Disaster-ific!

August 26, 2011

VOLCANO ERUPTS IN SOUTH BROOKLYN
BLOOMBERG URGES POST-EARTHQUAKE, PRE-HURRICANE CITY TO BRACE FOR POSSIBLE PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS, “OTHER HEAVY BIBLE SHIT”

We thought we’d take a stab at the whole Onion headline there. I know, I know—keep our day jobs. We will. But for real, Reader! An earthquake AND a hurricane in NYC in one week? We rarely embrace cursing, but what the F? Seriously. What. The. F.

In all seriousness, for anyone in New York who isn’t planning to leave town in the next 24 hours (which they’re actually advising us to do) and hasn’t yet checked this out, visit the city’s Hurricane Evacuation Map. Not only is it VERY well-designed (nicely done John Keefe), it’s handy on the whole ‘Hey, I wonder if my building’s going to flood/fall-down/be smote by god’ front.

Whereas we’ll be doing a little bit of disaster prep at the studio today (boooooo, Zone C), happily, our apartment is JUST inside this little Carroll Gardens bubble of safety. So, if you’re around, feel free to come on by Sunday. We’re planning a day of special hurricane-ready Smoky Jo’s Chili, Dark + Stormy’s, and some potential huddling in our windowless bedroom. Ooh! And maybe we’ll watch The Proposal if it’s on FX again this weekend. Oh, Sandra.

And for real, ya’ll—be safe this weekend.

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I Break Horses

August 24, 2011
I Break Horses • Winter Beats
Reader, let us tell you something—We were right in the middle of posting on our Band of the Week yesterday when, wouldn’t you know it, an earthquake struck the east coast. Now, you west-coasters have been enjoying a guffaw or two at our expense here on the east coast, but for real, guys. It was pretty crazy. I mean, we personally did not feel a thing, technically, but just the immediate pandemonium that hit once we were told that we had been through an earthquake was nuts. We’re already working on our “I SURVIVED THE EAST COAST QUAKE OF 2011” t-shirts. And give us a break, west coast—we are SO not used to this kinda stuff over here. It’d be like if, all of a sudden, you were struck by a surge of culture and sincerity…. OH! WEST COAST BURN!

Well, our Band of the Week isn’t from either American coast, so I doubt they’d care too much about coastal playa’ hatin’, but they are causing quite the tsunami of aural excitement from coast to coast here stateside. I Break Horses is a Swedish-based duo that plays straight-up dreamy, classic shoegaze. Picking up where superb 90’s bands like My Bloody Valentine and Swallow left off, IBH plays simple-but-beautiful songs that harken back to a previous genre that many of us (myself included) miss. Their debut album, Hearts, is now out in the UK via Bella Union and should be out soon in physical form here in the states. If you’re REALLY jonesin’ to get the whole thing in the US, head over to the iTunes. Oh, and stereogum has another single from the album available for free doanload if you’re so inclined.

PS—Check out the earthquake-related devastation that hit our back yard yesterday.

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Wood Blocks

from Fort Standard

August 18, 2011
It’s a pretty universal sentiment that some of the coolest toys are the simplest. The simplest of the simple and coolest of the cool have to be wooden building blocks. I can’t remember what I did last weekend (no, seriously—why is my head bandaged up and where did this monkey come from?), but I honestly have fond, fond memories of playing for hours as a wee lad with those oh-so-common wooden blocks that were smoothed out into the most basic of shapes—stacking them up, knocking them down, creating and breaking down cities and miniature worlds. Well, these Balancing Blocks make me want to do it all over again. Hand-crafted by Red Hook’s product and furniture design company, Fort Standard, these colorful, rustic blocks skillfully balance (hah, get it?) aesthetic wow factor with simple, child-like joy. We seriously want them. Now. Find ’em on Steven Alan’s site or get them and many other fine products directly from FS. Now excuse me while I go play with my electric train set.

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August 17, 2011

When we first moved to New York, what seems like ages ago now, we were introduced to the term, “bodega.” If you don’t live in New York or a largely Spanish-speaking area of the world, you’ve likely never heard the term. Translating literally to “cellar,” in New York City, it’s a pretty much universal term for a neighborhood convenience store. For some reason.

Alright, Reader, so you’ve got that one necessary piece of background information. The other piece: New York is awesome for vegans. But local stay-at-home vegan dad, Eric Hopf, is setting out to make it even more awesome by opening the city’s very first  all-vegan bodega. If you’re not vegan, you’re reaction is probably along the lines of “meh,” but to those of us who ARE vegan, we’re psyched. So we’re more like “YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAH!”

A ton of vegan foodstuffs from all over the world at out fingertips? Super! Dispensing of the need to read the ingredients list for every packaged product? Awesome! I’ll shave HOURS off my day. An all-vegan CSA? Sign us up! A brand new deli-style vegan ‘meat’ slicer? That shit is tight! And they’re open to other ideas too, Reader. Check out the project video below and then head over to their Indie GoGo page (it’s like Kickstarter) to find out more and contribute to the store’s realization. Woo!

