I know, enough about Glasser. But I've had this album on repeat for weeks, so of course the video versions of the songs are something I'm going to pay attention to. In this clip, Cameron Mesirow floats around in an alternately black and white dress in a claustrophobic round room worthy of the early phases of Alice in Wonderland . Eventually she's surrounded by ladies holding colored squares as elaborate confetti rains from the sky. Glasser's debut album Ring is out now on True Panther Sounds. Glasser on MySpace Buy [...]
Photo by Pamela Littky There's no one like Zola Jesus out there, and her new EP Valusia is an impressive four-track journey, of which this track is definitely the highlight. Nika's slow-paced approach is one of the admirable qualities about her music: she isn't trying to get you to dance, but rather to sway back and forth and actually listen. Valusia is out today. Zola Jesus - "Poor Animal" [...]
Wellington, New Zealand's Glass Vaults (I'm partial to bands with 'glass' in their names) makes exceedingly pretty psych pop with mainstream and experimental elements: chants, yelps, and percolating synths mixed with Yeasayer-like drum work and highly echoic, ballad-like vocals. There's a lot of lyrical repetition on this song, "Forget Me Not," but that doesn't make it any less cool. Glass Vaults will be releasing an EP called The Glass on the label JUKBOXR on November 1. Glass Vaults - "Forget Me Not" Glass Vaults on BandCamp [...]
I Blame Coco is the stage name of Sting's daughter Coco Sumner, and with a rough-hewn but strong voice like her father's and the guidance of one Robyn, Coco's emerging as a rising star in mainstream dance pop. Her latest single, "In Spirit Golden," is the third single off her debut album The Constant , which comes out on Nov. 9 on Island. The previous singles were "Selfmachine" and "Caesar" featuring Robyn. So what of this single? It's overly loud and forceful, and like many of the songs on this album, Coco seems wrapped up in quite poetic and [...]
La Roux's latest video is about pimps, ladies of the night, hairspray, product placement (Belvedere vodka), room service and La Roux singing as high as she possibly can in a charismatic nouveau-Eurythmics bid while roaming around the Hotel Chelsea. In short, awesome. This is La Roux's second single following summer's "Bulletproof," and the video was directed by LEGS, who also did Golfrapp's recent video for "Alive." La Roux is touring the U.S. this fall with support from Francis and the Lights and Far East Movement. La Roux on MySpace [...]
If you're looking for some exceedingly retro dance pop today, look no further than Freezepop's new single. The band is preparing to release their fourth (!) LP, Imaginary Friends , on December 7 on Archenemy. This track is loud and insistent with synths curling all over the scale and disco bleeps tossed in among Goldfrappy beats and hand-claps. The lyrics are oddly formal! ("My face / when you kissed it / I think I lost control / All of my faculties down,") but given the highly structured rhythm of the song, this isn't all that surprising; it's just funny. [...]
I really wanted to like Turzi's A , which came out in 2007, but while it had its moments, it didn't stick. Now comes B , which from a few listens sounds like it's one-upped its predecessor. Turzi is Romain Turzi, who hails from Versailles and plays with a band called Four Organ. His music is Jarre-like, combining vintage atmospherics with sophisticated modern synth work, heavily layered and occasionally balearic-tinged. The video for "Brasilia" succeeds in promoting the song: half of it resembles a drunken summer afternoon in Joshua Tree, and it features plenty of those long portrait [...]
At first, Sleepy Villas' debut EP sounds like it will be all about classical guitars, but that turns out to only be a pretty detail amid psychedelic sound effects, choral vocals, distant chants and subtle percussion. A bit of Lewis & Clarke comes to mind, as well as early Animal Collective. The band is a collaboration between Alexandra Loughton and Kyle and Jordan Poff. Alexandra and Kyle are both in the Brooklyn-based group Wrugs , and the album was recorded this summer in Albuquerque, NM and released on the label Glass Foot . Try to get your hands [...]
So "Radioactive," the first single off Kings of Leon's fifth album Come Around Sundown , is basically shite. Caleb Followill's voice sounds exhausted and you feel if they'd done a couple of more takes they could have either a) nailed it or b) decided not to include it on the album at all. The video for it is being called the "real 'African Child'" by naysayers, a reference to Russell Brand's insensitive jam in Get Him to the Greek . But now that we have that out of the way! The rest of the album is [...]
Zach Saginaw aka Shigeto is preparing to release his debut LP on Ghostly International. He cut his teeth in the Ann Arbor and Detroit areas as a kid, then did stints in New York and London before settling in Brooklyn. "Relentless Drag" will draw comparisons to Nosaj Thing and Modeselektor with its hip-hop inspired beats and dizzying dial work, but Shigeto seems to be striking out on his own when you take the album, Full Circle , as a whole. The album follows two EPs, Semi-Circle and What We Held On To , and it'll be [...]
