FASHION Diaries

FASHION Diaries

All posts under ‘Music’

Previous Posts

Culture » Hot Disc

Hot Disc: Broken Bells

Posted March 10th, 2010 | 2:30 pm | By Eli Yarhi | 1 Comment

When it comes to heavyweight pop collaborations, there’s a lot to be fearful of: Stepping on toes, amounting to the sum of two parts, going through the motions. Broken Bells’ self-titled debut is nothing of the sort.

Broken Bells is James Mercer, principle songwriter for the Shins, and Brian Burton of Danger Mouse fame. Together, they’ve made an empyreal pop record. One that’s psychedelic, atmospheric and hypnotic. It’s being drawn up to a 21st Century Pet Sounds made with special tools. And it’s damn good. Read the rest of this entry »

Fashion » Fashion News

Fashion news: Michelle Obama Wu’ed by the Smithsonian, LG Fashion Week’s venue switch and eau d’Aniston

Posted March 10th, 2010 | 12:31 pm | By Lara Tobin | No Comments

Photo via Vogue UK

Jason Wu finally met the First Lady yesterday. Michelle Obama and the designer were at the Smithsonian Institution for the induction of the First Lady’s inauguration dress. [Vogue UK]

Our Twitter feed was buzzing yesterday with LG Fashion Week’s latest news.  The event has yet another new stomping ground after their warehouse venue for the upcoming season apparently fell through. There are no details yet but we can tell you that the new venue is the Allstream Centre at Exhibition Place. [@NathAt and @geekigirl]

Read the rest of this entry »

Culture » Hot Disc

Hot disc: Q&A with The Besnard Lakes’ Olga Goreas

Posted March 9th, 2010 | 3:00 pm | By Jacquelyn Francis | No Comments

The Besnard Lakes’ music is as vast and dramatic as the remote region of Northern Saskatchewan for which the band is named. Listen to the wall of sound captured on this Pitchfork-approved outfit’s third release, The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night (Jagjaguwar Records), and you’ll understand why Jace Lasek and wife Olga Goreas were tapped to score actor Mark Ruffalo’s directorial film debut Sympathy for Delicious. We spoke with Goreas, the voice behind lead-off single “Albatross,” from her home in Montreal. Read the rest of this entry »

Culture » Hot Disc

Hot Disc: Brasstronaut, Mt. Chimaera

Posted March 3rd, 2010 | 4:30 pm | By Eli Yarhi | No Comments

 

Photography by Jeff Petry

 

Consider the mythical chimaera. It has the body of a lion, a serpent’s head for a tail, and a goat’s head jutting from its back. Weird, right? But considering its relevance to Brasstronaut’s debut full-length, Mt. Chimaera (Unfamiliar Records), it’s not all Classics Club geekdom. Grazing and gobbling up genres in its path with cunning sensibility, Brasstronaut manages to fuse pop, electronica, klezmer (yup, pokey clarinet) and jazz into one highbred take. Every moment of Mt. Chimaera is fresh—dashing your anticipations at each unexpected turn. Read the rest of this entry »

Culture » Hot Disc

Hot Disc: Woodhands, Remorsecapade

Posted January 28th, 2010 | 3:30 pm | By Eli Yarhi | 1 Comment

FMhotdiscWoodhands_lg

We don’t recommend you sit at home and listen to Woodhands’ Remorsecapade (Paper Bag). Get out and request their songs when you’re at a sweaty dance party—you’ll bounce along with this record’s front loaded punch and intensity.

Woodhands is Dan Werb and Paul Banwatt, an inditronica drum and keytar synth based in Toronto who rock in both drollery and sensibility. On Remoresecapade you’re either having far too much fun, or on the verge of bumming out. On tunes like “CP24,” Werb lets you know that “I’m gonna’ be on CP24, pointing sixteen-hundred roman candles at your door.” It’s relentless, it’s spastic, entirely danceable and lyrically odd. Read the rest of this entry »

Culture » Hot Disc

Hot Disc: Four Tet, There Is Love In You

Posted January 26th, 2010 | 2:06 pm | By Eli Yarhi | No Comments

feb10FourTet_lg

Kieran Hebden first started releasing upbeat patchwork productions as Four Tet back in 1999 in order to find a creative outlet beyond his post-rock outfit, Fridge. Dialogue and four subsequent full-lengths constantly shifted personality while staying within the indie-electronic category of digital looping, slicing and pasting.

On his latest outing, There Is Love In You (Domino), Hebden shows that his work remains as richly syncopated, dynamic and elemental as it’s always been. This time around though, Four Tet plays partial to arching soundscapes over the hip-hop inflected basement-nerd tunes previously offered. Read the rest of this entry »

Culture » Hot Disc

Hot Disc: The Magnetic Fields, Realism

Posted January 22nd, 2010 | 10:30 am | By Eli Yarhi | No Comments

FMhotdiscMagnetic_lg

Always experimenting, but consistently sincere, you can always trust The Magnetic Fields aren’t just playing a one off. In the past they pulled out all the stops on 69 Love Songs, an album so comprehensive it spread across three discs and many, many inconsolable hours of your life. Then came Distortion, a much different tune, paying homage to shoegaze drone-fuzz and the Jesus and Mary Chain. Now on Realism, The Magnetic Fields’ third Nonesuch release, singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt takes the band into ersatz production on what is ostensibly a variety-folk concept album.

Read the rest of this entry »

Daily Steal

The daily steal: Rock tees for a cause, $25

Posted January 14th, 2010 | 9:00 am | By Jacquelyn Francis | No Comments

The Indie Rock Coloring Book, and a T-shirt by Brooklyn's Grizzly Bear

The Indie Rock Coloring Book, and a T-shirt by Brooklyn's Grizzly Bear

Someday I know my collection of rock T-shirts will be worth money and now I can fuel my addiction (without having to deal with the club scene anymore) thanks to the Yellow Bird Project (yellowbirdproject.com). The Montreal-based non-profit that has some of the coolest indie bands of the day–Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear and the Dears to name a very few–create adorable tees ($25) that help charities selected by the musicians themselves. And if you know a little coolie person, be sure to buy the Indie Rock Coloring Book for a mere $10.

Culture » Hot Disc

Hot disc: Woodpigeon, Die Stadt Muzikanten

Posted January 12th, 2010 | 2:00 pm | By Eli Yarhi | No Comments

Photography by Lindsey Baker

Photography by Lindsey Baker

Woodpigeon is often compared to Sufjan Stevens and Belle & Sebastian, which could have something to do with what follows. Woodpigeon’s third LP, Die Stadt Muzikanten (Boompa), offers some of the happiest sad songs we’ve heard in a while. Writing in a small Berlin apartment, Calgarian songwriter Mark Andrew Hamilton started “thinking in terms of couples, of people coming and going, of walls and windows,” he says. Read the rest of this entry »

Culture » Hot Disc

Hot Disc: Ke$ha, Animal

Posted January 6th, 2010 | 3:53 pm | By Eli Yarhi | No Comments

Photography by Jason Nocito

Photography by Jason Nocito

Right about now, if you beat Lady Gaga in the download charts you’re doing something right. Enter Ke$ha. She spells her name with a cash symbol, sounds like she’s got somewhere better to be, and her slow-banger “TiK ToK” is beating out “Bad Romance” on iTunes. We had to check out her debut full length album, Animal. Read the rest of this entry »

Previous Posts
advertisement
advertisement