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08 May 2010 12:31

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About, Music: Sad news: The Saturday Mixtape’s taking a break

  • why? Blame it partly on Lala’s closing,
    but we also think it’s  a good
    chance to reconsider our
    short-form musical approach.
  • next We plan on trying different music features in the future. Our first was “Non-Expert Opinion.” We’ll keep you posted, guys. source
  • » Will the mixtape return eventually? Probably, but its form might change. We might also move it to Monday. Who knows? We might get lucky and iTunes will have a similar embed feature that uses HTML5 (hint, hint).
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jan 2010 19:12

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Music: Saturday Mixtape: Five trailblazers to start out the next decade

  • 1. Folk: The Avett Brothers had a pretty good 2009, with a large major-label mainstream breakthrough in the form of “I and Love and You.” As folk goes, their sound – influenced by ramshackle punk and Beatlesque melodies as much as traditional Guthrieisms – seems ready to define folk-rock for the next decade. And unlike Ryan Adams, they have a fairly consistent musical plot, which means they won’t screw this up so easily.
  • 2. Punk: Fucked Up may perhaps be the most interesting thing to happen to hardcore punk in a couple of decades. There’s a distinct level of risk in their performance style (they’re known for being violent and confrontational) and their sound (their most well-known album, “The Chemistry of Common Life,” opens with a flute solo – not exactly hardcore), and it’s a definite blueprint for punk’s future that could win them fans over time.
  • 3. Electronic/Noise: HEALTH has two pretty good albums to their name, and with a brutal live set (punctuated by pin-drop changes in dynamic), a tie to one of L.A.’s best scenes at The Smell, and an ear to the potential of electronic music (2007’s HEALTH//DISCO remix album proved to be a great evolution of their sound), they’re bound to come up with a great album eventually.
  • 4. Pop: Chromeo is perhaps the most influential pop band that currently isn’t getting heavy play on the radio. Mainstream acts are riffing on their retro sound (which itself riffs on Hall & Oates, with a little French electronica mixed in there) left and right, and they come up way more often in articles about pop music than they do on iPod playlists. With a third album in 2010, expect them to get an even bigger profile.
  • 5. Rock: Titus Andronicus perhaps has one of the most interesting conceits for an album in 2010 – “The Monitor,” a concept piece on the Civil War, anchored by a song called “The Battle of Hampton Roads.” The scrappy indie rockers, if they pull it off, could win the kind of respect handed to guys like Craig Finn of The Hold Steady. The band already has a history the with concept album, so it should be intriguing.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Dec 2009 20:40

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Music: ShortFormBlog Saturday Mixtape: Most inventive videos of 2009


  • High-Speed Nudity In Matt & Kim’s simple, clever video for “Lessons Learned,” they run through Times Square stripping all along. Best part? The cops that tackle them totally weren’t planned, but make the video ten times better.

  • Carl Sagan, Remixed When we posted about this a few months ago, we were shocked at how well this remix worked. Beyond being a good video, it’s a good song – way better than most video mashups turn out being.

  • Oddity with a budgetDan Deacon’s been on the winning end of the viral video game before, but he’s clearly never had a budget as big as the one for “Padding Ghost,” which is way more palatable than those videos, but just as fun.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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