Finnish songwriter Laura Naukkarinen, aka Lau Nau, created some of the most otherwordly, mesmerizing bits of abstracted avant-folk on her 2005 full-length debut Kuutarha. If you're playing catch-up, we suggest hopping over to her MySpace and listening to "Kuula" or tracking down some of her work in the trio Hertta Lussu Ässä with over faves Islaja and Kuupuu.
Lau Nau's sophomore offering, Nukkuu, Finnish for "Sleeps," has a familiar, but different feel -- it's more intimate, and at the same time, she's operating with a lusher palette, as if she recorded the nine tracks in a greater silence, making her midnight rumbles all the louder. We're told, the album was "conceived in tight attics & vacant dens on off hours when her young son Nuutti was fast asleep," and we're guessing young Nuutti slept well. Opener "Lue Kartalta" starts with a tone, some silence, the chiming of bells, and then we slide into Lau Nau's lopsided lullabies and bedroom psychedelics.
John Darnielle and Aesop Rock teamed up in the past to bring us a cut of "Coffee," and now it's a twist on Heretic Pride's sci-fi dropping "Lovecraft In Brooklyn." Darnielle himself explains it at the Goats site:
...I gave Aesop Rock all the constituent parts of the song 'Lovecraft in Brooklyn' and told him 'go nuts, why don't you?' It is with great pleasure that I present to you Aesop's completely great from-the-ground-up remix and an accompanying video from the truly awesome Sketch Theatre.
We just jumped over to Sketch Theatre, where you can also see someone get their Bob Ross on to Mastodon. This high wire-act's a bit slower and with fewer tattoos.
Last night, while you were busy not standing in line with a printout of your MySpace profile with Secret Shows in your top friends on Bleecker St., these people were:
Honestly, was Gelmania at Rififi worth it? Yeah, probably. But acknowledge the awesomeness that must have been seeing Neil fucking Diamond at a place as tiny as the Bitter End (capacity: 110 JD McNugents), down in the NYU drinking quad Village. Speaking of, the Voice got setlist:
"Solitary Man"
"Don't Go There"
"Home Before Dark"
"Really Amazing Grace"
"Kentucky Woman"
"Cherry, Cherry"
"Sweet Caroline"
The 24-year-old Brooklyn (via Philadelphia) singer-songwriter Pepi Ginsberg released her third album Red the end of last month. The collection, produced by her Park The Van labelmate Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog, has a vintage, analog-drenched feel, but with more than enough tweaks and twitters to keep it expansive and interesting. The Albert Birney-directed video for bona fide standout "The Waterline" finds Ginsberg ambling through a shifting, color-coding NYC landscape (St. Marks, Alice tripping in the park). She smiles, looks concerned, loses her head, is frozen in space and smeared with paint, and there are creepy encounters with people in masks, etc., but the real star of the whole thing is her gorgeous voice. It hits with some sorta Edie Brickell warmth, but in a much jazzier Jolie Holland or, better yet, Spector realm. Also, listen closely to her words: "Tell them life is poetry, you can't ... read twice."
We were big fans of First Imaginary Symphony For Nomad back in the day, as well as the Music Tapes' prop-heavy, metronome-toting live show. If you can believe it, that debut came out nine years ago. Around that time, Neutral Milk Hotel was still active, so it was seen as Julian Koster's singing-saw and wire-recorder side project. Since then, NMH went the way of legends, and Koster's kept a lower profile. Well, he and his Tapes are back. Via Merge:
[Koster is] working on a story album entitled 2nd Imaginary Symphony for Cloudmaking, narrated by Brian Dewan and accompanied by bowed banjos, singing saws and sound effects. Portions of the story were aired in early 2003 on WNYC in New York, and were met with great enthusiasm by Music Tapes fans longing for new material.
Music Tapes For Clouds And Tornadoes spotlights Julian's songcraft and distinctive vocals, his almost religious devotion to the singing saw, and numerous contributions from other musicians in the Elephant 6 orbit. As on previous efforts, recording was done using an array of antique hardware, giving Music Tapes For Clouds And Tornadoes a timeless, texturally rich sonic palette. It is the sound of Julian's world poking through the curtain surrounding objective reality. In his words, "I just find the imaginary more real than the physical. Magic, the way we find things beautiful, the light behind eyes, kindness, and how we want to serve and protect the things we care about - these things seem like the real foundation of the world to me. I hope that the songs on this record can be more than just postcards from a world, but an invitation to it, to anyone at all who may find such a place comforting and nice."
Quite the build-up, eh? Now it's time to look and listen.
You won't get any Kafka jokes from us this morning, but you will receive two tracks from the multi-city minimalist collective Gregor Samsa, which includes members of Antlers, Kayo Dot, etc. Their third full-length Rest, which the band put together via email and then eight months of recording, is arriving in five formats. Count along:
Digital, Limited Edition of 500 (CD format, includes an extra booklet of artwork and lyrics, hand numbered), Collector's Edition of 30 (packaging is in a Super 8 film can with artwork and extra goodies, and will include one of the films that Gregor Samsa has made), Unlimited Edition (CD art, made from black stock and screen printed), Vinyl (like the Limited Edition, but on vinyl)
That's almost as complicated as figuring out where all the members live. Here's the lovely piano-lined video for the ambient, Bosh-y "Jeroen Van Aken," which was directed by Spokane's Rick Alverson.
If you liked that, we also have the song without pictures along with "Abutting, Dismantling."
We enjoyed "All The Lost Souls..." in its image-free, Pernice Brothers-y form. The Jon Ramos-directed video for The Golden Age's appropriately nostalgic standout track stars Laura Palmer's mom getting slowly wasted in some west coast bar. As she passes the hours, drowning her sorrows amid cigarette butts, doodles, peanuts, and the hard stuff, Mark Eitzel and his American Music Clubbers are reflected in the glasses in lieu of pink elephants.
We've all seen unofficial music videos -- clips that folks who dig a band make because ... they dig a band. Some work out great like "My Body Is A Cage" or HEALTH's "Heaven," and others are better left to the dustbin. Well, Aaron Koblin, a visual artist/Interpol fan, put together a tech-y video for "Rest My Chemistry" with the help of his production company, Blip Boutique. He wanted to adapt the technology he uses for his art to make a kind of art piece for the song. As the production company noted:
We wanted to do something for this song that was not specifically intended for broadcast, but that was more of an art piece that would live and grow primarily online. We wanted to use a new technology using data mapping to create an abstract video.
The result looks like biological -- or, right, chemical -- fireworks. Or Tron. Interpol was contacted about the project, liked it, and endorsed it. Does that make it official? We're not sure, but it's definitely a striking accompaniment to those starry, Pixie-ish guitar licks and Paul's baritone.
Extra Life's Secular Works arrived unknown in our mailbox and quickly found its way into regular rotation. The New York group is fronted by guitarist/vocalist Charlie Looker, who spent six years in ZS, has played with Mick Barr, was a...
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Last month longstanding Athens-born E6 crew Elf Power released their ninth album In A Cave on Rykodisc. They recorded "Mutiny" during the Cave sessions. It didn't end up on the final tracklist, but you can hear it in this week's...
