“O.N.E.” is the second single from Yeasayer’s newest album “Odd Blood.” Directed by Radical Friend (Kirby McClure and Julia Grigorian)

]]> http://thecalcuttablog.com/2010/03/10/yeasayer-debut-new-video-for-o-n-e/feed/ 1 miichaeljames yeasayer_logo http://thecalcuttablog.com/2010/03/10/lcd-soundsystem-premiere-new-track-at-yves-saint-laurent-fashion-show/ http://thecalcuttablog.com/2010/03/10/lcd-soundsystem-premiere-new-track-at-yves-saint-laurent-fashion-show/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:25:31 +0000 miichaeljames http://thecalcuttablog.com/?p=2608 ]]> I had the distinct privilege of previewing the new, third album from LCD Soundsystem yesterday, which still remains untitled, and allow me to say right here, that this will undoubtedly be their number 1 hit album. It’s intricately written, super rhythmic, and has an overall fresh upbeat feel. I repeat: FRESH. Don’t let that allude you to think this is another dance-pop album. You certainly could dance to it, and you may be so inclined to confuse the catchy hooks for pop. But rest assured, for you won’t be disappointed. You might even love what you’ll hear – unfortunately – not until 5/17.

A write-up and photographs can be found at my friend Colin’s blog, The Pistola Press.

Along the same lines as Gorillaz’ “Plastic Beach,” and much like every other album out in today’s music world, “Broken Bells” was leaked quite a while ago. Nonetheless, today is the official release date for all those who’ve waited, and the iTunes charts certainly prove that these albums were awaited by many. As of recent, Broken Bells’ self-titled is coming in at #2 behind Gorillaz “Plastic Beach.” James Mercer and Brian Burton will be celebrating their release tonight on the Late Show with David Letterman, so be sure to tune in. Also if you’re around the New York area and already have a ticket to tomorrows show at Music Hall of Williamsburg, well, enjoy this to-be spectacle. It’s sold-out otherwise! And for those of you down in Austin, Tx you can count on them making an appearance next week for SXSW.

Although the critically hailed album has been leaked for some time now, “Plastic Beach,” the third album from Gorillaz, was released today via EMI’s Virgin Records. “Plastic Beach” is also available in a digital deluxe edition which features the making of “Stylo,” the first released music video off of the album, as well as a handful of Gorillaz animation, trailers, and loads of other art, photos, and cool behind the scenes looks.

“Plastic Beach,” produced in its entirety by Damon Albarn, features a respectable list of stars, including Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack, Mos Def, Lou Reed, The Clash’s Mich Jones and Paul Simonon, The National Orchestra for Arabic Music and more!

The Morning Benders will release “Big Echo” tomorrow via Rough Trade Records. The album was recorded in San Francisco, mixed in Brooklyn, and all the while produced by lead singer Christopher Chu and Chris Taylor (Grizzly Bear). Pick up your copy tomorrow and be sure to listen in headphones! Also, I have a pair of tickets here to give away to their show at Johnny Brendas in Philadelphia, Pa. If you’re a twitter(er), go to my page at twitter.com/miichaeljames, and follow! First two new followers will each receive a ticket!

The Morning Benders - Photo: Matt Jacoby

TOUR DATES:

3/10/10 – JOHNNY BRENDAS – PHILADELPHIA, PA
3/11/10 – BLACK CAT – WASHINGTON, DC
3/12/10 – LOCAL 506 – CHAPEL HILL, NC
3/13/10 – DRUNKEN UNICORN – ATLANTA, GA
3/15/10 – THE BOTTLETREE – BIRMINGHAM, AL
3/17/10 – SXSW (SHOWS TBA) – AUSTIN, TX
3/20/10 – ROUGH TRADE SHOWCASE @ EMO’S JR – AUSTIN, TX
3/23/10 – STEREOGUM RANGE LIFE @ PARISH – AUSTIN, TX
RHYTHM ROOM
3/25/10 – THE TROUBADOR – LOS ANGELES, CA
3/26/10 – THE CASBAH – SAN DIEGO, CA
3/27/10 – DETROIT BAR – COSTA MESA, CA
3/28/10 – MUDDY WATERS – SANTA BARBARA, CA
3/30/10 – THE INDEPENDENT – SAN FRANCISCO, CA
4/1/10 – HOLOCENE – PORTLAND, OR
4/2/10 – CROCODILE CAFE – SEATTLE, WA
4/3/10 – MEDIA CLUB – VANCOUVER, BC
4/5/10 – CLUB VELOUR – PROVO, UT
4/7/10 – HI-DIVE – DENVER, CO
4/9/10 – THE VAUDEVILLE MEWS – DES MOINES, IA
4/10/10 – THE MAINTENANCE SHOP – AMES, IA
4/11/10 – HUCKLEBERRY’S PIZZA – ROCK ISLAND, IL
4/12/10 – SCHUBAS – CHICAGO, IL
4/14/10 – THE DRAKE HOTEL – TORONTO, ON
4/15/10 – LA SALA ROSSA – MONTREAL, QC
4/16/10 – THE MONKEY HOUSE – WINOOSKI, VT
4/17/10 – TT THE BEAR’S – BOSTON, MA
4/22/10 – MERCURY LOUNGE – NEW YORK, NY

Official HD Promo Video for Gorillaz’ new single ‘Stylo,’ taken from the new album ‘Plastic Beach’.

