The Blood Brothers Offically Break Up, Have Been Unofficially Broken Up for Quite Some Time
By Mango Starr on 11-08-2007
After months and months of speculation, looks like it's 100% official now. The Blood Brothers have broken up, which, you know, somewhat betrays the essence of their name. According to a press release and a post on the group's official website and one on their MySpace:
After 10 years of making music as The Blood Brothers, we have made the collective decision that our time together has come to an end. We feel extremely fortunate to have spent such a deeply memorable and amazing part of our lives with each other. At this point, however, we feel it's best that our futures move forward on separate paths. We'd like to express our sincerest thanks and gratitude to all the bands we've played with, individuals who have helped us make our records, and fans who have come to our shows and picked up our music throughout the years. Your friendship, support and love hold such a profoundly special place in each of our hearts. We hope that the memories you attach to our music are as fond as those you have given us. Thank you and take care, we'll miss all of you.
Not to be a jerk -- I am a Blood Brothers fan, after all -- but as "personal" as that letter might have seemed, it's probably the most generic breakup letter I've ever read. Seriously. It reads like a breakup letter template. Just replace "10" and "The Blood Brothers" with any year and any band and you have an instant announcement at your disposal. In fact, please forward this template letter to the following bands: The Hives, Black Kids (the band), and LCD Soundsystem.
Now, that was to be a jerk.
Oh, Dingleberries! Someone Pull the REMIX Alarm, Cuz Bonde Role Is Releasing The Marina Gasolina EP!
By Emceegreg on 11-08-2007
What is it in Brazil that makes everyone so damn cute? Yeah, that's right -- Bonde Do Role are cute. They don't scare me; in fact, their quirky vocals and metal + Brazilian funk/dance beats have helped me to overcome my clinical depression. And you know what? The enormous attention given to Bonde Do Role or CSS doesn't even faze me. I've been riding this baile funk train for quite some time, starting way back when I lived as an aspiring photographer in the hoods of São Paulo. Hell, I predicted this baile funk explosion back in ‘95.
Bonde Do Role have already had their "party year" since the release of With Lasers (which features cover art of Our Lord and Savior as a statue with laser beams shooting out of his eyes), but the party apparently continues on December 4, when the group releases the Marina Gasolina EP in the U.S. on Domino Records. The EP will feature unreleased material, as well as a new version of "Marina Gasolina." There will also be several remixes by underground artists that no one has ever heard of. Not even Jay-Z. It'll make a great Christmas present for your faux-DJ friend who suspiciously imitates Girl Talk. (Expect an exiting New Year's Eve mash-up party with a little bit of Bonde Do Role's "Miami Beach" chopped with R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion.")
So, now that you know what Bonde Do Role is up to, let's get back to what's important: ME! First off, I apologize to my (only) two fans in Jersey, Mick and Vic. You guys probably expected me to write a hilarious and comprehensible news piece. But, I'm not much for excuses, so here it goes: I made tons of jokes today and in every situation I was completely "on" -- I was so funny all morning that I just had no steam left in me by noon. I couldn't even think of anything funny to say while walking with my boss outside, when she said, "We didn't get any dingleberries this year. They usually fall from the trees and stink real bad." I couldn't contain my laughter. She later came by my desk and said, "I meant ginkgo berries, earlier. Ginkgo berries."
Marina Gasolina EP tracklisting:
CocoRosie Tour Europe, Hire New Mustache Artists
By Heidi Vanderslice on 11-08-2007
Best way to get me (or most people I know for that matter) to listen to an album is to tell me that it has been personally sanctioned by John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats. So, I figured if he was willing to give the new(est) CocoRosie another whirl, who the hell was I to write it off so quickly? Often, the true depth of an album lies within its flaws, and The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn is no exception. Is "Bloody Twins" (track 3) a phrase you're not totally comfortable with? Probably. Does antiquated, brittle warbling over a music box freak you out in the slightest? Shit, I mean, it should. But once you understand that these elements are as second nature to CocoRosie as the canned horse neigh that appears on most of their albums, you accept that sisters Sierra and Bianca Casaday just might be a little batshit. And that's okay. Because it's pretty and creepy. Mostly pretty.
If that toy horse isn't at these dates, I'ma be pissed:
Downtown 81 Soundtrack Totally Came Out Already, And I’m Just Getting to It Now… Whoops
By Valley Girl Magic on 11-08-2007
The soundtrack to Downtown 81 (a.k.a., New York Beat Movie) was released earlier this week, and it features a ton of bands from the Lower East Side art scene of the late ‘70s/early ‘80s on which the film was based. The film features the late Jean Michel Basquiat basically playing himself as a young artist who is evicted from his apartment and sets off into the streets with a painting, intending to sell it for enough money to reclaim said apartment. Along the way he runs into a motley cast of characters, mostly played by key figures of said art and music scene, at one point featuring Debbie Harry as a bag-lady-turned-fairy-princess.
The soundtrack consists of an über-exciting array of bands, even including Basquiat's own band Gray, which also featured skeezy filmmaker Vincent Gallo. Other bands and people on the soundtrack include Lydia Lunch, James Chance, Liquid Liquid, Tuxedomoon, DNA, Suicide, Chris Stein of Blondie... the list goes on.
Tracklist:
I was just about to jump off the roof of this tall building due to the high stress and meaningless nature of my rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, but then I heard Vampire Weekend are touring.
By Hanky Panky on 11-08-2007
Going to one more show can't hurt, right? And while Vampire Weekend are decidedly not "punk rock," that doesn't mean that the track "A-Punk" off their self-released blue CD-R doesn't, for lack of a better word, kick ass (excuse me, but we can't all go to Columbia). With the sound of kids who used to listen to The Clash before they fell in love with Pavement, Vampire Weekend are well-annunciated, saccharine indie-pop with Ivy League precision, and they hands-down play my all-time favorite song about punctuation (as a writer, I have many). They've also succeeded in rhyming "Louis Vuitton" with "reggaeton" better than most bands I've been hearing lately.
Look for the oh-so-East-Coast's first full-length release by XL Recordings in January 2008.
But for now -- a tour.
* Celebration
# Mount Eerie
$ Grand Ole Party
% Grand Ole Party
! Friends of John (A benefit concert for the John Ryan Pike Memorial Foundation.)
