3 minute entry: The Monks Kitchen

*latest update on 09/12*

I found myself a few weeks ago knee-deep in a completely, utterly, tangled, wonderful mess that a London band called The Monks Kitchen makes. Their music warmed up my room and gently nudged a stack of folded laundry and shifted around a few pictures hanging on the wall to make it feel more like home. It's the kind of mess where you know exactly where everything is and if you tilt your head you can instantly hear the guitar part by itself, the bass stands out stockstill, and the drums march on alone, but tilt your head the other way they all join hands and soon enough you hear the whole song alive settling into your furniture, your room, your home.

The Monks Kitchen is comprised of four childhood friends and is due to release a six-track EP called The Wind May Howl on Sept. 17th. Their sound calls upon some of Simon & Garfunkel's friendly acoustic charm and Bishop Allen's homemade feel, and their wandering, mellow melodies could sit comfortably and play tic-tac-toe with Midlake's own.

Their debut EP, The Wind May Howl will drop down its six tracks on Sept. 17th. Right now you can hear its single, "Bringing Hurricanes" on their MySpace, so trust me and click on over to their page. We may or may not get a track for readers to download in the near future, so just sit tight. For the ones who are lucky to call England home though, The Monks Kitchen will be playing a handful of shows starting Sept. 8th.

To purchase the single or to pre-order the EP if you live elsewhere, just order it online here.

Tour Dates:

09-08 London - The Gladstone
09-13 London - Louvana
09-18 London - The Proud Galleries *The English Maid (a boat!)*
09-23 Birmingham - This is Tomorrow
09-28 Manchester - Up At the Redbricks
09-30 Nottingham - The Maltcross

Links:

» The Monks Kitchen Official MySpace
» Purchase single/Pre-order the EP
» More info on the tour

~anne

How do you view the world?

Once again, the three guest spots for Camera Crowd's photoblog has opened up and those spots are waiting to be filled by another set of three lovely talented photographers. For people who are unfamiliar with this blog, we hold a contest every three months for photographers, published/unpublished, it really doesn't matter to us, you just have to knock our lens off (ha - ha!). The three photographers who win will be our guest photobloggers posting, sharing their work with our readers for three whole months. It's a wonderful way to give our readers something other than a bunch of paragraphs droning on silly things such as music and at the same time our guest photographers get exposure and feedback on their work.

Charlie and I, me being Anne, started this blog to not only to share our love of music, but also of photography and that's when we thought of giving others the opportunity via a photoblog. It's important to us that the photographers who win this contest will post regularly. If you don't take photos at the very least once every two weeks, we strongly reccommend you to not apply. We're also looking for a new, fresh approach to photography, so if your portfolio is dusty chock full of backyard flowers, kids, pets and oh who knows the occasional snapshot of graffiti, we suggest you go out and shoot "outside the box".

To apply there are a few things you'll need to have and do before sitting in suspense for our reply.

How to apply:

1. You have to create your own flickr account, if you don't have one already, don't worry flickr is free and easy, just sign up for the basic account.

2. After that upload all the photos onto flickr to show us. Remember this is your portfolio, only include the photos that you want us to see.

3. Then there is a Q&A to fill out, we'll provide a download link below and then email that word document to us with the subject line as, "Camera Crowd application".

Links:

» Camera Crowd's Photoblog
» Create a Flickr
» Download the Q&A
» Email your application to us!

Also here are a few songs for you to listen to while you're out shooting to spruce up that portfolio. Think outside the box!

Download + Purchase:

Everything I Cannot See | Charlotte Gainsbourg

Your Picture | Camera Obscura

Deadline: Sept. 15th*
( *Saturday, 11:59PM, EST)

Love, Team Camera Crowd
(Anne & Charlie)

Is Is? Yeah Yeah Yeahs!

So according to filter-mag.com, Yeah Yeah Yeahs have added two California dates to their current mini U.S tour which kicks off tonight in Kansas. They added two dates, one in San Francisco @ the Fillmore (YES!) and one in L.A. As you know, the group is currently on the road supporting their EP Is Is which came out over a week ago.

Don't expect a new sound coming from Is Is, the songs in this EP were written around the time Fever to Tell came out, back in 2004. This doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad EP, I actually like it. It's the Yeah Yeah Yeahs sound I fell in love when my cousin introduced them to me a couple of years ago. Is Is has that typical Yeah Yeah Yeahs energetic, garage, juiced up sound we know and love. So get it! Plus it's nice to have them come out with something they can tour on amidst the rumours of them separating months ago. Yeah we don't want that.

The tour dates are below, tickets for the San Francisco show go on sale Aug. 5th @ 10 am, and the LA show goes on sale the day before also at 10 am.


August
01 Lawrence, KS - Granada Theatre
02 Columbia, MO - The Blue Note
04 Chicago, IL - Grant Park [Lollapalooza]
05 Baltimore, MD - Pimlico Race Track [Virgin Festival]
07 New York, NY - Webster Hall
16 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
18 Mansfield, MA - Tweeter Center [Download Festival]
21 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
22 Los Angeles, CA - Mayan Theatre

Track listing:
1. Rockers To Swallow
2. Down Boy
3. Kiss Kiss
4. Isis
5. 10X10

Kiss Kiss | Yeah Yeah Yeahs


Links:
» myspace
» Buy the EP


-Charlie