Posted on 05 October 2009
We heard Justice try to make U2’s “Get On Your Boot” less horrible. Ditto for Lenny Kravitz’s “Let Love Rule.” It sorta goes without explanation why Bono & Co. wanted to promote a new single, but you might’ve forgotten that Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay got behind Lenny because
he went and released a deluxe 20th anniversary edition of Let Love Rule. A few months later, the tongue-in-cheek Keith Schofield-directed video is … smart and entertaining. A first for a Kravitz-related project? Just kidding: Love is gentle as a rose. And love can conquer any war.
Continue reading New Justice & Lenny Kravitz Video - “Let Love Rule”…
Posted on 05 October 2009
The first track we posted by Brooklyn quartet Bear In Heaven was their zeitgeist-locked “Lovesick Teenager.” The warping “Dust Cloud,” another song from the band’s excellent second full-length Beast Rest Forth Mouth, basically sounds like a couple of swooning lovesick teenagers falling in and out of phase. (Or teenagers huffing on something other than love.) Like Bear In Heaven’s other tracks — see also “Wholehearted Mess” and attendant remixes — there’s something immediately familiar about these six minutes. “Soft As Snow” melting at the wrong speed?
Continue reading New Bear In Heaven - “Dust Cloud”…
Posted on 05 October 2009
We’ve seen indie rockers reach out to hip-hop’s most recognizable collective (or at least the most recognizable hip-hop collective to indie rockers). But lately, it’s been Wu-Tang Clan making the moves. This week Judgment Night 2009 is in full force, with genres meshing again and RZA, GZA, and company at the heart of it.
Of course, it’s not an isolated Wu thing: Over the past weeks, Kid Cudi’s hired Ratatat and MGMT, Roots joined the Dirty Projectors fanclub (and backed Pattern Is Movement on a D’Angelo cover), etc. The guys in Wu-Tang Clan have always been open to off-the-road and etc collaborations — hence the headline nod — and you don’t want to even start unpacking samples, but a few fairly associated Wu-rock projects have popped up here in a short while, so we thought to point it out. Also, turns out Ghostface Killah loves Vampire Weekend…
Continue reading Wu-Tang Meets The Indie Rock…
Posted on 05 October 2009
When first posting “My Will Is Good,” I mentioned threadbare’s back and forth between introspection and cathartic pop was inspired by the death of Cambria Goodwin’s younger brother. It’s unclear how much that influenced this Raul Fernandez-directed video, which finds one young boy playing double dutch with a bunch of girls. There’s a light-hearted nostalgia in the clip (and some humor in the kids’ steely meditative game faces), but it’s difficult not thinking about sadder things when watching Van Pierszalowski and Goodwin pounding out the song in the bleachers, and it’s likely no coincidence smiles go from wistful to somber after Pierszalowski sings “all these thoughts / came back to you this time of year.”
Continue reading New Port O’Brien Video - “My Will Is Good”…
Posted on 05 October 2009
Sleep Whale, formerly Mom, has been floating around Texas since 2006, but Houseboat is the quartet’s official full-length debut. Guitarist/cellist Joel North and multi-instrumentalist (e.g. field recordings, guiar, bass, violin, percussion) Bruce Blay released 2007’s Little Brite EP as a duo: The 13 new tracks were fleshed out with the assistance of Paul North and Spencer Stephenson, who join the guys on-stage, though it’s still largely the work of Sleep Whale’s founders and likely sounds bigger because they’ve found craftier ways to cram more sounds into their compositions. The collection offers a seamlessly interwoven mix of dreamy electro-acoustic instrumentals and airy pop songs, a combo reminiscent of Greg Davis and Parisian Sebastian Roux’s lovely 2005 collaboration Paquet Surprise. Here, the best songs evoke a deep-green forest even before you catch the cut-out trees on the front and inner sleeve. (Speaking of which, the patchwork quilting on the cover’s appropriate, too.) Likewise, the gurgling “We Were Dripping” has a real chill to it.
Continue reading New Sleep Whale - “We Were Dripping”…
Posted on 05 October 2009
Keep your eyes peeled in about four-and-a-half hours, according to the ticking clock at ithinkuracontra.com. Guesses?
