WHEN CULTURE'S COLLIDE

LOS ANGELES, CA - FILTER Magazine's Culture Collide Festival is bringing bands from all over the world to one of the planet's most vibrant music scenes, Los Angeles, for a multicultural weekend-long melting pot of musical excellence. Showcases will take place on October 7, 8 and 9 at Spaceland, the Echo, Echoplex and The Standard, Downtown LA with a block party on October 10 presented by Toyota Antics to celebrate the weekend's festivities.

Each participating country (including Norway, Spain, Israel, Poland, Germany, Sweden and more) will bring two of its artists to Los Angeles to partner up with an established American band for the showcase. These U.S. bands, along with FILTER Magazine, will act as ambassadors throughout the festival and take the international artists under their wings to share information about playing the States and compare notes about creating music.

"We felt it was about time L.A. had its own international festival," said Alan Miller, co-owner and co-founder of FILTER Magazine. "We have seen so many amazing bands and customs in our travels around the world. Our goal is to bring it all back to L.A. and create something really special." Throughout the week, the streets of Los Angeles will become a multicultural cacophony of international music, food, drink and fun.

FILTER Magazine's Culture Collide Festival is sponsored by VTech, Dickies, Spy, BMI, Guitar Center, mike's HARD PUNCH™, Red Bull, Converse and The Standard, Downtown LA.

Participating countries include The Netherlands, Iceland, Finland, U.K., Norway, Spain, Israel, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Canada and many more to be announced.

Promotional and charity partners include LA Weekly, 826, and the City of Echo Park, in conjunction with the City of Los Angeles.

The official kick-off party presented by mike's HARD PUNCH™ will be hosted by The Standard, Downtown LA on Wednesday, October 6. Tickets will go on sale via Ticket Web on July 5 and are priced at $20 for the entire festival. Pre-sale tickets are limited. For those who miss out on pre-sale, tickets will also be sold at each venue on the night of the show depending on capacity.

For additional information about tickets sales, accommodations and artist line up, visit culturecollide.com. For the most updated information of FILTER Magazine's Culture Collide, please visit Facebook and Twitter.


FOR MORE INFO
Festival Website: http://culturecollide.com
FILTER Magazine Website: http://filtermagazine.com
FILTER Twitter: http://twitter.com/FILTERMagazine
FILTER Facebook: http://facebook.com/FILTERMagazine

HAPPY HOUR WITH MELISSA AUF DER MAUR @ SXSW

Come celebrate the impending release of Melissa Auf der Maur's latest multimedia-project, Out of Our Minds, at SXSW this week! MAdM will be hosting the event herself on March 18th from 6-7PM at Péché (above Cedar Street Courtyard).

In conjunction with FENDER, FILTER Magazine and Venuszine, come experience the different elements of the project and check out the Lucid hosted Absinthe Bar!

RSVP HERE: http://www.filtermagazine.com/MAdMSXSW/

Location:
Péché
208 W. 4th Street
Austin, TX 78701

AE & FILTER PRESENT: HEAR TO HELP

American Eagle Outfitters, in partnership with FILTER Magazine will offer customers an exclusive compilation CD to benefit relief and recovery efforts in Haiti. The CD, entitled Hear to Help, is available beginning today through March 19 in all 938 stores across the U.S. and Canada, while supplies last. The CD will be available online at www.ae.com beginning February 24.

One hundred percent of the $10 retail price will go directly to Oxfam America, an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice. In Haiti, Oxfam’s efforts include providing water, latrines, plastic sheeting, cash, and relief materials to those who have gathered in temporary camps both within the city and in hard-hit outlying areas.

“Thanks to the generosity of our partners, FILTER Magazine and Hatch Show Print®, the Hear to Help CD enables AE customers to experience a compilation of special tracks that are not available elsewhere,” said Steve Kubinski, vice president of marketing operations, American Eagle Outfitters. “We know that support for Haiti’s relief and recovery efforts will continue after the initial outpouring of support, and we are excited to give our customers an opportunity to be a part of that.”

