Stop Okay Go

Sleeping Policeman Ahead

 

I've been attempting to read this interview with Swedish singer/songer Peter Von Poehl and have to say much is lost is literally lost in Google's French to English translation. Then again, maybe I'm just now learning about a "full dodger." Sounds fun!

I posted a song by Von Poehl last year, the slow moving mood piece Going To Where The Tea Trees Are. Listening to it again today was struck by what a unique sound he has. In the interview above Von Poehl talks about how he isn't much of a consumer of new music and prefers oldies on vinyl which may explain his 70s sound. He also recommends Emil Friis, a country-folk singer from Denmark(!)..not bad:

Peter Von Poehl: Wombara.mp3

Frozen Digits

 

Here's some video of Max Tundra doing a super boiled down version of the song 'Lysine' along with a meatier take on the song for WMFU from earlier this year. I love this kind of stuff. Although, if anyone happened to record this, I think the guy driving behind him who honked the horn at the :38 second mark deserves some writing/studio credit:

 

Tundra also recently put his own musical curlicues on a remix of Noah and the Whale's Love of An Orchestra; find it here.

 

Italics

I agree with this reviewer that I really only know Oh Mandy by the Spinto Band, though would argue that possibly it's their gratingness/shrillness that makes them memorable. Is that a bad thing, necessarily? Not everyone is going to sound smooth like the triple blade smoothness of Najee. People should not even try.

The Spints recently opened for Art Brut and the lovably loco Eddie Argos. Surfer Blood was also there and the song below is marvelous. Ooh, if you're in LA and sufficiently recovered from your Turdurken Coma, they'll be at the Echo with Japandroids this Friday.

surfer blood floating vibes

Aggro Meter

From the inbox:

Here's a great photo from DJ Champion's site.

The Canadian DJ, real name Maxime Morin, came out with his second album Resistance in September and is another example of someone getting their music out via video games.  His song No Heaven was used in the end credits of the game Army of Two:

 

Wow, 2005 (personally one of my favorite years for music) seems like such a long time ago, now. Lamps Plus had the best parties :

Sweet Flattery

Bey Bey bravely covered the Anita Baker classic Sweet Love in concert the other night. And not to join the chorus of negative commenters on that site, but she's no Najee:

Quickies

++Gordon Gano, former lead singer of the Violent Femmes has a new project called Gordon Gano and The Ryans that's being promoted by Boing Boing. Video up top.

 

 

++ Another frontman, Sam Coombes (of the band Quasi), slams down his 2c on the meaning of 'Indie Music.'

He's currently working under the name Blue Goblins, but says that fans needn't worry, Quasi are about to record their next full length and that he will tour as Blue Goblins on the side whenever he gets the chance.

 

++Y'all Know My Name?: Here's a cute post on Nah Right about Charles Hamilton, whose song Brooklyn Girls I loved and posted not so long ago. He's now "back" after being dropped by Interscope. Some commenters didn't know who he was, let alone that he was gone.

++ So now Matthew Friedberger is offending Northeastern music managers. Can't wait to hear their version of Harry Partch, and also, who he feuds with next.

Luyatian

Ohhh man, LOVE. Montreal's The Luyas will be performing at Queen Elizabeth Theater in Toronto on December 12th and have a new album in the works.

I've already played this 4x in a row, and may or may not have cooked up a few new Martha Graham dance moves to go along with it:

No Shorts

A fairly recent interview via 2DopeBoyz, with an older, less blinged Diamond D, who says that he still likes to get his hands dirty diggin' in the crates, IRL. No word on what's happening with his followup to the Hugh Hefner Chronicles. He's been busy producing  Atlanta's The FiVe.(Whose song May-Ham featuring Fort Knox almost sounds like heavy metal.)

 

 

What's Wrong With Him!

++Was reading this article over the weekend about Napster partnering with Best Buy in their continually thwarted, Pinky and the Brain-ian attempts to conquer the industry. Poor Napster, the company that once ruled the world and lost it. (The first few paragraphs of the article, which is generally about gaming, television and Internet all being connected, remind me of my favorite commercial dude. Well, second favorite commercial dude: "Nowhere!")

++Spinner is featuring a new video for Crazy Crazy Insane by the duo ApSci, who was profiled on these cyberpages many months ago. Some trivia: Australian lead singer Dana Diaz-Tutaan was handpicked by David Byrne to play Imelda Marcos in the musical, Here Lies Love, he did a while back. As I've noted before, if there's one thing you can count on it's David Byrne staying busy, it's as predictable as Charlie Sheen playing characters named Charlie.

It Ain't Sudoku

++Travis Barker's at it again.

++Amy Winehouse gets taken down. By cold medicine?

++Via Prefix Mag, Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell joined Eddie Vedder and crew for a duet of sorts at Austin City Limits to perform Mountain Song. Much like The Police's Stuart Copeland, guy's still pretty wired... and wiry.

Wish You Were Here

From the inbox: Apparently everyone on the Internet knows and has formed opinions about Hed Kandi of both "The Mix" and the "Serve Chilled" variety.

 Hed Kandi is a record label. Well, it started out as a label, then at some point it started to take on human characteristics apparently, and opened a bar on the Egyptian coast of Hurghada City. Sounds like a James Cameron plot in the making.

Eat More Cake's song Red Sky was featured on the last Hed Kandi compilation. From what I can gather, the song came out at the end of last year and the new Eat More Cake album has several remixes of this song by Lazybone, No Logo, Diogenes Club and Nikola Gala. The girl's almost computerized sounding voice, Alexis Griffith is her name, floats just above the ether and yet the song stays crispy and grounded enough to not float away altogether like a lot of House music. Eat More Cake's album Climb The Ladder, Live The Dream comes out next year.:

 

Hobo Chic

Gypsy and the Cat, pictured above, sound a great deal like their Auzzie brothers Empire of the Sun, but they have just a bit more depth...like their synth has been aged in a dark cellar longer or something. This might be from having been influenced by ELO and Bill Conti.

Hmm, the song below, Jona Vark seems to have been out since July but the Neon Gold blog says that the duo have yet to come out with an official release.

 

Professional Requirements

You have to some kind of presence to pull off the kind of video above where the camera is fixed on you and nothing else, and your only real job is to rotate and emote. I wonder if this requires some kind of degree, with like, a specialty in feather headresses.

Icelandic Julia Ormond lookalike Emiliana Torrini's latest song Me and Armini off her third album of the same name is less Boots Are Made for Walking than Jungle Drum with 40% fewer "Rockakatongkatongkarockatongtongs."

 

10 Yes

Linkin Park-er Mike Shinoda had some worries about attending last month's 140 (Twitter) Conference. This page explains (in more than 140 characters, I might note!) how the get-togethers explore the effects of real time Internet on business. The next LA meetup deets can be found HERE.
By the way, has anyone heard from Mike Shinoda since then? DUN DUN DUN!

A Friend On the Highway

It comes as no surprise that my mang Paul Carrack would like the work of Canadian singer Brendan Croskerry.   This song starts off like a typical Easy FM kind of track but listen closely and the lyrics get subtly Carrack-ian clever/thoughtful (at about 40 seconds in) and hold up, wha? political??

Enough with the beer,
I put on a kettle,
Enough with the war,
CNN is the devil,
Finding it hard
that the world's still dropping bombs
I wanna know what George W's trippin' on.

See, the "she " in the "She's Alright" refrain is actually the world. TRICKY!

Brendan Croskerry has toured Germany with Paul Carrack and his album Goodbye Harrier can be purchased here.

Shockin Y'All

Let's just go ahead and make it girl week: South Korea's Brown Eyed girls re-released their single Sign on October 29th. Miryo, the rapper (who kind of sounds like Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes used to), has broken off temporarily, to join her fellow labelmates Flying Girls. (Ha ha once again, no idea.)

Kidding aside, the song above is actually pretty good if you're in a pop mood..it's always interesting to listen to how other countries filter and interpret pop sounds and ultimately make them their own.

Angsty Robot Demeanor

One of my new favorites, Gentleman Reg does the old countdown thang for Spinner, including Cyndi Lauper's cover of Prince's When U Were Mine, above. It's admittedly got Cyndi's spin on it, but the guy harmonizing in the back sounds like Brad Garrett. The line I've always found funny about this song is "didn't have the decency to change the sheets" which sets off visions of Prince with a purple feather-duster and apron acting like Martha Stewart.

Plastic Police Car

Here's a lil playlist from the inbox. These airy and flirty songs all came together in a bunch and for some reason they sound like they could be part of a soundtrack from a foreign film: 

++Two offerings from the Buffetlibre boys, the first is off of Dragonette's new album Fixin' To Thrill and the second is by Denmark's beautifully produced Cartridge, who recently made their debut on BBC-TV.

 

 

++Total Babe's song Bearbones would totally be in the part of the film where the girl is going on a shopping spree and trying on wacky outfits in variations of pink, quickly spliced together. The quartet will be releasing their Heatwave EP on December 4th at 7th Street in their hometown of Minneapolis:

Invisible Ties

I Did Not Know That: One time silvery Jew and bargain bookbuyer caught on film David Berman is the son of Washington lobbyist Richard Berman who just happens to be caught in Rachel Maddow's crosshairs these days. Apart from his work as a musician Berman the son is also a part-time poet who recently wrote this poem My Father, My Attack Dog to his Dad. Dude, family relationships can be complicated, especially in the media, just ask the Lohans or Soulja Boy and his sis.

See You Later

"Or should I be a lady, oh maybe, cuz I wanna have his babies."

++This Melanie Fiona video puts a new spin on the ol' woman done wrong lament. Drama! I wanna feel bad for this girl but seriously how bad can her personal predicament be when the hair is flawless? At least be sportin' some split ends, stray roots, a mustache, or something. Fiona's album, in which she samples The Zombies and Martha and the Vandellas, is getting much buzz.

++Entertainment Weekly suggests sneaking beverages (and if the commenters are to be believed, some Gas-X) into the Kenny Chesney 3D cinematic concert experience.

++Mr. Gnome video: Holy scary and trippy rabbits. Jeez people, just give them your Trix already.

The duo will be performing at the Silverlake Lounge on the 24th of this month. This song, from the new album Heave Yer Skeleton starts off delicately and intellectually, rocks hard in the middle and then calms down again. It was recorded at Josh Homme's Pink Duck Studios, so I imagine that they had to shred whenever he opened the door and checked in on them.