Roughly two hours after the earthquake responsible for bringing residents of the Eastern seaboard to their Tweets , a stark naked, knife-wielding individual was politely asked to drop his weapon. A woman standing nearby told police officers that the assailant had assaulted a woman in the vicinity. The incident took place just west of 158th street and Broadway. Pictures below:
Reading Rainbow - Runaways For burgeoning bands of the jegging persuasion, pop, specifically lo-fi pop, is in. It's been in. It will remain in for years to come whether I/you/we like it or not. And for the most part, I could do with a breather from the fuzz, not because the aesthetic itself lacks merit, but because it's increasingly become a means for those with nothing to say to say a lot of it, cheaply and in rapid succession. Fans of the genre generally appear in favor of this triviality - citing it [...]
Sharon Van Etten - I Wish I Knew The wonderful thing about lurking in the background as a wayward, traffic-oblivious music website is the freedom to idolize lingering obsessions some six months or more after their initial discovery. Sharon Van Etten's forlorn ruminations spent the better part of winter idly swinging their legs from the speakers and turntables of everyone who'd managed to get their hands on them. Etten's collection of melancholy folk songs, candidly titled Because I Was In Love , comes across as the ultimate exercise in self-preservation. [...]
Land Of Talk - Corner Phone Nestled among contemporary music journalism's gravest shortcomings lies an inability to discuss distortion-loving female singer-songwriters unapologetically. In lieu of objective criticism, we dedicate hours to justifying the shortcomings of popular female acts while relegating others to digital obscurity. Praise comes easily enough when we strike upon women releasing one devastating song after another, and we happily fete those who excel at the uncommon, say by straddling harps or by boasting perpetually bewildered, doe-eyed expressions . Now granted, some of these performers occasionally [...]
Land Of Talk - Corner Phone Nestled among contemporary music journalism's gravest shortcomings lies an inability to discuss distortion-loving female singer-songwriters unapologetically. In lieu of objective criticism, we dedicate hours to justifying the shortcomings of popular female acts while relegating others to digital obscurity. Praise comes easily enough when we strike upon women releasing one devastating song after another, and we happily fête those who excel at the uncommon, say by straddling harps or by boasting perpetually bewildered, doe-eyed expressions . Now granted, some of these performers occasionally [...]
Here We Go Magic - Collector How would it sound if Broken Social Scene and The New Pornographers didn't spend half their albums jerking off? Like the start of the new Here We Go Magic album, which, I'm sorry to report, proceeds to spend seven-tenths of its total running time jerking off. "Collector" remains a standout track. "Land Of Feeling" would as well were it not for a synth-induced identity crisis encountered at its halfway mark. Well, OK, Brooklyn. [ Here We Go Magic on Myspace ]
A Weather - Spiders, Snakes It comes with the rain, usually. Or from the motel tap. Your gas station coffee. The sneeze on your shoulder. The mud on your boots. Socks inverted, reverted, tossed in the trunk. There, on the holes in the linens. Against the hum of lights. Between the pushpins in your office. On your neighbor's squeaking mattress. Under your mother's missed call. Even on the floss half-hanging from the rubbish, not yours. There, near the highway, by the gravel, times to think are the worst times to think; one should never [...]
Francis And The Lights - A Modern Promise Francis And The Lights are set to seduce several hundred people play New York City's Bowery Ballroom this Thursday, May 13th. There may be rioting. Going off previous concerts, there will be squealing (and lots of it). Bringing the camera, though I doubt it will capture anything as spectacular as the video above. Push play, buy tickets. [ Francis and the Lights , Twitter ]
Francis And The Lights are set to seduce several hundred people play New York City's Bowery Ballroom this Thursday, May 13th. There may be rioting. Going off previous concerts, there will be squealing (and lots of it). Bringing the camera, though I doubt it will capture anything as spectacular as the video above. Push play, buy tickets. [ Francis and the Lights , Twitter ]
Idiot Glee - All Packed Up See the man with the keyboards? That man is Idiot Glee - hands down the most promising act I saw at this year's SXSW . Which probably means he, one James Friley of Kentucky, is DOOMED, destined to be buried under the weight of Panda Bear/Grizzly Bear/Brian Bear Wilson comparisons for the remainder of his "post doo-wop" career. For those of you who were lucky enough to grab tickets to the Chris Knox benefit tonight, congratulations. I highly encourage everyone else [...]
