Vampire Weekend’s cover of “I’m Goin’ Down” lacks Clarence Clemens and a little E Street oomph. The guys gave the Born In The U.S.A. track a go in Canada (Malkin Bowl, Vancouver) over the weekend (8/28). There’s something enjoyable about the restraint. A few folks sang along.
Still waiting for Andy Butler to wrap up and ship out the next Hercules & Love Affair record — which would follow an eponymous masterstroke of a debut and feature a mostly new cast of characters, since some of the old crew’s on to the next one. In the meantime Butler’s created MR. INTL, a label about which he has clearly defined parameters: “I don’t want anything that sounds pre ‘85 or post ‘94 … I want to evoke strictly that sound on this label, so I’ve been pretty hard ass with people in terms of what the output is.” To that end comes the track “And I’m (So In Love With You),” which furthers that state intent by using exclusively the sort of house-meets-techno analog technology of 1992. It’s a good H&LA installment stopgap:
New New Yorker Brad Oberhofer (he moved from Tacoma, Washington after his parents’ house burned down) has a band when he plays live, but songs like “Don’tneedya” emphasize the “bedroom” part of his bedroom pop project Oberhofer. His echoed vocals still sound claustrophobic, and there are bits of keyboard, samples, and other details that happen at the end of his phrases that make this sound well labored-over. Oberhofer just played NYC last night, but they’ll be back 9/17 for a show with Small Black and Indian Jewelry at Monster Island in Brooklyn.
Roman Ruins is Graham Hill’s solo project. He does this woozy remix of one of the poppiest tracks on Teen Dream, “Lover Of Mine.” And Hill is pretty familiar with the source material — he’s Beach House’s touring drummer, as well as the drummer for frequent Beach House tourmate Papercuts.
Michael Rother’s partner in Neu!, Klau Dinger, passed away in 2008, before the pair could complete another record (their third and last was in 1975). Since then Rother worked on putting together a box set of unreleased and live material. It inspired him to get together a group of musicians — Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley, Tall Firs’s Aaron Mullan — to form Hallogallo 2010. They performed Neu!’s music live for the first time in over 30 years at Lincoln Center last week. Listen to their hour-long set (via WNYC) below:
M.I.A.’s “XXXO” gets a video that uses the same GIF-y illustration style as her press photos (as mentioned in her New York Times profile):
Sunday night’s Mad Men episode featured a night on the town with Don Draper and partner-in-advertising Lane Price. The pair visit a club in one scene, and listen to half a song by the Broken West’s Brian Whelan. AMC has a clip that ends just as Whelan makes it to the stage, but you can still catch a quick glimpse. Watch below and also note — the comedian on before him is the same guy who played Finn, Meadow’s boyfriend, on The Sopranos.
The first taste of post-Learning material from Matador artist/Seattle songwriter Mike Hadreas, uploaded the other day to his YouTube page:
Swedish minimalists Wildbirds & Peacedrums released two vinyl EPs earlier this year, each with its own, related, themes and ideas. The first, Retina, was recorded inside an Icelandic church with the Schola Cantorum Reykjavík Chamber Choir. While the first has a water theme, the second, Iris picks up on water via the primary instrumental choice, the steel pan. It’s not just because the steel pan brings to mind the Caribbean and beachy vacations, the instrument itself has a watery, rippling quality to it. You can hear it on “The Drop,” a track from the Iris session. It’s W & P reduced to only steel pan and drums, vocalist Mariam Wallentin’s voice matching the warmth of the pans. Listen:
BBC Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac kind of says it all at the beginning of this radio rip. “White Sky” is Vampire Weekend’s next single, and it gets a dancefloor remix from Basement Jaxx. Listen:
