Listen To: Winter Gloves

Growing up rural can make you sort of weird. There’s a space to country life, a distance – even between members of the same family. Life happens slightly more in the mind, and the quiet, solitude of unbroken routine causes almost a slight withdrawing into the spaces between the daily bustle and whirl. Moving that ruralness into the city, any city, can be a bewildering, stressful, almost drowning experience, with so much to do, see, and hear – it all muddles together.

Winter Gloves’ music has a space in it, a feeling of isolation and distance layered beneath even the poppiest hooks and danciest bass grooves that adds depth where many similar bands come up slightly short. Add this to the interesting mix of bedroom pop and hipster dance party, and you’ve got yourself some interesting songs for sure. Maybe this nifty musical mix comes from Winter Gloves’ lead singer/songwriter/wurlitzer player Charles F growing up in rural Quebec, or maybe it comes from F’s writing many of the songs on the group’s first full-length “About A Girl” alone in his apartment adjusting to life in the big city, but Winter Gloves’ sound is like a mix of country isolation with the relentless energy of a crowded club.

This mixture of pop music and dance music only works because of the creative efforts from each band member. The combination of Vincent Chalifour’s nasty synth bass lines and Pat Sayers downright dancy work on the drums with the strong pop anchors of Charles F’s at times almost plaintive singing and wurlitzer playing and Jean-Michel Pigeon’s work on the guitar and glockenspiel. It’s like analog meets digital, urban meets rural, bedroom meets dancefloor – whatever it is, Winter Gloves make it work.

Winter Gloves is on tour with Thunderheist through May 13th. They’re coming through The Rathaus’ area in May, check them out at The Record Bar in Kansas City, MO on May 5th, and at the Replay Lounge in Lawrence, KS on May 6th. For more tour dates visit Winter Gloves’ Website and MySpace.

Listen To Winter Gloves below:

by: Meghan Bainum

Blipping Awesome

Blip.fm is an online community where anyone can become an internet DJ. Play your jams while connecting with other fans all over the world through the free and open exchange of mp3′s. Blip proclaims itself the Twitter for music. So think of Twitter, subtract the inane observations, add music, and you’ve got the general feel. Want to hear the latest Pitchfork darling and see if they are worthy of all the hype? Type “Japandroid” into the search field, preview the results, and blip the song you like along with any personalized message. From there it can be viewed by anyone on the “Public” page where a real-time stream of all blips is continuously rolling. However, spending much time on the Public page can be rather unfruitful due to the sheer number of updates (unless you consider Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Jimmy Buffett time well spent).

Luckily, finding like-minded blippers is simple. Every time you blip a song, a list of users who have recently played the same artist is generated. Add them to your favorites and all their blips will populate on your “Home” page, which continuously streams what is being played by only you and your favorites. And don’t worry, favorites can always be removed once added if you find their selections lacking. You can also search for other users through blip’s handy “Find More Dj’s” search bar.

Once you’ve blipped some songs you may find yourself receiving props, new listeners, and/or credits. Don’t panic, we’ll explain. Props are, as defined the website,”… tokens of respect that can be given from one DJ to another – say for blipping a good song or being a good DJ in general.” Props in turn earn you credits that can then be dispersed to other blippers as you see fit, in a “pay it forward” sort of deal. You’ll also have songs reblipped from time to time (or you may choose to reblip a DJ’s song), another sign of respect that equates to that song being added to the reblippers (or your) profile.

So you have a track you want a friend to hear and they are not on blip? Again, relax. Blip offers an integrated service that automatically updates your twitter, friendfeed, tumblr, livejournal, audioscrobbler, or ping.fm account with your latest blip (starting your blip’s message with an “!” will nullify that service on any given blip). Also, every song you blip can be embedded into your blog/website thanks to the html code supplied, which would appear like this:

Skeptics will be happy to know that all the music on Blip.fm comes from urls that are hosting the mp3 as a free preview. You won’t be able to burn these songs on cd and Blip.fm provides a link to buy all the mp3′s hosted.  So you are not stealing the music, in many cases the labels or artists themselves have added the songs to the site as a means of promotion.

Take it from The Rathaus and our 94 listeners (not to brag or anything because some have thousands), Blip.fm is an invaluable, yet completely free means for audiophiles to discover and share music.

Learn more about Blip.fm in FAQ section.

See The Rathaus’ profile here.

posted by: Harold Johns III

Food, Inc.

Studio Synopsis:
In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. Food, Inc. reveals surprising — and often shocking truths — about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

Food, Inc. will be in theaters on June 12th.

posted by: Brent Carter

Gorillaz Give Away Bananaz for Free

The Gorillaz are streaming their full-length documentary Bananaz for free, courtesy of Babbelgum.com, before it hits stores on June 1st.

Filmmaker Ceri Levy has documented the Gorillaz since the early stages in 2000 as a side project for Damon Albarn of Blur and comic book artist Jamie Hewlitt. Bananaz takes you on a journey through the drawings, music, animation and even the voices behind Murdoc, 2D, Noodle and Russel Hobbs. Levy also interviews Dennis Hopper, De la Soul, Dangermouse, Dan the Automator, D12 and others about the often hilarious process of creating the first virtual band.

The documentary carries a warning, “contains strong language…some footage includes a strong strobing effect, which may affect viewers with photo-sensitive epilepsy.” So kids, please tell your parents you heard the language on the bus, not at The Rathaus.

posted by: Harold Johns III

Aiko’s “Love Monster”

“Love Monster” by AIKO

Joshua Liner Gallery presents ‘Love Monster’, an exhibition of new mixed media works by the Tokyo-born, Brooklyn-based artist AIKO.

As a founding member of the artist collective FAILE, formed in 1999, AIKO was there at the infant stages of this explosion of wheatpastes and stenciling that has modified walls all over the world. In 2006 AIKO decided to go solo and has since taken her collage, stenciling, brushwork, spray paint, and serigraphy to a whole new level in what is her largest solo show to date.

The first feature you will notice about AIKO’s work is her super-saturated style, which is a purposeful direction born from her time spent as a student of Media Studies at New School University in New York. Just as the Joshua Liner Gallery stated, “This bricolage technique perfectly suits AIKO’s eclectic practice—a voracious mash-up of Japanese and American pop culture, including comics, children’s book illustrations, advertising, classic movie posters, and soft-core pornography.”

AIKO continues the beautiful tradition Warhol started by re-processing and reselling the everyday images we take for granted but still have a huge affect upon our perspectives.  And also like Warhol, AIKO’s brilliance stems from her unusual synthesis of telling personal experiences  through the most shared of all languages, commercial imagery.

“Make Effort, Not War 2″ by AIKO

“Love Monster” runs until May 16th.

posted by: Harold Johns III