For the heads. For the feets.

I'm at home today, not feeling well, so I'm going to keep this pretty short, at least on the words being typed front.  Lately, for reasons I won't go into right now, I've started thinking of this blog as a bit of a party playlist, at least in regards to my posts.  I had that in mind when I made the first few selections that follow; then then, today, at home, I heard some other songs that I think are worthy of a post too.  That's alright though, I think any party benefits from an eclectic selection, as long as the picks are good.

First up, Years & Years, who I first saw on the Jools Holland.  They've been tipped as the sound of 2015 by the BBC, but I'm not sure what they're basing that on since their Soundcloud page has about three tracks on it.


Next up a song by Kele Okereke of Bloc Party.  I never really got round to listening to a lot of Bloc Party stuff but I heard this on the radio and liked it; got some 90's elements to it, as does the Years & Years track, which I don't mind.


Here's an actual 90's track that I think will enliven any party:


Broncho are from Oklahoma.  Sounds about right.


Ooh, and this with the video up on a screen will be brilliant!

I was reminded of this song after seeing this article at the Guardian.  And they say people on the tube don't talk to each other?

Surfing on sine waves... or floating on soundclouds

Been hearing a lot of good stuff via Soundcloud recently so what better than to share it via this blog.  I'll keep 'em brief.

I came across Aurora Halal via a random visit to Resident Advisor.  I thought she was more of a party organiser and video artist, but then I came across her SC page and found myself getting into the techno tracks she's got up:



Lee Bannon I came across via the Vice journalist Clive Martin on Twitter -- I'm always intrigued when someone mentions jungle so I followed through from his link to Vogue (!) and liked what I heard -- good jungle sounds without much of a retro twist.  The track below is his latest effort and has shades of Aphex to it, at least before the main beat kicks in:

I'm liking his spooky Neneh Cherry remix too:


The Guardian has a preview of Cooly G's new album up, and I've managed to hack it and post it below!  No idea how long it'll work though.  I wasn't prepared to like this cos I heard a mix by Cooly G recently that I didn't like very much, but I'm liking this album.  I like the genre I'm starting to think of as digital-soul -- like Aaliyah but made by a wide range of artists today; I'd put the Neneh Cherry remix above into this category too.  The Guardian compares the new Cooly G stuff to FKA Twigs; I have to say I prefer Cooly G:


Lastly, Gorgon City, who I heard on Later with Jools Holland yesterday.  Poppy-dancey-housey music that seems to be well respected from what I can glean from their SC page (sets from Rinse FM and NTS radio are up there).  I heard them and thought "GTI music".  What's GTI music?  GTI music is music that'll sound good coming out of the speakers in my imaginary new VW Golf GTI.  All of these artists could probably go into that category, but these guys the most.  Quite like the chunky bassline they're putting in their tracks, but could it get too gimmicky after a while?  There's an album sampler up below; check out 'Ready for Your Love' and 'Real':

What I did while I was looking after my kid (1)

I'm at home these days on paternal leave hanging out with my youngest kid.  He's two months old so doesn't really do much except eat, sleep, and occasionally make eye contact with me.  Feeding him can take over an hour on a bad day, all of which means I'm spending a lot of time just indoors with not much to do.  So I've decided to be productive and go through old episodes of 'Later... with Jools Holland' that I've recorded.  And I've decided to add to that productivity by blogging about what I'm seeing.  Basically any stand out performances will get blogged, or at least that's the idea -- we'll see if I can keep up with it.

I'm going start with Grizzly Bear, who were on in 2009.  They are an interesting looking band aren't they?  I think I saw this performance before but didn't care for it as much as I did the second time around.  I really like their harmonising and their overall sound; it's just different enough to be interesting but not annoying.  And they look cool.



