noisey

Here’s the first in a new three-part documentary series...

Thu, 23 May 2013 17:07:22 -0400

Here’s the first in a new three-part documentary series on The-Dream, “The Man.” In part one, Terius Youngdell Nash shares the difficult life lessons that propelled his career and shaped his parenting philosophy.

In February, legendary rapper turned con man Tim Dog died. Now...

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:40:00 -0400

In February, legendary rapper turned con man Tim Dog died. Now there’s a warrant out for his arrest, and several people close to him think he’s still alive. After some digging, we think so too.

Is Tropical continue their tour of Mongolia in the lead up to...

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:54:00 -0400

Is Tropical continue their tour of Mongolia in the lead up to their headline show in Ulaanbaatar.

In Part 2 we follow the band as they have a go at some traditional Mongolian wrestling, complete with traditional (very small) outfits, and see them bed down for the night with a newly born calf. There’s also another incident involving keys getting locked in the car.

Noisey.com

Behind the Scenes with Austra – Style Stage We join Austra in...

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:17:05 -0400

Behind the Scenes with Austra – Style Stage

We join Austra in Austin Texas to speak with singer Katie Stelmanis about her style evolution, from her early days as an opera singer, until now. Along with band member Romy Lightman, Katie shares personal photographs to illustrate how she’s moved from an almost anti-fashion stance, to embracing clothes and hair as a means of expressing herself, as well as being an essential facet of Austra as a whole.

This intimate, behind the scenes piece includes clips of Austra performing new track “Home,” from their live performance at Noisey’s SXSW Style Stage launch, plus footage of the official video for “Home” and “Lose It” from their previous record ‘Feel It Break.’

Watch the video

Point/Counterpoint: Should Slayer breakup following the death of...

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:46:01 -0400

Point/Counterpoint: Should Slayer breakup following the death of guitarist Jeff Hanneman?

MetalSucks says yes

Noisey says no

KANYE “ROCKS” SATERDAY NITE LIVE WITH TWO NEW...

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:55:31 -0400

KANYE “ROCKS” SATERDAY NITE LIVE WITH TWO NEW TRACK’S

By @Seinfeld2000

Editor’s Note: @Seinfeld2000 is an entity we found on Twitter who imagines if Seinfeld was never canceled and was still an NBC comedy program today. It’s probably the best thing on the Internet right now, and if you don’t get it you probably will never get it. Anyways, we got in contact with @Seinfeld2000 and told him/her/it/them that they could write about whatever they wanted, unedited. Several hours later, this is what they sent us.

In case youve been living under a rock, Kanye West he performed two new goth song’s called “New Slave (Im On My Period Mix)” and “Im Pretend Angry About Corprete Culture” on the skech comedy show Saterday Nite Live on Saturday nite (ummm, obviesly it was on Saterday nite you wierdo!!!!). Any way these track’s are defenitely INSTENT contender’s for “Song of the summer” status. Just kiding! Honestly, their both terible.

But then, its like, k, if youve been living under a rock, maybe you have biger problem’s than finding a Panesonic TC-P50X60 50” HD Plasma TV to watch SNL (Saterday nite live) on LOL!! Because, like, youd have so many isues with your back becuase the rock your living under would be prety heavy. Or maybe not. Who know’s, maybe theres just a hole under the rock and you are actualy live below, deep benethe the earth’s crust, inside a deceptevely “swag out” apertment and the rock is just the door to your home and you just press a touch screen in youre apertment and the top of the rock just open up SO smothly and you climb up and your in the midle of the desert and theres a talking CGI scorpien and the scorpien just go rite up to youre face and go: “Hey, did you hear Kanye West perform on Saterday nite live?”

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The Cosmic Adventures of Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire All...

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:41:33 -0400

The Cosmic Adventures of Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire

All photos by Jess Lehrman

The first thing Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire does is show me a painting. It’s the first he’s ever done, and frankly, it looks like shit. I ask him why he brought it with him to the VICE offices, and he explains that he’d done it that morning while a painter friend was making him breakfast. It features a purple blob that kind of looks like a tree in the center, with a yellow stick figure to its right. The whole shebang is accented by a rash of formless squiggles. “I’m King Cosmic,” he explains, pointing to the stick figure holding a shield and a spear. “This is me depicted as a Zulu warrior. I’ve got feathers in my head. I’m golden.” The purple thing? “This is the vortex of my emotions. I’m gonna give it to my mother.” He smiles.

