The singularity is near! Ray Kurzweil’s book of the same name describes a time where human’s will transcend biology, and listening to “Wilderness” made me conscious of where music sits in relation to this revolutionary precipice. In some ways there is nothing fresh about Active Child’s production - vocals backed by an electronic beat began several decades ago. On the other hand, there is something very new about the ease and availability of technology and where it is leading us. A project like Active Child can simultaneously sound lo and hi-fi. The lo-fi element comes from the warmth of analog. It’s why human’s gravitate towards vinyl, Bob Dylan and Daniel Johnston. We want that hiss and pop and human inflection. The hi-fi production comes from the immense technological resources at our fingertips. A studio full of equipment is now available with one click of the mouse. And it’s finally real. We’ve reached that tipping point. What’s emerged from this are a group of artists (Memory Tapes, Active Child, new Animal Collective, Neon Indian etc…) who give technology an analog heart. The days of “Drum Machines Have No Souls” bumper stickers are over.
So where does that leave Active Child. On the surface Pat Grossi’s project is a dubby, basement producer’s take on Grizzly Bear. It’s lo-fi in all the right places, but facilitated by technology’s democratizing presence.
The premise of Interview Magazine has stayed the same since the days of Warhol - it’s all about matchmaking. Most publications focus solely on the subject, but Interview works to keep the art of dialogue alive by placing as much thought into the selection of the interviewer as the interviewee. For this pairing, long time critic and host of KCRW’s The Treatment, Elvis Mitchell, sits down for an afternoon with the one and only Jay-Z. Click here to witness the magic.
After missing the Echoplex “warm up” gig, I’m excited to get my Thom Yorke fix on Sunday night at Coachella. Not quite as intimate, but I’ll take what I can get. The solo project, billed as Thom Yorke????, now has an official band name - Atoms For Peace. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because it’s a track name off The Eraser. They also have a couple dates before Coachella, if you can’t make the festival. Flying Lotus will be opening all US dates.
Kanye West is never short on words. That combined with his desire to effect every element of popular culture, has made him a really great blogger. His site is now a hub for art, fashion, music and of course all his amazing rants. Unfortunately, the blog design was a bit of an eye soar, but now he’s switched locations and completely revamped the look. It reminds me of a gallery wall (aka blank) - allowing the photos to stand on their own. Check it out here. There are some hidden gems under the white background if you move your cursor around.
Joanna Newson is finally back, and she brought with her a 2 hr masterpiece. Have On on Me is chock-full of stunning vocal melodies and an array of instrumental accompaniment. The 3LP epic came out this week, and can be streamed in its entirety over at NPR.
Joanna will also be doing a small loop around the East coast before heading to Europe. Check out her tour dates here.
It’s been eleven years since Jeff Mangum and co (Neutral Milk Hotel) released their masterpiece In the Aeroplane, Over the Sea. Fans have been waiting for Jeff’s triumphant return ever since; yet, other than a few live guest spots, Mangum has kept completely silent. In some of the press sheets, The Rural Alberta Advantage are said to be the next Neutral Milk Hotel. Generally this sort of hyperbole squashes my interest, but I decided to give the record a shot anyways. I’m quite happy I did.
The RAA’s debut album Hometowns is thirteen songs packed full of percussion and the yelping vocals that gave RAA the Neutral Milk Hotel comparison. The driving element throughout the record are the drums. During even the slower songs like “Don’t Haunt this Place,” the percussion moves into double time - creating a striking counterpoint to the gentle guitar and vocals.
I love dance music as much as the next person, but it’s nice to hear a jamming acoustic guitar again. The band recently signed to Saddle Creek, a label that seems to have lost the limelight due to the changing tides of music. It’s a great fit though, and one that could facilitate more great albums from the Canadian trio.
What happens when you mix the production of Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse with the visual genius of David Lynch? Well, unless you’re a fan of bit torrent you’ll probably never know. An audio/visual collaboration between the three masterminds (with a host of music guests: Flaming Lips, Shins, Julian Casablancas, Jason Lytle etc…) is sitting on the shelf at EMI caught up in “licensing issues,” and will almost certainly never see the light of day.
Because the project incorporated a 100 page hardback book of photos by David Lynch, the book and a blank CD-R (to put the stolen copy of the album on) are currently being sold. Good luck hunting down the album.
There’s a factory in Brooklyn making great bands, and it’s latest creation is called Suckers. This four song EP gets in and out without a dull moment, and the indie-anthem “It Gets Your Body Movin” is the perfect leaving-the-listener-wanting-more exit. The sound makes sense when you look at the production credits for Anand Wilder (Yeasayer) and Chris Moore (TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs). The influences seem to rest on their sleeves (David Byrne and Wolf Parade to name a few), but don’t get in the way due to the quality of the songwriting.
This should be a lesson to any new band - less is more. Write thirty songs and release four. The landscape of music has shifted, and the bombardment of content leaves people with little time to gain opinion. Suckers asked for 14 minutes of my time, and as “Beach Queen” reached it’s chorus I knew I was going to be there for the remaining 12 minutes.
Dirty Projectors played an intimate apartment show in Brooklyn in 2007, showcasing their reworking of Black Flag’s Rise Above. Above is a video from that night.
Sunset Rubdown give us a taste from their new album, Dragonslayer,with a free track on LaLa called “Idiot Heart.” You can find that and the mp3 at Pitchfork.
I Guess I’m Floating has collected all the Grizzly Bear content on Youtube. Get your fill here.
My Bloody Valentine will play the El Rey Theater tonight as a warm up for their Coachella show this weekend. Photos and review to follow.
Things felt a little shaky there for The Thermals in early 2008. They had toured on The Body, The Blood, The Machine for over a year and a half, they no longer had a drummer and were looking for a new label home. Yet, in reality all that paled in comparison to their toughest hurdle. Trying to write music that surpassed their landmark Bush-era concept record was going to be near impossible. TBTBTM combined everything great about The Thermals, political music and punk rock. By 2008 the political and social tides had begun to shift, and it looked likely a Senator named Barack Obama might be our next president. How would Hutch and Kathy translate this new landscape into an album?
Out of this situation, somewhere in a Portland studio, Now We Can See was birthed. From the lyrics of the album’s title track, (”Now that our vision is strong, we don’t need to admit we were wrong”) it’s clear Hutch still has a sharp tongue when it comes to public and political behavior. The album’s narrative comes from the POV of a newly deceased man and his journey through his new “life.” It references the TBTBTM era, and talks about how we’ve reacted to these changes. Hutch still doesn’t have much good to say about the national consciousness, but where TBTBTM was explicitly apocalyptic, Now We Can See cuts a more subtle argument.
One of the newest sounding songs, “At the Bottom of the Sea,” runs a two note bar chord that hints at the guitar line in “The End.” It’s pretty subtle but for some reason I just keep seeing Apocalypse Now playing during this song. “Now We Can See” is the standout single and combines the energy, quick delivery and interesting commentary that made me a Thermals fan in the beginning.
Grab the free track below and buy Now We Can See on Amazon.
