Polvo @ Spaceland Oct 10th

The Flaming Lips

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THE FLAMING LIPS POP-UP STORE LAUNCHES "EMBRYONIC" ON OCTOBER 15, 2009 FOR ONE DAY ONLY WITH SPECIAL LIVE MYSPACE SECRET SHOW

THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O'BRIEN SHOW CONFIRMED FOR OCTOBER 13.

Oct. 12, 2009 - (Burbank, CA) - Warner Bros. Records celebrates the release of the brand new, long-awaited album, EMBRYONIC, by one of the world's most influential bands, THE FLAMING LIPS. The double disc -on both CD and vinyl-- in deluxe formats will be birthed on October 13, 2009. On October 15, for one day only in Los Angeles, THE FLAMING LIPS POP-UP STORE will open at the Nike / Ricardo Montalban Theater located at 1615 Vine St. in Hollywood 90028.

Not only will fans have the opportunity to get their hands on unique artifacts available on this day and location only but the THE FLAMING LIPS have planned a very special, intimate MYSPACE SECRET SHOW performance just for tickets winners at this small venue guaranteed to blow the minds of the lucky few well beyond the third bardo. This might be the only opportunity to see the band in full-blown, maximum hysteria in a minimal space ever again. Get your furry freak on for this one time only psychedelic Hollywood happening. You won't get the change to see the LIPS live again until 2010!

Hot Fudge Made Out of Vaginas
http://www.vimeo.com/6981309

Circlesquare

Thom Yorke @ Echoplex October 2nd 2009

Thom Yorke @ Echoplex
October 2nd, 2009

by Alexander Laurence

I was sitting around the house one day, avoiding any real work. I came
across a posting on Facebook by Bill Silva productions that Thom Yorke had
announced a show at the Orpheum. I reposted this item, and many people I knew
seemed interested. I saw a posting on the Radiohead website that Thom Yorke had
put together a little band with Flea, Joey Waronker, Mauro Refosco, and
Nigel Godrich. They were going to play some of Yorke’s solo work. This sounded
interesting.

The next day, tickets went on sale, and all my friends seemed to be buying
tickets. I wasn’t a big Radiohead fan, but I liked the Eraser album. I
haven’t even heard the latest Radiohead album. I couldn’t name one song of it. I
thought “Maybe I should put in a media request to review the show?” I had
dropped the ball at Michael Jackson funeral, and here was a big event. The
publicist said that I could possibly attend, so there was a chance.

A few days passed, and then there was a rumor that he was doing a “secret”
gig at Echoplex on Friday. I ran into some people who worked at Spaceland,
on Wednesday, and they were laughing about it, but couldn’t comment on it.
By Friday, I just figured that I would have to buy a ticket, if I wanted to
go to any show. I was sitting around the house again, late on Friday, not
planning on going out. Then I get an email: “You are on the list tonight. Doors
at 8pm, show at 9pm. No plus ones.” Great.

I got ready, and drove over. I hit a bunch of traffic on the 101. I saw the
line, which was very long. I cut in line, when I saw Kevin Haskins, from
Bauhaus. We spoke about gigs coming up. The people who were there were some
hardcore Radiohead fans who somehow bought tickets that went on sale that day
at noon. The website crashed after five minutes, and probably only 500
tickets were sold. There were a lot of celebrities, bands, bloggers, media, music
industry people, and mover and shakers. It took almost an hour to get
inside, and the show probably started around 930pm.

All the hardcore fans that probably lined up early that day, were crowded
up front. If you walked around the venue, it was slightly not a full house.
Everywhere you turned around, there was some celebrity or band member. I saw
Kim Gordon, Har Mar Superstar, Danger Mouse, Ellen Page, Rick Rubin, and
members of Muse.

