Music Updates - Free Music Related News

Exciting track!!! What does Daft Punk sound like done by an indie pop band? SoftLightes’ “The Robots In My Room Were Playing Arena Rock” sounds like an ode to Discovery and totally is the unexpected twist on the bands debut, Say No To Being Cool - Say Yes To Being Happy.

SoftLightes - “The Robots In My Room Were Playing Arena Rock” (mp3)

I had a couple complaints about the band’s EP… at moments it was very, very uneven. Say No To Being Cool - Say Yes To Being Happy is uneven too, but the difference is on their full length the SoftLightes have the room to make the unevenness work. The track sequence is smart so you are never left feeling like you’re listening to a compilation of five different bands. Even though… you easily could be listening to five different bands. This is definitely a daring approach to a debut album, and might polarize more conservative listeners. Releasing a more focused album might be a smarter choice, but then again — they’re not committed to one sound. And — they’re so good at everything that they do that in the end it doesn’t really matter. I guess.

I’m babbling.

I don’t know what I expected from Say No To Being Cool - Say Yes To Being Happy. I did think I might be dissapointed, but I was pleasantly surprised. And in love. Ya’ll need to love this before Zach Braff decides to use the SoftLightes in a movie and plays it out. Totally. In stores: February 13, 2007.

Share This

It's been awhile since we've heard a good Clipse mash-up. Well, not since MySplice, anyway. Then, it was "Flaming Clipse,"; today, P4K's got Girl Talk's remix of Grizzly Bear's "Knife," which works the Thornton brothers' rap into a dancefloor-ready, "Shout"-sampling...

The Apples have a grainy, new vid for the fun-for-all first single from New Magnetic Wonder. Elijah Wood's directing debut is ... well, he should stick to acting. (And Leto bashing.) Watch at MTV Overdrive....

Tis the weekend again gang, and here's what I've heard is going on in the crazy dance-party world... feel free to put additional gigs in the comments!

Tonight - Friday Jan. 12th:
Calling All Kids w/ guest DJ James F!@#$%^ Friedman - Luke & Leroy's (West Village, NYC)
Art Syndicate/Wowch! Afterparty w/ Julian S. Process (Pink Skull) + Dave P. (Making Time/Fixed) - Fluid (Philadelphia)
Plug Awards pre-party w/DJ robot Mark (see this post from a couple days ago) - Tangier (LA)
Tomboy (Gomma, Germany) + Mylo (Breastfed UK) - Fabriclive @ Fabric (London)

Tomorrow - Saturday, Jan. 13th:
Friction w/ lots of bands & DJ sets by David Bruno (Slap You In Public) - Sin-e (LES, NYC)
Mad Suspect (Cut Boys) - Savalas (Williamsburg, BKLYN)
Rub 'n' Tug do their dirty thing - 205 Bar (LES, NYC)
Sneak Attack w/ DJs The Bangers - Capones (Williamsburg, BKLYN)
Whomadewho (Gomma, Germany) - Turin (Torino)

Next Friday (Jan. 19th) I'll be playing guest DJ along side Max Pask for the Cut Boys at Dirty Down (in the Lit basement), so be ready for that insanity!

If you're a power pop fan, you're used to having your heart broken. A band either pairs the handclaps/three-chord template with great melodies, or they imitate Big Star for the sake of imitating Big Star.

Bravo, then, for The Broken West. This band - which was known as The Brokedown until a different band claimed the name for themselves - has got it all figured out. Not only are their songs memorable, the production on their new record for Merge, I Can't Go On, I'll Go On, is fantastic. Guitars chime and crunch, voices go from one channel to the other, songs sound simultaneously dense and expansive. It's a fun, melodramatic, catchy record. In short, it's a good pop record.

The Broken West - Down In The Valley.

This song didn't strike me at first; I'm not sure if I just wasn't initially in the mood, or if the track needs to grow on you. It did grow on me, though, as did the rest of the record.

I Can't Go On, I'll Go On comes out on Jan. 23 - why not pre-order it, or put it on the Wish List?

Ssion - “Street Jizz” (YouTube)

“Street Jizz” is the new-ish video from Ssion. Not exactly epic or even much different from anything else they’ve done in the past five years — but certainly amusing. The track itself is a little easier on the ears than previous work… but in a kinda obvious way. No?

Ssion totally blipped off my radar for a while so I’m glad to see they’re still around and creating.

