Sunday, May 31, 2009

My concerns have been confirmed

Jason Lytle’s debut solo album, Yours Truly, The Commuter, was described in one article as music that “simply crawls by in a maddeningly static mid-tempo blur, going about its melancholy business on the way to nowhere”. Less than favorable then. In fact, Yours Truly, The Commuter has, to date, an aggregate total of only 65% on Metacritic. I suppose if I was a slovenly, cheetos crunching critic who listened to it once and jotted down such “sounds like a continuation of Grandaddy” drivel, I might be inclined to simply dismiss it as well. But the truth is that the last two Grandaddy albums were mere continuations of Grandaddy and Commuter goes well beyond this. It is understated, sure, as realized through its minimal lyrics, but the album’s beauty lies in its subtlety. And subtle is the best vehicle for Lytle’s often hushed, whisper like vocals. At the same time, there is an awful lot going on here when you actually LISTEN. This is music to crawl into, to lay down and fall asleep to, to get up and jump around to, and yes, to commute to. This is an album that makes you ache for its follow-up. This is the best darn album released by anyone in a goodly long time! Not that I suppose anyone cares.

See Jason’s mastery of his instruments below!?!

Video :: It's The Weekend by Jason Lytle

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Pure Pop Perfection

New ones from Jason Lytle and God Help The Girl (fake movie soundtrack/ side project by Belle and Sebastian)

Video :: I am lost (and the moment cannot last) by Jason Lytle
I Am Lost (And the Moment Cannot Last)


Video :: Come Monday Night by God Help The Girl

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Robyn gets her robot on

Video :: The Girl and The Robot by Röyksopp (featuring Robyn/ live)...

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Birds encouraged him



I've been waiting a long time for this... new music from Jason Lytle, ex of Grandaddy. Since dissolving the best beardo band ever, Lytle has fled native California for nowheresville Montana, talent up the ying yang (and drummer) in tow.

Jason Lytle's first solo effort is out in three weeks (apparently).Lead off (and title) track, "Yours Truly, The Commuter" is a song about "getting out into the great and gnarly unknown, getting up to who knows what kind of trouble and eventually, gratefully, limping back home".

Song :: Yours Truly, The Commuter by Jason Lytle

New Video/ Old Song :: Campershell Dreams by Grandaddy

campershell dreams.......... (lost but not forgotten) from jason lytle on Vimeo.

Video :: Birds Encouraged Him (live in studio) by Jason Lytle

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Matt + Kim

Okay, I admit that this video actually made me gasp out loud (*gasp*). I won't mention where though for fear of giving too much away...

Lessons Learned by Matt & Kim
Lessons Learned

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Hey... STFUB

Video :: Lay it down by Peter Bjorn and John


Song :: Lay it down by Peter, Bjorn and John

Through the hypnotic psychedelia, Daedelus plays some sort of lit up scrabble board...
Video :: LA Nocturn by Daedelus


New, mesmerizing alternate version of Animal Collective's My Girls...

Animal Collective - My Girls from Rob Chesnutt on Vimeo.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The obstacles we build for ourselves

Lately I have been stuck in the upper BPM levels of electro-dance music through recently released and highly satisfying albums from both Pet Shop Boys and Röyksopp. I have come up for air occasionally via 60’s and 70’s AM radio classics (as part of my “research” for a future Top 25 Albums That Changed My Life post) but otherwise it has been a non-stop dance party around here. Thankfully, I found Hello Saferide and have been afforded a rest.

Swedish band Hello Saferide released their second album, “More Modern Stories From Hello Saferide”, this past September. Led by the heartfelt and just-quivering-enough-to-be-described-as-mildly-unique vocals of Annika Norlin, Hello Saferide is now, slowly perhaps, starting to gain some much deserved momentum outside of Scandinavia. Or maybe they’re already huge and I’ve just been oblivious. Out a week ago, Arjeplog is the new single off of “More Modern Stories…” and is a song about country vs. city, love, and spooning without one arm getting numb (so says Annika). The video was filmed at Vittjåkk for $0 and took five minutes (Vittjåkk would appear to be a rather wonderful looking - on a sunny day at least - ski resort). Never mind the DIY aspects and the shaky camera, sometimes simple is the most beautiful…

Video :: Arjeplog by Hello Saferide


Also check out Hello Saferide’s fantastic Detektivbyrån-backed performance of “Anna” at Sweden’s 2009 P3 Guld Awards show. Annika Norlin’s performance, through her sincere vulnerability and tenderness, yields an awkwardly effective stage persona. Meanwhile, a theremin is employed and Jon Nils of Detektivbyrån (now ex of Detektivbyrån - yikes!) plays the scissors!

Video :: Anna (live) by Hello Saferide w/ Detektivbyrån


The heartbreaking music video for Anna here.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Happy Up Here

Norway’s electro-dance outfit/ modulation mongers Röyksopp continue their video-making dominance via a wonderfully executed Space Invaders type demolition of concrete landscape. Cool.

Video :: Happy Up Here by Röyksopp

Happy Up Here from Röyksopp on Vimeo.

Song :: Happy Up Here by Röyksopp

“You know I really like it
I know I'll always be here
You know it makes my heart beat
You know I'm happy up here”


Röyksopp’s “Junior” out tomorrow! A reminder of the band's video brilliance is available at their website here.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

She wanted to control it

For many years Glasgow’s Camera Obscura languished in hometown heroes Belle and Sebastian’s long, twee shadow. Then came 2003’s aptly titled “Underachievers Please Try Harder” and they were off. Today, they’re churning out orchestra-tinged ditties with big-production vids. “French Navy”, off of the forthcoming “My Maudlin Career”, is a brilliant step forward for the band and it is good to see that they are fairing better than fellow one time B&S shadow dwellers Franz Ferdinand who continue to slide down the respect-o-meter mightily.

