MorphBlog

The World In Our Heads: An Interview With Beach House

2008-05-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

The music beat goes on at Wired, where I have been hard at work. This morning, I posted an interview with one of the best bands of the last three years. Click on, read up, post a comment. Wired loves the love. Speaking of...

The Worlds In Our Heads: An Interview With Beach House
Beach House's stunning sophomore effort Devotion has been out for a couple of months now, but it remains hard to shake. Its Lynchian dream sonics thrive on waking life, the way all great albums do, offering up sublime soundtracking for every possible environment. Mission accomplished.

Of course, everyone expected big things from Beach House after Pitchfork and other tastemakers latched onto the band's self-titled 2006 debut and didn't let go. But pianist/vocalist Victoria Legrand and multi-instrumentalist Alex Scally turned in even more addictive songs of love, loss and everything in between on Devotion. Legrand's ethereal voice takes center stage, much as Elizabeth Fraser's did for the similarly evocative Cocteau Twins, while her electric organs mind-meld with Scally's hypnotic guitar to form a lush background of spacetronica -- and not much else. Devotion is as understated as it is brilliant.

Listening Post queried Legrand on the movies in her mind and why tech is good for her backbeat but bad for her voice... MORE @ WIRED

Batman Gotham Knight Kicks Holy Ass

2008-05-08T11:38:00.000-07:00

Well, my piece on the Animatrix-inspired Batman Gotham Knight has gone up, as promised. This time, my spiel made it to Wired, where the eye candy and critical writing is at. Post a comment, and tell them Morphizm sent you:

'Batmanime' Is a Blast in Batman: Gotham Knight
The geek machine has fired into overdrive for Christopher Nolan's incoming prequel sequel, The Dark Knight. But the untold hero of this summer's Batman assault may lie elsewhere -- in the Animatrix-inspired Batman: Gotham Knight, to be exact.

Like The Matrix franchise before it, the Batman franchise has learned that filtering your mythology through the kinetic template of anime can do wonders for your upgrades. Batman: Gotham Knight is that upgrade, and it looks kickass... MORE @ WIRED

Does Speed Racer Suck? What Is Suck?

2008-05-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

I could read J. Hoberman's film reviews all day long. I'm particularly smitten with his clear-eyed criticism of The Wachowki Brothers' Speed Racer acid trip for LA Weekly:

Even more than most summer-season F/X fests, Speed Racer is a live-action/animation hybrid and, what’s more, proud of it. Bright, shiny and button-cute, the movie is a self-consciously tawdry trifle — a celluloid analog to the ribbon-bedecked, mirrored gewgaws that clever European settlers hoped to swap with the savages for Manhattan Island.

Post Up: My Bloody Valentine Stabs America

2008-05-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay today, Morphizm pals. I've been sweating hard for Wired, who have helped me blog my brains out on a daily basis. Speaking of brains, mine can't wait for reunited geniuses My Bloody Valentine to hit the States. Good thing they just announced dates. That rhymed:

My Bloody Valentine To Bruise North America At Last
According to thesaurus-loving music blog Pitchfork, the lately reunited aural-gasmic quartet My Bloody Valentine has finally disclosed its plans for a North American tour. That mammoth whoosh you hear in the distance is thousands of credit cards being pulled out of their wallets and purses... MORE @ WIRED

Has No Age Made The Disc Of The Year?

2008-05-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that two people can make such beautiful noise. But I'm a believer, as I explained for Metromix. And probably will for Wired too:

No Age
Nouns
It’s hard to find a disappointing track on "Nouns." "Teen Creeps" is a flawless mess of distortion and pop riffage. "Miner" is a maelstrom of My Bloody Valentine-meets-Fugazi beauty and the loud-quiet-loud stomp of "Cappo" is unrelentingly addictive. Stark instrumentals like "Keechie" and "Impossible Bouquet" are evocative and hypnotic. "Sleeper Hold" is the sweetest, lovelorn song you'll ever hear sneak out from behind a wall of squealing feedback. Even the indulgent electronica of "Things I Did When I Was Dead" unfurls into a cinematic climax. You can tell No Age is made up of two true-school skateboarders: they rarely miss a step... MORE @ METROMIX

Post Up: Iron Man's Heavy Metal Rise

2008-05-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

So I started my new reporting gig for Wired this weekend, and had a blast. Especially on this long piece about the long arm of Iron Man, which opened last week and is killing at the box office. Just like Black Sabbath killed my eardrums. Speaking of:

Iron Man's Heavy Metal Rise
Iron Man took flight on May 2, but its soundtrack is out May 6. And although it features mostly film score from Ramin Djawadi and other composers, there is one headbanging tune worthy of Black Sabbath's seminal "Iron Man," which the blockbuster licensed for its trailers and features in its closing credits. That song is Suicidal Tendencies' "Institutionalized," the sardonic punk anthem which also appeared in the immortal sci-fi flick Repo Man. That's some righteous circularity. But Iron Man's sonic branches reach further, starting with Sabbath... MORE @ WIRED

Post Up: Jimi Porn, Indian Jewelry

2008-05-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

Good news, Morphizm pals. Wired has signed me on as a reporter stalking the music, tech and culture beat, which is no place like home for me. I couldn't be happier. But the family of Jimi Hendrix could, according to my entry today for Wired's music blog Listening Post:

Jimi Hendrix Lives On, In Porn
"Have you ever been experienced?" the greatest guitar player who ever lived once asked, before answering "I have." And now everyone can see just how experienced Jimi Hendrix was, if porn kingpin Vivid Video is to be believed... MORE @ WIRED

An Interview With Indian Jewelry
It's hard to categorize the throbbing dance psychedelia that Indian Jewelry concocts out of their Houston-based launch pad, but I suppose I just did. The tongue-in-cheek ensemble falls somewhere in the sonic spectrum between My Bloody Valentine, Gram Rabbit and Brian Jonestown Massacre, but one could argue they lie outside of those comfortable coordinates as well.

You can decide for yourself by catching them on their current tour, or by listening in on their latest effort Free Gold, which drops May 20 from the very indie label We Are Free. Then again, you could also read the short but humorous exchange I conducted below with head jeweler Erika Thrasher on robots with filthy mouths and why the band shouldn't give away gold for free during a recession. That should do the trick... MORE @ WIRED

The Dark Knight? Gotham Knight, Baby.

2008-05-02T00:25:00.000-07:00

The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan's follow-up to Batman Begins is coming soon. But I'm as excited to see the anime iteration Batman Gotham Knight, which hits in July. More on the story later for Wired or Morphizm, which depends on the flip of Harvey Dent's coin.

Soak Up The Wedding Present's El Rey

2008-05-01T16:18:00.000-07:00

[Greetings, Morphizm pals. Earlier, I posted an interview with The Wedding Present's David Gedge, and now Morphizm writer and Trans Am soundfucker Nathan Means clocks in with the review of Gedge's latest effort El Rey. Soak up the sun. -- ST]

The Wedding Present: El Rey
[Nathan Means, Morphizm]
The Wedding Present's David Gedge wrote his most recent album while living in Los Angeles, but references to the Santa Ana Winds and Winona Rider don't suggest any real change in his thematic obsessions; El Rey could be subtitled “Getting Dumped in Los Feliz.”

This is not a slight. Gedge's handles heartache, temptation and love-as-catastrophe as deftly as anyone - themes that are also about the closest I can imagine to transcendent. Likewise, Gedge should be attracted to a place where celebrity heartache and brief, disastrous relationships are feverishly chronicled. But aside from El Rey 's one funny and thematically LA-centric moment – a man sings to photographs of an actress, “When I stare at you/ OK, it's just a .jpg… I've got a few” - LA doesn't really matter. Gedge could have spent a few months in Baghdad and – in the midst of bombings and power outages – successfully dredged the same waters he has since The Wedding Present's first album over 20 years ago... MORE @ MORPHIZM

Portishead Returns, Armed And Dangerous

2008-04-30T17:54:00.000-07:00

It's about time. Portishead has been idling in neutral for more than a decade, and finally got its trippy jalopy out of the shop. And it sounds great:

Portishead
Third
Whatever the reasons for their extended disappearance, make no mistake: Portishead is back on "Third," and just as invested in turning convention on its head. The chopper blades slicing the otherwise head-bobbing snares of "Plastic" into snippets are more destabilizing than dance-oriented. The opener "Silence" is the fastest thing they've ever done, a mashed guitar gallop that unwinds for two minutes before Gibbons' ethereally sad vocals finally tear it to pieces. If this is the kind of compelling sonics their indefinite hiatuses produce, Portishead can stay away all they want... MORE @ METROMIX

The Roots Dig Into Danger

2008-04-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

Bottom of the morning, Morphizm fans. Today is going to be the grind. But it's a good thing I have a badass soundtrack on hand. The Roots have a new, visceral disc out, and it could be the best thing they have ever made. My review for Metromix explains the rest:

The Roots
Rising Down
Whereas their most recent efforts have widened the Roots' portal into the mainstream, Rising Down is a defiant, agitated classic that might thankfully shake off the weaker bandwagon-jumpers. The title track throws down the gauntlet on geopolitical strife, from blood diamonds to climate crisis, with the help of conscientious virtuoso Mos Def. Dice Raw, Peedi Crakk and DJ Jazzy Jeff stop by to bring staccato danger to the visceral "Get Busy," while the Roots' rapper-in-residence, Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter, uses his militant, machine-gun delivery on "75 Bars" to remind us why rap used to actually scare some people. (Ah, the good old days!)... MORE @ METROMIX

Metallica Hypocrites Cave on Downloads

2008-04-28T18:16:00.000-07:00

I've been hammered with work, so no new love from me, Morphizm pals. But my buddy Eliot from Wired's music blog Listening Post has an excellent spiel on those Napster-hating whiners in Metallica. Let the mea culpa begin!

Metallica Considering Radiohead-Style Release
Eight years ago, when Metallica became the poster band for the clash between the record industry and its fans, the whole thing started when drummer Lars Ulrich personally delivered a massive printout of the names of people who had been sharing Metallica songs on Napster to the company's headquarters.

But with only one record left on its Warner Music Group contract, the Ulrich says Metallica could be planning a digital release along the lines of what Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have done, as ironic as that might seem... MORE @ WIRED

P.S. Eliot's piece features some of the best comments in the history of the internet. Read them from top to bottom for full, hilarious impact.

From Spacemen 3 to Spiritualized: Jason Pierce

2008-04-27T17:10:00.000-07:00

Greetings, Morphizm pals! Checking in from a hectic Sunday with my LBC boys, with a nice interview for you Coachella-goers and other music fans. I interviewed Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized honcho Jason Pierce for Wired, and the fruits of that sonic labor have ripened:

From Spacemen 3 to Spiritualized: Jason Pierce Transcends Time
From the legendary Spacemen 3 to the orchestral Spiritualized, Jason Pierce's pioneering musical output has transcended genre and time. For more than 25 years, the influential artist's experiments have ranged from drone, psychedelia and trance rock to jazz, gospel and ragged blues, sometimes all at once.

His latest Spiritualized effort, Songs in A&E, out May 19, offers more of the latter, with a metafictional twist: Pierce was almost literally rendered into spirit when a nearly lethal bout of pneumonia found him knocking on heaven's door as he worked on his new recording.

Thanks to an opportune request by cult cinema director Harmony Korine, Pierce survived to innovate another day, finish his album and score Mister Lonely, Korine's 2007 indie film about a Michael Jackson impersonator looking for an outsider utopia in Paris... MORE @ WIRED

Cat Dicks? Black Death? Welcome to Tobacco!

2008-04-26T11:40:00.001-07:00

Happy Saturday, Morphizm pals! It's spring cleaning time, which means airing out the dirty as well as the clean laundry. I've been rummaging through Big Tobacco's drawers, and you wouldn't believe the strange shit I found. I posted the results to AlterNet:

The Sick and Crazy Science Tobacco Companies Pursue to Get You Hooked
Those who complain about how the internet or advances in technology haven't done enough to make us smarter or better may not truly remember what life was like before either. For one, digging up any type of public or private information took loads more work, especially when offending parties, from governments to free-marketers, were allowed to hide behind arbitrary legalese and the lawyers who enforce it. Before the internet, offenders worked in the shadows while their consumers and citizens were overexposed in the light.

But with organizations like the non-profit Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and their various exercises in citizen journalism, those unhappy days have thankfully passed. Check out one of their more interesting wiki projects called Maximum Weirdness, which rifles through declassified files from University of California, San Francisco's Legacy Tobacco Documents Library and posts both the boring and bizarre results on a wikipedia dedicated strictly to Big Tobacco's metaverse. It might sound like wonk work on paper, but the right mixture of keyword searches can produce some eye-opening, lung-crushing laughs. Or is that cries? You decide... MORE @ ALTERNET

Post Up: Ghostly Swim, Moby Crowdsourcing

2008-04-25T18:43:00.000-07:00

It's Friday night, the heat has arrived, and the stragglers have come in. Here's a few I recently wrote for Wired's music blog Listening Post:

Free Tunes Flow When Adult Swim, Ghostly International Collaborate
Animation powerhouse Adult Swim has teamed up with indie labels before, like funk and soul standout Stone's Throw or indie hip-hop collective Definitive Jux. But this time, it is forming Voltron-style with Michigan's Ghostly International to offer Ghostly Swim, a hybrid brand hawking a 19-track compilation for free on Adult Swim's official site... MORE @ WIRED

Moby Crowdsources T-Shirt Design
Have you got an eye for design? Do you like rocktronica, vegans and progressive politics? Then drop Moby a line at Threadless. He's looking for someone, anyone, to create a T-shirt based on the theme "Last Night," which also happens to be the name of his latest release... MORE @ WIRED

Will Slug Eat Bugs?

