That’s…

Entertainment, plus a shitty, annoying pop up ad that gets in the way of a great song. (Thanks Google!)

Big Boi

“Sir Lucious Left Foot…The Son of Chico Dusty” is probably the first hip-hop album I’m really looking forward to in a long time. Sasha Frere-Jones did a nice write-up on the album for The New Yorker. Now if we could only get pre-2001 André 3000 back.

Hounds of Love

I caught this band a few weeks ago- going into the concert blind as to who they were. The Futureheads turned out to be great- very high energy, funny banter, with fast, intense numbers…
They also really engaged with the audience, playfully enlisting us to provide the base melody for their Hounds of Love cover. Totally the opposite from a recent experience seeing Echo and the Bunnymen, where the lead singer was a pretentious, selfish prick who put on a miserable show.
Topping off the Futureheads concert was a great opener by the always likeable The Like, with new sexy keyboardist (Annie) and bassist (Laena).

Streets of fire

Streets Of Fire
When the night’s quiet and you don’t care anymore,
And your eyes are tired and there’s
someone at your door
And you realize you wanna let go
And the weak lies and the cold walls you embrace
Eat at your insides and leave you face to face with
Streets of fire

I’m wandering, a loser down these tracks
I’m dying, but girl I can’t go back
‘Cause in the darkness I hear somebody call my name
And when you realize how they tricked you this time
And it’s all lies but I’m strung out on the wire
In these streets of fire

I live now, only with strangers
I talk to only strangers
I walk with angels that have no place
Streets of fire

Copyright © Bruce Springsteen (ASCAP)

Videos after the jump…

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Teenage Engineering

I’ve been following these guys for a while now, drooling over their OP-1, which seems to be taking eon’s to bring to market. A great little machine, nicely laid out and colour coded. I’m a big fan of their ID aesthetic… even their site and graphics are sweet.

Just dues

Kate Bush is a brilliant artist. She has long been one of my favourite musicians. An incredible songwriter, and yet quite overlooked in recent years… perhaps due to her quiet lifestyle. I’m happy to read she is getting some respect from young female musicians as they recognize her influence. Read all about it at the Guardian website.

Older

Well, I guess we all have to grow up sometime. Plus move to the burbs, get new teeth and a bland getup. It’s just the contrast from youth to maturity is so much more exaggerated in a character like Shaun Ryder…

Here is the grown up version of Shaun, present day…

Plus, a wee doc for those interested in Mr. Ryder

The Runaways

I’ve had a bit of a crush on Joan Jett since Ninski sent me a link to photographer Brad Elterman’s website a few months ago leading me to post up these amazing photos of her. So besides the fact that The Runaways were a pretty ground-breaking band as far as female bands go, I was excited to see Elterman reporting of a movie being in production detailing their story. As of right now it’s hard to tell if the movie isn’t anything more than a glorified Runaways movie video, but I’m ok with that.

Back to reality.

I returned from the Los Angeles on the red-eye Monday morning just in time for Compass. And I have to say it was a great trip. I got to catch up with old friends and make some new ones.

I don’t get a lot of opportunities to cruise around with the windows down, or cruise around at all. So the first couple days of driving in LA are always a bit nostalgic for me until I get sick of having to get in a car to go everywhere. As always when visiting LA one of the first things I do is stop in at Amoeba Records to pick up a stack of used CD’s (yes CD’s) to listen to while cruising in my rental. Here is my snapshot review of the three worth mentioning here… Blakroc is overrated and over-produced. Clipse’s Til’ the Casket Drops is severely underrated. And XX is on point. So once I got my soundtrack set it was time to shop, eat, and drink.

I think that the first thing that hits you in the face if you’re shopping LA over the past few weeks are the huge sales. Especially for us from the East as all the Fall and Winter gear is deeply discounted right now. 75% off was the norm in most places. And with months of cold weather left here in NY, that worked out just fine for me. For the best sale selections head over to Douglas Fir, Opening Ceremony, and American Rag. They all had some really nice items albeit all with broken size runs. So it can be the luck of the draw.

The town was buzzing because of the Grammys, so restaurants and bars were packed with B-listers and stores were full of stylist picking items up for clients and backpack rappers turned actors. I love any city when it’s buzzing like that. Definitely not a good weekend to get a table at The Bazaar though.

