On December 23rd, the Washington D.C. area received 16 inches of snow, making it the sixth largest snow storm the area had seen in recorded history. Shortly thereafter, I escaped to my home country of South Africa, where summer reigned supreme. I thought, perhaps, that D.C. had seen the worst of the bad weather, but upon my return I was greeted with quite the opposite. Since the New Year, we have been hammered. Last weekend, we toppled Christmas's record, with nearby areas reporting up to 3 feet of the cold, fluffy stuff. With another 10-20 inches predicted for [...]
I have a not-so-secret admirer at work. He's a patient of ours and he's got a thing for me. It's flattering, creepy and sad all at the same time. Flattering because, honestly, who wouldn't like to be told that you're a "beautiful specimen of a woman" or that someone wants to "wrap his arms around you and squeeze you"? Even if it's coming from someone old enough to be your father who uses a walker and doesn't bathe regularly--it's kind of an ego boost. On the [...]
Just whatever she wants it to mean, I say. She's the one pulling the strings here. She's the one planting her little seeds. Colonizing me. Occupying me. The mass media, the culture, everything laying its eggs under my skin. Big Brother filling me with need. Do I really want a big house, a fast car, a thousand beautiful sex partners? Do I really want these things? Or am I trained to want them? [...]
Previously unseen photos of 1960s folk, blues and bluegrass scene Raeburn Flerlage, who passed away in 2002 at the age of 86, was as much a record man as he was a photographer. His decades of work in writing about, promoting, distributing and selling records gave him both an insider's collection of contacts and a fan's undying love of musicians and their music. Moving to Chicago in the mid-1940s he placed himself at a well-traveled crossroads for touring artists and, later, ground-zero of the electric blues revolution. He began studying photography in the late-1950s [...]
Top Album Releases: January 2010 Nick's Top Beach House: Teen Dream Surfer Blood: Astro Coast Magnetic Fields: Realism Spoon: Transference Owen Pallett: Heartland [...]
Tunng started out as a two-man folk outfit with heavy electronic influences and tweakies, but have continually evolved. Their fourth album, ...And Then We Saw Land , finds them without one of their founding members and grown into a fully collaborative five-piece. The sounds are bigger and closer to the British folk-rock tradition, which is just fine by me. I'll miss the loopy tweaky bits, but I can't say I'll miss hearing Tunng described as "folktronica" (shudder). ...And Then We Saw Land comes out March 1 on ( Thrill Jockey [U.S.] [...]
Find everything that went up in the month of January. You can download the following mp3s individually OR listen to the whole batch in one playlist. Click on the artists at the right under Related Downloads to learn more about each band and see similar music suggestions. [RICH MEDIA, CLICK TO VIEW ON SITE] Play All [RICH MEDIA, CLICK TO VIEW ON SITE] [ play ] | [ download mp3 ] Charlotte Gainsbourg - "Heaven [...]
hier hatten wir bereits einiges aus der karriere des cory gray, vorsitzender von carcrashlander , berichtet, sessionmusiker, unterstützer (u.a. the decemberists, grails, norfolk & western, graves) und schließlich auch unterstützter bei seinen ersten soloausflügen, durch u.a. dave depper (bass), shelley short, laura gibson (backing vocals), adam selzer und nate ashley (guitar), brian wright (drums) und amanda lawrence (viola, violin), das selbstbetitelte album erschien vor zwei jahren auf parks and records . nun ist der zweitling da, wir hatten es bereits verkündet, hier . eingetroffen ist "where to swim" mittlerweile auch und wir können einige worte darüber [...]
Portland producer Mike Coykendall puts his own foot forward. IMAGE: Courtesy of Field Hymns Records Thirty years ago, Norwich, Kan., wasn't really a rock 'n' roll town. Luckily, a teenage Mike Coykendall had an older brother with a guitar and an amp. "He could play 'Day Tripper' and 'Interstellar Overdrive,'" says Coykendall, wrapped up in a gray fleece coat and ushanka outside Southeast Portland's Albina Press. "He was kind of a wild child. [So] I knew about some stuff no one else really knew about." Were it not [...]
Photos by Blush Photo In theory, last Thursday's show was all about Mad Rad 's return to Capitol Hill. The bad boys back on the beat. The party-rappers keepin' it clean on the scene instead of bein' mean. Macklemore , while exhibiting his own solid footing of late with a magnificent EP ( Vs. ) cut with beatmaker Ryan Lewis, was simply a tantalizing opening act. A warm up to the big up. . Turns out Macklemore [...]
