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April 28, 2006
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Music You Won’t Hear has a couple of nice posts this week on Bell Telephone Laboratories records.
Explains the back of the insert: “The samples of speech on this recording were produced by an electronic digital computer. They are a by-product of a research project at Bell Telephone Laboratories to obtain a better understanding of the nature of speech.”
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Coolfer reports via Ad Age that iTunes will soon have advertising.
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The Air Strange has a post about Stylus favorite Augie March.
Glenn Richards has perfected the one thing I strive to do myself: using words not as language, but as sounds, to communicate his thoughts and feelings. While Richards is a wordsmith, it isn’t what he says that emotes: it’s the sounds those words make. The words are used as instruments strung together to shimmer like violin strings or smack into one another like toms swelling into a cacophony of emotions. It’s almost as if he’s singing in a foreign language I can only comprehend at a very basic and intuitive level.
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Indie Interviews talks to Kyp Malone, of TV on the Radio.
Here’s segment 1 from Kyp Malone; he tells his love for a Narnack Records band, whose music is “honest and organic and not a put- on and not some fake hippie shit.” He also talks about a new record and DVD that he feels inspired by.
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Elliott Landy, the photographer who provided us with the artwork for our feature on The Band, is having the largest show of his career. He’ll have 85 of his prints on display through June 3 at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre in Delray Beach, Florida.
Landy was the official photographer of Woodstock and has covered a number of rock’s key figures through the years, including Dylan and Hendrix. And, yeah, I might be biased because he helped me out, but he does have some incredible shots.
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Swedesplease has a track from the new Thomas Denver Johnson project, A Perfect Friend.
I’m not sure what Thomas Denver Johnson would have to do for me not to write about his music. Heavy black death metal I guess. He’s changed directions completely with his new duo project (w/ CJ Larsgarden) called A Perfect Friend . They describe it aptly as “Ambient Folktronica.”
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Scenestars has details on another MySpace Secret Show. This time with Gnarls Barkley.
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All the news that’s fit to print…
Pitchfork Media
-Beck and Jamie Lidell to Tour Together [LINK]
-Herbert Tours in Support of Scale [LINK]
-Rjd2 releases Magnificent City Instrumentals [LINK]
-Long Winters are Putting the Days to Bed [LINK]
NME
-Radiohead artist to exhibit new work [LINK]
-The Raconteurs line up busy summer [LINK]
-The Lemonheads sign new record deal [LINK]
-The Automatic announce debut album release [LINK]
Tiny Mixtapes
-Fiona Apple Shares Summer Schedule [LINK]
-Centro-Matic Tours [LINK]
-Universal Music Chief Executive Earns $18 Million in 2005 [LINK]
-Excepter Tour [LINK]
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April 27, 2006
Nick Sylvester welcomes a guest riffer to his blog, the artist Farley Katz.
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Metric’s Emily Haines talks about her new solo album, Knives Don’t Have Your Back.
Metric’s label, Last Gang Records, will release Knives Don’t Have Your Back on September 26. The album will be a major change of pace from what people are used to from Haines, as it’s described by Last Gang as “an intimate and subtle collection of mellow, piano-driven tunes complemented by soft string and horn arrangements.”
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True to form, Kanye West has suddenly been added to Saturday’s Coachella bill. Kanye is not on the official poster, but if you visit the set time page, he is right there on the main stage. Way to make an entrance.
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Stylus singles jukebox contributor Mike Barthel writes about Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
I’m personalizing this, but it’s not personal. CYHSY are very much of my generation and demographic of musicians, and so a lot of what they’re incorporating feels very familiar. It’s just that they seem remarkably skilled at taking this set of influences and choosing all the worst ones, or rather, I guess, all the safe ones–all the ones I hear people talking about at a party or in a bar and immediately steer clear.
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Gorilla vs. Bear reports that Tapes ‘n Tapes has signed to XL.
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Marathonpacks has a number of 1975 Talking Heads demos.
The rest is still as taut as a sailor’s knot (especially the wonderful “Warning Sign”), but, just like Stop Making Sense, we can hear Byrne gradually loosening his cheeks and learning to rock as the songs progress. And just remember that Tina learned to play the bass in the cab on the way to the studio.
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Pinback lists five of their favorite albums for mp3.com.
