Photo by Dona Rita
Said The Whale – Goodnight Moon
Happy Friday to ya, my friends!!! Man oh man have I been a busy little beaver lately. Work has been, well, work and nuttier than ever, but that’s work and who wants to talk about that? Not I said the fly! Now, sure, we got you a badass mixtape to finish off the week all proper style…
How’s THAT for a teaser?
But, before we get to that, let’s talk about the other busys keep us busy.
First up? Maybe you missed it the other day, but Baby’s auction to raise money for Japan ENDS TOMORROW!
The money from the winning bid and the matching moneys ALL go to the Red Cross to help out with Japan. They get a little moneys, you get a Kitsune (fox) purse for you or your honey-bunny, all with free shipping! Not too shabs, eh?
Eh. So..
Next… maybe you missed it but TSURUFOTO NUDIEZINE Issue No. 4 has been released and is out in the wild!
WOOOOOOOT! And this time it’s a doozy! In this issue we got our zinexclusive mixtape, activities, amazing artwork, our articles on REM & a bad ass zine we came across, all kinds of randomness, and, of course, our super hot & awesome photo shoots with Nina, Isabella, Becca, & the awesome Lucy Dominga!
Now, you can get a taste of the photo sets with Nina & Isabella and Ms. Dominga over at our vimeo page full or saucy short films we’ve been making, BUT…. if you want a peek at Issue No. 5′s centerfold set, “How Olive Does Arts & Crafts”:
TSURUFOTO Presents… How Olive Does Arts & Crafts! (NSFW) from TSURUFOTO on Vimeo.
You are going to have to buy a zine…. ;)
Now… if that wan’t enough, oh my, let me tell you about last night. Yes yes, it was St. Patty’s day, but I really could care less about that part. First, anyone who follows the photo part of tsuru industries knows I get to work with some amazing people. Genuinely beautiful inside & out. Well, a couple of them do burlesque. Baby & I have been trying to go see them for, well, forever, but life & shit kept getting in the way until last night when we went to Circus and got to see not one, but TWO troupes perform! The Velvet Hearts featuring the uber-crush worthy Cherry La Voix AND the Ooh La Las featuring my newest friend Cherie!
One word. Amazing.
Bold, strong, beautiful pasty-adorned women flaunting the awesomeness.
And blowing our minds and melting our hearts. Needless to say, Baby & I are smitten kittens. Consider us groupies!!!
Speaking of beautiful women & smitten kittens, my friends, has I gots a mixtap’ems for yas today very much inspired by the love and beauty that seems to be following us around more and more. We had some fun with this one! Yeah yeah, sure, we got a new song or two that might be floating around your hip & hypem blogs here and there, but for the most part this one’s chock full o’ not-so-newness and not-so-knowness! Yep, we dipped deep into our pockets for some pre-double-digit 2000s goodness, maybe something from the 90s, and I think one or two from the 80s, and lots of fresh bandcamp goodness.
Just a little reminder that, yeah, new music is new, but loving and leaving the songs from a few years, months or days ago is not chicken soup for the soul. And remember, as loverly as the pitchforks and bloggerins of the world can be, there’s still so much out there just waiting and wanting to be heard over in the wide world interconnected intertubes of love canals like Bandcamp and etc.
So here we are and here we go as….
photography by me
modeled by tomagochi
tsururadio presents…
full zip
01 Noah and the Whale – Jealous Kind Of Love
02 Royal Bangs – Tiny Prince Of Keytar
03 Ween – Ocean Man
04 Beulah – Matter vs. Space
05 Bright Eyes – Shell Games
06 Here We Go Magic – Hands in the Sky
07 Radiohead – Nude
08 Violent Femmes – Black Girls
09 The Decemberists – O New England
10 Bill Callahan – Sycamore
11 Beirut – The Concubine
12 Peter Bjorn and John – Amsterdam
13 Paula & Karol – Ontario
14 Son Volt – Drown
15 The Do – Bohemian Dances
16 Jenny Invert – Still Life / Millet Seed
17 Tera Melos – Manar Was A Rat
18 Isaac and Hilltop – Antique Arms and Armor
19 Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s – Real Naked Girls
20 Joan As Police Woman – The Magic
21 Nicole Atkins & The Sea – The Way It Is
BONUS: David Cassidy – I Think I Love You
Have a wonderful weekend everyone. Go ride yer bikes, go take lots of pictures, and we’ll see you before long…
Cheers,
Photography by herki
Kaloo-kalay, the new Rural Albert Advantage is finally FINALLY here. Sweet. Jesus. What took it so long? It was WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY back in 2008 (which is 21.4 blog years, by the way) that we first heard of these lovely Canadians.
Back then they were unsigned and, for the most part, unheard of… But oh what a difference 21.4 blog years make, eh? They were eventually signed to Saddle Creek where they then re-released the album and started touring and video making and stuff and stuff.
Which is great and all that, but it also meant we music geeks in freaks down here bloggerin’ land had to wait, sit on our 30+ minutes of Hometowns, barely above the length of your favourite EPs, for what? Forever maybe? yeah… Forever for a new collection of songs.
And, my friends, Departing was oh so worth the wait.
In one sense, RAA picks up where they left off. Same awesomely whiny voice, same haunting female back-up vocals, same noise-acoustic guitar effect, and same balance of frenetic & folk/roots/whatever. That’s kinda their sound, so it all makes since. I think a half-hearted listen may get them the “Hometowns II” tag from a music cricket or two.
Who knows. Don’t care.
In the vacuum of it’s own existence, we have ourselves a beautiful & often woefully sad break-up album. There’s depth to the sound, depth in the lyrics… Like our friends from the great north not only got their collective hearts broke, but also saw it coming and didn’t or couldn’t do anything about it.
