The Orichalc Phase 12″s ranked high in my top 10 these last two years. Demian Castellanos, the man behind the project, now comes with a complete album on DC as The Oscillation, which will feature versions of his first two singles and nine great new tracks. This one-sided 7-inch that it comes with reminds me of a sentence on a library record cover I have: “The sound your eyes can follow.” It also comes with some digital-only goodies, remixes by Chrome Hoof, Kelpe, and Depth Charge. But check the titular Julian Cope cover!
Tour: Magik Markers
It’s not everyday a band can switch from lo-fi noise to melancholic blues, but Hartford, Connecticut-based duo Magik Markers pulls it off without slipping into White Stripes territory or art-rock obscurity. Not only does BOSS find the band at its most melodic and dynamic, but the album was also produced by Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo. Instead of relying on improvised lyrics and waves of feedback, this headlining tour will see Elisa Ambrogio and Pete Nolan sharing their sensitive sides at a series of diverse venues from New York’s Knitting Factory to L.A.’s Spaceland. Be prepared for a serious jaw dropping.
BOSS is out now on Ecstatic Peace.
Tour Dates
09/30 New Haven, CT: Sundazed
10/01 Brooklyn, NY: Death By Audio
10/02 Cleveland, OH: Beachland Ballroom
10/03 Detroit, MI: Bohemian National Home
10/04 Chicago, IL: Schuba’s
10/05 Iowa City, IA: The Picador
10/07 Denver, CO: Rhinoceropolis
10/08 Salt Lake City, UT: Urban Lounge
10/10 Seattle, WA: Sunset Tavern
10/11 Portland, OR: Backspace
10/13 San Francisco, CA: Hemlock Tavern
10/14 Los Angeles, CA: Spaceland
10/15 Phoenix, AZ: Modified Arts
10/17 Oklahoma City, OK: Convergence
10/18 Austin, TX: The Mohawk
10/19 Houston, TX: The Mink
10/20 New Orleans, LA: Hi Ho Lounge
10/21 Atlanta, GA: Drunken Unicorn
10/22 Greensboro, NC: Two Art Chicks
10/23 Philadelphia, PA: The Vacuum
10/24 Somerville, MA: PA’s Lounge
10/25 Bennington, VT: Bennington College Student Center
10/26 New York, NY: Knitting Factory
Eats Tapes
Join electro duo Eats Tapes as they take you on a bike tour of all the San Francisco places they miss terribly when they’re off touring Europe for months at a time.
Feedback Loop: Weirdo Nation
The sparse yet sprawling feedback-damaged pop of No Age‘s Weirdo Rippers is a surefire sign that Sonic Youth‘s guitar-rock statement, 1988’s Daydream Nation, has stood the test of time, its influence still echoing 20 years later. Upon the release of the Daydream Nation Deluxe Edition double-disc reissue, we asked No Age guitarist Randy Randall to pen a few words on the record’s impact.
Randy Randall on Daydream Nation:
I remember there being a very clear line in my adolescent discovery of music, from Nirvana’s Nevermind to Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation, and I never wanted to go back after that point.
Wet, dripping, melting, crammed in the corner of my room; this is how I first heard Daydream Nation one scorching summer afternoon, and I couldn’t accept that it was really supposed to be musical in any way. It shook the foundation of what I thought music could be. It took my young brain three long summer months to finally accept the message that this record was drilling into my mind: Guitars should be loud, and threaten to break your speakers and ears as they deliver sickly sweet pop masterpieces.
Daydream Nation has always been a fever dream of teenage punk anthems delivered via warped grooves. It’s one of the best wholly conceived Sonic Youth records, containing stand-out flip-your-wig jewels like “Teen Age Riot” and “Eric’s Trip.” I was recently hipped to the idea that “Teen Age Riot” was written about Dinosaur Jr., which, when you listen to the lyrics “You come running in on platform shoes/With Marshall stacks,” makes complete sense. Sonic Youth has never been a group to hide its inspirations, and they are on full view on Daydream Nation: The screaming guitar melodies of Dinosaur Jr. and slashing psychedelic riffs of Red Kross come across loud and clear.
