the simple mission

White Rabbits: Live On A Hot Night At Soundfix

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Luke Temple: Not Like Other Dudes With Guitars

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I don't really cover, nor do I listen to, "songer/songwriters"—so I'll call Brooklyn-based Luke Temple a man with guitar and a beauty of a voice. It's a warm, reedy sort of vocal style that goes very high and hits you very hard.

Temple, along with four backing musicians (one of whom used to play with Jeff Buckley and is such an insanely talented drummer I can't even say) performed at Joe's Pub last night to celebrate the release of his latest, Snow Beast. His tunes sounded far more direct live than they do on record, err, stream. But most important, they sounded like him. And that's a big compliment to an artist working in a genre where reference points often outshine the artist's own material. Spend some time with the tunes on his Myspace page and see what you think. Recommended.

Sam Champion: Snarling and Enchanted

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Earlier this week, I saw one of my favorite straight up rock bands from NYC, Sam Champion. I could throw out that I heard specs of "Refugee"-era Petty and stoned bits of Pavement, but I think letting you know that I smiled when I heard the hooky choruses and snarled when their guitar player laid down some ill loosey-goosey guitar licks would be of better service to their performance. These guys really do it for me. I love it when cats with great record collections write great songs.

Shocking Pinks! DFA! Simple Mission! Interview!

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The first time I heard Shocking Pinks was in an office, the office of DFA Records (Shocking Pinks' current label), to be exact. At the time, I was struck by how confessional and emotive the music was, that it referenced the dream pop of the early ’90s and that a lot of the lyrics seemed to be about girls. In the context of recent DFA releases, it was much closer to the emotional timbre of say, LCD's "All My Friends" than the brutally minimal deadpan punk of Prinzhorn Dance School. At first pass, I guess you could say I was intrigued and I looked forward to hearing more out of an office setting. 

Last week, Shocking Pinks' sole member/composer/dude (think Magnetic Fields-type deal) Nick Harte was in the city for a quick promo this and that and so I decided to have a chat with him to learn more about Shocking Pinks and see what was what. When I introduced himself and we started chatting about his new Black Flag tattoo (he now has matching ones on each arm), I knew it was going to be gravy. Here's what went down. Hope you dig.

Simple Mission: Can you introduce yourself and briefly touch upon how Shocking Pinks came to be?

Nick: Sure. When I was about six years old, I started playing piano and then picked up drums, bass and guitar when I was eight. After that, I studied modern musical composition and learned the viola, violin and the cello. At about ten, I studied jazz and learned the alto, tenor and soprano sax.

Simple Mission: Wow. I’m guessing now that you play all the instruments on your records.

Nick: Yes. I started recording songs on a hand-held tape recorder when I was 13. They were somewhat in the style of the songs I play now and I consider those earliest songs to be Shocking Pinks songs, because they were written and played by me. I’ve be writing music for about 20 years and have worked as Shocking Pinks for almost 15.

Simple Mission: How did Shocking Pinks initially co-exist with your old band, the Brunettes?

Nick: Before I joined the Brunettes, I was in a band called Incisions. We played old-fashioned R& B and rock and roll stuff, like Link Wray. A few of the Brunettes saw one of our gigs and asked me to play drums. Although I mainly thought of myself as a solo artist, I thought it would be fun to play other people’s material. But after moving to London for six months, I came back to New Zealand and just wanted to do my own thing.

Rude Monday

Don't call me Scarface, snitches.

Simple Mission Exclusive: On Set At The New Bob Dylan Video

Yesterday,  in a once-mainly Orthodox enclave of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a team of actors, extras and  randoms came together to film what will be Mr. Bob Dylan's next official music video for "Most Likely You'll Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)". As many of you probably already know, the song has been handed over to producer Mark Ronson for a remix treatment, and this video is going to be used to promote said remix. Truth be told, I think ANY Dylan remix is a nitsch nitsch, but for what it is, the execution is pretty good.

Now, for the geeks among you, you should be able to recognize all the iconography shown below. We've got the Triumph, Pennebaker, "Chew Gum", a boxer and Desire all represented. I have no idea if and when the finished version of this will air (I split after the first scene was wrapped), but as a huge Dylan nerd, I thought these were just too good to keep to myself.

