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Friday, July 18, 2008
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
In 2004, Esquire's Scott Rabb was struck by what he later described as "the worst idea I've ever had": the fiftysomething writer decided to go several rounds with the female boxer Ann "Brown Sugar" Wolfe, a 33-year-old ex-con. In his article "Last Tango in Cleveland," Rabb describe how, despite some serious training, he went on to get his ass handed to him by a girl.
This, in turn, was the inspiration for our own Chris Faraone, rap critic extraordinaire, to vault over the traditional barrier between critic and performer: to climb on stage at the Leedz Edutainment rap battle and compete as a freestyler, knowing quite well that he would likely get smashed to pieces. The piece Faraone wrote about this experience -- which included training with some of Boston's finest local battle-rhymers, who took pity on him -- is probably the most hysterical thing we've published, ever.
And now we can bring you -- thanks to our pals at VIMBY, who were following Chris around with a camera -- the video version, as Faraone takes to the Jam'n 94.5 studios to wreck shop against Ramiro & Pebbles' intern. (The original idea was for Chris to battle Akrobatik on the air, but Akro came down with a head cold or some shit.)
If, after watching the above, you feel the need to listen to the entire Jam'n clip -- and believe us, you will, you can grab it right here:
DOWNLOAD: Chris Faraone vs. JAM'N 94.5 intern (mp3)
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
As readers of certain message boards will recall, we've had our ups and downs with Ben Sisto. But last weekend's second installment of "Love During Wartime" (a/k/a Sisto Act 2) showcased the side of Sisto we've always admired: it's the kind of give-Boston-a-big-hug pep-rally that will be sorely missed when dude finally moves to New York. A shitload of DJs shared the turntables for half-hour slots, which you'd think wouldn't be enough, except that these are seasoned professionals who know that when the clock's ticking, you throw out the bullshit, crank "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now," and bring the house down. Or, if you're that dude Lone Wolf (previously seen on thephoenix.tv teaching MIT how to do the Soulja Boy dance), you dream up a 15-foot papier mache crying-police-officer face, put together a slapdash hardcore band, and fuck shit up. In any case, a raucous good time. "Ben Fucking Sistoooooo!"
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Son Volt, "Methamphetamine (Live at Museum of Fine Art, Boston, May 24, 2008)"
No, indeed: we don't think Hank done it this way. At least we're pretty certain Hank never played a museum. But as Jay Farrar put it, Remis Auditorium was a nice temporary respite from beer-and-cigs rock clubs (the following night they completed their mini-tour of Bay State art halls by taking a gig at MassMOCA).
In any case, the surroundings did little to dampen the enthusiasm of either band or audience -- by set's end, Farrar was blasting away on electric guitar (at a volume that must've shaken up the El Grecos), and fans stumbled out the West gate sporting shit-eating grins, shaking their heads with glee.
If you missed it, above we present a pair of tunes off Son Volt's latest, The Search.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
VIDEO: Greg Graffin, "Live Again (Live at Harvard's Memorial Church)"
This week in the fishwrap, James Parker interviews Bad Religion's Greg Graffin and Harvard's humanist chaplain, Greg Epstein, en route to digging into the farce that is Ben Stein's Expelled. As it happens, Graffin was on hand last week to collect a "lifetime achievement award" in Humanism from Epstein's organization, and we toddled along with our camera to bring you some clips. No one missed the irony that the event was held at Harvard's gorgeous Memorial Church (Bad Religion? A bunch of God-denying humanists? In a chapel?), and there were times when we thought they spake a bit much. (Graffin was seen glancing at his watch during Epstein's 20-minute-plus introduction, but following that particular marathon, Graffin then went on to deliver a nearly-half-hour lecture of his own, before settling in at the mic to sing a few songs. We included the full take of "Live Again," just after a representative clip from Graffin's address, in which he talks about his philosophies of performance and education.
Graffin: super-nice dude, by the way. He brought family with him, including his dad, but as far as we could tell arrived on foot, by himself. In fact, we bumped into him on our way in and completely didn't recognize him -- the blazer, maybe, or the hairline, or fact that as he slipped in through the back door with a hot beverage, he stopped and introduced himself by saying, simply, "Hi, I'm Greg."
Afterwards, we spent about 30 minutes deconstructing the audience Q&A with Daniel Brockman, who was far wittier than we can summon right now. Perhaps we'll get him to weigh in on it at some point. There were three video cameras at the church; the one belonging to WGBH had sound issues, as did the one belonging to the documentary film crew, so ours may end up being the best footage extant, unless someone brought a camera phone.
READ: Springtime for Darwin: What Ben Stein, Bad Religion, and a physics professor from Quincy can tell you about where you came from. By James Parker.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
It was just a couple of months ago that the Mission of Burma dudes threw down at Great Scott during their "Burma for Burma" show to draw attention to the abuses visited on the people of Burma by the military junta that's ruled the country for about the past quarter-century. With the death toll topping 25,000 (and possibly headed closer to 50k) in the horrific aftermath of a once-in-a-generation cyclone, we asked Burma's Roger Miller -- now on tour with one of his other band, the Alloy Orchestra -- for his thoughts.
"There are obviously two disasters in Burma (Myanmar) simultaneously: the storm and the government," Miller told OTD. "Too bad it couldn't have been a 'smart storm' and only taken out the government.
In this, he was echoed -- even more forcefully -- by an unlikely ally: Laura Bush. "The response to the cyclone is just the most recent example of the junta's failure to meet its people's basic needs," the First Lady said, without a hint of irony. New Orleans' 9th Ward (the neighborhood, not this guy) was unable to be reached for comment, but we'll speak for it: pot, kettle, black, etc.
More irony: the US Campaign for Burma, beneficiaries of the "Burma for Burma" shows, was in the midst of a celebrity-video-driven campaign -- starring Sarah Silverman (see below), Jennifer Aniston, and Eddie Izzard, among others -- to bring attention to human rights abuses in the country. The campaign's home-page has now shifted gears and is acepting donations for victims of the cyclone.
After the jump: video of Sarah Silverman, and then Mission of Burma, for Burma . . .
Monday, April 28, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Dirty Projectors, "Rise Above (Live at Museum of Fine Arts)"
Few things about Dirty Projectors' Dave Longstreth. One: while he looks tall and remote and Thurston-like from afar, up close, he looks impossibly young and is incredibly friendly. Two: Like the Grizzlies, he's a New Englander moonlighting as a Brooklynite. (Did we really overhear him say he briefly lived in Jamaica Plain?) Three: for a guy who prizes live-show spontaneity, he was awfully eager that we not leak any of the four new songs DPs unveiled last month at the Museum of Fine Arts, on the first night of their tour behind Rise Above. We'll chalk that up to opening-night jitters, since despite the band's protestations that the new shit wasn't ready for prime time yet, we couldn't for the life of us figure out what exactly was so bad about it. So, that said: here's the two "hits," as it were, from an album that (famously, already) doesn't sound shit like Black Flag. His Yale-ness may have been the center of attention for the indie fanboys who seemed to bring Longstreth as many albums as new-converts bought, but like most others we were kinda knocked out by the accompanists, whose eerie birdcall harmonies floated us through Dave's oceans of skronk.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Hallelujah the Hills, "Nurses Five Float Past (Live at Great Scott)"
It's not like either Hallelujah the Hills or Ho-Ag lack for members; and it's not like they're such natural collaborators that they were bound to appear on the same stage eventually. In fact, we're still not quite steady on why the hell HTH & Ho-Ag keep going all Voltron and forming the Hallelujah the Ho-Ag superband. (While we're on the topic, dudes, we hereby suggest that "Ho-Ag The Hills" rolls off the tongue a little more smoothly.) But all that aside, it's for shizzle that this is a formula for getting really fucking loud and weird, which is why we toted the cams up to Great Scott to capture this strange apparition in all its frazzled majesty. The pairing lost none of its spontanaeity by this being the second time they'd joined up, and it having been HTH's second show that day (the first having been a rare family matinee and the same venue). Our audio-recording device said fuck it and died at the beginning of the set, so double thanks to HTH for providing us with a backup track. Whew. What you get above: a standout track from HTH's headline set, drawn from their recent 100-percent-free-online-EP Prepare to Qualify, and a tag-team HTH/Ho-Ag pile-up on Tom Waits' "Rain Dogs," Tom Waits being one thing that intellectual folks-rockers and gonzo spazz-punk behemoths can still agree on. Speaking of which, this is probably a good time to suggest a Scar-Jo/Ho-Ag throwdown. Tell us in the comments which name they should go under: Scar-Ho or Jo-Ag?
If we had a Best Music Poll category for most-improved, Mike Fiore's FACES ON FILM would've had another notch in their belt, not to mention a pretty-much unimpeded cakewalk to the victory. As it is, he's up for best local singer-songwriter, for which we apologize because we didn't know quite where else to put 'em. The live show has gotten to the level of stunning motherfuckers, and it doesn't seem to matter whether he's onstage by himself, with a stripped down trio (we highly recommend their recent Flophouse Session over at Band In Boston), or -- see above -- with the full band plus friends, recorded live at the Middle East during one of our recent Best Music Poll showcase concerts.
Voting, of course, has ended for this year's BMP. Results will be released May 9, just in time to preview the Best Music Poll Concert at Bank of America Pavlion on May 10 with Death Cab for Cutie, Bob Mould, Amanda Palmer, and a couple of recently-announced BMP winners: Eli "Paperboy" Reed and Passion Pit. Tickets are still available, but not for long.
PREVIOUSLY:
COMING SOON!: Hallelujah the Hills, Big Digits
Monday, April 14, 2008
No Request Zone: Real Talk from Boston's DJ Elite
Not long ago, we teamed up with our sister mag Stuff at Night to bring together eight of Boston's finest DJs to shoot the shit about the state of dance music in our fair city. It turned out to be far more interesting than we had any right to expect it would be, and may even have squashed some beef in the process. Was kinda awesome to see the youngbloods pay respects to a 20-year vet like Bruno, who sat at the head of the table and dispensed knowledge like the Godfather. And it was also awesome to be able to make what we hope will be some lasting introductions. The conversation meandered from practical advice -- like how to handle obnoxious requests -- to big-picture shit, like Bruno and the Soul Clap dudes talking about the evolution of tastes and audiences, Baltimoroder dropping ready-for-dissertation paragraphs on the effects of technology on the profession, and DJ Knife lamenting his switchover to Serrato. You can watch the trailer above, and read the whole article over at StuffAtNight as part of their annual music issue.
But the best thing to come out of this whole meeting was a commitment to actually get everyone in the room on the same bill -- no small feat, and in our minds kinda historic in terms of bringing together a bunch of different scenes. Tonight, all eight DJs from the roundtable will be taking turns on the turntables at the Good Life, launching what we hope will become a regular everyone-and-the-kitchen-sink event. But on the off chance that never happens, you might want to stop by. It's free, with complimentary PBR for the early birds: but it's also list-only, so make sure to rsvp to RSVP@stuffatnight.com. 
Monday, April 07, 2008
The last time we tried to shoot Viva Viva, we made an ill-fated foray into infrared photography. This time, with the addition of actual lights, you may even be able to make out more than a Sasquatch-like outline. Which is good, because we love these dudes. Forget that VV grew out of two of our favorite early-00s bands -- the Lot Six and Officer May -- or that they've got this awesome Mutt-and-Jeff thing going on. Since the dissolution of those bands, their respective frontmen have taken their rock-and-roll hearts back to the classic shit: one second they sound like the Doors doing Beatles-in-Hamburg material, the next they're hybriding Stones/Stooges raveups in the manner of the first Verbena album. Here's the set opener, recorded March 29 at the Middle East as part of our Best Music Poll showcase:
COMING SOON: Faces on Film Live at the Middle East
Last week we scooped the news about Radiohead’s August 13 concert date at Tweeter Center (tickets go on sale this Saturday at 10 a.m.) and set the music blogs abuzz. Today word from ye olde Inbox, via our friends at LiveNation, is that opening duties will be divvied amongst Grizzly Bear, whom Radiohead covered at their recent top-secret London gig, and Liars, who Thom Yorke raved about when he guess DJ’ed NPR’s All Songs Considered in February. So who’ll be gracing Mansfield with their Yorke-approved presence this summer? Grizzly Bear, those Brooklynite kings of fuzzy, buzzing, eerily quiet, then extremely loud indie rock. Their Friend EP was firmly lodged at the top of our "Most Played" list for a solid chunk of 2007, along with In Rainbows, to the point where we thought our iTunes might protest and throw whatever's at the top of their "Most Purchased" list at us instead. Which means that we’ve now progressed from excited about the show, to high on summer concert plans, Fitter Happier, Everything In It’s Right Place, shaking in our desk chairs excited. It’s notable that Pitchfork.tv launched today and, in a perhaps serendipitous, or perhaps expertly calculated move, posted some excellent live footage of Radiohead performing Disc Two’s "Bangers & Mash" in Nigel Godrich’s basement (that’s infinity times cooler than our basement, which mainly just has spiders and an old ping pong table). Of course that shit’s already on You Tube, so here you go: And, to get you all in the Radiohead/Grizzly Bear combo mood, here's the video for Grizzly Bear's "Knife," made by the San Francisco-based duo Encyclopedia Pictura, who also just released Bjork's astoundingly trippy/picturesque video for "Wanderlust":
--Caitlin E. Curran
Friday, April 04, 2008
Voting has officially ended for this year's Best Music Poll: results will be announced in May, a few days before our annual BMP Concert extravaganza (bands: Death Cab, POTUSA, Amanda Palmer, Bob Mould, and two of the winners from the Poll.) To tide you over, we'll be rolling out live video of some of our fave BMP acts, taken from a couple of Best Music Poll showcase concerts. (Next BMP showcase: Hallelujah the Hills and Pretty & Nice, April 12 at Great Scott.)
We're kicking these off with Tulsa's epic cover of Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me," recorded last weekend at the Middle East downstairs. Truth be told, we didn't know it was a cover until we Google'd the lyrics. Having YouTube'd the original, we can say that this practically qualifies as a brand-new song: they've retained the lyrics and the broad outlines of the structure but stretched the original's Bakersfield/honky-tonk rampage into a smoldering, autumnal rave-up that sounds as if it could've come from the Magnolia Electric Co. songbook:
Tulsa, "Oh Lonesome Me (Don Gibson cover; live at the Middle East)"
COMING SOON: Viva Viva live at the Middle East
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Xiu Xiu, "Clown Town (Live at Museum of Fine Arts)"
Xiu Xiu, "FTW (Live at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston)"
If Jamie Stewart (who for all intents and purposes is Xiu Xiu) is playing with a full deck of cards, it’s not a deck you’d find on Planet Earth. So, not to judge or anything, but maybe before you go to a concert, you should at least listen to one song by that artist. Or learn anything about them at all. A lot of these MFA shows have a similarly accessible indie rock vibe, but come on: for at least the first half of Xiu Xiu's MFA show last week, peope were fleeing between songs like the place was on fire. This was surprising because Xiu Xiu are actually more straightforward live than on record, though that may not be saying much. Their rhythms are tighter and the instrumentation is often fuller; however, things definitely got trademark Xiu Xiu super uncomfortable when Stewart played alone on the acoustic guitar, as evidenced (above) by "F.T.W. and "Clowne Town": the songs were hanging on by a thread, and I curled up nervously in my seat hoping he wouldn’t chuck the guitar on the floor and run out of the room. Once the wusses were weeded out and the show ended, the once-sold out but now half empty Remis Auditorium gave the band a solid 10 minute standing ovation -- which continued even when the lights came on. Alas, and weirdly, we were not rewarded with another song. After such an emotionally (and vocally) draining performance, we can only imagine Stewart was either drinking heavily or passed out in the tour bus. A friend said after the show, "It was like walking in on someone who was masturbating and crying at the same time." Does that make us creepy voyeurs for enjoying ourselves?
-- Megan Bell
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Mountain Goats, "Sign of the Crow (Live at the Museum of Fine Arts) Mountain Goats, "Ain't Living Long Like This (Rodney Crowell cover, Live at the Museum of Fine Arts) Mountain Goats, "Heretic Pride (Live at the Museum of Fine Arts)"
Mountain Goats w/ the Moaners
Live at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston
March 14, 2008
Moaners: two gals from Chapel Hill doing it Doo Rag style. Totally face-melting. We forgot how much we used to love bottleneck-slide-guitar-Fred McDowell-style punk rawk. For a couple years in the '90s there were like dozens of bands like this crawling around Memphis. Fuck. There is a conspicuous lack of mp3s or video of these ladies hanging around the internet. Unfortunately, we will not be adding to the record on that count. Maybe some other time.
However: we got some exclusive, new Mountain Goats stuff. At top: "Sign of the Crow," a great this-generation-is-fucked song that John Darnielle says he wrote three weeks ago in a hotel room in Alaska. Below that: "Ain't Living Long Like This" a Rodney Crowell blues that Darnielle got a hankering to play while hanging out in the dressing room, despite the fact that he'd never played it live before. At bottom: the full-band MTNGTS powers through the title track from their new "Heretic Pride."
We were thinking about the sudden appearance of that Crowell tune a few days after this show, when Darnielle announced he was cancelling an upcoming Australian tour for unspecified "personal medical reasons": "If it weren't serious, I would be leaving for Oz next week, believe me," he wrote on the Mountain Goats site. "You'll be doing me a great favor if you keep me in your thoughts and prayers, and if you know in your heart that I don't play around in doing right by the people I love: I will be back to make this up to you." Aussies, hope the above will whet your appetite for the time being.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
What goes around (goes around, goes around) comes all the way back around
We have no idea who pitched who on having the Stooges covering Madonna's "Burning Up" at the RNRHOF induction last night, but we want to have this person inducted into the Rock N Roll hall of fame, and quickly. Ironically, we missed this live last night because we were watching a rerun of last year's "Fashion Rocks," on which the Stooges play "I Wanna Be Your Dog" -- and, later on the same show, the Gossip turn the end of their "Yr Mangled Heart" into an impromtu disco cover of "I Wanna Be Your Dog." (Beth Ditto, prefacing the song: "Madonna said 'Express Yourself'; Morrissey said, 'Accept Yourself'; and RuPaul said, 'You Gotta Work.'") There's no real musical irony here at all. Madonna's original demo version of "Burning Up" made it abundantly clear, even moreso than the official version, that it was more or less a punkish new-wave tune -- which is one reason that punks can't resist covering it. (Said punks include the man playing bass in the Stooges last night -- Mr. Mike Watt, who previously covered "Burning Up," as well as "Into the Groove," with Sonic "Ciccone" Youth back in 1986. Sonic Youth, of course, were also known to cover "I Wanna Be Your Dog.") More to the point, one of the revelations of Madge's return to touring a couple years ago was that she was learning to play guitar -- or at least learning to play just enough that she could sneak into the set a version of "I Love New York" that quotes explicitly from (wait for it) "I Wanna Be Your Dog," in which song she also tended to scream, Iggy-like, things such as "Fuck off!" and "Go suck George Bush's dick!" We hope someone gets a better clip of the Stooges' Madonna set on YT quickly. And someone should get the live tracks added to iTunes or something. Kthxbai!
Stooges, "Burnin Up (Live 2008)." (With Horatio Sans on guitar? And Madonna, in the front row, suddenly realizing that this is awful close to what she's going to look like in 15 years?)
Gossip, "Yr Mangled Heart/I Wanna Be Your Dog" (Live 2007)
Madonna, "I Love New York/I Wanna Be Your Dog" (Live 2006)
Friday, March 07, 2008
Today, YouTube has baptized itself as Sigur Róstube: all Sigur Rós, all day. The whole darn homepage is all Sigur Rós videos. So, you can take a break from watching Cat of 1000 Faces, Chris Crocker looking more and more bonkers, and that whole viral Yes We Can thing, and get all contemplative and dramatic with everyone's favorite Icelandic band (tied with Björk/The Sugarcubes, obv), staring into space and pondering life's worth to fan-made videos for "með blóðnasir." Take that, Barack! And you thought St. Patrick's Day was the next big holiday! As an added bonus, if you missed the December Kendall screening of Heima, which Sigur Rós describes thusly: " Filmed over two weeks during the summer of 2006 when the band
undertook a series of free, unannounced concerts in Iceland. They
hauled 40-plus people round 15 locations to the furthest flung corners
of their homeland for their debut venture into live film, to create
something, well, inspirational," you can catch all 97 minutes of it on YT today as well. We'll get you in the mood with a few choice Sigur Ros clips:
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Gnarls Barkley news abounds today. First, the oh-so-predictable happened: the album, aptly titled The Odd Couple, leaked. Yawn. Call us when a hugely anticipated follow-up album doesn't leak. (Actually, Atmosphere might be able to pull it off. A recent e-mail from their publicist informed us that the only way for reviewers to listen to their newest record, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, is to head to one of the SXSW listening parties, or travel to Independent Label Group's offices in NYC. That's the kind of extreme leak prevention Always is talking about in those gross blue liquid test commercials.) Today, NME is reporting that GB's video for "Run," the first single from The Odd Couple, has been banned from MTV ( huge bummer, because now we'll have nothing to watch for the 45 minutes around 4 am or so, when MTV actually plays videos, except for the latest Rihanna song craze or whatever). From NME: "It was deemed that the video for 'Run', which features a cameo appearance from Justin Timberlake, may trigger epileptic seizures with its strobe-like effects. 'I don't know exactly what's going on, but we're having issues,' Danger Mouse told Billboard. 'I think (the video) is cool. It works for me. But I'm not necessarily that easily seasick.'" The video's still everywhere online - including above, should we be posting a disclaimer or something? - so it's not really a huge blow for the craaazzzyy duo - if anything, everyone's rushing to YouTube now to watch the Timberlake-a-licious video, and then thinking really hard about whether they feel dizzy or anything. We just watched it and we feel ok - the song itself has all of the addictive deliciousness we hoped Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere follow-up would have, and pairs well with a frantic dance party - but we're no experts on photogenic or photosensitive epilepsy. But, on a sensory level, it's nothing like some of the crazy light and sound performances we caught a few weeks ago in Amsterdam (and we've been looking for an excuse to blog about), which also came with a disclaimer for those with epilepsy. A few photos:    The images above are from an experimental light/sound performance at an art gallery in Amsterdam, and a few nights later we experienced something similar at a packed, multi-level club called Paradiso. It was the tail end of the Sonic Acts festival, and the final act of the night, an italian multimedia artist called Tez, used "flickering video, in the form of abstract lights and color gradients, coupled with synchronized synthetic sounds, distributed in a surround quadrophonic system," which, in more understandable terms, means glaring, shifting lights projected on a screen, and software-manipulated sounds leaking from extremely loud speakers - there was a large sign measuring the decibel levels. It was simultaneously totally strange and totally engaging - and maybe just a bit overwhelming. Who knew there was a connection between Italian experimental sonic weirdness, and American dance-pop?