This deluxe edition could not come at a better time, with amazing bands like Comets on Fire and Deerhunter pushing the sonic boundaries that were first cracked by Daydream Nation. The record stands as an important marker separating two distinct eras of Sonic Youth’s ever-EVOLving musical journey. The move from sonic explorations and layered deconstruction to ’60s-influenced pop structures is documented as a royal rumble, a no-holds-barred fight within the span of 73 minutes. Nearly 20 years later, Daydream Nation still stands as a monument of fuzz and blissful blasts of pop hooks and mesmerizing layers. Hurray for the men and women of Sonic Youth who broke the minds of the masses!
XLR8R TV Episode 27: Eats Tapes Return
Join electro duo Eats Tapes as they take you on a bike tour of all the San Francisco places they miss terribly when they’re off touring Europe for months at a time.
Previous Episodes
Episode 22: Matmos
Episode 23: How to Make a Hip-Hop Mix Tape
Episode 24: Fall Fashion Roundup
Episode 25: Dubstep 101 with DJ Youngsta
Episode 26: Maya Hayuk
Loading: Halo 3 Out Today, Nintendo Blogger Gets Fired
Halo 3: A Retrospective
So Halo 3 arrived at my house on Saturday. It was the Limited Edition and I was stoked…until I heard something rattling about within the tin. BOTH the discs had come loose and been bouncing about, presumably for the whole ride from Washington to New York. Both discs were, naturally, scratched to shit. Lucky for Microsoft, my wrath was not necessary, as, after popping the game into my Xbox, it seemed to work just fine. Phew. By Sunday evening I had beaten Halo 3. I couldn’t stop. I HAD to see it to the end, which was both confusing and also managed to give a sense of semi-closure (as predicted and without giving anything away, Halo 3 totally leaves the door open for Halo 4. Duh.)
First of all, let me say that, as impressed as I was with Bioshock’s graphics last month, I am absolutely inspired by Halo 3’s look. Yes, all the Halos have looked relatively great, and this is essentially just a new paint job, but 3 had me stopping to admire scratches on a tank and the grass on hillside. The amount of detail is staggering, and the levels are often tremendous in size and nothing short of amazing.
And, while it may sound disappointing that Halo can be beaten in only a day (on Heroic), the reality is that there is so much going on in this game that the story-mode–still somewhat insane, yet compelling enough that I will gladly be playing through on the super-hard “legendary” mode this week–is really only a small part of what will make me and millions of others keep at this game for the next year. Or three.
Multiplayer is really what most people play this game for, and Bungie have stepped shit up this time.
The “Forge” map-editor is a wild new addition that doesn’t really let you alter the map geography, but lets you alter what and where certain things are within the map, as well as what it is you can do in the map–like play “baseball” with gravity hammers and explosive projectiles. Come the fuck on! That’s awesome!
Then there is the ability to record your matches (the game does this automatically on campaign mode as well) and play them back, move the camera around, take movies, take screenshots, send them to friends, etc.
Add this to the various other modes and inevitable downloadable content that we’re guessing will drop around Christmas-ish, and you have an exemplary sci-fi game that is worth far more than what you paid for it. Which in our case was nothing, so in Vegas terms we are way up.
If we had any complaints it would be that the story was, as we mentioned, still a bit nonsensical, the vehicle gameplay wasn’t quite as satisfying as it had seemed previously (and we never once got to pilot a banshee. Did I just miss it somewhere?), and weapons seemed a little weak this time around–but that is perhaps because we were on a higher difficulty. Still, I feel the game should have accounted for that and made shooting a Brute point-blank in the face with shotgun feel like I had done just that instead of having him punch me right after. Meh.
But these are all mild complaints. The shittiest parts of Halo 3 are still better than 99% of everything else out there. If you have an Xbox 360 then you should have Halo 3. My gamer tag is Blacknacht. Come get some bitches.
Nintendo Blogger Fired For Being Idiot
A brazen 23-year old bloggerette, who also worked for Nintendo, by the name of Jessica Zenner, was recently canned by the Big N for saying the following on her personal blog:
“One plus about working with [a] hormonal, facial-hair-growing, frumpy [woman] is that I have found a new excuse to drink heavily,” Zenner writes. “My gut tells me that this woman hasn’t been fucked in years.”
Not much to say about this one other than:
“STOP USING YOUR PERSONAL WEBPAGES TO TALK SHIT ABOUT PEOPLE THAT PAY YOU MONEY YOU STUPID FUCKING DICKS!!”
Lord knows I’ve badmouthed previous employers plenty but I never plastered it on the internet for all to see. Do people really think they are that untouchable these days? Christ!
Full story at TheStranger.com.
XLR8R’s Paris Issue On Sale Now
This month we shine a little, um, light on the City of Lights, with special features on all our favorite Parisian musicians, labels, clubs, fashion mavens, and haunts. Chloé, Chateau Flight, Busy P, Point Ephemere, Teenage Bad Girl, Ekler‘o’shock, Kitsuné, Poni Hoax, Institubes, Turzi, Noze, Hugabass, Kourtrajmé, the Colette shop, and more all make the cut as we go underground with graff writer Psyckoze, into the studio with Para One and designer Genevieve Gauckler, and through the city with Fafi, Teki Latex, and Blek Le Rat. We even check in with our North American brethren living in Paris, peep the suburbs’ hip-hop scenes, bring you the lowdown on French Touch, and get style tips from our favorite French designers and shop owners. All this, plus our special City Guide to the best clubs, restaurants, galleries, and more. To tie it all up, our friend Buck 65 sends a love letter to his former home. Paris, je t’aime!
Visit our Magazine Section to download the PDF of this issue straight to your desktop. You can subscribe to the XLR8R Digital Magazine Podcast to receive regular updates, or if you prefer the old-fashioned way, drop us a line to find out where XLR8R is sold.
Randolph Lonely Eden
Talented Detroit soul vocalist Randolph’s (né Paul Randolph) artistic resume defies easy classifications. He’s worked in funk, rock, blues, and electronic projects (with As One and Kenny Dixon, Jr.), and draws on a little of everything for Lonely Eden. “Claim,” featuring Motown force Amp Fiddler, has an almost gospel vocal urgency, as well as spirit-lifting B3 organ riffs. Elsewhere, a sophisticated ’80s-style pop R&B aesthetic informs the breezy “Believer” and brassy “Earth to God.” “Soul Brother” conjures Kool ‘n the Gang’s funk, while “Valentine” has echoes of Randolph’s turn with Carl Craig’s Innerzone Orchestra version of “People Make the World Go Round.” In the end, Randolph makes his myriad influences into a vocal paradise.
Skallander Skallander
Ready to shoot your shot at New Zealand’s Skallander? Aim somewhere between Juana Molina, The Grateful Dead, Six Organs of Admittance, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young-and let it rip. You’re bound hit the jackpot at least a few times. Without much in the way of percussion, and sprinkled with plenty of horn- and string freak-outs, Skallander’s two-man folktronica still manages to enchant on experimental rambles like “Dismemberment.” But traditional finger-picking like that found on the winsome “Flesh Born Constellation” is still the star. So if you’re looking for the digital age, you’re on the wrong ride, pal. That said, the band’s assured quietude is eerily addictive. Those living near gridlocked intersections should apply.
TTC “Travailler (Orgasmic Remix)”
Let it be known that TTC doesn’t give a shit. While the vast majority of hip-hop outfits take themselves way too seriously, this four-piece act from France revels in the innate silliness of spitting lyrics in French, and delivers an album of goofy, energetic, and sometimes profound proportions. 36 15 TTC is a non-stop party that features slick production work from the likes of DJ Orgasmic, Para One, and Modeselektor, and turns hip-hop into good old-fashioned fun for the ears. Photo by Bastien Lattanzio.
