For as long as I can remember, a quasi-joke running around the Fayetteville music scene has been the Curse. If you are a band in Fayetteville and you record and release an album, you will break up. And, tragically, the Curse comes true more often than not. It came true for Kings of New England whose last show was also their CD release party. Kings of the New England were the first band that was made up of friends of mine and they were the first local band that I was [...]
My interest in Prefuse 73 peaked with his 2nd album One Word Extinguisher . Surrounded by Silence was sorta wack (except for the single "HideYaFace" with Ghostface & El-P) and I never even bothered to download Security Screenings . He's got a new joint called Preparations coming out this year, but right now there's a new single out in stores (and interwebs) called "Class of 73 Bells" which features NYC rock band School of Seven Bells. Does Prefuse 73 even do songs anymore that don't feature somebody else? Anyway, the new [...]
Fucked Up are a Toronto hardcore band with a strange history and a lot of 7 inches. I hate to admit this, but I first became aware of the band when the Fork posted some rather interesting pictures from a show they did with Pissed Jeans. It turns out Fucked Up had also released an album that garnered some accolades, but it was on the terminally lame Jade Tree, so if I was ever aware of it, I would have ignored it. That all changed when I heard the badical "Year of the Pig" [...]
Oh, shit. The best book ever has just been released. Yes, Chronicle Books has released a book of pictures of Van Halen back when they were the kings of universe: 1978-1984. Click the link for a bunch of sample pictures and some funny commentary. I'll just leave you with this picture.
When I moved up to East Lansing and started doing some research on the local music scene one of the names that kept coming up was Chris Bathgate , a folkie from Ann Arbor. I downloaded his 2006 album Throatsleep and was thoroughly impressed. He has a new album out called A Cork Tale Wake , but I haven't heard that yet. "Creek, Cure, Dawn" is a dark electric folk number that's somewhere between Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Iron & Wine. "I Know How You Are Going to Die Tonight" is also dark (obviously), but [...]
New leaked B-Spears track. It's fucking awful. Without K-Fed she is nothing. listen to the thing that sucks
The new Caribou album came out this week. I bought it. It rules. When its first single "Melody Day" came out a month or so ago, I flipped my shit. It was the best non- R. Kelly-related song I had heard in 2007. It was probably the only time I have every bumped a CD single in my car on repeat. While "Melody Day" is the highlight of the album, I'm also very fond of the song "She's the One". If any song on the album shows the progress in songcraft that Dan Snaith has made, this is it. It [...]
I would be shirking my duties as a music blogger if I did not discuss the thing that has been sucking up more of my brain time than any other recent musical event: R. Kelly's next set of episodes of trapped in the closet. (watch here) There's really not a whole lot to say. It's awesome of course, but not as tightly plotted as 1 through 6 and not as over the top ridiculous as 7-12. R. Kelly gets to play several colorful characters which lets him continue the campiness of episodes 7-12. [...]
The Forkadork just posted a new Gang Gang Dance track. GGD are one of my favorite contemporary acts. This track is from their upcoming EP "RAWWAR" and is probably the most pop and least noise thing they've done. Gang Gang Dance - Nicoman
Do you know what song rules? "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" by Bryan Adams. Now, you probably heard this song on the radio at some point and are thinking, "Ed, that song doesn't rule at all". Well, you're right. That version doesn't rule. The version that rules is the one actually played at the end of the movie Don Juan DeMarco . It has more flamenco guitar and lacks the mid 90s adult contemporary guitar solo that is a prime reason the single version sucks so much. As far as I know, the film version [...]
One of the first tracks that I downloaded from an mp3 blog was "It Is Just So Freakin' Right" by the Power of Lighting. I downloaded it from 20 Jazz Funk Greats . They just mentioned it at the end of a post and noted that the band was from Manchester. That is all I know about the band and that is the only reference I can find out on the internet. The only other thing that is out there, as far as I know, is a repost I did on a quickly abandoned mp3 blog I did called [...]
Well, here's another dope thing I picked up while in the Chi. I saw this book called Wait, You're Not a Centaur , noticed that it had a short (50 word short) story about Jesus meeting Bolt Thrower, noticed that it had a CD in the back and dropped down my $16. The book is 50 50-word short stories and a ton of awesome sketches. But the CD, by Nate Denver's "band" Nate Denver's Neck is what I'm going to talk about. It's a mix of lo-fi folk, rap and death metal. And if you're not sold there, I'm [...]
Beck used to be one of my favorite musicians, but I gave up on him after the borefest that was Guero , the wretched remix album Guerolito , and seeing Beck slack through an awful jam band-esque live show. But then I found out he posted a cover of "Forget Marie" by the great Lee Hazelwood. It's on Beck.com and it's pretty rad. It reminds of the two Hank Williams covers he did right before Sea Change came out. Maybe he should just stick to covers.
The WFMU blog just posted three double dope tunes by Nigerian highlife musician Celestine Ukwu. Holla at that shit.
Sam King is another excellent Arkansas musician. He is currently on tour, so you should check his myspace and see if he's in your area anytime soon. I've seen Sam play live many many times, most of which were at the Dinosaur House, a house show venue in Fayetteville. But, as fate would have it, he recently played Ypsilanti, MI, which is only an hour and a half from East Lansing. So I drove down and saw him play. It was a bit weird seeing him in a different environment like that, but it was good as always. [...]
Will-o-the-Wisp are a Greek progressive/psychedelic rock band who I first became aware of when their most recent album, A Gift for Your Dreams , was posted on the blog Lost-in-Tyme. I just now got around to listening to it and it's very excellent. It recalls 60s & 70s English prog bands like Camel and Caravan or, for a more recent reference, the non-metal work of Opeth. The song I'm posting, "Nature Boy" is a cover . It was written in 1947 by Eden Ahbez for the film The Boy With the Green Hair . [...]
Genghis Tron's Dead Mountain Mouth was one of my absolute favorite albums of last year. It was a shocking fusion of grindcore, breakcore, and electro-pop that had no missteps. They're currently working on a new album to be released on the mighty Relapse Records, but for now, they've got the "Triple Black Diamond" EP. It's a CD-R release limited to 444 copies on Crucial Bliss, the limited run arm of Crucial Blast, GT's former label. It's an in-between kind of release, with 3 live tracks, 3 remixes and an untitled demo of a track from the [...]
What with Amy Winehouse being a pop star and all, I figured Candie Payne would be a bit better known on this side of the pond. Not that they sound alike at all, but they are both retro pop/soul singers from the UK. Candie Payne is more on the pop side (and the talented side), though. She has one foot in the British pop singer tradition of Shirley Bassey & Dusty Springfield, and one foot in the girl group revivalism of the Pipettes or Lucky Soul (who I will discuss in the future). I first got into [...]
Ugly Music for Beautiful People
Avicii – Two Million
Beck – I Just Started Hating Some People Today
H&M Lookbook Mujer y Hombre Otoño 2012.
