Hello and good Tuesday to you. It seems like we all survived the great 405 shutdown of 2011. I spent the weekend mixing bizness with wedding planning, as I so often do these days. Six weeks and counting…wish me luck.
Ethan was playing me this new tUnE-YarDs record when he was here visiting a few months ago. I was liking it, but didn't get hooked in a way that made me want to seek it out immediately. In these situations, I usually add the band name to the list of band names I keep in my actual day planner book (because I am an actual dinosaur).
FF to now. This video's been popping up on various feeds (the face, the plus). And honestly, it's amazing. It's a really beautiful video that adds a lot to the song. It's almost like I couldn't fully listen to tUnE-YarDs until I saw this video, which is a weird thing to say, I know, because shouldn't the music stand on its own? The thing is, it totally does. It's just that, in this case, for me, it needed a little kickstart or something.
The sound sets are good. The bass line delivers. The build is a well-crafted mix of Animal Collective and Afrobeat. The lyrics are great. But what's the best? Merrill Garbus's voice, which is sometimes growling (ala Yaz's Alison Moyet), sometimes howling, sometimes pretty and always SO for real. Girl means it. We feel it. And isn't that the point?
tYs hits LA on 11/2. I will be there.
Here are two videos of the song, one official, one live:
Bizness.mp3
What's the business, yeah?
Don't take my life away.
Don't take my life away.
Showing posts with label Experiemental. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Experiemental. Show all posts
July 19, 2011
April 4, 2011
Earth Girl Helen Brown//Hit After Hit
A Month of Mondays: Monday Mail
What is Monday Mail?
Earth Girl Helen Brown's biography reads like a Lifetime made-for-tv movie waiting to happen. Don't believe me? Check out this note from Tyler at Banter:
Helen Brown was born in Vancouver, Canada, but raised in an Athens, Georgia-based religious cult, and was blinded in one eye from a childhood baseball injury. As an adult, she dropped out of Evergreen and traveled the country for a while as a nomadic psychedelic folksinger, before forming her first band One Eyed Tramps. For years, she lived alone in a mountaintop in southern Alaska, where she befriended a Cherokee Shaman (later revealed as a fake) who encouraged her to pursue a frustrating academic career. Rampant drug use, frequent fainting on stage, and occasional self-inflicted knife wounds on stage led to more interest in her stage antics than her music. However, a few sides did emerge in the late ’90s (recording dates unknown), which feature a unique mix of country, girl group, R&B, and ghoulishness. Crude and amateurish at best, these recordings are appreciated for their sincerity and intensity of feeling.
Earth Girl Helen Brown comes to us from Sonny Smith's (Sonny & the Sunsets) uber-ambitious 100 Records project.
If it seems like something is shady about all this, it's because it is. Earth Girl Helen Brown is actually a fake band brought to life as part of Sonny Smith's (of Sonny and The Sunets) 100 Records project. More on Smith and his own band at a later date. From Pitchfork:
He made up names and song titles for 100 fictitious bands, then sent them out to 100 different visual artists, who made up fake record covers for all the fake artists. Then Smith recorded 200 different songs (A-sides and B-sides) for each of these fake artists. Which is nuts.
This sounds exactly how you'd think: two parts Grace Slick, one part The Mamas and The Papas, one part subdued Aretha. The vibe is psychedelic cultish spooky with a sprinkle of backwoodsy mountain weirdness. Tape hiss and analog fuzz run alongside the recording as a constant backdrop to the melody. Weird as this hoax/art project might be, this turned out mighty fine. So fine, in fact, that the real players behind EGHB, Smith and Heidi Alexander of the Sandwitches, decided to live on as an actual group. This song, from their first EP Story of an Earth Girl, was released about a month ago. Learn more here.
Hit After Hit.mp3
Hit after hit I took for you.
What is Monday Mail?
Earth Girl Helen Brown's biography reads like a Lifetime made-for-tv movie waiting to happen. Don't believe me? Check out this note from Tyler at Banter:
Helen Brown was born in Vancouver, Canada, but raised in an Athens, Georgia-based religious cult, and was blinded in one eye from a childhood baseball injury. As an adult, she dropped out of Evergreen and traveled the country for a while as a nomadic psychedelic folksinger, before forming her first band One Eyed Tramps. For years, she lived alone in a mountaintop in southern Alaska, where she befriended a Cherokee Shaman (later revealed as a fake) who encouraged her to pursue a frustrating academic career. Rampant drug use, frequent fainting on stage, and occasional self-inflicted knife wounds on stage led to more interest in her stage antics than her music. However, a few sides did emerge in the late ’90s (recording dates unknown), which feature a unique mix of country, girl group, R&B, and ghoulishness. Crude and amateurish at best, these recordings are appreciated for their sincerity and intensity of feeling.
