Even though we were all doing that brand new dance called “The Loco-Motion” twenty-two years ago, the Australian bombshell responsible for the craze, Kylie Minogue, is only now having her first full-blown U.S. tour. Minogue exploded back onto the club scene with her 2001 hit “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” which is as hard to shake as the title suggests. She has a huge and loyal fan-base outside of the U.S. which is sure to expand now that her “For You For Me Tour,” which will make stops in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Toronto, finally kicked off in Oakland last week. She will play three nights at the Hammerstein Ballroom starting this weekend. Today’s jam is not only, in my opinion, her best song, but this video is cool enough to watch again and again.
Maybe it was the recent “Oral History of 2 Tone” article in Spin, or the fact that this week was a tough one for a lot of people (from what I’ve heard, at least), but I’m taking a cue from The Specials and heading out after work tonight and not coming home until tomorrow morning. Sláinte, friends.
With the release of his first album, For Emma, Forever Ago, Justin Vernon, the lead singer of Bon Iver, solidified himself as one of those singers whose soft haunting vocals are hard to forget. Since then, his music has become increasingly experimental.
On the Blood Bank EP, released earlier this year, his sound had a more ambient, boundless quality and he is taking it even further on his collaboration with post-rock band Collections of Colonies of Bees. Together, Wisconsinites Jon Mueller, Chris Rosenau, Jim Schoenecker, Daniel Spack, Justin Vernon, and Thomas Wincek, form Volcano Choir and they just released a short album of experimental pop, Unmap, in late September. On the album, Vernon’s voice is the most distinct, but it is one of many, both falsetto and full, that are harmonized and layered on top of one another. The music on Unmap is infused with a sense of limitless possibility partly because these tracks aren’t really traditional songs, composed of verses and choruses, and words tied to meanings. The music is more about the harmonies, layers, and textures of sound that they are creating. This makes sense for a collaboration between Vernon and the members of Collections of Colonies of Bees, who were described by Pitchfork as having “proven to be the rare instrumental rock band with ideas about how to keep things both surprising and musical …” For more evidence of that listen to “Flocks IV.”
Today’s jam, “Island, IS”, the first single off the album, which they have available for download today through their label Jagjaguwar records, is probably the most conventional song, on the album but, in my opinion, it’s the best.
Later this week, Science magazine will report the finding of the fossil remains of a “woman” who lived and died at the dawn of humanity in Ethiopia. “Ardi,” who lived some 4.4 million years ago, seems to be the earliest known ancestral human fossil yet (sorry, Lucy!). But while Ardi did walk on two legs on the ground, the species also clambered about on four legs in the trees (as evidenced by her opposable big toe), meaning that Ardi is essentially an ape caught in the act of becoming human, straddling both worlds. More will be up on Thursday at this site for the special edition of Science that will reveal the findings.
In a way, The Slew, a project conceived of and executed by Kid Koala and Dynomite D, is sort of in this no-man’s land. Not exactly turntable electronica, not exactly rock, The Slew’s record 100% is partly an attempt by Kid Koala, aka Eric San, to gain some cred for turntables in the rock universe. As he told Wired.com in an email interview recently, “I think rock kids who hate turntables may listen to The Slew and get over their preconceptions pretty quickly.”
The album is definitley a lesson in dope production and rocking hard, and you can download the whole 100% album free from Kid Koala’s official website.
The Slew is playing at the Music Hall of Williamsburg tonight, and from what we’ve heard, this live show is going to be off the hook and REALLY LOUD. For the tour, Kid Koala will be joined by DJ P-Love on 6 turntables and backed by a live band comprised of the former members of Wolfmother’s rhythm section – Chris Ross and Myles Heskett – on bass and drum duties. They just posted some pics from the show in San Francisco on September 25 if you want a preview of what this might look like live, or you can check out the video below for the track “It’s All Over” from 100%, which appropriately begins: “Back in the beginning, when the ape became a man…”
Sunny Day Real Estate @ Terminal 5 (photo courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan)
I had to wait until really late to write today’s jam, in anticipation of posting a video of Sunny Day Real Estate playing live on Jimmy Fallon. Ever since news of their reunion with all four original members broke back in June, almost everyone that I know has been eagerly anticipating a chance to see them play again. Luckily, the Seattle band that basically invented emo did not disappoint, delivering a stellar performance of their song “Seven,” from one of my favorite albums of all time and their first back in 1994, Diary.
Here’s the video of the Jimmy Fallon performance from last night.
Sunny Day Real Estate – Seven (live on Jimmy Fallon):
And if you’re a huge SDRE fan like me, you’ll definitely also want to check out Brooklyn Vegan’s piece on the Terminal 5 show they played last night after the Fallon taping. There are tons of photos and great videos of “Seven,” “47,” “Shadows,” and “In Circles” !! And while you’re at it, you might want to also pick up copies of the remastered Diary and LP2 records from Sub Pop, which include some bonus tracks and new liner notes.
Almost every morning on the way to the Nevins stop on the 2/3/4/5, I pass by this totally out of place building that looks like it was transplanted from some village in the Swiss Alps:
But when you take a closer look at the details, it just gets even weirder:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
How is that tree growing out of the chimney? I guess Jeff Goldblum had it right in Jurassic Park, when his character Dr. Ian Malcolm muses: “I’m simply saying that life, uh… finds a way.”
Also, what is the deal with that cat? Whoever owns this building is an odd one.
East Village to Brooklyn 
bk Art – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Almost every morning on the way to the Nevins stop on the 2/3/4/5, I pass by this totally out of place building that looks like it was transplanted from some village in the Swiss Alps:
But when you take a closer look at the details, it just gets even weirder:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
How is that tree growing out of the chimney? I guess Jeff Goldblum had it right in Jurassic Park, when his character Dr. Ian Malcolm muses: “I’m simply saying that life, uh… finds a way.”
Also, what is the deal with that cat? Whoever owns this building is an odd one.
-Drew
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