It appears that the embedding was disabled by the host or artist, but either way, hop on over to YouTube to check out this new video featuring Bruce Willis! GO TO GORILLAZ VIDEO

Atoms for Peace - Photo by Colin Greenwood

Thom Yorke announced last week via http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/ that his band ????, recently renamed Atoms For Peace, will play a series of eight U.S. shows leading up to its April 18 appearance at the Coachella festival in Indio CA. The band consists of Yorke, Flea, Mauro Refosco, Joey Waronker and Nigel Godrich. LA’s Flying Lotus is set to open for Atoms For Peace 7 out of 8 dates. Additionally, Flying Lotus’s new album ‘Cosmogramma’ will be out on May 4 and features Yorke as a guest vocalist.

Dates:

Thom Yorke/Atoms For Peace
(Flying Lotus Supports New York Through Oakland)

4/5/10: NEW YORK ROSELAND BALLROOM

4/6/10: NEW YORK ROSELAND BALLROOM

4/8/10: BOSTON CITI WANG THEATRE

4/10/10: CHICAGO ARAGON BALLROOM

4/11/10: CHICAGO ARAGON BALLROOM

4/14/10: FOX THEATRE, OAKLAND

4/15/10: FOX THEATRE, OAKLAND

4/17/10: SANTA BARBARA BOWL

4/18/10: COACHELLA

Broken Bells - James Mercer and Brian Burton aka DJ Dangermouse

Broken Bells, the newest collaboration of The Shin’s frontman, James Mercer, and Brian Burton, aka DJ Dangermouse, confirm upcoming television appearances as an accompaniment to their March 9th self-titled release through Columbia Records.

Dates:

3/9/10: LATE SHOW WITH DAVID  LETTERMAN – TELEVISION DEBUT!

3/10/10: MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG, NYC - SOLD OUT

3/11/10: LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON

3/14/10: TROUBADOUR, LA – SOLD OUT

The  following week the band will play NPR’s SXSW opening night gala at Stubbs in Austin TX alongside Spoon, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, The  Walkmen and more.

Tomorrow, Gorillaz will premiere “Stylo,” featuring Bobby Womack and Mos Def, the first video from their third album “Plastic Beach,” on YouTube. The video premiere will follow today’s launch of a streaming full album preview as part of NPR Music’s Exclusive First Listen series at www.NPR.org/music.

Directed by: Timothy Saccenti

TOUR DATES:

3/26        Miami, FL                              Ultra Music Festival

3/28        Niagara Falls, CA                Rapids Falls

3/29        York, PA                                 Pullo Family Performing Arts Center

3/30        Cleveland, OH                      House of Blues

3/31        Columbus, OH                     LC Pavilion

4/2          Chicago, IL                           Congress Theatre  SOLD OUT

4/3          Milwaukee, WI                      Turner Hall SOLD OUT

4/4          Minneapolis, MN                  First Avenue  SOLD OUT

4/5          Kansas City, MO                  Beaumont Club

4/7          Denver, CO                           Ogden Theatre

4/8          Salt Lake City, UT                In The Venue

4/10        Eugene, OR                          McDonald Theatre

4/11        Vancouver, CAN                   Commodore  SOLD OUT

4/12        Portland, OR                         Roseland Theater

4/14        Davis, CA                              UC Davis Freeborn Hall

4/15        San Francisco, CA              The Warfield Theatre

4/16        Indio, CA                                Coachella

4/22        Chicago, IL                           Congress Theatre

4/30        Knoxville, TN                         University of Tennessee

5/31        George, WA                          Sasquatch Festival

6/29        Brooklyn, NY                         Prospect Park Bandshell  SOLD OUT

RJD2 Photo: Ben Mistak

That’s right, time for another contest. I have a pair of tickets here for giveaway for RJD2’s show at Emo’s this Saturday, 2/13 in Austin, Tx. For a chance to win, go to my twitter  - miichaeljames -  follow me, and tweet me why you should win these tickets.

Thanks to Pitch Perfect PR for the tickets! Also, check out this streaming track “Games You Can Win” from RJD2.

