Stream “Bad Design,” A New Single From San Francisco’s The Mantles, Which Sounds Like Joe Strummer Moonlighting as the Hungover Frontman For An Early, Drunk Version of Green Day [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Watch New York’s Own Ezra Furman and the Harpoons Cover Daniel Johnston’s “Walking the Cow” – Appearance of Band Eerily Similar to Early Look of the Shins; Possibly Same Band [Spin]
Vampire Weekend Prep New Single From Upcoming LP Contra; “Cousins,” (Which Hopefully Will Slant Rhyme “Cousins,” With “Cuff-Links”) Released November 17 [Pitchfork]
Former Oasis Co-Frontman Noel Gallagher Confirms Plan to Pursue Career as Solo Musician After Oasis’s Split; Doesn’t Confirm Whether or Not His Music Will Be Tolerable; Confirms He Has Only Thought About Himself For Last Six Months, Therefore Confirming My Suspicions That Noel Gallagher is Shitty Person [NME]
German Nu-Metal Band Rammstein (Most Popularly Known For The Fist-Pumping Confusion of “Du Has”) Release Most Explicit “Special Edition” Album Packaging Of All Time, Including Five “Pleasure Tools” Modeled After The Band Members’ Err…Rams-stein [Idolator]
Billy Corgan to Control Fighting Doll Version of Himself, and Attempt to Take Down Doll Robert Smith; Smashing Pumpkins Hope That Doll Corgan Take Control of Smashing Pumpkins, As Even an Inanimate Doll Would Be More Respectable Than Billy Corgan Himself [Pitchfork]
Public Enemy Has Raised Over $50,000 From Fans to Record Next Album; Chuck D Heard To Intelligently Say Something About “Taking Power Back” From Recording Companies; Meanwhile, Flava Flav Exploiting Himself For Lacking a High School Education [NME]
compiled by Max Sebela
Danger Mouse (DJ From Gnarls Barkley) and James Mercer (Megalomaniacal Frontman of The Shins) Team Up For New Band, Broken Bells; Debut Released Early Next Year [Pitchfork]
Whoa, British Post-Punk Legends Echo & The Bunnymen Are Playing New York’s Tiny Lower East Side Club the Mercury Lounge On October 17; Tickets On Sale Friday – It’s Sure to Be One Mopey Evening [Brooklyn Vegan]
Lil Wayne To Appear On Weezer Track, “Can’t Stop Partying,” Off Upcoming Raditude; A Copy Of Pinkerton Rests At My Feet, As Smashed and Broken As My Once Youthful Heart (See, Rivers? Melodrama is Still Awesome…Go Back to It) [Spin]
Stream Pivot Covering Grizzly Bear’s Yellow House Closer “Colorado” – It’s Uhh…Really Slow. Slower Than the Original. Which Was Also Really Slow [Stereogum]
Electro-Hip-Hop Artist RJD2 Announces Follow-Up to 2007s God Awful The Third Hand; The Colossus Released January 19 (And Apparently Be Largely Sample Based…And Will Hopefully Not Feature RJ Singing; That Was a Bad Idea) [Pitchfork]
Watch Dirty Projectors Debut New Song Jimmy Fallon; Then Watch Them Do An A Capella Jam Backstage For ?uestlove; ?uestlove Recorded the Thing And Gets Pretty Liberal With His Excitement Over the Performance (i.e. Camera Shaking) [Brooklyn Vegan]
Stream New Burial Track “Fostercare,” From Upcoming 5 Years of Hyperdub Compilation; Feel Uncomfortable, Ghostly, and Surreal, and Then Get Psyched, Because How Else Should a New Burial Track Sound [Youtube]
compiled by Max Sebela
The Big Pink To Tour North America [Pitchfork]
Like Peas In A Pod, Peanut Butter and…Jam. The Boys From The Jam Are Friends Again [The Tripwire]
Face Painted Fun? “Relentless Depravity?” Either Way, The Juggalos Are Gathering Once Again [SPIN]
Tenacious D To Replace Beastie Boys, Bring “Earthquake of Rock” To Outside Lands [Rolling Stone]
Former Shins Drummer Jesse Sandoval Spells It Out: “I Got Fired” [Pitchfork]
The Books U.S. Tour More Fun Than Reading, Sources Say [Tiny Mix Tapes]
Horrors’ Frontman Covers Black Lips’ “I’ll Be With You” [Pitchfork]
Ay Yay Yay, More Stage Frights! Steven Tyler Hospitalized After Stage Fall [IMDb]
compiled by Erin Sheehy
LIVE JOURNAL
JezebelMusic.com @ Cameo Gallery
July 7, 2009 | Das Racist, Spanish Prisoners, Soft Black
photo by Jeffrey Lenowitz
Sunday night’s show at Cameo Gallery, featuring Soft Black and Das Racist, placed me in Williamsburg during the first true weekend of summer. Brooklynites were swarming on Bedford Avenue, thick with the smell of charcoal and beer. I was reluctant to leave the sunlight for the cement austere of Cameo’s space, but I had primarily come to see if Das Racist was all they are – or aren’t – hyped up to be. Yes, that Das Racist: the geniuses and jackasses behind the noxiously infectious “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.” (Admittedly, I also came for the happy hour $5 PBR/Bourbon shot combo).
The night kicked off with Soft Black, a Brooklyn-based trio whose opening two numbers reminded me of what an unearthed mix-tape of early Kings of Leon might sound like – a wavering trip of self-discovery that can’t decide if the vocals or the music are driving. From then on, the boys completely off-roaded, one moment channeling the rolling guitars of early America, the next moment throwing the words “I’m an animal” violently into the microphone. Like most bands in their infancy, Soft Black is in the throes of a musical identity crisis, but at least they play with enough energy to make you believe they could find their way eventually.
More on Das Racist, Spanish Prisoners, Soft Black @ Cameo Gallery | 7.12.09
June 12, 2009
The Shins: Know Your Taco: Part Deux!
TOP DOG
It’s been about a month since we last heard from our jilted friend Jesse Sandoval, and his expulsion from the Shins. And for those who found pathos (or at least interest) in his downgrade from the world of indie-rock stardom to the world of street taco vending, we have some good news. An update has been released on Sandoval’s truck, Nuevo Mexico – not by Rolling Stone or Pitchfork, but rather, by vendrtv.com, the web’s center for food served from shacks on the side of the road.
Dan Delaney has the ridiculous job of going around the country and testing out street food and, this week, his travels brought him to the door – I mean window – of Sandoval’s modest eatery. Instead of seeing a downtrodden Sandoval scooping ground beef into tortillas, we got a much different picture: Sandoval looks happy, and the food looks delicious. Most of the delicacies are made to order, and rather than being a cart jockey, Sandoval appears to be a fine cook.
Quality cart vending has become a full fledged sub-culture as of late, and since Sandoval has spent most of his adult life outside conventional living (and apparently has two generations of food carting in his genes), it’s something he’s taken to quite easily. Also, Sandoval has been a cook for the majority of his life, and even while with the Shins he would make meals for the band (how heartless are you, Mercer?), as well as for bands that were passing through town.
So the opening of Nuevo Mexico seems to have been a natural progression for the ex-Shin. Why doesn’t every town have delicious street food served by former rockers? Seems like a great idea to me – just as long as Fred Durst doesn’t open a ‘Limp Brisket’ somewhere.
Here’s a look at Nuevo Mexico: http://vendr.tv/video/nuevo-mexico/
by Geoff Anstey
May 15, 2009
The Shins: Know Your Taco!
TOP DOG
In recent news, seminal indie rockers The Shins have broken up… well, not really. The band still exists, but frontman James Mercer has replaced keyboardist Marty Crandall and drummer Jesse Sandoval with Ron Lewis (Grand Archives, Fruit Bats) and Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse), respectively. When questioned on the matter, Mercer explained, “I started to have production ideas that I wanted to do that basically required some other people. It’s mainly about that. It’s an aesthetic decision.”
