Toluu : The Yellow Stereo

The Yellow Stereo

Indie Music. Films. Video Games. What else could you ever want?

As expected, releases are slim this week with Thanksgiving on the horizon. Nothing in particular to recommend, but if you’re looking for some stuff from some major artists like Coldplay, Kanye West, and The Killers - well your needs are covered as each have something new out this week as well. That being said, this gives me a chance to talk about something other than music this week…

I normally don’t delve into DVD releases with the Graboid, but there are a couple of releases worth looking into that I would like to talk about. The majority of these are standard Def Criterion Collection releases and are truly the stand-outs this week. If Blu-Ray is your preferred format, than you’ll just have to wait till December 16th for that.

Chungking Express - Criterion Collection
As much as i’d love to watch this gem in full 1080p glory, I would be just as much happy to just have this on dvd period. I’ve been collecting Wong Kar-Wai films for about a year and a half now, and can’t wait to add this one to my collection. It’s a great little flick, though, whenever I do watch it now, I tend to always gravitate towards the second half of the film (superior in my opinion). I can never listen to “California Dreaming” anymore without thinking of this film, seriously.

Bottle Rocket - Criterion Collection
Finally, we’re getting a special edition of this sucker after years of waiting. Why should you pick this up? Well, it’s Wes Anderson’s directorial debut, you also get the 11-minute black-and-white short, and the music in this film is just spot-on (you can check out a few of my faves in the Wes Anderson edition of Films on the Mind I did a long time ago).

Shugo Tokumaru :: Daytrotter SessionNovember 25

Japanese multi-instrumentalist Shugo Tokumaru recently stopped by to record a session with the wonderful folks over at Daytrotter, and played a couple of tracks off his recently released third album, Exit. That album showcased Tokumaru’s talents, as it’s well-known that he’s able to play well over 100 instruments, though, it was a stripped-down affair this time around as his short set was completely acoustic. Definitely worth checking out, and with a great year that included a short stint opening for the Magnetic Fields, hopefully we’ll be hearing a lot more from him well into 2009.

MP3: Shugo Tokumaru :: “Sanganichi”
[Listen/download the entire session at Daytrotter]

Je Suis AnimalNovember 25

Cheers to Skatterbrain for posting this recently released Cloudberry single from Je Suis Animal, as this was my first chance to finally listen to this band. I’ve seen their name tossed around here and there, but for some reason or another just didn’t bother to give them a chance. Of course, I know absolutely nothing about them, so I was able to learn a thing of two from The Finest Kiss who tosses a few comparisons that include the likes of Broadcast, Electrelane, and even Stereolab. That’s quite a trio right there, though, I can totally see similarities to the latter two. Maybe even toss in a little My Bloody Valentine too for a unique brand of psychedelic indiepop.

Their very first album is called Self-Taught Magic from A Book was released earlier this year on Norwegian label Perfect Pop, with an early December release due out on London label Angular Recording Corp. Still, no US release is planned as far as I know.

Under Electric LightNovember 24

Something that I find myself doing less and less nowadays in regards to blogging is reading emails. When I first started this blog and received my first handful of emails, I was ecstatic that someone would actually send me their stuff to listen to. Those times were new and exciting, and I would read nearly every piece of email that would come my way. This was when I actually had time to do this, and my inbox wasn’t the overflowing mess that it is now. Usually, around every month or so, I look at my email and say to myself that I will actually give time to reading these, but a half hour later end up running way like a scared little puppy from the shark-infested waters that is my inbox.

Well, today was one of those days, and I have decided once again to comb through the emails to see what gems I could find. The result of an hour of culling through the mess is from a one-man project from Montreal, Quebec called Under Electric Light. Right off the bat, I wanted to check this out just because I liked the name. What about the music, though? Not bad at all, really. The music certainly fits the name, as the man behind this dream-pop sound, Danny Provencher, takes all of his musical influences to heart as they’re all evident with noticeabl

Andrew Bird Winter Tour AnnouncementNovember 24

Well, this is definitely exciting news. As the title suggests, Andrew Bird has announced an upcoming tour to coincide with the forthcoming release of Noble Beast on January 27. The two month spanning tour, which will also be making a stop at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta by the way, will find the gifted whistler paired up alongside Loney, Dear for a large majority of the dates.

For me personally, there’s just something wildly exciting about seeing Bird perform during what i’m sure will be a very cold season. I’ve been fortunate enough to see him live twice, and i’m definitely looking forward to making it out for this one. Plus, it’s just been way too long since i’ve been to a show.

11-20 London, England - St Giles-in-the-Fields
11-21 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Church de Duif
01-28 New York, NY - Carnegie Hall *
01-30 Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre ^
02-03 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club ^
02-04 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse ^
02-06 Orlando, FL - The Plaza Theatre ^
02-07 New Orleans, LA - House of Blues ^
02-12 Austin, TX - Paramount Theater ^
02-13 Albuquerque, NM - El Rey ^
02-14 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theater ^
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