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Circa 45 feedWell, that didn’t take long. There’s already a video for the first single from Elbow’s forthcoming record, The Seldom Seen Kid, that I posted about (with mp3) the other day.
Oh, boy. This has the potential to be either (a) amazing or (b) a trainwreck … or (c) an amazing trainwreck.
The last time I saw Destroyer was late last year in Tucson when he toured with the New Pornographers. It’s fair to say he was a little inebriated. And make no mistake: Destroyer plays on songs Destroyer writes. No more, no less. And I sorta picture Destroyer talking about himself in the third person, this image of a character a friend and I conjured up after seeing him stumble on and off the stage.
I haven’t taken to his solo material as much as his contributions to the New Pornographers (and the Hello, Blue Roses project), but there’s not a chance I’m missing this show.
If you come here regularly, then you already know I’m a fan of Jimmy Eat World, hometown pride aside. (I’ve already shared my feelings on the haters.)
Anyway, here’s the group’s new video for Always Be, the second single off the album Chase This Light. Looks like the Museum of Natural History, in which case I already prefer this video to the last time I saw the museum as a backdrop.
You can find the video for the first single, Big Casino, right here.
I stumbled across this hilarious bit of parody-meets-social commentary while listening to a mix that DJ Z-Trip put together for a radio station and posted for download.
When I heard the chorus – “hipsters are the new jocks / it don’t take much to realize that” – I had to have it.
This is what I know: The track is by an artist/graf writer called MESH from Brooklyn. And what better city from which to derive inspiration for a hipster-hating anthem. (As MESH says on his YouTube page, Williamsburg is hipster capital.)
The video (below) adds a nice visual twist of the knife, too. Check the beginning when Mesh asks a guy and a girl for a smug look, and the girl says she doesn’t want to do it: “Am I hitting too close to home?” Asymmetrical haircuts, skinny jeans, ironic mustaches. Ooooh, I can feel my blood pressure rise. You can win a game of hipster bingo just watching the video.
And is it just me or does Mesh sound a little like Shock G from Digital Underground?
Zane Lowe of BBC’s Radio 1 debuted the new single from Elbow, Grounds for Divorce, last week on his show. The song comes off the forthcoming record, The Seldom Seen Kid, due out in March on Fiction Records.
Singer Guy Garvey told BBC Radio’s 6 Music what to expect from the record:
“MP3 culture and download culture has meant that songs are sold on an individual song basis - on the quality of an individual song.
“But we very definitely wanted to make one last ‘album,’ if you know what i mean, in terms of - we are an album band, very definitely, and even if it’s picked apart it’s meant to be listened to start to finish.”
Well, until I get the full album, I’m going to have to survive on this radio rip of Grounds for Divorce, a blues-injected stomper that reveals the album’s title within the lyrics (”Mondays are for drinking to the seldom seen kid” … ?).
Around mid-March, the concert calendar really picks up, with bands either going to or coming from South by Southwest in Austin. So if I can’t go to SXSW, I’m happy to at least absorb the residual effects.
The Helio Sequence, whose new record on Sub Pop, Keep Your Eyes Ahead, comes out Jan. 29, is coming through with another Sub Pop band, Grand Archives. Place: Rhythm Room. Time: 8 p.m. Tickets: Right here.
I haven’t had the good fortune to get my hands on Keep Your Eyes Ahead, but I’ve enjoyed the lead single by the same name. If it’s any indication, the duo has lost a little of its electronic leanings for a more polished, traditional approach. I missed ‘em the last time they came through, so this one’s circled on the calendar.
Stream Keep Your Eyes Ahead in its entirety at the group’s MySpace page.
WHILE WE’RE AT IT, Sub Pop has released for download a second single off Band of Horses’ fantastic Cease to Begin, and No One’s Gonna Love You is, without question, my favorite song on the album.
Its misleading title makes the payoff of the chorus all the more sweet: “No one’s gonna love you / more than I do.” I feel like BoH probably should have employed parentheses for the title in this case: No One’s Gonna Love You (More Than I Do). I’m sure they appreciate my input.
With Mr. Lif and the Perceptionists scheduled to play the Brickhouse in Phoenix on Feb. 1, what better time to check out some new Akrobatik, one-third of the Perceptionists?
Akrobatik’s new record, Absolute Value, comes out Feb. 19 on Fat Beats.
As if the people of Boston need any other reason to brag (hello, Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox), they can also claim Akrobatik as one of their own. The lead single, Put Ya Stamp On It, with production by J Dilla, has a killer string loop and a tight verse from Akrobatik. But … sigh … I once again have to bring up my distaste for Talib Kweli, who’s featured here. I’ve struggled to pinpoint what I don’t like … maybe the tone of his voice or just his flow in general? (”Rappers fruity like the pebbles in ya cereal” … not saying I could do better, but … ).
