Join Tony Fletcher and Alan Vega(Suicide) this Thursday, December 10th at the Brooklyn Public Library. They will be discussing Tony's new book: All Hopped Up And Ready To Go: Music From The Streets of New York 1927-77 This is a free event. Copies of the book will be available to purchase as well.
Brooklyn natives Alan & Marty travel upstate NY to the Catskills to perform at the ATP festival. They stumbled into one of these rooms and this guy in a monkey suit interviewed 'em. Is that his real hair? Really?
a lemon and tennis ball met and fell in love on the high seas they had great times together one day a crow came down and absconded the tennis ball and lemon was looking for him so lemon went to the beach and caught a cucumber in a fishing net she attached a "have you seen this ball" sign to it with a picture of the tennis ball. in search of her partner, tennis ball. she posted the sign by the lost and found too, but he wasn't in there she got an electric car from the lost and found and drove away in it across a grassy knoll, in search of tennis ball.
those two had great times together: in hollywood, brussels, on safari in africa, taj mahal, paris, great wall of china, hirosaki, times square, husky sledding in the alps, on the moon. one of them was always wearing sunglasses. at the taj mahal they both had turbans on and in paris they wore berets.
lemon rigged up a boat and put on her sailor hat. on top of her sail was a copy of her 'have you seen this ball' sign. she sailed down the stream continuing to look for him. she reached shore with her sign and looked out onto the water.
then, lemon saw that crow again. she went right up to him and fought. he knocked her over. but when she got upshe saw he had the ball, and released him! finally they were reunited! and the crow wore a paper hat. they were all happy at the beach.
Coming soon, a short film about the love story between a lemon & tennis ball. This is just a little teaser, stay tuned for the film.
a lemon and tennis ball met and fell in love on the high seas they had great times together one day a crow came down and absconded the tennis ball and lemon was looking for him so lemon went to the beach and caught a cucumber in a fishing net she attached a "have you seen this ball" sign to it with a picture of the tennis ball. in search of her partner, tennis ball. she posted the sign by the lost and found too, but he wasn't in there she got an electric car from the lost and found and drove away in it across a grassy knoll, in search of tennis ball.
Well see, its been awhile since we communicated with you, dear blog. we have really good excuses like 'we moved!' and 'we're busy!' but we have a saying here at Mute US: no good dead goes unpunished. and so we bring you a new irregular feature.....the highlight of the week! This week's Highlight of the week was a NYC performance by Brooklyn's own teen-sibling-super- duo, Tiny Masters of Today. Ada, 13 and Ivan, 15 along with their friend drummer Jackson (i know he's not related, but they let him in the band anyway. can you believe it?!) opened for Art Brut at NYC's Mercury Lounge in advance of their new album Skeletons which is released June 16 2009.
Some photos of their nothing-short-of-adorable live set are below. They ironically covered Sonic Youth's "Youth Against Facism" at this show, and also at a Sonic Youth party which Gawker saw fit to cover HERE, read all about it.
small ness in charge
sibling conference moment
ivan shreds
a girl and her bass
muteants justin, erik and stephanie really enjoyed the show.
after witnessing the opening set from throbbing gristle (their first ever NYC show and their first US show in 28 years) ... we, the followers, were led by our charismatic leader to a dining room prepared for our communion. we filed in quietly so there would be no distractions for the ceremony. In the ritual, which everyone watches, a drugged child, usually one of the witches in the covens, herself a hybrid (typically), is brought out on the alter. the child is slaughtered. her blood is drank by all. then it was poured upon the members of the chapter. her limbs, and finally, the heart of the child is placed inside a bowl. Then, as the ritual proceeded, we all took turns "tasting" the meat. once it was confirmed as pure for our leader to ingest, the ceremonial golden bib was removed from its casing and placed around his neck. graphic images of our ritual can be seen below. we vacated the area shortly after as not to be late for the second performance from throbbing gristle.
When before in the history of Mute has David Lynch been asked to create a music video for one of our artists? Oh, never! So this is pretty cool stuff. Moby's new album, and subsequently - video, has reached this rite of passage. I don't know if its a rite of passage anyone else will ever reach, but we think its just perfect.
Usually when bands play on TV they play one song in a stale studio in front of the studio audience that claps like trained monkeys.
Well, not THIS time.
M83 got to play on the 'Last Call with Carson Daly' show (hold your comments) to a full concert like crowd, outside no less! Also they did a little piece on the M83/LA Philharmonic collaborative show that went off magically at LA's Walt Disney Music Hall on 3/7/08. That is 12 whole minutes of TV. So ignore the talking head bits and wrap your head around the rest of it HERE
For a review and photos of that splendid LA PHilharmoinc/M83 show, check out Stereogum's review HERE
Thing about working in this industry is, sometimes people wanna interview you. And we ask ourselves, 'why?'. This article that follows might answer the question.
It's almost here...the yearly pilgrimage to Austin for South by Southwest Music Festival. The land of BBQ, Mexican, avocado margaritas, vintage shops, and of course, lots of music!
