Magnet Magazine
Thanks to the Ladybug Transistor for guest editing our website all week. Be sure to check out the band’s latest release, Clutching Stems. Watch the video trailer for the album below.
The Ladybug Transistor formed in Brooklyn in 1995, and frontman Gary Olson has been the band’s sole constant member. Clutching Stems (Merge) is the group’s seventh album and the first to be made following the 2007 asthma-related death of drummer San Fadyl. Since, the band’s lineup has solidified behind Olson, featuring Kyle Forester, Julia Rydholm, Mark Dzula, Eric Farber and Michael O’Neill. The Ladybug Transistor will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with Olson.
Mark Dzula: Last summer, I found a $1 record by a popular Venezuelan harpist Juan Vicente Torrealba and his Torrealberos. The dollar bin holds optimism and hope; although it’s frequently stuffed with leftovers and garbage, treasure is just as often hidden in plain sight. Why treasure Los Torrealberos and this record, Concierto En La Llanura, in particular? I have to admit bias. It is impossible for me not to love the pluck of a harp playing popular music, especially after bazillion-plus viewings of A Night At The Opera and other Marx Brothers films. Apparently, Harpo had a terrible time with rhythm—not so for Torrealba. Los Torrealberos knock around a jaunty pulse in their small combo, as if each instrument dances around the others. Bouncing between the strumming and maracas, the harp on this record sings with a charming lilt, colored with the perfectly imbalanced sound of strings ringing out against each other, slightly out of tune.
Video after the jump.
Bob Pollard’s Boston Spaceships return Tuesday with double album Let It Beard (Guided By Voices, Inc.). The 26-track LP, the band’s fifth in its three-year existence, features guest appearances by the likes of Colin Newman (Wire), J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr), Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate), Mick Collins (Dirtbombs, Gories), Dave Rick (Phantom Tollbooth) and Mitch Mitchell (GBV). Says BS multi-instrumentalist Chris Slusarenko, “It’s difficult to make an album under what I call the ‘mushroom cloud’ of Guided By Voices. Especially now that the reunion tour is happening. But we worked really, really hard on this one, and it’s important not just to myself and (drummer) John (Moen), but to Bob as well. He’s fond of saying, ‘I used to be in Guided By Voices, but I’m in Boston Spaceships now.'” Download Let It Beard‘s “Tabby And Lucy” and “Christmas Girl” below.
“Tabby And Lucy” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/TabbyAndLucy.mp3
“Christmas Girl” (download):
Bon Iver has announced more dates on its current summer/fall tour, and on September 6, the band will release “Holocene” (Jagjaguwar), the second 12-inch single from its self-titled album. Bon Iver is also set to co-headline and curate the first annual Pitchfork Music Festival in Paris in October … After an agonizing four years, fans can finally celebrate the return of Feist on October 4 with her new album, Metals (Cherrytree/Interscope). If you can’t wait until then, check out a couple preview videos here and here … On August 30, the Brian Jonestown Massacre will release The Singles Collection (1992-2011) (a Records), a two-disc, remastered collection of songs previously unavailable on CD. That should hold you over until the band’s next studio album, which is currently being recorded and will come out next year … Sam Llanas, lead singer of the BoDeans, is releasing solo album 4 A.M on October 25 via Inner Knot Records … Better late than never: Almost 40 years after the release of Grateful Dead live album Europe ’72, fans will finally get to hear Volume 2, featuring more than two hours of previously unreleased material from the same tour. It’s out September 20 via Rhino … Sting: 25 Years (Cherrytree/A&M) is a three-disc boxed set featuring 45 remastered tracks spanning Sting’s solo career, out on September 27. The set also includes a previously unreleased concert DVD and a hardcover book … Daryl Hall’s fifth solo album, Laughing Down Crying, is set for a September 27 release on Verve Forecast … Eagle Rock Entertainment continues to honor the late Rory Gallagher on August 16 with the final installment of its reissue project, re-releasing Defender, Fresh Evidence, BBC Sessions and Wheels Within Wheels … This September, RTX is playing a series of shows up and down the West Coast alongside Heavy Cream in celebration of their split seven-inch, due out in September via Volcom. RTX will also be plugging upcoming album Rad Times IV, slated for a January release on Drag City … Scott H. Biram will release his new album, Bad Ingredients, on October 11 via Bloodshot Records … The End Records is celebrating the career of Anvil on September 27 with Monument Of Metal: The Very Best Of Anvil, featuring 19 tracks spanning the band’s 30-year career. The group’s 14th album, Juggernaut Of Justice, also came out earlier this year, and Anvil is currently on the road in support of it.
—Emily Costantino
The Ladybug Transistor formed in Brooklyn in 1995, and frontman Gary Olson has been the band’s sole constant member. Clutching Stems (Merge) is the group’s seventh album and the first to be made following the 2007 asthma-related death of drummer San Fadyl. Since, the band’s lineup has solidified behind Olson, featuring Kyle Forester, Julia Rydholm, Mark Dzula, Eric Farber and Michael O’Neill. The Ladybug Transistor will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with Olson.
Eric Farber: I don’t believe in umbrellas. I understand that some people think they are better off carrying one around “just in case” it rains. They should consider this: It is a universally agreed-upon fact that 80{e5d2c082e45b5ce38ac2ea5f0bdedb3901cc97dfa4ea5e625fd79a7c2dc9f191} of the total time people spend carrying around umbrellas, it’s not raining. Well, I definitely don’t believe in burdening myself by partnering with a function-less object for an entire day. That’s just foolish. Of all the things you could carry around, the umbrella makes for a particularly dull companion. I think that if you’re going to carry something around that you don’t need, it ought to be a real conversation starter. Like maybe a large piece of driftwood with a hand-carved pun about rainbow trout. That’s something that I’d be into bringing with me everywhere I go “just in case.” But the umbrella is a nuisance without benefits. (To be clear, we’re talking about those black, nylon, spring-loaded projectiles that retract into themselves to form an inconvenient, dripping package evocative of a shriveled-up wet poodle. Full-sized umbrellas that can double as a cane can, by contrast, be quite useful multi-taskers, and they therefore receive a mulligan from this critique on umbrellas.)
Video after the jump.