But Akro shines. It’s just too bad he only kicks one verse here.
A sample:
“So when you be creatin’ your playlist /
don’t forget that we are A-list material /
lyrics dirty to the point they scratchin’ off the serial /
and straight to the basura goes that wack sh*t in your stereo.”
Buy tickets for the Perceptionists show here.
I don’t know if I saw this posted much around the Internets, so I’ll go ahead an flash back all the way to 2007.
I think, when it comes down to it, I’m going to regret that Andrew Bird’s Armchair Apocrypha – yeah, I can’t say that word, either – didn’t get more of my attention. If we’re playing the what-album-that-wasn’t-on-your-top-10-list-that-would-be-now game, I’d say that’s probably it.
So here’s Four Tet, doing that remix thing and making fine work of the song’s guitars and layering some more over it without weirding it out too much. Thank you, Mr. Hebden, for that.
Thought I was gonna have to make another trip to Los Angeles to see a band, but Editors have kindly included Arizona – Marquee Theatre in Tempe, to be exact – on their tour with Hot Hot Heat and Louis XIV.
Tickets ($17.25 advance; $18 day of) on sale here.
I had a chance to interview Editors bassist Russell Leetch (they were in Florida and seemed to be having a lovely time) and will link to story when, you know, I actually write it.
I’m looking forward to see if Editors live up to the raves they seem to get for their live shows. It seems like the bigger songs from An End Has a Start might make for a more spacious presence on stage. In one interview I read, singer Tom Smith described The Back Room as “claustrophobic,” which I would agree with after the band stretched out a bit on the new one.
Video for Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors on Later with Jools Holland:
The 22nd installment of I Used to Love H.E.R., a series in which artists/bloggers/writers discuss their most essential or favorite hip-hop albums (read intro), comes from Mike Bell, one-half of electronic-pop duo the Lymbyc Systym. Bell and his brother Jared, based in Austin by way of Phoenix, released Love Your Abuser last year on Mush Records. A remix version of the album – featuring the Album Leaf, Daedelus, the One AM Radio and more – will be available March 1. Each disc will be numbered and feature handmade packaging. Check the group’s site for pre-order information on Feb. 1.
Madvillain
Madvillainy (Stones Throw, 2004)
Madlib and Doom’s masterpiece Madvillainy changed the way I think about hip-hop. Not only did it breathe fresh air into what I considered to be a stale genre, but inspired me to start producing hip-hop beats and collaborating with mc’s.
I absolutely adore Madlib’s production. I had read an interview with him in which he said he makes an album’s worth of material every day. Whether this is an exaggeration or not, this guy is way prolific and inspiring. His use of rag-tag funk and soul samples, coupled with strange vocal samples provides for a great experience when listening to records he’s produced.
Madlib’s also a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, and a pretty skilled one at that. He always adds his own touches to his loops, be it a bassline, rhodes part or chopped drum groove.
In my mind, Madvilliany is Madlib’s best work. It captures the essence of everything I mentioned above. I have a feeling he was so inspired to work with an mc as talented as Doom that he chose his freshest unused beats to use on the record. When listening to Madvilliany I hear the friendship between Madlib and Doom, a level of excellence that could only come from a unique collaboration between friends. I love looking at photos from the sessions on stonesthrow.com … pictures of Madlib and Doom laughing, recording and taking bong hits on the roof. I see great times, just as i hear when bumping this record.
Often times I’ll listen to a record and say “hey, i could do that”, and i definitely had one of these moments when listening to Madvilliany. I was so inspired to try my hand at taking samples from old records and adding my own touches with rhodes, bass guitar, synth and drums. Since then I’ve amassed a library of hours of beats and snippets, which will eventually be whittled down into a hip-hop record with my lyrically gifted good friend and desert dweller, Future Lord aka Michael Busse from Chronic Future and Back Ted N-Ted.
One last thing I love about Madvillainy and Madlib in general is how the craftsmanship is taken quite seriously, while the mood and vibe can become quite silly and light hearted, a far cry from the shoot-’em-up, booty- and money-driven sounds of most commercial hip-hop. There are hilarious chopped dialoges from Fantastic 4 cartoons placed as interludes throughout. On Shadows of Tomorrow Madlib’s high-pitched alter ego Quasimoto chimes in to give love to weed and Sun Ra and on America’s Most Blunted Madlib digs out some awesome sample of some goofy white boy talking about making music while high … it’s just so freakin laughable, yet so innovative and so well produced.
