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Kanye’s Moving Painting

Posted by George on August 9th, 2010

I don’t really want to preface this so just click the link and watch the video.

General Update!

Posted by George on June 5th, 2010

Apologeeeez

all around for the long break in posts. I guess it proves how reliant I am on my sister’s incredible and tasteful prolificity.

Anyway, because I’m really busy with finals and truthfully not too good at this, here’s a post to keep things going and to keep us rolling: Let’s Go!

I hope you’ve been enjoying “Power” by Kanye. It’s pretty hot. However, there’s a new band that P4k’s picked up on, giving them the prestigious “Best New Music” title a week ago. The band is Tame Impala and I’ll be damned if you don’t think they sound like the Beatles. (Zach Kelly at P4k says, “Frontman Kevin Parker shares an eerie vocal similarity with John Lennon, both in tone and in the way he allows his voice to soar with each melodic turn or rhythmic surge.” Quite true.) I’ve added their track “It’s Not Meant to Be” to the player so check it out. (Wait that’s not Lennon!?) They’re not a ripoff but just as my friend Tom said, “It’s like the Beatles kept making songs, but didn’t age.”

Next, I’d like to show you this kickass video for the Jaydiohead mashup that was made not long ago (Radiohead + Jay Z = Jaydiohead… derp). The mashup is brilliant and if nothing else, be impressed by this CLASS-A dancing in this video.

Also, Radiohead’s Phil Selway released information and cover art for his new solo album, titled Familial, which is set to come out August 30. Yay? (I don’t think it’ll upset.)

Phil's album cover. Looks promising!

Thanks guys for bearing with us.

George

M.I.A. Drops Some Killer Music

Posted by George on May 14th, 2010

/\/\/\Y/\

^ This is apparently the title of M.I.A.’s new album. She’s dropped two songs from this album already, both of which are incredible, and one even sports a really gruesome video to go along with it.

The most recent track is called “XXXO” and it has two manifestation currently, a remix by Blaqstarr, and the much better original. Listen to the original here:

The remix version can be heard on her label’s super badass blog.

EDIT: Violence seems to be a theme with videos these days (oh my delicate sensibilities!). Watch Nine Inch Nail’s Trent Reznor’s new band How to Destroy Angel’s bloody new video over at pitchfork.tv

Watch Local Natives on Fuel TV

Posted by Larissa on April 30th, 2010

This is appropriate after my last post. I talked up “Sun Hands” and suggested you check out local natives playing live. Here is a new video of them on Fuel TV playing “Wide Eyes”. I also added the video from P4k of them at SXSW because it’s one of those things that could get circulated around youtube for being ridiculous.

Tek Subport: DJs giving you Planet Earth at its best

Posted by Larissa on April 19th, 2010

These guys really had it down in every aspect of their performance except one. Their music, their image, their atmosphere, and their originality were perfection, but I really suggest that they change their scene.

Tech Support Tek Subport played at the ODDSAC screening After-party held at the Senator Theater. They paired fresh beats with vintage eighties songs, they paired dance music with looped flutes and guitars, and they paired a helicopter baseball hat with Discovery Channel’s Planet Earth. That was probably my favorite part of their performance – behind them, a giant screen showed some of the best clips from Planet Earth. But the music was not right for the crowd before them. If you’ve ever seen hipsters dance you know what I mean – they need funky stuff to throw their bodies around to. If the music is too controlled they don’t know what to do with themselves. If you haven’t seen hipsters dance please see my post about Dan Deacon.

Anyway, Tech Support Tek Subport had a really controlled sound, perfect for the kind of dancing I had been doing at Power Plant on Friday night but not perfect for hipsters. In fact, they sounded a lot like the stuff I heard being played all over clubs like Mynt in South Beach, Miami. They have a Dubstep feel so they’re definitely joining the emerging genre of dance music.

I congratulated them after the show and they said they play somewhere in Baltimore every Friday night. They are seriously impossible to find online so check them out below – we need see more of these guys in the future.

Correction (4/20): Tek Subport is spelled as such, not like the geek squad people.

Thom Yorke Solo Concert Review + The Incredible Flying Lotus

Posted by George on April 13th, 2010

The only thing

Thom Yorke has ever wanted to do was make dance music.

If you’ve listened to The Eraser though, you’d hardly ever guess this was the case but if you look closely, Thom has left us some subtle clues. Most obviously, a lot of his stage presence is centered around his awkward squirmish dancing (perhaps his inability to dance normally stems from his inability to make traditional dance music/or vice versa). However on Sunday when I saw Atoms For Peace, Thom’s solo band, play at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, I thought to myself, “by George, he’s done it!” What I meant is that Thom finally was playing really groovy dance tunes he had been going for since his college days as a DJ. The live band he assembled perfectly transformed The Eraser into an album of dance music. The entire floor was dancing more erratically and consistently than I’ve ever seen at a Radiohead concert. Even Thom’s onstage dancing was a bit more like normal. It was a powerful performance.

