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?

3/5/2008 5:07:54 PM by Caitlin | Comments [0] |  

We were gonna post a Journey video but we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it.

Oh, listmania, you’re like Paris Hilton holding a plate of Oreos: contradictory, slightly off-putting, and yet fascinatingly addictive. Just when we think we’re listed out, we find ourselves reading another one, and nodding enthusiastically or wondering why anyone thinks the new Band of Horses album is Top 10-worthy. The best list-related reading of the week is undoubtedly Slate’s ongoing documentation of a musical conversation between Robert Christgau, Jody Rosen, and Ann Powers. If you’ve got an hour, it’s worth reading through, but if not, here’s our favorite part: On Sunday Rosen praised Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” as the song of the year, thanks to boosts from The Sopranos and drunken karaoke-ing college kids across the US (Rosen notes that “Don’t Stop Believin’” wasn’t critically acclaimed in 1981, leading him to deduce “There's a "Don't Stop Believin'" of 2007 out there somewhere; it's probably some Nickelback song. Or maybe it's Mims”). Powers agreed (“Journey is so relevant now”), and just our heads began to spin Christgau verbally smacked some sense into everyone, via his post on Monday: “Journey sucks. They sucked in 1981, they'll suck in 2033, and they suck now. Who gives a fuck what Tony Soprano thinks?” Xgau, we love you, even though we have no idea how Soulja Boy's Souljaboytellumdotcom ended up on your Top 30 albums of ‘07 list.

List-related blog item #2: Flipping through our roommate’s copy of Blender recently and we spotted Animal Collective’s Strawberry Jam at number 90 of the mag’s list of the 100 Greatest Indie-Rock albums Ever. “Way to go AC!” we thought. We might’ve picked Feels instead, but whatevs. Then we checked out Blender’s Best 25 Albums of 2007 and, amazingly, Animal Collective is not on there. Like, at all. WTF? Is Strawberry Jam so great and influential that we’re supposed to just feel it’s presence on there? Or is this a reality check that these lists - all of them, not just Blender’s - are kinda BS because (duh) it’s all a matter of (sometimes dissenting, even at the same publication) opinion. We’re not pointing fingers here - we just put the finishing touches on our best album lists, look for ‘em on the Internets soonish - but maybe Slate’s got the right idea in turning listmania into a friendly debate about musical happenings within the past year, rather than a set-in-stone, these are the best albums period, kind of thing. Or maybe that’s what Idolator’s comment section is for.

12/19/2007 3:28:31 PM by Caitlin | Comments [1] |  

From a recent, daringly honest (in an intriguingly refreshing way) interview with Antiquiet, here are three reasons why we love Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme - AKA the quotes don't lie!

Reason #1: Unabashed major label hate.

"Fuck the labels man, they suck. The last thing they’re stripping down is their own expense accounts and shit. I mean, Jimmy Iovine of Interscope records takes a private jet or rides first class to tell a band they don’t get tour support. You know what I mean? Fuck that shit, I’m tired of it. And I’m not gonna be quiet because the American label, not Canada, not Europe, but our American label’s fucking us like crazy, so fuck them. Why should I not say anything, what am I afraid of? I’m not afraid of them."

Reason #2: Total opposite of PR speak about Interscope.

"I THINK OF INTERSCOPE AND ALL THESE LABELS AS THE BIGGEST FUCKING IDIOTS ON THE PLANET. And print that in capitals, because they can’t do anything to me. That’s the difference. The reason is because finally, for once, the fact that this is just their job and this is my life does a flip flop on them because they can’t stop me from being me and from playing, but they can lose their jobs and have to fucking work at Shakey’s pizza like they should’ve all along."

Reason #3: Respect for the little people.

"All the kids, like the girl that hooked us up with this interview probably does more work than Jimmy Iovine because she’s in the nuts and bolts of what goes on in Interscope. The underpaid, overworked section of Interscope. The interns and assistants and people that are starting out."

Read Antiquiet's full interview, in all its awesomeness, here.

12/5/2007 12:05:18 PM by Caitlin | Comments [0] |  

Another blow was dealt to Boston's hip-hop reputation last week when Epitaph indie-rapper BUSDRIVER walked out on a Harpers Ferry gig after the club's soundman made a racist remark to one of Busdriver's crew members. Yesterday, the club released a formal apology to the rapper, stating that the club has a "zero tolerance" policy towards such remarks, that the soundman in question had been fired, and that the club is committed to further sensitivity training for its remaining employees. Matt Ashare runs down the full story, including an interview with Busdriver and the full text of the Harpers apology.

11/21/2007 1:21:25 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

First off, this was recorded a couple of hours BEFORE the band stormed off stage at the Paradise the other night, apparently pissed off by a bunch of drunken yahoos. So no more enlightenment on that point, but FNX's Sandbox crew gets to the bottom of his new haircut and preference for chewing tabacky.

DOWNLOAD: Kings of Leon's Caleb Falowill interview (mp3)
PREVIOUSLY: Drama Kings of Leon at the Paradise

8/2/2007 6:15:58 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

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.

8/1/2007 1:12:52 PM by Caitlin | Comments [0] |