Scion Launches Film Series
Not content to merely sell cars, release remix compilations, and curate art exhibits, Scion now turns to the movies, and is ready to fly the flag of indie filmmakers nationwide with its Easy 10 Film Series.
The series’ concept is as straightforward as its name: Scion gathered 10 budding filmmakers who created shorts (about 15-20 minutes each) that will be screened together on November 8 in Los Angeles. Sounds a lot like sitting through your university’s annual Film Department showcase evening, only this event will be held at the swank, multi-room hotspot Social Hollywood, and will offer better snacks, and, presumably, better films.
Speaking of the films,subject matter and styles are varied, ranging from abstract clips to stories of Brooklyn rappers to documentaries on pigeon keepers. Each filmmaker was chosen based on his/her film’s originality, so suffice to say, you won’t be bored that night. And did we mention the snacks?
For those who can’t make the 8th, the films will also join Scion’s Route Film Series, which will hit Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, New York, Seattle, and Los Angeles throughout December.
Easy 10 Film Series Event Details
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Social Hollywood, 6525 Sunset Boulevard, L.A.
8.30 p.m. – 12.00 a.m., RSVP, 21+
Various The Portable Supersound
The 12 tracks here encompass a broad range of styles and moods to augment your headspace in multifaceted ways. At one extreme there’s Arp’s tranquil pulsations and pastoral melodies (quite Cluster & Eno); at the other is the Lift Boys (Eye from The Boredoms) taking disco the furthest out it’s ever gone, with tablas, sitars, nipple gongs, and maniacally manipulated jet-engine roars. In between those poles, Tussle tips its cowbell and hi-hats to ESG; 120 Days updates Hawkwind with an acidic motorik chug; Sunburned Hand of the Man offers a pan-ethnic, tribal-percussion workout; and diskJokke, Lindstrøm, and Bjørn Torske get both cheeky and elegant with cosmic disco tropes. There’s more, and it’s all mostly a weird, wonderful mishmash.
Black Dice Load Blown
It’s becoming evident that you need at least a nodding acquaintance with madness to really appreciate Black Dice’s music. Since 2002’s Beaches and Canyons, these Brooklynites have been wreaking mental havoc by altering the very molecular structure of sound and mutating rhythm into grotesque–and riveting–configurations. Load Blown further refines the shattered-form, post-everything experiments of 2005’s Broken Ear Record. The emphasis again is on building hypnotic rhythms via unconventional sound sources (industrial collapse, machine malfunction, drug-victim voices) and processes. Nothing is as it seems; disorientation reigns. But in their perverse way, Black Dice is making dance music–for H.P. Lovecraft characters. On Load, unprecedented noises teem with menacing intensity, and a hideous new beauty blossoms. Album of the decade(nt).
Enon “Mirror On You”
Following up on 2003’s Hocus Pocus, the indie-champions in Enon have returned with Grass Geysers…Carbon Clouds. This time around the trio has brought along a little more angst with it’s already noisy rock ways. Between the killer guitar solos and distorted basslines of “Mirror On You,” it may be a wise decision to retire your Stooges records because there’s a new posse in town.
Matt Brady’s Favorite Things
In the ’80s, robustly named Brisbane suburb Fortitude Valley was renowned for its illegal gaming houses, gay clubs, brothels, and wild nightlife. Though it’s slowly been cleaned up, it remains the spot for leftfield art and cutting-edge culture in Australia’s third largest city. It’s also where you’ll find The Outpost, a small store stocking a precisely edited selection of zines and books, toys, clothing, and housewares from the country’s best brands (Perks and Mini, Schwipe, Beci Orpin’s Princess Tina) and special items from points beyond, like t-shirts from Seattle’s Flying Coffin and Germany’s The Lousy Livincompany. (Big-sister boutique, Blonde Venus, stocks high-end designers like Jens Laugesen and Hussein Chalayan.) “Australian design is mostly known for being a bit tongue-in-cheek, a bit larrikin,” says Outpost main man Matt Brady, who loves the movie CB4 almost as much as he loves fixing the store’s air conditioner (well, sort of). He recommends you listen to the bands I Heart Hiroshima, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, and A Certain Ratio, and that you check out these Outpost best-sellers.
Perks & Mini UFO Pom Pom Bag (AUD $268)
Australia-based artist couple Misha “Perks” Hollenbach and Shauna “Mini” Toohey run the respected fashion label P.A.M., and create toys, artwork, and art books that make the world a better place. This amazing UFO Pom Pom Bag is from their latest collection, entitled “Weather Report.” It sums up all things P.A.M.: twisted, joyful, and always on it before anyone else.
R.A.D Cassette Tape (AUD $5)
We have small music section–mainly local indie bands. R.A.D is a comical Brisbane skate-rock outfit and they were the perfect choice to play the opening night of our 2006 skate-art show. To quote their MySpace: “Brought together by a love of skate-rock and early ’80s American hardcore, these dudes bring the fun. The songs are true to the source and littered with juvenile lyrics and pit-inducing breakdowns.”
Alakazam T-Shirt (AUD $88)
Will Sweeney–who has worked for Amos, Silas, and many others–has always had a place in our hearts. It’s great to be carrying Alakazam, a London-based creative project he’s doing with Susumu Makai. For the t-shirt component, they’ve enlisted some fantastic guest artists, including Outpost favorite James Jarvis. This t-shirt graphic sums up Alakazam perfectly.
Treeson (AUD $59)
Created by Hong Kong illustrator Bubi Au Yeung, Treeson was born in the forest, is very kind, and has a branch growing out from its heart! It’s been around for a little while, but its super cuteness makes it one of the favorite figures that we have in-store. This is a special box set that celebrates Treeson’s second birthday.
