CSS to Tour North America

Look out, Brazil’s dance-punk mayhem outfit CSS is about to return to North America. The manically energetic São Paulo collective will be touring in support of its second full-length, Donkey, set for release just a few days before the fun kicks off. Supposedly a recreation of the band’s frantic live performances, the new material should translate well on the stage. The Go! Team, Matt & Kim, Bloc Party, and SSION will also appear at a number of dates.

Pick up Donkey on July 22 via Sub Pop.

07/30 Minneapolis, MN: First Avenue*
07/31 Milwaukee, WI: Turner Hall Ballroom*
08/01 Chicago, IL: Lollapalooza
08/02 Chicago, IL: House of Blues**
08/04 Montreal, QC: Osheaga Festival
08/05 Toronto, ON: Kool Haus*
08/07 Philadelphia, PA: The Trocadero Theater*
08/08 Boston, MA: The Roxy
08/10 Atlantic City, NJ: House of Blues Atlantic City
09/11 Monterrey, MX: Uma Bar
09/12 Mexico City, MX: Salon Vive Cuervo
09/14 Morrison, CO: Monolith Festival
09/15 Salt Lake City: In the Venue#
09/17 Vancouver, BC: Commodore Ballroom#
09/18 Seattle, WA: Showbox
09/19 Portland, OR: Roseland Theater#
09/20 San Francisco, CA: Treasure Island Festival
09/22 Los Angeles, CA: Mayan Theatre#
09/23 Los Angeles, CA: Mayan Theatre#
09/24 Pomona, CA: The Glass House#
09/25 Tucson, AZ: Rialto Theater#
09/27 Austin, TX: Austin City Limits Festival

* w/ Matt & Kim, The Go! Team
** w/ Bloc Party
# w/ SSION

A Few Things About Osborne

A few things you always wanted to know about Michigan’s favorite acid-ragga enthusiast, Osbourne.

Osborne is a licensed pilot and airline mechanic.
“I think I must have first tried flying in ’92 in Japan because I distinctly remember Smart E’s ‘Sesame’s Treet’ being played at clubs all the time,” he says. “My grandpa started an aviation ground-support company long ago so he’d give me books on airplanes when I was little. I’m sure he had a lot to do with my interest in flying but I never could have realized it without my buddy Jason. Flying never gets old. It’s always a thrill, it’s always fun. I learn something new every time I’m around aircraft. Flying planes is like the sixth aspect of hip-hop no one knows about.”

Osborne loves Criterion Collection DVD sets.
“If I had to currently pick a favorite I’d say Louis Malles’ six-hour Phantom India (actually on the Criterion sublabel, Eclipse). I could watch that 24 hours a day. I love all of his documentaries, but that’s one I never tire of. Malle made the film with no specific subject in mind. They just traveled throughout India showing everyday life. The only Criterion movie I could think to do a score for would be Häxan. It’s from 1922, and is about the history of witchcraft. I think it would be nice to have the score all as digital noise and unsettling vocal bits.eYou know, never mind me doing it. Just watch that movie while playing the Whitehouse Cruise LP. It’s better than I could ever do.”

Osborne is an avid collector of NPR shows.
“This American Life is definitely my [all-time] favorite. I’ve always been interested in sociology and psychology and hearing first-hand accounts of day-to-day stories, no matter how mundane. This American Life seems like one huge 300-hour show (well, currently 354 to be exact…). The Moth is my current favorite show. It’s nothing but first-hand accounts of people telling stories. In fact, This American Life sometimes uses recordings from The Moth in their stories.”

Osborne is building a hovercraft.
“I like to experiment. I’m not really into making a track (or a hovercraft, for that matter) for the sake of the music or because people will hear it or to make money. I just enjoy the process of making it, how it evolves from nothing. The hovercraft is going slowly but surely. I’ve finally found two identical snowmobile engines to use for each fan. [As far as the plans], you can get a long way by acting like to know what you’re doing. Believe me, companies will send you schematics you thought no longer existed if you can word an email like an electrical engineer.”

Curses! “What I Need (Sharkslayer Remix)”

Brooklyn’s Trouble & Bass collective has a love of all things low-end, and the same goes for their latest release, this time from Finaland-based Top Billin’ crew member Sharkslayer. Remixing this track from Curses! (who also happens to be T&B player Drop the Lime), Sharkslayer strips the musical elements down to their minimum, cranks up the bass, and let’s this onslaught of electro-house and B-more breaks rip. Just add it to his already hugely popular remix catalog, which currently has the fancy of everyone from Diplo to BBC.

Curses – What I Need (SharkSlayer Remix)

Dub Syndicate Overdubbed by Rob Smith

Handing over his latest master files to former Smith & Mighty partner Rob Smith, drummer Style Scott put his newest Dub Syndicate creations into good hands. Since 1982, the man behind Dub Syndicate has been releasing formidable dub, mostly on the experimental and creative juggernaut On-U Records. It’s quickly obvious that Smith is having a great time, as the Capleton-led “Time” is a re-imagined gem, mimicking Smith’s work with Massive Attack. Luciano’s passionate poetics make “One in a Billion” the collection’s prime cut, although that’s not to discredit the lyrical contributions of Gregory Isaacs, Big Youth, or Junior Reid. This is a reggae vocalist’s goldmine tweaked by a master on the hidden side–behind the knobs in the studio, making all those levels and numbers make sense.

