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"Payable On Death Skull" By Matt Templeton
If showing support for art created by emerging independent artists is something you do from time to time; then head over to talenthouse.com and choose your favorite logo design for P.O.D.
Leah NashStephen Malkmus and The Jicks collaborate with Beck on the new Mirror Traffic.
August 14, 2011
While many '90s bands have reunited in recent years, it's important to note that Pavement's Stephen Malkmus never truly went away. Easy as it's been to pine for Pavement, it's also easy to have forgotten that Malkmus continues to evolve and experiment, toying with synthesizers and electronics and with shape-shifting prog-rock, both solo and with his band The Jicks. So, while Pavement fans may have to wait a little longer (if not forever) for new songs following last year's reunion, Malkmus' latest Jicks record, Mirror Traffic, is among his best post-Pavement offerings to date. It's certainly the most mature.
That's a credit to Malkmus and fellow "slacker" iconoclast Beck — who produced the album — because the former's music is not always an easy listen. While his songs are often impeccably arranged with catchy, sing-song melodies, there's always been an off-kilter quality to his music, making it feel like it's about to fall apart. Chord progressions don't resolve where you want them to, he regularly changes keys mid-stream — often only for a few bars — and there's enough dissonance and squawks of guitar noise to give the songs a sneering edge.
Malkmus' lyrics are constructed to be elusive. His oblique stream-of-consciousness songs, with their sardonic wit and hyper-literate descriptions of mundane observations, ask willing fans to parse the lyrics themselves. Malkmus writes lines as much for their encrypted meanings as for the way the words sound rhythmically against his abrupt melodies and messy guitar riffs.
Still, while Mirror Traffic's punchy urgency has the feeling of being loose and unruly, Malkmus and his Jicks are deceivingly turn-on-a-dime tight as a band, thanks to stellar musicianship from Mike Clark, Joanna Bolme and especially Janet Weiss, whose drums give every song a throttling pulse. (Weiss has since left the band to form WILD FLAG.)
Malkmus has said that he and The Jicks were looking for a like-minded ally like Beck for Mirror Traffic. But of all the artists with whom Beck has collaborated recently (Charlotte Gainsbourg, Thurston Moore), here he leaves the smallest musical footprint. Beck practically sits back and lets Malkmus and The Jicks play; there are very few of the production flourishes that have become Beck's calling card, though he likely played a small part in reining in Malkmus' jammier side, and in sweetening the songs along the way. If anything, Beck's influence shows in Mirror Traffic's sonic focus, even as the album presents a variety of microstyles: fuzzy garage rockers like "Tune Grief" and "Tigers," intimate tunes like the solemn folk song "No One Is (As I Are Be)," or the warbling, buzzed-out ballad "Asking Price."
One of the major overarching themes of Mirror Traffic seems to be a reflexive coming to terms with nostalgia and the boredom of adulthood. But "Forever 28" also references a crumbling relationship — "I can see the mystery of you and me will never quite add up / No one is your perfect fit, I do not believe in that s—-" — while "All Over Gently" includes the kiss-off line, "Stay if you want, but don't forget we're through."
Mirror Traffic, out Aug. 23, is about as brutally forward and honest as Malkmus has ever sounded, revealing a new side to the enigmatic songwriter. But it's also an album with plenty of hooks and lyrical surprises.
NPR Media Player -
They are the perfect solution for anyone in need of a short ride through Lexington while downtown bar hopping,
to and from "the block" on Euclid Ave, or just home at the end of the night.
Amplify’d from smoketownproductions.com
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Smoketown Productions recording studio is located in the Germantown, or Smoketown area, of Louisville. STP was formed in November 2008 when sound engineer Kevin Nordstrom began working with studio manager Matt Thomasson, between the two, they hold over 30 years experience in live stage production & digital and analog recording. |
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“The end result of recording at Smoketown Productions was amazing, the quality and care given to each layer made the entire process not only efficient and thorough but fun. Anytime that you can mix business and pleasure and end up with brilliant results is something you cannot take for granted. The professionalism of both Kevin and Matt was a breath of fresh air and a nice welcome to the typical recording experience, I would highly recommend this studio and plan on recording there again very soon.” |
Amplify’d from underlyingthemes.com
Amplify’d from phish.com
On Record Store Day, Phish will release TWO SOUNDCHECKS, a Limited Edition 7-inch vinyl record that will be available exclusively at participating independently owned record stores across the country. TWO SOUNDCHECKS marks the band's first ever live vinyl release and their first release in conjunction with Record Store Day.
This 7-inch is limited to 2,000 hand-numbered copies, and once they are gone they are gone. The A-Side is an instrumental jam culled from the soundcheck of Phish's third show of a sold out three-night stand at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA. The B-Side is an especially exotic soundcheck from Hartford, CT in 2009 (with just Trey on bass, and Fish on drums). This Limited Edition 7-inch was created exclusively for Record Store Day.
TWO SOUNDCHECKS will be available in stores only beginning April 16th, 2011. For a complete list of participating record stores, please click here.
Genre: Drama
In theaters: March 4th, 2011
The Music Never Stopped, based on the case study "The Last Hippie" by Dr. Oliver Sacks, M.D. (Awakenings), chronicles the journey of a father and son adjusting to cerebral trauma and a lifetime of missed opportunities. Through the music that embodied the generation gap of the 1960s, and working with music therapist Dianne Daly (Ormond), the film weaves the heartwarming progress of Henry (Simmons) and Gabriel (Pucci).