Thomas Function - Snake In The Grass The voluminous praise for Huntsville, Alabama's Thomas Function dwelling on this site sports nods of approval hailing from indisputably reputable zines ( Dusted and All Music Guide , to name but a few). I finally had the pleasure of watching Thomas Function at New York City's Cake Shop last Thursday. Overall? Enjoyable. Are they talented? Yes. Fun? Sure. Anthemic? Occasionally. Though from what I gathered speaking with other bloggers, the band's played better shows, the recent departure of their keyboardist notwithstanding. [...]
No Monster Club - A Morbid Fascination It is after noon. Hours past, in fact. It may even be night by most standards; at the very least let us agree to call this not-day, not by much, anyway. The sun could also be setting, though of this I am less certain than of the nightness of the hour. Who can say? Surely not you. You could be night, wherever you are. Or, as the case may be, regrettably morning. I will leave work shortly. I may grab charcoal for the grill once the cats [...]
A new series dedicated to the artists I consider particularly salient. They're the reason I began writing about music in the first place; with any luck, they'll be why I start writing about it again. So Cow - Shut Eye I once described So Cow as lo-fi, punk-rooted pop deeply devoted to infectious vocal melodies and earnest lyrics. The man, Brian Kelly, also happens to play guitar well enough. But the reason why so many of my music-loving peers [...]
The Mint Chicks - Hot On Your Heels Something unprecedented happened over the past five years to significantly alter the way we consume music. End of story. Music journalist Chris Dahlen sums it up best : "[My friend and I] love to fight about new music. I'll condense his argument for the sake of space: he hates it. It's too hyped and too derivative, there are too many artists choking the stuff out and slapping it on MySpace, and the Internet – and especially publications like Pitchfork [...]
Oberhofer - I Could Go This is Oberhofer. You will hear about him frequently in the coming months. Happy New Year. You are out, Marina. You have taken gloves, both gloves, your softest purse, your thickest socks. You have zipped and unzipped boots. Your legs are shaven, the hairs rinsed down the drain. You have scrubbed the day's saliva from your lips and now they are moist again, very, with the contents of a jar claiming to be "nervous-proof." There are eight nail clippings living in [...]
Picture via Analog Apartment Ran into a few bugs here. Rubbish timing. Sit tight. PS Buy records.
One week, each month, spent discussing books, music, the occasional book about music, but always the magic when book + music converge. The Chairs - No Fingers Exercise patience and wade past "No Fingers'" opening 10 seconds of fuzz. "It's worth it" would be an understatement. Next up on this month's list of books is Lorrie Moore's Self-Help . In short, do not trust this collection of stories; it will kill you. So many of her tales deal [...]
One week, each month, spent discussing books, music, the occasional book about music, but always the magic when book + music converge. Michael Hurley - Light Green Fellow I'm beginning to wonder whether the artistic media my escapism hopscotches upon from one month to the next mimics the seasons. The nature of the content I engage per medium certainly adheres to this trajectory, so it would stand to reason the part of me that chooses literature over film in fall, or music over [...]
Sore Eros - Smile On Your Face To be fair, there were two commendable shorts, a few fallen eyelashes of well-crafted composition effectively conveying love (and cinematic reverence) for New York. Regardless of these triumphs, New York, I Love You largely reads like a poorly-shot documentary interspersed with bland fictional scenarios driven aimlessly by even blander fictional characters. And for a film to portray New York as an amalgam of sad, socially-stunted beasts, to make it devoid of any vivacity, to display, [...]
Hans Zimmer - Insanely Risky After nearly a decade of studying film scores, this much I can say - Hans Zimmer doesn't do boring. Until now. For all his faults, Zimmer never fails to display an overwhelming command of sound, one endlessly engaging viewers aurally, for better or worse. The most frequently voiced qualms deal with Zimmer's execution more so than the content produced, a dependence on bombast when subtlety would better complement the images at hand. Which is why, after [...]
The Pop Filter
Lana Del Rey - Without You (Kill Paris Remix) [Dubstep]
Miike Snow - “Paddling Out” Jacques Lu Cont Remix (MP3 Stream)
Iron & Wine and Patty Griffin
Download: James Blake Live Album (Unofficial)
Circo Voador anuncia shows de The Kooks, Foster The People, Friendly Fires, Gogol Bordello e mais
