Music Monday

August 17, 2010

What happens when you back up the smooth, Nick-Drake-like stylings of José González with driving drums and a droned out, rhythmically churning organ sound? Junip, that’s what. The Swedish trio releases their first full-length album, Fields, next month, and a song from it, “Rope and Summit,” is this week’s Song of the Week. If you like it, visit Junip’s site to download their new EP for free.

Photo: Jon Bergmann.

Persimmon Takes On Humanity

The Naked and the Famous

Journal

Friday Fave Five Fuh

August 13, 2010

It’s been a while since we’ve done a Friday Fave Five Fer…in fact, we’ve only done this one…but, with the tangibly fleeting feeling of summer in the air, and the inevitability that fall is going to roll in from the west any moment, we wanted to post our five current favorite dace songs. Because what’s better than a summer dance party? …what? A fall dance party? Hm. Pumpkin pie and dancing. That’s a pretty valid point. Well, silently contradictory reader, regardless of when you employ these fine tunes, enjoy.

Delphic • Doubt

Who does dance music better than the brits? No one. That’s who. This is actually the song that inspired the whole post. It’s really hard to walk down the street and not look like a total dance-walk nerd listening to this. We don’t know a ton about these guys, but they sound like Electronic combined with really awesome, high-energy Underworld, so we’re down.

Kele • Everything You Wanted (RAC Remix)

Honestly, we’re not super-impressed with what we’ve heard so far from Bloc Party frontman Kele’s solo album, The Boxer (he knows about that little band, The National, right?), but the guys at RAC can make anything awesome. Like, I bet if I made farty noises with my armpit, they would be able to turn it into a arty dance hit. Hmmm…. Anyway, check this track out. They’ve managed to strip it down and build it up better than before.

The Like • Release Me (Viking Remix)

Again, not a *huge* fan of The Like themselves—it’s not their Wilson-Phillips-like formation story, I’m just not super-into the straight retro doo-wop sound. But this remix again builds off the strong points like the interesting rhythms of the vocal lines and the basic musical structure to make it better than what it was. Plus it’s done over by some dude from Richmond, VA. Represent!

Dan Black • getintocloudbusting

I feel like we’ve talked about this guy one million times (here’s the GIGANTIC interview we did with him way back in February—it’s long because it was our first phone interview and we didn’t know WHAT we were doing), but, in case you missed it the first 999,999 times, this guy is really talented and nice to boot. This track’s from a free mash-up mixtape he released earlier this year, which you can find on the right side of his site. It’s a mash-up of Madonna’s “Get Into the Groove” and Kate Bush’s “Cloudbusting.”

Kylie Minogue • Love at First Site

This isn’t even slightly new, unlike the rest of these, but not having this song on a favorite dance songs list, for me, would be like having a hot fudge sunday without the hot fudge. …ew. I don’t think I’ve actually written ‘hot fudge.’ It’s weirdly disturbing when you dwell on it…. UNLIKE THIS SONG, which I am unashamed to say is, in all sincerity, one of my favorites ever. So there.

Tennis

The Find

Pel

Music Monday

August 9, 2010

This past February, we caught Syracuse’s blissfully superb Ra Ra Riot at BAM (I know, we’re always talking about BAM). Katie was kind enough to get us tickets for my birthday, despite the fact that I was quickly and obviously becoming far too old to attend such cool events. But, walker and ear horn in-hand, I did very much enjoy the show and noticed quite a few catchy new tunes. Kids say ‘tunes’ now, right? That’s what I thought.

The Ra Ra’s are now gearing up to release their sophomore recorded tune performance—or ‘record,’ as I’ve heard them called for short—and a track from it entitled “Boy” is our Song of the Week. Their new record, The Orchard, is due out August 24 on Barsuk Records, but you can pre-order it here.

Now get off my lawn, you pesky kids!

The Julie Ruin

From the Nest

Braids

Journal of the Movement of the World

August 5, 2010

Suck it, Edward. Wait…

Tired of hot, super-emo, kind of controlling and emotionally-abusive vampires? Us too. As is the Brooklyn Academy of Music, it would seem. The cure? Nearly two months and 33 films to celebrate the classic vampire in all it’s cinematic, anemic, photophobic glory.

BAM puts it best:

From Lugosi to the lesbian undead, Murnau to Maddin, camp-horror staple to postmodern, society-as-sickness metaphor, the vampire’s reign over popular imagination continues to seduce filmmakers over to the dark side.

Face it: There are PLENTY of days left where we’re gonna need some major movie theater air-conditioning breaks. If you’re in the NYC-area, stop by BAM for Bela Lugosi’s Dead, Vampires Live Forever from now all the way through September 30th for their tribute to all things vampiric. Our must-see? The Addicition, Septmber 29. Who knew Lili Taylor (our NEIGHBOR!) and Christopher Walken were in a campy, mid-90s, NYC-based vampire movie with a “dark hip-hop soundtrack.” What?

Wait…. What?

