New idea societies

Published May 18 2005, 01:48 PM by webteam

1. Indie-rock as performance art? Last year, the local pick-up "band" Cult of Point Break formed as a sort of repertory group for indie classics. They kicked off by doing Slint's Spiderland, and within a week of their show, Slint got back together. We're pretty sure it was a coincidence and everything, but if Alex Chilton announces something special next month, you'll have these guys to thank. On June 22 and 23 at the Abbey (COPB only revives one album per year), they're doing Big Star's #1 Record. More at Cult's website.

2. New !!! single coming June 7 with covers of Mag Fields (?) and Nate Dogg (?!). Minute-long samples of both available at the !!! site, and Rollie Cadence Weapon has the full "Get Up" track, which is in fact as great as he says it is.

!!!, "Take Ecstasy with Me" (mp3 snippet, via !!!)

3. Music videos are commercials, right? No, wait, they're really works of art like short films. Either way, this is a little ridiculous: it's either a commercial for a commercial, or a trailer for a trailer: advance peek ahead of the helicopters-and-explosions video for A Life Once Lost's "Vulture." ALOL are part of that new brutalitarian metalcore boomlet, which we're all for. Hardcore brats who listen to lots of Pantera? Fuck yeah. ALOL's old A Great Artist was standoutish (though we keep confusing it with Every Time I Die's Hot Damn!); their new Hunter is out late-June on Ferret. Apparently, the video's still in editing. But the track, at least, is done:

A Life Once Lost, "Vulture" (mp3 directly accessible from this page)

4. Ugh: what the hell happened to the Donnas? Seems like just yesterday they were the greatest American teenage rock and roll machines since the Shangi-Las; now they're in the studio (with one of Rick's old cronies takin' care of business) doing Bachman Turner Overdrive's "Roll on Down the Highway" for the soundtrack to the sequel of Lindsay Lohan's VW infomercial. Jesus. They're on Carson Daly May 20, just in case you forgot how bad that last album blew.