Earth Girl Helen Brown comes to us from Sonny Smith's (Sonny & the Sunsets) uber-ambitious 100 Records project.
If it seems like something is shady about all this, it's because it is. Earth Girl Helen Brown is actually a fake band brought to life as part of Sonny Smith's (of Sonny and The Sunets) 100 Records project. More on Smith and his own band at a later date. From Pitchfork:
He made up names and song titles for 100 fictitious bands, then sent them out to 100 different visual artists, who made up fake record covers for all the fake artists. Then Smith recorded 200 different songs (A-sides and B-sides) for each of these fake artists. Which is nuts.
This sounds exactly how you'd think: two parts Grace Slick, one part The Mamas and The Papas, one part subdued Aretha. The vibe is psychedelic cultish spooky with a sprinkle of backwoodsy mountain weirdness. Tape hiss and analog fuzz run alongside the recording as a constant backdrop to the melody. Weird as this hoax/art project might be, this turned out mighty fine. So fine, in fact, that the real players behind EGHB, Smith and Heidi Alexander of the Sandwitches, decided to live on as an actual group. This song, from their first EP Story of an Earth Girl, was released about a month ago. Learn more here.
Hit After Hit.mp3
Hit after hit I took for you.
March 7, 2011
Gross Ghost//Lurker
Life can try but the music keeps us afloat: Monday Mail
What is Monday Mail?
I like a good story, which is one of the reasons I immediately clicked through after Hank from Grip Tapes sent me this description, written by one of the band's members:
ABOUT GROSS GHOST:
Chapter 1: EBONY & IVORY
I used to have bands play at this house I lived at with some crust freaks
a couple of years ago. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes garbage, these shows
attracted randoms from all over. I first met Tre when his friends gave me
their band's demo at one of these parties and I checked it out. The
production was incredible. I started hanging out with Tre and he soon
became a fixture around our house shows, always stealing my booze and
falling asleep in really awkward places/positions. He would usually wake
up around dawn and kind of stumble around the kitchen of our house,
lurking for food. I saw him doing this once and said to myself, "That guy
looks dead. A real gross ghost. We should start a band together."
Chapter 2: TROUBLE IN PARADISE
We started messing around with stoned jams in the basement and eventually
he moved in. Later, we got evicted. Never date an arsonist. Tre and I
ended up living out in the sticks, far away from our previous worlds. Our
nights consisted of a tape machine and alcohol. It was cathartic, but
chaos quickly turns to boredom if it happens all the time. The sense of
trying to capture the fleeting moments of our minds and indiscretions from
nights previous had been preserved. But the cabin fever had gotten to us
and we went our own ways. We still passed demos to each other and the
sounds began to mutate into something else.
Chapter 3: MENTAL RADIO
Lately, a series of comic tragedies mixed with a dash of lethargy has been
threatening to knock us down. Life can try but the music keep us afloat.
We are inspired by the highs and lows we see on the day to day. Our lives
are how you survive when you're waiting for bigger, better, stranger, more
exciting things to happen. You have to find a nice place to go, wherever
it is, to find a balance. Gross Ghost is our escape.
Not sure what else to say about this, except that it carries a bit of that raw weirdness of some of the best Elephant 6 offerings along with a bit more of what I think is levity. For that alone, it's worth a spin.
Lurker.mp3
Hear more Gross Ghost here.
What is Monday Mail?
I like a good story, which is one of the reasons I immediately clicked through after Hank from Grip Tapes sent me this description, written by one of the band's members:
ABOUT GROSS GHOST:
Chapter 1: EBONY & IVORY
I used to have bands play at this house I lived at with some crust freaks
a couple of years ago. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes garbage, these shows
attracted randoms from all over. I first met Tre when his friends gave me
their band's demo at one of these parties and I checked it out. The
production was incredible. I started hanging out with Tre and he soon
became a fixture around our house shows, always stealing my booze and
falling asleep in really awkward places/positions. He would usually wake
up around dawn and kind of stumble around the kitchen of our house,
lurking for food. I saw him doing this once and said to myself, "That guy
looks dead. A real gross ghost. We should start a band together."
