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After kicking off their giant summer/fall tour, Interpol has now released a video for a sneak peek into their upcoming self-titled record.
The video for "Lights" is, well, kind of weird. But hey! It's new!
Interpol's self-titled fourth album will drop September 14th via Matador.
You can see a full list of shows for the Interpol tour here.
Enjoy at FILTERmagazine.com
The synthy new wave-pop of Mystery Jets will be coming to the states for a few shows.
With just under two weeks until their new record drops, Mystery Jets is jumping the big puddle to play a few shows in NYC and LA.
Serotonin will drop July 5th and is available in many different forms as well as have pre-order packages. Click here for details.
You can also check out a few exclusive tracks off of Serotonin via their Myspace.
Tour Dates:
September
14 New York, NY Mercury Lounge
15 New York, NY Mercury Lounge
17 Los Angeles, CA Troubadour
Jenny Lewis and Johnny Rice have finally released a taste of their upcoming debut album as Jenny & Johnny.
"Scissor Runner" is their first single and is exactly what we thought it would be, upbeat, fun, and pure. Although the duo's website says some darker tunes on We're Having Fun Now, this song is as happy as can be.
You can catch the love birds on the road this fall.
Click below for the free download of "Scissor Runner."
After Toronto we made our way to Montreal. It almost felt a little surreal with all the French - we thought we'd left for Europe. The venue we were supposed to play had a fire just a couple of weeks before, so we had to switch venues to Le Belmont. Because our favorite singer, Leonard Cohen, is from Montreal, we decided last minute to do a cover of his song The Partisan in French (!). It went well, although our French is far from perfect.
We left the next morning for Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was a long drive and long time at the Canadian Border, so we didn't get to see much of Cambridge. The gig, however, was great and the crowd was very supportive. Klara went up and did a song with Samantha Crain, Sam's song "We Are The Same".
Straight after the show we drove to New York. Driving into New York City in the middle of the night, seeing the famous skyline, was really magical. It's strange to see all of these places for the first time, because we've seen them so many times before in movies, it doesn't feel unfamiliar at all. We got to our hotel in Brooklyn and got some rest. Waking up the next day, we took a walk in Williamsburg, ate breakfast, saw some really nice vintage stores, and bought a skirt in one of them. We played a show in Brooklyn that night at The Bell House. It was a really good show, the sound was perfect and we loved the big wooden room! We were a little sad though, knowing it was the second to last show on our tour. However, we followed our drummer Mattias advice, "tonight we dance, tomorrow we cry".
Eventually, the last day emerged. We spent the afternoon in Manhattan, doing a little session, then eating Pastrami Sandwiches at Katz's Delicatessen (where else?) and doing even more thrift store shopping.
The show felt fantastic. We all enjoyed it and gave it our all.
Johanna cried during Ghost Town and we could see a few people in the audience crying as well. During the end of our set we went down in the audience to take a picture. This is something we've been doing during almost every show in this tour. You can find the pictures on our Facebook and Myspace.
In an email blast that went out this morning, the musicFIRST Coalition, the group organized to pursue a performance royalty on radio broadcasters for the use of music in their over-the-air broadcasts, announced that they would be holding a rally and concert with a member of the 1960s rock band the Monkees, musically backed by three Congressmen. Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees will be backed by a band featuring two Democratic Congressmen and a Republican in a concert to be held in the Capitol Building's Visitor's Center at 4:30 in the afternoon - presumably so that other Capitol Hill staffers will stop by and attend the rally. While this is not the first concert to be held in support of the royalty, this one comes after some in the broadcast industry have suggested that the push for the royalty is dead for the year, given the fact that the NAB has well over half the members of the House of Representatives signed onto a non-binding resolution opposing the royalty. The concert, plus the recent letter from the Copyright Office in support of the broadcast performance royalty that we recently wrote about, show that the campaign from the supporters of the royalty has not diminished, but instead continues unabated.
Some in the broadcast community have suggested that, given the major issues that are pending before Congress and the fact that the Congressional schedule will likely be tight in the fall in advance of the November elections, there was not time for this issue to come up this year. But there are still many opportunities for the issue to be considered - either as part of some other legislation, or perhaps in the "lame duck" session of Congress after the elections but before the new Congress is convened in January. During that lame duck session, Congressmen who are not returning to Washington, either through retirement or after an election defeat, can be unpredictable, Thus, broadcasters need to continue to be on alert for possible action in this area, and need to continue to talk to their local representatives to combat the "star power" that the recording industry can muster to visit the halls of Congress.
