1,000! The Sun reports that "snaps of James – from babyhood to megastar – are used to make a collage of his face on the album, which will be released on September 17." You say massive display of vanity, we say welcome to 1998.
I was originally supposed to interview Digitalism, as well as Gildas and Johnny Love, but they had to cancel b/c their album, Idealism, had just dropped and they were swamped with media requests. Thankfully Greg from Acid Girls was in town to grab a really good interview with them….
Milwaukee indie pop crew Maritime test the waters on LP3 without the aid of founding member Eric Axelson (also formerly of the Dismemberment Plan). In his stead comes bassist Justin Klug, and listening to lead single "Guns Of Navarone," the post-emo indie poppers have no reason to fret. We, The Vehicles had Maritime sail into a a critical warm embrace, and the forthcoming Heresy And The Hotel Choir gets to a good start here, the ex-Promise Ring members et al going straight for college rock radio pop jugular.
Maritime - "Guns Of Navarone" (MP3)
Heresy And The Hotel Choir is out 10/17 on Flameshovel. That's levitation, homes.
You can always count on the sureshots at TMZ to grab the footage that makes the world go 'round. Today's installment captures Wino at at a British train station, teasing and pulling those lovely locks 'til they're perfectly set in a ratty, Motown nest. Compelling viewing, but it's got nothing on watching Amy prep her gap. Or listening to David Gest fantasize about it.
This was before her latest, spit-tacular onstage meltdown, though...
Morrissey fanboards lit up after the Mozfather's Jacksonville show two nights ago, when he unveiled a third unreleased song (see also: "That's How People Grow Up," "All You Need Is Me") that was later reported to be titled "Wrapping My Arms Around Paris Hilton." But knowing how much Moz talks about Paris, France, we were dubious he'd pull together a sarcastic ballad to the heir-head. Well shitty-as-ever YouTube footage from the 7/17 Jacksonville show is up, and here's our stab at the lyrics...
I'm throwing my arms around Paris because
only stone and steel can accept my love
And really, it's better this way. Let Moz save a pretty ballad for something with more meaning/permanence. Besides, Paris doesn't need your hugs, Morrissey, she's doing just fine ... recording LP #2 with Scott Storch.
Shoot us.
Is Brian Williams's iPod cooler than Anderson Cooper's iPod? The NBC Nightly News anchor throws the gauntlet in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel (he doesn't call-out AC, but we like making things into competitions) when he discusses the relative merits of Our Love To Admire ("I think the first three are the best cuts on the album. It didn't get very good press 'cause they're an NYU band and they kinda change with this album."), Feist's "1234" clip ("it's Scorcesian"), and Cat Power ("[she] will really bum you out. Don't ever mix that with, like, anything else")...
Whether or not you make it out to the Siren Festival earlier on Saturday, I'll be rocking it with my buddies at the Creature, where you'll get to see performances by the Muggabears and Cadence Weapon. I'll be playing records - you know, disco-techno-jamz - after the bands!
$10 at the door or $5 with RSVP to thecreaturenyc@gmail.com Boooooooom!!!
A couple related loose ends here:
1) I forgot to mention in my Check Yo Ponytail post that it is FRIDAY and not Saturday. If you show up on Saturday you’ll be dancing alone because everybody else will be at Daft Punk… if you need tix our contest is still open so drop us an email before Friday: contests@bigstereo.net — please play fair.
Check Yo with Plastic Little and Thunderheist!!!
2) The Toof has an interesting post today pulling all the Kayne West/Daft Punk stuff into a nice, neat little package. I had been working on a Kayne West post for a couple weeks now, but it’s never gonna make it outta draft… So, to add a couple thoughts: Is Kayne West’s “Stronger” America’s acceptance of dance music? It seems like dance music in America has reached a level not seen since perhaps the disco days… which is quite exciting.
And if you remember just five years ago when P. Diddy struggled with electro — he was working with Hell and Felix Da Housecat and there were all the rumours of Diddy’s electroclash album. It’s kinda amazing how far we’ve come in such a short time. Either that or West just has bigger balls (which might go without saying).
3) AND AND AND. I’ve been sitting on this for a couple weeks, but I can’t wait any longer. To get you in the mood for Daft Punk taking over America, we have DJ Pumpkin Patch’s Daft Crunk mixtape. Oh man, I’m embarassed to say I won’t be catching Daft Punk “live”, but I am insanely jealous of anyone who does…
DJ Pumpkin Patch - “Daft Crunk” (mp3)
Tracklisting (more…)
Fans of alternate tunings and/or Lou Reed & John Cale's magical relationship should be hip to the Ostrich, but WFMU's Beware Of Blog sketches out the tale of the avian-named tuning for a lesson in VU 101:
One of the secret weapons of the Velvet Underground was Lou Reed's Ostrich Guitar Tuning, where all the strings were tuned to D. It got its name from the 1964 novelty single "The Ostrich" by The Primitives, a pre-Velvet Underground band fronted by Lou Reed. Originally only a studio project, the song about a fake novelty dance generated enough interest to put together a band for a few live gigs. And amazingly enough, that touring version of The Primitives featured John Cale, Tony Conrad, and Walter DeMaria.All Music expands:
On September 18th, KT Tunstall releases Drastic Fantastic and will attempt to replicate the lighting-in-a-bottle States-side success of "Suddenly I See," the song your sister fell in love with after watching The Devil Wears Prada and Grey's Anatomy. Of course Hollywood caught on to the track a year after its release, so LA readers, forward this to your showbiz friends in eight months or so. As for the lead single, it's certainly not bad (it's got a beat and you can dance to it, sorta), but don't expect to see the Ethridge-tinged Lilith fare to get quite as much mileage. At least, not for a year or so.
