Gear Alert: M-Audio Studiophile AV 40s
It’s amazing how quickly otherwise-intelligent gear heads will drop a wad of cash for those abhorrent iPod docking stations currently sweeping the market, especially when M-Audio offers up a speaker system as resolute as the Studiophile AV 40s.
Unlike a majority of modern desktop speakers, the AV 40s are specifically designed for bedroom composers and producers who want a hassle-free setup that can stand on its own, be taken on the road, etc.
Priced at $200.00, these little dudes come equipped with 4” polypropylene-coated woofers that pump out extreme bass while not crossing the “enough bass to get you evicted” line. They also come with a 20-watt-per-channel built-in amplifier and magnetic shielding that’ll protect the old LCD screen.
Although M-Audio has even more affordable speakers, the AV 40’s are worth the extra cash, and definitely worth second guessing that expensive wooden box designed solely for iPods.
The Studiophile AV 40 Speaker System is available now from M-Audio.
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone Tours
What happens when synth-pop is infected with the live-instrument virus? Well, it’s probably still just indie rock, but it’s also a manifestation of the new Casiotone For the Painfully Alone sound. Owen Ashworth’s one-man moping machine has been touring like a vagabond in search of its grandfather for the last few months, supporting his latest Tomlab release, Etiquette, and giving fans a taste of what he sounds like when backed by a live band. Those ready to see the synth-pop realm invaded by some guitar action, get to one of these dates asap.
Etiquette is out now on Tomlab.
Tourdates
06/14 Los Angeles, CA: Echo
06/15 San Diego, CA: Habitat
06/16 Phoenix, AZ: Trunkspace
06/18 Oklahoma City, OK: Conservatory
06/19 Dallas, TX: Palladium
06/20 Austin, TX: Emo’s
06/21 Houston, TX: Proletariat
06/23 Birmingham, AL: Bottletree
06/25 Athens, GA: Caledonia
06/26 Atlanta, GA: Drunken Unicorn
06/27 Chapel Hill, NC: Local 506
06/29 Washington DC: The Red and The Black
06/30 Norfolk, VA: The Boot
07/01 Philadelphia, PA: First Unitarian Church Side Chapel
07/03 Brooklyn, NY: Don Pedro’s
07/05 New York, NY: Mercury Lounge
07/06 Cambridge, MA: Middle East
07/07 Burlington, VT: Kriya Studio
07/08 Rochester, NY: Bug Jar
07/09 Cleveland, OH: Beachland Tavern
07/11 Chicago, IL: Beat Kitchen
07/14 Iowa City, IA: Picador
07/20 Seattle, WA: Atlas Clothing
07/21 Portland, OR: Holocene
07/25 San Francisco, CA: Bottom of the Hill
Daily Download: Odd Nosdam “Fat Hooks”
Many anticon. artists are migrating towards more challenging artistic terrain, but Odd Nosdam is still miles ahead of the pack. Taking influence from melodic drone as much as hip-hop, “Fat Hooks” illustrates this fact. After one listen to ON’s Level Live Wires, a single question remains: has gangster shoegaze actually been composed?
Download this song as an MP3, or preview a week’s worth of tracks at the XLR8R Podcast. Subscribe using iTunes, or with an RSS reader of your choice.
Odd Nosdam “Fat Hooks”
Many anticon. artists are migrating towards more challenging artistic terrain, but Odd Nosdam is still miles ahead of the pack. Taking influence from melodic drone as much as hip-hop, “Fat Hooks” illustrates this fact. After one listen to ON’s Level Live Wires, a single question remains: has gangster shoegaze actually been composed?
The Alchemist Rapper’s Best Friend
Once upon a time The Alchemist was a teenaged rapper alongside now-famous actor Scott Caan (in The Whooliganz); today he stands as one of the most sought-after producers in hip-hop. Al’s latest instrumental release, Rapper’s Best Friend, shows exactly why Mobb Deep and Jadakiss keep coming back to him for beats. Whether he’s dropping chipmunk soul (“Stuck to U”) or hardcore boom-bap (“Gangster Banger”), The Alchemist has the dexterity to make hip-hop that’s bold and dramatic but never overpowering. These aren’t just used and unused instrumentals-they’re compositions that can be enjoyed by MCs, DJs, and everyday hip-hop listeners alike.
C-Mon & Kypski: Channeling Vibes
C-Mon & Kypski are big in Morocco… sort of. Seeking inspiration for their latest album, Where the Wild Things Are, the four-man hip-hop/electronic group spent a month driving around the Moroccan desert in an RV filled with turntables and samplers, having adventures and writing music. Though the album title was inspired by Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book, producer/beatmaker Simon “C-Mon” Akkermans says that it didn’t stick as a theme until the Morocco trip. “At first, we wanted to take the book as some kind of guideline for the album,” he says. “But when we started driving around the Sahara, it was like, ‘Yeah! This is fucking where the wild things are!'”
You can hear Sendak’s mischievous monsters–and the shifting desert sands–throughout the Dutch group’s third and most eclectic album. North African percussion and strings clash with a clarinet-led klezmer band on “Circus C-Mon & Kypski”; a jungle stomp and bestial chanting accompany rapper Pete Philly on “Make My Day.”
Akkermans also credits his hometown of Utrecht for C-Mon & Kypski’s freewheeling sound. Utrecht has long been open to different styles, Akkermans says, acting as a sort of Manchester to Amsterdam’s London ever since Urban Dance Squad first put it on the pop map in the late ’80s.
It also helps that, unlike so many hip-hop-based acts, C-Mon & Kypski is truly a band. Founding duo Akkermans and turntablist Thomas “Kypski” Elbers added musicians Daniel Rose and Jori Collignon to the lineup soon after they started playing live shows, and very quickly began sharing songwriting duties with their two newest members. “It’s four people with a lot of different influences,” Akkermans explains. “Jori and Dan come from pop, rock music, also punk. Me and Kypski are into more of the black side of music… And we’ve also discovered a lot of world music we really like–gypsy music, Moroccan, Arabic.”
Where the Wild Things Are is still without a U.S. label, but that didn’t stop C-Mon & Kypski from making a few live appearances in the States this spring, including a stop at South by Southwest, where they played an appropriately Sendak-like venue called the Enchanted Forest. “It’s like a real forest, with a real creek running through it,” Akkermans marvels. “So close to Where the Wild Things Are… a real fairy-tale vibe.”
The Week In Tours, June 14
This week shows some extreme promise on the tour front, and by that we mean serious treats for post-goth dudes who dig the blues, young hip-hop fanatics with room in their hearts for electro, old metalheads who aren’t afraid to dance now and then, and sensitive men who wear their hearts on their sleeves.
Straight from the coffin of The Birthday Party arises Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ goth-child, Grinderman, while meanwhile, aging child protégé A Trak spends time with Kanye West in Euorope and headlines some rad shows Stateside. Australia’s Midnight Juggernauts massacre Europe and China with their metal-influenced electro, and Swedish sweetheart José Gonzalez heads back West supporting his new long-player, In Our Nature.
Grinderman
07/24 New York, NY: Madison Square Garden
Volcano
Daily Download: Shapes and Sizes “Alone/Alive”
Victoria, BC-based Shapes and Sizes is one of the few art-pop acts that doesn’t need to go out of its way to constantly shake up its songwriting. With all three members democratically pumping out tracks, the band’s sound falls in between speedy-punk, improv-screeching, and mathematically perplexing riffage. “Alone/Alive” is proof of this.
Download this song as an MP3, or preview a week’s worth of tracks at the XLR8R Podcast. Subscribe using iTunes, or with an RSS reader of your choice.