FREE DOWNLOAD David Starfire – Cobra (Sub Swara remix)
Listen/Buy from: iTunes – Amazon – Six Degrees
Come for the free Sub Swara remix, stay for the remixes by Mochipet, Jef Stott, Ill Gates, and Ant-Ten-Nae!
David Starfire‘s Bollyhood Bass Remixes is out at all fine digital music outlets now!
A fantastic mix by DJ UMB (Generation Bass) of Celt Islam‘s brilliant Beautiful Dervish – A JOURNEY INTO SUFI DUB.
DJ UMB said “it’s gonna be re-vamped/re-done/bits taken out and new bits stuckin, basically you’ll get a REJUVENATED NU MIX that will get an official commercial release later this year” …
Listen to: Beautiful Dervish – A JOURNEY INTO SUFI DUB
On the subject of Celt Islam, he’s another great artist in the ever expanding dubstep/breaks scene. Providing us with world grooves with grimey basslines and dub vocals. This year he’ll be gracing the people of Glastonbury!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/glastonbury/2010/artists/celtislam/
Check out some of Celt’s tracks:
Pressure:
Generation Bass by Celt Islam: (heavy mix!!!!!!)
velosynth release#001 from velosynth on Vimeo.
Bicycle transport is cheap, environmentally sound, and quiet – a little too quiet. Since bikes don’t make noise, it can be difficult to hear them coming. And since a bicyclist should be focused on the road, any visual feedback to the bicyclist is potentially distracting. What’s the solution? How about a box that easily straps to a bike and makes sounds? Sounds can provide feedback to pedestrians, fellow cyclists, and other people sharing the road. They can also make distraction-free sonification of data the cyclist might want, as opposed to requiring that a rider take their eyes off the road to read a display. Using network features, you can even communicate amongst a crowd of cyclists.
The Velosynth is an open-source (Creative Commons-licensed), hackable sound gadget that attaches to a bike. To measure speed and acceleration (essential for making vroom-vroom-style sounds when the bike is in motion), the device uses a magnet and sensor combination on the wheel. There’s also a three-axis accelerometer, built-in amp, and Arduino-compatible brain. You can buy the device as a US$100 kit or get a pre-assembled device.
EFFALO, despite the silly and tongue-in-cheek video, are a serious “hyperlocal” maker of new designs to explore interaction, environments, and DIY hardware and fabrication. The group is based in Portland, Oregon, and includes monome community regular Michael Felix, aka “%.”
The EFFALO crew aren’t just looking for publicity, though; they hope that they can get help, including bright ideas for how to make this project useful, from hackers, designers, and musicians. The Kickstarter project they’ve started isn’t just a beg for money, either – it’s effectively a preorder page for kits for hackers or pre-built devices for non-hackers. A few kits are left, though I expect they won’t last very long after this post.
The potential of a bike-mounted synth also shows how transformative mobile sound synthesis can be. Sure, today’s digital synths aren’t far removed from those available twenty or thirty years ago. But whereas early synths required big budgets and big rooms, making them useful to sound studios or academic research facilities but not much else, sound today can be a commodity. Just as with the display, mobile sound synthesis may have uses far beyond just making unusual music. (That’s why yesterday’s mention of batteries wasn’t just a random post.)
Case in point: Velosynth isn’t alone. Electric cars face a similar challenge; their silent operation means that producing synthesized sound becomes a safety feature. That issue appeared just last week on the superb design blog core77:
An update on “vroom tones” for electric cars
Of course, unlike conventional motors, it’s possible to actually design the sounds transport methods make. That can mean producing sounds that are less disturbing to neighbors and that are simultaneously more effective for localizing where the vehicle is relative to the listener. Another project to watch: the makers of the upcoming OP-1 synth by Teenage Engineering have also engineered an electric bicycle, meaning some sort of interaction between the bike and the synth is possible.