Unicorn Kid's exceedingly noisy but delightful vintage video game-inspired electronics combine elements of house, dubstep and pop. There are no vocals to be had here, but it would probably be too much if there were. Hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland, Unicorn Kid has just re-released this song on Ultra Records (it hit a few blogs back in April), and it follows a 2009 EP called Lion Hat and a previous single, "Wee Monsters." Unicorn Kid has also done remix work for the likes of Gorillaz and Pet Shop Boys. Unicorn Kid - [...]
Girls and their ukeleles! Misty Miller is a mere 16-year-old lady from Wimbledon, as in the place where the tennis happens––a picturesque, verdant suburb of London. Miller has a fantastically limber voice, the kind that major labels eat up (think Hayley Williams with a dash of Jewel). But for now, Miller has no interest in that. Instead, she does video sessions for hip magazines like AnOther, the sister publication of Dazed & Confused, and prepares to release her first EP, Remember , in October. Stay tuned on Miller's MySpace page for more details. Misty Miller [...]
Jamuel Saxon's glitchy, glittery electro pop is a bit cooler than the Postal Service's and a bit more down-to-earth than Justice. The San Diego-based soloist recently released his second LP, Landmines & Chandeliers , for free via Big Stereo, a seasoned supporter of all things Jamuel Saxon. Jamuel Saxon - "Mandatory Miscommunication" Jamuel Saxon on MySpace Download Landmines & Chandeliers via Big Stereo
This is Gang of Four's first new track in 16 years. Is it good? Yes. Is it great? Let's just say I'm eager to hear more where this came from. It seems to be combining elements of the Leeds band's lo-fi sound with modern production, which is just confusing and reminiscent of other decades-ago bands staging a comeback. (The band's lineup has also changed, with bassist Dave Allen being replaced by Thomas McNeice and drummer Hugo Burnham replaced by Mark Heaney a few years ago, but the stars of the show, Jon King and Andy Gill, remain.) One song isn't [...]
I want to say the the lead singer of Viennese duo Liger actually sounds like what a liger might sound like if he was portrayed by a human in a futuristic revival of The Wizard of Oz (in other words, he has a dark, sometimes sad tenor). The music, a throwback to '80s British New Wave, comes and goes quickly; this EP, Unknown Pleasures , is but three songs. But there's some very nice instrumentation, including steel drums, amid all the standard dreamy pop fare (hand claps, emotional vocals, jangly guitars and fierce, reverby drums). "Funereal" is [...]
Grass Widow's video for "11 of Diamonds," from their recently released debut album Past Time , is part Bergman's Monika and part old-timey home video. Directed by Mike Stoltz, it's shot in black and white on Super8 and 16mm film, set mostly on a beach, and features some of the lyrics to the song. This is a good thing, because one of my reservations about the album is that you can barely make out the lyrics: all three of the women in the band sing, and sometimes they sing countermelodies over each other: a beautiful effect, but [...]
Nellie McKay performs "Bruise On the Sky," the opening track of her forthcoming fifth album Home Sweet Mobile Home , followed by "Caribbean Time," in Rolling Stone 's offices. These are both really promising, and props to RS for featuring someone like Nellie! The album comes out on September 28. Nellie McKay on MySpace Preorder Home Sweet Mobile Home from Amazon
Atlanta-based Soft Powers (yay for bands who aren't from Brooklyn!) is for fans of ... a lot of different music, but let's use Lykke Li, Javelin and the Whitest Boy Alive as our contemporary points of reference. Lo-fi but utterly funky, expertly composed and genre-bending, Soft Powers' brief eight-song debut, Bad Pop , is driven by gurgly, surfy guitars, smooth vocal harmonies and a drum machine. It might also remind you of Phoenix, because can't you just see Bill Murray dancing to these songs in a Tokyo hotel room with Scarlett Johansson? So good. [...]
Glasgow-based Emma Pollock, formerly of the Delgados, has been a solo artist since the band broke up in 2005, and released her first solo album, Watch the Fireworks , on 4AD in 2007. She then switched to Chemikal Underground for March's The Law of Large Numbers , which definitely has threads of Delgados running through it, but is heavier on the piano. "Confessions" is the clear "single" on this album, but there are plenty of interesting, darker tunes to be found as well, full of those intricate vocal arpeggios her former band was so fond of. If you [...]
This may be one of the most underrated songs on Merriweather Post Pavilion ; it's romantic and playful and the chorus is gorgeous, adding a nice piano line to the bossa nova-like rhythm and tropical sound effects. The video is appropriately shot in blue tones, and it appears its dancers, rhythmic gymnasts and bubble-blowers inhabit a mercurial planet where modesty of the body in encouraged. It'll make sense in a minute. Watch the video on the band's website. Animal Collective on MySpace Buy 2009's Merriweather Post Pavilion from
Lizzyville
Miike Snow – Paddling Out (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
Lana Del Rey covers Lovecat magazine!
