Monthly Archives: October 2013

Arcade Fire’s Win Butler: New Album Influenced By Kierkegaard, Trip To Haiti

Music
Photo via Rolling Stone.

There’s an interview with Arcade Fire’s Win Butler at Rolling Stone in which he talks about influences on the group and on the new album, Reflektor.

“I studied the Bible and philosophy in college and I think in a certain sense that’s the kind of stuff that still makes my brain work,” Butler told Rolling Stone. “There’s an essay by Kierkegaard called The Present Age that I was reading a lot that’s about the reflective age. This is like in [1846], and it sounds like he’s talking about modern times. He’s talking about the press and alienation, and you kind of read it and you’re like, ‘Dude, you have no idea how insane it’s gonna get.’

“[Kierkegaard] basically compares the reflective age to a passionate age,” Butler continued. “Like, if there was a piece of gold out on thin ice, in a passionate age, if someone went to try and get the gold, everyone would cheer them on and be like, ‘Go for it! Yeah you can do it!’And in a reflective age, if someone tried to walk out on the thin ice, everyone would criticize them and say, ‘What an idiot! I can’t believe you’re going out on the ice to try and risk something.’ So it would kind of paralyze you to even act basically, and it just kind of resonated with me — wanting to try and make something in the world instead of just talking about things.”

Butler also talks about observing missionaries in Haiti and how that impacted the album.

Butler: In the airport in Haiti there are always these packs of missionaries with matching T-shirts that say “God loves Haiti.” And you talk to some of these people and you’re like, “Oh what are you guys doing here?” And they’re like, “Oh we’re going to help Haiti! We’re going to paint houses!” And you’re like, “Well why don’t you hire a Haitian to paint the houses? I guarantee they would love to paint a house.” So I don’t know, it’s just like this mashup of missionaries and Port au Prince and that’s probably it.

Rolling Stone: Are those some of the missionaries you sing about in “Here Comes the Night Time?”

Butler: Yeah. Well there’s a line in it that says, “The missionaries, they tell us we’ll be left behind, we’ve been left behind a thousand times.”

Rolling Stone: What were you thinking when you wrote that?

Butler: Just the absurdity that you can go to a place like Haiti and teach people something about God. Like, the opposite really seems to be true, in my experience. I’ve never been to a place with more belief and more knowledge of God.

For more go to Rolling Stone.

Banksy NYC Art Day #22: Look At The Sphinx, But Don’t Drink The Water

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Today we are more than two-thirds of the way through Banksy’s month-long “Better Out Than In” exhibit of art on the streets of New York.

So far, Banksy has generated more press and pushed more buttons during the first 22 days than any other artist in recent history. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but you get the idea. This artwork in located in Queens.

Today (October 22, 2013, Banksy writes on his website under this photo of his latest artwork: “Everything but the kitchen Sphinx. A 1/36 scale replica of the great Sphinx of Giza made from smashed cinderblocks.You’re advised not to drink the replica Arab spring water.”

If you missed my previous Banksy posts, here’s an easy way to check them out: Day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six, day seven, day eight, day nine, day ten, day 11, day 12, day 13, day 14, day 15, day 16, day 17, day 18, day 19, day 20, day 21. Plus: “A Consideration Of The Politics Of Banksy’s Syria Video,” “Source For Banksy’s ‘Concrete Confessional’ Revealed,” and “Banksy Update: NYC Mayor Attacks Street Artist.”

Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova Moved To Different Prison

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Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has been moved from Penal Colony No. 14 to another prison, and her defense has no info on which prison she is now incarcerated in, her lawyer Irina Khrunova told RAPSI legal news agency Monday (October 21, 2013).

“Nadya is no longer in the prison colony,” Khrunova told RAPSI. “Investigative procedures were planned for today. I arrived, and the investigator told me that Tolokonnikova was not there; I was in shock. He was told that she has been transferred, but where to, we don’t know.”

In a letter dated Friday, October 18, 2013, before she was moved to her current location, Tolokonnikova said she feared for her life in Penal Colony No. 14, Agence France-Presse reported.

“I confess — yes, I am afraid for my life,” Tolokonnikova wrote in a letter she gave to her former defence lawyer Violetta Volkova. “Because I don’t know what will happen to me tonight. What the butchers of the Mordovia prison service will decide to do to me.”

Scans of the letter were published by the New Times opposition magazine, according to Agence France-Presse.

Volkova visited the Pussy Riot member this past Friday morning (Oct. 18, 2013) when she was on a new hunger strike, and Volkova described her as seriously ill.

“It’s not just that she is not in a condition to hunger strike; she is killing herself with it,” Volkova said. “If you met Nadya on the street now, you would probably never recognise her.”

Banksy NYC Art Day #21: Boy, Butler, Paint Cans

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Located in the South Bronx.