2008-04-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

I conducted a hilarious interview with Atmosphere's Slug for Metromix in honor of their new effort When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold. Let's get entomophagic!

Lemony Fresh: An Interview With Atmosphere's Slug
"C'mon man, you have enough CDs sitting in your office. You don't need another. Let's be real: talking about your record is so 2003. For this one, we put together crazy listening sessions. In Los Angeles, we threw a party where we played the record and a contest where we drove journalists around in a rented minivan. It was more fun for everybody because they got to see what an idiot I am. Plus, listening to a CD in your car is so much better than listening at home where your cat is vomiting"... MORE @ METROMIX

Post Up: My Morning Jacket

2008-04-24T14:09:00.000-07:00

Greetings, Morphizm fans! Looking for some new, free music? I just gave away some on Wired's music blog Listening Post from a band that you indie rock fans may have heard of:

My Morning Jacket Unleashes Evil Urges
"The world today is such a confused place. Things that people think are good values are obviously twisted, but there are other things considered evil that obviously aren't. There is real evil out there, but Evil Urges is about how all of these things that you've been told are evil really aren't, unless they're actually hurting something or somebody"... MORE @ WIRED

Post Up: Scarlett Johannson Listening Party

2008-04-23T19:28:00.000-07:00

Good news! I'm still on the music beat for Wired. Here's a literal beauty from today:

Scarlett Johannson Listening Party, Waits For Everyone
She may be a mainstream star, but Scarlett Johansson has indie cred too. She made her name in a Coen Brothers' flick about UFOs called The Man Who Wasn't There, as well as Ghost World, Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes' hilarious coming-of-age tale for comics nerds. Then came an epic turn alongside Bill Murray in Lost In Translation. But these days she's diving into the music game, covering Tom Waits for an entire debut in the process.

The title of the debut itself comes from Waits: Anywhere I Lay My Head is one the best songs from his 1985 masterpiece Rain Dogs. But it's only one of ten Waits covers the starlet (sorry, darling, but it rhymed so perfectly) is tackling. She's also offering up one original composition, "Song for Jo," but she's not doing it alone. The debut is helmed by TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek, and features help from David Bowie and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Nick Zinner. In other words, a nice supporting cast... MORE @ WIRED

Atmosphere Is Thick With Lemons

2008-04-23T08:59:00.000-07:00

It's not often you hear the words hip-hop and Minnesota in the same sentence, but Atmosphere and their Rhymesayers label have been doing their best to turn that around. I reviewed their new effort for Metromix. It has a great title:

Atmosphere
When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold
Straight outta the Twin Cities, Atmosphere has been dropping credible indie-hop since 1993. Smartass poets to the core, rapper Slug (Sean Daley) and producer Ant (Anthony Davis) are artists as well as moguls, the brains behind the acclaimed Rhymesayers label. Between a slew of full-lengths, EPs, compilations and collaborations, Atmosphere has made its name on stark, cerebral productions with a sense of humor... MORE @ METROMIX

Blind Melon Sees Its Way Forward

2008-04-22T13:24:00.000-07:00

And on we go with the Metromix reviews. My latest is from a band that ruled the '90s for a short few years, before disappearing at the hands of an overdose. Can we call it a comeback? That depends on the call.

Blind Melon
For My Friends
After the video for their jangly alt-rock single "No Rain" exploded across MTV and radio, Blind Lemon leapt from the underground to the mainstream with blinding speed. Coupled with lead singer Shannon Hoon's appearance on the Guns 'N Roses hit "Don't Cry," the maximum exposure threw the band into the spotlight and propelled their 1992 self-titled debut into quadruple-platinum territory. But just as fast as the band exploded, it imploded: after Hoon died of a cocaine overdose in 1995, everyone went their separate ways. That is, until guitarist Christopher Horn and bassist Brad Smith discovered a replacement for Hoon in Travis Warren, who had enlisted their production aid on his solo work. A star was reborn. Maybe... MORE @ METROMIX

Don't Try This At Home!

