The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger - Comic Strip

The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger (Sean Lennon & Charlotte Kemp Muhl) have been announced as the opening act on The Flaming Lips' US tour in May. Following their debut album, Acoustic Sessions, and an acoustic tour, the band will be playing in May as a 5-piece electric band.

Perhaps inspired by the kaleidoscopic mentalness (is that a word?) of Mr Coyne and Co, GOASTT have come up with the most barmy video we have seen for a while. As part of an 8-song album called La Carotte Bleue (blue vinyl/limited edition 500 copies) released for Record Store Day, the band has concocted a messed-up re-imagining of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot's 1967 recording, Comic Strip. The result is a tongue-in-cheek hip-hop romp with the help of French pop star Matthieu Chedid (aka M), who can be seen playing air guitar/tennis racket in the below clip, which was shot with a Flip camera and a bunch of rented super hero costumes and drag queen glitter boots. As you do.

You can catch GOASST supporting The Flaming Lips at the following venues across North America.
5/13/11 - The Fillmore - Detroit, MI
5/14/11 - Nelsonville Music Festival, Nelsonville, OH
5/15/11 - The National - Richmond VA
5/17/11 - The Fillmore - Charlotte, NC
5/18/11 - Ryman Auditorium - Nashville, TN
5/19/11 - Tabernacle - Atlanta, GA
5/20/11 - Tabernacle - Atlanta, GA

All kinds of good Chimera Music stuff going down at SXSW

Our friends at Chimera Music put out interesting stuff by honest, artistic people. This week, the label marches into SXSW, with the talismanic Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono leading the charge of excellent musicians ready to show what they've got. If you're lucky enough to be at the festival, then check out the Chimera Music night on Saturday. Details in the above poster. Click it to make it big, yo.

The Ghost Of a Saber Tooth Tiger - Acoustic Sessions

The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger is made up of Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl, who played, recorded and mixed Acoustic Sessions in their living room recording studio, then released it on their own record label, Chimera Music, which they run from their apartment kitchen.

If that all sounds DIY enough to rival Daniel Johnston's home recordings and hand-drawn artwork, it's perhaps important to consider that this famous son and his model girlfriend aren't exactly short of a quid or two. One wonders whether they recorded these songs because they simply had to channel their creativity or just for something to do after dinner. Snobbery aside, I suppose it doesn't really matter if the outcome is any good. But is it?

Well, Acoustic Sessions is certainly cute enough. Musically, it's all whimsy and folk-pop, sweet voices and delicate tunes with surreal lyrics. Like a dream. But a sunny one.

At times though, especially considering that there are certainly psychedelic tendencies tucked away here, it's just a bit too twee for its own good. A few more rough edges and dark corners would have been nice and would have raised it from being background music of a hazy daydream to something really quite memorable.