This Week’s Best Albums

February 9th, 2010

An iconic poet/musician whose soulful spoken-word style helped give rise to rapping, Gil Scott-Heron presents his second “comeback” album this week — an atmospheric, down-tempo disc of diversity that is produced by XL owner Richard Russell.

Crafting powerful folk abstractions and interwoven, trance-inducing vocal dynamics, Pillars and Tongues issues a new LP and download; metal behemoths Arsis boast more tireless harmonized shredding; dance-pop quintet Hot Chip shines with a diversity of synth sounds; and internationally beloved electronic producers Massive Attack end a seven-year album drought. Read the rest of this entry »

New album, Li(f)e, by Sage Francis coming May 11 (Anti-)

February 9th, 2010

Sage Francis

Sage Francis‘ new album features Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron and Wine), Jim Becker and Tim Rutili (Califone), and songwriting by Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie), Tim Fite, and members of Calexico, DeVotchKa, and Sparklehorse.

“We specifically sought out songwriters who had never worked with a rapper,” Francis explains. Read the rest of this entry »

N.A.S.A. feat. Tom Waits + Kool Keith: “Spacious Thoughts”

February 4th, 2010

Too cool.

Gallery Spotlight: Glitch Generation at BAC Gallery

February 3rd, 2010

Beginning February 4 visitors to the Brooklyn Arts Council Gallery will be able to see Glitch Generation, a group exhibition of artworks based off of mistakes, intentional or not, in the wiring of our brains.

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This Week’s Best Albums

February 2nd, 2010

Norway, Iceland, and Italy: it’s an all-international edition of This Week’s Best Albums.

Having transitioned from acoustic jazz to a prog-jazz-fusion outfit, Shining now delivers a gargantuan rock release, capturing a progressive industrial sound unlike anything else.

Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason presents a debut that is sorrowful, forceful, harmonic, and delicate — an album that undoubtedly will make year-end lists in classical circles.

Lastly, Italian cutup artist Økapi pays homage to a potentially fake Krygyz composer with a soothing glitch-lounge effort. Read the rest of this entry »

Fucked Up lose lawsuit against Rolling Stone

February 1st, 2010

Remember that lawsuit Fucked Up had against Rolling Stone / Camel cigarettes? Well, they lost. Read the rest of this entry »

Two songs available from Serena Maneesh: S-M 2: Abyss in B Minor

February 1st, 2010

“Ayisha Abyss”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I Just Want To See Your Face” (available on their MySpace page). Read the rest of this entry »

Zine Scene: Wordplay with Katie Haegele

February 1st, 2010

Katie Haegele’s language-centric zines grew, quite appropriately, out of having something to say, but nowhere to say it. Read the rest of this entry »

Ten months later Big Business release music video

January 29th, 2010

A little late, but worth it, Big Business has released a video from Mind The Drift (Hydra Head) by Wesley Belak-Berger.

Big Business “The Drift” Music Video from Wesley Belak-Berger on Vimeo.

Gallery Spotlight: Quintron and Miss Pussycat at NOMA

January 27th, 2010

The New Orleans Museum of Art kicks off its 2010 Contemporary exhibition January 29 through May 2 with New Orleans artists Quintron and Miss Pussycat. Parallel Universe: Quintron and Miss Pussycat Live at City Park is designed to get audiences acquainted with the artists’ past work while exposing their new work.

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Sneak Peek: Brent Rollins artwork for Freeway’s The Stimulus Package

January 26th, 2010

We got a sneak peek at the artwork for Freeway & Jake One’s new album, The Stimulus Package (Feb. 16th, Rhymesayers) created by hip hop design star Brent Rollins.  Read the rest of this entry »

This Week’s Best Albums

January 26th, 2010

Guzheng virtuoso Bei Bei and prolific producer Shawn Lee team up to deliver what will be one of the year’s finest albums, a tour through funky down-tempo jams and Kung-Fu flavor that is driven by the tactile beauty of an ancient Chinese instrument.

With its third album, Algernon places greater emphasis on synthesizers and sprawling song structures, but at its core is the combination of accessibility and technicality that has defined bandleader Dave Miller’s style.

And in a great week for releases, the Chicago Underground Duo releases another dichotomy of avant-garde jazz, grooves, and programming, while electronic composer Noah Creshevsky crafts musical patchworks from samples of orchestras, vocalists, pop music, and much more. Read the rest of this entry »

Zine Scene: The Sociology of Aaron Lake Smith

January 25th, 2010

Like countless other works of art, Aaron Lake Smith’s zines were born out of boredom.  The author of Big Hands and Unemployment recalls how he got started in writing, in 2004: “I spent a summer living in a moldy garage behind an anarchist collective in Greensboro, North Carolina. All my friends were gone, and I had nothing else to do.” Read the rest of this entry »

Man or Astro-Man? to play SXSW

January 25th, 2010

Man or Astro-Man? are going to reform, again (they did it twice in 2006) at SXSW this year. They’ll also play a one-off show March 6th at the Bottletree in Birmingham. Read the rest of this entry »

Gallery Spotlight: Pop-Up Art Loop

January 20th, 2010

In the time of the recession, cities all over the world have started using empty storefronts as pop-up art galleries. Pop-Up Art Loop is the latest initiative put into place by the Chicago Loop Alliance and features four art galleries, creating partnerships between artists and property owners. Read the rest of this entry »