Stand out shop in LA proper right now is Confederacy. What an amazing space! And a great product selection but really no sales to speak of. Just goes to show how a deep pocketed owner (Danny Masterson) can run a store with out desperation to bring in revenue.

I spent more time down in Venice and Santa Monica than I usually do. Was trying to get the sun there to wash the NY cold off of me. Santa Monica is decidedly unfashionable but relaxed, a good place to meet up with some buddy’s for beers. But Abbot Kinney in Venice was the real star. The boulevard continues to transform itself into a must on any trip. I stopped in at Stronghold and fell in love. The building alone is worth seeing. It’s so out of place and oddly strange in Venice. It looks like a miniature red-brick factory building with a Spanish-style terracotta shingled roof. Apparently, the building was a boxing gym before they turned it into retail.

While I was there (spent probably a couple hours in the store) I had a pair of the slims modified for me. Slight taper, an extra 2 inches on the hem for a nice cuff, and suspender buttons (Thanks Carolina!). The denim is a great deep blue raw selvage with some give. They were straight off the line and weren’t even on the racks when I walked in. They’re in transit to me as I write this and really looking forward to wearing them in.

Some quick notes on some labels or brands that are not new but impressed me were Apolis Activism, RRL (specifically the shop on Melrose), BD Baggies, and the Spring Y3 footwear and accessories collection is killer. An industrial desingers dream. I’ve always thought it was the best and most consistent of the fashion + athletic collab lines out there, but with this one they truly get all my respect.

Mr. Hudson feat. Kanye West - Supernova

Truth be told I’m not sure I like the Kanye-ized Mr.Hudson, who seems to be minus the Library now. Mr.West sadly seems to have auto-tuned the English out of him. I will have to hear more from his upcoming album to adequately judge but I’m already missing the old Mr.Hudson (see below), who I’ve been waiting to release a new album for over two years now.

What a shame…

Wonder Town | The New Yorker

Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker recounts, in amazing detail, her first encounter with Sonic Youth to commemorate the band’s 30 years in existence.

“One summer night in 1986, I saw Sonic Youth play at CBGB. The club was oppressively hot. Thurston Moore, six feet six and sandy-haired, originally from Bethel, Connecticut, looked slightly distracted at first, like a surfer who’d wandered indoors. He opened the set by pressing a button on a large boom box; Madonna’s “Into the Groove” began to play while he fiddled, slowly, with his gear. I loved Madonna, and I was a little afraid that the band was making fun of her. But they let her song finish without comment, and then launched into “Tom Violence,” a dirgelike piece that drones and whines. If the bright, square notes of “Into the Groove” came from a world of easy round numbers, Sonic Youth’s music was made of intricate fractions. Each song was crammed with information. Moore swayed as if the stage were heaving, and he sang as though he were trying to calm himself down. Lee Ranaldo, a rugged kid from Long Island with a shaggy hair style, stood stage right, whipping his guitar through the air, now and then crouching to get a better purchase on it. Kim Gordon was center stage, bass in hand; she was the least seasoned musician onstage, and her playing was simple and relentless. Cool, blond, serene, she was like the lead in a movie who refuses to read from the script, more Marina Vlady than Brigitte Bardot.

I stood close to the stage, crushed in a group of people who had probably been pogoing or moshing to any number of bands that week. As loud and powerful as Sonic Youth were, the music was not straight punk, or even modified punk. I had no idea what kind of music it was. “White Kross”—which would soon make its way onto their 1987 album, “Sister”—was fast, straightforward rock, except that every guitar was strangely tuned, moaning and howling instead of crunching in satisfying consonance. The song that stood out that night was one of the quietest, “Shadow of a Doubt,” from the band’s fourth album, “Evol.” Moore and Ranaldo played a series of lightly fretted harmonics that, just as they were on the brink of becoming actual chords, dissolved in a series of electric pops. Gordon whispered the lyrics: “Met a stranger on a train,” and then, later, “Swear it wasn’t meant to be.” The guitars opened for a surge of ringing chords in the middle of the song, but it was determined to remain unresolved. The feeling was a little like being held hostage in a room with someone who refuses to turn on the lights.” Read the full account here.