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Class Actress

Music Monday

August 16, 2011
Class Actress • Keep You
Yesterday we posted a new song by Brooklyn songstress, Class Actress, AKA – Elizabeth Harper. We actually saw Elizabeth play way back when she just went by her name and played nice, catchy folksy inspired acoustic pop music. Stuff your parents would like. It was good. But this is better.

Harper’s taken that same simple, melodic, hook-chockablock writing and translated it to a more electro-based model that’s somewhat 80’s-inpired but far from stale or derivative. And yes, Reader, I said chockablock. My ONE new year’s resolution was to use chockablock more and I’m JUST getting around to it. I know. Resolutions, right?

Harper released an excellent EP last year under her classy moniker and she and her musical partner, Mark Richardson have a full-length debuting October 18th named Rapprocher, which means “to come close to” in French. According to her label, Carpark Records, it’s “the soundtrack for a tragic love affair conducted in European discos and New York nightclubs, via smart phone disconnection and jet-lag disorientation, from within the dull opacity of luxurious hotel rooms and anti-anxiety medication.” …we have no idea what that means, but it sounds oddly hot. And if the rest of the record’s anything like this first track she’s released from it, count us in, Ms. Harper. Er, Ms. Actress?

You can  pre-order the album on CD or vinyl via Insound, and check out the superb “Keep You,” this week’s Song of the Week. C’est comme les bonbons pour vos oreilles, chers.

 

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Friday Cover Up

August 12, 2011
Katie and I were lucky enough to catch Ra Ra Riot‘s show and pirate picnic in the general vicinity of Bon Iver‘s show in the past couple weeks, both part of the now concluded 2011 season of Celebrate Brooklyn in Prospect Park. I know, right? Summer’s FLYIN’ by. But, to the point of the post, at both performances, we heard some crazy-interesting cover songs. Which leads us to today’s Friday Cover Up—a celebration of five of our favorite recent-ish cover songs. First up, none other than Brooklyn-by-way-of-Syracuse’s Ra Ra Riot.
Ra Ra Riot • Hounds of Love (Kate Bush cover)
Truth be told, this totally was not the cover Ra Ra Riot played last Friday—they played an entertaining version of Steve Winwood’s Valerie featuring an appropriately screaming solo by Delicate Steve.  But it shoulda been the cover they played. This one’s of Kate Bush‘s 1985 hit, “Hounds of Love,” and was performed live in the fall of 2008 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, recorded by Andrew Maury. So, no, not new, but AWESOME, nonetheless and not nearly well-known enough. And singer, Wes Miles, seriously says “Thank you so much” exactly like that a million times a show. Is cute. PS—Welcome to Brooklyn, RRR.

Okay, this IS the cover Bon Iver—AKA Justin Vernon—played at the bandshell a couple of days ago and, though the recording doesn’t quite get across the sheer awesomeness of hearing it in-person live, it’s superb. A lovely take on one of Björk‘s better songs off of Medúlla, recorded live last week at the Black Cat, in DC. Black Cat, Black Cat!

Computer Magic • Take It or Leave It (The Strokes cover)

Stereogum—purveyor of all things musically awesome—put together a cover tribute to the Strokes‘ This Is It on the 10th anniversary (10 YEARS?!) of that album’s release. This cover of “Take It or Leave It” by Brooklyn’s Computer Magic was one of our faves—though the morning benders and Owen Pallett songs are definite runner-ups. You can download the entire tribute over at Stereogum and judge for yourself though.

Ellie Goulding—who, seemingly has covered half the songs ever written, and covered them well, I should add—delivers a lovely-ly stripped-down version of the Knife‘s classic, “Heartbeats.” I know what you’re thinking—”The Kinfe’s Web site hurts my eyes.” Yes, mine too. And also, yes—José González already did that. But Ellie’s SO AWESOME! How could you not love this version.

First of all, in answer to your question, yes, this is Beyoncé’s sister, Solange Knowles, covering the Dirty Projectors‘ “Stillness if the Move,” and, yes, it’s just as awesome as you want it to be. I don’t think a second of all is necessary.

Still cover-starved? Really? Alright, two more items for you—First, check out this newly-released and pretty dope cover of a Ride song Death Cab for Cutie did. And, finally, get excited for the just-announced “Ten Songs, Ten Hours, Ten Days, Ten Years” project that professional champs, Tokyo Police Club announced this week. They’ll be recording ten cover songs in ten days, one from each year between 2001 and 2011, the first to be released online August 24. Check out their site for the rest of the details and stay tuned. And good weekend to you, Reader.
Above: Katie and the late, great Ida Malone, under covers.

 

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Pin-Up Pandas

August 11, 2011

Reader, last month, sadly, we could not bestow you with your regular dose of Pin-Up Pandas. Honestly, it was for your own good—that shit was depraved. I don’t know what WWF was thinking that month, but there was just some messed up stuff going on in those photos that we could not, in good conscience, share with you, our valued Reader. August is a TOTALLY different story though. Cute baby pandas AND nut jokes? Win-win, my fiend. Win-win.

