Filed under: Uncategorized
…won’t be posting for a while. Sorry.
Filed under: Single Reviews | Tags: Dev Hynes, El Guincho, Lightspeed Champion, Los Campesinos!, Lykke Li, Sky Larkin
As promised, this post is decidedly Bloc Party-less. But just because I’ve left off one of my obsessions doesn’t mean I’ve left them all off. You’ll see a few familiar faces in this post in the likes of Lightspeed Champion, Los Campesinos!, Lykke Li, El Guincho, and a not so familiar Sky Larkin. Again, the review of a relatively unknown band is coming up soon, so until that time, I hope you enjoy what I’ve provided for you. Aren’t I such a good guy?
Lightspeed Champion – Back To Black Ah, Dev covers Amy. This song was good enough as is, but what is it with Lightspeed Champion’s voice that makes me what to listen to anything he sings? Now I might even have to cave into the pressure and listen to the original version again (Oh! To even consider it!). DOWNLOAD
Los Compesinos! – How I Taught Myself To Scream Their recent album release has only been out for half a year. Now, after six months, they feel it’s time to release a new album (if only all bands would do that, eh?). This is a b-side for the latter release. Think lots of noise and very Los Campesino-y. DOWNLOAD
Lykke Li – Little Bit (Loving Hand Remix) We all know how I love Lykke Li. This was the first single of her’s that I heard. This was the catalyst. It’s much longer than the original, as it includes a long music outro. I myself am not a fan of this remix, but that doesn’t mean you won’t like it. DOWNLOAD
El Guincho – Palmitos Park I recall making a request for El Guincho to make more remixes for the near future. In short, he did. With summer winding down, we need one last “hoorah!” and he provides it. And as a bonus, he kind of makes me feel like I’m in “Grease” or something. Where’s my leather jacket? DOWNLOAD
Sky Larkin – Molten Fans of Florence and the Machine take note: Sky Larkin are for you. They’ve recently performed alongside Los Campesinos! and Those Dancing Days in Berlin, and now, after bursting onto the scene, the Leeds natives are offering their single, “Molten” for download. DOWNLOADFiled under: News, Releases, Single Reviews | Tags: Bloc Party, Kele Okereke, Mercury, New Song
I understand this is supposed to be a music blog and not a Bloc Party fan page, but just bear with me, I’ve got an artist review on the way in the coming days. For now, we have more Bloc Party. Much criticism has been shot at Kele for making Mercury and Idea for a Story. Many, including I, felt that Bloc Party was taking a new direction. After the discovery of this olderish song, you can sit tight about the third album.
It makes listening to Mercury and Idea for a Story so much easier to listen to. Oh well, I promise I’ll lay off the Bloc Party writing for a while (but it won’t stop me from listening).
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bloc Party, Gordon Moakes, Kele Okereke, Lollapalooza 2008, Matt Tong, Mercury
Once again sorry for the lack of posting. Things are just going very slowly around the music scene. I’d have to say that it’s probably because everyone is at Lollapalooza right now. Everyone’s at Lollapalooza… except yours truly. Oh well, there’s always next year, right? Though I wasn’t there physically, I did catch a performance or two from the AT&T Blueroom’s Live stream of the event. Of the bands I wanted to see, they showed few. In fact, they only showed one: Bloc Party. All in all it was a pretty typical Bloc Party concert. Towards the end of the show, Kele even threatened to play something new and different, only to let the crowd–and myself–down. He got us all hyped up and then… “Oops. Sorry. Change of plans.” Thanks, Kele.
But aside from the ordinary, there were a few notable differences. For one, as some of you may or may not know, Bloc Party’s bass player, Gordon Moakes, and his wife, are having (actually they’ve had) a baby. So they brought in a replacement until the end of the U.S. tour this year. He wasn’t bad. From what I could tell, he didn’t screw up once. The vocals were, noticably “un-Moakes-y,” but apart from that I had no qualms. He did his job as a temperary replacement.
Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the longest time, I’m sure you’ve heard by now Bloc Party’s newest hit, Mercury. Mercury is an insanely different approach to what the boys from London are known for. I was dying to know how this would sound live. Well, now I know. It wasn’t that bad. Err, until Matt Tong and that other guy started their background vocals. It sounded awful. It was like a cat getting continually run over (“From Silver Lake to Williamsburg/ a-a-voice crack-a”). But towards the second half of the song, they turned it around, and it didn’t seem so bad (that is, if you were a fan of the song prior to). Final verdict: Mercury live… no more.
Finally, a few posts below you’ll see the whole Kele Okereke vs John Lydon thing. Looking at Kele on stage, he really didn’t seem as “fucked up” as I would have expect. I don’t know if he’s healed by now, or if it’s a you-can-only-see-it-in-person kind of a deal, but he looked fine (now) from what I saw.
Video: “Mercury” – Bloc Party (Live at 2008 Lollapalooza)
Video: The rest of the performance – Bloc Party (Live at 2008 Lollapalooza)
UPDATE!: Matt Tong has bitchin’ shorts!
