Hunters

Went to a live show to see JEFF The Brotherhood, who delivered an excellent show tonight here in Boston. But I'd especially like to draw your attention to the warmup band, one of the best ever in my experience: Hunters. They're from Brooklyn and frontwoman Isabel Almeida will remind you of Karen O.

Torres - Mother Earth, Father God

Torres - Mother Earth, Father God

I was born on bloody battleground
To the metal men between two realms
The hungry eyes linger as she twirls
Got hands lifted to heaven
And her toes dipped in hell

Oh, Mother Earth, oh, Father God
The demons wager on my fall
The greatest trick I ever saw
Was them fooling us to think they were never here at all

These New Puritans - Field of Reeds

A new TNPs album is due for release on 10th June 2013, 'Field of Reeds'. (From their website http://www.thesenewpuritans.com). What amazes me is the sheer volume of precision and creative effort that goes into a TNP record, and some of that is visible from the teaser clip below:

Album teaser video

Fever Ray - If I had a Heart

We got to talking about this theme song to the Vikings series at AAI, so I figured I'd post it :)

Fever Ray - If I had a Heart

Noah and The Whale - There Will Come A Time

Blessed insomnia has lead me to the discovery that I missed the fact that Noah and The Whale dropped a new album last week. I just downloaded Heart of Nowhere and am already in love with the track There Will Come A Time. Enjoy!

Cloud Cult - 1x1x1

I'm really loving this group - and this video, not least cos it shows Cloud Cult really rocking out :)

(Thanks to DJ Dox for recommending them!) :)

Mop Mop

Zhu turned me onto Jazz/experimental band Mop Mop recently. These tunes are so catchy they're addictive :)

Mop Mop - Let I Go (Feat. Anthony Joseph)

Mop Mop - The Lowered Flag

The National - Sea of Love

The new album by The National, 'Trouble Will Find Me' is what it says on the box - a National album. If you liked the others, you should like this one too. I'm loving it :)

See for yourself:

The National - Sea of Love

Will you say you love me Jo?
How am I supposed to know?
When you go under the waves
What am I supposed to say?

I see people on the floor
They're slidin' to the sea
Can't stay here anymore
We're turning into thieves

If I stay here trouble will find me
If I stay here I'll never leave
If I stay here trouble will find me
I believe

Vampire Weekend - Unbelievers

The new Vampire Weekend album is really good :) I was looking for a video or 'Hudson' on youtube - but don't see one yet sooo here's 'Unbelievers' instead ;)

Vampire Weekend - Unbelievers

Grimes - Venus In Fleurs

Because, to me, anything and everything by Grimes is always a real treat, I'm popping my blogging cherry with this beauty. Here's what Claire herself wrote about the video on her Tumblr:

Hey — this is a video my friend Video Marsh made for this really old Grimes song from my first record.  We were supposed to release it ages ago and somehow it didn’t happen probably because it didn’t comply with the press cycle at the time and since I’ve stopped caring about complying with press cycles im sharing this now.

This is the only post-genesis official grimes video that i didn’t work on myself that will ever be released :).   it’s a different vibe entirely as you can see.  i think it’s very very beautiful and haunting and peaceful and scary

all footage is from the reifel bird sanctuary in British columbia

enjoy :)

Grimes - Venus In Fleurs from Video Marsh on Vimeo.

Too much new music to write seperate articles, here are my latest discoveries.

Every so often I find a tap into the primal flow of music and discover so many bands it's like a rennaisance. Now is one of those times and these are the best acts I've discovered this year. They may not be new bands but they are new to me.

