New Deerhoof Live Video - "The Tears And Music Of Love"

Technically Deerhoof's first Offend Maggie single was the "Fresh Born" sheet music, but you get to hear the band themselves in this clip of the album's opening jam in Tokyo this past June. it's a taut song, Greg Saunier pounding away on the drums, per usual, while the guitarists synchronize themselves and work as an angular (but crunchy) rhythmic backdrop for Satomi's bass and vocalizations. "Let's go, let's go, let's go, green valley..."

Continue reading New Deerhoof Live Video - "The Tears And Music Of Love"...

Posted at 5:05 PM by brandon in Tour Dates, Video
Tags: Deerhoof

Comments (4) latest by yrmom

New Zach Hill Video - "Stoic Logic" (Featuring No Age)

Zach Hills brings a lot to Marnie Stern's This Is It.... On his own recent solo album The Astrological Straits, he in turn benefits from the help of his friends, including Stern (and Les Claypool, the Deftones' Chino Moreno, No Age, the Flying Luttenbacher's Jonathon Hicshke, an Rx Bandit, a Hella mate, etc). Much like the kinetic, kaleidoscopic Play-Doh/cactus-filled "Hindsight Is Nowhere" clip, this over-the-top "Stoic Logic" color explosion hits like a visual sugar rush. There are a couple major differences between this and the last one, though.

Continue reading New Zach Hill Video - "Stoic Logic" (Featuring No Age)...

Posted at 3:47 PM by brandon in Video
Tags: Hella | No Age | Zach Hill

Comments (2) latest by JAX

New Kaiser Chiefs Video - "Never Miss A Beat"

In "Never Miss A Beat" we're we're told "it's cool to know nothing." Except how to coordinate your outfits for properly dividing into flashy masked and mimed gangs. The video for the Kaiser Chiefs' Mark Ronson-produced anthem finds the youths of today dressed like birds, box heads, and even Steve Erkel, scaring the local constable, making the locals close shop early, and encouraging KC to rock out in the midst of it. It comes with a very Michael Jackson-esque ending. Not in the creepy pajama and wheelchair sense.

Continue reading New Kaiser Chiefs Video - "Never Miss A Beat"...

Posted at 2:39 PM by brandon in Video
Tags: Kaiser Chiefs

Comments (5) latest by grover

New Live Andrew Bird Songs

The last peep we got out of Andrew Bird was some literal whistling as part of Final Fantasy's Toronto-based St. Kitts Orchestra on the second of Owen Pallet's forthcoming EPs, Plays To Please. Bird played a number of festivals this spring and summer, though, most recently at Outside Lands at the end of August. During those sets, he previewed tracks from the unreleased Armchair Apocrypha followup, A Non-Animal. For instance, the percussive "Master Swarm" from 8/24 at the aforementioned Outside Lands in Golden Gate Park, SF.

Continue reading New Live Andrew Bird Songs...

Posted at 1:51 PM by brandon in Video
Tags: Andrew Bird

Comments (6) latest by zayin_451

Band To Watch: Blank Dogs

Blank Dogs are actually singular: It's the insanely prolific one-man Brooklyn-based band of Mr. Blank Dog. We don't know too much about the biography of the guy behind the bedroom new-wave pop/punk and he's usually covering his face with masks or bedspreads, but that's fine. The aura of anonymity allows you to focus on the sounds -- and, really, he might be releasing a ton of things, but there's definitely a higher jam to crap ratio. It's like Joy Division vocal lines with the Cure's synth and guitar melodies filtered through ancient submerged keyboards and eroded recording equipment. And that voice? All the feedback in the world can't hide his knack for melody. Blank Dogs have been making plenty of rumbles in the noisier and more secretive outposts of the underground (half his discography's sold out), but Troubleman Unlimited's just repressed his very recommended full-length On Two Sides (on yellow vinyl in an edition of 500) and In The Red's releasing a 20-song double LP (or single CD) Under And Under in January. It's all new material. He's also playing his first shows this month in NYC, so if you want to take a peek, you can. All this to say: Seems like Blank Dogs is on his way out of the basement. Listen:

Continue reading Band To Watch: Blank Dogs...

Posted at 11:51 AM by stereogum in Band To Watch, MP3
Tags: Blank Dogs

Comments (10) latest by KillCity

Annuals' Such Fun Album Art

Annuals full-length followup to Be He Me also includes trees on its cover, but these look happier. They look like the happiest trees (and clouds) ever because the painting's a Bob Ross original. You should already know about the gentle permed artiste and his Joy Of Painting PBS show without that Wikipedia link -- because he's awesome. The band explains their decision to bedeck Such Fun with one of his speedy made-on-tv landscapes:

Continue reading Annuals' Such Fun Album Art...

Posted at 9:39 AM by brandon in Album Art, MP3
Tags: Annuals

Comments (8) latest by erik

Out's 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums Of All Time

Out Magazine asked the questions "What makes an album great? And perhaps even more critical for this list, what makes a great album gay?" and then got some help. As they note:

To create our list of the 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time, we polled more than 100 actors, comedians, musicians, writers, critics, performance artists, label reps, and DJs, asking each to list the 10 albums that left the most indelible impressions on their lives. After receiving responses from Boy George, Rufus Wainwright, Cyndi Lauper, the Indigo Girls' Amy Ray, Candis Cayne, Perez Hilton, Nate Berkus, Jake Shears, John Cameron Mitchell, Wilson Cruz, Justin Bond, Darren Hayes, Junior Vasquez, Bruce Vilanch, Janis Ian, the Cliks, Ari Gold, Holly Johnson, and a slew of others, we tallied the results to determine our top-100 list.

You'll notice we expanded the catalog to include not only records by queer musicians but also any records that have had relevance to those voting...

Unfortunately, you don't get to see the individual lists, though there are comments from the voters interspersed throughout. Also, what's not explained is how you decide which George Michael album's the queerest. As we've learned, lists don't ever make 100% sense.

Continue reading Out's 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums Of All Time...

Posted at 3:58 PM by brandon

Comments (66) latest by ohh.

New Live Spoon - "Writing To You In Reverse"

The Pitchfork Festival feels like eons ago, though it was only late July. With the proliferation of summer music fests it can get difficult remembering where you saw which band, so it's nice when some sort of artifact (a good video, a good bootleg MP3) surfaces and works as a kind of souvenir. When Amrit and I recapped Sunday at Union Park we mentioned Spoon played a solid set. They also played something new: The title's not official, but this song, recorded during that Fest set, is being listed as "Writing To You In Reverse" by the folks who first posted it. It comes with some noisy guitar, loud piano, fuzzed bass, and one of those repetitious Spoonerisms that you should be aware of at this point. I have a feeling fans will go Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, etc.

Continue reading New Live Spoon - "Writing To You In Reverse"...

Posted at 11:15 AM by brandon in MP3
Tags: Spoon

Comments (5) latest by David