As the pastoral album cover hints, Noble Beast is a different kind of Andrew Bird. It's grounded in a kind of naturalistic realism, a smaller album overall. While not a bad thing, but as it's a comedown from the dark grandeur of Armchair Apocrapha , there's definitely a period of listener adjustment that has to happen. Most every moment of Noble Beast is fraught with restraint, lacking the soaring bombast that permeated both its predecessor and ...And The Mysterious Production of Eggs . Many of the tracks on Noble Beast [...]
To support the upcoming release of Around The Well , a 2CD/3LP collection of rarities, Sam Beam is taking to the road for a small U.S. tour. Each of the city's sets will be determined by the fans, as voted on at his website . Shortly after each show, you'll be able to purchase the show recordings at Played Last Night . Tourdates: May 4: Seattle (Vera Project) May 5: Seattle (Triple Door) May 6-7: San Francisco (Swedish American Hall) May 8: Los Angeles (Masonic Hall) [...]
To support the upcoming release of Around The Well , a 2CD/3LP collection of rarities, Sam Beam is taking to the road for a small U.S. tour. Each of the city's sets will be determined by the fans, as voted on at his website . Shortly after each show, you'll be able to purchase the show recordings at Played Last Night . Tourdates: May 4: Seattle (Vera Project) May 5: Seattle (Triple Door) May 6-7: San Francisco (Swedish American Hall) May 8: Los Angeles (Masonic Hall) [...]
Los Angeles's Nosaj Thing was quite possibly my favorite discovery of 2008. A new guy on the scene, with just an single EP under his belt, he's still created a work of majesty that brings along definite anticipation for currently underway, full length. His tracks are capture a kind of warm analog wonder, peppered with deft drum programming and tasteful glitchy elements. Nosaj Thing - Bach 1685 Purchase the vinyl from Turntable Labs [...]
I'm a sucker for anything that puts the focus on stringed instruments. Just like how I discovered Dirty Three years too late, I don't know how Talkdemonic slipped by me for as long as they did. The music the Portland duo creates is a brooding, deep-woods symphony, reflecting well the terrain of the Northwest. Without lyrics, the instruments do the job of emoting, with Lisa Molinaro's violin and cello playing working to convey the heart of the music. Kevin O’Connor handles the drums and electronics sequencing and the result is [...]
Lay Low was an accidental discovery made while I was blindly walking the streets of Reykjavik during the '06 Iceland Airwaves. I stumbled into Skífan, one of the record shops on Laegavur to find her alone with an acoustic guitar, singing away to a tiny gathering of folks amidst the CD aisles. There was something captivating about her performance; she's got the dark, smoky voice that belies her looks and age and her songs are simple and pleasing, with a touch of Icelandic lilt to her intonation. Completely unlike most everything else featured [...]
Nothing is sadder than a young passing. The electronic duo Telefon Tel Aviv lost a member recently, just two days shy of the release of their third album Immolate Yourself . Cooper was just 31 and in my opinion, in the midst of what would have been a long, fruitful career. You can read a small, but touching bit written by Joshua Eustis, the other half of the group on their myspace blog . Here is my favorite track of theirs, the title track from 2001's Fahrenheit Fair Enough . [...]
The real world just marches in sometimes, commanding a clear domination of one's free time. As I do love my site, it's a ton of work and the day job has been barking louder. Filling the void since my last post has been the happy surprise of the election turnout in Obama's favor. I had some faith that things would swing this way, but given the state of the world for the past 8 years, I also had my questions. After the results came in, I found myself driving around L.A. listening to "Old Old [...]
With the release of Witching Hour , way back in 2005, Ladytron jumped from being a band that I enjoyed to becoming a band that I loved. The album's dark veneer gave a touch of substance to their always charming, but aloof sound. It was clear that the band was growing and the choices they were making were good ones. I was equally excited when Velocifero was announced, but once I finally heard it the album never quite grabbed me. It didn't feel as cold or engaging as [...]
Why? stands as the most blogged about band here on Taking Tiger Mountain in its short little life, but I do unabashedly love them. Yoni is one of few people I've had the pleasure of doing an in-person interview with back in '06; I talked with him at Chicago's Double Door before their opening slot for The Silver Jews. I've seen them quite a bit in my free time and also reviewed their shows on more than one occasion ( The Double Door show and later opening for Yo La Tengo at Chicago's [...]
