Northside: Iceage in America

It was, apparently, difficult to get near the stage at Public Assembly during last night's Iceage show, their debut on American soil. I was unaware. Here's some footage I shot from my easily-attained spot on the side of the stage. Watch a monsoon of camera flashes and fist-pumps, and at the very end, the singer drops into the crowd. Photo of the setlist, below. Iceage were dark, chaotic, and fun, but would I expect anything less of a Sacred Bones showcase? I enjoyed The Men, Prurient, Pop 1280, and Cult of Youth just as much — if not, more.



Lookout for a full Northside report here on Monday.

Video Premiere: Timmy's Organism, "Building the Friend-Ship"

Lately I've been thinking about how Homo sapiens engage nature, as a result of an Ecocriticism class I'm taking at NYU. These nature writings and ecopoetics have shown me how people too often violate the natural world in art and literature. Thus I was especially pleased to see this grainy, psychedelic video for "Building the Friendship" from Sacred Bones weird-punks Timmy's Organism. From an ecocritical standpoint, the video does as its title suggests: a monsoon of color, it demolishes societal walls between humans (ie. floating astronauts) and animals (ie. frogs and butterflies) and nature. My favorite part is when cartoony flowers explode from multicolor acid hearts.

Timmy's Organism mastermind Timmy Lampinen — a.k.a. "Timmy Vulgar" — is frontman of Human Eye and was recently a Kresge Artist Fellow in Detroit. "Building the Friendship" from the band's debut LP, Rise of the Green Gorilla.

Photos: Sacred Bones Records

Earlier today, Altered Zones published a Q&A I did with Caleb Braaten and Taylor Brode of Sacred Bones Records. Along with the interview, AZ published a few photos I took at Bones HQ in the basement of Williamsburg's Academy Records. Check out the Q&A here, and more photos after the jump.