I'm Writing for Buddyhead

So you can read a slightly different version of The Horrors' Primary Colors review I did on this site, over at Buddyhead. It's cool to be writing for a site that I respect. Anyway, read it here.

From The Basement + The Dead Weather

Don't have time to edit this from my email. Verbatim:

Hello,

On Monday, 22nd June, you have the chance to catch The Dead Weather's first
UK performance, live online and on mobile... for free.

A bona fide supergroup, The Dead Weather sees Raconteurs Jack White and
'Little' Jack Lawrence join forces with The Kills' Alison Mosshart and Dean
Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age. They're currently tearing up the US and
we're thrilled to have secured their first UK appearance.

At 9pm UK time they'll join us to play a one-off live set at ftblive.com
[http://www.ftblive.com/]. With the help of
Nokia, we've hooked up a blisteringly fast, broadcast-quality video feed,
so you can watch every minute of this unique collaboration online as it
happens.

Trust us, you've never seen anything quite like it. And with sold out shows
across Europe, this might be your only chance to catch the summer's most
exciting band.

We hope you can join us.

In the meantime, check out ftblive.com
[http://www.ftblive.com/] for an insider's look
at the preparations for the performance.

THE DEAD WEATHER LIVE | MONDAY 22 JUNE.
9PM BST | 4PM EDT | 1PM PDT
FTBLIVE.COM [http://www.ftblive.com/]

LA Remap: Ludicity

Verbatim:

"play...
disrupt...
explore...
transform...

Los Angeles

enGage ludiCity
by REMAP for Photocartographies @ g727
a module of Remapping-LA

A situationist-inspired participative experience/performance
using mobile technology for collective exploration and dialogue
about Los Angeles, its psychogeography and its historicity.

June 15 to June 19 - personal disruptive ludic actions

Re-envision the city through playful actions.
Disrupt habitual patterns and generate significant situations.
Transform the common and obvious into extraordinary and interesting.
Create maps of the city based on creativity, play and discovery.
Re-label the city with a language of personal experience.
Have fun.

Participate by registering to use the Situationist Messaging System (SMS)
http://la.remap.ucla.edu/ludicity/

Based on your registration profile our Situationist Messaging System will
suggest (through SMS) periodic random ludic (playful) actions and request
feedback.

The information sent about the participants' ludic actions will generate an
emergent experiential map of Los Angeles posted every couple of hours
at http://la.remap.ucla.edu/ludicity

June 20 - collective situationist ludic engagement
Daylight Engagement: 4pm to 6:30pm
Night Engagement: 9:30pm to 12midnight
at “Photocartographies/g727, 727 Spring Street, Downtown LA

Join participants to engage downtown LA through the maps and directions
created through playful actions (described above).
Explore color, texture, shape, and function in the urban geography.
Re-label physical space with the collective language of personal experience.
Re-define the city’s purpose by turning it into an open library, archive, and stage.
Create trails of images, sounds and text for future reflexion.
Have lots of fun.

Participation in “personal disruptive ludic actions” is recommended but not
required to join the “collective situationist ludic engagements".

An mobile technology automatic documentation system will be used to
generate a multi-perspective representation of the experience.

June 20 - situationist D&D (dialogue and drinking)
7pm to 9pm at “Photocartographies/g727, 727 Spring Street, Downtown LA

A stimulating dialogue about the situationist frameworks, situationist action,
situationist technology and their relevance to Los Angeles.

Created by the Center for Research in Engineering, Media and Performance
School of Theater, Film & Television and Henry Samueli School of Engineering
UCLA
http://remap.ucla.edu

A Cultural Civic Computing System by
Fabian Wagmister & Jeff Burke

Photocartographies Curators
Adam Katz & Brian Rosa
http://www.tatteredfragments.info/
g727 Co-Founders
Adrian Rivas & James Rojas
http://www.gallery727losangeles.com/"

Death: For The Whole World To See

Unlike some douches, I'm not going to pretend like I knew about these guys all along and act like I'm just diggin' them up now, right when all their singles are getting the re-release treatment.

How cool does this sound: three black brothers (literally brothers--I'm not that callous) from Detroit decided to forego the funk and soul they'd been playing after hearing Black Sabbath, The MC5, The Who, The Stooges, and Alice Cooper (read: white people music) and called their new band Death. Well, the results are just as cool as you might think, especially with first single, "Keep On Knocking", which sounds just like the lost classic it is. Anyway, these guys had a lot of potential, but Clive Davis decided their name wasn't fit for mainstream audiences and tried to get them to change it, and the resulting tensions within the band resulted in the premature end of Death. Too bad.

