a smattering of videos

New music video by Emerson Filmmaker Molly Adams out this week for electronic artist Cristoph Andersson's song Metropol.

Molly Adams juxtaposes her faiiirly twisted vision with an otherwise cheery track and comes out with a visually stunning and creatively edited vid. Enjoy this Emersonian produced, not-so-pretty in pink, tea party, visual splooge... explosion.

Metropol - Christoph Andersson from Molly Adams on Vimeo.

I stumbled across this gem while procrastinating in the library. Drake & Lil Weezy v. Jack Johnson. Shutup Mike, i think this is dope

Mike's Weekly Recs, 2/23/11

I've decided I'm going to have a theme for each playlist. This week, I'm featuring bands that are damned by the company they keep, their inferior earlier or later records, stigmas attached to the genres with which they are pejoratively tagged, etc. Here's everyone's opportunity to force your mind open. Which songs would you include?

Blurbs after the jump...

Bright Eyes - The People's Key

The People’s Key is addicting and gets better with every listen. It begins with an opening segment that intends to ward off easy listeners with over two minutes of the narrator preaching about dimensions and love. But if you manage to get past the guy’s self- righteous voice, you can actually take away a lot of beautiful things he says. After this voice over, the song starts out of nowhere with Oberst laying down themes of a futuristic world through the hologram he saw at the theme park and the land of tomorrow.

In this final album, Oberst tells the story between all of his music. In early albums like Lifted or The Story is In the Soil, Keep your ear to the ground, he declares his undying love for his friends. Then in Cassadaga he talks about the friends he never visits but always wants to. Yet surprisingly in this album he calls his friends traitors and refers to them in the past tense. “I'm tired of traitors, always changing sides. They were friends of mine.” In the song "Shell Games", he cites every album art of the Bright Eyes collection. “The fireworks, (Letting Off the Happiness) the vanity, (Fevers and Mirrors) circuit board (Digital Ash in a Digital Urn), city streets (I'm Wide Awake, Its Morning)”. In a way, he is wrapping up the end of Bright Eyes.

Feb 2011 New Music Mixtape

1. Siren // Chikita Violenta // Tre3s 
2. England // PJ Harvey // Let England Shake 
3. Codex // Radiohead // The King of Limbs
4. Waterbells // Loch Lomond // Little Me Will Start A Storm 
5. Happy Needs Colour // Spokes // Everyone I Ever Met 
6. No Harm // The Boxer Rebellion // The Cold Still
7. Too Raging To Cheers // Mogwai // Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will 
8. Rose Gives A Lilly // Yuck // Yuck 

Chris Parello & Things I Wonder @ The Lily Pad, Cambridge, MA 2/11/11 - Concert Review & Interview

Chris Parello had my night teed up perfectly to get a good concert review out of me. It took me a half-hour to get a cab from my girlfriend's apartment near Pleasant Street to the Lily Pad in Cambridge. The bar where I met Chris before the show was rackety and so congested that the waiter had to kick us out of our table and make us finish the interview virtually on top of a party of six. The bar across the street, where I killed another hour before the set watching the Celtics lose to Dallas for the second inexplicably frustrating time, served me a skunked Rolling Rock and smelled like parents. Lucky for Parello and his band, Things I Wonder, all I wanted to do at 10:15 on that Friday night was sit in a small, quiet, uncluttered room and watch a scholarly guitar virtuoso quietly and unobtrusively serenade a crowd to beatific, shared silence.

THE LAST WALTZ IS THROUGH, BUT THAT DON'T MEAN THE PARTY'S OVER...

Tune into The Waltz Goes On, a tribute to The Band, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Dr. John, and anyone else who played in the concert that was captured in the greatest rock'n'roll film of all time. We're on the air every Monday from 2-4pm at the same place you can hear the New Music Show (Wednesdays, 6-8pm): WECB.fm. For your dose of stanky, old-ass shit, in case you lose your breath trying to keep up with the new shit.

:)

**Pellytwinz Presents**BROOKLYN MEETS BOSTON @ GREAT SCOTT Feb. 21

Q: Where can I see audibly-fantastic Boston and Brooklyn bands play tomorrow night?
A: The Great Scott for the second installment of  the **Pellytwinz Presentz** monthly showcase.

Easter Vomit

We're stoked to see distort-rockers EASTER VOMIT play with Boston locals Ming Ming, Rene, and Free Pizza, with Coralcola DJing between sets.  This show is part of a Brooklyn-meets-Boston series created by Liz and Jenn Pelly, a pair of counter-culturally conscious twins who, for lack of better words, know what's up. As avid readers of their music blog, we found out about the show and were lucky to get an interview with Mike of Easter Vomit for our New Music Show this past Friday. We talked about their favorite Brooklyn bands [MIX-TAPE], about their upcoming 7" off of Blood of Jesus Records, and about Mike's alien-indifference towards the release of The King of Limbs. (whoa!) What could be a better way to celebrate our U.S Presidents (Wooooo John Adams!!!)?? SEE YOU THERE!!

