Danger Mouse – The Arbiter of Cool, Indie Music

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I realized after obsessing this week over Beck’s new album, ‘Modern Guilt‘, that I was listening to yet another Danger Mouse production. What is this guy up to and what else is he working on? A lot, so it seems.

Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) is famously known for remixing Jay Z‘s ‘Black Album‘ over samples from The Beatles ‘White Album’ to create, ‘The Grey Album.’ From there he collaborated with Cee-Lo (as half of Gnarls Barkley) to release the hugely popular ‘St. Elsewhere’. He’s also produced the debut album from The Good, The Bad and The Queen, and the latest releases of Sparklehorse, The Rapture and Gorillaz.

This year he’s in top form with producer title for the following releases:

Martina Topley-Bird (from Tricky), ‘The Blue God’; Featured Track: Phoenix

The Black Keys, ‘Attack and Release’; Featured Track: Same Old Thing

The Shortwave Set, ‘Replica Sun Machine‘; Featured Track: Harmonia

Beck, ‘Modern Guilt’; Featured Track: Modern Guilt

With his influences firmly rooted in electronica/trip-hop, I’ll definitely be tracking his next move.

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Crystal Antlers | Crystal Castles [Black Crystal Bands, Part 9]

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First up in the ‘Crystal’ band category is the Long Beach, CA based group, Crystal Antlers, whose hard core psyche rock sound certainly puts my preconceived notion of all ‘Crystal’ bands as Indie Pop rockers to shame. The indie rock music world has been buzzing about their self-released, eponymous EP. The band has received many comparisons to Les Savy Fay. Check out the featured track, A Thousand Eyes.

Crystal Castles, however, falls squarely into my 80s synthpop stereotype. This Toronto-based group is all synthesizers and drum machines . Their self-titled debut album is a bits and bytes bump and grind fest. Featured track, Courtship Dating.

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Nightmares on Wax : New Track – 195lbs

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It’s electronica day!  I was excited to find this exclusive stream of the new Nightmares on Wax track, 195lbs, on RCRD LBL today.   The track is from their yet to be released album, ‘Thought so…’, which is scheduled to drop August 25.  

I pretty much own every NOW album and look forward to adding this one to my collection as well. They consistently produce the kind of electronica music I’m so fond of – the downtempo, trip-hop variety.

Check out the exclusive stream of 195lbs here.

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Black Moth Super Rainbow [Black Crystal Bands, Part 8]

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Hey, look!  More psychedelic sounds from the ‘Black’ band contingent.  This one in the form of the otherworldly, electronica variety –  á la Air and Octopus Project.  My music friend Noah turned me on to their 2007 release, Dandelion Gum, last year.  I like it a lot and find myself gravitating toward this kind of ambient, ethereal music in the wee hours.

BMSW will be releasing their new album, Drippers, in September.  You can pre-order a limited edition scratch-n-sniff version of the CD or 10″ here.  Check out the track Happy Melted City from their forthcoming release or download Bonus Drippers for free now – which is a bunch of old, unreleased songs.

Here’s their creepy video for the Dandelion Gum album track, Sun Lips.

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Black Mountain [Black Crystal Bands, Part 7]

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File this ‘black’ band under the psychedelic stoner rock category, for sure. Hailing from Vancouver, this group has received the high honor of being one of the top ten Canadian 2008 Polaris Music Prize finalists for their second album, In the Future.  

Check out the Polaris website for more details on the final nominees contending for Canada’s coolest music prize – many of which were on heavy rotation for me throughout last year.  If you’re not up on the Canadian indie music scene, the long list of nominees is a must read. It’s a veritable who’s who of Canadian indie rock….except for the noticeable absence of Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs.  Guess the Canadians aren’t Wolf Parade fans.  

Congratulations and best of luck to Black Mountain, but I’ll be rooting for Caribou. Featured is the Black Mountain video, Angels.

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Girls vs. Women

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Here are two tiny bands I’m hot on at the moment – which also makes for a clever post. Both have albums releasing this week, have nary a female band member to speak of, but do have lots of them gracing the covers of their albums.  

