twosyllable Records is really the best little label you might have never heard of. We’ve been enamored with both That Ghost and New Villager, but it took us a little longer to come around on Bell - the New York-based band led by Russian-born, Alaska-raised songstress Olga Bell. We then saw that she was touring with some MOKB-beloved bands along with playing SXSW for some of our favorite blogger buds and took another listen. Comparisons to Bjork abound, but it’s your loss if you write it off as too derivative. Bell seems to have been immersed in making music since the tender age of three and her classic training mashes with the kind of creative, off-kilter improvisation that can only come from an artist who is truly engulfed in the continuous process of making art through music.
Bell will release her hand-numbered 7"/digital single debut on March 24th through twosyllable. LOCALS : Make sure you catch Bell and Lemonade the day before in Bloomington, IN!
Recorded mostly during the same sessions for “Kid A”, Radiohead described these two albums, released in 2000 and 2001, as “twins separated at birth”. Considering that “Kid A” is on fairly good terms with bleakness, it shouldn’t be taken lightly that “Amnesiac” is the creepy, fucked up sibling of the two.
The album opens with the sinister “Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box” which now sounds like classic Radiohead, combining light but glitchy computerised beats, weirdly timed keyboard sounds and gargling lyrics such as “I’m a reasonable man, get off my case”. The song threatens to break out into a swooping chorus or a thrilling climax, but the fact that it never quite makes it only adds to its intensity.
Michael Zapruder defies pigeon-holing. This San Francisco singer-songwriter can emulate Nick Drake in his Bryter Layter phase in Ads for Feelings, do a convincing Thom Yorke whine and channel the lyricism of Leonard Cohen (White Raven Sails).
Photos from a recent FOE gig - a friend of our friends Hold Your Horse Is - she’s gonna be big!!! Read the gig review after the jump.
Shots of North Carolina’s folk-rocking Avett Brothers’ stop in Glasgow - 22.08.11
Read the review of the gig here.
Take a look at the acts and art on offer at this year’s Latitude Festival in Suffolk. Included are the likes of Fight Like Apes, Lykke Li, Sea of Bees and Seasick Steve. Photos from our own...
Good time with Bad Guys. Photos from the May 29th gig at the Old Blue Last. Read the review by the Bad Guy himself, Stuart London after the jump.
Artrocker.com exclusive: for fans of White Lies and Crocodiles we’ve got some fresh pictures from their UK show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire earlier this month, courtesy of Alessandro...
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