Friday, February 29, 2008
Township, "Sandy" (Flophouse Sessions, Feb 2008)
Jen and Andy, the betrothed Somerville duo behind the fantastic Band in Boston Podcast, have recorded many of our favorite local indie bands for their "Flophouse Sessions" -- a series taped live in the pair's living room, on stripped-down gear, and given away free on teh internets. We loved their podcast so much we decided to be friends. And now, in the first of what we hope are many collaborations to come, we've teamed up with BIB to present the latest Flophouse Session: a live set by hirsute local heroes Township, who play a CD-release gig tonight at T.T. the Bear's Place. Check 'em out, and grab the full Flophouse Session in the ever-poular mp3 format at www.bandinbostonpodcast.com.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
DOWNLOAD: Hooray for Earth, "Warm Out" (mp3)
Hooray for Earth: odd band. Get 'em drunk, and they're liable to belt out a Justin Timberlake hit, or maybe one of Jacko's. Left on his own, their singer has been known to crank out Magnetic Fields covers. In their own right, HFE have carved out a unique niche that's equal parts indie breadth and metal brawn, like a second coming of Queens of the Stone Age. "Warm Out," taken from their new Cellphone EP, staggers forward on a clawing, atavistic, baritone-guitar riff, the rhythm section lurching like mechanized infantry. But the bridge that follows is a thing of beauty: the guitars turn taut, lithe, and synchronous. Clusters of ascending notes flank and overwhelm the main theme; and the lyrics, a short paen to renewal that evokes the majestic/melancholic Mag Fields of "Love Comes Home To Paris in the Spring," turn sad and then frantic, just before the whole thing starts all over again. Grab the mpfree above, check out the video below, then see if you can help yrself from stampeding their EP-release gig on Leap Night -- that's tomorrow -- at the Middle East.
HFE: Warm Out (video)
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Black Francis: "I'm MIA!"
"I Sent Away" has been kicking around on YouTube for a few months, but Mr. Frank Black/Black Francis is finally getting around to releasing SVN FNGRS, the sex-and-birth(?!)-obsessed mini-album from whence it comes, on March 7. Not a moment too soon: we were beginning to get bored with trying to pong Frank's head into the bucket over at his fancy new website. And since his press lady was nice enough to send off a very blog-like check-in from Francis himself, we figured we'd just publish it, since it's far weirder than anything we coulda written about it. Suffice to say that "I Sent Away" is pretty damn punk, and so's the video: if we didn't know better, we'd suspect the treatment went something like, "Francis wears a hoodie and pretends to mosh." You think this guy couldn't write another Pixies album? C'mon now.
From the inbox:
Cooking Vinyl has agreed to release my latest session (thank you CV!), which I have called SVN FNGRS, on March 4, 2008 [in the U.S.]. It was written, recorded and mixed in six days, and on the seventh day, Mark Lemhouse did artwork. The band for the session was myself, of course, on guitar, vocals and harmonica, Jason Carter on drums, and Violet Clark on bass. The session was produced by Jason Carter. There are seven (7) songs clocking in at 20 minutes and so I suppose it qualifies as a mini-LP under the old formats. No one seems to know or care what the current format models are (a very weakened LP on compact disc continues to rule the roost by default), which is WONDERFUL; so let's just call it music and pay whatever price your Google research turns up. If you want it for free, you can usually find some tracks for free download on my Myspace page or on my own blackfrancis.net. The production is sparse in terms of the band, which, by the way, seems to be a kind of 'Black Francis' thing that has been developing ever since I went back to the old stage name, but is much more produced in terms of the vocal layering of my own voice, perhaps along the lines of TEENAGER OF THE YEAR. I won't bother you here with what the damn concept is, but let's just say the theme revolves around a lot of NASTY sex, NASTIER death, and beautifully strange birth. It was a coincidence that the whole 'finger' thing turns up again; management asked for a digital b-side for a BLUEFINGER track and what they got was this seven fingered thing which is not related to the HERMAN BROOD concept, although I assure you he would approve of all this nasty business. I have made a video for the song I SENT AWAY (one of the birth songs) and you can see it on YouTube and other places, so I guess that qualifies as the first single as released by the impatient artist. I believe the more pragmatic record company is releasing another song (THE SEUS - Charles Normal re-mix) as ITS first single and I'll make an Internet vid for that one too, as soon as I finish recording the digital b-side for THAT (maybe I'll do a self indulgent symphony - note to myself; symphony wiki - written in 10 minutes); DAMN! That espresso this morning was BLACK and STRONG! BLACK & STRONG & LONG!! MUDDY BLACK WATER! My brain is exploding.....
--Black Francis
Oh, yeah, one more thing: who dat? 
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Proof that the Devil doesn't have all the good music
At the time of his death, on February 24 at the age of 60, Christian freak-folk luminary | |