TRIPLE FEATURE: OSSO TOUR, BQE SCREENINGS, DM STITH

August 4th, 2009 , by

Photo by Mayumi Ando

This October, the newly regrouped Osso will tour North America in support of their debut record Run Rabbit Run, a re-arrangement of Sufjan Stevens’ Enjoy Your Rabbit. But around here we like to do lots of things at once, so the tour will also feature screenings of Stevens’ The BQE, and select dates with DM Stith, whom the New York Daily News called a “ghostly cascade of noise like no other.” The show – nay, extravaganza – will weave its way from NYC to the Midwest, including the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s newly christened and very classy Toby Theater, through the Rust Belt (Pittsburgh’s Warhol Museum!), and then into New England.

You can read about Osso here, and the album Run Rabbit Run (due October 6) here. There’s a trailer for The BQE here (out October 20). You can hear an excellent acoustic session from DM Stith thanks to WYNC’s Spinning on Air by clicking right here. And specifics and times and details for this triple-shot tour are here.

HELADO NEGRO TOURS ALL FIVE BOROUGHS, THEN REST OF U.S.

August 3rd, 2009 , by

 

In celebration of the release of Awe Owe on August 4th, Helado Negro will take a week long tour of the five boroughs of New York. Yes. You read that correctly. Go back and reread if necessary. All. Five. Boroughs. As far as we know, this tremendous feat has only been accomplished by 50 Cent. Until now.

Starting off in Queens, Helado Negro will bring their perfectly-timed-to-late-summer sounds to each of the City’s boroughs, concluding the tour with a ride on the Staten Island Ferry to play on the mysteriously floating borough itself. Helado Negro will consist of Roberto C. Lange (voice, guitars, etc.), Jason Ajemian (percussion), Isaac Lekach (guitar, voice and vibes), Jason Trammell (drums), Oliver Chapoy (guitar), Jon Philpot (voice and percusion) and Shannon Fields (guitars, etc.). The motley crew will then Escape from New York (sans Chapoy and Philpot) and take their music to the southeastern portion of the United States. This powerhouse band includes members of Savath & Savalas, Yeasayer, Stars Like Fleas, Guy Fantastico, and Born Heller. Details are here.

While on tour, Roberto Lange will meet up with painter/kinetic sculptor David Ellis in Charlottesville at the Bridge to score a new sculpture by Ellis. Learn more about the opening night for this exhibition here. For trivia nerds (hey that’s us too!) Ellis helped out on an amazing new music video for the vastly bearded Helado Negro, which you can see here.

While we have your attention focused on Helado Negro, download the new remix by Leb Laze of Helado Negro’s "I Wish". Leb-Laze sublets the original and does a little redecorating while his walkman jams So So Def deep cuts and his dog Atomic starts pulling things out of the cupboards.

"I Wish (Leb Laze Tramp Stamp Remix)" (Download)

#WTDTW (WHAT TO DO THIS WEEKEND)

July 31st, 2009 , by

Via our twitter account: #WTDTW :: Fri: Castanets @ Hemlock-San Fran :: Sat: Castanets @ The Crepe Place – Santa Cruz.

#WTDTW (WHAT TO DO THIS WEEKEND)

July 24th, 2009 , by

Via our twitter account: #WTDTW Fri: Castanets @Mohawkaustin :: Sat :: Austin, Castanets @ Bash Riprocks in Lubbock.

SUFJAN STEVENS TO RELEASE THE BQE IN OCTOBER

July 21st, 2009 , by

Back in October of 2007, Sufjan Stevens debuted The BQE—a visual and musical homage to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway—at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s (BAM) Howard Gilman Opera House in downtown Brooklyn. Originally commissioned by BAM for the Next Wave Festival, the BQE featured three simultaneous film projections, a 35-piece band and orchestra, and live hula hoopers for a 3-night run.

One week following the performances, Sufjan and his orchestra went into the studio to record the soundtrack, but afterwards, feeling disenfranchised by the magnitude of the universe, Sufjan decided to shelve the project. Until now. Two years later, Sufjan found inspiration to mix the music, edit the video and expand the project to include photographs, liner notes, a comic book, and a stereoscopic image reel—a multi-media package that attempts to render this much-loathed urban expressway into a conscionable work of art.

The release date is set for October 20, 2009. The double-disc album will include the original film on DVD, the original soundtrack on CD, a 40-page booklet (with photos and liner notes), and a stereoscopic image reel (aka View-Master®), created by illustrator Stephen Halker.

The limited edition vinyl is available as a double gatefold and includes the soundtrack on 180-gram vinyl, a large-scale 32-page booklet with liner notes and photographs, and a 40-page Hooper Heroes comic book.

And on October 24, 92YTribeca will host a release party for The BQE. This will include a showing of the film as well as a performance from string quartet Osso (playing selections from Run Rabbit Run), the recently-announced re-imagining of Sufjan’s Enjoy Your Rabbit. Roberto C. Lange (aka Helado Negro) will DJ. Tickets go on sale Thursday, July 23rd for $12 here (link will not work until Thursday).

You can read a more complete description of the release here. An HD version of the trailer is here.

WTDTW (WHAT TO DO THIS WEEKEND): CASTANETS, RAFTER

July 17th, 2009 , by

Via our Twitter account: #WTDTW Fri: Castanest in Knoxville @ Pilot Light, Rafter in Salem @ The Space. Sun: Castanets in #Nashville @ The Basement.

HELADO NEGRO PROLIFERATES: VIDEO, REMIX, MINI-ALBUM, MIXTAPE, PREORDER

July 14th, 2009 , by


On August 8th, we will release Awe Owe, the debut album from Helado Negro (aka Roberto C. Lange). Until then, Roberto is keeping us busy trying to catch up.

First there’s the video, above. Directors Chris Keohane and David Ellis shot it with an SLR still camera in Roberto’s Brooklyn apartment under smoldering lights. They composited these with excerpts from Ellis’s Droptet series, and set it all to the cautionary Helado Negro song "Dahum." We think the results are well worth the sweat and work. View the HD version here.

In other "Dahum"-related news, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and Tigerbeat6/Sonig recording artist Nathan Michel has created his own take on the song with this fantastic remix. Check out the Nathan Michel remix of "Dahum" here.

There’s also the mini-album #TuiteroRoto, which literally means "broken tweeter." It also is a way for Roberto to experiment with the limitations of brevity. He is posting an MP3 track of less than 30 seconds via the modern epitome of shortform, Twitter, several times a week until complete.  Follow its construction here on Twitter.

And finally, in collaboration with Brooklyn musician and occasional Yeasayer drummer Jaytram, Roberto has put together "Falling Down," a mixtape designed to turn you onto a feeling as you listen and not just the mixtape’s music. Roberto calls this a "Monday-Friday" mix and requests that you break it up throughout the workweek. Download it by clicking here.

And yes! We have opened up preorders for Awe Owe. Click here for the CD ($10) and here for the LP ($12).

WTDTW (WHAT TO DO THIS WEEKEND)

July 10th, 2009 , by

Castanets are playing at the Cake Shop in NYC on Friday night, Chris Schlarb is at Zoey’s Cafe in Ventura, and Cryptacize is in Chicago at the Hideout. On Saturday night, Castanets are playing in Ridgewood at Silent Barn, Chris Schlarb in Bakersfield at Metro Galleries, and Cryptacize at the Turf Club in St. Paul.

You can get these updates via our Twitter account here.

This update brought to you by the letter "C."

DM STITH WITH NEW RELEASE AND SHOWS IN LONDON

July 1st, 2009 , by

Natasha Khan of Bat for Lashes personally asked DM Stith to support her at the upcoming sold out show in London at the prestigious Somerset House on July 16th. So, if you don’t already have tickets, we’re sorry, good luck getting in.

That said, Stith is performing his own headlining date in London at the Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen on Monday, July 20th, which is (as of this posting) not yet sold out. Tickets are £10.00, and you can buy them in advance here. We recommend you go. The now decade-old Irish musicers CLUAS said this of Stith in Paris: " . . . that voice, piercing and melancholic like a train whistle across a prairie, still conjures up romance and escape and a sort of bruised yearning." Yowsers! We imagine Stith in London, albeit across the pond, may do something similar of the sort.

Speaking of Paris, director Armel Hostiou directed Stith’s latest music video, "BMB." This is in conjunction with the release of Stith’s now second EP, appropriately titled BMB, which we release next Tuesday. You can read about BMB the EP it here, and watch "BMB" the video above, or here.

TUESDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: CASTANETS & CRYPTACIZE

June 30th, 2009 , by

Photo by PinkMoose

Not so long ago we announced a new album from Castanets (you can stream a track from the album on Pitchfork right here), but you don’t have to wait that long for new Castanets – when on tour, each show is notoriously different than the last. Tonight Castanets begin a very stacked tour with a bang. They’ll be playing at Central Park’s Summerstage alongside Explosions in the Sky and Constantines. The show is free and starts at 5:30pm, so if you’re in NYC – go! Details for that show are here. Otherwise, see dates for the rest of the U.S. tour here.

Speaking of whirlwind tours, Cryptacize is headway into theirs. They’re playing in Atlanta tonight, then Chapel Hill, and back up into the Rustbelt and beyond, with the superbly sublime Casiotone for the Painfully Alone as tourmates. See dates for that tour here.

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