NEW SITE!

This site is dead to me. Anti-Gravity Bunny now has its own site! Not on Blogger.

http://antigravitybunny.com

Update your everything and only come back here if you're feeling nostalgic.

New AGB Radio Show Time

I know I already did a post announcing to you the fact that I'll be doing a radio show on Simmons College Radio. FUCK YEAH! But shit got a bit fucked up and I had to change the time & day of my show, and since I'm sure plenty of you don't follow me on Twitter to keep up with all the awesome & informative shit I talk about on daily basis, I figured I'd make another post on my blog (because that's basically who this show is for, all you dear readers).

New day: Tuesday
New time: 10:30 am - 12:30 pm (EST)

You can listen live online either at the Simmons site or through iTunes. I plan on posting the show here on AGB the day or two after so you can download it and put it in your pocket for ultimate portability.

IT STARTS TOMORROW! Make sure you get out your old blockbusters like Marty up there so you can party with the best of 'em.

Anti-Gravity Bunny Radio Starts Today!

So before I did Anti-Gravity Bunny, I was the General Manager, Music Director, and DJ at Salem State's radio, WMWM. It was the best. I loved it. I graduated and stopped doing it. Now that I'm doing the graduate program at Simmons, I'm getting back at it. FUCK YEAH DDUDES.

Here's all the details. Anti-Gravity Bunny Radio is a title-in-progress (I'm open for ideas). You can listen to it online (and only online, no FM, no AM, sad face) from the Simmons College Radio site, Backbone, or right in iTunes (under College Radio). Currently it'll be every Thursday from 3-5:30 starting TODAY. I'll attempt to keep that time slot every semester but we'll see what happens.

In addition to listening live, I'll be posting the entire show here for downloading hopefully the day after (aka every Friday) so you can listen to it over and over again wherever you want.

I'll be playing all of the type of stuff you usually see here on the blog but I'll definitely be expanding the tightly curated AGB roster to include other awesome shit. So tune in today and every week from today to get your face explod-gasm-ed like that bro up there.

Weird Stalk, Too Lineup Announced

Last year's 3 day Weirdstock festival thrown by the Whitehaus as a 40 year anniversary to the original Woodstock was a huge success, if not necessarily in the turnout, then in proving the fact that doing a 3 day DIY fest is totally in the realm of possibility.

AWESOME NEWS: the Whitehaus is bringing it back and they're calling in Weird Stalk, Too. The sad news is that instead of taking over the Cambridge YMCA for a whole weekend, it's going to be an all nighter at The Temple in JP. But that means lots of good things, too.

Like you don't have to take a whole weekend off to enjoy what's sure to be one of the coolest parties in Boston this year. And instead of feeling bad on missing half of the 40 bands like last year, you can make damn sure you see all of 'em this time. And it's not at The Y.

So the official lineup so far looks totally fucking rad. I'm super psyched about Kurt Weisman and Blevin Blectum, but there's also power drone fiend Double Awake, the self explanatory Metal & Glass Ensemble, California's chill creeper Dead Western, another one of Angela Sawyer's endless projects Preggy Peggy, circuit bending sound artist Omnivore, and plenty of Whitehaus mainstays like Many Mansions, Morgan Shaker, and Peace, Loving. And there's still more to be announced!

This shit is gonna be so so awesome.

August 20, 2010
The Temple
670 Centre St, Jamaica Plain
8pm - sunrise

Blevin fuckin Blectum
Kurt Weisman
Dead Western
Preggy Peggy & The Lazy Babymakers
Cloud Becomes Your Hand
Ashcan Orchestra
Metal & Glass Ensemble
Kid Romance
Cave Bears
Omnivore
Double Awake
Mouse Queen
Morgan Shaker
Many Mansions
Peace, Loving

Blastfest 3!

Alright dude(ette)s, it's March, and March means Blastfest!

The Whitehaus, the coolest commune this side of of the Catskills, is throwing down the gauntlet for Blastfest 3. Check out this fuckin lineup.

