April | 2011 | ChinaShop

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Music Mandy’s Music Mail 4/8/11

April 8, 2011 - 12:23 pm

The soundtrack for the film “Hanna” (side note: really want to see it), scored by the Chemical Brothers, was released exclusively through iTunes last month, but I only got around to checking it out this week (and it subsequently became my unofficial soundtrack; listened to it constantly). If you haven’t given it a listen / downloaded it yet, I highly recommend doing so because it’s awesome. Favorite tracks are: “Hanna’s Theme”; “Container Park” and “Escape 700”. Grab it here and / or watch the trailer after the jump.

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Featured Music Internet Killed The Video Star : Intervew with The Limousines

by Nicole Pajer

April 8, 2011 - 10:09 am

Whether or not we choose to admit it, we’ve all seen at least one episode of “Jersey Shore.” If you tuned into this season’s trashy East-side debauchery, chances are you’ve heard a song from San Jose’s newest buzz band, The Limousines. Having their songs placed on popular reality shows isn’t all that this dynamic duo, composed of Giovanni and Eric, has accomplished. The band made YouTube history with their zombie-ridden video “Internet Killed The Video Star”. Shortly after, they were snatched up by Dangerbird Records, a career milestone that they guys are still digesting.

Eric and Gio sat down with ChinaShop to explain their unique tale of creating music together before even having met one another in person. They also discuss Beetlejuice themed house parties, being labeled as ‘Gayrock’, and their secret desires to musically seduce Harrison Ford.
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Music Ancient Astronauts

by Dustin Downing

April 8, 2011 - 10:08 am

Hailing from Cologne, Germany, two humanoids known about town as Ancient Astronauts, have just dropped their latest album entitled Into Bass and Time. This release is only numero dos (2009’s We Are To Answer) for the boys from space but is for sure not their first rodeo. “We were throwing these big parties in our hometown together and didn’t want to get trapped by a label. So we started our own called Switchstance Recordings,” whispers Kabanjak as not to startle the bear.

Switchstance has garnered quite the name of it’s own around the club scene for the labels penchant, “to combine early musical influences such as Funk, Jazz, Latin, 90´s Hip Hop and Reggae with the most progressive techniques of electronic music production in order to create a new dynamic sound that pays respect to the diverse cultures it comes from.” I must say that I am impressed at the ease with which this DJ duo (Kabanjak and Dogu) can meld the raw sensibilities of turntablism with the rough housing qualities usually brought in with Drum & Bass. This album is an eclectic space ship road trip mix for sure. Often dropping rock nods to Iggy Pop, rolling up a tight Rasta beat akin to Peter Tosh, and I believe I hear a bit of old skool block party aesthetic reminiscent Public Enemy.

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Gallery Music Andreya Triana : Lost And Found

by Rich Thomas and Dustin Downing

April 7, 2011 - 11:07 am

As drab and predictable as much of today’s R&B is, soul music—the good stuff—is getting its due time in the sun, due in part to the popularity of artists like Adele, Cee Lo Green and Raphael Saadiq. These are powerful singers who understand the importance of the almighty groove; artists who know that a pocket is more than just something sewn into your pants to hold your bankroll. But what about what’s bubbling beneath the mainstream?

That’s where Andreya Triana comes in. The self-taught songstress from South East London released her debut full-length, Lost Where I Belong, at the end of last year to rave reviews from all sorts of critics. Though she’s quick to protect her pedigree as a soul singer, her tracks have received the remix treatment from electronic luminaries like Flying Lotus, TOKiMONSTA and Mr. Scruff, and her association with tastemaking label Ninja Tune has endeared her to a wide range of ears. We met up with Andreya to chat about her forthcoming album and perused some of Austin’s local fashion traders (Big ups to the cool kids at Process, champions of the dirty south, for letting us use their backdrop). In the end, I got a story and she got a fancy pair of black boots.

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Gallery Music Oh Land Brings it “Home”

by Courtney Dudley

April 7, 2011 - 11:04 am

Danish electro-pop singer and songwriter Nanna Øland Fabricius, AKA Oh Land, was the topic of much buzzing conversation at this years SXSW. She played a handful of shows during the festival and then turned around and played a four night residency at NYC’s Charles Bank Gallery in Soho in tandem with an art installation by artist Eske Kath.

