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See the best of the best that the KRLX music directors have come across. Be impressed.
By Nicole on July 2, 2009 in mp3blog
The National hail from Cincinnati,Ohio and craft a unique brand of indie rock Americana. Lead singer's Matt Berninger's textured baritone and self-aware lyrics anchor the band's sound, earning the group a multitude of Leonard Cohen comparisons. The remainder of the band is comprised of two sets of brothers, who give the band a distinctly American quality. The National are one of the top-selling bands of the Beggar's Banquet Records' star-studded subsidiary 4AD, and the band received increased exposure and critical attention after opening for REM on their Accelerate Tour, and following their heavy support of Barack Obama during the 2008 election. Obama even used their track "Fake Empire" upon official acceptance of the Democratic Party's nomination in August 2008.
The group's 2005 album, "Alligator," remains my favorite recording of theirs, with its unafraid introspection and honest musings on urban malaise. The band's 2008 album, "Boxer," is just as successful, and finds Berninger writing more winsome tracks of despair enhanced by plaintive guitar chords.
The group is headlining Saturday night, performing on Stage A at 8:40.
Secret Meeting
All The Wine
Apartment Story
By Nicole Feldman on June 29, 2009 in mp3blog
In the past, the opening night of Pitchfork Music Festival has involved a collaboration with the creative voices behind All Tomorrow's Party. In this collaborative effort, a iconic group has played a classic album of theirs in its entirety, providing fans a thoroughly satisfying live music experience. Acts have included Sonic Youth performing all of 1988's "Daydream Nation," and Mission of Burma performing their 1982 recording, "Vs."
This year, however, the festival is exploring a new route by allowing fans to directly participate in curating the band's set list. Upon purchasing a pass to the festival, fans are invited to vote for their favorite tracks by the bands performing on Friday night. The performers for this evening are Yo La Tengo, Built To Spill, Jesus Lizard, and Tortoise. All four bands have a rich, diverse discography and I am eagerly anticipating this democratization of the concert experience.
I have had the pleasure of attending multiple Yo La Tengo concerts, including their intimate, highly coveted Hanukkah shows at Maxwell's a venue in their home base of Hoboken, New Jersey. Yo La Tengo have been recording as an inimitable triad since the early eighties and their musical outpouring ranges from gorgeous, subdued love songs to ten minute noise freakouts. The group is extremely loyal to their fanbase and have always humbly honored audience requests when I have seen them live. I can't wait to see the band artfully maneuver between guitar- shredding unrelenting noise rock and plaintive dream pop, and I have attached some mp3 files which encompass the group's discursive sound. "Nowhere Near" from their album, "Painful," is to me the ultimate Yo La Tengo song, because it traces the band's singular aesthetic in its six minutes of beauty. Beginning with a simple piano backbeat, jangly guitar chords, and candid, romantic lyrics the song organically builds into a heartfelt chorus of disappointment, "Everybody's here/But you're nowhere near." Finally, the song culminates with a killer, guitar solo that gives the song a haunting, indelible quality.
Hopefully, my selections will make Friday night's set list. The group is slated to perform at 6:10 on Stage A.
Cherry Chapstick
Moby Octopad
Nowhere Near
Barnaby, Hardly Working
By Alex Stevens on May 4, 2009 in mp3blog
I don't know how much of this post should focus on the Future Islands' music or just the incredible stage presence of the vocalist Sam Herring, one of the most hardcore musicians I've seen in a long time. Or maybe just how much he sweats. But seeing him and his band play at the Triple Rock last Saturday was the best part of the long weekend.
Right now, the Future Islands are cooped up in an old, Tie-Dyed school bus with Dan Deacon, trying to get any sleep they can before they tear apart the next venue with their synth-poppy dance grooves and endearingly innocent lyrics. First of all, opening for an act like Deacon (and his 14-piece orchestra!) is intimidating enough. Doing it on two hours of sleep and a couple of drinks from the bar (and doing it with style) is a skill to be marveled at.