It’s wonderful. My only complaint is the same as before. It is so fucking short! God, I want more. So…. me being me, here’s what I think you should do. Make a playlist/CD (it fits)/whatever of Hometowns & Departing played back-to-back. You know what you get? 1.1 hours of Rural Alberta Advantage and one happy mother fucker…….
Have a wonderful weekend everyone! We’ll be doing some arts & crafts (and my first boudoir photo shoot for some awesome & beautiful friends), riding my bike, and (of course) hanging out with Baby.
And….. if the good lard’s a-willin’ and the creeks don’t rise, maybe doing a little zinin’ for Issue No. 4?
;)
Until then… Enjoy!
1. Two Lovers
2. The Breakup
3. Under the Knife
4. Muscle Relaxants
5. North Star
6. Stamp
7. Tornado ’87
8. Barnes’ Yard
9. Coldest Days
10. Good Night
Previously from Hometowns…
Don’t Haunt This Place
Frank, AB
RAA Love: Official | Label | Twitter
Cheers,
Aaron
Okay… I’m obsessed… like obsessed-obsessed over this new PJ Harvey album called Let England Shake.
I’ve had a crush on PJ Harvey ever since I could kinda see her nipples on the back cover of Dry.
Yep. That’s the one. She’s bold, brash, difficult, challenging, & strong. I love songs, I hate songs, it’s everything that comfort food isn’t to music.
I don’t always like her albums. But then Let England Shake shows up. I was already in love with “The Words That Maketh Murder”, but a song does not an album make.
Oh my. Oh man. This is so good.
It’s odd, weird — like “Revellie” during “The Glorious Land” — and it’s beautiful… Beautiful in that odd yet strong way Harvey herself is. It’s poetry (literally, from what I hear) meets quirk-rock music.
I’ve listened to it 10, maybe 15 times? And I can’t seem to stop. So, I’m going to shut up and listen some more…
Enjoy!
“Take me back to England & the grey, damp filthiness of ages, fog rolling down behind the mountains & on the graveyards, and dead sea-captains.” – PJ Harvey, The Last Living Rose
PRE-ORDER LET ENGLAND SHAKE NOW! & STREAM FULL ALBUM AT NPR!
01. Let England Shake
02. The Last Living Rose
03. The Glorious Land
04. The Words That Maketh Murder
05. All And Everyone
06. On Battleship Hill
07. England
08. In The Dark Places
09. Bitter Branches
10. Hanging In The Wire
11. Written On The Forehead
Written On The Forehead by pjharvey
12. The Colour Of The Earth
Cheers,
T.
Photography by emememily…
I’m kinda obsessed over three albums right now. It’s making it quite hard to do this whole bloggerin’ thing, you know? Three albums are dividing my heart and time right now. So which shall we write about?
Hmm…
You know, you gotta go with who got there first. It’s only fair, donchathink? Besides, with all the break-ups going on in music with the White Stripes & LCD Soundsystems and stuff, it’s kinda nice to see all the old-timers making a go of it this year, take charge, kick ass, take a few names and such. We saw Cake, Ron Sexsmith, and Social Distortion already light up our eyes and we know REM and PJ Harvey are in the pipeline, but today it’s Camper Van Beethoven & Cracker leadman’s solo debut that’s swooning our ears & brainicles.
Yep, David Lowery’s The Palace Guards is out and it’s fantastic. I find it interesting when people have multiple bands for multiple styles or sounds. Cracker was always his roots rock band — oh man, I need to hear “Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now)” like stat…
One sec.
Ah… That’s better. Where were we? Oh yeah, Lowery’s got his original gig with Camper Van Beethoven as his quirkball band (Key Lime Pie is and will always be one of my favourite albums ever).
Considering that, as far as I know, both bands are still intact, Lowery doing “David Lowery” must mean these songs, on some level, just don’t fit with the C&CvB thing.
From an outsiders perspective, some songs like “All Those Girls Mean Nothing To Me” do sound like they could’ve fit elsewhere, but maybe it’s similar to the old axiom, “you can take the boy out of Florida, but you can’t take Florida out the boy” ’cause lard knows I tried… Lowery is Lowery so you could make a case for this whole solo thing being kinda silly. Hell, you could probably make a case that Cracker is Camper van Beethoven is David Lowery and vicey-vicey-versy.
I disagree though. I don’t have to understand the difference between the projects to understand the desire and need to keep them separate. People wonder why I’m spread out more than a 5 dollar whore on two-fer-one night.
snaps!
So, yeah, the comparisons will come in all the reviews, for sure. Hell, I think I just spent a couple paragraphs on it. And for that, Lowery, I’m sorry.
This album is really wonderful. The wonderfully odd (see: “The Palace Guards”). It’s unabashedly kuntry (see: “Raise ‘em Up on Honey”). And dear jeebus on a stick it can be absolutely beautiful (see: “Deep Oblivion”).
Okay, enough with the “see: Song” crap, just get it, play it over and over again. We old timers still gots it mother fuckers!!
Track Listing:
1 – Raise ‘em Up on Honey
2 – The Palace Guards
3 – Deep Oblivion
4 – Ah You Left Me
5 – All Those Girls Meant Nothing to Me
6 – I Sold the Arabs the Moon
7 – Marigold
8 – Big Life
9 – Submarine
Ah…. and a little old school Cracker for you with “Low”:
yeah, that’s the stuff.
Click here for David Lowery love… He’s on the twitters too!
Cheers,
T.
Photography by Harleen…
Someone once told me that Bright Eyes done broke up. I shrugged. I liked Bright Eyes fine, but I also liked his various solo stuff that was showing up, and figuring that Oberst hasn’t hung up his geetar for good, I didn’t really think much of it after that. But then suddenly there was a song that showed up, word of an album, then BLAMO fire & brimstone shows up on the intertubals and I was blown away…..
