Tame Impala :: Innerspeaker

Alright, I'm sorry, blah blah blah you know the deal. I've been busy with the end of school, and Finals start tomorrow, but I figured I'd get one post in because it's been way too long and there are three things I MUST SHARE.

Before I start, I realized I never really did a full post about LCD Soundsystem's This is Happening; for now, all that you need to know is that it is probably James Murphy's most complete album, it's probably his best one, and has just about every type of style of song you could want from him, and it is epic (9 songs, 68 minutes epic).  Listen to it now.


Thing Numero Uno: Tame Impala :: Innerspeaker

If you haven't heard this album yet, I, with the power invested in me by the interwebs, command you to go buy/get from a friend/download this album immediately.  It's is awesome.  Awesome enough to invoke expletives when talking about it.  It's got more wah than you can handle, it's got an ample amount of psychedelia infused into it, and it just plain blows your mind in my humble, and not really influential but whatever, opinion.  It seems to have influences from all over the music timeline, like the Doors, Beck, Cream, and most of all in my opinion, the Beatles (but then again who isn't influenced by them).  It really seems to me to be a modern take on the Beatles trippy stuff, and a lot of it really is in the sound of "Within You Without You" (interestingly, that song is very Indian sounding and a lot of this album was recording on the Indian Ocean...).  Bottom line: PICK THIS ALBUM UP IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (I even gave it to my dad to listen to if there are any old fogeys out there reading this... not that my dad is an old fogey or anything... oh boy I hope he doesn't read this...).  My favorite tracks are three in a row in the middle, "Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind", "Solitude is Bliss," and "Jeremy's Storm."  My favorite track on the album though is the last one, "I Don't Really Mind."

mp3: Solitude is Bliss
mp3: I Don't Really Mind (sorry I got a takedown notification from the DMCA for both of those... scary)
yalls can find 'em somewhere else... (i.e. Hypem)

#2: Arcade Fire Singles

I'm pretty positive you have heard these by now, and I posted the clips from them a few weeks ago, but for those of you who have been living in a cave in the past, oh 15 days, here are the new Arcade Fire songs.  Oh, by the way, that was the sound of my drool in anticipation of the new album hitting the ground.

mp3: The Suburbs
mp3: The Month of May  (Sorry more take down notifications)

#3: Broken Bells :: Ghost Inside (Video feat. Christina Hendricks)

Check out the video for the Ghost Inside by Broken Bells.  It's starring Christina Hendricks of Mad Men, but more importantly, of Firefly, which is only one of my favorite shows evah (she plays Mal's "wife" for tose of you that watch the show.  She's back in her sci-fi element with this one...  The video is pretty sweet, and it turns a decent song into a really good video.


--A Teenage Camel (woops wrong animal...)

Fol Chen

Yesterday (super briefly), I mentioned the Fol Chen EP, and in the past couple days it has really blown up... BUZZBAND ALERT!!!!!!!!!!

  Now, I'd like to really push it to you guys because it's great.  It's five songs, three of which are remixes of the first, the other being a cover of the first.  Right off the bat, the Fol Chen version has this deep, strange voice and heavy drum beat/bass.  Then the vocals and other instruments come on, and it turns into a catchy pop song, and finally you have a nice part where all the instruments cut out and you have a little piano riff.  Really varied song, really good... then you have the remixes and cover, which give you four completely different and new takes.    Bonus: Fol Chen is an LA band.

The first Baths remix is a house, trance take on the song, with heavily reverbed vocals and synth pads.  Then the other Baths remix is also very different.  It's got vocals that shutter in and out giving the entire song an incredibly staccato feel.  The Keepaway remix starts out with the original drumbeat, but then goes and plays with changing up the drum beat and using synths for the instrumental parts.  It may be more of a traditional remix, but it is still very different from the original and other two remixes on the album.  Finally, there is the Karin Tatoyan cover, which is the most drastically different.  It starts out with a long, drone drum intro, and then a sort of 80's/8bit synth comes in.  Next in, the vocals, which have a very, very different take on the vocals.  They are the main emphasis of the song, with the other instruments pretty much relegated (poor word choice...) to the background.  They are not sung with a poppy feel, but with a feeling of longing and melancholy that is most evident as she almost begs "All I want is to see your face" and observes "everything is in ruins."

I really recommend you guys go over to folchen.com and download the whole EP for free (and the weird video that comes with it...  it's also below).  I'll give you a track or two here.

mp3: In Ruins
mp3: In Ruins (Kerin Tatoyan Cover)


Check out the Holy Ghost! remix of LCD Soundsystem's "Drunk Girls."  The two will be touring together this summer, and they are both on LCD Soundsystem front man's label DFA Records.  Oh, I've been listening to the new LCD Soundsystem album a ton, and it's great!  With the exception of Drunk Girls, every track is fantastic.  More on it when it actually comes out in May.
mp3: Drunk Girls (Holy Ghost! Remix)

-- A Teenage Elephant

Coachella Day 1

 Hey Yall--
First of all you can check out all my photos from this and the coming posts here (I took over 300 but most of them weren't that great).
Yeasayer
So I arrived at the Empire Polo Club (the grounds that Coachella is on) at around 3:30, and after cutting about two and a half hours of line and avoiding the logistics nightmare, I made it to the Mojave tent just before Yeasayer started playing (they started at 4:20), so I was towards the back.  They packed the tent commanded the stage well and definitely got the crowd in a trance by starting with the slow, distorted opener from Odd Blood, "The Children."  At times, the synths didn't quite come through and the vocals sounded a little overwhelmed by the drums, but overall they played a crowd pleasing psych show, my personal favorites being their tried and true songs "2080" and "Ambling Alp."  Unfortunately, it was during the day and at Coachella, so the crowd wasn't treated to their signature light show, but it was still a very enjoyable first concert, even if it wasn't a perfect show.

Photo by Yours Truly

 Afterwards, I wandered into the Sahara Tent (the electro/rave/dub tent) for a few minutes of Aeroplane, which was essential just some good DJ-ing, but the tent wasn't packed as it would be for the rest of the weekend and the crowd wasn't as into it, so it just sort of felt like any other set by an electro/DJ artist.  When they did their remix of Friendly Fire's "Paris" they did get the energy levels up.

I saw one song by Ra Ra Riot, so I don't really have too much to say, except they looked like they were 16!

Then I saw the Specials, a really big ska band from the 80's (I did not know that, my friend told me that... I don't know if you guys knew or not so I included it...).  They had lots of energy and they were very danceable (I mean they are a ska band come on), but it didn't stand out to me in particular to write about on this blog, just because I don't love to listen to ska when it's not live.

Unfortunately, after that I had to miss two bands I would have loved to write about on here, Passion Pit and Grizzly Bear.  Over the course of the weekend I saw lots of bands that my friend didn't want to see, so I saw some bands he wanted to see.  We each tried some new stuff.  In this case it was Them Crooked Vultures.  It wasn't my style of music (harder rock), but it was certainly fun to see just because the crowd was really into it, plus John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin for my less musically educated readers) can rip it up on any instrument whatsoever, and Dave Grohl (of Nirvana) is such a rocker that it was still pretty fun, despite the loss.

LCD Soundsystem

Photo by Sam Wolk (the Teenage Elephant)

This was a show I was dying to see for pretty much ever, as LCD Soundsystem was one of the first bands that I liked when I started liking the music I like now when I got the album Sound of Silver when it first came out.  The show featured some of James Murphy's goofy antics, an all white getup and some excellent music.  The songs really emphasized the band's style of using repetitive drum beats for minutes on end and vocals that are usually essentially just spoken and then repeated in a shout.  If you dig LCD's style than the show was awesome; the music grooved like no other and everybody was dancing under a massive disco ball that hung over an otherwise sparsely lit stage.  At the back of the stage, Jay-Z's equipment loomed in the background, and when James Murphy was told he only had time for one more song when he still had three left, he went into a nearly 15 minute long rendition of "Yeah" that to me seemed essentially like a big "Fuck You Jay-Z" as people in the crowd either starting throwing up the Jay-Z diamond or dancing like there was no tomorrow.  After that he played yet another song, "New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" before yielding the stage to Jay-Z's roadies.  The best songs were definitely "Yeah" and the always moving "All My Friends."  Other favorites were the new song "I Can Change" and the long, comedic "Losing My Edge."  Unfortunately he didn't play "Someone Great," the first song I ever heard by him and one of my all time favorite songs.

After that, unfortunately I didn't get to see Vampire Weekend (my friend really dislikes them, so we didn't see them), but hearing them from afar they did sound like they put on a good live show.

Sahara Tent
After we went to LCD we went to Sahara.  This is when the tent starting heating up, both literally and figuratively (even though it was 11 at night).  The tent was absolutely packed when we got there with Benny Benassi mid way through his set; there must have been about 20,000 people there.  Lemme tell you (it's hard to say that without sounding pretty stupid...) this tent is all about partying and nailing the bass drops.  It was very fun, though nothing in particular to write about, besides the fact that you get REALLY tired.  We left at around 11:30, which was before Deadmau5 went on, which we would have liked to have seen but we were just too tired and we knew we would have a big day on Saturday.  We then saw a couple of Jay-Z songs and left.

