Posts Tagged ‘phoenix’
3/8/10 News Briefs: Sparklehorse, Radiohead, Justin Bieber, Band of Horses and Sofia Coppola + Phoenix
Monday, March 8th, 2010
Mark Linkous, better known as indie/alt-country artist Sparklehorse, committed suicide on Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn. Linkous reportedly shot himself in the heart in an alley outside a friend’s home, according to his manager, Shelby Meade. Linkous leaves behind him a legacy that spans 14 years. He debuted as Sparklehorse with 1996’s critically lauded Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, and followed up with three more albums. While touring his first album, Linkous collapsed after an overdose on Valium and was pronounced dead. He was eventually revived and spent the next six months in a wheelchair, but still managed to perform. Most recently, he worked with Danger Mouse and filmmaker David Lynch on an album called Dark Night of the Soul, which was shelved after legal problems last year (it was reported last week that the album is now set to see a proper release). Mark Linkous was 47.
Radiohead do not have a new album coming out. NME.com reports that an email detailing the band’s new album is completely false. “Most of it is made up and there is no album or album title,” a spokesperson told the site.
Aziz Ansari, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner and TV On the Radio’s David Sitek have declared war on Justin Bieber in a new Funny Or Die video. In the spoof, Ansari plays his obnoxious comedian character Raaaaaaaandy, who claims the 16-year-old pop star shot him, stole the song “Baby” from him and threatened to “take a dump” on him. A dramatic re-enactment shows Bieber (played by Josh Simpson) shooting in the studio with Raaaaaaaandy, as he records his “Baby Baby.” Bieber whips out a gun, shoots Raaaaaaaandy and hilarity ensues! Watch the video here.
Band of Horses have revealed details about their new album. Infinite Arms will be released on May 18th by three, count ‘em, three labels: Brown Records, Fat Possum and Columbia! So, an indie, a major indie and a major, got it.
Sofia Coppola is reportedly working on a new film based on Phoenix’s “Love Like A Sunset.” Coppola’s baby daddy/Phoenix lead singer Thomas Mars told The New York Times that the filmmaker is working on something new, using the two-part song, taken from the band’s 2009 album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, as inspiration. Mars didn’t elaborate as to whether it was a feature film or music video, but the possibilities are endless!
Tags: Aziz Ansari, Band of Horse, Funny Or Die, Justin Bieber, Mark Linkous, NME.com, phoenix, Radiohead, Sofia Coppola, Sparklehorse
Posted in News, The New Music | 3 Comments »
2/1/10 News briefs: Broken Social Scene, F**ked Up, Panda Bear, Beach House and Phoenix
Monday, February 1st, 2010
Broken Social Scene have announced they’ll release their first album in five years on May 4th. Though it’s still untitled, Kevin Drew told Pitchfork that the album will be mostly a six-piece version of the band with guest appearances by Feist, Emily Haines, Amy Millan, Sebastien Grainger, Pavement’s Spiral Stairs and John McEntire from Tortoise, who also acted as producer. You can read the interview here.
Last week we told you that the beef between Fucked Up and Sonic Youth was not actually real, but that the Polaris Prize winners had a new song called “Cranking To Sonic Youth.” Well, you can now download that song for free on a new mixtape from guitarist and Young Governor frontman Ben Cook. Grab it from his No Guv No Luv blog.
Panda Bear (aka Noah Lennox) has revealed more details about his massively anticipated new album. Tomboy (yep, that’s what it’s called) will be out some time in September.
We love the new Beach House album, Teen Dream, so to hear that they performed four songs from it for the new Daytrotter Session is beautiful news to us.
And congratulations to Phoenix, who took home the only real Grammy Award that matters: Best Alternative Music Album. Okay, they’re all pretty meaningless, but the fact that they managed to win seems sweet on some level.
Tags: Beach House, Ben Cook, broken social scene, Daytrotter Session, Fucked Up, Grammy Awards, Kevin Drew, Panda Bear, phoenix, Pitchfork, Teen Dream, Young Governor
Posted in News, The New Music | 1 Comment »
An Interview with Phoenix
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
Although it took them nearly ten years, the record-buying public finally woke up and realized the greatness of Parisian pop outfit Phoenix. It shouldn’t have taken so long, but if one of their four albums was destined to make a difference it was 2009’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. One of the most acclaimed albums of last year, WAP oozed bubbly rave-ups like “1901” and “Lisztomania,” but also an intricate two-part, (mostly) instrumental prog number called “Love Like A Sunset.”
When the band came to Toronto they played the Phoenix, which was obviously a good icebreaker. But we quickly learned that they have a rather diastrous relationship with the city - they almost collectively died here a few years back. Imagine that: we wouldn’t have ever heard Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix and they wouldn’t have shown us that bands can sound good on Saturday Night Live.
Anyhoo, here is our conversation with Deck D’Arcy and Christian Mazzalai.
Part 3: On how unexpected their SNL performance was and why they’re such a fantastic live band now.
- Cam Lindsay
Tags: 1901, Lisztomania, phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Posted in The New Music, Video | No Comments »
12/16/09 News briefs: Morrissey, Sofia Coppola + Thomas Mars, Banjo Or Freakout, Andrew W.K. and Wolf Parade
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Morrissey has lashed out at his record label and called his latest b-sides collection Swords a “meek disaster.” In a post on fan site True To You, Moz said “It was proposed and accepted as a budget-priced CD, yet emerged everywhere as the most expensive CD in the racks. It was poorly distributed and didn’t stand a chance, and ranks as the lowest chart position I’ve ever encountered.” No surprises then that he’s parted with the label.
Indie music/film’s perfect couple Sofia Coppola and Thomas Mars of Phoenix have announced they’re expecting another baby. Mars told Chicago’s WXRT confirmed girlfriend Coppola was pregnant, adding he’s already decided on some womb music. “I heard the story that if you play Bach, [babies in the womb] get smarter.” The couple have a 3-year-old daughter named Romy.
Alessio Natalizia is giving away a free Christmas album under his Banjo Or Freakout moniker. The London-based shoegazer recorded most of the nine-song album in ten days earlier this month. You can grab it over at his official blog.
Andrew W.K. will finally release his highly sought after album, Close Calls With Brick Walls. Previously only available in Japan and Korea (a limited vinyl-only run was released here by Load Records), the hard partier will release the album on February 22nd in the UK (no North American date has been announced). To make it even sweeter, he’ll tack on a b-sides album called Mother Of Mankind.
Wolf Parade/Sunset Rubdown/Swan Lake member Spencer Krug has released a new EP under the name Moonface. His label Secretly Canadian is offering Dreamland EP: marimba and shit-drums for the price of “pay-what-you-can” on its website. Meanwhile, Krug’s bandmate Arlen Thompson has informed the band’s fansite that the new Wolf Parade “record is going well” and that they’re “trying to have the record finished by early spring.”
Tags: Alessio Natalizia, andrew wk, Banjo Or Freakout, Moonface, Morrissey, phoenix, Sofia Coppola, Spencer Krug, Thomas Mars, Wolf Parade
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12/4/09 News briefs: Andrew W.K., Phoenix, Animal Collective, Spacemen 3 and Of Montreal
Friday, December 4th, 2009
Andrew W.K. has contributed to a re-imagining of The Simpsons’ famous theme tune. Andrew played piano and threw in some scatting over top of some production by hip-hop crew People Under The Stairs. Their version will air on January 14th, the final episode of the show’s 20th season.
Phoenix are the stars of three new videos featuring them playing around various spots in Paris. Shot by Vincent Moon (The National, R.E.M., All Tomorrow’s Parties), the clips show the band stripping down their flashy studio sound to a couple of acoustics, a rinky-dink Casio keyboard and Thomas Mars’ unwavering voice.
Animal Collective will premiere their movie with director Daniel Perez at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The official description of ODDSAC is “an earthy, psychedelic experimental narrative infused with the band, Animal Collective’s aural and musical sensibilities.” Basically what we’d want in such an endeavour.
Jason Pierce has said he’s “not interested” in ever reuniting his former band Spacemen 3. About his notorious old bandmate Pete “Sonic Boom” Kember, Mr. Spaceman said, “The split was so acrimonious and my view of him hasn’t changed.”
The other day we mentioned how Beyonce and Of Montreal are interested in working with each other. Well, it appears Kevin Barnes has already jumped at the opportunity and begun working on a song for Ms. Knowles. On Twitter, he posted that the song will be called “He’sMyPartyDrug” and it “sounds like The Time meets Four Tet.” Ooh!
Tags: andrew wk, animal collective, Beyonce, Daniel Perez, He'sMyPartyDrug, Jason Pierce, Kevin Barnes, ODDSAC, Of Montreal, People Under The Stairs, Pete “Sonic Boom” Kember, phoenix, Spacemen 3, Sundance Film Festival, The Simpsons, Twitter, Vincent Moon
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10/2/09 News briefs: Phoenix, LCD Soundsystem, Ramones, Libertines and Pitchfork
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
Phoenix have a remix album coming out called Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Remix Album). The tracklisting has been released and there’s plenty of good lookin’ contributors, like Passion Pit, The Soft Pack, Friendly Fires, YACHT, Chairlift, and of course, Animal Collective.
We can expect a new album from LCD Soundsystem in March. The band’s boss James Murphy made the announcement on the wall of their Facebook page, of all places. He wrote: “record: march. tour: after.”
Fox Searchlight is in talks to bring a Ramones’ biopic to the screen. The film would be based on I Slept With Joey Ramone, the memoir written by brother Mickey Leigh and longtime punk writer and Ramones chronicler Legs McNeil. Sounds great, but didn’t they tell the band’s complete history in the End Of The Century doc?
Carl Barat has informed the NME that he is far too busy to reform The Libertines next year. Instead, it will happen “when it needs to happen,” which could be in 2011. Will anyone care at that point?
Pitchfork has completed its triumphant run through of its Top 200 Albums Of The 2000s, which begins with Jay Reatard’s Blood Visions and ends with Radiohead’s Kid A. We hope we didn’t ruin anything for you…
Tags: LCD Soundsystem, Libertines, phoenix, Pitchfork, Ramones
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Earworm: Phoenix “Love Like A Sunset (Animal Collective Remix - Deakin’s Jam”
Thursday, October 1st, 2009
Who: Phoenix; Animal Collective
What: Parisians that sculpt pop into a stylish, meticulous and intelligent product… that you can dance to!; Psychedelic powerhouse often recognized as the most influential band in the universe for pushing the boundaries of what pop music can be.
Sounds like: The choppy guitars of The Strokes, the seamless musicianship of Steely Dan and the synthesized nuances of Art of Noise - but French; Brian Eno’s sprawling mix of pop and ambient, The Flaming Lips’ bombastic take on psychedelia and pop, and well, the Animal Collective.
RIYL: Umm… Phoenix and Animal Collective.
Need to know: Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix and Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion are both real contenders for 2009’s best album of the year for many critics and fans alike. You can grab more remixes of Phoenix’s stuff over at their official journal, including one by Devendra Banhart, another by A Fight For Love & 25 Hours A Day and yourself! Also check out the very cool Friendly Fires’ remix of “Fences.” And if you’d like all of the remixes in one nice, tidy package, well, Phoenix will be releasing a 15-track companion to their album appropriately titled Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Remix Collection) digitally on October 13th.
Track: “Love Like A Sunset” is arguably the standout from Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. The original is a two-part epic that stretches to nearly eight minutes, which winds down with Thomas Mars’ soft vocal ushering in a warm, humming coda. But AC along with “former” member Deakin have transformed it into a creation of their own. Soaked in layers of voice, reverb, delay, pedal effects, looping synths and scattered polyrhythms, the elements converge in the final minute to produce a dizzying, kaleidoscopic collage.
Buy: It’s free. You can download it here. Or wait two weeks until (Remix Collection) drops.
- Cam Lindsay
Tags: animal collective, love like a sunset, phoenix
Posted in Earworm, The New Music | No Comments »
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