February Mixtape

Happy Fucking Birthday

WOMAN PRODUCER

From the Nest

August 4, 2010

First off, can I get some props for not taking a totally gross-looking photo of a casserole? Secondly, does anyone know a cool, new-foodie word for casserole? It doesn’t seem to fit in the whole arugula-replaces-lettuce, heirloom everything world of Brooklyn food.

Anyway, DESPITE the fact that it’s nasty humid out today, we have happily experienced some weirdly, awesomely crisp days in the northeast lately, and we here at KoR have decided to celebrate that, looking forward to the cooler, less sweat-stained weather with, what else? Food. We’ve been lucky enough to be asked by not one, but two sets of friends to take over their CSA for the week, and the result is a beautifully gigantic pile of farm-fresh fruits and vegetables. Seriously. 22 peaches? Thank you very much. Seven ears of corn? Don’t mind if we do. 5 weird green squashes? We will totally figure out something to do with those.

Additionally, our favorite vegan cheese that both vegans and non-vegans should try if they haven’t already, Daiya, is finally starting to pop up in various natural/fancy-ass food stores. Most notably for us, Park Natural Foods on Court. Don’t live near us? Move! Or check the Daiya site to see where it might be carried near you. It really is good stuff. So, bringing all that together—wishing for fall-like weather, random fresh vegetables, and the abundance of vegan cheese that for real melts—we present to you, dear reader, the following recipe for vegan cheddar potato leek casserole. Give it a go and let us know what you think.

Vegan Cheddar Potato Leek Fancybake

• 2 Cups Fingerling Potatoes, un-peeled and diced into 2″ squares or so

• 2 Leeks, cut into 2″ strips or so

• 5 Cloves Garlic, smashed, peeled, and finely chopped

• 1 Cup Fresh Breadcrumbs

• 4 Ounces Daiya Shredded Vegan Cheddar Cheese

• 2 Cups Vegetable Broth

• 1 Ounce Fresh Thyme, finely chopped

• 1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• Salt + Pepper to taste

In a large, heavy, cast iron skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat and then throw in the bottom halves (more white than green) of your chopped leeks and your garlic. Cook uncovered and allow the leek become translucent—usually takes five to seven minutes. Now throw in your diced potatoes and toss. You can use any kind of potatoes here, we just happened to have fingerlings on-hand when we made this, which are nice for dicing and tasty to boot. Cook the potatoes covered for five to seven minutes, allowing them to brown but stirring occasionally to make sure they don’t burn or crisp up too much. Once browned well, add a cup of your broth and cover again.

We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again—homemade broth is the bomb-diggity. …maybe we didn’t put it in those exact words. But it’s true. Making broth at home is easy and results in a much tastier and far less sodium-sodden product than anything you’d buy at the store. Here’s a great piece on making broth at home with fresh vegetables, but we’ve taken to collecting vegetable trimmings in a freezer bag (think carrot tops, leek bottoms, and any sort of cast-off bits or peels of vegetables) over time and then cooking up a broth from just that hodgepodge and maybe a clove or two of garlic. Highly-recommended, dear reader.

So, anyway, allow the potatoes to absorb all of the broth over medium-low heat, which’ll usually take about ten minutes. Once that happens, add your second cup of broth and repeat. Once that cup’s absorbed, check the tenderness of the potatoes with a fork. They should give a bit, but not break apart completely. Get them to a point where the corners of the pieces start to round a bit and they’re just a touch too firm to eat. If they’re not quite there, add a little water to the mixture, cover and cook a bit more. Once they’re there, throw in the rest of the leek (the greener halves), add half (2 oz.) of the Daiya shreds, remove form heat, and add as much pepper and salt as you like, stirring as you do.

Now to the breadcrumbs. As with the broth, you can buy these in store, but making them at home gives you a better—and cheaper—product. We totally love bread. Especially the lovely, fresh bread that abounds in our heavily Italian ‘hood. That said, we have a problem. We’re just not that great at eating entire loaves of preservative-free bread before they go stale. Solution? We freeze it just as it’s cresting the hill of freshness. Then we’ve got bread to use for fresh croutons (toast ’em in a pan and sprinkle with dried basil), crostini, or—you guessed it—breadcrumbs. Just take some of the frozen bread and grind it up in a mortar. Not grinding up well? Toast it in the oven a bit then give it a try.

Whether you use homemade or store-bought crumbs though, mix them in with your fresh thyme leaves. Now add the potato-leek mixture to a medium baking dish…or, if you’re feelin’ all minimalist, leave it in the cast iron skillet and bake in that. Either way, pat the mixture down to give it a flat top and then sprinkle with the rest of your Daiya (2 oz.) and then your breadcrumb-thyme mixture. Cover with foil and then throw the whole thing in a pre-heated oven at 350°F. Cook about 25 minutes—until the whole thing is bubbling at the sides and looks to be cooked pretty thoroughly throughout—and then cook another five to ten minutes uncovered, allowing the top to brown a bit. Take it out and let it cool for a few minutes, then slice and serve.

