I'M BAACK (with Coachella highlights and a new Stereolab track)
After a very long and unexpected absence (here and here), c4 is back on the Orphan blog. Did ya miss me!??!?!?!
Of course you did.
Here's what else you missed:
1. In an interview with NME.com David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame) announced that he and Brian Eno have finished a new record which will be released before the end of 2008. He also alluded to the fact that a tour might be in the stars, so keep your ears peeled.
2. Coachella came and went. I didn't go, but from what I've seen so far, the highlights were totally:
Prince covering Radiohead (the video quality is poor, but the sound is the best of the 5 or 6 I found on youtube)
The Verve's performance of 'Bittersweet Symphony.' I can't believe how good it sounds.
If you went to Coachella and would like dispute either of these, feel free to get it all out in a comment.
3. Stereolab will release new material on 4ADat the end of the summer. The new record's called Chemical Chords and I scoured my feeds to find a track for you guys to preview. The scouring was not done in vain. Download a track from Chemical Chords: Stereolab - Three Women
4. Orphan Review contributor, miss Jessica (machinesaysno) has started an L.A. events blog. If you're looking for something to do, look no further. Just click here.
5. And finally, Orphan's own Fascinoma played an absolutely phenomenal set at the Silverlake Lounge last Tuesday. I feel sorry for you if you missed it, and am glad I didn't.
Final note: In the future, Orphan Review updates certainly won't be as few and far between as they have been lately, but make sure you subscribe to The Orphan Review via RSS so you don't miss a single one!
Mariee Sioux's debut LP came out last year and got a lot less hype than it deserved. Released by Grass Roots Record Co., it is a spiritual, poetic, and musically un-ordinary journey into the mind of the young Native American from California. Guest musicians on Faces in the Rocks include grammy-nominated, Native American flutist Gentle Thunder, and Sioux's father Gary Sobonya on mandolin. The Nevada City native recorded her debut LP "with the intent of aligning the magnificence of the human voice with the universe’s creative energy". She has toured with the likes of Brightblack Morning Light, and is currently on tour with Alela Diane. A single from the debut LP, 'Two Tongues at One Time,' was recently released rare 7” vinyl and is referred to as "a sonnet-filled homage to the ancestors who traversed the wild lands of America hundreds of years ago." The song is guilty of "reminding listeners of our vital ties to our past."
Keeping with the current trend of really spectacular, folk-esque, female musicians (Alela Diane, Marie Sioux, Fascinoma) The Orphan Review brings you a new favorite. Miss Basia Bulat is Ontario's own warbling nightingale, whose debut LP Oh, My Darling! was released in the U.S. through Rough Trade U.S.A. on February 5th of this year. It's an extremely musical recording totally packed with strings, and the Motown/Stax/Beatles/Beach Boys influenced composer is vocally reminiscent of a classier Kate Nash (my apologies for the trite comparison). Anyway, Basia Bulat is getting set to tour with Devotchka on their post-Coachella U.S. trek, which will unfortunately not stop in Los Angeles. Better luck next time, I guess. But it's kind of okay, because Bulat has (quite recently) recorded a session with (what might just be Orphan's favorite website ever, for obvious reasons) Daytrotter dot com. That the entire world can download for free. So that totally makes up for us Los Angelenos NOT getting a live taste of Basia Bulat. Right? And this video of Basia performing 'Snakes and Ladders' live in Brussels helps too huh? Pshhhtyah, right. Sorry dudes, but it's all I got.
Nothing reeks of high school more than day-glo graffiti, awkward make-out parties, football games, boys obsessed with fornicating, cheerleaders, rollerskates, and the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Nothing, that is, except for maybe the Teenagers MySpace page. The visuals included in this post are really only a tiny fraction of the serious gems that make up the collage I used to have inside my locker that treasure trove of all things pre-mature ejaculation. I hope the only reason it took me more than a minute to realize that these 3, certainly-over-25-year-old men CAN NOT BE SERIOUS, is that I didn't get much sleep last night. Truth is, their brand of 90's inspired synth-pop (sounds gross, I know...) is quirky--it's like a mock boy-band that does it WAY better than the real thing. They are talented dudes with a serious sense of humor so convincing that it probably goes unnoticed.