This is not a repeated-listening in one sitting type of album, like Hazards Of Love by our faves The Decemberists, this is more like a movie than an album. Our opening scene is quasi-religious meets sci-fi meets nut job sermon-of-sorts talking about time, universes, Sumerians, the bible, reptile aliens fucking slave humans to create counter-clockwise dimension-hopping babies… and Hitler.
Then the music starts… No, he’s not singing about the reptilian aliens or Hitler (as far as I can tell), but the mood, the movie’s aesthic, has been set, there’s a layer of darkness and wtf-ness that sits on top of even the poppiest songs on the album.
Periodically, our sermon on the mount shows up again, keeping us grounded in Oberst’s fire.
As much as I like the individual songs just fine, the album works best as an album. If I can’t listen to the whole thing, I find I don’t want to listen to it at all. That sounds like a bad thing, but it’s not. The same was true of Hazards Of Love. It was all or nothing. Yeah, sure, there was a song or two that fit on a mixtape or two, but really my preferred method of ingestion was every. single. course.
Yeah, I just dipped from movie analogies to food. Shake n’ bake, baby!
NOTE: Speaking of Shake N’ Bake… just made some for Baby & I the other night. First time in, what? 20? 30 years? since I’ve had it. Quite delicious! Quite delicious indeedy…
Anywhosals… Get this and enjoy. It’s really amazing….
1 Firewall
2 Shell Games
3 Jejune Stars
4 Approximate Sunlight
5 Haile Selassie
6 A Machine Spiritual (In The People’s Key)
7 Triple Spiral
8 Beginner’s Mind
9 Ladder Song
10 One For You, One For Me
While we are at it… some old Bright Eyes
Bright Eyes lovins: Official | Label
Cheers!
T.
Photography by Kalif Banane
It’s amazing anyone records in studios anymore, isn’t it? Last week, we went pretty deep into why you as a independent band, should delete your myspace page. The response has been overwhelming! Bloggers & band members joined up in a pretty united voice recognizing that diluting your band by spreading them all over the internet for the sake of being heard vs. focusing and directing your potential new fans to, at most, one site for news/tours/vids (like a blog) and one site to stream/embed/PURCHASE (like bandcamp).
The revolution is not over, we still have much work to do to get the word out. Do we start a facebook page (seems rather counter-revolutionary though)? A new blog? Just keep pointing people to our post that started it all? Keep an eye!
But, beyond that, this weekend I was listening to the new Modern Skirts album that found it’s way onto the intertubes of cyber love and I read somewhere that much (if not all) of the album was made via bedroom recordings.
If you hadn’t had told me, I’d never had known. As computers come, more and more as standard, with recording programs like Garage Band or with Audacity and what not free online, it’s amazing that anyone uses studios anymore. Don’t get my wrong, I’m grateful people do. Many many bands need to have that outside eye & ear at the helm, a professional system with professional people to help guide them along.
Sometimes we just don’t know when we suck.
But at the same time… not only has the demolition of the barriers to entry into the music world allowed for a seemingly infinite number of bands to try to make it, it’s also had to have made it so so so liberating for everyone, from your average schmo to your superbands to just plug in and go, upload & send, check done. A couple layers and you got a “full band” releasing a full song, never having to get out of your PJs. Pretty epic.
Seems to have done well for the Modern Skirts and their new album Gramahawk!
Apparently, after their last album, Modern Skirts felt the need to step back, do a little self-check action of sorts, then start tinkering around at home. The response seemed to be encouraging and before you know it, we got ourselves a full on gem!
The album is heavy on percussion and voice-play, which pulls them from the slightly more straight-forward pop we fell for on their last album. The mulit-leads still dominate (including the one guy who sounds like the guy from They Might Be Giants). But this time out, they are singing about their mad crush on Jane Child…
hot.
…break-ups, and, DUIs — which is also the name one of my favourite songs on the album, it’s almost like a military-carnival thing, pretty awesome-o! — hahahahahahhaha-EXCELLENT! To me, this is miminalist Modern Skirts kinda. Stark, rough, and really really fun.
01. Jane Child
02. Happy 81
03. Under Bridges and Overpasses
04. Bumper Car
05. DUI
06. Tape Deck
07. Glass of Water
08. American Gothic
09. Shipshape
10. Hitler on Wheels
11. To Be a Branch Davidian
Modern Skirt love: Tumblr!
Tour Dates:
1.21 – Charleston, SC – Tin Roof
2.11 – Raleigh, NC – Pour House
2.12 – Charlotte, NC – Snug Harbor
3.4 – Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club
3.5 – Atlanta, GA – Smith’s Olde Bar
3.11 – New Orleans, LA – Circle Bar
Previously…
Cheers!
T.
Photography by encorine…
The weather outside is frightful indeed! Great day for some SNOWCLOCROSS!!! cycling, for realz (dog). What’s SNOWCLOCROSS!!! cycling, you ask? Ah, let me quickly e’splain. You take the cheapest cyclocross bike you can find, as sported by this rather interestingly spandexed individual…
Then, you rip off the knobby tires and throw on some surprisingly inexpensive (compared to road bike tires) studded tires from Peter White Cycles
Wrap yourself in enough layers that people mistake you for the little brother in A Christmas Story..
Find the nearest paths & fields covered in ice & snow and RIDE, BABY RIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Photo of me by Tulibo!
WOOOT! It’s a blast!
Careful though, studded tires help, but it certainly doesn’t prevent you from falling, as demonstrated by my last second decision one ride to cut across a deep snowy soccer field, only to forget about the way these junior mobile soccer nets are kept upright, running over one of the metal bars hidden in the snow, SLIP, PLOP!
Left a lovely profile of a heavily layered snow angle on a bike. I was only able to get back on the back after about, oh, 10 minutes of laughing my ass off. Yeah, straight up LMAOing, as the kids text.
But, while the thought of riding around like an idiot on ice sounds amazing, for now, I’m stuck inside with a chilly feeling lodged in my brain. Fortunately, I’ve got Repitilians by Starfucker to keep me warm!
