The Walkmen

Today marks the beginning of a new era for My Social List.  From this day onward, we will be known as MI SCILL LIIST.  We really don’t give a fuck about the name.  We originated this project in a bedroom with no internet and didn’t know it would ever leave.

We’re taking a cue from DIIV, formerly known as Dive; aka Zachary Cole Smith of Beach Fossils’ side project.  Apparently, he’s changing the name out of “respect” for some early 90s industrial act from Belgium.

Come on dude, how have you never heard of Dive?  Their experimental sound, consisting of abused drum machines pulsating through crackling distortion influenced everyone from Frontline Assembly to Klinik.

If that all sounds ridiculous… it’s because it is.  My guess?  The guy never heard the “original” Dive in his life, and Wikipedia’d his band name before his LP came out.  Dude.  It’s totally ok.  I have idea who the hell Dive is either.  The last sentence of the previous paragraph is a combination of Wikipedia’s “Dive (Belguim Band)” page and industrial acts from Allmusic.com.

Maybe this perceived insecurity over not knowing obscure foreign bands from dead genres is some sort of sad commentary on the resentful post-internet era we live in.  Who knows?  Maybe he just wanted a more stylized name?  If that’s the case… they should have totally went with ▲DDIIVVEE▲ instead.  Or maybe he realized “Dive” was un-google-able?

Somewhat ironically, I’d like to use this opportunity to announce the launch of the MII SCIIL LIIST iPhone app (get it here)  It launches TODAY, and it’s 100% free.  Now you’ll be able to access our buzz list right on your phone, buy tickets to shows, find shows near you (via current location), and text them to your friends.  Really, there’s no better app for tracking buzzworthy shows in the city despite my INTENSE bias.

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Tickets go on sale this Friday at noon. More info at www.freewilliamsburg.com/h2oshows.

Last summer, The Walkmen delivered You & Me perfectly packaged to the masses, and quickly became one of my favorite albums of 2008. WIth a more solemn tone than their previous work, the lyrics managed to simultaneously break our hearts and fill them once again with hope, literally track by track. The often mentioned Roy Orbison-ness of singer Hamilton Leithauser’s voice takes front and center in these seemingly lonely tales of longing, accompanied on tour by, well, Craigslist horns.

We got a chance to catch up with Mr. Leithauser recently about Anderson Cooper, a CL musician who witnessed Otis Redding’s fatal death, and twitter.

Be sure to catch The Walkmen with Beach House and fellow FREEburg favorite Cymbals Eat Guitars TOMORROW night @ Webster Hall– this is your last chance to see them out in NY for a while as they kick off their tour with Kings of Leon two days later.

Check out the interview after the jump:

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