I recently heard that Parts & Labor are going on an “extended hiatus”. Here is their statement regarding the hiatus…
Dear friends,
This January, Parts & Labor turns 10 years old. We’re planning a string of celebratory shows, in which we play selected material from all of our full length albums, leading up to a big 10th anniversary blow out on February 24th, 2012.
Following these performances, we’re going to take an extended hiatus. We feel incredibly fortunate having had a decade of amazing experiences — making records and new friends, performing with so many killer musicians and artists. But it’s time for each of us to focus on personal projects for a while. We’re all going to continue to make music through other endeavors.
We’d like to thank everyone who’s supported us, bought our albums, seen us live, offered us a floor to sleep on. We love y’all. As a token of our esteem, we’re giving away a final song called “No Nostalgia (featuring Todd Bailey and Where’s The Party At)”, which was recorded during the Receivers sessions, but suddenly seems all too prescient.
I don’t know about you, but when I heard the epic “Fractured Skies” for the first time I swear my brain melted. I had to find out who was playing, and I needed to hear more of it. This song restored my faith in punk rock. I hope it does the same for you.
Editor’s Note: The first five songs from this mix will be featured on ex.fm‘s playlist during the music and technology smartloungue event happening on October 19th and 20th.
You can browse the official CMJ showcase list @ schedule.cmj.com and you should probably also check out the unofficial showlist @ ohmyrockness.com.
And here is a short list (in no particular) of just a few awesome shows we are looking forward to next week:
You can stream (and scrobble) all the songs in this mix using the ex.fm player at the bottom of the page OR you can just download any or all of the tracks at your leisure and play them using a digital media player of your choice.
Also, If you want to download all the individual tracks in this post, you should probably think about installing the DownThemAll! or FlashGot Firefox extensions.
And if you like what you hear you should probably purchase music from the above artists at any of these fine online retailers:
Noah and Rick of YVETTE sent us these answers to our questions in this next installment of the q and also a series.
q: What is the last song you (really) heard?
n: A while back I happened on Tristan Perich‘s 1-Bit Symphony. It’s a battery, a microchip, a couple switches, a volume knob, and a headphone jack simply wired together and mounted in a jewel case. The idea of it is pretty wild – that you can participate in the listening experience and that this body of work is contained on one tiny chip in a little CD case. Also, I’m really feeling this remix my friend Alex, who goes by Young Life, made of Katy Perry’s “E.T.” It’s basically just a slowed down version of the song that makes Katy sound like Brian McKnight in drag. And it’s got a really nasty beat.
n: I’ve been getting back into seltzer lately… Or whiskey and seltzer?
r: I’ve always been into seltzer but people are always trying to rip off my style so I’m probably going to switch it up to some orange-flavored San Pellegrino.
q: What is your favorite band to see live?
n: Not sure I have a stand-out favorite, but I recently saw Man Forever (Kid Millions‘ project) as just a duo: it was Kid and Ryan from Tall Firs and one snare drum, that’s it. They just flammed, paradiddled, and rolled all over that drum for at least half an hour without stopping. In fact, I think the sound guy kind of had to signal to them to stop. Everyone in the room was in a trance. I started hearing things that I’m not sure were actually there. Oh and I almost forgot to include one of my favorite bands to see live, Gowns (rip)!!! So, so good live.
q: What is your favorite venue (in NYC, if applicable)?
r: For us it’s more about the quality of the show than anything else, but Death By Audio has always felt a little like home base to me. I don’t know if it’s because we’ve played there the most or that the audience has always been good but I feel most comfortable there. Also, Edan‘s got the souped-up P.A. sounding awesome, so that helps.
n: Totally agree with Rick. Silent Barn, Bruar Falls, and Cakeshop are other quality places where I like to play and/or see shows.
q: What piece(s) of culture are you really really excited about right now?
