Dream-pop duo Beach House has been touring nonstop since releasing its acclaimed album Teen Dream in early 2010. In February of 2011, the band will return to the USA to play the last of its Teen Dream shows; get your presale tickets and limited-edition sweatshirt here. ALARM foreign correspondent / contributing photographer Wallo Villacorta recently captured these appropriately hazy images at the band’s show at Kaufleuten in Zurich, Switzerland.
Though her music might not immediately suggest it, adventuresome pop singer Liz Janes has a particular fondness for noise and drone music.
Janes entrenched herself in the vibrant Olympia music scene before joining Sufjan Stevens and Asthmatic Kitty for albums like Done Gone Fire (2002) and Poison & Snakes (2004). Those albums put a unique spin on classic Americana and blues, but her upcoming album, Say Goodbye (Asthmatic Kitty, 12/7/10), is a pop/soul record built on Janes’ inescapably experimental roots.
Here, in a personal recount of her musical history, her songwriting theory rings especially true: “You can choose any two points to be A and B, and there is always a way to connect the two.”
Liz Janes: “I Don’t Believe” (Say Goodbye, Asthmatic Kitty, 12/7/10)
Liz Janes: “I Don’t Believe” (Say Goodbye, Asthmatic Kitty, 12/7/10)
Drones Are Forever
by Liz Janes
I was a hippy living in a trailer in the coniferous rain forest of Olympia, Washington. Eventually, my endless meandering through the woods brought me into the little downtown. It was there that I stumbled upon the gentle and brilliant rock-poet solo performances of Mirah, Phil Elvrum, and Karl Blau; the kinder-pop of Jenny Jenkins and Super Duo; the pop punk of The Need; the hot, spastic, urgent noise of The Nervous System; and the shrieking, sexy soul of Old Time Relijun.
This sparked for me a new interest in culture. This K Records / Olympia scene was really vibrant and producing truly original and interesting art. So as I was drawn further into culture, and out of the woods, it just got better and better.
Originally formed by 14 Baltimore artists as a short-term artist cooperative, Current Gallery is now in its second home and is currently functioning as a non-profit gallery and artist studio. The space came to life in 2004, after the initial group of young artists received a grant from the city of Baltimore for a proposal to productively utilize an unoccupied downtown building.
Grinderman: “Heathen Child”
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Grinderman, the debauched incarnation of Nick Cave and key members of his Bad Seeds, is currently on tour in the US, with dates in Australia and England scheduled for early 2011. Contributing photographer Drew Reynolds attended the band’s recent show in Chicago at the Riviera and captured the band’s blues-rock swagger in high-contrast grayscale.
Check out the ALARM’s recent interview with Grinderman and profile of its new album, Grinderman 2.
Every Friday, The Metal Examiner delves metal’s endless depths to present the genre’s most important and exciting albums.
The Secret: Solve Et Coagula (Southern Lord, 9/28/10)
The Secret: “Double Slaughter”
The Secret: “Double Slaughter”
When Goodfellow Records folded this year, Italian grindcore/black-metal quartet The Secret found itself momentarily without a label following a pair of raging, nihilism-fueled full-length albums. Those releases suggested (if not insisted) that the group had something new to bring to European metal’s increasingly crowded table.
In the wake of the former label’s dissolution (and the band’s countless lineup changes since), The Secret attempts to regain its footing on Solve Et Coagula, its first outing for Southern Lord and an album almost workmanlike in its sound, structure, and unwavering metal attack.
Ben Goldberg‘s infatuation with the clarinet inspired him to combine traditional Jewish klezmer music with jazz to create a wild, modern sound — but his work with the adventurous Tin Hat chamber ensemble might be his most challenging yet.
Moses Avalon is one of the nation’s leading music-business consultants and artists’-rights advocates and is the author of a top-selling music business reference, Confessions of a Record Producer. More of his articles can be found at www.mosesavalon.com/blog.
It must be tough to be Roger Faxon right now. In early November, he wakes up to find that not only has his sugar daddy, Terra Firma, lost in court to its lender Citigroup, but many bloggers and journalists (me included) had written an epitaph to EMI, the company he runs, essentially throwing dirt on the grave of the major label before the coroner’s report is signed. Tired of pulling employees off the ledge of the building, Faxon fired back.
In an odd move, rather than call a press conference to publicly diffuse all the negative speculations, which would have opened his comments to journalists’ scrutiny, Faxon opted for a private memo to EMI staff. In essence, he called the press irresponsible and implied that the blogosphere should bugger off.
