Tiny Mix Tapes

Runzelstirn & Gurgelstøck

Andy Ortmann — 2009-11-19T16:30:27Z

[October 2009] Amidst the monotony of life and lack of experiential living, there are few individuals who take simple concepts like "the senses" to new heights, or at least to places where you might not otherwise traverse. One such example is Rudolf Eb.er. Protagonist of the legendary Schimpfluch Gruppe/Commune and master of the absurd, he has created considerable challenging and sometimes downright confusing works over the decades. Eb.er's early sonic compositions were comprised (...) - INTERVIEWS

Headlights

Todd Olmstead — 2009-11-17T16:23:29Z

[October 2009] Iowa City and Champaign-Urbana are something like sister cities in the Midwest – both Big Ten college schools with amazing pockets of local musicianship. Ever since Headlights first came to Iowa City in December 2007, they've been good friends. I've seen them play several times over the last two years – at least five times in Iowa City as well as in Champaign and Austin – so I've had the chance to see them grow as a band. It's not (...) - INTERVIEWS

Computer Perfection

Jeff Milo — 2009-11-13T13:14:51Z

[November 2009] Gene Corduroy stands in his cozy cluttery basement studio, gesturing to his longtime friend/longtime music-collaborator Nathaniel Burgundy IV, admitting how weird it was, initially, to sing in front of him, to sing in front of anybody even, ever. But self-displacement from past comfort zones was a needed step to “defining ourselves” for the heretofore often-strict guitarist, as he had to get used to singing over the last year with Computer Perfection — (...) - INTERVIEWS

Musical Analysis: Dirty Projectors' "Jolly Jolly Jolly Ego"

Benjamin Bernstein — 2009-11-09T14:46:10Z

[November 2009] When a new compositional technology becomes available, a seemingly endless amount of ideas arise on how best to employ it. But it was the advent of electronic recording capabilities that revolutionized the way almost every modern musician operates, not just by shifting the primary document from the score to the recording, but also in creating new ways to edit, manipulate, and ultimately compose sound without any “real instrument” in hand. Sound becomes data. (...) - ARTICLES

Haunted House

Chizzly St. Claw — 2009-11-05T13:25:36Z

[October 2009] This year is a big year for Minneapolis's Haunted House. Not only are they attempting to release three albums between now and next summer, but their music is taking a new direction, especially in the live setting. Indeed, it's been a long road since the band's debut as "Andrew W.K. as an Enya-inspired drunken blackout." Over the course of six months, Tiny Mix Tapes worked on an epic interview with Mike Watton, the founder of Haunted House. But while it (...) - INTERVIEWS

Treasure Island 2009

Chris Lindsey, Elzee — 2009-11-03T13:50:56Z

[October 17-18, 2009] Chris Lindsey: On my way to the Treasure Island Music Festival, my friend texted me: “I feel like I'm in an American Apparel ad.” Of course, it is no longer a surprise, this ghoulish bunch of copycats, poseurs, and hangers-on. I wonder why I feel the need to open every article I write with these indictments? So, let's dispense with the hazy and bitter memories and focus on the reality of this moment: The Treasure Island Music Festival is an (...) - ARTICLES

Julian Lynch

Emilie Friedlander — 2009-10-30T07:19:12Z

[October 2009] Describing Julian Lynch's music is difficult, period. But it is even harder to describe his music without falling back on certain buzzwords, terms that have been so overused by music journalists over the past year that they seem to designate everything and nothing at once. We might say, for example, that Julian makes blissed-out 21st-century psychedelia, waltzing lackadaisically through the bottomless archive of musical references (Western and non-) that the (...) - INTERVIEWS

Pop Montreal 2009

Mangoon — 2009-10-29T06:52:13Z

[September 30 - October 4, 2009] For eight years now, music fans and industry heads alike have been drawn to Montreal for its annual Pop Montreal fest. The event is something like Canada's version of CMJ, and one week a year the "Paris of the North" offers up its mixture of old-world sensibilities and modern metropolitan appeal to even the most haggard of hipsters. More than just a music festival, Pop Montreal has evolved into a full on multimedia event with bands, movies, (...) - ARTICLES

Thao and The Get Down Stay Down

Ze Pequeno — 2009-10-27T16:29:51Z

Thao Nguyen is quite a mover. The chanteuse recently moved to the Mission District of San Francisco, which has lately been gaining press attention for an ascending regional sound that has not been seen in the city since The Dead Kennedys did records in the Tenderloin. Her latest album with her band the Get Down Stay Down, Know Better Learn Faster, dropped this month, making a move from a simple folk approach to more complex and electrical compositions. Even her live act has moved to a more (...) - INTERVIEWS

Sonic Youth (Lee Ranaldo)

Saltlick — 2009-10-23T12:57:50Z

[July 2009] It's been seven years since Sonic Youth released Murray Street, an album that was adored equally by their noise fans, their rock fans, and their noise-rock fans. But their last three studio albums, including their latest The Eternal (TMT Review), have been polarizing to say the least. While some have praised the band for reclaiming the alternative rock sound of their early-90s work, others have accused them of abandoning their experimental tendencies in favor of a more (...) - INTERVIEWS