Stop Okay Go

All That's Left of Feminism Is the Dutch Treat

There's something kind of romantic and truly rebellious about a band that's gone defunct, like The Divorce or Ipso Facto. They've gotten over you Internet. There's no pushing them around anymore. No inferior albums to compare to their prior stellar work. Nothing for the armchair critics to project their own unhappiness, dangling participles and ill-formed metaphors on to.

It's even more of an FU when they break up before releasing their debut album.

By all accounts they've broken up and yet here they are this month performing the Leslie Gore remake of You Don't Own Me for Ray Ban, which they say is about "Independent women not having to be with one boy. You can have many boys." They're gorgeous: Plus a straight-up version of the song: Leslie Gore; so assertive for that era. What a badass:

Ipso Facto's members have melted into other forms such as Ketu, Florence and the Machine and Romance. Here's a song that keyboardist Cherish Kaya has done with one of The Horrors, as part of a new project called Lumina. It's a gothy cover of The Black Lips' song I'll Be With You, as well as the original:

Horsefeathers

A few rambling thoughts on this exquisite video by the Danish duo Quadron after the jump......

Leave Room For Greed

++Let Me Be Your Carole King: I listened to the first few seconds of this Anna Vogelzang song, Imaginary Babies, and thought, ugh, girl themes. And then she mutters the line "I've been thinking some asshole made up forever just for fun..." and won me over. Above the sassy Midwesterner performs Hexagon and Pittsburgh.

++I hope Wentzy at least has the decency to change outfits before meeting up with all those Unicef kids.

 

++And You Could Be One Of Them: Hulu's first original program If I Can Dream, viewable only on Hulu premieres on 3/2/10. The show takes place in a house said to contain 60 cameras throughout, including in the curtains, through which inhabitants can be viewed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Viewers can view them from any angle. Funny, I never saw Mariah's house on sale in the past few months.

++Oh babygurl, no. What kind of monkeyshines have you gotten yourself into now, Coco?

++I get a kick out of how radio stations can't play any Lil Wayne or Rihanna because their newest stuff is way too profane for the airwaves. So what you get to listen to is a whole bunch of songs where they cameo or songs from 2006. Please don't stop the music!

White House

Via Heartbeat City, Jack White's wife Karen Elson singing The Ghost Who Walks. Pretty!
(This video is also a must-see if you haven't seen it; song is just kind of meh for me, but love the portrayal of a totally healthy functional relationship. So cool the way some light shines out of White's bullet holes at the end.)

People Like That Are the Only People Here

The inbox is not taking no for an answer today! Nope, nuh-uh, nyet.

++Might have made this reference once before but lately I've noticed a trend on the internet of labeling girls with a certain look to be "Vargas Girls", shorthand for unorthodox or old-fashioned looking. April Smith is what I'd imagine a Vargas girl to sound like. Not only does April Smith seem to come from a different time but wow can she hit a high note. It's rare that you hear a female hold a note prettily anymore, like a confident songbird. She'll be touring with her band the Great Picture show all up and down the Eastern seaboard; dates after the cut.

April Smith Great Picture Show Moxie Loves A Screen mp3 was here.

++This song, by Flugente (aka The Blam's former frontman Jerry Adler) will inevitably draw comparisons to Simon and Garfunkel's Homeward Bound, but seriously, who genuinely earns that comparison? His sophomore album Flugente 2, out now, is modeled on American classics and includes a cover of the The Kinks' Apeman. Gorgeous:

Flugente: It's Not the Summer That is Ending mp3 was here.

Jack Antonoff, lead singer of Steel Train says: "This new album is a return to where we come from. We grew up playing legion halls and firehouses and the sound systems were always so bad we had
to go ape shit to put on a real show, and somehow that inspired the music
and lyrics to reflect all that madness." Sure, there's a lot of crazy Honus Honus hocus pocus happening here, but if you listen a couple of times you hear the master plan underneath it all (with a few foundation issues) along with some sneaky Heartbreaker-ish licks.

Steel Train Turnpike Ghost mp3 was here

April Smith Tourdates:

3/10: Mercury Lounge---New York, NY
3/13: Rock N Roll Hotel---Washington D.C. *
3/15: The Earl---Atlanta, GA *
3/19: Ale House (SXSW)---Austin, TX
3/22: Off Broadway Nightclub---St. Louis, MO
3/23: Schuba's---Chicago, IL
3/24: Beachland Ballroom---Cleveland, OH
3/25: Club Cafe---Pittsburgh, PA
4/11: WVU Creative Arts Center (NPR Mountain Stage)---Morgantown, WV

# w/ Fanfarlo
* w/ Here We Go Magic

Under the Stares

I wouldn't go so far as to classify myself as an Enya fan but there are times when Enya comes on the radio and I don't turn it off. Julianna Barwick will probably fall into that same category one day. Though I do get the feeling that she'll get remixed more than Enya. Barwick is obviously more in love with sounds than in traditional song structure.

Barwick has a shy sense of humor about her affinities; there's an interview where she says she "doesn't think" that there are any guitars on her new album. Here she talks about nosy landlords and noticing that the cat picks up on some of her higher pitched notes:

How cool that you can make music from the comfort of your own bed these days.  Looking forward to hearing what her experiments sound like with words.

Julianna Barwick Cloudbank mp3 was here.

Boys Can Tell

A *very* long review of the incredible It Might Get Loud that would definitely be better read after having seen the movie... after the jump:

Freelancing No More

Even more from the inbox: Palindrome enthusiasts and former subway buskers Freelance Whales will be performing at the Echo on 3/24. Their LP Weathervanes comes out March 16th on French Kiss/Mom & Pop Records. Take my advice* and listen to this:

Freelance Whales Generator mp3 was here.

Inscrutable

++From the inbox: A week or so back I wrote about floating electro prodigy, Troupe Gammage, from the band Speak. Just got a video by Speak today that has also been featured on Blender. Between him and the young kid who invented Chatroulette, this has been the best month ever for young computer wizzes. (Iz.)
The song Carrie is so light that it right near scurries away but has just enough weight to keep any fans of Phoenix listening:

SPEAK: Carrie(Mindfull).mp3 was here. And excellent.

Your local natives Speak will be coming atcha all next month, Texas.

++Was listening to Truck Sweat by Tobacco this morning and got to wondering what he was up to lately. Answer: From Pitchfork this past December, pure Loco-ness:

Anti Pop Consortium Get Lite mp3 was here.

Quickies

++What To Wear: Badu pairs purple tee with silver sequined pants and sweatshirt tied preppily around her waist for surfing the crowd while covering Snoop Dogg. Can't see her footwear. I believe boat shoes are de rigueur.

++I kept misreading this headline as "Kevin Costner Defends Album" on Yahoo today. Eh, probably an also-accurate headline.

++Strange Bedfellows: Potentially "angry Buddhist demon" Iggy Pop and peaceful Tibetan supporters.

++Scandinavian Dance Party at SXSW w/the Wong Boys.

++A new project by Bright Eyes and Neva Dinova project (One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels) is due soon.  Here's a preview and a song by Neva Dinova recommended for anyone who likes the rambunctious yet heartfelt sound of Centromatic.

Bright Eyes / Neva Dinova "One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels" teaser from Saddle Creek on Vimeo.

Neva Dinova At Least The Pain Is Real Mp3 was here.

(Sounds just like hanging out with the dudes, kicking back beers in the basement. Until the *very* last line of the song when things get unexpectedly intense. Yikers Island! Love the sharp guitarwork.)

Intangible Assets

Ramblings about Safe Men and Funkadelic after the jolly jump:

Laserism

Forest Trees: Seattle band The Divorce is no more but their legacy lives on in lasers! Err, a mini-docu about laser shows done by Propadata Films. Here The Divorce talk about how they once had a laser show/concert and the fans were standing so close to the stage that they weren't able to appreciate the laser show happening above their heads:

We've Replaced His Coffee

Oh man, love the laid back stylinz of Devin The Dude. Cracks me up. He's part of this whole series I found on You Tube that G4TV has on MCs freestyling and includes Killah Preist and Del the Funky Homosapien (who looks caught by surprise but is like, "ok sure.") D the D has such a light touch/joy for living; he's the Alan Alda of weed appreciation.

For Yuks

France has a seemingly endless supply of talented producers, and the latest to hit Elbows is Sportsaq Yuksek. He's actually been around awhile, doing remixes of Ghostface, Phoenix and "Booba".

His bio reveals stories of mischievous stoner emails from Istanbul and Ansara:

Two or three times a week, on his Myspace page, Yuksek gets an e-mail from Istanbul or Ankara saying “Hey, know what? Yuksek means “high” in Turkish!”. No, Pierre-Alexandre Busson didn’t know when he chose the name by instinct four years ago, partly for its sound and partly to buck the trend of English-sounding names that are common in electronic music.

Yuksek So Far Away From the sea mp3 was here.

Quickies

Super busy Inbox edition!:

++Dave Grohl's favorite girl guitarist Kaki King's new album Junior is set to come out April 13th. You can catch King at the El Rey on 5/22/10.

++Engineer Tim Iseler, who has worked with Wilco, Iron and Wine and The Swell Season in the past is the man behind the new album by Chicago's Judson Claiborne and this beauty. (Time and Temperature comes out April 6th): Judson Claiborne Song for Dreaming mp3 was here.

++Nothing like a good stage name backstory.

++So much hype about Clare Maguire. So few leads. So many different Clare Maguires. What is this, 2001? Maybe it's one of those things you only know about if you're in the UK.

++This movie Dead Man's Shoes passed me by when it came out. If revenge, violence, and soundtracks featuring Smog and Calexico are your thing than be sure to check it out:<

Smog Vessel in vain mp3 was here.

This Interior Life

So called 'Nu-folkie' Johhny Flynn and his band are selling out all over the U.K. and will be playing SXSW come March.

Interesting trivia: Literature-fan Flynn (who also goes by Joe Flynn) graduated from Bedales School, whose alumni includes Lilz Allen, Gene Ray Anthony, Patrick Wolf and Luke Pritchard of The Kooks.

I like the way their use of a poetic turn of phrase doesn't feel forced or self-congratulatory.

Johnny Flynn The Box mp3 was here and it was good.

Couplets

Just now discovered Timber Timbre while going through the Arts and Crafts You Tubes catalog. (Most of the videos were directed by Scott Cudmore and his excellent eyes.)

Was anyone talking about Timber Timbre last year during the year-end list binge? Because if not, they should've been. Timber Timbre strike just the right balance between craftsmanship, drama and dark hipness that, if they're not careful, might get them played at Starbucks. Let's enjoy them long before that ever happens.
(This song has several pauses where your mind anticipates what the next rhyme will be. Sadly, none of them are the dirty limerick phrases/curse words I was expecting:) Timber Timbre Demon Host Mp3 recommended was here.

They'll be at Largo on 3/24!

Pronounced "Jee-heh"

I just got a press release about a singer named Jihae today who, I found after some research, used to be Eileen Fisher's main model Jihae Kim. I don't keep up with these things. There's a smoky, Nico-esque quality to her voice and the song above from her last album is aces. Her LP Fire Burning Rain will be out in July. Talented girl!

We're All In the Same Gang

It appears that Sarah Ruba and her husband Adam Pavao, better known as New Look, are drinking from the same cup as Nite Jewel and Dam Funk. But no need to pull out the adhesive labels and Sharpie markers for identification and sanitary purposes just yet. They've placed their own stamp on the electrosoul sound. Take a minute to listen to a recent performance in Switzerland; it's not like much else out there right now. One thing that's missing,IMO, back up dancers..Santigold or Winehouse style. This kind of music needs motion. I guess that kind of thing comes with bigger budgets*:

The throwback, Teena Marie texture of Ruba's voice matches the era of the music they pay homage to perfectly. New Look is currently touring Europe.

New Look Future Times mp3 was here

Deckscriptive

++From the inbox: Athensoplis' Ruby Isle will be performing on the 17th at The Troub. In the song below, the band opens itself up to the remix treatment at the diabolical hands of D.C. club deejay Will Eastman, who has been seen on the scene and promoting Denon CD Decks since 2005.

Ruby Isle So Damn High Will Eastman remix mp3 was here

++Be good, Johnny.