South by Southwest, an email to Big Blackhawk

One of my favorite rock DJs, BIG BLACKHAWK, asked me for a list of bands I'm into who will be playing SXSW this year: "I wanted to hit you up and see if there were any bands at SXSW that you think I would like. I really didn’t get to see many bands last year because I was working for two, but I plan to change that this year! So if there’s anywhere you think I should be let me know!!"
It was good timing: I am home and pulling a late-nighter, had three shots of espresso five hours ago that haven't worn off, and probably have to do some prioritizing and scheduling myself - so doing this was uber helpful. Below is my response...

Props out to you, Big Blackhawk.

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Starting with some notable SOLID PR bands:
TODD – they’re on Southern Records. I just picked them up. London-based, originally from Texas. Crazy ass metal. www.toddranch.co.uk
MAN MAN – from Philly. On Ace Fu. They’re like Tom Waits’ illegit kids raised on The Muppet Show. Fantastic musicians. www.wearemanman.com
SKELETONS & THE GIRL FACED BOYS – they’re my favorite music-related clients currently. Been called “the future of pop music” and shit. Seriously, I saw them at CMJ and nearly lost my mind. You can hear them here: www.everyprettyboy.com
IMAAD WASIF – he’s the latest member addition (as well as opening act) to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. His record is sooooooooooo beautiful. He is playing a lot during SXSW, and I hope to see him at least once. On Kill Rock Stars/5RC
GOBLIN COCK – need I say more?
BIG BEAR – Boston based 5 piece on Monitor Records. Female-fronted but you wouldn’t guess it in the way that Jordyn screams into the mic while beating herself with a tambourine so hard that she has to duct tape her leg to prevent too much bruising. The other four members totally slay equally as hard as that tamourine to the tape. www.bigbearbigbear.com
You can download our event schedule here: www.solidpr.com/solidsxsw2006.pdf

Non-Solids:
PART CHIMP – they’re on Monitor Records, friends with TODD and are comaprable in the metal dept.
EDITORS – They’ve been compared to Interpol, if Interpol actually understood Joy Division. I’ve heard the buzz about them and am curious as to what they’re like live.
I LOVE YOU BUT I’VE CHOSEN DARKNESS- I like them on record, never seen them live.
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO – cheery poppy british duo. Their music is so cute it hurts.
JOSE GONZALES – I usually don’t go for the acousticy stuff, especially someone who gets big doing a cover of one of my favorite bands for a Sony commercial. So, the fact that I’m crazy about this guy’s music is fucking weird. There’s just something about an Argentinean-born, Swedish-raised dude with an acoustic guitar and great voice to go with it. I guess it’s pretty easy to load and unload an acoustic guitar because this guy is playing 239,847 times this year.
WHY? - Saw them at CMJ too, they’re a rad ensemble with interesting takes on song structure and instrumentation.
UME – I’ve tried to sign these guys a million times. Girl fronted three piece, her name is Lauren and she goes off. When they’re on stage that chick channels freaking Kurt Cobain in 1990.
THE DUKE SPIRIT – Travis from Buddyhead is really into this band’s musical prowess... I usually trust his taste in music 90% of the time, but I don’t like them on record, maybe I’m missing an ear, or maybe they’re rad live though?
ODIORNE – inactive clients of ours, on File 13, I've noted that people who are into Pink Floyd are really into them! Jimy Chambers who is the main dude used to be in Mercury Rev too.
MARK MALLMAN – holy fuck... I can’t believe I got this far into the email without mentioning him. You would love this dude. You guys would probably be BFF. He’s not only a rad musician but he does crazy things like play one song for 2 days or put himself in a refrigerator box and play inside it in the window of a record store. He’s an old pal. Hope I get to introduce you two, if that doesn’t happen – go see him and shake his hand. He’s super nice and funny. www.mallman.com
LUCERO – all I know about this band is that they’re from Memphis and numerous unrelated friends keep telling me that I would be super into them.
LES AUS – they’re great spazzy punk rock from Barcelona.
PARTS & LABOR – Can anyone say slay?
CHIN UP CHIN UP – also from Chicago. These are the nicest guys ever put into a group together and it’s weird because usually when a band is made up of 75% or more of nice guys it means they’re horrible. But CUCU is really fucking amazing.
ATMOSPHERE – somehow these hip hop dudes made it into the hearts of indie rockers. However they did it, I’m glad cos they got some mad skillz.
MARITIME – on Flameshovel. part Promise Ring, part Dismemberment Plan. Both great bands - and this one is a direct example of that. My best friend and my roommate haven’t stopped listening to the record on repeat. That is a good sign.
THE SILENT LEAGUE – also inactive clients. They’re an ensemble so they have a ton of rotating members and I sometimes wonder how they all fit in any practice space that isn’t a vast field or a mansion. Their music is lush and well orchestrated, to the point of soaring in the air so far like a long lost balloon that might just take you with it.
SWEARING AT MOTORISTS – I’m really interested in checking them out because I just popped their record in recently and was surprisingly really into it. So surprised, that I had to spin it three times to make sure I wasn’t just being emotional (PMSing) or something.

Sorry if I got super cheesy but I’m delirious and it can’t be helped,
Celeste

Bob Dylan's "She Belongs To Me (Alternative Take)"

As the espresso's effect slowly wears off, I just had to get this up and out before I lose the motivation. I finally got off my ass and to the record store tonight. Being there for a lengthy amount of time, a bit forgetful and hurried, I had already popped my pile onto the counter and then it dawned on me: I should look for this Dylan record. "No Direction Home: The Soundtrack" came out last September and I've been trying to remind myself to pick it up. It took close to 6 months, but I finally have it. And I predict to be living inside these 28 previously unreleased versions of Dylan songs for the next few weeks.

