Idolator: Mp3

KristeenYoung And Patrick Stump Bring The Drama

Lucas Jensen — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:45:00 EST

KristeenYoung* has teamed up with Fall Out Boy mutton chop master Patrick Stump for the dramatic duet "That's What It Takes, Dear." Under the supervision of the super-awesome Tony Visconti, "Dear" rumbles and thunders its way over spiky pianos and low synths to its going-for-it conclusion. It's rather minimalist in arrangement, but big-sounding, which ain't easy. I hate to pigeonhole, but there's definitely a mid-period Tori Amos vibe here which is undeniable, particularly in its rhythmic construction. I don't consider this a bad thing at all, and I've got nothing against melodrama, particularly in music that might have an outside shot at going mainstream. Young sounds like she feels it, and Stump, with some smooth walkdowns, is a nice foil. In a world of Vivian Girls and Coathangers, I like to hear people that sound like they give two craps. I approve. I'm also rooting for Patrick Stump, who seems an affable fellow and provides a welcome counterbalance to the the garish pretty boys of Alternative Press covers.

~~KristeenYoung feat. Patrick Stump - That's What It Takes, Dear~~ [MP3, link expired]

* The press release annoyingly insists that she is also a band, referring to KristeenYoung as "they" and "them" even though we all know who really wears the pants in the "band."

Max Justus + Robots = <3

Lucas Jensen — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 09:30:00 EDT

Max Justus is a 20-year-old, Kansas City-based electronic composer whose stuff comes off like the love child of Harold Faltermeyer and my old NES, which is to say it hits me in all the right spots. He revels in just making beats and bleeps and throwing them out there, and there's always a hint of softness and beauty behind the retro goodies. It's rare that this kind of thing strikes me as emotionally generous and fun.

Stuart Bury directed a video for Justus' "Ctrl_Alt_Dance" that also has a simple warmth to it, matching the glassy beauty of the track. It's little more than animated drawings of cute robots dancing. Sometimes the robots get a little nasty, but that's about it. And I love it. Lately, I've found videos of this nature much more artistically successful than the overwrought and often absurdist "story videos" of many indie bands out there, to say nothing of slick, noisy mainstream videos that say a lot but signify nothing. Maybe it's the old R.E.M. video fan in me, but I'd rather watch a simple, direct artistic vision that syncs with the material than another execrable attempt at humor or insipid performance video.

Of course, it could just be the robots.

The track below, "Seven", is from his new album, Five Leaping Lizards, and it's just rad. It sounds like an alternate take on the Knight Rider theme that was rejected for being too cool.

Max Justus, "Seven" [MP3; thanks to The Record Machine]
Max Justus [MySpace—free full-length downloads within!]

The Law Would Like To Hear About Your Haul From Santa

mjohnston — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 13:30:14 EST

In our final installment of Enter Snowman, holiday-music expert Jon Solomon—whose 20th annual 24-hour Christmas show kicks off at 6 p.m. ET!—shares a seasonal classic from the Boston-via-Iowa punk outfit The Law:

Growing up in central New Jersey, one of the first Christmas songs I remember hearing on WPRB that I couldn't find anywhere else was by a group of snotty punks from Iowa called The Law.

The Law moved east to Boston in search of fame and fortune when I was still in grade school, and one of their members, "Billy Disease," would later attend Princeton—which is how their songs ended up at WPRB. Their 1980 "King Sized Cigarette" single is one of those 45s that is just dying for Hyped2Death to give it the attention it deserved 25 years ago.

This holiday song—recorded live at Boston's The Rat in 1981—was for many years available only as a cart at the station, and hearing it appear on the airwaves always meant that the holidays were officially here. Now, as one of the three songs I close my 24-hour Xmas show with, it means that it is time to go home and get some rest and that I've hopefully done a good job this holiday season.

Wanting to share this song with people was the impetus for The My Pal God Holiday Record, and I still hope that someday The Law's "Instant Party" cassette can get a CD release.

Folks from The Law went on to join Scruffy The Cat, Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus Five.

Happy Holidays!

The Law - What Did Santa Claus Bring You For Christmas [MP3]
The Law [Iowa Underground Archives Network]

Light Up The Tree, Mister President (And Bring John Lennon With You)

mjohnston — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 17:15:55 EST

The efforts of Clear Channel's programmers have probably helped you already get sick of holiday music, but there are many fine celebratory songs that would never cross their airwaves out there. To help cut through the clutter we've asked Jon Solomon, whose 20th annual 24-Hour Holiday Radio Show on WPRB kicks off at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, to offer up some seasonal cheer in MP3 form. Today's song brings together George W. Bush and John Lennon's Christmas wish for the world:

I am surprised with how thoughtful and well-crafted this "mash-up" is. The Lennon song isn't one of my favorite holiday tunes, but I think this is pretty remarkable.