Death - Keep On Knocking
Death - Freakin Out

And because I'm really cool, here's an alternate-vocal take of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" from The Stooges self-titled album. This version must have been recorded after Iggy shot up:

The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog (Alternate Vocal)

The Dead Weather

Jack White can't really do wrong in my opinion. By now, most people have probably heard The Dead Weather's first [excellent] single, "Hang You From The Heavens". Cool. It's uncanny how much Alison Mosshart from The Kills sounds like Jack, and I have to say she sounds way better with TDW than she ever did in The Kills. (Although I like the idea of what The Kills do on paper, the reality of their minimal scuzzy blues comes off like they're trying too hard to sound badass.) Anyway, I love the dirty bass that anchors TDW's single, and the b-side "Treat Me Like Your Mother" has some funny lyrics, not to mention the point at 1:49 when [it sounds like both] Mosshart and White give their best banshee yelps over a fucked-up synth line.

So for anyone who cares to compare-and-contrast, I've also included the lead-off track from The Kills' second album, No Wow. Also, here's the title track from The Raconteurs' second LP. The last third of that song is probably one of my favorite bits of song in recent memory; the drums, bass, and guitars all lock into pure rhythmic force. Finally, here's one of my favorite White Stripes' songs from De Stijl; from the lazy guitar intro and onward, "Truth Doesn't Make A Noise" effortlessly lulls you into a beatific stupor.

The Dead Weather - Hang You From The Heavens
The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother

The Kills - No Wow/Telephone Radio Germany

The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely

The White Stripes - Truth Doesn't Make a Noise

Legos + Frank Lloyd Wright =

I was actually just thinking about Legos. Do kids still play with them?

This is probably one of the coolest things I've seen in a while:

(Falling Water!)

Press Release:
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES NEW LICENSEE

The LEGO Group and Brickstructures, Inc. to produce and distribute Frank Lloyd Wright Collection® LEGO® Architecture Building Sets

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation announced today that The LEGO Group is now the exclusive licensed manufacturer of Frank Lloyd Wright Collection® LEGO Architecture sets.

The LEGO Group and Adam Reed Tucker of Brickstructures, Inc. officially introduced the LEGO Architecture line in 2008. The line currently consists of six buildings – now including two of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most famous and recognizable buildings, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and “Fallingwater.”

With models developed in collaboration with architects, LEGO Architecture works to inspire future architects, engineers and designers as well as architecture fans around the world with the LEGO brick as a medium. Builders of all ages can now collect and construct their favorite worldwide architectural sites through these artistic replicas.

Both exclusive Frank Lloyd Wright LEGO Architecture sets contain booklets that feature traditional building instructions along with exclusive archival historical material and photographs of each iconic building.

The LEGO Group will release the first of the LEGO Architecture Frank Lloyd Wright Collection® sets at the opening of the Frank Lloyd Wright Exhibit: From Within Outward at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on May 15, 2009.

(Images copyright LEGO, Brickstructures and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.)

And they're still constructing (...) the site over at Lego.

Obits: I Blame You

Rick Froberg was singer/lyricist/guitarist/album-cover-artist of Hot Snakes, one of my favorite bands, and played the same role in Drive Like Jehu, a band I don't love as much but have to respect for their influential math-rock. He's got a new band, Obits, that played a single show in January of 2008. Someone happened to record the show, and based on that shitty recording and subsequent internet-hype, (and also Froberg's resume, most likely) Sub Pop signed them. They released a single late in 2008 and released their debut, I Blame You, a couple months ago.

Rick has an amazing voice, this thin, strangled yelp that erupts from his throat. It's what you might call "unconventionally beautiful". That voice is still here with Obits (so is his artwork), but this album lacks the feverish down-stroked blitzkrieg of Hot Snakes; it's a much looser batch of songs that feature heavily-reverbed surf guitar lines. It's not as good as anything Hot Snakes put out, but I like it better than John Reis' Night Marchers. You can check out album opener "Widow of My Dreams", which reminded me a bit of "This Mystic Decade", one of my favorite Hot Snakes songs. Also, there's the strutting "Two-Headed Coin", complete with bouncing bassline and Froberg's staccato vocals. And to be well-rounded, there's also the b-side to the Obits single and a song from that first live recording at The Cake Shop.

(Also, here is my previous post on Hot Snakes where you can [probably] still get a couple mp3's of theirs.)

From I Blame You:
Obits - Widow of My Dreams
Obits - Two-Headed Coin

The b-side to the One Cross Apiece single:
Obits - Put It in Writing

Live @ The Cake Shop on 01/12/08:
Obits - One Cross Apiece

...And here's "This Mystic Decade" by Hot Snakes:
Hot Snakes - This Mystic Decade