Posted on 05 October 2009
When Los Campesinos! checked in last month, they offered up “The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future,” an anthemic tale about a far-too-pretty girl taking her “diet” of pills (and not much else) to extremes. As I mentioned then, its accompanying video, situated on Barr Island, went for the true-life aesthetic used to such great effect by the Welsh septet’s past tourmates Girls (as well as Nan Goldin, Ryan Mcginley, etc.). The kids are hanging out by different bodies of water for “These Are Listed Buildings,” aka “the first single to be released from our forthcoming, as yet untitled (as far as you know) album.” The grainy clip was filmed and edited by Aaron Brown and Ben Chappell and features a more plot-driven narrative than last time.
Continue reading New Los Campesinos! Video - “These Are Listed Buildings”…
Posted on 03 October 2009
This was not the low-key warm-up gig (”total chaos … kind of a rehearsal”) Thom promised. Attendees of last night’s pre-Orpheum preview got a full (and by most (Twitter) accounts “awesome)” 90-minute set beginning with The Eraser played by Thom’s new group (Nigel Godrich, Flea, Joey Waronker, Mauro Refosco). This was followed by a solo performance of three completely new songs: tranquil piano ballad “Open The Floodgates” (”Don’t bore us/ Get to the chorus”), potential Radiohead strummer “Lotus Flower,” and the Coldplay-esque “Skirting On The Surface.” The band returned for the final portion of the performance: Radiohead b-side “Paperbag Writer, a fourth new song (”Judge, Jury, & Executioner”), and “The Hollow Earth”/”Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses” from the new 12″ one could purchase on site while rubbing elbows with celebrity attendees Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Spike Jonze, and Rosanna Arquette. Check out YouTube footage of the new songs along with the setlist:
Continue reading Thom Yorke @ Echoplex, Los Angeles 10/2/09…
Posted on 02 October 2009
When we looked at Pitchfork’s 20 Greatest Songs Of The ’00s, we also went through the entire list and found the 15 songs they included from 2009, noting that Animal Collective was far and away the the highest placer from our current 12 months. A great song doesn’t always equal a great album, but in this case, it worked out for Avey Tare, Panda Bear, and Geologist: Merriweather Post Pavillion did very well in Pitchfork’s 20 Greatest Albums Of The ’00s, too. (Actually, A.C. and A.C.-related projects placed multiple times across the Top 200 list — two in the Top 20 — basically winning the > contest by a landslide.) Since Merriweather Post Pavillion is the only ‘09 album in the Top 20, those of you with short memories will have lots of rediscoveries. (As far as other buzzed about ‘09 records, Bitte Orca made it to 56, Veckatimest to 42.) Fans of a certain kind of rap should be happy. Your Dad might be, too. Fans of any kind of metal will weep bitter tears. Finally, if we’re to believe the folks at Pitchfork, 2002 and 2000 were pretty good years and 2001 wasn’t any slouch either.
Continue reading Pitchfork’s 20 Greatest Albums Of The ’00s…
Posted on 02 October 2009
With this year’s turn toward tape hiss and rusty-hinged rock sounds, it’s nice to hear something fresh from the voice that guided them all (all the time, listen to GBV all the time). It’s not like “hearing something new” from Bob Pollard has ever been a problem, but on “How Wrong You Are” the prolific lo-fi fountainhead is in rare form, delivering one of his more repeatable tracks in awhile with Boston Spaceships, his young project with John Moen and Chris Slusarenko. The forthcoming Zero To 99 is their third album since forming in 2008, because of course they’ve put out three albums in two years. “How Wrong” has Pollard’s voice in fine form, crafting a good hook around living like a stuntman, supporting all the ladies in his life, and still realizing there’s a lot he won’t know about the world, but the Chris Slusarenko, Sean Croghan, and Eric Pritchett-directed video is less about Bob and more about an unhinged town crier who just wants Boston Spaceships to go away. Of course, they’re helmed by one of the most prodigious songwriters in the history of ever, so guy should probably find a new cause to be on the wrong side of. (With that sort of fire and fervor, I’m thinking health care.)
Continue reading New Boston Spaceships Video - “How Wrong You Are”…