Avi Jacob, Gregory J Mullen, Manners, Shai Erlichman, The Needy Visions, Duck That, The Woodrow Wilsons, Wolf Woolf, Tulsa, Ambitious Tugboat, Concord Ballet Orchestra Players, Debbie and the Bullets, Casey Rocheteau, Apollo Sunshine, Rene, Boy Without God, James Lindsey, The Great Valley, OH!OH!MINTS!, The French Cops, Girlfriends, The Meadowlarks, Turtle Ambulance, and more, YES MORE

So much fun is going to be had at Blastfest 3. You have no idea. It's going to be like the epic party you always wanted to throw but never had enough friends to make it crazy enough. Well, everybody at Blastfest is your friend (true story) and that means THIS IS THAT PARTY. The music is going to be sosososo fantastic and, get this, FREE PB&Js!! Just don't be a glutton.

They'll be celebrating the release of The Whitehaus Family Record Family Record, a 2xLP compilation featuring a ton of the people playing Blastfest and then some. And there's not just music, there's also a zine fair put on by the inimitable Papercut Zine Library (who just found a new home in Somerville!), plus a comic jam (?). Yeah, this is going to be pretty grand.

The whole hootenanny goes down on March 20 at the Cambridge YMCA from 11-11 with a "sliding scale" of $5-10 for tickets. Meaning if you can swing it, and you should be able to swing it I mean they're giving away goddamn PB&Js you guys, then you should drop a tenner in the bucket.

Together Is Better Than BEMF

I went to The Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival last year and it was cool and all but not especially what I was hoping it would be. It was all dance music. Granted, there was all different types of shit to shake your cosmic thing at, but I'm not a 24 hour partier. And here is why Boston is better than Brooklyn.

Together: The New England Electronic Music Festival. Do you see that lineup? They got their shit covered. Tim fucking Hecker. Playing Boston. Plus, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Neon Indian, Phantogram, DJ/Rupture, AC Slater, Sinden, Udachi, plus a ton more not even announced yet.

There's drone, hipster shit, trip hop, super slick DJs, and tons of awesome dudes that make sure you have the best time possible. This is taking place all over Boston for an entire week in February.

Update: Mobius show not happening. :(
Aaaand I got some extra info about a specific show that's going to be top fucking notch. Brendan Murray, KFW & Geoff Mullen, and Max Lord will be playing at Mobius on the 10th. $$$ says that will contend with Tim Hecker for best show of the fest.

There's going to be tons more (100+ performers) plus a record fair, DJ classes, film screenings, and, well, you can read the bottom of the flyer. No word yet on cost of passes but here's hoping they're cheap. And if they're not? Fuck it. It'll totally be worth it anyway.

Northeast Noise & Power Electronics Festival

three days of total audio depravity
night 1 11/6 7:00 $10 21+
night 2 11/7 3:00 $25 21+
night 3 11/8 3:00 $25 21+
jacques underground
o'brien's
lascivious aesthetics
existence establishment
worth every goddamn penny

News Flash: ICA On Fire!

Prefuse 73 - Smile In Your Face


The Institute Of Contemporary Art in Boston is cranking up the heat this summer. And it's about fucking time! Someone needed to take the place of "museum that has awesome shows" because whoever was the booker at the Museum Of Fine Arts up and left. In the past couple years, the MFA treated us to such wondrous concerts as Matmos and Stars of the motherfucking LID. Thanks for that. But it's been way too long since anything decent has happened at the MFA music-wise and the ICA must've noticed as well.

Between now and September, the ICA will give us the opportunity to see Prefuse 73, DJ/Rupture & Matt Shadetek, Fauna & Uproot Andy & Oro11, Black Moth Super Rainbow, and Dirty Three, not to mention amazing movies like They Live, Bomb It, Scratch, and Stoked: The Rise & Fall Of Gator. Fuck yeah! Major props to the people behind the scenes at the ICA for giving us some high quality entertainment this summer. Now if only they could lower their ticket prices a smidge...

Validated

The Frogs - Who's Sucking On Grampa's Balls Since Grandma Ain't Home Tonight?


Finally! Someone other than myself recognized how cool I am. Marceline at diskant invited me over to party with them from time to time. That means I'll be writing for one of the coolest music sites on the planet. Here's how it's going to work...

I will continue my regular posting here on Anti-Gravity Bunny. I'll try to write something once or twice a week on diskant and whenever I do, I'll make sure to post a link to it from here. Anything that gets written on diskant will stay on diskant. I'll never do any duplicate posts and I will always alert you when I put something new up over there.