The Full Band at the Aragon playing Black Swan

Flea, Thom’s bassist, was an even more incredible dancer than Thom and commanded the focus on stage almost as much as Thom did. I think at one point they were trying to out-dance each other. Flea not only made the concert more visually appealing (a beautiful light show really fit the mood of the performance) but I think he is the reason that the songs turned out so well. His bass playing was infectiously sick and without him I doubt the concert would have been half as good. The bass line on “Black Swan” was especially milky and made me wanna go “Oh YEAH!!!!!”

The main part of the concert was them playing straight through The Eraser and without a doubt, every song sounded far better live than recorded with the exception of “Analyze”, which just sounded muddy and confusing live.

Thom Yorke playing "Airbag" on his acoustic. Note the Lighters.

The band played a seven song encore with the first half of it being Thom solo. Highlights from the second act were Thom playing “Like Spinning Plates” (a sublime performance) and “Airbag” which surprisingly sounded like a Neil Young tune and had people waving their lighters at the end.

It was a fast paced, visually pleasing, and very, very danceable concert. The crowd was fun and I’d give a lot to be able to go back to it. Wow.

Anyway…

Flying Lotus' Cosmogramma

Lastly, I want to say something about Thom Yorke’s opening act, Flying Lotus. This guy is like the next DJ Shadow. His beats is ILL and he’s not bringing it next level, he’s making a whole new level for himself. He’s already got the production credits, the incredible mastery of splicing, looping, and layering, and most importantly, he’s got Thom Yorke behind him. I can’t believe that after that entire concert, the only piece of audio I can offer you guys is a leak from FlyLo’s next album. I mean it’s the best new song I’ve heard all year but I stood there at the concert thinking I was recording the entire concert binaurally (which would have been a trip to listen to) but alas the recording sounds like robotic vomit as a result of super hard clipping. But don’t be sad, cuz this track kicks serious ass; it’s sure to make your head spin.

LISTEN

EDIT:
I found these videos of “Black Swan” and “Harrowdown Hill” from the concert I saw. Good example of Flea’s awesome playing and personality on stage. The quality of the audio is not such that you can really tell how incredible the bass playing was but at least it’s better than what I came out with.

Why Glo-Fi? We are not endorsing this

Posted by Larissa on April 6th, 2010

Maybe it’s because we grew up in the nineties, whatever the case, George and I think glo-fi eighties nostalgia is whack. We cringe when big names such as Pitchfork eat this stuff up.

Eighties revival is no stranger to any art scene. The fashion world has been pushing neons, scunchies, and pink leggings on us for years now. I’ll let Ray-Bans slide because I like them way too much. The Rubik’s cube is okay as well.

Glo-Fi

Neon Indian http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlJ27Dcv4fc

What we think is more satisfyingly relevant than 80s nostalgia is a 90s comeback. It’s about that time that us 90s children are entering the work force and creative scene, so it’s likely that rather than seeing a serious endorsement of glo-fi stuff we’ll begin to see a support of artists like Die Antwoord – a disturbing but excellent musing of Eminem with ‘a post-modern Ali G factor.’

‘Look at me now, all up in the interweb’

raps Waddy Jones.

Phil Selway of Radiohead Debuts New Song

Posted by George on April 5th, 2010

At first I thought I was looking at Billy Corgan,

but then I realized that it was the drummer of my most beloved band. Phil Selway I guess has been working on a new solo album and he’s doing some touring around Europe right now and this clip is from an Italian show I believe. I have no idea what this song says about Phil as a member of Radiohead but I’m not going to really think about it too hard and neither should you really. It’s an okay song and kind of just interesting. If anything, I hope we hear some more of Phil’s voice on Radiohead’s next record. That would be cool. Anyway, enjoy!

In spirit of SXSW: Deer Tick, Baltimore Blues

Posted by Larissa on March 22nd, 2010

It seems artists tend to write only depressing songs about Baltimore, ‘Raining in Baltimore’ by Counting Crows, or not write about Baltimore at all! I believe Chiddy Bang mentions Baltimore in their song, ‘All Things Go’. That was relatively exciting. Well this lack of representation drew me to Deer Tick’s song titled, ‘Baltimore Blues No 1′. I did not expect it, but this unassuming song  lead me to download the rest of Deer Tick’s album, War Elephant, and become infatuated with every folky, indie, incoherent aspect of it.

I am predicting that Deer Tick may be to me in 2010 what The Antlers was to me in 2009. A small band, full of talent, that I fall in love with and devotedly follow. We will see though. Deer Tick hopes to release their new album, The Black Dirt Session, this May.

In spirit of SXSW, here is Deer Tick’s performance at this festival in 2008. With songs like, ’sink or swim’, it’s hard to deny that their music screams Dylan. But, whatever, they do it well and you’ve got to love the skinny white kid on the double bass who reminds me all too much of one of our friends who plays the cello. Below is ‘These Old Shoes’.

‘These Old Shoes’

Bruce Willis helps Gorillaz Stylo Video Kicks Serious Ass

Posted by George on March 2nd, 2010

Our mad fanboyism for the Gorillaz has no end.

stylo

The video for the first Plastic Beach single, “Stylo”, gets a standing ovation of approval from the aphera team. It has me licking my lips for more but also scratching my head as to what’s really going on. References to other songs and amphibious automobiles just make the video worth a second/third/fourth time through it.

Click the image above or RIGHT HERE to watch the video.

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