Carina Round

Acrylics

St Vincent

St. vincent has a new album coming soon, titled Actor, go buy May 5


New Video - Actor out of Work



Directed by Ian Kibbey and Corey Creasey -- together known as Terri Timely -- Clark holds auditions for actors in a Los Angeles warehouse wherein they're promoted to cry on cue.

"At first I was a little reticent to interpret the video in such a literal manner -- ie, with actors, casting calls, etc.," Clark tells Spinner. "However, I fell in love with Ian and Corey's treatment instantly. There is something so darkly comic and eerily unnerving about the act of crying on cue. It feels like such a lie -- a betrayal in a sense -- to see someone burst into hysterics in one moment, and then, as if it had never happened, stand up, smile and go back to checking their text messages. Sometimes I had to restrain myself from laughing out of discomfort, and sometimes I had to restrain myself from crying -- it's as contagious as yawning."

source


Also NPR has a little sneak peak at some rehearsal time from SXSW


5/19/2009 Somerville, MA Somerville Theatre
5/20/2009 New York, NY Webster Hall
5/21/2009 Philadelphia, PA Unitarian Church
5/22/2009 Washington, DC Black Cat
5/24/2009 George, WA Sasquatch!
5/25/2009 Portland, OR Aladdin Theater
5/27/2009 San Francisco, CA Bimbo's 365 Club
5/28/2009 Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theatre
5/30/2009 San Diego, CA Casbah
5/31/2009 Phoenix, AZ Modified
6/2/2009 Denver, CO Bluebird Theater
6/3/2009 Omaha, NE Slowdown Jr.
6/4/2009 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
6/5/2009 Milwaukee, WI Pabst Theater
6/7/2009 Chicago, IL Epiphany
6/9/2009 Newport, KY The Southgate House

6/10/2009 Lexington, KY The Dame
6/11/2009 Nashville, TN Mercy Lounge
6/12/2009 Manchester, TN Bonnaroo
6/16/2009 Birmingham, AL Bottle Tree
6/18/2009 Dallas, TX Granada Theatre
6/19/2009 Austin, TX Mohawk

Art/ Photos of the day

Kim Herbst

Walt Disney Museum

Sure, i hate Walt as much as the next guy, but you have to admit, he was sort of smart guy, anyhow they are making a museum in his honor, i'd like to see the turnout

SOURCE

Collect LES 2009

Collect LES 2009
Saturday, April 18th 6:00pm-8:30pm
→ Purchase Advance Tickets. Check-in at the door.This is a 21+ event.

Join Artlog for Collect LES, an art crawl through the Lower East Side's burgeoning art community. Coordinated by Artlog in partnership with the LES Business Improvement District, Collect LES includes more than twenty-five galleries and the New Museum.

From the Bowery to East Broadway, over a thousand art enthusiasts toured the neighborhood galleries during last year’s event. This year will be no less spectacular! Enjoy free wine, beer and liquor and special offers at local businesses as you tour the Lower East Side’s galleries and Phillips Art Expert’s selected urban art locations.

* Schedule 4:00 - 6:00pm $2 off admission to the New Museum's triennial exhibition Younger Than Jesus, including a private curator-led tour for Collect LES attendees at 4pm. RSVP at TourRSVP@newmuseum.org (space is limited).
* 6:00 - 8:30pm Gallery crawl
* 10:00pm - late Collect LES After Party @Gallery Bar

* Check-in 3:30 - 6:00pm Check-in at the New Museum, 235 Bowery, New York
* 5:30 - 8:30pm Check-in at Woodward Gallery, 133 Eldridge St, New York


