Pharmacy Spirits
Teen Challenge
March 2010
Self-Released.
Pharmacy Spirits – Books
Pharmacy Spirits – Just Like Charles
This spring we received a beautiful gift from Nebraska’s Pharmacy Spirits. Following the path carved by their debut EP Every Song Ended In 1994, Teen Challenge stands on the shoulders of giants, and it stands tall. The record somewhat insinuates a contradiction, sharing the name of an evangelical Christian outreach program created in the 1950’s to heal the country’s youth of their addiction to drugs, alcohol, and sexual perversion. Pharmacy Spirits and Teen Challenge explores the expanse between depraved debauchery and outlandish treatment programs; the anxiety of each extreme is encapsulated by the band’s style. Taking a listen to their earlier EP, one recognizes a celebration of British and American new wave and post-punk engaged in fornication with college radio demigods, producing a dance driving vegrandis opus that is ultimately hip.
The observation that sometime in 1994 the music died sells the narrative that the 80’s was a truly significant decade. The lives of such admired artists as The Glove, The Cure, Joy Division, Bauhaus, The Fall, and later bands like the Pixies and Pavement (Slanted and Enchanted, 1992 and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain 1994), all flared and faded by the time 1994’s final sun set. Though this would be only one telling of the story, as many would argue that the few bands who still release albums are alive and well, not to mention, the very existence of Pharmacy Spirits’ seemingly inarguable relevance underscores the fact that many of these bands’ early catalog has never been hotter. These artists though have come through the looking glass marred by the now romanticized experiences of sex, drugs, and death. Enter Teen Challenge.
Piecing together and then articulating the ambient qualities of a record is never easy. The critic is forever the douche bag for ever even considering the use of his vocabulary. Teen Challenge though has a warmth and beauty that is so exquisitely wrought with desperation and exhaustive emotion that it would be difficult to talk about it without reading like a canvas description at the MOMA. Teen Challenge has all that the throw-backs of the modern era could ever hope. The best songs make you want to dance, the rest are just as cool, though the contrast between pulsations such as Books or Just Like Charles and the slow downs like Safety Now only serves to elevate the power and energy of the former. Simply put, Teen Challenge is a beautiful gift that has reified all that we ever loved about the decade of decadence, yet at the same time Pharmacy Spirits has the guts and vision to move beyond a bygone time, through the looking glass, to explore what still counts, what is still relevant. By all measures they have succeeded.
Tour
August 28th 7PM Eclipse Records w/ Dragons Power Up! & tba Minneapolis, Minnesota
August 29th 9PM Vaudeville Mews w/ Gabe Cordova & tba Des Moines, Iowa
September 3rd TBA
September 4th TBA
October 1st 9PM The Cave w/ Gospel Gossip! Northfield, Minnesota
October 2nd 9PM 331 Club w/ Gospel Gossip Minneapolis, Minnesota
Arthur Killroad
The Longest Day of My Life
June 2010
Self Release
I Don’t Eat Syrup, I’m a Man
Life in the Malebolge
Once again I have spent way to much time considering how I should approach a record that is miles away from my cup of tea but one which I have great respect for in terms of song writing and recording. What can you say when a guy simply does what he does really damn well. Arthur Killroad’s music reminds me of a good and dear friend who, even when surrounded by the snobbiest of snobby indie kids, says “I write great pop songs, I can’t help it, and I’m not going to run away from it.” Arthur Killroad, or Mike Petruccelli if you prefer real names, has recently self-released The Longest Day of My Life, a seven track pop-core confection that shamelessly employs nearly every hook in the book producing a record so easy on the ears you almost forget the constricting waistline of your Skinny 511’s™. Killroad’s latest effort has markedly improved on his last venture, which was similarly hook laden, but this time around he has not only kept the lyrics clever, but he has cradled his words in a soundscape of music employing much more than his flicker fast acoustic guitar and gruff impassioned voice.