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August 11, 2011
File under things to do in New York before the summer ends—visit the Grace Institute at 96th + 2nd Avenue to see Visions: The Personal Images of Contemporary Illustrators. The show opens tonight with a reception from 530 to 8PM and features artist, Marion Bolognesi—who we wrote about last December—among others. Can’t wait to see more of Marion’s work in-person.

 

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Kinfolk + Gotye

August 9, 2011
This week’s Find is brought to you by the fine people at Refinery 29 and freelance writer, Alison Baitz, who penned a piece for R29 on eight new print zines that are worth flipping through. Not only are we excited to see a nice ‘Print’s Not Dead’ piece, but Baitz has captured some very noteworthy publications in her write-up. Our fave—Kinfolk, a beautifully laid out magazine from “a growing community of artists with a shared interest in small gatherings.” They continue—”We recognize that there is something about a table shared by friends, not just a wedding or once-a-year holiday extravaganza, that anchors our relationships and energizes us. We have come together to create Kinfolk as our collaborative way of advocating the natural approach to entertaining that we love.” Pretty cool. And pretty pretty. The first print version has sold out already, but they’ve done a superb job of replicating the clean, aesthetically alluring, photo-driven pages online, complete with video links. Obviously, we’re anti- beautification of bacon and fish-gutting, but the magazine brand itself, art direction, and the idea behind it are all superb.

OOH! Also Found—a really entrancing, beautifully composed piece of pop music (below) via our new best-blog-friend, Electric Panda, by Australian artist Gotye. Check out EP’s write-up the artist and track on his blog.

Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra) by Gotye

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Gobble Gobble

August 8, 2011
GOBBLE GOBBLE • Lawn Knives
I remember way back in the early nineties, sitting down in homeroom in my rural Virginia high school and being introduced to “techno music” by one of the many stalwart correspondents of our morning Channel One program. It may have even been Lisa Ling, for all I can recall. Point being, though I was fairly familiar with the semi-electronic and keyboard-driven music of early nineties 120 Minutes mainstays at that point, this full-on computer music was a whole new hat for me and something I wasn’t necessarily into quite right away. I mean, how you be cool and screamy and punk and adolescently visceral…behind a computer. No to mention what would have probably been a 500MB hard drive computer with a 5 1/4″ floppy and a display that weighed more than I did back then.

But, over time, I warmed to the various genres of music that rooted their instrumentation less in strumming, plucking, hitting; more in 1’s and 0’s. I think I have Björk and the early Morr Music roster to thank for that largely. Which may explain my fascination and wholehearted love of the more glitchy, start-stop, swell-fade, emotive electronic music. So I was 100% BLOWN-AWAY when one of the various DJ’s I share a room with more often than not on turntable.fm played this week’s Song of the Week, “Lawn Knives,” by a band called GOBBLE GOBBLE.

Truth be told, I had heard mention of the band on the wonderful ohmyrockness.com back last summer…but was immediately turned off by the name. I know. Shallow, yes, and my loss, again, yes—but it’s a known and accepted prejudice I have in such situations. It’s what kept me from truly liking Archers of Loaf and Superchunk for so long in college.

The band is the brainchild of ex-hardcore singer Cecil Frena—originally form Edmonton, Canada but now based out of the San Francisco Bay Area—and it blends the best of glitchy electronics with catchy, poppy, emotional song-writing, pulling it safely far from any of that washed out, cold, sterile electronic music that tends to get boring quicker than you can say “vintage drum machine.” Check out that photo, for god’s sake. These dudes will straight up fuck up your house.

Some of GOBBLE GOBBLE’s songs can veer a little close to the overly abrasive for my tastes, but it’s all totally original and most of it’s superb. Honestly, hearing “Lawn Knives” and some of the other better tracks (“Boring Horror,” “Wrinklecarver”) reminds me of the first time I heard Michael Angelakos of Passion Pit prior to band-ing up—less in terms of having a similar sound, more in terms of having a musical energy that’s ready to burst from the speakers and out of whatever self-impossed confines currently exist. You can hear more songs and purchase tracks from GOBBLE GOBBLE via the band’s bandcamp page. Along with a bunch of WEIRD album covers.

…judge thee not a band’s whack name and cracked-out album art lest thee miss out on some super-hype music….

UPDATE: Craziness. As per the commenter below, our band of the week—Gobble Gobble—literally just changed their name right around the time of posting to Born Gold. Coincidence? Direct result of our post? I mean, PROBABLY the latter. We’re drunk with power! DRUNK WITH POWER!!! Born Gold also seem to have posted shows on their new splash page (they’ll be in NYC for CMJ) and they’ve announced they’ll be releasing their debut LP via Hovercraft/Crash Symbols on September 20th. But you can pre-order the limited edition vinyl at InSound now and get immediate MP3 download. Cool? Cool. You can see the announcement here and preview on of the new tracks (BE WARNED: It’s auto-play). GOBBLE GOBBLE IS DEAD! LONG LIVE GOBBLE GOBBLE!

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