Los Angeles psych trio Dead Meadow have a feature length concert film they are releasing on March 23rd. Three Kings was shot on their final hometown stop of the Old Growth tour and will be accompanied by a double LP that consists of the live show as well as five new studio songs. Scattered amongst the live performance there will be cryptic footage of the band representing the three kings whom, quoting their website, 'are the silent watchers of their world'. Here's to hoping this rivals the Robert Plant fantasy scene in The Song Remains The Same.
Here's a video from one of the new songs, 'That Old Temple':
Surfing on Steam and I were chatting yesterday about these High Violet teaser ads and wondering who they were for. The National was one of the bands mentioned as a guess. And now it has been revealed that High Violet is the name of their new album to be released by 4AD on May 11th.
Not that I care so much about album names but I particularly like the name of this one. Supposedly its going to be 'angry'. Maybe it's an album's worth of material written right after MattBerninger gave up smoking. While I love all The National albums, Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers is my favorite. I feel like that had a bit of anger in parts. Since Matt sings in a low steady tone most of the time it's a nice contrast when the screaming starts. Hope the new album has bits of that here and there.
Here's this if you don't already have it. It's the Black Session they did sometime around the release of Alligator:
The National - Black Session #230, 04.29.05
1. All The Wine 2. Secret Meeting 3. Driver Surprise Me 4. Lit Up 5. Cherry Tree 6. Baby, We'll Be Fine 7. Geese 8. City Middle 9. Looking For Astronauts 10. Mr. November 11. Daughters of the Soho Riots 12. Abel 13. Wasp Nest
Finally picked up my copy of IHRNR005 at their headquarters a couple of weeks back. This release is the first volume in their 'Under The Covers' series and features Darker My Love and Audacity covering each others songs ('Mr. Alvarez' and 'Summer Is Here' respectively). While you will have to buy this (or trick Matzah when he is drunk) to hear what this sounds like, take a listen to the originals and try to imagine.
I don't make top ten end of the year lists because very few people care what I think. However, there does exist an alternate reality where everyone hangs on my every word. In that alternate existence I do make top ten lists and Yours Truly, The Commuter would have been somewhere in the mix in the year 2009. I might use the term 'criminally underappreciated' to describe it except for the simple fact that I don't read that many blogs, so maybe I'm wrong.
Thankfully for people who appreciate great music, Jason Lytle is hard at work making sure more of it exists in this world. Not sure if this song will be included in the next grouping of songs we get from him, but the wonderful Anti- blog posted it tonight and you should take a moment and have a sincere listen:
Thanks Jason! Hopefully someday soon people won't feel the need to preface your name with 'ex-former band you were in' when they write about you.
The mysterious Plain Recordings has great taste in music. Over the past couple of years they have released vinyl reissues from My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, Elliott Smith, The Flaming Lips and Cat Power.
Go ahead and add Mazzy Star to that list. Plain will be releasing all three full lengths from the celebrated dream poppers on March 2nd. That's She Hangs Brightly (1990), So Tonight That I Might See (1993) and Among My Swan (1996). 180 gram.
You own Beach House records, right? Well those two were most assuredly listening to these albums in junior high.
You can pre-order from Aural Exploits. Looks like She Hangs Brightly might be available already so don't sleep on it.
Lots of people have had ????'s regarding Thom Yorke and his other band. You know, the one that features Nigel, Flea etc. playing songs from The Eraser. Will the band ever be named? Are there going to be any shows other than Coachella?
Well unlike LOST, questions have been answered. Thom announced on Dead Air Space today that the group is called Atoms For Peace. If that sounds familiar it's track 6 from his solo album.
And yes, there will be other shows. Flying Lotus will be supporting all dates.
Picked this up a few years back on a recommendation and recently re-watched it. Here are my notes.
John Dower's film starts off in 1990 with The Stone Roses playing Spike Island to around 27,000 people. Noel Gallagher talks about how being in attendance helped him lay the blueprint for what he wanted Oasis to be. The Stone Roses were supposed to be the U.K.'s saving grace, but as music journalist Jon Savage so bluntly puts it here, they 'lost their nerve'. The ping pong ball of popular culture bounced back over the pond to the U.S. where the grunge flag was being furiously waved, with the extremely reluctant Nirvana front and center.
Blur had been helping to build the foundation of Britpop since the release of Leisure in 1991, but the turn of the tide came back to the UK in 1994 when Kurt Cobain committed suicide. The music world was left with a huge hole to fill and Oasis just happened to be there with an album called Definitely Maybe. The inveitable topic of the Oasis / Blur single war is brought up (working class vs middle class), with Damon Albarn not wanting to discuss it very much and Noel being all too eager to talk about how he understands it all went down (a marketing gimmick cooked up between Damon and the NME). Interesting moments and quotes from both are found throughout. Plenty of Liam too, being very Liam.
Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Britpop focuses mainly on these two bands. Not surprisingly, since anyone who remembers Britpop knows that they were the two biggest headline grabbers. There is a healthy dose of Pulp included (particularly focused around their most well known hit, 'Common People', but also a brief piece that goes into the darkness that helped create This is Hardcore) and a minute or two on Massive Attack, Sleeper, Suede and a very brief mention that Portishead released Dummy in 1994. This is all well and good. While there is a chance for someone else out there to create a doc on Britpop that focuses more on the music (LF doesn't even hardly touch on The Verve or go into detail on how, after 15 years of toiling away and releasing albums, Pulp hit critical mass at Glastonbury in 1995 when The Stone Roses dropped out as headliners), the movie's strong suit is the way it focuses on Britpop as a real sea change in music and life in the U.K. A nation of people railing against a decade of Thatcherism and wanting some legitimate rock stars that came from round the way instead of what America told them to listen to. It also touches on British film, fashion and art which were also being revitalized throughout the 90's.
In the end, Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Britpop is well done at its intended job which is to chart the cultural phenomenon of this particular genre in musics history. Highly reccomended to fans of these bands as well as anyone who is even vaugley interested in important movements in music. It might sound lame, but watching this again made me briefly remember what the air in the 90's smelled like and how blue and endless the sky could look at times.
Click arrows to download.
Oasis - 'See The Sun (Porta Studios 1992)':
Blur - 'Girls & Boys (Demo)':
Pulp - 'Razzmatazz (Live at Glastonbury, 06.25.95):