More info/Directions

Bugged out Easter Thursday

See Event Info here

Bugged Out is proud to present the first in a series of parties in 2009 to celebrate our 15th anniversary in clubland. Easter Thursday is probably the best night out in the clubbing calendar because everyone gets four whole days off work afterwards! So we’ve lined up something extra special, Erol Alkan will be breaking from form and playing a six hour set. Early birds that enter the ace Fire club (where we held our new years eve party) will be treated to a set akin to the one that made Erol’s ‘Bugged In’ selection from 2005’s Bugged Out Mix a classic (expect the unexpected: last time there was an unlikely Ulrich Schnauss /Imagination nexus). Erol will also be delving into disco as he has done for his well received ‘Disco 3000′ podcast (anyone lucky enough to have attended ASBO at the Lock Tavern in January will know how good this is gonna be) before continuing into peak-time with mutant techno and electro all the way through to the unknown. Room two is hosted by Durrrr, their first party since leaving The End, with ace residents Rory Phillips, The Lovely Jonjo and Our Man Fred. They are joined by Dubsided’s Duke Dumont, Erol’s favourite producer of 2008, whose recent spellbinding remixes of Mystery Jets and Late of the Pier have proved peerless. Tickets £13.50 www.ticketweb.co.uk Fire, 39-44 Parry St, London, SW810pm-6am.
www.ticketweb.co.uk www.erolalkan.co.uk www.buggedout.net www.durrrr.co.uk

ALL ADVANCE TICKETS HAVE NOW SOLD OUT. THERE WILL BE A LIMITED AMOUNT AVAILABLE ON THE DOOR £13 students and £16. PLEASE ARRIVE EARLY.

Photos/Art of the day

Berlin



Matt Bollinger

Black Kids

Black kids Youtube Channel

Also new album - Cemetery Lips



Here is the full track listing:
1 Look At Me (When I Rock Wichoo), Kid Gloves Remix
2 I'm Making Eyes At You, Joy Electric Remix
3 Hurricane Jane, The Cansecos Remix
4 My Christian Name
5 Power In The Blood
6 You Only Call Me When You're Crying

Bat for Lashes - Daniel

This video is just..

Photos/Art of the Day

Mountaintop Removal Decision

Sierra Club Praises Obama Administration’s Bold First Step on Mountaintop Removal
Decision to Review Certain Permits Will Save or Create Jobs, Protect Communities

Washington, DC: Tuesday’s announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that it will review certain permits for mountaintop removal coal mines something the Bush EPA never did is a strong first step in the complex effort to end this most destructive form of coal mining and to support Appalachia’s long-term economic vitality.

Conflicting media reports and multiple press releases Tuesday led some to question the impact of the EPA announcement.

"Make no mistake; the days of reckless, unchecked destruction of Appalachian mountains are numbered," said Mary Anne Hitt, Deputy Director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign. "There is much more work to do, but President Obama’s EPA has taken a bold first step on mountaintop removal coal mining."

Research suggests that efforts to limit and abolish mountaintop removal coal mining will benefit Appalachia’s economy. According to a March 2009 report by the Appalachian Regional Commission, energy efficiency programs could save billions of dollars and create thousands of jobs in Appalachia. Contrary to the talking points of Senator Byrd, Senator Rockefeller and Governor Manchin, mountaintop removal coal mining eliminates jobs as it destroys the land and long-term viability of the region.

"By using explosives and machines instead of good Appalachia labor, mountaintop removal coal mining eliminates jobs," said Vernon Haltom of Coal River Mountain Watch. "How can blowing up our communities be good for my family or for my children’s chances of getting a job here in the future?" he added.

Coalfield residents and grassroots organizations will keep pressuring public officials and mining companies to protect the jobs, streams and mountains of Appalachia.

“The Environmental Protection Agency has clearly demonstrated a bold shift in direction on mountaintop removal coal mining,” said Joe Lovett, attorney with Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. “Now we will use this momentum to push for an end to this practice and a more sustainable future for our region.”

Ween

R.E.M. Deluxe Version of Murmur Release

Listen to Album on their Last FM page

Modern Skirts

Modern Skirts - Soft Pedals SOM Video from Modern Skirts on Vimeo.

Recording as you read - See recording blog here

Buy Merch HERE

TOUR

Modern Skirts MYSPACE

LAST FM PAGE

Listen to new album here

Cryptacize Tour Dates

Cryptacize
2009-04-24, Friday: San Francisco, CA - Cafe Du Nord (w/Finches, Papercuts)
2009-05-20, Wednesday: Berlin, Germany - Privatclub (w/Jamie Stewart)
2009-05-21, Thursday: Leipzig, Germany - UT Connewitz (w/Mirah)
2009-05-22, Friday: Utrecht, Netherlands - dBs
2009-05-24, Sunday: Brighton, LO - The FreebuttUnited Kingdom - The Freebutt (w/Jamie Stewart)
2009-05-25, Monday: London, United Kingdom - Cargo (w/Jamie Stewart)
2009-05-26, Tuesday: London, United Kingdom - Windmill Brixton
2009-05-27, Wednesday: Exeter, United Kingdom - The Cavern
2009-05-28, Thursday: London, United Kingdom - Union Chapel (w/Final Fantasy)
2009-05-29, Friday: Dublin, Ireland - Whelans (w/Final Fantasy)
2009-05-30, Saturday: Glasgow, SL - Captain's RestUnited Kingdom - Captain's Rest
2009-05-31, Sunday: Edinburgh, United Kingdom - Sneaky Pete's
2009-06-01, Monday: Manchester, United Kingdom - Deaf Institute
2009-06-02, Tuesday: Cardiff, United Kingdom - Buffalo Bar
2009-06-04, Thursday: Paris, France - Cafe De La Danse
2009-06-05, Friday: Bethune, France - Qulit Quilit
2009-06-06, Saturday: Cherbourg, France - Terra Trema
2009-06-08, Monday: Rotterdam, Netherlands - Worm (w/Ariel Pink)
2009-06-09, Tuesday: Siegen, Germany - Vortex
2009-06-10, Wednesday: Cologne, Germany - King Georg
2009-06-11, Thursday: Duisburg, Germany - Steinbruch
2009-06-12, Friday: Offenbach, Germany - Hafen 2
2009-06-23, Tuesday: Los Angeles, CA - Echo Curio
2009-06-24, Wednesday: Phoenix, AZ - Modified Arts (w/Haunted Cologne, Stellaluna, Andrew Jackson Jihad)
2009-06-26, Friday: Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves (w/Fishboy)
2009-06-27, Saturday: Austin, TX - TBA
2009-06-30, Tuesday: Atlanta, GA - 529 (w/Casiotone for The Painfully Alone)
2009-07-01, Wednesday: Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506 (w/Casiotone for The Painfully Alone)
2009-07-02, Thursday: Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia (w/Casiotone for The Painfully Alone)
2009-07-03, Friday: Brooklyn, NY - Market Hotel
2009-07-05, Sunday: Keane, NH - Starving Artist Collective (w/Casiotone for The Painfully Alone)
2009-07-06, Monday: Cambridge, MA - T.T. The Bear's Place (w/Casiotone for The Painfully Alone, Pants Yell!)
2009-07-07, Tuesday: Montreal, QC - Il MotoreCanada - Il Motore (w/Casiotone for The Painfully Alone)
2009-07-09, Thursday: Grand Rapids, MI - The DAAC (w/Casiotone for The Painfully Alone)
2009-07-10, Friday: Chicago, IL - Hideout (w/Casiotone for The Painfully Alone)
2009-07-14, Tuesday: Seattle, WA - Healthy Times Fun Club (w/Casiotone for The Painfully Alone, Ribbons)
2009-07-15, Wednesday: Portland, OR - The Artistery (w/Casiotone for The Painfully Alone)
2009-04-17, Friday: Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle (w/Occidental Brothers Dance Band International)
2009-05-07, Thursday: Milan, Italy - Atomic Bar
2009-05-08, Friday: Farrara, Italy - Zuni
2009-05-09, Saturday: Rome, Italy - Init
2009-05-10, Sunday: Nijmegen, Netherlands - Doornroosje at Lux Theatre
2009-05-11, Monday: Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
2009-05-13, Wednesday: Paris, France - La Cafe de la Danse (w/Shearwater)
2009-05-14, Thursday: Brighton, United Kingdom - The Pavillion Theatre
2009-05-15, Friday: Paris, France - La Maroquinerie
2009-05-17, Sunday: Brugge, Belgium - Cactus
2009-05-18, Monday: Brussels, Belgium - ABCLUB
2009-05-20, Wednesday: London, United Kingdom - Hoxton Hall
2009-05-23, Saturday: Dublin, Ireland - Crawdaddy


Cryptacize - Blue Tears from Weston Currie on Vimeo.

Hermas Zoupola

This guy is amazing


Attention from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.


Hermas Zoupula is many things. He is the youngest of 36 children. Born in a small village named Yoro, he is Burkinabe, a citizen and resident of Burkina Faso, West Africa. He is a moped enthusiast, orphanage volunteer, and internet cafe proprietor. Hermas is also a psalmist, and Espoir is his first international recording.

