Compliments of The Ridiculant

All Cheeming Boey needs is a Sharpie and your standard styrofoam cup to make absolutely spectacular pieces of art. Talk about using your resources.

According to the Metro’s blog The Ridiculant, Boey started drawing on cups in 2006, and they’re gained increasing popularity ever since. It seems like a simple concept, but the designs are nothing short of complex and complicated. Some even take months to complete and sell for hundreds of dollars.

I think these are amazing, take a peek:

You can view his entire collection here.

Owens and bandmate, Chet Jr White, have produced the best thing to be released in years. Owens sings these sad, heartbroken songs of wishing for happiness, love, and the end of loneliness. In the track, “Hellhole Ratrace,” Owens says, “I’m all alone with my heartache and my good intentions.” Owens seems like a man who is lost, lonely, and begging for someone to love him. It adds to the charm of the album: the sadness radiates through every song and makes you fall in love with this man you’ve never seen or met before. Somehow every song makes you feel nostalgic for a time and place that never existed. And despite every track being drenched in the sounds of depression, they all make you want to dance. Listening to this album makes you smile whether you want to or not. The beats to the songs make you want to move in a way you never have before. You want to see the world differently and make everything feel better somehow. There’s something beautiful in the strange simplicity of the Girls’ sound. You’ll dance, you’ll sing, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and most of all, you’ll find something to believe in.



[See post to watch Flash video]

Regardless of your costume, there’s bound to be a plethora of Halloween parties this weekend. Where there are parties, there is music. Here are some good remixes from Chromeo, Passion Pit, Wiz Khalifa, Empire of the Sun, & Death from Above 1979 that will be great for this weekend. Enjoy.

What I found to be little weird, however, was how there was an audience listening to them. I guess they’ve turned into local celebrities? I don’t know. It’s a far cry from when they used to sit down in a diner booth with one cameraman.

Memorable quotes (in order of appearance):

“Oh shit … ohh…HOLY CHRIST…run baby, run!” —Ann
“Some sick son of a bitch did that one,” —Ann
“Look at that kid screaming…that’s child abuse…I’m gonna wack that guy,” —Ann
“Oh look at that bastard,” —Ann

[See post to watch Flash video]

Two years before Johansson released her Tom Waits cover album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, Yorn had already planned the entire album. He had hoped to recreate the magic found in the late 1960s recording of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot’s “Bonnie & Clyde” and, despite not knowing what Scarlett Johansson’s voice sounded like, Yorn thought she would be perfect for the part. “For some reason the image I had in my head and the context of the project, Scarlett just seemed right for it. In fact, when I asked her if she would do it I didn’t even know she could sing. … I knew that she was very talented and it was like an afterthought. I was like, ‘Oh, I’m sure she can sing.’” (Alternative Press)

The album is a 1960s alt-pop sound tinged with some country and electronic sounds. Pete Yorn is known for his heartbreaking pop-folk tunes and with Scarlett singing along beside him, the album is a touch of perfection. The album epitomizes the sound of heartbreak and shares the story of a painful break up that no one wants to experience first-hand. Johansson has a sultry voice that harmonizes beautifully with Yorn’s soft pop folk voice. How he knew she would sound so lovely paired up with him, we will never know. What we do know is this pair was a tremendously successful idea.

It is still unknown as to whether or not the duo plans to tour; however, my fingers are crossed that they do.

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Notion
Be Somebody
Taper Jean Girl
My Party
Molly’s Chambers
Red Morning Light
Fans
California Waiting
Milk
Closer
Crawl
Four Kicks
Charmer
Sex on Fire
The Bucket
On Call
Cold Desert
Use Somebody
Slow Night, So Long
Knocked Up
Manhattan
Black Thumbnail

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You do a lot of questionable things with a few beers in you walking down Boston’s Commonwealth Ave. at 3 a.m. Sometimes you think it’s good idea to down a giant 5-dollar sausage from Che-Chi’s or piss in a public alleyway… I don’t know, sometimes it just makes sense.

It was one of those nights, and my friends and I were butchering an impromptu version of ‘Knife.’  We decided that it wasn’t even a song, but a movement. Then I saw them live for the first time at Bonnaroo, covered in sweaty filth (which made sand floors a really poor choice), but when the waltzing strings of ‘Lullaby’ started, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t even normal; the performance was inhuman.

Grizzly Bear is a funny name for such a calm and refined band. When my friend told her mom she was going to a Grizzly Bear show, the response was utter disgust – to think we’d find entertainment in watching ferocious animals claw each other.

Not to say they lack ferocity. I saw Grizzly Bear the second time around at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston, and I’ve never been so undividedly engaged, even with the audience seated the entire time (except when we started dancing to the closer ‘On a Neck, On a Spit’). Grizzly Bear has a mesmerizing sort of style — beautiful in sound, stealthy with instrumentals and haunting in harmony.

After the show I was able to (obnoxiously) flag down Chris Taylor, the square-jawed blondie responsible for the oh-oo-oh-oo-ohwah in ‘Knife’ as well as other wonderful harmonizations, bass and wind instruments. Chris is a person of impressive skill and kind demeanor. I shook his hand and before I knew it, he’d politely agreed to a phone interview. I didn’t jump up and down until I left the theatre.

To me, it’s safe to say the world (at least the blogging world) has fallen in love with Grizzly Bear, but in talking with Chris we focused less on the group and more on him. He has teamed up with Lust Boys’ Ethan Silverman to create Terrible Records in which they will release a series of 20 split 7 inches. The first of these comes out today, October 13th. It’s entitled CANT and features Arthur Russell and Chris Taylor himself.

Be sure to check it out! But first read this interview with Chris Taylor to learn more about Terrible Records, his musical background, his childhood dreams, and his love for cooking. (Endearing, right?!)

Courtney Allessio: Was there a turning point in your lifetime where you knew that music was going to be a life long thing, like that was going to be your career?

Chris Taylor: There was a point at 16 where I decided that’s what I really, really wanted to do; the only thing I wanted to do. I went to [NYU], and started studying in the jazz performance department. I transferred to the audio engineering department. I didn’t want to study music; it was a really bad thing to do for music, really unmusical to study it. Once I wasn’t playing jazz, which was what I had been doing really seriously up until that point, I didn’t really know what else I was equip to give musically… so I had a little bit of a period in the middle of college up until a year after college where I was just like, I don’t know how I’m going to be able to play music. So I was like, I guess I’ll just record people? I had this band with Chris Bear the drummer that had this noisy, punkier sound where I played bass. And I was in this noise trio thing where I played horns and petals and made a lot of crazy sounds. I started developing both of those things until eventually both of those things became what I do in [Grizzly Bear], which I didn’t expect.

So I had a period where I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it, I thought I was just going to do it for fun, which was kind of bummer a for me because I had spent so many years planning on being a musician, and I thought, now what? I was confused, I just kind of kept going until I found something to do. I’m very happy I was able to continue on playing music.

CA: When did you team up with Grizzly Bear?

CT: A year after I graduated so 2004. Ed [Droste] was recording a record in his bedroom, and Chris came to help finish the record and we were like, we need to make a band out of this. So we became the live band. It was the three of us for a couple of months for a handful of shows, and then Daniel Rossen joined, and we went on tour.

CA: One of my favorite songs is the alternative version of ‘Shift.’ And there’s all the other songs you’ve re-recorded off of Horn of Plenty, do you plan on re-approaching any more songs? I know there’ s also ‘Fix It’ and ‘Alligator.’

CT: ‘Alligator’ we did for the Friend EP… and then ‘Fix It,’ I don’t think we’ll re-record it, but we do a different version of it live. We came up with pretty different arrangements for the songs from the album… because the arrangements off of Yellow House have a lot of stuff. We’d record things and then when it came to playing it, we’d be like, “uuuuhhh… wait, we can’t play that.” And the Friend EP, these [live] versions came out so different that we preferred them to the album versions, so we thought it would be cool to record them to make a document, a casual EP thing.

CA: So Terrible Records is this independent label that you’ve started, how do you go about signing on new bands? Do you look for them yourself or do they seek you out knowing you’ve started your own company?

CT: I have enough people that I’ve wanted to record… It’s part of the idea as to why we started the label – I had so many people I wanted to work with. I don’t have time do full albums with everyone, so I thought the 7 inch idea was kind of a cool way for me to record a bunch of people and sort of make a little art-book collection of split 7 inches with my favorite bands right now. It’s just going to be 20 split 7 inches, so forty bands altogether. I sort of pair bands that are more well known with those many people don’t know about but should. They’re musically appropriate for each other, it’s not like randomness.

CA: It’s a great idea. If you have the connections to do what you want with music, then you might as well do it.

