We Are Scientists’ Brain Thrust Mastery
This New York indie-rock outfit won our hearts with the Kaiser Chiefs-esque single Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt off their acclaimed debut album. One man down, and with a sound that comfortably straddles indie and pop, the duo seem to be mourning the departure of former drummer and friend, Michael Tapper. Describing themselves as rock music of the thoughtful, sometimes epic, often loud, vaguely danceable, implicitly humanist variety, the trio-turn-duo bring a darker, more intense variation of goods to the table on Brain Thrust Mastery. Without the sunshine of their debut, With Love And Squalor, We Are Scientists’ sophomore release is gritty, angry and filled with what critics have claimed is an excessive amount of self-doubt. In their defence, when did riff driven, 80’s-infused pop-rock ever come without a teaspoon or two of self-loathing?
Tagged: indie-rock, New York bands
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Cocorosie back on the road again
On September 2, New York duo Cocorosie will kick of their first North American tour in over two years. Sisters Bianca and Sierra Casady will be joined by bassist Josh Werner and beatboxer Spleen on fourteen shows, playing a mix of old and new material from their forthcoming album, slated for a 2010 release. We checked in with Bianca and asked her how things were progressing with the new recording: ‘The album is getting very hot. Like a glowing piece of glass in a fiery kiln. A roasting apple ready to burst’. When asked what they’ll be playing on the tour, Bianca said: ‘We go back to before we were born. We steal old songs of our Mother, family songs, old gospel, opera … lots of La Maison, little parts mostly, like the first toys and tapes and broken things’.
Polvo playing free New York show this Friday
Seminal Chapel Hill indie rock act Polvo are ramping up to the release of their album In Prism in early September with a free show at Manhattan’s Seaport Music Festival this Friday night. For a taste of their forthcoming album, check out this track, Beggar’s Bowl, below. Polvo also wrote a Secret Playlist for us.
The Walkmen: ‘My Secret Playlist’
We asked Ham and Pete, from New York band The Walkmen, to give us the rundown on the music that is inspiring them right now and they started off with a track from that elder statesmen of indie folk, Bonnie Prince Billy, Goin’ to Acapulco: ‘He did a remarkable job of putting a unique spin on a classic. It’s no small feat, and it’s a really impressive version’. Read more of The Walkmen’s Secret Playlist.
Also by MONIQUE ROTHSTEIN
We checked in with Sydney-based songwriter Fergus Brown to get the inside story on his wonderfully quirky and catchy pop song, Nerds In Love [below]: ‘It was was a fun song write. Some songs can be tortuous, but this was an imagined, tongue-in-cheek vignette of my life spent together with a certain girl I’d seen around. That’s all it was. At least, until a friend of mine blurted to this girl that I’d written a song about her. And he gave her a copy. We’re friends now. She’s a very talented, and successful, visual artist. She was flattered. Recently, I heard that another person thinks it was written about them. I’m looking forward to that awkward conversation sometime in the future’. Fergus Brown has just been announced as the support for American singer-songwriter, Martha Wainwright on all eleven shows of her Australian tour.
Sonic alchemy, lyrical mastery and melodies to melt even the coldest winter heart, anyone? I introduce you to my new favourite indie darlings: The All New Adventures of Us (alternatively nicknamed TANOU). With their offbeat blend of indie pop, this seven piece British outfit evoke elements of their most talented contemporaries such as Belle & Sebastian, Connor Oberst, Sigur Ros, Ben Folds, and even the fragile vocal sensibility of Elliot Smith. Read more
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Brooklyn based illustrator Autumn Whitehurst is a Lost At E Minor favourite. She recently told the Web Esteem website about her interest in capturing human figures: ‘I have to use a photo reference to comprehend how light falls on a three dimensional form but the figures in the illustration rarely look anything like the photographs because myself and my friends are not such lean sleek glowing forms. It’s one of the biggest challenges but is also really enjoyable and is probably the bit that I have to get most creative with. I plan to completely abandon photo references for the work in which there is no rendering at all, and it’ll probably result in something a bit wild’.
My roommate Adam and I have been playing Mark McGuire’s album, Pocket Full of Rain, all summer and some other tapes our other roommate has showed us that he did. I really like everything this guy has done. I sit and watch him play guitar on YouTube when I’m bored.
Legend has it that Paul McCartney hated the line from Hey Jude – ‘the movement you need is on your shoulder’ – so much that he was going to scrap it until his partner in grime John Lennon told him it was the best part of the song. So it stuck. Read more
In Los Angeles, in the gas guzzling centre of the Universe, BP has enlisted Office dA to embrace the paradoxical task of creating a green petrol station. Read more
Set in a remote Chinese village in the 1920s during a cholera outbreak and with a revolution bubbling in the background, The Painted Veil is a wonderfully tortured love story which excels on all levels. Based on the W Somerset Maugham novel, it was a labour of love for stars Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, who also produced the film. Read more
Alfred Hitchcock’s icy heroines inspired Yeojin Bae’s Autumn Winter 09 collection. Its 40s noir meets modern day muse with seductive tailoring and asymmetric style. Yeojin Bae’s signature has become ultra-feminine shapes contrasted with coveted tailored separates Unravelled shapes are expertly tailored. Raw edge silk blouses have dipping necklines and are worn boxy and loose. Wool Angora overcoats feature a dramatic bias cut hem and buckled flare sleeve in black or herringbone. Flame red chiffon falls delicately into an asymmetric wrap skirt, as figure hugging stretch leggings bring billowing shapes back into the body. Read more
On a recent trip to San Francisco, I was lucky enough to meet with John Trippe, the main man behind the popular arts based site, Fecal Face. Read more
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WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
I live the upbeat, feel good tempo of the new single — A Hundred Hearts — from Philly group, The Swimmers. Off their latest album, People Are Soft, this song is a strangely fitting anthem for the blustery day outside.
Richmond-based graffiti artist Chip7 has a style that is at once urban and also vaguely tribal with their crude lines and rich patterns. Read more
Good thing Kris Kuksi channelled the trauma of growing up with an alcoholic stepfather, his disdain for ‘the typical American life and pop culture’, and his fascination with the macabre into obsessive, baroque assemblages, paintings, and drawings. Read more
T-post: the world’s first wearable magazine
So here’s the scoop. Every six weeks, T-post subscribers get a new t shirt issue in the mail, with a news story on the inside and an artist interpretation of that story on the front. Yes, we agree. It’s clever, clever. Read more
Hong Kong-based illustrator Man-Tsun draws dark and beautiful painterly images that look like they are straight off a high-end Japanese animated film. Read more
Wolfmother. Rock n roll. Mystical lyrics. Heavy riffs. They have a new album out, Cosmic Egg, and we have five copies to giveaway, along with their debut album. To enter, tell us your favorite Wolfmother song and the city you live in. Yo! Two fingered salute. Read more
This Powder Necklace features a pearlized Turbo Cinereus shell with tiny holes drilled into the bottom, filled with a sparkling silver-colored powder that when gently tapped, sprinkles a light dusting on the wearer’s chest. Designed by Stephanie Simek. Read more
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Jack said | 2 April, 2008
I like this album, but it isn’t as special as the debut. My favourite tracks are After Hours, Impatience, and Tonight.