eashfa
Head is alive. Hence the sound of music.Archive for indie general
Hang them.
I don’t watch or read the news, except if it’s music news. Today a regular news item happened before my eyes, apparently hell spits fire and doom upon our “national image” because of:
Please examine carefully. By all means, NSFW.
I give to you.. My Little Anti-Semitic Pony
OK so I can’t find the one with the pink My Little Pony sporting a swastika. That got the most votes for being a Nazi piece of crap. Of course, it’s fascist, what else could it be?
The snaps are from a Romanian art exhibit at the Romanian Cultural Institute of New York.
The exposé I got to see in teh news was journalists spoon-feeding some shit to a fan. I just love it when art gets discussed in the media. Something along the lines of, if it’s not controversial, it’s OK! No no, let me make a complete list:
1. Art must not bother you
2. Art must not irk your usual train of thought
3. Art must be pleasant to eye and not, under any circumstance, actually cause thought
4. Art is about higher ideals and principles, represented in a coherent form. And the colours are not to clash (wha’d they teach ya in art school anyway?)
Those are the basics. y’all. Dare to argue, punks?
Let that be a lesson for you artists everywhere, Romania won’t stand for your brain blobber all over that canvas.
And one thing I don’t get. I believe people talk in clichés and collocations all the time, it’s basic word association, and it lets you retrieve concepts for fast communication. Whatever. But I expect journalists not to use phrases such as “does not represent our country”.
What would be that thing that represents our country? The concept even? This is a pattern of thought that should be de-bunked or at least diminished for the consumer at large, instead Romanian journalism is reinforcing it.
This kind of reaction is a blow to freedom of thought everywhere. Seems like most anything is an excuse for stirring up the press and the people for .. nothing much at all, under the false impression that moral standards are being upheld and the masses’ amniotic bubble has burst because of this sick, corrosive shit. I mean look at it! Hell yeah, paint pink butterflies and daisies over it.
People from NY, go see the exhibit and judge for yourselves: “Freedom for lazy people”. Pics of the exhibit are up there, unless some communist hacker decides to dishevel the site.
And a Flickr photo-stream, props to twi-ny.com
This being an audio blog and all, I still have to post some music, so there:
Quantic - Death Of The Revolution (off his latest, Presenta Flowering Inferno) - seems to fit the mood
[Jesse Futerman EP out&about] Get it while it’s cracklin a foam
BLK JKS
I found it, I found my summer sound and a reason to write again!
BLK JKS‘ sound squirts a breeze through my meandering, melting brain - psycho and psychedelic, this South African band must be heard, watched, etc etc.
Over on their blog you can have a wicked time reading all the dizzy, half-aware half-not-there posts + DWNLD some sounds aka mp3s.
Spread this, but not too fast, you dig?
BLK JKS @ Harriet's Alter Ego
Links: BLK JKS blog
Source - RCRD LBL, whence you can get a remix of the track Summertime
Mobilarts - Friday night you ask me penny?
In this wide world of colours, races and ice-cream flavours, we have a couple features in common. We like to keep ourselves safe, and in the realm of things we’re used to. Even acting all experimental doesn’t save you from this curse. Even if in your head you’re the shit, you’ll never know. World music is different simply because not enough people listen to it. But if you want to skip being spoonfed “indie” for once, peep these artists from the brand new record label, Mobilarts.
Ghana’s Kusun Ensemble - you can see for yourselves. Afro beat complete with ritual dance.
Among the label’s artists - Tafwik Ouldammar, Daehan Saram, Franck Colman - guess who’s
a. the Morrocan pianist mixing it up with jazz
b. the multi-instrumentalist hailing from Togo
c. the crazy Korean group with a tinge of hip hop
Hints:
Tafwik Ouldammar - Evasion mp3 (careful, it’s 30 MB)
Franck Colman - Go to Zion mp3
この世界は、広いだなぁぁ。
Daedelus [Woohoo]
Don’t argue with me, just go download the new single, Hrs:Mins:Secs for free. Counting them till I see the dude live, make a note peeps in Bucharest.
image courtesy of music like dirt
București - Rokolectiv, 13 aprilie
Mystery Jets, one I never thought that I’d play
Yesterday the wind blew in my face like a merry-go-round and I found myself wondering Uh what happened to them Mystery Jets? Voted the next band to make it in 2007 chez BBC I think, they didn’t exactly make it, except in Albion, and with a niche appeal.
