Posts tagged with My Secret Playlist
November 5, 2009 | Cool Websites |
by Zolton
|
Malcolm Middleton (ex-Arab Strap) has just released his fifth solo album, Waxing Gibbous, composed from years worth of scribbles in notebooks, which were ‘chiseled and connived into being songs’. We checked in with him to get his words n the music that inspired the new recrding. He started with The Auteurs song, Lenny Valentino [listen below]: ‘I must have missed this band the first time around, but since reading Luke Haines’ autobiography, I am hooked. Anyone who can write about their own life and come across so badly gets the thumbs up from me!’ Read the rest of Malcolm Middleton’s Secret Playlist.
November 2, 2009 | New Music |
by Zolton |
Depart From Me is the latest full-length album from underground/indie-rap legend Cage, aka Chris Palko. Cage is helped along in this task with production by El-P, F. Sean (Hatebreed), the late Camu Tao and Aesop Rock. We checked in with him to get the word on the music that imspired his latest recording, and he started with Deftones song, My Own Summer [listen below]: ‘This song reminds me of what it feels like to be on all my favorite drugs that I quit doing and the sadness that comes from failed romances that will never be again. I’m referring to the drugs, not the women’.
October 28, 2009 | Cool Websites |
by Zolton
|
Thao and the Get Down Stay Down (Adam Thompson on bass, keys and additional guitar, and Willis Thompson on drums and percussion) return with the follow up to their critically lauded album, We Brave Bee Stings and All, the best-selling record of 2008 for Kill Rock Stars. We checked in with Nguyen to get the inside word on the music that inspired it all. She started with The Avett Brothers song, Will Your Return [listent below]: ‘So catchy, forlorn, provocative and rakishly charming. It reminds me of touring. I love the cutting sincerity and the charisma of the Avett Brothers. And, totally unrelated, they are the nicest band in the world. Seriously. Ask anyone’. Read the rest of Thao Nguyen’s Secret Playlist.
October 28, 2009 | New Music |
by Casper Johansson
|
Japanese DJs, 80kidz, have added their touch to Metric’s hit Help I’m Alive. Having already created remixes for CSS, Simian Mobile Disco, Phenomenal Handclap Band, and Dan Black, 80kidz have taken Metric’s original recording and added catchy synth loops and bouncy drums. We have it available for free download via our Music Download section [psst, it's in the third column of the site]. Read Metric’s Secret Playlist, where they write about their eight favourite songs right now.
October 13, 2009 | Cool Websites | by Zolton |
With his new album, Goodnight Unknown, Dinosaur Jr and Sebadoh’s Lou Barlow has created a collection of melodic pop songs that he describes as being ‘a cross between my later work with Folk Implosion and my earlier work with Sebadoh. To my ears, anyway’. We checked in with him to get the inside word on the songs that inspired the recording. He talked about Bill Callahan’s brooding All Thoughts Are Prey To Some Beast [listen below]: ‘A simple song beautifully played and masterfully built. An insistent guitar riff with a devastating lyric, this time with delicate strings and growling guitar to punctuate his poetry. His usually unemotional baritone raises as this song grows and it feels revelatory to me’. Read the rest of Lou Barlow’s Secret Playlist.
September 17, 2009 | Cool Websites |
by Casper Johansson |
Os Mutantes were formed in Sao Paolo, Brazil, in 1966 by Sergio Dias and his brother Arnaldo, who blended their love of English rock n roll, culled from shortwave radio broadcasts, with American psychedelic in the spirit of Jimi Hendrix and traditional Brazilian music to create an entirely new sound to match an equally turbulent time in Brazilian history. The recent release of their latest album, Haih, marks the band’s first recorded material since 1974 and their first album to receive a worldwide release. We checked in with Sergio and asked him to tell us about the musical influences that inspired the new recording. He started off with the Stravinsky epic, The Firebird [listen below]: ‘It’s just so beautiful. It’s a study of how to develop a melody and pushes the envelope in all directions. It’s constantly evolving all the way through’. Read the rest of Os Mutantes’ Secret Playlist.
September 10, 2009 | New Music |
by Zolton
|
