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19 Oct 2009 09:58

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Music: Cello-playing dude covers LCD Soundsystem’s “Someone Great”

  • LCD Soundsystem never sounded so … regal. “Someone Great” is one of LCD Soundsystem’s best songs, and experimental cellist Andrew Carter brings it into a realm of beauty that not even the original reaches. We’re impressed.source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Oct 2009 14:16

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Music: This week’s Saturday Mixtape covers some of 2004’s best tunes



OK, we're halfway through the naughts after this week. In case you haven't noticed, we've been going through some of our favorite songs of this decade, year-by-year, since August. Once every other week or so. This week, we hit 2004. (Want to hear the others? Click here: 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000)
  • 1. If we had to pick one song of the decade, this would be it. In four and a half minutes, The Walkmen’s “The Rat” nailed the unnecessary gravitas and self-seriousness that defined this decade. No other song has come close to best defining it.
    2. Animal Collective essentially did the opposite of what Radiohead did to become famous. Starting out as a strange, dense, openly experimental band, they found themselves making pop music by the beginning of 2009. We still heart 2004’s “Sung Tongs,” though, and “Who Could Win a Rabbit?” is the bridge between the two sounds.
    3. The Arcade Fire suffered greatly at the hands of overhype, like many other perfectly-good bands of the era – Bloc Party or Vampire Weekend, anyone? But they deserved every bit of the hype they got, especially on “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out).”
    4. The Streets – aka Mike Skinner – nailed the best album of his career in 2002 with “Original Pirate Material,” but as far as singles go, “Fit But You Know It” is easily his best. With that roughshod beat – the kind of beat that Lily Allen rides up the charts nowadays – backing a story of a drunk ticked about the unattainable hottie in front of him, it synthesizes the best of Skinner’s sound and storytelling.
    5. The great secret of Sufjan Stevens’ “Seven Swans” – an album openly loaded with religious imagery – was that you didn’t need to be Christian to be deeply affected by it. “The Transfiguration” is beautiful on its own terms, but not without questioning its listener: “Consider what he says to you, consider what’s to come.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Oct 2009 10:47

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Music: Garth Brooks the new Wayne Newton? He’s heading to Vegas!

  • Great for him! We needed more populism in Vegas. And more mascara. (He’s coming back as Chris Gaines, right?) Either way, good for him! And for America!source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Oct 2009 09:55

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Music: Bob Dylan’s “Christmas in the Heart”: Everything we imagined

  • Hearing Dylan tackle “Here Comes Santa Claus” with that voice of his is just unbelievable. You think he’s doing it ironically, but no, he’s doing it with the passion of a guy who can pull off that bizarre mustache he’s been rocking the last few years. Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times gave this album no stars. That’s how bad it is.source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Oct 2009 09:45

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Music: We have a new Michael Jackson song. It goes like this.

  • Is This It? Yes, this is it. “This is it” is the single Michael Jackson was supposed to ride off into the sunset of a second wind of a career. That didn’t happen. Instead. It’s a painfully ironic statement of a guy who died before he had a chance to live the song’s statement of optimism. How about the song itself? It’s pretty good. It’s got an old-school MJ feel. It’s not even pretending to be a song released in 2009 (which suggests to us it wasn’t recorded recently). What do you think? Post your thoughts, kids.source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Oct 2009 17:59

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Music: Sad saps unite: Our Saturday Mixtape is designed to bum you out