Alright, now everyone keep your fingers crossed for some oven-worthy weather!

Rey Pila

Stacy Gueraseva

Music Monday

August 2, 2010

Everything will be alright. Everything will be alright. Everything will be alright.

Repeat that over and over again in your head.

Or just listen to Arcade Fire‘s new album, The Suburbs, and feel it. It comes out tomorrow on CD, double LP, and various fancy digital formats. This week you can hear “Ready to Start,” our favorite track of the album so far, as our Song of the Week.

Ah, awesomeness. Breathe it in.

Album art by Caroline Robert.

New

As the Crow Flies

The Year’s Best Albums

The Find

July 27, 2010

This week, on The Find, we’re giving you, dear reader, a preview of the new fall line from vegan shoe-makers extraordinaire, Novacas.

Novacas is an NYC-based company that’s completely vegan-run and—as opposed to *some* manufacturers out there—run with environmental-sustainability and fair compensation for workers in mind. As they put it:

Novacas is committed to providing animal-friendly, environmentally-friendly, and worker-friendly products. Novacas—taken from Spanish and Portuguese for “no cow”—produces products that are made from the highest quality synthetic microfibers available and are 100% PVC-free. Shoes are ethically manufactured in Portugal at worker-friendly factories according to labor standards set forth by the European Union.

So suck it, Payless! We recently concluded a full brand re-development with Novacas, establishing a new logo for them (above), new shoe boxes, and totally retooling their Web site. We created the new site design—with Minima Designs managing site development and back-end—to give the company a rather intense facelift that would match Novacas’ new fall line—its largest and, we have to say, most impressive to date. And we’re not just saying that because they’re a client. They’re totally our favorite vegan shoe line, providing continually-evolving and improving footwear that doesn’t sacrifice the ethical values that many of us share and still managing to keep their products reasonably-priced. Plus they’re real nice people.

Visiting their site at the time of writing (last week in July), you’ll actually still see the old design we created for them a few years back. It has a cute cat on it. They’ll be unveiling the new site and identity next week. In the meantime, take a look at some highlights from the photo shoot we did for their fall 2010 line. Styles are beginning to trickle in now, and are available at MooShoes, among other stores (you’ll be able to see a complete, up-t0-date list of stockists on their new site next week). The full fall line will be available mid-September. You can also shop their previous lines at MooShoes here. And yes. I am cheap. The little chick says so.

Logo, photos, and fancy ribbons by us, yo.

Incienso de Santa Fe

Smokey Jo’s Chili

Nikki McClure

Music Monday

July 27, 2010

….was yesterday. Regardless of our broken e-timepiece, check out this week’s Song of the Week from Brooklyn’s own Twin Shadow. Essentially a solo project from Bushwick’s George Lewis Jr. for the time being, Lewis’ music can easily be filed in the new-80’s drawer of your musical card catalog, but don’t dis and dismiss. It’s got a great, smoothed out flow reminiscent of the best of Bowie. Not anything to be sneezed at. Or gagged with a spoon?

If you like, visit his site. He’s got another song from his upcoming record—out soon on Chris Taylor’s (Grizzly Bear) Terrible Records—available for free download. And Lewis will be playing live with fellow Music Monday alumni, Sean Bones, August 17th at Mercury Lounge. And, on an unrelated note, Time Out New York evidently considers Lewis to be quite stylish. Cotton plimsolls, thumbs up! Rabbit foot necklace, thumbs down!

Thumbs up on the tunes still though. Check ’em.

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Ch-Ching

Dream Cases

Josh Jackson

Journal of the Movement of the World

July 22, 2010

Double-post! After watching the skate competition at this year’s Brooklyn Bastille Day celebration, this AWESOME video continues to stimulate that nostalgic, old-school soft spot we’ve still got for the sport. SKATEBOARDING IS NOT A CRIME! Our favorite moments—Birds on a wire and sparklers for truck sparks. From Tiles Singer aus Deutschland.

Journal of the Movement of the World

July 22, 2010

Alex Vernon hand-cutting old-school silhouettes while you wait outside the Brooklyn Flea this past weekend.

Music Monday

Persimmon Takes On Humanity

The Naked and the Famous

Journal

Friday Fave Five Fuh

Tennis

The Find

Pel

Music Monday

The Julie Ruin

From the Nest

Braids

Journal of the Movement of the World

February Mixtape

Happy Fucking Birthday

WOMAN PRODUCER

From the Nest

Rey Pila

Stacy Gueraseva

Music Monday

Music Monday

New

As the Crow Flies

The Year’s Best Albums

The Find

Incienso de Santa Fe

Smokey Jo’s Chili

Nikki McClure

Music Monday

Ch-Ching

Dream Cases

Josh Jackson

Journal of the Movement of the World

January Mixtape

Found Slides

All That is Gold

Journal of the Movement of the World

Owen

Olive Oil Peach Salad

Fresh Brothers