Backed by a string quartet, keyboardist and drummer, Oh Land performed a thirty minute set to a packed gallery on a stage surrounded by art similar to what appears on her album cover. The set was obviously a collaboration between the two Danes– Oh Land’s characteristic white balloons made an appearance (they are the backdrop for her video ‘Wolf & I’) but were modified with projections of faces, planets, ballet dancers (Oh Land used to dance before an injury ended her career) and other peculiar images.

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Music Dance Like It’s The Depression: HOBO-TECH

by Dustin Downing

April 6, 2011 - 11:46 am

HOBO-TECH is a type of, well… “depression-era” techno if that makes any sense. The genre is steaming full speed ahead thanks to Jon Margulies and his pioneering use of rocking techno beats, smashed up freight train noises, iron skillets and and synthed-out accordions. Added to this curious concoction are hooks and samples taken from some of Americana’s finest the likes of Tom Waits and John Lee Hooker.

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Art/Design Artstar: Sorrel Smith

by Molly Crabapple

April 6, 2011 - 11:07 am

Sorrel Smith is one of the most glamorous creatures I’ve ever met. A painter and costumer working in Paris, Sorrel is a fixture at the Carnival in Venice, runs Dr. Sketchy’s in Paris, and never leaves the house without being fully decked out in vintage finery. Her art is equally awe inspiring- meticulously historical paintings of pinup beauties stripping their flesh off rather than their stockings. In our interview below, we talk about glamor, influence, and what to wear to a costume party in Constantinople.

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Gallery Music Jordan Cook at the Fabulous Car Hotel

by Dustin Downing

April 6, 2011 - 11:04 am

I was making the arduous journey through the labyrinth of pedi-cabs and equipment laden masses that is SXSW when I encountered Jordan Cook and crew. Here were three guys just sitting in the fading sunlight on a curb restringing their guitars when I approached. I had been looking for a band that I could interview about what it was like to come to SXSW without any means and holding only hope for that big break. “Nah man, we’re not homeless this week, thankfully,” allows Jordan when I asked if they, like numerous bands this week, were staying at the fabulous Car Hotel. “These cool ladies have just been letting us park our car here, so we’re gonna play a bit for em.”

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Music Tuesday Newsday: New Releases from The Kills, Raveonettes, Daft Punk, and The Smithereens,

by Shop Keeper

April 5, 2011 - 4:14 pm

High on the hype is Blood Pressures, the new release from The Kills…Daft Punk remixed and Reconfigured the T:L soundtrack, the best thing about the movie…Raveonettes return with yet another in Raven in the Grave…and refuse Jefferson Airplan-ers Hot Tuna release their first album in 12 years. See ya in a week…

Daft Punk - Tron: Legacy Reconfigured

Robbie Robertson - How To Become Clairvoyant

Cold Cave - Cherish The Light Years

Jim Jones - Capo

Sharks - The Joys Of Living 2008-2010

Raveonettes - Raven In The Grave

The Kills - Blood Pressures

Mandisa - What If We Were Real

Maritime - Human Hearts

Brian Robertson - Diamonds And Dirt

Ray Davies - See My Friends

The Smithereens - 2011

Hot Tuna - Steady As She Goes

Kingdom Come - Rendered Waters

Art/Design Alex Queral: Not Phoning It In

by Nicole Pajer

April 5, 2011 - 12:25 pm

Alex Queral gives new meaning to the phrase “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” With modern technology and the growing popularity of Internet-accessible smartphones, bulky phonebooks are becoming increasingly obsolete. Most of the Yellow Pages that arrive on doorsteps end up a) thrown in the recycling bin or b) presented as a curbside gift to the neighborhood garbage man. This might seem wasteful, but what else can be done with them?

Being the resourceful artist that he is, Queral has found a creative ‘plan c;’ he collects phonebooks and uses them to create celebratory pieces of art. Queral takes an old trashcan-worthy phonebook and, with the use of a pen, exacto knife, and razor blade, transforms it into an intriguing work of art. The finished product reveals faces of some of the most notorious public figures sculpted into a phonebook. Queral has created his phonebook sculptures of everyone from Bob Dylan to Clint Eastwood and President Barack Obama.

In an exclusive interview with ChinaShop, Queral explains his obsession with hoarding phonebooks, his process for choosing his subjects to sculpture, and how he single-handedly may be elevating the market value of the paper phonebook.

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