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Music Video: The New Pornographers – “Moves”

Matthew Montgomery — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 19:00:02 +0000

This is a great video — it’s “Moves” by The New Pornographers, and it features a veritable cornucopia of comedy gold. Contributions from fellow Matadorian Jon Wurster and a slew of Daily Show members make this really enjoyable, and the “story” is just brilliant. From such humble (-seeming?) folks, this is a great video!

Written And Directed By Tom Scharpling
Producers: Robert Hatch-Miller & Puloma Basu

Cast: Jon Wurster, Julie Klausner, Kevin Corrigan, Wyatt Cenac, Horatio Sanz, Ted Leo, John Hodgman, Bill Hader, Paul Rudd, Todd Barry, Donald Glover, Esther Crowe, Michael Lisk, Gabe Delahaye, Max Silvestri, Jay Norton, David Rosenblatt, Terre T., Anna Copacabana, Rob Cuthill, Brian Turner, Alex Scordelis, Jonathan Fernandez, Therese Mahler, Candace Mills, Christina Stanley, Christine Tadler, Owinema Biu, Chris Spooner, Jacob Wolk

Music Video: Dreamend – Magnesium Light

Matthew Montgomery — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 20:00:32 +0000

Check out this video for Dreamend’s “Magnesium Light” from So I Ate Myself, Bite By Bite. It’s a bit on the bizarre side but nothing terribly out of sorts.

Video Friday: Yo La Tengo’s “Sugarcube”

Matthew Montgomery — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 18:06:21 +0000

Here’s a quick Video Friday for you: Yo La Tengo’s absolutely adorable video for “Sugarcube” is exactly what a good music video should be: fun, enduring, and evocative. Yo La Tengo hits the apex of this on all accounts.

Revolver Records thrives amidst record store closures

Matthew Montgomery — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:02:29 +0000

T.J. from Revolver Records from MusicGeek.org on Vimeo.

T.J. Jordan has a bold goal: to run the last record store in existence. When T.J. Jordan opened Revolver Records on Sept. 1, 2007, most people would have written it off as a pipe dream destined for failure. Two years later, Jordan and his staff are thriving at the Phoenix-based record store.

The store’s success, Jordan said, is down to one thing: It’s appealing to music lovers in search of something new.

“The people who come into record stores are coming in because they want something unique,” he said. “They’re not coming into to buy the latest Lil Wayne record. The only way record stores are going to stay in business is by appealing to the people who actually want to buy records.”

That appeal, Jordan said, is vital to the longevity of every record store; the traditional business model of the record store won’t keep them around, but providing excitement to music lovers will.

“If you go throughout the country, you’re going to see that the ones that are successful are the ones that have found a way to appeal to niche buyers and keep their store exciting,” he said. “I loved those record stores back in the ’90s, but I want to be the guy that owns the last record store. That’s my goal. I want to keep this in business as long as possible. What we try to do here is find ways we can stay in business, have a cushy job, and not have to work real jobs.”

Record stores are an invaluable asset in musical development, Jordan said. While the exit of many from the scene can be blamed on the faulty business model, much is lost when record stores shut their doors for good.

“If you listen to interviews with Paul McCartney or Brian Wilson, they always talk about the record stores they went into and discovered music,” he said. “Record stores are really important in musical development, and I hope it continues. I don’t like seeing record stores going out of business.”

Where Phoenix record stores like long-time city favorites Circles Records & Tapes — mere blocks away from Revolver — is closing its doors after 38 years of business, Revolver Records is busy carving out a niche for themselves. It’s not just Circles, but a business model that’s disappearing.

“The main reason is because they operate on a business model that worked for 1990, but it doesn’t work for 2010,” he said. “I don’t see that business model working now that you can download individual songs on iTunes. The ones that are dying are the ones that had a corporate mentality, and the ones that are thriving are appealing to music buyers again.”

Revolver’s niche, the same one to which other independent record stores across the country are looking, is why two-thirds of Jordan’s sales come from purchases of vinyl records.

As stores that sold vinyl in their heyday but have since moved exclusively to the CD sputter and collapse, Revolver Records represents a new breed of store: one that embraces the “long dead” format — and embraces their customer base along the way. Despite their love for vinyl, Jordan doesn’t think his customer base is simply antiquated.

“I think it would be foolish to say that most of our customers don’t have an iPod; I think they do,” he said. “I think the reason why people buy records is because it’s so unique, and it’s valuable.”

While the CD may have been easy to listen to, and the MP3 even easier to digest, there’s still an appeal to listening to vinyl, Jordan said.

“There’s a bit of effort involved in records,” Jordan said. “It’s tough to experience a record in tracks, you really experience it as a whole. For me, it’s a whole different experience, and I think that our customers come in for that.”

Wes Anderson flexes musical muscle in The Royal Tenenbaums

Matthew Montgomery — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:00:41 +0000

Wes Anderson, film director known best for emergent classics like The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore clearly knows what he’s doing with film — but can we say the same about the use of music in his films?

The Royal Tenenbaums proved definitive in capturing the feel of music in a Wes Anderson film; by now, it has become a trait of his cinematic auteur theory. The overarching style — especially as it’s exercised in the film — is most crisply defined by the Mutato Muzika Orchestra’s rendition of the Paul McCartney-penned classic, “Hey Jude.” Replete with harpsichord, the track defines the mood and feel of the film as a whole.

While we may be able to attribute much of the musical consistency across Anderson films to the use of the Mutato Muzika Orchestra — the Mark Mothersbaugh-helmed production company has also made at least some appearance on Anderson’s Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Life Aquatic — we can pinpoint some other important attributes of Anderson films that extend beyond Mutato Muzika.

Indeed, while The Darjeeling Limited — a film that largely makes use of Indian music and The Kinks — doesn’t feature the contributions of Mothersbaugh, there’s a keenness to the use of popular music that gives us that patented Anderson feel. Throughout the two hours of the film, we’re treated to songs from The Rolling Stones, Nico, The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, The Ramones, and The Clash, but it’s when we hear Nick Drake and Elliott Smith in the most tragic of circumstances that we really get a grasp on what Anderson was attempting with music in the film.

Yeah, we get The Beatles through Mutato Muzika, and it’s great, and it’s fun, and it’s poppy — there’s an overwhelming inventiveness that helps define the film. There’s no real denying that. However, when we hear “Needle in the Hay” and “Fly,” we realize that our expectations musically have been built and torn away. It’s in the surprise of suicide that we find the absolute power of pop music accompanying visuals.

The typically upbeat music set ironically against the bulk of the film — not a necessarily happy affair, and most certainly an awkward one — is clever, but when the film’s narrative and the music’s narrative coincide so strongly, we’re left staggering. The Royal Tenenbaums starts as a relatively simple affair and ends as a tale with real strength and emotion.

Through music, Anderson takes us on an unrivaled cinematic journey. The power of transition — an idea not made subtle in the film’s eventual climax — allows us to experience something that, without music, would just be a dull affair with sad, awkward characters filled with angst and ranting. Sure, it would be visually intriguing, and the character depth may even remain, but there’d not be much reason to care for the lot of them.

Instead, we’re given something with dignity, grace, and unmistakeable style. Anderson, through thematic musical elements, gives us distinguished, neurotic, and noble characters — and we’re given some reason for the undeniable sympathy they evoke.

Drum legend Lenny White to release new solo album

Matthew Montgomery — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:56:17 +0000

Lenny White with Stanley Clark 1976 Credit: Tom Marcello

Lenny White, best known for his work on drums in fusion jazz outfit Return to Forever, is readying his first release in ten years as band leader. Anomaly, White’s effort, comes off the back of a worldwide tour in 2008 with Return to Forever and a 2009 tour with Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke — together, they make up three-quarters of the group’s 2008 tour.

“We need to restart a revolution so that we can take back the music and stop the fluff,” White said in a press release from publicity group Big Hassle. “I’m hoping that this new album is a representation of that ideal.”

White’s most recent effort includes collaboration with Pink Floyd alumnus David Gilmore and former bandmate Stanley Clarke, as well as other musicians from jazz and rock music alike.

Pavement videos a classic view of ’90s indie rock

Matthew Montgomery — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:11:33 +0000

Just time for something short today — here’s a quick collection of Pavement music videos. Classic ’90s indie rock for you; awesome.

Latest from Aloha, Home Acres, blasts indie prog into perspective

Matthew Montgomery — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:16:35 +0000

The latest effort from American indie outfit Aloha is bold and refreshing: While not necessarily the pinnacle of progressive indie rock from Aloha, it’s 1) something new, and 2) something good. How many other indie rock bands are out using marimbas and bells? Home Acres features plenty of their musical trademark, but we get some delicious additions. The guitars are magnanimous in their distorted quality, and I think at one point, we may hear an idiophone with gourds — maybe the balafon — resonating and buzzing away. Home Acres hits shelves tomorrow.

• Purchase Home Acres

Mark Linkous, Sparklehorse leader, commits suicide, leaves musical legacy

Matthew Montgomery — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:43:36 +0000

Mark Linkous, leader of rock group Sparklehorse, committed suicide yesterday in Knoxville, Tenn. He leaves a musical legacy that spans four full-length albums as Sparklehorse and two in collaboration with Danger Mouse and Fennesz. Linkous also worked as a producer, notably with outsider music favorite Daniel Johnston. Share your thoughts on the death of Linkous below.

David Lynch, Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse project rumored for summer release

Scott Mathews — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:16:10 +0000

Dark Night of the Soul is an album written by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse that was planned for release with a book of photos by David Lynch. The book of photos was released in early 2009. Due to disputes with the record label, though, the album was not released with the book of photos — instead a blank CD-R labeled: “For legal reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.”

The album is now rumored for release for Summer 2010. From what we’ve heard of the album so far, this is nothing like the Broken Bells collaboration of Danger Mouse and James Mercer. It has a dark, surreal feeling — full of complex layers of mind-bending sounds and faraway vocals, all quite fitting for a David Lynch art project.

The album features a wide range of artists, including James Mercer, The Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Frank Black of the Pixies, Iggy Pop, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, Vic Chesnutt, David Lynch, Scott Spillane of Neutral Milk Hotel and The Gerbils. (NPR)

The book, Dark Night of the Soul is available for purchase on their official website, www.dnots.com. You can also listen to the entire album at NPR.org/music.