'Shells' MIA

The How Many Votes Fix Mix EP is unavailable in iTunes Australia, but here is a taster if you live south of the Equator and love Maya as much as I do.

MIA 'Shells' Mp3 [z share] (via the fader)

The EP is currently only available digitally, but after the 4th is being released in CD format - so it isn't long until we can order hard copies of Shells, the Jay Z Boys rework and another new track called Far Far.

It is a shame it will cost our entire life savings now the AUS dollar is so damn low, but anything Maya touches turns to gold so maybe we can cash it in a while from now and make the cash back?

Merriweather Post Pavilion

I just interviewed Dave Portner (Avey Tare) from Animal Collective about their new record Merriweather Post Pavilion.

A courier arrived with a watermarked copy of the album (complete with skull and crossbones warning stickers!) and after unwrapping the sheets of plastic and signing a release form from Domino records, it went straight into the CD player. I know what you're thinking and you shouldn't bother trying to hack my computer - there is no way I would import it into iTunes.

It is a beautiful record. After Strawberry Jam last year, MMP is a little less cluttered. The focus on straightforward melody is much more apparent as songs (My Girls for example) have been simplified and avoid the density of some of their previous releases. It's not that I prefer one sound over the other, they are just different. Which is what you would expect from this collective of genius composers.

The outer sleeve CD casing has had everyone talking lately - an insane optical illusion Portner described as a homage of sorts, reminding him of a high school friend's house where he and Brian would go for parties, nearby the Merriweather Post Pavilion. He remembers faintly hearing music from the venue while sitting in his friend's back yard, and said the album was an attempt to capture that feeling - of seasons, and weather patterns, and sounds in nature. Songs were inspired by water and hurricanes and whatnot, and after trying to settle on an album title with 'spring' or 'weather' in the title, Merriweather Post Pavilion seemed a perfect fit. It was intimate for the band after growing up in Maryland, random for those unfamiliar with their history, and used the word 'weather' without being too explicit.

Below is the outer sleeve artwork. It moves until you focus on one area, then stops. Uh-mayzingggg



The interview will be in the Dec/Jan issue of Groupie Magazine. I'll let you know when it's online, as the feature will include audio snippets for you to salivate over!

For now, Animal Collective are working on a film - kinda like a collage of music videos, or a collection of vignettes with short, lose narratives - destined for live screenings at music and film festivals early next year.

If you live in NYC, there is a listening party for Merriweather Post Pavilion TONIGHT at a venue Portner described as his new favourite - somewhere in Harlem where you can see the Brookyln bridge. Want details?



Email merriweatherpostpavilion@gmail.com to RSVP - quick sticks!

nothing but everything: wander in and out

I went to a conversational lecture with Edward de Bono on Sunday. He was decsribing creativity as an acquirable skill, something you can learn and develop just as you can learn Algebra or learn how to play soccer.

For some reason it reminded me of an exhibition of work by Sister Corita I saw at the beginning of the year at Monster Children curated by Aaron Rose The Passion For The Possible. Rose spoke about the collective of artists involved in the Alleged Gallery in the early 1990s in LA, and his curatorial masterpiece Beautiful Losers. An apparently quite fabulous documentary is currently making its way around Europe and America, scheduled for screenings this weekend at the London Film Festival.


Beautiful Losers film trailer from beautifullosersfilm on Vimeo.

Unfortunately there are no screenings of the doco in Australia. But! If we band together we can request the film be shown - all we have to do is email bl@sidetrackfilms.com and stress how eager we are to see it. Please email!

ANP Quarterly has recently had a revamp (I have to say though, that the new blog doesn't look too different to the old blog) and has the latest issue available for purchase. If in my neck of the woods, I suggest you mail-order one for yourself - ANPQ don't often make it to Sydney, and those copies that are available (Monster Children Gallery always has a couple) get snapped up pretty quick.

I only just remembered. I still have to frame the Corita print I bought at the show.

