| Kurt Vile | Childish Prodigy
September 28, 2009 at 5:12 pm
|
| Matador (2009)
Kurt Vile's punny name, as well as the title of his latest full-length album, bespeaks low-art subversion. |
| Linda Oh Trio | Entry
September 28, 2009 at 5:10 pm
|
| Linda Oh Trio (2009)
Chinese-Australian bassist Linda Oh (now living in NYC) favors a spare setting on this debut: trumpet, bass, and drums. |
| Girls | Album
September 28, 2009 at 4:11 pm
|
| True Panther (2009)
On their debut long-player, Girls gorge themselves on the all-you-can-eat buffet that is rock's storied past. Somehow, though, they forgot the crucial dollop of excitement or charisma, so we're left with an earful of directionless heartbreak and failure. |
| A.F.I. | Crash Love
September 28, 2009 at 3:58 pm
|
| DGC Interscope (2009)
First they alienated hardcore kids; now they're alienating the Internet. |
| The Big Hurt: Season's bleatings
September 28, 2009 at 3:57 pm
|
| Plus unholy names and office shredders
One of the great things about being in the music industry is that you get to change your name. So why are we hearing records from a guy named Landon Pigg?
One of the great things about being in the music industry is that you get to change your name. If you got stuck with something dorky like Reginald Dwight or Robert Van Winkle, you can come up with some catchy pop tune of a name like Elton John or Vanilla Ice. The change doesn't have to be severe: Marvin Gay became Marvin Gaye, and even Keith Richards went by Keith Richard for a few albums just to make it sizzle a little more. So why are we hearing records from a guy named LANDON PIGG? Jesus, kid, you get to call yourself whatever you want. You could be Ramses Dude or Beowulf LaGrange or something, but you stick with Landon Pigg? It's an affront to culture. Some might say you're just being true to yourself and avoiding the show-biz glamour of an affected name, but to me it just betrays a dangerous lack of imagination.Good news for fans of barrels, or more specifically the bottoms of them: JANIE HENDRIX (Jimi's sister) revealed in a chat with Gibson guitars that she's got enough material packed away to keep the Hendrix gravy train running for a good while yet. "We probably have another decade of music, including video. Every 12 to 18 months we'll continue to have new releases and Dagger official bootlegs." You may be wondering why she's talking to Gibson, since it's impossible to close your eyes and picture Jimi Hendrix without seeing a Fender in his hands. But it turns out he owned a couple of Flying V's, too, and that's enough to get Gibson plotting a whole line of signature models.
Read more |
| Tropicália storm
September 28, 2009 at 3:22 pm
|
| The long awaited return of Os Mutantes
When Sérgio Dias takes to the Somerville Theatre stage this Sunday with the current incarnation of Os Mutantes, it's a safe bet he'll be beaming with gratitude. "I'm riding the same wave," he says of his band's legendary Brazilian albums, "but this time I have my eyes open."
ALL SMILES "I'm riding the same wave," says Os Mutantes leader Sergio Dias (third from right), "but this time I have my eyes open." |
When Sérgio Dias takes to the Somerville Theatre stage this Sunday with the current incarnation of Os Mutantes, it's a safe bet he'll be beaming with gratitude. "I'm riding the same wave," he says of his band's legendary Brazilian albums, "but this time I have my eyes open." Guitarist and singer Dias is one of the three core members of the original Tropicália group — the one who has always soldiered on in the face of betrayal, defections, and madness. Last month saw the release of Haih Or Amortecedor, the first album of original material credited to Os Mutantes since 1974, and Dias is in the middle of an international tour to introduce it to his fans along with live renditions of the old cult classics. Watching Dias on stage, all smiles and showmanship, is not unlike witnessing the most recent, satisfying tours by Brian Wilson or Paul McCartney: it's not quite the Beach Boys or the Beatles, but the gusto with which these men lead their touring bands into powerful live renditions of elaborate studio tracks from a crazier time is certainly contagious. Like McCartney, Dias has always been the crowd pleaser — he's the vaudevillian Mutante. Much of the magic of the original trio that propelled Brazilian rock into outer space in 1968 owed to the alchemy created out of Dias's cheerful pep, his brother Arnaldo Baptista's lysergic intensity, and the mercurial singing of the mesmerizing Rita Lee.
