f

In my opinion anything involving Johnny Depp will most likely turn out to be a creative gem. The 46 year old actor/musician/director/producer/screenwriter will venture out one further to direct a documentary on The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. Depp’s first directorial effort was made in 1997 with the film The Brave starring himself and Marlon Brando. The film was deemed as mediocre and is a hard find in North America. Depp told the Serbian magazine Politika, “”Now that I’m wiser, and that enough time has passed, I can experience directing again.”

Artist: Rolling Stones Song: I’m Free (Hot Chip Remix)

.

Depp has always had a thing for the stones and especially Richards, whom he deemed as inspiration for his role of Jack Sparrow. Richards also made his film debut as Jack Sparrow’s father in The Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Richards’ career has taken him through chart toppers, a spot on the list of 100 greatest guitarists, and a record of drug possession. It will be interesting to see how the creative lens of Depp depicts the remarkable and exciting life of this musical genius. The release date and further details are unclear, though Depp’s dedication and Richards’ involvement are confirmed.

Here are the final songs I shot at MHOW last July so please enjoy.  Jay’s set closers were always particularly blistering and this one was no exception.  After the jump you’ll find two more videos “Substitute” and “It’s So Easy” -  I wish I shot more to share but that’s all folks.  Who’s up for taking a road trip down to Jay’s resting place?  REST IN PUNK!!!

“Substitute”

“It’s So Easy”

We’ve got a multi-media pack for you this week, starting with the above video for Lo-Fi-Fnk’s “Marching In” - A good “don’t waste your day” track to move you through an early-winter afternoon. The video by Mattias Erik Johansson and Isak Martinsson is also aquatically fresh.

► I can’t ever get enough of These Are Powers because once you see them live you become a fan for life. I’ve tabbed “Easy Answers” as our stubborn reply to seasonal affective laziness this weekend. It doesn’t mean you have to get up from your computer right this moment, but it means you need to start thinking about it. And P.S. Play it loud.

Artist: These Are Powers Song: Easy Answers

► Maintaining our marginal pep, your Saturday get ready and pre-game track is “Stay Off The Fuckin’ Flowers” by Blakroc featuring Raekwon. You’ll stop worrying about arbitrary earth details for a moment when the Black Keys bring it down at the 52-second mark and Raekwon kills it.

Artist: Blakrok feat. Raekwon Song: Stay Off The Fuckin’ Flowers

► Bringing us home is your Sunday morning song. In anxious anticipation for his March 6th MHOW show, wake up to RJD2’s “Making Days Longer” - a sweet gem of sound to ease you into another life-filled day.

Artist: RJD2 Song: Making Days Longer

► Cubic Zirconia, / Josephine EP - (Don’t Cry Recordings) / Electro Crunk

Straight outta Brooklyn (and the East Village), Cubic Zirconia is electro crunk, hip hop, and booty bass for the masses!

Artist: Cubic Zirconia Song: Josephine (Waajeed Remix)

…

Track Listing:

1. “Josephine” (Original)
2. “Josephine” (GreenMoney’s Trancestep Remix)
3. “Josephine” (Waajeed Remix)
4. “Josephine” (DJ Sega’s Philly Club Mix)
5. “Josephine” (Egyptrixx Dub)

► Basement Jaxx, / My Turn EP - (Ultra Records) / Electro | House

What can I say about Basement Jaxx (Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe) that hasn’t already been said?? Mega-producers, pioneers of the UK-electro music scene, gifted songwriters, infinite collabos (Yoko Ono, Amp Fiddler, Kelis, Yo Majesty, Lightspeed Champion), blah, blah, blah.

