Thanks Matty. Another melancholy rainy-dayer. With a beat. The Whitest Boy Alive is Erland Oye's (of Norway's Kings of Convenience) new band. Do you think Canada will ever be invited to become part of Scandinavia? We could really use some new friends.
Here's a good one for a rainy vancouver afternoon. LA's Silversun Pickups have been described as a "90's revivalist" band (when is this shit gonna stop?) I guess because they sound a little like the Smashing Pumpkins. Yeah, and the Smashing Pumpkins didn't sound like anybody. Jerks.
Shameless, I know. But people dance to this thing like a thing that people really like to dance to. At first they humour it because they know the Snoop song and it's almost been long enough to like it again. But by the three-minute mark, they've never heard of Snoop or The Neptunes or rap music; they can't even remember their own name. All they know is that those bleeping, popping, whining synths and that boner-inducing bass-line sound better than Phillip Glass on acid. (you're on acid, not Phillip Glass) I'd like to learn more about DatA, but try googling them and you'll see how difficult that is.
All fires have to burn alive. Sometimes it's good to remind ourselves that fire possesses 8 of the 9 characteristics of a living thing. But who's counting. Three of our most treasured countrymen and freak-out singers, Dan Bejar (Destroyer), Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade) and Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes), have gone and cut theyselves an album under the name Swan Lake. It doesn't come out till the fall (on Jagjaguwar, who seem to own Vancouver now), but they released a sneak-peak to get the hype-machine warmed up. If this song's any indication, the cd will be a good one to break up with your girlfriend to. November 21st. Plan accordingly.
Mad Decent is (hot shit Philly-based DJ) Diplo's label. He's been releasing these excellent podcasts for about a year. They're mostly just short little mixtapes with 6-8 songs on them but his taste is so diverse that you never know what you're gonna get. He breathes new life into R&B, Dirty-South, UK Grime, and Dancehall bangers while single-handedly hyping obscure sub-genres like "Baltimore Club" and the Brazilian ghetto music, "Baile Funk" to the Pitchfork crowd. You can subscribe to the free podcast here, download or stream them from the website, or hit the link below to hear my favourite episode, New Orleans Ain't Dead, Its Just Got a Limp. It's a mix of current New Orleans music and clips of the musicians talking about the state of the city after Katrina.
I already posted this fucking song. Way back in the beginning when no one read this thing. But then I discovered a free download and I couldn't deny my new readers this gem from the aging King Shit himself. Bob Pollard was the front man and back bone of the greatest band of all time. Now he's fifty-something and trying to nurse his liver back to health while recording weird little pop songs in Dayton, Ohio. If you're a GBV fan it's worth checking the sounds page on his website. There's a bunch of early demos of great songs like Things That I Will Keep and Official Ironmen Rally Song.
When did skinny, sensitive, Canadians start making all the dope beats? If I’m Timbaland or Pharrell, I’m getting nervous. Junior Boys definitely have a way with the drum machine but their song writing isn’t too shabby neither. Their first full length, Last Exit, drew on influences as disparate as Prince, Depeche Mode and Christian Fennesz to build a complex but oddly smooth pop opus. This is the first single from their highly anticipated second LP, So This is Goodbye. Turn it up.
Largo is a dinner club on Fairfax Ave in Hollywood. Five years ago, my good friend John W dragged me along to see a young film composer named Jon Brion who played, and still plays, a weekly residency there. He performed the entire show on his own, with a scattering of instruments, a sequencer, and a microphone. He would build these towering walls of looped sounds and then sing beautiful melodies that cut right through them. If it ever was, Brion's talent isn't a secret anymore, having written some of the most inspired film scores of the decade (see: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I Heart Huckabees and Punch Drunk Love) Now that he's mastered that form, he's moving into more original songwriting with his new CD, Meaningless. All this is to preface my recommendation of Largo's website, which has a plethora of really nicely recorded performances by artist like Elliot Smith, Aimee Mann, Grant Lee Phillips, Tenacious D and, of course, Jon Brion. I suggest starting with his song from the Punch Drunk Love soundtrack, Here We Go.
A relationship is a two-way street. And yes, over the years, we've supported the music of our sister city to to the south. But what have we done for them lately? They listen to Black Mountain and The New Pornographers, so it's only fair that we should pay close attention to Band of Horses. This song, from their debut, Everything All The Time, is another goosebumper. I guess that's my steez these days. If you like it, they have more free downloads on their website. And my friend Nathaniel knows what bar they hang out at.
I've been catching a lot of flak about all the dead links on my blog. If someone knows of some free hosting for me to post mp3s more permanently, do tell. But in the meantime, I'm gonna link to existing free downloads on label sites whenever possible so the tracks will be available indefinitely. I went through the last 20 or so entries and either fixed the links, added new links to another song or video by the artist, or labelled them dead. So, I encourage you to go back and explore, but if you get to Michael Andrews, you've gone too far.
This song is killing me. Killing me. I've had goose pimples for three days straight. Downloader beware. You may experience sprawling whimsy, tingling daydreaminess and severe melancholly while listening. Thanks to Tony P for hipping me. I get the one in the blue dress.
