Matt Furie’s Big Adventure
Artist Matt Furie goes through his morning routine, shows us around his room, gives us an idea of what makes up his weird cartoon-y world, and then hits a major snag…. he loses the ability to draw. He first believes it’s been stolen, then admits he needs the help of a powerful mystic. On his quest to regain the key to his talents (which takes him to the Presidio Pet Cemetery in San Francisco), Matt finds something even more valuable… himself.
This episode was written and shot entirely by sixth graders.
VP and Greensleeves to Merge
VP Records of Jamaica-Queens, New York and Greensleeves Records of London, U.K. have announced a merger deal in which VP would purchase the Greensleeves Records and Publishing from its holding company, Zest Group. Founded in 1977, Greensleeves’ extensive catalog includes titles by Yellowman, Wailing Souls, Shaggy, Shabba Ranks, JC Lodge, and Michael Prophet.
In a press announcement today, Chris Chin and Randy Chin, respectively Chief Executive Officer and President of VP Records, commented, “Although Greensleeves has historically been our competitor, we have always had the utmost respect for what Greensleeves stood for. The label and its founders had a long-term commitment to reggae music, and no one is better positioned than VP Records to understand the need to respect this legacy. We will ensure that Greensleeves remains alive as a brand synonymous with excellence in reggae and dancehall music.”
VP and Greensleeves actually have similar origins, with both labels originating from small record stores in the mid-1970s in Kingston and London, respectively. Greensleeves celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2000, and its publishing wing handles some 12,000 songs. According to YardFlex.com, Greensleeves was run as a close partnership between Chris Cracknell, who oversaw the A&R policy, and Chris Sedgwick, who looked after the business side of the company. Greensleeves was sold to public company Zest Group, and in March 2006, Chris Cracknell agreed to a one-year contract at the time of sale to ensure a smooth handover.
Zest’s Chief Executive Steve Weltman says, “The combination of Greensleeves and VP Records will ensure the future of reggae music around the world. VP Records is committed to preserving the legacy of the Greensleeves label that was begun by its founders Chris Sedgwick and Chris Cracknell in 1977.”
Shaggy (left) and Assassin currently have releases on Greensleeves and VP, respectively.
Black Lips Release Live Session EP, Prep Tour
Black Lips never tire of working. After a whirlwind 2007, the garage rock foursome jumps right into the year with a new release, tour dates, and a featured spot in, uh, a Yahoo! contest.
The iTunes Live Session EP, out now, exclusively through iTunes (duh), was recorded this past summer when the Atlanta natives did a stint in San Francisco. The release is just a taste of the antics the band is now notorious for when it takes the stage, but if you want to see fireworks, nudity, and stage diving in real time, check out one many shows listed below.
Finally, if you love the band and enjoy participating in contests, cast your vote for them in the Yahoo! User’s Choice program, in which four bands sound off against one another.
iTunes Live Session EP Tracklisting
1. Bad Kids
2. Lean
3. O Katrina!
4. Cold Hands
5. Lock and Key
Tour Dates
02/04 Seattle, WA: Neumos
02/05 Portland, OR: Dantes
02/06 Eugene, OR: Wow Hall
02/08 San Francisco, CA: Great American Music Hall
02/09 Pomona, CA: Glasshouse
02/10 Costa Mesa, CA: Detroit Bar
02/13 San Diego, CA: Casbah
02/14 Los Angeles, CA: El Rey
02/22 New Orleans, LA: One Eyed Jacks
02/23 Austin, TX: Emos Outside
02/24 Dallas, TX: The Loft
02/25 Lawrence, KS: Bottleneck
02/26 Omaha, NE: Waiting Room
02/28 Minneapolis, MN: 7th Street Entry
03/01 Chicago, IL: Logan Square
03/02 Milwaukee, WI: Turner Hall
03/04 Columbus, OH: The Basement
03/05 Oberlin, OH: Club Dionysus
03/06 Detroit, MI: Magic Stick
03/07 Pittsburgh, PA: Mr Smalls
03/08 Buffalo, NY: Mohawk Place
03/10 New York, NY: Bowery Ballroom
03/11 Brooklyn, NY: Music Hall of Williamsburg
03/13 Cambridge, MA: Middle East
03/14 Philadelphia, PA: Johnny Brendas
03/15 Washington, DC: Black Cat
03/16 Chapel Hill, NC: Local 506
03/20 Nashville, TN: Mercy Lounge
03/21 Memphis, TN: Hi Tone
03/22 Atlanta, GA: The Earl
Valet Naked Acid
We typically associate the blues with earthy African-American men from the South baring their souls and poeticizing their hardships. Rarely do we ponder what blues from a psychedelically inclined Portland woman would sound like. With Naked Acid, Valet (Jackie-O Motherfucker’s Honey Owens, assisted by vocalist Adrian Orange and Silentist drummer Mark Evan Burden) hints at those possibilities. And, damn, are they exotic and eerie. Owens conjures a chilling air of mystery from the opening “We Went There,” marked by autistic-trance vocals and Venusian-blues guitar eruptions. Elsewhere, allusions to Spacemen 3’s deliquescent downer rock, Fennesz’s disorienting guitar striations, and Kendra Smith’s loner lullabies keep Naked Acid on a glistening, dreamy plane. File under: beautiful escapism.
