Stop Okay Go

Maybe California

-The brilliant Tori Amos has an early Mother's Day Message for her fans out there and a link to a song  from her new album Abnormally Addicted To Sin (comes out May 19) called Maybe California that she's giving away for free as a Mother's Day Gift. Have a listen!

-I was listening to some old songs by The Rapture today and got to thinking...Hey, how have they been? A simple Google blogsearch answered that question a little too specifically, judging by the name of this tracklist by Rapture bass player Mattie Safer.

-Also, when will Brooklyn's White Williams come out with something again? They haven't been around "in a minute."

Beautiful Rebel

-Commenters on this video by Tiny Vipers debate the oh so subtle differences between Irish and Seattle(?) brogues. American Jesy Fortino does indeed sound like Dolores O'Riordan (of The Cranberries). Tiny Vipers On This Side mp3

-The Shamwow guy is a rapper.

-Danny 'Momjean' Masterson's newish venture: He's part owner of Confederacy on Hollywood Blvd.Gift cards coming soon.

-LOL.

-Craiglist Magazine. The creme de la creme of Craiglist. See unicycle lawnmower.

-Lo-fi L.A. crooner Jeremy Jay put on a show at The Silent Barn in New York the other night that included a man dressed up in a strange bird costume holding a sign offering people "Free Bouncy Rides." (Yeah, something tells me that he wasn't actually a planned part of the show.)

More than just fuzzy New Wave, Francophile Jay's new album, Slow Dance out on K Records also has some "twangy surf rock."

The funny thing about this Jay song is that right at the start of it, if you turn it up loud and listen real close someone, possibly Jay, can be heard faintly and indistinctly humming along. (Either that or the voices in my head are baaaaaack.) Jeremy Jay In This Lonely Town mp3 Recommended.

Poppin Fresh

All-American beatmasters The Crystal Method have a new album called Divided By Night coming out on May 12th. They even got one of them new fangled countdown clocks on their site that all the kids are doing these days. The new album features collaborations with Emily Haines, Meiko, Peter Hook and Matisyahu. No word on whether Matisyahu will bring his giant disco dreidel with him should he and TCM tour together. That thing is awesome & should get a show of its own. The Crystal Method will play Webster Hall in NYC on the 9th of May. Sadly, no tour love for their home city of L.A.

Scanners

WMFU found that Google Books has scanned issues of the old Billboard Magazine going all the way back to 1942! Click here to see all the bad ads, tons of articles about copyright (Not predicted in any of those many articles? A time when Google would scan all old issues of Billboard...). Wade into the sea of musty yellowing pages and perhaps, perchance, gaze upon snapshots in time, like the one above. Snapshots that show brief, fleeting moments when my Eddie Money shared the rarified air at the top of the charts with the likes of CSNY, U2 and R.E.M. It probably would've been much more expensive for Doug Heffernan to buy a private performance in his living room from Money back then.

Go Hyphee

-Lonely Islander Jorma Taccone's first solo interview in D+ T magazine (pages 82-92).

-Best Buy may start selling vinyl. While at first this might seem to be good news, the increased competition could spell RuPaul Nation ruination for thousands of independent record store owners.

-Kiss is asking fans to vote on a Bay area venue for their next concert. They're also asking for all sorts of information to prevent multiple votes and the concert being held in some Major Lazer's basement, I suppose. If you'd like to vote, enter your email address, gender, (top Puzzlefarter score, name of probation officer, Target gift card balance amount, favorite soap scent, most beloved Joan Cusack role in which she had longer hair) and birth year, here. 

 

-Producer Derek Vincent Smith and drummer Cory Eberhard who, together,are known as Pretty Lights have an album called Filling Up the City Skies coming out in May that they'll be giving away for free at their website. There are 26 songs available, altogether. The Time Has Come is out just in time for summer and sounds like it was made for cookouts, open fireplugs and rollerskating. Tourdates after the jump: Pretty Lights Time has Come mp3

Lean On Me

In what of course turned out to be a sloppy slobberfest, Sartorialist Supreme Prince was on the adorable Tavis "How do you navigate" Smiley's show on PBS last night. Prince talked about his new protege Bria Valente. Prince must be the only guy who has a separate entry on Wikipedia dedicated to all his "proteges."

I wonder if the proteges ever galvanize to battle Gaddafi's women army.

Valente's album Elixir will be one of three albums that Prince releases this year. The other two are Lotusflower, which is dedicated to the Purple One noodling around on his guitar and MPLSOUND which will be more hip-hop flavored and feature Q-Tip.

Prince also talks about how he was born an epileptic. The two-part interview with Tavis continues tonight. Expect much more leaning forward, which Tavis only does when he is 'into' a guest.

Quickies

-There's a new member of the extensive DeBarge clan, (the pretty Kristina DeBarge, James DeBarge's daughter) on the scene. The scene being KIIS FM. She gave out her phone number for anyone to call her. What's with everyone doing that lately? Eh, ain't no one picks up their phones no more, any old how.

-"Oh wait, you said Creed, didn't you?"

-Here are two more cover songs. Covers are a great way to become familiar with new acts.  In the April issue of Groupie Mag, Glen Goetze profiles Banjo or Freakout : an "Italian gent living in London that makes the kind of dreamy, wispy sample based pop that makes perfect sense in a post Go Team/Animal Collective/The Tough Alliance world." 

Imogen This

Imogen Heap will be releasing her third solo album titled Ellipse in August. Fans can catch some of the songs that will be on the album in various states of completion on her You Tube page.

Ms. Heap..:

.."decided on (recording in Hawaii) using a fittingly modern method of spinning Google Earth around a few times and zooming in on where it stopped. A Google search for “Hawaii luxury accommodation grand piano” led her to “a place on the rainy side of Maui” where she, piano and laptop came up with the songs that make up Ellipse."

Martini and Lipstick

Via Sneakmove, a video for the song Happiness Will Be My Revenge by The Sweptaways and Jens Lekman: I definitely agree with You Tube commenter 'Bernoulli85' who says "Dammit Jens, get on my iPod. I'm not asking you."  Nothing dark here, this is pure unadulterated glee (club). Eat your heart out Sound of Music Sing-a-long.:

The Sweptaways (so many of them!) are a little choral, a little streetcorner A capella doo-wop. Their album The Sweptaways Show in which they cover the sublime Tracey Ullman song They Don't Know About Us and Robyn's I've Got Your Man, came out on April 15th. Here they tackle the one and only Kate Bush: Sweptaways Wuthering Heightsmp3 and Kate Bush Wuthering Heights mp3

None of the Above

- It's quite a shame that the clean and easy-to-navigate World Party website, designed by Slender Fungus, hasn't been updated in the past year. The last new news about World Party, (which isn't really a band as much it is just Karl Wallinger and a revolving cast of characters..much like Destroyer) is that he/they toured Australia with Steely Dan in 2007 and are working on album that has been delayed indefinitely.  Wallinger has been also been collaborating with French ethnic electronisists Deep Forest (no relation to the Crayola color Jungle Green), among others. No word on what's happening with the band I sometimes confuse with World Party, The New Radicals, either. World Party Ship of Foolsmp3

 

-Things To Do?: Am not such a big fan of Steve Martin the banjo player but I do heart Steve Martin the Comedian. And I'm a HUGE fan of the lowbrow, (and I believe that this is the politically correct term for his ethnicity..) Cornball-American Dave Barry. Decisions, decisions.

-Weird Guitars.

-The smoldering Josh Reichmann and the Oracle Band have done a cover of Deerhunter's Agoraphobia. The digital EP of his muy funky and acclaimed song Shivering Black came out this week, and can be bought here. 

 

Josh Reichmann: Agoraphobia.mp3

-Found in association with the World Party blurb above: Newbury Comics has all *koinds* of limited edition autographed CD booklets for that obsessive Vanessa Carlton fan in your life.

-Crocodiles are getting much buzz. A lot of bands use 'distortion' to give their music a contrived edge or maybe disguise a lack of musical readiness. Crocodiles are not guilty of any of the above.:

Party Star

I kind of engaged my inner geek watching the first half of this video in which Dan Deacon's engineer talks about how they rigged up a player piano to meet Deacon's needs. Amazing. Warning: The video runs about 6 minutes long...worth it for anyone who has ever studied the inside of a piano for hours or is interested in the recording process. The upside is that it is an exquisitely filmed 6 minutes.

Unlike the completely electronic "Spiderman Of The Rings", the instrumentation on "Bromst" is a mixture of acoustic and mechanical instruments, samples, and electronics. The intricate and complex parts are woven together into a rich, dense, noisy dance pop that has become Deacon's signature sound.

This is some higher level, game-changing stuff for Deacon whose genius perhaps hasn't been fully realized because of his popular, crowd pleasing appeal.  Although it takes several somewhat annoying seconds to get going this song Build Voice will light your tent once it hits full speed. : Dan Deacon: Build Voice mp3 recommended.

Y'all Know My Name

-Pamela Anderson, Audrina Patridge from The Hills and DJ Samantha Ronson are opening up a strip club/steak house in New York City called Sapphire New York.

-So, Wale must be seriously blowing up to have beef with someone. If I was Charles Hamilton(funny comments on that page, scroll down) I'd work the phrase Fail Wale into some rap lyrics. The Bud Dwyer song is pretty cooled out and chill, up until it gets a little Jonestown PA loudspeaker at the end. Here's an older Charles Hamilton song from last year: Charles Hamilton Brooklyn Girlsmp3

....Love the pale faded out Clockers look of this video. Haven't watched the whole thing yet, so it might be NSFW:

Quickies

-I get the feeling that most conversations with Gavin Degraw inevitably lead back to the topic of his pocketknife.

-If anyone knows when or if The Fruit Bats are headed to L.A., please email me. I would love to see them live. They were most recently in Chicago and Iowa City playing to sold out crowds.

-There's a band out there called Mexican Institute of Sound. They are nowhere near as serious as their name would imply, nor do they have anything to do with the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising.

M.I.S. played SXSW and have been getting a lot of buzz and rotation on KCRW (FYI K.IT. S.C.U.B.A. and other initials.)

Mexican Institute of Sound: Escribeme Pronto.m3p

- The Perms hail from Winnipeg, Canada and make delightfully boozy jukebox music that fans of Fountains of Wayne or the Hold Steady might raise a frosty one to just before punching someone square in the jaw. Perms Running Away.mp3:

-Georgia bred post punk soul group Tendaberry's debut LP Am I Still Illmatic will drop in May. Flagpole describes them as "Rick James sitting in with Gang of Four." There are shades of early Elvis Costello in their sound:
Tendaberry:Righteous Warningmp3

Sneerage

Yet another cover: Winter Gloves, (they of flip book fame) have done a techno-colored cover of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit that Kurt would not sneer at. Courtney maybe, but she sneers at everything.  Attention East Coast, West Coast and Canada: Tour dates after...l'jump. Winter Gloves: Teen Spirit Cover.m3p

Tongue & Cheek

 
I do love an unusual cover. Rosie and Me, from Curitiba Brazil have taken on old Irving Berlin classic, You're Laughing At Me. Above, video of the song in its original form being sung in the movie On the Avenue by 30s beefcake heartthrob Dick Powell. Rosie and Me's version is much lighter and eventually dissipates into the atmosphere, quite pretty: Rosie and Me: You're Laughing At Me  (Irving Berlin cover) mp3

Reportage Regardless

-A lengthy bizarro video by Mr. Oizo featuring a lady who looks like Connie Stevens playing Mr. Oizo describing the creative process. Yogurt is involved. I wish it didn't perv out at the end, though, the air of John Waters creepiness was sufficiently implied throughout the whole thing. (Via Current, who have footage of the actual Mr. Oizo in action.)

-House of Miras: Ashley Tisdale is watching you watch her videos. A new video premieres on the 21st.

-Those are my girls! Reports on the colorfully moody & electrifying performances by Lykke Li, Vivian Girls and Alice Glass at Coachella. (Update: Wow, Crystal Castles are like Asher Roth. Firestarters!)

-Best John Mayer fan ever. (via Big Crush)

-There doesn't seem to be much news about Spacehog since last year's rumors of a possible reunion. Nope, they're not doing much other than being used as a euphemism by urban dwellers.

Let's Get Ravey

-London based electropop duo La Roux's debut album comes out on June 29th. The You Tube commenters are right:  lead singer Elly Jackson has a *very* high pitched voice that sounds as if she went on a 3 day helium bender. I like it. Find La Roux's sleek and cursedly non-embeddable video in question here and their website/paean to neon here. This one has the makings to be remixed every way til Sunday:
La Roux: In for the Killmp3

-It seems that Brendan Benson will be taking his career down the country road if this duet with Ashley Monroe is any indication. Which is, y'know, all fine and well and good. I just prefer the stuff he does that sound like drinking songs arranged by either Joe Jackson or the Counting Crows.

Brendan Benson: Metarie.mp3

We Coulda Been Together

-Aw, look at that album cover. Memories. I've posted, several times before, about my affection for the underappreciated 90s band Lush. The good guys at Timedoor are on a Lush tear, as of late. I'm totally stealing from them but we're old cyber-friends, so they'll understand. Here's classic Lush doing Magnetic Fields: Lush: I Have the Moon Magnetic Fields cover.mp3

-As a self professed Eminem fan, I find it entertaining how ONTDers use the word 'Stan' as shorthand for stalker or hardcore fan. For example, (not to get all Urban Dictionary here) when there's a post slamming, say, Morrisey, there will often be comment that says : "Where are all the Stans to defend him?" So funny.

-Mimes for God. (via)

Yodels

Whenever I hear the T.I. Song Live Your Life I always think of the Cliff Hangers game on TPIR.

Just Jack has messed around and done an acoustic version of the song that can be found here.

TI and Rihanna Live Your Life mp3

Luntz-o-meter

Sometimes, when you hear a cover of a song you've never heard, you're not sure if your own positive response is to elements of the original work or what has been done to it. Like meeting someone who has had a lot of plastic surgery for the very first time. (Kathy Griffin, for example.)

Both the original and the cover of this Zombies song have their merits. Do download'em!

TTA's website defines minimalism, and isn't one bit hooligan-istic, at all.

Tough Alliance: Hung Up On A Dream.mp3 Recommended.