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Bob Pollard / Art Exhibit

pffffft — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:10:14 +0000

“The Public Hi-Fi Balloon” an exhibit of collages by Robert Pollard incorporating pictures, words, and sound, will be held on August 27 and 28, 2010 at The 45 Space in New York City.

Pollard, whose super-human productivity as a songwriter, the stuff of indie-rock legend, created most of the works for this show over a period of the past six months. “I’ve been working long hours daily getting ready for this show” he says. “It’s going to be insane.”

Among the works on display will be more than 60 imaginary record sleeves, as well as dreamed-up magazines and coffee table books. “You can see Duchamp in Pollard’s collages, as well as the influence of the painterly spaces of De Chirico and Yves Tanguy,” the novelist Rick Moody wrote in the introduction to Town of Mirrors: The Reassembled Imagery of Robert Pollard, a 2008 collection of Pollard’s collages published by Fantagraphics Books. Moody also noted “a residual pulse in the images of the swinging sixties, not the flowers-in-their-hair iteration, but the dark bad-acid psychedelia of that low, dishonest decade.”

Pollard is the leader of the seminal indie-rock band Guided by Voices, which emerged from Midwestern obscurity in the early 1990′s to conquer the national scene with such transcendentally lo-fi albums as Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, and Under the Bushes, Under the Stars. One of Spin magazine’s “Top 50 Rock & Roll Front Men of All Time,” Pollard recently electrified fans and critics alike when he announced that the original lineup of Guided by Voices would be reuniting for a series of shows this fall.

Pollard created the cover art for most Guided by Voices releases, not to mention those of his many other musical projects. The cover collage for Guided by Voices’ 1997 album Mag Earwhig was displayed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

Pollard’s music and his visual art are unified at a fundamental level. “They both have to do with re-assembling familiar imagery to create interesting landscapes,” he says. “One with sight, the other with sound.”

Pollard was introduced to the New York art world in 2007, when visual artist Todd DiCiurcio and actor Michael Imperiole co-hosted “Do the Collage,” a showthat included the original art for several classic Guided by Voices album covers. DiCiurcio will co-host “The Public Hi-Fi Balloon” with Vanity Fair executive online editor Michael Hogan.

The 45 Space is located at 45 Bond Street (between Lafayette Street and the Bowery) in Manhattan. Opening night is Friday, August 27, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. The exhibit will also be open to visitors on Saturday, August 28, from 2 p.m. until 11 p.m.

Blonde Redhead / Penny Sparkle

pffffft — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 23:16:32 +0000

After a three year absence, Blonde Redhead are back with a new record and a tour to support it. For the making Penny Sparkle, the long time New York City residing trio made up of Kazu Makino (who hails from Japan) and Italian twin brothers Amedeo and Simone Pace, travelled between New York City and Stockholm. This accommodated their ability to work with production duo Van Rivers and the Subliminal Kid who’s production credits include Fever Ray, Glasser, Massive Attack and Bat For Lashes. Tour dates, album info, a download and stream of “Here Sometimes” can be found at the bottom of this post.

Download audio file (Here-Sometimes-1.mp3)

download

Penny Sparkle drops September 14th on 4AD.

For tour dates please open the rest of this post.

10/15 Philadelphia PA Electric Factory*
10/16 Montreal QC Metropolis*
10/17 Toronto ON Phoenix Concert Theatre*
10/18 Detroit MI Magic Stick*
10/20 Newport KY Southgate House*
10/22 Chicago IL Vic Theatre*
10/23 Milwaukee WI Turner Hall Ballroom*
10/24 Minneapolis MN First Avenue*
10/25 St Louis MO The Pageant*
10/27 Nashville TN Mercy Lounge*
10/29 Atlanta GA Variety Playhouse
10/30 Carrboro NC Cat’s Cradle
10/31 Washington DC 9:30 Club*
11/1 Boston MA Paradise Rock Club*
11/3 New York NY Webster Hall*
11/14 San Diego CA House of Blues
11/15 Pomona CA Glass House
11/16 Los Angeles CA The Music Box
11/19 San Francisco CA Warfield Theatre
11/20 Portland OR Roseland Theatre
11/21 Vancouver BC Commodore Ballroom
11/26 Salt Lake City UT The Depot
11/29 Houston TX Warehouse Live Studio
11/30 Dallas TX Granada Theater
12/1 Austin TX La Zona Rosa

* with Pantha Du Prince supporting.

K – OS / Anchorman Mixtape

pffffft — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:10:01 +0000

Fresh off of the Interweb’s … It’s the much anticipated K – OS Anchorman Mixtape. Find the download link at the bottom of this post.

Download it here

Chad VanGaalen / Dark Piss

pffffft — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 19:29:57 +0000

The disarmingly prolific Chad VanGaalen is at it again. The Calgary based musician, animator and visual artist has gathered a selection of his charmingly bizarre images and created a 16 page, 14 x 20 cm zine called Dark Piss. The Nieves publication is limited to 150 copies and can be viewed and purchased here. You can stream and download his song “Willow Tree” at the bottom of this post. For more information on Chad visit Flemish Eye.

Download audio file (13-Willow-Tree-12.mp3)

download

Adult Swim Singles Program

pffffft — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:00:38 +0000

Whoever is running the music department over at Adult Swim really has their shit together.
Their newest music installment for the public is
The Adult Swim Singles Program which has the network releasing 8 tracks over a span of 8 weeks.

Download all 8 tracks HERE and get any of the Adult Swim compilations on their music page.
The Chrome Children comps done in conjunction with Stones Throw are recommended.

Preview and download 2 of the 8 right here. Bam!

Cults – “Oh My God”

Download audio file (Oh_My_God.mp3)
download

Mike Bigga (aka Killer Mike) – “Swimming”

Download audio file (Swimming.mp3)

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Introducing: Acephale Records

pffffft — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:23:03 +0000

Acephale Records is a sexy new record label hosting a good looking roster of releases. Their design aesthetic (courtesy of label co founder Rory Them Finest) and limited edition policy makes for a perfect marriage with Salem, Kingdom, Memory Cassette/Memory Tapes, Air France, CFCF, Pure Ecstasy and Midnight Juggernauts whom are the impressive line up represented by the Vancouver/Montreal/Toronto based neophytes. Stream and download You Hear Colours by CFCF at the bottom of this post. For more information visit the Acephale website or myspace page. The future looks bright.

Download audio file (01-You-Hear-Colours-1.mp3)

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OK Go video for “End Love”

pffffft — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:05:08 +0000

Remember that rad video that OK Go did on the treadmills? Well the band has a new video that’s equally as rad. The band’s latest video is for “End Love” off their 2010 release Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. I hooked up with OK Go drummer Dan Konopka to find out more about this epic video. Read what he had to say below. And while your at it, download the video for free HERE.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hey man! How’s it going?

Very well my friend. Enjoying a little bit of time off at home.

Ok. So let’s just get right to it. This video is bananas! Who’s idea was it? Who directed it?

Thank you! The idea came from Jeff Lieberman and Eric Gunther who co-directed the video. In large, it was a whole group production effort to get this thing to go – all our videos are kind of that way.
Jeff has 4 degrees from MIT and is the host of the Discovery Channel show Time Warp. Eric is an MIT grad as well and good friends with Jeff. Eric and Jeff were on all logistics and Eric really helped us with the choreography.

And it was filmed in Echo Park in Los Angeles, correct?

It was filmed around the center section of Echo Park, starting next to the fountain pump and follows the walk way around the center of the park.

It’s like a time lapse photography video, which means it took some time. How long were you guys actually there?

Well the whole shot was 18 hours. But that didn’t include the test run we did 2 days before. We were trying to get 2 full takes so we could cut between shots, but at about 7pm the first day the dolly we were using to move the camera over the terrain completely broke! It was nerve wracking spot to be in – we then only had one chance to get this thing down in one swoop. We ended up using a plywood boards to get the camera around the park.

The choreography is one thing, but how the hell did you sync up the vocals?

To get the vocals to match up was a funny trick. Basically to achieve this effect, the music had to be slowed down way below comprehension. The trick was understanding the way your mouth would look saying a word like “the” over the course of 5 minutes. For the extra slow “sitting in the sleeping bag scene” we video taped ourselves singing the parts in real time, then played it back slowed down on video monitors set next to the camera – so we could then try to match our lips to the pre-recorded lips.

I noticed you had a goose following you guys around. How did that work out?

That was completely random. Orange Bill is what we named her. Her name is actually Maria or Natalia or something. She at first didn’t like us, and would peck at us wherever we went. She followed Andy back to his car once quacking. By the middle of the final take I think she felt comfortable with us around – in her park. She is definitely a special part of the video – but totally unplanned.

Ok so tell me about this other video with Animal of The Muppets. Ira Glass from This American Life was there and Zach Galifianakis was in the background. There’s gotta be some story there.

So first, all of us in the band love the Muppets. Everything they are is genius to us. OK Go and the Muppets seems like a natural paring, a nice matching of bizarreness!
So anyhow, a few months ago we got to know the Muppet people/producers, etc from when we recorded a cover of the Muppets Theme Song for a Muppets music tribute record coming out next year.
When we got word they were going to be at the Webby Awards in NY we knew we wanted to do something fun with them.
They told us Animal and Floyd were going to accept an award so Tim and I came up with the idea of having a blowout, impromptu, bizarro staring contest.
Ira is an old good friend of ours and happened to be a presenter at the show and was happy to help set up the bit.
We ran it twice and knew it wasn’t quite right. Tim insisted one more try and then randomly, Zach was just in the hallway outside standing, minding his own business – we asked if he would participate.
At first he seemed like he wasn’t sure about being a part some crazy clip, but we assured him all we needed was for him to sit and watch. That was the third take and the keeper. Zach was perfect and I luckily didn’t lose it looking at Animal.

Keep up with OK Go at http://www.okgo.net/ and on Facebook and Twitter

Click here to view the embedded video.

Introducing: The Band In Heaven

pffffft — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:54:27 +0000

With only a few shows under their belt, The Band In Heaven are here to stay. The two-piece shoegaze/dream-pop band from West Palm Beach, Florida consists of percussionist/vocalist Lauren Dwyer and partner in crime guitar/vocal/organist Ates Isildak. The duo played in Strangers Family Band for a few years but departed March of this year to start something new. They have been best friends for years and desired a musical journey that was personal together. Their need was to experiment with as much noise as possible while involving a very minimal set-up. They were driven by their love for The Velvet Underground and Spacemen 3 hence keeping songs to two and three chords at most. They layer their songs with fuzzed out texture until they are nearly unintelligible. They will soon have two cassette singles available for purchase via their website as well as an E.P. which will have a late July or early August release. You can find downloads (which includes a Cranberries cover) and links at the bottom of this post.

Download audio file (03-Dreams-Cranberries-Cover-1.mp3)

download

Download audio file (01-a-Tunnel-into-Your-Dreams-demo-1.mp3)

download

For more information on The Band In Heaven visit their website.

Gold Panda / You EP

pffffft — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:49:09 +0000

Gold Panda‘s journey has been a long and intermittently strange one. Initially, the essex, UK artist spent his day-job time behind the counters of various houses of ill-repute adult bookstores and record shops finding that the two were equally seedy. He spent the rest of his waking hours building up a library of original, dizzying eclectic electronic music incorporating a disparate mix of influences and source material. The results were gleaming instrumental hip-hop tracks saturated with bright colors and sublimely chopped up vocal samples. Thus, Gold Panda was born. Tour dates, label link and a download can be found at the bottom of this post.

Download audio file (03-You-Seams-Remix-1.mp3)

download

Gold Panda’s You EP is available now via Ghostly International. You can catch Gold Panda live supporting HEALTH and Indian Jewelry 06.25.10 at One Eyed Jack in New Orleans and 06.26.10 at Red 7 in Austin.

Ratatat / LP4

pffffft — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:50:34 +0000

LP4, the new album from Mike Stroud and Evan Mast (also known as Ratatat) is their fourth for XL and was conceived following the prolific LP3 recording sessions at Old Soul Studios, in rural upstate New York. Much of this album was ultimately was recorded there as well. While the albums were born in the same studio LP4 is by no means an extension of its predecessor. The band describes it as a ‘weirder’ listen than LP3, with a much braver approach to the arrangements. Ratatat incorporated even more sounds and instruments into the mix on this album, working for the first time with a full string section, which they recorded at Glassworks Studios in Manhattan. Stream and Download the song “Party With Children” below.

Download audio file (08-Party-With-Children-11.mp3)

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LP4 drops tomorrow (06.08.10) via XL.