It's been nearly 2 years since Scottish post rock masters Mogwai have released a proper album. Mr. Beast came out in early '06 and except for that wicked riff in the middle of 'Glasgow Mega-Snake', was honestly a pretty wobbly affair. The following years saw the band doing the soundtracks for football doc Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait and the vaguely metaphysical Aronofsky film The Fountain . September 23rd of this year will see the release of The Hawk Is Howling , a new album released via [...]
The day job called me a way for a significant length of time to deal with the thrill ride that is Comicon International . About a month and a half of prep outside of my normal book load, followed by 5 days of blissfully uncomfortable nirvana that is akin to being forcibly penetrated by a rainbow. Yeah, that was from the final day of SDCC '07. It kinda feels like that after you work from setup to breakdown. [...]
Stumbling around the internet in search of music is a pastime of mine. There's a lot of methods to scrape out the strange & new nuggets from around the web. A ton of sites offer free downloads, contained within mailers or in the nooks and crannies of their websites. A few of my favorites do come from a email lists: Oh My Rockness deals out a handful & Filter gives you one each Monday when they send out their email list. A lot of times, I'll just grab [...]
I'm a fan of mashups just like the person here on the internet. Audiobytes For Autobots is a charming new addition to the scene (anyone with a penchant for sampling the Talking Heads that much is o.k. with me). The new Girl Talk is enjoyable enough, a bit of a retread of the same concepts...but fun none the less. We could even trace it back to 2 Many DJ's if you feel like digging through to the vintage. But, in these modern times, we need more mashups. This [...]
Arthur Magazine is a fantastically bizarre blip of a free publication. Nothing else really exists like it and at the moment the fate of the magazine is in jeopardy. When Jay Babcock, present manager of the mag, bought out the magazine from his ex-partner, he landed himself in a tough financial place. The magazine is looking to collect $20,000 by the first of July, in order to have enough funds to resume publication. At the time of posting, they're close - just $317.00 away from the final goal. Scrape together a few bucks to [...]
Ditherer is by far one of the more challenging albums I've encountered this year. There are far more outwardly bizarre records that have been and will be released this year, but Fog has slipped us something of a wolf in pop music's clothing. Contained in the expanse of Ditherer are songs that feel somewhat normal, but are propelled by some psychotic veneer. As an album, it shifts gears compulsively; blindly slipping between the twitchy clatter of Inflatable Ape to the lazy mourning of What's Up Freaks . [...]
An update to earlier post regarding the tantilizingly 'free' Sigur Rós & Björk show to be held in Reykjavik this weekend (June 28th). The good folks at National Geographic will be webcasting the show for all to see. Tune into National Geographic Music from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET (begins at 8 p.m. BST/London or 7 p.m. GMT/Reykjavik) to see, as they put it on their site..."some Björkage ". National Geographic was never good at jokes. And, please, don't make Sigur [...]
While this Hype Williams directed clip came out three months ago, I just caught wind of it now. It's a cute little love letter to Chicago, all done in black and white with the requisite touches of slowmotion and cheesy matte shots. I spent a handful of years living out there before I moved to Los Angeles, so there's a soft spot in my heart for that city. Many lofty peaks, and exceptionally low points in my life saw light there and I love it for both. [...]
Beyond music, one of my favorite things is graffiti and street art. Living in Los Angeles, I do appreciate the amount of great graffiti going on out here. For Taking Tiger Mountain, I'm starting a new bit to focus on good graffiti around the net (as well stuff I see day to day, once I get a new camera). For the first one, I'd like to throw some light on the Icelandic graffiti scene. I'm a fan of most all everything Icelandic (except maybe Hákarl ) and thanks to the magic of the [...]
Now, I'm a fairly sizable Radiohead fan. I picked up tickets for their upcoming stop at the Hollywood Bowl. I used to scour the net for b-sides and the rare acoustic stuff. I used to shell out cash for a variety of import disks in the pre-MP3 days. Who's got the Japanese only 'Itch EP'...I do. That said, it's been a long time since I've actually listened to any early-era Radiohead, but I recently discovered this fantastic live recording of Scala & Kolacny Brothers doing a beautifully sullen piano and voice [...]
