Music Culture :: Social

Built to Spill, Meat Puppets, Polvo Dudes Talk Politics
The history of politics and music as bedfellows is a long one, from "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" to, uh, "Vote or Die!", to the current spate of politically motivated benefit shows. But getting swept up in all of this, it's easy to forget that musicians are people too, and they have thoughts and ideas and concerns about the upcoming U.S. election just like the rest of us.

With that in mind, filmmaker Brendan Toller-- whom you may recall as the director of record store documentary I Need That Record!-- and Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace imprint have inaugurated "Election 2008: Artists Speak Out". The ongoing series of videos, as its title suggests, features musicians, comedians, artists, and the like waxing thoughtful on the upcoming election and what it means to them.

As one might expect, the opinions expressed in the first batch of "Artists Speak Out" videos run the gamut from pro-Obama enthusiasm to bemused apathy to down-and-out pessimism.

Thurston Moore bandmate (and former Come and Codeine member) Chris Brokaw, comedian Eugene Mirman, and Tall Firs member Aaron Mullan, all interviewed during the recent ATP New York, each express generally positive, hopeful, Obama-friendly sentiments, though none exactly sounds gung-ho.

Flying the flag for apathy and evasiveness are MV & EE, who aren't convinced the current situation really has an effect on them, and Burning Star Core's C. Spencer Yeh, who makes some comments on real estate which may in fact be a subversive critique of the status quo. We're not quite sure.

For a more grim and strikingly negative view of the matters in question, try Built to Spill's Brett Netson, who expresses his disappointment with Obama (alluding to his ties with corporate lobbyist Moses Mercado) and notes that, as usual, nobody's listening to Ralph Nader. Or try Polvo's Ash Bowie, who predicts "the Republicans will steal the election." Well, at least he thinks Sarah Palin "sucks."

And then...there's Meat Puppets man Curt Kirkwood (pictured). Joined by filmmaker Dave Markey, he begins by showing off his "one-of-a-kind Sarah Palin towel," which he apparently uses "to wipe the blood off after I sharpen my fingers." Things just get weirder from there, with the chat eventually devolving into a discussion of "elephant vagina[s]" and "dildo-headed unicorns." The man can certainly entertain, even if his disinterest ("You couldn't pay me to [vote].") is disheartening.

"This is really the heart of America," Kirkwood at one point deadpans in reference to his surroundings at ATP New York. "George Washington threw a submarine across the Potomac here in 1952." As a summary of political confusion in the Information Age, it would seem Kirkwood has, however inadvertently, hit the mark.
Pitchfork.tv: Department of Eagles: Live on "Don't Look Down" Part 2
In her review today of Department of Eagles' fine In Ear Park, Amanda Petrusich calls the album "Ambitious and complex... stuffed with cocooning harmonies and shimmering, sunlight-smacking-the-Pacific melodies-- a languid, easy West Coast record (think Randy Newman or SMiLE), infused with classic East Coast anxiety." Nowhere on the album is this tension more manifest than on "No One Does It Like You", an alternate version of which is heard here on a rooftop in the second part of the band's appearance on "Don't Look Down". Working with Chris Taylor and Christopher Bear of Grizzly Bear, DoE started yesterday with versions of the title track and "Around the Bay" and close out this phenomenal set with the non-album track "1997", below.

"No One Does It Like You"

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

"1997"

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.
M83 to Open for Kings of Leon
Photo by Kathryn Yu

I guess they both, um, do things in a really grandiose fashion?

A whole lot of very lucky British Kings of Leon fans attending the Tennessee band's December tour stops will get themselves an earful of at least one fine band for the price of two, as Anthony Gonzalez's sublime M83 will open each and every date on KoL's December UK tour.

M83 are currently in Europe, with sights set on a North American trek with School of Seven Bells next month. Kings of Leon, meanwhile, are days away from kicking off their own North American jaunt in support of the crappy Only By the Night.
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Pitchfork Seeks Sales Director in Chicago
Pitchfork seeks an inspired individual with excellent management, sales, and marketing skills to manage and develop the sales operations of Pitchfork Media and Pitchfork.tv out of our Chicago office. In this role, you will be responsible for overseeing the site's day-to-day sales activities, establishing and maintaining agency and client relationships, and collaborating with Pitchfork's sales and business team to create strategies designed to grow existing business. Also included would be developing the means to support those strategies with research, market analysis, and other collateral. The ideal candidate should be a confident and polished manager, presenter, and writer-- willing to take any task put in front of him or her.

You should be comfortable with work ranging from conducting cold calls to working with Pitchfork's sales staff and business partners to developing the direction of Pitchfork's sales operation. A commitment to developing a productive, effective sales environment while providing Pitchfork's clients with the best possible online advertising experience is required. This position will report to Pitchfork's Publisher/COO.
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Wilderness Announce Fall Tour
You might think that after titling their new album (k)no(w)here that Wilderness would just stay put instead of touring in support of the thing. Instead, the band is following the album's November 4 release on Jagjaguwar with a little U.S. tour.

