i think i better follow you around

Michelle Gurevich (ex Chinawoman), has a new video for the song ‘First six months of love’, from the album “New Decadence”.

of Montreal released a new EP titled ‘Rune Husk’, it consists of four delicious songs, you can listen and download it on their bandcamp page, it will also be available on clear vinyl via Polyvinyl Records on March 31st.
They will be on tour next April, don’t miss their show in San Diego, on Monday April 10th at the Music box.

Spoon will release their 9th studio album, “Hot Thoughts”, on March 17 2017, on Matador Records.

This is what you could call a premature evaluation of an album I have not heard yet but I’m almost positive I will like. Now, I know this sounds jaded and dumb as fuck BUT just read me out.

The first and quite possibly most important question. Have Spoon ever released a bad album, (yet)?. I’m being serious. I think this is a legitimate question.

Let’s go backwards from their last album and think a little bit about this:

• 2014 – “They Want My Soul” was amazing and it just gets better with each listen. Standout tracks like ‘outlier’, ‘rainy taxi’, ‘inside out’, ‘rent I pay’, ‘do you’, ‘they want my soul’, ok ok the whole fucking album was great.
• 2010 – “Transference” has aged great. For an album that some critics and so called fans had deemed meh, this one has “gotten” better with time or maybe people finally get it. Or something. Still a stellar album.
• 2007 – “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” From the politically charged opener ‘Don’t Make Me A Target’ to the (almost/r.e.m like) perfect pop song ‘Black Like Me’ this is album is as close to perfect pop/rock n’ roll as it comes. Including massive crossover hit ‘The Underdog’.
• 2005 – “Gimme Fiction” the continuation of great and masterful, (r.e.m. like), albums. This one still with Merge Records saw them releasing an LP with such amazing cuts like. ‘I Turn My Camera On’
• 2002 – “Kill The Moonlight” this album is as close to a masterpiece of a pop album being released last decade as you can get. Seriously, from opening track ‘Small Stakes’ –> ‘The Way We Get By’ –> ‘Stay Don’t Go’ –> ‘Jonathon Fisk’ –> ‘Paper Tiger’, (that’s only half the album!!). This album one day will be marked as influential. At least to me it was.
• 2001 – “Girls Can Tell” their debut at Merge  Records after the cluster fuck that was being at Elektra. It’s a very solid album. You can hear in it the footprints for what was to come in the next couple of albums. Standout tracks like ‘Everything Hits At Once’, ‘Believing Is Art’, ‘1020 am’.
• 1998 – “Series Of Sneaks” this is the album before the clusterfuck that was their departure from their old label. It’s a what could’ve happened had they not divorced from their label in the way that they did.
• 1996 – “Telephono” their debut album released on Matador Records.

Now, historically, as you can see they have not released a bad album, (yet). And we’re excited to listen to what seems to be another great album AND their return to their original major label 20 years later. Two decades in the making is their return to Matador Records.

By all accounts you can listen to all the work Britt Daniel has done and he has a knack for writing a great pop song. The one thing to note is that the unsung hero of the band just might be Jim Eno. His drumming might just be the perfect compliment to Britt’s singing. The music they make is almost mathematical and minimalist while being pop (music) at the same time.

If you’ve had the opportunity to listen to their lead single ‘Hot Thoughts’ then there’s a very good chance that you already noticed a likeness to something circa “Gimme Fiction’ or even ‘Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga’. Now i’m not asking for a repeat of either album, and I certainly doubt they would even release something like that again, but I am anticipating a return of sorts to catchy hooks and fragmented verses.

Last Monday was the monthly Planet B / Three One G night and Retox played a fast, loud and fun as fuck set at Blonde Bar.

It had been a good while since Retox had played a set that sounded so damn good. They’ve added a new drummer which makes them sound even better than before. The songs actually feel like songs and the visuals they’ve added to their presentation now makes it feel almost like a moving breathing art like installation.

These Planet B nights are starting to be a Do Not Miss night due to the fact that each event is unique in it’s own right. The only constant in each of the nights have been the music selectors which are Planet B themselves, Luke Henshaw and Justin Pearson.

The people that come are not in attendance to watch it feels more like they are in attendance to participate in all that Planet B/Three One G have to offer.

Today Johnny Cash would have been 85 years old.
We remember him listening to the amazing music he created.

We saw RIDE on tour almost two years ago, it was amazing, and after 20 years they recorded a new album, to be released this summer on Wichita Recordings. The album was produced by Erol Alkan and mixed by the band’s longtime collaborator, Alan Moulder.
“Charm Assault” is the first song we get to listen, it’s a great song we can’t wait to hear more.

Andy Bell says “Charm Assault is a pretty straightforward expression of frustration and disgust at the people who currently run our country. The tour in 2015 was a good way of reminding us what we were good at in the first place and Charm Assault feels like a natural continuation from our peak. When we started writing together again we tried to imagine we’d kept on making music all this time, and this was just the latest one.”

Morrissey
“Tomorrow” from the album ‘Your arsenal’

Last Saturday night Crocodiles played at Moustache Bar, in Tijuana, with AJ Davila.
Also on the bill for the night were Channel (Burger Records) and local band Some Kind Of Lizard.

Some Kind Of Lizard opened the show. 

Afterwards it was time for Channel to take the stage.  
Photo: Carolina Rodríguez

Photo: Carolina Rodríguez

AJ Davila’s set was probably the one we enjoyed the most. His backup band were the Crocodiles themselves, and AJ Dávila came out swinging and did not stop until his set was finished. He looked like he was singing from his heart and performing with everything he had. He was charismatic and playful with the very receptive audience.

At one point one of Crocodile’s guitars popped a string and needed a spare, at this point is important to notice that Some Kind Of Lizard were kind enough to lend them one while the other got fixed.

Photo: Carolina Rodríguez

Photo: Carolina Rodríguez

The time for Crocodiles to take the stage came. And they came out to play for an audience that was very eager to listen to them. And while some danced, others sang and some more were trying to capture a moment with a picture, nonetheless everyone was connecting with the band in their own way.
They played a variety of new and old songs, but the crowd’s favorite was “I wanna kill”.

Photo: Carolina Rodríguez

Photo: Carolina Rodríguez

Due to the relentless rain, the show was moved to the second floor in the venue and it was a much better option sound wise than having it outside, not so much for the rain but because of the audio.
Another thing to point out is that at times, (most of it), the crowd felt bland, like they did not know how to react to the band that was performing in front of them. It was almost like they were just standing there waiting for some sort of intervention or direction as to what to do and when to start enjoying the music.

Thank you to  Carolina Rodríguez for providing us with additional photography.

Here is the trailer for the film directed by Steve Ellison, aka Flying Lotus.

“Broadcasting through a makeshift network of discarded televisions, Kuso is tangled up in the aftermath of Los Angeles’ worst quake nightmare. Travel between screens and between aftershocks into the twisted lives of the survived.”