Posts Tagged ‘creative commons music’
[BadPanda015] Maryos – African Era
Bad Panda song of the week is from an australian guy born in ’93. Influenced by compatriot acts as Cut Copy, Midnight Juggernauts and The Avalanches, he really enjoyed our first release (by Andy&Muzz) and he even remixed one of their song, Autumn Mist.
As he wrote in his soundcloud page, he made this song, African Era, inspired by Modeselektor.
Maryos – African Era [mp3] [ogg]
The song is distributed under a Creative Commons License: CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0
Inspired by the likes of Midnight Juggernauts, Cut Copy, Modeselektor, Daft Punk and Woolfy, Maryos started making little edits, remixes and DJing with his friend Corey. Maryos & Corey had their first digital release on RuNT Records at the age of 15. Moving on a year or so after that Maryos’ taste of music developed and pushed him to try and make deeper, funkier tracks. Shortly after this he got a bit of love from one of his idols, the guru of funk, Woolfy from the US for one of his tracks. Maryos is now in the studio with friends working on some side projects.
[myspace]
[soundcloud]
[twitter]
Where do you live actually?
Melbourne, Australia!
What is the last thing you ate?
Exotic mushrooms
Your addiction?
Discovery Channel after 1am
One quote?
“Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let… lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may” – Tyler Durden
One movie?
Fight Club
One song?
Moby – Hymm
Best concert ever?
The Prodigy at BDO 2009!
Favourite place on earth?
My bedroom
Where would you wish to wake up tomorrow?
Somewhere in outer space, maybe the Moon.
[BadPanda014] The Jakesperiment – Scwarz
Dissa Kamajaya, a 19 years old musician from Indonesia, is The Jakesperiment, an interesting solo instrumental ambient/neoclassic/post-rock project with influences as Akira Kosemura, Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins), Harold Budd, Cornelius and Anoice. Scwarz is a new beautiful song that could perfectly fit as intro on the next Sigur Ros or Coldplay album (but don’t tell Brian Eno or Jon Hopkins!).
The Jakesperiment – Scwarz [mp3] [ogg]
The song is distributed under a Creative Commons License: CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0
“The Jakesperiment is an easy, smooth listening of an 18 year chap by the name of old Dissa Kamajaya. With tons of influences that rises from Akira Kosemura, Kashiwa Daisuke and Takahiro Kido, The Jakesperiment experience most surely alter moment of stillness to adequate, and delightful listening flaws.” (TheSirensSound)
[myspace]
[twitter]
[facebook]
Where do you live actually?
Bandung, the beautiful city in Indonesia but it’s polluted by tourist during weekend. It sucks!
What is the last thing you ate?
I ate two pandas!
Your addiction?
Smashing panda onto the wall!
One quote?
“Don’t get careless with panda.. they are dangerous!”
One movie?
Panda! Go, Panda! (Panda Kopanda), i love all Hayao Miyazaki’s movies..
One song?
Best concert ever?
It was that day! i think. 🙂 Mono (Japan) concert in Jakarta last year was my favourite.
Favourite venue?
Panda exhibit. I’ll hug them!
Favourite place on earth?
On a green grass field, by the lake, surrounding by rocky mountain, and yes, i would really love to.
Where would you wish to wake up tomorrow?
In Abbey Road.
Discography:
Symphony no.25 and Their Glories of The Night EP (Inmyroom, 2009) [dl]
Oh, Fairy! Tell me about the beauty ballad of the lovelorn symphony (s-r, 2009] [dl]
[BadPanda013] A Weather – Giant Stairs
From Portland, Oregon, A Weather are here for your listening pleasure. The indie-folk unit will release tomorrow, March 2, their forthcoming sophomore album Everyday Balloons, on Team Love Records (the label founded by Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes).
“Giant Stairs” is their new single from the upcoming album and the hushed-pop of this track has all of the charm and soft arrangement that made their debut, Cove, so entrancingly great.
