Crazy Australians of Architecture in Helsinki made their new music video out of… animated embroidery!
Taken from their 3rd album “Places Like This“, the song Like It Or Not is a mixture of naive rock, psychedelic and joyful, ideal to overcome today’s greyness.
Bat For Lashes will have the honor and heavy burden of opening for Radiohead on their next European tour, which stops in Paris Bercy and Nimes Arenae in June. This shouldn’t be surprising, knowing that Radiohead, just like Björk or Devendra Banhart, counted among the most prominent fans of “Fur And Gold”, 1st imprint of the band led by Natasha Khan.
Refering to the song “Horse And I”, Thom Yorke reportedly said : “I love the harpsichord and the sexual ghost voices and bowed saws. This song seems to come from the world of Grimm’s fairytales, and I feel like a wolf.”
If there’s one Bat For Lashes track we can’t get enough of, it’s “What’s A Girl To Do” and its very Lynch-like, watch-it-over-and-over video:
And just for Thom:
Shara Worden, whom we’ve heard alongside Sufjan Stevens, before she took her own solo path under the moniker of My Brightest Diamond, feels like a dragonfly and dreams of flying away. Mabe you could help her by attending her Point Ephémère gig in Paris tomorrow, to listen to her crystal-clear yet powerful voice, coupled with nice songwriting skills and a highly endearing personality.
We’re already quite excited about the announcement of A Thousand Shark’s Teeth, her 2nd album to be published on June 17 by Asthmatic Kitty, and for which Shara cites influences from Tricky, Tom Waits and Maurice Ravel, as well as Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s movies and Alice In Wonderland.
No wonder we are starting to see Tujiko Noriko more and more frequently booked at some of the best Parisian venues, as the Japanese-born singer and composer chose to live in our land of magical baguettes, as one can guess from the TV samples heard in her “Dead Earth“.
For us awaken Earthlings, the fairy Noriko-san will showcase her nursery rhymes, between well-written melodies and sharp experiments, Wednesday April 23rd at the Point Ephémère, as part of the feminine festival Les Femmes s’en mêlent.
Anna, Niklas, and Casper of Efterklang in Paris, Apr. 7, 2008.
After a magical show at the Divan du Monde where they presented their 2nd album Parades, Danish elves of Efterklang were back in Paris on April 7. Their unique sounds enlightened the dull concrete of the Point Ephémère.
On stage just like on their records, strings, brass, percussions and electronics delightfully mix with the heartful choirs and communicative enthusiasm of the 7 members.
As a sweet starter, Anna Brønsted, also a full Efterklang live member, sung a few titles alone at the piano, from her own enchanting project Our Broken Garden, whose first EP comes out on April 28 on Rumraket, Efterklang-run label, and internationally on Bella Union.
AS HE IS PREPARING THE RELEASE OF HIS DEBUT SOLO ALBUM “A SHIP, LIKE A GHOST, LIKE A CELL”, PARIS-BASED SINGER-SONGWRITER FORAYS INTO FOLK MUSIC WITH A TENSION THAT WOULD MAKE NICK DRAKE SOUND LIKE A YOGI MASTER, AND A PROMISING ELECTRONIC TWIST. AT PAST MIDNIGHT, HE TELLS US MORE ABOUT IT.
Captn: Let’s start with the basics: name, age, occupation?
Thomas: Thomas Mery; already old; it depends.
Captn: Can you explain the genesis of your current project?
Thomas: After the end of Purr, I tried many things with my computer and my guitar. Very experimental, a bit hermetic. It wasn’t always relevant, and sometimes it was. I think I wanted to find out my own way of mixing electronics and guitar.
The best way to get a clearer view of the genesis is to read what’s on my site www.thomas-mery.net. I wrote a summary of what happened until the end of 2003. What comes next remains to be written.
Captn: Why a solo project, after your band experiences with Purr and Playdoh?
Thomas: Probably because I have an oversized ego, and I always think I can do everything by myself. Of course I come to realize that it’s not true, but then it’s too late, I’m already on my own, so I keep going…
Or else, because no one understands me anyway, and I absolutely wanted to express what I had deep inside, and explore every facet of my complex and tortured personality.
Or else because I was fed up with bands and compromises, and I’m grumpy, and it’s easier to rehearse on my own, and I get more money when I’m paid for a show.
Or for all those reasons at once, and for other ones I am not thinking of tonight.
Captn: From listening to your performance at the Batofar with Rivulets and Elephant Micah, then to your acoustic demo, we could notice that you are focusing more and more on songwriting, with a sparer, folkier sound. Is it a deliberate choice to restrict yourself to your voice and acoustic guitar? Is it a transition, or a new approach to your music? What about your experiences with electronics?
