Amy Stein: Domesticated

“My photographs serve as modern dioramas of our new natural history. Within these scenes I explore our paradoxical relationship with the “wild” and how our conflicting impulses continue to evolve and alter the behavior of both humans and animals. We at once seek connection with the mystery and freedom of the natural world, yet we [...]

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Arthur Magazine needs $20,000 by July 1 or it will die.

From Arthurmag.com:

Arthur Magazine needs $20,000 by July 1 or it will die.No donation is too small.
Our preferred method of payment is Paypal. It is a free service to buyers, and enables you to pay directly By VISA, MASTERCARD, AMEX, DISCOVER or from your checking account or debit card. You can also convert foreign currency to [...]

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Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh – new mp3

“The improvisations were done on the last recording day, with no overdubs. “Completely free” was the essential concept. For one of them, they were joined by Batoh’s fellow Ghosts Takuyuki Moriya (contra bass), Kazuo Ogino (piano,celtic harp) and the santur player Mayumi Nagayoshi. The same morning Helena had received notice that her grandmother suddenly had [...]

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Buried Treasure: Timothy Leary Mp3’s!

Timothy Leary, who I don’t think needs much of an introduction here, has been in the news recently for a William S. Burroughs shotgun painting that his estate is putting up for auction. And by “in the news,” I mean I stumbled across it while looking for how to make home-made ayuhasca. Tomato, tomahto.
In my [...]

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Born Dropped Out: The Hippie Kid Project

The 1960’s came and went quickly. During that period, a lot of great music was performed, a lot of great films were made. Strange new drugs were ingested, strange new conclusions drawn. It seemed, at times, to be an enlightened era: a time when pop culture and intellectual exploration were one and the same. But [...]

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New Brightblack Morning Light promo video for “Hologram Buffalo”

Check out the new promo video for the first single from Brightblack Morning Light’s new album “Motion to Rejoin”, coming September 9th on Matador Records:

The last few weeks I’ve really been craving some new Brightblack Morning Light material and this song definitely delivers. Is it just me or is there [...]

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Silver Summit

Fresh off the presses from Greg Weeks’ Language of Stone imprint, Silver Summit’s self-titled debut LP drips with funereal prog/metal atmospherics. Hazy, smoky, and macabre, the record’s mellifluous vocal harmonies and meandering multi-ethnic instrumentation paint mental portraits of foggy Victorian streets, gypsy caravans, and Baghdad bazaars with effortless execution.  Silver Summit’s songwriting sometimes falls victim [...]

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Fire on Fire LIVE at the Space Gallery

Fire on Fire played an amazing show at the Space Gallery in Portland, ME this past June 20th. I truly do think that this is one of the most talented and adventurous bands I’ve heard in a long time. From what Chriss told me in our interview, they’re sitting on a [...]

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MEGAPUSS Unleashes Two More!

Head over to the MEGAPUSS myspace for two new tracks, “To the Love Within” and “Hamman.” Yay!
=tyler=

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This Brave Nation: Pete Seeger & Majora Carter

I didn’t agree with the Divine Right of Kings, but Pete Seeger is pretty much infallible. In a Lower Manhattan apartment, one of the greatest living musicians and activists sat down with one of the country’s newest great leaders. Pete Seeger, with a list of awards and honors longer than the neck on his [...]

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MEGAPUSS: photos by Molly Berman

Thank You Molly for your fantastic photos!

(Devendra rocking out)
More photos after the jump!

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MEGAPUSS at the Hammer Museum

As the somnolent sun took to its slumber, the young and perpetually fashionable Los Angeles crowd was alight with anticipatory chatter. Mystery, it seemed, was half the fun. With beers in hand and smoke (of all kinds) in lungs, we waited for Megapuss to make their debut. The crowd was restless, curious and uncertain. The [...]

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Vetiver joins Tussle for Cream Cuts

Most people probably don’t know this, but Andy Cabic once slapped a mean four-string with the San Francisco-based Krautrock/shoegaze band Tussle. Though the siren song of fate called Andy away from the funked out jams of Tussle and into the sweet, sylvan sounds of Vetiver, he has rejoined his former comrades for their third record, [...]

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Babe, Terror

Stop for a moment, before you passively pass the previous words before this, skimming down for an mp3 and do yourself a favor and read just a bit further. Babe, Terror fresh out of a young and assumingly only beginning to grow Brasilian movement of (can I attempt to put words to it) psychedelic and [...]

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Rio en Medio explores new Frontier

I first saw Rio en Medio perform live in the early Spring of 2007, where she was opening for Vetiver at Southpaw in Brooklyn. Not only had I never heard her perform live, I had never heard any of her music, period. The night was frigid. Inside, warm and woozy, I stood amongst Brooklyn’s hipster [...]

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MEGAPUSS Mystery Guest….Aziz Ansari!?

If you’re like me, you’ve probably been spending the past two and a half days listening to Devendra Banhart and Greg Rogove’s new Megapuss material. Our sides have been thoroughly split whilst pondering the hilarity of Trader Joe’s hummus references in song (a first?).  Pitchfork, our sardonic Chi-Town comrades, even had the gaul to question [...]

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Naturalismo Presents: Princeton live in Eagle Rock

Last weekend, I drove from my humble home in Burbank to the Eastern promises of Eagle Rock. There, perched upon a sun-kissed hillside, was the home of Princeton. No, not the ivy league institution of higher learning – this was an actual home where ukuleles dance and glockenspiels ring true. The [...]

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Devendra Banhart & Greg Rogove: MEGAPUSS

Devendra Banhart is back in action, back on the scene, and — like Zakk Wylde before him – ready to melt some faces with some insane riffs, killer shredding, and delicately plucked classical guitar.  Aside from many offensively intrusive paparazzi photos, we haven’t seen or heard much from Devendra since the conclusion of his Smokey [...]

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Meredith Bragg – Silver Sonya

It’s hard to do service to an acoustic singer songwriter’s sound. To clarify: it’s hard to do so using these strange little shapes we call “words.” Yeah, words suck.  Unlike larger bands, whose superior membership allows a deeper (not better, just more diverse) sound, an acoustic singer songwriter has only his voice and guitar to [...]

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Harry Smith: Early Abstractions (1946 – 57)

I’ve talked about him before and it certainly won’t be the last. Yes, Harry Smith was a genius. Aside from his Anthology of Folk Music, he was also a talented painter and filmmaker. In the late 40’s, Smith literally melded these two mediums together in animations he dubbed “Abstractions.” Smith was [...]

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