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Other Voices: Quick Bits On Recent Shows

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On Saturday, the entirely like-able Vampire Weekend played a lovely show at the East River Music Project. Ships sailed in the background, kids (like, actual 7 year olds and not just the uptown college kids who are always at VW shows) danced and the band's best tunes like "Campus" and "Walcott" were toe-tappingly divine. This show was yet another reason to fall in love with Vampire Weekend. Not like you needed my convincing.

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Later that night, I took some bad photos of a very good band, Minneapolis's Digitata. If you're not yet familiar with this female-fronted trio's brand of pleasing, beat-driven electro pop, don't sweat it. You'll be hearing more from them soon.

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Sunday afternoon was all about Ted aka "Shred" Leo. I'll be straight with you, after going to his shows for about seven years, I was ready to stop because they had just been so-so the last few times. Not on Sunday. Ted was every bit the fist pumping, ska-loving, dude of dudes that I, and thousands (should be millions) of other love and cherish so much. Bravo!

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The last stop on the party train was the Social Registry anniversary jump off. Gang Gang Dance closed out the night with 3/4th of an amazing set. Due to noise complaints, the show had to end by ten PM. And it did. Someone pulled the plug on the band in the middle of a brand new mind sprawler of a song at 10:01. That was a shame. So was my camera dying before GGD's set, which is why you are looking at a photo of the Social Registry dudes (honcho Rich on the left) having a bro-ment before their set. Still, a great night for real music in New York City.

I'm Blogging Again. Metronomy and Glass Candy at Studio B/Fun

I must say, for the day after the Daft Punk show (was there, you already know how amazing it was) and the Dafterparty (was not there, heard how cray-zee it was), Eamon, the Bangers and the Fun Crew really came through with a great show to wake up a hung over and tired city. First up, were Simple Mission faves Metronomy. Between the heart on sleeve lyrics and the quirky stage show, Metronomy's live performances fall somewhere between Devo and perhaps the very earliest-era Cure, plus all the electronic knick-knacks and mini Korg synths that bring their sounds up to date and make you wanna dance to it. I don't think it will be long before more peeps catch on to them and they start getting a look from Hot Chip fans.

Next up were Glass Candy, a band that should have caught on years ago when they were a noisy post no-wave mess of hotness, but never did. I think this ultimately made them a much more interesting band. Basically, they became a two piece and went into this sinister death disco/italo direction, adding some more sex and pop to their mix (their bassist helped put together the excellent Italians Do It Better comp.

With her unapproachable swagger and up for three days being fab demeanor, Singer Ida No might be closest thing indie rock has to a Warhol superstar. Her mannerisms on stage pretty much reinforce that she does not "not know what drugs are". During the middle of their last song, out of nowhere, she broke into an interpolation of Madonna's "Get Into The Groove". I'm not sure if it was meant to make fun of or desecrate the original, or perhaps give an honest glimpse into what the band really want to be—mixed up, downtown club musicians playing in clubs where people dance in giant hanging birdcages. Them days are done, of course, but I'm glad Glass Candy are still around to promote that freaky deaky NYC spirit.

Carry On Tony

Tony Wilson, one of my personal heroes, passed away today. I'm glad that I had a chance to at least rub elbows with him when I spoke at his In The City Conference a few weeks ago. He didn't attend the second day of In The City, as he was rushed to the hospital during the early morning, but even still, this is such a sudden and depressing loss for me, and for lots of others as well.

Obit from BBC

Win Something: 2 Tickets To Social Registry Fest: GGD, TK, Growing and Mucho Mas

Yo! One my favorite labels, the ever-diverse, always dependable Social Registry is celebrating its fourth birthday this weekend by hosting a remarkably awesome and ambitious two day festival in BK featuring Gang Gang Dance, Growing, Psychic Ills, Doug Shaw (of White Magic) and more. The Social team was kind enough to offer up two tickets for a lucky winner, so I wanted to pass the savings along.

All you need to do is email me (elliot at the simple mission dot com) with Social Registry in the subject line by 7PM tomorrow. A winner will chosen at random, so roll them dice and get those emails popping.

Also, on the rewind tip, why not check out some choice features from my back pages on Social Registry artists TK Webb and the dearly, dearly missed Blood On The Wall?

Thanks to Rich and Jim for the hook up and of course, for the all the choice tunes over the years.

Full flyer is avails here in case you want to pass along to friends, which you should.