Alright guys, I really have no idea about this one. Is it good? Is it bad? There are times when I think both. Gaggle is a British “choir” of women (trust me, it’s not what you’re thinking), “I Hear Flies” a catchy single that is either perfect for pregaming or an earworm hook comparable to the spice girls if they were angry drunk bitches (hence the title). Listen to those cockney accents hypnotically shouting over dubstep beats… mmmmmmmm………
Remixes are often hit or miss affairs. Modern technology allows any teenager or unemployed DJ to sit in their living room and churn out tracks — as a result, the internet is bombarded with thousands of crappy Rihanna and Lady Gaga remixes every day.
However, to use a cliched expression, there are diamonds hidden in the rough. This semi-recurring column will highlight some of the better remixes that I’ve stumbled upon over the past few months.
First up is a fairly well known act, The Hood Internet. Visit their website here for additional tracks.
Cult Logic Forever
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Ignition
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Daníel Bjaranson is the Icelandic artist behind Icelandic music. The guy who conducted the choir in Sigur Ros’ “Ara Batur”? Bjarnason. The guy who conducts the Iceland Symphony Orchestra? Bjarnason. Although overshadowed by Nico Muhly on the Bedroom Community record label, Bjarnason is a leading musical figure in the circles that know him. In February of 2010, Bjarnason released a record entitled Processions, featuring three of his compositions. The first composition, Bow to String, is a three movement suite for multi-tracked cello, and its opening movement is a fiery rage of uneven time signatures, rapid melodies, and driving percussion from the bow of the cello. Check out Processions immediately.
To let everybody know, I was originally going to post something a bit more relevant for my first ‘track of the day’ feature, being a new Flying Lotus song from Cosmogramma (which is great, btw, even if its leak is in pretty shitty transcode; am definitely buying for the occasion when it’s released on April 20th). But I’m ultimately ruled by Lala, which is some fucking music service kind of thing that I have to add our Track of the Day to for I don’t know what reason, and Lala definitely ain’t reppin Flylo. Lala was also hard as hell to figure out, and that’s for damn sure.
But, alas, I’m forced to find some other song to quickly write about, and I ultimately landed on a Neil Young song, who I’ve been incessantly listening to and basically rediscovering recently, to great rewards. And in this process of rediscovery, I’ve decided that “Cowgirl in the Sand” is easily Young’s definitive and best song, a ten-minute bruiser that highlights why Young’s music is so great. His vocals, equally rough and effeminate, twist around lyrics that concern a lost love: the effect is something like listening to a drunkard bitch about his ex for ten minutes straight, but not annoying. The tale Young spins is interrupted with sonic booms of guitar feedback and hair-raising solos: a Young specialty, first perfected on this song after he stumbled through Buffalo Springsteen and a bland, unremarkable debut. You could say he peaked early, but…
Echo Curio is a small art shop in Echo Park, California. A few days ago I went and saw the group Extra Life perform there. The venue was totally overpacked with it probably comfortably only holding 25 people. I imagine there was probably 50 to 60 people there so the streets were lined with kids drinking 22s out of brown bags. The concert was definitely a different atmosphere than the last time I saw Extra Life, but in general worked for the band. Some hipster noise group opened named Halloween Swim Team. Their music was boring as hell, but their equipment which included a vintage minimoog was fun to look at. My friends and I went next store to buy beer during the end of their set. The next opener was jesus makes the shotgun sound which I had heard of before, but never actually listened to. The group was pretty cool in a live setting though I don’t think I would be into their records.
Extra Life is currently wrapping up the last couple dates of a tour for their new release ‘Made Flesh’. The record takes a lot of the ideas found on their debut ‘Secular Works’ and makes them a little more comprehendible. The group played every track from ‘Made Flesh’ sans ‘Black Hoodie’ and ‘The Body is True’. From their debut they played ‘The Refrain’. Charlie Looker the main figure of Extra Life was very interactive with the crowd making plenty of jokes and talking…
Today is the 13 year anniversary of The Notorious B.I.G.‘s landmark album, Life After Death. To celebrate, Sputnikmusic is offering an exclusive stream and download link for an album by producer wait what, who pairs Biggie verses with backing tracks from indie artist The xx. The album, the notorious xx, is surprise union where “the extrovert meets the introvert.” Biggie’s ambitious and fluent rhymes flow over The xx’s pensive and melodic instrumentals, creating a combination that is sublime.
On my way home from work I heard about the decision of a German court on the radio. It’s one of the kind where you can only think “Wow dude… you are ABSOLUTELY f***ed, as f***ed as you can be”. Some might remember news about some German “gangster rapper” called Bushido (pictured to the left), who ripped off parts of a Dimmu Bogir song for one of his own. It was not the first nor the last time the rapper was accused of using parts of songs by other artsist without giving credit, but usually this ended with a settlement outside of court. In other words: getting away with a bruised eye, if you want to call it that way. Well, not this time, as the court in Hamburg owned Bushido, his label, as well as other labels REAL hard on tuesday.
The French Gothic band Dark Sanctuary took action against Bushido, when they got the feeling he was ripping off songs of the band. That is, ripping of thirteen songs by Dark Sanctuary. Here just one example, first the song “Janine” by Bushido:
And here’s the original song by Dark Sanctuary, “Les Memmoires Blessees”:
Everyone with ears can probably spot the obvious rip off, it’s so obvious that it’s (almost) not even funny anymore. And it’s not really that different with the other twelve songs in question, from all that one could gather. Add to this that all the songs were promoted and noted as very own…
About 2-3 weeks ago, we posted a news item asking for volunteers to improve the site’s database. Unfortunately, the announcement predated some new community album editing features that we were in the process of adding. As a result, thousands of hopeful, enthusiastic recruits were turned aside in dismay.
Never fear, eager album editors. Meatplow is still organizing an on-going effort in the forums. As of today, there have been over 2,400 album edits using the new and improved community editing system. If you are interested in helping out, visit the organizing thread here
Just in case anyone had thought that the Idol franchise had departed us, we are currently getting down to the business end of the 9th season of the American version. As much as the names and the faces have changed, it is pretty much the same ol’ same ol’ this year… And that folks, is not a good thing. Although, I must admit that there have been a couple of positives worth mentioning this time around and I’ll get to them later.
The usual controversy occurred with one contestant who had been named in the top 24 being disqualified due to an existing contract with some kind of (surprise surprise) boy band. As if to put us through hell and back on purpose, the powers-that-be replaced him with some kid named Tim, who subsequently stunk up the stage as the worst performance on top 24 night. Of course, this is Idol, so Tim survived based on his looks and his ability to be drowned out by screeching 15 year old females! A month later and Tim is still sucking, except now he’s made it into the top 10.
With 4 contestants initially being eliminated each week, there was some potential to be heard in the top 16. However, almost half of that was eradicated by the American public when Alex, Katelyn & Lilly were voted out heading into the top 12. All 3 of these contestants had at least a semblance of originality about them and could have even been…
I caught a few of these acts at the label’s Christmas party in Dublin last year. Some I was already familiar with (BATS, Marvins Revolt and headliners Adebisi Shank), but the act I was most impressed with was Belfast duo The Continuous Battle of Order (a.k.a. Hornby and Craig Kearney from We Are Knives), who will release their debut album Pattern Seekers on April 16.
As their name and album title suggest, they lean pretty heavily towards the mathy end of things, and the podcast’s opening track, ‘001-2,’ is well worth a listen for fans of Marvins, And So I Watch You From Afar and the aforementioned Shank. Check that out, along with two tracks from the forthcoming Redneck Manifesto album Friendship (March 26) via the widget below.
Active Child is a songwriter from Los Angeles who creates haunting contrasts on his recent cassette release Sunrooms. Like many of his songs, “Wilderness” and “She Was a Vision” are sparse and moody, populated by brittle echoing drums patterns, lonely synth swells, and a kind of hipster castrati vocals popularized by Bon Iver. However, underneath these overly melancholic concepts are humming bass tones and shimmering echo pedals that undo Active Child’s calculated frigidity. These songs are seemingly about loneliness and isolation but are built from a tender warmth captured beautifully by the chorus of “Wilderness”…
It’s so cold but you know we belong here
to the sky and fire to keep us warm here
“Wilderness”
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“She Was a Vision”
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Spring Break was supposed to be something like The Best Week Ever (not the show, just its literal title). I had a job working 6th street in Austin, Texas where the biggest music extravaganza would be taking over. Make bank, watch a few bands, mock crazy drunkards. Spring Break! 2010! Let’s go!
