Spoon – New Album, Vid
If you haven’t seen the Stereogum video yet of Spoon performing one of their new tracks, “Don’t You Evah”, then you must watch below.
This song, even with the faded sound through the video mic, sounds amazing. For me, the best written pop song is always one that has less rather than more in it’s textures. When you get in to writing avant garde music, the more the merrier. But when you’re aiming for a larger audience, you have to structure the beat, melody and harmonies in a way that is easy to embrace. It’s a theory widly practiced not just with pop music but in Jazz as well.
While this theory expresses simplicity, it’s not necessarily simple in technical terms. The music they are playing together is difficult to perfect. You can’t just take four random musicians off the street and tell them to sit down and do what Spoon is doing in this video. Charlie Mingus once said, “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity”. It’s this idea that makes Spoon such a great band and I can’t wait for this album.
Album Track Listing:
1. Don’t Make Me a Target
2. The Ghost of You Lingers
3. You Got Yr Cherry Bomb
4. Don’t You Evah
5. Rhthm and Soul
6. Eddie’s Ragga
7. The Underdog
8. My Little Japanese Cigarette Case
9. Finer Feelings
10. Black Like Me
Links of Interest
Menomena Live Review
Head over to QRO Magazine for a review of Menomena’s live show this past Wednesday here in Boston at the Great Scott.
Article Link:
http://www.qromag.com/Reviews/Concert_Reviews/Menomena_%3A_Live/
Sounds like their live sound is just as powerful as their studio output.
The Slip done good
This is The Slip playing “Airplane Primitive” from Eisenhower, their debut record for Bar-None. It appears to have been made in a Rolling Stone studio of some sort. Dig the harmonica solo in the middle. And the fact that bass player Marc Friedman is actually playing guitar while he plays giant MIDI bass foot pedals.
The Slip are still touring strong (Eisenhower came out in November of last year), but this time around they’ve finally been getting some serious recognition. My Morning Jacket took them on tour, they played on Conan O’Brian, and had a song featured on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Considering we were seeing them in dive bars in Montreal a few years ago (Le Swimming, anyone?), it’s great to see more folks are catching into these dudes via baddass rockstars and the mass media. Enjoy.
This post was brought to us by Fred “Tweez” Torphy – myspace.com/fredtorphymusic
Menomena tonight in Boston
Tonight at Great Scott, the Pitchforkmedia.com hyped group from Portland, OR., Menomena, is gonna jam with Field Music (ah, their ok) and Land of Talk (got some hype at CMJ festi). Menomena play some weird indie rock melodies. They’ve got some unique way of recording vocal harmonies and piecing them together. But it’s basically three guys in a basement crafting together some songs that will be interesting to see played out on stage. I’m picturing a laptop on the side of the stage that gets fiddled with from time to time. Just a hunch as I’ve never seen pics of their shows or do I have any prior knowledge from friends that have gone.
MP3: “Weird”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Go to The Yellow Stereo to download track
Moving beyond tonight’s show, if you have interest to learn where they got their name, follow the links below. The one time I pick up the Metro I discover something really interesting and compelling that I just have to post about.
First, go to this wiki article to learn about the Swedish Sex movie, “Svezia Inferno e Paradiso” and the origin of the song “Mah Na Mah Na”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahna_Mahna
Then watch this YouTube video of the Muppets rendition of the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwSFSkJvwZ4
Andrew Bird – eMusic Exclusive
Andrew Bird released track, “Self-Torture” – (Not found on Armchare Apocrypha )
“I knew this one girl, drowned in her on curls, candy color swirls that never seemed to end”
“I could not comprehend of what she said to me…”
“Tales of rituals, Self-torture, she is making you…”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The song, to me, seems to be about a boy remebering a girl, with curls, that he loved and wanted to be with. He envisioned that the universe would bring them together in classic serendipitous fashion. But, as Bird notes at the end of the chorus, “a scoreless victory for ser-ren-dip-ity”, the boy is left with his fate in his own hands. We don’t know how this story ends, does he get the girl or does he move on to find another girl to dream about, but as with most Bird songs, the listener is left to his or her own imagination.
The track is short, clocking in at 3:38. While short, it is a nice addition to any Andrew Bird fan’s collection. How can you get this track you ask? Well, you could go over to the Hype Machine and download it from one of the other hundred or so blogs that have posted the track for free, or, you can head over to eMusic, join for free for a month, get 25 FREE downloads and use one of your downloads to get the song. If you don’t like the whole “pay for your music online” concept, you can quit the subscription before the end of the month.
