Jagjaguwar just released the first single from Bon Iver’s side project Volcano Choir. “Island, IS” is off of their upcoming album Unmap, which will be released on September 22nd. The track has an “Eminence Front” vibe.
MP3: Volcano Choir – Island, IS
The Black Crowes rock the Eddie Money/Donna Summer influenced drug themed “I Ain’t Hiding” – I think it’s solid. Purists will most likely hate it, but it’s time for the Crowes to mix things up.
“NYC delivers, that’s a guarantee.”
The Black Crowes
Album: Before the Frost…Until the Freeze (Pre-Order)
Label: Silver Arrow and Megaforce Records
MP3: The Black Crowes – I Ain’t Hiding
Cornershop
Album: Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast (Buy)
Label: 101 Distribution
MP3: Cornershop – Who Fingered Rock ‘n’ Roll
Editor Note: It could be argued that The Crowes song sounds like a mix of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” and Greg Kihn Band’s “Our Love’s In Jeopardy.”
Tenacious D is playing Largo at the Coronet (capacity 280) on Friday, August 28th. Tickets are $28 and can be purchased by calling (310) 855-0350. There’s only a few tickets left.
Dark Meat
Rollo & Grady Recommended New Releases – Tuesday, August 11th
Reigning Sound – Love and Curses (Buy)
Label: In the Red Records
MP3: Reigning Sound – Stick Up for Me
Balmorhea – All Is Wild, All Is Silent: Remixes (Buy)
Label: Western Vinyl
MP3: Balmorhea – Night In the Draw (Jacaszek Remix)
Pitchfork unveiled the 2nd single (“Cone of Light”) from The Almighty Defenders forthcoming gospel record. The super-group consists of members of the Black Lips, Mark “BBQ” Sultan and King Khan. The album will be released on 9/22 via Vice. King Khan discussed the record with us in a recent interview.
MP3: The Almighty Defenders – Cone Of Light
Emily Kokal – Image by Dan Monick
Warpaint has an undeniable presence. After one of their live shows or even one listen to their music, you know you’re experiencing something special. Yes, they’ve got God-given talent, and yes they’re beautiful, but they’ve worked hard to get where they are now. The Echo Park based quartet of Emily Kokal (vocals, guitar), Jenny Lee Lindberg (bass, vocals), Theresa Wayman (vocals, guitar) and Josh “Jocelyn” Klinghoffer – have drawn comparisons to Cat Power, Sonic Youth, Mazzy Star and The Slits.
Earlier this year they self-released their debut EP, Exquisite Corpse – which went straight to #1 on Amoeba Records local artists charts. Exquisite Corpse will be re-released worldwide on Los Angeles indie-label Manimal Vinyl next month.
I recently caught up with Emily Kokal by phone to discuss the origins of Warpaint.
R&G: Warpaint has been very active this past year.
Emily: Yeah. It’s been really fun and gradual. It seems like it’s all been right on time. When we’re ready to move forward or we get better, it happens naturally. We did a residency at Spaceland last August, and after that, we started playing a lot more local shows and more shows led to opening slots for bands like Little Joy. It’s been really fun and exciting playing a lot of shows in LA, getting better with each other, writing more songs, and now touring and playing for strangers, which is really nice. We’re so used to playing for all of our friends, which can be a tough crowd when they’ve seen you play 15 times in the same venues. I think you come to know what to expect a little bit, whereas being on the road, you’ve got to deal with different PAs, different crowds and places you’ve never been. You just have to let go, do your best, play your best and not really care. Just find the best way to play with each other no matter what the circumstances are. We’re loving it.
R&G: How important was it to self-release your EP this year?
Emily: It was especially important because we recorded it almost two years ago. It was like being pregnant too long. Getting it out there has been really fun. Releasing something is great, because for so long we were playing shows without any music that you could listen to in your car. Having a product for people to play and listen to has been really good for just raising awareness so people can come see us play live. That, to me, is the best part of what we’re doing right now – the live stuff. Especially because the EP was recorded a while ago. I’m really proud of it and there have been just so many changes. Getting it out there gives us room to make another record and put out what we feel is happening with us now.
R&G: You guys formed in 2004, why did it take so long for Warpaint to release an EP and tour outside of the Los Angeles area?
Emily: We were just learning how to play together and more than having any ambition to really get out there, it was a little bit more innocent and about the process. We all lived together, played music together and wrote songs together – it was about discovering how to write. Everything we did was completely new. When we would write a song, we would be like, “Oh, I can’t believe we just did this.” We jammed on things forever and never wrote – just played. We never really mapped out songs. In fact, we would map out songs and before we ever played shows, they would change like five times because we’d want them to go somewhere else or be more interesting to us. Then, when we started playing shows, that’s when we really had concrete songs. We still change our songs all the time though. It’s hard to keep playing the same songs the same way.
Thom Yorke
Latitude Festival – July 19th, 2009
Henham Park in Southwold, Suffolk UK
Set List:
The Eraser
Weird Fishes/Argpeggi
Atoms For Peace
Harrowdown Hill
Follow Me Around
Everything In Its Right Place
The Present Tense
Cymbal Rush
Black Swan
Videotape
Encore:
There There
True Love Waits
For Full Show Download (Melophobe)
*Thanks Michael
1.) Soundtrack – (500) Days of Summer
2.) Dead Weather – Horehound
3.) Phoenix – Wolfgang Amodeus Phoenix
4.) Maxwell – BLACKsummers’night
5.) Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
6.) Grace Jones – Hurricane
7.) Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
8.) Mos Def – Ecstatic
9.) Fabolous – Loso’s Way
10.) Dirty Projector – Bitte Orca
*Week Ending – 7/27/2009
