BODY LANGUAGE.
Body Language is going to be here THIS SATURDAY AT 10 PM AT THE MILL.
Holycrap.
As Big Stereo puts it, Body Language is like “worn out cassette tapes playing back big pop tracks, not quite chillwave but not quite club — a beautiful healthy mix.”
Body Language is a 5-piece outfit from Brooklyn (because who isn’t these days) who are being hailed all over the place as a move-your-feet act that can bring the noise. Comparisons with Friends Electric, Little Boots, Crystal Method, Toro Y Moi, Hey Champ, Treasure Fingers, and Yes Giantess (who has rocked TrinColl twice already) abound, so you know what you’re getting yourself into… In other words, prepare to sweat. At the same time, though, they’re subtle - you decide how hard you want it to hit.
Here are some tracks not to miss from their 5-song release Speaks EP…
“Huffy Ten Speed”
A nonsensical hymn for our generation, featuring hypnotically dark synths and a build to boot that erupts in an addicting chorus.
“Work This City”
Barry White with synths - laid back electronica that is simultaneously sexy, incredibly well layered, and fun to move your feet to.
Yes Giantess - “Demons” (Body Language Remix)
This is how Yes Giantess would sound if they were zombies playing in the middle of an empty ampitheater for the last time before the apocalypse hit. This is absurdly good.
So stop by. Gaffney, Fadil, and Austen will all be DJ-ing hard starting at ten before Body Language hits it. Tickets $2 and can be purchased in advance by e-mailing miltix@gmail.com. Get them fast - they will sell out.
Enter Ninja, a South African MC who, along with Yo-landi Vi$$er and DJ Hi-Tek, comprise Die Antwoord.
Ninja is one of the more curious guys I’ve seen up-and-coming for a while. His work is obviously in the realm of what most of us would consider hipster, for its absurdity suggests that it should be taken ironically. To Ninja, however, it’s not. He’s serious that he has “you know, some serious gangster skill on the mark”, and these guys embrace what would immediately be looked upon as ridiculous and trumpet it as the best thing since sliced bread; that’s certainly something not to be overlooked.
I’ll admit, there’s nothing groundbreaking about “Enter the Ninja”, but there’s a ton that is just damn interesting. For one thing, the hook is addicting beyond belief (try and not get it stuck in your head - I dare you). Also, you cannot deny that Ninja is just awesome to listen to, and while his accent is sometimes incomprehensible (if he’s speaking English at all), his flow is undeniably unique and he spits with a fervor that echoes the intensity of Eminem and K’naan.
Summary: Die Antwoord is, if nothing else, at least worth a look and, depending on how you feel, maybe a laugh. The video I’ve posted above is the official music video for their track “Enter the Ninja”. Really cool visually and really addicting musically. Be sure to check out the impromptu interview and short-form-video for their track “Zef Side” as well - that thing’s ridiculous.
I just watched a promotional copy of We Love You, a documentary by New Jersey Pictures Productions from three-time Academy Award Nominated Producer Steve Kalafer and Director Jonathan Kalafer. I got a hold of it because Steve happens to be a longtime friend of my family’s.
The Rainbow Family holds gatherings each year in a democratically-selected national park somewhere in the U.S. (there are plenty of other gatherings, but I suppose this one gathering is as official as it can be unofficially be). These gatherings are the members’ attempts to emphasize togetherness with Mother Earth and your fellow Brothers and Sisters with whom she is shared. They focus on community, music, and prayer, all an attempt to show that world peace is in fact possible.
The film, which was unbelievably moving by the way, attempts to understand and communicate the ins and outs of the Rainbow-way by compiling interviews and scenes captured at the 2008 Rainbow Gathering in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming. There’s really no way to describe it without being having been there I’m guessing, but I’m sure this documentary is as close as anyone has ever gotten.
I decided to do a little research and came across a whole archive of mp3’s of live music recorded at Rainbow Gatherings over the years, and like the film, these recordings are pretty magical; they’re completely unedited and don’t attempt to filter out background noise, so if you’re wearing some sweet headphones, it really feels like you’re there.
Above, I’ve posted a song called “So The Story Goes” by a man the archive refers to as Hawker - I can’t really find any further information on him, and I’m not sure if he’s the man with the guitar or the man with the microphone. It was recorded at the Rainbow Gathering of 1998 held at Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona and the track is just beautiful.
Click here to go visit the archives of Rainbow music.
Click here to visit the We Love You website.
I’ve wanted to go to Rainbow for a while, and word on the street is that it’s coming to the East Coast this year. Who’s down?
EMPIRE OF THE SUN (Where the hell have I been?)
So I don’t know where I was, but I completely missed the whole Empire Of The Sun thing. Finals means I’m procrastinating more, which means I’m on Elbo.ws more, which means I come across things that I should have come across a long long time ago.
Anyways, Empire Of The Sun, like so many of their indie-electro contemporaries, are riding the psychedelic coat-tails of MGMT; they’re not just another one-hit wonder though. They’ve got their own theatrical twist, not to mention they just pretty much cleaned up at Australia’s rendition of our Grammy’s. Track after track is more of a transcendental thing than anything else; the vocals jump out of a flowing sea of synths. It’s pretty sick. And try to check out a video of what their live shows are like - it looks like one hell of an experience. On top of their all-enveloping sound, they’ve got costumes, dancers, and a whole menagerie of visual effects to boot.
I know this is the their track that everybody knows, but nonetheless I feel as if I must share it. I’m obsessed. And check out the Kolt13 remix. Fantastic.
Walking On A Dream (mp3 via You Are The Music)
Walking On A Dream (Kolt13 Remix) (mp3 via Trashbags Kids)
TALK HARD.