(how fitting is it that they got famous on myspace????)
It's positively undeniable: these dudes are hilarious. Normally I wouldn't host a download for a song that came out as a single like two days ago, but The Teenagers offer a pretty good incentive to make the purchase. They released three different versions of the single, each version on a different color 7 inch vinyl: red, white, and blue (all super limited editions, of course, and rought five bucks each). The 7 inches feature 4 different versions of the title track (feat. tepr and delorean remixes as well as a cover by soko) and two B-sides ('Trouble' and 'Tiger'). Safe to say they've made it well worth the purchase (which can be made here), so I've got no qualms with offering up the MP3 to the loyal readers of the Orphan Review.
Alrigiht, I'll admit it. I've been lagging. I haven't been giving you ANY news, and now you're totally out of the current musical loop. I'm sorry. But if you haven't been lagging, then you've already had the chance to hear the new single from the Breeders, Bang On. And maybe you think it's really weird and un-breeders-like, and a sort of half assed attempt at a comeback, but maybe you've downloaded it already anyway. If you have, it's also possible that you know that the SEVERLY over-priced coachella ticket isn't the only place you can see them this year:
Because of the fact that all of this was news to me this morning when I woke up and (finally) decided to renew my subscription to the human race, I'm gonna pretend like it's news to you this afternooon. You are welcome.
Brand new, unreleased, unmastered Sparrow House track!
If you EVER read The Orphan Review, you know about my obsession with Jared Van Fleet (Voxtrot)'s solo project, Sparrow House. The first E.P. released under that name, Falls (2006) was totally out of this word and I am pleased to announce that a follow up is on the way. The artist writes,
"thanks to corduroy (every last thursday of the month at cake shop) for inviting me to play. i'll be playing a short set there this thursday around 11:30.
thanks also to everyone that has written and asked about new songs. i'm sorry, i've been digging a hole. television snow next winter. i'm too sick of it now. branches will be next, sooner than i thought.
here is a song for the way spring moves in, if you'd like to download it. turn up your ipod, it's not mastered.
new york is cold but i like where i'm living... see you soon
Don't you remember you told me you loved me, baby?
I was on my way from one sad affair to another sad affair and the radio, which I've made a habit of listening to lately, managed to provide me with the perfect soundtrack. It was a Sonic Youth cover of the Carpenters song 'Superstar', which I guess comes up in that movie Juno, which I haven't seen, and until today, I hadn't even heard the song. It's awesome. Download it.
I guess there was a Carpenter's tribute album that came out in 1994 and this track is from it; which means I am like 14 years late on this one. Shocking.
M.I.A. and her paper plane bullshit kinda pisses me off. Holy Fuck would probably bug me too, but know this: together, M.I.A. and Holy Fuck become something kinda good.
Thanks for switching it up, guys.
That's all I'm gonna say about it because I'm way too tired to give you anything more than this. Deal with it.
I figure since J.B. is still unsigned (I think), it may be more appropriate to let him describe himself. From the Brother Bird page @ Virb.com:
"Brother Bird is JB (Jonathan Brokaw) making music with help from his friends [Cody Coffey {Regal Standard}, Doby Watson {Boo Hiss}, Austin Swearengin {Parsen}, and Matthew Hoppock {Manipulator Alligator} ]. Brother Bird is beautiful music about beautiful things and not-so-beautiful things still being important and having their own quality of beauty. Brother Bird is music that reflects the foreshadowing of a dark future with the backdrop of hope slivering down the back of a 7 headed snake with the acid-drenched claws of a vegetarian falcon at it's side."
Thanks to Virb.com for bringing me such great music. It's clear from the YouTube video (below) that this kid is pretty young, but in no way does his age seem to dictate his talent. I get a lot of bullshit requests for Orphan via the Virb.com page: This kid was one of the first, and still remains one of the best. I'd say, top 3. Something big's gonna happen here, mark my words.
