Halloween 2010 is the big (and appropriate) day for AMC to unveil it’s newest show, The Walking Dead. Here’s a meaty four and a half minute preview trailer for the series which will run 6 episodes in it’s debut season. It also looks that at some point between the announcement of the show and filming it, AMC switched who was playing Rick. Wasn’t it originally supposed to be Jonny Lee Miller?

Either way, whoever ended up playing Rick, I’m pretty excited to see one of my favorite Comics get turned into a cable show.  I just really hope this lives up to the high standards AMC has already set with their other shows and they really don’t alter the story too much.

Via New York Mag

Defektors - The Bottom of the City (2010) [Nominal/Grotesque Modern] // Grade: C

You would’ve thought that a band that has been around for five years or so and built a solid fan base for their raucous raw punk tunes would’ve been further along in album releases, but no. The Bottom of the City is Vancouver based punk band Defektors first real LP. They’ve previously released tracks on some 7” but never a full album in that time. The Bottom of the City in actuality isn’t really all new material either. the LP is actually full of previously released tracks but are now tightened up and tweaked that as a result has created a far cleaner album I’m not so sure all of their fans were expecting. The LP (which clocks in at about 30 minutes) is actually full of previously released tracks which have are now tightened up and tweaked resulting in a far cleaner sound than their previous incarnations.

I can understand why maybe refining the tracks for their first official released album would’ve been a good idea in theory but the result has taken away a lot of the edge and rawness that Defektors fans have grown to love and spazz out over. Sure for some bands it works out but for the louder, edgier stuff like this? Not always. And while I can appreciate that it’s difficult to translate a band like the Defektors raucous live energy onto a record, it can be done… unfortunately The Bottom of the City doesn’t successfully capture that vibe. “Torn to Pieces” and “Never Really Tried” feel way too clean cut now. That brutal screechy grit from Phillip’s and Haywood’s vocals is gone and replaced with these nicely mixed vocals and it’s just not the same. Whereas the Defektors 7” and Compilation cuts had a timeless quality to them, songs like “Don’t Like Anything” and “Black Hole” when heard on the new LP sound so dated. “Doomsday Girl” has been stretched out a bit and lost that awesome garage punk/blue grass feel from it’s original 7″ version. The only real saving grace on this album for me was “Kick First One” and “Burning Light.” Those songs still pack a solid punk punch and benefited from their now über amped drums, grittier vocals and distorted guitars.

I don’t doubt that The Bottom of the City loud and clean sound may have the ability to draw in newer and wider array of fans to the Defektors, but for older fans this is going to be let down. The Defektors had  the ability to shake you to your core and sadly that’s mostly lost here in the mix.

Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreaks (2008)

Vs.

Kid Cudi – Man On the Moon: The End of Day (2009)

The Game is simple… if only one could exist which would it be? What’s more important… personal relevance, cultural significance, or simply being the better album all other things aside? Choice is yours…

This Wednesday, August 25th Killing Spree presents a night of enforced abortion, romance and bleeding ears. The show will be starting at 8pm with Waves, which is Damion Romero and John Wiese; John describes the project as the aural version of lying on the beach at night.

They will followed by the legendary Haters and R. Jencks, formerly of Crash Worship (whose sets usually feature more fog than every goth club combined). Check the video flashback below for Crash Worship’s “Ge Rouge” so you know what you’re getting into!

Headlining will be Dave Phillips from Zurich who is also the founder of Swiss Grindcore legends, Fear of God. Phillip’s latest work veers away from that brutal assault and into the the more experimental land of field recordings. Following Dave Phillips at 11pm the Killing Spree DJs will be taking over and trying to get all these frowning chin scratching boys laid by some hot goth chicks.

Wednesday August 25th 8pm
Two Headed Horse
1770 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
$5 Cover

Мишка Fall 2010 First Delivery Now Online & In-Store!

You’ve tweeted, you’ve emailed, you called, you’ve come by everyday with the same question… “When will you have Fall for sale?” Well get excited because the first delivery of our Fall 2010 collection is now available online and in-store in both Brooklyn and Echo Park shops.

Treat yourself to some new duds and look your freshest for class, work or play this Fall… or don’t, your choice playboy. And don’t forget to look through our Fall 2010 Lookbook to get some ideas to look your best!

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725
—
Мишка LA
1547 Echo Park Ave
Los Angeles, CA
213-536-4234

Klaxons - Surfing the Void (2010) [Polydor] // Grade: B-

UK cosmic rockers Klaxons follow up their Mercury Prize-winning debut, Myths of the Near Future with a space-ready cat that’s Surfing the Void to a weightier, rock-driven charge. A storming debut, Myths played as a fittingly unyielding collection of single-worth gems that all but epitomized the burgeoning, day-glo-glad “Nu Rave” scene of the time. Riding in on a hearty heap of blogged-about buzz thanks in part to club-ready remixes and sheer scene-creation standing, the quartet managed to ellipse most success beyond the interweb by scooping up festival headlining slots, an NME Awards’ “Best New Band” win and helping overall, to nurture the coming wealth of rave-centric dance-rock acts.

Most of these brothers in glowing arms— the likes of New Young Pony Club, Hadouken! or Shitdisco— released satisfactory singles, memorable in their syrupy choral infection, before following with limp longplayer offerings that failed to achieve much traction beyond their second single; Hadouken!’s 2010 sophomore effort For the Masses for instance, got just 3/10 stars from former Nu Rave loving publication, NME. Would Klaxons be the exception?