Their new album was once again recorded by engineer Adam Selzer (M. Ward, The Decemberists, Norfolk & Western) at Portland’s Type Foundry Studios, Everyday Balloons is propelled by the restrained yet unmistakable power of A Weather’s songs. This singular quality recalls critical recognition of Cove, of which NPR’s ‘Song of the Day’ observed, “In the band’s hands, a sigh is far more compelling than a scream”, while the album also garnered high praise from Pitchfork (“…A Weather are, quite literally, a quiet storm”) as well as Nylon, Spin.com, Popmatters, and The New York Daily News, among others.
A Weather – Giant Stairs [mp3] [ogg]
The song is distributed under a Creative Commons License: CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0
Formed in late 2006, A Weather has in their young career already shared stages with artists that include Bright Eyes, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, My Brightest Diamond, and Tilly and the Wall. A Weather is: Aaron Gerber (vocals, guitar), Sarah Winchester (vocals, drums), Aaron Krenkel (guitar), and Lou Thomas (bass).
Two years after the critically acclaimed Cove (Team Love, 2008), the band has released Everyday Ballons, another collection of scrupulously crafted indie rock songs, rife with intricate vocal and instrumental beauty. It is an album of fleeting moments, words, and sounds, as elevated by glimpses of euphoric unison as it is grounded in studied specificity.
Everday Balloons was recorded throughout the spring and early summer of 2009 at Portland’s Type Foundry studios by master indie folk engineer Adam Selzer (M. Ward, The Decemberists, Norfolk & Western). This is the sound of four people in a room. It is the sound of one person in a basement. This is the sound of the sacred, humble and hushed, and it is the sound of the commonplace, raucous and celebratory.
A shift in one’s point of view, a slight change in the light as clouds skirt the edge of the sun, the tree tops skitter against the skyline; grandeur becomes the mundane, and back again. A Weather harnesses the margin. There’s a moon at mid-day, an ice storm. You might never sleep again, or you might sleep for days. You’re as apt to gasp as you are to shrug. You might sink through the bottom of your shoes, or you might float away. Stranger things happen everyday.
It’s not the fall that we should be afraid of. It’s the quick stop.
http://www.aweathermusic.com
[myspace ]
[twitter]
A here is a little Q&A with Aaron Gerber:
Where do you live actually?
Portland, Oregon.
What is the last thing you ate?
It has many names.. this!
Your addiction?
Cigarettes.
What do you collect?
Stuffed animals.
One quote?
“We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.”
-Buddy the Elf, “Elf”
One book?
Recently: “The Pajamaist” by Matthew Zapruder
One movie?
Recently: “Moon” with Sam Rockwell
One song?
Recently: “To The Quick” by Roofwalkers
One website?
Best concert ever?
We had a great one a couple weeks ago at the Artistery here in Portland!
Favourite club?
Favourite place on earth?
Recently: Sauvie Island
Something you’re proud of?
My punctuality.
Where would you wish to wake up tomorrow?
The same bed I fall asleep in tonight. Any other place would mean I’d been moved in the middle of the night, which would be a little eerie.
Discography:
Cove (Team Love, 2008) [buy]
Everyday Baloons (Team Love, 2010) [buy]
[BadPandaxxx] Mojib – May Day Revisited (w. UNKLE & The Radio Dept.)
This is a gift from Bad Panda and swedish producer Mojib, Staffan Ulmert, who revisited May Day, a song released in 2007 by UNKLE (that featured The Duke Spirits lead singer Liela Moss).
The track is mashed together with lo-fi indie act The Radio Dept. and Mojib adds his own piano and acapella melodies and the result is a unique fusion of alternative indie, rock and electronica.
“Mayday Revisited” was originally planned to be followed up with Mojib’s full length album project “UNKLE Revisited”. Due to label disputes and sample clearance issues the project was canceled and “May Day Revisited” is one track that made it out alive.
“May Day Revisited” contains original material by Mojib, UNKLE and The Radio dept. used with permission but obviously not released under Creative Commons licenses.
Mojib – May Day Revisited [mp3] [ogg]
Staffan lists Explosions in the Sky, UNKLE, Sixtoo, and The Avalanches as inspirations. delivers a package of meticulously crafted songs with a diverse array of musical sounds that combine beautiful pop melodies, with solid drum patterns and wandering flows. With beats reminiscent of Shadow’s best stuff, Mojib’s influences can clearly be heard in his work. Passionate stringed instruments, cathedral echoing pianos and acoustic guitars collide with dawdling break beats, murmuring electronics and fragmentary pitches of song tunes to create Mojib’s debut album ‘Whimsical Lifestyle’ released December 5th, 2007. Mojib has also released numerous remixes (Kings Of Convenience, The Go! Team, Asobi Seksu) and is most known for his version of Radiohead’s “Videotape”. He is currently working on his second solo album.
http://mojib.net/
[myspace]
[twitter]
Where do you live actually?
Gothenburg, Sweden.
What is the last thing you ate?
Chicken!
Your addiction?
7″ records from the Memphix label.
One quote?
“A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimensions” Oliver Wendell Holmes
One movie?
The Thin Red Line – Terence Malick
One book?
Right now, Heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad
One song?
Uhmm… That’s tricky… Maybe The Beach Boys – ‘Til I die
Best concert ever?
Phoenix back in 2001
Favourite venue?
Watt, Sweden
Favourite place on earth?
I moved to Gothenburg not too long ago and I’m starting to really like this city.
Something you’re proud of?
A couple of songs I’ve done lately sounds like nothing I’ve ever done before, and it’s pretty good.
Where would you wish to wake up tomorrow?
I wake up and it’s spring. The Swedish winter is harsh this year.
And… feel free to add anything else!
I want to add that it’s great to get this track off the ground, and it’s thanks to you, to UNKLE, to The Radio dept and their label! And a big hug to those few who still listen to my music, even if haven’t released any proper solo stuff since my album. Much love!
Discography:
Whimsical Lifestyle (NXR, 2007) [buy]
Whimsical Mixtape (N Records, 2008) [dl]
Free MP3 Remixes:
Radiohead – Paranoid Android (Mojib Remix) [dl]
Radiohead – Videotape (Mojib Remix) [dl]
The Go! Team – Grip Like a Vice (Mojib Remix) [dl]
[BadPanda012] Taiga Blues – Karussell
Carsten and Michael know well how to confuse ideas.
Their name is Taiga Blues, but if you visit their website you will read “Post Rock with an Electronic Twist” and if you listen to their new song, Karrusell, you will find a strong jazz influence: this is what we call a perfect genre-contamination!
This is #012 and Bad Panda will come back tomorrow with a tasty surprise!
Taiga Blues – Karussell [mp3] [ogg]
The song is distributed under a Creative Commons License: CC-BY-NC-ND-3.0
Taiga Blues began as a side project for guitarist Carsten Mandt to explore musical interests in post rock, electronica and jazz. Over time the side project grew, leading to releases on a number of netlabels such as Legoego.
In the second half of 2006, Carsten was eventually joined by guitarist/trumpet player Michael Gallagher and bassist Tim Craig and together they released their debut album Intricacies early in 2008 on the My Formica Table netlabel, showcasing the band’s knack for seamlessly blending electronic and live instrumentation, composed and improvised elements, resulting in deceptively simple yet multi-layered, evocative music.
In 2009, the band (well, duo to be precise, since Tim’s departure) released two EPs on Wise Owl Records, “Ausklang” and “A minor shunt with common sense”, moving towards a more organic sound with more subtle electronic elements and a stronger jazz influence than before.
http://taiga-blues.co.uk/
myspace
facebook
Where do you live actually?
In Glasgow.
What is the last thing you ate?
Carsten: A bit of shortbread.
Michael: Delicious Polish Kebab (better than the garbage they sell in Scotland) with some vodka as “dessert”.
Your addiction?
Carsten: Coke. (That is the soft drink kind, not the white powder one…)
Michael: Coffee and chocolate.
One quote?
One movie?
Carsten: Ice Age. All three of them.
Michael: Right now, Vicky Cristina Barcelona – Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson in one film – bliss…
One song?
“Whirlpool of Terror and Tension” by Magyar Posse or “Hallo Gallo” by Neu!.
Best concert ever?
Carsten: Air (Barrowlands, 2001) and Battles (ABC, 2007).