Links of Interest
Funky Nashville from Denmark
On their myspace page they describe their sound as Americana / Southern Rock / Surf. Just with that description alone I got giddy. I’ve been in a big surf / 60’s era rock mode recently. Southern rock is always at the top of my list and one of my favorite bands if not the favorite is the quintessential Americana band, Wilco.
However, Funky Nashville, a band I was introduced to by MuseBox, don’t quite live up to my expectations. They played during the SXSW MuseBox sponsored showcase, Nordic Nights, where bands from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland were giving it their all to the industry elite.
Do they achieve the sound they’re looking for, in all honesty, yes. There is the southern twang, short and quick guitar riffs remeniscent of the surf rock mantra’s. Their vocals, however, bring them down. They’re not strong and are a bit flaky. With this kind of music, the last thing I’m looking for is a Ricky Martin. What we want is something a bit more rough around the edges, like Neil Young. But the vocal melodies bleed over in to the song and in general develop this cheese factor that can’t be ignored. So the twang in the guitar and the surf rock beats are lost in the mix and instead of feeling like a “highway groove”, as they call it, it comes out more like “backroad pop”.
Links of Interest
“Gone Away”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
(download song at Brooklyn Vegan)
Myspace Page: www.myspace.com/funkynashvilleband
Offical website: www.funkynashville.dk
For the weekend – New Chromeo Track
I’m saying good bye for the weekend by putting a little bounce in your step. It’s suppose to be a beautiful weekend here in Boston. I hope where ever you are, in a sunny or gloomy corner of this globe, I trust that this song will brighten your day.
Here’s to sticking out that hip, pulling it back in, taking that foot and giving it a spin;
We’ll take that hat, off the rack, roll it down our arms and over our backs, and with a hop skip and jump, we’re off to the club looking for some love now aint that a fact, but there’s nothing in the corner no nothing is a lurking except my “fancy footworking”
Chromeo “Fancy Footwork”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I like Sweden, they’ve got a big natural crater amphitheatre
They also have a ton of pop bands that are aiming their mics at the shores of the U S of A. The most recent Swedish implosion coming from Peter Bjorn and John. But there is another group, or rather, artist, that I’ve been listeing to. The band is called Loney, Dear and I give you a short song review from their album, Loney, Noir.
Loney, Dear – “I Am John”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
It amazes me to listen to music produced by one man when it sounds so much bigger. It’s not just a testament to the artist but to the evolution of music production and tools that we now have at our disposal. But lets be frank, without the artist the tools are just objects. Emil Svanangen has been praised by his home country of Sweden as “one of Swednes, if not the world’s, absolute best bands right now” (Dagens Nyheter, Swedens biggest daily newspaper). That might be a bit of an overstatement but there’s no question Emil has exceptional skills when it comes to writing a pure song. With “I Am John” the essense of purity is abound. He has chimes, a basoon, stomping, falseto pitches and it all comes together with one transition to the next. The song just builds and creates an epic sensation in your bones, the kind that shoots your hairs up from the roots. And yet, it is only one man at the knobs. Quite impressive. He is joined by friends during his live act to help keep the sound of the record, Loney, Noir, in tacked.
Buy the Album From Sub Pop (US Label)
Pre-order if you live in the U.K.
Loney, Dear is currently on tour, opening for U.S. Label mates, The Shins. Visit his website and myspace page to learn more about the tour and the music.
March 20th – New Releases
Starting from my number one pick for this week and working my way down…
1. Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha (Buy) – “Heretics” -
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
2. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (Buy) – Listen on Myspace
3. Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (Buy) – Listen on Myspace
4. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Living with the Living (Buy) -
“Bomb.Repeat.Bomb.1954″
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
5. Panda Bear – Person Pitch (Buy) – “Bros”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
6. Ponys – Turn the Lights Out (Buy) – “Double Vision”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
7. Low – Drums and Guns (Buy) – “Breaker”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
8. Depeche Mode – Black Celebration (CD / DVD) (Buy) – “A Question of Lust”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
9. Foreign Islands – Restart Now! (Buy) – “Fine Dining With the Future”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
10. I’m From Barcelona – Let Me Introduce My Friends (Buy) – Listen on Myspace
“Party Dream” – DVD Clip
Gil and Donny are going to be releasing a live DVD soon. They’ve released a clip in to the YouTube world and with out further ado…
For more Gil and Donny video’s, go to http://www.youtube.com/analogmonkeyvideo
About Editor
Name: Luke "Kip" Owen
Location: Boston, MA
Contact: kippy[AT]hip2besquare[DOT]net
Twitter: twitter.com/kipdog
Youtube: youtube.com/kipdog
-
-
