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Claire Evans on Life on the Road

22 Jul 2013

The band YACHT, pictured in Mexico in 2011. Photo courtesy Claire Evans.

The band YACHT, pictured in Mexico in 2011. Photo courtesy Claire Evans.

Tipped to this by the estimable Tim Johnson: Claire Evans of YACHT writes a great article about life on the road, “The World Turns Blurry When I’m on Tour with the Band”:

It’s taken me 10 years on the road to realise this. Just as it boggles me to imagine that the places I’ve visited continue to exist in my absence, the audiences we play for firmly believe that we are ephemeral. To admit that we perform in other cities, night after night, violates the terms of an unspoken covenant in which we exist solely for them and they for us. But we must keep moving, and so must they, countless trajectories of human life careening outwards from the moment the lights go down. A concert, in this sense, isn’t kinetic: it’s stillness itself, a world briefly paused.

In other news, on repeat, with joy: “Oh Come On” by The Julie Ruin. Their record Run Fast is out 9/3 on the Julie Ruin’s TJR Records. (If you haven’t watched the “Friendship Game” with Kathleen Hanna and Kathi Wilcox, watch it now.)

12 Years of DFA: Too Old To Be New, Too New To Be Classic

8 May 2013

“Our story begins here, at Manhattan’s East Village, at a small club called Plant Bar. Inside, you’ll find James Murphy, a 32-year-old musician, DJ and sound engineer who believes his chance of success has already faded from view. Little does he know he will go on to form LCD Soundsystem, one of the most popular and loved bands of the decade.”

Great mini-documentary about DFA Records, home to our pals YACHT, LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, The Juan Maclean, Nancy Whang, Black Dice, Sinkane and many more. Now I just want to listen to DFA bands all night and dream about taking over James Murphy’s exquisite life (cruises, peanut butter, fedoras, tuxedos). All hail DFA! Long may you run.

(Please email us at [email protected] to find out which LCD Soundsystem song is our favorite, how we ordered The Rapture’s “House of Jealous Lovers” Insound Tour Support Series Vol. 9 back in 2001, and our secret, mildly passionate history with Hey Dude.)

If I Can’t Go To Heaven, Let Me Go To Kohl’s

11 Mar 2013

Last week our favorite Marfa-via-Portland-by-way-of-Los Angeles band Yacht posted an image of a T-shirt from Kohl’s that featured lifted lyrics from their song “Shangri-La” …

image

“Listen,” they asked their fans, “we’re interested in how ideas circulate through popular culture, but this “If I Can’t Go To Heaven” triangle t-shirt is too much. Kohl’s is a huge corporate entity that stands to make way more money off our lyrics and design than we ever will. Please share this image and let Kohl’s know it’s not OK to rip independent artists off this blatantly.”

Listicle-heavy audioblog Stereogum responded with a list of similar unsolicited “corporate makeovers” from years past — including the unexpected Mickey Mouse/Joy Division T-shirt — and more or less declared this instance to be “corporate-enabled theft,” lamenting that “artists have little to no recourse in cases like this.”

However, as of March 8, Kohl’s appears to have removed the T-shirt from its website, though no word on the band’s Twitter feed as to whether or not anyone from the department store chain addressed the incident.

Here’s the video for “Shangri-La”, should any other aspiring corporate T-shirt entrepreneurs care to reconsider upcoming text-based designs:

YACHT – Shangri-La from Jona Bechtolt on Vimeo.

Please note that shout-outs are not limited to Southern California …

If I can’t go to heaven let me go to LA
Or the Far West Texas desert or an Oregon summer day
If we build a Utopia will you come and stay?
Shangri-La La La La La La La La La…

Moskowitz gave $1 million to American Crossroads in February

In July, it claimed responsibility for an attack on the Grand Mosque in the provincial capital Zahedan that targeted members of the Revolutionary Guards and killed 28 people.
They additionally provided unlimited choice to their owners, executives and staff for their own health plans.
” I was very frustrated with that decision, given I don’t want decision making to ever cost me in an event like this.

“I think we’ve done that to an extent, just having a presence of life there,” Osborne told the newspaper.
High School SportsAll Metro Boys Track and Field TeamTevin Bailey High School SportsAll Metro Girls Track and Field 2015The Baltimore Sun All Metro first and second teams for girls track and field, plus the Player of the Year and Coach of the Year.