I always liked their carnivale-like sound-matter, and here they are with a new album produced by Erol Alkan and mixed by Nick Launay who’s past preoccupations lay with PiL and Nick Cave. There’s a video for Young Love and I also have an mp3 that’s more dreary-Siberian-winter than field-bouncing spring, but won’t throw you directly into April is the cruellest month…
guest girl Laura Marling brings her own icing to the cake there, nice job I reckon.
mighty magnet of Love Is All
Love Is All have gone a bit soft on us, as Felt Tip is about to detail:
Love Is All - Felt Tip mp3
It’s still got the stadium-spotlight-of-trumpet-loneliness feel of Love Is All, and the little implosion in my head when I hear the staccato-like reverbs; there’s a mountain of minutiae that makes up their sound - and it’s all in good fun.
—
their single - ‘Nothing To Be Done / Ageing Had Never Been His Friend’; out on 7″ link
Sucking the juice outta Myspace
For all the stick it gets for its regular users, there’s tons of good music on myspace. but you really have to be in the mood to start searching for it. Or you need a good starting point. Otherwise great artists who are picky about their top friends is a good idea.
A Hack And A Hacksaw’s myspace saw my venture to unknown musical territories progress in mere seconds, and here’s what I got for you:
Vialka, French? Canadian? and not sporting enough page views, are a Turbofolkgypsypunk Micro-Orchestra (their own choice of words, and I find it rather fitting). They’ve been around, either in other jazz-punk bands, and state that [Vialka] is not just a musical project, but a social scientific experiment, attempting to meet and communicate with interesting and unknown musicians and artists from around the world - with particular interest in polluted dictatorships, bleak colonies, and monarchic democracies… Adorable, no? It’s like a couple bohemian students decided to make a social studies experiment, and let the whole world in on it.
Bacanal Intruder - there’s the name. And the music fits it. Eglantine Records have a preview fix for us - a sampler of all their forthcoming releases - several mp3 goodies. There’s noone that should go unmentioned here (Malthyrust, Nij, Polyanna, Christophe Baileau + Won?) but Bacanal Intruder is my absolute favourite. Think Sigur Ros on an even more experimental day than usual. I promise this is perfect.
the Loners On Wheels - French still, this is music that sucks you in and shows you around. I’m not partial to tagging a sound, and I love the untaggables - Loners on Wheels are, as such, incredibly unbound to categories and genres, although they show signs of acoustic-electronic experimental. His sounds set the mood for more and you’ll probably dig them if you like classical or any kind of the wordless, multi-layer clad music. My favourite on this list. Download La Neige here, but really now, go to their myspace. Skedaddle!
Sunny Day Sets Fire are a UK-based band that do pop. But nowadays pop has been recalculated, out of this new equation do SDSF emerge. They’re setting the stage for art-pop folks everywhere, describing their music as burps with feedback. Need more incentive to do the click? What lazy readers I have.
And finally, Austin TV were recommended to me a while 
back by a reader, Miguel. I had no idea Mexico had generated something so sonically prolific.
Atmospheric prog-rock in a weird bunny-mask-filtered incarnation, but hey - at least it’s not a political statement. The masked bunnymen are asking you to be yourselves. Aw.
Idolator - the pasty taste-makers’ kryptonite?
Idolator - a music blog for the utterly cynical (and for the ones who will learn to be so). Dissing Pitchfork? OK, I’m in! Who ever thought there’d be a blog slot open for a cynical audience? Surprising 
Their manifesto might seem a bit self-indulgent (because it does in fact mean replacing one monopoly with another), but I’m willing to assume they want to rectify the statu quo (in music blog world, self-empowered pasty white dudes daisy-chaining each others’ opinions). A much-needed addition to the Gawker Media family.
I know this sucks
Filelodge seems to be having a seizure today so if the some of the links don’t work, just know I haven’t been taking down files. I’ll try to transfer some of the more recent files to a different host.
Link Complication
Fallen in love this week with perpetrators of the J Davey kind. Can’t find the album here in Bucharest, don’t have a credit card to PayPal myself through ebay, but wherever it is I’ll hunt it down. Meanwhile soul-electro-clashsters do have a myspace (a tab is permanently open in my browser - the J Davey tab as it’s going down for posterity) and a site all of their own where you can stream music. Unfortunately no downloads. If you don’t have time for this you should quit your job. Pretty mesmerizing stuff here, but I suppose it’s more chick-oriented.