Girls hail from San Francisco and just released their debut album, Lust for Life. Each track has a distinctly different sound, which makes it difficult for me to put a label on this band; but it does give some clarity to their self-described music category – Tropical/Gothic/Thrash.  On several tracks, however, the lead singer’s voice does remind me of Elvis Costello. Featured is the track Hellhole Ratrace. Be sure to download the free track ‘Lust for Life‘ on RCRD LBL.

 

Women are a Canadian group (two of them brothers, actually) with their self-titled debut released July 8 on Flemish Eye Records.  I was very pleased to learn that Chad VanGaalen produced this album, of whom I’m a big fan.  He recorded the album in his basement on old tape machines and ghettoblasters.  To say their sound is lo-fi is an understatement. Featured is the track Black Rice.

 

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Rhapsody Launches Beta MP3 Store

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Anyone who knows me is well aware of how big a fan I am of Rhapsody.  It’s one of my essential tools for digesting and discovering new music.  The music subscription service model has always made a lot of sense to me and I believe is a model we’re going to see a lot more of.  Especially as more and more artists attempt to circumvent labels and go direct to fans (with the help of technology like Topspin).  

After all, why wouldn’t you want to pay $12/month to access a virtual unlimited amount of music – anywhere, anytime.  It’s beautiful.  Especially when leveraged through the Sonos Digital Music System (in which Rhapsody is already integrated).  I have an ongoing Rhapsody playlist of new music that I add to whenever I hear or read about a new artist.  Then I just queue up the playlist and listen to it whenever I’m at work or futzing around the house.  With the combination of Rhaspody and Sonos, listening to music is no longer a dedicated form of entertainment.  

Finally, Rhapsody has added an MP3 download component, without all the DRM (Digital Rights Management) hassles like Apple iTunes.  (Which means when you download a track or album you can do whatever you want with it – no proprietary formats, limited sharing, etc.)  I still love eMusic and inSound for their great selection of Indie music.  But I find that Rhapsody is the ideal platform for most of my music research.  I’m very happy about this new MP3 service and hope that the the next iteration with include the option for monthly download bundles as part of my subscription.  🙂

Black Lips [Black Crystal Bands, Part 6]

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Atlanta-based Black Lips are renowned for their rowdy, debaucherous live shows, which have included vomiting, urinating in each other’s mouths then spitting pee at the audience, and setting their pubic hair on fire. Their hard hitting 2007 release, Good Bad Not Evil, was huge for the garage punk group.  Even if the bad boy, punk image scares you,  this album will get you.  From the slower Veni Vidi Vici to the all out rockabilly O Katrina, I think you’ll be surprisingly charmed by this mischievous bunch.

Here’s their video for It Feels Alright:

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Fleet Foxes: White Winter Hymnal

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Vodpod videos no longer available.

Artist: Fleet Foxes
Album: Fleet Foxes
File Under: Indie Folk Rock
Recommended if You Like: Iron & Wine, Bon Iver, Band of Horses, The Dodos, My Morning Jacket
Featured Track: White Winter Hymnal

For those of you who follow music, this is probably not a new band for you; but those of you who don’t, you must add this one to your collection.  The reaction I had to this Seattle-based quintet the first time I heard them was similar to my first experience with Bon Iver – wow!  

I had to the good fortune to see them at SXSW this year while killing time before the Helio Sequence show. (I just love serendipity.) I remember being overwhelmed by the myriad of instruments they had on stage – acoustic and electric guitars, tom drums, mandolins, bass pedals, organs, dulcimers- all overlaid with the most beautiful, harmonious vocals I’ve ever heard.  The band clearly pays homage to their folk rock influences, but they do not get lost in it.   They synthesize a broad spectrum of styles and sounds into their own.  A classic for sure.

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The Black Hollies [Black Crystal Bands, Part 5]

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Who would guess a group of guys that look like and sound like this are from Jersey City?  After stumbling upon the track Paisley Pattern Ground during my SXSW band research, I quickly added them to my collection.   I’m a sucker for that retro, neo-psychedelic sound.  Paisley Pattern Ground is a gem of a track from their 2008 release, Casting Shadows –  and arguably the best song on the album.

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