A random click today landed me at the hip-hop tinged blog Metal Lungies . Much to my delight they have a reoccurring feature entitled Beat Drop . The site gathers writers to do a round table discussion examining the production skills of a particular hip-hop producer. The most recent focuses on the great polarizer Kanye West. This discussion has of course garnered more comments than any of the other Beat Drops. Love him or hate him, Mr. West has a fantastic sense and feel for giving life to samples, at [...]
Björk, Sigur Rós, & múm participant Ólöf Arnalds will perform together in Reykjavik June 28th in an effort to raise awareness for the growing environmental crisis. While this concert takes place in one of the more beautiful spots on Earth, the ultimate issue with it takes to transport folks from around the world to Reykjavik might create a worse dent along with the awareness. I wouldn't fault you wanting to go anyway. It's free, except for the $600+ plane ticket. Instead, you can check out the recent DVD release of [...]
Every time I come across things that are so delightfully strange, it renews my faith in the world. One of those such discovery is Let's Paint TV . I ended up randomly at a launch party for a web 2.0 venture. While I was terribly out of place, I managed to bump into a fellow misfit who, while double-fisting free Stella Artois, told me about the majesty of Let's Paint TV. Strangely enough, 8 hours later I got a facebook message recommending the show to me from a someone I hadn't seen in years. [...]
I'll be honest. I'd given up on Slug and Ant long ago. Between Seven's Travels and You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having , I started to tune them out. Not to sound like one of those guys, I just liked their older shit better. I caught him at The Vic Theater back in '06 ( full review here and you could tell then that he was in a transition period. The half-MC, half-band frontman layout of the set let you see visibly the dichotomy of his mindset. [...]
Just about a week ago, Islands released Arm's Way , the follow up to their 2005 debut Return To The Sea . What we have here is the title track from the album, as expected it's a sprawling affair. Initially, it didn't really appeal to me. I was turned off by the lack of sugary polish that coated the whole of Return To The Sea . This song is a little more distant and calculating, but like all things by Islands, they take time to grow on you. I forgot that initially [...]
At Mount Zoomer is a far better title than Kissing The Beehive . At Mount Zoomer is also better than Return To Cookie Mountain . I won't slight them for that. After getting exposed to a lot of the new material during last summer's tour, it was easy to say that I was excited for the new album. "Call It A Ritual," the first song leaked by Sub Pop, [...]
Yeah, I did just post something about Maps and Atlases and yeah, it's been a slow week here on Taking Tiger Mountain. But! Now we have a sample of the new album up on their Myspace page . Click over and check out the title track from the forthcoming EP You And Me And The Mountain along with newly added tour dates. Even newer than my post earlier in the week. As for 'You And Me And The Mountain'...it's certainly different...a little less spazzy, a little more jazzy. By [...]
I wrote this review a little while back for Spacelab.tv . It all went up just this week, but it was written back in March. When I saw it online, I'd honestly forgot what I had to say about the album, but it's not a half bad review. I like it when I surprise myself. (Even though I neglected to research and find out the whole Liars connection, but c'est la vie...) These Are Powers - Taro Tarot The ultimate truth with noise [...]
After 2 years of much touring, Chicago's avant-mathrockers Maps And Atlases have announced the release date for their next EP, entitled You And Me And The Mountain . You'll be able to grab a copy digitally on June 16th, as well the limited edition CD produced by Sargent House will be available on their summer tour. Below is the cover art by Ryan Duggan. Make it a point to catch one of the dates on their upcoming tour. Their live [...]
Gearing up for a benefit hosted by NYC's art collective The Kitchen , ex-Talking Heads frontman/artful blogger David Byrne created a fantastic forced-interaction art piece. In honor of the May 21st's spring gala benefit honoring Christian Marclay, Byrne has stitched together 100 effects pedals designed to be walked across as the patrons enter the space randomly engaging them with each cautious step. The above photo shows a peek at the work in progress. If you've ever spent any time, as I have, hunched over a few random pedals idly twisting knobs to force [...]
taking tiger mountain
Avicii – Two Million
Beck – I Just Started Hating Some People Today
H&M Lookbook Mujer y Hombre Otoño 2012.
Avicii - "Two Million" (MP3 Download)
