DOWNLOAD THIS NOW: Two Lone Swordsmen, “Sex Beat” (The Gun Club Cover)
Posted on March 12, 2010
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The Song In a Couple Sentences: When Jack White was asked about the Gun Club’s influence back in the day, the White Stripes frontman simply said, “Why are these songs not taught in schools?” A fair question, especially since it took a couple of techno icons to drop one of their classics (”Sex Beat”) in our lap. This faithful/frantic cover is the perfect bridge between Andrew Weatherall’s dance tracks and his rough & tumble solo work. Definitely a must-listen before you head out the door on a Friday night.
See Also: Read more
NEEDLE EXCHANGE 009: An Exclusive Mix By … Das Racist
Posted on March 12, 2010
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Two Needle Exchange posts in one day? Sorry but we couldn’t resist. Not when Das Racist delivered the following in one killer 62-minute mix: Best Coast, E-40, Class Actress, Hell Rell, and…”Funk Dat.” Yep. Someone’s not fucking around.
Here it is, then—a surefire start to the weekend, delivered with really random drops and a priceless track-by-track commentary. No disrespect to any of our previous N.E. contributors, but this has got to be the most schizo set yet. And the closest you’ll ever get to understand Das Racist’s creative process. Read more
TEST PRESSING: Fresh Off Last Year’s Ariel Pink Loops, Lushlife Gives Washed Out a Ghetto Pass With a White Label Version of ‘Feel It All Around’
Posted on March 12, 2010
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Lushlife
Now here’s something we didn’t expect to see in our mailbox this week: a backpack rap spin on Washed Out’s steam-pressed “Feel It All Around” single. A quick background check puts Lushlife’s bootleg mix in perspective—he sampled Ariel Pink, Kanye West style, on “In Soft Focus” last year—and you know what? It’s worth a spin, as the Philly-based MC treats the track like a poetry slam session—name-dropping Sandanista! and letting Ernest Greene’s pillowy chorus fill in the gaps like a pack of cumulus clouds.
Lushlife is opening Favorite Gentleman’s SXSW showcase next Thursday. Check out a flyer for that after the jump, along with all of the above tracks and Washed Out’s original version. Read more
NEEDLE EXCHANGE 008: An Exclusive Mix By … Ernest Gonzales
Posted on March 12, 2010
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Okay, so the concept’s a little Hallmark-y. In a burst of creativity inspired by his wife Devyn, Ernest Gonzales wrote a restless instrumental record that’s paired—in typical Friends of Friends fashion—with an art book and bonus collection of remixes from Daedelus, Faunts and 14 others. An extensive site about the Been Meaning To Tell You project is here. It includes free art, remix loops and music—a genre-less blend of candy-colored chords, rubber-soled basslines and snappy beats.
To take Gonzales’ love letter concept even further, we asked him to hand over a Devyn-derived mixtape (title: Memories as Units of Measurement) that we could give to our girlfriends and pass off as ours. Yep—we’re a bunch of sneaky bastards. Read more
NOW PLAYING: Zelienople, ‘Give It Up’ (Type, 2009)
Posted on March 12, 2010
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The Details: Zelienople, Give It Up (Type, 2009)
A Quick Review: Read more
RECORDING UNDER THE INFLUENCE: Eluvium On … Warped Memories, His Book Addiction and the Bearable Lightness of Being
Posted on March 12, 2010
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[Photo by Noel Javier]
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. Eluvium’s always been one of our favorite ambient artists, so we were as surprised as anyone to hear Matthew Cooper actually sing on his new Similes album. Well, sing his way. Meaning: barely-there melodies, swept up in the currents of Coopers minor-keyed soundscapes like any other instrument. Read more
COVER FLOW: In Case You’re Wondering, the Crude Oil On Zola Jesus’ Face Is Chocolate Syrup
Posted on March 11, 2010
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[Photo by Indra Dunis]
As much as we dug the dirt-encrusted mood music of Zola Jesus‘ breakthrough LP, The Spoils (Sacred Bones, 2009), Nika Roza Danilova’s new EP is something else—a flirtation with full-on pop songs, buoyed by dark ambient samples and skeletal beats that sound like they’re knocking your door down rather than being reduced to dust. (In many ways, Danilova’s early songs mirror the brash but brutal bedroom productions on Cold Cave’s Cremations compilation. And her music is changing for the better just as quickly.)
If you ask Sacred Bones, Stridulum is a “siren song for the apocalypse.” Which sounds about right. It’s also a record that isn’t afraid to address relationships with rather literal lyrics like, “It’s not easy/To fall in love/But if you’re lucky/You just might find someone.” As tired as those lines may look on paper, they sound gorgeous in the context of a Zola Jesus song, mostly because Danilova’s classically-trained voice—she’s just 20 years old, but already sounds ready to clobber concert halls—cuts right through her minimal compositions. Mark our words: this girl will be one of the breakthrough acts of SXSW next week, and one of 2011’s most anticipated albums. Hell, we’re already counting down the days.
Since Stridulum’s record sleeve is just as striking as the music within, we asked Danilova to explain just what’s dripping down her face. Turns out it’s not an oil spill after all… Read more
FREE ASSOCIATION: The Morning Benders Take Us on a Track-By-Track Tour of ‘Big Echo’
Posted on March 11, 2010
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[Photo by Matt Jacoby]
By Arye Dworken
As we quickly discover over fish tacos and bowls of bibimbap at Dokebi in Brooklyn, Chris Chu is an “old soul” right down to the way the Morning Benders frontman name-checks Phil Spector, Alex Chilton, Brian WIlson and the Beatles as his main influences. In one of our more revealing Free Association segments, Chu spent nearly two hours sharing the back stories of Big Echo—an album that actually sounds like one. Here’s the long and the short of it, along with the entire record in streaming form. Read more
MICROWAVE ONLY: Things Are About To Get Dark, Aren’t They?
Posted on March 11, 2010
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Photos by Turkishomework
Each week we send Turkishomework out to capture a sliver of our city’s blurred-vision nightlife. She nearly lost herself last Friday, though, as two hometown coldwave heroes—Xeno & Oaklander and Led Er Est—served up heat-seeking synth lines and moonlit melodies at Cameo Gallery in Brooklyn. We’ll have an exclusive Needle Exchange mix from their Wierd Records label boss later this month… Read more
TEST PRESSING: Listen to a Premiere of Fol Chen’s Liars Remix While Reading Our In-Depth Cover Story About the Sordid Roots of ‘Sisterworld’
Posted on March 9, 2010
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Liars frontman Angus Andrew
[Photo by Alexander Wagner]
He’s baaaaaack. And by he, we mean J. Bennett—the rather wild and crazy guy who earned a spot in last year’s Best Music Writing book for his extensive self-titled profile on Jay Reatard. We pay our respects to Reatard in the final pages of our new issue, which debuts today along with Bennett’s cover story on Liars and the following features: Read more
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