Hugh Cornwell is the former frontman of seminal 80s band, The Stranglers [Golden Brown, anyone?]. He has a new solo album out, Hooverdam, and we asked him to give us the lowdown on the music that inspired the recording. He started with the 65 Days Of Static song, Primer [listen below]: ‘I was playing at Summer Sundae in Leicester a couple of weeks ago and this band were playing whilst I waited to go on stage. They are quite remarkably different from anything out there at the moment, and no vocals! Astounding’. Read the rest of Hugh Cornwell’s Secret Playlist.
August 27, 2009 | Cool Websites |
by Zolton
|
Australian band Dappled Cities have a new album, Wall Of Zounds, and a national tour of Australia underway. We checked in with bassist Alex Moore and asked him about the music that inspired the new recording. He started with the Mastodon song, Oblivion [listen below]: ‘I really like the new Mastodon record, Crack the Skye. This song is a real shout-out to where they are heading. It is pretty metal but also — disturbingly — 70s prog. Totally progarific’.
August 25, 2009 | New Music | by Casper Johansson |
The latest release from the Kronos Quartet, entitled Floodplain, contains works written for them by composers from Palestine and Serbia, traditional works from Lebanon, Turkey and Iran, Azerbaijan and India, and popular music from 1940s Egypt and 1970s Iraq. We checked in with them and asked about the music that inspired the latest recordings. They started with the Omar Souleyman song, Dabke 2020 [listen below]: ‘I’ve always been a fan of wild singers, and Omar Souleyman more than qualifies. The label Sublime Frequencies releases some wonderful CDs and Dabke 2020 is one of my favorites. What a vital sound. Distortion rules!’ Read the rest of Kronos Quartet’s Secret Playlist.
August 5, 2009 | Cool Websites | by Zolton |
YACHT founding members Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans live in Portland, Oregon and Marfa, Texas, and consider themselves ‘generalists’ in the fields of music, art, writing, and everything in between. Their new album, See Mystery Lights, has just been released, along with companion materials ranging from book and mixtapes to a limited-edition playable copper record of mantras. We checked in with Jona to get his thoughts on the music that inspired their own album and he started with the Radha Krishna Temple song, Hare Krishna Mantra: ‘A not-so-secret-thing about YACHT is that when we see Hare Krishna monks dancing down the street in their orange robes and shaved heads, it takes a great deal of self-control for us not to run after them. This is not to say that we want to stop them or join them. We just want to see what happens at the end of the chase’. Read the rest of Yacht’s Secret Playlist.
August 4, 2009 | New Prizes | by Zolton |
MIXA is an innovative way for people to make, mix and share their music, photos, videos and other digital goodies on an old school cassette tape with a Twitter-generation twist. MIXA in association with Lost At E Minor and My Secret Playlist are giving YOU the chance to win a MIXA. Read more
July 17, 2009 | Cool Websites | by Zolton |
We checked in with Luke Steele from Australian duo Empire Of The Sun and asked him about the music that was inspiring him right now. He started with the Holger Czukay song, Persian Love [listen below]: ‘There is so much depth in this track. It’s like the magician chef who can transpose flavors when people’s expressions change during meals. It’s a dream of spices’. Read the rest of Luke Steele’s Secret Playlist.
July 15, 2009 | Cool Websites |
by Zolton
|
Canadian band Dragonette recently released their debut single, Fixin To Thrill, from the album of the same name and it’s the kind of music Britney wishes she wrote, internet bloggers hyperbolize over, and people lose their minds over. They do. We checked in with Joel Stouffer from the band and asked him to give us a rundown on his favourite music right now. He started with the Grizzly Bear track, Two Weeks [listen below]: ‘I loved this tune when I first heard it. And loved it even more when I saw the video! It sounds like a more haunting Pet Sounds’. Read the rest of Dragonette’s Secret Playlist.
July 9, 2009 | Cool Websites |
by Zolton |
Icelandic singer-songwriter Hafdis Huld was formerly the frontwoman of electro-pop collective Gus Gus, before featuring as a vocalist on Tricky’s 2008 album Knowle West Boy, and, more recently, launching a solo career. We checked in with her and asked her to tell us about the eight songs that are getting most traction on her iPod at the moment. She began with the Dolly Parton song, Jolene [listen below]: ‘If I had to choose my all-time favorite song, I think it would be this one. It’s just one of those songs I wish I had written every time I hear it. I have many memories of singing along with it in the car in Reykjavik with my mum and my sister’. Read the rest of Hafdis Huld’s Secret Playlist.
