Monthly Archives: September 2013

Watch: CocoRosie Drop Hallucinatory Video For “Gravediggress”

coco2

CocoRosie make music that could serve as the soundtrack for a Luis Buñuel film (if only the infamous director were still alive). But since Buñuel is dead, Bianca Casady, one of the two sisters who comprise CocoRosie, has taken matters into her own hands. She’s directed  “Gravediggress,” the third video for Tales Of A Grass Widow, the duo’s latest album, which was released earlier this year. 

Writing about the video on YouTube, Casady says, “Shot in Southern France, spanning several different seasons, The Gravediggress emerges from the imagination of the clown. Played and danced by Biño Sauitzvy, The Clown oscillates between young and old, innocent and deranged. Our mother plays the masked Gravediggress who’s stuffed hands struggle at menial tasks such as picking wheat and taking laundry from the line. The narrative is a loose journey thru the psyche of a lonely outcast who finds ecstasy and company in nature. The filming was spontaneous though it took much more time than a typical music video and without the pressure of a studio and crew we were able to wander and shoot in this way. We let the work steep and revisited the project months later for another stage of development. My working relationship with Biño, a Brazilian choreographer based in Paris, who has also trained in circus and clowning, started in 2011 when we developed Nightshift, my first theatrical work. We also started then to discover in dance, the brokenness of the outcast. He played a homeless-drunk, clown called Hummingbird Man. I have worked on many videos over the last 14 years and have shot many of them in this same location but this is my most narrative attempt to date. I prefer to shoot intimately, just me and the other and the force of the elements. Some times our hands got frozen cold, or we got attacked by swarms of mosquitos, spiders crawled out of every hole and we truly marveled over the moon and pink sky.”

Thanks Stereogum.

The Time Machine: Neil Young On BBC, 1971

neil-young

Very cool footage of Young performing “Out On The Weekend,” “Old Man” and “Journey Through The Past” at Shepherd’s Bush Studios, February 23, 1971. Interesting to watch this performance and then watch Young at last weekend’s Farm Aid where he also sang “Old Man.” You can check out that Farm Aid set here.

Watch: Pearl Jam Talk About “Lightning Bolt”

pearlj

In this documentary style video by Danny Clinch, the members of Pearl Jam talk about their upcoming album, Lightning Bolt, with Portlandia’s Carrie Brownstein and Judd Apatow and others. The album is due out October 15. In addition to the talking, there’s music. It’s pretty good. If you dig Pearl Jam, or are curious about the state of making music with them in 2013, check it out.

Listen: New Song From Sun Kil Moon

Mark Kozelek AKA Sun Kil Moon has a new song, “Richard Ramirez Died Today Of Natural Causes,” off the upcoming Sun Kil Moon album, Benji, which is coming out in February 2014. The album features such guests as Steve Shelley, Will Oldham, Owen Ashworth and Jen Wood, according to Stereogum.

Listen now:

A Reporter Rides On Doug Aitken’s Station To Station Train

Photo by Robert Gauthier.
Photo by Robert Gauthier.

In today’s Los Angeles Times there’s a cool article by Deborah Vankin about Doug Aitken’s Station To Station project. The three week traveling art and music festival was heading from Barstow, CA to LA and Vankin reports on the journey. Musicians who have participated in Station To Station include Patti Smith, Beck, Thurston Moore and Cat Power. Savages and No Age will perform Saturday Sept. 28, 2013 at 16th Street Station in Oakland, CA.

Read Vankin’s story and see a great slide show by photographer Robert Gauthier here.

The Beatles File: See John And Paul Before Beatlemania Hit

John and Paul in the summer of 1961.
John and Paul in the summer of 1961.

London’s The Mirror has published a previously unseen photo of Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The photo, according to the paper, will be included in a “a special edition of Beatles authority Mark Lewisohn’s soon-to-be-published book, “The Beatles – All These Years: Volume One: Tune In.” The group didn’t even have a record deal at the time the photo was shot. Their first single, “Love Me Do,” would be released in October 1962 and reach #17 on the UK charts.

 

Watch: Savages Release Arty Video For “Husbands”

savages2

Savages, the London quartet whose retro post-punk debut, Silence Yourself, was released this past May, have a striking new video for their best song to date, “Husbands.” The video for the song that was inspired by director John Cassavetes’ 1970 film “Husbands,” was directed by John Minton, the Bristol-based filmmaker who previously worked with Portishead. His video for “Husbands” is an arty black and white work that hearkens back to ’60s experimental filmmaking and shows the influence of the late artist Bruce Conner.

Video: Beck Debuts “Wake Up” At Station To Station Event

beck

Last night (Sept. 24) Beck, backed by a choir, debuted a new song, “Wake Up,” at multimedia artist Doug Aitken’s Station To Station event in Barstow, CA. Station To Station is a three-week art project, a nomadic music and artists festival that began Sept. 2 New York and ends at the 16th Street Station in Oakland, CA on Sept. 26 with performances by No Age, Savages and others.

Watch Beck in this fan shot video:

Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova Now In Solitary Confinement

Photo by Denis Bochkarev.
Photo by Denis Bochkarev.

Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has been placed in solitary confinement at Penal Colony No 14, according to Amnesty International, following her whistle blowing open letter about alleged abuses at the detention facility.

The human rights organization is calling for an investigation into the abuses Tolokonnikova wrote about. The detention facility where she is serving a two-year sentence for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” is located in the Mordovia region, southeast of Moscow.

Tolokonnikova’s open letter began circulating via the internet earlier this week and was published  on The Guardian website.

“The prison administration claimed that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova had been placed in isolation for her own protection, but we are concerned this could be yet another punishment for demanding that her own rights and the rights of other inmates are respected,” Sergei Nikitin, Director of Amnesty International’s office in Moscow, said in a statement on the Amnesty website. “What authorities should do is investigate the allegations she made.”

“The case against members of the band Pussy Riot has been consistently outrageous from start to finish,” Nikitin continued, “and sought nothing other than to undermine the band members’ right to freedom of expression. The Russian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release the activists and quash all charges against them.”

For more, go to the Amnesty International site.

 

 

Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova’s Open Letter About Penal Colony Brutality

pussy-riot-628

It’s now been widely reported that Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has started a hunger strike to protest conditions at Russia’s Penal Colony No 14, where she has been serving a two-year sentence since August of 2012 after being convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.”

But most people haven’t read the actual text of Tolokonnikova’s open letter (published on Monday, Sept. 23, 2013 in The Guardian), in which she announced her hunger strike. You should read it.

Here’s the letter.