Monthly Archives: January 2013
Ghostigital
Photo by Ingolfur Juliusson
So it turns out we kinda had a ringer in our last Weird Band of the Week Facebook Poll. At the time we added Ghostigital to the poll, we literally knew almost nothing about them, except that they were from Iceland and had an awesome video called “Hovering Hoover Skates” that appeared to feature an Icelandic ladies roller derby team. Well, it’s since come to our attention that the dude behind Ghostigital is none other than Einar Örn, the even-weirder-than-Björk co-lead singer of that most legendary of Iceland bands, the Sugarcubes. So don’t feel bad for losing our poll, other bands! You were up against weird band royalty.
Einar started Ghostigital as a solo project about a decade ago, although his producer Curver has since become the band’s full-time second member. Their music is heavily electronic and generally features Einar delivering rambling, semi-coherent monologues over pulsing synths and a mishmash of techno, dub and hip-hop beats. “Masses of dark!” goes one typical Ghostigital lyric. “I could slice it up and eat it like a cake.” At least I think it’s a lyric. We pulled that from a live Ghostigital performance for KEXP, and honestly, it’s sometimes hard to tell whether Einar is delivering lyrics or just spewing improvised rants off the top of his head. And yes, I mean that as a compliment.
Not surprisingly, Ghostigital was briefly hooked up with Mike Patton’s Ipecac Recordings, which released their second album, In Cod We Trust, in 2006. Einar then apparently took a break from music to start dabbling in politics; he even got himself elected to Reykjavík City Council in 2010, an office he still occupies. He’s a member of the Best Party, which sounds almost as wacky as Ghostigital’s music. Among the planks in their campaign platform: free towels at all public swimming pools and a polar bear at the Reykjavik Zoo. And, y’know, ending political corruption and improving living conditions for the poor and lots of other important stuff less “wacky” political parties all over the world seem only too happy to ignore. But…a polar bear! Even the New York Times couldn’t get over that part.
Last November, Ghostigital finally returned with a third album, Division of Culture & Tourism, releasted on Einar’s own Bad Taste label. You can hear the whole thing on Soundcloud. It’s pretty dope. It’s got cameos from David Byrne and Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and there’s a Dougie reference in the very first song, which is called “Don’t Push Me,” on which Einar hoots and hollers and makes it abundantly clear that it would be a really, really bad idea to push him. He’s like Mark E. Smith, Andy Kaufman and Eminem all rolled into one cantankerous former punk rocker who’s been deprived of sunlight for the past six months.
We can’t decide which of these two Ghostigital videos is weirder, so we’ll include both of them. First up, from In Cod We Trust, we give you “Northern Lights.”
Next up: “Hovering Hoover Skates.” You didn’t think we’d tell you about a video full of roller derby girls and not show it to you, did you? We wouldn’t play you like that.
So congrats on winning our latest Facebook poll, Ghostigital! Although we’re pretty sure that in your list of lifetime accomplishments, this probably doesn’t even break the top 10,000.
Links:
- Ghostigital official site
- Ghostigital on Facebook
- confucius is the massage (Ghostigital’s Tumblr)
- Ghostigital on Soundcloud
Can somebody fly us to New Orleans so we can celebrate Mardi Gras with Quintron and Miss Pussycat?
Good news for people who like puking in alleyways and/or flashing their tits (not necessarily in that order): Mardi Gras is almost upon us! And what better way to celebrate than with New Orleans’ ambassadors of Crescent City eccentricity, Quintron and Miss Pussycat? (We hear Trombone Shorty’s a good time, too, but does he open his sets with sci-fi puppet shows? No, he does not.)
In addition to playing a few hometown Mardi Gras-related shows, Q & Miss P will also be bringing their puppets and swamp jams to several lucky, lucky cities this spring. See below for full tour dates, and for a little taste of what you’re in for, read our review of Quintron and Miss Pussycat’s last show here in L.A. The venue you see them at will probably less stanky, but we make no guarantees.
Quintron & Miss Pussycat Mardi Gras/spring tour dates:
02-1 New Orleans, LA – Tulane University Mardi Gras Ball
02-02 Lafayette, LA – Blue Moon Saloon w/ T-Kette
02-11 New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jack’s w/ K-Holes, Vice Cooler & the one and only STEPHANIE “call the police” MCDEE!
