Music Recommendation #6

3/13/11-3/19/11 

Alright, I know it's a day late, but better late than never, right?  This week I have The Darlings' "Warma - EP" and Stateless' "Matilda."

The Darlings’ “Warma” is the New York based band’s second record release coming out of Famous Class Records.  Their debut album, “Yeah I Know” was released in 2009.  They have a sound similar to Pavement, the Replacements, and the Thermals.  Starting in 2007, the band is spearheaded by singer/guitarist Peter Rynsky and consists of four friends who, after graduating college, had nothing better to do than pick up their guitars and jam.  This band goes right back to the knitty-gritty of classic party rock.  The guitar riffs and drum beats are steady and simple, and the combination of female and male vocals make for a very uplifting feeling.  The Darlings rose from scrutiny by playing parties and lower level shows and finally got signed, and while the "Warma - EP" may not be much, it's definitely  an uplifting listen.  "Don't Be So Hard On Yourself" is definitely the stand out party pleaser, but "Don't Wanna hang Out Tonight" is my favorite track on the EP with a slower, more mid-century rock feel too it and easily displays the best juxtaposition between Peter Rynsky's more harsh vocals and Maura Lynch's softer ones.  Again, the "Warma - EP" from The Darlings' isn't a lot, but it's a step in the right direction and I look forward to them coming out with their next LP.

Stateless’ “Matilda” is their second studio release after their self-titled album released in 2007, coming out of Ninja Tune Records.  This English electronic alternative rock group is based out of Leeds.  They combine electronic and classical sounds to make for a contemporary, yet cinematic feel.  The album features Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond (“I’m On Fire”) as well as the Balanescu Quartet (“Ballad Of NGB” and “Song For the Outsider”), and  was produced by Bjork producer/programmer Damian Taylor.  Their sound has been described as Jeff Buckley battling Modeselektor with a twist of Timbaland.  While a week ago I may have put Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx on a pedestal for album of the year with seemingly little competition as of yet, Stateless proved me wrong.  Something about what Stateless does just sucks me in.  While people have compared them to several various artists, I can't help but to compare them to more.  To me they have the daring sound of Muse's earlier days with their album "Origin of Symmetry," they take the grand orchestral sound and story telling nature of DeVotchKa, and put it in a blender with some sitar (maybe Ravi Shankar?).  What is even better is that "Matilda" is one of those albums in which every song is a potential favorite.  Out of all of the albums I have ever reviewed for 1190, "Matilda" may be the only one in which I had difficulty picking out my Top 6 Favorites.  To put it in the words of my Music Director, Jessi: "[Stateless]!  Why couldn't you have come two weeks sooner!"  I'm assuming that Stateless would have been made CDotM for March.  

Onto the music though, something about it just comes out right.  I don't know if it's luck or skill, but Stateless manages to combine a number of sounds that are radically different yet mesh and flow flawlessly.  My favorite song, "Ballad of NGB," starts out with a repetition of piano chords and with a soft hint of clapping, shortly followed by Chris James singing "I can feel her rapid waves/ Dark and glittering, sharp and shimmering/ So pure, so damn pure/ Dancing in the kitchen cooking up a snow storm/ Dancing in the kitchen cooking up a snow storm."  This line of lyrics is immediately followed by a booming bass and accompanied by a string section that replaces the repetitious piano from earlier.  I could go on and on describing the almost palpable melodies and tangible rhythms in this piece for ages, but the best advice I can give you is to listen to it.  My other favorite songs are "Ariel" (a song combining sitar licks with a bass heavy back beat and echoing lyrics), "I'm On Fire" (a song combining the trickling of an electric guitar with a beautiful duet between James and guest singer Shara Worden), and "Assassins" (tribal drumming and transcendental bells meet a synthesizer and energetic vocals).  I couldn't rave about this album more than I already have, just give it a listen already.

Shortly (within minutes), I will be posting my review of Lupe Fiasco's new albums "Lasers." Stay tuned for that as well as next week's music recommendations.