A good pop tune jumps in, like a ninja, does its routine and, with a blinding flash, is gone. Ryan Lindsey 's song 'Friend For Life' does just that. The tune takes spazzy drums, boinging bass and near-50's backup vocals, blending it into something that nudges the base of the brain and prods you to play it repeatedly. I've honestly not explored the remainder of the album enough, but it shares the same subdued sheen with the 2 minutes of flutter and charm that is 'Friend For Life'. Based on just this song, the [...]
Daytrotter has a lovely little clip featuring Joan of Arc 's Tim Kinsella performing the title track off their new album Boo Human . With just an acoustic guitar in a Salt Lake City parking garage, Mr. Kinsella works his way through the song with a breezy lack of effort as exiting cars echo through the structure. The space's loose reverb brings a suited melancholy. TIM KINSELLA PERFORMS 'BOO HUMAN' FOR DAYTROTTER As well, take a peek at Scrapple.tv 's interviews [...]
The birth of a genre is a rare thing. In this day and age, most new concepts are simply a bridge of two pre-existing ideas with a teeny little hyphen. With Brooklyn's Previously On Lost , an epic and original genre is born: Recap Rock. And Taking Tiger Mountain has an exclusive download courtesy of the band. Previously On Lost spent the 4th season of Lost writing tunes inspired by each episode after they aired. Now that the show is done for the season, they've taken the full set of [...]
The good folks at Pitchfork TV are hosting 2 Player Production's documentary on the 8-bit scene Reformat The Planet for a brief week. The film launched on Friday, Aug 15th, so you've got 6 days left to view it. Click below to stream the whole film: In honor of their 8-bit love, here's 3 of my all-time favorite chiptunes: [...]
This Thursday, August 14th the 4th annual I Am 8-Bit show returns to Los Angeles. Y'all know my unbridled love for all that is 8-bit, and this collective is a fine showcase of art inspired by the vintage aesthetic. Last year's show was an event I planned to hit up, but only saw it in photos afterward. It looked like an event worth attending. This year, it'll be hosted at the World of Wonder Storefront Gallery , which is at 6500 Sunset Blvd (map here ). The fantastic Computer Jay [...]
I'm not quick to crown anyone with a title, let alone someone I don't really know. Secondly, it's never good to name anyone as the saving grace of hip-hop, as it's difficult to save anything that, en masse, isn't in the mood to be saved. Since the birth of the movement, the salvation of hip-hop has been a low priority. But, along comes Wale and within a few listens, I'm suddenly thinking to against those lines. I downloaded the new Mixtape About Nothing , honestly based on the curiosity at what lunatic would really [...]
RSS feeds are out. Now we have what everyone loves to hate: a Twitter Feed! Yes, I'll now be contributing to the wonderful website with a mysterious profit model in hopes of promoting this wonderful musicblog. Subscribe to the OFFICIAL Taking Tiger Mountain feed to get updates on when new blog posts go up, recycled links from other more frequently updated music sites, and quite possibly, my musings about the chicken burrito I had for dinner tonight. (I ordered it without sour cream, it was good, and I ate it alone...glad that's out of the [...]
Following up on last year's 77Boadrum , the even has expanded and gone bi-costal. This year, you'll get live drumming in both NYC and Los Angeles. The LA venue will be at the La Brea Tar Pits, nestled in the heart of the city. For NYC, the everyone will be gathering at the Williamsburg Waterfront. The west coast event will be conducted by Soft Circle contributor and 88BoaDrum artistic director Hisham Bharoocha ; east coast duties will be handled by local act Gang Gang Dance . Both cities will be performing an [...]
Though I far prefer the cute soaring chorus of 'Left Behind' over the grunge-lite camp of 'Rat Is Dead', but the latter will do for a label sanctioned freebie. Sub Pop has released the song to give us a taste of the recently released CSS album entitled Donkey . The cutesy buzzsaw riffs do the job, but the better choice is the first single 'Left Behind'. It's a song fully formed; utilizing the smatterings of studio polish to round out their sound, rather than corrupt and bloat it. The hook [...]
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 [...]
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Listen to Daft Punk’s “Horizon”, the Japanese bonus track for Random Access Memories
Daft Punk – “Horizon” (Japan-Only Bonus Track)
Diplo Clarifies His Thoughts On Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’ Via Lengthy Facebook Letter
On The Cover Of A Magazine