The addition of a trap set, bass, and the occasional crunchy distorted guitar punch in has added considerable value to his project. This is not to say that his solo recordings are empty, but he has simply written better music that functions in large part due to layers and contrasts. In some ways I think he could go even further. Fine…he can keep the hooks, keep the borderline emo-nouveaux melodies, keep the Ben Folds inflected voice; keep ‘em, but The Longest Day of My Life demonstrates that Killroad knows how to orchestrate, he knows how to arrange and I am interested to hear what comes next. Killroad hails from Athens, Ohio; though I am pretty sure I spied him walking around Alphabet City last year. His myspace mentions that he is on his way to Chicago, a town I am very familiar with. With new plans, a new city, and new friends, he will have a whole new pool of experience from which to draw. Killroad has let it be known that he has turned a corner in his life and his music clearly reflects that.
Worst Case Ontario
Smallcraft
Self Released
Spring 2010
Once again Sam Weisberg and company have sucked our faces back to the summer of 1994. Worst Case Ontario and their fan base may get tired of people saying this, but it is meant in the best possible way. The epic two part guitar melodies juxtaposed with Weisberg’s gas huffing garage rock voice shuttles me back to the sidewalk out of Duffy’s Tavern to listen to the Flaming Lips sing Pilot Can At The Queer Of God. This is the stuff of geniuses; it was a time when you either sided with Pearl Jam or Nirvana; it was a time made for Little Bastard, Semisonic, Sponge, and all the other pop wrought bands that emerged mid-decade, after the descriptive “alternative” no longer referred to otherness or alterity, but rather the very essence of the mainstream. Slacker culture had won out on top. The only thing known about irony came from that damn Alanis Morissette video. This was a time for Mall Rats and Swingers; a time for being money. Tucked within those days of corduroy and flannel, were debates pitting Doolittle against Surfer Rosa, or Slanted and Enchanted against Wowee Zowee. Worst Case Ontario cannot help but evoke these memories. This isn’t the same thing as the Williamsburg music scene or the Bushwick art scene. Who had time for fine things? This band might circulate within the New York music scene, but they do not supplicate the trends of the day.
While their last record Burning Politely was noted to have had the same effect, Worst Case Ontario has made a shorter more concise EP trimming off much of the fat that weighed them down in the past. Like Burning Politely, Smallcraft is both endearing for its saturated musicality of the late 20th century, and inspiring for its display of rawness and earnestness. Particularly salient in this regard are the songs The Complainer and Starve, which encapsulate the very spirit of the band, though the other tracks on the EP are not nearly as interesting. The entirety of the Smallcraft project is displayed a marked improvement. The band has harnessed that space in the garage, that love affair we have with our slacker selves, and has added to it the slightest promise that they aim to be better, that they aim to be more. This is at no time more apparent than the 5:22 minute marker of the concluding track Capricorn every member of the band draws their instrument out full throttle, it is the very second where an otherwise bland track is given life and the band asserts themselves, that they aren’t exactly about not giving a fuck about life. Though the band does need to figure out how to find their sweet spot a little more often….the EP is so far from perfect…it doesn’t need to be perfect.
Midwest Dilemma
Timelines & Tragedies
May 20th 2008
Self Released
Maybe, just maybe, the cooption of music that has largely flown under the radar for the better part of the last decade by soulless corporations can be avoided. The Billboard oriented marketing machines are systematically being dispossessed of their tastemaking power. Major labels, when they can acquire them, harvest artists who have already established a national following from their independent releases. Fortunately for independent artists, a major label contract is no longer seen as always the optimal circumstance for national exposure, sustained industry influence, and market representation. This enervation of the gate keepers has fostered resistance against artistic compromise in nearly all sectors of the music industry. It is evidenced by the emergence of successfully branded indie labels such as Kill Rockstars, Matador, Jagjaguwar, and Saddle Creek; it is evidenced by the successful dislocation of goliath music makers such Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails from their respective and restrictive major label bonds; it is even evidenced by interlabel dealings such as Wilco’s refusal to accommodate Reprise’s critical observations of their seminal release Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which led to their auspicious migration to Nonesuch, a label that ironically along with Reprise are both subsidiaries of the major conglomerate Warner Bros. Records.
