In a world where nothing is taken seriously, everything is fair game, multi-media marketing is of paramount importance, and postmodernism runs rife enough to allow us to see intelligence and subtlety in just about anything, the man who samples Lil’ Wayne and slaps it over a Disney sample, forcing ‘Stuntin’ Like My Daddy’ to be a part of one of the most famous father/son stories of all time, making macho thuggery child-friendly, and making nostalgia current, is King.
Face it; DJ Doyou is what 2010 really sounds like.
Broken Social Scene may own the world’s biggest welcome mat (along with revolving door) for their band members, but Broken Social Scene are consistently one of the class acts within the indie rock landscape. Their way of toying around with ideas as they move through an album, or even a set list, are one of the main attractions to Broken Social Scene’s art-rock style, as they make it work so effortlessly and elegantly. On May 4th, Broken Social Scene will release their newest album Forgiveness Rock Record, one that surely rival the band’s impressive discography, judging from their single, “World Sick,” provided below.
Two years ago, I accepted a promotional album called ‘Ascendant’ from a guy named Mark Northfield. At the time, I didn’t think too much of it. I receive promos all the time, and while this one was certainly more enjoyable than most, I am ashamed to admit I basically dismissed it. I shirked giving it a (deserved) full scale review, instead giving it a cheeky soundoff based off a misguided first impression and not thinking much of it.
But in doing this, I short changed the album’s depth. ‘Ascendant’ has been an album I’ve come back to quite regularly over the past two years, and in doing so, I’ve discovered a deep, intricate album. Northfield’s sound is familiar, but not quite like anything I’ve encountered before. ‘Ascendant’ is jazzy, classy, intimate; like its set in a smokey bar where you’re the only one reeeeally listening. Northfield’s cast of friends brings a vaudevillian charm to each track, realizing a world that romanticizes theatricality, the 19th century brilliantly recaptured.
Northfield, I assume, frequents this site, as he has in the past cited on his Myspace my soundoff and the fact I placed his album (probably too low) on my top 100 albums of the decade. I hope he comes across this blog post and accepts this apology. I feel as though I’ve shortchanged him for far too long. I hope to get in a full review of ‘Ascendant’ this month. Maybe too little too late, but better late than never.
Firstly, if there’s anyone here who actually read the above title and thought “Hey, I wanna piece of that!” then you’re lying, no one ever says stuff like that anymore. But if you were intrigued by the most off-putting title this blog has yet conceived, then your curiosity will not go unrewarded. This is no early April Fools, this is the real deal. Released in 1982, pre-dating the first real acid-house record by five years (Phuture’s Acid Track), Synthesizing: Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat was created by a Bollywood soundtrack composer who intended to capitalize on the disco waves that were flooding the world at the time. Little did he know he was far, far ahead of his time. They could probably play this stuff at my local ‘Dubnium’ and get the pissheads declaring it the future of music… or throwing VK bottles at the DJ. Centuries-old classical (but synthesized) Indian Ragas set atop minimal, trance-inducing machine beats and pure, mesmeric electronic pulses. This is no throwaway record. Early 80’s India is where it’s at. Forget your cultural doubts and EMBRACE THE RAGA.
or maybe its just me
Raga Bhairav
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Raga Bhupali
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As lists have become increasingly popular on the site, it’s become necessary to gently step in and make sure things are going in a constructive direction. As a result, I’ve posted the following set of brief guidelines on the list creation page.
List Guidelines
– Your list should be related to music in some way
– If you’d like to post comments, suggestions, or complaints about the site, use the site forum instead
– If you’d like to post something completely unrelated to music, use the community forums
– If you’d like to post something related to a specific user, use their shoutbox
Lists that violate these guidelines will be deleted — so please don’t try to skirt them. We want to encourage you to make lists, but we also want to make sure that lists remain a valuable and interesting resource for users. Lately, lists have included rants, half-hearted rankings, obscenities, video-game discussion, and everything in between. Additionally, the fact that lists appear on the front page of the site has led to a lot of abuse. Let’s keep the focus on the music — we have an entire set of wonderful forums for every offtopic conversation you can think of.
