1MM: Pissed Jeans @ Market Hotel, 9.28.08
Posted on September 30, 2008
Filed Under 1MM, Media | 4 Comments
[Photos by Shawn Brackbill]
Pissed Jeans never cease to amaze us. Not the act of soiling one’s self like that guy on Mad Men this week; we’re talking about the only Philly band that truly reflects that city’s layer cake of grime and pure filth. To hear what we mean, cop the following MP3s and follow the “read more” road to more shots of Matt Korvette twisting and shouting like a slightly bloated cobra snake.
“I’ve Still Got You (Ice Cream)”
BUY IT, BURN IT, SKIP IT: Vivian Girls, Dungen, Tom Morello
Posted on September 30, 2008
Filed Under Buy It, Burn It, Skip It, Reviews | 3 Comments
VIVIAN GIRLS: More reverb than a Fleet Foxes cover of My Morning Jacket
By Aaron Richter
As we all know by now, new releases hit record-store shelves and digital-download services each Tuesday. That’s why self-titled presents the following every week: 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?
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BOXED IN: The Best Songs on the Jesus and Mary Chain’s Rarities/B-sides Set
Posted on September 30, 2008
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By Aaron Richter
This past weekend, we locked ourselves in the self-titled office and plowed through the new Jesus and Mary Chain b-sides/rarities box set, The Power of Negative Thinking. With the help of green tea, some tasty hummus and several delicious Bounty chocolate/coconut bars, we made it through all 81 songs—nearly four hours of music—to bring you the collection’s 10 best tracks, listed in order of awesomeness.
What TV on the Radio’s Learned After 7 Years, 4 Albums, and a Couple Lineup Changes
Posted on September 29, 2008
Filed Under Features | 8 Comments
Kyp Malone, vocalist/guitarist
[Photos courtesy of TVOTR]
> It was like an open mic/karaoke night gone awry. I could hear songs through it all but it was really loose and not really my thing.
> This new record is intentionally clearer with less broad brush strokes.
> Hearing about how gloomy we are gets tired.
> We’re trained by the media to give people their emotional conditioning, so they know how to react to certain stimuli. That’s kind of unfortunate, you know?
> The whole experience is a continuum. Things are always changing.
> The potentials were clearer in the beginning because the structure wasn’t there. The process of putting ideas through everyone’s filter hasn’t changed though.
> The contributions that people bring are more intangible than what I could say in a couple words.
> The constraints of economics are the final editor.
> It didn’t make me depressed to listen to that music. I simply identified with something in it. It made me feel less alone, you know? If I could be that for someone else, that would make me happy. It’d be a real form of success for me.
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MUST-SPIN OF THE WEEK: The Megaphonic Thrift, “Acid Blues” 7-inch
Posted on September 29, 2008
Filed Under Must-Spin of the Week, Reviews | 2 Comments
THE MEGAPHONIC THRIFT: Earplugs are a must
[Photo by Eirik Lande]
By Aaron Richter
After hearing Norway’s the Megaphonic Thrift, self-titled was reminded of our dorm-room obsession with Broken Social Scene’s “Almost Crimes (Radio Kills Remix).” Years past, from our tinny laptop speakers, we first caught the Canadians’ scents of Sonic Youth and Pavement mingling with something totally new and fresh, and we were infatuated for months and waited eagerly for the band’s then-import-only album to arrive in the mail. “Acid Blues” has us feeling much the same way.
SUBTERRANEAN’S CHOICE: Okkervil River, “Lost Coastlines”
Posted on September 26, 2008
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Wondering when MTV’s gonna play music videos again? They certainly do on Subterranean, today’s answer to 120 Minutes. Presenting the show’s clip of the week, an s/t exclusive …
We premiered this video on MTV2’s Subterranean show late Thursday night in conjunction with our sister channel mtvU, who continue to premiere it all day today. Lately, the Subterranean staff has become obsessed with Okkervil River’s obsessive fans. They do stuff like go to the Okkervil message board and post up stories of meeting the band that end with strange questions about why Will Sheff seemed awkward and/or uncomfortable while meeting them.
A word to the wise: we encourage you to never meet your idols. The more you love them and identify with them the more likely they are to completely let you down in person. That is why we’ll never meet Okkervil River. Plus we probably don’t have enough clever literary references to be engaging for very long.
