Posted on 08 February 2010
The new Magnetic Fields’ documentary, which took Kerthy Fix and Gail O’Hara (also of Chickfactor, Black Tambourine fans) 10 years to make, should be a good one. There are the requisite talking heads — including Peter Gabriel (of course), Sarah Silverman (why not), Carrie Brownstein, Neil Gaiman, etc. — commenting on/arguing for Stephin Merritt’s brilliance and blah, blah, blah, but at least in the trailer, the most interesting parts are listening to Merritt himself or watching him pal around with his chihuahua Irving Berlin.
Continue reading Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt And The Magnetic Fields - Official Trailer…
Posted on 08 February 2010
When dishing up our two cents on Vampire Weekend’s Billboard-topping Contra we noted:
It would have been interesting if Ezra had worked some of his knowledge/love of punk and hardcore (a la his Fucked Up moment) into the mix. The song notes provided by the band/label as background mention “Holiday” was inspired by “third wave-ska bands like Operation Ivy” (and VW’s own “exploration of new guitar tones and rhythms”), but you won’t mistake Koenig for Jesse Michaels or Tim Armstrong even if he says, lyrically, he’s referencing a family member who gave up meat after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
And you still won’t mistake Koenig for either of those dudes in the next five minutes, but the band did just dig into Tim Armstrong/Matt Freeman’s post-Operation Ivy band Rancid’s alt-hit “Ruby Soho.” Fun to hear, yes, and satisfying on a underground/whatever crossover level (i.e. …And Out Come the Wolves’s bigtime success/Contra’s success), but I’m still holding out for “Knowledge.”
Continue reading Vampire Weekend Cover Rancid…
Posted on 29 January 2010
Boxer’s followup (due in May via 4AD) is “75% done,” features “melodies [that] move around a little more,” and is intended to be a “faster,” “slightly less sensitive” and, yes, “meaner record.” On the other hand, Sufjan guests on a track. More at
P4K.
Posted on 19 January 2010
“If We Ever Meet Again”’s video is complicatedly plotted — like an episode of Mr. Ocean’s 11 or Pierce Brosnan’s The Thomas Crown Affair featuring awkward dancing in front of a Kmart photo background. At least one person made it to the ending.
Posted on 19 January 2010
Years after striking viral gold, OK Go pen this thoughtful, despondent piece: “It’s now far harder for bands to make videos accessible online than it was four years ago … [W]hile our duty is to our music … [EMI’s] is to their shareholders.”
Posted on 04 November 2009
The dozen songs on the Sounds From The Anthology Archives digital compilation are each excellent in their own, often hazed-out way. The collection’s a mix of rare material that spans the ’60s to the ’80s and includes Karen Dalton, Betty Davis, Swedish garage rockers the Stomachmouths, Peruvian crew Telegraph Avenue (who turn in the wide-eyed, zoned-out awesome “Happy”), Indianapolis psych band Anonymous, Father Yod’s Ya Ho Wha 13, etc. It exists to announce the Live + Archival series, a collaboration between the digital reissue label Anthology Archives and American Apparel’s Viva Radio. We’re told the series will be “a group of hand picked, exclusive releases culled from unreleased, live, demo and b-side material - all unattainable, until now.” The first releases a Fifty Foot Hose live set and a collection of previously unreleased demos/live material from Simply Saucer. (Anthology also does a video series along the same lines. The first thing they put up is an interview with Linda Perhacs that focuses on Parallellograms LP.) Before jumping into all of that, though, here’s the opening track from the Sounds comp, Bill Quick’s “Take Me Away.” As they tell us in the liner notes:
Continue reading Sounds From The Anthology Archives Rolls A Big Fatty…
Posted on 04 November 2009
We’ve seen Secretly Canadian ABBA enthusiasts Music Go Music do “Warm In The Shadows” on an invented ’70s talk show. This previously unreleased remix by German producer Fred Falke readies the Expressions standout for a different sort of club. MGM’s Kamer Maza told us the track’s “more emotionally ambiguous than the others on the record […] so it is more reliant on the tone of the music to push it one way or the other.” You can find out more about the song while you take a listen.
This week, we also offered the chance to win a ZT Lunchbox Amplifier, aka “The Loudest Little Amp In The World.”
Continue reading The ‘Gum Drop CXIII: Hear New Music Go Music, Win A ZT Amplifier…
Posted on 28 October 2009
Posted on 28 October 2009
At this point, Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe’s Scars has nearly as many videos as it does guest spots: the Yoko Ono/Grace Jones/Yo! Majesty/Cyndi Lauper/Santigold-featuring LP has churned out clips for breakout jam “Raindrops,” Sam Sparro’s turn on “Feeling’s Gone,” and a quasi-official clip of stage animations for the Kelis-lifted title track. It’s album standout “My Turn”’s turn in the embed player, featuring a crew of bears destructing vocalist Lightspeed Champion’s heart via dual attack: heavy duty tools and line dancing. It’s all about the pains of being pure at heart, a lovesick song cloaked in upbeat, squiggly, intimate garb, so the dayglo-on-black palette is spot on. And with beats this rubbery and buoyant tied to a theme so heartworn and depressed, it makes sense that Lightspeed Champ’s got a heart made of balloons. It’s heart pop.
Continue reading New Basement Jaxx Video - “My Turn” (Feat. Lightspeed Champion) (Stereogum Premiere)…
Posted on 28 October 2009
As dime-a-dozen blog bait, remixes don’t usually merit official videos. But most remixes aren’t this officially excellent, so let’s all try to calm down and enjoy this clip! Florence & The Machine covered Source And Candi Station’s “You’ve Got The Love” on her Lungs LP, and has frequently shared bills with London’s CMJ-ubiquitous the xx; when they were wrapping up their last tour together, they released this souvenir, which has Romy and Jamie providing de novo vocalizations over snippets of Florence’s harp and melisma set to warped dubstep, keyboard, and computer bits. It is very good and will make for a surprisingly perfect soundtrack to your next Studio 54 theme party. You know that is true because it is a surprisingly perfect soundtrack to this video, which is basically a Studio 54 theme party. Designer drugs for all.
Continue reading New Florence & The Machine Video - “You’ve Got The Love (The xx Remix)”…
