Music

Here’s your chance to win 2 vip passes to POP Montreal. This year’s gonna be a super fantastic thrill ride featuring such luminous figures as Burt Bacharach, Irma Thomas, The Persuasions, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Dodos, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Ratatat, Akron/Family, Socalled, Sam Shalabi, Julie Doiron and a lot more including: Kids Pop, Art Pop, Film Pop, our Symposium and other POPs that you need to be in Montreal to uncover.

In a festival coup, Roadburn welcomes heavy metal innovators Neurosis in hosting their first version of “Beyond the Pale,” outside of the United States for the 2009 festival. According to Steven Von Till of Neurosis, “The mission of Beyond the Pale is for us to honor the spirit and power of sound with people that we feel are kindred spirits. We want to bring together a diverse group of people who push the envelope, are truly original, and have that unspeakable fire and inspiration flowing through their art.” Therefore, for the last day of next year’s festival taking place Saturday, April 25th, Neurosis will have complete freedom in choosing the bands and organizing the lineup for each of the stages at next year’s festival. Always an arbiter and supporter of underground art and music, Neurosis is prime to organize a truly unique experience for Roadburn 2009.

The folkronic hop moniker that Talkdemonic once proclaimed as an accurate description of their music seems altogether forgotten on their third and latest album, Eyes at Half Mast (Arena Rock). The album, brimming with everything from analog synths, banjos, fuzz violas, and rhodes is more indicative of atmospheric, instrumental chamber pop than the quieter and more subdued moments on the band’s previous two albums, 2004’s Mutinysunshine (Lucky Sunshine) and 2006’s Beat Romantic (Arena Rock). Indeed, whereas Mutinysunshine was a rougher representation of the band’s experimentation with folk instruments, electronic beats, and a hip hop ethos and Beat Romantic was a sweeping, yet softer take on the duo’s original sound, Eyes at Half Mast is fueled by a range of different sounds and instruments to create something fresh.

Following last year’s debut, Harmonic Tremors (Hydrahead Records), Caleb Scofield (Cave In/Old Man Gloom) and his moniker Zozobra have returned with their latest Bird of Prey (Hydrahead Records).

Following in the post-metal footsteps of his other side project, Old Man Gloom, Scofield is joined by Isis drummer Aaron Harris, who lends his hand both behind the mixing board and the sticks.

After releasing two smash hits in the UK, “Thou Shalt Always Kill” and “Beat That My Heart Skipped” the self-proclaimed new faces of “outsider pop” (aka Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip) have recently inked a deal with Sage Francis’ Strange Famous Records for the US release of their debut album Angles. Angles, which contains both of the hits mentioned above, will hit stores Sept. 2 and will be backed by the album’s first US single, “Look For The Woman” (MP3 below).

According to The Chemical Brothers, their music provided the soundtrack to countless memories in your life since the group’s conception in 1993. Although that claim might be questionable to some, for others, the sentiment is true, and it’s only fitting then that the group  give their fans (and even their detractors) the opportunity to help collaborate on the sort of user-generated content that currently drives the music world online.

A review of some of the latest 3G music-playing cell phones to arrive in our office, the Nokia N78, the LG Chocolate 3, the Samsung Instinct, and the LG VU.

After selling out their previous tour “When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint Your City Gold” Atmosphere are getting ready to head back out on another huge tour.

They’ve already announced over 20 dates (see below) and will be bringing Abstract Rude, DJ Rare Groove, and Blueprint out with them. It’s unconfirmed if they’ll be touring with that massive rain stick from the “Lemons” tour. One can only hope it gets lost somewhere along the way.

Ticket sales begin August 6th.

Tobacco (aka one of the members of the trip-pop unit Black Moth Super Rainbow), has just completed his new solo album, titled Fucked Up Friends . Like BMSR, Tobacco records strangely-crafted pop music, which can be either danceable or unsettlingly eerie, depending on your mood. Employing analog synths and tape machines, Tobacco presents an eclectic, cryptic debut album.

Our favorite poet / actor / musician Saul Williams (cover story, ALARM Magazine #20) played Lollapalooza today, complete with face makeup, feathers (which he also distributed with great success to the crowd), a DJ, a keyboard player (wearing a cape), and a guitar player in a reflective silver suit (note to guitar player: next time you play an outdoor show in the middle of summer in Chicago, you might want to lose the tin-foil-hot-dog-oven look).

Lollapalooza is in full force today, with lines going three blocks strong. Today is completely sold out, with 75,000 attendees expected ($80 one-day tickets are still available for Saturday and Sunday). We’ve done you a favor and sorted out all of Day One’s artists into this handy guide. Stay tuned for more updates.