Sam Herring is not the best singer in the world. And, now that I mention it, their music isn't completely life-changing either (despite that it's all I've been listening to the past 24 hours). But if I could do anything with the amount of passion that Herring puts into music, I'd be happy enough at that. Herring's performance was unforgettable. Everything from his crazy facial expressions to him jumping all over the place made the experience that much more memorable. With a guy like Sam Herring, a band has to be pretty terrible for the audience not to respond. Halfway through the song "Beach Foam", Herring started to break down crying. It's incredible to think that he can still pour so much of himself into a performance after four weeks of getting apparently "two hours of sleep max per night" (as Deacon put it later) each time his band takes the stage.
Whenever he shook his body in my general direction (with me standing right below him), I was covered in a shower of sweat. I guess that's the price one has to pay to witness that much raw emotion and dedication to such an act. Musicians with Herring's attitude are the reason that I go to shows at all. Thanks, Sam.
Old Friend
Flicker and Flutter
Beach Foam
By Nicole on April 28, 2009 in mp3blog
The Vaselines are an adorable, somewhat depraved twee pop duo from Scotland who only have a handful of recordings from the late 80s. In their time, their music was released on the UK's 53rd and 3rd label that included other seminal twee pop acts like Talulah Gosh, the Shop Assistants, and the Pastels. These original recordings are completely out of print and were always near-impossible to come by in the US.
Fortunately, the Vaselines were Kurt Cobain's favorite band, and he immortalized them in his live covers of "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam," and "Molly's Lips." Sub Pop has recently released an expanded edition of their anthology, "The Way of the Vaselines," adding a second disc of demos and live sessions. This amazing collection is being marketed as "Enter the Vaselines," and has gorgeous lime green packaging. For me, the appeal of the Vaselines lies in their twisted, at times rudimentary sense of humor, conceptions of god and romance,and their abrasive, undeniably earnest instrumentation. Eugene Kelly and Frances McKnee are by no means talented musicians or vocalists, but their sound is infectious and distinctly their own.
Vanity Fair called Lolita , "the only convincing love story of our century," and by extension, the Vaselines' music provides some of the most unafraid, sincere probing of the human condition ever put to music by disaffected, self-consciously ironic indie rockers. "Jesus Don't Want Me for a Sunbeam" is a profound examination of religious disillusionment, and "Son of a Gun" is a heartfelt, insouciant look at young love. These beauties make deviant gems like "Rory Rides Me Raw," and their cover of Divine's "You Think You're A Man" all the more affecting.
Son of a Gun
Dying for It
Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam
By Alex S. on April 24, 2009 in mp3blog
Nicole asked me what my favorite album of the year so far is; this is a real possibility. Since the fall of Interpol with their embarrassing third LP "Our Love to Admire" (and could someone please tell me what the fuck that album cover is all about?), I've been on the lookout for some other 'mod' post-punk act to reclaim the gloomy throne.
Well, we here at KRLX were just sent this British band The Horrors' second album "Primary Colors", and I was instantly blown away by the first track, "Mirror's Image". I mean, seriously, I had just settled into my stool and was completely caught off-guard. After exactly a minute and a half of ambient noise, the sound explodes with a synth riff and Sam Fogarino-type, clean-cut drumming before Faris Badwan, the band's singer, takes over. This guy really channels his inner Ian Curtis when he sings, sounding almost identical to the late Joy Division singer.
The album has very few low points to it. While their sound very clearly draws influences from 80's acts such as JD, Depeche Mode and the Chameleons, The Horrors look to the future and complement this punk with a fairly persistent ambient background, jacking up the reverb to give it a very dark feel. The resulting harmony shines most clearly on the single "Who Can Say" where the guitar sounds exactly like Nick Zinner's effects on the Yeah Yeah Yeah's single "Zero" off of their new album, "It's Blitz!". Anyway, I'm through mourning the death of Interpol; the new sheriff sounds better and wears tighter black pants too.
