Courtesy VICE Books

From Neu Sex

Sasha Grey is one of the most famous porn stars of our generation, and perhaps the first to achieve true crossover success, with starring roles in Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience and HBO's Entourage. You probably know her by name, face, and maybe even vagina (no judgments), but did you know that she's also a music nerd? Be still our hearts.

With a minimal/electronic project called aTelecine and an ever-growing music collection, Grey shows an impressive range for someone so young-and especially for someone involved in the adult industry. She's currently promoting her brand-new photo book, Neü Sex, which documents her recent life in self portraits: From post-coital stupors to silly faces snapped in mirrors, the book is an intimate look at what it's like to be Sasha Grey, as well as what it's like to be her husband, filmmaker Ian Cinnamon, who helped create many of the photos.

This past Monday at the Standard Hotel's Living Room, in a strictly enforced 20-minute time slot squashed between seven other journalists eager to discuss the book, we took advantage of Neü Sex's release to talk with Grey about rock-and-roll, aTelecine, and the pervasive abuse of Auto-Tune. Cinnamon hung out nearby, as he often does.

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Yikes, even this screenshot isn't safe for work, huh.

​Actually, no idea. But the video to the first single from Massive Attack's forthcoming new record, Heligoland--the song's called "Paradise Circus"--is somehow actually basically just a documentary on porn actress Georgina Spelvin and her feelings during the shooting of one of the three or four most notorious porn films of all time. With vocals by Hope Sandoval, if that makes sense. I dunno: NSFW. Directed by Toby Dye. Honestly it's kind of sad. [Stereogum]

​Click here for Yeasayer's sophisticated delivery system for new single "Ambling Alp." And for "sophisticated" read: "interactive and naked." This band owes Ryan McGinley an apology, basically. "Ambling Alp" is slated for Odd Blood, due next year on Secretly Canadian, and sounds like Ted Leo covering Rusted Root which, well, mileages will vary. [Ambling Alp]

Even the embed code to this thing is slightly porno. Glad that they finally did this, in the least prurient way possible: this is the aesthetic, there was something confusing about the way the camera kept cutting away in the orginal cut, like what exactly are these guys trying to hide, exactly? OK. A dude using another dude's appendage as a microphone, is what they were trying to hide. May everyone involved in this live a long and happy life. [via Stereogum]

Where to even begin here? On Friday, Ghostface debuted a new song off Wizard of Poetry called "Stapleton Sex," telling the Shade 45 DJ Angela Yee, "I read an interview where Natalie Portman said she likes dirty rap, obscene lyrics and all that. I figure she can dance to this one. I'm looking for you Natalie!" OK! "Stapleton Sex," meanwhile, is about as raw as it is possible for a human to get: "Dick all shiny, helmet head bulging..." It's hard to think of a situation in which it would be anything but uncomfortable to listen to this song. Including by yourself, on headphones.

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Dennis Cooper reprints on his blog an old circa-1990 issue of Farm, "an occasional art-related zine published by Hudson, mastermind of the great gallery Feature Inc." Featured? Robert Gluck, Brad Gooch, Richard Hawkins, Hudson, Gary Indiana, Kevin Killian, and David Sedaris, the latter of whom had clearly yet to find the measured, haute petite bourgeoisie voice he would later employ so regularly in the New Yorker. The beginning of Sedaris' story, titled "Caesura":

The second I stopped caring about Dwayne Youngblood my skin felt tight. He shifted in his chair, conscious of my weight on his bladder. I shifted too.

He complained to his date, somebody named Christopher, about a slight pain in his stomach. Dwayne suspects it has something to do with his rich dinner at the Trattoria Al Dente.

Trattoria Al Dente! When I knew Dwayne he thought al dente was a used car dealer. Now the words roll off his tongue and after dinner, because of his stomach, Dwayne only begs this Christopher three or four times to fuck him before he takes it with the most god-awful surrender I have ever hear in my life and I've been around

The story ends, more or less, with Sedaris taking a journey up the ass of another man. Entertainingly, Cooper edited the zine in the guise of Farmer Joe, Jr., a 16 1/2-year-old musclebound farm hand who wants to "work in a gay bookstore when I grows up, and, uh, I mean that." [DC's Blog]

Speaking of porn, legendary Joy Division album artist, designer, and photographer Peter Saville is currently shooting some in real time, which you can stream live on the internet even as I write this. The explanation? "As backdrop to an editorial story for July 2009 Wallpaper* magazine, Peter Saville's febrile imagination constructs an imaginary 'Erotic House' of Pop perversity, sexualising an entire post-modern environment and fetishising furniture, fashion and flesh alike." Right. At the moment, a women in a full bodysuit of silver lame is draping herself over what appears to be an extremely futuristic chair--it looks not unlike some combination of different Star Wars helmets. This would've been a much more comfortable location for that Dim Mak video.

Peter Saville's 'Erotic House' of Pop [Selectism]

Dim Mak: Hat fetishists since 1996

Perhaps you've heard by now that the once-vaunted, now mostly tolerated post-hardcore label Dim Mak may or may not have allowed Andy San Dimas and a friend to shoot an adult film in the label's poorly constructed bathroom. In honor of the Voice's long-deceased Dirty Pornos blog (R.I.P.), and its former proprietor, Johnny Maldoro, we steeled ourselves and took a look. Follow along here, if you're so inclined...

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