It was very intimate. Even though I was standing off to the side, I was
twenty feet from Yorke. Being in the back of the Echoplex was like being in the
front row of the Hollywood Bowl, or some other recent Radiohead venue.
Yorke came out and was very in the moment. He said “This is a rehearsal.” The
band played The Eraser album in order. Yorke was pretty much center-stage, on
piano, and the rest were in the shadows. Flea gradually moved up to the
front of the stage by the second song. Yorke moved to guitar on “The Clock”
and the band really took off.

The songs from The Eraser are very complicated rhythmically. On “Skip
Divided” Flea played Melodica. “Harrowdown Hill” was one of the highlights of
the night. It was a heavy funk song, that was reminiscent of Gang of Four.
Yorke was dancing frantically on this song, and it was cool to see him and Flea
up there together. Flea has started to become “Mr. LA” recently, after a
lot of guest spots, including one with Patti Smith.

Yorke was very down to earth. He flipped the bird to someone when they
requested some Skynyrd. He said: “Maybe I should be playing some Stone Temple
Pilots. You could be more current.” When he played some quiet songs, by
himself, the audience started talking. He said “If you want to have a chat, go
fuck off outside.”

If you stood back and looked over the crowd, you could see about 100+
iPhones taking pictures and recording video. You can now see all the youtube
videos. It got to be obnoxious after a while. I remember when I went to a CMJ
gig in 2002, and thought all the twenty cameras in the front row was
excessive. Now it’s like the whole audience is recording the whole thing instead of
watching the show. Yorke played Eraser, some solo stuff, then some new songs,
including another highlight “Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses.”

It lasted almost 90-minutes and was amazing. There have been a lot of
supergroups recently, but this one had a bigger purpose and was more focused, and
pairing Flea with Thom Yorke was genius. People should expect a good night
here. There are some amazing musicians and some great songs here. I can
imagine Yorke touring this show for six months to a year.

Edwidge Danticat Interview

Edwidge Danticat

Interview by Alexander Laurence

Edwidge Danticat (author of Eyes, Breathe, Memory, Krik Krak, and The Farming of Bones) lived in Brooklyn, New York. I interviewed her in 1996 on the lawn in Bryant Park. This interview has never been seen or published.

