June 30, 2009
Locating the downcast, dark tone of her sister Ashley's VU-esque "While We Were Dreaming" vocal turn, but taking it in a gothy, more theatrical direction, Amber Webber chews into the scenery for "Never Seen." The track shows up at about the midway point of her and fellow Vancouver Black Mountaineer Joshua Wells' second Lightning Dust album, Infinite Light, and its last couple of minutes are worthy Siouxsie Sioux (at least in spirit). "Never Seen" goes in a different, aesthetically linked direction than the Suicide/synth-pop/country anthem overlap of "I Knew," which bodes well for the collection on a whole. The duo are heading out on the road with the Cave Singers in the fall.
Continue reading New Lightning Dust - "Never Seen"...
Posted at 10:47 AM by brandon in ,
Tags: Black Mountain | Lightning Dust
latest by James Mandible
June 29, 2009
In February, before Nathan Williams' drug-fueled onstage breakdown, apology and canceled European tour, Pete Ohs shot this video of Wavves trekking around Europe, smoking pot (+ regular cigarettes), chugging vodka, rocking out next to some kid in a Velvet Underground shirt, eating tasty breakfast foods, and generally having a good time. Let it be a lesson to those of you who want to avoid drug-fueled onstage breakdowns. Just kidding, we all know that was overhyped/blown out of proportion. Right, Psychedelic Horsehit?
Continue reading New Wavves Video - "No Hope Kids"...
Posted at 2:56 PM by brandon in ,
Tags: Wavves
latest by Vandivortex
June 26, 2009
First Feist joined Grizzly Bear and her old Broken Social Scene pals in Toronto. Now, continuing her goodwill mission, she's ventured all the way to Los Angeles to reprise her Wilco (The Album) contribution "You & I." (Thanks for the tip, Ed.) The performance took place last night (6/25) during the final slot of Wilco's sold-out Wiltern Theatre stand. As Tweedy notes, it's the first time they've performed the song outside the studio with all its "computers and stuff." The crowd is very stoked about this fact, as well as the duet that follows.
Continue reading Wilco & Feist Do "You & I" Live In L.A....
Posted at 5:49 PM by brandon in ,
Tags: Feist | Wilco
latest by NIck Rock
Megafaun's Bury The Square was an invigorating mix of folk harmonies, spaced-out explorations, and noisy/spliced experimentation. Tellingly, the Raleigh-via-Eau Claire trio's comfortable playing (or collaborating) with Akron/Family, the Rosebuds, and/or Arnold Dreyblatt: Their unique, refined cut-and-pasting earned them a BTW stamp and had us curious enough to look into their day jobs. Megafaun's second album Gather, Form & Fly finds brothers Brad and Phil Cook and Joe Westerlund in a similarly natural state of unbounded eclecticism. Drones follow pristine ballads. Plucky bar hops are stormed by free noise howls. Water drips over hand drum circles. Pastorals implode. And, of course, there are those three-part Crosby, Stills and Nash harmonies. Take a listen to the dusky "Kaufman's Ballad," which goes out to Gram Parsons' manager, Phil, who stole Parsons' post-funeral body and cremated it in Joshua Tree desert with gasoline, per Parsons' request. Something very comforting about that.
Continue reading New Megafaun - "Kaufman's Ballad"...
Posted at 10:54 AM by brandon in ,
Tags: Megafaun
latest by brad
June 23, 2009
Rumors have been floating around, but it's time to blast Diary and have yourself a moment because after a 10 year pause, Jeremy Enigk & those Sunny Day Foo Fighters have put together a 20-date reunion tour. It'll include all four original members and starts this September in Vancouver and then heads south into the States. To help celebrate, Sub Pop will also be reissuing re-mastered, bonus-tracked copies of Diary and LP2 on 9/15. Both will also include new liner notes. But, more importantly, you can see them play those songs live:
Continue reading Sunny Day Real Estate Set Reunion Tour...
Posted at 10:13 AM by brandon in
Tags: Sunny Day Real Estate
latest by barb
June 17, 2009
Continuing in the dark path of "When I Grow Up" and its precursor "If I Had A Heart," Karin Dreijer's assembled another creepy, eerie, visually stunning clip for Fever Ray's "Triangle Walks." Basically we get Dreijer's in her face paint with other shadowy bodies amid blue shadows and a fringed, bar-fly lampshade that occasionally offers a warmer orange feel to the otherwise cold surrounds. It's more impressionistic than the past clips -- like the lyrics suggest, leaving you with that feeling you might get when there's no one else awake. It was directed by Mikel Cee Karlsson, who's collaborated with Knife visual stylist/associate Andreas Nilsson on videos for José González and Bonde do Role. Speaking of which, when Fever Ray hits North America this fall, she'll be traveling with a stage show designed by Nilsson.
Continue reading New Fever Ray Video - "Triangle Walks" (Stereogum Premiere)...
Posted at 5:47 PM by brandon in , ,
Tags: Fever Ray | The Knife
latest by Johnnyboy
June 11, 2009
Earlier this week, Matador released The Sonik Youth's 16th album The Eternal. You've probably heard it, and if you enjoyed it you should know that the band (now with 100% Mark Ibold) will take it cross-country this summer (tour dates after the jump). One setlist fixture is sure to be Kim-sung Eternal opener "Sacred Trickster," which the band road tested in two intimate NYC venues this week: Apple Store SoHo (Tuesday) and Ed Sullivan Theater (Wednesday). We've got photos of the former, video of the latter, and an MP3 for your iPhone 3GS.
Continue reading Sonic Youth Take Manhattan, Dis Radiohead...
Posted at 1:32 PM by Scott in , , , ,
Tags: David Letterman | Radiohead | Sonic Youth
latest by lwkwafi
June 9, 2009
Metric's tour on the back of Fantasies and its many videos brought them to L.A. last night, where the band played their biggest, most sold-out show yet. Props were paid onstage to the various Los Angeles venues they've performed and outgrown along the way -- Silverlake Lounge, El Rey Theater, Henry Fonda Theater. It's a good stage-banter device, simultaneously inviting, humbling, and self-congratulatory; it's also one that their BSS-mate Feist loves whipping out whenever she's in NYC (like at Town Hall and McCarren last year). Anyway the crowd ate it and their set up last night, including a theremin-ed "Twilight Galaxy," the "summer jam" "Gimme Sympathy," and the "Monster Hospital"/"Live It Out" encore. Opening the show was the non-MSTRKRFT half of DFA1979, Sebastien Grainger and his Mountains, along with Band Of Skulls, who our photographer Andrew Youssef tells us have been playing a slate of L.A. showcases over the past week. A few more chances to see Metric remain:
Continue reading Metric @ The Wiltern, Los Angeles 6/8/09...
Posted at 10:26 AM by amrit in , ,
Tags: Band Of Skulls | Metric | Sebastien Grainger
latest by lceman16