Hope everyone has been having a great new year so far and enjoying some of the new music that has dropped! I wanted to provide you with some insight into what I’ve been up to lately and how I plan to produce for the next year. As I mentioned, the new year has brought new ideas, and with that, I have a few myself.

For one, The Calcutta Blog is currently transitioning. From what? Well, the ideals of 2009 – show coverage and interviews – all the while keeping it real, aka, on the personal side. We’ve always strived for our interviews to be a little more quirky and upbeat, which I believe we’ve succeeded in thus far.. So stemming from that, my goal is to make this blog as close to 100% visual as I possibly can. I always thought show reviews were somewhat biased, and honestly, it changes from person to person. The small kid getting tossed around up front may or may not have had the best show of his/her life. On the flipside, they could have hated it. Meanwhile, I’m in the photo pit, unscathed and enjoying the show the way I like to. Point is, there are different perspectives a show can offer as you all know. I want to stray from reviewing a show as good/bad, and more so, provide you all with high-quality photo/video/audio that you’ve come to expect. I’ve got some truly great ideas in terms of video (at least I think so!), and with that, some really awesome bands that are willing to participate in my videoxperimentation.

Secret hint involving an upcoming video: Fiery Furnaces! ..Not so much a secret now.

This year is a new year as we all know, and with a new year comes new promises and new directions. For one, The Calcutta has teamed up with Austin-based filmmakers Color Chart, a collective of creative and talented  filmmakers, photographers, and writers, in hopes to bring a new dynamic and extended coverage to the blog.  Last year, on behalf of The Calcutta, Color Chart rarely captured one of the late Jay Reteards final shows in which he was attacked by two fans. Some other videos include a one-take capture of Les Savy Fav at Fun, Fun, Fun Fest, and a most recent capture of Crystal Antlers performing “Parting Song For The Torn Sky.” One of my 2010 plans is to head to Austin this coming march for the famed SXSW. A friend and fellow photographer Tiffany Yoon has noted, “I’m not really sure how to best explain what to expect, because it’s an absolute mind fuck.”

There are some really great bands that are making the transition from the unknown of 2009 to the surface of 2010. With that, The Calcutta is currently in the process of developing a new style of concert coverage. Thanks to the portability of certain new equipment, you can be sure to expect to see some footy like you’ve never seen before, my promise. In the meantime, please sit tight, and thank you so much for all of you who have checked out The Calcutta Blog.

-Michael James Murray

Cinematography credit: James Longmire

Words and Photographs by Michael James Murray

Footage is copyright under The Calcutta Blog and Mutually Made, 2009.

After this point, Jay fought the fan off with his mic stand, flicked the crowd off, bowed sarcastically, and left. The crowd began throwing cans of beer at the rest of the band, who hurried after Jay. The night ended and two fans were arrested. Yes, it was a fun show.

You can check out some photos from the show here.

Charles Spearin

Ohad Benchetrit

Michael: When’d you guys get into town?

Ohad: Uh, 2:30 – 3:00.

Michael: Were you in New York last night?

Charles: Yeah, Manhattan and Brooklyn the night before.

Michael: How’d it go?

Ohad: Great.
Charles: Brooklyn was awesome. Manhattan was a little bit more like a Sunday night feeling, a bit quieter crowd. The Brooklyn show was really rowdy and fun.

Michael: Quiet crowds can be cool too, I guess, with a little Sunday night feel.

Charles: Yeah. It wasn’t that bad. Brooklyn was just a lot of fun. We were kind of revved up for another show and then.. a quieter crowd. Some dude passed out right in front right at the beginning. I was like okay stop the show.
Ohad: Well technically you didn’t stop until he passed out the second time.
Charles: He got up and fell over again.
Ohad: I’m okay!

Michael: When you guys went into your writing process, specifically for “Other Truths,” you all just went into a room and let whatever sort of happen?

Ohad: Pretty much. We try not to bore the drummers. You can tell when you have.
Charles: It’s funny because it’s almost like we try not to come in with ideas because once you have ideas you become attached to them and you start trying to manipulate them. If you come in with an open mind and just see what comes out of everybody coming together. It doesn’t always work that way.

Michael: Yeah, you come in with an idea sometimes and you become attached to it and then other people don’t like it.

Charles: Yeah it hurts you know? It’s just like okay.

Michael: You guys don’t like my stuff?

Ohad: Yeah and I think this was the year where everybody was kind of already taking those ideas that they would have normally brought to the table and placing them on other projects.
Charles: Yeah Ohad put out his record, I put my record out, Justin’s with the Lullaby Arkestra record..
Ohad: So this is more of what’s left.
Charles: Yeah, this is Do Make Say Think, you know, it’s not any one of us.

Michael: Very cool. I mean with that style, do concepts for the album sort of evolve with the writing of the songs? And also, how did you narrow down? I imagine you guys wrote a lot?