The Dodos are an acoustic duo that spawned from Dodo Bird, a solo act that used to be just this dude named Meric Long from San Francisco. He teamed up with drummer Logan Kroeber and the result is this creamy folk stuff that you'll be into if you like Sparrow House or Animal Collective, or anything they write about on daytrotter. They're pretty terrific.
The band has recently signed with Frenchkiss Records (home to the likes of Les Savy Fav and The Ex Models) and will release the album Visiters in March 2008. They're playing SXSW this year, and you'll probably be able to catch them soon at a shitty club or dive bar near you--
The Dodos Tour Dates:
Jan 28 9:00P Mercury Lounge/New York w/ Alberta Cross
Feb 2 11:00P Union Pool/Brooklyn NY w/ Phosphorescent Feb 15 10:00p The Blank Club/San Jose CA w/ The Mumlers, Two Sheds
Feb 28 11:00P Cafe du Nord/San Francisco NOISEPOP FESTIVAL w/ Or the Whale
March 8 9:00p The Smell/Los Angeles w/ the Ohsees
March 9 8:00P The Elephant Bar/San Diego w/ the Ohsees
March 12-16 2008 SXSW/Austin TX
March 19 9:00P Lola's/Ft. Worth, TX
March 22 The Ballroom/Marfa TX
March 22 9:00P Mink/Houston TX
April 5 9:00P Cafe 9/New Haven, CT
April 10 9:00P Bard College/Annandale on the Hudson NY
Something made me want to hate this band before I'd heard a single song--maybe it's the name, or the seriously over-produced website I found when I googled them--but the music these guys make just won't let that happen. The Silent Years is a 6 piece band from Detroit with a freaking kazoo, a chihuahua, and a couple songs about being naked and dead. How fucked up is that? Singer Josh Epstein has this voice that I swear I've heard from 20 other bands, but I can't figure out which ones, so for some reason, he ends up sounding pretty unique. I'll be honest--the songs are not particularly outstanding, the lyrics are a little hokey (hokey enough to make me say 'hokey'), and I still don't get the little cartoon animals they put all over everything--but for some reason I feel strangely compelled to listen to this song over and over and over again until it blends into every other sound and becomes indistinguishable on its own. Which I feel is a good thing. Is that weird?
NEW PORTISHEAD SONGS: 3 Tracks/1 Video from ATP 2007
So we weren't lying before, guys. Portishead really does have new stuff, and I'm totally stoked that I'm still on the URB mailing list, otherwise I wouldn't be able to throw it at you guys. That's right--see, my internet is down, like I've mentioned 20 times before, but for some reason I decided to check my email at the internet cafe (this post is costing me like 5 bucks) and found this GEM in my inbox.
To click or not to click? Well, here's the rundown on what you'll find there:
3 live Portishead tracks from All Tomorrow's Parties last weekend 1 live video and some wholly unuseful comments following each.
My Hard Drive Ate My Music Collection #3: Why I Love The 90's
Has anyone ever heard that song, 'I Hate the 90's'? Probably on Rodney on the ROQ, or on the soundtrack for The Mayor of the Sunset Strip. I couldn't find it anywhere to let you listen to it here, but thats ok cause it sucks anyway. It was by this very short lived "musical project" thrown together by Rodney Bingenheimer called Rodney and the Tube Tops, which included none other than Mr. Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and Hole's Eric Erlandson. If your record collection includes one of those 7"s it's probably amassed the value of a small oil field, but truth is--it fucking sucks. I'm serious. I mean, I hated the 90's when it was the 90's, too, but that song is worse than about 40 songs that I can come up with right now. So here are my 90's picks, which are probably yours too.
...the only reason why Tool isn't on this list is because imeem only had 3o second previews of nearly every track, and I didn't want to harsh your mellow.
Until tomorrow, C4
Oh P.S. Here's to actually living in the 90's again, because my roommate forgot to pay our DSL bill so I don't have the internet. And my heater broke so I'm all about the candles and incense too. Kinda weird how that all happened at once--my room even smells like it did when I was 11 years old--but it's seriously getting fucking boring so please post some comments with some suggestions of shit that I should do. I forgot how to survive without the internet.
