Last seen speeding through the chrome and glitter Delorean inspired world of Neon Neon, Ms. Le Bon has packed up her silver suitcase hung up her moon boots and headed back to her roots. Anyone expecting an album of Roland drum machine influenced rejects will be sorely disappointed, the only whiff of eighties pomp and glamour to be found here is her fantastically ironic New Romantic surname… Instead her debut offering Me Oh My is a crooked take on the usual singer-songwriter fare. Folksy piano led tunes are interspersed with unexpected wonky Moog bleeps and [...]
Bowerbirds play a tiny desk concert at NPR Music . Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys talks to the Guardian about his film, Separado! , which traces his family origins in Patagonia. The National Post profiles singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt . The Daily Swarm interviews legendary music producer Steve Albini. [...]
Bowerbirds play a tiny desk concert at NPR Music . The Guardian profiles comics legend Osamu Tezuka and his creation, Astro Boy. Tezuka's comics look outward to the world, too: his influences are decisively international. Individual frames, as McCarthy points out, reference Captain Nemo, Frankenstein – and isn't that Mickey Mouse's hat from Fantasia? The backgrounds are pure Fritz Lang, full of hovercars reminiscent of chrome-crusted American cars from the 1950s. Astro Boy himself is a reimagining of Pinocchio (who is, [...]
Nobody said it was easy , já dizia Chris Martin. Com a agitação desse novembro um-festival-por-semana , algumas coisas bacanas ficaram para trás. Mas não há desespero, randomizaremos para você. Novas do Móveis Coloniais de Acaju - "Mergulha e Voa" e "Por Você" Não satisfeitos em serem A BANDA da nossa temporada de festivais (Planeta Terra foi aquela coisa linda e ainda tem o da MTV e o Noise) junto aos Black Drawing Chalks e o N.A.S.A., o Móveis ainda tem tempo para ajudar as tartarugas marinhas! É, [...]

Apesar do pouco público, a estréia do Holger em terra cariocas, a micareta do Gogol e shows pra lá de competentes de Super Furry Animals e El Mato A Un Policia Motorizado garantiram o sucesso da segunda edição do Festival Indie Rock. Holger Precisa dizer que valeu a espera? Enfim, os poucos que já estavam na Fundição Progresso quando o Holger finalmente subiu num palco carioca podem fazer coro comigo que valeu sim esperar esse tempo todo por um show dos caras. [...]
The Super Furry Animals' Dark Days/Light Years is still fresh in the memory and already singer Gruff Rhys is heading off into another venture. Rhys has completed a film titled Separado!, which traces his family roots in Patagonia. "We're going to show the film for the first time in November and hopefully someone will help me put out a DVD for release sometime next year," he said. There will be music from Rhys released to coincide with the film: "I also did a soundtrack for it, so that will be [...]

Fans of Super Furry Animals are in for more psychedelic treats. Frontman Gruff Rhys, who has been working on his upcoming feature film Serperado! , plans to release the soundtrack as his next solo album. Based on Rhys' journey to track down Rene Griffiths, his distant uncle who moved from Wales to Patagonia, South America in 1974, the film is showing at Cardiff's Soundtrack Film Festival on November 19th. The Agit Reader reports Rhys wants to find a distributor for his film before making any moves on releasing the soundtrack. Explained Rhys, "We're going to [...]
Presentando il suo film "Seperado!" il leader dei Super Furry Animals annuncia di aver pronta anche la colonna sonora. Sarà questo il suo prossimo disco solista.

Gruff Rhys durante apresentação do Super Furry Animals em São Paulo Os paulistanos tiveram apenas três dias para descansar do fim de semana que abrigou dois festivais ao mesmo tempo (Planeta Terra - veja nossa cobertura aqui - e Maquinária) e já tiveram mais um para conferir. Ou melhor, parte dele, porque o Festival Indie Rock completo acontece nesta sexta-feira (13), no Rio de Janeiro, com Gogol Bordello , Super Furry Animals , El Mato a um Policia Motorizado e Holger . São Paulo assistiu nesta terça-feira (10) [...]