As the two characters in French Navy smooch their way through Paris and Rome, something ever so subtly happens to seemingly turn the girl off the boy. Or vis-a-versa. But I put my money on his tidy little beard forcing the rift.

French Navy by Camera Obscura:


My Maudlin Career (the album) is out in late April.

---------------------------------------------------------

As for Belle and Sebastian, they have been busy lately soundtracking a film, written by lead Stuart Murdoch, called “God Help The Girl”. “God Help The Girl”, coming (or not) to an art-house or university theatre near you sometime later this year.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Emmy The Great

Putting the ok in folk...

Video :: First Love by Emmy The Great


Song :: We Almost Had A Baby by Emmy The Great
(automatic download)

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Ukulele Sessions

On a cold Brooklyn night, improvised magic happens:

Video :: "I will call you lover again" and "Now let it go" by Loney Dear (Ukulele Sessions)

love the plastic bag!

Olly Olly blah blah blah

I imagine it is not easy to incorporate “olly olly oxen free” repeatedly into a song and, yes, it kinda feels forced and overused in Bishop Allen's “Dimmer”. This band had a cameo appearance in the underwhelming Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and I guess there is a market for underwhelming as Bishop Allen themselves can be described as such (a watered-down version of Vampire Weekend - if there is such a thing). Anyway, they are mildly worthy enough to spend a few minutes watching their video. I could not be more enthused!

Video :: Dimmer by Bishop Allen


"Olly olly oxen free" worked way better for Newman (though not so much for Ramon)…
Seinfeld - The Pool Guy

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Ambient Wednesday

No Excuses by Air France

Video Code by Musicvideolife.com

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Do You Remember

Progressive rock n [pruh-gres-iv roc] : music where songs either avoid common popular structures of verse-chorus-bridge, or blur the formal distinctions by extending sections or inserting musical interludes, often with exaggerated dynamics to heighten contrast between sections… sometimes yielding entire suites. Live shows often incorporate lasers and giant mirrors synchronized with the music.

In other words, A Recipe For Disaster.

Never one to easily relinquish my indie bias snobbery, I have always dissed the prog rock. Although God-like Rush is included in their numbers, prog rock musicians are people that I have always associated with over-the-top songs, misguided outfits, silly double-necked guitars and easy-to-mock place-name bands like Kansas, Boston, Chicago, Asia… Toto!

However, I am proud to say that I once purchased, and still own, an LP laden with neo-progressive rock: Marillion’s “Misplaced Childhood”. I am also willing to assert that that album’s hit single “Kaleigh” (#16 on the Dutch Top 40) may just be one of the finest power ballads ever constructed.

Admittedly, I have very little experience with the power ballad.

Video :: Kayleigh by Marillion (1985)


Brought to you by: 80's-Videos-That-Haven't-Aged-One-Single-Bit.com

Saturday, March 7, 2009

We drove to the sea

Was about to rant (again) about how the Coldplays, Elbows, Doves, Keanes and Snow Patrols of this world - while engineering some pop perfection over the years - rarely offer anything original or truly inspired, but then I watched the new Doves video for Kingdom of Rust and had to eat those thoughts. Sure on its own, Kingdom of Rust is simply an everyday pop song but the capacity that visuals, and a bit of a story, has to transform a song can be powerful. Not that this story - journey across country/ free a loved ones ashes/ cry - hasn't been told before... so maybe its the sweeping views of one of my favorite places on earth that captured me. "Distant sound of thunder, moving out on the moor..."

Video :: Kingdom of Rust by Doves

(This is not) a love song

Love the Rom-Coms... love the Rom-Coms featuring "There is a light that never goes out" (membership limited!). (500) Days of Summer starring Zooey Deschanel and the kid from "10 Things I Hate About You". Trailer:

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The Charleston lives


Video :: Baby Come On by Elemeno P
Song :: Baby Come On by Elemeno P

Monday, March 2, 2009

Soldier on

New vid from the annoyingly talented Andrew Bird. Apparently you're allowed to sling off flaming arrows in Chicago!

Andrew Bird with Mucca Pazza - "Fitz & The Dizzyspells”

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Wrong

Depeche Mode were once kings of the live circuit, breaking attendance records for their shows wherever they went. They're one of those bands that, back in the 80's, would have seemed unlikely to carry on through 2009. Their high point was 1990's Violator ("Personal Jesus", "Enjoy the Silence"), their low point: singer Dave Gahan's "clinically dead" overdose from the mid-90's. They are indeed survivors even if their music hasn't really shifted with the times - they continue to employ the same jarring electronics as in the past. Retro, and perhaps dated, for sure... and yet oddly comforting. New car wreck video from forthcoming "Sounds of the Universe" album (out in April)...

Depeche Mode - "Wrong" (official music video)


Quite possibly the best track from DM's career:
Video :: Blasphemous Rumours by Depeche Mode (also check out the Gregorian chant version linked to this video - cool!)

Song :: Blasphemous Rumours by Depeche Mode

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Big in Japan


Interesting video for new single from Sweden's Peter Bjorn & John. A children's choir and Japanese bikers/ b-boys (who also line dance and leap-frog!) join forces to create this masterstroke of musical enjoyment fine piece of art.

Video :: Nothing To Worry About by Peter Bjorn & John

Song :: Nothing To Worry About by Peter Bjorn & John

"Do this thing, this type of thing
Put a little money in this type of thing
I got nothing to worry about
I got nothing to worry about"