Friday, April 4, 2008

New Vinyl Photography and Friday Videos: Crystal Castles, Fight Like Apes, Foals & Radiohead; Skins & SXSW




(Click to enlarge - and to test your knowledge of Dischord/No Idea/etc release numbers!)


First of all, hope you like the new header (above, top). I'd been thinking of changing it for some time, especially since the mp3 player in the original (and the headphone cable, but not the headphones) had given up on me. You might recognise the current picture from the Double Slowcore Post; it's a record stylus in action, shot from a slightly odd angle. It fits the slightly different direction this blog has been going in lately.

The picture immediately above - the sum total of my LPs as of 04/04 - is the genesis for a third header. I might come up with one or two more, and maybe rotate them on a weekly basis...


However, no vinyl is involved in this post; it's all hip, up-and-coming indie-ish bands, shown mostly through the medium of low- and medium-quality video:



Crystal Castles on Skins:


I've heard a good deal of buzz about this band, particularly surrounding their outing at this year's SXSW. Apparently the singer was flailing around the stage only days after she had a few ribs bruised (or cracked, I can't remember) in a car accident. I haven't heard much, but I like their sound and I'm encouraged to seek out more; kind of like a collision between the Yeah Yeah Yeah's Karen O and the loopy beats of Dan Deacon (oh, but I've used that comparison before - see below) with a good dollop of Suicide thrown in. Here's their appearance in a scene from Skin, "the new-rave OC" according to UnaRocks". Pretty rockin':





Fight Like Apes at SXSW:


Yep, back to being parochial again. This excellent Dublin band first garnered my - quite shallow - Dan Deacon/Yeah Yeah Yeahs comparison (prologue to Fuck This Band: Mclusky Singles) and fit more generically somewhere between "obnoxious pop" and punk. I haven't heard much about their trip to SXSW, but a few Irish journalists who went said they put on a very good show - for documentary evidence, here's a couple of videos from YouTube (also found via UnaRocks). Fairly decent sound quality, too. I'll be seeing them for just the third time when they hit the UCD Student Bar this coming week, and then hopefully for a fourth when they play the Village with Future of the Left next Sunday:









Foals - 'Hummer', Skins Secret Party Episode:


A video I've been meaning to post for a while, in particular following this post on 'Cassius'. The scene comes from a special mini-episode of Skins which was broadcast shortly before the start of the second season. Basically, the group find a small abandoned mansion in a forest and put on an impromptu rave with, er, Foals providing the music. Mucho hedonism.

You can watch the full 10-minute episode on YouTube here.







Holy Fuck - Radiohead 'Nude' Remix:


Finally, the song used for the recent Skins trailer, Radiohead's 'Nude', has been offered for remix for the band (BBC story). I came across - via Thrill Pier - a Holy Fuck remix today, which sounds pretty good - you can download it from Fileden here. This is the original trailer which I posted previously:



4 comments:

Joseph said...

Crystal Castles is pretty great! I've been enjoying their album, although I think it seems more like a compilation of what they've done up to now rather than an "album," if you know what I mean. Alice is a cutie too :D

gabbagabbahey said...

yeah, I've heard the album is pretty long - 16 tracks. To be honest, I'd forgotten who they were until I saw that Skins clip again...

gabbagabbahey said...

btw, I've just made up a mix I thin you'll really like, joseph: none of these bands, but just some good sounds...

gabbagabbahey said...
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