We've been pretty bummed out by "Hellhole Ratrace" by Girls lately. It's a beautiful song, but it's beautiful in that way where you have to hang your head while you're taking in the beauty. So with that in mind, here's a soundtrack for the bummed-out.
  • 1. This gut-punch of a tune by the Drive-By Truckers, “Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife,” is based on the true story of the family of musician Bryan Harvey. They were killed randomly during a series of spree murders in Richmond, Va. in 2006. It’s one of the strongest in the Truckers’ catalog, but man, you wish they never had to write it.
    2. Begging to be coupled with the previous tune is this one by Antony and the Johnsons, “Another World,” which deals with the very issues the Truckers dealt with, but in a more direct fashion. We must hate you for giving you two gut-punches in a row.
    3. You can tell that Girls singer Christopher Owens, a former Children of God member, had to fight really hard for his optimism. On “Hellhole Ratrace,” he’s straddling the line between pain and optimism. Optimism wins.
    4. Even Elliott Smith’s rockier songs were doused in bitter. “Don’t Go Down” is very bitter, plus it was from the death-allusion-filled “From a Basement on the Hill,” Smith’s posthumous final album. Gut punch number 4. (Sorry.)
    5. We’ve all been here. End of a relationship, drunk, trying to reconcile, showing up unannounced. Being the very kind of drunk jerk you despise. OK, we all haven’t been there, but Casiotone for the Painfully Alone has, and he’s singing from experience on “Destroy the Evidence.” Fortunately, this gut punch has a little levity thanks to the Casio backing.source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Oct 2009 13:08

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Music: Meet the Eigenharp: The future of music or the future of hype?



It’s not often that we can say that we've seen something truly original. But the Eigenharp certainly fits that bill. It's loaded with technology that takes the best of synthesizers and mixes it with the best of traditional instruments. It's been a good 60 years since we've had a game-changing musical instrument. To paraphrase The Strokes, Is This It?
  • What it is A mix between a MIDI-sample-powered synth and a responsive, tangible instrument, it’s completely portable and (smartly) comes at two price points – a super-expensive one (the Alpha, which looks like a mix between a Chapman Stick and a hookah) for the musical nerds and the pros, and a cheaper one (the Pico) priced within the reach of normal people. source
  • What it is A mix between a MIDI-sample-powered synth and a responsive, tangible instrument, it’s completely portable and (smartly) comes at two price points – a super-expensive one (the Alpha, which looks like a mix between a Chapman Stick and a hookah) for the musical nerds and the pros, and a cheaper one (the Pico) priced within the reach of normal people.
  • Post-guitar? The electric guitar, in the grand scheme, has held its status as the most influential instrument for about 60 years. Others have tried, but electric guitars had just have the right mix of portability and shape that make them make sense in thousands of settings. That’s what intrigues us about the idea of the Eigenharp: It has the same appeal the electric guitar did. source
  • What it is A mix between a MIDI-sample-powered synth and a responsive, tangible instrument, it’s completely portable and (smartly) comes at two price points – a super-expensive one (the Alpha, which looks like a mix between a Chapman Stick and a hookah) for the musical nerds and the pros, and a cheaper one (the Pico) priced within the reach of normal people.
  • Post-guitar? The electric guitar, in the grand scheme, has held its status as the most influential instrument for about 60 years. Others have tried, but electric guitars had just have the right mix of portability and shape that make them make sense in thousands of settings. That’s what intrigues us about the idea of the Eigenharp: It has the same appeal the electric guitar did.
  • A reference point Years ago, we used to live in Milwaukee. We knew this guy named Jim Bartz, who had an interesting artistic outlet in the form of the Stringstation, a musical instrument with 40 strings meant to convey a huge sonic experience. In a lot of ways, this reminds us a lot of that. It’s got that wild, out-of-nowhere experimental tinge to it that Bartz’ instrument does. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

06 Oct 2009 10:20

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Music: Remember Shyne? Of course you don’t. Well, he’s out of jail today.

Shyne was the fall guy in the J-Lo/P. Diddy shooting incident a decade ago. We completely forgot he existed. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

05 Oct 2009 21:33

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Music: Did Guns & Roses rip off someone else’s electronic song?

  • 0:45 of soundscapes led to a lawsuit for Axl source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Oct 2009 09:47

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Music: Black holes and revelations: Muse tells Glenn Beck no thanks

  • Glenn Beck is on his radio show, praising the modern equivalent of U2 for its libertarian political stance, saying their music is “absolutely fantastic.” source
  • By the end of the show, Beck gets a phone call from Muse’s people telling him to apologize for making the remarks. He retracts them – quickly. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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