Ohad: Actually we didn’t write a lot. These were the only four songs that were written.

Michael: Just a lot of focus.

Charles: In a way there wasn’t much of a concept for this record. Music, inherently, is abstract. It’s sound. You can add concepts to it, you can say it feels like this or it reminds me of this but music in itself is like an abstract painting. You just get what you get from it and then you can add all kinds of concepts afterwards. This record, even in a way, we tried to steer away from adding too many ideas and just leaving it as music. Even the album title, “Other Truths,” is a way of respecting each other’s opinions and letting everybody have their own perspective of it. It took me a while to accept that as being valid. Before I always somehow thought music had to have meaning, but it does anyway. You can sort of add your own to it, but ultimately, music is abstract and I kind of appreciate that a bit more. So it is what it is and everybody appreciates it how they appreciate it. That’s where we kept it going.

Michael: I like that non-concept. It’s a concept but it’s not at the same time. It’s an approach where it’s like, ‘okay this is fine on its own just because.’ A lot of times, some people have trouble accepting that.

Charles: Yeah it could be naïve or something like, ‘oh you’re just fucking around.’ Like yeah, we’re just fucking around but at the same time we’re intelligent about it. We know somehow we’re selective in our notes; we’re selective in our sounds. We don’t really know what it is that’s pushing our fingers around and what it is that’s making these decisions.
Ohad: Concept is about having intention. When you have intention you let that direct and guide what you’re doing and sometimes that’s a wonderful thing. But I think with Do Make it’s a lot of the times more emotional, and concept can get in the way of an emotion. Like, I can’t do this because the concept dictates that we do that, but emotionally, this is where we want to be going. And when it’s all about that, it’s going to mean different things to different people. It’ll carry a context. You know you can’t do something sad and pretend it’s happy. But how sad it is, and why it’s sad is going to be different to everybody who listens to it. I think with what we were doing with this record was more about setting up that context. So it’s just writing colors and waves as opposed to signing a precondition of each movement.

Michael: I love it. It’s great. So what would you guys do on an off day, if you were doing your own thing and didn’t have any plans. What would you do?

Charles: We’re both family men, so..

Michael: Oh you guys have kids?

Charles: Yeah we’ve both got two kids.

Ohad: It can range from sleeping and doing absolutely nothing to walking as much as I possibly can depending on where you’re are and what there is to see and what you’ve done before. With 26 shows in a row without a day off, I think if we had had a day off, my only intention would be to stay in bed. For others, it’s about drinking as much beer as possible.

Michael: When’s the last time you played Philadelphia?

Charles: Last time we were coming we were supposed to play here and then our van broke down on the way here.

Michael: As Do Make?

Charles: As Do Make Say Think, yeah.

Ohad: We weren’t going to play here, we were going to play somewhere else.
Charles: We were going to play here, but we ended up playing somewhere else.
Ohad: No we did that but it was going to be that same place we played with Broken Social Scene.
Charles: It was supposed to be an all ages show, and it was going to be great. We sold a bunch of tickets and we were really excited to come down and we realized we weren’t going to make it. We just push forward and they managed to switch venues at the last minute to this tiny little place that was 21+ and the stage was tiny. We were all burnt out. We’ve played this basement a bunch of times though.

Michael: You guys said you were both family men. I guess I’m just wondering how you handle being away from the people you love. You are with people you love, but there are people you love somewhere else. How do you balance that?

Charles: I think I’ve toured a bit more over the last bit just because Ohad and I both played in Broken Social Scene, but the past couple of years I’ve been touring with the band a bit more than he has. When you’re away, you don’t see your family at all. But when you’re home, you actually get to spend a lot of quality time at home. We don’t have day jobs you know. We’re just on the road except for living at home and working at the studio and stuff like that. So you know a lot of dads don’t see their kids, you know, nine to five, and only see their kids on the weekends. I know my daughters really well, Ohad knows his kids really well because we spend a lot of time together when we’re home. Yeah, it’s hard when we’re away, but dad’s got to work. I think it’s kind of the best of both worlds. It’s a good job.
Ohad: You learn to adjust. The point is, that when we’re home there really is a solid connection and I think you just learn to adapt. The human condition is set up to do that and when we’re on the road, this becomes our life for a little while. When something happens at home, the gap just gets filled up by something. Everyone just seems to manage and it’s never for too long.
Charles: It’ s not like we’re in the army.
Ohad: Yeah it’s not that crazy. We’re not doing two-year tours exactly. So it’s three, four weeks here and there.

And in case you missed the recent video post from Les Savy Fav from Austin’s Fun Fun Fun Fest for The Calcutta Blog, filmed by Austin filmmakers Mutually Made, you can check that out below.