Various Artists Living Is Hard: West African Music

With Living is Hard, the musicologists at Honest Jon’s have unleashed the best songs from EMI‘s archive of 150,000 78s documenting folk music from Africa and the Middle East, dating back a century. This disc, the series’ inaugural release, captures Britain’s underground West African music from the Roaring Twenties. It’s a fine snapshot of artists who never lost their connection to their homeland. The songs (sung in their native tongue) range from harmonious call-and-response tunes and gentle, Caribbean-style guitar ballads to humorous moments like Ben Simmons challenging someone to a fight. Add Honest Jon’s excellent remastering job and you’ve got a promising start to what looks like a great excavation of lost music.

Truckasauras Tea Parties, Guns and Valor

Though Truckasauras leaves room for a great deal of humor in their work–their debut album features toasting by the decidedly un-Jamaican DJ Collage, and its booklet comes streaked in a raging Hulkamaniac font–the music they make should not be taken lightly. Sequencing an armada of old Roland electronic machinery via a circuit-bent Gameboy, Truckasauras makes abstracted instrumental hip-hop more emotional than any artists in recent memory. Alternately (and sometimes simultaneously) triumphant and melancholic, their songs throb with the cultural malaise of a 1980s childhood, recasting marathon Nintendo sessions and WWF obsession in the context of drunken, complicated adulthood.

Don’t Stay In Bed (Live in Costa Mesa)

It’s generally a fun time when Jona Bechtolt takes the stage, but he’s turned this Costa Mesa club Yacht recently played at into a veritable frat party, only with asymmetrical haircuts and skinny jeans replacing the baseball caps and popped collars. After insisting the audience join them onstage, Bechtolt and sidekick Claire L. Evans proceed to meander through the crowd, singing and instructing them to do things like synchronized hand clapping. Needless to say, an audience at a Yacht show doesn’t need much motivation to go a little nuts.

Inbox: Steve Bug

Sure, we’re always curious to know about an artist’s upcoming release, most recent tour, or arsenal of analog gear, but XLR8R‘s also got a curiosity for quirk. Thus, each week, we email a different artist to find out what makes them tick, in the studio and in life. This week: Fear of spiders and regrets over Facebook applications. That would be Poker Flat boss Steve Bug.

What are you listening to right now?
The birds in the trees in front of my apartment.

What’s the weirdest story you ever heard about yourself?
All I ever hear about myself are nice stories… =)

What band did you want to be in when you were 15?
None.

Worst live show experience?
Erased it from my memory to trick myself and think all my shows were great!

Favorite city to play in?
Tokyo.

What’s your favorite track on Bugnology 3?
I like them all.

What is your favorite thing you own?
Health.

Name one item of clothing you can’t live without.
Jeans.

What’s scarier: spiders, clowns, or horror movies?
Spiders, especially in Australia.

What did you always get in trouble for when you were little?
Disturbing the class.

Which pop star would you most like to work with?
If I would have to work with a pop act, I’d say Feist.

What’s the last thing you read?
Andrej Kurkov’s Petrowitsch

Complete this sentence: In the future…
I will try to finally grow up a little bit.

Stupidest thing you’ve done in the last 12 months?
Adding applications on Facebook.

What’s next?
USA tour and lots of time in the studio.

Last Week: Tobacco

Alias “Justamachine”

Marking his first solo record since 2003’s highly acclaimed Muted, Brendon Whitney (a.k.a. Alias), who recently relocated from the bay back to his original stomping grounds of Portland, Maine, has returned with another album of lush beatscapes and melodic compositions. With the exception of collaborative tracks with Why? frontman Yoni Wolf and The One AM Radio, Resurgam–Latin for “I Shall Rise Again”–is a primarily instrumental affair, and even sees the seasoned anticon. mainstay stepping into ambient territory on a couple tracks. That’s not to say he’s abandoned his love for the drum machine one bit, and as heard on “Justamachine,” his skills have only grown with time. Photo by Suzy Poling.

Alias – Justamachine

East Village Radio Festival… with Food

Buzz is in heavy circulation over the East Village Radio music festival, and the lineup looks promising, to say the least. The event will take place from 1 – 9 p.m. on Saturday, September 6, and features a lineup that includes Flying Lotus, Boris, Vivian Girls, the inimitable Devin the Dude, as well as two stages and KRS-One playing host to the festivities.

Additionally, a visual art exhibition will feature abstract experimental films by Harry Smith and Jim Davis, avant-garde works about New York City, and classic pieces from preservation organization Anthology Film Archives.

