low-fi

8hands Featured Blast from the Past: The Real People

alon — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 10:22:50 -0400

For a while now, it seems that everybody loves Zach Condon & his well known projectBeirut. He is only 21 years old but his musical depth goes many decades back, right into old Eastern Europe. Bla bla bla! Haven't we heard that before? Yes, Beirut music is awesome, and of course, the new album, "The Flying Club Cup" is magnificent. Sure. But I'm not here to point out the obvious – I just wanna tell you about a previous project of Condon that I recently found out about called The Real People.

The Real People is another alias of Condon that takes us back six years to the time when the wonder-boy was 15 (!!!). The Real People single album is named "The Joys of Losing Weight" and as you might have guessed, it's – as Larry David would say – pretty good, pretty pretty good.

It was made about a year before Condon dropped-out of high school and went touring in Europe, so no Balkan or gypsy tunes can be found here. Basically, what you get is Beirut-like melodies made with cheap-electronics instead of horns, accordions & ukuleles. Condon's voice is exactly the same for some bizarre reason (minus the studio filters, of course). I love it – old low-fi recordings of current big-shots have always made my heart beat faster.

8hands duo of the week: Matt & Kim

alon — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:26:49 -0400

As if our interview with the all-about-the-good-times Matt & Kim wasn't enthusiastic enough, we decided that they truly deserve to be our favorite act of the week - we want every 8hands user in the world to dance to their tunes, so, just like any other chosen 8hands artist, we will upload their video, "5k", to our YouTube profile, and you will get it right into your desktop. That's how people should live their lives!

8hands Featured Interview: The Loaf Recordings Label

Goldi — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:01:41 -0400

Lo Recordings has been in existence for over 10 years and is widely regarded as one of the most consistently innovative independent labels. Recently Lo have developed a new labels called Loaf, in order to bring ONLY new music by up-and-coming artists in the fanciest of packaging with limited distribution.

We were curious to learn of how, and if, social networks influences the indie record labels work. and decided to have a little chat with Udi Radomski – Loaf's label manager.

This is also the place to mention that Vincent Oliver, the gifted musician that composed all the amazing sounds you hear while using your 8hands, is also a part of Loaf recordings.

Hi, and thanks for taking the time to participate in our interview. First we want to ask what have you been working on these days?

"We are about to release our first 7” (!!!) by Charlie Alex March. It has a lovely cover of a Daniel Johnston track and it includes collaboration with people like Metronomy and The High Llamas. Lovely stuff. Also, we have a quirky little album from The Lonesomes coming out in September; it’s all sung by cows. Pretty wicked, innit?"

What's your main use in social networks?

"We do quite a lot of promotion through MySpace, but it’s hard to tell what kind of impact it has. Other than that, it became an industry standard for every label to have a MySpace page and it provides an easy way of getting feedbacks from people."

What's your favorite music social network?

"I don’t really have one. I find that “social networks” aren’t that social and immediate. MySpace is ok, but takes a lot of time to manage which I don’t have. I really should try Facebook which everybody is talking about."

As the manager of an Indie label, did you ever got to sign an artist just from listen to the artist profile?

"No, I find listening to music on MySpace very uncomfortable. Listening to an artist profile might be the first stage of the process. If we like what we hear we usually ask for a hard copy of the music, then we can asses better what’s going on. And of course, lets not be naïve, the fact that the music is great doesn’t mean that its something we can work with, there is also the human element involved – if the person(s) are serious enough to actually finalize the tracks/songs (most tracks we hear are usually in some sort of demo form, its very unusual to get anything close to finalize)."

Do you find new music online?

"Yes. We have a few favorite myspace bands, such as “After After After” and a few designers/illustrator that we met through MySpace.."

Music blogs you read?

"I like mystery poster the best, a blog dedicated for unheard gems. Simon Reynolds’ blog is very interesting but I don’t have time to actually read all he writes there."

The Sinatra's - Dining out Records 7'' (taken from the Myster Poster)

Can we ask for a music recommendation of yours?

"Hmm.. quite a tough one.. there is so much good music out there. I really like the new Dan Deacon album, Black Dice new 12” is ace. also been listening to a lot of new stuff on the Not Not Fun label – intense shit. And the new M.I.A single is wicked"

And finally, What would you do if you had 8hands?

"Probably more. But it wouldn’t look nice, will it?"

8hands Featured Interview: Matt & Kim

alon — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:27:35 -0400

Our octopus god demanded it, so we organized a chat with Kim from the happiest indie act EVER - the power-pop / new wave due, Matt & Kim.

Matt & Kim's party never stops. We've heard that line a billion times about a million different things, but when it comes to Matt & Kim, it's not just a cliché - it's the bloody truth.

Matt & Kim focus is on the important things in life: their song "It's a Fact" for example, deals with major issues: "yes yes yes / no no no" they shout. A couple of songs into the album, we get to their most known single, "Yea Yeah", where they solve that conflict - "yea yea yeah!" they scream over a lo-fi power pop beat. You gotta love them.

Our tiny purple octopus loves this sweet due - while he was dancing to the song "5k", he asked us if we could set up an interview with Kim - he thinks she's cute.

You have to scream out "Yea Yeah" when you see them - Matt & Kim

Why is it “Matt & Kim” and not “Kim & Matt”?

"I decided on this. It just sounds better. I also think written out it looks better.
At home with friends we are Kim & Matt. I am also the social one at home and matt is the quiet one".

Rrrr… I could have bet that he is the loud one. What have you been up to since the release of the album?

"We tour non stop. I think we have only been home for about 2 months in the last year. We were just here for a few weeks and it was nice. I mean we love touring but we also love Brooklyn. We leave in a few days to start another two months of touring but will be taking october to march off to write new songs!"

That's Great! But from what you have so far, which song is your favorite?

"This song called 'Fast Guitar'. It doesn't have any guitars in it... ha ha, just a clever name! We only play this song every now and then. It was one of the first songs we wrote".

I saw the video for "Yea Yeah". It's hilarious. But I wonder - From all the stuff that was thrown at you in the video, what was the worst?

"I guess the mixture of cream pie and pickles almost made us puke! Those two foods should never go together".

Well… our little octopus just LOVES a good cream pickles pie now and then. And speaking of 8hands, how would you describe your relationship with social networks?

"I can't imagine being a band with out this source. It makes it possible for everyone to hear your music. It also makes it possible for small bands to be heard with out having to rely on things like major labels. I think it is great! When we did our first tour we made it all the way to San Diego. Now I feel that in the US San Diego is the furthest point from home. Kids were singing along to our songs. Matt and I were stunned. It is all because of our MySpace and our website".

So I guess the online networks are more useful to you than the old-fashioned labels.

"I really think people don't need record labels anymore".

Yeah... that's Kim

Doesn't it bother you that a lot of fans will listen to your music online instead of buying the album?

"No way! We want everyone to hear it! I was once selling a kid a CD and his friend didn't have any money to buy one. I told him 'don't worry just burn it off your friend'. He was shocked. I think the more people know and like our music the better our shows will be".

And do you find new music online?

"Man I really love Lil' Mama's lip gloss song. We don't have cable so I use YouTube to check out artists videos. Everyone should go check out Lil' Mama.

Lil' Mama - Check Her Out

Ok - last question. What would you do if you had eight hands?

"Oh man, I would get so much more work done. That would be awesome. Once we were asked if we had a superpower what would it be... Matt decided that mine would be that I could work all the time. It is hard for me to sit still! Man, if Matt had 8 hands then he could just massage me all the time. That would be sweet too".