Your Savage Detective

shoomp

2010-11-01T16:02:00.001-07:00

Look, if I re-posted everything I love from the Neon Gold blog, this thing would be nothing but Neon Gold posts. And, you know, that's why I link them to the left, because they're awesome, and I love them, but holy moly, I gotta re-post this. I haven't been sold on Mr. Little Jeans just yet, but this Royal Palms remix of "Rescue Song" is hardcore rocking my world. It's all slinky, sultry until the bottom drops out, and it's like SHOOMP SHOOMP SHOOMP.

Lykke Li drops a banger. I like how she always veers away from being too twee or cute. Like she can sing a pretty song, but wouldn't hesitate to shove you against a locker and put a knife against your neck, and even though it would have a mother-of-pearl handle and be, like, three inches long, it's still a knife, you know, and WHAT THE HELL IS IT DOING NEAR YOUR NECK?

Last, here's James Blake's gorgeous cover of Feist's "Limit to Your Love." Not much to say about it (it's awesome!) except that it reminds me of Jamie Lidell. Which is why I'm putting a Jamie Lidell video below it.

future mashup predictions: under the pink friday

2010-10-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

Other potential Tori/Nicki collaborations: Massive Earthquakes, Silence All These Hos, Raspberry ... well Raspberry Swirl already sounds like a Nicki Minaj song.

my mama didn't raise no fool

2010-10-15T17:12:00.000-07:00

I played Warpaint's "Billie Holiday" on a loop during the summer of 2009. Something about their brand of L.A. girl group gone listless folkie really resonated with me. It was this song that seemed like a combination of Shannon Stephens "In Summer in the Heat" and "Glamorous" by Fergie (yeah. i know). Peep their contribution to the Soundies series below, and maybe you'll get an idea of what I mean. Sure it's raining and they're bundled up in sweatshirts, but I'm breaking out in a sweat, you know?

Anyway, they're back with a new single off their upcoming album "The Fool" and it's a jam. Credit to the always reliable Mixtape Maestro for turning me on to it.

i wrote this song for you to sing

2010-10-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

New video for Diamond Rings' "Something Else." You can't tell on record, but from the video it looks like he has something of a sexy lisp.

i know you know

2010-09-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

All head explosions about the Milla Jovovich album aside, this is a really great jam.

nested russian dolls

2010-09-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you stumble across something in the culture that completely challenges everything you thought you knew. Like, you think you're drinking coffee out of a paper cup, right? But what if you're not drinking coffee, you're reading it? And what if it isn't coffee, it's a newspaper? And what if you're not even reading a newspaper, you're trying to light an inflight magazine on fire while on a budget-air trip to Topeka because that's just the kind of weirdo arsonist slippery motherfucker you've turned out to be?

What I'm saying is this: Milla Jovovich, aka LILU FROM THE FIFTH ELEMENT, put out an album in 1994 called The Divine Comedy (WHAT?). It earned rave reviews (HUH?). She toured with Crash Test Dummies (WHO?). She went on Conan (HIM?).

Now, Diamond Rings (who else?) is covering her single "Gentleman Who Fell" as the B-side to his upcoming 7-inch "Something Else." You'll remember Diamond Rings as the Patrick Wolf-ish young puck who put out that great low-budget-High-School-Musical-as-David-Lynch-gay-porn music video for his previous single "Show Me Your Stuff." It figures. Because that flight to Topeka you were on? Well, you succeeded in crashing that motherfucker, and now you're on an island and there's a smoke everywhere and an ageless guy with eyeliner because that's how wrong you've been about everything.

Oh, and one more thing. Did you catch the hooded guys with mirror faces? GUESS WHERE THAT TURNED UP THIS YEAR?

None of this matters. I am procrastinating. I spent all weekend reading the Polish poets. Adam Zagajewski. Czeslaw Milosz. I know that I know nothing. It's this doubt that propels me. Play me out, Johnny.

they killed john henry but they can't kill me

2010-09-27T16:02:00.001-07:00

This month, Justin Townes Earle released his third album, Harlem River Blues, which chronicles his move from Nashville to New York. HRB continues his run of stellar album covers; this one goes baptismal and features some sort of Drew Barrymore type vampire at Justin's side. Justin has postponed his fall tour and entered into a rehabilitation facility for unspecified "addiction."

i always wanted to

2010-09-14T09:10:00.000-07:00

I'm startled by the degree to which the Radio Dept.'s 2010 album Clinging to a Scheme has etched itself into my memory of this year. Every few weeks it seems a new track becomes the central focus around which the rest of the songs orbit. First, it was "David," that slinky, wistful affair punctuated by disco strings. Then "Memory Loss," which hearkened back to previous Radio Dept. standouts "I Don't Like It Like This" and "Pulling Our Weight," which is to say that it seems destined for a prominent place on the next Sofia Coppola soundtrack. Next, there was "This Time Around" which melodically feels straight out of the best of the 90s-era shoegaze catalogue but is itself totally devoid of the distorting effects those bands used to cover up the fact that their music was inherently, giddily pretty. And now I'm obsessed with "Never Follow Suit" with its audio sample from the graffiti documentary Style Wars, its offbeat reggae groove, and its subtle, insistent meditation on how fun it can be to be different/resistant: "I want to, I always wanted to belong to the freak scene or anyone who had set their mind to never follow suit again because they have to, I want to."

Update: Yo, check it, there must be something in the air because Radio Dept. just announced they'll be releasing a new EP entitled "Never Follow Suit" featuring that cut and three others. Plus a pair of U.S. shows. Plus a new single "The New Improved Hypocrisy" as a free download (follow the hyperlink). Plugged in and turned on, this guy.

Teengirl Fantasy. Let's talk about that name for a second. It draws from the M83 Saturdays = Youth aesthetic, current critical favorite Beach House's Teen Dream (and commercial star Katy Perry's Teenage Dream), and of course, that old Mariah Carey jam of yesteryear--so many referents, so much potential. The song itself pulls off something truly remarkable; it filters what sounds like a R. Kelly chest pounder through an electronic wash resulting in something both startlingly melodic and emotionally affecting.

Saw these girls play last Saturday. To my ears, punk music rarely sounds as good on record as it does live (and maybe it shouldn't), but there's enough of a garage influence at work in the Harpy's tunes to make some of their cuts worth listening to outside of their (awesome) live show. The song below is not my favorite, but it is their only YouTube video to my knowledge. I recommend their MySpace.

fuck it man...

2010-09-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

...summer lives in our hearts.

stick a fork in it

2010-09-06T11:43:00.001-07:00

FORT MAHON, France—1991.

As arbitrary a marker as Labor Day can seem for the under-employed and over-educated, America's workforce has won out on the quest to determine the end-point of summer. I hope they're happy about it. It's not a job I would relish. Nobody wants to shoot Old Yeller (summer), but I guess someone has to do it. This summer was nothing if not awesome and, yet, there was a rabid, feral quality to it (soaring heat index, unmitigated environmental disaster, Glen Beck). True, this summer must be destroyed so that younger, healthier summers can have their day. And let's not forget the perks of autumn. The recent influx of cool air into NYC has reminded us all that fall is not without its beauty, its perks. Here it comes, trotting up to us as a forgotten stray, shyly licking our hands and asking us to look into our pockets for a few small scraps of food, a small piece of our attention. But before we feed that mutt, we have to shoot the old dog dead with a small selection of end-of-summer jams.

Recently released video for summer staple "Down by the Water" by Drums.

Beautiful video for a beautiful song by a band filled with beautiful people--The Naked and Famous. It's a fireworks show of a jam. Their cut "The Sun" is more like watching leaves fall while listening to Radiohead. Another win for record label Neon Gold (marry me).

Falling leaves. Pumpkin seeds. Get ready for a lot of dead smells.

No one knows how fickle summer can be than M.I.A. One minute you're munching on French fries calmly explaining foreign policy for a NYT Magazine puff-piece, the next you're bombing on Governor's Island in the rain. But at least this video rocks.

That's all she wrote. To quote the immortal (and "on hiatus") Rilo Kiley: "The grass was a-tickin' and the sun was on the rise; I never felt so wicked as when I willed our love to die." See you next year summer. I gotta get a job.

angela surf city

2010-08-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

The Walkmen come roaring back with this cut off of their upcoming album Lisbon and they've got some decidedly end-of-summer (NOT YET GUYS) lyrics: "Back to school, back to work, can this go on forever? Angela ... life goes on all around you." I dug 2008's You and Me, but this is how I like my Walkmen tracks: frantic. Am I nuts or is lead singer Hamilton Leithause sounding more like Tom Petty than he used to?

Janelle Monae looks as doe-eyed and fresh-faced as a young Sinead O'Connor in this single-shot video. I think this is a smart move on her part, and it kind of fits into a cool dialogue with D'Angelo's "How Does It Feel" considering what happened to that guy.

are we having fun yet?

2010-07-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

Jenny Lewis returns with a new project featuring her longtime boyfriend Johnathan Rice. First album leaks "Big Wave" and "Scissor Runner" are what you'd expect from a summertime release by Lewis. She takes a lateral move from the country/Canyon sound of her solo work towards a sunny, surfy groove that sounds warm, open, and exactly like a day trip to Rockaway Beach. Even her phrasing recalls her older Rilo Kiley efforts (listen to how her stumbling from singing to speaking at the end of the verses recalls the emotional desperation of "All the Good That Won't Come Out"). Close listening reveals some decidedly darker lyrical themes: recessions, insomnia, prescription side-effects, a scary snake. But this is the Lewis I like: ecologically focused, surrounded by wah-wah guitars, and focused on a darkly hooky song instead of her own vocal prowess.

Another free MP3 available here.

MmmHmm up inside you

2010-07-13T09:53:00.001-07:00

There's something about the new Flying Lotus video--beautiful and trippy though it is--that reminded me of Mighty Boosh. Check it.

Compared to

bang pop

2010-07-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

It's full on summer as evidenced by record-breaking heat in NYC and delicious blueberries at an affordable price at the local grocery store. Is there a finer berry than the blue? I know raspberries and strawberries have their defenders, and I'll admit that they are pretty darn great especially when picked from some sun-strewn patch of dirt, the warm juices softening the fruit's flesh. The world is full of delicious things!

You'll forgive me for thinking for a second that the vocals for this My Robot Friend track were from previous collaborator Antony. Nope! It's Alison Moyet sounding bluesy and andro and great.

Passion Pit, the Knocks, Phoenix. These are the blokes that are shaping the contours of today's stadium pop sound. It's a good thing, and the Pass add to it. Plus, this is the best synched-up vid since Best Coast's "When I'm With You."

Imma stick it out until it's time to go

2010-06-30T09:34:00.000-07:00

I saw them at Brooklyn Bowl a few months ago. Not only did they kill it, but they are all freakishly sexy in person. Sometimes it's smoke and mirrors, sometimes it's just there.

house piano: the sound of 2010

2010-06-17T17:07:00.000-07:00

There's a pleasant disconnect between how great Diamond Rings' "Show Me Your Stuff" sounds and how crappy the video looks. You can bet that's intentional. A little M83, a little Bring It On. Twinkle, twinkle motherfuckas. (Meanwhile, if you YouTube search the video, you might turn up "Diamond Rings" by Fake Problems. It's a fun video, and does a good job of mitigating any sonic resemblance they might bear to, I don't know, Puddle of Mudd?).

Kelis drops another banger. One day I'm going to do a big write up of her criminally underrated power jams. All I'll say now is, if you think Sleigh Bells is the shit, then you need to listen to this. 2004 and on a major label. Am I getting old enough to talk about how people were ahead of their time?

you gotta march!

2010-06-02T19:19:00.000-07:00

Does anyone remember that Bjork interview right before Volta was released when she was talking about collaborating with Timbaland and said something along the lines of: "Music should be tribal because sometimes you just have to march." And then of course it turned out to be a bit misleading. I don't have any real thoughts on Volta*), but I do know that "Earth Intruders" didn't make me want to march (or dance). BUT THIS DOES.