This year we're happy to have Tiny Masters of Today debuting their new album on 3/21/09 at SXSW! Ada and Ivan, 13 & 15 years old respectively, call their new album Skeletons and their new single..."Skeletons". It's out on June 16. If you're going, check it!
Like most citizens of the world, Canadians are allowed to travel. Some of them really like it. Some of them even have funny ideas like writing articles about 'the 5 day trip'. It's actually pretty nuts. One of my favorite Canadians, Stephen, traveled all the way to China. And made this music video. We're not sure why, scientists are still studying the video for clues. But think of this like a Canadian version of 'Flight of the Concords'. If they filmed all their videos in China.
This was recorded in October and at long last....here's the finish product. Always amazing live, this looks and sounds incredible. Watch it! Both parts! YOU BELONG TO ME TONIGHT!
Yeah I guess the last week wasn't very exciting because it's time for OMO again (Overheard in the Mute Office). More tasty morsels of hilarity. Oh did we mention its nearly 60 degrees outside and we were able to go COATLESS during the lunchbreak?! Did we mention we got a lunchbreak?!!!
"Did you send them any money...?" "Let's send them a disease in a jar" "Eyelashes are so last year" "I like that as a blog name: 'I'm Totally Blanking'" "I don't think you're allowed to send body parts in the mail" "It's the special olympics copy machine" "Nick is very pirate-like"
New abbreviations: CF = clusterfuck GO= goose egg
Also Richard Hawley recorded a beautiful version of "Early Morning Rain" for the Star*ucks V***tine's Day Sampler. Check it out here
You know that blog 'Overheard in New York'? No? Well it's a blog where people send in the stupid shit they overhear other people saying around town. Some if it's really funny. No I won't give you an example. But to that effect, we here at Mute also say ridiculously stupid and funny things. Therefore we will bring you this weekly blog post: Overheard in the Mute Office (aka OMO).
"She's so green, she's yellow & blue separate. She's not even green YET." (nicole)
"I don't consider dancing to be having fun" (Lauren)
"birthing is so 90's" (Justin)
"they should be strung up and eaten by wolves" (Erik)
"what is your molecular damage?" (Nicole to Justin)
Unbeknownst to me, Throbbing Gristle has never played a gig in NYC. And now they've been confirmed for Coachella?! That is definitely crazy talk. Here are the details, also to be found on the band's website, here throbbing-gristle.com
THURSDAY 16th APRIL NEW YORK - Masonic Hall Fort Greene, Brooklyn 317 Clermont Ave at Lafayette Ave.
SUNDAY 19th APRIL COACHELLA FESTIVAL - PALM SPRINGS Empire Polo Field Indio, CA 92201
TUESDAY 21st APRIL LOS ANGELES - U.C.L.A Le Conte Ave & Westwood Blvd Westwood, CA 90024
THURSDAY 23rd APRIL SAN FRANCISCO - Grand Regency Ballroom 1290 Sutter St San Francisco, CA 94109
SATURDAY 25th APRIL CHICAGO - Epiphany Episcopal 201 S. Ashland Ave. Chicago, IL 60607-5301
So, you know when there's a song, and for whatever reason you or someone you know might play it on repeat, non-stop, until you want to kill them or yourself? It can be any kind of song, sad, happy, political, animalistic. And maybe you only play this song for yourself. Or perhaps you play it for the whole office, as a sort of torture device.
Well, our fearless leader, who we'll call "Foti" has decided to rebirth an old, erm, 'classic'(?), introducing it to our current generation of Muteants who weren't around to experience it the first time.
Back in good old 2002, the Sonic Mook Experiment released their second compilation album, with this very fine cover art:
Classy.
One of the classiest songs on this full of class CD is by Joan of Ass (the classiest band name going), it's called 'I'm the Daddy Now'. Don't be surprised if you find yourself singing it later.
The internets is great. No sooner did Morgan (Kibby, of M83) tell me she sang with The Killers onstage at Grand Old Opray last night in Nashville did I find this video. Please ignore the comments, no offense to the people of Nashville, but um, knuckleheads.
If someone finds a better quality video or audio of this send it over, but for now, this will have to do.
In case you're wondering, it was Kenny Rogers & The First Edition who originally did this song. COUNTRY AS F*CK!
As further proof of the Detroit pride/obsession, we received this interoffice email yesterday from Justin:
I'll be wishing my grandmother a happy 90th Birthday this weekend in the fine city of Detroit, MI. As such, i will not be in the office tomorrow.
I'll be available for emergencies in the afternoon via cell (flying in the morning), and will be able to see emails on my blackberry.
In case any of you were looking for more interesting tidbits on the city of Detroit, i invite you to reference this wikipedia page explaining why Franklin D Roosevelt referred to the city as "the great arsenal of democracy" on December 29th, 1940.
If you've been following our blog (for the whole 3 days it's been up) then you know we've been hard at work promoting M83. Yesterday we did Conan. It was M83's first TV appearance and Mute's last Conan. For those of you living under a rock, Conan (the whitest man ever) is moving to LA. (this will help the sunscreen industry stay afloat during these 'tough economic times'). He's taking over the Tonight Show so Leno has more time to buy expensive cars, ride motorcycles and stuff.
