Picastro singer Liz Hysen’s voice carries a bruise like few can. Gravelly, ghostly, and eerily sweet, its melancholy soaks through the Toronto collective’s music like a month-long rain. Before Whore Luck, the music was a simpler ragged guitar-and-cello-based folk. Here, the arrangements swell: “Hortur” nods to The Dirty Three, while others hint at early Godspeed You Black Emperor! (the arcing violin of “All Erase,” in fact, screams it). Still, even a well-suited cameo by Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart can’t distract from Hysen’s voice, or the bite within it: “You fuck like you want to be a friend of mine” she sings coyly. Picastro pulls no punches here, giving us their sharpest, most arresting album to date.
People Misbegotten Man
The old friction between order and madness brilliantly shines on this New York duo’s second album. Guitarist Mary Halvorson sings like a 1940s pop starlet reciting Burroughs in the shower while Kevin Shea’s anti-rhythms hurl pots and pans at her. The contradiction is amusing but a raw creepiness arises on Misbegotten–it’s heard in the way that Halvorson curls her wailing notes on the melodramatic “Interconnected Galaxalization,” and on the raindrops ‘n’ lollipops ballad gone horribly wrong in “MySpace, O MySpace.” Despite the fact that the People’s sound grows homogenous at times, they still produce genuine Martian art here.
It’s a Rave, Dave
Tour: Busdriver, Daedelus, Antimc
After a gang of dates with Deerhoof and Caural, plus a performance at Coachella, Regan Farquhar (a.k.a. Busdriver is setting out on a headlining tour of massive proportions. Supporting his Epitaph debut, Roadkillovercoat, the soulful MC is venturing on a 20-date explosion across the U.S. with L.A.-based bros Daedelus and Antimc. Even Montana is getting a taste of the new sound of indie hip-hop. The Busdriver invasion has almost arrived.
Roadkillovercoat is out now on Epitaph.
Watch Busdriver on XLR8R TV.
Tour Dates
10/26 Salt Lake City, UT: In The Venue
10/27 Denver, CO: Hi-Dive
10/28 Colorado Springs, CO: Black Sheep
10/30 Lawrence, KS: Gaslight
10/31 Norman, OK: Opalis
11/1 Houston, TX: Engine Room
11/2 Dallas, TX: Palladium Loft
11/5 Tallahassee, FL: The Beta Bar
11/6 Jacksonville, FL: TSI
11/8 Atlanta GA: Drunken Unicorn
11/9 Chapel Hill, NC: Local 506
11/10 Baltimore, MD: Otto Bar
11/11 Philadelphia, PA: The Kyber
11/12 New York, NY: Mercury Lounge
11/13 Allston, MA: Harper’s Ferry
11/14 Buffalo, NY: Soundlab
11/15 Cleveland, OH: Grog Shop
11/16 Chicago, IL: Empty Bottle
11/17 Minneapolis, MN: Triple Rock Club
11/19 Bozeman, MT: Zebra
11/20 Missoula, MT: The Loft
11/21 Seattle, WA: Nectars
11/23 Portland, OR: Holocene
11/24 San Francisco, CA: Great American Music Hall
11/30 Los Angeles, CA: Troubadour
12/01 San Diego, CA: The Casbah
Photo By Zackary Canepari.
Beauty and the Beasties: Dark Spins
It’s not hard to pick out the Timorous Beasties boutique from the chip shops and seedy tea rooms surrounding it in the commercial section of Glasgow’s Great Western Road. Even in the context of the city’s hip West End, the Scottish superstars of design would stand out with this clean, white shop, set back a few yards from the street like an amused sibling. It’s this confluence of classic, high-brow sensibilities with contemporary urban aesthetics that has made TB’s Alistair McAuley and Paul Simmons the darlings of the product design world.
Just inside 384 Great Western Road, fabrics hang from the ceiling: prim and proper laces in flowery patterns; shadowy red-and blue-colored fabrics and wallpapers; lampshades slung over art-deco lights. But look closer, and the prim turns grim–that’s not a rose at the center of the Devil Damask, it’s Satan. Those flowery lampshade patterns aren’t daffodils, but microscopic views of moths and insects. And while Toile de Jouy, a classic 19th-century textile, typically depicts scenes of pastoral and agrarian life, the Beasties’ London and Glasgow toile patterns show a more contemporary British life. “Factories eventually began creeping in [to the 19th-century style],” says long-time Beasties collaborator and employee Sally Johnston. “Our [prints], of course, are a bit more modern, with junkies, prostitutes, and goths.”
The Toile series has made the Beasties a household name in design circles, giving them the prestige and drive to open a second showroom in Clerkenwell, London. Nonetheless, the Beasties remain egalitarian, reflecting Glasgow’s love affair with design. “People are much more aware of design now,” says Johnston. “They know Timorous Beasties, and they want to get a wallpaper, or fabric for [covering furniture]–people want a little piece of it all.”
XLR8R Weekly Top Ten: Midnight Juggernauts, Still Going, Morgan Geist
Xasthur Defective EpitaphHydra Head
We’ll wax poetic all day about how great Pelican and Jesu are, but this week it’s time to praise the grimmest, Hydra-heathen to date–Xasthur. Following last year’s Subliminal Genocide, Defective Epitaph finds the California-based doomsayer drenched in psychedelic agony. Taking cues from the ambient sounds of Varg Vikernes (a.k.a Burzum), Xasthur has taken the term “atmospheric” to new heights. Long gone are the days of corny guitar solos and foolish satanic lyrics, for Xasthur is here to spread the true misanthropic word. FM
Midnight Juggernauts DystopiaSiberia
This debut LP from Melbourne’s Midnight Juggernauts is still only available in Australia, but it’s totally worth the extra effort to get your hands on it. With hints of prog-rock and ’70s sci-fi themes, Dystopia’s soaring synth melodies, falsetto-laden choruses, and unironic grandness are utterly infectious. RH
Special TeamzStereotypezDuckdown
Duckdown Records is finally releasing its first non-Boot Camp Clik-related artist album, and Boston’s Special Teamz couldn’t kill it any harder. How often will you hear an album that boasts such collaborators as Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta, Devin the Dude, Sean Price, Ill Bill, and Buckshot? The rise of gritty East Coast production and angst is upon us. FM
Still GoingStill GoingThemeDFA
With all the great dance 12s dropping from DFA lately, it’s been tough to go a week without including one of the label’s releases here on the old top ten. Still Going is Eric Duncan from Rub-N-Tug and Oliver Spencer from Manthraxx, and these two producers own the world of patient, unadorned disco-house. RH
VariousThe Kings of Electro: Compiled and Mixed by Playgroup and Alter EgoRapster
Playgroup and Alter Ego have stepped up to the 808 plate, mixing together some of the rare electro jams that paved the way for countless contemporary artists. From Deee-Lite’s “What Is Love” to Just Ice’s “Turbocharged,” this two-disc collection is a bass-fiend’s paradise. This is a critical collection for any fan of vintage dance music. FM
Morgan GeistThe Driving MemoirsEnviron
This “lost” LP from Morgan Geist shows us that the Metro Area member has a bit more up his sleeve than just nu-disco. Dedicated to Geist’s sister, who died in a car crash, The Driving Memoirs’ diverse styles (techno, house, downtempo) might be off-putting if each track weren’t so impeccable. If you haven’t already been convinced that this guy’s one of the best in the game, then this album should do the trick. RH
Kronos Quartet Plays Sigur RósNonesuch
Classical music isn’t typically a genre of singles, but then again, Kronos Quartet isn’t really your typical classical string quartet. On this one-off cover release, Sigur Rós’ already sublime “Flugufrelsarinn,” from the Ágætis Byrjun album, gets reworked into a melancholy, instrumental heart-stopper that moves toward the pastoral without losing the momentousness of the original. RH
Tender ButtonsHot AbductionsGSL
At the expense of sounding like a hater, the majority of recent GSL releases have been on the mediocre-at-best tip. Kill Me Tomorrow’s Tender Buttons project may be the band that gets the label back on track. Comprised of spacey synth noise, à la Comets on Fire, and restrained punk howling, Hot Abductions is art-rock that is undeniably original and filled with urgency. FM
Michael ShowalterSandwiches & CatsJDub
Most comedy albums go straight to the overflowing promo trash heap here at XLR8R, but as fans of The State and Wet Hot American Summer, we had to give Mr. Showalter’s LP a chance. Thank God we did. The skits here are pretty weak, but the live stand-up is understated, clever, and gut-wrenchingly hilarious. RH
Robyn “Since U Been Gone” (Live)
Is there something curious about a country that breeds pop stars who can take any song and turn it into legitimate gold? I’m not sure if it’s a Swedish thing, but Robyn does one hell of a job converting Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” into a moody, electronic piece of ’80s synth-pop mastery. Download this immediately. FM
FM-Fred Miketa
RH-Ross Holland
Pieces Of Peace “I Still Care”
From the ashes of the early 1970s comes Pieces of Peace. The band’s original debut–a Chicago soul-style album that is now considered an important part of the city’s musical history–was shelved for decades and, thanks to the likes of Dante Carfagna, Rob Sevier, and DJ Shadow, is being handed to the masses at last.
Telephone Jim Jesus Anywhere Out Of The Everything
Telephone Jim Jesus hit his stride as part of the Anticon family’s freak-hop supergroup Restiform Bodies. They had one golden album in ’02, and since then, Jim J’s been on his own. On this sophomore solo release, he’s not living up. Shame. Gone are the sense of humor and manic experimentation of the Bodies crew, leaving us with a self-serious play with beats and atmosphere. There’s something here when he breaks the formula: The deep, aggro beats of “A Mouth of Fingers” or “Suicide Wings” gives a backbone to the ambient skronk that he loves so much; Why?’s old-school rhymes on “Dice Raw.” The rest? Well, we really don’t need another Eno/DJ Shadow marriage fantasy.
Ananda Shankar Sa-Re-Ga Machan
For most Americans, Ananda Shankar is India’s token crossover artist. His surprise “hit” album, Ananda Shankar and His Music, has been sampled to bits, providing (among other things) loose inspiration for the Bollywood strings on pop-jams like Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” But there’s more to Shankar than sampling his Music, as proved by Sa-Re-Ga Machan, his once-rare follow-up. Tracks like “Charging Tiger” begin with straight-up weirdness-big drums plod back and forth over super-tense dissonant strings. Then, without any warning, the track jumps into a funky sitar workout. Huh? If this is what a tiger attack is really like, maybe I’ll strap a steak to my back and hit the zoo.
The Real Tuesday Weld The London Book of the Dead
Brit musician Stephen Coates has been working on his self-proclaimed “antique beat” sound over several albums, interlocking vintage sources with contemporary electronics. But on his third full-length for Six Degrees, the Tin Pan Alley-meets-2007 vibe, though excellent, isn’t the focus. That’s reserved for the album’s wry intelligence. Littered with references to junkies, whores, and the general untrustworthiness of love (Dorothy Parker, appropriately enough, gets invoked on “Dorothy Parker Blue”), the songs combine whimsy and devastation (on the cheery “Kix,” for example, Coates sings that “the cheapest thrills/They mean more to me now than you do“). It’s a complex voice, bitter and ardent and maybe longing, too, and, like his music, bears a certain timelessness.
