Posted on 14 May 2009
Kitsuné, the French fashion label with a love for mixes and compilations, have teamed up with the Cobrasnake, the LA party photographer with a penchant for hipster trash scene portraits and hoisting dead-eyed tarts into the realm of the internet celebrity, for a two-track EP. Yay! It’s called Kitsuné x The Cobrasnake duh. This might not sound appealing, but know this isn’t a musical vanity project for Cobrasnake so much as it is just a brand-extender for Cobrasnake: he’s not credited with the music, he’s making the videos I think? He made this one anyway, filming a bikini girl running around on the beach to a pretty fun dance. The vid’s a couple of steps above Heidi Montag’s beach atrocity, so that is good news, and the song is actually pretty fun: it’s by Classixx (who were last seen making “Listzomania” even more of an ’80s jam, if you can imagine such a thing) and features Jeppe (who was last seen being himself in the wake of Junior Senior’s demise). It’s LA club fluff, but summery good times club fluff at that.
Continue reading New Classixx (Feat. Jeppe) Video - “I’ll Get You”…
Posted on 14 May 2009
YACHT pay tribute to the 1981 pre-riot grrl cult flick Ladies And Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains via their forthcoming “Don’t Put Out” 7″. “Waste Of Time”’s at yacht.tumblr.com.
Posted on 14 May 2009
This is the second of that pair of new songs that the Shins are performing with their revamped lineup these days. The first was “Double Bubble,” which Mercer described to us as a new wave sort of thing; together he says “they’re just a bit more rhythmic and “about the percussion” than the Shins previous incarnation. That said, “The Rifle’s Spiral” doesn’t sound very different from Shins past, just with chords being jabbed instead of strummed. Anyway you don’t have to feel too badly if you prefer these Joe Plummer’s beats to Jesse Sandoval’s, because Jesse now is the proud proprietor of a taco cart and didn’t need the Shins, anyway.
Continue reading New Shins - “The Rifle’s Spiral” (Live In Oakland)…
Posted on 14 May 2009
After more than a couple remixes, Phoenix are back to playing their songs sans other folks’ meddling, albeit with less instrumentation. Thomas Mars and Christian Mazzalai stopped by The Alternate Side and offered up Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’s “Lisztomania” along with a reprise of Air’s “Playground Love.” It’s not actually a cover, though, since Mars did originally provide the vocals for the song on the Virgin Suicides soundtrack. That’s likely why he seems so comfortably in the zone, even in this stripped-down state.
Continue reading Phoenix Unplug Something Old, Something New…
Posted on 13 May 2009
So far the group-chanting Brooklyn BTW Suckers are best known for their outfits, a self-titled EP produced by Yeasayer’s Anand Wilder and Chris Moore (TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs), and a lineup featuring fellow BTW Quinn Walker. That, and a “2080″-style, occasionally dub-y sound constructed from joyful synth-and-percussion combos. Now maybe they’ll be known, too, for their various (and varied) day jobs. Multi-instrumental songwriter Quinn does double time as a doorman at Glasslands and a bartender at Arrow Bar (and, maybe, a male escort). Drummer/keyboardist Brian Aiken is an ex-Ross Stores Data enterer currently onto bigger and better things. Multi-instrumentalist Austin Fisher works in the New Media production team at the Metropolitan Museum Of Art and fellow multi-tasker Pan’s a designer for the clothing company Mishka. After these four work-related discussions, take a listen to their most cathartic free-time track, “It Gets Your Body Movin’.”
Continue reading Quit Your Day Job: Suckers…
Posted on 13 May 2009
You’ve heard the song live for a while and perhaps caught it on Letterman, but now Modest Mouse are releasing the official studio version of “Satellite Skin.” The No One’s First And You’re Next-related 7″ is out 5/26, but the A-Side’s streaming at the band’s site today. As they note, the 7″ will be pressed on “limited edition orange vinyl with an embossed sleeve and individually numbered to 4000″ and backed by another newbie, “Guilty Cocker Spaniels.” (If you’re not one to use vinyl, don’t get our moth-wing feelings hurt, it’ll be up at iTunes, too.) Take a listen at MySpace. And keep eyes peeled for the video directed by Tool’s Kevin Willis. Also, check back here on Monday (5/18) when we’re premiering the aforementioned “Guilty Cocker Spaniels.”
Posted on 13 May 2009
Vanity Fair has pics and a preview of the Magnetic Fielder’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s creepy kid. Merritt says: “This is part of my plan to make 50 successful Hollywood musicals.” Don’t doubt it.
Posted on 13 May 2009
Almost a year ago, Juliana Hatfield stopped by the ‘Gum Drop with the then unreleased “So Alone.” Currently working on a followup to How To Walk Away, the perennial Stereogum favorite returns with a demo of a new song with an intriguing name. We asked Hatfield about “There’s Always Another Girl (For Lindsay Lohan).” She responded at length, telling us, among other things:
I rented I Know Who Killed Me and was impressed at how watchable and interesting Lindsay Lohan was in it, which was a surprise because the film was universally panned. That got me thinking, and Tweeting, about what a sort of bum rap Lindsay has gotten these past few years and how she is actually, if you sit down and watch her with an open mind, a good actor and how all she needs is one great, serious role in a good movie — maybe a small indie movie — to make people take her seriously (like Mickey Rourke and The Wrestler). It’s so gross and nasty for people to be watching and waiting and almost cheerleading for Lindsay to relapse, or get in a car crash or whatever. Horrible.
Read the rest of Hatfield’s response while you take a listen to her song.
In this week’s Drop, we also offered the chance to win an iPod Touch and retro rock tees from Wolfgang’s Vault.
Continue reading The ‘Gum Drop LXXXVII: Hear New Juliana Hatfield, Win An iPod Touch & Retro Rock Tees From Wolfgang’s Vault…
Posted on 13 May 2009
Sadly we only get to hear 30 seconds of “American David,” Bono’s 14-minute poetic tribute to Elvis, among other things. It was written in 1994, recorded a couple of years ago complete with a backdrop of Elvis-related sounds, and premiered this morning on Radio 4. He’s trying to be racy (and Beat-y), but Bono has problems with subtlety, e.g. magnificent lines like “Elvis, the white nigger / Ate Burger King and just kept getting bigger.” Snap along.
Posted on 12 May 2009
When we posted “The More That I Do,” the lead track from Swedish minimal techno whiz Axel Willner, aka The Field, the comments focused on (a) how beautiful it is and (b) that is makes use of the Cocteau Twins’ “Lorelei.” In this remix by the Foals, you may want to shift gears to the tinnier sound (it feels blanket muffled or rusty), the attempt at loud-soft dance-floor dynamics, and the additional threads of percussion. For all the tweaking, the original’s more impressive in its assured approach to the ecstatic. It’s from the Fields’ second proper full-length Yesterday & Today, which is out in a couple of weeks. This remix is via NME.
Continue reading Foals Remix The Field…
