mingdoyle:

REAGANOMICS, an unfinalized preview mix from Neil Cicierega/Lemon Demon’s upcoming album! Love where he’s going with this one.

Are you unhappy girl
In this confusing world
Where everything you earn
Is getting left to burn?
If it were up to me
Then living would be free
And I can give you that
And I can give you that

punxtr:

Secret Chiefs 3 “Millones” 2012-04-16 Santiago, Chile.

oneweekoneband:

Day 5: Final Comments… Looking to the future.

Oh man. My last post.

There’s a whole lot of places I could go with this post, and a whole lot of music I haven’t been able to hit on. I’ll just make a few comments that haven’t quite fit in elsewhere this week, with a big focus on what’s coming up in the future.

Astronautalis just wrapped a tour, which featured a long stay at South by Southwest, some of his first gigs with a live band, and a successful run in Europe backing his label-mate, Bleubird, for whom he produced his most recent album. Many of his gigs still feature him solo with only the instrumental tracks on his laptop to back him up. Astronautalis makes up for this with his dynamism as a performer and his friendly demeanor. He throws his entire body into his performances. Stand close enough, and you’ll see his veins bulging out, as he gyrates wildly as he sings. He pauses for extended periods between songs, telling stories about these songs. You don’t need to interview him to hear some of the stories I heard. He’s more than willing to tell many of them on stage to his audience.

The show I saw pulled largely from his new album, but featured tracks from all four of his releases, a new rap set to be released with P.O.S., and of course his end of show freestyle. You can find these all over the web, and I encourage you to bust out the cameras for these. Every concert, he makes a new piece of art that you can take home with you.

Earlier this week I showed you a rap about September 11. I actually think the clip embedded above is more impressive, as he pulls from a whole bunch of disparate ideas to create a rap with a point to make about society.

Take a look at Astronautalis’s look here and go back to the picture we started with earlier this week. Whether it’s because he’s grown up, he has more money, or he thinks this look will appeal to a larger audience, he has definitely changed. No more hoodies and t-shirts. He’s cleaned up his hair and gotten some nice shirts and tight pants. It’s a welcome change that fits nicely with his new music, though it does suggest his music is a little less raw and a little more prepared for a larger audience. Maybe not the worst thing, but it shows that the artist has changed.

So I encourage you to check out his Facebook page and his website, and keep up on when he’s coming to your town. It’s a unique show and one you won’t soon forget. And you’ll be surprised about how excited you’ll be to talk to him when the show is over.

So what’s next?

ASTRONAUTALIS: This is the first record I finished that I didn’t have a creative hangover after… I was like man, Let’s work on another record right now… as soon as this tour is done, I’m working on a ton of different projects. I’ve focused on a project with P.O.S, a project with Katee Morley. I was the producer for a band called Gangs. And I’ve also got some more rap things for myself, mix tapes, top secret freestyle projects. I’m really into rapping right now, it doesn’t always work like that. I might be doing more rapping in the next 8 or 9 months.

And what else? OH YEAH JUSTIN VERNON! I won’t speculate too much on this. Astronautalis didn’t talk about this in our interview, so who knows how fully developed this project was in his mind. Still, it seems probable that we’ll be going back to the more indie-stylings of previous Astronautalis albums. I’m really hoping, though, that this project creates a third way for hip-hop, an opening for more surreal music to break into mainstream radio.  So long as Andy Bothwell remains the guy who will jump off stage and still sell his own t-shirts and meet his fans after the show. We’ll see how it goes.

As for me, thanks for reading and keeping the signal strong. I’ll be back eventually with something more regular, as soon as I figure out this teaching/life balance. In the meantime, let’s go home again with an encore presentation of Christmas in July. The sound is a little weak, but here is Astronautalis and band in fine form in Chicago last year.

You can’t stop the signal y’all. Peace out.

— Mr. Universe