1. Geographer

A 3 piece outfit, this band blew me away with their track "Kites" on Animal Shapes. Geographer is what you would get if M83 and Beirut had mad monkey sex, and produced an offspring that has more talent than either. This album has been around since 2010 and received almost no press, to add insult to injury they have several other full length albums which have also been overlooked by the music press. I will spare you colorful euphemisms for what my ears are telling me and leave you with this.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/gxUVNoiVdts]

2. Imagine Dragons

Dubstep basslines in an indie song? Le gasp. Yet I defy you to deny rocking out to their song Radioactive. It's crafted for radio play yet is under the radar, the band has a few youtube videos up to show you who they are, and who they are is weird people. Case in point, view the video to Radioactive below. When I heard this song I imagined a video of a couple teenagers about to have their first kiss in somebodies basement when the windows suddenly get blown out, they run outside to see mushroom clouds on the horizon and suddenly an urban war breaks out all around them and hand in hand they run to the countryside to escape it. Instead we get this oddity. At first I was like "They take themselves a little too seriously, and stop interrupting the song!" and then I was like "Wait" and finally "What?" They definitely don't take themselves too seriously. (Bonus points for white Lou Diamond Phillips)

[youtube=http://youtu.be/ktvTqknDobU]

3. Blood Orange - Champagne Coast

Finding this band, a pseudonym of mr Dev Hynes, is a bit like discovering Prince just before he exploded onto the charts and became a household name. I don't just say this because of his remarkably similar voice, but because of the laid back, one man band, approach and style of the music. You will have to listen to the song to under stand what I'm getting at. I see great things for mr Hynes.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/nO6y1-erVEw]

4. Villagers - Earthly Pleasures

Americana, Indie, beautiful, whimsical, this band reminds me a little of Tom Waits at least in their cantankerous and eccentric natures. I really enjoy the lyrics to this song, which is unusual because I usually listen to lyrics last, after several viewings. I think this song is genius and shows a unique voice in an increasingly crowded music scene. Enjoy.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/3QpXlcGNVz0]

5. Sir Sly - Ghost

I have begun to notice a trend in a lot of new bands towards using bits and pieces of the hardcore, electropop, and dubstep scenes and turning them into something different. Sir Sly manages to incorporate dubstep type bass warbles into a sound that is laid back with vocals as dry as paper. His voice reminds me at times of Wayne Coyne , tempered by the much smaller world of a young mind. I love how stripped back their sound is, there is a lot of air and they have a strong grasp of pacing and those little flourishes that separate an artful track from a demo.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/q1TbI44oRtE]

6. Mr. Little Jeans - The Suburbs

Yes, the same titled Arcade Fire album has been out long enough to inspire cover songs now. This is a deconstructed and more electronic interpretation of the song that evokes memories of Portishead, and early Bjork. I love the atmosphere it adds to the songs message and the images it puts in my head. This is almost a new song

[youtube=http://youtu.be/eFKYHVfD2Zw]

Paper Aeroplanes - Multiple Love

This song is so sad and beautiful:

Paper Aeroplanes - Multiple Love

I don’t believe in multiple love.
Once I had gold and we left it to rust.
So maybe there’s two, and maybe it’s you,
But I don’t go quietly into the blue, ‘cos

I am happy alone.
I am happy alone, and I don’t
Need another half when I am whole.
But maybe, persuade me;
And I’ll do the best that I can.

The Thermals - Desperate Ground

Yeah right, I know it sounds like the new soundtrack to Game of Thrones^*. But the voice! The guitars! The garage-ness of it. I can't help but be amazed by The Thermals' new album Desperate Ground.

Published on April 16^th, the lyrics are more fit for Gimli than Legolas; they conjure up images of the Queens of the Stone Age going to war. Listen to Born to Kill, The Sunset, and of course the closing Our Love Survives. In the tradition of epic tales like Beowulf, the Lay of Hildebrand, and the Heike Monogatari, it isn't exactly dream pop. I like it. And yes, a good song can be shorter than 2:30!

^*) I haven't actually watched Game of Thrones -- only read the books. So forgive my ignorance if it really is the soundtrack.

R.L. Slater - Dying in Berlin

I got a chance to ask poet R.L. Slater about his work. Slater has recently published a book of poetry, 'Dying in Berlin', and is currently at work on his second book. 'Dying in Berlin' can be purchased here:

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/minggeedoodee



IC: Soooooo what's your book about then? :)

Slater: it's about love, lost love, death, fear and how all these things manifest in an awesome drunks brain.


