100 gecs
How You Become a 100 Gecs Fan
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“Have you heard of 100 gecs?” No. You haven’t — they’re a well-kept secret.
Arts & Culture
TEST SPIN: Nick Cave — Skeleton Tree
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Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, a “post-punk super group,” plays the kind of music that makes you want to be a roadie, a groupie, a super fan. They sound like an older, alternative Adele: refreshingly soulful. Skeleton Tree, their new album released on September 9, carries the weight of a universal conscience. Nick Cave patches together old lyrics in a new way that resonates in your ear drums, makes its way into your cerebrum and sends a cascade of interneurons down toward your heart. Skeleton Tree is irresistible from its first echoing electric chord.
Arts & Culture
TEST SPIN: Death Grips — Bottomless Pit
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I’m no Death Grips stan (à la Anthony Fantano), but I am someone who has genuinely liked all the music they’ve put out. After every release, though, there’s a little voice in the back of my head that wonders if MC Ride, Zach Hill and Andy Morin are fucking with us. Do they really believe their abrasive industrial x noise x hip-hop hodgepodge is good music, art or both? Or are they sitting in Sacramento, laughing at their legions of hyperdedicated fans for falling for their joke? Either way, they’re smarter than all of us.
absurdism
TEST SPIN: Xiu Xiu — Plays the Music of Twin Peaks
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To all the trendy kids out there who still appreciate the darker side of things — all the goths who brightened their wardrobes after high-school but could never quite part with the misanthropy or thick eyeliner — it’s here, the fetish object which perfectly encapsulates your particular blend of angst and hipness. Released April 16 as a record-store day exclusive Xiu Xiu Plays the Music of Twin Peaks is a collector’s item for fans of Xiu Xiu, and fans of Twin Peaks, but most especially for that undoubtedly large intersection between the two sets. Adding, in my mind, to the album’s mystical quality is the fact that I can’t for the life of me track it down. My hunt started with a trip down to Angry Mom, which ended in disappointment when I learned that the album had sold out. After this, I assumed that I would simply end up listening to it through Spotify, as I would any other album these days, but as of yet, it is not available on Spotify, iTunes or any other digital outlet.
Arts & Culture
TEST SPIN: Tim Hecker — Love Streams
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Tim Hecker has always made physical music. His pieces target not only the mind or the emotions. They also aim at the body. Beyond the usual heart and soul, Hecker’s compositions induce quivers and shakes up and down the skin. Sentiments of love or hurt — the expected, comfortable motifs — fade out and give way to sensations of terror and reverence.
Arts & Culture
Get Lost: A Review of Naked Noise by an Art Virgin
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My boyfriend knew never to discuss with me the possibility that “noise” music could take any talent to create; he knew I’d say there was no kind of artistic value in a bunch of sounds that I could easily reproduce. He knew that I equated noise to contemporary art that consists of a blank canvas or an empty room or a single red dot painted with a shaky hand. And he knew very well that I was absolutely determined to stay ignorant. So I understood his shock when I notified him that I would be going to Ithaca Underground’s Naked Noise #7 on Saturday night. What changed my mind was basement duty.
Arts & Culture
A Conversation with Composer, Percussionist and Label Owner Sarah Hennies
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Sarah Hennies is an experimental percussionist and composer who runs her own record label, Weighter Recordings. Besides recording and performing her own solo works, she plays in local percussion trio Meridian and has played in various rock bands throughout her career, existing “somewhere between the experimental world and the underground punk world.” Having moved to Ithaca two years ago from Austin, Texas, Sarah will be taking part in Ithaca Underground’s Naked Noise #7 on Saturday for the first time, playing the vibraphone. Her latest album, Gather & Release, came out on April 5.
The Sun: Tell me about yourself as a musician, what do you do and what’s your involvement in the local music scene? Sarah Hennies:I’m a percussionist and a composer.