The Horrors - Mirror's Image
The Horrors - Who Can Say
The Horrors - Who Can Remember
The Horrors - Who Can Say (Music Video on BigStereo)
"And when I told her I didn't love her anymore
She cried
And when I told her her kisses were not like before
She cried
And when I told her another girl had caught my eye
She cried
And then I kissed her with a kiss
That could only mean goodbye" - Anthem of '09
By Alex & Nicole on April 16, 2009 in mp3blog
Nicole: So, Alex, what do you make of all these husband and wives that make cutesy albums together?
Alex: Well, Nicole, one thing's for certain: Some of them are cuter than others.
Nicole: Well no one is as cute as Win and Regine Butler from the Arcade Fire. That goes without saying! ***wink***
Alex: Yeah, and that couple from Mates of State.
Nicole: Yeah, they're so damn domestic.
Alex: That's true. I'm actually not quite sure how to judge a band's sound when I hear that's based off of a marriage. I mean, the only thought that goes through my head is that "oh, that's what they can connect on. Music."
Nicole: I've always been a bigger fan of musical projects from two people that have a really hot, short love affair. You know, like PJ Harvey and Nick Cave.
Alex: Do you think romance is directly related to the quality of music? Like, a muse that everybody can pick up on?
Nicole: No, I think of rock n' roll as a heterosexual male domain. KEEP THE CHICKS OUT. (Kidding!(Or am I?))
Alex: Well, in light of that, who are some of your favorite husband-wife bands in the game?
Nicole: I really like the most recent Handsome Furs album. I think they have an interesting dynamic going on, and the fact that they're married only seems secondary to the music they make.
Alex: That's true. I think that's how it should be for every one of those bands. I also really like the new Mates of State album.
Nicole: I also really like the Kills. They aren't married, but they have this romantic, "old world" pen-pal relationship before they got together and made tunes.
Alex: I was talking to a friend who was describing a Mates of State show she recently saw. She said it was great; they were flirting on stage in a very cute, non-creepy manner and it established a really nice environment. She really enjoyed it.
Nicole: How could I forget Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth? Their marriage is what keeps the independent music community together. And Lee Renaldo is a totally hot dad.
Alex: And let's not forget the album "Plastic Ono Band", when John Lennon and Yoko Ono experimented with primal scream. That album is super crazy. Also, I really dig this other experimental band, Rainbow Arabia. They're from LA and they were both in this punk band called Future Pigeon. Their sound is experimental dance-rock with a heavy Middle Eastern influence. They also released a crazy music video, one of my recent favorites. I guess, what I personally can conclude is that I really like married couples that release experimental music.
Nicole: Boy, it's been great reflecting with you. Thanks for coming to Coffee Night!
Mates of State - My Only Offer
Rainbow Arabia - Omar K
BRING BACK PJ AND NICK (miss u):
By Michael on April 12, 2009 in mp3blog
I hate nostalgia. I’m so done with it. I see no point digging up the greatest hits of high school as if the exercise might change the fact that I spent 4 bizarre years going from the Grateful Dead to Minor Threat to Brian Eno. I’m sure you could do a totally fucked-up Freudian psychoanalysis of mine or any other music-nerd’s brain. But here is the paradox that might merit a therapist’s treatment: sometimes I (and I think the feeling might be universal?) can’t help indulge in the bands that cash-in on music that reminds me of times-past. Nostalgia has been transformed into a genre.
And I need sleep are one of those bands. Against me! mixed with Casiotone for the painfully alone with one ear towards the avant-garde. For those of you who saw them at the cave, here’s a few tracks from their earlier release:
My Girl
Anger Management
The Lobotomizer
By Alex Stevens & Allie Schwartz on April 11, 2009 in mp3blog
Alex: And we thought we couldn't find a band weirder than MGMT.
Allie: That's not true. That's just silly.
Alex: Ok, well you admit that Empire of the Sun, one of Australia's hottest electronic music duos, is pretty freaking weird, right?