Yeah, yeah, dance isn’t normally in my wheelhouse, it’s true, but man there is something about this album. To me, it seems to go beyond superficial dance music, maybe just using the base of dance to build really fun, quirky, pop music!
Songs like “Born” sound right out of a Flaming Lips album — Her naaaame is Yoshimi….. She’s a black-belt in karate! Woo woo woo! — where “Julius” seems like some trippy 80s sci-fi soundtrack before dropping into some chillllaxing “Bury Us Alive” and so it goes through out the album.
Sure, some slip more into dance than others, but it has the depth and breadth and etc that gives it longevity and repeatability , but really….. it’s just really fun to listen to!!!
Enjoy!
1. Born
2. Julius
3. Bury Us Alive
4. Mystery Cloud
5. Death as a Fetish
6. Astoria
7. Reptilians
8. The White of Noon
9. Hungry Ghost
10. Mona Vegas
11. Millions
12. Quality Time
Starfucker love: BANDCAMP
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Stay warm, go ride yer bikes, go take some pictures (then send some to me), and we’ll be seeing you soon!
Cheers,
Tsuru
Photography by ME! HOORAY!
*WARNING* The following post contains tons of aural awesomeness, visual naughtiness, & some serious self-pimping. So, you know, you’ve been warned.
Alright my friends… a happy Friday to you and shit! I gots something a little special for you today to wrap up the week that was, make that doubly, no, triply special, no, wait, QUADRUPLY SPECIAL!!! WOOT!
Number 1: If you haven’t notice or paid attention or something, TSURUFOTO NUDIEZINE issue no. 2 is LIVE, LIVE, LIVE!!! BUT…………. Not only is it live on Etsy in paper form, it’s also live via Amazon on their Kindle or iPhone/Android/Blackberry/iPad/PC Kindle App!
Awesome, right? Our 2nd zine!!!!
I guess it’s true what they say… I really am the Hugh Hefner of Zines.
What is TSURUFOTO NUDIEZINE? We essentially took the idea of a classic playboy (photosets combined with articles) and the old punk zines, mixed them together, tsuru-style and this time, built a 20-page (including the cover) 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 closed, black & white photocopied zine!
In our 2nd issue we included…
Letters To Tsuru
T&A (Tweet & Answer)
Photography: White Winter Hymnal with Nina
TsuruBride Present… Craft Corner
A Naughty Wordsearch
Photography & Centerfold: A Walk In The Woods with Isabella Misery
Cookin’ w/Tsuru with Accompany Mixtape
Interview: Katie Pierce of Jack In The Pocket
Photography: Tabs & Tiffany Play Hide-n-Seek
Calendar: Oiseaux retros for February
ALL for only $4 in real live paper form or $1.99 in e-form!
Now, what’s that got to do with today? Well… that brings us to number 2!
Number 2: We gots a big ass mammer-jammer double mother-fucking mixtape for you today inspired by one of the photo sets! Yep, in the zine we had a set with Tabs & Tiffany playing naked Hide-n-Seek in the very very very very cold woods — see mixtape cover photo down below! It’s a mix of old and new and funny and fun, but that brings us to number 3.
Number 3: When we shot the set, we also made a brand spanking new TSURUFOTO Presents short film to accompany the mixtape set to a song IN the mixtape by Cub where some of the lyrics became the name of the mixtape! Very fun & very NSFW & very tsururific!
Ah.. but we ain’t done! There’s a twist!
Number 4: The mixtape is a blind mixtape!
Wait.. What? Why blind?
Well, I just found that listening to a mixtape, completely blind, changes the way you listen to it. Here, I’ll give you an example. One of my favourite moments on a blind mixtape is when you’ll be listening to some song, maybe one you’ve never heard before, grooving along, enjoying it, no clue who it is, then suddenly BLAMO! the first few notes kick in on the next song and it’s immediate enjoyment, excitement, & sheer giddiness as “dude! this is one of my favourite jams!” It’s like a wonderful surprise!
Where otherwise, you might scan and judge a tracklisting, happy to see some songs you like, then decide to give some or all of it a go….. not quite the same thing. Last time we did this as one giant mp3, this time we kept it broke up and don’t worry, I left the ID tags in place so if you grab it, your iPod player of choice can figure it all out & shit, but more fun is to just push play on track no. 1 and let the next couple of hours be filled with music & fun & nekkidness! Doesn’t that just sound grand? Oh, and for all you who just hate surprises or for those who just can’t figure out what some of the songs are… there’s a little spoiler link down there for ya.
So that’s it! Quadruple awesome good times on a stick!
Have a wonderful weekend everyone. I’m about to head out on a long weekend to Arizona to see my Baby Birds, sedona, and the grand canyon, & try to snap a few cool pics for ya (I’ve never gone before)…
So while I’m away, I you all have lots of fun, ride yer bikes, go get nekkid, take pictures, and report back here. But, until then, enjoy as…
TSURURADIO Presents…
(Full Zip – except the film, of course)
SIDE A: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
SIDE B: 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
Bonus: 35 Why? Because I love you…
TSURUFOTO Presents… Tabs & Tiffany Play Hide-n-Seek! (NSFW) from TSURUFOTO on Vimeo.
See ya’ll next week, unless you are all over the twitters & whatnots, then you’ll come on my trip with me!
Cheers,
Tsuru
Photography by nylecoj…
Cold out there this weekend! Yesterday’s bike ride in single digits for 20 miles on snow & ice was one of my toughest ones yet! But, with cold comes productivity and my oh my how productive it was! A little glance & a click on the woman in a mask on your right will give you a hint…..
More on that a different day, right now my mind is stuck in the cold ass fall & winter we’ve been having — OMG, the republicans were so right about that no-global-warming thing they talked about in last year’s snowpocalypse.
