Magazine
Yeasayer: Odd Blood
Gray Hurlburt :: Friday, April 9th, 2010 5:30 pm
In leather police boots and checkered red flannel, Ira Wolf Tuton strolled through the dim Manhattan hotel lobby with an espresso in the palm of his hand. This occurred on an evening soon after Thanksgiving and the parallel between his clothes and the urbane decor of the room was disjointed, perhaps even cinematic. After sipping from his cup, Ira introduced me to the other members of the band, whiskered Chris Keating and spectacled Anand Wilder. Here together, they looked like the apropos ambassadors of eclectic Brooklyn, where they now live in separate apartments. MORE »
Magazine
Bear In Heaven: These Cats Don’t Hibernate
Gray Hurlburt :: Friday, April 9th, 2010 5:00 pm
Just what is a bear in heaven? Could it be the ghost of a long-dead beast, enjoying a fat salmon way up in the clouds? Or perhaps it’s some furry guy, who happens to wear only a leather cap and is in passionate pitches and throes with Anderson Cooper? Well, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that in this case the bear is a band—a group of four hailing from Georgia and Alabama—with an expansive, racing sound that evades being catalogued by a simple tag. That is, at least, unless one were to employ panoply of bands and genres, from Jane’s Addiction to krautrock, to triangulate on a conveyance for Beast Rest Forth Mouth, their second proper iteration as a group. MORE »
Magazine
Bizarre Creations: Inside the World of Fanfarlo
Amelia Kreminski :: Friday, April 9th, 2010 4:45 pm
The day was warm, the sky clear, and the park we walked into looked sickeningly cheerful in the early afternoon sun. Small children were basking in the joys of the Indian summer, emitting high-pitched squeals as they ran around statues of gargantuan turtles and various woodland creatures. Simon Balthazar, Justin Finch and I huddled around a checkerboard-top picnic table in the far right corner of the park. The members of Fanfarlo and I were conversing intently before their lead singer and bassist had to return to the Bowery Ballroom for their evening show. The topic of conversation was vices, and whether or not the members of the British folk-indie-rock group had any. MORE »
Guest Blogger, Magazine, Shit Going On In The World
Guest Article: Gavin McInnes Discusses Roman Polanski And Child Predators
Amy Rose Spiegel :: Friday, February 12th, 2010 2:30 pm
Roman Polanski’s 18th feature film, “The Ghost Writer,” opens this week. Its imminent release has reignited the well-worn debate about Polanski’s arrest in 2009 for a rape charge that is now over 31 years old. Below, a timely discussion about what makes a predator a predator by the writer and media polymath Gavin McInnes. This article originally appeared in the fifteenth issue of Death+Taxes.
Events, Issue 22, Magazine
Neon Indian Play CMJ Tomorrow Plus the D+T Interview
Isaac Lekach :: Friday, October 23rd, 2009 3:00 pm
In the early months of 2009, Neon Indian found its way onto the blogosphere. The gushing synth swells of “6669 (I Don’t Know If You know)” captivated listeners with its psychedelic dance grooves and “Should Have Taken Acid with You” positively melted ears with its instrumental New Order-meets-Ariel Pink sounds. Shortly thereafter, “Deadbeat Summer” and “Terminally Chill” followed and received equal praise. In a matter of months, Neon Indian had become a buzz band.
What’s unique about this feat is that nobody actually knew who Neon Indian was. We knew one member was a guy, the other a girl. Their names, histories, ages, credit history—all a total mystery. MORE »
Events, Issue 22, Magazine
The XX at CMJ Plus the Death+Taxes Interview
Gray Hurlburt :: Friday, October 23rd, 2009 2:30 pm
On a scorched afternoon in early August I met with The xx, a young, soft-spoken bunch of Londoners who dress in mishmash black attire, at a retro diner in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. On account of the stifling weather, the allure of air conditioning and starchy food just seemed called for. I was hungover and tired, which, as it turns out, so were they.
When they came in through the glass door, bassist Oliver Sim had to duck his elongated body through the frame, and the rest followed in right behind. Together they looked like an adolescent combination of the Jesus & Mary Chain and Bauhaus. And like those rock stars, who could chronologically be their fathers, The xx already bore the physical strain of supporting a new album—replete with drooped shoulders and raccoon eyes. This brunch came after a long tour through Europe’s summer festival circuit, five shows in New York City (one the previous night with Friendly Fires), and two photo shoots that morning. MORE »
Issue 22, Magazine
Sufjan Stevens on His Orchestral Project, The BQE
Drew Fortune :: Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 4:50 pm
For a man who has never shied away from grand ambition, Sufjan Stevens’s latest project, The BQE, a cinematic suite inspired by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, appears to have gotten the better of him—a project with a scope and feeling too large to fully capture. A sprawling undertaking, incorporating an orchestra of over thirty people, companion comic book, 16mm cinematography and choreographed Hula –Hoopers, the two-year endeavor is finally being released as a dual CD/DVD package on Asthmatic Kitty. Upon release, Stevens, the man who famously announced plans to release an album for each of the fifty states, is finally ready to take a step away from the epic and learn to appreciate the modest. Call it Stevens’s Apocalypse Now or Fitzcarraldo, the project may have been a vision impossible to realize, but the Detroit native is not beaten and, like his hometown, is slowly learning to rebuild from the ground up.
Speaking with Stevens from his home in Brooklyn, the boy who grew up playing too many instruments is enjoying some much-needed downtime. MORE »
Issue 21, Magazine
Tiny Vipers “Workin’ Woman”
Amelia Kreminski :: Thursday, September 10th, 2009 6:16 pm
Jesy Fortino used to be a big asshole. It’s a surprising truth—puzzling, even, when one considers her gentle stage presence as Seattle-grown singer-songwriter Tiny Vipers, her resonating, dark chocolate voice, and her melodious acoustic plucks. She may confuse fans with her general placidness and waifish modesty in public, but do not be fooled—Jesy Fortino is much more than just another sensitive folk singer with an acoustic guitar and a pure heart. Hers is an expansive tale, filled with intrigue, Dungeons and Dragons, shit-faced yuppies, and, yes, a dark past as a self-confessed asshole. But that’s why we love her: because, let’s face it—we’ve all been there too. MORE »
Issue 21, Magazine
Japandroids “Just The Two Of Us”
Drew Fortune :: Thursday, September 10th, 2009 5:07 pm
The Japandroids are somewhere outside of Ontario, on a dark, lonely stretch of road, and the bottle rockets are starting to fly. I’m on the phone with guitarist/vocalist Brian King, and I can hear the bottle rockets zinging out the car window and exploding in the night sky. The two-piece garage rock revisionists are on the road following a high-profile gig at the Ottawa Blues Fest and spirits are high. And why shouldn’t they be? Brian King survived a near death experience at the beginning of the year, a perforated ulcer which demanded a six week re-cooperation, resulting in the band postponing their first major tour. MORE »
Issue 21, Magazine
Foreign Born “Lights, Camera, Action”
DJ Pangburn :: Thursday, September 10th, 2009 4:32 pm
“I was a hotel spy for a week filling in for my friend,” Matt Popieluch tells me during my interview with the band he fronts, nascent pop rockers Foreign Born. “I would go around to these hotels in the morning, for three hours every day of the week, and I’d walk around and look at the kiosk where they were showing who was meeting there that day, like Verizon Wireless in the Veranda Room. I would say it into the tape recorder, and these messages would be mailed to some company in Nebraska.” MORE »
Issue 21, Magazine
Phoenix “The French Connection”
Isaac Lekach :: Friday, September 4th, 2009 3:16 pm
On a Friday in late June the D+T staff painted their office wall pink. That night French pop group Phoenix played the second of two sold-out shows in New York. We had made arrangements to photograph them beforehand, but as the day progressed it looked like that plan might collapse. The band had more than a few commitments to honor and ours was the latest addition to an already tight schedule: They had to replace a piece of musical equipment that failed them the night before at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. There was a performance for Spinner to tape—which ended up running late—sound check, and our photo shoot. So we took a cue from the cover art of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, their latest album, and painted the wall pink.
