Another British outfit this week. Grand National is a two man show with a pretty broad spectrum of sound. They have everything from repurposed ska tracks, to straight up club banger dance music. The track that I’m sharing falls somewhere in between. It is called “Talk Amongst Yourselves.” Check it.
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If you are like me, then you have been waiting with baited breath for The XX to release some new music for quite a while now. Their self titled (and first) album was released in 2009.I was pretty stoked to see this vid today from the forthcoming album “Coexist.” The track is entitled “Angels” and features only Romy’s vocals. Check it–
Switching things up a bit today with a video for AG. I posted a one of BBC’s videos on Ear Full of Gold, last year. It from from their 2011 album, “A Different Kind of Fix.” They have already released a couple of singles in 2012. I came across this video earlier this week, and love it almost as much as the one that I posted on EFOG. Check out Bombay Bicycle Club’s “Beg,” below:
Last week I mentioned that I would be getting back to the basics, for a bit. This week we are chatting about the newish record from The Shins. I don’t have a lot of favorites of anything. But I dare say that The Shins are one of my favorite groups. I was very excited when the first couple of singles from “Port of Morrow” were released. Even though “Simple Song” (the first single released) is not one of my faves, I am very stoked on basically the entire rest of the album. The track that I’m sharing is “Bait and Switch.” Check it.
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Getting back to some staples this week and next with AG. Santigold released a new album in 2012 called “Master of my Make-Believe” and it is awesome. It reminds me a bit of MIA, minus the fraud. Anyway, I wrote about one of her tracks over here before. Also, let’s not forget the collab she did with Beastie Boys. The track I’m sharing today is called “Disparate Youth.” I love the high energy of this track because of the super high BPM. It balances out well with her mellow flowing vocals. Listen.
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Craft Spells are a relatively recent discovery of mine. But I have to say that I am really digging. As with several of the groups that I have shared on AG in the past weeks (ok, months.. I have been slacking), they have a very throwback late 80’s/early 90’s vibe. Some of their songs sound like Dead or Alive, others like Joy Division (albeit less depressing [if you don’t consider “depressing” to be an inherent quality of Joy Div. Okay, I guess I kind of do too]). Anyway, Craft Spells hail from the land of Curt (Kurdt) Cobian: Seattle. Check out this track from their album “Idle Labor.” It’s called “After the Moment.” Click this [BUTTON] to listen.
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Another golden band (dude) from New York= Hooray for Earth. They have been around for a few years, but I only recently discovered them. In my opinion it is the perfect mix of downtempo and electropop (if that is even a thing). Sharing the title track from the album “True Loves”. Spin it.
I had to throw in this photo from like 2008 or 2009 (long enough ago that I still thought it was a good idea to watermark my stuff, hahahah). It was at the LRG holiday party and Mick Boogie was DJing. Why is that relevant? Because Mick just put out a ridiculously cool Beastie Boys mix to commemorate the rock hall of fame induction. I pulled a quote from Hypebeast:
In honor of the Beastie Boys being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week… I thought it’s finally the right time to do a Beasties mixtape. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time… something people have asked me to do for a long time, actually… but I wanted it to mean something. Now, it’s finally the right time.
I present to you Grand Royal. 80 minutes of my favorite Beastie Boys rarities, remixes, demos, live versions, out-takes, and more. If you’re a Beasties fan, I guarantee you find something new and exciting on this mix!
Here is one of the tracks from the mix “Dope Little Song.”
You can download the whole mix over here.
Along with most other aspects of my life, this blog has been sucking pretty bad lately. I supposed that in large part it has to do with the fact that I don’t really write anything anymore. That isn’t to say that it was “so” awesome or something when I did actually put some words on a post. It is tough when so much that is currently happening in my sphere is unbloggable (in my opinion). To make up for it, I’m going to drop a music post that actually has some meat to it. It has been a while, I know.
The only way that I have been able to motivate myself to run lately, is by listening to music. Sunday when I was out pounding pavement, “Voodoo Chile” came on. It brought back a whole series of thoughts and memories.
I love the music of Jimi Hendrix. I love the idea of Jimi Hendrix. He and Jim Morrison, to me are enigmatic purveyors of the essence of rock. I imagine that the sensations I had listening to The Doors and Jimi Hendrix at a young age is probably similar to what the kids of today feel about Nirvana. I wonder what it must have been like to be a contemporary of Hendrix, to hear him play his upside-down backwards guitar live.
I had some friends that I played music with when I was in high school. At the time, we called ourselves a band. We would get together once a week (or whenever) and bang out our 5 or so original songs, followed by a few cover songs, followed by a jam session that would wax on until the neighbors called and asked us to shut it down. After that, we would generally do something like watch a movie, or talk about what gear we were going to save up for.
I remember one particular night after one of the aforementioned jam sessions, my friends and I watched a movie. One cool thing for me, is that I was the youngest member of the band. So, I was able to learn about what was going on with the older kids by virtue of hanging out with my band mates. It also means that my band mates were old enough to rent R-rated movies. I’m going to change some names to protect the innocent. So one night– there we were after band practice hanging out in Moel Marrard’s basement. Moel had a new release VHS from Blockbuster called “In the Name of the Father.” I hadn’t really even heard of it.
