Dirty Beaches - Casino Lisboa
I love the new Dirty Beaches 2XLP. Its a masterpiece, and definitely Alex’s most accomplished work yet. This video embodies everything about his music perfectly. Bravo. As usual.
If you didn’t get a fancy white Zoo Music copy of Drifters / Love Is The Devil, grab the regular one from Midheaven here.
Tour Tape split between Dirty Beaches and homies TONSTARTSSBANDHT for their upcoming Russian tour. Ltd to only 100 copies and while already sold out from the label, TONSTARTSSBANDHT still has copies available on their bandcamp. It went pretty quick from Space Bridge, but I think these copies are below the radar.
Also Alex’s sophomore 2XLP Drifters/Love Is The Devil is out soon from Zoo Music. The email list version is on beautiful white vinyl and is getting shipped a week early to all us lucky listers. If you missed out on that, guess you’ll have to settle for the regular one available from Midheaven here.
Ela Orleans - She who could BIND you
Ela Orleans has been releasing new records & tapes at about the same non-stop pace as her often time split collaborator Dirty Beaches. The cover above was from their Double Feature split 12” with Alex, and most recently they also did a 4 way split together with Slim Twig and U.S. Girls. See what I mean? Non stop releases. Across her many releases, she has continued to vary her sound, experimenting with universally excellent results.
So this latest track is from yet another split cassette with Curt Crackrach, called 80 Minutes of Funk. Seeing as it just went up for sale and this is the only track up, here’s what the label says:
Here Curt Crackrach (aka Nattymari/Netnanny/Ron Hardly etc) brings us 40 minutes of library and movie archive influenced beats. A joyride through underground sounds all held together by Curt’s unique aspect to production. With hints of the classic Warp records sound, hip hop, outsider funk and acid house all fused together to make his own signature sound.
Ela Olreans brings us 40 minutes of her work for television, soundtracks and radio remixed and re imagined with some new songs all woven together in this epic journey to some other place. Amazing soundscapes collide with melody and an eerie knowledge of sound, both found and composed. A wonderful trip indeed.
Curt Crackrach / Ela Olreans - 80 Minutes Of Funk cassette is Ltd to 100 copies and available from Clan Destine here. Five quid for 80 minutes? Sounds like a steal to me.
U.S. Girls - Jack
Download the track for free here
New single from Meghan Remy, aka U.S. Girls, first to surface from her upcoming fall LP, Gem. This single should be out on a vinyl 7” September 17th via Fat Cat Records
Also of great importance, Clan Destine Records is sneaking out an excellent 4 way split LP featuring Dirty Beaches, U.S. Girls, Ela Orleans, and Slim Twig. All guys that have previously worked together on various split releases. The contribution from Alex is one 10 minute bruiser, sure to feature the more experimental & noisy side of his work. Seems like he’s constantly at work on a new release, and keeping up is a full time job.
Slim Twig/Dirty Beaches/Ela Orleans/US Girls - Statement LP is out now on Clan Destine Records here, Ltd to 500 copies with insert
Dirty Beaches & Lantern - Ass Doom
Totally forgot I had this sweet little tour only live recording of Alex playing with Lantern at Glasslands. Picked this up when I saw Alex play with Frankie Rose at Pop Montreal last year. He is one rad dude.
Well that was the first time I heard of Lantern and apparently now they’ve got a cassette from Bathetic on the way.
The tape comes out sounding like a rotgut, fucked up, long-lost Stooges bootleg — while coincidentally there is in fact a 7 minute version of the classic “I Wanna Be Your Dog” — but with a bunch of weird shit going on that breaks up the slurred rock, like the heroin-withdrawal rambling drone of “Fools Gold.” This tape is like dreaming of finger-popping the hottest girl in class, but you’re actually face-deep in a vat of tar, all gasping and choking, snorting and flailing. Not for the faint of heart, this is a slab of hot n’ raw, wild n’ nasty. Voodoo drips off the tape as it unwinds. Dip in and get shanked.
Lantern - Dream Mine C40 Cassette is out on Bathetic here. Check out a couple tracks and a video on the release page.
