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Thursday, March 27, 2008
Caribou (aka, Dan Snaith, the self-taught, math pro, psychedlic-obsessed Canadian musician we interviewed recently) loves his light projections. Below, see photos from last night's Caribou show at the Dise. Snaith's self-created, kaleidoscopic light projections led to even trippier photos, and I increased the level of color-smashed artiness in Photoshop to make 'em extra far out for ya. Enjoy, and watch for Will Spitz's review of the show, coming soon.           Caribou at the Paradise Rock Club, March 26, 2008
All photos by Caitlin E. Curran
--Caitlin E. Curran
3/27/2008 1:20:09 PM by Will | |
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The Ontario-born, London-dwelling, math-whiz musician Dan Snaith has been kicking around the electronic music world since 2000, when he released an EP called People Eating Fruit, under the moniker Manitoba. Originally, music was a part-time gig, pursued on the side while Snaith taught and pursued a PhD in math. Just before earning that degree, he was forced to abandon his musical claim on Manitoba, when former Dictators frontman Richard “Handsome Dick” Manitoba decided to sue... even though, you know, Manitoba is the name of a Canadian province, and not just Handsome Dick’s. Luckily, Snaith got over it, and switched to Caribou after a meaningful LSD trip, then ditched math to make music his full-time job. His excellent, multi-instrumental 2007 album, Andorra (Merge), saw Snaith confidently wading into the world of 60s-referencing psych-pop music, and not in a bad way. He’ll play the Paradise with Fuck Buttons tonight, and he chatted with us last weekend, from the snowy roads of Canada (we meant to post this earlier, but we were held back by technical snafus - bummer!).
When asked about his political preferences in a recent interview with XXL magazine, DMX admitted he didn’t know who Barack Obama was. Do you consider yourself well-informed, in terms of world news?
That’s definitely shocking to me. I’m not the most informed, but I definitely can confirm I’ve heard of Barack Obama. If he hasn’t heard of Barack Obama he probably hasn’t heard of previous political leaders in the past decade or so.
You may be sick of this question, but there’s an obvious transition from psych-electronica to psych-pop on your latest album, Andorra. How did this come about?
It was one conscious decision to switch styles. In the past my music has been made by building loops on top of one another. I wanted to make pop songs with big melodies and not just a hypnotic kind of music. The last 3 of the 4 albums have been psych influenced. I like the ambition and the scope, big headspace music, rather than the stripped down post punky kind of sound. Im kind of a record nerd, so I’ve got piles of obscure psych rock bands that I might only like one or two tracks from. This last record, the Zombies were a big influence – they do this baroque psych pop – and they embodied a lot of what I wanted to do. That’s probably something that won’t continue. I’ve done what I wanted to do with that.
You studied and taught math for several years, but now you’re a full-time musician. Have you always juggled the two? Now that music is your full-time gig, do you ever miss math?
I‘m a nerd, and I just love learning about things so I ended up learning about both music and math. But there came a time when I had to make a decision. I’ve always wanted to be a musician. I don’t really miss math – I never do mathematics at all since I got my PhD. I grew up in such a mathematic environment - almost everyone in my family has a math degree - so I don’t feel entirely away from it.
Technically Caribou is your solo project; music created while you were holed up in your bedroom. But for live shows, you perform with other musicians. Why?
There’s four of us on stage. I do everything on the records myself. Doing it all day everyday is sort of something that makes more sense on my own, but the live thing is different - it’s better when it’s very much a collaboration.
Your albums are amalgams of instruments and sounds. How many instruments do you play personally?
I’d probably only say that I play piano well, but that’s an open ended question. Other instruments [on the album], I learn enough to get what I want out of them.
When did you start writing music?
I started playing piano when I was 5 but it didn’t really consume me till I switched teachers at 13 or 14, and they started to emphasize improvisation, and understanding how music fits together. It was a weird little town that I grew up in. The kids were into Rush and Yes, or the Grateful Dead so I was into that. But I was also into Aphex Twin, so my high school band was this terrible car crash of the two things. It sounded like a teenage misindulgence in music. But it was a good starting point in learning how to make music.
