This might come off as a bit fanboyish — but Django Django is the best band you probably haven’t seen live yet.I’ve made no secret about my love for the quartet from the English isles, and a cancellation on their performance at Iceland Airwaves only furthered my anticipation. Like everyone else in the Neptune Theater on a rainy Tuesday evening in Seattle, I eagerly waited and waited for Django Django’s jangly take on psych-electronic influenced rock — a wait which first began since KEXP started blasting “Default” nearly 15 months ago.
March 19th, 2013 @ Neptune Theatre, Seattle, WA
Night Moves
Django Django chose Minneapolis-based Night Moves, fresh off of a whole lot of good press for the brand new band. The quartet, using a little bit of odd samples and pre-recorded instrumentation, looked like veterans for the crowd, channeling their inner-Portugal. The Man as they delivered a psych-rock set that would make any Deadhead proud. The band, however, isn’t prone to senseless noodling; they kept their set nice and tight for an opener, and sounded much more polished than you would expect.
DJANGO DJANGO / NIGHT MOVES LIVE SHOW REVIEW CONTINUES BELOW
In the music video for Polica‘s “Wandering Star”, Los Angeles-based director ELY (Eugene Lee Yang) unifies a strong grouping of contemporary dancers who one-by-one attempt to raise an elderly woman from her emotional slumber. As they engage the woman, who seems like an artist past her prime, she slowly comes to life once again, shared sensuality leading her to eventually participate in movement herself. The setting is raw — with dancers donning bodysuits in a stripped room and projections shot onto white sheets — but the music video’s strength lies completely in its display of human intimacy and diversity of dance styles. Director ELY discusses the fundamentals of creating “Wandering Star” in the Q&A below.
Through the years, long-time collaborators and friends Lazerbeak and Minneapolis video artist Matt Scharenbroich have worked together to match their passions with one another’s. In this feature below, we look back at their projects together, and Scharenbroich comments on his latest video for “Life Every Voice”, which is a rippling animated delight that falls downwards through glitter and varying levels of psychedelic intensity.
INTERVIEW WITH MATT SCHARENBROICH CONTINUED BELOW
“The falling in the video could be paralleled with that of Alice falling down into the rabbit hole or the sensation of one’s body falling into a dreamy hypnotic state. There is a certain freedom and release associated with this transformational and transcendent state. That release from the boredom and restraints of life can be incredibly uplifting.” – Matt Scharenbroich
