The Walrus is a Philadelphia-based music blog written by Michael. You may send me stuff through the send a tip page or email me. All mp3s should be sent as links. NO ATTACHMENTS, PLEASE. If I like your music, chances are I will write about it.
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mp3s on this site are for promotional purposes only. If you wish to have an mp3 removed please contact me.
If you have yet to get into the dark-disco sound of Portland’s The Chromatics, then I have only one question for you. What the hell are you waiting for? Their music is a cinematic melange of sex, violence, mystery, more sex, more mystery, and every other cool word you can think of…so what’s not to love?
Recently, I chatted with lead singer Ruth Radelet about The Chromatics recording process, their live shows, the future of the band and other top-secret stuff. Check it out:
Well it’s not exactly brand new music, but Glass Candy has been on a release hiatus for a while (currently in the studio) so it’s worth getting excited about this one…not to mention it’s an awesome song.
“Animal Imagination” is from the upcoming singles/b-sides collection Deep Gems and certainly follows in the foot-steps of the band’s familiar dark disco sound. SEXY.
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Well, we have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that YACHT, electro-party duo and designers of the Macbook Air sleeve, have just signed to DFA Records, home of like-minded party fiends LCD Soundsystem and The Juan Maclean. A perfect fit indeed.
Now for the bad news. In the tradition of Gus Van Sant’s pointless remake of Psycho, The band’s newest video for “Summer Song,” blatantly rips off a scene from the 80’s satire Tapeheads. The movie stars John Cusack and Tim Robbins as ex-security guards who try to make it in the music video business. The original and most hilarious scene below, features fictional band Cube Squared performing the Devo song “Baby Doll”:
And here is the new YACHT video:
Seriously? Ok to be clear, it’s not just the blatancy and utter laziness of YACHT’s video that eeerks us, it’s the fact that the original clip spoofed the ridiculousness of the music industry IN 1988 (irrelevant these days)! Not to mention that the absurdity of a hunky band performing a Devo song and Don Cornelius’s excellent turn as the shady video producer make it so funny and impossible to duplicate. YACHT’s video has no resonance other than to say “hey, we love that scene from that 80’s movie!”
Are we over thinking this? Hm, maybe. I guess we just expected a little more creativity from such a cool band. We still dig them, but we’re disappointed.
You can listen to more of YACHT’s music on their MySpace page and buy the Summer Song EP from Insound.
Portland’s Parenthetical Girls are a curious group of experimenteers. Their music swings from the more perverse branch on the indie-pop tree. To put it more tangibly, if you like music that makes you or others around you feel slightly uncomfortable, a la Xiu Xiu, chances are you will like Parenthetical Girls.
The first single from their upcoming third album, the aptly titled Entanglements, plays like a demented Burt Bacharach piece at a fucked up carnival, all madcapped and, well, tangled. Plus they turn a famous Carpenters lyric into something sexual.
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On “German Love” Portland trio Starfucker (good name!) are either seriously determined to have sex with German girls or are really amazing at mixing the spaciness of Moon Safari-era Air with the twee-pop mastery of Tone Soul Evolution-era Apples in Stereo and creating serene pocket-pop with a cool blast of 90’s charm. Either way, the song is a hit.
Starfucker’s s/t debut will be available on Badman Records in September.
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The temperature in Philly was falling rapidly, but not inside the First Unitarian Church on Wednesday night. I arrived just in time to catch headliners MENOMENA of Portland, OR.
This was my first time going to a show at The First Unitarian Church in well over a year and a half. Why, you ask? Well, as I get older, the old church basement, bursting at the seams with non-deodorized high schoolers, has stopped being the setting for my ideal evening.
However, I’m glad I made the return to its sweaty depths. Aside from a few girls who refused to make space for my one hundred pound self to take two damn photographs for this write-up (dicks!), the excitement (read: screaming and flailing) emanating from groups of really hyped fans put me in good spirits.
Barefoot Rock n’ Sole
Beyond the atmosphere, I’d point to MENOMENA’s characteristic musically “involved” performance. I’m talking about how fun it was to watch three guys messing with guitars, keyboard, alto sax, MIDI synth, and a glockenspiel. At some point during “Muscle n’ Flo”, I couldn’t resist the temptation any longer and joined the insane dancefest in the front. A girl I had never met before in my life hugged me with gusto while screaming, “MENOMENA! MENOMENA! MENOMENA!” Maybe I haven’t grown out of shows at the church after all.
And as a really awesome addition, check out this video of the show, courtesy of Mike from Eattapes.