This is one step closer to actually getting paid for what takes up every second of my free time. I'm wicked excited. Diskant is a great site and now you have another place to read my fantastic musings.

Hum

Hum - Sundress (Demo)


I've raved about Hum in the past. I just fuckin' love 'em to death. Can't get enough of their epic space rock. They're one of the bands that I would kill to see reunite and tour a bit. Oh wait. What's that? They are reuniting!? Fuck me. That's some of the best news I've heard all year. OH. Right. They're only playing one show. In Chicago. Fuck that.

Well, there's two bits of good news. One is that the idea of them getting together and playing a show is not completely out of the question. So maybe an actual tour is in the works? I hope so.

Second bit of good news is that this lead me to their website where I found of bunch of free EPs and such. Sweet! I'd already heard the Hello Kitty 7" but there's also the Puppets 7", Sundress 7", and Stars EP, which was only released in the UK. I've bundled those four up into a zip file that you can download right here.

They're all awesome and if you're a fan of Hum they're pretty much mandatory. There's a couple of live tracks and some demos and videos as well. I recommend heading over and downloading everything they have to prepare for the forthcoming Hum World Tour Of World Domination*.

*Hum World Tour Of World Domination has not yet been planned by the band.

Turtle Ambulance

OK, so there's these dudes. Two dudes to be precise. And they make music. You with me so far? Alright, and they call themselves Turtle Ambulance (TMNT reference perhaps? I fuckin hope so!). Now here's the kicker...they have a MySpace page where you can actually listen to their music. Crazy, I know.

So these Turtle Ambulance guys actually make really good music. Stuff that I like to listen to and maybe you would like to listen to. It's loopy and hypnotic and maybe even a little dancy. Also super-duper awesome. Kinda reminds me a little bit of Polmo Polpo and do I love me some Polmo Polpo. Especially the track "Swirly Slide." Very Polpo-esque. I highly recommend giving these guys a listen. I know it means you'll have to actually click a link to go to another page instead of just listening to an embedded clip on my blog but you know what? This time it's worth it.

They'll be playing a show in Cambridge soon (December 2) at TT's with some other way cool bands. Many Mansions, Truman Peyote, and Guatemala City share the bill. I saw Truman Peyote play with Black Dice at MassArt a few months back (click here to see a video of it) and it was the shit. So I guarantee this'll be one helluva good time.

Smash Palace

It's time for everyone to get excited. Ready? GO!

Semata Productions (run by Ricardo Donoso) and Tautology Productions (run by David Gross) are putting on a 3 day noise event right here in Boston and they're calling it Smash Palace (totally unrelated to Sharon O'Neill's album...I think). It'll be held at the Cambridge YMCA (820 Mass Ave) from December 4th through the 6th. And hot damn! The line up is something dreams are made up featuring some truly kick ass noise gurus.

Thursday night there's Human Hairs, Moshimoshiiamthedecider, Ouest and someone TBA (possibly Red Horse, fuck yes!).

Friday night's got Mcguire/Jefferson, Asher, Perispirit, and the man himself, Keith Fullerton Whitman.

Saturday runs all day with Ophibre, Forbes Graham, Karlheinz, and Jed Speare/Jason Lescalleet doing the matinee set and Zerfallt, Stillbirth, The BSC, and Heathen Shame rounding out the evening set.

Wow. Just...wow. These are going to be three days of sheer awesomeness. Tickets are 10 bucks per event or 20 for a three day pass (25 if bought at the door). TWENTY DOLLARS for 16 bands. I'll do the math for you. That's a buck and a quarter for each performance. You will never ever find something so cheap and so mind blowing than Smash Palace. I can't fucking wait.

More info on the Smash Palace website and tickets can be bought from Weirdo Records.

Aidan Baker & Tim Hecker Collaborate

I know I should've let that Lubomyr Melnyk post simmer a while but I just saw this and couldn't help but post about it.

Aidan Baker (of Nadja, who knew who I was when I met him) and Tim Hecker (of...Tim Hecker) have made what I can only assume is sweet, sweet music together and they called it Fantasma Parastasie.

It comes out on October 14th via Alien8 and it's streaming in full right now.

