It’s rare for a label to offer up a free track from their catalog, from one of their bread and butter albums, the albums that pay their bills year after year (not that Laurie Anderson is bringing in barrels of cash for WMG…). Even more rare is finding Laurie Anderson, the iconoclastic musician-artist-instrument maker (the tape-bow violin), revisiting her older projects. “Let X=X” can be found on her 1982 album Big Science, an early mainstream electronic album. The lyrics are wonderfully disjointed, seemingly found sentences, notes and conversations woven together with swelling synths, handclaps and doubled vocoder vocals. I believe this re-issue will be the first of several from Anderson’s catalog. Take advantage! If your music collection is void of Laurie Anderson start filling that void today and expand your education in American electronic artists.
South Central
Leave it to a couple Brits, thousands of miles away from the hood, to snag South Central as the moniker for their punked-up, electronic efforts. Don’t, however, expect them to address gang politics or aesthetics in their dance floor offerings. On their forthcoming single, due August 13th on Regal’s Single Club, the b-side track, “Revolution,” and its refrain “Can’t stop the wheel,” pays homage to both Spacemen 3 and to the novel of Russian philosopher/mystic P.D. Ouspensky, The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin, who explores the idea of eternal recurrance. Deep, trippy stuff to be sure. Catch their DJ sets or live appearances (with a five piece band) this summer in London and its surroundings. If they ever slow down their remix work, hopefully South Central will concentrate on banging out their very own, proper album. An archaic wish I know…
Mighty Six Ninety on KUCI
Chris Bathgate
With the exacting diction of Flannery O’Connor Chris Bathgate sets up a haunting scene in “Flash of Light: “There was a flash of light / followed by chaos / all the night the moon struck my backyard.” He sets up the scene again and again, each time adding different details, each time greasing our anticipation. But like a good storyteller should he never fulfills our expectations. The listener is left to fill in the details. Whichever outcome you choose is accompanied by reverberating instrumentation as feedback leaks in and additional guitars and trumpets join Bathgate’s ever forceful chords. Such crafting of songs lifts Bathgate out of the “singer/songwriter” pigeonhole. Comparisons to Will Oldham and Jeffy Tweedy do not misguide, but I would posit, based on “Every Wall You Own,” that Bathgate is also the country cousin to Eric Matthew’s smooth, orchestral pop sound.
Bathgate spends the next few months saturating his home state of Michigan (Sam, Joe I expect you’ll be making plans to attend as soon as you hear this stuff!) with his sounds. But with the exception of New York City, there are no signs yet of Bathgate making his way beyond his state borders. Looks like you’ll have to bring him home yourself. And oh! what timing! His new album “A Cork Tale Wake” is out today.
I stand corrected. I just discovered he spent the month of May in Europe with Saturday Looks Good To Me…
Various – From L.A. With Love
Andrew Lojero brings musical and visual artists together as a collection and an introduction to the prolific art movement currently unfolding in Los Angeles. Usual suspects like Madlib, Daedelus and Nobody all provide tracks under various monikers. But newcomers such as Georgia Anne Muldrow and Gaby Hernandez also make significant contributions. Lojero passed the tracks along to visual artists with the mandate to produce works of art inspired by the songs. Several of these works are provided below. No stranger to this vibrant art scene, Andrew Lojero curated this collection as he has been curating live gatherings, er, parties, legal and otherwise, all over the L.A. area: in lofts, under bridges and in warehouses. From L.A. With Love places the power to party likewise in the palm of your hand.
New Caribou MP3 + Album Details
The Loose Salute
Any friends of Mojave 3 are friends of mine. The Loose Salute is both: Ian McCutcheon, Mojave 3 drummer, and friends. Built around McCutcheon and newcomer Lisa Billson, The Loose Salute continue the tradition of modern-day Brits singing about California, its coast, sunshine and surf like it was 1973. A little bit country, a little bit rock ‘n’ roll. A lot of summertime gems just in time for the impending solstice and bbq’s.
Tommy Guerrero East Coast Dates w/ Bing Ji Ling
Shout Out Louds
It’s no surprise that Swedish bands hold a special place in our collective hearts here. So, like many of you who email us saying “I can’t believe you haven’t posted band xyz,” I can’t believe we haven’t posted the Shout Out Louds. Well, that’s not exactly true; we’re used to being late on the typical blogosphere darlings. It appears that the Shout Out Louds didn’t survive the Capitol/Virgin merger as Merge Records released this new EP and the new album in September. All the better since the new label facilitated pairings with The Essex Green, among others (The Russian Futurists and Kleerup provide dancefloor versions), for collaborations and remixes.
OK, so I tried really hard not to mention The Cure here, but that’s just impossible. “Tonight I Have to Leave It” owes several riffs and melodies to a twenty-two year old Cure song “In Between Days.” Moreover, vocalist Adam Olenius nails Smith’s stuttering affectation with military precision. Regardless, the song is plenty strong enough to stand on its own. But I also suspect that in the future it will stand as the epitome of the overwhelming tendency by this decade’s indie-bands to plunder and steal from Robert Smith. Not that there’s anything wrong with it…
Scissors For Lefty
I’d be a bit surprised if, as an astute pop music aficionado (as most of our readers are), you have yet to stumble across Scissors For Lefty during your daily downloading sessions. This California quintet of bosom buddies with a hankering for The Beatles and a good boogie-down have steadily spread their sound in and around the West Coast and the UK. Their debut album hit first on British shores last October and this week L.A.-based Eenie Meenie Records is finally bringing the album home. “Lay Down Your Weapons” borrows Weezer’s guitar-attitude and mixes it with the more playful, dance-able moments of The Cure. If this song doesn’t win you over immediately, peruse their e-card and be sure to check out “Ghetto Ways.” That should do the trick. For the next two weeks Scissors For Lefty are making their way up California, then across to the Midwest. Catch ’em if you can.