Coleman to curate Meltdown '09

Got an e-mail from a friend that alerted me to this. Hmmm, London in June. Why not?
More from FACT magazine.

Music of the Week 13/09

• Abdullah Ibrahim: Senzo (Sunnyside)
  
• The-Dream: "Rockin' That Shit/Thang" (Universal)
  
• The Thermals: "When I Died" (Kill Rock Stars)
  
• The Brakes (aka. brakesbrakesbrakes): "Ancient Mysteries" (Fat Cat)
• Bat For Lashes: Two Suns (Parlophone)
  

Blender no more

X-gau's thoughts on the fall of Blender.

RAPHAEL SAADIQ @ LA BELLEVILLOISE, PARIS (30/01/09)

Received this video from Saadiq's show in Paairs in the mail box the other day. Thought I'd post it here.

Edit: Video removed as it messed up the lay out. You can watch it and a few others here.

Music of the Week 12/09

Slight change of format in the hope I can get things rolling on a regular basis. The basics are the same: music I've enjoyed during the past week, sans write-up, just putting it out there.

• Bat for Lashes: "Daniel" (Parlophone)
  
• Death: "Politicians In My Eyes" (Drag City)
• Henry Threadgill (Sextet): Just the Facts and Pass the Bucket (1983, About Time) & Subject to Change (1985, About Time)
  
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs: "Heads Will Roll" (Polydor)
• David Byrne: live in Oslo, 19.03.2009
  

Death - "Politicians In My Eyes"

I wrote a piece on a closed forum yesterday about the incredible proto punk-band Death (no relation to the metal band), and this morning there's an article on Popmatters using almost the exact "headline" as I did. Oh, well. I'm not accusing anyone. The forum is "invite only", so it may be a case of "brilliant minds think alike." Articles about the band have been written a few times already these last few weeks, in the NY Times, the Guardian, and Stereogum to name a few.
Now, Death. A mid-seventies three piece from Detroit who played an energetic blend of P-funk and Stooges-type rock. The meme that has been going around is that they are precursors to the Bad Brains. In some ways that may be true, especially considering the wailing voice of the singer. But the frenetic bassline, skittering drumming, and accentuated guitars in the verse part of "Politicians In My Eyes" (from 1975) sounds more like something the Minutemen would play a few years later, though the refrain and coda is more in line with the "rock-ier" sides of Funkadelic (I've been told that they shared a studio with the Detorit branch of Funkadelic, which may explain some of the influence) and proto-punk bands like Rocket From the Tombs. Hear for yourselves below.



The compltete recorded output of Death, a mere seven songs, was released by Drag City earlier this year as ...For the World to See.

Wilson, Colbert, taste & Dion

In case you missed Carl "Zoilus" Wilson's appearance on the Colbert Report last week the whole episode can be seen here (the interview with Wilson is in the final part of the show).