FEATURED: Downtown blogging it up
Our friends at the Downtown RCRD LBL blog have been blogging up a storm recently, from featuring loads of MP3s on Imeem, to posting the lyrics and commentary to “Run”, the new Gnarls Barkley single, to bringing What It Is: What It Is to our attention. What It Is: What It Is is the new art project/book created by the author Paul G. Maziar and visual artist Matt Maust, who also happens to play bass in Cold War Kids. It’s stark and really quite brilliant. Check out everything that Downtown have been up to at the links below.
Downtown new music playlist on Imeem
What It Is: What It Is Available Now
Matt Maust of Cold War Kids has been pretty busy lately. And today is the day it all comes together. Maust has just finished work on a collaboration with good friend and extraordinary writer, Paul G. Maziar. In What It Is: What It Is, Maust showcases his exceptional ability to capture and convey pieces of his world exactly as he sees and experiences them. His work in What It Is: What It Is is, quite simply, prodigal.
It’s not poetry, it’s not prose...what is it: what is it? With What It Is: What It Is, Cold War Kids bassist and visual artist Maust and wordsmith Maziar have succeeded in making a book that’s less of a book and more of a guided tour through places they’ve been, both actual and abstract. With prose poems about taking deep breaths from our collective unconscious and making exhalations of cold smoke into thin air, and photo-collage images of cities, faces, skies and subways, the work suggests a fractured postmodern world viewed through nostalgic eyes and voiced by a warm, familiar tongue that still sounds unique. -Filter Magazine
What It Is: What It Is is available now directly from the publisher, Write Bloody. It'll hit stores in the near future.
On Wednesday, February 13 at 8:00 pm, you're all invited to the What It Is: What It Is Release Soirée at Sound Fix Lounge (Beford and N. 11th in Williamsburg). It's FREE and will feature a reading by Paul G. Maziar as well as live performances by Chase Pagan and Matty Charles.
Also, be sure to visit Cold War Kids @ RCRD LBL to download The Mulberry Street EP.
Rare Mulberry Street EP available exclusively on RCRD LBL
Cold War Kids recorded three 6 song EPs before releasing Robbers & Cowards. The first of the three EPs is called Mulberry Street. It was recorded in a day in M. Wignall's garage/studio for some design job favors from Maust and sixty bucks. In between takes, Wignall would play an album over the speakers, like Iggy Pop's Lust For Life or Neil Young's After the Gold Rush, and go on long rants, pointing out sounds and talking about how good these musicians were and how we would be lucky if in ten years we could play a song anywhere near this good. We thought "Who cares! We just want to record our songs for us!" Then he showed us how to record vocals while he went to mow the lawn.
-Nathan Willett, Cold War Kids.
That's right, you guessed it. All this week we here at Downtown will be giving away the Mulberry Street EP for free on our RCRD LBL blog. That's six super-rare CWK tracks to lead up to you Christmas vacation (when you'll doubtlessly be in need for some good tunes).
Obviously, CWK have come a long way from recording Mulberry Street in 2005, playing venues all over the world and releasing their acclaimed Robbers & Cowards LP. Think of this as a special treat for uber-fans, a trip into what it was like to be part of what would become CWK as we know it, at the conception of the group. Or, to put it another way, think of this as their proto-Basement Tapes.
The first two tracks we're offering for download are "Heavy Boots" and "The Soloist in the Living Room", and even though they're early tracks, the band's strong aesthetic of urban Americana (think Tom Petty, Tom Waits, etc) was already strong.
Download the tunes below and stayed tuned tomorrow and Friday for the rest of the EP. Enjoy!
VIDEO: Spank Rock feat. Amanda Blank - Loose
The guys over at the Downtown RCRD LBL blog have just posted the insanely NSFW new Spank Rock video featuring Amanda Blank for "Loose". If you're at a desk, in an office, or in public, we suggest you wait until you are in the privacy of your own home to view this video. However, when you are in privacy of said home, be prepared for some serious booty-shaking and hip-swerving (if you will). Click on the link below to take part in the decadence...
Justice Nominated for Plug Awards!
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Downtown/Ed Banger's own Justice have swept the P.L.U.G award nominations with 6 noms! The Plug Award winners will be announced at the Plug Awards show in New York on March 8th.
Justice is nominated for:
- Album Of The Year
- New Artist Of The Year
- Electronic/Dance Album Of The Year
- Artist Of The Year
- Music Video Of The Year (D.A.N.C.E CLIP)
- Song Of The Year (D.A.N.C.E)
and ED BANGER is nominated as Record Label Of The Year !
Vote here!
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