This French combo has been around since 2010. They’ve made a bunch of singles and EPs but it’s only this spring that they released their first album, the brilliant and confounding, Psycho Tropical Berlin.
A few references: the Velvet Underground, “Secret Agent Man” spy music, psychedelia, electronic dance music of various types, Kraftwerk.
I got turned on La Femme by Brooklyn Vegan, a music blog that shares my approach to eating, and often points me to great music.
Below you can watch a selection of the group’s videos and, best of all, hear the entire em>Psycho Tropical Berlin album. Brooklyn Vegan says the group plan to tour the U.S. in 2014. Cool.
Bob Dylan and his superb band arrived in Milan, Italy for three shows — November 2, 3 and 4, 2013. Here are six songs from the Nov. 3rd show. Dylan sounds pretty good and his band is excellent.
I’ve got to warn you that there’s almost no light on the stage. You can hear the songs but can’t see much.
I’ve also included a version of “Desolation Row” from a 2011 show in Milan. I think he’s singing better now than two years ago.
The Strokes singer Julian Casablancas has signed New York’s Cerebral Ballzy to his Cult Records label and will release the group’s second album, Jaded & Faded, next year.
The group has a Ramones-style punk-pop sound, as you can hear if you check out the video posted above. The black and white video is a tribute of sorts to the New York of the Velvet Underground’s mid-’60s, as well as French New Wave cinema and Edie Sedgwick.
A who’s who of hipster musicians have contributed recordings to a Mark Linkous/ Sparklehorse tribute album that will benefit Box of Stars, a non-profit whose purpose is to bring increased awareness about mental health to the public.
Here’s Mercury Rev’s track:
The album is titled Last Box Of Sparklers. It’s mostly done but to complete it Box Of Stars is using Indiegogo to raise $50,000. So far contributions are at $11,589.00
Artists participating include the Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Mark Lanegan, David Lowery, Califone, the Joy Formidable, Phantogram, Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle, Portugal. the Man, Dinosaur Jr. and the Cowboy Junkies.
Here’s a video explaining what Box of Stars are up to:
Pitchfork has a story that hipped me to this project.
The man who used the tag “gorpetri” to make the winning bid of $615,000 for the painting Banksy modified and retitled, “The banality of the banality of evil,” reneged on his bid once the auction was over, according to the New York Times.
What happened next has caused some controversy in New York. Rachel Hirschfeld, an art collector whose bid of $614,800 was right behind the gorpetri bid, said she got a call on Nov. 1 from an auction official about the painting, the Times reports.
“She said, ‘You win the Banksy,’ ” Ms. Hirschfeld told the Times. “I said, ‘Why? Somebody bid more than me.’ She said, ‘He’s out.’ ”
Hirschfeld didn’t think it fair to pay the full price since she’d been bidding against an insincere bidder — obviously, in retrospect, gorpetri’s bids were not genuine. “Every bid that he made has to be out,” Hirschfeld told the Times.
Ultimately another bidder got the painting, but the auction house won’t reveal the new selling price. However, it was over $400,000, according to Hirschfeld, who told the Times she offered $400,000 and lost out to a higher offer.
To promote the new Throwing Muses album/book, Purgatory/Paradise, Kristin Hersh performed some of the new songs on acoustic guitar at Rough Trade in East London a week and a half ago.
I’ve been listening to the new album today, and it’s fantastic. I think longtime Throwing Muses fans will really like it, but I also think the current indie crowd will dig it too. And anyone else with an open mind.
Check out some of the live performances:
A narrative piece followed by a performance of “Wayfaring Stranger” at Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green, North London.
This is cool. Superchunk are letting us download an 18-song live album, Clambakes Vol 7: Shut the F*ck Up!…No, We Love You – Live at the Corner Hotel 1996. The album was recorded live in Melbourne, Australia on November 23, 1996.
Singer/guitarist Mac McCaughan wrote of the new Clambake:
To celebrate our return to Australia, we take you back to the last show of our last visit and a Clambake recorded live at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne in November 1996. It sounds like this was a fun night and I’m sure it was—Smudge and The 3Ds were on the bill—so please excuse a few glitches in the recording and enjoy the energy circa ’96. Looking forward to seeing you again shortly.
So as you know Greg Ginn has been out on the road with a version of Black Flag, and he recently made a new Black Flag album available to several streaming services.
Meanwhile, a renegade version of Black Flag, calling itself Flag, has also been on the road. This group features various former Black Flag members: Keith Morris, vocals; Dez Cadena, guitar/vocals; Chuck Dukowski, bass); Bill Stevenson, drums; plus former Descendents’ guitarist Stephen Egerton, who was never in Black Flag.
