UPCOMING ALBUM RELEASES: JANUARY 2009
JANUARY 13:
Late Of The Pier– Fantasy Black Channel
Animal Collective– Merriweather Post Pavilion
Bon Iver-Blood Bank
Franz Ferdinand– Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
Von Bondies– Love, Hate, and Then There’s You
Morrissey– Years of Refusal
FEBRUARY 17:
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – The Century of Self
MARCH 17:
MSTRKRFT– Fist Of God
MARCH 24:
The Decemberists– Hazards Of Love
DISCOSALT BREAKS DOWN 2008’s CROP OF NYC BANDS TO WATCH
Bands on our radar :
Bear Hands-Straightforward post-punk indie.
Yeasayer-Psych-experimental dance party. If you haven’t heard them, please leave your cave immediately and rejoin society.
A Place to Bury Strangers-Dark Atmospheric noise-pop against a tension-wracked Joy Division-meets-Ministry, Jesus-Mary Chain backdrop.
Blonde Acid Cult-Brooklyn swagger Rock& Roll Party band ala Jet, Stone Roses.
Crystal Stilts-Cheap instruments, Moody Stipped Down Garage Rock. Ian Curtis-y doom with sunshine-y shop Assistants style pop.
Deer Tick-Indie Rock disguised as Alt- Country. Hank Williams/Van Morrison meets Bright Eyes.
Dinowalrus-Noise Rock but with some semblance of a pop song structure.
Gang Gang Dance-Experimental distillations of world music through an urban No-Wave-y filter.
MGMT-Psych Disco, new-wave synth-pop, and early 90s Britpop. Already too big for this list.
Francis & the Lights-Prince-esc falsetto vocals and James Brown Dance moves…from a white guy named Francis. What? Youtube “the top”.
Free Blood-Electro-Punk Trio. Part Timbaland, part Excepter, part Hot Chip.
KaiserCartel-Laid back pop duo. Think early Cowboy Junkies.
La Otracina-Drug Drenched Psych/Space Rock.
O’Death–Southern hoedown-core rock from Brooklyn
White Sun, Cutter, Drunk Driver-Lo-fi noise.
Bottle Up and Go-Two-man raw blues. Think Black Keys.
The Pains of Being Pure at heart–Knowingly naive or emotionally complex indie-pop. I’m not sure. Clear My Bloody Valentine influences.
Takka Takka-Suburban NYC indie rock. Phoenix meets Counting Crows acoustic Rock.
Telepathe-Post-Futuresex pop. Experimental Hippie Chanting, Guitar-like synths and electronic percussion. TV on the Radio… but way more alien.
The Lisps-Indie-pop outta da Bronx. Working on a sci-fi musical based on a Civil War soldier that wants to write science fiction.
Titus Andronicus-Violent Indie Rock. Conor Oberst screaming from the bowels of hell.
Violens-Shin-like Indie Pop if they took an enormous amount of happy drugs with the 60’s West Coast Elektra set.
Vivian Girls-All girl 60’s California-based garage-rock with bangs.
Dirty Projectors-West African Dance band meets Math Rock. An odd mix of Phish, The Police and Deerhoof reworking a concept- a song by song “reimagining” of Black Flag’s Damaged.
LAST NEW YEARS EVE SHOW!: LEONARD STREET KNITTING FACTORY
The Knitting Factory will soon be moving from its current Leonard Street location to the old Luna Lounge in Williamsburg and the venue will have its last Manhattan night show EVER on New Year’s Eve this year! Akron/Family curates the New Year’s Eve event! Featuring performances by Deerhoof, Akron/Family, Dirty Projectors, Deer Tick, Megafaun, DJ Thanksgiving Brown, rumors of Crystal Stilts and tons more – a full-club farewell to the Leonard Street Knit! Tix went on sale last week and are $35.00. Awesome bands, drinks, Local Discosalt celebs, and making out when the ball drops. Already got mine tix, see you there.
New York, NY NY 10013
United States
Show on MapWeb: www.knittingfactory.com
http://ny.knittingfactory.com/show.php?event_id=118103
Tel: (212) 219-3032
JOY DIVISION DOCUMENTARY AT THE GRASSLANDS GALLERY IN BROOKLYN
The GlassLands Gallery, a community arts space in Williamsburg Brooklyn, that hosts live music, dance parties, special events, lectures and ongoing interactive art projects will be showing the Joy Division Documentary on Tuesday, December 30th. @ 9PM.