Hopefully ‘an aesthetic decision’ wasn’t meant as a cruel insult – Mercer is, after all, known to be pretty ruthless. What does seem particularly callous about the situation though, is that Sandoval was the co-founder of the band. In its infancy, The Shins was just a duo with Mercer and Sandoval playing gigs together; two comrades trying to make it work in the topsy-turvy world of indie pop. Now, with the band growing bigger, and Mercer’s new ‘production ideas,’ there no longer seems to be room for Jesse Sandoval – which begs the question, what will he do?
For those of you who read his name and immediately answered ‘sell tacos,’ not only are you racist, you’re also completely right. Sandoval will be opening a taco cart in his hometown of Portland, Oregon named Nuevo Mexico. Apparently, food carts are a big deal in Portland, so it’s not as much of a downgrade as it might sound. But unless this man really loves his tacos, going from the cries of ‘encore,’ to the cries of ‘extra salsa’ is going to sting a bit. If you’re looking to satisfy your hunger for Mexican cuisine from a former Shin, check out the corner of 3rd and SW stark in Portland – just don’t say that James Mercer sent you.
by Geoff Anstey
May 11, 2009
James Mercer | The Interview
IN THE TUBE
Talk about a good week for me. A recap: first, there’s news of Bowerbirds’ sophomore album Upper Air arriving in July on Dead Oceans; then, a collaborative album between Justin Vernon and Collections of Colonies of Bees, not to mention a promise of new Bon Iver material tossing around inside Vernon’s head; now, The Shins’ James Mercer announces he’s set to begin recording his follow-up to Wincing the Night Away, that he’s written thirty songs, that The Shins will record the album with a new lineup. Just get me some new Phosphorescent, Nina Nastasia, and Tom Waits albums, and we’re talking best music year EVER. Not as in 2009, but rather, the year-long stretch wherein these albums will hopefully all come out. Anyway, you get the idea.
I love the Shins. I especially love Chutes Too Narrow and Wincing the Night Away. I don’t think anyone is capable of performing or composing pop melodies like James Mercer is – they’re epic, serpentine, and surprising. A typical Mercer melodic line will stretch itself out over an entire verse, which is what I’ve always been so impressed by: he writes some of the catchiest pop music around, but does it utilizing ambitious and difficult melodies that perhaps don’t even assert themselves on first listen because of their complexity.
Anyway, Mercer is also starring (with Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein) in Some Days Are Better Than Others, a feature directed by Matt McCormick. And here’s why I’m excited about this: The Interview. I don’t really know anything about it, save that it’s James Mercer interviewing James Mercer and, well, it makes me not only want to listen to the Shins but to be his BFF. I think he’s not only a very gifted comedic presence (honestly), but a cracker presence – period. That he can so effortlessly swap between a reserved, poetic sensibility and a lunatic comedic one, in, like, 6 minutes, is really impressive to me. I’m not sure how much exposure this has gotten online (surely a fair amount), but it seems definitely worth seeing, specifically for anyone who’s a fan of the Shins, etc., or who wants further reason to consider Mercer one of the greatest things we’ve got going. Some true-blue booty dance doesn’t hurt, either.
by Chris Kiehne
Dirty Projectors On Tour – And a Casette Tape! [Stereogum]
David Byrne Discusses Dark Was the Night Concert and What It Signifies [David Byrne Journal]
Simian Mobile Disco’s New Star-Studded LP [Pitchfork]
Kanye West’s Scandalous, Spot On Take on Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” [Prefix]
Joe Plummer of Modest Mouse Replaces Jesse Sandoval in The Shins [NME]
Bob Dylan Tops Billboard 200 [Prefix]
“Sunday Best” Back at The [BKLYN] Yard [Brooklyn Vegan]
(More) Bon Iver On His New “Experimental” Band [Pitchfork]
compiled by Elana Jacobs
