Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
It's no secret that Blonde Redhead is one of my favorite bands of all time. They don't have the most albums, and they don't rock it like Rush, but I still dig them. But what's up with that head dress mask thing she's wearing? I'm not sure if I dig the dada Martha Graham nightmare nature of it, but the music sounded great. For a small stage, they also have a crazy lighting set up. The crazy strobe umbrellas are cool, and they also had some native looking candle light set up as well. The latest album Penny Sparkle is a great one. It's not quite as good as 23, their previous, but I dig it. At times, it's drifting more and more towards 4AD shoegaze. I also cut together a cheap medley of songs.
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The Slants at Giant Robot 2. I'll admit I don't know this band very well. But they're from Portland, Asian American, and their music is melodic in a post New Order sort of way perhaps from A-Ron's strong vocals. I like the fact that they're called Chinatown Dance Rock. They're not dance rock, they're more darker pop. I haven't seen them live electric yet, but acoustic, you have them playing like a well seasoned band. They play together. I like the fact that Tyler plays drums, but acoustic, he plays a mean guitar and sings too!
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Alright… it's not here yet, but now I'm ready for it!!
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Just as GR67 was wrapping, Eric asked me to make a playlist for Giant Robot’s humble restaurant on Sawtelle. His only stipulation was that the music be appropriate for dining. Of course, I said yes. I’ll do anything for GR, and this would be a fun task. The first thing I did was go into the shed in my backyard and start pulling CDs. The pile included bands that I’ve interviewed for GR (Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Enon, Abe Vigoda, RFTC, The Strange Boys, Carbon/Silicon, Pinback, Voxtrot, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down), been featured in GR (Hartfield, Faye Wong, Super Furry Animals), bands that I’ve reviewed for GR (The Romanes, Ty Segall, Brilliiant Colors, Monsters Are Waiting, Surfer Blood), friends (Seam, Damon & Naomi, Goh Nakamura, The Invisible Cities, Ray Barbee, ICU), bands that I grew up loving (The Clash, X, Buzzcocks, The Specials, The English Beat, The Three O’Clock), songs that have stuck with me since high school and college (by The Church, Roxy Music, Love & Rockets, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Replacements), and current favorites (Paul Weller, Ted Leo, Super Furry Animals). A lot of harder punk, some metal, classic hip-hop, and weirder stuff has been left out due to the restaurant setting, and I couldn’t figure out a way to blend in reggae, but these 100 songs add up to a pretty solid and hopefully fun 6 hours. Although no one except for Chef Nelson is going to listen from beginning to end, I still carefully arranged the songs and made a definite beginning and end. It isn’t meant to be heard on shuffle. So start compiling your version and enjoy, since nothing is super obscure. Or check it out at gr/eats. How many meals will it take to hear it all? Comments, criticisms, your personal list? A legal injunction to remove a song? Let me know! Hello Sunshine/Super Furry Animals Lovely One/Ty Segall Before I Start To Cry/Vivian Girls Young Adult Friction/The Pains of Being Pure at Heart You Can Make Me Feel Bad/Frankie Rose and the Outs 分裂/王菲 Daughter in the House of Fools/Enon Extra Man/The Fucking Champs ガールフレンド/The Romanes No Tears to Cry/Paul Weller I Searched/Brilliant Colors If I Can’t Change Your Mind (Solo mix)/Sugar Top of the World/Shonen Knife Music to Watch Girls By/Terry Hall Da-a-a-ance/The Lambrettas When Lightning Starts/The Three O’Clock I’ll See You Around/Silver Sun Saudade/Love & Rockets I Love You/Spacemen 3 Alone Again Or/The Damned Manifesto (Remake)/Roxy Music Integratron/Dengue Fever Aluet/ICU The Way I Feel Inside/Lois One Step Ladder/Three Mile Pilot Kanawha/Seam It’s So Hard To Fall in Love/Superchunk Brand New Love/Superchunk Isabel/Unrest Hawaiian Baby/The Spinanes Stars Never Fade/Damon & Naomi I Don’t Care If You Go/Velocity Girl Since U Been Gone/Ted Leo Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives/Voxtrot Somewhere/Goh Nakamura The Only Reason This Club Was Made/The Invisible Cities Girl Like You/Hartfield Sister Risk/The Phoenix Foundation You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory/Ronnie Spector I’ll Dry My Tears/The Casual Dots Change/Fishbone Tears of a...
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(Cue horns from The Alarm's “68 Guns”) Giant Robot 68 is at the GR shops in LA and SF, and on the way to better newsstands, bookstores, indie boutiques, and mailboxes. Here's what's in it, and I hope you don't mind me talking about myself in third person. * Eric's long interview with cover artist Luke Chueh. You know his painterly art with gory bunnies and bears, but do you know how to pronounce his name? * Martin has a spirited conversation with Hausu's Nobu Obayashi. The man's answers are as wild as his legendary movie is. * Eric talks to Joe Hahn about what it's like to balance business and creativity as part of Linkin Park, Inc. * The art, photography, and design of K Punk/Kicking Giant Tae Won Yu. His personal layouts weave a story about how his aesthetics were formed by Japanese robot toys, U.K. punk, and the indie spirit of Olympia, WA. * Actress and writer Ayako Fujitani chats with Iwai Shunji, genius filmmaker behind All About Lily Chou-Chou, Swallowtail Butterfly, and the upcoming Vampire. * Hong Kong film icon Daniel Wu digs into his hard drive to share behind-the-scenes, personal photography shot in Thailand, Taiwan, Shanghai… * Martin and photographer Ben Clark visit the Metal Mulisha compound to breath dirt with Taka Higashino, freestyle motocross upstart from Japan. * Original Beijing punk Anna Sophie Loewenberg shares a day in the life making her online show, Sexy Beijing. * Martin meets Sandra Vu, the only “real” Asian in Dum Dum Girls and force behind SISU. * James Leung corners Shinji Aramaki, the mecha visionary behind Bubblegum Crisis, Mospeada, Appleseed: Ex Machina, and Halo Legends: The Package, at Anime Weekend in Atlanta. * GR designer Wendy Lau shares her Perfect Day in Venice, Italy, with Stanley Kubrick, Peggy Guggenheim, and a Bollywood film crew. * Plus: Massive post hardcore band Envy from Japan, Chinese video art pioneers Zhang Peili and Zhu Jia, Takashi Murakami in France, and a load of new movies, videogames, anime, music, and other goods previewed and reviewed so you don't get ripped off.
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