Obsessions come and go in the world of Femme Fatale. Currently I'm obsessed with Cut Copy's '80s homage, In Ghost Colours. Think New Wave and Post-Punk. Think Disco and Dance Party. Think The Rapture done up in polka dots. Through all this, there’s even a track that evokes Fleetwood Mac (“Strangers in the Wind”). It might sound like the album would be all over the place, but somehow this Australian trio makes it work.
If you're like me and ready for a new dance album, this is the one.
Dare I say they'll Cut Copy and Paste themselves into your heart? Yes, I so totally said that.
Showing posts with label Have You Heard?. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Have You Heard?. Show all posts
Friday, May 16, 2008
Have You Heard?
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Have You Heard?
Islands - Arm's Way
"Islands are forever," Nick Diamond said when the second of the three original Unicorns members left the Islands in '06. The statement is also the name of the band's web site, and appears as their Myspace headline.
It's clear, as the backbone of the band, "Diamond is forever" (just in time for Valentine's Day, too!). Islands, on the other hand, I began to wonder about.
Apparently I was wrong about these guys. Plans are on track for the band to release its second LP May 20, titled Arm's Way, which is apparently a play on the phrase "Harm's Way." (Don't we just love these guys and their puns? My favorite is still "Where's There's a Will There's a Whalebone." No word yet on whether the new album will include a song called, "Where There's a Will There's an Arm's Way." Ahem.)
As we speak the band has new track "The Arm" on its MySpace, a song that seems to further the distance between the rough and ready rock of the Unicorns and the lush production of Return to the Sea. All of the Islands' tropes can be found here: Diamond's staple croon, jubilant piano, a dash of the old west guitar a la "Volcanoes."
I'd like to offer a few quotes that summarize my feelings about this new track:
From Pitchfork - "On the first few listens, the thin melody doesn't seem quite up to the Technicolor production, but the sonic ambition is promising."
From a reader comment on Stereogum - "This is a pretty good song, the overall sound of it is a pretty cool new direction, but Nicky D needs to stick to writing the awesome melodies I've come to love him for...
This is what happened to the Shins. Wincing the night away was a beautifully textured sonic dreamscape... at the expense of Mercer's ridiculously good melodies (on most songs).
Do these artists think that this is the sound of maturation? Better sounding song =/= better song."
Well put, random reader. I'll let you guys check out the song and decide for yourselves. On the upside, here's a preview of "Abominable Snow," a song the band played live back in their Unicorns' days - so, you know, it's probably gonna be the best track on the new album.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Have You Heard?
Ipso Facto - "Harmonise"
These dreary seemingly never-ending Kansas winter days make me want to wallow in dark music and dress in all black. I cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel in this snowy abyss. OK, so maybe I’m a bit melodramatic, but if you can’t beat it then embrace it, right?
Fitting with my mood my ears are engaged to the sounds of Ipso Facto. Emerging from London, this all girl “goth” band is described as “creeping noir pop” (Vice Magazine) or “Monochrome psychedelica that is Horrors-esque, dark garage pop” (Drowned in Sound). I think I even read them being compared to early Elastica -- you know, that whole brit-pop thing.
To me, they sound a bit like a less punk, more goth Sleater-Kinney. Sleater-Kinney in the early days, I should say.
Not to mention they have the cutest vintage style and the hottest hair around.
Maybe I’m also a sucker for organ music.
Check out Ipso Facto – "Harmonise".
Friday, January 18, 2008
Have You Heard?
Mahjongg
Several years ago, an old friend and co-worker told me I should check out this incredible band he caught at the Replay Lounge by accident. They were, of course, the Chicago-based band Mahjongg. This guy, Adam, and I had similar tastes in music, but when he told me they were electronic my mind began to wander. I can get into some of the more crossover electronic acts, but I've typically never been the biggest fan of electronic music as a whole. Still, Adam was very intuitive, and because he made it a point to recommend this band to me, I stored their name and information in the back of my brain. Flash forward to this past week. I heard Mahjongg had a new record coming out, and decided it was finally time, for the sake of the blog if nothing else, to check this band out. Let me just say that I'm an idiot for waiting so long.
Now, I've only heard two songs, "Pontiac" and "Tell the Police the Truth," but they're two very impressive songs. Both rely heavily on poly-rhythms, and sound like they take equal influence from electronic music and post rock. "Tell the Police the Truth" is probably the more "pop" of the two tracks. The first minute or so sounds like they put samples from the classic arcade game Galaga over their intricate rhythms, but the song soon shifts into something a little more like the Faint, which is to say you can dance to it, and takes off from there. You can stream both songs in the player (they're labeled funny, I know, but damn good just the same), or download them at The Modern Music (which is where I found these tracks in the first place, so a big thanks goes out to them).
[Midwest slant] Mahjongg have several shows lined up in Midwest, including one in Lawrence. Remember, my buddy Adam said these guys were good live, so don't make the same mistake I did and forget about them. Midwest dates:
24 - Mahjongg @ The Waiting Room (Omaha, NE)
15 - Mahjongg w/ Coat Party @ the Jackpot (Lawrence, KS)
17 - Mahjongg w/ Blitzen Trapper (!), Fleet Foxes @ Mojo's (Columbia, MO)
Mahjongg's newest album, Kontpab, comes out January 22 on K Records. Get ready.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Have You Heard?