Brooklyn, NY, USA 11211
http://www.myspace.com/theglasslands
DISCOSALT, NOW SMALLER
Discosalt now offers Baby and Childrens size t-shirts for the little ones, really small adults and slim fitters. Just shoot us an email at info@discosalt.com and we can customize any size to order. Featured above is Annabel rocking a discosalt 100% organic green baby t-shirt. Kids love us.
All discosalt t-shirts are made by way of hand made silk screening and all silk screening is done by discosalt artists in the East Village of New York City. All t-shirts are printed on American Apparel’s softest smoothest best looking t-shirt available anywhere. 100% fine jersey cotton, combed for softness and comfort. Want to learn more about our shirts, just click on the MERCH section.
MORE MR. BRAINWASH
More Brainwash along Houston Street…
want more? Check out Mr. Brainwash’s webs.
>http://www.mrbrainwash.com/
I’D LIKE TO PROPOSE A TOAST
These little smiling toast stencils keep appearing along the Bowery. I first saw one on Bleeker between Bowery and Lafayette and since last weekend, they seem to have multiplied. Why? What’s the significance? I don’t know! Any information will be forthcoming.
WHAT’S PAM GLEW BAKING?
Smells good…
Pam Glew joins Stella Dore’s cosy stable of artists this month. No, not the cookies…thats Stella “Doro” silly. Even better than those swiss fudge treats, this is Dore…say it with me… Dor-E…and add the accent, make it sound French if you want.
Stella Dore are about to open their new super-cool permanent gallery space in Rivington Street, London and are celebrating the launch with a group show ‘Make Over’. They showcase artists like: Eine, Pure Evil, Cept, Modern Toss, Cat Johnson, Chu, Eelus, I-Lib, Shok 1, Kid Acne, Rugman, Tinsel Edwards, Twinkle Troughton and now Discosalts very own Pam Glew (www.pamglew.co.uk). Remember these…there will be a quiz later.
The show opens on Thursday 27th November 2008 with DJ’s, drinks, the whole shebang so keep this all important night free, it’s going kick off this year’s Christmas celebrations.
Stella Dore
47 Rivington Street, London (Old Street Tube, exit 3)
EC2A 3DQ
Thursday 27th Nov 6-9 pm
PLEASE EMAIL : stella@stelladore.com to attend the Private View & for buyers enquirie
SOME JOKES ARE SHORT AND ELEGANT, LIKE A MATHEMATICAL PROOF OR A MIDGET IN A BALLGOWN
STAND UP: DEMETRI MARTIN
Make Reservations Now At UCBTheatre.com > > >
Make Reservations Now At UCBTheatre.com > > >
Demetri Martin (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) comes to the UCB Theatre in NY for one night only to perform some stand-up comedy.
UCB Theatre | 307 W. 26th Street | NYC 10011 | 212-366-9176
THE CULT OF MR. BRAINWASH
The Lower East side gets brainwashed… stumble down Bowery from the East Village towards the LES, eyes peeled for some new giant billboard sized wheat paste-ups with a sarcastic look at pop culture and politics, complements of eccentric French filmaker/graftiti artist, Mr. Brainwash aka MBW. Want more? Check out:
Mr. Brainwash
Also keep on the lookout for Mr. Brainwash the the T-shirt, Mr. Brainwash the Coloring Book, Mr. Brainwash the Lunch box, Mr. Brainwash the Breakfast Cereal, Mr. Brainwash the Flame Thrower, oh and Mr. Brainwash the doll…the kids love that one.
OLD GLORY: PAM GLEW SOLO SHOW
For more info on Pam Glew and her work, Check out Discosalt Artist Section: http://www.discosalt/artists/pamglew
or for purchasing Pam’s work check out the Discosalt Merch section under “Art”: http://www.discosalt/merch
AWARENESS, VIDEO AND MUSIC COLLIDE
This here is 2fer. Two of the discosalts favorite webs unite at Santos Party House next Friday 10/24
UNCENSOREDINTERVIEW.COM is a really cool site that gives your favorite bands and artists an outlet to voice their opinion on a variety of random topics. You can check out some videos or keep a conversation going on their blog…or ours. We are always here for you too.
