Inspired by the Minutemen song, Evil Monito’s “Tour Spiel” highlights the musician’s life on the road. Each week, we’ll check in with some of our favorite artists touring stateside or abroad. We’ll provide an intimate look into what it’s like to be packed in a van or waiting for a flight with the same people for hours on end. It takes a certain state of mind to survive any lengthy tour. Yet it’s the memorable experiences that make life on the road ultimately rewarding, if not interesting. This week we highlight Matthew Woodley, drummer and singer for Montreal’s “post-classic rock” band Plants and Animals. →

King Fantastic – “Lost Art of Killing”

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DJ Troublemaker and Killer Reese One present a “concise study in Westcoastsynthesizerbeachbumgangstermusic.” This is the new single from their upcoming collaboration due out on Troublemaker’s own Hollyrock label. For more music, show info and updates, visit the King Fantastic. →

Javelin
Luaka Bop
(2010)

At a typical Javelin show, cousins George Langford and Tom Van Buskirk prepare boomboxes that serve as more than just hipster accessories. Each boombox produces a layer comprising a pastiche of sounds that are wide-ranging and indecipherable. They sample motifs from disco, hip-hop, R&B, calypso, psychedelic folk and god-knows-what-else, and recreate the sounds with electronic and homemade instruments. These songs are not exactly mash-ups →

This episode of Munchies takes Aziz Ansari, Michael Rapaport, Ethan Suplee and Zach McGowan to Los Angeles’ Animal restaurant, the brainchild of chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo. A 15-passenger van filled to capacity with the city’s finest stars tours the city’s moveable feast of Korean BBQ, vinegar chicken, cabeza tacos, ginger ale and caramel-drenched doughnuts. →

MillionYoung – “Hammocks”

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Mike Diaz aka MillionYoung has released a series of EPs that boast the melodic qualities of Panda Bear and the bouncy synths of acts like Neon Indian and Washed Out. The music is both soothing and danceable, making Mike one of many homegrown acts that make beautiful sounds out of the confines of their bedrooms. This brief Q&A describes Mike’s entry into music as well as his love for all things Kraftwerk and Jon Brion. →

The folks who brought you last year’s breakthrough documentary Food, Inc. will release in North American theaters another film chronicling another one of our most pressing crises. Written and directed by Lucy Walker (The Devil’s Playground), Countdown to Zero features appearances by Valerie Plame Wilson, President Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pervez Musharaff and Tony Blair and makes a compelling case for nuclear disarmament →

Photo by Helen Valleau

MillionYoung makes cheerful, sunny music that combines Beach Boys harmonies à la Panda Bear and chilled-out synths like those popularized by fellow east-coasters Memory Tapes and Washed Out. Hailing from Ft. Lauderdale, Mike Diaz is beatmaker and vocalist of his one-act project. He’s set to tour with Washed Out and Pictureplane at the Mercury Lounge in New York →

Guru aka Keith Elam, one-half of the hip-hop duo Gang Starr, is reportedly in critical condition after suffering cardiac arrest. He is currently in a coma and awaiting surgery at a New York hospital. Guru and DJ Premier formed one of hip-hop’s most enduring groups, mixing intelligent rhymes with jazz-sample beats. Together, they released six critically acclaimed records →

The Bloggomist: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Music Opinion

In the last days of Jay Reatard’s life, there were no signs of impending self-destruction. The 29-year-old garage and punk rock musician seemed to be picking up his life, having recently bought a new home in Tennessee and released a full-length record on New York’s Matador Records. His last Tweets contained little of the vitriol he frequently leveled at antagonists →

Phil and the Osophers are three guys from Brooklyn who play jangly, lo-fi pop songs about aviators, lovers and rich people. They’ve just released three new videos that feature 1920s newsreels (“Propeller Jet”), avant-garde Czech films (“Well Being”) and Super 8 travel footage (“Wandering Soul”). The band’s sixth record Parallelo is out this summer on Mp3 and CD. →