Tagged: limewirestore

While the LW team has gotten to do a lot of cool stuff over the years, it's perhaps our Live at Lime series that we're most proud of. Often spontaneous and always unique, these recordings give you a window into the sound of artists ranging from Lisa Loeb to Gary Jules to Tom Morello at one particular moment, whether they were stopping by in the midst of a hectic tour, about to embark on a string of shows in Europe, or bringing awareness to a cause they believe in. Authenticity [...]

After you've done your civic duty and voted today, you can reward your responsible self with any album from this great batch of new releases. We've got a very concise collection of Elliott Smith hits if you're feeling sad about the state of the union, and Huey Lewis getting groovy with some soul classics if you're feeling optimistic. And if you just wanna get down and forget about political turmoil for a while, you've got some killer Caribou remixes, the funk of Fantastic Mr. Fox , and the roots-rock goodness of 7 [...]

Remix albums are typically hit-or-miss affairs intended for the hardcore fan. However, Groove Armada has taken the concept to the next level with White Light , a nine-track album featuring remixes and alternate versions of songs from their flawless fifth album, Black Light , and a stellar new electro-pop tune, "1980." The jagged pop of "Warsaw," featuring Empire of the Sun's Nick Littlemore (and newcomer Saint Saviour on the Black Light version) morphs into a squelchy, euphoric rave tune that channels The Chemical Brothers' "Hey Boy Hey Girl" and comes close to trumping the original version [...]

When people talk about "world music," more often than not they're referring to individual instances of monochromatic sounds limited to a single style and hailing from a single place. Systema Solar, however, can be said to make true world music. Sure, they hail from a single country (Colombia) but they don't limit themselves to one style. On the group's self-titled debut album it quickly becomes clear that the world is their oyster and they're not shy about doing a little sonic plundering, assimilating bits and pieces of any sound from any place that happens to strike their fancy. The thing [...]

It's been a year since singer Alex Ebert of Ima Robot reappeared with his newly invented alter-ego and side-project Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. His Ziggy-esque turn was inspired by a break-up and rehab program and has been well enough received that longtime fans were left wondering whether the singer's former power-pop act would ever get their own chance at resurrection. They breathe a collective sigh of release now, as Werewolf Heart releases Ima Robot's third album Another Man's Treasure . This time around the band embrace eclecticism without forgoing their roots. From an opening reminiscent of Jane's [...]

These Brit dubsteppers first caught some buzz off the dreamy digi-wave blog hit "Aidy's Girl is a Computer." The cut created a wave of anticipation among IDM and dubstep fans. But here, they've added singer James Buttery and go in a more synthwave direction in the vein of Air or Hot Chip, albeit nowhere near as poppy. This is instead rather fearless, downtempo electronic mood music. 'Soundtrack-ready' is a good description. "In the Way," for example, starts off with a sweeping synth wash before devolving into a piano-and-strings ballad that sounds like Coldplay-meets- Obscured By Clouds -era Pink Floyd. "Deadness" [...]

To celebrate the release of LimeWire Store's Ear To The Ground: Twin Cities sampler, as well as a very special CMJ showcase of Minneapolis artists going down tomorrow night at Fontana's (several of whom are on our sampler), we chatted with Minneapolis expert / Green Room Music Source founder Craig Grossman , who's not only sponsoring tomorrow's showcase, but also has the inside scoop on the Twin Cities scene: Why do you think there's such a vibrant music scene in the Twin Cities? [...]

This is the sound of the post-disco era in the South Bronx. It's funky with street swagger, and it's got a backbeat to rock a block party at the drop of a hat. This compilation features 30 tracks from the influential Scroggins sisters, a trio of young New Yorkers who go by the name ESG (Emerald, Sapphire & Gold). They started jamming with friends in Bronx warehouses and unwittingly became underground icons with a stripped-down, uptempo garage funk/post-punk sound that influenced everyone from the Beastie Boys to Wu-Tang Clan to Big Daddy Kane to indie rockers Liars. They released just [...]

After Kelly Dodson and her brother Antoine fended off a late-night home intruder, a local news crew stopped by to find out what happened. Little did Antoine know that when he emotionally warned his neighbors "to hide their kids, hide their wives, hide their husbands, and hide their everything, because somebody is snatching people out of their beds" his charismatic interview would transform him into an Internet star. "Bed Intruder Song" is a hilarious Auto-Tune send-up of his now-infamous TV appearance, plucking Antoine's over-the-top remarks and transforming them into a kitschy pop song. Now that fame has found him after [...]

In the two decades since she made her lo-fi, homemade GirlySound recordings, Liz Phair has traveled a great distance to return to a place that looks surprisingly similar to where she started out. After ascending to indie-rock cult-phenom status in the '90s, Phair took a grab for the brass ring in the following decade by cutting two slickly produced albums of mainstream-sounding pop for Capitol. When those records didn't make Phair the thinking girl's Avril Lavigne, Capitol cut her off. Five years after Phair's major-label misadventures, Funstyle finds her returning to the indie world from whence [...]