So despite missing a few bands and not seeing too many shows, Friday was an enjoyable day and served as great warmup for the front row madness that would be Saturday and Sunday.

--A Teenage Elephant

PS Yall should check out the Antlers cover of The xx... very interesting.

This Is Happening Right Now (Get it?)

Hey yall --

SUPER quick post.

Not too much going on, except LCD Soundsystem's third album is now available to listen to!  Head over to his site HERE.  I suggest you click over right away!  I'm really digging Dance Yrself Clean, I Can Change, and You Wanted a Hit right now.  Also the new MGMT album is AWESOME.  More on it later.

Also, I will be attending Coachella this weekend... yeah.  More on that soon!!!!!

Some New Videos Plus Some Album News

Super Quick Post... First up...
MGMT :: Flash Delirium Video
Here's the video for first single off the duo's next LP, due out on the 13th.  It is nothing less than what you would expect from MGMT (Read: Weird Nonsensical Stuff that is fun to watch and will ultimately freak you out a little bit), and is right up there with the video for "O.N.E." by Yeasayer as weirdest video of 2010.


Titus Andronicus :: A More Perfect Union

A More Perfect Union

Titus Andronicus | MySpace Music Videos
Perhaps not as creative as the previous video (and the lead singer has definitely got to do something about that beard... it's definitely pushing the envelope..), but the song is great and makes up for the, dare I say, mediocre? video.  Best line in the song... "Baby we were born to die."  If you can't tell by that line, the fact that they talk about New Jersey in the song, and that there is a song by them called "Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ," then I'll just tell you straight up... they're from New Jersey!  Why, you ask, do I mention this? I actually don't know but I thought I would throw it out there... I do have a cousin form NJ who loves them, so I guess they are kind of his patron band... unrelated though...

LCD Soundsystem :: This is Happening

The LCD Soundsystem album I was talking about in my previous post has just received a title, release date, and album art.  It's called This is Happening, which, as James Murphy always does, walks the line between making fun of being pretentious and actually being pretentious.  Same is true of the album art.  It'll be out on the 18th of May.

And Now For Something Totally Different
Geeks, watch and drool!

LCD Soundsystem Blowout (Not Really...)

Another post involving movies coming at you... that's three in a row!  This is starting to turn into a multi-media blog!

LCD Soundsystem :: Drunk Girls, Pow Pow, Greenberg


First up, we got the first single from the new LCD Soundsystem album, which is yet to be titled.  The song is called "Drunk Girls," and is pretty vintage LCD Soundsystem when it comes to the lyrics, although the style of the song is slightly different than what he (James Murphy... he's all of LCD).  He keeps the sort of dry, witty lyrics commenting on hipsterculture (hence forth to be known as hipsterture), in the same vein as "Daft Punk is Playing at My House" or the classic "Losing My Edge," but he changes up the music style a good deal IMO.  He uses more vocal tracks and on the primary vocal tracks, he actually sings a bit more, whereas in most of his "funnier" songs, he is essentially just talking into the mic.  The music itself is pretty upbeat and has a simple drum beat.  It's guitar based, mostly going off just a repeated riff, and it definitely lends itself to a very different sound for LCD that is enjoyable but not wonderful.  I have a feeling the rest of the album, although it may be different from his previous stuff, won't really be like this.  No really HQ mp3s have popped up yet, so I figure instead of making you suffer lowQ I'd just give you the official version, even if it is just a stream.  You can find the .mp3s yourself.


The next song, even though it is only a sample from a song from the album, is certainly back in his old style, really more in the style of the first album.  It has him essentially yelling the chorus of the name of the song over the more complex sounding electronica style drum beat, with a bass line that repeats, and then he goes into just speaking the lyrics in a rhythmic way, and then at the end of the verse repeating the last line in a yell.  I also have a feeling the album won't be like this... my guess is it will be upbeat and poppy.  Here's a minute and a half of this song (it's all that's out).
mp3: Pow Pow