SIDE NOTE: Dear (kill all) humans. I keep hearing the phrase snowpocalypse and snowmaggedon this year. But here’s the thing, you already used it for last year’s snow — remember Washington DC? Or did it’s mass annihilation also result in it wiping out of your mind?? — so, you know, you can’t use it again. If you must, at least insure to label it so that it’s regional specific, like that shitty CSI show… SNOWPOCALYPSE: NEW YORK! Anyways, moving on..
Where was we? Ah, got my mind on my winter and my winter on my mind. And what dreamy album has been serenading me this winter? I mean, like, since the first cold snap bitch-slapped me on a chilly November bike ride??
Yep, Beat Radio’s Golden Age. It’s got this dreamy electro-rock that just kinda pulls you out of the cold, no, that’s not right… it kinda picks you up and floats you through the cold. Suddenly, as you move through the freezing air with a steady gait or cadence, it feels fresh on your face, like it’s where you belong. Not sure if I can truly describe what I’m talking about. But instead of battling the cold, you kinda become one with it. Does that make any sense?
Probably not.
No matter and (ir)regardless, it’s one sweet album by a wonderful band — who, by the way, are great to hang out with on twitter.
Stream the whole thing via Bandcamp below, love it, then go buy it.
1. golden age
2. everything follows
3. the eternals
4. cold war
5. lonely from rock and roll
6. the best and the brightest
7. high time
8. the world is ours
9. evangeline
10. geography
Beat Radio love: BANDCAMP | OFFICIAL | LABEL
Cheers,
T.
Photography of Sheila Savage by ME for our 3rd Zine! WOOT!
Alright team-o. It’s Friday, been a fun yet busy week! And an even more funner and more busier weekend as we attempt to wrap up Issue No. 2 of our zine! Keep an eye out!
Fortunately, to help take us out for the week, we got another staple in the tsuru bin of awesome bands of since forever in a new Social Distortion album!!!
HOORAY!
It’s interesting… it’s the same conversation we had the other day about Cake’s new album, only to be reinforced in my noggin’ today. What is it about some bands, like Cake & Social Distortion, that they basically can have a formula for pretty much every single one of their songs, make album after album of, essentially, barring any little blips & bleeps here, the same album over and over again, and it be completely okay?
I mean, think about some of your favourite bands. We expect “evolutions of sound”, where they are going next, we love or hate it as this band goes more electronic, more dance, more acoustic, more psychedelic, more whatever, but just cranking out the same shit is uh-uh, no way.
Except… I hear a Social Distortion or Cake album is coming out and I know, pretty much, exactly what I’m going to get and you know what? I still get as giddy as a school boy about to get a blowjob!
I mean, is Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes the exact same album as Mommy’s Little Monster? Of course not, the greys have definitely mellowed Mike out a curmudgeon and this time out, there seems to be a few ladies singing back-up here and there, but, listen to “Alone & Forsaken” and it’s the same guitar technique we know and love by Ness and the crew.
And you know what? It’s such a good thing.
Call it comfort food. Call it white gravy!
Mmm… white gravy, biscuits, fried chicken… Mmm.
But it’s delicious. There’s a reason why Bob Evans is still in business. And that Cracker Country Barrel whatever too! You know what you are going to get and it’s going to be delicious, filling, and oh so satisfying!
Makes you wonder… What other bands could’ve done this and made you happy? Me? Well, you know I love most weezer up to a certain point, but I wonder if, just what if, they did nothing but crank out one “blue album” after another?
Would we really complain? Sure, some people, some music crickets, would dismiss them, but man, what if they just did their one thing and did it well and did it over and over again? Would that really had been so bad? Certainly better than this:
Amirite?
So I say to Mike Ness & the rest of Social Distortion, to Cake and to any other comfort bands you and I may have. Brothers & sisters, don’t stop. Just keep doing what your doing. You seem to enjoy it, I sure as fuck do too. So keep on keepin’ on!!!
Yes.
1. “Road Zombie”
2. “California (Hustle And Flow)”
3. “Gimme The Sweet And Lowdown”
4. “Diamond In The Rough”
5. “Machine Gun Blues”
6. “Bakersfield”
7. “Far Side Of Nowhere”
8. “Alone And Forsaken”
9. “Writing On The Wall”
10. “Can’t Take It With You”
11. “Still Alive”
Your SxDx love: Myspace | Official | Label
Cheers,
T.
Zine by TSURUFOTO!!!
Howdy kiddos! Got a special little mid-holiday post-xmas pre-new years whoop it up for ya in the form of a mixtape!!! BUT… no no no… that’s not all, because accompanying that mixtape is a sweet little film we made, yep!
Before we get to all of that though, I’ve got some exciting news! See that scan of our zine up top that’s available over at Etsy for the low low price of $4?? WELL… let’s say you don’t like the idea of paper and have, like the incomparable TsuruBride & I, moved on to e-ink (or LCD if you prefer your reading in app form) well, the zine is now officially for sale in the Kindle shop for only $1.99!!!
I know, right? Fuckin’ wow! Pretty cool, eh?
Wasn’t sure if they’d accept it, but they DO have a graphic novel / comic “erotica” section, so I gave it a go. e-ink and black & white photocopied paper seems to be a match made in heaven, if you ask me!
Now, we are already building Issue No. 2, so keep an eye out soon, AND… if you are in or around Columbus & want to be a part of our celebration of all things weird, wonderful, & beautiful, check out our casting call over at Model Mayhem and give us a holler!
Very exciting stuff, eh?
Speaking of Issue No. 2… one page is devoted to the photoshoot that brought about our latest short film accompanying today’s mixtape! WOO! Isabella Misery reprises her devastating role as our modern day Bluebeard, this time kidnapping poor Sheila Savage, holding her captive in a less-than-seemly basement and Bluebeard leaves no survivors…. ever.
