An evening of visions burning bright. Unseen music videos, documentaries, comedy clips, out-there animation, short films, eye melting magic, and special surprises!

Music Videos Featuring:
American Music Club, Animal Collective, Ariel Pink, Awesome Color, Battles, Beach House, Bon Iver, Caribou, Daedelus, Dan Deacon, Devendra Banhart, Dntel, Entrance, Excepter, Flight of the Conchords, MGMT, My Robot Friend, Nobody presents: Blank Blue, Okkervil River, Sebastien Tellier, The Dodos, Trans Am, and more…

Films By:
Ace Norton, Andy Cahill, Ben Barnes, Clay Lipsky, Dean Fernando, Fernando Cardenas, Damon Jones, Dave Hughes, Derek Waters, Eric Fensler, Erik Barnes, Ghost Town, Hashim Bharoocha, Jimmy Joe Roche, JFR/Fingered, John Leone, Josh Forbes, Julia Croon, Lana Kim, Matt Amato, Maximilla Lukacs, Miranda July, Nima Nourizadeh, No Domain, Ray Tintori, Roel Wonter, Saul Levitz, Skizz Cyzyk, The Masses, The Wilderness, Timothy Saccenti, Tim & Eric, Travis Peterson, Video Marsh, and more…

+ the debut of DUBLAB VISION VERSION

+ a live performance by TRS-80

films: 8-11pm
TRS-80 & dublab djs: 11-Mid

$10 general or $6 members / All Ages

Cinefamily
at the Silent Movie Theatre
611 N Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, 90036
323.655.2510

silentmovietheatre.com
dublab.com

I want to thank Honest Tea and IZZE for donating some product for this event... you guys are rad!

Put* qu'o pariu para o resto...

The Daily Texan, Life & Arts: 03/25/08

Excepter

Debt Dept.

Paw Tracks

On their latest release, Brooklyn’s Excepter sound like the art-damaged love-child of 80’s industrial music and a Jamaican dub plate. Debt Dept., the band’s sixth full-length release, is teeming with the kinds of skeletal, gritty electronic percussion associated with industrial acts like Skinny Puppy and Einstürzende Neubauten, but everything has been slowed down and slathered in disorienting effects. The result is a sequence of demented dirges that sound like a DJ Screw version of an early Suicide album. The only hint that humans had anything to do with the creation of these dark, bleak electronic atmospheres comes when the boys and girls of Excepter mix teems of disembodied chants and slightly verbal utterances in with their hard edged synthesizers and heavy, mechanical drum patterns. While Debt Dept. certainly isn’t for everyone, it could easily be an interesting late night soundtrack for the more adventurous listener.

Something tells me there may be a message embedded in Excepter's new video...beside the fine Tron-like graphics and B-Movie production values, that is.

A quelques jours à peine de la sortie de leur nouvel album Debt Dept. sur Paw Tracks, revenons sur le précédent album du groupe new-yorkais Excepter, Alternation, publié en 2006.

