BUY IT, BURN IT, SKIP IT: M83, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Kooks, Supergrass and more
M83 does the mash–the monster mash By Aaron Richter As you 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 […]
Franz Ferdinand Post Cryptic Studio Video
Remember Franz Ferdinand? Not the Archduke of Austria, silly–the band! Well, the Scottish quartet is currently working on its third LP, the follow-up to 2005’s surprisingly overlooked You Could Have It So Much Better. The following 47-second video doesn’t say much but it does give fans a slight idea of what they might expect on […]
LONG PLAYER OF THE DAY: Working For a Nuclear Free City, Businessmen & Ghosts
Man oh man is this entry a long time coming. You see, we first fell for these genre-jumping Brits way back in 2006, when their self-titled debut landed in the UK by way of Melodic and the loaded tagline of “techno music played on guitars.” While we wouldn’t quite draw a direct lineage between the […]
1MM: Berlin, In (Graf) Writing
[Photos by Andrew Parks] If you ever stumble upon self-titled‘s archive, you’ll notice an apparent lack of posts from early February. The reason was not laziness; truth be told, we were on vacation. But not just any vacation–we were over in Europe, trying to uncover just why Berlin’s been considered the world’s up-and-coming art/music epicenter […]
LONG PLAYER OF THE DAY: J. Spaceman/Sun City Girls, Mister Lonely: Music From a Film By Harmony Korine
A Marilyn Monroe impersonator, as played by Samantha Morton in MISTER LONELY First things first: This is not a collaboration between Spiritualized’s death-cheating frontman and the strange souls in Sun City Girls. Instead, the two acts essentially split the score duties on Harmony Korine’s first feature film since 1999’s Julien Donkey-Boy. (You may also remember […]
BUY IT, BURN IT, SKIP IT: Ashlee Simpson, The Last Shadow Puppets, Daft Punk
Please ASHLEE, don’t hurt ’em By Aaron Richter As you 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 […]
THE S/T INTERVIEW: Elbow
By Arye Dworken Since their 2001 debut, Asleep In The Back, the mellow/melancholy Brit band Elbow has been unjustly dismissed here in the U.S. The problem, ultimately, is they never quite achieved the pretentious cred of, say, Radiohead, or gone the completely opposite route of reducing themselves to the cloying, formulaic sap of a troupe […]
LONG PLAYER OF THE DAY: µ-Ziq, Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique
The bullet-torn body on the cover of this ridiculously-titled record suggests Mike Paradinas is up to his usual ear-splitting antics. Not so, though; the producer’s latest µ-Ziq LP (out since last summer on his label, Planet Mu) is actually a shimmering journey of melodic techno not unlike the classic compositions of a certain Richard D. […]
PLAYED OUT: James Pants
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 […]