Artist: Basement Jaxx Song: My Turn (FJ Mix)

…

Track Listing:

1. “My Turn” (Radio Edit) feat. Lightspeed Champion
2. “My Turn” feat. Lightspeed Champion
3. “My Turn” (Stonebridge Radio Edit) feat. Lightspeed Champion
4. “My Turn” (Stonebridge Club Remix) feat. Lightspeed Champion
5. “My Turn” (FJ Mix) feat. Lightspeed Champion
6. “Scars” (SBTRKT Remix) feat. Kelis, Meleka and Chipmunk
7. “Twerk” (Sub Focus Remix) feat. Yo Majesty

► Martyn, / Elevator Music Vol. 1- (Fabric 591 Limited) / Dub | Techno

Though the title of the album positions the mind to conjure up thoughts of dull elevator tunes, the Dutch man behind it creates otherwise. For starters, the DJ-producer dropped last summer’s dubstep groove Great Lengths (which I talked about here.) Two, Martyn’s brand of Elevator Music is a mix of house and deep house, a range of dubstep and techno that’s culled from a slew of hot producers to not only include himself but Caspa & Rusko, Untold, Shortstuff, and Starkey.

Artist: Untold Song: Bad Girls

….

Track Listing:

1. “If That’s How I Feel” - Hot City
2. “Sing With Us” - Xxxy
3. “Drums In The Deep” - Doc Daneeka
4. “Pistol In Your Pocket” - Hackman
5. “The Moth” - Julio Bashmore
6. “Bad Girls” - Untold
7. “Doctor Bayard” - Octa Push
8. “Behave” - Shortstuff
9. “Ukraine” - Skinnz
10. “Gold Bricks,” I See You - Mosca
11. “Friedrichstrasse” - Martyn
12. “Elixir” - Vista
13. “One Of The Same” - Caspa & Rusko
14. “Encoded” - Om Unit
15. “Black Monolith” - Starkey
16. “Melvin Blue” - Shortstuff & Brackles

]]> http://quietcolor.com/qc/?feed=rss2&p=3310 http://quietcolor.com/qc/?p=3311 http://quietcolor.com/qc/?p=3311#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:13:08 +0000 quietcolor http://quietcolor.com/qc/?p=3311 by kellio

The long-awaited followup to the Gorillaz‘ 2005 Album Demon Days is fast approaching. Titled Plastic Beach, the group’s third LP drops on March 8th and you can pre-order it here. The first single is called “Stylo” and features Bobby Womack and Mos Def. Gorillaz will also be headlining this years’ Coachella in April.

Here’s one last look back at the party that was. Amidst the fire breathers and acrobats: Javelin, The Shivers, Ava Luna, Dinowalrus, and Shark? rocked Quiet Color’s Sloppy Circus last Saturday for what turned out to be an epic Brooklyn evening. Check out a photo diary of the night by two esteemed QC photographers, after the jump.

Artist: Surfer Blood Song: Swim (Alpaca Remix)

…

Marc Evan:

Andre Salyer:

Pop Out Player

“Grand. There’s a word I really hate. It’s a phony. I could puke every time I hear it.”

►J.D. Salinger (RIP)

Get all the tracks in a single gr… awesome click - mixtape 65.zip.

If you were there, I’m sure you have your own dimly lit, grainy circus story to tell. If you braved the Industrial labyrinths of warehouses on this particular sub-zero Saturday night and followed the soft glow and faint pound of music to the doorstep of the House of Yes, then I’m sure you’re still talking about it right now, as the weekend ends. There were hundreds of us there. Three hundred and forty last I checked the head-count with my pals at the door, but more streaming in. And whether it was the heat of the fire throwers’ flames on your face, the theatrically high ceilings filled with acrobats, the woman perched in the rafters flashing the crowd below, the nearly 60-year-old Yoga contortionist getting down to the opening band, or the free pizza and cheaply priced cans of Busch that flowed like water — each one of us experienced something sensational at QC’s Sloppy Circus.

Artist: Ava Luna Song: Cement Lunch

Artist: Javelin Song: Moscow (live)

.

SHARK? opened the show, a casual Brooklyn-based three-piece with catchy lyrics (”My love is big, but my heart is small”) and authentic garage band feel, which immediately set up the intriguing contrast between three-ring and gritty rock show. Led by lights strung on pipes, face-painted guests were drawn easily in to the main stage by SHARK?’s cozy, familiar true-rock beats and hooks, with their merchandise slung over ladders against the wall. SHARK? is your hometown band, the one that’s really going somewhere but still feels like three guys you know.