Filed under: Single Reviews | Tags: Converse, Diplo, Santogold, Sinkane, This Is Ivy League
Alright, my dear readers (Yes, it’s readers now. More than just the M.I.A. searchers come here now!), here we go again. You know how it works by now. It’s time once again to update this pain in the ass that is my music blog. Click the links to stream, “right-click, save target as” to download. Have at it:
Converse Century – My Drive Thru What!? You mean you haven’t seen the Converse commercial for the tenth time today!? As if you didn’t hear the song enough, hear it is, yours for the taking. Instead of the annoying commercial-made version, you get the full, FOUR-minute annoying version. Lucky you! DOWNLOAD
Diplo – Diplo Rhythm What’s another week without Diplo? This week is the Diplo Rhythm. I just can’t get enough of him. He’ll make you like songs you thought you hated (cough, cough… Rihanna’s Umbrella-ella-ella). As I’ve already said, anything this guy touches turns to gold, and the “Diplo riddim” is no different. DOWNLOAD
Santogold – Your Voice She’s turning into quite a poster girl. Bud Light commercials, Converse commercials, not to mention that whole Diplo thing she’s doing. Anyway, this was a b-side I was sent a long time ago from some record company. I never posted it on here, and I’m wondering why. DOWNLOAD
Sinkane – Autobahn Ohio native (via Sudan), Ahmed Gallab dreamed up this transfixing number. The highlight of the song comes in at the end when the percussion takes center stage and forces the guitars into the backseat. Is there an instrument he can’t play? The answer is: Hell nah! DOWNLOAD
This is Ivy League – The Richest Kids Whoa! I’ve been time-warped back and forth! Compared to Simon & Garfunkel, Belle & Sebastian and Peter, Bjorn & John, This Is Ivy League is old school, no, wait, new school, no, wait … Stop! Give them a try yourself and you decide exactly. Me likes. DOWNLOADIt’s very unfortunate to report this, but I have to. Some of you may know that Bloc Party is pretty high on my list of favorite bands. In fact, Kele Okereke has been one of the biggest inspirations and motivators of my life. I hold him in the highest respect. Therefore, it will be difficult to report this with unbias, but I’ll try.
Saturday night in Barcelona, Kele Okereke, post-punk kiddie, and John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten), punk granddaddy, had a spat that turned physical. Any Bloc Party news is enough to get me excited. Any Bloc Party news that involves a physical fight, even more so. Any Bloc Party news that involves a 3-on-1 fist fight, sparked by unjustified racial comments, that ends with severe facial bruising and a split lip… well you can imagine. (more…)
Filed under: Album Reviews, Artist Reviews | Tags: Dev Hynes, Lightspeed Champion
I’ve had many, many opportunities to discover Dev Hynes. For about a year now, the name “Lightspeed Champion” has been flashing across my radar from friends and magazines, but I never paid attention to any of it (due mostly in part to my own laziness). Finally, I broke down to the pressure. I just had to see what this “Lightspeed Champion” was all about. And boy am I glad I did! The above title sums up the aftermath pretty well.
Do you remember the short lived Test Icicles, of which Dev was member? A lot of hype surrounded the band, but I just couldn’t see it. Neither could Dev, and thankfully for us, Hynes’ new moniker has taken a different direction for 2007. Lightspeed Champion—evidently, the name comes from a series of comic strips he did as a teenager in his school math books—is a radically different sound to Hynes’ previous band. In fact, he’s ditched his bright pink guitar and searing riffs for a new acoustic, folk-pop approach. Backing vocals on many songs were provided by (but not limited to) Emmy the Great and Florence (of Florence and the Machine). The result was Falling Off the Lavender Bridge, which was released on January 21st of this year.
I could cover two pages writing about why I love each individual song, but I’ll try and limit it to a paragraph. First up we have “Midnight Surprise”. This was the song that started it for me, and for being just shy of ten minutes long, it says a lot that I never lost interest in it (on first listen, mind you). That’s even without with the video, which is a must see by the way. And after listening to that, it feels like his other songs are too short, even at the typical three minutes. Emmy the Great proved to be just the icing on the cake on “Tell Me What It’s Worth” which is credited with 20 listens in 3 days. Hell yeah! And the B-side “Waiting Game” never should’ve been a B-side in the first place. “Galaxy of the Lost”, though not his greatest work, is much better than most songs coming out these days. Anyway, to prevent my needless rambling, if you were going to buy only one new album this year, consider Lightspeed Champion’s, Falling Off the Lavender Bridge as a contender.
