A New David Byrne Documentary is Premiering Next Month at SXSW; Although the Trailer Waxes Saccharine, It’s Bound to Be Byrne at His Best - He’s Playing the Building… With Bodies! [Pitchfork]
They Can Take Our Needle Exchanges, But They Can’t Take Our All-Ages Venues: Vote to Support Kids Rocking Out. [Prefix]
Seems Dave Grohl’s Not the Only One Employing a Nasty Notorious Bassist For His Hobby Project. Thom Yorke Brings Flea Aboard for His Latest Venture, Atoms for Peace, Set to Play Roseland Ballroom April 5th and 6th. Dust Off Your Folding Chairs. [NME]
Emotional Trauma Suffered by Florida Woman at the Hands of 50 Cent, Whose Impeccable A/V Skills Surfaced Yesterday in the Form of A Well-Edited, Personally Narrated Sex Tape [NME]
Jeff Buckley’s Minimal Catalogue of B-Side and Live Recordings Are Seeing the Light of Day for the First Time Since His Death Over a Decade Ago. His Mother (and Arbiter of His Estate) Has Licensed the Songs to a Musical Version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet entitled The Last Goodbye, Which Will Undoubtedly Go to Broadway in the 2011 Season to the Chagrin of Toddler Toting, One Time Sine Regulars Everywhere. Hey, It’s Working for Green Day [Perez Hilton]
Bristol Trip-Hop Pariahs Massive Attack Plan Spring Tour Dates, Including Early May at Terminal 5 [Pitchfork]
After Hearing That He “Always Tells the Truth,” Lil Jon Sent a Case of Crunk Juice to the Vampire Weekend Boys, Sparking a Lasting Friendship. Also Featured in the Adorable New “Giving Up the Gun” Video - RZA, Joe Jonas, and Jake Gyllenhaal [Stereogum]
compiled by Drew Citron
February 22, 2010
Atomic Suplex | “Rock & Roll Must Die”
ART OF SONG
Atomic Suplex
“Rock & Roll Must Die”
Rock & Roll Must Die 7
Frantic City Records | 2010
My god, it’s just been Valentine’s day. We need, or at the very least, I need, something shameless. Loud and absolutely goddamn shameless.
I don’t know if they celebrate Valentine’s day in England. I don’t see why they wouldn’t, I’m sure they have Hallmark cards there…but anyway, I should get to the point. England: home of Atomic Suplex, garage rockers with accessories.
Atomic Suplex’s lead singer has the most amazing microphone-helmet-thing (see here). It’s olive green, it looks like it will protect him from nuclear warfare, and it says “rock * roll” on it. I guess it achieves the crazy lo-fi sound on the track, which prevents me from being able to discuss its lyrics in a meaningful context. But who gives a fuck? It’s not that kind of song. Anyway, Atomic Suplex put on their rock and roll helmet, it seems, and just get to work being rock superheroes.
Or supervillains…
February 10, 2010
Snow Day!
Here’s hoping everyone made it home safely on this blizzardy day in New York. Matt Pond PA’s song “Snow Day” seems like an appropriate thing to be listening to on repeat over my steaming cup of hot chocolate. Keep an eye out for his album Dark Leaves, due out in April, and bundle up out there!
JM.com is in transition but will be coming back in the next few days on a regular schedule to continue our music reviews, editorials and commentary on live independent music. We look forward to bringing you the best of New York’s music scene. Please bear with us, and in the meantime, go stand in line right now to see Hot Chip for free tonight (seriously, free!) at Highline Ballroom.
Karen Nagy
January 26, 2010
Premiere: Shark?: “Hey Grrl”
Last time we saw Brooklyn’s Shark?, they were happily covering Beat Happening’s anti-Christmas, Christmas hit, “Christmas” (for good measure, once more, Christmas!). Now they’re doing all sorts of stuff: playing shows, releasing an EP, acting like they are some kind of band. Yeah, okay.
Their EP, Noise Maker is out today, and if it’s half as rowdy as “Hey Grrl,” then it is probably pretty rowdy. As “Brooklyn Garage” becomes a somewhat acceptable tag (ironically, because there are very few carports around here, but “Brooklyn Rented Practice Space” doesn’t really sound genre-fied), Shark? manages to sound consistently fresh. It may be the party-time synths (party-time synths mean ‘time to party’), or the drums that sound like Zach Hill violently beating a 7-11 dumpster. Either way, “Hey Grrl” is infectiously trashy.
