LCD Soundsystem, “Bye Bye Bayou” MP3
James Murphy covered a song by Suicide’s Alan Vega and it sounds like a disco swamp in a rainstorm. But then maybe we’re just influenced by the cover art—props to the makeup artist, that shade of violet is flattering on any face. Actually it sounds like Murphy and Vega are holed up in a bunker with mood lighting and dodging the search lamps of the helicopters flying above. It’s all very romantic. LCD is giving this away to the first 20,000 subscribers only, so skip to it if you think you can’t handle the slowburning tropic thunder.
Download: LCD Soundsystem, “Bye Bye Bayou” (email subscription required)
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posted on Oct 22, 2009 in MP3 / STREAMS tags Alan Vega, DFA, electronic/dance, LCD Soundsystem, Suicide
Oak’s Happy Hour Special
- story Alex Frank
When we spoke to Jeff Madalena and and Louis Terline of Oak for our 10th anniversary issue last year, opening a bar was still just a glimmer on the horizon. Blackout is now officially open, and in true Oak fashion, is bringing the best of the best tonight, with DJ sets from DFA and LCD Soundsystem whiz James Murphy, amongst others. We predict a bar filled with Brooklyn kids (and probably a few Manhattan folk too) dressed in asymmetrical black ensembles. And If you mostly can’t afford Oak’s pricey duds, like us, the promise of an hour of $3 well drinks tonight might be your best chance of buying into the Oak way of life.
Altair Nouveau of DFA’s Fall Mix
- story Matthew Schnipper
It has to be frustrating to make music in the present when so much of what you like is music from the past. We hear it so often, “I only like old stuff, nothing really cool is happening now.” That’s just silly, on top of being just not true. But the odds are so much better for the past. Chances are if it wasn’t good then, it was forgotten about. Ony the good old stuff gets remembered and passed down. All the now stuff is always around. You only know about Uriah Heep’s sick riffs, not all the crappy bands they played with. The sifter of quality and time has strained them away. Still, it must be weird to feel peer-less (though sometimes we know ancient jams hit us in the gut and then we listen to nothing except Lothar and the Hand People for three weeks straight). San Franciscan disco dude Altair Nouveau, producer of current music and lover of old, has crafted a pretty proggy fall mix for those old to Dungeons and Dragons but new to music. We would love to say that despite the lack of newness it still sounds pretty current, but it doesn’t. And there you have your argument for old times—they just don’t make ‘em like the used to. If “used to” is funky rock made by dudes who probably had tights, a ton of blow and teased hair. Actually that sounds like Jared Leto’s band. Plus cowbell, plenty of cowbell. And arpeggios. And vintage synths. Ok, now this sounds like DFA. Where there’s smoke, you know? Check the track list after the jump.
Download: Altair Nouveau’s Fall Mix
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Free Energy, “Something in Common” MP3
- story Matthew Schnipper
- photo Alex Welsh (F63)
Guesses on what the song’s anonymous she and DFA rock upstarts Free Energy have in common: shitty Philadelphia apartments with decent backyards, malt liquor, clothes with fringe, scratched AC/DC records. Free Energy is all in the bass here, though someone (James Murphy/Eric Broucek) added a lot of Cloud One synth bloops. Free Energy walk the line of life changing/totally ignorable, which is the perfect line to walk for a band who used to be called Hockey Night (and, briefly, Dude Bros). The first rule to our band could be your life is making sure the band is the band’s life, and for Free Energy, you know it’s everything.