Cal-TV and Waxaudio - G.W. Bush Happy Xmas (War is Over) [MP3]
Cal-Tv and Waxaudio: G.W. Bush Happy Xmas (War is Over) [YouTube]
Wax Audio [Official site]

Surefire Broadcast Gets Snowed In

mjohnston — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:00:45 EST

The efforts of Clear Channel's programmers have probably helped you already get sick of holiday music, but there are quite a few seasonally appropriate songs worthy of your time out there. To help cut through the clutter we've asked Jon Solomon, whose 20th annual 24-Hour Holiday Radio Show on WPRB kicks off at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, to offer up some seasonal cheer in MP3 form. And you may be interested to know that he uses the phrase "early-'90s pop 45s" to describe the song he's brought our way today:

From the blueberry capital of the world, it is South Jersey's Surefire Broadcast. This song, and its male-female vocal interplay over simple instrumentation, makes me want to grab a stack of early-'90s pop 45s and get under a blanket. However, I am late for work. Previously unreleased, and provided kindly by the band for use as part of Enter Snowman.

Surefire Broadcast - Let It Snow [MP3]
Surefire Broadcast [MySpace]

Delaware Throws A Rainbow-Colored Christmas Party

mjohnston — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:00:00 EST

The efforts of Clear Channel's programmers have probably helped you already get sick of holiday music, but there are quite a few seasonally appropriate songs worthy of your time out there. To help cut through the clutter we've asked Jon Solomon, whose 20th annual 24-Hour Holiday Radio Show on WPRB kicks off at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, to offer up some seasonal cheer in MP3 form. Today, he brings us a few Christmas tunes from the Delaware bands Walleye, Zen Guerrilla, and Bullette:

A good decade before she was half of The Sky Drops, Monika Bullette produced a record of 18 Delaware groups doing Christmas songs called Rainbow Covers The Holidays. The entire record—as well as two non-album Bullette mp3s—is free for download on Bullette's site.

Highlights:
• Jade Tree/Compulsiv recording artist Walleye's cover of "Deck The Halls."
• Zen Guerilla's sludgy take on "Little Drummer Boy."
• Bullette's "Christmas Blank" is also quite nice.

Walleye - Deck The Halls [MP3]
Zen Guerilla - Little Drummer Boy [MP3]
Bullette - Christmas Blank [MP3]
Rainbow Covers The Holidays [bullette.net]

Brian And Chris Bring Tidings Of Comfort And Joy

mjohnston — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:00:43 EST

The efforts of Clear Channel's programmers have probably helped you already get sick of holiday music, but there are quite a few seasonally appropriate songs worthy of your time out there. To help cut through the clutter we've asked Jon Solomon, whose 20th annual 24-Hour Holiday Radio Show on WPRB kicks off at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, to offer up some seasonal cheer in MP3 form. Today, he brings us a new take on a 19th-century Christmas carol:

The Bay Area-based duo of Brian Frasier (Tractor Hips, Hudson Bell, White Pine, Thee More Shallows) and Chris Palmatier (Joby's Opinion) have been releasing blippy, textured and genuinely surprising records as a band since 2001. This version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" was, like the TW Walsh track before it, originally slated for the eventually-scrapped third volume of the My Pal God Holiday Record series.

Brian And Chris - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen [MP3]
Brian And Chris [Official site]
[Photo via MySpace]

Adam Arcuragi Takes A Gentle Approach

mjohnston — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:00:06 EST

The efforts of Clear Channel's programmers have probably helped you already get sick of holiday music, but there are quite a few seasonally appropriate songs worthy of your time out there. To help cut through the clutter we've asked Jon Solomon, whose 20th annual 24-Hour Holiday Radio Show on WPRB kicks off at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, to offer up some seasonal cheer in MP3 form. Today, he brings us a track that eschews sentimentality for strumming:

Adam Arcuragi's untitled debut on High Two was one of my favorite records of 2006, and I would have the Jackin' Pop ballot to prove it if it hadn't been for that commenting "upgrade" earlier this year. The album concludes with "The Christmas Song," one of those songs of the season that thankfully doesn't beat you over the head with overt imagery.

Adam Arcuragi - The Christmas Song [MP3]
Adam Arcuragi [MySpace]
Holiday Show That's Rockin' Round the Clock [NYT]

Mojochronic Slaps A Santa Hat On Led Zeppelin

mjohnston — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:00:55 EST

The efforts of Clear Channel's programmers have probably helped you already get sick of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and that damned Don Henley holiday track, but there are quite a few seasonally appropriate songs worthy of your time out there. To help cut through the clutter we've asked Jon Solomon, whose 20th annual 24-Hour Holiday Radio Show on WPRB kicks off at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, to offer up some seasonal cheer in MP3 form. Today, he brings us a holiday-themed mash-up that incorporates music by this week's biggest classic-rock reunion:

DJ BC has recently unveiled his third Santasic mix of Christmas mashups. All three volumes in this incredibly entertaining series are available as free downloads on his web site. The following pairing of sounds is the sort of lowbrow genius I have a high appreciation for, and to say any more would spoil half the fun.

