CRYSTAL CASTLES IN AUSTIN Bloodshed and mayhem in Austin, Texas as Cannibal Cheerleader faves Crystal Castles ripped and snarled their way through a brief but electric set at La Zona Rosa. Thrashing through new tracks such as “Baptism” and “Yes/No” with reckless abandon while adding a new level of live carnage to their classics such as “Crimewave” and “Black Panther”. For all the grinding, dancing, and pulsating of the mostly underage Austin (hipster?) crowd, the music raged like a punk slaughterhouse, flaming with intense rhythms that leaped to the ceiling with the rays of an amazing lightshow, coupled with Alice Glass’ ‘blood-filling-my-mouth’ shrieked vocals. With E. Kath manning the boards in his signature hunched-style and Glass pulling no punches with a bottle of vodka in one hand and the mic against her teeth in the other, Crystal Castles proved a brain-bashing performance that shows why they are years ahead of their electro contemporaries.La Zona Rosa didn’t allow Cannibal Cheerleader to bring in our cameras but we nonetheless managed to snag a few photos from Twitter and videos from YouTube that you can check out below. We can only hope they give you a sense of the sold-out mayhem of a 1500+ show, which featured Glass crowd-surfing and being dragged in by security in what has become a familiar sight at the Crystal Castles camp. It’s clear at this point that Glass and Kath are bonafiderockstars, entering the venue after dashing from a taxi straight to the stage door and exiting in similar fashion, flanked by a large posse. While the venue wasn’t exactly friendly to concert-goers, Crystal Castles put on an absolutely fantastic performance that shook the dancefloor to its core.
For all the talk of a shortened set, the band played for over an hour of intense and powerful punk-electro, well over your average punk show length. With their live show the band refuses to conform, employing ferocious hardcore shrieks over a maelstrom of electronic-thrash, transforming a slow-burner like “Black Panther” into a snarling behemoth. Cutting off songs in a show of punk ferocity, blowing speakers, and bounding offstage are all reflections of a band leaning towards an intense experience. That said, I had a great time at the show and I know the four winners of our ticket-giveaway had one as well! Congrats to the winners and thanks to everyone who reads the blog!
Crystal Castles – “Trash Hologram” ******************************************************************** NEW TV ON THE RADIO EP Following close on the heels of last year’s amazing Dear Science LP, TV on the Radio are releasing a three-song remix EP called Read Silence, featuring fantastic reinventions of the some of the deepest cuts of their latest album from the likes of Gang Gang Dance and other NYC art-rockers. Check out some tracks below and let us know what you think – personally we can’t get over the “Stork & Owl” track – like a magical explosion in our musical brains!
TV on the Radio – “Stork & Owl (Gang Gang Dance Remix)” ******************************************************************** UPDATE FROM JEMINA PEARL CAMP It’s been a while since we’ve heard any new songs from Jemina Pearl and the whole ex-Be Your Own Pet camp, but if you’ve been keeping up with her personal blog Puke Till You Punk you’d be more than up to date with the recording of her new solo LP, already in full swing and featuring guitar parts from none other than the likes of Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore. If you haven’t been keeping up, now’s the time to start some backreading – this album is going to slaughter the innocent.
We here at Cannibal Cheerleader make a point of not talking about things we dislike – what’s the point really? However, we can’t hold our tongue when we say that Austin club La Zona Rosa left a supremely bad taste in our mouth last night at the Crystal Castles show, so much so we had to say something. From the inept and rude security, to the slow as snails bar staff, to their policy of rifling through every bag, we haven’t had such a bad Austin club experience in quite some time. We’re thinking a lot of the negative connotation of the Crystal Castles show stems from the La Zona Rosa crew. Still, maybe it’s just a personal problem and didn’t affect anyone else. Either way, don’t think we’ll be scheduling any Cannibal Cheerleader shows there soon!
Details are somewhat sketchy at the moment, but if all sources are true metal masters and sludge signors Isis will be delivering their fifth offering of pure drone-metal goodness this very May 5th. Entitled Wavering Radiant, several songs are purported to feature guitarwork from Tool shredder Adam Jones. Stay tuned for more info from this metal juggernaut.
We here at Cannibal Cheerleader are a little overwhelmed ourselves with the myriad developments going on in the life of Jemina Pearl this week. After Be Your Own Pet broke up we didn’t hear from the fiery frontwoman for months, and now there’s a news update everyday about her! Today on her Myspace Jemina announced that she is beginning her own blog entitled ‘puke till you punk‘, which will feature updates from her recording process in Northampton along with other goings-on. Definitely worth checking out. We assure you the next JP update will include some new content, promise! But hey, check out that sweet picture of JP and Thurston Moore – wouldn’t you like to go record-diving with him too?
According to allthereports, the return of ex-Be Your Own Pet lead singer Jemina Pearl to the world of music was nothing but a triumph, albeit perhaps an awkward one for the pint-sized crooner. You can check out a video below that sounds every bit as ramshackle as a BYOP b-side with perhaps a little more Jemina-focused flair. Also, apparently John Eatherly, drummer of the duo’s former act, is now the guitarist, in what Pearl is calling an act akin to ‘Iggy Pop and the Stooges’, ie, ‘Jemina Pearl and the Somethings’. Check out the rest of the interview with Pearl here and watch out for more recordings from this group soon. They’re supposed to start committing songs to tape in March and have moved to NY to be near Mr. Thurston Moore, so we’ll be seeing a lot more of them in the weeks to come.
Jemina Pearl Setlist:
Band On The Run No Good I Hate People After Hours Nashville Shores So Sick! Heart Beats
Comments? The interview features Pearl stating, “Actually, me and John were the two main songwriters on “Becky”. Maybe that’s closer to what some of the newer stuff is going to be like.” Oh we could only be so lucky! Also, SXSW update tomorrow – get awkward/excited!
