Earlier this year I wrote about Melee Beats and the potential that is there. WELL, it's starting to take shape, and a very pleasing shape at that. Treading the line somewhere between the Junior Boys and the Avalanches, Nic Bertino has put together a song that is both relaxed and dancy but not self-indulgent in the way that some producers can end up getting. The song is kept simple with just one vocal line (This girlhype has got me goin' crazy) but it works well as different instruments float in and out of "Girlhype."
Melee Beats Myspace
Monday, December 31, 2007
Melee Beats - "Girlhype"
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
[F]reeeemix
Portland's globe-trotting, knob-twiddling, dance innovating Yacht is currently offering free downloads of his instrumental tracks. The downloads include his newest album "I Believe in You, Your Magic is Real" and his collabo with The Blow, "Paper Television" as well as some b-sides and a split with Lucky Dragons. These are all instrumentals and all free, mind you, so mix em up, sing your own holiday lyrics over them, whatever!
Team Yacht
Thanks YACHT!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
WORLD RAP CHAMPIONSHIPS
You might be watching basketball now, and good for you, but you might be missing out on the world rap championships starring Portland's own returning Champ Illmaculate of the Sandpeople (opening for Wu Tang on New Year's at the Roseland). The finals are well on their way and Illmac and The Saurus won their battle against the worthy Canadian adversaries Poorich and Kid Twist in a best of three. Now The Saurus and Illmac will go on to face Quest McCody and Marvwon from Detroit who have been "killin" it and destroyed Mad Illz and Parable with their more comedic style. Anyways check it out, it's pretty hilarious.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
hiatus
finals are almost over, so maybe i'll find some time to update more often in the coming weeks. maybe.
in the meantime, here is a video of a band playing a song. the band is called woods, the song is called "night creature". there's something to be said about a recording of a live performance where you don't have to look through a sea of cellphone cameras and sweaty couples making out just to see and hear what the fuck is going on. but that's not the only good thing about it.
woods myspace
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
DoubleDutch - Crumbs
Ahh well. Here it is folks. An early Christmas present from Audiosurface. Umm I'm pleased to say that the first (of many more) songs to be posted directly into this blog is 'Crumbs' from the first DoubleDutch album coming out next month. Rad.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Portland
My inside source for all things DoubleDutchy has affirmed my suspicions that it may well be one of the best albums of 2008, slated to come out in January. The album is done, mixed and mastered and will be coming out on Bang Back records which is a newly launched project that is part of Pinball publishing. There is also talk of our own Boygorilla doing a vinyl release. yum. In other Portland related news:
Kele Goodwin w/ Laura Gibson <-- yes, "lovely"
Can't get enough Starfucker? Try here
And what post would be complete without a video? Heres the new one from The Thermals!
Best of 2007
OMG! Read More!
15. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
14. Sigur Ros – Hvarf-Heim
13. Interpol – Our Love to Admire
12. Feist - The Reminder
11. Beirut - Flying Club Cup
10. Laura Veirs – Saltbreakers
9. Emily Jane White - Dark Undercoat
8. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
7. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
6. Radiohead - In Rainbows
5. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
4. Eskimo and Sons – How Does It Feel To Be Crushed By One Man With The Strength Of A Million? EP
3. Caribou - Andorra
2. Alela Diane - The Pirate’s Gospel (2007 UK release)
1. Menomena - Friend and Foe
there you have it. questions, comments, concerns?
Saturday, December 01, 2007
state of the union
as 2007 winds down, undoubtedly the general consensus will be that it was a great year for music. screenwriters are on strike, immobilizing the tv and movie industry, but the music industry keeps on keeping on. amidst all the bullshit about the state of popular music and the crippling effects of downloading, artists like radiohead have found new ways to turn standard practice on its head and still be successful. and they were able to do something special: inspire real excitement about the music itself. kanye west and 50 cent boosting each other's respective record sales by sharing the same release date? genius. living in portland, the opportunity to see great bands play at smaller shows at houses and clubs is unique. i think we can all agree that seeing kickball playing a sexy, sweaty set in a basement trumps seeing most any band sell out a swanky venue. so, for as much negativity that's swirling around in the music world, there's twice as much positive, amazing material being created. both artists and fans might just have to try just a little bit harder, but, as we've seen, that sort of challenge does pay off.
this video was actually the reason for this post.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Cars & Trains
Today's update features an artist hailing from sunny Portland, OR. His name is Tom Fillep, but he goes by cars & trains. His music draws largely from that anticon/mush sound of Clouddead, Why?, Telephone Jim Jesus and others. In fact, Sole lends his vocal stylings to "The Sky is Clear". The iTunes genre tag calls it electronic/dance. I think you could dance to it, but it would be occuring at half-speed with soft lights pulsating on walls and lots of pillows strewn about. I didn't mean for that to sound so soft-core porn, but it speaks to the mellowww phantasmagoria of the album. The production sounds almost tactile and organic. I imagine it would translate well into an intimate live show.
"Rusty String" is out now on circle into square records.
website
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The Company Kang
Word to dance music popping off at Whitman College. The Company Kang has got some tunes on their myspace and are currently working on their first album entitled "Winter Pimps". Don't miss the Wamp Wamp remix.