LISTEN: Caribou on MySpace
--Caitlin E. Curran
3/26/2008 6:02:57 PM by Will | |
Monday, February 25, 2008
Lethal Bizzle: loves the Breeders
Wow, it's feeling so 1993 right about now. We lost track of Kim Deal after the last Pixies tour wrapped, and thus were wholly unprepared for the leak, over the weekend, of a brand-spanking-new Breeders album to the internets. Sure, this is the Kelley Deal version and not the Pod-era Tanya Donelly version, but nope, we're not complaining. It will take us at least several weeks to recall how forgettable the last Breeders album and the Amps album were, right? We have high hopes for the new one, not least because "Bam Thwok" was so obviously more of a Breeders tune than a Pixies tune. There's also a showdate: June 5 at the Paradise.
Then there's this: according to Ticketmaster, the Lemonheads -- i.e. Evan Dando and some dudes -- will be performing their landmark It's a Shame About Ray in its entirety at the Paradise. The hitch: it's on April Fool's Day. Which means . . . well, that means it's a joke, right? That was our first thought, too, except that Dando's doing it for real down at SXSW in mid-March, to celebrate the deluxe reissue of the album, and he's also the sort of goofball who would appreciate the irony of providing a little dreamy wish-fullfilment in Boston on April 1. Also, you can actually buy tickets for this thing. So, um, until further notice, LEMONHEADS PERFORMING IT'S SHAME ABOUT RAY ON APRIL FOOL'S DAY attains show-of-the-spring status until proved to be a figment of someone's imagination.
UPDATE: Confirmed by publicist: Lemonheads performing Ray on April Fool's Day is actually happening.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
1/22/2008 11:57:44 AM by Caitlin | |
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
 We assumed that the atmosphere at the Kings of Leon/ Cassavettes show at the Paradise last night would be relaxed, in a “Hey, we won free tickets!” kinda way - mingling, PBR flowing freely to counteract mid-summer concert sweatiness, perhaps a shot or two, because Southern roots-rock warrants that kind of thing - but it was not so. The Kings, who backed out of their Best Music Poll gig and signed on for last night’s show to make up for it, riled up the crowd with an incendiary slew of old and new tunes - “Taper Jean Girl,” our personal fav, included - for all of 45 minutes, before everything fell apart. It was unclear exactly what went down from our spot near the bar on the right side of the Dise, but apparently the KOL dudes were offended by group of people near the front of the stage, and consequently threw down their instruments, and stormed offstage in true diva-like fashion (not unlike that whole Nickelback in Portugal thing, luckily no one threw rocks). The confused crowd stuck around, in hopes of an encore, then moved outside to figure out what the fuck just happened. So what the fuck did happen? The message boards are abuzz! According to a poster on the official KOL board, happyalone: “It was these collar popping ‘yeah’ guys who fucked us over. They were right behind me and made a circle at the end of the set and started doing some dumb frat dance. They were pretty much raping the girls next to me as well and would not stop shouting ‘Arizona’ or ‘Tony’ at Caleb.” Over at lemmingtrail, the official word from KOL’s publicist is that the band was having “gear problems.” Definitely sounds like a combination of annoying factors, but aren’t these things that rock bands have to, ya know, DEAL with? These types of dramatic, pretentious antics would be expected from, say, Fall Out Boy, but not from a group of classic rock-loving brothers (plus one cousin) from Tennessee. With time to spare after KOL’s short-lived show, we hopped over to Great Scott in time to see Shout Out Out Out Out’s vocoderific electro-fied set. It was a stark contrast to the scene at the Dise: six Canadian dudes crammed onto a stage with two drum sets, and tons of electronic musical equipment we don't know the names for, eagerly dancing and dedicating songs to procrastination and the art of being broke, spurring the modest crowd (of broke procrastinators) to form a frenetic dance party. There were a few annoying shouts from the crowd, and the occasional gear issue, but the show went on - refreshingly, and non-pretentiously. UPDATE: Glenn Yoder, from the opening band Cassavettes, weighs in via his blog. A few highlights: "The word coming from their techs was that they had lost a bunch of
equipment on a plane in Japan. As a result, the were forced to spend
what we were told was $9,500 on new equipment from Guitar Center the
day of the show -- guitars and pedals, mostly. Each member of KOL's
front line uses a veritable closet-full of effects and pedals (I got a
good look at them up close and on stage), so obviously, they weren't
too pumped at sound check that they couldn't get their normal tones. I
understand this: A different pedal would make a total different sound,
and it would piss anyone off. What I've heard from people up close ranges from a) the band was spit
at, b) someone threw something, or c) people were just getting on their
nerves. Others have said they didn't look like they wanted to be there
from the moment they stepped on stage, but hey, I say that might just
be the careless rocker look many musicians try so hard to obtain.
Anyhow, after having enough, the band apparently threw down their
instruments and stormed off stage (one person says Caleb gave the crowd
the finger). Either way, as they streamed out, people were very nice to us and gave
us the 'at least you're nice to fans' thing and signed the mailing
list/bought merch, which was cool (hey man, we could use to profit from
such a minor disaster in the grand scheme of things, I suppose)." Read the full report here.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
 DOWNLOAD: Cassavettes, "Debts" (mp3)With Jabe Beyer relocating to Nashville and Frank Smith ensconced in Austin, Boston’s alt-country contingent has withered away over the past few months. Luckily, Cassavettes, who are three-fourths native Texan, are sticking around. Phoenix readers named them last year’s “Best Local Band,” and that was before the release of their debut album, It’s Gonna Change, in December. IGC is countryfied low-fi indie rock — a dust-coated coming-of-age tale with rootsy twang and the occasional barroom romp. “Debts” bemoans and celebrates change — a feeling any recent college grad can relate to — shifting from piano-driven balladry to a guitar-driven rock about “getting fired from a new job each week.” Catch them Tuesday opening for Kings of Leon at the Paradise (rescheduled from their cancelled BMP gig, but we don't hold grudges) if you can - we hear from our friends at WFNX that all of the tickets have been given away, but don't worry - Craigslist has your back. The 'vettes are also playing T.T. the Bear's on August 24, and a whole slew of other Boston venues this fall. VIDEO: Cassavettes play live on Fox 25 (and here's the secret behind-the-scenes footage) FRIEND: Cassavettes on MySpace
7/26/2007 12:16:37 PM by Caitlin | |
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Au Revoir Simone
Fujiya and Miyagi
PB&J
Peter Bjorn and John
with Fujiya and Miyagi, and Au Revoir Simone
May 4 at the Paradise, Boston
Photos: Carina Mastrocola
[Check back next week for exclusive Peter Bjorn and John live mp3s]
Friday, March 09, 2007
We were going to blog today. Really. We know it's late, so here's what we meant to tell you around 12 hours ago...
1. Holly Golightly is playing the Paradise right about now with Keys to the Streets of Fear. She's doing a duo thing you can listen to over here.
2. Our knowledge of '77 UK punks the Prefects? Nil, except that our dude Nick Blakey, who is never wrong about this shit, is creaming his pants. Prefects founder Robert Lloyd performs for the first time ever in Boston, leading his latest band the Nightengales, at the Abbey. In addition to the below, we recommend checking out their newish "Wot No Blog?" song at MySpace.
DOWNLOAD: The Nightengales, "Crafty fag" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: The Nightengales, "How To Age" (mp4)
3. Fishwrap had to cut the following graf from David Day's column this week, so if you read it only in the paper, here's what you missed:
Boston's beloved underground techno club, 808, resurfaces this week at the Enormous Room, where they are bringing ALEX UNDER in for a live set. The appearance is worthy of worldwide attention as the Spanish Under is considered one of the finest live techno acts on the entire globe. Under's sound is quite minimal, but very melodic and playful "He makes cutting edge late night party music that is somewhat genre bending between house and techno," says promotion robot BLEEP (aka BRIAN MERZ of ROBOTLOVESONGS) on email, "but decidely different from the norm in any of those genres. "Hopefully friday will be one of those magic nights with lots of what I call 'disco moments,'" he says, "which seem to happen most often when you put an amazing artist and performer in a small intimate room packed with likeminded people." The appearance is being supported by local dub-sound designer TRITON (aka Eddie Odabachian) with an early set at 8pm, and DJs DAMIEN CULVALIER and ERIC MCLAUGHLIN from the 808 clan. "Both own Alex Under records and might play them out on a normal night," says Bleep. "Damien's sets are perfect for a party, and Eric sets defined the 808 sound." Get there early and stay late…
DOWNLOAD: Alex Under, "Live at Mutek 2006" (mp3)
4. Speaking of David Day, you can catch him in a couple hours at this thing, which isn't quite as smashing as we thought -- the early plan appeared to be Paper all night, but the flyer has been ammended to note that the RISE resident house DJs are taking over around 1:30 -- and . . . well, if you haven't RSVP'd it's too late anyway. Last we heard, they had 1200 people sign up in advance:
Thursday, March 08, 2007
SOOOO is for the children. No idea how they'll all fit on the Paradise Lounge stage, but Canada's answer to !!! stop by tonight en-route to SXSW, courtesy of the Happy Endings crew. Sample some mpfrees and a remix from SOOOO's Nik7 over here.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Camera Obscura, the Essex Green
January 27 at the Paradise, Boston
All photos (c) Kelly Davidson
Monday, November 13, 2006
Thanks to the dudes over at Arts & Crafts, we've got AMY MILLAN tickets and CDs to give away in advance of her solo gig Wednesday at the Paradise. Those of you who don't know Amy, check the video and track below. We'd post more of her bio here except that we'd be spoiling the super-easy "trivia" question you'll need to answer in a second. Suffice it to say that our Simon W. Vozick-Levinson said some nice things about her solo disc Honey from the Tombs: "Millan reinvents herself as a sad sweetheart of the rodeo, pouring out her sorrows over simple beds of guitar and mandolin. 'Baby, I'm going on without you,' she suggests hopefully before letting out a resigned sigh, 'I'll get over you when the moon gets tired of chasing the sun.'
To win tix and CDs, simply send an email to contest@arts-crafts.ca with the subject "Phoenix" and include your name, age, address, and the name of any one of Amy's previous bands.
DOWNLOAD: Amy Millan, "Skinny Boy" (zipped mp3, via Gallery AC)
WATCH: Amy Millan, "Baby I"
Thursday, October 19, 2006
It's been a long time coming, but after a long roller coaster ride the S-O-V is finally blowing up. There was a moment, back when her NYC debut ended in a puke-stained tank, and her subsequent US minitour bombed, where it looked like it was going to kill the buzz that greeted her first two batches of UK singles. And yes, we joined the chorus of doubters. But her extremely ingratiating, post-DefJam-signing gig at Avalon a few months back had us hopping back on the bandwagon. And now, with her video for "Love Me or Hate Me" sitting at #1 on TRL, the whole thing seems ridiculously obvious: of course American teenagers will go bonkers for an adorable British teenager who spits her face off over Colecovision electro beats! Don't bother qualifying it, let's just get on with the coronation . . .
Step one: read the Phoenix interview:
"I tried to get involved, you know!" pouts Sov in a cockney accent that would make even Eliza Doolittle furrow her sooty brow. "I wasn’t wanted, but I’ve done it in my own way, like. I started, like, MCing to UK garage, you know. And then UK garage formed into grime, man, and I was still MCing frew all of that, yeah. And, you know, like, I had a bit of a couple tunes out, yeah, but people weren’t spinnin’ it anyway! Like, because no one liked it! So that’s, that’s, you know, I ain’t get rejected, but I was more like the odd one out, jeknowwotImean?"
Two minutes into our brief interview, I think I do. As her comments zip from indolent to indignant to innocent and back again, Harman sounds like a conflicted teen who wants to charm the world one minute and spit on it the next, a conflict that’s united disenfranchised youth across the Pond since the teenage John Lennon was inspired by the barely post-teen Elvis Presley.
Step two: cop that shit. We've got an album track, and also SOV's people attempted to AIM everyone the new Missy Elliott remix of "Love Me Or Hate Me" but demand proved so high they just gave it to Pitchfork instead. It is COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS. (Remember how the M.I.A./Missy thing was kinda ehh? This is not like that at all.)
DOWNLOAD: Lady Sovereign, "Gatheration" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Lady Sovereign, "Love Me Or Hate Me (remix feat. Missy Elliott)" (mp3)
Step three: If you want to holler at yr girl before her Paradise performance on October 26, our bretheren at FNX are running a contest for a chance to meet the midget. To enter, hit the VWGreenRoom site and answer a few trivia questions, or if you are a text-messaging American you can text the letters "VW" to 22122 [rules gobbledeegook over here].
Bonus Materials:
PICTURES: Lady Sovereign and the Streets at Avalon
DOWNLOAD: Lady Sovereign, "Hoodie (Spank Rock Remix)" (mp3)
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Remember that time we told you how to get tix to that secret Pixies show at the Paradise summer before last? The DVD of that gig came out today. Our copy is, as they say, "in the mail," so we're doing the same thing you're doing: watching the trailer on YouTube.
Meanwhile, in lieu of another Pixies album, Frank Black is headed for Avalon on October 24. Tix here.
WATCH: Pixies, "Club Date (Live at the Paradise)"
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Photos by Rita Lombardi.
NEMO, schmeme-o. Music aside, Friday night's "Graphic Takeover" at the Paradise Lounge, organized by our friends at Alphabet Arm Design, took a second to focus on the packaging: t-shirts, framed; skateboard decks (including the Lif board everyone's been talking about), hung; stencils, stenciled; embroidery, limited-editioned; etc. We're far from impartial, since the Alphabeticals designed our new t-shirt line and some fairly ridiculous stickers (coming soon). And we're even less impartial now, since we're now trying to figure out what we can trade for their custom pick-guards.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Everyone's favorite Boston metalcore singer turned Tom Petty-ish roots-rock heartthrob, dreamy ol' Jake Brennan, has put the wraps on his new record and will be playing a bunch of it during some sweet-ass opening gigs this weekend: tonight at the Paradise opening for Soul Asylum (we've forgiven those dudes for what happened after "Runaway Train," but that doesn't mean you have to), tomorrow at Ralph's Diner out in Worcester opening for Walter Schreifels, who is playing a solo show immediately following the Gorilla Biscuits reunion (holy shit!) that night at the Palladium. Both are conceptually perfect for attracting new Brennan converts: you assume both shows will attract grownup hardcore fans who aren't afraid of songs, and neo-Americana fuckups who aren't afraid of punk rock. Of the new stuff, Jake says, "It sounds unlike anything I've ever done. Very weird." Everyone says that, but we give the new Jake shit two enormous thumbs up -- his debut got waylaid in clean, showbandy stuff that felt like the kind of stuff you make when you're 40. The new songs are the raw-ass rocknroll shit he sounded like before Nashville got ahold of him. You can check it out at his MySpace page.
In addition to a bunch of new material -- you can hear some of it now at Brennan's MySpace page, though we wish he'd post up the song where X's John Doe stops by for guest-vocals -- Jake says he's dusting off an oldie but goodie from his days in Cast Iron Hike, his '90s post-hardcore band back when Victory didn't suck. We fucking loved that band, and anyone who was a fan of Schreifels' band Quicksand should check out CIH's newish MySpace page for the history. When we got Brennan's mass-email saying he'd reworked old Cast Iron songs in the manner of Bo Diddley, we thought he was just making random shit up to get people out to the gigs and called bullshit. But he says he's dead serious, and that he's got an arrangement of "Boxed" that's "all tremolo-y like Bo. It lends itself to that style." Crayyyyy-zee, duder.
DOWNLOAD: Cast Iron Hike, "Boxed" (mp3, via Myspace)
DOWNLOAD: Jake Brennan, "What Joe Strummer Said" (mp3, via MySpace)
Friday, July 14, 2006
Mission of Burma photos by Ben Sisto (see his Flickr stream)
Mission of Burma
July 13 at the Paradise, Boston
My ears are still ringing after Mission of Burma’s triumphant, sold-out-as-hell release gig for The Obliterati last night at the Paradise (ironically enough, a venue Burma was barred from back in the day for not having a big enough draw — look who’s laughing now). Roger Miller’s guitar sounded so wildly amazing — his Marshall combo on eleven and at the very front of the stage, spewing body-rattling blasts of beyond-overdriven power chords, feedback, scrapes, and skronk — that I tried my darndest to avoid putting anything in my ear holes to muffle the sound. (Interestingly, Miller, who suffers from tinnitus, forwent his usual earmuff-looking things for normal earplugs.) Ultimately the volume became unbearable, and I scampered to the lavatory to retrieve a couple of wads of toilet paper sometime in the middle of the first set. Yeah, they did two sets — a pretty brilliant idea, despite one heckler’s accusation of geezer syndrome. That’s an asinine accusation if I’ve ever heard one: the loud-and-nasty-as-fuck ferocity of last night’s show completely belied their age. Let’s hope the kids were taking notes.
— Will Spitz
Thursday, June 15, 2006
We cannot tell you how psyched we are to post this song. We cannot tell you how psyched we are that this band exists. Warning: unless you spent many hours living 15 minutes away from New Jersey, obsessing over obscure sleaze-metal bands like Heaven's Edge, you may not lose quite as much of your shit as we do every time this song comes on. If it helps you feel better about yourself later, on several occasions we have mistaken the opening few seconds of this song for the MSTRKRFT remix of Wolfmother. In all of those cases, however, it quickly became apparent that this was not that song but instead a much, much better song.
Yes, BANG CAMARO are a metal band, and a fucking good one, too: not any of this NWOBHM-by-numbers shit like Early Man, not any of this dry, techie metalcore crap, we're talking pure 1987 confused headbanger brilliance. Like metal from that period right after Master of Puppets came out when nobody could figure out whether they were supposed to go glam or turn thrash, whether they were supposed to be tough or sweet and ended up coming out a little of both.
Also, they don't have a lead singer. Instead they've got 20. All singing at the same time. Through the whole song. You've never heard anything like it.
The thing that will drive metal kids nuts is that the entire band is drawn from the ranks of trendy hipster rock bands. Believe us, we'd like to yell "False metal!" and beat them up, too. But dude: they're fucking good. Forget for a minute that Bleu has written a song for them, and that the guys belting out harmonies from the lip of the stage spend most of their nights hanging out at the Pill or something. It turns out that buried in bands like Taxpayer, the Bon Savants, the Vershok, Distinguished Members, and Reverse are a legion of Manowar fans. "Dude, metal fans abound," says Bang Camaro mastermind Alex Necochea, "they're everywhere. It just wasn't cool to like metal again until 15 minutes ago."
Remind us why we're not punching them in the face again?
Yes, they're a spot-on tribute to '80s metal -- like Headbangers Ball meets Polyphonic Spree -- but there's something genuinely, nauseatingly original about the concept. "I like to think of us as Boston's answer to Broken Social Scene," says Alex. "We're a collection of local musicians from all different bands, and our vocalists offer a diverse cross-section of the local scene. It's a completely collaborative effort which usually begins with a song concept, what it'll be about and what it will sound like, and then we set about coming up with something that embodies that concept as best we can. So far it works every time."
If you believe their Web site, BANG CAMARO are running around the northeast rocking upstate New York roadhouses and holding camaro-of-the-week contests. We've also heard that they've played all of one show, which resulted not only in the arrival of police but in the house it took place in being condemned. Plans call for a steady release of a half-dozen singles (including this one) by year's end, and an album at the end. Tomorrow night they play their first club show ever at the Paradise. You'd have to be a bigger jackass than us not to show up.
DOWNLOAD: Bang Camaro, "Push Push (Lady Lightning)"
-- blurb scribbled by OTD, who is too busy hanging with Bill Clinton and Ted Conover to post. Cami's just here babysitting for a couple days.
6/15/2006 9:33:42 AM by Cami | |
Friday, June 02, 2006
FRANCINE's new Airshow (Q Division, out June 13), their third album, is brimming with bittersweet, expertly arranged pop gobbets that are at once complex and completely accessible — great headphones music that evokes a strange, intangible nostalgia. Led by songwriter Clayton Scoble, who has a way with nifty couplets like, “You learned to shift lefthanded at night/So you could memorize her fingers in the right,” the band celebrate the disc’s release Friday, June 2 at the Paradise Lounge. With openers FURVIS (who are, like Francine before them, have survived a period of Pavement impersonation before finding fresh new indiepop avenues to call their own) and the INVISIBLE RAYS.
This is the best song on Airshow, and it shows how far they've come: sort of like the Beatles' "Day Tripper" as refracted through a series of bloodied and broken mirrors, it's got a classic melancholic melody that crackles through Notwisty electro-glitch pulses, chillout channel sweeps, and last-piano-in-the-universe decay.
DOWNLOAD: Francine, "Daysucker" (mp3)
PREVIOUSLY:
Pop-o-rama: Francine and Dave Aaronoff and the Details. By Brett Milano.
Familiar names and faces: Clayton Scoble's Francine and a third Janovitz brother. By Jonathan Perry.
Pop secrets: Damon & Naomi and Francine. By Brett Milano.
Monday, May 15, 2006
ThePhoenix.com's Tony Ware interviews Ninja Tune's dancefloor hooligans:
Early on, Coldcut’s beats-and-pieces æsthetic was put to the test on long-form ’80s remixes for Eric B & Rakim, among others, and credited, in pure pirate-radio fashion, to Grandmaster Flash and Double D & Steinski. Since then, the duo’s multimedia mentality has led to philosophical comparisons to Robert Pepperell’s “posthuman condition,” a “ mechorganic” convergence that’s too obscure to get into here when there’s a new Coldcut album, Sound Mirrors (their first in eight years), and a “Ninja Tunes Presents” tour that brings them to the Paradise this Monday, May 15, for a show with opening sets by fellow travelers Blockhead and DJ Signify.
Read, listen, go to show:
DOWNLOAD: Coldcut, "Man in a Garage" (mp3)
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
 With their second post-reunion album The Obliterati about to hit the shelves, Mission of Burma yesterday announced a brief tour that'll kick off July 13 at the Paradise. Advance tickets are available beginning today (UPDATED: click here for the presale). Those of you here in Boston are also invited this Tuesday, May 16 to Enormous Room in Central Square for the official CD-release/listening party. The band, as well as their manager/svengali DJ Carbo, will be spinning discs over there by the record machine.
PREVIOUSLY: First Listen: Mission of Burma's The Obliterati
Thursday, May 04, 2006
DOWNLOAD: Cut Chemist featuring Edan and Mr. Lif, "Storm" (mp3)
Boston's two famousest indie MCs go head to head on new official-leak track from the upcoming solo disc by Jurassic 5/Ozomatli turntable wizard Cut Chemist. "Storm" is far from perfect, with Chemist's wheels-of-steel acrobatics taking precedence over verses that were probably patched together from studio leftovers, but dude: it's Lif and Edan! On the same track!
Edan's tour with Prefuse 73 swings by the Paradise tonight [details]. Lif's Mo Mega (Def Jux), which OTD readers have already heard a song from, is out June 13.
Apropos of tonight's show, we direct you to Mac Swell's review of Edan's recent magnificence at Tufts, where the senior psych-rap fellow whipped out a guitar. Whereafter our reviewer emailed us the following remarkable likeness:  
Thursday, April 27, 2006
No fucking idea how this ended up at the Paradise Lounge, it's like deciding to hold the olympics at your high school gym. We're guessing club bookers have no name recognition when it comes to the world's greatest party-DJ entertainers? Still, even if the "5-time turntable champion" entry didn't sink in, you'd think someone would have noticed the "Kanye West's DJ" line on A-Trak's resume. Our dude David Day sat down with Alain Macklovitch to talk DVD shit and whatnot. But what's probably most ridiculous is that people haven't been camping out for weeks to throw down with the Rub and France's most sensitive thugs, Cuizi Cuiz & Orgasmic from TTC. Don't let the sensitive part fool you: les Bastards Sensibles are not to be fucked with, and neither are the Rub, as some people at SXSW found out (click here to view crazy handicam video of TTC/The Rub fighting people). And in case you missed it, here's what happened the last time the Rub were in town.
DOWNLOAD: Bonde Do Role, "Melo do Tobaco (A-Trak Remix)" (mp3)
WATCH: the trailer for A-Trak's Sunglasses Is a Must (video)
DOWNLOAD: TTC, Danse le Club (mp3, via Call Me Mickey)
DOWNLOAD: It's the Rub 7 (mp3 via MySpace)
Friday, April 14, 2006
Ghostface, Tony Starks, Theodore, Ironman, Pretty Tony -- the man's got as many aliases as he's got quality albums on his resume. His latest effort, Fishscale (Def Jam), shines a sheen not seen since Supreme Clientele, so when he rolled up to the Paradise last night the crowd was amped for his "hot like pasta" delivery. And Tone didn't disappoint. Ghost's hand-picked protégé, Trife Da God (whose duo release with Ghost last year, Put It On The Line, is not to be slept on) opened the set for the Iron one, bouncing around the stage, dropping verses, getting the crowd set for Ghost's glorious entrance. At which point I was picturing dude was gonna run up on stage like a defending champ, pimped out in a velour over-sized boxing robe with a Wu emblem stitched on the back, as we've witnessed in recent 106 & Park appearances. Instead my man was looking more like Payne Stewart with a dope throwback Scottish golf cap. Fashion aside, GFK still acted like a boxer throwing blow after blow, jab after jab with his gift of gab, diverse delivery and abstract verse content.
Tone was on from the jumpoff: cruisin' round the stage, precise with delivery, all with a tremendous commanding presence.
But Ghost was also there to have a good time, as evident when, while Trife and other hypers were filling in the gaps vocally, Mr. Starks was literally center stage in his own world, eyes closed, doing a modified Chubby Checker twist.
First it was joint-to-joint hottness, as the (rather unremarkable) DJ cued songs to come in one after the other in quick succession. The material at that point ranged from all over his catalogue, and of course some of his more famous Wu verses. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the concert was that, even though this date was in the middle of his promo tour for Fishscale, the Wu darling played surprisingly few cuts off his new jawn. [Another of our spotters put the number at exactly one -- OTD.]
After about 20 solid minutes that got the place sweaty it was time for a break. Tone cut the music as his personal assistant delivered him a fresh pair of out-the-box powder blue Wallabys, then Ghost took his time trying on the new kicks. Upon these meeting his approval, he gave huge a shout to his Boston Wallaby connect. [A friend in the footwear industry informed me that the Wally's are actually manufactured locally, at Clark's in Newton -- I had no idea!]
After a tribute and listening session to what influenced Ghost as a kid, including Marvin Gay, Curtis Mayfield, and other soul crooners, it was time to pay homage to the gone-but-not-never-forgotten ODB. It took two moments of silence to get it right. The first interrupted by anomalous "Wu" shouts and "ODB!" chants. This made Tony a bit salty. "I'm asking y'all for one thing: Silence.
Ten seconds of complete silence. I need to feel that love in the air. I need to sense his presence among us." After Ghost's pleading, all the lights went out, cell phone screens were held up glowing, lighters were lit, and a more successful tribute to true fam was complete.
The music was cued up again as the lights returned to the stage, and it was evident from the 36 Chambers instrumental that it was time for a full on Wu-Tang retrospective. The DJ simply played some of RZA's instrumental gems and all the MCs put down their mics and the crowd took over, literally screaming the lyrics to all the songs. It was a beautiful thing, being there, in that moment. And then came the realization: it is not just Ghostface, Cappadonna, RZA, GZA, etc., who make up the Wu army, but us, the fans. We push up the flag to stake the claim of our comrades, and last night, the Paradise was our little Iwo Jima.
-- Mac Carroll
(Mac Carroll is one half of the group Big Digits)
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Eisley are that close-knit Christian family band from Tyler, Texas. Their album Room Noises is lush and whimsical dream-pop, but they’re young and ambitious, too: they’ve toured with Coldplay and Brand New, so no way was Sherri DuPree’s head cold going to but a crimp in their style at the Paradise last night. Sherri, on guitar, and her sister Stacy, on keys, are Eisley’s backbone — their dueling sopranos are so pure and organic, it’s hard to hear them without imagining them in a cathedral with vaulted ceilings, or frolicking in a big sunny green field, surrounded by warbling nightingales — something chaste and flowery. When Sherri and Stacy sing, “I followed a rabbit through rows of mermaid entwined shrubbery,” as they do on “Marvelous Things,” it just seems | |