When he’s not remixing Spank Rock, The Who, or Wu-Tang Clan tracks into club bangers or causing a downloading frenzy on influential blogs, Bird Peterson can be found eating tamales, digging through record crates, and swilling margaritas like any normal Austin-ite. Here, he shows us how to navigate Austin like a local and how everything that life is made of stems from a three-taco dinner.
Audion‘s forthcoming Billy Says Go EP came into being when the title track landed in the hands of a few DJs and requests for more started pouring in. And though the three songs contained on the EP–set for release May 28 via Spectral Sound–don’t bear titles quite as suggestive as 2005’s “Just Fucking” or 2006’s “Mouth to Mouth,” Billy Says Go nonetheless contains that seductive flavor generally associated with Audion’s music. Think sultry buildups, lots of eerie chanting, and fast, repetitive beats, generally of the minimal variety, to help you get your game on. No remixes here, as the ever-prolific producer is always armed with enough new material to fill a few EPs and then some.
1. Billy Says Go
2. Snap Into It
3. Against All Odds
Photo by Will Calcutt.
When Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti died in 1997, the world was temporarily left without his pioneering Nigerian funk sounds. Luckily, Fela’s oldest son Femi quickly appeared, releasing his strong debut, Fight To Win, in 2001. However, it was obvious that the Kuti scion intended to not only honor his father’s well-established rhythm, but also incorporate Western R&B, hip-hop, and electronic influences. Femi found a new audience, but fans of his father’s organic groove were left wanting more.
Enter another Kuti progeny, youngest son Oluseun “Seun” Anikulapo Kuti, whose self-titled debut reclaims his father’s urgent, horn-drenched art form. The album will be released June 24 on Disorient Records and Kuti will embark on a full North American tour with the all-star Egypt 80 band. His forthcoming album, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, is described as “a ravaging pamphlet against the corruption, ignorance, malady, sadness, pollution, and the many others ills that ravage contemporary Africa.”
Although Seun’s music is the closest yet to his father’s militant sound, he isn’t without his eclectic tastes, with Chuck D, Dr. Dre, and other hip-hop artists among his musical influences. Like his father, he has taken on the mantle of direct action to improve social conditions. Seun recently joined Youssou N’Dour in a major project against malaria, and “Mosquito Song,” off the new album, explains how the governments’ negligence in teaching the importance of hygiene is responsible for the effects of this plague responsible for more deaths than AIDS.
Seun Kuti will tour with Fela’s long-standing family of musicians in the Egypt 80 orchestra. The band is comprised of back-up singers and dancers, horn and percussion players that add a rich, full sound to accompany Kuti’s arresting vocals. Kuti is on tour throughout the summer.
Dates
06/20 Los Angeles, CA: Grand Performances
06/21 Los Angeles, CA: El Rey Theatre
06/22 San Francisco, CA: Stern Grove
06/23 Redway, CA: Mateel Center
06/25 Vancouver, CA: International Jazz Festival
06/27 Victoria, BC: Jazz Festival
06/28 Seattle, WA: The Moore
06/29 Chicago, IL: House of Blues
06/30 Alexandria, VA: Birchmere
07/02 Toronto, ON: Harbourfront
07/03 London, ON: Sunfest
07/04 Detroit, ON: Comercia Festival
07/05 Philadelphia, PA: World Café
07/07 Washington, DC: 9:30 Club
Christopher Willits–multi-instrumentalist, producer, and XLR8RTVstar–will take a break from making music to hit several cities in the U.S. and Canada with drone-ambient duo Stars of the Lid. The 19-date tour, which begins today in Los Angeles, will see Willits performing his solo work alongside videos created from his own photography, while Stars of the Lid has enlisted a string trio to accompany its songs.
In other Willits news, Ghostly recently re-issued his 2004 track “Breath (in seven sections)” on RCRD LBL, which is quickly taking over the world. Grab it here.
Dates
04/14 Los Angeles, CA: Echoplex
04/15 San Francisco, CA: The Independent
04/17 Portland, OR: Holocene
04/18 Seattle, WA: Triple Door
04/21 Minneapolis, MN: Southern Theatre
04/22 Champaign, IL: Staerkel Planetarium
04/23 Grinnell, IA: Sebring-Lewis Concert Hall
04/24 Louisville, KY: 930 Listening Room
04/25 Pittsburgh, PA: Warhol Museum
04/26 Chicago, IL: Lakeshore Theatre
04/27 London, ON: Museum London
04/28 Toronto, ON: Music Gallery
04/29 Montreal, QC: Memorial Masonic Temple
05/01 Boston, MA: Museum of Fine Arts
05/02 New York, NY: Good Shepard Faith Church
05/03 Philadelphia, PA: St. Mary’s Episcopal Church
05/04 Washington, DC: Iota Club & Cafe
05/05 Asheville, NC: Fine Arts Theatre
05/07 Austin, TX: Ritz Theatre
Nothing quite beats seeing Bad Dudes share the stage alongside bands like HEALTH and The Mai Shi at The Smell, but those East of the Mississippi will nonetheless get a chance to witness the L.A.-based spazz rockers performing tracks off their forthcoming Eat Drugs release in the live setting, beginning this week. A follow up to their 2006 self-titled debut, the new album is a strange mix of psychedelic choruses, synth-punk riffs, and shades of classic rock. For further evidence, check their new, free track, available now at RCRD LBL.
