+++ Kool Thing – “Light Games” ++++
By Claire Kurylowski. From their free “Light Games EP”.
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Xiu Xiu
Subscribe Now: Monthly Art Shirts By Xiu Xiu & J. Morrison
On his website artist and designer J. Morrison currently offers a very special deal – for 200$ you can subscribe to a special series of handmade shirt designed in collaboration with Xiu Xiu singer Jamie Stewart: “The shirts will be available as a special 12 piece year long subscription (which includes 13th subscription only bonus shirt) or as single shirts ordered per month. Each month the shirts will commemorate a figure who has influenced the artists. Part-rock shirt and part-art shirt, the shirts will creatively honor the person’s name with a new illustration and hand made type.” Here are #2 and #3 of the first three pieces, designed in honor of Yoko Ono and Robert Mapplethorpe. All of them can also be ordered sperately. Check out Morrisson’s site for much more stuff like manpurses and screenprinted paper towels.
Music Ticker: Dntel/Enya, YACHT, Kool Thing, Barbara Panther, Xiu Xiu/Deerhoof, Grant Worth, Logan Lynn
+++ Jimmy Tamborello aka Figurin aka Strictly Ballroom aka The Postal Service aka Dntel has just outed himself as a huge Enya fan by releasing a free 9-track mini-album of Enya remixes online. You can stream the album on self-titled and download it on dublab +++ +++ On June 27th YACHT (see above) will release their new record “Shangri-La” on DFA. Here’s a new song called “Dystopia” to stream + download (via Fader): +++ Kool Thing have send me a really nice danceable remix of their song “The Sign” from their self-titled debut EP (available via Bandcamp). You can stream and download it here: The Sign (Chance In The Dark Mix) +++ Barbara Panther is going to release a new album called “Moonlight People” on June 3rd via City Slang / Universal. The record will include three tracks of her awesome “Empire EP” released last year + seven new tracks and will like the EP be produced by Matthew Herbert. You can watch the video to her new single “Moonlight People” here (via Expatriach) +++
Former Ghosts: New Album, 2 Free Tracks, Tour With Xiu Xiu & Zola Jesus, New Video For “New Orleans”
In autumn last year, “Fleur”, the debut record of Former Ghost, a project by L.A.-based musician Freddy Ruppert has been released (I mentioned it January). Although Ruppert recorded the album in collaboration with Steward from Xiu Xiu and Nika Danilova of Zola Jesus, it didn’t really get the attention it deserved. But chances are high that especially due to the success of Zola Jesus in the past few months Former Ghost’s new album “New Love”, which will be released on the beginning of November, will find its way to a bigger audience. As teasers for the the album two of its tracks, “Chin Up” and “New Orleans” (featuring Nika Danilova of Zola Jesus), are already online as free online teasers and as you’ll see Ruppert’s sound is more manic and depressive than ever – I especially like “New Orleans” for it’s singer-/songwriter kind of feeling. Former Ghosts: “Chin Up” (ft. Nika Roza Danilova) (via Pitchfork)
Former Ghosts – New Orleans (via 20JazzFunkGreats)
UPDATE: The song can only be heard and downloaded directly on 20JazzFunkGreats (scroll down)
Incredibly Huge Music Ticker: Blue Water White Death, Tri Angle Records, Yacht, Salem, These New Puritans, Tracey Thorn, Allister Izenberg, Guards + More
+++ Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu) and Jonathan Meiburg (Shearwater) have teamed up teamed up for a band project called Blue Water White Death. Their self-titled debut album will be released on October 12 from Graveface (via Pitchfork) +++ +++ The label Tri Angle Records currently presents “Let Me Shine”, a mixtape of Lindsay Lohan cover songs by artists such as oOoOO and Laurel Halo. The tape is featured on DIS magazine +++ +++ Download three really great remakes/-mixes by YACHT (“Nausea” is a cover of a song by the punk band X [here]), Salem (“Hologram” is a remix of a song by These New Puritans [here]) and Morgan Geist (who did a gorgeous remix of Tracey Thorn‘s “Why Dows The Wind Blow” [here]) +++
Artists That Draw Attention (IX): J. Morrison
James Morrison aka j.morrison is an artist and designer based in Brooklyn. You may know the beautiful tour poster he recently designed for Jamie Steward’s Xiu Xiu or the layouts he did for their albums “Fabulous Muscles” and “La Foret”. Apart from his drawings and screen print designs Morrison also works as a performance artist and curates the performance art series “Space is the place”. Check out his website for pictures of his performances and to order handprinted items like shirts, manpurses or toilet paper.
Music Ticker: All Leather, Die Antwoord, Kele, Sam Amidon, Ariel Pink, Xiu Xiu
+++ The Southern Californian electro-queercore band All Leather and the Southern African rap act Die Antwoord have two things in common: both projects make music that most of the time is rather difficult to listen to, but at the same time both have pretty entertaining and bizarre videos. Check out All Leather’s “Mystery Meat” on BIGSTEREO (featuring a nice comment by editor Rchrd Oh) and “Enter The Ninja” and “Zef Side” by The Antwoord here and here +++ +++ Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke has announced a solo album for June. “The Boxer”, a co-production between Kele and Spank Rock member XXXchange, is announced as a rough electro pop record. Check out Kele’s website for the first couple of tour dates +++ +++ Folk songwriter Sam Amidon‘s second album “I See A Sign” has been released on May29th and since then can be streamed on the website of Bedroom Community. In addition to the awesome opener “How Come That Blood” Stereogum has now made the song “Relief” available, a cover version of an R.Kelly song. Click here to download it+++ +++ Ariel Pink and his band Haunted Graffiti have finally announced that they are going to release their first album on June 8th. It’s going to be called “Before Today” (cover layout here)+++ +++ Here’s another simple but effective video by Xiu Xiu (via Dirtbag Journalism / Pitchfork): +++
Xiu Xiu: Dear God, I Hate Myself
“(…) Vomiting my brains out on video was gross as hell and it made me feel like shit afterward. Those tears and the ›what the fuck is going on‹ look is sincere. But just because I look like shit does not mean that I didn’t have a choice in doing that. (…) It was my idea and I chose with full agency, undrugged, uncoerced, to do it.” (Angela Seo on xiuxiu.org.)
Xiu Xiu: In Blood
Xiu Xiu are going to release a new album with the significant title “Dear God, I Hate Myself” on February 23th. They will be also on tour during the next few months (The picture below is the official new tour poster). On Pitchfork you can now listen to “Grey Death”, a pretty cool song that will be the opener of the album. Pitchfork also tells us that the special edition of the record will be limited to 100 copies, 21 copies of them come with handmade chocolate and a t-shirt with “Xiu Xiu for Life” written on it in real blood (a substance Jamie Steward seems to be into these days). They will be available on the website for $40. Pitchfork also features the nice little behind-the-scenes video below. Click here for some more detailed information and some tour dates or check out Xiu Xiu’s website.