My interview with the linebacker-esque eXquire has been set up with the express purpose of talking about his sense of fashion, so I ask him why he wears the clothes he does. “I don’t know if I choose clothes. Clothes choose me. I feel like clothing should be an extension of your philosophy on life—I should be able to look at you and tell what type of person you are based off your clothing.” This leads away from sartorial matters and into more broad, philosophical ones. “I feel like life and the universe itself, is like a ripple. You might not feel it, you might not see it, but as small as your idea or thought might be, it’s going to affect somebody. There’s no direct correlation between people, but I feel like we all exist in this pool. The universe just is. It is and it isn’t.” I ask him if he considers himself a hippie. “Nah, not really. Hippies are more peaceful than me. I just say I’m cosmic.” This is not the same dude you’d associate with that one song about drunk driving on a Wednesday. That’s the thing, though. He’s not that guy at all.

Later that week, eXquire and I are in a Lower Manhattan studio, talking about his life and the events that led to his upcoming mixtape Kismet. We’re eating cookies—Chips Ahoy Chewy, his favorite—and I notice that a picture of the painting he showed me days ago is now the background of his iPhone. Equal parts spacey, soulful, paranoid, isolated, and insular, Kismet’s sound reflects the circumstances under which it was created. The majority of the record was recorded on a farm in Woodstock, New York, while eXquire was under the influence of psychedelic mushrooms, which he took in order to view the music from a different angle. He speaks fondly of the sessions, describing them as such: “Get up, cook, do drugs, make songs, go play with the llama.” The record’s cover pretty much says it all—standing in front of some sort of galactic formulation, eXquire stares at the camera, almost into your soul, while in the act of fucking somebody.

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We’ve got the video premiere of “Bros” from...

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:04:00 -0400

We’ve got the video premiere of “Bros” from Wolf Alice - a song about how best friends are actually really great and it’s still okay to have them.

We also asked them ten questions to get to know them better.

Watch on Noisey.com

Bored of the usual touring destinations, Is Tropical decided to...

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:37:01 -0400

Bored of the usual touring destinations, Is Tropical decided to become one of the first Western bands to ever perform in Mongolia.

You Need To Hear This were there with them every step of the way, as they explored this beautiful country.

In part one we follow the band as they meet some orphans with amazing circus skills, have their new track, “Dancing Anymore”, remixed Mongolian style and lock their keys in the car.

Continue to Noisey.com

We’ve got the exclusive on Jagwar Ma’s new video “Man I...

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:32:41 -0400

We’ve got the exclusive on Jagwar Ma’s new video “Man I Need”.

It’s the perfect accompaniment to an afternoon spent revelling in the vibrant tension between classic songwriting and future creativity.

Watch on Noisey.com

Action Bronson – “Strictly 4 My Jeeps” Here’s...

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:05:59 -0400

Action Bronson – “Strictly 4 My Jeeps”

Here’s the new video for Action Bronson’s latest single “Strictly 4 My Jeeps.” Taking place in Queens, New York, the video stars Riff Raff, pitbulls, big beautiful women, and a big ol’ badass jeep.

Watch it here

Guitar Moves: Blake Mills Known in some circles as the best...

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:06:52 -0400

Guitar Moves: Blake Mills

Known in some circles as the best guitarist on the planet, Malibu native Blake Mills was already making waves at the tender age of 19. Since then, he’s collaborated with some of the biggest names in indie rock, including Julian Casablancas, Jenny Lewis, Conor Oberst, Lana Del Rey, and more.

Join host Matt Sweeney as he learns a thing or two about solo technique, Indian-style guitar, and unlocking the secrets of the six-string.

Guitar Moves, hosted by Matt Sweeney, is a show where the viewer gets an opportunity to sit in on a private, interesting, and hilarious conversation about guitars, music, life, and craft. During the season, Sweeney and his guests play through licks, riffs, and solos that inform their style, influence their playing, and define their sound.

Presented in partnership with with XL Strings by D’Addario.

Watch the episode

Episode 2 of Guitar Moves meets Blake Mills, “the best...

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:00:51 -0400

Episode 2 of Guitar Moves meets Blake Mills, “the best guitar player in the world.” Trailer

Ed Banger Records is turning ten so we put together a...

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:12:00 -0400

Ed Banger Records is turning ten so we put together a compilation of some of our favourite things about the legacy of the Parisian label.

Read on Noisey.com

Who Let the Great Gatsby Soundtrack Happen? Baz Luhrmann’s The...

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:40:23 -0400

Who Let the Great Gatsby Soundtrack Happen?

Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby was released in the US last week, netting a cool $51.1 million, making it the second highest earning film of Leonardo DiCaprio’s career and also, hopefully, enough money to ensure that Baz Luhrmann disappears back to a rose budded boudoir for a couple of years, unable to tamper with other pieces of work.