Gruff Rhys durante apresentação do Super Furry Animals em São Paulo Os paulistanos tiveram apenas três dias para descansar do fim de semana que abrigou dois festivais ao mesmo tempo (Planeta Terra - veja nossa cobertura aqui - e Maquinária) e já tiveram mais um para conferir. Ou melhor, parte dele, porque o Festival Indie Rock completo acontece nesta sexta-feira (13), no Rio de Janeiro, com Gogol Bordello , Super Furry Animals , El Mato a um Policia Motorizado e Holger . São Paulo assistiu nesta terça-feira (10) [...]
For every band, there's always a disenfranchised member who wants to do more. Maybe get a little more exposure, come out from behind the drums, or even hear some of his lyrics actually being sung back at him (or her). Maybe that's the problem. Maybe it's a female tired of hanging out with these smelly guys all the time. Well, how come there's no Meg White solo record? Sideprojects are predominantly a man thing. Men seem to lose it when trapped in one groove and want to move on (note, this is no way a reflection on me or my [...]

Here's a throwback track from a couple years ago for your 2009 Halloween festivities. " Trick For Treat " features Har Mar Superstar 's falsetto pitted against Spank Rock 's smooth-arsed rhymes set to a dark, blippety beat courtesy of Neon Neon ( Gruff Rhys and Boom Bip ). MP3: " Trick For Treat " by Neon Neon

Cate Le Bon: Me Oh My I've seen Cate Le Bon at the odd gig and at festivals for some time but she's always been a bit of a secret cult, best known for her sidekick work with Neon Neon and wonderfully strange tracks that crept out on MP3 like 'Mas Mas'. Now her first album is released on Gruff Rhys' new label and it's a stone psych-folk classic. It has two sides: [...]

The Terror of the Man Ever since St. Vincent checked in with her brilliant debut album Marry Me in 2007 I've been on the look out for a female songwriter burning the same desirable flame. Finally I've found her; she is Welsh musician Cate Le Bon and her debut album Me Oh My is the first album from a female solo artist to really excite me since St. Vincent grabbed my attention three years ago. Known already [...]

After the musical feast that was Welsh Rare Beat comes a second helping of Welsh-language esoterica courtesy of Andy Votel, Dom Thomas and Gruff Rhys. The Welsh Rare Beat 2 menu invites us to tuck into a scrumptious selection of kitsch, cosmic and psychedelic flavours by the likes of Heather Jones, Meic Stevens and Y Tebot Piws (The Purple Teapot) - to name but three. Sleeve notes are penned by Gruff Rhys whose scribblings on the first instalment were a genuine education in Welsh-language rock and pop history. The packaging here is fun too undermining stereotypes [...]

One of my most anticipated gigs came and went this weekend, without a doubt living up to it's potential. When the Hotcakes boys bought tickets to see Simian Mobile Disco , we were very excited, but our heart rate quickened at the discovery that it was being held at the epicentre of the Birmingham rave scene, Rainbow Warehouse. But that was nothing compared to the explosive rise in adrenaline levels on finding out that we had inadvertently bought tickets to witness the who's who of bezzler DJs in support of the duo. We [...]

Maybe you can recall Cate Le Bon's role in NEON NEON's single I Lust You, which Ray previously posted, but behold her debut album Me Oh My . Sure it might have taken some time to complete, but when Super Furry Animal's Gruff Rhys is backing you up with a label basically dedicated to you, there's time to spare for a deserving musician. There's something adorning when you know a musician, like Cate Le Bon , writes [...]

Nel parlare di "Dark Night Of The Soul" è impossibile evitare il discorso sul futuro della fruizione della musica. Il progetto di Mark Linkous e Danger Mouse ad oggi esiste sono nell'incarnaione digitale per problematiche contrattuali con la EMI. Il tutto è stato convertito a progetto visuale relizzato da David Lynch , autore di una serie di illustrazioni, acquistabile online fino a poco tempo fa (ora sold out) e accompagnato simbolicamente da un CD-R vuoto da usare come meglio si crede. Ciclicamente (vedi l'operazione "In Rainbow" dei Radiohead o le ultime strategie di [...]

Our buddy Jared of Playtonic Dialogues covered All Tomorrow's Parties for us. It should be noted that Jared sent this to me almost a week ago and I've just been slow in posting it. Thanks again, Jared. 1:30 AM Music festivals are wonderful, unpredictable, and tiresome. After seeing Atlas Sound, I went with the family to a local Catskills institution, an Italian restaurant called Frankie and Johnny's. If the portions weren't enough of a thrill, on the way out of [...]

Cardiff's music scene is as strong as it's ever been, and somewhere near the center is brooding chanteuse, Cate Le Bon . Having already contributed to Gruff Rhys and Boom Bip's Neon Neon project, Le Bon continues to work with the Super Furries front man, albeit with Rhys wearing the A&R hat. So impressed with Cate's music, Gruff set up his own label, Irony Bored , to release her album, which is due out on October 5. A new force in song-craft, Le Bon is the [...]