Even the spelling of “Grrl” is a little tweaked from the norm. Tons of bands are using AIM-speak in their album titles (the Mae Shi’s HLLYH), song names (uhh..Katy Perry’s “Ur So Gay”) and band names (try LOL, “one of Utah’s finest dance and rock cover bands.” I found this on Google, unable to think of another Internet band name. I am still right). But Shark? takes the typical “grl” shortening, and makes it “grrl,” making the whole thing a bit more animalistic.
Bottom line: this song brings the Pabst keg to the party. You bring the grrls.
Download Shark?’s Noise Maker EP right now.
by Max Sebela
January 25, 2010
This Week In Shows (Haiti Benefit Concerts)
THIS WEEK IN SHOWS
Alright, I usually write a little blurb about each show I’m recommending, you know, arguing for why you should check it out. But this week I’m recommending these shows all for the same reason: each of them is a benefit for the relief efforts in Haiti. Hopefully you see something you like here, but if not, why not check out something new? Please help us show these artists and venues some love, but more importantly, let’s show a little love to the world outside our little pocket of the city.
MON, JAN. 25
Amber Rubarth, Ian Axel, Vienna Teng, Wes Hutchinson, Ari Hest and more
City Winery
8:00, $20, 21+
WEDS, JAN. 27
Cold War Kids, Ted Leo, The Wrens, Sondre Lerche, Eugene Mirman, AC Newman
The Bell House
6:00 PM, $50, 21+
El Medio, No Eye Contact, Breakfast in Fur, Drew Citron
Bruar Falls
8:00 PM, $5 with can of food / $6 without, 21+
The Roots, Kaki King, Eric Krasno & Chapter 2 with John Scofield, Matisyahu
Music Hall of Williamsburg
8:00 PM, $35adv/$40do, 18+
THURS, JAN. 28
Flanagan Smith, Matt Jones, Alyson Greenfield, Charlene Kaye, Outernational, Automa
Public Assembly Back Room
8:00 PM, $10, 21+
SAT, JAN. 30
Blag’ard, The Barrens, Sing With Voices,
Fontana’s
7:00 PM, $8, 21+
compiled by Erin Sheehy
Brooklyn Vegan Hosting What Could Be Unquestionably the Hippest Haiti Fundraiser Possible, With Zach Galifianakis, Britt Daniel, Justin Vernon, and St. Vincent – The Only Way This Could Get Hipper Is if Win and Regine Butler Engaged Physically Onstage and Called It “Art” (But Seriously, Go To This. $45 At the Door) [Brooklyn]
Stream Grizzly Bear Covering Hot Chip’s “Boy From School,” Stripping It Down to a Haunting Yellow House Era Dirge, Uncovering Hot Chip as Apparently Brilliant Pop Arrangers, Surprising Every Single Person Who Has Listened to Music. Ever. [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Joanna Newsom’s Have One On Me Has Been Revealed to Be 3-Discs Long, Thus Causing It’s Title to Be Paradoxical; Released February 23 [NME]
Stream What Could Possibly Be a New Song From Daft Punk, “Fragile,” Which Popped Up on a Daft Punk Fansite, and is Allegedly Appearing on the Tron: Legacy Soundtrack. As It Sounds Like it Was Crafted By the Cold, Metallic Hands of Overtly Powerful Robots, I’m Willing to Believe It’s True [Idolator]
Stream Prince’s Minnesota Vikings Fight Song, “Purple and Gold,” Which Will Get Absolutely No Vikings Fans Psyched, and, Knowing Football Fans, Will Result in Many Homophobic Insults Tossed Out at this “Lil Fairy’s Jam” [Spin]
News Slow. I, Like Pitchfork, Take Time to Announce That the Decemberists and Mastodon Recently Faced Off in Bumpercars. We Have Fun. [Pitchfork]
Stream Peter Gabriel Covering the Arcade Fire’s “My Body is a Cage,” Which Should Not Be Played In Front of Your Potential Lovers House Out of a Boombox, If You Expect to “Get the Girl” [Stereogum]
compiled by Max Sebela
January 21, 2010
Premiere: Hooray For Earth : “Surrounded by Your Friends”
I’ve been known to criticize buzz bands’ MySpace pages. The now-dated social network, with its limited blog toolsets and style capabilities, sadly remains the very best way for a band to host .mp3s, and can lead to some terrifyingly awful web design. But Hooray For Earth has no excuse. The thing is caked with low res purple text, symmetrically layered behind, that is supposed to disjointedly read “Hooray For Earth” (stay with me, that’s the band name). Behind the text is a VCR display, and what I can only guess is the windshield of a car. Where is the car going? Most likely into bad Myspace hell (which is probably more populated than actual hell (to be fair, bad Myspace hell is probably the same place as actual hell, as one of the lost Commandments was “Thou Shall Not Upload Low Res and Obscured Images As a Background To One’s Social Network”)).
