Lost AT E Minor

FOR WEEKLY INSPIRATION Why
computer vs banjo

Win / Computer vs. Banjo

Computer vs. Banjo are just that: a computer duking a banjo. Hey? Haven’t you seen Electric Dreams. We have five signed CDs and tees to give away to Lost At E Minor subscribers, as well as a free single download

To be in with a chance of winning the signed goodies, simply leave a message under this post saying: ‘Err, yup, give me that’, or words to that effect. Entries close July 16th and winners will be announced shortly after.

Oh, so just who is Computer vs. Banjo? Well, seeing as you asked.

If you’ve always pigeonholed folk and electronica as polar opposites, Computer Vs. Banjo will make you rethink everything you thought about both. Hatched in the musical crucible of Nashville, the genre-bending band fuses fingerpicked folk with experimental beats to create such a full, original sound, it’s hard to believe CVB is just a duo.

You’ll recognize their names because they’re both accomplished musicians: Johnny Mann was the lead guitarist of Gran Torino, a funk/jazz fixture on the Southeast club and college scene that ultimately licensed songs to TV hits like “The Real World.” Beau Stapleton played tenor guitar and mandolin for Blue Merle, a dynamic rock/pop four piece that rose remarkably high for such a short-lived star, releasing the album Burning in the Sun on Island Records and opening for Van Morrison.

Musically they evolved from different worlds—Mann was a Jazz Studies major, Stapleton a self-taught roots musician.

But because both are adept at crossing genres and applying their multiple influences and skills to their music, charting new terrain came easy to them.

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UNKLE’s new album

UNKLE’s new album, End Stories … Music For Film, comes in a limited edition gatefold vinyl gloss with sculptured panel embossing. We have three copies to give away to randomly selected Australian Lost At E Minor subscribers who leave a comment under this post.

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Passion Pit

We asked songwriter Michael Angelakos from electro-pop group, Passion Pit how a Cambridge, Massachusets-based group got signed by Frenchkiss: ‘Luck and word of mouth, I suppose. We loved Frenchkiss as a label before they approached us and we were really excited about joining the roster, especially coming to them with our very specific outlook. But it’s a great label because they want to see us grow and we couldn’t think of better people to work with when it comes down to it’. Your sound has been compared to Georgio Morodo. Are you a fan of his music? ‘My god, yes. And, you know, anyone who had anything to do with “Together in Electric Dreams” is out of this world’.

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Aeroplane are Ital-disco

How many bands can you name who’ve formed over drunken conversations at parties? Add another to the list. Vito De Luca and Stephen Fasano of Belgian duo Aeroplane met around six years ago at a party, and decided to work together after discovering a shared appreciation for 60s and 70s psychedelic pop, Fleetwood Mac, Brian Wilson and 80s synth pop pioneers Brian Eno and Giorgio Moroder. ‘At the beginning Vito made me listen to the demos which he made and I found it very interesting!’, Fasano says. ‘I wanted to do disco-rock-electro music with my influences, and after several working years, we both found our own sound’. Read more

Also by ZOLTON

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TV On The Radio poster and vinyl

Happy, happy, joy, joy! We have a TV On The Radio poster designed by Tunde, as well as Dear Science on vinyl, to give away to a randomly selected Lost At E Minor subscriber who leaves a comment under this post telling us why they simply must have it.

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Ryan Sullivan scarf

Ok, so it’s 3.30 on Thursday afternoon and I’m sitting in a Brooklyn cafe, tapping away as fast as two fingers possibly can. As I look around, discreetly to my left and then more openly to my right, I cannot see a single person in this warm and friendly place wearing a more stylish and comfortable scarf than the one that I have wrapped around my neck. Yes, as my grandfather would say, it’s a very ‘handsome’ scarf — a soft, playful, ‘handsome’ scarf. And you know what? There’s not a single damn person in this room who can compete with it. Ha! That feels good. That feels very, very good. Mind you, it is 76 degrees outside, and I’m starting to sweat, so perhaps I’m just a little … ummm … over-dressed.

