Stop Okay Go

Pretty Beast

I've been reading several reviews of Crime In Stereo's I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone, that came out in February and stands as one of Metacritic's most highly rated albums of the year thus far. I like how Metacritic mixes both professional and personal reviews, with the man on the street saying that the album is dense and may take a few listenings but is worth the slog.

The phrase that comes up repeatedly about the Long Island band is that they are hardcore, or how they are trying to fight their way out of hardcore. Or how they are redefining hardcore. Or how they stand out among hardcore bands. Below are some of their older songs, because I can't post any new ones. Warning: may contain traces of traditional hardcore. 

East Coast Dates.

Crime In Stereo: But You Are Vast was here and it was one of my (((favorite songs))))ever.(Bringin' back smart rock!)

Smaller Worlds

From the inbox:

Seattle songwriter and former Telekinesis member Chris Staples AKA Discover America has released his second album, Future Paths, that can be heard streaming here. Give the song below a few seconds, right around the time the piano kicks in, to really get revved up. Like Jame Yuill yesterday, Staples has one foot in electronica and one in the land of acoustic, which (if my memory of conductivity serves correct) results in this.

Catch Discover America at Casa de Awesome in Silverlake on 5/1. Also, check out his short review of a film I plan seeing on soon, Botany of Desire, where he compares weed to Mike Tyson. (Also Holy cow, George Winston! From 4:01 on... that should be illegal.) 

Discover America Force of Proper Wind mp3 was here.

Double Dog Dare Ya

++Here's something I haven't done in some time(probably not since Moby's I Like To Move In Here?)... multiple versions of the same song. Caught in today's crosshairs is James Yuill's song from awhile back, This Sweet Love.

DJs seem to have really taken to this song. Sure, the original and the nintendo'd Drums of Death remix are both charp man, but my favorite might be the Prins Thomas "sneaky" version, with changes so subtle that for all I know they might be the same song. 

Happily, Yuill doesn't mind when people redo his songs, and is often impressed when listening.

James Yuill This Sweet Love was here.

++Speaking of love, Rich Fourfour's brilliant screencap: "This is just like Behind The Music. I was like, "Oh no, it's happening to me"; with the closed eye grimace! Heh heh. Where's Oprahz to label the moment when you need her?

HD Is On

Been listening to this video by the Floridian Emily Reo this morning. Much like Victoria LeGrand, Nite Jewel and Julianna Barwick the Friendly Ghost, Ms. Reo likes to float on the patchy, experimental, textural (it's a real word! high five!)side of sound. It's a hypnotic experience, the beat being both soothing/lulling and strangely militaristic. How she do dat?

Reo's new EP Witch Mtn blossoms on 5/24

Emily Reo Metal On Your Skin mp3 was here.

The Controller

 
You don't really see dudes sporting mongo chunked out necklaces anymore. Who's gonna bring that back? Really, there's only one person I could think to nominate for the job.

By all accounts, The Candy Skins are still defunct.  Founding members, the brothers Nick and Mark Cope, are related to actors Kenneth and Martha Cope, both of whom have appeared on Dr. Who. Wonder if that's ever awkward grist for the mill at the family dinner table...  The Candy Skins Wembley mp3 was here.

Table of Comments

++Grace J.wowws them at a one-off in London. Don't know why the term "one-off" always sounds dirty to me.

++Clicksky here to hear a preview of the new Crowded House album Intriguer. The album gets its title from a shadowy figure by Michael Leunig that Neil Finn saw in 2001. Bet new album will have the shadowy figure emerging from a geometrical shape, per usual.

++Ron Isley only just now got out of jail! This was as surprising as finding out that the Quaids hadn't yet been caught or that Billy Graham is still alive.

++Julieta Venegas was interviewed on MBE this morning and what a delight she is, shyly speaking of her love for Tolstoy and Dostoev$ky.

++Wonder how people respond to this song in concert these days. 

++Greatest Instrument: Perhaps someone should put Noah Adams to a beat*, just like that old Baz song. that I reference every few months.

Grab Hold

Great googly moogoolees, you take your eye off the inbox for a few hours and it tears all your sofa cushions to shreds:

++Hard to believe, but Katrina and the Waves'(above) song Walking on Sunshine is turning 25. Lead songwriter Kimberley Rews was the driving force behind the band's success and has been lauded by everyone from Robyn Hitchcock, to Mick Fleetwood and CELINE! Dion.

Brooklyn Vegan is running a feature in which they handselect artists to cover Rews' other work. Listen below:

Kimberley Rew I'm Amazed mp3

++Mew's latest video is just as elaborate as we've come to expect.



++Matthew Houck will be releasing his 5th album as Phosphorescent on May 11th titled Here's To Taking It Easy. This new track, It's Hard to Be Humble When You're From Alabama (via onethirtybpm )finds Houck in a much more upbeat mood than in Wolves, one of my favorite songs in recent memory. Oh c'mon, where's Cali? What do we have, cooties? (Update: Now we're talkin'!! :))

Phosphorescent : It's Hard To Be Humble When You're From Alabama mp3 was here (but Mermaid Parade is better).

Everyday People

Ava Luna.........
in all their ooh and ahh glory will be performing at Hillstock 2010.
They might bring along a few pah pah pahs as well. (Am I crazy to be hearing Sly Stone in the following song?)

The video reminds me of Sesame Street for some reason, but I love it.

Ava Luna Clips mp3 was here.

Line Writer

++Alan Vega seems to be coming up a lot in the news lately. First, in reference to a sample in the new M.I.A. song and in the latest issue of Under the Radar where MGMT cite Vega and the electropunk outfit Suicide as a prominent influence. LCDS, too. At 71 years of age, Vega is still recording and creating art.

++Speaking of MGMT, I loved Zany Keyboard Bro on SNL who totally looked like he was a plant in a skit, a la Bill Hader or Ben Stiller. He joins a long line of rock musicians who've simulated Richard-Pryor's-scared-for-no-reason eyes onstage. (Including the keyboardist from Stop Making Sense (Bernie Worrell?), 3/4's of the band System of Down , and many many others that I can't think of now.)(Update: Oh how could I forget the king, Rick Nielsen?)*

++Kris Kristofferson has a new album coming out on May 4th. I didn't know that he was a former military officer. The Blade star has plans to put the first three lines of Leonard Cohen's Bird On A Wire (not the Goldie Hawn movie) on his tombstone. Pretty.

++No, not that Mike Huckabee.

Bloodthirst

++A Place To Bury Strangers will be hitting Spaceland on 6/26 in support of their album from last year Exploding Head. They are currently on tour with Big Pink, so that should be a good show. Exploding Head was raucous and well-reviewed; here's hoping it gets the band more play.

++It's not right, but it's ok: I like when things occasionally aren't miked properly and imperfection in music in general, like in this Eliza Doolittle video. It's how you know we're still winning against the robots. My favorite part of this old Whitney song is at :14 when the song essentially becomes a 3rd grade (math) word problem.

Beautiful and Dutiful

More sunshine from the 'box:
Like the North wind whistling down the sky: Common Prayer will play the Truck America Festival (along with Mercury Rev and Here We Go Magic) near the Catskills, NY on April 30th to May 2nd. Their album There Is A Mountain hits the US on June 1st. It's like a happy jalopy* about to run you over: Common Prayer Us Vs Them mp3 was here.

The Friend Zone

From the inbox:
 
++Dromedary Records, a micro-indie label, is re-releasing Flying Suit by The Mommyheads on May 18th. You can listen to the sinister track from yesteryear The Worm below and read more about the Mommyheads, the story of how Flying Suit came to be and their novel business arrangement with Dromedary owner Al Crisafulli right here.

Mommyheads worm mp3 was here.

++Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros will play Royce Hall on 5/20 and the famous Fillmore on 5/27.

Fame Hangover

News! News! News! ("Pie! Pie! Pie!")*

++Here's a video by the Slow Club starring Mackenzie Crook who played Gareth Keenan on the British version of The Office. The Sheffield duo's album Yeah So is out now.

++Swiper, No Swiping: Fergles does the Snooki front poof while filming a video for LMFAO. While somewhere in the world Ginger Spice skulks for java. Victory! I hate you, internet.

++Nancy Whang waxes fondly about Nu Shooz and puzzles over what's ok to eat these days.
(Celery. That's all that's left.)

 
++I would watch this documentary (about stalkers obsessed with 80s pop star Tiffany) I Think We're Alone Now, just to see if they do a slowed down choppy screwy version of the song. That would be creeptastic.

++We all just want to be happie.

Meet the Smuckers

Admittedly, this will not be everyone's jam but I love a well-done atmospheric You Tube video.  Song by Henry Frayne/Lanterna. Of course Lanterna's rich sound is to be expected with both a sound engineer and sonographer in its employ.

 

The other day I was listening to that one seemingly unending solo in MMJ's One Big Holiday and thinking that there just aren't enough jam bands around these days. Surfer Blood's recent success seems to point to people wanting more cool vibe music. Lanterna Luminous mp3 was here.

Have You Noticed

Fans of Jose Gonzalez will be pleased to hear that he'll soon be touring with Junip, his rock band. They are giving away a free download here and will be playing Eagle Rock Arts Center on June 16th. More info.

Night Fever

++From the inbox: No need to page the doctor because here's a feelgood song if there ever was one. Night Driving in Small Towns, featuring the lush vocals of Andrea Rogers and Colby Wright will be releasing their debut album tomorrow titled Serial Killer. They'll also be having a "Zombie Dance Party" on May 21st at the Highland Ballroom to celebrate the record's release. Night Driving In Small Towns Barstool mp3 was here.

++She Never Liked You From the Start: Did you know that White Town's old song Your Woman is a reworking of Bing Crosby's My Woman? Unless Bing Crosby's rabid Twilight-like fans have been messing with Wiki again.

White Town Your Woman mp3 was here.

++ Oh noes. My boy Calvin Harris has fallen under the sway of the all-powerful David Guetta!! Or as we in the biz like to call Guetta, music's Tyler Perry. Discodust is killing it.

++Now *this* is how to properly mess with Imogen Heap's song. Diplo and Switch's bro Rusko makes the apocalypse sound fun and highly danceable.:

Quickies

++There's been some sort of controversy surrounding Katie Costello supposedly plagiarizing Malajube's song Ton Plat Favori. Hard to say if that's really the case. I had forgotten about Malajube but it looks like they haven't gone anywhere, keeping busy in the past few years playing the Vancouver Olympics and in Radio Shack commercials. Interestingly, the band says that while most people who don't understand their music simply sit back and enjoy it, listeners from France sometimes quibble over pronunciation differences. (Malajube are French-Canadian.)

++ Answer quick! Is it Rihanna's hood or her hair?

++Woah, Alison Goldfrapp is 43! Go on girl.

++From the inbox: Olivia Merhilati and Dan Levy, otherwise known as The Dø (pronounced The Dough), got their start scoring films. A few guitar lessons and ad campaigns later, they've come up with this lazy, hazy song that could've fallen out of Luna's suitcase:The Do At Last mp3 was here.

Well Done Europe

From the inbox:
++There seems to be a lot of creativity surrounding Band Camp, the service that allows listeners to decide how much they want to pay for music. The Chap, have a new album coming out on the 24th of May called Well Done Europe and have compressed the whole thing into a little over 3 minutes that can be heard here.
If they are the same Chap I remember being remixed by Hot Chip a couple of years ago, we are in for a minimalist treat.

 

++While I love twee, navel-gazing music as much as the next gal, I do miss the guitars of my youth that are so fierce they'll shave off half your hair. And then along came Danko. He's also the contributor to a book called Sex Tips From Rock Stars. Really.

Love the Diamond Dave rant half-way through the song: Danko Jones Full of Regret mp3 was here.

This One Is Different

++Wow, such a neat pic of Alice Glass or as her fans call her "Zombie Alice." I've been following the Twitterfeed and apparently Crystal Castles' concert in New York was some youth-driven (16+ show) insanity. A lot of fans were excited that she crowd-surfed so they could run their hands through her "grimy hair." (Between this insult and the "Zombie Alice" nickname, I wonder if her fans are really fans? No, trust, they are bats over her.)  I like Alice's spooky look and the idea of Crystal Castles* and what they project probably a lil more than the music itself. New album's out in June.

++From the inbox: This coming weekend is the 11th Annual Topanga Earth Day Festival. From 10am to dusk to be exact. Last year the festival had a turn-out of 6,000 people! Buffy Sainte-Marie will headline and there will be numerous eco-friendly exhibits, workshops, speakers and demonstrations. Address and more info.

++Oh happy day, NPR has a sample of my girl Tracey Thorn's latest offering. It almost makes me want to write a children's story so that it can be adapted into a movie so she can be on the soundtrack. (I have a rich Mindy Kaling-esque fantasy life.) Except it wouldn't be about divorce, I suppose. That wouldn't be a good kid's story. I love how the preciousness of the arrangement runs counter to the sad themes. "Hangovers by the swings." Deliciously smart. :

Bhang Bhang I'm A Burnout

++ Here's a pic of Chad and Pharrell on the set of an Uffie video. This blogger notes that the duo haven't done much over the past 6 months, but I wouldn't mind adding 'tooling around in Porsche with Kaws artwork' to my Things to Do list.

Update: Fader's got the Neptunes doing the beats for The Game:

The Game It Must Be Me mp3

Compton! So "90's". Before you know it people are gonna start saying "irie" again...

++ I wasn't aware that the new Dum Dum Girls album features guitarz by Nick Zinner. The L.A. band has had to overcome numerous comparisons to other bands (from The Breeders to the Shangri Las)and what one commenter calls the "Vampire Weekend" effect.