Mojochronic - Yuletide Zeppelin [MP3]
DJ BC [MySpace]

TW Walsh Has A Silent Night

mjohnston — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:00:57 EST

This unreleased recording from 2001 was originally slated for inclusion on volume three of The My Pal God Holiday Record, which never completely came together. In addition to his outstanding solo work, TW Walsh has since formed a great group called The Soft Drugs and can be heard on the new charity holiday compilation Peace On Earth along with Rosie Thomas, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone and Great Lake Swimmers.

TW Walsh - Silent Night [MP3]
TW Walsh [Official site]
The Soft Drugs [MySpace]

The Swimmers Plunge Into The Egg Nog

mjohnston — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:00:33 EST

The efforts of Clear Channel's programmers have probably helped you already get sick of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and that damned Don Henley holiday track, but there are quite a few seasonally appropriate songs worthy of your time out there. To help cut through the Christmas clutter we've asked Jon Solomon, whose 20th annual 24-Hour Holiday Radio Show on WPRB kicks off at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, to offer up some seasonal cheer in MP3 form. (He also hopes that by supplying these songs, his myriad commenter-password reset e-mails will finally go answered.) Up first, we have a little bit of holiday jangle from Philadelphia popsters The Swimmers:

There are three types of Christmas songs I prefer: Horrible historical artifacts that must be shared with an unsuspecting public; takes on traditional source material done in a unique way by unexpected artists; and good songs that just happen to have a holiday theme. This track by Philadelphia's The Swimmers falls squarely in the last of these categories. It captures the band's jangle nicely (their debut full-length, Fighting Trees, will be released nationally on Mad Dragon Records next year, and it's streaming in full on their Web site) while also evoking the sentiments of the season.

The Swimmers - The Christmas Sound [MP3]
The Swimmers [Official site]
[Photo via MySpace]

Skull Disco Cracks Our Heads Open

jharv — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:00:00 EDT

All Hallows Eve is still a few weeks away, but one creepy crawly record that's getting a lot of pre-Halloween play here at Idolator is Soundboy Punishments, a two CD collection of singles from England's Skull Disco label that will be released on Rough Trade on Oct. 23. Run by gloomy producers Shackleton and Appleblim, Skull Disco's music blends the desolate, reggae-tinged sway of London dubstep with tribal house beats that are downright haunted and all sorts of phantasmic effects designed to wig you out on late night walks with your iPod. (Ghouls and rude boys might even be able to cut a rug to it.) And we've got two exclusive MP3s from the collection to get your weekend off to an eerie start:

Shackleton - "Naked"
Appleblim - "Mystial Warrior"

Skull Disco [Official Site]

Army/Navy Find A Copy Of "C86" At The Thrift Store

mjohnston — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:05:57 EDT

The L.A. band Army/Navy were pitched to us as a "new indie pop gem," and if there's one phrase that will get me clicking on the MP3s in my e-mail, it's that one. (Publicists, take note.) "Saints," which we've posted below, is a shimmery bit of jangle that sounds like the offspring of distorto-pop heroes Teenage Fanclub and Tiger Trap (the harmonies on the chorus make my knees weak); if you're into that, you should definitely check out "My Thin Sides," which is on their MySpace page and which sounds like a lost Orange Juice track that's had about 50 layers of distortion added to it. Seriously, I could listen to songs like this from now until the end of time:

Army/Navy - Saints [MP3]
Army/Navy [MySpace]

Young Marble Giants Rule Our Jukebox

mjohnston — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:45:25 EDT

One of my most treasured flea-market finds ever was a three-dollar, perfectly preserved copy of the Young Marble Giants' 1980 album Colossal Youth that I found at a flea market outside of Philadelphia about 10 years ago; the album's full of quiet, spare songs that turned the idea of what sort of music could be considered "punk" inside-out, which only made the culmination of my quest even more sweet. (Cardiffians, which is curated by Idolator commenter/fanzine pioneer mike a, has an exhaustive amount of info on the band.) Youth was recently given the deluxe-reissue treatment over here (complete with a bonus disc of Peel Sessions) after being criminally out-of-print for way too long; we've posted the gently looping "Wurlitzer Jukebox," which is probably the album's most oddly catchy song, below:

Young Marble Giants - Wurlitzer Jukebox [MP3]
Young Marble Giants [MySpace]