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Fujiya & Miyagi discuss their album, Lightbulbs

The new Fujiya & Miyagi album, the aptly titled Lightbulbs, is a typically crackling collection of songs, ‘a pulsing antidote to the ordinary’. Formed in 2000, the electronic duo of David Best (guitars and vocals) and Steve Lewis (synths, beats, programming), have since added bass player Matt Hainsby to the mix (in 2004), and now have an album in their catalogue which is ‘littered with fragmented images, anecdotes from the sublime to the ridiculous, blurry stories that you feel you shouldn’t have overheard’. The guys have given us the inside word on each track from the album, starting with the opener, Knickerbocker: ‘A vibration of words that sound good, touching on lost innocence, child star Lena Zavaroni, the very first tragedy of X Factor-style excess, and the joy of multi-storeyed ice cream sundaes at Woolacombe Bay. Knickerbocker mixes my sister’s and my memories of watching Lena Zavaroni on TV, whilst eating ice cream as children’. Read more

YOU'RE SAYING (6)

roberto Identicon Icon

roberto said | 11 July, 2008

Err, yup, give me that

linton Identicon Icon

linton said | 11 July, 2008

yes please i’ll have one too!

katie Identicon Icon

katie said | 12 July, 2008

ERRRRRR, i would like it more than them…
so much more….

katie Identicon Icon

katie said | 12 July, 2008

me…..

:)

Odete Identicon Icon

Odete said | 15 July, 2008

Gimme, gimme, gimme, mi wanti a piece of the action :)

Zolton Identicon Icon

Zolton said | 7 August, 2008

Hey guys, you all win one of these. Yup, all five of you. Woohoo! Please contact me via the contact form on the site with your postal details. Hope you enjoy! Zolton

HAVE YOUR SAY




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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

Describing their sound as ‘nihilist suicide pop’, Rome-based quartet Spiritual Front draws immediate comparisons to Nick Cave, but their approach to dark themes have a hint of irreverence — they inject unexpected doo-wop flares and new wave bombast to their atmospheric neofolk. Their latest album, Armageddon Gigalo, is a beautiful and catchy masterpiece for fans of Death In June, Sol Invictus, and even latter-day Duran Duran.

Australian group Pivot have recently signed with the mighty Warp label and — even better (well, for us anyway) — have written a fun Secret Playlist for us. You can see where the many disparate influences have seeped into their latest recording, the beautiful and colourful, O Soundtrack My Heart.

We have a bunch of new playlists up on our sister site, My Secret Playlist, a music discovery website and weekly email publication in which we invite our favourite bands and musicians to give us the rundown on their eight favourite songs right now. Over the past few weeks, acts such as The B52s, Team Genius, Pivot, Jukebox the Ghost, Moby, Katy Perry, and the Dandy Warhols, among many others, have written about the music that inspires them. To sign-up to receive the weekly My Secret Playlist publication, just enter your email address into the website’s subscription box.

We checked in with one of our favourite illustrators, Yuko Shimizu, recently: How are you dealing with the mugginess of the New York summer? ‘I am originally from Tokyo, where humidity is a lot higher in general, and summer temperature can go a lot higher’. Read more

The Nine Streets, or ‘De Negen Straatjes’, is so named for the nine small, cosy streets between Raadhuisstraat and Leidsestraat, just minutes from the heart of Amsterdam. Read more

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Andrew Hem

I’m so digging the work of Santa Monica artist Andrew Hem. Painting seems to have become relegated in the illustration world these days, so I’m pleased to see Hem rocking it in a big way. His bold brushwork, lush colors, puppet-like figures and painted type make for a body of work that really hits the painted spot.

For visual people who rely on shapes and imagination, this eye test t-shirt by Hong Kong-based studio, WEME, is a perfect conversation starter. It’s available through the Lost At E Minor online store for just US$30. Read more

dear science poster

WIN

Happy, happy, joy, joy! We have a TV On The Radio poster designed by Tunde, as well as Dear Science on vinyl, to give away to a randomly selected Lost At E Minor subscriber who leaves a comment under this post telling us why they simply must have it.

WHAT YOU'RE DOING

  • Sarah is reading the New York Times

  • Christian is listening to The Revisionists

  • Sally is listening to Nuuro

  • Jess is reading My Secret Playlist

  • Ana is playing a good mood

  • Chanoa is watching Tabatha’s Take Over

  • Sindhu is spotting patterns in the sky

  • Rajasee is reading Garfinkel

  • Andy is listening to Idiot Pilot

  • Lost At E Minor is listening to Firekites

What are you doing?

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