We caught it all on film, soundtracked it, and put it all together for you as a finale to our latest mixtape endeavour!! So, with all that said, and that’s certainly a enough said for now, let’s hop to it as….
TSURURADIO Presents…
(Full zip)
01 The Black Swans – I.D.W.2F. (thanks Eve!)
02 The Decemberists – Down By The Water
03 The Rural Alberta Advantage – Stamp
04 The Rumour Said Fire – Comfort To The Dalai Lama (thanks Peanut!)
05 R.E.M. – Discoverer
06 Tigers That Talked – The Merchant
07 Iron and Wine – Biting Your Tail
08 Bird and Flower – Jump Out the Way
09 Young Galaxy – Peripheral Visionaries
10 James Blake – Lindesfarne II
11 Geographer – Kites (thanks Elias)
12 Destroyer – Song for America
13 Portugal The Man – 1000 Years
14 Miles Kurosky – I Can’t Swim
15 Weezer – El Scorcho
16 Pomegranates – One Of Us
17 The Greenhornes – My Sparrow
18 Brian Bennett – Thug (from Black Dynamite)
19 The Frowning Clouds – Please Yo’ Self
20 White Whale – The Admiral
21 Elvis Presley & The Jordanaires – I’ll Remember You (thank you Isabella & Sheila!)
Woo! Hot dayum, eh?
Cheers,
Tsuru
Photography “Playground Self-Portrait” by Me!
Is it 2011 already?
Well, no. But it certainly starting to feel that way as the leaks of 2010 start to dry up and we start to see the sign of the corduroy show up in our album release dates — 11, corduroy, think the wales on the fabric, get it? We talked about this a bit yesterday, how the coming of US Thanksgiving marks the beginning of list-making season, and boy oh boy, before we head out to vacation, I shoooould be ready to present our very special list to you (with accompanying mixtape, as always).
That’s going to keep me uber busy this week (and force this to be a rather quick post, sorry), but that’s not now, that’s then and until then, we’ve got now and now is the new release from where-the-fuck-have-you-been Oh No Oh My called People Problems!
You can take the debut album genre out of the band, but you can’t take the band out of their debut genre, is what momma always said. And yeah, Oh No Oh My has done an “about face” musically or something, but you know what… They are still Oh No Oh My and that makes this boy very very happy…
1. Walking Into Me
2. You Were Right
3. Again Again
4. No Time For Talk
5. I Don’t Know
6. So I Took You
7. Brains
8. Not The One
9. There Will Be Bones
10. Should Not Have Come To This
11. Circles And Carousels
12. Summerdays
Oh No Oh My Love!!! Myspace | Official | Label
Cheers,
Tsuru
Happy US Thanksgiving everyone! Baby bird is safe at my place & Mama bird is in route, next up is a dead bird in the oven! WOOT! So, while we get on our first traditional US Thanksgiving in a million years — how do you cook a giant bird again? — you guys enjoy some viddys and have a wonderful day!!!
And some vimeoeoeo…
parenthetical girls »young throats« from chris caliman on Vimeo.
Watchman from Peggy Sue on Vimeo.
And later, if you are feeling randy after your trymptophanic nap, a TSURUFOTO video of Tyler & Meiko At Capital Motel with music from the vinyl rip of “Magpie In The Morning” by Neko Case!
TSURUFOTO Presents… Tyler & Meiko At Capital Motel (NSFW) from TSURUFOTO on Vimeo.
Love & Cheers,
Tsuru & family…
How are you enjoying your Crane Wife story book? I know, so good, right? Mmm….. Yummy yummy, I’m still listening, 2 days straight now, not sure how long it will last, but hot damn I’m enjoying it while it is!
Well…. before we sign off for the day, just wanted to remind you (in case you haven’t noticed the big ad over to the uppper right) that this weekend is VIEWFINDER at Junctionview Studios!!!
Can I get a WOOOOOT!!!!
The members of the Columbus Crafty Cotillion, Couchfire Collective, and Junctionview Studios are very excited to announce they are partnering to create a new event in Columbus called Viewfinder!
The show will feature handmade goods by over 30 craft vendors, fine art by Columbus’ creative community, and open studios of resident artists at Junctionview Studios.
Not only with Baby be there selling off her metallic leather accessories (I’ll be her bag boy & seat warmer during bathroom breaks), but check this vendor list!
5 Orange Potatoes
Alison Rose
AmyD
Clinton Reno
Crafty Beavers
Cynthia Vardhan Ceramics
Flamestitch
Igloo Letterpress
Jack Gramann
Kunklebaby
Creux Poche
LP Designs
Maram
Make Believe Monsters
Mary Martineau
Mary Moon Designs
Miss Megan Mac
Nicki Strouss
Out of the Pink Sky
Patrice Lehocky
pattycake bakery
Poshta
Red Clover Clutch
Rivet
Spacedog
These Are Things
Tsurubride (aka Baby!!!)
Umbrella Girl Productions
What the Rock!?
Wholly Craft
Zen Tree
Hot damn, right? That doesn’t even include the Food-cart Food Court, the artists exhibitions, AND the Junctionview artists that are opening their studios all weekend long!!!
Junctionview Studios
889 Williams Ave
Grandview Heights OH, 43212
And look… I made you a map!
And please, when you see Baby & I, say “Allooooo!” See you there!!
Cheers!
T…
Photography by Tsuru & The Bride!
We here at TSURURADIO are all VERY excited about the new album, The King Is Dead, coming out by The Decemberists…
We love the new single ”Down By The Water“, with it’s saucy blend of Fleetwood Mac, REM, and good ol’ fashion Decemberists. Then we got this little teaser thingy
Mmm… Mmm!