18+ 7$ 9pm @ The Great Scott (1222 Commonwealth Ave Allston, MA 02134) XL Recordings are going to be there handing out free pizza and free posters/records. 

Read more @

Hey! If you're a broke-dance-loving Emersonian, then check out tomorrow's Cabarave in the LB's Cabaret 8-11:30pm 

THE KING OF FUCKING LIMBS

After years of waiting...

Of course, releasing The King Of Limbs on Saturday like they said would be too fucking normal. I got mine...better get yours soon or your cred will drop like the Cleveland Cavaliers' average attendance level (or like mine just did for making a sports reference on an Emerson-based music blog...).

Needless to say, a review will follow once this thing sinks in.

...I'm a reasonable man, get off my case.

**WECB DJ ALBUM REVIEW** Banjo or Freakout

After hearing Banjo Or Freakout's eponymous release, the answer seemed simple: freakout. Having been fooled once by the title of the artist and fooled again by the self-same title of the CD, I was unsure about the contents within. Soon, however, I got into it: Banjo Or Freakout is everything you would expect from a one-man indie band, and then some. Complete with soft vocals, distorted keyboards, and the melancholy angst of an acoustic guitar that never graduated high school, the songs on this CD might remind you of a myriad of other bands- it might even be indistinguishable from a myriad of other bands- but I'm all for variety, and if Italians, experimental electronic vocals, and a lonely melody are the kind of things you're into, there's no reason not to listen to this CD. 

Recommended Track: 105 

-Review by Gabriel Albright, host of WECB's "Bluegrass Between the Cracks" Wednesdays @ noon

Listen to Banjo or Freakout streaming on The Hype Machine

NEVER LET ME GO Thursdays 12-2pm

Never Let Me Go is hosted weekly by Wesley Boudreau, Thursdays at noon.

 "John Cage would say there is music in traffic, breathing, and especially in silence - therefore ambience is always around us whether we like it or not. It is up to composers, such as the ones featured in my show, to harness this raw energy, and develop it into rhythm and order. Never Let Me Go is a retrospective of minimal composition, along with the development of classical and electronic pieces by famous artists such as; Steve Reich, Philip Glass, John Adams, and more recently; Tim Hecker, Windy & Carl, Hauschka, and Ben Frost. " -Boudreau

A sample playlist may include:

Artist, song, album, year

Tim Hecker - The Piano Drop - Ravedeath 1972 (2011)

Tim Hecker - In the Fog II - Ravedeath 1972 (2011)

Windy & Carl - My Love - Songs for the Broken Hearted (2008)

Belong - October Language - October Language (2005)

Brian McBride - Retenir - When The Detail Lost Its Freedom (2005)

Never Let Me Go will host the owner of Weirdo Records in Cambridge in early March for an interview. Boudreau says they will discuss "how an off-the-beaten path record shop is run and how such a unique branch of entertainment can still sell. [Weirdo Records] mainly sells world, experimental, drone, and psychedelic works." Also stay tuned for an interview with Emerson Art of Noise professor, Maurice Methot, airing in late March. 

STAY TUNED EVERY THURSDAY @ NOON

Grammy Reactions Revised (But Not Rescinded)

I still stand by what I said about the Grammys, particularly Arcade Fire. This hilarious blog, however, has influenced me to look at things a bit differently.

Mike's Valentine's Day Recs

It's now offically February 15th, but I figured I might as well celebrate the sappy holiday we all just enjoyed/made it through. I accidentally picked exactly ten songs, so fate and I decided to make two sides to this mix. I'm actually getting a huge kick out of listening to it right now, Valentine's Day or not, so give it a shot.

SIDE ONE:

SIDE TWO:

Quick, Uncalculated Reactions to The Grammys

In all honesty, I only watched the Bob Dylan performance and the few minutes leading up to it. But from all that, the brief scan I did earlier of the nominees and winners, and my biased but confident and firm convictions about the Grammys, here's what I've managed to scrounge up:

NEW MUSIC RADIO PLAYLIST #2

THE PLAYLIST FROM OUR SECOND NEW MUSIC SHOW OF THE SEMESTER:

Arvid Noe!