Boy 8-Bit on Commodore 64 Bangers
Though his alias suggests otherwise, David Morris, who goes by the name Boy 8-Bit, didn’t grow up with a videogame console in his home. “My parents wouldn’t let me [have one],” he says. “They wanted me to have a computer as it was more ‘educational.’”
As a result, his first actual contact with 8-bit technology came not through Nintendo but early home computers like the Spectrum and Commodore 64. Whether intended for instruction or play, those initial dealings with technology clearly struck a chord. Morris possesses a seemingly meticulous knowledge of computers. And as Boy 8-Bit, he punishes processors to create a head-spinning brand of electro- and breakbeat-infused future house.
Morris, now 27, started DJing and making electronic music around the age of 15, employing a Commodore Amiga 500 and Octamed tracker software (an early sample-based program). He could create only simple tracks with such humble tools, but a few years later he’d find inspiration in a new piece of equipment. In 1999, Morris was making tunes on a PC using Cubase software–and not having much luck–until a friend gave him a copy of Fruity Loops. “I use it to this day for everything,” he says. “It’s awesome.”
With a newfound confidence to match his new set-up, Morris has been making certifiable bangers and garnering praise for remixes of Black Ghosts (Simian’s Simon Lord and DJ Touché), dubstep don Burial, and East London rapper Lethal Bizzle. “Any Way You Choose to Give It,” a reworking of a track by the former, “has been the one that really kicked everything off,” Morris explains. And though that song’s almost a year old now, Morris tells us he “still [gets] MySpace messages from people asking where they can get a copy.”
His productions are chock-full of ideas–lots of bass and breakbeats culled from hip-hop, jungle, and big beat, as well as plenty of chopped-up and screwed vocals–edited cleanly into a composed, wholly danceable thump that owes as much to Baltimore and late-’90s hip-hop as it does the British rave scene. “I like bass, I like melody, and I like dynamics,” he offers. “I’m just throwing things [together] to see what comes out.”
Curses “Hungry For Love”
We all know Luca Venezia as bass heavyweight Drop the Lime, but with his Curses moniker, he explores entirely different territory–the early ’90s. On “Hungry for Love,” Venezia unfolds a strange mutation of house music that seems to defy rhythm itself, yet is entirely irresistible when it comes to dancing. Add a few shades of electro, dubstep, and grime, and you have… well, we’re not really sure what it is, but it’s catchy as hell and we love it.
Beach House Devotion
The delicate, languid, minimalist pop of Baltimore duo Beach House’s Devotion is a glimmering dream. These love songs creep forward in bossa nova rhythms and even meters like they’re chasing after a slowly receding tide. Victoria Legrand sings in a cave-echoed voice that bridges between a sort of one-room-over ethereality and a pungent melody, gliding over the mix (drums, piano, and organ, mostly) like a low-hanging cloud, stretching her words into near incomprehensibility. Her high, breathy peaks on “Turtle” are charmingly imperfect, while “Gila”‘s slide guitar dances with her voice like a returned lover, hopelessly devoted.
Cymande Promised Heights
Early ’70s U.K.-by-way-of-West Indies outfit Cymande mixed jazz, soul, calypso, reggae, and funk like no one before them; it’s no exaggeration to say they were years, if not decades, ahead of their time. Long revered among loop diggas, they’ve been sampled by The Fugees, De La Soul, Masta Ace, and MC Solaar, among others. Promised Heights is an updated version of Cymande’s third album–recorded in 1973, but only now released in the U.S.–featuring three bonus tracks and two remixes (including “Brothers on the Slide”). Even without the revisions, the songs sound less dated than one might think, with unique arrangements that differentiate Cymande from most of their funk contemporaries. If this isn’t rare groove/breakbeat heaven, nothing is.
