Introducing Chris Cohen

Perusing the shelves at Other Music this past weekend, we stumbled upon Chris Cohen's debut record Overgrown Path out now on Captured Tracks. The handwritten store description name dropped Caribou and Emitt Rhodes in the same sentence, so we picked it up sight unseen (unheard?). The 37 year old music industry / touring musician veteran layers a psych haze over vocals reminiscent of Rhodes, but also perhaps with a hint of Ben Folds thrown in for flavor (in a very tasteful way). This pleasing and promising debut solo effort is cool and edgy enough to satisfy the Pitchfork crowd (where the below vid debuted today) while possessing a harmonic and melodic accessibility which will satisfy the casual listeners.

Veckatimest Listening Party

In case you've been living in a cave for the past several weeks, you're aware that the new Grizzly Bear record Veckatimest is coming out on Tuesday via Warp. It leaked a while ago, but we're looking forward to hearing it in the quality format in which it was intended, not just some crappy web rip. Other Music is hosting a listening party on Memorial Day (Monday) from 4-6 pm with free pizza and other giveaways. Most importantly they will have limited edition versions of the LP and CD for purchase a day early. We leave you for the weekend (I think) with the video for their single and arguably best song on the record "Two Weeks" directed by Patrick Daughters. Poor guys and their exploding heads.

Cazumbi: African Sixties Garage

[mp3] Gino Garrido E Os Psicodelicos: "Baby I Love You"

[mp3] Teta Lando: "Muato Wa N'Ginjla"

If anyone has walked into Other Music in the past three weeks or so, there's a great chance you've heard the staff blasting this record. I usually walk in, stop, wonder what the hell they were playing only to see that it was all coming from this compilation. It's a crazy-ass collection of '60s garage, R&B, and rock music with even some surf rock thrown in for good measure. The music comes from all regions of Africa and features some well known western hits. According to Other Music, some white Western artists "were not permitted to have records imported into the African nations, so lots of local groups popped up to record their own versions of classic jams which were then pressed domestically in Africa." You can't really go wrong with any track here. This is a limited edition offer, so when these things are gone -- they're gone for good. Buy it HERE.

Record Store Day and Other Music

Record Store Day is narrowly approaching and our mouths are beginning to salivate with anticipation. On April 18, we will salute our favorite record stores, buying all sorts of albums we need and don't need, but everything is for a good cause...to save the fucking music industry.

One of our most favorable LP watering holes happens to be NY's Other Music; these people know what they are talking about, and days can literally be spent fingering through the mass amounts of choice music they have cataloged.

Other Music is ready for April 18 and to prove it, here is their in-store line up/festivities for the momentous day via BV:

LISTENING PARTY:
11:30am-12:30pm Bob Dylan-"Together Through Life" listening party with bagels, muffins, and juice!

DJ SETS:
1-2pm Telepathe
2-3pm Obits
3-4pm Grizzly Bear
4-5pm Pains of Being Pure At Heart
5-6pm Raveonettes
6-7pm Prefuse 73

LIVE PERFORMANCE:
9pm-10pm Bill Callahan live (drinks courtesy of PBR)

PBR and juice -- you'll know where to find us...POSTED UP.

Nite Jewel At My Kitchen Table

Nite Jewel "Weak For Me" mp3

Watching Nite Jewel perform at Other Music a few weeks back felt strangely surreal. The music contained on her debut LP Good Evening is for dark spaces - close, late night listening. It's not meant for bright store lights, or prime-time. So, Ramona Gonzalez did what seemed logical. She put on sunglasses. Out of any other performer, it could have been viewed as a trite move, a cliche fashion statement. Yet, it seemed to relax Ramona and relax the room. After all, Nite Jewel's music is made in her living room. What followed was 40 or so minutes of reverb drenched, yet lovely vocals, vintage sounding analog beats, synth, and two women making modern music using antiquated techniques. It was distinctly unique and original.

Ramona Gonzalez and her friend Rachelle sat around my kitchen table in the East Village on a lazy Sunday afternoon the day before the performance. We discussed recording techniques, Woo, and the necessity of the 8-track. Read our discussion after the jump.





Photos by Mikey IQ Jones

How has growing up outside of San Francisco affected your musical outlook?

Well, there are lots of different answers to that question, there’s a folk scene, a hip hop scene, psychedelic scene, alt rock scene, a punk scene... it’s an infinitely complicated question to answer. There’s a really big music community, not in a hipster sense, in a lame sense (laughs). There are crazy record collectors, Amoeba was founded there and there are lot’s of great DJs.

