Ahhhh. I love this.
When Jenny Tuite of the Dirty Dishes emailed us at Artrocker.com, there was no extended press drivel or desperate pleadings for promotion, just a simple "Hey there! Review us? Hope you dig it." along with a download link. Beautiful.
This could have gone either way mind you - such confidence is usually an indicator of an arrogance that often comes along with crap music. Occasionally though, it’s from people who know what they’re doing is damn good, who won’t be all that offended if you don’t want to have a listen.
There’s a tiny town to the north-east of Paris called Peronne.
It’s in the Somme, so it rains a lot, and both the buildings and surrounding countryside are deeply gashed with marks from the two terrible world wars that were fought there.
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(Photo: Christian Haag)
If there’s one thing central to the Passion Pit M.O.–aside from that falsetto–it’s their transfusion of weightlessness: synths seemingly overloaded with helium, drums blasting like air cannons, the whole amalgam sounding like one giant ball pit rave.
For a scale-skinned, fire-breathing beast, Radiant Dragon sounds awful nice: Larry swooning, hushed, about "London, ice and thinking about home" over the sort of slow, suburban waltz Bradford Cox might sustain one of his lullabies with. I think this is the best thing Larry’s ever done; musically speaking of course. "Frost Satellite" is so obviously in love it’s hard not to blush.
Whenever I see another of Lady Gaga’s increasingly out-there stage shows or videos, two thoughts cut through the sick green fug in my mind.
The first one is usually incredulity that the public at large have accepted a pop star who is just so determinedly outré; and secondly, I wonder just how hard Fischerspooner must be kicking themselves, having pioneered the same camp-electro/showtime/weirdness shtick about ten years ago.
I recently saw this video by the Christian Rock band Final Placement. At first, the internet music fan is ’sucked in’ because it sounds like Pavement/the Dirty Projectors, but then it degenerates into post-Modest Mouse post-Lifehouse Nickelback hopefulwave Christian High School rock. It seems to have ‘gone viral’ because it is ’so terrible’ and ‘totally rips off the modern crappy rock band aesthetic.’ Since they are a Christian Rock band, there is also an added element of ‘EPIC FAIL’ according to mainstream internet users who process memes as either ‘WIN’ or ‘FAIL.’ While this meme does a good job of tapping into elements of high-level unintentional comedy, it seems like the meme might have larger ramifications for the indie music sphere.
The world evolves quickly, and the superseded are forgotten just as fast. So as the bulk of internet users flocks away from clunky old Myspace to Facebook, Twitter and the rest, take this opportunity for reappraisal and care to wonder if what’s driving the majority away isn’t the same reason that you ought to love it.
Not content with sitting on their laurels after we awarded them our number 1 record of 2009 for Ballin Outrageous, The Zookeepers have returned to the studio and biffed out another LP. Holy shit. I guess when you’re on a roll…
I must admit, part of me wanted to find something to dislike with their new LP - Good Looking Out. If I wrote another glowing review, perhaps people would start thinking I worked for the band, or was related to them, or fancied the drummer.
But I have to tell you guys the truth, and the truth is they’ve come up with another winner.
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There’s always been something kind of ludicrous about the music Dayve Hawk makes. Whether as one part of Hail Social, Memory Tapes or here, as the now defunct Weird Tapes, he always seems to be challenging you to take him seriously - maybe it’s some collateral imported with those disco drums. Star-shaped sunglasses. Vocoder solos. Anyway, "The Walking Dead" is neither as tragic nor as frightening as its title makes out, but it’s still great and glittering and wry. Find it among more quality on new thisisnotanexit comp Manifesto #1, out March 1st.
"You only get to appreciate what you do when you're not doing it," says bassist Rob Canning, slurping on a tea. "and now we're back, we're buzzing to go."
PART ONE: WELCOME TO 2008
ARTROCKER:...
Legendary rock photographer Steve Gullick has a retrospective at Manchester’s KRAAK Gallery running from March 12th til March 27th, featuring shots taken for NME and Melody Maker as well as his...
To accompany the review of Tune-yards’ Monday gig at Cargo, a few tasty shots of Think about Life, Trash Kit and New England native Merrill Garbus aka tUnE-yArDs.
Read the review of the night...
We have collected some truly heinous examples of recent album covers, from Empire Of The Sun’s Star Wars travesty to the banal evil that is Razorlight’s Slipway Fire. Discretionary...
Album art in this gallery was selected based on several simple traits: strong concept, fine graphics including creative typography and general lushness. The first three of ‘The Best Record...
Placebo pictures: just in - some photos of Placebo and Brian Molko from last week’s gig at the Glasgow SECC.
Also check out the review here
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