While we were lamenting over the loss of one of our favorite bands ever, Be Your Own Pet, after their breakup last August, lead singer Jemina Pearl was hard at work writing and recording her solo debut, according to this article. Her label Ecstatic Peace! confirms these developments and as an even more exciting development Pearl is scheduled to play her first ever non-BYOP show this Saturday, Jan. 17th in Brooklyn. That’s a new press photo up there (brown hair now? you chameleon you) so stay tuned for even more new photos/videos/songs after this weekend. Can’t wait!
In other developments, we’ve somehow managed to stumble across a trailer for an as-of-yet unmade horror film starring none other than Miss Jemina Pearl as the protagonist’s main squeeze. Jemina Pearl, a horror fan? Well if her tattoo of the girl with the axe through her forehead from Friday the 13th (pictured above), the verse in “Ouch” about how “when there’s no more room in hell/The dead will walk the Earth”, “Zombie Graveyard Party”, and animal homicide in “Bog” don’t convince you, the following trailer for The South Will Rise Again will convince you. Check out Pearl near the 1:19 mark.
JEMINA PEARL RESURFACES…AS DO WE! Hey Cannibal Cheerleader clan, so sorry that we were AWOL for another few weeks there – seems that grad school applications don’t fill themselves out and selection committees don’t accept extension requests due to ‘blogging about rad bands’. Be that as it may, we are back in the same capacity as stated in our Nov. 1st update, bringing you brief, creative, and awesome updates (hopefully) every weekday. We’re trying to revamp the site a little bit too, adding some new elements that will hopefully set us apart from the blogosphere a little bit. Let us know some suggestions!
That said, we’ve recently come across an mp3 of the infamous Jemina Pearl/Thurston Moore cover of “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker” courtesy of ‘Gossip Girl’. We’re not big teen-drama watchers but if they continue coordinating awesome collabs like the frontman for Sonic Youth and the voice behind Be Your Own Pet, we’ll be watching with all the tweens every week! Check it out below.
ALICE GLASS NAMED NME’S COOLEST PERSON Alice Glass of our favorite band Crystal Castles has been named the world’s #1 coolest person according to the NME Cool List. Other listmakers include Alex Turner, M.I.A., and Jay-Z amongst many others. Still, it’s the Castles frontwoman who makes the grade and turned out the #1 spot. Congrats to the CC gang!
Crystal Castles – Alice Practice (Futurecop Remix) ******************************************************************** BE YOUR OWN PET’S JEMINA PEARL RESURFACESWhat’s this you say? Jemina Pearl of the now defunct Be Your Own Pet covering the Ramones’ “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker” with Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore on guitar? I’ve gotta hear this! Well unfortunately the song in question turned up on the most recent episode of the CW drama Gossip Girl and the Time Warner corporation has taken down all traces of the song and video off of YouTube. Still, until the song surfaces again we here at Cannibal Cheerleader are comforted by the fact that Pearl is still alive and kicking somewhere, still belting out reckless punk anthems like there’s no tomorrow. Anyone got a copy of this? Send it our way!
Bloodshed and mayhem in Austin, Texas as Cannibal Cheerleader faves Crystal Castles ripped and snarled their way through a brief but electric set at La Zona Rosa. Thrashing through new tracks such as “Baptism” and “Yes/No” with reckless abandon while adding a new level of live carnage to their classics such as “Crimewave” and “Black Panther”. For all the grinding, dancing, and pulsating of the mostly underage Austin (hipster?) crowd, the music raged like a punk slaughterhouse, flaming with intense rhythms that leaped to the ceiling with the rays of an amazing lightshow, coupled with Alice Glass’ ‘blood-filling-my-mouth’ shrieked vocals. With E. Kath manning the boards in his signature hunched-style and Glass pulling no punches with a bottle of vodka in one hand and the mic against her teeth in the other, Crystal Castles proved a brain-bashing performance that shows why they are years ahead of their electro contemporaries.
La Zona Rosa didn’t allow Cannibal Cheerleader to bring in our cameras but we nonetheless managed to snag a few photos from Twitter and videos from YouTube that you can check out below. We can only hope they give you a sense of the sold-out mayhem of a 1500+ show, which featured Glass crowd-surfing and being dragged in by security in what has become a familiar sight at the Crystal Castles camp. It’s clear at this point that Glass and Kath are bona fide rockstars, entering the venue after dashing from a taxi straight to the stage door and exiting in similar fashion, flanked by a large posse. While the venue wasn’t exactly friendly to concert-goers, Crystal Castles put on an absolutely fantastic performance that shook the dancefloor to its core.
That said, I had a great time at the show and I know the four winners of our ticket-giveaway had one as well! Congrats to the winners and thanks to everyone who reads the blog!
Following close on the heels of last year’s amazing Dear Science LP, TV on the Radio are releasing a three-song remix EP called Read Silence, featuring fantastic reinventions of the some of the deepest cuts of their latest album from the likes of Gang Gang Dance and other NYC art-rockers. Check out some tracks below and let us know what you think – personally we can’t get over the “Stork & Owl” track – like a magical explosion in our musical brains!
It’s been a while since we’ve heard any new songs from Jemina Pearl and the whole ex-Be Your Own Pet camp, but if you’ve been keeping up with her personal blog Puke Till You Punk you’d be more than up to date with the recording of her new solo LP, already in full swing and featuring guitar parts from none other than the likes of Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore. If you haven’t been keeping up, now’s the time to start some backreading – this album is going to slaughter the innocent.