Finally, I just saw Greenberg.  If you don't know, it's a Noah Baumbach (Directed of The Squid and the Whale and Wes Anderson bud) film, it's about some Angelenos (as in LA) who feel they are failures and don't really know how it ever happened, and it was scored by James Murphy, AKA LCD Soundsystem.  To briefly talk about the movie, it is much more of a character study than anything else, centering around Ben Stiller's Roger Greenberg, a nervous, socially troubled, 40 year old failure who is house-sitting for his brother in LA while he is off opening a hotel in Vietnam, or doing something else to indicate that he is successful and has kids, etc.  The story centers around the relationship he develops with his brother's young assistant/babysitter for his kids, played excellently by Greta Gerwig, and how he reconnects with his old bandmate Ivan.  I'm not going to really talk about the movie at all, but I will say that despite getting off to a little bit of a slow start and the feeling that some of Ben Stiller's nervous breakdowns felt a little forced, the movie still did a very good job of showing us a glimpse into the life of a, if not physically then mentally, vulnerable man.

The music did for the most part evoke the feelings desired by each scene, whether it was a day party for adults or Greenberg panicking about making a split decision; it essentially was what you would expect out of a movie soundtrack, not an LCD Soundsystem album, except for perhaps two or three cases, and even then they didn't really sound like traditional LCD.  I think that that was good because it directed the attention to what was going on and did not distract you, and when they were pieces that were essentially songs, they were more in the montage style scenes, so it complimented the scenes perfectly.  Two songs that stood out were piano based, and were in the style of Never As Tired As When I'm Waking Up or New York, I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down, but my favorite was "Photographs," an acoustic guitar based ballad.  They all had the melancholy feel to them which contributed to the mood very nicely.  I think as a whole, the score showed a certain maturity from James Murphy in that he knew where to hold back with the score  (as in the part where it was essentially just background music) so that you barely even noticed it and it was just another part of the scene, where to make you notice the score so that you felt you were being indicated that you were supposed to feel something, and finally in that he showed he knew how to create songs that were not what he normal makes and also did not overwhelm a scene.
mp3: Photographs

-- A Teenage Elephant... Be Seeing You (Anybody know what I'm referencing?)

PS
Fellow Canadians Broken Social Scene and The New Pornographers each just released singles from each of their highly anticipated upcoming albums.  They're worth a look.

The Delta Mirror! (And New Morning Benders/Broken Social Scene and More)

Hey Readers---


I have an excellent post full of a ton of great music so PLEASE PLEASE listen to it ALL.  I think this post is my best in terms of all the music in it.  PLEASE COMMENT AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK.


Delta Mirror

Just heard these guys for the first time this past week and I love them.  They are another great band hailing from my stomping (or maybe tip-toeing... I don't do a lot of stomping, I'm more mellow...) grounds, LA... And yes I am joking when I use the term stomping grounds.  These guys sound say they are akin to Fuck Buttons and the Big Pink, but to me they are a bit less crowded and certainly more downtempo, making their music seem more pensive more emotional.  Upon further listening, I have realized that each song actually takes place in a different room of a hospital (this will be true of the whole album), which further adds to that strong emotional impact.  This immediately brings to mind Antlers' Hospice, and I think that this is just as moving; another song that I feel is incredibly moving and possibly my favorite song ever, and I'm not one to choose favorites, is LCD Soundsystem's "Someone Great."  If you haven't heard it GO LISTEN TO IT IMMEDIATELY.  Although most of their songs are that slower, affecting feeling that is sometimes only expressed through simpler instruments, they also throw in some glitch, giving them an Interpol/Postal Service cross feeling.  The stuff is really excellent and I really recommend you head over to their MySpace and check out all of their stuff.  Their first album, Machines Will Listen comes out on 3/26 on Lefse Records, and for any of my readers in LA, the will be doing a three week residency at the Echo starting this Tuesday, and you should try to check them out if you can. Please please please go to their MySpace and listen to all of their stuff, it's excellent!

mp3: he was worse than the needle he gave you

mp3: it was dark and I welcome the calm

a song about the end

Morning Benders :: Excuses

  

A bunch of buzz has been going around about the Morning Benders this week, which is making me really happy!  I think these guys are really talented and are going to be a really great band in the coming years.  They are still really young, and I always think it's cool to see people really make an impact of some sort in the music community (did you catch the wishful thinking?).  You can pop over to their site by clicking "more info" in the player above and download the new song for the price of the email.  These guys will be kicking off a tour in New York in a couple of days, and I will definitely looking forward to hopefully seeing them for a second time when they come to LA in March.


Caribou :: Odessa
Caribou just released the video to Odessa, one of my favorite of their tracks.  The video is very interested, not sure of my thoughts on it.  Tell me what you think!   Download the song for an email over at their site.




