Weekly Music Update :: 04.29.08
April 29, 2008
A small bundle of found sound this week.
Perfect for this weather,
when Spring is taking its time
to warm your face,
but you’re glad you have
a few more nights
of sleeping under the covers
(even if those covers are coated
in your roommate’s drool).
If you are Brooklyn Based this
Monday, May 5th,
come out to Cinco de Mayo /
Emilio Festevez /
birthday piñata bash!
More info on Facebook.
Or Flyer here.
Greet the sound.
+++++ Shows +++++
NYC / Brooklyn Events are now found HERE in full.
Got a show? Email me.
Here’s what’s happening over the next weekish:
| Tuesday, April 29th | Feist, Hayden @ Hammerstein Ballroom |
| Tuesday, April 29th | Singer, Cloudland Canyon @ Knitting Factory |
| Tuesday, April 29th | Gang Gang Dance, High Places @ Southpaw |
| Tuesday, April 29th | John Zorn @ Roulette |
| Tuesday, April 29th | Santogold @ Virgin Megastore, Union Square 7pm $FREE |
| Wednesday, April 30th | Jason Anderson @ Pete’s Candy Store |
| Wednesday, April 30th | Jolie Holland, Pure Horsehair @ Union Pool |
| Thursday, May 1st | I’m From Barcelona, Thao Nguyen @ Brooklyn Masonic |
| Thursday, May 1st | Enon, Men Women & Children @ Hiro Ballroom |
| Thursday, May 1st | Scout Niblet, Talk Normal @ Knitting Factory |
| Thursday, May 1st | Bad Dudes, S-S-Spectres, So So Glos @ Union Docs |
| Thursday, May 1st | The Kills, Child Ballads, Telepathe @ Webster Hall |
| Friday, May 2nd | Scout Niblet, Holy Sons @ Europa |
| Friday, May 2nd | Awesome Color, Tall Firs, Knyfe Hytes @ Glasslands |
| Friday, May 2nd | Julianna Barwick @ Abrons Art |
| Friday, May 2nd | Brazilian Girls, Spank Rock @ Studio B |
| Friday, May 2nd | Vivian Girls, Abe Vigoda, Woods @ Silent Barn |
| Friday, May 2nd | Grouper, Silk Flowers @ Knitting Factory |
| Friday, May 2nd | Hold Steady, Virgins, Bad Veins @ Webster Hall |
| Saturday, May 3rd | Inter Roof Water Fight! & Grillout w/ Lidia Stone, The Beets, Emilyn Brodsky @ Jerican |
| Saturday, May 3rd | Awesome Color, USAISAMONSTER @ Market Hotel |
| Saturday, May 3rd | Teenagers, Team Robespierre @ Music Hall of Williamsburg |
| Saturday, May 3rd | The Acorn, Ola Podrida @ Union Hall |
| Sunday, May 4th | No Age, Aa, Hand Jobs @ Smog Garage $FREE |
| Sunday, May 4th | Zs, Extra Life, Weasel Walter @ Zebulon $FREE |
| Sunday, May 4th | Pelican, Priestbird @ Music Hall of Williamsburg |
| Monday, May 5th | Shearwater, Michael Gira @ Florence Gould Hall |
| Monday, May 5th | Teenagers, Team Robespierre @ Bowery Ballroom |
| Monday, May 5th | Lou Reed @ Highline Ballroom |
| Monday, May 5th | Fuck Buttons, Sightings @ Mercury Lounge |
| Monday, May 5th | Cave Singers, Love as Laughter @ Union Hall |
| Monday, May 5th | Emilio Festivez! @ Lock Inn |
| Tuesday, May 6th | No Age, High Places @ Bowery Ballroom |
| Tuesday, May 6th | Earth, Jesse Sykes, Zaimph @ Knitting Factory |
| Tuesday, May 6th | Cave Singers, Love as Laughter, The Acorn @ Mercury Lounge |
| Tuesday, May 6th | Flight of the Conchords @ Town Hall |
+++++ MUSIC +++++
| Birds of Maya - Volume 1 [Holy Mountain, 2008] | |
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It’s been said that Volume One is possibly the best rock release to come out of Philadelphia ever. While low on recording budget, attitude and pretension, Birds of Maya is high on stolen riffs and an energetic execution seldom seen outside of a Sunday ruling by Seamus McCaffery. Whether they are mangling riffs or stepping way out for fried boogie solos Birds of Maya oozes a dark chunky sludge with elements from all the colors of the classic rock rainbow. Do they really sound like “a GG Allin demo played through a megaphone?” It’s a fair description and it’s certainly colorful, but it leaves out an awful lot. They are loud and they are chaotic, but they have way more groove than GG Allin could have ever imagined. Birds of Maya did what countless garage rock geeks try and fail at: dust off 1968 and bring it back to life without making it look like museum piece. Bringing on the best of 60s power trios like Hendrix and Cream, a whiff of Blue Cheer’s bongwater, Black Sabbath’s bass heavy paranoia, and Stooges bum-out, they are sloppy in all the right places. The jamming never gets tired. |
