IM // UR | The Pains Of Being Saint Etienne

This is probably the most exciting album we've heard in a while. Can you imagine a metal band not made by (and for) teenagers who worship Iron Maiden like their sisters worship Miley Cyrus? Invasion's The Master Alchemist is a compilation of 12 songs created with noisy guitars and fearless female vocals that will teach future generations about the emerging punk attitude; all with a metal sound and new rave style that might actually be the future of hairy metal. And we all thought heavy metal had no future...

WE // R \\ WEARING

No matter what part of the world you live in, you really can't ever have enough tees. Specially white ones. And black ones. With cool graphic prints on them. Meanwhile, in hipster-dom, crystals are still an ever popular theme, but in this case, we prefer this one in particular from Canadian based operation Handsome Clothing, christened the 'Lunar Crystal' (//Christel) tee. 'Handsome', despite being a kind of old school, highly civilised type of word, does describe this tastefully hip label justly. They also have a darn good-looking blog too, so go check that out while you're at it.

WE // R \\ WATCHING

Burn Notice is a USA Network series about a spy who got burned - which they remind you of in every scene. Although following the
basic style of American television, the series will catch all you dudes out there (sorry, girls won't like this) who like watching things explode in the most diverse ways. And like any good spy show, it teaches you how to make homemade bombs with boring things (a modern version of MacGyver). Plus Bruce Campbell is a lead character. And he's looking all Morrissey like.

WE // R \\ GOING

Imagine a youth house transformed into a club. Now charge 4 reais for a (long neck) beer and from 10 to 15 reais to get in. If you did it all right this would be called Neu (read in German) and actually already exists in São Paulo. My favorite night there is Friday, when they host Explode, a party where they basically play third world inspired songs (from Vampire Weekend to the whole club rap scene from Baltimore). Some great underrated DJs play there from time to time, and when you least expect it, you might find yourself laying on the dancefloor busting out some drunky town moves.

WE // R \\ READING

So yes, we've been wayyyy slack in updating the We//R\\Stuffs, which is why I'm going to say now that we began and finished Oscar Wilde's A Picture of Dorian Gray well before we knew it was a film. This is a classic novel about art, vanity, beauty and the consequences of such. 'A Picture of Dorian Gray' is brilliant; exploring and exploiting the potentially corrosive characters of beauty and what beauty can do to a character. Navigating through the deeply dark and light sides of human nature, Wilde's novel is a wickedly good study of society, and echoes with a cackling delight (and despair) at humanity's foibles.

The Pains Of Being Saint Etienne

Thursday // November 19, 2009 at 15:49 // filed under Music

Kip and Peggy in London

all photographs by Liz Clough from our interview with the band

One of the greatest discoveries of 2009, the adorably noisy rockers of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, are releasing a new EP to promote the new single, the hazy 'Higher Than The Stars'.

Kip

The song, that isn't featured on their debut album, is a gorgeously layered ballad that follows theat early 90's sound we all loved (or at least learned to love once again); and that's not the only great song on the EP - in fact I would say that I like it better than the album itself...

Peggy

If you are one of those that can't appreciate the sea of guitars that surrounds the beautiful music of The Pains, you might want to try this remix by Saint Etienne in which the extension of the song matches the huge name (almost 7 minutes of Saint Etienne Visiting Lord Spank, in fact). An atmospheric, minimal song that reinforces the velvet twee-ness of the vocals. More than beautiful.

Flash Content

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Higher Than the Stars (Saint Etienne Visits Lord Spank Mix) [mp3]

POSTED BY RAPHAEL CAFFARENA

TAGS: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Saint Ettiene // LINKS: Saint Ettiene, he Pains Of Being Pure At Heart