Listening Station: Club 8 Take Us To Heaven

mjohnston — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 13:10:04 EDT

The Swedish indiepop duo Club 8 has been putting out laid-back, sweetly hummable music for about 12 years now, making the two members elder statespeople of the genre (and making me feel kinda old). Their forthcoming album The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming is their first full-length in five years, and if the track "Heaven" is any indication, their ability to turn bright guitars and gently swaying beats into scrumptious pop confections hasn't been ill-affected by the layoff:

Club 8 - Heaven [MP3]
Club 8 [MySpace]

Rwake Emerges From The Southern Muck

Matthew Goldenberg — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 12:16:57 EDT

Because some of our readers may, in fact, be so full of vitriol that the combination of Justin Timberlake and Paxil just isn't doin' it for them anymore, we bring you our new bimonthly metal column, "Angry Music for Angry People," written by MetalSucks' Axl Rosenberg, a.k.a. Matthew Goldenberg. In the first installment, he looks at the last-name-averse outfit Rwake.

Band: Rwake
Sub-genre(s): Doom metal, sludge metal, stoner metal, prog metal
Best known for: Being one of those bands whose name no one knows how to pronounce. Is the "w" silent, and it's "rake?" Or is the "r" silent, and it's "wake?" Or is it just "ruh-wake?"
For people who like: Drugs that have to be smoked, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Mastodon
Most interesting member: Singer/keyboard B., a petite, boyish woman with dreads who bares something of a resemblance to a gremlin. Those of us who find her cute anyway presumably do so because of her talent, not because we have severe psychological problems.
Fun fact: B. is married to drummer Jeff Morgan, the only member of the band to openly utilize a last name.

Hundreds of bands since Metallica have followed the unwritten law that metal albums will open with soft, meditative instrumental bit before unleashing hell, but only Rwake has thought to use a banjo. In fact, few things—some piano there, some acoustic guitar here, a little bit of ambient white noise in the background—seem off-limits in Rwake's world.

Rwake isn't for those with short attention spans—a single song rarely runs under seven minutes—but they're kept consistently interesting by the same ever-spiraling-outwards tendencies as acts like Pelican, Isis, and Tool. But Phish fans, beware: before you get too excited about toking up and tuning out, know that primary vocalist C.T. screams himself hoarse while the band seamlessly integrates slow, sludgy metal with the foreboding aural gathering of clouds that is the trademark of doom-metal bands like Agalloch and Daylight Dies, both of whom play atmospheric, super-slow music. Rwake's music doesn't zip along like Metallica or boogie-woogie like Guns N' Roses—it kinda slowly dribbles, like thick, sticky sap on a tree, and occasionally painfully drags itself forward, like a woolly mammoth stuck in the mud. In other words: this is some heavy shit.

But fret not, Van Halenites and Yngwiests—this speed deficiency never prevents guitarists Gravy and Kiffin from shredding to their hearts' contents. The band's lack of traditional pop metal hooks may mean you'll never see the brats at Hot Topic wearing its shirts, but that's probably a good thing. There's something mathematical about the constant shifts in the band's music, yet it still sounds crazy, like a pack of wild dogs howling in a storm. To listen to Rwake, or see them live, is to understand that they really are some crazy hillbilly bastards, living in a shed somewhere, working real hard on making the most evil music ever.

Rwake - Leviticus [MP3]
Rwake - Leviticus [YouTube]
Rwake [MySpace]

Petra Haden Makes Me Question All My Musical Assumptions

mjohnston — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:50:13 EDT

It's been pretty well-established that I'm lukewarm on "funny" cover versions of songs, and four years at a major Midwestern university have caused me to shudder involuntarily whenever the words "a capella" are uttered. So why am I so into Petra Haden's version of "Don't Stop Believin'"—which itself is part of an all-"guilty pleasures" covers album that's actually not 100% terrible? Maybe it's because any time I hear "Don't," I get reminded of my second-favorite Flash animation of all time, or maybe it's because I've been entranced with Haden's weirdly spooky covers before—her MySpace has her lovely take on "God Only Knows." Or maybe it's just because I have no memories of an army of Petras (wearing matching crew-neck sweatshirts, natch) interrupting my bleary-eyed cereal-and-Pepsi dinner. Either way, her ability to mimic Journey's keyboards is pretty fantastic, and I only wish she'd gone as all-out on the song's chorus as Steve Perry does:

Petra Haden - Don't Stop Believin' [MP3]
Petra Haden [MySpace]
Guilt By Association [MySpace]