If these new rules prove to be too stifling for users, I would consider re-implementing user journals. It’s important that we build a strong sense of community and individual user expression– I just want to make sure that it is occurring in the right…
You’ve probably already heard this track. On the off chance that you haven’t, check it out below.
Delorean – Stay Close
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There’s this girl that calls herself vkgoeswild that is doing piano versions of various rock and metal songs and posting them on Youtube. Some of them don’t work as well as others, but this one is very good.
All in the Golden Afternoon is the brainchild of husband and wife duo Carlos Jackson and Rachel Staggs. Their first release, 2008’s self-titled EP, is an intimate collection of six songs; characterized by dreamy, psychedelic tendencies and vibrant instrumentation, it has since become one of my favourite EPs.
“In the Box” isn’t quite as upbeat as the material from All in the Golden Afternoon, but the reverb soaked piece maintains the breezy atmosphere that the duo does so well. And you gotta love the vocal interplay between Rachel and Carlos. “In the Box” will be featured on All in the Golden Afternoon’s full length album, Magic Lighthouse on the Infinite Sea, due for release some time in 2010. You can hear more at their Myspace page.
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One of the last shows of the "political" Protest the Hero era
As puberty set in, Protest the Hero were coming off of a re-release of 2003’s A Calculated Use of Sound, now retrofitted with the one-off anti-war ‘anthem’ “Soft Targets Dig Softer Graves” wedged awkwardly in the middle of its track list. “Soft Targets”, originally released on one of Underground Operations’ Greetings From the Underground samplers, was written and recorded over a year after the release of A Calculated Use of Sound and it showed. Rody wasn’t shouting anymore. His singing voice still wasn’t where it is now but for the first time he wasn’t simply yelling at the top of his lungs. The band had gotten a little heavier and a little more technical, too; there was less focus on Moe’s drumming and a higher emphasis on the guitar trade-offs between Luke and Tim and Arif had taught himself to finger tap on the bass. But the musical evolution evidenced in “Soft Targets” is unimportant to what I want to touch on. What matters is it was the end of Protest the Hero’s political era.
That became clear when they debuted “A Plateful of Our Dead”, then known simply as “Kezia”. In its infancy, performances of the song would always begin with bassist and lyricist Arif Mirabdolwhatever introducing it with the preface, “this is a song about a little girl standing in front of a firing squad”. When the album finally came out,…
The night of Sunday March 28 was a busy one in Melbourne town. Over 100,000 rev-heads had just got high on the exhaust fumes of the Australian Grand Prix and were now looking for somewhere to have dinner… A Greek festival had shut down an entire city street… The Melbourne International Comedy Festival seemingly had over 100 shows in bars & clubs… And Brand New were wowing a loyal audience at The Palace Theatre. However, my choice for the night was the Welsh double bill of Lostprophets & The Blackout, both of whom were long overdue a visit down under.
A half-hour delay in opening the doors is never a positive, but it’s even less so when rain is threatening and the majority of the queue are made to wait in a rather pongy alley. Upon entry into Billboards, the timeliness did not improve since Mrs. Boy & I had ample time to purchase a shirt & down 2 terribly over-priced beverages each. The roadies were doing their usual thing, as were their sons. Oh, hang on a tick; that was the local (Sydney) support band Tonight Alive…..
Most pundits at the venue had no idea there was even going to be a local support (it was announced a week before the show) & you could almost feel the groans when the kids (the drummer looked about 12) came out to play. Thankfully, the mood picked up when the lead vocalist appeared. Taking a huge leaf out of…
Tokyo Police Club have released a free single from their upcoming album Champ. For those of you who care, check out the brief review below.