| Fabio Orsi - Before Long, Before Anyone, The Stars Will Be Walls In My Mind [Students of Decay, 2008] | |
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The final installment in the Orsi SOD trilogy, “Before Long…” is as a slow-moving star in orbit, all evanescent low-register drones and scintillating harmonics. Orsi’s deft hands and painterly approach have once again concocted a beautiful, expansive space for your mind to roam about. Music for telescope nights. |
| Holy Fuck - Lovely Allen [Young Turks, 2008] | |
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Holy Fuck build a swirling, gas-brake exercise around a repeating 16th-note theme. Though the band’s never been afraid of some sugar, even an underlying mass of squelches and scrapes finds itself subsumed by the song’s spine-like mantra, which seems to suck what should be moments of discord into a black hole of melodic cheer. Given that the track’s eerily familiar and instantly endearing, it’s sort of unsurprising that Guest Star of the Year Owen Pallet (Final Fantasy) contributes the most triumphant moment in the form of violin flourishes that push “Lovely Allen” into the category of “Music I’d Like to Hear Immediately After the Birth of My Child.” |
| Inca Ore - Ballet Chop [RuralFaune, 2008] | |
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An ethereal vox, building some dreamy soundscapes over the northwestern hills. |
| Indian Jewelry - Free Gold [We Are Free, 2008] | |
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Keep your ears open for the dulcet thunder. FREE GOLD is just a key. A key to a perfect vision of the future. This vision is known by many names. Dog Cult. Many-headed persons. Blockhead. FREE GOLD was made to show you simple thing. You have the power! It is in your hand and it is within your reach. You don’t have to walk alone.Addendum: whenever IJ’s first album popped up in Adam’s 500 CD rotator jukebox thing, he’d always think the stereo was busted. |
| Jefre Cantu-Ledesma & Paul Clipson - Corridors [Root Strata, 2008] | |
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The latest installment from the on-going collaboration between filmmaker Paul Clipson & musician Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Paul’s Super8 films, shot entirely in New York City, channel the blissed out states of color drenched psychadellia explored by Brakage as well as lovely black and white still life’s that reminisce on Ozu’s ‘pillow shots’ & Chantel Akermans monumental portrait of Pre-Giuliani New York ‘Letters Home’. Jefre’s music is culled from the same sessions that launched his 2007 release on Students Of Decay ‘Shinning Skull Breath’, (the two share a track in common). Billowy clouds of distorted guitar expand out into long passages of muffled static and fuzzed out melody. |
| My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges [ATO, 2008] | |
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Evil Urges isn’t steeped in their signature reverb and there isn’t as much jamming as you’ll find on It Still Moves. But it finds MMJ continuing their Z-zagging path through myriad musical genres, moving away from past sounds into a newer realm, while still maintaining enough of what drew us to them in the first place. |
| Pocahaunted - Island Diamonds [Arbor, 2008] | |
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Pocahaunted goes pop. If by “pop” you mean “delightfully danceable in a completely fucked out of your gourd on psychotropics” kind of way. Yes, Pocahaunted has finally created the album we all knew they had in them. Island Diamonds is a deeply spiritual dance party for those who do not dance. It’s an introspective mystical journey for the bearded. Lace up those Chuck Taylors and lace that joint with acid– we’re about to go on a trip with Pocahaunted.
