The Tape

We got sent this awesome video a couple of days ago, and I haven’t had time to post it until now. This is a fantastic cover of the Passion Pit song that everyone loves. I was waiting to post until an mp3 came along, which Neon Gold Beat Company posted today. Watch the video, and enjoy the mp3 below.

Run Toto Run- Sleepyhead (Passion Pit Cover)

Well actually, it equals a most unlikely, groundbreaking, and unprescidented mixed media experiment. Indeed, the news that Brian Burton(Danger Mouse) and Sparklehorse have been talking collaboration has been gestating in the so called “blogosphere” for quite some time. However, with no substantial, or palpable information to discuss, this promising project has quietly slipped out of the public eye… until now. What was originally a solely musical excursion has taken a new-but no less inscrutable and nebulous form as after the finishing of the album, Brian Burton recruited David Lynch to craft visual companions to these ambient pieces. The eclectic result is none other than “Dark Night Of The Soul”, an exhibition at the Michael Kohn Gallery which attempts to display this odd interplay between picture and sound. The concept enthralling, and the mixture of three such powerful art tycoons certainly captivating. A must see if you live in the L.A. area. 

The Michael Kohn Gallery

Dark Night Of The Soul Website

Jay-Z/The Beatles/Danger Mouse- Dirt Of Your Shoulder 

If you haven’t been on the blogs in the past few days, Wavves had a bit of a meltdown, with lead singer/songwriter Nathan Williams absolutely freaking out at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona. He got beer poured on his head by his drummer, and everyone threw bottles at him. He later canceled his next show, and just posted an apology on his website, Ghost Ramp. Here’s his response to all the events that transpired.

I think in the back of my head I knew I wasn’t exactly mentally healthy enough to continue to tour the way I have been since February. Honest truth is this has all happened so fast and I feel like the weight of it has been building for months now with what seems like a never ending touring and press schedule which includes absolutely zero time to myself. I’m sorry to everyone who has put effort into this and to everyone who supported me. Mixing ecstasy valium and xanax before having to play in front of thousands of people was one of the more poor decisions I’ve made(duh) and I realize my drinking has been a problem now for a good period of time. Nothing else I can do but apologize to everyone that has been affected by my poor decision making. I made a mistake. Not the first mistake I’ve made and it for sure wont be the last. I’m human. Don’t know why I chose the biggest platform I could imagine to lose my shit, but that’s life. You live and you learn.

If anyone has video footage of the show, please send it.

Wavves- So Bored

Krug, throwing back a Miller Chill on the deck of the USS Dragonslayer.

Between Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake, and (kinda) Frog Eyes, the world gets new releases from/by/feat. Spencer Krug faster than most people can count. Except me. According to some hasty calculations, Krug has been involved in an average of 3 albums per year since 2002. Eat that, Campesinos. The latest, from his formerly-solo-but-now-there-are-other-people-in-it band Sunset Rubdown, is an 8 song LP titled Dragonslayer. It’s good that they get that out front- Sunset Rubdown doesn’t hold back on theatrics, which is nicely countered by the fact that they don’t take themeselves seriously.  Dragonslayer is an album less technically complex than Random Spirit Lover, which often makes it feel stronger and more intense. In that way it relates closer to their first full-band release, Shut Up I’m Dreaming, a more simple, powerful, and eerie album than Lover, which was instead brought up by complicated, layered playing. However, what Dragonslayer gives up in complexity it also gives up in atmosphere. Where Random Spirit Lover could be the soundtrack to Krug’s weird dreams, (or something) Dragonslayer doesn’t have a coherent, musical narrative. None of the songs can be individually blamed; each one features Krug, as singer, musician, and songwriter, performing as well as, or better than, anywhere (read: everywhere) we’ve heard him. They just don’t form an album as well as the last two.

The clear highlight is the “sequel” song to Random Spirit Lover’s “Trumpet Trumpet Toot! Toot!” If each Sunset Rubdown song were considered individually, this would be around the top.

PS, the new version of “Paper Lace” is 10 times better than the one on Swan Lake’s Enemy Mine

Sunset Rubdown - You Go on Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)

We’ve written about Aria C. Jalali’s project, Railcars, before. We’re very pleased to announce that Railcars will be releasing a full length album this summer - August 4th on Stumparumper Records. The album will be called Cathedral With No Eyes and it’ll released as a 12″ record (limited to 1000 copies), as well as out on iTunes and via his website. He’s been touring with Handsome Furs (a logical choice) and will tour on his own next fall in support of the album. The tracklisting is as follows…

side a
1. life of saint edmund (ponds)
2. castles
3. passion of saint edmund (rebirth)
4. passion of saint edmund (miracles)

side b

5. cathedral with no eyes
6. martyrdom of saint edmund (end)

Enjoy an mp3 from the album, as well as last year’s Cities vs. Submarines EP, a free download.

Railcars - Cities Vs. Submarines (EP Direct Download)

Railcars - Castles (Direct Link to Aria’s Website)

It was announced earlier today, that Yoni Wolf and Co. will be releasing a new album this fall. It’s hard to follow up the incredible Alopecia, but I trust Why? to deliver a stellar album. Lot’s of details were revealed in a Pitchfork interview, which you can find here. Here’s a little snippet from the interview:

Pitchfork: You haven’t rapped much in a long time, at least not regularly. Do you miss it at all?

YW: Well, I don’t set up that line, necessarily, between rapping and singing. I think that there’s so much gray area there. I mean, I’m influenced by lots of rap music and lots of other music. Even on a song where I might be using melodies and whatnot, I still might borrow a lot of phrasing from hip-hop styles. It’s not like it’s rap-rock or whatever, but it’s just kind of having that kind of sensibility as vocalist. I feel like I’ll always carry [hip-hop] with me because that was sort of the formative years of listening for me, my teenage years.

I don’t know. The stuff that I’ve been writing recently has been a little more intricate in rhyme scheme. Out of a couplet, being two lines, every word rhymes with a word in the next couplet, stuff like that. It’s just games I play with myself. Instead of doing crosswords or whatever, recently I’ll do stuff like that. So the next stuff may be more rap because it’s going to be hard to try to sing that stuff. But we’ll see. That being said, this record, Eskimo Snow, is really the least hip-hop out of anything I’ve ever been involved with. I mean, they feel like song-songs with– I don’t want to say a typical verse-chorus structure, but they’re song-songs.

I only played chess once in my life and I lost.

Why?- A Sky For Shoeing Horses Under

Andy Milonakis is making a comeback. I liked him when I was 12/13 and his MTV show was the show in 7th grade. I grew up. He did not. So this proves that things move in cycles, as Andy Milonakis is hip again. Fresh off a song with Major Lazer (Diplo + Switch, in case you really didn’t know by now) and a hilarious accompanying video, Milonakis digitally released his single, “Let Me Twitter That.” So please enjoy this song. It is very literally a list of things he finds worthy of tweeting. And it is brilliant. Welcome back, Milonakis.

Andy Milonakis on Twitter

Andy Milonakis - Let Me Twitter That

Everyone’s favorite DJ and impresario, A-Trak set some dates for the summer. He’s fresh off his mixtape/album, Infinity +1 and a Fabriclive mix. His live sets are always innovate. A great display of skill, both as a scratch DJ and a mix DJ. There is nobody who blends the two seemingly contradictory styles better. He’ll be touring with labelmate Treasure Fingers, whose music is a brilliant attempt at bringing back disco. Unfortunately, his only stop in our fine city will be at the HARD Summer Fest, an event I do my best to avoid. It might be tough this year though, as A-Trak and Tiga are pretty hard to pass up. Tour dates below…

