[Video] Deerhunter: “Memory Boy” on Letterman
I’ve been straying away from posting about Deerhunter much these days as they get plenty of press everywhere else. But their performance on Letterman last night that included Cole Alexander (Black Lips) and Adam Bruneau (Back Pockets) was particularly noteworthy. Really nice jamout at the end.
- Posted by Davy Minor on February 23, 2011 at 12:23 pm
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Diatribe Of The Day: In Defense Of Nathan Williams (Wavves)
Wavves @ SXSW 2009
A few weeks ago, Wavves had a meltdown on stage at a big music festival in Spain which Pitchfork called “the most epic onstage meltdown a band of their small size could conjure”. Ever since being awarded “Best New Music” from Pitchfork earlier this year, Wavves had become the target of scorn for being over-hyped from both critics and other musicians, and this latest fiasco has helped villianize the 22 year old San Diego dude behind this project even further. Since I was digging Wavves‘ records before Pitchfork even began its lovefest, I figured I would talk down the mob a little bit and put this tabloid-esque drama in some perspective. If you don’t care about Wavves or any of this hooey, then you might want to skip this read.
First, for those of you who don’t read Pitchfork regularly, let me catch you up to speed. The Wavves backlash began culminating at SXSW this year, embodied by a band called Psychedelic Horseshit wearing “Wavves Suxx” t-shirts and then giving a novel sized interview about how much they hated Wavves and fellow lo-fi acts that you can read here. Then, a few weeks ago my twitter feed was overloaded with twats from P4K’s Ryan Schreiber detailing the Wavves meltdown as it was happening as if it was the Iranian election. I then had to read it all again in a lengthy news post. Then just as I was heading to Bonnaroo, I see P4K giving news headlines to an interview with Black Lips‘ Jared Swilley where he completely trashes the kid for his meltdown. The pile-on against Nathan Williams has been so massive, that Grizzly Bear was joking about the situation: Click here to read the entire post…
- Posted by Davy Minor on June 21, 2009 at 6:08 pm
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Hottlanta Videos: Mastodon, Deerhunter, We Fun
Mastodon has been marching along triumphantly supporting their new incredible album, Crack The Skye. They recently did David Letterman and he gave them this introduction: “ I won’t lie to you, I’m frightened.” Here is the video:
They have been doing a ridiculous amount of interviews and such, so here is a three part interview with drummer Brann Dailor:
Part 1:
Also, Brann Dailor is guest starring on the new album from Atlanta’s avant-garde musician Killick. Here is a short video teaser for the album, titled Exsanguinette:
In case you haven’t heard it yet, Deerhunter‘s upcoming EP Rainwater Cassette Exchange is yet another top-notch installment from Atlanta’s ever-amazing nu-gazers. They just did The Breeders‘ curated ATP festival and happened to team up with the Deal sisters for a little superjam. Here is a video of the performance:
Here is a nice fan made video for Deerhunter‘s “Famous Last Words” from the forthcoming EP:
Finally, I had totally missed the fact that Pitchfork.tv is showing the Atlanta music scene documentary We Fun until Friday of this week, so if you haven’t seen it yet, you can right now (as long as it isn’t already Friday): Click here to read the entire post…
- Posted by Davy Minor on May 19, 2009 at 9:49 pm
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Film Review: We Fun
Last week I attended a screening of the Atlanta music scene documentary, We Fun, as part of the Atlanta Film Festival. Every good documentary I have ever seen either meticulously informs or tells a compelling story, and unfortunately We Fun does neither. The movie is a barrage of total randomness that ambles along playing show and tell for various ATL institutions. You see a badly shot band playing a song, you hear them say a couple of random things, then you see something else. For someone from Atlanta familiar with this scene, the kaleidoscope of sights and sounds will be nostalgic and enjoyable, but anyone being introduced to the Atlanta music scene for the first time will find very little in this movie to care about.
There had been some premature criticism of the documentary that it didn’t cover enough bands to represent the whole city, and if anything, I wish they had put less bands in this movie so they could have explored the central characters more in depth instead of wasting our time being democratic about giving enough bands screen time. For instance, the part with the Coathangers starts with a clip of them playing a song, then you see a short clip of one of the girls massaging one of the other girls, which is only entertaining for someone searching for bad softcore porn. Then you see a clip of one of the girls getting hit on and then complaining about it. Then we never see them in the movie again. Nothing about it feels connected to any other part of the film. Outside of the Black Lips, every band’s relevance is completely left to mystery outside of the fact they deserved a couple of minutes to be showcased. The Mastodon “cameo” is a complete tease. It reminded me of the movie Executive Decision where Steven Seagal got top billing and was killed off in the first 15 minutes. Putting the band’s name on the poster and then only showing 60 seconds of an interview is very disappointing, especially since their brief conversation outshines almost any other artist’s banter in the film. Click here to read the entire post…
- Posted by Davy Minor on April 27, 2009 at 11:42 am
- 10 Comments
Nardwuar Vs The Black Lips
Whether you love or hate the Black Lips, this is a pretty interesting interview from SXSW 2009. Thanks to Chunklet for posting this because I had no clue who this Nardwuar guy was.
