It may seem difficult to imagine now, but Brooklyn hasn’t always been a world-famous hub of independent music. In fact, it was only in the late ’90s, as artists and musicians began to cross the bridge to Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, and beyond that it became the mecca it is today.
Photographer Emily Wilson was there to see the borough’s music scene rise to international renown, and her debut book, Grand and Lorimer: Brooklyn’s Art and Music Scene 1998-2005, provides an inside glimpse into that exciting time. Featuring delightfully spontaneous photos of everyone from crossover sensations like Yeah Yeah Yeahs and TV on the Radio to more experimental bands such as Liars and Black Dice, the book is a record of North Brooklyn’s glory days — when artists could still afford to live there, and before every other building was half-empty high-rise. Click through for a gallery of photos from Grand and Lorimer, one of which, improbably enough, features Marilyn Manson. The book comes out November 20th, and New Yorkers can stop by Pete’s Candy Store between 4-7pm the same day for the release party.
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Horror movies get all the Halloween love, but music videos, with their dramatic soundtracks, surreal feel, and license to be non-narrative can be just as scary as your classic slasher flick. Everyone’s seen “Thriller”— and to be honest, we’ve always been too busy snickering at MJ telling us he’s “not like other guys” to be frightened. So we’ve put together a more under-the-radar collection of clips that give us the creeps. Watch nine scary indie rock music videos, from Sonic Youth to Bat for Lashes to Animal Collective, after the jump.
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1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs played a 10th anniversary show in Williamsburg last night. Here are some live clips and the set list.
2. Katy Perry’s music video with Elmo will not air on Sesame Street because her massive cleavage — which is actually covered by flesh-colored mesh — is causing complaints with parents. [via TMZ]
3. Hoping it will help you forget what a creep he is in The Social Network, Mark Zuckerberg is donating $100 million to the Newark public school system. He’ll make the official announcement about it Friday on Oprah. [via CNN]
4. The question of the day: What in the world has Lil’ Kim done to her face? She looks like La Toya. [via Vulture]
5. Was watching Joaquin Phoenix apologize on Letterman last night more boring or just plain sad? [via Videogum]
Bonus link: Sarah Palin’s Accidental Social Network
Lithuania-based The Love Agency has created an homage to ten love songs of the indie persuasion with human-sized posters of the highest caliber. The project includes the likes of Belle & Sebastian, Phoenix, and Bon Iver (just to name a few), so it’s really no surprise that they were all auctioned off for a king’s ransom. Check them all out, especially our favorite, which was inspired by Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps,” after the jump, and keep your fingers crossed for a second edition.
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As February draws to a close, we can’t say we’ll miss the cold weather, snowstorms, and other dead-of-winter surprises it has thrown our way. But we would like to get something positive out of it. That’s why we’re taking the opportunity of this abbreviated month to draw your attention to something else that’s short and, unlike February, has always been pretty underrated: The EP. While these minimalist, economical mini-albums have introduced us to countless new acts that couldn’t muster the cash or didn’t have the material to record a full-length, LPs still get all the love. To remedy that, we’re counting down our 10 favorite EPs of all time — and, as a bonus, introducing you to three new ones you’d do well to check out.
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The concept behind Peter Gabriel’s forthcoming album Scratch My Back is simple: The artist records his favorite tracks by everyone from David Bowie to Radiohead to The Magnetic Fields, and the musicians he has selected complete the song swap by covering a selection from Gabriel’s extensive songbook.
The list we’ve assembled here was inspired by a different kind of reciprocity — that is, of indie rockers showing appreciation for their own kind. So far, only one of these tributes has been mutual but that isn’t to say that we shouldn’t keep our fingers crossed for more. After the jump, check out ten indie acts covering 10 other indie acts’ singles. We think you’ll agree that imitation is the highest form of flattery.
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Our friends at Babelgum tipped us off to the global premiere of “Skeletons,” the latest video from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ electro-heavy 2009 release It’s Blitz!
. The band wrote this song back in December 2007 during a snowstorm up in Massachusetts where they were recording in a barn. “It has a very wintery sort of feeling to it, kind of atmospheric and melancholy — unlike any other song that we’ve written before,” explains Karen O. They plan to digitally release a bundle on February 1 that will include the original song, an acoustic version, plus the video.
Check out the video for “Skeletons” — including the brilliant costuming from Christian Joy (the same designer responsible for the Where the Wild Things Are pop-up shop — after the jump.
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As you probably know, we love a good chart and anything body part-related. Now, thanks to data visualization artists Fernando Viégas and Martin Wattenberg’s Fleshmap, we get the best of both worlds. They listened to over 10,000 songs to create their visual compendium of odes to visible body parts (this makes the inner organs obsolete — so if you were hoping to find out how often heavy metal bands reference the brain, you’re out of luck) in 10 different music genres.
We break down their findings after the jump.
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Katie Roiphe caused a stir with her recent New York Times essay “The Naked and the Conflicted,” which argues that a large chunk of today’s heterosexual male authors tend to not only shy away from sex, but also express disgust and even boredom with it. But we’re not here to rehash the ample controversy she incited. Instead, we’ve decided to see whether her thesis applies to young, male artists in another arena: indie rock. We examined some of last year’s buzziest hits to determine whether their creators find sex as passé as their literary counterparts. Will hipster rockers prove the exception by summoning the libido of Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes? Also: Where the ladies at, and are their sexual antics stealing the striptease?
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If anyone is a fan of New York, it’s photographer Joshua Wildman. As a veteran chronicler of the city’s youth culture, his images evoke a sense of camaraderie and gritty poeticism among the subjects he has captured, like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and skater Harold Hunter, who died in 2006.
And it’s not just that his subjects happen to be cool. Wildman’s aptitude for humor and spontaneity — life in general — engages viewers in even the most ordinary of situations, as part of the series i have known you too long. The intense eyes of a guy shooting a camera in a hotel room, or a guy staring at the camera while holding a gun, make for genuine photos that pique curiosity.
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