Warped Reality Blog - Bands on tour
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Read yrself raw | No Wave in print
Artists mentioned:A few years ago, who’d have thought that scrappy, oddball No Wave would have its own little Modern Library? It’s a testament to its decidedly hard to define, thorny nature that each of the following books is indispensable in its own way, offering up fresh takes on a scene that...(read full post)
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NO WAVE Week | Part 1
Artists mentioned:From the beginning, No Wave was an anti-movement set up in stark opposition to punk's tired reliance on conventional three-chord riffs. Stylistically exploiting the frisson between crudity and sophistication, groups like Suicide, DNA, and Ut reflected New York City’s moral chaos back on itself, turning art into shock therapy. (TV...(read full post)
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Use Your Allusion (Happy Birthday, Mr. Eno)
Artists mentioned:Brian Eno turned 60 this week. Since his days at Winchester School of Art in the late ‘60s, when he was nearly kicked out for being a “disruptive element,” Brian Eno has always been a provocateur. Stylistically and philosophically restless, the co-creator (along with Peter Schmidt) of Oblique Strategies and...(read full post)
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Now That's Disgusting Music (R.I.P.) | 1990-2008
Artists mentioned:Sad word came down today, via P-fork, that Beggars Group imprints Too Pure and Beggars Banquet have been absorbed into 4AD. Stereolab’s next album will arrive on August 19th sporting 4AD and Duophonic logos. Sayonara, l’il Too Pure arrow. You’ll be missed. Favorite Too Pure moments: Seefeel, “More Like Space.”...(read full post)
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Room with a FU
Artists mentioned:Talk about brutal irony: this year’s Record Store Day happens to coincide with the opening of John Varvatos' Bowery boutique. Varvatos’ name may not mean much to you, but his pricey menswear shop just happens to be taking over the site of the former CBGBs. After years of legal battles...(read full post)
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Klaus Dinger, 1946-2008
Artists mentioned:The other night I’d just finished reading a bittersweet interview with half of Neu!, Michael Rother, when I learned that his partner in Neu!, Klaus Dinger, had passed away of heart failure just shy of his 62nd birthday. It seemed vividly clear from Rother's comments in his recent Invisible Jukebox...(read full post)
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Kim Deal Appreciation Day!
Artists mentioned:In honor of Kim Deal’s all-around awesomeness (and the brand-new Breeders album, Mountain Battles), it’s Kim Deal Appreciation Day here at Warped Reality. Hindsight is 20/20, and it seems pretty damn clear in retrospect that the dissolution of the Pixies had a great deal to do with Kim Deal’s effortless...(read full post)
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Lydia Oh Lydia
Artists mentioned:As usual, I'm a day late and a p-fork short announcing this little tidbit of news: No Wave hellions Teenage Jesus & the Jerks will be reuniting for two shows (8pm, 11pm) at NYC's Knitting Factory on (Friday) June 13th. The reunion shows constitute a release party of sorts for...(read full post)
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Black Postcards
Artists mentioned:Dean Wareham Lizard Lounge, Cambridge March 21, 2008 As the former frontman of Galaxie 500 and Luna and currently one half of Dean & Britta, Dean Wareham has become known for a certain kind of highly literate, glacial pop. His new memoir, Black Postcards (subtitled “A Rock & Roll Romance”)...(read full post)
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Hanna’s Sound World
Artists mentioned:Last spring, Glasgow-based visual, sound and installation artist Hanna Tuulikki transformed boarded-up, condemned row-houses in Glasgow’s Duncan Crescent, altering these alienated spaces through the medium of sound and light. Animating the inhospitable interiors with “dream machines” —custom-made magic lanterns one featuring her exquisite, Rackhame-esque silhouettes of flora and fauna— she...(read full post)
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Fascist Groove Things
Artists mentioned:33 1/3 :: 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Drew Daniel [Continuum, 2008, $10.95] Pop is, by its very nature, glossy and superficial, glancing off complexity and thorny ambivalences with blithe assurance. With 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Throbbing Gristle attempt—in their own profoundly warped way— to make peace with pop music’s influence...(read full post)
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Passings
Artists mentioned:Too often, loved ones leave us far too soon. There’s nothing that can prepare you for such moments, or for how painful it is to watch someone slipping away and being able to do nothing. My father passed away when I was very young, after a protracted battle with lymphoma....(read full post)
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Alison In Wonderland
Artists mentioned:Alison Goldfrapp is an intriguing iteration on the Diva. Her flamboyance is quiet, studied, her gestures thoughtful rather than brashly encompassing. Her style is less brassy than it is Surreal, flirtatious, even a bit louche. There’s something so marvelously fantastical and almost Pagan (think Wicker Man) about the unsettling worlds...(read full post)
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LIVE :: Neptune, Helms, These Are Powers
Artists mentioned:These Are Powers Helms Neptune [Record Release Party] Great Scott Allston, MA Saturday, February 16th Variation is a wonderful thing. Even though Saturday night’s show is (on paper at least) power trio night, it’s amazing how much leeway there is within that structure. None of these bands would ever be...(read full post)
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A Rainy-Day Miscellany
Artists mentioned:I have a longer post I’ve been struggling to finish, so as a stop-gap I’m going to post some noteworthy local(ish) concerts coming up. First up: These Are Powers, non-stop touring whirling dervishes, will be releasing a new EP called Taro Tarot [Hoss] on April 8th. TAP is playing Neptune’srecord...(read full post)
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INTERVIEW: John McCauley from DEER TICK
Artists mentioned:Local countrified upstarts DEER TICK will be at Jake’s Bar & Grille [373 Richmond St, Providence] on Saturday, February 9. The show starts at 9 pm; DRAG THE RIVER will play too. In honor of the show, I wrote a little piece on DEER TICK. It goes a little something...(read full post)