Through the democratizing power of the internet, and an increasingly ability for local communities of artists to obtain national exposure, we are beginning to see a number of bands release music independent of any label at all. They are the “self-released” categories of burgeoning blogs everywhere (I love me). Even though their trajectory might lead many bands to any number of market deals, their injection into large scale networks of critical discourse through modest industry connections has clearly signal a shift in the fundamental paradigm of artist ascendancy, and this change it seems will be long lasting and far reaching.
From Omaha, Nebraska Midwest Dilemma has caught my attention with their densely organic and texturally rich debut Timelines & Tragedies. While consisting of as much as 10 core members, Midwest Dilemma recorded in bloom with 23 musicians and vocalists, an indication of the ambitious and highly masterful orchestration of the project. As their name implies Midwest Dilemma’s endeavor is steeped in folksy Americana. It not only seeks to lyrically reconstruct the narrative of songwriter Justin Lamoureux’s family as they traveled from Montreal, Canada to Nebraska in the 19th century, but it also serves to define a musical tradition whose flair and flavor has definite regional roots. The Midwest is an incredibly rich landscape that is colored by the lived experiences of both its colonized and marginalized pre-European inhabitants and the various pioneers and traders that eventually came to form the towns and cities that today spot the vast plains, prairies, and bluffs from Wyoming to Ohio. The resulting constructed music culture is as distinct as the Southern-Gothic genre explored by artists like Iron & Wine and Phosphorescent.
Timelines & Tragedies is a string heavy odyssey that incorporates woodwinds and orchestral percussion to accentuate its epic recollection of the Lamoureux family’s journey. Using stories passed from generation to generation through old letters and family folklore, Lamouroux and company have produced an ethnographic testimonial. The record is more than episodic; it is a beautiful and memorizing patchwork of individual characters that in their juxtaposition recount a shared history of the Midwest. The themes, while specifically engrossed in a particular family’s past, speak as much about how we reflect on all stories of exodus. Timelines & Tragedies does an extraordinary job of telling the immigrant’s story, one that distills the shared experience of severed roots and the dismembering and intimidating shift out of the safe boundaries of home into an uncertain future. Each song moves through time toward the present, allowing for each successive generation to contextualize current predicaments with the preceding memory of past struggle. Timelines & Tragedies is a genealogy; it is thick, articulate, and captivating.
As far as Midwest Dilemma’s place in establishing their own relevance beyond the role storytellers, I applaud their emergence as a sign of the times. With their impending tour toward New York City this fall, I look forward to catching a show. I often wonder when this flood of independence might subside, leaving only the most contrived and commercially viable bands to suffer the dictates of the Billboard hierarchy. Midwest Dilemma gives me hope that we have entered a new age of production, one that like the band’s own inspiration, relies on local communities and personal relationships to direct ascendancy. Timelines & Tragedies is a debut produced with extraordinary talent and ambition, the limits of which may only be bound by the degree of Midwest Dilemma’s interest in telling their story.
