Music Radiohead: The Kings Of Limbo

February 22, 2011 - 11:16 am


Radiohead - The King Of Limbs

It was ironic that news of Radiohead’s latest album came like a flash while early morning risers were still scanning Facebook for lingering commentary of the previous night’s Grammy Awards. Indeed, the undisputed sovereigns of post-rock had slipped quietly through the night, undetected even by those who considered Esperanza Spalding a shoo-in for Best New Artist. But here we are in the wake of Radiohead’s latest foray into the great unknown—The King Of Limbs—a “newspaper album” named as such for the large collection of artwork that accompanies the physical version, or because it reports on the current state of its creators, or maybe it’s a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the “hear today, gone tomorrow” nature of today’s recorded music product. With Radiohead, there’s rarely one definitive answer. No doubt you’ve already heard bits and pieces of it, so let’s get on with the show.

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Featured Gallery Music Groove Armada and Dirty Vegas Light Up LA’s Supperclub

February 17, 2011 - 8:21 am

Grammy weekend in LA is all about the parties, and if you’re a dance music fan, there was no hotter place to be than Om Records’ showcase at the extra-posh Supperclub for a triple bill that included LA’s own Jason Bentley, Grammy Award-winning Dirty Vegas, and first-time Grammy nominees Groove Armada. Long recognized as two of electronic music’s most well-respected artists, Groove Armada and Dirty Vegas turned out flawless sets that electrified the crowd of industry execs and well-to-do Hollywood scenesters. “A different sort of crowd to what we’re used to,” said Groove Armada’s Tom Findlay, “but they gave it their all!”

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Music Young Galaxy: Northern Stars Make Music To Shapeshift To

February 16, 2011 - 7:59 am

Young Galaxy

This is not a post about Canada, though if you removed Canada from this story there wouldn’t be much of a story to tell. First off, Young Galaxy are a Canadian band. They are currently based on Montreal, but relocated there from Vancouver, which is one of the coolest places on the planet, by the way. Their latest album, Shapeshifting, is being released on a Toronto’s Paper Bag Records. (It’s really good. You can download the first single, “We Have Everything,” right here.) They’ve also had the distinct pleasure of opening for Arcade Fire, who are also a Canadian band. The press release for Shapeshifting name-drops New Order and Eurythmics (not Canadian) as bands to compare the album’s sound to, which is actually pretty spot on, and as you’ll see from this interview, vocalist/guitarist Stephen Ramsay is a pretty lucid fellow with a lot of spot on things to say about music-making.

[UPDATE]: Download the just-released Cover Your Tracks EP here.

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interview The Word Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos

January 21, 2011 - 8:14 am

Jamie Scapegoat Garvey

Two years ago, Eva Talmadge and Justin Taylor were commiserating over burritos about the sorry state of the global economy, when they decided it would probably be best to shift the topic to something a bit less depressing. As fate would have it, their respective roommates had both come home with snippets of prose from Mark Twain, William Faulkner and Herman Melville tattooed on their bodies. One year later, Talmadge and Taylor are the proud parents of a beautiful, 192-page book full of literary tattoos and the equally colorful stories behind how they came about. Entitled The Word Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos From Bookworms Worldwide, the book documents what they viewed as a growing trend in body art: a natural progression from text on the page to text on the body. (Check out a trailer for the book here, then pick up your own copy at Amazon.) We had a digital sit-down with Eva to talk about some of her favorite pieces, as well as get the inside scoop on her next book, which you could very well be a part of.

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Music The Electric – “Beautiful” Video Premiere

January 18, 2011 - 11:45 am

The Electric

If you haven’t already heard the rumblings, The Electric are shaping up to be one of this year’s hottest collab projects. Featuring Ninja Tune beat aficionado DJ Vadim, soul singer Sabira Jade and Chicago’s MC Pugs Atomz, the group is releasing their debut full-length, Life Is Moving, on March 14 through Vadim’s Organically Grown Sounds. The group has kindly offered to debut the video for their first single, “Beautiful,” right here in the ChinaShop, so feast your eyes and ears on some soothing sounds. Then pop on over here to cop the single.

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