Roisin Murphy Wants To Overpower You

jharv — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 11:45:31 EDT

Ex-Moloko lady Roisin Murphy's solo debut Ruby Blue was my favorite album of 2005, a mix of torch songs set to sumptuous house beats and fuzzed-out electronic glam rock co-masterminded by click-and-cut sampler whiz Matthew Herbert, with Murphy's dusky diva voice as the album's true star. From the forthcoming, multi-producer sequel, Overpowered (due in October), "Modern Timing" is a little less quirky than anything on Ruby Blue, but compensates by being Murphy's most pleasingly direct slice of grown-up disco-pop to date, complete with Daft Punk voices as the Pips to her Gladys and strings to die for. If you can't listen to anything Madonna's done since Bedtime Stories without a single tear running down your cheek, this may be for you:

~~Roisin Murphy - Modern Timing~~ [MP3, Link Removed]
Rosin Murphy [Official MySpace Site]

Listening Station: Rogue Wave Venture To "Michigan"

mjohnston — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:35:09 EDT

Rogue Wave's third album, Asleep At Heaven's Gate, hits stores on Sept. 18, and "Lake Michigan" is the first track from it to make its way out to the Internet; it's a pretty, chiming song that's overflowing with harmonies and hand-claps. The file is kind of low-fidelity, but it actually adds to the song's starry charm—so snag it now, and save it for the mix CD that'll accompany your final, celebratory bonfire/shore trip/fire-escape sitting session of the summer:

Rogue Wave - Lake Michigan [MP3]
Rogue Wave [MySpace]

Video Music Awards May Sound Almost As Good As That Bob Dylan Remix

mjohnston — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:33:44 EDT

There's a little less than four weeks to go until this year's Video Music Awards—can you feel the excitement? even if, for me, it's more like a looming sense of dread?—and the NME is reporting that Mark Ronson is going to help out Timbaland as far as "musical director" duties go; he'll conduct the house band, which will be made up of some dude from Jamiroquai and the Dap-Kings. All well and good, except for the part where the NME refers to as "Amy Winehouse's band." Not to play fact-checking cuz, but come on—Winehouse doesn't even use that band all the time in your home country, NME. Where's the love for Sharon Jones, who has a new album with the Dap-Kings coming out next month? Maybe if Amy's still out of commission, she can step in last-minute, push Ronson out of the way, and burn through "100 Days And 100 Nights," so there'll at least be one watchable moment during the telecast:

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 100 Days And 100 Nights [MP3]
Mark Ronson to provide tunes for MTV Awards [NME]

Steve Jobs Sleeps A Little Easier On His Big Pile Of Money As Microsoft MP3 Verdict Is Overturned

jharv — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 09:45:21 EDT

A California jury slapped $1.52 billion in damages on Microsoft earlier this year in a lawsuit filed by French company Alcatel-Lucent, which claimed that Microsoft's MP3 software infringed on several of Alcatel-Lucent's MP3-related patents. Microsoft counterclaimed that the liscensing fees for the various products the company uses were all paid up to the appropriate parties, and Alcatel-Lucent wasn't one of them. A San Diego judge agreed yesterday and overturned the verdict, allowing the digital end of the music biz to sigh in relief that their livelihoods were no longer on the chopping block:

Alcatel-Lucent argued in court that technology used to encode and decode digital audio files in Media Player infringed on two of its patents.

Microsoft said that it had paid Munich-based licensing firm Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft 16 million dollars to legally use the disputed MP3 technology.

In his ruling, Brewster concluded that the US software giant did not infringe on one of the patents and that Fraunhofer would need to join Alcatel-Lucent's infringement suit for it to be valid in court.

Bell Labs, which was later swallowed up by Lucent, which was later swallowed up by Alcatel, helped to create the MP3 along with Fraunhofer over a decade ago. If the jury's verdict had been upheld, it's possible that any company which sells MP3s or uses/sells technology that incorporates MP3s would have had to pay up had Alcatel-Lucent come calling on them. As Hypebot also notes, the cost of MP3s and related hardware and software may have also risen due to a new set of royalties and/or licensing fees that would have had to have been paid to the company.

Digital Music Dodges A Bullet As MP3 Ruling Overturned [Hypebot]
Court Drops Microsoft's 1.5 Billion Dollar Fine [Yahoo via AFP]

Stuck On Repeat: Celebration's Appeal Is Evergreen

mjohnston — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 11:38:25 EDT

It's not much of a secret that the Baltimore trio Celebration is pretty much my favorite new band of recent days—their first album was full of fury and beauty, and they're a spectacle live, in large part because lead singer Katrina Ford is a whirling dervish who isn't afraid to drag the audience into her stage show. The Modern Tribe, their second album, comes out in October, and it's easily one of my most anticipated albums of the year; the opening track, "Evergreen," is a soaring, astonishing song that's anchored by a twirling organ line buried deep within:

Celebration - Evergreen [MP3]
Celebration [MySpace]
Earlier: Second Spin: Why You Need To Celebrate "Celebration"
[Photo: Dave Sitek]