BUT, before that, before Hazards Of Love, there was the king of all Decemberist albums…
It was a cold night and the snow lay low…
Everytime I hear the opening lines of The Crane Wife I, I get goosebumps. What this little Japanese folk tale has meant to Baby & I, our Tsuru arts & crafts enterprises, just about everything, even the ink embedded in our skins, has been unreal. A simple story about appreciating, trusting, and loving what you have or lose it forever, it’s not a happy ending for the poor sailmaker, but hopefully you and I can learn from his mistakes…
With our anniversary, so begins a new year, and so my brain wandered to this wonderful album to start the next three hundred and some-odd days off proper-style…
What can I say? I love this album. It is our namesake (tsuru is japanese for crane), cranes represent peace, love, mating for life, and are simply beautiful creatures.
BUT.
A big but.
Yeah, that big….
Over the years, as we have come across little bits & b-sides, seen it live, and listened to it a thousand times, it has evolved. Evolved, dare I say, to where the original release is no longer my favourite version of the album. It’s been… re-tracklisted, tsurufied, if you will, and now, for me at least in this new order it’s a perfect album.
What did we change?
First… the obvious. “After The Bombs” is the perfect denoument. The climatic sing-along of hearing all the bombs fade away of “Sons & Daughters” then the vision of people gathering in the aftermath is, well, just too perfect. Check, done.
The 2nd, slightly more blasphemous. I removed “When The War Came”. Yep. Love the song, pretty bad ass, but it just didn’t fit. Thematically it did, bombs and death and war, are throughout the album, but the sound was off for me. Don’t hate me.
But, and 3rd, I did add more murder! “The Culling Of The Fold”, originally a little too dark for the band to include (according to Meloy during his usual concert banter), is just too perfect after the dancy “Perfect Crime #2″.
The next change is the 2nd more scandalous… We added “The Perfect Crime #1 + The Day I Knew You Would Not Come Back”, yes, the drunken crazy long jam is IN! Aaaand it’s after “Perfect Crime #2″ and “Culling”. Good stories go back and forth in time, where in #2 they pulled off the crime, #1 shows us what happened the last time they tried (the drunken sloppiness actually makes it make more sense)…
The result: 1.3 hours of folk, prog, dance, pop, jangle, sing-alongs and sweeping epics with tales of love, lost, war, death, murder, crimes, separation, wanting, and, and bittersweet fade-out finales.
It’s a story book, you old favourite one, worn at the edges, stained, broken spine, randomly lost only to be discovered again in the attic or under your bed, chock full of stories, all different, but all tied back to that Crane Wife I, II, & III aesthetic.
And when Meloy sings that last line, “until it all… starts over again”, you flip back to the front cover, and you do, you start the stories all over again..
*happy sigh*
1. “The Crane Wife 3″
2. “The Island (Come and See, The Landlord’s Daughter, You’ll Not Feel the Drowning)”
3. “Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)” (duet with Laura Veirs)
4. “O Valencia!”
5. “The Perfect Crime #2″
6. “Culling Of The Fold”
7. “The Perfect Crime #1 + The Day I Knew You’d Not Come Back”
8. “Shankill Butchers”
9. “Summersong”
10. “The Crane Wife 1 & 2″
11. “Sons & Daughters”
12. “After The Bombs”
Some Decemberists love: Official
Cheers,
T…
Photography by Marta Bevacqua…
Oh my! This weekend is going to be TSURUFOTO TSURURIFIC!!!! So, excuse me whilest I pimperin’ myself out for a sec or two, eh?
1. I’m working on this bad-ass vintage series for a calendar, well this weekend is the final 3 shoots! After this, it’s time to assemble with my font collaborator Jillian and get that bad boy up on the internettals of love tubulars for your datin’ needs! WOOT!
2. With one of the shoots, I’m trying my hand at video! It may be an epic failure of epic portions of epicnosity but I got an idea, I got two incredible people who are willing to play along, so I GOTS to give it a go! If I can pull this off, keep an eye out for the viddy soon!
3. I’ve decided it’s time to try something even newerererer………… That’s right, my friends, I’m goin’ into the boudoir business, but TSURUFOTO-style!!!
i.e….. NOT expensive & NOT glamour-shots! TSURUFOTO-style means polaroids & vintage-style prints, simple, fun, easy-peasy, beautiful, & priced where you don’t need to have $1000 to have someone take a photo of you! We got the Facebook page started and an early-version of a website up!
IF we can get them printed quick enough, we’ll be offering coupons in the goodiebags at Viewfinder on November 20 & 21 at Junctionview!
WOOOOOO!!!!!
Exciting stuff, eh? As if that wasn’t enough (and sometimes it certainly feels like it is), I finally got a sweet idea on how to display our infamous Born In A Bottlerocket series! If I can pull THAT off, who knows? Maybe some adventurous & brave gallery will give us a wall or two for a show, eh?
Oh man. I’m BEAT just thinking about it. Between that and closing in on 6,000 miles on the bike this year, honestly I need all the music I can get just to keep me sane so thank the lardy lard that Beuregard by Pepper Rabbit made it’s way into my ear canals..
Did you know that the difference between an ear canal and an ear river is that the canal is man made? Mmm… rivers of wax.
Beuregard is beureutiful! There’s an element of that whole dreamy beach housey thingy thing that’s been floating around the intertubes since earlier this year, but somehow, I feel like this one feels more organic. Pianos and mandolins and woodwinds and banjos are the instruments from which their dreamscapes are made.
Ew… anyone else think of cheesy crap like dreamcatchers when you read the word “dreamscapes”? lol…
Okay, that’s pretty epic. But alas and know, there’s no Navajo spirit in this release, it’s beach boys and sweet dreams, more Cali than Mesa. And it’s just beautiful…. So load it up, warsh yer worries all away and have a wonderful wonderful weekend, my cranes, we’ll see you before long!!
