Geoffrey O'Connor "Vanity is Forever"

Vanity Is Forever, being released September 27th via Chapter Music, is Crayon Fields frontman Geoffrey O’Connor’s first album under his own name, and his most ambitious, dynamic and sophisticated work yet. O’Connor’s fractured romantic reflections and lustful tributes play out over vast synthscapes, colossal stadium drums and flanged orchestral sweeps, creating a world that is at once ethereal and strikingly vivid.With a combination of restraint and fearless abandon, O’Connor embraces the conflicts of modern love in a manner as ambiguous as it is blunt, and as shameless as it is generous. His songs indulge in ecstasy, love, pride, failure and all the glamorous contradictions they become. He is both an adult with a juvenile mind, and a geriatric in the body of a young man. Painstakingly refined over two years, Vanity Is Forever is O’Connor’s most fully realized album to date, an epic pop melodrama that shifts seamlessly between seductive high-production dance hits, suave funk joyrides and modern synthetic power balladry. Recently, O’Connor has mesmerized audiences with an extravagant live show of dueling synthesizers, lasers, light sculptures and hypnotic projections. His diverse solo output – under both his own name and previous solo moniker Sly Hats – has seen him handpicked to support the likes of Fleet Foxes, Jens Lekman, School Of Seven Bells, Andrew Bird and First Aid Kit. In addition, O’Connor will release a series of steamy clips to realize his soap opera dreams. View a taste of what’s in store with a trailer for Vanity Is Forever.

Listen to a New Track by Gardens & Villa

In the year of the saxophone, Santa Barbara's Gardens & Villa give us the flute. And along the way, Gardens & Villa effectively wipe clear the vaseline from the murky bedroom funk of recent days. Gardens & Villa bang out instant classics — each crystal clear and immaculate, but no less sweeping or languid. Their debut is a youthful exploration of just how opulent and pop starkness can go." Gardens & Villa continue on their North American tour as they wrap up dates with Foster The People and head out with Generationals, followed by shows with Craft Spells. Gardens & Villa’s debut LP is out July 5 on Secretly Canadian.

Listen to HTRK's 'Eat Yr Heart'

HTRK’s Ghostly International debut 'Work (work, work)' is a flat-lined study of desire and submission, sentimentality and dysphoria. The London by way of Berlin and Melbourne art-rock duo (pronounced “Hate Rock”) finished the album’s production while grieving the sudden loss of founding member and bassist Sean Stewart to suicide in March ‘10. And while that tragedy has certainly found its way into the music’s bottomless sonic void, 'Work (work, work),' written from 2006-10 in Berlin and London, is about much more than abject darkness. Much, much more.

Rude and Reckless: Punk/Post-Punk Graphics

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Rude and Reckless: Punk/Post-Punk Graphics, 1976-82 is the first New York exhibition surveying the extraordinary diversity of Punk and Post-Punk graphic design. The exhibition showcases a wide range of American and British artistry, with influences that include the Bauhaus, Futurism, Dadaism, Pop Art, Constructivism and Expressionism. The exhibition presents features over 150 rare posters, along with fanzines, flyers, clothing, badges and stickers. Rude and Reckless: Punk/Post-Punk Graphics, 1976-82 will be on view from July 14th through August 19th, 2011 at the Steven Kasher Gallery.

If You Want To Reach Me

Gwilym Gold is a DJ and musician based in the UK. Gold has a new single, "Flesh Freeze", out now on a bespoke self remixing platform developed by Gold called Bronze. www.gwilymgold.com

MP3: Bullion : "If You Want To Reach Me (Gwilym Gold Remix)"

[audio:http://www.solidgoldrags.com/music/Bullion_-_If_You_Want_To_Reach_Me_Gwilym_Gold_RMX.mp3|titles=Bullion - Gwilym Gold Remix]

Koudlam to Release New Album

"Koudlam was born in 1979 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. As a kid, he loved to walk in the bush imagining he was doing such courageous acts as saving young girls. He read a great deal. His heroes were a diverse group, including the great mountain climber Reinhold Messner, the poet Charles Baudelaire and Jim Morrison." This June 1 sees the release of Koudlam's new EP "Alcoholic's Hymns." Launch party tonight in Paris. More info here.

[REISSUES] Chet Baker in New York

Chet Baker: In New York–Recorded in September 1958 for Riverside, Chet Baker's In New York features saxophonist Johnny Griffin, pianist Al Haig, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones. In addition to the half-dozen tracks from the original album, the reissue includes a bonus seventh track — "Soft Winds," a blues composition written by Benny Goodman and Fletcher Henderson. Chet Baker: In New York will be reissued June 7, 2011 by Concord Music Group along with multiple other releases from the halcyon days of jazz.

Kurt Cobain Well FUCKING Hung

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"Kurt was a leader, he was strong, in fact he was well fucking hung, if you really want to know."—Courtney Love, singer, Hole; widow of Kurt Cobain remarked in an, ahem, oral history of the band Nirvana. The Experience Music Project in Seattle is holding a massive exhibition celebrating the music and history of Nirvana, whose lead signer Kurt Cobain killed himself in 1994. Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses runs until April 22, 2013. www.empmuseum.org

[LISTEN] PURE X Release Gem From Forthcoming Album

Pure X (formerly Pure Ecstasy) is the latest incarnation of a long-standing collaboration between Austin, Texas musicians and long-term friends Nate Grace, Jesse Jenkins and Austin Youngblood. Acéphale is to release their debut album, Pleasure, out July 5th in the US and worldwide August 22nd.  Looseness was a key concept for Pure X in recording Pleasure, and all songs were recorded live without overdubbing.  The aspiration was to capture songs in their purest form, mistakes and all, as they were being written.  Chasing a vibe in the studio allowed the songs to form themselves; structure and formula lost their rigidity as the songwriting process became more about meditative evolution than meticulous intent. www.acephalerecords.com 

LISTEN: PURE X - TWISTED MIRROR

[audio:http://www.pasunautre.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Pure-X-Twisted-Mirror.mp3|titles=Pure X - Twisted Mirror]

David Bowie, Artist

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This summer, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York presents David Bowie, Artist, a multi-platform retrospective re-framing Bowie’s daring, multi-discipline career as that of an artist working primarily in performance. From his roots in such performance-based practices as cabaret, mime, and avant-garde theater, to Ziggy Stardust, his revolutionary tour that synthesized theater, music, and contemporary art into a rock spectacle, as well as his innovative video collaborations, and his work in cinema and theater, David Bowie, Artist presents Bowie as one of the most iconoclastic cultural producers of the 20th century. On view until July 15th - www.mademuseum.org