Category: Features

BREAKING: An Interview With … Emika

February 10th, 2012 | File Under: Breaking | Leave A Comment

Photo by Chris Leung
Interview by Mitch Strashnov

Since Emika is releasing a new EP (3 Hours) through Ninja Tune next week—not to mention currently hosting one of the most compelling remix competitions we’ve ever seen on Soundcloud—self-titled thought we’d finally share an interview from the producer/singer’s tour with Amon Tobin late last year. That’d be the one where she bowled sold-out crowds over with nothing but cold-pressed synths, sub-atomic beats and steely-eyed melodies.

Discussed: Interning for Ninja Tune; normalcy in East Berlin; improv; defending one’s lyrics to an elder statesman of German electronic music; respecting sound; “beautiful melodies and bad-ass beats”

Posted in: Breaking

The Twilight Sad’s Favorite Films

Recording Under the Influence is a recurring self-titled feature where we ask artists to ignore their musical inspirations for a minute and share what really went into the making of a particular record. Since the Twilight Sad have been so forthcoming about the influences on their third album—a slight reinvention that dials their hail storm hooks down in favor of steely beats and oil-slicked synths—we asked guitarist Andy MacFarlane to talk about some of the movies that marked the trio’s No One Can Ever Know sessions…

Posted in: Featured, Recording Under the Influence

THE SELF-TITLED INTERVIEW: Mark Lanegan

February 6th, 2012 | File Under: Featured, The S/T Interview | 3 comments

Photo: Anna Hrnjak

AN APPEARANCE IN THE PARK
A halting conversation with Mark Lanegan

By J. Bennett

When we meet Mark Lanegan at a picnic table in a nearly-empty public park in Burbank, it feels like one of us should be carrying a briefcase full of money. Like there might be a sniper in the bushes, watching two guys in sunglasses make some sort of shady handoff. But really it’s just awkward, mostly because Lanegan clearly doesn’t want to be here, and essentially says as much before we even start the interview. A notoriously reluctant and guarded interviewee, he presumably picked the spot because it’s close to where he lives but not so close that we might actually get a glimpse of his pad. Fair enough, we figure: Privacy is a precious commodity these days. Still, there’re a lot of painful pauses and one-word replies, many (but not all) of which were edited out of the following transcript. But first, some basic facts…

Posted in: Featured, The S/T Interview

FROM THE STACKS: Blouse

February 1st, 2012 | File Under: Featured, From The Stacks | Leave A Comment

While it’s nearly impossible to make sense of all the music that floods our mailbox, inbox, and various Web browsers every day—not to mention the shelves at self-titled’s favorite record stores—we’re constantly looking for artists who make us stop what we’re doing and actually listen. Here’s one of them…

Posted in: Featured, From The Stacks

PRIMER: Lilacs & Champagne On … The Art of Sampling, From Dinosaur Jr. and Dr. Dre To Philip Jeck and J Dilla

January 31st, 2012 | File Under: Primer | One comment

Lilacs & Champagne had us at goodbye—namely the line in their bio that promised “something like the sound of Nurse With Wound collaborating with J Dilla.”

Not that any of this loop-led tomfoolery should be all that surprising. After all, Emil Amos—one half of the Grails-related duo alongside Alex Hall—lent us a library music mix in late 2010, calling the cult favorites a “hidden pinnacle for those who can afford to dig around in the upper echelons of obtuse record collecting in these troubled times.”

Luckyily, the following artists have done the digging for us over the years…

Posted in: Primer

Pop. 1280 On … Speed, Pulp Fiction and Assorted Bad Decisions

January 27th, 2012 | File Under: Recording Under the Influence | Leave A Comment

Recording Under the Influence is a recurring self-titled feature where we ask artists to ignore their musical inspirations for a minute and share what really went into the making of a particular record. In the case of Pop. 1280, that means influences that are as illicit and nightmarish as their surgical tool sound—a strangely alluring blend of the Birthday Party and Lower East Side era Swans—from the pulpy sci-fi novels of Philip K. Dick to speed-addled sleepless nights…

Posted in: Recording Under the Influence

Cloud Nothings Shares His Favorite Records From the Past Year

January 27th, 2012 | File Under: ST014 | Leave A Comment

Photo by Emir Eralp

If Dylan Baldi had to pick his favorite LPs from last year, “90 percent of it would be the Men,” he insists, alluding to self-titled’s current cover stars. So instead, we asked the singer/multi-instrumentalist behind Cleveland’s Cloud Nothings—who just released an early candidate for record of the year, Attack On Memory—to highlight his life in listening for the past 12 months…

Posted in: ST014

FROM THE STACKS: Trust

January 26th, 2012 | File Under: From The Stacks | Leave A Comment

Posted in: From The Stacks

Download The Men’s Out-of-Print Releases & Read Our Cover Story

January 25th, 2012 | File Under: Download This Now, ST014 | One comment

Photo by Jimmy Fontaine

As our old buddy Ryan Schrieber pointed out on his Twitter tonight, the Men just uploaded all of their out-of-print material to Mediafire for mass consumption. Don’t feel like downloading every last release? We’ve got you covered with individual Soundcloud playlists below, right alongside the band’s first cover story…

Posted in: Download This Now, ST014

Jacaszek On … Positive Anxiety, Polish Weather & Metaphysical Poetry

January 20th, 2012 | File Under: Recording Under the Influence | One comment

Photo: Basia Jacaszek

Recording Under the Influence is a recurring self-titled feature where we ask artists to ignore their musical inspirations for a minute and share what really went into the making of a particular record. Under the microscope this week: Jacaszek, an old neo-classical favorite who recently graced us with the carefully orchestrated—and delicately paced—doom and gloom of Glimmer (available now through Ghostly International)…

Posted in: Recording Under the Influence

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