Les premières secondes d'Alternation nous feraient presque croire que l'on est en présence d'un disque d'electronica classique: une mélodie de synthé lente, puis quelques percussions... Et soudain le rythme s'accélère, des sons venus de nulle part viennent se faire leur place: bienvenue dans le monde d'Excepter. Un monde bâti sur des bases presque dance, mais autour desquelles viennent graviter des éléments imprévus, comme des voix sorties de nulle part, marmonant des paroles indiscernables ou répétitives ou chantonnant des mélodies plus ou moins en accord avec la musique (et entre elles car il n'est pas rare que plusieurs pistes de chant soient superposées), et prêt à s'effondrer à la moindre occasion avec des ruptures dans tous les sens, avant de repartir de plus belle avec une nouvelle structure. Vu comme ça, ça semble rappeler tout un tas de groupes, Gang Gang Dance par exemple, sauf qu'Excepter a la particularité de se baser uniquement sur des éléments électroniques. Pendant un peu plus d'une heure donc, le quatuor (désormais sextet) nous propose des additions de couches qui pourraient souvent constituer des morceaux à elles seules mais qui sont ici imbriquées les unes sur les autres.
Bien sûr, vu comme ça, ça a l'air très chaotique et conceptuel (ce côté arty risque d'ailleurs d'en déranger plus d'un...), mais Excepter n'oublie pas non plus l'auditeur, et sa musique reste donc loin d'être inaudible. D'autant que ce chaos est ici beaucoup moins prononcé par le passé, le groupe se permettant même quelques morceaux moins déconstruits, comme le génial Rock Stepper, construit autour d'une partie basse/boite à rythme géniale sur laquelle viennent se poser des nappes de synthés ambients et un chant que l'on peut réellement distinguer - bien sûr, le tout est parasité par une sonorité 8-bit qui semble tout droit sortie d'une Game Boy qui tourne en boucle et en crescendo/decrescendo tout le long du morceau, mais on est bien loin du chaos de Lypse ou de la déstructuration de l'interlude (The Pipes) par exemple, d'autant que la structure de ce titre est presque pop.
Les morceaux ne tournent pas non plus en roue libre: même si les différents musiciens semblent souvent ne pas s'écouter les uns les autres, la construction des morceaux ne se résume pas au bruit de synthétiseurs improvisés, et une évolution est perceptible dans les morceaux , nottament dans le très épique If I Were You: débutant par du spoken word placé sur des claviers ambients, il évolue progressivement vers une structure de plus en plus construite, avec l'arrivée graduelle de rythmes et mélodies qui sont ensuite modifiés, triturés, changeant ainsi l'atmosphère du morceau au fil de ses sept minutes, s'achevant finalement sur une partie très mélodique, aux notes tenues. A l'inverse, Knock Knock débute sur des sonorités très angoissantes, avant de devenir de plus en plus minimaliste, construit presque exclusivement sur un rythme basique, une partie vocale et des synthés répétitifs, pour finalement se terminer sur deux minutes presque exclusivement rythmiques. Ice Cream Van, qui ouvre l'album, débute sur une mélodie qui est subitement remplacée par une rythmique dance, sur laquelle viennent peu à peu se placer diverses parties synthés et couches de chant.
Evidemment, si cet empilage de différents éléments peut fournir de vraies merveilles, le disque n'est pas passionant tout du long, loin de là. Op Pop ou Apt. Living, par exemple, auraient gagnées à être raccourcies, car elles paraissent un peu longues et parfois vraiment lassantes. Une certaine uniformité peut également se révéler gênante, malgré la variété des sons utilisés. Cependant, cet album recèle suffisament de perles, comme le vraiment excellent Rock Stepper, Knock Knock, If I Were You, Ice Cream Van ou encore Back Me Up (Show), pour mériter plus qu'une écoute distraite (qui ne sera de toute façon pas suffisante pour comprendre cette musique) et pour être vraiment un très bon disque, réellement intéressant la plupart du temps (et pas seulement d'un aspect conceptuel, puisque la plupart des structures restent au minimum intriguantes, mais bien souvent imparables).

Excepter - Alternation (2006, 5 Rue Christine)

1. Ice Cream Van
2. Lypse
3. Rock Stepper
4. The Ladder
5. If I Were You
6. Whirl Wind
7. (The Pipes)
8. Knock Knock
9. Apt. Living
10. Op Pop
11. Back Me Up (Show)

Vidéo: Rock Stepper
Vidéo: If I Were You (Live)
Vidéo: Lypse (N6 Mix)

Myspace: Excepter

• Tex La Homa -- Some Lost Bliss
• Box -- Studio 1
• v/a -- SmaShits
• PacificUV -- Longplay, Vol. 2
• Miwagemini -- This Is How I Found You
• ST Mikael -- Mind of Fire
• Science for Girls -- Science for Girls
• Excepter -- Debt Dept
• Mirabilia -- Log in Eye
• Rainbow -- After the Storm

The Magnetic Fields - "California Girls"

On their new album Distorted, The Magnetic Fields pay homage to The Jesus and Mary Chain like never before. The lo-fi, fuzzed-out aesthetic totally ends up working for them, especially so on the wonderfully sunny and viciously cynical "California Girls." This isn't The Beach Boys' rendition, that's for sure. Despite featuring a crooning chorus that hearkens back to the glory days of Brian Wilson and company, "California Girls" is particularly scathing in its message-- The Magnetic Fields hate California girls. The Fields have nothing but disdain for the lovely ladies of the sunshine state who "breathe coke and have affairs with each passing rock star." This is a statement against vapidity, delivered with venom... and a smile.

