scene and heard

Mittenfest 2008 at the Elbow Room, Ypsilanti, MI

Friday Night of Washtenaw County, Michigan’s coldest festival brought together the Greater Mitten’s budding talent and Brooklynite refugees.

Photos by Bianca Garza
Words by Blake Gillespie

Mittenfest is a fundraiser for 826Michigan and my only reason to stop in Ypsilanti, MI in my eight years of scouring in the Northern Ohio/Southern …

read more


Busted in Chicago

A curtailed “Conceptual Carwash,” courtesy of the Chicago Police Department

By Will Deitz

In December, a small warehouse slightly east of Bucktown, Chicago played host to a show titled the “Conceptual Carwash.” The warehouse had been decked out with hanging strips of toilet paper to indeed look like a gigantic Autobell, with video art playing …

read more


2008 in photos, 3

Since we are talking about thousands of images here, we have decided to chop our offerings into bite-sized pieces. Below is the best of our year in photograhy, part three….

read more


2008 in images, 2

Since we are talking about thousands of images here, we have decided to chop our offerings into bite-sized pieces. Below is the best of our year in photograhy, part two.

[Double Dagger, Edan, big …

read more


bytes

Wed Jan 7, 2009

Tonight: Theophilus London Mixtape Release Party

A while back we asked this cat Theophilus London if he would be interested in doing a record with us. He kindly let us know that he’s already got a mixtape in the works and that his “representatives” would be in touch. Next thing we know, he’s having a party to celebrate the release of The Charming …

read more

Wed Jan 7, 2009

Listen: Fungi Girls

14 and 15 year old guys from rural Texas (read: suburbs of Dallas) making washed-out guitar pop. I didn’t know they were quite that young until looking them up, but the initial pleasure in this music definitely grows when attached with bullshit notions of the immediacy of youth, fuck-it Garage Band production values, etc. Only …

read more

Wed Jan 7, 2009

Mixtape catch up!

For some reason hip hop just went nuts on us over the last two weeks and released about …

read more

Wed Jan 7, 2009

Golly! Music industry wanks of the digital era!

RollingStone.com reveals nine swanky fellers profiting in this distopian print armageddon in an article titled “how to save rock & roll.”

There are Ali and Hadi Partovi of iLike.com, that most obvious of domains you may have considered buying one wasted evening back in college, whose cool $15 million off a Facebook app has nothing on their winning …

read more

Tue Jan 6, 2009

Listen: P.O.S., “Goodbye”

P.O.S. returns to Rhymesayers with a solo record and tours with his Doomtree collective

For two years P.O.S. has been on the road opening for Atmosphere, hitting the Warped Tour circuit and fronting a second movement in Minneapolis with his Doomtree crew.

If you’re not behind the wheel, the road is a great place …

read more

Tue Jan 6, 2009

Listen: Microkingdom, Baltimore unjazz

I’ve noted this before, but Microkingdom serves as an excellent reminder of the multi-faced nature of the city of Baltimore. While the city has seen its absurdist art/rock scene explode in the last few years, the less party-friendly avant/improv scene has continued on its way relatively unchanged and under-noticed (even in our own take …

read more

Tue Jan 6, 2009

Crate Digger: Jermaine Jackson + Devo collaborate, Rick James growls on the other side

Devo collaborated with Jermaine Jackson in 1982 for this track, “Let Me Tickle Your Fancy.” Apparently, there is a completely different version floating around digitally, but here is the one that appeared on a promotional split 12″ with Rick James’ “Hard to Get”. Both tracks scraped the US R&B Billboards at the time.

Jermaine Jackson …

read more

Thu Dec 25, 2008

Best tapes of 2008

The Nevari Butchers, Arms And Everything Else (Hanson)
Mark Mcguire, An Old Hag’s Cackle Pt. II (Cylindrical Habitat Modules)
TwistyCat, Bore Hole (Baked Tapes)
Telecult Powers, Kiss the Viper’s Fang (Obsolete Units)
Cold Turkey, Dirty (Hermitage)
Ducktails/Mudboy, Summer Of Saucers (DNT)
Steve Hauschildt, Rapt for Liquid Minister (Arbor)
Emeralds/Tusco Terror, X-mas 2007 (Tusco Embassy)
Slasher Risk, Vole (Abandon Ship)
Bottomfeeder, Bottomfeeder (Wintage)

List compiled by Jesse DeRosa, …

read more

features

500 Words: Franz Nicolay

Franz, the moustached keyboardist of The Hold Steady, goes the solo route this month with the album Major General on Fistolo Records. In the meantime, he doesn’t want you to be an asshole.

Franz Says: Don’t Be An Asshole While You’re Alive, or, On Ambition & Immortality

“We’ll all sit around talking about …

read more