The shows begin November 19 in NYC and continue into December.
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Islands Cover Spiritualized, Sinead on iTunes EP
Photo by Alex Wagner

Hop on over to the iTunes store starting, oh, now, and you can nab a six-song Live Session from Nick Thorburn and his Islands.

Consisting mostly of tunes outta Arm's Way, the band's 2008 effort, the set is further bolstered by covers of Spiritualized's "Broken Heart" and Sinead O'Connor's "Red Football".

What's more, Reefer, that "Hawaii-inspired indie superduo" featuring Thorburn and producer Daddy Kev, will issue their debut mini-album digitally on October 14 via Alpha Pup. The album, previously known as The Life Narcotic but now self-titled, was truly Hawaii-inspired, as it was composed by Nick and Kev on the coastline of Maui. It sports six tunes, three interludes, and remixes by Dntel and Flying Lotus.

Here's the artwork, by L.A. based illustrators Kozyndan. It looks like it should be airbrushed onto the mudflaps of a pickup truck:

Islands are off in Europe at the moment making with the live sessions on a nearly nightly basis for the next week and a half or so. They'll head back Canada way later this month for an appearance at the Halifax Pop Explosion, followed by a set at the Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas in early November.
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Pitchfork.tv: Mercury Rev: "Butterfly's Wing" [Video Premiere]
We know what kind of effect a butterfly's wing can have. Mercury Rev build on those notions with this transfixing video for a track from Snowflake Midnight, taking what appear to be surreal scenes inspired by the Ukiyo-e style of Japanese woodcut printing and setting them in psychedelic motion. Pictures of the floating world indeed.

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

[from Snowflake Midnight; out now on Yep Roc]
Luomo Gets Apparat, Scissor Sisters Guy on New LP
Convivial is the fourth album from Finnish house producer Sasu Ripatti under his Luomo alias. The set, which finds Luomo in some awfully good company over the course of its nine tracks, is due November 11 in the States and October 24 elsewhere from Ripatti's own Huume imprint.

Luomo gets good and Convivial on the album with the likes of Sascha "Apparat" Ring, Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters, Berlin's Cassy, Chicago house legend Robert Owens, California's Sue-C, longtime collaborator Johanna Iivanainen, and a mystery guest singer going by the codename "Chubbs".

Convivial arrives just as Ripatti embarks on a new spate of tour dates coming together and featuring his many, many monikers and collaborations. Names aplenty abound after the jump; we wish you all the best in keeping 'em straight.

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New Music: Heartbreak: "We're Back" [Stream]
"We're Back" is the debut single by London based Italo-disco duo Heartbreak. While London's recent Italo resurgence has been lead by DJs playing out classic sides at nights like Cocadisco, Horsemeat Disco, and Disco Bloodbath, the resurgence has lacked an act that can convey the live element so integral to some of Italo's defining moments. You need only look to greats such as Kano to realize that Heartbreak might help to shift the movement from reverence to contemporary innovation and relevance.

Londoner Ali Renault's informed synths and programming and expatriate Argentinean Sebastian Muravchik's sincere vocal delivery and live performance elevate the duo from pastiche or tribute. Recent shows have seen stage invasions and quite possibly a few tears (unconfirmed). The Moroder-lost-in-Rimini 1985 synth stabs of "We're Back" are layered with Renault's trademark metallic menace, which has led some to brand Heartbreak's sound "metalo." While this might be almost as ridiculous a term as "grindie" it's not a million miles off. The band does after all list Obituary in their top MySpace friends.

[from Lies; out now in the UK on Lex]
Snow Patrol Employ Hundred Million Suns on New LP
Snow Patrol's latest album A Hundred Million Suns was partially recorded at Berlin's Hansa Studios, where David Bowie and Brian Eno laid to tape some of their famed late-1970s trilogy. I would expect that will be just about the last time this new disc is compared with Low. And hey, speaking of trilogies, Suns ends with one-- just like Daydream Nation, another album with which it's likely to share little else in common.

Anyhow, the Jacknife Lee-produced A Hundred Million Suns will arrive October 27 in the UK and October 28 in the States on Polydor/Fiction/Geffen. Fans can opt for a regular CD version, a deluxe CD/DVD combo, a slab of vinyl, or a digital download. First single "Take Back the City", meanwhile, is due in UK shops in CD and 7" formats on October 13, and due in a climactic scene in a television drama shortly thereafter.

Snow Patrol, finally, plan to hit four metropolises in just two days on their "Take Back the Cities" tour, which kicks off later this month.
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