No longer are the girls beating the drums of war or indulging in sprawling monuments to the gods. This is Pocahaunted skulking through alleyways at the witching hour, peering through windows into the depths of your psyche. Their silhouettes dance intoxicatingly against a graffiti-tagged brick wall illuminated by a nearby barrel fire. These songs abandon the creeping fog of previous Pocahaunted releases in favor of a more focused sound. Every song still contains the incomprehensible chants and wails we have come to expect from this group, but they are now backed by pulsing bass lines and other percussive elements. These aspects really tie the sound together and make it spring forth with a vibrancy never before witnessed from a Pocahaunted release. It’s actually kind of… groovy? |
| Pocahaunted + Orphan Fairytale 7inch [Release The Bats, 2008] | |
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One track each from Pocahaunted (California) and Orphan Fairytale (Belgium). Here Amanda and Bethany give us Warpaint, another dubbed-out and almost heavy lo-fi anthem with that always so special and unique Pocahaunted vibe. The discography of Orphan Fairytale, the solo moniker of Eva Van Deuren, mainly consists of very limited tape and cd-r releases so far, with the only previous vinyl output being an amazing collaboration LP with Mudboy. Live actions includes a performance at No Fun Fest 2007 and a set that took place inside of a container. Here she continues with her haunting and always captivating and melodic keyboard hymns. Made By Mermaids is a trip in the ocean gone bad. |
| Sonic Youth - SYR7 - J’Accuse Ted Hughes [SYR, 2008] | |
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‘J’accuse Ted Hughes’ is a previously unreleased 22 minute drone-piece recorded by Sonic Youth at the All Tomorrows Parties Festival in the UK April 2001. At ATP the band previewed instrumental and early versions of songs from the then soon-to-be recorded ‘NYC Ghosts and Flowers’ and performed this premiere + exclusive performance of ‘J’accuse Ted Hughes’.
‘Agnes B Musique’ is a soundtrack-style piece recorded at the band’s own Murray Street Studio in 2001 for a never-to-be realized collaboration with French clothing designer Agnes B. This 18 minute long musical piece was recorded with a 5-piece version of SY, the 4 members of SY being joined by Jim O’Rourke who also mixed ‘Agnes B Musique’. |
| Subtle - ExitingARM [Lex, 2008] | |
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Doseone has never sounded smoother or more poised as he does on ExitingARM, using his voice to sing instead of rap over most of the tracks. Doseone’s new obsession with singing turns Subtle into more of a rock band in a sense, and it’s hard to ignore the TV On The Radio comparisons at times. But then there are tracks like “Sick Soft Perfection,” which flows beautifully with it’s blips and bleeps, jagged guitar line, and Doseone’s mumbled vocals. Or “The Crow” with its layered vocal harmonies, scattering of piano, and glitchy sound effects. If you’re worried that Subtle has lost all of their rap, check out “Unlikely Rock Shock” or “Gonebones” for some of that awesome Doseone rap that you know and love. |
| Sun City Girls and J. Spaceman - Mister Lonely [Drag City, 2008] | |
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A lot of talent is on board for this film and its companion soundtrack. Mister Lonely is the latest from director Harmony Korine, who wrote the incendiary script for Kids and went on to direct films like Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy. Supplying music are J. Spaceman, a.k.a. Spiritualized leader Jason Pierce, and the legendary experimental rock band Sun City Girls. Alas, the two acts didn’t collaborate on the soundtrack, instead submitting their contributions separately. Together, though, the songs create a flowing musical accompaniment to the film, which follows the travails of a Michael Jackson impersonator. |
| Time Life - Double Blackberry cs [Meudiademorte, 2008] | |
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New cassette album from the duo of Gabriel Lucas Crane and Heidi Dahl of Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice et al. Great, high-gothic song stylings with arcs of deep reverb-sunk guitar that could almost be Japanese (Suishou No Fune/Fushitsusha/Rebel Powers axis) that plot a slow death-march to nowhere alongside the sound of steam-trains piloted to the moon, planetary-scale free floating F/X disruption ala early Tangerine Dream and eerie electronics, all of which conspire to generate the sensation that you’re floating alone in a long-abandoned spacecraft straight into the jaws of oblivion. |
| Vetiver - A Thing of the Past [Fat Cat, 2008] | |
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Andy Cabic and crew newest is a covers album including: Houses [Elyse Weinberg], Roll on Babe [Derroll Adams], Sleep a Million Years [Dia Joyce], Hook & Ladder [Norman Greenbaum], To Baby [Biff Rose], Road to Ronderlin [Ian Matthews], Lon Chaney [Garland Jeffreys], Hurry on Sundown [Dave Brock, Hawkwind], Swimming Song [Loudon Wainwright III], Blue Driver [Michael Hurley], Standing [Towns Van Zandt], & I Must Be in a Good Place Now [Bobby Charles].Guests include Vashti Bunyan and Michael Hurley himself. |
| Woods - From the Horn cs [Fuck It Tapes, 2008] | |
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Tracks from the religious knives split tour tape. limited press for march tour. |
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