About two weeks ago, I included a Tindersticks song as part of my mix CD of quiet songs . The week before - while sitting around in a St Louis motel room (and in between listening to Fucked Up ) - I grew curious about the current goings-on of Tindersticks' former violin player and primary string arranger, Dickon Hinchliffe. This led me to his website , which is set up to showcase his work as a film composer and orchestral arranger. On the bottom left of the site is a music player [...]
More info : Biography | DBS DJs | DBS Schedule | Tracklist | www.myspace.com/jonasstenberg | www.jonasstenberg.com Start time: Every 2nd Tuesday of the month 22:00 - 23:00 CET convert ***Click Here To Listen*** Tracklisting The Stenberg Selection [...]
2010 is the year of the archipelago, it seems. Having already mentioned Shearwater's upcoming The Golden Archipelago quite a few times, we can now dive into Massive Attack's Heligoland , named after the German archipelago in the North Sea. What is it about archipelagos that makes us want to associate them with music? I suppose the word flows off the tongue with a bit of a musical edge; one that seems slightly magical. The magic and mystery lead into Heligoland appropriately. It's an [...]
Out now on Patient Sounds words : Jamie Milton You enter from one side of ' M. Pyres & New Past Tense' and you come out of a completely different end, into an unrecognisable landscape compared to the one you came from. Such is the contrast between opener and closer, both titled ' Gravity Deluxe' but with different, bracketed sub-titles to help differentiate the two. The first is a serene, Grizzly Bear -esque opener of huggable reverb and soft, colliding [...]
So let's get some full disclosure out of the way right off the bat: I've liked The Album Leaf for a long time. Whether I've ever been an Album Leaf fan, however, is another question. In fact I'd say I haven't. Not really, anyway. Not in the sense that I buy anything Jimmy LaValle puts out, or that I keep a lookout for similar artists. My interest has never run quite that deep. I did hold out some hope, though, that Friday night might change all that. With the Anomie Belle String Quartet lending a hand [...]
I could not think of a picture to go with this post, so here's this. I was driving towards a coffeeshop on Friday when Home's "Variations On I-Max Theme" popped up on my mp3 player. This got me thinking about other bands who have covered themes of any sort. Once home, I searched my hard drive for songs with the word 'theme' in them, then got to (very quick) work on the following. Sometimes, it's just that simple. This is mostly instrumental, so apologies if you like words and stuff. [...]
Die Antwoord- Enter The Ninja (LOL Boys Juke Edit) South African rave-rap group Die Antwoord are a lot more than they appear. Their emergence/sudden 'viral explosion' onto the scene might raise a few eyebrows to those who have been following their former group, Max Normal TV. If Die Antwoord's status quo is about being "zef as fuck" and raving to the grave, it's a curious contrast to the Atmosphere like nature of Max Normal TV's self aware hip hop about insecurity . Particularly interesting is [...]
As Valentine's Day is less than a week away G-Shock is dropping two special V-Day watches to get your special someone. Here is what Casio had to say about the G-Shock G-Lide and Mini. "The striking contrast created by the white patent finish and pronounced hot pink LCDs make the Precious White His & Hers watches stylishly practical Valentine's Day gifts. With the legendary hallmarks of G-Shock water and shock resistance, the GLS5500P-7 and GMN550-7D will withstand the highs and lows of any relationship. [...]
The Soundtrack of Our Lives are coming to Chicago and I've been soaking them in all weekend. What a trip it's been. Yeah, Communion, their latest double album was released in 2008, but I never got to it until now. And you know me, I love this hook-laden, rock-n-roll, heavy-bass, guitar-driven kind of music. It's quite the contrast to The Black Atlantic, the other thing that's been feeding my ears, I'll tell you that! And it's been a welcome contrast. I'm stoked to see them play live. They're ending their US tour [...]
The Trials of Van Occupanther , Midlake's 2006 masterpiece, was an album of intimate concerns. Its protagonist yearned for simpler times and separation from the trappings of modern man - even as he sought a romantic connection to the outside world. These musings were buoyed and brightened by exuberant folk-rock as anthemic and open-armed as its words were introspective. By contrast, the band's long-awaited, laboriously crafted follow-up, The Courage of Others , plays like an inverse of its predecessor. Midlake's music, once made airy and open by piano and woodwinds, has tightened [...]