Before things got too comfortable, Ava Luna filled up the stage. Like a group church project that caught fire and got a following, Ava Luna got the growing crowd into things like group clapping and girl-on-girl club dancing. What I initially thought may just be a white kid channeling Prince turned out to be a white kid channeling Prince well with a nice, sloppy organ, a throw-back funk beat and a back-up of solid-gold ladies who could belt it out or keep it pretty. Black Diamond Part I and II particularly roused the crowd (enter the female flasher stage left rafters, and everyone’s peepers to the ceilings for a good three or four minutes.) But Ava Luna brought their audience back and ended with a short, sweet bang.

The circus acts got things heated up with two Fabrics acrobats slinking, groping, and sparkling just out of reach of the crowd. Smoke and sexuality began to fill the room and, as I looked around, I saw the face paint trend had gone Lord of the Flies tribal. So the next band, Dinowalrus, eerily fit the mood.

Dinowalrus, if you ask me, sounds like the soundtrack to a trippy cartoon you watched in the 80s involving talking animals. I don’t know how they do this, except that it has something to do with crazy echo reverb on microphones, pedals, and what appeared to be a wind instrument? What technical difficulties were going on appeared to be for show, as the giant screen projected behind the band flashed color blocks and other happy geometrics that left me craving that Rainbow lollipop being given out at the door. “Dinowalrus tastes like Rainbows,” was my inner monologue. You can speculate on my mental state during this portion of the evening. But there was no question that the Talking Heads were conjured and perhaps those big, furry Wild Things.

“Keep a safe distance from the fire, thank you,” was a phrase repeated throughout the evening, but I was edging past the fire-eating (and fire hula-hooping, which got oohs and ahhs from the crowd, eyes glazed and glowing) toward the stage for the next band.

The Shivers were sporting leather jackets and dark sunglasses this evening. Joanne Schornikow, on a red lacquer keyboard and black leggings to the ceiling, got a commotion out of the boys down front. More often a dynamic duo, Schornikow and front man Keith Zarriello were joined in their first NYC performance since returning from European tour by former drummer and friend Alex Saltz. A solid drum and organ intro to “Just Didn’t Need to Know,” a song with amazing pop sensibility and drive kept Shivers fans who’d made the trip cross-country happy and moving. The place started to pack closer to the stage, so, in dedication to the women in the room, Zarrillio broke out a more soulful version of the more popular “Beauty.” One of the set’s best moments, though, was when Schornikow took center stage and did her own tune, which was sweetly heartbreaking in close-up. Also of note, an original song that moved seamlessly into Radiohead’s Creep, with Zarrillio’s lovely high notes spot on. His trademark improvisations were in the House, including, “Sometimes you need a little more … a little more love makin’ … a little more booty shakin … a little more Kevin Bacon.” It remains true, The Shivers are a band that could sound amazing with a backing choir, but they come off just as full as a three-piece on a small stage.

And this small stage at the Big Top was starting to creak. The house was full and still energetic. Like the end to an 80s teen flick, the stage room became a happy dance floor as Javelin started up with some good vibrations. These novel DJs ended the night with vintage mash-ups and vintage boom boxes. Javelin had no trouble taking us all back down to earth lightly and with charm. A few sound issues plagued the set but a choreographed aerial performance to Javelin’s “Moscow” was a defining and warming moment of the evening. The undeniable dance of the night came when the intro to “Soda Popinski” surged through the speakers. At least two circus attendees were seen sprinting toward the epicenter of the pit. The floor got play. “George Washington never told a lie so he went around the coooooooooorner and stole the cherry pie.”

The heat and sweat poured out the door to the House of Yes at the end of the show. Smokers found their circles, surprised to find it was still a freezing cold night in January. Inside the House of Yes, time went by slowly like acts to a play. It was as if we had spent the whole Winter together inside the Narnia wardrobe or some mystical forest of Tim Burton’s Big Fish. But when we exited into the real world, nothing had changed. Quiet Color and House of Yes succeeded in creating a big ball of Bohemia happen in Williamsburg last night, like a bonfire we all gathered around. And if you made it home safely, which I hope you did, then you probably feel like you just woke up from a crazy dream in which you got hit by a clown car (that would explain the splitting headache.) But I probably stamped your hand, right? So take a look. Is it still there? That’s right. It was all real.