MP3: “Tell Me What It’s Worth” – Lightspeed Champion
MP3: “Waiting Game” – Lightspeed Champion
Video: “Midnight Surprise” – Lightspeed Champion
Filed under: Interviews, Uncategorized | Tags: Interview, Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez
When I started this interview, I wasn’t expecting much. I figured I’d shoot the breeze with Lesser Gonzalez, post the interview, and carry on with life, never to read it again. Could I have been anymore wrong? Alvarez proved to be an interviewer’s dream—a true delight. When I first asked him to be interviewed, I was shocked (shocked!) at how quickly, and kindly, he responded. But that’s simply a petty reason to like him. He answered every question I posed with an honest, almost naked, panache. He delivers inspiration by the carriage load, and to top it off, is just a true likeable character. I once believed that David Bazan was the most honest, and authentic musician I’ve ever come across… David Bazan (and everyone else) meet Lesser Gonzalez.
We’ll start it off simply. How have you been recently?
Well, the past few months have been very trying, I’ve had a tremendous loss this year and I’m sort of just now starting to get a grasp on things, it’s come at a time when lots of good things are starting to happen which has made it very difficult to really appreciate those things. There’s been pressures from lots of different sources coming down all at once, all great productive things that need to be done, but all of them have just sort of sprouted at the same time. Slowly things are settling.
You were born in Havana, Cuba until moving recently to Baltimore. What have you found to be the biggest difference between the two areas?
Well I moved to Miami with my family in 1990 where I was raised from the age of 8 to 18 when I moved up to Baltimore for school. I’ve actually been living in Baltimore for about 6 or 7 years now. Baltimore can sometimes seem like a third world country, but I’d have trouble comparing them to each other. I was too young to really see any of the socio-political issues but I guess the difference is in Cuba you lived simply out of necessity and here in Baltimore I live simply by choice.
You’re credited with starting the short-lived band Cache Cache, which unfortunately disbanded weeks before playing SXSW in 2007, leaving you to virtually create a band weeks before the show with friend and bandmate Jared Paolini. How hard was that to do? I can’t image the pressure.
Well In that week me and Jared came up with an entirely new set based on snippets of songs I had started to compose and ideas we had had for a while, and Cache Cache always moved pretty slowly before then, I think when it became just the two of us we just sort of flew through the whole thing, we were hungry to compose new stuff, it took a couple of all nighters but it got done.
There’s been a few changes and other things going on that may have gone unnoticed and I’d like to keep you up-to-date.
1. If you haven’t noticed yet, on the sidebar is a new section called, “On Heavy Rotation.” Evertime I come back and post from an extended hiatus I always mention how I plan to “do more posts” and “return to form”, etc. The fact is, sometimes, I simply don’t have the time. Or if I do, there’s nothing to write. I may not always have something to write, but I’ll always have something to listen to. Therefore, my new feature is an atonement of sorts for this problem. I’ll update it ever week, listing, what I’ve listened to the most for that week (there’s no ranking, just top five). It’s really simple: just click the pictures and listen (or in some cases watch).
2. It seems like only a short while ago (um, probably because it was) I conducted my first interview. I’m pleased to announce, I’m at it again! But with whom? Well, just wait a little while. It shouldn’t be long.
As always, take care my dear M.I.A. Googlers.
-David Hudson
Filed under: Artist Reviews, Single Reviews | Tags: California Soul, Diplo, Pitchtuner, Raindrops
I’ve definately proved unreliable. It seems as though I have one week where I’m writing three posts a day, than all of the sudden, you don’t hear from me for a month. I’m working on that, but than again who visits this place anyway? Er, that is… besides those “M.I.A. clothing line” google searchers. I mean Jesus! When will they stop? I posted that about three months ago!
Anyway, today I was looking at my feet (I promise you, this is going somewhere) and I realized my shoes suck! And so, I began my search for that new shoe worthy of my foot. As what usually happens on the internet, one link lead to another, until I arrived on this site with music in the background… and damn did it rock! Now I share with you my new obssessions:
Pitchtuner – Raindrops. Holy shit this song rocks! It’s so catchy and I just can’t help but sing along. The problem is, I have no idea what the hell she’s saying. But can you blame me? It’s not everyday I’m learning Japanese on Dora the Explorer or anything. But I guess that makes this song that much more fun. I mean, what’s not to love about making up your own words? Sure, everyone in the audience at the concert will look at you like your some freak of nature, but dammit, they’re just jealous because they can’t speak imaginary Japanese. But if that’s not your cup of tea, you can always suffice for the just-as-catchy “ba-ba-ba-ba-ba,” prominent in the background. Either way, you’ll be singing this until midnight.
MP3: “Raindrops” – Pitchtuner [Alternate Link]
Diplo – California Soul (Marlena Shaw). Diplo, by far and away, is one of, if not the best DJ in the music industry today. Everything this guy touches is golden. My iTunes is loaded with almost all of his remixes and jams. That’s right, almost. I don’t know how it happened, but I seemed to’ve skipped over his remix of California Soul (by Marlena Shaw). In fact, this has been out since will into April. It appears as though I’ve missed the bus completely on this one. Regardless here it is. It’s going to grab a hold of you.
MP3: “California Soul (Marlena Shaw)” – Diplo