01 Clarinet Song
02 Harvest Moon
03 In the Spirit of Beauregard
04 Red Wine
05 Snowalker
06 Older Brother
07 None Shall Sleep
08 Song for a Pump Organ
09 Babette!
10 Send in the Horns
Pepper Rabbit love: Myspace | Official | Label
Cheers,
Tsuru
Photography by Jennifer Schussler…
Mmm…. Bees and on my favourite day, Thursday! Why Thursday? Because Thursdays are like being next in line, you know, where you are waiting in some line, say at the airport, then suddenly you are next, the next open teller, the next available person, etc, is for you.
Good feeling…
Now, don’t get me wrong, it can be super-frustrating as well, as some Thursdays can be… Ever become Next and suddenly one of the reps finishes with a customer, you think it’s your turn, then BLAMO they inexplicably leave their station????
DUDE! WTF!
Ah, tis life, I presume… But (ir)regardless, it’s Thursday, word is there’s snow pending (say WHAAAA?) for tomorrow, but right now, the sun is shining and my soul is in a happy happy place. One of the big reasons for the pleasin’ is Every Step’s A Yes by Bees!
Okay, these guys are kinda-psych folk guys, but the album is pretty easy to digest, leaning more toward the 60s than some fucked up 2010 noise-fest. Honestly, that’s quite the good thing. It’s all 8mm films & hippie-styled thrift store clothes in these songs, without sounding contrived as some of these retro bands can tend to be on occasion… i.e. more this:
Than this:
You dig?
I think these guys are major label (really? huh?), so I’m just sticking with their single. Enjoy!
Winter Rose
Silver Line
No More Excuses
Tired Of Loving
Change Can Happen
Island Love Letter
Skill Of The Man
Pressure Makes Me Lazy
Gaia
Cheers,
Tsuru
Photography by ME!
Wow! What a fun week we’ve been having, eh??? Well… now it’s my turn! I’ve been a busy mammer-jammer getting my mixtape together for our Cranes Day 2 1/2 going on down in the society, as well as keeping you inundated with all kinds of mixtape fun here, but considering I’m the one who beckoned for Mixtapes Week, I knew I had to put another one together for the occasion — an occasion that seemed to catch the attention of the local press even!
But this time, I felt like doing something a wee-bit different than my normal ragtag mix of indie-pop & prog & old faves….. this time, I felt compelled to whip my cock out and totally, well, rock out. Oldies, newies, and everything in between! And my friends, it felt so gooooood. It felt… right.
I forgot how much I love a fun power chord, drop-D tuned barn-burner! Peeps like Social Distortion & Weezer were a significant part of my musical liferin’ back in the 90s, how much I love to sing-along, air out the guitar on the steering wheel, wonder how much louder I could take it as every crevice in my car was filled sound! Ah yes…. such good times!
RAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWK!
Is that a seam in the middle of that image? Kinda takes the “rock” out knowing it’s part of someone pants or worse, some shitty jean jacket.
Anywhosaldoosals, in that spirit this mixtape was built. A couple test runs on a few bike rides — seriously, I now know why all those aggro-roadies out there listen to such hard crappy music, nothing like a power chord to get you to grit yer teeth and push up that hill! — a deletion here, a tracklisting adjustment there, and BLAMO!
SO! You. Yeah, you… Go get your dad’s old tennis racket.
They make the best guitars…
Slap on your head band and, if you got one & preferably if your female, a terry cloth romper, put on your BEST attitude face!
Photography of Sheila Savage by ME!
AND LET’S WHIP OUR COCKS OUT AND ROCK THE FUCK OUT AS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TSURURADIO Presents…
(full zip)
01 R.E.M. – What’s the frequency, Kenneth
02 Stone Temple Pilots – Vasoline
03 Bad Religion – 21st Century (Digital Boy)
04 Live – Lakini’s Juice
05 The Fire Theft – Heaven
06 Social Distortion – Reach For The Sky
07 Black Mountain – Angels
08 Band Of Horses – Is There a Ghost
09 Gentleman Jesse – Highland Crawler
10 Turbo Fruits – Mama’s Mad Cos I Fried My Brain
11 Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers – Venus Shaver
12 Uncle Tupelo – Graveyard Shift
13 The Thermals – I Called Out Your Name
14 Frank Black – Los Angeles
15 Spoon – Don’t Make Me A Target
16 Fugazi – Waiting Room
17 PJ Harvey – Oh My Lover
18 Weezer – Slob
19 Camper Van Beethoven – Pictures Of Matchstick Men
20 Plants And Animals – Tom Cruz
21 Heartless Bastards – Sway
22 Pearl Jam – Immortality
WOOT! Good times!!! MIXTAPES WEEK ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Funny thing is…. I think there’s more mixtapes still a-coming! But, until then, go ride yer bikes, go take some pictures, and I’ll see you before long!
Cheers!
Aaron
Photography by bwfilmguy…
You guys know that “dance music” is not really my forté, per se. Yeah, I like a song here or there, but for the most part, I need a little bit more meat with my ecstacy & glow sticks.
But today’s been tough. Rough. Kicking my ass, then turning me around and fisting it. To the elbow. Scratching my throat. Yeah, one of those days. But then I listen to this…
And, it’s dance, it’s chill, it’s sweet slow beats, soothes. Calms. Brings me back down, drops the heart beat. Maybe this isn’t dance? Maybe this is that chill-wave thing people blog about? Don’t know. Don’t care. Instead, I’ll let it wash over me, wash down me, and wash this day away….
1. Camouflage
2. Search Party
3. Hydra
4. Photojournalist
5. Crisp 100s
6. Goons
7. Light Curse
8. New Chain
9. Panthers
10. Invisible Grid
Viddies!!!!!!!!!!!!111
Small Black: Bad Lover from Nick Bentgen on Vimeo.
Small Black: Despicable Dogs from Yoonha Park on Vimeo.
Small Black love: Myspace | Official | Label
Cheers,
T.
contact me @ tsurumail
