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:
Pavement are no strangers to cool contests, but this latest one definitely beats roaming around IKEA with Bob Nastanovich (no offense Bob/Sweden). Pavement will perform on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 9/23 and one lucky fan will be joining the band on guitar. To enter, upload a video of yourself covering one of the songs listed below by Wednesday 9/8 at 4:35 AM ET. You also have to live in the continental United States, since the winner will be flown out to NY for the occasion. A “panel of qualified judges” will pick five finalists; then we (the Internet) will vote on the winner.
School of Seven Bells are no strangers to unplugging their instruments. Yesterday they stopped by KCRW for a live studio performance of stripped down, shimmery selections from their latest album Disconnect From Desire. Check out the podcast to discover the inspiration behind the title of the album. If you catch them on tour, you may hear the ethereal cover of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ “Kiss Them For Me” they played during soundcheck.
Earlier this week we posted about Vampire Weekend covering Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m Going’ Down” at Malkin Bowl in Vancouver. The guys just sat down for Seattle’s 107.7 The End’s 200th “Endsession” and did a clearer, stripped-down acoustic take. (Still no sax solo.)
Land Of Talk’s “Quarry Hymns” video is beautifully shot, in black and white, with a single dancer moving in slow motion. There are a few ominous moments that cut through the gracefulness of the video. Because it’s new, and the trailer is new, it made me think of Darren Arononfsky’s upcoming film Black Swan, though “Quarry Hymns” is a much less dramatic soundtrack. The video was directed by Joseph Yarmush.
Here it is, the latest installment from Girl Crisis, an all-female concept troupe operating on a specifically detailed concept. The idea behind it was to a) name themselves as a joke on Boy Crisis and b) exist only in web-video form featuring c) an essentially revolving cast of indie Brooklyn sirens that d) have nothing for sale and will not play live shows but e) are a “long-term” project that records covers of classic songs, learned and arranged just before performing, in a Williamsburg living room on Super8 camera. All of this came to be two years ago, conceived by Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek, Class Actress’s Elizabeth Harper, This Frontier Needs Heros’ Jessica Lauretti, and (sometimes Stereogum photographer) Bek Andersen, who handles captures the pieces with her camera and room mics. There’s more.
Songs are committed to tape seasonally, the girls — who are all friends in bands that don’t get to harmonize with ladies otherwise — choosing a classic song to cover by a male singer every winter, and a female for their summer pick. (Past choices have included Nirvana’s “Come As You Are,” Sade’s “Smooth Operator,” and Chris Isaacs’ “Wicked Game.”) For this summer’s selection the lineup’s expanded considerably, the tag-set swelling to include (in addition to the aforementioned founders): Erika Spring-Forster (Au Revoir Simone), Ilirjana Alushaj (Apache Beat), Molly Shea (Acrylics), Leah Carey (Amazing Baby), Jane Herships (Spider), and Sophia Knapp and Linnea Vedder (Lights).
The song of choice this time is Taylor Dayne’s “Tell It To My Heart.” You remember the original — here it is stripped down and less confrontational — both visually and vocally — from a group of friends in the 11211 in a piece that’s a little more sultry, with a lot less hairspray.
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.
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.
Our love for Das Racist’s dadaist dipthongs, pithy wit raps, and punched-up Amitabh Bachchan-referencing rhyme schemes conclusively established in a love letter to the Shut Up, Dude mixtape (and bowling also), news of its powered-by-Diplo sequel Sit Down, Man’s imminent arrival is a highly exciting prospect. Plus, it features production from Chairlift and Class of 2010 freshmen Teengirl Fantasy, among others from the Stereogum tag set. There’s a trailer and everything, which is below, but in the interim we have the video for Shut Up’s “Who’s That? Brooown!” to fall back on, an 8-bit video game styled adventure that follows the DR crew on a mission not far from a Saturday in their real lives, starting a day in Queens and bouncing around the greater Williamsburg, BKLYN/QNZ area on a mission to track down their own hype man/spirit guru Dapwell. And other things, too, probably.
This Exploding Motor Car-directed video for No Ghost’s second single “Restoration” was shot on location at “the Mataseje Family Farm” in Beamsville, Ontario. The footage of the band at their time-lapse BBQ is pretty standard nature-folk/pop whatever, but once the sun drops they make beautiful use of simple lighting on the surrounding trees, leaves, moths, etc.