6/17/09        NEW YORK, NY ULTRA LOUNGE (BACARDI B-LIVE) +
6/18/09        BOSTON, MA HOUSE OF BLUES (BACARDI B-LIVE) +
6/19/09        PHILADELPHIA, PA ELECTRIC FACTORY (BACARDI B-LIVE) +
7/02/09        CHARLOTTE, NC           THE FORUM (BACARDI B-LIVE) +
7/03/09        ATLANTA, GA OPERA (BACARDI B-LIVE) +
7/04/09        ORLANDO, FL HOUSE OF BLUES (BACARDI B-LIVE) +
7/05/09        TAMPA, FL                      CZAR *
7/08/09        MIAMI, FL                        LIV *
7/10/09        AUSTIN, TX                     AUSTIN MUSIC HALL (BACARDI B-LIVE) +
7/11/09        HOUSTON, TX WAREHOUSE LIVE *
7/13/09        PHOENIX, AZ CLUB RED *
7/14/09        SAN DIEGO, CA VOYEUR ^
7/16/09        SAN FRANCISCO, CA    THE INDEPENDENT *
7/17/09        PORTLAND, OR              ROTTURE ^
7/18/09        SEATTLE, WA CHOP SUEY *
7/22/09        VANCOUVER, BC RICHARD’S ON RICHARDS ^
7/23/09        CALGARY, AB                 HI FI *
7/24/09        EDMONTON, AB             STAR LITE ROOM ^
7/25/09        TORONTO, ON                TIME FESTIVAL
7/30/09        OTTAWA, ON                   RITUAL NIGHTCLUB *
7/31/09        NEW YORK, NY               WEBSTER HALL #
8/01/09        MONTREAL, QC              SAT *
8/07/09        CHICAGO, IL LOLLAPALOOZA
8/08/09        LOS ANGELES, CA HARD FESTIVAL

* with Rye Rye and Treasure Fingers
^ with Rye Rye
# with Treasure Fingers, Theophilus London and Jack Beats
+ with MSTRKRFT, Major Lazer, DJ AM, Jazzy Jeff and Drop The Lime

A-Trak - Say Whoa

One of our favorite noisy girl bands (I have many), Vivian Girls, have announced that their next release will be coming out in September. The disc will be called Everything Goes Wrong, and will be released on In The Red Records.

Here’s a little bit more on the album:

“Last time, the album was really rushed,” says guitarist Cassie Ramone. “We were just go, go, go, go. And now we’re taking our time with every step of the process, making sure we’re really happy with everything before we move on.” With this band, though “taking our time” means they’re taking six days to record the entire thing instead of the three days they used for their first album. Ramone says, “We recorded 15 songs, but if we put them all on the album, that’ll be an hour’s worth of music, so we’re going to have to cut some of them out. Our last album was like 22 minutes, so we figure if this album is longer than 44 minutes that’ll just be insane. It would be twice as long.”
“We’re aiming for around 35 minutes,” adds bassist Kickball Katy. So you’ll probably still be able to plow through the whole Vivian Girls album on your morning commute.

On the first album, the two longest, slowest songs, “Tell the World” and “Where Do You Run To”, were clear standouts. The band says they’ll focus more on that side of their sound on the second album. “The songs are longer,” says drummer Ali Koehler. “I think it’s moodier. I think we have basically the same influences as on our first album, but with more influences added.”

Katy elaborates: “We have a few songs that kind of sound like the Gun Club. We have, like, a Neil Young-inspired song.”

Ali: “We’re using No Doubt’s hi-hat.”

Cassie: “That’s not actually an influence. We actually are using No Doubt’s cymbals, though. That was an accident.”

Vivian Girls
Everything Goes Wrong
(In The Red)
Street Date: Sept. 8, 2009

01 Walking Alone at Night
02 I Have No Fun
03 Can’t Get Over You
04 Desert
05 Tension
06 Survival
07 The End
08 When I’m Gone
09 Out for the Sun
10 I’m Not Asleep
11 Double Vision
12 You’re My Guy
13 Before I Start to Cry

Vivian Girls- Tell The World

Just got sent this awesome video. It’s Luke and another band member playing an acoustic version of “Tunnelvision”, my favorite track off the album. Enjoy!