Anyway, presenting “Lost Coastlines” …
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THE S/T INTERVIEW: Danny Seim of Menomena/Lackthereof
Posted on September 26, 2008
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[Photos by Alicia J. Rose]
By Arye Dworken
The following Danny Seim interview was conducted two months ago. We decided to hold it until now, however, because the Menomena drummer’s latest LP as Lackthereof, Your Anchor (Barsuk), is a fitting fall listen—at once melancholic and moody, hard-hitting and heartfelt.
Or as Seim puts it, it’s his version of a pop record. If you’re wondering what that could possibly mean, be sure to check out the following MP3 before cueing up our extensive Q&A.
We’ve Got Two Pairs of Superpitcher/Michael Mayer Tickets For Tonight!
Posted on September 25, 2008
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Judged solely by their stark and stirring techno sets, Michael Mayer and Superpitcher aren’t exactly the types you’d expect to form a ‘fun-loving duo.’ Yet here they are, going so far as to construct comic book sleeves and sloppily-stitched puppets (see above) for their oft-surprising Supermayer project. To say we’re psyched about the pair’s appearance at the last night of Été D’Amour’s Santos residency would be a severe understatement. After all, we’re a HUGE fan of Superpitcher alone—both his original tracks (the piano stabs, steady beat and sweeping strings of “Happiness” have yanked a couple emo-tastic tears from us before) and his rather deep DJ sets.
Anyway, we’ve managed to wrangle a couple pairs of tickets for self-titled readers who’d like to join us tonight. Find out how you can win them after the jump …
1MM: Weezer @ Madison Square Garden, 9.24.08
Posted on September 25, 2008
Filed Under 1MM, Media | 13 Comments
Photos by Andrew Parks
As we said on our Twitter account earlier, Wednesday’s Weezer show was basically the opposite of My Bloody Valentine’s endurance test the day before: loose and laidback, beginning with a raucous rendition of “My Name Is Jonas,” as howled by bassist Scott Shriner. (Frontman Rivers Cuomo spent the entire song prowling the stage and flexing his finest rock star poses.)
Watching Cuomo share the spotlight with his bandmates—every member had their turn(s) as lead vocalist, including a cheeky bastard cover of Oasis’ “What’s the Story, Morning Glory?” by drummer Patrick Wilson—was certainly surprising at first. After all, the last time we saw Weezer (about six years ago in a mid-sized Rochester arena), Cuomo was still in his eccentric/egocentric phase, keeping all eyes on him while looking stilted and akward for at least half of the set. Not this time around; judging by the band’s costume changes alone, from Royal Tenenbaum-esque track suits to Cuomo’s inexplicable soccer uniform at the show’s close, Weezer was clearly determined to show their lighter side. (Check out the difference between cover stories in 2002 and 2006 to see how Cuomo’s morphed from an imposing Grizzly Adams phase to being a complete goofball.)
Song wise, tonight was full of fan favorites, balancing proven new jams (”Pork & Beans,” a rather operatic “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived”) with such welcome deep cuts as “Pink Triangle” and “El Scorcho.” Photos and a complete set list after the jump …
FREE ASSOCIATION: An Exclusive Listening Party (With Commentary!) For Dungen’s “4″ LP
Posted on September 24, 2008
Filed Under Features, Free Association | 3 Comments
[Photos by Sahar Ghahari + Sarah Schmidhoff]
“Dreamy” is one way of describing Dungen’s new disc, 4, which comes out next Tuesday through Kemado Records. That and, well, “jazzy,” as if Gustav Ejstes’ band was performing at a bar rich with the scent of spilled whiskey and stale cigarette smoke. (Sure enough, Dungen performed a lot of new material as a piano and drums-led duo earlier this summer.)
“It’s not easy to make something sound good on the telephone, but [Gustav] played me this one piano melody [during the songwriting process] and it just sounded beautiful,” explains drummer Johan Holmegard, as we ease into an interview with him and Ejstes at Kemado’s Chelsea office. “Since I’m really into jazz, I was glad that a lot of this [new] music had a jazz feel to it.”
As he’s done in the past, Ejstes worked on 4’s skeletal tracks while decamped in the countryside home of his mother, a place with a negligible population and storage for the singer/multi-instrumentalist’s throwback equipment and prized vinyl collection. Writing and recording sessions in Stockholm were sporadic throughout the past year, a time that allowed Ejstes to become a more open-minded band leader.
“I’m a control freak, but I have a lot of confidence in these guys now,” says Ejstes, “Where I can present a song and ask what they would contribute to it. I might still say, ‘You should play a little more like this,’ but I am open [to ideas].”
That much is clear in our conversation, as Ejstes and Holmegard give us a complete breakdown of 4’s back story and an EXCLUSIVE stream of the entire record. Enjoy …
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