1. Erotolepsy / Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers 4:51

2. Badaboom / Tapes 'n Tapes 3:56

3. Everyone We Know / TJ Kong & the Atomic Bomb 5:00

4. Everyone I Ever Met / Spokes 7:41

5. don't touch anything / Pile 5:27

6. Siren / Chikita Violenta 3:05

7. No Harm / The Boxer Rebellion 4:02

8. Never Been Here Before / Hunnie Bunnies 2:33

9. Holy Hail! / Arvid Noe 3:46

10. Money / Fat History Month 2:55

11. pervert / Pile 5:03

12. So So Freely / AgesandAges 3:21

13. Get Away / Yuck 3:36

14. All the sand in all the sea / Devotchka 4:50

15. Kalyug / Ninth Moon Black 6:46

16. We Can Make It Out / Spokes 4:41

17. Cold Sun / Black Pistol Fire 3:42

18. Venus Shaver [FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD] / Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers 3:42

19. Don't Know About You / Bardo Pond 4:29

20. Bakersfield / Social Distortion 6:25

21. The Razor's Edge / Ducktails 1:53

22. octopus / Pile 4:13

23. Fear Of A Red Planet / Igor Boxx 3:19

24. Wretch / Fat History Month 5:09

25. White Noise / Mogwai 5:04

26. Hippie Road Movie/ You Need New Glasses 10:03

27. Happy Needs Colour/Spokes 5:13

LISTEN EVERY WEDNESDAY 6-8pm! 

Yuck - Yuck

Yuck is a band that extends from Hiroshima to New Jersey and London. Originating from three different continents, the band is not at all an ethnic bundle of world music; but a truly impressive and solid alternative rock band.

The 5-piece band has a really distinctive sound. With an obvious 90s grunge influence, Yuck has a basement youth sound balanced with polished vocals and easy melodies.

Their self-titled album provides a perfect balance of upbeat songs and softer more emotional ones. Songs like “Rose gives a lily” immediately reminded me of Sonic Youth’s instrumental jams; with distorted guitars and pedal delays. “Get Away” and “The Wall” have heavy guitars and low-fi male vocals similar to the Strokes.

Other songs like “Suicide Policeman” and “Suck” are calm and nostalgic. You can truly sit back and relax after a long day to a song like “Stutter”. It flows really well, giving you space to doze off and daydream but still remembering the music.

This is an album truly worth hearing from start to end; it can satisfy any mood.

Pile In-Studio at WECB Pt. 2 "Uncle Jill"

Memoryhouse

Many artists today are taking little chunks of works they admire to create a their own pieces. This recycling is clearly visible in the band Memoryhouse. To begin with, they appropriated the title from Max Richter’s first album, as homage to the ambient/classical composer. Through their name, the band stated their obvious influence of dream-ambiences. Yet they have managed to take dream music into a different realm of loops, synthesizers, and candid vocals.

In the song “Lately” the band samples Jon Brion’s “Phone Call” from the score of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The song feels so weightless that the loop could go on forever without a bore.

The band also redefines artworks in their music videos. With these short clips they provide perfect imagery for their sounds. The music video for the song “Sleep Patterns” is an artsy film with an awesome surprise at the end. It goes well with the song’s delayed guitar and melancholic vocals.

RADIO FLYER

Pile In Studio "Came As A Glow"

Thank you Kristy Robinson

WECB NEW MUSIC PLAYLIST #1 [w/ COOL LINKS]

Here is our playlist from our first New Music show of the semester:

Rano Pano// Mogwai//  Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

Erotolepsy //Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers //Teenage &Torture

Siren //Chikita Violenta //Tre3s

Don't Know About You//   Bardo Pond //Bardo Pond

Rainbow Bloodsucker (FREE DOWNLOAD)//   DOOMSTAR! //Rainbow Bloodsucker

The Merry Barracks //Deerhoof//   Deerhoof vs. Evil

Cold Sun//  Black Pistol Fire//  Black Pistol Fire LP

octopus//     Pile //magic isn't real

In The Swing//    Ducktails //Arcade Dynamics

Victory Song! //Da Comrade! //Da!Da!

Convict Lake//    John Vanderslice//  White Wilderness

Ice Hotels//    Dinosaur Bones //My Divider

Kalyug//     Ninth Moon Black//  Kalyug Metal

White Noise//    Mogwai //Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

PILE_LIVE on WECB_1-26-11

Mike's Weekly Recs, 2/1/11

Every week, I will recommend three OLD (as in, not 'new music') albums/songs/artists that I think deserve to be brought back and treated as if they were new music. Here are my recs for 1/26/11:

I decided to take a page out of Margaret's hard drive and try this 8tracks thing. So, instead of giving you three recommendations like I did last week, here's eight (the three from last week, plus five new ones) neatly packed into a cohesive, fluid playlist.