Kurt Weisman - New Blueberry Song Kurt Weisman's Spiritual Hi-Fi blew me away last year with it's toy-like missions into blissful song, all messed up and squeaky voiced-fragile and really smacking of Solaris (or at least the lights and contrast from the early pond/grass textures to the space-age off-whites) sans the nightmarish qualities, replaced w/ Josephine Foster-style baroque . His voice is still Neil Young/Grandaddy high on the new one Orange but trips out on a more down 2 earth w/ off-key vocal meanderings and dawdling guitar lines, real nice and obliquely "madcap"/demented that [...]
words & photos by Dominick Mastrangelo , more words by Zach Pollack Ra Ra Riot Ra Ra Riot played to a sold-out crowd at the Howard Gilman Opera House in Brooklyn on Friday (2/5). The Syracuse-based band played an energetic set and threw in a couple of Kate Bush covers (finishing the show with "Hounds Of Love".) "Suspended in Gaffa" appeared on 2008's critically acclaimed The Rhumb Line of which the band played [...]
we weren't planning to go at first, but at the last minute, b and i got ourselves passes to see the xx and florence and the machine at the esplanade (many thanks v and a!). bursting with enthusiasm, florence delivered a spectacular show of epic proportions, with impressively high energy levels sustained to the very last song. in very stark contrast, opening band the xx operated with the barest of setups, presenting every note and breath to the audience's scrutiny. barring some rather disastrous sound engineering for the first few songs, the atmosphere they created was [...]
I've got a rather large pile of unsorted mp3's in one of the folders of my hard drive. These are all songs that were offered on other music blogs over the past couple months (most of these fine blogs are the ones that make up the 'Musical Linkage' sidebar on the right). This past week, I've been trying to go through as many of those tracks as I can, picking out the ones I like and welcoming them to the rest of my music collection, where they will lead happy and fruitful lives until my hard drive crashes. [...]
Patty Griffin holds the coveted title of being a songwriter's songwriter. Read interviews with contemporary musicians and songwriters and you hear Griffin referenced alongside Bob Dylan and Lucinda Williams as an artist who writes the kind of songs every artist envies. Innumerable artists have covered her songs in the studio or in concert. She's just that good. For her most recent studio effort, Downtown Church , Griffin mixes traditional gospel hymns with only two original tracks of her own. You might be skeptical of listening to what is essentially a religious covers album, especially when it [...]
A Badge Of Friendship Interview Visit A Badge Of Friendship Please start off by introducing yourselves and telling us a bit about your favourite things? Claire: My name is Claire. I run A Badge of Friendship with Paul - we've been doing ABoF for around 5 years now. My favourite things are music, art, fashion... I also love food (particularly baking and trying to perfect my lemon madeira cake!), travel (Barcelona [...]
There has always been something organic about the music of Laura Veirs (she studied geology at university) and her seventh album July Flame, a celebration of summer and the great outdoors, is no different. The album, produced by long-time collaborator Tucker Martine, is the antithesis of Veirs' wonderful Carbon Glacier, a record as cold as reading Ice Station Zebra while watching The Thing in a refrigerator. In contrast July Flame (a type of peach) epitomises long hot days and warm campfire nights and sees a return to the more solitary folk sound of Veirs' early days. As with [...]
More info: DBS DJs | DBS Schedule | Tracklist | www.euphonic.de | www.myspace.com/dennissheperd Start time: Every Sunday 22:00 - 24:00 CET convert ***Click Here To Listen*** Tracklisting Euphonic Sessions - Dennis Sheperd 07-02-2010 week 05 2010: [...]
Peter Gabriel's relevance in the indie (or should I say "ternative" ) music scene has been present for some time now, especially with his style being replicated and name being dropped in quite a few Vampire Weekend songs and albums. But never has his presence been more felt than this past week, when his covers of Bon Iver's "Flume" and Arcade Fire's "My Body Is A Cage" were premiered on Stereogum . "Flume" finds Gabriel scratching the acoustic guitar and falsetto of Bon Iver, and instead belting the lyrics out in his own way- a little [...]
Chico Buarque doesn't need an introduction. Certainly not one from me. His contributions to contemporary Brazilian culture transcends just music – besides being a singer, he was also a guitarist, composer, dramatist, writer, and poet, all the while maintaining a politically active outlook on his life that led to constant threats, clashes and eventual exile by the brutal Brazilian military dictatorship of his day. That didn't faze Chico - he returned to Brazil after just a year abroad in Italy. I've always been struck by Chico Buarque's clever wordplay, his inventive lyricism, and his skillful use of the Portuguese [...]
New Releases V2.9
Hot Chip: One Life Stand
TOUR: The Tallest Man On Earth Announces U.S. Dates
