i have a love-hate affair with chromeo. sometimes their stuff is brilliant. other times it feels contrived, forced. their new track, "don't turn the lights on" is of the former category. totally diggin' it. and appropriate enough, it has a dark, almost ethereal quality. loves it.
jon janes, the man behind the canadian folk-alternative outfit the mountains & the trees, makes a good point about the banjo on his site: "genre-wise, [i have] too many effects pedals for folk, too many banjos for rock-n-roll (if you're wondering how many banjos are too many - it's one)." so true. disappointingly so. for all the dance-pop, synthy goodness i post on this blog, i am a sucker for a banjo. (go figure! but "the banjo sucker" doesn't have the same ring as "the pop sucker" for a blog title.) and i love a good folk acoustic tune. "more & more & more" is such a song. it's from the mountains & the trees's upcoming full-length album i made this for you, which comes out august 10. you can pre-order it on their bandcamp site.
off to see hot hot heat at popscene tonight, so i'm breaking out one of their classic tunes. to be honest, i haven't listened to their new album future breeds yet, but i'm sure they'll be playing some of those tracks tonight. word.
british model turned singer karen elson has delivered one of the most spellbinding, melodic, and eerie tunes of the season. featured on her debut album, the ghost who walks, the title track evokes feelings of '50s heartbreak songs like "last kiss." you can almost imagine listening to this on your local AM rock station on a warm summer night on your way to the drive-in to catch the latest aip release high school hellcats.
"cocaine" by kissed her little sister might just be the most ingenious song of the year. mixing story-song elements, sound effects and the "inspector gadget" theme over a sparse musical arrangement, this ode to nose candy is like an aural quentin tarantino movie. head on over to their site and download their entire album for free!
grease, "physical," xanadu, "i honestly love you," they're all great. but nothing olivia newton-john has done before or since has reached the highwater mark of her 1980 #1 hit "magic."
i'm a man/yeah, i'm a fragile man/i'm a man/light of step, and soft of touch/a gentle man
june 2010 marks the 40th anniversary of gay pride. a few years after the seminal post-stonewall pride march, the first openly gay rock star exploded on the scene. his light flamed so bright that it burned out almost instantaneously. barely anyone writes or talks about him because barely anyone remembers him.
jobriath (alias bruce wayne campbell) was signed to a $500,000 elektra record contract in 1973. allegedly, it was the most lucrative major-label deal at the time. a grand marketing campaign was launched including a 40-foot-high billboard in times square featuring a partially-nude jobriath made to resemble an ancient roman statue. (this would also be the cover of his debut album.)
despite positive reviews, the album flopped. jobriath's glam-rock, theatrical sensibilities, though fashionable at the time, were often overshadowed by his sexuality. he called himself "a true fairy." after releasing a second album, creatures of the street, which also tanked, jobriath retired from the music biz. he reincarnated himself several times under different pseudonyms, and worked as a cabaret singer throughout the rest of the decade. he died of aids in 1983. morrissey attempted to resurrect the cult of jobriath and released a compilation of his material in 2004. his albums were formally released by collector's choice music in 2007.
although he never became an inconic glam rocker, his cult, however small, lives on. one look at the outfit he wore on the television show "the midnight special," instantly brings to mind lady gaga's wacky costumes. he's often compared to his contemporaries, like elton john and david bowie, that is, if anyone remembers to write about him in the first place. relegated to nothing more than a footnote in the history of popular music as an anomalous novelty. i never would have found out about him myself had it not been for the compilation queer noises: from the closests to the charts. the album features jobriath's first single, the massive "i'maman." it's a time capsule for sure, but it's also theatrical glitter rock at its finest. the song takes you in so many directions it's hard to know exactly where you are when it's over. wherever that is, hopefully jobriath is there too.
continuing with the "songs of my inbox" (hmm... that sounds vaguely obscene), i bring you lite n dark, a uk electropop duo who sent their track "nasty boy," featuring kay maf. these two young brits -- katie mckenna, 17, and tim talbot, 21 -- have come up with an electro-banger that's sure to be blowing up speakers this summer. you can grab their two-track ep, losing control, for bupkis here.
if i could post every unsolicited song that comes through my inbox each day, i would. seriously. it's just as important -- probably more so -- to give the up-and-comers some exposure, as it is to post the newest lady gaga remix. the songs that come my way fall into one of three categories: 1) songs that aren't appropriate for the blog; 2) songs that just don't do it for me; or 3) songs that must be posted immediately. meet grand vanity, a husband and wife duo, who obviously falls into the third category. i was so taken with their rock/pop sound on the single, "got a nerve," i bought it on iTunes upon first listen. it's heavy. dig it. you can check out that tune below, as well as the video, and scoop their newly-released ep, ep-a (ever present annoyance), for only $5 here.
it was ridiculously hot in san francisco this weekend, so now i'm all about posting the feel-good summery tunes. daniel johnson is an electronic musician whose first full-length, lazrus, came out last year. with shades of early royksopp, "goodbye silhouette" is the perfect song to play in your car when you're driving home from a long at the beach at dusk.