Assassin Gully Sit’n
After burning up the Jamaican charts, Assassin has been dubbed the next mon to champion dancehall on an international level, and he’s got all the appropriate tools to make that ’appen: looks, hooks, and lyrics. With a fast-chat style somewhere between Buju Banton and Sean Paul, and a seemingly endless stream of niceness coming from his voice, he’s definitely a top-notch sound bwoi. Assassin’s style is straight yardie, with twisting cadences and a penchant for consciousness without the didacticism of dancehall’s Bobo set. However, there’s nothing on Gully Sit’n that absolutely screams “crossover”–good news for dancehall fans, but probably too much bashment for commercial radio.
edIT Takes IDM to the Dancefloor
Edward “edIT” Ma has a couple different explanations for what his new album, Certified Air Raid Material (Alpha Pup), is really about: “The name is derived from the idea that I’m dropping bombs on the dancefloor with every track,” he offers. “Since this music is a physical audio experience, it is best experienced in a club with a killer soundsystem, and a club ain’t hoppin’ without a good crowd… This album is really dancefloor music for the people to rock out to.”
Version two gets a little more technical: “The beats are really raw,” he says of his instrumental workouts and collaborations with Busdriver, TTC, and The Grouch. “The album is presented in a format that caters to DJs to essentially rip the CD and play it in Serato,” he adds.
edIT may be a new name on the scene, but Ma is no greenhorn. Originally known as Conartist, Ma has thrived on the DJ circuit for much of the past decade. He was a resident at the gone-but-not-forgotten junglist/hip-hop haven Konkrete Jungle, hosted shows on Dublab Radio, and produced beats for Busdriver’s Temporary Forever and Sole’s Uck Rt. Switching his name to edIT, he made his debut album, Crying Over Pros for No Reason, for Planet Mu in 2004. It was, in edIT’s words, “an attempt to make an electronic/hip-hop album, but in a really mellow vein. It’s all just shoegazer indie-rock elements mixed with hip-hop beats and electronic/glitch-hop sounds.”
Crying Over Pros for No Reason might be an anomaly in his catalog, so for a truer edIT experience, check out his free online mix commissioned for Hefty Records’ 10th anniversary last year, where he spliced sounds from Slicker and Telefon Tel Aviv with the familiar rhymes of E-40 and Mike Jones. Or you could just listen closely to the TV–Ma, who works for advertising agency Face the Music, has composed TV-commercial soundtracks for Mercedes-Benz and Burger King.
edIT may be precariously positioned at the crossroads between esoteric strains of dance music and catchy club beats, but he’s got back-up from the Glitch Mob. The DJ crew–formed with Ma’s friends Josh “Ooah” Mayer, Justin Boreta, and Matthew “Kraddy” Kratz–is known for rocking large, populist festivals (including Burning Man, Nocturnal Wonderland, and Pop Montreal) with their live tag-team sets, which blend crunk, hyphy, nu-breaks, and glitch together in unexpected combinations. The outfit has recently launched its own label, Glitch Mob Unlimited, to further their experiments in musical cross-pollination. “The main thing that people can get from it,” says edIT, “is that it’s just dope dance music.”
Dirt Crew Gets Raw and Remixed
The recently released Raw marked Dirt Crew’s first full-length artist album, and not so surprisingly, this Mood Music-friendly duo showered the dance world with its trademark dark house beats. But the album isn’t the end of James Flavour and Break 3000’s 2007 releases, as indicated by their accompanying EP, the aptly titled, Raw Remixes.
Bound for stores on November 12, the three-track single features High Grade Records founder Tom Clark, Frankfurt-based duo Motorcitysoul (Cocoon, Freerange), and a collaborative track with Patrice Bäumel (Trapez) and Nuno Dos Santos (Compost Black). Clark chimes in with a dubby 4 a.m. interpretation of “How Does It Feel,” while Motorcitysoul and Patrice Bäumel and Nuno Dos Santos turn out peak-time tech-house versions of “Manoeuvres” and “Get Raw.”
Tracklisting
A1. Manoeuvres (Motorcitysoul Remix)
B1. Get Raw (Bäumel & Dos Santos Threesixty Remix)
B2. How Does It Feel (Tom Clark Remix)
Image of Dirt Crew by Donnie Bauer.
Gold Standard Labs Closes Its Doors
By now you’ve likely heard the news of Gold Standard Laboratories‘ shut down, but we have to give props where they’re due…
In October of 1994, Angel Hair vocalist Sonny Kay released Bunny Ghenghis’ “Children Under Twelve/U-100″ 7”, the first of over 130 experimental punk releases from GSL. Over the past fourteen years, Kay’s label has turned out records from now-household names like The Rapture, !!!, The Locust, The Faint, and The Mars Volta (Omar Rodriguez-Lopez bought into the label in 2001), plus, perhaps most notably, iconic subterranean punk bands like Dead and Gone, Mohinder, Sunshine, and The VSS.
According to the label’s website:
“In recent years, we’ve experienced the onset of factors that have seriously limited our ability to maintain what we feel is the essence of the label; the experimental attitude and artistic freewheeling of times past are simply no longer sustainable.”
While masses of GSL-influenced bands continue to rise to popularity (see Crystal Castles, Klaxons, and about 6,000 other UK-based bands), the label, in addition to ThreeOneG and Gravity, consistently adhered to its policy of releasing independent music that existed outside the norms–both mainstream and underground. The label’s back catalog will still be available through Red Eye Distribution and 11spot.com. While it’s a sad day for punk, the label’s place in history will surely remain.
The VSS “Silt, Etc.” Live 1995
Get Hustle “Crushing Death” Live
The Locust “Half Eaten Sausage Would Like to See You In His Office”
