Sorry I disappeared for a minute there. The first excuse was I was out having way too much fun and kind of stopped noticing which day was which, and then the second excuse was I was clinically dead for a few days with some nasty bug. Of course the two occurrences are in no way related. Either way I came out of it roughly resembling Frankie Wilde after his stint in the pillow room, but now I’m back on my grind and ready to speed harder than ever.
I looked things over, and I can’t believe I never wrote anything about Santogold. She’s in with Mad Decent and a lot’s been said. Here’s my Coles Notes: A lot like M.I.A. except her songs are better, and that annoying dude with dreads who lives down the block from you doesn’t think she’s the future hope for humanity.
My!Gay!Husband!’s got an unhealthy obsession with Feist. Pretty standard edit till about 1:45 when it drops harder than the rain in a popular Christian Slater movie.
Speaking of unhealthy obsessions, lately I can’t get that Kate Bush song “Running Up That Hill” out of my head. I play it on repeat all day every day. I always hated Kate Bush. I’m going to get this checked out. But in the meantime, check the take Purple Crush did on it; lots of fun and just a touch less likely to leave you questioning everything you thought you knew.
Rest and fluids are important components of any recovery from illness, and I certainly had both in abundance, but I’d give most of the credit to this record which was playing over and over last week because I couldn’t be bothered to put anything else on. This track is a New Orleans classic and it’s always been a favourite of mine. I think I used to throw on a version that a Vancouver DJ, U-Tern, did of it at some of those first dance parties.
I’m not too sure how to reflect upon my frustration with the indie scene as of early 2008, so I won’t even try (be glad, I’ve just spared you a volume of reading). However, it is a new year and with its coming I’ve decided to make some resolutions, because that’s what a new year is all about. One of those being that I will search ’til my eyes pop out and my ears explode for something that moves me (musically speaking, of course).
The search went on for days, without water or food and my mouth became as dry as an army of cotton balls (that’s pretty damn dry!). But alas, the voyage has ended! After days of MySpace searches (I know, it’s creepy! Sue me!), I have found something, or rather someone, worth writing about.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Mandippal Jandu; a young and talented East-Indian artist born in Leyton, London, England and raised in Canada. Some of you may already be familiar with him because of his already growing popularity, and if you aren’t, GET FAMILIAR! I mean, honestly, at the tender age of 22, how many of us can say we’ve already accomplished so much and reached out to so many people?
This past summer, Mandippal released his first EP entitled When It’s Only Me Standing, and it is definitely something you need to hear for yourself.
Just when I thought all hope was lost, and my interest in the indie scene had faded completely into the background, I found a spark that ignited the passion that was flickering inside of me (that was pretty damn indie right?).
Anways keep an eye out for Mandippal Jandu and if you have the chance to venture out to one of his live shows, I suggest you do.
I hope that 2008 is treating everyone absolutely stunningly. After nearly a month of recharging my batteries in the States (Clipsburgh Pistolvania Represent), I have returned to school with both a new lease on life and a new blogosphere bandwagon that I have jumped on. As previously referenced in passing, I am very much enamoured with Vampire Weekend, a highly talented and unfortunately named band. While the name of the band sounds like it was taken off of the front of a Hot-Topic bestselling T-Shirt, Vampire Weekend crafts an incredibly catchy mix of pop melodies and African harmonies. The lyrics of the band’s XL debut (due out Tuesday) read like the life-and-times of a priveliged New England 20 something WASP struggling with love and lust (Did I mention the band met at Columbia?). If that description doesn’t spark any intrigue, I’ve got nothing for you. Check out “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” and “Walcott” below, and expect more frequent updates from the Blogosphere Bandwagon coming soon.
Primary 1 come from the homeland of neon and bedhead (London) which automatically gives them COOL status and The Shoes are from France…
London + France in one remix = ubercoolness
On this side of the ocean…Steve Aoki…I love him. LA Riots…I love them. Uffie…I love her, but she doesn’t show up for her concerts, so she gets less love than the others. Oh, and Scanners…they’re Euro and wonderful.
“Death to Los Campesinos” is the first song on Hold on Now, Youngster…, the soon-to-be-released debut album from Los Campesinos!.
