#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.

#WTDTW (WHAT TO DO THIS WEEKEND)

June 26th, 2009 , by

Via our Twitter account (here), some suggestions on spending your evenings this weekend…Fri: Cryptacize in Denton @ Rubber Gloves, Fol Chen in LA @ PDG Performance Warehouse :: Sat: Cryptacize in Austin @ Mohawk :: Sun: Cryptacize in Houston @ Walter’s.  Details are here.

FOL CHEN ARE WHAT PRINCE, JUNIOR VASQUEZ, AND BEASTIE BOYS HAVE IN COMMON [MP3]

June 25th, 2009 , by

Fol Chen is having an incredible 2009 thus far, with rave reviews of their debut, Part One: John Shade, Your Fortune’s Made, as well as their shows in NYC and the UK. But never one to rest of their semi-anonymous laurels, they are staying plenty busy. SPIN recently invited them to cover Prince’s "The Beautiful Ones" for their Purplish Rain compilation, which will also include contributions from Of Montreal, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Chairlift, Lavender Diamond, and many more. Read more about compilation here.

While on tour in the UK, Fol Chen stopped into the BBC studios to record a live session, and now that they’re back home they will guesting on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic on July 13th. You can tune in and listen live at 11AM EST here. In weirder news, TommyBoy Entertainment LLC commissioned Fol Chen to remix house legend Junior Vasquez – who himself has worked with the likes of Beyonce, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Mariah Carey and Madonna. Or in other words, all artists you wouldn’t expect reading about on the Asthmatic Kitty website until this very moment.

Don’t miss Fol Chen when they come through – which is to say in LA at PDG Performance hall this Friday (details here), or later during their fall tour. Oh, and here is some terrific footage of them covering the Beastie Boys’ "Sabotage" at the Echo. And thanks to Sasha Frere-Jones for finally introducing the New Yorker readership to the Laker Girls (here).

 "Insecurities (Fol Chen Remix)"

ROYAL CITY: OUT NOW, POSTERIZED, STREAMING

June 23rd, 2009 , by

Royal City is gone but not forgotten, and today that is more true than it has been in a while. We are lucky to be the ones releasing their retrospective self-titled rarity and B-side collection outside of Canada. Feel free to catch up and purchase (CD – $12, LP – $14). If you’re not yet convinced yet, super-blog MBV has a wonderful full, free, stream of the album for the interested right here.

Turns out MBV are big fans; in fact, with some help from Lisa Moran and Tyler Clark Burke (founders of the late, great Three Gut Records – Royal City’s old home) Ryan@MBV organized and printed some gorgeous limited edition, giclee prints of the bands’ previous album covers which were designed by Tyler Clark Burke. Yes, of course you want one. There are two ways to obtain. One is to enter a contest at one of three blogs you should already be visiting daily: MBV, Chromewaves, and Said the Grammaphone.

Or, if you’re not the contesting type, you can buy them from us for $15 right here. Did we say they are archival quality on German Etching stock? They are.

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