Looking Forward: Rainbow Arabia "Without You" 2011
"Without You" is a single from Los Angeles duo Rainbow Arabia's forthcoming full length album "Boys and Diamonds" to be released on February 28th - "Without You" single with an incredible b-side will be released on February 21, 2011. www.kompakt.fm
MATER SUSPIRIA VISION
Mater Suspiria Vision's psychedelic mash-up music video for their song Crackbusting Angeles (2011). mater-suspiria-vision.blogspot.com
Tuxedomoon "In A Manner of Speaking"
Music Video: Holy Other "We Over"
Video by Butzmann & Kiesel (1979) Music by HOLY OTHER
Naked Eye: The Voice & Life of Ney Matogrosso
Ney_Matogrosso_film_70_anos
Ney Matogrosso was a leather artisan with a rare voice at the right place at the right time. Brazil, 1966, a polychromatic cultural revolution was taking place called tropicália. Even more psychedelic and revolutionary than the sexual revolution commencing in the thick white fog of San Francisco, tropicalia pervaded every corner of Brazilian culture: theater, poetry, dance, and especially music. You could call tropicália music an evolutionary divergence of psychedelia that amalgamated traditional America rock n' roll, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and funk. When the band Secos e Molhados wanted a male leader singer with a high pitched voice they got even more than they asked for. Enter Ney Matogrosso, and his sopranino voice with tonal ranges beyond a soprano, who helped Secos e Molhados reach explosive success. When the band dissolved Matogrosso went on with a solo career that has lasted through the present. According to Art Brazil, a documentary on Matogrosso's 40 year carreer is currently in post production. The documentary, entitled Naked Eye, will be premiered in August - most likely in Brazil - on Ney Matogrosso's 70th birthday. Text by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
mp3:::ney matogrosso - Pedra de Rio
[audio:http://www.pasunautre.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/04-Pedra-de-Rio.mp3|titles=04 Pedra de Rio]
mp3:::ney matogrosso - Barco Negro
[audio:http://www.pasunautre.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/07-Barco-Negro.mp3|titles=07 Barco Negro]
Jacques Dutronc: Every Man For Himself
A friend and fellow Francophile recently sent me a link to the Jacques Dutronc music video for “Les gens sont fous, les temps sont flous” (which translates roughly as “The people are crazy, the times are vague”). Thus began an immediate obsession with the songwriter turned singer turned actor, who, in the 60s wrote hits for his then girlfriend, later wife, Françoise Hardy while at Vogue Records. He went on to become a star in his own right with his first chart-topper,“Et moi et moi et moi." Dressed to perfection in suit and tie at a time when most musicians were growing beards and donning bell-bottoms, Dutronc’s live performances were characterized by a wink and a nod to the audience, his sly, bemused expression transforming his particular brand of pop into a subtle parody of the genre itself.
It’s no surprise then, that Dutronc later went into acting, eventually starring in Jean-Luc Godard's 1980 meta-film Every Man For Himself, in which the pop star plays an filmmaker, also named Godard, who is grappling with the dissolution of his marriage. A brand new 35mm print of the film has recently been pressed and will be shown in Chicago later this week and in Vancouver at the beginning of next month. See links for dates and times: Chicago & Vancouver.
Text by Anna Wittel for Pas Un Autre
Music Video: Dirty Beaches "True Blue"
Fate Knocking at the Gates
In 1802, with his hearing worsening to the point of deafness, Ludwig Van Beethoven was at a cross roads. The decision could have quite possibly cost Beethoven his life: go deaf and lose the gift of music or go on and beat against the tides of imminent silence. Going deaf must have been like losing his oars in the sea of Beethoven's genius. In 1802 he wrote a famous letter to his brothers announcing his plans to commit suicide - fate was certainly knocking at his gates - as the famous intro to his fifth symphony connotes, but as hard on his luck as he was,he decided to forgo his plans of suicide, and went on to live out some of his most productive years - his middle years - when most of Beethoven's most famous pieces were written. No one ever read that fateful letter until after his death close to 30 years later; and between 1802 and 1815, sans oars, Beethoven's genius was at it's apex. Last night I had the magical experience of witnessing the Polish conductor Marek Janowski conduct Beethoven's largely underrated Symphony No. 4, Piano Concerto No. 3 with the virtuosic Juho Phjohen at the piano, and finally the Leonore Oveture No. 3. All pieces were performed stunningly by the San Francisco Symphony with a vibrant, emotive exuberance rare in most orchestras. Hearing the San Francisco Symphony perform Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3 - which was intended as an opera set in a dungeon of all places - was truly soul awakening. This performance runs for two more nights, tonight Jan. 22 and Sunday Jan. 23 - find tickets here.
MUSIC: Holy Other
The Great Search for Lady Day
With the all out indifference of New York City suffocating, I found myself barricaded inside, listening to Billie Holiday's rendition of the jazz standard 'Solitude' over and over again. "In my solitude.....you haunt me." Her voice in the song sounds as if she's grasping at a wall, pleading. Who was haunting Billie Holiday? The specter on the other side of the wall? When I was a kid my mother gave me a Billie Holiday record as a gift. When I heard Billie's voice for the first time, it was one of those mystical moments where I felt alive in a beautiful universe of nothingness and just as long as this woman was singing, oblivion was mine for the taking. I entered parallel dimensions. Billie Holiday was haunting me - certainly. Just a few days ago, after a long nocturnal blizzard blanketed much of New England, I decided to search for Billie Holiday. On a hot summer day in 1959 Billie was laid to rest in Saint Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx. She was 44. I took a train uptown. I spent close to two hours in a frozen, snowed over cemetery looking for her grave stone. I was waist deep in snow, trudging about, losing my breath, and at the moment I decide to take a break to rethink my strategy I find her final resting place. Billie Holiday was buried next to her mother, which I found fascinating and touching. Earlier that day I had bought Billie a little seahorse and left it for her as a gift (sailors used give each other seahorses for good luck before embarking on long odysseys). So there I was - I had found Billie Holiday.
Text and photograph by Oliver Maxwell Kupper
Ariel Pink "Are You Going to Look After My Boys"
Looking Forward: Dirty Beaches “Lord Knows Best” 2011
Alex Zhang Hungtai, aka Dirty Beaches, will release his debut album Badlands in March. More info here.
Night Two: Rock n’ Roll Circus at Lincoln Center
Currently in New York for the Rock n' Roll Circus at Lincoln Center. Monday was the first night of this spectacular two day event that includes music, food, ponies and tattoos. It is quite a circus. Tonight, the weirdness ensues, with these Pas Un Autre highlights to look forward to: lo-fi wunderkind Ariel Pink headlines and the amazing Minka Sicklinger is tattooing a specific set of uniquely designed flash for $30. Just like the good old days. www.rocknrollcircusparty.com
Coney Island in Blue
Adarsha Benjamin 'Electric Tickle Machine in Cony Island' © 2010
Today is the first day of the Rock n' Roll Circus at Lincoln Center. Exhibiting in the VIP lounge are new polaroid photographs by Adarsha Benjamin, who is also organizing the event which includes two full days of music. See previous post for more info.