What the what? Way To War, that’s what! Kirin J. Callinan is hands down the best thing to hit my inbox this month. Coming to you from Australia via our friends Terrible Records in the U.S. (and Siberia Records in Australia), it’s great to know what really happened to Paul Pfeiffer from The Wonder Years (just kidding). Launching – and I do mean launching – with this video directed by Kris Moyes and a 7 inch featuring an extended version of the song, of  I personally am going to take the day off to publicly twitch like a gif in a speedo out of thanks. Someone loan me their kid? Watch for tour info and release dates on the Terrible website and hold your cats close.

Azealia Banks is everywhere. Did you see that shoot that’s in Dossier? Did you hear that new track, Jumanji? In the spirit of summer and excess and hype, here are some outtakes from our shoot with Michael Flores of the young Rapunzel taking off a pair of sunglasses. Don’t be a Kool Aid dude, one-two.

Shirt: Fred Perry
Skirt: Jac Langheim
Sunglasses: Jeremy Scott
Necklace: Bing Bang by Anna Sheffield
Lingerie: The Lake and Stars

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This Thursday, May 17, come view video art by the shape-shifting ladies of Symbols + Rituals, listen to music by 51717, and stare wistfully at all the beautiful objects and clothes at Maryam Nassir Zadeh. The event will be at the store at 123 Norfolk St., NYC, from 8 – 11 pm, with a live musical performance at 9:30.

In 2009, when Adam Yauch first found out he had cancer, The Beastie Boys had to cancel a number of shows that they had committed to. Other artists stepped up to fill in for them, including Jay Z at All Points West. He dedicated his performance to MCA and opened with a cover of No Sleep til Brooklyn. It seems a good tribute as any, from one Brooklyn boy to another.

When I heard that our friend Alex Niemetz’s band was scheduled to drop a video for their single, I was stoked. Just in time for summer and pizza, Grand Rapids are a young, downtown New York-based country-garage band, and watching this today reminded me that, “yes, I do like rock and roll.” The band formed in 2009 and is comprised of Dan Lardner (guitar and vocals), Alex Niemetz (bass, occasional guitar and vocals) ,Peter Baumann (lead guitar) and Clara Balzary (drums). Their first official music video, Feels Like a Lifetime, was directed by Adam Abada. The video is for their debut single, which comes out May 21 on the Beggars Groups singles label, Too Pure. The band will be  playing May 26 with their East Village neighbors The Virgins at the Mercury Lounge, but don’t bother trying to get tickets. It’s sold out. 

Photograph by Eric Baumann
Video by Adam Abada

Ana Roman and  Barbara Anastacio Keep it Mellow with some behind the sceens from the Dossier In Conversation interview. With her album, Even Assassins Have Lovers And Romance out this summer, an EP out now, and numerous shows on the near horizon, we were lucky to catch up with her when we did.

Who is Eleanor Friedberger?  A musician, we think.

More importantly, who was Eleanor Friedberger’s miniature on-stage ingenue-companion during her March 24 performance at the Crowley Theater in Marfa, Texas? (Ballroom Marfa invited Eleanor to partake in a weeklong residency and recording session at the Marfa Recording Company which culminated in the performance at the Crowley).

Known formally as Ms. Olive Ingrid Leiss, this four-and-a-half-year-old O(racle) has shared deep wisdom and a conceptual sense of humor with her fellow townspeople since words first left her tiny voicebox. Olive speaks, dresses, moves and shakes her tiny fists with a perfectly balanced cocktail of compassionate and thoughtful ambition. She knows a lot of yoga and if she’s feeling up to it, she’ll demonstrate that knowledge on a whim – maybe it will be in her kitchen, or maybe it will be in the front yard of Marfa City Hall. When she looks at you, your heart and soul are simultaneously demolished and rebuilt, your lungs collapse and refill, you start thinking about Better Things, start remembering why you Like The World, start talking about Who Makes Magic, etc, etc…n Olive Ingrid Leiss is here to change her World, (obviously) starting with the town of Marfa.

Naturally, when Ms. Leiss agreed to take the stage with Ms. Friedberger, help her warm up the audience, shepherd Eleanor’s precarious path from the Outer depths to the Inner, we all breathed a deep sigh of relief. No better MC to guarantee a safe passing, Olive broke the ice for Eleanor with some perfectly selected knock-knock-based stand up comedy. Please review at your leisure and notice that although Eleanor flits in and out of a semi-assured stage persona, Olive stands still and strong throughout the length of her performance, delivering sharp wit and tender inflection with an unblinking calmness and sense of purpose.

Olive Ingrid Leiss, we are your biggest fans.

Text by Ryann Bosetti
Video by Alberto Halpern

It’s Friday the 13th. Why not celebrate by playing in traffic or painting something black? Or you can always get killed by this new video from our friend Tezo. Have a miserable day and see you in hell.

Ana Lola Roman is a songstress, but don’t call her a singer. She is a songwriter, but she doesn’t compose ballads. She isn’t concerned with buying infamy; she would like to earn her fame. Her music may be difficult to describe. She is the first to admit it—in fact, she embraces it. The dystopian qualities of the modern world are of interest to her, and through her work she explores the roles that alienation and unease play in our society. Influenced by flamenco and Federico García Lorca, Ana’s Spanish roots are evident in her music, which she defines as “henna-pop.” After touring various parts the American South, Eastern Europe and Germany, she now resides in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where she has been producing a steady stream of EPs over the past year and a half. This month, she will release her fourth EP, titled Keep It Mellow, followed early this summer by her first full-length album, Even Assassins Have Lovers and Romances.

Photography by, Barbara Anastacio. Styling by Ryan Richmond

Erin Kelleher: You are obviously a very multifaceted performer; you sing, you write, you choreograph. How do you define yourself and your work?

Ana Lola Roman: It really depends on where I’m at in my life. I’m not good at being just a “musician.” Some days I’m just a tea cozy or learning the castanets or taking an hour to apply red lipstick. I think there are so many other vessels and transportation systems to get to where you’re going in your heart and head. But if I were to define that feeling, it would be evocation and, on most weekends, dance.

Erin: How do you categorize your music? Do you feel that it can be classified as a specific genre?

Ana: I don’t think of my songs as “songs.” They are acts of evocation, sometimes hymnals, sometimes mantras… I want to create atmosphere channels, to give people that look in their eyes when they dance. [That look] that’s reminiscent of Ian Curtis. I want to create a ritual, an escape—like soul music. In some of my songs, I am using Sephardic prayer chants in the background, especially on “Decode,” a song on the upcoming EP release. Also, I call this music “henna pop.” It takes aspects of flamenco pop, soul music, and Sephardic chants and blends them into one atmosphere. This evocation in song, this longing and truth, is what we call flamenco—or in some parts of Spain, as Lorca put it, “deep song,” where the evocations are beating the same rhythms as the drum. Okay, yes, it’s “electronic/minimal,” but that’s just the vessel it’s camouflaged in. In simpler terms, it’s ghetto flamenco dance music for people who are channeling in the guise of electro soul—that’s henna pop.

Erin: Describe the process of your work. Do you write a song first, or do the words come after the music?

Ana: I write with my eyes and what’s happening against the grain of things. It’s frustrating for some, simply because I’m a musician, programmer, engineer and a collector of sounds, samples and emotions. I don’t listen to other bands very much, although I do go to live shows a lot. I listen to moods, like the way an ambulance siren sounds outside my window when it’s raining, or the look in some anonymous man’s eyes walking down the street. Contemporary photography is also a major influence for me. Some of the performance artists I know here in Brooklyn and in Manhattan are influences for me. I write at early dusk and dawn. I wake up everyday at 7am, and I’m in bed by 12:30am. Afternoon is hard; it’s when I’m too busy being realistic about life and not in my creative fruits at all. I don’t write everyday, either. It usually comes in a one-week nonstop burst.

Erin: Where do you record? Do you have your own studio?

Ana: I’ve recorded in abandoned CIA stations, my bedroom, my kitchen, at shows and on my rooftop. Everywhere is my private studio.

Erin: Do you always perform solo?

Ana: No. It depends on the environment and the situation. When I decide to play with someone, it’s a drummer. Always. Sometimes the beats need more flushing out, depending on the acoustics of the room.

Erin: What do you hope to portray with your music? How do you want listeners to receive it?

Ana: I want people to think about what they are doing to themselves in life and how they are listening to the world around them. Then, I want them to let it go and dance. In some ways, I want to provide people with an escape, but in some ways this is confrontational music. I don’t sing about love. We’ve already said everything we needed to say about it. In essence, most people feel alienated by that, but honestly I’m trying to put more pressing matters to light: alienation through technology, relationships over a Skype screen, surveillance, excess, haves and have-nots. If you listen to the words, it’s really not that comfortable in essence, like soul music. Soul music has a groove, provides an escape but under no certain terms does it speak about the ease of life, no way. There is no ease of life in my music. If it’s not evoking something, it’s hard for me to get into it. I’d expect my listeners to have the same feeling. I also want people to know that I’m not a singer. I cannot sing for them and make them feel good and impressed because of my voice or vocal ability. I’m not doing this to achieve “starlet of the year” or the latest blog music trend of the season. I’m not good at keeping one style within my vocal chords. I’m in this for the long haul, and yes, sometimes I’m gonna leave a trail of my own innards laying about. Really, I just want people to listen. People have stopped “listening” to the words in music nowadays. Everything is such a goddamn wall of sound. By the time my generation is 55, we’re all going to be hard of hearing.

Erin: How has your music developed over time?

Ana: I really can’t keep up with how much it’s changed. I believe in reinvention, in pushing yourself from beyond and above. If you don’t, it’s just overspecialization, and I think there’s way too much of that in music nowadays—what with all the new genres that have popped up.

Erin: Talk a little about your upcoming album.

Ana: It’s an EP called Keep It Mellow. All I’m going to say is that I was taken over by the jinn of love, life and risk. I rolled the dice with my heart, my vision and with the notion that I have nothing to lose. The album drops this summer. I also have a full-length release this summer for another album, Even Assassins have Lovers and Romances.Clearly, I’ve always been fascinated with the violence and repercussions that can come from loss of love.

Erin: Where is your music available?

Ana: You can access it on my website. I will be selling vinyl by the fall.

Erin: Describe how you feel about the fact that music has become so digitalized. Does it create a kind of disconnect from you and your audience?

Ana: Not at all. For instance: An audience comes and some of the audience didn’t plan on seeing me play—they were just there by happenstance. They will then do one of three things: see me again, never learn my name or not remember at all the next morning. Listeners on the Internet, they are dedicated—they write, they blog, they send emails, they follow… I’m not one of those musicians who complains about how everything is too available.

Erin: Have you always played music? What were you doing before you put out your first EP?

Ana: No. It only happened at the age of seven because I shattered my collarbone in gymnastics. My mother wanted me to play Ava Maria, so she put me in piano lessons. I’ve always been very frenetic. Thank God my mother knew I had to channel it in some way.

Erin: Is it difficult to make a living as a musician? Do you have any advice for others who are trying to do the same?

Ana: It’s not difficult to make a living as a musician if you are willing to invest and collaborate with people. Be open to any opportunity, even it’s completely opposite to the opportunity you had hoped would come your way. Be gracious, be bold, stand your ground.

Erin: Where will your next tour be?

Ana: I’m not sure yet.

Erin: Describe what it’s like to be on tour.

Ana: I’ve toured the Southeastern US, Eastern Europe and Germany. Germany is my favorite because audiences are not interested in what they are going to write in their blogs while seeing me play; they are interested in moving to the music and being taken away.

Erin: You currently live in Brooklyn. How does the city affect your work?

Ana: Cities always affect my work. I write and I’m inspired the most while traveling and being on the go. New York City is where I put theory into practice, always.

Erin: Where are you from originally?

Ana: Oklahoma. I’m a true American, too. My parents came to this country from Spain and Argentina. They were immigrants who established themselves here either because of government or economics. Even growing up in a somewhat liberal and friendly idyllic small town, I always felt a bit removed culturally—especially when someone just assumed I was either Mexican, Filipino or Puerto Rican. Saying you’re Spanish—as in, from Spain—didn’t quite fit into the scheme of things in those parts.

Erin: Are you involved with fashion, living in New York City?

Ana: I’m not involved in the business of fashion. I’m involved in the business of personal style, aesthetic and expression, with being around others who have a strong sense of those qualities and are living their ideas and passions. Fashion is passing and fleeting. I do love reinvention, though.

Erin: Do you believe in love?

Ana: I do believe in love. I experience it every day that I’m alive, and I have a lot to give. Maybe it has affected my music, but like I said before, everything has already been said about the subject. My voice expresses enough lament for love and exhilaration from love that I do not find the need to address the issue in lyrics.

Erin: Who inspires you musically? Do other artists inspire you as well?

Ana: Lately, Richard Mosse’s photography is a huge influence. Andrea Mary Marshall is sacred to me right now; her paintings explain a lot of what I feel as a woman. Federico García Lorca and Hunter S. Thompson keep me riveted. Thích Nhất Hạnh for meditations, Osho for philosophy. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Green for practical enlightenment. As far as music goes, Persian symphonies, Flamenco deep song, Asturian guitar music, Tuvan throat singing and Balinese gamelan all inspire me lately. My favorite bands right now are Band of Horses, LITURGY, S.C.U.M. and Violens, and I’ve been listening to Joy Division, Severed Heads and Wire since I can remember.

Erin: Do you have a favorite instrument?

Ana: People forget piano is a percussive instrument—anything I can bang on. Otherwise, I’m not interested. Bass is the only stringed instrument I have the patience for. I’m not the ballad type.

Erin: I have heard you say that you want to “earn your fame” rather than “buy your infamy.” Describe what you mean by that.

Ana: If you are going to be infamous, put some class into it and earn it—have the fame to back it. Elizabeth Taylor and Cleopatra were infamous, but they had to be smart and resourceful. Liz Taylor—the first infamous woman of the 20th century—she goddamn earned it. She had talent to back it, she had the will, know-how and dedication; she was a machine. Okay, so she’s also sleeping with other women’s husbands, but so what? It goes beyond a reality show. That’s just too easy. I’m not going to name any of the other names that are opposite of this opinion. I never speak negatively about another female artist. I love Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey, Madonna, Gloria Estefan, Paula Abdul, Adele, Bjork, Siouxsie and, lately, iamamiwhoami. In my book, there’s room for everyone, but not for infamy.

Erin: What do you hope to achieve by the end of the year?

Ana: I want to see my first Madonna concert. I want to grow as a musician and keep pushing myself beyond limits. I want to learn from my audience and with my audience. I want to meet some of the people who are listening to my music. I want to completely show my heart without any fear, regardless of who writes or doesn’t write about me—approval means nothing to me. Creation and innovation for one’s own livelihood, that is life and bread to me. I don’t want to be scared about what I have released into the world, and I want to keep moving forward.

Ana wears Earrings: Chrishabana Jacket: Mathieu Mirano Bottoms: Jac Langheim Shirt: Sally La Pointe

When the Los Angeles-based photographer Lauren Ward headed down to the Austin, Texas music festival SXSW to bunk with Roy Harper, Jonathan Wilson and his band next door to Robert Plant‘s house, no less, we asked her to catalogue her adventure in images—from the endless live music to the eclectic attendees to the general weirdness that makes the city a Texan anomaly.

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Jonathan Wilson and Erin Lee Smith

Dr. John

Father John Misty

Delta Spirit

Left: Tex Smith

Fiona Apple

Left: Katrina Cahana

Right: Dr. John

Brooklyn Hustle Club

Right: Tashaki Miyaki