Ride Like The Wind. 
Please excuse The Mill for our absence. Finals have officially taken over Trinity College.
In the meantime, though, check this out. Smooth Rock legends Michael McDonald and Christopher Cross reunite on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon to perform Cross’ hit song ‘Ride Like The Wind’ with help from The Roots. The performance was meant to promote Cross’ new album The Cafe Carlye Sessions, a compilation of his greatest hits performed as smooth jazz, not something I’m particularly interested in unfortunately.
That aside, this performance is star studded, and easily the best version of this song that has ever been recorded, not to mention the fact that Cross’ beast of a guitar solo comes out of nowhere!
I’m obsessed, and have watched it daily since it aired in October.
Neave.com
Paul Neave is a London-based Interactive Web Designer who has taken his expertise with flash (and coding and all that other nerdy nonsense that get’s me all excited) and channeled it into a pretty sweet medium. His homepage, Neave.com, acts like his own “personal interactive playground; a place where I can explore my ideas and try out risky experiments that I wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to make anywhere else”, according to Neave at least. To me, Neave.com functions as a piece of interactive art more than anything else, with the audience manipulating their own experience to their desired end.
The site has many segments.
Imagination is a Jackson-Pollack-esque splatter of wavy lasers and wobbly colors.
Fractal gives a three-dimensional representation of the Mandelbrot fractal, one of a number of very famous three-dimensional functions that extend forever - Neave allows the user to explore the colorful corners and curves of the graph through zooming.
Webcam is a video-wall that is pretty much run as a free-for-all, allowing users to record videos wherever they want on the wall using whatever effects they want.
My favorite, though, is Television, or what Neave calls “Telly without context”. This is basically a series of forty really trippy video clips from all walks of the Earth and the Internet sorted randomly and played, while the user is able to flip through them with only a mouse-click. Sure, at first, the interface may seem like nothing more than a stoner’s paradise, but eventually, Neave’s Television project sucks you in and exposes the mindlessness of modern television along with the purity of meaningless film.
Paul Neave: “I love trying to dissolve the boundaries between code and design and exploring ways of making technology seem less scary and geeky, but more fun and human.”
The video for Boy Crisis’ ‘Fountain of Youth’, directed by Jordan Fish (another Wesleyan alum) was filmed at McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn this past August. It’s really freaking beautiful and definitely takes me back to my summer Sundays at the Pool before it closed. The whole thing is pretty damn cool - the costumes, makeup, choreography.
Not to mention that I’m absolutely obsessed with this track. Who’s pumped for tomorrow night?
I don’t have much to say - only that I hope you’re half as pumped as I am for the Das Racist and Boy Crisis show this Friday (or at least half as obsessed with Boy Crisis’ Fountain Of Youth as I am).
E-mail MILLTIX@GMAIL.COM for tickets. Include your name, cell phone number, and how many you’d like.
BOY CRISIS.
You may have heard that Das Racist is coming to The Mill this Friday (12/4)…
You may NOT know that Victor Vasquez of Das Racist is also in a band called Boy Crisis, or that Boy Crisis will be opening.
A mix of electronica and grunge and with swells from the ultra low-key to the maddeningly danceable, each Boy Crisis song brings something completely different to the table. At times, their haunting vocals and mellow synths remind me of a mesh of Brand New and Hot Chip. At others, they pump it up and their beats have the potential to hustle a crowd into an all-out frenzy. All aside, though, they’ve got something different going on than other Indie-Electronic acts that have exploded nowadays - their sound is very vintage-pop-esque, more along the lines of Prince or Bowie than Passion Pit or Simian Mobile Disco (or Lady Gaga for that matter).
So once again, swing by. Doors will open at 11. Send an e-mail to milltix@gmail.com with your name, cell#, and how many you’d like for tickets ($5 each).
Check these tracks while you’re at it…
Dressed to Digress (mp3 via Bored and Beats)
Fountain of Youth (mp3 via Bored and Beats)
L’Homme (Run Hide Survive Remix) (mp3 via Bored and Beats)
DAS RACIST.
Das Racist is a rap duo from Brooklyn (via Wesleyan University, right around the corner) who’ve fiercely dichotomized the music community. You, as a listener, probably have one of two opinions about them:
1) They are brillaint. Their hypnotic style and poignant rhymes border the musically transcendental, all the while quietly hinting at the overwhelming apathy and consumerism that runs in the veins of today’s youth culture.
2) They’re immature. They’re senseless. They are the bottom of the barrel as far as music is concerned. I hate them.
(Okay, so maybe you can be somewhere in the middle too. Work with the hyperbole for a least a wee bit.)
I’m not really sure where I personally fit in these two groups, but if nothing else, Das Racist are two guys who happen to pump some jams that are absolutely perfect if you’re interested in jumping up and down and sweating your brains out. A mesh of synth-based techno-dub beats behind scream rap that reminds me of whatever the pre-pubescent Beastie Boys would have sounded like, their sound is one that simultaneously puzzles and excites me. Style aside, they’re absolutely epic live, brimming with enthusiasm and packing crowds everywhere they go. That’s where Trinity comes in.
This Friday, December 4, Das Racist will be playing at The Mill with Boy Crisis, with doors opening around 11. Tickets are $5; to buy them during pre-sale, send an e-mail milltix@gmail.com with your name, how many you want, and your cell phone number. We’ll let you know what’s up from there. So swing by. Solid tunes. Solid people. Solid time. Check these mp3s…
Ek Shaneesh (mp3 via Pop Tarts Suck Toasted)
Combination Pizza Hut & Taco Bell (Wallpaper Remix) (mp3 via Music Ramen)