Then there’s the food, which will not be the usual hot dogs or greasy slices featured at most festivals. A gourmet menu has been planned, courtesy of Frank Catering, with bruschetta, Ceasar salad, salmon, and Italian sausage, amongst other delectable. Should aptly satisfy the stoned food cravings of Devin the Dude and FlyLo, in particular. Chow down while watching these artists perform:

Olöf Arnalds
Awesome Color
Boris
Devin the Dude
Flying Lotus
4-IZE
High Places
The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
KRS-One
Dr. Lonnie Smith
Vivian Girls
Aa
Bunnybrains
Crystal Stilts
Hex Message
Woods

Photo of Devin the Dude by Jack Thompson.

Blank Blue Preps EP, FlyLo Remix

What’s better than Elvin Estella (a.k.a. Nobody) and Niki Randa readying another Blank Blue release? Try a Blank Blue EP complete with a couple remixes courtesy of Flying Lotus.

Dive, set for release September 23, will feature future-folk remixes of the track “Sonic What?!,” off this year’s Western Water Music Vo. II full-length, followed by a couple cuts in which Flying Lotus adds his trademark sound of wobbly loops and static noise to the dreamy originals.

The EP will be sold in extremely limited quantities, as vinyl or a digital download, the latter of which will include the video for “The Shallow Deep.” Don’t sleep on this one.

Dive
A1 Sonic What?! (Alt. Acoustic Take)
A2 Up (Alt. Acoustic Take)
A3 Finer Grains
B1 Blank Blue (Flying Lotus Remix)
B2 Blank Blue (Flying Lotus Instrumental)

Photo by Plastic Nancy.

Talk Like That

We always thought “Talk Like That,” off The PresetsApocalypso release, sounded a bit like a church congregation that decided to throw a rave, what with the grand organs slathered over a fast-paced electronic beat. Apparently Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes thought so too, as the new video for the track features a wispy girl praying before she goes bezerk on the drum set. Jonas & Francois, the team responsible for Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” video and Kanye West’s “Stronger,” was behind the directing helm on this one.

Minus Crew Readies Tour Dates

The Minus crew is heading Stateside! Berlin-based DJ, producer, and innovator Richie Hawtin, along with his roster, will spend August and September in the Western Hemisphere, darting around North and South America. Expect sets from the likes of Magda, Troy Pierce, Konrad Black, and Marc Houle. No word yet as to whether or not the magic cube will be in attendance, but here’s hoping.

08/27 Portland, OR: Holocene w/ Richie Hawtin
08/28 Vancouver, BC: Celebrities w/ Richie Hawtin
08/29 Houston, TX: Bar Rio w/ Richie Hawtin
08/30 Chicago, IL: Metro w/ Richie Hawtin, Magda, Troy Pierce, Heartthrob
08/31 Detroit, MI: Paxhau Anniversary w/ Richie Hawtin, Magda
09/03 Deputamadre, Brazil: Belo Horizonte: Richie Hawtin
09/03 Cholula, Mexico: Fonica w/ Magda
09/04 Guadalajara, Mexico: Bar Americans w/ Marc Houle, Magda
09/04 Bogota, Colombia: Cha Cha
09/05 Monterrey, Mexico: Aura w/ Magda
09/05 Cali, Colombia: Der Zoo w/ Troy Pierce
09/05 Warung, Brazil: Itajai w/ Richie Hawtin
09/05 Medellin, Colombia: Carnival w/ Troy Pierce
09/05 Miami, FL: Nocturna w/ Marco Carola
09/05 Chicago, IL: Smart Bar w/ Konrad Black
09/06 Medellin, Colombia: Carnival w/ Troy Pierce
09/06 Juarez, Mexico: Hard Pop w/ Magda
09/06 Sebastiao, Brazil: Sirena w/ Richie Hawtin
09/06 Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: Alfatori w/ Marc Houle
09/07 Los Angeles, CA: Standard Hotel w/ Magda
09/11 Denver, CO: Beta w/ Richie Hawtin
09/12 New York, NY: Minitek Festival w/ Marco Carola, Paco Osuna
09/13 Chicago, IL: Smart Bar w/ Marco Carola
09/13 Los Angeles, CA: Nocturnal Wonderland w/ Richie Hawtin
09/14 New York, NY: Minitek Festival w/ Richie Hawtin, Troy Pierce, Audion, Konrad Black
09/19 Cuenca, Ecuador: Quinta Balzay w/ Konrad Black
09/20 Quito, Ecuador: El Blues w/ Konrad Black
09/21 Argentina: Whitedesertfestival w/ Fabrizio Maurizi

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