68 hours of work and one show later, I don’t have much but a decent check with overtime, lost sounds of music emanating from venues (to note: YACHT, Javelin, Califone, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Frightened Rabbit, Acid Mothers Temple) and the bizarre image of drugged out frat boys crawling across beams to the tunes of Maps and Atlases. This particular free show (lovingly dubbed South by South Mess) took place at the 21st St. Co-op, a place notorious for its outrageous (and partially nude) parties, and Friday’s event (leading up to the night’s headliner, Andrew W.K.) proved no different. If only I could explain the shape and architecture of this labyrinth, but upon late arrival (nearly 1 a.m.) I can only remember throngs of people spilling from the streets, from every door, spooling around corners into the backyard and up the stairs until eventually an impatient line broke forth into a jittery group of college students ready to rock out. And that they did, in mesmerizingly unique and gradually hostile ways: as the band (obscured by the freakishly tall gaggle of kids that positioned themselves directly in front) broke out into “Every Place is a House,” limbs flailed…
I have quite the thing with (not for) music books. Basically, I can’t read one without eventually getting royally pissed off about some stray unneeded inclusion or irregularity or overwhelming example of intolerant ignorance towards fans/artists. This is all the odder considering that I own like seven of them. I mean, I usually don’t start frothing at the mouth, but there’s just always something that will ruin my experience reading a music book, whether it’s an overload of encyclopedic information about something that nobody needs to ever know (not even a fan who’s willing to shell out money to read about the subject) or a fawning, doe-eyed style of writing that pressures the reader to the point where they feel like they must like this shit, as portrayed in David Browne’s not-particularly-reader-friendly Goodbye 20th Century, which casts Sonic Youth as The Most Important Band Ever; you can feel Browne practically breathing with anticipation as his narrative moves from Sister to Daydream Nation to Goo, foaming at the mouth to describe yet another Endurable Classic. Like, there’s a reason the book skims over the band’s later period at a feverish pace, instead of abrasively embracing these album’s shortcomings, which would have ultimately been more interesting. And I even like Sonic Youth, like a lot.
Point is, music books are usually cumbersome, bloated, and tiresome, and often irk me in some way or another. But I keep buying them. Like, incessantly. The two I’ve bought most recently are different, in a…
Sunday was the big finale as far as scheduling goes but a pretty barren night as far as the actual schedule. With only ten shows to choose from, my decision was obvious: Dillinger Escape Plan.
SputnikMusic and its staff have been drooling over Dillinger Escape Plan’s new album, Option Paralysis, since we got our promo copy a few weeks back. Having been a huge fan of the band through their first two albums and the Irony is a Dead Scene EP, but also having been majorly let down by Ire Works, I was endlessly excited to see Dillinger. It was also somewhat of an anniversary for me, since I hadn’t seen them for about 6 years when I watched them destroy the now-defunct Rockit club about a week before Miss Machine came out. But Dillinger was just one of four bands listed on the bill, the others being Animals as Leaders, Iwrestledabearonce and Darkest Hour.
Waiting for Animals as Leaders to set-up it became very clear pretty quickly that, uh, they weren’t. Doors to the Opera House were at 7 and at around 730 I saw some instruments being shuffled about and drums being set up, but it wasn’t Animals as Leaders. Instead Iwrestledabearonce was opening and, as suspected, they later announced that Animals as Leaders couldn’t make it. I guess they had a problem crossing the border.
Iwrestledabearonce are a band with a clearcut gimmick, their off-the-wall aesthetic and shtick made…
Friday night was up in the air as far as plans. There was only one band I’d really planned to see, Gypsophilia, so I made sure to get to Rancho Relaxo early enough to ensure I didn’t miss anything. Climbing up the narrow flight of stairs to the restaurant’s upper floor I felt like I was waking into a time-shift. I immediately heard what was the cacophanous sound of a 7 piece sound check, and the venue itself was not as I’d usually seen it. Any time I’ve been to a show at Rancho, it’s been one of those sweaty, curse-the-ceiling-fan kind of gigs. This wasn’t the case. It was about quarter to 9, so I had time before their set to scope things out. What I saw was the crowd was much older than the typical Canadian Music Fest variety: there was more than one set of sons and daughters with mothers and fathers. And there was a coat hanger, not coat check, and there were tables and it was just surreal. Well, not surreal, just atypical. I waited for a friend to arrive and quickly spotted the band members sauntering about. To say they stood out wouldn’t have been a stretch: the trumpetist, who must have been at least 8 feet tall, was wearing a suit with matching pork-pie hat. The bassist came off as Matt Stone in costume: pinstripes, bowtie and moustache were all there. But the image fit the bill, something that took just a few…