Ah, the Police. Like many groups emerging from Britain during the 1970s, the Police capitalized on the sounds of oppressed Jamaicans. But at least these musical pirates had a sense of humor regarding their stylized appropriation, the literal translation of Reggatta de Blanc being “white reggae.”
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Anthony Kaufman has an article in the new Filmmaker detailing the trials of Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin to gain indenpendent distribution.
Released on May 6 by Tartan, Mysterious Skin received exuberant critical acclaim (“A gorgeous, heartbreaking and utterly convincing work of art” — the New York Times) and gross ticket receipts amounting to over $713,000. The video release date was set for Oct. 25.
But shortly after the film’s theatrical opening, producers and distributors began to bang heads. “By the time of the release, they had paid us $50,000 of the $250,000,” says Levy-Hinte. “We were asking politely, and then forcibly, for the money. They coughed up two more payments, paying a total of $175,000 by July.” On July 19 attorney Paul Brennan at Sloss Law Office, representing Mysterious Films, informed the distribution companies that they were in breach of contract, demanding payment in full. “Then they started making noises that we had not fully delivered,” says Levy-Hinte.
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All the news that’s fit to print…
Pitchfork Media
-Exclusive: James McNew Talks New Yo La Tengo Album [LINK]
-Lemonheads Return, Sign to Vagrant [LINK]
-Minutemen documentary due on DVD [LINK]
-The Essex Green kick off U.S. trek [LINK]
NME
-Snoop Dogg arrested [LINK]
-Courtney Love’s ‘rehab was really good’ [LINK]
-Snow Patrol launch new album at the opera! [LINK]
-The Futureheads to play tiny London show [LINK]
CMJ
-Thermals To Release Third LP [LINK]
-Metric’s Emily Haines To Release Solo Record [LINK]
-Excepter To Release Debut Album [LINK]
-Michael Jackson/50 Cent Collabo A Possibility [LINK]
Tiny Mixtapes
-Apple News [LINK]
-World/Inferno Friendship Society Tour [LINK]
-Meat Puppets Reunite [LINK]
-Lemonheads Sign to Vagrant [LINK]
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April 26, 2006
Marcello Carlin takes on Paul Morley.
f you cannot write sexily, provocatively, usefully or at least interestingly about Girls Aloud without deploying the words “gaudy,” “enslaved,” “manufactured,” “plastic” (as a perjorative), “phony,” “canned,” “candy” (again as a perjorative) or “punkier” (as a positive) then you have no more hope of being considered a significant music writer in 2006 than Bernie Clifton or Jimmy “Whirlwind TM” White.
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Filmmaker magazine has an interview with Robert Altman.
Do you stick with the script closely?
Depends on what the script is. In The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, I stuck to the script exactly. In Secret Honor I stuck to the script exactly. In Nashville, we hardly had a script. This was pretty much the same way, although Garrison did construct all of the scenes. But they changed, just like his show does, the minute we started to film.
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The A.V. Club has a double whammy for all you Simpsons fanatics. The first delectable is a thorough interview with the Godfather himself, Matt Groening. Did you know there are going to be four Futurama DVD movies? Me neither. The A.V. also put together a list of “Simpsons Quotes For Everyday Use.”
Quote: “Stupid TV! Be more funny!”
Episode: “Marge On The Lam” (11/5/93)
Context: While trying to understand why a studio audience is laughing appreciatively at a dryly serious Garrison Keillor-like performer, Homer pounds the family TV, trying to improve its humor reception.
Real-life uses: Whenever frustrated with any form of insufficient humor, from your friends’ lame jokes to, um, sub-par episodes of The Simpsons.
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The Funky 16 Corners has a nice track from the JB’s up on the site from last Friday.
My initial take on the record has always been this: ‘The Grunt’ sounds to me like the band director from ‘Drum Line’ directing the orchestra from the prison for the criminally insane. The opening sax-o-ma-phone squeal is about as crazy as anything committed to wax since Edison was reciting ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’, and it’s placement at the very beginning of the tune is to say the least disconcerting. The juxtaposition of this single, strange element against the powerful beat is tempered almost immediately by the sound of the J.B. horns blaring away as if their lives depended on it.
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A Brooklyn Life has a mix from DJ Duckcomb of tracks that celebrate Brooklyn.
In the words of Billard, ” ‘Boogie Down Brooklyn’ represents a few years worth of hardcore record collecting and digging around the great borough of Brooklyn. I feel it represents the musical and cultural diversity of Brooklyn. Everything from ESG-sampling 80s hip-hop to a deep acid house to weird avant 80s funk by downtown NYC 80s legends like Arthur Russell and Peter Gordon to disco performed by Carribean transplants to plenty of funny disco and boogie sounds. All records are either about Brooklyn or are on tiny Brooklyn indie labels, and most were dug up in Brooklyn … and yes the final track is a cover of the Who on “Slope Records” out of Park Slope, 1975!”
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Cinematical has details about David Cronenberg’s newest film.
Seeing as David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortenson have a history together, it’s fitting that the two will once again be teaming up on the Steve Knight (Dirty Pretty Things) penned Eastern Promises. Cronenberg, who directed Mortenson in last year’s A History of Violence will once again step behind the camera. Pic is being described as a thriller that focuses on a nurse who, while investigating a child’s death, stumbles deep inside the world of sex trafficking. This one has dirty, pretty and violence written all over it.
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Village Voice contributor Andy Beta reflects on Chuck Eddy.
In much the same way as my step-father had a decade previous, Chuck helped me earn a living by giving me a chance to perform that most curious alchemical work: sounds into words, plastic jewel cases into paper checks, dirt into pearls –or to detractors– bullshit into shineola
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Wes Anderson has directed an American Express ad.
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All the news that’s fit to print…
Pitchfork Media
-Mountain Goats to Tour With Barbara Morgenstern [LINK]
-Liars Kick Off World Tour [LINK]
-Clipse Touring With Ice Cube [LINK]
-Three Mile Pilot recording new album [LINK]
NME
-Fan falls from balcony at Charlatans gig [LINK]
-We Are Scientists announce new tour [LINK]
-Mike Skinner goes to ‘Church’ [LINK]
-Muse reveal new single details [LINK]
CMJ
-Nick Zinner, Fiona Apple Vie For Sexiest Veg [LINK]
-Snoop Dogg Writing Debut Novel [LINK]
-FCC, AAIM Establish Rules for Airplay [LINK]
-Subways Forced To Cancel US Tour [LINK]
Tiny Mixtapes
-EMI and Warner to Start Merger Talks Again [LINK]
-Wooden Wand is Finishing Up a Tour [LINK]
-Film School Benefit Concerts [LINK]
-Jandek Plays More Shows [LINK]
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April 25, 2006
Losanjealous has a fascinating, three perspective account, of the recent BJM show at the Little Radio warehouse.
So, I’m saying bye to Ivory and doing a shot of Jagermeister with some dude and about to take off when I notice this guy up in the balcony testing his weight on the water pipes on the ceiling (oh don’t even think about it you retard.. i was thinking). Up until this point I was watching him because he seemed completely whacked out and he kept rubbing his crotch in like homoerotic ecstasy while watching the band and dancing around like Axl Rose. When he jumped off the balcony and grabbed a beam and started walking across the ceiling with his hands I had to whip out my camera and run accross the floor to try and grab a snapshot. About 2 seconds after I snapped the photo, the fucker dropped almost 20 feet to the floor thinking that the (by now pretty sparse) crowd was going to catch him…
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April 24, 2006
Stylus writer Dave Micevic has a post about Jacques Tati’s seminal film, Playtime.
In Jacques Tati’s seminal film Playtime there is a delightful little scene involving an ultra-modern apartment complex. Hulot, after being recognized by an old army buddy, is invited into his acquaintance’s apartment to meet his family and see his home. In the traditional Tati style of spatial manipulation, we as spectators are not allowed to accompany Hulot inside. Lucky for us, the entire front wall of the apartment serves as a giant window through which we can witness (but not hear) the entire goings-on within.
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Jason Gross highlights one of the best early electronic music compilations.
I was pretty depressed to learn a year or two ago that one of the best collections of 20th century electronic music wasn’t available any longer. I’d been meaning to write about that and how these important voices were going to be harder to find when I stumbled across a reissue that just came out. Thanks to the fine folks at New World Records, Pioneers of Electronic Music is now available again. I remember it as a wonderful asset when I was working to put together my own collection (OHM- The Early Gurus of Electronic Music, just reissued!).
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