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Just in case anyone doesn't pick up on the fact that Darius Rucker is thinking about "it" (the mind reels with possibilities) here he strikes a thinking man's pose on this cover, with its strangely familiar layout:
The former Blowfish is now a "chart topping country superstar." And...I don't hate it! His warm voice lends itself nicely to this kind of music.:
Jack Peñate is certainly switching musical horses midstream to go from sounding like this back in 2007:
...To what Pinglewood describes as "a fine fusion of classic house and highlife" in this new Latin flavored track (that came out either today or comes out tomorrow depending on where you are located):
It's that time of year, again. No, not the start of spring. The time of year when Paul Ford releases his 6 word reviews of 1,302 SXSW mp3s.
Fave band names: Nid and Sancy -and- Thao with the Get Down Stay Down.
Below is a sampling of some randomly selected '5 dot garnerers' and a few of their respective reviews.
"Sweetie pie vox. Sideways head-bop"
"Almost as good as its title."
"Emperor o/t Sun meets Morris Day." (Technically 7 words. Cheater!)
Cute: Longtime L.A. darlings and rotary phone enthusiasts Mika Miko have an album coming out on May 5th dedicated to XUXA*. So great.
*Alleged Satanist?(see first comment)
Talk about dedication: "We just finished shooting a video for "Wet Gold" with our pals, the Zellner Bros., who previously made a video for our song, "Truck." We shot the video in hurricane ravaged Galveston, so it looks pretty intense. We had to shoot things twice because our first raft sunk, and we cut our hands up on the barnacles."
The Octopus Project's newest song is repetitive 60s gold. is repetitive 60s gold. is repetitive 60s gold:
-Well in one of those weird coincidences, out of all the songs posted here over the past few weeks, the ones I've most enjoyed were Girls by Se7en and the song Lust for Life by the band Girls. Girls girls girls!
Here's a fanmade vid for the song in question by Girls and below that, a different Girls track via Culture Bully. Thanks to them.
-Toronto based band Great Bloomers have a debut album coming out April 21st called Speak of Trouble. They present a surprisingly tight, unified front for a relatively younger band.* The production is so clear; no feedback, reverb, autotune, or baby giggles here. It really hits its stride at around the 1:35 mark.
-And finally, Subterranean played this facemelting video for Chairlift's Evident Utensil, another song that's easy on the ears. Oh looksky here Chairlift sometimes share root beer floats with MGMT and Yeasayer.
*You never see a group of guitarists who are playing really tightly together choreograph sychronized dance moves the way horn sections do. Other than ZZ top, but that was years ago, and not really done by anyone en masse.
I heart Billy Bob Thornton:
-"We caught [the] Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters set last night at Smokin' Music, a venue appropriately sponsored by American Spirit cigarettes... It's like rockabilly through a British Invasion filter. He must have smoked about five cigs within the first four songs."
Here's a podcast from billybobthornton.net in which Billy hilariously shares the stories behind his songs, which are mostly about sad & toxic dead people coming back to haunt the living. It's like that show High School Reunion only with more cigarettes and fewer prostitutes.:
Anyone looking for the humorous line between noise and sublime art should head straight down to a Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell on Jamaica Avenue, which if I remember correctly is in Queens. Das Racist aka Victor Vasquez and Humanshu Kumar would be there, with the munchies, maybe singing this: (Hilarious.)
Das Racist will be at Grasslands in Brooklyn on April 14th at 8 p.m.
I really like the smooth almost synthetic voice of Korean pop star Se7en, whose song Girls I posted the other day. It's soo slick it could be in a cologne commercial but I ain't hatin'.
Here's a short teaser of the Azn man in action, with the omnipresent Lil Kim:
Se7en's real name is Choi Dong Wook. He's quite the accomplished hyphenate all throughout Asia, starring in commercials & acting in the drama Goong S (a spin-off of Goong, duh). A winner of multiple awards Se7en is known for his signature handstand dance move. Not to boil the guy's whole life down to a Wildlife Treasury card or anything..
-Fashion seems to come so easy to Russell Simmons. Oh the pampered life of the mogul, nice clothes, being feted, free piggyback rides. Who wouldn't want it?
-Don't know what it is, but I'm totally in love with this cheesy song by Canadian Sam Roberts. It's not a new song (from October of last year). And it's not even as song as much as it is a chant. I just like the American-ness of the video, and use of vintage footage. Plus the concept of the song is so Sinatra, in the way that it's dedicated to a city (Detroit). I mean, who does that anymore? It's a good way to get airplay, but I mean really, no one does that anymore. So that's kinda cool and retro.
-Charlotte Hatherley will be touring with Bat For Lashes, delaying her own album for a wee bit.
-Dave Cross, Dave Grohl, Jon Brion and Greg Proops shared the stage at Largo. And Eddie Money songs were played! Waaaaah. I missed it.
-Those lifechangers The Shins are going on tour and have plans to release an album not on Sub Pop but on James Mercer's Aural Apothecary label. The word apothecary always makes me think of cabinets you buy at Crate and Barrel. Which is probably not the hard rock association Mercer was trying to conjure up. Aaaanyway...
-Here's a video by the band The Rakes traipsing through Potsdamer Platz and the Spreepark leisurepark in Treptow. Try saying that 5 times fast! The Rakes' third album KLANG came out today and they will be playing L.A.'s Troubadour on April Fools Day.
I think the Wikipedia entry on Tom Morello is messed up right now, but I'm not sure. If anyone cares to e-mail me, I'll fix it my own galldurn self if I have to. Morello's birth name is listed in the body as Thomas Baptiste Morello, but the name listed above his picture is German Fratovich, which seems like a bit of a stretch. Who knows, it might be correct.
Anyway, I was reading an article about Morello in today's L.A.Times. Several months back, Morello came out with a project under the moniker The Nightwatchman and now I read that his new project is called Street Sweeper.
I find it amusing that Morello is a musical and technological innovator, coming up with techniques such as refining the "digitech whammy" that have influenced many guitarists after him but is blissfully ignorant about file-sharing and Twittering.
(Update: I was right! I went back to Tom Morello's Wiki page just now and "German Fratovich" has been removed and rightfully replaced with "Tom Morello"! Hey Now!)
-It's a regular lovefest between Marah's Dave Bielanko and his admirers over at the Marah Blog. Their show in New York has been moved from May 2nd to April 24th and now includes ventriloquist Carla Rhodes.
-Video proof of the existence of the band Tinted Windows. Would it kill Iha to crack a smile every once in a while?
-I love the first line of this post: "Bob Dylan has a new album coming out next month, and you should be terrified." Oh pish. People get so creeped out about anything that happened around 9/11. Call me when Dylan predicts that the streets will start to run white (from White Russians).
-I suspect that all of these spastic bombastic comments might be written by Kevin "KevDev" Devine himself. His songs are great and all but the praise for the hoodie is a little much.
-"Tweemo": The Pains of Being Pure at Heart shyly and knockneededly explain how they got their name. These Amplified Interviews that Dan Harris is doing for ABC are somewhat bizarre. Harris doesn't appear to know all that much about indie music but his taste in choosing subjects has thus far been impeccable.
-Aw, too bad this isn't an actual throwback to the late 70s album cover. That would've been all cool and J.Geils-like. No, it's just a picture for a single. A single that can be found here.
-This Twitter entry cracked me up :
"Take off your sunglasses inside. You are not Roy Orbison. Although you make me equally depressed."
People's opinions differ on the great Roy Orbison.
-Ha ha. I like how Daze of Thunder slowed up ('recessionized', if you will) the popular, normally cocky,
Here's some Crystal Castles fan art (click on plusesses for source/purchase info):(+)
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I'm only a recreational fan of Crystal Castles' music but I am intrigued by the Devo-tion of their fanbase and zomg!1! I just love Alice Glass' genuine article punk face. This might be the third time I've posted on them and possibly this same song. They're so effortlessly stylish in this video. Anyway, there's apparently some lawsuit pending between CC and Fiddy over the use of a sample that was on Ayo Technology (see comments). Who does Fiddy NOT have beef with??
Congrats to Sophie Ellis Bextor who had a baby last month she named Kit Valentine (Valentine is also the name of Mary Lynn Rajskub's boy, bee tee dubs. Popular name.) Bex was back in the studio only 9 days after the birth. I was going to write that I wonder if Bex sang Catch You to the baby as it was being born but alas, it was a Caesarean birth.
Just read a fine interview by The Bay Bridged w/French Kicks' lead singer Nicholas Strumpf. He talks about the band not really having been affected by the economy and their approach to creating albums, which is to not have a plan and be surprised by whatever results come about. French Kicks have released an EP available now on iTunes for only $4.00 called Covers featuring songs previously done by the likes of The Shirelles, Lindsey Buckingham and the Ramones.
Jam impresarsios Medeski Martin and Wood are back with the second installment in the Radiolarian series due April 14. The name comes from a single-celled microorganism with an elaborate exoskeleton.
Lots'o'pots'o'gold in the inbox this week:
The Go Green Remix of Canadianese band Women's song Black Rice is definitely this week's download of the week.
First, here's last year's original..smashing:
Great, right? But now have a listen to the song with a whole bunch of fits,stops and starts..and possibly recorded underwater:
Dance Party, U.S.A.
Green Go, from Guelph have an album of remixes out now, including this one by the D'Urbervilles:
