Music

Hopscotch Festival 2012

Hopscotch Festival 2012 lineup revealed

Some big names in independent music will roll through Raleigh, NC this September 6-8 for The Independent Weekly’s third annual Hopscotch Music Festival, with 170+ bands joining headliners The Roots, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Built to Spill.

Battles

Review: Battles’ Dross Glop

Battles: Dross Glop (Warp, 4/17/12)

“Rolls Bayce (Hudson Mohawke Remix)”

As a companion to last year’s Gloss Drop, the inversely titled Dross Glop consists entirely of Battles’ Gloss Drop music reworked by the likes of Hudson Mohawke, The Alchemist, Kode9, Shabazz Palaces, Gang Gang Dance, Gui Boratto, and more. Given the band’s unpredictable creative trajectory to this point, it’s no surprise that the distinctive electro-rock trio has released something to induce head-scratching among existing fans and electronica fans alike.

Fear Factory

Video: Fear Factory’s The Industrialist album teaser

Fear Factory: The IndustrialistFear Factory: The Industrialist (Candlelight, 6/5/12)

LA-based industrial-metal quartet Fear Factory is releasing its aptly titled new album, The Industrialist, June 5 via Candlelight Records.

For you impatient metal-heads out there, below is an official trailer for the album, followed by a taste of its first single, “Recharger.” Enjoy.

Lee Fields

Video: Lee Fields & The Expressions’ “You’re the Kind of Girl”

Lee Fields: Faithful ManLee Fields & the Expressions: Faithful Man (Truth & Soul, 3/13/12)

Forty-three years into his career, soul veteran Lee Fields is still going strong, as evidenced by last month’s release of Faithful Man — his second for Brooklyn’s Truth & Soul Records — and his current tour, which included dates at SXSW.

Backed by his band The Expressions, Faithful Man is a modern twist on a classic, paying homage to the time-honored traditions of funk and soul upon which Fields built his career. Here’s his new video for “You’re the Kind of Girl.”

Ryan Cecil Smith: SF Supplementary File #2

Zine Scene: Ryan Cecil Smith’s SF Supplementary File

Ryan Cecil SmithRyan Cecil Smith: SF Supplementary File (Closed Caption)

Space-age mystery, kitschy thrills, and futuristic adventure — what more could the discerning zine reader want? SF Supplementary File is the brainchild of Ryan Cecil Smith, an American-born cartoonist living and working in Nishinomiya, Japan.

The first SF and SF Supplementary File were part of the same coming-of-age saga in space, a mini-comic throwback to the Golden Age of pulp science fiction. SF Supplementary File #2, however, goes even further; the zine is “a hand-drawn, hand-written reproduction from Matsumoto Leiji’s 1979 science-fiction manga series Queen Emeraldas in three parts.” This piece of the ’70s, lovingly updated, offers the nostalgic thrill of cross-cultural and cross-generational kitsch reconfigured into a jewel-toned, hand-assembled, risograph-printed zine.