Allie: Sure. They're all over the place in the South Pacific. You can listen to their album on 'Air New Zealand', all the way from Auckland to Los Angeles! That's, like, 13 quality hours of Empire of the Sun.
Alex: But do we like them primarily because they sound eerily like MGMT? Or do they have their own unique appeal?
Allie: Well I do think they sound alarmingly like MGMT. We also like MGMT. So why deny ourselves a sound we already enjoy?
Alex: That's true, but why should we bother for something that isn't new? Why are we so interested in this rehashed musical act? I mean, shouldn't we just go ahead and label them as rip-offs?
Allie: Hmm. Well, I don't think there are any truly original new acts these days. It's just rehashing of older things and using things in a way that is innovative. While I can't say these guys are innovative, I think they're certainly entertaining. And it just so happens that they're rehashing something that's extremely recent.
Alex: That's true. It's nice to kind of disregard this and just enjoy their music. I mean, the act is pretty outlandish, but that's part of the charm with these sorts of avant-garde electronic bands. I mean, their music is pretty enjoyable to listen to. And their music videos take insanity to an epic level.
Allie: We saw their video for "Walking on a Dream" at least twice a day on C4 (one of New Zealand's four television channels) when I was studying there this past term.
Alex: Did you ever get tired of them?
Allie: Uhh, it was more of a 'wellington routine'.
Alex: What the hell do you mean by that?
Allie: Well, every morning they played some 'home-grown' music, which included genuine South Pacific bands, like Cut off your Hands, Savage, and Smashproof. Every morning before breakfast like clockwork.
Alex: Wow. It sounds like you were exposed to some pretty cool music while studying abroad!
Allie: I recommend it. 4 stars.
Empire of the Sun- We Are the People
Empire of the Sun- Walking on a Dream
By Nicole on March 20, 2009 in mp3blog
I think Bono is a moralistic asshole. I don't think U2 has released a noteworthy song in over fifteen years. I find the skull cap The Edge perpetually adorns annoying.
Nonetheless, U2's debut recording, "Boy," is an incredible record and showcases the young band's immense talent. The group's first three albums were re-released by Island last year and all deserve a listen. (These three albums are also highlighted on the amazing 1983 concert film, Under a Blood Red Sky: Live at Red Rocks, which helps to validate the band's larger than life image.) "Boy" emerges as the group's strongest album; it is anchored by sonically cascading post-punk guitars and accessible lyrics of universal adolescent longing. U2's first single, "I Will Follow," is arguably the best song the group has ever written and remains a mainstay of their live set to this day. The anthems that fill this record have that bombastic arena-rock quality without being fully consumed by a megalomaniacal image. The band comes across as angsty and beautifully human, not nauseatingly self-righteous. I picked up my copy of "Boy" for a mere $3 at a local record store and I've spun side A countless times. Listening to "Out of Control," almost makes me forget the Bono always wear rose-tinted sunglasses indoors.
I Will Follow
An Cat Dubh
Out of Control
By Nicole on March 3, 2009 in mp3blog
I was first introduced to Telepathe in July when I saw them open for No Age and Abe Vigoda at South Street Seaport. I was decidedly unimpressed by their performance. It appeared as if two uncharismatic waifish females were using drum loops and nonsensical lyrics for the latest Nylon Magazine sampler. This was also around the time I had just read the ubiquitous Ad-busters article declaring hipster culture the dead-end of western civilization and believed the band to be emblematic of this piece's argument.
Nonetheless, when the station received a copy of their first full length release, "Dance Mother," I decided I would give them another chance. The group's studio recordings are a lot more polished than their live show, (thanks in part to master mixing by TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek) and I was taken by the duo's combination of wickedly dark lyrics with amateurish poppy dance beats. The record is shimmering and haunting, detached, yet immediately affecting. The group has become a darling of Brooklyn's underground dance culture, and perhaps the group has potential to expand beyond this narrow, and somewhat scorned niche. "Dance Mother" is certainly a step in the right direction.
So Fine
Chrome's On It
Michael
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