July 1, 2009 | New Trends | by The Epi-Cure |
Most of us know eating a balanced diet helps maintain a healthy heart, and that there’s nothing better than a romantic ballad to nourish blossoming love. But did you know blasting Beethoven might also help to keep your cardiovascular system in tune? New research suggests that music can directly trigger physiological changes that modulate blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration. I’m definitely breathless after listening to Cyndi Lauper’s I Drove All Night, but that might be from dancing my rigorous jazz ballet routine, not necessarily from the emotion it engenders. Read more
Banky’s done it before and now so can you, at least metaphorically. A group of Palestinian graf artists will spray-paint emailed messages onto the massive concrete wall that divides Israel and the West Bank and send you photos to prove it. The aim of the project is to creatively transform the physical purpose of the imposing eight metre high wall of separation into one of communication, joy and unity. It’s also a decorative, peaceful and simple way for the Palestinians behind the project to remind the rest of the world of their existence and plight. Funds raised go towards small-scale social and cultural projects in the West Bank, with the Palestinian Peace and Freedom Youth Forum behind the spray painting.
These heady times call for heady music, something spaced-out, trance-y, weird, and devilishly ecstatic to distract us from reality. Chicago’s Cave heeds this call for musical escapism, channeling Hawkwind, Kraftwerk, funk, and tribal frenzy into their mothership-beaconing groove.
We checked in recently with one of our favorite illustrators — and Lost At E Minor contributor — Yuko Shimizu: How has 2008 started for you? ‘I was just in the French Riviera with eighteen other illustrators and designers. It was our annual New Year’s retreat. People from all over Europe and North America meet up and spend a week together, exchange information, go see things together, or just have fun. It was fantastic, although we didn’t have the best weather’. Read more
Anything goes in New York, even a white peacock in the middle of Manhattan. Yes, a white peacock! Who says the Upper West side is ‘upstate?’ Come visit one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in New York, which host the famous Cathedral of St. John The Divine (112th St. and Amsterdam Avenue). Read more
Says Van She bassist and vocalist Matt Van Schie about the Bush Tetras track — Too Many Creeps — from 1982: ‘I LOOOVE this tune. It opens with a perfect snare roll, and then the counter bass and guitar rhythms make it so cool. The lyrics are even more valid today. They’re one of my favourite bands of all time, and so many people try to do what they did for real. What a time! I wish I was born back then in New York, hanging out with these kids. Ahhhh!!’
Knit you and your sweetie a smitten this Valentine’s Day and marvel at the droves of strangers that will vomit at your feet.
This one-stop shop for all things eco-friendly is proof that protecting the environment is becoming a popular pastime. Almost every material category that comprises our society, from design to celebrity to transport, is looked at through a green lens. They’re ranked number twenty-two on Technorati’s list of 75,000,000 blogs, and even Daryl Hannah is singing their praises. Why? Its writers, they claim, ‘have the ability to take topics that most of us snoozed our way through in school, and make them the addictive juicy, green bits that they are’.
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST

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.

Alex Passapera’s dizzying pen and ink drawings are cascades of images melting into one another, often looking like contorting, mutating creatures spewing blood-like ink splatters. Read more

Wheeeeee! This game is so freaking fun! You move your cursor over each dot to make them split into four smaller dots ad infinitum.

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

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.
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
The Plus One t shirt by New York designer Ryan Sullivan is printed by hand, one at a time, using a dye-based print and printed on cotton/poly blend tees. Size is true to fit.
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