Remember Teddy Ruxpin? Remember wishing that he worked with tapes other than his own so that you could have an adorable bear singing Black Sabbath or “Weird Al” Yankovic? Well, now you can live out those fantasies through Cobra Digital’s Party Animal Dancing Pet Speakers.
Lincoln Eddy
Fund This: Short film inspired by The Shining, Dexter, Repulsion, scored by Christina Vantzou
There are films and directors whose influence cannot be overstated. Stanley Kubrick and The Shining, subjects of a recent documentary, are two of these. Roman Polanski, criminal or not, is another. These, among others, are some of the works that influenced artists Christina Vantzou and Kristina Ianatchkova regarding their upcoming short film Going Backwards to Recover That Which Was Left Behind.
MP3 Premiere: Everybody hates indie-rock outfit Weatherbox in “Big News”
Weatherbox: Sainthood Reps / Weatherbox split 7″ (Top Shelf, 5/7/13)
“Big News”
California’s Weatherbox has been through the ringer. Member turnover was at one point so dangerously high that you would be forgiven for thinking the band was done. However, since 2011’s Follow the Rattle of the Afghan Guitar, the band has kept a steady lineup, producing indie rock with a touch of rawness about it.
Flayed: Nader Sadek to premiere his Living Flesh exhibit, complete with human leather, in NYC
Nader Sadek: Living Flesh (2/27/13)
Nader Sadek: “Of This Flesh” (live)
If you remember correctly, back when Nader Sadek released his Living Flesh album, we mentioned that one very special edition released in the future would come with a piece of Sadek’s flesh turned into leather.
Well, the future is April 22, 2013.
Han Solo…in carbonite…on a guitar
Ben Moody, front-man of We Are the Fallen and formerly of Evanescence (we know; you don’t have to say it), is a bit of a Star Wars fan. So when friends were shopping around for a proper gift and came across the work of customizer Travis Stevens and his Millennium Falcon guitar, they knew they had to commission a custom piece.
Dessa, Dan Deacon, Sharon Van Etten, Brokeback to play Chicago’s free downtown concert series
Chicago has announced the artists for its free summer concert series in Millennium Park, Downtown Sound and Loops and Variations. Clear your Mondays and Thursdays.
Meshuggah’s “I Am Colossus” video is a twitchy, soul-removing nightmare
Meshuggah: Koloss (Nuclear Blast, 3/27/12)
It’s been a little over a year since the blast of atomic rage that is Meshuggah’s Koloss, and things haven’t slowed down for the band. In addition to touring at home and overseas, the band has dropped a video for “I Am Colossus,” and it’s a reality-twisting piece of stop-motion animation that simultaneously evokes Tim Burton and Tool‘s entire music-video catalog.
A murderous MacGuffin in Efterklang’s “The Ghost” video
Efterklang: Piramida (4AD, 9/25/12)
Having recorded Piramida in a ghost town, its perhaps unsurprising that one of the tracks on Efterklang‘s fourth album was entitled “The Ghost.” A droning composition with bells, brass, and an echoing percussive background, it’s reminiscent of some of the more ambient work of groups like Underworld and Radiohead, which is to say that it’s unique and beautiful.
Finntroll probably isn’t the band you want detailing your car (watch the video for “Haxbrygd”)
Finntroll: Blodsvept (Century Media, 3/26/13)
Finnish folk- and cinema-metal band Finntroll resembles nothing so much as rejects from Jim Henson’s Labyrinth by way of the local steampunk convention. All floppy ears, goggles, and horns, the band has six albums of dark, cartoonish metal featuring accordions, brass, and more.