Apr 02, 2008
By Marcus Kagler
Spring 2008 - Flight of the Conchords
Any child of the ’80s knows the idea of the year 2000 back then was really insane,” says Bryon Hollon (aka Boom Bip). “There were a lot of TV shows and movies with laser guns and hover cars and stuff. According to Gruff, all roads from the ’80s lead to John DeLorean.” More
Apr 02, 2008
By J. Pace
M83
Saturday’s a horrible day to spend in detention. Unless you’re there with representatives of five distinct social cliques, each letting their guard down just enough to realize they’re really not that different. Then it’s—how’s it go? They only met once, but it changed their lives forever. John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club so expertly captured the myopic, all-consuming angst that defines teenagerdom that anyone who viewed it in the last two decades can quote at least a few lines. That includes Anthony Gonzalez, the Frenchman behind M83, who cites Hughes films as one of the various ’80s influences running rampant on his new album, Saturdays=Youth. More
Apr 02, 2008
By Lorraine Carpenter
Ladytron
“We’re just going to go out and get drunk now,” says Ladytron’s Daniel Hunt, having recently approved the final master of the band’s fourth record. “We’ve been organizing these album-wrap drinking sessions for about two weeks, and even though we hadn’t finished the record, we just kept having them anyway. But this one’s going to be definitive.” More
Apr 02, 2008
By Matt Fink
Jim Noir
Despite his fairly flamboyant appearance and press statements—such as wearing dapper bowler hats and claiming to have recorded his newest album at Abbey Road—Jim Noir is almost painfully shy in conversation. Sipping tea and ending every few sentences with an obligatory “I don’t know…yeah,” he’s soft-spoken and articulate, the kind of man who you would figure prefers to write and record his albums in the privacy of his bedroom. “I’m not a very big talker,” he admits. More
Apr 02, 2008
By Matt Fink
Jamie Lidell
As the creative process tends to be an intensely private and solitary endeavor, it’s no wonder that many artists simply don’t have the ego strength or interpersonal skills to effectively communicate their vision without freaking out every time someone else leaves their fingerprints on it. Being a songwriter is one thing, but being a bandleader is something else altogether, and it’s up to every artist to strike the balance between stomping on every suggestion and letting collaborators run the show. More
Apr 02, 2008
By Matt Fink
Goldfrapp
For any songwriter who spends hours slaving over chord progressions and notebooks full of crossed-out scribbles and half-baked ideas, the thought of an artist who is so prolific that even dreams give birth to new creations is an infuriating concept. Consider “Yesterday,” arguably Paul McCartney’s crowning achievement as a pop balladeer, a song whose melody was composed while Sir Paul slept. Or take Townes Van Zandt’s classic “If I Needed You,” a bittersweet promise of fidelity that was written—lyrics and all—while the late troubadour was unconscious. Add to that list Seventh Tree, the latest album from Goldfrapp, an appropriately somnambulant exploration of warmly enveloping textures and half-remembered dreams. More
Apr 02, 2008
By John Motley
Fuck Buttons
“When the band first started, we were both really excited by the concept of ‘noise’ music as a confrontational tool,” recalls Benjamin John Power, who, along with Andrew Hung, formed Bristol, England’s Fuck Buttons in 2004. “Over time, the sound has developed into something more embracing. It wasn’t a conscious decision on our part to head in this direction. It kind of happened along the way and just seemed right. We still have the same sonic sensibilities as when we first started, but we now tend to try and focus on the more positive side of things when experimenting with sound.” More
Apr 02, 2008
By Matt Fink
Flight of the Conchords
A country mysterious enough that most Americans don’t even know enough about it to form a dismissive caricature, New Zealand is much more than just the place The Lord of the Rings was filmed. Renowned for its stunning geography and abundant natural resources, it’s the farthest outpost of English-speaking society, a country with roughly half as many inhabitants as New York City. But New Zealanders must be people with a sense of humor. More
Apr 02, 2008
By Matt Fink
El Guincho
Part musician, part ethnomusicologist, Pablo Díaz-Reixa isn’t your average sample-obsessed laptop artist. Growing up in the Canary Islands, an African archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean where the language is Spanish and the music is joyful, he noticed an apparent contradiction. Why were songs that were often recounting tales of devastation and oppression so happy? More
Apr 02, 2008
By J. Pace
The Duke Spirit
It’s hard to be a romantic anymore. Rationality has invaded nearly every facet of our lives. Feelings can be explained away as a set of chemical reactions, an anomaly to be treated pharmaceutically. We’re losing our connection to the natural world, to ourselves even. But remember, it’s a choice. More