All the details on Velosynth:
http://velosynth.com/
For more tunes by %, check out virb.com/owneroperator
Previous posts on the relationship between bikes and electronic music:
Music Sequencing as Bicycle Wheels, Rubik’s Cubes at Fest in Argentina
Maker Faire: Giant Bicycle-Part DJ Looping Reel-to-Reel Tape Deck
Music for Bicycles: Ensembles, Symphonies, and Bikelophones
Nutcracker Suite Played Exclusively on Bicycle Parts
More Musical Mayhem, Instant Art with Bicycles
Peter Gabriel made a video of himself covering Tom Waits' "In The Neighborhood" which was released on five non-profit sites to raise funds for The Voice Project.
The video consists of Gabriel sitting at his home piano, explaining his reason for the choice as well as playing the heartfelt song for the camera.
Inspired by the women of Uganda who are using their voices and songs for change, The Voice Project is a music based program to raise awareness as well as gain support for the war torn regions of Central Africa. Artists including Joe Purdy, Mike Mills, and Steel Train cover songs by fellow musicians and create videos of covers for this program.
Please check out the video of Peter Gabriel covering "In The Neighborhood" HERE.
To learn more about The Voice Project and the ongoing battles in Central Africa visit The Voice Projects website.
Alé le teknival is a nice Italian blog which regularly supplies the global mass of neon-fronting hipster kids with the latest electrotized club music. The mix below, made exclusively by Turin three-piece Peacemakers!, is no exception. Klaxons, MSTRKRFT and Vandalism all get the electro treatment. Go bonkers and nu-rave babaaaay!!!
How much can you do with a suitcase full of soundmakers? Quite a lot, as it happens.
The 20th Century gave sound two great achievements. One was the successful modeling of filtering in digital software form. The other was the production of the electronic filter, first in quartz crystal form. Today, all of those advancements are available in cheap, often battery-powered devices that fit in the palm of your hand. Spurred by yesterday’s discussion of sonic mobility and battery power, Sasa Rasa points us to the recent work of Chris Carter (of Throbbing Gristle and Chris & Cosey fame).
Chris has built out a set he calls “Chris Carter’s Chemistry Lessons,” featuring a suitcase rig of noisemaking gadgets. Among other devices, this includes a new experimental, DIY noisemaker kit that came out of a collaboration with Dirty Electronics / John Richards. The setup, and accompanying performance, were recently the featured item at an event at Amsterdam’s STEIM, a hub for experimental sound. The contents comprise a veritable guide to what’s useful in mobile music making, without resorting to mobile phones or similar devices, and without, even, any use of MIDI.
Below, one of the setups, combining specialized and custom electronics with some familiar sound objects.
He describes a sample set using the rig on his blog, proudly entitling it no MIDI no keyboards:
I generated some rhythms using two [KORG] Kaossilators – going through two mini KPs, and manipulated some bass loops with a Korg KP3 pad. I had a Chimera BC16 synth (the LFO and the ADSR) voltage controlling a BC9 synth and two Eventide stompboxes. I synced and beat matched on the fly using ‘tap-tempo’ buttons on the Korgs and Eventides.
Equipment shown:
Two Kaossilators, two mini Kaoss pads, a KP3 Kaoss pad, a Tom Bugs WOM synth, Chimera BC8, BC9 and BC16 synths, two Zoom PFX-9003 effects, an Eventide Modfactor, an Eventide Timefactor, a Dirty-Carter E.S.G.I synth, a portable Edirol mixer and a Zoom H2 for recording.
No MIDI, keyboards, laptops or desktop computers were used.
Here’s that set recorded to his Zoom H2 mobile recorder:
no MIDI no keyboards by chris_carter
Is there an advantage to working this way as opposed to assembling a similar arsenal of tools in a computer? Not necessarily. But maybe that’s part of the point: whether you assemble a set of hardware sound boxes, some custom circuits and DSP processing in hardware, a Pd or Max patch on a computer, or a set of effects, you’re engaging in what is fundamentally the same process. The fact that you have all of these choices means there’s really no excuse for not finding some set of tools with which you feel comfortable, and with which you can push the envelope of your own performance style.
Not only that, but even the most die-hard computer lover is likely to find something here – the mobile recorder, one or two of the effects boxes – that would nicely complement their rig.
And what I like about Chris’ examples is that, within the “experimental” aesthetic paradigm he’s set out, there are rich compositional and sonic ideas, modeled in the flow of signal betwixt his noise gadgetry.
Lots of great ideas for useful hardware came up in comments on the battery-powered story, so watch for a further compilation.