Next up, the Dead Weather, also from 2009.  These guys are just interesting.  It's like they achieved exactly what they set out to do -- scuzzy rock that sounds vaguely like something from the past but in actuality probably never existed.  It's like Jack White imagined a band and a sound and then it perfectly came to fruition.  Quite amazing really, that a vision can be realised so fully.  I love the organ in this song, and I like also like how Jack White's at the back of the set-up, even though he's one of the singers -- it does seem like his voice is dropping in as some kind of sample.  Great dancing too.  One thing I've wondered about Jack White -- how does he get his skin that colour??  Is it a condition?  Make-up?  Or is just the blue lighting?  Oh yeah, another thing I like about this performance is that they really seem to go all out.  I feel like often on Jools Holland musicians play in an embarrassed or self-conscious way -- probably cos they're being watched by all the other musicians.  But not these guys.

This link's got a short interview from the same show.

Lastly, some more great dancing, this time from Dave Gahan.  It may just be me, but when I see a band like Depeche Mode, bands from the 80's who've been through all the drugs and controversy, I do feel like there's a defiance there that comes from having got through it and still being around.  It's the same with Boy George.  It's good, I'm glad they're here and doing ok.  Dave Gahan still looks cool.  Another great thing about this performance is seeing how the band produces it's sound.  I've not seen them live, or really seen them perform in any capacity, so seeing the different elements work together is pretty interesting -- for instance, seeing that Gahan and Martin Gore lay their voices over each other to produce a sound that is so familiar to me, but one I'd not really noticed the particulars of until I saw them doing it here.  For a more explicit example, check out their performance of 'Personal Jesus' (though doing so may take away from the seemingly magical alchemy of the pop song).  I really liked this performance:

I heard it on the Radio

Good old radio, a great source for new music that doesn't involve (too much) typing or reading.  Going to keep this simple, just some embedded new songs that I'm rather taken with.  Do your own typing for more info, if interested.  Incidentally, I just noticed that both the videos I'm going to stick in this post have been posted by the same person!  Coincidence!

TOY



WAVE PICTURES



I'm also going to put up a video of Boy George's other performance on Later -- he played one of his old hits:

Survivor

Boy George was on Later last week and it got me thinking about pop stars of the past and how things may seem to them now, how the landscape has changed.  In the 80's it seemed like George was all over the news with all kinds of scandals -- drugs, death, sex, being openly gay, it was all one big controversy being Boy George, or so it seems in my recollection (I was only a kid back then).  I do remember some heroin scandals and I'm pretty sure someone died in his house.  All that plus the normal decline of fame that seems to come with the aging of any pop star; how did he handle it?  And how does it seem now, when the only controversies seems to come from what a pop star wears?  Things have certainly changed now, or they seem different to me anyway.  Probably a lot of that has to do with how the media are now -- there are so many more channels of information that it's rare the entire populace to unite around any one bit of news.  I also think, as a culture, we're far more forgiving.  I think the thing that would most irk me if I were George is how the issue of being famous and gay has changed -- irk me in the sense that things were so much worse for him; probably George Michael feels the same way, or worse, since he was a much bigger star, worldwide, than George is.  It's funny seeing these people age.  George (,Boy) is looking good though, I have to say, especially for 50 and especially given his past habits!  And I'm liking the new songs I've heard -- I'll put them in below so you can hear them until or unless they get taken down.  And, while I'm at it, it's also amusing to me that he plays a reggae-tinged number on the show and on his new album.  I love ska and reggae but you can always tell that a musician is from the UK, and probably from a certain era, when they're doing anything Jamaica-related -- that tiny island has had an outsize influence on UK pop music, and a good one, I'd say.  There should be, and may be, a book written about US vs UK pop music, and culture and that book should have a large section devoted to the black influence on each country's pop music and how the approaches have compared and differed.  It would make for some very interesting reading.

Tickled

Time for a long overdue post.  Sorry about the lack of words, but I've been hearing things here and there that I've enjoyed in one way or another and I thought the least I can do is compile them all on our dear old blog.  So that's what I'll do!

On Radio 6 this morning I heard this and found it rather pleasant:

I wasn't a Pavement fan when they were around but I was lucky enough to see them for free at the Virgin Freefest a couple of years go and liked them.  I like this too, it's got a nice warm indie sound to it.  And so does the video, particularly the end of it.

I also heard this on the radio today and it seemed very familiar, particularly the instrumental breakdown.  Not sure where I've heard it before, I feel like it's been sampled.  And if you're sick of Christmas music, my apologies, but this isn't really what you'll hear playing at the mall now is it?