Source: batheticrecords.com
Xiu Xiu - Always
Another prime RSD release. Dirty Beaches covers Françoise Hardy and Xiu Xiu covers Erasure. Much as I was excited for yet another Dirty Beaches 7” (one short of a dozen by now…), I think Xiu Xiu just barely takes the cake with his side. Regardless stellar balance to pop and moodly drone, good luck finding your very own copy online.
Dirty Beaches - Dune Walker b/w Rhythm Ace Dub 7”
Brand new Dirty Beaches 7” just surfaced on the tubes, with a digital release over on BnDcMp and a physical 7” record made in Germany with love from Slowboy. This release branches out into the strange, experimental, & often harsher live sound from Alex that he has been cultivating while touring live, while adding percussion and experimental sax to his sound beyond just guitar loops & samples. If you’re in love with the sound of Badlands you may be in for a rude surprise with the loss of all the nostalgic pop hooks. I myself do enjoy his lighter pop elements, but his 7”s have been evolving toward a completely experimental rough edge. Its not catchy, in fact Mike over at Norman Records put it just right as both peculiar and unsettling.
Each new 7” Alex releases feels like a unique rough gem. Unannounced, and more oft whispered about fervently in secret, this new addition to his rather large 7” library comes under the same silent air. As his Dirty Beaches project continues to grow and take form, I think its a privilege to listen to each new step along the way, a small window into his grand master plan.
Dirty Beaches - Dune Walker 7” is Ltd to 400 copies and can be had directly from Slowboy in Germany here, although for US shipping €8.50 seems a bit steep, so you can always grab a copy from Norman Records where shipping is only €2.50, while their no doubt small supply lasts.
Source: dirtybeaches.bandcamp.com
is also a quarterly zine— available in electronic and paper formats, and full of original art work and long-form features. Resurrecting the curatorial logic of zine culture, Ad Hoc will paint a dynamic, living landscape of the underground music world at large, setting the reflections of professional journalists and critics alongside artists, promoters, and other music-world personalities. Ad Hoc is a mosaic of voices, each offering its own partial illumination of underground music today, and what it means to navigate a rapidly changing industry in the era of information.
Ad Hoc features regular contributions from 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Decoder (ex-Get Off The Coast), Distonal (ex-The Decibel Tolls), Dummy Magazine, International Tapes, Mutant Sounds, No Fear of Pop, Visitation Rites, Raven Sings The Blues, and Rose Quartz.
And writings from Alex Bleeker (Real Estate), Alex Zhang Hungtai (Dirty Beaches), Alan Palomo (Neon Indian), Allese Baker (Artforum), Dale W. Eisinger (New York Press), Dan Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never, Ford & Lopatin), Emil Amos (Holy Sons, Om), Emily Rose Epstien (Ty Segall), Hunter Hunt-Hendrix (Liturgy), Ian Nelson (Friendship Bracelet), James Leyland Kirby (The Caretaker), Jenn Pelly (Pitchfork, Village Voice), Jessa Farkas (Future Shuttle), Jigmae Baer (Royal Baths), John Elliot (Emeralds), Justin Spicer (Tiny Mix Tapes), Kim Kelly (NPR, Brooklyn Vegan), Laurel Chartow, Liz Pelly (Boston Phoenix), Maria Minerva, Marc Masters (Pitchfork, Wire), Matt Sullivan (Altered Zones), Michael McGregor (Chocolate Bobka, The Report), Nate Luce (Flower Orgy), Taraka Larson (Prince Rama), Todd P, and many, many more.
Sounds pretty rad (^^^). Especially the cassette box sets and print zenes. Head over to kickstarter and pledge to help these kids make it happen.
Dirty Beaches - White Sand
P.S. the embed is temporarily broken while Tsien-Tsien Zhang gives me permission. Direct link here
White Sand Music Video, from 2008-2009 Night People Tape
Music: Dirty Beaches - Alex Zhang Hungtai
Cinematography: Christopher Doyle
Directed by: Tsien-Tsien Zhang
Another tense video to accompany an early Dirty Beachestrack from a Night People cassette. Silhouetted pov voyager shots follow around Tsien-Tsien, drinking wine from the bottle on a roof top, dressing, undressing, and showering. So you know, all of the essentials in life.
p.s. Keep an eye open for the Chris cameo (?) at 2:51.
