first ever sound recording

The New York Times has piece on the first ever sound recording, recently discovered in France and dating back to 1860. Hear and read about it here.

File Under: 5 Minutes You'll Never Get Back

Avant band goes nutzoid. Check out Parts II, III and IV if ya dare. (No thanks to Mr. Henry Owings for spreading this travesty).Emo girl loses it. Strangely resonant in view of what's happening in Mexico. If you don't know what I'm talking about, nevermind, it's too stupid to get into. FYI, she's 15, so cut her some slack. Or not.

Check out the new issue of Skyscraper Magazine, featuring an expanded version of the 'Top Under-Rated Albums Of 2007' piece that first appeared here. Plus I review a few comic books and a Bowie boxset. Fun fun.

SXSW!

Pride Tiger @ The Grill Party

High Places @ The Paste/Stereogum Party

Carbon/Silicon (w/ Mick Jones & Tony James) @ The KCMP Tent

The Wedding Present @ the Ioda Party

The Right Ons

Blitzen Trapper @ The Paste/Stereogum Party

Best Irish Albums Ever..

According to The Irish Times. Click here for the article. Achtung Baby is way too high on the list, but whatevs. Happy Saint Paddy's.

New Charlatans Album: Free Download

Download the new Charlatans album on XFM here.

Hip Hop Special

• I love the cover of the new Pete Rock album (above). Old skool lushness on fire!
• Anti-Pop Consortium is back, and the new song on their Myspace is hot.
• With a new mixtape out, Clipse/Re-up Gang's mastery of metaphor remains unchecked. More info here and check the MP3 below. Full disclosure: I really have no idea what they're on about, so in that respect, they're kind of like T.S. Eliot.
  

Re-Up Gang 'Liva Solo' MP3

New Portishead Tracks

Trashmenagerie is streaming two tracks from the upcoming Portishead album Third, due April 28. Listen here. Holy God-like genius Batman.

Whitney Biennial

Two of my friends, Gretchen Skogerson and Melanie Schiff, are featured in this year’s Whitney Biennial. Check out their work here and here.

Catching Up

While I was away…

White people got funnier (to make fun of). Which reminds me of this golden oldie.

The case of Nabokov’s last manuscript got more…Nabokovian.

Spike Jonze’s 'Where The Wild Things Are' film may be in trouble. And check Jonze’s new(ish) video for Kanye West.

Polaroids can be beautiful.

Miles Davis’ visionary producer Teo Macreo dies.

Action director Michael Bay winks at himself in this Australian bank commercial.

Hip hop’s birthplace saved!

Dubstep got a film. Check the trailer.

Jeff Mangum, ‘The Salinger Of Indie Rock’

Shadow puppetry, the last refuge of the scoundrel!

The Verve and Yaz announce tours. Spiritualized announces new album. Looks like it’s going to be a good year.

Okay, this trailer is funny. Amazingly, the movie is directed by David Gordon Green, who made one my favorite arty indie films ‘All The Real Girls’. How did this Terence Malick acolyte become Apatowized?

Speaking of arty indie films, 'Forty Shades Of Blue' director Ira Sachs has new movie out now. 'Married Life' sounds like a cool pastiche of melodrama & film noir. Read about it here.

Los Beatles!

Hey, I’m back in the USA. The above pic was taken at an empanada joint in San Telmo, the old section of Buenos Aires. Argentinians reputedly love the Beatles and the Stones, and I’ve never seen so many Jaggeresque mullets in my life. Their homegrown music heritage ain’t nothing to sniff at either. Exhibit A: Almendra, psychedelic space warriors revered by some as the Beatles of South America. The band featured Luis Alberto Spinetta (more on him in a future post) and ‘El mundo entre las manos’ (roughly 'The World In Our Hands') was their first ever single, released in 1968. Two minutes of horn-sprinkled pop bliss, the song reminds me a bit of The Pretty Things' orch-pop sleeper Emotions, which came out around the same time. More Argentinian rock on the way...alas, piping-hot empanadas ain’t downloadable.

Almendra ‘El mundo entre las manos’ MP3