Tour
10/17 – Omaha, NE @ PS Collective – 10pm
10/18– Ames, IA @ Ames Progressive Office – 7pm
10/19 – Sheboygan, WI @ Paradigm – 8pm
10/20 – Louisville, KY @ The Space at 6th and Oak – 8pm
10/22 – Muncie, IN @ Village Green Records – 7pm
10/23 – Philadelphia, PA @ Green Line Café – 7pm
10/24 – New York, NY @ Café Vivaldi – 8pm
10/25 – Biddeford, ME @ Hogfarm Studios – 8pm
10/26 – Cambridge (Boston), MA @ Lily Pad – 7pm
10/27 – New York, NY @ The Living Room – 7pm
10/28 – Hamden, CT @ The Space – 8pm
10/29 – Montpelier, VT @ Langdon Street Café – 8pm
10/30 – Buffalo, NY @ Bon Vivant – 8pm
10/31 – Cleveland, OH @ Barking Spider Tavern – 8pm
11/1 – Chicago, IL @ Red Line Tap – 8pm
11/2 – Des Moines, IA @ Vaudeville Mews – 10pm
Heroes & Villains
What Keeps Us From Sleeping at Night
March 21st 2008
Self Released
Ah…a concept album. Do you know how much we love them? On the back of the What Keeps Us… from Montreal’s Heroes & Villains, there is written a story, which goes as follows.
“Bennie is a private detective. Lalo, a long-time friend, writes post cards for a living. The pair originally bonded on a cross-Atlantic flight, over a common interest in actor Val Kilmer. Lalo has had troubles with authorities in his early twenties, in particular due to his involvement in climate change prevention riots. The two compadres always had a plan: they would both move to Dakar at 32, never to turn back. Bennie after investigating endless cheating cases, is convinced the even he is, somewhere deep in his heart of hearts, betraying his lover. Soon enough he’s driving around the city, desperately looking for himself in the exact same vehicle, heading nowhere fast. After months without any news from Bennie, Lalo moves to Dakar.”
Where to begin? Well this is clearly a wishful soundtrack to a movie with dialog and narration written by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson. The story of Bennie and Lalo sounds as if it were thought of right after watching The Royal Tenenbaums. With all sincerity, the concept of this record is contrived and all too familiar to be of interest. As for the music, it is often sloppy with drum fills smashing into chord changes, seeming to barley emerge from the incident in sync. The recording quality nicely borders on lo-fi, but the vocals never quite seem to manage an integrated presence within the songs, the lead guitar is often unpleasantly jerky, and the bass guitar is distracting. That being said, Heroes & Villains have written an intensely catchy pop record that deserves a second look.
As emerging artists go, Heroes & Villains have great potential. While their record might have plenty of flaws, it has a lot of excellent moments as well. The songs are incredibly well written. Their style switches from 60’s pop to Pavement-esque indie rock with ease. There are short instrumentals called segues that break the album up into sections. These little pieces are delicious, even if Segue Uprise is a direct and unmistakable rip off the verse structure of Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes; I mean there could be a law suit here. Other tracks such as A Letter manage to incorporate seamlessly all the elements that at one time or another on the record seem out of place. Sonically unique among the rest of the songs on the record, the best track is called Black Iceberg. In this song Heroes & Villains exhibit the extent of their potential as an indie band with plenty of creativity to expend. What Keeps Us… is a well written and enthusiastic record. Even though Heroes and Villains at times misstep, they clearly know that they are on the right path and headed in the right direction. I’d welcome a dose of indie-pop from these guys any day.
Nine Inch Nails
The Slip
May 5th 2008
The Null Corporation
“thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years – this one’s on me”
Following his self-released instrumental album Ghosts I-IV, Trent Reznor comes at us again, this time reaching out to fans registered at nin.com with an album free for download. The Slip is licensed under creative commons law, which encourages people to use material for any non-commercial purpose as long as the product remains available for creative commons use. It comes less than 3 months after Reznor’s instrumental opus and contains many of the same elements as the 36 track Ghosts set.
Where you stand on the argument of which NIN record is the greatest will largely determine your love or languishing of The Slip. If you are a fan of his goth-industrial, Skinny Puppy influenced early work, then this may be entirely too divergent and you may scoff at it saying, “Nails’ early work was way better.” Clearly Pretty Hate Machine and Broken/Fixed have their charm as groundbreakers. Who didn’t find happiness in slavery or god/money absolutely darling concepts?
