Well, I said it last week and now I'm following up on it: I'm giving away one copy each of Control (the Ian Curtis movie) and Joy Division, the documentary about some random band.
To win a copy, simply email me at paul {at} hatesomethingbeautiful.com with the subject line "JD!". I'm going to pick two winners at random at the end of the week and then send you guys copies of the DVDs!
Twenty-one year old Florence Welch, aka Florence and the Machine, may not have released much material officially yet (her first and only release so far has been limited to 500 cassette tapes), but the amount of buzz this girl is getting makes it seem like she is releasing a highly anticipated sophomore album or so. The critics have been all over the art-school dropout, in Nylon, NME (Best of SXSW 2008), Q, you name it, she's been in it. Well, I'm happy to announce then that HSB's sister label, IAMSOUND Records will be releasing her debut single "Kiss With A Fist" on June 10th. The single will also be released the day before, June 9th, in the UK through Moshi Moshi Records. The comparisons to Kate Nash, Amy Winehouse and all of those British female singers be damned (critics nowadays will compare any female British singer to those two nowadays), Florence has one of the most amazing voices you'll hear in a while. It's hard to describe; you'll just have to listen for yourself.
You can pre-order the 7" vinyl here, or wait for the iTunes/eMusic MP3s.
This past weekend was so crazy, I didn't have time to do a More Music Monday yesterday, so I'm doing one this week on Tuesday. Today.
The Morning Benders, as much as you may hate the idea, are one of those few bands that will be not only one of your favorite new guilty pleasures, but will be the favorite new band of your little sister as well. Smart, catchy indie rock made by four young lads from San Francisco; having done a tour with their pals in The Kooks earlier this year, the boys have hit the road with them again, having played a sold out show in LA last night at The Wiltern. They just released their debut album Talking Through Tin Cans on +1 Records on May 6th.
If you'll think back a little bit, you'll remember that a couple of months ago, HSB's photographer Akmal Naim and I went on a school bus for one of the more unusual shows we had ever been on, for Mr. Free And The Satellite Freakout. The band travels around on their modified school bus, playing shows wherever they want to whoever wants to hop onto the bus with them. The good news is, for those of you who saw the pictures and wanted to participate but were a little late - they're back! They'll be playing two shows this week, tomorrow night (Wednesday) and Thursday night (May 14th and 15th), where they will be parking their bus under the Sunest Bridge right outside the entrance to the Echoplex. Come on by and rock out.
Thursday's starts at 10:30 PM, and I'm not sure about Wednesday. If you have to pick between the two though, try and come Thursday, because opening for Mr. Free will be Tweak Bird, one of the most badass and hard-rocking LA bands out there right now. They opened for The Black Ghosts at the El Rey show in December last year and almost stole the show, so the thought of seeing them in an environment as small as a school bus makes my eardrums scared and my mind happy. I don't know how two people can make that much noise, but they do it and they do it well.
Mr. Free and the Satellite Freakout - Gimmee All Your Money
Tweak Bird - Whorses
Nosaj Thing is the alter ego/production name of 22 year-old Jason Chung from Los Angeles, who creates some fascinating and relaxing electronic music. No pounding bass or glitchy blog-tricks here, just some old-fashioned modulating fun that wouldn't be out of place in a number of commercials and movie soundtracks I could think of off the top of my head. He was recommended to me by a DJ friend of mine and I listened to the tracks he sent over without really thinking about it, but once I got my hands on his HEALTH remix he had done a while back, I started paying more and more attention to the music until, by now, I admit I've fallen kind of in love with the music. When I can't pick what music I want to listen to while surfing the web, or doing this or that or a million other tasks, I always find myself coming back to his Views/Octopus EP (self-released on iTunes), and so should you.
According to his MySpace, he's working on a full-length right now, so be on the lookout for that.
Ok so The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up isn't exactly "new" (they've released three albums already), but it can't be argued that they're anything but still relatively unknown, so I might as well post about them. I first heard about them when I interviewed Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart about two and a half years ago, and he mentioned the band to me when we chatted after the interview. A couple months later, when he sent over his "Best of 2005" list to me to post, The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up's album Picks Us Apart, and so of course I had to check it out. The album was filled with filled with your normal stories of heartbreak and depression, except coming from someone with a voice as emotional and honest as you would expect from someone that Jamie would like so much. I have no idea what the band has been doing since that album release (or if they're even still together), but hopefully something will come up soon.
This is just a reminder for all of you My Bloody Valentine junkies out there in LA (like me) - the sale for their Southern California shows (at Santa Monica Civic) starts tomorrow morning at 10 AM, so make sure to jump on that. October 1st and October 2nd.
Leaks have now become an accepted part of the music industry nowadays; it's no longer a question of if an album will leak before its release date, but when it will be leaked (unless you're named Thom or Trent and release your material as soon as it's mastered). One of the best ways to control the "damage" that leaking wreaks on the people behind the music is releasing an album digitally before it's out physically, and that's what we/IAMSOUND have done with Sunny Day Sets Fire (obvious disclaimer: SDSF is a band on IAMSOUND, HSB's sister label that I co-run).
Their debut album, Summer Palace, has found its way onto the internet by now, even though its physical release date isn't until July 8th, so it might as well go up on iTunes and eMusic, right? If the MP3s will be spreading around anyway, we might as well make it available for digital purchase for those who want to support the band and the label. So, if you are a fan of good music (if you want to get more specific, then perhaps Beach Boys, Flaming Lips, Of Montreal, psychedelic pop like that, etc.), listen to Sunny Day Sets Fire and pick up the album on iTunes or eMusic (you get a cool digital booklet with iTunes). And then wait for the CD to hit stores in July.
HSB favorites The Dodos (notice that their MySpace URL is now /thedodos instead of /mericlong finally!) played at the Natural History Museum last Friday as part of the First Fridays program, and, as usual, the boys were fantastic. My only complaint would be that not enough material is played from the first album; I understand that this second album (Visiter) is the one getting them all of the attention now that they rightfully deserve, but it'd be nice to hear some more songs from the first album every once in a while. Besides that, the set was lively and the crowd was livelier, probably one of the largest crowds I've seen for a Dodos show yet. Of course, Akmal Naim was by the side taking pictures, of which you can see a few below. Savor his photos for just a little while longer, as Akmal will soon be moving out of America (in a few weeks) and no longer taking photos from HSB (besides, I suppose, the occasional shoot in his new home). You'll know when it happens.