Wow. I am ridiculously excited right now. Hooray for collaborations!!

Sebastien Grainger Still Rocks

Photo: Superlaser.ca

Death From Above 1979 were one of those flash in a pan bands. 1 full length and that was it, they were gone. Granted, they had an EP before that and a remix album just prior to their breakup, but for a band with only 1 actual record, they were fucking huge. Everyone talked about them, everyone loved them, and everyone cried like little girls when they called it quits (I think, or maybe that was just me). We had/have electro-disco-dance-shaboinkin duo MSTRKRFT, in which Jesse Keeler (one half of Death From Above) takes part in, but we hadn't heard anything from Sebastien Grainger, the singer and beat maker of DFA79. That is....until now.

Right now Grainger's got a little solo project going on called Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains. Sadly, no mountains are actually involved (I don't think they know how to play any instruments, although I'm probably just being stereotypical). He records alone and tours with a few extra people to help him bring the noise on stage. Currently, there are a 7" and digital EP out, both titled American Names, and he's got a self titled full length headed our way on October 21st on Saddle Creek.

The tunes he's cranking out aren't quite as Death From Abovey as Death From Above, or even MSTRKRFT for that matter. Instead of dirty dance punk, it's more like dirty anthem rock. It's thick, melodic, dense, and sweet. This is clearly where we get to see the lighter side of Grainger and I think I'm OK with that. For now.

The American Names 7" has a couple of rockin' tracks, "American Names" and "Ways To Come Home." Both are also found on the digital EP and forthcoming full length, although "Way To Come Home" is actually titled "(Are There) Ways To Come Home" on the full length, so it may be a different version. Who knows. I ain't gonna lie, I probably wouldn't care as much as I do if it wasn't Sebastien Grainger making this music but I'm still digging his new sound and hope the full length doesn't disappoint.

Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains - American Names


Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains - Ways To Come Home

Nightmare Revisited

File this under Top 10 Most Bizarre Compilations Ever. Thanks to Stereogum, I discovered that some of my favorite and, um, not so favorite bands are all going to be creating new music inspired by Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas or doing covers of the original songs.

And just who might be on this record, you ask? None other than Devotchka, The Album Leaf, Amiina, RJD2, Sparklehorse, and many others. The reason I'm only halfway interested in this release is because in addition to those fine fellows, you'll also find bands like Marilyn Manson, All American Rejects, and Korn. Eek. Here's the full tracklist...

01 "Overture" - DeVotchka
02 "Opening" - Danny Elfman
03 "This Is Halloween" - Marilyn Manson
04 "Jack's Lament" - All American Rejects
05 "Doctor Finkelstein/In The Forest" - amiina
06 "What's This?" - Flyleaf
07 "Town Meeting Song" - Polyphonic Spree
08 "Jack And Sally Montage" - The Vitamin String Quartet
09 "Jack's Obsession" - Sparklehorse
10 "Kidnap The Sandy Claws" - Korn
11 "Making Christmas" - Rise Against
12 "Nabbed" - Yoshida Brothers
13 "Sally's Song" - Amy Lee
14 "Christmas Eve Montage" - RJD2
15 "Poor Jack" - Plain White Ts
16 "To The Rescue" - Datarock
17 "Finale/Reprise" - Shiny Toy Guns
18 "Closing" - Danny Elfman
19 "End Title" - The Album Leaf
20 "Oogie Boogie's Song" - Rodrigo y Gabriela

So...yeah. Not exactly gonna run out and pick this up when it comes out on September 30th, but I am kinda curious to see how Rodrigo y Gabriela do on "Oogie Boogie Song." And as much as I'm sure Marilyn Manson is "perfect" for "This Is Halloween" I really would have loved to hear someone, or rather anyone else do it. Especially The Polyphonic Spree. Just someone the complete opposite of Manson. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Asobi Seksu Interview

Yuki Chikudate of Asobi Seksu at The Middle East Downstairs

I love Asobi Seksu. Citrus is an amazing album and they're working on a follow-up right now. Not a lot of info about it, but you can check out this cool interview with Yuki Chikudate (lead singer of Asobi Seksu) that The Walrus did.

