The Presets Plot U.S. Tour Dates

The Presets just can’t get enough of the U.S., it seems. After co-headlining a North American tour with fellow Australians and labelmates Cut Copy earlier this year, Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes will take a brief break for the holidays, then head Stateside again for another round of tour dates. They’ll continue showcasing material from this year’s Apocalypso, which dominated dancefloors in 2008 and won the duo an ARIA award. Catch them in one of these cities:

03/27 Tallahassee FL – Club Downunder
03/28 Miami FL – Ultra Music Festival
03/29 Gainesville FL – Common Grounds
03/30 Atlanta GA – Masquerade
03/31 Carrboro NC – Cats Cradle
04/01 Washington DC – 9:30 Club
04/03 New York NY – Webster Hall
04/04 Boston MA – Paradise
04/05 Montreal QC – Studio Juste Pour Rire
04/ 06 Toronto ON – The Mod Club
04/07 Cleveland Heights OH – Grog Shop
04/08, Chicago IL – Metro
04/09 Kansas City MO – The Record Bar
04/10 Denver CO – Bluebird Theater
04/11 Murray UT – Murray Theater
04/13 Vancouver BC – Commodore Ballroom
04/14 Seattle WA – Neumos
04/15 Portland OR – Hawthorne Theater
04/16 San Francisco CA – Mezzanine
04/20 Pomona CA – The Glass House

Boogie Readies Third Book of Photos

The Serbian-born, Brooklyn-based photographer known the world over as Boogie is ready to release his third book of photos, and Belgrade Belongs to Me: Photographs by Boogie will hit streets in February.

The new collection of pictures zooms in on working-class Belgrade, gypsies, protests, neo-Nazis, and other aspects of urban life that, while they’re not exactly feel-good material, provide an accurate portrait of 21st-century realities. This is Boogie, after all, the man who’s made an international name for himself by pointing the camera lens on gangs, drugs, and poverty.

Belgrade Belongs to Me will be available in February via powerHouse Books

Image courtesy of powerHouse Books.

Best of 2008: The Death Set

The Death Set‘s Johnny Siera and Jahphet Landis sing the praises of clean underwear and Ninjasonik.

Who was the best artist of 2008?

Johnny Siera: Ninja fuckin sonik, Sonik fuckin ninja! It’s an awesome thing to watch friends start to come up. Ninjasonik’s shows are crazy, like if Jabba’s palace was between Bmore and Brooklyn, and Han Solo was in new sneakers crowdsurfing with a flipped up Suicidal Tendencies cap.

Jahphet Landis: Ninjasonik! Hands down, these dudes are savs! They don’t care about what anyone thinks–they do what they want! Their songs are fun and humorous with hard beats. The three of them combined make up Shonuff, The Shogun of Harlem in The Last Dragon.

Who was the worst artist of 2008?

Johnny Siera: It’s a hater-free zone right here, but if I had to wave in a general direction it would have to be all the haircut, “tight” indie bands with their perfect voices that bore me to death when we’re on tour. Vomit…

What was the best 12″ single of 2008?

Johnny Siera: Daedelus “Fair Weather Friends.” So addictive it’s crazy. Ridiculously catchy hook, perfect sampling.

Jahphet Landis: “Loose” by Spankrock! The beat is insane and instantly makes any environment a party environment! We used it to open up our set a bunch of times this year.

What was the best style trend of 2008?

Johnny Siera: Clean socks and underwear. Who would have thought as grown-ass men this would occur so infrequently, especially in their beautiful combination? Yet touring pretty much straight all year really proved this little unfortunate reality.

Jahphet Landis: Everything I decided to wear this year! It was pretty much the same thing everyday, though.

What was the worst style trend of 2008?

Johnny Siera: Young urban kids dressing like circa ’90s psy-trance forest ravers. Maybe if high on Ecstasy it might seem a good idea to turn grandma’s blanket into a vest but what if they’re not even (on Ecstasy, that is)?

Jahphet Landis: Keffiyeh (the arab scarf), all-over print tees, and baggy ass jeans like it’s still 1992. Kanon! Get “Up to Di Times” like Vybz Kartel says.

What was the worst music trend of 2008?

Johnny Siera: Again hater-free zone but a general lack of performance confrontation. More GG Allin-style confrontation would be interesting, perhaps minus the shit tossing and misogyny.

Jahphet Landis: “Shark biting” was definitely the worst music trend of ’08. It was so horrible to watch how the pop scene stole so many rad ideas from so many independent artists.

Best of 2008
Drop the Lime
Abe Vigoda
Bradford Cox
Andrew Jeffrey Wright
eLZhi
Cut Copy
Fucked Up
Evidence
Vivian Girls
Matt Furie
dj/ Rupture
Telepathe
The Death Set
Holy Ghost
Mochipet
CTRL
Plump DJs
Jose James
Worship Worthy
Peter Beste
Hercules and Love Affair
Magda
The Alchemist
DC Recordings

What You Talkin’ Bout, Willits? Part 7

Guitarist and electronic musician Christopher Willits continues his monthly series from SoundArts studio. In this episode, Willits and his trusty studio elf, Ryan Kleeman, show the unique way they set up mics for recording a track on Christopher’s newest album.

Tune in once a month as Christopher shows us some of the ways he produces his own music, as well as the many cool things you can do with recording software. According to Christopher, “I simply want to excite people’s imaginations and creative processes so they can more easily create the sounds and music and art they love.”

Various Artists BNR Vol. 1

Calling Boysnoize Records the German Ed Banger isn’t exactly fair, but it’s also not entirely inaccurate. While their French counterparts may have all the glitz and glamour, BNR has the same dedication to hard-edged electro and big-room bangers. Yet while Ed Banger tunes often strike with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face, the folks at Boysnoize show a definite sense of refinement and attention to detail, not to mention hints of techno and jackin’ house. BNR Volume 1 culls the best of the BNR’s surprisingly deep four-year-old catalog. The monsters from D.I.M. and Boysnoize themselves will probably grab most of the attention here, but there is plenty more for those willing to dig a little deeper.

The Tones Dreamtalk

West Coast hip-hop duo The Tones style their debut LP with über-positive verses and hard, classic beats. MCs Retro and Suhn get personal and profound on Dreamtalk, as “Fly Angel” finds them honoring a deceased loved one in smart, memorably elegiac couplets. The melancholy “If You Could Change” pins analysis of the mainstream’s obsession with clothes, hoes, and cash woes against dry claps and airy flutes. Although Retro might overindulge in formulaic pitched-up soul-vocal samples, the Dreamtalk backdrops more often tend toward soothing. “Without You” and “Far Away” pack the same sort of rich, catchy choruses and glowing MPC-fashioned production that Panacea crafted for last year’s The Scenic Route. No beatdowns or cash coveting? Keep talkin’, Tones.

I Got You Dancing

Lady Sovereign suffered from “exhaustion” at points during the last couple years, but the self-proclaimed midget appears to have her energy back. A forthcoming album, Jigsaw is due to hit stores on April 7, with the first single, “I Got You Dancing,” available for free download right now. And as this video shows, Sov’s changed her look quite a bit, trading Adidas stripes and sweats for leopard prints and leather.

Dizzee Rascal Arrested

U.K. grime star Dizzee Rascal was reportedly arrested on Friday afternoon in Kent, England. The man born Dylan Mills was detained for possession of a suspicious weapon, namely a baseball bat.

According to NME.com, Dizzee is currently on bail but will have to report to police later this month. No other information about the arrest is known at this time.

Photo by Dean Chalkley.

E-Hustle “Get Your U On Remix featuring E-40”

Today finds us getting our remix on with this version of E-Hustle‘s “Get Your U On,” which Keak Da Sneak, Baby S, and Q-Z have reworked into a Bay Area hip-hop rhyme frenzy. While the trio raps over handclaps and synthesizers, hyphy ambassador E-40 makes a cameo on the mic and a catchy guitar riff bounces along underneath. The track comes off E-Hustle’s Word Pimpin 2:We Don’t Need You, released last month.

E-Hustle – Get Your U On – Remix 1

No New Postal Service Album Planned

Numerous sites and webzines are reporting a fact everyone’s assumed in the back of their heads, but no one actually wants to accept. Sorry folks, but the loooong-awaited follow-up to The Postal Service‘s Give Up is not in the works after all, it seems.

Give Up was released in 2003. Since then, the music world has waited (pretty patiently, we must add) for Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello to deliver another full-length. But alas, Gibbard reported to Rolling Stone‘s Rock & Roll Daily: “There never really was a plan to do a second album.” He went on to explain that “we work together from time to time, but we have other things that take up all of our time.”

Despite the pleas from fans and followers over the years, as of right now, it doesn’t look like things will change in the near-future. Bummer.

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