY Mag 's attempt to survey the Brooklyn scene by crowning David Longstreth its king, and Solange 's making an honest R&B track out of "Stillness Is The Move," your prospects at some Craigslist action got slightly more dire. The run kicked off last night at Bowery with support [...]
Looks like the guys weren't so happy with 2007's Our Love to Admire and, as a result, "the new record falls back towards the first." Drummer Sam Fogarino also notes: "That big wash of reverb? It's back ... It's there." More good news for Interpol fans at Paste .
Two things you can count on every year: the year will end, and there will be lists that piss off everybody. Being 2009, there's bonus piss-off potential because we get to objectively rank subjective pieces of art not only for the year but also for the decade. Fun! So we're happy to announce that the time has come for you to participate in this historically meaningful electoral process: In partnership with our sister site Videogum.com , we're opening voting on this year's annual Gummy Awards. You've been making your Album Of The Year lists since before this year [...]
Just when you thought musicians had left behind their wolves and crystals in favor of whales , this vintage psychedelic London quartet arrives with Tidings . Thing is, the collection gathers recordings made by main Wolf Jack Sharp in Bedford, England between 2005 and 2007, so technically they were right on time with the Wolf thing. Their sound, though, comes from a different time entirely. Or, as the well-written press release puts it: Stitched together in a style reminiscent of Faust or early Mothers Of Invention, the songs lay nestled in snatches of field recordings, winding [...]
Next year's pilgrimage to Manchester, TN has been confirmed for 6/10-6/13. Tix go on sale 11/27. (And for what it's worth, Pavement seem to be free that weekend.) Meanwhile, the future of Morrison, CO's Monolith Fest is " looking very grim ." Lend a hand (of cash) at Kickstarter .
Following up on our post for " Cousins " The Song, here's "Cousins" the video: The single art's shot of the boys in a long alley doused in confetti fit the song's manically festive, church-belled punk racer, but is pretty much a direct still from the Garth Jennings-direct clip itself, which has the kids trade spaces on a moving platform and at the fringes, on ladders and wearing masks of each other. It's quick, quirky, and unpredictable but not without a sense of humor about itself, so pretty much perfect for a band of Ivy Leaguers who aren't above [...]
![The Big Pink - Dominos [Later Live... with Jools Holland]](http://cache.elbo.ws/youtube/lnLm5ZXiL7I_130.jpg)
‘09 Been Kind
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
remixed: the beach boys, lady gaga, duck sauce, ellie goulding, shakira, la roux, madonna, & more!!!