A few years ago, CMJ announced that they were going to be playing the marathon, but it ended up not happening. I was pretty bummed because I had just fallen in love with them and hadn't seen them yet. Lame. Later on, though, I got the see them play Boston. Unfortunately, Yuki was pretty sick at the time and it made for a sub-par show. They opened for The Ataris (wtf?) but that allowed me to head over to another club and catch Dalek. That was a pretty sweet night.

Check out Asobi Seksu's MySpace page for some tracks, including a rad remix of Thursday by CSS.

New Parts & Labor Song

Parts & Labor - Nowheres Nigh


The new Parts & Labor song, "Nowheres Nigh" premiered over at Pitchfork today. The track will be found on their forthcoming record, Receivers, due out on October 21 from Jagjaguwar. The song has P&L going in a different direction. Not surprising as they changed drummers (from Christopher Weingarten to Joe Wong) and added full time guitarist Sarah Lipstate. Fear not, however, because it's still undeniably Parts & Labor. In fact, I'm not worried at all because this song kicks ass. And I highly doubt that these guys (and girl!) can make a bad record. I just don't think it's possible.

Update: Here's the cover art for Receivers. All big and stuff.

New Tim Fite Record

Dr. Leisure & Tim Fite - I Smoke, You Cough


I know Fair Ain't Fair just came out a couple months ago, so you'd be OK to not be expecting anything new from Tim Fite for a while. Well, on his current tour with The Watson Twins, he's selling what looks like a self released CD (not CD-R, strangely enough). It's called Just For You and is a collaboration with Dr. Leisure who is actually billed first (and who recently changed his name to Fisticuffs).

Take all of the weird humor found throughout Fite's work, multiply it by 10, and turn it into some weird sampling sound experiment. That's kind of how Just For You sounds. Very, very weird. There's some spoken word type stuff, a lot of loops, samples from various films and songs, it's just very chaotic and it doesn't make a lot of sense. But, if you you're a fan of the bizarre, then chances are you'll like this. It reminds me of Miranda July's early records on Kill Rock Stars. It's pretty much Tim and Greg having a good time making very different music than they normally do. I don't know if they're selling it anywhere other than on tour right now, so if you want it, you'll have to go see them live. Which isn't such a bad thing, I promise.

Best Release Date Ever

Both Matthew Robert Cooper and Belong have new releases coming out very soon. Like, 3 weeks soon.

Belong has their Same Places (Slow Version) one sided 12" for the Table Of The Elements Guitar Series (check out the Pitchfork article for more info). The opposite side of the record will have a laser-etched image from UK artist Savage Pencil. Right now, CD Universe is taking pre-orders for those who live in the US. So if you want one (and why wouldn't you) you should do so quickly because that shit will sell out.

And not to be one-upped, Matthew Robert Cooper (aka Eluvium) is also releasing a new 12" under his own name (instead of Eluvium), titled Miniatures. You can hear "Miniature 3" at Pitchfork and "Miniature 7" at Gaarden Records (who is releasing the record). And although Gaarden isn't doing pre-orders at the moment, they are "taking names." So shoot 'em an e-mail and get in line if you want a copy, as there will only be 2000 of them.

Oh yeah, the best part is that both records are being released on August 5. That's only 3 weeks from now! That is seriously going to be the best day ever.

Cool Stuff Overload

Santogold, Julian Casablancas, & Pharrell - My Drive Thru
Only a halfway decent song (commissioned by Converse) but a seriously cool video. 2D paper cut outs of everyone dancing all over the place. Nice.



Fleet Floxes - White Winter Hymnal
Fun claymation. See if you can spot the bunny! At least I think it's a bunny...



Matthew Cooper - Miniature 3
From his forthcoming (still solo) album being released under his own name (instead of Eluvium). The reason he's changing aliases is because it sounds quite different than Eluvium material. This is more quiet and subtle (ala Brian Eno and Stars Of The Lid) than what he was doing before. I can't wait to hear the whole album. I love everything this guy does. Stream it right here.


Nisennenmondai - Pop Group

New band alert! Well, new to me anyway (and that's all that really matters). An all girl Japanese trio that makes noise. This song is kinda Lightning Bolty and Liars-esque. But apparently (according to Stereogum) they have many influences and a variety of different sounds, so if you don't like this, give another one of their songs a try.