Thomas: People at Dora Dorovitch encouraged me to come back to songwriting, and I am thankful for that. I learned to play the guitar more decently, and I think it’s worth it. It’s not over yet, I still need to go ahead, and electronics are coming back little by little. It was a necessary step. Now I need to keep practicing the guitar, start experimenting again, play the piano, work on my breath in order to sing better, write songs that make you cry (or almost). Little by little, I think that I’m getting closer to where I wanna go to, but it takes time; more than I expected.
Captn: Can you tell us more about your songwriting process? Where? When? In which state of mind?
Thomas: Errr…
At my place in front of my computer, railing at the poor download speed of an American TV series episode (preferably HBO’s); at my grand-mother’s, in the small house at the back –the children’s one- thinking that what is past is past; on a bed in Rio, wondering how I got there; in my head around Saint-Germain-en-Laye at 5:30 am, completely enlightened by an idea that would turn out not to be that good; in my bed watching an episode of a US series (preferably HBO’s), thinking it might be time to sleep now.
Captn: 2 words on your lyrics: what do they relate to? Why don’t you try singing in French again like on Open Transport?
Thomas: Oh, I think French will come back.
As for what the songs are about… About how I see things through a plastic film; about how I’ll lose a lot of blood tonight; about how much we dream and hope and imagine; about how much I am scared; about the staircase that lights up from time to time as I look through the window; about how deep things are hidden; about places where I can say things at night when I don’t see what’s around, about steep slopes and running water, and emptiness, and nodes that allow me to go through vast expanses; about such things.
Captn: A few words on your label, Dora Dorovitch?
Thomas: I met Francis Esteves in Sevilla 4 years ago, and then Cédric and Guilhem, people with a passion for music (and more…), who have supported and encouraged me.
Captn: What are your short/mid/long-term projects?
Thomas: I am mixing my album next week, and I’m looking for gigs. I will keep writing songs and less structured tracks as well, some in French, some in English. I am also going to work on a video project that is important to me, and which involves video and computer. I will continue what we have initiated with Marie Daubert, and Benoît Toulemonde, i.e. a collective/video label project called “Shif-t”, to produce DVDs of each of us. Marie is releasing a video entitled “Flicker” to which I wrote the soundtrack, Benoît a video entitled “Thai Polaroid”, and I, a piece called “Smoke”, which I made long ago, but that we are now releasing as an object per se, with a sleeve, etc. This is still an embryonic stage, but we’ve got time.
Captn: To conclude on something other than yourself, can you please tell us what is moving you now, in music, onscreen, in art, in the world, in life?
Thomas: The last episode of Six Feet Under, but the very end… hum… well, I cried a lot…
Like many, I was really moved by Joanna Newsom’s debut album.
I’m not listening to Elis Regina so much now, but “Elis & Tom” was my last Spring’s soundtrack.
What is moving me right now is the end of the Summer, I saw yesterday the last sunset, and soon leaves will cover the ground (how romantic!).
And please, listen to Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love” (Hello Earth).
photo by Thomas Mery
Discography
Collaborations
A FEW DAYS AFTER SEPTEMBER, 11, CHOKEBORE PLAYED THEIR NEW SONGS AT RUBBER GLOVES, IN DENTON, TX. THEIR SHOW WAS SURPRINSGLY DULL THAT NIGHT, COMPARED TO UNWOUND‘S, WHOM THEY OPENED FOR. LUCKILY ENOUGH, THE CATCHY MELODIES OF “IT’S A MIRACLE“, CHOKEBORE’S 5TH LP, WOULD TURN OUT TO MAKE IT UP TO OUR EXPECTATIONS A FEW MONTHS LATER.
WITH HIS NATURAL CALMNESS AND KINDNESS, TROY B. BALTHAZAR, SINGER AND GUITARIST OF THE QUATUOR FROM HAWAII, TALKED TO US ABOUT HIS MUSIC AND MORE.
Troy: We make melancholy music. That’s heavy, with lots of bass and drums, but it’s very very sad and very intense for me.
And what about the lyrics you write? Are they as sad and emotional as the music itself?
Troy: Yes, I try to make it… I don’t really wanna talk about normal things, you know. I want to talk about very intense things. That’s what I like. I don’t know if I succeed, but I try.
What are they about?
Troy: I’m trying to figure out what all the people are thinking about in their heads. You know what everyone is thinking about in their heads? Everybody wants to be a beautiful person, everybody wants somebody else to tell them, to hold them in their arms and say: “It’s OK, everything’s OK”. Everybody wants that. I want that.