From the wild stomp of The Trashmen to the punkish pop of The Replacements, and from the purple funk of that guy who once had a squiggle for a name to the poetic hip-hop of Atmosphere, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have had a long and rich musical history. Perhaps it's the frigid winters that make people hunker down and get creative. Or maybe it's the cities' location in the middle of the country, allowing easy access to the east and west and thus the sounds of both coasts, that's spurred bands to form. Whatever [...]

• Solid Gold - Synchronize
• Trampled By Turtles - Wait So Long

Multi-platinum-selling pop singer-songwriter Brooke Fraser has returned with her third full-length, Flags . Like her past work, here the New Zealand songstress blends clever wordplay with a mix of vaguely folkie guitar work and plenty of other touches like keyboards, horns and electric guitar. On the first song, "Something in the Water," Fraser takes on country inflections and melds them with a marching drumbeat and big backing choruses for a song that's stirring even while not addressing anything of particular weight. Fraser never sounds quite so excited on the rest of the record, but not to the album's detriment. [...]

In the latter half of the '70s the esteemed Ray Davies navigated his band, The Kinks, to Arista Records, a label for whom they would record a slew of tail-end records into the '80s. There's a lot of great stuff in those Kinks records, even if they lack the primitive genius that inspired the group's earlier work. But what if Davies hadn't become enamored with new wave, throwing back watery echoes of his own career aesthetic? What if in 1980 Davies had grabbed a copy of Songs the Lord Taught Us , and inspired by the howling locomotive bangfest [...]

Throughout the '90s, The Smoking Popes — Caterer brothers Matt, Josh, and Eli, with their drummer buddy Mike Felumlee — cemented their cult-hero status with a unique brand of punk-pop, full of melancholy melodicism, coming off like a punky Smiths from the Chicago suburbs. Their story got an unexpected new chapter when the band reunited in 2005, but the reissue of the Popes' 1993 debut album, Get Fired , offers an opportunity to look back on the band's beginnings with the convenient advantage of 20/20 hindsight. All the basic ingredients of the Popes' sound were already pretty firmly in [...]

It was actually more than 50 years ago that Dr. Klaus Martens came up with his original idea for the boot that would carry his name through into the millennium. The doctor was skiing, on leave from working for the German army during World War II ( ahem ) when he hurt his ankle. Hence the bouncing soul was born, the critical innovation that would lead to directly to the defacto shoe of countless subcultures since. Skinheads, punks, goths, and countless other fuck-ups would don the Doc's boots and their trademark yellow stitching. Despite some unsavory connotations (the whole racist, [...]

Experimental composer/music historian/professor Peter Gordon's musical mind knows no bounds. Take the album's opener, "Beginning of the Heartbreak/Don't Don't," which veers wildly over eight-plus minutes. One minute it's a '70s-ish lounge blues number, the next it's a Billy Joel piano bar ditty, and seconds later it's a P-Funk-like, jazz-fusion guitar frenzy. The trip continues with a downtempo, Moog-and-piano breakdown before returning to melodic yacht rock with a sweet sax melody and a pretty hook that would please Carly Simon. "Extended Niceties" is six minutes of syrupy, oddball prog-funk on par with Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt! "Roses on the Disco Floor" [...]

Having mastered the medium of video during their storied career, OK Go hand their single "White Knuckles" over to four talented remixers. Neil Voss' version is peppered with waves of electro and plenty of filtered vocals. Boys Like Us re-imagine the song into a synthy club cut, and Sam Sparro of "Black and Gold" fame kneads the song into a pumping peak-hour gem. But the standout is Static Revenger's bumping Club Mix that keeps Damian Kulash's vocals in tact while adding just the right amount of electro-funk to the mix, leaving fans to wonder what a remix video might look [...]

It's hard to believe this is the first U.S. mix release from British duo Simian Mobile Disco (a.k.a. Jas Shaw and James Ford), but it was well worth the wait. This two-disc set kicks off the first volume of a new series celebrating Fixed, a weekly party launched in New York City in 2004 by DJs JDH and Dave P at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. The parties have featured a who's who of techno, electronica and indie electro — from LCD Soundsystem to Klaxons to Little Boots to M.A.N.D.Y. to Booka Shade to Justice. The Simians do the party's diverse [...]

You know that old axiom about not judging a book by its cover? Blam! makes an excellent case for it being equally applicable to albums, because it bears one of the most unappealing covers in recent memory, but behind that crudely conceived image lies a batch of urgent, arresting tracks. British producer/MC JME — it's pronounced "Jamie," in case you were wondering — made a splash in the U.K. with his 2008 debut album, Famous? , but judging from the sound of its follow-up, he seems ready to make an international breakthrough. JME worked with his brother [...]

Denmark's Raunchy are back with their fifth release, a digital blast of melodic, apocalyptic alt-metal. "Dim the Lights" is an arena-ready anthem that's proggy in the vein of Rush one minute and as catchy as Linkin Park the next. "Rumors of Worship" is equally eclectic, leaping from Soilwork-like Eurometal to Killswitch-esque metalcore to Queensrÿche-ish power metal. Vocalist Kesper Thomsen refrains from the black metal barks that burst from many northern European metal bands, instead inflecting a more hardcore-inspired scream that evokes Bullet For My Valentine, Every Time I Die or even Trivium. The clean vocals are pure ear candy [...]