Listening Station: Monarch Flies Into Our Summer Playlist

mjohnston — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 11:37:41 EDT

"Warning" by the Baltimore duo Monarch just landed in our inbox, and we'd be damned if it hasn't already claimed a space on our top 10 songs of right now; it's a pop song dressed up in layers and layers of feedbacking guitars and slightly distorted, sing-song vocals by Jenn Wasner, and it sounds like the work of at least fifteen musical scientists instead of two. "Regret," on which Andy Stack takes over vocal duties, isn't as gloriously huge as "Warning," but it does have a gentle, firefly-studded-evening vibe:

Monarch - Warning [MP3]
Monarch - Regret [MP3]
Monarch [Official site]

Listening Station: It's Good to be King of Prussia

Dick Malone — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:36:10 EDT

King of Prussia are not from that benighted town of malls—they're from Athens, Ga., and are on the reawakened Kindercore label. While a few people picked up on them when they put out album earlier this year, they deserve another boost. It may be a little hard to get over the fact that they sound like the Decemberists, but try—and then realize, depending on how you feel about that band, that King of Prussia either a) work a similar but more ADD and equally mature thing as Meloy and Co., or b) have all the musical ambition of the Decemberists without Meloy's smug eleven-year-old-nerd thing. The coda of "Spain in the Summertime," which is on the band's MySpace page, is like a hand massage from a sorta cute Scientology volunteer. And we've posted two MP3s below: "Misadventures of the Campaign Kids" is about young love while electioneering (think Radiohead if Thom Yorke didn't have the political sensibilities of a petulant college sophomore), while "Terrarium" is beautiful and shifts on a dime:

King of Prussia - Misadventures of the Campaign Kids [MP3]
King of Prussia - Terrarium [MP3]
King of Prussia [Myspace]

A Band From Portland That's Kinda Spiritual, But Not Twee

fluxington — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:00:35 EDT

Portland, Oregon's Old Time Relijun's forthcoming Catharsis In Crisis may be the finale of something they are calling "The Lost Light Trilogy," but you hardly need to have heard the previous installments to appreciate the record's ecstatic quasi-Krautrock jams. The songs most often resemble Can circa Tago Mago; they have driving, claustrophobic rhythmics, and lead vocalist Arrington De Dionyso has a voice that splits the difference between Damo Suzuki and Malcolm Mooney. Nearly every cut seems to be right on the edge of cosmic bliss, but the album's penultimate track, "In The Crown Of Lost Light," is the most gloriously unhinged. By its conclusion, De Dionyso sounds as though he's about to burst into pure white light, and the band seems to either fall apart into a pile or disintegrate into dust:

Old Time Relijun - In The Crown Of Lost Light [MP3]
Old Time Relijun [MySpace]

Video Director's Life Comes To A Sad End

fluxington — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 10:30:14 EDT

The video for Beck's "Round The Bend," which was created by video artist Jeremy Blake, somehow manages to be even more low-key and glacially paced than the song itself. The images slowly melt together, leaving abstracted, animated washes of bright colors while only occasionally revealing the nature of their form. There are no figures; when the face of Beck appears, it's only as a two-dimensional representation directly lifted from the art that Blake created for the 2002 album Sea Change. It's a gorgeous piece, and it's likely the final music video of Blake's career—he went missing last week and is now presumed dead.

Police are currently attempting to confirm that a body found nearly five miles off the coast of New Jersey is that of Blake, who disappeared last week following the suicide of his lover Theresa Duncan. Blake was a rising star in the art world, and was scheduled for a major show featuring a collaboration with Malcolm McLaren at the Corcoran Gallery in his native Washington, D.C.

Blake's association with the music world was not limited to his projects with Beck and McLaren. He was heavily involved in DC's punk scene in the late '80s and early '90s, and he can be heard performing a piece of poetry at the beginning of the Nation of Ulysses' 1992 album Plays Pretty For Baby:

Nation Of Ulysses - N-Sub Ulysses [MP3]
Body in ocean thought to be Jeremy Blake's [LA Times]

Listening Station: Portastatic Stands Up

mjohnston — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:20:56 EDT

The documentary The Trials of Darryl Hunt tells the story of an African-American man who was wrongly convicted for the rape and murder of a white woman—despite no evidence against him and no eyewitnesses—and spent nearly 20 years in prison while putting together a defense. It's coming out on DVD this fall, and it has a pretty great soundtrack as well, the proceeds of which benefit the Darryl Hunt Project, which works with people who have been convicted wrongly. The album comes out Aug. 7, and it features donated tracks by the likes of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Dead Prez, and Mark Kozelek; Portastatic also contributed a demo version of "You Blanks," which appeared on last year's Be Still Please, and it's below:

Portastatic - You Blanks (Demo) [MP3]
Darryl Hunt Trailer [YouTube]
Darryl Hunt Project [Official site]

Listening Station: Chris Letcher Feels The Chill

mjohnston — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:44:09 EDT

London-by-way-of-South Africa singer Chris Letcher's Frieze has been getting a few spins around the Idolator flophouse lately, particularly the opening track "Deep Frieze." "Deep" is a dense, gorgeous piece of pop that brings to mind an amaglamation of Ed Harcourt and "My Iron Lung," and it's a worthy introduction to Letcher, whose intricate songs only get better with each listen. (Here's hoping Letcher's aesthetic rubs off on collaborator Dave Matthews, and not the other way around.)