04/18 Los Angeles, CA: Pehrspace
04/19 Claremont, CA: Kohoutek Festival
04/20 Las Cruces, NM: Radshack
04/21 Austin, TX: Mohawk
04/22 Lafayette LA: House party!
04/23 New Orleans, LA: Circle Bar
04/24 Atlanta, GA:Drunken Unicorn
04/25 Athens, GA: Caledonia Lounge
04/26 Charlotte, NC: Ritter House
04/27 Greenville, SC: Spazzatorium
04/28 Philadephia, PA: DangerDanger Gallery
04/29 Baltimore, MD: Talking Head
04/30 Brooklyn, NY: Death by Audio
05/01 Brooklyn, NY: Union Docs
05/02 Columbus, OH: Carabar
05/03 Chicago, IL: Ronny’s Bar
05/04 St. Louis, MO: Lemp Arts Center
05/05 Hot Springs, AR: The Exchange
05/06 Oklahoma City, OK: Sauced
Photo by Cari Veach.
Further fostering creative collaboration, Microsoft’s Zune Arts has unveiled another installment in its Zune Arts film series, which has previously included work from Motion Theory, Maps, Ratatat, and, most recently, Santogold and Miami-based art collective FriendsWithYou.
For the newest film in the series, musical prankster duo Chromeo has scored a film by writing/directing/animation team Three Legged Legs. Pieces of Me, Pieces of You follows life-sized zombie puppets as they invade a city and infect its residents the latest dance moves. Maybe I’m going out on a limb here, but the short film is a bit 28 Days Later meets Thriller, with music from Chromeo’s Fancy Footwork contributing to the humor factor. Three Legged Legs collaborated with modern dance choreographer Kristin Zipfel on the film, for extra realistic dance moves.
Check behind the scenes footage for the film here.
The release of Smashits, an 11-song compilation featuring the likes of Fenin, T. Raumschmiere (a.k.a. Marco Haas), and Deichkind, marks Berlin label Shitkatapult’s 10th anniversary of knocking out abstract-techno bangers and knocking down beer bottles galore. Over the last decade, Haas’ label has wowed us with hard-schaffelin’ floor-wobblers and minimal gems alike, but behind the steady output of tracks from Apparat, Håkan Lidbo, and others are countless tales of glory and debauchery, most of which “are not suitable for any public audience,” Haas says laughing. Below he and partner Daniel Meteo run down 10 of Shitkatapult’s finer moments.
1. Touring the U.S. with Telefon Tel Aviv and Dabrye in 2002.
We did some interviews for some radio stations, and obviously you are not allowed to say “shit” on the radio, so telling listeners which label I represented was hard. T. Raumschmiere
2. Recording Nanospeed’s Kopernikus.
I had just moved to Berlin in 1998, and my friend Roland Fiege (a.k.a. Nanospeed) came to visit. My apartment/studio was in a rather fucked-up building, and it was so freezing cold we had to wear gloves and hats while producing. You could see your own breath. That’s maybe not a funny story, but a cold one. T. Raumschmiere
3. Shitparade 2003.
Our festival, featuring Dabrye, Pole, Miss Kittin, T. Raumschmiere, Apparat, Bus, Monkeytribe, and A.M.O. Daniel Meteo
4. Drunken artists.
I was waiting to bring an artist to a Shitkatapult label showcase at a festival several years ago. His phone was turned off and he missed at least three trains. When he arrived, he had 25 small bottles of EasyJet whiskey with him but said that he already drank most of them. Right before his set, he took 23 minutes to find his sunglasses, and then broke his guitar in half “by accident” within two minutes of starting. Although it was a bad day, I was proud: How badly can you misbehave as a small artist on a big lineup? Daniel Meteo
5. Being announced as “T. Rammstein” in Atlanta. T. Raumschmiere
6. The Shitkatapult label night in London.
I asked my friend Alex Paterson (of The Orb) to play an ambient set to open this night. He agreed, although it was very little money–and he did great. Then Gwem and a friend played an unbelievable trash-rock show on toy plastic drums. The Mute team was there (for Marco), and could not believe it either. Alex was pretty angry (sorry for that, mate!). I was smiling, but nobody else was until I saw Marco and Sascha Ring [a .k.a. Apparat]. Daniel Meteo
7. T. Raumschmiere’s last-ever solo techno show.
It was the same night as Gwem, if I remember it right. No explanation needed–it was a killer! Daniel Meteo
8. The success of the release of the last Apparat album. T. Raumschmiere
9. My meeting with the Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit.
Which got cancelled at the last minute, and over nonsense business. Daniel Meteo
10. Going to Sao Paulo with Apparat and band.
Plus my time tour-managing, DJing, and booking all my friends and artists. Daniel Meteo
Though known for keyboard-filtered, foot-pedal-clipped, hypnotically dense hymnals, M83’s Anthony Gonzalez could well start a side industry as a chocolatier. Because with this, M83’s fifth full-length of synth chorales, Gonzalez has concocted an album that’s 60 percent cocoa; it’s not exactly sweet, but it’s satisfying (a Milky Way Dark, if you will), textured without being grainy, and not as sinister as Before the Dawn Heals Us. M83 albums are more commonly spoken of in filmic metaphor, however, so it’s apt to say that M83 is eschewing Jerry Bruckheimer crescendos for the more diffused contrasts of Michael Mann, tinged with John Hughes’ wistful flush. Recalling Kate Bush, Boards of Canada, and the Cocteau Twins, Gonzalez progresses as he looks back.