Michael: Tool at SECC, Ryan Adams (solo) at Carling Academy and The Mars Volta (same venue).
Favourite venue?
Carsten: The Barrowlands in Glasgow.
Michael: Traitorous as it may seem given the Barrowlands fanclub, I quite like the ABC and also the Academy in Glasgow.
Favourite place on earth?
Carsten: Home.
Michael: Bed on a Saturday straight after I realise my alarm has only gone off at six cos I forgot to turn it off on Friday morning.
Where would you wish to wake up tomorrow?
Carsten: Somewhere warm.
Michael: My own bed… this couch-cum-bed sucks…
Discography:
Formulae EP (Digital Output Records, 2005) [dl]
Im kleinen Kreis (Legoego, 2006)
Intricacies (My Foeatal Orange, 2008) [dl]
Ausklang EP (Wiseowl Records, 2009) [dl]
A Minor Shunt With Common Sense EP (Wiseowl Records, 2009) [dl]
[BadPanda011] Metal On Metal – Bastard (The Sequel)
Bad Panda goes electro. Metal On Metal are a collective of party monsters from Lithuania. Taking their name from a famous Kraftwerk song, they remixed, among others, Datarock, Bloc Party (twice), Wax Stag and they recently finished their remix for the Wave Machines. Their first EP was out last year on Skint and this a previously unreleased gift.
Metal On Metal – Bastard (The Sequel) [mp3] [ogg]
The song is distributed under a Creative Commons License: CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0
Ten easy to digest metal bites:
1 Metal On Metal are from the streets of Vilnius (Lithuania). There’s three of them:
Manfredas, Kym Wild, Miss America. They call their music slaughterhouse and
produce it in former sewing factory.
2 Their name Metal On Metal is inspired by Kraftwerk song of 1975. A few months later,
when they were googling some skulls, they stumbled onto another “Metal On Metal”,
this time sung by metal legends Anvil.
3 They started as DJ crew back in 2005, fighting over a girlfriend and winning
“DJ Of The Year” award home for three years in a row. And warming up or playing with
Zombie Nation, Simian Mobile Disco, Gus Gus, Carl Craig, Felix Da Housecat, Chemical
Brothers and, ahem ahem, Lenny Kravitz.
4 Their debut song “No Front Teeth” was recorded and uploaded onto MySpace in 2007, only to find support from Kissy Sell Out, Annie Mac, Fatboy Slim and others, ending on legendary Skint Records as a vinyl & digital with guets remix by Nightmoves.
5 In 2008 Metal On Metal went international and were featured in DJ Mag, iDJ,
hypem-ed, blogged, youtubed which led to remix commisions from Datarock,
Kissy Sell Out, New Young Pony Club, Tim Deluxe, Blood Red Shoes, Bloc Party (twice),
Wax Stag, Flairs & Wave Machines.
6 Their remake for Bloc Party’s “Flux” was featured on NME’s cover, Kissy’s remake
was included in “Global Underground” compilation, remake for Datarock’s “I Used
To Dance With My Daddy” was used in official EA Sports’ “Fifa Street Live 3” soundtrack (that’s audience of 50 million gamers). 2008 ended with a remake for German outfit Polarkreis 18 and their monstrous sing-along anthem “Allein Allein”, which hit the number one in Germany & the remix went on to become No1 in Lithuanian Year-end charts.
7 Metal On Metal is a five piece live act and they have proven their slaugher-worth at
Transmusicales Festival in Rennes, Eurocultured in Manchester, Lie.Envy in Moscow
and are planning their upcoming “Almost world domination” tour.
8 “Damn!” is their first EP, featuring “Damn!” (Less Metal Edit)”, “Damn!”, “Bastard”
& two remixes from electro virtuoso Mercury and techno monster Kris Menace. It was
released on July 27th on Skint. Cover illustration is done by critically praised Ana Bagayan.
9 Metal On Metal love their videos, because they didn’t move a finger for them to happen.
First one “No Front Teeth” (directed by Silvija Redhead) promotes teeth removing paste, “Damn!” (directed by Phantom) shows the never ending expedition in corridors of common raver’s mind and recent “Bastard” (directed by The Glue Society) with asian ping-pong granade players is clocking up half a million views on vimeos & youtubes.
10 Metal On Metal have just finished latest remix for “Keep The Lights On” by Wave Machines.
It has running time of 13 minutes & 39 seconds and has at least four themes packed into it.
They consider it to be their best remake to date.
There are many ways to speak/meet Metal On Metal.
These are their favorites:
for old fashioned e.mail: info at nesakykmamai.lt
for music: www.metalonmetal.net
for news: facebook.com/metalonmetal
for 140 symbol nonsense: twitter.com/metalonmetal
for remixes: James Pitt / james at your-army.com
for gigs: Christine McLean / christine at s1e.com
Where do you live actually?
We live in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Precisely: http://tinyurl.com/yhe2he5
What is the last thing you ate?
This morning and it was not alive
Your addiction?
We’re old school – Jack Daniel’s is our drug of choice
What do you collect?
Afterparties, compliments & regrets.
One quote?
“A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn’t.” Tom Waits
One book?
“The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way)” by The Timelords aka KLF
One movie?
“Liquid Sky” (1982)
One song?
Arthur Russell “This Is How We Walk On The Moon”
Best concert ever?
Daft Punk in Nimes, 2007
Favourite club?
“Trash” @ The End, London. Unfortunately – RIP
Favourite place on earth?
Google.
Where would you wish to wake up tomorrow?
In bed with Angela Merkel
Discography:
No Front Teeth (Skint, 2007)
Damn! EP (Skint, 2009) [buy]
[BadPanda010] The Sleeping Sea – Palms…
“We feel that music is art and no art has a monetary value (hence money has no value) so we want to give all our sounds away to the ears that so wish to house it. Although we accept donations from those who desire and can afford to do so, we feel that music is an important vehicle for social awareness and change in propelling community and creativity.”
The Sleeping Sea is speaking, that is Jarrod Welling-Cann (voice, keyboard/guitar/vibraphones), Michael Abitz (percussion expert and vibraphones) and Andrew Walker (trombone/bass/xylophone).
Inspiration comes from southern mozombique recordings (and other african tribal recordings), múm, Seabear, The Ruby Suns, El Guincho, Grizzly Bear, Peter Bjorn and John, Why?, Beach House, Shugo Tokumaru, The Concretes and many, many more… and Bad Panda loves them. Love them.
The Sleeping Sea – Palms… [mp3] [ogg]
The song is distributed under a Creative Commons License: CC-BY-NC-ND-3.0
“The Sleeping Sea does more than write songs, they orchestrate moods. Their music is at once playful and ethereal, childlike and melancholy. Reverberating harmonized falsettos blend seamlessly into a mix of bright staccato guitar playing, rich bass accompaniment and galloping drums. And while most bands are not comfortable playing outside of a certain dynamic range, the Sleeping Sea ebbs and flows (pardon the extended metaphor), taking listeners to swelling heights and broken, deconstructed lows.” -Isaac Hand
They’re currently based in Cincinnati, Ohio and they’ve played shows with some creative individuals from Boston to Chicago and Philadeplhia, Wisconsin but they hopefully one day end up in California, Iceland or Africa, Indonesia, Haiti, Brazil, and so on until fall from the globe…
Jarrod and Micheal are studying to become audio/visual engineers and they produce their music toying with a korg d1200, typical drum set, some plastic eggs with white rice trapped inside them, a typical guitar, a little bell piano they found at a thrift store, someones bass, and many somethings more in a basement (somewhere on the soil of Cincinnati Ohio).
They also make laptop music in their freetime as well as short films. Ranging from a childish/electronic múm-esque music to a Prefuse 73/Blockhead hip-hop track. Michael makes music under Quince Vetivert and Jarrod under Sailboats and Bubbles.
Plus, they compiled alot of old, new and unfinished music by creating Ghost In the Piano Room, which became their “alter-ego”.
http://www.myspace.com/thesleepingsea
http://thesleepingsea.blogspot.com/
Where do you live actually?
Between purple and elephants and/or Cincinnati, Ohio.
What is the last thing you ate?
Vegan smorgasbord.
