BEARDO: "Poobie"

New the Books: "Beautiful People"

The Books are set to release their new record, The Way Out, on Temporary Residence this July. Always an interesting listen, the Books are found sound collagists who pair tape recordings with folk styled instrumentation which they play themselves. For the new record, the guys amassed some 4000 tapes containing everything from hypnotherapy sessions to pitch shifted talkboy recordings, sorted out the gold and composed music for each tape collage.

Check out our first taste of the new record: Beautiful People.

New Interpol!

I needed this.

Flaming Lips: "Powerless"

An interesting choice of song to put video to, Powerless appears on Embryonic, the latest Lips record which was released last year. The tense video works well with the song's uneasy sonic aesthetic...plus there's a monkey.

LCD Soundsystem: "This Is Happening"

After letting this one sink in for a few weeks, I can say with certainty that, as a complete record, This Is Happening will be the most lasting LCD Soundsystem effort to date. Lyrically, both James Murphy's keen sense of self-awareness and penchant for writing songs packed with social commentary continue over to LCD's third LP. Sonically, there are elements of kraut, punk, robot funk, and disco which basically translate to straight up jamz. The one misstep LCD makes on the record is first single Drunk Girls, which is a bit of an underestimation of the fanbase's intelligence...but with that being said, the song is most likely on the record due to it's length and 'single appeal' (all other songs on the album are between 6-9 minutes long). Bands have to eat too. Bonus points go for the cover art which brings to mind Robert Longo's Men In The Cities work.

Click HERE to check out one of the better albums you'll hear this year. Pinky swear.

A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake

Perhaps best viewed on a rainy Sunday afternoon, this short documentary is a thorough account of the life of Nick Drake as told by family members and friends. Footage, shot on film, of the English country side and towns where Nick lived and grew up, along with the quality and the methods of mixing the audio give the film a very pastoral, PBS-like feel to it - all of which is a perfect fit for Drake's music which can be heard throughout the story.

Exit Through The Gift Shop

Exit Through The Gift Shop is a new documentary that sets out to tell the story of Banksy - notorious street artist and enigma.

The film is currently playing at the Sunshine Theater and Lincoln Plaza in NYC.

Today is RECORD STORE DAY!

Go out and support your favorite independent record stores today!

Visit here for a full list of all of what's being offered as far as physical releases go. Many stores will also have live events.

Yes Please!

* Modest Mouse's The Moon and Antarctica, reissued on vinyl.
* The Flaming Lips' full-album cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon on seafoam green vinyl.
* R.E.M.'s previously out-of-print debut EP Chronic Town, on limited edition individually numbered blue vinyl.
* A four-LP Joy Division box set on 180-gram vinyl.
* An individually numbered double vinyl reissue of the Starbucks Music Sonic Youth compilation Hits Are for Squares. Also, reissues of the early SY albums Confusion Is Sex and EVOL.
* A new 7" single from of Montreal, featuring the Royal Trux cover "Back to School" and the new original "Subtext Read".

Tonight: forgetters

forgetters is Blake Schwarzenbach's (Jawbreaker, Jets to Brazil) new band. There is no news yet of a record, but they will be playing at Tommy's Tavern tonight in Greenpoint...conveniently located off of the, urm, G train.

forgetters at Generation Records, NYC last year:

Tonight: LIARS @ Bowery Ballroom

Tonight's show is sold out, but it looks like tickets are still available for Sunday night's show at MHOW.
Do yrself a big favor and check out the video for first single Scissor:
LIARSLIARSLIARSLIARSLIARSLIARSLIARSLIARSLIARS!!!

Mirror/Dash - 04/10/10

Mirror/Dash performed a noise set last Saturday in promotion of a new Sonic Youth art book entitled Sensational Fix.

Here's a brief background:



...and here's how it went down:

Spike Jonze: "I'm Here"

This is great. Today I stumbled upon Spike Jonze's new short, I'm Here, which premiered at Sundance this year. It's fantastic. According to the film's blog: I’m Here is a 30-minute love story about the relationship between two robots living in L.A...which is exactly what it is. I've always had a soft spot for stories that use inhuman characters and pair those characters with very human emotions (yes, that does sound like some subversive fetish, but I truly feel it's a powerful device...and it's weird).

Bonus points go to Spike here for sprinkling Of Montreal, Girls, Animal Collective and Nick Zinner among others into the soundtrack. L.A. based sound artist Aska Matsumiya as well as Sam Spiegel contribute original music.

You can view I'm Here online (limited to 12,000 views a day). Watch it HERE.

Thirty Days NY- Mirror Dash

“THIRTYDAYSNY is a celebration of the merger of arts and culture. The challenge was building out, organizing, managing, and presenting a live gallery space open to the public for one month in the heart of New York City. The gallery is curated by Family Bookstore, and the accompanying Thirty Days NY website is headed by Dallas Clayton. The completed Thirty Days Gallery, located at 70 Franklin Street, Tribeca, will feature weekly performances, symposiums, and showcases from contemporary artists, musicians, writers, filmmakers from all over the world.”

Good stuff. Tonight SY Thurston and Kim perform as Mirror/Dash (also the name of Kim's clothing line) in celebration of the Sonic Youth art book Sensational Fix, and Kim Gordon: The Noise Paintings.

Don't come looking for pop tunes.

Have You Seen Admiral Radley?

Admiral Radley is a new band formed by members of two of my favorite bands- Earlimart and Grandaddy. There is little information known about Admiral Radley- all we know is that he must be found.

There is no mention of a label but a record is promised to arrive shortly...until then you can by a t-shirt with "AD-RAD" sharpied on the front for $5.



Check out Admiral Radley @ SXSW here.

Jeff The Brotherhood Do Daytrotter

In case you haven't done so yet, head over to Daytrotter and check out what they're all about. Basically, Daytrotter the virtual is a website. Daytrotter the reality is a barn in Rock Island (seriously) Illinois where bands stop by while on the road to record straight to tape a few songs live, with no overdubs, using only the equipment which happens to be there. Said recordings are then converted to MP3 and offered to the world for free with original illustrations for each session.

If this isn't good enough for you, rad-i-cals Jeff The Brotherhood stopped by on March 19 to do some damage. Nab the session here!

Papercuts Sign To Sub Pop

Papercuts is one Jason Quever (San Francisco) who has released 3 full length LPs on Gnomonsong which includes last year's You Can Have What You Want which was criminally overlooked. Quever records all tracks himself entirely in analog (no computers are involved in the recording process) and uses a tasteful amount of reverb on his vocals to give his songs just the right amount of distance. This guy listens to a lot of Zombies records and his music reflects that in a sincere way. It should be interesting to see where Sub Pop's resources take Quever's tunes.




Sub Pop expects a new record to come out early 2011.

Check out Papercuts here.