n: Not that I want to give it more attention than it’s already received, but I’m mildly fascinated with the “news”, put forth by evangelist network Family Radio, that apparently the end of the world is nearer than we thought. According to them, the End Time will happen on May 21st, 2011. Bummer if they’re right. Actually, I’ll be so pissed if they are right because we’ve put so much work into this tour coming up that it would suck if the apocalypse got in the way. But they’ve predicted it to happen before and it hasn’t, so… On a more serious note, I really love photographer Stephan Tillmans‘ Luminant Point Arrays collection. It’s incredibly minimal and so beautiful. If we could use that stuff for album cover art, I would…
q: Anything we should know about your latest project (whatever that might be)?
n: Biggest item on our plate right now is the tour we have coming up at the end of the month. We’ll be rolling down the East coast, up through parts of the Midwest, then past the Great Lakes region and into Pennsylvania on our loop back home. We’re incredibly psyched. In the meantime, some friends have been remixing the songs from our 7″ and they’re coming out awesome. The latest is from SF bros Clipd Beaks and it rules. And when we come back from tour, we’ll be playing some more NYC shows. Just confirmed a Northside Festival show for June 17th with Milk Music and we’ll be playing a benefit show on July 1st for a non-profit called The Emancipation Network, and that will be with a bigger-name band that we cannot yet announce.
r: After the tour our sights will be set on writing and recording, since we have a bunch of new songs and there are more in the works. Hopefully another release will be materializing soon.
And be sure to check out the rest of the q and also a series… here.
Andrya of Talk Normal sent us these answers to our questions in this next installment of the q and also a series.
q: What is the last song you (really) heard?
a: The Tides of Manaunaun by Henry Cowell. He’s a piano man; early 20th century. It’s like an earthquake with the most rewarding melodies on top. Deep stuff.
a: I love twig tea. It’s kinda like green tea but with twigs, not the leaves. This means there is way less caffeine and it almost has a nuttier taste. I like to steep it for at least 10 minutes so it gets almost black. Some folks call it kukicha. I call it tasty.
q: What is your favorite band to see live?
a: This is tough… Lower Dens? Although I am not sure if this is just because I treasure their tunes, which only enhances my perception of them as a ‘live’ act. I’d like to now reflect on a poignant ‘live’ experience… I once did sound for an ensemble with whom Steve Reich premiered a piece. Long story much shorter, he showed up only for the actual show and ended up directing the live mix. It was a wild ride. I was sweating bullets. That man is rock-n-roll.
q: What is your favorite venue in NYC (if applicable)?
a: I feel like show locations are not necessarily about established venues, but rather promoters and what particular bands they decided to string together for that night. But ‘venue’ specific, I like Death By Audio, 285 Kent, Secret Project Robot and Zebulon – all for different and various reasons.
q: What piece(s) of culture are you really really excited about right now?
t: “Same Old Scene” by Roxy Music, from their much-maligned Flesh & Blood album from 1980. It’s serves as the opening and closing music of the film Times Square also from 1980. Total ear candy perfection, but still kinda weird. A heavily reverbed Ferry vocal with little of his trademark vibrato, makes him sound like a ghost in a genuinely creepy way.
t: Watching art and music documentaries on Netflix Instant – it’s like the only thing that they’ve instant-ized completely and apparently there’s an obscure documentary about almost any band or artist you could possibly be interested in. I just saw “Athens Inside And Out” for the first time, which was thrilling for contemporary ted the Pylon super fan and 8th grade ted the over-zealous R.E.M. apologist. Really well made, by turns heartbreaking and completely inspiring. I also watched a great one about The Doors recently at my girlfriend’s insistence that really did convince me to stop being such a naysayer on those guys.
q: Anything we should know about your latest project (whatever that might be)?
m+t: We’re having a 7″ release show on April 25th with our dear and talented friends The Psyched and YVETTE! We’re super stoked to finally have finished screenprinting the jackets and assembling everything. We’re also perilously close to finally finishing our eternally forthcoming 2nd full length, which we can barely contain our excitement about. Seriously.
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