Next up is that young gun that requires a deluge of clever epithets to properly state what he’s about in case you haven’t heard of him yet. Jamie T, this modern-age Socrates-slash-Petronius but with a bass guitar to prod at, I say, Jamie T is material for BBC Collective’s feature this issue. You can stream live footage of Jamie, and watch an interview. The album’s getting done, but after all the tracks are done there’s nasty marketing issues to think of; however I trust Virgin Music know when to milk the cow.
I’m very glad I received some good shit in the mail, finally, so here it is: a remix by Jim Noir for Sebastien Tellier’s La Ritournelle. It strikes me as a dance track with feeling. I can already picture the masses after an anthem, wondering what moves to pull on this one. A bit of drum and bass, a bit of strings and you’ve scored the sun rising while you’re sipping on that last cocktail or a strong cuppa green tea (Coffee is so last season). As for Tellier, his first recording ever, Fantino, can be found on the soundtrack to Lost In Translation by Sofia Coppola. As you do.
Sebastien Tellier - La ritournelle (Jim Noir Mix) mp3
Here’s the dude’s myspace.
I’m still in my Poland retrospective phase, here are some pics from the Open’er Festival in Gdynia.
Open’er Gdynia Part 1
Travelling is so much fun. so long as you either have a shower every day or twice a day or you don’t have a shower for such a long time that it doesn’t even appeal to you anymore.
Trains aren’t unsafe. You can sleep in them, eat in them, meet people in them, dodgy or not, smelly or flowery (remember the shower issue). But they’re just a means to an end. Getting off a train, especially one where you had no seat reservations and had to suck it up and sprawl as much of yourself as you could on the floor with the rest of the sleep-deprived crowd, you’re happy to see your limbs are in working condition. You can just walk and you’re fulfilled for the rest of the day.
You get off the train from Krakow to Gdynia, you’re greeted by Magda. You have some pea cream soup and some mushroom experimental dumplings and you’re ready for battle. For battling the people onto the bus to the Babie Doly, the festival site. Well not really because Polish people are so civilised. There was no pogo-ing the first day, and you could just elbow your way to the front if you wanted to. On the other hand, they’re well paranoid about their travka too 
There’s an appetence for Placebo in Poland I never thought I’d find. Basically in the rest of Europe they just have their old crowds, the old fans with a disabled upchuck reflex so as to numbly or surprisingly enough, enthusiastically, take in the last LP, Meds, which oozes mediocrity and lack of passion for anything. It sounds like a drunken lingering shadow of what Placebo used to be. I expected some old sing-alongs, like Pure Morning, which never happened, instead you either got any given lacklustre track off Meds, or Every You and Every Me. I felt myself nodding off while I was standing there waiting for something to happen which eventually came in the shape of a cover - Running Up that Hill (Kate Bush cover). As I was wondering how many people knew the mesemerizing original, I made my way to the exit for some aqua. I met up with Mircea who had to rub Nightmares on Wax (who performed in the tent stage) in my face. Of course it was bloody amazing as Mircea told me exhausted from all the good sounds and vibe - and of course, I wasn’t there to witness. I have only myself to blame, and Placebo, for making me forget I actually was at a goddamn festival
Placebo - Running Up That Hill mp3
YouTubed - Placebo Live at Open’er (pretty dismal but just for curiosity)
After Pharell and Placebo, I felt disjointed and filled with woe. Pharell looked like he was looking for love from the crowd, but I didn’t feel it much, and by the “when-are-we-getting-out-of-here” way he was lagging around the stage he didn’t seem to feel Polish love as a force to be reckoned with, either.
The second day I was unabashed and prepared for some good fucking live acts. The only issue was organizing myself correspondingly and running to-and-fro between main stage and tent stage.
Got to the Open’er site in time for Skin’s last pink-pantyhoed scream-arounds. Ah well. She did kick ass, and she is so phlegmatic as to pump you up even though you’ve never actually heard her solo stuff (i.e. me). I can’t say I was glad or sad when she was over though.
