Some New Music

The Radio Dept. - Heaven's on Fire

Brand new release from Swedish group, The Radio Dept. Do you know that they have state sponsored artists over there? Obama would be shot for even speaking of such a thing. Anyway, this song's pretty happy, listen to it.

Hot Chip- Thieves in the Night

This is the first song of Hot Chip's latest album. While it isn't the dance blast that Ready for the Floor was, this song shows some progression for the band. Love the Oh's.

Chiddy Bang- Hey London

New Chiddy Bang is really, really catchy. Plus, I just realized that Xaphoon, the DJ, is using a Hot Chip Sample for this track. It's One Life Stand.

The Tallest Man on Earth- The Wild Hunt

This is the first song and title track off of TTMoE's new album. This one keeps growing on me.

Sleigh Bells- Ring Ring

Super catchy song here. I wish all Sleigh Bells sounded like this, but some of their other music is hard to listen to. Check this one out though, and don't be surprised if you start to hear more from these girls.

Listen to this Music: Blitzen Trapper- Destroyer of the Void

Listen to this music- Blitzen Trapper

When Blitzen Trapper’s fourth album, Furr, was released in 2008, it received a great deal of fanfare and praise from all around the music world. The album helped the band gain national attention, it even landed them thirteenth on the Rolling Stone list for best albums of the year.  Furr was a folksy trip through Americana landscapes and fairy tale lyrics. Blitzen Trapper’s new Album, Destroyer of the Void, continues along that same vein. While the band doesn’t stray too far from their roots, their fifth release finds ways to continue to surprise and inspire even the most diehard Blitzen Trapper enthusiasts. My only complaint is that at 45 minutes, the album is too short.

The album harkens back to the great Americana bands of the past, stirring up thoughts of Wings, The Doors, and even Wilco. Blitzen Trapper’s seamless mix of electric and acoustic guitars creates a sense of duality in their songs without confusing or challenging the listener. Take for example the standout song “Love and Hate,” with six musicians in the band, the song stands on the edge of raucous, but never crosses over into something that would take away from the laid back folk rock that Blitzen Trapper is known for.

 From the start you get a sense that the band has classic rock influences, the title track kicks off the album with soft vocals that sing of wayward sons and rolling stones. The song goes on to transform twice throughout its six minute runtime, which is reminiscent of Paul McCartney’s iconic ballad, “Band on the Run”. True to Blitzen Trapper’s form, Destroyer of the Void has a cohesive mix of faced paced rock songs and acoustic folksy stories.  While the album doesn’t really have any low points, it certainly has some highlights. The excellent song, “The Man Who Would Speak True” tells the tale of man who is cursed with a flower for a tongue, the song is filled with fantastic images of drinking whiskey and killing loved ones. What more would you expect from Blitzen Trapper? Later on the album is the sparkling duet, “The Tree”, which features Alela Diane, and the brilliant “Evening Star.”  While these songs are quite different, “The Tree” is a soft love song, and “Evening Star” is a more upbeat song with a funky baseline, they both totally encapsulate what Blitzen Trapper is; a band which creates positively infectious songs filled with metaphor and sing-along choruses. The album ends with the piano ballad “Sadie”, which, because of its title and style, could be a reference to Bob Dylan or even The Beatles.

Comparing Blitzen Trapper to some of the best rock acts of all time may seem bold, but I believe that Destroyer of the Void will at least conjure up thoughts of these great bands. So go out and buy this album when it’s released on June 8^th or go see them live in concert, I know I will.

Something to hold you over

I've been pretty busy lately, Titus Andronicus shows and papers don't really add up, but I have been listening to some pretty good music. So check these out to hold you over before I can write a more complete post.

Admiral Fallow- Squealing Pigs
This sounds a lot like Frightened Rabbit, I love the way it builds up from just a voice and guitar. Makes you wish you hadn't taken for granted all of your privileges all these years.


The Tallest Man on Earth- King of Spain
Classic TTME here, I love the energy in this song. It's the single off of his brand new CD The Wild Hunt. Which I am enjoying right now.

LCD Soundsystem- Home
I love this track off of the new LCD Soundsystem album This is Happening. James Murphy and LCD are pretty hard to pinpoint, they always seem to make music that gets better every time you hear it. If you like this and have some spare cash , send them a donation. Murphy is the head of DFA records which has been putting out struggling bands for a while now, they are one record label which deserves as much support as possible. I'll be buying this vinyl like the damn dirty hipster I am.

Circa Survive- Get Out
This one is very different than the others, but if you're feeling a little angsty and you also want to get pumped up, listen to this song. I can't get over it really, it's awesome.

Upon Request

Jai Paul - BTSU

On his Myspace Page England native, Jai Paul lists his music as Pop/Hiphop/Indie. I'm not sure if it is any of this; the self proclaimed artists and producer throws together elements from a number of different genres.Which I guess is what they call Indie these days.

BTSU is based around a simple drum beat and some high pitched vocals, but the song goes much farther than that as it delves into some heavy base and horn samples. The track pops like it was played on a record, and though based in electronic music, BTSU might even sound "old-timey". The song comes across as chill and easy, it's something you listen to as you sit and bob your head, and it does not lose it's appeal even after further exploration of the song.

Judging by the rest of the music on his Myspace page, I won't hesitate to bet on Jai Paul getting some serious play in the next year. Keep an eye on him, I know I will.

