Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Magic Hands



Got a CD by the San Francisco band Black Fiction and thought the album art was cool flipped it over and saw a drawing of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. It had me confused because it was holding two bloody swords but wearing a red bandana. Is it Raphael or Leonardo? Raphael stol Leonardo's swords? What? Anyway I noticed below the confused Ninja Turtle a stack of kings' heads, you know, the kind from playing cards. Flip the cd back over and realize the weird patterened blobs and the kings' torsos. Crazy. The card theme follows inside.

ANYWAY enough about their crazy cool album art, Black Fiction are compared often to Ariel Pink, Beck, Animal Collective, and Akron/Family. They've also shared the stage with The Dirty Projectors, Court & Spark and the Fiery Furnaces. Hello we have a winner. The band's lo-fi jangle pop had me hooked at first listen. It's not the kind of pop you have to hear over and over for the hooks, but for the entire instrumentation. Handclaps, tambourine jangles, moaning, and that weird throat noise from Spoon's "Stay Don't Go."

Magic Hands
I Spread the Disease
The album Ghost Ride is out on Howells Transmitter. Get yourself a copy, because it's just the right thing to do.
You also want to be their friend. Because then you can download two new 8-track recordings.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the comics, the TMNT all had red bandanas (check out http://www.ninjaturtles.com/comics/mirage/volume01/leo/leocover.jpg). It was only later and in the cartoons that the turtles had their individual colors.

Unknown said...

Thanks for covering this, Michael! I think these guys could really take off.