November 5, 2009
Rain Machine | “Give Blood”
IN THE TUBE
Kyp Malone has a great beard. Iced neatly with distinguished gray highlights, it’s thick and scraggly and prominent and manages to capture the dueling sensibilities of man both wizened with experience and broiling with unpredictability – or, at least, a man who wants to look that way. In the new video for “Give Blood,” a song from the TV on the Radio frontman’s recent side project Rain Machine, it’s hard not to focus on his beard at first – not just because it’s awesome – but because there’s not much else going on. He’s in a hotel room, there are some jump cuts: a phone, a chair, some fabric, a bed, Malone, close-up on Malone, medium on Malone, guitar. The first verse seems to roll away behind Kyp’s fabulous beard and the manic, nervous energy of the song’s first chorus (“GIVE BLOOD GIVE BLOOD GIVE BLOOD…”) sounds trapped and misplaced. Then he starts to pull out other band members from under the bed.
Kyp Malone has a great beard. Iced neatly with distinguished gray highlights, it’s thick and scraggly and prominent and manages to capture the dueling sensibilities of man both wizened with experience and broiling with unpredictability – or, at least, a man who wants to look that way. In the new video for “Give Blood,” a song from the TV on the Radio frontman’s recent side project Rain Machine, it’s hard not to focus on his beard at first – not just because it’s awesome – but because there’s not much else going on. He’s in a hotel room, there are some jump cuts: a phone, a chair, some fabric, a bed, Malone, close-up on Malone, medium on Malone, guitar. The first verse seems to roll away behind Kyp’s fabulous beard and the manic, nervous energy of the song’s first chorus (“GIVE BLOOD GIVE BLOOD GIVE BLOOD…”) sounds trapped and misplaced. Then he starts to pull out other band members from under the bed.
At this point it feels like the song’s energy might finally escape, that it was really just hiding under the bed the entire time, and that maybe someone will actually give blood now. Mostly, the video just gets weird. The jump cuts continue, but the band is just sitting around, switching positions and instruments every cut. There’s an energy to it…but it’s a strange, jittery energy. There’s no explosion, and no one seems to want to GIVE BLOOD. But there are monsters.
Two types of monsters: a human-sized, one-eyed, (Egyptian?) bird monster, and a group of miniature, faceless glob people. Personally, I find these monsters terrifying. What are they? Why are they? Their bizarre, arbitrary existence and seeming benignity, combined with the video’s jumpy stop motion create a general sense of uneasiness (like the kind that usually permeates David Lynch films), especially when they start bleeding all over the place. When the band members disappear again and the hotel gets dark, Malone puts his guitar back on the bed and leaves the room. No one gave any blood – except for the monsters.
There’s nothing bad about this video, it just feels incorrect. There are two different forces at work here: the building of manic, explosive energy, and the slip into a jittery, alternate monster universe. Unlike Kyp’s beard, which juggles conflicting sensibilities beautifully, the video just can’t pull it off.
Sadly, Rolling Stone has an exclusive stream of the video right now; watch it here.
by Tom Mooseker
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Listen To New Best Coast, “Wish He Was You.” You May Be Sick Of These Lo-Fi Beachy Songs, But We Who’re Already Dreading Winter Need This! [Gorilla vs. Bear]
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San Francisco’s Girls New Single Due In November. Watch Them Perform It Here! [Pitchfork]
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers To Release Fatty, Four-Disc Live Anthology [Rolling Stone]
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compiled by Erin Sheehy
September 20, 2009
This Week In Shows
THIS WEEK IN SHOWS
MON, SEPT. 21
Rain Machine
The Bell House
7:30 PM, $15, 21+
In case you haven’t heard, TV On The Radio is going on a yearlong hiatus to pursue some of their other projects. But you won’t be hurting for music from these guys – Kyp Malone, for one, is already going full-force on his new project, Rain Machine. His album drops on Tuesday, and this show at The Bell House kicks of a month-long US tour. Hells yeah, this should be pretty interesting.
TUES, SEPT. 22
The Drums, Knight School, Kordan
The Mercury Lounge
8:00 PM, $10, 21+
I’ve yet to see Knight School live, (though I desperately want to), but I will tell you that The Drums and Kordan played our JM.com Feature Show in July and had the crowd in a frenzy. I hate to use the word “poppy,” but The Drums are just the poppiest, most endearing live band I’ve seen in a while. They combine eighties synth with a fifties girl group sound and sing songs about the beach. They even whistle. The whole thing is terribly cute, but not in a gross way.
More on This Week In Shows
September 4, 2009
See Ya Next Week!
Hey Everyone!
We won’t be posting much this week because we are giving ourselves a little makeover, but we’ll be back in full force next Monday.
Turns out some other Brooklynites are taking a break too, albeit a longer one. We were a little sad to hear that TV on the Radio is taking a year off, but we’re excited for the TVOTR side projects this year will bring. Listen to the new track from Kyp Malone solo project, Rain Machine, and maybe you’ll get excited too. Rain Machine plays The Bell House on September 21, and his self-titled album hits stores the very next day. Then it’s off on a monthlong U.S. tour. Whew, some break.
Weekly Review
The end of August is inevitably a slow time of year. People, en masse, seem to start dragging their feet, trying to stop summer from coming to a halt. But not in the music biz. As this past week shows, musicians, big and small, are ready and raring to go for the fall. Announcements of new album releases were abundant. Ready for a listen the first day the leaves begin turning gold and brown will be Kyp Malone’s first release as a solo artist and Bon Iver’s first release as a non-solo artist, Daniel Johnston and Massive Attack are prepping albums for October, and November will bring us new material from 50 Cent, Nirvana, and many more. So see, summer’s impending end ain’t so bad after all…
by Elana Jacobs
Stream First Song From TV on the Radio Frontman Kyp Malone’s Solo Project Rain Machine – First Impressions: Soulful and Very Bowie-Esque; Rain Machine Released September 22 [Brooklyn Vegan]
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Jay Z Announces Plans To Play Massive 9/11 Benefit Show At Madison Square Garden [Spin]
British Rockers Muse Stream The Entirety Of Their Upcoming LP The Resistance (Only Catch: You Have To Register For Their Site); Released September 14 [NME]
Watch Bill O’Reilly Insult Jay Z On The O’Reilly Factor; Describes Jay As “A Regular Otis Redding” – Funny Enough, Jay Has Fused Rock, Hip-Hop, And Jazz Similarly To Redding’s Rock-Gospel Fusion, Making O’Reilly Sort Of…Right [Idolator]
Popular Lower East Side Venue The Annex Closing Down And Becoming A Sports Bar; This Writer Confused As To When There Became A Demand For Sports Bars On The Lower East Side [Brooklyn Vegan]
Bob Dylan Apparently In Talks To Become The Voice On Navigation Systems – Just What You Need In An Emergency: Dylan Leading You Nowhere Through A Series of Unconnected Allusions To A Jester [NME]
Stream Psych Poppers Islands’ New Song “Vapours” – It’s Weirdly Reminiscent of Ted Leo; Vapours Released September 22 [Pitchfork]
TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimbe To Appear As Vocalist On Trip-Hop Pioneers Massive Attack’s Upcoming EP, Splitting the Atom; Released October 5 [Pitchfork]
Guitar Hero 5 Lets Players Perform As Kurt Cobain (Well, At Least That’s The Only Dead, Drug Addicted Legend Appeari — Oh…Oh God, Really?) [Prefix]
compiled by Max Sebela
