…”James Leyland Kirby is an artist first and a musician second, which is another way of saying that his records can be more rewarding to think about than actually listen to”… Mike Powell, Pitchfork, Feb 4th 2010. These were the opening words for the review of “Sadly, the future is no longer what it was”… That`s not what he thinks of Leyland`s last effort, as the caretaker, I can assure you. Anyways, lately, with my spine issues, I find it real hard falling asleep, (God, I begin to sound like my mother, who is always during some kind of physical stress), and I am lying in bed equipped with my daughter`s iPad, searching for challenging ear goodies (As if I don’t do it all day long). I have stumbled upon The Caretaker`s album (Leyland`s moniker), “An empty bliss beyond this World”, and started listening to it, and while doing so, digging deeper into this unique project and about Leyland Kirby himself, and found myself preoccupied with the philosophy behind the Caretaker project and it`s technique, and by it`s essence, the music itself, or as I relate to it as Leyland`s art of sampling and looping, which is very musical and is not as technical as sample based music tends to sound.. Leyland has bought a whole bunch of old 78`s and has sampled and looped scratchy musical lines,bits and pieces, creating an hypnotic soundscape achieved by ragged phrases, scratchy vinyl and needle sounds enhanced by gentle touches of long predelays, reverb and echo. I guess, this record is not going to be accessible to many of you, but that`s ok, cause it’s a matter of tastes and moods and your tolerance levels at that time, but I was deeply moved, not only by the music, but by the idea behing it. As Leyland puts it into words;..” I see it more as capturing old memories and these old loops that go around in peoples heads”… on his Decibel Tolls interview. I found myself relating to the interviewer preface words; “Kirby invites you into the mind of someone struggling to remember faint images of their life in the form of fragmented loops”… noticing it all around me, with family members as they grow old, or even myself, as I get older, and watch my own abilities and memory going through changes,.. I challenge you though, to listen to this piece and if you find that too challenging or hard to digest, start with..”False memory syndrome” of his 2008 record Persistent repetition of phrases. Another interesting project of his is the soundtrack for a score for a new Grant Gee film ‘Patience’. It’s a beautiful film about the writer W.G. Sebald and his book about memory. Listen to False memory sindrome or buy his album here

We don’t really give a flying f… that Pitchfork gave them 5.5 and was criticizing the s…out of their vocal performance. I`ll tell you one thing. I have been listening making and breathing music for more than 3 decades now and nofrickinone could tell me this doesn’t work bigtime, and not only that, Young Prisms Breathless video and track kicks some serious butt…

Emil & Friends announce CMJ Dates, play Neon Gold showcase at Public Assembly on 10.21 & Cantora Records Showcase at Bowery Electric on 10.22 / “Downed Economy” EP out NOW on Cantora Records

Valleys To Release “Stoner” EP On Semprini Records November 9th / To Play Tell All Your Friends Monthly At Glasslands 11.11 / More Dates To Be Announced Soon…

The Fresh & Onlys premiere “Waterfall” video on Pitchfork TV

Bear In Heaven Release Daytrotter Session / US Fall Tour With Lower Dens, Sun Airway, Twin Shadow & Cloudland Canyon / Beast Rest Forth Mouth Double Album Out NOW On Hometapes

Ex-Dr. Dog drummer takes new band on tour!

Dolorean “The Unfazed” – release date moved to January 18, 2011; new digital EP out soon!

Park The Van Records – CMJ Showcase!

Red Mass CMJ Info

JBM Announces CMJ Dates and Fall Tour Dates With Mt Desolation (Featuring Members of Keane) “Red October” Featured In Recent One Tree Hill Episode “The Space In Between“, Not Even In July Out NOW On Partisan records

JBM‘s “Red October” Featured In Recent One Tree Hill Episode “The Space In Between” / “Not Even In July” Out now On Partisan Records

Purling Hiss  preps new album for Woodsist, Tours with Kurt Vile

The Henry Clay People Make Guest Appearance on Episode of NBC’s “Parenthood“, Airing October 5 / US Tour Dates With Drive-By Truckers, Play Austin City Limits / “Somewhere on the Golden Coast” Out Now

Massive Attack Donate Proceeds of Lincoln Commercial For Clean-Up Efforts In The Gulf

Wakey!Wakey! Announces Dance So Good Tour With Jenny Owen Youngs / To Release Newly Recorded Full Band Version Of “Dance So Good” / Sophomore LP / “Almost Everything I Wish I’d Said The Last Time I Saw You Out Now On Family Records/Timber Street

DeVotchka + Angus & Julia Stone At The debut Sideshows Circus Big Apple tent Lincoln center during CMJ!!

Local Natives Premiere “Wide Eyes” Video On Pitchfork, Release “Gorilla Manor” Remix Page / U.S. Tour Starts This Week

You got to watch The Antlers special presentation on Pitchfork T.V of ‘Kettering’, a song of ‘Hospice’. Just wonderful. No words, just got to watch it.

Kettering on Pitchfork T.V

Slow Club are excited to present the video (Click Here) for their single “Giving Up On love” off their critically lauded full-length debut Yeah, So.  Shot at a carnival in Hampton Court Palace in London, the video is a single take shot of Mackenzie Crook (Gareth Keenan of “The Office” UK) riding on a ferris wheel  singing along to their tune in a disaffected manner fitting with the defeatist lyrics of the upbeat song.  Tired of riding the ups and downs of the wheel he gets off and walks away. The video was Directed by Lucy Needs with Director of Photography Dave Miller.

This spring the British duo of Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor brought their debut to North America to a warm reception. ”Sheffield boy-girl duo nail precious, vulnerable feelings over the course of their sweet (but not twee or saccharine) indie pop debut,” wrote Pitchfork. Venus Magazine had praise for the “catchy as hell” songwriting while Bust mused that the duo delivers “the sort of creeky-floorboard “Momma fetch the milk pail” folk-rock you would expect from a band who grew up shucking corn and listening to old Johnny Cash albums.“ The album is in stores now as a limited edition with 9 track bonus disk featuring B-Sides, Covers, and Live Recordings. Amazon- Insound - iTunes- eMusic

Watch Bear on Pitchfork

US Tour Dates With Phantogram:

Fri-Apr-16 – Columbus, OH – The Basement

Sat-Apr-17 – Urbana, IL – Canopy Club

Sun-Apr-18 – Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon

Tue-Apr-20 – Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theatre

Wed-Apr-21 – Iowa City, IA – The Blue Moose

Thu-Apr-22 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall

Fri-Apr-23 – Ann Arbor, MI – Blind Pig

Wed-Apr-28 – San Diego, CA – Casbah

Fri-Apr-30 – Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour

Sat-May-01 – San Francisco, CA – Independent

Mon-May-03 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge

Tue-May-04 – Vancouver, BC – The Biltmore Cabaret

Wed-May-05 – Seattle, WA – Neumo’s

US Dates With The National:

Wed-Jun-02 – Boston, MA – House of Blues w/The National

Thu-Jun-03 – Boston, MA – House of Blues w/The National

Fri-Jun-04 – Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory w/The National

Sat-Jun-05 – Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory w/The National

Sun-Jun-06 – Washington, DC – Constitution Hall w/The National

Tue-Jun-08 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall w/The National

Wed-Jun-09 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall w/The National

Wed-Jun-16 – New York, NY – Radio City Music Hall w/The National

…”Sometimes you have to put yourself first, no matter how difficult that notion seems; no matter how much time and effort you’ve already put into this one person—the person who’s reduced your very being to its absolute core. Just ask Peter Silberman, the string-pulling founder of The Antlers, a solo project that suddenly went widescreen on the self-released Hospice LP (now receiving a proper widespread pressing through Frenchkiss). The first Antlers effort to feature two key permanent players—powerhouse drummer Michael Lerner and the layer-lathering multi-instrumentalist Darby Cicci—it’s an album with a sound that’s actually as ambitious as its concept.

“Hospice came from the idea of caring for a terminal patient who’s mentally abusive to you,” says Silberman. “You don’t have the right to argue with them, either, because they’re the one who’s dying here; they’re the one that’s been dealt a wrong hand. So you take it, but you can only take so much. Eventually, you realize that this person is just destroying you.”

Appropriately enough, Hospice’s 10 distinct chapters resonate on debilitating sonic and lyrical levels, from the hypnotic harp and tension-ratcheting build of “Two” to the sing-or-sink choruses of “Bear” and the speaker-rattling peaks of “Sylvia,” easily one of the year’s most immediate epics. It’s here, amidst contrasting shards of ambient noise, sweeping strings and smoky horns, where The Antlers truly transcend Silberman’s singer-songwriter beginnings—a striking escalation of expectations first hinted at on 2008’s New York Hospitals EP. The progression doesn’t end there, either. In a move that could be taken as the riff-raking extension of his thorough guitar training (from the age of 6 ‘til right before college), “Atrophy” and “Wake” delve into sheets of distortion, subtle shades of soul, cicada-like effects and enough movements to fill an entire EP.

“We were going for something that’d be dense but not too complicated,” explains Silberman. “I hate the word ‘lush,’ but I guess that’s the best way of describing it. The structures are like pop songs—verse/chorus, verse/chorus—but the sound is a little more shoegaze-y or post-rocky.”

It’s about to get even more complicated, too, as The Antlers’ Technicolor-tinged trio take all of Hospice’s songs—and three previous releases—in a completely different direction, jettisoning a note-for-note rendition of the record for “a massive sound” doused in delay, reverb and unrehearsed chaos. And to think Cicci was a stage actor with a desire to drop it all for music just a few years ago.

“Hospice was the clear indication that this isn’t a singer-songwriter thing at all,” says Silberman. “Whatever we record next is going to define the three of us as a ‘band.’

He continues, “I always figured I’d be the ‘shredder’ in a group… But things somehow ended up this way.”

We wouldn’t have it any other way, either”…..

Heard him with his band, Slow Six. Christopher Tignor is performing on violin and his own software instruments,. His post-rock / electro-acoustic troupe Slow Six performs regularly in the NYC area and beyond and has released records on the New Albion and Western Vinyl labels. Tignor has received acclaim from publications including Pitchfork, The Wire, The New York Times, and Time Out New York who declared his debut LP one of the 10 best Classical recordings of 2004. His latest solo release of intimate works for violin and piano side by side with live electronic remixes is entitled Core Memory Unwound and can be found at his site http://www.wiresundertension.com/where he also gives away his signature software instruments. His music ranges from string-heavy chamber music to laptop quintets using his own software to electro-acoustic music, dance, and video collaborations. He has performed with a wide array of musicians including Zeena Parkins, Todd Reynolds, John Butcher, and Richard Teitelbaum, his early mentor. You could watch a session recorded at WFMU studios with Chris demonstrating his software, which enables him to manipulate his band mate guitar parts simultaneously. If u dig it, download the FREE software HERE.

Watch Cathedral:

Watch the WFMU session demonstrating his software:

The recording sessions for ‘Ashes Grammar’ stretched across 6 months and were fraught with all kinds of disaster. But they were also incredibly productive. After the album’s completion, a good number of extra songs were put on the shelf for a while as the core trio of Ben Daniels, Annie Fredrickson and Josh Meakim reclaimed their lives. Not long after, Ben was laid off from his job and his afternoons were spent recording new music in the West Philly mansion where he was house sitting. Josh and Annie would come over often to record and hang out. Friendships were cemented. The first results of this wonderful time in ASDIG history are heard on the ‘Nitetime Rainbows’ EP; an album of some of their brightest sounding songs to date. These are the sounds of a band falling in love, a band having fun.

Fresh off the success of ‘Ashes Grammar’, which was listed at #42 on Pitchfork‘s Top 50 of 2009 year end list and their fall tour, the band looks ahead to a promising 2010. Ben, Annie, and Josh were joined by band newcomers Jen Goma, Adam Herndon and Ryan Newmyer during their fall tour and will continue touring across North America and Europe throughout the spring. 2010 will also mark the band’s debut at the annual South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX in March.

Stream ‘Nightime rainbows’

2/26 – New York City, NY – Mercury Lounge

2/27 – Pittsburgh, PA – Brillobox

3/01 – Columbus, OH – Cafe Bourbon

3/02 – Champaign, IL – Mike N’ Molly’s

3/03 – Chicago, IL – Schubas

3/04 – Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville Mews

3/05 – Denver, CO – Hi-Dive

3/08 – Vancouver, BC – The Media Club

3/09 – Seattle, WA – The Vera Project

3/10 – Portland, OR – Holocene

3/11 – San Francisco, CA – Hemlock Tavern

3/13 – Los Angeles, CA – The Mint

3/14 – San Diego, CA – Soda Bar

3/17 – 3/21 Austin, TX SXSW

3/23 – New Orleans, LA – TBA

3/24 – Oxford, MS – Proud Larry’s *

3/25 – Birmingham, AL – The Bottletree *

3/26 – Nashville, TN – The End *

3/27 – Charlotte, NC – Snug Harbor *

3/28 – Washington, DC – DC9

3/29 – Brooklyn, NY – Bell House

3/31 – Boston, MA – Great Scott

4/01 – Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie

4/02 – Toronto, ON – The Garrison

4/03 – Montreal, QC – The Green Room

4/08 – Paris, Faites Danser Les Garcons @ Point Ephemere

4/24 – Amsterdam, Paradiso

4/29 – Dijon, Kill Your Pop Festival

5/03 – Prague, Klub 007

5/12 – Brussels , Les Nuits Botanique Festival

5/15 – Glasgow, Nice N Sleazys

5/17 – Galway, Roisin Dubh

5/18 – Dublin, Whelans

5/19 – Liverpool, Sound City Festival

5/20 – London, Luminaire 

* = w/ Japandroids

Check out a special Pitchfork TV presentation of the “Restroom Sessions” of this incredible duo “The Dodos”. Acoustic guitar using different tuning, minimal set of drums and broken rhythms accompanied by minimal textures.