Chapter 2: TROUBLE IN PARADISE
We started messing around with stoned jams in the basement and eventually
he moved in. Later, we got evicted. Never date an arsonist. Tre and I
ended up living out in the sticks, far away from our previous worlds. Our
nights consisted of a tape machine and alcohol. It was cathartic, but
chaos quickly turns to boredom if it happens all the time. The sense of
trying to capture the fleeting moments of our minds and indiscretions from
nights previous had been preserved. But the cabin fever had gotten to us
and we went our own ways. We still passed demos to each other and the
sounds began to mutate into something else.
Chapter 3: MENTAL RADIO
Lately, a series of comic tragedies mixed with a dash of lethargy has been
threatening to knock us down. Life can try but the music keep us afloat.
We are inspired by the highs and lows we see on the day to day. Our lives
are how you survive when you're waiting for bigger, better, stranger, more
exciting things to happen. You have to find a nice place to go, wherever
it is, to find a balance. Gross Ghost is our escape.
Not sure what else to say about this, except that it carries a bit of that raw weirdness of some of the best Elephant 6 offerings along with a bit more of what I think is levity. For that alone, it's worth a spin.
Lurker.mp3
Hear more Gross Ghost here.
July 6, 2010
The Velvet Underground//Stephanie Says
Hey sweeties. I’m going on a little hiatus. Until July 19th, this blog will be quiet, as my internet supply will become spotty and/or borrowed. I’ll be in Alaska. And you know what Lou Reed says about Alaska.
Stephanie Says.mp3
But she's not afraid to die.
The people all call her Alaska.
Stephanie Says.mp3
But she's not afraid to die.
The people all call her Alaska.
June 23, 2010
Parenthetical Girls//Puritanically Yours
It's Northside Week!
Northside Week: What does that mean?
Saturday's Northside events are filled with friends and indie rock. Oh, yes.
+++
2:00 PM
The Senors of Marseille @ Glasslands
DMoM: 3
TSoM serve up cute pop songs. Stick around for the interesting sounds of DC's True Womanhood at 6.
+++
4:00 PM
She Keeps Bees @ Matchless
DMoM: 7
She Keeps Bees kill it with their perfectly paired-down sound. They're also super sweet kids.
OSS posts about She Keeps Bees.
+++
8:00 PM
Grandchildren @ Berry Park
DMoM: 7
Once I played a show with Grandchildren in an overgrown Philadelphia backyard, with the sun streaming down and PBRs in cans flowing freely. I challenge you to recreate my near perfect experience here, although you'll probably have to pay for the PBRs. Sorry.
OSS posts about Grandchildren.
+++
11:00 PM
Parenthetical Girls @ Coco 66
DMoM: 6
I fell in love with these guys from their song on the Bro Zone comp (which I have lost--why!?). I hear their live show is...dramatic...which you can imagine from the mp3 below.
+++
11:30 PM
Memory Tapes @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
DMoM: 7
Chillwave darlings Memory Tapes will make you feel blissed the fuck out.
+++
1:30 AM
The Beets @ Knitting Factory
DMoM: 4
Everybody here in NYC loves The Beets and it's easy to see why. Solid garagey fun.
Puritanically Yours.mp3
More about Parenthetical Girls.
OSS has a Northside Showcase!
Northside Week: What does that mean?
Saturday's Northside events are filled with friends and indie rock. Oh, yes.
+++
2:00 PM
The Senors of Marseille @ Glasslands
DMoM: 3
TSoM serve up cute pop songs. Stick around for the interesting sounds of DC's True Womanhood at 6.
+++
4:00 PM
She Keeps Bees @ Matchless
DMoM: 7
She Keeps Bees kill it with their perfectly paired-down sound. They're also super sweet kids.
OSS posts about She Keeps Bees.
+++
8:00 PM
Grandchildren @ Berry Park
DMoM: 7
Once I played a show with Grandchildren in an overgrown Philadelphia backyard, with the sun streaming down and PBRs in cans flowing freely. I challenge you to recreate my near perfect experience here, although you'll probably have to pay for the PBRs. Sorry.
OSS posts about Grandchildren.
+++
11:00 PM
Parenthetical Girls @ Coco 66
DMoM: 6
I fell in love with these guys from their song on the Bro Zone comp (which I have lost--why!?). I hear their live show is...dramatic...which you can imagine from the mp3 below.
+++
11:30 PM
Memory Tapes @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
DMoM: 7
Chillwave darlings Memory Tapes will make you feel blissed the fuck out.
+++
1:30 AM
The Beets @ Knitting Factory
DMoM: 4
Everybody here in NYC loves The Beets and it's easy to see why. Solid garagey fun.
Puritanically Yours.mp3
More about Parenthetical Girls.
OSS has a Northside Showcase!
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