Dirty Beaches - LaundroMatinee
Alex the one man band know as Dirty Beaches now has backup and is more rad than ever. He killed at Pop Montreal when I last saw him and check this out.
Dirty Beaches - Lord Knows Best (live Pop Montreal)
I recorded this live via phone, so it ain’t pretty but you get the point. Alex Zhang Hungtai plays a mean live show. His material is much more raw and noisy, a world of difference from Badlands in the best of ways. The experience feels almost intimate and carnal, you’ll just have to catch him live yourself.
Below is my Polaroid Pop Montreal 2011 chronicle. Enjoy.
Frankie Rose opening for…
Dirty Beaches. Hands down coolest kid, best performance of the festival. Alex has two band members now deepening his engulfing wall of sound playing drums & percussion and one “sax offender.”
Seriously Alex is just one sweet dude, nice enough to pose for a shot pre-show.
d’Eon jams out opening with CFCF for…
Sleep ∞ Over plays beautiful tunes for us amongst taxidermied beasts and neon blacklite oragomi forests. Sounds dark and sweet enough to melt your brain and heart into one.
Best after party in town at La Baraque with three more bands playing till 5am. All local, all French. Can’t remember the name of these girls ^^^ for the life of me, but the name translation: ridiculous and pretentious dancing girls.
Grass Widow may have put on the best sounding show out of everyone I saw. These girls rock hard, and play their instruments so damn well all while harmonizing their three beautiful voices as one. They covered Mannequin by Wire, effing brilliant. You can pick that up on a their latest Milo Minute 7”
The Raincoats s/t LP from 1979 has fast become a favorite record of mine over the past year on constant rotation. So a deciding factor of the Pop Montreal migration was to see them specifically. As I said s/t LP came out in 1979. Maybe they were in their early 20s at the time of its release…you get where I’m goin. And yet you close your eyes and their voices and instruments, especially Ana’s voice, sound like its straight out of 1979. Major props to them for rocking like they always have and will; it was most memorable.
Special treat for the final show of The Raincoats touring with Grass Widow. Ana invites the girls on stage during encore performance of Fairytale in the Supermarket to sing along. Super Rad.
Dirty Beaches live at Glasslands.
Hi guys, the new 7”s A Side is a Live track I recorded over at part time punk radio show in LA, on the B Side it features the track STYE EYE that I collaborated with my friend Francesco De Gallo (Hobo Cult Records) and Case Mahan (Street Gnar)
the only time I’ve ever played STYE EYE Live was during the DDG/MINKS tour in the video below (albeit a different version from the recording since DDG/MINKS never heard the song before haha, but it was fun and it worked out in the end) ~Alex
So there’s a new Dirty Beaches 7” on the way from Suicide Squeeze shipping October 4th. Hard to keep up with all his 7”s, seems there’s always a new elusive one creepin up around a corner.
Dirty Beaches - Lone Runner 7” is up for pre-order here. Ltd to 750 copies, with 250 on clear vinyl and the rest on standard black. Swoop in while you can on them clear copies.
Source: dirtybeaches.blogspot.com
Dirty Beaches - God Speed
So I’ve been waiting on this long playing split for too long ever since it was just a coming soon teaser on Night People eons ago; thanks to Atelier Ciseaux for the very organized email sent out. One part Dirty Beaches: dark, midnight lost highway, Lynchian chase scenes filled with paranoia and dread, balanced out with some a dose from Ela Orleans, a La Station Radar veteran filling our ears with ghoulish baroque pop, driven by soft piano ballads and vocals.
Double Feature 12” Split featuring Dirty Beaches and Ela Orleans is out June 21 from La Station Radar, Atelier Ciseaux, and Night People.
Vinyl is Ltd to 500 copies on clear vinyl with silk-screened covers on recycled paper; artwork by Shawn Reed.
If you’re in the states, snatch it with much cheaper shipping from Night People here.
Track Listing:
Side A: Ela Orleans
Tides and Shadows
Neverend
Somewhere
Vertigo
In the night
I know
Side B: Dirty Beaches
God speed
Crosses
Death valley
Don’t let the devil find you
L train
A train