Broken Social Scene :: World Sick
All You Need to Know
New Broken Social Scene = Epic.
5 Year Wait = Worth It
Give Email = Get Song
May 4 = Forgiveness Rock Record Release
May 3 = Broken Social Scene @ the Fonda

Last but not least
Phoenix :: Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
Phoenix covered Bob Dylan with just Thomas Mars vocal and strumming guitar... 'nuff said.  Some might find it cheesy though...  I absolutely love it.


Download the HQ version over at PMA.

-- A Teenage Elephant (reflecting on this post full of excellent music)

PS Please Please Comment and tell me what you think of everything

The Start of 2010

So the new year has begun!  Sorry for being a little lax about the posting in the last two weeks, but apparently bloggers travel too.  I was getting some requests for what I am looking forward to most in the new year, so here we go!

Yeasayer :: Odd Blood (Febuary 9)


As the follow up to All Hour Cymbals, one of my favorite albums, Odd Blood is certainly looking to me as a possible Merriweather Post Pavillion situation; everybody's been dying for a new release, it's by a very unique band, and it was partially leaked (well, all of MPP was leaked and that's sort of what was special about it, but oh well).  Everybody has been drooling over Ambling Alp and the video for it, and after a few other songs were leaked the anticipation is certainly building the same way it did for MPP with the full album leak.  Yeasayer hasn't really done anything at all with the exception of the excellent "Tightrope" from Dark Was the Night, and hopefully they will impress and keep the Psych-pop that I love them for coming.
mp3: Ambling Alp

 Toro y Moi :: Causers of This (February 23)


T y M was for me the biggest breakout of 2009, really taking it to the next level with Talamak and Blessa.  His woozy, completely computer generated, mellow dance-pop certainly separated him from the rest of chillwave.  The difference between him and the rest of chillwave is that when you listen to Talamak, you are captivated by its ethereal vocals and simple sounding beat, and those two chords that repeat through the whole song; it is more of a sort of pop-jam that you really focus on the music, whereas, for me at least, the rest of chillwave is the perfect background music, a soundtrack to whatever you are doing.  Hopefully the rest of the album can live up to Talamak and Blessa, and not be overshadowed/let us down because of the greatness of those two songs.
mp3: Talamak
mp3: Blessa

Local Natives :: Gorilla Manor (February 16)

I fell in love with this band with just two songs; they are an up and coming LA band, and they fit in perfectly with the whole Deadly Syndrome-Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros-indie-power-pop scene, and I think the two songs really show a potential for a complex and sophisticated album.  Both songs seem to be complex arrangements of simple instruments, and "Airplanes" certainly has the slightly anthemic feel of Band of Horses' "Funeral" or the Deadly Syndrome's "Eucalyptus," or at least the sound that some indie-rock songs have that makes you feel like "Oh, this is the song that is going to become popular and is slightly stereotypical in sound of an indie-band."  The album is already out in the UK (weird right for an LA band to release across the pond first?), and hopefully they will have some success with it here.
mp3: Sun Hands
mp3: Airplanes
mp3: Camera Talk

LCD Soundsystem (Early 2010)
The title I believe hasn't even been released yet (I know, I know, I should be able to find it, but it's not out yet!), but this is certainly one of those albums that I have a feeling that I am so excited for it that it is bound to let me down, but who knows maybe it will amaze.  The previous album, Sound of Silver, is easily one of my favorite albums; "Someone Great" is one of my favorite songs EVER (and I hate choosing favorites) - it is such an emotional song with incredible lyrics, as well as incredible synth... you can't get much better IMHO.  If the new album has even one song as good as "Someone Great," "All My Friends," or really any of the songs from the first album, LCD Soundsystem, it will be great.  I really don't know why I am doubting the new album... I just don't want to be let down.

Born Ruffians :: Say It (early 2010)
A band similar in style to Vampire Weekend, their previous album Red, Yellow, and Blue was excellent and hopefully this album will be just as good as well as able to fill the gap left by an awful Vampire Weekend album (always a chance of an I stand corrected... get the pun?).

The Morning Benders :: Big Echo (Early 2010)
Another really good California band made up of really young guys...

Broken Bells
James Mercer & Danger Mouse... what more needs to be said?

Spoon :: Transference

Rumor
Arcade Fire!!!!!!
Arcade Fire have been reported to be in the studio right now.  They always let a lot of time pass between releasing albums; they are extremely deliberate when it comes to making music (and it always pays off).  It appears that we are due an album soon!!!

Anything I'm missing?
-- A Teenage Elephant