03-01 New Orleans, LA – THE PRYTANIA THEATER – NOLA Premier of “The Mystery In Old BathBath”
04-09 Tallahassee, FL – Downunder Club
04-10 Atlanta, GA – The Earl
04-13 Washington, DC – Kennedy Center New Orleans Bingo Show
04-17 New Haven, CT – Cafe Nine
04-20 Brooklyn, NY – SPRING FEVER @ Secret Project Robot w/ K-Holes, Black Dice
04-21 Richmond, VA – Strange Matter w/ Bermuda Triangles
04-25 Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s Downstair’s
04-26 Dallas, TX – Double Wide Bar w/ Darktown Strutters
04-27 Austin, TX – Austin Psych Festival at Carson Creek
04-28 Waxahachie, TX – Webb Gallery
New Fol Chen album “The False Alarms” coming this March
L.A. electro-popsters Fol Chen aren’t the weirdest band we’ve ever blogged about, but they’re definitely one of our favorites. Songs like “In Ruins” and “Cable TV” are so catchy they’re probably being studied at the CDC. Now, after two years of silence, they’re returning with their third album, The False Alarms. It arrives March 19 via Asthmatic Kitty and it promises to be fairly epic. The band is describing the album’s sound as “opera house,” which they define as “beat-driven electronica with grand, operatic gestures and lyrically-dense storytelling.” You can hear a sample below.
Here’s the tracklist for The False Alarms:
01. The False Alarms
02. I.O.U.
03. A Tourist Town
04. Hemispheres
05. The Fifth Season
06. Boys in the Woods
07. 200 Words
08. You Took the Train
09. Doubles
10. This Place is on TV
Along with the new music, Fol Chen also announced some national tour dates:
Mar 08 San Diego, CA – Casbah
Mar 09 Phoenix, AZ – The Crescent Ballroom
Mar 17 Hot Springs, AZ – Low Key Arts
Mar 19 Chicago, IL – Schubas
Mar 20 Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville Mews
Mar 22 Denver, CO – Hi Dive
Mar 24 Seattle, WA – Barboza
Mar 26 Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
Mar 28 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of The Hill
Mar 29 Los Angeles, CA – Bootleg
Apr 02 Washington DC, Black Cat
Apr 03 Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie
Apr 04 Brooklyn, NY – Glasslands
Apr 06 Montreal, QC – Casa Del Popolo
Apr 07 Toronto, ON – The Drake Hotel
Ready for some “opera house”? Here’s the first single from The False Alarms, “200 Words” (if you can’t see the Soundcloud player, click here):
Iwrestledabearonce are working on a new album. But who’s singing on it?
As the girl who had to replace Krysta Cameron on lead vocals for Iwrestledabearonce, Courtney LaPlante has one of the most thankless jobs in all of rock-dom. Months since LaPlante took over screaming/singing duties, IWABO fans still routinely post things like “the new vocalist sings like shit” and “When Krysta’s back????” on the band’s Facebook page. Because, y’know, Iwrestledabearonce is the FIRST BAND EVER IN HISTORY TO REPLACE THEIR LEAD SINGER. And all just because their former lead singer decided to have a baby. What-fucking-ever.
The dude members of IWABO aren’t really helping dampen the Courtney/Krysta controversy, either. Krysta’s still listed as the lead singer on the band’s official website. Cold, guys, cold.
Still, when IWABO announced this week on their Facebook page that they are “currently writing a new album,” LaPlante was the one in the accompanying photo. Presumably this means she’ll be the one singing on the new album, too…but who knows? So long as IWABO fans keep pouring on the haterade and the band doesn’t update their official bio to at least mention her, there’s always a chance she’ll finally just say “Fuck this shit” and walk.
But, if she doesn’t…expect new music from the Krysta-less version of Iwrestledabearonce later this year. And maybe a wacky cover or two.
Meanwhile, those still mourning the departure of Krysta should order a copy of A Beary Scary Movie, IWABO’s feature film debut. Not only does it feature Krysta doing her best scream-queen impersonation, it also boasts a “special appearance by Jake Busey.” Aren’t all appearances by Jake Busey special? Here’s the trailer:
New Flaming Lips album “The Terror” finally gets a release date: April 2nd
Photo by George Salisbury
Has it really been five months since we first reported that the Flaming Lips were gearing up to release The Terror, their 13th studio album and first “proper” album (if that even means anything anymore) since 2009′s Embryonic? My how time flies when you’re eating paint chips and going to GWAR concerts.
