Posted on 30 September 2009
There’s a lot you could say about Justin Bon Ivernon’s winning collaboration with his experimental statesmates of Collections Of Colonies Of Bees — how tender and affecting his voice can be whether being a backwoods-folkie sad sack or fronting a cut-and-pasted sample-and-loop exploration and the promise it shows for a versatile Vernon career, let alone the hefty merits of Volcano Choir’s present effort Unmap, etc. By contrast though, there’s relatively few threads to pull for lead single “Island, IS“’s Michinori Saigo-directed video: colored light squares illuminate a bridge in I’m guess Wisconsin in time with the track’s deconstructed syncopation, and the net effect is streamlined, subtle, but essentially perfect.
Continue reading New Volcano Choir Video - “Island, Is”…
Posted on 30 September 2009
Lightning Bolt’s fifth album Garden Of Earthly Delights (Load, 10/13) opens like a riot with “Sound Guardians.” It’s the perfect place to get acquainted with the collection, so we asked drummer Brian Chippendale about it. You’ve heard “Colossus,” now hear Chippendale talk about how he and Brian Gibson arrive at song titles (hint: Soundgarden and the Boredoms are involved), why they put “Sound Guardians” first, and whether or not their new Garden was inspired by the 15th/16th-century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch. We didn’t have enough room for his ruminations in the ‘Gum Drop, but you can read it all here, while you give your eardrums a workout.
Continue reading The ‘Gum Drop CVIII: Hear New Lightning Bolt, Win An Eels Box Set & Poster…
Posted on 30 September 2009
Yuki Chikudate and James Henna are a few weeks away from their third release of 2009 with Rewolf, an acoustically inclined revisitation of highlights from their time together in the very electric project Asobi Seksu. But before we get there, they’re still bringing light to “Transparence,” a standout from their February-released Hush LP that recently got the 10″ treatment and today gets a fittingly diaphanous, dreamy, watery, and floating-luminaria-lit video. Fitting because the track has a gossamer sheen like the best moments of their brand of dream-pop, and fitting because lens filters and various lighting levels are a good look for a track with this one’s name.
Continue reading New Asobi Seksu Video - “Transparence”…
Posted on 30 September 2009
Posted on 29 September 2009
After years being at the forefront of forward thinking electronic music, estimable UK indie Warp Records began branching out in directions you are familiar with (think: Grizzly Bear, Battles, Maxïmo Park — all brought to you by the label of Aphex Twin and Boards Of Canada). It’s an expansion that’s netted them love from from further reaches (or maybe that should read mainstream reaches) of the internet music press, one that’s made for some diverse bills at their Warp20 shows around the world (already in Paris, NYC, Sheffield, and London, with Tokyo getting one in November) and a fairly eclectic 20th anniversary compilation, Warp20 Recreated. Particularly because this comp is organized around an incestuous premise: Warp artists doing other Warp artists.
For the most part the iconic figures from the label’s past are on the “getting covered” side of the divide, but the equation is most evenly, excitingly, and contemporaneously balanced in Jamie Lidell’s cover of Grizzly Bear’s “Little Brother.” You can hear a decently durable preview of it here. (He’s fucking with the more psychedelic and acoustic Yellow House version, not the Friend EP’s electric-guitar clanger. Although Jamie’s does feature some clangs of its own. Clangs and chirps.) Grizzly Bear also join the likes of Boards Of Canada, Aphex Twin, and LFO as the only Warp artists to be covered in multiple instances across Warp20’s 21 tracks. The other cover? This take on “Colorado” by Australian trio Pivot:
Continue reading Jamie Lidell, Pivot Cover Grizzly Bear On Warp20 Recreated…
Posted on 29 September 2009
I’ve already mentioned this, but it bears repeating: The Raveonettes fourth album In And Out Of Control taps a J&MC/Phil Spector/Distortion hybrid, but it’s Stephin Merritt I think of most because of the cheekily dark lyrics in “Suicide,” “Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed),” and this one, “Last Dance.” The video for the sock-hopper was directed by Matthew Lessner, who also did Dirty Projectors “Stillness Is The Move.” It features the happiest couple alive licking ice cream, fake surfing, riding a motorcycle through a tunnel, and feeding pizza to seagulls. Toward the end of the clip Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo even show up to harmonize to a little bird Disney-style. That said, you also get singing crow, which may very well be a “Heart Shaped Box” nod trying to temper the smiles a tad.
Continue reading New Raveonettes Video - “Last Dance”…
Posted on 29 September 2009
Scoopy Giles (Tracy Morgan) is the uncredited co-founder of Def Jam, and you’ll hear more from him at VH1’s Hip-Hop Honors 10/13. In the meantime, enjoy the rap pioneer’s old-school video and interview with Nancy Grace. RIYL “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah.”
Posted on 29 September 2009
James and Brian Burton have a new project, and P4K assures us it’s more than just a DM-produced Mercer album. Bookmark their band page for now: brokenbells.com.
Posted on 29 September 2009
The erstwhile R.E.M. drummer made his first public performance since the 2007 R&R HOF induction, last night in Athens. He joined Mike, Peter, and the Minus 5 on “The Ballad of John and Yoko” and “Hang On Sloopy” and you can watch it.
