February 9, 2010
We mentioned Blonde Redhead did the score for The Dungeon Masters, the Keven McAlester's Dungeons & Dragons documentary, when we directed you to its entertaining trailer. At the time I was going to make a joke about how BR's Kazu Makino would be the only female in the movie, but dark elf Elizabeth Reesman, aka "The Drow Princess," nixed that idea. We haven't seen the movie yet, but we do have "Il Padroni," a medley of Blonde Redhead's main theme and final reprise. The moody, pensive music beings after a quietly apocalyptic/ha ha ha sample.
Continue reading Blonde Redhead - "Il Padroni" (Main Theme/Final Reprise From The Dungeon Master) (Stereogum Premiere)...
Posted at 4:21 PM by brandon in
Tags: Blonde Redhead
Bright Eyes/Neva Dinova Reissue Gets Four New Tracks • The original collaboration record One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels came out back in 2004, but the groups reunited last fall to write and record new songs at Mike Mogis's Omaha studio. The ten-track album will be out March 23. More at Saddle Creek.
latest by guy
Los Angeles-via-Pennsylvania multi-instrumental singer and home recordist Evan Voytas -- sort of a more clean-cut Ariel Pink -- creates strange synth-pop/space-disco outings that feel danceable but private and insular. The idea's explored in the video for his most recent single "I Run With You, Spirit Animal." The clip was directed by Carlos Charlie Perez, who recently finished the upcoming Vampire Weekend video and shot those tongue-in-cheek promos that showed up on ithinkuracontra.com. You'll find that playfulness, here as well, after Voytas locates a place to rest his plank of wood while he tries on sunglasses and animal masks.
Continue reading Evan Voytas - "I Run With You, Spirit Animal" Video...
Posted at 3:14 PM by brandon in ,
Tags: Evan Voytas
latest by Nick
Dr. Dog have been a band for over a decade now, Philadelphia-based throughout. Their hometown hasn't factored much into their sound, which throws back to the Beatles-era of the classic rock school, or their themes and lyrical schemes. That's changed with "Shadow People," the first single form the band's forthcoming, fifth LP Shame, Shame, a track they've called a "full-on West Philly diary." The sound's the same, decidedly not of their hometown in this time or even a past one, but the scenes painted by guitarist vocalist Scott McMicken are documenting his neighborhood, now, a section of Philly that can be shoddy, dangerous, and artistically vibrant, in turns but often at once. He says:
Continue reading Dr. Dog - "Shadow People" (Stereogum Premiere)...
Posted at 2:53 PM by amrit in
Tags: Dr. Dog
latest by Strawberry Letter
We've heard the stylistically diverse "81" pastoral and jazzy "Good Intentions Paving Company" outing. Now, after adding the gorgeous 9-minute madrigal/short story "Kingfisher" to the Have One On Me tracklist, the only thing to be sure of is that the 3-CD collection won't be following one specific path. But color me impressed. You can hear the new song, per usual, at dragcity.com (via GvsB). And, speaking of tracklists, Drag City's made that available, too:
Continue reading Joanna Newsom - "Kingfisher"...
Posted at 1:18 PM by brandon
Tags: Joanna Newsom
latest by Ursell Anning
Onetime BTW Under Byen's fourth album Alt Er Tabt ("All Is Lost") is out in April. The Denmark group's followup to 2006's Samme Stof Som Stof definitely has an anguished, although not done-for feel. In their new form, they're without a pianist and their one-time orchestra, which makes things immediately sparer, like the whispered warping and unfurling bedroom-folk abstractions of Islaja or Lau Nau. See, for instance, the collection's quietly swarming title track. In a translated statement about its video, director (and visual artist) Sidse Carstens says she's commenting on "how women of today still have to tear down their conception of perfection." It's like an intensely spare diorama installation. The Yellow Wallpaper came up around the water cooler this morning. You wouldn't be wrong to think about "Romance Is Boring," too.
Continue reading Under Byen - "Alt Er Tabt" Video (Stereogum Premiere)...
Posted at 12:40 PM by brandon in ,
Tags: Under Byen
latest by gaffa
Four years after the worthy Derdang Derdang, London's Archie Bronson Outfit are set to followup that last LP's dark blues/rusty grooved garage rock with a long-awaited third album, titled Coconut. On production is sorta-ex-DFA-dude Tim Goldsworthy, whose stellar C.V. includes the likes of the Rapture and Hercules & Love Affair. You'll hear some of that dirty and discomfiting dance sensibility creep into Coconut's first single "Shark's Tooth": throbs of bass, scraped guitars, like their rock gut a little grimier and their dance-blues turned a little more to the psych. The official video is a sci-fi odyssey, with effects like Laser Cats and animation via Monty Python. Are we laughing, or are we vexed? "Dart For My Sweetheart") it is not. But it is good.
Continue reading Archie Bronson Outfit - "Shark's Tooth" Video (Stereogum Premiere)...
Posted at 12:21 PM by amrit in ,
Tags: Archie Bronson Outfit
latest by clockworkrobots
A few days ago we posted the The Wicker Man-meets-Jewelled Antler sun splotches of the Fresh & Onlys' (sorta) eerie "Invisible Forces" video. Things get psychedelic in a more intensely tripped-out (and Sublime Frequencies DVD) way in the EyeBodega-directed clip for "Vanishing Cream," a new song from an upcoming 7" being released by the French label Plastic Spoons. One thing you might notice overlapping between this and the last one are a series of oracular/mystical triangle and diamond shapes.
Continue reading The Fresh & Onlys - "Vanishing Cream" Video...
Posted at 11:32 AM by brandon in
Tags: The Fresh And Onlys