Anyway, after some overly optimistic speculation from irresponsible music bloggers (us included) that The Terror might see the light of day as early as last December, we now have it on good authority (Warner Bros., the Lips’ label) that the nine-track set will finally arrive on April 2nd. We just previewed the whole album earlier today (“already?” you ask—yep, we’re fancy) and are happy to report that it’s far and away the weirdest, darkest shit Wayne Coyne and co. have recorded since Zaireeka, not counting any of that 24-hour-song nonsense they were churning out awhile back. Here’s the full tracklist:
1. Look…The Sun Is Rising
2. Be Free, A Way
3. Try To Explain
4. You Lust
5. The Terror
6. You Are Alone
7. Butterfly, How Long It Takes To Die
8. Turning Violent
9. Always There…In Our Hearts
We’ll have a full review closer to the actual release date. We wouldn’t want to give away too much before then.
P.S. Apparently, if you pre-order The Terror on iTunes, you instantly get a non-album bonus track called “Sun Blows Up Today.” Here’s a lyric video for the track that just debuted today. Warning: Nothing on The Terror is this catchy. Or this apocalyptic. I almost resisted the urge to describe this song as “catchalyptic” but…no, I went ahead and did it.
Compressorhead
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Humans suck. So it’s no surprise that there’s been an explosion of all-robot bands in recent years. There’s these guys. And these guys. And let’s not forget our old pals Captured! by Robots. Although they do have one human member, so technically they don’t count.
But earlier this month, a new all-robot band emerged that is basically the Terminator T-1000 to everyone else’s R2D2. They’re called Compressorhead and in addition to rocking solid imitations of Motörhead and The Ramones, they’re the first all-robot rock band that actually looks like a rock band. The drummer has four arms and a mohawk. The guitarist headbangs. If they could just smash their instruments, they’d really put all human rockers out a job.
Compressorhead are from Germany and they’ve actually been around for a few years. Early versions of the band featured just the drummer, Stickboy, although he was occasionally accompanied by robot go-go dancers. Am I a weirdo for saying the robodancers are way hotter than actual human dancers? Well, fuck it, I’m saying it anyway.
Stickboy was eventually joined by Fingers, a guitarist with 78 fingers (because shit, why not?) and Bones, a bass player, who only has eight fingers because let’s face it, playing bass is not that hard. Stickboy also has a little mini-Stickboy sidekick who looks kinda like a robot gremlin and just plays the hi-hat. Every drummer should have a mini-sidekick on hi-hat, don’t you think? So they can focus on more serious matters like double kick drums and cymbal crashes and bashing the living shit out of their snare.
Even though they’ve been around since at least 2008, Compressorhead really only started getting major attention earlier this month, when a video of them doing “Ace of Spades” went viral. Since pretty much the entire Internet has seen that clip, here’s another one of them doing “Blitzkrieg Bop.” You probably don’t actually need 78 fingers to play Johnny Ramone’s three chords, but it sure couldn’t hurt.
Starting this past weekend, Compressorhead began playing Australia’s Big Day Out Festival, which began last Friday in Sydney and continues this weekend in Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth. Apparently BDO organizer Ken West is now managing the robots, which has gotta beat managing a crowd of 50,000 sweaty Australians. Here’s a clip of them performing their signature track “Ace of Spades” for a mob of puzzled onlookers. I’m glad to see they gave Bones a little motorized platform so he can wheel around the stage, since apparently none of the robots have working legs yet. I’m sure they’ll all be stage-diving any day now.
So what do you think: Robot bands, good, bad, or a sign of the coming apocalypse? And when is someone gonna put them all on the same bill and call it RoboFest or something equally stupid? I figure it’ll happen by 2014 at the latest. This guy could be the MC.
Links:
I thought we were all made of stars, but Petunia-Liebling MacPumpkin says we’re all made of monads
So it turns out Moby was wrong. According to the latest song from Petunia-Liebling MacPumpkin, we are all made not of stars, but of monads. I had to look up what a monad is, and according to Dictionary.com, it can be either a “simple, single-celled organism” or “an unextended, indivisible, and indestructible entity that is the basic or ultimate constituent of the universe and a microcosm of it.” I don’t know about you, but I’m choosing the second option.
Here’s the new song “Monads,” uploaded mere hours ago to the Soundcloud page of MacPumpkin’s label, Electric Phantom, along with some tracks from the mysterious Rosewater Treacle Tart. The perfect soundtrack to a slightly hungover Sunday afternoon, don’t you think? (If you can’t see the Soundcloud player, click here.)
Fuck Presidents’ Day. Feb. 17th is Juggalo Day.
Washington and Lincoln are cool and all, but they’ve also been dead for like a hundred years. And why celebrate a bunch of dead white dudes when you can celebrate the living, breathing people who put on clown makeup and crank horrorcore hip-hop with hidden Christian messages?
