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It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for Nick Courtright’s weekly first glance at just-discovered music, whether it be just-released, just-leaked, or some long-lost gem that has remained under the radar. Click here for other recent editions of Hot Off the Press, featuring acts such as Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, Deerhunter, TV on the Radio, M. Ward, and St. Vincent.
to be released May 26 on Warp
Report Card: B+
Here’s a fact: saying anything about Grizzly Bear that falls short of utter and uncompromising praise isn’t a very popular move. That being acknowledged, let’s put aside all the acclaim and rampant fandom for a second and allow this piece of blasphemy to come into focus: no matter how good Veckatimest may be as a whole, it never, ever reaches the impossibly lofty expectations created by its early singles. And how about this: is it possible for an album to be a sweeping, marvelous success in so many ways, yet still, at the end of the day, feel like a disappointment? To that question, Veckatimest says yes.
New Metric video billed as a short flm directed by Deco Dawson. More on Metric at their website.
(Regent Theater circa 1936)
Originally posted on BLOG DOWNTOWN by Eric Richardson
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Those walking down Main street might notice something different at the Regent Theater: red letters on one side of the marquee were removed this morning, revealing the intact white neon tubing underneath.
It's the first of many changes for the 1914 theater. Yesterday, developer Tom Gilmore and music promoter Little Radio inked a deal to partner on returning the venue to regular use.
Little Radio took over one of the retail spaces in the theater back in February, moving in a studio for the outfit's online radio station and planning to build out a vinyl record shop. At the time, talks between Gilmore and Little Radio for the theater were in process, but no deal had been reached.
Little Radio's Dave Conway said that new plans have both of those uses moving one door north, to the other of the Regent's two spaces. A clothing store will temporarily occupy the southern space, and eventually Conway plans to turn the space into a cafe.
While programming in the theater will start quickly, and plans don't call for any major renovation work, Conway does intend to do work that will make the space more functional and a better neighbor. The theater today has no barriers between the main room and the sidewalk, and a show earlier this year brought some complaints about noise. "I want people to know that we're going to be making improvements," Conway said, "not just throwing shows."
Gilmore said today that he's excited about the new partnership. "We finally found the right mix," he said of his deal with Little Radio. "It feels natural." Other operators were interested in the venue, but Gilmore connected with Conway's vision for the space and how it fits into the neighborhood. "It was an easy decision," he said.
It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for Nick Courtright’s weekly first glance at just-discovered music, whether it be just-released, just-leaked, or some long-lost gem that has remained under the radar. Click here for other recent editions of Hot Off the Press, featuring acts such as Animal Collective, Deerhunter, TV on the Radio, M. Ward, and St. Vincent.
to be released June 9 on Domino
Report Card: A freaking +
The pressure’s been building behind Dave Longstreth’s meandering Dirty Projectors project for the last few years, and 2007’s excellent if somewhat mystifying Black Flag covers/“reimaginations” album Rise Above brought listener intrigue to a new high—could it be that idiosyncratic oddball and Yale dropout Longstreth was growing nearer to accessibility? It seems so, and, really, the career trajectory here is not at all unlike that of fellow 2009 darlings Animal Collective, in that both started out hyper-obscure and intentionally abrasive, with an emphasis on willful experimentation and defiance of gratification, only to slowly but surely move towards a refined confidence in heightened normalcy. And that’s not to suggest that either outfit has shirked their uniqueness; they instead have learned to channel their innovation in a way that produces complete songs that human beings will actually enjoy, rather than just fragmentary attacks on musical reason. For Dirty Projectors, that turning point is embodied in the sparkling Bitte Orca.
It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for Nick Courtright’s weekly first glance at just-discovered music, whether it be just-released, just-leaked, or some long-lost gem that has remained under the radar. Click here for other recent editions of Hot Off the Press, featuring acts such as Animal Collective, Deerhunter, TV on the Radio, M. Ward, White Denim, and Grizzly Bear.
to be released May 5 on 4AD
Report Card: A-
Annie Clark’s beginnings in the flocks of Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens hardly made her transformation to big stage rockstar thrashabout a foregone conclusion. And it’s a strange thing that in a year of ridiculously hyped releases—from Animal Collective to Grizzly Bear, and now Dirty Projectors—that the frequently-adored Clark would come out of comparative nowhere with the quite-good Actor, an album sufficiently superior to its precursor that positions St. Vincent as an unlikely force to be reckoned with. Yet this, as we well know, is a world capable of defying expectations.
New album coming out soon from Hecuba. Record Release party at The Echo April 22nd. Also see them on several west coast dates supporting Bat For Lashes.
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