Sorry about the video but, you know, just don't watch it -- most of the time music is better without visuals anyway.

And now, aah yes, Arctic Monkeys, I'm into them right now.  I just saw them play three songs on Jools Holland and they were all good!  Plus the band have a good vibe about them, particularly Alex Turner, the man has some snake hips nowadays.  They're full of confidence, which makes for good performances.  I'd like to see them live but for some reason they're skipping DC and playing Richmond, VA only -- my guess is cos they must have hit this place up when they toured with the Black Keys.  Turn this up (no really, the sound isn't very good in this video) and do watch the video:


Burial's got a new EP coming out, you can hear it all online:
http://www.avclub.com/article/burials-new-rival-dealer-ep-is-already-streaming-o-106418
I'll have to give the tracks a few more listens but... I don't know if they're for me.  I remember when I first heard of Burial in 2007 (that was thanks to the Boston Phoenix, where I also heard of Ellen Allien and Dixon, thanks to their CD reviews; Dixon's Body Language mix is well worth a listen, and I went on to see Ellen Allien in NYC).  At that time it was still really hard to look up and hear his music -- I think it was months before his first CD showed up for sale online at a reasonable price.  Now his new EP is news for basically every music site and blog on the web, including the AV Club!  Bit of a change.  It's nice that good music is easily accessible and artists like Burial are getting more attention but at the same time there was definitely a certain pleasure that came from feeling "in the know", when there was still a music underground.

You  may recall that I saw Four Tet live a little while back and thought he was brilliant.  Well, he's put a live set up on soundcloud now so you can decide for yourself.  Check it!


I'll end with this.  I actually came across it thanks to comments on the Burial tracks left at Fact.  There's nothing I can say about it.  Just watch it:

Jewels on Jools

It's been pretty quiet around here as of late, what with Ramadan and all, but I did watch Jools Holland's programme the other day (gasp!) and there were a couple of standout tracks on it, as well as an entire performance by the Manics!  Not putting any Manics up though.  Instead these...

First off, a track by Mark Ronson and his band with some guests, one of whom is Boy George.  Boy looks quite strange but I like his voice on this.  Not sure if he's doing more work that I'm not hearing about but he still has a voice that's worth hearing, I think, though he does seem to run out of puff a bit here and there:



Incidentally, the other track that Ronson and his band performed was a bit crap so I forwarded it -- something I also did with my second selection, by Klaxons.  Quite liked this though; singer's a bit strange looking isn't he?  But who am I to judge:



One more post to finish things, unrelated to the two above.  Tim Westwood, Radio 1's longtime rap and hip-hop DJ, is being pulled off the air.  He's a bit of a character but even I heard some good tunes on his show back in the day, only to return to the States and find out the tracks were quite underground.  Came across this video when reading about him some more -- it's a UK hip-hop documentary from 1987 that Westwood put together.  Probably worth checking out if you like that sort of thing:

something 4 the weekend

A bit late on this as Friday's almost over but there's still two days of the weekend to go so I think it's ok.  Hope so anyway.  No big stories, just some good tracks for the weekend, especially as spring is in the air.  Something old, something new, and something in-between.

Old:  'Sound & Vision' by David Bowie.  Embarrassed to admit that I heard this for the first time today -- but it was on the radio, not in an advert!  So that's something.  If I ever make it to the record shop I'll keep an eye out for a used copy of 'Low', the album this song is off of.  Haven't listened to a lot of prime period Bowie, just some of the glam stuff -- I think I need to remedy that.



New:  'Say That' by Toro Y Moi.  Been hearing this quite a lot on 6 Music.  Quite like it and quite like the change in the Toro Y Moi sound.  When I first heard him he sounded a lot more chilled out.



In-between:  First heard this on either 6 Music or Jools and it gave me a nice summer feeling, though I think the song's actually set during the start of autumn.  The video nicely highlights those long days of summer, and the nice yellow light.  Stornoway:

Jewels on Jools

Only one video today is from the Jools Holland show I just watched, the other is from the past but came to mind today.