The Downward Spiral codified Reznor’s place as a musical genius for the masses. Remember when people remarked after a particularly close listening of Closer, “Did you know that Trent Reznor was a classically trained pianist?” as if this somehow justified your purchase of the record without having any track marks. His place as a true Deus de Electronica came with his collaboration with David Bowie on Earthling and his seminal contribution to David Lynch’s Lost Highway soundtrack, Perfect Drug. Nine Inch Nails’ trajectory culminated in a 4 minute video in which Reznor dressed as a young Alister Crowley. The problem? Perfect Drug is Mr. Reznor’s least favorite thing he has ever done. He believed his path thus far had strayed, and change was in order. I’d have to disagree, but hey- dude’s got his opinion.
Years later, NIN released the indubitable double disc The Fragile. Some fans saw this record as a deviation from his earliest work, pussyfooting around the recording room. Rather than drive an intense electro-beat with raging guitars and vocals, many of the songs were caught up in the atmospherics. Lyrics became secondary, if they appeared at all. Jazz chords replete with syncopated dulcimers and xylophonic movements were sandwiched between chart-zingers like Star Fuckers Inc. Reznor’s work was drawn from more than just his cold black heart. He succeeded in sustaining his visionary status without caricaturing himself; a disappointment that he perhaps felt had occurred during his David Lynch experiment.
Then the 2000’s came complete with 8 years of George W. Bush. Big Brother never seemed so domineering. Reznor’s paranoia would never again get the opportunity to enter ears more receptive. With the rise of indie rock though, NIN had an uphill climb in order to remain relevant. We live in a post-rock era now. In some ways this released him from his obligation of showmanship. If NIN was to continue, it would not be by the grace of Marilyn Manson. Though With Teeth and Year Zero might not be his most defining work, they are certainly more mature and in sync with the state of affairs of rock and roll. His style, like that of Lou Reed and Bowie, seemed to morph without penalty. He set the terms and tone of his relevancy.
Reznor, confident in his ability to maintain an audience, released Ghosts I-IV containing 4 volumes, 2 discs, and 36 lyricless tracks. The album has a movie score like quality. With a record devoted solely to environment and subtlety, Reznor was free to commit to something like never before. With The Fragile, the commercial confines required that his instrumental endeavors be sparse. Now having left Universal, Nine Inch Nails could release a straight up art album with no to answer to but his audience. To our delight, he then released a follow up fewer than 3 months later.
The Slip is an aggressive project that assimilates some of the atmosphere of Ghosts I-IV. Typical of his post Fragile releases, the music is much more instrument oriented. Where his early work was composed of blips and distorted thuds of a synthesized and amplified typewriter, The Slip has is constructed of real snares sounds with recognizable guitar tones. Not to say that it doesn’t have its share of electronic beats, the synthesizer is certainly still employed, but any comparison with tracks prior to 1999 will illustrate the marked distinction in direction.
So it really comes down to your favorite chapter in NIN’s catalogue. The Slip is a great record that offers 10 new compositions to an ever increasing legacy. The best quality of this record the live is its studio feel. For all the fuzz and blown out noise it contains, the acoustics of the drums off the studio wall cut through, and Reznor’s vocals sound as if he is only across the room. The Slip is a very under produced album. It states Reznor’s appreciation for his listeners. The Slip is an invitation into the studio, unmitigated by highly compressed and modulated megabytes. Thanks dude…but Perfect Drug wasn’t that bad!
Other Records
Pretty Hate Machine- 1989
Broken/Fixed- 1992
The Downward Spiral- 1994
The Fragile- 1999
With Teeth- 2005
Year Zero- 2007
Ghosts I–IV- 200
The Slip- 2008
Eagle Seagull
I Hate EPs (EP)
March 11th 2008
Self Released
In terms of record labels, Eagle Seagull is in the process of solidifying the framework in which their second record will be released. While they negotiate the terms of their future, they have been kind enough to put out a li’l som’n som’n for us to chew on, at least until they finish preparing their forthcoming effort The Year of the How-to Book. As is widely known, The Year of the How-To Book was produced by Ryan Hadlock, who has produced for artists such as Blonde Redhead and Steven Malkmus of Pavement. The record is due out sometime this year. Meanwhile, Eagle Seagull has committed to a domestic tour with such acts as Tokyo Police Club and The B-52s, with Europe to follow later in the year. This darling band has a lot to look forward to in the coming months.
