THAT'S RIGHT! Remember that awesome 80s band that brought us the hit, "Whip It" - well they're back and coming out with a new album! I heard all about it on NPR the other day (I know I have a problem.) and learned so many interesting things about Mark Mothersbaugh, the lead singer. He is also well known for writing many of those background jingles we all subconsciously memorized - i.e. the mac vs. pc commercial, sims 2 background music, and several other commercials. Anyways, this is all fine and dandy, but I know what you are all wondering is whether they can still produce awesome hits (resembling Whip It perhaps?)??? Well, have no fear, because I am here to let you know from what I've heard, they're still pretty baller.
The new album's called Something for Everybody, and came out June 15th. Here's their single, Fresh --
I came across this article and wanted to share what NPR-ers are listening to so far this year. All in all it's a good list, but I am highly disappointed to see Jonsi so far down the list. Naturally, he was my #1 when I voted for my top 20. I do love NPR though.
One of the standout feature of the multi-layered, electro-fuzz remix of Baths' "Hall" is the combination of a multitude of unconventional elements to create modern beauty. There's a lot of synthesized sound, as well as the punchy softness of bells, a choir, and other baroque pop throw-ins. It's really masterful how the whole piece comes together from such an eclectic setup. The original, a.k.a. non-remix edition of, "Hall" is part of the Los Angelian's upcoming album Cerulean which is released on July 6 2010.
Listen to "Hall (The One AM Radio Remix Feat. The Los Feliz Ladies Choir)" here:
Download "Hall (The One AM Radio Remix Feat. The Los Feliz Ladies Choir)" here for free: stereogum.com.
Someone has kindly combined two of my favorite things--Star Trek and the endless party that is Ke$ha--into one hilarious YouTube montage. The whole thing is a somewhat homoerotic portrayal of Kirk and Spock's relationship, but everything seems to work magically with the lyrics. Everyone should take a look :-)
Allstar Weekend - Suddenly Automatic Loveletter - Truth Or Dare Sebastian Blanck - Alibi Coast Chamillionaire - Venom Chemical Brothers - Further Closed Heart Surgery - The Blue Girl Diaries [iTunes] The Constellations - Southern Gothic Miley Cyrus - Can't Be Tamed Danzig - Deth Red Sabaoth Eminem - Recovery Derek Trucks Band - Roadsongs Front Line Assembly - Improvised. Electronic. Device. Macy Gray - The Sellout Herbie Hancock - The Imagine Project Cyndi Lauper - Memphis Blues Kele Okereke [Bloc Party] - The Boxer Ozzy Osbourne - Scream Pierce The Veil - Selfish Machines The Roots - How I Got Over Sabbath Assembly - Restored To One Sebastian Blanck - Alibi Coast Semi Precious Weapons - You Love You Sia - We Are Born Stars - The Five Ghosts Uncle Kracker - Happy Hour - The South River Sessions [EP] Uffie - Sex Dreams & Denim Jeans Dweezil Zappa - Return Of The Son Of... [Live]
There are some songs that produce a particularly synaesthetic reaction upon listening to them--"Sea Waves" is one such song. Nice Nice are a duo of multi-instrumentalists from Portland, OR, and this ditty (available to download for free from The Guardian, yay!) evokes a colorful collage of driving beats, mixed with distant vocals and electronic accents. When I listen, it takes me to a Slumdog Millionaire image, a happiness, a rushing, a childhood escape--magical :-)
Alright everyone, it's a new week, which means tomorrow we'll have some new album releases to look forward to. Here's what's out on June 15 2010:
Laurie Anderson - Homeland Cowboy Junkies - Renmin Park Devo - Something For Everybody Drake - Thank Me Later Foals - Total Life Forever [Physical Release] The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang In Fear And Faith - Imperial Light Pollution - Apparitions Sarah McLachlan - The Laws Of Illusion The Steve Miller Band - Bingo! Papa Roach - To Be Loved Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Mojo Pitbull - Armando Rasputina - Sister Kinderhook Robyn - Body Talk Pt. 1 Stewart - Kicks We Are Scientists - Barbara
I think it's only fair that we start off the week with some folksy delightfulness--courtesy of Good Old War. The Philadelphians released their sophomore album, Good Old War at the beginning of this month which includes the song "My Own Sinking Ship," an acoustic, somewhat saturnine ditty about love, or rather it's imminent finality. Interesting trivia note (thanks to their explanation on MySpace): the band took their name from the band members last names--Goodwin, Arnold, and Schwartz--whilst struggling to come up with a good moniker when they formed back in 2008. This first single "My Own Sinking Ship" is available for super free download from the band on their website! How neat of them :-)
Listen to "My Own Sinking Ship" here:
Download "My Own Sinking Ship" for free from the Good Old War official website: goodoldwar.com.
Special note to Atlantans! Good Old War are coming to The Masquerade on June 21.
I thought I'd take some time out of the indie-sphere, for a quiet moment to appreciate... Admire? Well, really just sit in dumbstruck WTF bliss at Lady Gaga's latest video for "Alejandro." If you enjoyed the Tarantino-inspired nonsense of "Telephone" you'll really get a kick out this latest bit, vamped out a la Madonna.
We have Gaga with some fembot implants... Some kind of orgy involving the (Lady) Pope... And a man with a golden gun... Or some kind of underwear-sporting, life-like puppet. I'm currently drafting my letter to Lady Gaga to thank her for making my life just a little bit weirder.
Who are Kings of Leon? And who are RAC? Well, the first question is pretty straight forward--they're that foursome made famous for sex so good it was "on fire." The second? Well, in the late '70s RAC was a series of nationalist, pagan concerts by bands identifying with the Rock Against Communism subgenre. But these days, it's a collective of remix artists--RAC standing for Remix Artist Collective--taking popular songs and doing super great remixes with them, such as this rework of "Use Somebody" by RAC member André Allen Anjos. It's not a club-thumping turnaround that many remixers strive for but instead a lovable, low-key affair that would be more at home as the backing music to some coming-of-age, adolescent indie flick. So take a listen!
Listen to "Use Somebody" (RAC Remix) here:
Download "Use Somebody" (RAC Remix) here for free: rcrdlbl.com.
As the June 22 2010 release date for The Five Ghosts approaches, Stars have been kind enough to follow up their free download of "Fixed" with another freebie from the forthcoming record--"Wasted Daylight." I happen to like this track a little more than "Fixed" for it's juxtaposition of calm and electronic harshness, and it's unbelievably catchy chorus that reminds me somewhat of Ellie Goulding (perhaps one of my most favorite new artists). But, since you can get both MP3s yourself, you can judge for yourself--that's right! You don't have to trust my opinions; although I know you take my stance on new music as if it were religion :-)
Download "Wasted Daylight" here for free: stereogum.com.
In celebration of the imminent release of Arnalds' next album, I thought I'd share a recently rediscovered old favorite "Ljósið," from 2009's Found Songs. There are many reasons to love Ólafur Arnalds: 1) He's Icelandic (just like Sigur Ros and Bjork, so he's in good company); 2) He's always got free .mp3s for download (even though Iceland is bankrupt--incredibly generous!); 3) And, of course, there is the incredibly beautiful instrumental music he puts out. Now, I have never been to Iceland--though I've always wanted to (it's full of volcanoes for Christ sake!)--and I'm likely to say this about most of Arnalds' songs, but there is something distinctly Icelandic about "Ljósið" to me. And when I say distinct, I mean following the vague abstraction of what I think Iceland is like based on the Sigur Ros movie Heima. It's a quiet, serene, majestic piece filled with the possibility of great crescendo but choosing to leave it as just that--possibility--and so the whole track emanates with a beautifully vast calm. Ólafur Arnalds new album & They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness will be out June 8 2010 (that's tomorrow by the way!).
If you liked "Ljósið," check out this free download of the song "þú ert sólin" from the upcoming album. Also, Found Songs, the entire EP, is available for download free as well. See the links below!
Folksy, French trio-sters, Hey Hey My My released their second album A Sudden Change of Mood about a month ago, upon which was included this intriguing, lovable ditty "The Next Bar." From the title, this song should be a hard-hitting, rock anthem of drunkenness (something akin to "Cause for Divorce" by Elbow) but instead has the softness of Bon Iver and the indie vocalizing of, oh, say almost any British indie act of the last five years. Also, it has whistling! The whole effect comes together magnificently, however, just reeking of low-key, upbeat goodness.
I just wanted to thank you for releasing another insanely ridiculous, annoyingly catchy song that I'm going to be hearing all summer. Seriously? Seriously. "California Gurls" is going to be stuck in my head for a long time. I'm having palpitations just thinking about how much idle time my brain is going to dedicate to internally humming this track to myself. Perhaps if I just take a day to listen to this song repeatedly I'll get sick it of it, but I don't know, it might have the opposite effect. Also, dear Snoop Dogg: not only would it have served you better to not be associated with this single, but to put in such a weak effort... For shame. Katy Perry's next album Teenage Dream, from which "California Gurls" is the lead single, will be out on August 24 2010.
Usually this blog is dedicated to the alternative and indie realm, but, as a recent online quiz told me, I am only 66% indie because of my guilty affinity for pop music. So I thought I would share the 5 songs that are holding me back from 100% indie gold status:
1) "Find Your Love" - Drake From Degrassi to hip-hop stardom, Drake's popularity (and ego) has really sky rocketed this past year. "Find Your Love," with it's thumping bass and heartfelt message, does what Kanye West failed to do during that fateful SNL performance, prove that the star can not only rap but sing. Drake's next album Thank Me Later is out June 15 2010.
2) "Telephone" (ft. Beyonce) - Lady Gaga It seems the world can't get enough of Lady Gaga, and when she teams up with the almighty force of Beyonce things only get wilder. "Telephone" is a mega-hit sure to win award after superficial award for it's popularity and catchiness. Lady Gaga's next album is, apparently, almost complete and due out at the end of this year.
3) "Break Your Heart" (ft. Ludacris) - Taio Cruz Ever since "Come On Girl" I've liked the music put out by Taio Cruz. He's a British songwriter and producer with international fame that still has the flair of the UK in his music. "Break Your Heart," though having a somewhat scandalous message, is a dance-tastic track injected with the ridiculousness of Ludacris. Rokstarr, the album featuring "Break Your Heart," was released in the US on June 1 2010, and this song is his first US single.
4) "Rude Boy" - Rihanna "Rude Boy" is a definite statement of sexuality, there's really no hiding. Some may say that she's really pushing it here to, I dunno, show strength after the whole Chris Brown affair (just as GloZell), but regardless, the song has a tonne (that's metric) of club charisma and sing-along-ability. And have you seen the "Umbrealla" video? She's pretty much showing everything there, so I don't really see any change. The rest of the album Rated R is pretty crap, but the "Rude Boy" video is tres stylish.
5) "Your Love Is My Drug" - Ke$ha Perhaps the least trashy of all Ke$ha's songs, "Your Love Is My Drug" is a pure pop anthem, something akin to early B. Spears. I still quite can't figure out if the lyric "Do you want to have a slumber party in my basement" is some sort of innuendo, nor can I fathom the parting statement at the song's end--"I like your beard"--but my enjoyment is not lessened by these unanswered questions.
So here's something fun--I'm from Barcelona. The band comprises 27 members creating fantastic music. "Anywhere You Looked" is a cover of the Au Revoir Simone song of the same name and appears on the Amnesty International PEACE album , on which artists from all around the globe, including I'm From Barcelona, have come together to record 180 songs to raise money. You can purchase this album for as little as 5 euros and feel good about donating to a good cause. Or, if you're broke, cheap, or uncharitable, you can go to the PEACE website and just stream the songs.
Listen to "Anywhere You Looked" here:
Check out the PEACE website--donate and download or just listen to all 180 songs from around the world: www.buffetlibredjs.net/peace.html.
Or go to Blalock's Indie/Rock Playlist site where a download of this song is included in the May 2010 playlist: http://www.blalocksirp.com.
Here's something else that's a little cool and generous from I'm From Barcelona--they recently released the album 27 Songs, an album of--as the name suggests--27 songs, all of which are free to download. The projects took a solo recordings by each of the artists and released them over 27 days. So take a listen and tell us what you think!
HEY BLOGTOWN - It's been absolutely ages since we've updated the blog, my b. Unfortunately, in official air quotes, technically, the Mike James and DJ Kriegs show with relation to WGUR is now donesies.
BUT!!!! No worries, Mike Jeezy and myself plan on continuing to update the blog with fantastic music and updates about our lives as struggling artists slash college graduates. Most importantly, we plan to give consistent updates about the hipster polls, i.e. who is leading in 'all-around hipster' (which I know is your main concern). We also plan to record some podcasts in case you experience extreme withdrawals from our dreamlike voices.
So, in summation, CHECK THE BLOG for new stuff-izzle.
What was once the amazing Mike James & DJ Kriegs Show on WGUR 88.9FM The Edge Milledgeville, GCSU's campus radio station, is now--post-graduation--an awesome online indie music blog of the same name. DJ Kriegs and Mike James, instilled with the passion of sharing great music with the masses decided to keep the blog alive and continue the passion for music. So don't panic! 2010 is going to be our year for great changes to the site, and, of course, the place for great indie finds.
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