Except this: the flaming crochet singles covers were way cooler than the Easter egg album cover. Okay, I'm done.

chiddy chiddy bang bang

2010-05-31T10:47:00.000-07:00

First heard Chiddy Bang when he remixed Ellie Goulding's "Under the Sheets" and sounded like a less-burdened Lupe Fiasco. Neon Gold made sure to spin that before Marina and the Diamonds began their set in April at the Bell House. Then, a friend insisted that I watch the video for "Truth." This is a Passion Pit sample, right?

It's like those great Sesame Street animated clips. I think this guy and I have very similar reference points: 90s sitcoms, the academy, and the greatest Dick Van Dyke musical ever made (I can't wait for Chiddy Bang's female counterpart Mary Poppin' to drop her debut single!).

collateral damage

2010-05-27T15:48:00.001-07:00

Well, the New York Times Magazine cover story is an in-depth profile of M.I.A. readying her third album, and it's not flattering. Maya comes off as politically pretentious and painfully bratty, munching on French fries drizzled with truffle oil while complaining about why she's unfairly been labelled a terrorist (and how she is totally a terrorist!) Maya is apparently royally pissed about how she is depicted; today, she tweeted the article's author's personal cell phone number.

But I'm not sure that changes how I think about her music. Having pop stars put out great beats, forward-thinking albums, and compelling visuals is their job, but being a well-spoken, likable person who is logically and politically consistent is sort of supererogatory. Yes, it's well within the media's rights to question and criticize the accuracy and consistency of an artist's record, but whether or not M.I.A. is herself a balanced and progressive global citizen isn't the issue. Having read a lot of M.I.A.'s textual record, it did not in fact surprise me that she was as contradictory (and shallow) in person as her blogging might lead you to believe (ha!).

But here's the thing: Maya puts out music that generates a discussion about terrorism, globalization, genocide, and subaltern alienation. Her politics might not be logical or balanced or well-informed, they might even be dangerous and sometimes inaccurate. But neither are they distractions from the art (hello, U2) or hackneyed tropes that have been played to death for decades (Green Day or whoever).* They are part of the body of work that she's created and they are relevant both to that work and to our world. And isn't that cool? Whether it's "Paper Planes" from Kala or "Amazon" (my favorite M.I.A. track) from Arular, M.I.A. creates fantastic sounding music that speaks directly to the most exciting political issues of our day--even if Maya herself has trouble speaking eloquently and consistently about those same issues. Yes, she glamorizes and perhaps even fetishizes aspects of so-called third world culture and politics, but she's not just taking colored prints and beats, she's taking ideas and ideologies. It's bound to get messy, and it's also pretty fascinating.

So, it's our job to be critical consumers of the product she puts out and to seek alternative viewpoints (why haven't we heard Kesha's thoughts on the Tamil Tigers, I wonder). The ultimate point being I can take issue with, for example, M.I.A.'s glamorization of terrorism while still welcoming the discussion and rocking out of the dance floor. So good for Lynn Hirschberg, good for M.I.A. and her collaborators, and good for me.** I mean, have you heard XXXO? That shit is killer.

*Okay, she doesn't get a pass for the "Born Free" video. Yikes.

**For using the following words I learned freshman year: subaltern, supererogatory, trope. M.I.A. isn't the only one who went to college!

Photo credit: Ryan McGinley for the New York Times.

let's dig a hole in the sand brother

2010-05-15T09:36:00.001-07:00

there'll be girls across the nation that'll eat this up

2010-05-12T17:29:00.000-07:00

Ubiquity can kill cool pretty quick. It's tempting to argue that only snobs care about the contexts in which pop music achieves recognition, but I think it's a little more complicated than that. Take Sara Bareilles and her debut single of a few years ago "Love Song." If we're looking at it musically, there isn't much difference between that peppy piano driven ditty and cuts from bands like Bird and the Bee or Beautiful Small Machines. In the no-more-royalties-from-record-sales-age, artists should be free to license their music to the highest bidder because everybody's gotta get their grind and kids need college funds. The risk becomes the degree to which music might get burdened by association. Suddenly, pop music comes packaged with a lot of things that maybe we didn't sign up for (beyond radio formats or annoying fan bases). Things like shitty romantic comedy trailers and Banana Republic tie-ins. And it's those associations that give me more pause when talking about Sara Bareilles than her tunes, which are jams if you're into 70s-ish piano pop.

Anyway, I think I danced around the is-she-cool-enough-to-post-issue-fuck-it-her-new-single-is-a-jam issue long enough. "King of Anything" ladies and gentleman. Coming soon to a Gap near you.

Another discussion entirely, but I think it is interesting that she decided to cover her face on her first LP's album art considering she is stunningly beautiful.

change of hearts

2010-05-10T20:05:00.000-07:00

Tracks from Robyn's forthcoming album Body Talk Pt. 1 have been leaking steadily. In hunting them down I came across her remix of an El Perro del Mar track from a few months ago which made me want to listen to the original. I never got into EPM, alternately humming along to and kind of loathing her single from a few years ago "Give to Get." There's something different about this track though. Some kind of yearning coupled with a Sade-esque sway. I think the word I'm looking for might be groove. The music video is hypnotic and maybe NSFW? Check it here if you want, but definitely stream the track below.

And here's Robyn's remix. Really, it just kind of tweaks the bass and vocals a little, but it makes the whole thing more urgently lovelorn. Which is typical Robyn.

Update: Hold up! Check the original again. Am I taking crazy pills or is that bassline eerily reminiscent of Death Cab For Cutie's "Summer Skin"? What do you think?

clinging to a scheme

2010-05-09T18:05:00.000-07:00

Now that MGMT have abdicated their status as kings of the indie-party jams in favor of more experimental, proggy exploits (and good for them), I think The Knocks are poised to assume the mantle. "Blackout" is "Time to Pretend" plus "Kids," and it will be playing all summer. If they can turn that shit Britney Spears single into something danceable, they deserve it.

The new Radio Dept album is great.

Sleigh Bells are opening for M.I.A. at her show in New York in July. Sadly, I'll be out of town, but "Tell Em" continues to build on the buzz they've generated since last fall's CMJ. Since Coachella, honestly I've been having problems hearing people in crowded places or when they speak at low volumes. This is not helping.

I caught Penguin Prison's free show at Brooklyn Bowl last night. I give it two more months before they're as big as Miike Snow. 25 minute killer set, every one a jam. (Awkward segue alert) For awhile, I thought PP's remix of Marina and the Diamonds' "I Am Not A Robot" was my favorite, but that title has just been bestowed on this gem below (which you can download for free from the Neon Gold Records blog).

The disarmingly charming P.S. 22 kids covered Marina, but even better is their new version of Bjork's "All is Full of Love." How on earth a children's chorus can sing that song and have it sound amazing instead of creepy is a beautiful mystery.

phantograms

2010-05-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

It's been pretty cool to see the XX blow up as much as they have over the last eight months. They didn't invent the guy/girl electronic template, but their success will probably make it easier for Phantogram to find a big audience in the near future. Their jam "When I'm Small" hearkens back to early Portishead and the days when Madonna was trying to sound like Portishead. I maintain that the XX is fall and winter music. Phantogram sounds like summer. Check it:

credit in the straight world?

2010-04-28T15:49:00.001-07:00

Has has anyone played the redemption card more than Courtney Love? Frankly, there's no reason to think that her latest resurgence is anything more than a brief return to normalcy before she gets bored with being good and decides to get dirty again. Do I feel a little burned by the stalled multiple releases of Nobody's Daughter? The fact that it's exploiting the history and legacy of Hole (a band! a band!) in order to compensate for the lackluster solo track record of its central subject? Well, yeah. I still wish great things for Courtney, but to be honest, I wanted her burning down palm trees with Eric and Melissa or self-releasing the Nobody's Daughter demos to quiet critical acclaim or, I don't know, releasing a Fleetwood Mac covers album. The studio versions of Nobody's Daughter have gone through so many cycles and writers and producers that some sound as tired and used as Samantha, the title character on a track that Courtney once likened to "Roxanne" and "Rhiannon."

Of course it's unfair to judge a record based on what you wanted it to be instead of on what it is. There's no reason to expect Live Through This 2.0 from Love, or even to assume that such a record, if it could be made, would be relevant. The problem is that Nobody's Daughter doesn't succeed even on its own terms. It simply can't sustain itself long enough to become the phoenix record it wants to be (and that Celebrity Skin was). Do we need Courtney to prostrate herself or seek redemption? If that's what this was really about, you'd think she would have spent a little more time mending fences with the band itself instead of starting from scratch with a bunch of cock-rockers. Given Hole's turbulent history, it would be easy to assume that such reconciliation would be impossible, but interviews with Eric and Melissa have shown that they were open to making a new record but were never approached.

This makes listening to Nobody's Daughter as a confessional comeback album difficult because it reeks of cynicism. And it's a dangerous narrative because it sets Love up for another hard fall, doesn't it? Even as she claims she'll never go hungry again, you have to wonder what it is that will keep her appetite sated. New York? Music? Touring? I'm not sure we need her to say words like "never again" and to feed us images of fleeing the decadence of the West Coast. That was fun the first time around but look where it got us: crappy collaborations with Linda Perry, a table dance on Letterman's desk, and custody issues that are none of my business but are frankly hard to ignore given the record's title. At this point, it would be nice to have Love's songs speak the moment a little more--not the past or the future, but right now.

The good:

1. The album cover is well-chosen.

2. I like the title track and the Dylan-esque strums and couplets of "I Will Never Go Hungry Again," a song that resists becoming trite by willing to be funny and true ("my wig's on crooked and I got no shoes").

3. I've heard arguments for and against lead single "Skinny Little Bitch." Say what you will about the banal lyrics and grunge retread, but it's one of the only songs on the album that puts the instrumentation front and center where it's always been on Hole records. I also think the first couple minutes get vocals just right. I don't need Courtney to be Marianne Faithful. I have Marianne Faithful for that. Her voice used to be a powerhouse, and I understand that times change. Point is, change with them. If you can't wail like the old days then write melodies that you can handle. And you know what might have helped with that? Some nice cooing from the game Melissa Auf Der Maur instead of that shitty Pro-Tools layering they used throughout the album.

4. If it's a battle between Billy and Courtney (and it is) then Courtney wins every time.

The bad:

1. Oh god, "Pacific Coast Highway" is just awful. Courtney knows Hole's legacy, and I think she also knows that "Malibu" and "Boys on the Radio" were two of the best pop songs of the 1990s full stop. But this shit takes those song's signifiers--California, the ocean, death--and just phones. it. in. The worst part? It's the exact same song as the awful "Sunset Strip" from her solo album. Linda Perry needs to stop (everything) because this is madness.

2. They needed an executive producer and a better mixer. I've said it before, but a lot of these songs sound cheap and overworked. Compile the demos and release them as a digital EP.

3. Don't call it Hole. It's not. And that's okay. XOLondon posted this interview a few weeks ago with Eric Erlandson who gosh darn it just seems like a great and wise guy. He verbalizes a lot of my feelings about C. Love and this project.

coachella's desert origins

2010-04-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

I've never really been a festival kind of guy as much as I love both music and being really dirty. I wear dusty dishevelment really well and can go days without showering comfortably as long as I'm exposed to plenty of sun and dust. Conversely, if I go a day without a shower in the city I get oily and smelly as opposed to tawny and rugged. The point? Despite being a natural fit for music festivals, this year's Coachella festival in Indio, California was my very first. And it was really special.

Coachella's 2010 lineup suggested a contemporary energy lacking from the last few years. I mean, sure, Jay-Z is an institutional relic at this point, but you would be hard pressed to find someone who would argue that he's less relevant to popular music today than solo Paul McCartney (blech). And sure, if I had a time machine (working on it) then there's no doubt that I would have traded this year's festival for 2006 featuring the monolithic trifecta of Prince, Daft Punk, and Madonna. But time machine be damned! LCD Soundsystem and Pavement? Sign me the fuck up.

