Matthew Sweet revealed "She Walks the Night," the debut single off his "ambitious" (Rolling Stone) new album Modern Art (September 27, Missing Piece Records) exclusively on RollingStone.com on Friday, August 12. Critic Matthew Perpetua notes that the song "sounds like a classic sunny Sweet power pop tune, but it's actually a major departure for ...
(Led Zeppelin in Peanuts form, via sratm : via mygang : via eyesturnedskyward ) We post and reblog news and notable items on a fairly regular basis on our Tumblr . Here's a sample of what's been featured there recently: NY-Centric: Launch Party for 33 1/3 Pavement's Wowee Zowee with Q&A between Matthew Perpetua and author Bryan Charles Beyond NY: woxy.com shutting down [...]
Fluxblog has always staked it's claim as the first mp3 blog, but Matthew Perpetua's site has also remained one of best, classiest and well-written sources of music/culture you'll find anywhere on the web for the better part of seven years now. One of the things that distinguished the site is the time and care he puts into one or two small posts a day (not to mention the podcasts , tumblr offshoot , etc.), unlike say, just about any other music site going that simple recycles another site's articles or is copying and pasting from a press [...]
Elvis Presley "Crawfish" (Pilooski Re-Edit) - This re-edit comes about sixty years after its initial release in the film King Creole, but its most essential elements remain the same. The arrangement is spare, the tone is sultry, and despite the fact that they are singing about seafood, the sexual tension between Elvis and the female vocalist is ridiculously intense. Pilooski's mix simply extends the track, adds additional percussion, and has it accelerate toward a more modern conclusion. It's a remarkable and highly effective edit, particularly in the way that it blends the sound of two [...]
Murs "The Science" - The really amazing thing about this song is that Murs can explain the history of hip hop and the American government's war on drugs without coming off like a condescending dick, or leave the listener thinking "yeah, I know that, and...?" A lot of this comes down to his personality. He seems lucid, even-tempered, and friendly, and when he raps about the origins of hip hop, he is clearly awed and inspired by the creativity and resourcefulness of his forebears. It's not about things being better back in the day, it's [...]
Luomo featuring Jake Shears "If I Can't" - Jake Shears is a fairly versatile singer, but he usually pushes himself to ostentatious extremes -- giddy rave-ups, soaring power ballads, Gibb-y disco falsetto. He's good at taking a song to a logical stylistic conclusion, and that goes for his more understated work just as well as the campiest numbers in the Scissor Sisters repertoire. Shears' new collaboration with Luomo finds him complementing the Finnish producer's low-key, nuanced grooves with a hazy, restrained performance that gets across his pleasant vocal melody without distracting from the details in [...]
Pit Er Pat "Trod-A-Long" - About a year ago, I saw Pit Er Pat open up for the Fiery Furnaces, and was totally knocked out by their peculiar, groove-oriented music, and the way they were able to seamlessly blend recognizable elements from a variety of ethnic musics from around the world into a sound that was simultaneously familiar and skewed. The group lean hard on reggae in particular, but the music itself isn't quite reggae, but rather some mutant strain particular to the musicians. "Trod-A-Long" is perhaps the most overtly reggae number on their forthcoming [...]
Fluxcast #10 - MTV Video Music Awards Special Instead of doing a live blogging post as I've done in the previous six years of Fluxblog, I opted to do a podcast about this year's MTV awards show along with a few of my friends Chris Conroy and Todd Serencha . We discuss the show, the artists featured in the broadcast, and some general themes of this year's event. To break it up a bit, there's also some music, and [...]
Big Dipper "Loch Ness Monster" - The conceit of this song is very thin, but I think that's half the point, and that we're meant to see right through the character's flimsy metaphor for his obsession with some elusive woman. The song and the character are not full-on creepy, but there's certainly an indication that the protagonist is being a bit pathetic, and that he's sinking too much of himself into a pursuit he understands to be futile. Big Dipper pull off a rather delicate balance here, with the humor of the song coming with [...]
Yo La Tengo @ McCarren Pool 8/24/2008 Mr. Tough (with horns) / Do The Swim (with horns) / Pass The Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind / Stockholm Syndrome / Pablo & Andrea / The Weakest Part / "Joan Is In Love" (not sure what this is, really pretty song, probably a cover) / Cherry Chapstick / ? (vaguely Mission Of Burma-ish song) / Moby Octopad (with horns) / Watch Out For Me Ronnie (with horns) / Tom Courtenay / Blue Line Swinger // Bad Politics / Where Eagles Dare (with Titus Andronicus) [...]
James Rabbit "She Speaks, Rings, and Chimes" - The really lovely thing about "She Speaks, Rings, and Chimes" is how when the band sing "closer, closer, closer!" on the chorus, it actually feels as though they are actually approaching their destination. So what is the destination? Well, it's a song about infatuation, so transitioning from courtship to a relationship is a goal, for sure. But it's also a song about finding the best way to communicate, and attempting to articulate positive emotions in a way that does justice to their nuance and grace. In either [...]
Marit Larsen "If A Song Could Get Me You" - Marit Larsen specializes in modern fairy tale ballads; songs that renders simple, relatable emotions and experiences in the magical tones of musical theater, big screen romance, and girly fantasy. Her new single may be far too sugary for some listeners, but if you can appreciate it for what it is -- gorgeous, achingly sincere, and immaculately produced -- you'll have no choice but to fall in love. "If A Song Could Get Me You" is not a far cry from what Larsen was doing on [...]
The Matt Smith "Ass N Titties" - A little over a week ago, Vicky had a status message on her IM that read "I have the dulcet tones of "Ass N Titties" stuck in my head." We ended up chatting about that, and I started thinking about how amusing it would've been if Elliott Smith had recorded a cover of the song, a version that sounded as haunted, fragile and angst-ridden as his original material. [...]
Menahan Street Band "Home Again!" - When I was young and growing up in the Hudson Valley, I listened to a lot of radio from New York City. In part, this was because I didn't really have many other options -- all of the local tv and radio stations were in fact the New York City stations. All of the media was focused on the city and so I became fascinated with this place that was so close, but so completely different from where I lived. I suppose I picked up on the notion that interesting [...]
Oxford Collapse "Electric Air" - The dudes in the Oxford Collapse spend most of their time in "Electric Air" singing the words "I can't remember things" again and again, and the funny thing is, even though the song gets more rocking and they sing other words, I somehow have a hard time remembering that when the song is through. The music just whips by you, like a car zooming down the road, heading off to some exciting thing that is almost immediately forgotten. It's a song about road trips -- and it seems specific to [...]
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks @ Siren Music Festival, Coney Island 7/19/2008 Baby C'mon / Gardenia / Dragonfly Pie / Jenny and the Ess-Dog / Phantasies / Hopscotch Willie / Elmo Delmo / Cold Son / Baltimore / unidentified new song / We Can't Help You / Real Emotional Trash // Hold Over Gently / Pencil Rot / Two Tickets To Paradise The very fact that I went to this show is a testament to how much I love Stephen Malkmus and his Jicks. [...]
The Daily Rind
StereoactiveNYC
The Sly Oyster
Fluxblog Is So Hot Right Now
Hot Chip - Night & Day
Sleigh Bells - Demons (Official Music Video)
A-Trak & Dillon Francis - "Money Makin'" (Official Video)
The Rains of Castamere by The National
DIIV "How Long Have You Known?" (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
The Killers title new album Battle Born
Music Singles Chart #109
I’ll Just Leave This Here #161
Knife Party – Rage Valley EP
Album Review: Alt-J - An Awesome Wave