Music Recommendation #5

3/6/11-3/12/11

First things first.  This week is Radio 1190's Spring Pledge Drive.  We're an independent radio station and in order to keep it that way, we need our listener's to support us.  All we ask is the bare minimum which helps us keep the promotions going, the lights on, and the music playing.  If you have a minute, go to Radio 1190's website, check it out, and if you can spare a few dollars, donate what you can.  Also, check out this awesome shirt design you could get!

Onto the blog.  I know it isn't Sunday yet, but I have a busy weekend and I've been productive, so I thought I would drop next week's new music on you now.  Sound good?  I thought so.  This week I'm bring you two new albums, Brown Recluse's "Evening Tapestry" and Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx's "We're New Here."

“Evening Tapestry” is the debut LP from Brown Recluse out of Slumberland Records.  The band formed in the early 2000s and self-released their first EP, “Black Sunday,” in 2007.  Their second EP, “The Soft Skin,” was released in 2009, shortly after they released a cassette-only release on Dead Format called “Selected Hymns (Of the Evening Tapestry).”  They combine narrative lyrics with a psychadelia-tinged indie pop creating lighthearted, flowing tunes.  Brown Recluse does a good job of making their music seemingly innocent on the surface.  At first I thought it was really fluffy and light, and nothing at first glance really gave me the impression to believe otherwise.  However, when I went through it again I noticed some of the lyrics are deep, profound, and some times disturbing.  "March to Your Tomb," the closing track of the album (contrasting the opening song, "Hobble to Your Tomb"), has an upbeat, light guitar melody, but the opening lyrics are as followed: "Smeared my blood on the neighbor's fencepost/ Dragged my arm like a limp fraying paintbrush/ Trimming hedges by her briars/ They gashed my pale flesh like barbed wire," after which a twangy guitar solo follows.  Brown Recluse's lyrical content is without doubt the best feature of this album and each and every song has interesting insights not only vocally, but instrumentally as well, a plethora of sounds strung out across the album.  Brown Recluse has a number of interesting stories to tell and "Evening Tapestry" is a strong debut LP for the band.

“We’re New Here” is a collaborative effort between Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx from The xx.  What the duo did was take Scott-Heron’s “I’m New Here” (released in 2010) and remixed it by putting a thick, electronic, bass filled sound behind Scott-Heron’s raspy, hip-hop inspiring spoken word vocals.  This is without doubt the epitome of combining old and new to make something both versatile in sound, yet somehow familiar.  While seemingly far apart, Scott-Heron and Jamie xx are connected through XL Recordings and owner Richard Russell who connected the two.  This album blew.my.mind.  It seems like an odd combination especially because Scott-Heron and Jamie xx are so different: one is black, one is white; one is young, one is old; one is British, one is American; one is a vocalist, one is a instrumentalist.  However, surprisingly, when the two of them come together they create a wonderful fix of old fashioned singing and new age electronic instrumentals.  If "I'm New Here" wasn't already incredible enough, Jamie xx puts a wonderfully innovative twist on the entire album.  The sounds across the CD have a wide variety, each of which has it's own unique feeling.  The trance like, bass flooded, standout favorite of the album, "NY Is Killing Me," alters some of Scott-Heron's vocals with strong reverberation and compliments them later in the song with a high-pitched, repetitive shrieking.  Put that together with the thumping bass, synthesizing, and bells and you get a sound that engulfs you and throws you into a musical chemistry experiment gone horribly right.  "My Cloud," in contrast, shifts both instrumentally and vocally.  In this song, Jamie xx slows it down and has longer drawn out chords with a softer back beat that compliments Scott-Heron's decision to sing instead of use spoken word.  "We're New Here" is an incredible mix of new and old and Scott-Heron puts it best in "I've Been Me" when he says, "If I hadn't been as eccentric, as obnoxious, as arrogant, as aggressive, as introspective, as selfish... I wouldn't be me, I wouldn't be who I am."

So, there's next weeks new music and hopefully I'll be able to bring some of the other music I've been listening to on here in the next week or so.  Look out for a DeVotchKa review in the next week or so along with maybe some other stuff if I decide not to be a lazy college student.  Keep listening and thanks for reading!

Music Recommendation #4

2/27/11-3/5/11

Alright, music time is back on my priorities list and I'm getting some stuff from 1190 that I can share with you.  The first two albums I have for you this year are Paris Suit Yourself's "My Main Shitstain" and The Posies "Blood/Candy."