HOW DRUNKS HAVE SEX

We got naked and lonely and felt just fine
sometimes being lost, just where you need to be
the beer and the whiskey chased down the wine

I saw her miss me from across the bar
I felt her close but we'd never met
we got naked and lonely and felt just fine

Drifting and drinking, you get what you get
cold stairs, cold bodies, cold pillows
the beer and the whiskey chase down the wine

Mistreated, lied to, cast aside, still
we somehow find a partner at the bottom
we got naked and lonely and felt just fine

They will laugh at our drunken choices
they will scoff in their superior tone
the beer and the whiskey chase down the wine

Sneaky sunlight makes our choices real
after sex brews in the sheets with us
We got naked and lonely and felt just fine
the beer and the whiskey chased down the wine


IC: This poem seems to be one of your more structured poems, with the refrain that cadences in the last two lines.

Slater: It's one of my villanelle - it's a form of poetry ... 19 lines. Most of my stuff is free form random shit that pops into my head. It can tend to be pretty arrogant. I liked the idea of having a structure to exist in and, frankly, I think some of my best poems have come out of it.

IC: I love how it works with this poem - to contain the contrasts - the cognitive dissonance of encountering alienation with comfort.

Slater: I feel that alienation and comfort can be strange but wonderful bedfellows. Life is full of contrasts that are only a razor's edge apart

IC: Your poetry is often about life - do you think of yourself as a philosopher, or voice of the people?
Slater: I think of myself as both....and would hope that my poetry would convey both as well, but 'voice of the people' is a really broad field

IC: Who do you think the ideal audience for your poems are? Who should be reading your work?

Slater: hrmmmmm....my shit is pretty dark, but I think I can see everyone connecting to it, as far as my demographic - fuck if I know honestly....I could see see angry teenage boys connecting to it and 40 something housewives getting it as well.

IC: Do you work alone, and how do you feel about that?

Slater: The dark places I go to for some of my stuff, I don't think I'd want to take anyone else there

IC: Do you feel that your home town has informed your work?

Slater: Growing up in a town of 295 people in central Minnesota had a huge effect on me - it was a cultural vacuum.

IC: Your current book is entitled 'Dying in Berlin' and is for sale now.

Slater: it is

IC: With your move to Berlin - is the book a reflection of you after the move? Why 'Dying' in Berlin?

Slater: it's more of a metaphor than real--I don't feel like I'm dying here, I feel like I'm reborn, but the old me is dying and I welcome that. Evolving..shedding old skin....becoming something better.


IC: Has the publication of the book felt like the end of that process? like a new beginning?

Slater: it has...it took me 44 years to publish one fucking book, but because of Dying, I will have another one by the end of July.

IC: How, to you, is your new book different from your last?

Slater: I don't think it's very different at all - it's an extension - and I wouldn't want it to be different. I want to have a style that is noticed. Maybe when I'm on my death bed I'll write some other shit, like Bukowski did, but until then, I want to have a vibe that is 'me. You know it. THAT's an R.L. Slater poem. That's what I want people to say.

IC: The new poems you've shown me today - they seem like you, if anything *more* in your style, like it's been honed

Slater: That may be my only difference between Dying in Berlin and the stuff I'm writing now. I think I have gained a bit of brevity.

IC: In terms of your poetry - who would you say has influenced you the most? Who are your influences?

Slater: Charles Bukowski, hands down. There are others, of course - Dylan Thomas, Sandberg, Shakespeare, Vonnegut, but CB is a god in my mind.

IC: What are you reading at the moment?

Slater: 'Where I Lived and What I Lived For' by Henry david Thoureu is what I'm currently reading.

IC: Do you have advice for other poets, who might be thinking of publishing a book?

Slater: Just fucking do it. Waiting is wanting, and wanting is always disappointing. Live, love, fuck, evolve... those are my closing comments.

IC: Thanks for the interview. (smiles)

Slater: It was my pleasure.

'Dying in Berlin' can be purchased here:

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/minggeedoodee

Interview with Jess

Interviews seem to be the latest shit, so I took the chance to question the amazing Jess, maintainer of this very blog, about her motivations, her dreams, and about the mind blowing bits of world culture she and her co-authors are presenting here.