Excepter - "Kill People"

This song is pretty simple. Take a bouncy bass line and repetitive beat, and then have the vocalists yell "kill people" over top of it in varying cadences. It's this simplicity that makes it so fucking great. And hypnotic. It's as if the purpose of this song is to brainwash the listener into committing murder. If so-- bravo Excepter. Bravo. You can even dance to it! WHOOO.

Sascha Funke - "We Are Facing the Sun"

Mr. Funke is a pretty rad dude. He's a fairly attractive guy, and he also happens to be among the early front runners for best electronic album of 2008. Not too shabby. This cut from his sophomore album Mango (due out next month) is a sprawling dancefloor jam that makes me want to shake my sexy ass. This nebulous slab of electronic lives in the wee hours of night, where all of the lamers have gone to bed and you've lost count of just how many drinks you've had. Funke's pounding rhythms are propped up by a smattering of piano keys while spaced-out synths intermittently permeate the mix. Shake it. Bitch.

(Blues Control with Brian Turner covering Unholy Swill at the Bowery Ballroom, 7/11/07)

Yeah, stuff. Instead of taking a planned road trip, I ended up stuck in New York all week, so got to see a couple good shows and whatnot. Wednesday's Deerhunter/Ex-Models/Blues Control show was a hilarious clusterfuck of epically later'd proportions. Congee Village eats beforehand with Lukas were crucial, then BC's smoky jamz left us all ready to pound beer after beer (esp. their cover of an Unholy Swill song -- forget the title -- with WFMU main man Brian Turner on lead ax). Fortunately we were ready for beer pounding, because Ex-Models made us wanna sit downstairs, say hi to our friend bartending, and lament. Just not into 'em. Deerhunter were pretty good, basically sounded about the same as the record, but the best part of the evening might've been the singer's 45-minute-or-so-long monologue from the stage after the band was through. Poor kid only wanted some G.I. Joes, not to be dressed up like a girl! Parents can be so cruel. Nice retardo Germs cover, too.

Friday night it was time for jammin' at Cake Shop in a basement get-wrecked stylee. First two bands were a pretty deec female moan trio (some combo involving Child Bride and I don't know who else). Don't really know nothing 'bout the players, but they were enjoyable enough. After that was a metal band called Fogeaters which wasn't really my thing, but at moments the guitarist had some great Mainliner-style moves. The main thing I was there to see played third, and that was Tobogan, a total retarded mess consisting of Russ and Lea from Blues Control, Brian from Mouthus, Don from DremCron and Big Whiskey, Allison from Awesome Color and Ryan from King Crab. Headbanging sludge plus stylish moves (esp. from Lea on guitar and handbag!). Two more bands played as well, Portland's Night Wounds (not really my thing though not bad -- and it's nice to see a tight punk band with a saxomaphone) and New Jersey's own Home Blitz (already written about here, though now Daniel's got a new trio lineup, and is much more confident than last year). Oh and Max from Violent Students and Richie from Clockcleaner played records and mp3s too, so that was the perfect soundtrack to a night of beer, beer and more beer.

So what else? Not much. Skipped Excepter tonight, feeling way too wrung out to get my mind blown, unfortunately. Thinking about Jack Rose/D. Charles Speer/GHQ/This Invitation (see Todd's page for more info), but haven't decided yet. Oh and I've been adding lots and lots of links lately to the the right side over there, take a look at the following:

Direct Waves - Lots of full album downloads of obscure shit
Mutant Sounds - ditto
Neglected Books - just like it sounds like, buddy
Awful Tattoos - also pretty self-explanatory

Check 'em out and get nerdy.

P.S. did you know that Channel 11 plays "The Best of Soul Train" at 2 AM on Saturday nights?!? Me neither, but now I know and it's awesome! Next up, Yellow Magic Orchestra!