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Posts tagged with alt-country

March 5, 2008 | Music | by Stuart McPhee |

Despite their volatile history, 90s alt-country upstarts Whiskeytown somehow managed to get it together when they were in the studio. Now released in an expanded version, their sophomore album is a lasting testament to the talents of the band’s stalwarts Ryan Adams (then 22) and Caitlin Cary. Memorable tracks like 16 Days and Yesterday’s News are joined by a goldmine of session demos that include covers of Fleetwood Mac and Johnny Cash tunes. One protracted album later, Whiskeytown were no more, but Stranger’s Almanac would stand as a defining album from the No Depression era. [watch Whiskeytown live in concert]

 

There’s a radiance about the creative work emanating from Brooklyn, New York right now; a glistening, velvetine glow that seeps through the illustrations and art and tickles the melodies of every hipster four-piece. Read more

Fate is the record, Dr. Dog were destined to make a timeless yet contemporary distillation of the band’s open-armed, big-hearted sound. Inventive, magnificently realized, and absolutely irresistible, the Park The Van Records release sees the Philadelphia-based quintet filtering the gamut of American popular music into its own idiosyncratic brand of blue-eyed, dilated-pupil soul. As ever, Dr. Dog makes magic from an enduring pop palette of intricate harmonies, shape-shifting melodies, and ramshackle audio ingenuity all presented through their slightly skewed and utterly individualistic outlook.

i am your radio

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.

Danish photographer Simon Hoegsberg has a knack of capturing people in moments of blissful exultation. He has two very interesting projects on his website: Dance Dance Dance [photos above and below], which is about a Swedish swing dance camp, and A Laborious Romance, a story from Berlin about art and dating. Read more

On those rare occasions when I feel the need to treat myself to an absolutely mind (and wallet) blowing meal, I love to come here. The restaurant is housed in an old diner (the old trailer style diners) which makes for some fun ambiance. Plus, the menu changes every week, so there’s never a written menu. The waiter comes out with a pen and writes the entire menu down on the butcher paper covering your table. Aside from all that, the food is absolutely unbelievable!

We love the vivid colours in the Freak La Notte range of t-shirts. The French label’s collection of shirts are like little canvases of super-styled surrealism – bold, elegant, and enchanting.

WE'RE RESPECTING

WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST

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Permanent Camp

Located on a mountain in country outside Mudgee, in New South Wales, Australia, a permanent camp designed by Casey Brown has been set. A timber structure clad in copper has been designed to have a closed state and an open state. From the closed position, the flanks of copper are hoisted and capture views across the valley. With an imagery of structures, materials and mechanics of old, there is something romantic about this foothold on the hill.

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YoaKustoms

Amanda Yoakum is the creative whirlwind behind YoaKustoms, customised sneakers which stand as ‘an artistic expression rather than just a factory look’. We dig these kicks like we haven’t dug kicks in a long, long time. Read more

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Anatomic Models

Kikkerland, the company behind those campfire tea light holders, has a line of amazing snap-together anatomic models of beetles, frogs, moths, cows, humans, and a wide range of other animals, even a wooly mammoth. Where the hell were these when I was a kid?

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Trumbo

Dalton Trumbo was the first blacklisted writer to win an Academy Award. However, he could not claim the award until years later because he had been forced to write under a pseudonym. Trumbo was one of the Hollywood Ten and even spent a year in jail as a result of investigations into Communist influences in the motion picture industry. This documentary is fascinating not just for its examination of a bizarre period in American history where fear replaced reason and innocent men were jailed, but also for how Trumbo dealt with these hardships. Read more

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Shadows and Dust

When it comes to making an entrance, nothing says rock star quite like a pair of leather pants. Read more

Golden Half is one of the world’s most popular toy cameras. It’s compact in size and each click of the shutter uses half of the standard 135mm frame. This means a 36-exposure roll of film will return around 72 images. It’s available for US$100. 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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