BARR 'The Song Is The Single' mp3 [z share]

Beach House

With the first ever Beach House 7" released today, we can post this online. As heard on their recent Australian tour, Beach House with Used To Be

Blowing my mind, every time. TLC Waterfalls! Ah, every time.


Beach House: Used to Be from shoottheplayer on Vimeo.

More at the
Shoot The Player website

Purchase Used To Be at the Mistletone Shop for only $14. The cover art is so so pretty

Sydney: DJ Mecca

There is an interesting argument at My Old Kentucky today about the best bands in NYC.

NY Press kicked things off by posting their 'Definitive List' of the best bands currently residing and performing in New York. Their Top 20 includes LCD Soundsystem, Dirty Projectors, Yeasayer, Danger Mouse, TV On The Radio and Parts and Labour (um, why?!) and Animal Collective take the crown and number one.

I don't really see what difference it makes where a band is from and where they perform, but perhaps NY Press is trying to stress the relevance of NYC music culture considering CMJ starts tomorrow?

Melbourne has a burgeoning live scene punctuated with musicians brave enough to push themselves to avoid the scene and its sound becoming stale. Sydney on the other hand is s strange place for live music. The scene is still building and there is a much stronger presence for clubs and DJs here than bands.

If we were to take lead from NY Press and compile a list for Sydney, should we select the Top 20 Sydney DJs? I'm curious, if you have 5 mins, who you'd put in that list (Levins, you can't put yourself at number one!)

My Top 20 would include:
Jimmy Sing, Magic Happens, Ragde, Canyons, Jamie Lloyd, Sleater Brockman, Spruce Lee, Anna Lunoe & Hoops, Kato, Kali, Simon Caldwell, Jamie Doom, Nathan Maclay, Deepchild, Mark Murphy, Goodwill, Roulade, Tyocity, James Bucknell (Paradise Lost) and Sexy Shower DJs. In no particular order. I think. I change my mind all the time. That's my Top 20 for now, off the top of my head, but it'll probably change if you suggest someone I love and have absentmindedly forgotten...

PS... If you are a Sydney DJ, you pretty much just have to play
'In Love With You' Alan Braxe [z share], 'Savage Skulls' Padded Cell [z share], or 'How To Build A Super Computer' The Emperor Machine[z share] to make the list (right click, save, play next time you DJ)

Well, they're my faves today, anyway.

Saint Dymphna

After the tribal meditative techno of 2005's God's Money, Gang Gang Dance are finally back.

The frenetic primitive percussion, stomping basslines, strained vocals and explosive interstellar synths of God's Money and the RAWWAR EP (2007) still permeate this new album, but there is a much stronger pop and hip hop focus, particularly in Lizzie's vocal delivery. She is clearer and more confrontational, like, as Dusted suggested in an album review, an early Madonna.

On Saint Dymphna GGD sound a little more contained, like they've pulled the reins in on themselves a little. The techno is a little less rave, their incantations a little less sprawling. There are moments throughout that feel contrived and uncomfortable, such as the Tinchy Stryder collaboration, but then songs like First Communion remind you what wonderful composers they are, sweeping you up in a wave of ceremonial cymbols, psychedelic chants and arresting cosmic guitar.

First Communion mp3 [z share]

House Jam (xxxchange remix) mp3 [z share]

The album is out tomorrow through Warp and The Social Registry. You can order the album online now, and if you hurry The Social Registry has super limited edition GGD tees for sale, but there are only 30 available so quick sticks!

And FYI at your next trivia tournament: Dymphna was the Patron Saint for sleepwalking, mental health, epilepsy, the possessed, princesses, incest, and happy families. Incest AND happy families - I kid you not!

My Love Sees You

I work for etcetc, home to Kitsuné releases in Australia and New Zealand, so I worry I'll be judged for banging on about their releases. BUT. One of the singles from the most recent Kitsuné Maison compilation, the debut solo release from Sydneysider, Bang Gang member and former Riot In Belgium half Beni, is so damn good- it is honestly one of my favourite dance tracks of the year. Possibly, even better than Teki's go go go chorus. Possibly.