2008-04-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

Favorite line? "We are absolutely confident he will be found alive and well, floating somewhere in the ocean." From the LA Times:

A Roman Catholic priest who floated off under hundreds of helium party balloons was missing today off the southern coast of Brazil. Rescuers in helicopters and small fishing boats were searching off the coast of Santa Catarina state, where pieces of balloons were found. Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli lifted off from the port city of Paranagua on Sunday afternoon, wearing a helmet, thermal suit and a parachute."

Anal On Crime: Interview With Assy McGee

2008-04-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

Morning, Morphizm fans. It's a groggy one, as I spent much of the stoner holiday 4/20, actually working. Real stoners work on stoner holidays. The rest just get high as usual. Speaking of, one of the most notorious stoner shows on TV is into its second season, and it's kicking ass. Literally.

Anal On Crime: An Interview With Assy McGee
Morphizm: How high were you when you came up with the show?
Assy McGee: About yay high.
Morphizm: How in the hell did you find any sponsors?
Assy McGee: We scared a few away. The one that stayed deserves our admiration.
Morphizm: Actually, who are your sponsors? Do they all sell ass-related products? Amazing.
Assy McGee: SCION is a sponsor. Their seats are ass-related... MORE @ MORPHIZM

Post Up! Breeders, Weeds, Classical Noise

2008-04-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday night, suckers. So why not catch up on my weekend spiels for Wired's music blog Listening Post? Good idea. Let's to it!

Breeders, Albini Stand By 'All Wave' Analog Recording
Don't get Albini and Deal wrong. They don't want to start a Luddite revolution. They just want to freak the noise with their own style. "This should not be construed as a call to arms," Albini concludes, "but could become at least as significant as the Ska revival or perhaps the WNBA... MORE @ WIRED

Weeds Jester Nealon Fetes 4/20 With Banjo
For those of you who don't go for impromptu holidays or cannabis, April 20 is known to stoners worldwide as 4/20. It's a special day when everyone gets high just as always, albeit with more pride and jokes about the date. Kevin Nealon, the Saturday Night Live vet whose drug-addled hilarity gives Weeds its longevity, posted this celebratory video for the occasion. It's a romp featuring the many names of pot put to the soothing sounds of Nealon's banjo, as well as footage of cannabis plants, a toking Arnold Schwarzenegger and more strangeness... MORE @ WIRED

Classical Music Brings the Noise -- Too Much, In Fact
Symphonies in Europe are dropping pieces or turning to machines for help in order to conform to new regulations designed to lessen noise in the workplace. Musicians and conductors are sparring over whether to soften or forgo Mahler (pictured right), wear earplugs, sit behind noise screens, redefine fortissimo and more in order to adapt their performances to a kindler, gentler, quieter generation. And so far it's resulted in anything but harmony... MORE @ WIRED

Personalizing Hip-Hop: Interview With Felicia Pride

2008-04-19T22:15:00.000-07:00

Felicia Pride's book The Message: 100 Life Lessons from Hip-Hop's Greatest Songs is about living culture, incorporating its vivid soundtrack into every facet of your Everyday Life. It's for music fans and hip-hop heads, as well as self-help fans looking to put a little love into their hearts. We could use the love, considering the way hip-hop has been living lately, which is to say quite large. And like other multinational monoliths, the culture has lost its way in the new millennium, embracing bling when we should all really be ringing the alarm on literacy and more. Pride grabs the bell by the horns below.

Personalizing Hip-Hop: Interview With Felicia Pride
"I wish hip-hop would stop embracing dysfunction. I say all the time that there's a thin line between exposing dysfunction—such as violence in the community—as a way to understand it and perhaps end it, versus celebrating the ill and trying to capitalize upon it. The best artists know how to expose pathology, not embrace it..." MORE @ MORPHIZM

Post Up! Interview with The Wedding Present

2008-04-18T17:47:00.001-07:00

Today on Wired's music blog Listening Post, I got a chance to rap with post-punk survivors The Wedding Present. Much hilarity ensued:

The Wedding Present Gets Sociable
Since 1985, David Gedge's post-punk lifer The Wedding Present has built upon the legacy of The Fall, The Buzzcocks and more to craft urgent songs of love, loss and superheroes. From the 1987 debut George Best all the way to the forthcoming 2008 effort El Rey, written while Gedge was living in L.A. but recorded with engineering legend Steve Albini in Chicago, The Wedding Present has given over two decades of its heart, soul and humor while still managing to fly below the radar. I caught up with Gedge for a quickie on El Rey, Albini, and Paris Hilton ducking helicopters... MORE @ WIRED