Still, as with Suckers before them, I’m willing to forgive the bizarre/sad/desperate aesthetic choice on merit of the songs. “Surrounded by Your Friends” is the best kind of electro posi-jam, right up there with James Murphy’s “All My Friends.” Simple, 8-bit pulses and drum pads back up the vocals, which are languid and rhythmic, if not slightly apathetic. As the chorus soars in, “In then end, you’re surrounded by your friends,” the listener is forced to smile. Isn’t that what we all wish?
As the world ends, I hope yellow-warm synth kicks in, and I look around, and there are at least a couple of my friends there. A four-minute pop song is able to evoke that – from a band with the worst Myspace page I have ever seen.
Stream it here.
by Max Sebela
Vampire Weekend is Number One on the Billboard Charts; I Still Claim They Have Many Hurdles to Get Past the ‘Blog Backlash,’ or Can Willfully Ignore It and Begin Sleeping in Piles of Sweet, Sweet Cash that Wasn’t Inherited From a Trust Fund [Brooklyn Vegan]
Watch Video For Beach House’s “10 Mile Stereo,” Which Looks and Sounds Nothing Like an 8 Mile Stereo, Though You’ll Likely “Lose Yourself in the Music”…Elsewhere, I Apologize For a Dated and Sad Joke [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Gorillaz Debut Plastic Beach Cover Art: An Image of a Plastic Beach (Basically, a Beach Carved Out of those Wax Machines You’d Beg Your Parents to Let You Use at the Zoo); Plastic Beach Released March 9. Stream “Stylo,” Featuring Mos Def and Bobby Womack; Unsurprisingly, It’s a Bowie-Esque Sex Jam [Idolator]
Watch Spoon Play “Written in Reverse,” on Conan, the Lead Single off Transference, Which Was Released Yesterday. Mostly, Though, Just Watch Conan. Dude Has Very Little Airtime Left (And, If You’ve Seen Spoon Once, You’ve Seen Them Too Many Times) [Spin]
Brian Jonestown Massacre Announce U.S. Tour, Supporting the Upcoming Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?; Obviously, Anton and the Rest of the BJM Are Still Too Messed Up to Realize The Police Caught Mark David Chapman in 1980 [NME]
Listen to Thom Yorke Co-Host a Radio Show for BBC Radio 1; Because You Too Can Senselessly Waste Time Virtually Stalking Thom Yorke as the People Over At [Pitchfork] Do (Seriously Though, This Shit’s Boring)
Brooklyn’s Own Golden Triangle Announce Debut Full Length LP Double Jointer, Which Will Most Certainly Be Abrasively Fashionable (If You Need Convincing, Stream This…The Girls Sound Pretty Good Fully Produced (Though I’m Pretty Sure There is Not a Place Called Neon Noose)) [Prefix]
Raekwon Promises Two Albums in 2010, After Taking Well Over a Decade to Follow Up Cuban Linx; He Also Encourages Us to “Rt this crack….,” Which Either Refers to a Tweet as Crack (Funny), or Encourages the Spread of Crack-Cocaine Via the Web (Funnier) [Tiny Mix Tapes]
compiled by Max Sebela
“Oh my Lord, so FUNKY.” This is what you are about to think to yourself/say outloud (for those who find themselves in a semi-social situation midday through a Wednesday, or are of the sort likely to be overcome with excitement toward funk that you begin to speak outloud) when listening to Soundpool’s “But It’s So.” A thick, dreamy shoegazing guitar jumble, driven by an even thicker disco beat, “But It’s So” is immediately one of the best tracks recorded by the NYC quintet, who have been relatively quiet since 2008’s Dichotomies and Dreamland.
The track is good enough to ignore the chorus of, “But it’s so…,” without really understanding what “it” is, or what this “it” is “so.” And if you really feel like you need an answer, just fill in “hot” at the end of the line, and you’ll be just fine.
“But It’s So” is set to appear on Soundpool’s upcoming LP Mirrors in Your Eyes, released sometime early on this year on Killer Pimp. With this, and Music Go Music’s Expressions both due out soon, 2010 is already shaping up to be a pretty great year for disco-revival. Which, depending on how receptive you are to disco, means 2010 is shaping up to be a good/awful year for new/tired music.
Soundpool - “But Its So”
by Max Sebela