Read more |
| Rosanne Cash | The List
September 28, 2009 at 3:15 pm
|
| Manhattan (2009)
In 1973, when she was an 18-year-old rock fan, Rosanne Cash's dad gave her a list of songs he felt she should know — mostly country, all falling under the current banner Americana. She held onto that list, and now she's recorded a dozen tunes from it. |
| Brother Ali | Us
September 28, 2009 at 3:12 pm
|
| Rhymesayers (2009)
Brother Ali is like a cool roaming uncle who occasionally surfaces with gifts and insights. |
| Fantastic damage
September 28, 2009 at 2:58 pm
|
| Anti-Pop Consortium's unfinished business
Unlike hip-hop acts that deny bucking convention for the sake of eccentricity, Anti-Pop Consortium were as clear on day zero as they will certainly be at Great Scott next Thursday about their maverick intentions.
GAME CHANGERS: "We were just trying to see the future ourselves," says APC's High Priest (third from left, with MC Beans, M. Sayyid, and Earl Blaize) "and do things that no one had ever done around us." |
Unlike hip-hop acts that deny bucking convention for the sake of eccentricity, Anti-Pop Consortium were as clear on day zero as they will certainly be at Great Scott next Thursday about their maverick intentions. As their high-school classmate Pharoahe Monch did with Organized Konfusion, the eclectically inclined New York troupe put their profound oxymoronic mission statement right up in the group name. With a Seinfeld-esque anti-blueprint, APC launched circa 1997 to tweak the game around the time that formulaic sludge was booming. Such inventive teams as the Artifacts and Organized were being purged from major labels, and there was no point in compromising to impress executives. Fading quickly was all hope of pushing complicated urban art on mass audiences. As a result, APC beat chef Earl Blaize plus MCs Beans, High Priest, M. Sayyid, and a basement-full of other Gotham fringe-hop architects fled the grid. "At the time, we didn't think about how people would look at us 10 years from then," says Priest over the phone from New York. "We were just trying to see the future ourselves and do things that no one had ever done around us." Adds Blaize: "We had influences like Ultramagnetic MCs and Mantronix, but production-wise we were just looking to them for guidance. It wasn't about making us sound like anybody else."
Read more |
| Reykjavik International Film Festival 2009
September 28, 2009 at 11:24 am
|
| Report back from Iceland amidst lamb hot dogs, and fish and chips.
How would the Reykjavik International Film Festival, which I was attending, September 17 to 27, be affected by the horrid downturn?
Jessica Hausner's Lourdes |
Wouldn't you know it? I asked directions of the only person in Reykjavik who doesn't speak fluent English. "Do you know how to get to the Clinton hot dog stand?" I queried, and the weathered, rheumy-eyed fisherman mumbled something back in inscrutable Icelandic. Well, I turned a corner and found it on my own: the legendary take-out shack where Bill Clinton, in his porky, presidential, halycon junk-food days, went for the complete package. A so-luscious lamb hot dog with the works: squirts of mayo, hot mustard, a secret orangey sauce, raw onions, and crunchy fried onions, all on a lovely bun. "The other places, the hot dogs have chicken or pork," the solo woman in the booth told me, as she prepared a Clinton special, the best "dressed" frankfurter on earth, in about four seconds. "Ours is real Icelandic lamb," she bragged. There are lines at this hot dog stand day and night, and the queues have stretched longer in the last two years. Who can afford to lunch at a real, sit-down restaurant? The once happily prosperous Iceland, where people sipped $10 coffees without worrying about it, has tumbled and skidded, shouldering the worst economic crisis in any country of the West. How would the Reykjavik International Film Festival, which I was attending, September 17 to 27, be affected by the horrid downturn?
Read more | | | 
|
No comments:
Post a Comment