College campus heroes Ra Ra Riot and Vampire Weekend have been buddies for years. Ra Ra spent 06 and 07 opening for the Editors, Art Brut and Tokyo Police Club. The release of their debut LP got delayed after their drummer, JR Pike, died last year. His untimely death inspired the song “Dying is Fine,” which is probably the band’s most interesting song yet. Vampire Weekend on the other hand has been all over the place this year, including here. Both bands are typically categorized as “Indie Rock/Pop”, although I’m going to have to check with Sabrina to make sure they’re not Lo-Fi Math Rock with a hint of Twee. Given this, it came as a surprise to me to hear the sound and style of the new project “Discovery”.

Rostam Batmanglij (the brains behind the VW sound) went to his buddy Wes Miles (lead singer of Ra Ra) and told him that he wanted to make an EP that sounded like a collaboration between The Album Leaf and T-Pain. The baby of this collabo is the “Discovery EP” which can be heard on the pair’s Myspace page. Rostam has Wes singing through an auto-toner on one song, uses fatter synths than DJ Toomp laid down on Kanye’s Flashing Lights on another track, while dropping poppy romantic lyrics like “Oh baby baby baby babe, how long am I supposed to wait, I think about you nightly, can you tell I’m nervous every time you speak?” over sweet sweet electro-pop beats.

The three track EP is sweeet and features three songs that I can’t download anywhere. So head over to their Myspace page and enjoy:

http://www.myspace.com/discoverdiscovery

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.

Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

Vampire Weekend - Walcott

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:

• The Muggabears: a noise-pop trio from Brooklyn
• Standstill: a five piece emo punk band
• The Paper Makers: a folk/rock girl duo from Brampton
• Steve Singh: a singer-songwriter from Toronto
• The Miles: three 18 year old kids from Toronto
• Spiral Beach: four 18 year old kids from Toronto

For the rest of this post, I’m going to focus on Spiral Beach and The Miles.

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The Rural Alberta Advantage (Website/MySpace), a local Toronto trio originally from Edmonton, writes folk-inflected songs of ‘hometowns and heartbreak’. Their homesick love-song lyrics attempt to embrace the advantage of growing up on the Prairies. With only one solid local word-of-mouth and a home-burned five-song EP, the Rural Alberta Advantage have become one of Toronto’s most beloved local indie acts. Only great things are expected to follow suit. In the mean time, check out some of their songs below:

The Rural Alberta Advantage - Four Night Rider
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Edmonton
The Rural Alberta Advantage - The Dethbridge in Lethbridge

I realize the title of this post is exactly the same as my previous post, except for the fact that I now present to you Mando Diao (Website / Myspace) instead of We Are The Take. I was debating with myself whether or not the title of this post deserved something clever and unique, to compliment the witty-ness of Mando Diao’s music. Witty-ness? Can I even say that? Who cares, it’s my post! When debating this question, I came to the conclusion that I don’t like Mando Diao more than I like We Are The Take. Rather I admire them both on the same musically ear soothing level (if that’s even possible). Although one could argue their styles are completely different, but alas I digress.

If you’re looking for some new summer tunes to get strapped up into your I-pod (or whichever hand held musical device you prefer, or possibly even a compact disc? *crowd whispers*) then I suggest you take a listen to Mando Diao. If you haven’t even heard of them, that’s even better. Start off with their older stuff and move on to their newly released album, Ode to Ochrasy. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. And if you are, let’s take it to the schoolyard chump!

“We don’t believe in fashion. We do believe in style. We don’t believe in taste. We do believe in flavour. We don’t believe in rules. We do believe in science. We don’t eat every day. We do make music every day. We sing about love. We sing about hate. We Don’t Look for attention, But do we have yours? We don’t believe in commercialism. We do believe in Success. We don’t believe in sleeping. We do believe in dreams. We are the take.”

It’s not everyday an indie band comes and sweeps me off my feet, its just not that easy. Usually it takes more than just a clever EP to convince me the first few tracks weren’t just good luck on the bands part. We Are The Take (Website / Myspace), however, knocks me flat on the floor, picks my ass back up, does it again and then sweeps my feet right off the floor where I actually feel like I’m flying. No, I wasn’t taking any ridiculous drugs! Thanks though. The band itself is a drug to me, NO NEED FOR S.I.I (snorting, inhaling, ingesting). That’s the best kind! The clever lyric and sound make for great tunes. If The Beatles and Neil Young had a baby, which would be completely impossible (but let’s just pretend like its not), We Are The Take would be it. It’s that kick back and relax, close your eyes kind of jam. Perhaps I should wait for their other tracks and then go on to make the previous statement, but at this point its what I can gather. I’m hoping to catch a show one of these days, because they’re always performing in Toronto and I suggest the same to you, unless you aren’t into the drugs that you don’t need to take to feel good. That is completely up to you.

For their complete band schedule, the wheres and whens of it all, check out their Myspace!

   “Borders” by The Sunshine Underground

   from: Leeds, England
   album: Raise the Alarm (2006)
   [Website / Myspace]

   “Ageing Had Never Been His Friend” by Love Is All

   from: Gothenburg, Sweden
   album: Nine Times That Same Song (2006)
   [Website / Myspace]

   “We Danced Together” by The Rakes

   from: London, England
   album: Ten New Messages (2007)
   [Website / Myspace]

   “North American Scum” by LCD Soundsystem

   from: New York City, United States of America
   album: Sound of Silver (2007)
   [Website / Myspace]

That is the name of the debut single from Los Campesinos!, and lucky for us, it’s free. The Cardiff, UK based band has put the song up for download from their website for rien. Marxists? I think not, but damn fine indie pop with the energy of punk rock. The first thing that popped into my head was an indie pop version of Born Ruffians, unless they’re already indie pop, in which case I’m just confused. Genres suck. But one thing I’m not confused about is how snappy these songs are. You can also download some additional songs on their Myspace page. Click on the links below to get your slice:

  We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives 7′’
     a. We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives
         We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives.mp3
     b. Don’t Tell Me to Do the Math(s)
         Don’t Tell Me to Do the Math(s).mp3

They have a funny (cute, if you will) video for the lead song based on the same artwork as the release cover. Their site claims the song is not a protest against violence, but the video doesn’t make much of an argument. Enjoi!

To anticipate the release of the Think Before You Speak LP on March 19, Good Shoes will release the Never Meant to Hurt You 7′’ (Clicking the title will stream the music video) I don’t know how I feel about the song yet, but if it’s anything like the last two singles, I won’t be disappointed. Check out the All in My Head and Photos on My Wall videos at YouTube. (Website / Myspace)

The Whip I’ve never heard of. But when I watched this video I definitely felt like dancing. Like so many from Manchester before them, they’ve gone the route of Alternative Dance. Their erotically (maybe) titled song Muzzle #1 has just been released as a video that can stream here. Just watch as the drummer concentrates to get the off-beat right. They also have a bunch of songs and remixes available on their Myspace page. (Website / Myspace). Enjoi!