M83′s latest track, Midnight City, off of his forthcoming album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, is solid as a rock. If you’re new to M83 and have just recently gotten in to bands like Washed Out or Toro y Moi, Anthony Gonzalez (aka M83) will most likely blow your mind.
He makes it to the Boston scene on November 20th at the Paradise Rock Club – Learn more about the presale.
“Electric Feel” blew up and becoame the stand out track that folks like Justice would take and remix till you couldn’t remix no more. But for me, it’s “Kids” that makes this album a must have. This song makes you feel like getting up out of your seat, getting in your car, driving into the city with the windows down while going only five miles an hour and causing a riot to form in the middle of Boylston Street as the “Kids” start an impromptu dance party.
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M83 is a master at electronic music who uses a lot of dark and heavy sounds with many of his influences coming from the shoegazer scene made famous by bands such as My Bloody Valentine.
But on this year’s “Saturdays = Youth”, Anthony Gonzalez, the main dude behind M83, decided to take his childhood influences he experienced in the 80′s and turn it into an album. If you know the French culture, especially within the younger generation, you know that a good portion comes from American pop culture. He was watching some of the same movies we were watching by guys like John Hughes (Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club).
This was timely released by Anthony in the summer since this time of year brings about those teenage memories. I had it on heavy rotation during the summer and wasn’t sure how long it would last but I’m happy to say that the sound is not confined to dreamy summertime moments. “Kim & Jessie” as well as “Couleurs”, a rousing 8 minute long 80′s jam, still can be heard kicking through my headphones on the way to work in the morning.
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Watch the video to “Lights & Music”: http://www.imeem.com/pitchforkmedia/video/xT3jKg4I/cut_copy_lights_music_music_video/ If you’re hosting a party and everyone’s being lame, just standing around, with their hands in their pockets, just pop on “In Ghost Colours” by Cut Copy and let the onslaught of electronic synth hooks take your guests to the next level. That and make sure to throw in some more liquor into the jungle juice.
This Aussie duo definitely put out one of the best dance albums this year. They love revving up the crowd with their climatic sound. They’ll get your feet cruising for the first minute or two of the song then they’ll pull back, let the bass and keys do a little vamping back and forth. They hold on to this vamp till the pressure in the room can’t get any higher and then boom, the drums kick in and we’re off dancing the night away.
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/sigurros Download songs from their website: http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/media/ Stream the whole album: http://widget.nabbr.com/sigur_ros.html I think this release by the Icelandic genius’s, Sigur Ros, didn’t sit well with some folks. A lot of their albums do have a very dark presence to them. Just like their native country of Iceland, who’s winters don’t see much sunlight and the overall landscape is very rough, dark and is mostly inhabitaed by uncomfortable walls of ice. Yet there’s a strong beauty. I’ve never been but Amanda and I hope to visit one of her best friends from college who’s from Iceland. He just had an adorable little baby girl.
While I’d hear about the beauty of this country, I obviously had no personal experience having not visited. Watching Heima, Sigur Ros’s documentary, this passed year helped get us a little closer to understanding the beauty of not only the land but the people. The documentary followed the band around the countryside where they played very intimate, private shows, to all the towns people within various provinces. In one case, they played in a village that had only one official resident.
So it makes sense to me that the follow up album to this DVD/Album, was one that was overwhelming joyful and happy. For the first time, a Sigur Ros album played as a perfect background to the summertime occasions of sipping lemonade and bbq’ing in the backyard.
As you can see, I’ve been messing around with my blog theme. If you know bloggers, you’ll know how antsy we get after about a year with the same blog design. We’re always trying to find ways to make it look cleaner, sharper and in my case, hip to be square.
I’m happy with this new template as I like the posts streaming down the left hand side versus the middle of the two side bars. And I like having two sidebars as half the point of a blog is to direct readers to other places in the blogosphere so it’s important to have plenty of room over there.
Hope you enjoy the new look. Keep an eye out for a new top banner design. I plan to really tweak that up.
As for music I’ve been jamming too, the new M83 and Cut Copy have been the perfect soundtrack to these coming summer months. M83 called his new album Saturdays = Youth because of the obvious, when you think of Saturdays you think of youthful teenage years. His just happened to be in the 80′s watching John Hughes movies and listening to Cocteau Twins. So it’s fitting to say that since summer also reminds us of youth that the release date for his album is perfect timing indeed.
Cut Copy’s new release, In Ghost Colours, is another album that fits nicely into the coming summer days. Their sound is similar in the sense that they mix in that 80′s vibe with the synth melodies. But the two albums in general take on a life of their own. M83 takes the drama of the 80′s and injects it into every song. Cut Copy on the other hand takes the 80′s dance club scene and pumps it through modern day machines and out comes a new age electronic genre that has been coming our way for some time now but there is no question they are going to help lead the revolution.