Those Dancing Days are a all-girl band from Stockholm. Here’s the video for the self-titled single “Those Dancing Days.”
To warm us up for the debut LP Morning Tide to be released in April, The Little Ones have released “Ordinary Song”, their first single seperate from their debut, the Sing Song EP.
“Waving Flags,” the first single taken from the third British Sea Power album Do You Like Rock Music?, continues their seemingly perfect streak of epic singles.
Delays deliver another dancefloor-filler with “Love Made Visible” from their new EP of the same title.
I first heard of Spiral Beach when I saw them opening for The Go! Team last year. Later, in December, I bumped into Airick and Maddy, the two lead singers of the band, at Bathurst Subway Station downtown. They told me about these free concerts at The Drake Hotel that take place every Monday, and that these concerts were supposed to be some kind of secret. “No one’s supposed to know about them,” they said. Spiral Beach was to play at one of these concerts on January 14th, and Airick and Maddy invited me to come and see their show.
The Drake Hotel is this great little place on Queen St. West claiming to be a “hotbed of culture,” and has an archive of newspaper and magazine clippings on their website to boast about it. The weekly free concerts take place at the Underground and are called “Elvis Mondays”. Apparently these concerts aren’t that much of a secret as they are advertised on their website and MySpace. However, they don’t do very much advertising on top of that. The tradition of Elvis Mondays was started by William New, and they’ve had notable bands such as Billy Talent and Sum 41 perform there before they were even famous. On Monday January 14th, Elvis Mondays celebrated their 30th anniversary.
Six bands performed that night. In order, they were:
Based out of Montreal, Graham Van Pelt has created the closest thing anyone has come to a Beach Boys record of the new millenium. Mixing layers upon layers of guitars with catchy melodies, the similarities never end as he even has a voice similar to Brian Wilson. But there’s nothing unoriginal about it, because he picked one of the hardest pop artists of the 20th century to copy, so coming close is a pretty great feat. On top of that, he’s not trying to top the Beatles, so he did it all without having a nervous breakdown.
The Clientele’s first full-length release Suburban Light (a compilation of singles and compilation tracks) is perfect. Released in 2000, any unknowing listener would have to assume that it was recorded in 1966. That being said, their first two albums were unsuccessful attempts to re-create the soft, romantic mood of the earliest work. Not to say they were bad, they just showed no growth from a creative band with much potential. Their last release, God Save the Clientele, has the band expanding their sound, which has something to do with the addition of Mel Draisey on keyboards and strings, giving the band a much fuller, less subdued sound which dominated prior releases.
The Pipettes are good, but Lucky Soul are great. Where the former had great singles and an album which didn’t quite live up to them, Lucky Soul have created one of the most consistently enjoyable albums of the year. Like the Pipettes, Lucky Soul rock the 60s girl group sound familiar to fans of the Shangri-Las and Lesley Gore. Just like those songs from days passed, although the songs have upbeat drums, strings, and horns, they are all tales of lost love and heartbreak, everyone’s favourite topics.
Sweden is taking over the pop world. I like almost everything I hear from Sweden, and one of the best examples is The Tough Alliance’s new album A New Chance. It’s definitely a retro-sounding album that takes its cues from 80s new wave and 90s dance, but don’t let that fool you, because this album is unlike much you’ve heard.
Oh Jens. His songs are great, and although all of the albums are dubbed “collections of recordings” spanning several years, all of the songs on his newest release Night Falls Over Kortedala play perfectly as an album. His charming wit and somewhat bizarre/cute romanticism find a home among consistently perfect melodies and lush arrangements. This album is Tigermilk good.
Happy New Year (two weeks ago)! I finally got around to ushering in 2008 (a fortnight late) with a new volume of “Indie Lexicon”, aiming to volumize your vocabulary, plump your perspicacity, and straighten your senses relating to musical genres. Hopefully I can do this without stealing any more adjectives from my shampoo bottle.
Math rockers are a lovable, slightly abrasive, nerdy bunch of hipsters. Cousin to space- and noise-rock, its heavier big brother is known as mathcore (a name which amuses me to an extent where I can’t actually appreciate the music it encompasses). The definitive aspect of math rock is the rhythm. Instead of using 4/4 common time, math-ies usually play with asymmetrical time signatures. Also, most popular music will subtly switch the signature 2-3 times in a song, while math rock is known for frequent dissonant, jumpy transitions. What this means to us non-musical-non-math kids: instead of the tune playing over the regular beat of the drums, the rhythm becomes a large focus of the music. Usually layered with this geometric-sounding drum pattern are synthesizers, screechy guitar, and the occasional frenetic vocals, although a lot of math rock is instrumental. The overall effect is sometimes chaotic, often jarring, but almost always interesting.
I’m not completely versed with the genealogy of this field, but it all kind of started out with art-rockers like Frank Zappa, Yes, Rush, etc. When it developed into a more distinct category, some key contributors (bringing an edgier feel than its artsier predecessors) were Drive Like Jehu, Q and not U, and Shellac (Official site/Fan myspace). As for more recent examples: Last year Battles released a stellar album in the genre, “Mirrored”. Definitely worth more than one listen. Mahjongg are soon to officially release Kontpab, which I’ve checked out already. I don’t think it will stay in my permanent listening repertoire, but it fits in well with the category.
Finally, although they aren’t pure math rock, Holy Fuck’s 2007 EP and LP were certainly numerically influenced with their organic lo-fi electronic goodness. Here’s the vid for Milkshake, apparently directed by Chad VanGaalen (news to me).
Of course, most modern math rock is overshadowed by the satirical genius that was 2ge+her on their smash hit, “U + Me = Us”.
Okay, so maybe “smash hit” was a half-truth… at least watch it until they start singing the words “plus sign”.
Death Country
The first time I ever heard this term used in a musical description was as a self-descriptor within an article about Elliott Brood. As a matter of fact, they seem to be one of the only bands to label themselves as such, so maybe this is a bit of a cop-out on my part. But hey, we don’t feature country of any variety very often on this site, and in my opinion, the best kind of country is the macabre kind.
Death Country brings the banjo back into the darkness. Many country songs use the plucky instrument to implement a sense of sarcasm into their sad songs about heartbreak and loneliness. Here, it highlights the dark themes of the songs. The vocals often embody a harsher tone, as opposed to the cavalier twang of the traditional cow-person singer. At the root of it, it’s quite hard to separate Death Country from Bluegrass, except that you rarely hear chilling Bluegrass songs about hangings. And Elliott Brood do it well. They also throw a wicked live concert; I caught them in late 2007 at a small Kingston venue, and they created an atmosphere that was infectiously danceable and thought provoking at the same time. Here’s a sampling of some favourite tracks, enjoy!
2008 is looking like it’s going to be another great year in music, especially for fans of Death Cab for Cutie…
This month, Death Cab for Cutie’s guitarist and producer Chris Walla will be releasing his first solo LP on Barsuk Records. Some die hard Death Cab fans may remember some solo songs featured on cassette and others under Martin Youth Auxiliary, but Field Manual marks his first “official” release of sorts.
In May, Death Cab for Cutie will release their 6th studio album. The record sounds like it’s going to be one of my favourite Death Cab albums, based on all the news and interviews about it. The words loud and weird are being thrown around. Ben Gibbard spent time at the “Big Sur” cabin writing songs for the new album, where author Jack Kerouac spent time to wind down, so it should make for an interesting listen with the possible return of the “Barsuk Mens Choir”?
Also in ‘08, we have…
Ben Gibbard and Feist collaborating for a song for the Red Hot and Indie compilation
Ben Gibbard acting in Brief Interview with Hideous Men, written and directed by The Office’s John Krasinski.
Ben Gibbard guesting on the new Nada Surf album Let Go.
A possible Postal Service album late this year, but I’m going to guess next year.
It’s been a couple years since my last visit, but I think Chicago is rivalled only by New Orleans for coolest American city I’ve been to. And with apologies to Weezy, it definitely wins for my favourite scene going on right now too. So I thought I’d highlight some of my favourite acts going right now for you to maybe check out more of if you like. No Kanye or R. Kelly here, but rest assured everyone involved in these tracks is certified Chicago’s finest, and I’ve got nothing else to say so just enjoy the riot.