There were a whole lot of winners at this year's festival and some really magical moments. Let's run through them briefly.

Winners:

*LCD Soundsystem jamming with Gossip at the end of their show. Second time I've seen Gossip in six months. They made great choices with their setlist and despite the lackluster reception Music for Men received, the audience was typically enthralled. Hannah has never looked better, and Beth Ditto made funny jokes about John Mayer and John Waters (who had his own act at the festival oddly enough).

*LCD Soundsystem. James Murphy strikes one as the type of musical genius who just doesn't have the time or energy to give a shit about anyone who isn't on his level. What this means is that he strikes you as the type of person it would not be very fun to hang out with. At the same time, dude is a musical genius and he puts on a great fucking show. It's really, really hard to beat rocking out (yeah, I said it) to "Yeah" and "All My Friends" in the desert. Although, James, buddy, you do not need to tell us that you planned on playing three more songs, but only have time for one, and then get pissed off when people express their disappointment in a way that maybe suggests to you a degree of undeserved entitlement but for us is merely a supportive way of showing that we really, really like your band. Just don't say anything next time and problem solved.

*Finally, my personal favorite set of the weekend was a combo. Dancing like a maniac in the Sahara tent to the amazing, dub-ish Flying Lotus (I was practically having visions by the time I left he was such a revelation, and who knew DJs could have a good stage demeanor/presence?) and then high-tailing it to catch Sia's full set from the front row of the Gobi tent. If the former was the best dance party I've been to in quite awhile, the latter represented the ultimate comedown and the best pop vocal show I've seen. Ever. Her live show completely transcends anything she's committed to record (and I like her records). I remember when she first broke out guesting on Zero 7's "Destiny" in 2000 or 2001, singing about watching porn in her hotel dressing gown. She carries that same sense of drama and melancholy while she's singing, but the second she stops bursts out into a fit of giggles and handclaps, talking about how neat it would be to make a collage of dusty boogers. I expected her show to be good, but instead it was transcendent.

Losers

*Mayer Hawthorne comes off like an American Idol cheese-ball without the hooks or vocal prowess.

*Someone ran over three people with a souped-up golf-cart. From what I saw, it looked like the driver thought it was in drive when it was actually in reverse. Very scary, and I hope everyone is okay.

And that's it for the losers! Sorry, Mayer.

Other high-points:

The volcano didn't stop Jonsi from appearing! I really liked Passion Pit even my friends didn't! MGMT didn't play "Kids" but did play "Electric Feel" and their new stuff sounds pretty good live! Sleigh Bells sounded like they had some sound problems toward the end of their set, but the rest was great! Yeasayer and Miike Snow are really popular! Little Boots has great lasers but should let them do the talking because boy is her stage presence grating! I didn't see it but apparently Club 75 is Justice! Pretty Lights was exactly that! Pavement!

mean girls

2010-04-11T19:32:00.001-07:00

Trolling through a friend's computer in South Africa, I stumbled upon this, and I haven't been the same since. Pase Rock, Santigold, Amanda Blank, and possibly others? This user-generated video is pretty great, but it's the track itself that's really life changing. You won't look at baby rats the same way, I'll tell you that right now.

gotta work

2010-04-11T19:01:00.001-07:00

Amerie. No point in writing about why her momentum stalled after the bombastically awesome "1 Thing" in, what was it? '05? '06? She may be chronically and inexplicably ignored, but she nails it four times out of five. Girl's also the best hair tosser in pop music today.

mixtape EP

2010-04-10T08:27:00.001-07:00

The Neon Gold blog posted a great remix of the Wolf Gang track "Back to Back." Here's the original.

And fellow Neon Gold-er Penguin Prison has put out a music video for his mind altering-ly good single "Something I'm Not." He played a show this week in New York, but I saw Uncle Vanya in the original Russian instead. I'm not sure I made the right choice. But I did check out Marina and the Diamonds when they played in Park Slope last month and that was killer.

First Alex Chilton, now Malcolm Mclaren. Remember how 2009 was like the year of death?

The Replacements' ode to Chilton.

Malcolm Mclaren's track from the Kill Bill II soundtrack. Played at the end when Kiddo found her daughter.

"Aphrodisiac" by Bow Wow Wow.

Proof that Melissa Auf Der Maur really is as cool as the press around Celebrity Skin made her seem. I'm glad that she's protective of Hole's output during her time in it. She should be. The new Hole stuff sounds cheaply produced which is a shame because some of the demos seemed promising, and I kind of like the song where C. Love channels Dylan. Admittedly, its hard to judge an album based on leaked tracks and singles.

And.... called it. In an interview with Pitchfork, the director of Hot Chip's new video, Peter Serafinowicz, said he was inspired by this:

everything went from wrong to right

2010-03-26T17:20:00.001-07:00

Wow, the new Yeasayer album is good. They've left the hippie jungle forest of "2080" and moved into the club kid jungle forest of "O.N.E." (which stands for what exactly?). Fantastic album, but if you think they could have made it without Kylie Minogue, I believe you are mistaken.

keyword: maypole

2010-02-22T12:46:00.000-08:00

Recently back from a brief visit to the southern hemisphere, and gosh darn it if the world (read: New York) doesn't seem a bit brighter. The neon edges of spring are near. Soon the season will pounce and grab us in its floral jaws until we are hopelessly intoxicated with the heady rush of pollen and a breeze and the smell of the sea. It's coming. Can't stop it. Go, baby, go. And nowhere is this inevitable season of resurrection and ritualism more evident than in the slew of upcoming albums covers that have chosen the more is more approach. Colors are king. Colors are spring. Get ready.

New Broken Social Scene LP. After impressive solo outputs from Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew the last couple years (the latter easily one of my favorite albums), I'm itching for this release. First single "World Sick" is stunning.

I rarely go more than a few weeks without spinning some Everything But the Girl, and honestly that's what I need from solo Tracey Thorn: electro jams a la 2007's "It's All True." Probably not what we'll get, but it's a baller album cover.

Oh, hey there, Marina. I'll be seeing you and Penguin Prison in a few weeks.

You again! You always seemed winter to me, Joanna. YS was a lock-yourself-in-a-room-with-a-candle-and-an-orange-peel affair. But if spring's your thing in 2010, I'm on board. Last time I saw you I was tripping balls with visions of a drowning bear and a monkey. Peacocks and cheetahs this time. You've been reading Edward Said while we've been apart, but I haven't forgotten about you, and I can dig it.

See what I mean about these album covers? It's like all these awesome graphic artists got together in a room with one of those bingo spinners, pulled a ball that said Maypole and got down to business. Well done is what I'm saying.

the storm is nearly over

2010-02-04T15:38:00.000-08:00

Basia Bulat's 2008 album Oh My Darling was a stunner and a surprise. Canadian singer-songwriter and a big floppy hat on the album cover--two strikes, right? Oh My Darling sounded like a throwback to some AM radio station in Nova Scotia (that's in Canada), and its great achievement lies in the fact that you want to hold onto its songs and hoard them like keepsakes, but the singer never lets herself sound precious. It's a simple record, starting with handclaps and a uke on "Before I Knew" (ninety seconds long and it could get stuck in your head for days), meandering through gospel territory on "Hem of His Garment" and finally striking a balance on the kind of folk songs are either about love or nature or God or destruction or muddy boots ("The Pilgrimming Vine").

Now she's back with Heart of My Own and judging from the album cover, we're in similar terrain (Canada). And judging from this beautifully recorded performance of heartbreaker "The Shore" that's a good thing. It ain't broke. Basia Bulat, everybody.

of montreal at highline ballroom

2010-01-27T16:27:00.000-08:00

A big departure from the last show I caught at Highline with Au Revoir Simone and Class Actress. Of Montreal still sound/look like the Dandy Warhols to me, but they know how to get a rabid fan-base pumped--by recruiting Susan Sarandon and Solange Knowles!

Nobody spanks a pig like Susan. And Solange sounded great, keeping it in a key she could work with. Have those guitar licks from "Want You Back" ever sounded splashier? More vibrant? Here's what I said about Solange a year and a half ago.

robyn, spank rock, and staygold walk into a bar...

2010-01-21T17:01:00.000-08:00

I spent the summer in Sweden once. Might be time to return.

renovating the beach house

2010-01-21T13:37:00.001-08:00

I guess Beach House is including a re-working of their 2008 single (and YSD track of the year) "Used to Be" on their new album Teen Dream which is being released next week. There's a new animated video for it directed by Sean Pecknold. Everything I've heard from Teen Dream has been typical Beach House but slightly amplified, their trademark melancholy made slightly poppier, more whole (read: it's been awesome! "Norway" and "Lover of Mine" are the best!). But I feel like this version of "Used to Be" steps back from that model a little bit. I can't really figure out what it brings to the table that the stunning 2008 original didn't. I mean, what on earth have they done with my beloved middle eight, the musical moment of 2008? Am I treating this song as something too precious? Probably. Peep the new version here. Old one here.

fiya

2010-01-17T12:46:00.000-08:00

What if my own skin makes my skin crawl?

What if my own flesh is suburban sprawl?

Check out this essay about the above song.

walk the line

2010-01-17T12:39:00.000-08:00

"...In ways both insidious and overt, this corporate obsession with brand identity is waging a war on public and individual space: on public institutions such as schools, on youthful identities, on the concept of nationality and on the possibilities of unmarketed space."

--Naomi Wolf, No Logo

momma's place

2010-01-06T16:18:00.000-08:00

Gaga is fine. No one is saying that Gaga is not fine. But homegirl didn't start the Ace of Base revival, and she's not the only one who can rock some avant garde shit. Roisin Murphy has been doing it for years and without the grandstanding about being a "performance artist." Some might argue that Gaga's ascendence could help Roisin, you know, actually sell records, but it doesn't exactly sound like Murphy is interested. Newly released single "Momma's Place" puts the kibosh on all the media frenzy surrounding what essentially amounts to kids playing dress up with twenty-year-old outfits. "So you think you know it all? Well, that's the arrogance of youth ... you think you invented being bad," she scoffs. It takes skill to make maturity sound sexy.

Alright, she isn't singing about Gaga. This is what we call sloppy criticism, taking lines completely out of context and aligning them to suit an already flimsy thesis. But, you know, maybe. Fair warning, if you don't like disco, you won't like this. I'm pretty sure Murphy is flying independently now, but hopefully she'll get together funds for some video work. The cuts from her 2007 album Overpowered were sort of amazing (below is the most subtle of the three that I know, "You Know Me Better." If you want unsubtle (read: awesome), peep "Let Me Know.")

best coast

2010-01-05T20:00:00.000-08:00

Bloody infectious is what this is. Lo-fi Liz Phair channeling Beach Boys instead of the Stones. Repeat.

happy new year everyone

2010-01-03T10:39:00.000-08:00

Oh first you go under and then coming up gives you bends

And when you break the surface all you see is your friends

So you grab your purple crayon and flesh out the picture behind

And finally the whole world is made of one unbroken line.

It may be a song about Katrina, but it's what I think of when I think of the New Year. That and U2's Under A Blood Red Sky.

Neon Gold

2009-12-30T13:39:00.001-08:00

Who are Monarchy? Popjustice started the buzz going earlier in the year and now record label Neon Gold (home to Ellie Goulding, Marina and the Diamonds, and others who are defining pop music now and in the near future) posted another demo called The Phoneix Alive (which makes me think of French bands and X-Men comic story arcs and I love that) on their .mp3 blog and it. is. phenomenal.