I Hate EPs isn’t really an EP, it is a single of epic proportions that serves as a bridge from their debut to their new material. In this sense it is a “true EP” in that it acts an extension of recorded material, rather than a lump of five or six songs released as a sort of mini-album. It contains two songs which will almost certainly be on their upcoming record and three live previously released tracks. With its self-degrading title, I Hate EPs gives us a most vivid taste of what Eagle Seagull is up to. It is worthwhile to listen to every word on this EP. The lyrics are most certainly still emitted from the more noir recesses of our thought processes. They embody the violence that we inflict on one another with our thoughts, our lies, our manipulations, and the perfect memories that have since been pickled in the acerbic tension of current conditions.
I’m Sorry, but I’m Beginning to Hate Your Face is as great as its title. It embodies the romantic ideal that all things worthwhile and all things that are imbued with meaning are tethered to the relationship between those who have loved. This romance is not always pretty, as we often experience the instant karma of our deeds. With a dramatic wish, we want those who have wronged our affection to reap what they have sown. Specifically this song reflects on the love of an empty shell. A façade, a void, something not full, something love is supposed to be. In the end we are left with only our resignation to reason and disparagement of what lacks. The betrayal of love is met with the bitter negotiation of the perfect past moments and the inevitable question of, “How has it come to this?”
“We don’t talk about love; we don’t talk about sex; we don’t talk about dreams; we don’t talk about you; we don’t talk about me; we don’t talk about anything at all.”
What follows is a morose confessional recounting the fucked up duality of our sins and our victimization. I Don’t Know if People Have Hated Me, but I Have Hated People contrasts a person’s transgressions with their claim to be oblivious to what has been trespassed against them; it questions whether that obliviousness entitles them to assume that everyone else is just like them. It is the self discovery that they are in fact a monster. The song is beautifully played to an ominous piano progression interwoven with a most depressed, yet precious violin. The song ends with a surprising appellation of positive character. The narrator submits that they do not know if they have been forgiven but that they have forgiven others, which in context with their obliviousness speaks to the entitlement they feel. We are all monsters. We are all human.
The rest of the tracks, Your Beauty Is a Knife I Turn on My Throat, Heal It/Feel It, and Holy, are live cuts of songs from their debut self-titled record. They are appropriately faster, making them more danceable and aggressive. Carrie’s violin has a noticeably increased and appreciated presence in the live versions. The live recordings capture the band’s energy and attractive style perfectly. Eagle Seagull’s strength comes from their ability to define incommunicable moments. They may not use the most accessible words or the most flattering melodies, but their abstractions are extraordinarily palpable. God damn, this band is good.