The intrinsic beauty of Saturday Night’s QuietColor show at House of Yes lies in the total spectrum of sound covered by its five acts. Every band brings a unique perspective on what it means to be an “indie-rock” band in this new decade. Case in point: Dinowalrus, a self-described “three-piece drum-and-drone band,” who sits smack in the middle of Saturday’s stellar line-up.

Artist: Dinowalrus Song: Electric Cars, Gas Guitars

.
Featuring a member of Titus Andronicus, Dinowalrus brings more than a little of Titus’ energy, enthusiasm and punk rock ethos to the songs on their new album “%”. But in place of the former band’s loose bombast, here Dinowalrus brings tight break beats and sweeping, dreamy, noisy atmospherics. It’s a winning formula, one that pays off on songs like “Electric Car, Gas Guitar.”

Dinowalrus are bridging the gap between several disparate indie rock flavors - the electronic noise flourishes, punk rock guitar, and occasional tribal-influenced drumming - and they bring them together artfully and successfully again and again.

I’m blaming it on the dead of winter, but I found it hard to focus on a theme, or even genre, for this round of Fistful of Dollars. Still, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Check out how to get your $20 worth after the jump…

Artist: Los Campesinos! Song: You! Me! Dancing!

Artist: Black Milk, LMNO, and more Song: Heaven Or Hell

..

► Los Campesinos! - Sticking Fingers Into Sockets

Wales’s Los Campesinos! have a new album out this week, Romance Is Boring, and it’s all good and fine, but in my opinion, nothing they’ve done compares to their first EP, Sticking Fingers Into Sockets, which was released in July 2007. “We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives” and “You! Me! Dancing!” are both great, but it was the second song on it that sold me, the very wonderful “It Started With A Mixx.” “Trying to find the perfect match between pretentious and pop/Some crappy artwork that took way, way too long to draw” Gareth and Aleks sing to one another, mixing romance and puns with a sweetness that maybe only comes if you’re part of a seven-piece indie pop band. A song about making mixtapes with male/female vocals?! I don’t think they’ve done anything better since.

($5.97)
,

► Georgia Anne Muldrow - Heaven or Hell EP

In case you haven’t heard of her, Georgia Anne Muldrow is a young musician, songwriter, and singer whose work falls between that of Erykah Badu, Sa-Ra, and Madlib. Like Madlib, she’s alarmingly prolific, which means you sometimes have to pick and choose with her output to find the good stuff. Fortunately, her long-awaited collaboration with Dudley Perkins (or Declaime, as he goes by here) is one of those that you choose. The three-song digital version of the Heaven or Hell EP, the precursor to the LP SomeOthaShip, features some of my favorite rappers -  Black Milk, Kool Keith, Big Pooh and M.E.D. - and treads the line between left-coast freak-rap and the edgy East Coast. It’s spacey and tense and makes me more than excited to hear the full-length in February. Well worth the three bucks and more.

($2.97)

,

► Million Young - Be So True EP

Ok, first of all I’m going to try to pretend that I’m not mostly excited about this because it comes in CASSETTE (plus digi download, because, let’s be honest, unlike vinyl, there’s nothing sexy about tapes. Sorry.). But I’m also excited because Million Young makes indie-electronica (with a good dose of house) that’s both sad and danceable. Kinda perfect for winter. Kinda great.

($7.00)

► Bill Withers - “Ain’t No Sunshine”

Sticking with the winter theme here (I guess that’s what I have going on) is Bill Withers’s classic “Ain’t No Sunshine,” inspired not only by my Vitamin D deficiency but the fact the documentary about his life, Still Bill, had its premiere at New York’s IFC Wednesday. Everyone knows this song, but not everyone knows that when it was first released in 1971, on Sussex Records, “Ain’t No Sunshine” (produced by Booker T.) was the b-side to the still-good, but obviously inferior “Harlem.” This is a clear case in which buying the 45 makes sense. I found it in good condition online for $4. Feels like a steal.

($4.00)

.

► Grand Total: $19.94