Gauzy close-ups of Bradford Cox paint the heartbreak of “Helicopter,”‘ a track from the Halcyon Digest LP coming 9/28 via 4AD. Click on Halycon Digest’s Dennis Cooper text to load the film.
The band debuted this song on BBC 6Music a few months back. Here’s that in portable form:
Skulls, scrunchies, and Don McLean graffiti highlight this creepy Röyksopp vid directed by That Go’s Noel Paul and Stefan Moore.
On the eve of being named to our 40 Best New Artists Of 2010 list, UK producer Gold Panda headlined Glasslands Gallery on Kent St. in Williamsburg, live-mixing the beat snatches and effects pedal switches of his often dazzling singles and EPs, along with a presumably good dose of the material from his anticipated forthcoming full-length debut Lucky Shiner. The set opened with the LP’s “You” and closed, as any Gold Panda set should from now until his next quantum leap, with “Quitters Raga.” Ryan Muir was on hand to shoot the night, capturing openers Pink Skull and Bikini along the way.
Bunch of Gold Panda MP3s here, Lucky Shiner’s out 10/12 via Ghostly.
This video for The Valusia EP’s “Sea Talk” was directed by Jacqueline Castel, who also did the video for “Night.” Like last time, Nika Rosa Danilova, aka Zola Jesus, aka one of Sterogum’s 40 Best New Bands Of 2010, stars. Castel noted the “Night” video’s apocalyptic tone was partially “the product 1980s futurism via nightmares, Cocteau, and the work of pornographer Rinse Dream.” She says this one was “inspired by the acts of sleepwalkers, caught in their own separate, solitary dream reality, locked into cycles of actions every night.” It’s like she’s reading my diary. (And you might also want to think Poltergeist.) Watch at NME.
The Valusia EP is out 10/12 via Sacred Bones.
No respect. From either side. Guns N’ Roses opted to cut last night’s set at O2 in Dublin to 20 minutes after being pelted by plastic bottles. This came after GN’R took forever to materialize (and on the heels of having their earlier Reading and Leeds sets cut short). As you’ll see in this video, the fans are pretty pissed, the O2 spokespeople nervous, Rose surprisingly calm. Welcome to the jungle, etc.
A group of Radiohead fans used cheap Flip cameras to record the band’s Aug 23, 2009 show in Prague. Radiohead approved of the DIY concert film, and even provided the filmmakers with the soundboard recordings of the set. Now the concert film, simply called Prague DVD, is available for free download (though the site keeps going down from the overload). It’s in many formats (DVD, iPhone/iPad, PAL/NTSC, etc). And you can watch segments of the set via Youtube. Watch “The National Anthem” and a very sloppy “The Bends,” below, and download the whole thing here.
When I posted Say God’s “Hoofprints On The Ceiling Of My Mind” I reiterated my respect for Daniel Higgs, talked about the influence he had on me as a youngster (via Lungfish), and his excellent solo material (that crusty combo of long-neck banjo, jew’s harp, noise, organ drone, bird songs, art, alchemy, his personal Gospel/life philosophy), etc. This time I can cut to the chase: Clairaudience Fellowship is Higgs’ gorgeous, expansively hushed (and not surprisingly devotional, profound) vinyl-only collaboration with Baltimore underground noise mainstay/Tarantula Hill community builder Twig Harper (see Scheme, Mini-Systems, especially Nautical Almanac). Harper explains the title (“Clairaudience: to hear beyond physical vibration. Fellowship: in a communal or collaborative way”) and the collection:
Six-piece Family Of The Year have played around California for a bit, but they’re about to release their European debut, the Summer Girl EP. The band does include real family members, brothers Joe and Sebastian Keefe, but the band do all live together. “Let’s Be Honest” reflects their L.A. locale and their close quarters. It’s fully of warm, bright harmonies and surfy rhythms (and handclapped breakdowns). “Summer Girl,” one of those wistful, end-of-summer/summer romance songs, is nearly all vocal harmony with a little piano and guitar.
The ballsy Mammoth, Lakes California trio Valdur play blistering blackened punk/war metal (featuring a Norwegian-born vocalist named Thor). They aren’t crusty like Bone Awl. It’s a close-cropped brutal death-inflected BM sound: Think of the recent recordings of Philadelphia’s (great black hope) woe captured during a Western blizzard and with a more straightforward/traditional, less twisting/mathy/post-black forward push. Which isn’t to say this music isn’t complex: Valdur create an epic, dense atmosphere and display a surprisingly graceful ear for melody and a strong dynamic pull within all that buzzing. They also bring along an uncompromising DIY spirit to the table: As with their 2007 self-titled debut and 2008 split with Lightning Swords of Death, the band released this new “self-funded” full-length, Raven God Amongst Us, on drummer Sxuperion’s Bloody Mountain imprint. (You may recognize the album title from the name of a track on that Lightning split.) Its most immediate track is the single “Berserrker,” a kind of fight song for the band, and maybe USBM in general.
Brooklyn twee shoegaze trio, the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart spin-off, and Internet Warriors the Depreciation Guild don’t appear in the Maura Milan-directed video for “My Chariot.” Instead, two Japanese school girls act as protagonists for the Spirit Youth track. The clip was shot on location in Tokyo.