My Love Sees You

Etenne de Crécy Coco Walsh remix [you send it - 320]

Beni's original edit [ you send it - 128]

My mate Lev called it "THE dance track of Summer" and famed Fools Golder A-Trak has said it is "one of my favorite songs of 2008, no lie" and his "secret weapon". This is sounding a bit press releasey... so I'll hold off on the gushings.

This single has such a forward sound - think of a timely moment in music from the past 40 years and it exists somewhere in this mix. It's late 60s disco, NY post punk, new wave crunching synth electro and indie hip hop/Bmore club xxxchange-style hand claps rolled into one beautiful package.

It's out tomorrow on Kitsuné Maison 6, and Beni is heading to Europe mid-November for the Kistuné Maison 6 launch tour. If you live in London, Brighton, Hong Kong, Berlin, Paris... details for the shows are posted on his Myspace page (linked above)

As a single My Love Sees You is being released November 8, but if you can't wait that long you can grab it through
thanks to Ministry Of Sound

Other news? As much as I love Mr Mars, this remix does not rock my world. Is he drunk and playing with a toy piano? Or do I just not get it?

Amended: The remix is by this dude - Thank god! I won't ever doubt Fake Blood again (and won't late-night-drunk-blog again either...)

no words

Nothing I can say could do justice to the magic of Beyonce.

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

tease

The haunting, breathtaking Beach House video by Amelia and Johnathan will be posted in the next few days. Keep your eyes on Shoot The Player

Friend

When not working as a graphics and website designer for Hi-Res!, Londoner Jesse Kanda produces music as Friend.

I've been enjoying his Air France reworking Secret for a while, but this morning (while searching through my library for music to accompany a German TV Ad for sleeping tablets) remembered his version of probably my favourite Chic track of all time

My Forbidden Lover (Friend remix) mp3 [z share]

He's also more recently remixed 18 year old supastarrrr Rye Rye, who's scheduled to perform at the Oxford Art Factory in three weeks Saturday October 25. Tickets are $22+bf and still available here. Tim Sweeny is playing that same night at a warehouse party in the city which I can't miss, but I would love to see what she does live so hopefully she starts early!

Stomp it to the Ground mp3 [z share]

UPDATE:

Aint no way I can miss the show after watching this video.

UH-mayzing!



(NB video features the late K-Swift behind the decks. She ruled, basically.)

oh and also

AU have just given Dusted the run down of their favourite tracks, which includes a song by (the man with the angelic phrasing) Mount Eerie who I saw perform in a church last week. It was a lovely show, but I was a little too tired and the church was a little too hot. I think my friends liked it though...

Read Dusted's AU fave songs list

I interviewed Luke Wyland (founder of AU) a while ago about his group's latest album Verbs. You can read a small excerpt of the interview at Lost At E Minor here. I'll post the rest of it here soon, when I get a second to find it in my cavernous Hard Drive.

Also just in case you don't get the emails, the latest issues of Pages and Groupie are online now! Pages features an interview I did with Michael from Passion Pit and a feature by the amazing Roland Pain with Riton's new project Eine Klein Nacht Musik.

Here's a snippet:



... the rest is online - click the links above if you'd like to have a read.

NYC

Today, yesterday’s rant about NYC and drumming continues, because this morning I came into work and was super excited to see NYC sitting on my desk at Groupie Mag.

Out through Domino November 18, NYC is the latest effort from long time collaborators Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid. After last year’s Tongues LP, this release combines the aesthetics of soul jazz and NY post punk to pay homage to the city Reid occupies and Hebden frequents. This is their fourth collaboration, recorded on the 5th and 6th of February this year at the legendary Avatar Studio.

Two days isn’t a long time, and much of the album tracks sound improvised, but regardless the six songs are dynamic and so engaging and I think by the sounds of it, I am going to feel really at home at '1st and 1st' come January…

(Do you know where that is? Does it even exist?)

Pre-order from Amazon

Fourtet/Kieren Hebden Myspace

Bore Drum Boredom Boadrum Boar Drum

One of my greatest claims to fame is that Kim Moyes from The Presets taught me how to drum when I was in high school. I was totally unreliable and only turned up to every second class, plus I never did the homework he set me, but what I have never actually told him is that when he played me the initial Presets demos he and Julian had sketched out after a Prop rehersal, I was floored and so embarrasingly impressed. Of course, I played cool and pretended the tracks were "OK..." but from that moment I was completely hooked on drums. The instrument is my favourite, one of my favourite past times, and drummers are always my favourite people.

Last year on the 7th of the 7th, Japanese psyche-noise band Boredrums gathered 77 drummers in Brooklyn Bridge Park and orchestrated a two hour drumming performance called 77 Boadrum. Unless you don't give a shit about music, you would have heard about it. The superbly talented Gang Gang Dance and Soft Circle warmed up the audience and then:



At the time, I became equally more upset and more elated as films of the performance appeared online - I was so excited to watch Eye command each drummer, jumping up and down and hollering into the microphone, but was also so disheartened that I missed the actual event. Performances of this significance and magnitude rarely happen in Australia.

I guess the next best thing to BEING THERE is a live recording, right? For those of us who don't live in or near NYC (or who were just unlucky and missed the show) Boredoms are releasing a DVD recording of the performance by Japanese artist Jun Kawaguchi this November 26.

The DVD is being released in Japan, but is making its international big-screen debut next week in NYC. As part of the the NYTFGP2008 Festival, 77 Boadrum is premiering October 13th at 7pm and 9pm at Anthology Archives (32 Second Street). Tickets are US$10 and available here and there is a Q&A after the screening with Kawaguchi. Please go. I would if I could.

If you need to catch up on Boredoms' back catalogue, there is a lot to trawl through but Insound can help you out (I'd start with Super Are!)

brain fry

After an amazing, exhausting, exhilarating weekend, my brain is on vacation. I'm up and about, but my brain has just decided to pull the bed sheets over it's head and tell the world to "go away".

Last night Tame Impala and Yeasayer played at Oxford Art Factory and it was the perfect remedy to the past week's adventures. I had a spare ticket which I couldn't seem to find a body for, which was disappointing considering it was such a fantastic show, but I entirely understood everyone's desires to stay in doors on the couch away from alcohol and watching a dvd.

But anyway, I digress. Brain dead: Biscuit mix.

A mix of psyche, kraut, ambient, disco it's perfect for days like today. Zone out.

Music 2 Brain 2 - Biscuit mix for Won Magazine [z share]

Track Listing:

1. Lucifer Rising Theme
2. Conrad Scnitzler – Gelb
3. Cluster & Eno – Fur Luise
4. Brian Eno – Slow water
5. Yello – Homer Hossa
6. Popol Vuh – In the realm of the shadow
7. Phantom Band – Relax
8. Kraftwerk – Ananas Symphonie
9. Harmonia – Kekse
10. Nine Circles – Deeply touched
11. La Dusseldorf – la dusseldorf
12. Throbbing gristle – Walkabout
13. Conrad Scnitzler – Gelb
14. Holger Czukay – Persian love

(Made for WON Magazine, Winter edition)

In case you haven't stumbled upon WON yet, the Melbourne street press is one of the best magazines available. My super talented friend Tom Jeppe is the Associate Editor and Photography Editor, and the most lovely publishing guru Chris Barton is Editor In Chief. Check it out here

Tobacco Post #2 (still excited)

Grey Gardens' last post about Black Moth Super Rainbow vocalist Tobacco was a preview of his debut solo album Fucked Up Friends (out through Anticon in 2 weeks.)

The debut video for Street Trash was released last week. Here, take a watch:



For some reason, the bubblegum girls made me feel much more uneasy than the stripper at the end...