The film is a period piece depicting an Irish teenager who was wrongly convicted of any IRA bombing in Belfast. The film is extremely moving. My point of sharing this story is that, I was sitting there with Moel and the rest of band mates in the basement of the Marrard family residence. The movie had been on long enough that I was starting to get super captivated. Suddenly there was a very powerfully shot riot scene where all of the IRA kids were charging the cops with bricks and bottles. The soundtrack to that scene was “Voodoo Chile.” That was the first time I had ever heard it. I was blown away. The guitar, the biblical references in the lyrics, all of it. I couldn’t believe that I had spent 16 years of my life without having heard this song. The raw emotion that I felt seeing those riot images with Hendrix’s guitar blasting, literally gave me goose bumps. I almost get them just writing about it.
That was a really long way of saying that I really like this song. Turn your headphones all of the way up and give it a spin.
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A good friend of mine tipped me off to the new Miike Snow album “Happy to You” this week. Seriously digging it. Here is Pretender
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Punting again this week. It has not been a good one. I mean, here it is Thursday and I’m just now getting to AG. I love Lykke Li. Or that is, there isn’t much I have heard by Lykke Li that I don’t enjoy. Getting a bit thematic for a moment… sometimes I am listening to a track in the background while I’m doing whatever– suddenly I start paying attention to the lyrics and say to myself in my mind’s voice “totally.” Such an occurrence happened to me tonight when I was listening to “Everybody but me.” Check it.
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Upon the suggestion of Siobhan, we are listening to Tycho this week. I’m not extremely familiar with this band. I am a lot more familiar with the outfit that writes ISO50, who does all of Tycho‘s album artwork (above). Their stuff is topnotch downtempo material. The track that I’m sharing is actually a remix. It’s called Coastal Brake (Lusine Remix).
Going for a major throwback today. I have really been digging on the sounds of the 70’s lately. I have been a huge fan of Led Zeppelin since I discovered them in my youth. The track I’m sharing today is “Good Times, Bad Times.” This is not only my favorite Led Zeppelin track, in my opinion it is a perfect example of everything that a rock song should be. Spin it.
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First things first. Jake’s Mag turns 200, with this post. Second thing second. I have been on a bit of an electronica kick again lately. Here is relatively old Booka Shade track. It’s called Body Language. Check it. Third things third. I am about to add the running widget back to my sidebar. Tomorrow morning I plan to go running. Outside. I know. We’ll see how far these chubby little legs o’ mine can carry me after a winter’s worth of atrophy.
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You may recall Crystal Fighters from the soundtrack of this longboarding vid. And to be quite frank, I had kind of forgotten about them until I was listening to a playlist that my homey Matt posted on EFOG the other day. CF turned up remixed in the mega-45min track at the end. Made me feel like sharing it today. Here is “At Home.”
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I actually posted about this video on EFoG in December, but thought it was worthy of sharing on here as well. For people who are hoping that this video is pervy, you will be disappointed. Despite the sort of racy thumbnail of the video, it is very tame. Here is what I said on EFoG.
I came across this vid the other day on OEN. I have to say that I was quite fond of the track and the imagery in the vid. Beyond having an older euro-spec Audi, this video (shot with a pair of Canon 7Ds), offers up a captivating cut that melds well with the song. The track is by Bombay Bicycle Club. It’s called “Lights Out, Words Gone.” The video was made by Karim Huu Do. Enjoy it, below.
I can’t say that I love everything RJD2 does. But I like enough of it to keep some of his tracks on my playlist most of the time. He isn’t your run of the mill 00’s dj. As odd as it may sound, I like a lot of his “live” stuff better than what he does in the studio. I particularly like a breezeblock set that he once did for the BBC’s Radio 1. But it’s 28 minutes long. So, I’m not going to share it on this post. I feel like a lot of the stuff on his albums is a little bit too overproduced and busy. Anyway, as I mentioned above, he has enough good stuff to keep him interesting. The track that I’m sharing today is from “Since we last spoke.” It’s called “1976.” Which is a dope year. Listen here.
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This is a bit of a twist on the normal AG post. Also, it is several days late. Notwithstanding those two items… two amigos of mine are working on a project that I feel like is noteworthy. I wanted to pass it along. For anyone else who is a Gen-Xer, you know how the cassette tape change the world. When I was young, I had stacks and stacks of tapes. It (is) was an amazing medium. I had a dual cassette boombox during my breakdancing phase circa 4th-5th grade that I brought with me everywhere. The term “mixtape” (i.e. the medium that launched careers for guys like 50 Cent), came from this quasi-obsolete medium. Without droning on for too long (apologies if I already have), please check out the kickstarter trailer for this fantastic film that my friends are attempting to bankroll. If you are feeling a little bit of the cassette in your heart during this holiday season, please go the extra mile and donate a bit of cash, as well. Peep the film below–
Possibly one of my fav’s right now, I like so many things about Cut Copy. The vocal style is reminiscent of so many of my favorite 90’s faves. Actually their style altogether is very 90’s-esque. I also give ’em extra points for being Aussie. The track that I’m sharing today is from “Zonoscope.” It’s called “Blink and You’ll Miss a Revolution.” Spin it.
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