******

AL: Maybe we should talk about Haiti. Are you still in contact with people there?
Edwidge: I still have a lot of family there. I still keep in touch with friends and family there. I keep in contact with Haiti. Last December there was an election. At the end of February there was an inauguration of a new president, Rene Prevtal. It was the first time in Haitian history that a president had been elected democratically, where one president turned power over to another. It was a big deal. So the new president is trying to move things forward. Rene Prevtal's biggest obstacle is that the country is bankrupt because of all the stuff that happened before, since 1986. Our problem is that we are very dependent on outside aid. The monetary fund want the president to privatize.
AL: The relationship between Haiti and the United States has been good?
Edwidge: It's been okay. But there are always those moments when it turns a little bit. The last thing that Clinton did was establish relations with Cuba. That didn't go over so well with Haiti.
AL: What sort of politics are there in Haiti?
Edwidge: They have had elections since the dictatorship ended in 1986. The military has stepped in a few times. My Uncle who lives there is a minister.
AL: How did you get involved in writing?
Edwidge: I think it started from reading so much. My Uncle worked in a school and he gave me books. I started reading when I was very young. From reading I developed a love for writing. It is wasn't because there was a writer in my family.
AL: Does you family think that it's odd that you wanted to be a writer?
Edwidge: There's some much involved with immigration. So much is sacrificed in my parents coming here. They leave their lives behind. They expect you to do something stable and grounded. My parents wanted me to be a doctor. They got over it. But I was also the oldest. I was supposed to set a path for the others. I have three younger brothers. My brother Andre is a teacher. Another one is a musician. None of them want to be writers.
AL: Wouldn't you like to write things in French or Creole?
Edwidge: I don't think it's odd. I came here when I was twelve. I adapted. I spoke Creole at home and French at school. I liked to write in English. When I first started writing, I wasn't thinking about publishing it. I was working and writing. It just happened. It wasn't very calculated. Writing in any language is difficult. Only about twenty percent of people in Haiti speak French everyday of their life. I've written some stuff in Creole for the radio because radio is a strong medium in Haiti. I go back there whenever I can.
AL: Is there a publishing or writing scene in Haiti?
Edwidge: There's a lot of writers. The obstacle there is that you have to pay for it yourself. So if you are poor you can't really published. There are musicians and performers.
AL: The Haitian immigration has been going on for how long?
Edwidge: There were a lot first in Savannah, Georgia. Then in the 1920s and 1930s, there were a lot of immigrants concentrated in Harlem. Not just from Haiti but all over the Caribbean. Then the biggest immigration from Haiti was in the 1960s when Papa Doc was in power. He drove a bunch of people out when he was dictator. Especially people who were professional. Some went to Africa, some came to France, but most came to the United States.
AL: Was the Castro revolution in 1957 affect anything there?
Edwidge: Papa Doc was already in power at that time. When Castro came in, it gave Papa Doc a scare. That might have given people an idea for revolution. Instead people started leaving in droves up until the 1980s. Poorer people left in the 1970s, when my parents left, then you had boat people in the 1980s. Then you had the military, and economical and political pressures. My dad left in 1971 and my mother in 1975.
AL: How did they leave?
Edwidge: My father came out the normal way with a visa and stuff. He sent for my mother. My brother and I couldn't come till eight years later. I was talking to my brother about this last night. He was remembering things. I was poor but I didn't remember being poor. I just remember kid stuff and going to the countryside in the summer when it was really beautiful. We used to have kite wars. When it rained you would go outside.
AL: When did you start writing the books?
Edwidge: I came here in 1981. I went to high school in Crown Heights. I worked for a newspaper that was sent out to New York City public high schools. I wrote an essay about my experiences coming here. After that I started writing stories. I was writing all the time since I was sixteen. When I went to college I started taking some writing classes. I started showing it to people at Barnard. I had about seventy pages of it then. I put it away for a year. Then I finished it at graduate school.
AL: Were there any writers that you were influenced by?
Edwidge: You always look up to writers but you don't think that you can do the same thing. Writers are always like tired old baggage. I remember reading Jacques Roumain early on. He was the first person to write about the peasant life. It was the first time I had seen Haitian imagery. He had written the book in the 1930s. Most of the Haitian writers modeled themselves on French Writers. Victor Hugo was big back then. We were stuck in a Romantic style for a while. I think that Roumain was one of the first writers to look what was going on in Africa and his own environment, rather than relying on abstract models of the Symbolists. There was a whole moment happening at the same time of the Harlem Renaissance. That was the first time I read about people I knew. That made a strong impression on me.
AL: Granta picked you as one the best writers under forty. How do you feel about that?
Edwidge: It's always nice to be chosen. I didn't campaign for it. I'm not sure how it happened. It's fair to protest. For the people who were chosen: we had nothing to do with it. For me the most important thing is the writing and the process and the enjoyment. I know that the Granta thing was controversial. This passes and people forget it. You go on by yourself and write.
AL: What are some of your other influences?
Edwidge: I like to walk and think things out. That is really inspiring. Also the movies. You really think about the economy about storytelling. Nothing is wasted. Even in the worst movie everything has a purpose. I prefer silence when writing. That was hard to come by when growing up with three boys. You can tune out.

Har Mar Superstar "Never My Love"

'Whip It,' the upcoming roller derby comedy directed by Drew Barrymore boasts an impressive soundtrack of indie rock icons. One of the highlights is the all too perfect, why-didn't-we-think-of-it pairing of Har Mar Superstar and Adam Green on the cover song 'Never My Love.' The idiosyncratic singer-songwriters achieve a laid-back '60s vibe on the tune, a fitting match for the film's retro-cool aesthetic. Have a listen to the exclusive song premiere below.

Listen to 'Never My Love'
http://www.spinner.com/2009/09/22/har-mar-superstar-feat-adam-green-never-my-love-song-prem/

Beach House