Posted on 16 April 2010
News to no one: A lot’s happened since Broken Social Scene released that self-titled career-shifting third album five years ago: There were tours and one-offs (together and apart), solo albums, the “Broken Social Scene Presents…” series. All of that, and someone sorta became a household name (thanks to Steve Jobs). Yes, Feist made it to Sesame Street, but nearly everyone associated with the band’s raised their profile to some degree or other. (Kevin Drew’s collaborated with a diverse cast, from Fucked Up to Spiral Stairs to Dinosaur to…) For all the networking, on the John McEntire-helmed Forgiveness Rock Record, the ever expanding and contracting group’s been whittled to the (relatively) spare sextet of Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Justin Peroff, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman, Sam Goldberg, and Lisa Lobsinger. Feist, Emily Haines, some Stars, Spiral Stairs, and members of Do Make Say Think, Sea & Cake and Tortoise “guest.” Surprisingly, it’s the latter two who leave the biggest mark. Those guys, and all the horns.
Read More…
Posted on 15 April 2010
Keeping with Hospice’s album-length theme of frustration and illness (see also “Two” and “Bear“), the Antlers’ “Sylvia” clip revolves around a man who keeps seeing, and arguing with, a ghostly ex-lover. It’s a literal read of what makes Hospice so compelling, that songwriter Peter Silberman captures what it’s like to deal with someone you feel responsible for, but who both craves and resents your responsibility toward them. Director Trey Hock says he took some inspiration for his sepia-toned “Sylvia” video from D.W. Griffith’s Broken Blossoms, a better resource than Griffith’s Birth Of A Nation. Watch the video at IFC. You can grab this video and the Antlers’ two-song EP New York Hospitals via Topspin:
Read More…
Posted on 15 April 2010
Brandon noted Kaki King’s darker tone (and darker eyeliner) on Junior. “Falling Day” references blood, screaming, collapsed lungs all within the first few seconds. “The lyrics are basically nonsense. It’s a kind of rumination on a weird dream I had and imagery from that,” King says of the song on her bio. So maybe it’s not as dark as it seems. She’s moved away from showcasing her considerable guitar chops on Junior, but you’ll still notice them here. Fallon did too:
Read More…
Posted on 15 April 2010
Los Angeles Crimson/Camus-referencing progressive doom/sludge quintet Ancestors (not the powerviolence black metal band of the same name) released their second album Of Sound Mind in October. We posted its 14-minute “Bounty Of Age,” a track that delivers a mix of heaviness and air, crunch and crust, and smooth psychedelics via tempo and atmospheric shifts. Since then, they’ve released a split 7″ with Swedish rock crew Graveyard. Their contribution, the 6-minute “Antler Wings,” is an early (pre-Neptune With Fire) song they “decided to rework.” It’s more straight-ahead than what you might’ve come to expect from Ancestors — and all the more invigorating for it. The clip was shot by Whitey McConnaughy in the band’s practice space with a handful of Flip cameras. It works well to capture the energy.
Read More…
Posted on 15 April 2010
Toronto duo Crystal Castles are following up their self-titled debut with a self-titled sophomore album. Just like elder NYC synth duo Suicide. The first song to surface is the brief, blasted “Doe Deer,” which also shows up on a Record Store Day 12″. According to a press release, Alice Glass and Ethan Kath recorded the collection themselves in an Ontario cabin, an Icelandic church, a Detroit garage, etc. Despite its pastoral name, “Doe Deer” sounds like it was recorded in a fallout shelter. Or maybe in one of the graves behind that kid on the album cover.
Read More…
Posted on 14 April 2010
Conan O’Brien sound-checked for the kick-off date of his “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour” with a stumbling, cockney version of Radiohead’s “Creep.” The tour began in Eugene, Oregon, and both he and his sound-checking audience are in good spirits during his “Creep” attempt:
Read More…
Posted on 14 April 2010
Stoner lullaby “Invisibility: Nonexistent” comes from Kurt Vile’s upcoming Square Shells EP. Across its seven minutes and change, it floats to very different spaces: The track opens with a drum machine, distorted guitar drones, cleaner strums, and Kurt Vile’s spacey, almost awkward vocal intonations before it blasts off (gently) into an extended undulating instrumental. I hear some Spaceman 3 in there, but Vile keeps lacing it with bits of American blues-rock to keep things earthy.
Read More…
Posted on 14 April 2010
Synthesized Chicago trio Lazer Crystal put together a concoction of post-Kraftwerk dance ragers, hypnotic Can repetitions, and moodier new wave anthems on their forthcoming MCMLXXX. (And you might near NIN on “National Handbag.”) They also wrote a manifesto.
Lazer Crystal believes that we as humans are at the extreme promontory of the centuries. The human race has reached the moment where we must open the mysterious shutters of the impossible to seek the unknown. We are moving beyond Time and Space toward the absolute, since we have discovered eternal, omnipresent speed.
Their stated mission’s “to create music that reflects this ideal.” See how they do on the goth-in-a-planetarium-light-show romance “Love Rhombus” and the fuzzier dance-floor outing “Bad Indian,” complete with imploded center.
Read More…
Posted on 14 April 2010
He’s gone from slagging L.A. to moving there, but on Monday Ben Gibbard was rooting for his home team, performing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” and covering John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” with the rest of his Death Cab cuties at the Seattle Mariners’ opening day game at Safeco Field. Dude’s on a covers kick. And looking pretty good in Mariners blue.
Read More…
Posted on 13 April 2010
“Laredo” is the second new song we’ve gotten from Band Of Horses’s Infinite Arms. The first track, “Compliments,” didn’t win too many compliments, so maybe you’ll like “Laredo” better. It sounds just as optimistic as “Compliments,” with most of the action in the lyrics. I thought Ben Bridwell was singing, “I put a bullet in my Kia Sorento” in one of this track’s verses, which would be funny considering this, but I’m not 100% sure.
Read More…
