Where were you on Monday, May 5th at 12:00 A.M.? Hopefully (just like me) losing sleep and downloading the absolutely free NIN album, the slip, at nin.com. Marketing and musical genius Trent Reznor has done it again, but this time he’s giving back to all us loyal fans by ’slipping’ the album for no cash exchange whatsoever. The final digital product comes complete with album art and lyrics. Each song has its very own simple logo that conveniently displays itself on your iPod screen during the song. Can’t do without your physical copy in this budding digital music age? Vinyl and CD formats will be available for purchase in July.
Don’t get me wrong, I loves me some music blogs. I try to go to at least 5 a day. But there are times when I want simplicity. A one stop shop. A place where I could find, oh, I don’t know, the new Tapes n Tapes, Arcade Fire’s live take on a Magnetic Fields classic, Brit Daniel remixing Feist, and, hmmm…. maybe Hot Chip doing Sexual Healing? A place where, maybe, it could gather all the music posts from all the music blogs? And let me search them? And listen to them? And tell me who was being blogged about the most? Yes, a place like that would really make my life easier and allow me to focus on shopping work.
Hallelujah for the hypemachine. It’s not new but if you haven’t checked it out, you’re missing out on a mecca of music. No, really. It’s that awesome. A blog aggregator that tracks mp3 blogs, streams their posts, links to their reviews, is easy to use, it will help satisfy even the most ravenous of new music appetites.
We’re pretty up on that whole European hand-drawn aesthetic as of late. So Me pushed himself to the forefront with his creative direction for ed banger / illustrations-a-plenty per t-shirts in the video for Justice’s D.A.N.C.E. So it’s only appropriate we tip our collective hats to the artists continuing in that vein. First up; the French collective Shoboshobo. Like a couple previous posts, dudes are kinda all over the place. Hand stitched sweaters, silk screened shirts, drawn-on cassettes with original music, icons and the like. These guys are pretty on point. Viva la analog!
The most cliché question in rock and roll is whether or not a band considers their latest effort to be their ‘Dark Side of the Moon.’ Rarely is it true, and rarely can a band say it’ll outlive the remainder of their to-be-completed catalogue. However, once in a while a band comes along that continues to out-do their past, push forward and continue to define a sound all their own. Mastodon proved that with their latest effort (Blood Mountain - Reprise 2006), MC’s like MF and Sole forge ahead with their lyrical banter, and somehow, Led Zeppelin’s records continue to do it to this day.
That being said, BTBAM’s looooonnnnnggggg-awaited follow up to ‘Alaska’ finally leaked over the weekend. And not that we condone piracy, but absolutely HAD to get our hands on ‘Colors’ (Victory Records - 2007). Easily said, it is THE most ecclectic (and we really mean all-over-the-place), mind-boggling, epic, non-stop 65 minutes we’ve heard since Zeppelin III/IV. So, if that connotation isn’t enough to whet your drop Db appetite, go dust off your Bright Eyes records and un-bookmark this site… like, immediately.
Hypothetically speaking typing, if you were to take 2 parts David LaChapelle, mix 1 part Chris Cunningham with a pinch of Annie Leibovitz, you’d end up with something like Timothy Saccenti. The New York based artist / photographer / director / all-around stylistic dude, has created some of the most refreshing visuals we’ve seen in a while. Whether it be his direction for the Battles video ‘Atlas,’ the surreal Cunningham-esque narrative for the Animal Collective’s ‘Peacebone,’ or the soft, lush portraits of Pharrell, his style is ecclectic as it is controlled; crude as it is luscious; awesome as it is.. well, awesome.
We love these two new prints just released by Scott Hansen of ISO 50. Vuela is on the left and Past is Prologue is on the right. They’re both printed on a hefty 100lb natural tone stock made in USA, and available with many other beautiful prints through his online store.
Hansen is also playing in the LA area with his audio project Tycho Music 3/27/07, which is bumping though our speakers this very second.
We’ve had quite a bit of fun the last few weeks trying to dissect Girl Talk’s “Night Ripper.” Girl Talk is to mash ups what Nine Inch Nails was to industrial, an amazing standout in a genre that we mostly consider to be “sorta okay.”
This album makes us want to dance like a mouseketeer that got into the liquor cabinet compared to the normal mash up routine of simply combining two songs to essentially remix both. Girl Talk (aka Greg Gillis) never seems to use any set of tracks for longer than 16 bars, turning bits of completely disparate artists (George Benson, Jay-Z, Los Lonely Boys, 3-6 Mafia, and Chicago to name a few on this track) to something completely new and special.
Night Ripper is available through Girl Talk’s label- Illegal Art. Due to the obvious legal problems this record is bound to face as it gains popularity, we’d suggest getting it sooner rather than later. If the Danger Mouse’s “Gray Album was any indication, this record is bound to stir up legal issues with the music industry as it continues to explode across the underground club scene.
If you’re an up and coming band on the LA Scene it’s probably only a matter of time before you get your picture taken by Andrea La Barge. With her photography in regular rotation at Filter Magazine, La Barge has shot a who’s who list of the indie underground including; Art Brut, Dungen, Ladytron, Of Montreal, and The Shins, just to name a few. If you’re in the LA and want to mingle with the beautiful people, check out one of La Barge’s Shameless Entertainment events in the Hollywood area.
We are still fans of rock and roll and don’t care who knows it. When we heard The Black Keys new album “Magic Potion” it made us want to put our fist in the air and sell our souls once more. We know it’s Bad Company and the first two White Stripes albums all over again and we’re all kinds of o.k. with that. There’s something about the sound of a Gibson SG and a fender amp that sounds like someone dropped it down a well. It that makes us remember why we love music in the first place. Click on the play button below for a taste of their new single “Your Touch.”
Don’t get me wrong, I loves me some music blogs. I try to go to at least 5 a day. But there are times when I want simplicity. A one stop shop. A place where I could find, oh, I don’t know, the new Tapes n Tapes, Arcade Fire’s live take on a Magnetic Fields classic, Brit Daniel remixing Feist, and, hmmm…. maybe Hot Chip doing Sexual Healing? A place where, maybe, it could gather all the music posts from all the music blogs? And let me search them? And listen to them? And tell me who was being blogged about the most? Yes, a place like that would really make my life easier and allow me to focus on shopping work.
We love these two new prints just released by Scott Hansen of 