Stand out tracks for Saturdays = Youth are “Graveyard Girl” and “Couleurs”. The later is an eight minute long jam that rises and rises in it’s presence with each synth line becoming larger then life itself. The opening base line is this fuzzy synth effect that is reminiscent of a lot of the French dj’s such as Justice and Busy P. Gives the song a real tough interior but then you lay a nice floating clean synth line over top, a classic 80′s moment is born. He adds an echo effect on the guitar chord that enters about 3 minutes in and from there he keeps adding more percussion and more deep synth lines. It’s one heck of a ride. In fact, I’ve queued it up for my morning alarm song and it works perfectly. I set it to go off about 2 or 3 minutes before I really want to wake up to ease me into reality.
Graveyard Girl is the single off the album and there’s a great video that was directed by Matthew Frost. Pretty classic 80′s theme here. Distressed teenage girl with no friends hides out in the graveyard and the popular guy who becomes infatuated with her. While he knows it’s not cool to dig the outcast, he can’t help but dream about being with her. Ah, those confusing teenage years.
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Watch the video for “Graveyard Girl”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2624877118754524218In Ghost Colours is great because it flows like you’re at a club with one song connecting to the next. There are themes that pop in and out. Most notably the theme to the single, “Lights & Music”, you hear showing up towards the end of tracks or stuck in the background. They really did a great job with this album and I look forward to hearing how the live version comes out. They play the Paradise Rock Club on May 12th (Purchase Tickets). Why we get stuck with another Monday night electronic show I have no idea. Oh wait, I know, because Boston is awkwardly stuck up in the northeast and bands either skip us or make a quick trip up here after a weekend long binge in NYC. However, I will say that Hot Chip put on one heck of a show for their Monday night gig so maybe the cure for NYC hang overs is playing an epic show the next night. At least that’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.
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No, my Spanish is actually not that great. But I did my best. I may have told a few people that they smell like cheese by accident when looking for the Plaza Meyor but in the end, everyone was quite understanding. And no words can express the gratitude that Amanda and I have towards our two tour guides, Taiki and Jose. If you need a tour guide, let me know. Taiki is fluent in 10 languages and can take the best pictures. Ha.
I’ve been slow going on the review front but I’ve been in the works on a new article for the city based website, Ajisignal.com. My first article for this site was for the Providence, RI native, Deer Tick. This time around we decided to take on a more seasoned artist. No, we’re not talking about gray haired and aging indie rockers such as Dinosaur Jr., but rather a Boston based, former Seattle transplant, Tim Walsh (aka TW Walsh), and his new band, The Soft Drugs.
So keep your eyes on Ajisignal.com over the next couple days. Or, you can keep your eyes posted here as I will most likely be posting when it goes up on their site.
Finally, I want to share with you the U.S. tour dates for M83. I haven’t talked about his new album much but I’m really excited for it because every review and bio of the recording fits right in line with my love for the 80′s. M83 (real name: Anthony Gonzalez), has come out saying that the main influences behind “Saturdays = Youth” are the many 80′s based bands and movies that helped develop him into the artist he is today. From bands such as Tears for Fears and Cocteau Twins as well as the movies of John Hughes; Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink to just name a few.
For the album, Jose brought along producers Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros, Sugarcubes, Cocteau Twins, Suede, Clinic) and Ewan Pearson (Tracey Thorn, Ladytron and The Rapture).
On the road Jose is bringing along the following band members – Loic Maurin on Drums, Pierre-Marie Maulini on bass and guitar and featured album vocalist Morgan Kibby (of LA-based band The Romanovs) on vocals and keyboards. Jose will be playing vocals, guitar and keyboard.
The album is due April 15th on Mute and the single, “Colours”, is being released on February 26th and includes an exclusive remix by Jori Hulkkonen. Stream the song on their Myspace page or stream it via WMP or RealPlayer.
M83 on Myspace (HERE)
M83′s official website (HERE)
“Saturdays = Youth” tracklist:
You, Appearing
Kim & Jessie
Skin Of The Night
Graveyard Girl
Couleurs
Up!
We Own The Sky
Highway Of Endless Dreams
Too Late
Dark Moves Of Love
Midnight Souls Still Remain
U.S. Tour Dates:
Tue 5/20 – Los Angeles @ Echoplex
Wed 5/21 – San Francisco @ Great American Music Hall
Fri 5/23 – Portland, OR@ Doug Fir Lounge
Sat 5/24 – Vancouver @ Richards on Richards
Sun 5/25 – Seattle @ Neumos
Wed 5/28 – Minneapolis @ Triple Rock Club
Thu 5/29 – Chicago @ Empty Bottle
Fri 5/30 – Toronto @ The Mod Club
Sat 5/31 – Montreal @ Cabaret Music Hall
Mon 6/2 – Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Downstairs
Tue 6/3 – Brooklyn @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Wed 6/4 – NYC @ Bowery Ballroom
Fri 6/6 – Philadelphia @ First Unitarian Church
Sat 6/7 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
