Holly Miranda and I recently squeezed in a conversation about her ever-approaching solo album, The Magician’s Private Library, and a good portion of it is featured over at Paste. We’re both ready for Natalie Merchant’s resurgence.
Judging by Holly’s loud rawk past as a principal member of the Jealous Girlfriends, folktacular songs from her more distant past, and the Lauryn Hill cover from her Black Cab Sessions posted above, she can meld her powerful voice to any situation. Her new album is brawnier, knottier and brassier than anything that’s come before, (evidence: “Forest Green Oh Forest Green”) and it’s going to make some artful noise come February.
Have we entered an era when the new rock bands build hits with pieces of the classic rock bands’ celebrated songs? In my Animal Collective Fall Be Kind EP review for Alternative Press, I describe their use of a vocal sample from the Grateful Dead’s “Unbroken Chain” for “What Would I Want? Sky.” That’s the EP artwork above, by the way.
Sampling, when done well, creates a fresh context for found sounds, and we go “I can’t believe they did that, cool.” The Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Public Enemy and other rap acts pillaged rock to give a razor-sharp (Razr-sharp?) edge to their beats, but sometimes it was painfully obvious where the beat came from. Several behemoth bands resisted this treatment at the time, and it’s still pretty tough to legally use Led Zeppelin if you don’t have Eminem or Diddy money today. But imagine the Decemberists sampling the Pogues, Man Man lifting a little Tom Waits, the Dirty Projectors hooking up with David Byrn—oh wait.
I had not heard “Unbroken Chain” prior to writing this review, but the experience of listening to the source material and matching it up got me thinking about my youth. I think I first understood what a sample was after watching Vanilla Ice explain to MTV the vast differences between “Ice Ice Baby” and “Under Pressure” (and I wish I could find that interview archived on YouTube). Needless to say, Animal Collective have taken greater steps to create their own song here, but “What Would I Want? Sky” would not be the career statement that it is without Phil Lesh’s distorted flow on the hook.
Warpaint, who just inked a deal with Rough Trade, were among my CMJ faves. Just to keep my streak of value-added postings alive, the Los Angeles psychedelic songstresses’ “Stars” video is above.
For anyone who didn’t find their way to my CMJ coverage at Paste’s site with my regular nudges, read my thoughts on day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4-5.
In Yo La Tengo’s classic “Sugarcube” video (above), frontman Ira Kaplan unfolds a picture of Lou Reed from his pocket — only to get berated by his “rock school” instructor. I spoke with Ira recently about the band’s charming new album, Popular Songs, and how it feels to put the skills learned at rock school into action with Lou in the crowd. The results are posted via Paste.
If the aim of this Taken By Trees video for “My Boys” is finding ways to make colored spots move across blurry footage of inanimate objects, then they’ve nailed it. At least listen to the song, a reworking of the Animal Collective song with an equally normal video from earlier this year. Then, read about TBT’s Victoria Bergsman and her crazy recording experience in Pakistan in my Paste Artist of the Week story.
VIDEO: Those Darlins “Red Light Love”
Check out this fab little animated clip for Those Darlins’ “Red Light Love.” As frequent readers of Welcome to Wiscansin might remember, my pal Chad and I ate some BBQ with the Darlins back in March. The idea was to get some information out of them that would eventually make for an article in Paste. That time is now! Read read read my short piece about them in the Best of What’s Next issue on newsstands now!
Video: Micachu & the Shapes - “Golden Phone” [Thx, MBV]
Read my M&TS Paste interview here.