"Good news for people who love great news, Christmas has come early in the form of another brand new track from everyone's favorite pop mystery, Monarchy. Saving the earth from bland pop music one hot jam at a time, the fly-by-night London duo are back with one of their best tracks yet in "The Phoenix Alive". It sounds kind of exactly like "Here Comes The Rain Again" without actually sounding like it at all, and we're pretty into that."

Grab the track here and peruse the rest of what Neon Gold has to offer. It's a great blog. Those guys own the sky. Below, check out Ellie Goulding/Starsmith's remix of Passion Pit's Sleepyhead.

AOY: Outside Love, Music For Men, Hush/Rewolf

2009-12-28T12:24:00.001-08:00

The Pink Mountaintops' Outside Love almost sounds like the Raveonettes envisioned as a bar band. They're still heavy on the reverb, but the choruses are major sing-along affairs. "Creatures in flight! Let's be creatures of the night!" they sing on Vampire. Other standout tracks are Axis: Thrones of Love, Execution, and Holiday. Check out the album cover above--a tribute to Danielle Steele or Douglas Sirk or both?

It's distressing how poorly the release of Gossip's Music for Men was handled stateside. Months separated the digital and physical releases of the album for no apparent reason. I saw these guys at Terminal 5, a venue that can seem to sometimes swallow performers. As expected, Beth Ditto and her crew delivered big time. All killer, no filler from this group. Their underground club hits like Standing in the Way of Control will last far beyond the aughts, but I really wanted some of the tracks from this record to break onto radio. Heavy Cross was the right choice for a promotional single, but Love Long Distance had the potential to be a summer game-changer.

Finally, Asobi Seksu's Hush was just a fantastic record. Drawing away from the reverb of their big hit Citrus, Asobi Seksu did a "mature" album in a way that didn't feel trite. Unfortunately, reception to the record was weird. Watch this clip of the band talking about it. Singer Yuki sums it up perfectly: Hush achieves this great balance between wall-0f-noise and sonic clarity but "people didn't want clarity."

The motivation for releasing their late end-of-year acoustic Rewolf may have been financial, but it was still a good way to complement Hush and a great record on its own. It's inspiring that the reaction to the poor reception to their most melodic record to date was an immediate follow-up that stripped out all of the reverb--nothing but the melodies remained. It was the perfect ending to this band's great year (product-wise if not commercially). I think the the melodies of Hush and the whispers of Rewolf might be just a passing phase and not just because of the Hush's failure to match the critical/commercial success of Citrus. I saw them a few months ago and walked out feeling like I'd just been to a Nine Inch Nails show. My ears rang for hours.

TOY: Audacity of Huge

2009-12-27T13:35:00.000-08:00

Listen, I stand by my accolades for Florence and the Machine, Au Revoir Simone, and the XX among others. But not everything needs to be so goddamn pretty. We need grit, sweat, dirt, heat, sex, rock and roll, disco. We need goldthongstuddedalligatorleather! Tammyfayemilkmoneybutterscotch! Grapekoolaidfilledswimmingpools! And the audacity to sing about them all.

AOY: Still Night, Still Light

2009-12-27T12:10:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite musical moments of the year was seeing this band only a few days after Michael Jackson's death. After their set at Bowery Ballroom, they brought out the two opening acts and launched into an impromptu encore of "Man in the Mirror." The collective could only manage one verse before stumbling over the lyrics and simply recycling the chorus over and over again, but still, it was a moment. Still Night, Still Light is an unabashedly pretty record (as Au Revoir Simone themselves are unabashedly pretty--we should all be so lucky to be as unabashedly pretty as Still Night, Still Light and ARS--pretty, pretty, pretty is what I'm saying here). This album sort of soundtracked a New York spring/summer in a really great, organic way. But as I type this I'm back visiting in Indiana, and the snow is falling, blanketing the forests, floating down the river in icy packs. Funny thing is, this record still fits.

TOY: So Insane

2009-12-27T11:46:00.000-08:00

Summer, pure and simple: The uneven but endearing tempo changes, the sultry vocal from Ra Ra Riot's Wes Miles, the blue and orange album cover like a popsicle melting on squares of tissue paper. Oh yes, yes, yes.

AOY: Lungs/xx

2009-12-25T16:08:00.000-08:00

I first posted about Florence because of my love for all things Springsteen (except, unfortunately, for his release this year the title of which resembled Monty Burns’s autobiography—zing!). That was almost two years ago. Then the singles from Lungs started coming out. At first, it sounded like Florence was going for a garage-Brit-chick sound, but the final product turned out to be much more special.

It’s a real album. One meant to be played front to back (and from which a number of great songs were omitted). It’s a headphone record. Talented producers like James Ford and Paul Epworth flesh out the sound, adding embellishments that enhance rather than obscure what are structurally very good songs. And it’s a record for which one needs to consciously suspend disbelief. If you over analyze it, the magical motifs become a little cheesy, the powerful vocals a little overwrought. But sometimes I think it’s okay to like things because they are beautiful. I don't think it's a mask.

The XX used their remix of a Florence single (“You’ve Got the Love”) to build momentum for their beautiful 2009 release xx. Florence’s skill lies in making opulence seem soulful, while the XX use sparseness to communicate depth. Some drum machines, a pretty female/male vocal duo. It’s basic stuff and almost recalls Everything But the Girl in the way they transpose their own songs to a sound that is niche but now. EBTG used drum and bass, the XX have hipsterdom's DIY aesthetic.

I saw them a few weeks ago opening for Friendly Fires. I'll be really intrigued if they ever decide to go for a "big" sound. As it stands, I’m not sure what makes something so skeletal feel so whole, but it really does.

TOY: I'm An Animal

2009-12-25T08:42:00.000-08:00

Neko Case's Middle Cyclone foregrounds environmental concerns; they become the prism through which we can understand human desires, actions, and destinies. In that way, its ecological focus recalls Rilo Kiley's great album The Execution of All Things. First single "People Got a Lotta Nerve" underscores the folly of trying to tame that which is wild and "This Tornado Loves You" imagines a path of destruction wreaked by an amorous cyclone. Case pulls off this dreamy image with ease and makes the surreal seem heartfelt and true.

She's always had a gift for incorporating hummable melodies into songs that are otherwise quite dark. Remember that Furnace Room Lullaby was a fairly marketable album of rootsy barn burners, yet the cover featured Case facedown on a dirty concrete floor looking ravished and haunted. Her particular brand of country music foregoes common generic tropes (booze, broken down trucks, love affairs gone as sour as stale whiskey) instead focusing on what seems ultimately to come down to a nihilistic vision of the world as a cold and chaotic place. It's no coincidence that one of the two covers she chose for the album was "Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth." It fits perfectly in the Case catalogue--the world is out to get you and will strike when you least expect it.

"I'm An Animal," a track barely more than two minutes long, epitomizes exactly what makes Case's fascination with nature so perfect. She might start out singing about whales and tigers, but she eventually finds her way to back to people, and our instincts--courages, need, love--are the same. It turns out the record is as much about Case herself as it is about nature. From an artist who so often imbues her songs with dreamlike images that are beautiful but enigmatic and narratives that are fascinating but guarded, I don't think that statement is as self-evident as it might seem.

Finally, we knew Case could pull off basement bluegrass and country noir like no one else, but who would have imagined that she could do stadium rock too? U2 would have killed for this hook.

Heaven will smell like the airport, but I may never get there to prove it so let's not waste our time thinking how that ain't fair.

AOY: Midnight at the Movies

2009-12-24T17:47:00.001-08:00

I often find myself defending country music to people. I should just give them a copy of this album. The son of one legend (Steve Earle) and the namesake of another (Townes Van Zandt), Justin Townes Earle has music in his blood. “I am my father’s son,” he sings. “I’ve never known when to shut up.” This is his best album to date. Like an Americana novella, it uses brevity as a source of power. My favorites are the rollicking cover of a rock classic (the Replacements’ “Can’t Hardly Wait”) and a noir vision of a man in and out of sleep in the back seat of a movie theatre.

Even the album cover is perfect. Simple, mysterious, beautifully designed.

movin' on up

2009-12-23T10:48:00.000-08:00

Malice and Pusha-T go apartment shopping with New York Magazine! And it's probably the only time I'll ever be able to offer a correction. Kinda like a big deal.

Before the last tour of the day, at a Fort Greene brownstone that once belonged to Spike Lee, the group makes a pit stop at Junior’s. Pusha’s sick of talking real estate — “New York Magazine can know that I don’t give a fuck about this shit!” — but the new Clipse album has him gushing. “People gotta remember,” he explains, regarding the duo’s newly rediscovered pop sensibilities, “the Clipse were the first guys to rap with Justin Timberlake, the Clipse were the first guys to rap with Backstreet Boys.” (It’s true — look it up.) “And still give you the hardest, streetest, drug-infested music.”

...

Spike’s former place is an immaculate three-story, 5,000 square foot house, going for $2.7 million. There’s a hot tub adjacent to the master bedroom, a tidy balcony, a spacious back patio, and a steam room. It’s by far the nicest place of the day, but Malice is underwhelmed. “My crib bigger than this,” he says, “and you ain’t getting robbed outside.” Then he calls his brother over to check out the hallway bathroom.

Robbed outside of a Fort Greene brownstone? Yeah. Right.

TOY: 1901

2009-12-23T07:26:00.000-08:00

"Listzomania" might be the better party track. It's just a touch more anthemic and that John Hughes (RIP, homeboy) mash-up literally makes me misty-eyed (and I love crying at parties? I don't know). But I tell you what.

Winter was hard this year. Cold and dark. And then Phoenix started streaming this track on their website. (When was it? February? March? Those dark weeks all run together). It was just the song on a loop and some darkly glowing numbers: 1-9-0-1. It had been so long since It's Never Been Like That (and it hadn't been like that since). And I just started listening to the song over and over and over, and when I looked up it felt like the snow had melted. My skin was clean. There was new air, a bigger space.

That's how I remember it, anyway.

TOY: Daniel

2009-12-23T06:55:00.000-08:00

There was a great documentary about the making of the 2009 Bat For Lashes album, Two Suns. In it, there's a scene where Natasha Khan drives to the ocean and records backing vocal tracks for this song, her strong alto mixing with the wind and the waves. It's this great moment of artistry and authenticity. I know, I know. Groan, right? Well, no. In a song that sounds so layered and beautiful (and, omg, that hook), I think there is solace to be found in the fact that there is something real underneath all that production, all that stuff. A woman on the beach with a tape recorder, singing into it.

Best lyric (best opening line of the year?): Daniel, when I first saw you I knew that you had a flame in your heart.

Also, can we talk about all the awesome songs about people this year? I like to imagine that "Daniel" is being sung by a girl named Sylvia (from Miike Snow's epic "Silvia") and "Silvia" is being sung by a guy named Daniel. All the while, Annie is wandering around looking for a dude named Anthonio. So many names.

"Siren Song" from Two Suns is also amazing.

TOY: heads will roll

2009-12-23T06:35:00.000-08:00

Many apologies for the dirth of posts in recent weeks. Multiple semesters have been winding down (the ones in which I give grades, the ones in which grades are given to me), job hunts, snowstorms, life, blah, blah, blah BORING. On to the lists! I'm breaking this up into multiple segments, either bestowing a "Track of the Year" (TOY!) or album of the year (AOY?!) onto my 2009 favorites. They are not in a discernable order and this list ain't comprehensive by any means.

TRACK OF THE YEAR: YEAH YEAH YEAHS - "Heads Will Roll"

Reception to YYYs last LP Show Your Bones was kind of mixed (for the record, I loved the edgy-Pretenders sound), and for that reason I think that It's Blitz was kind of unfairly labeled a comeback album (a term that has admittedly lost all meaning). Word was, YYYS were ditching soft rock and going straight to da club! Whatever. The idea that It's Blitz was completely new territory for YYYs is a misnomer. There's always been a strong dance music undercurrent in their sound (try not moving to "Y Control" or "Kiss, Kiss"). That said, "Heads Will Roll" was THE COMEBACK DANCE TRACK OF THE YEAR.

