Wesley is actively pursuing a human-like social life. If only we could all be so lucky. Here are some songs that I have been enjoying as of late.
Once the hypnotic drum beat kicks in on “Aly, Walk with Me”, the opening track of the Raveonettes’ 3rd Studio Album Lust Lust Lust the Danish retro-rock two piece group begin yet another masterfully crafted act of misdirection. Guitarist Sune Rose Wagner and Bassist Sharin Foo both contribute vocals and utilize layers of swirling, mystifyingly simple melodies, rhythms, and their trademarked overpowering, mind-blowing, psychedelic guitar distortion to craft songs that are at once kitschy, dark and heartbreaking. 
I've started doing a weekly cartoon entitled "Wesley the Robot". If you're not familiar with the character simply look to the right of my header logo and there you'll find the distinguished automaton.
From the opening island rhythms and retro string lines of “Mansard Roof”, Vampire Weekend rings with nonchalant academia. Like the cool kids in class decided it would be really awesome if they started getting A’s for no other reason than to get A’s. The band met and formed while attending
Their self titled debut album embodies the youthful vigor of attending a college without all of the pain and stress of deadlines, relationship issues, and of course immense debt. It’s the ideal soundtrack to riding your bicycle the long way around campus, having a picnic in the campus square with that cute girl from biology, or just reading a book under a tree on a glowing early fall day. The only ominous element present in any of the songs is that you might never see that cute girl from biology again, but all you need to do is hit the repeat button and she’ll appear again. The songs are catchy, concise, and heartfelt. After those obvious elements that have no doubt carried them to the success they experience currently, other things one notices about their music is the apparent simplicity of their song structures. Undoubtedly this adds to the breezy feel of many of their songs, which would also be great for sailing, but each member of the band adds something unique and spirited to the mix. The guitar and bass work adds bright eyed energy to every song they grace, particularly the song “A-Punk” which would be my pick for scenic bike riding song of the year. The drums rocket each song along with an eclectic blend of indie-pop beats and afro-rhythms particularly on the Rolling Stone #67 song of 2007 “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”. Most notably is the work of keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij whose playing is remarkably versatile, imitating organs, violins, and whatever auxiliary instrumentation might be needed to make the perfect companion to each song.
I've been playing the Frankmusik song "Made Her Smile" for months now and I have routinely enjoyed the song's kinetic bombast. Enough to periodically check the Londoner's Myspace routinely. It appears that the synth prodigy has a new album coming out sometime in 2008, entitled Complete Me. You can sample several tracks on the aforementioned Myspace. If you're like me and can't wait for his full length debut, you can listen to his excellent EP Frankisum available here.
Caleb Mueller is a full time graphic designer living in Ontario, Canada. Caleb Mueller is also the one man band glitch-pop phenom Decomposure. He's released three albums of surprising arrangements that are shockingly accessible. The latest of which is Vertical Lines Side A, a collection of sounds he heard on October 28, 2005, condensed and reworked into individual tracks that are as complex as they are strangely beautiful. Think Aphex Twin at his peak with a pop-rock bent.
Thomas of Kimono Kops has been inspired by the coming spring, and like usual, he's been busy, producing the classic track "Outside" by the enigmatic pop artist George Michael. Like always the rave synths swirl and crunch over a reworked beat. Now if only he could share a little springtime with the rest of us...
The opening track “Out at the Pictures”, on Hot Chip’s third studio release, starts off with some computerized feedback and a gentle synthesizer melody that gains momentum until it breaks down into a full on electro soul-funk jam. It’s the aural equivalent of 20 luminescent go-go dancers shaking it in your ear drums. That’s the kind of wild auditory imagination that the
The story of Hot Chip’s synthesized origin is surprisingly organic. The songwriting core of the band is composed of Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard. They met during their sixth form at the
With the backing of notable indie/dance record labels, Hot Chip pressed on, recording their next album entitled The Warning, entirely in their home recording studio despite offers to work in a professional studio from DFA records. The difference between Coming on Strong and The Warning is as much as night is to day. It’s definitely the same group with the same kinds of sounds but everything has been amped up. The rhythms are manic and heavy, sound sampling is all over the place, the songwriting takes on more twists and turns while the lyrics and vocals simultaneously became more open and accessible. Alexis Taylor even acknowledges the press regarding the first album in the lyrics on the lead single “Over and Over” by singing “Laid back? I’ll give you laid back!” The album was a commercial and critical success with two songs from the album, “Over and Over” and “Boy from School”, emerging as top ten UK singles and the band was recognized in 2006 by being nominated for the Mercury Prize, they were beaten out by Sheffield rockers The Arctic Monkeys, but that didn’t stop them from becoming a wildly popular touring juggernaut. Because of their intense touring, the band converted part time members Al Doyle and Felix Martin into full time members.
After a string of tour dates, remixes, and a DJ Kicks album (Featuring the original song “My Piano”) released in 2007, Hot Chip released their anticipated new album “Made in the Dark” on Feb 4th 2008. From the start the album sounds more precise and more focused, that’s not to say that it’s predictable in any way, each song is distinctly its own, whether it’s a forward thinking floor filler or a heart felt ballad. The obvious lead single is the straight ahead impulsive pop number “Ready for the Floor”, which was actually written for Kylie Minogue, but for whatever reason she didn’t perform it, so the band took it right back and filled it with their trademarked ticks and clicks and guitar licks. Another standout song is “Shake a Fist”, that starts off as an ominous dance number about drugs before pausing and unleashing a bassline that’s got a fair shake at world domination.
Hot Chip has crafted an album that travels to all corners of the popular music paradigm while retaining their unique approach and sound. If you fancy dance floor throbs, sensitive slow jams and everywhere in between give Made in the Dark a spin. I dare you not to dance, and yes, head bobbing and toe tapping count as dancing.
Hot Chip - Ready for the Floor
Since I played "The Private Life of a Cat" off of their debut LP Vs. The Snow I have been hooked on The LK's sound collage pop style. The band consists of Lindefelt, an abstract concrete music style sound artist and Frederik who is a master class songwriter. Together they craft some of the most compelling sounds I've heard so far this year. Super melodic pop songs with euro-disco stylings that will make you shimmy and shake while they melt your heart. As if that weren't enough, they're from Sweden, now I've stated before that artists from Sweden must be taking some kind of music enhancing drugs because anything from that country that's been brought to my attention has been outstanding (Jens Lekman anyone?). I've listened through the album a few times now, and I can say, it's a solid listen from beginning to end, I have a feeling that this will end up on my year end best of list. Yes, I know it's just February, but this found sound euro-pop is stunningly well made. Maybe the reason the music is so good is because they stay inside and work on it rather than go out in the snow, the album is called Vs The Snow, after all. If I only had this album and some headphones to fight off a snowy day, I think I'd fair pretty well. As for conspiracy theories on the quality of Swedish music I think I'll stick with my water theory. Someone get me a sample of the water supply in Sweden and check it for the raw essence of good music, then bottle me some.
Here it is, the first radio show of the semester, and I actually had co-host!
Laromlab produces the funkiest sounds you'll hear this year made off of 8-bit machines and vintage keyboards. Imagine a more coherent Crystal Castles with less screaming and the hardest working analog bass in electronic dance music and you're coming close to what LaromLab sounds like.Laromlab Live (w/ Robot Cowboy)
02/04 Phoenix, AZ Trunk Space
02/05 Los Angeles, CA Motion Lounge
02/06 Isla Vista, CA Biko Garage Co-op
02/08 San Francisco, CA House of Shields
02/09 Davis, CA Delta of Venus
02/11 Eugene, OR Cozmic Pizza
02/13 Portland, OR Holocene
02/14 Olympia, WA Le Voyeur
02/15 Seattle, WA Dog Park (House Show)
02/16 Missoula, MT The Palace
02/17 Bismarck, ND Youthworks
02/18 Minneapolis, MS 400 Bar
02/19 Ames, IA TBD
02/20 Chicago, IL AV-Aerie
02/21 Detroit, MI Scrummage University
02/22 Toronto, ON Sneaky Dees
02/23 Albany, NY Valentines
02/24 New York City, NY 200 Orchard
02/25 New York, NY Cake Shop
02/26 New Brunswick, NJ Hidden Cities
02/27 Philadelphia, PA The Fire
02/28 Arlington, VA Metro Gallery
02/29 Washington, DC TBD
03/01 Fredricksburg, VA TBD
03/03 Bloomington, IN The Cinemat
03/05 Louisville KY TBD
03/06 Bowling Green, KY Retrograde Studios (End of Tour Party!)