Your addiction?
Dreams and jellyfish.
One quote?
“There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination” (Willy Wonka)
One book?
One movie?
One song?
Remind Me by The Motifs (or any song by múm).
Best concert ever?
We thoroughly enjoyed experiencing and meeting Doseone (of anticon) at a Subtle/TV On The Radio show in columbus, however a recent WHY? concert was a near life experience as well.
Favourite venue?
CS13, Cincinnati.
Favourite place on earth?
Ocean. Deep and mysterious ocean.
One thing you’re proud of?
You.
Where would you wish to wake up tomorrow?
Discography:
Monocular People EP (self-released) [dl]
Sun Drips EP (2009, self-released) [dl] or [buy]
[BadPanda009] The Underscore Orkestra – Balancing Act
“You know a band is good when at the end of their sound check the audience starts clapping” writes an interesting review about one of their recent shows.
Fusing the sounds of gypsy jazz, swing and world music, with the styles of vaudeville cabaret and circus arts, it’s not just a band, it’s an Orkestra, the Underscore Orkestra.
The members are modern day gypsies and their names are Jorge (Violin, Vocals, Harmonica and Piccolo), Willo (Accordion and Vocals), Cody (Guitar and Banjo), Scott (Guitar), Cliff (Bass), Peter (percussion), Susanna (violin) and Andrewski (Clarinet).
Balacing Act comes from their last album “No Money, No Honey, All We Got Is Us” (2009) and you shouldn’t miss it specially if you love bands like Devotchka, Gogol Bordello or Taraf de Haidouks.
The Underscore Orkestra – Balancing Act [mp3] [ogg]
The song is distributed under a Creative Commons License: CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0
The Underscore Orkestra is a Portland (Oregon) based band, playing a blend of Balkan, Klezmer, Gypsy Jazz and Swing, with a repertoire consisting of both original and traditional material from fast bulgars and melodious waltzes to odd meters and swinging rhythms. Their instrumentation includes violin, accordion, guitar, banjo, clarinet, horns, flute, harmonica, bass, vocals and percussion. Each of the members comes from various backgrounds and musical disciplines from as far away as Russia and as close as our own North West. The Underscore Orkestra has been performing for the past 3 + years, touring all around the western U.S., Mexico and Guatemala and has been seen from intimate coffee shop setting all the way to huge outdoor festivals.
http://www.theunderscoreorkestra.com/
http://www.myspace.com/underscoreorkestra
Where do you live actually?
In the tour bus.
What is the last thing you ate?
Nachos.
Your addiction?
Hot Chocolate.
One quote?
“Live for today” – Albert Einstein
One movie?
One song?
Best concert ever?
Tool!
Favourite venue?
Amnesia bar in San Francisco.
Favourite place on earth?
Right here!
Where would you wish to wake up tomorrow?
Southern Italy.
Discography:
The Modicum of Ambiguity (2008, self released) [buy]
No Money No Honey All We Got Is Us (2009, self released) [buy]
[BadPanda008] Jon Coyle – Friends in a Circle
Lucid, flowing songs that take influence from folk and ambient music. Guitar, accordion, laptop, thumb piano, percussion, and various other things blend into a sound that is somewhat highly captivating and original. Influences are Icelandic music, Arve Henriksen, Aphex Twin, Keith Jarrett, Gianluigi Buffon, Sun Ra and lots of others. “Friends in a Circle” comes from his 2009 album, Woods.
Jon Coyle – Friends in a Circle [mp3] [ogg]
The song is distributed under a Creative Commons License: CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0
Hailing from Philadelphia, Jon Coyle makes sounds with all sorts of things- piano, percussion, toy instruments, voice, and electronics are just a few. His music can at times be serene, reflective, earthy, screwy, or anything else, depending on who’s listening. In 2009, he released Woods, a collection of instrumental songs peppered with sparse improv and ambient textures. Recently, he has taken to sculpting sounds out of home-recorded improvisations and merging them with vocals. More music is on the way.
Where do you live actually?
Philadelphia, USA.
What is the last thing you ate?
Oatmeal with peanut butter and bananas.
Your addiction?