The Company Kang
Monday, November 26, 2007
Seabear - I Sing I Swim
Heres a cute little song accompanied by a cute little video from morrmusic's Seabear. The Berlin label's youtube account also has videos posted for Lali Puna (a personal fav. of mine) and cool electronic outfit ISAN among others. In an interesting but probably outdated bit of news, Seabear was said to be sharing a tour bus with Mum. Talk about cute overloading.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Fiery Furnaces - Navy nurse
Yay! Fiery Furnaces! The song is almost as weird as the video. But probably not as weird as that BMSR vid we posted a lil while ago.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
I'm Not There
So there's this movie directed by Todd Haynes with a bunch of different people playing Bob Dylan... yadda yadda movie shmoovie. The soundtrack, however is a x2 disc compilation of covers by bands/people like:
Yo La Tengo
Cat Power
Sufjan Stevens
The Black Keys
Sonic Youth
The Hold Steady
Karen O
Jeff Tweedy
Iron & Wine
Stephen Malkmus
Calexico
+MORE!!
You can listen to the Sufjan Stevens, Cat Power and Calexico songs here
The songs they cover definitely lend themselves to the styles of the artists that are covering them which is comforting, it seems like someone knows what they are doing.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Radiohead > Kiss + Oasis
kids enjoying "In Rainbows"
From a Billboard interview with Gene Simmons:
"Every little college kid, every freshly-scrubbed little kid's face should have been sued off the face of the earth. They should have taken their houses and cars and nipped it right there in the beginning. Those kids are putting 100,000 to a million people out of work. How can you pick on them? They've got freckles. That's a crook. He may as well be wearing a bandit's mask.
Doesn't affect me. But imagine being a new band with dreams of getting on stage and putting out your own record. Forget it.
BUT SOME ARTISTS LIKE RADIOHEAD AND TRENT REZNOR ARE TRYING TO FIND A NEW BUSINESS MODEL.
That doesn't count. You can't pick on one person as an exception. And that's not a business model that works. I open a store and say "Come on in and pay whatever you want." Are you on f---ing crack? Do you really believe that's a business model that works?
And Liam Gallagher talking to Reuters:
"Gallagher, peppering his speech with expletives, told Reuters it would be over his "dead body" before he went into a studio and worked hard to release his work for nothing."
Broken Social Scene on NPR
"Broken Social Scene presents the music of band member Kevin Drew in a full concert, webcast live on NPR.org Nov. 18. The performance from Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club will begin at approximately 8 p.m. ET."
sounds like a good way to spend a sunday night.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Dylan's 2007 Top 10!
Well folks 2007 is winding down and what a year it was. Lots of cool things happened, a lot of crazy things happened too. Radiohead shocked the world with their free album, elvis came back, I got a new phone etc. Anyways, here it is. 2007 Top 10*
11. Kickball - Everything Is A Miracle Nothing Is A Miracle Is
10. Feist - The Reminder
9. Sean Price - Jesus Price Superstar
8. Simian Mobile Disco - Attack Decay Sustain Release
7. The National - The Boxer
6. Menomena - Friend and Foe
5. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
4. Radiohead - In Rainbows
3. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Dandelion Gum
2. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
1. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Yeah so definitely get all of these albums if you don't already have them. They're all good, I promise.
*I can change this because 2007 isn't over, and because maybe I'm forgetting something, and maybe I just want to just cus.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Win, Regine, & The Boss
this video kind of gave me chills. and i don't even listen to bruce springsteen.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
hello! it has been a while. i have heard your eternal clamoring for more audiosurface music-blog-nerdery from my private castle observatory nestled in the blue mountains of eastern washington . so, without further ado, here are new artists or albums i think are worth looking into:
Emily Jane White - Dark Undercoat myspace!
she sounds a lot like cat power. and that is a-ok in my book because i am love with chan. there, i've said it. also, this is her debut album and i can't really believe that.
Sigur Ros - Hvarf-Heim read about it here
new songs, old songs. all amazing, all the time.
Le Loup - The Throne Of The Third Heaven Of The Nations' Millennium General Assembly myspace!
this is a really great album. sort of like the books with more banjo and vocal harmonies.
on an unrelated note, i love learning about outer space and dreaming about iceland.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Black Moth Super Rainbow - "Sun Lips"
holy crap. i don't quite know what to make of this. it's bizarrely compelling, perverse and morbid. i hope mtv somehow finds a way to wedge this in between t-pain and soulja boy videos in the near future.
p.s. thanks pitchfork.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Melee Beats - Bel Esteem
Put your dancing shoes back on. I'm not off this dance shit yet. I've been listening to this album recently and I've decided it is blog worthy, and definitely danceable. The hook in the first song titled "Bel Esteem (Intro)" is "I keep on coming, one more time." So I know Daft Punk has trademarked the "one more time" thing but this just works so well and when the crazy synth solo comes in... hoo boy.
While the album itself is not that impressive, a few of the singles on this album hint at some mighty fine dance music to come. The songs are complete with Daft Punk esque times when the beat falls out and leaves this vocoded out voice singin' bout love and the usual. If you can sit still and listen to this you a stronger person than most I think. "Distraction" has some crazy scottish sounding solo in it that makes it probably the strongest track on the album. Then there's "Wondering". This song is probably the most interesting because it sounds like Daft Punk does live. Imagine homework and human after all being smashed together, by this I mean crunchy guitar arpeggio's over that "buh tst buh tst buh tst buh tst". Umm yeah, then theres Champs, which is pretty much a revamped version of "Short Circuit." Okay, go have some fun with that.
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