Monkeys Gone To Heaven

I've been a videophile this week.

Embed Fellows:

a lovely find on vimeo:


bodysnatchers from sanddunesandsea on Vimeo.

check out his other work, its phenomenal.

The new Arcade Fire Video (which provides the option of toggling it's six audio channels, for you to remix their single "Black Mirror")

http://rorrimkcalb.com/arcadefire.html

To throw a little Whitney Biennial into your lives:

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/video/2008/historyofglamour_video200801

I stumbled across this video by the late Theresa Duncan/ Jeremy Blake, and its fantastic. Irony. Grandeur. Indie-harrassement.

**************************************



As a treat, Mademoiselle Deadbunny happened to stumble across a funny parallel between the new MGMT video for "Time To Pretend" and the film "Holy Mountain" by one of my personal favorites, fabulist director Alexandro Jodorowsky

http://mgmt.imeem.com/video/V3vx5CAD/mgmt_time_to_pretend_music_video_premiere_music_video/

you'll have to watch the film for yourself, but the bit where they push all their money into a ring of fire is a direct reference. I highly reccomend you netflix it babies.

Love,

DJ PeeJay

Cave Diggers

Opponents be aware that Nick Cave is bringing the dead back to life. With Dig, Lazarus, Dig coming out in a few months, Nick Cave is not sleeping. Just yesterday we were reading Plato's Republic in order to understand Nick's last name true meaning. He turned on his collaboration with Warren Ellis a soundtrack for The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford.

 My thoughts:
I am tired of the goddamn sand in my boots.
My nose is dry, my ears are filled with wax, and I can never satisfy my thirst.
Another lonely, forgotten by everyone town is behind my horse's ass.
Whores are pleasant only when I am drunk.
Guns are my only children.
Sunrises and sunsets are my family.
Trust only your horse, for the horse cannot speak.
Never have business with dead man.
The moon is in the belly of a giant whale.
Think of yourself as a king, for losers die sooner.
Money is my main fuel.
Beware of the carny, for carny will eat your horse.
Love is an escape from reality.
Newspapers can be used as toilet paper.

The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis is being released on Feb 5th.

DJ Moonsake.

Neko Bliss

This past Saturday my sister and I went to see Neko Case play in Ithaca.

I don’t even know how to supplement that.

Alright, I’m just going to break it down for you real quick. And vague. And in verse.

Neko Case
Flaming red-head chanteuse
Queen of the Alternative-Country Underworld
Oh, how you sing disaster of a human nature!
Tragedy of circumstance!
Bitter triumph.

How cryptic AND irritating! I think I’ve finally found my voice.

Oh, and here’s some authentic, albeit illegal and crappy, footage I took for your viewing pleazzzure



Love, DJ AMAZON

Monkey 23

Hello, it’s DJ Dead Bunny once again.

I'm in love with the Kills.



They're coming out with a new album March 18th and I’m looking very much forward to its arrival. You see, ever since my senior year of high school I’ve pretty much been in love with the duo comprised of Alison Mosshart (VV) and Jamie Hince (Hotel.) Mosshart, a Floridian, met the British Hince, and originally communicated their versions of music through the mail, eventually coming up with their album “Keep On Your Meanside” (2003.) I do think that their little phone segments (from the tapes they sent back and forth) adds to their lo-fi quality sound. Both “Keep On Your Meanside,” and their sophomore album “No Wow,” (2004) have a dark and dirty sort of feel surrounded by their two guitars and fake drumbeats. It’s the kind of stuff that makes those illegal-substance-filled nights magical, similar to the feeling of flailing around with sweaty hair in your face and your eyes rimmed with black eyeliner.

As for the little visual glimpses the public gets, we have an introduction to their first two video singles, “URA Fever,” and “Cheap and Cheerful.” It seems as if the band has segued slightly into the world of the new wave, the Henry Hollands, the sparkles and the neons. Their music is a little more uplifted and “popular.” Don’t get me wrong, it still seems magnificent, and in the same Kills fashion, their videos are little mini concerts and interactions between the playful Mosshart and Hince.

Here are the two videos:
"URA Fever"


"Cheap and Cheerful"


And, if you can’t get enough of these videos, make sure to check out their website. It’s filled with their artwork (they’re not just musicians, but photographers and create collages.) They have a full page of photobooth snapshots and polaroids of their friends.

Do it! Do it!
www.thekills.tv


Fuck the People,
DJ Dead Bunny

K-K-K-Kiwi

When my godbrother, a well rooted brooklynite, tells me a band will blow my mind, I tend to listen.

What I didn't understand was he meant I risk decapitation by listening to the group he was talking about.

Nocturnal Projections are the post-punk band from NZ reponsible for my having been forced to walk around sans cranium for the past few weeks. Their entire album is available at http://kiwitapes.blogspot.com in a .zip file. Be careful though, after its unzipped, that beast won't get back in its cage.