Lately yogurt and Grouper’s Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill.
One quote?
“I am very lucky with the neighboring farms; I can get all sorts of fresh eggs. You won’t believe the pounds of wild mushrooms I pick up every year, and with the herbs from my garden, I’ll get out a pan and cook an omelet.” – Jacques Pepin
One movie?
Abbas Kiarostami’s Ta’m e guilass (Taste of Cherry)
One song?
“Indian Love Call” by Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy
Best concert ever?
In the last few years I’ve seen some great shows in Philly. Seeing accordionist Frode Haltli, Deerhoof, and Animal Collective were all awesome experiences.
Where would you wish to wake up tomorrow?
Iceland.
Discography:
Woods (2009, self-released) [buy]
[BadPanda007] Boy Without God – City Kids
Gabriel Birnbaum is Boy Without God and today is your lucky day because you can download all his brilliant discography for free!
Garnering comparisons to Beirut, Elliott Smith, The Microphones, Leonard Cohen, Akron/Family, Neutral Milk Hotel, Stephin Merritt and Sufjan Stevens, he enthusiastically wrote the cheerful “City Kids” for Bad Panda (and Ty Williams curated the sweet drawings).
Boy Without God – City Kids [mp3] [ogg]
The song is distributed under a Creative Commons License: CC-BY-NC-ND-3.0
Boy Without God is the solo project of Boston native and multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Birnbaum, who at his young age has already passed through many musical outlets, from the violent power-electronics of Catholic Skin and the saxophone fronted spazz-rock of The Abraham Lincoln Brigade, to stints with Virgin Records new signing Eli Reed and blog-buzz darlings Drug Rug and a continuing membership in the campfire singalong folk-pop group The Tiny Tornadoes.
Growing up in a musical family (brother Adam is a jazz pianist and sister Sara is a classical cellist) and studying the tenor saxophone through high school, Birnbaum initially pursued a career in avant-garde improvised music, performing in NYC with such luminaries as Andrew D’Angelo and Jim Black, and running the short-lived Boston Jazz Composers Collective.
Eventually feeling frustrated by the lack of a non-musician audience, he decided to try to bring free jazz into the indie rock world.
His next project, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, was a bridging of free jazz and noise rock, equal parts Albert Ayler and Deerhoof, and performed successfully at rock venues for rock audiences, securing a slot opening for Deerhoof. Important learning experience also came through tours in The One AM Radio, Drug Rug, and Eli Paperboy Reed & the True Loves, the last of which Birnbaum had been a member for three years.
Since 2006, Birnbaum has been very gradually shifting his focus to his solo songwriting under the Boy Without God name.
Recording voraciously starting in late 2006, and often utilizing his unique minute-a-day recording method, he had released seven home-recorded EPs and two full-lengths by the start of 2008, all of which are available for free. In summer 2008, after an extensive spring house tour with close friend Alex Morris (The Gilded Moons), he went into the studio with the recording and production guidance of friend Nick Boyajian, and took a more measured approach in the creation of Your Body Is Your Soul, applying his everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to a higher fidelity sound and more carefully considered songs.
http://boywithoutgod.com/
http://www.myspace.com/boywithoutgod
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boy-Without-God/120262905891
http://twitter.com/boywithoutgod
http://boywithoutgod.wordpress.com/
Where do you live actually?
My body lives in Boston. My heart roams around, and can often be found in Copenhagen and NYC, among other places.
What is the last thing you ate?
just ate some bread with hummus and hot sauce. The bread was the Rustic Italian loaf from an amazing local bakery called Clearflour. If you’re ever in Boston…
Your addiction?
Good bourbon whiskey, good coffee, good beer, good food. I think my real addiction is cultivating tastes that I can’t afford.
One quote?
I have to say, I really love quotes. Picking one is going to be difficult…um okay, here’s two.
One is the lyric Leonard Cohen identified in an interview as closest to summing up his personal philosophy:
“There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
The other is from a Donald Barthelme story, and it’s a good thing for artists to remember when they are failing, which we will all do perpetually until the day when the vultures of success descend and suddenly we are celebrities who will forever harbor secret inner suspicions of failure, or at the very least fraudulence. This may happen after we’re dead, in which case forget the last part.