Before joining the swell with the space kitty, Void’s storied production history is worth a mention. Klaxons began work on a second album back in 2008 with veteran producer Tony Visconti (T. Rex, Bowie and Iggy Pop), before shifting to Hot-100 heavy producer Focus… a month later. After heading to France for yet another personnel change back to Myths’ producer James Ford, it looked like the band would have a new offering wrapped and ready for Christmas of ’09. No dice. Label Polydor called the songs “too experimental” and asked for a re-record, which they found in one Nu Metal knob twiddler Ross Robinson. Two of his five 2010 projects (so far) are releases from Korn, so I can totally see how Robinson seems like the perfect fit to handle the creation of a crucial Nu Rave sophomore soundscape.

Now we land at the finished product. Surfing the Void is a rock record, first and foremost. The delivery, pace and somewhat distended throb throws the UK foursome farther from the closing door of the very scene they drew fluorescent blood for just a few years earlier; in a recent Spinner article, leader Jaime Reynolds admitted they “weren’t a band” during the award-winning Myths days but rather a “collection of ideas.”

Whereas their debut took varied song-wide genre turns from scholarly-spiced cosmic rave to wobbly garage and punk, Surfing attempts to stay more conformable within its bolstered rock swell. “Valley of the Calm Trees” sounds like the bobbing grin from another band trying to sound like the Klaxons whereas “Venusia” goes after Interpol or White Lies’ gloom with elements of florid keyboard-added suspense. Fittingly-titled “Extra Astronomical” finds our space cat protagonist firmly lost in a calypso-whispered black hole of all-direction-pulling instrumentation where messy and gloomy guitars pervade- no wonder the first words are “celestial catastrophe.” It’s at this point that you notice just how dim the territory Robinson and the band are exploring with this sophomore release. “Astronomical” is one of the band’s most substantial songs because of it, growing and drifting in less than three-and-a-half minutes before the M83-esque “Twin Flames” rolls in like a tribal disco haunt made perfect for two lovers.

For those wary of the murky direction, there are moments of wholly familiar Klaxons craftsmanship here. Contagious opener “Echoes,” finds Reynolds and crew pairing flourishing piano, plucky bass and multi-vocal harmonic calls of thinking-man’s infinity: “Echoes/ many otherworlds, true horizon, makes the endless ever present.” The recognition from Surfing’s title track is a eerie redux of “Atlantis to Interzone” whereas “Flashover,” equal in it’s emulation, could be simply subtitled “Magick Pt. 2” thanks mainly to that knowingly chunky bass.

Surfing the Void will indeed throw some listeners off guard on first offering as it’s heavy, bleak and void of much of a colorful club sheen. A solid direction for the cited purveyors of new rave ubiquity, these 10 tracks can hopefully help keep its players—and their space cat— alive for more celestial catastrophes to come.

Take a gander at Die Antwoord’s “Enter the Ninja” like you’ve never heard it before. ‘m pretty certain this remix is totally unauthorized, but it’s still awesome nonetheless. It’s courtesy of rising Brooklyn Witch Housers Fostercare, who you should keep on your radars!

In the past few months Fostercare have dropped a debut CD-R, Sunfreeze on Disaro and a follow-up CD/DVD called Heaven’s Gate on Clan Destine. Get both!

PW is the baddest! The only way that this could have been better is if he was wearing the Satan’s Helpers official club vest!

Camu Tao - King of Hearts (2010) [Def Jux] // Grade: D+

Lets call it the Andre 3000 syndrome, that being when a dude known primarily as a rapper, puts the rhyming to the left in favor of trying their hand at something more melodic and/or esoteric. We’re talking about putting down that cordless mic and instead getting a nice mic stand so you can croon for everyone like them rat pack dudes did. Shout out to Sammy Davis. People who’ve recently caught this bug: Kanye West with 808s & Heartbreak, Dose One with his group Subtle, Lil Wayne with Rebirth and obviously Andre 3000 with The Love Below. Results of this kind of artistic experimentation have been across the board, they’re either complete crap (Lil Wayne) or halfway there and super vain (Andre 3000) or they’re really successful (everyone else listed). Camu Tao is the latest “rappa ternt sanga” to try this with King of Hearts. Unfortunately, his new album King of Hearts comes much closer to sounding like Lil Wayne than it does Kanye West.

Camu had always been known for fluid polysyllabic rhymes as part of the Def Jux family. He epitomized their aesthetic by being underground and intellectual, without ever coming off pretentious or effete. On this album though that’s all gone and instead dude shows a new style that’s less influenced by New York grittiness and more by the British post punk movement. On starting the album with “Be a Big Girl”, I had to check I was listening to the right album. The track features minimal electronic production that sounds much like something early Depeche Mode might’ve thrown away, while Camu’s vocals are reminiscent of an off key and heavily distorted Prince. While someone must find that combination interesting, I can not say that I do. It sounds like the bedroom album a second year art student would make after his girlfriend left him during her brief stint as a lesbian. Too harsh? Check “Fonny Valentine” and tell me that’s not a song that could follow a performance of Interior Semiotics.

The shame here is that when Camu Tao actually check’s in with rapping on this album it actually kind of works. “Ind of the Worl” has a simple beat knocking about through too much distortion, it’s like every other song on the album. But, when he actually raps over it, it stops sounding like bad Joy Division covers and instead sounds like some new shit that you’ve not heard before. “Plot a Little” flips the script and has a Def Jukie beat with Camu whine rapping over it, which while not the best thing I’ve heard recently, is enjoyable. I refer you to the previous sentence for my opinion the entirety of Kid Cudi’s catalog to date.

Sadly, Camu Tao passed away in 2008 so we wont get any more work from him. The dude was clearly talented but it feels like this album was a weird transitive state between his rap career and something else entirely. If he could’ve taken what was present on “Plot a Little” and “Ind of the Worl” and molded that into his new template it could’ve been exceptional.

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