Minus The Bear
I’ve never heard anything like them — so accessible yet not quite pop, devilishly dark yet not quite math rock, and precisely rhythmic yet not quite electro. Seattle band Minus The Bear’s latest release — Planet of Ice — isn’t a massive deviation from their 2005 release, Menos El Oso, though it does have a more confident urgency to it, with tracks like Knights and When We Escape in particular.
Listen to Minus The Bear’s Knights and watch the clip to their song, Pachuca Sunrise.
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Also by DAN MORGAN
I caught Iron & Wine play live last year and it was a typically soothing and mesmerizing set, until I was introduced to a different side of Sam Beam towards the end when he was joined on stage by co-headliners Calexico and struggled to contain his excitement as Joey Burns and Paul Niehaus worked with him to re-create songs featured on the In the Reins album. Beam has since taken his newfound passion for layered rhythm into the studio. His latest release, The Shepherd’s Dog, is denser, more textured and diverse, and as a result, more listenable than much of his earlier material. He has surrounded himself with a vast array of musicians and instruments that add new textures to his sound without distorting its fundamentals. It really is a classic album, well worth hocking the house for.
Listen to Iron & Wine’s Boy with a Coin.
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Bad Religion released their debut LP way back in 1982. Twenty five years on sees the release of New Maps of Hell, their 14th studio album. I think it’s fair to say that after a quarter of a century most bands tend to sound a little tired. But Bad Religion are definitely not showing any signs of fatigue, sustaining their intense energy levels and continuing to evolve their sound whilst maintaining credibility within the scene. Their sound has helped to define a genre and has been a major influence on many Southern Californian punk bands (no names necessary). So if you want a lesson in hardcore heritage and a taste of punk future at the same time, New Maps of Hell is certainly worth checking out.
James Lavelle and Richard File have collaborated once again for the third full length UNKLE release, War Stories. Unsurprisingly, they have recruited an eclectic array of musicians to work with including Ian Astbury (The Cult), 3D (Massive Attack), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stoneage), Autolux, and the Duke Spirit. Fans that have hung onto Lavelle since the days of MoWax and Shadow’s cut and paste revolution are going to like this. It’s an evolution, more hardware and less software, and though it’s not exactly unchartered territory for Lavelle and File, it’s more refined and brave.
Listen to Uncle’s Burn My Shadow.
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Designers Rikako Nagashima and Hideto Hyoudou collaborated to create these amazing mirrors that look like they’re dripping water. They even come with puddles to be installed on the floor below them. Read more
Our friends over at College Humor have answered the long pondered question: If the good Doctor really was a quack, how would he diagnose. And the answer? Read on my friends, my friends, my friends indeed. Read more
Animator Mathieu Labaye created this short film in tribute to his late father, who had been in a wheelchair for the last 15 years of his life. Read more
The young architect Junya Ishigami is pushing the boundaries of the weightless aesthetic stream of architecture. Here, for the Kanagawa Institute of Technology, he has designed a glass and steel pavilion with a roof that floats on a sparse forest of thin steel columns or ‘flats’. Read more
Remember how the forgotten (and the forbidden) places attracted you as a child? Well, I think I never got past that phase. I haven’t had the courage to do any big scale explorations yet, but while I’m planning for it, Forbidden Places is a good place to see what other people are finding in hidden places around the globe. It’s very eerie and intriguing. Read more
If you ever happen to find yourself riding across the mid-west on horseback with an iPod jangling about in your holster, be sure to let Calexico soundtrack the experience. They’re cleverly fusing a range of genres, mixing some good old country with US indie, a bit of jazz and even, in 2003’s Feast of Wire, some smatterings of electronica. Lead singer Joey Burns gives a healthy amount of cowboy twang and the soaring orchestral background and sweet country guitar licks add a real atmosphere to the music.
Listen to the Calexico song, Convict Pool.
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My band, Bloody Panda, used to perform on stage wearing executioner hoods. We’ve stopped doing that, but I’m going to suggest that we all wear panda hat/scarves.
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Michelle Blade’s psychedelic artwork
Michelle Blade’s washed out paintings are deceptively simple, her washy acrylics creating psychedelic textures and conjuring ghostly figures from the past. Read more
Baltimore Mural by Josh Van Horne
My friend Josh Van Horne, a local Baltimore artist, did this amazing mural in our neighborhood that depicts the history of this warehouse-laden area.
Never ever, ever, ever, ever park here
Some friendly advice for the neighbours, who simply don’t get it, or street art? You decide which one it is.
Benjamin Edminston’s psychedelic heads seem to have some fearful wisdom behind their blissed-out eyes. Read more
It’s refreshing to see artists like Joe Kievitt who are contented to explore the beauty in simple forms and asymmetrical patterns. Read more
A tribute to the movie trilogy Back to the Future and that childhood fantasy, the Hoverboard, and designed in the style of a vintage comic book ad that promises the earth but delivers very little, this sexy five colour screen printed t shirt is by New Zealand-based label Cuppa t shirts. Read more
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Shea said | 27 September, 2007
Definately one of my favorite groups. With consistantly solid releases these guys have a sound thats not quite like any one else out there right now. Planet of Ice is an amazing cd.