Yes, Sunday, Feb. 17th is the 2nd Annual Juggalo Day, a holiday to celebrate the awesomeness that is Insane Clown Posse‘s batshit fan base. Technically, Presidents’ Day is the next day, but after partying like a Juggalo, you’re gonna sleep through that shit like someone put Roofies in your Faygo.
According to ICP’s newsletter, the Hatchet Herald, ICP themselves are gonna celebrate Juggalo Day by performing their classic 1995 album Riddle Box in its entirety at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit. If you can’t get to Detroit, we recommend celebrating Juggalo Day with a few bong rips and blasting Riddle Box loud enough to get evicted. If you do get kicked out, you can always blame it on the FBI.
In other ICP news, the 2013 Gathering of the Juggalos has been confirmed for Aug. 7-11 (numbers dear to every Juggalo’s heart) in Cave-in-Rock, Illinois. Maybe Andy and I will finally go this year, but probably not. We’re old.
Let’s play this post out with one of the most popular tracks from Riddle Box, “Chicken Huntin’.” We hear Abe Lincoln knew what to do with a drunken hillbilly, too.
Matmos announce February tour, cover Buzzcocks
We here at Weird Band HQ have been counting down the days until the Feb. 19th release of The Marriage of True Minds, the ESP-inspired album from avant-electronica duo Matmos. Now we’ll also be counting down the days until we get to see them perform here in L.A. at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Will they read the minds of the dead? With these dudes, anything is possible.
Stick around after the tour dates for a taste of Matmos’ current live incarnation, which features live guitar and drums and, fittingly, a cover of the Buzzcocks’ “E.S.P.” Also: ducks. I bet if you could read their minds, they be saying, “More worms, please!”
Matmos tour dates:
Mon. Feb. 11 – New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge *
Tue. Feb. 12 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall *
Wed. Feb. 13 – Montreal, QC @ Il Motore *
Thu. Feb. 14 – Toronto, ON @ TBA *
Fri. Feb. 15 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle *
Sat. Feb. 16 – Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center *%
Tue. Feb. 19 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir ^
Wed. Feb. 20 – Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s ^
Thu. Feb. 21 – Vancouver, BC @ Media Club *
Sun. Feb. 24 – San Francisco, CA @ Public Works *
Mon. Feb. 25 – Los Angeles, CA @ Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery *
Thu. Feb. 28 – Austin, TX @ The ND
Sat. Mar. 2 – Louisville, KY @ ZBar
Wed. Mar. 6 – Baltimore, MD @ TBA
* w/ Horse Lords
% w/ Josef Van Wissem
^ w/ Mouse on Mars
Chimney Crow
We got introduced to this week’s weird band by Ms. Petunia-Liebling MacPumpkin. Like Petunia herself, they remain something of a mystery. They’re called Chimney Crow. They’re from Michigan. Their leader calls himself Paulisgone. They wear fox-as-done-by-a-third-grader masks. They have a song about DMT. There might be three of them, or it might all be the work of Paulisgone and some carefully posed mannequins. And one former member might have killed himself in some kind of weird sex ritual. And that’s about all we know.
Well, that’s not quite true. We also know that their music is dark, electronic and generally quite groovy. They’ve recorded some stuff with a lady vocalist named Sarah Kristina, who also appears all over their Facebook photos, draped over various Chimney Crow members and sashaying around a basement in a little red dress. The other members of Chimney Crow are Ben Daschle and Buck Anders. Buck replaced the dead guy, Alan Bain. Here’s a song the band was in the midst of recording when they found out Ben had offed himself. Naturally, they finished the song. You know, out of respect for the dead and all.
Chimney Crow have uploaded all kinds of wacky videos to their YouTube page and a shit-ton of songs to Soundcloud. Here’s one called “Aliens are just gnomes for our paradigm part 14 (section 8)” that we’ve been jamming to (if you can’t see the Soundcloud player, click here):
They also recorded a very timely song called “The Flu.” I feel sicker just listening to it.
But my favorite thing they’ve done so far has to be this video for the track “17 Guns,” which features someone even more batshit than Petunia and Chimney Crow: an artist from Arizona named Diana Campanella who has uploaded approximately five zillion YouTube videos of herself “freestyle dancing” in her gallery. Usually she dances to stuff like Michael Jackson and Taylor Dane, but somehow she hooked up with Chimney Crow and did a little interpretive boogie to a song of theirs called “17 Guns.” Ain’t the Internet grand?
Links:
