Video: Grouper, “Hold the Way”
- story Matthew Schnipper
Perusing Beautiful Losers scion Aaron Rose’s blog recently, we noticed he’d used something we found familiar as captions. Rose likes to underscore his photos with bits of prose and poetry, usually from ancient sages. But this was fresher, more familiar, though similarly resonant. Halfway through, we realized it was the lyrics to “Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping,” a FADER favorite, spooky and sweet song by Portland’s Grouper. “Hold the Way” is a new track with a creepy video, from Grouper’s upcoming Vessel, that begins with some ominous and aggressive incomprehensible voice over chatter, before washing away into Grouper’s main body, Liz Harris’ wordless voice and tiny bits of lull. We’ve been surprised but pleased by Grouper’s seemingly universal acceptance, as if everyone understood that something overwhelmingly calm every now and then is crucial, and the best way to get that is with Northwestern cassette loops and hushed layers of often wordless, lush and quiet vocals. It’s good when we can agree.
ATP New York 2009: Babies and Drums
- story Peter Macia
- photo Abbey Braden
Boredoms’ drummer Yojiro (YO2RO) Tatekawa was carried into the main performance space on a platform carried by eight dudes, ten minutes into the already heart-exploding Boadrum 9 reprise at ATP New York last Sunday. He bashed on his drums so hard, it was unclear whether they would be able to hold him up. They did, and an hour later, Tatekawa and his bandmate Yoshimi were walking around with a bunch of awesome little Boredoms babies, on their way to participate in Oneida’s marathon 13-hour performance and then check out Boris’ volcanic replay of their album Feedbacker. Jim Jarmusch looked pretty psyched on Boris too. This was basically the vibe at Kutsher’s Country Club, a tarnished gem of the Catskills social set, where VIP is nonexistent and there was always something happening that was going to destroy your eardrums for, as of post time, at least two or three days.
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posted on Sep 15, 2009 in MUSIC NEWS tags Animal Collective, Antipop Consortium, Atlas Sound, ATP New York 2009, black dice, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Boredoms, Boris, Boss Hog, Crystal Castles, David Cross, Deerhoof, Deerhunter, Dirty Three, Grouper, Melvins, Menomena, No Age with Bob Mould, Oneida, Panda Bear, Shellac, Sufjan Stevens, Suicide, Super Furry Animals, The Drones, The Feelies, the Flaming Lips, The Jesus Lizard
Schnipper’s Slept On
- story THE FADER
Each Tuesday, FADER editor Matthew Schnipper highlights an underappreciated recent release he thinks we need to know about. This week it’s Grouper’s Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill. Listen to “Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping” below, buy the album and read Schnipper’s thoughts on the record after the jump.
Grouper, “Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping”
