Tag: anticon.

10 Years Later WHY?’s ‘Alopecia’ Is Still One of One

WHY_MOH-LHEAN_Press4.jpg

READ IT AT JOYFUL NOISE

Music journalists don’t really share this kind of work but the project is important to me so here it is. I was hired to write the “bio,” “onesheet,” or whatever you prefer to call the press materials being used to promote the 10-year anniversary reissue of one of my very very favorite albums, Alopecia by the band WHY?. My fandom for all things Anticon (the label/collective from whence sprung WHY?) is a well-known fact among those who know me or read anything I published between the years of 2003 and, like, 2018, so I see no sense in hiding this thing that I am really quite proud of. Click through and scroll down. And buy the record if it isn’t sold out already.

Download Tons of Free Tunes from Bath’s Mellowed-Out Alter Ego, Geotic

Super chill cover art from "Hearth," by Geotic

Not to beat a dead horse, but Baths is playing the Troubadour on Saturday night (tomorrow!) with Braids and Gobble Gobble. His will be one of the best sets you’ll see all year, so you should probably see it. Also, I’ve posted about this before, but Will Wiesenfeld’s ambiently inclined side project Geotic has since made it onto the greater blogosphere’s radar, and it seems like a good time to remind all-a-y’all that his entire oeuvre under that name is available for free over here. <Click there. Get Hearth and Mend.

Continue reading →

Q&A: Baths Flips Through his Flickr for Photos from a Banner Year (plays Troubador Saturday)

Will Wiesenfeld lurks in the woods, sans Internet (!).

Baths plays the Troubadour on Saturday night with Braids!

This is a fun one. I’ve been a big fan of Baths since the little dude first popped onto my radar (LA Weekly ran the first feature on him), and we’ve stayed in touch since. For our latest collabo (ha), we sat down and flipped through his Flickr account as a way to look back on his huge, hectic 2010, and even to muse a bit on the future of Will Wiesenfeld’s music.

Here’s an excerpt: “It’s [pauses] everything I want in life, basically. A gay romance between Batman and Superman would be the best thing ever.”

Yeah, that was taken out of context. Read the whole thing at the A.V. Club.

Continue reading →

Review: TOBACCO LA UTI EP YEAH!!

Basketballhead wants to have you over for breakfast.

Tobacco wraps up a pretty effing stellar year with a rap tape, essentially. Three new songs, four oldish ones, all with rappers on ’em for the first time.

On “2 Thick Scoops,” Chicago’s Serengeti sounds as raw and hulking as the lurching track itself. “Unholy Demon” features an unknown named Icicle Frog who sounds like a B-boy Mooninite making with the freak-freak.

But there’s more! Over at The AV Club.

Continue reading →

Feature: 12 L.A. Indie Labels You Should Know — from Sargent House to Anticon to Southern Lord to Dangerbird to IAMSOUND and more …

Dean Spunt on the skins, No Age drummer and PPM Records owner

It’s awesome time in L.A., people. Either get on the Good News train or get left behind. Music, frankly, is great — always has been, but when so much great music exists in one’s own backyard, when the people responsible for tending the flame all seem to gather within the same ten-mile stretch, when there’s no shortage of good ideas or good tunes, well, a person is likely to get real happy and start writing silly things like this.

Far less silly, and actually quite informative, is “Twelve Indie Labels You Should Know, a Primer” (I say “prymer,” please don’t say “primmer”) which is on the L.A. Times blog, Pop & Hiss, right now, as I type. This piece is the culmination of a three-parter. Read the Sunday print feature, “L.A.’s Indie Labels Succeed with a Jack-of-All-Trades Approach,” if you please. And find a supplemental piece (with a choice MP3) over yonder.

News: Boyz Noize RMXs Chemical Brothers, MEDcal Marijuana, Snoop & Quazedelic, New Baths Video Channels Princess Mononoke

Boyz Noize remixes the Chemical Brothers' "Swoon"

Quick bloggy bits from around the L.A. underground (and up). Share ’em.

  1. FEATURED: Boyz Noize Remixes Chemical Brothers on ‘Swoon’*
  2. Oxnard Rapper MED Celebrates His Medical Pot Card in New Video
  3. MP3: Snoop Dogg & Quazedelic Shout Out the Güeros in New Song
  4. Baths Meets Mononoke in Samurai-Feat Vid for ‘Lovely Bloodflow’

* “The Chems have gotten noisier on their new album, but one of the smoother tracks is first single “Swoon.” Apologies, but this is not an electro megamix of the 2009 album by Silversun Pickups.”

(all stories via West Coast Sound, via L.A. Weekly)

Feature: Los Angeles’ String of Indie Labels Thrives in the New Music Business

Amanda and Britt Brown of Eagle Rock indie label Not Not Fun pose for Los Angeles Times (photo by Jay L. Clendenin)

Well, it has been a long, long time coming, but I’m pleased to share my debut pair of links over to the Los Angeles Times. The main feature, which runs in print in Sunday’s Calendar section, profiles the ways in which independent labels in L.A. are adapting to the changing landscape of the music biz. Read about it here:

L.A.’s string of indie labels succeeds with a jack-of-all-trades approach

With noted input from the Dangerbird, Stones Throw, Alpha Pup and Not Not Fun imprints, plus tons of help from folks at Sargent House, Hydra Head, Southern Lord, Anticon, Manimal Vinyl, and Post Present Medium.

Also, there’s a supplemental blog piece to read, featuring a free download of Aloe Blacc’s stunning “I Need a Dollar” here:

Indies in L.A.: Alpha Pup and Not Not Fun talk the thriving L.A. scene

Baths Announced as ‘The Scenesters’ Special Guest on Sunday Night, With Jeans Wilder

1 Comment

Baths will play 'The Scenesters Run L.A.' on Sunday Night

It’s been tough to keep our mouths shut this long, but the news is out! L.A. beat scener extraordinaire and one of the city’s fastest rising music makers in general, Baths, a.k.a. Will Wiesenfeld, will be joining San Diego’s Jeans Wilder to play THIS SUNDAY at the Downtown Independent after a screening of The Scenesters. Buy tickets here.