Cannibal Cheerleader

KAREN O REVEALS NEW SIDE-PROJECTOver the weekend our favorite art-punk frontwoman Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs revealed her involvement in a new side project called Native Korean Rock. Here’s the announcement from KO from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ blog:

“Native Korean Rock is a side project of mine comprised of a body of love songs written over the last two years, to be performed with a motley crew of NYC natives. Expect high drama, high stakes in two intimate performances.

Does Native Korean Rock have anything to do with Yeah Yeah Yeahs? NO

Are these the leaked demos of years ago? NO“

Check out the band’s Myspace and check the flyer below for the NYC shows.
Anyone attending this one want to take some pictures for us? Here’s a few Native Korean Rock tracks to download – fair warning, they’re appropriately lo-fi. Enjoy!

Karen O – “OOO”
Karen O – “visits”
Karen O – “rapt”
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CONOR OBERST LEAKSHere at Cannibal Cheerleader all the news of Conor Oberst ‘returning to form’ on his new solo, self-titled LP had us a little worried. We loved Cassadaga and we’ve been digging on his overtly political diatribes on the last few records, we’d prefer if our Bright Eyed troubadour stayed on this winding path. Suffice to say, during an initial run-through of Conor Oberst we’re pleasantly surprised that while this singer-songwriter has pared back the lush instrumentation, his penchant for wordy, poetic lyrics and impressive metaphor have been left well-intact. Check out a few tracks and let us know what you think folks!

“MP3s removed by request”
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ONE DAY AS A LION LEAKSDelivering on the promise of last week’s preview on the band’s Myspace, One Day As A Lion self-titled EP not only captures the fire and fury one has come to expect from the Rage Against the Machine MC, but also illuminates an evolution in his sonic palette, as drummer Jon Theodore helps push Zach de la Rocha towards a more dub-oriented reggae sound. Equal parts grime, rap, rock, and drum-n-bass, One Day As A Lion scorches through 5 economical tracks that promise great things in the band’s future. Here’s hoping for a full-length!

One Day As A Lion – “Last Letter”
One Day As A Lion – “If You Fear Dying”
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MF DOOM/J DILLA/GHOSTFACE COLLAB SURFACESYes, it’s a day of leaks here at Cannibal Cheerleader but few seem so rare as this posthumous number from the great J Dilla. It’s a collaborative effort, two tracks from Jay Dee’s Donuts (”Anti-American Grafitti” and “Geek Down”) renamed, revamped (to become “Sniperelite” and “Murder Goons”), and flowed over by two master MCs (MF Doom and Ghostface Killah respectively). The end result is Sniperlite and you can hear the mashup of both songs below, in all their glory. Check it and be awed at the production mastery that was J Dilla.

Dilla/Doom/Ghostface – “Sniper Elite & Murder Goons”
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UZI AND ARI GET EQUIPMENT STOLEN
The scourge of the indie-rock world has struck again, this time it’s our shoegazey-cum-indie pop favorites Uzi and Ari who have been left ‘out in the cold’ so to speak after their equipment was stolen from their own house! Here’s their Myspace bulletin with the details:

“Hi droogs.

This is really getting old, isn’t it? Reading about the misfortunes of Uzi & Ari. Must be a curse upon us. But, as Christian Bale said last night in ‘The Dark Knight,’ the night is darkest just before the dawn. We hope.

Last night at about 4am, some hoodlums broke into our house, while we were sleeping and made off with the following items:

Roland Juno 106 Synthesizer (black in color)
Nord Electro-2 keyboard (red in color)
Fender Twin Reverb amplifier
Fender Mustang bass guitar (white in color)
Boss DD-5 Digital Delay
Boss DD-6 Digital Delay
Dell Inspiron Notebook Laptop (black in color)
Behringer 1204 FX mixer (dark gray in color)
Tascam 4 Track (light gray)
Korg Electribe ESX1 drum machine (red in color)
Ludwig Acrolyte snare drum (matte silver in color)

and various power cords, guitar cables, etc., totalling about 4500 dollars worth of equipment. i’ll post pictures soon.

If you know anyone who might have acquired new equipment like this, please be a good samaritan and let us know. This is just happening too often to bands, it’s crippling. We already make such a meager earning, we don’t even break even. It’s getting harder and harder to justify doing this anymore, it’s just an uphill battle constantly. This is the third time we have been robbed, but this is just ugly, to be robbed in your own home while you are sleeping.

Anyway, I would feel awful to ask for donations again. So many of you were so generous in donating for the vinyl, I know our fan base isn’t huge and you must be exhausted with your own struggle and strife.

We will, however be throwing a sort of benefit show/party in downtown Salt Lake in late August. We’re trying to do it on a rooftop or something cool that a lot of people will want to come to. I’ll post more information as I get it.

Sorry to be such a downer. I posted a new song, ‘Wolf Eggs,’ from the new record, a little earlier than I had planned, to lighten the mood. I don’t want you coming to our page and just feeling bad all the time.

We’ll get through this!

xo
ben“

So there you have it folks, if you see any of that equipment out there get it back to the band! Instrument thieves should be shot on sight! Stop destroying our indie-rock idealism! Here’s a video from the band and be sure to check out the band’s new album Headworms which drops Oct. 15th.

Any comments?

Sometimes when you go and see one of your favorite bands play, however good the show may be, you find yourself strangely disappointed, either because the set sounded too stagey and planned, the group didn’t play any of your favorite songs, or the crowd was just not feeling it. That was definitely NOT the case with Rilo Kiley’s set last night at Stubb’s here in Austin. Blasting through a set of stone cold classics (”Pictures of Success” AND “Better Son/Daughter”?? No way!) and amazing newer tracks (”Dreamworld”, “Breakin’ Up”, “Close Call”? Awesome!) on this one of the band’s last stops on their “Under the Blacklight Tour”, Blake Sennet, Jenny Lewis, and the rest of the gang mounted an indie assault with loose flair in front of an incredibly receptive Austin audience that would soon forget! More pictures and the setlist (as best as I can remember it and a little bit out of order) and more pictures below!

According to the Stones Throw website, before J Dilla’s untimely passing he collaborated with none other than our favorite emcee MF Doom as well as the infamouse Ghostface Killah on a variety of tracks using samples from his swan song Donuts (some of these tracks ended up on Fishscale, while the Doom tracks have never surfaced).

According to this interview with Pitchfork, Gregg Gillis AKA Girl Talk will be releasing his newest album via ‘the Radiohead/NIN/pay-what-you-want model’ before the end of the week! That’s good news to us as this mashup-artist’s Night Ripper was one of our favorite pop wonderworks of yesteryear so we’ll be waiting with bated breath for Feed the Animals (not Food for Animals mind you, haha). Also check out the Girl Talk Myspace for the dronetastic prep-track for the album. Weird stuff man!