In what we’re calling our Freakshow Friday video, Grizzly Bear has released the video for “Two Weeks” off their acclaimed LP Veckatimest, which features some warped facial construction on members of the band, glowing mouths, and an explosive finale — literally.
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A short 27 hours, three minutes, and 44 seconds put Canadian producer and musician Gonzales as the new record holder of the longest solo concert in the Guinness Book of World Records over the weekend. Starting Sunday shortly after midnight, he played selections from such luminaries as Beethoven and Britney Spears, performing 300 pieces in total on the piano. Guinness did allow the 37-year old short breaks in between songs and 15 minute rest periods every three hours so that the man’s fingers would not fall off.
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[Photos and words by Rez Avissar]
Big concert, and currently, every mag large and small in New York is raving about how amazing it was. I had to come out to check out what was in store, as the lineup read like a who’s who of upper-echelon indie rock, crowned by Byrne, plus Sharon Jones!?!? Of course, when you pack this many acts into a night something has to give, and each artist performed four songs or less, sort of bite-sized micro-sets.
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To what degree is it absurdly patronizing that I didn’t take Laura Marling seriously because she’s a 19-year-old British female-folk/pop singer? Let’s call a spade a spade here: if you’re a young artist, you’re afforded little respect. If you’re a young woman, you’re afforded even less. These are entrenched stigmas in critical culture. It doesn’t help Marling’s cause that her songs are anchored on tales of failed or unrequited love. To sum it up: good-looking blonde teenager sings songs about her ex-boyfriend. Play coy all you want, but we both know transcending that persona on a critical level is pretty fucking tough. But we’re not talking about the Jonas Brother or Miley Cyrus here — we’re talking about Marling, who exudes a unique maturity in interviews; she is comfortable in the spotlight and admirably reticent. She doesn’t play to the camera; she plays to herself. She dismisses compliments about her maturity saying such self-analysis is unnecessary. And truthfully, she has little to nothing to do with her youthful contemporaries, but more with accomplished artists like Leslie Feist or Lykke Li.
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