The film is going to be released in the UK this week and I’m pretty sure that it’s going to be a smash hit. Why? Because, alongside teen-star-cum-menopause dreamboat DiCaprio, the film features passive aggressive little spoon Toby Maguire, up-and-coming British bombshell Carey Mulligan and it’s shot in 3D, which is always a big draw for people who have more money than sense.

In case you didn’t study A-Level English, The Great Gatsby follows the story of millionaire Jay Gatsby and his neighbour, Nick Carraway, who recounts his tumultuous encounter with Gatsby at the height of the Roaring Twenties. It’s set in a prohibition-era metropolis, at a time when jazz music wasn’t just something to soundtrack cheap dates at Pizza Express, but a cultural movement that played a pivotal foundation within the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Penguin Classic. Which is why, upon learning that the official soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann’s weekend watch featured the gurning EDM of Nero and the Pret A Manger dullness of Gotye, I felt really confused.

Continue Reading on Noisey.com

The People vs Flatbush Zombies We got Flatbush Zombies to...

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:30:28 -0400

The People vs Flatbush Zombies

We got Flatbush Zombies to respond to YouTube comments about bleach and jizz on their video for ‘Thug Waffle’.

Wild Nothing Wants You to Stop Picking on Nickelback One thing...

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:08:30 -0400

Wild Nothing Wants You to Stop Picking on Nickelback

One thing I’ve never understood about musicians is how they can perform the same songs night after night for months, years, even decades. It makes perfect sense to me when a band wants to ditch their back catalog and just focus on new stuff.

Jack Tatum has certainly felt this way, but he also understands that people love all his old stuff. His band is called Wild Nothing, and over the past three years Jack has been steadily releasing newer and newer music. These days it is extremely new. It’s something he’s done to please his growing fan base, but also to please a nagging case of self-doubt. The Virginia-born musician has followed his two albums with transitional EPs done on quick turnarounds. It’s a strategic move that doesn’t just keep the ball rolling, but keeps Jack motivated. After releasing his critically adored second album Nocturne last fall, Jack is back with a new EP and a new direction for his dream pop sound, one that introduces a strong electronic influence he seems quite excited about.

I got Jack on the phone from his Brooklyn apartment to talk about the importance of trying to love your own music, how the EP format gets a bad rap, and how Michelle Williams accidentally ended up in one of his videos.

Noisey: Your press release says you were “struggling with what it meant to be a musician, with what music in general means, and what part you could possibly play in it.” What does that even mean?
Jack Tatum: I think it was particular to this record. I had a lot of frustration in touring Nocturne, kind of in my own head really, not to do with anyone else. I feel like I’m always struggling with insecurities and self-doubt about my music, I think because I take it too seriously. I hate that about myself, that I feel like I’m not doing good enough. I have this very quick turnaround with myself, where I’ll be extremely proud of something I’ve done, and then within a couple of months, it was not what I thought or wanted it to be. It’s really just this weird psychosis of self-doubt. If anything it’s what drives me to keep making music. So, I can’t say that I’m terribly unhappy with it. But with this EP, in particular, I was really getting down with touring too. It’s such a stupid thing to complain about and I am aware of that, but when you do it constantly it sort of deadens you to your own music and you kinda hate your own songs after a while. I started to realize that I wasn’t happy with what I’d been doing. Now I feel like I’ve accomplished in seven songs on this EP what I really wanted to do with Nocturne, which is to find a way to compromise all of the things I’m everything in musically. I think I did that more with this EP than I have everything in the past. And I’ve been talking non-stop for a while now. [laughs]

You mentioned how you got bored of playing the same songs every night. I’ve often wondered how musicians do it. There’s no way the Rolling Stones still enjoy playing “Satisfaction” after 50 years.
But I think the thing that ultimately drives people to want to do that, and even within my few years of playing my own songs live, you have these frustrations, but also it’s the truest form of seeing how your music affects other people. And so it’s one of the only ways you can get outside of your music and see how it can affect others. That’s obvious to say, but having your fans right in front of you, but think, “This is the song I’ve played 300 times, but it is still special to this person.” And it’s special to me too, but being able to see that in person is what keeps you able to do it.

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Hey New York! Come to our Rap Party tonight!

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:38:33 -0400

Hey New York! Come to our Rap Party tonight!

xlstrings: Sounds simple enough. #GuitarMoves

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:01:33 -0400

xlstrings:

Sounds simple enough.

#GuitarMoves

How did Andre 3000 get relegated to a featured artist? Read on...

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:59:07 -0400

How did Andre 3000 get relegated to a featured artist?

Read on Noisey.com