July 2, 2009
You guys. America is so great! It's basically The Very Best (Featuring Ezra Koenig). Can you name another country that has a holiday where the sole intention is to celebrate the contribution independent record labels have made on the shape of pop music? Pretty much only the USA. These colors don't run too much.
"Don't tread on me" - James Hetfield.
To help with your civic duty of taking stock of the past year in MP3s, we've assembled a mix of the sunnier side of 2009's highlights. As always, these tracks are totally free, just like America. This weekend isn't just about celebrating music, though. It is also about celebrating the right to drink on roofs with good friends in good weather. So this mix isn't a mood-spanner. It's upbeat! And sequenced for consumption on a cloudless day, with a crew, buddies, BBQ, and booze. Or a patriotic jog. A perfectly timed soundtrack, really, since it never rains these days.
Continue reading Stereogum's Independents Day Party Mix...
Posted at 5:04 PM by amrit in
latest by Lauren Reagan
All of that is true. Also true: With the current expansive fawning over Grizzly Bear it could be easy to temporarily forget about Dan Rossen's Department Of Eagles. It gets more difficult, though, when In Ear Park's title track is soundtracking Soft Bank commercials featuring Brad Pitt and a sensitive sumo wrestler. It gets slightly easier again when you find out the commercial's only airing in Japan, but more people watch YouTube than television (unsubstantiated claim), so that's not a legit hurdle. Anyone care to interpret?
Continue reading Department Of Eagles Sell Us Brad Pitt's Strength In Japan...
Posted at 3:47 PM by brandon in ,
Tags: Brad Pitt | Department Of Eagles
latest by Elvis vs. Shark
"In Peoples' Homes" is a somewhat misleading introduction to To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie's second album Marlone, but as we mentioned when we called the Minneapolis duo a BTW, Jehna Wilheim and Mark McGee are good at smashing expectations. So, no, you shouldn't leave thinking all of Marlone's 10 tracks are sweet, upbeat 2-minute pop songs, because most are five-plus minute icy, shimmering, ambient, distorted, clanging, and haunted Portisheaded excursions that have a different way of locating their hooks. The group recently toured with dark folk labelmates Boduf Songs and are currently finalizing some Marlon videos. It's hard to tell what's happening in the cover art, but this is what's happening here:
Continue reading New To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie - "In Peoples' Homes"...
Posted at 3:06 PM by brandon in
Tags: To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie
latest by destro
Girls' pretty up-all-night video for "Hellhole Ratrace" captured the song's romantic somnambulance perfectly. The harmonica-lined "Solitude," which shows up as the "Hellhole Ratrace" 10" B-Side, conjures an after-hours feel, but with a prom-y two-step (a la Modest Mouse's appropriately titled "Sleepwalking") and a half-awake, much older Bright Eyes-enunciation. The track's called "Solitude," but Christopher Owens and Chet "JR" White are anything but lonely in the above pic. Their 12-song Album is forthcoming, which should find them even more friends.
Continue reading New Girls - "Solitude"...
Posted at 1:45 PM by brandon in
Tags: Girls
latest by derek
Franz Ferdiand took two stabs at a "No You Girls" video, for the "Can't Stop Feeling" they opted to squeeze two takes into single frames via all sorts of split-screen hyjinx. The guys pull and shove, do push ups and presses, sweep each other away, and end it all by slapping themselves in the face. (If their music career ever stalls, maybe a buddy sitcom would pay the bills.) A number of props -- teddy bear, hypnotizing microphone, bucket, basketball, jello-o, giant synthesizer -- are thrown into to keep your eyes doubly occupied. As far as your ears, download the "Can't Stop Feeling (WhoMadeWho Remix)" in the handy Domino widget, after taking a look.
Continue reading New Franz Ferdinand Video - "Can't Stop Feeling"...
Posted at 1:42 PM by brandon in
Tags: Franz Ferdinand
latest by johnny anon
Following last week's surprise single -- like, surprise it's out, and surprise it's a house jam -- Kele and the gang deliver this video as a top-off to the one-off. It's both goofy and emotional, between Matt Tong stonefacing the corny keyboard bro, and all the lost souls hoping for one more chance, and that this time things will be different, only to retreat into a a well of tears at the realization that no, nothing will be different, there will be no more one more chances, and sometimes the best you can do is accept your solitude and take up exuberantly entertaining Bloc Party drummers with your house piano chops. Because sometimes that is life, and sometimes that's the best it's going to get. If you're lucky, maybe you'll even get the drummer to smile for a second before it's all over. And maybe that'll be enough.
Continue reading New Bloc Party Video - "One More Chance"...
Posted at 12:39 PM by amrit in
Tags: Bloc Party
latest by Elvis vs. Shark
Longstanding San Diego crew the Black Heart Procession have a new album out in October. It's called Six because it's their sixth album (i.e. don't forget 1998's 1, 1999's 2, or 2000's Three). The band's "number" albums have been my favorite collections, so hopefully this new one, the followup to 2006's Spell, finds the guys in some sort of return to form. The first single "Rats" is dark and slinky. No surprise there. Maybe a surprise? Three Mile Pilot -- Black Heart's Tobias Nathanial and Pall Jenkins' earlier (and pretty super) band with Pinback's Zach Smith -- are releasing a new record and have a July tour set up. Until then, Tobias, Pall, and other Co.
Continue reading New Black Heart Procession - "Rats"...
Posted at 11:35 AM by brandon in
Tags: Black Heart Procession | Three Mile Pilot
When John Vanderslice did "Too Much Time" with the Magik*Magik Orchestra, we suggested that, actually, perhaps he wasn't spending enough time with the so-called "official house orchestra" of his Tiny Telephone studio. Case in point: Check out this lush take on Romanian Names' "Forest Knolls," which features a strumming/crooning Vanderslice backed by four extremely focused operatic vocalists, a steady booming drum, a pianist, and a flautist. (It's like he's becoming the Decemberists in this moment.) Like last time, it was shot by Nate Chan and Yours Truly at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Continue reading John Vanderslice Explores His "Forest Knolls" With The Magik*Magik Orchestra...
Posted at 10:15 AM by brandon in ,
Tags: John Vanderslice
latest by Sophia Santulli