First up, Tracey Thorn -- great voice, great hair, great dress.  A thought popped into my head when I was watching her sing, something that may only occur to dentists; namely that if Tracey Thorn had grown up in America she'd look totally different.  She probably would've had surgery to fix her underbite, which would've   totally changed her face and look.  Wonder what else would've changed about her then?



Second video is of Roni Size and Reprazent live on Jools back in '97.  Just popped into my head that they may have been on the show, and they were.  I saw them live in Detroit when they were touring this song and the album it came off (New Forms) and it was the only time I've seen music like this played live -- he was (and still is?) definitely an innovator when it came to live dance music.  Sad when so many musicians and DJ's now are content to just fiddle around behind a macbook.  Check out the set-up these guys had!  Check  out the size of the computer monitor and the black and white looking software they're running!  Definitely took a lot of talent and work to make something like this come together back then.

Teenage Kicks

Not much else to say really.  Remind me a bit of the Let's Wrestle track from November -- same sort of youthful energy.  Nothing profound but one shouldn't downplay the appeal of a well-written pop track.  Saw them on Jools Holland, acting silly, but like this song.

More Jewels on Jools

Oof, look at that, it's been a month!  A whole month!  Well, I'm back now, mostly because I watched Jools Holland on Palladia this morning and found some things I liked, and had some thoughts on it too.  First off, it's a big shame that Palladia cuts the show down in order to show ads -- they cut out performances to do so, and interviews, and in this episode they cut a performer out altogether!  Not cool, but at least there's Youtube to catch up on things with.

On to the show, and  I will of course be pasting in (too) many videos, but still want to say that I was very impressed with Natasha Khan's dancing and liked how Soundgarden brought the RAWK -- Chris Cornell's voice is still really good.  I'm not a big fan of the band's tunes to be honest but they did make a change to what's on the show otherwise.

Two Door Cinema Club were on and I found out that they're not from the west coast of America but are actually from Northern Ireland.  Not impressed by their clothes or haircuts I must say, and out of their three songs I only liked one -- the other two had that dancey DFA beat that I'm not really much of a fan of (I prefer proper dance music, sniff).  But this track was alright:



Next, the Staves.  I didn't want to like them despite their very photogenic singer, but I found myself listening to this song and getting a bit nostalgic for I don't know what.  And I liked the whistling:



Now some Bat for Lashes.  When her newest album came out earlier this year I listened to some of it online but wasn't too impressed.  But I liked everything I heard on Jools, so perhaps I need to give it another go?  Or maybe it's the live touch that's helping.  During this song I wondered if she was miming but I know that's not allowed; now that I've heard it again I feel a bit silly for even wondering.  Note to Two Door Cinema Club: this is how you do a dance beat:



I really liked this song by her too.

Last vid here, and this is from a show I saw a few weeks ago, but I have to put it up cos it may be the most amazing performance I've ever seen on Jools.  Here is Willy Moon:

See all music videos Willy Moon

Talking to Myself

Yes, definitely, but that's OK, it's good to have a place to put down my musical thoughts and links.

I was in New York this last weekend and heard a couple of things I liked, but wow, how things have changed.  Am I still the person who'd go to New York for a weekend just to see Ellen Allien (check out that mix btw, I'm listening to it and it's very good so far)?  I don't think so really.  The only music I came across on this trip was background music while I was doing other things (picking up jeans, drinking a cappuccino).  But, it still counts, and with the wonders of technology I was able to remind myself who the first track was by and figure out what the second track was.

I'd forgotten how cool looking the video is to this song.  I heard it again while sitting in a hotel lounge at seven am, and the funny thing is that this song sounds like hotel lounge music anyway!  Still good though, very good:



Here's a Grizzly Bear track I like.  I liked Grizzly Bear when I saw them on Jools Holland, playing live, but wasn't as impressed when I listened to them on record.  Might have to give them a bit more time though.  Definitely like the drama in this record:



Just came across this shamelessly retro track at the Guardian.  Very late 80's sound to it I think, but maybe that says something about how forward sounding music was in the late 80's??