“My Main Shitstain” is the debut album from Paris Suit Yourself.  Paris Suit Yourself is a French-US collective rock band, the first ever rock band to be signed to Big Dada Recordings.  The combine aggressive, yet funny aesthetics and are a bit like a mix between Public Enemy and mid-period Bowie which is clear by their unique sound.  Lead singer Luvinsky Atche brings his French roots into the album on more than one occasion making for an interesting clash of rock instrumentals and French lyrics.  The album definitely has a unique feel to it: one minute it's very fast passed and has an almost Latin feel to it ("Craig Machinsky") and the next its very minimalist with only echoing lyrics and a slow, steady, repeating bass line ("Soliloque").  What is maybe most exciting about this album is the French lyrics.  While most listeners may not be able to understand what Atche is saying, the way in which he sings the lyrics convey a gradient of emotions ranging from excitation to anguish.  When I was first listening to this album, I almost thought it was going to be FCC clean, but PSY does an incredible job of slipping in uncleanliness in the most surprising ways.  Upon a second listen I realized that every single song has some sort of swear or vulgarity in it, which isn't to say that it's spewing them left in right, but that they're used strategically and almost secretively; you really have to listen to catch them.  Overall, Paris Suit Yourself's "My Main Shitstain" is a very unique and interesting album.  They creatively juxtapose various sounds and melodies without sounding sloppy and the album is definitely a fun listening experience.

“Blood/Candy” is The Posies’ seventh LP, coming from a band that first found its sound in 1988 with their debut album “Failure.”  The band has switched between various labels, but may have found home with Rykodisc, the same record label they released “Every Kind of Light” with in 2005.  Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow (both on guitar and vocals) are the only remaining members from the original Posies, but, thanks to Matt Harris (bass) and Darius “Take One” Minwalla (Drums) taking control of the rhythm section, managed to have a revitalizing comeback in 2001.  At first listen, "Blood/Candy" didn't seem much different than any other alternative rock/pop group, but as I listened to it a second time, I found myself digging it more and more.  What's awesome about The Posies is that their songs fluctuate in meaning.  One minute a song could pump you up and get your blood boiling, but that very same song could be very relaxing and calming in another circumstance.  It's noticeable that the vocals of Auer and Stringfellow are the backbone of the group.  More so than any of the instrumental melodies, the vocals convey the most most complexity and versatility throughout the entire album.  On another note, the album artwork has to be one of the coolest I've seen in a long time.  I would highly recommend snagging this album if you get a chance.  They started back in the late '80s, but have managed to keep their sound fresh and definitely give any contemporary alternative group a run for their money.  My top picks from the album are "Plastic Paperbacks Feat. Hugh Cornwell," "Notion 99," and "Cleopatra Street."

And thus concludes the first music recommendation post of 2011.  More will be coming in future weeks and lookout for other album reviews outside of what I get from the radio.  Currently I'm listening to Destroyer, Braids, and Radiohead, so watch for reviews for any and possibly all of those.  Thanks for reading!

Arcade Fire Winning Best Album of the Year at the 2011 Grammy Awards

Now, I originally contemplated writing a little bit about the Grammys, but decided against it.  However, after a friend of mine revealed to me the inane flood of bullshit spewing onto the internet about Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" (not The Suburb's "Arcade Fire") winning Album of the Year, I decided I should say a little bit about it.

Why everyone is mad

People are confused and as has been the case with history, people don't like to be confused.  No one likes the unknown; no one likes the unfamiliar; no one likes to think they don't know something about anything; no one likes someone they have never heard of winning an award that has a seemingly great deal of importance.  I can honestly say that I have been victim of this sort of ignorance.  A few years ago before I got into the movie scene, I never liked watching the Oscars because I had never seen any of the movies and I had only heard of some of the actors.  If I had ever actually seen one of the movies nominated, it never won, and god knows there isn't an Oscar for Best Comedic Performance, possibly the only award I would have appreciated.  However, this year I can satisfyingly say that I have seen nine out of ten of the Best Picture nominees and am eagerly looking forward to the Oscars.  The problem with the Grammys is that there is so much to cover: there's tons of genres, artists within those genres, and various produces, labels, etc.  For one award show to accurately pick out which albums were the best of a select year is neigh impossible.  