WITNESS uses video and online technologies to expose human rights violations. The videos on this site can empower people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change.
Come out, drag a toe for a few hours and show some support.
IMPROVE YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE AT FRESH FACTORY
No plans Friday night? Feeling abandoned? under-appreciated? neglected? She aint gonna email you… so instead go check out “Quality of Life” @ Factory Fresh and commiserate with some art themes you can relate to. Its an exhibit of urban landscape photography that examines marginalized, forgotten, and neglected spaces in the city…like your bed and your apartment, as well as the graffiti, garbage, decay and people found within these spaces…kind of like your apartment again, except, only more so. You can get out, make some talk and meet some darbs that are as stimulating as you are. The Opening reception starts at 6 and runs until October 31. 1063 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. Just take the L to Morgan.
For more details, check out: http://www.factoryfresh.net/index.html
THINKING GLOBALLY ABOUT SUSTAINABLE LIVING THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY
(Photographs and captions all courtesy of Yann Arthus-Bertrand.)
PAM GLEW: NEW PRINT AND FLAGS AT AFFORDABLE ART FAIR LONDON
This year at AAF London, Discosalt artist, Pam Glew, will be showing 4 new flag works with Art-file and a very new screen print will be launched titled ‘Shock Awakening’ with Artizan Editions.
The Fair is open Thursday 23 – Sunday 26 October, Battersea Park, London, http://www.affordableartfair.com/
Opening Times
Wednesday 22 Private View 5.30pm – 9.30pm
Thursday 23 11.00am – 5.30pm
Drinks Reception 5.30pm – 9.30pm
Friday 24 11.00am – 6.00pm
Saturday 25 11.00am – 6.00pm
Sunday 26 11.00am – 6.00pm
Artizan Editions can be found here: http://www.artizaneditions.co.uk
Art-file can be found here: http://www.art-file.co.uk
If you would like FREE tickets (usually £25) for the preview evening on Wednesday 22nd or drinks reception Thursday 23rd October, please contact : sally.gimson@btconnect.com asap
For more info and how to get there, please visit: http://www.affordableartfair.com
VAMPIRE WEEKEND: VAMPIRE WEEKEND
[rating:2]
Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
Label: Xl Recordings
Release date: January 2008
Vampire Weekend, hot sh*t band of the moment, turn in 11 fun and inspired songs in just 34 minutes on their virgin effort. Inspired by what, you ask? Mostly by Paul Simon, with a taste of the Police for effect. And what is wrong with a fresh and interesting Graceland-era Paul Simon record for 2007? Nothing really, unless you don’t like Paul Simon…or derivative music. The remarkable thing about Vampire Weekend is that when they want to sound like the heavily African rhythm inspired Paul Simon, they REALLY sound like Paul Simon (“Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”), and when they want to sound like some early Police, they REALLY sound like some early Police.
The most inspired stuff from what is destined to be the ubiqitous music of the next 6 months or so is also destined to be the most overlooked. “I Stand Corrected” is a fairly awesome bit of early 80’s pop, and “Walcott” is a straighforward bit of piano and drums driven indie pop (and with an unexpected and totally welcome baroque string section), but these are not the songs of our futures. The songs that will come to dominate the parties, get togethers, barbeques and idle time listening to the PA waiting for the next band to come on are the Sting channeling “A-Punk” and the Paul Simon meets that one college town jam band funk of “One (Blake’s Got A New Face)” and “The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance.” Not ideal, but things could be decidedly worse.
John Whitaker
Discollective
BELLMER DOLLS: LIVE AT CSV THEATER
With the bad comes the good, I guess. A few weeks ago I went to that church-y place on Delancy and Suffolk. Remember that place? Yeah, I went on that date there that one time. So this time, again I find myself slightly tipsy and far from home late at night. Going to see
this band called the Bellmer Dolls with a good friend of mine and her sister. I love these girls, they are just darlings, and both of them have lovely boyfriends. So I trust them when they take me to a concert that I hadn’t heard of. This is really rather exciting. Apparently the
first band was excellent. Preacher and the Knife is unsigned, but word on the street is that they are really phenomenal live, so I am going to give them a little shout out. Based on myspace and their website, I
sort of doubt that they are my taste, but who knows, maybe I will have a change of Heart. Needless to say, I missed them.