Albany eh? I may have to make a trip.
The opening track “Three-Way”, of the Magnetic Fields’ 8th studio release Distortion emits a laconic cool that rides on the crest of a surf rock tune that’s drenched in (you guessed it) distortion. The rest of the album follows suit with a fair dose of piano feedback and drawn out guitar tremolos roughing up what are usually neat and tidy pop songs. For those of you who are fans of the Magnetic Fields already, fear not, all the catchy melodies and heartbreaking lyrics remain intact. If you are unfamiliar with the work of the Magnetic Fields, the band is fronted by New York City resident and singer/songwriter Stephen Merritt, who is notable for his baritone croak of a voice, his public image as a hyper-literate curmudgeon and prolific songwriter. Under the moniker “The Magnetic Fields”, Stephen Merritt has been releasing albums since 1991, starting with “The Wayward Bus”. Initially he was not the lead singer of the group. Those duties belonged to Susan Anway, who had previously been the lead singer of the Boston Punk Group “V.” It wasn’t until Anway relocated to
The band moved forward releasing several seven-inch singles and an EP before being signed to Merge records where they’ve released 6 studio albums to date. Starting with electro-country flavored Charm of the Highway Strip, then the Euro-Pop stylings of
Following the success of 69 Love Songs Merritt’s songs have been commissioned for commercials promoting the Volvo XC70 all terrain SUV and Cesar Dog Food. Stephen Merritt also composed the soundtrack of the 2003 Peter Hedges Film “Pieces of April” starring the now Scientologist Katie Holmes with original works and selections from 69 Love Songs. The last official release before Distortion is the concept album “I” that doesn’t use any synthesizer, instead offering up a mélange of cello, piano, banjo, guitar, harpsichord, electric sitar and a 14 track play list featuring songs that all start with the letter “I”.
Wait, there’s even more. Apart from the Magnetic Fields, Stephen Merritt has written works for musical theatre and either founded or participated with several other bands including the 6ths, Future Bible Heroes, The Three Terrors, and The Gothic Archies. The cast of the Gothic Archies includes novelist Daniel Handler, who wrote the Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events, who also plays accordion. In fact, the Gothic Archies Released an album entitled The Tragic Treasury containing songs that referred to characters from Handler’s series. Handler and Merritt also composed original work for the audio book of Neil Gaiman’s children’s novel Coraline.
Stephen Merritt has quite a bit of varied tastes when it comes to music and literature, varying from famous American composer and lyricist Irving Berlin to British shoegaze rockers The Jesus and Mary Chain. It was actually The Jesus and Mary Chain’s 1985 debut album Psychocandy that inspired Merritt for the concept of Distortion. Merritt felt that the production style of that album was one of the last “Shockingly original” sounds in production. So his plan for Distortion was to take a bunch of his songs and subject them to the Psychocandy production style.
Throughout the album there’s some fine examples of heartbreaking situations set to melodies and song structures so fun the irony is bound to make you laugh out loud. The best examples of this are the anti-valley girl pop song “California Girls” and the most self aware depressive alcoholic anthem ever written “Too Drunk to Dream.” There’s something aurally satisfying about the waves of distortion that crash in and out over pitch perfect pop melodies and crafted lyrics. The shape shifting feedback distills the raw emotions of the bittersweet lyrics and allows even more meaning to seep in between the words.
The Magnetic Fields - California Girls
Hugh Frost strikes again with another Sportsday Megaphone remix, this time its a vocoder laced synth propelled take on Operator Please's "Get What You Want". Vastly different than the raucous violin enhanced dance number but still very enjoyable.