Best lyric: Glitter on the wet streets, silver over everything.

Also, points to the video. In a year that saw the end of the wolf meme (thanks, Shakira and Mandy Moore) and the beginning of the werewolf meme, these guys nailed it better than anyone since Seth Green. Your move, Benecio del Toro. NAME DROPS.

is naked (and white) the new wolves?

2009-11-25T12:54:00.000-08:00

You know how wolves were sort of the thing for ... well a long time? From I'd say 2007 to right about a week ago (NEW MOON), in band names, songs, sound effects, and T-shirts sold from Amazon.com it was all wolves, wolves, wolves. I think the nail in that trend's coffin was probably Shakira's (admittedly sweet) summer single "She-Wolf" off the album of the same name. No one kills a meme quite like Shakira. Remember belly dancing? Lil' Wayne? Right. CASE CLOSED. What?

But perhaps there is a new agenda from the so-called city fathers of the indie scene. And item number one on that agenda is NAKED. Whether it's from Girls or the Flaming Lips, nothing says I'm in a cutting edge band filled with/catering to attractive people like stripping it all off. And so many get to be involved: the band and their Portland hippie friends and whoever else answered the Craigslist casting call for YOUNG AMERICAN BODIES. Now Yeasayer jump on board with their Animal Collective via Vampire Weekend single "Ambling Alp." Great, trippy, naked video. Definitely NSFW.

Okay, sure. Naked is the new wolves. That's fine. BUT, not to get too real here, is it at all a cause for concern that all of these naked bodies we've been seeing in the aforementioned videos are white ones? Is this a stuff white people like thing? Considering the cultural diversity inherent in the musical stylings of these particular bands and the diversity of these particular bands' fan bases, why is it that we aren't seeing any bodies belonging to men and women of color? MORE NAKED BODIES. Am I not looking hard enough? Or am I looking too hard? There's definitely a lot of looking.

my robot ears

2009-11-22T09:19:00.000-08:00

The great thing about a pair of solid headphones is that they make you want to listen to a lot of music you haven't heard in awhile--just to see how it sounds. I've been wearing cheap ten dollar ear-bud sets for awhile and just buying a new pair when they eventually wear out after a couple of months. I invested in an only marginally more expensive set yesterday, and I am finding it really difficult to take them off. Everything sounds so good, so different.

Koss Portapros, ladies and gentlemen.

earthquakes make me stupid

2009-11-22T08:52:00.000-08:00

Lady Gaga does not have a monopoly on dance-pop with an industrial sheen, and a pop artist doesn't have to make a big-budget Francis Lawrence-directed video about the parallels between stardom and sex trafficking to put out a quality music vid. You want examples? Oh, I've got examples. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE.

Swedish artist Elin Lanto walks the line between Gaga-edgy and Ace of Base cheese on her new single "Love Made Me Stupid." At first, it seems like the track lacks some of the authentic songcraft of other straightlaced pop artists like Little Boots or Annie, but the conceit of the song actually works kind of brilliantly. She's completely let off the hook from her cheesy lyrics and overblown Max Martin-y synths because love makes you pretty stupid sometimes, right? What about the popsicle and the grinding on marble statues in the video? LOVE MADE ME DO IT. She's set herself up nicely. The last fifteen seconds of the video are the perfect counterpoint to the preceding bombast--you won't need to shower afterwards.

Speaking of Little Boots, her new video for third-single "Earthquake" dropped a few weeks ago. The original cut pales in comparison to Gold Panda's moody remix, and while "Remedy" is gunning for a spot on my end of year best-of list, I'm not sure I see "Earthquake" making the cut. But it remains a great example of a song that could work on its own terms in any genre which is something that I think most artists like Gaga haven't demonstrated--unless you count Christopher Walken's timeless rendition of "Poker Face." Gold Panda remix below followed by the official video.

a house on the beach

2009-11-21T08:17:00.001-08:00

After two well-received albums, Beach House are officially blowing up like an exploded...beach...house? Last year's "Used to Be" was a non-album cut and it was one of the best singles of the year, with a middle eight that remains truly awesome. Now they're back with "Norway" and they've turned up the pop with some girlish backing vocals that serve as a lovely counterpoint to Victoria Legrand's husky, Mazzy Star-ish voice. The upcoming album is called Teen Dream.

dirty sol

2009-11-12T18:52:00.000-08:00

A couple of my friends met (shook hands even! celebrity contact!) Jay-Z and Beyonce at that infamous Grizzly Bear concert this summer. Apparently they have B's sister Solange to thank for that. Solange was responsible for one of the best tracks of 2008 (the Freemason's remix of "I Decided") and now she drops a fine cover of the Dirty Projectors' "Stillness is the Move" and according to Ryan Dombal on P'Fork also samples "Bumpy's Lament" by Soul Mann & the Brothers (later used by Dr. Dre and Erykah Badu). Hardcandymusic.com is still hosting the mp3, though probably not for long since Universal already requested that P'Fork remove their file.

Seek it out. It's very good. Here's "Bag Lady."

walking on an ambling alp

2009-11-09T18:13:00.000-08:00

The new Yeasayer single is properly brilliant and you can download it for free! Lead singer Chris Keating is now officially up for involvement with TWO singles of the year when you couple this with his Simian Mobile Disco collaboration "Audacity of Huge" (which never really became properly huge, but should have).

Anyway, check it. It's a little more Kwassa Kwassa than their last release.

Download (legally) here!

quick notes on the florence show

2009-10-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

I was in the front row at the stateside debut of Florence + the Machine at Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday night. Even discounting Nada Surf's surprise appearance alongside opening act Holly Miranda, it was an excellent show.

It's hard to imagine an act more diametrically opposed to Florence Welch than Holly Miranda (above). Whereas Miranda wore jeans and a slouchy t-shirt, stared at the floor and mumbled a self-deprecating "Fuck me" between her spare and lovely Mazzy Star-ish songs, Welch came onstage wearing what looked like a hippie's bridal gown, platform heels, and heavy makeup ready to rock or bewitch or twirl around for an hour. Bowery's spare stage was strangely decorated: a large avian tapestry hung on the back wall, fake flowers covered Welch's mike stand, and what looked like a shiny blue lawn ornament perched atop a harp on stage right. It sort of looked like a Florida grandmother's basement.

During her performance, Welch alternated between theatrical, vampy stage movements and small breaks in character when she smiled demurely and thanked the crowd repeatedly. And here we come to my main critique of the show. I'm not sure how these things read from the back of the venue, but from my vantage point, the small accouterments that littered the stage had the overall effect of making her set up look fairly shoddy. At the same time, her theatrical presence was sometimes campier than I think is wise for a record that deals in themes like magic, mystery, and love (risky stuff when played straight). It's a line she's had to walk carefully before, sometimes successfully and sometimes not (it's one of the reasons I think her latest music video for "You've Got the Love" is such a disappointment--sometimes less is more and more looks cheap).

Musically, I think her band is still progressing. Her guitar player flattens out some of the record's instrumentation in favor of some indie Bloc-Party riffs and the bass player's attempts at backing vocals barely register. I saw his mouth open during the final section of "Cosmic Love" but I didn't hear a thing which dulls that song's denouement. The harpist doesn't come through clearly either.

But enough. Does this sound like a negative reaction to the show? Because it's not! It's just thoughts! This show was exciting, and vibrant, and pretty great. Welch's voice is pitch perfect as evidenced on her rendition of "I'm Not Calling You a Liar." And what on record seemed like a throwaway garage track ("Kiss With A Fist") friggin' rocked live. "My Boy Builds Coffins" made the hair on my arms stand up. "Dog Days" apparently was inspired by the same artist who did the "Hell, Yes!" sign on the New Museum only a few blocks away. Facts! Stories! One non-album track made the set: "Are You Hurting the One You Love?" How many tracks did she record for this album? Her pipes are in fine form, her stage presence is palpable, and both her and the band seemed thrilled to be in NYC, feeding off the energy of an audience who had waited a while to see her (there were some Gossip Girls in attendance apparently--those are people, right?).

During a lull between numbers I yelled out, "Your songs remind me of swimming!"

My friend next to me, unfamiliar with the reference, said in my ear, "You know what? They really do."

late nights at the deli

2009-10-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

Because nothing says Halloween like Iggy Pop.

I missed Delorean at CMJ, but I'm getting into their Spanish Glo-Fi (yeah, I guess that's a thing now) sound. Like a hearty combination between MGMT and Friendly Fires.

It's almost better to just listen to the track and ignore the video. Not that it isn't completely competent, it's just this is a headphone track that when played at full volume on repeat or on a long run just kind of gets transcendent. Copies of Ellie and some handfuls of glitter just don't convey that.

My sister recommended this track to me. A simple little folk song with a fiddle line that takes it somewhere else.

don't ever stop

2009-10-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

Annie is the thinking man's Kylie. And by thinking man I mean hipster. And by hipster I mean dilettante. And by that I mean me. After her awesome 2005 album Anniemal, Annie signed to Island Def Jam. Buzz was good, but her major label debut was shelved after lukewarm reception to first single "I Know Your Girlfriend Hates Me." Annie left Island Def Jam, and then we started getting bits and pieces from that album Don't Stop. "Songs Remind Me of You" leaked and became one of my favorite tracks of 2008, and this year the Designer Drugs remix of "Anthonio" (a track that didn't make the final cut) was a certifiable springtime jam. Who knows what Annie was doing with her time or why the Island Def Jam seemed to cut and run so quickly. Actually, I am probably being disingenuous here. It's the internet. Someone knows. People know. Everybody knows. Just not me. I'm too lazy to find out. And the album is out now. Who cares! It's awesome! It's so awesome! Let the Scandinavian dance party begin! Full YouTube album preview below.

gliss

2009-10-17T06:26:00.000-07:00

I caught Asobi Seksu at Bowery Ballroom on Friday. More and more, I'm convinced that their Hush is one of this year's best albums. On record Hush quiets down the shoegaze guitar effects that were so omnipresent on their last release Citrus. The resulting album revels in small, near perfect nuggets of pop melody as evidenced by standout tracks "Gliss," "Sing Tomorrow's Praise," "Transcendence," and "Glacially" while still maintaining the kind of front-to-back cohesiveness that makes Hush a real (and really underrated) album. For their live show, Asobi Seksu forego the subtlety of the disc and bring back their bag of shoegaze tricks. As a result, the melodies are buried, but they've been lost in a kind of pounding, relentless din that is just endlessly fun. Yuki Chikudate's vocals aren't strong enough to break through the wall of sound, but they become a vital part of the cacophony. I was surprised that the show was as sparsely attended as it was, and I'm hoping that Hush makes something of a late-year comeback.

in which i take all the blame

2009-10-12T17:20:00.000-07:00

When Tegan and Sara released The Con in 2007, the band posted about ten YouTube videos of documentary footage showing the making of each track. These were later compiled for a bonus DVD which you might consider purchasing as a consumer who enjoys exchanging money for goods. The videos revealed the artists and their collaborators (Hunter Burgan from AFI and Chris Walla from Death Cab among them) to be touchingly committed to their songs and just deadly funny. Despite some dancey synths, these songwriters tend to stay pretty serious. I think I am understating their seriousness. Consider the lyric: "When I was eight I was sure I was growing nerves, like steel in my palm." That is pretty serious! Summary: it was nice to see the wit that doesn't (and probably shouldn't) come through on the record.

Also.

Once, I saw them play a show. For their encore, they asked if the audience wanted to hear a cover of Springsteen or Prince. I love both, but yelled something to the effect that if they covered Springsteen, I would gladly get on stage and do a Courtney Cox-like dance. And I did. It was a heady moment; I acted a fool and wore out my welcome about halfway through the song. I chatted with Tegan and Sara afterwards and they were very nice.

Also.

They have a new album coming out called Sainthood. The first single "Hell" is very good.

i'm sure you've heard if before

2009-10-07T16:30:00.000-07:00

Fall is about Suzanne Vega. About Radiohead. About Broken Social Scene. It's ambiance and ambience; it's a time to construct the cocoons in which we can retreat, in which we can transform. It's about protection. Circling the wagons. A ring of rocks around a campfire.

(The xx: autumnal musicians or G-Star Raw models? Both?)

It's about The xx! Citing influences from Aaliyah and Ginuwine to the Pixies and the Cure, these guys layer simple melodies over slight electronic drumbeats with a warm male/female vocal interplay (listen to Professor Pandora here). Alright, it's not exactly groundbreaking. But, like I said, fall isn't about breaking ground, it's about protecting what you've got so that you can make it through another winter. Their half cover/half remix of Florence and the Machine's cover of "You've Got the Love" has been making rounds lately, and it's good. Even better are the fantastic "VCR" and "My Heart Skipped a Beat."

Based on the production values of their other videos for "Crystalised" and "Basic Space," I'm pretty certain this is a fanmade thing (do your thing fans). It's a little (a lot) Ireland on acid, but just listen to the track.

link: the decade in indie

2009-09-26T09:34:00.001-07:00

Pitchfork has rolled out their best-of the decade lists and essays in the past few weeks. Still seems kind of early to me. I don't give much credence to the idea that you can numerate the five hundred best whatevers of a decade. Especially when it comes to music, which is just all sorts of things that lists tend to gloss over--personal, primal, a product. But the essay "The Decade in Indie" by Nitsuh Abebe has really stayed with me. Maybe it's because it so seamlessly charts my own musical narrative of the past ten years. In 1999, I was listening to Beth Orton and Belle and Sebastian and Daft Punk. By 2003 it was Pretty Girls Make Graves and Phoenix and Neko Case. 2006: M.I.A. and TV on the Radio. Never did get much into the Shins. Anyway, point being, it's a great piece of writing that manages to point out some interesting ideas about music/pop culture while also conveying the understanding that whenever we write about this stuff we construct narratives to suit our own needs. The truth defies our sentences--there's just too much of it.

Anyway, check it: The Decade in Indie.

visions of us breaking everything on our way outta town

2009-09-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

As soon as I returned from a month abroad, I decided to finally get internet in my apartment. I made a call September 4th. It took three weeks and four appointments. Very frustrating, but it's always something, isn't it? So you can imagine my joy at finally being connected to some broadband in Crown Heights. Woo. Hoo.

I didn't know about Dragonette until this summer when I saw their video with Martin Solveig for Boys & Girls. I didn't much like it. Kind of tuneless. Too cute. So I was really pleasantly surprised to stumble across "Pick Up the Phone." It's like M83's "Kim and Jessie" crossed with Smashing Pumpkins' "1979." But less melancholy (infinitely sad?) than both.

Julian Casablancas's new single "11th Dimension" isn't what I'd expect from him as a solo artist. The Strokes have always had a serious strain of pop to their music, but if you've seen them live, you know that beneath their faux-aged recording sound is some heavy guitar muscle. Julian foregoes that on "11th Dimension" sounding sunny and happy and kind of like an American Phoenix. And it's really good. (And I can't bring up Julian without remembering a Courtney Love song from five years ago where she says to him: "You know how when your phone went dead? Well, that was me on the other end." It's probably a good thing that Twitter has given Love something non-drugs related on which she can focus. Good for Twitter.)

And, you know, what the hell. Everyone loves Stevie Wonder.

one for every time i've gone away

2009-09-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

Back from an extended absence from this city/country. I don't know what's going on in the world--musically or otherwise. Unfortunately, there is no Rachel Maddow podcast archive, so I don't know what I think about anything. It will literally take me months to catch up. Do we have healthcare yet? Facebook emoting suggests not.

Further evidence in showing how deeply uncool I am--my favorite album of the summer is Whiskeytown's Stranger's Almanac. I know it's just boilerplate alt-country, but there's something about this album that connects to the late summer for me, as strangely appropriate as Elliott Smith felt to me in August when I was thirteen. Like humidity and traveling. I think that's how old I was when this came out, actually:

Oh, and Florence has a new video out. Naturally, it's killer. Though if there were one track from that album that really stands out to me for this season it's probably "My Boy Builds Coffins" (oh, hell, now I want to shout out like three other tracks, but I won't, gah, Howl!).

What do you sing about, Florence?

"Usually guilty stuff...but sometimes I sing about air."

I know exactly what you mean.

be good. be nice.

2009-08-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

Like his forebears, this savage detective is jetting the country for a bit. To learn how to do this.

Back in September.

electric honeys

2009-08-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to a lot of Luscious Jackson the past few days because nothing says summer like three funky white girls jamming up some R&B flavored keyboardy jams. These girls are like the original Au Revoir Simone with the funk dialed all the way up to jam (and by funk I mean in the soy latte kind of way). I seem to remember some contemporary critics deriding them for being derivative and too made-for-GAP commercials, but I think their stuff has aged really well. I mean, as one Youtube commenter noted, it's not a stretch to compare this with the Dirty Projectors summer jam "Stillness is the Move." Just switch out the Gap with American Apparel.

Here's a Youtube video of their jam "Down to Earth." It's from the soundtrack to the animated flick Titan A.E. (with the voice talents of Matt Damon and Drew Barrymore!). If you like backflips, you'll like the video. If you don't, the song is good. Dirty Projectors featured below.

Other Luscious Jackson favorites: Why Do I Lie, Love is Here, Nervous Breakthrough.

psycho killer, qu'est-ce que c'est?

2009-08-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

This is probably going to get pretty big pretty soon. The imitation is uncanny and the cover is hopelessly catchy. Miles Fisher is like the jock who shoved Frankmusik in a locker freshman year.

Note: Much like the film American Psycho, this is gets NSFW about three quarters of the way in. So if that's an issue, just catch David Byrne on Jools Holland circa 2004 below it.

Thanks for the tip, N!

she's her own boyfriend

2009-07-31T12:06:00.000-07:00

I caught Valerie Geffner performing at a pretty intimate showcase last night, and her set moved me enough to write my first post in weeks (summer is fun, you guys, things get to happening, blogs become abandoned, and I still don't have internet in my apartment). Geffner's set was raw but meticulous. Using a microphone, she sang over a backing track that played on a CD player off-stage, and she wasn't shy about restarting a track if things weren't cuing up right. I noted to a friend of mine that her act was like a combination of Peaches and INXS. The former because of the post-punk disco vibe, and the latter because of the pointed end rhymes on the song "Ready to Go" which immediately called to mind "Mediate."

Other than those two artists, other points of reference abound. Geffner is obviously a student of movement in some capacity (she trained as an actress at Julliard) and in that sense it's hard to avoid comparisons to early Madonna (I mean, there was writhing around on the floor, so you know). Sonically, Geffner deals in the kind of avant-garde pop that has led several artists (admittedly more synth heavy) to success on recent U.K. charts (La Roux, for instance.) Yet, there also seemed to be a throwback to artists that haven't been as revered by the 1980s revival of the past few years. Here, I'm thinking more of Sinead O'Connor's dancier tracks like "Jump in the River" or "The Emperor's New Clothes."

Okay, okay, so "who-does-this-artist-remind-me-of" is a game I play frequently, and in reviewing the post it might seem like I'm selling this artist a little short. Isn't there something to be said for originality? Well, yes, of course. There's also something to be said for a sweaty, gritty pop set that calls to mind the people who are, you know, in the canon. It was a good show, is what I'm saying.

Valerie Geffner's self-released album, Antenna, is available at her (well-designed) website.

summer on the farm

2009-07-06T08:24:00.000-07:00

Dinosaur Jr.'s new album, Farm, has some serious legs. This is the band that since high school has made me feel like I missed out on an essential transformative period by not attending some liberal arts college in Massachusetts, let's say Hampshire (I have a finely tuned sense of proactive nostalgia). I don't know what it is, but their music makes me think of wood porches on college houses, warm fall days, the afternoons after a roaring house party. Apples. Yet their new album fits in well with a New York City summer, and though I'm hard pressed to explain the album cover (above), I can testify to some truly awesome songs on Farm like the short and sweet power pop number "Over It" (below) or the magnificent, guitar driven "Said the People."

P.S. Is it weird that I can actually remember the first time I heard Dinosaur Jr.? Not that there's anything especially weird about remembering your first exposure to a band, but I was like eleven years old and watching daytime T.V. during summer vacation or something. I am fairly certain they were performing a set on the Jenny Jones show. Go figure. Why do I remember this?

they're not themselves

2009-07-02T09:20:00.000-07:00

I've recently moved apartments from up-and-coming Fort Greene to why-are-there-Egyptian-murals-everywhere Crown Heights. I'm without internet for the time being and do my online stuff in daily stints at coffee shops. In addition, I'm waiting for a visa to a certain politically unstable country for a job I picked up during my summer break from teaching. Point being: fewer posts. But in the meantime, let's talk about some sweet Beyonce covers. First is Antony and the Johnsons doing a complete reversal of sunny, summery "Crazy in Love" by taking it straight to winter suicide town. Still, pretty beautiful and given the current climate in New York (rainy, rainy, rainy) I guess it works. Then, Florence and the Machine take on "Halo" which is pretty good, but also shows how easily her own songs trump the soft rock Ryan Tedder global domination bullshit Beyonce tried to pull with that one.

jimmy got soul

2009-06-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

Drake has the third most downloaded song on iTunes this week with his laid back, sing-song "Best I Ever Had." It's a noteworthy success for any new artist, especially one who had been releasing acclaimed mixtapes for awhile now, and perhaps even more so considering Drake's history has a child actor on the cult-hit Canadian teen-soap Degrassi: The Next Generation. Shifting from child performer to adult artist (nevermind mainstream success) is a strange transition that sometimes appears to be managed by the artists themselves (Rilo Kiley members Blake Sennett and Jenny Lewis or even Justin Timberlake) and other times seems to be micromanaged by industry executives (Zac Efron).

It seems especially surprising that Drake would be so embraced by hip-hop heavyweights like Lil' Wayne considering his past. If anything, it seems to indicate that people already entrenched in both the business and the art of hip-hop see real talent in Drake. The fact that he spent several years on one of the corniest, yet most strangely addictive, television shows around suggests that the bar for what you can be forgiven for is pretty high provided you have something genuine to bring to the table. Drake recognizes the tension between what is expected of him and what he has to offer on his most recent mixtape So Far Gone (on which "Best I Ever Had" first appeared). It hits on both the traditional tropes of hip hop (among these, a yearning for money, cars, and hos) and the narrative of a young artist trying to carve out his sonic identity in late night studio sessions while jamming to Lykke Li (before going home to hit it).

At his best, Drake deals in a particular blend of R&B and hip hop that feels refreshingly personal. He does well with subtle beats, restrained vocal lines, and lyrical jabs that are on point but not overworked. Check out "Houstalantavegas" one of my favorite cuts off of So Far Gone below.

Flatbush blazing like it's smoke of the prophet

2009-06-18T19:31:00.001-07:00

I've been waiting awhile for some really good hip-hop to find its way to me this summer. Enter Mos Def's new album The Ecstatic. In the clip below, Mos lays down some a cappella verses from "Casa Bey" in Osaka for Current TV. Because he's Mos and that's how he rolls. I'm glad he's done making movies with Bruce Willis and is back to making hip hop with horns. Album is available on emusic.com.

Click here for the official video.

in which Love takes credit for Portland

2009-06-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

"I put Jumbo's on the goddamn map and I'm sick of not getting--it's like Portland, you know? Give me my credit!"

Still crazy after all these years. Look, the thing is, I think it's cool that Love is relaunching the Hole brand. It also bodes well that she's enlisting the help of a certain red-headed siren of a bassist for assistance. Her solo album was the worst of the worst, but Love's got two seminal 90s records under her belt and I'm willing to give her what she wants (credit). I would feel a lot better about the project ("Blood on the Tracks" meets "Diamond Dogs"? Whatever you think of her, you know she's got a great record collection somewhere) if Eric Erlandson were on board.

Here's what Bob thinks:

gold-thronged studded alligator leather

2009-06-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

I wasn't a huge fan of Simian Mobile Disco's new single "The Audacity of Huge" when I first heard it. Now that I am an uber-fan, I think I've pinpointed why I was a little slow on the uptake. There is no real chorus to speak of, not the kind of stratospheric, melody busting, vein pumping way I like anyway. Not only that, but SMD begin the song with this essential non-starter. Add to that a beat that is practically sampling previous singles "Hustler" and "I Believe" and the lack of a game changing middle eight, and it gets a guy a wonderin': why choose this track as the first single? The answer, I think, is in the verses which are, in a word, sick. Chris Keating's voice is on the verge of trembling and alternates between sexily punching out statements of possession and tumbling into the vulnerable refrain/ plea "Why don't I get you?" And then of course comes the non-chorus, but it's worth it for the time it gives you to recover between some truly awesome lyrical slams (Example: Book collection with an autographed James Joyce / Bio-diesel dirigible, ba-baby it’s choice.) What is this iambic pentameter? This flow is in my head.

Also, I've figured out the equation of this song. Let me break it down for you.

(I got that mother of pearl oyster fork for sure)

(I got that Joey Ramone)

(I got that Tammy Faye milk money butterscotch)

(I got that crank trippin' babe it's you)

(The audacity of huge)

Play them all at once.

when the lights go down

2009-06-09T19:09:00.000-07:00

Turn the dial on a crazy itch radio and you might find something like this, the new summer single for all purpose dance icons Basement Jaxx.

And just for kicks, here's a classic (circa 2006!) Basement Jaxx track that may be one of my favorites just because I'm always a sucker for the creative use of banjo.

under the weight of this balmy night

2009-06-07T17:57:00.000-07:00

This is what album covers should look like.

The track "Palms" from this album is rollicking. First single "Pulling on a Line" is below. Do you hear the frogs in the night? The creak of a porch swing? The smell of warm rain rising from wet concrete? I do.

au revoir le printemps

2009-06-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

The new Au Revoir Simone album, Still Night, Still Light, is a near-perfect exercise in melodic pop music. Listening to it is like lying in the grass all day in the park. I expect it to be on repeat all summer.

If we could all say we're sorry
Give up all awkward tomorrows
Finding nothing more to argue
I was right

Anywhere you looked was
Anywhere you looked was
Anywhere you looked was
Anywhere you looked was
Anywhere you looked was
Anywhere you looked was right

Anything you said to me was lost in ether overseas
And timing changes everything when I was right
We discovered one another stumbling through another summer
Worrying we start to wonder, what was right.

yo teach!

2009-06-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

Story of my life right here.

blue-eyed soul in black and white

2009-06-05T17:17:00.000-07:00

boozer, user, groover

2009-06-05T16:49:00.001-07:00

New Peaches video. It's like if Amy Sedaris's Jerri Blank finally achieved the self-actualization she so yearns for and morphed into a Roisin Murphy-like disco chanteuse. Or something.

She likes the pole and the hole.

creatures in flight

2009-05-26T16:00:00.001-07:00

A weekend trip back to my hometown and college town left me with some good memories, nasty cut that will hopefully turn into a cool scar, and a couple more great jams to share.

The Pink Mountaintops new album, Outside Love, is an immediate stunner. Their fuzzed out, layered pop songs are sticky with what I imagine California air smells like (sage and salt water?). Similar in vein to Mazzy Star, The Raveonettes or Jesus and Mary Chain but a little heavier around the edges, owing to the band's affiliation with the stoner rock group Black Mountain. The clip below is for their ballad about vampires set to scenes from the recent Swedish vampire flick Let the Right One In.

Florence and the Machine is (are? hell if I know) back with a new single. She departs from previous jam "Dog Days" which was sort of a scorching soul number with this cut. It's a little more ethereal (I'm loathe to use that word) and took a few spins to grow on me, to be honest. At first I thought she was going for a lame Alice and Wonderland tea party thing, but then I decided it was a Dionysian sacrifice instead and I got on board.

those pretty wings will knock you down

2009-05-23T07:29:00.000-07:00

I teach eighth grade English at a public school in Brooklyn and my kids are always playing jams on the computer in our room. They know a few things about my taste in music. First, they know I love Kanye and Jay-Z (I use them all the time for figurative language lessons). Second, they know I think Beyonce is shrill. Finally, they know I have a lot of songs on my iTunes with the word "Fuck" in them (I accidentally projected my music library on the LCD projector so that Exile in Guyville was showing--not long enough for them to notice the nipple though, luckily). Anyways, now that I'm an old man out of college, I use them to find out what the new urban jams are because I don't listen to the radio. And despite some pretty awful stuff out there (Stanky Legg, that damn AIM sounds song, Miley Cyrus) sometimes my students do turn me on to a good jam. Usually it's just a Kanye track I don't know about.

He's been having a good MC run, what with last November's collaboration with DJ Khaled (above), his contribution to Clipse's new one (with that sweet Ennio Morricone/Tarantino intro) and a verse on Keri Hilson's jam. Hilson can't really carry a single by herself, but she's savvy with her collaborations, and the video is amusingly plot driven (Ne-Yo and Kanye are both after the same girl! West is an oil painter! Ne-Yo loves hats!). Sure, its a bit of a knockoff of "Flashing Lights" and "Umbrella" but it's still kind of R&B summer jam that seeps out of summer sidewalks and finds its way to top-40 radio. Anyway, I wouldn't have paid attention to it if not for my students, so shout out.

Also, Maxwell's new single "Pretty Wings" is, well, very pretty. And the video is hilarious. What could have been a nice looking if VH1-ish stylistic job is sort of undermined by the fact that Maxwell is comically astral-projecting to multiple honeys beds. He loves you, baby. And you, and you, and you too.

if it's already been done, undo it

2009-05-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

Are remixes the most likely candidates for jam of the summer? I know it's early, but between Fred Falke's takes on Grizzly Bear's "Two Weeks" and his epic rendering of Gossip's "Heavy Cross" as well as the ballbusting DiscoTech remix of Ciara's "Love, Sex, Magic," I'm beginning to think that the ubiquitous pop track that dominates the summer (think 2006's Promiscuous, 2007's Umbrella, or 2008's Just Dance) might be coming over the turntables and the blogs instead of the radio. (Prove me wrong, world, prove me wrong).

thermals @ bowery

2009-05-14T19:56:00.001-07:00

Caught The Thermals last Saturday at Bowery Ballroom, and gosh they were incredible. So positive, such energy. Great songs. You really could not ask for more out of a show, especially considering the phenomenal opening acts Point Juncture, WA and the Shaky Hands. They played like they were headlining their own stadium tour and the results were just incredible. Don't have enough good things to say about any of these bands. If you have the chance to see them, do. One side note, try to make it a 21 and over show. Sixteen year olds can be smart and insightful. But they're also the only ones who think moshing is fun and punk. Dancing > moshing.

They fantastically opened the show with "St. Rosa and the Swallows" which is probably my favorite song of theirs. Since there's no official video, I'm posting the one for the first single off their new album Now We Can See. At first, I thought this song was a bit of a underwhelming. The Body, the Blood, and the Machine, their last LP, was insulated with hooks from start to finish without having to resort to cloying "oh-way-ohs," but it's grown on me. They're great, is all I'm saying.

Also, here's the video for "We Are Young" by the Shaky Hands.

P.S.

No need to tell, 'cause I know all of the story

2009-05-08T15:48:00.000-07:00

Just yesterday I was thinking to myself that Fred Falke's remix of Annie's "Anthonio" seemed so timely because it channels a very particular type of icy, italo disco that Sally Shapiro did so well only a few years ago. And then I thought, hey where is Sally Shapiro anyway? She should really put out some new stuff. Lo and behold, Pitchfork broke the news that Shapiro's new single "Miracle" is out now with an LP to follow. Free and legal mp3, ahoy!

that's my jam!

2009-04-29T15:55:00.000-07:00

And these are my jams. They really, really are.

First up, I first heard of Florence and the Machine when she (they? whatever) did a decidedly kick ass cover of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm Going Down" with some bloke named Kid Harpoon. Then came first single "Kiss with a Fist" and now there's an EP called A Lot of Love, A Lot of Blood and the first track is massive (and was released last December as a single, so I'm behind the times--whatever). Leading off with some handclaps, a ukulele, an a basic female vocal line and then exploding into a one-two chorus that is the greatest thing this side of 1901. Then there's a fade out, then it's back, another fade out, and it's just so good. Florence, you and your Machine are alright.

I once thought that nothing could make John Legend cool except a bit of Kanye West production a la the alright but not so great in retrospect "Used to Love You." Then came MSTRKRFT and their fine jam "Heartbreaker" on which Legend contributes vocals. Clearly Legend needs to ditch the piano, the faux Stevie Wonder played-out new soul schtick, and hell even his collaborations with Andre 3000 ("Greenlight" was not that great). This is where it's at John. Kudos indeed.

Kurt Vile's jam Freeway smells like summer. Mowed lawns, fading light, sunburn.

A great lady sent me her summer mix (it's summer early in Texas) and containing many, many fine jams. This one was exactly what I needed to hear.

even i'm starting to question my taste

2009-04-19T10:51:00.001-07:00

I've started putting together monthly mixes for myself as an effort to make an end of the year best-of list a little easier. Most of these tracks aren't new (for some weird reason they're either from the 1908s or 2007) and thus won't be appearing on any year-end lists, but they are all a part of April.

Note: I am aware of the stunning lack of hip-hop on my April mix. Maybe it's a spring thing? I just haven't heard any new hip hop that has really grabbed me (though some old school Fugees in Fort Greene park the other day was pretty perfect). I am all ears for suggestions.

Liz Phair - Go West (demo version)

Liz Phair's Girlysound tapes assure her legacy no matter how many Banana Republic ads she's in. I'd be in a Banana Republic ad if someone paid me. Favorite lyric: "I'm looking for somebody to do my thinking for me."

Friendly Fires - Paris/Jump in the Pool

INXS - Don't Change

If you haven't seen Adventureland yet, you should. I understand why it wasn't a bigger hit than it was. Superbad had a lot of thoughtful moments, but Adventureland is steeped in a kind of nostalgia that sort of sets it apart from the bro-riffic comedy genre, despite the tried and true coming of age theme and hilarious performances by Martin Starr, Bill Hader, et al. It's a great film, with a terrific soundtrack including one of INXS's best jams as well as "Don't Want to Know if You Are Lonely" by Husker Du and "Satisfied" by the Replacements.

R.E.M. - Moral Kiosk

Miles away from every lame R.E.M. single released in the 90s (and I'm a fan of New Adventures in Hi-Fi and a couple cuts off Up, so it's not a hardline thing), this jam is all spooky lyrics about fire and twilight underneath a damn thrilling hook.

Bat For Lashes - Daniel

Pitchfork called this track Bat For Lashes's "Running Up That Hill" and by that I think they meant the kind of mega-hit that can propel an otherwise decidedly non-mainstream artist (a la Kate Bush) onto the pop charts. I didn't buy the connection until I saw the video, which is as new age modern dancey as Bush's was.

The Juan Maclean - One Day

There seem to be a lot of 80s references and paralells in my April mix. Why stop now? The Juan Maclean is on the DFA label, so there's a familiar indie dance beat undergirding this jam a la LCD Soundsystem, but TJM goes straight for the Human League tribute on this one. Seriously, I expected the vocalists to start arguing about how the circumstances of their first meeting in a cocktail bar. That song, "Don't You Want Me," was used to hilarious effect in the 2002 indie movie Cherish starring Robin Tunney, Tim Blake Nelson, and featuring...Liz Phair.