I was a part of the community there - my mom was engaged in the world / folk music music community. I’ve always been interested in hip hop, the R&B jazz scene is huge, Yoshi's is there, so there is a big jazz community.

Who have you enjoyed playing with the most recently, and who are you currently collaborating with?

Well, I love Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti. I was a whistler recently at an Animal Collective show, professional whistler, he says I have to redeem myself (laughs)... I think hes totally wrong about that. I’ve worked with Tickley Feather in Philly... they just signed to Paw Tracks, one woman recording artist. Girls are amazing. They were really really great at Glasslands. I mostly like playing with my friends – maybe that’s lame – but for me playing shows, my criteria for playing shows is just a good vibe.

What compelled you to take such a lo fi approach to recording – was it more out of necessity or a larger creative decision?

A lot of people ask that question. Musicians will work with whatever tools are given to them or afforded to them. Most regular people can’t afford pro tools – I can’t (laughs). I didn't grow up in an environment where digital interfaces were used. In my house, it was all analog equipment, playing board games. I don't work well with digital interface – not that I can't learn – but I work with what I know I will I do the best with - and that's not a computer program. (Laughs) I didn’t get the internet till about 1999.

Do you see yourself changing that in the future?

Well, I just got some money so I bought a computer. Over dubbing is easier, but I don’t trust computers.

Having to keep everything on a hardrive? The fear of that crashing?

I'm talking about trust in a different way. I don’t trust a computer to convey my emotions in an honest way. There is something important about knobs to me. When I’m pushing the resonance up, I’m feeling myself push it, it's physical. The 8 trak is essential to my recording – when there’s that “click” - that sound means that it’s stopped. Why do you think that people like vinyl? It's heavy. It feels good. The visceral quality of analog can’t be denied.

I’ve read a lot about your influences. You press release cited, Woo, Cluster, Sensations Fix. Honestly, I had to do some digging around to find some of these people. Where do you get your music from, and if you could pick someone for people to check out right now – old or new – who would it be?

I usually get my music from friends. I have two really close friends who are avid record collectors. My friend Jason, who released my vinyl LP, introduced me to Woo. I don’t really collect records or music. I don’t really have to do anything – it’s gotten expensive to collect records. Jason just finds life changing music for me. He's definitely responsible for how that record came out. He has this incredible eye where he can find these amazing 25 cent records.

I think Woo is one of the most important artists for me. They started making music in the early 70s or 80s but didn’t find success until the 90s. It's cozy inside. They have a record - Whichever Way You’re Going You’re Going Wrong. It has this picture of a baby that looks very much like Jesus with everyone pointing in different directions, the cover has a lot of religious overtones - well, they are Hare Krishna's.

Jason wrote the bio as well, (laughs) he’s really modest. Cole is my husband, he’s totally blog crazy. He’s one of those mp3 finder people. He could be talking on the phone to someone who tells him about a single and Cole will find it on the internet before the end of the conversation. Cole and I grew up in the same town, we have similar music tastes. We've rediscovered a lot of music that we listened to as kids – Ariel has also introduced me to a lot of great new music.

Woo is the most important band to me ever. There are so many reasons why this band means so much to me. It could be that I'm ignorant and there is more music like this out there... they just represent all the frequency ranges and all the blind styles, but I could be totally wrong about that... My answer to this question may change next week.

Are you working on a lot of new material at the moment? What’s the next record going to sound like?

I’m constantly recording songs, a lot of them I scrap. The recording process is always going to be part of the writing process. How can you write a song before you record it? Recording the song is so integral to the writing of the song. Sometimes, I write a bunch of lyrics down... but the way I take it down... I cant write without my 8-track. Last night, we were sitting in hotel playing a song off this mix... and there’s this drum intro and I said, 'I have to write a song around that drum intro.' A lot of time you come up with funny words... like I want to write a song that has (blank) in the title. Take "Artificial Intelligence" - I wanted to write a song with that idea inside. People will write a song based on an idea, or the music, and there is always more attention played to that part of the song . I think it should be from a wide variety of places that people write songs. If you write music, it emanates from every orifice. The visual queues you get from the world turn into something musical. The guitar is only an instrument... you have to interact with the equipment. I’ve written a few songs on the guitar, but it’s all about - what does the guitar mean for me?

Nite Jewel is more of a recording thing, than a live thing. It’s changing and developing. That's why our live show is always changing. I think about records a lot and the person, and how the record came to be. Recording is a very big part.

What book have you read recently that has blown your hair back?