Hermas sings in four different languages on the album: French, English, Dioula, and Sissali (Hermas' mother tongue). The only way to introduce Hermas' sound was to release Espoir as a two disc set. The first disc, recorded in a government studio in Burkina Faso, presents a refined and practiced Hermas. But the Hermas on the second disc is the one most Burkinabes know, just him and his guitar in his backyard.

Hermas is a big fan of Malian singer Salif Keita. He also connects with reggae music, especially the musicians who see music as a way of bringing about justice and peace. Bob Marley is an immediate inspiration, but like many Burkinabes, Hermas has a deep love for Lucky Dube, who used his music to expose government corruption in the murder of journalist Norbert Zongo. Comparisons to singer/song-writer Seu Jorge are inevitable, but listeners will find Hermas' voice sweeter and warmer. Other audible influences in Hermas� music are Afro-pop pioneer Thomas Mapfumo, King Sunny Ade,� and Toumani Diabate�s Symmetric Orchestra.

Hermas is currently employed as a translator by Air Burkina at the international airport in Ouagadougou. When Jonathan Dueck, the album's cover artist and Hermas' friend, last left Ouagadougou, Hermas waved good-bye to him right from the tarmac.


Dsa Wissi Dounia Gnou from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

Royal City

In October of 2000, a little band changed my life. The rock-tinged folk (or folk-tinged rock-it was never clear) four-piece in question called themselves Royal City, after their Canadian hometown of Guelph, and I accompanied them on their first-ever U.S. tour, their road manager by default. While Royal City's greatest artistic achievements were yet to come (please pause to go listen to Alone at the Microphone), over those three weeks I saw the band find their feet and create a lasting chemistry. When I listen to this collection of unreleased songs, I'm taken back to that formative tour where much of this material-and Royal City itself-took shape.

For a generation of Guelph music fans, Royal City was something akin to a supergroup. From his early teens Aaron Riches had been a figurehead of the city's hardcore punk scene, fronting numerous politically charged punk bands and promoting DIY gigs (including one of Fugazi's first Canadian shows). Tracing punk's spiritual heritage back to Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, Aaron found himself drawn to the acoustic guitar and began writing softly strummed songs about streetlights and Shakespeare and dogs and broken hearts, all sung in his creaky, distinctive voice.

Time spent away at university, however, disconnected Aaron from Guelph's supercharged late 1990s music scene. While the Constantines were still gestating, the Jim Guthrie Quintet was a go. A local lo-fi recording guru, Jim had assembled a hot-shit band, which included James Ogilvie, Evan Gordon (who was the first to accompany Riches at live shows), and the in-demand duo of bassist Simon Osborne and drummer Nathan Lawr to play his experimental pop epics. In 1999 or so, Aaron returned to Guelph and sought out Jim to help him make a new record at Jim's home studio, the Roc Sak. The Quintet was brought in to fill out the sound. Fans like me saw shades of Dylan's poaching of the Band, but Aaron might have simply said, "Home is where the rock is."

The product of this union and the first Royal City record, At Rush Hour the Cars, launched an auspicious period of activity for the band, now based in Toronto, and for the musicians and artists surrounding them. Three Gut Records and the label's first few acts-the Constantines, Jim Guthrie, Gentleman Reg-emerged out of this collective to spark a joyful rejuvenation of Toronto's music scene. Royal City shared stages and flourished along with the Hidden Cameras and Broken Social Scene, eventually catching the ear of Geoff Travis of Rough Trade, who released 2001's Juno Award–nominated Alone at the Microphone and 2004's underrated Little Heart's Ease on the storied UK label.

The band solidified around Aaron, Jim, Simon and Nathan, with a loose open-door policy that welcomed Leslie Feist, Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy) and Bobby Wiseman of Blue Rodeo fame into the lineup for short stints. Even after Nathan left the band and new drummer Lonnie James (formerly of Superfriendz) stepped in for Little Heart's Ease, Royal City always made room for distinct musical personalities to make a wonderful, unified noise. Their final tour, a jaunt around Europe with Herman Düne, found them polishing off old chestnuts from all over their catalogue on a nightly basis.

