The former Verve singer just can't get, er, keep it up.
“You know I’m losing my grip / I lost my touch,” Richard Ashcroft sings on United Nations Of Sound, perhaps a bit too tellingly. The former Verve frontman goes on to explain he’s “got the crown” and he’s “never gonna lay it down,” which only proves how loose his grasp actually is on his first solo record in five years…
Well, you should at least find out why it’s so bad (via the A.V. Club).
Radiohead's free newspaper comes to Silver Lake.
Radiohead gives out their new free newspaper The Universal Sigh in Silver Lake today. I’ll be there with all the other unwashed, yet well-fed locals looking for a handout. You should come to. But first, bone up on the Radiohead swag of yore, from puzzles to stencils, floppy discs to Walkmen. Check it out via L.A. Weekly.
Emil Amos of Holy Sons on Joni Mitchell, diamond thieves and LSD.
Under normal circumstances, a headline like that would say it all. In this case, Emil Amos of Holy Sons (plus Grails, Om, and Jandek) also speaks on his father’s role in facilitating a fling between Joni Mitchell and a diamond thief, about Carl Jung and Carl Sagan, survivalism, and his former (?) addiction to LSD and other unnamed intoxicants. Haven’t heard Holy Sons? Brush up via video below.
Lykke Li wants you to dance (Andrew Herrold)
“Stop, stop, stop, stop!” she said to her players as a coquettish smile spread across her face. Then, to the audience: “You gotta be fucking kidding me. This is the last song and I want you to dance!”
Read the rest of it via Spin.
James Blake represents the changing face of dubstep.
As a genre, dubstep isn’t known for smallness. Utilizing a three-prong attack of soul-shaking bass, thickly synthesized atmosphere, and sharp sound-effects pileups, dubstep typically engenders feelings of severe gloom, even without the aid of lyrics. Londoner James Blake is a 21-year-old dubstepper who’s found not only his singing voice …
But … But what? Read the entire review via the A.V. Club.
Dublab meets ze Germans, fine tunes abound.
Though the kick-off already passed, there’s no reason not to get to know the Goethe-Institut (which has offices all over the world) via my recent article in the L.A. Times. The focus is the German cultural institute’s team-up with Dublab, a local non-profit music collective and internet radio station with a similarly international reach. The just-passed event inaugurated the launch of nearly two months of streaming Teutonic tones over at Dublab.com. Read about it here.
Flying Lotus' "L.A. EP 3 X 3" (Warp)
The L.A. Weekly INCHES column may be on permanent hiatus, but the images live on. Check out the new addition to Aural Standards, dubbed Vinyl Porn.
Yuck at Stubb's BBQ (Kathryn Yu)
So alright, you’ve read enough, heard enough, had enough of SXSW 2011. Well, indulge me this one last post. Upon returning from Austin, my work wasn’t yet done. Each member of the Spin crew took a moment to reflect via this final best/worst poll thingie. Some great observations in there from wonderfully insightful folks like Doug Brod, Charles Aaron, Steve Kandell, Peter Gaston, William Goodman and Kevin O’Donnell. (Also check out Spin’s Best Photos.)
But that wasn’t all. While embedded in the action, I received an email from NPR, asking if I’d do a post-SXSW chat for On Point with Tom Ashbrook. I did, as did Bay Area music critic Liz Colville (Daily Beast, Pitchfork, Dazed & Confused). We spoke for an hour about our favorite moments of the festival, and even fielded a few calls from listeners. Listen to the talk by clicking here, or here.
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Pains of Being Pure at Heart at Cheer Up Charlie's (Kathryn Yu)
For the final day of SXSW, I went big, big, big. Though I saw close to 40 bands over the duration of the conference, nearly half of those were notched on Saturday. Memorable moments not included in my Spin coverage below: Catching Wallpaper’s Ricky Reed when he leapt into the crowd at Vice Bar, head-nodding to Shlohmo’s beat-burbling set at Daedelus’ Magical Properties showcase, rocking out to the chillblues/blueswave of Writer in a dusty field at Cheer Up Charlie’s, and shredding my arm hopping a fence whilst trying to get in to see Big Freedia at Mess With Texas (turned out her set was long over, and there wasn’t actually a wait to get in). Yeah, you could say I went out in style.
Little Dragon at SXSW 2011 (Ian Witlen)
Wow. If my love for all things Odd Future didn’t already color me a fanboy, consider the deed done after I saw the impossible happen (read the review below) at their daytime gig at an altogether awesome party thrown by legendary skate mag Thrasher. Readers of this blog will also know I’m a dogged Das Racist apologist, and them dudes kicked things off right by going through a case of PBR while onstage. But that’s not all that happened on Day 3. I ate a pair of strikingly delicious sliders (think Carl’s Jr.’s Bacon Western Cheeseburger done gourmet and petit), Little Dragon made beautiful music (following up a one-two-punch of Gayngs and Black Lips), and Skrillex inspired Austiners to shake a leg.
Chris Writes Things 