Mastodon is sharing the full album online including “The Hunter Visualizer” starting today September 20th. Also, Pitchfork.com will premiere the official “Curl Of The Burl” video this Thursday, September 22nd. Brace yourself. More to be revealed shortly but in the meanwhile you can stream the album and see “The Hunter Visualizer” right here after the jump.
If you’ve been to Austin lately, you know that the locals are fighting the good fight to, as they call it, “Keep Austin Weird.” Yep, you can even pick yourself up a bumper sticker or two to show your support for the movement…
ChinaShop was in the Texas town over the weekend for Austin City Limits, showing OUR support and soaking up the sun, the sights and documenting the adventure. Check out our photojournalism below and remember to “Keep Austin Weird.”
Prestidigitation. It’s a five dollar word for magic, but when you’re surrounded by the opulence and tradition that is Hollywood’s famed Magic Castle, it’s precisely the word you’re looking for. Bryan Hollon, the artist known as Boom Bip, has invited ChinaShop into the hallowed halls of this labyrinthine establishment to discuss his latest album, the alliteratively alluring Zig Zaj.
Partly inspired by material mined in the Castle’s expansive downstairs library, it’s Hollon’s darkest and most aggressive collection of songs, but as you’ll read, this has more to do with age and geography than magic itself. A play off Zan Zig, the turn-of-the-century magician who famously pulled a rabbit out of a top hat, the album features a diverse group of guests, but the variation was a perfect compliment to Hollon’s decidedly more live and motley songwriting style. Less bedroom shoegazing, more late-night rehearsal room shenanigans. Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos lays a foreboding vocal on “Goodbye Lovers And Friends,” Luke Steele (of Empire of the Sun and Sleepy Jackson) guests on the raucous “New Order,” Neon Neon’s Cate Le Bon sings on “Do As I Do,” and the always unpredictable Money Mark helps turn “Manabozh” into the monster mash anthem of epic proportions. But it was Hollon’s collaborations with Josiah Steinbrick, Eric Gardner, and new Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer—as well as the inspiration gleaned from inside a little lockout in East Hollywood—that provides the most surprising reveal.
As a kid, I’d walk home from school with my little brother and imagine what I’d do if giant waves (as tall as mountains) suddenly appeared. It was intriguing just to wonder what my reaction would be.
Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh’s thriller “Contagion” plays on this idea by suggesting how the present day world might react were we ever confronted with a disease as horrific as the Bubonic Plague.
The film opens with Gwyenth Paltrow’s character, a Minnesota woman (an excellent choice to ram the idea close to home for audiences) traveling overseas for business and, upon returning, becomes violently ill from a mysterious disease. Suddenly, worldwide, various people start coming down with the same symptoms and dying. There seems to be no cure, and this thing starts spreading into the tens of millions faster than you can say, “We’re f*cked.”
The phenomenon that is the Hipster is a slippery creature to pin down and define. A 2009 Time magazine article took a pretty good stab at it: “Take your grandmother’s sweater and Bob Dylan’s Wayfarers, add jean shorts, Converse All-Stars and a can of Pabst and bam — hipster.” Ever wonder why it seems so slanderous to call someone hipster? Do you have a good handle on where the name comes from? ChinaShop goes back—way back—digging up the origins of the cultural phenomenon that is “The Hipster.”
New band members, new record label, new producer, new album. It’s only been two years since Cymbals Eat Guitars released their debut full-length, Why There Are Mountains, but a ton has changed. Thankfully, the frenetic, circuitous manner in which Joe D’Agostino creates melodies has not. Lenses Alien, their new LP, is one of the most complex and beautiful albums you’ll hear all year, and D’Agostino’s lyrics present a substantial meal for even the most well-read intellectual. ChinaShop caught up with the young South Jersey native about writing, drinking whiskey before vocal takes, and why he’ll never talk to you about his totally sick tribal armband tattoos.
Allow us to introduce you to the spunky folk/rock duo of Suzanne Santo and Ben Jaffe, aka HoneyHoney. After moving to Los Angeles at the age of 18 – Santo from Ohio and Jaffe from New York, a mutual friend suggested that they give performing together a whirl. They tried it, it worked, and so began their musical journey – one full of guitars, banjos, and keyboards, sultry vocals, and organic tunes.
ChinaShop recently caught up with HoneyHoney for an “anything goes” photo shoot and interview inside of Venice’s charming boutique, Bountiful. If anyone happened to be shopping inside the store during such events, they were treated to overhearing such conversation topics as: maintaining a stable full of ninja pimps, Jaffe and his foot tickling fetish, Santo getting motherly and advising that Jaffe not put an antique saxophone that could have possibly at one point been up a rear end into his mouth, and Xavier Rudd impregnating women with his didgeridoo.
That’s it. It’s over. School is in session, that blonde working at the coffee shop has gone back to school, the sun and 6 o’ clock start getting on each other’s nerves. Summer—that fickle, sweaty buzz that never lasts long enough—is finally over. No more time on the clock. Flag on the play.
But as frustrating as it is to pack up the shorts and cover the grill, the end of summer signifies an emotional turning point that’s difficult to put into words. It’s kinda beautiful; uplifting even. ChinaShop put the word out to some of our favorite artists and asked them to pick (and talk about) a tune that best exemplifies this particular time of year. Milagres, Fink, the Submarines, Cloud Control, Boom Bip, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Busdriver, Cymbals Eat Guitars and Tycho all answered the call. Then we put all the tracks into a tidy little YouTube playlist for you. Enjoy.
Before it shut down last March, Bridges Juvenile Center in the Bronx was described by some, generously, as Dickensian. With dark cells, abusive guards and deficient rehab programs, the juvenile center had a reputation for turning its residents into hardened criminals.
But today, the white-brick building conjures a cheerier mood. Thanks to a local community group and the Inside Out project, created by the French artist JR in March, the center’s outer wall is covered with black-and-white portraits of those who live in the neighborhood.
“After we did that, we received emails from organizations thanking us,” said Paul Ramirez, co-founder of Mainland Media, an organization dedicated to enhancing the overall image of the Bronx.
Art Brut is known for their edgy live shows where lead singer Eddie Argos often shouts out whatever comes to mind. Among the topics discussed on stage at the band’s recent Los Angeles show were that “you should never say an age in a song because you’ll have to update it every year and that’s dumb” and “lyrics about ways to make your parents worry.”
ChinaShop recently chatted with Argos about writing songs for ex girlfriend’s new boyfriends, the many franchises that are based off of Art Brut, and being named after a controversial art movement.