CT: It’s pretty easy. I was talking to Zach Condon from Beirut who has his own label…we were talking about how it’s a good thing to remove the middleman, and I was like, “You’re right, it totally is, I should just do that.” … Knowing a lot of bands I really want to work with was the impetus to start [the label], so it was a pretty natural thing. When people are contacting us it’s awesome, but at least for now we’re not looking to become Merge Records or Domino, we are just looking to put things out for fun. When the label has to support the band, and the band gets let down, it’s such a horrible thing. I never want to be that for anybody; that’s the last thing I want to be. I want bands to walk away from the experience and be like, “I’m really glad I did that, I’m proud of that, that was cool.” And that’s it, no crap where [the label’s] not taking care of you, or you’re not getting paid enough. I just want all that stuff out of the equation – it’s so unmusical and it really sucks the joy out of it sometimes. That’s the idea, to put the joy back into the whole process and make it into a hand-made dinner party, like everyone’s there to eat some good food.

CA: So that name. Terrible Records, is it irony?

CT: Terrible is my nickname I’ve had for years. A lot of my friends call me Terrible. And…

CA: Wait, why is that your nickname?

CT: I don’t know! I think it’s supposed to be kind of, tongue-and-cheek. I’m a pretty pleasant guy, it’s meant to be a joke. It’s kind of like some weird, superhero alter ego. I was actually calling my solo stuff ‘Terrible,’ and I thought it was cool, but the name was too good for a label. Terrible Records was just too funny, even my dad liked it.

CA: For your own solo release, did you have a certain aim in mind when you made this music since you are already so well associated with Grizzly Bear?

CT: Yeah, there’s definitely a thing like, I don’t think anyone in the band would want to play my songs. It’s my chance to do what I want to do. I had a lot of ideas, and I just don’t feel like doing it with three other people… It’s just fun, kind of liberating.

CA: You produce, you have a record label now and you’re in band, how do you separate your own personal life from your career?

CT: It’s not like I’m a workaholic, but I’m just so excited to do so many things right now that I can’t help but to just do it. It keeps me really busy. An opportunity comes up… and I can’t pass it up. It feels like an addiction or something, but it’s also one of things that you can’t do forever, I don’t think. I’m kind of surprised at myself, of how much I end up working on music. I definitely need a vacation. Like really bad. I had a vacation scheduled, and then Jamie Lidell asked me to produce his record and I was like, “I have to do that.” So I cancelled my vacation. Sometimes I don’t think I balance [life] too well to be honest. There are just so many cool opportunities coming up, it’s hard to turn away from them. I care for my family of course, and I have friends, very good friends I’m fortunate to have. So I think do a fine job myself.

CA: You are in fifth grade, what did you want to be? Or anytime pre-16 years-old, before you knew music was going to be your career.

CT: I remember being in preschool or earlier and thinking, I want to grow up and be a dolphin. I quickly understood that it didn’t sound right. I think I left the slate blank for a while and didn’t worry about it. I’m saying really young, like three years old. I’ve always been a very fascinated person, always fascinated with things that appeal to the senses, I guess I was thinking a little too outside the box.

CA: What are your top five favorite albums either of all time or just you’re recently into?

CT: I’ll name a general top five favorites musicians maybe. In no particular order: Arthur Russell, Neil Young, Prince, Radiohead and the Beatles.

CA: So I’ve been really sick lately… I was wondering, especially for you doing vocals and lots of wind instruments, what do you do when you have a cold and you have to perform?

CT: We’re really militant about killing the cold. Dr. Taylor would recommend lots of zinc… drinking a lot of water, taking multivitamins… sometimes if all else fails, drinking a ton of whiskey and going to bed with a bunch of blankets. Jameson is the preferred brand because you’ll wake up feeling refreshed in the morning. We’re just really serious about killing it. TT & the Bears in Boston is the only place we’ve ever cancelled a show because Ed’s voice was gone; it was gone. We tried to play in Providence, and it was just hilarious. Luckily it hasn’t happened since.

CA: Random, what’s your favorite type of food?

CT: Whoa. I really love food. I’m actually working on a cookbook. I’m really, really into cooking. Dinner parties, I know it was sort of a random analogy, but it’s one of my favorite gatherings. I constantly go back to homemade pasta as being one of my favorite foods; it’s really one of the most delightful things of all shapes. After that I don’t know, pizza I’ve always liked pizza.

CA: What kind of sauce for the pasta?

CT: Truffle oil is delicious, red sauce is also delicious. I’m down with a white sauce, or sort of a cream sauce with red wine and mushrooms and shallots.

We went off on a food tangent for a while. (I may be the least focused interviewer ever.) I asked some other basics, and fun fact: Grizzly Bear once performed on the bottom of a ship in Switzerland.

So clearly Chris Taylor is just an ordinary guy of extraordinary ability. If you haven’t listened to Grizzly Bear yet, shame on you. But here’s your chance to get a fresh start and listen to the very first of the Terrible Records 7 inch series. Check Jetcomx for updates on Terrible Records, and be sure treat your ears to CANT today!

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