There has been a DIY music explosion over the past 5 years which has been facilitated by cheaper recording technology and of course the rise of the blog. The blog format instantly gave a voice to anyone who wanted to be heard and along with that, anyone writing music who wanted to be heard.
Check out the new Julian Lynch video for the Mare single "In New Jersey" that features layers of stained cell tissue cross sections on top of antiquated found footage of a boy stumbling across a dead...urm...mare.
Coney Island is a strange place, a part of New York City that doesn't feel at all like New York City- it's got it's own identity and way about it. Spend a summer Saturday walking along the boardwalk and you're sure to come across a wide range of social cultures- bike gangs, Puerto Rican locals, tourists...
Bruce Davidson hung out with teenage punks, The Jokers, during the summer of 1959 and documented their social lives at Coney Island and around Brooklyn.
I found this strange record around 2005 at Amoeba records while I was living in San Francisco and picked it up knowing nothing other than the fact that it was recorded by members of the Elephant 6 collective. Turns out, Orange Twin released the record in 2001 and it is now featured in a movie written by and featuring the E6 guys. From the look of things, the film was created in Athens, Ga...my home for 4 years and a very weird place indeed.
In his recent TED speech, David Byrne explores the notion that the venue where music is performed shapes the type of music that the artist aims to create. Byrne cites certain periods of popular music as being no accident -the types of sounds in the music were influenced by where the music would traditionally be performed. All of this makes plenty of sense looking at this from a high level, low resolution view of music history. Byrne is emphasizing period POPULAR music so of course there will be outliers and exceptions. I wish I had this guy for a professor in college.
Sometimes with all of the new music I'm find myself inundated with, I forget how rad some bands are that I haven't listened to in a while. This is the official trailer for Gruff Rhys' "psychedelic western musical" which he wrote, stars in and soundtracked. Just like his records and live shows (both solo and with SFA), this looks bizarre (awesome). Also, be on the lookout for Gruff's record he just recorded with a Brazillian TV repair man: The Terror of Cosmic Loneliness.
This stunning video was filmed at Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas which is the deepest underwater sinkhole in the world. World champion freediver Guillaume Nery walks into the tranquil, almost sterile, blue world and begins his slow plunge into the deep abyss finding himself in regions where the sun can only reach with its most powerful rays. Nery's girlfriend Julie Gautier, also a champion diver, filmed the dive...all in one breath!
The composition and film angles of the shots in the film give an artistic quality good for a diver with gear and it is incredible for someone shooting with no aid.
My mind just blew all over my room...I need a second the process this and then I might write something more inteligent, but for now, I am completely paralyzed.
WWIMRLN is a series of recordings that I have made and will continue to make in my bedroom and post post here. This first track is something that I recorded late last year and am using it as a test and as a preview of what is to come. I am hoping to post new stuff very soon and to do so on as regular of a basis as possible.
Check out this trailer for a new documentary on the life of beat poet, junkie, gun enthusiast and self described "queer" William S. Burroughs which is making its way around the festival circuit. Burroughs was very open about his sexuality and drug use during a time when these topics were taboo (say the very least) and he found himself hailed as a revolutionary by artists and disdained as a lowlife by pretty much everyone else.
Burroughs' work is now considered an important addition to American culture and society. A Man Within features interviews with such all-stars as: John Waters, Genesis P-Orridge, Jello Biafra, Iggy Pop, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo among others. Sonic Youth and Patti Smith do the soundtrack.
Pitchfork has really been coming through with some quality video work of late. Here Liars play in an abandoned jail. This video is just another reason why these guys are just on some other level. So rad.
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