Shows
Mar 19th 2008 8:00PM @ Birdy’s w/ Tokyo Police Club- Indianapolis, Indiana
Mar 20th 2008 8:00PM @ The Jackpot w/ Tokyo Police Club- Lawrence, Kansas
Mar 22nd 2008 8:00PM @ Kilby Court w/ Tokyo Police Club- SLC, Utah
Mar 24th 2008 8:00PM @ Independent w/ Tokyo Police Club- SF, CA
Mar 25th 2008 8:00PM @ Glass House w/ Tokyo Police Club- Pamona, CA
Mar 26th 2008 8:00PM @ Troubadour w/ Tokyo Police Club- LA, CA
Mar 28th 2008 8:00PM @ Soma w/ Tokyo Police Club- San Diego, CA
Mar 29th 2008 8:00PM @ Clubhouse w/ Tokyo Police Club- Tempe, Arizona
Mar 31st 2008 8:00PM @ Meridian w/ Tokyo Police Club- Houston, Texas
Apr 1st 2008 8:00PM @ House of Blues w/ Tokyo Police Club- Dallas, Texas
Apr 3rd 2008 8:00PM @ Studio A w/ Tokyo Police Club- Miami, Florida
Apr 5th 2008 8:00PM @ Backbooth w/ Tokyo Police Club- Orlando, Florida
Apr 7th 2008 8:00PM @ 40 Watt Club w/ Tokyo Police Club- Athens, Georgia
Apr 8th 2008 8:00PM @ Exit/In w/ Tokyo Police Club- Nashville, Tennessee
Apr 9th 2008 8:00PM @ The Spot w/ Tokyo Police Club- Cleveland, Ohio
Apr 25th 2008 8:00PM @ Theater of Living Arts w/ The B-52’s- Philly, PA
Apr 26th 2008 8:00PM @ 930 Club w/ The B-52’s- Washington DC
Apr 27th 2008 8:00PM @ The National w/ The B-52’s- Richmond, Virginia
Apr 29th 2008 8:00PM @ House of Blues w/ The B-52’s- Cleveland, Ohio
May 1st 2008 8:00PM @ House of Blues w/ The B-52’s- Chicago, Illinois
May 4th 2008 8:00PM @ Gothic Theater w/ The B-52’s- Englewood, Colorado
May 6th 2008 8:00PM @ Show Box w/ The B-52’s- Seattle, Washington
May 7th 2008 8:00PM @ Roseland w/ The B-52’s- Portland, Oregon
May 9th 2008 8:00PM @ The Independent w/ The B-52’s- San Francisco, CA
May 10th 2008 8:00PM @ TBA- Los Angeles, California
May 11th 2008 8:00PM @ House of Blues w/ The B-52’s- Anaheim, California
May 19th 2008 9:00PM @ Point Ephemere- Paris
May 20th 2008 9:00PM @ Grand Mix- Tourcoing
May 21st 2008 9:00PM @ Paradiso- Amsterdam
May 23rd 2008 9:00PM @ Trix w/ Sunset Rubdown- Antwerp
May 24th 2008 9:00PM @ Gebaude 9- Cologne
May 25th 2008 9:00PM @ Lagerhaus- Bremen
May 27th 2008 9:00PM @ Schocken- Stuttgart
May 28th 2008 9:00PM @ ISC- Bern
May 29th 2008 9:00PM @ 59:1- Munich
May 30th 2008 9:00PM @ Szene- Vienna
May 31st 2008 9:00PM @ Beatpol- Dresden
Jun 1st 2008 9:00PM @ Magnet- Berlin
Amplive
Rainydayz Remixes
February 15th 2008
Self Released
After we were told that Amplive was not going to release the Radiohead remix album Rainydayz because of copyright issues, today at 12:01am, Amplive announced that a compromise had been reached by both the Radiohead camp and himself. He admits that he “probably should have contacted Radiohead” before he committed to the remix project, but something tells me that this regret is not entirely genuine. His confidence and intuition told him that if it were crafted with sincerity and talent no amount of legal maneuvering would prevent his work from seeing the light of day. The record is now available for the next few days on his website free of charge. The record is a bit choppy, but it successfully experiments with and reconceptualizes Radiohead’s defined style. While the bulk of the seven Radiohead remixes are compelling interpretations, there are certainly times when Amplive’s creativity strays from innovation and resigns to sounding like a manufacturer’s scratch on an In Rainbows disc. The third track, Nudez, succeeds overall, but on occasion it devolves into a irrelevant display of blended and broken beats. Conversely, songs like 15 Stepz and Faustz transform the song while retaining important core elements, utilizing Radiohead‘s innate compatibility with electronic beats. Rainydayz sports the talent of Too $hort, MC Zumbi of Zion I, Chali2na of Jurassic 5, Codany Holiday, and Del The Funky Homosapien. I enjoyed the phonic dialectic.