People were worried about Communism too and that tuned out not to be a big deal.

Communism: it's for free

The Grammys had a choice to make: either side with the main stream audience (a large percentage of the TV viewing population) or the large underground community of audiophiles who illegally steal billions of albums and songs from the music industry every year.  It's safe to say that they sided with the main stream audience.  With that being said, these people are unfamiliar with more obscure artists such as Arcade Fire, Esperanza Spalding (both winners from last night), and various others; I wouldn't be surprised if a good number of people said "Bob Dylan, who?" or "Mick Jagger, who?" when they were performing.  Therefore, when the artists they know don't win, they get confused and mad.  They say the Grammys were rigged; they ask how much The Suburbs paid for their album "Arcade Fire" to win; they ask whose d*** they sucked to best Gaga (in all honesty, I'm curious too; no one tops Katy Perry, let alone Lady Gaga).  People are mad because someone they have never heard of (who has an immense amount of musical talent) won something they see as important.  You'd be shocked if in this year's Super Bowl the '72 Dolphins won (Who the hell are the '72 Dolphins?!  I've never heard of them, so they can't be important).

Why everyone shouldn't be mad, but probably will be anyway

While it's clear that most of America has never heard of Arcade Fire (probably because they're from Canada), that doesn't mean that they aren't deserving of Album of the Year.  Okay, maybe who YOU wanted to win didn't win, but that doesn't mean they didn't deserve it.  Most of the people who are complaining think they know good music, and to them it may be good music.  I'm not going to sit here and say that the rest of the nominees aren't talented: everyone knows I love Eminem and to this day he's still one of my favorite rappers; I hadn't heard of Lady Antebellum before last night, but then again I don't listen to country, so I can't say much; no one can deny the creativity of Lady Gaga; and Katy Perry is "meh" musically, but I will say this, she's a great performer.  Arcade Fire had the unfortunate circumstance of being nominated into a huge category with several main stream giants and, although being a complete underdog, actually winning.

While I don't know about Lady Antebellum (although I'm sure they're big among country fans based on how much they won) Eminem, Gaga, and Perry have had numerous Billboard chart toppers.  Unfortunately, what people don't realize is that the Billboard charts don't count for actual ratings in terms of reviewers.  Billboard ranks its albums and songs based on radio play, record sales, and internet streaming play; in a nutshell, Billboard ranks its albums and songs based on popularity.  Whoever sells the most and gets the most air/internet time is going to have the #1 spot.  I can think of off hand a song by Eminem, Gaga, and Perry that was at #1 at some point in time in 2010.  All this means is that those artists are the ones people have heard of, those are the ones that people want to win.  Honestly, I was expecting Lady Antebellum to win with how it was sweeping what seemed like every applicable category.  I think that even if Antebellum won less people would be upset because they had already won three awards prior to the announcement for Album of the Year.  Unfortunately for Arcade Fire, they were an evidently no name band that hadn't won any awards that night (being nominated for only two others, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best Alternative Music Album, losing to the Black Keys on both occasions) and I think it's safe to say that it was a shock to everyone that they won.  

What people need to realize is that just because Arcade Fire won doesn't mean the Grammys are rigged or that you should go on strike from the Grammys, if anything, the Grammys are the least credible major award show in terms of actually honoring their communities respective accomplishments.  For anyone that reads this and is baffled that Arcade Fire won, go to Metacritic and see how your favorite artist's last album did.  Then see how "The Suburbs" did.  Then see how many albums scored higher than both your favorite artist's and "The Suburbs;"  I promise you it will be a good number of albums.  There's a whole world of music out there and not one of us is able to scratch the surface.  Do yourself a favor and start listening to something that isn't played on the radio, I promise you that you'll find something you like whether it be rock, hip-hop, pop, or something else.  Just remember, just because who YOU wanted to win didn't win doesn't mean that who won wasn't deserving.  If anything, out of everyone at the Grammys, Arcade Fire was most deserving of Album of the Year and I for one am glad Taylor Swift didn't win two years in a row.

