The dreamy UK band PINS released an impressive album called Wild Nights earlier this year, and we've posted their videos for "Young Girls," "Everyone Says," and "Dazed By You." Their latest clip is for the lovely reverb hymn "Got It Bad," and it shows the members of the band wandering around … More »
On the most decadent night of the year, an inside look at TAO, Marquee, and the city's sexiest night clubs, where Snoop and DJ Khaled just so happen to hold court, and where bottles, bubbly, and butts (lots of butts) are bountiful.
The Atlantic has an article today about how wearing a suit not only changes how the world perceives you, but how you perceive the world. An excerpt:
A new study looks specifically at how formal attire changes people’s thought processes. “Putting on formal clothes makes us feel powerful, and that changes the basic way we see the world,” says Abraham Rutchick, an author of the study and a professor of psychology at California State University, Northridge. Rutchick and his co-authors found that wearing clothing that’s more formal than usual makes people think more broadly and holistically, rather than narrowly and about fine-grained details. In psychological parlance, wearing a suit encourages people to use abstract processing more readily than concrete processing.
Research on the effects of clothing on cognition remains in its early stages. Another similar study showed that when subjects wore a white coat that they believed belonged to a doctor, they became more attentive, an effect that didn’t hold when they believed the garment was a painter’s. But clothing’s psychological effects have been specified for only a couple of the ways the brain makes sense of stimuli.
That said, at work, when some have to wear suits, there are some specific implications when attire flicks on abstract processing. “If you get a stinging piece of critical feedback at work, if you think about it with a concrete processing style, it’s more likely to negatively impact your self-esteem,” says Michael Slepian, another one of the paper’s authors and a professor of management at Columbia Business School. Slepian added that thinking about money with an abstract processing style might lead one to skip impulsive purchases in favor of smarter, long-term savings behaviors.
BRB, going to up the effects by only wearing white tie and tails from now on.
(via IQ Fashion)
A Most Violent Year is a slow burn of a film, primarily centered around a simple land deal that entrepreneur Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) is trying to put together to sustain and grow his young oil business. Yet somehow, writer/director J.C. Chandor is able to up the stakes until they are almost unbearably tense. What hangs in the balance is not merely Morales’ business and the future of his family, but also his sense of self, his moral center. If you extrapolate it further, the film becomes and indictment of American capitalism, in the same way that films like Nightcrawler did in 2014.
With some beautiful cinematography from Bradford Young and some dynamite performances from the leads, A Most Violent Year manages to be haunting, wistful, and unforgettable. Hit the jump to see my full video review of the film.
Here’s a plot summary for the film:
A Most Violent Year is a searing crime drama set in New York City during the winter of 1981, statistically the most dangerous year in the city’s history. From acclaimed writer/director J.C. Chandor, and starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain, this gripping story plays out within a maze of rampant political and industry corruption plaguing the streets of a city in decay. J.C. Chandor’s third feature examines one immigrant’s determined climb up a morally crooked ladder, where simmering rivalries and unprovoked attacks threaten his business, family, and––above all––his unwavering belief in the righteousness of his own path.
The post ‘A Most Violent Year’ Is a Beautiful Deconstruction of the American Dream [Video Review] appeared first on /Film.
The Julie Ruin released their debut album, Run Fast, in September 2013, marking the welcome return of Kathleen Hanna, who had been on a musical hiatus for health reasons. Hanna’s struggle to re-emerge as a musician after suffering from undiagnosed Lyme Disease is well-documented in last year’s documentary The Punk Singer, directed by Sini Anderson. The Run Fast B-Side “Blueberry Island” was featured in The Punk Singer, and will now be released on a 7″ put out by TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek on his label Federal Prism. The reverse side of the 7″ features a YACHT remix of the Run Fast track “Right Home.” Federal Prism will be opening up an online pop-up shop for 60 days, selling unique merchandise and recordings from a hodgepodge collection of artists (Thelonius Monk, Frankie Rose, and Johnny Cash, to name a few). I remember seeing The Punk Singer with my mom around this time last year, and I do remember hearing “Blueberry Island,” with its choral hook, “Have you seen her? Mary Christina?” and thinking, “Damn, why didn’t they put this one on the album?” Listen below.
En Primera Persona hemos decidido insuflar nueva vida al mortecino despojo que era nuestra cuenta de Twitter (diabólico invento). Desde hace un par de semanas -lo que explica, en cierto modo, la esteparia inactividad de esta página- estamos desfibrilando y desperezando nuestra cuenta a tuitazo limpio.