Couple of reading links now.  I'ved lived in the DC area since 2007 but never really paid attention to the Washington City Paper (WCP) until a few weeks ago, when I decided to pick it up randomly.  I'd been turned off in the past cos it didn't compare to the Baltimore City Paper, but I've been quite happy with what I'm finding in there now.  It's a short read but there are always at least a couple of good articles in there.  This week's issue has two good pieces that relate to music. One is an amusing tour diary that seems to capture the modern life of an indie rock band pretty well.  I'm not sure if the print version's intro is included, or if this fact was in the diary section, but the writer has been doing this for ten years.  Keep that in mind as your read the entries...  Second article is by Ian Svenonius, a local musician who's been popping up randomly for me recently.  First read a bit by him in Harper's, then came across some more writing somewhere else, then an acquaintance was going to see him live, and now he's on the cover of this weeks WCP.  He only stood out to me cos I found his writing quite funny and truthful, and now you can check it out for yourself here.  I wouldn't mind picking up his books myself.

From Later

A nice perk of my massive comcast bill is having the music channel Palladia.  Why's that a perk?  Because the excellent BBC show 'Later... with Jools Holland' is on it.  If you've never heard of it, 'Later...' has been on for twenty years and is a live music show -- around six different artists are in a studio together, where they take turns playing songs in front of each other and an audience, and it's all broadcast (I believe) live.  It's pretty cool and makes for some great juxtapositions, as well as great performances.  Look it up online and you'll find all kinds of clips from the show -- it's almost like the old Peel sessions from Radio One, but on tv.

I've been taping the current season and catching up with episodes every now and then.  It's great to see some favourite artists live, like Jack White and Brett Anderson; it's also cool to check out some artists I've heard of, or who are famous, on the show, such as Sharon van Etten and the Beach Boys.  Another cool thing is hearing artists I've never heard of before on there and being blown away by their amazing voices, which is what happened last time I checked the show out.  I guess I've got a thing for female singers with big voices at the moment, as both the singers that stood out to me most recently fit that description.  

First up is Beth Hart, who was on a few weeks ago.  Never heard of her before, know nothing about her, but her voice was amazing.  I can't find the clip from 'Later...', but it was a great performance -- it seemed like it was no effort at all for her to sing, and that she was using her authentic voice.  Here's a different live clip I found (I don't think it's as good):

Lyrically it's nothing special, but I do think her voice, especially as I heard it on 'Later...', is pretty amazing.

My second find is Natalie Duncan -- similar in that she's got a big voice and she's on the piano, but different since she has a band and seems to put a bit more effort into her singing:

Again, no info, but she looks very young and seems like a new artist.  The song seems like it may have something to do with 'Skyfall', the newest James Bond flick, but I don't know of any connection.  I really like this track, even after a few more listens today.  

Hearing these two slightly different artists reminds me of another who also had a big brassy voice and was tatt'ed up a bit like Beth Hart is.  She comes to mind as I'd heard her again on the radio quite recently.  I refer, if you haven't guessed, to Amy Winehouse.  'Back to Black' is what I heard a few times recently, and I was really struck by how evocative that song is -- when I listen to it I can see scenes, places, people, in my mind's eye.  

I think you're better off just listening to that song and ignoring the video -- let your imagination do the ... imagining.  

The Big Jay-Zed

Jay-Z. What can you say about Jay-Z that hasn't been said before. Not a whole lot I would reckon - you can probably find what I'm about to write already written some place before. I've had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Jay-Z and rap music in general. I have my moments where I might buy a record or listen to a track repeatedly. This happened in 1998 when I bought Jay-Z's single, "Hard Knock Life." It's usually just a passing fad though, and then I go back to listening to Oasis or Blur, or something more white.

But back to Jay-Z. You can't help but admire this guy man. I saw him on Later with Jools Holland last week and he was absolutely phenomenal. Later's a live weekly TV show in the UK with musical acts. Check out Jay-Z performing "Empire State of Mind" below. I know it sounds cheesy, but Jay-Z's passion and love for his art is staring you in the face as you watch this clip. I'm not gonna fall in love with rap music overnight, but watching Jay-Z on Jools has definitely given me a deeper appreciation for his music. Nice one son.