Launched last Friday, November 15th RCRDLBL.com is a collaborative effort between Modular Records, Dim Mak, Warp, Dirtybird, Turntable Lab, and others. It's a site that seems to have it all figured out: free and legal downloads, customizable widgets you can embed on your own site or profile, and it (kind of) functions like a social network. It's definitely missing SOMETHING, but since I can't quite put my finger on what that might be, I'll give them credit for giving it a shot (building widgets is a bitch), and I'll put one here so you can hear a remix of Battles - Leyendecker by DJ EMZ feat. Joel Ortiz. It rules. So listen, sign up, do some snooping for yourself, or don't--whatever. Don't forget to come back and tell Orphan what you think.
In the meantime, here's the rcrdlbl.com radio widget, if you're into that sort of thing:
Be sure to click the download link to score the free Grizzly Bear track--it's a terrific cover of an old Carol King/Phil Spector song.
I've practically been obsessing over it, I know, but better to freak out over things I can fix than to go ballistic over the fact that I invited a boy to Thanksgiving dinner and he cancelled on me 3 hours before we were scheduled to make our entrance. Considering the fact that this was the first boy who I had deemed worthy enough to subject to the wrath of my entire extended family in over 3 years, I'm pissed. And rightly so.
I stayed up all night, so sue me. At least I was productive. Here's what I have for you this time:
ContraStream.com--a new social music network with a Digg-like interface that actually has GOOD music on it. Users can submit indie albums to be "hyped" or "dropped" by other users, and can also discover new music through videos and audio tracks embedded on the site. In my first 10 minutes on the site I found the Crystal Castles/HEALTH record, Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog, Battles - Tonto, and this:
The band is called Black Kids, and the track is called 'I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You' off of their demo, Wizard of Ahhhs--which, according to Pitchfork, isn't available for purchase in stores but rather as a free download on their myspace page. I checked, and trust me, it isn't. All downloads on the Black Kids MySpace profile have been disabled, and as of November 14th they've been named one of Rolling Stone Magazine's Top 10 Artists to Watch.
Good news for you, though. You can download it here. Just right-click and select "Save Source As." Happy Black Friday.
My Hard Drive Ate My Music Collection: #1: Through The Wilderness, A Tribute To Madonna
With all of the "Radiohead-destroyed-the-music-industry" hype that's circling the net right now, you've doubtlessly heard that NIN & Madonna have (in their own way) followed suit. So I'm not gonna talk about that. I also feel like there's a more important issue at hand--this weekend something horrible happened: my external hard drive crashed and took with it my 100+ GB music library. As a result, I've freeloaded from the internet's countless mp3 blogs. This is post #1 in a series of what we can call, "Desperate Picks" or, "My Hard Drive Ate My Music Collection And These Are The Highlights Of What Was Available To Highlight."
I've heard some of this, and I must say--it's certainly not bad. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Lavender Diamond, Giant Drag, and Mountain Party are all great artists and I am definitely interested in hearing them do their best Madonna. If you're interested and would like to hear more, I've taken the liberty of directly linking to some available downloads (courtesy of stereogum). But please consider the fact that all proceeds benefit Raising Malawi, so buy it (even if you only buy one album for the next 6 months). Orphans with AIDS need the ten/twelve/however many dollars you know you'll only spend on cigarettes anyway (after you download the album from someone on soulseek).
Official Track List (Manimal Vinyl, 29 October 2007)
Jonathan Wilson "La Isla Bonita" Golden Animals "Beautiful Stranger (Blues)" Winter Flowers "Live To Tell" Mountain Party "Material Girl" Jeremy Jay "Into The Groove" Ariel Pink "Everybody" Giant Drag "Oh Father" The Tyde "Hung Up" Alexandra Hope "Lucky Star" The Chapin Sisters "Borderline" Apollo Heights "Dress You Up" The Bubonic Plague "Who's That Girl?" The Prayers "Cherish" Lion of Panjshir "Crazy for You" Lavender Diamond "Like A Prayer" Siddhartha "Holiday" (iTunes only) Pangaeans "Impressive Instant" (iTunes only)
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