Well I’ve been reading a lot, especially for school. I study Philosophy, so I’ve been reading a lot of different things, not whole texts, but different pieces of a lot of authors. Right now it’s has been a lot of Wittgenstein.

Brossa d'Ahir

Pep Laguarda - Cims I Abismes - mp3

What keeps me in this blogging game is the discovery of records such as PEP LAGUARDA & TAPINERIA's Brossa d'Ahir. This came to me not through a publicist or label, but through Other Music's weekly newsletter. While only through my first listen, its languid-folk melodies, softly-tasteful instrumentation and hushed-Spanish vocals bring you instant flashes of serenity. Maybe this is one of those records that everyone else knows about already, and I missed the boat somewhere -- I'm not a Spanish folk expert. So, it's new to me and if you haven't heard it, I hope you'll enjoy it as much I am right now. Here's a quote from Michael Klausman's Other Music review.

"It's [not] some monumentally groundbreaking artistic achievement, but that it's one of the most comfortably persuasive compulsive listens you'll ever be privy to, and one of the rare albums where I'd be astounded if the listener was not moved by it... Everyone I've played it for has been as surprised as I at how lovely it is. It's not the kind of thing that'll have to grow on you either, for it isn't particularly weird, or psychedelic, or anything like that. It's just, well, like I said, lovely. Warmly and impeccably recorded by Daevid Allen in 1976 in Deia, Mallorca, Pep Laguarda and Tapineria's only album Brossa D'ahir seems to just gently float outside of time."

South Africans Are Secretly Canadian - Free BLK JKS "Mystery" E.P.

We're calling it right now: BLK JKS will blow up in 2009. The Diplo-approved South African band just inked to Indiana-based Secretly Canadian, who will handle the re-release of the "Mystery" E.P. on March 10. The art-rock quartet reminds us of early T.V. On The Radio, and it's hard not to notice the influence of their home country on tribal jams like "Lakeside" and "Summertime" (live video in the replies.) 

Judge for yourself by (legally) downloading a digital copy of "Mystery" at your online outlet of choice. (But go ahead and take it from Other Music Digital, because we like them best.) It's available from now until January 5. And to add to the awesomeness that is today for the band, you can check out a documentary of the band premiering tonight on Digforfire.tv.

Conor Oberst, New Album, In-Store at Other Music - NY - mp3

Conor Oberst - "Danny Callahan" - mp3
Everyone's favorite indie store Other Music has been hitting it big with their in-stores. This year, they have ranged from My Brightest Diamond to the Breeders. Now, add Conor Oberst to that list. See below on how to procure a ticket for the August 12th show. 100 person capacity. Calexico will also be playing on September, 23. Merge Records will release Conor's "first solo album" on August 5th.

"CONOR OBERST & THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND: Tuesday, August 12 @ 1PM
We will be giving away 100 tickets to this in-store event to purchasers of Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band's great new album, to be released on Merge Records on Tuesday August 5. The tickets will be divided between our shop, mail-order website and download store. Beginning at 12 noon on the 5th until the tickets run out, buy any format of the album and get one ticket to the show, with a maximum of two purchases/tickets per person."

Lau Nau - Nuuku

I seem to be quickly amassing a collection of excellent female "folk" singers from Scandinavia. The most recent addition is Finnish artist Lau Nauaka, aka Laura Naukkarinen. I got this track last week in my Other Music weekly update, and have since checked out the whole record Nuuku released 5/13. This is Lau Nau's follow up to her critically acclaimed debut record Kuutarha. She made the perfect video for this song. It basically sums up all the reasons I like this stuff - snow, woods, winter...
If you like this - be sure to check out Olof Arnalds, whose great record Vid Og Vid came out last year. Lau Nau's video is after the jump.
Lau Nau "Painovoimaa Valoa" mp3

INDIANA JONES COUNTDOWN: 3 Days

Happy Old 97s Release Day

We haven't had one of these in awhile. Since 2004, to be exact. That year's release Drag it Up did little to quench the thirst we all have for this Texas band's blend of desert country rock and soaring pop hooks. So really, it's been since 2001's Satellite Rides since we have gotten a truly worthy Old 97s record. Widely hailed as a return to form and possibly one of the band's best yet, today's Blame it On Gravity (New West) is absolutely at the top of my Other Music shopping list.

Also on that list is the new Vetiver, Nick Cave's Murder Ballads, and possibly the Dosh record Wolves and Wishes. Until I get to digest Blame it on Gravity or post any tunes from the album, enjoy the video for the classic song "Over the Cliff" from Wreck Your Life. Yes, it's the album track overdubbed over live footage, but shit... who's got money for a real video?



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