Strange Fruit

I was doing the dishes the other day (oh how I abhor dishwashing) and was listening to Billy Holiday. “Strange Fruit” was playing, a favourite of mine. I understood the basic premise of the song but when I listened closely I suddenly realized the words weren’t quite so symbolic (Southern trees bear strange fruit…) but rather graphic and harsh. An extraordinary song. (And no, its not a new song for anyone wanting to reblog this.) “Strange Fruit” was inspired by a lynching in Indiana in 1930. The song was written as a poem by Abel Meeropol and published in 1936.

Jeff Buckley Film

According to a report in Australia’s Courier-Mail newspaper, producers Michelle Sy (Finding Neverland) and Orion Williams (Control) are overseeing the project with Buckley’s mother Mary Guibert. Ryane Jeffe has been commissioned to write the movie.

Robert Pattinson and James Franco are among the stars eager to play Jeff Buckley in the proposed biopic of the late singer-songwriter, which is also attracting interest from Jared Leto and James Marsden (is it sad I had to look up Robert Pattinson was? just never cared to remember his name before).

Guibert revealed that the actor portraying her son, who drowned tragically in 1997, will have to sing and play his own instruments for the role. “Whoever gets the part will need a lot of self-discipline because they won’t be able to fake it,” she said. “It’s going to take a phenomenal set of skills.”

Brad Pitt had previously attempted to make a film about Buckley’s life, but the project fell apart when Guibert rejected two script drafts from British writer Emma Forrest.

This could be disastrous or amazingly fulfilling for Buckely fans (which includes me)… let’s hope for the latter.

If you have an hour and want to hear one of the most amazing voices ever in music watch Jeff Buckley in concert above.

The Beatles

This is such an impressive trailer for the upcoming Beatles Rockstar game. So much detail and thought put into this… essentially a mini-movie in itself, which runs alongside a traditional (boring) game trailer. I’m not sure why they went to all the trouble to build this but thankful they did. What should be done is extend this for two hours, and fuse all the best bits from their old movies, press junkets, and doc’s like I met the Walrus into one music packed film. No, I don’t mean do another Across the universe…

Inspired: Gang of Four

The Gang of Four… simply put- an awesome band.

I joined the fan party very late in the day, probably past when it was trendy to “discover” them, but no matter. I love their music, admire much of the lyrics. My brother introduced me to them- he mentioned seeing this mind blowing, super intense and energetic raw band back in the “old days.” This was back when my brother Robin used to see a ton of new bands that came through Ottawa. It was probably 1980. Anyhow, GO4 really stood out from all those shows he saw.

My favourite track? Probably “I love a man in uniform”- its a great song, with funny, smart lyrics and some sick drumming…

Above photo via the most excellent photographer, Eugene Merinov.

Lesser Panda

Love the lighting in this video for “Ghostdance”, but could have done without seeing all those closeups of their fat faced lead (though he has a great R. Smith rip-off voice). More info on the band and a few track downloads can be found here.

This Modern Love

Vincent Moon is a bit of a genius for developing this series of videos. The take away shows are (seemingly) so simple but incredibly impactful. One of the best things on the web in my opinion. This Bloc Party song is probably my favourite of theirs. Its pretty amazing how they did this and how it was caught on tape- raw, spontaneous, pared down, but still beautiful.

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Band search!

This, I’m sure, is indulgent, but I need to solve a small mystery. This requires the readers of the ND blog to assist. I have been trying to figure out whether the band pictured in the clip above exists now. I shot that short bit of footage roughly two years ago in Copenhagen- in a well known nightclub which hosts pretty big acts. The band you see here were just starting out, and were cutting their chops doing covers. I loved the drum machine mixed with the live drumming- the music was awesome. They pumped a ton of energy and speed into a song like “Transmission”- I was hooked, and I regret just recording this short piece. Anyhow I chatted with a band member at that time and learned they were newly formed and still undecided on a band name, direction etc. So I am curious if anyone can identify this one small setup amidst an ocean of millions of small musical groups. If someone can help out with this small goal I’m sure we can put up a reward- perhaps a first edition ND garment (cTo?)

The Enemy

I like this band, even if the lead singer is channeling Paul Weller…