In Studio A of Manhattan’s Legacy Studios, Common gave self-titled and a couple other choice publications an eight-song preview of his new album, Invincible Summer, which he says will be released in mid-July. Believe it or not, the record—partially inspired by the months the rapper spent in Prague while acting in the upcoming film Wanted—is tailor-made for clubs.

Here are our scattered, unedited notes from the session …

Read more

SANTOGOLD: Just do it

By Aaron Richter

As we all know by now, new releases hit record-store shelves and digital-download services each Tuesday. So every week self-titled presents a new release you’d be stupid not to own (Buy It), one worth checking out if you’re the curious type (Burn It) and something you might have heard about but probably should avoid (Skip It). Simple, ain’t it?

Read more

RICHARD ASHCROFT: How does that sonnet go again?

Photos/Text by Andrew Parks

There were very little surprises during the first half of the Verve’s tw0-night stand at New York’s WaMu Theater. That is if you don’t count the band’s anti-climatic opener: a no-name DJ (literally; he wasn’t credited on the bill or even thanked onstage) that blended old-school funk, soul and rap as if it were Friday night and the feeling’s right. In other words … LAME. Read more

PORTISHEAD: Sour times, indeed

• Coachella organizers lopped FIVE SONGS off Portishead’s rare U.S. set to make room for Prince.
• Damon Albarn is close to finishing a new album … in Mandarin.
• In other Portishead news …
• Arctic Monkeys‘ frontman has topped the UK charts once again with his new Last Shadow Puppets project.
• Coldplay have announced a free single and shows in London and New York.
• Sounds like Roger Waters kinda killed it at Coachella.
• Phil Collins is retiring from music.
• Could the Strokes finally start working on their fourth LP soon?
• Stone Temple Pilots, R.E.M. and Nine Inch Nails are all playing this year’s Voodo Music Experience.
• Wow, Kanye really is a nerd.
• Yo La Tengo has been tapped for the score of a Superbad-related movie.
• Bob Dylan and The Stooges are among the top acts confirmed for this summer’s Virgin Mobile Fest.
• The full Glastonbury lineup has been revealed.
• Here’s a tidy lil’ profile on one of our favorite electronic music producers, Trentemøller.
• My Bloody Valentine’s ATP fest sold out in just three minutes.
• Police have released Amy Winehouse after her alleged assault on a London man.

Read more

So we originally revisited The Henge (Relapse)—the solo debut of Zombi keyboardist/bassist Steve Moore—after reading J. Bennett’s Earth story and seeing the dude’s name pop up as Dylan Carlson’s full-time organist. The twist being that Steve Moore the Earth/Sunn O))) Sideman is not the same guy as Steve Moore of Zombi.

Apparently the underground metal scene isn’t as incestuous as we once thought. Not that it matters; true to its break-of-dawn sleeve, The Henge is the sonic equivalent of staring at the sun for too long—at times gorgeous, disorientating and downright blinding, with its fair share of sepia-tinged synth tones and spacious drone structures. The latter is what separates this apart from just another Zombi album—not that that would be a bad thing; Pittsburgh’s leading synth/bass/drums duo is killer as well.

Read more

So we’re a little bummed—the operative word being little—about missing Coachella this year, only because Aphex Twin and Portishead rarely, if ever, tour in the U.S. (The Verve’s own triumphant return to the states will be chronicled with a series of shots from their New York City show Monday night.)  If you’re wondering what Mr. James dropped in his rare live/DJ set, here’s a hint, with more videos after the jump …

Read more

By J. Bennett

It only took him a decade, but it seems that Earth mastermind Dylan Carlson has finally managed to shake off his reputation as The Dude Who Bought Cobain The Shotgun. And it’s about fucking time. When he appeared in Nick Broomfield’s 1998 documentary Kurt & Courtney—pasty, bedraggled, and practically nodding off mid-interview—Carlson was wallowing in his own miserable nadir. He hadn’t even touched a guitar in two years and was clearly still stepping all over Mr. Brownstone’s toes. His then-vastly under-appreciated contributions to the instrumental rock canon included four albums released on Sub Pop, including the 1993 power-drone masterpiece Earth 2 (which laid the foundation for Sunn O))) to the extent that it basically wrote their first two albums) and 1996’s Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons, music from which Broomfield actually used to great effect in Kurt & Courtney.

After that ill-fated interview, Carlson went back into hiding and didn’t reemerge until 2005. With that year’s Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method, Carlson recast himself as a paradigmatic shaman of sepia guitar tones and dark Americana—not to mention an avid student of Neil Young’s Dead Man soundtrack. Last year’s Hibernaculum completed the transformation, as Carlson hauled out some vintage Earth material for a Hex-style makeover. The band’s latest, The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull (Southern Lord), features contributions from veteran jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and further explores the tones that made Hex so unforgettable

Read more

THE HOUSE THAT JUAN BUILT: Nancy Whang, Juan Maclean

Presenting self-titled’s weekly roundup of vinyl/digital singles …

MUST SPIN OF THE WEEK:
The Juan MacLean, “Happy House” (DFA)

Everyone knows pacifiers and parachute pants should only be worn by the most hopeless of E-tards. That goes without saying. So why did this throwback dance track just make the self-titled office spontaneously combust into a goddamn rave?

Seriously—our managing editor, Arye, just cracked open a glowstick (where he got it, we have no idea) and started waving it around the room like a light saber. As silly as he looks, we can’t blame the little guy. Not when a track’s this flawless and epic. As in nearly 13 minutes long, brimming with more movements than a neo-classical composition, from its peak hour piano keys to some seriously on-point vocals by Nancy Whang. The secret weapon of LCD Soundsystem (she’s the band’s primary synth-slinger onstage) and such indie dance anthems as Soulwax’s “N.Y. Excuse” and the Juan MacLean’s three-year-old (!) “Give Me Every Little Thing” single, Whang has finally transcended her typical guest vocalist/keyboardist role and straight-up stolen the show. Listen and learn, as you’re left repeating, “excellent/you are so, ex-cellent” and “launch meeee intooo spacccce” along with the underground’s leading diva.

The fact that Whang contributed a great deal of vocals to the Juan MacLean’s entire sophomore LP only serves to excite us even more. Quick— another single with sunbeams bursting at its grooves, guys! And make it quick: we need more music like this to officially erase the electro from electro-house for a healthy minute.

[ADD TO CRATE ]

Read more

Next month marks the long-awaited debut of self-titled’s first digital issue. Of course, that means we’re knee-deep in deadlines right now—caught in a cycle of caffeinated editing that’s best expressed by the following classic MTV clip …

Some words of advice for the beaten/broken-down interns out there—grin and bear it, bitches. James Pants certainly did, as he went from stuffing envelopes to turning heads as a prized signing of Stones Throw. And who can blame Peanut Butter Wolf for passing on the promotion? After all, J.P.’s really onto something with Welcome, his trend-skirting, party-sparking debut. Basically, take everything totally ’80s that doesn’t suck in retrospect (post-punk, soul, block party rap, electro of the Cybotron/Kraftwerk mold) and watch in amazement as one guy hammers out a heaping mix of it all on keys, drums, a guitar and the mic.

Pants isn’t just a multi-instrumental producer/player, either. As mixes like this prove, he’s got a deft DJing hand as well. That’s why we asked Pants to share his crate mainstays at the moment in self-titled’s first edition of ‘PLAYED OUT.’

Read more