Congrats to Arcade Fire!  Win Butler: cut your hair.

Hey, it's 2011!

I'm Back!

I promise my month long hiatus wasn't due to laziness (not entirely at least).  This whole "future" business has slowly been creeping up on me and I enrolled myself in an LSAT class to get ready to go to law school, err whatever.  Thanks to Jeremy for snapping me back into a music groove.  To give you an idea of how little time I have to do things, I've reviewed one CD this year for 1190 and by this time last semester I'm pretty sure I had reviewed about five.  No bueno.  Just because that has been the case with 1190 though doesn't mean I haven't been picking up some new music on my own.  On the contrary (forgetting how much music I get when I go on a downloading binge) I have downloaded too much music.  Now, some of you may be saying that isn't possible, you can never have too much music.  It's possible when you download something and NEVER listen to it; I hate doing that.  I'm making my way through as much music as I can that I've snagged, but it's tough keeping up some times especially when a couple albums in particular ensnare me for days on end.  Over the past couple of weeks I have picked up Aloe Blacc, Iron & Wine, Cage the Elephant, Professor Green, The Decemberists, J. Cole, The Dears (1190), Cake, Yuck, and Zonoscope.  I've listened to maybe about three or four of those albums out of the ten in total.  Well, time to get on my horse and get to work!

First, I need to talk about the two albums that I haven't been able to stop listening to in the past week or so, the first being Aloe Blacc's Good Things.  Recently I've become infatuated with Conan O'Brien and a week and a half ago he exhibited Aloe Blacc, a tall, lanky, well dressed man with a silky voice.  While on the show I wasn't terribly impressed by Blacc's performance, I really liked his sound and style.  He definitely has a heavy jazz and blues background in his music and it shows throughout the entire album.  Some of the songs fall into a similar theme as a lot of the others, but others stand out in bright red bow ties among the mob of monotonous music.  Blacc's single "I Need a Dollar" may be the best song on the album, with an upbeat melody, but somber song content involving sorrow, alcoholism, unemployment, and, of course, the blues.  Blacc manages to juxtapose upbeat melodies with counter intuitive lyrics in several of his songs, "Loving You is Killing Me" being another standout favorite.  "Miss Fortune" (possibly my favorite track) has a decidedly darker tone than the rest of the album and the guitar scratching in the background is almost hypnotic.  While most of the album isn't terribly impressive or ground breaking, something about Blacc's voice keeps drawing me in; it's not the best, but it just sounds right.  Check him out here.

The other album that sucked me in is Professor Green's Alive Till I'm Dead.  I get bi-daily newsletters from this college info site that sends me updates about cool websites, events, stores, and the like.  A little while ago they told me about a website called We Are Hunted (possibly a Pandora challenger?).  The website essentially takes name drops of various artists from all over the web and tallies which ones are the most frequent.  You can look at the most popular songs, the most popular artists, and divide it up by genre along with several other options.  One night I was strolling around the Hip-Hop section and found Professor Green, a young, fiery UK rapper.  The rapper's subject matter at times is very reminiscent of Eminem and even his flow mimics Eminem's at times.  However, Green's album is aimed at more of a party crowd with the first three songs of the album having more dance oriented beats and more light hearted subject matter.  The rest of the album is much more rough and dark.  "Jungle" in particular has dark subject matter mixed with a heavily synthesized almost dubstep like beat.  "Monster" is maybe where listeners will hear Slim Shady the most, Green starting out by saying "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde/ Saw a chick walk in with a big behind/ Now I'm stalking my victim out/ Unrecognizable 'cause I'm in disguise," although noticeably more tame.  While it's clear that Green has a little polishing up to do, he definitely has a strong start with his first LP (he's reached #2 on the UK charts).  I would definitely check him out if you're looking for someone fun and a little different to listen to.  Check him out here.

Alright, I got my feet moving and that post didn't take too long.  Maybe I'll get a more formal review for something up here in a bit, but until then I'll try to keep updating you with the stuff I'm listening to and hopefully after posting this I can pull myself away from Blacc and Green.  See you soon and thanks for reading!