i just woke up from a very strange dream. i was frantically trying to find a particular remix of the bananarama song "look on the floor (hypnotic tango)." i never did find it in the dream. however, when i woke up, i was humming the tune and set about to find it. thanks to the modern marvels of google and wikipedia, i found and downloaded it in about 5 seconds. the song came out in 2006 and this remix was a big hit on the much-loved but now defunct dance station energy 92.7. i have no idea why i would have a dream about it now. but it sure makes more sense than the dream i had just before: where i destroyed my mother's famed mashed potatoes. umm... yeah.
sia's new album, we are born, drops in a few weeks, but i wanted to break out this tune. this is famed detroit dj lauren flax's remix of the single, "you've changed." i'm not exactly sure why this single is tagged as lauren flax feat. sia, and not the other way around. unless it differs by region? hmmmm.... a better question, i think, is which version do i like more: flax's or sia's original? double hmmmm....
so the drums released their first full-length album tuesday, they're getting massive buzz right now, nme, critical acclaim, jonathan ross ... blah, blah, blah, i don't like 'em. they don't do a thing for me. but, let's talk about lead singer (and supremely hot) jonathan pierce's previous band, the short-lived incarnation elkland, whom i adored. they too gained a lot of buzz, released a full-length album, golden, opened for erasure, then disbanded. it's a shame, too. their brand of new wave revival synth-pop was right up my alley. and their single, "apart," was a shining moment in my life. the song is filled with so much energy and power, it's mind boggling. and the video? holy jesus. perfection.
how many nancy sinatra songs can one blogger post? not enough, says i, a permenant resident on planet nancy. so in honor of the lady's 70th birthday, i present nancy, six ways.
...mass multimedia saturation only gives the illusion of longevity and it doesn't give much of an indication of the durability of the [artist]'s music, either. of course, pop music isn't necessarily meant to be durable — it's meant to exist in the moment, and once that moment passes, the hit singles of a given day either wind up as classics that retain some of their initial power, or they become an aural snapshot of a given moment, a way to revisit a particular place in time.
with that said, i introduce you to auburn, and say this: "thanks for the catchy summer jam. we hardly knew ya."
new from boston's hooray for earth is this gem, "surrounded by your friends," with the association-inspired harmonies and sound, modernized for today's youth.
in a desperate attempt to get out of the castro last weekend, my friend daniel and i headed down to club 8 for their monthly big top event. this time, the evening featured a performance by l.a.-based ab soto. keep in mind that the gay clubs of san francisco don't host many performances unless they're by drag queens or the occasional dance diva. what that meant is that this performance was going to be either really, really good, or really, really bad. i didn't hold any high expectations, so imagine my surprise when ab came out and he was actually good. very good.
it's hard to peg his sound. it's part hip-hop, part rap, part electro, part pop. but it's catchy, and although the hip-hop/rap stuff isn't usually my cup of tea, i find myself listening to it over and over again. what's more is if you get a chance to see him live, do so. aside from being a great performer, he can move like nobody i've seen before. and his wacky style (featuring an odd fascination with mickey mouse) perfectly compliments his sound, which, like the singer himself, is sexy as hell.
after you check out these two tracks, head on over to his myspace to listen to others and purchase through iTunes.
let me introduce you to a rare species: euphonious electronicus. that strange breed of absolutely mellifluous harmony and dance-ready amazingness (<--- technical term). and hold on to your seats kids, 'cause at the 1:15 mark edward maya brings in the concertina. massive.
it was the third of june/another sleepy, dusty, delta day...
if there's one thing we know about bobbie gentry it's that we don't know much about her. during the summer of love, she stormed up the charts with her enigmatic masterpiece "ode to billie joe." it was #1 for four weeks and its accompanying album hit the summit as well. in fact, it was the only album to knock sgt. peppers lonely hearts club band out of the top slot.
she won the grammy for best new artist in 1968, along with three others. a few minor hits followed in the next couple years, "fancy" being the biggest, along with some duets with glen campbell. and then in the late '70s, she vanished, saying "so long" to the music industry and was never heard from again. as far as we know she's still living, but when she retired, she certainly meant it.
she left behind an incredibly varied, underappreciated, and often criminally ignored back catalog. her albums -- six studio lps, and a handful of one-off singles -- are definitely worth seeking out. she had a gift for songwriting and her turns of phrase and lyrical imagery are unsurpassed. just take a listen to "seasons come, seasons go" below to see what i mean. between her husky, charming vocals and the swampy, dirty, soulful country rock-pop sound created, it's pure bliss.
and finally, once and for all: what exactly did billie joe mcallister throw off the tallahatchie bridge?
i love me some fred falke. he's probably my most fave producer/dj/remixer out there. and remixes of songs, like cover versions, can be as intoxicating as they are dreadful. unfortunately, the latter always seems to win out. but with fred, i can always count on a great remix that actually improves upon the song -- which is what a remix is supposed to do -- and not desecrate it. falke takes on florrie with this latest remix. florrie's an up-and-comer who's gaining a bunch of buzz and is giving away all of her music for free on her site! the track is definitely '80s-synth-pop-inspired. in fact, the opening notes reminds me of "i heard a rumor" by bananaram. do you hear it?
danish electronica outfit dato's debut disc, disc 1, is set for release this month. they produce some spectacular synthy goodness, and this track, "how many times," is by far one of their best. a great hook, and lovely vocals. dig it.