Chris Letcher - Deep Frieze [MP3]
Chris Letcher [MySpace]

Listening Station: I Just Want to Stand and Cheer As They Come

Dick Malone — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:30:09 EDT

Parade, another Athens band, are a nice little surprise: their first album had a great cover on the outside but only had standard-issue indie inside. They've just put out an EP, though, that starts off with the kind of track you'd think would have bloggers rushing to their laptops. It's called "That's Hott," and it's thin and bouncy and builds the tension then lets it all go. Also, bloggers will post anything having to do with Paris Hilton.

Parade - That's Hott [MP3]
Parade [Myspace]

Listening Station: Crazily in Love With Telenovela

Dick Malone — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 11:15:57 EDT

Telenovela is one of those Athens bands. It consists mainly of Stephanie Clayton and Zachary Smola, and the two don't have any troubles with writer's block. In 2006, Telenovela released a lovely EP, and now they've released an album called Saffron Songs that your guest editor considers one of the best of the year. A thumbnail description would be Stereolab covering the Magnetic Fields: tight, lyrically sharp songs performed with a continental swing, bedroom instrumentation, and a flair for arrangement. Of the songs here, "Crazy Love" has a hazy samba feel, and the lyrics, sung by Clayton and Smola together, sound the theme of the album: resolving your imagination with the hard realities of everyday life. "Breakfast With Birds" is a strongly sung piano number that almost imperceptibly descends into a delectably noisy squall. Warning: it's a little twee. But listen to it anyway.

Telenovela - Crazy Love [MP3]
Telenovela - Breakfast With Birds [MP3]
Telenovela [Myspace]

Listening Station: Built To Spill Head For The Islands

mjohnston — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:30:14 EDT

The news that Built To Spill would be recording a reggae track as its next single cocked an eyebrow or two around these parts, but—surprise!—"They Got Away," which was released yesterday, is actually quite good; the dubby beat intertwines nicely with Doug Martsch's expansive guitar solos, and the song's nearly-seven-minute stretch brought us back to the Perfect From Now On era, even if this version of that time is more "late night basement" than "glorious summer day." (Bonus factoid: The track was produced by Dave Trumfio, late of synth-pop masters Pulsars.)

~~Built To Spill - They Got Away~~ [MP3, link removed]
Built To Spill [MySpace]

The Vault: The Fire Engines Turn Their Siren On Again

mjohnston — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:16:45 EDT

The Scottish post-punk outfit Fire Engines was only around for a flash, but their jagged songs were quite popular among fans of puzzle-piece melodies and skittish drums—like Franz Ferdinand, who lured the band out of retirement for a split seven-inch in 2005. The band's entire early-'80s recorded output (three singles and an EP) will be released by the tireless archivers at Acute Records in the fall, and the jittery tambourine-led "Meat Whiplash" is a good starting point into the rest of their catalog:

Fire Engines - Meat Whiplash [MP3]
Fire Engines - Big Gold Dream - Riverside BBC2 TV 1982 [YouTube]
Fire Engines [MySpace]

Stuck On Repeat: The Seedy Seeds, Heck Yes!

pcox — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 17:35:01 EDT

While I don't particularly enjoy coming up with cute names for music styles, The Seedy Seeds have the market cornered on Appalachitronica. The duo decided to build a collection of instruments that, they admit, they don't really know how to play, then recorded the results. (Later this month, the Seeds will release their first full-length, Change States.) Accordions, banjos, cheap drum machines, a childlike melody and simple harmonies—these are the things that make "The Little Patton" sound so fresh, yet so familiar:

The Seedy Seeds - The Little Patton [MP3]
The Seedy Seeds [Myspace]

Stuck On Repeat: Superfamily Really Could Be A Winner

pcox — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:05:09 EDT

Oslo, Norway's Superfamily released their second album Warszawa in May, and the second single from the record, "I Could Be a Real Winner," is, so far, unjustly trapped inside the confines of the Norwegian charts. It's far too good a song to be kept secret from the rest of the world, however. Built on a brisk white-soul beat with a whistling hook, singer Steven Wilson channels Daryl Hall so convincingly that "Winner" feels more like a vintage Hall & Oates No. 1 than anything anyone else—including Mssrs. Hall & Oates themselves—is doing in 2007:

I Could Be a Real Winner [MP3]
Superfamily [Myspace]

On The Flippity-Flop: Sleeper's Charming And Disarming Debut B-Side

pcox — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:12:33 EDT

Welcome to "On The Flippity-Flop," where your Idolators spotlight unjustly ignored B-sides, bonus tracks, compilation contributions, and EP cuts. Send your suggestions to tips@idolator.com.