Two Lovers It is always fascinating to watch a director work with his/her acting muse. The bond that forms on screen is electrifying as both the director and the actor push each other in bold new creative directions. Martin Scorsese had it with Robert DeNiro from the seventies through to the nineties. Now Scorsese has it again with Leonardo Dicaprio. Other examples of this can be found in the pairings of: Woody Allen and Diane Keating and/or Mia Farrow, Hal Hartley and Martin Donovan; P.T. Anderson and [...]
As your local former Ser Biz intern, it is my duty to inform you that disbanded as of I-don't-remember-when SBR band Man In Gray are back with a one-show reunion at Union Hall on 20 Feb. : Man in Gray With not-on-Ser-Biz-but-much-belove d-by-them-nonetheless El Jezel and Coyote Eyes (who, if you'll remember, I saw at Northside back in June ) 8 pm 8 dollars 21+ There's some other [...]
Phosphorescent "A Picture Of Our Torn Up Praise" from American Songwriter on Vimeo . Not only does Willie Nelson count himself as a fan, but apparently Matthew Houck of Phosphorescent is greatly admired by David Gray as well. In a press release today from Dead Oceans it said, "Last fall, Phosphorescent bassist Jeff Bailey is watching a primetime news show when British songwriter David Gray appears for an interview. The interviewer inquires as to what Gray is listening to on his iPod and he responds, [...]
IMAGE: Denise Siegel Born: Bryan G. Phillips on Sept. 1, 1963, in Stockton, Calif. Latest release: Little Moon, 2009 Why you care: Because if you're my age or older, Phillips' old band, Grant Lee Buffalo, probably made an impact on your eardrums. The band's biggest hit, "Mockingbirds," was a refreshing bit of pop songwriting upon its release in 1994, with Phillips' breezy falsetto cutting out an unflinchingly infectious hook. The band released three solid albums before its disappointing 1998 swan song, [...]
The prestigious Excellence In Music and Entertainment (EME) Awards is back and this year's staging of the event will be on Thursday February 4, at the Gardens at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, 81 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston. The EME Awards is the brain child of popular radio personality Richard 'Richie B' Burgess. He created this award show to honor the players in the local music industry , both past and present, for their hard work in creating and maintaining excellence within our rich musical culture. The EME Awards is a non-profit venture. Since its humble beginnings [...]
Pitchfork released a list of a bunch of albums that are set to come out in 2010 (view them all below the break). Here are a few of those that we are looking forward to... The National: TBA [Beggars Banquet] Beach House: Teen Dream [Sub Pop] LCD Soundsystem: TBA [DFA] MGMT: Congratulations [Columbia] The Magnetic Fields: Realism [Nonesuch] Interpol: TBA [Capitol] Spoon: Transference Mount Eerie: Black Wooden [Latitudes] David [...]
Blizzards, Bob & Brautigan Jarvis Cocker , BBC 6 Music's latest celebrity signing to its DJ roster , made an impressive debut on Sunday afternoon. Better still he introduced me to two great tracks I'd never previously heard. Tim Rose's Snowed In was the perfect opener at the end of a week when "weather chaos" has blighted the nation. Until I clicked through to the BBC's Tim Rose artist page from the [...]
Simon Cowell may have just rendered the biggest judgment call of his career with his decision to bid farewell to American Idol . But what is his real legacy as a talent spotter? Before he calls in his manservants to ship his tight black shirts over to The X Factor , we decided to take a look back at Simon's best — and worst — judgments on Idol . No question, he possesses keen insight. But maybe there's also a reason the final voting is left up to America. [...]
Who : Spoon Title : Transference Release Date : January 18th Label : Merge Records Thoughts : From the second the needle hits the wax, or in this case the ZIP file finishes downloading, you cannot mistake that Transference is a Spoon record. It has all the defining Spoon traits that the band have worked the last 15-years to perfect, the distinct, unmistakable voice of Britt Daniel leading the [...]
einem wie akira sakata braucht man nicht über umwege begegnen. das ist eine direkte art der saxophonen konfrontation. genau so wie man sein leben zu betrachten hat. 1945 in der nähe von hiroshima geboren. studiert biologie an der heimischen uni. bald formiert er seine ersten bands, tokio 1969 ist ein markierungspfosten. wie er sich überhaupt in den späten sechzigern zu etablieren weiß, unter den free jazzern seiner zeit. er wird in den siebzigern immer wieder gern als mitglied von ausnahmeformationen herangezogen. beispielsweise für das yamashita yosuke trio oder wha-ha-ha oder gründet selbst acts wie sakata akira mii. aufnahmen [...]
New Releases V2.9
2010 Bonnaroo Artists Unveiled
Remix Review
New Nas & Armand Van Helden
