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October 31, 2006
States Rights Records and YACHT
And finally some non-The Blow news! :)
The latest Cool Hunting video, Okamoto Studio takes us deep inside the world of ice carving and features Bunny & Duck's Boathouse by YACHT courtesy of States Rights Records.
Posted by kmikeym at 10:07 AM
The Blow (iTunes)
Unfortunately the link doesn't seem to be working, but The Blow is featured on the iTunes Music Store as the Free Download - Single of the Week. Congrats!
Posted by kmikeym at 8:59 AM | Comments (3)
October 26, 2006
The Blow (Pitchfork)
by Zach Baron
It's late September, and Khaela Maricich is in New York City, playing the first of two local shows in support of her new record, Paper Television. Maricich is in the middle of "Pardon Me"; she's just sung the part that goes and I lay, before youuu and now entering the speakers is the bridge, what the liner notes call a "melodic interpretation of the first verse"-- a plastic-horn synth line, honking bass, G-Funk winding organ, and handclaps. Maricich is alone onstage-- her bandmate, YACHT's Jona Bechtolt, is on a tour of his own-- and there's no singing during this part, no instruments for her to play. With a visible gulp, she steels herself; and as the bridge hits she takes off across stage, shaking her shoulders, bouncing up and down, four feet up onstage from the crowd and totally by herself. You feel awful for her and touched at the same time.
It wasn't always this way: Prior to Paper Television, the Blow was a solo operation, and Maricich alone could never make tracks like these, crowded with wobbly, stuttering snares and claps, keyboarded flutes, horns, and crowd noise interpolations. Credit for these belongs to Bechtolt-- a cracked-laptop wizard who, as YACHT, has been pulling a similar beats/karaoke/dance routine live for three or four years. His production is a brilliant and versatile grab bag of popular culture, equal parts Missy Elliott-style chart rap and Yaz'n'Soft Cell-like new wave keyboard pop, all shook up and spit out sideways.
Now and then, Maricich and Bechtolt run through public airwaves and pop music like what's there is theirs for the taking. It didn't always feel like they were giving back: They got to be artistes, artists were source material, and we the incidental audience. Not so here: "We have a new record, and we didn't rip anything off to do it-- we swear." This is how Khaela Maricich decides to introduce the one song she didn't really write-- her take on a Police jam-- back in New York. (read the full article on Pitchfork)
Posted by kmikeym at 2:14 PM
October 25, 2006
The Blow (Giant Robot #44)
The glitchy, finger-popping electro by the duo of Jona Bechtolt and Khaela Maricich ranges from Euro disco ("Bonjour, Jeune Fille") to Super Mario Land ("Parentheses"). While there's a lo-fi vibe to the tones, beats and hand claps, the execution and production are anything but cheap. The sounds are arranged expertly, and Maricich's vocals are as versatile as shit. On one song, she's a sassy pop diva. The next, a betrayed torch singer. Like their namesake, they can be as light as a breath or heavy like a punch. This is not a half-ass laptop project but a fully realized concept. [K Records] mw
Posted by kmikeym at 4:56 PM
The Blow (Chartattack.com)
by Noah Love
THE BLOW Paper Television (K/Sonic Unyon)
When The Blow's Khaela Maricich got together with Yacht (Jona Bechtolt) for the Pregnancy Series EP, Poor Aim -- Love Songs, the idea was that the two would record in a way that was atypical of how they normally worked. Funny thing was, the collaboration turned out so well that the duo decided to continue making music together. The obvious benefactor on Paper Television is Maricich. Her pre-Poor Aim work always lacked focus, and that's what Bechtolt brings to the table. His frantic beats and melodies give Maricich so much room to breathe that you can hear the smile on her face while she coyly sings twisting verses on album highlights "Babay (Eat A Critter, Feel Its Wrath)" and the danceable "Fists Up." There are rumours that Bechtolt (who also drums for Devendra Banhart) and Maricich aren't playing together anymore, but they should resolve their differences for the good of both their musical careers.
Posted by kmikeym at 3:06 PM | Comments (1)
October 23, 2006
The Blow (NYTimes.com Review)
THE BLOW "Paper Television" (K)
by JON PARELES
Love is for patsies, and sooner or later anyone who succumbs to it winds up being used. That's the matter-of-fact attitude behind the songs on the Blow's first full-length album, "Paper Television." The Blow is two women from Portland, Ore.: Khaela Maricich and Jona Bechtolt. They're fond of the two-dimensional synthesizer tones, cheap drum machines and sparse arrangements of early-1980's electropop but they don't rule anything out, from guitar to glockenspiel. And Ms. Maricich lends her voice, full of girlish mock-innocence, to sweetly hardnosed lyrics and poppy melodies. The album is less raw and more subversively tuneful than the Blow's 2004 EP "Poor Aim, Love Songs."
"Piles of Gold" starts the album with 21st-century electronic stutters and chopped-off notes. "All the girls are sitting on a pile of gold," Ms. Maricich chants with a giggle in her voice "And the boys, you know they want it," adding, "It's economic." In "The Long List of Girls," the track meshes at least three snare drums, buzzy synthesizer lines and contrapuntal backup vocals as Ms. Maricich heads into yet another hapless liaison. And "Babay" distills a minimal version of a Phil Spector beat while Ms. Maricich sings, "The truth is I was just too dumb/to stop myself from holding on/I believed in love." She sounds wiser now, and not sadder but sassier.
Posted by kmikeym at 3:02 PM | Comments (7)
October 12, 2006
Art as it happens at gallery
by Grania Litwin
Will EBay make life worth living? Is it a master tool to help people avoid massive layoffs?
Andrew Dickson thinks it is, and will try to convince his audience, too, when he presents a tongue-in-cheek look at EBay, at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria tomorrow night.
Hand in hand with the current Fantastic Frameworks exhibition -- which looks at unusual designs for living -- a four-day performance festival called Live Art 2: Time ... Pieces will showcase artists like Dickson as they highlight themes of reality and the time-space continuum. The show is intended to "break down the construct of time and its relationship to the concept of performance," said curator Lisa Baldissera.
Dickson, from California, will embellish his piece with PowerPoint, rock anthems and audience interaction as he looks at the compression of time through globalized economics.
"Will people learn about EBay? Definitely," said Dickson, who hit upon the career of EBay power-selling a couple of years ago. "It allows me to work very little ... and still leave time for creative pursuits."
But the show is also a satire on everything from late night infomercials to get-rich-quick schemes.
"I've done it about 25 times and some people come with pen and paper, don't laugh at any of the jokes, and thank me afterwards for teaching them more in an hour than a six-hour university class."
"Others really just enjoy the laughs, the drama, the interaction," said the performer, who has done the show in England, Scotland and the U.S., and just returned from a six-day stint in the Netherlands.
"It resonates with Europeans because it's almost the worst and best part of America: The optimism and the in-your-face brashness. And I do stress that EBay is not only personally lucrative and important to the future of Canada, but that it is the responsibility of every human being to try power-selling in the interests of world peace."
Posted by kmikeym at 5:52 PM
October 9, 2006
Competitive Eating Blogger
Liz is famous! I saw her on TV! It was Hungry Charles Hardy setting a new green bean record on Eats of Strength on the INHD channel.
There are three more episodes, Ed Jarvis taking on sweet corn, Eater X taking on grilled cheese, and Crazy Legs Conti taking on hot dogs.
Posted by kmikeym at 1:45 PM | Comments (1)