Friday, October 5, 2012

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Video :: Divorce :: Aids of Space

          
I have no idea what the fuck I'm hearing... it's like someone giving me a wet willy with a napalm-soaked finger.  Well-meaning, but entirely violent and corrosive.  Glasgow label Clan Destine has shepherded a number of regional artists and labels, one being Night School Records, home to Divorce (and Julia Holter, for balance).  Divorce just released their self-titled LP last week, and listening to it is similar to being accused of killing an entire family of Ewoks.  Full of "how could you?" and "you are the reason the galaxy is shit," alongside a fucking lumberyard of buzz-saws.  Watch this video then look me in the eye and tell me you didn't see the future.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Freelove Fenner :: Pineapple Hair :: Fixture


The real virtue of this song is that it runs the same exact amount of time it takes to follow these instructions on how to eat a Pop Tart.  The cast of instruments (slinky guitar, phased-out drum kit, bass and organ) are introduced swiftly enough for me to get the Pop Tarts out of the wrapper and into the toaster just in time.  Caitlin Loney's bored-as-fuck-but-that's-the-point vocals refuse to give a shit as I transfer the Pop Tarts to a plate, and the song enters a brief groove while I enjoy whichever flavor I've chosen for myself that day.  It's a virtue, and a very handy one at that... I've managed to create another new subgenre called PopTartArtPop: brief, pocket-sized, colorful, and sometimes found between the ass and head of a cat.  Freelove Fenner hold down their corner, and The Particles aren't too far off.

The Montreal duo have their new EP available on cassette via Fixture Records starting in early October.  I imagine pineapple hair to be sort of like a beehive, but fruitier... and thus the EP is rightly named.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Leisure Birds :: Globe Master :: Moon Glyph


There's a sort of Venn-diagram going on here -- the blurred line between Heaven and the heavens, perhaps even Catholic and catholic.  Where man meets myth, sin meets synth.  The ongoing fallacy of the human soul attaching a name to god.  The unspeakable.  The Mezuzah, the Dorian mode, the Byzantine slow-burner.  It seems that this fertile crescent is an ongoing theme for Oakland-via-Minneapolis label Moon Glyph.

Their most recent release is the sophomore LP from the Twin Cities' Leisure Birds.  Listening to Globe Master is like insisting that the Earth is flat to an alien force that's triangulated your location.  You fucked up, game over.  It's human anguish set to a conceptual arc of galactic defeat.  You won't need a lyric sheet to figure that one out.  No doubt, it can be a tough listen if you've got a big heart and a big imagination.  On a purely sonic level, it's brimming with hypnotic grooves and synthscapes, drifting and pummeling in the right places.  My only gripe is the lack of vocal harmony, which gives this set the off-setting illusion of one man's interstellar struggle, rather than the implied burden of the human race.  Which is not to say that I'm willing to join the choir, but I imagine there are more than a few Bill Pullman's out there.


Saturday, September 1, 2012

News :: Upcoming Shows :: September

Swag Swag Swag Swag

09/02 :: Julia Holter :: Black Cat Back Stage
09/12 :: Pallbearer/Royal Thunder/Asthma Castle:: Rock and Roll Hotel
09/13 :: Ariel Pink :: 9:30 Club
09/18 :: Mount Eerie :: U Street Music Hall
09/20 :: Mike Wexler :: DC9
09/22 :: Matthew E. White :: Rock and Roll Hotel
09/23 :: Ital/Laurel Halo :: DC9
09/24 :: Twin Shadow :: Black Cat
09/25 :: Wild Nothing/DIIV :: Rock and Roll Hotel
09/26 :: Frankie Rose :: Rock and Roll Hotel
09/29 :: Grimes :: U Street Music Hall