Thursday, December 25, 2008

Tongue Love '08

It's that time of the year again, when the sunlight doesn't hit North America as often as it did when the the earth's north axis tilted into sun. That's when internet websites and magazines think, "Hey, we better make lists of all the things we liked since the last time we had short days!" Believe it or live in an imaginary world, but Coin Under Tongue popped up on FIVE lists for the year of 2008.
Mike Bell from Filter Magazine put CUT in his top 5 for 2008, along side another one of the DBA troops, The Jealous Girlfriends, featuring Holly Miranda, who has been subletting at the DBA dude ranch since last year. (thanks Mike!)
  1. Grand Archives, The Grand Archives (Sub Pop)
  2. The Jealous Girlfriends, The Jealous Girlfriends (Good Fences)
  3. Sigur Ros, Meo suo i eyrum vio spilum endalaust (XL)
  4. Coin Under Tongue, S/T (Death By Audio Records)
  5. Sebastien Tellier, Sexuality (Record Makers)
Britt Daniel from Spoon was asked by pitchforkmedia.com what his favorite audio releases of 2008 were and he found room for The Coin Boyz in his top 10, as seen here.
  1. Crooked Fingers: Forfeit/Fortune
  2. The Heavenly States: Delayer
  3. Jay Reatard: Matador Singles '08
  4. Carbon/Silicon: The Last Post
  5. Wolf Parade: At Mount Zoomer
  6. Deerhunter: Microcastle
  7. Q-Tip: The Renaissance
  8. Coin Under Tongue: Coin Under Tongue
  9. Earles and Jensen: Just Farr a Laugh, Vol. 1 & 2: The Greatest Prank Phone Calls Ever!
  10. The Walkmen: You & Me
(It should also be noted that Joe from CUT's favorite release from 2008 was also Earles and Jensen: Just Farr A Laugh) Joseph Robinson from the Village Voice rated CUT 6th in their annual Pazz and Jop critics awards for 2008 - look at this! :
1M83, Saturdays=Youth Mute
2Crystal Stilts, Alight of Night Slumberland
3Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago Jagjaguwar
4Guns N' Roses, Chinese Democracy Geffen
5No Age, Nouns Sub Pop
6Coin Under Tongue, Coin Under Tongue Death By Audio
7The Walkmen, You & Me Gigantic
8Fuck Buttons, Street Horrrsing ATP
9Chase King, Chase King Arkain Records
10Marnie Stern, This Is It . . . Kill Rock Stars
And in the WTF, holy blaADOW! category, the Minneapolis, Minnesota based music/humor blog Cancers from 1970 named the Corn Wonder Hung 12", record of the year for 2008 ! Wow, please baby, baby, PLEASE don't hate- it's just one geniuses' opinion! (thanks Ben!- your BJ is in the mail)
Then there's this video of "The Spiciest Songs of 2008" from Spicy Times With Nora & Jinners, which features a clip from Coin Under Tongue's "Shaven Clean". Thanks Jin! xoxo
And hell, while we're at, blogger Bill P. from SoundBites made a comment on stereogum.com that he can't wait to hear the 2nd Coin Under Tongue LP coming in 2009. Thank you Bill!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Big Hugz in New London, Connecticut

For the first time this millenium, the entire Death By Audio roster hit the road together. With a little help from our friends in the Total Bolsheviks, we GPS'd our way up the road to the Oasis Pub in New London, Connecticut. A very courteous (and quite possibly homeless) man helped us parallel park our van with seriously 2" to spare.
DJ Charlie Chaplin got the room warmed up as the bands hauled their crap into the venue. The Coin Boys hung around outside smoking, where they noticed a pair of breasts defying the freezing temperature 20 feet above their heads. It's a busty bust sculpture high above the bar (see badly lit photo above) Aaron from Sisters took a pill that should have been reserved for giants and rendered himself happy and unable to drive. Sisters played a hurricane alarm loud, bedazzled set in front of the bathroom. Total Bolsheviks expanded on themes written within chapters that could be dated back to as far as 13 A.D. , given that you have ample translation dictated to you in your native language. Rounds of shots were fired at Coin Under Tongue which resulted in some very enthusiastic ape like headbanging from the band, which led to an outbreak of primal cheers among the patrons. There was a cool guy with a Wipers shirt up front.
The crown jewel of the night was when this man Rob showed up with his fast-food-on-wheels truck called "Roadside Grill". I had a nacho bacon chilli dog. Those are the four elements that lead to the center of my heart. Are you listening, ladies!?

Friday, December 12, 2008

Superfriends Spotlight! - The Muggabears

When they're not destroying their Rock Band instruments at the Death By Audio loft, The Muggabears record their own original music. Over the past few weeks they have been bringing over daily mixes of their upcoming album entitled... well, we don't know, the CDs they gave us are just blank white. Their music reminds me of those Japanese horror movies where the sexy girl with dark hair walks towards you sort of weird and you think "that's cool come over here, err...wait, something's not right here" but then it's too late and she's right in front of you, then you notice she crying black ink and her hair is actually dragon scales and you scream and she shakes you and says "what's wrong with you!?" and now she looks perfectly normal again and then you kiss her because you want to make sure she's real. Today they finally released one of these new jams out into the wylde (i.e. Myspace) and it definitely has a title that everyone can relate to: "Guitar Feelings". Everyone's got 'em so click the link below to get yours!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

The Hangman

Have you ever rented a horror movie you remember seeing as a kid only to find out it’s not mysterious or spooky at all. In fact, almost all horror movies seem cheesy to you now. But somewhere lurking in your head is the version YOU remember, a version that your imagination has built into myth that no movie could live up to. That’s what I had carried around in my head for 20 years and had almost decided to try to remake a version of The Hangman, a slideshow animation of Maurice Ogden’s poem. I was haunted by the Hangman’s “buckshot eye” and “yellow twist of knotted hemp” long after my 7th grade English teacher rolled the projector back to the A.V. room. I scoured the internet for years in the hope that it might silence my attempts in vain to describe it to friends. 2 years ago I began storyboarding my remake. I was almost disappointed to find it on YouTube last month. Would it live up to my memory? Would it ruin my version? Turns out my version would have been shit. Message, art, direction – it’s all as intact now as it was back then. It’s truth is timeless and this video (although I pray for a clean DVD transfer someday) is UNFUCKWITHABLE.