Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
At around 3pm on Sawtelle, post meeting, post lunch, and all that stuff, I heard a bang, that was obvious a vehicle accident of some sort. The following one second I looked down the street, and I saw a scooter down, and a man lying in the street. I quickly walked down the 50 yards or so. Right away, a dude was there kneeling over the guy to check him out. His arms were sprawled out and I can see pain in his face.
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Gary Chou is the man. When he's not doing some projects including Goh Nakamura, he's helping people out including us. What does he do? Anything web related and more. He's a man with a plan, and is moving from SF to NYC. Yesterday, he hung out at GR, and tomorrow, more GR. Thanks for helping us out. There's a lot of work going on. We ate at Amandine for breakfast. If you're in LA, I suggest you check this out. Amandine. That was my breakfast. Ratatouille omelet. It's one of my favorites.
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This morning I visited Stella Lai's studio in Downtown L.A. The GR58 cover artist was kind enough to help out with the Giant Robot Needs You effort, and I asked Stella to sign some prints and magazines that we're sending to supporters during her small window between last week's return from Shanghai and tomorrow's trip to San Francisco.
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Melanie Valera is not a fragile indie-tronica artist but a one-woman wrecking crew who wants to infiltrate your eardrums and crush your heart. On No Snare, her third LP as Tender Forever, she keeps her lyrics and vocal delivery as straightforward as ever (they really could have come from a letter) but pushes her knob-turning skills as far as they can go. “Like The Snare That’s Gone” is a perfect example of the album’s totally raw but fully realized production, with its multiple layers of percussion and grown-up orchestral touches that would fit perfectly on an epic mainstream rap song. The results are honest and powerful, and it’s not hard to see this release as a hip-hop and indie-informed update of the soul-inspired New Wave of Yazoo. ^ The above paraphrases my review that's in GR65 (on stands now), but a gushy review can only communicate so much. Via the magic of the Internets–and Calvin at K Records and Nathan at Riot Act–now I get to share the song on this site. In fact, this is considered an *official* preview. Nice, especially since I've been a big fan of the Shield around the K since Beat Happening opened for Fugazi at the Country Club. Download “Like the Snare That's Gone” here, and then purchase No Snare (out today) in the format and manner of your choice (perhaps the K shop?).
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Last week I received a package of goodies from my favorite reggae label, the Kent, England-based Pressure Sounds. They make T-shirts, too, and the one I got features the likeness of Joe Higgs. I have a rule about not wearing a band's shirt unless I've seen them in concert. Luckily, I got to see the man walk onstage years ago during a Lee “Scratch” Perry show…. Higgs gave Bob Marley his first guitar and served as Jimmy Cliff's bandleader, in addition to making some blue-collar and well-crafted early reggae and roots music on his own. Listen to “Life of Contradiction” here. Below, postcards promoting Santic. Nice. Leonard “Santic” Chin was one of the guys I interviewed way back in Giant Robot 37 for the section on Chinese-Jamaican record producers. He really explored and expanded on the funk and soul aspects of rocksteady, and was no slouch when it came to dub, either. Of course, Pressure Sounds' new release of A Harder Shade of Black is incredible. Who do I know that is cool enough to get one of these in the mail? Listen for yourself. If you really dig it, maybe I'll send one to you.
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