Alan Licht & Aki Onda Everydays

Guitarist Alan Licht and Cassettes Operator/multi-media artist Aki Onda, are close and frequent collaborators, improvisers who have taken a great deal from 20th-century compositional branches like music concrète and minimalist tape loop experiments. Everydays finds the two accomplished friends trolling through five lengthy pieces of grittily textured, slow-developing interplay. The best pieces, like the dolorous “Chitchat” gain power from their spaciousness and length, where Licht’s wiry acoustic guitar is gradually taken out by the undertow of Onda’s rippling loops. Throughout, their sound art landscapes sometimes feel like the aural equivalent of burbly underwater footage, before technology was able to fully illuminate the murky deep, and while this murkiness sometimes yields great results, it also leaves portions of the record feeling a bit unfocused.

Alias “Well Water Black feat. Yoni Wolf”

Alias is set to rise again with his first instrumental solo album in five years. During his hiatus, the man born Brendon Whitney has collaborated on a couple of projects and left his 8-year home in Oakland, California to move back to Portland, Maine. Oh yeah, and he’s been hard at work crafting Resurgam, his most melodic album to date that’s filled with electric guitars, strings, layered synth rhythms, and plenty of drum machines. Whitney also dabbles in ambient territory on this album with some one-minute interludes in between tracks. For “Well Water Black,” he’s joined by WHY? frontman and fellow anticon. artist Yoni Wolf.

Alias – Well Water Black feat. WHY

Girl Talk Album Downloadable Today

Following the example set earlier this year by a certain superstar rock band, Greg Gillis, a.k.a. Girl Talk, has unleashed his fourth album, Feed the Animals, in digital format under a pay-what-you-want plan.

How much a person throws down affects what they receive in this case. Any amount of money will get the entire album in high-quality MP3 format. Those willing to pay $5 will get the album as a single, long track, the way Gillis originally intended it to be heard, and $10 or more includes all of the above plus the physical CD release when it drops later in September.

Controversy over use of samples in 2006’s Night Ripper hasn’t deterred Gillis either (not that we ever thought it would). For Feed the Animals, he unabashedly used over 300 samples in just 50 minutes. Download the whole deal here, and be sure to catch him on the road this summer.

Feed the Animals Tracklisting
01 Play Your Part (Pt. 1)
02 Shut The Club Down
03 Still Here
04 What It’s All About
05 Set It Off
06 No Pause
07 Like This
08 Give Me A Beat
09 Hands In The Air
10 In Step
11 Let Me See You
12 Here’s The Thing
13 Don’t Stop
14 Play Your Part (Pt. 2)

Tour Dates
06/26 Hattiesburg, MS: Thirsty Hippo
06/27 Baton Rouge, LA: Spanish Moon
06/28 Tulsa, OK: Cains Ballroom
07/11 Boulder, CO: Fox Theatre
07/12 Aspen, CO: Belly Up
07/23 Victoria, BC: Sugar
07/24 Vancouver, BC: Commodore Ballroom
07/25 Seattle, WA: Capitol Hill Block Party
07/26 Portland, OR: Roseland Theater
08/03 Chicago, IL: Lollapalooza
08/08 Jersey City, NJ: Liberty State Park

Hercules and Love Affair Prep Tour

With their self-titled debut album ready to hit stores next week, Hercules and Love Affair gear up for a few show dates–a precious few. Andy Butler and company will be traveling up the state of California for the month of July before returning to New York for a performance. Those lucky enough to catch the group will get the full live disco experience, as vocalists Nomi Ruiz and Kim Ann Foxman will be in attendance, along with a horn section, drum machines, live bass and drums, and numerous additional keyboards.

Pick up the album on June 24 via Mute.

Dates
07/23 Los Angeles, CA: The Echo
07/23 Los Angeles, CA: MJ (DJ set)
07/25 San Diego, CA: Casbah
07/26 San Francisco, CA: Mezzanine
08/08 New York, NY: The Fillmore @ Irving Plaza

More on Hercules and Love Affair
Feature: Hit or Myth
MP3: Blind

Photo by Josh McNey.

Tussle to Unleash Cream Cuts

Despite some shuffling around of the ranks, S.F.-based four-piece Tussle has maintained a steady schedule of work over the last few years, with tours, collaborations, and their latest album, Cream Cuts, begun way back in November of 2006 and at last finished and ready for release.

Besides serving as a follow-up to 2006’s Telescope Mind, the new album is also a brief history of the band’s activity over the last two years. Bassist Tomonori Yasuda joined the band and contributed parts to the album, and a tour with Hot Chip led to a sudden collaboration with frontman Alexis Taylor, the result of which is the track “Titan.” In a similarly impromptu fashion, Tussle met and worked with Glasgow-based artist David Shrigley for “A Clash of Heads,” which originally appeared on Shrigley’s Worried Noodles compilation.

Sound-wise, Cream Cuts will contain all the minimalist funk and experimental dub present on the band’s previous albums, but also integrate some psychedelic elements. See for yourself on August 26, when it drops via Smalltown Supersound.

01 Saturnism
02 Transparent C
03 Night of the Hunter
04 Third Party
05 ABACBA
06 Rainbow Claw
07 Personal Effects
08 Titan
09 Meh-the

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