“We are so grateful for the unbelievable generosity of the artists, labels, managers, and publishers to donate their works to this great cause,” said Alan Miller, co-owner of FILTER Creative Group and FILTER Magazine.


The exclusive compilation includes the following 18 tracks:

• Beck: “Volcano” (acoustic version)
• Snow Patrol: “You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.” (Bright Eyes cover)
• Keane: “Black Burning Heart” (version français)
• Air: “So Light Is Her Footfall” (Breakbot Remix)
• Charlotte Gainsbourg: “Dandelion”
• Julian Casablancas: “Long Island Blues”
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: “Am I Only” (ReMix)
• The Breeders: “We're Gonna Rise”
• Vampire Weekend: “Cousinz” (Toy Selectah Mex-More Remix)
• Noah And The Whale: “Love of An Orchestra” (Chew Fu Fix)
• Camera Obscura: “The World is Full of Strangers”
• Minus The Bear: “Broken China”
• Of Montreal: “Take Me Out” (Live Cover Of Franz Ferdinand)
• Busdriver: “Running Water”
• Surfer Blood: “Take It Easy” (Drop the Lime Remix)
• Grizzly Bear: “Boy From School”(Hot Chip cover)
• AM: "Endings Are Beginnings” (Piano Mix)


For More Info about Hear to Help, or to find an American Eagle retailer, go to http://www.ae.com.

TAKE A SHOT AT REMIXING EMPIRE OF THE SUN

Attention DJs, remixers and producers: Empire Of The Sun are the featured artist for the second installment of FILTER's monthly remix series! We want to hear your interpretations of EOTS' track "Walking On A Dream" from their album Walking On A Dream. Click HERE or the flyer below to download the 24-stem bundle and return your finished track to remix@filter-mag.com.

Click HERE for more details.

The winning track will be selected by Empire Of The Sun with lots of love and appreciation to follow. Submissions to enter the contest are due to remix@filter-mag.com no later than June 7th, 2009.

SOUND REVIEWS

First reviews are beginning to trickle in for The Sounds latest project. Crossing the Rubicon is the third studio album from The Sounds, dropping June 2nd. Check out the review from Filter Magazine.

First Impressions: The Sounds, Crossing the Rubicon
by Staff | 04.02.2009

The Sounds
Crossing the Rubicon
Original Signal Recordings
Release Date: 6/2

Tracklisting:

1. No One Sleeps When I’m Awake
2. 4 Songs and a Fight
3. My Lover
4. Dorchester Hotel
5. Beatbox
6. Underground
7. Crossing the Rubicon
8. Midnight Sun
9. Lost In Love
10. The Only Ones
11. Home Is Where Your Heart Is
12. Goodnight Freddy


First Impressions:

- This, the third album from Swedish quintet The Sounds, is undeniably catchy with female vocals, tons of upbeat electronic flourishes, dance beats, and just enough New Wave-inspired cheese to make things really fun.

- “Beatbox” is practically tailor-made for a 1980s film montage of people working out really hard. Think ice-skating classic The Cutting Edge – legwarmers, high-fives and lots of sweat backed by pulsating synth, programmed handclaps and lyrics that ask, “Tell me do you feel it?”

- The Sounds turn things around with “The Only Ones,” a song that abandons the dance-pop of the nine previous tracks for what is instead a piano-driven rock ballad.

- “Home Is Where Your Heart Is” features sentiments that will come off sappy and Disney-esque to the cynics out there (“You gotta rise to the occasion/You gotta read between the lines/Then maybe you’ll find who you are inside”), but others may find it innocently refreshing and uplifting.

Key Tracks:

“4 Songs and a Fight,” “Midnight Sun,” “The Only Ones”

Predictions:

Audiences who like to dance and don’t take things too seriously will enjoy blasting The Sounds’ latest. It’s a sunny-day record if there ever was one, and it’ll certainly induce a few shakes of the booty. But the overly-cheery synthesizers can quickly get old, making this an album to be heard in moderation, unless you just really loved the '80s.

Links:

The Sounds’ Official Website: http://www.the-sounds.com
The Sounds’ Official MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thesounds

Source: Filter Magazine
Photo: Megan Westerby