But this blog isn't about the capricious lives of TV talk show hosts, it's about MUTE. Let's talk about what we did yesterday:
See! it really happened. It looked like this on TV:
Working at a record label is glamorous and has many perks - like hanging out in the green room. Check out how cool we are:
Justin loves detroit. And oh how he loves to talk about it. Especially in marketing meetings. detroit detroit detroit. Are you reading this justin? If you are I bet you are upset with me for not giving detroit the respect it deserves. You know, like a capital "D" because it's a proper noun. whatever.
there is one floor in the building that even your union sensor card ID can't get you onto. thats where the union magic happens. below is the first ever documentation of these "events"
once a week the union meets on the 23rd floor of our building
they perform satanic rituals...
humans are sacrificed. union members believed to have rebeled... starting their own unions ... full of other union members....
they waste NOTHING.
remains are found throughout the country, and no one [until now] has any idea where they came from.
Don't drink the water on the 23rd floor. (written by Lauren, the one who eats babies)
Mute's current office is located in a tall building between Soho, Tribeca and the Holland Tunnel. Aside from our music floor, which we share, the entire building is mostly populated by union headquarters. Then there's us. Oh and Uniqlo too. It's intense (don't forget your ID or the lady at the front desk will unleash the fury and it's not pretty). Our floor used to be a medical floor. You get the picture. Also the cops do this crazy drill where they get every cop car known to man to drive up 6th Avenue flashing their lights and park on our block, alarming us to no end at least once a week. A 'drill' they call it.
Well, imagine my surprise as I watched the first episode of everyone's favorite show, FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS and saw a very familiar building posing as the office building of the guys 'former' manager, Murray.
Check it: Evidence? Not quite. But wait, there's more.
They're walking out of the building! With a table! Do you know how many times a day I walk out that door!
Here's the building in its full glory:
If you squint you can see our office on the fourth floor.
Here they're talking to their stalker fan who is protesting something. I forgot.
When I came in to share this story with the other Muteants, Justin promptly said 'Oh yeah, I knew about that.' But did he tell anyone? NO! I don't know where I was that day since I'm always here. But I missed Brett and Jemaine, in our very own building. THE HORROR! Maybe one of the more exciting things that's happened in this building. Because the set of Law & Order: Criminal Intent really just isn't that exciting (they film here sometimes too)(sorry mom). So the point is, that coworkers keep secrets from each other. Important ones involving cute New Zealanders. Clearly I had to fire him on the spot.
And, because I was so excited about this minute of stardom, I forgot to watch the rest of the episode.
Normally Lauren spends all her time talking about shoegaze or eating babies. Even tho she's vegetarian (we don't get it either). What started off as a conversation about chili cookoff turned into an idea for office-wide potluck of smepic (smallishly epic) proportions.
Behold, the invitation:
Now, we all spent this weekend watching M83 perform at both Irving Plaza AND open for The Killers at MSG, so somehow we had to find some time to chef up some non-poisoned food for our colleagues. Here's how it went down:
Adam - breakfast burritos Leslie - homemade glazed donus, grapefruit/pomegranate fruit salad Foti - Fresh squeezed honeybell orange juice Justin - Croissants (for the record, he didn't make these) Stephanie - Baked brie & cherry topping Nicole - Leek Quiche Erik - Goulash Lauren - peanut butter & jelly sandwiches in the shape of brontosauruses Kevin - Whoopie Pies
Jealous? Yeah we thought so. Here are some photos to go with it. We forgot to take them before we started eating.
There was also a silver foil crown made to go to the winner. Tho no one knew there was going to be a winner. But I get to choose!! Bwah hahahahaha.
You know, a lot of things go on around here. Like, a lot. "Here" being the Mute Records North American offices. We manage to amuse ourselves on a regular basis and thought, why not share this with the world? Clearly there need to be more blogs out there. So we've revived The Muteant. It used to be a paper zine (remember zines? remember PAPER?) back in "the 90s". But with this digital age and what not, no more physical cutting & pasting (tho I quite like cut & paste). So we welcome you, check back on occasion for super duper secrets, high profile missions, facts, figures, fun and of course, Mute artists' news. Maybe we'll even put up some fun stuff you can't get anywhere else. You'll just have to wait and see, wontcha.
small ness in charge
sibling conference moment
ivan shreds
a girl and her bass
Mute's current office is located in a tall building between Soho, Tribeca and the Holland Tunnel. Aside from our music floor, which we share, the entire building is mostly populated by union headquarters. Then there's us. Oh and Uniqlo too. It's intense (don't forget your ID or the lady at the front desk will unleash the fury and it's not pretty). Our floor used to be a medical floor. You get the picture. Also the cops do this crazy drill where they get every cop car known to man to drive up 6th Avenue flashing their lights and park on our block, alarming us to no end at least once a week. A 'drill' they call it.
Evidence? Not quite. But wait, there's more.
They're walking out of the building! With a table! Do you know how many times a day I walk out that door!
If you squint you can see our office on the fourth floor.
There was also a silver foil crown made to go to the winner. Tho no one knew there was going to be a winner. But I get to choose!! Bwah hahahahaha.