White Flight
I've become increasingly infatuated with a Lawrence musician named Justin Roefols, who records under the name White Flight. As "white flight" is a term to describe white Americans fleeing racially diverse areas for the sequestered suburbs, I find this a particularly apt name for a Kansas musician.
Years ago when local band The Anniversary parted ways, Roefols left for South America to do some soul searching. After his return, he ended up expanding his former band's sound considerably, as well as his facial hair. Whoa man, check out that dude's beard. Those sun-drenched locks...
White Flight - "Pastora Divine"
More on White Flight after the jump.
White Flight's self-titled debut is lo-fi psychedelia that sounds at times like Beck, The Unicorns, Devendra Banhart, and, many many more. A second White Flight album is allegedly due out this summer, according to local label Range Life Records (NOT affiliated with this blog. I guess great minds, and Pavement fans, think alike.)
Despite a suspicious lack of White Flight press, Fader recently did an intriguing piece on Roefols (from which we hath nabbed this photo). Also, check out White Flight's Myspace for a listen to more tracks off 2006's White Flight, including some pretty kickass remixes of "Deathhands" and "The Condition."
Monday, January 14, 2008
Have You Heard:
Evangelicals
Is there something in the water in Oklahoma, because the musical landscape in the Sooner state just got even weirder.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Norman, Oklahoma's very own Evangelicals. If I were forced at gunpoint to make any sort of comparison, I guess I'd have to say Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, but even that is a stretch. Granted, singer Josh Jones at times yelps his way through climactic moments much like Alec Ounsworth, and some of the arrangements are so excitable you can't help but feel rather giddy, but CYHSY never sounded this tripped out. Since a good comparison is hard to come by, I implore you to listen for yourself. The band is streaming their upcoming full length, The Evening Descends (out January 22 on Dead Oceans), in its entirety on their MySpace page. Or, if you prefer just a quick taste, you can use our nifty little player to sample the tune "Skeleton Man," or download it via the Dead Oceans webpage.
[Midwest Spin] I've only been able to find two Evangelicals tour dates, but lucky for us both are Midwest shows! The first is a free show in Norman, while the other is in Columbia and is almost free (six freakin' dollars). Here's hoping that when the proper tour is finally announced they'll have a KC/Lawrence date in as well.
1/24 - Evangelicals @ Meacham Auditorium (Univ. of Oklahoma) (CD Release Party)
2/15 - Evangelicals w/ Headlights, Gentleman Auction House @ Mojo's (Columbia, MO)
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Have You Heard?
Unlike Nicole, who started this Have You Heard? business last week, I don't have a great new album to tease you with. Instead, my time has been spent letting iTunes decide the listening material for me. I've been uploading music to a new computer and my selection is limited, and as a result iTunes has chosen some music I haven't heard in quite some time. Without any further delay, here are some albums that I've been reacquainted with recently that I felt warranted some blog space.
Akron/Family - Akron/Family
Akron/Family get lumped into the "freak folk" genre, but if you ask me I don't find them incredibly freaky at all. Instead they just make somewhat mellow, beautiful, engaging music that is not too dissimilar from Grizzly Bear, Califone, or Iron and Wine.
I remember the first time that I heard "Running, Returning". I was cleaning my dirty dishes in the kitchen of my large one bedroom apartment in Lawrence on a September afternoon in 2005. I remember walking away from my overflowing sink to get closer to my radio in the other room so I could hear the song better. After listening to the remainder of the song, I immediately called up the KJHK studio to ask the DJ what band just blew my mind. He told me, and immediately upon finishing the dishes I left my apartment for my favorite downtown record store and purchased the album. Luckily, the album did not disappoint. Each and every song, from the first track, which somehow manages to find common ground between Neutral Milk Hotel and some of the songs from The Glow, pt. 2, to the album's last, is solid. I'm surprised that, despite the fact that the album was released in a year where Sufjan and Clap Your Hands dominated the publicity, this album managed to slip under the radar. It's that good.
Sonic Youth - Hold That Tiger
Though released in 1998, this live album actually documents an overlooked era in the Sonic Youth chronology: The post-Sister era. Sure, it's pretty much agreed on that Sister is a fucking great album, but its successor often hogs the all of the attention. And while I will admit that if you're just looking for any old, live Sonic Youth of any kind that you're better off getting the Daydream Nation Deluxe Edition, this release is still a valuable investment. The songs are louder, faster, and more punk rock than the recorded versions, but the songs that were played that night have always sounded like they were meant to be played louder, faster, and more punk rock at some club in Chicago (or Lawrence). Regardless of how the songs are portrayed, this live album is necessary because it documents a period in Sonic Youth's career that is worth revisiting. The band has taken Daydream Nation on the road, which is awesome, but it's not likely you will ever see them play a set's worth of Sister and EVOL tracks (not to mention an encore of Ramones songs) pretty much ever.
Arcade Fire - Arcade Fire
Immediately upon uploading the Arcade Fire's self released, self titled EP, I felt as if had no choice but to listen to it. I've listened to my share of Neon Bible and Funeral this year, but the EP had yet to make its way into my ears, that is before yesterday afternoon. "Headlights Look Like Diamonds" and "No Cars Go", the original version found on this release, were both live staples while touring for Funeral, but the real show stopper is the closing track, "Vampire/Forest Fire", as the song's epic climax is a mere prelude to what would eventually become Funeral.
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