Annuals - Complete or Completing

Don't you love finding random songs in your library that you've had forever but never managed to listen to? Maybe I should qualify that. Random songs that you end up loving and repeating on a loop for an entire afternoon. That's what this one is. Not sure how I ended up with it or why I never really played it before.

Annie - Anthonio (Designer Drugs Remix)

Annie is to thank for turning me onto the Annuals track above (they're back to back in the old iTunes). Last year's "Songs Remind Me of You" was the kind of track that I thought would herald the return of Annie after a three-year hiatus, but instead she left Island Def Jam and never released her sophomore record Don't Stop. Now we have "Anthonio" as a comeback single of sorts, and while the snippets of the original mix I've heard are fine, the Designer Drugs remix that is currently making the rounds picks up in the same vein as "Songs on the Radio." The song is about some Brazilian dude who broke Annie's heart during a tropical vacation and now won't respond to any of her letters. Apparently, he is in the process of recording a response track (you know, like Sporty Theivz "No Pigeons" shutting down TLC's "No Scrubs" or something). I love marketing strategies.

Architecture in Helsinki - Heart it Races (as performed by Dr. Dog)

I was reading in the park yesterday and randomly ran into some people I knew. Someone was playing the original version of this song on the speakers, a perfect soundtrack to what felt in many ways like the first real day of summer in New York. I'm partial to the version by Dr. Dog, but they're both great.

Hoodoo Gurus - Come Anytime

The fades in this video are the greatest part. The song is pretty great too. If I were in a mid-90s movie about the trials and tribulations of being a hapless twenty-something, this would play over the opening credits along with a photo montage of friends and I getting into wacky hi-jinks at Coney Island while pensively wondering when life would really begin...or something. Things never were the same after that summer.

they call me hell

2009-03-22T18:10:00.001-07:00

I saw the Ting Tings at Terminal Five last Monday and they put on a really solid show. It's experience, not reality, that shapes our memories, and I experienced a night dancing awesomeness. But I also experienced being told that my friends and I were acting "retarded" and needed to "chill out." At first this hurt my feelings ("Can't we all just dance?!"), but then I realized that if you're going to a show put on by a band that is mining pop and new wave and not doing a bad job of it and you came to just stand around looking bored, I am not interested in contributing to your experience.

You know what else I'm not interested in contributing to? Evan Bayh and his Conservadems. I can't believe this guy. This is why the first words out of an NBC reporter's mouth about unemployment in Elkhart, Indiana were "It is a bleak and miserable morning." Boo, sir. Boo.

Bloc Party concert tomorrow. There will be dancing. Oh yes, there will be dancing.

double feature

2009-03-11T19:45:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a few weeks since my last TMJ! post. Here we go.

Neko Case's new record dropped last week, and I immediately snatched it up like a starving, feral cat. The first Case song I ever heard was "If You Knew" off her 2004 live LP The Tigers Have Spoken, and since then I've been enamored with her blend of American roots country, troubling lyrics, and subtle sense of humor (on this record she chooses to cover a song with the lyrics: "In the wintertime keep your feet warm, but keep your clothes on and don't forget me"). And, yes, there's the voice--the greatest singing voice in American music today. Full stop. Middle Cyclone is definitely a Case record in the best sense. Her voice itself is a melody, so she doesn't have to concern herself with consistent hooks or song structures, but the songs nevertheless burrow themselves inside my head (see how I'm going with this animal imagery? see what I'm doing there?). Anyway, if "Hold On, Hold On" was Fox Confessor's pop moment, I suppose this go around the title goes to "I'm an Animal" a two-minute song that could fill arenas if U2 took a stab at it (note to U2: please don't). "I'm an Animal" is a high point on a great record, but it also underscores a sore spot for me: I just wish the songs were longer. Here's Case interviewing with a Canadian radio show. Kind of lady you'd like to grab a beer with.

I'm really going back to a country music thing lately. I can't help it. Country music is awesome. Steve Earle is also awesome. So, apparently, is his progeny. I picked up his son and former band-member Justin Townes Earle's new record Midnight at the Movies and have played it almost as much as Middle Cyclone. The record's beautiful cover says something about the album's aesthetic: lonely, noir, Hopper-esque. It's also littered with lyrical gems ("You've spent your whole life wandering with a look on your face like you've seen a ghost / but this ain't no hauntin'") and beautiful images of lonely souls in lonely places ("Tell those fools down front to take a seat / If you see my Martha tell her I'm in the corner and just to wake me if I'm asleep"). If Earle veers towards Ryan Adams-ish anonymity on the underwhelming "Someday I'll Be Forgiven for This" (which sounds a little too close to Adams's "La Cienega Just Smiled" for comfort) at least there's a wicked, mandolin-rocking cover of the Replacements' "Can't Hardly Wait" to make up for it.

Between Case's and Earle's new records, Midnight at the Movies almost feels more satisfying if only because it was so unexpected. They're both vying for album covers of the year.

that's my jam!

2009-02-11T16:32:00.000-08:00

First up is My Chemical Romance's cover of Dylan's "Desolation Row." Now, let's be clear. I like to stroll down Emo Lane once in a while, but I don't make a habit of it. Nevertheless, to me, MCR transcend the angsty, artless confines of the mall-emo set (I'm looking at you, Paramore) and reach something a little more frenetic, a little more exciting, and a little more melodic. I stand by my initial assertion that their 2006 album The Black Parade was a better song-for-song concept album than Green Day's American Idiot. And speaking of capital-C concepts, this track is the first single off the soundtrack for the upcoming adaptation of Watchmen, Alan Moore's tale of warped super-heroes. Anyway, this track isn't going to change any minds about MCR, Dylan, or film adaptations of graphic novels, but I dig two out of the three so there you have it.

Up next is Gospel Gossip's "Nashville," a dreamy marriage of shoegaze melody with an upbeat edge that hearkens back to radio-friendly 90s alternative a la Velocity Girl. This song is a jam.

Then, there's Jaguar Love's "Highways of Gold" which I was immediately endeared to because for some reason I have a thing for songs with the lyrics "everybody knows." Not sure what that's about. It doesn't hurt Jaguar Love that they have former members of Pretty Girls Make Graves. The song is catchy and dancey, but I can imagine the vocal histrionics becoming grating after awhile.

Asobi Seksu released their latest album, Hush, yesterday. It's evolves nicely from 2006's Citrus, with less vocal layering (which actually make lead singer Yuki Chikudate's voice sound stronger and fuller) and more immediately striking melodies. "Sing Tomorrow's Praise" is achingly lovely. Here's the video for lead single "Me and Mary."

Finally, a commercial for the Chicago band Company of Thieves came on during Adult Swim the other night and, always a sucker for marketing on the Cartoon Network, I checked them out and really enjoyed their single "Oscar Wilde." So way to go marketing majors, you just earned your band ninety-nine of my cents and the honorary title of "jam." Check out their website to listen to the song.

that's my jam!

2009-02-09T11:34:00.001-08:00

I saw Beirut's Friday show at BAM this weekend and it was really great. Having heard mixed things about Beirut's live show, I was a bit worried (particularly given how much I adore his anachronistic style of pop music). But the band was on point and Zach Condon's vocals were in great form. The band adapted the orchestral sounds of the albums to stage very well--particularly when they brought on the Vassar Orchestra for the last third of the show! From a distance, it looked like a high school orchestra, but I remarked to my friend Jack that if it was then Beirut had managed to choose the whitest high school in Fort Greene as their accompaniment.

Kaki King was Beirut's opening act and I hadn't heard of her before Friday. I dug her instrumental pieces--swirling and layered bass solos that built into thumping and raw crescendos. The one vocal number I heard her sing was a little Ani-lite for my taste, but I downloaded her album ...Until We Felt Red from emusic.com after the show, and I'm digging it. I haven't gone through the whole thing, but I like the vibe a lot. I'm no guitarist, but I get the sense that this is music people who care about technical ability would love but it doesn't alienate us common people.

I remarked not too long ago that the new Morgan Geist track would have to satisfy my intense need for new Junior Boys material, but that was before JB's new album, Begone Dull Care, leaked. I am like a junkie getting a fix listening to this stuff. "Paralell Lines" sounds as though it's headed for epic-pop M83 territory and then pulls back into a lovably awkward and hummable chorus. I can't wait for a physical copy. The album drops in May....ugh.

Finally, spring was definitely in the air this weekend in Brooklyn. The snow melted, the birds were singing, the sun was out and the thermometer snuck up to the mid-fifties. It felt incredible, so I hit the pavement in an effort to rachet up my training for the Brooklyn half (which has until this point been consisting of icy laps around the park). The Heartless Bastard's "Gray" is my startoff running jam. They have a new album out and the title track, while nothing to set a pace to, is decidedly awesome. It is the sound of a winter thawing. Grass coming up through mud. Warmth in the seeds.

that's my jam!

2009-01-27T18:37:00.000-08:00

My Brightest Diamond covers Nina Simone on the new Red Hot compilation and does a great job of it. There's no video, but a Hype Machine search will turn up an mp3, and the Red Hot CD comes out next week. "Feeling Good" is one of my favorite songs. To me, Simone's version is the perfect soundtrack to a ninety degree summer evening (or, you know, a season 4 promo of Six Feet Under). MBD's, on the other hand, sounds like it was recorded in a dark Russian forest. In January. I'm clearly projecting here. In Soviet Russia, Nina Simone sings you.

Morgan Geist has a new video out for his single "Ruthless City." I don't know much about Geist, but the track features Jeremy Greenspan of the Junior Boys and it looks like this single is the closest thing I'm going to get to a Junior Boys track for awhile.

Finally, I've been kicking The Gaslight Anthem's The '59 Sound around for the last couple months, and I'm officially warmed up to how they appropriate classic '50s imagery (high top sneakers, sailor tattoos, Marilyn Monroe's hips) with pop-punk hooks and Springsteenian (?) pathos. There's even a couple Dickens references on the albums which, you know, have to count for something. You can download their album on Emusic.com.

framing

2009-01-19T15:07:00.000-08:00

I went down to D.C. this weekend for some pre-inauguration fun. After nearly freezing to death on the mall on Saturday, I avoided Sunday's inaugural concert. Instead, I met a friend at a gallery on M street for an Obama-themed show. I commented to my friend that it was almost Mao-ish in its intense depiction of Obama as an icon of culture, politics, and history. Of course, it is totally different. Mao commissioned posters/WPA-type projects himself for the purpose of maintaining his cult of personality whereas these artists came together as a collective to share their interpretations of an historical moment. Also, you know, Mao sucked and Obama rocks. I suppose my real concern is what Obama, the man, not the symbol, would have to say upon walking into a room filled with these intense, beautiful depictions of both his physicality and his legacy. Scratch that. My real concern was how I could get $70,000 to pay for the Sam Flores painting near the bottom.

people got a lot of nerve

2009-01-13T17:21:00.000-08:00

New Neko Case track up on her MySpace. I'm digging it, but I kind of dig everything she does. First impression is that it's one of her more mainstream sounding cuts. It's like if Mary Chapin Carpenter sang about elephants. Or Hall and Oates was a red headed woman perched on a 1968 Mercury Cougar.

fever ray

2009-01-12T18:49:00.001-08:00

Wow. This is pretty.

louis louis

2009-01-11T11:57:00.000-08:00

One student's line from an essay about Louis Braille:

"A young man with a heart of gold, and nerves of steel. [Lous Braille] revolutionized the way blind people read all over the world. He got through the obstacles in his life, without even being able to see them."

Seriously, this kid is the man.

belated thanks

2009-01-11T10:37:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention that the Donor's Choose grant I posted on this blog awhile ago got funded! The books I requested should be delivered to my room in a few weeks. Many thanks to all who contributed funds or even just took the time to read my proposal. It meant a lot to me.