Still, it was during that first U.S. that the chestnuts were planted, so to speak. Their inspiring ride around the States helped unlock their potential, and you can hear a great band emerging in the songs Royal City wrote and performed during this period, many of which are gathered here. They simply turned a corner with "Postcards," born in the middle of nowhere, Kentucky. Its plaintive angst and rhythmic groove are striking, with Aaron sounding confident and loose, and his increasingly limber band pushing him as a composer. Invention also fuelled the transformation of "Bad Luck" into its best-known, "Give Peace a Chance" rhythm, but it was a powerful live highlight in the original version found here. It meshes well with the band's ferocious cover of Iggy Pop's "Success," which some folks in Nashville must still recall the scruffy strangers belting out at 12th and Porter one wild night.

Then there are beautifully rendered sketches like "I Called But You Were Sleeping," "Can't You" and "They Came Down," which bask in their stark, hazy ambience. Royal City had a lighter side, too, that can be felt throughout "A Feast," "The Nations Will Sing," and the band's theme song/anthem (which, on a rough night, became "Royal Shitty"). Their cheeky, 3/4 time take on "Is This It?", recorded in the UK with the legendary Edwyn Collins, breathes considerable warmth into the Strokes original. The songs are so diverse, recorded years apart by different lineups, but it all hangs together surprisingly well-I could almost believe it was a lost Royal City record.

This collection reconnects me with the fledgling band I saw emerge on tour, feeling out the road beneath them. Yet I can also see the way that road brought them to the maturity of the last work they did together. Some of these songs came and went from their repertoire, others were revisited again and again, but each was necessary to the whole. Royal City was always a package deal, a real band that grew ever tighter together, and these songs encapsulate their wondrous progress from beginning to end.

Vish Khanna is an assistant editor for Exclaim!, Canada's definitive music publication, and contributes to CBC Radio 3, Eye Weekly, Signal to Noise, and aol.ca. He is also the co-host of a morning radio show on CFRU 93.3 FM.
1. Here Comes Success
2. Can't You Hear Me Calling
3. Postcards
4. A Belly Was Made For Wine
5. Dog Song
6. O You With Your Skirt
7. Bad Luck
8. The Nations Will Sing
9. I Called But You Were Sleeping
10. They Came Down
11. Is This It?
12. In The Autumn


SOURCE

Shara Worden of My brightest diamond

Interview from BOMB MAGAZINE
I have a confession to make. The first time I hung out with Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond about two years ago, I was really only there because my brother said we would be flying kites. I figured I could set aside my antisocial tendencies for a day of harnessing the sky. I lucked out: I got to fly a kite, and I now have had the honor of knowing and working and singing and stomping with Shara.

In a world that seems hell-bent on repetition, My Brightest Diamond challenges the cyclical parameters of self containment, continually experimenting with new ways of addressing song structure, instrumentation, and performance. The MBD trapeze swings multi-dimensionally between operatic lungs, guttural guitar chugging, sweeping strings, dark-hearted moans, plucky pigeons dancing, and rock ‘n’ roll sweat on the tom-tom of destiny. Amidst all of these seemingly disparate elements, there is a natural cohesion. What other folks have attempted to force together with varying results, MBD combines effortlessly; hammering sparks and smelting hearts in the magnetic fires of supernatural metallurgy.

If it weren’t already obvious, I think MBD is all kinds of great. So, when it was suggested that I spend some time talking to Shara about what MBD has been up to, I didn’t ask, “Will there be kites?” I just said, “Yes!”


Shara Worden I brought you a present. It’s a thank-you for doing the artwork and the art directing for the video of “From the Top of the World.” (It’s a snow globe with the city of Düsseldorf in the background. Blue, sparkling jack-shapes float inside it.)

Tim Fite Are those people or jacks? It’s from Düsseldorf?

SW Yeah, it’s from Düsseldorf.

TF There are people instead of snow. They look like jacks, kind of flying around.

SW A flying jacks snow globe for a snowy day.

TF I’ll put it on the mantle right now.

SW Okay.

TF I’m going to turn on the water for tea. How’s everything going?

SW It’s going well. We just got back from a three-month tour. We were in Europe for five weeks, and then the US for almost two months.