“Neglect is useful; consider what La Boheme would be if, in the second act, Rodolfo entered and declared, in a passionate aria, that he had just received a two-year grant from the Ford Foundation.”
One movie?
I think the movie I have most consistently loved and been moved by is Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2. Aside from being beautiful and stylish, it has the characteristic I find in all my favorite art: an attempt to transcend this world by ultimate, unflinching immersion of oneself in it.
One song?
Bon Iver – Beach Baby. One of my favorite songs of recent times. It plucks all the strings in my chest without a single unnecessary note.
Best concert ever?
I think it has to be the show I played at Lades Kælder in Copenhagen in June for the music magazine GAFFA. I had no idea how to recreate my record, which is all me overdubbing things, in a live situation so I stole an idea from my friend Shira and got all my friends to form a huge chorus. Then I managed to talk some of the members of an amazing Danish band called Slaraffenland into being a horn section after meeting them at a bar. We barely had time to practice, and I was so worried, but somehow everything clicked and it was just amazing. The chorus were hammering on beer bottles and screaming at the tops of their lungs, the horns somehow played perfectly after one rehearsal, the audience was singing along. People I’d never seen before came up to me and hugged me afterwards; it was that kind of show.
One of the best shows I ever went to was when I was still in high school. I saw Alan Silva & The Celestial Communication Orchestra in an old church in Boston. It’s a huge band (2 tubas, 2 bassists, 2 drummers…seriously) composed of some of the best musicians left standing from the 60s and 70s free jazz scene, most with some kind of ties to Sun Ra. William Parker, Roy Campbell, Marshall Allen. They played for hours without stopping, and the effect was bizarre. At first it was amazing. Then you got kind of bored. Then it was excruciating and you wanted them to stop more than anything. And then somehow you broke into another layer of listening and it became even more amazing. By the time the show was over my friends and I all felt like we were hallucinating. We spent the next hour or so running crazily up and down Newbury St. (the main shopping street in Boston) until we burned off all that weird energy.
Favourite venue?
This a perfect place to make nice with some of the venues I know, but honestly, I don’t really like clubs that much. I usually feel uncomfortable in them. I wind up pacing in a huge circle wishing someone would talk to me and then, as soon as someone does, wishing they would go away.
I do really love Zuzu though, which is part of the Middle East in Cambridge, MA. It’s a really small room, warm and red with huge windows and super high ceilings. I only seem to meet awesome people there. I also like Lades, which I mentioned before, because the stage is really low and the musicians are right up next to the audience. I like venues that don’t feel like venues.
Favourite place on earth?
My favorite places I’ve only been to once.
Like the muddy field in Dragør, Denmark, in June, 2009 where they had the Dragør Market, which was basically like a county fair crossed with a huge outdoor garage sale and had a ride for kids where they got put in huge plastic bubbles and bobbed around on the top of a small pool.
Or the sad karaoke bar in Pensacola, FL where an overweight woman sang Dashboard Confessional songs to a near empty room until my friend Alex belted out Tainted Love, a song he’d never heard, and got a standing ovation.
My favorite place is my memory, basically.
Where would you wish to wake up tomorrow?
In a mountain cabin with lots of food and coffee and wine and books and a machine that lets me stop time because there’s way too much I’m supposed to be doing in Boston this week for me to be reading books in a secluded mountain cabin.
Discography (as Boy Without God):
There Are Bones in the Tres (2006, self-released) [dl]
Autobiography EP (2007, self-released) [dl]
Hangups EP (2007, self-released) [dl]
Songs to Sit in Empty Room To EP (2007, self-released) [dl]
I Am the Place Where All Lies Start EP (2007, self-released) [dl]
The Pity Parade EP (2007, self-released) [dl]
One Day the Distance Between Myself and God Will Disappear EP (2008, self-released) [dl]
Your Body is Your Soul (2009, self-released) [dl] or [buy]
Eight Delicate Olives Slowly Chewed at Midnight EP (2009, self-released) [dl] or [buy]
Thanks, Gabriel!
Bad Panda Records 