When I got to the second disc, I found it opens with "She Belongs To Me" and I was instantly overwhelemed. This song was never in my top tier of Bob Dylan favorites.

When I finally told my mother that I had moved to Minneapolis from San Francisco (I was scared to tell her that I moved so far away from her in So. Cal, predicting that I would have a two-or-more-hour-long conversation and then find myself on the next plane back out of guilt. So I waited to tell her after I had already been in Minnesota for about a month). She sighed, and then sang a snippet of this song.
She's got everything she needs / She's an artist, she don't look back / She can take the dark out of the nighttime / And paint the daytime black.
At the time, I had no fuckin' idea what she was singing. Was it obscure Simon & Garfunkel? Some weird band she's got some weird story about? Was it something she made up on the spot? Then she said, "You know Bob Dylan was originally from Minnesota." (What like because Dylan was from there it was acceptable?) Eight years later, here I am - surrounded by layers of guitars that accompany the lyrics and I'm hearing Bob sing but remembering my mother's funny version of it doing her best Dylan-accent impression on top of her own foriegn accent. Add this to that top tier.

Even if you didn't have a weirdo parent who sings you Bob Dylan lyrics to lament your decision to move across the country - surely there's a song in here for you. Desolation Row? Man of Constant Sorrow? Masters of War? Leopard-Skin Pill-box Hat? Whichever you fancy - there's a gem in here for you.

New pictures up!

Yep.

You read correctly, I scrounged up enough time to put more photos up in the gallery.

Featuring Northern & Southern California, Sundance @ Park City UT, and New York + its "Blizzard of 2006" ...wussies.




Clicky: www.celestetabora.com/fotografia/



NP: Spoon's "They Never Got You"

Portishead Remixed: "Dumb"

I've been meaning to post this for awhile now, and it just gets swept under the rug because of that ever-growing list of things to do on the Solid PR tip.

But, here we are finally. A moment in which I recall to do this.
You can download the entire Portishead Remixed album by clicking on this link.
No, seriously, the whole album. Free. Yes, free. There are some great mash-ups and reinterpretations of this (already) classic pop album, which you should definitely check out, if not have. This site that holds the mp3s also hosts fascinating small blurbs about each remixer. And yes, again - it's free. All they want you to do in exchange is to donate a little to a well-deserved charity or simply purchase the original Dummy album (which you should have if you do not already, regardless of your main affliction in music genre) - it's totally sexy.

Efterklang's "Monopolist"

Like many of you, I work my day away with itunes on shuffle. All the things I wouldn't normally choose to play resurface at my computer's will. I think Oliverio might have even transferred this track onto my sad little full hard drive while I was in New York three weeks ago (though I got a portable one yesterday that I now claim to be my lord and saviour).


Anyway, the song... it's a smidge less than 7 minutes long and travels from your typical driving electronic beat to quicksand pianos and darting keyboards sifted through some filters. The vocals remind me of what Amish church songs might sound like. It's creepy, like a real-life fling with your socially unacceptable relationship with your professor, and I like it. Thank you weirdo Danish ensemble!








Here's what Pitchfork had to say about it.

Opal's "Happy Nightmare Baby"

While Capitol/EMI are prepping to release The Mazzy Star Anthology and a deluxe CD/DVD later this year, I'm thrown back to earlier than they're trying to get me to be nostalgic for. I'm talkin' thown way back in 1987, pre-Mazzy by a sweet little friend who put this Opal song on a Valentino mix for me. It's practically been on repeat today as I've made any open ear listen to the track. Ned Ragett from AllMusic.com nails it by saying, "For one thing, Opal was very much its own band, with Kendra Smith's particular lyrical visions of mystic power and universe-scaling dreams and nightmares its own entity. As is her singing, though she's got less of Hope Sandoval's wistful drift and more focused control." And while I'm not the biggest Mazzy Star fan, I really like Opal and that's probably why. I haven't had the pleasure of hearing the entire "Happy Nightmare Baby" album, but now I have something to look for the next time I hit the record store...

Opal page on the Mazzy Star site's related bands section.

memoryrememberme

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council has commisioned Tyondai Braxton to do a special multimedia solo show in Manhattan in March, where he will introduce a new permanent element in the solo set, "Light Hill" that was designed by Danish architect Uffe Surland Van Tams. Along with Uffe's creation Ty has enlisted Harry Rosenblum's lighting design along with Chris Jordan to transform the room into an environment for himself and the Light Hill to haunt. The presentation is based off of symtoms of depersonalization and derealization as it pertains to amnesia and memory loss.

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council presents
*Memory Remember Me* By Tyondai Braxton
Friday and Saturday, March 10-11, 2006 @ 8:00 PM

Lighting Design: Harry Rosenblum & Chris Jordan
"Light Hill" designed by Uffe Surland Van Tams
15 Nassau (at Pine St)
Made possible by support from the September 11th Fund.
Space donated by Silverstein Properties.
www.lmcc.net

No advance tickets. RSVP by e-mail: rsvp@lmcc.net. The subject line
should include "Tyondai Braxton" and your preferred date - Friday,
March 10 or Saturday, March 11.

www.tyondai.com
www.bttls.com

Culture Club's "Miss Me Blind"

In response to a fellow blogger's very endearing (and obscure) song dedication - I have for you Boy George's playful 80's hit. It's flirty, fresh, a little cheeky, and a great way to find comfort if a signi-other might be a few miles too far for a little peck on the cheek. Go ahead, dance to it. I won't look.

Because this love / That I have to give / Must be better than the kind / It can make you rich / It can make you poor / But I know that / You’ll miss me blind