TF Living with your friends in transit . . . touring is like being in a circus. (drum sound, laughter)

SW It is like being in a circus; you pack up your tent and go to the next town every night. On this tour we played a lot of turn-of-the-century theaters that have been renovated and converted into movie theaters. They’re outside of larger towns, and are being bought by entrepreneurs with a vision for these smaller communities. My favorite one was in Paonia, Colorado, this bizarre little one-horse town. They made us an organic meal, the sound was really great, people came to the show, and there were little kids break-dancing. Descendants of Aspen had settled in this town—sort of fairy/hippie people. After the show the entire town ended up at Lady Linda’s, kind of a mixture between a bar and a bistro and a 1920s brothel. (laughter) Passing around the whiskey. A whole bunch of us girls rummaged through the back closet looking through antique clothes and bizarre Betty Boop dolls. We ended up in feather boas and antique lingerie.

TF Like playing dress-up, but with an entire town. What was it called? Peyotia?

SW Paonia. Apparently it’s not a real word; when they made the town they got a little confused about peyote and peonies and ended up with Paonia.

TF Back to those old, magical theaters . . . when you play a show, do you feel you have to adapt your costume to the costume of the venue?

SW For this tour, the costuming was a black-and-white-striped mix of punk; Pierrot; the melancholy character in the Commedia Dell’Arte, and a magic show. The vibe of each performance space emphasizes the clothes in a particular way. In an old theater the costumes seem more cabaret-like. In a punk club it feels like we’re coming at it from a hard-core angle—less clownish and circus-influenced. Once, however, a guy came up to me after a show and said that we looked like flight attendants and that he kept expecting us to serve him coffee.

TF You toe a line between eerie mystery in your shows and a classic, fun-loving, good time. I could see how a club could bring out the good time a little bit more. When you get into the seedier places it’s more deep, dark cabaret.

SW Sometimes when you’re playing the fancy places, you can’t stomp on the floor without feeling like you’re making a scene. I find that you physically don’t want to make as much noise, so you’re a little less free with your body than in a punk club, but there it’s not your ideal audio experience.

TF Did you ever play in a church?

SW Yes, we did.

TF Did it feel weird?

SW Yeah. I think for me, because my dad was a music pastor and I grew up playing in church, I have a couple different reactions to it. If it’s a modern church I get really twitchy because it brings up the past and who I was as an awkward young person in that environment. But if I’m in an old church, I feel much more relaxed. Nice wood is everywhere, and there’s something more formal about it. I like to be able to work with that sense of confusion, where the audience comes in and they’re like, “Should we not swear?” (The kettle whistles) It’s the tea!

TF Do you curse in church?

SW I don’t really think of church as a building.

TF What is it if not a building?

SW It’s a larger idea than a building. Most people, myself included, have been conditioned to think of faith as related to an architectural structure. I don’t think that’s very useful.

TF If you could choose absolutely any existing setting in which to play your show, what would that place be?

SW There’s a particular old theater in Brooklyn: the BAM Harvey Theater. It feels like it’s falling apart; it’s a very old room, so it has that kind of classic, Fabergé egg feeling when you go inside. When you walk up to the balcony you’re not quite sure if you’re going to fall over or whether your seat is actually going to hold you. So there’s something kind of unstable about it. It feels like a barn but has a more theatrical feeling as well. That seems perfect.

TF I’ve always thought that you’re more likely to encounter a portal to a completely other plane through a hole in a stage. Stages have more holes than anywhere else. You go to a graveyard and they dig holes everywhere; there are manholes all over the city—but they’re purposeful. On stages they’re never on purpose. I would say at least one out of five stages I go on has some kind of hole.

SW Plus, stages have reverberations in them. With a cello, or any kind of wooden instrument, the wood picks up the vibrations, it resonates with the player’s body in a different way. You can hear how the sound is an echo of the person who owned the cello before you, and then over time the cello begins to adapt to the new person’s way of playing. I think that stages are that way, too; there are vibrations of all these different people who have put sound into the place, and there are ghosts in the floor.

TF Along the same lines, I’ve always wanted to sleep on a waterbed. Not every night, but once. I’m wondering if somebody could make a water stage; rubber on top and water inside. I guess this brings us back to circuses?

SW There’s this show, La Veillée des Abysses by James Thiérrée who is a . . . I don’t know what to call him; he’s kind of mix between a dancer, a comedian, a magician, and a circus performer, and he happens to be the grandson of Charlie Chaplin. But there is one scene from his show that I’ve been obsessed with on YouTube where he’s got huge, very, very long pieces of fabric, and offstage there’s a really big fan, and you see him “swimming.” There’s someone that he lays on, but the person is underneath the fabric so you can’t tell what’s actually going on. And he’s swimming over this blowing fabric that’s very water-like.

