Tag Archives: irm

6 Must Have Albums for 2010

Posted on by


Artist: Broken Bells
Album: Broken Bells
 Featured Track: “The High Road”

Danger Mouse strikes again.  This time with The Shins’ James Mercer in the self-titled debut, Broken Bells. Do I really need to say any more? Okay, the two met at a Danish music festival way back in 2004 and began secretly working on the album late 2008. The pair released “The High Road”as the debut single late December to promote the album that’s due out March 9. But the full album leaked that same month anyway. Are these things really accidental?  Hmmm, I wonder. Regardless, it’s fantastic and I love it.  Experimental and melodic, chalk it up to another Danger Mouse masterpiece. He truly is the man with the Midas touch.

Artist: Charlotte Gainsbourg
Album: IRM
 Featured Track: “IRM”

The minimalist album title, IRM, (French for MRI) was inspired by Gainsbourg’s frequent MRI’s she endured after suffering a brain hemorrhage from a water-skiing accident in 2007. ”I had to do so many [MRIs] and every time I was in that tube I was thinking it would make great music,” she’s quoted as saying. And great music it did make. Her lyrics on the album’s single, “IRM”, offer a detailed, psychedelic journey into her experience and sets the tone for the album. Which, you can hear, is amazing.

Artist: Local Natives
Album: Gorilla Manor
 Featured Track: Sun Hands

Take the locomotive tempo and percussion of The Dodos and add the layered harmonies of The Fleet Foxes with some rapturous chorus outbursts a la Arcade Fire and you pretty much have the sound of Local Natives, an LA-based group whose debut album is an absolute gem from start to finish. Get to know this band.

Artist: Pavement
Album: Quarantine The Past- The Best of Pavement
 Featured Track: “Stereo”

Should I even have to explain this one?  No, I shouldn’t. You should understand, however, that this is it for me – the foundation of my lo-fi love, the source. All roads lead to Pavement. And they are finally reuniting this year.  So get this remastered best of collection. Learn it, love it, live it.

Artist: Phantogram
Album: Eyelid Movies
 Featured Track: “When I’m Small”

Let me just say that I’ve been drowning myself in this album since it was released. Drowning, rolling, wallowing, surrendering myself to all of it.  I just love it. The first LP from the Saratoga Springs, NY-based duo, it’s the perfect combination of electronic beeps and boops, hazy guitars and spacey synths.  Give me more, please.  Take a listen yourself and you’ll be begging for it.


Artist: Twin Tigers
Album: Gray Waves
 Featured Track: Everyday

There are times when you hear a new band and just know they are going to be huge. Athens-based, Twin Tigers is one of them. Their debut LP, Gray Waves, is an epic assault of psychedelic, shoegaze rock. Jaw dropping good. The kinda stuff that’ll make you swoon. The kinda band that “could dismantle The Silversun Pickups from their perch.” The kinda sound that will keep you coming back for more. Get into this band is all I have left to say.

Charlotte Gainsbourg – “Trick Pony” + Flaunt Mag Photos

Posted on by

Charlotte Gainsbourg – “Trick Pony”

As I’ve stated before, j‘ai taime Charlotte. Her latest album, IRM, is one of my favorites this year.  Both her and her music are impossibly sexy, cool and hip on all levels. Even if the subject matter is on the topic of a head injury she endured after a water skiing accident in which she had to undergo surgery and countless MRIs (or IRMs in French). So when Flaunt Magazine sent me photos from their recent issue featuring shots of Charlotte snapped by famed photographer Kurt Iswarienko, how could I refuse?

IRM, produced by Beck, is out now.  Get it if you haven’t already.

Girl Crush: Charlotte Gainsbourg

Posted on by

Charlotte Gainsbourg – “IRM”

Typically I loathe the actor turned singer/songwriter schtick. But Charlotte Gainsbourg is the exception. The arbiter of everything cool and indie, the woman can do no wrong.  At least in my eyes, but I admittedly have a crush. So let me break it down for you and see if you agree.

She’s the daughter of British actress, singer and style icon Jane Birkin and French actor/singer Serge Gainsbourg. (That pedigree alone is enough cool quotient to last a lifetime.) Is a critically acclaimed, award winning actress in her own right with an impressive roster of cool indie films under her belt – like La Bûche, Jane Eyre, Lemming. This year she won Cannes Film Festival Best Actress for her role in Antichrist. Musically, she’s turned out two albums and has worked with the likes of her father Serge, Madonna and French pop star Etienne Daho. And her upcoming album, IRM, was produced by non other than Beck himself.

Due out January 26, the minimalist album title, IRM, (French for MRI) was inspired by Gainsbourg’s frequent MRI’s she endured after suffering a brain hemorrhage from a water-skiing accident in 2007. “I had to do so many [MRIs] and every time I was in that tube I was thinking it would make great music,” she’s quoted as saying. And great music it did make. Her lyrics on the album’s single, “IRM”, offer a detailed, psychedelic journey into her experience and sets the tone for the album. Which, you can hear, is amazing.

Only Charlotte can make an MRI cool and straddle the realms of indie film and music with credibility and aplomb.  She’s effing rad. If I could be half as cool as her I’d be so happy.