Spread your wings and fly!

Lameness is the new cool

Ebony and Imus

Cornel West hangs with Prince and challenges—not denounces—hip-hop

by Makkada B. Selah
The Village Voice
August 21st, 2007

"There's a white brother named Paul Woodruff singing—he sounds better than Robin Thicke!" Princeton University professor Cornel West says excitedly, referring to "Still Here," a single on his new spoken-word CD, Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations. West, the public intellectual and widely cited authority on American race relations now famous for playing himself, "Councillor West of Zion," in the last two Matrix movies, calls everybody "brother" or "sister." It's so very '60s and Christian and gentlemanly of him. He and "Brother Prince," Mr. 3121 Jehovah's Witness Brother Prince himself, wrote Never Forget's first single, "Dear Mr. Man," and have become good friends.

SOURCE: The Village Voice

Photo courtesy of pragmatism.org

This just in from Stereogum…

Premature Evaluation: Liars - Liars (July 13, 2007)

Unlike Liars' last two albums, this new self-titled collection drops an overriding concept, unless it's love, youth, the ocean, and summertime nostalgia. More immediate and emotionally raw than past work, Liars' trim, submerged, clattering tracks aren't Drum's Not Dead epic... Liars'">more »

Boredoms Reveal 77 Drummers!

Includes Andrew W.K., David Grubbs, Alan Licht, plus people from Modest Mouse, Man Man, Lightning Bolt, Hot Snakes, Oneida, Excepter, Unwound, Enon, Gang Gang Dance, White Magic

There seems to be loads of excitement brewing over this weekend's 77-drum circle put on by the Boredoms at Brooklyn Bridge Park (going down 07/07/07, naturally). Is it the numeric synergy? A show of support for Japan's premier noise-rockers? Either way, expect the opposite of boredom at what's being billed as 77BOADRUM.

Sure, Boredoms could've chosen any djembe-dragging Joe off the street to fill in their 74 vacant spots (we presume the other three-- and the mysterious "0" spot-- are going to Boredoms members). But no; they had to get members and friends of Modest Mouse, Lightning Bolt, Man Man, Gang Gang Dance, Soft Circle, Oneida, Excepter, Aa, Blood on the Wall, Pit Er Pat, Unwound, Enon, Arbouretum, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Sightings, White Magic, No Neck Blues Band, Panthers, Celebration, Negative Approach, Tall Firs, and others, turning this into a veritable Traveling Wilburys of avant-garde percussion.

Something tells me, despite the 76 other maniacs pounding around him, Andrew W.K. will come through loud and clear. From note one. Something also tells me an enterprising production company could turn this into one of the cooler live albums/DVDs we'll see in a while.

In other Boredoms news, they've got quite a few regular tour dates after the drum thing. Scope those and the complete enumerated list of drummers below.

Drum leaders:

01 Hisham Bharoocha (Soft Circle / Pixeltan)
02 Tim Dewit (Gang Gang Dance)
03 Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt)
04 Dave Nuss (No Neck Blues Band / Under Satans Sun)
05 Jaiko Suzuki (Electro Putas)
06 Jesse Lee (White Magic)
07 Ryan Sawyer (Tall Firs / Stars Like Fleas)
08 Kid Millions (Oneida)
09 Andy McLeod (Howling Hex / Modest Mouse)
10 Aaron Moore
11 Robin Easton

Other drummers:

12 Sara Lund (Unwound)
13 Jim Black
14 Andrew W.K.
15 Butchy Fuego (Pit Er Pat)
16 Miggie (Blood on the Wall)
17 Brian Tamborello (Psychic Ills)
18 Andee Connors (A Minor Forest / Lumen)
19 John Moloney (Sunburned Hand of the Man)
20 Taylor Richardson (Sunburned Hand of the Man)
21 Chris Millstein
22 Abby Portner (First Nation)
23 Aviram Cohen (Soiled Mattress and the Springs)
24 Allison Busch (Awesome Color)
25 Warren Huegel (Tussle)
26 Nathan Corbin (Excepter)
27 Clare Amory
28 Jonathan Lockie (Sightings)
29 Josh Bonati (Aa)
30 Nadav Havusha (Aa)
31 Aron Wahl (Aa)
32 Jeffrey Salane (Panthers)
33 Jim Sykes
34 David Aron (Koi Pond)
35 Michael Catano
36 Spencer Herbst (Matta Lama)
37 Jim Siegel (Cul De Sac and Damo Suzuki)
38 Mike Pride (MDC, FUSHITSUSHA, John Zorn, Otomo Yoshihide)
39 Nick DeCarmine
40 Marianne Kozlowski (The Punks)
41 Than Luu (M. Ward)
42 Dave Bergander (Celebration)
43 Michael Evans (God Is My Co-Pilot)
44 Andrya Ambro
45 Justin DeRosa
46 Hart Mingus (Negative Approach)
47 Matthias Schulz (Enon / Holy Fuck)
48 Josh Madell (Antietam, Other Music)
49 Matt (No Neck Blues Band)
50 Jim Abramson (Dymaxion)
51 Oran Canfield (Child Abuse)
52 Adriana Magaña (Crash Worship)
53 Keith Connolly (No Neck Blues Band)
54 Travis Harrison
55 Jared Barron
56 Jason Kourkounis (Delta 72 / Hot Snakes)
57 Eric Cohen (Caroliner)
58 Daniel Franz (Arbouretum)
59 Christopher Brokaw (Codeine)
60 Jared Burak (Wet Cement)
61 Christopher Powell (Icy Demons / Man Man)
62 Sadie Laska (I.U.D.)
63 Pete Vogl (Koi Pond)
64 Barbara Schauwecker
65 AJ Edminson (Favourite Sons)
66 David Grubbs
67 John McSwain (VICE)
68 Dave Abramson (Climax Golden Twins)
69 Alan Licht
70 Rick Prior
71 Kayrock
72 Dave LeBleu (Prefuse 73 / Mercury Program)
73 Lizzy Bougatsos (Gang Gang Dance)
74 Alianna Kalaba (We Ragazzi)