I recommend a hearty steak dinner, followed by some zulu war-drum practice, some squats, leglifts, and a visit to the cardiologist before attempting to tackle this beast of a record.

And don't dare call this aussie rock.

-DJPJ-

Syracuse nights...

Are kind of like this.

Love, DJ AMAZON

For more info on The Knife, check out http://www.theknife.net

The Starlight Mints Built On Squares Is A Magical Goldstar Ride

What is going on with my favorite little, fiery flowers? I am talking to you, my fellow comrades, the readers of our new Ear Footsie product. As we mentioned, the radio station in Syracuse was lame. The rent was so high, that I myself could no longer get high, so I confronted my teammates with a water gun in my hand and forced them to destroy the contract with the radio station. As part of our celebration, DJ PJ and I decided to go on a road trip.

We both packed our things. Our car-trunk contained two sport bags by North Face, which were filled with shirts, socks, and underwear. Those are the only items of clothing that should be changed constantly in our opinion. DJ PJ was wearing his pajamas, and I just wore simple suit pants with an unremovable ketchup stain by the crotch, (which is actually a part of design.) Those pants were hand made by a very famous designer from Ecuador. In the back seat, we had a cooler filled with Mikes Hard Lemonade, which we brought for picking up bitches (kidding). Our personal drink was in the glove compartment, which was a nice bottle of 12 year old malt. With that said I will get to the point.

When the two of us are driving, we listen to music. Each of us takes a turn in picking this music. So, when we left a rest area at the border of Tennessee and Kentucky, I picked my friend, Allan Vest's band, The Starlight Mints. My personal favorite product of Vest and his band-mates labor is the album Built On Squares.

Issued in May of 2003, Built On Squares became one of my favorite albums after I met the lead-singer Vest, at a small show in a little downtown bar in Norman, Oklahoma. That meeting took place in 2004. There, I saw the Starlight Mints perform, and later partying at the venue. I walked up to Allan, introduced myself, but soon realized that I was actually just tripping on brownies that my friend's grandma had cooked for us. However, I am a type of a guy that thinks any illusion is a reality, that is, if one believes what one sees without question.

This particular time, I thought I was inside of a Mario Kart game or something. With the opening song, I felt like I was trying to shoot Bowser with a giant spiked mushroom, (which I ended up eating,) and apparently, in reality, Bowser was just a big truck on the highway during our trip.

Anyway, the music got me totally in a mood. Trippy lyrics and even trippier music makes this album a must-have on any indie-pop shelve. Vest's lyrics are filled with melancholy, adventure, love, and are so truly playful, that you fall for them right away. Of course, tunes warm like IHOP syrup play a huge role in the success of the album.

The Starlight Mints produce up-lifting guitar riffs, floating in the watery bass, and delightful drums that make your body wanna move. Adding spices like keyboards, and violins like summer bees, even a "St. Peter" style of horn playing.

All these tasty characteristics in every song of the album, as well as the album Goldstar in particular made DJ PJ and I feel like we had our own Goldstar, allowing us to go 30 miles over the speed limit. We felt like we were Michael Cane and Sean Connery in a cinematic adaptation of Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King.

When we got pulled over for speeding, PJ just burned a copy of Built On Squares for the cop, and we got away scot-free. When the cop finally got to track number 6 "Irene", he let us go, because apparently it reminded him of a turtle he used to own in his childhood, of the same name. We were glad that the cop did not ask what was in our cooler though.

-Yours truly DJ Moonsake

FREAKS, ASSEMBLE! part 2 of 2

FREAKS, ASSEMBLE! part 1 of 2

I've been on a freak folk kick for quite some time now.

"Freak folk?" you say. "Is that some sort of obscure racial slur?"

Well, if you find mountains of facial hair and occasional lute ballads offensive, then yeah, maybe. Otherwise, no.

Freak folk is the musical marriage of traditional folk music and psychedelia. A 2006 article from The New York Times just about nails it:

"The new music is more a mind-set than a genre. It usually employs acoustic instruments, though it's as likely to have roots in progressive rock, free jazz or Brazilian pop as in Appalachian ballads.
Vocals tend toward the willfully eccentric, arrangements toward the exotic, lyrics toward the oblique. The sound can range from gentle ensemble music befitting a Renaissance fair to electric psychedelia befitting an acid test. The musicians often conjure the 60's in grooming and countercultural/utopian/back-to-the-land vibe." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/arts/music/18herm.html)

You got it? Good.

I've been following Alela Diane, a rising freak folk poster child, for about two years now. The Nevada City, California native taught herself the guitar at age 19, and a few months down the line (and I assume many, many aura-cleansing chai teas later) released "Forest Parade," her first collection of songs.

