"Whites Only Party" The Dears

The Dears are finally getting fawned over like they deserve to be. No Cities Left got a little lost in the shadow of a record called Funeral by another Montreal band who's name I forget. But their new album, Gang of Losers, is topping college charts and LastFM lists the world over. They just released this clever little video for the second single, Whites Only Party.

"Whites Only Party" The Dears

"I Wanna Bite Ya" & "Bolton Wanderer" Planningtorock

Two Planningtorock posts in a row. What can I say? The spell is cast. Janine Rostron is a Berlin-based musician/ performance/video artist, with what can safely be describe as a singular vision. Like Bjork (or her hubbie Matthew Barney) her focus is on self-portraiture, twisting her body and voice into bizarre and uncomfortable positions to see where they break. She makes videos for most of her songs, which seem less like promotional tools than missing puzzle pieces. I highly recommend youtubing her when you've got about half an hour to kill. And here are a couple of tracks from her debut LP, Have It All.

"I Wanna Bite Ya" Planningtorock
"Bolton Wanderer" Planningtorock

"Heartbeats (planningtorock remix)" The Knife

The Knife are fascinating. Brother and sister duo from Stockholm, they've built quite a mythology though their reluctance to play live, their firm anti-corporate stance and their masked press photos. None of which would matter if their music wasn't brilliant; sprawling clickety dance beats, thick bass, insidious melodies and those angry/hopeful/scandinavian voices. A lot of people have had a go at this song. You may be familiar with Jose Gonzalez's simonandgarfunkeled cover which is better than warm milk for insomnia. Planningtorock (the new bjork, but british) gets all stringy and spacious on this remix. I'm amazed at how malleable The Knife's vocal melodies are. It seems like you can recast their songs in almost any key and it fits perfectly. Weird.

"Heartbeats (planningtorock remix)" The Knife

Here's a bonus link to a demo version of their latest single...

"Like A Pen (demo version)" The Knife

Justice Minimix

Admittedly, I’m a little bit obsessed with Ed Banger Records out of Paris. Especially Justice. I’ve been playing a lot of them at parties lately. About 15 people go nuts while the rest of the floor dances politely, waiting for me to play another Bloc Party remix. I don’t know about this DJ stuff. Here’s a nice little minimix of Justice material.

Justice Minimix

"Chips Ahoy" The Hold Steady

To celebrate the release of The Hold Steady's new album, Boys & Girls In America, here's the first single, "Chips Ahoy." I haven't heard the whole album yet but if the critics are to be believed, it's better than Dark Side of the Moon, OK Computer and Pet Sounds put together.

"Chips Ahoy" The Hold Steady

Also, I was pleased to find a free download of this instant classic from their last album on their website. Thanks guys.

"Your Little Hoodrat Friend" The Hold Steady

"Launch Yourself" Adem

Fridge was these two guys who started making interesting experimental (post-rock?) music in the late 90's when they were super young. They were very pretty and spacious and unpredictable and challenging, like Tortoise on valuum. When they broke up, one of the guys went on to become Four Tet, the brooding, chain-smoking, increasingly pretentious laptop star. I always wondered what happened to the other guy; the guy who didn't go on to become Four Tet. Well, it turns out, that guy (Adem Ilhan) went on to become Adem. This video is so up my alley I kinda want to strangle him. Great song.

"Launch Yourself" Adem

And if you like that, Hot Chip did a fun crazy little fun remix. Those guys...

"Launch Yourself (Hot Chip Remix)" Adem

"All Fires" Swan Lake

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.

"All Fires" Swan Lake

Mad Decent Radio Podcast

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.

Mad Decent Worldwide Radio #5

"Paul Cries" Think About Life

Okay, Montreal. You win. Relax. Eat a piece of fruit.

"Paul Cries" Think About Life

"Dancing Girls and Dancing Men" Robert Pollard

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.

"Dancing Girls And Dancing Men" Robert Pollard

"In The Morning" Junior Boys

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.

"In The Morning" Junior Boys

Largo

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.

Follow this link and click on "Audio - Video":

Largo Website

"Funeral" Band of Horses

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.

"Funeral" Band of Horses

Media Update

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.

Hope everyone's summer is going swimmingly.

PS If you haven't met the grape lady, say hello to fucking hilarious...

Grape Lady (video)

"Lowlife" Scanners

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.

"Lowlife" Scanners

"Cowbell" Tapes 'n Tapes

I like these guys. They're from Minne- apolis. Like Bob Dylan, and Brother Ali, and Jerry Lundegaard. So, points right there. Plus they write lyrics like, "Even now/ In solitude and stress/ I've been a better lover with your mother." Whatever that means. As long as they're not talking about my mother, I don't give a shit. This track is from their debut full-length, The Loon. If you like it, they have a bunch more free mp3s on their website.

"Cowbell" Tapes 'n Tapes

"Night Rider" Girl Talk

I don't like posting stuff that Pitchfork is currently hyping because, you know, why bother. But I couldn't sleep nights if I didn't draw as much attention to this record as possible. Girl Talk is this dude from Pittsburgh who has taken the mash-up form and pushed it into the realm of the mentally unstable. He samples riffs/verses/beats from a retarded number of sources and crams them into dancefloor bangers, making Z-Trip look like a lazy fuckin deadbeat. Night Rider, is his third release and I suspect you'll be hearing a lot of it this summer. Here's your head-start.

PS I'm going to start linking to existing mp3 downloads whenever possible (label sites, etc.) so the tracks will be available indefinitely.

"Smash You Head" Girl Talk
"Bounce That" Girl Talk
"Hold Up" Girl Talk

"Playhouses" TV on the Radio

In case you ain't heard, TV on the Radio's new album, Return to Cookie Mountain, is out. I haven't been listening to much else for the past week. (Why go out when you got the good shit at home?) This will be the record that nudges them into householdnamedom. So, if you want to feel like you're in on the secret, you better hurry. They have some funny video promos on their website. David Cross is in one and the kid from Me and You and Everyone We Know plays the President in another. Nothin wrong with that.

"Playhouses" TV on the Radio (dead link)

"Ya Playin Yaself (Mugwort)" MF Doom vs Jeru The Damaja

When Jeru dropped his second album, Wrath of the Math in '96 with the epic Premiere beats, the playa-hatin lyrics and that oh-so buttery flow, me and my Maple Ridge friends decided that as long as we had a big bag of weed and the CD on repeat, we would never have to leave my parents garage. Alas, the spell wore off and the last of us left the garage some years ago. But, thanks to guys like MF Doom, that dank, resin-stained, concrete box lives on in the 2G, if only in our hearts. Here's a track from one of Metal Face's numerous instrumental/accapella Special Blend releases.

"Ya Playin Yaself (Mugwort)" MF Doom vs Jeru The Damaja (dead link)

"Did I Step On Your Trumpet" Danielson

Look at these upstanding young citizens. They don't want to kick your ass. They just want to play you some really eccentric pop music. The dude in front is Daniel Smith from Clarksboro, New Jersey. He and his revolving-door collaborators record under the name Danielson. (which I choose to believe is a clever Karate Kid reference) And their new album, Ships, is receiving quite the critical rim-job. Allow me to toss my humble tongue into the mix. This album is full of surprises. A new song jumps out at me with every listen. You can safely file it next to your Arcade Fire, Decemberists, Frog Eyes and Sufjan Stevens albums. Just don't tell Daniel. I think he'd prefer to live beside Wesley Willis.

"Did I Step On Your Trumpet" Danielson