Well that’s it for the disappointing bits of the festival, tomorrow I’m a bombard you with what rocked (even electronically so, might I say mostly electronically)
Yes, Virginia
Since it’s a bright and breezy summer, I thought I’d make it a bit darker for you today. Not entirely end-of-the-world, because
Dear Editor-
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
-Virginia O’Hanlon
No matter how light the concept, The Dresden Dolls‘ latest LP, “Yes, Virginia” reaks of penumbre. Which isn’t all bad after all. In theatre, when you go to see a comedy, you can expect to laugh, but what’s under the laughter is closer to grotesque tragedy. The Dresden Dolls turn that around, and by exploring taboos Amanda Palmer shakes out the dark and sprinkles sugar from a salt holder on top. Their style is nothing short of a tight, tight piano-playing - drum-pounding combo (although most of Amanda’s piano teachers have seduced her) and moments of less brazen passion with just Amanda and her piano.
Most of you will probably hate them at first, as I have for a while. Luckily I’m so lazy I have to get sick from something that comes up on iTunes to change it, and the Dolls suffered many a metamorphosis that way: from shockingly unlistenable as a whole to bearable soundtrack to I want to hear the whole album again.
Although it’s mainly US touring for them now, in August they’re heading off to Europe for some festival playing.
The Dresden Dolls are “brechtian cabaret punks” Amanda Palmer (map of soul featured) and Brian Viglione
They’re currently both involved in other projects. Amanda’s doing the “night of short films and dadaist vaudeville” thing, as you do (dates for “Fuck the Back Row” on their site). And Brian’s got other bands to occupy his time with.
The Dresden Dolls - Me and The Minibar mp3
Update: I know there’s been problems with the first link, I must have visited the minibar one too many times. I chose another storage provider which should be ok.
The Dresden Dolls - Backstabber mp3
The Dresden Dolls - Mrs. O mp3
(you can stop the truth from leaking
if you never stop believing)
Sorry
for my lack of posting - i had no internet connection for four days and yes that’s a lame excuse but it was refreshing. I was constantly thinking about you guys however.
I have to run now - remember the festival that starts on the 6th of July in Gdynia? Well me passport expires on the 4th of July in Bucharest, which is where I’ll be staying if I don’t act quick.
I’ll update today anywho.
There is a PET that always goes out
Let's say I'm in a good mood today, and a rushy one too so here:
Be Your Own PET LP (zip, 37 Mb)
Note. Keeping it up for a week, and it's just about the only file I'm willing to take down on popular demand
giddy
i thought poland was about going to church (so my dad tells me) and ridiculously high-priced urban housing. and chopin (whose house i'd have to see anyway).
apparently there is more.
i might have some ins to go to this partic'lar festival. ladytron, matthew herbert, the streets, sigur ros.
"Open'er takes place in Gdynia, a seaside town in the north of Poland on the Baltic Sea cost. With a line-up featuring some of biggest names in hip hop, dance and rock, it's an absolute bargain at around £45 for a weekend ticket. [...] We've put this one in our diaries."
Time Out London
So that's what.. 45 pounds for an ass-kicking 45 pounds of good music. Oh my
I'll expand on this later
Ladytron - Blue Jeans (Interpol remix) mp3
PS a prettygood fit for the day - folk, but not quite, sugar not honey, Donnie Darko-score maker, my present to you for today (I'm an optimist, I hadn't heard about him, kick kick kick) - Michael Andrews
Love your eardrums.
Get a drink then watch the lights
If you look through my last.fm you'll get no consistency whatsoever, buh heey- this mix by DJ Bully (Romania) i found on feeder beats my weird eclicticism (or whatever), i cannae relate to this particular flow of indie-rock/pop/hip hop. it doesn't really satisfy my tastes except here (TSU Tornadoes) and there (Razorlight) and there's still some fish-like smell hovering over this one as a whole so that's precisely why i had to mention it
Download mp3 (bit over 50 Mb)
Tracklist after the jump.
For shame, I messed up Phyllis Dillon's name on a previous post. Yeah. I go out on Friday night and never come home to my senses.. Luckily everyone has a blog and a myspace page.. No blog, but definitely a myspace page for Miss Dillon.
And for eardrums.. why? I don't know. I'm stranded on a computer island. I'm very picky with my Myspace friends that have computers too. I've had it for a while because I was planning to keep low-profile until I posted some indie flicks - apparently low-profile and myspace are oxymorons. Read the rest of this entry »
There goes the neighbourhood
Please excuse me for this news, I'm going to digitally wipe my arse with it.
Never heard of SIRA? That’s the way Big Copyright and their lackey’s want it, and it's bad news for you.
Simply put, SIRA fundamentally redefines copyright and fair use in the digital world. It would require all incidental copies of music to be licensed separately from the originating copy. Even copies of songs that are cached in your computer's memory or buffered over a network would need yet another license. Once again, Big Copyright is looking for a way to double-dip into your wallet, extracting payment for the same content at multiple levels.
The Devil is exempt, I reckon.
More here (via digg, natch)
Mumm-Ra
Mumm-Ra - the Freudian slip of band names - it’s a joke, you’ll know, if you’ve seen the ThunderCats cartoon series.
Band of the week no less, on Lamacq’s 6 Music show. At 15, they say, they were the only ones listening to guitar music (!) in their highschool (?!). Good Heavens. Isn’t that one of the first types of music you discover in your years of fiercest rebeldom? I liked the fact that they couldn’t get enough of pointing out how corny they are: brainstorming tracklistings for future albums on the back of history class notebooks, recording imaginary interviews with Australian accents. I love these human details about people I see only in pictures.
Oasis and erm Ocean Colour Scene were their soft points in their beginnings which means they’ve come a long way baby. The point is I hear potential. Mumm-Ra are notoriously “confident” onstage which is frowned-upon. Congratulations chaps, you’re caught in the vicious circle so many mainstream artists before have experienced. Of course they’re confident, they’ve been playing live for five years. Their current set brought them record company glory. The only way you can tell whether they’re really good or only okay is by seeing them live, I’m in limbo here. If you’re planning on going to the Oxegen Festival in Ireland or the Fuji Rock Festival, you might want to check them out. Lamacq’s Wednesday show on 6 Music - lend your ears to it here. I had a flashback there, recording from the radio. It felt childish.
Here’s the track played on the show. Might be a bit dodgy.. If anyone has quality recordings, feel free to drop a link.
Mumm-Ra (with a hypen, yeh): Song B mp3 (account suspension, hm)
Related: Mumm-Ra - a roar and a hush
EP coming out in July
Mumm-Ra myspaciio
ThunderCats - Season Two
The Cuban Heels and Senses
I'm not sure whether I appreciate shoegaze properly but Senses are right up my alley somehow. Or maybe they're emo. And I know I like ratata from my guitars, songs that justify that anyone can learn how to play guitar, but divine sounds aren't music god's way of repaying just hard work. Bleeding fingers - maybe. On a purely technical note, Paco de Lucìa is the hardcore classical guitarist who doesn't let a bleeding bloody finger get in the way during live performances - he bites the hardened skin off them bastards into submission.
What is it about good music that goes beyond genre jargon? I need not my label stickerer for these two bands here, they're just plain ole good.
I like music I know nothing about, I take no precautions in discovery. I do want to kick myself for forgetting to post about The Cuban Heels, the ratata I was mentioning. Their name makes me smile, it has a tap dancing visual attached to it in my head, and maybe the Beach Boys here and again. The Kinks too, definitely. One thing I liked about their bio on myspace:
"Now they have decided to release a number of previously unreleased studio tracks, live recordings and demo's on Myspace for the fair people of Myspaceland to download and play during their leisure time, because after all… thats the point". My point exactly.
All their tracks are beautiful guitar pieces of unpolished diamonds, except Whatever Happened to Grace which got me from the first riff. There's a finesse about that one track that makes it stand out as British and ubiquitous at the same time. I get excited every time I listen to it, and feel like jumping on my bed in slow motion to accompany the feeling.
The Cuban Heels - Eleven Little Secrets mp3
Senses lured me into their cradle of charming harmonies. The vocals simmer like a little fire on a giant lake of melody on my favourite track, Truly Beautiful Disaster. Self explanatory. And their influences include Stone Roses, which means that I'm sold. Taking the best out of the Roses can prove disastruous if you haven't got an inherent understanding of the culture they stood for (no matter how dodgy the haircuts); Senses have a knack for making sound that breaks apart but doesn't wither - it's disphoric yet comforting, and so fragile every chord feels like it could break apart in depth - like fractals. As for the news about the band - Senses have been moving between a shed in the middle of nowhere and a war time shelter honing their sound and recording songs for their debut EP.
Senses - Truly Beautiful Disaster mp3
Be sure to check out these dudes' myspace pages, for the love of indie. I hate to see talent go to waste.