ARTIST: Sleeper
SONG: "Ha Ha You're Dead"
FIRST APPEARANCE: Alice EP, 1993
WHY IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AN A-SIDE: As far as debut releases go, there weren't many in the 1990s stronger than Sleeper's. "Alice in Vain" itself was a perfectly fine A-Side, but it was just one of three on this 7" single that could've done the job. None finer than "Ha Ha You're Dead," however. The four-sided bassline keeps Louise Wener's cynical schadenfreude in a tightly defined and claustrophobic box, until the 2:35 mark when Jonathan Stewart's tipsy guitar run lifts the lid on the song and reshapes it completely if only for a few seconds. I don't think Sleeper ever again equalled "Ha Ha," even if they did go on to have at least another handful of memorable singles.

Sleeper - Ha Ha You're Dead [MP3]

Stuck On Repeat: The Autumns In "U.S. Band Big in U.K." Shocker

dangibs — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 15:10:24 EDT

If you believe the British music press (and I do, always), the California band The Autumns is among our nation's finest musical products, with critics in the U.K. throwing around phrases like "no self-respecting indie fan should be without it" and "unutterably beautiful but also hugely powerful." On this side of the Atlantic, the band does well when it emerges for concerts in Los Angeles and has a dedicated following among shoegaze fans, but it hasn't broken through into the indie-music mainstream. While the Autumns' first albums did stick to a more ethereal, effects-laden sound that would immediately please Slowdive and Cocteau Twins fans, the band's October release on Bella Union/World's Fair packs a more immediate punch:

The Autumns - Boys [MP3]
The Autumns [MySpace]

Listening Station: Lisa Germano Gets Some Papercuts

mjohnston — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 14:10:26 EDT

Lisa Germano's Lullaby For Liquid Pig came out in 2003, and it was one of that year's most haunting albums; its minimalist beauty was only enhanced by Germano's wavering vocals. It got a lot of play on this Idolator's stereo, but like so many other records that have achieved that claim to "fame" it fell out of print shortly after it was released. An expanded version of Lullaby, with about an hour's worth of demos and live tracks, is now out on Michael Gira's Young God label, and we're hoping that posting this track from the original album will only be the first of many deserved elbo.ws mentions of the reissue:

Lisa Germano - Paper Doll [MP3]
Lullaby For Liquid Pig [Young God Records]

The Vault: The Dynamics (Yes, Another Lost Soul Classic)

dangibs — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 09:45:03 EDT

Managed by Aretha Franklin's husband, the Detroit band the Dynamics featured four singers, each able to take the lead with a different vocal style. Following in Franklin's footsteps, the band headed to Memphis to mix their sound with Stax-flavored soul. Produced by Tommy Cogbill and Chips Moman, responsible for hits like Elvis' "Suspicious Minds" and the Box Tops' "Cry Like A Baby," 1969's First Landing never fully caught on with R&B fans, with only a minor hit in "Ice Cream Song." But the album's last track, "Murder in the First Degree," is a funky number comparing a woman packing her bags to premeditated homicide, and the narrator's misery is to your listening benefit:

The Dynamics - Murder in the First Degree [MP3]
The Dynamics - First Landing [Amazon]

The Vault: Time Stands Still For Guv'ner

Maria T Sciarrino — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:05:48 EDT

It's been almost a decade since New York City's Guv'ner left us, but Spectral Worship is a fine final release, one which I couldn't stop thinking about when the first Stephen Malkmus solo album, which has a similar lackadaisical vibe, came out. "Time Stands Still" is a great starting place; it has off-kilter guitar lines and cynical, yelpy barbs tossed between Charles Gansa and Pumpkin Wentzel, and it'll leave you wondering why they gave up the ghost so soon:

~~Guv'ner - Time Rarely Stands Still~~ [MP3, link expired]
Guv'ner [Merge Records]

Please, Hammer, Don't Hurt Jay Reatard

Maria T Sciarrino — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:20:09 EDT

It's tough to keep up with garage punk savant Jay Reatard— does he have some sort of ongoing bet with Bob Pollard for how many side projects a guy can have? Even so, his solo releases are a godsend, drawing upon a variety of new wave influences like the Adverts. Just check the out the hiccupy reverb that drives home the chorus of "Hammer I Miss You," his 2006 single for Goner:

~~Jay Reatard - Hammer I Miss You~~ [MP3, link expired]
Jay Reatard [MySpace]