Au Revoir Simone

The Kooks cover MGMT

Now this is fun. The aptly named The Kooks cover the equally as aptly named MGMT for Australian radio network, Triple J. The song, Kids, is about as upbeat as any minor key progression can get. We like.

Diplo remixes Santogold

Diplo’s most recent venture — titled Top Ranking — takes Santogold’s glittery debut and smashes into a whole lotta dub. The superbly quirky musical conglomeration reworks Santogold’s weird pop sound with some fantastic dub tracks, with Diplo adding some 80s pop, 60s soul, punk and Top-40 gloss just for kicks. If dub is not your thing, I urge you get this mixtape simply for Santogold’s cheeky cover of The Clash’s Guns of Brooklyn and the twentieth track, Get It Up [listen below] — the most exciting song I’ve heard in a long time.

Hypernova video, directed by Richard Patterson

Brooklyn-band Hypernova’s new music video was shot and directed by Common Machine’s Director of Photography, Richard Patterson, on Profoto’s spanking new, lighting packs, enabling the video to be shot on a stills camera. There are actually more than 16,000 stills that make up the video, the first time it’s ever been done like this.

Johanna Billing’s You Don’t Love Me Yet

As a component of Tiny Movements by Swedish conceptual artist Johanna Billing, the performance piece, You Don’t Love Me Yet, has been presented in over twenty countries since its conception in 2002. Scheduled for August 16, Billing has invited a diverse and exciting collection of Melbourne bands to reinterpret the ever-hopeful tearjerker which was originally recorded by Roky Erikson in 1984. Among those taking part in the event are Beaches, Henry Wagons, Super Wild Horses, Fabulous Diamonds, Tic Toc Tokyo, Francis Plagne, and Teeth and Tongue, each challenged with the task of making something familiar, unique. Read more

MC Wale Folarin

More often than not, internet-only hip hop mix tapes are released by wannabe rappers whose lyrics and delivery are derivative and uninspired, and who’ll never get enough weight behind them for a full length release. 24 year-old Washington MC Wale Folarin is different. Mixed by one of New York’s best hip hop DJs, Nick Catchdubs, and produced by 9th Wonder and Mark Ronson (who signed Wale in 2007 to his Allido label), his latest offering Back To The Feature solidifies Wale as a confident, engaging lyricist with a true talent for cross-genre appropriations. Read more

Samuel Hodge and Rainoff Books

For the next fortnight, independent Sydney publishing collective Rainoff Books has set up a temporary curated bookstore in Surry Hills. The store launched last week with a party celebrating the release of Pretty Telling I Suppose, the new photographic collection by Sydney artist Samuel Hodge. Hodge’s photography allows us short glimpses into his subject’s most intimate experiences, enabling us to experience life as someone else. But only for a moment. Hodge renders permanent those everyday fleeting moments often forgotten: a lover’s admiring glance, a sibling’s warm touch, grandfather’s knowing look. Read more