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Music
Released on Social Registry, 1/22/08
The nicest thing I can manage about Blood on the Wall is that the music sounds spontaneous. The third album from the Brooklyn three-piece begins with four stick clicks, an apt starter gun for three or four generations of basement-based punk rockers. The remainder of the song -- it's called "Hibernation" -- showcases all of the band's meager abilities: the apathetic vocals, scuzzy guitars, loudly played drums recorded softly. That's pretty much it. More
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Arts & Crafts
Out of the Park
Posters. Prints. Paperweights. Paperbacks. Piggy banks. Postcards. Pillboxes. The Petit Pattern book. It's only appropriate that the store housing such miscellany be named Park Life (emphasis on the first consonant). Opened in 2006 on Clement near 3rd Ave. in the Inner Richmond, Park Life provides a fresh take on art and design, creating a space where affordable goods meet adventurous designs. More
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Books
Out of the Park
Posters. Prints. Paperweights. Paperbacks. Piggy banks. Postcards. Pillboxes. The Petit Pattern book. It's only appropriate that the store housing such miscellany be named Park Life (emphasis on the first consonant). Opened in 2006 on Clement near 3rd Ave. in the Inner Richmond, Park Life provides a fresh take on art and design, creating a space where affordable goods meet adventurous designs. More
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Clothing & Accessories
Out of the Park
Posters. Prints. Paperweights. Paperbacks. Piggy banks. Postcards. Pillboxes. The Petit Pattern book. It's only appropriate that the store housing such miscellany be named Park Life (emphasis on the first consonant). Opened in 2006 on Clement near 3rd Ave. in the Inner Richmond, Park Life provides a fresh take on art and design, creating a space where affordable goods meet adventurous designs. More
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Music
Released on Matador Records, 1/29/08
The new Stephen Malkmus record is like a wartime picnic: gorgeous and delicious with all sorts of drama looming behind the serenity. Such is the Malkmus style. The Portland, Oregon songwriter always operates on a steady diet of contradictions. His imagery is plentiful but obscure, his guitar playing simple but dissonant, and his songs are called "indie", which couldn't be further from the truth -- especially with Real Emotional Trash, Malkmus' first album in a couple years. More
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Music
Putting the 'West' in South By Southwest
South By Southwest, the annual Austin-based gathering of film, music, and technology, will -- as always -- have a strong Bay Area presence. From newer independent acts to many of the area's most established labels, artists and publicity houses, the second week of March will be remembered by a massive convergence of west and southwest. More
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Music
Released on Rough Trade Records, 3/18/08
My favorite track on Adam Green's fifth solo record is called "Exp. 1". The song is carefully layered and patched together, just a series of riffs and vocal ideas in the same key strung together. He sings some words and has some thoughts, but the entire affair sounds like happenstance, the product of too many hours in the studio having good ideas that might not make great songs. More
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Music
Released on Trashy Moped Records, 3/4/08
It seems foreboding that dance music would look to Ronny James Dio for guidance, but somehow that's the case. Ghostland Observatory singer Aaron Behrens manages to flat line already suffering beats with his metal pipes and stupid lyrics. To see a photo of Behrens and his producer partner Thomas Ross Turner doesn't help: one wears a cape and the other has braids and aviator glasses. It would be tough to feign surprise if it turned out that Limp Bizkit's Wes Borland mentored these guys. More
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Music
Released on Matador Records, 4/6/08
Remember the first time you put on goggles and sank to the bottom of the pool and watched what the water does to noise? The music of Matmos doesn’t sound too different from that. On its seventh album the electronic duo is at their weird, experimental best. They’re off the deep end, as it were. More
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Music
Self released, 5/5/08
One of the developing benefits of the 2.0 era seems to be the flourish of conceptual purity in pop art. Far from the only example, Trent Reznor is, however, one of the strongest. Reznor’s real role as a victim of abuse -- financial, substance, critical -- isn’t just reborn into this new era, it’s embraced and, subsequently, revitalizing Reznor’s output. Always marketed as a dark, subverted caricature, Reznor’s recently prolific (and proliferated) incarnation of Nine Inch Nails funnels these real subversions into really good music. In this era, the star becomes the art. More
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