What about the new album that’s coming up in a couple of months (”It’s A Miracle“) ?
Troy: Well, we’re in the studio right now. We stopped recording for 2 weeks for this tour, but when we go home to Los Angeles, we have about another 2 or 3 weeks to record, and I think it’s gonna be good! We’re trying new things, with more piano and more acoustic, but still… a mixture of different sounds. You know, every album, it all comes out to the songs, if it’s a good song or not a good song. We’re just trying to make better songs. I don’t know why (laughs), for no reason.
You make me think of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde… You seem to be so quiet, when we hear you on the records, or when we saw you at the Donald’s Pub in Tours, France, a couple of years ago, sitting through the gig with just an acoustic guitar. But when you’re on stage, you’re a different person, jumping everywhere…
Troy: No, no… in my mind it’s always quiet. I want us to be quiet. I want to be really pure and quiet, I want to be simple, and kind of beautiful. That’s what I strive for. That’s what I want, and what I hear. But people say that to me, that I’m a different person when I’m on stage, but that’s the same for me. It’s really intense to be on stage, you have adrenalin in the body. And I wanna play more and more and do more music. I do acoustic music also, a side project that’s really intense too, B. Balthazar. I’ve been writing lots and lots of songs, and I’m releasing an album in France and in the USA soon.
Why did you make this side project?
Troy: Because I have a lot of songs, and some songs sound better with an acoustic guitar. So the songs to me that sound better on acoustic guitar will be for B. Balthazar, and the songs that sound better with a band will be for Chokebore.
And will you tour just by yourself?
Troy: Yeah!
Will there only be an acoustic guitar, or will you add some tapes or anything?
Troy: There’ll probably be some weird sounds on a tape recorder, Hawaian acoustic guitar -yukulele-, different weird sounds, and just songs. For me, it’s all that matters. If it’s a beautiful song, it’s OK.
You seem to like France. You often tour there, and you even recorded 2 of your LPs (”A Taste for Bitters” and “Black Black“) at Angers’ Black Box Studio, where Steve Albini recorded Shellac’s “At Action Park“.
Troy: Well actually, we enjoy being in France a lot. We were just in Saint Malo last month, it was cool. We love to be out there. I hope we’ll spend a lot of time there next year. We have a lot of friends there who are very special to us.
Did you meet any good band there?
Troy: Many… There is a lot of good bands in France: Deche dans Face from Bordeaux… Prohibition’s cool… I like Purr, of Paris… Everytime we go there we find new bands that are nice, so it’s hard to remember…
What do you think about the events from last week (i.e. September 11)
Troy: Oh shit man… It’s a mess!
What do you think about Bush and his politics?
Troy: Bush is an idiot, he’s an imbecile. I wanna say to the French people that I’m sorry about Bush, and I’m sorry about what America will probably do.
Are you involved in politics?
Troy: I try not to be, because it makes me bery angry. It’s not me, it’s the other people. I’m not the country. I don’t believe what they believe. We’re more liberal, you know.
I felt many people in Texas were already really conservative, and now even more. They tend to go back to religion and more conservatism.
Troy: Yeah, what can you do? You cannot change the people, because they’re individuals. That’s what I believe in. I believe in individuals, and i hope the people have brains, and think before they act… But it’s a tragic thing that happened. I’m sorry about that. You know, I think in the next couple of years, things will be very very crazy in the world, and I wanna say that sometimes it’s good to relax and listen to music, because it takes you away. That’s what I wanna do. Be away from that shit stuff. There are wars all the time, if you read history. I’m just trying to do music.
And what can we expect from the future of Chokebore then?
Troy: Well, another album, hopefully it is the best album. We have lots and lots of songs, and we’ll play music that is beautiful and intense, hopefully.
By the way, how come can’t you find a label?
Troy: Because music is different from music business. Music is pure, music business is corrupt. It’s about money, and we’re not very good at that. But I’m learning it because I have to. Music is pure; this stuff around is hard to understand. I wanna do music all day, I don’t wanna think about labels and money and all that shit.
Do you have a day job besides?
Troy: No, I don’t. I just don’t have any money. I’m fucking starving, man! But it’s OK, I’d rather starve and be free! To me, just to me, not everybody. I understand people like to buy things, that’s cool. But for me, it’s OK to starve. I didn’t eat anything today or yesterday. I just had a muffin. I’m fucking hungry! Wow! Chokebore is hungry! But we like to make good music.
Don’t they provide you with any food at the venue?
Troy: No, not in America! Just in Europe, that’s why we like Europe: every show, there’s food!
DISCOGRAPHY
[0]
Facebook
Last.fm
Soundcloud
Spotify
Twitter
YouTube