Genres
Video: Y Luv – “All Night”
Not too long ago, I posted Y Luv‘s “All Night”, a straight-up jam from the Los Angeles based band. The short, infectious track was the single from Y Luv’s newest EP, How Chill Can You Let Go?, and now has a set of visuals that come straight out of Venice Beach. Don’t expect to understand what’s going on in this one, but hey, at least the song’s good, right?
MP3: Y Luv – “All Night”
Girls Play ‘Fallon’
Girls made their first ever TV appearance last night with a late night performance on Fallon, rocking out with a live rendition of Father, Son, Holy Ghost opening track “Honey Bunny”. They also stuck around for a web-exclusive encore performance of power-ballad “My Ma”, also a cut from the band’s new album. Check out both below.
“Honey Bunny”:
“My Ma”:
Father, Son, Holy Ghost was just released on September 12th via True Panther and has already garnered praise from a wide range of sources.
Listen: Drake – “Club Paradise”
“Dropping this for our boy Avery…this was his favorite shit during the recording process. 2 more songs coming tonight as well. ovoxo”
Only one month to go until October! After hopping on The Weeknd‘s “The Zone”, we now have another track from Drake. The new cut, titled “Club Paradise”, just dropped on Drake’s October’s Very Own blog and is from the Take Care recording sessions. No word on whether or not it will appear on the album though, which is set for release on Drizzy’s 25th birthday, October 24th.
“Club Paradise” is produced by Noah “40” Shebib and the download file provided by Drake himself has the song listed as “01 Club Paradise”, a possible hint that the song may be the opening track on Take Care.
Listen: Foster The People – “Pumped Up Kicks (DJ Reflex Remix) (feat. Kendrick Lamar)”
It’s always fun when an indie jam is sampled and flipped into a beat for someone to rap over, something made popular recently by Chiddy Bang‘s talented producer Xaphoon Jones. This time, Power 106’s DJ Reflex gives Foster The People‘s summer anthem “Pumped Up Kicks” the remix treatment and enlists the help of none other than the extremely skilled Kendrick Lamar. Even though the Compton emcee sounds slightly out-of-place, his two bars are a quick and enjoyable listen over Reflex’s laid-back beat. Expect the blog world to jump all over this track, especially with Kendrick fresh off the release of his album Section.80 earlier this year.
MP3: Foster The People – “Pumped Up Kicks (DJ Reflex Remix) (feat. Kendrick Lamar)”
Video: Das Racist – “Michael Jackson”
“Michael Jackson, one million dollars. You feel me? Holla.”
How’s that for a hook? Those lyrics are from Brooklyn rap trio Das Racist‘s “Michael Jackson”, the first single from their soon-to-be-released debut album Relax. The music video has now been released by MTV, featuring a Michael Jackson impersonator, some old white people, and a tribute to MJ’s 1991 video for “Black or White”. For a song that is so incredibly random, it makes sense that the video is equally as (or perhaps even more!) random. Bizarre as always, but that’s what we’ve come to expect from Das Racist.
Relax is out now on iTunes via Greedhead. You can purchase it here.
The Second Coming of College Rock: Nu-Gaze Edition
Presented for your consideration today: two fine New Bands whose aural tendencies echo the past, specifically that magical decade or so stretching from 1985-1995, when College Rock was actually a Thing. Good times, those what with talented and possibly drugged up students spinning everything under the sun that would never see the light of day on Top 40 radio.
Jangly arch-country from Camper Van Beethoven rubbing musical elbows with imported British takeover applicants The Charlatans UK (the appended UK gives it away). But first and foremost, atmospheric shoegazer epics drifted across the lower ends of the FM dial, carried by sparse megawattage that nearly allowed the signal to escape the surrounding parking lot.
This was before College Rock morphed into Alternative Rock (aided by MTV), which soon transformed (via the arrival of Nirvana and about a million bandwagon-jumping A&R men) into various shades of grunge, which a half-decade later got drunk and passed out in tattoo shop, awaking only to find itself the inadvertent caretaker of Helmet and Dr. Dre. Once it was discovered that talent skips a generation, this malformed child was christened “Nu-Rock” and abandoned in the care of a million frat boys, each of whom assumed growly yelling was a viable form of artistic expression.
BUT! These two tracks have nothing to do with a decade-long run of strangely earnest guitar wrangling in which louder always = better and melodies were something for the girls to enjoy along with their roofie-laced drinks. These two tracks bring back the “alt” in “altrock,” summoning up the swirling, hazy guitar anti-heroics of a short generation of pedal-pushing geniuses who operated under such unlikely names as My Bloody Valentine, Yo La Tengo, Catherine Wheel and Sonic Youth.
Video: SBTRKT – “Pharoahs (feat. Roses Gabor)”
British producer SBTRKT may still be hiding behind his mask, but his music is certainly making waves. His newest single “Pharoahs”, from his fantastic self-titled debut album, has received an artistic set of visuals, keeping things simple with multiple shots of guest vocalist Roses Gabor singing her lines over SBTRKT’s intricately-crafted post-dubstep beats. We still are unable to see past the producer’s mask, with randomly dispersed shots of him painting the camera with black paint and what seems to be a peak through the eyes of the mask. Abstract, mysterious, but beautiful — a formula that not only describes this video, but also his vibrant music. You can watch for yourself below.
SBTRKT is out now via Young Turks.
Odd Future Announce TV Series ‘Loiter Squad’ on Adult Swim
Adult Swim announced earlier today that rapper/skater collective Odd Future will be premiering their TV show Loiter Squad on their channel next year. The TV series will feature 15 minute long live-action episodes featuring sketches, man on the street segments, pranks, and music from the Los Angeles group. Produced by Dickhouse Entertainment (Johnny Knowville, Jeff Tremaine, and Spike Jonze), Loiter Squad will follow in the footsteps of Dickhouse’s previous works, including Jackass and Nitro Circus.
Tyler, the Creator has shown his directing prowess in the past, leading to his “Yonkers” video to win the VMA for Best New Artist and 22 million views on Youtube. His Thurnis Haley skits on Youtube should also provide a preview for the content we can expect on Loiter Squad.
New Justice Music Video
Justice has just unveiled the music video for their new single, “Audio, Video Disco”. The new single is also the title of the new album, which will be released on October 25th. The song has gotten mixed reactions because the song is a lot different than their old sound, but we want to know what you think about the new song. Watch the video below.
Your Band Name v. Google, Featuring Belong
New Orleans ambient drone duo Belong showed up out of nowhere with the 2009 vinyl re-pressing of October Language, an album recorded in 2004 and previously released in 2006. A followup album (Common Era) was released earlier this year. Not bad for a group that’s been around since 2002 and whose Allmusic bio refers to a followup album being due sometime in 2007.
Perhaps the glacial pace of Belong’s release schedule has something to do with the glacial pace of the music itself. “Late Night”, a Syd Barrett cover, coasts along at a beatless pace that redefines “languorous.” (No. Really.)
lan guour ous (adj.) – dreamy: lacking spirit or liveliness; “a lackadaisical attempt”; “a languid mood”; “a languid wave of the hand”; “a hot languorous afternoon”
1. See: Belong – Late Night
2. See also: These guys, whose 1995 album A Stable Reference defined languorous up until sometime between 2006 and 2009 (depending on which version of October Language you picked up), at which point Belong stole the definition away in broad dusklight under the cover of the space between the notes..
3. See also also: Low, whose pace is so languorous that time slows perceptibly during live appearances, rendering analog clocks unusable and a number of their fans late for work.
It’s a thing of gauzy, womblike beauty. The vocals fade in and out of the background (which is also the foreground, apparently). The track itself is something you experience more than you hear. It takes concentration to get everything out of it, but it’s well worth the effort, especially as it heads towards a muted roaring crescendo. (I realize that phrase seems to make no sense whatsoever, but LISTEN TO THE TRACK.)
Now, if your interest is peaked, head right over to Google and search up a storm. Thanks to a pile of writeups from some influential music blogs, Belong’s various pages have risen towards the top of the listings, resting comfortably between a stack of dictionaries. However, things haven’t improved much on the image side. Google doesn’t read minds (still in closed beta) so sorting by relevance is about as useful as sorting by dartboard.
Now, if you’ve decided to name your band after a common English word, you should know you’re engaging in a uphill battle for SEO hearts and minds. Of course, you could just go another direction and claim popular profanities for yourself, thus ensuring that every venue will now have to invest in asterisks in order to display your edited band name on the marquee. See also: Fuck Buttons, Holy Fuck, Fucked Up, Fukkk Offf, That Fucking Tank, The Fucking Eagles, etc.
Back before they took off, there was no better way to see if you’d forgotten to turn Safesearch back on than aquick image search for Fuck Buttons. Of course, now that they’ve become one of the more prominent Fuck groups, the natural progression of organic SEO has filled the search results with images off two guys assaulting a table full of electronics, rather than various orifices being assaulted by various appendages.
But what if you’re not as popular as the Fuck Buttons? What happens if your band name keeps unfortunate company, image-wise? Consider Nashville’s finest (only?) drag/witch house group, Party Trash. If you’re looking for some “relevance” from the image search, well… good luck. If you just needed an excuse to eyeballyoung party fiends in various states of disrepair/disrobement (now officially a word!), “Party Trash” is all you need to know. And that’s with Safesearch on.
Speaking of witch house, what if you’re knee deep in triangle cultists with names like GuMMy†Be▲R! andℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ and †‡† and other Unicode horrors? Bad news, surfers. Google has no idea what you’re looking for.
So between the witch housers who don’t want to be found, the drone rockers who like to hang with Merriam (and Webster –alternating Tuesdays) and the others who turn your office computer into an inadvertent Bacchanalian slide show, what’s Mr/Mrs/Ms Internet to do?
Go to a trusted source. [Insert self-promotional link to website here.]
Oh, but before you go, take a listen to this track from Belong’s latest LP, which shows the pair up to their old tricks, only faster, louder, harder and more melodic. If “Last Night” is a lullaby heard through a wall, “Perfect Life” is the daunting leap into a frigid, rushing river without ever escaping the noose.
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