Antony reinterpreted “Nessun Dorma” and sang it in Italian because “when you are drinking a good coffee or listening to intense music, very often you tend to close your eyes.” You tend to do this while sleeping, too. Savor at lavazza.com (via DailySwarm).
If you’re a fan of Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, Noise Nomads, Failing Lights, Dude War or drippy acrylic paint, these canvasses might be up your alley. Each is €4000 + shipping at Colette, and you can preview here. Or save your money for a Weezer Snuggie.
The title track from BTW Cold Cave’s Love Comes Close — originally released on their own Heartworm Press imprint — nails a dreamy, soul-sick New Order vibe, but the shape-shifting Philadelphia/New York outfit approach the formula with a much darker undertone (as if Ian Curtis sang “Bizarre Love Triangle,” or whatever). The group, which now contains Dominick Fernow of Prurient/Ash Pool and ex-Xiu Xiu multi-instrumenatlist Caralee McElroy — explore noisier and weirder territories on the collection — a big reason it’s of of my favorites this year and The Trees Grew Emotions And Died was a favorite in ‘08 — but sometimes a simple icy pop song works wonders. Old and new members stand in the shadows, get ritualistic, and discover beauty in a few darker corners in the Art Boonparn-directed video for the track.
The Pavement-curated ATP sold out before we knew the slackers would be joined by Faust, the Fall (of course), Quasi, Endless Boogie, and Enablers. If you’re in the UK and didn’t get a ticket, catch the guys 5/11 at Brixton Academy. Matador has the info.
It took them twelve hours to get there, thanks to a broken down tour bus that forced a hellishly long train ride, but the xx eventually made it to Bologna, Italy’s Club Cavo, at 11PM, working through their excellent debut xx and a cover of Womack & Womack’s “Teardrops” to a very sold-out crowd. (Some 150 people lined the sidewalk hoping in vain to get in, says photographer Elena Morelli.) The band’s soon on their way to here for a few CMJ-related sets before bouncing back to Europe for a string of dates. If you can’t make it for the NYC fall classic, though, they’ve got a bunch of US dates lined up. Plan accordingly, pray for operational tour buses:
Continue reading The xx @ Covo Club, Bologna 10/17/09…
According to Ticketmaster, GN’R are playing 7 dates in Canada, starting 1/13 in Winnipeg. Maybe Axl was inspired by the Ulrich Schnauss lawsuit. Because it suggests someone actually listened to Chinese Democracy.
Spike Jonze told Ain’t It Cool News he wrote WTWTA’s script while listening to Funeral (”[the] record is thematically very connected to the film”) and that before shooting he cut a mood piece soundtracked by “Wake Up” to inspire his crew. Karen O who?
The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney teamed up with four other drummers to create Drummer, a band of drummers, with only one drummer. Which means the other guys (Jamie Stillman, Jon Finley, Steve Clements) are out of their comfort zone, except for Greg Boyd, who gets to stay behind the kit. (Carney’s a bassist here.) Despite the game of musical chairs, the end result sounds like something much greater than a simple side-project. Take the cautiously joyous and fittingly propulsive “Feel Good Together,” which could recall a less guitar-heroic, somewhat groovier Built To Spill on a feel-good day. Or, maybe you already did. And now it has a video to match — the dudes are animated and smiley and slightly ducky, there are various explosives used as they lay waste to a city, but at the end over the smoking ruins? A rainbow. Caution, joy.
Continue reading New Drummer Video - “Feel Good Together” …
Once Julian releases his Phrazes For The Young, all the Strokes save Valensi will have a side-project release under their vintage belts. (If not two.) Nikolai Fraiture helms Nickel Eye; “You And Everyone Else” sees the bassist on lead vocals, mixing a bit of Julian’s disaffected vocal delivery with a sorta Frank Black undercurrent. The track’s Roman Cortez-directed video sees a bunch of young lookers chatting it up on an online dating service, perplexing each other with verbatim quotes from the song. Fraiture isn’t one of them, of course (Strokes don’t need online dating to find mates). Instead he turns up when the dating service begins streaming a live Nickel Eye show, which finally brings a smile to the young hipsters’ faces. Nickel Eye is for virtual lovers.
Continue reading New Nickel Eye Video - “You And Everyone Else”…
Although Thao Nguyen’s Get Down Stay Down is a trio, on the just-released Know Better Learn Faster the lineup swells considerably, and with some considerable talent, including Andrew Bird, Laura Veirs, Eric Earley (Blitzen Trapper), Horse Feathers, Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), Jenny Conlee (The Decemberists), and Merrill Garbus aka tUnE-yArDs. None of those fun faces turn up in the video for “When We Swam,” but some others do as the Get Down Stay Down emerge from the water and pilot a loopy beach dance party that ends with an unfairly matched tug o’ war and Thao finding herself buried in the sand. There are metaphors to parse and play with there, but the sunshine and smiles paired with Girls’ similarly sandy clip from earlier in the day have enough appeal on a cold NY day like this one on face value alone. Start planning your beachwear and heartbreaks for summer 2010 and dig in:
