Video: Fredrik - "11 Years"

Shot entirely with a digital camera, the frame-by-frame video for the Swedish band Fredrik's "11 Years" is astonishing.  It was shot in an abandoned train station and features the band, Fredrik, just plain old hanging out.  The band itself is a pleasant off-shoot from another wonderful Swede-filled group, The LK, and though it started with just two (Fredrik, Lindefelt), the group soon ballooned into a six-piece.  "11 Years" is sugary sweet and morose at the same time, something so stereotypical to the band's home country, it should really not even be mentioned, but we don't pay attention to that whole thing.  Check out the band this coming month as they're heading out on their first US tour, which kicks off November 5 in Washington, DC.

(mp3)    Fredrik - Black Fur

Godspeed!

Photos: Crookers do Girls & Boys

Italy's hardest motherfucking DJs (ever?), Crookers, descended on the crowd at Le Poisson Rouge Wednesday night, playing a relentless hour-or-so set.  Phra and Bot, the duo from Milan, threw some absolute killers in their mix and the kids didn't stop dancing until the final pitch-bent beat was done.  Another Girls & Boys in the bag.

(mp3)    Outhere Brothers - Enjoy (Crookers remix)

Godspeed!

News: Iran to relase Buddy EP Tuesday + 3rd album on the way

Just FYI y'all, Kyp Malone is not Iran.  The TV on the Radio dude contributed a bunch of vocals to the project, but technically, people only talk about how Malone is in the group and how David Sitek, TVOTR's guitarist/producer also helped tweek some knobs.  Iran is, in reality, the work of multi-instrumentalist Aaron Aites, bassist Peter Hoffman, Malone and guitarist Aaron Romanello (of Grand Mal).  They've already put out two astonishingly lo-fi, seems-like-they-were-recorded-on-tape masterpieces (The Moon Boys and a self-titled disc) and they're coming back in February with Dissolver.  On Tuesday, however, Iran is releasing an EP entitled Buddy, and the title track is, well, pretty much stellar.  The EP will also include "Airport 77" and a cover of the John Lennon tune "Isolation".

(mp3)    Iran - Buddy

Godspeed!

mp-FREE: The Young Punx - "Ghosts vs. Ghouls"

Mixing together Japan's gloomy 1982 single "Ghosts" and Claude Von Stroke's remix of the drum-heavy-as-fuck "Ghouls" by Luke Solomon, the boys in The Young Punx are igniting your Halloween with this intense, completely essential track we're proud to be premiering.  These guys rip.

(mp3)    The Young Punx - Ghosts vs. Ghouls

Godspeed!

Live: Happy Halloween, love The American Dream Team

Tonight, tonight kids.  If you're like us and you live in New York City, you're tired of paying 20 bucks (or more) for anything worthwhile to do on All Hallow's Eve (not to mention the fact that most of these events aren't really "worthwhile", you know?).  Well, no more.  That scene is tired and we're ready to bury it.  So are the boys in The American Dream Team and Bad Decision, who're teaming up tonight to bring the heavens down to Brooklyn at what looks to be an amazing loft party, "Nightmare Disco".

(mp3)    The American Dream Team - Personality

Godspeed!

mp-FREE: Interstates - "A Song Of Benediction"

(photo by Mickie Winters)

Louisville, KY-based Interstates, the duo of Alex O'Nan and Kyle Noltemeyer, create the kind of experimental instrumental sounds that shred pieces of electronica, found sounds, rock and pop all together creating songs that are at certain points enlightening, frustrating and explosive.  There is an obvious ethereal beauty in all of this, leaving most to ponder what's going to come next as loops and crescendos morph into codas almost effortlessly.  Interstates, at their core, are a post-rock band that refuse to have that label, or really any label at that, other than an occasional "masterful", "beautiful", "haunting", or "holy shit" tossed in every once in a while.  The guys just released their debut record, Run Run, this summer and today a new single "A Song Of Benediction" was released.

(mp3)    Interstates - A Song Of Benediction

(mp3)    Interstates - Uniforms Forever

Godspeed!

Live: Excepter to play all day to usher in new president

This coming Tuesday, November 4 is election day.  We as an American people have the duty to pick a new president (the right president) of our United States.  We've already backed Barack Obama here at THE CULTURE OF ME, so you know where we're going with that rhetoric.  Brooklyn's Excepter is going a few giant steps further, and have decided to play all day in their hometown, from the time the polls open until someone announces a new president.  From 8am until whenever at Williamsburg's Monkeytown, you can catch Excepter playing in order to, according to them, "affect the election through sound".

(mp3)    Excepter - Kill People

Godspeed!

Emerging: The Ropes

(photo by Bo Streeter)

"You can all go fuck yourselves/ You can all go burn in hell".  So begins "I Don't Like To Get Dirty" from our newest NYC band crush, The Ropes.  Sure, they're like other boy/girl indie duos (cf. The Kills minus the violent sexual tension, Matt & Kim minus the zero sexual tension, et al.), but what sets these guys apart is, well, everything but the fact that there's two of them.  The two utilize chugging, drenched in reverb guitars and alternative-leaning drum fills, simple bass progressions and singer Sharon Shy's sweaty, yearning sulk, creating some of the most attractive and engaging capital-R rock songs we've heard coming out of Gotham in some time now.  The lyrics are wonderfully simple and spiteful, true to form for any vengeful ingenue who's tired of playing second banana.  "Cry To The Beat" and "Kill Her Off", both from the band's first full length, are ace stompers, but one listen to "I Don't Like To Get Dirty" and we're sure you'll be sold on The Ropes.

(mp3)    The Ropes - Kill Her Off

Godspeed!

News: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart set date for debut; tour UK with The Wedding Present

(photo by Mike DeSutter)

Attention, all ye cardigan-wearing, kitten-loving, noise-pop dancing kids.  NYC's not-so-secret-anymore poppers in The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have finally scheduled the release date for their self-titled debut LP.  The ten-song disc will hit shelves February 3, 2009 via Slumberland Records, who were responsible for the band's previous single, "Everything With You".  The band will be finishing off this year with a month-long undertaking in the British Isles, alongside The Wedding Present.  And, as if that wasn't enough news, we've heard rumors that Kurt, the band's drummer who took over duties from the almighty iPod, may be leaving the group.  We can't confirm or deny, but we'd like to, so, you know, let us know.

Dates:

Dec 02 Colchester, UK Arts Center
Dec 03 Portsmouth, UK Wedgewood Rooms
Dec 04 Oxford, UK Academy
Dec 05 Leicester, UK Princess Charlotte
Dec 06 Manchester, UK Academy
Dec 08 Cork, IE Pavillion
Dec 09 Dublin, IE Andrews Lane Theatre
Dec 10 Belfast, IE Limelight
Dec 12 Glasgow, SCT Captain's Rest
Dec 13 Leeds, UK The Cockpit
Dec 14 Nottingham, UK The Social
Dec 16 London, UK Old Blue Last
Dec 17 London, UK The Lexington
Dec 18 London, UK Forum

(mp3)    The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Come Saturday

(mp3)    The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Everything With You

(mp3)    The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Stay Alive

(mp3)    The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Doing All the Things That Wouldn’t Make Your Parents Proud

Godspeed!

Video games: "Guitar Hero World Tour" + KFC = epic fail?

Let this be an open letter from your friends at THE CULTURE OF ME to your arteries.  If you're ever feeling inclined to take in about 1,000 calories and then think you'll totally be jumping around your living room with a faux guitar, shredding to a bunch of songs you'll probably never hear on the radio (Metallica and Oasis's new records notwithstanding) in the newest in the Guitar Hero series, "World Tour", do yourself a favor and just don't.  We mean, seriously?  This is your marketing department hard at work, Colonel?  Wow.  Just, wow.

(mp3)    Tiedye - Nothing Else Matters (Metallica cover)

Godspeed!