If you missed my previous Banksy posts, here’s an easy way to check them out: Day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six, day seven, day eight, day nine, day ten, day 11, day 12, day 13, day 14, day 15, day 16, day 17, day 18, day 19, day 20. Plus: “A Consideration Of The Politics Of Banksy’s Syria Video,” “Source For Banksy’s ‘Concrete Confessional’ Revealed,” and “Banksy Update: NYC Mayor Attacks Street Artist.”

New Album: Neil Young 1970 “Live At The Cellar Door” Coming Soon

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Live recordings drawn from six acoustic shows Neil Young did in late 1970 at the Celler Door in Washington DC will be released on CD and vinyl December 10, 2013.

The album, Live at the Cellar Door, contains a rare version of “Cinnamon Girl” performed on piano.” The shows took place from November 30 through December 2, 1970.

According to a press release from Warner Bros. Records, “The album, which features Young performing on acoustic guitar and piano, includes tracks that are interesting for several reasons, such as stunning live versions of songs that appeared on After The Gold Rush (“Tell Me Why,” “Only Love Can Break Your Heart,” “Birds,” “Don’t Let It Bring You Down” and the title track) and solo performances of the Buffalo Springfield songs “Expecting To Fly” (from their 1967 second album Buffalo Springfield Again), “I Am A Child” (from their third and final album Last Time Around and Young’s 1977 Decade compilation), and “Flying On The Ground Is Wrong,” from their 1966 self-titled debut.

“In addition, Live At The Cellar Door features early, raw performances of songs that wouldn’t appear until subsequent Young albums, including the rarity “Bad Fog Of Loneliness” (which appears on Live At Massey Hall ’71 – released in 2007– but was previously unreleased until the studio band version was included on Archives Vol. 1 1963-1972) and “Old Man” (released two years later on 1972’s Harvest album). “Down By The River,” also from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, rounds out the spectacular set.”

The track-listing for Live At The Cellar Door:

Side One:

Tell Me Why

Only Love Can Break Your Heart

After The Gold Rush

Expecting To Fly

Bad Fog Of Loneliness

Old Man

Birds

Side Two:

Don’t Let It Bring You Down

See The Sky About To Rain

Cinnamon Girl

I Am A Child

Down By The River

Flying On The Ground Is Wrong

Listen: Death Cab’s “Transatlanticism” Demos

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DeathCabForCutie_Transatlanticism

It’s been ten years since the release of Death Cab For Cutie’s Transatlanticism, so now we get the deluxe edition which includes all the demos for the album. Hear ’em now over at NPR.

Transatlanticism 10th Anniversary Tracklist:

1. The New Year
2. Lightness
3. Title and Registration
4. Expo ’86?
5. The Sound of Settling
6. Tiny Vessels
7. Transatlanticism
8. Passenger Seat
9. Death of An Interior Decorator
10. We Looked Like Giants
11. A Lack of Color

Bonus Materials:
12. The New Year (Demo)
13. Lightness (Demo)
14. Title and Registration (Demo)
15. Expo ’86 (Demo)
16. The Sound of Settling (Demo)
17. Tiny Vessels (Demo)
18. Transatlanticism (Demo)
19. Passenger Seat (Demo)
20. Death of An Interior Decorator (Demo)
21. We Looked Like Giants (Demo)
22. A Lack of Color (Demo)

Listen: New U2 Song In “Mandela” Trailer

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Mandela_-_Long_Walk_to_Freedom_poster

U2’s first new song in three years, “Ordinary Love,” is heard in the Nelson Mandela film, “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.” The film is set for release in late November. You can listen to the song right now. Just use this link to launch a Facebook page with a video player and listen.

The group is working on a new album which they hope to release in 2014.

“It’s a bit of a return to U2 of old,” Adam Clayton said in a recent Irish radio interview, “but with the maturity, if you like, of the U2 of the last 10 years.”

From what I can hear, this soundtrack contribution is a classic U2 ballad that builds and builds, turning into an anthem by the end. Maybe. Check it out yourself in the “Mandela” trailer below.

Palma Violets Rock Treasure Island Fest

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The Palma Violets are a scruffy bunch, but their reverby guitar heavy garage punk more than makes up for it.

It was sunny out on the island but a cool wind dimmed the heat. That didn’t stop a good-sized crowd from moving to the beat as the London-based quartet filled the air with a sound more fitting for an indoors venue near the midnight hour.

Samuel Fryer has a sandblasting guitar sound, and he comes through with most of the lead vocals, but it’s bassist Alex Jesson who’s got the rock star moves.

Ripping through their terrific debt album, including their hit “Best of Friends,” in about 35 minutes, the group delivered one high octane blast of pleasure after another. They did fine on the big stage but now is the time to catch them in a club if you can.