Download: Free Energy, “Something in Common”
Video: The Juan Maclean, “Happy House”
The concept for this video is so simple and perfectly understated, much like how The Juan Maclean’s disco equation of subtle and no-frills translates to elegance on the dancefloor: LED lights hitting diagonally on white-adorned dancers, with vocalist Nancy Whang in a futuristic hijab-inspired headcloak acting as a lipsticked Uhura striking Martha Graham poses. This video could totally be installed (or performed) in the New Museum and we would not be mad. (via Audioporn)
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posted on Aug 10, 2009 in MUSIC VIDEO tags DFA, electronic/dance, Martha Graham, Nancy Whang, The Juan Maclean
RCRD LBL Freeload: Canyons, “Blue Snakes”
- story THE FADER
Apparently in Australia, where Canyons are from, “Blue Snakes” translates to deep grinding house that sounds like it has been listening to Art Ensemble of Chicago and/or Popo. This song is like, we are in the middle of the Australian desert having a Jodorowsky style spiritual breakthrough, hallucinating sabre-toothed big cats from the, ahem, peyote. THEN! The wind washes over us like the exhaling of god, and we are immediately wizened: know our purpose, our future, the grand plan to follow. We must dance! Barefoot! To house music! And get a pet tiger! Yeah Canyons!
Q+A/Premiere Freeload: Walter Jones, “Living Without Your Love” (New DFA Signee)
- story THE FADER
Perennial champion label DFA’s newest release is from the somewhat reclusive Walter Jones. Jones, who DFA was introduced to first through their Death From Abroad compilations and his work with Supersoul Records, is actually from New Orleans, Louisiana. Despite his Southern heritage, Jones’ music is more aligned with the chipper soul of Chicago’s early lo-fi house minus the creepy tantalization of acid’s 303. But his choice of hushed vocal melodies accents his track’s hazy, washed out rhythms. His tracks sway more than beat, the kind of listlessness you want from music, not an unease but a gentle coercion. We’re especially fond of his song “Living Without Your Love,” the b-side to his first 12-inch. Listen and download below, and read an interview with Jones about his long but elusive career, the broad borders of New Orleans’ music and why he writes love songs.
Download: Walter Jones, “Living Without Your Love”
Freeload: Free Energy, “Dream City”
- story THE FADER
Hey, are you watching Dazed and Confused? You’re not? Because it sounds like you are. Oh, we’re just listening to Free Energy on our headphones? Sorry, we got mixed up. Free Energy, who kinda sorta used to be Lookout! Records’ Hockey Night, linked up with James Murphy and recorded an album of Thin Lizzy-loving, ’70s classic rock soft triumphs. “Dream City,” the first track to surface from their fall-slated DFA debut, is a light doozy of chants, handclaps and guitar power that smells like sweat and beer. But not a lot, because the people that smell like sweat and beer are never the people who you want to own that movie authenticity. They’re just gross. Free Energy isn’t gross. Or maybe they are, we don’t know them. See for yourself, they’ve got a few shows coming up in Philadelphia and New York City, where we hear dreams come true.
Download: Free Energy, “Dream City”
RCRD LBL Freeload: Capracara, “King of the Witches (Age of Steam Edit)”
- story THE FADER
We have been bathing ourselves in digital Latin music lately so this shoulder-shimmying Capracara track from his new DFA 12-inch release sounds like 8-bit salsa to us, if a little dissonant (and British). We had a Casio when we were babies that had a drum setting that sounded a little like the electronic cowbell in this track. Then it winds down, smooths out, and sails. Refreshing. Also dudes… king of witches… age of steam. Bodacious! Check out the crazy video.
Audio: Black Meteoric Star (Finally) + Live in New York City
- story THE FADER
Chances are you have not been consistently banging “Black Spring” from Gavin Russom and Delia Gonzalez’s wildly slept on Days of Mars, waiting years for new tracks of the breadth and heft. In F53 last year we talked to Gavin Russom amidst the promise of three 12-inch singles of new solo material recorded as Black Meteoric Star. Those never came for 2009, but on Friday we saw Russom open for The Juan Maclean. Shrouded in scarves and possibly a wig, Russom hunched over a keyboard and some anonymous equipment he’d built himself, tagged in crummy handwriting, “relax and enjoy the ride.” Now, if you weren’t within ten feet of the stage, it would not only have been difficult to read that, but also to see his dancers, two intense women in high heels and loose flowing short cut silver fabric. We definitely saw a boob. Then we bought records! White label 12-inch singles we were promised so many months ago. Check out Russom’s thirty minute set of homegrown acid house on Beats in Space for a taste.
Download: Black Meteoric Star Live on Beats in Space