Los tuits son de los dos directores del festival, El Fulano Que Dijo Que Jamás Haría Un Tuit Pero la Coyuntura Le Ha Empujado a Ello (servidor de ustedes) y Miqui Otero, y también de nuestro contramaestre, Jordi Garrigós.
Hay noticias, canciones y polladas (el medio no da para mucho más). Aquí.
When you’ve got the means, you don't just keep your teeth clean, you shell out for diamond encrusted incisors. You don't just drive a boat, you sail the open ocean on a 300 foot megayacht, then throw a party to celebrate your own totally awesome awesomenes . Luxury is a lifestyle for those lucky enough to afford it. These are gifts for the man who has everything, but still wants more of it.
The shoegaze bands Nothing and Whirr both had really good years in 2014. The former released the thunderously good LP Guilty of Everything, while the latter made the best album of their career, Sway. Along with a member who plays guitar in both, Nick Bassett, the two groups share an approach to sound that eschews the lighter side of shoegaze for something thick, heavy, and tough, while still managing to deliver melodies that cause the little neck hairs to stand at attention.
They celebrated their good fortune in 2014 by releasing a split EP that shows both bands at their most melodic and relaxed. The two Whirr tracks feature lovely vocal harmonies, chiming guitar lines, and, on “Lean,” the kind of slowly loping tempo Slowdive would reach at their most excited.
320 kbps | 51 MB UL | MC ** FLAC
“Ease” is a little more on the exciting side, using high-speed drum fills and wrenching guitar stops to build tension. The two Nothing tracks find the band in a slightly grungier space than on its album, with a strong Smashing Pumpkins influence peeking through. It doesn’t sound like pure nostalgia, though; the songs are too strong and the guitars too modern metallic to be stuck in the past. “Chloroform” is the stronger of the two, with “July the Fourth” falling back by just a bit due to its lack of mystery. It’s maybe a little closer to Alice in Chains than it is to My Bloody Valentine, which is probably something of a deal breaker to most shoegaze fans. The EP is a nice little capper for a tremendous year and presents a strong case that Nothing and Whirr are the best noise-soaked, ’90s-worshiping, pedal-hopping guitar bands around.
1. Whirr – Ease [03:18]
2. Whirr – Lean [04:53]
3. Nothing – Chloroform [04:33]
4. Nothing – July the Fourth [03:32]
Pandora recently signed a deal with global rights agency Merlin to pay a smaller royalty rate on songs that are performed by artists represented by the organization. The deal with the company — which represents labels such as the Beggars Group (4AD, Matador, Rough Trade), Epitaph, and Domino — was recently uncovered in a new report by NPR. According to them, Pandora struck a deal with the organization that says that they will recommend Merlin-affiliated artists in their internet radio algorithm before artists who are not affiliated with them. In exchange, Pandora gets to pay less money and artists represented by Merlin get more plays on their songs.
Here's a sketch from last night's Tonight Show, in which Fallon and special guest Zach Galifianakis fail — then finally succeed — to set up a good time to hang out together. Click through to watch Galifianakis's interview at the desk, which covers everything from his year-old son to his distaste for the red carpet scene.
Brace yourself.
Manchester techno pairing Andro (aka Andrew Bowen) & Dimit (aka Dimitri Poumplidis), known collectively as AnD, have delivered a bundle of brutalist techno 12-inches on esteemed labels such as Idle Hands, Horizontal Ground and Felix K’s Hidden Hawaii imprint in recent years. Today the duo have shared their debut full-length, entitled Cosmic Microwave Background.
Cosmic Microwave Background is scheduled to arrive on Speedy J’s Electric Deluxe imprint next week. The label, home to techno experimentalist Terrence Fixmer and Bryan Black’s Black Asteroid project, also released two EPs from the AnD earlier this year.
Cosmic Microwave Background is an excursion deep into headfuck territory. Although mostly relentless and abrasive, the album manages to capture the right balance between heavy dissonance and body-moving grooves by combining both experimental and dancefloor-designed material.
Cosmic Microwave Background will be released via Electric Deluxe on October 18. Stream the album in full below.
[via Resident Advisor]
Nothing released their debut album, Guilty Of Everything, earlier this year via the largely metal-focused Relapse Records. It was an odd yet fitting choice for their brand of intense shoegaze to be surrounded by so many hardened peers. Their next release comes on the more appropriate Run For Cover in the form of a 12-inch with fellow shoegazers Whirr. “July The Fourth” is one of Nothing’s contributions to the release and it goes as hard as anything else they’ve put out so far. “I guess it’s just about being hung up on something,” lead guitarist Brandon Setta told Vogue. “And using any method, no matter how extreme, to erase it from your brain just to obtain some sort of freedom.” Listen below.