She wrote her second group of songs during the summer of 2004, "while on a journey of solitude." (http://www.aleladiane.com/) These songs make up the bulk of her highly acclaimed and widely blogged about album "The Pirate's Gospel," which Alela first recorded, released and distributed completely by herself in 2004.

Alela made the first 650 copies of the gospel by hand, sewing lace and paper bags for the case, drawing in golden ships, lettering ink, and burning each cd.

Holcene Music then reissued (in revised form) the album in 2006, and Alela quickly emerged as a premier member of the ethereal freak folk community.

Alela's music is achingly beautiful. Sparse musical arrangements, heavy in fingerstyle guitar and subtle handclap percussion, set the perfect backdrop for Alela's deep, plaintive and haunting vocals. Alela describes her sound as "campire gospel." And I'll warn you, campfire gospel is not a genre for the anemic, unimaginative listener. (Hear for yourself at Alela's myspace, www.myspace.com/alelamusic.)

Every time I listen to Alela I have disturbingly pleasurable heart palpitations, and my body decomposes into something like top soil. At once, I feel that I am drugged-up on opium and scaling the earth with my insect friends... Just as the Freaks intended.

Here's a video I dug up of Alela performing "Dry Grass and Shadows," a single off the "Grass Roots Record Co. - Family Album." (Unfortunately I have to post it separately, because I can't figure out this feckin' blog .) Download this track (as well as some other beauties) FREE at Daytrotter.com!

And don't be alarmed if you find yourself morphing into a tiny woodsland creature; like I said, it's just as the Freaks intended.

Love, DJ AMAZON

Free MP3's available at:
http://www.daytrotter.com/article/1005/free-songs-alela-diane-encore

Let the Games Begin

Welcome! It's DJ Dead Bunny. I guess one could say I'm new at this whole music blogging thing; you see, I'm a photographer so I've spent more time showing off my work than anything else. I'll be the first to admit my music vocabulary is rather minimal, so I'll be here to help our blog out visually as well as add some of my personal flavor to the mix.

Now, I can't say that I'm on the cutting edge and know when bands first come out. I'm lucky to know people like my fellow Ear Footsie DJs and others to keep me in the know... but I shall remain humble and just speak on my c

urrent listenings and obsessions (because I can swing from one way to the next), and will now begin:

The album I haven't been able to stop listening to this past week was the soundtrack to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. In my mind this is all new music to me. Yes, I recognize that most of the artists have been around for a while, but I couldn't help coming out of the theatre NEEDING the soundtrack. It contains quite the variety of sounds from classic French tunes from the late 40's- "La Mer," by Charles Trenet, 60's NY Rock 'n Roll- "Pale Blue Eyes," by the Velvet Underground, to "Don't Kiss Me Goodbye," (my favorite song on the album) by Ultra Orange and Emmanuelle. It's all just very fresh with the sound. Generally I'm disappointed that not every song can be included into a soundtrack, and with this on at 36 minutes I wanted to hear more songs that would remind me of the film. Totally give it a try, the film was beautifully done as well.

Now, the school year is generally off-season in terms of shows for me. I'm luckily located in Chicago and expect to attend many shows after the next few months so I'll be able to switch it up and show my experiences through photographs and what not. We at Ear Footsie WILL be on the lookout for reasonably located shows, though, through the rest of the term.

Hopefully I haven't disappointed with this first post. Once I get into the swing of things (and see what my fellow DJs write about) I'll be able to impress.

Over and out,

DJ Dead Bunny

P.S. I will shamelessly take the photo credit for our little banner... unfortunately it's a little dated, but we all figured it was appropriate.

Turn your sex on.

Hey babies. How's your mom doing? Good.

Having been forced to dismantle our lovely weekly radio show on WERW 1570 AM (here in sunny Syracuse, New York) for a myriad of reasons (crippled listenership, party management, SARS outbreaks), we have chosen instead to rock the mystical

wonderment that is the realm of blog-a-spherez. When we say "we"..."we" mean the Ear Footsie team, a magical collaboration assembled by:

DJ Pajamas! DJ Amazon! DJ Moonsake! and a new addition, DJ Dead Bunny!

The fo' of us are gonna be slapping opinions all over this blog like a muvabitch. Stewing, reviewing, and all around screwing the music scene until it's blue in the face. We hope to provide a more fuck-you-up sort of personal touch to our blogiverse. 

We'll be posting a weekly podcast, as well as mp3's, album reviews, rants, raves, pictures, discussions of feminism and kantian realism, doody humour, and videos of our sweet sweet glorious dancing.

We are ridiculous, and we hope to make you a little more ridiculous by proxy.

Bitches.

So read up, and taste the magic. OR ELSE.

-The Ear Footsie Team