So this brings us to the Bellmer Dolls, who were unspeakably awful. They were a parody of themselves, shaking and grooving to their screechy melody-less crap. Dressed in all black, and breathing heavily
into the microphone, I sort of felt bad for the lead singer. But sort of not, maybe this just isn’t my bag, y’know? So I look over at my very polite, sweet friend Anna, and she is staring intently at them,
sort of in the same way you’d watch a child’s piano recital. So the first song passes, followed by the second, equally shitty “song”. Meanwhile, I am casting furtive glances at my ladies and their men, waiting for someone else to identify this accurately: this is a
graceful exit scenario. Unfortunately this is a seated show, and the seats are in a bit of a balcony, so we can’t really get out subtlety. Meanwhile, my friends seem to think this is perfectly acceptable music. FUUUUUUCK. I can’t escape. My ears are just burning with cruel irony. Suddenly Ashley (Anna’s sister) leans over and breathes into my ear, “oh my god i’m sorry” They are horrible. I breathe a lighter, happier breath. Anna turns and agrees. So we do just that: escape to have another drink. Oh Anna and Ashley, you came through. Thank GOD.
Lesson learned: don’t go to a show w/o listening to the band first.
<3 The Elephant
IRON AND WINE: THE SHEPHERD’S DOG
Iron and Wine: The Shepherd’s Dog
Label: Sub Pop
Release date: September 2007
I guess the thing that struck me most about The Shepherd’s Dog wasn’t the studio production (slick) or the effects pedals (lots of wah wah) or the plugged in-ness of it (Sam Beam went electric a long time ago). No, I guess it wasn’t the funk song (?), or the honky tonkin’ piano (“The Devil Never Sleeps”) or the lyrical imagery (Jesus, dogs, and birds are still hangin around in these songs). Yeah, I think that struck me most about The Shepherd’s Dog was the addition of the ethereal 10 cc-esque background vocals on “Innocent Bones.” Not that the album is not striking, both in it’s adherence to the traditional Iron & Wine formula and it’s stark change from said formula, but the angelic “ooohhh”s, they really stopped me in my tracks.
And what of the songs? Is it so much to NOT expect Sam Beam to be channeling Curtis Mayfield on “Wolves (Song of the Shepherd’s Dog)”? To NOT expect to hear a song that sounds exactly like it belongs right in the middle of the Iron & Wine Songbook (“Reserrection Fern”), but could possibly one of the prettiest songs of the year and definitely one of the most beautiful Sam Beam has ever written? The addition of the varietal of sounds & instruments to the sonic palette of Iron & Wine is certainly unexpected, but is surprisingly welcome. The storybook Americana that exists within the world of Iron & Wine is still populated with grandmas, star crossed lovers, sinners, saints, gamblers, harlots, Jesus, and, yes, lots of dogs. The songs still have lots of room to breathe, and the vocals still barely sound as if they rise above a whisper, but the song structures are no longer rooted in an Americana structure.
What differs, very pleasingly differs, is the literal jump from the rootsy folk-country foundation that Beam’s songs are usually built upon, this jump happening at the beginning of the record. Opener “Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car” begins with a very typical Iron & Wine acoustic groove, but sounds as if it’s being broadcast from an AM radio. When the strings (and drums & psychedelic guitars) kick in, the difference is apparent, and by the time the record ends (with the absolutely gorgeous waltz “Flightless Bird, American Mouth,”), the difference is welcome. By retaining what made Iron & Wine unique, and by embracing the studio and it’s many wonders (and musical instruments) and his singular vision & voice towards what a song means and can do, Sam Beam has crafted one of his best albums and has taken a step into uncharted territory. I literally have no idea what comes next for this band, and that’s exciting. Not knowing what the new Iron & Wine album is going to sound like is both pleasing and unexpected, and that newfound unpredicability makes The Shepherd’s Dog a giant step forward.
-John Whitaker
NEW GRAFFLE + PAM GLEW SCREEN PRINTS
Graffle have just released a new Pam Glew screen print ‘Window to the World’
Paper Size: 105cm x 70.5cm
Ink image area: 73cm x 51cm
Edition: 30
Signed & Dated bottom right
Titled & numbered bottom left
Published: 2008
Price: £150
Measuring 105cm (1 metre) x 70.5 cm (it is the exact same size paper as the Crime Scene print). Its a 2 colour signed and numbered edition of 30.
It is available exclusively from the Graffle website: