Kidz in the Hall: The Grizzly Man (Two Weeks sample)
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Track:The Grizzly Man
It seemed like just a matter of time before Grizzly Bear’s precious Veckatimest was mined for sampling purposes. Unless I missed something, looks like Kidz in the Hall won the race to be first.As part of a free EP coming out on Dec. 8 — Professional Leisure Tour — Naledge and Double-O tap the fairly [...]
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Blakroc (feat. Mos Def): On the Vista
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From the previously discussed Blakroc project, which pairs the Black Keys with assorted hip-hop artists, the first leaked track has made its way around the Internets. On the Vista features Mos Def rhyming over an intermittent wailing guitar line before he closes the track on some poetry-style talk-singing. The album is due out on Nov. [...]
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Quarterbar: Sweet Burger Sandwich
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Artist:Quarterbar
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Album:Sweet Burger Sandwich
Quarterbar, one-half of the excellent electronic/hip-hop duo Meanest Man Contest, has put together a new EP of beats culled from 2003-05. Straight vintage, I tell you.The eight-track collection is called Sweet Burger Sandwich, and Sneakmove is hosting the whole damn thing – individual mp3s and a zip file of the EP.Quarterbar | Flips InZIP: Quarterbar [...]
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k-os: I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman (video)
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In February, I posted a k-os video for the song 4 3 2 1 — a response to his friend Feist’s 1, 2, 3, 4 — and mentioned the album it comes from, Yes!, would be released in March. But no, Yes! didn’t come out in March.Instead, it’ll be released on Tuesday in the U.S. [...]
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The Twilight Sad on Laundromatinee
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Between losing our iMac for a day (hard drive kicked the bucket) and Dreamhost acting wonky (again), everyone got a break from the blog today. Fear not: I’m back.I’m catching up on this one, too: The Twilight Sad recorded a couple songs for a Laundromatinee - the sister session site of My Old Kentucky Blog [...]
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Incoming: St. Vincent, Feb. 11 (Rhythm Room)
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Not that Modified will be hosting touring acts beyond December - we’ve been discussing that a little - but St. Vincent had outgrown the venue anyway. Her past two shows there, including a stop in May, were packed - shoulder-to-shoulder with mostly sweaty/excitable young males, all of them surely professing their love for Annie Clark. [...]
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Modified memories: Stephen Chilton (Psyko Steve)
Modified Arts, an all-ages venue in downtown Phoenix that has been a staple of the local music scene and a vital venue for touring indie bands for nearly 11 years, will change direction and transform into a space focused mostly on art. (Read more here and here.) As such, I am collecting thoughts and [...]
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I Used to Love H.E.R.: Van Pierszalowski (Port O’Brien)
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The 44th installment of I Used to Love H.E.R., a series in which artists/bloggers/writers discuss their most essential or favorite hip-hop albums and songs, comes from singer Van Pierszalowski of Oakland-based indie-folk band Port O’Brien, which just wrapped up a seven-week tour in support of its excellent 2009 album Threadbare. Having talked to Pierszalowski at [...]
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Mayer Hawthorne on NPR’s World Cafe
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Just a guess, but I’ve probably spilled more ink on Mayer Hawthorne than any other artist this year. I can’t help it - the modern Motown-style soul on his debut A Strange Arrangement is a refreshing change of pace, an album sure to elbow its way into my year-end favorites list.Hawthorne and his band, the [...]
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Modified memories: David Jensen (Art for Starters)
Modified Arts, an all-ages venue in downtown Phoenix that has been a staple of the local music scene and a vital venue for touring indie bands for nearly 11 years, will change direction and transform into a space focused mostly on art. (Read more here and here.) As such, I am collecting thoughts and [...]
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Del the Funky Homosapien: Lyrics to Go 2009
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Artist:Del the Funky Homosapien
If I were to take part in my own feature, I Used to Love H.E.R., and write a little something about my favorite hip-hop album, the choice is pretty easy: Midnight Marauders by A Tribe Called Quest. At a time when I was devouring so much hip-hop, Midnight Marauders was the pinnacle, a classic that [...]
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Port O’Brien on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic
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Artist:Port O’Brien
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Album:Threadbare
Though I foolishly overlooked Port O’Brien’s 2007 album All We Could Do Was Sing (I’m making up for that now), I’m happy to have spent plenty of time with this year’s excellent Threadbare.The Oakland-based band closed a tour run with Sea Wolf on Friday at a sold-out Modified in Phoenix, and Port O’Brien brought a [...]
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Blakroc: Webisode Week 7 feat. Q-Tip
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The release of Blakroc – the hip-hop collaboration project of the Black Keys – will be released Nov. 27 (that’s Black Friday), and I get the feeling it’s going to be like a modern-day Judgment Night soundtrack, which really was a trailblazer (don’t laugh … I still have it on cassette). With a lineup that [...]
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Famous L. Renfroe: Children
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Can’t tell you much about Famous L. Renfroe, other than a few basic facts: He recorded this record in 1968, providing pretty much every sound save the drums and excellent back-up vocals, and released a limited run of records on his own private press. Beyond that, not much is certain, other than obvious: This record [...]
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Incoming: Rob Dickinson, Dec. 18
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It’s been a little more than four years since former Catherine Wheel frontman Rob Dickinson released his solo debut, Fresh Wine for the Horses, but he’s starting to stir – perhaps a sign that some new material could be on the way.This year, he released a cover of the Smiths’ Please, Please, Please Let Me [...]
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Dfactor: Shake It
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Phoenix rocker Dfactor is one busy guy. In addition to ceaselessly recording lo-fi power pop, he maintains a hyper-active blog, Waved Rumor, where he details everything pop-culture, occasionally detouring to deliver charming, curmudgeonly rants about kids at shows paying more attention to their cell phones than the gig. Like his lyrics, everything he does is blindingly [...]
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Sea Wolf: Wicked Blood (video)
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Alex Brown Church brings Sea Wolf to Modified on Friday, a day before Halloween, which makes this new video for Wicked Blood – the leadoff track on the album White Water, White Bloom – all the more timely. Delivered in black-and-white, the visuals play out like some beauty and the beast tale, set against the [...]
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Kurt Vile: Freak Train (video)
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Though I spent the better part of Tuesday’s Kurt Vile show at Modified lamenting my habitual inability to remember earplugs, I couldn’t help but be pulled in by the lo-fi psych-rock of Vile & the Violators.The songs, mostly from his 2009 LP Childish Prodigy, went from loud to louder – riding a crescendo of feedback [...]
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Weezer: Live in San Diego, 2001
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I came across this excellent bootleg last week, which finds power-poppers Weezer at a pivotal time in their musical evolution: Following the extended hiatus that befell the band after the commercial failure of Pinkerton, this show features the band blasting out old favorites and debuting songs from the soon-to-be-released Green Album, live in 2001 to a [...]
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