Boredoms:

07-07 Brooklyn, NY - Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park (Brooklyn Bridge Park)
08-04 Helsinki, Finland - Nosturi
08-05 Tampere, Finland - Klubi
08-08 Oslo, Norway - Øya Festival
08-10 Gothenburg, Sweden - Way Out West Festival
08-12 Copenhagen, Denmark - Radio Concert Hall
10-18 Groningen, Netherlands - Vera
10-19 Hasslet, Belgium - KC Belgie
10-20 Kortrijk, Belgium - Sonic City Festival
10-22 Manchester, England - Academy
10-13 Glasgow, Scotland - Arches
10-24 Aberdeen, England - Moshulu
10-26 London, England - The Wire/Electra Festival
10-28 Dublin, Ireland - Deaf Festival
10-30 Cardiff, Wales - The Point

Source: Pitchforkmedia.com

This just in from Pitchfork…

Premiere: Animal Collective ‘Fireworks’ (Video)



A Fourth of July shot fired by Animal Collective: the new video for ‘Fireworks,’ from the highly anticipated Strawberry Jam. The video, directed by Jon Leone, beautifully captures the chem-free psychedelia of fireworks displays, the way the lights turn into colorful geometric shapes when you squint your eyes just so. The song's got a little of everything Animal Collective does best — a bit of Spacemen 3 guitar, a few subdued chants, and some trademark vocal whoops-- but the lyrics are unusually direct and concrete. And then it ends, as it should, with a grand finale that combines bombs bursting in air that look a bit like a joyous bunch of people creating an earth-bound version with sparklers. Ooooh. Ahhhhhh. Awwww. Happy Independence Day!

Charlotte Gainsbourg

‘The Songs That We Sing’ is the first video from
Charlotte Gainsbourg’s 2007 release ‘5:55’ out
on Because/VICE/Atlantic Records.

Brigitte Bardot & Serge Gainsbourg

Television (Tom Verlaine teaching Richard Hell ‘Venus’)

Heartbreakers (Thunders/Hell/Nolan/Lure)

The Tubes ‘White Punks On Dope’ (1976)

Blue Oyster Cult -‘This ain't the Summer of Love’ (1980)

Iron Maiden (1983)

The Boys Are Back In Town (Sydney Opera House, 1978)

Calliope

Taken from the recent release from The Veils, ‘Nux Vomica’
on Rough Trade Records, 2007.

She’s drawn to it

Guess who I met on my summer vacation?
Some may know her as Paige Braddock, while others may know her as the creator of Jane’s World. We met at one of the newspapers that she worked at back in her salad days. Paige has gone on to bigger and better things. After a few more newspaper gigs, she landed in northern California working for “Peanuts.” She’s Senior Vice President/Creative Director at
Charles M. Schultz Creative Associates. Long story short,
Paige was in town at the National Cartoonists Society’s annual convention. She called me to get together so the kids and I ventured down to a very swank 5-star hotel and lounged by the pool. We caught up on lost time, ate some fruit and met one of her good friends, Stephan Pastis, creator of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine. My son is a huge fan so he was floored when Stephan swam over and said hello. It was a great way to end a week of vacation and a great pleasure to catch up with an old friend. The universe was reminding me not to give up on my dreams just yet. I won’t.

Sir Anthony Macaluso

One Black Water Ale too many…

After a great set at the Orlando Brewery with his dynamic duo, Sir Tony Tone allows us to witness as he suddenly shrinks to the size of a walnut. At least 3 bystanders were rushed to the hospital for observation. No one else was injured during the incident.


PHOTO: Courtesy of Mr. Robert Johnson,
Copyright 2007

R O C K !

PHOTO: Courtesy of
Mr. Robert Johnson,
Copyright 2007

Answer: Formerly Cashmir Effect

Question: What was the name of the former band of the fabulous new duo that is now an up-and-coming part of the Orlando-area original music scene?
Answers first, questions later. Eric and Krystal Brewer are Arms Harbor. They’re a young, married, musically-linked duo. Think Johnny Cash and June Carter-Cash. This talented couple from western Tennessee, writes songs that sing to your soul while they rock and roll. They’ve already impressed throngs of the musical elite and are only just getting started.
Ladies and gentelmen, please give a very warm welcome to Arms Harbor.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Mr. Robert Johnson, Copyright 2007

Big Jef is Special

What do you call a muscian who performs a cover of Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2U,’ while playing a Texas 2-step, carrying the underlying melody to ‘Freebird’? O.K. How about mashing-up in a real-live band way, the theme from ‘The Jefferson’s,’ ‘Movin’ On Up,’ with the theme from ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’?
You would call that marvel of honky tonk-meets-punk, that guitar-playing, king of C&W funk, Big Jef Special. Good ole Jef and crew can be witnessed at the best kept secret in Orlando, Uncle Lou’s Entertainment Hall (1016 Mills Avenue, just north from and opposite to Wally’s Mills Ave. Liquors), every Thursday evening from 10 p.m. until closing.
Jef’s been around the block, musically and otherwise, and he knows how to entertain. If you’re lucky you might even get a glimpse of some other local music luminaries taking in the fresh sounds and cheap beer.
You can say I told you so!

PHOTO: Courtesy of Mr. Robert Johnson, Copyright 2007