Songs I really like this week:

Tobacco- Street Trash
 - Tobacco has a real nice electronic sound- kinda like a cross between Air and RJD2 if you can imagine that. 
       Gotta credit Dreesy on this one- Good lookin out

Local Natives-  Wide Eyes
-Local Natives new album is really good- some singalongs, nice guitar and overlapping vocals.

Hockey- 3 AM Spanish 
- Some fun stuff to play around with.

Fang Island- Treeton
- Fang Island plays upbeat indiepowerpop whatever the hell that means. It's pretty fun and easy to listen to.

Blitzen Trapper- Heaven and Earth
- Brand new Blitzen Trapper track is getting a lot of hype. This one is very classical with some awesome piano and a dash of strings. Nicely done.

Go See This Music: Portugal. The Man

The band name sounds pretentious, especially when they explain it. The band wants to be as universal as the name of a country and as specific as a single person, a lofty goal. When they took to the stage, these thoughts came to my mind. Coming into the show I had no idea what to expect, I had read good reviews of the band’s live performance, but lead guitarist and vocalist, John Gourley, came out with his hood up and a hat pulled down over his eyes. He looked shifty at best, and when bassist Zachary Carothers came out wearing a beret that matched his shirt, and keyboardist Ryan Neighbors looked like he was about fifteen, I was nervous at best. But god damn, can Portugal. The Man play. They put on a show that I’ll not forget.

But let’s start from the beginning.  When I first arrived I noticed that 1. The place was very nice, or “swankenstein” as was coined shortly after entrance 2. The beers were only 4 dollars each 3. We were probably some of the oldest people in there. It wasn’t like a Jonas Brothers concert, but most of our fellow patrons were our age or younger. When we came in most of the people there were sitting on the floor holding good spots for later viewing. It was relatively easy to step over them and secure good standing position toward the front, right in the middle.

Next, the openers were pretty good except I think they were out of order. The first band, The Dig, played loud rock laden with crescendos and breakdowns. The set was highlighted by a ten man performance, including members from the second opener, of what sounded like an eighties rock song. The second opener, Port O’Brien, could have easily been a Neil Young cover band, except for the fact that they weren’t playing Neil Young songs. They played folky pop which was less upbeat than The Dig and settled the crowd back in. The final song of their set featured another ten plus man troop of members from The Dig and Portugal. The Man, this easily highlighted their set.

Finally, Portugal. The Man came out at about eleven and immediately the space around me shrunk as people forced their way to the front of the stage. This was reminiscent of other general admission shows such as Ratatat when there was hardly any room to move at all. Like I said, I really didn’t know what to expect with this show, were they going to play the songs straight just as they are on the album? Would they play mostly new material? These questions were answered after the second song. I tried my best to record a setlist, but many of the songs bled together and were hard to recognize. Here’s what I have:

1.       And I

2.       People Say

3.       M80

4.        – Into- Shade

5.       60 Years

6.       The Sun

7.       Do You

8.       Moonage Daydream (David Bowie Cover)

9.       -Into- Weekend Wars (MGMT cover) 

10.   Dead Dogs

11.   Chicago

12.   1989/ Always Lost

13.   My Mind

14.   How the Leopard Got It’s Spots

Encore

1.       Created (Acoustic)

2.       Church Mouth

3.     -Into- One is the Loneliest Number (Three Dog Night cover)  

4.       -Back Into- Church Mouth

5.       Strangers (Kinks cover with members of Port O’Brien and The Dig)

This is pretty incredible as it is, but with these songs there was also a great deal of jams and other variations. On several occasions the music conjured images of Moe. and other Jam-bands. While the whole show flowed together nicely, there were some highlights which, as highlights do, stood out more than others.  The show was relatively calm until “Chicago” came on. On the album, Waiter. “You Vultures!”, “Chicago” is an electronic song which raucously yells “We say burn the fucker down
Burn the motherfucker down.” It was at this moment that the crowd erupted into a moshpit complete with crowd surfing and stage diving.  After five minutes of pushing and shoving through “Chicago” and part of “1989” the crowd got suddenly jovial and ecstatic, with hugs and high-fives being exchanged between total strangers.  Again I was reminded of the drug induced love inspired by the Jam-band scene. 

The encore was something that should be witnessed. To start, the visibly shy and nervous Gourley came out alone and played the entirety of “Created” alone; with the whole crowd singing along Gourley made it through the whole song, something he said he had never been able to do. The encore continued fabulously through “Church Mouth” and “One is the Loneliest Number” and ended with an incredible version of The Kinks song “Strangers” (you know, the one that goes “we are not two, we are one” ) that featured another stage filled with members of all three bands. 

All in all, a theme of this incredible show could have been unity. As lame as that sounds, it has an air of truth to it. Portugal. The Man’s music is a cross between Jam, Indie, Electronic, and Rock; the fellow audience members and I felt as though we were there together, and the different bands shared instruments, stages and songs.  So next time Portugal. The Man comes through your city, Go See This Music.

Songs I really like this week:

1. Portugal the Man- All My People
2. Jonsi (Lead Singer of Sigur Ros)- Boy Lilikoi
3. JJ- Let Go
4.Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros- Home (RAC Mix)
5. The Morning Benders- Patient Patient
6. Toro y Moi- Imprint After
7. Dem Getaway Boyz- Imma G (Memory Tapes Remix)