Recently Highwayman Nick Thorburn & his Islands stopped by Daytrotter, committing four songs to tape, including Return To The Sea's "Where There's A Will There's A Whalebone" (sans Subtitle) and "Swans (Life After Death," along with Arm's Way's "The Arm."... CONTINUE READING ISLANDS COVER BRIAN ENO AND THEMSELVES, ARE NOT TRUST FUNDERS»
Posted on May 19, 2008 in (14 comments)
Tags: Brian Eno | Islands
We dug Invasive Exotics, Indian Jewelry's 2006 long player, but the feedback feels warmer, the structures more assured, expansive, unhinged and less Doors-y/VU-derived on Free Gold!. In fact, even if you didn't like the Houston crew's older work, you might... CONTINUE READING THE 'GUM DROP XXXVII: HEAR NEW INDIAN JEWELRY, WIN AN EASTWOOD GUITAR SIGNED BY ISLANDS»
Posted on May 14, 2008 in , (1 comments)
Tags: Indian Jewelry | Islands
When not talking about Vampire Weekend and vaginas or performing with his Islands, Nick Thorburn's teaming up with Royal City-associated songwriter and solo artist (and current Islands guitarist) Jim Guthrie as Human Highway. The duo has a forthcoming full-length, which... CONTINUE READING NEW HUMAN HIGHWAY (NICK THORBURN & JIM GUTHRIE) - "THE SOUND" & "SLEEP TALKING"»
Posted on May 9, 2008 (2 comments)
Tags: Human Highway | Islands | Jim Guthrie | Nick Thorburn
There's an interesting interview with Islands' frontman Nick Thorburn over at Merry Swankster (thanks for the tip, Kelli). In it, Thorburn gives his two cents on Graceland -- wow, that album's on everybody's minds these days -- and therefore on... CONTINUE READING ISLANDS' NICK THORBURN ON VAGINAS AND VAMPIRE WEEKEND»
Posted on April 17, 2008 (49 comments)
Tags: Islands | Vampire Weekend
Because as album art goes this is pretty out there, team. We're talking about Islands' forthcoming Arm's Way, which has inspired a few gushes here and there. And by the LP's newly revealed artistic rendering, the way of the arm... CONTINUE READING ISLANDS ARE JUST GONNA HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS ALBUM ART TO US ONE DAY»
Posted on April 8, 2008 in , (19 comments)
Tags: Islands
Diamonds are forever, although maybe not as stage names go. But if you haven't seen Islands since Nick went back to given name Thorburn -- and if you somehow missed our dispatches from Austin and their effusive Islandeering -- the... CONTINUE READING NEW ISLANDS - "CREEPER"»
Posted on April 2, 2008 in , (6 comments)
Tags: Islands
In addition to shooting a ton of performances in Austin last week, we subjected many of our favorite acts to Texas music trivia. You saw part one. In this follow-up, we test the smarts of Islands, My Brightest Diamond, Peter... CONTINUE READING STEREOGUM'S TEXAS MUSIC TRIVIA - ROUND 2»
Posted on March 19, 2008 in (1 comments)
Tags: Born Ruffians | Colour Revolt | Islands | My Brightest Diamond | Pattern Is Movement | Peter Morén | Rogue Wave | SXSW | The Big Sleep | The Cribs | The Ringers | YACHT
It's in the blogger code to toss out superlatives with reckless abandon, but really -- we weren't lying when called Islands set at Cedar St. the best of this fest. (OK, maybe Fuck Buttons @ Volume today is a contender.)... CONTINUE READING SXSW: ISLANDS ARE AWESOME»
Posted on March 15, 2008 in , , (17 comments)
Tags: Islands | Subtitle | SXSW
Interested in filling a rock club to the rafters? Simple: Just have Nada Surf and Destroyer play back to back sometime. People were stuffed asses to elbows at Volume night club for the first day of the Stereogum/PASTE party, although... CONTINUE READING SXSW: THURSDAY IN PHOTOS»
Posted on March 15, 2008 in (1 comments)
Tags: Destroyer | Dr. Dog | Ezra Furman | Islands | Joseph Arthur | Lou Reed | Lykke Li | Mark Kozelek | Moby | Nada Surf | Oh No Oh My | Peter Morén | SXSW | Thurston Moore | Yo La Tengo
Dinner time in Austin, time to munch tacos and figure the night sched. As the picture suggests, tonight's the night for Jens Lekman fans: y'all have two chances to catch the Swedish troubadour (Emo's at 8PM, Mohawk at midnight). For... CONTINUE READING SXSW: THURSDAY FEATURED SHOWCASES»
Posted on March 13, 2008 in (4 comments)
Tags: Black Mountain | Blood On The Wall | Citay | Dark Meat | DeVotchKa | Evangelicals | Gil Mantera's Party Dream | Islands | Jay Reatard | Jens Lekman | Luke Temple | Man Man | Phosphorescent | Sian Alice Group | SXSW | The Octopus Project | The Raveonettes | The Weakerthans | Throw Me The Statue | Tim Fite | White Hinterland
Song's called "The Arm," the forthcoming album's called The Arm's Way (out 4/28 on Rough Trade) ... so you're entitled to think this is a look at the LP's sonic blueprint, then. The prevailing mood: Jubilation! Even though Diamond's singing about lifeless carcasses and car crashes and anxiety tapestries. All you need is jigging strings and rolling-tom beats and lots and lots of passages to turn that existential frown upside down.
Posted on January 30, 2008 (6 comments)
Afterpartying on the last night of CMJ was sort of a doomed enterprise; after catching the Forms, we made our way out to Williamsburg, arriving well in advance of the Black Kids/Peter & Bjorn (no John) Almost Gold party... CONTINUE READING STEREOGUM DOES CMJ: ISLANDS/PROFESSOR MURDER/MUSCLES/FLOSSTRADAMUS/DATAROCK @ VARIOUS VENUES, VARIOUS TIMES, NYC»
Posted on October 22, 2007 in , (3 comments)
Tags: CMJ | Datarock | Flosstradamus | Islands | Muscles | Professor Murder