Freeload/Q+A: Rusty Santos Talks About The Present + Get Weird
- story THE FADER
Rusty Santos has recorded, mixed, mastered or produced some of our favorite music of the last five years: Animal Collective’s Sung Tongs; Born Ruffians’ Red, Yellow & Blue; Panda Bear’s Person Pitch; White Magic’s Day, Twilight, Night EP; and many, many more, including his own solo albums. So we were obviously pretty excited to hear the results of his new band The Present, with friends Jesse Lee and Mina. Those results are, unsurprisingly, both challenging and totally jamming. The Present’s World I See extracts all the weird details you didn’t even know you loved from the aforementioned albums and turns them into six songs that shift between spare piano twinkles, ambient noise experiments and hazy surf guitar, as evidenced in the eponymous track downloadable below. We are planning on listening to this record every time we need to clear the air this fall, but first, we wanted to talk to Rusty about how it went down and what he’s been up to. And since New York is the most synergistic city in the world, our former editor-in-chief, Alex Wagner, has booked The Present for tonight’s installment of the New Museum’s Get Weird series.
So read the interview, go Get Weird, and buy World I See when it comes out next month.
Download: The Present, “World I See”
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posted on Sep 18, 2008 in MUSIC INTERVIEWS tags experimental, freeload, Get Weird, Q+A, Rusty Santos, The Present
Exclusive Freeload: Growing, “Innit” + Get Weird With IUD Tonight
- story THE FADER
Usually, putting limitations on yourself helps you create some wild shit. Brooklyn’s Growing use only two guitars and move from quick percussive punches to expansive blooms of fuzzy ambience that eventually envelope the entire song. The lack of drums, or any other instrument, makes Growing’s music sound out there, but their attempts—furthered with each album—to create something approaching structure and beauty out of clipped noise frequently result in totally not embarrassing moments of fist pumping from dudes and ladies like us.
“Innit” from their upcoming album All The Way (out September 9th on Social Registry) is a perfect example of this, with Joe Denardo and Kevin Doriain’s guitars emulating drums and something that sounds like an underwater xylophone. Basically, Growing provoke a lot of “DUDE—DUDE!—Dude…” moments, also known as Epic Stoner Visionquests Into The Heart Of Music. If all that sounds like your thing, hit the New Museum tonight to catch Growing play the final Get Weird of the summer along with Gang Gang Dance side project I.U.D.
Download: Growing, “Innit”
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posted on Jul 17, 2008 in MP3 / STREAMS tags experimental, freeload, Get Weird, Growing, I.U.D., MUSIC-MP3/STREAMS
NYC: Get Weirder Than Maybe You’d Prefer
- story THE FADER
Anyone in New York City who’s ever told someone “I had the weirdest night ever last night” and it did not end with “with Andrew WK” is a total liar. However, they, and you, have the chance to redeem them and yourselves tonight at the New Museum as former FADER EIC Alex Wagner’s Get Weird series blazes on with a AWK performance on solo grand piano. IN. THE. ROUND. It’s like Ancient Greece for people who usually end up puking at the end of the night. Get your tickets here or at the door and prepare for a night of insomniac hallucinations!
NEWSFLASH: ANDREW WK GETS EVEN WEIRDER
- story THE FADER
The New Museum’s Get Weird series just tipped us off to May’s extra special guest, and while we have intentionally not puked from partying in a long while, that shit is going to happen on May 15th. Details straight from the typewriter of former AW(silent K) bka Alex Wagner:
Experimental party starter Andrew WK makes a special appearance for
May’s Get Weird. On the heels of his explosive post-frat live shows
across the globe, WK has been, of late, handling production duties for
Lee “Scratch” Perry, lecturing at Yale, vibing with Will Oldham,
spoofing the McLaughin Group, and performing with avant folkie Baby
Dee and teen supergroup Hanson. We really have no idea what this
performance will be like, but we know it will be awesome. And probably
weird.
We have also heard rumors of another dude performing at Get Weird that night that will make nerds get juiced, so stay tuned.
NYC: Hex Message And Kria Brekken Get Weird At The New Museum
- story THE FADER
Tonight you’ll be able to find us at the third installment of Get Weird At The New Museum with Hex Message (also known as the band featuring Dan Hougland of Excepter, Abigail Portner of Rings, Pascal Spengemann of the Taxter and Spengemann gallery, and DUN Dun dun….our dude Andrew Kuo, stepping out from behind the paintings and graphs and playing a guitar. Consider us hyped.) Also playing is Kria Brekken, who you may remember as the woman who did an album with Avey Tare of Animal Collective that was backwards and then everyone made it go forwards and realized it was good both ways. What we’re saying is that we’re ready for anything and plan on getting as weird as possible in the hours alloted to us. Last time we sat cross legged, this time we might again, but also maybe not. Who knows! Either way, we still plan on getting weird. If you hurry you can still buy tickets here.
NYC: Get Weird With BLK JKS
- story THE FADER
New York Cityers Who Think You Are Cool, you now have another chance to witness the raw jazz-jam-metal-ska power of South Africa’s BLK JKS as they return to the Big Apple for former FADER editor-in-chief Alex Wagner’s Get Weird music series at the New Museum. BLK JKS totally shredded the FADER Fort last Saturday and the FADER 52 party (video), but we are super excited to see them again sans Sparks jitters (us not them) before they head back home. Tickets are only 8 bucks and that gets you free admission to the galleries as well. AAANNNDD the band will field questions from the audience at some point, so hopefully no one will steal our question: What does Pharrell smell like?