TF So he has a water stage.

SW Yes. There’s something about water and flying and wind—that kind of lightness—and also about water that bypasses something in our consciousness. We used shadow puppets recently during the last song in the set. People’s reaction to seeing the shadow of a boat and blue water through a scrim was . . . it caused an immediate childlike response in them.

TF How do you feel about breaking the rules of rock ‘n’ roll and encouraging childish sentiments instead of neo-childish sentiments? I think, “We are the new children, we are young adults, we’re assholes,” is the attitude that’s encouraged at a lot of rock shows; it’s a very self-conscious, performatively edgy way of behaving. Are you encouraging something like an antidote to rock ‘n’ roll cliché?

SW I relate to the angst of rock. Especially when I was younger, I had so much frustration and not very many ways to express anger. Going to rock shows was really helpful because I could just punch the air and be around that kind of energy. In a way you could say that it’s expressing something negative, but that season in my life was about having a place to exercise these frustrations. So, I went to see Dinosaur Jr., Catherine Wheel, Rubberbullet. Now there’s a bit of that punk spirit in me left, but for me beauty is the antidote to despair, and so is finding hope through stories. Stories can bypass our constant analyzing; our analytical nature is suddenly usurped when a puppet shows up on stage and transports people back to when they were six years old. There’s something lovely and freeing about that. I hope people can access the same thing through music, and they do, but I find that the puppet theatrics allow people to jump into this other world—they experience emotions they usually don’t allow themselves to feel. That’s what puppets can do for me, anyway.

rest of article/interview here

Album Cover of the Week

Shark Remixes Vol 3 - Roberto C. Lange
Cover art by David Stith

Buy here

1. Manzanas
2. Queen
3. Estar Pluto
4. The Zircon Prince Edit
5. Brightest Outro

Dark Was the night Live

If you enjoyed the album, I know i did, then wouldn't you want to see some of the songs performed live?

An exclusive live event to commemorate the newest Red Hot release featuring:
David Byrne
Dirty Projectors
Feist
My Brighest Diamond
The National
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
Dave Sitek
Bon Iver
Plus more to be announced.


Radio City for tickets here

The Decemberists

05.20 Oakland, CA: Fox Theatre
05.21 Eugene, OR: McDonald Theater
05.24 Missoula, MT: Wilma Theatre
05.25 Denver, CO: Fillmore Auditorium
05.27 Kansas City, MO: Uptown Theater
05.29 Milwaukee, WI: Riverside Theater
05.31 St. Louis, MO: The Pageant
06.01 Columbus, OH: Lifestyle Communities Pavilion
06.03 Atlanta, GA: Tabernacle
06.04 Raleigh, NC: Memorial Auditorium
06.05 Richmond, VA: The National
06.06 Upper Darby, PA: Tower Theatre
06.09 Boston, MA: Radio City Music Hall
06.11-14 Manchester, TN: Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival

DM Smith

Quick Bio from Asthmatic Kitty Records - David Stith has always been pushing his creative limits. Having been raised in a musical family in Buffalo, New York, he grew up with sounds all around him, often slouched in the kitchen interpreting his family’s melodies into line drawings and poetry. Though a gifted musician from an early age, he remained silent for a long time, instead choosing to express himself through poetry and the visual arts—excelling in many modes of artistic expression. He’s wandered from Buffalo to Rochester to Brooklyn, where he became friends with Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond. In small technical ways (by providing a computer with ProTools, a space to record demos, and gallons of coffee to accompany wandering conversations about her songs), David began helping her record her album Bring Me The Workhorse. Shara was astounded to learn that he also possessed an innate talent for working in the studio.


By spending more and more time recording, David began to rekindle his passion for his first familial love: music. Something within him caught alight, and he began spending countless days stored away in his bedroom, sketching folk songs with epic electronic gestures, grappling with his inner demons, trying to capture his observations of the world with his music. His sustained period of silence, of gestation, of contemplation, was finally over. He continued cultivating his musical compositions privately—until one day Shara introduced David to his doppelganger, Sufjan Stevens, co-operator of Asthmatic Kitty Records. After hearing only two of his songs, Asthmatic Kitty coaxed David to record an album of his own for release.

read more at above link

Listen to Entire Album here


DM Stith- Pity Dance from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.


DM Stith- Isaac's Song from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.