Months in the making and years in the waiting, ALARM Magazine is back! We’ve been quiet on the publishing end since our release of Chromatic: The Crossroads of Color and Music last year, but we’re happy to announce the bimonthly return of the mag, now with an increased focus on rock-’n’-roll culture and lifestyle.
Review: Yawn’s Happy Tears EP
Yawn: Happy Tears (Feel Trip, 7/24/12)
“Ganymede”
Chicago indie-psych-pop upstart Yawn gained popularity in just a few short years after a self-produced EP found its way to the ears of some booking agents at SXSW. Though the band only had a handful of live local sets under its belt, its successful showcase in Austin garnered praise and enthusiasm from unsuspecting attendees, eventually leading to attention from Pitchfork and NME. The band finally released its first full-length, Open Season, last summer, and has since toured with Mates of State and The Kooks. (And, of course, it was featured in Chromatic: The Crossroads of Color and Music.)
Video: Off!’s “Borrow and Bomb” / “I Got News for You”
Last month, we shared the first installment of Off!‘s video trilogy with “Cracked,” a humorous glimpse into competitive sign-spinning. Now enjoy the final chapters: a double video for “Borrow and Bomb” and “I Got News for You.”
Review: Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra’s Reel to Reel
Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra: Reel to Reel (Ubiquity, 7/17/12)
“BoomWack”
What would a month be without another release from über-instrumentalist Shawn Lee? Okay — his releases aren’t quite monthly, but with his Tabla Rock release in January, this “cine-funk” installment, and next week’s self-evidently themed Synthesizers in Space — not to mention another upcoming album with AM — 2012 is shaping up to be the year of the (guy in the) tiger (mask).
Review: Moonrise Kingdom soundtrack
Various artists: Moonrise Kingdom Original Soundtrack (ABKCO, 5/22/12)
Alexandre Desplat: “The Heroic Weather-Conditions of the Universe, Part 1: A Veiled Mist”
Alexandre Desplat: “The Heroic Weather-Conditions of the Universe, Part 1: A Veiled Mist”
Classical and country/western, as genres of music, are about as polar opposite as they get. For director Wes Anderson and music supervisor Randall Poster, though, they make perfect sense to combine in a film. In Moonrise Kingdom, Anderon’s first film since Fantastic Mr. Fox, the director who’s so obsessed with the eccentric and eclectic situates the work of classical composer Benjamin Britten side by side with Hank Williams, with the addition of Alexandre Desplat’s subtle suite.