- Posted by Davy Minor on April 15, 2009 at 4:47 am
- 1 Comment
Atlanta Hottnesses: All The Saints, Untied States, Nomen Novum, Gringo Star, Spooks, Black Lips
So much great Atlanta music, so little posts…
All The Saints
All The Saints @ Drunken Unicorn (6/7/08)
All The Saints have just released a couple of tasty nuggets. First, they have a new song on their myspace called “Host” from a split 7″ between them and These Arms Are Snakes. It’s a nice, laid back psych-jam. They also just released a video for “Sheffield”, a song from last year’s spectacular Fire On Corridor X:
Untied States
Untied States @ The Earl (2/20/07)
Any minute now, Untied States will be releasing their latest record, Instant Everything, Constant Nothing. You can get a preview at their myspace with 3 tracks from it up right now. There is hardly a band in this city I would claim is better than these guys, so I am very excited about this album. Untied States is pop music as art at its best. Here is video of them performing one of the new songs live, “Not Fences, Mere Masks”:
You should own both of their previous, essential records:
Buy Retail Detail
Buy Ineffable, By Design
Nomen Novum
Not content with already dropping one of this year’s best albums so far in their debut full-length, November, Atlanta’s dynamic duo Nomen Novum have big plans for 2009. They have four more releases slated to drop:
Upcoming releases for 2009:
ATL GA in 5 words – lathe cut 7″ picturedisc
free digital EP no.2
Paradises – LP
split 7″ w/ Scenisk Värld
They just posted an unmastered cut from their upcoming second album on their myspace. The song is called “Paradises 3″, and it combines some lush synthy stuff with a bunch of samples of people talking and noise. The guitar driven era of November and Mantis Man is clearly long gone, but this new loop based Nomen Novum is pretty rad. Although, I’m going to drop one more golden oldie on you, the B-side to the Mantis Man 7″:
Download Room For Rent for free
They are putting together a west coast tour for May, but you Atlanta folks can see them live in a couple of weeks (April 13) with Ohmpark favs Royal Bangs at some place I’ve never heard of called Capsule. Also, I cannot stress it enough, if you have not listened to November yet, you are seriously missing out:
Gringo Star
Gringo Star @ Smith’s (3/8/07)
The steadily touring machine that is Gringo Star recently recorded a WOXY session. You can find lots of other sessions including ones from Dead Confederate and Here We Go Magic here. Listen to this show below:
Track Listing:
Tonight The Moon Doesn’t Matter
Ask Me Why
- interview -
Come On Now
Rebel Kind
The Spooks & The Black Lips
New videos from both of these similarly contructed bands. The video for Black Lips‘ “I’ll Be With You” pours on the charm and nostalgia for a holiday heart warmer. In contrast, the Spooks‘ vid for “California Boys”, directed by their own Adam Bruneau (Kiwis), is trippy and ghoulish. Enjoy them both:
Black Lips “I’ll Be With You”:
Spooks “California Boys”:
Buy Death From Beyond The Grave
- Posted by Davy Minor on March 30, 2009 at 3:45 am
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Fat Tuesday In The A: …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Black Lips
Tuesday, February 24, Trail Of Dead hits Criminal Records and The Earl.
My first couple of listens to the new Trail Of Dead record I think were spoiled by the fact that almost everything on the Festival Thyme EP has been recycled here. I really do not like a new album with songs I’ve already played to death. But after getting over that, the rest of the material here fits nicely around the Festival stuff, and I am starting to really enjoy it. I think I might go on a little TOD kick for a while and revisit some older stuff. They are playing for free at Criminal Records around 7pm, and then they are headlining The Earl later on tonight. There still seems to be a few tickets available.
The Black Lips release their latest album, 200 Million Thousand, and play Criminal Records tonight and Variety Playhouse Friday to support it.
Atlanta’s flower-punksters drop their latest album today, and it is pretty much everything one would expect from these guys. If you are a big fan, you will love it. For me, there are some songs I like, and a whole lot more that just don’t do anything for me. They are still clearly the best at doing the psych-garage-rock-punk/charming-mediocrity that is so in fashion these days both in Atlanta and around the world, but it is just not my cup of tea. As reckless and adventurous as they appear on stage, their music is safe and predictable, and just doesn’t hold my interest in the context of all the brilliant stuff I hear on a regular basis. But for you Black Lips believers, don’t let me rain on your party. They are playing a free in-store at Criminal Records at 5pm tonight before Trail Of Dead, and then playing Friday night at Variety Playhouse.
Video for “Short Fuse”:
- Posted by Davy Minor on February 24, 2009 at 4:07 am
- 1 Comment
An Atlanta Music Mp3 Trilogy: The Spooks, Glen Iris, Feeding Fingers
The Spooks are a side project of the Black Lips along with local musicians Mark Naumann and Adam Bruneau (The Kiwis). The band is Halloween themed as they dress up in white sheets like ghosts for their shows and the music is a very “spooky” variety of psychedelic garage-punk. They finally released their debut album, Death From Beyond The Grave, a project that had been in the works for years. The first side of the record is the album itself, and the second side is a bunch of live cuts. If you enjoy the Black Lips and that whole genre, then you will probably love this. I will pull this out and jam it to scare little children when Halloween comes back around, but I can’t see myself spending a considerable amount of time with it. Here’s a cut from it:
Buy Death From Beyond The Grave
Glen Iris is an Atlanta super group comprised of Chris Strawn (Brass Castle), Justin Hughes (Batata Doce, Elevado, Missile Command), and Jonathan Lueke (Ice Caps). They rock out hard, as you would expect from these gentlemen. They are playing tonight at the Drunken Unicorn, so if you are looking for a show to catch, you should check it out. Here’s a jammer:
Feeding Fingers are an Atlanta band that do the post-punk-goth-new-dark-wave-whatever stuff, and they do it rather well. At times it certainly leans towards being too derivative and dated, but nevertheless there is good stuff going on here. Whether you are a fan of this style, or just dabble in it like me, their newest album, Baby Teeth, is well worth looking into. They are playing a show with The Orphins and Club Awesome at The Earl February 28 before embarking on a European tour.
- Posted by Davy Minor on February 11, 2009 at 7:01 am
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