Check out still punk

Ssion - “Still Punk” (YouTube)

Share This

Govind Naresh - Dance Music from Ghamandee

and

Anand Prayag & Chorus - Pretty Pretty Priya from Priya

Where the hell has this music been all my life?

Oh wait, that's right. I don't live in India, and haven't seen much in the way of Bollywood films. Damn.

It is too bad, because this stuff is totally amazing, and completely out of control. The two songs I've included here are from part 1 & 2 of a new series of CDs, complied by Bollywood historian and collector, Edo Bouman, called Bombay Connection.

The first is called Bombay Connection: Funk from Bollywood Action Thrillers and covers a time span from 1977 to 1984. It is super heavy on the synthesizers, and this instrumental jam, from the 1981 film 'Ghamandee' (tr. 'The Proud One') - from the liner notes, I guess the film is an obscure B-grade thriller with a hero that dresses in white late-era Elvis suits who falls in love with an actress who hates the poor (WTF?). Based on both the time-period and the sound itself, one can assume the movies are a Bollywood take on America exploitation films of the 70s - funky, gritty stuff, but done up Indian-style.

Volume two of the series is titled Bomshell Baby of Bombay: Bouncin' Nightclub Grooves from Bollywood Films and covers the time span of 1959-1972 - as such it runs the gamut from late swing era through swingin' Beatles-style pop rock and roll like this. This song comes from the 1970 film 'Priya', about a young woman trying to live a "modern life" (ie: women's rights, bikinis and short skirts), but who is shown up by conservative Indian society. Solid stuff.

Both CDs will be available via our friends at Forced Exposure in a couple of weeks, or you can order them direct from the Bombay Connection website. Also worth noting on Bombshell Baby (though just about all of it is pretty amazing) is the song "Jan Pahechan Ho" which you may remember from the opening scenes of 'Ghost World' - I've been looking for that song for a minute now, so what a find!

Highly recommended if you have any interest in the unusual synthesis of musical styles that is Indian pop music - plus, there will be at least four more Bombay Connection CDs to be released this year, including one called Gun Master - Disco Master - I mean, hellooo, could that sound any more amazing?!? The packaging on all of these is perfect, with a huge booklet containing stills from the films, and lots of information on the musicians and the movies, and song lyrics. Totally cool stuff.

Obvious Justin Timberlake comparisons aside, we suspected that Panther would sound better in the studio than on stage. Not that we don’t admire the thing he does live, but… he actually sounds impressive on his new album, Secret Lawns. Of course, Panther still rides dangerously close to being a joke, but if his act ends up falling that way, at least there is some meat to it all.

Panther - “How Well Can You Swim” (mp3) Secret Lawns

Panther - “You Don’t Want Yr Nails Done” (mp3) Yourself/Secret Lawns

Secret Lawns = March 6, 2007 on Fryk Beat.

Share This

It's that time again!

Come celebrate the release of our new record with some great bands and me on the turntables. This is going to be our best night in Los Angeles yet. I vouch for all these bands -

The Parson Red Heads
Books Died On
Pink & Noseworthy
The Cherry Tempo- they came all the way from New Mexico for this show and it's going to be ridiculous. I saw them at the knitting factory last year with Shinobu and it was spectacular. Everyone needs to come out for this.

Once again it's at Tangiers, which is at:
2138 Hillhurst Ave.
Los Angeles, 90027

I'll be there all night, spinning in between bands. I'll definitely play some cuts off the new comp and have a few there if anyone needs 'em. I'm pretty excited about the night.

This is actually a pre-party for the big Plug Event on Saturday (so we better win for best music blog...). Come on out!

I don't know how I let this one slip through the cracks - this record actually came out last summer, but it's been sitting around since then. Which is really a shame, because Mark Mallman should always be paid attention to. In fact, you often have no choice.

Mark Mallman - Knockout On 22nd St.

Mark Mallman has been a mainstay of the Twin Cities scene since 1998, when his debut album The Tourist was released. His brand of straight-ahead rock comes with a devoted sense of showmanship; Mallman shows usually involve the artist playing piano with his feet, screaming, and sweating buckets. He is also known for his "marathon" shows, non-stop performances that lasted 26 hours in 1999, and 52 hours in 2004. In short, the man is crazy. I interviewed him around the time his new record Between The Devil And Middle C came out, and he said this about his onstage role: "The live show is just snake oil. It's, 'let's get on the back of the horse and carriage and sell this shit.'"

How great is that?

You can pick up Between The Devil And Middle C - a glorious celebration of performing rock 'n' roll - from Mark's website.