If Helen was the face that launched a thousand ships, Tokyo Police Club was the band name that launched a legion of equally silly imitators. In the years since their debut, we’ve witnessed the Bombay Bicycle Club, the Two Door Cinema Club, the New Young Pony Club, and even Tom Morello’s Street Sweeper Culture Club. Of course, one could claim that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club started this associative naming trend, but seeing as motorcycle clubs actually exist, I’ll choose to ignore this otherwise salient point.
On to the track. My initial impressions were decidedly mixed — for a song titled “Breakneck Speed”, it’s rather long by Tokyo Police Club standards, and it’s missing some of the frenetic energy (and pounding drumming) that characterized their previous efforts. The first few notes also sound suspiciously like the opening notes to Limp Bizkit’s cover of ‘Mission Impossible’. However, once you stick with the song past :50 seconds, it’s a grower (especially the chorus, in which Dave Monks matches his falsetto with Josh Hook’s guitar).
My final verdict: 3 out of 5. If you don’t like Tokyo Police Club, you probably won’t like this track. However, feel free to voice your objection by ripping off the absurd name and forming a rival ‘club.’
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It’s rare enough that I choose to watch a film at all (I’m just not a fan of the medium in general), but lately, my tastes have become alarmingly specific; I’ve been watching operas. More specifically, I’ve been watching the movie adaptations of operas that were briefly prevalent during the later ’70s and mid-’80s – the 1986 version of Verdi’s Otello that stars Placido Domingo in blackface, the 1983 adaptation of the same composer’s Rigoletto that boasts one of Pavarotti’s defining performances, the 1984 version of Bizet’s Carmen with Julia Migenes in the sexually aggressive titular role, the acclaimed 1979 version of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and so on. Generally, they’re good fun and they’re entertaining enough, and since they’re effectively just music with pictures they’re perfect for someone like me. Yet, one thing is undeniable – they’re not a patch on just listening to the music on its own.
This all ties into something that’s bugged me about opera for some time. Whether you choose to use the term ‘snobs’ or ‘traditionalists’, there are a lot of big opera fans that will insist that it’s almost not worth owning an album until you’ve seen the opera performed live; that the music is just one part of a bigger event. On paper, this is completely true – the whole point of opera, in the beginning, was to combine every art form into one spectacle. The composers handled the music, the performers
Coffee shops and small halls are filled with ‘cover bands’ specializing in reproducing classic rock hits and songs that your parents used to love. However, indie cover bands are exceedingly rare — especially attic-based ones that provide arguably higher quality recordings than the original song.
And for something slightly less serious, here’s Katy Perry – Hot N Cold
This version has convinced me that Katy Perry should sing with an Eastern European accent from now on.
A) Take a pop track
B) Add really thick and distorted bass & synth
C) Add tribal drums
D) Distribute it for free
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A) Make it happy — chimes, choruses, Scandinavian pop and 1960’s vibes optional
B) End the song quickly before it gets old
C) Distribute the whole EP for free
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Firstly, if there’s anyone here who actually read the above title and thought “Hey, I wanna piece of that!” then you’re lying, no one ever says stuff like that anymore. But if you were intrigued by the most off-putting title this blog has yet conceived, then your curiosity will not go unrewarded. This is no early April Fools, this is the real deal. Released in 1982, pre-dating the first real acid-house record by five years (Phuture’s Acid Track), Synthesizing: Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat was created by a Bollywood soundtrack composer who intended to capitalize on the disco waves that were flooding the world at the time. Little did he know he was far, far ahead of his time. They could probably play this stuff at my local ‘Dubnium’ and get the pissheads declaring it the future of music… or throwing VK bottles at the DJ. Centuries-old classical (but synthesized) Indian Ragas set atop minimal, trance-inducing machine beats and pure, mesmeric electronic pulses. This is no throwaway record. Early 80’s India is where it’s at. Forget your cultural doubts and EMBRACE THE RAGA.
There’s this girl that calls herself 
