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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Australian illustrator Sarah Carter-Jenkins creates luminous, sensual artwork which practically glides across the page with its elegance, subtle colouring and intricate detail. Read more
MP5 + TO/LET are a collective of three girls from Rome and from Bologna who have been working on installations and graffiti since 2006. This graffiti was created in Medika, a new squat in Zagreb, Croatia. They were invited there for the Vox Feminae Festival, and this was painted in four days in the main entrance. Read more
Making feet beautiful, String Republic is the creation of graphic artist Stéphane Bucco. Read more
Jell-O! Liz Hickok’s latest artworks are based on a colourful, wobbly, mini San Francisco. Read more
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.
Leave it to perennially crunchy Portland, Oregon, to open the world’s first vegan strip club. Read more
Don’t be afraid of the word retro. It has haunted us all from time to time, but one group that has embraced it with open arms is UK duo, La Roux. Their music is synth pop in the vein of Calvin Harris, Human League, The Eurythmics, and The Knife. There are quite a few of these young and ambitious pop starlets on the scene including Goldielocks. But La Roux takes the cake. Literally. I’m obsessed with their song In For the Kill and have a feeling summer will take it and make it a hit.
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With the recession still biting, it may be time to whip out the glue and the cardboard and make your next pair of cool kicks. Don’t know how they’d manage in the rain though? Read more
Check out Mike Stimpson’s Lego reinterpretations of classic photographs. Stimpson’s version of Malcolm Browne’s iconic 1963 photograph of the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc is particularly twisted. Read more
Our celebrity-saturated culture makes many of us irrationally hateful of the faces we see on our TV screens and magazine pages. Good thing there’s Celebrity PunchOut to let off some of that steam.
Wheeeeee! This game is so freaking fun! You move your cursor over each dot to make them split into four smaller dots ad infinitum.
Forget battery powered vehicles. Cars made from ice are the future of transportation: no pollution, no honking horns, no painful rap music blasting out of souped up stereos. And if they melt, they melt. You just swim the rest of the way down the slipstream.
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
This beautiful archival pigment print by New York-based illustrator, Fernanda Cohen, is called Fashion Ruined My Life. And it speaks for itself. Just look at her face! We have it for sale for just $75 in the Lost At E Minor online store. 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.